Page 24 of A Wedding in the Bay

He strode over to the kitchen counter, where he’d just finished brewing a pot of decaf coffee. He’d wanted to do something that would fill the place with a nice aroma—he’d become conscious of the fact that his home smelled a little musty and—it had to be admitted—a tiny bit like fish.

I should put some magazines at the end of the table, he thought. Something that makes it look like I sit here reading. I mean, I do—sometimes.

He felt a pang of uncertainty. He wanted to impress Johanna—he wanted to make his home seem less like a small-town fisherman’s house and more like something that would impress a city woman—but he didn’t want to be dishonest either. Shoving his belongings into closets felt almost like lying to her—he didn’t want to have to cover up his true self in order to be liked by her.

His shaggy dog, Oliver, shuffled over to stand beside him, wagging his tail. Oliver’s huge doggy grin and big, dark eyes seemed to say, “I like you just the way you are. Why shouldn’t she?”

“You’re right, old boy,” he said, reaching down and scratching Oliver behind the ears. “What am I getting nervous about? I’m being silly. I’ve always liked my life, and I don’t want to be anything but who I am. Either Johanna likes me or she doesn’t—I’m not going to try to change for her, and I’m not going to try to hide my reality from her either.”

Oliver wagged his tail and nuzzled his nose against Everett’s pants leg.

Chuckling to himself, Everett walked back to the closet and took out his gloves. He tossed them back onto the end of his kitchen table.

“There, see?” he said to Oliver. “I don’t need to try to ‘fancy’ up my house, even though there’s a fancy lady coming over. No more hiding stuff in closets.”

Oliver wagged his tail and blinked.

At that moment, the front doorbell rang. Everett’s heart rate picked up as he started to hurry toward the front door. “No time to do anything more anyway,” he said to Oliver, who was starting to make gruff barking sounds in his throat. “Don’t worry, she’s nice. We like her.”

Everett opened the front door and smiled when he saw Johanna standing there. She was wearing a smart purple beret with matching gloves, and there was a diamond pin set carefully into the front flap of her immaculately clean peacoat. Everett felt for a moment as if he was a peasant being visited by a queen, but he was determined not to feel embarrassed about the state of his house.

“Hi,” Johanna said, a bit breathlessly. Her eyes were a deep green, and he was struck by how beautiful they looked as she met his gaze. “Thank you for inviting me into your home.”

“Thanks for coming over,” he said, grinning. “This is my dog, Oliver.”

Oliver approached Johanna cautiously, snuffling at her feet with interest. She took a step back nervously, seeming to be concerned about how big Oliver was.

“He likes you,” Everett assured her, grinning a little as he saw his dog’s tail start to wag faster. He hadn’t seen Oliver take so quickly to a stranger in a long time. It was a good sign, he decided, and reached down to scratch his dog behind the ears.

“Hi, Oliver,” she said tentatively, waving a little at the giant mop of fur in front of her.

He chuckled. “You can pet him if you want.””

“Oh. Certainly.” Johanna carefully removed one of her purple gloves, revealing a perfectly manicured hand. She reached out to Oliver and scratched him gingerly behind the ears. The dog’s tail wagged faster, and he licked the sleeve of Johanna’s coat.

Everett wondered nervously for a moment if Johanna would find Oliver licking her unpleasant or unsanitary, but she laughed lightly and leaned down closer toward Oliver’s face.

“He’s sweet,” she said. “Such intelligent eyes.”

“He does look smart, doesn’t he?” He smiled, feeling a glow of pride. “He is smart. It’s because I talk to him all the time. It develops his brain.”

He winked, and she laughed again, looking significantly more relaxed than she had when she first arrived.

“Well, unless you like the cold, you can feel free to come on in,” he teased, stepping back and gesturing for her to enter the house. She chuckled and took a few steps inside, and he closed the door behind her.

Oliver promptly lay down with his shaggy chin on Johanna’s clean leather shoe.

“Yup, he definitely likes you,” Everett said, and she grinned. “You want anything before we go look through the telescope? Water? I have some decaf coffee.”

“I’m all right for now, but thank you for offering.” Johanna looked up from smiling at Oliver. “I’m so excited to look through this telescope, I don’t want to wait another minute.”

“Then by all means, let’s go ahead and look through it,” he said, gesturing with his chin. “I’ve got it set up in the hallway upstairs. There’s a big window up there, and a balcony. In the warmer months, I like to take the telescope outside onto the balcony.”

“That sounds perfectly magical,” she said, and he laughed.

He started to lead her upstairs and she paused halfway up the staircase to look at one of the pictures he had hanging on the wall.

“Is this your boat?” she asked, turning to him with a look of interest.

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