Jenson laughed as he and Graham put away the tools and they got out the dessert that Eloise had brought for everyone.
"You and Tess will get an extra little bonus for helping tonight."
"I can't believe little miss stuck-up actually came on her night off to help," Bess groused.
"Hey," Eloise admonished, a seriousness in her voice that grabbed Bess's attention. "Learn this young. How you talk about someone behind their back is a mark of your character, not theirs. And Tess doesn't seem to have much in the way of a loving support system so we get the chance to be that for her. As difficult as she may be sometimes."
Bess, properly chastised nodded and apologized. Eloise hugged her again and Ursula joined. The two friends looked at each other over the top of Bess's dark head and shared a moment. They may not ever have children, but having this with Bess was something neither of them saw coming and the sweetness of it was immeasurable.
"Okay, you guys are smothering me," Bess complained, pushing them away.
"Get used to it," Ursula said, her face in a content smile.
They all crowded around the coffee bar eating oatmeal honey bars with roasted strawberries. The smell of the varnish was strong, but Eloise thought it smelled like change and possibility. There was something distinctly welcoming in the air inside of the little coffee shop tonight.
Graham stood next to her and it didn't feel tumultuous. They shared a look; her sad smile and his smile in return said heunderstood. She knew as he made a joke, bringing out a head-thrown-back laugh that he wouldn't ask her out again and she was grateful for that relief of pressure. She packed up the leftover oatmeal bars for him and his grandmother.
By the time people started drifting home, and the cafe was locked up, she felt excited like she was on the precipice of something, even with everything around town, and half of the town seemingly against them, she felt hope.
Then the door of a truck swung open, pulling her attention and making her smile when she saw Taylor step down onto the street.
"Hey. Smart to wait until all of the work was finished," she smiled.
He chuckled, but the mirth didn't reach his eyes. "I uh, got hung up." What he hadn't told her was that he had stood at the cafe window looking into the glowing shop and watched as Graham made her laugh. The bump of his shoulder against hers twisted Taylor's insides.
And he could see it: Eloise and Graham, walking hand-in-hand around their picturesque town. Him talking about something in marketing and her regaling him with her whimsy and winning his heart day after day. He tortured himself by picturing Graham picking her up at the coffee shop after a long day and kissing her softly, her pretty amber-glass eyes looking up at him adoringly.
He swallowed the lump in his throat at the idea of Graham being able to say three words to her that he never could.
And she deserved that.
Then he got back into his truck and waited, the pain thumping around in his chest like a wild animal.
Now she stepped up onto the sidewalk under the glow of an antique street lamp, unaware of the turmoil inside of him. Earlier when talking with Ursula and Bess she had been honest,deeply honest. She felt settled near Taylor. Seeing him lifted a heaviness inside of her. There weren't butterflies flying about, but a wave of warmth and calmness.
His blue eyes looked over her face, but the way that they looked and took her in felt bigger than usual. He smelled different.
"How are you, after everything with Carol and going to the station?"
She nodded. "I feel okay, honestly. We haven't done anything. Though it seems like maybe someone is out to make it look like we did and that is concerning, and half the town wanting us to leave isn't helping my self esteem," she looked down at her red canvas shoes with a little smile.
She was about to bring up the woman with red hair at the club when a warm hand lightly grasped her chin and tipped it up until she was again looking into blue eyes. They held things, ravines of thoughts and wishes, but what pressed into her heart were the regrets and lost hopes she saw there. His usual sweet orange smell was acidic, the hickory not there.
And she knew.
Moments passed between these two souls as they stood there under the lamplight and the moon who watched with a sadness that could be felt amongst the stars.
The gentle smell of lily of the valley, which quite liked to bloom in the privacy of night, swirled around them as they had a silent conversation.
His hand had moved to rest against the side of her throat and her hand had somehow found its way to lay gently on his chest over his heart, where she knew he harbored those deferred hopes; hopes that he could never find a happy ending to.
She wanted to curse the curse itself, the one that she imagined wrapped around his heart like a thorny vine.
He pulled her into him, his warmth a comfort, though one that was saying such heartbreaking things. The way that his strong arms wrapped around her, protective.
Desperate.
She told herself she could cry later in privacy and not where it would further weigh this good man down.
