Sugar And Spice (Holidays: Valentine)

by Charlotte French

  Crissy nodded. Quinn let his hand fall back to his side. But as he turned to leave, he leaned down and kissed her cheek. He lingered a moment, so close she could feel the heat of his skin.

  “He didn’t deserve you,” he whispered.

  Crissy met his gaze, only for a second, before he turned and walked out. She pressed her hand to her cheek as she stood in her smoke-filled, charred kitchen, her skin still warm from his whispered words and the touch of his lips.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  After Quinn had left, Crissy could hear Amy’s footsteps. Running. She slid into the doorway of the kitchen, eyes bright.

  “What did I just see happen?” she demanded, her voice high pitched with excitement.

  Crissy took in a breath and pressed a shaking hand to her mouth. “I have no idea.”

  She held her other hand out and Amy crossed the room in two long strides and took her hand with an iron grip.

  “My kitchen…” Crissy wheezed. “It’s such a mess.”

  “But it’s still standing,” Amy replied. “We’ll get it cleaned up in no time.”

  Crissy sagged against the counter. “I screwed up, Amy. I didn’t even give him a chance. I just…shut him down. I ran away.”

  “Let’s take one thing at a time first. Tell me what happened.”

  Crissy hesitated, glancing to either side of her at her ruined kitchen. “We should really clean though. Quinn is coming over tomorrow to fix the wiring. That’s what caught fire. And I’ll probably need a new oven and…”

  Amy rolled her eyes. “Ugh, blackmail. Make me clean in order to get all your dirty little secrets. The things I go through for you and your love life.”

  Crissy giggled and tossed a wet rag at Amy’s face. “You wouldn’t have it any other way and you know it.”

  “Well, maybe a little less manual labor and more juicy details but whatever,” Amy said with a sly smile.

  But the cleaning didn’t get far when Crissy turned around and found the fire extinguisher still sitting on the counter where Quinn had left it. She placed her hand on it and shook her head. She had misjudged Quinn so, so unfairly, all because she couldn’t stop living in the past.

  “Amy,” she said without moving. “Forget the cleaning.”

  She could feel Amy go still behind her at the serious tone of her voice.

  “Cris?” she asked quietly. “What’s wrong?

  Slowly, she turned around again to face Amy. “We need to talk.”

  Amy’s gaze flickered over her face and she set the wet rag down. “I’m all ears, sugar.”

  “I almost screwed things up with Quinn. All because I can’t seem to…let Rob go. It’s been two years. And I still think about him. About how cruel he was.”

  Amy dipped her head in acknowledgement. “I can see that. But in all fairness, sugar, sometimes words like that, the ones that cut so deeply…they take a long time to heal.”

  Crissy sighed. “It’s not…just that. I’ve been…scared to get close to Quinn. I like him. I really…really like him.”

  “I sense a but coming.”

  Crissy’s gaze dropped to the floor and she rubbed at her forehead. “I haven’t been entirely honest with you.”

  Silence hung thick and suffocating in the room, bitter like the ash that dusted every surface. Crissy didn’t dare look up, couldn’t bring herself to see how Amy would take any of this.

  “When Quinn and I had our argument, he…we were…”

  “Making out,” Amy supplied. Her tone was light, easy going, and Crissy glanced up. Amy smiled slightly. “Not that much of a conclusion to jump to, sugar. It would be crazy hard to keep your hands off a man like that. Go on.”

  “Well, he...” Crissy’s throat went tight and she had to force the words out at the memory of it. “He slid just his thumbs under my shirt and when I felt his hands touch my skin I…freaked.”

  Amy frowned and raised her hands. “Wait, why? Was it too fast?”

  “Yes. No. Part of it was, I think. But really…I’m not as comfortable in my skin as you are.” She gritted her teeth and steeled herself for finally spitting out the truth, just getting it over with already. “The night I got engaged, it was my first time. With Rob. With anyone. He wasn’t…gentle. I asked him to take things slow…”

  “But he didn’t,” Amy growled.

  Crissy closed her eyes and her voice trembled. “It hurt and I was so scared that I couldn’t stop crying. It only made Rob angry, he hated it when I cried. He told me I was making it up for attention.”

