“Which one looks like a hawk?” Stella asked. She shielded her eyes with her hand, frowning up at the clouds.
I exchanged smiles with Dean before his look turned serious. He studied me carefully, maybe sensing that I wasn’t as calm as I’d hoped for, but he couldn’t walk forward with his eyes on me, so he turned his head and kept going, though he slowed until we were in conversation distance with each other again, letting Lacey catch up to Jackson and Stella.
“Do you know what they decided for lunch?” Dean asked.
I lengthened my stride a little, and then we were side by side again now that the trail had widened. “Mexican food. I can’t remember the name, but the address is in the app.”
“Huh. Can I ask something that’s none of my business?”
“You usually do, Dean.” I said it breezily, but I was already getting worried about the possibilities.
“Do they know?” he whispered, glancing at me. “Do they know you have a daughter?”
“No.” I figured it would come up at some point, but I wasn’t interested in anyone here in that way. It seemed like a single date thing. Not a group thing. “Would you have said something?” I asked him.
“On a group app? No.”
My shoulders relaxed. Not that I needed Dean’s agreement or anything. But it was nice to hear he didn’t find my privacy dishonest. “Is that why you didn’t use your name or face at first? Because it was a group app?”
“Yeah, I guess I thought of it as testing it out. Seeing how things went before putting myself out there. Which is dumb because the thing I like best about it is that everyone is their real selves. I was so relieved when you RSVP’d for the dance. Itmeant I didn’t have to cold-call you and confess or come into the shop and confess there. You can’t imagine how much I was dreading it.”
“Oh, poor Knead.”
He laughed and I did too. I could imagine his dread. I was not the most approachable person ever. Or at least, I hadn’t been, up until now. I’d apologized for being distant with him. Which meant I couldn’t retreat to that when I needed to anymore. And when I slipped up and did it anyway, I’d have to own up and make it right. It was a scary realization.
Chapter 16 – Dean
“They’ve sent an offer,” Grace told me in an urgent whisper. Her phone was in her lap, and she angled it towards me so I could see. Sure enough, there was an email at the top of her inbox from Flowers United with several attachments.
“On a Saturday at mid-day?” I glanced around the table where we were finishing lunch. The Mexican restaurant had treated us like royalty, seating us right away and taking a group picture for their wall. Since we’d made the reservation through the GoWithFriends app, we were basically celebrities sent to save their restaurant from obscurity.
I had turned off my business brain, not wanting to sit there and analyze their service, food, layout, or any of the other things I’d look at if they were a client of mine. But now that Grace had an answer from Flowers United, my business brain was back on high alert. That was a quick turnaround. Almost too quick. I figured they’d take a month at least to think it over and research her business, maybe even do a traffic survey. Their responsiveness could be good news or bad news.
Grace sighed. “Maybe they wanted to give me time to mull it over for the rest of the weekend.”
“Maybe. Have you looked at it?”
“No. Not yet. Not here.” She put her phone away, and I tried to put it out of my mind. There was nothing we could do about it while surrounded by conversation and curious glances.
We’d driven separately, but Grace met me at my car after we walked out. “I texted Isaac to tell him it came in. He and Carmen are at a family party for her sister’s birthday. I don’t want to pull him away from that, but he said to keep him in the loop. Do you need to get home? Do you have time to look this over with me?” She gauged my reaction like I might be eager to get away from her. Nothing could be further from the truth.
“Of course I have time.”
“I’ll have to go pick up Piper first.”
“Well, in that case, no.” I bumped my shoulder with hers. “Having to hang out with Piper crosses the line.”
“Whatever.”
“Let me follow you to pick her up. I was kinda hoping for a glass of lemonade if there’s any left.”
Grace smiled. “I just checked with Lucy’s mom, and she said they’re still out on the front lawn. They haven’t left it since they started. She even brought their lunch out there.”
“A lot of traffic, then?”
“Not really. Only a handful of people came. Mostly kids with no money.”
“Well, let’s go make their day, then.” I had cash in my pockets and a baggie of coins I’d put in the console this morning. I figured seven-year-olds would appreciate a pile of quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies in a way no one else would.
