Page 45 of A Breeze Over Rosewood Beach
The only way I’ll know how she feels is if I ask,he thought, almost smiling. He felt nervous but he also felt a rush of exhilaration.Maybe her answer will be what I’m hoping it will be.
He stepped inside the small, charming café and felt his heart lift up. It already felt like home to him. He knew that if he chose to stay in Rosewood Beach and pursue a relationship with Sally, it would be a major change from his life in New York. If he stayed, more than just his circumstances would change. He would change.
He realized a moment later, however, that he’d already begun to change. Rosewood Beach and Sally had started to change his mindset. He wanted to continue to follow his heart toward her, whatever that might mean for his future. Just like the other gambles he had taken in his life, he knew that this one was worth going for.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Sally looked around her bustling café with a smile. She loved it when her restaurant was filled with customers, even though it kept her on her toes. The air was filled with the appetizing smells of sizzling hamburgers and freshly chopped basil leaves. She felt as warm and cozy as a dinner roll tucked into a cloth-lined basket, knowing that outside, the winter wind was blowing coldly but there in her café she was comfortable.
Her practiced eyes scanned over the tables, and she noted that there were no empty plates that she needed to clean up. She decided to stop by the booth where Vivian, Noelle, and Dean were sitting with Noelle’s grandmother Gloria. Sally knew that they had met at the café to talk about planning Dean and Noelle’s wedding, and she was eager to hear how that was going.
She grabbed herself a quick cup of coffee as a pick-me-up, added a splash of hazelnut creamer and a splash of milk, and then went to sit down next to Vivian at the booth.
“Hey, girls—and Dean,” she added with a laugh. “How’s the wedding planning going?”
“Help me, Sally,” Dean joked. “They have me here hostage, and my mashed potatoes have all run out. All that’s left for me here is torture.”
He grinned impishly at his fiancée, who shook her head at him.
“It is not torture, you still have plenty of that bacon cheeseburger left,” Vivian told him wryly.
Sally laughed, enjoying the cheerful banter amongst these people that she cared about so much. “Oh, come on, Dean, I know you enjoy planning your wedding to Noelle. Every time it gets brought up, you look totally starry-eyed. It’s perfectly clear that you love thinking about it.”
“This is true.” Dean grinned.
“So how is it going, really?” Sally asked, turning to Noelle, who she knew she would get an honest answer from.
“Great.” Noelle’s eyes shone with happiness. She looked becoming in the pink knit hat that Julia had made her for Christmas, and it brought out the lovely red tones of her hair. “Everyone’s been having all kinds of great ideas, and Vivian and Grandma have been helping us get all those ideas organized.”
“This is going to be such a beautiful wedding,” Gloria said, smiling warmly. Sally noticed that Noelle and her grandmother both had expressive, kind eyes. “We were just talking about the flower arrangements—Noelle wants a kind of wildflower theme, with daisies.”
“Daisies are my favorite flower,” Noelle said with a laugh. “I know I should probably have something more elegant, but I just love them.”
Sally shook her head, smiling. “It’s your wedding! You get to do whatever it is you want to do. I think wildflowers for your bouquet sounds lovely.”
She was just about to mention that she had a cousin who had done the same thing, when she noticed someone walk through the front doors of the café.
Her heart skipped a beat when she saw that it was Oscar. He was looking particularly dapper, she thought, in a gray wool coatand dark blue knit scarf. She wondered if he’d purchased the scarf at a local gift shop since coming to Rosewood Beach, since she’d never seen him wearing it before.
“Excuse me for just a moment, would you?” she said, standing up. She wanted to talk to Oscar, and she wondered if he wanted to talk to her as well, since he was looking around the café as if in search of someone. She felt pleasantly surprised by the fact that he was there, and she wanted to say hello to him, even if it was only for a minute.
“Hi, Oscar,” she said, hurrying up to him with a wide smile on her face. It faded a little, however, when she noticed how serious he looked.
“Hi, Sally.” He nodded at her and cleared his throat. “Would you like to go for a walk with me?”
“A walk?” She felt suddenly nervous. Did he have bad news? Was he about to tell her that he didn’t think they should be seeing each other romantically anymore? “Yes—yes, I can do that. Just let me chat with my employees quick to let them know I’m stepping out.”
He nodded, offering her a small smile. She felt as though she would have liked to take his smile and slip it in her pocket to keep, especially since she was worried that she wasn’t going to get to see his smiles as often anymore.
She hurried back to the table where her friends were waiting. “I’m going for a walk with Oscar,” she announced breathlessly. Even though she’d meant it only as an explanation for why she wouldn’t be coming back to sit with them, the booth was instantly filled with grinning faces.
“Who’s Oscar?” Noelle asked impishly, scanning the restaurant and then looking pleased when she caught sight of Oscar standing by the door. “That handsome older man by the front door?”
Sally nodded, feeling herself blush. She wanted to protest and tell them that their romantic suspicions weren’t anything to write home about—but she was dating Oscar, wasn’t she?
Wasn’t she? She felt another flutter of nervousness and glanced back toward the intriguing man who Noelle had referred to as handsome. Oscarwasvery handsome, and in his coat and hat he looked very distinguished. She felt a pang as she realized just how different from her he was, and what a very different world he came from. He probably wanted to speak with her to end things between him. After all, what would someone like him see in someone like her long-term?
“So is this like a date?” Dean said, his brows rising a bit. “Are you dating that guy over there, Sally?” He sounded so overjoyed for her that Sally’s heart twisted a little between feelings of happiness and worry.
