Page 32 of Through the Snow Globe
“It’s all right. I have a clean shirt in my desk drawer.” He finally looked up. “I come prepared for employees who toss coffee at me,” he said, teasingly.
Diana reached past him and placed her coffee mug down on his desk. She took a breath and forced a small smile. “Thank you for your consideration, Mr. Powell . . . um, Toad, er,Todd. Have a good afternoon.” She turned and walked briskly out of his office. Her legs trembled as she hurried past Leann at the receptionist’s desk and headed into the parking lot. She waited to breathe until she was sitting behind her steering wheel. She waited to let the tears reach her eyes until then too.
She didn’t think it was even possible for her meeting to go worse than it had the first December 4th, but it had. And now she felt like she needed to call William and apologize profusely for what she’d just said to Mr. Powell. Jealousy and resentment made a person do awful things. Andugh.Had she accidentally called her boss atoad?
She turned the key in her ignition and was about to pull out of the parking lot when her phone began to ring.
Please don’t let it be Todd telling me I’m fired.She needed her job. But after that debacle, there was no way she still had it.
Instead, her phone read JOANNGRANT.
Diana hesitated. She needed someone to talk to, but her future mother-in-law was the last person she wanted to have a conversation with right now. They didn’t have that type of relationship, which was primarily Diana’s fault. The person Diana needed most right now was Linus.
She checked the time on her cell phone. It was just after three o’clock. Jean had gone home sick, and it was just him at the toy store. Since Diana was probably fired, she should go see him. Then she could drive him home after closing. Or keep him in the store’s backroom and they could make love all night until they both woke up tomorrow. Safe. Healthy. Happy. And in love. Albeit, she probably wouldn’t be employed.
Chapter 10
Diana reached to grab her umbrella from the glove department, preparing to head into the drizzling sleet that had been coming down off and on throughout the day. Nervous anticipation made fluttery feelings around her heart. She couldn’t wait to go inside the toy store and see her fiancé, awake and alive. She still couldn’t believe this day was really happening—again. She had a second chance. She and Linus both did. And maybe she’d made a debacle in Mr. Powell’s office, but that wouldn’t happen here.
She pushed her car door open and popped her umbrella overhead. The beady sound of tiny ice pellets tapped above her. Avoiding a puddle, Diana hopped onto the sidewalk and stepped under the small awning that led into the store. She closed her umbrella and then left it beside the entrance as she pulled open the door.
Christmas music greeted her as she dipped inside. Thankfully, it wasn’t Alvin and the Chipmunks this time. At first, she didn’t see Linus. Her gaze bounced around to several customers. Then Linus appeared from the back room and stopped walking when he saw her. His face lit up for a moment, and Diana couldn’t stop herself. She rushed over and threw her arms around his neck, pressing her cheek against his chest. She wished she could hear his heartbeat over the tune streaming through the speakers.
Linus grabbed hold of her shoulders and gently peeled her back. “What are you doing here?”
“I came to see you. Again.” Her heart skipped as she met his eyes. Open. Bright.
“But you were just here a couple hours ago. Don’t you have work?” He wasn’t exactly smiling at her. Instead, his forehead was pinched with worry. “How did your meeting with your boss go?”
Diana grimaced as the memory of coffee drenching the front of Mr. Powell’s shirt flashed across her memory. “Not very well.” She briefly looked at her feet. Her shoes were soggy and wet from a puddle outside. “It went horribly, actually.” She looked back up at him and forced a smile. “But that’s not why I’m here. I wanted to see you. I thought, since Jean went home sick, I’d help you at the store.”
Linus’s eyes seemed to search her face. He was always doing that, as if trying to read her like one of the books he read before bed. “What about your patients?”
She glanced around, noticing that Linus had a couple of customers browsing along the aisles. “I canceled the rest of my afternoon. I wanted to focus solely on my interview. Besides, I think my meeting with Mr. Powell went so poorly that I no longer get to see my patients. I’m pretty sure I’ll be fired. At the very least, I think I’ve been demoted instead of promoted.”
“What?” Concern continued to rise along his brow line. “What happened? How do you go into a meeting when you’re up for a promotion and walk away without a job?”
Diana stepped back a little. She was aware that one of the mothers in the store was looking at them. Lowering her voice, Diana said, “I don’t really want to discuss the meeting right now.”
Linus ran a hand through his overgrown waves of hair and let out an exasperated breath. “Of course you don’t.”
“What?”
Linus was supposed to be happy she was here offering her help. He adored his toy store, and he’d always wanted to tell her about it. He was always wishing out loud that she could make time to come see some toy he’d put together or some display he’d created. Well, here she was.
“That’s just like you, Di,” he said in a low voice.
“What is just like me?”
“You only want to discuss things whenyou’reready. And only the onesyouwant to discuss. Forget what anyone else wants.”
“That’s not true.”Is it?
“This promotion is the whole reason you’ve been dodging wedding plans. At least that’s what you’ve been saying. Today is a big day—not just for you, but for both of us. Because after today’s meeting, you promised you’d be ready to start planning our marriage. We were going to set a date tonight.”
“I know.” Diana glanced around at the store’s patrons again, feeling flustered and guilty. He was right.
“Some part of me thinks that your job was just an excuse.” Linus seemed to visibly deflate. “You know what? I love you and I love spending time with you, but now is not the right time for this conversation. You’re here because you’re upset. But you won’t let me comfort you. You won’t even tell me what happened, so what’s the point? Go home, Di. We can discuss it tonight. Or not. It’s up to you, as always.”
