Promise Me the Stars: A Hearts of Harkness Romance (The Standish Clan Book 3)

by Norah Wilson

  “Ig Farmingham’s?” Scott bristled. “Please don’t tell me she went over there by herself. Doctor or not—”

  “Jace went with her.”

  Scott relaxed a little at that. “Trouble, huh? I’m guessing Ig was drunk again.”

  Arden shook his head sadly. Ig Farmingham was a bastard when he drank. An accident prone one. Scott remembered one time in high school, hearing how Ig had wrapped his pickup truck around a telephone pole out the Advail Road, then managed to find a very large tree to hit with his wife’s car, all in the same night. Farmingham had walked away from the first accident without a scratch. The second time, he wasn’t so lucky. He’d come out of it with a broken arm and facial lacerations. He’d also emerged to find himself on the fast track to divorce.

  “It wasn’t Ig this time,” Arden said. “It was his young fellow, Jeff. He tripped on an old plow blade in the back yard.”

  “Was the kid drinking?”

  Arden raised an eyebrow. “What did I always tell you kids about judging a person by the actions of another?”

  Scott shrugged. “I’m just saying, Jeff grew up watching Ig drink. Not unheard of for a young man to follow in his father’s footsteps, no matter where those footsteps lead.”

  Arden just stood there silently, not nodding in agreement, but not disagreeing either, as though waiting for Scott to find the fallacy in his own statement.

  Rather than take the bait, he sighed. “Guess we’ll have to get used to having a doctor in the family.”

  “Guess we’ll have to get used to a lot of things around here,” Arden said, his tone more cheerful now. “Things are changing fast. Ocean and Titus, for instance.”

  Scott searched them out. They were talking to a couple of young ladies who were getting their coats on. “Ocean’s a great catch,” he said. “I’m glad Titus has someone. She’ll keep him on his toes.”

  “Then there’s Ember and Jace,” Arden said. “Ten years estranged, and they look like they never missed a beat.”

  Scott nodded. “He’s a decent guy. Not like his brother.”

  Arden laughed.

  “What?”

  “I never thought you’d say something like that about anyone who was dating your sister.”

  Scott grinned. “Well, they are engaged. Even I know when to give up.”

  Arden tilted his head. “I don’t suppose it hurts that he’s giving April a deal on that rental space...”

  “She told you?”

  Arden nodded. “She wanted to assure me that it wouldn’t interfere with her duties. Make sure it was all right with me before she fully committed.”

  Well, that was good news. She’d given Jace a tentative yes, but if she’d told Arden about it, she really was committed. “I’m sure she’ll keep everything up.”

  “I told her I was glad to see her try to make something of her talent,” Arden continued. “And something tells me she could use a break.”

  More than you know. The secrets she’d shared about her upbringing… Well, she’d had to be strong. Brave. She was overdue for a break. But Scott would never betray her confidence. He contented himself by saying, “She sure can.”

  “You’re doing a good thing helping her out, Son. Jace too.”

  Scott shrugged, embarrassed. “She just wants to build something, provide the kind of security Sidney needs, a good future. If we can help that along, why wouldn’t we?”

  “Why indeed?” Arden turned his attention to David and his pretty girl, who were getting their coats on. “So you hired David.”

  “Yeah. I’ve already talked to Titus about the budget. If I’m going to get to some of the repair projects, we’ll need the short-term help. And it might be tight, but I figure we should give a boost to a young man like that if it’s mutually beneficial.”

  “Agreed. I had a few boosts like that myself in my younger days,” Arden acknowledged. “But I don’t suppose it hurts that the projects you’ll be getting at are indoors?” He slanted a look at Scott. “You know, in closer contact with April while she’s here?”

  He should have known there was no fooling Arden. “Okay, yeah, that’s part of it,” he admitted. “But probably not how you think. I just want to be around to lend whatever support I can. This is April’s chance, an opportunity to find out if she can make it on her own. With maybe some mentoring from Jace with that shiny MBA of his, and some encouragement from us, maybe her little business will take off. Harkness would be…”

  “What, Son?”

  “Safe,” he said. “Good for Sid.”