  Amy’s cheeks flushed a deep red and her fingers dug into Crissy’s elbow. “Why didn’t you tell me this before? And please, please, please, don’t make some excuse about wanting to spare me embarrassing details. Because you know I’m not shy about sex.”

  Crissy pressed her hands over her eyes, trying to hold back the threatening burn of tears. “You already hated him enough. And at the time, my mother had me convinced it was all my fault that I dumped him. She said if I was thinner, he would have loved me more. If I didn’t spend every waking hour baking, I could have given him the attention he deserved. She blamed me completely for the relationship going down the tubes.”

  “Jesus,” Amy whispered, folding Crissy into her arms. “I had no idea it was that bad, Cris.”

  Crissy screwed her face up, willing herself to not cry but she tightened her hold on Amy all the same.

  “You don’t believe her now, do you?” Amy asked.

  Crissy shook her head. “No. I know it was a disaster and I should have high tailed it out of their earlier.”

  Amy rubbed Crissy’s back. “That’s my girl. So…did you tell Quinn?”

  Crissy let out a small wet laugh. “No, not all that. But I did tell him I was engaged and that it didn’t end well.”

  Amy nodded, her chin brushing the top of Crissy’s head.

  “Well, if he’s going to get hot and heavy with you again, he needs to know. I’m not saying pour everything on him right now, especially since you two are probably going to be a bit fragile for a little while as you make it up to each other. But you should tell him, Cris.”

  Crissy groaned against Amy’s shoulder. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I was terrified telling you. And I tell you everything. Probably too much.”

  Amy chuckled. “Not possible, sugar.”

  Crissy hesitated for only a moment at her next question, but she knew if she waited too long, she’d lose her courage.

  “Amy,” she said.

  Amy hummed in acknowledgement.

  “How do you do it? Act all sexy and comfortable in your own skin around Manu?”

  A beat of silence passed and Crissy forced herself to not squirm.

  “That’s probably an awkward question…” she whispered. “You don’t have to answer.”

  Amy pulled back to look at her. “It’s impossible to embarrass me, sugar. You know that. And I just…do it. It’s not only for Manu by the way.” She struck a pose, one hip out, shoulders tipped at an angle as she looked at Crissy through her lashes, flirtatious and coy in an instant. “It has to start with you, sugar. Be sexy for you, not anybody else. You’ll get the hang of it. It’s kind of fun.”

  Crissy wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know... You make it sound so simple.”

  “That’s because it is.” Amy dropped the flirty look and faced Crissy with as much seriousness as she could muster again. “You don’t have to, you know. Quinn likes you for you. I like you for you.”

  Crissy ran her thumb along the counter, leaving behind a streak of clean amid the gray ashes. “I know. I’ve always been focused on baking and haven’t really…explored that side of me before.”

  Amy leaned back against the counter and cast a sideways look at Crissy. “I have something that might help,” she said.

  Crissy glanced at her, hopeful. “What?”

  “It’ll make you blush.”

  “Well, that’s not hard to do.”

  Amy grinned. “Lingerie shopping
.”

  Crissy’s face flushed pink in a heartbeat. “Oh my god no.”

  “I knew it. Red as a beet in two seconds flat. Look, this is perfect, Cris, I swear. Unless you already have a little something hidden away that I don’t know about.”

  “No, I don’t,” Crissy mumbled.

  “Good. This’ll be fun, I promise. We don’t have to go to any malls if you don’t want to. All I’m saying is that we can just…browse around online for a bit. See if anything catches your eye. Dip your toe in the water. You’re twenty-five years old, it’s perfectly reasonable.”

  Crissy hitched up her shoulders and her head seemed to sink lower as if she wanted to disappear into the collar of her t-shirt. She had always devoted her time to her recipes, lost herself in food and her kitchen. She’d never thought of herself as sexy in the first place, not anything like Amy anyway. But, at the same time, the idea was a little tempting…

  “Maybe,” Crissy relented, grudgingly. “But only online.”

  Amy snatched up the wet rag from where she’d abandoned it on the counter. “Now that’s the proper motivation to get this kitchen spit shiny clean.”

