The Baby Bombshell (Shadow Creek, Montana)

by Victoria James

  Gwen leaned forward, her eyes sparkling. “Okay, last night I was thinking, why not offer coffee and tea? Why not have some chocolate desserts, too? It might get a whole other slew of customers through the door. How hard could this be?”

  It was a brilliant idea, but a huge amount of work. “That sounds like a whole other business, Gwen.”

  Gwen nodded. “I know, I know, but there’re hardly any coffee shops in town. Chocolate is so specialized that what if we’re not making enough to support our expenses? We have the retail space, we have the kitchen, what’s the big deal if we had a bit more?”

  “It means we need to buy furniture, coffee, a menu… It is an awesome idea, so I’m not saying no…”

  Gwen didn’t show any signs of slowing down. “We keep it simple: two kinds of coffee, plain and chocolate-flavored. Five sweets. Chocolate croissants, brownies, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate chip muffins, and some kind of dark chocolate granola bar.”

  Lily groaned and dropped her pen, holding her head in her hands. “I can see you’ve hardly given this any thought, Gwen.”

  Her friend smiled wanly. “I don’t want us to fail! It won’t cost us much more in the grand scheme of things, mostly our own labor. It’s a whole other revenue stream. If no one buys the coffee, we can just drink it! You know we’re in this so deep we have no choice but to make money, or we’ll both be declaring bankruptcy. Before thirty.”

  Lily drew a deep breath. It was a good plan, it made sense. “Where are we going to get cheap furniture?”

  Gwen grinned brightly. “I bought a bunch of stuff at a flea market.”

  “Oh my God.”

  Gwen waved her arms around but couldn’t stop smiling. “Don’t be mad. Vintage. We just um, need to paint it. Maybe white, I’m thinking. A little shabby chic would go great in this old place.”

  “Gwen! We don’t have time for all this! And how much did you spend?”

  Gwen wriggled her eyebrows. “My parents paid. They don’t want to be paid back.”

  Lily groaned and put her head in her hands. “Gwen.” Lily loved her almost-in-laws. The Baileys were the nicest people she’d ever met, and she still got a pang every time she saw them. She’d wanted to be their daughter-in-law. She’d been part of that family. She blinked back the sting of tears and looked up at her friend.

  “Don’t worry about it. It’s a gift.”

  “I’ll have to thank them,” she said softly, and looked out the window.

  “Don’t worry about it.”

  “So we need to buy paint for the furniture?” she asked, writing that on the “To-Do” section of the list and trying to get back on track.

  “Yup. But we have Jack. Jack owes the both of us big time. He promised me last night he’d help us in any way he could.”

  Her stomach sank. “Jack.”

  Gwen nodded, first quickly and then she slowed, her smile going down a few watts.

  Lily leaned forward. “As in the man I’m planning on avoiding for the rest of my life?”

  Her friend winced and gave a slow nod. “Him, yes. But wait,” she said, holding up her hand when Lily opened her mouth to argue. “Jack is free labor. He’s good with his hands.”

  Lily didn’t blink and tried to not look as if she was thinking of all the ways Jack was good with his hands, and none of it had to do with carpentry skills.

  “I know you’re pissed, because your face is bright red, but I promise this will work out. I’ll try and be here whenever Jack is here, and you can be wherever he isn’t. I will minimize any exposure you have to him.”

  The knock at the door had them both turning to see who was there. “Oh no,” Lily said under her breath. “Gwen, I’m going to kill you.”

  Jack was standing on the other side of the door, looking even better than in her memories. He was wearing his trademark dark brown leather jacket and jeans that were faded and worn and shoved into construction boots that he hadn’t bothered tying. He was also wearing a grin hot enough to melt the mounds of snow outside.

  “I guess I forgot to mention he was going to start this morning?” Gwen slipped off the chair and went to unlock the door. “Don’t hate me! I’ll buy you dinner tonight at the inn.”

  Lily started sweating as Jack walked in. Suddenly the lack of heat wasn’t an issue. “Morning, Lily,” he said, walking across the empty space. Gwen was mouthing “I’m sorry” behind his shoulder.

