“Yes, as always.”
Jonathan pushed his glasses back up his nose and tried to look modest. It was hard when people praised him like this.
But then, as he started to pack up his tools, Cecily said something that left him flat as a stingray. “I heard from Chantelle Bates that you guys have your fifteen-year reunion coming up.”
“Uh, yeah.”
“Those are always fun, seeing old friends, people you used to date,” she continued.
This was worse than Dot’s cigarette smoke. Chatting with Cecily always made him self-conscious; chatting with Cecily about his high school reunion would make him a nervous wreck—especially if she started asking about women he used to date. Jonathan hit high speed gathering up his tools and his various disks.
“Are you going?” she asked him.
“Maybe,” he lied, and hoped she’d leave it at that.
She didn’t. “I moved back just in time for my ten-year and I’m glad I did. There were some people I wouldn’t have had a chance to see otherwise.”
There were some people Jonathan wanted to do more than see. Some people with long, blond hair and… He snapped his briefcase shut and bolted for the door. “So, Elena, I’ll bill you.”
“Okay,” she called.
The door hadn’t quite shut behind him when he heard Elena say to Cecily, “He needs confidence, that one.”
He needed a lot more than confidence.
He grabbed some bratwurst and sauerkraut for lunch at Big Brats, then fit in two more clients before going home.
May’s late-afternoon sun beamed its blessing on his three-bedroom log house at the end of Mountain View Road. (He’d originally planned for two bedrooms but his folks had talked him into the extra one. “You have to have room for a wife and children,” his mother had said. Good old Mom, always hopeful.) Fir and pine trees gave the house its rustic setting. The pansies and begonias his mother and grandmother had put in the window boxes, as well as the patch of lawn edged with more flowers, added a homey touch. Someone pulling up might even think a woman lived there. They’d be wrong. The only female in this house had four legs.
But Jonathan often pictured the house with a wife and kids in it—the wife (a pretty blonde, naturally) cooking dinner while he and the kids played video games. He could even see himself as an old man, sitting on the porch, playing chess with a grandson. Naturally, he would’ve passed the house on to his own son, keeping the property in the family.
His grandpa had purchased the land as an investment when it was nothing more than a mountain meadow. Gramps could have made a tidy profit selling it but instead he’d let Jonathan have it for a song when Jonathan turned twenty-five.
He’d started construction when he was twenty-seven. A cousin who worked in construction in nearby Yakima had come over and helped him and Dad build the house. Dad hadn’t lived to see it finished. He’d had a heart attack just before the roof went on, leaving Jonathan on his own to complete both his house and his life.
Jonathan had become the man of the family, in charge of helping his mom, his grandmother and his sister cope. He’d been no help to his grandmother, who had tried to outrun her loss by moving to Arizona. He hadn’t been much help to his mother, either, beyond setting her up with a computer program so she could manage her finances. He’d tried to help Julia but he’d barely been able to cope himself. He should never have let Dad do all that hard physical work.
“Don’t be silly,” his mother always said. “Your father could just as easily have died on the golf course. He was doing what he wanted to do, helping you.”
Helping his son be manly. The house was probably the one endeavor of Jonathan’s that his father really took pride in. It wasn’t hard to figure out what kind of son Dad had really longed for. He’d never missed an Icicle Falls High football game, whether at home or away. How many times had he sat in the stands and wished his scrawny son was out there on the field or at least on the bench instead of playing in the band? Jonathan was glad he had no idea.
“I love you, son,” Dad had said when they were loading him into the ambulance. Those were the last words Jonathan heard and he was thankful for them. But he often found himself wishing his dad had said he was proud of him.
As he pulled up in his yellow Volkswagen with Geek Gods Mobile Computer Service printed on the side, his dog, Chica, abandoned her spot on the front porch and raced down the stairs to greet him, barking a welcome. Chica was an animal shelter find, part shepherd, part Lab and part…whatever kind of dog had a curly tail. She’d been with Jonathan for five years and she thought he was a god.
