"A nice dessert will make it up to you," Mrs. Del Rio said and Sammy's eyes lit up.
When they were done with their food, Sammy stuck her nose in the dessert menu while kicking her feet like she was ready to take off.
"You could have the peach and raspberry trifle," Mrs. Del Rio suggested.
"Is that good?" Sammy asked.
"It's very good," Mrs. Del Rio told her and Sammy nodded.
When Mitch decided to just have coffee, he noticed that Enrico gave up on picking out a dessert and had the same. The whole day Mitch had tried to pay as little attention to him as he could. But he couldn't miss the fact that Enrico was alternately distracted and nervous.
Other impressions broke through the wall Mitch tried to build between them. Enrico's familiar scent, which Mitch shouldn't have noticed in the first place. Then there was the way he pressed his lips together and frowned too many times that day. Damn, the last thing he should be thinking about was anything to do with Enrico's mouth.
While they were waiting for their desserts and coffee, Mrs. Del Rio saw two ladies she knew having lunch and she went over to talk to them. That left Mitch, Enrico and Sammy alone at the table.
This was the kind of thing that confused everything. Once Mrs. Del Rio had gone to chat with her friends, the three of them were a trio again like so many times these past few days.
Even when the dessert arrived, she still wasn't back. Enrico looked over at her with a sigh and told their server, "Maybe you better take my grandmother's dessert to that table. She looks like she got herself deep into some gossip."
Sammy was happy with her trifle since it was piled high with whipped cream. Other than her chatter, there wasn't much conversation at their table. Since he met him, Mitch couldn't remember Enrico being so quiet.
Seeing that they were done with coffee and Sammy was scraping up the last of her dessert, Enrico looked over at his grandmother and shook his head. "We'll need the jaws of life to get her away from them."
Out the restaurant windows, Mitch could see the grounds of the inn stretching out. "It looks nice out there. What if we go and walk around to pass the time?" Mitch suggested.
Sammy liked the idea but Enrico seemed unsure. It turned out that he didn't know if he was included. "Me too?" he asked.
Sammy was the first to answer him. "Yes, you too, Rico."
Mitch nodded to confirm it, but Enrico still seemed to be questioning if he was welcome even as they left the inn's restaurant and went outside where rays of golden sunlight filtered in among the greenery and birds chirped loudly.
First Sammy had to follow the walkway, the whole time looking up at the white trumpet flowers above their heads. Smiling, Mitch watched her and made sure she didn't trip. Then Enrico reminded him, "Pictures."
"Thanks," Mitch said and got out his phone.
Sammy posed for a few shots then she pointed up. "I want to be high up. Can you hold me, Rico?"
Getting a nod from Mitch, Enrico picked up Sammy and set her on his shoulder. As she squealed and hugged his head, Mitch got some funny pictures of the two of them. But the last one wasn't funny. It was beautiful. Enrico was smiling, his eyes reflecting the golden sunlight. His smile was faint and a little sad while Sammy's blue eyes were big and bright.
Enrico had Sammy jump down and they moved on. Further on, they came across an area where several Adirondack chairs were fanned out across a sunny section of lawn. One guy was napping there with his face covered with a book and two ladies were chatting quietly each on her own cell phone.
"I guess this is where the inn guests lounge around. You want to lounge," Enrico asked Sammy.
She nodded though Mitch was pretty sure she didn't know what lounge meant. Mitch got to take a picture of her dwarfed in the chair. Then they moved on to the wilder areas that may or may not have been part of the inn grounds.
While Sammy frolicked among the trees, Mitch thought he heard water burbling. They followed the sound and found a small creek.
"That must be the creek the inn is named after," Enrico said.
"They're flowers in it," Sammy exclaimed.
Mitch looked upstream. He saw trees with purple flowers leaning over the water. "They must have fallen from those trees over there."
"It's really nice here," Enrico said. "Sammy likes it, right?"
"It's like in a fairy tale," she said.
"If this is a fairy tale, who are those guys?" Enrico asked.
