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Nancy was finishing up her shift, rolling her shoulders as she headed to her car when Piper Rosio ran into her. The cute little girl smiled as Nancy reached down to help her up.
“Where are you headed, sweetie pie?” She said, trying not to grin.
“Matthew is going to show us the goats and lambs,” Piper said, with a smile from ear to ear.
“I want to see the big pig,” Charlotte said, coming alongside her sister as she finally caught up.
“I told them if they were good at school all week, we would come out and see Matthew and the animals.”
“Hi Piper!” Matthew said, coming up with a face splitting grin. As Piper stepped forward, he bent down and opened his arms to her. “I am happy to see you.”
“I couldn’t sit quietly today. I was so excited,” Piper said, jumping up and down a bit.
Charlotte just shook her head.
“Little sisters are pretty silly, huh?” Nancy asked.
Charlotte nodded. “I hope we can stop by the pigs, too,” she said much more subdued than her sister. “You want to come?” She asked, suddenly turning to Nancy.
Nancy turned a curious eye toward Brendan. He just smiled at her and put both his hands up in the air.
“Let’s do it,” she said, as Charlotte reached out and put her hand in hers, Nancy felt her heart flip flop in her chest.
The two little girls were such a joy, and even Charlotte who was quieter than her sister, was so cute and smart.
“Why do you like pigs so much?”
“Charlotte’s Web,” Charlotte said. “It’s about a pig, and it’s my favorite story.”
“Ah, now that makes sense. I would love it if they wrote a book that had my name in it.”
“What about Nancy Drew?” Brendan offered.
“I read a bunch of those as a kid, but totally forgot about that series.”
“What is Nancy Drew?”
“It was a super cool bunch of books about a young girl detective. She liked to solve mysteries.”
“Cool. Can I read Nancy Drew?”
“When you get through Charlotte’s Web all by yourself, you can read it,” Brendan said.
“Do you like reading?”
Charlotte nodded. “Piper likes baby books still, but I’m reading chapter books already.”
“Wow! And you are how old?”
Brendan gave Nancy a look over his daughter’s head. “She can sort of read chapter books,” he said, and Nancy understood that Charlotte was exaggerating just a smidge about how good a reader she truly was.
“My teacher says I’m one of the best in my class,” Charlotte said, sticking her chest out.
“Awwwww,” she said, suddenly disentangling from Nancy and rushed forward when the pig pen came into view.
“How are they doing?” Nancy asked, remembering that Brendan had to visit the school after Charlotte’s issue only a week back.
“It was an excellent week,” he said lightly.
“Great. And I did see that Carl was out working with Jack Townsend’s crew yesterday,” she said, leaving the statement open-ended to see if he wanted to talk about that development, but not wanting to pry too hard.
“Yeah, he needs help, and it’s what we do. I don’t think the girls need to know who he is or anything, but I can’t handle his hurting someone else if we can help him here. Besides, it has been a period of discovery and new experiences for me, and we are going to take one day at a time.”
“Great attitude. I have to say I admire your tenacity; I’m not certain I would have been able to make the same decision.”
“I wouldn’t have a year ago, but the girls,” he said, keeping his eyes trained on his daughters, “and I deserve to make the most of our happiness. My anger was robbing all of us.”
Nancy just stood silently for a moment.
“Can I ask you something?”
“Of course,” she said, turning to look at him and finding the oddest look on his face. “I would like to ask you out to dinner, one night,” he swallowed hard before clearing his throat. “I just didn’t know your thoughts about mixing business and personal life. Because you know my situation, I can’t promise it might not be a little bit odd. You are, however, the first person I’ve considered seeing since the accident.”
He just stopped and stood to wait, his face crimson.
Nancy, in the meantime, was attempting to draw air into her lungs and push it out manually. She never saw this one coming.
“I do know your situation, and we are friends, so giving it a shot can’t hurt anything. We just need to communicate and be honest with each other about our feelings. And as far as business and personal life, I don’t have a firm rule either way.”
“Good. Let me see if I can arrange a babysitter, and then we can pick a night,” he said.
“Sounds good.”
“Ms. Nancy, you want to feel him,” Charlotte turned from running a hand over the pig’s back with a huge grin.
“Definitely,” she said, surging forward carried by the buoyancy suddenly in her heart.
He had asked her out! Miracles never cease!
