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Grace covered the lower half of the phone. “Maria Esposito. She says it’s about your dates.”
Not important, but I’d give Maria this: she was efficient. The matchmaker didn’t even make it forty-eight hours before following up with me.
I shook my head at Grace, who was grinning like a kid on Christmas morning. If she hadn’t given the wedding flower consult to me yesterday, she might have been the one in Maria’s little matchmaking book, and she knew it. Nobody should be that gloaty about dodging a bullet. “This could have been you,” I mouthed.
“I don’t date,” Grace mouthed back, tilting her head towards Piper, her one true love and top priority.
“I bet this lady could make you change your mind.” I took the phone from her hands and cleared my throat. “This is Isaac.”
“Ah, Isaac. This is Maria. I have not gotten Dessie on the phone, and she wasn’t at her work, but Carmen is a yes. I showed her your picture. What did I tell you? You are one lucky man because she said no more after this. Just you.”
“Wow, that is lucky.” She said yes? I turned away so Grace and Piper wouldn’t see me smiling at the news. I was supposed to be grumpy about being trapped this woman. If they knew how much I was doing an internal tap dance, they’d both want to know why. There was a chance Carmen was plotting my death right now, but that didn’t change the fact that, for whatever reason, she’d agreed to go out with me.
“So, you will meet her on Friday at seven-thirty? You can do this?”
I realized that in all my daydreaming I’d missed half of what Maria said. “Where am I meeting her?”
“At Steamers. You know this place?”
I pulled up a new tab on the computer in front of me and quickly Googled it. I wasn’t much of a coffee guy. If I wanted a cup, which wasn’t very often, I wasn’t picky about where it came from.
Steamers was four miles from the flower shop. “Yes, I know where it is, and I’ll be there Friday at seven-thirty.”
“Oh, good. Tell me everything. I call again, okay?” She hung up before I could respond, probably because the only answer she was willing to accept was yes. Tell her everything? No wonder she wanted to play matchmaker. We were like her own littletelenovelabrought to life.
“You have a date already?” Grace asked, rocking back on her heels in excitement. “She works fast.”
“You have no idea.”
“So, who is it with?”
“Someone Maria knows.” I would not be divulging Carmen’s name in case Grace remembered her. Not yet, anyway. There were too many possible outcomes, and the fewer details I gave out, the better. For all I knew, Carmen might take great pleasure in standing me up.
Another call came in and Grace took it, so I snagged the opportunity to return to the back and finish my work. Piper came to help. I had her sweep up floral cuttings with her little broom and dustpan while I prepped tomorrow morning’s orders. Once I had everything organized and in the refrigerator cases, I checked on Piper.
“How’s it going over there, Fruity Pebbles?”
Piper turned to smile at me. “Good. You guys make such a mess.”
“We sure do. Ready to go up front and help your mom? It’s cold back here.”
“Yep.” She dumped the contents of her dustpan in the trash and came to stand next to me. “Is a date like romance?”
“Um, sometimes it leads to romance. A date is where you go spend time with someone and see if you like each other.”
“And romance is kissing, right?”
I turned to stare at her. She did way too much listening when we didn’t think she was paying attention. She probably also watched too many Hallmark movies with Grace on the weekends. Grace could say whatever she wanted about never dating again, but we both knew deep down she was a hopeless romantic. I was glad her idiot ex-husband hadn’t robbed her of that.
“I feel like you should be asking your mom these questions.” I was a constant presence in her life, but I still wasn’t her dad. This wasn’t my turf. I took Piper’s hand and led her towards the front of the shop. “Grace, Piper’s asking about kissing and dates.”
Grace turned and looked at the two of us, hands on her hips. “Sometimes kissing happens on dates. Is that what you’re asking?”
“Like Uncle Isaac’s date?” Piper asked.
Grace met my eyes for half a second before focusing back on her daughter and putting on a serious face. “I don’t think he’ll be kissing someone he just met.”
“Correct.” I’d be lucky to coax a smile out of Carmen. Kissing her was…. not something I’d allow myself to think about.
