A Shiver of Wonder (27 page)

She squeezed his hand. “I should have told
her to go right home for saying that, but I ended up sending myself
home instead. She was right, and it was what I’d spent all day
yesterday trying to realize. I walked over to Abby’s around eleven,
and… well, obviously I received a second dose of the same
medicine.”

“Rough day,” he said gently. “How’s
Gâteaupia going to function without you?”

“Oh, it’ll just have to manage!” she
exclaimed. “Last week was the most awful week ever. The store was
busy to the point of insanity, but all I could think of was you. Of
us. And all that has happened over the past year and a half. By
Sunday night, I felt more exhausted than ever; I would have been
perfectly thrilled if someone had told me that I’d never have to
bake another cake in my life! I shouldn’t have even gone in this
morning, but… it’s what I do, so that’s what I did.”

David squeezed her hand, then. “Can we
walk?” he asked. “I actually have a meeting with Walter Smithfield
in about twelve minutes, and… well, I can be a few minutes late,
but…”

She was smiling as they swiveled in tandem
toward Third Street. “You never should have built Gâteaupia such an
incredible website,” she scolded. “You’re going to get as crazy as
I am soon, if people keep discovering what you can do.” Her hand
began to swing, his going along for the ride as it had once done so
much more frequently.

“Yeah, Walter mentioned that he’d talked to
you,” returned David. “And by the way, I’ve never regretted that
offer. Remember, come what may, the cake keeps on comin’. I’ve got
years left on that contract. Till the end of my life, I
believe.”

“Ha!” Genevieve burst out as they began to
cross Third. “I don’t believe we ever signed
any
thing that
states that! I might have to cut back on your fee. Less Lydia time
too, if you’re not always dropping in for a slice of the
goods.”

“We could always include her,” David
suggested amiably. “I’ll raise no objections. All those meetings
you two have attended, surely there’ve been times when you’ve at
least considered trying out some new things just to see if they’re
fun! Why don’t we all move in together for a month, and just let
everything sort itself out on its own?”

“And deal with Isabel as well as Johnson in
the house? Not to mention the histrionics two jealous women would
bring to the table? No, thanks!”

“Ah, that’s right,” David replied with a
straight face. “You’ve done this. At least the two women living
together thing. How long were you and Jess housemates?”

But Genevieve didn’t offer an immediate
response. She clutched his hand once more as they began to pass the
Culpepper Mills offices. And when she spoke again, her tone was
cautious. “I guess we should talk about that some time. About Jess,
I mean.”

“Now’s good for me!”

She glanced at him. “You’ve got your
meeting. And it would take too long.”

“A few highlights would do.”

But Genevieve wasn’t about to go down that
road. Not in the middle of the Shady Grove business district, not
with David about to meet with Walter Smithfield, and not until
she’d managed to get at least
her
end of their relationship
sorted out and on a far more solid footing.

She halted on the sidewalk just before they
would have crossed Fourth. Still tethered to her, David swung
around until they were facing each other. “I love you, David,”
Genevieve said as tears began to build in her eyes. “Not many
people deserve to be loved. But you do. You do.”

And once again, but this time in full sight
of the other pedestrians, the drivers on the street, and the entire
late lunch crowd at a patio café on the corner, she kissed him,
both arms locked around his neck, her umbrella swatting lightly at
his back. David, shivers still running through him from Genevieve’s
echo of what Clair had said to him, kissed her back for all he was
worth, knowing without even a scintilla of doubt that he had loved
Genevieve, that he had lost her, and that she was now his again,
with that love doubled, quadrupled, compounded beyond any
measure.

Someone honked their horn twice as they
passed by. “Nice!” a lady said appreciatively to her companion as
they waited for the pedestrian signal to turn green. Several of the
tables on the patio broke spontaneously into applause.

“I love you too, Genevieve,” David managed
to say as they unwillingly pulled away from one another, ignoring
their audience. “I never want to be without you.”

Her eyes brimmed over, but it was off of his
cheeks that she gently wiped away the tears. “You can tell me that
all you want,” she said, her voice sultry, “but in a minute or so,
we’ll see how true those words really are.”

He smiled as he clasped her hand within his
and then brought the both of them toward his heart. “Are you going
back to Gâteaupia?” he asked.

Her head shook as a smile pushed its way
onto her face as well. “No. I’m going to go home. And when your
meeting is over, I want you to get Johnson. And then the two of us
together can broach the subject to him of whether he’ll get to
sleep from now on in the spare room or with us.”

David blinked. And when he refocused his
eyes on her, he found that the future he had hoped for was already
unspooling before him, taking place sooner than he could have ever
dared to dream.

Their lips met one more time. And then they
headed their separate ways, David across the street and a half
block down for his appointment, Genevieve south on Fourth Street on
her way toward her home at Birch Avenue and Seventh.

Each continued to smile. Each was in love
with the world.

The streets of Shady Grove continued to
bustle in the mid-afternoon sun. The dissipation of the morning’s
drizzle had enlivened its citizens, and brought a sense of
jubilance to the entire town. Raincoats were stowed away, and fresh
plans were dreamt up for the remainder of the day.

The future could offer anything. And
anything was possible in a time that was yet unwritten.

Why not aim for the stars? Why not aim for
them, after all?