by A. J. Wynter
“What’s next?” I asked.
“Well, we can’t move forward until we know what direction we’re going.”
I chuckled. “That’s deep, Mom.”
She laughed. “It is. I should put it on a sign and sell it in the store.”
“Someone would buy it,” Amber chimed in.
Mom’s phone buzzed on her desk. She put her reading glasses on and waved us into her office. “Sit down,” she hissed. “It’s a Yates’ number.”
Mom put her phone on speaker and turned on her soothing but confident business voice. I was literally on the edge of my seat and Amber was holding onto the arms of hers.
Monica’s shrill voice barked through the phone. Mom handled her like a pro and when she hung up, she gave me a huge proud smile. “Congratulations, Faith.”
I was confident in my work, but the confirmation that someone else liked it made my chest swell. “I knew the Scottie dogs would seal the deal.”
“Toto was a Cairn.” Mom looked at me over her glasses. “But yes, your subtle Wizard of Oz theme came through.”
“Congrats, Faith.” Amber hugged me. “I can’t wait to get started sourcing everything for the job.”
I squealed and held my cup in both hands. “It’s going to be spectacular – don’t worry about anything, Mom. I can do it.”
“I know you can, honey. I’m going to let you and Amber run with the design, and I’ll deal with Monica.”
“Perfect.” I clapped my hands. “We get to do the fun stuff.”
“Don’t I know it.” Mom turned her attention back to her screen. “I’m dealing with some accounting stuff. One of you needs to get in touch with the painters and the flooring guys.”
“I’m on it.” Amber jotted it down in the pink notebook she carried with her.
Mom held up her finger. “After that, I need you two to do something for me.”
Her voice sounded serious. Amber and I automatically sat in the chairs and stared at Mel D with intense focus. “The real estate agent is meeting you at the storefront at ten.”
“Mom?”
“Do you need me to repeat myself?” She tried to put on a serious tone, but it didn’t work with the big smile on her face.
“Are you serious?”
She nodded.
I launched out of my chair and squealed.
“Don’t get ahead of yourself, my dear.” Mom laughed. “We have to run some numbers. Hold off on the celebrations until the ink is dry.”
“Could it be more perfect?” Amber’s eyes were wide as she took in the exposed brick wall in the former yoga clothes shop. She moved to the window and gasped. “It overlooks the harbor.”
I outlined my ideas for the layout and Amber contributed some awesome suggestions. “I can’t believe Mom’s going for this – with everything else going on.”
“Your mom is a shrewd businesswoman, Faith. She sees potential. And by that, I mean she sees potential in you. She thinks you can take her business to the next level.”
The excitement from earlier that morning hadn’t died down, and as soon as we walked into the space it bubbled to the surface. “She does?”
“Yep.” Amber leaned against the wall. “Hey, Faith.”
“Yeah?” I stretched the measuring tape from one side of the wall to the other.
“Did you talk to Leo?”
I let go of the stopper and the metal tape clattered as it retracted. “Not really. I sent him a dumb text message, though. Why?” It seemed like an odd thing to bring up when we were in work mode.
“He’s outside.” Amber was looking over my shoulder.
I turned slowly. Leo’s back was to us and he was standing on the sidewalk. “What’s he doing?” I asked, more to myself than to Amber.
“I’m not sure. Does he know you’re here?”
Leo looked one way, then the other, and then to his feet; but he didn’t move.
“How would he know that?”
I was torn. I had tossed and turned all night long, rehearsing what I was going to say to Leo, and now here he was, right in front of me. I checked my phone to see if he’d responded to my message from the night before and he hadn’t. This could be my opportunity to talk to him, to tell him that we should…
“He’s walking away.” Amber nudged me.
I realized that I had been lost in thought. “Right.” I didn’t have time to debate it any longer and I rushed onto the street. “Leo,” I shouted.
He turned to face me, and so did Moofie.
