Free A Match Made in Dry Creek by Janet Tronstad Page B

was turning soft.
    â€œWait,” Curt called as he saw Doris June reach the steps of the café.
    She didn’t wait, of course, and he had little choice except to follow her inside. He did notice, though, that the light inside the café flashed pink through the material of her dress as she walked through the door. She looked like a sunrise. A sunrise that was moving awfully fast, of course, but a sunrise nonetheless. That was his June bug, all right.

Chapter Six
    T he inside of the café was dimly lit. It had a floor with black-and-white tiles alternating across it and big street windows with white eyelet café curtains covering their bottom halves. Red-checked cotton cloths covered all of the tables. Two couples sat in the front of the café. Linda, the owner, gestured Mrs. Hargrove and Charley to a table at the back.
    â€œWe’ll need room for five,” Charley said as he looked behind him. Ben was inside the café, but Curt and Doris June were still halfway outside. Charley hoped that was a good sign and that they were at least talking to each other by now. This matchmaking stuff was wearing him down and he wasn’t sure how much more of it he could do, especially because Edith, well, Mrs. Hargrove, seemed so discouraged by it all.
    Charley didn’t know why, in the midst of all theirmatchmaking plans, he’d started thinking of Mrs. Hargrove as Edith, but he had. Of course, he hadn’t said her first name aloud to anyone yet and he wasn’t planning to do so. She’d been Mrs. Hargrove to him for too many years to start changing the rules now. Besides, he wasn’t sure she’d answer to Edith. Everyone called her Mrs. Hargrove.
    Names were a funny thing, Charley thought to himself as he watched Lucy bring an extra chair over to the table where he and Mrs. Hargrove were headed.
    â€œAnyone ever call you by your full name?” he asked the young woman.
    â€œLucille? Not in years. Why?”
    â€œI just wondered.” He also wondered if he should tip Lucy for bringing the chair and decided he would. He wanted to make a contribution to her guitar-buying funds. He wasn’t so old that he couldn’t appreciate good music.
    Besides, even in the dim light of the café, Charley could see that Ben’s face was bright pink. Charley figured Ben must have a crush on Lucy and it wouldn’t hurt his grandson’s cause to give her some money for her effort with the chair. As far as he knew, this was the first girl his grandson had shown any interest in.
    â€œHere.” Charley held out the dollar bill he’d pulled out of his suit jacket.
    Lucy just looked at the bill. She had her blond hairpulled up in some kind of a fancy ponytail and had tiny red disks dangling from her ears. Ben needed a friend who wore red like that, Charley decided. She would bring him out of his shyness.
    â€œIt’s a tip for bringing the chair,” Charley said as he stepped a little closer to her with the money.
    â€œBut you haven’t even been served anything yet,” Lucy protested. “No one needs to tip when we move a chair around. That’s just doing business.”
    Charley figured if it was a good sign that the young woman was so opinionated. The Nelson men always liked strong women who spoke their minds.
    â€œWell, maybe later then,” Charley said as he set the dollar bill on the table.
    Charley noticed that Ben had already sat down in the chair that was on the far end of the table, closest to the kitchen. Charley looked up to see if Mrs. Hargrove had noticed Lucy and Ben, but he saw by the look in her eyes that she had her mind somewhere else. He followed her eyes to the door of the café. Ah, that’s what she saw.
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    Mrs. Hargrove had noticed Doris June the moment she stood, stopped in the doorway. The color on her daughter’s face was high and Mrs. Hargrove thought that must be a good thing. She told herself she should have taken a