Chapter 11

CHAPTER ELEVEN

"That won't do. Where do I keep my gloves?"

Everett stood in the center of his kitchen, frowning. There were a few items piled at the end of his kitchen table, and he was wondering where to put them. Johanna was coming over in less than an hour to look through his telescope with him, and ever since he'd returned home from his boat, he'd been trying to tidy up his well-lived-in home.

Muttering incoherently, he scooped up the gloves from the end of his table and walked over to the front closet, where he tossed them up onto the top shelf. He felt he couldn't have too messy of a house when Johanna came over—her own home had been completely spotless. He felt nervous about her coming over and seeing his house the way that it was.

He strode over to the kitchen counter, where he'd just finished brewing a pot of decaf coffee. He'd wanted to do something that would fill the place with a nice aroma—he'd become conscious of the fact that his home smelled a little musty and—it had to be admitted—a tiny bit like fish.

I should put some magazines at the end of the table , he thought. Something that makes it look like I sit here reading. I mean, I do—sometimes.

He felt a pang of uncertainty. He wanted to impress Johanna—he wanted to make his home seem less like a small-town fisherman's house and more like something that would impress a city woman—but he didn't want to be dishonest either. Shoving his belongings into closets felt almost like lying to her—he didn't want to have to cover up his true self in order to be liked by her.

His shaggy dog, Oliver, shuffled over to stand beside him, wagging his tail. Oliver's huge doggy grin and big, dark eyes seemed to say, "I like you just the way you are. Why shouldn't she?"

"You're right, old boy," he said, reaching down and scratching Oliver behind the ears. "What am I getting nervous about? I'm being silly. I've always liked my life, and I don't want to be anything but who I am. Either Johanna likes me or she doesn't—I'm not going to try to change for her, and I'm not going to try to hide my reality from her either."

Oliver wagged his tail and nuzzled his nose against Everett's pants leg.

Chuckling to himself, Everett walked back to the closet and took out his gloves. He tossed them back onto the end of his kitchen table.

"There, see?" he said to Oliver. "I don't need to try to ‘fancy' up my house, even though there's a fancy lady coming over. No more hiding stuff in closets."

Oliver wagged his tail and blinked.

At that moment, the front doorbell rang. Everett's heart rate picked up as he started to hurry toward the front door. "No time to do anything more anyway," he said to Oliver, who was starting to make gruff barking sounds in his throat. "Don't worry, she's nice. We like her."

Everett opened the front door and smiled when he saw Johanna standing there. She was wearing a smart purple beret with matching gloves, and there was a diamond pin set carefully into the front flap of her immaculately clean peacoat. Everett felt for a moment as if he was a peasant being visited by a queen, but he was determined not to feel embarrassed about the state of his house.

"Hi," Johanna said, a bit breathlessly. Her eyes were a deep green, and he was struck by how beautiful they looked as she met his gaze. "Thank you for inviting me into your home."

"Thanks for coming over," he said, grinning. "This is my dog, Oliver."

Oliver approached Johanna cautiously, snuffling at her feet with interest. She took a step back nervously, seeming to be concerned about how big Oliver was.

"He likes you," Everett assured her, grinning a little as he saw his dog's tail start to wag faster. He hadn't seen Oliver take so quickly to a stranger in a long time. It was a good sign, he decided, and reached down to scratch his dog behind the ears.

"Hi, Oliver," she said tentatively, waving a little at the giant mop of fur in front of her.

He chuckled. "You can pet him if you want.""

"Oh. Certainly." Johanna carefully removed one of her purple gloves, revealing a perfectly manicured hand. She reached out to Oliver and scratched him gingerly behind the ears. The dog's tail wagged faster, and he licked the sleeve of Johanna's coat.

Everett wondered nervously for a moment if Johanna would find Oliver licking her unpleasant or unsanitary, but she laughed lightly and leaned down closer toward Oliver's face.

"He's sweet," she said. "Such intelligent eyes."

"He does look smart, doesn't he?" He smiled, feeling a glow of pride. "He is smart. It's because I talk to him all the time. It develops his brain."

He winked, and she laughed again, looking significantly more relaxed than she had when she first arrived.

"Well, unless you like the cold, you can feel free to come on in," he teased, stepping back and gesturing for her to enter the house. She chuckled and took a few steps inside, and he closed the door behind her.

Oliver promptly lay down with his shaggy chin on Johanna's clean leather shoe.

"Yup, he definitely likes you," Everett said, and she grinned. "You want anything before we go look through the telescope? Water? I have some decaf coffee."

"I'm all right for now, but thank you for offering." Johanna looked up from smiling at Oliver. "I'm so excited to look through this telescope, I don't want to wait another minute."

"Then by all means, let's go ahead and look through it," he said, gesturing with his chin. "I've got it set up in the hallway upstairs. There's a big window up there, and a balcony. In the warmer months, I like to take the telescope outside onto the balcony."

"That sounds perfectly magical," she said, and he laughed.

He started to lead her upstairs and she paused halfway up the staircase to look at one of the pictures he had hanging on the wall.

