Gail couldn't decide whether this was a date of him just being friendly. They’d been very friendly with each other and clearly had a lot in common. But he’d asked her to an event, and they were bringing their dogs, did that qualify as a date? Had the vet she worked for just asked her out? He knew she was leaving in three days.
Her heart was still beating fast, she was excited, not only to see the lake, but to spend time with Robert. She liked spending time with him and since the beginning of the week when they had dinner with his family, they’d had a completely different relationship. They chatted and laughed and got along really well. If it hadn't been a case where she was leaving town in three days, she would've held out hope that maybe this would be something that could last a little while. But she couldn't afford to think that way, she was leaving end of day Monday. So, this couldn't be a date that would lead to anything more. Just a fun evening with an attractive man she worked for.
Even telling herself that, Gail could feel her excitement rising. She was hopeless. But she was still excited. She liked spending time with him, and this wouldn’t be interrupted by family or patients, it would only be them, the dogs, and what her sister had called a magical wonderland. It felt like what a first date should be―except it couldn’t be anything beyond a single date.
Emotion swirled through her, but she couldn't help the small smile that sat on her face as she finished out the day.
~~
The ride to the lake was pleasant, she kept asking Robert questions, but he skirted around them with this playful grin on his face. Meanwhile in the backseat the dogs got excited to see each other, even though they had been together at work all day. Robert brought out another dog bed to put behind the reception desk in the last day or two because one or both of his boxers liked to spend time with Murphy and Murphy liked to be at the front of the clinic so he could see everything. They were the dog equivalent of the Three Musketeers, except they weren't fighting tyranny, they were only fighting naps.
When they finally arrived at the fairly crowded parking lot in front of the lake, Gail went quiet. She could see at the front of the parking lot the first row of spaces was blocked off by various food trucks. More food trucks than she'd expect to see this far out of Seattle. She could see a chocolate vendor, a coffee vendor, and several types of food, including desserts and dinner.
"All right, let’s start with food. And you have to trust me because a little gem of a local food truck is usually here.”
His excitement made her smile as they got out and proceeded to open each side’s back door to hook the dogs to their leashes. "All right, let’s go." As everyone got out of the car and they shut the doors, Robert locked it and motioned for her to come around his side and they walked to the left end of the row of food trucks and stands. When she saw which one they were headed to she wrinkled her nose. "Put it in my Pocket? Is that really the name of their truck?"
She heard a laugh as she turned her attention to Robert. "Yes, that is their name. Trust me, it's good. The two women who own it are hilarious."
She did trust him; unless he had some weird food fetish she wasn't aware of, odds were the food would be fine.
The line wasn't too bad; it consisted of mostly people she recognized. She saw a few people that visited the vet who waved or gave them a nod and Robert always reciprocated. When she glanced across the lines it was the chocolatier, the coffee stand and this food truck that most of the locals were at. All the others still had long lines, but Gail didn’t recognize any of the people.
She leaned in so Robert would be able to hear her; Christmas music played loud enough that people needed to talk a little louder than normal to be heard. "Are the locals only eating here, the chocolate shop, and the coffee stand? Do I have that right?"
Robert straightened back up as he bent down to hear her, he then scanned the scene and began nodding. "Yeah, there is one other restaurant that sometimes has a truck here, but I don't see them here this week so I would expect the locals to only be eating at the Pocket and the other local places. The other trucks are from either Seattle, Ellensburg, or the neighboring areas."
Gail found that interesting. It said something about loyalty that she appreciated and liked. It also showed that their food had to be pretty good.
When they reached the front of the line a woman of about fifty with eyeglasses and wavy, shoulder-length hair stuck her head out and smiled at them. "Hey, Doc McAllister. What can I get you two? Please tell me you're going to try something new for once." She turned her attention to Gail and widened her smile. "He gets the same thing every time. Variety is the spice of life, but not for Doc McAllister."
