Piece of Cake: Small Town Stories Novella #1

by Merri Maywether

  She followed his eyes to look down at her outfit. “Well, yes. But let’s just say it’s easier to go along with what Paul wants.”

  “I’ve noticed you do that a lot.”

  “Do what?”

  “You let other people have their way.”

  He wasn’t wrong. “Like I said—it’s easier. I see people fight over things that aren’t important. Then when it comes to fighting for something that’s of value their bark doesn’t have any bite.”

  “What if they haven’t tested their voice? And when the time comes, nobody hears them because it’s too soft.”

  “How did we go from paint color to having to fight with my brother?”

  “You’re in a new town and trying to feel your way through situations. From the short amount of time we’ve spent together I can tell your brother calls the shots. What happens when you feel strongly about something, and he disagrees? The way you are now, you’ll get steamrolled into bowing to his will.”

  Lacey didn’t like where the conversation was headed. She turned to leave the room. Maybe a change in environment was enough to change the topic. She hadn’t got too far away when Colton reached for her hand and pulled her back into him. “Running from the truth isn’t going to make it go away.”

  “I wasn’t running.”

  The already present wrinkle deepened when he squinted to contradict her. His chin dropped, and a smile warned her that the course of the conversation was about to take a turn.

  Colton wrapped both of his arms around her. His voice took on a husky tone when he said, “What would you say if I told you that I’m about to kiss you?

  “I’d say what took you so long?”

  Obviously pleased with her answer, Colton laughed. While she was happy that her answer delighted him, it wasn’t exactly the reaction she wanted. She wanted to feel his lips on hers and the connection that followed. She spoke what she wanted and still didn’t get it.

  “Aww, I wasn’t laughing at you.” His answer calmed her frustration. Apparently, he heard her thoughts. Colton leaned in to kiss her when a loud knock on the door that could only belong to her brother interrupted it. Lacey turned to go get the door. In a swift move, Colton pulled her into him and pressed his lips to hers. It claimed her and spoke loudly. In a contest for attention against her brother, he refused to lose. Lacey moaned and gladly surrendered to it. He glided his tongue across her bottom lip, softly nibbled on it and slowly pulled out of the kiss.

  When Paul knocked on the door again, Colton regarded her with a Cheshire cat grin. “Your brother is persistent.”

  Lacey hurried down the stairs and opened the door to let Paul in. He opened his mouth to speak and stopped to get a better look at her. “Are you okay you look flushed?”

  “Yes, I’m fine,” Lacey answered. She was more than fine. She was fantastic.

  “We thought we’d come by the house and help with whatever you need.”

  Colton came up from behind her and said, “I think we got it all taken care of.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  Battle of the Wills

  “We were about to head to my house,” Colton stepped outside the door. He dangled his keys in front of him. “If you want you can join us.”

  She watched the unspoken conversation between Paul and Gracie that begged to know the answer to the question: what happened between last night and this morning? Paul nudged his head for Gracie to ask. She peeked into the house behind Lacey while asking, “How long have you been here?”

  “Less than an hour,” Lacey answered. “We met up at the hardware store, and Colton helped me…”

  He cut her off. “Replace some blinds. We should get to heading out.”

  “You got new blinds.” Gracie perked. “In what room?”

  “The bedroom. Do you want to see it real quick?” Lacey moved to let them in the house.

  “You replaced the blinds in the bedroom?”

  As Paul slowly released the words to his question, Lacey figured out why Colton suggested they leave. His logical conclusion ticked her off. What kind of a person did he think she was? He raced up the stairs, probably to look for evidence of what hadn’t happened. When everyone caught up to him, he said, “Oh, you replaced the blinds.”

  “That’s what I said,” Lacey bit back the sarcasm.

  “They’re grey,” Gracie said to him.

  Colton leaned against the door frame, crossed his arms, and observed the ensuing discussion with an I told you so smile.

  Lacey paid him no mind. “I know you like the neutral tones, and the colors can go with a variety of themes.”

  “It’s nice,” Gracie said the words. However, her voice said something entirely different.

  Paul used the same expression as Colton in the conversation they had prior to her brother’s arrival. “I always thought you were a pastel colored person.”

  “I am. But this is your house.”

  He looked over at Colton who gave him a head tilt that said, “I told you so.”

  “Yes, but I want you to make it into a place where you would like to live.”

  There was no it’s nice or anything else of that nature coming out of the conversation. She examined the blinds through different eyes. “You don’t like them. I can try to exchange them for a different color.”

  “No. I think you misunderstood me.” With his eyes, Paul pleaded with Gracie to take over.

  Colton stepped in, “Right before you got here, I was telling Lacey that the color scheme is great, but doesn’t reflect HER personality, or that she plans on staying with us for any amount of time.”

  They all scanned the room. The walls were blank, and all her belongings were stuffed in drawers. She saw what they were saying. Her blush goose down comforter that was accented with mint green and mauve pillows was a direct contrast to the entire room.

  “That’s it exactly,” Gracie said. “We were hoping you’d make this house your home.”

  “I’d like to think you were staying around for a while,” Paul added.

