by Box Set
Misty’s brows lifted. “Temp?” She pulled another bag of sugar from the shelf and emptied it in the mixing bowl. “This should be interesting.”
“It’s going to be something.” Mandy’s voice held a hint of amusement.
Misty was never a good whisperer, and I was grateful for her full-bodied voice. “Are you guys a thing again?” She leaned into Mandy. They stood at a distance from the mixer while I swept up the spill.
“No.” Mandy’s face pinched like she’d tasted something bitter. She hung up her coat, pulled an apron from the corner hook, and tossed a spare one to me. “Put this on to save your clothes.”
My hand flew up to catch the white cloth. This was Mandy’s world, and although initially shocked that I’d been catapulted into it, I was grateful to be here. I’d wheedle my way back into her life, one task at a time.
By mid-morning, I graduated from cleaner to cash register. At the rear counter, Misty and Mandy decorated hundreds of cookies. Word got out I was at the shop and the place was hopping with mostly women. I had no idea how difficult it was to pick out a muffin or a cookie, but the women in this town pondered over their selections for an interminable amount of time. This wasn’t rocket science; it all came down to choice. By the fiftieth customer, I had it figured out. I tried my new approach when Theresa bounced in through the door.
“Hey, Beau.” She tugged her already low-cut shirt lower. “I heard you were here.” She glanced past me to Mandy. “If you needed something to keep you busy, I could have come up with something far more titillating.” It surprised me to learn Theresa knew the word “titillating” and could pronounce it, but what surprised me most was the growl that came from Mandy. I loved that she was jealous.
“Hey, Theresa, it’s good to see you again. You look lovely. Can I recommend a blueberry muffin? They aren’t as sweet as you, but I think you’ll enjoy one.” I was playing with fire, but I liked it when Mandy was hot, if even only under the collar.
Theresa fluffed her bottle-blonde hair and grinned. “Oh, Beau baby, I’ll take anything you want to give me.”
When the empty tray hit the floor, all eyes turned toward Mandy. Her thin-lipped smile couldn’t hide her annoyance. Her green eyes flashed with possessiveness. She wiped her hands on her apron, picked up the tray, and stalked toward the register.
“You’ve got stuff to finish in the back.” She used her hip to slide me over. “Start with this.” She pushed the empty tray into my hands. Theresa frowned and Mandy’s smile conveyed sweet victory.
Little did she know, the victory had been mine.
In the back doing dishes, I heard the squeal of a very excited young man. “Mommy.” When I turned around, Mandy was hugging Tommy tight to her chest. I dried my hands and walked to the door to look at mother and son. Although Tommy’s dark hair and honeyed skin were in stark contrast to Mandy’s light hair and fair complexion, one thing they shared was a heart-stopping smile. Tommy effervesced with happiness and joy, and so did his mom when she saw him. She used to gift me with that same smile when we were young. I wanted that back.
My mom and Annie were shooing everyone but Misty into the back room where I stood blocking the doorway.
“Good afternoon, Beau,” Annie leaned in and kissed me on the cheek. “Your mom and I are taking over the afternoon shift. Lola will be in at three to close.” I had no idea who Lola was and from Mandy’s expression, neither did she.
“Lola?” Mandy walked over to the schedule. Her finger tapped down the row at each name. There were six in all. A look of irritation flashed across her face. “When did you hire all of these employees?” It was obvious Mandy was wondering why I needed to be here in the first place if there were others who could have filled in. I had to love our meddling mothers. They were providing an opportunity I would not have otherwise been given.
“They’re kids, Mandy, they don’t need much skill to clean and run the cash register.”
I held up my hand. “I can vouch for that.” Mandy twisted her lips from side to side. I wanted to grab a hold of her and soften the tension in them. One kiss and she’d be like a ragdoll in my arms, but I promised she’d beg, and I intended to keep that promise.
“We’ve got this, Mom. In fact, the big order is finished and the stock for the day is complete. I can handle the rest. You, Sarah, Beau, and Tommy don’t have to be here.”
