"She tended to the flowers and I mowed the grass."
"We were just teenagers." Lois laughs. "High school kids wanting to make some spending money. Tom kept finding reasons to come over and talk to me when I was working. I found it very annoying," she says with a huff.
"But not annoying enough to tell me to go away," Tom says, winking at Lois.
She glances at him. "He was a very handsome young man. And persistent."
"Persistence is key," Aiden says. "If at first you don't succeed, try try again."
"Exactly," Tom says with a nod.
"It was lovely meeting you," Lois says to me. "I need to get back to the kitchen. Please say you'll stay for dinner. You may be my only two customers."
"We'll stay." Aiden looks at me. "Assuming you're okay with that."
"Yes. Of course." I smile at Lois. "I can't wait to try the pork roast."
"You're in for a treat," Tom says. "And for dessert she's making blueberry cobbler."
"With fresh picked blueberries from out back," Lois says. "Well, I better get to work. It was nice meeting you."
"Nice meeting you too," I say.
Tom watches her leave, then turns back to us. "I'll let you two get back to your date."
"It's not a—" I stop because he's already gone.
Aiden laughs. "They seem to want to play matchmaker."
"Yeah." I sit down on the barstool, running my finger over the rim of my glass as I ponder whether or not to ask Aiden if he's single. Maybe I should forget it. I don't have time to date. But I really like this guy.
"So, you never said. Are you—"
The ring of his phone interrupts me.
"Go ahead and get it," I tell him.
He silences his phone. "I don't like talking on my phone in a restaurant. I'll call her later."
"Her? You mean your girlfriend?"
"My mom. I'll call her after dinner." He checks his phone. "Now that you say that, I'm surprised it wasn't Celine calling. I haven't heard from her since this morning."
"Celine?"
He puts his phone down. "My girlfriend."
Chapter Four
Sophie
Of course he has a girlfriend. He's handsome. Smart. Funny. Dresses well. He's easy to talk to.
And here I thought he was flirting with me. He was just being nice.
"Why didn't you bring her along?" I ask. "This is the perfect place for a romantic weekend."
"She's a city girl. This place would drive her insane. She can't take all the quiet and the lack of shops. I wanted to take her up to Maine to show her where I used to spend the summers but ten minutes outside the city she made me turn around. She panicked at the thought of spending a weekend just relaxing on the beach."
"Sounds like heaven to me," I say, imagining it.
"To be fair, the beaches there aren't great. The shore is rocky and the water's cold but it's still really beautiful. It's a good place to just relax and get away."
"You said you spent your summers there?"
"When we were kids my brother and I would go there and stay with our grandparents. They owned an inn off the coast of Maine, just south of Bar Harbor. It was a small town where everyone knew each other. I could take off for the day and run around without my grandparents having to worry. I'd go down to the docks, talk to the fishermen. If they weren't too busy they'd let me help and send me home with whatever I caught." Aiden smiles, a faraway look in his eyes. "Sometimes I wish I could go back to those simpler times."
"You could."
He breaks from the memory, his eyes going to mine. "What do you mean?"
"You don't have to do what you're doing. You could move to a place like this, live a simpler life."
He chuckles. "And do what? I'm guessing jobs in property investment are pretty scarce up here in Vermont."
"You could do something else. What did you go to school for?"
"Business. I was a finance major. I worked as a stockbroker for a few years but then this opportunity came up for the place I'm working at now and I took it, thinking it'd be fewer hours and less stress."
"And was it?"
"Not really. But I like what I'm doing. I feel like I'm making a difference in this job."
"What does your girlfriend do?"
"She's still figuring that out. She went to design school but didn't finish. She wants to go back, but in the meantime she's doing some charity work and working for her dad's company."