More than Friends in the Middle of Main: A Nestled Hollow Romance, Book 3

by Easton, Meg

He met her eyes.

  “Don’t make it a surprise party.”

  Shock crossed his face. “Why?”

  “Honey,” Delbrina said, “this party is for your daughter, not for you, right?”

  He nodded.

  “Surprises are a gift for the person doing the surprising, not the person being surprised.”

  Cole looked confused. And like her employees always did, even on non-business matters, they jumped in to give their opinions.

  “Think about it,” Noemi said. “The bulk of the excitement comes in all the planning and the anticipation. Trust me: she’ll have ten times the fun planning this party with you than she will if you are away from her more than usual, keeping secrets, until a party is sprung on her that she hadn’t had time to get properly excited about.”

  Cole looked to Brooke for confirmation. “They’re right. You can feel it.”

  He nodded. “Thank you. All of you. She’s going to love this.” He pulled out his phone and brought up his calendar. “Sam has piano lessons until six today. Do you think we could meet with her tonight around seven to make plans?”

  Brooke said, “I’d love to,” and figured she’d just have to find a way to make it work later.

  As they stood up and she walked him through the storefront to the front door, he said, “I never asked—how was your trip to New York?”

  She smiled. “It was a lot of fun. I met some cool people, went to a fun party, and got some great advice during a lunch with a fellow designer.”

  After saying goodbye, she stopped in her tracks when she came back into the offices and saw the looks on Noemi’s and Delbrina’s faces. “What?”

  “Why don’t you let anyone here know how successful you really are?” Noemi asked, a hand on her hip.

  Delbrina put her hand on her hip, too, the two of them looking remarkably similar for how different each woman was. “You just made the top five designers being considered by Van Zandt! And you didn't say boo to Whitney yesterday or Cole today. You told both you just went to a party and met some people.”

  “Which is completely true.”

  “You could be a celebrity here,” Noemi said. “I’d sell my soul to be as successful and well known as you.”

  “And,” Delbrina added, “if you let them know what was going on, they would understand when you’ve got too much on your plate to add something else.”

  “People are important,” Brooke said as she went back to the design table. “This party is important. And I like small town life. I grew up in New York and Los Angeles and Paris. I’ve lived the big city life, and I still get to be Big City Brooke every couple of weeks. It’s nice. I enjoy it, obviously.

  “But this place—” She spread her arms wide, encompassing the whole town before picking up her pen. “This place fits. I like who I am here. My parents gave me the education and the experiences to support what I’m good at and passionate about. But here is where I’m home. Nestled Hollow is where I’m me. I don’t want any successes outside of Nestled Hollow to change things here.”

  Both of her employees nodded like they understood, even if they didn’t agree.

  “Now let’s get to work—we’ve got a lot of things to get done in a small amount of time.”

  Chapter Five

  Cole walked with Samantha up Brooke’s sidewalk toward her front door, Sam holding his hand and clutching the book, a skip in her step. The sun was just setting, and the golden skies cast a shade of gold on everything. It was barely spring, yet Brooke already had flowers popping up in her flower beds. As usual, her entire yard looked immaculate, even with the grass still more brown from winter than green from the beginnings of spring.

  They knocked on the door and waited. When Brooke didn’t come to the door, he knocked again, more loudly this time. Still she didn’t come to the door. He was just reaching for his phone to call her when she pulled into the driveway. The garage door opened and she parked inside, the door shutting behind her. Then, moments later, she opened the front door, her face flushed from rushing.

  “I’m so sorry I’m late. There were things at work that had to be done before I could leave, and I just couldn’t quite get it done in time. Come in, come in.”

  “Is tonight a bad night for this?” Cole asked. “If you’re too busy—”

  “I’m not too busy for this,” she said as she led them through the living room and into the dining room that was open to the kitchen.

  Sam had been giddy when he’d told her about the plan to work with Brooke to recreate Princess Samantha’s Perfect Party. Finding out that they’d be planning the party at Brooke’s house had been the frosting on the cake.

  Cole figured that everyone’s house probably reflected who they were, but Brooke’s house always felt like it was more her than any other house reflected its owner. All the furnishings, the art, the way everything was arranged—all was all fashionable and polished, just like she was. But unlike other nice homes that he’d been in, Brooke’s felt comfortable and inviting. Like guests were welcome anywhere in her house and could stay as long as they’d like. He always felt at peace in her home.

  He never did get how she managed to afford it all, though. Especially because she had a couple of employees working for her whose salaries she had to pay, too. Plus, she took vacations all across the country just to go to parties, and that had to get expensive. Sure, tourists and people from neighboring towns came to Nestled Hollow all the time, but even with them, there were only so many fancy dresses people needed. He’d heard her talk about selling her dresses in boutique shops in other places. He had no idea what a boutique shop was, but maybe that’s what kept her afloat.

  As they took seats around Brooke’s table, Sam reverently placed the book on the table.

  “How’d your book report go?” Brooke asked.

  Sam smiled. “Remember how one of your suggestions was to tell about the adventure the kids went on in the book like I was a news reporter on TV, reporting about the story? Well, I decided to do that and practiced in front of my dad like a gajillion times last night, so when I got up in front of my class, I wasn’t even nervous.”

