A Pour Way to Dye (Book 2 in the Soapmaking Mysteries) (16 page)

She sighed. “The worst part of it was that I
didn’t have any brothers or sisters. Sometimes I feel all alone in
the world. I really envy you your family, Ben. It must be
heaven.”

I’d never heard it described quite like that,
but then I’d never met anyone with Diana’s unique perspective
before, either. “It can be that, but we manage to visit the other
place often enough, too.”

She laughed. “I’ve seen the way you all
interact. I’ve always longed for that. So, how do you like working
in the family business? I can tell from your class that you truly
love to make soap.”

“
I do,” I admitted. “It’s a
passion of mine. All of us share it, really, though Cindy’s not so
sure it’s what she wants to do with her life yet.”

“
Really?” she asked. “She’s
a wonderful teacher. I was quite impressed with her today, once she
got warmed up.”

“
We’ll see,” I said as I
pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. I felt a little wave
of despair as I remembered the last and only other time I’d eaten
there. Kelly and I had really enjoyed ourselves, and I wondered if
I should have taken Diana somewhere else for our first date,
despite the free meal.

She’d been looking out at the rose garden
when she caught my eye. “Ben, is everything all right?”

“
It’s great,” I said, trying
to put the past behind me and focus on the future.

As we walked in, I admired the heart pine
floors, the ceiling, and the delicate flowered wallpaper again. It
was as elegant a place as ever. Several of the Shaker-style tables
were full. The same short little man with the elegant mustache I’d
seen on my last visit was standing at the front, as if he were
waiting just for us.

“
Welcome back, sir,” he said
with great enthusiasm.

I was surprised he’d even recognized me.
“Hello. I was told to tell you that I’m your raffle winner from the
Fair.”

He looked delighted by the news. “Excellent,
excellent. I’m so happy one of our regular patrons won. Come in,
come in, we’ve got a special table reserved for you. Everything is
included in making this evening yours, from cocktails to dessert.
There is one stipulation you might not be aware of, though,” he
said as he looked me sternly in the eye.

So there was a catch after all. “What’s
that?”

“
You are our guests, from
the serving staff to my humble self. Please don’t insult us by
leaving a tip. This evening, you are both members of our family.
Agreed?”

“
How can I say no to that?”
I said.

He smiled broadly. “Excellent. If you’ll come
with me?”

The elegant little man led us to the best
table in the house, positioned by a window with a view of the
garden and beyond it, the lake.

As he helped Diana into her chair, he said,
“I am Robert. If you need anything, anything at all, I will be
offended if you do not ask.”

“
Thank you, Robert,” Diana
said in a hushed voice.

After we were alone, she gazed around the
room, then said, “I must say, this is the most impressive first
date I’ve ever been on.”

“
Then I’m glad I bought that
ticket. It is nice, isn’t it?”

“
It’s wonderful,” she said.
“Honestly, I’m usually happy with a diner or cooking at home, but
I’m really going to enjoy this.”

“
So am I,” I said. “Thanks
for coming on such short notice.”

She looked steadily into my eyes, and said,
“Thank you for asking. I was hoping we would have the chance to do
this sometime.”

I smiled. “Well, it’s not every day I get to
eat at The Lakefront.”

“
I’m not talking about that.
I would have been just as happy eating at The Hound Dog with
you.”

“
You know what?” I said,
enjoying the moment, and very glad I’d asked her. “I feel the same
way.”

My smile froze in place as I noticed a couple
come in the front door. I couldn’t believe it for a second, but
unfortunately, it was really happening.

Diana asked, “Ben, what’s wrong? You look
like somebody just walked across your grave.”

“
It’s nothing,” I said,
trying to recapture my composure.

“
Don’t tell me that,” she
said as she casually looked back over her shoulder. After a moment,
she said softly, “She’s pretty, isn’t she?”

