“Whit, I thought you were okay with us not wanting to do catering. You aren’t still thinking of catering for a business, I hope.”
“Not complete meals. I was thinking we could just start out baking specialty cakes. Carrot cakes, cheesecakes, and M & M should be popular cakes. And we should develop a unique recipe of our own. Maybe some kind of a chocolate sour cream cake with almonds or—”
Regan cut her off. “That might work and I do enjoy baking, but I saw something in the paper today we might consider. They’re looking for people to sell log cabin homes in this area. And get this. The commission on one home is five thousand dollars.”
“That’s more money than we’d make selling cakes,” Shannon said.
Whitney grinned. “Regan, I know what you’re doing. You’re suggesting building log cabins so Casey will quit being a firefighter to build them.”
Regan shook her head. “We don’t build them.”
“Don’t you have to have a model to show the prospective buyers?” Shannon asked.
“Not necessarily,” Regan said. “We can have a website with all the house plans. Or Whitney could build a log home.”
Whitney rolled her eyes at Regan. “I get it. You do want me to move out soon. I have no problem with that, but I’m not sure I want to build a log home.”
“I don’t think Regan wants you to move,” Shannon said, “but she remembers you talking about wanting to live in a log cabin.”
“It was actually something Rob and I talked about doing together for a retreat.” Looking at model cabins with Rob had been fun, but that was in the past. She needed to focus on the future. “I’m not interested in it now.”
“Why don’t we consider a magazine, online clothing store, and a TV show and then come back here on Monday with pros and cons for all three ideas?” Shannon walked to the French doors. “Have you seen Ben lately?”
“He’s been over a couple of times to check on me. He’s fixing dinner for me this evening. And we’re going to watch a movie at his place.” Whitney touched her stitches. “I think he’s afraid to take me any place. I told him I’m not fragile.”
“Poor Ben. He’s such a nice guy. He’s had a rough week too.” Shannon turned to look at Whitney. “While we were in the waiting room, Casey was unpleasant to Ben.”
“I asked Casey about it.” Regan poured herself some ice water, continuing her explanation. “When we went to the zoo last Saturday morning, some of Casey’s firefighter buddies were there, and they saw Ben talking to me. Back at the fire station, they teased Casey about Ben hitting on me at the zoo, which he wasn’t. Anna wanted to know Ben’s last name and get this, Anna and Ben’s ex are cousins.”
Shannon arched her eyebrow. “Wow, it’s a small world.”
“It gets more interesting.” Regan took a sip of her water. “Meredith had trashed Ben to her. She told Anna how she returned to work a few weeks after Adam was born. Ben wanted to be the one to stay home with Adam. And Meredith wanted to wait to start a family, but Ben kept insisting on having a baby.”
Whitney shook her head. “I don’t believe any of it. Ben mentioned to me how Meredith wanted to return to work full-time. I don’t see Ben making her go back to her job after a few weeks.”
“And look who has custody of Adam,” Shannon said. “It’s not Meredith.”
Whitney exhaled a deep breath. “I’m nervous about going to Ben’s tonight. We kissed by the waterfall before I got hurt and—”
“Is he a good kisser?” Regan asked.
Shannon frowned. “Geez Regan, let her finish.”
“I admit I enjoyed kissing him and I felt emotions I haven’t experienced since Rob was alive. It was nice feeling a man’s lips on mine. I don’t want another husband, so is it right to see Ben? He might want more than I can give.”
“Just go to dinner tonight and don’t think about relationships and what you should do or shouldn’t do,” Shannon said. “Enjoy getting out of the house and take it from there.”
“I think I’m rushing it.”
“Rob has been gone for almost two years,” Shannon said gently.
Regan leaned forward. “Whit, going to dinner isn’t a big deal. It’s not like you two are going away for a romantic weekend. It’s food. You love to eat. In fact, he sees how much you eat, he probably won’t be interested in you anymore.”
