The little girl threw her arms around Rachel, hugging her tight. “Are you here for my party?”
She looked so happy to see her, and the sparkle in her eyes was so much like her father’s, that it made Rachel’s heart ache. But that sparkle hadn’t been there the last time she’d seen Andrew, when he’d decided it wasn’t a good idea to take their relationship any further.
“No, we’re just here for some pizza and games,” she said. “We didn’t know it was your birthday today.”
“It’s not really my birthday until Tuesday,” Maura explained. “But we’re having my class party today.”
Inside the party room, Andrew was refilling juice cups. The blonde, who had been paying more attention to him than anything else, suddenly seemed to realize that the birthday girl was missing. She looked around frantically for a minute, then spotted her standing just outside the door.
“You can come in for cake, if you want,” Maura said to the boys. “Everyone from my class is here.”
“Maura.” The blonde woman came through the door and put a protective hand on the child’s shoulder. “You’re missing your party.”
“This is my teacher, Mrs. Patterson,” Maura told Rachel.
The teacher smiled, but her gaze was cool. “And you are?”
“Rachel Ellis,” she said.
“Rachel’s my daddy’s friend,” Maura told her teacher. “And my friend, too.”
A revelation that caused the other woman’s already-icy gaze to chill even further.
“Maura, why are you... Oh,” Andrew’s question trailed off when he spotted Rachel in the corridor. “Hi.”
“Hi.” She wondered if it was possible to feel any more awkward than she did at that moment. She was completely unprepared for this encounter now. She’d dressed comfortably for a day with her nephews in faded jeans and an old hoodie with her hair swept up into a casual ponytail and a bare minimum of makeup. In comparison, Maura’s undeniably lovely teacher was wearing a tailored silk blouse and stylish trousers, with her hair perfectly coiffed and her makeup immaculate.
She held up the number they’d been given when they placed their food order, wielding it like a sword that might protect her from the feelings of inadequacy that assailed her from all sides. “We have to, uh, grab a table...before our pizza is ready.”
“Pizza!” Trent agreed.
“Play!” Scott countered.
“We have lots of time for both,” Rachel promised. But she turned back to Maura and said, “Happy Birthday.”
Then she quickly ushered her nephews away before anyone could notice the tears that burned her eyes.
Chapter Twelve
Andrew watched Rachel until she’d rounded the corner and disappeared from his sight, mentally kicking himself for not knowing what to say or do. Maura had already returned to the party room and her friends when Denise Patterson put her hand on his arm.
Her hand lingered, a clear sign of attentiveness that exceeded the usual parent-teacher standards. He didn’t know how to telegraph his disinterest any more clearly than he’d already done, and he silently wished that the next half hour would pass quickly so that Maura’s party would be over and he could take his daughter home.
“I think the birthday girl is ready to open her presents,” Denise said.
He nodded and stepped back, forcing her hand to drop away.
When he’d agreed to Maura’s request to invite everyone in her class—because he would have agreed to almost anything to see her smile again—he hadn’t expected her to include the teacher. Even more surprising to Andrew was that the teacher had accepted. Considering that Denise Patterson spent six hours a day, five days a week, with the kids, he would have thought that she’d look forward to her weekends away from them. Despite that, she’d been the first to RSVP.
When she’d volunteered to help with the party, he hadn’t known how to refuse the gracious offer. And, truthfully, he was grateful to have another adult present.
He hadn’t asked his parents because he knew they were busy getting ready for the family party for Maura the following day, and he hadn’t invited the Wakefields because he was still annoyed with Carol for being rude to Rachel. Although he had invited both of his brothers, they’d quickly manufactured excuses to explain that they weren’t available. He knew they both loved Maura, but apparently they didn’t love the prospect of being in a party room with thirty-two other first graders.
Which had left him with only Denise Patterson. Unfortunately, he’d quickly realized that her offer wasn’t without strings—and she spent most of the party trying to wrap those strings around him.
By the time Maura’s classmates had all been picked up and he’d finally extricated himself from Mrs. Patterson and loaded Maura’s presents into the trunk of his car, he was exhausted. Three hours at Buster Bear’s Boisterous Bash was more than any adult should be forced to endure and yet, when Maura asked if she could play a few more games, he found himself buying her another cup of tokens.
Then he bought two cups of coffee and went in search of Rachel.
He found her in a booth near the arcade section. She was alone now, with the remnants of a pepperoni pizza on a tray in front of her. There was something about her—he didn’t know if it was her blue eyes or the easy smile or distinctly feminine curves, but something definitely got to him.
He still wanted her. There was no denying that simple fact. He wanted her naked in his bed, those long, slender limbs wrapped around him as she panted his name. Unfortunately, he was pretty sure he’d destroyed any possibility of that ever happening again.
He’d been the one to pursue her, to convince her to give them a chance when she’d clearly been reluctant to do so. And then, when she was starting to believe they could have something together, he’d told her it was over.
