She scolded herself, but only for a moment. So what if he was her friend? She couldn’t admire God’s handiwork? Jared used to be skinny, with chicken legs sticking out of his cargo shorts, but in the past couple of years, his body had transformed. Those formerly skinny legs now curved and dipped into the athletic form of a man. No trace of boy left, save for his smile.
He turned and caught her staring, his curvy lips quirking up on one side. His jaw ticked as he watched her, as if waiting for her to approach. They stood for a quiet moment, staring at each other while sparks traversed the width of the hallway between them.
Maybe she was past the point of getting over a crush. Maybe she’d moved on to full-blown, all-consuming lust.
Without a word, he extended his hand, and she slipped hers easily into his waiting palm. Hand in hand, they entered the dining room.
Mila gasped.
Massive chandeliers made of deer antlers and lined with electric candles hung from the impossibly high vaulted ceilings, filling the spacious room with a glow like the inside of a fireplace. Round mahogany tables stretched before them to the far side of the gymnasium-size space, and each table featured place settings straight out of Adirondack Decor magazine. Creamy white china plates sat atop buffalo-plaid tablecloths, and a single sprig of rosemary wrapped around name cards adorned the natural linen napkins at each place.
Brass candelabras with dripping red candles perched in the center of each table, the candlelight flickering in the windows and multiplying as if even the forest itself had been festively adorned. The room had been decorated top to bottom, but their group would be its only occupants tonight.
“I think we’re here,” Jared said. He placed a hand on the small of her back and motioned to the cluster of people surrounding the imposing wood bar at the far end of the room.
If he didn’t stop touching her there, she’d melt into him and ask him to forget their friendship altogether. Her head swam every time his thumb passed the border of velvet fabric and brushed her skin.
After ordering a glass of pinot noir for herself and a Knob Creek on the rocks for Jared, Mila found an empty space amid the chattering contestants to size up the competition.
“You’re definitely the youngest.” Jared leaned in, whispering and sending warm breath across her neck. The air crackled around them, enveloping them in intoxicating magic. Did he feel it, too? He’d touched her more in the last hour than in the entire history of their friendship, but she didn’t trust her gut to lead her in the right direction.
She’d been wrong about him before. That night after the lake. When he sent the flowers. She’d misread every sign, jumped every gun. She’d need more than subtle gestures to bridge the chasm of their friendship.
“That doesn’t mean anything,” Mila said. “We need to find out if anybody here is a trained pastry chef or some sort of under-the-radar food TV star.”
Jared sipped his bourbon and shoved his free hand into his pocket, lowering his gaze in exaggerated skepticism. Mila’s chest burned. He’d always been good-looking in a generic way, like a JCPenney catalog model or the kid at camp everybody had a crush on. In the last few years, his features had sharpened, his jaw broadening and his cheeks slimming to turn his face from baby pudge to certified dreamboat.
He licked his lips and nudged her elbow. “That guy. If anybody in this room is anybody, it’s that guy.”
Mila tore her gaze away from Jared’s perfect face to a couple across the room dressed in obviously expensive garments. An eggplant-toned bandage dress hugged the woman’s curves and highlighted the shock of expertly dyed blond waves cascading down her back, while the man’s charcoal suit coat stretched across broad shoulders, unbuttoned to accommodate a round belly. A salt-and-pepper goatee framed his protruding lips. He ran a hand over the curve of his date’s butt as they surveyed the room just like Mila and Jared.
“I remember him from the first round of the competition,” Mila said. “He looked familiar then, too. Maybe he is a professional.”
“Come on.” Jared hooked her elbow and took a step toward the couple. When she resisted, his eyes narrowed in confusion. “We’re just gonna stand here and speculate?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “What would we talk about?”
“Lee.” His voice dropped to a gentler tone as he wet his lower lip. “You talk to people at the diner every day. This is the same thing. I love you, but I don’t want to stand here like the socially awkward townies all night.”