He got out of the car and the dog started jumping like she had springs on her paws. It was nice to have a female go crazy over him. “Hey, girl,” he greeted her. “We’ll get some dinner and then play fetch.”
He exchanged his slacks for jeans and his business shirt for a T-shirt that cautioned Don’t drink and derive. Then, after a feast of canned spaghetti for Jonathan and some Doggy’s Delight for Chica, it was time for a quick game of fetch. It had to be quick because tonight was Friday, poker night, and the guys would be coming over at seven. Poker, another manly pursuit. Dad would have been proud.
* * *
The first man to arrive was Kyle Long, Jonathan’s old high school chess club buddy. Kyle didn’t exactly fit his name. He was short. His hair was a lighter shade than Jonathan’s dark brown—nothing spectacular, rather like his face.
But his ordinary face didn’t bug him nearly as much as his lack of stature. “Women don’t look at short guys,” he often grumbled. And short guys who, like Jonathan, weren’t always so confident and quick with the flattery, well, they really didn’t get noticed.
The grumpy expression on Kyle’s face tonight said it all before he’d even opened his mouth. “What’s with chicks, anyway?” he demanded as he set a six-pack of Hale’s Ale on Jonathan’s counter.
If Jonathan knew that, he’d be married to the woman of his dreams. He shrugged.
“Okay, so Darrow looks like friggin’ Ryan Reynolds.”
Ted Darrow, Jonathan’s nemesis. “And drives a Jag,” Jonathan supplied.
“But he’s the world’s biggest ass-wipe,” Kyle said with a scowl. “I don’t know what Jillian sees in him.”
Jonathan knew. Like called to like. Beautiful people gravitated to each other. Jonathan had seen Jillian when he’d gone to Kyle’s company, Safe Hands Insurance, to install their new computer system. She was hot, with blue eyes, blond hair and supermodel long legs. Women like that went for the Ted Darrows of the world.
Or the Rand Burbanks.
Jonathan shoved that last thought out of his mind. “Look, you may as well give up. You’re not gonna get her.” It was hard to say that to his best friend, but friends didn’t let friends drive themselves crazy over women who were out of their league. Kyle would do the same for him…if he knew Jonathan had suffered a relapse last Christmas and had once again picked up the torch for his own perfect blonde. The road to crazy was a clogged thoroughfare these days.
Kyle heaved a discouraged sigh. “I know.” He pulled a bottle opener out of a kitchen drawer and popped the top off one of the bottles. “It’s just that, well, damn. If she opened those baby blues and looked my way for longer than two seconds, she’d see I’m twice the man Darrow is.”
“I hear you,” Jonathan said, and opened a bag of corn chips, setting them alongside the beer.
Next in the door was Bernardo Ruiz, who came bearing some of his wife’s homemade salsa. Bernardo wasn’t much taller than Kyle, but he swaggered like he was six feet.
“Who died?” he asked, glancing from one friend to the other.
“Nobody,” Kyle said grumpily.
Bernardo looked at him suspiciously. “You mooning around over that bimbo at work again?”
“She’s not a bimbo,” Kyle said hotly.
Bernardo shook his head in disgust. “Little man, you are a fool to chase after a woman who doesn’t want you. That ki
nd of woman, she’ll only make you feel small on the inside.”
Any reference to being small, either on the inside or the outside, never went over well with Kyle, so it was probably a good thing that Adam Edwards arrived with more beer and chips. A sales rep for a pharmaceutical company, he made more than Jonathan and Kyle put together and had the toys to prove it—a big house on the river, a classic Corvette, a snowmobile and a beach house on the Washington coast. He also had a pretty little wife, which proved Jonathan’s theory of like calling to like since Adam was tall and broad-shouldered and looked as though he belonged in Hollywood instead of Icicle Falls. Some guys had all the luck.
“Vance’ll be late,” Adam informed them. “He has to finish up something and says to go ahead and start without him.”
Vance Fish was the newest member of their group, a confirmed bachelor somewhere in his fifties, which made him the senior member. He’d built a big house on River Road about a mile down from Adam’s place. The two men had bonded over fishing lures, and Adam had invited him to join their poker group.