  Cole beamed at Sam. “She even threw in an interview with the main character, who she also played, which was humorous and, if I might say, pretty brilliant.”

  “My class even laughed at all the right places.”

  Brooke gave Sam a high five, and said, “Hard work and preparation pays off every time. I’m proud of you for putting so much into it.”

  Brooke had first stepped into their lives a few months after Amanda died. Both he and Sam had been drowning and neither of them knew how to help each other. Brooke came along and reached a hand out to both of them, pulling them right out of the water.

  It had made a huge difference to Samantha to have a woman who she could talk with and have as an example. Sam idolized Brooke. As much as he loved the two of them doing things together, it was hard on Samantha every time Brooke was gone. And she left a lot. Sam already didn’t have a mom and needed some stability in her life. The older Samantha got, the worse it seemed to get.

  “Okay, let me tell you about this book,” Sam said as she opened to the first page and ran her hands from the middle out to the sides, both spreading the pages out more flat and showing them off like a prize. “So this girl is Princess Samantha, and she’s pretty sad. I know you wouldn’t think it’d be this way, but she’s actually pretty lonely as the princess, and so she makes a wish on that star that she’ll feel loved.”

  She flipped to the next page. “And then boom! This fairy godmother appears, and she’s super nice, and they decide that for Princess Samantha’s tenth birthday, which was coming up soon, they would have a massive awesome party and invite lots of kids. And they would make the party so much fun that all the kids would have a blast, and then she wouldn’t be lonely and she’d feel loved.”

  As Sam went through the story, she flipped to each page, sometimes telling just a bit, sometimes pausing to point out the exp
ression on Princess Samantha’s face, and sometimes telling even more than the words on the page told.

  “So first, they decided that since she was turning ten, that they should invite ten dukes and ten duchesses to the party. And guess what? You’re not even going to believe this. Not counting me, there are ten girls and ten boys in my class!” She made a motion of her head exploding. “That was the first thing I noticed when we all found our seats on the first day of fourth grade.”

  Sam hadn’t even mentioned that to Cole. It pained him to know that his little girl had been thinking specifically about this party for what, a little over six months? And each time she’d thought about it, she had thought it would never happen, and each time it would make her miss her mom even more. All this time, and he hadn’t even known.

  Brooke laughed. “Well, I guess you’ve got the guest list down already then.” She wrote Guest list on her paper, then put a big check mark next to it.

  The look of bliss on Sam’s face right now, though, was one that Cole wished he could bottle and keep for emergencies.

  Sam flipped to the next page. “So then they made these invitations that were beautiful and sparkly. But I don’t think we should make ours sparkly, because it turns out that a lot of boys don’t actually like it when they get glitter stuck to them. Weird, I know. Whenever I see a random piece of glitter sparkling on my arm or face, I just know the day is going to be magical.” She shrugged her shoulders. “But my dad always says that you don’t have to understand why people feel a certain way to show respect for those feelings. So no glitter it is!”

  Cole chuckled. Sam always sounded so grown up whenever she repeated things he’d said. And moments when she picked up on the things he always hoped she’d learn from him were so much better than the times she learned things from him he’d wished she hadn’t. He felt Brooke’s eyes on him and glanced over to see an expression he couldn’t quite interpret. Neither of them looked away, so he kept trying to guess.

  And then Sam flipped to the next page, where she told about how a unicorn-drawn carriage brought all of the kids to the party, and whatever spell had kept them looking at each other was broken.

  She flipped the page again, and the picture showed a magical platform that raised the kids up to a high tower, where they slid down a slide to get to the courtyard where the party would happen.

  “I’ve got it,” Cole said. “I take warm soup to Nate’s construction crew on cold days often, and he said if I ever needed a favor to just ask. I bet he’d be willing to make a kind of platform. Then we could put you on it, and have it raise you up like an angel floating up into the sky, and then everyone can sing happy birthday to you.”

  Samantha raised a hand like a stop sign and said, “Dad, no,” in her firmest voice. “This book is not about Princess Samantha getting everybody to do cool things for her. It’s about a girl who plans a party for everyone to have fun and feel special and loved. The whole point of the story is to make sure all the dukes and duchesses have a great time. That’s what makes the princess have the perfect day.”

  He leaned over and kissed the top of her head. “You’re a cool girl, Samster.”

  As Sam told more of the story, Brooke wrote each of the items on her list.

  “And this is the sad part of the story,” Sam said. “On the day of the party, the fairy godmother got sick! But there was so much that needed to be done for the party that day, and so they could no longer do all the things they had planned. But don’t get too worried like I always did—the story ended up being okay because all the dukes and duchesses that the princess had invited helped to pull it off, which was fun for everyone, and that’s actually what really made the princess feel loved.”

  Sam ran her fingers across the fairy godmother who was lying in a bed, looking miserable, a thermometer in her mouth. “When my mom used to read me this story, she told me we would have a party like this when I turned ten, but I figured my mom was like the fairy godmother in the story and I was so worried that she would get sick, too, just like in the story.”

