“Maddie insisted on taking me over to the Century Club after she did my nails.”
Robin gasped.
“I know.” Auntie’s eyes grew wide. “A drinking establishment, in the middle of the day no less. It’s that cosy tavern I found Hudson in that day he was drinking Delia out of his system. Men have such silly impulses. Needless to say, I was extremely cautious and insisted on tea which that dear man, Mel, was only too pleased to provide.”
“I bet,” Robin said.
“I believe I may be convincing him to offer a more well-rounded beverage service. We discussed at length the benefits of tea to the digestive system, and I even went so far as to offer to bring my Thursday night Stitch and Bitch ladies to sample his wares were he to offer a selection including a nice oolong and pekoe variety.”
“You are a wonder, Auntie.”
“I’m working on his bar towels.”
“You’re working on his bar towels.” Sometimes the only thing one can do is repeat the strange things one hears in an effort for them to seem less strange.
“I have to admit, his design suggestions take me a bit out of my comfort zone, but I understand from watching you over the years that one must please ones’ customers, and so I am willing to work on the skull-and-crossbones theme, although I do intend to slip in some roses on the sly.”
“I think the whole esthetic of the Century Club is pretty dark, Auntie.” Robin lightly touched the delicate blooms on the cape. “Are you sure that’s a good place for you?”
“Listen to you, sounding like the concerned parent of a wayward teen.” Auntie giggled, shaking her head. “I’m quite sure I can comport myself with dignity, young Robin, have no fear.”
“It’s not your comportment I’m worried about,” Robin said. “I don’t know if that’s a good place to look if you’re trying to snag a man. The clientele at the Century Club is a bit... depressive.”
“They won’t be when I get done with them.” Rosalee grinned. “I’m going back tomorrow to consult with Mel about hand towels in the washrooms.”
Auntie folded up the salon cape and towel and placed them back into her bag.
“You’d be amazed at what a nice hand towel can do for your mood.”
Chapter 30
Mr. Proxly insisted on inviting Mrs. Davies to go with them to the Home Show. And he insisted on driving there in his own vehicle, meeting up with Hudson, Robin, Neil, Izzy and Rosalee outside the exhibition hall on a sunny Saturday morning.
“Foolproof, eh?” Robin whispered to Hudson as Mr. Proxly opened the car door for Mrs. Davies. “You’re really good at this, aren’t you?”
“It’s not over yet,” he whispered back. He picked Izzy up and lifted her onto his shoulders. She giggled and twisted her fingers into his hair. “I have a plan.”
Robin laughed as he winked at her, Izzy’s little feet drumming excitedly on his chest.
Rosalee bustled over to Mrs. Davies, taking her by the hand and chattering away a mile a minute.
“Mrs. Davies! Simply lovely, what a lovely color on you,” she gushed. “I can never wear plum, it washes me out completely. My good friend Mrs. Crawley is always telling me to wear navy blue, but I find it almost funereal, don’t you?”
Mrs. Davies blinked at the onslaught, but then linked her arm through Rosalee’s and turned her toward the line waiting to access the exhibition hall. Mr. Proxly shook Hudson’s hand formally and greeted Neil with a nod.
“This is my new girlfriend, Dad.” Hudson shook one of Izzy’s feet at his father. “Izzy, this is my father.”
Robin grinned, feeling a sudden warmth as Mr. Proxly solemnly shook Izzy’s hand while she stared at him with big eyes.
“It is lovely to meet you, Miss Izzy,” Mr. Proxly said. “I have heard a lot about you.”
“I don’t know you,” Izzy said. “You’se gots no hair.”
Robin looked at her shoes, hiding a grin.
“I used to, but that was a long time ago.” He smiled at her and Hudson laughed. Mr. Proxly reached into his pocket and brought out a peppermint that he offered to Izzy. She smiled and took it, and so began her life-long attraction to bald men.
They filed in with the crowd, long lines of people navigating ticket booths and stretches of roped off corridors until finally they made their way into the exhibition itself. It was a colorful chaos of booths, flags, signs, people. The air was rich with the smells of popcorn and caramel. Rob in knew from experience that she would have to visit her favorite booths quickly before Izzy started to fuss for treats and entertainment.
