by Sonya Weiss
“But you don’t normally restock and do inventory on the same day, especially when you’re preparing food for a catering job on top of that. There’s all this chaos along with an exhausting to-do list. Are you really going to do that to him?” Ann asked.
Moving a box of lettuce away from a crate of red apples, Abby shrugged and when she was met with silence, turned to face her sisters again. “Don’t give me those side-eye looks. Nick and I are at war, and I have to get him to give up. I can’t lose that building. Look at how cramped I am.” Abby swept her arms around the kitchen. “Is it or is it not true that I need the space?”
“The way the business has grown, you do need the room,” Amelia said, nodding her head in agreement.
“Plus, with you handling more catering orders and having to hire temporary help for that, I agree that you need to expand,” Ann added.
“I’m all for the expansion. I’ve noticed how butt-bumping cramped it is when several people are trying to work in the kitchen,” Amelia said as she coated a pan with spices and slid the bread and cheese onto it.
“Then why the lack of enthusiasm from you two?” Abby demanded. She would have thought after telling them about Nick’s bid to steal the building out from under her that they would be on her side.
“You’ve just always been so above board with everything you do,” Amelia said. “This feels, I don’t know, sneaky somehow.”
“Above board? You mean the same way you were when you stole Chad the morning of his wedding? You don’t think that was sneaky?” Abby asked.
“That’s not really a fair comparison. While I regret some of the stuff that went on during that time, I don’t have any regrets now. I love the end result,” Amelia said.
“Because you believed you were doing the right thing and it turned out well,” Abby retorted. She walked to the sink and started washing apples for the apple cobbler she’d need to make later. Every summer the dish turned out to be one of her best-selling desserts.
“I also think,” she said when her sisters didn’t answer, “that I’m doing the right thing. Besides, Nick slash Thor can handle a little hard work.”
When a timer, sounded, she stopped washing apples and grabbed a couple of potholders to pull a peach pie from the oven.
When she set it aside, Ann stopped mincing onions and said, “Ooh, if you’re cutting that, I’ll have a slice.”
“I’m not cutting it. It’s for Oscar.” Abby grinned when her sisters looked at each other and then burst into laughter.
“So you’re working both ends? Battling Nick and appealing to Oscar’s sweet tooth?” Amelia asked.
“Girl’s got to hedge her bets.” Abby slid the pie into a container. She’d known Oscar longer than Nick had. Oscar might have said for her and Nick to work the sale out between themselves, but she was certain she could convince Oscar to sell to her. Even if she lost the bet. Which would never happen. Still, it never hurt to be careful. “Keep Nick busy while I go deliver this.”
“If you’re going next door, Nick’s got a clear view. He’ll see you,” Ann warned.
“Oscar went to the park to walk his dog. I’m headed there.” Giving her sisters a cheeky grin, Abby grabbed her purse in one hand and the pie in the other. Exiting the kitchen, she was immediately waylaid by a waitress.
“Abby, the woman in the corner booth is upset and says she needs to speak with someone about her bill.”
Abby looked toward the corner but didn’t recognize the elderly woman. “Hold Oscar’s pie for a minute.” She handed over the sweet treat to the waitress and made her way to the booth.
The older woman looked up when Abby approached. She had white hair and warm brown eyes, reminding Abby of someone. The minute Abby approached, the woman spoke in a wavering voice. “I’m sorry. I can’t pay for my meal. I don’t know what happened to my money.”
Tears sprang to the woman’s eyes and her hands shook as she produced an empty wallet and desperately searched through it. “I put it all in there when I left Texas this morning. I’ve driven a few hundred miles, and I had it when I filled up for gas. I don’t know where I could have lost it.”
“It’s not a problem,” Abby said gently, her heart going out to the woman. “Really. Lunch is on the house.”
The woman let out a long sigh. “I shouldn’t have come, not after all these years. I thought I’d know what to say, how to make up for my son’s actions. I got all the way to Kathleen’s door and—” She broke off and looked past Abby’s shoulder. “Nick.” There was relief and delight in the woman’s tone.
