More Than Pancakes (The Maple Leaf Series Book 1)

by Christine DePetrillo

  “Tell Lily I called.” Drew hung up before Rick could reply.

  Rick handed the phone to Hope who dropped it back into Lily’s purse. He gave the facecloth to Sage and pressed his hand to Lily’s cheek, which wasn’t so clammy anymore. Her cheeks were still pale, but her pulse felt normal.

  “Lily, can you hear me?” he said.

  She moaned and opened her eyes, blinking several times, before Rick thought she recognized him. Lily turned her head and looked at Sage and Hope who both waved at the same time, goofy smiles on their faces. She brought her hand up to her forehead and focused back on Rick.

  “Did I pass out?” she asked.

  “Dropped like a rock,” Sage said.

  Rick glared at Sage who bit down on her lower lip. “I caught you before you fell onto my coffee table. Do you feel okay?” Forgetting his cousins were right in front of him, he traced an index finger down Lily’s cheek and her eyes closed again.

  “I’m okay.”

  She opened her eyes and tried to sit up. Rick helped her, but if he were being honest, he would have been perfectly content to sit with her in his lap all night. Maybe longer.

  She scooted off him and swung her feet down to the floor. Rubbing her temples, she said, “I do have a screaming headache though.”

  “I’ll get you some aspirin.” Hope got up and pulled Sage to her feet. “Come help me, Sage.”

  Rick picked up on Hope’s unsaid message to her sister. She was trying to clear out so he could have a moment alone with Lily. Not that he needed one.

  He didn’t.

  As soon as they were gone, Lily turned to face him. “I’m sorry about that. The photo caught me by surprise.”

  “The bear scared you.” Rick rested his hands in his lap where warmth from Lily’s body lingered. “Why?”

  She pressed down on her closed laptop as if the bear might come tearing out of the machine. She moved away from the computer and huddled in the corner of the couch, her arms wrapped around her body.

  “Lily, tell me what’s wrong.” Rick wanted to touch her, but got the sense if he did, she would pack up her stuff and run out of his house. That was the last thing he wanted.

  She shook her head and ran her hands over her face. “Nothing’s wrong. I’m okay now. Let’s just forget it.” Lily looked to the hallway. “Where are they with the aspirin? I need it like right now.” She pressed two fingers to her temple and squeezed her eyes shut.

  Sage and Hope tripped over each other as if they had been pressed against the wall in the hallway. Listening. The rats.

  “Here’s the aspirin.” Hope handed Lily two white pills and a glass of water while Sage flopped into the recliner.

  “An adult beverage would probably take the edge off better, Lily,” Sage said. “Come out with Hope and me tonight. We’re heading to Black Wolf Tavern. You can talk to some locals about the area.”

  “Yeah, come,” Hope added. “We promise there won’t be any b-e-a-r-s there.”

  Rick watched as Lily considered the invitation. When she glanced his way, he got a feeling in his stomach that teetered between excitement and dread.

  “Will you come too?” Lily asked Rick.

  Sage and Hope burst into laughter. “Now that’s a good one,” Sage said.

  Rick ground his teeth together and thought seriously about throwing Sage out on her ass.

  “Rick doesn’t make regular appearances at Black Wolf Tavern,” Hope said.

  He wouldn’t mind kicking Hope out too.

  “He doesn’t make a habit of mixing with the rest of the humans.” Sage swung a leg over the armrest of the recliner and played with the end of her long blond braid.

  “I’ll go,” Lily said, “if you go.” She poked a finger into Rick’s upper arm and electric shocks jolted through his body at the contact. “The way I figure it, I owe you a drink for not letting me crash land on your coffee table.”

  Rick was aware of Sage and Hope volleying their gazes between Lily and him as if they were witnessing something they’d never seen before. He supposed they were. How many women had asked him to go to a bar before Lily?

  Zero.

  How many invitations would he consider accepting?

  One.

  Chapter Ten

  Lily stared at the ceiling as she lay on her grandmother’s bed, willing her headache to go away. She kept seeing that photograph in all its terrifying detail. God, that bear looked as if it wanted to rip her to shreds. Teeth, claws, muscle. And to think Hope and Sage actually stood in front of the damn thing long enough to take pictures! A full body shudder rippled through her, and she pulled the quilts up to her neck.