“Mr. Proxly.” She took him by the elbow, yelling so he could hear her above the crowd. “Can I show you the shelving installation I’m thinking of for your office? I’d like to know what you think.”
“You go ahead, my dear,” puffed Auntie. “Mrs. Davies and I are going to the quilting booth, and then the window treatments. And then fudge, my dear Mrs. D, you simply must try the Heartswell Harbor Fudgery maple and macadamia nut fudge. To. Die. For.”
They split up, with arrangements to meet at the fudge counter in an hour. Neil and Hudson, still with Izzy on his shoulders, wandered off to look at the plant section while Robin and Mr. Proxly discussed shelves and cupboards, choosing styles and colors that suited his austere nature. Robin was completely impressed that he deferred to Mrs. Davies wishes, which he had obviously discussed with her at length.
“It’s her space, Robin,” he said when she complimented him on his thoughtfulness. “She is at her desk all day, so the decor and colors are much more about her taste than mine. And I find that I am in agreement with most of the things that Mrs. Davies values, so we can’t go wrong.”
Robin looked at him thoughtfully.
“You care for her a great deal,” she said.
“She is a phenomenal office administrator.” A warm blush rose up his neck. “One must value one’s employees if one is to run a productive business establishment.”
He coughed slightly into his hand and turned away, but not before Robin saw him smile a tiny secret grin.
Robin smiled. Indeed.
“CAN YOU PLEASE MARRY this guy?” Neil nodded toward Hudson “Seriously. Either you marry him, or I fall madly in love with him, and I don’t think I’m his type.”
They had all caught up with each other and were sitting across three tables in the café area of the exhibition. Rosalee sat between Mr. Proxly and Mrs. Davies, while Hudson maneuvered a highchair for Izzy between himself and Neil. Robin stuffed an onion ring in her mouth to prevent her from laughing.
“He’s adorable,” Neil said, leaning over and snagging an onion ring from Robin’s plate. “As in, the nicest guy ever.”
“I know,” she said. “And you should see him in his boxers.”
Neil groaned, waving a napkin in his face like a fan. Izzy threw a french fry at him.
“Hey, no throwing food, Iz,” Robin warned.
“Ok.” Hudson leaned across the table dramatically, gesturing for Neil and Robin to huddle together like linebackers at the last game of the season. “Here’s the plan.”
“What plan?” Neil asked eagerly. “I love plans.”
“The Bernard plus Rosalee plan.” Hudson gestured with his head toward his father who was engrossed in conversation with the two women. “Up a tree. K. I. S. S. I. N. G.”
“Sweet Jesus.” Robin looked at the ceiling. “You’re such a dork.”
“You know you love it.” Hudson smiled, the small wrinkles at the corners of his eyes giving him an impish look.
“I love it.” Neil gave Robin a sideways look and a kick under the table.
“I loves it,” Izzy chimed in. “I loves fwench fwies.”
“So. Neil, you are going to distract Mrs. Davies. Once she’s out of the way, I’m going to get my dad and...”
“Hudson, you’re missing a really important fact here,” Robin began, watching Mr. Proxly look at Mrs. Davies. “And Auntie already proved that your dad wasn’t her secret admirer
...”
“Don’t be a pessimist, Robin, it’ll give you wrinkles,” Hudson went on. “I will take Dad and Rosalee to the motor coach exhibit. It’s like a maze in there. I’ll get them good and lost, and then sneak back here while they try to find their way back.”
“Brilliant,” Robin said. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of that. Oh right... because it’s idiotic.”
Hudson pursed his lips at her.
“Neil, are you in?”
“I’m in, man.” Neil stood up. “I love romance. Unlike some people.”
Both men stood and looked down at Robin expectantly. She sighed. “What do I do?” she asked with the enthusiasm of the damned.
“You wait here for my return.” Hudson braced his hands on his hips in a Superman pose that made Izzy giggle. “All will be well.”
Neil cracked his knuckles, did a fist bump with Hudson, a high five with Izzy and a nod with Robin before wandering nonchalantly over to Mrs. Davies. Robin watched him lean toward her, then help pull out her chair and lead her away through the maze of café tables. Mr. Proxly swallowed, smiling weakly at Rosalee as they found themselves suddenly alone.
