by Amy Gamet
“Anything I can do to help?”
“Not unless you know a wedding planner with an altruistic streak.” Tori instantly regretted her words. She knew Melanie had her hands full taking care of her ailing mother, but she also knew Mel would walk through fire for a friend. “Seriously, I’ll be fine. Just a little overwhelmed this morning.”
Melanie rubbed her bottom lip. “So, I’ve been thinking about that second clue.”
“I’m not telling you anything.”
Melanie held up her hand. “I’m not asking you to give me the answer. I’m playing fair and square, just like anyone else.”
“You know you can’t win, right?”
“Of course not. I’m your employee. But I still want to play. I just have a question, is all.”
Tori sighed heavily. “What?”
“‘Pieces of candy, where ice cream had been.’ Does that mean the candy’s all mixed up in the ice cream, like the colors are in an opal, or that there used to be an ice cream shop at the place the clue’s talking about?”
“Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“One of those is exactly right.”
Melanie shook her head. “You’re killing me.”
The bell over the shop door chimed and Tori looked up, directly into Jed’s intense stare.
Melanie hummed, “Mmm, mmm, mmm.”
Tori kicked her. “What can I do for you, Jed?”
“Your personal assistant, reporting for duty.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What?”
“Your mom said you were running behind schedule on the reception plans, and asked me to help out.”
Irritation made her snap, for every time she’d screwed something up and her mom was there to point it out to her. “I don’t need any help. I have it all under control.”
If you hadn’t dropped the ball in the first place, she wouldn’t be sending you handsome, dangerous helpers.
He cocked one sexy eyebrow. “I can’t disobey my future step-mother number four.”
“Something tells me you weren’t so wonderful to numbers one through three.”
“Water under the bridge.” He smiled.
She crossed her arms.
“Let me help you,” he said sincerely. “I’m not totally useless. Think of me as a trained monkey, here to perform simple tasks.”
A beat passed, then two. She could really use the help, but what would it mean if she took it? Surely she’d never hear the end of it from her mother, but more important, she didn’t trust herself and her feelings around this particular volunteer. She shook her head. “Thanks, but no thanks.”
“So, you have everything under control, then.”
“Completely.”
“That’s great.”
“Isn’t it?”
He looked slowly around the shop. “Guess I’ll look around while I’m here. I still need to buy a wedding present.”
The idea of him wandering around her shop made her downright squirrelly. She smiled sweetly. “Of course. Melanie would be happy to help you find something, I’m sure.”
She would just go upstairs and work on the wedding rings. Totally not what she intended to do today—she absolutely had to finish inventory so she could decide what to reorder with her limited funds—but something that certainly needed to be done.
She pushed her hair out of her face and climbed the narrow staircase to her studio, resisting the urge to slam the door behind her. No, she’d leave it open, so she could get down on her knees and peek downstairs to make sure he was gone before she went back down.
I’m a pathetic loser.
She rested her forehead against the cool metal of the wall safe and sighed. Something about that man really got her back up and her guard down, a dangerous combination that left her feeling like a teenager.
Lifting her head, she unlocked the safe and took out the rings. They’d just come back from the caster’s this morning, their gold dull and unpolished.
Resisting the urge to spy on Jed downstairs, she turned on some music and selected a metal file from her tools. She sat at her jeweler’s desk and began to work, filing down the rough edges of the casting and sprue, metal falling into the catch pan in a sprinkling of fine gold dust.
The muscles of her shoulders and neck, already tense from her run-in with Jed, promptly tightened as she bent over her work and filed away at the rings, first Edward’s band, then her mother’s more intricate setting.
It was beautiful, if ambitious. Tori’s mind wandered back to the day her mother announced the engagement, just a week ago but feeling more like a month or even longer. Tori had spent hours in her studio that night creating the wax mold, carving and scraping the intricate design until her eyesight was blurry and her back was a wonder of knotted muscle.
Holding the ring in her hand, she knew it was worth every moment she had spent on it. There was a lot left to do, but already she could see the piece would be spectacular.
She finished the rough filing and reached for the flex shaft, its motor purring as she worked to polish the metal to its first shine. She put the ring down in front of her, then closed her eyes and worked to stretch her tired neck.
“Let me help you with that.”
She jumped at the sound of Jed’s voice, her eyes wide. “How long have you been standing there?”
He began to walk toward her. “Long enough to see you need some help.”
“You’re not supposed to be up here.”
He moved to stand behind her, his warm hands settling on her neck. “Relax,” he interrupted, beginning to massage her tired muscles. “I just wanted to say goodbye, but it looked like you were busy.”
She fought him at first, refusing to relax beneath his talented fingers, but it felt good, so good. She opened her mouth, knowing she should object, but nothing came out.
Maybe just for a minute.
Her eyes drifted shut.
“You’re all knotted up,” he said, his voice thick and rich with a come-hither growl beneath it.
“Occupational hazard.” She worked hard to keep an answering huskiness from her own voice. Was she that easy to arouse, so quick to respond to his touch?