  Arden nodded.

  “So yes, I’m going to try to help her as much as she’ll let me. If she could only see for herself how great she could be at this...” He swallowed. “Well, she just needs a little help, and I’m going to make sure she gets it.”

  Arden began to chuckle.

  “What?”

  “You’ll have to be careful.”

  “Titus already gave me the employee-employer talk.”

  “I meant about trying to help her. When you’re in April’s kitchen, you’d better do it her way.”

  “I take it you heard about the Great Onion Fiasco?”

  “I did.”

  “Well, I doubt she’ll let me do anything of consequence in the kitchen, but I can lift and carry. Be a sounding board, if she needs it.”

  “Taste tester.”

  “Hell, yeah.”

  Arden laughed outright now. “Ah, it’s good to see life coming back to the place.”

  Scott looked at the gleam in his uncle’s eyes and couldn’t agree more.

  “Well, I’m going to collect Faye and drive her home. Between her and April, they should have the kitchen whipped into shape by now.” He reached for his jacket and shrugged into it. “Don’t wait up, as they say.”

  “Another night of Scrabble? Don’t you two ever get sick of it?”

  “Apparently not.” Arden smoothed a hand over his silver hair. “Are you good to lock the place up? Make sure no one sneaked up to the loft?”

  Scott smiled. “Yeah, I’ll double-check that.”

  Arden looked at him. “You’re doing a good thing by April and Sidney. And you’re doing a good thing by the family, giving Titus a break. Booker would be proud of the man you’ve grown into.”

  Booker Ward Standish—Scott’s late father. It wasn’t that they didn’t talk about his father and mother, but they hadn’t in a very long time.

  “And I’m damned proud of you too, Son.”

  Scott knew he should say it—call the man who’d raised him Dad. It had been different with Margaret. He’d taken to calling her Mom within weeks of landing at the farm. But with Uncle Arden, he just couldn’t. Maybe because he looked so much like Scott’s father.

  He drew a breath. Released it. “Goodnight, Uncle Arden.”

  Chapter 19

  APRIL COULD hardly keep up. No, correction, she couldn’t keep up with her bouncing, all-over-the-room, excited-beyond-belief, non-stop-talking daughter.

  Good thing tomorrow wasn’t a school day. Sidney would have a hard time sleeping tonight. And it wasn’t just the sugar rush. She was running on joy.

  April had finally managed to get Sidney into her jammies, warm from the dryer—a touch that Faye assured her would help the little girl sleep. Her Viking sword stood carefully propped against the mirror. And every time she passed the vanity—which Ember was increasingly losing ground on—Sidney stopped to sort out a bit of candy.

  “Sid, no more. You’ve brushed your teeth twice now.”

  “I know. I’m just looking at it.” She glanced up. “Hey, should I save the caramels for cooking?” She plucked out a handful of the sweet, creamy treats.

  Her first inclination was to decline the offer. Sidney loved her caramels. But she seemed to really want to be involved in the new business, and April wanted to encourage her.

  “That’s a great idea.”

  “So what will we name your company?”

  “I was thi
nking Morgan’s Edibles.”

  “Let’s....um, pin that,” Sidney said diplomatically. “I was actually thinking something else.”

  “Pin that?” Her daughter, the marketing advisor. “Oh, really?”

  “Hear me out, okay?”

  “Sure.” She sat down on Sidney’s bed. “What’s your idea?”

  Sidney finally lit on the edge of the bed beside her. “April Dawn’s.”

  April frowned. “But that doesn’t really say anything about—”

  “About the business. But actually, it would, if you name the products right. Those blueberry coconut breakfast cookies could be April’s Blueberry-Coconut Dawn Breakfast Bars. The maple ones? April’s Maple Dawn Bars. Your hot pepper jelly? April’s Hot Pepper Dawn Jelly. See what I mean?” Her daughter looked at her so hopefully.

  April grinned. “Sid, that’s pretty darned brilliant.”

  “You really like it?”

  “I do. I can see it working especially well for the jams and jellies. They look so brilliant and bright in their jars, they might make someone think of dawn, as in daybreak…Grape Dawn or Chokecherry Dawn. But does it really work for the food?”

