Four Last First Dates

by Kate O'Keeffe

  Today was no exception, although there was something about her, something I couldn’t put my finger on. A type of tension in her features.

  “Can we go somewhere to talk? I know you usually close up about this time. I thought you might be able to spare me a few minutes?”

  “Oh, of course. I’ll, ah, I’ll just go and do a couple of things to close up. How about I meet you in fifteen minutes?”

  She gave me a tight smile. “Wonderful. Where?”

  I racked my brain for somewhere to go. Most of the cafés in the area closed at the same time as us. “There’s a burger place open at this time of day over on Wallingworth Street.”

  I was certain Meredith hadn’t set a refined foot in a burger joint for at least twenty years—if ever—but it was all I could think of on the spot. Her sudden appearance at the café had totally thrown me.

  Seven minutes later, Paige had bustled me out of the café, insisting she could close the café up by herself, telling me I needed to do what I needed to do.

  “Do you have any idea why she’s here?” I slipped the strap of my purse over my shoulder. “I mean, when she was running the place with me we’d catch up every week, but I haven’t seen her at all since you became my partner.”

  If anyone had the inside scoop behind Meredith’s sudden appearance at the café, it would be Paige. She was dating Meredith’s youngest son, after all.

  She drew her eyebrows together. “I should have told you.”

  “Told me what?”

  “Josh and I had dinner with her last night and she asked after you.”

  “And?”

  “And I mentioned you had gone to the ball.”

  I chewed the inside of my lip. “She knows I’m dating someone?”

  Paige nodded. “I’m really sorry if I put my foot in it, Bailey. I wanted her to know you’re doing great, that’s all.”

  First with the website mess up and now with this? Paige was outdoing herself today.

  “I’m really sorry if I said something I shouldn’t have.”

  “No, no. It’ll be fine.” I sounded at least twice as confident as I felt.

  As I dashed passed the empty florist shop and down the street, my mind went into overdrive. Meredith and I used to be close. I’d gotten to know her when I began dating Dan, back when we were in our early twenties, back before everything went so horribly wrong. She shared my love of food, although unlike me, she ate like a bird, something I’d never been able to manage.

  Still, she appreciated fine food, and was incredibly supportive of Dan and me when we decided to go into business together, opening the Cozy Cottage Café.

  When Dan passed away, Meredith stepped in, buying Dan out. If she hadn’t done so I would have lost the place. I was eternally in her debt. She’d told me at the time she didn’t want me to lose my business as well as my fiancé. She never got involved in the day-to-day management, but the simple fact of her doing what she did was life saving for me.

  I owed her a lot.

  I pushed the heavy wooden door of the burger joint on Wallingworth Street open, my eyes adjusting to the darkness of the room.

  A host wearing a pair of white pants and black T-shirt, a pair of bright red braces the only color in the outfit, materialized at my side. “Welcome to Gourmet Burgers. Can I get you a table?”

  “Oh, I’m meeting someone. I think she’s already here.” I scanned the room, looking for Meredith.

  “An older woman, looks like she belongs at a museum fundraiser?”

  I smiled. She’d got her pegged. “That’s the one.”

  “Right this way.”

  I followed her over to a table by a window overlooking a small courtyard.

  Meredith looked up at me, still with that pinched expression on her face. “Bailey.”

  “I’ll be right back to take your order.”

  I thanked the server and pulled out a chair, taking the seat opposite Meredith. “Hi again.”

  “Thank you for meeting me.”

  “Of course.”

  She looked so small and frail, I had the urge to collect her up in a hug—and then feed her a large meal.

  “How have you been?”

  “Oh, fine. Just fine. George and I’ve been away in Europe recently. We had a wonderful time, traveling around Italy. The lakes, Tuscany, Rome. You would have loved it. It was a shame you never made it there.”

  Dan and I had planned to go to Italy for our honeymoon. Despite my Italian heritage, I’d never been to Italy before.

  I swallowed down the lump forming in my throat. “Yeah, I would have.”