  Lily gathered up their notepads and empty coffee cups, standing. “Good morning,” she said, trying to sound like she was indifferent to his presence. Or that she hadn’t just slept with him a week ago.

  “How are you?”

  Lily shot Gwen a look then looked back at Jack. “Excuse me, I have a ton of work that needs to get done.”

  She saw a little sparkle leave his eyes. She marched to the kitchen and left them standing in silence. There. That should send the message loud and clear that she wanted nothing to do with him. Leave her alone.

  …

  Obviously he wasn’t about to leave her alone. He had left her alone for five years…and one week… and it was his biggest regret. Jack followed Lily into the kitchen.

  A week ago he’d come home and was back with the woman he was meant to be with. He knew in the five years he’d been away that he had taken the risk that he would lose Lily forever. He knew by walking out on her that he would be relinquishing all rights to everything they had. He also knew the real reason he’d stayed away so long, but it didn’t matter, because it was still a helluva long time. But that first year, even if he’d stayed, he would have screwed up their relationship and he would have taken her down a dark road.

  Nothing in his life had prepared him for the death of his twin, or his twin’s son.

  He’d been guilt-ridden and wracked with a pain so debilitating that the only thing he could do was leave the town that was filled with people who loved him. The day he’d left Shadow Creek he had no plans, no way out. The only thing he’d known for sure was that if he stayed he’d burden his family and Lily even more.

  He knew it had been time to come home when his last work contract had ended. When his sister’s email begging him to come home for Christmas had come in, it had solidified his plans. But he knew that coming back home would be like walking into a minefield. He had so much repair work to do with his family that he didn’t know where to start. His mother still cried every day since he’d been back. His father was the most normal, but the look of sadness and disappointment still made his gut hurt. Gwen had laid it all out on the table in a quick conversation Christmas morning; his little sister had basically told him that she was happy he was back home, but she would be pissed with him for a while. And then there was Lily…

  Seeing Lily at his parents’ house on New Year’s Eve made him realize he couldn’t be this close to her and not want her in every way possible. At first, he’d told himself that he wasn’t going to try, that he was going to leave her alone. But then he’d talked to her…and she’d verbally lashed out at him, which he deserved. But he had seen the pain in her eyes. Yes, she was pissed, but she was so badly wounded it had hurt him to look at her. When he’d taken her home on New Year’s, every good intention had gone out the window.

  When he walked into the kitchen, Lily paused for a moment, unpacking a box, and then resumed until he walked to stand in front of her. She had her hair piled on top of her head in some clip, which left some glossy brown hair dangling around her face. Her jeans and hoodie clung to all her finest assets, but her eyes were telling him to turn around and walk out of the room.

  “Good morning.”

  She paused and then sighed. “Whatever.”

  He walked to stand in front of her, his hands on either side of the large box. “If you want me to apologize for New Year’s, I won’t. I’ll apologize for everything else, until I’m an old man, but not for New Year’s.”

  Lily shoved the box out of his grasp, green eyes glittering with emotion that wasn’t exactly friendly. “You
know what I’d like, Jack?”

  He shook his head slowly.

  “I’d like to pretend New Year’s never happened. I’d like to stick to my New Year’s resolution of ‘no more Jack Bailey.’ I’d also like to get this business up and running, so if you actually care,” she said, taking the effort to include air quotes at the word “care,” “then you’d help us out and do whatever Gwen asks you to do.”

  He cleared his throat and took a step closer to her. “What if my New Year’s resolution was to get you back?”

  “I’m not a stray cat you left at the animal shelter and now you’ve changed your mind, so you think you stand a chance at getting me back.”

  He fought a smile. “Of course I don’t think that.”

  She paused then ripped open another box, looking like she wished it was his head. “Good. Get to work.”

  He walked over and crouched down beside her, but she still didn’t look up at him. “New Year’s wasn’t just one night, Lil. It reaffirmed that what we had is still very real. Tell me you actually think what we shared is replaceable.”