  Sidney grinned. “It works for me.”

  April lifted an eyebrow. “So, you could really go for a Cranberry-Lemon-Honey Dawn Breakfast Bar?”

  “Okay, maybe you need to lose the list of ingredients for some of them,” she said. “Oh, wait! I have the perfect name for that one—April’s Bee’s Knees Dawn!”

  “Bee’s knees? Someone’s been hanging around Arden.”

  “Don’t you love it? He got it from his father. If something is really epic, you say it’s the bee’s knees.”

  “Really?” April suppressed a smile.

  “Uh-huh.” Sidney left her perch on the side of the bed and pulled out a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt from a dresser drawer, placing them on the chair beside her bed. Tomorrow was a Sunday, not a school day, but it wasn’t a bad habit for her daughter to prep for the morning, she supposed. Sidney kept talking while she grabbed fresh underwear and socks from a top drawer and plunked them on the pile. “You know what else would be cool?”

  “What?”

  “April’s Bootilicious Dawn.”

  “Hmm, whatever that is, it’s gotta be heavy on chocolate.”

  “And what about April’s Energy Dawn. April’s Lucky Dawn. April’s I’m-Too-Tired-to-Cook-Breakfast Dawn.”

  April laughed. “Well, that last one might be hard to put on a label, but I like the concept. A lot.”

  The idea did have potential. At least she thought it did. She needed some adults to weigh in on it. But whether they ran with it or not, she loved seeing Sidney so enthused about her business. Correction—their business. “Did you just come up with all these names tonight?”

  “No. I’ve been thinking on this for a long, long time.” Sidney came to perch on the bed beside her again.

  April frowned. “But I only just told you about Jace’s offer.”

  “You used to talk about maybe starting your own business, when I was little.”

  April’s eyes widened. “You remember that?”

  “Yeah. And I’ve been thinking about it a lot, especially since Montreal. Since I messed things up and you lost your job.”

  “Sidney you didn’t—”

  “Dr. Boisvert fired you because of me,” she said, flatly.

  She couldn’t deny it. “We’ll be fine.”

  “Yeah, but what about that crazy lady?”

  Crazy lady?

  At April’s blank look, Sidney added, “The woman who was coming to visit.”

  “Oh, you mean K.Z. Those are her initials—the letters K and Z—not Crazy.”

  “Ah, that makes more sense. K.Z. McCoy; not Crazy McCoy.”

  “What about her?”

  “You missed your big opportunity. Mom, I know she would have loved your cooking. When I jumped into the back of Scott’s truck, I knew she was coming. Knew you’d find me gone and worry. I shouldn’t have done that.” There were tears in Sidney’s eyes now. “I’m so sorry. I really messed that up for you.”

  April’s throat ached. “Oh, Ladybug, there were no guarantees with K.Z. It might not have come to anything anyway.”

  “Yeah, but it was a chance.”

  “There are always other chances.”

  Sidney brightened at that. “You mean like…other stars to wish on?”

  “Exactly. And besides, this will be more fun. Doing it with you. Seriously, this is our enterprise, Sidney. We’re in this together.”

  Sid bounced on the edge of the bed. “I’m helping in other ways too, don’t forget.”

  “Of course.”

  Sid stilled. “About my debt… I was thinking, maybe ten percent of profits could go to paying it off. Does that work for you?”

  Work for her? April suppressed another smile. “Right, but remember profit is after expenses, right? We have to pay for supplies, and set up, and—”

  “And we want to set a fair price,” Sid interrupted. “Especially just starting out, until we have lots and lots of customers and they really, really want our stuff and will pay more for it.”

  April looked at her daughter. “Wow, you’re no slouch at this, are you?”

  “Hey, I got another one! What about April’s Heavenly Caramel Dawn?”

  “For the salted caramel cupcake? I love it.”

  “Me too.”

  April glanced at her watch. This was the best, easiest mother-daughter talk they’d had in such a long time, but it really was late.

  “Whoa, time for bed, Ladybug.” She stood and held up the blankets. Sidney crawled in without complaint and let April snug the quilts around her.

