Second Chance at the Sugar Shack

by Candis Terry

“Well that went spiffy.”

  Kate braked and turned in her seat. Her mother frowned at her from the back. Her normal golden glow looked a bit more chartreuse. Kate wanted to laugh. She was starting to enjoy her mother’s little intrusions. And wasn’t that weird? “Are you eavesdropping on my life?”

  “No, dear. Just your poor attempts at a love life.”

  “I’m not looking for love, Mother.”

  “Well, honey, there’s your first mistake.”

  On Sunday afternoon, her only day off, Kate stood in the middle of the empty shop she’d rented. Her imagination whirled like pixie dust as she planned out how to decorate it on a shoestring budget. And where would she find the time? Seriously. Between interviewing applicants for the bakery job, working eight to ten hours alongside her father and trying to keep her Hollywood clients happy, she barely had time to sleep.

  Five months. She was going to be here for five months and even as busy as she might be, she was still bored out of her mind. She needed to fill every hour of every day to keep the gremlins from sucking up the part of her life she’d worked so hard to put together all these years. To keep her from choking on the lingering guilt. To keep her from falling in step with the other six thousand residents of Deer Lick, Montana.

  She breathed in the musty air and had to admit that even though she probably had a screw loose for taking on extra projects, she thrived on a good challenge. Even if it killed her. So while her back and leg muscles ached, she picked up her cell phone and dialed Chelsea Winkle.

  Within half an hour, Chelsea and her cheerleading squad were standing in the middle of the vacant space while Kate explained what needed to be done and how much she would pay them for their work.

  “Who’s the artistic one in the bunch?” she asked.

  Both Chelsea and a brunette named Madison raised their hands.

  “Okay. I need both of you to create the sign that will go out front. Nothing too over-the-top. Something whimsical that will catch the eye of every teenage girl in Deer Lick. And it’s got to withstand brutal weather.”

  “Can we use pink?” Chelsea asked. Her ponytail swung as she cocked her head. “I really, really love pink.”

  “Of course, but try to stay away from loud colors,” Kate said, smiling. “We’re not going for in-your-face. We’re going for fantasy.”

  Chelsea and Madison looked at each other and grinned. “Definitely pastels.”

  “As for the rest of you, I need someone to make a trip to the hardware store for the wall paint, and I need the rest to hit the thrift shops for some tables, maybe a desk, even something that could be used as a front counter. Use your imagination. We’ll paint everything white so don’t worry about the color.”

  “This is going to be so much fun,” Brandy, a too-thin girl with dark hair and braces squealed.

  “Do what you can today, then meet me back here tomorrow after six. We’ll have to work fast. My assistant will be sending the first shipment out in a few days.”

  Kate stood back as the girls went out the door giggling like the teens they were. She remembered that youthful exuberance. In fact, she felt a little tug of it now in the center of her heart.

  Chelsea stuck her head back through the door.

  “Forget something?” Kate asked.

  “I forgot to say thank you.”

  Ah, small-town politeness. The teens in her adopted hometown of L.A. rarely put their cell phones away long enough to say thank you to anyone. “You’re welcome, Chelsea.”

  “Kate?” She used the name timidly. “If you don’t mind me asking, why are you going through all this trouble when you’re only going to be here for a short time?”

  Kate gave a little shrug. “I remember being your age.” She glanced out the big bay window and watched a mother kneel and hug her small child as they stood outside the dentist office across the street. Unexpectedly, Kate’s heart went a little squirrely. “I guess this is payback for all the good times I had.” And for all the hell she’d raised.

  Chelsea gave her a smile. “Well, I hope you’ll change your mind and stay. I like you.”

  Kate smiled back. “I like you too.”

  And she did. Something about the girl reminded her of herself before Hollywood dug its claws in and jaded the youthful enthusiasm she’d had when she’d first arrived. Not that Hollywood was all bad. Just that Deer Lick was a complete one-eighty.