Turning, Abby brushed against Nick, and he put his hands on her hips to steady her, but she could tell his focus wasn’t on what his hands were doing. Instead, his attention was solely on the older woman. “Grandma, why are you here?”
The older woman’s lips quivered. “I wanted to talk to your mother.”
Nick exhaled slowly, and Abby felt his breath on the side of her neck. She shivered and stepped back, wanting to give them privacy and needing to be away from Nick’s searing touch. “Excuse me.”
“Abby, wait.” Nick stopped her with a hand to her arm. “This is my grandmother, Eunice, my father’s mother.”
Ah. The absentee father. Abby didn’t know the whole story, just rumors she’d heard in high school, but she could clearly see the pain on the other woman’s face.
Eunice reached out with her shaking hand toward Abby. “Oh, are you Nick’s wife?”
“I don’t have a wife, Grandma,” Nick said gently. “You’re thinking of Elliot. He and Sara have been separated for a while.”
Eunice frowned. “Oh. Of course.” She pressed a hand up to smooth her white hair, her eyes taking on a faraway look. She gave a self-deprecating laugh. “The memory’s not so good.”
“I’ve got to run an errand,” Abby said, backing away. “It was nice meeting you.”
As she turned to leave, she heard Eunice say, “Nick, I can’t find my money and that nice young woman there told me not to worry about paying for my meal.”
Abby was halfway back to the waitress to collect the pie when Nick caught up with her. “I need to stay and talk to my grandmother, but I wanted to say thanks.”
“No big deal. When was the last time you saw her?”
“She lives in Texas. I went to see her last year. I wanted—” Nick shook his head. “Never mind. It’s a long story. I’ll take care of her lunch bill.”
“It’s okay, really.”
The waitress approached Abby as a crowd flowed into the diner. “I’d better get back to work. Here’s Oscar’s pie.”
Abby looked at Nick.
His brows rose, and he folded his arms. “You think taking a pie to Oscar will help you win points?”
“You never know,” she said.
“You’ll have to do better than a pie.” Nick leaned closer and inhaled the scent. “Peach. My favorite.”
Abby moved the pie away. “Why will I have to do better than this? I happen to know that Oscar loves my desserts.”
“While you were busy putting that pie together, I sent one of your busboys to Oscar with a nice lunch and dessert.”
“From my diner?”
Nick wagged his cell phone. “Yes, and he left a voicemail saying he loved it. Said it was very thoughtful of me.” Sliding the phone back into the pocket of his jeans, Nick smirked. “Admit it. You underestimated your opponent.”
Why didn’t I think of feeding Oscar a meal? He loved her chili.
Nick was doing the same thing she was. Despite him saying that they could decide who bought the building, Nick was trying to sway Oscar, too. Not for a second would she let him see how much that irked her. “Well, we can discuss this when we go pick up some supplies this afternoon.”
“More supplies?” Nick asked with a frown. “On a Sunday?”
Abby nodded, trying to hide her glee at his dismay. “I had to switch from my other supplier after they raised their prices. This new one is open seven days a week, and s
ince I always stock up on paper goods at the same time I do inventory, I might as well take you along to help.”
“They don’t deliver?”
“They do, but by picking it up myself, I save on the delivery charge.”
“Oh, all right. Still going to take the pie to Oscar?”
Abby shoved it at Nick so that it bumped his chest. “No. Enjoy.” That sneaky rat. She marched back into the kitchen and told her sisters what had happened.
“So he out-sneaked you,” Ann said with a laugh as she elbowed Amelia. “I’d say our sister has met her match. I can’t remember ever seeing her so flustered over a guy.”
“You wait and see. Abby’s next on Cupid’s hit list. We’ll be dancing at her wedding before you know it,” Amelia said, joining in the laughter.
“Knock if off, you two. I’m not interested in Nick that way.”
“For someone who’s not interested, your face sure tells a different story every time you look at him. You practically drool,” Amelia said.
