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“It didn’t look like nothing.” Peggy smiled. “It looked like perhaps he may have asked you on a date.”
“No, his um…his daughter Grace, she needs help with reading, and he asked if I could possibly come over and give her a hand.”
Trinity shook her head. “So full of denial. He’s a looker. Enjoy your date.”
A smile fell to my lips as I reached behind the counter and grabbed my purse. “You two are impossible,” I said as I headed to the door.
“Not impossible, just nosey.” Peggy laughed.
“See you both soon. Have a good day.”
Zach
The rest of the week flew by. I'd had no more problems with contractors or with Grace. In fact, things were going so well, I wondered what the next bomb would be to drop. I sat in the kitchen, sunlight coming through the window, enjoying my morning coffee while my mother and I looked at tile choices for the bathroom that Alexa had picked for us. I slid one across to the pending pile and was sipping my coffee when Grace came flying into the kitchen.
"Morning," she sang.
"Morning," we muttered, trying to decide between two options that both worked well with the floor tile.
"What are you doing?" she asked, climbing up on the stool of the breakfast bar.
"Choosing tile for the bathrooms," I grunted. I was not good at this part. Valerie hadn't been wrong about that when we were married, and it was showing. I shoved the tiles away from me. “Perhaps we should just have Alexa choose,” I said to my mother.
Alexa had come highly recommended from two businesses in the area, so my mother hired her almost on the spot, and I’d never been more grateful, especially the deeper into the project we got.
"Grace, what would you like to do today?" I asked.
I'd been trying to keep her occupied on Sundays. It was the one day of the week I didn't have contractors pouring through the house and one day that we could just spend some father-daughter time without interruption.
"Can we go out for dinner?"
I shrugged. "Sure. You tired of my home-cooked meals?"
"You aren't that great of a cook, Dad," she said, making a face that made me laugh inside.
"Alright, well, where would you like to go?"
She brought her finger up to her lips and lifted her eyes, looking at the ceiling, thinking hard. "Ummmm...how about that family restaurant we passed the one day a few weeks ago?"
I frowned, wondering what restaurant she meant. We'd driven in and out of Willow Valley many times in the past few weeks, not to mention throughout the town many times. "Hmmm, which place?"
"The Lounge place," Grace said, giving me a serious look, as if I should know exactly where she was talking about.
"Gracie, I don't know where you mean. Can you tell me where we were going when we passed it?"
"To the city, Dad."
I ran through what I could remember, still coming up with nothing. Then Grace ran out of the room and upstairs, finally coming back down only a few minutes later, holding her phone.
"This place," she said, holding her phone up for me to see.
"Oh, The Cedar Grill and Lounge?" I frowned, wondering why she had chosen that place out of them all. "I guess we can go there."
"Yay!" Grace said, jumping up and down in excitement.
I shook my head and pulled the tiles back in front of me, while Grace climbed back up on the stool. Before I got too invested in the project at hand, I poured her a bowl of cereal, and while she ate, I tried once again to pick the tiles for the bathrooms.
My day was full of laundry. Grace helped me around the house with a few chores, and before I knew it, it was time to climb into the car and head to the restaurant. I'd just pulled off the road into the restaurant parking lot, found a spot, and parked the car. I glanced into the rearview mirror in time to see Grace give me an odd smile.
