The Tea Shop on Lavender Lane (Life in Icicle Falls) (9 page)

“She’s a lucky girl,” Bailey said.

Now Olivia began fiddling with the blue turquoise ring on her finger. “I know you and Brandon used to be interested in each other.”

Interested?
There was an understatement. She’d given her virginity to Brandon Wallace when they were teenagers. All her friends had warned her that he was a heartbreaker, and they’d been right. Still, she’d come home for the first Sweet Dreams chocolate festival, and he’d flirted with her. That had been enough to encourage her to revive the dream of Brandon finally falling hard for her and swearing undying love.

There’d been no falling and no swearing, but when she’d come home for the Fourth, there’d been some hooking up. And that was all it had taken for her to move into his back pocket once again. What a dope she’d been. And now that she was back home for good, he was living in another state.

“But I bet you’ll find some wonderful man here, now that you’re back,” Olivia hurried on to say. “And I agree with your mother. I think you were meant to return to Icicle Falls.”

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Bailey confessed. What kind of way was this to conduct a job interview? She felt her face ignite. “Well, I mean, not that I don’t want to work for you.” Right now she’d clean toilets, dig ditches, anything. She needed money, and she couldn’t live off her sisters like a big old leech.

“Oh, honey, I know what you mean. You were born to cook. In fact, I was thinking you might like to help me in the kitchen on weekends once in a while.”

That suggestion instantly doused the fire on Bailey’s face. She’d just as soon jump off Sleeping Lady Mountain. She shook her head violently. “Oh, no.” The very thought of it made her heart pound as if she’d overdosed on caffeine.

“I understand,” Olivia said. “But you can’t let one bad experience define your whole life.”

Sure she could.

“You know what they say,” Olivia continued. “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”

“I thought the tough went shopping,” Bailey said. Anyway, she liked that saying better than the one Olivia had quoted.

Olivia gave Bailey a hug. “You didn’t come home a minute too soon.” She released her with an affectionate smile. “Don’t worry, honey. We’ll get you straightened out.”

Bailey would be happy to get straightened out. But one thing she wouldn’t get, and that was back in a commercial kitchen. “I’ll do anything you ask me to, but, please, don’t ask me to do that. Or to handle anything breakable,” she added, remembering her experience at Tina’s shop. Thank God, Olivia hadn’t asked her what she’d been doing since she hit town.

Olivia smiled again. “You’ll do fine here.”

Bailey needed to do fine somewhere. “I hope so,” she said and prayed she’d last at this new job for longer than a day.

Chapter Eight

C
ecily’s desk phone rang a little after eleven the next morning. It was Luke. “How about lunch?”

They’d had a nice time on their date. So, why not?

Because she didn’t know what she was doing or what she wanted—that was why not. It wasn’t fair to encourage Luke if she wasn’t 100 percent serious.

But she did enjoy his company. And if she was going to be smart about love, he was the logical choice.

“Hello. You still there?”

“I’m thinking,” she said.

“You have to think about whether or not you want to eat?” he teased.

“I have to think about whether or not I want to eat with you,” she said, trying for the kindest tone of voice possible. “Whether or not I want to string you along.”

“Who says you’re doing that?”

“Me.”

“That was a pretty nice kiss for stringing someone along,” he said.

“That was a pretty nice kiss. Period,” she admitted.

“Well, there’s more where that came from.”

She couldn’t help smiling. She really did like Luke.

“Come on,” he said. “You’ve got to eat, right?”

“Right.”

“And how does a burger at Herman’s sound?”

Actually, a fat, juicy cheeseburger and curly fries drenched in chili and melted cheese sounded fabulous. So did a blackberry shake. She hesitated.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” he said.

“Take it as a yes on one condition.”

“Oh? What’s that?”

“That I pay for my own lunch.” That way it would feel more like friends enjoying a lunch break together than her taking advantage of Luke.

“I can afford to buy you a burger.”

“You can, but I don’t want you to.”

“I tell you what—we’ll arm wrestle to see who pays the bill,” he said and hung up.

That made her smile again. Luke had been state wrestling champion in high school. There would be no arm wrestling.

She’d barely finished talking to Luke when Todd called. “You hungry?”

“It’s not lunchtime yet,” she said, prevaricating.

“When it is, I’d like to go someplace with a great view—of a hot blonde sitting across the table from me.”

Todd Black made for some very nice scenery himself. But then she remembered that she was being practical. “I can’t,” she said.

There was a silence on the other end of the line. “Don’t tell me—you’ve got a date.”

“Okay, I won’t tell you.”

“Then go with my blessing, my child. Let me know when you get tired of dating the second string,” he added in a low, sexy voice. “I’ll take you someplace nice and greasy and lick your fingers clean.” His voice alone was enough to make every hormone in her body start shimmying.

She ignored them and said a polite goodbye. Lunch with Luke would be just fine. Lunch with Todd would have been... Her fingers began to tingle. She put them to work typing, but her brain was still stuck on the image of Todd sucking on her index finger. Was it warm in the office today?

