What's Life Without the Sprinkles?

by Simon, Misty

  Whatever else Logan said was lost in the roar filling Nate’s head. His eyes couldn’t believe what he was seeing cruising along the road. It was like being thrown back over ten years to high school. Radio cranked up, windows down, top lowered on the vintage Mustang he’d driven all those years ago, Peter Drake breezed through town as if he owned it.

  Shit.

  “Hey, have you heard anything I’ve said?” Logan said, tapping Nate on the shoulder.

  “What?” What the hell was Peter Drake doing back in town? He should have been tucked up in Ohio, not glooming up the skyline in Pennsylvania.

  “I was telling you you’re being an idiot with Claudia.”

  “Whatever. I have bigger things to worry about right now.”

  “Well, that’s certainly a different tune for you. Normally, you obsess about her.”

  Nate dragged himself back from wondering about Peter and hit Logan in the arm. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll put the bid in with Dad and go from there. I have something to do that can’t wait.”

  “But what about the other two jobs?” Logan scratched his head, then crossed his arms.

  “I don’t have time for this. There’s something I have to do.”

  ****

  “Emergency girl meeting.”

  Claudia opened her mouth to tell May she couldn’t possibly leave what she was doing, as the other woman breezed past. She’d just gotten back from her ill-fated car ride and needed to do some serious decorating to distract herself from the image of Nate with his shirt half off. She’d already ignored three calls from him on her cell. She couldn’t talk to him until she figured out a way to not picture him as she’d seen him near the stop sign. And the thought struck her that he was going to be working on Decadence in that capacity, too. She hoped she and her sanity survived.

  In the meantime, May was yelling her name from the back office. Okay. She finished piping the icing around the edges of the top layer of the three-tiered cake for tomorrow afternoon’s senior tea and set down the white plastic bag. After washing her hands, she ducked into the back room and found Zoe already there. Why did everything seem to be such a crisis lately? She didn’t think she could take another one.

  “What’s going on that you had to interrupt everything?” Zoe asked the question before Claudia could get it out.

  “Claudia, I have something I have to tell you, and you’re not going to like it.” May took the seat behind the desk, leaving the two garage sale bargain chairs for Claudia and her sister.

  “Should I sit down?” Claudia laughed a nervous laugh and gripped the back of the chair.

  “I think you should.”

  A million things ran through her head as she came around in front of the chair and took a seat. Was something wrong with Justin? No, that wouldn’t have been a subject for a girl meeting. Girl meetings were for things where everyone needed the strength of the others to get through it. But her mind drew a blank as to what else it could be.

  Zoe grabbed her hand, and Claudia shot her sister a grateful look. Whatever it was, they could get through it together, just like everything else.

  May tapped her fingers together under her nose, scooted back and forth on the chair, and cleared her throat.

  “Come on. I can take it, whatever it is. You can tell me.” Claudia braced herself for the news. It had been bad enough when May’s father had a heart attack a month ago, requiring the most recent girl meeting. Claudia and her former father-in-law, Roger Drake, hadn’t ever been close, but it was still sad to see her son’s grandfather in the hospital.

  “I just wanted to warn you...”

  Claudia leaned forward in her chair, taking her sister with her. “Yes?”

  “Well, I just wanted to warn you that...”

  “I’m not going to survive this if you only say one new word every time.”

  May made eye contact with Zoe, who tightened her grip on Claudia’s hand. “I just wanted to warn you that Brad and I are going to have a visitor for the next week or so.”

  “Ooo-kaayy.” Claudia drew out the word, feeling her stomach sink. No visitor of May’s would ever be a problem for her except one. And that one person was the only one who would necessitate an emergency girl meeting.

  “Peter is on his way home.” May’s words tumbled out over each other.

  Yep, that was the one.

  “What the hell?” Zoe took the words right out of her mouth again.

  “Yeah, what in the world is that all about?” Claudia gripped Zoe’s hand until her sister winced. “Sorry,” she said, letting her go, trying to settle back into hard plastic.

