Blue Heaven (Blue Lake) (26 page)

“You want to soak it overnight and I’ll take care of the rest of it in the morning.”

“Will it be okay?”

She promised it would be fine, and added that there were lots of tablecloths, all old and cherished, and Eva could find another one in the linen closet just off the pantry with the napkins and rings.

Napkins and rings? She’d set out paper napkins. Okay, she saw the napkins and threaded them through the shiny silver rings.

Daniel came in just then without flowers.

Right behind him were Meg and Steve. Followed shortly by Luke and Holly. Crap. She’d forgot to set out the cheese. Still, she had to greet them. She was the hostess.

“Hi!” She put enthusiasm into her hug for Daniel, but he held her a bit away from himself.

“Is that beet juice on your apron?”

She blushed. She had forgotten to take the damn apron off. Well, she still needed it on, because she had to mix the vegetables with some olive oil. She hadn’t quite got the rolls sorted yet either. Still, she had to carry on, carry this off.

“Hi everyone! Sorry things are a little chaotic.”

“Just going to dash up for a shower,” Daniel said. Nobody acted like that was in any way odd.

“Come on in.” Eva asked for drink orders as she held her hands to indicate that they should all sit in the front parlor. Nobody got the gesture and they all followed her through the dining room into the kitchen and gathered around the island.

“Eva, do you want me to set the table?” Meg asked.

“No way. You put your feet up and relax.”

Everyone stood at the butcher block while Eva poured wine and handed out beers and got Meg a fruit juice she’d bought special. They showed no signs of leaving the kitchen, so she put all her chopped veggies in a bowl and removed them from the island. She popped the cheese tray down with some pretty grapes on the side. She threw a basket of crackers together, and got them in, too, darting between elbows. Finally, she handed Holly a dish of salted nuts. “Can you squeeze these in there?”

Then she went to the area by the sink and oven and finished prepping those damned beets.

“Wow, looks like a few of your beets took a flier,” Luke said. She noticed the areas splashed red and threw him a damp cloth.

“Could you get those before they set?”

Everyone laughed at that. “You’ll fit right in here, Eva.” Meg beamed at her. “We like to keep the men on their toes.”

“Well, my man forgot the flowers!” Eva said, while finally spreading the ridiculously work-intensive vegetables on a baking sheet and sliding them into the oven.

“Oh, sorry, sweetie.” Daniel came down from the shower, his hair still wet. The doorbell rang. “I’ll get it.”

Eva wondered if he’d invited more guests, but he walked through the dining room with a huge bouquet. “Where do you want these?”

She should never have doubted him.

“Do you know where the vases are?”

Daniel looked stumped. Holly got up and searched the upper shelves of the pantry. “In here. Luke come help. I’m too short to reach.” There was a smashing sound of breaking glass. “Sorry!” Holly called out as she returned to the kitchen with a beautiful vase of blue glass.

By then Daniel had opened the flower arrangement and they discovered it already had a vase.

“I’ll just need a broom,” Luke said, coming in with a sheepish look on his face. “Hope it wasn’t an heirloom.”

“Everything in this place is an heirloom.” The words were out of Eva’s mouth before she knew she’d said them.

Eight eyes looked at her, not sure how to take her words. “I love old things, but I get nervous when they’re valuable.”

“Not to worry, my love,” Daniel said, coming to her side and kissing her on the temple. “Can I get another round here? And one for the hostess.”

Eva gratefully accepted the glass of wine and the help as everyone pitched in. She conferred with Holly on the vegetable/roll issue and Holly suggested that she bake the rolls while the vegetables kept warm in a separate part of the oven Eva hadn’t even known was there.

Eva drank a little wine and ate a little cheese and crackers and then went back in to tackle the tablecloth dilemma. She found another one and got the entire table up and looking swank again in a jiffy.

“Daniel, do you have candles?”

He produced a pair of crystal holders, complete with candles already inserted, from a cupboard over the fridge that was way too high for her to reach. She took the candles and asked him to bring in the flowers. The table looked splendid.

Daniel put his arm around her. “You did good, kid.”

“Thanks. I got a spiral cut ham. You think you can cut some onto a platter for us?”

