Page 68 of Once Upon A Rose
“Well, you’re doing a splendid job of standing there holding food,” Dietrich said with a grin. She offered him a slight smile, and Dietrich took that as a challenge.
“I haven’t seen you around town before,” he said.
“We’re new,” the girl said quietly. “I just moved here with my stepmother and stepsisters.”
“And where did you move to?” he asked.
“We live next to Widow Danise,” the girl said, nodding in his mother’s direction. “She’s the one who recommended me for this job.”
Dietrich’s eyes widened as he turned to look at his mother. So, she had new neighbors, and one of them was this beautiful girl.
Things were about to get very interesting.
“Thank you for the food,” he said, bowing slightly to her and hurrying away. He probably should have asked her name, but he had no doubt that he would find out what it was soon enough.
Before he could get to his mother, Beatrice caught up to him. “You know you’re next,” she said, poking him in the chest. “I love you too much to let you waste your life without having someone to love.”
Dietrich laughed. “You keep saying that, and yet I am still happily single.”
But as he looked back at the young woman with the haunting blue eyes who was now living next door to his mother, he caught himself and shook his head.
He had no intention of falling for anyone, even if their eyes did seem to hold the secrets of all the world.
