by Lucy Kevin
Chapter Five
“I can’t believe he’d accuse me of not following my dreams,” Whitney said aloud as she got ready for work.
On the bed behind her, Clementine, a black-and-white tabby cat, stretched out and yawned.
“I know,” Whitney said as she put on her suit jacket. “I shouldn’t be making such a big deal about what he said. It’s just…how can he say that about me when he’s hiding away at a wedding venue?”
Clementine sat up, staring up at Whitney until she stroked the cat’s ears.
“Okay, so maybe I wanted to be a veterinarian when I was a kid, but what does that have to do with my life now?”
Her cat mewed in response.
“If I left the business, who would take over? Annette?” Whitney laughed at that thought, but there was little humor in it. “Come on, let’s get you some breakfast before I go.”
Clementine leapt down off the bed, brushing against Whitney’s legs while she put food in a bowl. One day, she’d manage to get to work without being covered in cat hairs.
“You’d probably like it if my cousin were in charge. You always ignore me when she’s in the house.”
That was just how cats were. The person who gave them food and disposed of the dead mice they brought in was never as much fun as the person who made a total fuss over them. On top of that, Clementine recognized a kindred free spirit when she saw one. After all, wasn’t it true that cats did exactly what they liked, slept through about half the day, and expected you to put up with them simply because they happened to be gorgeous? Clementine and Annette were a perfect match.
Not that Whitney would have had Clementine any other way. Annette, either.
Clementine finished her breakfast, then followed Whitney around as she hunted for her keys. She’d hated that first apartment five years ago where she hadn’t been able to have a pet, and as soon as the lease had run out she’d found this cute little place just outside the city, but close enough to the office that she could justify the short commute. There was a small kitchen, a cozy living room, a master bedroom and a home office.
She paused in the middle of the living room and looked around at the small space. “I guess when Kenneth and I get married we’ll have to look for a bigger place, won’t we?”
Funny, she and Kenneth had never discussed where they’d live after the wedding. They obviously needed to talk about their plans for the future and if they’d move into one of their homes, or get a different one together.
But she didn’t need to talk to him to know they needed a new wedding venue.
Clementine raised a paw and started to lick it, but her eyes were on her owner.
“Don’t look at me like that. You know I can’t have the wedding at the Rose Chalet. Not with Tyce there. It wouldn’t be fair to Kenneth.”
And she was going to be fair to Kenneth, regardless of what it took.
After all, he was the man she was going to marry.
Kenneth was the perfect choice in so many ways. They’d known each other forever. They’d been friends at school. He was good looking and funny, and they’d worked together in the business for years. After a couple of years of dating, everyone had assumed they would get married. One day they’d ended up at a ring store, and she walked out with a diamond on her left hand.
Come to think of it, had he ever officially proposed?
Surely, that was something a woman should be able to instantly remember. But she was tired.
And more than a little shaken up by seeing Tyce again.
In any case, if keeping everything on course meant changing the wedding venue, that was what Whitney was going to do.
She called her secretary, leaving a message to say that she was going to be coming in a little late. On the way to the chalet she stopped at The Last Bean, her favorite coffee shop. The morning never really started for her until she’d had her first cup of their coffee. She bought their beans to grind at home, but it never tasted quite right when she made it for herself.
“Hi, Janet,” Whitney said as she went in. “Could I have the usual, please?”
“Sure. One coffee and one morning bun coming up. You’re here a little earlier than normal. Big day?”
“Just something I have to do before work.”
A few minutes later, she was walking through the Rose Chalet’s beautiful gardens. Even the small pond was surrounded by delicate flowers.
“I missed you, too.”
Whitney hadn’t heard Tyce approach, but at the sound of his low, mesmerizing voice, she spun to face him. He was standing just a few feet away, wearing jeans and a dark T-shirt.
She wanted so badly to put her arms around him again and kiss him.
All the more reason to get this over and done with.
“Tyce, I don’t want another fight.” Or to do something shocking and wrong, like kissing you while I’m engaged to another man.
“I don’t want to fight, either. But I do want to tell you that you were right.”
She stared at him in surprise. “I was?”
“Yes. I did give up my dreams of writing that perfect song. And I don’t have any right to call you out for working in the family business. Not if it’s what you think is right.”
For a second or two, she simply didn’t know what to say. “Tyce, I—”
“You’re not actually here to see me, are you?”
He looked so sad, she wanted to reach for him. Putting her hands into her pockets to keep them at her sides, she finally managed, “I’m looking for Rose.”
Although the truth was much more complicated than that, wasn’t it? Because somewhere deep down, despite all her protestations to the contrary, hadn’t she been hoping to see Tyce one more time?
“Rose has been busy trying to get everything together for a house she’s building with her fiancé and will be coming in a little late today. Maybe I can help,” he offered. “What did you need to talk to her about?”
Oh boy, this was awkward. Canceling on Rose was one thing. Saying the words to Tyce was another entirely.
But she still had to do it. To be fair to Kenneth.
“I need to pull out of the Rose Chalet as a wedding venue.” Hating how shaky her voice was, she took a deep breath before adding, “I can’t spend the next four months trying to plan the wedding with you around constantly, Tyce. I just can’t.”
