Page 45 of Echoes

“You’ll find out when you pick me up for our date, I guess.”

Three Weeks Later

“Flowers?”

“It’s a date, right?” Rosie asked.

“You didn’t have to get me flowers.”

“But thisisa date, right? We saiddate.”

“Yes, it’s a date, Rosie,” Felicity replied with a wide smile on her face.

“Okay. Then, dates bring flowers.” Rosie held out the dozen red roses wrapped in plastic. “So, these are for you.”

“I didn’t get you flowers. Should I have?” Felicity took the roses from her.

“I think, of the two of us, I’m the one who owes the flowers.”

“You don’t owe me anything,” Felicity replied.

“Maybe I just owe it to myself to do everything I can to make this night perfect.”

“That’s a whole lot of pressure for a first date,” Felicity offered. “Come in, by the way.”

Rosie walked inside then, and Felicity closed the door behind her.

“When you told me you moved to the coast, you didn’t tell me you’d moved to an islandoffthe coast,” Rosie noted.

“There’s a bridge, and it’s only a ten-minute drive.”

“Still. I would’ve rented something here instead of on the actual coast.”

“Let me just get these in some water. The kitchen is this way.”

“I tried to find a place to make a reservation here, but there’s nothing,” Rosie shared.

“The island is mostly residential, and it’s the off-season now, so it’s pretty shut down.”

“I found a restaurant close to the house I rented that looked okay.”

“We can just eat here, Rosie,” Felicity said as they made their way into the kitchen. “I actually thought we would since it’s such a chore to get here.”

“You–” Rosie looked at the kitchen island, where she saw two platters laid out.

One was with cheese, crackers, and some vegetables, and the other one had oysters on ice. There was also a bottle of wine next to that.It was uncorked, and there were two waiting glasses.

“Yeah. Can you cancel your reservation?”

“No problem,” she replied.

Rosie reached for her phone, pulled up the app she’d used to make the reservation, and quickly canceled it.

“It’s a nice night, so I’ve got some fish I was thinking about grilling, there’s a salad, and I bought a dessert because I can cook, but I’m useless at baking.”

“You did all this?”

“You came all this way.”