Gail glanced at Robert who smiled and nodded along at the older woman's ribbing.
"I'll tell you what, Sam, we'll get two of my usual because it's amazing and I want Gail here to try it. But she and I'll split a dessert you pick."
The older woman, Sam, looked between them and smiled again. "Good for you, honey." She pointed to Gail. "You make him branch out. That'll be twenty-three bucks."
Having no response for that, Gail stayed quiet. She liked the older woman. She liked that she was ribbing Robert and had no doubt she was giving all of the local customers the same attitude.
Robert handed over the money and the two of them stepped aside to a smaller window with a crowd of three or four groups waiting for their food. Overall it wasn't a long line for a food truck. They moved pretty quickly. From what Gail saw, they were putting food in various pitas and tortillas that had probably been prepped earlier.
The small window opened and a woman of about thirty with a long braid going down her back stuck her head out the window with two contact paper wrapped pitas filled to the brim with food. "I’ve got two gyro pockets."
An older couple stepped up, took them, and thanked the girl. As the woman was shutting the window, she saw Robert and paused to wave. "Hey Doc, I wanted to thank you and Dr. Struthers for taking care of the kiddos last week. I don't know what we would've done if something happened. The husband and I definitely owe you one." She didn’t wait for a response before shutting the door behind her and presumably returned to her work.
Gail looked at Robert questioningly and he smiled. "She and her husband have a large property out on the Bunny Ridge side of the lake. They take in large rescue breeds, so it's usually pit bulls and rottweilers at the moment. They have six dogs out there, four of which are theirs outright, the other two are being fostered. Turns out one of their fosters got into a fight with an animal bigger than it and the other rottweilers came to its rescue. She called on Thursday night before you got here worried as all get out. Dr. Struthers came back in and we took care of all six of them. It took us a bit as the two fosters were skittish, but they all turned out okay."
The sense of community and the joking camaraderie amongst the locals really impressed Gail. Lantern Lake had that small-town friendliness she didn't think existed outside of Hollywood. She was sure it had its problems or its kooky locals but all the people she’d met so far were friendly or at least professional and she loved that. A couple of the locals waved at her as they walked by when they noticed her and Robert standing in line for the food truck. That did not happen in Ellensburg, let alone Seattle.
"Two pizza pockets and a pocket s’more," the woman with the braid called out the window several minutes later.
"That's us," Robert said as he ushered his two boxers toward the window.
Gail followed suit because she didn't want Robert carrying everything on top of the leash for the two dogs. That felt like a disaster waiting to happen. As she walked up behind him, they grabbed the food, thanking the woman in the window and he motioned her to follow him around the side of the truck toward the lake.
The view caught her off guard as they got around the food truck. The food truck line blocked a lot of the view since they were so tightly packed together, so she hadn't seen how gorgeous it really was. On the backside of the food trucks was a very well-lit seating area
. There was a very large net hanging between the lampposts and a few polls that lit about a dozen park benches that had been placed together in a makeshift seating area. Robert made a break for one where a family of five was getting up to leave.
She could see beyond the little seating area a walking trail that looked very similar to the one at Green Lake. It had a line down the middle as if representing the lanes for walking and bikes only. The paint was pretty worn as if it hadn't been redone in quite a while. There were twinkle lights between lampposts and extra light posts that must've been put up for the holiday. Each of the posts were an old style lantern and the lights flickered like a candle, but Gail knew real candles would've been way too much work so it must've been some kind of effect with the bulb inside. The lanterns looked to be maybe a foot and a half or two feet tall and the polls were maybe twelve feet high. Further down the path along the grassy area some carolers sang, facing several rows of seating. Their audience filled two-thirds of the seats. Further than that was a guy doing an ice sculpture, though it looked like he hadn’t been at it long yet. To their left was a line for Santa; next to him stood a tree with a sign stating any gift left under it would go to a local charity. On the other side of the tree, someone sold roasted nuts. The lighting was beautiful and there were large lit snowflakes hanging from each lamppost. She'd even seen a little area with a fake snow machine and it was cold enough to be accumulating enough for people to play in. The whole place was wild.
