by Amy Lamont
“Miss Palmer?”
She jumped at the deep voice coming from directly behind her and whirled around, hand to her chest. She came face-to-face with a man who topped her by several inches. He had a round, pleasant face with a nice, friendly smile.
“Sorry to startle you.” He offered his hand. “I’m Doug Malone. We spoke earlier.”
“Yes, sorry.” Mandy shook off her brief scare and shook his hand. “I’m Mandy Palmer. Mandy, please.”
“Mandy,” Doug acknowledged and gestured toward the empty building. “Ready to take a look?”
“Definitely.”
* * *
Mandy stood in the middle of the empty shop, clutching a sheaf of papers to her chest as she tried to come to grips with what she’d just done. When she and Doug first entered the shop, all she could focus on were the possibilities.
She had no trouble envisioning the gorgeous window displays she’d arrange to best show off her confections. She’d walked along one wall that would comfortably fit a number of small bistro tables and even a booth or two. She’d closed her eyes and could see the glass bakery cases that would be her front counter and the rows of shelves behind her that would hold freshly baked bread. When she’d inhaled, it was the bread she smelled rather than the mustiness and sawdust that were currently floating through the air.
And then there was the kitchen. Mandy now turned toward the swinging doors leading into the back room and couldn’t help but smile again. The place had housed a café at some point so the kitchens were already in place. Of course, some updating needed to be done on the equipment, but as she pushed through the doors, she was once again struck by her favorite feature.
Unlike most restaurant kitchens that sported one, maybe two, small windows, the back of this kitchen had two big windows and a set of French doors that led into a small cobbled courtyard. It meant while she baked in her roomy kitchen, she would still get to enjoy all the marvelous California sunshine. Best of all, the windows were positioned perfectly so when she got here early in the morning to get the pastries and breads started, she’d be able to enjoy the sunlight slowly warming the room as it greeted the day.
The excitement once again caught hold as she twirled through the kitchen. She pulled the papers away from her chest and laid them on the center island. She smoothed out the wrinkles and shook her head as she stared at them.
She hadn’t officially quit her job back in New York. She still had an apartment with another month and a half left on the lease, not to mention everything she owned aside from the suitcase full of clothes she’d packed for this trip was still there. And unless she stayed indefinitely with her grandmother, she didn’t have a home of her own in Kismet Beach.
Yet, here she stood, her signature still wet on a one-year lease agreement for this shop. Her hand smoothed over the pages once again, as all the doubts and fears started to well their way up in her throat. Then, for just a minute, she could swear she heard Will’s voice whispering behind her.
You can do this, Mandy.
A wistful smile touched her lips and she scrunched her eyes closed. She could do this. It was her dream, and thinking back on Will, the kind of person he was, she knew the best thing she could do to honor his memory was to follow her dream.
“Well, I would say you have something to celebrate.”
Mandy’s eyes flew open. She’d been so lost in her own thoughts, she hadn’t heard anyone come in the store. She turned to find Doug standing behind her. In one hand he held up a bottle of champagne and two plastic cups in the other.
“I definitely have something to celebrate.” She laughed and gestured him into the kitchen—her kitchen.
Doug peeled the foil from the top of the bottle and with little effort, popped the cork. Once both had a cup half filled with the bubbly liquid, he held his up. “To new business ventures and new friends.”
“Here, here.” Mandy lifted her glass and they both sipped their champagne. She looked around once more and shook her head. “I can’t believe how fast this all went. Do all your rentals go this smoothly?”
“I wish.” Doug laughed, his hazel eyes twinkling. “I’m happy things went so well for you.”
“It really is the perfect place. Even better than I imagined!”
Doug smiled at her for a moment and then cleared his throat. “I was thinking….”
Mandy looked at him expectantly when he trailed off. His cheeks were slightly pink and he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. It struck her as odd since he’d been nothing but sincere and professional since the moment he introduced himself on the sidewalk out front.
He cleared his throat again. “Well, I was wondering if you’d allow me to take you out to dinner. We could celebrate and get to know each other a little better.”
Mandy’s mind stuttered and came up blank. His switch from business to personal caught her off guard.
Before she could formulate an answer, he went on, a kind smile on his face. “Maybe you have other plans?”
Wow, talk about nice guys. He asked her on a date and even gave her an easy out if she didn’t want to go. As she thought of going out on a date with Doug, her first date since she lost Will, her stomach fluttered. And then a picture of Mitch flitted through her mind.
She pushed his image down along with any regret brought on by the thought she would have liked her date to be with him. She’d resolved to get on with her life. She’d taken the first step by signing the lease. Why not take another leap?
Doug was the perfect guy to date—attractive, polite, nice…safe. What kind of danger could a real estate agent get into?
“Look, Mandy….”
When Doug’s voice broke into her thoughts, Mandy realized she’d let the silence hang too long. She shook her head and quickly interrupted him before he had a chance to retract his offer. “I’m sorry. You just took me by surprise. I would really like to go to dinner with you.”
A relieved smile spread over Doug’s features. “Great. Should I pick you up at seven?”
