While Ava was in his office, she’d said her mother had just finished opening up a new account for her usage only. He was glad to hear that and knew it was something his own mother would have done too. He was going to suggest that if it came down to it as an option, but he found letting people decide that on their own was best.
Not everyone had the money to do that for a family member or wanted the risk. Though he was pretty sure there wasn’t any risk with Ava and her family.
“No problem. Funny meeting you here,” she said. She was smiling now and he could see that the clouds of worry weren’t surrounding her eyes anymore. He’d had some conversations with Hailey since. He’d supplied everything he could to help get things moving, but he was out of the loop at this point.
“The joy of food shopping,” he said.
“Daddy,” Adele said. “I’m going to add a few more cans of soup. Now it’s ten.”
He rolled his eyes and caught Ava grinning at him. “Looks like I aided in the shopping by stalling your departure of the aisle.”
He caught Ava’s eyes drift to his hand for a wedding band but tried to push the low drum of his heart aside. It was probably a normal glance. If he’d thought of her in the past few weeks, he was trying to tell himself it was curiosity over a client more than an attraction he hadn’t felt in years.
“Adele tends to get what she wants when she wants it, even if she’s told no a few times.”
“What a pretty name that is,” Ava said to his daughter.
“Thank you,” Adele said. “My mom loved Adele, the singer. Have you ever heard her?” His daughter’s head was bobbing up and down. “Her music is the best. If you haven’t you should look her up.”
“I have heard of Adele’s music,” Ava said. “It’s beautiful.”
“Just like you,” Adele told Ava. “Isn’t she pretty, Daddy?”
He felt his face flush. “Ava, this is my daughter, Adele. Adele, this is Ava.”
“How do you know my daddy?” Adele asked. Oh boy, it was going to turn into twenty questions in the grocery store on a Saturday around noon before Easter and carts were crashing into each other.
“I met your father at the bank. He’s helping me with something.”
“My father is good at helping people. Dad, did you see how pretty the braid is in Ava’s hair? Maybe she can help you learn how to do that so you won’t have to watch a video when you try to do mine.”
There was a snicker behind him and he knew some were watching the show and being entertained. He hoped no one recognized either him or Ava. She might not like the attention. He wasn’t so sure what he was feeling though.
Ava grinned and he thought he should explain. “Adele wants her hair in braids and I’m not very good at doing much more than ponytails. My mother is even less talented than me.”
“If my mommy was alive I bet she would braid my hair, but she’s not. She’s in heaven,” Adele said, causing Ava’s smile to drop from her face. He’d seen sympathy enough in people’s eyes and didn’t want it now.
“I’m so sorry,” she said.
He nodded his head since he’d heard it plenty in his life. “Thank you.”
“Can you teach my daddy how to do it?” Adele asked again.
“Honey, we are blocking traffic and it’s busy. I’m sure Ava has better things to do than stand here talking to us.”
“I can show you how,” she said.
“What?” he said.
“How to braid. I can show you how to do it if you want to learn. It’s the least I can do for all your help.”
“Yay,” Adele shouted. “Do you have a brush to show him now?”
Ava started to laugh, some of the sympathy gone and maybe something else replaced in her eyes this time. He wasn’t sure and was wondering if he was reaching or not. He was rustier than a tailpipe on a twenty-year-old car left out in the cold weather.
“I think your father is right,” Ava said. “This isn’t the place.” She looked at him. “I’m on the island all weekend for the holiday, but I’m sure you’re busy tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow is Easter,” Adele announced. “Daddy is taking me to lunch when we are done here and then tonight we are going to color eggs.”
“That sounds like a lot of fun,” Ava said, moving out of the way for someone to pass.
“Can you go to lunch with us? Then you can show Daddy how to braid my hair. Do you know how to do more braids than just that?”
“I’m sorry,” he mouthed to her. This was getting out of hand that his daughter was trying to set him up on a date.
“I think lunch sounds like fun,” Ava said, shocking him.
“Don’t feel like you’ve got to,” he said, then wished he didn’t. What if she thought he didn’t want her there? He did, he just wasn’t sure he wanted it to happen the way it was.
Ava moved over one more time and then reached into her purse. She pulled out a card and a pen, wrote something on the back, and handed it over. “Call me when you’re done and we can meet somewhere. If I don’t hear from you, no worries. We can pretend you lost it.”
“He won’t lose it,” Adele said, then went to reach for the card. “I’ll hold onto it so he doesn’t, but Daddy doesn’t lose anything. He is always helping me find things.”
His face was on fire right now, more so when Ava laughed even harder. “Well then. Maybe I’ll hear from you soon. I’m