“No problem. Let’s just relax a bit first with the gang.”

“Well, yes, there’s an hour until the roast vegetable are done, so no hurry.”

Her voice must have sounded fretful, because he said, “And that’s why they call it cocktail hour.” Then he kissed her again, this time on the lips. Then they went to join their friends.

Daniel got everyone refills and proposed a toast. “You are here because Eva is here, and we are honored to have you to our very first dinner party.”

The cocktail hour continued until the timer rang for the vegetables. Eva was more at ease after her glass of wine. She found a bowl and serving spoon while Daniel cut the ham. Holly popped the rolls into the oven and Meg lay down in the parlor because her back hurt. “She’ll lie like that five minutes,” Steve said, “and then she’ll be right as rain. You’ll see.”

The rolls were a little too brown on the bottom, and the ham actually could have done with a bit of warming, but everyone loved the potato salad. Just as Steve had predicted, Meg was fine at dinner. Eva beamed at the people around the table. These were her future friends. She knew it, and it made her feel warm inside, despite the overcooked dinner rolls and the under-warmed ham.

Everyone tried to see each other on the other side of the table over the massive arrangement of flowers until Daniel got up and put them in the parlor. Eva brought out the fruit tart and Daniel made coffee when Meg let out a squeak.

“Oh no! I’m afraid we’ll never be invited again. Luke broke a vase. Holly ruined the rolls, and now I’ve gone and broken my water all over your pretty antique chair.” Meg put her hands into her face and sobbed.

“Your water?” Steve jumped up and was at Meg’s side.

“Honey, that’s nature,” Daniel said. “No worries about the chair, please.”

“Oh! The baby’s coming. I feel honored to be present at the moment birth begins.” Eva was thinking about her own babies. She and Daniel had stopped using condoms. He had not asked if she was on the pill. She wasn’t. She should tell him.

“Do you have any huge panties and jeans I might borrow. I think we need to go to the hospital. I was looking forward to that tart, too!”

Eva and Meg went upstairs while the rest of the company closed their eyes on Meg’s pleading insistence. “I’m so happy for you!” Eva said, pulling out a pair of Daniel’s boxers and fairly new sweat pants.

“Your turn next.” Meg grinned.

After seeing the giddy couple off, they were a cozy foursome. They ate the tart and drank the coffee, and Eva had high hopes for Luke and Holly, but they left, each in their own bubble of loneliness, soon after dessert.

Eva and Daniel waved at them out the front door. She couldn’t get over how natural and right it felt to be in Daniel’s house, by his side.

“It didn’t go too bad, did it?” Eva hoped Daniel felt as cozily domestic as she did.

“It was excellent. I had fun. I think we all did.”

“Well, I broke a wine glass that looks like it cost hundreds of dollars and spilled beet juice on the best tablecloth, but other than that, it was all good.”

“Excellent.” Daniel swooped her up and into his arms and started for the stairs.

Chapter Thirty-Four

They picked up Mama and the kittens the next day. Only Salt and Pepa were left, as she’d let her cousins’ kids each have one of the others.

A few days later, while the kittens played with red ribbon, Daniel asked about Christmas.

“I promised my mom I’d come see her at Christmas. I need to meet her boyfriend.” Eva laughed, but her heart was not light at the thought. “I wish we could be together.”

“I can fly Bob down to Sarasota. We’ll rent a condo. Then we’ll all be together. I like living with you.”

“I like it, too.”

****

“What would you think if I stayed here for now?” Eva asked, a few days later, over breakfast. Daniel must have swallowed a crumb of his toast down the wrong pipe, because instead of answering, he did a kind of choking cough. He drank orange juice and then loudly cleared his throat.

“Why?”

Not quite the response she’d hoped for.

“Wanda’s been fielding requests. I’d like to continue to rent the bungalow out on a weekly basis.” That wasn’t the whole story but she had to come at this thing slowly. She had to know if he wanted things to go in the same direction she wanted. “Plus if I wasn’t running Blue Heaven, I could start on the museum.”

