The Widow's Bachelor Bargain

by Teresa Southwick

  Maggie’s eyes filled with tears again when she looked at her brother. “You do know that Olivia is too good for you.”

  “I do,” he said solemnly, then grinned as if he’d performed a new trick. “See? I’m already practicing.”

  “This news is so awesome,” Maggie said. “Does Mom know?”

  “Not yet. We’re taking her to dinner tonight to break the news. You had to go and ask your yes-or-no question, so there was no dodging an answer. You’d have known something was up and hounded us until we broke.” He pointed at her. “But if you spill it to Mom before we can, you’ll be demoted from matron of honor to guest-book duty.”

  “My lips are sealed. This is so cool,” she gushed.

  Maggie was ecstatic for them. But she also felt the tiniest bit of envy and hated herself for it. They deserved every happiness. But she was only human and wished her life had worked out the way she’d planned.

  “As much as I hate to kill the buzz,” she said to her brother, “can I steal you away for a little work?”

  “Right,” Brady said. “You wanted to talk about updating your website.”

  “Yeah.”

  “No problem.” He held out a hand, indicating she should go into his office. “Right this way.”

  “See you later, bride-to-be.” She smiled at Olivia.

  “Count on it. We have a lot to talk about and I’m going to need your help.”

  Maggie nodded, then followed her brother and he closed the office door behind them. There were two barrel-backed chairs facing his desk and she took the right one while he sat down behind the desk.

  “What can I do for you?”

  “Lucy and I were talking last week about the business. Our first summer since combining the ice cream parlor and café is coming up. With tourist season on the horizon, it’s a good time to overhaul the website. We were too busy after the café launch to do it during the winter, but now things are running more smoothly.”

  “A new Facebook page wouldn’t hurt, either,” he said absently, typing on his keyboard.

  “You’re the computer guru, so I bow to your expertise and judgment. And hope you’ll give me a break on your normally exorbitant charges.”

  “I should inflate my fee.” Brady gave her a pointed look.

  Maggie knew he was still smarting because she hadn’t come to him for a business loan, but decided to play innocent. “But you won’t.”

  “Give me one good reason why not. I still haven’t forgiven you for not consulting me before you decided to open a B and B to make payments. I could have helped with the financing.”

  “You know why I didn’t,” she protested. “If Danny were here, that’s the way he would have handled it.”

  “And if he were still here, he’d be around in that house where you’re renting rooms to strangers.”

  “It’s working out great. Josie is a huge help and I love having her there.”

  “What about Sloan Holden?” he asked while staring at his computer monitor, where her current outdated website was displayed.

  “He pays his rent on time and doesn’t bring wild women back to his room.”

  Brady glanced at her. “What does that mean?”

  “Just what I said. He’s an ideal guest.” Except for the inconvenient fact that he’d kissed her. But because of her part in it, she’d decided not to hold that against him.

  Her brother’s eyes narrowed on her. “He hasn’t gotten out of line, has he?”

  No, she thought, that would describe her. “He’s very nice and I’m grateful to have the income.”

  Brady studied her for a moment then nodded. “So what changes are you looking for?”

  “That’s your area. What do you think I should change?”

  “I can come up with a new design, but I’d suggest current pictures of you and Lucy that show both the ice cream parlor and café. April Kennedy can help you with that.”

  Maggie made a mental note to visit her photography studio just down the street from the café and across from the sheriff’s office. “Okay, what else?”

  “Put up menus for meals and desserts. Maybe a pairing like some restaurants do for wines. Advertise coupons, giveaways. Like kids-eat-free Mondays. Or two-for-one Tuesdays. Things like that.”

  “I’ll talk to Lucy and pick her brain,” Maggie promised.

  “Then I think a little plug for Blackwater Lake as the perfect tourist destination,” Brady said.

  “That all sounds good.”

  “Okay. Get back to me as soon as possible with the material and I’ll put it all together.” He met her gaze. “No charge.”

  “Have I told you that you’re the best brother in the whole world?”

  “Yeah, yeah. Talk is cheap.” There was phony little-boy petulance in his tone. “Actions speak louder than words.”

  “Don’t be that way,” she pleaded. “I know if I needed you that you’d be there for me and Danielle. But I found out how unpredictable life is when I lost Danny. That made me realize I need to do things on my own. Not count on anyone.”

  “I really do get it,” he said gently. “But it’s in the big brother’s handbook to never miss a chance to needle your little sister.”

  “And you’re very good at that.” She smiled and stood up. After blowing him a kiss, she said, “I’ll be in touch. Have fun with Mom tonight. Isn’t it about quitting time?”

  “You’re my last appointment. Now get out of here so Liv and I can shut everything down and go pick up Mom.”

  “I’m so gone.”

  Maggie left his office and said goodbye to Olivia. She pushed the down button and when the doors opened, Sloan Holden was the sole occupant of the elevator.

  A slow smile curved up the corners of his mouth. “This is an unexpected surprise.”

