Later the next day, April stood back and surveyed her creation. The washed out green painted antique tin she’d come across in the attic was the perfect choice for her first display. Dried green chrysanthemum buds bunched in between the faded lilac flowers held the hot pink roses into the heart shape perfectly. She’d placed the oil buds she’d designed throughout the arrangement using an old-fashioned rose oil that pulled back to her grandmother’s time when her lace handkerchiefs smelled of fresh baby roses no matter the season. The same roses that clambered over the back fence and dropped their pink petals to the ground.
April dropped her nose to the dried flowers. She took a sniff with her eyes closed and let the scent transport her to a time when the pace of life was slower, romantic, and playful. Hamish growled and she opened her eyes.
David stood at the door, wary.
“Come in, don’t mind him. Hamish, behave. You two should be used to each other by now.” Her dog loped over to David, glared at him before he sniffed his way around his shoes.
“Sorry. He only does that to you for some reason. Must be Oscar’s smell on you. Hamish, come here.” Hamish looked at her, back at David, and finally returned to her side. “Come in, David. Obviously I’m going to have to work on his obedience.” She growled a warning as her dog slunk down beside her.
“Can’t say it endears me to him at all. At least Oscar is better mannered than this.” David wiped at the dog dribble on his trousers. “Another pair for the dry cleaners.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” April grinned despite her best attempts at trying to keep a straight face. “I’m so sorry. Let me pay for the cleaning.”
He waved away her offer. “It could be worse. I know I’ve been covered in blood and guts or vomit but dog drool is a new one for me.”
“Of course. Perils of the job I suppose.” She pushed her display to one side. “What can I do for you?”
He ran his hand around the back of his neck and she saw the insecurity rising. There was something very cute about a man who seemingly had everything but could still look so unsure of himself. “Um, the flowers you sent me?”
“Hmmm?”
“Well, it seems that they got a lot of comments from patients and the girls have decided that a little bit of decoration in the office isn’t such a bad thing.” Color rose in his cheeks.
“Okay, that’s nice to hear.” She picked up an order pad and a pencil. “What did you have in mind?”
“I’m not sure I like arrangements that are too bright but since it’s going to be out in the reception room, I’ve been told I don’t have any say in it.” He looked a tad annoyed if the frown lines between his eyes had anything to do with it.
“So your staff gets to call the shots?” Interesting.
It meant he wasn’t in charge of everything in his life. That had been her first impression. Order and dominance.
“Guess I can’t have things all my own way and they’re a fabulous staff. I’d be lost without them. Flowers are a small price to pay, I guess.” He stepped closer. “That’s rather nice.”
“I made that for Mari. It’s meant to last and that’s why I used dried flowers instead of fresh.”
“Dried? Sounds interesting.” The smile he gave her transformed his face, made him look younger and carefree. Something she hadn’t seen before except when he was with baby Connie.
“It is. I can do you something like this if you like. But if you prefer fresh, they’d have to be replaced at least once a week. This will last for a month or so before it started looking a little sad. Longer if you really look after it.”
He seemed to ponder the offer.
*
“How about both? I could have one in the reception area and one on my desk. What do you think?” Where had that come from? This was so not like him to be impulsive. It’d taken all week for the girls to convince him to go and place an order and he had to go overboard? How on earth had she managed to make him drop his guard so easily? The day had started off terrible enough as it was and he felt unable to stop the roller coaster ride he was on.
As much as he tried to ignore April, it was impossible. He’d walked into the building this morning to a shock of bright orange paint in the kitchen. She’d finally done it, painted over the old green walls. He’d shuddered and tried to see past it but once he walked into the bathroom, it was all too much. Each wall was a different color: purple, blue, red, and vivid green. Nothing he could do but grin and bear it.
A smile twitched at the edges of her lips and he was lost. How to pull back and get a hold of the situation again? “If you have the time, that is. Sorry, I didn’t mean to be presumptuous.”
“No, that’s fine. I can certainly organize something. Let’s start with the dried arrangement. What are you looking for? Give me a color to start with.”
His eyes were drawn to the bright pink rosebuds in her hair, the same as the ones in the arrangement she’d made for Mari if he wasn’t mistaken. Pink became his new color. It also matched the paint at the top of the wall behind her which faded to a much more pleasant pale pink that didn’t hurt his eyeballs. “I’ll leave it all up to you since you seem to know what you’re doing. I do like that heart shaped tray the flowers are in though.”
“Sorry, that’s a one off. I found it in the hotel’s attic. But,” she held up her hand. “I do have something along those lines. Give me a minute.” She disappeared out the back of the shop and Hamish sat with his gaze on David, not flinching at all. The big dog’s tongue lolled out of its mouth, flopping with each doggy breath.
Within minutes, April came back, a paper-wrapped parcel in her hands. She put it on the table and tore the paper off, throwing it to the floor behind her, missing the trash can entirely. A squat tin bucket sat in front on the counter. The handle had blue and white beads for the grip and David had no idea what she was thinking. It was nothing like the tray she’d used.
“I can paint this any color you like and make it look old if you want, distress it. What do you think?”
