All’s Fair in Love and Chocolate

by Amy Andrews

  “So, it was good, yes?”

  Viv glanced up to find Edwin standing near the table, reaching down to collect their plates, a satisfied smile on his face at their very clean plates. “Oh, yes.” She slipped her hand out from under Reuben’s to allow Edwin to grab their side plates. “It was perfect.”

  “I thought huckleberries might be an interesting choice for your stirrers.”

  Reuben chuckled. “She’s already ahead of you, man.”

  “I was thinking broader than that even,” Viv confirmed. “I might suggest we trial a whole range of it at a national level.”

  “Ah…” Edwin grinned and nodded, clearly impressed. “You dream big. I like it.”

  In a detached kind of way, Viv could see how good-looking and charming the chef was in that very French way of his and yet…he didn’t tick any of her boxes. The only man who did that was the one sitting opposite.

  “I’ll send the waiter over for your coffee order,” Edwin said before departing.

  “He likes you,” Reuben said as he slid his bent elbow onto the table and propped his chin on his palm.

  Viv blinked. It was a simple statement of fact—there was no jealousy in his tone. “Well…” She smiled. “What’s not to like?”

  He chuckled. “That’s true.”

  “Besides, it seems what he really likes are big dreamers.”

  “Oh yeah. And what other big dreams do you have? Apart from causing a run on huckleberry stocks.”

  She laughed this time. “I’ve always wanted to live in every state in the US.”

  “Every state?”

  “Sure.” She shrugged. “Why not?” The guests at her parents’ motel had come from all over and Viv had spent many hours daydreaming about the place names on the registration forms, making a vow that one day she’d see them all. And she’d already lived in a dozen. But, even as Viv said it, part of her thought hell, that’s a lot of moving around and it made her feel tired. But then, it had been a long day. “What about you?”

  He shook his head. “Nothing that grand, I’m afraid. I’ve traveled around a bit. I’ve lived in a variety of places and done a variety of things within the sheriff’s department but I came back to Montana because after a decade of that I just wanted to come home. I missed the mountains and the wide-open spaces. Guess I’m just a country boy at heart.” He gave a self-deprecating smile. “I’m happy to live out my time here being part of this community. I don’t suppose it’s big to want something so small but towns need cops too and who knows…maybe I’ll make sheriff one day?”

  Vivian had always been a go-getter. She’d never understand women who wanted to get married and have babies without having lived a little first or guys who wanted to settle down with their childhood sweethearts, clocking in at the same job every day of their lives. She’d never understood her parents’ commitment to their small motel in the middle of Nebraska where nothing ever happened.

  Basically, she’d found lack of ambition in anyone unattractive.

  But, listening to Reuben now and thinking about the experiences she’d had in Marietta, the people she’d met, she realized that ambition didn’t have to be big to be worthy. It could be small, too, and that was all right.

  Maybe not all right for her, but all right for others—like her parents and her siblings. And Reuben. Perfectly all right for those who preferred their big dreams to play out on the small stage instead of the silver screen.

  “You’d like to be sheriff?”

  “Yeah. One day.”

  Viv had little doubt it would happen if Reuben wanted it enough. She could just imagine him in ten or so years from now with his sheriff’s badge affixed to his pocket, his body still lean, streaks of gray in his hair. That air of being in charge obvious in every line of his body.

  Yeah. He’d wear it well. Very freaking well. She was suddenly sorry she wasn’t sticking around to witness that.

  “You’re picturing doing me with my sheriff’s badge on, aren’t you?” he asked, a smile in his voice and on his face.

  Viv laughed. “I’m picturing you out of your sheriff’s uniform actually.”

  He raised his hand to get the attention of the waiter. “Can we get the check, please?”

  *

  It was just past ten and a cold clear night when they stepped outside the warmth of the Graff. They’d had some bad weather last week, with a lot of snow being dumped and the usual traffic chaos that accompanied such an event, but the stars were out tonight, a garland of celestial twinkle lights as the moon slowly rose over Copper Mountain.

