by Maggie Marr
Five Years.
Her heart pitter-pattered in her chest. She could barely breathe. Her gaze dropped and heat flushed up her neck and bloomed in her cheeks.
“Thank you,” Tyler said.
His sky-blue eyes pierced straight to Brinn’s heart and caused a bolt of joy mixed with fear to jolt through her body.
“I haven’t closed the deal yet, but I sure plan on doing the best I can to make certain that I do.”
Tyler placed his hand over Brinn’s. Her breath halted. Heat surged from her hand, up her arm, and spread through her body. He wasn’t just talking about the expansion for the Grande anymore, was he? Not with his hand over hers and the heat that raced through her veins and this insistent attraction.
She’d forgotten how to breathe. Oh my God, Tyler Emerson was touching her hand, in the dining room of the Grande, with his mother and his daughter sitting with them. Tyler looked directly at Brinn. “I’d be really pleased if we get to move back to Powder Springs.”
Chapter Six
“Brinn? Do you hear me, Brinn?”
“Huh? What?” Brinn turned from the espresso grinder. The scent of fresh ground coffee beans filled her nose. She squinted at Alison.
“I’ve called your name like five times. What the heck?”
Alison’s hair was still a bright cotton-candy pink. She’d pulled it back with two clips shaped like elves.
Heat crept up Brinn’s neck. Thoughts of Tyler invaded her mind all the time. The pressure of his hand on hers. The nearness of him. His smile.
“Just thinking about the Christmas castle.” Brinn pulled on the cuff of her sleeve.
“I boxed up a chocolate torte and six cannoli for tonight.” Alison placed the two pink bakery boxes on the counter. “Those old broads go through the sweets on bunco night.”
“You should see what they do to the pizza and the Jack Daniel’s.” She set the bag of beans beside the desserts and opened a Bea & Barbara paper bag. “I better get going. I still have to pick up the pizza and Dorothy hates when I’m late. She pouts the entire night.” Brinn was the default Bunco Babe taxi service twice a month.
“Those ladies crack me up.” Alison ran a towel across the countertop. “Bet you get an earful of gossip from them. They’ve been in this town like five hundred years combined. There’s nothing those five don’t know.”
“Mostly they talk about their kids and their grandkids.”
“I would have thought the smack would be flying.”
The bell above the front door jingled.
Angel gets its wings.
The faces were unfamiliar, and because everyone who lived in Powder Springs knew everyone else who lived in Powder Springs, these four had to be tourists.
“Hey, folks, what can I get you?” Alison called.
One of the two men approached the counter and flashed a smile filled with bright white teeth. “Can we get four gingerbread cookies and four cinnamon coffees?”
The two women circled the bakery and examined the different high-end art, chocolates, and other confections that Brinn imported and had for sale.
“Came by because we heard your head baker is building the Christmas castle at the Grande.”
“She is indeed.” Alison nodded to Brinn. “That’s the lady right there.”
“We wanted to taste that gingerbread.” He reached out and took the first two coffees from Alison and handed them to the man at his side. “Been smelling it for days and we can’t find any at the Grande, so we came on over. Hope it’s as good as it smells.”
“There isn’t much in life better than Christmas gingerbread from Bea & Barbara’s. Why do you think the Grande wanted her to build the castle?” Alison smiled and wiggled her eyebrows.
“Exactly what we thought.” He took the final two coffees from Alison and looked toward Brinn. “Wish we could be here to see your end result. Really loved watching you the past two days.”
Heat flashed up her neck and flooded her face. Her chin dropped forward. To look this stranger in the eye and accept his compliment wasn’t easy for Brinn.
“Thank you. I love doing it.”
What to do with a compliment? She was working on simply accepting them. She cleared her throat and clasped the handle of the Bea & Barbara’s Bakery bag. She needed to leave to make it to Dorothy’s and then bunco on time.