* * *

A few minutes after noon Cecily and Luke settled in at a corner table with cheeseburgers, Herman’s deadly fries and milk shakes. “There’s nothing like a Herman’s burger,” Luke said, taking his first bite. “Well, except for my manly man grilled onion-blue cheeseburger.”

“A man who cooks?” She pretended to be impressed.

“No, a man who grills. There’s a difference. But I do bake a mean chocolate chip cookie,” he added.

“You’re full of surprises.”

“Good surprises?”

His teasing voice couldn’t hide the seriousness behind the question. “What’s not good about chocolate chip cookies? You and Bailey will have to swap recipes,” she joked, dancing away from the real subject.

Someone new entered Herman’s Hamburgers, a someone with dark hair, swarthy skin and chocolate-brown eyes. Oh, no. What was
he
doing here?

Todd caught sight of Cecily and smiled, and she suddenly felt as if she’d just touched a live wire. The physical reaction was quickly doused by a wave of irritation as he started toward their table. He could see she was with someone, but was that stopping him? Noooo.

“Hi there,” he said. “Lunchtime in Willy Wonka Land?”

Cecily frowned. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Luke leaning back in his chair, studying their visitor. And he wasn’t smiling.

Todd pointed to the fries. “Those look good. Nice and greasy,” he added, and Cecily’s fingers started tingling again.

“They are good,” Luke said. “Too bad you can’t join us.”

“Uh, yeah. Guess I’ll go order my burger before the high school rush begins.” Todd flashed Cecily his killer grin. “I’ll see you soon.”

She hadn’t agreed to a date, but he sure made it sound as if she had. The corners of Luke’s mouth slipped even farther south, and Cecily could feel a flush of embarrassment race north from her neck to her face.
You have nothing to be embarrassed
about.

“What do you see in that guy?” Luke demanded as Todd walked away.

It seemed shallow to say that Todd turned her burner to high, that every time he was around, she had to fight the urge to glue herself to him. If she wanted to find the perfect man, he was totally the wrong choice. And darn it all, she wanted him anyway.

So instead, she lied, “I don’t know.” How did you explain chemistry?

Luke shook his head. “Why is it that so many women go for guys like that?”

“Guys like what?” she asked, playing dumb. She knew exactly what Luke meant. Everything about Todd, from his smart mouth to his gift for flirting, to the very vibes he gave off, said heartbreaker.

“Like...that,” Luke said and waved his hand in Todd’s general direction.

Todd was now picking up his order. Two teenage girls entered just as he was going out. Both girls’ heads swiveled to watch him leave. Todd Black seemed to have the same effect on women of all ages.

“I don’t get why women pass up nice guys for creeps like that who never treat their women well.”

“Isn’t that a rather sweeping generalization? You don’t know how he treats his women.”

Luke’s only concession to her logic was a grunt.

“Your wife didn’t pass you up for someone else,” she added gently.

Irritation was replaced by sadness. “She was rare.”

“You still miss her, don’t you?”

He stared at his half-finished hamburger and then shoved it away. “Every day. She was a wonderful woman.” He looked up. “But so are you, Cecily. And maybe it’s asking too much to think I can have two wonderful women in one lifetime. But that’s not going to stop me from trying.”

“Do you think a person can be attracted to more than one person?” she mused. At the same time? What she felt for Luke was very different from what she felt for Todd, but there was
something.

“I know so,” he said and took her hand, running his thumb slowly up and down it.

Great. Here she’d been mentally drooling over Todd, and now Luke was sending shivers up her arm. These two men were going to drive her insane.

Luke leaned close. “I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve, too. Trust me. I could make you just as happy as he can. In the long run, happier.”

What to say to that? “Uh...we should probably get back to work.”

He pulled back his hand, sliding it slowly over hers and making her mouth go dry.

She took one last sip of her shake and stood up. It was definitely time to go.

Luke was smart enough not to talk about his rival anymore. Instead, on the way back, he kept the conversation focused on innocuous things, like the new chocolates Sweet Dreams had in the works and Bailey’s return home.

“It’s great that you’re letting her stay with you,” he said. It was a very different observation from the one Todd had made. Any woman with half a brain would pick a man like Luke over Todd.

Cecily was beginning to worry that she had only a quarter of a brain.

She was just back in her office when Samantha showed up. “Did I see you walking in with Luke?”

Living in a small town, working with family—the one difference between Icicle Falls and a fishbowl was the lack of water. She shrugged. “We grabbed a hamburger.”

Samantha leaned against the doorjamb and cocked an eyebrow. “Yeah?”

“It was just lunch.”

“You know it could be more.”

“I know.”

“I say go for it. Marry him. That way we’ll never lose our production manager.”

“Well, anything for the company.”

Samantha grinned. “You got it,” she said and then left.

Cecily leaned back in her desk chair and tapped a fingernail against her teeth. She needed to figure this out, so she decided to play a mental game. She closed her eyes and envisioned herself in a bridal gown, walking down the aisle. Okay, who was at the other end of the aisle?