“Nonsense. Sarah and I like to flirt with the old duffers. It’s our afternoon thing. Would you deny us that pleasure? Besides, I promised Tommy you and Beau would hang the Christmas lights today. It’s a toasty thirty degrees out so you better get moving before the sun goes down and takes what little warmth we have left in the day.” Annie walked to the register and opened the overflowing cash drawer. “Wow, big sales day?”
Mandy looked at me, then back to her mom. “They didn’t come in for the cookies, they just bought them as a courtesy.”
“Beau, you might be my secret weapon. You’re on tomorrow, by the way. Hathaway’s wants their normal holiday order of one hundred chocolate-dipped candy canes, seven pounds of assorted fudge, and six dozen assorted cookies.” With a flip of her uninjured wrist, we were dismissed.
“Stop meddling, Mom.” Mandy removed her apron and tossed it on the stainless steel prep table. She looked at a smiling Misty and shook her head. “You too. You all need to stop.” She walked to the counter and loaded several cookies into a bag. One glance at me and she pulled two chocolate-coated candy canes from the jar. “Let’s go, we have lights to hang.”
I swooped Tommy into my arms. He was big enough to hold his own, but I liked the feel of him sitting on my hip. I liked the smell of his shampoo, and the touch of his sticky fingers when they pulled at my scruff. Yep, I liked this kid.
“Have you eaten, champ?” It was past noon and I was starved. “How about a pit stop for fried chicken and waffles?” I loved Grady’s Diner. Old Lou ran it like a drill sergeant. She told you what you were going to have and how you would feel about it. I hoped she was still there. She seemed ancient ten years ago.
“Can I just have waffles?” Tommy asked.
“Are you guys coming, or are you going to discuss lunch all day? I’m starving.” Mandy stood outside of the SUV with her hands perched on her hips. Hips I’d felt last night. Hips I craved to grasp again, only next time, it would be while I was pounding some sense into her with my cock.
After setting Tommy down, we rushed to the car to let her in. “Does your mom still get grumpy when she’s hungry?”
“She’s a poopy face when she’s hungry.”
Mandy gasped. “Tommy, that’s not nice.”
He climbed in the backseat and buckled up. “I’m sorry, Mommy, but it’s true.”
“You two are ganging up on me, and I don’t think I like it.” There wasn’t an ounce of annoyance in her voice.
I shut their doors and rushed around to the driver’s side. “If you feel you’re being picked on, I can make it up to you. I used to have a way of making you feel better.” My response was loaded with innuendo.
She growled like a bear, and turned in her seat to face Tommy. “I’m as hungry as a bear, and I see a delicious boy that I could devour.” She reached back and tickled him.
“Don’t eat me. Eat Beau instead.” My eyes opened wide. Out of the mouths of babes.
“Thanks a lot, Tommy.” I glanced at his giggly expression in the rearview mirror. “I’m willing to take one for the team, Mandy. If you have to eat someone, I volunteer.” Out of the corner of my eye, I watched her cheeks bloom red.
Chapter 9
Mandy
“I heard you two were back.” Old Lou wrapped the three of us in her withered arms. Tommy was smashed in the center of our human cookie. “Took you long enough to come see old Lou.” She shuffled us to a corner booth and slapped three menus on the table, then shook her head and picked them back up.
“It’s good to see you, Lou.” I looked up at the old woman who had known us since we were born.
“My eyes aren’t what they used to be, but you two still look good together, and that boy of yours is the spitting image of his daddy.”
Tommy smiled, Beau laughed, and I sat quiet and stunned. Lou thought we were a family, and that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
“He’s a good looking boy, isn’t he?” Beau reached over and patted Tommy’s hand. He had been so open and welcoming to Tommy, seeing them together made me wish things were different.
“Damn straight. He’s going to be a looker, just like you were. You broke the heart of every girl in Bell Mountain.” Lou turned her eyes to me. “You were the most envied girl in town. When did you guys get married?”
“Oh no, we aren’t married,” I blurted, and then fidgeted with the silverware to hide my discomfort. “We’re not—”
“Kids nowadays.” Lou popped Beau and I on the head with the stack of menus. Tommy was spared. “It’s like you think marriage is old-fashioned. Love never goes out of style. Just look at Rusty and me, we’re going on fifty years. That’s fifty years that he’s had to buy me an anniversary gift. You’re missing out there. You should reconsider.”