"Is this your boat?" she asked, turning to him with a look of interest.

He shook his head, looking at the picture she was referring to. It was a black and white print of a fishing boat docked at the wharf in Blueberry Bay.

"Oh. Whose boat is it?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. Somebody's."

She paused for a second, her eyebrows going up slowly. "You mean you just have a photograph of a random boat hanging on your wall?"

He started to chuckle. "Yes, ma'am—I mean, Johanna—I do."

She was repressing a smile. "Why?"

He shrugged again. "I like boats."

She laughed. "Oh, Everett. I like your house. It's very you."

He grinned, feeling a kind of warmth swell up in his chest. He felt glad that he hadn't tried to change his house to impress her—she already liked it just the way it was. And that implied that she liked him just the way he was, despite how different he was from her.

I'm glad I'm letting her see the authentic me , he thought as they continued to climb the staircase together. It was the right decision to not try to hide who I really am.

They reached the top of the staircase, and Johanna cooed in delight as soon as she saw the telescope. She approached it hurriedly, gazing at it as if it were some kind of mystical creature. He chuckled over how excited she was—he felt warmed by her enthusiasm, and he found her delight endearing.

"Want to give it a try?" he asked.

"Oh, definitely!" she said. "What do you have it pointing at currently?"

"That cluster of stars there." He pointed to a group of five stars, and she leaned toward him as she peered in the direction he was pointing in. He realized that his heart had started to beat a little faster when her head came so close to his shoulder.

"Ah, yes." She nodded and looked through the telescope. "Oh my," she breathed, letting out a happy sigh. "They're gorgeous. Just gorgeous."

He stood behind her, smiling. Outside, a crescent moon lit the glittering snow in a faint blue light, and in the sky, the stars seemed to echo the pale light of the snow. It was a beautiful evening, and he reflected that he couldn't have thought of a better way to spend it.

"You try it," she urged him. "I know you've already seen it, but—I have a feeling these stars are in fine form tonight." She laughed lightly and stepped to the side. Grinning at her, he looked through the telescope, and he sucked in his breath when he looked at the stars.

Maybe it was just how happy he was feeling, but they seemed to look brighter tonight to him too. He gazed at them for a few moments, feeling excited about spending the evening stargazing with this wonderful, unexpectedly thoughtful woman he was getting to know.

Johanna watched as Everett peered into the lens of his telescope at the glittering sky. Her stomach was fluttering with a happiness that was almost giddiness. She hadn't felt like this in a long time—not only was she excited about looking at the stars through the amazing telescope that Everett owned, but she was also excited about getting to spend time with him. She found him more and more fascinating the more she got to know him.

"They do look wonderful tonight," he said finally, stepping back from the telescope and turning to look at her with a warm look in his eyes. "Very pretty."

For some reason, she felt as if she was flushing a little. His focus had been on her face when he'd said "very pretty," and something about the way he had spoken the words it made her feel as though he might have been talking about more than the stars.

"Let's focus the telescope on something else," she begged eagerly. "That cluster there. You see it? Just under the moon."

He nodded, smiling, and carefully turned the telescope toward it.

"I feel like I'm in high school again." She laughed, finding that it was easy to share her thoughts with him. "I haven't felt this giddy in a long time. Maybe it's because I used to stargaze with telescopes as a teenager."

"Not since then?" he asked, pausing in his moving of the telescope.

She shook her head. "Not really. A little bit in college, and after college, but I was so busy. And then in New York it was so difficult to see the stars that I didn't feel as though investing in a telescope would be worth it."

He nodded. "Too much light pollution."

"Oh yes." She laughed. "Can you think of a place with more light pollution than New York? The city that never sleeps. Sometimes I would look out my windows at night at all the man-made lights and all the car headlights moving back and forth, and I would think about how much I missed the stars, but that they were still up there, shining, even if I couldn't see them."

She gazed out the window as she said the words, glad that she was looking at real stars again. She turned to him, smiling, and saw that he had an odd gleam in his eyes. She wasn't quite sure what it meant, but it made her heart do a somersault. "And I've been stargazing without a telescope for a while now—ever since I moved to Blueberry Bay—but this telescope makes it all the more fun."

"It makes the stars feel closer," he said, nodding and smiling at her.

"And it's fun to share this hobby with you," she told him warmly. "Thank you for inviting me to look through your telescope with you."

"You're very welcome." His eyes gleamed like stars themselves in the dim light. "I've got it lined up to those new stars. Do you want to see?"

"Yes!" She eagerly stepped over and peered through the telescope. "Hmm, I don't see them. Am I doing something wrong?"

"No, sorry, I must have bumped it. Here, let me move it while you keep looking through it. You can let me know when it's centered on the stars."

"All right." She kept her eye on the lens, and she felt him move the telescope slightly.

"It's hard to maneuver it from the side," he said. "Do you mind if I put my arms on either side of you?"

"Oh no, that's fine," she said, a little breathlessly.

She felt his arms reach around her, and his big hands gently moved the telescope. Her heart began to race a little as the side of his hand brushed hers for a moment.

