by Paris Hansen
Restless
A Finding Love Novel
by Paris Hansen
Copyright © 2015 Paris Hansen
All rights reserved.
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This is a work of fiction. The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events or real persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Cover Design by James, GoOnWrite.com
Chapter 1
Savannah St. James was dying for a drink, a hot bath and her bed, in that order. Or maybe she’d have the drink while in the bath and kill two birds with one stone. She was more than used to long hours, but the day had felt longer than usual. There was so much that she needed to get done, every day she was doing the job of two people, but that morning she also had to cover for one of her employees. She was so beyond exhausted. Every inch of her body ached, even her hair. Ultimately, everything she had accomplished that day had been worth the way she felt as she slowly climbed the four steps to her front door. Savannah knew that she was lucky enough to have made her dream a reality and even at the most difficult times she wouldn’t change anything about her professional life.
Before opening the screen door, she grabbed the mail out of the box attached to her Craftman-style bungalow. Aside from her three, soon to be four, storefronts her house was her pride and joy. Savannah had worked long and hard to save up to buy the place and once it was hers, she had slaved over making the house perfect. Between renovations and the interior design that she had done herself, her home had been her first labor of love and all of the work had been worth it in the end. If it hadn’t been for working on the house, she may have never realized that she had what it took to open her own cupcake shop. Now five years later, her business was thriving even if it was wiping her out.
Once inside the house, she dropped her keys and purse on the table by the door vowing to move her purse up to her bedroom after she had a minute or two to rest. Flipping the switches next to her, she waited for the light to illuminate her sunken living room and the tiny dining room that was just beyond it. Walking through the now brightly lit rooms toward the kitchen Savannah flipped through the pile of mail in her hands. Junk mail and a couple of bills were interspersed between the brightly colored envelopes and postcards that she had been getting a lot of lately. For the last year or so, it seemed like there was a never ending stream of invitations, announcements and save the dates; weddings, baby showers, bridal showers and births. Then came the children’s birthday parties or the anniversary parties; events that marked significant milestones in the lives of her friends, but often reminded Savannah that there might be something missing from her life.
It didn’t happen all the time. In fact, most of the time she loved her life the way it was; she had a successful business and family and friends that loved her. Marriage and children had never really been something that she had much interest in, not even when she was a little girl. She had always been too independent to want someone around all the time and then she was always just too busy to bother. Over the years there had been dates and occasional hookups to take the edge off, but she was usually far too busy and far too tired for anything else. Relationships were a lot of work and with the frequent 4 am wake-up calls and 12-15-hour work days, the last thing she needed when she got home was more work. Until recently, she had always figured she’d wait until she was settled to think about the other parts of her life, but what if she was never truly settled? What if she never stopped being busy, stopped opening new locations? Would she end up old, alone and miserable like her dad’s sister Anna?
Thoughts like that one always had Savannah contemplating giving dating a shot. Sadly, she had no idea where to start and when she started to think about the possibilities she got cold feet and changed her mind. Now standing at the large island in the middle of her kitchen she added the new invitations and announcements to the pile that had come the day before and the day before that. She tried to picture her life with someone to share it with and she really liked what she saw. Someone to come home to, cuddle with, vent to when she was angry or frustrated, someone to share exciting news with or better than that, create exciting news with. The possibilities were endless and amazing, but the steps to getting there were crazy and scary and filled with horrible first dates and bad pick-up lines. She could practically picture the line of men with horrible body odor, bad breath and mounds of back hair that would likely be waiting for her if she gave dating a try.
A knock at her front door startled Savannah out of her quickly darkening thoughts. Before she could walk back the way she had come, the door was opening, the sound of her sister’s laughter filling her silent house. With a muttered curse, Savannah plastered a smile on her face and waited for her mom and sister to meet her in the kitchen.
“You forgot what day it was didn’t you?” her sister Brooklyn asked as soon as she entered the kitchen, a bottle of wine in one hand, a pizza box in the other. Even in a pair of holey, faded jeans and an on old Washington State University sweatshirt, Brooklyn was gorgeous. Her face was completely devoid of make-up and her light brown hair was pulled back into a loose ponytail; the natural golden highlights standing out even under the dull overhead lighting. Savannah had always been a little jealous of her younger sister’s flawless, easy beauty. Brooklyn could have been a model and had been approached numerous times as a teenager and in her early twenties, but it was never something that had interested her. In fact, most of the time, Brooklyn couldn’t be bothered with make-up, a fancy hairstyle or anything nicer than jeans and a t-shirt.
“No…yes…how did you know?” Savannah grabbed the bottle of wine from her sister before turning to get the bottle opener out of the top drawer next to the sink. She didn’t want her family to see the look of shame on her face as they realized that she hadn’t remembered their long standing date and then that she had tried to lie about it.
