Page 16

The hour had been a little past four-thirty when he left the B&B and was now creeping up on a quarter to five.

When he entered the pet store, he saw that Sidney wasn’t behind the counter but was instead off to one side, straightening a shelf of canned dog food that had gotten disordered over the course of the day.

“Hey,” he said, and she turned, expression one of immediate surprise.

“Ben?”

It was clear from her equally startled tone that she couldn’t quite figure out why he was there. After all, he wasn’t traveling with a pet and therefore had no need of most of what she sold in her store.

“Hi, Sidney,” he said, glad he sounded casual enough. “I found a reference to those flowers online. They’re called ‘fairy bells.’”

“They are?” she responded, still looking slightly befuddled, as if she wasn’t sure why he’d felt the need to come here in person to tell her that, especially since they were going to see each other early tomorrow morning anyway.

“Right,” he said. “I’m not completely certain of the source, but since it’s the only thing I was able to find that’s at all relevant, I figured I should roll with it.”

She nodded but didn’t seem too inclined to say anything. From what he could tell, they were alone in the shop, which meant he’d better gather the nerve to ask her to dinner now before they were interrupted by a customer trying to grab one last bag of dog food before the store closed for the day.

“Anyway,” he went on, “do you have any plans for dinner?”

“Dinner?” she said blankly.

“You know, that meal you eat in the evening?”

Now she finally cracked a smile. “I know what dinner is.”

“Well, I was wondering if you’d like to have it with me. Tonight,” he added, just in case she thought he was asking about some sort of vague eventuality.

Was that a hint of alarm in her expression?

“There’s a town meeting tonight,” she said. “Northwest Pacific Lumber wants to do some clear-cutting in the forest here, and a bunch of the townspeople want to be there to contest their plans.”

Maybe that was why Victor Maplehurst was in town. Sure, he’d told Ben that he was here on vacation, but maybe he was mixing business with pleasure.

Although it didn’t sound as if there would be anything too terribly pleasurable about facing down a group of angry citizens who wanted their pristine forests left untouched.

Ben knew whose side he was on when it came to that particular conflict. The land here was beautiful, and no one should be messing with it, especially not a bunch of greedy lumber industry CEOs.

“I can come with you,” he offered, and Sidney blinked again.

“To the meeting? But you don’t even live here.”

“I care about damage to the Amazon rainforest, and I don’t live there, either.”

Now an actual smile touched her lips. Not for the first time, Ben thought of how beautiful she really was, with that luminous skin and those big gray eyes and those delicate features. Beneath a certain outer softness, though, he knew she was tough as steel.

“Fair enough,” she said. “The meeting’s at seven-thirty, though, so it’ll have to be an early dinner.”

“That’s fine,” he replied. “How about I pick you up at your place at six o’clock?”

Suddenly, she looked wary, even though her mouth was still curved in a half-smile. “There’s not much need to drive in Silver Hollow. We can just meet at the restaurant.”

Maybe that was true. He didn’t know where she lived — he might have Googled her, but he certainly wasn’t going to do anything as stalker-y as look up her address — and yet he could already tell that most of the town was pretty walkable unless you lived on the very outskirts.

“The Sundown Grille?” he asked, naming the only restaurant he’d spied on his walks that he hadn’t visited yet…and the only one that seemed to be Silver Hollow’s version of fine dining.

“Sure,” she said. “Six o’clock.”

Ben wasn’t sure what he would do to kill the hour or so between now and then, but he figured he’d go back to his room at the B&B and check his email.

He was waiting to hear whether he’d been accepted to speak at a conference in Scottsdale next month, and since the speaking fee was fifteen hundred bucks plus accommodations and dining, he wanted to jump on that as soon as he could.

“See you then,” he said, and she offered him another smile.

“See you then,” she echoed.

He headed out of the pet shop after that exchange, figuring there wasn’t much more to say. As he went, though, he had to fight back the urge to grin.

After all, she hadn’t said no.

Was this an actual date, or just a way for them both to get some food in them before they went to the town meeting?

In the end, he figured it probably didn’t matter.