Whitney gave Regan a small smile. “I do like to eat, but it’s not just Ben. Jack wants to take me to dinner tomorrow. It seems like removing my ring started a chain reaction.”
Chapter Ten
Ben watched Whitney use her fork to split her meatball in smaller pieces. He hoped she liked his dinner. He couldn’t believe how nervous he felt. He hated to admit it, but Meredith had been right for once. It was time he dated. Since they’d been married for seven years and tack on another year since the divorce, he was definitely out of practice.
Because of the tragic end to their first date, he wanted tonight to be perfect for Whitney. He’d talked to Regan about fixing dinner instead of going out, and she agreed Whitney would love it. Caitlyn was babysitting as originally planned except at Regan’s house instead. Since the teenager got to babysit her niece, too, while Regan and Casey went out, she was thrilled to get paid double.
After Whitney ate a forkful of spaghetti and meat, she said, “You never should have cooked. It’s so delicious that I’ll be inviting myself to dinner.”
“You’re welcome to eat with me any time, but just to warn you I’m limited in what I can cook. I only have a few recipes that taste good.” He grinned. “Although I’m good at marinating meat before I grill it.”
“You shouldn’t have mentioned grilling. I love to eat outside by the pool. You might get the job of cooking for us when we swim.”
Good, she mentioned them swimming together in her pool. “I’m glad you like what I fixed. I’ll still take you out to dinner soon, but thought it might be more relaxing to have it at home.”
“Oh, you aren’t fooling me,” she teased. “I know why you decided not to take me to a restaurant.”
He raised his eyebrows. “I’ve got to hear this. Why do you think we’re eating here?”
“You didn’t want people to see my battered face and wonder if you beat me.”
He laughed. “Actually you’re so beautiful I didn’t want other guys hitting on you. Obviously with my TV debut as a bad date, I realize no other female will want to go out with me.”
“That’s true. Unless they find out how enjoyable it is to get knocked out on a date with you.”
He swallowed a bite of garlic bread. “Did you and your sisters think of any new ideas for a business? I’m sure you’ve ruled out the resort. Casey said you might have guests getting injuries if you bought it, and liability insurance isn’t cheap.”
“Casey’s the only one thinking that’d be a problem. He shouldn’t be giving reasons why we won’t buy the resort anyhow. If we bought it, I’d have a place to live and Casey, Regan, and Lily could move in to our mom’s house.”
He wasn’t crazy about Casey being his neighbor. Casey had made it pretty clear every time they met that he didn’t care for him. He couldn’t figure out why Casey was unpleasant toward him. Ben frowned. “I didn’t know you might move. Adam will be happy to have Lily next door, but I’d rather you’d stay.”
“Casey and Regan want to buy the house. Their present home is pretty small. But they don’t seem to be in a rush, so you might be stuck with me for a neighbor a bit longer.” She smiled and took another bite of her spaghetti.
“That’s fine by me.” He gazed at her beautiful eyes. Not just unique because of the brilliant green color, he thought but because she had kind eyes.
She ran her finger around the rim of her wine glass. “I thought we’d decided on a business this week. Actually it was one Shannon had originally mentioned us doing. A cable TV show. Molly from The Bold News called me after she saw my accident on the news. I started thinking how much I missed being a producer,
so I brought it up to Regan and Shannon that we should have a talk show.”
“Isn’t Molly the one who called you before about moving back to New York?” If she didn’t get busy doing a show with her sisters, Whitney might leave Cornett. He realized how much he didn’t want that to happen.
“Yes, it was Molly and…” Her voice trailed off.
“What is it?” He saw on her face she looked unsure about telling him something. “You can tell me. I’m a big boy.”
She laughed. “Okay, I’ll tell you what Molly wanted this time, but I’d never do it without your permission. She wants me to appear on The Bold News about our first date.”
“Oh, I get it. She wants to call it the worst date ever. Right?”
