“I see. Well, I’m sure that’s been keeping you very busy lately.”
Paul laughed lightly. “Cassie’s been keeping me busy for the past twenty-one years.”
“Do you have any other kids?”
“No, just the one. In just a few weeks, I’ll be a contented empty-nester.”
Jennifer looked somewhat speculatively from him to Bonnie and back again, then gave a little shrug. “I’m off, then. See you both next week. Great class tonight, Bonnie.”
“Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it.” Bonnie waited until Jennifer had let herself out before turning to Paul. “I hope I read the look you gave me correctly. You did want an excuse to stay a few minutes longer, didn’t you?”
“I did,” he confessed. Maybe he had misinterpreted, but he thought he’d seen the expression on Jennifer’s face before—recently divorced single mom looking to fill a position he had no interest in auditioning for. He hoped she’d gotten that message, if he’d been right about her initial interest in him. “She seems very nice, but…”
Bonnie merely nodded and started gathering the supplies from the class. He knew she was much too ethical to discuss one of her other students with him. To justify staying behind, he helped her clean up.
“How are the wedding arrangements coming along?” Bonnie asked as they carried the supplies into the kitchen. “Do you know of anything Cassie needs from us at the moment?”
He wasn’t sure if she was simply making small talk or keeping him honest about his excuse to stay a bit longer. He was amused by his suspicion that it was mostly the latter. “As far as I can determine, everything’s on track. She told me her dress is almost finished and all the decisions have been made and orders have been placed. Now it’s just a matter of getting through all the showers and parties scheduled for the next few weeks—and she still has four and a half weeks of school to complete.”
The last of those showers would actually take place here at the inn, he remembered. Cassie had mentioned that her bridesmaids had met with Bonnie and Kinley and booked the dining room for the first Sunday afternoon in August, a week and six days before the big event. Somewhat late for a shower, Holly had said with typical disapproval at the lack of efficient organization, but Cassie had only laughed and said her friends were all busy young professionals and students and they’d booked the only day they could manage. Besides, she had reminded her mom, she hadn’t exactly given everyone a lot of notice. Cassie and Mike hadn’t even chosen a wedding date until mid-May, only three months before the event.
“I’m so impressed that she’s actually making her own dress from her own design,” Bonnie marveled.
“Oh, yeah, she’s a whiz with a sewing machine.”
“Sounds like a busy time for her. How’s she holding up?”
He chuckled. “My Cassie is not easy to rattle. She goes with the flow. She’d consider a wedding disaster just another great story to tell her kids someday.”
“Oh, how I wish more brides had that attitude,” Bonnie said as she closed a cabinet door.
“I suppose you’ve seen your share of meltdowns.”
Her smile was wry. “A few, and I’m sure I’ll see many more in the future.”
She was optimistic about the long-term success of her establishment, he noted. An admirable attitude, reminding him how very attached she was to the inn. How deeply she’d planted her roots here.
“Cassie made all her friends promise that if they saw even a glimmer of ‘Bridezilla’ making an appearance in her, they were to give her a swift kick in the butt.”
Bonnie laughed softly. “That’s cute. So many brides act like one little glitch in their obsessively detailed plans will ruin their lives forever.”
She bit her lip suddenly, looking as though she wasn’t sure if she’d stepped over a professional line. “Of course, we do our best here to make sure all our events go as smoothly as our clients desire,” she assured him.
Trying to hide his amusement, he nodded solemnly. “Surely you don’t get blamed for things that are out of your control.”
Forgetting herself again, she rolled her eyes. “A bride once threatened to sue us because it rained on her wedding day.”
“You’re kidding.”
Shaking her head with a pained sigh, she said, “I wish I was. She also blamed her groom, her mother and God, in that order after us, and spent an hour crying in the ladies’ room before we could coax her out after the brief rain shower ended. She ended up having a very nice, if a bit damp, wedding.”
“So that’s why you spell out in your contract that you aren’t responsible for weather or other acts of nature. Cassie thought that was funny.”
“More like a necessity. Can you put this container on that shelf, please? The top one?”
Obligingly, he slid the lidded plastic box easily onto a shelf well above Bonnie’s head.
“Thank you. You saved me from having to pull out the stepladder.”
Glancing at the high cabinets lining the no-wasted-space kitchen, he smiled. He was unable to resist patting the top of her blond head, which came just about level with his shoulder. “I have a feeling you spend a lot of time with that stepladder.”
She grinned up at him. “Are you kidding? If I ever get married, it’ll be one of my attendants.”
Even though it was only a joke, her reference to marriage made him automatically drop his hand and take a half step back from her. He tried to cover his foolish reaction by opening the second basket for unpacking. “Are there any other high shelves I can reach for you before I go?”
“As a matter of fact…” Seemingly oblivious to his awkward moment, she had him store several more items.
“I hope this gets me extra points in the class.”
Wiping her hands on a kitchen towel, she smiled. “You know I’m not grading the class.”
That fleeting little dimple at the corner of her mouth could make a man’s mouth go dry. He swallowed before murmuring, “Still…”
Draping the towel over a rack, she pushed back her hair and said, “I think it’s safe for you to go now. The parking lot should be empty. Thank you for your help.”
“I wasn’t afraid to go out with the class,” he said with exaggerated male dignity. “I just, uh, thought you could use a hand.”
As he’d hoped, she laughed again. She had such a pretty laugh, soft and musical. His lips quirked automatically upward in response and he bade her good-night with a smile. If he fantasized about parting with a kiss—well, he assured himself as he headed for his car, that was only natural considering his attraction to her. Because he sensed the attraction wasn’t entirely one-sided, he hoped maybe someday soon that fantasy could come true.
Darkness had settled fully over the grounds by the time Bonnie headed out of the inn that night. After class she’d checked on the guests playing board games in the shared front parlor, and did some prep for breakfast the next morning. Finally deciding to call it a day, she slipped out a back door onto the long wooden deck where an older couple who were staying a few days to celebrate their fifty-first wedding anniversary sat in rockers, sipping tea and enjoying the moonlight. She exchanged good-nights with them, but didn’t linger, leaving them to their quiet companionship.
Rather than heading straight into her half basement apartment, she turned at the foot of the stairs and walked along one of the graveled paths toward the back of the gardens. She needed a few minutes of fresh air to clear her head before turning in for the night. The lighting was sufficient to safely guide her steps, but not so bright as to dim the beauty