Cedar Cove Collection

“We have the highest percentage of people with library cards per capita of any town or city in Washington State,” Loretta informed him proudly as she handed him a pen.

“I’m impressed,” Cliff said as his gaze moved back toward Grace.

She tried to ignore his appreciative stare but couldn’t. All at once she found herself fumbling and a tack fell and rolled across the floor. Bending to retrieve it, she nearly bumped heads with Cliff Harding as he, too, bent down. He was dressed in the same western style as he had been earlier, complete with a Stetson and boots. She even thought she detected the scent of hay on him.

“Are you ready to have dinner with me yet?” he asked in a stage whisper while both of them were crouched.

She glanced up at Loretta, who was carefully studying some paper or other, but Grace wasn’t fooled. Her co-worker was keenly interested in Grace’s answer, perhaps more so than Cliff.

“I…don’t think so.” She could feel the heat radiate from her face. His interest left her uncomfortable and out of her element. Her last date had been with Dan, when they were both teenagers. That was almost four decades ago—in a different century! The world was a vastly different place now.

“Would you consider having coffee with me, then?” Cliff asked.

Before Grace could respond, Loretta stood on her tiptoes, leaned over the counter and smiled down at them. “You can take your break now if you want.”

Grace resisted the urge to groan out loud.

“The Pancake Palace?” Cliff suggested, grinning boyishly. He seemed thankful for Loretta’s encouragement, even if Grace wasn’t.

“Five o’clock,” she said, none too pleased.

His smile broadened as he stood. “I’ll be there.”

Grace came to her feet and glared across the counter at Loretta. Cliff, meanwhile, had started toward the door.

“What about your library card?” Grace called out.

Cliff didn’t break his stride. “I’ll fill out the form next time I stop by,” he told her.

By five o’clock, Grace still wasn’t sure she’d meet Cliff Harding. Good manners won out. She might be nervous about seeing him, but she’d agreed to be there, and Grace believed in keeping her word.

Cliff slid out of a booth at the restaurant and stood when she approached. “I wasn’t sure you’d come,” he said quietly.

“I wasn’t sure I would, either,” she admitted and got into the red upholstered bench across from him. She righted the beige ceramic cup.

Cliff raised his hand in order to catch the waitress’s eye.

“I’m coming,” Goldie announced from behind the counter. The elderly waitress had been with the Pancake Palace for as long as Grace could remember—as far back as her high-school days. It was a new employee, not Goldie, who’d confused the credit cards.

Bringing the glass coffeepot, Goldie poured Grace’s cup first, then refilled Cliff’s. “You two planning to stay long?” she asked Grace. “The Chamber’s coming here for dinner.”

This was Goldie’s subtle way of informing Grace that if she didn’t want the entire business community to know she was having coffee with Cliff, she’d better cut this meeting short.

Grace wanted to kiss the older woman’s hand. “We won’t be long.”

“Up to you,” Goldie assured her with a wink.

“Thanks,” Cliff said.

“Yes, thank you, Goldie.”

Now that he had her attention, Cliff stared down at his coffee, avoiding eye contact. “I have a fairly good notion of how you’re feeling just now.”

Grace sincerely doubted that. “You do?”

“You’re nervous, a little agitated and your stomach’s full of butterflies. Am I close?”

Actually, he was. “Close enough. How’d you know?”

“Because I’m feeling the same way.”

“You said you’d been divorced five years?” Did that mean this state of tension in the presence of the opposite sex went on indefinitely?

“Yes.”

“Do you want to discuss it?” It’d help if he talked about himself because she had no intention of spilling out the private details of her life.

“Not particularly.”

“Children?”

“One daughter. She’s married and lives on the East Coast. We talk every week, and I make a point of flying out to see her once or twice a year.”

At least he kept in contact with his child, unlike Dan who’d abandoned both Grace and their daughters.

“Susan—my wife—fell in love with a colleague from work,” Cliff said. His hand tightened around the mug and she noticed a spasming muscle in his jaw. “According to what she said at the time, she’d never been happy.”

“Is she now?”

“I wouldn’t know. After the divorce I retired and moved to Olalla,” he said, mentioning a local community ten miles south of Cedar Cove.

“The locals call it Ou-la-la,” Grace told him.

“I can understand why. It’s beautiful there. I have forty acres and raise quarter horses.”

“It sounds lovely.”

“It is, except for one thing.” His eyes locked with hers. “I’m lonely.”

That was something Grace understood far too well. Her marriage had never been completely happy, but over the years Grace and Dan had grown content with each other. There was a lot to be said for contentedness—conversation over dinner, a night out at the movies, a repertoire of shared experiences. Dan had usually been there to greet her when she walked in the door after work. Now there was only Buttercup.

“I’m looking for a friend,” Cliff told her. “Someone who’d be willing to attend a concert with me every now and then, that’s all.”

The idea appealed to Grace, too. “That would be nice.”

“I was hoping you’d think so.” His tone was gentle and encouraging.

“But,” she hurried to add, “only after the divorce is final.”