He moved closer to her. “You shouldn’t be afraid of what you feel.”
“I’m getting married.” Her unsaid to someone else floated in the air between them.
“Don’t change the venue, Whitney.”
“What else can I do?”
“It’s about what I can do,” Tyce replied, moving closer still. “I’ll tell Rose I can’t work this wedding. I’ll find you another music director. A great one.”
Whitney shook her head. “I still don’t think it’s a good idea, Tyce.”
“You get to keep your dream wedding venue, and the others don’t suffer because of me. It’s a good solution.”
They were so close now that they were almost touching. Whitney looked up into his eyes, and she could see how important this was to him. She could see a lot more than that, too. His desire for her, which was so clear she would have had to be blind to miss it.
Or maybe it was just the reflection of her own desire for him. It would be so easy to move that last little bit closer…
A loud crash rang out from behind them, coupled with the sound of a large bird in distress and a male voice swearing.
Whitney whipped around to see a swan stuck in the netting around a rose bush, its head caught fast. The huge bird thrashed in terror, perilously close to the rose’s thorns.
She dropped her bag and coffee cup onto the lawn and ran over to the swan. Taking off her jacket, she threw it over the bird, wrapping her arms around it to try to stop its struggling. The bird was so agitated that it might have knocked her down if Tyce hadn’t been right there beside her, helping her hold it still.
�
��What happened, RJ?” Tyce asked the man in the overalls who had come running after the bird.
RJ shook his head. “I don’t know. One minute the swan was fine, the next it spooked and took off straight towards the roses.” He pulled a phone out of his pocket. “If you two can keep it steady for a little while longer, I’ll call a vet.”
Whitney, fearing that they wouldn’t have time for a vet to arrive, immediately went to work on the netting, but as she did, the swan became frenzied, thrashing whenever she got close to its head. Knowing the poor thing was obviously terrified, she tore the netting around its neck the best she could without getting bitten. Finally, she and Tyce were able to at least move the swan away from the roses. Amazingly, it didn’t seem to be too badly scratched.
“I need a small pair of scissors,” Whitney told RJ after he’d arranged for an emergency visit from a mobile veterinarian. “We've got to cut this netting free before the swan gets so tangled it starts to choke.”
The bird was still struggling, but Tyce had a good grip on it, and gradually, it seemed to sense that Whitney was trying to help it, because it stopped fighting her quite so much once RJ returned with the scissors.
As delicately as she could, she snipped the netting away.
RJ knelt beside them. “Is it going to be okay?”
“I think so,” Whitney said. “I can’t see any marks from the netting, or any serious scratches. I think this is one very lucky bird. In any case, we’ll know more once the vet gets here.”
“I’ve got it now,” RJ told Whitney. “Sorry to drag you into an emergency like this. I promise we'll make it up to you by pulling out all of the stops with your wedding in a few months.”
A shiver went down her spine at the thought of walking down the aisle with Kenneth...and from the darkness of Tyce's eyes on her as he obviously envisioned the same thing.
Whitney excused herself to wash up and had just finished cleaning up when the vet arrived.
“So this is the patient?” she asked. “I don’t see that many swans. You,” she pointed to RJ, “stay and hold it. You other two, I’m sure you’re worried, but if you could give us a little space?”
Whitney moved back with Tyce by her side as they watched the vet carefully check out the bird.
“That was intense.” Her hands were still shaking a bit but she suspected that was more from the exhilaration than anything else.
“It was, but it seemed like you knew exactly what to do,” Tyce said. “Just like you did with Milo.” Tyce picked up her bag and handed it to her, before taking the spilled coffee cup and carrying it to a nearby garbage can.
When he returned to Whitney’s side she was watching the vet check, with clear, precise movements, to make sure that the bird in her care was okay. The woman dabbed disinfectant on the worst of the scratches and slowly extended each of the swan’s wings to check for damage.
Whitney fought back a fierce longing to be in charge of the bird again.
Tyce moved up close to her shoulder. “Are you really going to try to tell me that your family wouldn’t want that for you? That they wouldn’t see the way your eyes light up when you’re working with animals?”
Whitney swallowed. The truth was that they loved her and wanted the best for her...and yet that didn’t change the obligation she had to them.
It was a relief when her secretary, Olivia, called. “Sorry, Whitney, but we need you in the office. There’s an emergency. We’ve just learned the East Coast deal is about to fall through.”
Just as she’d been about to explain to Tyce, her family—and their business—needed her.
“I’ll be right there.”
Chapter Six
Tyce sat in his apartment, his work guitar across his knees. The apartment wasn’t large, but it was enough for him and Milo, with old, comfortable furniture and space to store his recording gear. Milo was in his basket in the corner, half asleep this morning. Tyce’s other guitar, the road-battered and scarred telecaster copy he’d put together from parts, sat on a stand in a corner of the room, next to a small table containing both a pile of sheet music and an empty cup of coffee. Compared to the guitar on his lap, that guitar was an ugly old thing. It had pickups that didn’t match, gouges in the wood where he’d re-routed it to take a third pickup, and a bare wood finish. The only reason he didn’t sell it was because he doubted anyone would buy it.
