The Sunday Potluck Club

by Melissa Storm

  She looked in vain for Bridget, who also seemed to have disappeared. In fact, almost everyone had disappeared from the area, except Trent.

  “Good morning,” he said, strolling toward her with both hands tucked into his pockets. “So, you’re adopting someone, too?”

  Amy nodded. “A beagle named Darwin.”

  Trent chuckled and swiped a hand across the back of his neck. “I remember him. A friendly old guy.”

  “And you’re adopting Jet?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I can’t be sure”—he lowered his voice as if to share a secret he didn’t want others to find out—“but I think he’s the same dog who . . . Well, when we had the accident.”

  “He is,” Amy supplied. She’d wondered if Trent knew about his connection to the Lab, or if he’d merely chosen the dog by coincidence. “Same dog.”

  “Hey!” Olivia interjected. “I have a great idea. Since we are both getting new doggies today, we should all go to the park. That way Darwin and Jet can celebrate their adoption day together.”

  “I don’t think that’s—” Amy began.

  At the same time, Trent said, “Oh, that’s a great idea.”

  Heat rushed to her face, and she so badly wanted to turn away and hide. Why would Trent want to spend time with her after she’d rejected him the way she had? Was he simply saying yes to please his daughter, or did he want another chance at changing Amy’s mind?

  Olivia grabbed Amy’s hand. She took one of Trent’s, too. “Please,” she said, glancing from one adult to the other. “It will be so much fun.”

  Trent nodded subtly, fixing his gaze on Amy as he spoke. “Sure, but only if it’s all right with Ms. Shannon.”

  Did he want her to say no? It was hard to say. Maybe he was just putting on a show for his daughter’s benefit. Either way, she still wanted to continue her friendship with Olivia, and she hated to let the little girl down.

  “Let’s do it,” she said before she could change her mind.

  Chapter 29

  Amy followed Trent and Olivia in her car. Beside her, Darwin shot sideways glances through the window but otherwise remained calm. The park lay only about a mile from the shelter, which meant the driving itself took less time than settling in for the ride.

  Once there, it looked as if they would have the dog park to themselves. Few others wanted to be out this early on such a cold day, and Amy couldn’t say she blamed them.

  This didn’t dampen Olivia’s enthusiasm one bit, however. As soon as Trent opened the second gate into the large, open space, the little girl took off running with both dogs chasing after her. Amy and Trent navigated the shoveled path toward the pavilion that sat in the very center of the park. Snow covered its peaked roof, making the structure appear as if it could have been made entirely from snow and ice. Underneath it, though, the benches were warm and dry—and Amy was immensely grateful for them.

  Trent took a seat beside her at one of the picnic tables, and they watched Olivia and the dogs leap and play, deriving far more enjoyment from the day than either of them. At least that’s what Amy assumed, given Trent’s drawn expression and general lack of chattiness.

  “It seems crazy to be out here in the snow,” he said after they’d been sitting in silence for well over ten minutes. His words came out in big, icy puffs. Each syllable hung in the air for a brief moment before it evaporated.

  Amy wished words could always be like that, that you could say them once and then they’d disappear rather than lingering in hearts and minds, where they could do very real damage.

  “Welcome to dog ownership,” she said with a chuckle. It once had been so easy to sit with Trent like this, to talk with him. Not anymore, though. She secretly hoped the dogs would tire quickly, so they could all go their separate ways.

  A few minutes later, it appeared as if she’d gotten her wish when Darwin came hobbling over to the pavilion, favoring one of his front paws over the other. He locked eyes with Amy and let out a keening howl. Oh, no. The poor guy!

  Trent jumped to his feet. “Got ice stuck in there, bud?”

  Darwin lay on his side while Trent picked at his paw and extracted a hard ice nugget. “There, all better,” he told the beagle.

  “Thanks,” Amy told him with an appreciative smile. “I guess we’ll need to invest in some winter booties.”

