She rolled her bike into the hallway and glanced toward 2F. Her new neighbor Mitch was cute. She gave her head a shake. No eyeballing the neighbors.
She rode around the streets of the town the way she had as a teen. Back then, she’d often hopped on her bike and just gone, especially after her father had left and her mother’s behavior had become erratic at best. She’d been older than Lucy, in her teens, and it hadn’t impacted her as much because she could get away. She couldn’t believe she’d followed almost the exact pattern as her mother. Although, in her mother’s defense, she never actually left for more than a day or so, still frightening for a child. Minnie tried to tell herself that leaving her kids with Lucy had made it okay, but rehab had shone a light on the bullshit.
She took a turn down Main Street past the library where she knew Marissa worked and the ice-cream parlor where her own daughter now apparently worked. She wasn’t there today, so Minnie hopped off her bike and went in to get a coffee. Chloe, who she remembered from the party, was behind the counter. The place only had a couple of customers.
Chloe looked up and gave her a smile. “Hey, Minnie, coffee or ice cream, what’s your pleasure?”
“A caramel latte would be great.” She slid onto one of the stools at the counter and took the place in. Apart from the enormous brass espresso machine, nothing appeared to have changed at all. There was something comforting in that.
“How are you settling in?” Chloe asked, sliding the coffee across the counter toward her.
“So far so good. It’s only been a day.”
“It must be weird to be back.” She didn’t say “under the circumstances” but that was certainly implied.
“Yeah, well, I’m choosing to look at it as a fresh start in an old place.” It was how they’d suggested that she frame it in rehab.
“Good attitude. I know your kids have missed you. They’ll be glad you’re back.”
“I’m not so sure about that.”
“Oh, I am. I had to leave my family when I was young; I miss them every day. Were they perfect? Definitely not, but I would like to see them, know they’re okay, and have the chance to start over with them. I think everyone wants that.”
“Even Katie?”
Chloe reached over and squeezed her hand. “Maybe even especially Katie.”
The bell over the door rang and in walked Patty and Jacob and their two small kids. Minnie knew Patty as her sister Lucy’s best friend from high school while Jacob had been the boyfriend Patty had stolen from under Lucy’s nose. Lucky for Lucy, she’d done a whole lot better with Chase. Unlucky for Minnie, it was a known fact Patty was now the town busybody and renowned gossip. She was definitely not someone Minnie needed to see on her first day back.
“Well, well, well, look who the cat dragged in,” Patty said as she swept past to plant her kids into the back booth.
Minnie had to smile when the child began asking where the cat was.
“Hi, Minnie, how are you doing?” Jacob was at least cordial.
“Good, thanks. You?”
“Not too bad. You back for the wedding?” Lucy and Chase’s wedding was the talk of the town. She didn’t need to be told that. Any big wedding was the talk of this town.
“Yep, felt like the right time.”
“Really, you finally show up again in time for cake and champagne after abandoning your kids? How nice.”
“Patty.” Jacob’s voice held a small warning.
“No, she’s right. I did abandon my kids, and yes, I’m back now, and yes, it is because there’s no perfect time to come back, but Lucy and Chase wanted me at the wedding so here I am.”
“We’ll see how long that sticks.” Patty sneered.
“Did you want some ice cream?” Chloe asked. “I’m closing soon.”
Suddenly, Minnie didn’t feel quite so much like finishing her coffee. She went to slide off her chair as Patty ordered her ice cream for her kids, but Chloe gave her head a small shake as if to say no, stick it out. So, she sat there and waited, blinking back the tears.
As he walked behind her to the booth, Jacob gave her shoulder a squeeze. “It’s good to see you, Min.”
Now, she could move. She stood and slid her payment onto the counter. “Thanks for the coffee, Chloe.”
Chloe gave her a sympathetic smile. “Anytime. Hey, you should come over for dinner one night. I lived alone for a long time, I know it’s nice to eat with others.”
“That’d be nice.”
“Okay, let’s say Tuesday.” Chloe wrote her number on a card and her address and handed it to Minnie. “See you then.”
That was nice. Something to look forward to, she thought as she hopped on the bicycle and turned back toward the apartment. She knew she deserved what Patty had dished out, she knew it was what the whole town must be thinking, but it still left a sour taste in her mouth. She put her head down and cycled home, hoping no one would recognize her. If it had been anyone else, maybe she wouldn’t have cared so much.
The head down approach was what had her swerving to miss a car door swinging open in the parking lot outside her building and had her tumbling off her bike onto the ground.
“Oh my gosh, are okay?”
When she looked up again, she was eye to eye with the sexy neighbor from this morning who had crouched down in front of her. The one she should not be thinking about.
“Yes, I just wasn’t paying attention, my bad.”
“Are you hurt?”
“Just my ego,” she lied. She’d landed on her butt, and she was pretty sure it would be sporting a large bruise tomorrow.
“Here.” He held out his hand and she took it and there it was, chemistry. She was not allowed to have chemistry with a handsome neighbor. She was here for her kids. A man had led her down this path, though to be fair she didn’t blame him, only herself, but her kids would not want to see her with a man now or possibly ever again.
