Page 32 of A Breeze Over Rosewood Beach
“Last year,” Oscar said, suddenly feeling grumpy again. The question had reminded him of how rich he’d been the year before. At least the car was fully paid off already.
“Nice.” Dean grinned. “Most of the stuff I work with is at least ten years old, if not twenty—or thirty.” He laughed. “Lots of people in town know how to fix cars, and they take care of their own stuff pretty well. I’m here for the people who don’t know how, don’t have time, or have gotten too old to do the physically challenging stuff. We’ve got some guys in town who have fixed up some really old cars. A couple of them are from nineteen twenty or thereabouts.”
Oscar’s eyebrows lifted. He was impressed. “That’s really something. This town of yours is taking me more and more by surprise all the time.”
“Just wait till you’re here in the summer,” Dean said warmly. “Winter is great, but there’s so much more to do when it’s hot outside. There’s boating and hiking, and we have picnics and potlucks—all kinds of great stuff.”
“Mm,” Oscar grunted. Those things did sound great to him, but he wasn’t one for enthusiasm, just like he wasn’t one for compliments.
Why is that?he wondered.
He suddenly felt a little uncomfortable and uncertain, and he decided to change the subject. “I’ve met your mother,” he said. “She’s a very nice woman.”
“She is.” Dean smiled. “She’s so kind to everyone. Did you meet her at The Lighthouse Grill?”
“No, I sort of met her at Ocean Breeze Café. The place Sally owns.” He felt his ears turn pink a moment later. Why did he need to mention Sally? He didn’t. Besides, Dean probably already knew that Sally owned Ocean Breeze Café. In a townthis small, everyone was sure to know that kind of thing. “She’s friends with your mother, isn’t she?”
“Yeah, they’re really good friends. They’d been friendly acquaintances for a long time, but recently they’ve struck up a really close friendship. Sally’s great. I’d say she’s even kinder than my mother is, if that’s possible.”
Oscar nodded, since he would have found it easy to believe it if Dean had told him that Sally was the kindest person on earth.
“Sally comes to our family dinner nights sometimes,” Dean continued. “I’ve got a big family, and now that we all have partners, there’s really a lot of us. But Mom invited her into our ‘inner circle’ so to speak, which shows how close the two of them are.”
“How many siblings do you have?” Oscar asked, wondering what it might be like to be part of an inner circle like that. The only inner circles he’d ever been a part of had been in the business world, and those had been populated by calculating, cold men.
“Three. Hazel is my twin, and I have two older sisters, Julia and Alexis. You’ll see them around The Lighthouse Grill if you go back there.”
“Mmm.”
“And then Grayson is Alexis’s husband, Jacob is Hazel’s partner, and Cooper and Julia just got married. I’m next.” Dean’s grin was radiant. “I’m going to marry a girl named Noelle.” It was clear from the way Dean said her name that he thought the world of her. Oscar found himself wondering what it might be like to love someone that much. He’d never let himself get close enough to romance to find out.
“Congratulations,” Oscar said. “When’s the wedding?”
“Not soon enough.” Dean laughed. “But I guess the girls need more time to finish planning everything. I mean, I’m helping them here and there, but they don’t really need my help. Theylike doing all that stuff, and I feel totally clueless about picking out floral bouquets and things like that.”
Oscar nodded, smiling. He would have felt clueless too. He wondered for a moment what it might have been like to get married. To be so excited to celebrate something that you planned out a myriad of details months in advance.
He continued to chat with Dean for a while, and then Dean got called away to help with a tricky car repair in the garage. Oscar sat down in the waiting area for a while and thumbed through a few magazines. One of them was a local publication, and he was intrigued by the articles about the local businesses. There were photos of Rosewood Beach in the summer, and he found himself looking forward to warmer weather. He’d always liked boats, and everything to do with the ocean. When he’d been a child, he’d loved walking along the beach and playing in the sand. He liked the idea of being able to walk along the water without having to drive all the way out of New York City to get to a decently clean beach.
Not long after that, one of the other mechanics came into the lobby with Oscar’s key and handed him the paperwork. Oscar paid for the oil change, pleased by how painless it had been. He stepped out of the repair shop and was making his way to his car, when a startlingly yellow Volkswagen Beetle slowed down on the street that bordered Main Street Auto’s parking lot.
“Oscar!”
He recognized the voice of the person driving the car at once. Sally leaned over as she called to him from the open window of her car.
“Come and talk to me for a second!”
Surprised and glancing up and down the road to make sure that Sally wasn’t holding up traffic, Oscar approached her.
“Hi, Sally,” he said, finding that he was slightly out of breath when he reached her car. “Is everything okay?”
“Everything is great!” She rested her forearm on the open window. “I talked to my distributers, and we struck a deal. I’m going to be paying the prices I was paying four years ago—your idea is going to save me so much money.”
“Congratulations,” Oscar said, meaning it sincerely. “I’m delighted that it worked out.” He inhaled, and he was about to say, “Well, have a good day,” but to his surprise, the words that came out of his mouth were completely different. “Would you like to get coffee with me on Monday morning? To celebrate? We could try that other place in town, Seaside Sweets Bakery?”
Sally blinked at him, her eyes wider than they’d been before. He felt the tips of his ears turn pink, and he felt glad that he was wearing a hat so that she couldn’t see his embarrassment.
Had he just asked her out on a date?