Vance claimed to be semiretired. He owned a bookstore somewhere in Seattle called Pleasures and Treasures, which sold books and antiques. He’d recently added Sweet Dreams Chocolates to his inventory, making himself popular with the Sterling family, who owned the company. He dressed as if he was on his last dime, usually in sweats or jeans and an oversize black T-shirt that hung clumsily over his double XL belly, but his fancy house was proof that Vance was doing okay.
“That means we won’t see him for at least an hour,” Kyle predicted.
“What kind of project?” Bernardo asked. “Is he building something over there in that fine house of his? I never seen no tools or workbench in his garage.”
“Something to do with the bookstore,” Adam said. “I don’t know what.”
“Well, all the better for me,” Kyle said gleefully. “I’ll have you guys fleeced by the time he gets here.” He clapped his hands together. “I’m feeling lucky tonight.”
He proved it by raking in their money.
“Bernardo, you should just come empty your pockets on the table right from the start,” Adam joked. “I’ve never seen anybody so unlucky at cards.”
“That’s because I’m lucky at love,” Bernardo insisted.
His remark wiped the victory smirk right off Kyle’s face. “Chicks,” he said in disgust.
“If you’re going where I think you’re going, don’t,” Adam said, frowning at him.
“What?” Kyle protested.
Adam pointed his beer bottle at Kyle. “If I hear one more word about Jillian I’m gonna club you with this.”
“Oh, no,” said a deep voice, “I thought you clowns would be done talking about women by now.”
Jonathan turned to see Vance strolling into the room, looking stylish as ever in his favorite black T-shirt, baggy jeans and sandals. In honor of the occasion he hadn’t shaved. Aside from the extra pounds (well, and that bald spot on top of his head), the guy wasn’t too bad-looking. His sandy hair was shot with gray but he had the kind of craggy brow and strong jaw women seemed to like even in a big man. All that big-man sexy stuff was wasted on Vance, though. He wasn’t interested. According to Vance, women were a mistake men made under the influence of testosterone.
“We’re done talking about women,” Adam assured him.
Vance clapped him on the back. “Glad to hear it, ’cause the last thing I want after a hard day’s work is to listen to you losers crab about them.”
“I wasn’t crabbing,” Kyle said sullenly.
Vance sat down at the table and eyed him. “It’s that bimbo where you work, isn’t it? She got your jockeys tight again?” Kyle glared at him but Vance waved his anger away with a pudgy paw. “You know, women can sense desperation a mile away. It’s a turnoff.”
“And I guess you’d be an expert on what turns women off,” Adam teased.
“There isn’t a man on this planet who’s an expert on anything about women. And if you meet one who says he is, he’s lying. Now, let’s play poker.” Vance eyed the pile of chips in front of Kyle. “I think you need to be relieved of some of those, my friend.”
“I think not,” Kyle said, and the game began in earnest.
After an hour and a half Vance announced that he had to tap a kidney.
“I need some chips and salsa,” Adam decided, and everyone took a break.
“Did you get the announcement in the mail?” Kyle asked Jonathan.
No, not this again.
“What announcement?” Adam asked.
“High school reunion,” Kyle said. “Fifteen years.”
Jonathan had gotten the cutesy little postcard with the picture of a grizzly bear, the Icicle Falls High mascot, lumbering across the corner. And of course, the first thing he’d thought was, Maybe Lissa will come. That had taken his spirits on a hot-air balloon ride. Until he’d had another thought. You’ll still be the invisible man. That had brought the balloon back down.
“Yeah, I got it,” he said. “I’m not going.”
But Rand probably would be. Rand and Lissa, together again.
With that thought, his balloon ride was not only over, the balloon was in a swamp infested with alligators. And poker night was a bust.
Just like his love life.
* * * * *
RECIPES &
BAKING HINTS FROM
CASS WILKES
We thought you might enjoy the recipes for some of our wedding cupcakes. These are so good you won’t be able to eat just one. But before we get to the recipes, let me give you a few tips on baking cupcakes.