“You folks have a great evening, and thank you for coming by,” Brinn said and scurried through the doors to the kitchen. Once she was in her SUV, she took a couple of long, deep breaths. She turned the key in the ignition. Why, when confronted with a compliment, did she want to run and hide? Was it because Deborah and her beauty had always gotten all the compliments and all the attention? Was it because compliments from Ma usual came with a but attached to them? Whatever the reason, she obviously hadn’t conquered her inability to feel deserving when a person had something kind to say to her.
She stopped and picked up the pizza and then the booze, then drove slowly through the dark night over the snow-packed roads to Dorothy’s house. Why weren’t they selling flat gingerbread cookies at the Grande? Or even giving them away? The Grande put out a four-o’clock tea, and they needed to add mini gingerbread castles. She would talk to Hans tomorrow, because that would be a great addition to holiday traditions at the Grande.
*
“Have you called Brinn Bartoli?”
Tyler looked up from the drafting table in his bedroom. He rubbed his fingertips over his eyes. Mom lifted clean shirts from a laundry basket and set the clothes on top of the dresser. He’d asked her not to bother with his and Charlotte’s dirty clothes. He’d told Mom that he’d do their laundry, but she continued to do it.
Charlotte was fast asleep. He’d been working all day but took a break for dinner and Charlotte’s bath time, plus to read her a bedtime story. He’d returned to working on the first sketches of the new Grande development as soon as he’d heard Charlotte’s sweet, rhythmic breaths of sleep.
“No. Why?”
“Why? Seriously?” Mom settled the now-empty basket on top of the dresser beside the clean clothes. “Tyler, did you forget that I had lunch with the two of you the other day and that I’m your mother?”
Tyler pressed his lips together and squinted. His brows furrowed tight and he rubbed his fingertips to the crease in his forehead. Now wasn’t the optimal time to get involved. He had a little girl, a big project, a relocation, and… and… Well, he hated to admit it, but he was a little bit scared. He’d managed to mess up his marriage. Who was to say that he wouldn’t mess up any relationship he attempted to have with Brinn?
“The sparks were jumping over the table.” Mom folded her arms across her chest. “Please, indulge me. Give her a call and take her to dinner.”
His heartbeat picked up speed. To sit across from Brinn and listen to her soft, sweet voice and look into those beautiful eyes that sparkled and danced while she talked sounded like a great way to spend an evening.
“I…” He couldn’t say it to his mom. What was there to say?
Yes, he’d gone on a few dates, but they’d been nothing spectacular. Maybe he’d lost his mojo with women. Maybe the end of his marriage had permanently damaged him. Maybe he couldn’t be in a relationship. That was fine. He had Charlotte on which to concentrate. She was the “little princess” in his life. He was content to be a dad.
“Tyler, the end of your marriage wasn’t entirely your fault.”
Tyler tore his gaze away from Mom. He shook his head and his shoulders hunched forward. His wife had loved him, purely and desperately, for many many years. They’d been happy. There had been joy. He’d killed their happiness with his inattention to Charlize and their marriage. Late nights, long hours, silent times when he was consumed by his work, all had built up a giant wall between them. A wall that neither of them could break down nor scale until finally Charlize got tired of trying and found comfort in the arms of another man.
Who was to say if he started a relationship with anot
her woman, now, that the relationship wouldn’t end the same way? Especially with the biggest and longest project he’d ever attempted. Now was not the time to get involved.
“Mom, I’m busy. Brinn’s busy. You said yourself that Christmas is the busiest time for the bakery.”
Carol crossed the room and stopped just in front of Tyler. “There is never a convenient time for a relationship.” Mom bent forward and grabbed an errant sock from the floor. She stood and her gaze traveled over Tyler. He wrapped his arms around his chest. His heart raced like that of a scared little boy getting a pep talk from his mother. She walked to the bedroom door. “I just hope that when you finally figure out you’ve got a big crush on Brinn Bartoli that she hasn’t found someone else who’s crushing on her.”
*
“I’ll take another.” Nonna rattled the ice in her highball glass. Her blond hair was pulled back into a braided bun on her head, the one remnant of Nonna’s vanity. She still had her naturally black hair dyed blond each month by her beautician and forever confidante at Miss Jane’s Salon. On bunco nights, the ladies got all dolled up. Tonight Nonna wore makeup and a pretty almond-colored cashmere sweater. Bunco was a big night out for all the ladies.