  Both man and dog joined her at the table. Darwin tucked himself underneath it, and Trent sat beside her on the bench seat. “Doesn’t seem to be an issue for Jet, at least.”

  “Or Olivia,” Amy added, still amazed by how open and happy she’d become in just a couple weeks’ time.

  Trent nodded and folded his gloved hands before him. “Amy . . .” he said, waiting for her to turn toward him. “I’m really sorry about the other day.”

  “It’s fine,” she said, quickly glancing away again. She didn’t like seeing the sorrow in his eyes, the regret. Because she felt it, too.

  “I shouldn’t have dumped all that on you,” he continued with a sigh. “Those are my issues to work through, not yours.”

  “Really,” Amy insisted. There was no point in drawing this thing out, reviving it just to kill the whole relationship again. “It’s okay. Really, I understand.”

  “But it feels like everything’s changed between us.” Trent kept his eyes glued to her as she struggled with what to say next.

  She shrugged. In truth, things had changed. She couldn’t debate that. But what was done was done, and they both needed to move on with their lives. They had other, more important things to worry about, rather than constantly examining and reexamining what had gone wrong between them.

  Trent, however, seemed bound and determined to talk things out. “It wasn’t even this awkward when I hit you with my car,” he said with a nervous laugh.

  Amy wanted to laugh, too, but she couldn’t. She’d led Trent on just as much as he’d led himself on. She should have known from the get-go that a recent widower—who was a student’s father, no less—was not a good or appropriate match. She shouldn’t have let herself get close, or she should have at least pulled away the moment she found herself feeling more than friendship for him.

  Since they’d ended things, she’d had time to contemplate what had gone wrong—and now she was pretty sure she knew. It had never been about them, specifically. She’d reached out to both him and Olivia because she’d wanted to feel needed. For months, her only job was to take care of her mom. More recently, her brief time spent taking care of this man and his daughter brought a small piece of her mother back, and she’d relished it.

  “I don’t want it to be weird between us,” Trent said, holding his breath and then letting it out slowly through his nostrils like the smoke from an ice dragon.

  “It’s not weird,” she said with a polite smile, but Trent wasn’t buying it.

  “Remember how my family has a rule about saying what you need and not apologizing?” he asked, reaching for one of her hands as he spoke.

  Amy nodded. Her breathing hitched, but she didn’t pull away.

  “I miss you,” he said, giving her hand a light squeeze. “I know I shouldn’t. I mean, we hardly know each other, and I have so much to do to make sure Olivia and I both heal, but I feel that I’ve taken two giant steps back. Like now I’m mourning Julie and you.”

  “I’m still here,” Amy said, trying to decide how she felt about what he’d just revealed. “I miss you, too, but you know the timing isn’t right for either of us.”

  He let her hand go and let another deep breath out. “If it was, though, would we have something here?”

  She blinked and turned away. Trent didn’t need to see her face as she lied to him. Surely, it would do neither of them any good to admit that she yearned for him every bit as much as he still seemed to yearn for her. She had to tell him he was wrong, that she could never like him like that. And yet . . .

  “I don’t think . . .” she started, but then the words fell away, evaporating before they could even reach th
e sky. She needed to lie so that he would go away for good, but selfishly she couldn’t bring herself to finish that one small sentence.

  “I’ve got to go,” she said, changing tracks. “Please tell Olivia I said goodbye. C’mon, Darwin.”

  Amy felt Trent’s eyes on her as she made her way back to the gates. Why couldn’t she have just lied to him? Why did she have to leave it open-ended like this? She knew she shouldn’t admit to believing they might have been good together in another life, at another time—but she also couldn’t tell him her feelings hadn’t been real. Just because she’d felt them for all the wrong reasons didn’t make her feelings for Trent any less real.

  On her own, she was able to invent a hundred reasons as to why she’d fallen for Trent, but when they were together, she knew that there had been only one . . .

  She liked him. Could one day even love him.

  But sometimes the things you wanted, the things you desperately craved, were the very worst things for you.

  As a baker, she knew this well.