“Have you seen the motor coach exhibit yet, Dad?” Hudson asked from across the tables. “I want you to come see them. I’m thinking we should buy one for camping adventures.”
“Camping... adventures?” Mr. Proxly frowned. Robin had the distinct impression that camping was something Mr. Proxly might have dreamed about when he was ten. And then not thought about since. Not even once.
“If you’ll excuse us, Rosalee.” Mr. Proxly stood, bowing slightly to Auntie.
“Come with us, Auntie,” Hudson said, too loudly. He stood up and put his hand on Auntie’s elbow.
“Oh goodie,” she crowed. “I love camping. Why, Bernard, would you believe that I once put up a tent in the forest where there were known to be bears? Bears, Bernard. My goodness the foolishness of the young. I remember...”
She took Mr. Proxly’s arm, chattering like a grey-haired squirrel as Hudson ushered them away from the café. Mr. Proxly caught Robin’s eye as he turned away and she was certain she saw the look of a deer in the headlights.
Hudson winked at Robin over his shoulder and she shook her head.
Such a chucklehead.
Chapter 31
“I thought she would have found her way back to you.” Mr. Proxly scanned the crowd that milled in throngs just beyond where they stood. “I’m sure she’s fine, she was perfectly happy when I left her.”
Robin glared at Hudson and he shrugged.
“Where did you leave her, Dad?” he asked. “You were supposed to stay together.” It was like talking to an unruly toddler, and his father raised an eyebrow at him suggesting he felt the same.
“I wanna go home,” Izzy whined. Her face was sticky with fudge and her eyes were tired. Neil scooped her into his arms and sat at a table, distracting her with a bottle of water. Robin looked from Izzy to Hudson, her hands on her hips. Losing Auntie was not going to win him any brownie points.
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Mrs. Davies said. “Surely you have her cell number, Robin?”
“I’ve texted her twice.” Robin glanced at her phone. “She always has it on mute. She says it’s rude to have a cell phone interrupt important conversations.”
“She was certainly having an important conversation,” Mr. Proxly said. “I rather felt like I’d been left on the dance floor.” Hudson caught him wink at Mrs. Davies who smiled back at him warmly.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“After you abandoned us...” He looked askance at his son. “We wandered around the campers for a bit until we stumbled on a booth offering samples of beer.”
Hudson shook his head. Great Aunt Rosalee and beer.
And never the twain shall meet.
He glanced at Robin who looked like she had just been told Santa wasn’t real after a lifetime of believing.
“Rosalee seemed to know the man behind the counter, and she struck up a lively conversation with him, as she does.” Mr. Proxly’s mouth twitched into a half smile. “And we had a beer. She wanted to stay with her friend to chat, and so I found my way back here.”
“Wait.” Robin held up her hand. “Auntie Rosalee had a beer, and you left her talking at a bar with a man?”
“I believe that scenario fits in perfectly with your plans, wouldn’t you say?” Mrs. Davies asked, the picture of innocence. Hudson lowered his eyes like a schoolboy caught out in a dare. “I daresay Great Aunt Rosy is taking care of herself without the clever manipulations of you young people.”
“Mel,” Mr. Proxly said, looking pleased with himself, like the name just jumped into his memory. “He sported quite a prodigious quantity of hair.”
“The Century Club,” Robin and Hudson said together.
“Yes, I believe that is the name of his establishment,” Mr. Proxly said. “I’ve been invited to play pool whenever I feel the urge.”
Had his father had ever had the urge to play pool? He seriously doubted it.
“Right.” Robin slung her purse purposefully over her shoulder. “Neil and Hudson, can you get Izzy cleaned up a bit and take her to the car? I’ll go find Auntie and drag her away from her new life as a barfly. Hudson, I blame you, entirely, for my great-Aunt’s newfound alcoholism.”
“She was drinking tea when I left her,” Mr. Proxly said. “And expounding on the benefits of ginseng, I believe.”
Robin smiled grimly and hastened through the crowd without looking at Hudson. Mrs. Davies took him gently aside as Neil gathered Izzy and Mr. Proxly excused himself to the washroom.
