“Not that kind of love. The kind that makes you feel whole and excited to wake up next to someone every morning.”
“I had that and look where it got me.”
“You didn’t really have it, sis, because it didn’t go both ways.”
“And you think some near stranger with a red velvet cake is the one to change that?”
“Maybe. You two seemed to be having a nice time up there.” Violet pointed toward the top level of the bleacher seating.
Lauren was tired of resisting a truth that she would never have expected to blossom at this point in her life—she really liked Adam, and not in a budding-friendship kind of way.
“Fine, you win.”
“What did you win?” Papa Ed asked as he walked up with two tired babies in tow. The bright-eyed twins that had gloried in all the attention paid to them earlier now sported droopy eyelids.
Violet smiled, obviously satisfied with herself. “Lauren just admitted she likes Adam.”
“He’s a nice young man,” Papa Ed said.
“Yeah, he is,” Lauren said.
“You don’t sound thrilled by that fact.”
“It just complicates everything.”
“Maybe you just think it does,” he said. “No denying you were burned, and badly, but it makes my heart happy to think of you finally moving past it enough to even consider seeing someone else.”
Lauren sighed. “It really doesn’t make sense though. Even if it could be something, I’m not going to be here in Blue Falls forever. And I don’t have it in me to do a long-distance relationship.”
“Stop thinking about all the obstacles there could be in the future,” Violet said. “Just enjoy the moment. Maybe it doesn’t have to be anything other than a bit of fun, which you deserve.”
Lauren looked down at her daughters. Harper was already asleep, and Bethany wasn’t far behind.
“Don’t even think about using these babies as an excuse why you can’t go out. Plenty of single moms date.”
“I’m aware.”
“Now, how do you feel about asking him out?”
“No need.”
“Lauren—”
“He already asked me to have coffee in the morning.”
For a moment, Violet didn’t seem to comprehend. But then her face lit up a moment before she squealed in obvious delight. The noise startled Bethany so much her eyes went wide.
“Sorry,” Violet said as she soothed Bethany. “Go to sleep, sweetie.”
That was all it took for Bethany’s eyes to close. “How do you do that?” Lauren asked her baby-whisperer sister.
“They already know that I’m the cool aunt who will let them get away with all manner of mischief when they’re older.”
“If your sister doesn’t disown you first.”
“Aren’t they just so precious?”
Lauren looked over to see Verona Charles eyeing the twins.
“Thank you. I think so.”
Verona touched Lauren’s shoulder in a gesture that said, “Of course you do, and rightly so.”
“Verona Charles, I’d like you to meet my sister, Violet, and my grandfather—”
“Ed.”
The sound of her grandfather’s name spoken by Verona in such utter disbelief caused Lauren to look at the older woman. She appeared as if she might faint.
“Verona, are you okay?” Lauren reached toward the other woman in case she was having a stroke or a heart attack.
Instead of answering Lauren’s question, Verona continued to stare at Papa Ed. And when Lauren shifted her gaze to her grandfather, he wore such an expression of sorrow that it was like seeing him the day of Nana Gloria’s funeral all over again.
Before Lauren could ask what was going on, Verona took a sudden step back.
“Excuse me.”
As she hurried away through the crowd, Lauren shifted her gaze to her grandfather again. “You know Verona?”
He didn’t answer immediately, just continued to watch Verona until she disappeared out the door into the gym lobby. “A long time ago.”
The look on his face said in no uncertain terms that there was way more to the story, but Lauren feared asking for specifics. Not while Papa Ed wore such a mournful look on his face.
Violet didn’t have any such qualms, evidently. “Were you involved?”
Papa Ed finally pulled his gaze away from the door. “Not here. Not now.”
Lauren realized he meant he didn’t want to talk about it now. She had so many questions, but honestly, she wasn’t sure she wanted to know the answers.
As he started walking toward the exit, Lauren and Violet stared after him and then at each other.
“I feel as if I just got dropped into another universe, where Papa Ed has secrets,” Violet said.
That summed things up perfectly. Now that she thought about it, maybe an alternate reality also explained why she’d agreed to a date with Adam when Phil’s betrayal still burned like a scorpion’s sting.
Chapter Ten
“You looked like you were having fun last night,” Angel said to Adam as he walked into the kitchen the next morning.
“I was.” No sense in denying it, even though the cautious voice in his head still worried that he was making a mistake that would torpedo his business.
“So, when you going to ask her out?”
“Already did.”
The surprise on his sister’s face almost made him laugh.
“When? Where are you taking her? I need details.”
“Now. The bakery.”
Angel just stared at him as if he was lying. “You’re taking a famous baker to a bakery for your first date?”
“Taking it slow.”
Angel seemed to think about that for a moment. “You know, I think you’re smarter than I give you credit for. Wise move.”
“Well, now that I have my little sister’s seal of approval...” he said with no small amount of sarcasm before heading toward the door.