“I was looking at the jewelry downstairs. You’re very good at what you do. So good, in fact, that your prices seem way too low.”
“This is Moon Lake, not the big city.”
Pricing her own work was hard. Really hard. The materials didn’t cost a lot, so she was putting a dollar value on her own talent. She thought back to the first piece she ever sold for what she considered “real money”, and how she feared the buyer would laugh in her face when she told him the price.
Jed’s fingers pushed into her sensitive muscles. “So don’t just sell in Moon Lake. Go online.”
“No way. Do you know how many jewelry designers are out there, selling on the internet? You’ve got the best of the best, the lowest of the low, and everyone in between. You can’t compete with the big guys, you can’t differentiate yourself from the little ones, and you could go broke trying to get visibility. No, thank you.”
“Sounds like you’ve figured out every reason in the world why you can’t be successful. You keep saying you can’t, you can’t, you can’t. But other people have, and many of them are doing well. You should think about it.”
Had she really sounded so negative? She furrowed her brow. “Maybe.”
“You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
He began to move more slowly, focusing his attention on the spots that gave her the most pleasure. A small moan vibrated in her throat and his touch changed again, a gossamer connection now humming between them.
“How talented you are.”
Oh, how she wanted to believe that—more than anything—but she frowned. “I’m a soon-to-be unemployed artist with a failing business, hell-bent on spending my last dime on new gangplanks while the ship goes down. I can’t even get a date for my own mother’s wedding.”
She realized her mistake immediately.
“You can be my date,” he said. “Or have you forgotten?”
She was drifting like a leaf in the wind, her head slumped forward as wave after wave of sensation rippled through her. These were Jed’s hands on her, making her come alive inside, and she twisted her neck on a moan. She didn’t know what was happening between them, she only knew she didn’t want it to stop.
His fingers stroked down her cheek, feather-light, and her lips parted on a sigh.
The sound of footsteps on the stairs, and Tori’s head shot up, her heart pounding fast. Melanie appeared at the doorway with a package.
“Whoopsie,” she said, placing it on a chair. “Didn’t mean to interrupt. FedEx just dropped off these supplies.”
“No problem,” said Tori, her voice hoarse. She cleared her throat.
Melanie smiled an I-know-what-you-were-doing little grin, then disappeared down the steps. Tori covered her eyes with her hand and cringed.
Jed chuckled and rested his hands back on her shoulders.
She squirmed beneath him. “No.”
He said nothing for a moment, and she felt suspended between one world and the next, wishing he would follow her lead, even as she longed for him to disobey her.
He stepped out from behind her desk, those glorious hands now in the pockets of his trousers. “What the lady wants,” he said, his eyes boring into hers.
Tori licked her lips, her mouth suddenly dry. She braced her hands on her desk. “I need to get back to work,” she said, not knowing if she was talking to him or reminding herself. Reaching for the jewels that would be set in her mother’s ring, she tried to ignore the heat in her cheeks and her desire to toss Jed out on his ear, or pull him into her arms, whichever came first.
He took a step closer, bending to look at the stones, and cursed. He picked up the oval sapphire ring Edward had given Tori so she could include the stone in Bonnie’s wedding band.
Dread began to coil in her stomach. “What’s wrong?”
“This was my mother’s. She wore it even after they were divorced, up until the day she died. We couldn’t find it in the things the hospital returned to us. I even filed a complaint.”
Tori’s brow furrowed. “She still wore it after they were divorced?”
He nodded, turning on her. “Where did you did get this?”
~~~
Jed was seething, his mind full of myriad regrets. He was sorry he ever came here. He was sorry he was still speaking to his pathetic excuse for a father. And he was deeply sorry that he had fooled himself into thinking anything could ever change between him and this side of his family.
In the time it took to get across town, his anger had simmered and reduced to a slow boiling hatred. He would have it out with his father, every awful thing he ever wanted to say waiting anxiously on his tongue, then go his own way and never look back.
Not ever.
He’d spent too much of his life looking back.
He glanced surreptitiously at Tori. Leaving town would mean leaving her as well, and regret gnawed at the inside of his gut.
Gabe would still be here, waiting to make his move on Tori. Jed knew better than to think a girlfriend would stop his brother from sampling the eager and beautiful woman beside him, and jealousy mixed with the raging stew that already tormented his mind.
Jed parked the car in front of the house, and Edward appeared on the porch, looking to Jed as Edward had always looked in his son’s memory.
Powerful.
Arrogant.
Jed got out of the car and went up the steps, his breathing already coming hard.
“It’s good to see you,” said Edward, a smile on his suntanned face.
Jed stared at his father, aware of Tori making her way up the steps behind him.
“We didn’t come here for a social call,” he said.
Edward cocked his head. “What’s this about?”
“This.” He held up the sapphire ring, and his father’s face fell.
“I can explain.”
“No. This is it, Edward. For all the garbage you’ve pulled over the years, and how badly you treated me, knowing I would come right back like a dog, this is the last straw. You took something you had no right to take. Something special to Mom, something special to me, and you gave it to another woman.”
