Page 33 of To Have and to Scold

I take a long sip from my drink. “Six months isn’t long. Besides, I’ve been on a couple of dates.”

“I’m talking about a date with someone you asked, not someone that Mary from work set you up on.” Elliott releases a tight breath. “It’s time you stepped into your manhood and asked someone. Go out on a limb. Take a risk.”

“My manhood? If you ever mention mymanhoodagain, I’ll bust your nose.”

Elliott laughs. “Okay, fine. But you know what I’m saying. Chloe doesn’t warrant this kind of grief. She wasn’t right for you anyway, man. You know that.”

I nod. “Yep. I know.” My jaw smarts as I bite down hard. She wasn’t the one. But that doesn’t mean I’m interested in trying to find someone else to fill that role.

“And your excuse has always been that Willow Cove’s too small to find someone and you’re not going to date a tourist. But Dallas is not a tourist.”

“So you’re saying Dallas is perfect for me because she’s not a tourist?”

“That’s part of it. You could go on a double date with Portia and me if it would make you feel any better.”

“Uh, that’s okay.”That’s never going to happen.

He holds up his hands. “Just wanted to throw the idea out there.”

I’ve finished sweeping the deck, and I change the subject to work. Soon we’re talking about the projects we have in various stages. I really don’t know what I’m going to do when he leaves in the fall with Portia.

Soon, the guys’ game ends with a Perry and Duke narrow victory and the four of them ascend on the deck to rest and get drinks.

“You up?” Duke asks me, wiping his brow with a towel. “King and I were supposed to be on a team, but he’s gotta go, so we need someone to take his place.”

I agree, even though it can get frustrating to play with my friends. I take it much more seriously and their casual stance can get annoying. Still, it’s better to get out there than risk having Elliott say something to them about Dallas.

“I’ll show you how it’s done,” I tell my friends, and there’s some good-natured ribbing. These guys are the best. They’ve been my close friends for as long as I can remember.

It’s close, but Duke and I beat the others in three sets.

*****

The next morning, as I pass Dallas’s office, I can’t resist peeking my head in. It may have something to do with that orange-blossom scent or whatever it is that she diffuses.

It doesn’t have to do with Dallas herself.

I’m not entertaining thoughts of asking her out, like Elliott wants me to. He’s just suffering from a classic case of “I’m engaged and it’s so great that I want everyone else to get engaged, too.”

When I glance in, I see Dallas standing in front of her enormous whiteboard calendar. She’s wearing a crisp, white blouse—she seems to have a lot of them—with a blue scrollypattern. She’s wearing bright pink, wide-legged pants and matching heels.

Of course.

“Good morning.”

She wheels around and smiles a little. “Good Monday.”

“Is that like Good Friday? Is there a holiday I don’t know about?”

She re-caps her whiteboard marker and laughs. “It is for me. I love Mondays.”

“Really?” Why is that attractive to me? “We might have one thing in common then, because I love Mondays, too.”

She tilts her head to one side and scrunches up her nose. “You do not.”

“I do. Ask anyone.”

“This is a well-known thing? Are you known as ‘The Best Monday Lover in the East’?”

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