Page 111

I nodded. “Okay. Sure. Oh, which reminds me, I have a stitch kit I want to give you.”

He lit up. “Really? A kit?”

“Yeah. No more fishhooks and gin.”

Daniel laughed and picked up my hand and kissed it.

Liz made her way over with a Coke for Doug. “Another wine?” she asked me.

“No, I’m good. Thank you.” I smiled.

Daniel nodded at the empty seat next to Doug. “Sit with us.”

“Can’t, I’m on shift,” she said. “Where’s Brian?” she asked, looking around.

“On a date,” Doug said. “Rochester.”

Liz’s smile instantly fell. “Oh.”

Daniel looked at his watch. “He should have been back already. Must be going well.”

“Right,” Liz said, looking away from us. “Well, let me know if you guys need anything else.” Her voice had gone flat.

I watched her walk back to the bar. The guys didn’t seem to notice the shift.

“Did Liz and Brian ever date?” I asked.

Doug scoffed. “Nah. He’s not her type. She likes assholes,” he said, talking into his soda.

I watched her wiping down the bar, her smile gone.

“Nobody likes assholes,” I said quietly. “Sometimes that’s just what you think you deserve.”

After dinner, I showed Doug how to somersault a delivery using a rolled-up sweater baby with a phone charger wrapped around it. Then I did a breast exam in the bathroom and prescribed Hannah antibiotics. “Prescribed” being me telling Hal, the pharmacist, who was eating a slice of cake at the next table, what she needed and him walking across the street to open the pharmacy to give it to her.

When I finished, I went looking for Daniel and spotted him leaning on the bar talking to Liz. I stopped and watched him for a moment from across the room.

This was the place I met him. Really met him. I was sitting on that stool. He was standing in the same spot. Only everything was different now.

This place didn’t look tired and old to me anymore. I didn’t even notice the worn seats and the mismatched chairs. This bar was the heart of this community, I realized. It was where they celebrated and gathered. And it was where I learned his name. Touched him for the first time. Even the way the place smelled made me feel nostalgic now.

And Daniel wasn’t just some random guy in a bar anymore.

He had become the brightest light in my life, what I looked forward to every day. The man who spent two hours down by a river trying to find me the perfect rock.

He saw me. And I believed him when he said he wouldn’t let me drown.

My heart tugged.

And tomorrow morning, I would drive out of this town and never come back. I wasn’t going to see him again. Any of them.

Daniel turned and looked for me, and when his gaze met mine, he lit up. One of his adorable, dimpled grins, his hazel eyes creasing at the corners.

My heart cracked right down the middle.

He pushed off the bar, closed the distance between us, and slipped his arms around my waist. I was so proud to be the woman here with him tonight. To be his date, the one he chose. It was an honor. Not because he was the mayor or the most handsome guy in the room but because he was the best person in the room.

“Ready to go home?” he asked.