Use cupcake liners. They’re not only pretty, but your cupcakes will rise higher and be easier to take from the pan.
When pouring your cupcakes, fill the liners two-thirds to three-quarters full. If you fill to the brim your cupcakes will overflow and you’ll have a mess.
Most standard 2½ inch cupcakes are baked from 15 to 22 minutes. Don’t overbake your cupcakes or they’ll be dry.
When making a cake or cupcakes, add a package of plain gelatin to the mix. This will keep your cake from cracking.
Okay, now, you’re ready to go.
Samantha Sterling’s Chocolate Ganache-Marscarpone Cupcakes
(courtesy of New York Times bestselling author Jill Barnett)
makes 1 dozen
What you’ll need in addition to the ingredients
Paper baking cups
1 cupcake holer or grapefruit spoon
muffin tin
Ingredients
For cake:
¼ lb. (1 stick) butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 extra-large eggs, room temperature
1 Tbsp. vanilla
16 oz. chocolate syrup such as Hershey’s
For cream filling:
½ pint heavy whipping cream
1 small container mascarpone cheese or 4 oz. whipped cream cheese
1 tsp. vanilla
1-2 heaping Tbsp. sugar
For ganache:
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
6 oz. high quality chocolate chips such as Ghirardelli (semisweet or milk chocolate)
½ tsp. instant espresso
Directions
For your cake, cream the butter, sugar and eggs and beat until fluffy. Add the chocolate syrup and vanilla and mix, then sift in flour and mix. Line muffin tin and pour the mix into each cupcake liner until ¼ inch away from the top of the liner. Bake at 350˚ for 13 to 18 minutes, until the tops of the cupcakes spring back. Cool.
For your ganache, heat chocolate chips and ⅓ cup heavy cream and espresso powder over boiling water, stirring constantly, until completely melted and glossy. Dip the top of your cooled cupcakes in the chocolate (twice if you want a thicker ganache layer). Let cool. Samantha (and Jill) usually make them the evening before a party and let them set overnight so the ganache is firm.
The next morning you can use your cupcake holer t
o take out a small part of the center of your cupcake, or you can simply use a melon baller or small grapefruit spoon.
For your mascarpone cream filling, mix in a bowl with a hand mixer, ½ pint whipping cream, 4 oz. mascarpone or whipped cream cheese, sugar and vanilla. Mix until very stiff. Then spoon into a quart-size plastic storage bag, cut off the tip and pipe into the center of the cupcakes, piping it up about an inch above the ganache.
Cupcakes don’t have to be refrigerated unless it’s hot out. (In fact, worrying about storing them is never a problem. These babies go in a hurry!)
Cass’s Red Velvet Cupcakes
makes 2 dozen
Yes, they’re everywhere now, but this particular recipe comes with Cass’s top-secret frosting recipe. (She got it from Sheila Roberts, who kept both the frosting and the cake recipe a secret since she first got it from a Southern belle at the age of sixteen. We don’t really know how many years ago that was, since Sheila has been lying about her age since she turned thirty, but we do know it’s quite a long time.)
Ingredients
2 oz. red food coloring
3 Tbsp. powdered chocolate milk mix (such as Nestle’s Quik)
½ cup shortening
2¼ cup cake flour
1 tsp. soda
1 Tbsp. vinegar
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
1 cup buttermilk
(Note: if you forgot to buy buttermilk, you can
substitute milk with a small amount of vinegar added to it.)
1 tsp. (scant) salt
Directions
Mix food coloring and chocolate powder in a small bowl. Cream the shortening and sugar. Combine beaten eggs and food coloring mixture, then add it to the shortening mixture. Sift flour and salt together and add alternately with buttermilk. Add vanilla. Remove from mixer and add one at a time by hand, first the soda, then the vinegar. Pour into muffin tins lined with paper baking cups and bake at 350˚ for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cake springs back when touched. As with the chocolate cupcakes (or any cake), don’t overbake. Cool and then frost with Red Velvet Cake Frosting.
Merry Ex-Mas Page 24