  Still, her heart yearned for a taste of Trent’s lips, a taste of what life could be like together for them.

  Too bad it looked like her heart would be going hungry.

  Chapter 30

  Amy clasped Darwin’s leash tightly as she pushed open the mudroom door. Sure enough, her cat, Belle, was waiting for her on top of the rickety old dryer that sorely needed to be replaced, just as she always did whenever Amy came home after an outing.

  “Hi, sweet kitty!” she cooed. “I have a new friend I’d like you to meet.”

  Belle let out a hoarse mew, which immediately sent Darwin into a frenzy. Amy had to fight hard to keep him from crashing through the door—and through her in the process. Who’d have thought such a diminutive dog could be so freakishly strong?

  Predictably, Belle tensed and arched her spine as Darwin came bursting through the threshold. Her poor old cat hardly ever hissed, but now she couldn’t seem to stop. The hissing was so constant and spirited, it almost sounded as if air were being slowly let out of a tire.

  The dog jumped and put his front paws on the side of the dryer, causing Belle at last to scamper off and run for cover.

  He tried to follow her, but Amy held firm to his leash. “Easy, boy!” she cried. Okay, so this introduction hadn’t quite gone as well as she’d hoped. Also, where was all this energy of Darwin’s when they were at the dog park? He was practically a different dog now that she’d gotten him home.

  Amy decided to chalk it up to that winning combination of nerves and excitement. After all, she felt it, too, as she guided the beagle toward the living room to show him more of the house. On the way over, he let out two loud, deep barks, then shifted into an ear-splitting noise, something between a howl and a whine. If she didn’t find a way to calm both her animals soon, she’d probably be holding on to Darwin’s leash all weekend—and possibly even getting a noise complaint from the neighbors. Yikes.

  “Belle, Belle!” she called gently, trying to reassure the distressed cat. But the dog had already learned her name and howled with excitement each time Amy called for her. Unsure of what to do, she tied Darwin to the leg of the heavy glass coffee table and went off in search of Belle. If she could find the cat, she could at least safely shut her into a private room while Darwin explored the rest of the house.

  Sure enough, the old cat had taken up shelter underneath Amy’s bed. When Amy plopped down to search for her there, the cat’s yellow eyes glowed back at her and the creature let out another angry hiss.

  “I’m sorry, baby,” Amy said, slowly backing away, not wanting to risk getting clawed in the face. Belle had always been such a gentle cat, but Amy had never tried to bring a dog into her home before. All bets were off as the three of them adjusted to life together.

  “It will be all right. Soon, very soon,” she promised the cat as she crept toward the door and latched it gently behind her.

  Darwin’s ecstatic cries continued from the living room. When she returned, Amy was surprised to find he had pulled the heavy coffee table clear across the room, where it now sat at the base of the stairs. “It’s okay, boy. Here, let me help you.”

  Of course, the moment she unclasped his leash, he bolted straight up the stairs and began to paw at the crack of light under Amy’s bedroom door. Somehow she could wrangle twenty-plus second graders—sure, no problem—but managing just one dog was proving to be a challenge.

  After several minutes of trying to unstick Darwin from her bedroom door, Amy finally got an idea. In her brief talk with Peg, the shelter director had told her just how food-motivated the old dog was, and that Amy would need to provide a strict diet and lots of exercise to get him back down to a healthy weight.

  Well, they could worry about his diet later. Right now she needed something—anything—to get him to calm down and focus on her. Luckily, she’d stocked up on every possible supply she thought she might need during her big trip to the pet superstore.

  Grabbing the bright yellow treat package from the cupboard she’d prepared just for Darwin, she tore into the bag and released the horrible aroma of chemically enhanced bacon. The sound of frantic claws scrabbling across the hardwood floor told Amy that her idea was a definite success. Soon, a chubby beagle materialized before her, his eager nose sucking in as much of the treat-scented air as it could.

  “You want this?” she asked playfully, moving the treat from side to side.

