“Or maybe he’ll be a good match for you.” Candy shrugged. “Having two men vying for your affection is certainly a fine position to be in, don’t you think?”
Gabby could only shake her head. What difference did it make if a random single man was seated at her table? Once this might have excited her, made her worry about her hair and her dress and even her table manners. But now she’d learned not to pin so much hope on these events.
It was so much easier to be herself and enjoy the event. And lately, she’d been able to do just that…thanks to Doug.
Doug decided that meeting up with his brother was better than sitting home. Besides, he was out of frozen dinners, and he suspected that if he called one of the local pizza places again, they’d recite his order without him having to give it, and that was just too embarrassing to think about right now. And one of the downsides of coming back to this town.
The upsides were numerous, though. And sliding onto a stool at a high top at Harrison’s Pub that night across from his brother was proof of that.
“You didn’t want to go to the Carriage House?” Justin glanced around the room. “No girls here.”
“Exactly,” Doug said over his menu. Harrison’s was the kind of place you came for a beer and a burger, to catch the game, and maybe shoot a game of pool. He was at no risk of running into Gabby Conway here, though not for the reasons he might have once thought. Back in the day, he’d have assumed a pretty girl like Gabby would have turned her nose at a place like this. Now, he could almost picture her throwing a few darts, getting into the spirit of competition.
The thought must have made him smile because Justin was looking at him strangely from across the table.
“You think you’re going to find a wife hiding out in a place like this?”
Doug snorted into his beer. “Why does my entire family think I need a wife?”
“You were open to the idea of marriage once before,” Justin pointed out. “I assumed you were ready to settle down.”
“Settling down means finding the right person,” Doug said firmly. “Besides, I don’t see you dating anyone seriously.”
Justin shrugged. “We’re not talking about me. And you know Mom will move on to me once she’s through with you.”
Now Doug laughed. “In that case, I’ll take my sweet time. You owe me one.”
“Well, she’s certainly happy you’re home. She told me that was her best birthday gift, having you there.”
“Better than my gift card?” Doug set the menu to the side and looked over his shoulder to where Ryan Harrison was taking drink orders at the bar.
“Gift card?” Justin tutted.
“What? I thought she’d like that, to treat herself…”
“Oh, Doug. For my older brother, you have a lot to learn about women. They like the personal touch.”
Doug raised his eyebrows. A few months ago, he might have thought that this was where things went off-track with Lisa—they’d been so in sync when it came to how they planned each day that he hadn’t stopped to make sweeping gestures, something he later regretted. Now, though, he knew that there was more to it than that. He just wished he could be sure it wouldn’t happen again.
“You’re frowning.” Justin cursed under his breath. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to insult your gift. I’m sure Mom loved it, especially with all the weddings she’s been invited to lately. Gave her an excuse to get her hair and nails done.”
“No, it was something else.” Doug shook away the cobwebs, relieved when Ryan came over to take their orders.
“The place is looking good,” Justin told him, handing over his menu.
Ryan shrugged, but he looked pleased. “If you’d asked me a year ago what I’d be doing right now, I can tell you that I never would have said I’d be back in Blue Harbor running my late father’s bar, but I’ve never been happier.”
“What made you decide to come back to town?” Doug asked. He recalled from their school days that Ryan had planned to pursue a degree in business or accounting—something like that.
“Honestly? Bad breakup.” Ryan shook his head.
Justin raised an eyebrow at Doug, who did his best to ignore it. “Seeing anyone now?”
Ryan clicked the top of his pen and shook her head. “Nah. The only women I seem to see much of these days are my mother and my sister-in-law. And Brooke’s sister, too.”
Doug suspected that he wasn’t referring to the youngest of the Conway sisters. He knew that Brooke and Gabby were close, and even though Ryan hadn’t inferred that anything was happening between the two of them, he felt a strange flare of jealousy.
Justin gave him a teasing look over the table when Ryan moved on to the next table. “Sound familiar? Only sounds to me like he’s open to finding love again.” Justin, like his mother, didn’t seem to want to let this drop.
“Good for him.” Doug swigged his beer. Just so long as it wasn’t with Gabby Conway.
Chapter Twelve
Gabby finished tucking the last stem into her arrangement and stepped back to admire it. It was a happy mix of flowers in shades of pink, white, orange, purple, and yellow. It was just about right, but only just. She tapped a finger against her mouth; something was missing, now to decide what exactly it was…
With a grin, she picked up a few more stems of snapdragons and carefully placed them between the other flowers. There. Now it was perfect.
And late! She glanced at the clock in panic as she hurried to untie her apron strings. She was always prone to losing time when she was arranging. It was her happiest task of the day, selecting each flower, thinking of how it would pair with the others, trying to keep the designs interesting. But the most
