“I don’t know, Eleanor…” he hedged.
Her eyes narrowed even further. He could see the decades she’d spent parenting in that gaze, thatI’m on to you, mistersort of look.
“Technically,” she said, sweet as pie, “I owe youtwobrunches, given that you already helped me transport mywindow and everything. But IsupposeI could make do with one…”
He had a feeling this was a limited time offer. The woman drove a hard bargain.
“Fine,” he agreed, ignoring the part of him that was happy to share a meal with her, instead of resigned. “Brunch it is.”
“Wonderful,” she said, face brightening in an instant. “Put up that sign of yours. We’ll go to Juniper Café.”
“Wait, now?”
Again, theI see what you’re up tolook.
“Yes, now. I’m not giving you advance notice so you can weasel out of your hard-earned appreciation, delivered via pancakes. Let’s go. Chop chop!”
Her energy was as irresistible as a hurricane, for goodness’ sake.
“Okay,” he said. “Just… give me a minute, okay?”
“Oh, of course,” she replied. She was the picture of benevolence now that she was getting her way, and that made him want to chuckle too.
Instead, he quickly went to the back of the shop, where there was a miniscule bathroom that he didn’t really advertise, although he had been known to let a harried parent with their toddler use the space a time or two. The mirror inside was old and cracked, but it showed enough that Garrett could see the nerves on his face.
He hadn’t been on a date in over a decade, not since Maria had left and left him a wreck behind. But this wasn’t a date, was it? No, it couldn’t be. Clearly, he was just getting in his own head because of this strange pull that Eleanor Ridley seemed to have over him.
It wasnota date. Nope. Not a date.
Even so, he ran his fingers under the water and used them to comb through his hair quickly. The effort was unimpressive, and he regretted not having more time to clean up.
Even if it wasn’t a date, he could want to look nice, right? That was allowed.
There was, alas, nothing for it. He gave himself one last look, took a deep, steadying breath, and went out to greet the woman who had him all tied up in knots.
After she adjusted the cutlery at her place setting for the third time, Eleanor found herself having a flashback to eating out at a diner in Indianapolis when Jeremy was five or so. Her son had either just started school or was about to, she couldn’t recall precisely, but he had been so convinced that this meant he was all grown up. And yet, when they’d found themselves facing an unusually long wait for their food, Jeremy had gotten a hopeless case of the wiggles that he’d tried to suppress by shifting every item on the table. When asked, he’d solemnly told his parents that a table should be just so to put its best foot forward… something that Eleanor often said to him when she was trying to convince him to put on shoes or comb his hair or any of the other countless little tasks that small children avoided just for the sake of being contrary.
His comment had made Eleanor and Brian burst out laughing, which had outraged poor little Jeremy. The incident had become something of family lore, although Eleanor hadn’t thought about it in ages.
Garrett caught sight of her smile.
“Something funny?” he asked.
Beaming, she slipped into the tale, using her cutlery as props to demonstrate the infinitesimal movements that Jeremy had been making to hide his restless energy. By the time she was done, her own nerves, the ones sheknewshe shouldn’t have since this was nothing more than a meal between friends, had dissipated somewhat.
“Kids are so funny sometimes,” Garrett said, shaking his head. “I never had any of my own, obviously, but I have nieces, and you would not believe the things they say to me.”
“Oh, I would believe it,” she replied, laughing. “One of the parts of parenting they never tell you about is all the times when your kid says something so outrageously hilarious, and you have to play it cool and teach them the right way to do things, even when you want to fall on your behind laughing.”
“That’s the perk of being the uncle,” he said with a wink. “You can get away with laughing.”
Their waitress came by just then to take their orders. Eleanor requested the blueberry waffle with a side of fresh fruit, while Garrett ordered sourdough pancakes with bacon on the side.
“Sourdough pancakes?” she asked, wrinkling her nose. “My brother lives in California and it has made him a sourdough fiend, but I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of it in pancakes.”
“I hadn’t either, but I tried them once on a whim and they’re so delicious that you’ll never want anything else again,” he told her. “I’ll share a bite.”
For some reason, this offer made her blush…