At that moment Kelly caught us looking at
her, and so did her date. She was out with her ex-husband Wade.
Kelly’s face fell as she offered us a slight nod. I saw her whisper
something to Robert, who glanced our way, then nodded. He led them
to the other side of the restaurant, thankfully out of our
sight.

Diana asked softly, “So who is she?”

“
It’s not important. Not
anymore.”

Diana wasn’t about to accept that answer. She
put a hand on mine and said, “It’s pretty obvious it is. Did you
two date?”

I nodded. “Up until pretty recently actually.
That’s her ex-husband with her. They’ve decided to reconcile.”

“
Oh, Ben, I’m
sorry.”

“
No, it’s really not
important anymore. Let’s enjoy our evening, shall we?”

I tried, I honestly did, but our conversation
was stilted throughout the salad course and on into the entree.
Diana asked what I thought about Earnest Joy’s murder, and that
just served to remind me that I was at the top of Molly’s list of
suspects.

She finished a bite of her salmon, then after
a long pause, Diana said, “You know, maybe we should try this
another time. I don’t blame you, but it’s pretty obvious your
heart’s not into this anymore. Would you like to go?”

“
No,” I said a little louder
than I’d intended. “I want to stay.”

Diana raised an eyebrow, then said firmly,
“Then you’re going to have to do a better job of focusing on me and
stop glancing in that direction every twenty seconds. I’m not high
maintenance, I promise you that, but I do need some attention when
I’m out on a date. Is that fair enough?”

I laughed at her abrupt directness. “I’d say
that’s more than fair.” From that moment on, I started enjoying
myself again. The filet mignon was wonderful, and I especially
enjoyed the garlic mashed potatoes.

As we waited for our chocolate mousse
desserts, a quartet began playing in the other room. “Would you
like to dance?”

“
I’d love to,” she said. As
I led her onto the floor, I made sure my gaze never left hers. It
was funny, but I’d never danced with a woman as tall as I was
before. Most of the time it was easy to forget that Diana was six
feet tall, but I found it nice to face her eye-to-eye as we danced.
I’ve never been a fan of skinny women, and she felt full and alive
in my embrace as we moved around the dance floor. I swear, it was
as if we’d danced together a thousand times before.

After a break in the music, Diana said
softly, “I haven’t danced nearly enough in my life.”

“
You really should. You’re
excellent at it.”

As the music started up again, she said, “Not
many boys wanted to dance with a girl as tall as they were.”

“
That was clearly their
loss,” I said.

After the song ended, I noticed that our
desserts had been delivered to our table. “Are you ready for
dessert?”

“
As long as you promise to
dance with me again before we leave.”

I nodded. “That’s a promise you can be sure
I’ll keep.”

After I led her back to our table, Diana took
a bite, and her face lit up. “That is unbelievably good. We’ll have
to dance till midnight, I’ve eaten so much.”

“
I’m game if you are,” I
said.

To my credit, as we were leaving, I didn’t
even look around for Kelly and her ex-husband. Not that I didn’t
think about it, but doing so would have been a disservice to Diana
and our evening together.

Robert smiled at us as we approached him. “If
you don’t mind my saying so, you two are a perfect match. Watching
you dance together reminded me of my late wife. I trust everything
was to your satisfaction?”

“
It was outstanding,” I said
as I shook his hand. Diana leaned down and kissed his cheek, and to
my surprise, Robert’s face reddened.

She said, “Thank you for a truly special
evening.”

“
Mademoiselle, you are
always welcome here.”

As I drove Diana back to her apartment, there
was a comfortable silence between us, one that normally took time
to develop. I glanced over at her and said, “It was great, wasn’t
it?”

“
I had the time of my life.
Honestly, I feel like Cinderella right now.”

I looked at my watch. “If that’s the case,
you’re in serious trouble. We’re half an hour past your
deadline.”

“
I don’t like to think of it
as a deadline, more like a suggestion,” she said,
laughing.

Once we were at her apartment, I walked her
to her door, unsure about how to handle the good-night kiss. It had
always been the most awkward moment of any first date for me, and
that hadn’t changed, even though I was a grown man now.