"Tell me when it's centered," he said, his voice right in her ear.

"I will—ah! There it is. Perfect." She turned to smile at him as he stepped back, and he smiled back. She looked through the telescope again and sighed in satisfaction as she saw the breathtaking view of the stars.

She found herself wondering if Everett had ever been married. She wasn't sure how to bring it up to him without the question coming too much out of the blue, but she pondered it as they continued to take turns gazing through the telescope.

"I've never had a stargazing buddy before," she told him shyly. "I like it very much."

"Neither have I," he told her. He grinned. "I also like it very much." He paused, and then asked, "Didn't your husband ever stargaze with you?"

She shook her head. "No. We met in New York. He listened to me talk about it sometimes, but it was never something that we did together." She hesitated, and then asked, "Have you ever been married?"

He was quiet for a moment, and she bit her lip, worried she'd asked too personal of a question.

"I'm sorry," she said. "I know that's a little personal, but—"

He shook his head. "No, it's quite all right. I've never been married. Never even came close—the last time I was really in a relationship was right out of high school. I've always been a bit of a loner. I have to admit, there are times when I've regretted letting myself sink a little too deep into solitude, but I've been happy for the most part. Besides, I've got Oliver." He grinned, and she laughed.

"I know what you mean," she told him. "So many people told me that I should get remarried after my husband died, but I've also always been a bit of a loner." She paused, realizing that she felt very comfortable opening up to him. "I regret becoming too closed off from people though. It's one thing to enjoy spending time by yourself, and another thing to stop letting people into your life. I became much too independent in a somewhat unhealthy way."

He nodded. "We need people in our lives to support us. Keep us from feeling alone."

"Yes." She smiled at him. "That is very true."

They continued to talk for a while, their stargazing temporarily forgotten. They talked about what they liked about being alone, and what they regretted about how much time they had spent by themselves. As their conversation wore on, she found herself surprised by how deep her connection with Everett was.

I like him a lot , she thought, smiling at him as he talked excitedly about a time his boat had broken down off the coast of a little town where a group of kind people helped him out. He's kind, and clever, and—well, I don't know. There's just something about him. Something wonderful.

Finally, the grandfather clock in the upstairs hallway chimed the hour, and she sighed when she realized how late it was.

"I should really get going," she said regretfully. "Thank you for inviting me. I very much enjoyed stargazing with you. And talking with you." She smiled at him, and he grinned back.

"Thank you for coming over. Like I said, it's nice to have a stargazing buddy."

They began to descend the stairs together, and she felt a kind of tingling feeling in her stomach. She wondered if he wanted to spend time together again as much as she did.

She put on her coat and hat again by the front door, and Oliver stood nearby, wagging his tail enthusiastically as if he was saying goodbye. For a moment, neither Johanna nor Everett spoke, as if they didn't know what to say.

"Well, thank you again," she said, smiling at him and stepping toward the door.

"I'd like to see you again," he blurted. "Would—would you want to?"

Her heart fluttered, and she turned to him, smiling. "Yes, I would. I would like that very much."

He grinned at her. "Great. We could stargaze again or do something else. Go see a movie or get dinner together. Something like that." She couldn't quite tell in the dim lightning, but it looked as though the tips of his ears were slightly pink.

"I would love to," she said, "but maybe not dinner or a movie just yet? Since Marsha tried to set us up, I'm guessing people are already talking about us not working out. Well, everyone who was at that dinner party, anyway. Word is sure to spread quickly if we're out in public going on a date together. And it's not that I don't want people to know that we're seeing each other," she added hurriedly, "but—"

"But you don't want anyone to pry or ask too many questions," he said, grinning. "I get it. Besides, you're right. I don't really want the whole town speculating on whether or not we're going to date each other when we're still trying to figure that out ourselves."

She chuckled, and her heart warmed at the thought of dating Everett. It had been a long time since she'd been on a date with a man! "Let's keep it a secret for a while. That way we can see what happens between us without anyone else trying to get involved."

"I agree. And it might be kind of fun to sneak around a little." He laughed, and she giggled.

"All right, so we're agreed then. Now that we know we don't want to go out in public just yet, where would you like to go for our date, Mr. Howell?"

"Hmm," he said, his eyes gleaming. "How would you feel about coming out on my boat?"

"I would like that very much," she said, beaming at him. "It is your most prized possession, after all."

He chuckled, and they stood at the front door for another few minutes, discussing what day their date should be on. Finally, she glanced at her watch and said reluctantly that she needed to leave. "Thank you again for tonight. I'll see you soon."

"I'll see you soon, Johanna." He smiled at her, and leaned forward and kissed her cheek.

Butterflies erupted in her stomach. For a moment she lingered, and they smiled warmly at each other. "Goodnight," she said finally, opening the door.

"Goodnight. Get home safe."

"I will."

She left Everett's house and headed back to her car, feeling a bit giddy.

This is all so unexpected, she thought. I feel as though I'm on a roller coaster or something like that. It's thrilling. I can't wait to spend time with him again.

She got into her car and closed the door against the cold winter night, feeling a flush of eagerness dancing in her chest.