As they neared the restaurant, warm yellow light spilled out of tall, narrow windows onto the sidewalk. When they reached the door, Tristan pulled it open for her. Shayna’s hand slid from his arm as she stepped inside the first set of doors. He then opened the inner ones for her. Shayna smiled at him as she moved into the foyer of the restaurant, thinking his mother would be very proud of his manners.
Inside the restaurant, she was immediately greeted by the aroma of food and the low murmur of conversation. As Tristan spoke to the hostess, Shayna glanced around the interior, surprised by how large it was. From the outside, the restaurant looked small, but once inside, it was spacious.
The center of the room beyond the hostess stand was dominated by a large fireplace that—judging from the lack of a burning wood smell—was either gas or electric. As they followed the hostess further into the restaurant, she could see that each side of the stone fireplace was open. There were smaller tables circling the fireplace with larger ones around the outside of the room.
The hostess led them to a small table next to the fireplace. The tablecloth on their table was burgundy with a doily of ivory lace in the center of it. On the doily, there was a narrow vase that contained a single pink rose surrounded by several small candles.
Once seated, Shayna looked around a bit more, glad that she’d already studied the menu so she didn’t need to focus too much on it. She loved how each table seemed to have a different colored tablecloth, and the centerpieces were also unique on each. Even the chairs at each table were different from the others.
The ones she and Tristan sat on were plush, dark-green winged armchairs. She found hers to be super comfortable, and she was somewhat relieved they hadn’t ended up at one of the tables on the outer edge of the room. Those tables had an assortment of antique dining chairs, not all of which looked as comfy as the ones at their table were.
“Do you know what you’d like?” Tristan asked.
Shayna turned her attention to the man seated opposite her as she picked up the menu the hostess had given her. “Oh, I looked at the menu online last night.”
“Me, too,” Tristan said with a smile. “I try to do that whenever possible because I hate having to make a decision on the spur of the moment.”
The waitress appeared with a couple of water glasses on a tray. She set them down on the table as she asked, “Are you ready to order? Or would you like a few more minutes?”
After they’d placed their orders, Shayna worried that things would lapse into silence. She wasn’t the most gregarious person, and though Tristan always had easy conversations with Timothy, she wasn’t sure how that would spill over into their time together.
“How was Christmas with your family?” Shayna asked, figuring that would be a safe place to start.
“It was good. Noisy because of all the children that have joined the family in the last couple of years.” Tristan settled back in his chair as his gaze turned to the fireplace and lingered there, his expression pensive.
“But?”
Tristan looked at her again. “But we weren’t all together, which made for a bit of a sad Christmas.”
“Who was missing?”
“Our youngest brother, Dalton. He took off as soon as he graduated from high school. He’s in Toronto now, or at least he was the last we heard. He didn’t call us at Christmas, and that was really hard on Mom and Dad.” Tristan gave her a small smile. “On all of us, truthfully.”
“For such a large family, you seem quite close.”
“Not just a large family, a blended one. I don’t know if I’ve mentioned that to you already.”
“Yes, you did mention that.” Shayna wished that her experience with a step-parent had been as positive as Tristan’s family’s had been.
“I think we were all just so thankful to have a sense of belonging. We’d all experienced some upheaval in our lives with regards to our absent parent. My mom didn’t want anything to do with us four boys after she divorced my dad, and the McFadden kids had lost their dad when he passed away. So when we all came together, we kind of filled empty spaces in each other’s lives. I know for sure Mom filled an empty space in mine.”
Shayna found she was happy for Tristan, even as she wished that her step-mother had filled the empty space in her life. She could only imagine how hard it would be for someone like Timothy to be rejected by his own mother.
“If you’d like to meet them all and see how we all relate, just come on New Year’s Eve,” Tristan said, his pensiveness giving way to a smile. “I promise that most of them don’t bite, and I’ll warn you in advance of which ones do. Here’s a hint: they’re all under the age of three.”
Shayna couldn’t keep her laughter from spilling over. “Timothy went through a biting stage. That only lasted until some fellow toddler bit him back. He was smart enough even then to realize that if that was the response he’d be getting to biting someone, he’d rather not risk it again.”
“Definitely a smart one,” Tristan agreed, a grin lighting up his face.
