She turned to him. The afternoon spent outside had whipped her hair into disheveled waves and pinkened her cheeks. Man, she was pretty. He pushed the thought aside as quickly as it popped into his head.
Dane nodded to her feet. “What happened?”
Hilary lifted her foot, and he immediately saw the problem. Her boot’s sole had split, part of it missing. She took the piece from her jacket pocket. “I should have bought new ones before I came. This is what I get for being frugal.”
“I understand the attachment to a good pair of boots. It’s hard to let go sometimes.”
Her eyes were wide as she nodded like she couldn’t tell if he was joking. “The only other pair of shoes I brought is more appropriate for a business meeting than mucking around the countryside.”
“There’s an outfitter in town.” Dane knew because he’d bought some repellant there on Sunday. “I could take you.”
“I doubt they’d have the boots I like.” She wrinkled her nose. “Creature of habit. Someone mentioned a general store though. Maybe I can pick up a cheap pair of athletic shoes.”
Sean caught Darcy’s eye. She gave him a knowing look, a one-sided smile lighting her eyes before she followed the others inside. He looked back at Hilary. “If that’s what you want.”
“Do you think the Stetmans will let you borrow their car again?” she said in a low voice.
Of course Darcy would let him take the car. The question was should he suggest she drive herself?
“I’ll ask her.”
“You don’t mind driving me, do you?”
“I don’t have anything better to do,” he said, cursing to himself.You like torturing yourself, don’t you?
Hilary stuffed the broken piece of sole back into her pocket. “Let me grab some things and I’ll meet you back here in two minutes.”
Twenty minutes later they pulled into a parking spot in front of Maisy Day’s General Emporium in downtown Hendricks.
“I love this town,” Hilary said, twisting in her seat to look behind them and across the street. “They’ve got a bakery and an ice cream shop in the same block? I could live here.”
“We have a bakery in Clove. A darned good one.”
“I have to drive ten miles to the nearest bakery where I’m from,” she said.
“All the more reason you should use those apples to sell pie. You’ll have a corner on the market.”
She pursed her lips. “You’re relentless when you take hold of an idea.”
“Only good ideas.”
Hilary dismissed the comment with a wave of her hand. “Here’s a better idea. We should get ice cream after I find shoes.”
He gripped the steering wheel, staring straight ahead. Him and his brilliant ideas. Driving Hilary around town was decidedly not one of his better ones.
“Okay.”
She gaped at him. “What, you don’t like ice cream?”
“I love ice cream.”
“Good, because I’m in the mood,” she said, peering out her window at the front of the store. “This shouldn’t take long. You can wait here if you’d like.”
Dane sat there for a few seconds, wondering what he was doing. Didn’t he give himself a lecture earlier about steering clear? And here he’d turned right around and jumped at the chance to drive her around the North Shore for shoes and ice cream. His willpower could use some work.
He unbuckled his belt. “No, I’ll come in and check it out. I’m curious about what an emporium sells anyway.”
Inside, a woman with hair like spun sugar bent over the front counter, working a crossword puzzle. She asked if she could help them while barely tearing her attention away from the puzzle. When Hilary said she wanted shoes, the woman pointed to the aisle in front of them with her pencil.
