by Terri DuLong
He reached across the table and gave my hand a squeeze. “Well, I for one am very happy that you chose my place to stay.”
By the time the check arrived, I was shocked to look around and realize we were the last two customers in the restaurant. For the entire two hours I’d felt as if I was in a cocoon. Only Henry and me. I’d learned a little more about his job and life, but I had done the bulk of the talking as he had requested. And now it surprised me that I had shared so much with him—a man I’d only met in person for the first time three hours before. But even more surprising was the realization that all of it had seemed so right.
During the drive back to Koi House, we continued talking and by the time we pulled into the driveway I realized I couldn’t remember the last time I had enjoyed a date as much as this one with Henry.
He walked me to the porch. “Thank you for a wonderful evening, Chloe. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did.”
“Every bit as much,” I told him. I hesitated and then said, “Would you like to come in for coffee?”
“I really would, but I’m afraid I have to get back to let Delilah out. But I’ll definitely take a rain check.”
“Great,” I said and before I knew what was happening he leaned toward me and brushed my lips with his.
As if by instinct, I reached up to put my arms around his neck and he pulled me closer, placing his lips on mine. I lost myself in the deep passion of his kiss, which seemed to go on forever, and yet didn’t last nearly long enough.
We were both breathing heavily when we pulled apart.
“That was nice,” he whispered in my ear. “Very nice.”
“Very nice,” I repeated as I attempted to regain my equilibrium.
Chapter 44
Over the next three days Maddie made a floral delivery to the yarn shop every single day—for me. The day after dinner with Henry, Maddie had showed up with a beautiful autumn arrangement of purple, yellow, and orange. The next day it was pink and white star lilies. And on the third day, a stunning bouquet of blood red roses arrived.
It was getting downright embarrassing. Well, almost. I had to admit, I was as delighted as a teenager and very mindful of Henry’s thoughtfulness. We had spoken on the phone all three days and he was picking me up at five after we closed the shop. Basil and I were both invited to dinner at Henry’s place so we could meet Delilah.
When Maddie walked in on Friday afternoon with the roses, all the women in the shop gasped.
“Pretty soon you’re going to have to get rid of some yarn if these flower deliveries continue,” she said.
I laughed as I reached for the vase and inhaled the lush scent. “I know. I really have to put a stop to this.”
“Are you nuts?” I heard Mavis Anne say. “Honey, a woman never, ever turns down flowers. Don’t ever forget that.”
Everybody laughed and Louise said, “Does this Henry have a brother?”
“Make that two brothers,” Fay said.
I shook my head and joined their laugher. “No, ’fraid not. Only a sister in Vermont.”
“Figures,” Louise said.
“With all these flowers, I’d say we have some serious romance going on here.” Fay put the sweater she was knitting in her lap, waiting for my response.
“Oh, well . . . yeah . . . I think it’s safe to say we do like each other.”
“Oh, please!” I heard Yarrow call from the back. “I think the past three days prove you’ve gone beyond like. A man doesn’t send flowers every single day because he likes you, silly woman.”
The same thought had been crossing my mind each day but I had brushed it aside. What I felt for Henry had happened so fast it had literally taken my breath away. Not only that, but I had a feeling Henry felt the same way.
When he showed up shortly after five, the shop was empty of customers.
He walked in and the moment I saw him something inside of me shifted. What was it about this man that caused me to feel such happiness? I had no control over the smile that I immediately felt on my face. One thing I knew for sure. In that moment I knew no other man had ever made me feel the way Henry Wagner did.
I introduced him to Mavis Anne and Yarrow.
“You know my friend, Louise,” Mavis Anne told him.
“I do,” he said. “We live just down the hall from each other.” I saw him glancing around the shop. “What a nice place you have here.”
“Thank you.” Yarrow came to join us in the yarn area. “It’s already proving to be pretty successful.”
“That’s great. I wish you many years of success. About ready?” His gaze shifted to me and when he smiled, I felt my stomach do a flip-flop. No doubt about it—I was seriously attracted to this man.
“I am. Let’s go in the house so I can get Basil’s leash and we’ll be ready to go. I’ll see you in the morning,” I told Mavis Anne and Yarrow.
I would have loved to hear the conversation after we walked out of the shop.
Henry pulled into the parking spot at the condo garage and I couldn’t help but think back to four months before when Basil and I had arrived. Who could have known the things that would happen in four short months? Life really did change in a heartbeat.
“Here we are,” he said, and leaned across the seat to kiss my cheek.
“Let’s go upstairs so you can meet Delilah.”
We stepped from the elevator and Henry unlocked the door of the condo. Unsure what Delilah’s reaction might be, I was holding Basil in my arms. The large, beautiful Golden first went to Henry to get her pat and then came to me.
“Meet Miss Delilah,” Henry said.
“Well, hello, Delilah,” I told her, reaching down so she could sniff my hand. “Aren’t you a beautiful girl.”
Both Basil and she were whining in excitement. Delilah allowed me to pat her head but she was much more interested in Basil.
