Anything for Her(23)

Silence. “Okay, is it bad if I admit that hadn’t occurred to me?”

“Very bad,” she said solemnly, suppressing this laugh.

“We can be sure we get a dog that’s lived with cats before. Or a puppy.”

Realizing how much she wanted to be with Sean and Nolan when they picked out the dog, she had to ask. “Do you really want me to come? This sounds like something the two of you should do together, without an outsider along.”

“You don’t feel like an outsider,” he said, and his voice had deepened further.

She had to press the heel of her hand to her breastbone to quell the sharp pang.

“I... Thank you.” Allie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “Why don’t you ask Sean? My feelings won’t be hurt if he’d rather go without me. Please don’t press him.”

“Fair enough,” Nolan said after a minute. “I thought you’d enjoy it.”

“I would,” she admitted. “But not if I ruin the whole thing for Sean. Anyway, I really can’t afford to take Saturday off.”

“I checked. They’re open on Sundays.”

He’d checked because he wanted her to go with him. He was hinting at a whole lot more than a dating relationship, which shouldn’t have stunned her but did.

“Let me know,” she said, working hard at sounding cheerful and offhanded. Nope, doesn’t matter to me either way. She ended the call as soon as she could without having him notice anything was wrong.

It’s not wrong. It’s good. It’s great. I like him.

Then why this flutter of alarm?

I don’t know how to do this.

And that, she realized, was the truth.

If she’d ever known how to be intimate with other people, she’d forgotten. She hadn’t had a really close friend since middle school. Before. Being so terrified of what she might inadvertently say, she didn’t dare say anything at all—which was an excellent way of appearing unfriendly to other teenagers. Or pathologically shy. Or maybe of making a person pathologically shy, eventually.

Am I?

Yes and no. Not in the quilt shop, but when the possibility of something closer arose...maybe. After all, she still had to think every time before she opened her mouth.

The phone rang again shortly after Nolan and she said good-night, and she snatched it up, noting belatedly that the caller was her mother, not Nolan calling right back to say, Sean would love to have you come with us.

Yeah, right.

“Hi, Mom. This is late for you to be calling.”

“I’m not quite as stodgy as you think I am,” her mother said with a laugh. “You start your day earlier than I do.”

“That’s true. I was actually about to head to bed. Does that make me stodgy?”

Mom laughed. “Really all I wanted was to line you up for a shopping expedition on Sunday. I was contemplating my winter wardrobe, and I decided it needs some major refurbishment.”

Allie hesitated. “I...think I have plans for Sunday already. I’m sorry.”

There was a tiny pause. “You think?”

“We haven’t finalized them yet, but I did agree.”

More silence. “This is the man you’re seeing?”

Allie stiffened at her mother’s tone. Her fingers tightened on the phone. “Nolan. Yes.”

“Well. I admit I’m disappointed. Since Sunday is the only day we can spend together.”

Which was true enough—Mom worked the standard Monday through Friday, while Allie closed her shop on Sundays and Mondays.

“Depending on where you want to go, we could make it an evening,” she offered, even as she regretted the lost time on Sean’s quilt.

“Oh, I had a full-blown expedition in mind. Seattle, I was thinking. And lunch, of course, my treat,” her mother said persuasively. “I can’t persuade you to ditch him for your mom?” The last was said humorously, as if it wasn’t to be taken seriously. But Allie had no doubt that it was.

“Refurbishing your winter wardrobe isn’t exactly an emergency,” she pointed out. “It’ll be mid-October before you so much as need a sweater.”

“Well...that’s true. Shall we plan for the next Sunday, then?”

“That sounds like fun,” Allie said, relieved. She hadn’t liked hurting her mother’s feelings. “And I’ll let you know if our plans for this Sunday end up getting canceled.”