“Excuse me?” Dana asked.
Celeste carried a big sheet cake out of the kitchen toward the head table where John and Leslie sat. Cal didn’t respond, and she didn’t pursue the question because they both spied Rusk and started forward through the crowd.
Cal’s brother pushed a cart that held cartons of ice cream, a stack of cones, and a stack of bowls, spoons, cake plates, and forks into the community room. Spying three full cartons—Rocky Mountain Road, Avanillalanch, and Royal Gorgeous Gumdrop, if she wasn’t mistaken—Dana drew her first easy breath since discovering the missing container.
They’d made it in time!
Right on Cal's heels, she said, “Oh, my heavens. We cut that close. Thank goodness Rusk hasn’t already dished up the ice cream! Wasn’t that the sweetest declaration of love ever?”
“One of them,” Cal murmured.
At the front of the room, Celeste asked that residents remained seated and explained that the treats would be served at their tables. “Our young Scots friend, Rusk Buchanan, will be around to take your order for ice cream.”
Cal and Dana reached the Mills’ table just as Rusk picked up an ice cream scoop. Upon noting their arrival, Rusk arched his brows in a silent question. Cal answered by clasping his brother’s shoulder and giving it a squeeze with his left hand. With his right, he smoothly plucked the ice cream scoop from Rusk’s possession, saying, “I’ve got this.”
He turned a bright, warm smile upon Leslie Mills. “Happy anniversary, Mrs. Mills. Seventy years! You are an inspiration to us all.”
“Thank you, dear. Do I know you?”
“No, ma’am, I haven’t had the pleasure. My name is Calum Buchanan, and I’m here to serve you up the ice cream your husband ordered for you. We have your favorite Rocky Mountain Road and….” He glanced down at the other two cartons, frowned, then up at his brother, the question in his eyes.
Simultaneously, Rusk and Dana repeated the flavor names.
Cal asked Leslie Mills, “So, cone or cup?”
“I’ll have a cone, please. Scoops makes the very best sugar cones. One dip of Rocky Mountain Road.”
“Nuts or sugar sprinkles?”
“I like mine naked,” she said, giving him a saucy wink.
Cal laughed. “Don’t we all.”
Dana didn’t take her gaze off the ice cream scoop as he made a shallow dip in the requested flavor. He dipped a second time, then met Dana’s gaze and nodded. Her shoulders slumped with relief.
Had she not paid such close attention, she would have missed what happened next. Using sleight of hand worthy of a pickpocket, Cal dropped something sparkly into the ice cream container, then he buried it into a big, fat scoop of Rocky Mountain Road which he plopped onto a sugarcone.
Dana’s jaw dropped as Cal handed Leslie Mills her cone.
He said, “Promise me you’ll be careful when you eat this, and remember, Crackerjack, here, always delivers the prize.”
Leslie Mills might be elderly, but she hadn’t lost any mental faculties. She knew something was up. She shifted a bright, inquisitive gaze between Cal and her husband. John Mills shrugged.
“John, how about you?” Cal asked. “Want to pick your poison?” But even while he made the query, Cal was scooping up another serving of Rocky Mountain Road. This time, from the center of the carton. He topped a cone with the ice cream and handed it to Dana with a wink. “Don’t choke on it, lass.”
She glanced down at the cone and spied a telltale band of metal. Whew. Success.
So, what had Calum put in Mrs. Mills’ ice cream? Dana was dying to find out.
Celeste cut the cake, and one of the spryer residents volunteered to pass them out. Dana clandestinely deposited the engagement ring in a napkin and slid it safely into her pocket. At the same time, Cal asked John and Leslie to share the story of their wedding day. They were cute about it, teasing one another and telling a tale of financial hardship and family resistance. “So, you eloped?” Dana asked, caught up in the tale.
“We did.” Leslie Mills smiled like a cat with a saucer of cream. “Our parents wanted me to marry John’s brother. He was the elder and due to inherit the business, but John won my heart.”
“Aww,” Dana said. “That’s so sweet.”
Leslie took another bite of ice cream and…bingo. She lowered the cone and stared at it with wide eyes. “What in the world?”
She plucked something from the cone. Green and gold. An emerald earring? “Oh, John. You didn’t!”
“I didn’t!” He looked confused.
“He did,” Cal corrected, and as smoothly as he’d acquired the ice cream scoop from his brother moments ago, he plucked the item from Leslie Mill’s hand. Dana realized he’d had a cleansing wipe ready and waiting because he quickly had the familiar earring sparkling. Dana had noticed the pair in Silver and Sparkles Jewelry the day they bought the engagement ring.
Cal handed the earring and its mate, fresh from his pocket, over to Leslie, saying, “Your husband’s love for you inspired an Eternity Springs angel.”
While the anniversary couple shared a kiss, Dana softly asked Cal, “Why?”
He shrugged and gave a boyish grin. “Because I can.”
Dana’s heart melted to mush even as she wondered how he’d come to have those earrings on his person. For whom had he purchased it and why? She couldn’t wait to find out.
They remained at the anniversary party until the cake and ice cream had been consumed, and the winning name was announced. Then, as the Buchanan brothers ate their ice cream, Cal explained events to Rusk. In turn, his brother relayed how John had paid a visit to Scoops early that morning and ordered the ice cream. “Pretty lame-brained of you not to tag the carton,” Rusk told Cal.
“Maybe.” Cal watched the anniversary couple with his arms folded across his chest, a faint smile upon his face. “I think it all worked out quite nicely. Sometimes, things happen for a reason.” He turned to Dana and asked, “You ready to continue our project?”
She blinked. “It’s still on?”