  Viv’s breath fogged into the air as she breathed in the aroma of wood smoke, pleased Reuben had agreed to her suggestion they walk back to the cottage so he could have a third glass of the most excellent Merlot they’d been drinking. It was only a ten-minute walk and besides, Viv loved ambling down Main Street and seeing the Christmas lights in all their festive glory.

  And there was something about the hush of Marietta at night that reinforced the sense of being part of something bigger. Viv realized that probably didn’t make much sense given she’d lived in huge cities surrounded by people but she’d never felt connected to any of them. Here, walking the deserted streets of small-town Montana, she felt ties everywhere. Maybe it was because she’d had to fight to be accepted, fight for her place. All she knew was her perennially itchy feet weren’t as itchy here in Marietta, which should alarm her but didn’t.

  She liked how it made her feel. How walking through the streets with Reuben at her side made her feel.

  They turned into Main Street, the smoky aroma intensifying as they headed closer to suburbia and Viv smiled to herself, thinking about all those stockings hanging from the hearths tonight and the excited kids going to bed with butterflies in their stomachs. She crossed to the middle of the empty street, glancing up and down at the lights strung across the road and hanging from the lampposts, and she sighed happily.

  “It’s so pretty,” she said.

  Reuben smiled, sliding his arm around her shoulder and pulling her to him as they stared at the courthouse facade looking particularly magnificent festooned in lights. The ghostly shape of Copper Mountain rose up behind, moonbeams turning the snowy slopes silvery. “It is,” he murmured into her hair.

  That’s when the alarm sounded and they both looked behind them for the source. “It’s coming from that direction,” Reuben said as they crossed to the other side of the street and headed down the boardwalk, the noise getting louder.

  Viv frowned. She didn’t think anybody had burglar alarms in Marietta because they just didn’t get that kind of petty crime here but then, it didn’t sound like a burglar alarm either.

  About the same time Viv realized the smoky smell was getting even stronger and it didn’t smell all woodsy and piney, Reuben uttered a curse under his breath and started running.

  It wasn’t wood smoke. It was…fire.

  She quickened her pace to catch Reuben up only to have him halt in front of one of the shops in the next block. Her block. The block that housed Delish. Viv’s heart started to thunder in her chest.

  “Fuck,” he said loud enough for her to hear as he turned to face a store front and his whole profile glowed orange. “Don’t come any closer,” he yelled to Viv.

  But it was too late. She started to run, her legs pumping as hard as her heart as Reuben pulled out his phone and stabbed at some numbers. Viv’s pulse was racing so hard when she skidded to a halt next to him she thought it was going to explode. But when she turned and looked through the window of her beloved store and saw the orange flames licking everywhere, she knew it was going to implode.

  “No,” she whispered, shaking her head, temporarily paralyzed by what confronted her.

  Her store. Her beautiful, beautiful store.

  She’d never thought of a Delish store as hers before—what would be the point in that when she never stuck around?—but, as she watched this one burn she realized it had felt like hers because she’d had to work
so damn hard to entwine it into the hearts and minds of this town. The people of Marietta hadn’t wanted her or the store here but she’d won them over.

  Heat from the window bathed her front and black smoke slipped under the door like escaping demons and she coughed. The shrill scream of the alarm, almost deafening this close, was a perfect match for the scream inside her head.

  “No.” Tears pricked at her eyes and she took a step toward the door, the businesswoman leaping to the fore suddenly frantic with the need to try and salvage what she could—to do something. Because at least she could control that and it would help her keep a lid on all the emotions bubbling up her throat.

  “Vivian, no!”

  Reuben grabbed her and yanked her back, clamping his arms around hers, trapping them against her body as Viv panicked. “I need to get in there,” she yelled struggling against him, her thoughts jumbled and frenzied. “I have to try and save what I can.”

  “The door handle will be hot as blazes,” he panted roughly as he held her tight. “And the second you open it you’ll let in a bunch of oxygen that will just feed the fire even more.”

  “What the hell is going on down there?” someone called from farther down the street.