Her face froze in a half smile while the lower half of her body turned to jelly. Love?
She blinked.
He blinked.
“Sure,” she said, her voice catching. “Yeah, let’s go. Talk to some people. No sweat.”
She brushed past Jared, her snug velvet dress restricting her breathing and the long strides her legs ached for. With a forced smile, she pushed the l-word into the back of her brain.
Love.
Of course he loved her. They used to say it flippantly all the time. Recently, however, the word had all but disappeared from their vernacular as if overnight it had morphed into some all-powerful entity with the ability to decimate anyone in its path. Tonight it ravaged her brain and tore up her heart.
“Hi there.” Mila grinned widely at the paunchy man and his svelte date. “I love your dress.”
“Oh, thank you,” the woman said, sliding a hand down the front of her toned body. “I had no idea how to dress for this thing. I’m glad to see you’re dressed up, too. Those earrings are gorgeous.”
Mila touched the dangling gold earrings she’d snagged from Nicole’s jewelry box. Her friend would be thrilled to know how well the look had gone over tonight.
“Thanks.”
“I’m Rachel Santangelo,” the woman said, extending her hand. “And this is my mute husband, Bob.”
Mila shook the woman’s fragile hand as Bob rolled his eyes.
“Pardon me,” he groaned. He shook Mila’s outstretched hand. “Not my kind of thing, you know what I mean?”
“Totally,” Jared said, sidling up to Mila and flashing his smile at Rachel and Bob. “Free food, free booze, cool place, exciting competition. What a snooze.”
Rachel giggled at Jared and adjusted her shoulders until her ample breasts strained against the bodice of her dress. Mila waited for the woman to wipe the drool from her chin.
“I keep telling him to enjoy it.” Rachel took a step closer to Jared as if Mila didn’t exist. “He entered the competition on a whim, and wouldn’t you know it, he finals? Just like that.”
Mila tightened her grip on the wineglass and took a calming sip of the smoky pinot noir. Of course this pompous man entered a competition Mila had worked her ass off for and then skated through to the finals. She remembered Bob from the first round. He had rolled in fifteen minutes late and spent the duration of the judging process on an obnoxiously loud phone call with his financial adviser.
“Well,” Jared offered, “I’m sure it wasn’t just like that. So many people entered. The level of competition was really up there.”
“Come on.” Bob laughed. He downed the last inch of brown liquid in his rocks glass. “It’s not Top Chef. It’s the freaking Podunk Potluck. Rachel’s right, I entered on a whim, and now we’re using these next couple of weeks as a break from real life. The town’s kinda cute. Probably some all right fishing.”
A devastating retort clawed at Mila’s throat, but she held back. It wouldn’t do anyone any good for her to start a petty argument with this arrogant asshole, and it wouldn’t make Pine Ridge look any more distinguished if the only resident in the room turned angry.
Jared swallowed, a placid smile settling on his lips. “Great fishing,” he said. “And you’re right, the town is cute. So cute, in fact, the region experienced thirty percent growth in tourist revenue last year alone, and with Indigo Hotels moving in, a
n even greater uptick is expected. Local businesses are thriving, and the Pine Ridge bookstore was just featured on Good Morning America. You’d be hard-pressed to find lakefront property under half a million these days.”
Mila bit down on her lower lip, pride in her hometown swelling inside her belly. So many people drove through Pine Ridge on their way to somewhere else, giving the town a passing glance. Those who stopped found something worth exploring. Those who called it home experienced its magic every single day.
A condescending smirk curled onto Bob’s trout mouth. “Forgot I was talking to the competition’s only local finalist. How embarrassing for me.”
“Oh, shut up, Bob,” Rachel said. She slapped his arm and huffed out a breath, her eyes darting back and forth from Mila to Jared. “He’s just joking. We really do love it up here.”
Mila stood a little taller. “It doesn’t really matter to us if you love it here. But since you’re part of the competition helping to support our economy, it would be nice if you looked a little deeper into why so many other people love it.”
