Into the Storm (Signal Bend #3)(48)
“Hot cocoa with peppermint schnapps. To warm you up.”
He laughed. “No, hon. Rather have coffee with a kick. Or just the kick.” He set the mug on the desk and pulled her close. “Better ways to get warm, anyway.”
When they came into the kitchen for lunch about half an hour later, Beth, Rose, and Marie glanced at them, and then each other, and giggled. Randy old broads.
oOo
Show had kept in touch with Isaac throughout the day, to the extent that the always temperamental cell coverage in town allowed. He knew this little snowy interlude wasn’t going to last much longer. Havoc was getting the roads clear, and Don and a couple other guys with plows on their trucks were helping out on the narrow country lanes. He ignored it all as long as he could, sitting with Shannon on her white couch in front of a fire in her white sitting room, but then Len was bringing the Hollywood people back, and Show was the only Horde not working on getting the town dug out. He had to go.
As he stood in the parlor with Shannon and the other women, pulling on his coat again, preparing to follow Rose and Marie home in a little caravan, his cell alerted a text. He pulled it out and read it. From Lilli:
Hear you had a good night. Bring her to dinner. Tomorrow. Not a request. xoxo The news had made the rounds, looked like. The town grapevine was like the US Postal Service, not about to be slowed down by a little bad weather. Show grinned, imagining Rose, Marie, and Beth, unable to gossip over the diner counter or the bar, burning up their phones with their news about Show getting himself a lady friend. And that new manager down to the B&B, too!
He turned his phone out so Shannon could read it. “Looks like we have a date tomorrow night.”
Shannon rolled her eyes. “Um, I don’t—.” She glanced up at him, and he smiled, he hoped reassuringly, but said nothing. He understood her hesitation—they’d only just really started, and now they were right out in public. He was glad of it, but he understood it could be a lot to take on, especially for somebody still new to town.
But finally she smiled back at him. “Okay. I guess we do.”
oOo
Shannon hung out in the kitchen with Lilli when they first got there, and Isaac took Show out into his workshop. He was working on a dollhouse for Gia—who wasn’t yet five months old and probably not all that interested in the huge, elaborate mansion her daddy was building for her. But it was going to be spectacular, and Show understood the drive Isaac felt to build it, to make his little girl something amazing.
Isaac had several projects in progress around the workshop: the dollhouse, a big armchair, and an elaborate chess set among the most obvious. The quieter days in Signal Bend had given him time to focus on his other love.
“You got any shows coming up?” Isaac used to travel a few times a year to art shows to sell his stuff, but it had been, shit, well more than a year since he’d gone out. Since before Ellis, Show thought.
Isaac set the pieces of the dollhouse neatly on a shelf. “Don’t know. It’s quiet now, just Christmas shows in church basements and high school gyms, mostly. A couple of convention centers. Not my scene. The real season doesn’t start until late March or so. Gia’ll be eight months old then. Maybe. I’m not going without my girls, but maybe. Lilli wants me to do a website, sell shit online. She and Shannon put something together for the B&B, and she’s all het up about it. I don’t know. Sounds a little cheesy to me.”
“Strange to have things so quiet, huh? Worrying about websites and shit.”
Isaac laughed. “Yeah.” He pulled a couple of beers out of a small fridge under his worktable and handed one to Show. “That serious, you and Shannon?”
Show took a long swallow of the cold brew. “Don’t know. I think I want it to be. Early days, though.”
“Well, you’re different, brother, these past couple of weeks. Looser. Lighter. If that’s her, then I’m for it.
You need some ease.”
Show huffed a laugh. Yeah, he needed it. He was still struggling with whether he deserved it. But when Shannon was around, he felt like he did. He felt, as Isaac had said, looser and lighter. Fuck, he felt younger.
Just then, there was a knock on the door. Cocking an eyebrow at Show—nobody knocked—Isaac called out, “Yeah, come in,” and Shannon opened the door.
She was f*cking gorgeous, wearing a navy pea coat and faded jeans tucked into a pair of tall brown boots. Under that coat, Show knew, was a green knit top that he loved. It wrapped around her somehow, leaving a deep V, showing her pale, smooth, perfect cleavage. That top made it hard to keep his hands to himself.
“I’m not going to quote her, but Lilli says, essentially, it’s time for dinner and you should come in now.”
Isaac and Show both laughed. Lilli had a sharp sarcastic streak and a colorful way with words, and there was very likely some insult to their manhood involved in the direct quote. They nodded and followed Shannon back to the house, Show catching her hand in his, Isaac lagging back to kill the lights.
Supper was good. Lilli was a great cook and a decent baker. Gia was down for a late nap while they ate, and conversation, though muted in volume, was lighthearted and lively. Four friends around a table, sharing food and drink. Show noticed that Shannon was quiet at first, listening more than participating, but Lilli drew her in, and it wasn’t long before she was sharing stories of her own. Eventually, Lilli brought up the night of the storm, and Shannon didn’t blink. It might be that she’d had a few glasses of wine, but she told the story of the drunk cooks with relish, even though that meant telling part of the story of their own night.