Mandy nodded and before she knew it, she stood outside the store waving good-bye to Doug, having made their plans for later that evening.
With one last look over her shoulder, she turned back to the store, hugging herself. How had her life changed so much in less than a day?
* * *
“You’ve been a busy girl, huh?” Hal chuckled from her perch on a stool behind the counter at the hardware store.
Mandy plunked her head into her hands. “What is wrong with me? I go for years just barely putting one foot in front of the other, and in one day—heck, one afternoon, for heaven’s sake! In one afternoon I decide to move across country, sign a lease to start a business and accept a date.”
“It’s time, sweetie.” The laughter faded from Hal’s voice, replaced by compassion. The other woman reached across the counter to squeeze Mandy’s hand. “Sounds like you’ve put off your life long enough.”
Mandy nodded and marveled at her luck at finding such a good friend so fast.
Hal didn’t let the mood stay serious for long. She sat up quickly and giggled. “And what are you going to wear on this date?”
“Oh my God, I hadn’t even thought of that,” Mandy said with a moan as she once again dropped her face into her hands. “Is it too late to back out of this? This might be too much, too fast.”
Hal responded by flapping her arms and making some clucking sounds.
The phone rang as the two women again dissolved into giggles.
“Hello,” Hal said into the receiver. And after a moment’s pause, “This is she.”
All laughter faded from Hal’s face as she listened to the person on the other end. Her voice trembled as she thanked the caller and hung up.
Mandy straightened. “Is everything okay?”
“No,” Hal whispered. She flopped onto her stool as if her legs couldn’t hold her up another minute and Mandy rushed around to Hal’s side.
“The baby?”
At Mandy’s words, Hal placed a protective hand over her stomach as tears leaked from her eyes. “That was my doctor’s office. At our last visit, they screened the baby for Down Syndrome. They’re concerned about the results and want to do more testing.”
“Oh, Hal,” Mandy wrapped the other woman in her arms. “I’m so sorry.”
The two women clung together for a little while. Then Mandy turned the sign in the window to closed and called Hal’s husband, Joe, to come pick her up.
Hal had been so happy about the baby just a few minutes ago, and in a moment that happiness was torn away.
6
Mitch raised a hand to knock on Miss Abigail’s door at 6:30 on the dot. He shook his head and chuckled. The military had drummed punctuality into him, literally. He could relate to Mandy’s story of her father getting dumped out of bed in the mornings. He’d experienced something similar.
At the time, a punk eighteen-year-old kid with few options besides the military, he’d resented the hell out of all the rules. Almost a decade and a half later, he couldn’t imagine where he’d be without the discipline he’d learned in the Marines.
Certainly not about to have dinner with Miss Abigail, he thought as he waited for the elderly woman to let him in.
The door burst open, but Miss Abigail wasn’t the one waiting on the other side.
“Oh, thank goodness it’s you,” Mandy said as she worked to fasten an earring in her left ear. “Earliness is not a quality I admire.”
With that obscure comment, Mandy backed away from the door and gestured for Mitch to enter.
He stepped inside, allowing his eyes to travel over her, from the dark hair she’d tamed into a knot at the back of her neck, over the soft blue dress that skimmed over her skin and showed off just enough cleavage for him to hope for a peek at more, and down to the flaring hemline that ended just high enough to get him daydreaming about how much he’d like to have those long legs wrapped around him.
He brought his eyes back up to meet hers and a slow smile formed as he saw the blush his obvious inspection brought to her cheeks. He couldn’t help but tease. “Are we dressing for dinner these days?”
Mandy’s brow wrinkled. “What? Oh.” She caught on and looked down at herself like she’d forgotten what she was wearing. “I’m not eating here tonight.”
Mitch quickly blanked his face. He’d rearranged his schedule to come here for dinner after Miss Abigail called to invite him this afternoon. All in the hopes he’d get the chance to convince Mandy they owed it to themselves to explore their friendship a little further. Despite her reaction after the fact, her response to his kiss made him think she was more open to him than she’d like him to think.
But here she stood next to him, just a day after their ill-fated kiss, looking for all the world like she was dressed for a date.
“Oh, right on time as usual.” Miss Abigail came down the hall from the kitchen to give him a hug. He hugged her back, careful not to squeeze too hard, but appreciative of the easy warmth this woman had always shown him. She was the first and only woman in his life to treat him with maternal affection.
“Thanks for inviting me. You know I can never resist one of your home-cooked meals.”
She patted him on the arm. “Looks like it’ll be just the two of us tonight. Mandy made other plans.”
Mitch waited a beat in the hope someone would fill in the blanks if he stayed quiet. But Mandy just gave a quick smile before dashing back upstairs toward her room and Miss Abigail pulled him into the kitchen.
“With just the two of us eating, I thought we could eat in here. Much cozier.”
With a last look over his shoulder to where Mandy had disappeared, Mitch followed Miss Abigail into the kitchen, a sinking feeling in his stomach.
For the next twenty minutes, they talked over the meal Miss Abigail set out on the table. Mandy never put in an appearance, but an occasional thump from upstairs assured him she hadn’t gone out yet.