“Because we know you dear,” her mother Rebecca said from the other side of the large island. “You work too hard and too much.”
Savannah bit her lip to keep from commenting on what her mother said. Instead, she smiled at her mom and watched as she put the bottle of wine and paper bag she was carrying down onto the marble surface. The paper bag had grease stains on the outside and a heavenly garlic scent that made Savannah’s mouth water. As much as she had wanted to be alone, pizza, breadsticks and wine with her favorite ladies was definitely a good alternative.
“I just got home about five minutes ago. Gretchen called in sick, so instead of going in at nine, I ended up heading in at six to open the shop out here. I was there until about three when I had to run out to one of the buildings I’m looking at for the new location to meet with the real estate agent. Of course traffic sucked, so I was nearly late and instead of looking like a professional business owner, I had flour and batter in my hair and on my clothes.”
“Honey, you still have flour and batter all over you. Why don’t you run upstairs and take a quick shower while we open the wine and get everything set up in the living room? We’ve got time before the show starts,” her mom suggested before walking around to her side of the island. She grabbed the bottle of wine and the corkscrew from
Savannah’s hands before shooing her out of the kitchen.
A hot shower did sound fantastic, especially since the hot bath she had been daydreaming about was not in the cards for that evening. She couldn’t believe she forgot it was Wednesday, although her days had been running together a lot as of late. Still, the long standing Wednesday night date with her mom and sister to watch Survivor had been a staple in their lives for over a decade. They had vowed never to miss the date, no matter what and so far they had watched every single episode together. Even when Brooklyn was on the other side of the state at WSU they would video chat while they watched.
Remembering the hours of laughter and arguments over who would win made Savannah giggle as she walked up the stairs to her master suite on the second floor. Brooklyn always picked one of the good looking guys, while her mom picked the underdog. Savannah was a little more strategic about her pick and usually waited until the players started to show their game play before picking her potential winner. Of course it was rare that any of them ever actually picked the person that ended up winning the million dollars, but it was always fun to see whose player went the furthest.
Once in her bedroom, she stripped out of her work clothes, shoving them into the separate hamper that she had dedicated to them. While she loved the smell of baked goods, she didn’t want all of her clothes to smell like cake. Walking into the bathroom, she looked at her oversized bathtub and sighed. As much as she had wanted to take a long bath and let the hot water melt away her tension, she was also starving and the smell of pizza and breadsticks was making her stomach grumble. Besides her mom and Brooklyn would never let her stay upstairs very long.
After a quick shower, Savannah threw her damp, dirty blonde hair into a messy bun and threw on a pair of flannel pajama pants and a Delectable Delights t-shirt that featured a giant cupcake on the front with the words Lick My Frosting strategically placed over the top. The t-shirt was one of their top sellers with both men and women and it never ceased to make her giggle.
Back downstairs, Brooklyn and their mom sat on the couch directly across from the 55” TV that was mounted over the gas fireplace. Waiting for her on the side table next to her recliner was a glass of her favorite red wine and a plate with a large slice of supreme pizza and a couple of breadsticks. Savannah sighed as she sank into the plush chair and kicked up her legs. The recliner hadn’t originally been on her list of must-haves when she was shopping for furniture, but the minute she sat in it she knew that she had to have one in her living room. She immediately bought another one for her upstairs library. The chair was ridiculously comfortable; throw in a good book, a soft throw blanket and a glass of wine and Savannah rarely wanted to get up.
They ate and talked about what they had been up to for the last week while waiting for Survivor to start. Brooklyn, with the help of their mom, had spent the week looking for a place she could afford on her own, but wasn’t having any luck. She was getting tired of living at their parent’s house where she had been for the last couple of years after finally separating from her now ex-husband Frank. The divorce proceedings had been long, difficult and drawn out leaving Brooklyn an emotional wreck for months, but it was obvious to everyone around her that the divorce had been the best thing to happen to her in a long time.
When Brooklyn had first left Frank, Savannah had offered her one of the rooms at her place, but Brooklyn had opted to live with their parents. There she had a mother-in-law style apartment over the garage that gave her the privacy she needed, but it still wasn’t as good as having her own place. Brooklyn craved being out on her own, paying her way through life without the help of anyone else, which was yet another thing that Savannah admired about her sister.
"So, Savannah, how are the plans for the new location going?" Brooklyn asked.
The list of things that needed to get done seemed never ending to Savannah even though this was the fourth store that she had opened in the last five years. It should have been old hat for her, but it seemed as difficult and tedious as it had the first time. She needed help, but didn’t really have the time to hire anyone as her personal assistant.
“I’m drowning in paperwork and decisions that need to be made. I need help, but I don’t have the time to interview a bunch of applicants and there’s really no one else I could have do it. Everyone’s already constantly busy with orders and the day to day stuff for each store.”
