Page 52 of Windward Hearts

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Between June’s worries and the time spent teasing Jared about his extremely obvious crush on Hope, Eleanor was running very late. She didn’t necessarily consider either of these errands wasted time, although she perhaps could have been slightly briefer with Jared, but it did mean that dinner was definitely going to be late. Which, normally, would have been a complete non-issue, as Eleanor made a point of surrounding herself by people that wouldn’t be jerks about dinner being late.

Except this was a special dinner because she had lost a bet to her little brother, which meant sibling pride was on the line. There would be teasing.

But that was fine. She would accept it as her due.

She walked through her front door to the surprisingly wonderful smell of the chicken she’d prepared cooking. For a heart-stopping instant, she worried that she’d somehow left the oven on when she’d left the house, but then she heard her boyfriend’s voice.

“Ellie, honey, can you come make sure that I’m doing this right?” he called from the kitchen. “Because you know that your brother is going to tease us forever if we mess it up. He’s texted me like seven times this week about how much he loves this dinner.”

Even though there was no time to spare, Eleanor paused for a moment to press a hand to her chest, as she was overcome with a wave of love and happiness. When she’d gotten divorced, she hadn’t even tried to imagine another romance for herself. And yet, here she was, with a man so wonderful that he entirely embraced her silliness with her brother, came over early for dinner to help her cook, and, when he’d found her absent, had taken the burden upon himself.

She hesitated a little too long to embrace her good fortune, as Garrett’s voice came again, this time a little more urgent.

“El? Chicken check, please!”

She laughed and went into the kitchen where, as it turned out, Garrett was cooking the chicken perfectly. She tucked the tiramisu in the fridge and pressed a kiss to his cheek.

“You’re a marvel, do you know that, Garrett Wilder?” she asked, wrapping her arms around him from behind as he carefully began plating the first dish of food.

“I’ve been telling people that for years,” Garrett said, never taking his eyes from his task. “But, for some reason, they seem to think I’m kind of grouchy.”

Eleanor laughed. She adored Garrett more than words could express, but he was rather grumpy on the outside. It was like a hard coating to a soft center. Absolutely worth the work to get to the good stuff, but he definitely didn’t give off warm and cozy vibes.

“Weird, huh?” she teased, then turned to help him assemble the plates and set the table.

They got everything set up just in the nick of time. Eleanor was just fussing with the positioning of the final wine glass when Shane and Winnie came in through the door.

“Wow,” Winnie said, her eyes lighting up as she looked at the table. “Eleanor, you really went all out?”

“Nobody ever appreciates Garrett,” her boyfriend mumbled playfully as he carried a warming dish into the room. “Everyone thinks that Eleanor is the mastermind.”

Shane grinned and clapped Garrett on the shoulder. “She is, though, right?”

“Yeah.” Garrett sighed. He held onto his falsely morose expression for one more moment before smiling slightly, which, for him, was tantamount to a beaming grin from someone else.

Eleanor ignored the boys’ silliness and answered Winnie.

“You know,” she said, “there was a time in my life when I hosted all kinds of fancy dinners. When I was married to Brian, doing ‘lawyer wife’ things was basically my full-time job. And I don’t miss a whole lot about that era, but every now and again, I get an itch to do some hosting.”

“That’s why you’re so good at the snacks for book club,” Winnie observed.

Eleanor titled her head in consideration. “Yeah, maybe. It’s fun, when I don’t have to do it, you know?”

“Totally,” Winnie agreed. “Well, our gain, right?”

“Absolutely,” Eleanor said with a laugh.

“Joking aside, this really does all look amazing, Ellie,” Shane said as he pulled out a chair, first for Winnie, then for himself. “I don’t think you’ve ever been so meticulous in your life!”

Eleanor shrugged and bobbled her head. “Well, if my little brother is going to beat me in a bet, then I’m going to get revenge by paying that bet with style.”

“This is what they call ‘joking aside?’” Winnie said to Garrett. “Do I just not get it because I’m an only child?”

“I have a sister, and we are not like this,” Garrett replied with a shrug of his own.

They turned diligently to their meals after that, and much of the conversation was taken up with compliments to the chef. Eventually, they turned to a snarly problem that Shane had been working on for one of his clients in a nearby town. The tech talk went over everyone else’s head, but they’d all faced professional worries before, so they offered commiseration in the right places.