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“Better watch how many times you offer that,” he said with a lip tilt. “I might take you up on them more often.”
“You don’t even have to ask, Lance. Seriously,” I promised. It was time to change the subject. “Should we head home? I think you’ve had enough peopling for today.”
“Peopling?” he asked with laughter in his voice. “I like that. I have had a lot of peopling, but I promised you a first date, so let’s head to Saginaw.”
“Why? I ordered all the candy from Mrs. Beesweasel.”
“We still need Mary holding Jesus, remember? You were going to find one for us to pick up.”
I tried hard not to grimace when I shook my head. “I haven’t been able to locate one. I’ll need to keep looking for a few more days online. We might have to settle for Mary alone gazing at the baby in the manger. It’s okay if you changed your mind and don’t want to do it at all. I’ll understand. Everyone would understand.”
He drew himself up to his full height and shook his head. “We’re doing it. I had a moment of doubt, but you helped me past it and made me feel better. She would want me to do this.”
I looped my arm through his and walked down the sidewalk towards the diner. “Okay, then I’ll keep looking for what we need.” I rested my head on his shoulder. “I still think we should go home. Maybe we could grab some dinner and take it home for a movie. I’m tired after all that time spent in the fresh air with Lucy today.”
“That sounds like a great first date to me if you’re not set on eating out. I’m more than happy to just cook at home if you’d rather.”
I lifted my head and shook it. “No, I don’t want you to work tonight. Besides, one of the new holiday specials is being served, so I say, let’s check it out.”
“I like the way you think, Indigo Dickson,” he said with a soft smile. His right hand shot out and he pulled me to a stop. “Wait. Let’s check out Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow first.”
I glanced over to see he was pointing at the secondhand store across the street. “Okay, why not? Are you looking for something specific?”
“No, but you never know what they’ll have there. I’ve found some great old-fashioned pans and tools that I can’t get anywhere else. I try to stop in once a week to check it out.”
“Lead on then,” I said, following him across the street. “You know,” I pondered as we stepped up onto the curb and he held the door open for me. “I never thought of it, but I should check more often too. We get requests for cakes in all different shapes and characters at the bakery, but if we don’t have the pan, we can’t make it.”
He motioned toward one of the aisles. “You might be surprised what you find here. You can check online auctions for those kinds of things too, but this is the place where you’ll find that old meatgrinder grandma loved or grandpa’s favorite filet knife.”
We searched the aisle silently, both of us looking for different things. “Hey, look!” I exclaimed, holding up a cake pan in the shape of a Christmas tree. “This would be awesome to teach the new cake decorator how to frost and decorate. She could use some of the candy I just ordered for them. I bet we’d sell one a day during the holidays.”
He pointed at me with a grin. “Sold!”
We found several more treasures including two more Christmas pans, and a wooden chef’s knife for him. He was going to sharpen it and give it to Brittany so she’d have her own knife at work.
“I guess we better check out and head to the diner,” I said, tucking the pans under my arm.
“Wait, let’s check the back.” He grabbed my hand and dragged me along behind him, my little legs taking two steps for each one of his. “My mom always checked the open floor in the back for old Christmas lights or things we could use on the display. You know the cool bubbler lights that we have for the tree?”
“I remember those. She was quite proud of them.”
“She loved them, and she got them here.”
“That’s a cool story, Lance,” I said as we stepped onto the giant patch of bare cement that held everything from beds to bathtubs.
“Wow,” I said through my laughter. “Where do we even begin?”
“We walk the perimeter,” he explained and started walking down one side and taking a left at the end. “It lets you see everything from different angles if you walk around the outside edges. Then, if you spot something you want in the middle, you find a way through to it.”
“It sounds like you’ve done this a few times,” I said, trying to follow his long strides across the cement.
“Since I was old enough to walk,” he said with laughter. “I’m sure before that my mom just pushed me around in a stroller.”
“What are those?” I asked, pointing behind me at a shelf.
“Little cubbies where they put smaller items like highchairs and playpens.”
We had nearly finished the circle when I ran into his back, not realizing he’d stopped. “Did you find something?” I asked, righting myself and stepping to the side to see what he was staring at.