The waitress returned with their orders, interrupting their conversation. Once their plates were settled in front of them, Tristan said grace then they fell silent as they each tried a few bites of their food, eaten off fine china plates that didn’t match. Shayna was delighted to discover that what she’d chosen tasted every bit as good as the description had sounded when she had read it online the night before.
“Are you enjoying your choice as much as I am mine?” Tristan asked.
Shayna looked up and noticed how his eyes sparkled in the light from the candles between them. “It’s the best chicken parmigiana I’ve ever tasted.”
“I’ll have to thank Kenton and Ryan for the recommendation.” Tristan took a sip of his water. “The décor in here is something else. I love the eclectic vibe it has. I’m usually the one that deals with the bones of a place, not the details of decorating it.”
“What I’d like to know is how they manage to make it look so big on the inside when it doesn’t look nearly so big from the outside.”
Tristan laughed. “It’s a bit like the Tardis.”
“The Tardis?” Shayna frowned. “What’s that?”
“A time-traveling police box.”
“Uh…okay?”
Tristan leaned forward. “It looks like I need to bring you up to speed on some science fiction TV shows.”
And with that, their conversation veered off in a direction that Shayna figured Timothy would have enjoyed too. From TV shows, it went to movies and then music. They even discovered that they’d enjoyed a few of the same books. Granted, most of them she wouldn’t have read had Timothy not expressed an interest in them. They were classics, but nothing she would have been interested in when she’d been younger.
At first, she had read the books to Timothy, then they’d shared the duty, reading alternate paragraphs. Now when they spent time reading together before bed, often Timothy was the one who read. She found it engaging to listen to him read with such emotion, even trying different accents for the people in the story. She had no problem imagining him as a dad one day, entertaining his children with stories and accents.
When the waitress appeared at the table to clear away their plates, Shayna realized how different things were done at this restaurant. While she and the other servers where she worked were encouraged to constantly make themselves available to the people sitting at the tables in their section, at Shelby’s, it appeared that the servers were told to be more discreet.
The funny thing was that even though the waitress wasn’t constantly checking in with them, Shayna hadn’t felt neglected at all. Once they’d been served their meal, the waitress had only appeared one time to replace their water glasses with fresh ones. She’d only returned after that once they’d finished eating.
After their plates were cleared away, she returned with a tray that held a small silver three-layer dessert stand. She placed a small china plate in front of each of them then set the dessert stand on the side of the table. When they’d agreed to dessert, Shayna hadn’t imagined that this was how it would be served.
Speaking softly, the waitress pointed to each of the things on the tray and explained what they were. As she talked, Shayna took in the woman’s apparel. It looked as if she was wearing a period costume sort of outfit. Something from the early 1900’s, maybe, with a spotless apron over the top of it.
It was understated yet elegant looking, and she would have enjoyed wearing it instead of the all-black outfit she had to wear at her place of work. Black T-shirt with the restaurant’s logo. Black skirt that ended just above the knee. Black tights and black shoes. It was like going to a job wearing mourning clothing.
When she’d first gone to work after Lorne’s death, the outfit had felt appropriate, but in the past year or so, she’d wished for something more colorful.
“May I bring you coffee or tea?” the woman asked once she’d told them what the desserts were.
Tristan waited until Shayna had asked for tea before requesting coffee. The waitress returned a few minutes later with a tray holding two china cups and a teapot. She set the cups down, along with a matching china cream and sugar set, then she carefully poured tea into Shayna’s cup.
“I’ll be right back with the coffee,” she said.
Shayna waited until she’d walked away before turning her gaze to Tristan, a smile on her face. “This place is amazing. Truly amazing. But are we supposed to eat all the desserts?”
“We don’t have to, but since the bill will include all of them, I think we should eat what we want and then you should take the leftovers home to Timothy.”
“Oh, he’d love that,” Shayna said.
Once the waitress returned with a tall china coffee pot, she poured Tristan’s coffee before she left them to their dessert. Shayna looked over the squares on the dessert stand.
“At least I won’t have to fight you for anything on there,” Tristan said. “There appears to be two of each kind.”
“Good thing.” Shayna smiled at him. “Because they all look so tempting.”
“Don’t hold back.” Tristan leaned forward to peer at the tray. “I think I’m going to start with the raspberry square. Then it’s on to something chocolate. Isn’t that how it’s supposed to go? Fruit before chocolate?”