When Jed was old enough to understand, he wondered why his mother still wore the ring of the man who had betrayed her, who lived with another woman, who had every material thing while they had nothing at all.
“How did you get her ring?” Jed shouted. He and his father were nose to nose. It was Edward who took a step back.
“She asked me to come see her before she died. She gave it to me then.”
“No. It was your mother’s ring, and you wanted it back for years but she refused to give it to you. I know all about it.”
His father looked older now that he had just moments before. “I wanted her back, Jed. Her, not the ring. When she wouldn’t come back to me, I was angry. I tried to hurt her.”
“You hurt her every day, just by being yourself.”
All expression drained from Edward’s face. “I know that. Don’t you think I know that?”
Jed stood stock still, his breath coming in shallow pants.
“When she called and asked me to come over,” said Edward, “I had no idea she was dying. She gave me the ring, and she gave me the shares in your company.” He raised his eyes to Jed. “You know about that?”
Jed clenched his teeth. “I do.”
“She wanted me to be a father to you.”
Jed scoffed.
“I know.” Edward covered his eyes with his fingers. “I told her I blew my chance on that one a long time ago, but she said there was still hope for you and me. Time to mend fences between us. Time she was quickly running out of. She gave me the ring and told me I wasn’t so bad.” He smiled a humorless smile. “She said I should go out and find a woman to share the rest of my life with. That I should give her the ring, and remember what love truly is.”
Jed shook his head. “She would never give you that ring. Not ever.”
Edward met Jed’s eyes, the similarity in the stare unsettling Jed again. “Don’t you see? She forgave me, son.”
Jed pointed at his father. “Don’t call me that. You gave up the right to call me that when I was seven years old.” He turned on his heel and stormed back to the car, the sound of Tori’s footsteps in his wake. He had almost forgotten she was there, and was suddenly unhappy she had witnessed his dirty laundry hanging out from behind his calm facade.
She buckled her seat belt. “I feel bad for him.”
“Are you kidding me?” he snapped.
“No. It’s obvious he loved your mother very much, but he didn’t get himself together in time to keep her.”
“You don’t understand my family at all.”
“I’m beginning to think you’re the one who doesn’t understand your family, Jed.” She turned her body to face him. “You were the one being obnoxious back there, not Edward. I realize you think you’re the injured party here, but that’s not the way it’s looking to me.”
“I’m not the injured party?”
“Maybe when you were eight, or ten, or twelve. But you’re a grown-up now. Open your eyes and smell the coffee.”
He threw the car into reverse. “I’m taking you home.”
“It won’t change the truth.”
“So now you’re the wise one? Miss everything-around-me-is-falling-apart, giving advice?”
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he knew he’d made a terrible mistake.
“Take me home,” she said quietly.
“Tori, I’m sorry…”
She held up her hand. “Just. Take. Me. Home.”
~~~
Chapter 6
Tori sat in her studio, Joni Mitchell on the stereo and the curtains open to the darkness of early evening. Sadness had settled over her like a
cloud, replacing the hurt and anger Jed’s words had caused.
She was sad for Edward, and for the boy Jed had been. She was sad for Jed’s mother, living all those years with the ring, but not the man she so obviously cared for. And she was sad for herself. Disillusioned, maybe. Something that felt like growing or dying—she always found it difficult to tell the two sensations apart.
Placing her mother’s ring in a vise to keep it still, she fit a ruby into its rough setting. She placed the blunt steel end of a chasing tool on one side and gently hammered the metal around the stone.
It was tedious work of two steps forward and one step back. Work made for thinking. Tori thought of the stones and the love they represented. One love lost too young—the diamond from Bonnie’s first marriage to Tori’s father. One marriage that lasted a lifetime—a ruby from Tori’s grandparents’ fiftieth anniversary. Another torn completely apart—the sapphire from Edward’s marriage to Jed’s mother.
Finding someone to love was only the first part. Living with that love, helping it to grow, was the real challenge, the real reward.
Will I ever have the chance to love like that?
She thought of Gabe, standing alone at the airport curb, just as handsome as she remembered, waving as she pulled up. He’d kissed her on the cheek, making her heart hammer harder in her chest.
Wow, Tori. You look fantastic.
They’d gone to the Brew House and stayed for hours, the years falling away as they talked and laughed. His knee touched hers, neither of them pulling away, and his eyes lingered on hers far longer than necessary, making her belly dance with nervous energy.
Gabe.
It was like a dream. Everything she’d longed for, everything she remembered was there for the taking. All she had to do was reach out and grab it.
But she’d panicked when she dropped him at the bed and breakfast.
I guess this is goodnight, he’d said, and they stared at each other in the darkened car. Then Gabe leaned toward her and she pushed back against her car door.
How many times had she cursed herself for doing that? It wasn’t like she’d consciously decided to do it. She just had.
Stupid moron.
Hopefully he wasn’t too put-off by her rebuke. Oh, man, she sure hoped not.
