Page 197 of Tangled with the Tight End

They glance between Winona and me.

“So, forgive me for asking,” Ginny says. “But you two … are you sweethearts?”

Wilma says, “Now, don’t go acting innocent, Ginny. You’re being nosy, plain and simple.” Wilma turns to me and Winona. “Don’t mind her.” She pauses and then she asks, “But … are you?”

Winona laughs and then she says, “Yes. Declan and I are dating.”

“Oh, well,” Ginny says. “I’ll be.”

Wilma looks at me and says, “You know you caught a good one here, Declan. She’s a catch.”

Ginny nods effusively, her white curls sprayed so firmly they don’t even budge. “Winona’s what we used to call the bee’s knees. Don’t quite know why we said that, but it’s what we said.”

“Yep,” Wilma agrees. “Cat’s pajamas. That’s another one. Who thought up these sayings, I’ll never know.”

A few other residents gather around us.

I tell Wilma and Ginny, “Meeting Winona’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“You don’t have to tell us,” Harold McKinney says. “She’s a local treasure. Only certain young people come around here at all, let alone with regularity. Winona doesn’t skip a week. Though, she took my money in blackjack last week.”

Winona comes here every week?

How did I not know that?

I knew she had some odd jobs she did for some of the seniors at times.

Is this what life with her will be like? Constantly discovering places where she’s sprinkling sunshine without any fanfare?

I stare at her.

She looks up at me and says, “What?”

“Speaking of blackjack,” Harold says. “Do you have time to stick around for some cards?”

“We’ve got time,” I say.

“I hope you brought cash,” Harold says.

“I think he’s good for it,” Wilma says as we follow the group into the activity room.

We spend a few hours playing cards at the senior center, then I take Winona out to lunch.

On our way back to my house, Winona asks me, “Did you mean that?”

“Mean what?”

“What you told Wilma and Ginny? About meeting me?”

I lay my hand on her knee. “I definitely meant it. You saved me from spiraling when my season ended. But it’s so much more than that. You brought light into my life.”

I give her knee a squeeze. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” she says, smiling over at me.

Winona has jobs all afternoon, so she drops me off. It’s close to dinnertime when she calls me.

“Declan?” Her voice sounds breathy and rushed.