by Easton, Meg
“But you weren’t there. Samantha lost her mom, and the two of them had been planning to have this party for as long as Sam can remember. As we talked, Sam was just so happy and so excited, and it was contagious. When I was her age, I was the lead in my elementary school’s play, and I had a grand idea of a cast party after the final show. My parents were both busy, and although they had always been civil to each other after the divorce, they didn’t like each other a whole lot. But they still came together and made the day special for me and the whole cast.” Brooke shrugged. “I guess I just wanted Sam to have that moment, too. In the end, I decided I didn’t want to say no this time.”
Delbrina shook her head back and forth slowly. “You have a weakness for that girl. Always have.”
Noemi’s hands flew to her mouth and she gasped. Then, pointing at Brooke, she said, “And you’ve got a weakness for her dad!” She turned to look at Delbrina, still pointing at Brooke, as if the evidence was written across Brooke’s face.
Was that heat rising in her cheeks? She really hoped she wasn’t blushing.
A slow smile spread across Delbrina’s face. “Brooke! When did this happen?”
“It didn’t happen. My goodness, you two are quick to jump to conclusions. Okay, I’ll admit that there was a moment when I felt a slight something,” she continued a little louder to speak over Noemi’s squeal, “but it lasted like thirty seconds, then I squashed it flat. Straying beyond friends with Cole is dangerous. And you know I’m not okay with ever dating someone from Nestled Hollow.”
Brooke walked over to the rack room and rolled out the one with the clothing that they were going to show to Van Zandt, “Besides, Back Porch Grill is my favorite place to eat in the country. If I dated its owner, then not only would I lose my best friend, but the awkwardness after we broke up would make me lose the ability to eat at the best restaurant anywhere.”
Delbrina and Noemi both folded their arms and turned toward each other. “She doesn’t want to date someone because of her stomach,” Noemi said.
They both chuckled, then Delbrina said, “You know, though, it sounds reasonable. I wouldn’t let anything get between me and that ice cream shop down the street.”
Brooke inspected the rack with the clothing they needed to photograph for the look book.
“In all seriousness, though,” Delbrina said, “knowing your weakness for that man and his daughter, you probably shouldn’t have offered to have the planning meeting with them in the first place.”
“Maybe,” Brooke said, “but if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have known that Sam needed a fancy party dress fit for a princess, and I wouldn’t have come up with this.” She pulled the giant sketch book from its shelf and laid it on the table, and then flipped open to the page where she’d drawn a dress that was worthy of both royalty and her favorite nine-year-old.
“Oh, honey,” Noemi breathed, a hand pressed over her heart. “That is breathtaking.”
Delbrina reached a hand partway toward it. “Well, if that isn’t as fine as a frog’s hair split four ways, I don’t know what is.”
Brooke smiled as she watched her team fawning over her creation. The truth was, she’d designed dresses for Samantha in her head plenty of times, just like she did with every person she met. Since Sam was so young, so the dress had changed over the years as Sam changed. The design she sketched this morning, though, had come to her in a flash last night when the girl had turned to the page where the princess was all dressed up. Instantly, she had known that it was the perfect dress to use for Van Zandt’s requirement to design something outside of what they normally did.
“This is it,” Noemi said. “It’s perfect.”
Brooke and her team spent the rest of the day turning her sketch into a detailed pattern with notes, and then a muslin pattern on a dress form Brooke had adjusted to be what she was sure was Sam’s size. It was a very detailed, ambitious pattern with a fitted bodice and a big fluffy skirt that went nearly to the ground, so it took a lot of sewing, then altering, then re-sewing and then making more adjustments to get it just right.
She glanced down at her watch. “Are you two good to start taking this apart and turning into a pattern while I’m at the Main Street Business Alliance meeting?”
“You’ve got it,” Delbrina said around a mouthful of pins.
With as much as she had to do still, Brooke wasn’t sure she should be going to the meeting at all. But she had been so hyper-focused on the dress all day, working at such a feverish pace, that she really needed the two minutes of fresh air she got by walking to the meeting, and the chance to flop down in a chair and do something different for a bit. Besides, Brooke had never missed a Business Alliance meeting that she had been in town for. No one missed them.
After opening the door to the basement of the library, she immediately spotted Cole chatting with Nate. Based on the animated smile on Cole’s face, he was probably asking Nate if he would help to make the lift to the slide for the party. Nate looked rather amused at either Cole’s description or his excitement. Hopefully that meant he’d say yes to the project.
She found Whitney in her normal spot on the front row, wearing a blazer and a Step away from the caps lock t-shirt, and she sat down next to her friend. Whitney glanced at her and said, “You doing okay?”
Brooke suddenly realized she hadn’t even glanced in a mirror since she got ready to go to work in the 5:00 hour this morning. “Why? How bad is it?”
“You’ve just got a little bit of an Einstein look going on.”
“Einstein?” Brooke raised an eyebrow, but immediately ran her fingers through her hair and hopefully tamed any hairs headed in crazy directions.
“You know. A wild excitement in the eyes. Like you just discovered the link between mass and energy.”
