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The children gave her quick good-night kisses. Helen held out her hand and wiggled her fingers. “Keys, please. I’ll need to take your car because of the car seats.”
Willow reached into her handbag, withdrew her keys, removed the cabin key from the ring, and handed the rest over. The kids rushed toward the door, anxious to get to Helen’s before the top of the hour. “See you in the morning,” Helen said, following the kids. “Noah, I understand we’ll see you at the wedding on Saturday. Bye now.”
The wedding. Oh jeez. Willow called after her aunt. “Wait, I need your keys.”
“My car isn’t here. I rode with Stella. You’ll take her home, won’t you, Noah?” Without waiting for a response, Helen turned and followed the children, giving them a royal wave on the way out.
Willow was horrified, embarrassed all the way to her toes. “I can’t believe she just did that,” Willow murmured. She started to slide out of the booth to stand up. “I need to catch them. I am not on your way home, and that’s not—”
He reached out and took her arm, stopping her. “It’s okay. I don’t mind.”
“But—”
“Seriously. Settle down. It’s a nice night for a drive around the lake. So, what’s the serenade?”
She closed her eyes and released a laugh with only the slightest hint of hysteria. “Cuckoo clocks. Aunt Helen has a wall of cuckoo clocks in her condo.”
“A wall of them?”
“At my last count, an even dozen. She could have added more since my most recent visit.”
“That’s… interesting.”
“Go ahead and say it. We all do. It’s cuckoo. My aunt Helen is the most levelheaded, down-to-earth person otherwise, but when it comes to her clocks, she’s a child.”
“I think that’s kind of cool. I’m not sure I’d want to try to sleep at her home, but hobbies are good.”
“Like your dollhouses?”
He hesitated a long moment, then nodded. “Yeah.”
She wanted to ask him more. After Drew visited Noah’s home, her son talked nonstop about his experience. Willow had researched dollhouses as fire-instruction tools and incorporated the information into his lessons. Drew loved it. Willow was curious about Noah’s background.
He’d said he’d injured his leg in a fire. And those scars on his hands looked like burns. Had he been a firefighter? Drew thought so, but Noah certainly wasn’t talking. Not about dollhouses. Not about himself.
But at least he was talking about some things. And, apparently, taking her home.
Like, after a date.
Willow took an extra-large sip of her beer.
“You want another one?” Noah asked.
Willow saw that he still had two-thirds of his drink left. Embarrassment stained her cheeks and she smiledsheepishly. “No, thank you. I’m good. I should probably be heading home soon. I have a full day of wedding prep tomorrow.” She grabbed a napkin and wiped crumbs off the table. Following a moment’s silence, she added, “Noah, about the wedding…”
Noah raised his hand and gestured toward the bartender for the check. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to go.”
“Of course not.” Willow winced the moment the words emerged from her mouth. “Wait—that sounds horribly rude, and that’s not what I meant. Drew invited you, and if you’d like to attend, we’d love to have you. It’s going to be a fun party. When I said ‘of course not,’ I meant why would you want to come? You don’t know the bride and groom, and you barely know us. Although the food is going to be excellent. Maybe you’d like to come for the meal? That’s as good a reason as any. In fact—”
“You’re babbling, Willow,” Noah said.
“I am. I’m sorry. I’m nervous.”
“Why are you nervous?”
Because this feels a whole lot like a date, and the idea terrifies me.
Willow had tried getting back into the dating game after Andy died, but she’d quickly thrown in the towel. Dating had changed in the past decade, but not in a good way. She wasn’t ready to go down that road again. She might never be prepared. She didn’t trust her own judgment.