  Colton’s eyes softened to show he shared the sentiment with her brother and sister-in-law.

  “I’ll add some plants and pictures and make it work.” With her suggestion, the tension left the room.

  “Now that we have that out of the way, we should go to lunch. What would you like to have, Lacey?”

  “Chinese sounds really good,” Paul answered.

  “Is that what you want?” Colton directed the question to Lacey.

  “Why wouldn’t she?” Paul answered the question with a question, and the tension returned to the room.

  “Or, we could go to the house. We have a boat load of left overs.”

  “I vote for left overs and have a picnic,” Lacey said. “And, we can hang out. You men can do whatever it is that men do when they hang out.” Prompted by Paul’s lack of enthusiasm at the idea, she added, “And Gracie and I can do some online shopping for ideas to personalize the room.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Peacekeeper

  Lacey and Colton may have been in the same book, but he was on a different page. The increase of attention cast in her direction heightened Lacey’s awareness of relationships on several levels. The first being the rekindled brother-sister bond created by her moving to Three Creeks. She figured out quickly that the way to keep peace with her brother was to act like she only had a cursory interest in Colton.

  Paul, who had been the driving force that brought them together, underestimated the interest Colton and Lacey had taken in each other. To express his displeasure at the changes between his sister and good friend, he frowned, made a snide remark, and even rolled his eyes once at a comment of appreciation one made toward the other.

  To keep the peace Lacey forced herself to give Paul the attention he obviously felt he deserved. Lacey and Colton were at the beginning of their story, and all the good stuff would come soon enough. Paul was there with her through all the rises and falls of her life. He was there from her first day in
the world, and she wanted him to know that he held a special place in her heart.

  Colton, on the other hand, must have thought they were somewhere near the middle of the story. Set on asserting his intentions, he antagonized Paul mercilessly. When they made their plates for lunch, Colton added some fruit to Lacey’s plate. He answered her confused reaction saying, “The last time we were together in the presence of fruit you were wearing it. I’m teaching you not to fear it.”

  As she rolled her eyes in reaction, he pulled her into a side hug. “Denial is the first stage of growth. You’re making progress.”

  The joke was so silly Lacey only had a giggle to offer in response. Colton warmly said, “See and now you’re at acceptance.”

  Paul stoically interrupted the joke. “You’re using the stages of grief with fruit?”

  “Hey, lighten up. It’s a sunny Saturday afternoon. We left college years ago.”

  Right about then Lacey stared at her plate of food. There was no way for her to walk away from the situation, so she quietly endured it.

  Gracie saved her. She opened the door from the kitchen to the deck and said, “Let’s go eat and leave the men to fight over the stages of grief as it relates to fruit.” She threw Paul a dirty look before walking out the door.

  “What?” Paul half asked, half whined. “I was just trying to explain that he used the wrong analogy.”

  Colton whispered, “It’ll get better,” and kissed Lacey on her cheek. He motioned to move toward the door. When Lacey didn’t follow, he waited patiently for her to fall into step with him.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Paul’s brows wrinkle in confusion at the change in dynamics between them.

  After lunch, the two friends went off in the yard and played a game of ladder ball while Lacey and Gracie navigated online stores. She had already decided on some prints to hang over her bed, and they were looking for some lighting to add a feminine touch to Lacey’s bedroom.

  In the absence of the women, the tension the best friends held seemed like it was something Lacey imagined. Paul and Colton bantered back and forth and laughed at what each other said. It was as though the power struggle earlier in the day had never happened. The picture of friendship they painted through their camaraderie touched Lacey’s heart. Paul made a good life for himself. She hoped that the stress her presence brought their friendship was temporary.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Time To Choose

  True to what Colton predicted, Lacey found herself engaged in a tricky dance of wills with her brother. Every night for the week after “sunny Saturday,” Paul called to see what she was doing for dinner. Regardless of how long she waited, the call always came thirty minutes after she had already eaten. On Thursday night she promised herself, she’d wait until he called. At 8:15 she gave up and ate. By Friday she was beside herself with frustration with the situation with her brother.

  Staying up late talking and texting with Colton added to the frustration. Lacey had been in Three Creeks a little more than four months. Her idea of working part-time at the community center to become familiar with the town and set a routine had only added to her fatigue. It was nothing like when she lived in Helena where her weekdays were so structured clocks were an unnecessary accessory. For the first time in her life, she needed an alarm clock and had joined the ranks of people who used the snooze button more than once.

  When Lacey walked in the door from work, she loosened her bra strap and pulled the bra out through the sleeve of her blouse. Before anyone called to disturb her hiatus from humanity, she turned off her phone and collapsed onto the couch while exhaling a sigh of relief. She drifted off to sleep while trying to choose between microwave popcorn or baked French fries for dinner.

  A firm knock on the door woke her from her nap. Lacey was rubbing the sleep from her eyes when she opened the door to greet Colton holding a pizza in one hand a bouquet of daisies in the other hand. He held out the daisies and drawled, “Happy three-month anniversary, Darling.”

  Lacey accepted the flowers. “They are beautiful, thank you.

