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And what’s going to happen to you if he says no?
Good question. Nothing. Other than she’d be embarrassed, and the next few times she saw him at any kind of town or family get-together, she’d want to hide in a corner.
Why? What’s so terrible about asking someone to dance, having them decline? It doesn’t mean anything. You simply found out they weren’t interested. It’s not like you’re going to risk your life or anything.
She didn’t like the little voice in her head. Well, she appreciated it, because it was trying to get her out of her corner and into a more active lifestyle.
She knew her mother worried about her, and Eleanor hated to add that extra burden to her. Her mom had been so good to her, and she wanted to return the favor. She knew there were a lot of people who turned their backs on their parents as they got older or, at the very least, shut their parents out of their lives and didn’t give them any say in it. She couldn’t see any justification for that in the Bible, and indeed, the Bible taught that a child should listen to their parents and absorb the wisdom that was shared. After all, who loved a person more than their mother?
Her mother only wanted the best for her.
But she didn’t want to take the risk of rejection.
If you don’t change something, you can’t expect anything to change.
She wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, although it kind of made sense in her head. She couldn’t expect her life to go in a different direction if she wasn’t willing to do anything different to make it change direction.
All right.
She glanced across the room. Norma Jean had gotten waylaid by Miss Heather. Miss Heather could be quite a force of nature, and as Eleanor watched, Norma Jean started to walk away, but Miss Heather grabbed her arm, pulling her back and continuing to talk.
If you move fast, you could be dancing with Franklin before Norma Jean even gets to Peter.
Eleanor wasn’t typically a competitive person, but if she was turning over a new leaf, she might as well turn it over all the way.
Taking her cup and setting it down on the picnic table beside Norma Jean’s, she took a breath and decided that she would do something totally out of character. She would walk over to Franklin and ask him to dance.
The barn felt a lot bigger when she was standing on the other side of it, but the walk across seemed short. She found herself praying that Miss Heather would let Norma Jean go and come over and waylay her.
That’s silly. You can do this. You’re an adult.
Maybe this was why she worked as a dog groomer. She could relate to dogs. They were easy. Hard to offend, pretty happy with anything, and food motivated them.
Unlike people. Who usually weren’t happy with anything, were easy to offend—Eleanor seemed to stick her foot in her mouth more times than not—and she still hadn’t figured out what motivated most people.
Maybe it was because she’d been rejected so much when she was younger. She just seemed awkward in conversations, always saying something that no one else understood. Her mind went in different directions, while everyone else in the room seemed to be thinking on the same wavelength.
She’d kind of given up ever fitting in anywhere. Which was why she was alone, a dog groomer, and not married like her siblings. Ryan was the only other one who hadn’t gotten married, and she could understand why. He’d been busy on the rodeo circuit, going from place to place, never staying in one spot very long. He hadn’t had time to settle down.
But now that he was back in Strawberry Sands to stay, she was sure he’d be married before the end of next year.
But her. She was pretty much hopeless. Except, she was turning over that new leaf. It was practically spinning since she was going to go over and ask Franklin to dance. He would say yes, and they would have an engaging conversation while they danced without stepping on each other’s toes to a whole big pile of Christmas songs that would become their new playlist after they got married two Christmases from now.
Yeah, and if Franklin had any idea what she was thinking, he would run in the opposite direction as she walked toward him.
She should just take it moment by moment. Live in the moment. Wasn’t that the advice that everyone was given?
She’d never been able to do that either. She had her whole life planned out. Of course, nothing had gone as planned, especially after her longtime high school boyfriend, who also happened to be her boyfriend through two years of college, had broken up with her.
And it wasn’t just that he had broken up with her; after he walked away, she found out from different people that he’d been cheating on her the entire time they’d been together.
She felt like an idiot. And at the time, she vowed never to have another relationship. But that seemed like a stupid thing to do, she just...hadn’t been able to get back in the game. Or maybe she hadn’t developed the skills necessary to play the game.
Or maybe there wasn’t a game. After all, dating wasn’t really necessary, was it? It was a modern thing. Two hundred years ago, people didn’t date. Which she could really appreciate at this point in her life.
And with that thought, she was standing in front of Franklin, who didn’t look up from his phone.
“Excuse me,” Eleanor said, trying to swallow her nervousness, although she couldn’t keep from twisting her hands together in front of her.