  “I bought this while I was in Sicily.” She produced a small, silk purse and handed it to me.

  “Thank you.” I opened the dome on the purse and pulled out a dark gray beaded necklace. “Oh, it’s beautiful.”

  “It’s made from volcanic rock. There are two active volcanos in Sicily, did you know?” I shook my head. “I thought it would go just lovely with your dark hair.”

  I placed the necklace around my neck.

  “See? Beautiful.” She smiled at me.

  A waiter, who looked about thirteen, dressed in the same outfit as the host, materialized at our table, holding pad and pen in hand. “Can I get you drinks?”

  “Vodka tonic, light on the ice,” Meredith instructed without hesitation.

  My eyes widened. It was only four o’clock in the afternoon. I didn’t remember Meredith as much of a drinker.

  “Are you joining me?”

  “Oh, I . . . sure. Vodka tonic for me, too, please.”

  I might need a dash of Dutch courage to get through this conversation—or since it was vodka, it should be called “Russian courage” instead? Whatever it was, I bet I needed it.

  The waiter left to collect our drinks, and I decided there was no point delaying the inevitable. As I’d just discovered, thanks to Paige, Meredith knew I’d started dating again. I was certain she wasn’t happy about it. It may be almost three years since Dan passed away, but that clearly wasn’t long enough for her to come to terms with the idea I’d moved on.

  I clasped my hands together under the table. “I know why you wanted to see me.”

  “You do?”

  I nodded. “It’s because Paige told you I’ve been dating someone new.”

  She nodded. “Yes, I’d heard that. Is he a nice man?”

  I bit back the smile that always wanted to spread across my face when I thought of Ryan. He was more than nice. In fact, I was pretty darn sure he was the guy for me—my Last First Date.

  I nodded.

  “That’s good, Bailey. I can see by the look on your face you have strong feelings for him.”

  I wrung my hands in my lap. “Meredith, I know this must be really hard for you, and I’m so sorry.” My chest tightened as tears stung my eyes. Seeing Meredith brought Dan’s loss screaming back. “You know I loved Daniel, I’ll always love him. No man could ever take his place in my heart.”

  Her shoulders drooped, her lips forming a thin line.

  My tears threatened to spill down my face. I sniffed, willing them not to.

  “Oh, Bailey, sweetie. Here.” She popped the clasp on her purse and pulled out a nicely pressed lace handkerchief. She handed it to me.

  I shot her a watery smile and took it, dabbing the corners of my eyes. “Thank you, I don’t know what came over me.”

  The waiter delivered our vodka tonics and I took a large gulp, and then another, hoping the alcohol would do its work.

  “Do you know why I wanted to see you today?”

  I nodded, looking down. “Dan.”

  “Oh, Bailey. Yes, it’s about Daniel, but mainly it’s about you.”

  I looked up into her eyes. “Me?”

  “I wanted to tell you it’s okay. When Paige and Josh told me you had met a man, I admit it stung at first. Daniel was meant to be the one you spent your life with, to make a home with.”

  I bit my lip, willing myself not to cry again.
/>   “I know that can’t be, and as his mother, there will always be a huge hole in my heart. I know it will never mend.” She paused, and I could tell she was struggling to keep her grief in check. “You? You’re young, you have your life ahead of you. Daniel would have wanted you to move on, to find someone worthy of you, worthy of your love.”

  Well, that was it. The floodgates were officially open. Here was my almost-mother-in-law, telling me she condoned me dating another man. It was heartbreaking and kind, and oh-so difficult to hear.

  “Thank you,” I managed, although with my stuffed-up nose and watery eyes it probably sounded more like “dangoo.”

  She reached across the table and squeezed my hand. As I looked up into her face, I could see her own eyes were wet.

  “We will always love him, we will always miss him, no matter what. I can’t have another son. I had two, and now I’ve only got Joshua. But you? Bailey, honey, it’s been three years on the twenty-sixth since he passed away. Three years.”

