by Jean Oram
“The brownies are all gone?” Benny asked, coming closer. “Huh. Well, it looks like you’ve got a hit on your hands--and I don’t just mean the brownies.” He raised his brows at the full room of bustling, happy eaters. “This place is what the town needs, especially with all these youngsters coming in to enjoy the outdoors. You’ll do well.” He rocked back on his heels and frowned in thought. “I may have to build an apartment building for all these youngsters to live in.” He turned, catching John by the arm and immediately began discussing how to amend zoning bylaws.
Her heart skipped half a beat when she realized the next people waiting to talk to her and offer congratulations were Oz and Beth. Beth was cradling her barely rounded out midsection with a cupped hand and beaming like a crazy fool.
Man, life happened fast.
But I guess if you knew, you knew. She used to hate that reply when she’d ask people how they knew if it was true love: You just know. But now she understood. Completely.
Beth and Oz reached out at the same time to give her a double hug. “Congratulations,” Mandy said to Beth. “You’re going to be an awesome mom.”
Beth blushed, looking immensely pleased to be expecting. “Thank you.”
They watched each other for a second and suddenly the tension that they’d been carrying between them for years dissipated. They shared a soft smile of understanding. They might never be best friends, but Mandy knew they were no longer enemies.
“I’m happy for you two,” Beth whispered in Mandy’s ear. “He’s always been so crazy about you.”
Mary Alice pulled Beth away to chat about morning sickness remedies and Mandy felt relieved. It was one thing to drop the gloves, and quite another to start talking about the men in their lives.
Out on the street vintage cars began a slow cruise up and down Main, honking and waving at the spectators. A success outside. A success inside.
Frankie pulled Mandy back into his arms. “I heard Ed bought thirty tickets for the whiskey and gumdrop brownies raffle. He’s desperate for a whole tray of those things.”
Thank goodness. She was worried her little prize for Blueberry Cruise would go unnoticed, unwanted. It looked like she was wrong, once again.
Mandy laughed. “Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask… Who was that blowtorch girl, anyway?”
Frankie frowned in confusion.
“Sorry, I mean Justice.”
“Nothing,” Frankie said, a glint in his eye. “Why? Were you jealous?”
Mandy felt her cheeks burn. “Maybe. A little bit. Okay, a whole lot.” She gave Frankie a playful shove and he pulled her closer.
“She was just a woman who needed a break. I may have let people think there was something between us, but there never was. At least not from my side.”
He snuggled her close, brushing his lips against hers. “Mmm. Did I ever tell you how good you smell with the scent of food in your hair?”
Shivers raced down her spine and the glee inside threatened to erupt like a dropped can of beer. When life was good, it was good. “Are you trying to change the subject?” she asked.
“No, just admiring how delectable you are. If I was going to try and distract you with a subject change I’d tell you I loved you.”
“And do you?” she asked, lifting her face so she could see him better.
He chuckled, pinning her against his firm chest, as he whispered in her ear, “I’ve been here all along, Mandy, loving you every single day.”
“I like the sound of that,” she said, warmth flooding her system.
“And I don’t plan to ever stop.”
She grinned like a fool and planted her lips against his.
“Be good to her, man,” Devon said as he walked by.
Laughing, Mandy tossed a crumpled napkin off a nearby table at his retreating form. “I’m not fluff!”
“Oh,” he said, grinning as he caught the napkin, “and by the way, Dad is wondering if he can change out one of the fluorescents. The bulb is flickering.”
“Tell him he can help me later. My insurance won’t cover him falling off a ladder in an overcrowded building.”
Frankie opened his mouth to speak and Mandy gave him a kiss to shut him up. Enough already. Less talk, more action. It was all green lights from here on out and she was ready to see where the road took them.
Devon, tucking his guitar under his arm, began strumming at the checkout counter and Frankie swayed Mandy from side to side. “You know, we have a lot of time to make up for as a couple.”
Mandy felt her cheeks heat, the fire flowing to the rest of her body. “Do we?” she asked coyly.
He nuzzled her neck and said, “We do.”
“Then I think we’d better start as soon as possible.” She gave him a deep kiss amidst more hoots and cheers.
With her place closed up for the night, Mandy held Frankie’s hand as they walked down Main Street, all signs of Mandy’s grand opening and the debut Blueberry Cruise whisked away. Despite Mandy’s exhaustion, she was exhilarated. Everything she wanted was right here in Blueberry Springs and the knowledge put a bounce in her step she was certain would be there for some time.
Everything had worked out perfectly. She had her own restaurant, but most of all she’d learned to let go and let others help. Without doing that she wouldn’t have had the successful grand opening that she’d had. And, most importantly, she might not have Frankie.
And although he had to return to finish up the television show, the editors, who had come to Blueberry Springs to catch some footage of Frankie running parts of the Blueberry Cruise, had decided to reframe the footage they’d taken of Frankie’s best-friend-turned-girlfriend (yeah, that would be her) whispering her feelings on the show. When the episode aired in December she’d no longer be the villain but the heroine in a fledgling off-screen romance. They’d even requested to catch some footage of Mandy and Frankie kissing a few times in front of the souped-up, restored cars lining Main Street.