Jared grinned at her, his cheeks filling with a mottled blush. Under any other circumstances she’d high-five him. In her velvet dress and heels, surrounded by opulent fixtures and creamy linens, she settled for a squeeze of his hand.
“I need another drink,” Jared said. “Can I get anybody anything? No? Okay, then, we’ll see you at dinner. Great meeting you.”
A smile exploded on Mila’s face as they turned toward the bar, leaving Bob and Rachel openmouthed and speechless.
“God, that felt really good,” he said as he motioned to the bartender for another round. “Maybe we don’t have to mingle after all?”
“You should work for the Pine Ridge tourism board,” she said. “Is that true? What you said? Thirty percent growth?”
“Absolutely,” Jared said. “This place is about to boom.”
Doubt coiled around her gut and tightened. So why do you want to leave? Vin’s words echoed in her brain. Jared wanted a job with their Raleigh-based team.
Sure, Pine Ridge couldn’t compete with a big city. A girl could barely get a bite to eat after nine o’clock, and in the winter, darkness swallowed the town whole. The snow and quiet and short days could be debilitating.
But it was home. Her home. Quirky and kind and pine scented. And if Jared believed his own sales pitch, there was money to be made here. A lot of money. Leaving didn’t make any sense. At least not now.
Maybe not ever.
chapter eleven
I guess we oughta introduce ourselves.” The silver-haired gentleman dressed in a baggy brown tweed suit clinked a fork against his water glass and grinned around the table with graveyard teeth. “I’ll go ahead and assume I’m the grandpa of the group, but that’s okay by me. I’m grandpa to ten grandchildren, so I’m used to it.”
The group chortled politely, but Jared could scarcely remember the joke. How could he focus on anything with Mila sitting four inches to his right and looking like that?
Had she dipped herself in honey and rolled around in magic glitter before she got in his car tonight? Her skin practically glowed in the candlelight. With every movement, a new, gentle wave of amber-scented perfume wafted toward him, making a mess of his head. The stretches of her visible skin shimmered, the rest of her covered in a clingy, midnight-blue dress that showed off a backside he wanted to trail a hand over more than he’d ever wanted anything in his life.
Her outfit distracted him, but the way she’d torn into Bob Better-Than-You stirred something inside he hadn’t yet figured out how to squash. He liked her fiery.
He liked it a lot.
But it was Mila. Mila. His friend Mila. No tight dress or snappy retort would turn her into anything but that.
“I’m Mila.” Her voice cut through his thoughts, and he took a sip of water to steady himself. “I was born and raised in Pine Ridge and still live here now. I’m a home cook, never had any proper training, and the recipe that got me here was a sweet-and-savory rosemary-Concord-grape pie. And this is my friend Jared.”
Jared raised a hand while nineteen sets of expectant eyes lighted on him.
“Hi.”
Mila lowered her chin, encouraging him to say something, but he hadn’t heard a word the others had said. For maybe the first time in his life, words escaped him.
The tiny, red-haired woman to his left cleared her throat before taking her turn. “Hiya! I’m Kim. Originally from Potsdam, but now I live in Buffalo. . . .”
Jared swallowed the last of his water and trailed trembling fingers across the gleaming cutlery on the table in front of him. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d been nervous around a girl. But nobody looked like Mila; nobody knew him like she did.
As if reading his mind, she placed a hand on his wrist. Her eyes narrowed in concern.
“What’s wrong? Are you sick or something?”
“No.” Shit. He didn’t want the focus to be on him in any way. Tonight was her night. And in a dress like that, who else could it belong to? Nobody in the room stood a chance. Not even Rachel in her Look at me, look at me, have you looked at me yet dress.
“Hey,” Mila said. She raised her hand to her mouth, paused, and placed it in her lap. Probably dying to chew her thumbnail. How many times had he teased her for the bad habit? She only did it when she was nervous or uncomfortable. His stomach clenched at the thought of what might come out of her mouth next.
