Awkward

The first time she is left alone with Dale, she is terrified. He is a kind man by all means, and she's certain that her fear isn't at all rational but still... The man is intimidating, at best.

It's as though he watches over everything with such a heavy gaze, and with every scratch of his rugged beard, she finds herself growing more and more uncomfortable. Candace twists in her seat, and if Dale notices, he doesn't show any signs of it. He simply continues on sketching out building plans, probably for Molly's old rundown home.

They have both been silent since Luke disappeared on his journey to go find Bo and retrieve him for dinner. It's not the nice kind of silence that Candace enjoys; it's a nervous one. The kind that sets her on edge and makes her want to crawl into a hole and stay there for eternity.

Suddenly, Dale coughs, and Candace thinks she might have a heart attack. "If ya want anything, just help yourself to whatever's in the fridge, uh, 'kay?"

"O-Oh!" She exclaims, trying to cover up her obvious trepidation. It is surely a failed attempt because he scratches at his beard again, eying her cautiously. "T-Thank you..."

"Might not be much. Luke's gonna be pickin' up food from the Inn, but there's probably juice or somethin'." He continues, and his gaze has (thankfully) returned to his blueprints.

Candace stands, smoothing out the creases in her skirt with shaking hands. People usually had a habit of making her nervous, but this was ridiculous... "U-Um. I'll t-take a look, then." And she scurries off with the speed of a rabbit, all the while trying to fight down a furious blush.

Finally, she settles on pouring herself a glass of cranberry juice. She sips at it slowly until there is mere droplets left and rinses it out in the sink.

"You can just leave it in there," Dale comments from behind her, and she all but shrieks.

"Ah!"

"Sorry, kid," the man scratches at the back of his neck, an anxious habit Luke seems to have inherited from him. "Guess that woulda scared anyone, hah."

"P-Please don't apologize, it's really alright..." It is not alright, but Candace says so anyway, because she is a nervous wreck and this wasn't how this was supposed to go at all. "I'm sorry," she says as an afterthought, it's barely a murmur.

"...Huh? What're you sorry for?"

Candace cringes. "Um. Well. For being, um, like t-this..."

Dale looks genuinely puzzled, and it occurs to the blue haired tailor for the first time, that perhaps there was the slightest chance he wasn't judging her all this time. "Ya mean easily scared? I mean, sure. Wasn't expectin' my boy to be datin' someone as timid as you, seeing as Luke can be, well..."

"...Luke," Candace finishes easily and it would seem a miracle has occurred because her hands aren't shaking any longer.

The carpenter laughs. "That's one way of puttin' it. Anyway, didn't mean to make you nervous, kid. Just not used to my boy bringin' girls home. To be honest, I thought I'd have a couple more years to prepare myself."

Candace lowers her head. "I-"

"Don't apologize for that. I'm awful glad he found someone like you, y'know?" Dale looks wistful, almost, as he tugs at his beard. "Kinda takes me back. I mean, his mother was nothing like you. She was, well, let's just say Luke got all of his personality from her."

"O-Oh?"

"Yeah. Loud, always shoutin' about something. Sometimes downright irritatin'. Mostly just passionate about the simplest things." Candace panicks as she recognizes the expression on Dale's normally passive face as sadness. "Probably woulda been more worried if he brought someone like her home," he laughs, and Candace finds it in herself to smile.

What is she supposed to say to that...?

"You'll suit him fine, kiddo."

"H-Huh?"

Dale doesn't have the chance to elaborate as the echos of Luke's boisterous laughter and Bo's nervous chuckling make their way through the house, but he does give Candace a knowing look, one that eases her nerves just a bit. Maybe things are going to be okay, after all.

A/N: I feel like Dale would have fun teasing any other of the marriage candidates about dating Luke except Candace because of how she is and also headcanon about Luke's mom is that she was off her rocker and also a bad ass lumberjack lady and made Dale regret ever giving her an axe every day of her life bye