As he drove toward town, a sudden wave of nervousness hit him. Normally, he wasn’t prone to being nervous, especially not when going on a date. The fact that he was now told him that this—whatever it was with Lauren—was different. How different, he couldn’t say.
When he arrived at the bakery, there was a line nearly out the door. He hadn’t thought about all the pairs of eyes belonging to people he knew bearing witness to his date. People who would have questions and who would spread the sighting far and wide.
Oh, who was he kidding? The fact they’d sat in the gym away from everyone else while eating cake the night before likely was already setting the local grapevine on fire. It was just a fact of life in a small town.
Though the place was busy, most of the people were ordering to go. After stopping to talk to three different people in line, Adam finally made it to one of the small tables. He glanced at the time on his phone to find it was ten minutes past when he and Lauren were to meet. Had she heard enough local gossip to make her change her mind? She didn’t seem like the type of person to stand him up without at least a text message. Just as he had that thought, she stepped through the front door. He considered it a good sign that she smiled as she approached the table, but as she drew closer he noticed how tired she looked. So much so that he was on the verge of asking if she’d had a bad night with the twins before thinking about how pointing out she looked tired probably wasn’t the best way to start their date or get her to agree to a second one.
Instead, he stood to greet her. “Good morning.”
“Good morning. Sorry I’m late.”
Before he could respond, Karen Harrington, the head of the PTA at the school, came up to them.
“I just wanted to thank you for taking part in the cakewalk last night,” she said to Lauren. “We made more on that eve
nt than in the twenty-year history of the carnival.”
“I’m glad to hear it.” Lauren was no doubt sincere, but Adam heard the distraction in her voice.
After Karen headed toward the door, Adam asked, “Would you like to postpone this?” Part of him screamed inside his skull, asking him why he was giving her a chance to walk away and never say yes to a date with him again.
“No.” Her answer wasn’t particularly convincing, and she seemed to realize it. “Sorry. There’s just something going on, family stuff.”
“You won’t hurt my feelings if you want to reschedule.”
She shook her head. “No, it’s definitely a ‘maple-glazed doughnut’ kind of morning.”
“One maple-glazed doughnut coming right up. Coffee?”
“Yes, black and strong enough to walk by itself.”
When Adam approached the front counter, Keri gave him a knowing grin. As he exchanged money for the order, she glanced to where Lauren sat at a small round table against the wall.
“You two are cute together.”
He glanced toward his date, hoping Lauren thought so, too.
When he slipped not one but three maple-glazed doughnuts and a large coffee in front of her, Lauren looked up at him with the least amount of distraction in her expression since she’d arrived.
“You might be my new favorite person.”
He smiled, liking the sound of that. “The power of sugar.”
“Amen.”
Adam sat opposite her and took a bite of his cruller. He watched as Lauren indulged in a huge bite of her first doughnut and dove into her coffee as if it was a life-saving device.
* * *
“WANT TO TALK about it?” Adam asked.
Lauren looked up from her coffee. “What?”
“Whatever is bothering you.”
She placed her coffee cup back on the table slowly. “That obvious, huh?”
He held up his hand with the tips of his thumb and forefinger close to each other. “A little.”
“I’m not entirely sure what it is.”
He gave her a curious expression, so she leaned her forearms on the table. “What do you know about Verona Charles?”
Judging by the look on his face, her question wasn’t even in the ballpark of what he might have expected.
“She’s retired from the tourist bureau. Her niece owns the garden center outside town. And she’s the self-appointed matchmaker of Blue Falls.” All of which he’d told her before.
“Single?”
“Uh, yeah. Don’t think she ever married. Honestly, I’ve never even seen her out with anyone. Why?”
“We ran into her at the carnival right after you left, and it was obvious she and Papa Ed knew each other. They both looked like they’d received a shock from those paddles they use to restart people’s hearts.”
“Has he ever mentioned her before?”
“No. In fact, he’s always said that he’s been gone from Blue Falls so long that he doesn’t know anyone from here anymore.”
“Did you ask him about it?”
“Yes, not that it did us any good. I’ve never known him to be so silent on a subject.”
“And that has you worried.”
“Not really.” She sounded as if she wasn’t sure of her answer. “Maybe some. It’s just so atypical I don’t know what to think.”
“Gossip being what it is, I’m sure someone knows something if you ask around.”
“Don’t think I haven’t thought about it, but I owe it to Papa Ed to wait until he’s ready to share.” No matter how hard that might prove to be.
She watched as Adam took a drink of his coffee, as he swallowed. Though he wasn’t dressed up, there was no mistaking how handsome he was. Or the fact he was perceptive enough to know something was bothering her. Had Phil ever been that attentive to her moods and feelings? Why had she overlooked the fact he most likely hadn’t? Love really did make you blind.
And that made love dangerous.
But there was no reason to worry about that in the current situation. Right? She worried when the answer didn’t easily present itself.