“When I talked to Vin earlier, he said something about you being Indigo Hotels material. What does that mean?”
Jared huffed out a ragged breath. “Eh, nothing. He’s a dick.”
Mila tilted her head, a loose curl trailing along her shoulder. Lucky curl.
“J.”
Jared ran his tongue across his teeth and leaned back in his chair as the rest of the group continued their introductions. “He mentioned their team hires people with real estate backgrounds to scout out new locations for Indigo properties. Development type stuff. He said he’d put in a word if I wanted.”
Mila swallowed, the concern on her face melting away. “Oh, wow. Really? From here? Or . . .”
“Ah, no. He said they have locations all over the country, but they’re based in North Carolina.”
Her gaze narrowed. His blood suddenly ran cold. What would it mean to her if he moved away?
“Wow.” She cleared her throat. “That’s an amazing opportunity for you.”
“I guess.” His brow pinched. Since when had he downplayed career opportunities? In another life, his best friend, Mila, would be jumping up and down in excitement for him. Lately, something heavier lined their conversations. Maybe their lives were more closely entwined than he thought.
“What do you mean, you guess?” She crossed her arms over her chest, her breasts shifting in response under the velvet of her dress. He forced his eyes upward.
“I mean . . . what about Silver Lake?” he said. “I’ve been working on that property for a year now. I can’t just give it up to go work for some soulless corporation.”
“No offense, but you’ve wanted to work for soulless corporations since you got into real estate. Pine Ridge has always been a jumping-off point for you.”
“That is not true,” he said.
She raised one eyebrow in her signature stare.
“All right, fine, it’s sort of true. But maybe I’ve been wrong. Or maybe I will move on from here someday, but who knows if it’s with Indigo.”
“Why wouldn’t you at least give it a shot?” she said. “You’ve got nothing to lose.”
The air around them stilled, framing the moment like a photograph. Her oval face glowed in the candlelight, the flames flickering against her glossy dark hair and sparking her tiny jeweled nose stud like someone had conjured her from a vision. She trailed her front teeth over her full bottom lip and tightened
her arms across her chest.
Nothing to lose.
Didn’t he?
“I don’t know about that.” His voice barely lifted over the low din of the group, and she leaned forward. He heard his mother in the back of his mind. If someone had handed me a ticket out of Pine Ridge twenty years ago, I’d have snatched it in an instant and never looked back.
The problem was, if Jared left, he wouldn’t need to look back to know what he’d left behind.
“What’d you say?”
He cleared his throat. “Nothing.”
Mila’s lips parted, ready to challenge him into continuing, when Vin approached.
“Good evening, folks!” He raised his hands, his phony smile beaming. That guy was lucky it was Mila’s night, otherwise he’d have to knock out one or more of those blindingly white teeth.
Conversation at the table quieted as the group greeted Vin.
“We’re so glad to have you here at the brand-new Indigo Hotels Adirondack Park,” Vin said. “You’re in for a treat tonight. Chef Constance and her team have created a very special menu with all of you in mind, so get ready for something truly spectacular.”
A stream of waiters clad in crisp red plaid shirts appeared, balancing plates in the air and followed by the bright, clean scent of citrus and ginger.
Each dish that appeared before Jared tasted better than the last, with a steady stream of crisp vegetables, delicate sauces, and slow-roasted meats delighting the table. Jared enjoyed every single bite, but better than the food was Mila’s reaction to everything.
“It’s duck à l’orange, but this sauce!”
“Parsley? This is parsley! J, this is parsley!”
“Did they put this on toast? Genius!”
With every plate, her eyes rolled back in her head, she pressed a hand to her chest, she moaned in pure delight. By the time dessert arrived, he didn’t know if his pants were tight because he was full or aroused.
The waitstaff brought coffee and tea, and as they departed, Vin reappeared.
Sweet Love Page 14