“Who wouldn’t? Every time he takes his shirt off, he looks like a mythical god.” Abby tried to prevent her mind from thinking about Nick shirtless, but the images refused to go away. Neither would the thoughts about him. He didn’t seem at all like the kind of guy she’d pegged him as.
“And how many times have you seen him with his shirt off? Some private sessions maybe?” Ann asked.
“Stop needling me, Ann. Shouldn’t you be baking?” Her sister’s shop, Chocolate Cravings, had thrived from the first week it was open for business. She’d recently landed a contract to supply her gourmet truffles to an exclusive department store in New York.
Even though she wished her sister the best, Abby missed her help with the diner’s books. Ann had always had a head for numbers. Unlike herself. Left up to her own devices, she struggled for hours every week over balancing the records.
“I’m letting my manager handle today so that I can have the day off,” Ann said. “Soon as I heard about the building battle, I popped over to help. I didn’t want to miss any of the good stuff.”
“You’re going to be disappointed. It’s all very civilized,” Abby said.
“For now,” Ann retorted with a wink.
Amelia regarded Abby as she loaded one of the grilled cheese sandwiches onto a plate to fulfill an order. “Does Nick know that you don’t normally come in to work this early?”
“No,” Abby said. “Before you feel sorry for him, though, on the way over this morning, I agreed that I’d take the day off and go work on a project with him tomorrow. So I’m sure he’ll get his payback.”
“He does renovations. You can’t even hammer a nail straight,” Ann protested, exchanging an alarmed look with Amelia.
“She’s right. You mangle nails,” Amelia said.
“So I’ll be a supervisor.” Abby grinned. “I can wear a hard hat and bark orders with the best of them.”
…
Working to keep his voice down so the entire diner wouldn’t know his business, Nick said, “Grandma, there’s nothing he can say to make up for what he did to us.”
“Honey, your father made a mistake.”
Mistake. A word designed to pretty up those ugly actions. Actions that had left him hiding in closets as a kid and staying out as late as possible to avoid home.
Clenching his jaw, Nick said, “The last time I saw him, I was just a skinny kid. He knocked me around and tried to beat the hell out of Crawford. The only reason he wasn’t successful was because Elliot and I stood up to him. It wasn’t the first time. How is any of that a mistake?”
“I know this sounds like I’m making an excuse for my son, but he was only out of control when he was drinking. He started drinking because he couldn’t handle the loss. He went to rehab, and he hasn’t had a drink since. He’s a changed man.” Hands shaking, Eunice toyed with a tissue.
“He went into rehab because he was court ordered to.” Nick leaned back and took a deep breath to calm the tightness inside his chest. He hated the memories of the night his mother had to dial 9-1-1. The thunder growling so loudly. The flashing lights from the police car coming in through the tiny bedroom window, lighting up the room with alternating red and blue.
“I’m glad he’s stayed sober, but it doesn’t erase what he did.” Nick swallowed, trying to mentally shake the trip down memory lane. “The rest of us managed to hold ourselves together after Laney’s death.”
“I know that, but losing your baby sister to SIDS… She was the apple of his eye.” Eunice dabbed at her eyes with the tissue.
“Do you think the rest of us loved her any less?”
“No, of course I don’t. After you visited me, I realized that I’d let the shame of his actions and my own rob me of watching you boys grow up. I stayed away because I thought you all must hate me. I shouldn’t have. I could have been a help to Kathleen.”
“We managed.”
“I’m so sorry, Nick. I want to talk to your mother, to apologize for your father’s actions and mine.” She reached out with her blue-veined hand and patted the back of his hand. “I want a chance to make things right.”
Nick was struck by how much she’d aged since he’d seen her last. He took another deep breath. He and his brothers had stopped referring to John Coleman as their father the first time he’d laid angry hands on them.
“John needs to be man enough to apologize himself, though no amount of apologizing from anyone is going to erase the past.” Nick looked over his shoulder at the clock on the wall by the cash register. “I need to get back to helping Abby.” He took his keys from his pocket and removed a key. He slid it across the table, and Eunice picked it up with a questioning look.