“I’m sorry to go on about personal stuff,” she said.
“I thought that’s what dates were for—to share at least some personal details with each other. Granted, I’m a little rusty.”
“At what?” Surely he didn’t mean dating, but he hadn’t mentioned anything else.
“Honestly, it’s been a while since I’ve been out with anyone.”
“I find that hard to believe.”
“So either you think I’m a liar or so irresistible that I have dates lined up for miles.”
Lauren opened her mouth to respond before she realized she didn’t know how. After a moment, Adam laughed.
“It’s neither,” he said.
“So why haven’t you been on a date recently?” Better to talk about his reasons than hers.
He shrugged. “Busy, I guess. Ranches don’t run themselves, and I’ve been putting a lot of time into trying to build the branded-beef business.”
She parsed his words, trying to determine if he was aiming to get her to commit to working with him. When she didn’t find any pressure directed at her, she was thankful. Because if she decided to go out with him again, there would be no business deal between them. Never again was she mixing business with pleasure.
And pleasure was what she was increasingly thinking of when she was around Adam. Even when she wasn’t and simply thought about him. She wondered if his interest in her would disappear if she told him the loss of a contract was the price of going out with her.
Lauren yanked back on her thoughts. She was getting ahead of herself. There was no guarantee that they would see each other again after they shared this one breakfast. Did she even want to?
Yes.
The answer came to her with a speed and certainty that scared her. She really liked him, enjoyed spending time with him. She just hoped she wasn’t making another mistake. How was she supposed to know for sure?
“I used to think that all work and no play wasn’t the way to live one’s life, but I’m not sure anymore.”
“Because of your ex-fiancé?”
“Yeah. It’s hard to trust after someone betrays you.”
“True.” He sounded as if he was speaking from experience, and the thought that someone had betrayed him as well caused her anger to heat a few degrees.
“Did someone hurt you?”
He shook his head. “No, but I’ve seen the effect on some of my brothers and sisters.”
Her thoughts went immediately to Angel and the fact that Julia’s father didn’t seem to be in the picture. But even though she felt herself getting gradually closer to Adam, it wasn’t close enough to ask about his sister’s situation. Angel’s story wasn’t her brother’s to tell.
“You ever think there are way too many crappy people in the world?”
“More times than I can count. And if you don’t mind me saying so, your ex is near the top of that list. He’s an idiot for hurting you and his daughters.”
The sincerity in Adam’s words touched her so deeply that tears sprang to her eyes. “Thank you.”
Adam reached across the table and took her hand in his. He gave it a reassuring squeeze. Even though it was gentle, she felt a silent offer of his strength if she needed it. When she met his gaze, she saw the same and it caused a warm, tingly feeling to travel across her skin before sinking down deep into her heart.
The fear she had of trusting a man again made a valiant effort to assert itself, but her growing affection for Adam beat it back.
“You don’t have to talk about it, but if you ever want to, I’ll listen. I don’t know if I can offer anything of value in response, but sometimes it just helps to get it out.”
“More experience with your brothers and sisters?”
He nodded. “Really, I think it applies to everyone, even someone who hasn’t had it as bad as other people.”
Was he saying that compared to his siblings, he’d had an easy past? If so, she couldn’t imagine what they’d been through because losing one’s entire family at a young age wasn’t exactly a “rainbows and puppies” type of childhood.
This time she squeezed his hand. “Don’t give your own pain less weight just because others might have more or different traumas to deal with.”
His eyes reflected surprise, and then they softened in a way that made her want very much to be taken into his arms. When Adam moved his hand so that he laced his fingers with hers, she wondered if he could read her thoughts.
“I know it’s probably hard to trust someone after what your ex did to you, but I like you, Lauren. A lot. And I’d like to take you out on a proper date if you’ll let me.”
Her heart screamed Yes! But her mind, which tended to search constantly for threats to her and her family, for flaws in her own judgment, told her to proceed with caution.
“That sounds nice, but I don’t know. I already leave the girls with my sister and grandfather too often.”
“We can take the twins with us.”
She stared at him, suddenly wondering if he had some sort of angle. “You want to take two teething babies on a date with us?”
“Sure, why not?”
“Um, because they’re teething babies, and they tend to cry.” Which didn’t seem like the most romantic image in her mind.
Though his willingness to include Harper and Bethany certainly was.
“We could go to the Christmas parade and then the ice-sculpture exhibit in Austin. Angel took Julia a couple of times and she loved it.”
He was actually serious. She searched for any indication his offer was a joke or some plot to gain something for himself, particularly anything that would benefit his bottom line. But either she was still as blind as she’d been with Phil, or it wasn’t there. She didn’t think she could adequately express how much she hoped it was the latter.
“Okay.” She’d go in with her eyes open this time, but there was no denying that she wanted to spend more time with Adam.
Twins for the Rancher Page 12