Sidney had obviously gone home and changed after work, since instead of her usual long-sleeved T-shirt, she was wearing a pretty, vaguely folk-style blouse with full sleeves and multicolored embroidery.

Once again, he was struck by how lovely she was in a completely understated way.

No bleached hair or overdone fingernails or even much makeup, unlike so many of the women he encountered in Southern California…

or across much of the country, since he traveled enough to get a random sampling.

“What do you like here?” he asked as he opened the door of the restaurant for her.

“Just about everything,” she responded. “We have a lot of great seafood in this part of the world, but the steaks and the other stuff are really good, too.”

Yes, with these forests all around, it was hard to remember that Silver Hollow lay only about ten miles from the ocean, so seafood was probably plentiful here.

And because he’d grown up even closer to the beach than that, he’d eaten his share of fish and crab and lobster.

“Sounds great,” he said.

The restaurant was a little more crowded than he’d expected, considering it was just barely past six o’clock.

However, people seemed to run on a slightly different schedule here than he was used to…

or maybe everyone at the Sundown Grille had the same plans that they did, which was to grab an early dinner before they headed over to the town hall.

But there was one booth left, and the woman at the hostess station led them right over after exchanging a friendly greeting with Sidney and giving him a vaguely speculative look, as if she was trying to take his measure and decide whether he was worthy enough to be having dinner with one of the locals.

He held back a smile. This sort of thing was to be expected in a small town, he supposed, and even if people wanted to be protective of Sidney, considering the losses she’d just recently suffered, he knew she was the kind of woman who could take care of herself.

The vibe in here was downright woodsy, with wood paneling on the walls and what he thought were original paintings of the forests around town. After the hostess had guided him and Sidney to their booth and handed over some menus, he asked, “Who did the art? It’s very good.”

“A friend of mine,” she replied, appearing almost relieved that he’d chosen such an innocuous topic to open their conversation. “Maribel Chiu. She’s from San Jose, but she moved here about five years ago. She teaches art at the high school.”

Ben reflected that probably most of Silver Hollow was a friend of Sidney’s in one way or another, and he had to be glad about that. At least with everyone in the town looking out for her, she didn’t seem to be quite so alone.

“It’s nice that your friend can still do art on the side,” he said, and Sidney nodded.

“Yes, she’s had a few shows here and there and sells some pieces, but it wasn’t quite enough to pay the bills. That’s why she always knew she’d need to teach to keep herself afloat.”

Their server, a light-haired man in his late thirties who smiled at them as he approached and introduced himself as Gus Stevens…

even though Ben was sure Sidney knew perfectly well who the guy was…

asked what they wanted to drink. An awkward little silence fell, and he guessed that his dinner companion wasn’t sure whether the occasion was appropriate for something any stronger than an iced tea.

Well, he’d break that particular chunk of ice.

“A glass of chardonnay, please,” he said, since he’d already decided to have some sort of seafood, even though he didn’t know for sure whether it would be swordfish or sea bass.

“Same for me,” Sidney said.

Was that a note of relief in her voice?

“Excellent,” Gus replied. “I’ll be back with your wine in a minute, and then I’ll take your orders.”

He headed off toward the bar, and Sidney fiddled with one corner of her menu.

She seemed unusually tense, and Ben couldn’t wonder if she was having second thoughts about agreeing to this dinner.

On their way to the table, he’d noticed several people at the booths they’d passed giving them curious looks, and he had a feeling she hated being the center of attention and speculation.

Most likely, she’d already experienced way too much of that over the past few months, ever since she’d had to return to Silver Hollow to deal with the aftermath of her relatives’ mysterious disappearances.

Had she been in a relationship while she was getting her DVM degree at U.C. Davis? Were people disapproving that she was out with someone else so soon after her mother and grandmother had vanished?

Or was it only that they didn’t like the idea of her going on a date with a stranger, someone who wasn’t connected to Silver Hollow except as a vacation destination?

All of those possibilities seemed equally plausible. The problem was, he didn’t think he had the guts to ask her about any of them.

“Do you have these town meetings often?” he asked, hoping that was a neutral enough topic of conversation.

Since Sidney leaned against the back of the booth and appeared to relax slightly, Ben decided that had been a good call.