Chapter 14
She was showered and packed and all ready to leave. Dori had expected, or at least hoped, that Lucas might come by last night, but clearly he had lost all interest in her. Maybe he’d never had it to begin with.
She would have liked to talk it over with Izzy, but her hostess was otherwise occupied. When she peeked into the kitchen, she saw Izzy in close – possibly even intimate – conversation with Chase. She had no desire to interrupt that, so she went back to her room, got Little Tee loaded up in the basket of her scooter, and headed out the back door.
The Festival officially began at ten o’clock according to the flyers that had been plastered all over town, but she was sure there’d be people at the Finding Forever tent early. She could drop off the poodle, hopefully see her quickly adopted, and then she was done with Romance. She’d call a taxi, and maybe she could change to an earlier flight, or if not, that was fine, too. She’d spend the day at the airport. There was plenty of business she could catch up on while waiting until her flight tonight.
She could stick around and look for Ash, who was supposed to be arriving this morning, but she’d left her friend several hours’ worth of voicemails and a novel’s worth of text messages. There wasn’t really anything more she could add in person. And, anyway, better to make a clean break and put Romance behind her.
It couldn’t have been a better day for the Festival; the sun was shining, and there was a comfortable breeze to keep everything cool. Dori scooted the four blocks over to the town square, and it appeared that it wasn’t only the Finding Forever tent that was ready to go early. The whole square was buzzing with activity, and she counted two dozen booths and tents and stalls. It didn’t really look all that much different than one of the big neighborhood street fairs back home, except here there was more flannel and less visible tattoos and facial piercings.
On her way to say goodbye to Little Tee, she stopped off for a freshly baked donut at one stall, and a cup of steaming hot apple cider at another. Poor Tee was eying the donut jealously, but it had chocolate frosting, so she searched for something else to give the dog. One final treat, she supposed. She spotted it a few stalls down – German sausage. Tee wolfed down three helpings of it, and would have eaten more, but Dori didn’t want to return a dog with an upset stomach, so she cut her off there.
She was only a few steps from the Finding Forever tent, and the man she’d met last week, Brent Todd, was just coming out and heading for her, when she heard a voice – an angry voice – calling out to her. It was Lucas.
“Where’s your new boyfriend? Dumped him already?”
What did that mean? How dare he? She turned to look at him, and she saw she was wrong. It wasn’t anger on his face, or in his voice. It wasn’t even jealousy – not that he had the slightest cause for that anyway. It was pure, unadulterated heartache. But why? He was the one who’d ignored her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Not that it’s any of your business anyway.”
He was walking towards her, and she noticed that Brent had retreated back into his tent. There was nobody else nearby. “You’re right. I guess it’s not. But I didn’t figure you for lying. I saw you, sitting on the couch all cozy last night.”
“I still have no idea what you’re talking about.” Not that he had any right to an answer. “I went to bed at eight o’clock. We all watched Jeopardy.” She had no idea why she was explaining herself to him, but she went on all the same. “Me and Izzy and her other guest, he showed up yesterday. As soon as it was over, I went to bed and they stayed up. And what were you doing peeking in through the window anyway?”
Now there was anger on his face, but she was fairly sure it wasn’t directed at her. “It wasn’t you? I can’t believe I – God, I really am an idiot.”
It took all Dori’s willpower not to agree with him. He was an idiot. But he was also a decent man, despite his disappearing act the last few days. He wasn’t the type to be a peeping Tom. He’d come for a reason – to see her. To talk to her. And then he’d seen Izzy and Chase, probably sitting very close together on the couch. Seen them from the back, in dim light, and jumped to an idiotic – but maybe understandable – conclusion. “You didn’t get any of my messages, did you? Something happened to you this week.” He hadn’t been ignoring her at all.
“Can we talk somewhere private?” Ash’s restaurant was just two blocks away. She started off, and he followed. He didn’t say another word until they were inside and he’d confirmed the place was deserted. Then he told her where he’d been all this week. “So that’s it,” he said, when he got to the end. “I spent the better part of three days up to my hips in raw sewage, and my Aunt never bothered to tell me that you came around twice a day to look for me.”
“I should have known something was going on. I know this – whatever it is that we’ve been doing – has been kind of weird, but I still should have known better. You – you can be a pain in the neck, and you drive me crazy sometimes, but you’re - you’re a great guy. And I – well, I – I’m not even sure what. But you deserved better than me assuming the worst.”
“You do, too. I was way, way out of line over at the Festival. I just – not that it’s any excuse, but it’s been a stressful week.”
