More Than Pancakes (The Maple Leaf Series Book 1)

by Christine DePetrillo

  He stood, and Lily watched a flicker of pain scurry across his face as he took a step.

  “Forgot how much that hurt too?” Lily got up and stood beside him.

  “Yeah, so maybe you’ll kiss me some more later? For health reasons.” He arched a hopeful brow.

  “Depends on how good the maple syrup is.” She passed him and headed for the kitchen. “You sit. I’ll make the pancakes. Tell me where everything is.”

  Soon the small cabin smelled like hot coffee, warm blueberries, and maple syrup. Lily sat across from Rick at his kitchen table while he poured syrup on her pancakes.

  “It’s important to get good coverage,” he said. “You don’t want to miss any spots.”

  Rick had missed a couple spots when they had kissed. Maybe he could catch them in round two. God, would there be a round two? Should there be? Lily’s head swam with wild possibilities.

  As she used her fork to cut into a pancake, her cell phone sounded from the living room. Again.

  “You did say your boss was persistent.” Rick took a bite of his drenched pancake then sipped his coffee.

  “Have I also said he can be annoying? Out loud, I mean. I know I’ve said it in my head on countless occasions.” She popped the pancake bite into her mouth. The syrup transformed the pancake from mere breakfast food into a profound, life-changing experience. Was that true of everything in this little cabin?

  “I guess my syrup meets your approval?” Rick said.

  “More than. How did you know?” She wiped her mouth on the napkin she’d thrown across her lap. Fine dining habit.

  “The sigh, followed by other yummy noises, clued me in.” Rick paused in his eating to look at Lily.

  “My God. Did I really do that? I didn’t realize. Shit, this must be good syrup.” She picked up the Mason jar that contained the amber delight. “Great label.”

  “Hope designed it. She made new ones for this year’s batch. Similar style, but bolder colors.”

  “Where does this stuff get sold?” Lily took another bite and kept the approval quiet this time.

  “All over New England.”

  “You ever think of branching out with this business?”

  Rick put down his fork and slowly ran his napkin across his lips. He put his hands flat on the table, seeming to collect himself.

  “I did branch out for a little while.”

  “In New York?” She knew she was inching onto dangerous ground—personal ground—but after kissing him she had this urgent need to know more about him.

  He nodded. “I managed the business from there, while employees ran things here. We were churning out the goods and selling them over half the country. It went well for a little while, but the city didn’t agree with me.” He smoothed the front of his thermal shirt with his palm.

  He was careful not to look at her while he talked. Lily took that to mean he’d said all he was going to on the matter. If Rick’s feelings for the city were anything like her feelings for the woods, she understood. She so understood.

  He refilled his coffee mug and angled the pot toward hers. “More?”

  She slid her mug over to him and he poured. They ate in companionable silence until forks scraped against empty plates.

  “A shame,” Lily said, eyeing the blueberry-stained spots on her dish.

  “But knowing more could be made another time is some consolation,” Rick said. “You make a good pancake, Lily.”

  “You make a good syrup, Rick.” Her gaze targeted his lips. How good would that syrup taste off those puppies? She looked away before she climbed across the table to find out. “Actually pancakes are the only thing I know how to make. Grandma Gail too. She taught me how.” She didn’t tell Rick that Grandma Gail also said a good pancake was better than sex.

  “You don’t cook anything else?” Rick asked.

  “Not really. I go out to eat a lot for my job, and the hotel I live in has a restaurant on the first floor.”

  “And there’s always room service, I guess.” Rick’s eyebrows crinkled together as if the thought of living the way Lily did made no sense to him.

  “You’re telling me you cook every night for just you?” Lily pictured him eating alone at this kitchen table and the image left her feeling cold.

  “Not every night, but most I do. Sometimes Aunt Joy and my cousins are sniffing around, so I’ll cook for all four of us. Or they bring me something. Or I go to their house.”

  Lily felt better hearing that he had his family. Had he ever had a woman who he cooked for or who cooked for him? He must have. There had to be a long line of women who wanted into his life. Where were they?

  “Help me clean up?” Rick gathered the plates. “I think I have it in me to stand at the sink and wash, if you’ll dry.”