  Darwin’s eyes followed with laser concentration as he adjusted his front feet and whined softly.

  Amy laughed and tossed him the treat, which he inhaled directly without even attempting to chew. Yowzah.

  “Good boy,” she said with a victorious grin. “That first one’s on me, but next time you’ll have to do a trick or something.”

  The dog immediately shifted to his hind legs and waved his front paws in the air.

  “Okay, that’s pretty good,” Amy said with a chuckle. “I guess you can have another.”

  Darwin gobbled that one up, too, and then spun in a circle, sat, and spun in another circle. Amy gave him another treat. And so the process continued until more than half the bag was gone.

  “Enough,” she said at last through her giggles. “No wonder you’re so chunky.”

  If Darwin was offended, he didn’t show it in the least. Instead, he stayed glued to Amy’s heels for the rest of the evening, Belle all but forgotten for the time being. As she settled in for a quiet night of cuddles and a Lifetime movie marathon, she found her thoughts idly drifting toward Trent.

  Not only did the tragic hero in the movie resemble him, but she also wondered if he and Olivia might be doing something similar with Jet at that very moment. Had the black Lab’s first day at home been as eventful as Darwin’s? Was Olivia still over the moon in love with him?

  She thought about texting to check in, but quickly chucked the idea aside. There was no way she wanted to intrude upon this special family moment of theirs—especially knowing that Trent would probably try to continue their talk from the dog park.

  And that was something she doubted she’d ever be ready for.

  Still, it felt almost as if they were connected, through these separate but parallel experiences. If Trent and Olivia were all cuddled up, was Jet on Olivia’s couch or was he with Trent, where Amy had once sat? Maybe they’d decided not to let him on the furniture—although Amy sincerely doubted that.

  She knew Olivia would beg and plead until she got her way, and Trent’s love for his little girl was too strong to deny her something she wanted, especially considering how sad she’d been since losing her mother, and how guilty he felt over the whole thing.

  What did Olivia think about the fact that Amy was no longer coming around? Had she even noticed? The simple truth was she’d only spent one evening with them. Olivia might not have known about all the calls and texts, might not have picked up on the subtle flirtations while she and her father volunteered to help with Bridget’s event.

  Amy
hoped that was the case, because she didn’t want anything to interfere with the little girl’s enjoyment of her new dog. Olivia had already been through so much more than any child should have to experience at such a young age. Now she deserved to be happy and enjoy all the good things life had waiting for her.

  And, for that matter, Amy did, too. Yes, they all deserved to lead happy and fulfilled lives. So what if it wouldn’t be with each other?

  Chapter 31

  Another Sunday meant another get-together for the Sunday Potluck Club. Although Amy wasn’t scheduled to host that week, she still found herself far too tired to put any real effort into preparing a dessert. So, feeling immensely guilty, she swung by the grocery store on her way to Hazel’s house and picked up a tray of frosted sugar cookies to share with the group.

  Tonight would be her first time leaving Darwin alone at home, and she felt guilty about that, too. What if he thought she’d abandoned him? What if he somehow found a way to break into her bedroom and unsettle Belle? And how could she possibly repeat this every day when heading into school?

  The take-home packet the shelter had provided recommended a crate for the times she needed to leave her dog unattended at home, but how could she possibly lock Darwin into a cage for that long—especially seeing as he’d only just been freed from the shelter kennels?

  Had tonight’s meetup been at anyone else’s house besides Hazel’s, Amy would have found a way to bring Darwin with her. Hazel, however, did not tolerate pet mess. She often used her home as a showroom and living portfolio for her interior design business. Apparently, the simple presence of dog hair could be a deal breaker for some people—or so Hazel claimed.

  “I’m here!” Amy announced, stepping through the doorway into her friend’s immaculate home. It looked so different from the first time she’d seen it nearly a year ago. Back then, this house had still belonged to Hazel’s father. Since his passing, though, Hazel had changed almost everything, including the paint colors, the flooring, and the furniture. She’d even knocked out a couple walls to open up the main floor.