  He crossed through the doorway and said, “I figured I’d kept you up too late and you’d be too tired to go anywhere. I thought we’d celebrate like normal couples. We can watch Netflix and chill.”

  Like normal couples? Until he said it, she hadn’t realized they had fallen into a routine together. They were deep enough for him to know without her saying anything that she was exhausted. He set the pizza box on the table and opened it for her to see a large half supreme and half meat lover’s pizza. It was half of what he liked and half of what she liked.

  Colton’s eyes drifted toward the edge of the couch. Just as they fell on her bra hanging over the arm of the chair, Lacey realized what he saw. Colton wagged his eyebrows and nodded toward the bra she had flung on the couch. “I see you got an early start without me.” With her response of an eye roll and a surreptitious swipe to hide her wayward undergarment under the throw pillow, Lacey knew things between them had changed more than she’d ever expected.

  Sitting on the couch beside Colton with his arms wrapped around her Lacey recalled a memory of her parents. One night when she came home from a party, she walked in to see her father and mother in the same position. Except her mother had fallen asleep with her chin in the crook of her father’s arm. Not wanting to disturb his wife, he quietly regarded Lacey. “Did you have fun?”

  “As much as a girl can have when her older brother is at the same party,” Lacey joked.

  Her father whispered, “Then he’s doing his job.”

  Lacey groaned and made her way to the room, and her father called behind her, “Sweet dreams.”

  Thinking, “This is what they were feeling,” Lacey practically purred.

  “You know, I’ve been thinking.”

  From the tone he used, she thought Colton was about to propose an idea for a date. “About?”

  “I have never felt about anyone the way I feel about you. I can spend hours with you and still not be bored.”

  “You’re one of the few people who get me,” she replied. “It’s easy to sit in the corner and be quiet. Not so with you.”

  “What do you think about taking things to the next level?”

  Her first conclusion was sex. He was asking her about having sex. They had been affectionate, but Colton had made it clear there was a line he refused to cross. As a result, he became more of a best friend that kissed really well. Although Lacey was more than eager to consider the option, she hadn’t prepared herself. “That’s kind of tricky. I don’t have any birth control.”

  “Silly girl, that won’t come until after marriage. Not that I’d want to do it any time soon. I was just trying to get a feel for your opinion on the matter.”

  Her heart beat so hard, Lacey thought it was going to fall out of her chest. “I’d been so focused on the house and trying to get roots established.”

  “So your answer is not yet.”

  He did get her. “Exactly. I mean Paul wanted me to stay in the house.” As soon as she said it, Lacey knew it was the wrong thing to say. Colton’s back stiffened so quickly it made her own body hurt.

  “So, your answer is no because you want to keep your brother happy?”

  It sounded like that was what she said, but that wasn’t what she meant. Lacey tried to plead her case. “He had me decorate the house to be something I wanted because he wanted me to stay in it. If I moved out…”

  “Let me stop you,” Colton cut her off. “I asked your opinion on the matter, and you gave me an answer. Just because I don’t like your answer doesn’t mean it was the wrong one.” He pulled his arm from around her shoulder and moved to create distance between them. Lacey didn’t like the chilling effect it had on her when he added, “I respect you for your honesty.”

  Lacey didn’t know what to say or do to fix things, so she went with her stand by response—silence. By the end of the movie, she had no idea what it was about. She passed the time trying
to think of a way to fix things and coming up with nothing.

  As the closing credits scrolled down the screen, Colton rose to leave. “I should get going. I know you’ve had a long week.”

  Lacey glanced quickly at his eyes. A cold edge had taken over, and they looked more like rocks. She quickly turned away and thanked him for bringing the pizza.

  “Yeah, no problem.” He shoved his one hand in his pocket and walked out the door without as much as a backwards glance.

  She crumpled on the couch as her heart crumbled into a million pieces inside her chest.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Life Goes On

  To prevent herself from calling Colton and making a fool of herself, Lacey left her phone on the kitchen counter where she laid it when she got home from work. A couple of times she took hesitant steps toward it and corrected the course. Until she had a resolution they both liked, there was no point in discussing the matter. With that being said, she had hoped she’d receive a couple you need to rethink your decision texts from him. His simple acceptance of her refusal was honorable and frustrating at the same time.

  She went to bed and tried to sleep. The small plants on the edge of the dresser taunted her. Colton had accompanied her to the store to choose the pots and make sure she chose something she couldn’t kill. The string of lights on her headboard that usually delighted her were just a little too bright. Colton found some adhesive hooks that didn’t require nails to keep the lights up. Everything reminded her of the person she wanted to forget—if only for eight hours so she could sleep.

  Inspiration struck after three trips to the bathroom. A fresh gallon of paint in the garage called out to Lacey. She was waiting for the new shower curtain to arrive to make sure the colors worked together. But insomnia was stronger and convinced her to go ahead and give it a try.

  Struck by inspiration, Lacey changed into an old t-shirt and leggings. She brought her cell phone in the bathroom to listen to a podcast. She told herself that in the amount of time it took to listen to one story she’d have a new outlook. Granted it was only in the bathroom, but she had to keep things on a positive track.