“Something like that and have others on who had bad first dates. I thought it might be good to appear on The Bold News right before we started our show. But it’s not something I have to do or even sure I want to.”
He stuck his fork into a meatball. “I guess I’ll give you permission if I can fly you to New York.”
“That might be a reason I won’t do it. I hate flying. I always have. I could distract you with my anxiety.”
She had a point about distracting him, but it’d be because of her looks. “We could practice sitting in my plane and not even fly. I can help you work through your fear of flying.”
“Now you sound like Jack.” She smiled. A smile that worried him, because it appeared when she mentioned his apparent competition. “Oh, I never told you how Jack was a pilot in Iraq and knew Rob.”
Ben forced himself to swallow. “How well did Jack know Rob?”
“He flew Rob a few times and they talked a lot. He liked Rob.” Whitney took a sip of wine. “Did your ex like to fly with you?”
Good, Whitney stopped talking about Jack. “She did and loved flying. I think that was the only thing she liked during our marriage.”
“I’m sorry your marriage didn’t work out.”
“I wanted to beat the odds and be married to the same woman forever. But I’m grateful to her for having Adam. She wasn’t crazy about having any children which I didn’t find out until after we married.”
“I heard Meredith went back to work soon after Adam was born.” Whitney paused for a moment. “Meredith’s cousin, Anna, is a firefighter with Casey. I’m afraid she said a lot of negative things about you to Casey.”
“That would explain why Casey doesn’t care for me.” He frowned. “I guess she took Meredith’s side, but I have to admit that bothers me.”
“Don’t worry. We considered the source and knew she wasn’t telling the truth.”
“I’m relieved to hear that. I didn’t realize Anna’s at the same station with Casey.” He shrugged. “I bet Meredith told Anna how she had to go back to work because I took paternity leave for the first couple of months.”
“Anna mentioned you stayed home with Adam when he was a baby.”
“Meredith acted like a martyr, but the truth is I wanted her to stay home the first few months with Adam. We weren’t hurting for money, but she insisted on returning to the practice when Adam was only three weeks old.”
“I don’t blame you,” Whitney said. “If I had a newborn, I wouldn’t want to leave him with a stranger.”
“Thanks for telling me.” He didn’t want to talk any longer about his ex and decided going back to the business topic should be more positive. “So is a talk show what you three are going to do?”
She wiped sauce off her lips with a napkin. “We were excited about doing that, and we discussed a TV show a lot. But now Shannon and Regan think it might be too much work. Shannon suggested we do an online magazine instead. And Regan thought of having a clothing store online.”
“All three sound like good choices, but with your background, I can see you three having a TV show.”
“I thought we could make a pilot of the show and see if we could get a local cable station interested. I’d like a thirty-minute morning slot. Less with commercials. We’d have a live audience on the days we do the taping.”
Ben jerked his head forward, grinning. “Hey, I just thought of something which might make starting a show easier.”
“What is it?”
“Have you watched Cooking with Cora in the morning?”
“I’m afraid so. Her recipes are good, but I’m surprised the network hasn’t canceled her show.” She shook her head. “If I were the producer, I would’ve replaced her. She’s probably a great chef, but she’s not in ‘front of the camera’ material. She has no presence.”
“Would you like more wine?”
“Yes, please.”
He got the bottle of wine off the counter and came back to the table. As he poured wine in their glasses, he said, “She’s still on because her husband knows people in high places. And she does have some faithful viewers.”
“That’s good for her,” Whitney said.
“Cora’s going to be off the air because of heart surgery. Her brother was your doctor at the hospital after your fall.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“They’re going to have guest chefs from area restaurants plus have repeats of some of her shows until she’s able to return,” Ben said. “There’s a chance you could have your show in Cora’s slot. Maybe have her on once a week or you could share the hour with her. With her heart problem, she might want to cut down. You or one of your sisters could stand next to her while she shows how to assemble one of her recipes.”
