by Jill Jaynes
“Sorry I got so serious.” Thomas gave a self-conscious laugh. “Didn’t mean for that to happen. The good thing is I won’t have to ever deal with my stepmother again. In fact, as of this moment, I will never mention her again or waste another brain cell thinking about her.” He looked over at Chloe. The twinkle in his green eyes had her name written all over it. “I have something much better to think about right now, for instance.” He reached out and took her hand. “It’s a beautiful day in a beautiful place with a beautiful girl. Right?” He shot her a ten-megawatt smile that she’d never dreamed would be directed her way. She couldn’t help smiling back at him.
“Right.”
She looked down at their linked fingers, marveling at how natural his hand felt around hers and how comfortable he made her feel. When she met his gaze, she could tell by the warmth in his eyes that he really meant what he said. And just like that, the adolescent fears and uncertainties that had always colored her interactions with Thomas were gone as if they’d never existed.
Surely he didn’t really doubt true love deep down. He was just worried about things he couldn’t control. Who wasn’t? She pushed down the unpleasant little ripple his opinions had caused in her happy mood, and told herself to enjoy the day one minute at a time. They were only beginning to get to know each other, after all. Time would work these things out.
Hopefully.
She was pleased to find that Rainbow’s End County Park had apparently been well cared for during the years she’d been gone. The last time she’d been here, the asphalt in the parking lot had been crumbling and riddled with potholes. Now it boasted a smooth even surface with neatly painted rows of spaces. A sturdy split-rail fence bordered the entire lot. The yellow lettering on the sign at the trailhead listing the hiking trails and their distances looked like it had been recently applied.
Thomas wasted no time once they parked. He grabbed the backpack with their lunch in it and led the way to the trail she recognized as leading to the best overlook of the beach.
Chloe drank in the perfect June day as she followed Thomas along the path that meandered through waving gold grasses and shaded groves of live oaks. She breathed in the scent of salt on the air and wondered how she’d lived so long out of sight of the ocean.
The sun was just hot enough to make the sea breeze feel good against her skin, but not too hot for sitting on the blanket Thomas had brought along when they reached the perfect spot on top of the bluff that bracketed the cove. A little further up, the point of Rainbow’s End jutted out in a promontory that fell in a sheer cliff to the rock-churned water below.
“Here you are, my lady.” Thomas smoothed the blanket and gestured for Chloe to sit. “Now, you just have a seat and I’ll take care of everything.”
She settled on the blanket and leaned back on her hands to watch Thomas pull an impressive picnic out of the pack. First came a square, red-checkered table cloth, with matching checkered paper napkins—a nice touch, then paper-wrapped sandwiches, containers of potato salad, Greek olives, ripe strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries, and finally, several big chocolate-chip cookies.
He handed Chloe two wine glasses. “Here, you can be in charge of these.” He returned to digging in the pack.
Chloe grinned. “Yes sir.” She glanced down at the beach stretched out below them, the same view she’d been seeing in her dreams. Except now it was mainly occupied by the bikini-clad cast of the Bikini Babes reality show, who dutifully trotted up and down the sand under the critical eye of a whole crew of cameramen.
“Looks like Scarlett Royale is earning her paycheck today,” she said.
The star of the show was unmistakable even at this distance. If her height and dark hair didn’t give her away, her truly impressive, um, feminine charms surely did. There was a lot of buzz at the Honey Bee about the cast and crew of Bikini Babes that had set up camp in Moonlight Cove for filming this summer.
“What do you think about all that?” She nodded her chin towards the activity on the sand.
Thomas wrapped his fingers over hers, claiming her hand and her attention as he poured golden wine into the first glass. “I’m only interested in watching one girl at the moment,” he said.
“Oh.” She dropped her eyes and watched him fill the second glass. She could get used to this.