  She stabbed the box a few times with a box cutter but didn’t answer.

  “I take it that means you haven’t felt that with anyone else and you are wishing it wasn’t so damn good between us.”

  More box stabbing. He ignored the warning. “For me, it reaffirmed what I already knew. I still love you and I’m not going to throw in the towel. I will fight for you.”

  She finally looked up and his stomach clenched. It was a classic Lily pissed-off look. God, how he’d missed that look. “I’m really happy that you’ve made all these decisions for yourself. The only problem, Jack, is that it’s too late. Taking off for a month and then coming back and professing your undying love for me? Sure, I could have gotten over that. Leaving for five years? That warrants a ‘hit the road, Jack.’” He ignored the real panic brewing inside that maybe he’d screwed this up beyond repair.

  “New Year’s—”

  Her eyes filled with tears. “I was drunk and lonely.”

  “Lily—”

  “Please go. I had no idea Gwen asked you to help us here. I don’t want to cause problems between the two of you. I’m sure your family has enough issues with you. Just stay out of my way. Let me go on living my life. New Year’s was the second biggest mistake I ever made,” she said. Her eyes glittered with a whole helluva lot of hate.

  He took in the stiffness of her shoulders, of the way she was clutching the sides of the box, and knew it was time for him to leave. He’d hurt her so badly. He wasn’t such an idiot that he thought sleeping together New Year’s would have given him a free admission pass back into her life, but he’d hoped it might have at least opened the smallest crack in the door.

  He was about to leave, when he remembered her odd phrasing. “What was the biggest mistake you ever made?”

  She looked at him, not moving, her eyes narrowed. “Getting involved with you in the first place.”

  His stomach dropped. God, what a freaking mess he’d made. He stared at the woman he loved more than anything, and hated that he’d done this to her. Lily had been the sweetest person he’d known. She’d always been too good for him. But now…she was bitter…and sad. He saw the sadness, and it gutted him. If he were a better man, he’d let her go.

  Too bad he’d never really thought of himself as one of the good guys.

  Chapter Four

  At the end of a very long week of seeing Jack every day and avoiding Jack every day, Lily knocked on Chase’s and Julia’s door, hopping from one foot to another to keep from freezing. Thank God for Saturday nights. They usually met on Saturdays for dinner at the Mountainside Inn, but since Chase had to go to work late tonight, Julia needed to be home with their daughter. Lily took in the beauty of her friend’s front porch. The winter greens hung heavily, with fresh snow and twinkling white lights. The smell of pine clung to the air.

  A few seconds later, Chase answered the door and quickly moved aside to let her in from the cold. “How are you, Lily?” he asked with a smile.

  Chase Donovan was her good friend. He was also Jack’s best friend and a close friend of his family. After Julia came back to town, she and Chase had fallen in love and gotten married. Everyone was thrilled for them and for his little girl. Julia had been through hell, and Lily was so happy to see her friend so happy again. “Good, Chase, how are you?”

  “Good. Julia and Gwen are already in the living room. I don’t think they heard the doorbell,” he said, taking her coat and scarf. They were probably talking about her and Jack.

  She tore off her boots and all but ran down the hallway. “Thanks!” she said.

  Sure enough, the minute those two spotted her, they stopped talking. She rolled her eyes and flopped onto the couch. “All right, what are we discussing?”

  “Gwen was filling me in on the progress at the store. Oh, hey, I didn’t even ask you guys, what’s the name?”

  Lily grinned at Gwen. They had argued about a name for months and then finally found one they agreed on. “The Shadow Creek Chocolatiers.”

  “It may not be original, but at least customers will know exactly what it is.”

  “I think it’s perfect,” Julia said. “We need to toast!”

  “Agreed!” Gwen lifted the already open wine bottle that was sitting on the coffee table amongst crackers and cheese and wineglasses. A red cranberry-scented candle flickered on the table. “Wine?” Gwen asked, holding up a bottle of red.