Well, maybe that wasn’t the only reason. There were plenty of good memories with it. He’d played it so many nights on the road, in front of so many audiences, it was more like an old friend than anything.
He’d been playing it the night he met Whitney.
“I’d hoped she would have called me by now,” Tyce said to Milo.
The dog looked up from his basket, opening his eyes sleepily.
“Yeah, I know she doesn’t actually have my number, but she could have looked it up. Or come to the Rose Chalet again.”
It had been a hectic week at the chalet. The Washburn wedding had gone off without a hitch, fortunately. After letting Rose know he wasn’t able to write an original song, he’d managed to get his re-worked song together in plenty of time to serenade the bride. The swans had been in good form and everyone had gone away from the wedding happy.
Still, for all the work he’d been doing, he still thought about Whitney. All the time.
Especially their almost-kiss at the chalet.
When Milo whined, Tyce put his guitar away and grabbed the leash. “Come on, let’s go out.”
Tyce was about to drop his half-drunk cup of coffee into the trash when his thoughts flashed back to the cup Whitney had dropped when she went to rescue the swan.
“I know just the place we can go for our walk,” Tyce announced. “It’s not that far, and you’ll probably really like it.”
Milo’s head tilted to one side, one ear flopping down over an eye.
“I’m pretty sure they’ll find a water bowl for you. You know how you love a good water bowl, don't you?”
Milo looked at him, those big brown eyes boring into him. For a dog, his expression was eloquent.
“Things are easier for dogs. Trust me on that.”
That just earned him another look, with Milo’s tongue lolling out.
“When was the last time you ran into a girl you hadn’t been able to find for five years, only to discover she’s planning to marry some other guy who isn’t even here treating her right?”
Milo yapped.
“Exactly. Never.” He picked up Milo’s leash. “Let’s go.”
Tyce led the dog down from his apartment. Milo looked a lot healthier than he had the first night he’d met Whitney, but there was still something fundamentally unkempt about him, no matter how well Tyce groomed him.
He smiled slightly at that thought and ran a hand through the unpredictable spikes of his hair. What was it they said about dogs and their owners ending up looking the same?
They made their way down through the building, then set off in the direction of The Last Bean. It was the name of the coffee shop that had been on the side of Whitney’s coffee cup.
Milo hurried along beside him, and it was only when the small dog broke into a jog that Tyce realized just how much he was hurrying to get there.
“Sorry, little guy,” he said as Milo gave him a reproachful look. “I don’t want to risk missing her.”
He slowed down slightly to let Milo keep up and noticed the way the morning traffic stopped and started all around them as people made their way to their nine-to-five office jobs.
Tyce had never planned on having a “regular” job. He’d always assumed he’d be an artist, a musician and songwriter.
Of course, he still got to play music at the Rose Chalet. And the friends he had there were great. But wasn’t he still going in every day, knowing exactly what he would be doing for his paycheck at the end of the month?
Milo pulled at his leash and Tyce looked up to see Whitney sitting in the sun at one of the coffee shop’s outdoor
tables. She was dressed for work in another suit, this one a dark navy that set off her coloring beautifully.
When Whitney spotted him, she looked uncertain as to whether she should smile at him or not. Fortunately, when the dog ran over to her with an excited bark, she no longer bothered to hold back her grin.
“Oh sure,” Tyce said softly. “Steal the show completely.”
Whitney stroked Milo’s fur while the dog licked her hand excitedly. “It’s been a long time since I last saw you, hasn’t it Milo?”
The dog barked.
“You obviously remember me, though.”
Tyce smiled at that. “You aren’t exactly easy to forget.”
“How has he been?” she asked. “I still wish I could have taken him home with me.”
“Milo has been great. I always loved knowing that he was my link to you,” Tyce said honestly. He sat down opposite Whitney. “Though from the looks of it, he could have done with seeing more of you.” He paused, just for a moment. “He isn’t the only one.”
“Is that why you’re here?”
Tyce raised an eyebrow. “Milo heard that this place had great water bowls. I couldn’t keep him away, could I?”
That got a laugh from her. Too soon, she grew serious again. “Tyce,” she began, “I’m not going to deny that there is definitely something between us. But you can’t expect to fit into my life like nothing has happened in between. I’ve got a family I love that I need to support and a business to run. I like you,” she said softly, “but—”
He couldn’t let her get to the “but.” Not if it meant she’d be walking away again.
“I won’t push you, Whitney. Not today, I promise. But I’d love it if we could talk. Just talk, that’s all we’ll do.”
Whitney looked momentarily uncomfortable. “Actually, I’m meeting someone here.”
“Did Kenneth come back early?” Tyce asked, feeling like he’d just been kicked in the gut.
Before she could reply, a kid in his early teens, with the same dark hair and green eyes as Whitney, headed over to the table. He had the gawky, unfinished look most kids had around that age, but Tyce guessed that he was probably one of the kids who got plenty of attention from the girls at his school. He was carrying a guitar case.