But most of all, she had the love of her best friend and couldn’t wait to make the most of what was sure to be a long time together.
She turned to Frankie as he drew her close, clasping both of her hands in his, raising them to his lips. “You smell good, Miss M.”
She laughed lightly. “Did I ever tell you how much I love it when you call me that?”
“I know everything about you.” He lightly kissed her knuckles. “Everything.”
“No, you don’t. Not yet.” She gave him a wicked smile and drew him toward her waiting apartment. “But you soon will.”
Want to stay in Blueberry Springs a little longer? The town is in danger of burning down! Turn the page for a sneak peek and find out what happens next in Blueberry Springs. Or CLICK HERE to dive straight into your own copy of the irresistibly funny Rum and Raindrops!
What’s Next From Blueberry Springs…
Don't miss the next adventure in Blueberry Springs featuring Jen! Readers are calling Rum and Raindrops the funniest Blueberry Springs book yet!
One nature guide. One accidental forest fire. And one steamy investigator hot on her tail.
Life would be easy for Jen Kulak if she hadn’t just burned down the forest she depends upon for her business’s wilderness adventures. It would be even easier if she hadn’t accidentally fallen head over heels for the fire investigator tracking her every move.
When the pressure on Jen heats up will she run like she has in the past? Or will she find the strength to fight the accusations that could cost her everything, including her own happily ever after?
Turn the page to whet your appetite with a sneak peek.
Sneak Peek from Rum and Raindrops
Blueberry Springs Book 2 by Jean Oram ©2013
This time she wouldn’t run.
She wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she did.
As tempting as it was. She. Could. Not. Run.
Even though this was much, much worse than anything else she’d ever been through--worse than finding
her best friend’s belt under the bed she shared with her live-in boyfriend, worse than running away from home at sixteen and losing herself in the process.
Completely worse.
She stared at the layers of gray drifting lower in the sky. For days, the clouds of smoke had been building, closing in, choking out the mountain town’s residents. Jen couldn’t hear the forest fire crackling from here, but she knew if the wind changed direction she would never live down being the girl--nature guide, at that--who burned down the small town of Blueberry Springs.
She sighed and wiggled her key in the back door of Wally’s Sporting Goods, shouldering open the warped door and reaching in to flick on the lights. Normally, on the first of June, she wouldn’t need lights at this time of day, but thanks to her own neglect, the forest fire was making pretty darn sure everyone was using plenty of electricity.
She stood outside the store’s back door and worried her keys. Her car was ready, packed with the essentials as well as her most prized belongings in case they called for an evacuation. She didn’t need to wait; she could just get in and go. Now. She didn’t have to stop. Didn’t have to come back. Didn’t have to see the destruction that was edging closer.
Her escape was right over there. Only a few steps away. She could just reach inside the store, grab the small bird cage that held an injured Whiskey Jack she was nursing back to health, put it in her car…
“Jen!”
She jumped, dropping her keys as Wally, her boss, rested a heavy hand on her shoulder. “What are you doing?” His brows folded in concern. “There are rumors of evacuation. Almost everyone’s closing up.”
She picked up her keys and stared through the open back door to where she’d rediscovered the old Jen--sporting good by sporting good--after her unplanned arrival in Blueberry Springs. The old Jen who used to cross-country ski. Who won swim meets. The Jen who was familiar with a good pair of hiking boots and welcomed the adventures they would bring. The Jen she had been before running away from home. Before Ken.
She’d lost that Jen over time, but here in Blueberry Springs she’d found her again. She was thriving. Living again. But now… If she ran…
“Look. I’m staying closed for the day,” Wally said gently. “Help people load their cars and be ready to get the heck out of here.”
“It smells like rain,” she whispered, wishing she could see the sky--see the weather coming over the mountain range instead of being blocked by big clouds of smoke that made her eyes burn.
“We’re going to need a downpour,” he said, turning away.
Jen moved uneasily down Main Street. Should she simply walk up to people as they were loading their vehicles and start pitching in? What if they thought she’d started the fire and were angry with her? Because, seriously, what kind of nature guide started a raging forest fire while out testing equipment--and everyone knew she’d been out there.
But she couldn’t understand it. She was always so careful. She’d gone camping with Wally when she first started her excursion business out of his shop, and the expression he’d used when she put out their little campfire was anal retentive. But this time, obviously, her anal retentiveness hadn’t been enough.
Scott, the local police officer and current stand-in park ranger, told her she’d been the only registered user out at Raspberry Creek Park the weekend the fire started. And therefore it wasn’t difficult to do the math and figure out where to point the finger. When the fire had been discovered, Scott had his team try to put it out. But nature had pulled a fast one, the wind switching directions several times until the fire was out of control and well beyond the remote park’s boundaries. And now everything was in jeopardy.
Everything. Just thinking about it made her stomach clench in a way that made her queasy.