“But Blue Heaven was your dream…”

“It was my dad’s dream. It was a way for me to support myself. I realized after living here in town with you for a few days that I like it better than living next to a state park and taking care of vacationers. I can get Wanda some help, and Blue Heaven will still support me, but I don’t have to live there.”

He nodded and pushed his plate of food, only half-finished, away. “I like the idea of starting the museum project now.”

She ran both their plates under water at the sink. “Ow.” The water had gotten too hot. She dropped the breakfast plate. At least it didn’t break. He probably didn’t want her to move in because lots of things seemed to get broken when she was around.

“So how would that work? You’d stay here in this house while I’m in Georgia? Or would you buy your own house here in town?”

She turned from the sink back to him, drying her hands on a dishtowel, her heart repeatedly trying to leap into her throat.

“I don’t like the idea of you being here alone all winter.” He stopped for a minute and she could see his mind tumbling with possible responses. “But I like it better than you staying at Blue Heaven with six vacant cottages.”

“I know. Even having Luke there to keep the snow off the roof tops and Wanda doing a daily check, it still seems like it would be too isolated.” She thought for a minute. “Maybe I could get a house of my own closer to Luke’s or Meg’s place. That way I wouldn’t be so lonely.”

She didn’t mean for Daniel to get upset when she mentioned Luke, but he walked out of the kitchen without another word. Damn. He came back a few minutes later, car keys in hand.

“I’m going into PH for some things.” He didn’t ask her if she wanted to come with him like he normally would.

“Okay.”

Eva didn’t cry easily, but when she heard Daniel’s car fire up, she burst into angry sobs. Or maybe, as her tears began to wind down, they were sad sobs. She sat on the sofa and let it all out. Of course Mama, Salt, and Pepa all came to comfort her.

She cried herself out and must have fallen asleep, because Daniel was there, in the living room, asking her a question. Or saying something.

“Sorry.” She sat up, careful to move Mama from her reclining lap. “What?”

“Have you been crying? Your eyes are all red.”

“Oh, well.” She was silent. Humiliated.

Daniel paced up and down the room, his body full of tension. She’d blown it. He kept raking his hands through his hair and shaking his head. She’d taken a chance on his feelings, and it had been a disaster.

Daniel continued to pace the room. At least he wasn’t asking what she’d cried about.“I’m sorry, but I really don’t want you to stay here this winter.” Daniel finally stopped pacing and sat next to her on the sofa. He took her into his arms, holding her close. “Don’t you know how much I love you?”

She didn’t. “I know you love me, and I love you, but I’m not sure how much.”

“More than anything.”

Her eyes, probably puffy as well as red from the marathon cry earlier, opened wide. She looked at his hand holding hers. Slowly, she moved her gaze upward until their eyes met. Then she threw herself at him in a hug that almost knocked him off the sofa. “I love you more than anything too.”

“We get along.” He was holding her as tightly as she held him.

“We do.” Now she pulled a little bit away and put her head on his shoulder.

“So would you come with me to Georgia? Then we wouldn’t have to be apart.”

She hadn’t let herself think this far ahead. Well, not much anyway. “Yes, I’ll come to Georgia with you.”

“And will you marry me, too?” He let one knee drop to the floor, took a small velvet box from his pocket, opened it. A pink diamond. Several carats, but not too many. It looked vintage. It sparkled in the sun as he removed it from the box. “This was my mother’s ring. I had it sized and cleaned. That’s where I went just now.”

She held out her hand for Daniel to slip it on her finger. “You have to say yes first.”

“I want to, but I need you to agree that we can have children. After we’re married.”

“Okay,” he said.

“Then, yes.”

He slipped the ring on her finger. Perfect fit. They kissed and then he snapped a photo of her ring finger and sent it to all their friends with a message
She said Yes!

A word about the author...

In her twenty-year career as an English teacher, Cynthia Harrison published an award-winning writing manual she uses in her popular creative writing classes. She has published hundreds of reviews, features, and short fiction in
Romantic Times
,
Publishers Weekly,
and
Woman's World.

Her first novel with The Wild Rose Press,
The Paris Notebook
, garnered praise on Amazon and review sites. Cindy has made a free story of two minor characters in
The Paris Notebook
available free on her website at: