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"What did they look like? I'll keep an eye out for them."
"One was a holiday red and green plaid with reindeer on it. I thought it would brighten Eleanor's days during the holiday season. And the other was one we worked on together. It had boats on a lake surrounded by mountains."
"I don't remember seeing either of those, so they might still be here. I'll look around. You might check in town at the donation center. Decker might have already taken them there."
"I'll do that. Tell Decker I'm sorry, will you?"
"I will, but you have nothing to apologize for."
"I know, but I feel like someone should apologize."
She smiled. "I'll tell him."
When Janet left, she debated what she wanted to do. She was worried about Decker. She wanted to talk to him. But he'd clearly needed some space. So, she'd just do what she came here to do—clean out more junk and wait for him to come back.
An hour later, Decker hadn't returned. She locked up the house and headed to the café. She parked in the back, frowning when there was no sign of Decker's truck. He couldn't still be at the dump or the donation center. Both had closed a while ago.
She went inside and knocked on his door just in case he'd parked elsewhere, but there was no answer. With a sigh, she went downstairs and into the restaurant. It was a little early for dinner, but there were a few families with young kids already eating. She said hello to Marian and then cleared a nearby table and took the dishes to the sink. As she moved toward the counter, Hannah came in the door and slid onto the stool in front of her.
"Here you are," Hannah said, a sharp gleam in her eyes. "Why didn't you answer my text?"
"Oh, sorry, I forgot," she said, realizing she'd gotten a text from Hannah asking about grabbing dinner right before she pulled into the house and saw Decker by his truck. And then all hell had broken loose. "You wanted to get dinner."
"Well, it looks like you're working."
"She's not," Marian interjected. "I don't know what she's doing here."
"I have an hour before I have to pick up Leo," she said.
"Then have something to eat with Hannah," Marian said. "Why don't I pour you each a glass of wine and you can sit over there and chat while I bring you the special: grilled salmon with asparagus and mashed potatoes?"
"That sounds good to me," Hannah said. "Jake is out with some old college buddies, and I didn't feel like heating up leftovers. I'd love some merlot if you have it."
"Same," Chloe said.
Marian poured two glasses of wine, and then Chloe led Hannah to a booth in the corner.
As she sat down, she said, "Is something wrong?"
"That's what I want to know," Hannah replied, giving her a pointed look. "You skated over your disappointing non-birthday celebration with Joel when we went out on Wednesday night, and we haven't spoken since then. What's going on with Joel? A friend of mine is working on his development and said he's been gone all week. I thought it was supposed to be a quick trip."
"There were more problems than he expected."
"How are you feeling about his long absence?"
She stared back at Hannah, one of her oldest friends in the world, and told her the truth. "Not great. When he gets back, we probably need to break up."
Hannah frowned. "I'm sorry to hear that. You were so excited about him."
"I was, but he's not the man I thought he was, and I'm probably not the woman he thought I was. That's why you date, so you get to know each other."
"That's true."
"I was so caught up in how good Joel looked on paper that I couldn't see who he was in real life. And he's not a bad guy. He's fine. There's nothing wrong with him."
"Well, he bailed on your birthday."
"Okay, he's very consumed with work, which reminds me of Kevin."
