"What?" she heard Jake comment as Linda stepped into the night.
"I hope Gran has her pepper spray in her purse," Sophia said as Maggie stepped out behind her.
"Good grief," Maggie said, shaking her head. "They are more protective than Michael was of you. I'm so glad he wasn't here."
Linda nodded in agreement with a nervous laugh as she realized a few more steps would take her to the parking lot of Hearts Hotel where she'd agreed to meet Darius, and the butterflies awoke in her stomach.
"Hey," Maggie said, realizing Linda was getting pre-date nerves. "You're looking gorgeous. So relax and think of this as dinner with a friend like you told those little detectives inside."
Linda nodded and smiled. She cleared her throat. "Are you sure you're going to be alright with the Scooby mob in there?"
"I can handle them," Maggie assured her with a smile. "Now go, you're going to be late."
Linda took a breath and walked towards the Hearts Hotel parking lot.
The warm evening air carried the scent of sea salt and jasmine from the trellis along the side path, and Linda let it settle her as her gold heels found their rhythm on the paving stones.
Darius was already waiting in the parking lot. He was leaning against the car with his back to her, staring out across the bay. As he heard her walking toward him, he turned, and his eyes widened as he took in the sight of her.
"Hi," Darius greeted her, his voice soft and deep.
"Hi," Linda greeted back, not able to stop the smile that spread across her lips or keep her eyes from locking with his.
"You look beautiful," Darius complimented her.
Linda felt the small steady flush along her cheekbones. They stood like that for a few moments before Darius cleared his throat and walked around the car to the passenger door that he pulled open for her.
Linda slid in and buckled up as he closed the door with a soft click, making her realize this was real and happening. She was going on a date. She squashed the sudden panic that tried to claw its way through her nervous system.No. I'm fifty-nine, not sixteen. Good grief, Linda. You've been to dinner with a man before.She took a quick heavy breath to steady and calm herself before Darius slid in the car.
The drive to the restaurant was filled with general conversation about how her uncle was doing. How Isabel and Emma wereenjoying Sweet Blossom Bay. Conversation that lulled the nervous edge from Linda, so by the time they reached their destination she felt a lot more relaxed.
The restaurant Darius had chosen was a small place along the waterfront on the far side of the bay, with a wooden deck out over the water and lanterns strung between the posts. The host led them to a corner table where the bay opened up beyond the railing, the lights of Sweet Blossom Bay scattering across the dark water in a long, warm line.
Darius held Linda's chair for her, and she settled into it. Between conversation about the restaurant and its perfect location, they had ordered something to drink and their food.
They sipped wine as Darius changed the direction of the conversation.
"I know you're from Miami," Darius said. "What did you do there?"
"I was an archaeologist," Linda answered. "I worked for the Miami Museum for many years before I took early retirement a few years ago ."
"What did you do there?" Darius asked, and Linda could see he was genuinely interested to know.
"I was head of collections," Linda answered. "I started as an assistant curator straight out of graduate school and ended up running the whole back-of-house. Acquisitions, cataloging, the loans program, and even doing some field expeditions in the early years."
"Field expeditions," Darius repeated.
"Digs," Linda clarified, and felt the small old pleasure at mentioning those times. "I worked mostly at Florida sites in the beginning. Then I went on to the Caribbean. The museum had a long-running partnership with two universities for research on the Calusa and Taino eras. I went out with them every summer for the first ten years of my career."
"You were a field archaeologist," Darius said, and there was real interest in his voice now. "Wow. That must've been exciting." He grinned. "So were you like Indiana Jones?"
Linda laughed and shook her head. "If I had a dollar for every time someone asked that."
"Sorry." Darius sat back, cradling his glass of wine. "I guess when non-archaeologists think of digs, we instantly think of those movies."
"Well, the digs I went on were exciting," Linda answered truthfully. "But nothing like Indiana Jones exciting." She smiled and leaned forward. "To us, exciting was finding an artifact and realizing you were on a site where an entire generation that was before us lived."
“So, you got to go on exciting digs,” Darius said, watching her.
