by Misty Simon
Leigh’s smug smile was not lost on Chelsea. Fortunately, she was paged by the new cell phone/walkie-talkie on her belt and had to hurry out without lying to her mother again. Being engaged meant she should want alone time with Jack. But she didn’t. Hopefully taking on these other jobs would have her running so fast she’d have no time for Jack at all.
Or so she told herself even as the sound of Jack’s voice over the walkie-talkie made tiny little shivers run down her stiff spine.
****
Jack heard the clatter of heels up the stairs and it brought him out of a problem he had been wrestling with after he’d paged Chelsea. With the phone against his ear, he signaled for her to wait just a second. He was trying his damnedest to sort out a glitch with the food supply company who was supposed to be shipping in the ingredients for the wedding feast. What on earth was he going to do if they couldn’t give him the mozzarella balls in oil with cherry tomatoes, just as Belinda had requested? He didn’t doubt Frank could come up with something, but it wouldn’t be the same. Even with the way Belinda had already played havoc with other requests, he didn’t think she’d be willing to entertain a change from his side of the desk.
Chelsea waited patiently in front of him, looking pretty in a crimson shirt with a square neckline allowing a hint of cleavage. It gathered beneath her breasts before flowing to her curvy hips. The sleeves stopped right below her elbows and the jeans fit her snugly. He listened with half an ear as the distributor continued to give him options and excuses, but his concentration was split by the way that denim hugged her thighs.
He shifted his focus to an innocuous picture of a landscape his mother had purchased at an auction two years ago. Now that the wedding was hours away, he’d have to put Chelsea even farther away from his mind. She was not staying, he knew that. His concentration had to be solely on getting this wedding to go off without a fault. He could not afford distractions in the form of a smooth expanse of skin that looked good enough to nuzzle.
By the time he’d hung up, he was back on track and firmly in owner-mode not man-mode. She was leaving, and he would have to soldier on after she was gone.
“That was the food supplier in New Jersey. They were supposed to make all your sister’s cheese ball dreams come true. I have to go talk with Frank about alternatives. Do you mind manning the phone for a minute while I get my ears blistered?”
Her smile creased the corners of her eyes just enough to invite him to do the same thing.
“Surely Frank’s not that bad.”
“Ha! You haven’t seen Frank in an herb rage. It is not pretty. Cheese isn’t better.”
“I could go talk with him, if you want. I’ve made the cheese ball thing from scratch, if we’re talking about those mozzarella balls she wants.”
Relief coursed through him before he could stop it. He couldn’t send her into the lion’s den. Could he? It would be wrong. Wouldn’t it?
But she walked away before he could argue his way through not taking the easy road.
“You take calls, I’ll be right back. Then whatever else you needed me for can be talked over.”
She was gone without a backward glance. But he took a back-end glance and wasn’t in any better shape than when he had tried to put that tantalizing neckline-framed skin out of his mind. Her curves fit into those jeans in a way he was sure they were designed for. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea. At least when she was just a guest he could try to stay away from her when they weren’t pretending to be engaged for the benefit of others. But he’d made a suggestion and a move in desperation, with Adele out of commission. He hadn’t thought it all the way through. Now he would be with and around Chelsea much more than before.
Her words—”whatever else you need”—made him aware of how long it had been since he’d dated, much less slept with someone. That had to be put far away from even the back burner. Back in the refrigerator would be better.
He would have slapped himself in the head if he hadn’t seen the kitchen door swing out and a very pleased Chelsea walk through it. He glanced at his watch just to make sure he hadn’t fallen into some kind of fugue where hours had gone by without him knowing. Nope, it had been literally five minutes. He hadn’t heard a single shout.
“Taken care of.” She dusted her hands together and looked at him expectantly. “What’s next, Boss?”
He couldn’t help it, he got up with a laugh and then kissed her full on the mouth. Joy ran through his body at the contact. She was laughing, too, at first, and then it turned serious. He increased the pressure, running his hands over her shoulders, playing, just for a moment, with the frame of skin at the base of her neck. Their tongues danced and her sweet flavor sank into his skin. He could spend hours kissing her. Unfortunately, she stepped back and gave him a playful push.
“That’s enough gratitude.”
She thought that was gratitude? It had been so much more. Their first kiss should have gotten her out of his system, not infiltrated it to the extent that he couldn’t think for wanting her over and over again.
But she held him off with an upheld hand. “Go check in with Frank just to make sure I didn’t do him bodily harm.”
The sparkle in her eyes was enough to bring him to his knees. He should go check on the guy for a heart attack. And to get himself out of temptation’s way. “I’ll be right back.” He headed for the kitchen and was followed by the sound of her laughter.
“I promise he’s not tied up and gagged in the other room.”
He waved a hand to show he had heard her, but he still had to see for himself.
In the kitchen, he found Frank happily mixing a pot of corn chowder at the stove. Chicken stock boiled in another pot near his elbow.
“What the hell?”
The chuckle that greeted him did a whole lot of nothing for his bafflement.
“Hey, Boss Man. What can I do for you on this fine day?”