“It’s not—”
“They kiss a lot,” Tommy piped in, not willing to be overlooked.
“We do not.” I covered his mouth with my palm. “He has no idea what he’s talking about.”
“Kissing is a good thing. It shows that the love is still there.” She grabbed her order pad from her pocket and her pen from her ear. She pointed at Beau and me. “Chicken and waffles for you two and Lou’s famous ginger beer.” I always knew she gave us the ginger ale to ward off the indigestion that the chicken and waffles were bound to cause. She pointed the tip of her pen toward Tommy. “You, young man, can tell Grandma Lou what you want, and I’ll get it for you.”
His little smile stretched from ear to ear. “I have another grandma,” he said with excitement. What Tommy didn’t understand was no one was a stranger in a small town, and often, they became like family. “Waffles please, Grandma Lou.” Yep, he was a flirt. I sat and watched gruff old Lou Armstrong melt under my son’s smile.
“You want to help Grandpa Rusty in the kitchen?” Lou held out her hand and Tommy readily took it.
“Tommy, don’t touch anything and stay out of the way.”
Beau reached his hands across the table and took mine. “She isn’t going to let anything happen to him. Do you remember sitting on the prep table in the back listening to Rusty’s fishing stories?”
The memory made me smile. “Yeah, do you really think he caught a forty-inch trout?” He was such a story spinner, and I never doubted him until this moment.
“Nope, but I believed it then, and each time I went fishing, I set that as the ultimate goal. A lot of fish got caught and released from my line. They failed to meet the minimum standard set by old Rusty.”
My hands felt good in Beau’s. His thumbs caressed my knuckles, and I knew I should have pulled them back. There was no use revisiting the past. In less than two weeks, we’d both be gone.
Lou slammed the ginger beer on the table. The amber liquid sloshed over the sides, but neither one of us broke our hold. “Tommy is making your meals. It will be a while.” She looked at our clasped hands and grinned.
Beau’s eyes were deep-ocean blue. Not a ripple of concern marred his tranquil expression.
“Why didn’t you correct her when she assumed Tommy was yours?” Some people chewed their lips when they were uncomfortable or nervous. Not me, I went all out and chewed the inside of my cheek. Depending on the tension I felt, I could chew a hole right through my skin. Today was one of those days where I might gnaw myself through and through.
Beau let go of my hands and picked up his drink. He sat in what appeared to be careful contemplation before he answered. “There was no harm in not correcting her. Besides, did you see Tommy’s face light up? I wouldn’t have extinguished that for anything.”
“But he’s not your son.” My stomach was already getting acidy and upset. I picked up my drink and sipped at the fragrant brew. They say a smell can trigger a memory, but so can a taste. The last time Beau and I were here was my birthday. It was late May, and he was packed and ready to go. He’d slid a box across the table that held a locket with both our pictures. “Never take it off,” he said, and the only time I removed it was the day Tommy was born. From that day forward, it sat in my jewelry box untouched and alone.
“No, he’s not my son…yet.” Beau’s declaration caught me off guard.
“Not ever,” I replied with a little more backbone than I was feeling. It’s not that I wouldn’t love a man like Beau to be Tommy’s father; it was that Beau Tinsel had other priorities, and my son came first.
“Never say never, Mandy. I wasn’t lying when I told Tommy that I’d be proud to call him son.”
What was I supposed to say to that? Beau’s track record had not been stellar when it came to me. He was a songwriter, a singer, and that made the words flow from his lips like sweet honey. He was trained to say what people wanted to hear.
I twisted my head, trying to ease the kink that had settled into my neck. “He’s not a pawn in a game, Beau. He’s a real live boy.”
“You make him sound like Pinocchio. Of course he’s a real live boy, but it doesn’t take DNA to make him mine. He was already mine the minute I laid eyes on him. So were you. Fight it all you want, Mandy. I fucked this all up a long time ago, and if it takes me ten years to fix it, so be it.”