He watched her stack the used cups and plates and wondered if he should just let her be.
He wasn’t in the habit of second-guessing himself, but he’d been doing a lot of exactly that since he’d said goodbye to her two weeks earlier. He worried that what he wanted might not be what was best for Maura; and he worried that he was using his daughter as an excuse to avoid getting too deeply involved with a woman who had somehow already taken hold of his heart.
* * *
It never ceased to amaze Rachel how quickly two little boys could annihilate the better part of a pepperoni pizza. When Scott and Trent had devoured their fill of the pie and gulped down their sodas, she sent them to wash up before letting them loose in the arcade with their tokens. When they were gone, she was left alone with her thoughts and a cold slice of untouched pizza on her plate—both of which were equally unappealing.
She should have anticipated that she might bump into Andrew sometime. In a town the size of Charisma, it was probable if not inevitable. If she’d been at Valentino’s or the movie theater, she might have been prepared. But today was supposed to be about her nephews and fun—and forgetting that her heart had been bruised.
But then, as if she’d somehow managed to conjure him from her thoughts, Andrew was sliding into the opposite seat. He set a cup of coffee on the table in front of her.
She didn’t want the coffee, and she definitely didn’t want to sit across the table from him as if they were friendly acquaintances taking advantage of the fact their paths had crossed to share a drink and conversation.
But she reached for the caddy on the table and took out a couple of packets of sugar and nondairy creamer because it gave her something to focus on other than him. “Where’s Maura?” she asked.
“Dancing her way to stardom—or at least prize tickets.”
And though she’d promised she wouldn’t ask, she heard herself say, “Is Mrs. Patterson with her?”
“No. Mrs. Patterson left with the rest of the birthday guests.” He reached across t
he table and touched her hand, forcing her to look at him. “I didn’t invite her to come here today—Maura did.”
She tugged her hand away to stir her coffee. “Why are you telling me?”
“Because I didn’t want you to get the wrong idea.”
“I don’t have any ideas,” she assured him.
“I’ve missed you, Rachel.”
They were words, easily spoken, and not any reason for her heart to give a traitorous bump. But it bumped anyway, forcing her to remind it that he wouldn’t have reason to miss her if he hadn’t dumped her.
“You were the one who ended it,” she reminded him.
“I didn’t know what to do,” he admitted. “I was worried about Maura—”
“You made that clear.”
“Did I? Because nothing was clear to me—then or now.”
“So what do you want, Andrew?”
“I just want to talk to you.”
“This isn’t the time or the place.”
He nodded. “Okay. I’ll come over later.”
She shook her head. “Scott and Trent are sleeping over at my place tonight.” And she was grateful for that, because she needed time to shore up the defenses around her heart that had been weakened by only five minutes in his company.
“Tomorrow?” he suggested.
“I’m working all day.”
“Tomorrow night?”
“I have plans.”
He sighed. “You’re not going to make this easy for me, are you?”
“Make what easy?” she challenged. “What do you really want?
“Do you want me to tell you that it’s okay that you made me believe you wanted me in your life before you banished me from it? Or that you took me home to meet your family so I could decide I really liked them before I found out I wasn’t ever going to see them again? Or maybe I’m supposed to forgive you for letting me almost fall in love with you and then making it clear that you don’t feel the same way?”
“Maybe I do feel the same way,” he finally said. “And maybe that’s what scared me so much.”
She slid out of the booth. “Maybe isn’t good enough.”
* * *
He took the hint. He didn’t call her the next day; he didn’t stop by her apartment or drop in at Buds & Blooms. Apparently he was going to let her have the last word, and while it had felt pretty good in the moment to pour out all of the feelings that she’d been holding inside, now that she’d done so, Rachel only felt empty.
Thankfully she did have plans the next night—a casual get-together with Holly and some other friends from high school, including the recently engaged Amy Jensen, Amy’s newlywed sister Lisa Seabrook, and Jennifer James—known to her friends and clients as JJ. And while Rachel enjoyed hanging out with her friends, munching on nachos and drinking margaritas, her mind kept drifting, wondering what Andrew and Maura were doing and wishing things had turned out differently for all of them.
Monday night she finally kept her long-forgotten date with Eve and Roarke, staying up well past her usual bedtime to make sure the bad guys got their due. Tuesday started early, with the usual 7:00 a.m. delivery, then there were a few consults for flowers for an engagement party, a baby shower and an awards banquet. By the afternoon, she was feeling pretty confident that she would eventually forget about Andrew Garrett—and then he walked into the shop, and her heart nearly leaped out of her chest.
“Before you tell me this isn’t the time or place—I’m here to buy flowers.”
“Maura’s birthday,” she remembered.
He nodded. “She got such a kick out of being here the day that you put together the bouquet for my mom, I thought she’d like some flowers of her own.”
“A bouquet or an arrangement?”
“What’s the difference?”
“Essentially whether the flowers are wrapped in paper or presented in a vase or other container.”
“I guess an arrangement.”