“It’s the key to the house I’m renting while I build my home. I’ll write down the address. You can stay the night, and I’ll withdraw some money for you tomorrow so you can get back to Texas.”
Eunice took the key, clutched it in her hand, and whispered, “Will you help me talk to Kathleen? I want my family back, even if things are never made right between you all and John.”
“I can’t make you any promises at the moment. I need time to think.”
Eunice nodded, then asked, “Have you heard from your brothers lately?”
“We keep in touch. Elliot’s coming into town to stay with me for the Fourth of July Festival.”
“Does he still blame me for not believing him when he told me what John was doing?”
“I don’t know,” Nick said even though he knew Elliot did. “Look, we can talk tonight, okay? That’s all I can promise for now.” He slid from the booth after Eunice nodded .
Taking money from his wallet, he walked to the register and handed it over to pay his grandmother’s bill.
Any time he thought of his father, his gut felt the same way his skin did the summer he’d gotten road rash. He’d stolen—and then lost control of—his brother’s motorcycle. He’d gone on that ride in an attempt to exorcise memories, but the only thing he’d done was lose some skin and a whole lot of pride.
When he went into the kitchen, he saw Abby leaning against the steel table while she cut vegetables. She laughed at something one of her sisters said, and Nick’s heart did a funny leap. He didn’t know why when he looked at her it made him feel so out of step. All he knew for sure was that once with her was never going to be enough for him.
She spotted him and straightened, the laughter disappearing. She gave her sisters a warning look he didn’t understand. “You ready to go?” she asked.
Was he ever. He wanted nothing more than to take her hand and disappear to a room somewhere to blot out everything but the two of them. “Whenever you are,” he managed to say.
Through the circle windows on the swinging kitchen doors, he watched Eunice make her way slowly toward the diner’s entrance. He worried about her state of mind, how frail she seemed. “Hey, Ann, will you make sure my grandmother gets to my place safely?”
“You want me to give her a lift over there?”
“Might not be a bad idea. She’s distracted and probably shouldn’t drive.”
“Got it. I’ll go catch up to her.”
Ann left, and Nick waited while Abby gathered her purse and then searched for the car keys. When she finally found them, she had a smug expression on her face that could only mean she’d been up to something.
“Did you go see Oscar after all?” he asked as they headed to the door of the diner.
“No,” she said in wide-eyed innocence.
Nick pushed open the door and waited for her to walk out ahead of him. His mind ran through a dozen possibilities of what she could have done. “But you did something.”
“I did.”
Nick could tell she was practically beside herself with glee. “What did you do?” He followed her to her car.
“You know how Oscar loves his little pug.”
Nick nodded. Oscar was well known for his love of all things furry and four-pawed. He’d donated a lot of money to the rescue shelter and had been instrumental in helping it find permanent homes for many of the animals.
“I simply made a phone call and had a basket of goodies delivered to his pug, Rambo. Oscar was touched that someone thought of his pet.”
“Damn,” Nick muttered and sent her a sideways look. “Does he have any more animals?”
Abby shrugged. “Why would I tell you?”
“You wouldn’t want the basket for the pug to inspire envy in his other pets if he has them, would you? Canine and feline envy isn’t pretty.”
Abby laughed. “Think you can top that basket?”
Nick smiled and reached out to trace the outline of Abby’s ear. “I think I can, and I know you can’t one-up this one.”
She ducked away from his hand and got into the car.
Once Nick was settled in the passenger seat, Abby guided the car onto the interstate and merged with the traffic. “What can’t I one up?”
“Oscar’s a lonely man. Always wanted to marry but could never find the right woman.”
“You’re going to find Oscar a wife?” Abby said.
“Not a wife per se, and I’m not revealing my battle plans.” Nick leaned over and looked at the speedometer. “You’re only doing fifty. Everyone’s blowing by us like we’re sitting still.”