“Hey, Jen,” said her friend Moe, falling into step beside her. She smiled and leaned toward him. She needed a good friend right about now. And despite the way she’d sorta chased Moe--or at least hinted in humorous and easy to brush off ways that they would be good together--they were still just friends. Which was probably a good thing. Some days she felt as though she had more baggage than would fit in a Samsonite world traveler set.
“Heard about the evacuation suggestion?” he asked, easing further away.
She nodded.
“Don’t worry. Nobody’s going to crack any jokes about what kind of nature guide burns down her own forests.” He gave a good-natured chuckle. “Man, that has got to be bad for business.”
“Shut up. I follow protocols.” She rubbed her forehead. Had she forgotten to do something important while out camping or done something dumb such as discard a match into a dry shrub, starting a slow smolder she hadn’t noticed? Had she left a gap in her fire pit’s ring of rocks? Started an underground fire? Or had Mother Nature started the fire despite the season? “It had to be something or someone else.”
“Did you see any other crazies out there? Who else is willing to do a six-hour hike-out camping trip in late May when the nights are still frosty?” Moe nudged her, all smiles.
She shifted her weight. “No,” she admitted. “And it’s not the whole forest. It’s just Raspberry.” She gulped in a deep breath, working to steady herself as well as squelch the urge to flee.
“Hm. Unless the wind turns.” Moe turned to look at the sky, his expression thoughtful.
She turned to him, blinking away the wetness in her eyes. “It’s not coming to Blueberry Springs, okay? And sometimes forest fires help nature.”
“Hey, you okay?” He rested a hand on her shoulder. “I was only kidding around. I know you’re good at what you do and would never intentionally start a forest fire.”
“That’s not what I’m worried about, Moe.”
“I don’t think anyone really actually thinks you started it.” He crouched ever so slightly, bringing them to eye level. “At least not on purpose.”
She swallowed back the pain. If the wind turned, the fire would take a shortcut through town. Her town. It was that easy. That close.
“Why don’t you talk to Scott?” he asked gently. “He might have some advice or something.”
“There are a ton of reasons why forest fires start,” she said, drawing herself up. Unfortunately, none of them would apply at this time of year. There had been no lightning that weekend. The area wasn’t known for coal seams. And it wasn’t hot and dry enough for a rockfall’s sparks to ignite grass or shrubs. In other words, unless there had been unregistered users in the park who came forward, the chances were very high that she was plain and simply screwed.
“The fire investigator Scott brought in said the fire was caused by human actions,” Moe said.
She leaned closer, her heart pounding so hard she thought it’d break. “Was there someone else out there?”
Moe shrugged, his eyes never leaving hers. “He’s still investigating, but nobody’s come forward.”
“He doesn’t know who did it?”
“It wasn’t you?” he joked.
She stalked off, ignoring his pleas for her to come back.
Her hands started shaking as she mentally ran through the implications of starting a forest fire. She was sure she hadn’t started it. Positive. Except for that niggling feeling in the back of her mind that warned her to never say never. She sighed as her jacket pocket started vibrating and she yanked out the phone, pushing it to her ear as she resumed her way down the smoky street.
“Hello?”
“Hi. I think I’m in your beginner’s overnight canoe trip?” the male voice asked, static crackling over the line.
Oh, man. Not another cancellation. She drew in a deep breath and crossed the street to the side where she usually got better reception.
“We’re still on in two weeks!” she replied in a chipper voice, trying to mask the strain. Crossing her fingers, she looked to the sky hoping that the fire inspector Scott had called in wouldn’t see that she’d been a registered user in the park and preemptively pull her guiding lic
ense and open-ended, off-trail camping permit. That would make a big ol’ crater in her business plan, if he did.
“The forest fire won’t be an issue?” the man asked.
“Blueberry Lake is in a different direction from the fire. I’m confident it’ll be just fine and that the fire will be out by then.” She tried to inject humor into her voice. “We’ll be camping on an island, and lakes usually don’t burn down.”
He let out a deep chuckle that, despite her mood, drew a smile to her lips. Ah, yes. She remembered this man from a few months back when he called to register. She’d wanted to sell him every trip she had in order to hear that wonderfully rich laugh as often as possible.
“The reason I’m calling,” he said, “is I booked the trip for myself and my girlfriend.”
Uh-oh. Here it comes. She shook her head and waited. The girlfriend didn’t want to come and so he wanted to cancel and take her to a B&B instead. Either that or he’d be switching her out for a guy friend, which was fine by her.
“We recently broke up,” he explained.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” she said automatically when he paused.
“Oh, don’t be. We weren’t…well, I guess you could say we weren’t well-suited for each other and had a different concept of what commitment is.” He hesitated. “We were taking this trip because I was trying to get her interested in things I enjoy.”
“My friend Mandy always says if you try to change the one you’re dating, you’re going to end up with nothing but heartache.” She paused walking and winced. Wow, Blueberry Springs was getting under her skin. She couldn’t believe she’d just dished out dating advice to a stranger.
She smiled to herself and resumed walking. She could handle Blueberry Springs getting under her skin. Assuming, of course, she didn’t destroy the place. Because as Moe said, who else would be crazy enough to go hiking through Raspberry Creek Park when there was still frost on the ground at night?
