She was hoping it was Drew’s turn to pick up the check but, after delivering the lunch special to a couple of guys at the counter, she saw Mitch waiting for her at the cash register.
“Yours is on the house,” she reminded him.
“I’m paying for this one.” Before she could object, he leaned closer, as if he didn’t want anybody else in the diner to overhear. “Instead of a free lunch, I want a lunch I pay for, but with you.”
There went the tingling and zinging again. “I’m sure my customers would be thrilled if I sat down and ate my lunch while they waited.”
“We’ll have a late lunch. Tomorrow. I’ll pick you up here at two, when Ava comes in.”
“That sounds like a date,” she said suspiciously. She didn’t date. No men.
“It’s a favor. And you owe me a favor, right?”
“How is going to lunch with you doing you a favor?”
“I’m going to do a little shopping, too. You can help me pick out Rosie’s Christmas present.”
That made her laugh, which of course made everybody in the place turn and look. “It’s the second week of August, Mitch.”
“I like to plan ahead. Why not do it now, when I can guilt you into helping me?”
“Guilt?”
“I changed a lightbulb for you. You won’t help me pick out a gift for poor Rosie?”
He was so full of it. “I shouldn’t encourage you.”
“But you will.” He grinned as though he’d won a door prize or something. “Right?”
“Okay, fine.” She rang up his check and gave him his change. “But make it two-thirty. I’d like to change out of my work clothes if you’re going to drag me into stores.”
“Sounds great.” He paused halfway to the door and turned back. “Oh, and wear jeans.”
He was gone before she could ask why, so she went back to work, trying to ignore the curious looks and the not-so-subtle whispering at Jean and Dana’s table. She wanted to stand on the counter and announce that she was not going on a date with Mitch Kowalski.
But he was picking her up at two-thirty to take her out to lunch. No matter what the logical part of her mind said, there was a part of her that practically trembled in anticipation.
She was going on a date with Mitch.
*
“I hear things are a little rocky at the Northern Star right now.”
Rose wasn’t surprised Fran had heard what was going on, and felt a pang of guilt for not telling her herself. She and Fran Benoit had been friends a long time, but there were some things Rose didn’t want to talk about. Andy Miller was one of those things. “Not for me. I’m having a nice little vacation.”
“So you’re really on strike?”
Rose laughed. “I wouldn’t call it that exactly.”
Fran shook her head and propped her elbows on the counter. Rose had made an impromptu run to the store to restock her stash of snacks, but the place was empty, so they were taking advantage of the quiet to catch up. Sometimes it took Rose three hours to pick up a gallon of milk.
“How is it that I don’t know why you dislike Andy so much?”
Because Rose didn’t want her to know, but she didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so she hedged. “It was so long ago I don’t even remember myself.”
“You’re a bad liar, Rose Davis, but I’ll let you get away with it this time. Tell me about Mitch and Paige instead. Everybody seems to be talking about them.”
That was news to her. Maybe she was spending too much time in her room. “What are they saying?”
“Oh, you know how people talk about Mitch. It’s pretty obvious he’s got his eye on her, and we all know Paige hasn’t dated anybody that we know of since she came to Whitford, so there’s a lot of speculation on whether or not they’re hooking up, as the kids say.”
“He needs to leave that girl alone.”
Fran looked surprised, either by her words or her sharp tone. Maybe both. “Most of us think he’d be good for her. You know how he is. He gives them a little romance, then kisses them on the cheek and off he goes with no hard feelings. It would do Paige good to have a little fun.”
“She doesn’t strike me as the kind of woman who just has a little fun. I think she had some sadness before she came to Whitford and she’s really thrived here. If Mitch breaks her heart, it’ll change her.”
“I don’t think you’re giving her enough credit.”
“It’s got less to do with her than with him. You know I love that boy like he’s my own, but he’s not a man I’d ever want a woman I care about to get involved with. He’s got no intention of settling down, so it’s best for Paige if he just leaves her alone.”
“I say a little bit of no-strings fun is good for a woman. Especially one Paige’s age. She’s too young to forget what good sex is like.”
Rose nodded. “I agree with that, but there are plenty of nice men in Whitford who’d love to have good sex with her. Men who are part of the community and want to settle down.”
“Well, I told Mitch he should go for it,” Fran said stubbornly.
“You’re becoming a meddling old woman.”
“And you’re not?”