  “I can do that.” Lily grabbed the coffee pot and followed him to the sink.

  He plugged the drain, turned on the hot water, and added soap. When the suds foamed, the words “bubble bath” flashed in neon colors in Lily’s mind. Bubble bath with Rick, to be precise. When he leaned against the counter and rolled up the sleeves of his flannel shirt, the movement captivated Lily. Like watching a striptease. As each inch of his forearm got uncovered, she wished for more.

  What is wrong with me? She hadn’t been this… this horny, ever. Sure, she hadn’t had sex in a little while. She’d made a point not to lead Drew on anymore or use him. She’d said they were done being a couple and she’d meant it. Tried to stay true to it. She’d been okay with no sex too. Yes, Drew was good at it—skilled, in fact—but she didn’t go into withdrawal or anything over not being with him anymore.

  But right now? She wanted to tear into this quiet man who hated the city and considered wild animals pets. Rick was so incredibly wrong for her. He wasn’t flashy, overconfident, worldly. But he was passionate. She had the sense that whatever he did, he gave it his all.

  They fell into another easy rhythm as he washed and she dried. Once in a while, Lily’s fingers touched Rick’s as he handed her something. Each time they made contact, her stomach fluttered a little more. A mundane task like drying dishes should not have turned her on so much, but it did. Standing next to Rick in his homey kitchen, and not having to slouch to appear shorter, sent ripples of desire throughout her body.

  Rick handed her the last mug and scooped up a handful of bubbles. He held them near her nose, and she went cross-eyed looking at them. “Anything else need washing?”

  Before Lily could rip off her clothes and scream, “Yes! Me,” Sage and Hope spilled through the front door. Rick dropped his hand, leaving a few stray bubbles floating in the air.

  “Hey, why does it smell like pancakes in here?” Sage paraded into the kitchen as she pulled off her gloves.

  “We just finished lunch.” Rick let the water drain from the sink, but didn’t turn around.

  “Oh, we did, did we?” Sage looked from Rick to Lily and narrowed her eyes.

  She knows we kissed. Somehow Sage knew. Lily’s heart pumped overtime as she waited for Sage to say something else.

  “We got some great pictures,” Hope said as she joined them in the kitchen. She was fiddling with Lily’s camera and oblivious to the tension in the room.

  “And what did you two accomplish?” Sage smirked and studied Rick’s back.

  “Lily’s got some new designs she’ll propose to her company,” he said, looking over his shoulder at Sage. “Why don’t you show them, Lily? I’ll be there in a minute. Just going to finish up in here.”

  Lily got the distinct impression he didn’t want to move from the sink until his cousins were cleared out of the kitchen. Rick had an almost white-knuckled grip on the counter, and he was taking some deep breaths.

  Sage hesitated then followed Hope who was headed for the living room. Lily leaned closer to Rick and whispered, “You okay?”

  He watched Sage and Hope settle on the couch and huddle over Lily’s camera, reviewing the shots they’d taken. “Uh-huh. Just the thought of bubbles and
you together may have overexcited me.” Rick swallowed and stared out the window over the sink. The corner of his mouth was turned up, but he wouldn’t look at Lily.

  “You’re not alone in that department.”

  She stretched out the dishtowel on the counter and retreated to the living room. Each step away from Rick quieted the stirrings inside her. With a little distance from him, she could think straight. Think about how they couldn’t actually be together. She had a life in California. A great life. One she’d spent a lot of years constructing, one design at a time. One resort at a time. One gala at a time.

  She was having fun living that life. Exciting, rewarding, lucrative. She could buy whatever she wanted. Eat dinner in the fanciest of places. Hobnob with other successful people. She was busy. Didn’t have a lot of time to stop and think about what else she wanted.

  Until now.

  ****

  Rick listened to Hope and Sage talking with Lily in the living room while he counted to ten, twenty, thirty, forty.

  Shit. He couldn’t get the image of bubbles being the only thing Lily was wearing out of his head. He didn’t use his tub often, but notions of having her naked body intertwined with his under hot, sudsy water made his penis feel like a rocket, ready to launch into unexplored territory.