  I nodded, my heart aching. A week after Cassie and Will’s wedding, I’d be remembering what I could have had with Dan. In some ways, it felt like forever since he’d gone, in others, like it was just yesterday.

  “You deserve to live more than a half-life, Bailey.”

  “Thank you,” I managed. I regarded her through watery eyes. This woman, with the dead child, was telling me I was free to love again, to move on from her son.

  My heart could have broken in two.

  Chapter 18

  “ARGH!” PAIGE SLAMMED THE phone down on the counter.

  “The call didn’t go well, I take it?” I asked, my brows raised.

  “That Eddie Whatshisface is virtually taking over all the catering business out there! We’ve only got another couple of small events since I fixed the problem on our website.”

  “Really? What about the party for Susannah West? We were the front runner for that one, right?”

  Paige pressed her lips into a line and shook her head. “Stolen, right from under our noses.”

  I hung my Cozy Cottage apron up on a hook by the back door and turned to face her. “You’re telling me that other than Cassie and Will’s wedding next month and a handful of new clients, we’ve lost every booking to Devour?”

  She nodded, her lips tight. “Yup. Oh, I am so annoyed!”

  “But I’m sure things will pick up, now that you’ve fixed the website and we’re no longer handing our potential clients to Devour on a platter. If you’ll excuse the pun.”

  Paige hung her head. “I’m such an idiot.”

  I wasn’t going to argue with her, but there was no point in dwelling on it. “Paige, you’ve fixed it now, and what’s done is done.” I tapped my finger against my chin, an idea percolating. “You know what? I think we should meet him, this Eddie guy. Not as us, of course. We could give him a fake name, make up some event we’re holding.”

  Paige knitted her brows together. “Why?”

  “So we can look him in the eye, get the measure of the man, as my nona would have said.”

  Paige’s face lit up. “Oh, yes. And tell him to stop undercutting us all the time and stealing all our business.”

  I laughed. “Maybe we might want to be a little more subtle about it than that, honey. We could just arrange to meet him to get some more info on them.”

  “I like the way you’re thinking, Ms. Bond.”

  “Well, I’m hardly a spy. Just a woman who wants to protect her business.”

  Paige pushed a few keys on her laptop. She picked up the phone where she had unceremoniously slammed it before and handed it to me. “You do the honors.”

  “It would be my pleasure.”

  She called out the number, and I dialed. It rang a couple of times before it went to answerphone. “Yes, hello,” I began, affecting my best posh British accent. “My name is . . . Claire Fraser.”

  Paige had to stifle a laugh as I named the heroine in Outlander, a box set we’d watched together a couple of weeks ago on a particularly wet and gray Sunday.

  “I’m looking for a caterer for a party I’m holding next month. It’s dinner for—” Paige mouthed one hundred, but I decided to amp it up a notch. “Five hundred.”

  I wanted him to really want this.

  “Please call me as soon as you can. Much appreciated.”

  I left my personal cell phone number and hung up before Paige’s laughter came tumbling out.

  “You sounded like the Queen of freaking England!”

  “Do you think I was convincing?”

  “Totally.”

  “Well, now we just need to sit back and wait to hear from this slime-ball called Eddie Smith who’s been stealing all our customers.”

  * * *

  We didn’t have to wait long.

  Later that evening, I was applying the finishing touches to my mascara, getting ready to meet Ryan, Josh, and Paige at O’Dowd’s for a “thank goodness the week is over” Saturday evening drink. My phone rang on the bathroom counter beside me.

  The ring tone pulled me out of my head, where I’d been lost, thinking about Ryan. You see, tonight was our first date since my conversation with Meredith. Although she’d given me her blessing to date him, seeing her had unsettled me. Sure, Ryan and I had been texting, and I saw him when he came in to get a coffee at the café on Thursday.

  But something had changed for me.

  Gone was that almost euphoric feeling I’d first had at the ball, that certainty there could be something big between us. It was replaced by . . . doubt.

