When they were both in the truck and buckled in, he started the engine and pulled away from the house.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“I thought maybe we’d go to Nana’s,” he said.
“Amazing,” she sighed, smiling and leaning back in her seat.
Nana’s was a small, family-owned restaurant in Springton Valley, with delicious, old-fashioned food. Nana’s son, Charles, ran a tiny brewery on the premises where he always had two tanks going. One was a micro-brewed soda or lager of his own invention, and the other was the family’s famous homemade root beer. Willow had been obsessed with that root beer as a child, and it sounded amazing right now.
“Bottomless root beer,” Jensen said with a fond smile.
“You remembered,” she said, wondering if there was anything about her that he didn’t remember.
When her family had brought Jensen along on their outings, he and Ransom were usually talking non-stop about sports or school projects. She hadn’t thought he was paying any attention to what she chose to drink.
“Of course I remember,” he told her. “You were such a tiny little thing. You had my total respect for how many root beers you could put away.”
“I never managed to eat my dinner,” she said, smiling and shaking her head at the memory.
“Your mom didn’t seem to mind,” he said with a smile.
“She was surprisingly cool about it,” Willow agreed. “Although it was bottomless, and you know my mom loves a good deal.”
“Or maybe she was impressed with you too,” Jensen teased her. “Does Nana’s sound good for tonight?”
“It sounds amazing,” she told him.
He nodded, looking pleased, and they drove on in friendly silence for a while.
Nana’s was an interesting choice. It was just farenough out of Trinity Falls, and just small enough that they were unlikely to bump into anyone they knew. But the possibility was there.
She felt a little burst of pride that Jensen didn’t mind being seen out with her, followed by a flicker of guilt. She had the same reason he did for not wanting to be seen.
Don’t overthink it,she told herself.Ransom won’t be there, and he’s the one you’re worried about.
The flicker of guilt burst into a real flame, but she did her best to put it out. If the interest budding with Jensen was something real, then her brother would have to understand. They were all adults, after all.
A little voice whispered in the back of her mind that Ransom might never see her as an adult, but she decided to ignore it. People grew and changed. If she could, then her brother could too.
At last, Jensen pulled off Route One and onto a long, winding driveway that took them back to a sweet, stone cottage surrounded by tall trees, with a wooden sign out front that simply said:Nana’s.
As a child, Willow had never thought anything about it. But with some perspective, she realized how sweet the place was. Nana herself had come to Pennsylvania from down South as a young girl. Willow wondered now if maybe she had opened her small restaurant because she missed driving down a different narrow lane to another small country house for an old-fashioned meal with her own Nana.
Jensen opened her door for her and took her hand again as she hopped down onto the light crust of snow.This time, he didn’t let go as they walked up the steps to the front door.
“Welcome home,” Nana said, opening the door for them and giving her signature greeting. “May I take your coats?”
“Hi, Nana,” Willow said, admiring the older woman’s still-elegant posture as she and Jensen removed their coats and let Nana put them on the hooks by the door.
Nana wore her silver hair in a bun, as usual. And she had a pretty apron with a pattern of gingerbread men on over her denim dress.
“Your fella called ahead, Willow,” Nana said, winking at Jensen. “So I’ve got a nice table for you out on the porch.”
The cottage had a center hall where the bathrooms were located. Its entrance was half-blocked by a big bookcase, covered in plants. To the left of the hall was the kitchen. To the right, the main dining room spanned from the front to the back of the house, taking up the space where the living room and dining room would have been before it became a restaurant.
On the porchmeant in the heated sunroom that ran along the side of the restaurant, just on the other side of the main dining room. The porch had only two tables, and was lit with a row of mini chandeliers. It had the prettiest view of the trees on the side of the house, many of which now twinkled with Christmas lights. It was also private from the rest of the restaurant.
Willow couldn’t decide if it was romantic, or just a smart idea for two people who really didn’t want to run into anyone.