“You can tell me where the real Frank got to.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m making chicken and soup for dinner. Standing right here, happy as a clam in salt water.”
“I don’t believe you for a minute. Are you just saving up the tirade for me?”
His chef laughed, shaking his head. “There’s not going to be a tirade unless you keep bugging me. Chelsea said she has a way to get the cheese things made, and I’m willing to listen to such a smart woman. Nothing wrong there.”
Jack rocked back on his heels feeling a little helpless and a little bit angry. Chelsea had walked into his kitchen with demands and had not been eaten alive by his recalcitrant chef who normally liked to take Adele’s head and hand it back to her. It was why Jack had made an effort to handle the chef on his own for the most part.
“What’s different here from with Adele?”
“Pah. Adele is a great girl, but Chelsea is a woman after my own heart. She walked in, let me know what was going to happen, and walked right back out. No nonsense, no questions, no wheedling. Actually, it felt like having a drill sergeant again, to be honest.” The man smiled while whisking the soup in his big kettle.
“So I need to act like a drill sergeant to not get yelled at?” Jack made a note on his clipboard.
“Not going to happen, Boss Man. You try that shit on me and I’ll have you cuffed to the plumbing before you could blink a second time.”
Jack blinked twice now to see how fast that was.
“Just that fast,” Frank said and laughed again. That was more laughter than Jack had heard in years from his chef at work. Unless the man was fleecing his cronies at poker, he never did much laughing around the inn while working. Jack had never been invited to the games, but he could always hear the swearing and laughter coming from the kitchen.
Now, Jack cleared his throat and judiciously changed the subject. “Are we good then with the menu still? I’m hoping we’ll get no other calls with problems. But you know how things go in this business.”
“I sure do, Boss Man
, and I also know your extra help is going to go a long way toward smoothing things out.”
Jack didn’t believe that for his situation, though. Because as he came back into the living room to find Chelsea grinning impishly at him, he felt things crumple and knot inside himself.
****
The smile on Chelsea’s face had been for Jack’s benefit because inside she was having a hard time keeping all her emotions in check. She had never been kissed like that before in her whole entire life. It had made her go to jelly. When he left the room, she had melted, boneless, into the chair to her right. She could not handle being the wedding coordinator, the maid of honor, an assistant, and a mom, and still have time to fool around with a man who was not for her.
But, oh, how a part of her, a part hidden deep inside, wished she could.
She had jumped up from the chair as soon as the door opened. There was no way she was going to let him see how vulnerable she was. That kiss had been gratitude—that was all there was to it. Though she had never run a business of her own, she could imagine the pressures of making sure everything was perfect.
She had simply taken a situation that could have been a disaster and made it right.
He had thanked her and now they could move on.
But the way her lips still tingled told a different story.
He was not in her life plan. A relationship with any man was not in her life plan. And her home was over three hours away. So was the job promotion she would be given as soon as she got back. It was a culmination of all the things she had wanted to do for herself and for Mazzy. It would not be changed for lust. She had done that once and had ended up on the wrong side of the equation. This was an interlude and would not go any further. Perhaps if she continued to tell herself that, she would come to believe it.
All afternoon, Chelsea had busied herself with her increased list of duties. In fact, she’d been so busy she’d actually missed a call from Decadence, not her mother, and she should call them back. Was it really only almost dinner time? She felt like she’d been running for days.
“What’s up?” she asked when Claudia answered the phone.
“Oh, hey, I just wanted to let you know the dresses are ready to be picked up whenever you get a chance. With the wedding Saturday, I wanted to let you know as soon as possible so you can fit it into your schedule, which I’m sure is busy.”
Chelsea did a few mental gymnastics and said, “You know what? I’ll be right over, because I do not want to have it be last-minute. Napkin rings are not all that important if there’s no wedding dress to go before them. Are you open for a little while or were you just closing up?” She looked at her watch just to make sure the time on the phone had been right.
“Nah, we’re open for a little longer, especially for a Moore.”
“I’ll be right over then.” She hung up, then keyed up the walkie-talkie. “Jack?”
“Present.” He sounded harried but it couldn’t be helped.
“Is it okay if I take the inn van? I have to go pick up the dresses and I don’t think they’re going to fit in the back of my car.”
“Sure. Keys are on a hook in the kitchen. See you when you get back.”
And just like that, he gave over his van. She wasn’t supposed to compare him to Paul, but this was just one of those times where it was inevitable. Paul had been tight-fisted with the car keys well before they’d gotten married, but Chelsea had naively thought it had to do with her not being on his insurance. Instead, it turned out he had never let her drive their car, either, the one they’d bought with a bonus she’d received. They’d fought about it as they had about so many other things, but he’d never bent. And now Jack just told her to get the keys and go. It was a small thing, but it meant a lot to her.
Adjusting the seat to fit her shorter stature, she moved the mirrors to her liking and enjoyed the captain’s chair instead of her low bucket seats. She would have driven one of these if she could have afforded it, even if she only had one child.