  “C’mon, just a couple hours of shut eye.”

  On the TV Nicholas Cage peered through a funky pair of bifocals to read the secrets on the back of the Declaration of Independence in National Treasure. “Just one hour. Enough to get rid of this headache and gear up for Black Wolf Tavern.”

  She couldn’t believe Rick had agreed to meet her there. Part of her still thought he might not show up. He’d had such a deer-in-headlights look on his face when she’d ask him to join them. It made him extremely kissable, but Hope and Sage were playing audience and way too interested in what was unfolding for Lily to lean forward and taste his lips. Again.

  But, shit, she wanted to.

  Her mind jumped to being in Rick’s lap. She may have pretended to be out cold a little longer than was necessary just to enjoy the feel of his thighs beneath her, his arm cradling her head, his hand on her cheek. A dirty trick while he was obviously concerned about her, but being in his lap was the closest to secure she’d ever felt. As if no wild animals could touch her. No silence could drown her.

  No boss could threaten to fly to Vermont.

  She’d answered her phone as she drove from Rick’s over to Grandma Gail’s place. Drew launched right into a jealous-infused wrath.

  “What the hell is going on over there, Lily? You passed out?”

  “A photograph caught me by surprise.”

  “You need to close this deal and come home. What’s this Stannard guy doing to hold up the works?”

  “He’s trying to protect what belongs to him. Doesn’t that make sense?”

  “What? Are you on his team now? What happened to Utopia’s team? My team?”

  Lily had no trouble picturing Drew’s expensive shoes pacing back and forth across his spacious office. “I’m still part of those teams, Drew, but Rick has a point, and I’m not feeling it over here. This isn’t the right spot.”

  “It was the right spot a few days ago.” Drew huffed. “You’re not telling me everything.”

  “I’m telling you everything that concerns you, Drew.” Lily didn’t want to lie to him, but she wasn’t going to offer up the fact that she’d shared a more than steamy round of kissing with Rick. Or the fact that she wanted more rounds.

  “What’s that supposed to mean? Did you fuck him?” Drew went absolutely silent on the other end. Lily couldn’t hear any normal office background noise either. Nothing.

  In that silence, her anger multiplied.

  “Number one, how incredibly rude of you,” she said. “Number two, you are my boss, Drew. Not my boyfriend, not my husband. We can both do whatever we want to do.”

  “That’s not true,” Drew said. “I can’t do what I want to do. I want to do you, but you’re over there screwing lumberjacks in the mother-fucking woods.”

  “I am not.”

  “I’m coming there.”

  “There’s no need. I’ll send you my new designs for an Arctic Utopia. I think Rita and Webster will love them, plus I’m working on a brief presentation about this area to showcase why it’s not the right one for a resort. I’m going to wrap it up tonight and tomorrow and be back to Cali on Saturday. Sunday at the latest. It’s all going to work out. Trust me.”

  Lily was impressed with her ability to sound so logical, when all she really wanted to do was hang up. How dare Drew accuse her of shacking up with
Rick? She barely knew the man. Wasn’t even sure why she had ended up kissing him today. Besides, sleeping with Rick would be a huge mistake. Huge.

  “What about Gail’s property?” Drew said.

  “Rick wants to buy it. He’s got lines in the trees over here to gather sap so unloading it to him makes sense.”

  “Whatever Rick wants, huh?” Drew sounded like a sulky child.

  “I’m trying to do what’s right for everyone. Mr. Stannard, me, Utopia, you.”

  “In that order too.”

  “Stop it.” By this time, Lily had pulled in front of her grandmother’s house. “I’ll send you the designs. You’ll like them. I promise. Got to run. I need to lie down. Got a banging headache from passing out.”

  “Where are you now?” Drew’s way of asking if she was still with Rick.

  “I’m running from the car to my grandmother’s house.” She scanned the woods nearby and caught sight of the path Rick had mentioned that led to the barn she’d seen in his album. Maybe tomorrow she’d go take a look. Convince Hope or Sage to go with her.

