They were wrong. Winnie had friends. They had bonded tonight. She knew it.
“Okay,” she said, slapping her hands on her knees. “We need to stock the shelf too, right? Let’s get moving, people.”
“Winnie, no,” Diana moaned.
“Wait, we didn’t think ahead when we made such a competent friend,” June teased.
Winnie grinned when their jokes didn’t even cause the slightest flicker of dismay to move through her.
“Up, up,” she chided her new friends. “Let’s get going.”
Every grumble they made as they complied made her feel even happier. She’d made friends. It had taken her a long time, but she’d gotten there.
And she was pretty sure that nothing had ever felt better.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Anthony paused outside the door to Diana’s shop, took a deep breath, and gathered his courage before walking through the door to the boutique. He was not at all certain that he ought to have come here, but he couldn’t handle it any longer. He needed to at least offer an apology, although it was up to Diana if she accepted it.
He put on a false confidence as he strode up to the counter…
Only to find Diana asleep, her head pillowed on her arms, dark hair spilling over the glass countertop of her counter. Anthony’s feet stuttered to a stop in surprise.
He… really was not at all sure what to do from here. Should he wake her up? That seemed rude, but also it seemed possible that Diana didn’t want to be asleep at her desk at work. Maybe it wasn’t even safe? After all, anyone could walk in.
But also, wasn’t the fact that she was asleep on her desk in the middle of the day a clear sign that she really needed the rest? She really looked so peaceful resting there. But what if she got a crick in her neck?
These questions, he decided, were a good sign that he hadn’t overcome his nerves as much as he might have hoped.
He had just resolved to close the window shades, maybe flip the store’s sign to closed, just to make sure she was safe, when Diana startled awake, saw him standing there, and promptly let out a little shriek of surprise.
Equally startled, Anthony jumped back, holding a hand out in front of him like he was trying to physically hold her alarm at bay.
“Oh gosh,” he said. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. Oh man.”
Diana’s words overlapped with his.
“Oh no, I fell asleep. Oh goodness, you scared me. Oh, I’m so sorry.”
They both stopped talking at the same time, stared at one another for a moment, and then burst into laughter.
“I’m sorry for scaring you,” Anthony said through his laughter.
Diana pressed a hand to her forehead, then brushed her sleep-mussed hair back from her face.
“No, I’m sorry,” she said. “Obviously I should not be sleeping at work. I am just beat, because last night, my book club friends and I were up all night putting together this monstrosity of a bookshelf for Eleanor, since the opening is tomorrow. And the shelf is gorgeous, honestly, but it is a monster to me, because I amwaytoo old to be doing all-nighters anymore. I am seriously so tired, I feel like I can taste colors. It is not good, for real.”
She said all this while she was still laughing, and Anthony found himself noticing, not for the first time, how pretty she was.
Too bad he’d totally blown it on their date.
Which brought him to his point for coming in.
“Well, I’m sorry for disturbing you, but I just wanted to pop in to say…” He had to start over again with summoning his courage. “I wanted to say sorry for the way things went on our date. I was so,soawkward, and I’m really,reallysorry about it.” Was he repeating himself too much? Probably. “I just… Ifeel really terrible about it, and I wanted to just…” Gosh, he was hesitating too much too. “I didn’t want to leave things where we left them.”
When he finally dared to look back at Diana, she was smiling at him so crookedly that it gave him a little flutter in his belly.
“Me neither,” she admitted. The flutter grew. She didn’t seem annoyed with him, which was what he’d feared the most. He knew the rough date meant that he and Diana might not be destined for something romantic, and thought that was disappointing on its own, but he felt that he could get through that let down if they could maintain their fledgling friendship.