She left the radio tuned to the station it was on, because it was one of her favorites, and made her way over to Decadence. Walking in gave her such a sense of peace. They had really created something beautiful here. She’d heard that Claudia and Zoe’s mom had started it long ago, and once Claudia and Zoe had joined her, they’d expanded it beyond the original dress shop. All she knew was that she loved it here and could spend all day hanging out. Especially since she really liked all three women who ran the shop. She hadn’t yet met Claudia and Zoe’s mom, but she was sure she’d love her now that she knew her daughters. They were warm, open, and friendly. When she’d talked with Paige the other day, she couldn’t stop raving about them.
“Chelsea, hi!” May said, coming around the corner from the cake area with a chunk of something that looked decadent and chocolate. She handed it over before Chelsea had a chance to beg, then headed back the way she’d come and returned in a few seconds with another large chunk.
“Oh, thank you! I can’t tell you how much I needed chocolate just now.” She figured Jack would hold dinner for her, but with everything that still needed to be done it might be a while before she had a chance to eat.
“Everyone needs chocolate at least once a day, my dear.” May smiled and sat down in her portion of the store on a brocade couch that welcomed Chelsea’s tired body. “Enjoy. We can get the dresses in just a moment.”
They both moaned as the first bite went down, and then they laughed.
“Claudia makes a mean cake,” Chelsea said after licking her fingers.
“None meaner. And I hear we might get to make you a cake here in the future, if you’ll let us. A dress, too. I have this great idea that would be perfect for your form and fit you like a dream. I made sketches, if you have time to look them over.”
Chelsea’s heart took a second to start beating again. How on earth did they know? How many people was she going to have to tell that it had all been a mistake and she and Jack didn’t really love each other? And how fair was it that he was going to have to live in the fallout while she got to go back home as if it hadn’t happened? What on earth was she going to tell Paige?
Tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes. She couldn’t help it.
“Emergency girl meeting!” May called as she sat next to Chelsea on the couch with an arm on her shoulder.
“This is not an emergency,” Chelsea whispered fiercely, wiping her eyes with the napkin the cake had been on.
“Oh, yes, it is!” May said with way too much glee.
“What’s up?” Claudia came sauntering into the room, and Zoe wasn’t far behind.
“It’s not an emergency. I’m so sorry for making May call you all together.” She was a half breath away from bolting. What had made her break down in front of May when she hadn’t said anything to her sister or Paige? Of course she couldn’t really talk to Paige; Jack was her brother. She had just felt a little too overwhelmed, and now she had an emergency meeting with no agenda other than her own whining.
“Oh, we live for emergency girl meetings,” Zoe said, settling in with a bag of cheese puffs and a soda.
Claudia took the bag from her and crunched a few cheese puffs too, smiling after she swallowed. “Emergency girl meetings are the lifeblood of this place, but I have to say this is our first guest emergency girl meeting.”
“I really should go. I don’t want to intrude.”
Claudia wiped her hand on a paper towel May threw her and then laid her clean hand on Chelsea’s forearm. “There’s nothing wrong with new blood, and I’m all about women standing together. Don’t you dare leave now that we have a bona fide emergency girl meeting. We haven’t had a good one since Nate offered me eyewash when I was trying to flirt with him. He thought I had something in my eye, and I was just trying to bat my eyelashes at him.”
Chelsea couldn’t help but laugh, and she settled back into the chair with her hands in her hair. Maybe she should just have one cheese puff. Maybe it would make everythin
g clear. Before she’d finished the thought, May shook the bag at her. “All things are possible with cheese puffs.”
She blew out a breath and inhaled fake cheesy goodness.
“Now spill!” all three said at the same time.
She shouldn’t have. She barely knew these women, and they weren’t going to be able to help her. But the freedom of talking to people who weren’t intimately involved with the situation was too tempting in her current state of mind. So she did, telling them all about everything from the initial lie to her mother to the ring on her finger and the tale she’d made up about the proposal. All of it came spilling out.
“So why can’t you just tell him you don’t want it to be fake anymore? That you want him for real?” Zoe asked.
“Well, for one, he doesn’t love me, and I’m not going to rope him into something he doesn’t want just because it’s easier than admitting I lied to everyone.”
“That’s just crap,” May said. “He was talking to my husband the other day and Brad was impressed without ever meeting you. He thought you must be about ten feet tall and made of pure awesomeness. Jack couldn’t say enough good things about you.”
That took a minute to process. “Well, we were kind of friends back in the day, and I highly doubt I’ve given him too much to complain about since we’ve been there.”
May kicked up just one corner of her mouth. “It wasn’t just the praise. Brad got off the phone and said if Jack wasn’t already in love with you he was well on his way down the road and it would be good to see him finally settle down with someone who was worth his time.”
“He said that?”
“Cross my heart and hope to die.”
Chelsea sank back farther into the couch. Did that mean anything? But he had Adele to do all those things and there was no need for him to talk to Brad about her, especially since he had only just spilled the beans today about the engagement. It was all so confusing.
“So what do I do? I want this to be real, I think, but we’re talking about moving my whole life up here.”