  Not Rick. Time alone with Rick had proven to be risky.

  “Be careful, Lily,” Drew said. “Not just of the woods.”

  “Will do.” She hung up as she unlocked the front door and went inside.

  Now, she blinked over eyes gone dry from staring at the ceiling. How had things gotten so messy? This trip was supposed to be quick. Arrive, buy Rick’s land, turn his property and Grandma Gail’s over to Utopia, and finish designing the new resort. Boom, boom, boom. Simple. Like every other project had been. Why was this one so different? Why didn’t she feel as if she were in control? How could she get control back?

  Deciding she would attempt to get the upper hand this evening, Lily rolled to her side and closed her eyes, but it was no use. Sleep wasn’t coming. Not now, but her headache did feel better. The aspirin was working and maybe being in the darkened bedroom had helped. A bubble bath might do the trick if she could manage not to picture Rick holding bubbles out to her as he had in his kitchen.

  She slid out of the bed and padded to the master bathroom. She flicked on the lights, immediately squinting in their brightness. Too much. Her headache came pulsing back right behind her eyes. She shut off the lights and twisted open the blinds on the three huge windows in the bathroom. Personally, Lily didn’t like windows in the bathroom. Her penthouse back in California had a mirrored wall in the bathroom instead, which she preferred, but the soft, late afternoon light that spilled into this bathroom was just right for her eyes.

  She filled the tub with hot water and suds and removed her clothes. Lily gathered her hair up into a loose bun at the crown of her head and slid into the water. A sigh escaped from her throat as the bubbles covered her, all her muscles relaxing in the heat. She’d turned up the volume on the TV, and the actor’s voices still reached her. Still provided her company and escape.

  Lily closed her eyes and envisioned her penthouse tub, far away from the woods, the wild, and men who made Vermont seem habitable.

  “Yeah, right. As if you could stand to live here, silly.”

  She burrowed deeper into the grapefruit-scented froth and tried not to think about the way Rick’s lips had felt forging a trail down her neck. The way his short beard tickled her skin. The way his blue eyes said things his mouth wouldn’t.

  Lily tapped her fingers along the rim of the tub as she realized if Rick didn’t come to Black Wolf Tavern tonight, she’d be disappointed.

  Damn.

  Forty-five minutes later, Lily ferreted around in her suitcase. Maybe she should have hung up her clothes. Things were getting wrinkled. She shook out a pair of dark blue jeans and slipped her pruned feet into them. The bath had done wonders for her, but a nervous something shook her stomach. She told herself seeing the bear had rattled her, but she knew that wasn’t it. Not that kind of nervous. Not a bad nervous. More like an excitement, maybe. She refused to believe it had anything to do with possibly seeing Rick this evening at the tavern.

  Still, she took some extra time picking out a fitted, powder blue, cashmere sweater with a deep V-neckline. One that made her breasts look perky and approachable.

  Lily set her hair free from its bun and shook out the curls. A few finger-combs through and the strawberry blond coils fell into place. She touched up her makeup, not using much besides a little copper-brown eye shadow and black eyeliner. She stood back and inspected herself in the full-length mirror in the master bedroom. The overall look was well constructed, but something was missing.

  Returning to her suitcase, Lily poked around in the accessories she’d brought along. All of it screamed California, so she wandered to her grandmother’s walk-in closet and turned on the light. The room—yes, it was more a room than a closet—was stuffed to overflowing. Sweaters all neatly folded on shelves. Pants hanging on a rod between heavy coats and flannel.

  “Grandma Gail, you actually owned flannel?” Lily fingered the sleeve of a green and gray checkered shirt and shook her head. Looking in the closet was like finding artifacts of an unknown species. After her “incident” in Vermont, Lily supposed she stopped acknowledging her grandmother owned this place and had clothing appropriate to the area. All of Lily’s fond memories of Grandma Gail involved party dresses and fine fabrics and lots of people. This closet suggested her grandmother had a whole other life Lily had spent years ignoring.