I put him on the floor and introduced them. They did the ritual of sniffing each other and then Delilah ran from the foyer and came running back with a ball in her mouth, which she placed in front of Basil, causing both Henry and me to laugh.
“Well, I think it’s settled,” he said. “She wants to be his friend.”
“How cute.” I unclipped the leash and Basil grabbed the ball with Delilah chasing after him into the living room.
“I’d say they hit it off as well as you and I have. Would you like a glass of wine?”
“Sounds great. Thanks.” I looked around the condo and recalled my first night there. Unsure of where I was going in my life, that feeling of drifting and hoping I’d recover some sense of balance. And over the past four months, I had.
“Here you go,” Henry said, interrupting my thoughts. “Here’s to our new friendship and to wherever it might lead us.”
I accepted the glass of white wine and nodded.
“Let’s sit out on the balcony and enjoy the wine, then I’m going to grill some steaks out there.”
“Okay,” I said and followed him. I leaned on the railing and looked out at the ocean and sky. Calm and peaceful. Which was how I felt. “I really enjoyed this balcony when I was here. I spent a lot of time out here, with my morning coffee and then knitting in the afternoon.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it. The view is exceptional, so it should be enjoyed.”
I sat down in the chair beside him and he reached for my hand. Neither one of us said a word; my entire focus was on our two hands entwined. I felt a burst of energy go through me, causing me to let out a contented sigh.
“Can I ask you something?” Henry said.
With my hand still in his, I shifted in my chair to better see his face. “Sure.”
“Your plan had been to come here with Gabe and make a life together.”
“Right.”
“Do you think the two of you would have gotten married?”
Something that surprised me with Henry was that I didn’t have to think about what I was going to say before I said it. Without knowing exactly how or why,
I found that with Henry I could just be. And that meant saying what I truly felt.
“I honestly don’t know. We had never discussed marriage. I think we were both comfortable with simply living together. Why?”
“Oh, I was just wondering if you had sworn off marriage after your divorce or if it was something you’d consider again.”
“Hmm, good question. I have nothing against marriage. I suppose if I met the right person. How about you?”
“I’ve dated a few women since Lilian died, but nothing serious. So I agree with you. I have nothing against living together, but nothing against marriage either.” He squeezed my hand and stood up. “Just trying to get to know you better. I’m going to start the grill.”
“Can I help with anything?”
“Not just yet.”
Henry went inside to get the steaks and left me thinking about his question. Since my divorce from Parker, I hadn’t given marriage much thought. Not even with Gabe. I realized that the commitment that marriage required depended upon two things: a deep love and trust. Something I wasn’t sure I’d shared with a man before. But meeting Henry caused me to reconsider this—because he was different from any other man who had come into my life.
Following a delicious dinner of steak, rice, and salad we cleaned up the kitchen and then took the dogs for a walk on the beach. It was obvious that Basil and Delilah were enjoying each other’s company. I walked along holding Basil’s leash in one hand while my other hand held Henry’s.
“What a beautiful evening,” he said. “Full moon next week and nothing beats a full moon over the water. You’ll have to come back to see it.”
“I think I detect a touch of the romantic in you,” I said, and laughed. “All those flowers, and you like a full moon. You could spoil a woman, Henry.”
“That wouldn’t be such a bad thing, would it?”
I looked up at his smiling face. “Not at all.”
After walking for almost an hour, we returned to the condo. Both dogs flopped down on the tile floor and Henry and I settled on the sofa with a glass of wine.
“What else can you tell me about yourself?” he asked.
I took a sip of wine. And before I had time to think about it, I found myself telling him about Aaron Price. And Chadwick.
When I finished, he slipped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me next to him, kissing the top of my head.
“Date rape,” he said. “I’ve read about it and even watched some specials on television but it always seemed so removed from me. I had no children and it isn’t something that was made public years ago. It has to be a horrible ordeal for a woman to go through.”
“It wasn’t easy,” I said.
“And you really think that meeting Chadwick and finally having a name for that guy has helped you come to terms with it?”
I nodded. “I do. It might sound silly, but I feel it provided closure for me. I really think that before I could fully embrace my life today, I needed to go back to the past and then let it go forever.”
“I don’t think it’s silly at all. I think that’s human nature. So many people are held back in life for various reasons, but most of the time it has something to do with their past. And you’ve met yours head on, Chloe. You’re a pretty special woman.”
He leaned over and kissed me and I felt a surge of desire go through my body. Pure, sensual desire. Something I couldn’t recall having experienced in a very long time—if ever.
Chapter 45
Three weeks later, October arrived in Florida in all her glory. Temperatures dropped out of the low nineties into the eighties during the day and sixties overnight, with very little trace of humidity. I had spent almost every day of those three weeks with Henry. There were dinners at various restaurants in the area, we went to a few movies, he took Basil and me on his boat with Delilah. And each one of those days I realized how fortunate I was to have Henry Wagner come into my life.
I came to see what a caring and loving person he was. I came to learn more about him and his life and I came to experience a physical attraction to a man that I was finding quite pleasurable. An attraction that was making it more and more difficult to leave his condo at the end of an evening.