  She started scrubbing at the counters but Crissy still idled, lost in thought.

  “Amy,” she said, “I don’t want to talk about him anymore.”

  Amy stopped, glanced over her shoulder, confused. “Quinn?”

  “Rob. It’s been two years. It’s time to move on. No matter what happened. I don’t want to ruin things with Quinn again.”

  Amy folded the rag in her hands and nodded. “That’s a good call.”

  “Please hold me to it.”

  “I’d be happy to, sugar.”

  The kitchen was clean in only a few hours, though there were still black scars running along the wall above the stove that would probably require a fresh coat of paint or two. Amy and Crissy raced each other to Crissy’s room and flopped onto Crissy’s bed. Amy dug out Crissy’s laptop from the mess on her desk and started pulling up her favorite lingerie shopping websites. It didn’t take long for Crissy to get more than a little overwhelmed.

  “They’re so…tiny,” she said. “I’m not used to showing that much skin.”

  “Well, they’re supposed to be revealing, sugar,” Amy pointed out. “Besides, they don’t stay on for long anyway.”

  Crissy buried her rapidly warming face in a pillow at that thought. Amy shot her a smile and nudged her with an elbow as she continued scrolling. After her flaming cheeks had cooled a bit, Crissy peeked out from her pillow and watched the lace and silk fly by. She couldn’t help but feel a bit curious about some of them…

  “Wait,” Crissy said, propping herself up on her elbows and leaning forward.

  Amy scrolled back up and Crissy pointed to a pale blue baby doll top set.

  “That one’s cute,” she said. “Not too…”

  “Skimpy,” Amy finished for her. “But still cute and flirty. Like you.”

  Crissy poked Amy’s arm. Amy snickered.

  “Although there is no way I can fit into that teeny little thing,” Crissy said. “Are there more sizes available?”

  Amy hummed as she clicked through then went silent. Crissy’s chest constricted with disappointment.

  “That’s stupid,” Amy muttered. “Specifically catering to women and no plus sizes available.”

  “It’s okay,” Crissy sighed. She hugged her pillow to her chest and wished she could melt through the mattress.

  “No, it’s not. We’ll find another place to look around.”

  “Amy, really, it’s fine.”

  But Amy was on a mission now, ignoring Crissy’s protests as she opened up a new browser. Crissy rolled over on her back to stare at the ceiling.

  “I miss my kitchen,” she sighed. “I was really looking forward to cooking all day.”

  “I have a working microwave,” Amy pointed out without looking up from the laptop. “Chocolate covered strawberries,” she added in a sing-song voice.

  Crissy thought about it for a minute. “How many chocolate covered strawberries can you eat?”

  “Depends. How many can you make?”

  Crissy did a few quick calculations but before she arrived at a number, Amy shouted in triumph and turned the laptop screen towards Crissy.

  “Look what I found,” she said.

  There was the baby blue lingerie set that had caught Crissy’s eye. In her size and ten dollars off.

  “You’re good,” Crissy admitted.

  Amy beamed. “Thank you.”

  “But I don’t know. I’d like to think about it for a bit and…”

  “Whoopsie,” Amy said with feigned innocence. “One order already put in.”

  Crissy groaned and flopped back on the bed. “Amy!”

  “You love me.”

  “Ugh. I know.”

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  The next morning, Crissy was up early, dressed and waiting eagerly at the door. But it was her boss who showed up first, his stooped figure shuffling through the snow. He wore his signature plaid hat with the beaver lining he so proudly declared he trapped and skinned himself. The earflaps were tugged low and nearly brushed his shoulders. She hurried to let him in.

  “Sorry about the trouble, Mr. Scott,” she said. “I hate to bother you when it’s this cold outside.”

  He waved her off and pulled at his scarf that was wrapped up around his nose. “It’s all right, Crissy girl. It’s good for me to get out of the house every once in a while. Doesn’t happen often enough at my age.” He chuckled then broke off in a rough cough.

  “Can I get you anything?” Crissy asked.