Shayna laughed at that. “Pretty sure the fruit isn’t supposed to be smothered in sugar and oats. And speaking of fruit and chocolate, I don’t think I ever thanked you for the strawberries and chocolate you bought with Timothy.”
Tristan looked at her, pausing in his perusal of the dainties. “He really wanted to get those items for you. I was happy to help him out.”
“And the gifts he gave me?”
“Yes. We had some fun going to the dollar store and picking out those items. I have to admit, I was a little stymied by the makeup choices, but Timothy insisted they would be fine.”
“I try to wear what he gives me a few times, mostly just around the house, so he can see that I appreciate his gifts even if they aren’t exactly what I might choose for myself.” Shayna removed a chocolate square from the tray—more than happy to leave her fruit option for a second choice—and set it on her plate. “I truly do appreciate how thoughtful he is. He tries to take care of me when he can.”
“I could see right from our first meeting that he was a thoughtful young man, mature for his age.”
Shayna nodded. “I think that’s partly just him, but another part of it is having lost his father at such a young age.”
“I’m sure it’s rough to be without a dad at his age. I think Ryan was about that age when his dad passed away. Although, in his case, his dad was gone a lot since he was in the military. I’m sure your…husband’s absence was noticed more acutely by Timothy.” Tristan’s brow furrowed as he shifted back on his chair, coffee cup in hand. His gaze lowered as he said, “And, of course, by you, too.”
“Sometimes I think Timothy doesn’t really remember him.” Shayna took a sip of her tea, a little surprised that she’d confessed that. She hadn’t even shared that fear with Lisa. “Lorne was gone a lot. As he got more involved with the homeless youth, his time at home lessened. He tried to make it up to us when he could, but still, it was kind of like he was on call all the time. Only he didn’t get paid for it.”
“Do you talk to Timothy a lot about his dad?” Tristan asked.
Shayna sighed as she stared into the flickering flames. “Not as much as I probably should. But it was difficult, especially when it first happened. Talking about him seemed to make our loss even more painful, particularly when Timothy just kept asking where Lorne was and when he’d be back.”
“I’m sure it wasn’t easy,” Tristan said.
The atmosphere at the table seemed to have shifted from light and easy to gray and dismal. Shayna felt a keen sense of disappointment at the loss of the light-hearted mood. Was that wrong? That for just a few hours, she’d been able to enjoy Tristan’s company? It hadn’t meant she loved Lorne any less, or that his memory wasn’t still important to her.
Suddenly, the desire to eat all the squares slipped away. She managed to finish the one she had on her plate and sip the last of her tea, but she declined a refill when the waitress silently appeared with the teapot. Tristan also turned down a refill, and then he went on to ask that the remainder of the desserts be packaged to go.
The waitress nodded and took away the dessert stand. The muffled conversation and soft music weren’t enough to fill the silence between them now. Shayna regretted that she had introduced such awkwardness into their time together. When she’d first agreed to the date, she’d anticipated that there might be some awkwardness during the evening, but as it turned out, she’d found that hadn’t been the case.
Once the waitress returned with a white box with a silver sticker sealing it, Tristan settled the bill. As they stepped outside, she realized that the temperature had dropped even further while they’d been inside. Shayna was grateful that in spite of what had happened in the restaurant, Tristan still offered her his arm before walking to the truck. Tristan had started the truck while they were still in the restaurant, so it was already warmed up when she settled into her seat.
The awkwardness lingered as Tristan climbed behind the wheel and buckled his seat belt. She expected him to pull out of the parking spot right away, but he sat there, hands gripping the wheel as he stared out the front windshield. She waited, not sure what was going through his head and not wanting to add to any of the awkwardness already present between them.
“I’m sorry, Shayna,” Tristan said then turned to face her. “I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”
Shayna shook her head. “I’m not uncomfortable. I guess I just wasn’t sure how to handle the change of direction in our conversation. It was a little…weird.”
In the illumination from a nearby streetlight, Shayna could see the rueful smile on Tristan’s face. He let out a sigh, then put the truck in reverse and pulled out of the parking lot. Finding the silence a bit overwhelming, she reached out and turned the knob on the radio, certain that Tristan wouldn’t mind if the Christmas carols played a little more loudly. If it prevented the awkwardness between them from increasing because they were struggling to make conversation to fill the silence, she was pretty sure Tristan would be fine with it.