“Thanks.” She dropped his hand, and he leaned down to lift the bike. He had nice calves and a good butt.
“You and I need to stop bumping into each other with our bikes.” He stopped to survey the damage of the bike. “It’s a little bit dented but basically fine.”
“Like me and my ego,” she replied. “Thanks.”
“I can fix that ding for you.”
“It’s fine, really.”
“Seriously, I’m a bike nut. I have every known tool and piece of equipment known to man. If you’re going to run into anyone with your bike in this town it should probably be me.”
“Really? It’s not actually my bike, it’s Marissa’s, so if you can fix it . . .”
“Consider it done.” He gave her a big smile. Man, that smile, that was a heart stopper.
“Thanks.” She brushed her hands down her legs removing any dirt.
“How do you know Marissa?”
“I’m Lucy’s sister, and she and Marissa are old friends. You might not know Lucy because she lives in Boston now.”
She watched him blink a couple of times and put the puzzle pieces together.
“Ah yeah, I do know her and Chase as a matter of fact. Small town, you get to know everyone.” He looked down at the bike, pretending to survey the damage she supposed. Although, the way he ran his hands over it maybe it was genuine.
“Yep, you certainly do. “
“Well, it’s nice to meet you. Are you staying long?”
“Good question. I’m staying in town, not sure if I’m staying at Marissa’s long.”
“Well, you let me know if you need anything. I haven’t been here that long. I know resettling can be tough.”
“Yeah. What do you do here?”
He paused a beat, as if whatever answer he gave he didn’t want to. “I run a bar.”
“A bar?”
“Yeah.”
Of all the people in town she had to meet the sexy bar owner in her first twenty-four hours. Marissa had said there was a new place that had opened up. She hadn’t seen it on her tour o
f the town, although to her credit, she hadn’t been looking. A hot guy with a bar. Temptation had a name and it was Mitch.
Chapter 3
He watched her face process that news. What else could he say? He did in fact own a bar. A bar he was very proud of. He knew she was an alcoholic on the road to recovery. He didn’t know all the details beyond her running off and leaving her kids, three very cute kids he’d met more than once. That didn’t exactly impress him, but he’d learned a long time ago it wasn’t his place to judge. Still, he didn’t need details to know perhaps they shouldn’t be hanging out.
Except she was incredibly beautiful and she had that wary rabbit in the headlights look that told him she needed some friends. And this wasn’t a bar, this was an apartment building.
“Before that I was a professional triathlete, hence the bike obsession.”
“Ah, I see. And why’d you stop?”
He ran his hand over the scratch on the bike. It would be an easy fix.
“I hurt my knee and I wasn’t competitive at the top level, so I decided it was time. Well, the universe decided I guess, I would have liked to keep going for a few more years.”
“Very disappointing not being able to control the universe,” she said, her voice warm and soft.
“Isn’t it, though?” He looked up at her, and damn his heart did a flip. That was bad. His heart had only done that once before and that had not ended well for him. He was absolutely one-hundred percent not allowed to flip out over a recovering alcoholic who seemed to have no job and no permanent address. Oh yeah, and three kids. “I’ll go have a tinker with this in my garage. I’ll drop it back to you later.”
“Really? That fast?”
“Yeah, I can’t control the universe, but I can fix a bike. Are you sure you’re okay?”
“All good.” She gave him a small smile. “Do you need me to help?”
“Do you know much about bike repair?”
She laughed. “Not a damn thing.”
“Then that’d be a no.” He stood up and began wheeling the bike toward the garage he had under the building where he kept his bike gear. “I’ll drop it back when it’s done.”
“Okay, well, thank you.”
“My pleasure.”
Pleasure. He could think of more than one pleasurable thing he’d like to do with Minnie, but fixing a bike was going to be the only thing. Yes, she was beautiful, and yes, she was totally his type, because apparently, he had a thing for damaged blondes, but he was a grown man and he was more than capable of ignoring any feelings he had for the woman and walking away. It might not be easy, but nothing worth doing in life was easy and this was worth doing, for both their sakes.
Minnie sat on the windowsill looking out across the town. This was fast becoming her favorite spot. Down below she could see Mitch working on the bike. That was nice of him to help her. It was neighborly. There was a time when she and Nick had known all their neighbors, and they’d all rallied when he’d been sick and dying. That just added to her list of people she needed to make amends with for her behavior before she’d run off. Then again, they weren’t top of the list.
She picked up the phone and dialed her mother’s number, and the woman herself answered. It was weird to be phoning her mother. It wasn’t just the last year or so they hadn’t spoken. When she was newly married, her mother had a brief period of sobriety and she’d tried to piece together a relationship then, but her mother had fallen off the wagon and Minnie had three small children to think about. After that when Nick got cancer, her mother did nothing to help and at that point the bonds were broken.
Yet here she was calling the woman who had managed to get it together and hold it together to mind those same children. It was . . . it was a trip, that’s what it was.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Hi, honey, how’s day one going?”
“It’s okay. Went to a meeting, toured the town, and got my bearings again.”
