He felt his shoulders unclench for the first time in days.
“I was hoping we could have… well, not a do-over, since it’s pretty clear I’m out of practice with doing anything romantic,” he said with a self-deprecating grimace, something that made her smile grow a little broader. Emboldened, he went on. “But maybe we could do something more casual?”
“Yeah, that would be—” Her words cut off as she yawned widely.
Right. His amends plan would have to wait.
“Diana,” he said, feeling the caretaker side of him, honed by years of being a single dad. “You can’t run the store like this. You’re dead on your feet. Go home!”
She was already shaking her head.
“I can’t,” she said. “Trust me, I have already been down that mental road a few times. But I have a few people set to come by to pick up special orders, so I have to be here.”
She barely made it through the words before she, once again, let out an enormous yawn.
Anthony felt his mind racing. Okay, he could work with this. She had to be here, but she was exhausted. It was an equation. He could figure it out. He was an accountant. Math was his thing.
And then, like solving an elaborate word problem, it clicked into place.
“Stay here,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”
“Uh, okay,” Diana said with the telltale blink of somebody who was too tired to put up much of a fight. “I mean, yeah, I just said I had to stay here, but sure.”
She sounded so cutely sleepy that Anthony couldn’t help another smile as he hurried out the door and back to his office, moving so quickly that he was practically jogging. He unlocked his door, then opened the coat closet inside the little vestibule area. He hadn’t moved any coats in there yet, since it was still summer, but hehadtucked a big plastic bin on the top shelf, full of pillows and blankets for Eloise in case he ever had to work really late. It happened only rarely, and usually even then only during tax season, but he had lugged the supplies here anyway, since his daughter sometimes liked to cuddle up with a book while he worked.
He grabbed a pillow, a blanket, and a fresh pillowcase. Yes. Perfect.
He bundled them up under his arm, then worried that jogging over to his office had made him sweaty, and scrounged around until he found a tote bag to hold his things. That would be better.
He hurried back to the boutique, not bothering to worry about getting even sweatier. In for a penny, in for a pound, as they said.
He nearly breezed right past Honey Bee Bakery when the scent of warm sugar on the air halted his feet. There were worse things than a quick sugar rush when it came to staying awake after a hectic night with too little sleep. He’d learned that lesson in many tax seasons, and then again when Eloise was small. He bought Diana a pecan bun and an enormous coffee. Then, onone more little burst of inspiration, he ducked into the Country Corner Market for some bright, cheerful sunflowers.
It was the little things, he’d always found, that really helped to make a tough day better.
By the time he got back to the boutique, not more than fifteen minutes after he’d left, poor Diana was asleep again.
This time, he didn’t fumble with surprise. He quickly went back to the small dressing room in the back of the boutique. He put the treats on a little table that he dragged in from the area outside the dressing room. The weather was warm enough that she wouldn’t need a blanket on top of her, so he used the coverlet to create a cushion on the bench. He propped the pillow strategically, then took a step back to eye his handiwork.
It was, he told himself, pretty good work, given what he’d had to work with.
He went back out to the front, where Diana was still contentedly snoozing away, her face scrunched up against her fist. He reached out really gently and touched her shoulder.
“Diana, honey,” he said, the endearment slipping out before he could stop himself. He wished he could snatch it back, but, fortunately, Diana didn’t seem to notice; she was too busy sleepily blinking herself awake.
“Huh?” she asked, looking up at him blearily. This time, she didn’t startle either. “Hi.”
Their eye contact held for a brief moment. There was no awkwardness in it.
It was nice. It was the kind of nice that made Anthony wish he hadn’t messed up their date. What would it be like to have quiet, tender moments between them whenever they wanted?
But now was not the time for worrying about any of that. He couldn’t change how their date had gone, but he could help Diana out here and now.
“Hi,” he said, giving her a soft smile. “There’s a little bed set up for you back in the dressing room.”
He had never seen joy light up in a woman’s face the way Diana’s did when he said the wordbed. Just as quickly, however, her expression fell.
“Oh, that’s so nice, and it sounds so good, but I have to be out here for the order pickups…”