Gail stop looking at that point as she slid onto the bench across from Robert. There was a lot going on and there were a lot of people, but it wasn't obnoxious or overly crowded. Overall, she was sure that would probably be the difference between Friday and Saturday.
"What do you think?" Robert’s voice held amusement and Gail was sure he'd noticed how wide her eyes were.
"It's incredible; the town goes all out."
Robert nodded. "To me, the crazy part is that the vendors and the entertainment change from week to week. I mean Santa and the giving tree are always here but everything else changes. To this day I have no idea how they can afford it. I've asked the mayor and the city treasurer multiple times but neither of them are budging on revealing the secret." His tone was playful, as if he wasn’t even concerned with the information, just wanted to solve the puzzle.
They ate in silence and both of them threw pieces of the bread to the dogs. It was pretty good, and she could see why Robert ordered it often enough for the woman in the van to tease him. It was like a pizza crust shaped like a pita filled with sauce and melted cheese, clearly toasted, then there were peppers, onions, pepperoni, and olives. It was better than she’d expected. Once they finished, they split the s’more pocket which was exactly as she’d expected. Almost gingerbread outside and the inside was covered in gooey marshmallows and chocolate. They each took half. By the time they were done, Gail felt fuller than she thought she was going to be.
While they'd eaten, they chatted, mostly small talk about what happened at work that day and Gail felt her mood lift significantly. Then they got up so someone else could use the table and began to walk.
"The trail that's open for the public doesn't go all the way around the lake. Both Bunny Ridge and Lakeside have private property parcels on their sides of the lake so that means no matter what direction we go we will end up turning around," Robert explained as they began to walk by Santa and the line of children waiting to see him.
It took her a couple minutes to take everything in before she could make more small talk. It was so novel, all of the employees or volunteers, were dressed in Victorian garb and she quickly learned there was a scavenger hunt for Santa's elves along the lake. Several of these volunteers also told stories, the history of the city and its early residents. Some of them with audiences of up to a dozen people.
"How many people do you think are here?" Gail found herself asking. She’d noticed the crowd wasn’t thinning as they continued on.
His initial response was nothing more than a laugh. Once he took a breath he responded, "They say last year in the month of December it saw about forty thousand visitors. How they're judging that number I don't know but that's what they produced in their yearly wrap-up."
That surprised her, since the event only ran two evenings a week that meant five thousand people could be there throughout the course of the evening. Though she supposed it wasn't as improbable when she looked around at all that was going on.
"How do you like working at the vet clinic?" Robert asked with a tone Gail couldn't quite put her finger on.
"I like it. The patients and their owners are usually, despite the stress of coming to the vet, relatively upbeat and polite. I’m not used to people coming to my desk and being friendly."
He slowed his pace and Robert looked at her with a frown. "I am sorry to hear that.”
"It's fine, don't worry about it; let’s talk about something else." She waved it away then said the first thing that came to mind. “I can’t imagine having four brothers, that sounds terrible. I only have one sister and at times that can feel too much."
"It is terrible. They're all terrible. They should all be fired," he deadpanned.
She found herself laughing harder; Murphy looked up at her to make sure she was okay.
"In all seriousness though growing up it wasn't so great but as an adult it’s nice to have a bunch of people to choose from if you need help or advice. And if you're mad at one of them there's still plenty to pick from to hang out with."
She liked that his family was so big he didn't have to worry about being singled out. Though she got the distinct impression at dinner that they were an incredibly close-knit family and she couldn't imagine anyone being on the outs.
