“Deal.”She smiled again and headed to the counter.
He left the hanging pendant on, and when she met him at the door, she switched the sign from sayingHeck, Yeah!We’re Open!toCome On Back Tomorrow, We’re Closed.
They went out, she locked up, and he slid an arm around her shoulders as they hunched against the cold and headed down the block to get to the crosswalk to hit the Double D.
“Good day?”he asked.
“Sold all those designer bags.I knew they’d go, but I didn’t know they’d go this quick.We’re thinning out on Halloween stuff really fast because apparently, Misted Pines is even bigger into Halloween than I thought.And I already thought it embraced that holiday wholeheartedly.And I still haven’t sold that freaking leather chair.I’m gonna have to reduce the price and that’ll hurt, since I spent so much time on it.How about you?”
“Got your tires on, the weights in the back, and Harry showed me around the compound and gave me an update.”
The rest of their short walk he shared that update with her, and when they hit the Double D, Heidi, one of the servers, aimed a smile at them, and Hutch led them to a side booth at the back.
He waited until he and Mabel took off their jackets and hung them up on the hook that rose above the booth, and Mabel picked the seat facing the wall, and only then did Hutch slide in opposite her.
Heidi was there immediately, sliding cloudy turquoise plastic tumblers of water on the table in front of each of them.
“You,” she said to Hutch, “California Combo.”
Hutch smiled and said nothing because there was nothing he ate on their menu but the grilled chicken breast, avocado and bacon sandwich on a whole grain bun that came with fruit and cottage cheese.
Unless he was there for breakfast, and then he got the yogurt, granola and fruit or oatmeal.
She turned to Mabel.“You’re flummoxing me.You never order the same thing twice.”
Mabel was proving her right by perusing the plastic-coated menu like she was cramming for a test.
“Diner food is a culinary adventure, Heidi,” Mabel replied to the menu.She looked up to their server.“You could come in here and always get the patty melt, or the Reuban.But what if the tuna melt or club sandwich are gonna rock my world?Or the meatloaf?Or beef tips?Do you want me to die without experiencing the Double D’s beef tips?”
Without delay, Heidi asked, “Do you want the beef tips?”
“Yes.”Mabel put the menu back in its holder behind the napkin dispenser.“And I’ll be following that with apple pie à la mode.”
“Gotcha,” Heidi said.“Hutch drinks water.What do you want?”
“Singapore Sling?”Mabel jokingly requested.
“Ha ha,” Heidi replied, but there was amusement in her eyes.“Diet Sprite Shirley Temple?”
“Perfection.”
Heidi took off.
And Hutch sat in that booth, having watched this interaction, realizing in a manner it felt like he took an imaginary bullet, that he’d never really loved Molly.
He was young.She was sweet and pretty, and in his way, he got off on the clingy because he’d misinterpreted it as the depth of her love.
And he’d been trained, since birth, to misinterpret a lot of behavior, specifically from a female.
He was also realizing he did love Danielle, but even if they got married, they wouldn’t have worked.
It wasn’t her controlling nature, or that wasn’t all of it.
It was that he wanted a woman with drive, with hustle, with energy, humor, a thirst for life, but he didn’t want it to come with high heels, designer blouses and dinner parties.Unless they were like the ones he and Mabel had with Brett, Abigail and the kids, Doc, Nadia and Ledger and Mrs.Matthews and Mark.
He was also low-key.Laid-back.
Danielle was not.
