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
