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“I’ll come by this weekend,” he said, turning when the oven beeped to alert him that it had come to temperature. He slid the frozen chicken into the oven and started for the couch.
“You’re still running, right?” she asked.
Will yawned, thinking of his four-thirty alarm. “Yes, ma’am.” He collapsed on the couch, his eyes falling closed.
Travis said something, but Will didn’t have any more brain cells to converse. They could stay or go, talk or not. He didn’t care. He just wanted to sleep until dinner.
When he slept, he didn’t have to think about Gretchen. He didn’t have to beat himself up for being who he was—and that he’d never be the man she wanted him to be.
All he did was dream of a cabin in the woods, with trees that had leaves that turned yellow in the fall. There were two deck chairs there, and Will had the distinct feeling in the dream that he’d built them for him and his wife.
They sat on the edge of a river that flowed out of a natural spring and into a pond down the hill a little way. Trav and Shay lived by the pond, but Will and his wife had the spring.
The woman came toward him, carrying a couple of glasses of sweet tea, and Will looked up at her, his heart filled with love and belonging.
Then the woman disappeared, and he never could get a good look at her face. He sipped the sweet tea, alone in the deck chairs, with the yellow leaves and the bubbling spring.
Always alone.
* * *
The following week,Will pulled into the parking lot at Sweet Water Taffy. He hadn’t been here in weeks, though he had found his courage and seen Gretchen last weekend. Mama had asked about her on Sunday, telling Will to invite her to their Sabbath Day dinner.
He hadn’t done it yet. He didn’t get to see her all that often, and when he did, he didn’t want to share her with his family.
The shop looked good from the front, and Will parked and went toward the glass door. It opened, though the shop wouldn’t re-open to the public until tomorrow. Will’s heart pounded as he went inside, much like it had the first time he’d come here.
Now, he wasn’t nervous about buying too many treats and what they’d do to his blood sugar, but he was still anxious to see Gretchen.
She lifted her head from where she studied something at the small, two-person table right beside the front window. “Hey,” she said, her voice clear and bright.
Will relaxed the way he always did around her. “Hey.”
She stood and embraced him, and that one hug might’ve been the thing to push him over the edge and fall all the way in love with her. That thought, and those feelings, sent his pulse to racing again, and he stepped away.
“Take me on a tour?” He looked over to the familiar candy cases. “You’ve got chocolates in there.”
“Yes,” Gretchen said. “Jon’s been in the candy kitchen all day.”
Will watched her as she spoke, and he’d never thought she liked Jon for more than a friend and employee. Will didn’t have a problem with Jon. It was Jon who didn’t like Will.
“He’s in the back?” he asked, glancing toward the swinging door that led back into the two candy kitchens.
“Yes,” Gretchen said, reaching to close her book and pick it up. She didn’t reach for his hand, and he waited for her to lead the way toward the back of the retail space and around the register.
They went through the swinging door, which squeaked and annoyed Will. For some reason, he wanted to be here as much as he didn’t. He told himself that Sweet Water Taffy was extremely important to Gretchen, and he could swallow his discomfort for the next few hours.
For her, he absolutely could.
Her candy kitchen hadn’t been touched by the flames, but they’d ripped a lot of it out as the smoke had gotten into the walls and had to be cleaned out.
“It’s all the same appliances,” she said. “And the tables. Only the walls are new.”
Will swept his eyes around the kitchen, seeing it as it had been before. “It’s great,” he said, slipping his hand into Gretchen’s.
“The office,” she said, taking him past the short hallway where he’d kissed her weeks and weeks ago when he’d brought her lunch.
He’d been in her office too, but it was much brighter now. “Wow,” he said. “This is great.”