  How had Grandma Gail felt about that? Nothing was ever said to Lily about her phobia of the woods, but her grandmother wasn’t one to push. That’s what had made her so wonderful. Lily never had to feel uncomfortable around her. She could be Lily with all her neuroses, and Grandma Gail wouldn’t try to change her, cure her.

  She heaved in a deep breath and turned in a circle in the closet. Her gaze settled on a series of colorful scarves hanging on pegs on the back wall like a rainbow. She riffled through them until she found one swirled in shades of blue with shimmery silver specks. The material was crinkled cotton with a thready fringe along the ends. Lily slid it off its peg and looped it around her neck, inhaling a scent that didn’t quite smell like the Grandma Gail she knew.

  She went back to the mirror and studied her reflection again. Perfect. The scarf toned down the pomposity of the cashmere. Made Lily appear a little less flashing lights and Hollywood and a little more cow pastures and dirt roads. Lily wasn’t sure why that pleased her. Maybe because it would have pissed Drew off.

  After checking the time, she grabbed her purse and made sure her phone was inside. She had to remember that tonight was about observing and talking to the locals as much as about unwinding a little with Hope and Sage.

  She wasn’t going on a date. If Rick showed up, fine. She’d buy him that drink and that would be that. If he didn’t come, no big deal. She’d still buy him a drink but consume it herself. In his honor.

  Always good to have a plan. One that made sense and didn’t fall apart with a few kisses.

  ****

  “You really going to go?” Aunt Joy asked as she shoveled vegetable lasagna onto a plate and handed it to Rick. She’d invited him over for dinner and once she’d said lasagna was on the menu—even a healthy veggie one—he couldn’t refuse.

  Hearing the disbelief in his aunt’s voice helped him make the decision he’d been wrestling with since Lily had left his house. “Probably not.”

  “But Lily’s expecting you, isn’t she?” Aunt Joy filled his glass with cranberry juice and sat across from him. She picked up her fork and cut into her lasagna.

  “I suppose, but what do I care?” Rick shrugged. He didn’t care. Lily wasn’t anybody to him. In fact, she was causing him problems he wouldn’t have had if she’d never shown up in Vermont. His land was in jeopardy and kissing her had been a brainless move. It didn’t feel like it at the time, when her lips were soft against his, but now that he’d had a chance to step back and view the whole encounter, he knew it was pure foolishness.

  “You don’t care, huh?” Aunt Joy raised a
n eyebrow as she wiped the corners of her mouth with her napkin. “Could have fooled me, sugar. I think you see something you like about Miss Hinsdale.” She arrowed her fork at him.

  “I think you’re a crazy old woman,” he said. “You’d better be careful talking like that, or I’ll be forced to send you to a facility.”

  Aunt Joy bunched up her napkin and threw it at Rick. He leaned to the left in time for the paper ball to sail past him.

  “I’m not crazy, but you might be. You understand that a gal like Lily won’t hang around here for long, right?” Aunt Joy said.

  “No, she’ll be on the quickest flight out as soon as she can. She’s got a real phobia of the woods and wild animals. Think it’s got something to do specifically with bears after her reaction to the photo Hope and Sage took.”

  “That’s a great photo,” Aunt Joy said. “Wonder what happened to make Lily so afraid?”

  “Whatever happened made an impression. I never saw anyone pass out like she did.” And he’d never been so compelled to help someone like he had been with Lily. Had to be because he loved the woods and animals and wanted everyone to feel the same. It had nothing to do with Lily in particular. Anyone with her reaction to wildlife needed to see there weren’t any reasons to be so frightened. Sure, wild animals could be dangerous, but as he’d told Lily, mostly they wanted to be left alone.

  Just as he did.

  He had no desire to have a woman in his life who would be jabbering on all the time about stuff he didn’t care about. Fashion, theater… God, he couldn’t even imagine the things Lily probably liked to talk about. Rick liked doing what he wanted, when he wanted to. He didn’t have to consider anyone else’s needs but his own. And Poe’s, but she was easy to take care of. Lily would not be. Rick could tell. If she did stay in Vermont, she’d be bored and complaining before he could blink an eye.