We had plans that night to take the boat out and go for dinner to the River Grille—the place I was supposed to go with Chadwick.
I opened the yarn shop about an hour early that morning to rearrange some yarn. I liked the quiet time because it gave me a chance to think, and my thoughts always went to Henry. It was becoming clear to me that what I felt for him was different from other relationships I’d had—including my marriage to Parker. The word easy came to mind. It was easy being with Henry. Our time together lacked anxiety or fear. I felt that for the first time in my life I could truly be the person I was supposed to be. There were no pretenses. Henry allowed me to be my authentic self.
Mavis Anne and Yarrow arrived. Shortly after ten I was bent over emptying a new shipment of yarn from a box when I heard the front door open and somebody say, “Is there a Chloe Radcliffe here?”
I stood up and saw a young fellow standing near the desk holding a bouquet of multicolored helium balloons.
I laughed and nodded. “Yes,” I said hesitantly. What on earth was this?
“Then these are for you,” he said, a huge grin covering his face.
I walked toward him and saw the logo on his shirt pocket read Balloons R Us.
“Well, that’s a mighty bunch of balloons,” Mavis Anne said.
The fellow nodded. “Three dozen, to be precise.” He handed the ribbons attached to the balloons to me. “And here’s your card. Have a great day.”
I stood in the center of the shop clutching the ribbons and looked up at the balloons bobbing above my head.
Yarrow came to stand beside me. “Well, open the card. Not that we don’t already know who they’re from.”
I slipped the card out of the envelope and read, “Come fly with me. Affectionately, Henry.”
“Yup,” I said, laughing. “They’re from Henry.”
“Now that’s something my Jackson would have done,” Mavis Anne said. “That Henry is a keeper, Chloe.”
Yarrow nodded. “I have to admit. You’d be a fool to let him go.”
I was beginning to think they were both right.
“Well, now, what do I do with all these balloons?”
“Let them hover up there near the ceiling. All of us can enjoy them today,” Mavis Anne said.
And that’s exactly what we did. Customers got a chuckle out of so many balloons floating around the shop and every time I glanced up at them, I smiled.
Henry arrived shortly before five to pick me up for our boat ride and dinner.
“Your balloons were a huge hit,” I told him when he walked in. “Thank you. We’ve all enjoyed them.”
Henry laughed. “Oh, good, I’m glad you liked them. I was hoping you wouldn’t think they were over the top.”
I laughed. “Well, they were that too. See you guys in the morning,” I told Mavis Anne and Yarrow.
“Have fun,” Yarrow said.
“The weather is perfect for a boat ride this evening, so be sure to enjoy it,” Mavis Anne told me.
Mavis Anne had been right. The weather was ideal for being out on a boat in the evening. Henry docked at the River Grille and we enjoyed a great fish dinner.
When we got back in the boat, he said, “I was thinking of anchoring for a little while farther down the river.”
“Sounds like fun. Sure.”
He expertly maneuvered the boat away from the dock and out to the river. I went to stand behind him and placed my hands on his shoulders as I leaned forward to kiss his cheek.
“This is fun,” I said.
He reached up to clasp my hand. “Good. I’m glad you’re enjoying it.”
About twenty minutes later Henry had dropped anchor in a secluded cove area of the river. “Perfect,” he said. “Ready for a glass of wine?”
“
Sounds great.”
I positioned myself on the leather bench seat in the stern of the boat and watched Henry uncork a bottle of red wine, fill two glasses, and come to sit beside me.
“Here’s to us,” he said, touching the rim of my glass. “To all good things.”
I nodded and took a sip. “Oh, by the way, what did the card with the balloons mean? It said come fly with me.”
Henry slid an arm around my shoulders and brought me to his chest. “Well, it meant exactly that. Both literally and figuratively.”
I pulled away to stare into his deep brown eyes. “I don’t understand.”
He let out a deep sigh. “I like you, Chloe. A lot. Actually . . . I’ve fallen in love with you. I know, I know. Some people might think this is crazy . . . hell, you probably think this is crazy. We only met three weeks ago. However, we really began meeting back in April when you first called me about the condo. I think I fell in love with your voice long before I met you in person. The moment you opened your door three weeks ago and I saw you for the first time . . . I knew. I knew in my heart I loved you. So I’d like you to fly with me. Fly together side by side through life and also fly with me to Hawaii next May. I’ve recently accepted a one-week photo assignment there.”
Now it was my turn to let out a deep sigh. My head was spinning and I was trying to wrap my mind around all that Henry had just said. He loved me? He’d loved me from the beginning when he first heard my voice? He loved me for who I was? And he wanted to spend the rest of our lives together? I wasn’t sure how all of this could be happening so fast. But it was. And in that split second I recalled Mavis Anne and Jackson—how in one brief second she knew he was the one. That one great love of her life. And I knew without a doubt that I had found mine with Henry Wagner.
I was trying to let everything he’d said sink in and Henry lifted my hand, brought it to his lips and kissed it.