Page 25 of Sea Glass Serenade

“Go ahead, honey.” Hazel smiled at her daughter.

“It’s for you.” Samantha held out the notebook, showing her mother what she had drawn.

To Hazel’s surprise, it was a diagram and a whole bunch of notes outlining various options for ways she could ask Jacob out. Samantha’s girlish handwriting covered the page, and her various ideas were written or drawn out in pink, purple, and blue ink.

“I thought this might come in handy while you’re making a decision.” Samantha grinned at her. “I know we talked about a lot of ideas the other day, and I didn’t want you to feel too overwhelmed. This is sort of like a Venn diagram, so you can pick and choose which elements of these ideas you like or don’t like and then create your perfect plan.”

Hazel pressed a hand to her chest, feeling touched that Samantha wanted her to find love again. “Thank you, sweetheart. This is really helpful, honestly! I’ve been trying to decide what to do and I have been feeling overwhelmed. I was hoping to talk to someone about it tonight, and here you are.”

Samantha wiggled onto the armchair next to her mother. “I know Aunt Alexis has a lot going on right now, so I figured we needed to have this next planning meeting without her. Maybe you can talk about what you decide on with her before you do it.”

Hazel kissed her daughter on the side of the head. “How did I get such a great kid? You are a total sweetheart.”

“It’s because you feed me so many cookies.” Samantha giggled at her own joke, and Hazel laughed with her.

“That’s the secret, huh?”

“Oh, definitely. So, if you give me even more cookies…”

Hazel laughed and shook her head. “How about more fruits and veggies?”

Samantha sighed and lifted up the notebook again. “This is my favorite option here. What do you think? You can get together a little basket of things that you know he likes, like a book he might like to read, or a bag of coffee that you know he loves. Then you can have a table reserved at a fancy restaurant for the two of you. You can just hand him the basket and ask him to get dinner with you later.”

Hazel’s heart started to beat faster with excitement, and something clicked inside of her when she thought about the plan that her daughter had come up with. “I think that’s right,” she said, staring into space and smiling quietly. “That feels right. Thank you, honey.” She wrapped her arms around her daughter and gave her a hug.

“I’m so glad you like it! I think it will show that you’ve been paying attention to your conversations with him, and that you really care about him, since you know the kinds of things he likes. And I think handing him a basket filled with stuff he really likes is a nice way of saying, ‘Wow, I really, really like you’ without having to actually say that out loud. Because I understand that saying that out loud might be really scary.”

Hazel laughed. “I think you’re right. It’s a brilliant idea. Thoughtful but not too grand. And I think I’m going to have a lot of fun picking out things that he likes for this basket.” She felt her heart rate pick up in excitement at the idea, and already her mind was filling with ideas for what she could put inside Jacob’s basket. She loved the thought of making him happy.

“Yay!” Samantha grinned, looking pleased with herself. “Will you show me the basket once you have it all ready?”

“Oh, of course. I couldn’t do this without you.” Hazel gave her daughter another hug, wondering again how on earth she got to be so lucky.

Alexis brushed her hair back from her forehead and concentrated on chopping up carrots. She was at her mother’s house, cooking an elaborate meal of baked lemon ziti with carrot soup on the side.

Outside, the sun was starting to dip toward the horizon, bathing her mother’s beautiful garden in a golden light. Alexis stared out the window at the lovely sight for a few moments and then sighed, feeling tired, and she turned her attention back to her cooking. She moved quickly, her motions precise and energetic. She was trying to keep up her adrenaline, although it had been a long day.

“Hey, sister.” Julia stepped inside through the back door, and her eyebrows lifted in surprise when she saw all of the cooking supplies that Alexis had spread out across the kitchen counters. “Wow, Mom said you were making dinner tonight, but I didn’t think it was going to be a three-course meal.”

Alexis laughed. “Not three courses, just two. Ginger carrot soup and baked lemon ziti. Oh! And I should make some dinner rolls too. That would be delicious, wouldn’t it?”

“Are you doing all this for Grayson?” Julia asked, her tone gentle. “Is he coming over for dinner?”

Alexis froze. She hadn’t told Julia about Grayson yet, but she hadn’t asked Hazel or Dean to keep the fact that he was in town a secret, so it was no wonder that Julia already knew about it.

“No,” Alexis stammered. “I—I haven’t talked to him yet today.”

“You haven’t even talked to him?” Julia sounded incredulous. “But—Alexis, he came all the way out here to see you.”

Alexis bit her lip. “I know, but he’s okay. He’s probably still tired from his flight. And besides, I’ve been incredibly busy today. I started out working on renovating Hazel’s kitchen, and that took me hours. Tiles really are very tricky to get right, and you have to work very slowly. And then I went over to The Lighthouse Grill and helped bus tables for a while.”

“You weren’t on the schedule for today,” Julia said, placing her hands on her hips. She had a suspicious look on her face, but Alexis ignored it and kept talking.

“I know, but they had a big lunch rush over there today, so after bussing I stayed to help with all of the dishes. Then I called some girls that I know to make sure they’re single—I’m hoping to matchmake some of them with Dean. I mean, I was crafty about it. I didn’t come right out and ask them if they were single or not. But most of them are, so that’s great. I mean, it’s great for Dean. Then I went grocery shopping for you and Mom.”

Julia blinked. “I mean, thank you—but we didn’t ask you to do any of that.”

“I know, but I love grocery shopping.” Alexis smiled, hoping she could turn Julia’s attention to the food she’d purchased. “Igot you restocked on all the basics like flour and noodles, and I got some fruits and vegetables. You’ve got a couple of fresh mangos now, and I thought it might be fun for you and Mom to make some smoothies with them.”

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