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Daisy was smiling when she said it, but he still felt a little bad. “I thought I was being easy saying I wasn’t fussy.”
She closed one eye at him. “Nope. That adds to the anxiety and uncertainty level. So we’ve got Italian sandwiches on brioche. It’s sliced pepperoni, hot ham, provolone, romaine lettuce, tomatoes and then I’ve got mayo and oil you can add yourself. No reason to get the bread soggy. If you don’t like that, we’ve got turkey sandwiches with the same sides. They can be picked off.” He watched as the four sandwiches were brought out.
“I guess you were hungry,” he said. “That’s a lot.”
“I don’t know what I want either. I’m one of those people that decides the last minute. What if we both picked the same thing and then didn’t get what we wanted? This way it won’t happen.”
He liked how she thought. “Good point.”
“I’ve also got a cold tortellini salad with black olives, broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers and orange peppers. I just wanted to make it colorful. It has Italian dressing on it.”
“Looks good,” he said. “You went to a lot of effort. Whoa, what is that?”
His eyes went to what she’d just pulled out in another container. Some kind of monster cookie.
“It’s a s’mores sugar cookie sandwich. I went online to find picnic food ideas and came across this recipe. It’s two sugar cookies with part of a Hershey bar and marshmallows baked in between.”
“Now I feel bad all I did was buy wine,” he said.
“Four bottles of wine. If you hadn’t explained why you did it I might have thought you wanted to get me drunk. Just so you know, I’m not easy.”
He flushed some more. “I didn’t think that. I’m sorry if it came across that way.”
“You should see your face. It looks as if we’ve been in the sun for hours. I don’t mean to insult you. I’m just stating a fact is all. Not that you even thought it.”
“I didn’t,” he said. “Really.”
“I believe you.” She started to look around his kitchen. “Plates? Napkins? You said you’d deal with that stuff too.”
He moved to the cabinet, got down two plates, some silverware and napkins. He had them all piled together.
“I thought we could sit out on the deck.”
“No,” she said. “A picnic means sitting on the grass. Really, Theo, don’t you know anything?”
It was the teasing way she’d said his name with the twinkle in her eyes. “I guess not. Let me go get a blanket. There is some shade under that tree.”
“Perfect,” she said. “Point me to the wine glasses. Unless you need a special one with whatever bottle you pick.”
You did, but he wasn’t going that far. “Grab the glasses you like and the wine you want. It’s supposed to be a relaxing day and we might as well have it be that.”
He went to the linen closet down the hall off the primary suite. His father’s room that he moved into at his father’s insistence. There were three more rooms upstairs and one bathroom. His father stayed up there when he visited and though Theo felt bad about it, it wasn’t often and he didn’t let it bother him anymore.
He found an extra comforter in there and brought it out.
“That’s white,” she said. “It’s going to get dirty.”
“So?” he said. “It will wash. And if it doesn’t, then it doesn’t. It can be the picnic blanket going forward. Besides, it was in the back and probably something my mother bought years ago. Her style is white and black. We all hated it. Who the hell wants white or black everywhere?”
“Since this place isn’t decorated like that, I’m going to assume not you or your father?”
“My father put his foot down since this was a vacation home. He wanted to feel free to live here and not worry about getting in trouble for getting something dirty,” he said. “Or more like not listening to my mother yell at my sister for doing it.”
“You’ve got a sister too?” she said. “We’ve got lots to talk about then. Good, it will take away from the awkwardness of a first date.”
She didn’t know the half of it, but if Daisy wanted to talk about those things, he’d be game to a point.
They were sitting on the grass with their food in front of them, her a glass of wine and him a beer. He found it sweet she’d told him that she had a feeling he wasn’t a wine drinker and got that for him.