Thomas set aside the bottle and turned back to face her. The green of his eyes intensified in the sunlight, and she caught her breath at the tiny gold flecks that danced in their depths. His lashes were long and dark, surely the envy of his many female admirers. Would he lower them if he leaned in to kiss her? How would those perfectly sculpted lips feel against hers?
“Chloe?”
She jumped, coming back to herself and realizing that those eyes were watching her with a question in them.
“Sorry. What were you saying?”
“You okay? You seem a little preoccupied.”
“I’m fine. Great, actually. I’m just, I don’t know, a little overwhelmed right now.” She laughed at his frown of concern. “I’m so glad to be back here in Moonlight Cove, and especially glad that I ran into you.” She waved one hand at their surroundings. “This is all so beautiful.” And so are you. “I’m just trying to drink it all in.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re back in Moonlight Cove, too.” His eyes warmed as he leaned in closer. “Let’s toast.” He lifted his glass a bit. “To being back in Moonlight Cove, and second chances.”
He touched his glass to hers with a delicate clink. Copying his motions, she took a sip of her wine. The crisp, citrus tang of the liquid swirled in her mouth, while his words swirled in her brain. She didn’t know which was more intoxicating. Second chances.
She unwrapped a sandwich. Turkey, bacon and avocado. “Yum, Thomas. You know how to throw a picnic.”
“Glad you approve, but the credit belongs to Herman’s Deli. Here, have some potato salad.”
“Was there a first chance?” The words were out of her mouth before she could weigh them. Her better judgement tried vainly to snatch them back, but another part of her felt strangely liberated by expressing exactly what she thought.
His lips curved. “I’ve always had a crush on you, Chloe Reiser. Didn’t you know that?”
Chloe felt her mouth drop open. “You did not!” More unfiltered words, but this time her astonishment trampled over her caution unchecked.
He laughed at her shocked expression. “Well, it’s true, even though you have every right not to believe me, since I was too young and stupid to act on it.” He bit into his own sandwich, then chewed thoughtfully and swallowed. “You were all long brown hair, big brown eyes—and the nicest girl I ever knew. It never occurred to me that you would just leave town one day and never come back.” He shook his head. “Boy, I really blew that one.”
Chloe blinked, not sure how to respond. “Thomas, don’t make fun of me. It’s not kind. There’s no way you had a crush on me. First of all, you were the most popular guy in school. You didn’t even know I was alive until I started tutoring you. Secondly, I think I would have known it.”
Thomas reached out to smooth a strand of hair out of her eyes. The spark that jumped from her skin at the touch of his fingers had nothing to do with electricity and everything to do with chemistry.
“It’s definitely my fault you didn’t know it, Chloe,” he said. “But just because I didn’t act on it doesn’t mean it wasn’t true. You’re right, I was pretty much at the top of the food chain in high school. I may have been popular, but in some ways, it wasn’t a really great time for me and I didn’t have many close friends.” He looked over the ocean and frowned.
“My stepmother was never intentionally nice to anyone, as far as I ever saw. Actually I wasn’t even allowed to have friends over to the house. Ever. Which was fine with me. I didn’t want to be there either. I think you were pretty much the only exception because my dad was willing overrule my stepmother to make sure I passed that one class.”
Chloe picked
up the container of berries and poked at the contents with a plastic fork while she considered how to frame her next question. “What about your dad? I remember he came out and said hi to me a couple of times when I came over. He seemed pretty nice.”
Thomas shrugged. “He was hardly ever there. He was always either working or traveling for work. Even when he was home, he barely came out of his office. He never came to a single one of my games when I was in high school. To the outside world, we looked like a perfect family. The inside wasn’t so pretty, so I kept that to myself.”