She gestured to the refrigerated display case. “Did you want to look for something in there or did you have specific flowers in mind?”
He examined the arrangements through the glass. “Pink,” he said. “I want something more pink.”
“Why don’t you pick out a vase and I’ll get some flowers together?”
He selected a tall frosted cylinder, and Rachel filled it with pink roses, gerberas and hypericum.
“She’ll love that,” he said, and set his credit card on the counter.
She slid it back to him. “Tell Maura happy birthday from me.”
“You could tell her yourself.”
She wished she could. She missed the little girl as much as she’d missed Andrew, but if she saw her again, it would only rip the scab off a wound that had barely begun to heal. “I can’t turn my emotions on and off like you do, Andrew.”
“Do you think it was easy for me to let you go? Do you think a single day has gone by in the past two-and-a-half weeks that I didn’t think about you first thing in the morning and wish you were beside me when I went to bed at night?”
“I wouldn’t know.” But it was a lie—she could see the truth in his eyes. But she also knew it didn’t change anything.
“You were right,” he said to her. “I had no business asking you to give me a second chance when I wasn’t ready to put my feelings on the line. So here it is—I love you, Rachel.”
They were the words she never thought she’d hear him say, and though they filled her heart, she was wary.
“Do you want me to say it again?” he asked when she remained silent. “Because I’ll say it a thousand times if you want—I love you, I love you, I love you. Do you want me to go on?”
Her eyes filled with tears. “Why are you doing this?”
“Because I love you.”
She shook her head. “I can’t keep putting my heart on the line and having it shoved back at me.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
“I know you were thinking about Maura,” she told him. “I get that. But that didn’t make it any easier.”
“This is all new territory for me. I didn’t expect things to move so fast, and I panicked.”
“And how do I know you won’t panic again?”
“Because I’ve had more than two weeks to see what my life is like without you in it, and it wasn’t fun.
“I miss you, Rachel... Maura misses you, too.”
She was grateful when the door chimed as another customer entered the shop.
She saw regret and resignation in his eyes when Andrew picked up the vase of flowers. “We’re going out for dinner tonight—six o’clock at Valentino’s. I know Maura would love it if you came, too.”
Rachel shook her head, her throat too tight to speak.
“We’ll get a table for three,” he told her. “Just in case you change your mind.”
* * *
She changed her mind more than a dozen times before the end of the day.
“I shouldn’t go.”
Holly looked up from the stems she was clipping. “Are you asking me or telling me?”
“I don’t know,” Rachel admitted.
“Because I agree that you probably shouldn’t, but I know you will, anyway.”
She frowned. “How can you know when I haven’t even decided yet?”
“I know because I know you,” Holly said. “And I know you’re head over heels for both the man and his daughter.”
It was futile to deny it, and if she tried, Holly would see right through her. She sighed. “You warned me not to fall in love.”
“Yeah, but since when do you ever listen to me?” Holly dried her hands and shoved Rachel toward the door. “Go. I’ll lock up tonight.”
Rachel detoure
d past Buy The Book on her way home to pick up a gift for Maura. Phoebe was sitting at a stool working the cash while Kinsley shelved new stock. Rachel found what she wanted right away, and Phoebe chatted casually with her as she processed the sale and gift-wrapped her purchase. Rachel expected her to ask who the book was for, but she didn’t. She did, however, squeeze Rachel’s hand as she passed over the bag.
“I’m glad you’re following your heart.”
Rachel didn’t know if she felt better having Phoebe’s blessing, but she knew there was no turning back.
At her apartment, she changed her clothes and touched up her makeup, then headed out to Valentino’s.
“I knew you were the third,” Gemma said to Rachel as soon as she walked in. “When Andrew asked for a table for three, I knew you would be joining them.”
“Don’t read too much into this,” Rachel warned her friend.
The hostess waved a hand dismissively. “Every time I peek into the dining room, the man is looking at the entrance, waiting for you to walk through it.”
As if Rachel wasn’t already nervous enough.
“Maybe this isn’t a good idea.”
Gemma gave her a nudge toward the wide arched doorway. “The pizza Maura wanted should be coming out soon, so you better get in there.”
Rachel took a deep breath and stepped into the dining room.
She spotted him immediately, and her traitorous heart did a happy dance inside of her chest. Whether he’d been watching the door or just happened to glance up when she walked through it, he saw her at the same time. And the smile that curved his lips had her already-dancing heart stepping up the pace.
She didn’t want to get ahead of herself, to expect too much. She was only here because it was Maura’s birthday....
Follow your heart.
As she heard the echo of Phoebe’s urging in the back of her mind, she acknowledged that she was also here because her heart wouldn’t let her be anywhere else.
Maura had been sitting across from her father with her back to the entrance, but she turned now, and the smile that spread across her face went a long way toward healing Rachel’s bruised emotions. Then she slid out of her chair to wrap her arms around Rachel and hug her tight. “I’m so glad you came.”
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