She gave him an amused look. “You seem to know the right people. First, it was your friends with the resort, now you know someone with a TV show plus network connections.”
He smiled. “Hey, I get around.”
* * *
While Ben checked on Adam and made a phone call to Caitlyn, Whitney thought about how much she loved what he’d suggested. How perfect to take over the already established cooking show and give it new life. Including Cora on their show once or twice a week would be beneficial to them. Even though the show was lacking in excitement, it did have some viewers. The time slot was exactly what she had in mind for their show. Maybe Regan and Shannon would be interested in the TV show again if they saw how it might not be as hard as they imagined.
Unless Shannon had used the premise of a TV show being too overwhelming for them to do, so she could throw her weight around. Shannon’s suggestion of an online magazine probably was her way of getting to be the head honcho because she’d realized being on television meant having her younger sister in charge of their business.
Earlier today she’d thought about scheduling a spa trip to celebrate their new business. And now they were unsure again about which direction to go or her sisters were. She wasn’t.
She touched her stitches on her forehead, thinking how she definitely wanted to get back into TV. She had to convince her sisters a talk show was within their reach. Actually she was anxious to get their feedback and not wait. Would it be too rude to call both sisters? After Ben finished his call, they had planned to watch a movie. She could make the calls brief. No, she better just wait to tell them.
Anyhow Regan and Casey had gone out for the evening.
When Ben sat down beside her on the couch, he asked, “What you thinking about? You’re quiet.”
“I was remembering how you told me about the resort when I mentioned that as one of our ideas. And now you know the right people in the TV business to help us. I thought how funny it’ll be when I tell Regan and Shannon. They won’t believe it.”
“I can’t take all the credit. Cora’s husband happens to be the CEO at a major soft drink company. I met him at a party when Meredith and I were married. She actually represented his company. She’s in corporate law.”
His closeness bothered her. Did he have to sit practically on top of her? She couldn’t breathe. Even though she’d enjoyed his kiss by the waterfall, she needed space right now. Okay, all she needed to do was jump up and get the Blue-ray Disc she brought for them to watch.
“Where is it? I’ll pop it in.”
She stood. “It’s in my purse. I’ll get it.” As she walked back with the Blue-ray Disc, she realized if she handed it to him, he’d probably sit down right next to her again. She couldn’t allow that to happen.
She went to the Blue-ray player and took the movie out of the case. “I’ll just put it in.”
“I forgot to ask if you wanted any dessert. I have rainbow sherbet.”
She couldn’t be expected to cuddle with Ben if they were occupied with eating sherbet. She could eat slowly and keep her bowl on her lap after she finished eating it. “That sounds good. I haven’t had sherbet for a long time. I’d like a big bowl.”
After Ben gave her a funny look, her eyes followed his back as he went to the freezer to get the dessert. She never should’ve told her sisters about the waterfall kiss. They’d be sure to ask her about Ben’s kisses when she saw them. How could she explain it to her sisters she’d been attracted to Ben, but now she felt like she needed to pull back some?
Perhaps she hadn’t recovered from the bump on the head. Or it could be that Ben wasn’t ever going to be the guy for her to fall in love with after Rob. Reliving memories of Rob with Jack had made her wonder if maybe she wasn’t meant to love anyone again. She might have to face it. Maybe she was just a one-man type of woman.
Chapter Eleven
“Thanks for stopping to get the clothes,” Whitney said to her mom’s friend, Josie Randall. She noticed Josie’s blonde hair seemed lighter than it’d been just a week ago. “I like your hair.”
“I’m glad you noticed it because I paid enough to get it done. Just getting it cut and a partial with lighter highlights cost me a lot.” Josie put a covered plate on the kitchen counter. “I brought you brownies.”
“Your brownies are the best.”
“I love to bake but I can’t eat too much of anything I make. It turns immediately into fat.”
“You look great.” Josie was trim in her jeans and beige top.
Whitney in Charge Page 10