“I could do it,” Brooklyn offered. “I need the extra money and I’ve got plenty of free time on my hands with the whole being single and not interested in dating thing. Plus, all of my freelance work has been pretty easy lately. I could actually use something to keep me busy.”
“It can be long hours and grueling work, plus I’m not always the easiest person to work for when I get tired and bitchy.”
“You don’t have to tell me,” Brooklyn smiled. “I’ve been around you my entire life; I know how to put up with your mood swings. I don’t think we’ll have a problem working together. Besides, I’m not afraid to stand up to you if you’re being unreasonable which might actually help your other employees. I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that some of them are afraid of you.”
Savannah groaned as she took a sip of her wine. “Oh I know some of them are. I don’t want them to be, but you know how I get. Everything has to be perfect and done exactly the way I want it done, which is why it’s taken me so long to hire someone to be my right hand. I hate giving up control, but there’s no other way for me to survive this. Are you sure you want to take on the responsibility?”
“Absolutely! Just tell me when to start.”
Savannah should have known by the smile on Brooklyn’s face that something was up other than one sister having a new employee and the other sister having a new job; especially when her younger sister looked over at their mother and then back to her. Something unspoken passed between them in the brief moment their eyes met and Savannah knew that whatever it was involved her as soon as her mom turned to look at her with a huge smile on her face.
“Now that you’ll have more help, you’ll likely be working fewer hours which means you’ll have a little bit more free time every day,” Rebecca stated the obvious, which was another sign that something was up. “More free time means time to explore situations that you haven’t been able to explore lately. You could read more or go hiking. Or…you could start dating.”
And there it was; the reason behind everything that happened in the last twenty minutes. Savannah tried to fight the urge to roll her eyes as she took a healthy gulp of her wine, enjoying the burn as it made its way through her chest into her stomach. Noticing that her glass was now empty she got up and headed into the kitchen for a refill and a moment to breathe. The last thing she wanted was for her mother to meddle in her personal life, but the older woman was right. If she was working less, she’d have time for something like dating. As much as the prospect scared her, she didn’t really have a choice if she wanted to find someone to spend her life with. She filled her glass once, emptying it again in a single gulp and then refilling it so she could go back into the living room to face her mother.
Might as well get this over with, Savannah thought with a sigh.
“We saw the pile of unopened invitations in your kitchen Savvy. Don’t you want someone to go to those weddings with you? Don’t you want someone by your side that will create reasons for you to send out your own invitations and save the dates? If you don’t stop and do this now, you’ll end up like your Aunt Anna, alone and pissed off at the world.”
God, her mom was good. She knew exactly what buttons to push. Bringing up Aunt Anna was a low blow and the pile of invitations was even lower. Why couldn’t she have just stuck with the standard, “don’t you want to find someone to share your life with like I found your father?” or the more common, “I want grandchildren before I’m too old to enjoy them” ploys that most mothers pulled on their aging single daughters. Taking a smaller sip of her wine, she tried to do a quick risk and reward evaluat
ion in her head. It was something Savannah had done before she bought her house, before she initially opened her business online and before she opened each of her store fronts. Every major decision in her life was preceded by a risk and reward assessment and if the situation didn’t pass, she didn’t bother moving forward.
Even though the risks were scary, bad dates, creepy guys, possible broken heart, the rewards definitely seemed to outweigh them. If things worked out she’d have someone to share her life with, someone to love. She would have someone to worship her the way her father had worshipped her mother for over 40 years and someone to have children with once they were ready. Of course, there were also risks to actually finding someone to love. The dating part was just the tip of the iceberg. Her sister was a prime example of the worst case scenario. Brooklyn fell in love at 21, married at 24, and was divorced and alone by 30. She spent nine not always so happy years with the same man only to end up alone and broken after he continually cheated on her. It took Brooklyn a year to finally move on from the grief of her failed marriage, so in the end it was ten years of her life dedicated to something that was full of heartbreak. Savannah wasn’t sure she had it in her to face that possible risk.
“Get out of your head Savannah,” her sister scolded. “I know what you’re doing and you cannot think about my situation when deciding if you should start dating. There are some amazing guys in the world, sadly Frank wasn’t one of them, but eventually I’ll use what I learned with him to find someone new. Could you end up with a possible Frank? Yes, unfortunately you could, but you could also end up with the most perfect man in the world for you. It is all definitely worth the risk and I would do it all over again even now that I know that Frank is a dick and not my Prince Charming.”
Savannah smiled over at her little sister. She had definitely come a long way in the last year and it was surprising to hear that she’d do it all over again; that what she learned was worth the pain of having her heart broken by the man she loved. But if her sister could do it, then she could too, right? The thought made her stomach do flips. Making the decision to date was by far the scariest and most difficult decision she had ever made. Even deciding to start her own business and then expand it was easier than what she was contemplating.