  When the door banged shut behind Chelsea, Kate glanced around the empty space again, seeing, in her mind, how it would look by this time next week. A tingle of satisfaction rippled through her just before a hint of panic slapped it down. Her one day off was almost over and she wondered if she’d bitten off more than she could digest.

  A wave of fatigue rolled over her head. She needed something to get through the coming week of insanity and sore muscles. Maybe she could go home and take a nap, or watch an old movie on TV with her dad. Or bake some cookies. Or . . . cookies? What was she thinking? She locked the shop door and crossed the sidewalk to jump into the Buick and head . . . somewhere. She started up the car, pulled away from the curb, and shook her head when Tom Jones started to sing.

  “You look awfully satisfied with yourself,” came the comment from her invisible backseat driver.

  “I am,” Kate said. She didn’t want to tell anyone of her newest venture. She’d even made the girls swear to secrecy. She had no desire to look like a fool if she couldn’t pull it off. But since her mother knew she’d downed three Guinness the night Matt had handcuffed her, she probably didn’t have any secrets. Nothing like a nosy ghost. She smiled.

  “What are you up to?”

  “Don’t you know?” Kate asked.

  “No. I try to give you a little space now and again.”

  “When did that start?”

  “Hey, I gave you a sheet across your room so you could have some privacy from your sister, didn’t I?”

  “Why, yes. Yes you did. I’m not sure I ever thanked you for that.”

  “You didn’t.”

  “Well, I’m thanking you now. I really appreciated your understanding that we needed a little space to ourselves.”

  Her mother was silent.

  “Mom? Are you okay?”

  “Obviously not.”

  “I didn’t mean that. I meant—”

  “I know. You’ve just never been big on thanking me before.”

  Kate swallowed. “I’m sure I did when it was appropriate.”

  “No. What you did was argue every point until I wanted to stab my eyes out with a toothpick.”

  “I guess I didn’t realize . . .”

  “There’s a lot you never realized, Katherine. That’s one of the reasons I’m still here.”

  “I know. I know. The eternal love thing.”

  “That too. But more importantly . . . the day you ran away I made a promise to myself that before I died I’d make sure you understood all those things I said to you back then.”

  Kate’s neck muscles knotted. “I understood.”

  “No, honey, you didn’t. And when I found myself looking up at that beckoning light, I knew I couldn’t cross over until I kept that promise.”

  Kate swallowed again past the lump lodged in her throat. Memories of screaming at her mother and her mother screaming back made it hard to breathe. “Mom, I don’t want to be the reason you can’t enjoy eternity. Everything is okay.”

  Her mother shook her head. “I can’t tell you what it was like the day I held you in my arms for the first time. You were such a small, sweet little thing. And from the moment I looked into your eyes, I hoped you’d be the one.”

  “The one?”

  “The one who’d want to stay close to me and your daddy. The one who’d inherit my love of this town, of doing things for the community, of realizing that nothing is greater in life than the love of the right man and raising a family of your own.”

  The lump in Kate’s throat grew and slid down into her chest. “Mom, I—”

 
“Katherine, after you left, I realized that I suffocated you. It wasn’t fair for me to put all my hopes and dreams on your shoulders. You had a right to your own.” Her mother buried her face in her hands. “It’s just that I . . . I loved you so much.”

  Kate blinked away the tears welled in her eyes. When the moisture cleared, her mother was gone.

  “Mom? Mom? Come back!” she called out. “Please?” A reply never came. For the first time since Kate could remember, she did not want her mother to leave. The block wall between them had started to crumble. Kate wanted to knock it down entirely. Her mother had never said those things to her before. She had no idea her mother felt that way. No idea at all.

  She sat with the car running for quite a while before she gave up and realized her mother wasn’t coming back. Kate hoped her mother’s disappearance was only a short-term thing and they could continue to work out the wrinkles in their relationship. She hoped that with all her heart.

  Within minutes, Kate found herself driving toward the lake. When she’d changed the flat tire, she’d seen her old fishing pole in the trunk. The idea was absurd. She didn’t even know if she remembered how to tie her hook or cast her line. But she did remember loving the tall pines that surrounded the lake, the cry of the osprey as they glided across the sky searching for fish. She remembered the fresh scented air and the exciting tug on her line as she hooked a nice fat rainbow trout.