“Of course. What happened here didn’t change anything. If anything, it proved the value of doing a practice run. So, how does a sailboat ride sound?”
“Wonderful. Simply wonderful.”
She waited until they were outside the newly christened Young At Heart Senior Home to hand over the engagement ring. Then, as he tucked it away into a pocket, she asked him about the earrings.
“It’s kind of a long story,” Cal replied. “How about I share while we’re on the water?”
Dana muffled her impatience, and she answered his questions about the retirement home during the fifteen-minute drive to the marina on Hummingbird Lake.
Cal handled the boat like a master. They talked sports and music and a little politics before she again broached the subject of the jewelry. “I was hoping you’d forget,” he responded.
“Seriously? Surely by now, you know me better than that.”
“I do.” He gave an exaggerated sigh, then flashed her a grin. “Let me tell you about my granddad. Has Rusk told you anything about our family?”
“A little. I know that your mother is an American and your father, a Scot. You grew up in Scotland but spent summers in the States. You moved here to play baseball when you were in high school.”
“Sarasota, Florida, to be exact. My grandparents retired there. I lived with them all through high school and college. My granddad was my hero.” He told her of a Korean War hero, a loving helpmate to a wife crippled with rheumatoid arthritis. Cal spoke of the support his grandfather had given his baseball dream and of the lessons William Reece taught and the values he had instilled in Cal.
“That upbringing served me in good stead when faced with all the excesses a successful professional baseball career put within my reach. I loved Papa deeply. How John Mills spoke about his wife today reminds me of my grandfather. Since I’ve been in Eternity Springs, more than one person has told me that it’s a little piece of heaven, a place where angels make special things happen. I saw a chance to be part of it, so I acted. I like thinking that what happened today with the ring was meant to happen.”
“That’s very nice, Cal. You were the Mills’s angel today. But I want to know the rest of the story. How is it that you just happened to have beautiful emerald earrings in your pocket? You bought them from Amy, didn’t you?”
He heaved a heavy sigh. “I was hoping to distract you from that. But, yes, I bought them from Amy. My intention was to give the earrings to you. I thought they suited you.”
“What?” Dana’s heart went thud-a-thump. “Why?”
“As a thank you for all you’ve done for me and this project. I planned to give them to you at the end of this test run. But look, I don’t want you to feel let down. I’m sure Silver and Sparkles will be able to hook me up with something else just as nice.”
For me! He bought those earrings for me! An entire flock of butterflies took flight inside her stomach. She had to clear her throat to speak past the lump of emotion that blocked it to say, “Let down! Don’t be silly. Cal, I don’t need a gift. You’re paying me a mint to help out in addition to all the perks. Hello, room service and spa appointments.”
“That’s separate. That’s business. This was personal.” Holding her gaze, he added, “Honestly, it’s never been strictly business with you, Dana D.”
With that comment, the air between them took an intimate turn. Dana licked her lips and said, “Not for me, either.”
Heat fired in his eyes, and he reached for her. Dana lifted her face for his kiss just as a wind gust caught the sail, interrupting the moment and forcing Cal to turn his attention to the boat. They didn’t speak for the next twenty minutes while he sailed to the next proposal plan stop—the Callahan family’s luxurious compound.
He docked the sailboat half an hour before sunset. Ordinarily, this time of year, at least part of the clan would be in residence, but with everyone in Texas for a family wedding, they had the place to themselves.
Sexual tension hummed in the air between them as they sampled wine and hors d’oeuvres while watching the sun paint the sky crimson and gold above a sapphire Hummingbird Lake. Afterward, they walked hand-in-hand to the dining room, where they finally opened the room service bottle of champagne and dined on Ali Timberlake’s glorious lasagna. Their conversation grew serious as Cal spoke about his career-ending injury, and Dana shared the story of her failed relationship with her ex. As the evening progressed, neither Cal nor Dana made mention of Keefer Jennings’s prospective engagement.
For something that wasn’t a date, it sure felt like a date to Dana. The best date of her life!
Cal never once brought out his notebook to take notes.
After dinner, they slow danced to the sound of a saxophone played by a musician Cal had brought down from Aspen. Cal held her close, his hand drifting slowly up and down her spine.
At nine p.m., he led her up to the rooftop deck of one of the elaborate treehouses Brick Callahan had built on the property. Propped up against pillows, Cal held her as fireworks exploded over Hummingbird Lake. “This is a slimmed down version of the real deal. I wanted to test the equipment and see how the special shapes I ordered for the grand finale looks.”
When a flurry of pink, white, and red hearts burst against the dark sky and signaled the end of the show, Dana sighed and said, “Oh, Calum. This was simply spectacular. You get an A-plus for romance.”
His voice was a low, rough rumble. “Do I?”
“You absolutely do.”
“I’m glad you think so.” He dragged his thumb up and down her arm. “Okay, then. I declare proposal project practice officially over. I figure if KJ can’t figure out where to take it from here, there’s no hope for him.”
Dana shivered at his touch. “I have to agree with you on that.”
He shifted their positions. Light from a three-quarter moon and a million stars softly illuminated his features as he stared into her eyes. “There’s a question I’ve been waiting for the right moment to ask, Dana D.”
Just kiss me. Please, just kiss me! she thought. “What is it, Cal?”
“It’s about your remodeling plans.”
“My…what? My remodeling plans!” He thinks about home renovation at a time like this? What happened to Mr. Romance?
“Yes, your remodeling plans. Any chance I’ll get that tour when I take you home tonight? You gonna show me your upstairs, lass?”
Oh. Oh! Dana wanted to whimper, but she valiantly fought it back and found a lighthearted tone. “Well, EHS. I suspect a private tour could be arranged. Why don’t you take me home, and we’ll find out.“