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“You know, she’s right,” Arnold said, turning to Rory. “I thought I could keep to the status quo and not take the risk of putting myself out there. After losing Emily’s mother all those years ago, it was hard to admit that I was lonely. We keep busy, the two of us. And I guess I was trying to protect my own heart by keeping things casual with Maggie.”

“You did a very bad job of that, Dad,” Emily said, patting his arm with a fond expression on her face. “It’s a good thing Maggie decided to teach you a lesson.”

“No, no,” Maggie said right away. “I should have told your dad how I felt, not let poor Ana set me up with the man of her own dreams. I was playing games and it could have gone very wrong.”

The man of her own dreams?

“We all behaved badly,” Arnold said, summing it up pretty well. “No question. And we were lucky that things worked out the way they did for us. Now we want to make sure you and Ana have that same chance.”

“Interesting,” Rory said, smiling. “You really think I’m the man of her dreams?”

“If you could have heard all the things she told me about you,” Maggie said, smiling and rolling her eyes. “He’s so handsome. He’s the best kind of man.”

“Wait, Ana said that about me?” he asked. “She said I was the best kind of man?”

“She’s always said that about you,” Maggie said with a smile. “It’s really sweet that she tried to set us up, but it was kind of obvious to me from the beginning that she liked you herself. I couldn’t figure out why she was trying to get me to go out with you.”

“Or why you agreed to it,” Emily added accusingly to him. “Don’t you love Ana?”

“I didn’t think I had a shot with her,” Rory admitted. “And it seemed to make her so happy to set me up…”

He trailed off, trying to see things differently.

“Because she cares about you,” Maggie said gently. “That’s why she wants you to be happy.”

“Let us help you,” Arnold said. “Please.”

“What do you propose?” Rory asked.

“I know she helped you plan a special date for me,” Maggie said. “We want to help you plan a special date for her.”

“Then she won’t be mad anymore,” Emily explained. “And maybe you guys can fall in love.”

“Well, I like that idea,” Rory told them. “And if you can really help me set up the perfect date, I’m all ears.”

“Here’s what we were thinking,” Maggie said, pulling out a little notebook.

Rory had to force himself to pay attention because he was so busy trying to understand how he could have missed something that seemed so obvious to everyone else.

20

RORY

Two days later, Rory paced the sidewalk outside Pura Vida with a bouquet of pink roses clutched in his hand. He was still five minutes early, snow was falling, and every gust of frigid wind made the rose petals shiver.

Sage Carlsen at the flower shop had patiently watched him study every bouquet in the place like there was going to be a test, and finally go with roses because Ana herself had told him you can’t go wrong with a rose or a small box of chocolate.

Of course he’d sprung for a dozen roses, and he had a box of chocolates tucked into the inner pocket of his new coat too. If Ana decided to give him a chance, he was going to do his best to show her he cared and was trying to get it right.

A bundled-up figure came into view, but instead of Ana, it was her friend, Valerie. When she saw him peeking out at her from behind the roses she just laughed.

“Come see me when you’re ready,” she told him when she was finished laughing at him. “I have the perfect thing.”

“What do you mean?” he asked her, completely flummoxed.

“For Ana,” she said, shaking her head like she couldn’t believe how hopelessly silly he was being. “Come see me when you need something for Ana. I’ve got you covered.”

“Oh,” he said, blinking back at her when he realized what she meant. “Thank you.”