give Crystal was to show up on her birthday.
Still, he could send a small token of the esteem in which he’d always held her.
BESS, ELLE AND MARTIN could hardly sit still as they waited for Crystal to arrive. After she was safely in their care, Martin would spirit her off on a convenient “errand,” which would take up thirty minutes. This would give the guests time to be greeted and then hidden in the decorated great room. When Crystal and Martin returned, wouldn’t she have a nice surprise waiting for her?
Tonight, everything was going to go smooth as velvet. “I’m edgy,” Bess announced, as if her brother and sister couldn’t tell by her pacing.
“I just hope Crystal shows up.” Elle fretted, patting her hair as she stared into a sideboard mirror. “I worry about her deciding to work late or some other foolishness.”
“Since she may be slightly put out with us from yesterday, perhaps I should call down to the shop,” Martin suggested.
“Maybe so.” Bess peered out the upstairs window at the street. “Call her, Martin. Make sure she hasn’t forgotten that we invited her over for a ‘family birthday dinner.”’
They shared a nervous glance.
“I believe I will. No reason to leave anything to chance, or to Crystal’s work ethics.” Martin went to the rotary phone that sat atop an old rolltop desk in the hallway. He dialed the number swiftly, then listened for a few moments. “She’s not picking up. Maybe she’s gone home to feed her pet menagerie before coming over.”
“You don’t think they’ll bring him, do you?” Elle murmured from her place at the window. Without realizing it, she’d been staring at the McStern place ever since they’d gone upstairs to keep their vision trained on the street for Crystal’s appearance.
“I should think not!” Bess stated. “It would be impolite to do that to Crystal on her birthday. Besides, I doubt he would want to come. I’m sure they had very little to say to each other yesterday. And why should he invite himself tonight when he didn’t bother to show up for the big night?”
“I don’t know.” Elle sighed, shaking her head. “It worries me that Crystal may believe we knew Mitch was staying at his folks and told him to pay her a call at the shop.”
Bess straightened, as if a two-by-four had gone up the back of her dress. “I may be a nosy neighbor, I may be a bit of a well-meaning busybody, but I would never hurt my daughter. Surely she knows that.”
“We were pretty overbearing in her shop,” Elle reminded her, “as we primed the pump for tonight so she’d give extra consideration to all the handsome, eligible men we invited.”
“Yes, but we never suspected…you’re right,” Bess said suddenly. “Maybe that’s why she’s not here. She’s angry with us because she thinks we set her up by sending Mitch down there.”
“Well, she has every right to be.” Martin put the phone down and took a seat on a cushioned chair in the hallway. “Crystal most probably suspects we were matchmaking. Which we were, just not with our neighbor in mind. We had no way of knowing he’d be in town, and even if we had known…”
He trailed off. Bess thought that was a minor dilemma they’d been spared. “Oh, dear, what a quandary!” She paced for a moment before snapping her fingers. “If Mitch shows up tonight, which would be the height of ill manners, we will endeavor to keep them apart. There are enough rooms in this house to achieve that.”
Elle nodded. “That way she’ll know we weren’t trying to run her life. Uh, aren’t trying to run her life.”
“Exactly,” Bess agreed.
The doorbell rang, and the three shot downstairs. Bess couldn’t see anyone through the panes of the front door, so she cautiously opened it.
Outside, a small neighborhood boy staggered under the cumbersome girth of an enormous garden bouquet of salmon-and-white garden roses. Bess recognized the child and relieved him of the burden. “How lovely!”
Martin plucked the note from the roses. “It’s addressed to Crystal.”
Elle chucked the little boy under the chin. “Thank you, honey. Are you a secret admirer of Crystal’s?” she asked, her eyes twinkling.
“No. He is,” the child said, pointing across the street at Mitch’s home before speeding off.
The threesome gaped at one another.
“I don’t think this bodes well. Crystal’s definitely going to think we’re up to something,” Bess warned.
“I’d read the note, but I think that comes under the heading of spying or snooping, something I’m not ready to stoop to,” Martin said, replacing the note in the roses.
“Oh, dear,” Elle moaned. “Wouldn’t he just complicate things for us on Crystal’s second big night? The night we’re planning to relaunch her into the dating stream?”
“No need to upset her.” Bess swept the flowers into the kitchen, putting them in a vase and burying the card among the stems. “We’ll tell her about the flowers after the party.”
They went into the front dining room to survey the hors d’oeuvres they’d labored over. The tablecloth shone white and lacy under the light. Peach candles glowed in tall silver holders. “I wish she’d come on,” Bess grumbled. “I want Martin to run her off on the ‘errand’ before the guests arrive.” All the tension of the evening was beginning to build in her muscles and in the back of her neck. She didn’t want anything to spoil the surprise for Crystal. This should be a night of happiness for my daughter.
“I’ll try her house again,” Martin said. “And the shop.”
“You need not bother. It’ll be a few more minutes before she gets here,” Elle said suddenly, letting the lace panel of the drape fall back into place. “She just went into Mitch’s house.”
CRYSTAL HAD TO FORCE herself to move past Mitch into the hallway. Her heart beat quickly, enough to make her feel even more nervous than she already was. He stared at her with curious eyes, and every instinct screamed that she’d made a mistake in coming. “I want to apologize for my behavior yesterday,” she said, her tone crisp to cover her discomfort. “Not that I appreciate the joke that was played on me, of course. But I overreacted to something that was, after all, only a joke.”
His eyes widened. “I didn’t play a joke on you, Crystal. And I certainly understood your reaction. Actually, I was quite stunned to be jerked inside your store.”
“It’s hard to believe you,” she murmured. “My trio of loving family members had just been stating their feelings about my unwed status. And then, presto! Available high school boyfriend appears, like a canned man. Instant relationship. Or at least I suppose they’d hoped it would be.”
“I’m not available,” he corrected her, “nor would I be a candidate for a canned man, as you put it.”
Her lips parted just a fraction, though she caught herself before her mouth fell completely open. “Not available! I haven’t heard anything about you being married.” Then she blushed, because she had as much admitted she’d been keeping