  Most of all, she remembered the sense of calm—the sense of belonging that blanketed her when she stood on the shore and looked out over the water.

  And right now, oddly enough, she needed to belong.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  As the sun sank lower in the sky and the clouds became tinted with a spray of pink and gold, Matt realized that Lacy Shaw and he were far from compatible.

  Currently, she sat on the opposite end of the Adirondack style sofa he’d purchased on a recent trip to Billings. She swirled her iced tea in the tumbler he’d given her an hour ago when she’d arrived on his doorstep. Uninvited. The tray of pumpkin cookies she’d brought couldn’t make up for the fact that she was boring him out of his mind. He felt bad about that.

  “I just adore sunsets, don’t you?” she asked, now twirling her finger through her shoulder-length red hair. “I mean, ever since I moved here from Nevada, I’ve been in love with sunsets. Did I ever tell you why?”

  Oh no.

  As she rambled on about working nights in the Desert Springs emergency room in Vegas, Matt tried to look interested. He smiled at the appropriate times. Nodded as though he was listening intently to the story she told about some heart attack victim not wanting to leave the casino until he’d finished his roll at the craps table. But all Matt was really doing was looking at her hair and thinking about a different redhead. One who, unfortunately, grabbed his interest so much he could barely get an ounce of sleep.

  Lacy scooted closer to him and leaned her elbow on the back of the sofa, attempting an alluring pose with her slender figure. But Lacy didn’t have the smoky green eyes that charged his batteries. She didn’t have lips that were so luscious he just had to have a taste. And he wasn’t being fair to her by leading her to believe there could be anything more between them than friendship.

  The woman beside him was smart and sweet and any man would be lucky to have her as his wife. Unfortunately nothing about her gave him any kind of a buzz. There was zero, zip, nada chemistry between the two of them. And while he might be looking for a respectable wife, he didn’t want to commit his life to someone who wouldn’t want to be a little disrespectable behind closed bedroom doors.

  Lacy was more the flannel granny gown type.

  He wanted a woman who’d use him to keep her warm at night.

  He pulled up the sleeve of his shirt and glanced at his watch. “Darn it,” he said in his most disappointed voice. “I hate to break up our visit, Lacy, but I’ve got to run patrol tonight.”

  “Oh.” She looked up at him as he rose from the sofa and held his hand out for her. “I had hoped we could get to know each other a little better.”

  He sighed appropriately. “Me too. Unfortunately there’s no one else to take my shift tonight so . . .”

  She smiled and nodded. “Walk me to my car?”

  He did. And after he brushed her cheek with a kiss and waved as she pulled out onto the road, he looked down the sandy shoreline to the lone figure casting a line into the lake that sparkled in the evening light.

  He’d noticed her the moment he’d stepped out the door. There was no mistaking the way those jeans hugged her rear end or the lightweight sweater smoothed silkily over her breasts. Or the highlights and contrast in her hair as the waning light caught it and made it look like spun fire. His spine tingled as if the feathery tips of that luscious hair were dancing across his naked skin.

  Matt stood there in a wide stance, arms folded, watching her ignore him. He’d caught her glancing at him from the corner of her eye when he said good-bye to Lacy, and several more times while he stood there watching her. No doubt she was ornery. But surrounded by ancient pines and golden leafed aspens, she sure was something to look at.

  A smile spread across his mouth. He’d be willing to bet Kate Silver was a woman who wore nothing to bed but sweet-scented lotion.

  Suddenly her pole bent and she squealed. Her hands worked fast on the reel. She kept her tip up and pulled in the fish just the way she had when she’d been a kid—like she was hauling in Moby Dick. When the rainbow flopped on shore, Matt walked toward her.

  It would be ungentlemanly of him not to help.

  It would also be stupid of him to step any closer. He already knew he couldn’t get his mind off her. Knew she made his pulse race and his body harden. Knew she was one hundred percent wrong for him. Unfortunately he was getting into a really bad habit of not listening to his own good advice.