  Viv didn’t know who it was; she couldn’t drag herself away from the carnage happening before her eyes. She vaguely heard Reuben requesting whoever it was to run to the fire hall, which was only a few blocks down, and then Reuben was pulling her across the street.

  Within minutes it seemed the street was filled with the kind of controlled chaos Viv had only ever seen on the TV as Marietta’s firemen fought to extinguish and contain the fire to just Delish. There was a major risk of the fire spreading through the roof space to the other shops either side and potentially the whole damn block, so the fire department were all over that.

  Uniformed people ran everywhere, there was a lot of shouting and the sound of glass popping. Police cars and fire engines parked haphazardly in the street, their flashing lights strobing across the facades of buildings and on the ice crystals forming on the road surface as the night got colder.

  A crowd had built too—word had got out and everyone, it seemed, had come down to witness the unfolding drama. Robbie and Mackenzie showed up and Viv hugged them both and assured them it would be okay, that the company wouldn’t abandon them, that they’d rebuild. Reuben’s parents showed up. Sage came. Stephen and Jess arrived as did Clementine. So many people hugged and squeezed her and assured Viv they were here for her with such sincerity she didn’t doubt them for even a moment.

  Reuben didn’t leave her side and she leaned on him heavily as squalls of emotion buffeted her body and her brain grappled with answers to how this could have happened. At some point, someone must have noticed her teeth chattering—Viv hadn’t even realized they were—because a warm, thick blanket found its way around her shoulders and somebody else put a mug containing hot chocolate in her hand.

  It seemed like an age but was probably only half an hour before the fire department were confident the fire was out and hadn’t spread to the neighboring shops—thank heavens for small mercies—but it was another hour before they were satisfied everything was still structurally sound before they let Viv, Robbie and Mackenzie in to assess the damage. Most people had dispersed by then but Reuben was with her when she took her first step into the charred remains of the store.

  Viv gripped his hand hard, barely registering the stench of smoke as she took in the ashy puddles, the sodden waterlogged debris on the floor, the smoke damage to the walls and ceiling. Robbie stifled a sob with her hand and Mackenzie hugged her as a lump the size of Montana rose in Viv’s throat.

  “You okay?” Reuben whispered and she nodded but hell, this was utterly gutting.

  He stayed by her side as the officer in charge of the scene and Sheriff Walton tag-teamed with some basic questions of them all. “I don’t see anything suspicious about it on a cursory examination,” the fire chief confirmed when they were done. “I think it was probably an electrical fault, but we’ll get some investigators from Bozeman in day after tomorrow to do an assessment; meanwhile we’ll board up the windows and doors, keep everything secure.”

  Viv frowned. “Is it possible to get them in tomorrow?” The sooner she had answers the better. Head office was going to want to know ASAP.

  “Well sure but it’s…” The fire chief glanced at Reuben.

  “If payment is an issue Delish are happy to cover any costs incurred,” Viv assured.

  The sheriff and the fire chief glanced at each other but it was Reuben who said softly, “Tomorrow’s Christmas Day, Vivian.”

  Oh shit. Of course. “I’m sorry.” Viv shook her head, “I…wasn’t thinking straight.”

  “That’s fine,” the sheriff said, giving her shoulder a quick squeeze. “Going through something like this is traumatizing. Nobody thinks very straight for a while.”

  Viv gave Reuben’s boss a grateful smile. “Thanks.”

  “Why don’t you take her home, Reuben?” the sheriff suggested. “You ladies too.” He glanced at Robbie and Mackenzie. “There’s nothing anyone can do here tonight.”

  “Do either of you need a lift?” he asked the other two women.

  “No, our cars are parked on 1st,” Robbie said.

  And then they hugged Viv and told her they’d check in tomorrow and she nodded but she barely registered their departure as she stared around helplessly. “Come on, Vivian.” Reuben slid his arm around her waist. “Let’s go home.”

  Home. Yeah. Tonight—finally—the cottage did feel like home. Like the place she escaped to at the end of the day with someone she…with someone who got her and who would hold her through what promised to be a long, hard night.