“I like to believe in noble causes,” Mrs. Davies began. “And I feel that you, young Mr. Proxly, are a noble cause unto yourself.”
“Are you sure you mean noble? Not nitwit?” He watched Robin vanish into the crowd.
“You’re a helper, Hudson, you always have been.” She smiled at him warmly. “But it might be time you poured your energies into helping yourself, if you see what I mean. It’s time to take the reins, dear, and that doesn’t mean orchestrating the love lives of your elders.”
“And steer the cart into the dirt?” He surprised himself with the bitterness of his words. “My father has no faith in my ability to lead, or even to work independently. And my love life is a wreckage.”
“And yet you care for everyone around you and make great efforts to see everyone be happy.” She put her hand gently on his arm. “Your father is not as lonely as you think he is, Hudson. And neither is Rosalee.”
Hudson’s father appeared at Mrs. Davies elbow, gesturing toward Neil who was struggling with Izzy to try to wipe her face.
“There is nothing quite so determined as a three-year-old with a sticky face.” Mr. Proxly smiled. “You were exactly the same at that age, Hudson. Your mother used to despair every time she took you out in public.”
Hudson sighed. He was still an embarrassment, he thought. Still fighting to be allowed to be a grownup.
Mr. Proxly and Mrs. Davies said their farewells and left together arm in arm.
“They make a nice couple,” Neil said, lifting Izzy off the stool she was trying to climb.
“Oh, they aren’t a couple.” Hudson took Izzy’s other hand so she swung like a monkey between them. “She’s our office administrator. She’s worked for my dad for centuries.”
“I think they are.”
Hudson looked at his father walking away with his hand on Mrs. Davies’ elbow. The morning coffees, the weekly flowers, the redecorating plan for the office. How had he not seen it?
“I’m an idiot,” he said. “Right under my own nose.”
“Ah, young love,” Neil said. “Gives you hope, doesn’t it?”
Hudson laughed.
They walked through the gradually thinning crowd, looking for the exit that would take them closest to their car. Hudson kept scanning the crowd for Robin and Auntie, but they were no where on the horizon. He thought of Rob
in’s no-nonsense approach to life. How she simply took charge and forged ahead, even when she was uncertain or had obstacles in her way. The flash of her dark eyes and determined set of her chin had come to mean so much to him, and although he knew he had to move out of the cramped apartment, and especially out of Izzy’s tiny bed, he would miss her early morning tangled hair and the sound of her bare feet padding past his door on her way to make coffee. He impulsively pulled Neil and Izzy over to a booth selling coffee mugs, deciding to get her a gift to make up for losing her aunt.
“It might take more than a coffee mug,” Neil hinted.
As Hudson paid for the mug, Neil and Izzy crossed the aisle. Neil chatted with someone he obviously knew as Izzy danced around his feet, suddenly having renewed energy now that they were leaving.
Hudson turned to scan the crowd again only to come face to face with Delia.
She approached him on the arm of her giant, cement-fisted boyfriend. Hudson winced at the size of the man’s neck and shoulders.
“Looks like you traded out brains for brawn, Delia.” It wasn’t wise to be bold in the face of all that muscle. The man’s face was impassive, as if the tiny darts of Hudson’s words didn’t penetrate his thick skin.
“Hudson, look!” Izzy appeared suddenly at his side, tugging on his hand. He glanced down at her. “Look what I can do.”
“I see you’ve traded law for babysitting,” Delia sneered, her lip curled tightly over her perfect teeth. For the first time, Hudson noticed the wrinkles at corner of her eyes, her pupils were small and cold as she glanced fleetingly at Izzy.
“I’s a ‘gwana,” Izzy chirped. “I’s a climbing gwana on trees!”
“Cute,” Delia snorted. “Where did you find it?”
Hudson bristled. How had he loved this woman? How had he not seen the dark core of her narcissism?
“I need my condo back, Delia.” He adopted his formal lawyer’s voice. The voice he used for clients and bill collectors. He saw her draw back slightly, a frown crossing her face like a cloud. “I will expect you to vacate by the end of the month.”
Love by Design: A Heartswell Harbour Romance Page 14