Watching Aunt Sandy swoon every time anyone said anything slightly romantic was its own form of entertainment. Perhaps she needed a little romance of her own. The real kind.
Tara let the thought simmer, and a horrible grin overtook her face as she realized that was exactly what she should do. Turnabout was fair play, wasn’t it? Why hadn’t she thought of this before?
“What are you smiling about over there?”
Tara blinked and turned to look at Aunt Sandy. “Oh nothing.”
“Thinking about Luke?”
Tara pointed a knitting needle at her aunt. “Not even close.”
On screen, the love detectives were looking scholarly as they discussed the pros and cons of setting up the hunky department store Santa with a Christmas-hating executive. They’d watched enough episodes to know exactly what would happen next.
Aunt Sandy paused the TV. “I have something to confess. About Luke.”
“Is he coming over here? What did you do?” Tara frantically gathered up her yarn, but it was everywhere and didn’t care that she needed it off her lap right this instant.
“No. Nothing like that. Relax.”
Tara sat back and sighed. “The last time you said you had something to confess, you signed us up for a mud run we were both highly unqualified for. I’m pretty sure there are gifs out there of me unsuccessfully trying to push you up a wall, and then you landing on top of me, bottom first.”
Aunt Sandy tipped her head back and laughed. “But boy did we have fun. No, no. This is nothing like that. I just gave Luke something tonight that he’ll be tempted to keep. If my gut is right, and you know it usually is, he’ll find a way to give it back to you.”
“To me? You gave it to him. Wait, what did you give him?”
“One of Frank’s Pez dispensers. I told him to keep it as part of my apology for putting him in an uncomfortable situation.”
“You gave him one from Uncle Frank’s collection?” Tara’s heart dropped. “He’ll probably just throw it away. You shouldn’t have done that.” She used to love looking through them when she was little. Uncle Frank would load one with candy for her and let her carry it around for the day, never worrying about her breaking it or losing it. But she was always careful and brought it back because she knew he loved them.
“Luke’s a Pez collector too, and there are worse things than passing them along from one collector to another. Heaven knows what I’m supposed to do with them all.”
“But why would he bring it back to me and not you, if he brings it back at all?”
Aunt Sandy smiled. “Because he knows where you work. And he knows nothing about me. I imagine he’ll bring it to the school’s front office.”
“If he doesn’t keep it. You did tell him to keep it, right?”
“I did. But he’ll bring it back. And when he does, you’ll know it’s worth giving him a chance.”
“A chance to do what? Ask me out? That’s not having pure motives either.” Tara concentrated on her stitches. Going out with someone new was too scary an idea, with or without a test to prove his worthiness. A gift test. It was just like something the Love Detectives would set up. That’s probably where Aunt Sandy got the ridiculous idea.
“Let’s just see what happens. Promise me you’ll have a heart open to the possibilities.”
“I’m open to some possibilities, all right.” Tara narrowed her eyes at her aunt. “I’m thinking maybe I should be the one taking up matchmaking. It sounds like such a rewarding hobby. I have the perfect victim in mind. She’s vibrant and feisty, just had her hair freshly dyed a pert red color, and best of all, she’s conveniently single.”
Aunt Sandy’s mouth dropped open. “Tara, you wouldn’t. I’m too old for that. Who would be interested in me?”
“Oh, you’d be surprised. But don’t worry. I’ll find out who and send them your way.”
They stared each other down until Tara began to giggle, and then Aunt Sandy snorted, and it took them several minutes to get it under control so they could finish the show.