  Although Meredith had made it clear she supported me seeing someone new, I was finding it difficult to allow myself to let go of the feeling I was doing something wrong. There was something in her face, something that contradicted her words.

  Something that made me know beyond a whisper of a doubt that seeing Ryan was disloyal to Dan’s memory.

  I tried to push it all from my mind as I slotted the mascara wand back into its case and screwed it in place. I picked up my phone. “Hello?”

  “Hello, is that Ms. Fraser?” a female voice said on the other end of the line.

  I almost told her she had the wrong number, but caught myself in time. “Yes, this is Claire Fraser.”

  Paige would be so proud of my regal British accent.

  “Wonderful. This is Siobhan from Devour Catering. We received your voicemail regarding a dinner for five hundred?”

  “Yes. My husband, Jamie, and I are celebrating our anniversary.” Another Outlander character, the sexy Scottish hero.

  “How wonderful.”

  Lucky for me, Siobhan clearly didn’t watch the show.

  “Yes. We want an intimate dinner with some of our closest friends.”

  That’s right; all five hundred of them.

  “How exciting. We would love to have the opportunity to cater that for you. What date is that?”

  I gave her a date about seven weeks from now, figuring that was far enough away for it to be believable.

  “I’ll arrange for Fiona Whitefield, one of our catering coordinators, to meet with you to discuss our options, pricing, and other points. Does that sound good?”

  “Oh, I thought I would be meeting with Eddie Smith. I’ve heard such truly marvelous things about him.”

  Like he’s trying to destroy Cozy Cottage Catering.

  I knew I was hamming it up, but the whole point of this charade was to get to meet him, to look him square in the eyes, as I’d told Paige.

  “Mr. Smith is super busy right now, but Fiona could meet you early next week?”

  “Well, I don’t want to deal with anyone else. No offense to Fiona.”

  “I see. Could you hold the line for a moment, please?”

  “Of course.”

  She must have put her hand over the receiver. I could hear muffled talking as I waited. I applied my lipstick, still holding the phone to my ear.

  “Ms. Fraser? Eddie Smith would be happy to meet with you. Would Monday work for you?
”

  “Perfect.” We arranged a time for me to meet the famous Eddie Smith, and I hung up. I gazed at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, a nefarious smile forming on my face.

  Game on.

  * * *

  “You’ve got balls, did you know that?” Ryan’s arm was wrapped around my shoulders, and he gave me a squeeze.

  I flashed him a smile and tried not to tense up. Before my conversation with Meredith, this would have felt perfectly normal. We were dating, after all, and had been for a while now.

  But that was before—before I started to feel the way I do, before Dan’s memory had come back to haunt me.

  “I hope she doesn’t actually have balls.” Josh was sitting across the table from us. “That would be bad news for you, dude.”

  I laughed, trying to loosen up. “It’s no big deal. I just put on a fake accent and made up a fake event. That’s all.”

  “Yeah, but you’re going to do it in person on Monday,” Josh replied.

  I bit my lip. He had a point. It was one thing to pretend I was someone else over the phone, quite another to do it in front of the guy—even if we had good reason to do so.

  “I’ll be there, too,” Paige said. “Although I’m not sure I can do the whole fake accent thing.”

  “I bet you can. Go on, give it a shot.” Ryan smiled at her.

  Paige shook her head.

  “Come on, babe. Who knows? You might be amazing at it.” Josh winked at her and she shook her head some more, her grin as wide as a Cheshire cat’s.

  My belly twisted at the sight of them. They were so obviously in love with one another. It was an uncomplicated love, straightforward, easy.

  I glanced at Ryan, who smiled back at me. I chewed the inside of my lip, wishing I didn’t feel this way, wishing things could go back to the way they were before I saw Meredith.

  Before I got stuck in my head.

  “Okay. Here goes.” Paige shook her shoulders out and lifted her chin. She cleared her throat. “Good evening. I’m Lady Crawley, and I demand you show me to your stables. I simply must see the horses.”