No doubt. Three days of raw sewage certainly qualified as stressful in her book. “So we’re good now. I mean, it’s all…” She could never completely turn off the dealmaking part of her brain, and it was on high alert now. “Can I ask you something?” He nodded. “These people you were wading through sewage for, what did they do for you? You said you stayed in a motel. Did they pay for it?” He didn’t need to shake his head; she could see the answer in his eyes. “Did they pay you a bonus for taking three whole days and rearranging your whole week?” She didn’t even need to see his eyes this time; she already knew that answer, too. “OK, I’m not going to be here to tell you these things after today, but I can at least give you one last piece of advice. You call them Monday morning, and you tell them you want them to record a testimonial for you. Something you can put on your website, if you ever update it, and maybe in a commercial, too. What you did for them, that’s how you beat those Nationwide people. You’re local, you’re everybody’s neighbor, you won’t go to sleep until their problem is solved, no matter how long it takes. And you’ve got witnesses to prove it.”
The blank look in his eyes was all the proof she needed that he’d never thought along those lines. How was he going to survive even another six months without someone like her to advise him? He was in desperate need; she couldn’t think of any client she’d ever worked for who needed her more desperately.
And he wasn’t the only one who needed her. Little Tee was staring at her, with the saddest eyes she’d ever seen on another living creature. She was whining, too, which was easily the most pathetic sound Dori had ever heard. What were they going to do without her? They both needed her.
And didn’t she need both of them, too? Yes, she had her apartment, and her business, and her siblings back home. But if she were being honest, she had to admit that her apartment could be terribly lonely. Her business was fun and rarely boring, but not truly fulfilling. And she loved her siblings dearly, but they all had friends and jobs and full lives – and they all had each other, too.
Here was a man who liked – more than liked – her. Who felt strongly enough about her to be heartbroken when he thought she didn’t feel as strongly towards him. And who she worked well with, worked almost perfectly with, in fact. Who wasn’t afraid to argue with her, and who was even sometimes right.
And who was thinking exactly the same thing right now. He had to be, judging by the look in his eyes, and the way he was moving closer to her, and reaching out to take her face in his hands, and now leaning in and kissing her for everything he was worth.
~*~
So that was what it felt like. Lucas had always thought that the idea of “true love’s kiss” in all those Disney movies was silly, but now he knew better. It didn’t matter that he’d only known Dori for two weeks, or that they’d only spent probably twelve hours together if you added up all their conversations, or that their relationship had begun with him nearly running her over with his truck.
All that mattered was what he saw in her eyes, and how it felt to hold her in his arms, and the way the whole world had disappeared, leaving only him and her, when they’d kissed back in the kitchen of the restaurant.
He didn’t know how this would work, how it could work, but he knew that it would. It had to. And she knew it too. She was filling out the paperwork to adopt the poodle right now, and she’d asked if she could use his address on the form until she sorted out an apartment for herself. While she was doing that, he had snuck away and run over to the library.
He was in luck; the movie he was looking for was right there in the DVD section. He checked it out and made it back to the Finding Forever tent just as Dori emerged.
“Hey, where’d you go? Are you having second thoughts already?”
“I had to run an errand.”
Her eyes narrowed. “What kind of errand?”
He told her the truth; he already knew she’d be able to tell if he didn’t. “I guess it’s a kind of a test. I want to see how well I know you.” She gave him a blank look. “You got annoyed when I made a little joke, the first day we worked together at the restaurant. And I didn’t give it any thought after that, but while you were filling out Tee’s forms, I remembered, and I started wondering…”
“Tell me already.” But she didn’t need him to; she already knew what he’d done.
“Well, I don’t believe you ever did see that movie. And that’s a shame, because it was really good. And, yes, I’m admitting that I’m a thirty-five year old man who I went to see an animated movie about a fish by myself.”
She made a face he couldn’t quite describe, as though she couldn’t decide whether to smile or frown and so her muscles tried to do both at once. Which was probably exactly what was going on. “You didn’t.”
“I did. And I’d like to invite you up to my place to watch it. A movie, and some food, and I think I’ve got a bottle of wine or two, and I might even have some candles somewhere. A date. A real, honest to goodness date, and I’m calling it that for you and the whole world to hear.” Now her face had figured out what it wanted to do, and her smile was the brightest thing he’d ever seen. “So, will you have dinner and watch ‘Finding Dory’ with me, Dori?”
“I would be honored, Lucas. And to show what a good sport I am, I’ll even buy a new outfit. Something blue and yellow.” And then she kissed him, right there in the middle of the town square, in the middle of the Festival, with her – their? – dog madly barking her approval, and for the first time in a long time, maybe the first time ever, all was right with his world.