“Helen? Why are you asking?”
“I’ve been divorced for years and I need to do something.”
“You don’t want to date anyone in town?”
“Um, well, that’s hard to say. There aren’t a lot of single guys. Sven is Kelly’s ex, so that would never work. Griffith is into Kelly, so again, a problem. Now that I think about it, your daughter is creating trouble in my personal life.”
“You want to date Sven and Griffith?”
“No, but blaming Kelly means it’s not my fault.”
“I respect that. There’s Ryan.”
Helen wrinkled her nose. “Thanks, but no. He’s flaky and not my type.”
“Plus he’s too young for you.”
She glared at him. “Excuse me? He’s what, five years younger than me? That’s a perfectly acceptable age gap.” Jeez, if Jeff didn’t think five years was okay, what was he going to say about their sixteen-year difference?
“You’re an old soul. Ryan isn’t.”
“That’s amazingly similar to calling me old.”
“You know I didn’t mean that. You’re on a tear tonight.”
“Not really. Just sassing you.”
“You said it was the tulips.”
She grinned. “I lied.”
“You don’t have to sound so cheerful about it.”
“Why not? I’m a cheerful person. Now about your women... How does it happen? Do you go to bars? Is there a website? And why haven’t you ever brought someone home? Don’t you want to get married again? I know things with Marilee weren’t great, but it’s been forever. You’re still a relatively young man. Don’t you ever want more? Someone to care about you and be a part of your life?”
His steady gaze warned her that she might have gone too far with that last bit, but she figured Jeff would chalk it up to enthusiasm rather than a plea for attention.
“Helen,” he began, then stopped. His tense expression relaxed.
She turned and saw Isaak walking toward them.
“Timing bites,” she muttered.
“Depends on how you look at it.”
“You would say that.”
Isaak slid in next to her and reached for a fry. “We have made our musical selections.”
“Great.” Jeff was already standing. “Can’t wait to hear what they are.”
“Someone’s enthused.”
Isaak grabbed two more fries, then rose. Helen followed, then moved close to Jeff.
“Chick, chick, chicken,” she chanted softly.
“You know it.”
* * *
Kelly spun back and forth on the stool at the counter. Helen stood at the cash register, making change for her last customer of the day. It was a little after two and the diner was quiet. The kitchen staff had cleaned up and gone for the day.
Helen walked Mrs. Pritchard to the door and held it open, then closed and locked it. She turned to Kelly.
“You could have texted me or something. I can’t believe you confronted Griffith and waited all this time to tell me.”
“It’s been less than two days.”
Helen put her hands on her hips. “That’s like eight years in best-friend time. Are you mad at me or something?”
The question was more teasing than serious. Helen always had a dramatic flair. She was so alive and present in her life. Not in a scary way, like Kelly’s mother or sister, but from a place of positive energy. Being around Helen always made Kelly feel better about everything.
“I’m not mad and you know it. I just needed to process.”
“Let me grab us drinks, then you’re going to tell me everything. You’ll start with you said hi and he said hi and go from there. Remember, no detail is too small.”
“I promise you will hear them all.”
Kelly moved to a booth. Helen got herself a diet soda at the dispenser, then made Kelly an Arnold Palmer and carried both to the booth.
Her dark blue Parrot Café shirt brought out the deep blue of her eyes while her black jeans emphasized her curvy hips. Her long black hair was pulled back in a French braid. She was sexy and voluptuous and by comparison, Kelly felt practically two dimensional.
Helen rested her elbows on the table. “Start talking.”
Kelly drew in a breath before exhaling slowly. “I went to see Griffith, which was, by the way, your suggestion.”
“Yes, I’m the brilliant friend. Go on.”
“He said...” She still had trouble wrapping her mind around what he’d said, let alone repeating it. “He wants us to get to know each other with the idea of entering into a long-term relationship. But he doesn’t want to fall in love or get married. So we’d be friends having sex in a committed way.” She sipped her drink. “Committed to each other, not the sex.”
“You don’t actually know that,” Helen said, before leaning back. “He really said all that? Just blurted it out?”
“He didn’t blurt as much as explain. He’s not interested in getting married again and he’s not a one-night-stand kind of guy. He wants a long-term monogamous relationship. With me.”
“Of course with you. You’re amazing. He’d be an idiot to pick anyone else, but jeez. Nobody just says that.”
“I know.”
“It’s interesting.”
Kelly could have come up with about twenty-seven other words. “Interesting? How?”
“It’s kind of your thing. You were with Sven for five years and you never once thought of taking things further.” Helen stared at her intently. “You never did think of it, did you? Because I asked all the time and you kept saying you didn’t want to marry him.”
“I didn’t, I swear. He was great and all, it’s just, I wonder if maybe I wasn’t exactly in love with him.” A thought that had haunted her since the breakup. They’d been together five years. Shouldn’t she have been crushed when he ended things?
“Not everyone has to fall in love and get married. People have wonderfully happy relationships without going that route. And some of us who do get married choose incredibly badly and end up divorced.” She smiled. “What did you say?”
“That I would think about it.”
“And?”
“It’s been less than forty-eight hours. I don’t know what to do or think or say.” She picked up her drink. “What do you think?”
“What went wrong with Sven? Why wasn’t he the one?”
Kelly blinked at the question. She’d thought they would be discussing the pros and cons of Griffith.
“I’m not sure. On paper we were the perfect couple. We have similar interests and all but there wasn’t any spark.” Sven had been way too into sex. “He liked to walk around naked. That didn’t make me comfortable.”
“Just randomly naked?”
“After sex.”
“Well, sure. He has the body for it. You couldn’t appreciate the show?”
“Not my style.” She shrugged.