“Oh, that’s so nice,” she said, deciding there was no reason it couldn’t be both. Jensen wanting to protect her relationship with her brother until she could talk to him about everythingwasromantic.
“Shall I bring you menus?” Nana asked, as she walked them through the main dining room and onto the porch. “Or would you like a family meal?”
The family meal was several courses of homemade goodness, each a surprise, served like you were a guest at Nana’s home.
“Family meal,” she and Jensen said at the same time.
Nana gestured to the nicest table at the very back, and Jensen pulled out Willow’s chair for her.
“If memory serves, the young lady will have bottomless root beer,” Nana said with a smile as they took their seats.
“Yes,” Willow said happily. “I was hoping you still had it.”
“Normally, we don’t do it as bottomless these days,” Nana confided. “But we do like to support our troops, so you two drink up.”
“Oh, wow,” Willow said, moved. “Thank you.”
“And what can I bring for you, young man?” Nana asked, turning to Jensen.
“Does Charles have a new experiment on tap?” Jensen asked.
“Vanilla cream soda,” Nana said with a smile. “No beer tonight.”
“Vanilla cream soda sounds great,” Jensen told her. “Thank you.”
“Very good,” she said. “You two get settled, and I’ll beback with your drinks and your meal. And if there’s anything else you need, just give a holler.”
“Thank you, Nana,” Willow said.
They both watched her glide to the kitchen, her back as straight as a ballerina’s.
“How old do you think she is?” Jensen wondered out loud.
“Ageless,” Willow decided.
Jensen chuckled and they both looked around. For the most part, the place looked the same, which was a comfort.
“I wonder if Henry will love the root beer when he’s older,” Willow wondered out loud.
Jensen gave her a funny smile.
“What?” she asked. “You don’t want him having soda?”
She knew a lot of parents were a whole lot stricter about that kind of stuff than anyone had been back when they were kids.
“No, no,” he said. “Not that at all.”
She tried and failed to read his expression.
“If you want to know the truth,” he said, leaning in. “This is the first voluntary date I’ve been on since I lost Henry’s mother. I guess I didn’t expect to start the evening talking about him, even though I’m a little embarrassed to admit that I already miss him.”
“You’ve been oninvoluntarydates?” Willow asked.
“Well, my mom tells me she got inundated with requests as soon asan appropriate amount of timehad passed,” he said. “Whatever that means. I kind of doubtthere were requests. She probably just worries that I’m lonely.”
“Are you?” Willow heard herself ask. “Sorry, you don’t have to answer that.”
But he smiled at her with twinkly eyes, just like the last time she asked too many questions.