  Sam swallowed and looked down at the book. Brooke reached out and squeezed her hand, which seemed to help Sam, and she continued. “But my mom said that when we planned the party, we were going to get help from other people before the party, so everything wouldn’t go wrong on the day of the party.”

  “We will definitely get help,” Cole said.

  “I bet there are lots of people who will help,” Brooke agreed.

  Sam nodded and smiled, a peaceful bliss on her face, and turned to the next page. “And at the party, all the dukes and duchesses showed up in their fanciest clothes, and Princess Samantha wore her favorite dress. It was a big fluffy one, and she wore shimmering ribbons in her hair and sparkly shoes.”

  Brooke sat up straighter. “I’ll design your dress.”

  Samantha’s eyes flew to Brooke’s, disbelief and hopefulness on her face.

  “I can make a dress that’s perfect for you.” Brooke repeated.

  “I’ve known you a long time,” Cole said, “and I can tell that you’re stressed right now and probably have a lot on your plate. You don’t have to do this, Brooke.”

  “No, I can do it. It’s perfect timing.”

  “You’re going to make me my very own By the Brooke dress?” Sam whispered, awe-struck. “For me?”

  Brooke smiled and nodded, and Sam burst out of her chair and threw her arms around Brooke. “I love you, Brooke! You’re the best fairy godmother ever!”

  Shock and surprise washed over Brooke’s face, and then she returned the hug, letting out a laughing breath. “Like your dad said, you’re a cool girl, Samster. I’d be honored to design you a dress.”

  When Cole had finally been able to picture himself with someone again after Amanda, this is exactly who he had pictured. Someone whose heart he was so drawn to. Someone who would bring this kind of joy to his daughter.

  At the time Brooke had first walked into their lives, he’d seriously considered pursuing her. But he soon realized he couldn’t. She was gone all the time, sometimes with only a few hours’ notice. It hadn’t mattered how attracted to her that he was—he had his daughter to think about, not just himself, and she deserved someone to be around for her. Plus, he craved stability in his life and he’d never get that with Brooke.

  “Let’s take a look at that list,” Cole said as Sam climbed back into her seat. He needed to get his mind focused on something other than Brooke, or the attraction he felt toward her was going to rear up too strongly. “If we are going to get help from people before the party, we better get thinking about who we’re going to ask.”

  Together they brainstormed people who could help with each item on the list. They had come up with a lot of names of people in town who could help with different parts, but there were still several items on the list that didn’t have names next to them. As they made a plan for each item, the excitement level in the room grew. Cole had started off the evening feeling like this party was so outside of his comfort zone that it would be impossible to pull off, and now he couldn’t wait to get started.

  “Okay,” Sam said, kneeling on her chair, her elbows on the table, leaning forward to read the list. “We still have decorations and activities with no one’s names by them.”

  Brooke’s eyes met Cole’s and she opened her mouth like she was going to say something, then hesitated. Then she looked at Samantha and said, “Let’s put our names by them. I think we can come up with some pretty good ideas.”

  “Really?” both Cole and Sam said at the same time.

  Brooke actually looked as surprised at her offer to help as Cole was.

  “Yes,” Brooke said. “We’re going to give you the perfect party, Princess Samantha.”

  As they walked toward the door to leave, Sam was between Cole and Brooke, and she wrapped an arm around both of them and squeezed them tight. “Thank you both for being my fairy godmothers, and for helping me plan a party that all the kids are going to love. The prin
cess in the book didn’t feel loved until the very end, but I feel loved right now.”

  He was so grateful that Brooke offered to help plan this party because she’d been right—it wasn’t something he could’ve pulled off on his own. But right now, the part of him that had fallen for Brooke long ago warred with the disciplined part of him that worried about how much more difficult spending so much time with Brooke was going to make things. For both Sam and him.

  Chapter Six

  “You volunteered for what?” Delbrina said, disbelief coloring every word.

  Noemi turned away from the computer where they were uploading images to their online store and threw her arms up. “How are you going to have time for that and still prepare for Van Zandt?”

  “I don’t know,” Brooke said. She’d shown up for work at six a.m. again this morning to start work on dealing with some issues her accountant had sent her, but she had found her mind wandering to Sam’s party and very much against her will, to Cole. And in not a just-friends way.

  They had kissed once before, but that had been a mistake. A fluke. Or at least that’s what she had told herself. The feelings she started having last night, and the thoughts she was still having, felt very much not a fluke. Eventually this morning, she had given up on accounting and started working on designing Sam’s dress before the others came in to work.

  Now she was even more behind on the day. She shook her head. “Especially because Sam’s birthday is only three days after returning from presenting to Van Zandt, so most of the preparations for her party will need to happen at the same time I’m preparing for the presentation.”

  Delbrina looked heavenward, shaking her head. Noemi, for all of her softness, stood tall, a fist on her hip, looking like a mother about to scold a child.

  “For the record,” Brooke said, “I had planned to not volunteer for anything. I was just there to help them come up with a plan and a list of people to ask. I’m very good at saying no.” She hadn’t always been good at it, but she had learned quickly. She couldn’t have built a business the size of By the Brooke by getting distracted by things that didn’t fit with her goals.