“I have no idea. Can I leave it to you, please? Do what you think is best.” He leaned on the table, distracted by the jewelry under the glass top. His mother would love one of the necklaces, it was just her style. Something to put aside in his mind for later, when her birthday came around. She was usually so hard to buy for but this was something different. It was worth the risk in his mind. Time she ventured away from her usual sedate style and embraced a bit of color. Where the heck had that come from?
“Tell you what. If you don’t like what I send over, you don’t have to pay for it.”
“That’s hardly the way to run a business, April. It’s going to cost you money to produce the product so you need to charge me accordingly. You’ve done nothing I can find fault with so far. The arrangement you gave Susan as a hostess gift got rave reviews.”
“That’s very kind of you. And, thank you, but I can easily put it in the shop for sale if it’s not to your tastes.” She made a note on her order pad. “Now the fresh flowers. Any preference?”
He shook his head. “No. I’ll leave that to you as well. You know what looks good and so long as I keep the girls happy, it’s fine with me.”
“Nice.” She looked at her watch, a light coming into her eyes. April hurried over to the door and closed it, turned the sign around. The fleeting thought of being uncomfortable in a locked room with her came to his mind. Should he be worried? “Closing time.”
“Sorry. I should let you go and do what you do. I didn’t mean to hold you up.”
“You’re not. How about a glass of wine?”
He stood with his mouth open, the words stuck in his throat as his brain tried valiantly to come up with a feasible answer.
“I have a very nice white in the refrigerator that you might like. Very similar to the one we shared on my first might here.”
She was being nice and he didn’t know what to say, not after the talking down he’d given himself after the cookout. His reaction to
Pierce talking to April had left him questioning his commitment to the business and the promise he’d made himself to return to Seattle. Now was not the time to get involved if he didn’t know what his future held. Still. “Um, I’m not sure…
“Just a glass of wine between friends. This isn’t a marriage proposal, David.” She gave him a saucy smile that rocked him to the core. If she’d asked him on one knee, he’d probably have stumbled just as much.
“What I meant to say is, I’m not sure it’s a good idea tonight. I have a dinner date and I don’t want to be late.”
Her smile slipped and he felt a quick shaft of disappointment. He hadn’t meant to make it sound quite like that. He was hardly a womanizer and certainly didn’t want to give her that impression. “My mother and I have dinner on Monday nights. Ever since my father died, it’s been our thing. I wonder if I could get a rain check?”
Her face lit up again and he almost slumped in relief but managed to keep his decorum about him. “That would be lovely. But instead of a drink, why don’t you stay for dinner? Nothing fancy, I’m afraid. You have the wrong sister for amazing meals but I can do a fairly mean curry.” She came around to his side of the table. “What do you say? Six-ish tomorrow suit you?”
Curry. Chicken or beef? He daren’t ask and appear rude but it’d been ages since he’d had a decent red beef curry. He could almost taste the spices in his mouth. David found himself agreeing before he could stop the words from forming and denying him his favorite meal. “That would be lovely.”
“And bring Oscar. I think he’d like to meet Hamish.”
It was his mother who started the conversation about the newest Moore sister over dinner that evening. “I walked past the new shop today. Her styling is rather, well, different. I think I like it a lot.”
“Yes, it’s very interesting. Same could be said for the woman herself.” It would have been wiser to avoid the subject but the words had tumbled out without thought.
“Have you spoken to her much, David, apart from when she hurt herself, I mean? Tell me what she’s like.” His mother put down her knife and fork and picked up her wine glass, her gaze on his face. He’d have to be careful and school his looks or there would be trouble.
“Very different to anyone in town, I have to admit. Accident prone, which you know, that alone doesn’t make me hopeful that life will go smoothly. Firstly, she ran into me with hot coffee in my hands and refused to let me deal with her burn. Then when she was moving furniture in the shop, that heavy bookcase fell down, pining her under it. If I hadn’t still been at work, goodness knows how she would have coped. I managed to pull it off but it gave her the most awful bruising you’ve ever seen.”
His mother shuddered at his description. “She’s recovered from that?”
“Yes, but she seemed to have her own ideas on how to deal with it. Some cream she claimed it helped the bruising.”
“Oh, I see. Now I understand your frustration, darling. You like her.”
“Mom, don’t.”
She smiled, put down her glass and rested her hand on top of his, doing her best to soothe him. An action he found annoying at his age. It wasn’t as though he was a moody teenager who could be calmed with his mother’s touch anymore. Nothing like holding onto a good dose of temper to let the built up tension ease from his body when it became too much. But she would have nothing of it.
“You know I intend to go back to Seattle as soon as I get you settled and sell the practice. I want to get my life back on track. It’s past time.”
“And because of that, you’re going to throw away the opportunity to get to know the first woman that’s piqued your interest in ages?” The annoyance on her face would have been hilarious if she wasn’t so damned spot on. “You’re being silly and I don’t think you’ve thought this through. Besides, I haven’t said I want to go anywhere. What if I want to stay here?”
“But your sister’s in Seattle and so are most of your friends. When Dad decided to open his practice here, you always said you wanted to go back to Seattle one day. I think this is the perfect time, don’t you?”
