Page 33 of Your Carriage Awaits in Crumbleton
‘What do you mean?’ said Danny.
‘I mean, none of us know how long we’ve got,’ said Keith, his voice grave. ‘You’re single. She’s single…’
‘Ha! Yeah, Brian would love that,’ said Danny, rolling his eyes.
‘Good. It would serve him right to see his daughter fall for a Dalton,’ said Keith. ‘Maybe you should take the fact she’s back in town as a sign that it’s time to do something about it.’
‘Something?’ said Danny.
‘Don’t be dense, lad,’ said Keith with a sigh. ‘You know the kind ofsomethingI mean. Sweep her off her feet, romance her.’
‘Romance her?’
‘Yes.’
‘Is that an order?’ said Danny faintly.
‘Do you know what?’ said Keith, letting out a massive yawn. ‘I think it might be.’
CHAPTER 10
MICHELLE
Michelle stood on her tiptoes, hunting around in the back of her mum’s kitchen cupboard. She wassureshe’d spotted some little red plastic baskets in there somewhere. They’d be just the thing…
‘IfI can find them!’ she huffed, tugging out a packet of serviettes that was in the way. Her eyes went wide when she spotted that they were adorned with stars and stripes. ‘Ooh, very star-spangled banner. I can make use of these!’
Michelle tossed them onto the counter and resumed her rummaging. Her parents would be back in a little over an hour, and she wanted to transform the kitchen into a mini American diner before they arrived.
Her imagination had been running wild since her chat with Caroline earlier. Suddenly, she felt like both of her most cherished teenage dreams might be within reach… if only she was brave enough to grab them.
Against all odds, Dany Dalton was still young, free and single… and for the first time in years, so was she. On top of that, it looked like the real version of Crumbleton’s bad boy was even better than the fantasy version… on first inspection, at least. He was kind, caring, and a seriously hard worker. Plus, he seemedto adore his dad. The fact that he’d become even more knee-meltingly sexy over the years was an added bonus!
The question was, could she bring herself to make the first move after all this time? And if she did… what about the feud between their fathers?
Michelle shrugged and moved on to explore the next cupboard. She couldn’t do anything about her burgeoning feelings for Danny right now… so she was going to spend the rest of the day focusing on her other fantasy instead.
The 1950s American Diner dream.
It had been a long-cherished obsession. Ever since the first time she’d watched Rizzo lob that milkshake into Kenickie’s face, Michelle had dreamed of opening her own diner.
To be fair, it hadn’talljust been pie-in-the-sky daydreaming. Sure, shewasthe proud owner of a fat scrapbook dedicated entirely to the interior décor, but she’d put in plenty of real work over the years, too.
Even though Michelle had never quite summoned the courage to turn her big, shiny idea into reality, she’d quietly gathered as many applicable skills as possible… just in case.
There had been all the cooking and menu testing when she’d been younger, of course, but she’d also taken a degree in business with a focus on the food and beverage industry. She’d even managed to get a third-year placement shadowing the manager of a huge chain of themed restaurants. When her time with the company had come to an end, they’d promptly offered her a contract to work on developing a new menu that would be rolled out across the country.
Michelle had turned the offer down… and it was probably one of the biggest regrets of her life.
At the time, though, her new relationship with Lawrence had felt like the most important thing in the world. Unfortunately, ithad turned out to be the beginning of the end where her dreams were concerned.
‘Until now!’ she muttered.
Michelle didn’t know if it had been all those vintage cars at the Dalton Garage, or the strange tingling that had crept down her spine at the sight of the old showroom that had done it… but her old dream had flickered back to life.
‘Maybe roared is more like it!’ she chuckled, finally locating the nest of red plastic baskets and lifting them down carefully.
First things first, though… she needed to see if she even enjoyed the basics anymore. It was time to get cooking.