“Not much has changed around here I don’t imagine.” Her mother laughed. “You know what small towns are like. You used to hate that.”
“Did I?” She could barely remember the girl she’d been back in high school. She was surprised her mother could. She knew she wanted to leave but hate seemed like a strong word.
“Oh yeah, you were quite vocal on that particular point if I recall. I think you imagined that your Dad ran off to the city and it helped you justify his actions.”
“Oh.” This updated version of her mom was so different. It was a long time since she’d spent time with her sober. “Sorry.”
“Not your fault, honey. It helped you cope with his leaving and your need to leave me, which was also perfectly understandable in retrospect.”
“I guess that’s my go-to thing: when things get tough, I run.”
“And now you know that you can use that knowledge.”
“That’s very Zen of you.”
She chuckled, “Oh yeah, I’m very Zen these days. Not really, honey, I’ve been at this getting my life back together for longer than you have, that’s all. One day you’ll be Zen, too.”
Minnie couldn’t quite imagine that. “How’re the kids? Really?”
“Well, in general they’re doing great. They love the school; they’ve made friends here and are settled. Katie is on the school paper, works at the ice-cream store, and babysits. Sophie is into track, and Oliver is all about baseball and the Boy Scouts. They’re great kids. You did good.”
“Until I didn’t.”
“Well, all you can do is move forward, honey. They’re a little mixed up about seeing you, you know lots of emotions, but that’s to be expected.”
“Yeah.”
“I think maybe come over after school tomorrow and assure them you’re not going to uproot them for a start. I think that would go a long way to settling the nerves around here.”
“Okay. I can do that.”
“And remember not to take anything they say personally. They need to process and they deserve that right.”
She hung up the phone and looked out across the town. She felt better now that she was seeing the kids tomorrow but similarly anxious about it. Would she like a drink? Definitely. Would she have one? Not likely. She had a lot of people counting on her, and she was counting on herself as well.
A knock on the door broke her thoughts. She figured it had to be Mitch because it was unlikely anyone else would be visiting, and she was right. He stood there smiling, a hand on each bar of the bicycle.
“All fixed.”
“Thanks.”
“Where can I put it?”
She pointed to the wall inside where she had found it leaning earlier in the day. “Can I get you a soda or anything? To say thanks.”
He paused. She saw him, as he put the bike against the wall. He wasn’t sure. That was reasonable. Lord knew what he knew about her or thought about her. Whatever it was, she could assume. It probably wasn’t good.
“Okay. Sure. Thanks.”
She took out a Coke and a seltzer water and held both up. He pointed to the seltzer, so she got down two glasses and added ice and poured. It was open plan, so he hovered on the opposite side of the counter.
“It’s odd. This place is exactly the same as mine, except for the furniture. Like my place in an alternative universe.”
“So, visiting me is like a bad sci-fi movie?” she teased.
“Hopefully, no alien predator is lurking down the hall,” he said, taking the drink she handed him across the counter.
“I hope not either. I’ve had enough drama to last me a lifetime.” She sighed. She hadn’t meant to say that but it was true.
“You’ve had a tough time, huh?” He sat on one of the stools.
“Well, I’ve made some poor choices, that’s for sure.”
“Addiction isn’t a choice, Minnie.” He knew that much about her at least.
“Yeah, well, let’s just say addiction combined with poor choices equals drama.”
“You�
��re good now, though, you’ve done the program and all that?”
Mitch had no idea why he was even asking. It was not his business, and he was not freaking Dr. Phil.
“I hope I’m all good. That’s my plan. To stay on track.”
She leaned in, and he could see a hint of cleavage beneath her pink T-shirt. She was very pretty. She looked tired and wary but still so beautiful.
“Good.” He sipped his drink.
“So, how’d you end up in this town? Of all places.”
“It’s a long story.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve got nothing but time.” She pulled herself up on the counter across the room and sat. She was a healthy distance away at least, far enough away to minimize temptation, and she wasn’t letting him off the hook.
“So, you really want to hear the tragic tale of an internationally known athlete who comes off his bike, hurts his knee, can’t race again, and goes looking for a place to belong in a small New England town?”
She grinned at him. “I do.”
“The tale of a man so lost that he found himself chatting to a really nice guy at a bar on a lake up north about his dream to open a bar, and when that guy said, ‘My town needs a decent bar,’ he decided to visit.”
“Yep.”
“So, he came to town and the guy, Todd, showed him around and somehow a week later he owned a building.”
“That sounds like a good story.” She egged him on. “Why a bar? Why not a bike shop, for example?”
“Well, now, that’s kind of sad actually. This guy’s favorite person growing up was his grandfather, and he and his grandfather spent hours together watching Cheers and talked about opening a bar together.”
“Where everyone knew your name?”
“So, you’ve heard the story?”
She laughed again, he liked that sound very much. “Not exactly.”
“Well, of course by the time he opened the bar his grandfather was gone, but the man needed to achieve another goal and so he did.”
Any Way You Spin It: An Upper Crust Novel (The Upper Crust Series Book 7) Page 3