  Again. Mr. Scott waved her off. “A new body. But I don’t suppose you’ve got a secret stash of those around. Getting old isn’t fun, Crissy girl, you just stay your pretty young self forever, all right?”

  He paused and seemed to reconsider. “Actually…you wouldn’t happen to have any of those little peach cobbler pies around, would you?”

  Crissy smiled. “In fact, I have two left with your name on them. They’re in the kitchen.”

  As they made their way to the kitchen, Mr. Scott asked, “So how bad is it? When that Amy troublemaker called, she told me a little about it but that girl talks so fast, I can hardly pick out every other word she says.”

  Crissy stepped aside and gestured to the stove. “Have a look yourself.”

  Mr. Scott studied the damage for a moment. He hobbled closer and ran his hand along the counter, over the charred marks on the wall.

  “Well, not as bad as I thought,” he said. “Suppose we’ll have to get someone in to fix the place up pretty soon.”

  Crissy retrieved the peach cobbler pies from the refrigerator along with a spoon from the cabinet. “I have a friend coming over in a few minutes. He offered to help out. If it’s all right with you, of course.”

  Mr. Scott waved her off. “Fine, fine. You young people have a better time of it keeping up with these sorts of things than I do. This place is more yours than mine now, anyway.”

  Crissy nodded to the doorway and held up the pies. “Breakfast?”

  His eyes lit up. “Don’t mind if I do.”

  Crissy offered her arm and Mr. Scott slid his hand into the crook of her elbow as they returned to the shop and chose a booth near the window. Mr. Scott peeled off his hat, scarf, and coat and set them on the bench next to him. Crissy slid the pies and spoon over to him and clasped her hands under her chin, watching him as he dug in.

  “My Maria – may she rest in peace - always wanted to open a diner when this place was nothing more than a backwater town,” he said. “She would have been proud to see what you’ve done with this here restaurant.”

  Crissy ducked her head, pleased. “Thank you, Mr. Scott.”

  He sighed as he took another bite of the cobbler. “Well?”

  She frowned. “Well what?”

  “What do you think? A new stove? A nice big fancy one? A good cook like you must have dreamed about a new
stove ever since you got here. I’ve been promising to replace it for years. Now I don’t have much choice.”

  Crissy hesitated. “I don’t need anything fancy, really. Just one that works.”

  “Crissy girl, you’ve been keeping this little diner alive, not me. It would have died a long time ago. You deserve a nice piece of equipment. You’ve been making do with that old rattlin’ thing for too long as it is.”

  Mr. Scott set his spoon down with a clatter and dug around in his coat pocket for a moment before he pulled out a credit card and slid it across to her.

  “You take this,” he said. “Buy yourself a new stove, one that’s worthy of a fine cook like yourself. And don’t be shy about expenses. There’s plenty there.”

  Crissy shook her head and leaned back. “No, no Mr. Scott, that’s…that’s very, very generous of you. But…”

  Mr. Scott took her hand and placed the credit card firmly in her palm. “All right then. I’m your boss and I’m saying I want a brand spankin’ shiny new stove for my employees, namely my best employee,” he added with a smile and a wink. “Don’t tell Amy.”

  Before Crissy could reply, a light tap on the window next to them cut her off. Quinn waved with one gloved hand while his other hand carried a duffel bristling with tools. Crissy slid out of the booth and opened the door for him. As he stepped inside, he smiled, a full blown smile that lit up his face and he started to reach towards her. She learned forward, waiting for his hand to slide around her waist…but he hesitated. His smile faltered just the slightest bit and his hand dropped to his side.

  “Morning,” he said with a nod instead. His demeanor was still warm and his smile was certainly there but he seemed…unsure of himself.

  Crissy’s heart sank straight to the pit of her stomach. It looked like things were going to take a while to get back to normal then.

  Mr. Scott shoved out of the booth with a suspicious squint.

  “Mr. Scott,” Crissy said. “This is…”

  “Aren’t you Frank Spencer’s kid?” Mr. Scott cut in. “Quinn?”

  Quinn nodded. Mr. Scott rubbed at his forehead, his eyebrows raised in surprise. He clasped Quinn’s hand in a rigorous shake.