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Parking a quarter mile from the playhouse was definitely no way to impress his date. Especially not with temperatures having dipped below the twenties and icy spots still on the ground.
But Charity was a trooper, walking alongside him in her heels, gloved hands in her pockets. When it was time to go home, he’d definitely pick her up at the door.
Luckily, by the time they got to the theater, the line had dwindled, which meant they didn’t have to stand out in the cold on the sidewalk. They headed straight through the door, where they were greeted by Josephine Strongblossom, who had a big smile on her face.
“It’s so nice to see the two of you together again,” she said.
Nic and Charity exchanged a look. He’d heard Mrs. Strongblossom had been on a matchmaking kick over the summer. Long before that, though, she’d been an extreme gossip. If something was happening in town, she and her two friends knew about it, talked about it, and got everybody in town in on it.
“Santa gave us the tickets,” Charity blurted.
Would that disqualify them somehow? Maybe the tickets weren’t even real. Nic held his breath, worried this might be the end of their date night.
But Josephine seemed more interested in the tickets they’d handed her than Charity’s words. She looked down at them, eyes widening.
“Looks like Santa really helped you out.” Mrs. Strongblossom held the tickets up in the air with her right hand. “You’re in the center, row four. Best seats in the house.”
Best seats in the house? They might have to deal with their view being blocked if they were behind someone tall with a big head. Or someone wearing a hat. That was exactly what had happened when he visited the place as a kid. He always ended up wiggling around in his chair to see around people at the table in front of him.
“Betty will show you to your seat.” Mrs. Strongblossom pointed off to her left.
Betty was Mrs. Jenkins, the second of the gossipy friends that included Mrs. Strongblossom. Great. They were sure to run into Judi Trapp, the third person in their gossiping trio. But it didn’t matter. If one of them saw a couple together, all three of them would know about it soon enough.
As they stepped into the doorway, though, Nic realized just how much they’d changed the place. The floor didn’t just gently slope like it did before the change. They’d somehow managed to make tiers, which elevated each row much more than it’d been before.
“May I see your tickets?” Mrs. Jenkins asked without even a hint of a smile.
They really should have someone friendlier greeting people here. Everyone loved Mrs. Jenkins in her own way. She was a notorious grouch and said it like it was. Still, if tourists would be attending these shows, she wouldn’t be the best person to represent Misty Mountain.
Nic had both tickets now, so he handed them over to Mrs. Jenkins and looked around. Mostly, he just needed to reduce the weird tension in the air. Of course, Mrs. Jenkins didn’t show them to their table. She just pointed them in the general direction.
He automatically rested his hand on the small of Charity’s back as they started for their seats. If she minded, she didn’t show it, but he probably shouldn’t do that with the entire town watching.
Once they got to the table, they had a new dilemma. Which seats were theirs? There were four.
Nic looked at the tickets, then down at the number on the back of each chair. “Looks like these two are ours. We sit on the same side of the table.”
“I wonder who’s sitting with us.” Charity stared at the two empty chairs on the other side of the checkered tablecloth-covered table. “If we’d bought the tickets, we could have invited Noelle and Enzo.”
Noelle and Enzo. He kept forgetting the two of them were dating. He took Charity’s coat and looked around for a coat rack. There were hooks all along the wall on the far side of the auditorium, and they were starting to fill up.
Luckily, he was able to grab two hooks for their dress coats. When he turned back around, Charity was seated.
She smiled up at him as he approached. “Thank you.”
She had the menu open in front of her, and once again, he was struck by how beautiful she looked tonight. This would make a great picture to promote the theater. But he knew better than to stop and take one. If he had a shot of her on his phone, he’d probably look at it with longing far too often.
“Menus?” he commented as he scooted up to the table. “That’s new.”
“Yeah, they did away with the buffet-style dinner,” Charity said. “I hear the food has really improved.”
He bit his tongue. Anything would be an improvement over what they used to serve, but he didn’t want to be rude. The food had always been provided by the buffet next door—bland potatoes, overcooked roast beef, gravy that tasted like it came out of a packet. Basically, since the former theater owner also owned the buffet, he stuck with inexpensive food that could feed the masses.
“Over here,” Nic heard a male voice say.
The voice came from behind them, and they were so close, Nic had a sneaking suspicion it was coming from one of their tablemates. He looked up just in time to see a girl who appeared to be seven or eight years old. She wore a green lace dress that could have been picked to match Charity’s red lace one and had a big smile as she looked at the two of them.
“We’re sitting here,” the girl announced.