Poor Thomas. She’d been aware of a fair amount of tension in his house when she’d been over at that time, but she hadn’t realized how deep it went. “I went through a little bit of the same thing, so I know how that feels.” Using a plastic fork, Chloe speared a ripe blackberry and popped it into her mouth where it dissolved on her tongue. “My parents fought a lot before the divorce. I didn’t even want to be at home, let alone invite anyone else over.” Not that she’d had any friends to invite. Her teenage years had been a confusing time for her as she’d struggled to cope with her growing abilities to communicate with the dead. She’d hidden behind her studies in school, keeping well back from most social activities. Getting to know Thomas had been an accidental exception. She tucked her hair behind one ear and cleared her throat. “Actually, that was around the time I started tutoring you. I was glad for a reason to get out of the house.”
“Wow, Chloe, I never realized. Of course it makes sense looking back at now. You moved away right after school got out that summer.” He shook his head. “Just another selfish kid thing. It was all about me back then.”
“Well, you seem to have turned out pretty good for a selfish kid.” She held out the container of berries to Thomas.
Thomas plucked a strawberry from the container, then pushed it back to her. “Yeah, well I was lucky. My home life may have sucked, but I had a couple of really great teachers who cared about me and made sure that I succeeded. That’s what made me want to be a teacher—to make that kind of a difference for kids who need it.”
He caught her gaze. Held it. “I’m sorry I didn’t realize you were going through a bad time yourself. I was just glad you were around. I always felt like I could let my guard down around you and just be myself. It was such a relief. I didn’t need to impress you. Heck, I couldn’t impress you—you were so much smarter than me in school.”
Chloe did her best to suppress the smile that fought to break out over her face. Thomas was worried about impressing her? Not an idea that had ever crossed her mind.
She waved a dismissive hand. “Don’t worry about it. We were both just kids, stuck in the middle of our parents’ bad decisions. Plus, I really didn’t have it that bad. Once my Mom and Dad split, they were a lot nicer to each other.”
Thomas set his glass down and took her hand. “Except that you got dragged off to Arizona. At least I had some choice about where I ended up.”
Entranced by the sensation of Thomas’s thumb stroking the back of her hand, Chloe dragged her attention back to his words.
“Oh, it didn’t turn out so bad for me,” she said. “Arizona was okay. After high school I tried some classes at the local college and discovered I had a real passion for baking. There are some great culinary schools in Arizona, and I ended up getting a degree at one of them in Baking and Pastry Arts.”
“Wow, culinary school, huh? Like Cordon Bleu or something?”
She laughed. “Actually yes, that’s exactly where I went. There’s one in Scottsdale.”
He gave a low whistle. “I’m impressed. I’ve never met a real pastry chef before. Have you gotten work in that field?”
“Oh, I’ve got a long way to go before I’m a chef. School gets you training in all the fundamentals, but it’s just a start. It can take years for someone to work their way up to being a real chef. For a while I worked at a high-end restaurant at a resort in Scottsdale. That was a great experience to see how a large place is professionally run. I learned a lot. But after about a year, I got a chance to work for a woman who opened a cupcake shop in Phoenix, and that was amazing. I was allowed to be creative and try new things. I’ll tell you, you find out right away what customers like or don’t.”
“Do you think you’d ever like to have your own business, then?”
Chloe looked away from Thomas’s intent gaze, torn. She’d never admitted her dream aloud to anyone, as if speaking the words would dispel the fragile vision she cherished. “You know, having my own bakery is something I’ve dreamed of for so long, I’m afraid to even say it out loud.”
“Why? What are you afraid of?” Thomas’s voice was as gentle as the touch of his hand.
She looked down at their interlinked fingers. “I don’t know. Have you ever heard that saying that when you say something out loud, if it’s bad it happens, but if it’s good it goes away? I guess I’m afraid that admitting it will scare it away, or something.”
“Sounds to me like your dream is strong enough to take it, Chloe. You just told me. How do you feel?”
She smiled. “Pretty good, actually.” She took in an expansive breath, the fear that usually tightened her chest when she looked too closely at this dream gone. “Maybe I should have done this a long time ago.”
“I think speaking a dream out loud, especially to someone you trust, makes it stronger. It’s like, when you say it out loud you’re making a commitment to make it happen. The only scary thing about it, is that now you’ve taken responsibility for whether it succeeds or fails.”
