Bluestone & Vine

by Donna Kauffman

  It was true that Pippa was getting used to the knowing looks, the whispers, because they were all couched in affection. His friends wanted Seth to be happy. And they thought she was worthy of him. It was flattering, really. What she wasn’t getting used to was her own yearning. And not just for more of what they’d started that day on Mabry’s couch. Pippa felt like she’d made a dozen or more new friends in the few weeks she’d been in Blue Hollow Falls. Kind, decent people whom she knew would be there for her if she were to ask for anything, need for anything. She knew there was an element of her celebrity at play, but mostly they’d welcomed her because she’d arrived as a guest of Seth Brogan, and that made her a guest of the town.

  And every day, as she developed those relationships, learned and experienced new things in and around the Falls, she found herself wanting to turn to him to share this thought or make that aside, to ask him for insight about this person, or share a laugh with him about that funny thing that happened. She could ask general questions of anybody, but that wasn’t the same as sharing those moments with somebody. And no matter how hard she tried to make it otherwise, he was her somebody.

  “I’m not getting used to it,” Seth said, quietly breaking into her thoughts.

  She looked at him and her heart clutched at his honesty, then glanced down at her hands. She’d taken to rubbing the tips of her fingers together in recent months, as if she still couldn’t get used to the fact that they weren’t callused any longer. She’d been away from the fiddle so long, they’d gotten soft again. She wanted to be honest with him, too. Tell him that it was true she didn’t mind the well-wishers, but she did mind not being with him. Only he looked so miserable, and that would only make things worse for both of them.

  “Maybe I should go then,” she murmured instead, not knowing what else was left to say. She looked up. She hadn’t made the offer lightly. In fact, she’d been giving it a lot of thought.

  To his credit, he didn’t respond right away, but took her offer as it was intended. “Are you finding what you came here looking for?”

  His insight always surprised her. Even more surprising was that it never felt intrusive, or made her feel vulnerable. Quite the opposite. She nodded. “It’s funny. I didn’t come to Blue Hollow Falls for anything, of course. It was merely a spot to be in while I contemplated . . . everything.”

  “But?”

  She smiled briefly then. “But it’s turned out to be quite specifically the right spot.”

  He listened to her, then tipped his chin down, studying his own fingers, which were laced on top of his bent knee. “Are you finding all the answers you need?”

  She lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know yet.” She looked at him. “But I think I could, yes.”

  “Then you should stay.”

  “Seth,” she began, but he spoke over her, calmly, but with purpose.

  “Moira said you’d originally wanted to stay longer. Now that you’re in the cabin, there’s not really a limit on the swap. So you should stay however long you want. However long you need.”

  “Not if it’s compromising your life here,” she replied, without hesitation.

  He looked at her then. “I’m not asking you to leave.”

  She studied his face. “I know you aren’t,” she said softly. She thought about what he’d said, wondered if she should just go anyway. Only that would make him feel bad, too. Finally, she said, “If it’s okay, I’ll stick to the eight weeks Moira and I agreed on.”

  “Actually, I had a different idea.”

  Her eyes widened. She hadn’t expected that response. “Oh?”

  He shifted his seat so he could look at her more directly. “So, it was watching that house-swap movie, The Holiday, that gave Moira the idea to do this whole thing to start with. Did Katie tell you that?”

  “Yes,” Pippa said, even more confused now

  “There’s another movie, with Julia Roberts and Dennis Quaid.”

  Pippa frowned. “I know it. The one where he cheats on her, she kicks him out, then suddenly questions everything about her life and goes to live with Kyra Sedgwick. Something to Talk About, that’s the name of it, right?” Her mouth dropped open. “Are you suggesting that one of us should be seen in the company of another potential beau so folks know we’re not interested in each other?”

  Now it was Seth’s turn to open his mouth to speak, then close it again. “That wasn’t my plan at all, actually.”

  “It might work, though,” she said, now that she’d gotten past the shock of the suggestion. “If it’s really bothering you that much, I guess we could try that.” She instantly hated everything about the plan. The very last thing she wanted was to see him with another woman. But she was trying to be supportive, be a good friend to him. “Um, did you have someone in mind?” she said, not sounding so much like a friend, as like a woman trying not to be consumed with jealousy. Which was exactly what she was. She cleared her throat, tried again. “You are planning on telling the other woman it’s a ruse, right?” Then another thought struck her and any attempt at being casual about this escaped her entirely. Her expression fell. “Or is there really someone? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”

  “No,” he said without hesitation, and seemed suddenly very interested in her reaction. “I also don’t think it would be wise to bring anyone else into this.”

  Pippa tried not to look as massively relieved as she felt. Failed just as miserably at that, too, she was certain. She pulled up her knees and wrapped her arms around them. Like that’s going to protect you. “So, what is your idea then?”

  “I only mentioned the movie because the title came from an old Bonnie Raitt song.”

  Pippa nodded and without thinking sang the refrain about a woman wanting to give people something to talk about. “Yes, I know it,” she said absently, her mind still fixated on this plan of his, on how kind he was being, and how badly she was blowing this “just be friends” moment. “Bonnie’s a brilliant musician. We actually performed together at a benefit once.”

  When Seth didn’t go on, she finally glanced over at him, only to find him staring at her, almost as if he was transfixed. “What?” she asked. “You are aware I know some famous people, right? It’s not like we go shopping together, or go on holiday, but I have bumped into one or two.”

  “Pippa,” he said, sounding quietly stunned.

  “You sang.”

  They both turned to find Bailey standing in the open doorway, staring at Pippa in much the same way Seth was.

  “What?” Pippa said. “No, I was just—” Then she broke off, and immediately cupped her hand around her throat. She looked from Bailey to Seth. “Oh my God. I did, didn’t I?”

  “You have a beautiful voice,” Seth said.

  “Haven’t you heard it before?” This from Bailey, who looked rather disgusted with him.

  He shook his head, but his gaze was on Pippa. “How did it feel?”

  Pippa let out a little gurgle of stunned laughter, but kept her hand protectively wrapped around her neck. “Just fine, apparently. I wasn’t even thinking. I was just in the moment, like I used to be, and . . .” She leaned back and squeezed her eyes close, then shook her head, still dumbfounded. