Page 5 of Daddy’s Little Christmas Wish

After finally gathering my courage, I entered the diner and made my way over to the booth where Bella was sitting. Her back was to me so she didn't see me coming. Part of me wanted to change its mind and leave right away, but I steeled my nerves. Clearing my throat, I tapped her on the shoulder, and she turned to face me.

"There you are," she exclaimed as she jumped up to meet me. "I was almost afraid that you had changed your mind and didn't want to see me." Confused by why she would have thought that, I shook my head at her.

"Why on Earth would I do that?" I asked. "I'm not that kind of person." She lowered her gaze, and I realized how harsh it had sounded. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that." She gave me a soft smile as she looked back up at me.

"It's okay," she reassured me. Motioning towards the table, she continued. "Shall we sit down to eat?" Grateful for the distraction, I nodded in agreement.

"Yes, we shall," I replied as we sat down at the table.

For the next few minutes, we sat across from each other at the table, each of us studying the menu in silence, and I began to realize that this was a horrible mistake. Because of me, she was sitting in one of the most public places in town, completely lost for words, and everybody in the dining room was staring at us, silently judging both me and her as we sat there at the table. When I couldn't take it any longer, I put down the menu and smiled at her.

"It's amazing to see that Sally's is here after all this time," I commented. "It feels like it's been forever since I've sat in here." Looking up from her menu, Bella nodded in agreement.

"The menu has changed so much over the years," she pointed out as she smiled back, "but, having gradually been introduced to the change, it all seems so natural." We fell silent for a little while longer, and I started to wonder if this whole date had been a bad idea.

While I was actively looking for a relationship with somebody around Bella's age, it was impossible to tell if she was even comfortable with someone my age showing any sort of romantic interest in her. Having grown up in the small town all her life, I wasn't even sure if she knew what a Little was, much less if she would be interested in it. For all I knew, she preferred to keep romantic relationships with people her own age because of what she was used to around town.

While relationships between people with the same age difference happened all the time in the city, I had only ever seen a few people in town with the same age gap. I understood that most people would feel uncomfortable with my particular interest. I was already used to the backlash that people gave even when it was more common in the place they lived than they thought.

It didn't help that people throughout the diner were staring at us. While I wasn't sure if Bella noticed, I was definitely feeling the weight of the their judging looks. Even the hostess, who was the same age as Bella, was staring at us the same way do many others were. After a while, Bella looked up at me.

"Do you want to take our order to go?" she asked suddenly, and I stared at her in shock for a moment, having been caught completely off guard by her suggestion.

"Are we allowed to?" I asked, and she nodded in response.

"Of course we are, silly," she replied, her voice and cheery. "All we have to do is pay for it like everywhere else." Raising an eyebrow at her, I started to wonder if she was a lot more insightful than I had originally thought.

"Are you sure you don't want to stay here?" I asked. "It's a lot warmer than outside." Again, she nodded as she spoke.

"I know a really great place outside where we can eat," she informed me. "I know that it's going to be cold, but you can look at all the Christmas lighting down Main Street." Realizing that she was saying that she wanted to see the Christmas lights rather than sit inside and eat, I also realized she had given me the perfect excuse to leave the diner and escape the judging looks that we were already receiving from all the other diners.

"If that's what you want, then let's go for it," I agreed. "I love looking at the Christmas lighting around this time of year. Not a lot of people do it in the city anymore." As if on cue, the waiter came by, and we quickly placed an order to go.

The waiter looked confused by our request, especially after seeing the cups of water on the table, but he didn't argue as he placed our order to go. While we waited, we talked about our favorite types of Christmas light displays and even discussed which business on Main Street likely had the best one. After agreeing that we were going to determine which display was better by examining them all, our food arrived, and we paid the bill before setting out into the cold night.

As soon as we stepped out into the cold outdoors, I took note of just how dark it already was, and I couldn't help but smile. The lighting from the street lights reflected off the snow, making it a lot easier to see down the road without even taking into account the lights from each and every Christmas display that every business on Main Street had put in their window. As we started down the sidewalk Bella turned to look at me

"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable by suggesting that we walk around and see the Christmas lights," she told me her cheeks rosey from the embarrassment as well as the cold. "I don't know about you, but I was getting a bit uncomfortable knowing that everybody was watching us in there." With a huge sigh of relief, I nodded in agreement.

"I'm actually really glad that you suggested this," I admitted. "Truth be told, I was just as uncomfortable as you were, and I am embarrassed that I didn't come up with the idea first I guess. I thought that you would prefer someplace public so that you would feel more comfortable." The two of us shared a laugh, and Bella nodded towards the street.

"Why don't we start on this side of the road?" she suggested. "That way, we're not trying to take in both sides at the same time and can stop to appreciate each one individually." Amazed at how smart she was in making this suggestion, I nodded in agreement, and we started down the sidewalk to the first of the displays on our left.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Bella

The whole time we were in the diner, things between Joel and I felt completely awkward, and the way everybody was looking at us was making me extremely anxious. It felt as though I was being smothered by the way everybody was watching me, and I started to appreciate how people on TV were able to stay in character after knowing that so many people were going to watch. Remembering that people loved to go look at the many Christmas displays after dark in the windows of all the businesses on Main Street, I am immediately realized it was the perfect excuse to get away from everybody in the diner and have some alone time with Joel.

I was still uncertain if this was a date or just a "thank you" for taking care of his mother, and, now that we were away from the judging looks that we were receiving at Sally's Diner, I knew that I was finally going to be able to determine which of the two it was. Based on his behavior, an argument could be made that this was already a date, especially after he had agreed to walk Main Street with me in order to see the Christmas lights. I knew it was better to be safe than sorry. The last thing I wanted to do was assume that it was a date when clearly it wasn't.

While most people would have been intimidated by the idea of dating somebody who was old enough to be their parents, I didn't mind age gap. After all, since we were both consenting adults, age was nothing more than a number, and, while people in town wouldn't admit it, there were plenty of couples that had similar age gaps. If the rumors were to be true, Mr. Calvert was almost twenty years older than Mrs. Calvert when they got married, and they were married for almost forty years before he passed away. In my opinion, age gaps didn't affect the marriage so long as the two people were in love.

While I had a hard time admitting it out loud, I could honestly say that, as we walked down Main Street, laughing and joking around while admiring the Christmas displays in the window of each and every business, I was falling in love with Joel. He was a great man who, despite having been out of town for so long, did really seem to care about his family. Talking about his father was a bit of a touchy subject, but I soon learned that it wasn't his fault that he didn't stay in town. In fact, the only reason why he had lived in the city for so long was because his father had insisted that he makes something useful of his life.

I felt sorry for him, especially when he expressed how it pained him to be away from his mother. Until his father had died, he had tried to come so many times to see them, but his father always insisted that he continued to work so that he could be successful in life. While it paid off financially as well as helped him gain plenty of experience that would have gotten him a job at any mechanic shop, it made him anxious to be away from his family for so long, especially knowing his mother's condition. While he was sorry that his father had passed away, he felt better that he could be closer to his mother as her condition got worse.

He didn't even seem like the selfish type, either. In fact, by the end of the night, he was already talking about all the things that he wanted to do in order to help the town now that his father was gone. While he knew about the rumors that were already flying around town, he confided in me that he planned to reopen his father's shop as soon as possible so that he could continue the work his father had done. Based on the current condition of his father's tools and supplies, he said that he should be able to open by Christmas, but he hoped to have it done sooner so that, if anybody needed his help, he could be able to help them before the holiday.