She settled the question for me, turning
slowly and offering me a kiss. After a full minute, Diana said, “I
hope you had as tenth a good time as I did, Ben.”

“
I did,” I said.

“
Then next time I’ll treat,
but I’m afraid I can’t offer you anything as elegant as
tonight.”

“
In all honesty, The Hound
Dog is normally more my speed anyway,” I said.

“
Then we’ll try that next.
How’s Friday sound?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

She hesitated, then said, “Ben, I’m sorry. I
didn’t mean to push.”

“
It’s not that,” I said.
“I’m just not sure I can wait till then to see you
again.”

Her laughter was infectious. “You’ll just
have to manage. Besides, I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“
But tomorrow’s Tuesday,” I
said.

“
Not for dinner, for class.
Surely you haven’t forgotten about that.”

“
To be honest with you, it
completely slipped my mind.”

This time I kissed her, and it was quite a
bit longer than a minute before I let her go.

As I drove back to my apartment, I marveled
about how the evening had turned out. There had been a rough patch
when Kelly and Wade had walked in, but Diana had stopped me from
ruining a wonderful evening. And I’d had a great time, there was no
denying it. A slight hint of her perfume lingered in the car, just
enough to remind me of our evening together. I was still enjoying
the feeling when I walked into my apartment and saw that there was
a message on my machine. I hit the play button and heard Kelly’s
voice.

She managed to choke out, “Ben, I’m so sorry.
About everything,” before she hung up.

What did she mean by that? Was she sorry
she’d nearly ruined my meal, or was she regretting our breakup?
Either way, there was nothing I could do about it. I played the
message one more time, then hit the erase button.

Still, it managed to steal some of the
euphoria I’d been feeling just a few seconds before.

It would be better for me if I could put
Kelly behind me and focus on Diana, but I’d never been one to give
my heart easily, and it always took me time to rebound. But knowing
Diana, she wasn’t about to put up with much foolishness on my
part.

And that was exactly what I needed at the
moment.

The next morning, thirty minutes before class
was due to start, I got a telephone call at Where There’s Soap that
dramatically altered my plans for the day.

As Cindy and I were preparing for our
class—the last one on hand-milling—Kate came into the teaching
area.

“
Ben, Grandpa is on the
phone for you.”

Cindy said, “Oh, no, you’re not going to do
that to me again.”

“
I’m sure it’s nothing,” I
said as I headed for the door.

“
Benjamin, I won’t teach
this class alone. We’ll just cancel and you can help me on the
makeup session.”

We were going to be teaching our class today
to make soaps with ingredients like luffa, peppermint, mango,
honey, lavender, and even strawberries. It was the best class to
teach, since the students got to decide what kind of soap they
wanted to make. We had everything they might want to put in a soap,
and our inventory of additives was wide open to them. Half the fun
was watching them choose and helping them mold their ideas into
reality.

Kate stared at us both, then said, “It’s
probably nothing. I’m sure it’s just a phone call.”

Cindy protested, “Yeah, that’s what he said
yesterday, and I ended up teaching all by myself.”

“
I couldn’t do anything
about that,” I said, which was not entirely true.

Kate said, “What’s the big deal? If Ben can’t
help you, I’d love to. This is my favorite class session to
teach.”

“
Slow down,” I said. “I’m
not planning to go anywhere, okay? I’ll be right back.”

I grabbed the nearest phone and said, “You
needed me?”

Paulus had a defeated tone in his voice that
shocked me. “Ben, I should have left the detecting to you. I’ve
botched it all up.”

“
What happened,
Paulus?”

He hesitated, then said, “I’ve been digging
into Earnest Joy’s murder, and I’m afraid I’ve attracted the wrong
attention. My boy, I could be in some serious trouble.”

“
Where are you right now?” I
asked. I could have Molly there in record time, despite our
differences lately. She loved the old man almost as much as I
did.