“Thank you.”
Linda walked away, and April reached for the sugar bowl and pulled it closer to her. “You done, Uncle Daws?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Go ahead.” He didn’t put cream in his coffee, but April did and he waited patiently while she got her brew doctored up.
Sometimes he had to ask her to start talking, and other times she’d finally look at him and say what was on her mind. Today, she seemed awfully interested in the color of her coffee as she swirled cream through it, and Dawson’s patience ran out.
“So what are we doing here, bug?” he asked. “You got something on your mind?”
She nodded, her bottom lip already trembling. She didn’t cry often, but April experienced strong emotions the same way Dawson did. She simply kept them all boxed up, and when she was ready to talk about them, she spewed everything out.
But he rarely saw her cry. No, April’s default was to get angry, or frustrated, or irritated—the same as Dawson.
“Louis bought me a diamond ring,” she said. She lifted her coffee mug to her lips and finally met his eyes.
Dawson grinned at her. “That’s amazing news, April.”
“Is it?” She set her cup down and sighed.
“Of course it is.” Dawson tilted his head and looked at her, really trying to see more than she let him. “You’ve been with him for thirteen months now,” he said. “And I know you have that twelve-month rule, and he’s abided by it.”
“I’m just worried.” She frowned slightly. “He just sees everything in the world through this…this…thisrainbowlens.”
“Well, that’s why you’re good for him,” he said. “You can be practical while he’s the dreamer.”
“It’s not just that he’s a dreamer,” April said. “I dream of things too. It’s that I’m not sure he sees me clearly.”
“Why wouldn’t he?” Dawson took a casual sip of his coffee. He’d spoken with April about this before, and he knew it was a very real concern of hers, even if it felt a little silly to him.
“It just feels like—I don’t know. I feel like we need more time.”
“Well, you can get engaged and not get married for a while,” he said.
April nodded and reached back to tighten her ponytail. “I told him I wanted to get married in the summer. Or, you know, like May or something.”
Dawson lifted his eyebrows. “That’s almost another year from now.”
She nodded. “And we started dating at the very end of May,” she said. “Well, I mean, kind of. I met him at the end of May. It took him a few weeks to ask me out.”
“See?” Dawson said. “So he’s thought about things, April.”
Their conversation was put on hold as Linda returned with the Honey Nut Cheerios. “The pancakes are only another five minutes out,” she said.
“Thank you.” April picked up her spoon and pulled the bowl closer to her. Dawson watched as his niece took her first bite of her favorite cereal.
She glared at him as she chewed, and he raised his eyebrows. After she swallowed, she said, “Just say what’s on your mind.”
“All right,” he said. “But I don’t think you’re going to like it.”
“That’s why we come to breakfast,” she said. “So you’ll tell me the hard things, and I’ll have my favorite foods in front of me while you do it.” She flashed him a tiny smile, and Dawson returned it.
“He’s met your momma and daddy?” he asked.
“Yes,” April said. “They love him, and they both know that we’ve been talking about getting married. I don’t think it will be a surprise.”
“No, I don’t think so either,” Dawson said. “Are you still worried about Shiloh?”
April nodded, her mouth full of Honey Nut Cheerios. He waited for her to finish, and she swallowed. “Yeah, a little bit, but I’ve talked to her about it. And she said, ‘It’s not like we live in the seventeen hundreds and the oldest daughter has to be married first.’ I just know—” April cut off and shook her head.
