Page 48 of Unexpected You

This was an unexpected turn of events and I didn’t like it. But I didn’t grab her arm and make her stop and turn around.

No, I walked next to her until she opened a door for me.

“Here we are,” she said as I looked up at the sign and the windows. Candles and bath products.

A lovely smell emerged from the interior that wasn’t too overpowering. I did love using candles sometimes when I took a bath.

Cadence motioned me to go in, so I did, and she closed the door behind me.

We were greeted and asked if we needed any help.

“No, thank you. We’ll let you know,” Cadence said. She steered me toward jars and jars of bath salts and soaks and products and then grabbed a basket.

“You can make your own spa set. You get to choose one of each.” She pointed to the sign that advertised the deal. One container of bath salts, one candle, one scrub, and one little stone from a bowl. The stones had words carved into them.

“No, Cadence,” I said, pushing against the basket.

“Yes, Eloise,” she said, taking a jar of bath salts off the shelf and sniffing at it. “What do you think?”

This was ridiculous, but I could see the determination in her eyes. I’d spent enough time with her to know what happened when she set her mind to something. And really, was this the worst thing that had ever happened to me? No.

Cadence helped as I selected some bath salts and a candle and a scrub and closed my eyes while I reached into the bowl of stones.

“What did you get?” Cadence asked, leaning close to see.

I opened my hand and showed her.

“’Peace’ is fine. But it’s not great. Pick another one,” Cadence said, taking the stone from me and putting it back in the bowl.

“You’re supposed to go with the first choice,” I said as she mixed the stones around.

“Try again.”

Cadence made me choose again and again until I got a stone she approved of. This one said “Bliss” on it.

“There. You can’t get much better than that.”

She marched to the counter and paid for everything and told them it was a gift so they needed to wrap it up.

Once again, she stopped me from arguing.

“Can we go now?” I asked after she handed me the bag with my gift in it.

“Sure. Unless you want to take the rest of the day off and wander around pretending to be tourists. You could even go into the bookshop and see if anyone recognizes you.” Her eyes were lit up and there was mischief in them.

Instead of annoying me, I felt swept away with her. Wanting to do something silly. Something foolish.

“That sounds like a terrible idea,” I said.

Cadence grinned. “Just terrible enough to be fun, though, right?”

I let out a long sigh.

“Fine,” I said, pretending I wasn’t hiding a smile deep down inside. “If anyone gets too close, you’ll need to be my bodyguard.”

Cadence raised one arm and flexed her bicep while I watched. Her shirt had short sleeves today and her arms were on display. How had I not noticed her arms before? A muscle popped, drawing my attention.

“Not bad. I think I can handle it.” She beamed at me and kept walking while I struggled to regain my footing again and stumbled a little behind her.