Brinn lifted the bottle of Jack and poured another shot into Nonna’s glass. This was number two for Nonna. She would drink two more shots and call it a night. Dorothy and Eustace and Roberta and Mabel each sat at the table with a plate of pizza and a highball glass of their own.
“Doc told me no booze.” Roberta held up her glass of Jack. “Here’s to the doc.” Their laughter cackled around the table. All the ladies except Brinn clinked their glasses together. Each of them was on the long side of eighty, and if they wanted to smoke and drink and eat high-cholesterol foods, they were going to do it, or so Brinn had been told.
“Brinn, sit down.” Nonna patted the empty chair beside her. “It’s your turn to roll.”
Brinn set the bottle of Jack on the kitchen counter, but when she turned toward the table, she caught Nonna lifting her eyebrow and shooting the Bunco Babes a look.
A queasy feeling rolled through Brinn’s belly. She settled into the chair beside Nonna and lifted the shaker. These ladies definitely had something on their minds other than bunco.
“We’re on three, doll.” Eustace’s voice was raspy from years of smoking, a habit she claimed she’d broken, but everyone knew she still smoked at least one cigarette a day.
Brinn shook the cup and tossed the dice.
“Anyone hear anything about this Tyler Emerson?” Nonna asked.
Brinn’s heart hammered harder in her chest, and not because she’d just managed to roll two threes.
“I heard”—Dorothy scooped the dice from the table with her hand—“that the deal for all that Billings land closed and Tyler’s firm is doing the whole damn project for the Grande.” Dorothy was a gray-haired beauty. A former third grade teacher, Dorothy believed in rules and punctuality, but around drink number three, she often let the f-bomb slip.
Five pairs of eyes were heavy upon Brinn. These ladies seemed to think they knew something about Tyler, and the Grande, and quite possibly even Brinn. The Bunco Babes rarely gossiped, but when they did, it was usually an expedition to find out more information about some topic on which they believed they already had most of the facts.
Brinn’s stomach tightened. She picked at the edges of her slice of pizza. She pressed her lips together. These ladies, Nonna included, were on a fishing expedition about her and Tyler. Not that there was a her and Tyler.
Roberta patted her head of tight black curls. ““According to Carol Emerson, Tyler and Charlotte might be living in Powder Springs for the next five years.”
“Carol must be over the moon!” Mabel’s eyes widened. It was a well-known fact that this little spitfire of a woman, who once upon a time had been Powder Springs’s first female mayor, desperately wanted her children to return from California and Texas.
“If he’s doing the entire project, he must be spending an awful lot of time at the Grande, or will be.” Nonna’s head swiveled toward Brinn and her eyes narrowed. There was an unasked question in Nonna’s voice.
Brinn shifted her weight in her chair and pressed her teeth to her bottom lip. Her belly tickled with anxiety.
“Brinn, wasn’t Tyler in the same class as you all through school?”
Brinn nodded. She stared at her slice of pizza and took a long sip of her soda. Her chest tightened like that of an embarrassed eleven-year-old girl caught in the throes of a horrible crush. She didn’t want to meet any of the ladies’ gazes, especially Nonna’s. The innuendo in Nonna’s voice would be confirmed by the look on Brinn’s face. With one glance into Brinn’s eyes, Nonna would know for certain that the crush Brinn had harbored all through middle school and high school for Tyler Emerson was not only alive and well but flourishing because of their lunch together at the Grande. Warmth flew up Brinn’s neck. Heat flamed her cheeks.
Damn, she had to be blushing.
Dorothy rolled one three and shook her head. “On to fours.”
“That poor dear of a girl.” Eustace took the cup from Dorothy. “I can’t fathom how that Charlize Dumont abandoned that little girl. She looks like an angel.” The dice rattled against the sides of the shaker. “I heard Charlize hasn’t seen her daughter going on six months.”