  “You can’t stand here all day, dickhead,” he mumbled.

  He stared out the kitchen window and forced himself to think of the woods out there being cleared and a hotel being erected in its place. Rich tourists with their fancy cars zoomed by creating highway-like traffic where his simple dirt driveway now stood. Lounge chairs lined the pond at the front of his property, and empty wine glasses on tables glinted in the spotlights shining onto the water. Rick could hardly see the moon in this vision. The stars were muted too by the industrial brilliance the resort generated.

  His woods were ruined.

  Rick’s jeans loosened once again. The need to defend his land and the wildlife it contained overpowered thoughts of Lily and sex. What had he been thinking anyway? Lily was not the woman for him. He couldn’t provide the lifestyle she required. He had money, but none he wanted to blow on a relationship with Miss California.

  Relationship? That was a joke too. Once she either abandoned the resort plans here in Vermont or—God, help him—managed to move forward, Lily would fly back to California where she belonged. She’d resume her fast-paced, high-stress life in the city, and he wouldn’t be a part of that.

  Couldn’t be.

  “Rick, get your ass in here,” Sage called.

  And get your head out of the clouds. He wiped down the kitchen counter and dropped the washcloth into the sink. He would have loved to walk confidently into the living room as if he hadn’t kissed Lily in there. Kissed her and loved every minute of it, but the moment she looked up from hooking her camera to her laptop and smiled, his step wavered. It had less to do with his aching ankle and more to do with how that smile churned up waves of something in his chest. Good waves.

  “Wait until you see, Rick.” Hope got up from her seat next to Lily and motioned for Rick to take her spot. He fiddled with his pant leg, trying to get it to unbunch around the air cast and stalling over sitting beside Lily.

  “These babies are National Geographic worthy,” Sage said. “Come. Over. Here.” She waved Rick over, and he was fresh out of evasive maneuvers.

  Rick eased onto the couch and breathed in Lily’s scent that now mingled with blueberries and syrup. He had a feeling she could roll around in moose shit, and he’d still like the smell of her.

  He watched the screen as Lily pulled up the pictures and clicked through them. Patches of snow dotted the woods. Leafless maples mixed with needled pines stretched into the gray sky. Blue mountains, white-peaked and majestic, lined the horizon. He could almost smell the thawing land, the buds waiting to burst with life when spring came. His throat tightened at someone coming in and destroying even one pinecone of his haven.

  “The next one is my fave,” Hope said. She’d circled around to the back of the couch and leaned between Sage and Lily.

  Lily clicked and shot to her feet at the photograph filling the screen. Her hands went to her chest, and her entire body trembled.

  “I know,” Sage said proudly. “Amazing, right?”

  “That bear was just standing there by the water,” Hope added. “Looked right at us, as if she were posing for a picture. She let us zoom in for a close-up. We should use this shot on our website, Rick. Beautiful, isn’t she?”

  “Lily?” Rick said.

  She let out a little choking sound, and the next thing Rick knew, Lily was falling forward. He scrambled to the edge of the couch and grabbed her around the waist before she crashed down onto the chest. Rick pulled her onto his lap and cradled her head against his arm.

  “Holy shit!” Sage slid the chest out of the way and kneeled in front of Rick.

  “What happened?” Hope sat beside Rick and brushed Lily’s hair out of her face. “God, Rick, she’s as white as fresh snow.”

  “Lily?” He cupped her cheek, and her skin was clammy. She didn’t stir at all in his lap. Totally out cold.

  “I’ll get a cold facecloth.” Hope popped up and disappeared down the hall to the bathroom.

  “Why did she pass out?” Sage grabbed Lily’s wrist and felt for a pulse. “Jesus, her pulse is wild, Rick.”

  He felt for it too and agreed. He glanced back at the picture still on the laptop, his eyes connecting with the bear’s. The creature was indeed beautiful, as Hope had said, but he could also see how it would be horrific.

  For someone afraid of the woods.

  Hope rounded the corner, toting a wet facecloth. She handed it to Rick, who slid back on the couch and positioned Lily more firmly in his lap. He knew he could easily press the facecloth to her brow if he slipped out from underneath her and laid her on the couch itself. But he didn’t want to do that.