  “No, that’s all right. It’s a shock to me, too.”

  “Explain, May. Why didn’t we know about this earlier?” Claudia tried to get comfortable in the chair and failed miserably.

  May dropped her head into her hands and shook her hair. Her speech was muffled by her hands when she said, “Dad called him after the heart attack, and Peter is coming to help with the house. I didn’t know exactly when he was coming, and I didn’t want to alarm you, in case he backed out.” She tried a smile, but it failed, as far as Claudia was concerned. “Also, I thought if I gave you less time, you wouldn’t have a chance to make excuses to not come to my house when I invite you this Sunday.”

  Claudia rocked back. She couldn’t process it all. “Your father called Peter to come help with the house? Your father—the man who wouldn’t even tell Peter that his son was born, because it was finals week—is going to pull him away from his precious work to help with the house you already run by yourself? And Peter’s coming back to town?” Life just didn’t get any worse than this. The bad chair at her back didn’t help the bad news, either.

  “Yes, to both, and you’ll see Peter Sunday at the lunch for my dad.”

  “No, I won’t.” Apparently it could.

  “Please.” May broke out the sad eyes, but Claudia was determined to ignore them.

  “I really do not want to be in the same room with...Peter...if I don’t have to.” She’d almost said “the bastard,” but that wouldn’t help things, as this bastard was May’s brother. It was no secret how Claudia felt about the man who’d walked out on her before their son was born. Sure, for the most part it had all worked out for the best. Life with Peter would have been worse than what she’d managed on her own. But that didn’t mean she wanted to have contact with the man who hadn’t even bothered to send his kid a card since his third birthday.

  “You have to go,” May said, finally lifting her head from her hand and piercing Claudia with a look. “I’ve known you for a lot of years, but you don’t owe my father or my family anything, Claude, I get that. But I’m going to have to pull the friendship card and ask you to please be there.” The puppy-dog eyes were used shamelessly. “You can even bring Zoe. My dad has some weird notion that he has to distribute his worldly possessions now, while he’s still alive, to see them go to the right person.”

  “You’re damn right she’s bringing me.”

  A headache roared behind Claudia’s eyes, compounded by the metal digging into her elbow and the plastic trying to work its way under her shoulder blades. She couldn’t think for all the emotions, memories, and anger running through her. But beneath all of that, a part of her wanted to see what May’s dad had to say. And Peter no longer had any effect on her. It had been over ten years since he’d walked out on her at three months pregnant, seven years since she’d heard from him at all. His power to hurt had long since faded. She was sure of it. It hadn’t been tested until now, since he’d always stayed far away, but she could stand being in the same room with him for an hour or so without puncturing his head with her high heel.

  “Fine,” she said, raising a hand to stop the bickering going on between Zoe and May. It wasn’t worth fighting over. He wasn’t worth fighting over. And if she didn’t like what Roger Drake felt her son needed, there was nothing that said she had to keep it.

  “Fine?” Zoe and May said at the same tim
e.

  “Yes, fine. I’ll go. Peter has nothing on me anymore. In fact it will be interesting to see him after all this time. It’s not like I haven’t thought of him in one way or the other over the years.” Like when she had used one of his yearbook pictures as a dart board. “We did share something, but he can’t hurt me at this point.”

  “Wow,” Zoe said. “You’re a lot bigger person than I am. But we need to do some serious shopping, if you’re going to see an old flame. He needs to know what he missed out on.”

  He missed out on his son’s whole life, Claudia thought, but she wasn’t going to bring that up. In fact, she wouldn’t bring up Justin at all, other than to say thanks or no thanks at the meeting. She didn’t even have to make contact with Peter during the lunch if she didn’t want to. But she would look astounding, in case he decided to look at her. Nothing better than having a chance to make an ex-boyfriend regret that ex part.

  “All right.” She put her hands on her knees and rose from the uncomfortable chair. “Anyone have any appointments this afternoon?”