“She only calls the poor dear once a week.” Roberta’s gaze darted around the table. “Or so I hear.” Her gaze landed on Brinn, and she arched an eyebrow. “According to Carol, Tyler hasn’t really dated much since that woman left. What’s it been now? Nearly two years?” Roberta took the dice from Eustace.
“Well, a good-looking single man from a good family here in Powder Springs?” Nonna pressed her fingertips to her cheek. “I imagine there will definitely be some women circling Mr. Emerson.” Nonna’s lips curled up into a smile. “Unless he’s already got his sights set on someone.”
The dice flew across the table with Roberta’s roll. Roberta managed to get bunco with four fours and she passed the dice to Nonna.
“Brinn, darling, didn’t you just have lunch at the Grande the other day with Tyler and Carol and Charlotte?”
Brinn’s breath shortened and her fingertips tingled. There was the information these women wanted. Nonna laid the whole thing on the table. These old women were sneaky. They could set up a conversation to get the information they wanted.
“I did.” She pulled deep and forced her face to remain calm. Brinn met Nonna’s gaze. “Mrs. Emerson brought Charlotte to see the Christmas castle and then Tyler asked me to join them for lunch.”
Roberta leaned forward. “What’s this I hear about him holding your hand?”
Where did these women get their information? Alison was right, just because this group of gaggling octogenarians didn’t choose to gossip on bunco night, they still knew every damn thing that went on in town.
“He didn’t hold my hand…”
“Listen here, little lady.” Roberta pointed her finger at Brinn. “My granddaughter waited on your table, and she said that Tyler held your hand.”
“That was Margo?”
“Nearly all grown up.” Roberta smiled and tilted her head. “Starts college next fall. Early admission to Notre Dame.”
“Last time I saw her, I think she was in fifth grade.”
“Time rolls, baby. It rolls fast.” Roberta nodded her head. “Don’t usually realize that until you’re well past thirty. Think you got tons and tons of time, but you don’t.”
The Bunco Babes nodded.
“Back to Tyler holding your hand—” Nonna started and Brinn’s phone rang.
Air whooshed over Brinn’s lips. Saved. She picked up the phone from the table and flipped it over. A Denver number? Who from Denver would be calling her?
“Excuse me.” She stood and walked from the kitchen and toward the bedrooms at the far end of the house, thankful to escape the interrogation at the bunco table.
“Hello?”
“Brinn?”
Could it be? The voice was a warm caress over her skin.
“Tyler?”
He had called her. He was on the phone with her right this very moment. She pulled in a long breath. Calm down. He probably was just wondering when would be a good time for him to bring Charlotte by to see the castle again.
“How’s the Christmas castle going?”
“Good. Drapes are down. Foundation is finished. We’re right on schedule.”
“You’re quite the builder. Sure I couldn’t hire you for the Grande project?” There was a smile in his voice. She could picture this gorgeous man with the phone pressed up to his ear.
“If you want the buildings done in eggs and flour, no problem.”
There was a pause and Brinn cast her gaze around her mom’s childhood bedroom.
“Soooo.”
“So.”
He took a deep breath. “Would you ever want to grab some dinner? Maybe see a movie?”
Brinn’s heart stopped in her chest. She bounced on her toes like a fourteen-year-old girl. A date! Oh my God, a date with Tyler Emerson!
“Sorry, did that come out okay?”
“Uh, sure, when were you thinking?” Brinn forced her tone to remain even, to play it cool, to keep the excitement from her voice.
“Friday? Around seven?”
“Sounds good.” Brinn smiled. She had exactly two days to make herself gorgeous. They said good-bye, and Brinn sat on the bed. Her mouth dropped open and she shook her head. A smile pulled across her face and she pressed her phone to her chest.
Tyler Emerson. Tyler Emerson had asked her out. The world suddenly felt upside down. On the far side of her mother’s old room hung Ma’s wedding picture. Ma a drop-dead beauty with an incredible hourglass figure. Her father, more square and thick. She took after her father.
Brinn pressed her lips tight. How could a man who looked like Tyler ever want a woman shaped like a box? The moment of excitement drained away and Brinn bit her bottom lip.
