Molly frowned at her. “He’s got a condo.”
“Is this getting serious between you two?” Arianna asked.
“It is.”
“Like, how serious?” Sunny demanded. “Moving in together? And does Ava know?”
“No, and no. Although he has asked me to marry him.”
“Oh, my gosh!” cried Arianna. “It’s almost like a fairy tale.”
“Only without the frog,” Molly said with a smile.
“But you don’t want to rush into anything,” Sunny cautioned.
“Now you sound like my daughter,” Molly said. “And I’m not. Although at my age I don’t plan on waiting forever, either.”
“I’m happy for you,” Arianna said. “After all this time you deserve true love.”
“As long as he’s not lying about the money thing. When are you going to tell Ava?” Sunny asked.
“When we actually get engaged. I don’t want to freak her out. You know, she thinks he’s too old for me.”
Sunny snorted and shook her head. “I wouldn’t worry about that. Age is just a number. Look at Travis and me. We’re great. Well, except for the situation with Bella,” she added with a frown.
“That will work out,” Arianna assured her. “Look at you guys—you’ve found Reggie, Sunny passed her pregnancy test. I’m so happy for both of you.”
Romance survivor guilt sledded across Sunny’s heart. She had a great man, Molly had, hopefully, found her prince and Arianna was...coping with her mother’s disease. It didn’t seem right.
“Things are going to work out for you, too,” she assured Arianna. As if she knew. Mia still couldn’t eat. And that couldn’t be good.
“I guess time will tell,” Arianna said, and her smile looked forced, like her eyes and her lips hadn’t quite connected. “I am bringing someone to the party, though,” she added.
“Yeah?” Molly prompted. “Who?”
“My neighbor. He read the newspaper article and now he wants to check out what we’re doing.”
“Or check you out,” Sunny told her. “Oh, that’s right. He already has. Nothing like a little Santa mud wrestling to get a man interested,” she teased.
Arianna blushed and took a drink of her iced tea.
Well, well, maybe something good was waiting in Arianna’s future, after all. Sunny sure hoped so.
“We need to look this man over,” Molly said.
“He’s just curious,” Arianna insisted.
“I think everyone’s curious about what we’re doing. I’ve sure had a lot of interest, and nice comments at work,” Molly said. “In between the cranky customers. Mrs. Bigman informed me that she’s not doing Christmas more than once a year. It would only be more times for her cookies to get lost.”
“Maybe nobody wants to eat them and they’re getting lost on purpose,” Sunny said. “I’ve had a few fails nobody wanted to eat. Speaking of, once your mom’s feeling better, do you think she’ll give me some cooking lessons?” she asked Arianna.
That made Arianna’s eyes light up. “She’d love that.”
“Meanwhile, I’ve found a dip recipe I think I can handle,” Sunny said.
“I saw a cute recipe online for cupcakes baked in ice-cream cones,” Arianna said.
“That sounds darling. I’ll bring the chocolate mint ice cream to go with them. And strawberry. That way we have red and green for Christmas,” Molly said.