  “That’s a nice one,” he said, stopping next to her as she bent down to pick up the trout.

  “I know.” She looked up and grinned like a kid who’d been handed an all-day sucker. “Isn’t it awesome?” Proudly she held up the wiggling fish for him to see.

  “It’s a beaut. It’ll taste great cooked on the grill.”

  “You want it?” she asked, holding it toward him.

  He shook his head. “Too much for me. I’ll share it though.”

  “Sure.” She thrust the fish toward him. “I hope your friend will enjoy it.”

  Run. Now was his chance to thank her and escape before he dug the hole any deeper. “That’s not who I meant I’d share it with.” Damn his uncontrollable mouth.

  She glanced at their surroundings as though looking for someone else. When she realized there was no one else, she looked back at him and cocked her head. “Oh. You mean . . . you want to share it with me?”

  He shrugged.

  “Won’t your girlfriend mind?”

  “She’s not my girlfriend.” And why did she need to know that?

  “Right. Friend with benefits then?”

  Did that bother her? “Guess you’ve been away too long to remember that’s not really possible in a town this size,” he said. “People talk.”

  “Then you might as well give them something good to talk about.”

  Oh, he had. A time or two or three or a thousand. But things were different now. His reputation couldn’t take a hit of any kind. It wasn’t likely he’d give Kate any ammunition against him. She’d already ruined him once before. “This isn’t California and people aren’t prone to behave the way you do in Tinsel Town.”

  She studied him and her nose wrinkled just slightly. “I’m not so sure I want to share my fish with you, Deputy Ryan. You have a nasty habit of saying all the wrongs things to me.”

  “Or maybe it’s the truth and you just don’t want to hear it.”

  “See.” She flung her hand upward. It came down with a smack on her thigh. “There you go again.”

  He drew an X over his chest. “Cross my heart I’ll do my best to refrain
.”

  Her smooth forehead furrowed. “Why do you want to share dinner? You don’t even like me.” She stood there, holding her trout by the line, mistrusting him one hundred percent.

  So now the shoe was on the other foot.

  He chuckled and took her by the elbow. “Come on, Hollywood. Let’s get that lunker on the BBQ before it shrivels up. I’ll even let you clean it.”

  “Gee thanks.”

  They walked side by side down the shore toward his cabin. The entire concept was bizarre. If anyone would have ever asked him if he’d be inviting Katie Silverthorne to dinner a decade after she dumped his ass, he’d have given them the number to Montana’s best psychologist.

  Or maybe he should look up that number for himself.

  “No tackle box?” he asked. “What’d you catch that thing on?”

  “If you can’t catch ‘em on worms, you can’t catch ‘em.”

  Matt laughed at the image of her digging up a slimy creature from the earth. But that image was short-lived and quickly replaced with what he’d really like her hands to be doing.

  “I swear I had no idea you lived here,” Kate said, cupping a wine glass in her hand while she leaned against the deck rail. “But I must say you’ve done a really nice job fixing up the place.” In addition to earning the trust of the community, the man had built himself a home. Was there anything he couldn’t do?

  He stood beside her, the tails of his blue flannel shirt lifted with the breeze as he flipped the fish in the grilling basket. The flames sizzled and popped as the juices dripped down into the fire. Night had fallen crisp and cool. Barely a ripple marred the surface of the lake. The crickets were doing their thing, their melody accompanied by a frog quartet spaced around the perimeter of the yard. Kate took a sip of the chilled zinfandel and wished she’d brought a jacket.

  “I bought the place after Old Man Anderson passed away.” He looked up and Kate caught his blue gaze in the candlelight flickering from the punched-tin lamps perched on the deck posts. “It was in shambles. Took me five years to finish.”

  “Five years?” She sipped her wine again, mesmerized by the easy way he handled himself with the grill. By the way he moved—slow and sure. There was nothing sexier than a man who felt comfortable in his own skin. And looked damned good in it too.