Their talk continued for the rest of their walk, at a more sedate pace than the dogs would've liked. Eventually they went into stories from their histories and had first-date-appropriate conversations. By the time they got back to the car Gail was cold, despite the hot chocolate in her hands, and she was convinced this had been a date. That little pebble of a feeling inside her got larger. She liked Robert. He was kind of funny and she loved spending time with him. She was finding it harder and harder the more time she spent with him to remind herself she was leaving after Monday.
As he drove, she felt his mood dry up. It grew heavier and she looked at him. "What's going on?"
Frowning as he watched the road, he gave a very heavy sigh.
"I have to talk to you about something."
His words filled her with a sense of dread and her stomach began tying up in knots. Nothing good ever started with that sentence.
"Okay," she answered, giving herself a pat on the back for keeping her voice relatively flat.
"Herb and I were discussing it today and we would like to offer you the full-time job as our office manager. We would pay you more than we paid the last manager since you’re updating a lot of the work to make it more streamlined. Before insurance and benefits we’re offering you fifty thousand a year."
The silence was deafening. Gail felt as if her breathing stopped and her heart slowed. It was more money than she made at the University though he had no way of knowing that. She was fairly certain in a place like Lantern Lake that money went pretty far. Then it dawned on her: he had been wining and dining her like a client tonight. This hadn’t been a date, he hadn’t been flirting like she thought. He was trying to convince her to like him, so she would take the job. Gail felt sick to her stomach. How could she have read the situation so wrong? Flirting her into a job! Here she thought he was genuinely interested in her as a person, even though they couldn't go anywhere. But that wasn't it. Taking her out was a means to an end, was that why he'd been nicer to her this week? She found that hard to believe but now she didn't know.
"What do you say?" His voice was weary now and he glanced at her before turning back to the road.
Gail took a deep breath trying to choose her words carefully. "I have to think about it. There's a lot to consider and I
will give you guys my answer before the end of day Monday." She knew her voice was sharper than she wanted it to be, but she couldn't control it.
The idea that someone would schmooze her made her feel dirty. She thought they had a genuine connection, but they didn't. Herb was a nice guy and a good boss, but eventually he would retire which would leave her alone with Robert and she didn't think she could do that knowing these were the kind of tactics he believed in using.
"Oh, okay. I don't want to influence your decision so just let us know when you're ready." His voice was deflated, no doubt because he’d thought his tactic would work.
Since the only response she could come up with would have been accompanied by a sneer, Gail sat in silence and stewed. The more she thought about it the more frustrated and offended she became. She had two job offers and neither of them came in a terribly good way. But it wasn't like she could afford to be jobhunting too long. Maybe if she moved to Seattle it wouldn’t take that long to find a position, but it was hard to bank on that when she had two job offers right now, one of which paid drastically more than the other.
When he dropped her off, they mumbled good night to one another as she and Murphy headed inside and up to their room. She had a lot to think about; at the moment she felt too sick to her stomach to make a decision. As she passed the garbage can in the lobby, she tossed what was left of her hot chocolate in it. She felt bad wasting one-third of the delicious drink, but her stomach was churning so much she didn't think she'd keep it down. She didn’t know what she was going to do.
Chapter 8
"Like I told you yesterday, Robert, if you want to know how Gail is doing you should either call her or come down here yourself to check on her instead of insisting I be your third-party spy," his aunt chastised through the phone. "What exactly did you do anyway that you're so concerned?"
That was the thing, Robert didn't know. He had taken Gail out to show her how great Lantern Lake was. To show her that moving there would be the right thing for her. To show her that the two of them could have a future together, he didn't know how long that future would last but there was definitely something serious there. He wanted her to see those things because he saw them, how amazing she was, how wonderful and funny and how perfect she was for the office manager job. But for whatever reason, when he offered her the position the mood in the car had changed. He could feel anger wafting off her and he hadn’t known how to fix it. To refrain from making it worse, he hadn't said anything. Waiting for her response was killing him.
Lantern Lake Winter Collection: Books 1-3 Page 7