Twenty-One
Leo
After an hour of throwing the stick for Moofie at the park – and another unsuccessful visit with Reggie – the leash finally hung slack between us. “Good boy.” I patted his side as we walked down the main street of town. Or I should say, strolled. Now that he had a proper home and slept in a bed, I could’ve sworn that Moofie had a little bit more of a swagger.
I knew it was Faith who had shouted my name before I even turned around. I took a deep breath. The conversation that I’d been dreading was going to happen a lot sooner than I’d wanted. In truth, I’d hoped that she’d forgotten about whatever serious thing we had to talk about, so we could just keep on going the way it had been.
She looked even more gorgeous than the last time I saw her – and I didn’t think that was humanly possible. She was wearing a floral dress that floated in the breeze as she walked towards me. The sun glinted off her hair, giving her white-blond strands a golden hue. But it wasn’t just her appearance; she looked like she was floating on air.
“Hi.” She stopped short, just out of arm’s reach.
“Hi.”
Moofie sat beside me and his tail swept the sidewalk clean as he wagged it. “Well, hello there, Moofie.” Faith bent to pet Moofie’s wrinkly head.
“More volunteering?” she asked.
“Actually…” I looked at Moofie and he looked at me. “I adopted him.”
“You? Really? I didn’t think you had time for a dog.”
“I’m making time.”
She didn’t look convinced but smiled. “He’s a lucky guy.” She petted him and rubbed his ear between her manicured fingers.
“I got your text about wanting to talk.”
She stopped petting Moofie and started to pick at her fingernail. “Yeah, can we walk for a minute?”
“Moofie says of course.”
“What does Leo say?” she asked.
“Let’s walk.” I crooked my elbow, and she held my arm. We made our way to the parkette at the end of the main street and sat down on the bench overlooking the harbor. A small tin boat banged up against the dock in front of us, jostling the wooden oars and metal tackle boxes that sat on its seats.
Faith smoothed her pretty dress over her crossed legs and her foot bobbed in the air as though she was nervous. “Leo, I…” She paused to re-smooth the perfectly flat dress. She looked at the sky and took a deep breath. “This is harder than I thought it would be.”
My worst fear was about to come true. Faith was going to tell me that we couldn’t hang out anymore after what we’d done. “It was a—” I was about to say mistake, but she interrupted me by putting her hand gently on my arm.
“Please, I need to get this off my chest.”
“Okay.” Coach’s lecture about learning when to talk and when to listen ran through my mind. I ran my fingers over the leather handle of Moofie’s leash and stared at it. Looking at Faith was too hard.
“We agreed to be friends, but that’s not working for me.”
It took every cell in my body screaming at me to shut up, not to say anything. I nodded and continued studying the stitch work on Moofie’s leash.
“Leo.” She turned so her upper body was facing me, her elbow resting on the back of the bench. “I agreed because I care about our friendship and I never want to lose it again.”
Phew. I felt like I could breathe and turned to look at her.
“And I want you to know that I’m scared. I’m sc
ared of what happens if we get together and it doesn’t work out, but more than that, Leo,” her voice quivered, “I’m scared of what happens if we don’t get together and I never get to feel…”
I kissed her. Yes, it was an interruption, but it wasn’t with my words. I didn’t need to hear any more. She resisted for a moment and then melted into my arms. She looped both of her arms around my neck, and I wrapped mine around her waist. The sun beat down on our heads and I had never felt so warm, both inside and out. She rested her forehead on my chin.
“What does this mean?” she asked.
“Faith, I wanted to tell you the same thing. I don’t want to lose you, but I don’t think I’ll ever meet anyone else who makes me feel the way you do.”
Her hands slipped from my neck to rest on my thighs.
I took her hands in mine. “Faith, we’d be fucking idiots not to be together.”
Her eyes shimmered. “I’m not a fucking idiot.” Her words were choked but mixed with a laugh. “And you only are sometimes.”
Her lips seemed impossibly soft as she kissed me again. “But what happens if you leave?”