After the meal, he helped Miss Abigail clear the dishes from the table.
“Why don’t we wait until after Mandy leaves and then we can take dessert into the living room?”
Finally. Mitch had waited to hear about Mandy’s plans all through dinner, but conversation had focused mainly on the renovations they were doing to the house, Miss Abigail’s garden club meeting, and his schedule for the coming week. This was the first time Mandy’s plans came up, and for some reason he hadn’t been able to bring himself to ask.
Before he had a chance to probe further, the doorbell rang.
“Oh, that must be Mandy’s date.” Miss Abigail bustled into the hallway.
Mitch remained in the kitchen, gripping the back of one of the chairs hard enough to turn his knuckles white. She really had a date. Just last night she’d kissed him back for all she was worth. And tonight she had a date with another guy.
Had that been what her tears were over? Had she already been planning on seeing this guy before they kissed? Maybe her guilt kicked in.
Voices drifted down the hall. He could hear the three of them in the foyer making small talk. When it sounded as if Mandy and the mystery date were about to leave, he loosened his grip. He couldn’t just let her go without checking this guy out.
Time to make his presence known.
* * *
Could this night start off any worse? She’d tried to play things cool when Mitch first showed up for dinner, but inside she was a trembling mess. Like it wasn’t bad enough she was about to go on her first date in years, the man she’d been involved in a pretty intense lip lock with last night had to show up.
When only Grandma Abigail came from the kitchen when Doug arrived, Mandy had a moment of hope. Was it possible she could make a clean getaway without having to introduce her date to Mitch?
The answer, of course, was a resounding no. She thought she was home free, only inches from stepping out the door, when she spotted Mitch’s large frame in the kitchen doorway. He filled it so thoroughly, only a small amount of light squeezed past him, leaving him in shadow. She couldn’t help the shiver that skated across her skin at the sight of him.
Please, don’t make this any harder.
Where did that thought come from? Dating Doug was her choice, not something unpleasant thrust upon her. And no matter how…attractive Mitch might be, she just couldn’t let herself think of him as a potential date.
She smiled weakly up at Doug as Mitch made his way to the foyer. “Doug, do you know Mitch?”
Doug looked up with his agreeable smile firmly in place. Then he got a good look at Mitch and his mouth worked for a moment before he composed himself once again. “No, can’t say I’ve had the pleasure.”
“Mitch is a dear friend,” Grandma Abigail said. “He’s just like one of the family.”
Thank goodness for her grandmother. Mandy couldn’t help the soft sigh that escaped her at her grandmother’s words. She’d been worrying about explaining his presence to Doug from the moment her grandmother told her Mitch was coming for dinner.
Bless Grandma for putting it so perfectly.
“Exactly. Mitch is like…like one of my b-brothers.” Mandy stumbled over the last word as Mitch raised an eyebrow at her. The memory of the kiss they’d shared in the laundry room just last night assailed her. She could feel her cheeks flaming.
She counted off the seconds as the two men exchanged handshakes. And she absolutely did not notice how Mitch topped Doug by a good three or four inches. Or that while she’d describe Doug’s body as…comfortable, Mitch’s body was all hard angles and planes.
Her mind clung to the fact Doug had a nice safe job that would allow him to come home every night. Not something Mitch could ever promise her, she knew.
On that thought, she herded Doug out the door, both of them calling goodnight to the two they left behind. At the last moment, Mandy turned to grab her purse off the table in the entryway. It was just enough time for Mitch to lean in with a slick smile and whisper in her ear
.
“You kiss all your brothers with tongue?”
* * *
An occasional tremor moved through Mandy’s body as she sat across the table from Doug. From the look on his face, she was making the appropriate responses to his small talk, but the image of Mitch taunting her about the kiss they’d shared danced across her mind’s eye with alarming regularity. When she had to ask Doug to repeat his last question, she knew it was time to shake it off and put her attention on the man in front of her.
“So, have you lived in Kismet Beach long?” she asked.
“All my life.” Doug sipped his wine. “Can’t imagine living anywhere else.”
And therein lies the problem, Mandy realized about halfway through dinner. Doug had been a charming dinner date. He’d chosen the perfect spot for a first date—an elegant Italian restaurant with white tablecloths and flickering candlelight. He’d shared all his favorite restaurants, shops, and off-the-beaten-path places in Kismet Beach and asked insightful questions about her new business venture and her life back in New York.
But it quickly became clear he couldn’t imagine anything else. Couldn’t imagine life beyond this town and the occasional vacation in Hawaii or Las Vegas.
Soon every time he spoke, she found herself painting him into a scene from Afghanistan or Iraq or any of the other places people like her grandfather, her father, and now her brothers traveled to in the name of keeping their country safe.
Safe. Funny when she’d said yes to the date with Doug, she was thinking of him as the safe choice. But when she thought of feeling safe, it was images of her father and grandfather that came to mind. Images of Will. And yes, images of Mitch because she knew even though their friendship was tenuous at best, he was the type of man who would stand up for those he loved, even at the cost of his own life.