“I discovered I need a massive amount of energy to make it through my next few days. Does that count?”
Cole slipped into the seat on her other side and leaned in and said, “Nate’s in.”
“That’s fantastic!” Brooke said just as Ed and Linda Keetch got up to start the meeting. She tried to focus just as intently on the older couple as she had on Sam’s dress, mostly to keep her focus from drifting to how great Cole smelled. He had spent all day working in a hot kitchen. How did he always smell like sandalwood, ginger, and citrus shampoo?
It was not intoxicating.
In fact, it wasn’t even attractive.
He was a friend only.
She mentally shook a fist at Delbrina and Noemi for even bringing up her moment of misplaced attraction the day before and making it real with words, instead of just letting it be something ephemeral inside her head. If they hadn’t, she probably wouldn’t have even thought about it again.
Ed Keetch hooked his thumbs in his pockets and said, “I’m sure most of you are feeling in your pocketbooks the boost we got from skiers with all the snow this winter, but it sounds like we aren’t quite up to where we need to be.”
“But,” Linda said, “we’re really hoping this spring will get us all in the black and give an extra boost to Nestled Hollow. We’ve got the Take Flight Festival in just a week, and that should help bring in quite a few tourism dollars.”
After they discussed all the details of the festival, Ed leaned against the table behind him, one arm resting on it. “You’ve all done a mighty fine job of meeting the needs of everyone in Nestled Hollow, but I know we can all use some outside money coming in. I want you all to take a few minutes and brainstorm with the business owner beside you on ways you can bring people outside Nestled Hollow into your place of business.”
Brooke immediately turned to Whitney. She put a hand on Cole’s knee, and said, “Cole and I have a question to ask you.”
Whitney’s eyes shifted to Brooke’s hand, and Brooke realized how much the action paired with the question made them seem like a couple. She pulled her hand back as quickly as she could. “Do you think your presses could print fancy invitations?”
Whitney
paused, like she working the machines in her head. “I’m sure they could. Why? What do you have in mind?”
Brooke turned and met Cole’s grin, then said to Whitney, “Some very special party invitations for a very sweet little girl.”
“Of course! I love Sam. I have some suppliers with fancy paper.”
“One of my weekend waitresses, Halle, is going to school to be a graphic designer, and she’s agreed to work with Sam to come up with something worthy of ‘Princess Samantha’s Perfect Party.’”
“But more on topic,” Brooke said, giving a nod to Ed Keetch, “if you could get a website set up where people can design invitations, you could probably bring in customers all throughout the county.”
“That might be a possibility,” Whitney said, tapping her finger on her lips. “I’m going to have to think on that some more.”
Macie, the owner of Paws & Relax, grabbed the chair on the other side of Cole and brought it around to the front so she was facing the three of them. “Brooke, you know that dress that you made with me in mind that I wore to the Winter Formal at NHH? That dress was perfect. I don’t even know myself well enough to have known that would be the most exactly right dress possible, yet you did. That’s a gift people would pay a lot of money for.”
“She’s right,” Whitney said. “You can read a person’s deepest emotions just by looking at them. You’re brilliant at knowing what they want.”
Cole nodded. “There’s some rich people out there. I bet some would be willing to fly here just to meet with you and have you design them a dress.”
“True,” Brooke said. That sounded just like something her mother would do. Truth be told, her dad would too—he’d been known to fly out of the country to be fitted for a suit by someone who was an expert in the field.
“There are plenty of people who need fancy dresses out there,” Cole said. “Like people who present at the Oscars and those other awards shows on TV, and I don’t know, fancy galas and things like that. If you could get your name out there, wealthy people would travel here to have you work your magic, because you’re the best there is.”
Her eyes widened. He thought she was the best? Not that he knew anything about the world of design, so it wasn’t an objective assessment. But still, he thought about her that way?
Cole must’ve caught the moment of disbelief on her face, though, because he added, “I’m not sure you fully realize how incredible you are.”
Brooke’s breath caught in her throat and warmth spread in her chest at his words. She had been told she was talented many times, from people in the industry who knew what they were talking about. But none of them had ever said it with the heart that Cole had.
* * *
Brooke picked up her phone when she saw the screen light up. It was a text from Cole.
I stopped by the restaurant to help Hani close up and saw your car in the lot. Still working?
Brooke texted back.
Yep. Big project. I think I’ve spent a few thousand calories today just on brainpower, because I’m about ready to raid the mini fridge.
Ketchup packets spread on week old bagels can count as brain food, right?
She really needed to go shopping and bring some food to the office. She had been working far too many hours lately to have so little food around. She looked in the cupboard where there were occasionally some granola bars, but it was bare.
PUT DOWN THE BAGELS
Seriously, Brooke.
The ketchup packets, too.
I’m making you food right now. Come over.
Brooke looked at the clock on her phone. It was a few minutes past ten, so the restaurant was closed. Sam must be having her weekly sleepover at her grandma’s tonight. Her first thought was to tell him that he didn’t have to make her food this late at night, especially when he was trying to close up the restaurant, but she was starving, and the ketchup packets weren’t actually looking appetizing. So she closed up the office and headed over to the restaurant.