It was the question that needed to be asked. “What happens if I don’t?”
She looked perplexed; her brow knitted together. “I mean, we can deal with that when it happens. If I get drafted by the Thunder, it’s not that far from here. I would do long-distance for you Faith. And I wouldn’t be away forever.”
Forever. It seemed like such a scary word before that moment, but when I looked into Faith’s blue eyes and imagined her with me for the rest of my life, forever sounded like heaven.
I played with her fingers as we watched the fisherman get into the aluminum boat in front of us. We would figure out the future when it came, and we would figure it out together.
If we hadn’t been so absorbed with the harbor and each other, one of us might have noticed the wine-colored Cadillac as it slowed behind the parkette, its engine growling as it drove away.
Twenty-Two
Faith
“I saw that,” Amber teased as I walked into the empty building.
“You saw what?” I tried to stop the smile by biting my lips together, but I was too filled with joy and the grin took over my entire face.
Amber jotted a measurement in her notebook and gave me a knowing look. “That sweet kiss between you and a certain golden-haired hockey star.”
“I took your advice.”
“And?” She popped the measuring tape into her bag along with her notebook.
“We’re a… thing.” The combination of excitement and the unknown caught me off guard.
Amber raised her eyebrows. “A thing?”
“Okay, okay,” I laughed. “Leo is my boyfriend.”
Amber draped her arm over my shoulder. “This time say it with a little conviction.”
“Leo Rocci is my boyfriend,” I shouted, and my voice echoed off the empty walls.
Amber squeezed me tightly. “Atta girl.”
“Are you ready for life as an Otters’ player’s girlfriend?”
I slipped my purse over my shoulder and Amber put the key in the lockbox. “I still can’t believe the Realtor left us with the key.”
“That’s Laketown.” I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face. “A better question, Florida, is… is he ready to be Faith Dawson’s boyfriend?”
“I love it.” Amber’s voice went a little higher than usual. She gave me a hug and I squeezed her tightly. “Everything is coming together.”
She looked at me like she wanted to say something but didn’t. A knowing in my gut that we were about to find my father had been with me all day long, but I hadn’t mentioned it to anyone. “Have you mentioned anything about Corstead to my mom?”
“It’s not my place.” Amber put her sunglasses on, and we headed back to the Mel D offices to put together the most decadent and gorgeous nursery for Bronwyn Yates.
After hours of coordinating with tradespeople and making calls to our suppliers, I flopped onto the office sofa and Amber left to meet Dean for dinner.
“Great work today, Faith.” Mom handed me a soda water. “It’s all that’s in the fridge,” she laughed, “but I’m pretty sure you could use some hydration.
“It’s coming together,” I reassured my mom.
“I know. I can see that.”
Mom’s phone rang and she checked the display. “That’s weird,” she said. She answered the call and a smile spread across her face.
“Of course, Maria. We would love to join you. See you at seven.”
The can fizzed as I popped the tab. “We?” I raised my eyebrows at her.
“I didn’t think you’d say no to Maria Rocci’s homemade tomato sauce.”
Leo’s mom? “Maria Rocci invited us for dinner?”
“I know.” Mom shrugged. “It’s been a long time since we’ve been over there.”
When Leo and I were younger our families got together at each other’s houses for dinner at least once a week. It was a tradition that had fallen by the wayside over the years, but as a kid, I’d loved Maria’s home-cooked meals. Mel D was an amazing cook, but Maria Rocci was next level.
“That’s kind of out of nowhere, isn’t it?” I didn’t know what to think. Had Maria found out about her son and me already? That was impossible.
“No. I ran into her yesterday and she mentioned she had made too much sauce. I hinted that it had been too long since we’d gotten together.” Mom laughed. “Oh, shoot. Sweetheart, I should have asked, but I thought everything was okay with you and Leonardo.”