  Maggie wasn’t often speechless. She took pride in being queen of the smart-aleck comeback or witty retort. She should have been prepared to see him and had been ready when she’d walked into the building. But wedding news pushed it out of her mind and now she had nothing. This was a particularly bad time to lose her words. Olivia was sitting right behind her and there was no way she wouldn’t notice weird or unusual behavior in her matron-of-honor-to-be.

  “Hi,” she finally said, then walked into the elevator and watched the doors close.

  “What brings you here? Just a wild guess—it has something to do with your brother.”

  “Yes.” They stopped on the first floor and the elevator doors opened to the marble floor of the lobby. She stepped out. “I want to update my website and that’s what Brady does. It’s quite handy to have a computer nerd in the family.”

  “Is business good?”

  “Very. And our plan is to give it a little nudge so it will be even better come summer.”

  “You and your partner must be pleased.”

  “We are.”

  “Your success doesn’t surprise me. The food is great and the atmosphere friendly and inviting. Linking the café and ice cream parlor is smart. I can only speak for myself, but I’m never too full for ice cream.”

  That was so boyishly charming she couldn’t help smiling. “I should get you to star in a commercial.”

  The elevator dinged and the doors opened. Burke Holden stepped out and smiled at them. The cousins were similarly built, and a facial resemblance pegged them as family. But Burke’s eyes were vivid blue and his hair was a little lighter than Sloan’s.

  “Hi, Maggie.” Burke exited the elevator and stopped beside her. He and his fiancée, Sydney McKnight, were frequent visitors to the café. “How are you?”

  “Good. You?”

  “Never better. On my way home to pick up Syd.” He looked at Sloan. “Hey, you’re still going to meet us for dinner, right?”

 
; “That’s the plan.” He met her gaze. “I’m not sure how much notice my landlady needs that I won’t be dining at the boardinghouse.”

  “No problem. It’s spaghetti night.”

  “Maggie,” Burke said, looking at her. “You should come, too. Syd would love to see you.”

  “I wish I could,” she said politely. “But I don’t have a babysitter for Danielle.”

  “Bring her along. I’m good with kids. Just ask Syd.”

  Maggie glanced at Sloan, who wasn’t saying much, mostly looking interested in what she was going to say. Probably amused about how she would wiggle out of this invitation. Well, she would show him.

  “It really sounds like fun. You’re sure you don’t mind a two-year-old at dinner?”

  “Not at all. We’d love it.”

  “Have you ever had dinner in a restaurant with a two-year-old?”

  “No,” Burke answered. “But how bad can it be?”

  “You’d be surprised,” she said mysteriously. “I’ll try to get a sitter, but...”

  “If you can’t, don’t worry about it,” Burke assured her. “We’re going to a place near the mall and it’s not fancy. With the lodge renovations, the Fireside Restaurant won’t be back open for a while. Sloan has all the information. You guys should come together.”

  He waved, then headed for the double glass doors. She and Sloan silently watched him walk out of the building before looking at each other.

  “I sure hope he’s not matchmaking, because you and I have already agreed that I’m not your type,” she reminded him.

  He smiled serenely. “Isn’t it handy that I don’t have to pick you up?”

  Then he walked out the door and Maggie stood there alone, wondering what train had just mowed her down. Fate had a weird sense of humor, putting him on that down elevator at the same time she was getting on. And then Burke had found them chatting. Maggie had come here for a business meeting and was leaving with a dinner engagement.

  She refused to call it a date.

  * * *

  “So you and Sloan?” Sydney McKnight was washing her hands in the ladies’ room at Don Jose’s, a Mexican restaurant about forty-five minutes from Blackwater Lake.

  “It’s not what you think,” Maggie answered. “He’s renting a room from me. We’re friends. I think.”

  She and Sloan, along with Danielle, had met Syd and Burke at the restaurant. Strapped in the car seat, her daughter had napped the whole way and the two adults had chatted. It had been—nice. But that was all.

  After being seated at a table, they’d ordered, then Sydney announced a trip to the powder room. The men had assumed Maggie would go, too, and teased them about women traveling together in platoons. So Maggie had taken them up on their offer to watch her toddler. Even though she knew Sydney was curious about her relationship with Sloan and, when they were alone, would grill her like a kebab.

  So here they were in the ladies’ room.

  “Friends? You think? That’s it?” Sydney persisted.

  “Yes.” Maggie glanced at her reflection in the mirror. The red sweater and black slacks looked good. Her brown hair was shiny and fell in layers past her shoulders in a flattering style. She was okay, but not in the same league as the models and actresses Sloan dated. “You know I like a romance as much as the next woman, but there just isn’t one going on between Sloan and me.”

  Then it hit her that maybe Holden men didn’t necessarily settle down with high-profile women. Sydney was a mechanic and worked with her dad at McKnight Automotive. She’d met Burke when he’d brought his car in for service and now they were engaged to be married. A beautiful brunette with dark eyes, she really cleaned up well in her skinny jeans, white silk blouse and red blazer. Burke didn’t seem to care that she didn’t have a glamorous profession. Theirs was a lovely romance and Maggie was happy for them. But before panic set in, she remembered that Sloan had enthusiastically agreed with Maggie that she wasn’t his type.

  “He’s awfully good with your daughter.” Syd brushed a smudge of mascara from beneath her left eye. “Not just any man would volunteer to watch her while her mom goes to the powder room.”

