“Yeah, we’re the worst,” she teased back.
For a moment, his smile wassohandsome that she had to physically look away.
“Anyway,” she said, feeling suddenly bashful. It was wrong to think how attractive someone was right after they’d just finished telling you about losing their spouse, wasn’t it? “I shouldn’t take uptoomuch of your time today.”
He looked startled, almost like he had forgotten they were supposed to be working. Well, that made two of them.
“Right. Your paperwork. Of course.”
The awkward moment was fleeting; Anthony began going through the work he’d done on her books, and the ease between them returned.
Diana could tell, even without knowing much about accounting, that Anthony was great at his job. He pointed out a few ways for her to streamline her processes and noted a few mistakes that he’d caught in her records.
“You are really good at this,” she said.
“Well, Iama professional.” He gave her another one of those sun-bright smiles. “So, you could probably do this yourself if you really wanted to?—”
“No!” she interjected, the word a little too loud and hasty. “Sorry, no. Please keep helping me. I definitely, definitely need it.”
“I can do that too,” he said kindly. “So, at the beginning, we would probably meet pretty often as we get our system put together. Then, after that, we could set up a regular meeting, maybe once a month or so? And I have a packet of instructions for how to get new clients onboarded, so that I’m in the loop withall the information I need. It should be easy to use, but obviously let me know if you have any questions.”
“I will,” she said. It was clear that the meeting was over, so she began gathering her things, despite the slight pang of disappointment that they would be going their separate ways.
“And avoid any more app disasters, huh?” he said, smiling kindly. “I’ll keep my fingers crossed that things are on the upswing.”
“Yeah, me too,” she said.
She headed back to the boutique, a smile still lingering on her face. Anthony was just so nice and decent. She felt lucky just getting to spend time with him.
She really was glad that she would get to see him again soon…
For professional reasons, of course.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Winnie found herself humming a cheerful little melody as she perused the cheese section at Country Corner Market. Tonight was another book club meeting and, to make up from her previous time showing up without a single snack in sight, she was going to make the best darn charcuterie board that those women had ever seen!
Not that she was putting too much pressure on it or anything.
She smiled as she put a container of mozzarella pearls into her basket. Grandiose promises aside, she was feeling shockingly not nervous about going back to book club. Everyone had just been so kind, even with her somewhat fraught history with some of them. She and Miriam had gotten into a good-spirited debate about one of the novel’s side characters, and the elderly woman had even texted Winnie a few other book recommendations over the past few days.
Winnie looked at a few bottles of those little tiny pickles. Why did they sell so many different kinds? Were they somehow different? She picked one at random. That would have to be good enough.
She was trying to figure out if the existence of hard salami implied the existence of soft salami when she felt the hair on the back of her neck start to prickle.
Okay, well, that was abitdramatic. She actually just saw Britt and Whit hanging out over by the flower display, but the effect was the same. Part of Winnie flashed back to middle school.
Be cool, Burnett,she told herself.Just do your shopping.
Except…
Except, seriously? How were they still here in her town? How long was this dumb vacation of theirs? They didn’t even like it here!
Winnie had gotten some salami and a package of that fancy, thin sliced ham, and was perusing the berries to see what looked the freshest when she heard her name in that simpering, mean voice that had haunted her since her tween years.
“Well, well, well, look who it is! Little Winnie again!”
Goodness. Did they get their lines fromVillain Monologues 101? Winnie rolled her eyes expansively before she turned around.
