Page 3 of Two Hearts Reunited

She peeked around him, talking to the woman who was waiting as she rung up the flowers for Eric. “I’ll only be a minute, Naomi.”

“I’m in no hurry,” Naomi replied, smiling.

After Eric handed over a credit card to pay for the flowers, Anya made her way around the counter, heading over to the display window to grab the huge vase of flowers.

Returning to the counter, she inserted the vase and arrangement into a wide plastic sleeve, before tying up the top and adding a huge red bow while Eric filled out a card.

After attaching the card to the bow, she scooped up the arrangement, handing it over to Eric. When he raised a brow, she wrote down her phone number on a Sanders’ Floral business card, sliding it across the desk.

“You may want to place the arrangement on the floor in the back seat of your vehicle to keep it steady so none of the flowers get broken,” she suggested.

“I’ll do that,” he replied. “I’ll talk with you soon.”

She nodded, watching the view as he walked away.

Naomi, who was still waiting at the counter, was watching Eric too and blew out a long low whistle as he stalked away, carrying the large arrangement with apparent ease.

“If you hadn’t said yes, I sure would have,” she muttered.

Anya snorted, finally laughing as her eyes met Naomi’s.

“I’m glad to see that things are looking up for you, Anya,” Naomi said dryly, smiling widely. “I need to order a few things to be delivered here in town on the twenty-third, if it’s possible?”

“Sure,” Anya replied, still laughing as she flipped open a picture book of sample arrangements, sliding it over the counter. “Have you got anything specific in mind?”

Chapter Two

It was odd that after ten years away from Crystal Rock, the first person he’d run into when he’d arrived in town was Anya Weldon, Eric decided after loading the flowers on the floor in the back seat of his truck. Revving up the engine, he put the vehicle into reverse, pulling out from the parking space in front of the mall and onto the street.

Hopefully, he wasn’t imagining the fact that Anya’s mood had improved significantly once they’d started to converse.

But still, he’d been shocked by her appearance. It’s not that she wasn’t pretty, but she seemed nearly lifeless, like something devastating had been dragging her down.

As he drove along Main Street, he made a quick left at the turnoff leading to the access road that wound around Crystal Rock Lake. Bad weather was moving in quickly, he realized, watching as big puffy snowflakes smacked against his windshield when the wind started picking up. Along with several inches of snow, there was supposed to be a fifteen degree drop in temperature here tonight, so he’d apparently left Chicago at just the right time early this morning.

Eric glanced at some of the homes that he was driving by. Many had been left neglected as he was growing up, but that sure appeared to have changed.

Eric couldn’t believe that Ashley had ended up owning the home that had once been considered the haunted house of the community. Both Brian and Ashley had been drawn to the place as kids, so it really hadn’t surprised Eric when Brian had eventually told the family that they were remodeling the house to make it their forever home.

Finally, when he reached the turnoff for the house, Eric’s eyes went wide when he turned into the long driveway. Even though the snowflakes were coming down hard, he couldn’t help being impressed when he saw the pristine exterior of the house.

Apparently, they’d invested in those improvements first, because Brian had told him that they still had a lot of work to do, but he and Ashley were holding off for a while until they built up a little more padding in their savings.

Besides, now they had a baby to provide for. Eric had gotten a kick out of it when Brian had shown him Arielle on Facetime last week. She’d been sleeping peacefully in his arms when Ashley had been away from home for a few hours. Apparently, Brian had no problem whatsoever sharing caregiving duties with Ashley. Because of COVID, he’d set up a home office and had run most of his marketing business from here this past year.

Ashley’s job was also in marketing, but she worked full-time for the Dragonfly Pointe Inn while Brian had reopened the same office run by their father in downtown Crystal Rock ten years earlier. Ashley had been able to do a lot of her job remotely too, but needed to work from the Inn as well, since it was a challenge keeping up with restaurant reservations and bookings because of COVID since they’d remained open as long as the law allowed, switching over to carryout to keep as many employees on the job as possible, even when they’d been unable to fulfill bookings.

Supposedly, it had been Ashley’s job to make sure that the Inn wasn’t forgotten by the public, despite being forced to close because of COVID restrictions. Management had used the timewisely by installing a new ventilation system throughout the Inn so that when they reopened, they would be able to maximize capacity of the restaurant and reduce the risk of any COVID outbreaks.

As soon as Eric pulled up to the wide deck alongside the house, which appeared to be the entrance into a brightly lit kitchen, the door sprang open and Brian, who was tugging on a parka, rushed down the stairway to greet him.

“Hey. You made good time,” Brian said. “I was afraid you might get caught in the storm.”

“I think I’ve been ahead of it most of the day,” Eric replied. “I made a couple of stops for gas and food, but that was it.”

“Well, I just heard that the forecast has changed, and we’re supposed to get a lot more snow. We’ll get you unloaded, and then I’ll have you park your truck in the barn with our vehicles,” Brian said. “I have a small plow stored inside the barn, so I’ll be clearing the drive sometime in the early morning.”

“I was wondering how you would handle the snow since there’s quite a large area for it to accumulate between your driveway and the house. Crystal Rock sure gets an awful lot of the stuff,” Eric observed, reaching for the flower arrangement so he could bring it into the house first. “I’ve got some flowers here for you and Ashley, so I’d better get them inside before I do anything else.”

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