Todd.

She opened her eyes and sighed. Was this even remotely logical? Of course not. But when did logic and love ever go hand in hand?

* * *

Cecily stopped by the bank after work to use the ATM and ran into Lauren Belgado, one of the tellers, who was just leaving.

“Are you ready for the big day?” Cecily asked.

“I hope so. I can’t believe it’s in sixteen days. I feel like we’ve been planning this wedding forever.”

Lauren and Joe Coyote had gotten engaged on Valentine’s Day the year before. Hardly surprising that it felt like forever. Cecily didn’t think she’d want to wait that long.

“Well, you’re in the final countdown now,” she said.

“I can hardly wait,” Lauren said, smiling widely. “I’m the luckiest woman in Icicle Falls.”

Cecily smiled back. Radiating all that warmth and happiness, people in love were like walking sunbeams. “You got a great guy.”

Joe had been the winner of Sweet Dreams’ first Mr. Dreamy contest; he’d won because everything he said during the Q and A segment had been so romantic and noble he’d had the audience (mostly women) completely enthralled. Joe wasn’t a bad-looking man but he wasn’t the most handsome one in town by any means, and due to a construction accident he walked with a limp. But he had the soul of a poet and the heart of a knight in shining armor, and half the women in town would have happily stolen him from Lauren. He was completely dedicated to her, though, which everyone agreed was all he needed to make him a perfect man.

Except there was no such thing as a perfect man, only the man who was perfect for you, Cecily reminded herself as she said goodbye to Lauren.

With that final thought, an image sprang to mind. Two men stood in front of her, one with swarthy skin, dark hair, brown eyes and a wicked grin, the other a big man with a round, earnest face and blue eyes.

Both men wanted her, and she knew which one she
should
pick. But she also knew which one she was going to pick. A woman couldn’t stay on the fence forever. Sooner or later she had to jump off and land on one side or the other. The best she could do was hope for a soft landing.

* * *

Bailey’s first day on the job was going well. So far she’d helped Olivia clean up after that morning’s breakfast and had mastered the check-in process. Her nerves had settled down, she hadn’t broken anything, and Olivia loved having her around.

It was like being with family, she thought, catching sight of Olivia’s older son, Eric.

In addition to being Olivia’s bookkeeper, he also doubled as a handyman, taking care of minor repairs and maintaining the grounds. He was several years older than Bailey and a polar opposite of his sexy younger brother, the king of the flirts. Even with a receding hairline he was attractive, though. He was tall and broad-shouldered and wore glasses and a serious expression. Growing up, he’d always seemed like a being from another world—the planet Stuffy.

She’d just given an early check-in to a middle-aged couple who were taking a break on their trip over the mountains to Seattle when Eric came through the lobby, wearing a gray T-shirt, jeans and a tool belt. He didn’t look quite so stuffy now. But he still wasn’t Brandon.

He gave her a friendly nod as he walked by. “How’s it going, Bailey?”

“Great,” she said brightly. So what if she wasn’t becoming a famous chef? She liked it here at the lodge, liked being around people, liked taking reservations and setting out fresh flowers in the dining room.

He nodded. “Good. It’s nice to have you here.”

Nice to have you here.
That was a balm to her wounded soul. L.A. had spit her out like a piece of overcooked steak. But here under the wing of Olivia, who was the world’s best mother hen, she had a feeling she’d be able to rebuild both her broken life and her trampled self-esteem.

That evening at dinner, she had lots to share with her sister. “It’s so much fun being at the lodge.” She sighed happily. “Everything’s working out.”

“Everything usually does,” Cecily said.

“You sound like Mama,” Bailey teased.

“Can you think of anyone you’d rather I sounded like?”

“Nope.”

Cecily forked up a piece of trout. “So, have you seen Eric?”

“Yeah.” Bailey regarded her sister. “Why are you asking?”

“No reason. Just wondering.”

“You’re lying. What, do you have...a feeling about him?” Her sister was famous for her instincts when it came to matchmaking. But if she thought there would ever be something between Bailey and Eric, she’d lost her gift.

“No,” Cecily admitted. “He’s a nice guy. I honestly can’t understand why he’s still single.”

Bailey shrugged. “Maybe he’s just...too nice?” She frowned. “That sounds weird, doesn’t it?”

“Well, not really,” her sister said.

“It makes him seem, I don’t know...boring. Gosh, that’s kind of mean. But I want to fall in love with someone exciting. I don’t want my love life to be one long snooze. Just because we live in a small town doesn’t mean our lives have to be small. Right?”

“Right,” Cecily agreed.

* * *

Boring, Cecily mused Saturday night as she and Bailey drove to her friend Juliet’s house for a game night. Was that why Todd pulled her attention away from Luke so easily? He was definitely the more exciting of the two men, and if she wanted to live large, he was the logical choice. And yet here she was, wimping out and choosing an evening with the girls over pinball at The Man Cave.
You have to start living large,
she scolded herself.
Get your cold feet out of the ice bucket and go for it.