  Syd didn’t know it, but this wasn’t the first time he’d volunteered. That very first morning in her house he’d taken Danielle outside.

  “He’s great with her” was all she said.

  “So he’s good-looking. Nice. Funny. Charming. An eligible bachelor. And pretty decent father material. Where’s the downside?” Syd folded her arms over her chest.

  “It’s obvious that you and Burke are in love. When that happens, you want to see everyone around you in love, too. But maybe a relationship isn’t the right thing for someone else,” she said gently.

  “You’re talking about you,” Syd said.

  Maggie shrugged. “Everyone’s path is different. Sloan might be a wonderful husband and father, but not for me or Danielle. It’s my job and mine alone to raise her the way her father would have wanted.”

  “I hear what you’re saying.” Syd nodded her understanding. “But I knew Danny and he was a good man. He used to bring the cars into the garage all the time, so we got to know each other pretty well. I’m not so sure he would have minded another good man stepping in when he couldn’t be there for his wife and daughter.”

  Maggie couldn’t say the other woman was wrong about that. Because of his military service, Danny faced danger the average man didn’t. He thought about things other husbands and fathers didn’t have to. Just before his final deployment, he’d asked her if she would remarry should something happen to him. She’d tried to make light of it, never really believing he wouldn’t come home. She’d said something glib about not wanting to train another man, but Danny had been serious. He’d told her he trusted her and to do what was right for her and the baby. All he wanted was for her to be happy.

  Maggie knew the deeper issue was her. “The thing is, I’m going to have to be enough for my little girl because I don’t want another romance. Not ever again.”

  “You obviously loved him very much. I’m sorry, Maggie. I didn’t mean to push.” There was regret in Syd’s dark eyes.

  “It’s okay.”

  “No, it isn’t, but you’re sweet to say that.” The other woman shook her head. “And I understand. Everyone’s past puts them in a place where they’re open to love. Or not.”

  “Right.” It was a lonely place not being open, Maggie thought, but that was where she was. “I’m starting to feel guilty about being gone this long.”

  “I’m sure Danielle is fine with Burke and Sloan.”

  “They’re the ones I’m worried about.”

  Syd laughed, and any tension, real or imagined, disappeared. “It’s good for them.”

  “Builds character,” Maggie agreed.

  They left the ladies’ room and walked over the tile floor through the restaurant decorated like a Mexican hacienda. The walls were painted to look like adobe and had sombreros hanging on them. Sloan and Burke were seated at a table for four with a high chair for Danielle. Maggie always carried antiseptic wipes in the diaper bag and had thoroughly cleaned the chair before putting her daughter in it.

  She wasn’t in it when they returned to the table, because Sloan was holding her and looking as if he didn’t mind.

  Maggie stood on the other side of the high chair. “Is she fussy?”

  “No. Good as gold,” he said.

  “Does she need a diaper change?”

  He looked at the child in his arms. “I’m no expert, but she seems fresh as a daisy. Right, Shorty?”

  Danielle nodded, but Maggie figured he had this little girl so completely charmed that if he said, “Let’s jump off a bridge,” she would enthusiastically agree.

  “So she hasn’t been a problem at all?”

&nbs
p; “No. She just held out her arms and I felt sorry for her all restricted in that contraption,” Sloan explained.

  “You are a completely spineless pushover.” Syd gave him a pitying look, then her gaze rested on Burke. “Does that spineless streak run in the family? Will our children have you wrapped around their tiny little fingers?”

  “No.” His tone was adamant. Then he looked at the little girl and his expression grew soft. “Yes.”

  “Which is it?” Sloan was unselfconsciously holding Danielle in her long-sleeved pink dress, white tights and Mary Janes. She had ribbons in her hair. “Yes or no?”

  “Maybe.” Burke shrugged. “I will rationally assess each situation and react to it in whatever way my wife says I should.”

  “Oh, please. You’re so full of it,” Syd scoffed. “You’ve done a great job with Liam, which is more parenting experience than I’ve got.”

  “Where is he tonight?” Sloan asked.

  “At his friend Todd’s house,” Syd said. His mother, Violet, was her best friend. They’d had a falling-out when Syd’s boyfriend had fallen in love with Violet and eloped, but the two women had put it behind them and now the boys were besties. “We gave him a choice and he said he’d rather put up with Bailey, Todd’s little sister, than a bunch of grown-ups.” She shrugged. “What can I say? He’s ten.”

  “Ouch.” Sloan looked at Danielle. “How old will you be when having dinner with anyone over ten is worse than a root canal?”

  “She probably feels that way right now,” Maggie said, “but she can’t verbalize it yet. I swear there are times when she looks at me and is thinking, ‘If I could talk and dial the phone, Grandma would get an earful and you’d be sorry you didn’t give me a c-o-o-k-i-e.’”

  They all laughed, including Danielle, who clapped her hands for good measure.

  “She is really cute,” Burke said.

  “Are you feeling your biological clock ticking?” Syd teased.

  “Not the clock so much,” he answered seriously. “Just that I’d really like having a mini-you.”