She peered at him, a frown between her eyes. “I’m not sure I want to go anymore.”
“Mom.”
“Oh, darling, don’t talk to me like that. I’m entitled to change my mind. But regardless of what I do, that shouldn’t influence your life. You’re settled here. Why would you want to uproot yourself now and leave April and your friends behind? Surely you can give yourself more time and see how you really feel?”
If he told her about the dinner date tomorrow night she’d be over the moon but he wanted to keep it to himself. As it was, David felt like a traitor to his own emotions for agreeing to join April for dinner, because that would only be encouraging the friendship. And on a more personal level. Nothing good could come of it. She was so different to him, but his brain and his heart were in the biggest fight of his life. He found himself losing ground no matter how hard he tried to keep a handle on it. He refused to give his mother false hope when he had no idea of what was happening himself. This could end very badly. The possibility of things going well didn’t even enter his head, so focused on what he thought was already mapped out for him.
Chapter Thirteen
David stood at the bottom of the stairs and held the box of chocolates in his hand. Would she like them? It’d been hard to decide what to bring and in the end it’d been a rush decision. He’d agonized over flowers and wine, both of which were bad ideas considering her profession and the reason he was invited for dinner in the first place.
Which didn’t leave much in the way of a hostess offering when he thought about it. Chocolates it was. Stop procrastinating and knock on the door!
He grabbed the stair railing and skipped up, his heart pounding, Oscar right beside him tugging on his lead. Before he got halfway, the door opened and April appeared with Hamish beside her. “Hey, David. How nice to see you.”
She leaned on the top post and grinned, a warm and inviting smile that encouraged him more than it should have. When had be become so needy that a smile would make him feel as though his day was now fulfilled? Since April Moore had come to town, that was when.
“Hello.” He thrust his hand forward feeling like a bumbling fifteen-year-old trying to impress a girl. “These are for you.”
She moved down a couple of steps to take the offering and Oscar pushed his way up to meet Hamish. “Thank you, that’s so sweet.” Hamish leaned down to smell the smaller dog, excited he’d found the smell that hovered around David’s feet.
“You’re welcome. Ah, were you going out? Am I too early?” He might have been a little early but he didn’t think it would matter since she lived over her business.
“I was but we don’t have to go anywhere if you don’t want to. Hamish looked in need of a break so I was going to take him to the lake and let him run along the shoreline. Do you feel like stretching your legs or would you rather not?”
“That would be nice. I haven’t been there for, oh, I don’t know, since yesterday I guess. I think Oscar would love it. Mind if I grab my running shoes?”
She grinned and handed him the dog lead. “Sure but can you hold him for a minute while I put these inside and we can go.” April ducked back upstairs and through the door.
Hamish looked into his face from the higher step, his doggy breath rolling over David’s cheeks. “You and I need to get along, big fella. That means keeping that nose of yours in the right places. Understand?”
In response, Hamish blinked and nudged his hand with a wet nose. David patted the big head, grateful his trousers didn’t suffer this time.
April came out and bounced down the stairs, her patchwork overalls swishing around her legs. “Just look at you two. Becoming friends, that’s so sweet.” She scurried past them, grabbing the dog leash out of David’s hand. “Get your shoes and let’s go. We can do a fast walk there and a leisurely one back, give my leg a good work out. Get the heart pumping.”
<
br /> He watched her sprinting away and, forgoing his running shoes, hurried to catch up with her. Oscar pulled on his leash desperate to keep up with the big dog loping beside April with his long legged gait. They cruised past the coffee shop, the Lake Hotel, and almost jogged across the road. For a little thing, she could move fast when she put her mind to it. By the time they got to the shoreline, David was just hitting his stride.
“I love this view.” April unclipped the leash from Hamish’s collar and let him run down to the water’s edge.
“It’s pretty special, isn’t it? I try and get out here most mornings. Oscar loves it. For an older dog, he took to jogging with a vengeance.” He stood and looked across the water, then clipped off the lead and let the little dog run after Hamish.
“They’re so cute. Friends already.” April laughed, her joy shimmering across the water. “I like it here, David.” She slipped her hand into his and his heartbeat increased. “I like being with you, too.”
Gosh, where did that come from? “Really? Ahhh, thank you.”
She put her hand on his back and rubbed it around in circles as if she was trying to soothe him like a cranky child. “Honestly, I love how you react to what I say. I’m not trying to turn you into a hippie like me. I know how people look at me and see ‘weirdo’ and that’s fine. I like being who I am.”
“I like you, too, April. I think.” He tilted his head and gazed over the water before coming back to look at her. “I’ve never met anyone like you and it’s all rather refreshing to me.” Even if it scared him to death at the same time. “But I have something I have to tell you.”
“So serious.” Hamish took this opportunity to rush back to them, dropping a piece of driftwood at his feet, giving David the begging look. “Oh, look. He does like you.”
David leaned down and picked up the dog slobbered stick. Hamish bounced around his feet, his eyes firmly on the prize.
“You’d better throw it before he rips it out of your hand.”
The Moore Sisters of Montana: The Complete Series Box Set: Books 1-4 Page 41