  She shook her head, frowning slightly. “Actually I think I’m going to skip it tonight. I feel like I have heartburn.”

  Gwen filled the other two glasses. “What, are you eighty?”

  Lily laughed. Actually, it was pretty unusual for her. “No, maybe it’s all the chocolate we’ve been sampling.”

  “Okay, here’s to the two of you. May you take over the world of chocolate!” They clinked glasses. “I just sampled six of the new truffles,” Julia said, sitting in a big overstuffed chair opposite them. The fireplace was on and the logs crackled every now and then. “They are amazing. You guys are going to do so well.”

  Lily glanced at Gwen, who was drinking wine like it was water. “We’re in panic mode. Bills are coming in for all the startup stuff, but the opening isn’t for another few weeks.”

  Julia waved a hand. “Hang tight, you’ll be fine. Also, I was thinking, let’s come up with something for my clients. I’d love to have a special box of truffles delivered to them when they close on their new houses.”

  “Thanks, Jules,” Gwen said, settling back into the comfy couch.

  Lily nodded in agreement. “That is a great idea, and very appreciated.” Julia had led a successful real estate career in the city. Now that she was back in Shadow Creek, she’d picked up and joined a brokerage. Lily knew Julia already had a good client base, so getting in with one realtor could mean potential business from other realtors, as well as the clients they gave the chocolates to. She tucked her legs under her. “So how are you guys doing here?”

  Julia smiled and took a sip of wine. She looked amazing. Her features were relaxed and the sadness that had seemed to follow her around for so long was finally gone, thanks to Chase and his little girl, Maggie. “Really, really well,” Julia said, in that way that made Lily think she was holding back, most likely because her and Gwen’s lives were kind of in crapsville at the moment.

  Gwen looked over at her, raising an eyebrow. “She’s totally not telling us anything because we’re pathetic, Lil.”

  Julia threw a pillow at Gwen. “Not true!”

  “I know,” Lily said.

  Julia’s face turned bright red. “Guys, I’m not doing that at all.”

  “She’s marrying a hot sheriff who can’t keep his hands off her—of course she’s not going to tell us anything. We are too sad for that. Look at us, the poster girls for abstinence.”

  Lily choked on her own saliva, earning very suspicious looks from both her friends. God, she sucked so
badly at lying.

  Gwen placed her hand on Lily’s shoulder. “Um, are you okay? I wasn’t aware you were drinking anything.”

  She pounded a fist into her chest. “I wasn’t. Heartburn.”

  Apparently satisfied with her answer, Gwen turned back to interrogating Julia. “Right. So what’s up with you and Chase?” She really needed to get herself together. She just needed to tell herself that the other night had never happened. There was no Jack in her life. She should pretend he had never come back to Shadow Creek.

  As predicted, Julia’s face lit up and she looked as though she was about to burst with happiness. Happiness was exactly what she deserved. “Okay I have news,” she said, leaning forward and setting her wineglass down on the coffee table.

  “What, what?” Gwen said.

  “Chase and I got married on New Year’s day!”

  The three of them stood and hugged and squealed. Lily felt joy surge through her body at the news. “You didn’t tell any of us?”

  Julia winced. “We didn’t plan it… We just woke up New Year’s morning and Chase said, we should start the new year off officially together…”

  “Did he actually propose?” Gwen whispered.

  Julia nodded, and her eyes were twinkling and she couldn’t even try to contain her smile. “He did.”

  “On one knee?” Gwen asked.

  Julia nodded repeatedly.

  Gwen yanked Julia’s hand and sighed as she looked down at the sparkling diamond on their friend’s finger. “It’s beautiful.”

  “It is so pretty,” Lily finally said. She was thrilled for her friend, but memories of when Jack had proposed to her kept distracting her from the moment. She had thought that was the beginning of their happily ever after. Instead, it had been the beginning of the end for them. “I’m so happy for you, Julia,” she said, meaning it. She leaned forward and gave her friend a hug.

  “Are there any men like Chase out there anymore?” Gwen asked, flopping dramatically onto the couch.