One more thing to add to my perfect day. Maria Rocci’s tomato sauce and a family dinner with my new boyfriend. “Everything is more than okay with Leo, Mom. Leo and I have decided to—”
I didn’t have to finish my sentence. My mom launched off the sofa, pulled me to my feet, and hugged me. “Finally!” she shouted, and when she released me from her boa constrictor hug, my mom had tears in her eyes.
As we headed out the door for dinner, my phone pinged with a text. I fished it out of my bag and was shocked to see Gunnar’s name on the screen. That guy’s relentless, I thought to myself. I opened the text and blinked to make sure I wasn’t seeing things.
I can’t believe you chose him over me.
“Faith?” Mom was waiting for me at the door. “Everything okay?”
My mind was racing. How did he know about Leo?
“Everything is fine, Mom.” I dropped the phone in my bag and made a mental note to block Gunnar Lockwood from ever calling me ever again.
“Did you get the wine?” Mom asked as we pulled into the Rocci’s driveway.
I held up the bottle. “Got it.”
“Phew, I’m glad you went with Italian. Can you imagine if we’d showed up with a bottle of California wine to Maria Rocci’s dinner?”
We both laughed. “I don’t think we’d make it past the front door.”
The smell of roasted garlic met us as Maria ushered us into the house. “Leonardo should be home shortly.” She took the bottle of wine from my hand and gave an approving nod. “Let’s get this opened up.”
The table in Maria’s eat-in kitchen was set with linen napkins and the three of us took a seat. Maria opened the wine we brought but left it on the counter to breathe, and poured us each a glass of one that she’d already opened.
Maria hadn’t mentioned anything about our relationship, and I asked Mom not to saying anything until I’d confirmed that Leo had told his mother.
We chatted about her garden and the design business while we waited for Leo. The kitchen hadn’t changed since I was a kid, and even as a designer, there was nothing in it I would change. The wallpaper looked like it was from the 1970s and the appliances were dated. Pots and pans hung from the ceiling and a crockery pot full of wooden spoons sat on the counter, just like it had when I was a kid. Everything about Maria’s kitchen screamed home.
The door opened and we all turned to see Leo walk in.
�
�Leo. What’s wrong?” Maria was up from the table and to her son faster than an Olympic sprinter. Leo grimaced as his mom fussed over him. He brushed her away and set down his hockey bag. “I just took a couple of bad body checks.” That’s when he saw me and Mel D.
“Hi.” He gave me a look that told me he had no idea we were going to be there.
“Leo. Let me get you some ice.” Mom was at the avocado-colored fridge.
“I’m fine,” Leo insisted. “All I need are some carbs.” He grinned and we all gasped.
“Oh, this?” his voice whistled. His front tooth was missing. “It’s nothing.” Every ‘s’ was a whistle. “It was a fake one anyway.”
Maria crossed her chest. “This is from practice?” She guided her son to the dinner table and poured him a glass of water.
“Mom. Stop fussing. I’m a hockey player, not a golfer. I can handle a few body checks here and there.”
While my mom and Maria were busy cracking ice cubes from a tray into some tea towels, I studied Leo. I could see that he was sore from the way he was moving. “Are you okay?” I mouthed. He nodded. I gestured with my thumb to his mom and mouthed again, “Does she know about us?” I pointed from him to me. His eyes told me she didn’t.
Leo draped his arms over my mom and his mom’s shoulders. “I’m fine.” He shook the tea towels and the ice cubes clattered into the sink.
Leo limped over to me and planted a big kiss on my lips. He sat and threaded his fingers through mine, resting our hands on the linen tablecloth.
Maria looked at my mom, who couldn’t have had a bigger smile on her face, and then to our hands. “Leo. Yes?”
Leo put his arm around me and kissed me on the cheek. Maria hugged Mel D and said the exact same thing she had said, only Maria yelled it louder – “Finally!”
We all laughed, and over the next two hours stuffed ourselves with multiple courses of the best food I’d eaten in years. Maria and Mom started to clear the table and Leo stopped them. “Ladies, please. I think it’s our turn.”