  No, he wanted her close. He wanted her secure. He wanted her not to be afraid of anything. Of the woods. Of animals.

  Of him.

  “Lily.” He folded the facecloth and rested it on her forehead. He moved it around to her cheeks, the back of her neck, and waited for her eyes to open.

  “Should we call 911?” Sage asked.

  “No,” Rick said. “I think she just passed out.”

  “Because of a photograph?” Sage turned the computer so she could look at the bear.

  Rick reached forward and slammed the laptop shut. Sage jumped a little at his movement. “Enough pictures for now.”

  “You told us to capture the magnificence of the woods, Rick.” Sage stood. “It doesn’t get more magnificent than that.” She thrust her hand toward the computer.

  Rick focused back on Lily in his lap. God, she was pale. Should he call 911? She wasn’t hurt, but what if she…

  He felt for her pulse again. It had slowed, but was that good or bad? His own pulse sped up.

  “The pictures are great, Sage,” he said. “I’m sorry. Thanks for taking them.” He looked at Hope. “You too. Thanks.”

  Hope nodded, her cell phone in her hand and ready to call an ambulance.

  “If she doesn’t come to in the next few minutes, we’ll call for help,” Rick said.

  His cousins lowered to their knees in front of him and watched Lily’s chest rise and fall. Breathing. That was always a good sign.

  “You think she’s like you?” Sage asked.

  “I sure as hell hope not.” Rick continued moving the facecloth around Lily’s face. “I wouldn’t wish that on anyone.”

  Sage reached out and gave Rick’s kneecap a squeeze. Their eyes met for a second, and Hope started to say something, but Lily’s phone ringing in her purse stopped Hope.

  Sage reached back to the chest and stuck her hand into Lily’s purse.

  “What are you doing?” Rick said.

  “Whoever that is might know if Lily’s got a condition we should know about.” Sage flipped the phone on and said, “Hello, Lily
Hinsdale’s phone. Who’s calling?”

  Rick watched Sage, not sure if she was crazy or a genius, but almost certain Lily’s boss was the caller.

  “Well, Mr. Ashburn,” Sage said, “Lily is indisposed at the moment. Tell me, does she pass out often?”

  Rick rolled his eyes and held out his hand. “Give me that, will you?”

  Sage shrugged and handed the phone to Rick. “I don’t like this guy.”

  “Shhh.” Rick took the phone and put it to his ear, not sure of what was going to come out of his own mouth. “Hello. Rick Stannard here. Lily is—”

  “Where’s Lily?” a deep male voice said. “Is she all right? What did you do to her?”

  “We didn’t do anything to her. Lily passed out after looking at some photographs,” Rick said. “Why is she afraid of bears, Mr. Ashburn?”

  A short laugh filtered through the phone. “Bears? What are you talking about? How long has Lily been out?”

  “Not long.” He shifted Lily in his lap and she mumbled something. “Actually, she’s coming around right now, I think.”

  “Good. Tell her Drew called, and I’m calling back in fifteen minutes. Make sure she answers the damn phone. I’ve been trying to reach her all day.” Drew paused. “Has Lily been with you all day, Mr. Stannard?”

  “Rick. Yes, I showed her how my maple syrup business runs. You know, the business your company wants to destroy.”

  “I knew it,” Drew said. “I knew Lily wasn’t going against the proposed resort for Vermont on her own. She’s never been against any of the resorts. Always completely on board. We’ve gotten along well together. For years. And not just at work.” Drew stopped, and Rick assumed the guy was giving him time to get the not so subtle hint that Lily was his.

  Funny, she didn’t kiss as if she belonged to anyone.

  “I thought maybe because part of it was going on her grandmother’s property that she was having second thoughts, getting sentimental maybe,” Drew continued. “But it’s you, Mr. Stannard, isn’t it?”

  “If you’re accusing me of fighting for my home, my land, and my business, then yes, it’s me. It’s all me. You can’t expect folks to give up their lifestyles for the benefit of your resorts.” Rick had never met this Drew guy, but he didn’t like him. Not one bit. He sounded like a real bastard.