Chloe wondered if Thomas could hear himself. How could he really not believe in love if he understood all about how making a commitment was taking responsibility to make your dream happen?
“It feels more like power to me,” said Chloe. “Now that I’ve said it and owned it, I can’t wait to make it happen. Maybe I was the only one in the way of it all along.”
Thomas grinned. “I can’t wait to see your bakery.” His smile faded, and a frown creased his brow. “Wait, it’s going to be here in Moonlight Cove, isn’t it?”
“Absolutely.” Chloe jumped to her feet, unable to contain the excitement that coursed through her as she gave her vision wings.
She could picture exactly what her bakery would look like, inside and out. From the hand-painted lettering arched across the front picture window, to the white wrought-iron legs on the ice-cream parlor chairs beside small round tables. It would be a perfect addition to the other one-of-a-kind shops that graced the brick sidewalks of Main Street.
She leaned down to grab her wine glass, lifting it in a toast. “Here’s to making my own decisions. Hopefully good ones.” She laughed.
Thomas reached up to touch his glass to hers. “I’ll drink to that,” he said. He took her free hand and tugged her back down to sit beside him. “As long as giving me another chance is one of them.”
Chloe watched him watching her as she took a sip of her wine. Her heart swelled with hope and possibilities. “Well, when you put it that way, how can I say no?”
“Good. Excellent.” A smile broke over his face, erasing the little frown lines between his brows. “This is turning out to be a really great day. And there’s nowhere to go but up.” He drew a fragrant chocolate chip cookie from a white bag and offered it to her. “I’d say this calls for a cookie.”
“I’d say you’re right,” Chloe gave the treat a visual once-over before taking a big bite. She couldn’t help it. Her training had become second nature for her. Not bad. It was thick and soft and just the right amount of chewy, with plenty of chocolate chips. “Where’d you get them?”
“Herman’s Deli gets them from a bakery in Santa Barbara. He never has enough to suit me.” Thomas closed his eyes as he savored his bite. “Mmmmmm. These are my favorite.”
“Mine are better,” said Chloe, taking another bite. “This is pretty good, though.”
Thomas laughed. “Well that was fast. From timid to bragging at the speed of light.”
&n
bsp; “I’m not bragging. It’s just the truth. Mine are better than this. And I never said I was timid about baking.” She wiped crumbs from her palms. “I’m a little nervous about opening my own shop. Okay, maybe a lot nervous. But I’m not going to let that stop me.”
After a while they packed up their picnic and meandered along trails that brought them through shady groves of trees, where the tangled underbrush surely housed a zoo’s worth of wild creatures, and then walked them along cliff tops for a panoramic view of the ocean.
Thomas needed little urging from Chloe to talk about his work, his students and the girls he coached. The obvious pride in his voice showed Chloe that giving to others, especially to kids, was not only a core value to him, it made him happy. It fulfilled him.
His heart was so full of love and giving that she ached for him. Because as much as he gave to others, she could tell by what he chose to share that there was a big chunk of the equation missing. He clearly didn’t allow anyone to give to him. He had kept that vulnerable, secret self locked safely away for twenty-eight years, and clearly had no intention to change.
She longed to be the one to make him want to unlock that carefully guarded door. Because she knew from painful experience that the only one who could open that door was him.
It very well might take something big, something life-changing, to make him change his mind. Change his heart.
Somewhere along the walk, Thomas took possession of Chloe’s hand. And when they entered the shelter of another grove of trees, he pulled her to the side of the trail to stop beneath the canopy of a sturdy, gnarled oak.
“It’s kind of private here, don’t you think?” He took her other hand, turning her towards him.
“Very,” Chloe said, pushing the word past the butterflies beating in her chest. She searched his face, trying to read his thoughts. Could she be the one he opened his heart for? Or was she just chasing heartbreak?
“Nobody around to see this,” he murmured as he leaned down.