Tommy approached, wearing Rusty’s cook jacket. They had put a piece of masking tape on top of the name and written “Tommy” with “Sous Chef” underneath. Lou brought up the rear with her arms covered in plates.
“Rusty says to keep that kid out of his kitchen. He’s afraid of losing his job.” Lou set the plates on the table and left.
Tommy slid into the booth next to me and pulled a five-dollar bill from his pocket. “Look what I earned. Now I have money to buy you a Christmas present.” He waved the bill around like it was a hundred. To Tommy, it probably felt like he was rich.
“Wow,” I said, trying to snatch the bill from his fisted palm. “We might have enough to retire soon.”
We all dug into our food until Beau broke the silence. “Just like I remembered, crisp and greasy.” He poured hot syrup all over his waffles and chicken. “So, you want Christmas lights?”
Tommy wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Yes, Grandma has these lights with big balls in all colors. Can we hang those?”
I knew the lights; they had to be as old as the percolator. “Tommy, those are really old. We’ll try to hang them, but they may not work.”
“Nonsense,” Tommy said. That word was straight from my mother’s mouth. “We already untangled them and tested them out after we hung the wish ornaments. I got to change out the bulbs that didn’t light up.”
Beau wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and smirked. “I think you and I should hang the lights. Maybe we can persuade your mom to make us some hot chocolate. What do you think?”
Tommy looked between Beau and me. He took a big drink of his milk. Before he could wipe the dairy mustache with his sleeve, I handed him a napkin. “Mommy can be bribed with kisses.”
“Oh you.” I ruffled his hair. “Now you’re giving away all of my secrets.”
“Nuh uh, I didn’t say you liked your feet rubbed.”
“I’m up for kisses,” Beau volunteered. Mesmerized, I watched his tongue slide out to catch a drop of syrup from his lower lip.
“I’m up for kisses, too.” I wanted to crawl under the table at having verbalized my thoughts, but Beau acted as if I never said anything. The only indication he heard me was the twitch of a smile that threatened to end his attempt at indifference.
“Kiss…kiss…kiss,” Tommy chanted until a shadow loomed over the table.
“Did you say you wanted another kiss?” Greg Anderson stood next to me with a to-go container in his hand. He seemed to absorb
the little family scene going on at our table. “Cheating on me already?” His usual playfulness was there. His voice was like a poodle skirt—cute, and sweet, and all swishy.
“Come on over here, Greg.” Beau slid across the booth bench and patted the seat next to him. Shocking all of us, he pulled Greg’s head toward him and gave him a big smooch on the cheek. Tommy giggled while Greg turned the color of crimson icing.
His fingers touched his cheek as if he was relishing the moment. I’d seen that look all day yesterday when the girls flirted with Beau and happened to trace their fingers over his shoulder. I imagined there were a lot of unwashed hands in Bell Mountain.
“What was that for?”
“I thought I was going to have to kick your butt for kissing my girl, now I won’t.”
“Oh, my God,” Greg squealed. “What did I miss? Are you back together?” He let out a happy sigh. “My work is done.”
While Beau confirmed with a nod, I shook my head no.
Greg watched us both. He nodded, then shook his head, then nodded, then shrugged. “What is it, yes or no?”
In unison, Beau and I shouted out the answer. I, of course, said no, but Beau declared a solid yes, and that’s what Greg went with. Was there some kind of bro-code that demanded men stick together—safer in a pack and all that? In that moment, I considered Greg a traitor. He was no longer one of the girls. He had crossed over to the dark side.
“Turncoat,” I sneered.
“All in the name of love, sweetheart. Gotta go, the boss is a real stickler for breaks.” He picked up his container and smiled all the way to the door.
“Ready, champ?” Beau tossed several twenties on the table. I started to argue, but he gave me a look that could stop a truck. If Beau Tinsel wanted to toss his money around, who was I to stop him?
Chapter 10
Beau
Who knew that hanging lights could be so much fun? We had always hired someone to take care of ours, but working with Tommy was pure bliss. After he showed us the wish ornaments, he insisted on changing all the bulbs so they weren’t in random order. He said that a pattern of red, green, and gold would make him happy, and I was all about making Tommy happy.