Cole unlocked the front door when he saw her through the glass, and she walked into the empty eating area and he locked it behind her.
“Choose a table,” Cole said, “and I’ll be right back with food.”
Brooke took a seat at a table for two in the middle of the dining room as Cole headed to the kitchen. Hani was apparently just finishing up some things in the back because she heard him telling Cole goodbye not long after.
Cole emerged from the kitchen, holding two steaming plates of stir-fried vegetables and chicken over rice, and set both of them down on the table, the bigger one in front of her, then he grabbed two glasses of water he’d already filled from the bar and set them on the table. Her stomach hadn’t seemed to realize exactly how hungry it was until she smelled the food, and it started growling loud enough for both of them to hear.
“Cole, it’s been less than ten minutes since I texted! How do you work this kind of magic?”
He shrugged. “The veggies were already cut, the chicken and rice already cooked. I just threw them together. It wasn’t a big deal. I can’t turn on the lights up here, though, or people will think we’re open.” He turned on his cell phone flashlight on and laid it on the table. “I don’t have any candles, either, so this will have to do.”
“We can do one better than that.” Brooke picked up his phone, went into his Netflix app, and searched for fireplace. She chose one of the videos of a fire burning in a fireplace, and set it back on the table, grinning.
Cole raised an eyebrow, impressed. “Next best thing.”
She took a bite of the delicious, warm meal and closed her eyes, savoring it. Then she pointed her fork at Cole. “You, Cole Iverson, are my very favorite thing about Nestled Hollow.”
He laughed and took a bite of his food.
She glanced at her watch. “You’re up past your bedtime. And you’re eating past the window of time you consider it okay to eat dinner.”
“Clearly you’re a bad influence on me.”
Brooke had spent way too much of the day with her brain on work to talk about it any longer, so in an effort to keep the conversation away from it, she asked, “Is Sam excited about her party?”
Cole smiled. “It’s all she talks about. Apparently she’s had this dream for years, and it’s finally coming true.” He paused a moment. “When you were a kid, did you have a favorite book like Sam did?”
“Absolutely.” She took a swallow of water. “I think the book was called You Know Someone Loves You. Each page said something about the ways people show love, like ‘You know someone loves you when they give you half their treat,’ or ‘You know someone loves you when they keep you company when you’re sick,’ or when they push you in a swing or pick a flower for you.
“But my most favorite page of all was the one that said, ‘when they bring you a balloon.’ There was a girl on that page who was holding a red balloon that someone had given her, and her face was full of wonder and appreciation and happiness that I always stared at her expression and imagined myself feeling the same. I just knew she felt loved.
“And then the book ended with ‘But most of all, you know someone loves you when
they hold you in their arms all snug and tight, and tell you that they love you every night.’ For a good year and a half, I didn’t go to sleep without that book by my side, whether I was at my dad’s house on one side of the country or my mom’s on the other, or in a hotel anywhere in between. I loved that book like nothing else.” Brooke shook her head, chuckling. “It’s been a long time since I’ve thought about that book. What about you?”
Cole nodded as he finished chewing his bite. “I don’t even remember what it was called, but I remember the picture on the cover perfectly. It was a story about a dragon who wanted to be a chef, so he made a kitchen in a clearing out of all the things he found in the woods. And as he was making a meal in his new kitchen, everybody came by to give him grief for it.”
He paused a moment, looking off to the side, like he
was picturing it.
“You remember some of the words, don’t you?” When he nodded, Brooke said, “Come on. You’ve got to tell me.”
Cole exhaled. “I don’t remember it all, but there was a part when the dragon first started preparing food that I can still remember, in the exact way my dad used to read it to me.”
He cleared his throat and, using different voices, said, “‘His momma said, ‘Dragons swoop and they fly.’ His daddy said, ‘Dragons belong in the sky.’ His best friend said, ‘Dragons breathe fire and roar!’ His sister said, ‘They don’t mix, measure, or pour.’ But all of their doubting, he simply ignored, while he chopped and he stirred and he spread and he poured. A pinch and a cup and a dollop and a squeeze, and then toasted it all with a flaming breeze.’
“And then of course at the end, his mom and his dad and his friend and his sister all wanted to eat the wonderful food he’d prepared. That book is what made me want to be a chef.”
Brooke marveled at the man seated across from her, his face glowing in the light of the fireplace on his phone in the middle of a restaurant he’d first dreamed of owning when he was a kid reading a book about a dragon.
“Yep,” she said, loading another bite on her fork, “you’re definitely my favorite part of Nestled Hollow.”
Chapter Seven
Cole finished ladling the red pepper sauce on the two spicy tortellini dishes he was making, then put them on the pass-through counter and looked at the next ticket in the longest line of tickets he’d had in a very long time. He took an extra second to glance at the lobby—people were still coming in. Brooke made her way through the throng of people waiting to be seated and met his eyes, a question in hers. One of these never-ending tickets was probably one she’d called in.