  When the two other women shook their heads, she said, “Then shopping it is. And while we’re out, we really need to get some new chairs for this office. These are ridiculous. We need to be happy, rich owners, not stiff ones.” And she needed to have her head checked, if that was what she’d decided to cling to so she didn’t have to think about sitting in the same room with Peter again.

  ****

  “I’m worn through.” Claudia threw her bags onto the side table in the entryway of her apartment over their shop, then threw herself on the couch. She could happily sleep, or at least rest, for the next ten to fifteen days.

  “Me, too.” Zoe lowered her bags to the floor and stretched her back. “Power shopping is not my idea of a good time. I much prefer being able to look at the stuff in a leisurely manner instead of feeling so rushed. I like to shop, but not like we’re on some sort of recon mission. Jeez.” Zoe took the big chair in the corner and rested her head against the low, rounded back.

  “May had to go home and deal with some family stuff. We needed to get done as soon as possible.” And Claudia couldn’t be happier. Her feet were killing her, and her stomach churned with all the things she hadn’t let herself think about since May’s announcement. Three more calls from Nate, and now she wasn’t sure she wanted to answer him at all. He was not going to be pleased that Peter was back in town.

  “I hate to leave you alone right now, but I really have to get back to Decadence to see if I have any other orders to fill.” Zoe said but made no move to get out of the chair.

  “Eh, don’t worry about it. I’m just going to hang out here for the next twenty minutes, until Justin gets home from school, and then I’m taking him to Mom’s.”

  “And then you have the pony date. Excuse me, the stale cookie date. Have fun with that.”

  Claudia frowned at her sister.

  “You know I’m right, but you’re so stubborn you’re going to have to see it yourself. I get it.” Zoe rose from the chair and whisked her pale blonde hair over her shoulder. “At least you can put Justin to bed when you get home from said date and kick back, since it’s a school night. Maybe he won’t give you any lip for at least one night.”

  Claudia spent a moment wishing she looked as fresh and young as Zoe. Three years separated them, but sometimes Claudia felt it was more like twenty.

  “Justin has a lot going on lately.” She pressed her fingers to her temples. “This whole new morbid pre-will thing from Roger certainly isn’t going to help with that.”

  “Not unless he gets something really cool. Then I bet he’ll be fine.”

  “But what about Peter being in town?” Her stomach churned again. “Do you think I should ask him to see Justin while he’s here?” That was the big question that had been gnawing at her for the past few hours. Would Justin be devastated if he knew his father had been here but hadn’t bothered to see him?

  “Absolutely not. I don’t think you should let that scum near you or Justin beyond the lunch you’re determined to go to. He gave up that privilege a long time ago when he left without a backwards glance.” Zoe stomped to emphasize her point and Claudia was reminded again how young she was. Twenty-five and still relatively ignorant of the way things worked. Though she had the operation of the flower shop down to a science, she hadn’t been tested much in matters of the heart.

  “I’m not sure what I’m going to do. But I do know we need to at least be civil to Peter at that lunch or you’re not going to be in the room for too long. I don’t want to antagonize him. I don’t even want to look at him. So don’t call attention to me by being a brat.”

  Zoe’s answer to that was sticking her tongue out as she took the back stairs down to Decadence. Nice. Sunday ought to be a freaking blast.

  And now she had to go get ready for her date with Edward-of-the-possible-toupee. What had happened to her excitement about the eight-thousand-dollar check and feeling as if her life was finally on the right track?

  Chapter Two

  Nate West grabbed the ringing phone as he stepped out of the shower. Slinging a towel around his hips, he walked into his master bedroom and pressed the talk button.

  “Hey, Claudia. What’s up? You have another huge check to deposit? Or are you finally returning all the phone calls you’ve been avoiding from me? I don’t get why you have a cell, if you’re never going to answer it.” He laughed and waited for her to laugh, too. But she didn’t, and silence hung in the dead space of the phone wire. “Claudia?”

  Throat clearing that sounded like Claudia, but nothing else. Had someone hijacked her phone?

  “Claudia?”