  He didn’t talk on the short walk home for which Viv was grateful. Her brain was too full of all the things she had to do and fix and sort. Too full of voices. She didn’t need his as well talking for the sake of talking or trying to make her feel better. But she did need his arm around her and his calm, solid presence to stop that eerie feeling of being outside herself.

  And she did need him telling her, “Go take a shower,” as soon as they walked through the door even though she couldn’t.

  “I have to ring Harriet,” Viv whispered, her voice hoarse as exhaustion crept into every joint in her body. “She’ll want to know.”

  He cupped her jaw, smiling at her gently as he stroked his thumb along her cheek. “Shower first,” he said. “Another fifteen minutes won’t hurt. I’ll make you a cup of tea.”

  But it was more than fifteen minutes because he came in to check on her after five and Viv was sitting on the bottom of the cubicle, leaning back against the tiles, her knees drawn up to her chest crying her eyes out. She hadn’t meant to cry. She hadn’t even been aware that she was about to until suddenly she was and he took one look at her and shucked his smoky clothes right next to hers and joined her, slotting in behind, his arms coming around her shoulders and drawing her back and Viv cried harder.

  He kissed her temple and nuzzled her hairline and just held her until she was all cried out beneath the warm spray.

  “I don’t know why I’m crying so much,” Viv said, even more exhausted now the crying had stopped. “It’s not like it’s my own personal store.”

  “Yes it is,” he murmured. “This one probably more than any of the others because you had to earn this one.”

  The fact that he was so insightful, that he’d articulated what she’d been thinking earlier, made her want to cry all over again but she really did have to go tell the big boss that, for the first time in Delish history, a store had been destroyed by fire.

  Yes, even if it was almost one thirty in the morning. On Christmas Day.

  She was on the phone for half an hour going through everything and taking notes, which kept the ever-present well of emotion below the surface. Harriet was so concerned and so kind and Reuben hovered, bringing her tea and massaging her feet, sitting up with her while she chat
ted with the big boss.

  God…the thought of leaving here and having to say goodbye to him was particularly hard right now.

  And then after she ended the call he shepherded her into bed, convincing her to at least give it a try despite Viv being adamant she wouldn’t sleep. Her brain was just too busy. But, as he shuffled in behind her and every part of his front touched every part of her back and his arm tucked in around her, her eyelids started to flutter shut and she realized he was right.

  She was so damn tired.

  Which was Viv’s last waking thought before plunging into a deep, dreamless sleep.

  Chapter Ten

  Reuben wasn’t surprised that Vivian slept late the next day. She wasn’t some kid who’d been counting down the weeks, days, hours and minutes until Santa came. She was a grown woman who’d watched everything she’d strived and worked for the past almost two months literally go up in a puff of smoke. As his boss had said, she’d suffered a trauma and that kind of emotional exhaustion cut deep.

  Sadly, he’d seen that in his line of work too often. But, the body was a remarkable thing, knowing innately the best way to recoup—physically and psychologically—was to sleep.

  It wasn’t some kind of instantaneous cure all but it helped.

  A fact backed up by Vivian who woke just before lunch, subdued, yes, but with color back in her cheeks and some spark flashing from behind her eyes. She’d been so wan and pale last night, so…passive—he’d been worried. Thankfully she’d woken with some of that spunk he was used to and with an appetite.

  For Pop Tarts.

  Reuben pointed out there was probably a special place in hell for people who ate Pop Tarts washed down with red wine for Christmas lunch but she wolfed down three in quick order with more color coming back to her cheeks and he’d have toasted the whole damn packet for her if she wanted.

  He was sure the baby Jesus would understand.

  But if he thought the rest of the day would follow his plan then he was sorely mistaken. Firstly, she’d tried to leave and go visit the shop and he’d had to remind her it was boarded up and couldn’t be disturbed until the investigators from Bozeman got there tomorrow. Then, instead of spending the afternoon cuddled up on the couch in front of the fire, watching It’s A Wonderful Life she spent hours next to him on her laptop, her glasses perched on the end of her nose as she made copious notes about God knew what while he watched the movie. She also took three brisk, efficient Skype calls, all rehashing the fire with different members of the Delish team.