with commitment or anything else.”
“He’s sending a limo to pick you up, and he told you to prepare for something big. That sounds like a little more than a dinner out to me.”
“And you’re suddenly the expert on romance?”
“Just because I don’t currently have a boy toy doesn’t mean I’ve never had one. Besides, I read romance novels.”
“Really?”
“We all have our weakness,” Lauren said. “What jewelry are yougoing to wear with that?” She pointed at the little black dress Harriet had laid on the ironing board in her studio.
“I’m still debating. You want to look at the choices?”
Harriet loaded her dress back onto its padded hanger and led Lauren through the connecting door into the kitchen and upstairs to her bedroom. She hung the dress on the closet door and opened a wooden jewelry box that sat on top of her dresser.
“Oh, my gosh!” Lauren said. “Is that stuff real?”
She pointed at the neat lines of jewel-encrusted gold and silver necklaces that lay on the velvet surface of the top tray. Harriet opened the first drawer of the box, revealing three strands of pearls. She sighed.
“Yeah, my parents thought jewelry could make up for their absence on the holidays.” She held up a pearl choker with a diamond-and-ruby clasp. “I wanted new riding boots one year for Christmas, but I got this instead.”
“That would look really good with your dress,” Lauren gasped, ignoring Harriet’s musings. “Did you get earrings to match?”
Harriet pulled open the middle drawer of the box, revealing a tray of earrings. She removed a pair of pearl teardrops with diamond-and-ruby accents. Lauren took them and held them up.
“You have to wear these,” she said, turning them until the rubies caught the light. “I’ve got to go back to my computer now, but tomorrow I have to meet Robin at noon. I’ll come by on my way, and I want a full report. If anything big happens, call me tonight. I’ll be up until at least midnight.”
“I’d have never pegged you for such a romantic.”
“Romantic? What are you talking about? I just love a good train wreck.”
Lauren set the earrings back in the jewelry box, turned and left. Harriet was still standing in her room when she heard the kitchen door open and close again.
“Are you up there?” called Aunt Beth. “Lauren said you were in your room.”
“Do you think I’m walking into a trap?” Harriet asked her aunt when the older woman had ascended the stairs and plopped her ample self into the red overstuffed chair beside Harriet’s bed.
“What on earth are you talking about? Aren’t you going on a date with Aiden? Or did I miss something?”
“Yes, I’m going on a date. No, you didn’t miss anything. Lauren stopped by to give me a pep talk. I think.”
“Well, that explains it,” Beth said.
“I accused Lauren of being a romantic, and she said she just wanted a ringside seat to the train wreck my date is sure to be. She thinks Aiden is reacting to the threat of Tom.”
“Tom Bainbridge? Why would Aiden be threatened by Tom? He was in Foggy Point during the big storm in December, but didn’t he go back when the slide was cleared?”
Harriet and the Loose Threads had met Tom when they’d attended a retreat at his late mother’s folk art school in the community of Angel Harbor early the previous year, and had renewed their acquaintance when he’d been trapped in Foggy Point by a landslide that had blocked the highway.
“He did.” Harriet turned her back to her aunt as she began rearranging her sock drawer.
“Have you been seeing Tom?”
“Define seeing,” Harriet said in a careful tone.
“Oh, honey, tell me you’re not using Tom to pressure Aiden into making a move.”
“I’m not using anyone to do anything. Tom and I have had coffee a few times. He is well aware that Aiden and I are working on our relationship, and he is fine with being friends.”
“Does Aiden know you’re still seeing Tom?”
“It’s none of his business—or yours, for that matter—but yes, everyone knows about everyone else. I’m starting to get a bad feeling about this whole surprise date thing, and not just because of Lauren, either. Even you think it’s not on the up-and-up; I can hear it in your voice. You think he’s asking me out on a special date because of Tom.”
“I didn’t say that. I was just asking you if that’s why. It’s entirely possible he’s making a grand romantic gesture because he wants to knock your socks