Page 21 of Christmas Secrets

***

Toni was pushing hershopping cart through the busy aisles of Nesbitt’s Market the following Monday when she spied Dal checking out steaks. She knew him of course, through Dottie. The three of them had some fun together back in the day. Still did once in a while with Ben and Dottie. She pushed her cart up beside his. “Anything good?”

Dal looked up and smiled. “Hiya, Antonia.”

“Ye must be the only person that still calls me Antonia,” she mocked. “Everyone else just calls me Toni. What are ye doing here?”

“I like Antonia, it’s a great lasses name. Tony is a man’s name,” he teased. “I’m shopping fer some grill food. What does it look like?”

She looked skyward praying for patience. “Grill food? It’s 7 degrees outside. How are ye going to grill?”

He chuckled. “Easy. Mum has one of those indoor grills, like a George Forman grill. Ye remember those?”

She nodded. “Aye, but I thought ye were staying at Neamh and taking yer meals there during the winter months. Ye know...all that travel back and forth on crappy roads and all that? Ye did it last year.”

Dal picked up a package with a particularly nice sirloin in it and added it to his cart. “I’m off now until after New Years. I’ll be staying with Mum fer the holidays.”

“Are ye going to the Christmas party at Neamh on Wednesday?” Toni eyeballed the steaks but ultimately turned them down. She was more of a chicken and turkey girl. And of course, seafood. She loved seafood.

“Probably fer a while, but I doubt I’ll stay long,” he replied, grabbing a package of hamburgers.

“What’s wrong? Did Cupid’s arrow miss its target?” she asked shrewdly. Dottie had told her that his pursuit of the lovely Ainsley MacCandish wasn’t going well.

Dal shrugged. “It was just a fun way to pass the time. Not a big deal. She’s headed back to Boston after New Year’s so it’s a moot point anyway.”

Toni’s eyes narrowed. Was it her imagination or was there a wistful note in his tone? He was eyeballing the meat like a tiger deciding which one to grab and avoiding making eye contact with her. “She dumped ye.”

He flashed a look of extreme irritation her way. “We weren’t together so she couldn’t dump me,” he snapped.

“Then ye dumped her.”

“What did I just say? We were never together so there was no dumping fer either of us. Besides, my love life or the lack of it isn’t any of yer business, Antonia,” he chided.

Toni knew he was lying but she didn’t press the issue. “That’s okay, keep yer secrets. We all have secrets we don’t want to share.”

He seemed to grab that remark like a lifeline. “Aye, even Ben has a secret. The funny part is that he still thinks it’s a secret,” he chortled. “I caught him coming away from Thistlewind last week. So, when I went in fer a cup of coffee after he left and I asked Poppy about why he was there. She admitted that Ben was taking some cooking lessons and was planning on bringing something to the party at Neamh. So, I’ll be going at least to see what he’s bringing. This ought to be good.”

Toni’s trouble alert reared up. “Did she say what he’s bringing?”

“Nay, just that it’s a favorite treat of Dottie’s at Christmas time. I have no idea what that is because Dottie loves food period. She just doesn’t know how to cook it.” Then he narrowed his eyes at her. “Don’t tell anyone I told ye that. Especially Dottie,” he warned.

Toni held up both hands to ward him off. “I won’t tell anyone. It’ll be our secret.”

“See that ye don’t.” He glanced at his watch. “I have to get going, Mum is waiting in the car.”

“Have fun at the party,” she called after him.

As he headed to the checkout, Toni hurried through her shopping. She was meeting Dottie in just over an hour for her last lesson in belly dancing. The routine her friend was going to do for Ben was already perfect, she just wanted one last practice.

But Toni had a sinking feeling that Dottie’s Christmas secret was about to blow wide open. She shot her a text telling her she needed to get to the studio as soon as possible. They needed to talk.

Thirty minutes later, Toni parked her car and brought her groceries into the little kitchen. The sudden ring of the bell over the studio door signaled her that Dottie had taken her seriously. She hurried to the front door and unlocked it, but kept the closed sign up. It was Christmas week; she was only taking special clients with holiday reasons.

“Get in here,” she hissed as she hurried back to the kitchen.

Dottie hurried after her. “What is going on, Toni?”

“Do ye want some tea?” Toni asked as she put her groceries away, slamming cabinet doors and dumping stuff in the freezer and fridge. There were just three bags, so it only took a minute.

---