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Duke and Daisy stood, their shaggy bodies brushing against her legs and their tails hitting her knees as they walked past her and greeted Bryce.
At some point in the last few weeks, he’d brought a small table into the library with two chairs and set it by one of the windows.
She hadn’t paid a lot of attention, but she thought maybe he moved one of the recliners out of the way so the table could take its place, but she couldn’t remember the layout of the room enough to tell for sure.
“Ham salad?” she asked as she got closer.
“Chicken salad. I think. I might have had a small taste while I was making the sandwiches, because I wasn’t sure.”
“That’s encouraging. That you weren’t sure.”
“Well, I have a strong suspicion, but...there’s a lot of mayonnaise in there. It’s really good though.”
“I’ll take your word for it. I think I see some celery sticking out.”
“And onions too. If you like that type of thing.”
“I love onions. The more the merrier.”
His brows rose, but he didn’t say anything more, and she could feel her cheeks heating. She hadn’t meant to insinuate anything about onions, but his look... It almost said that onions were something a single person ate.
Surely not. Surely his mind wasn’t going there. It was just her being crazy.
Still, a sort of awkward silence descended, unusual for them, as she had been feeling more and more comfortable with him, even if they didn’t talk all the time. There was room for silence in their relationship, and she appreciated that.
They set the plates out with the sandwiches and drinks, and as had become their custom, Bryce prayed.
They both started eating without saying anything, although Peyton had to exclaim after she swallowed, “This is really good!”
He nodded, finishing his second bite. “Pam is the best. She really does a great job. But she’s going to visit her family for a month in Duluth, so Charlene is going to be taking care of us.”
“Charlene’s been helping out at my store. She and the other Piece Makers are manning the counter to give me a little bit of extra time to come out.”
“They seem to have their fingers in everything.”
Peyton nodded. She almost mentioned how they were matchmakers and how when Charlene had first mentioned coming out here, until she had talked about the library and the books, Peyton had been very suspicious that it was another setup.
Obviously, that had not been it at all. And Peyton decided talking about that might make their relationship awkward. She didn’t want him thinking she was insinuating anything. Because she most definitely was not.
Instead, she remembered something she had wanted to talk to him about.
“I won’t be here on Friday. I forgot to tell you that earlier. I didn’t want you expecting me. I know I don’t have regular hours or anything, but I just didn’t want you thinking I’m coming and for me not to show up.”
“Of course. You can pick and choose your hours. I do appreciate the heads-up though.” He held a sandwich in front of him, as though studying it for a minute, and then he said, “Can I ask what you’re doing?” His words were uttered a little low and lacked his usual confidence.
“Of course.” She hadn’t said, because she figured he wouldn’t be interested. She assumed that the mundane details of her life were not something he was dying to hear. Even just to make conversation. Silence was better than boring.
She took a drink of her water and then said, “Owen has his first baseball game. It’s right after school but in Rockerton, so I’m driving him there, and he’s pretty excited about it.”
“That’s where he’s been all these Fridays, right? Practicing?”
“Yeah. They had practice Saturday mornings, and he stayed over at the coach’s house Friday nights.” She took a breath. “He’s nervous. I haven’t wanted to tell him that I’m nervous too.”
“He’s never played any sports before?”
“He has. Here and there. He played T-ball for a little bit, but lately he was taking horseback riding lessons, and I thought that’s where his interest was going to shift, but he played soccer last fall and decided that he wanted to play baseball this spring. He’s been practicing as much as he can, but he’s handicapped because his partner isn’t very good.”
“Oh. Yeah, it’s always best if you can play with someone who’s better than you. They lift you up.”