  “Yeah, I’m here, sorry. I was trying to clear my head from all the Lysol and perfume I just had to use. That boy is going to get his rear end grounded.”

  This ought to be good. Justin stories always were. He loved that kid, but he did not envy Claudia having to deal with his shenanigans sometimes.

  “What did he do now?” He settled back on his bed with his arms crossed behind his head. He didn’t have anywhere to be tonight and had some time to kill before he made himself dinner. Telling her about Peter could wait a minute.

  “Well, how about we stick with this afternoon only, since I don’t have time for the whole day. Let’s just say I smelled something foul when I walked past his bedroom. I went in armed with Lysol and came out with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that looked like it had petrified under the bed, except it smelled horrendous. I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed. Then hit myself with an extra dose of perfume just to clear my nose. I probably reek like a whorehouse, but whatever.”

  “That’s disgusting.” But he was laughing.

  “You’re telling me. And don’t you dare laugh about it in front of him. I don’t want to encourage him.”

  “You know I’d never do that. Whenever I’m around him I try to be on my best behavior.”

  She sighed, and it sounded weary. He didn’t like Claudia to sound weary. “Do you want me to come pick him up for a little? I could take him to the batting cages or out for dinner. Maybe the skate park? I have the night free. You could come, too.”

  She sniffed. He hoped to God she wasn’t crying.

  “Would you mind?” she asked, her voice stronger. “My mother just called to cancel on taking Justin for the night, and I have a date.”

  “Edward?” He did not particularly like the guy the one time he’d met him, but he and Claudia had always stayed out of each other’s love lives. He wasn’t going to interfere now if she wanted to be with some egghead.

  “Yes, Edward. He’s going to be here in an hour and a half. Can I drop Justin off now, or is that too quick?”

  “Bring him now. We’ll grill and then play some games. We’ll be fine, and I’ll have a little talk with him about cleanliness.” Of course, he should probably clean his house first, before trying to give advice on the topic.

  She laughed, and that sounded much more like the Claudia
he’d known since they were little. “Yeah, you do that. Let me know how it works out. And thanks for stepping in at the last minute, Nate. I really appreciate it.”

  “It’s always my pleasure. It is not my pleasure to tell you something else, though.”

  “I’ve had about enough with cryptic today. What else do you have to add to my plate? I’m on my third helping as it is.”

  There was that weariness again. It pulled at something in his chest. But he had to tell her. “I saw Peter today in town.”

  “Yeah, I heard. May told me he’ll be here for a few weeks helping with their dad’s house. Thanks for letting me know, though, so I wouldn’t be taken off guard. I’ll get through this, Nate, like I always do.”

  Weariness sounded almost like defeat. That was not like Claudia. She was a fighter, scrappy to the last. “You know I’m here if you need someone.”

  “I know. You’ve always been there for me. It’s only a few weeks. I’ll survive. But first I have to go on this date, and I really appreciate you helping at the last minute. I’ll see you in a few.”

  She hung up and so did he, putting his phone on the dresser before pulling out a T-shirt and some jeans that had probably seen better days.

  He put the towel around his neck and made a quick trip to the backyard to crank up the gas grill. This would be much better than what he had been planning, which was nothing.

  Five minutes later, the front door flew open and Justin came running into the kitchen. “Nate, Nate, Nate!”

  “Hey, bud, go put your stuff in the living room. Then go see if the grill is hot, like I taught you before. We’re going to have burgers and dogs.”

  “Awesome!” And the kid was off like a shot.

  Claudia wandered into the kitchen a second later. “Thanks, Nate. He’s really excited to be here.”

  “It’s fine. I like having the guy around. Plus, he’ll save me if my brother calls to invite me out for a beer. So I have my own agenda here, too.” He laughed. “Seriously, it was a long day putting a new coat of paint on Mrs. Finkey’s window frames. Then I had to agree to talk to her grandson about maybe apprenticing with me this summer. It was a headache all the way around, even if he is a good kid. But now I just want to hang out, you know?”