  “That boy, Roy—the one who won the grossest costumes—did you see him, Mom?”

  “The guy with the cape and the sweater that read SuperGuts? Yeah, I saw him. He was a little hard to miss. Though I didn’t know his name.”

  “He’s in my class.”

  “Nice guy?”

  “Yeah. But there’s nothing romantic going on if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  April bit back a laugh. No, she had definitely not been thinking anything of the kind. Her daughter was in grade five, for pity sake! All of ten years old.

  But wait, hadn’t she had a ginormous crush on Corey Chapman at that age? And according to that note he passed her in Health class, he’d been “sweet on her” right back. Not that it had progressed even to hand holding. But romantic? Maybe it depended on the definition. She’d scribbled his name over every notebook she had. Drawn a heart around his photo on the class picture composite.

  “Not like you and Scott,” Sidney said.

  April recognized a fishing expedition when she heard one. “We’re friends, Sid.”

  They’d been careful to keep their romance to themselves—she hoped.

  She rolled her eyes. “Right, like Arden and Faye are friends. Except…”

  “Except what?”

  She bit her lip and tears welled in her luminous brown eyes. “You guys are too chicken to…play Scrabble.”

  Whoa. “And by play Scrabble, you mean…?”

  “You know…be girlfriend and boyfriend. Hold hands and stuff. Go to movies. Maybe…more than boyfriend and girlfriend someday.”

  April sighed. “Oh, Sidney, that’s not going to happen. Please don’t get your hopes up about that.”

  “But you guys like each other.” Sidney's cheeks were red with embarrassment over the subject, but she persisted. “I know you do. More than I like Roy. I mean, like like.”

  “Yes, we do like each other. Maybe even like like.” She sighed. “But, honey, this whole thing…being here…it’s all temporary.”

  “’Cause you’ve got another job lined up.”

  If only. “That’s...part of it.”

  “But what if you didn’t take that job? What if we stayed here?” She looked up at April with such pleading in her eyes. “I’m staying out of t
rouble and I’m helping with Axl. Arden told me I’m not the least bit in the way. Scott always needs me to help him with something or other.”

  “Like when you guys painted the Far South Barn,” April said. “You were a big help to him. And he enjoys your company.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes.”

  “Did Scott say so?”

  Well, not in so many words, but he’d insisted he didn’t mind having her underfoot. She suspected he’d enjoyed teaching her a skill, and yes, even enjoyed her chatter. “Absolutely.”

  “See? We’re not in the way here.”

  April cringed. Obviously, Sidney had felt in the way at the Boisverts’. And for good reason. They’d been good employers, but not the sort to be at ease with a rambunctious ten-year-old. She really had to do better with her next assignment, make sure it was a more suitable environment for her daughter.

  “And, really, Mom, nobody on this planet can outcook you. Did you see how much spaghetti Arden ate the other day? And Titus just can’t get enough of your apple jelly on homemade bread.”

  She smiled. “Ember really liked the flan you helped me make last Sunday.”

  “I know, right? And now, we’re going to have a booth at the market!” Her bouncy daughter was back.

  In fact, April was feeling pretty bouncy about the whole thing herself. But Sidney’s expectations needed to be managed.

  “I’m looking forward to it too. But don’t get too carried away, honey. It’s a Christmas booth, for a few weeks—Remembrance Day through to Christmas.”

  Sidney’s pleasure dimmed. “Couldn’t you keep it going?”

  “The business? Maybe,” April conceded. “But if it works out, we can always operate it wherever we go, our own little cottage industry.”

  “It could also work into something pretty fantastic right here in Harkness, couldn’t it?”

  “But I’ve—”

  “Mom, I love it here. Can’t I just…hope?”

  April put her arms around Sidney, pulling her slight frame into a tight hug. Her inclination, her gut reaction, was to tell her daughter no. That she couldn’t hope. It would be better in the long run.

  She pulled back far enough to tuck a strand of Sidney’s dark hair back behind her ear. “It’s not like we’re leaving tomorrow, Ladybug. We still have almost two months. But Scott’s leaving in January. We are too, after Christmas. You know this.”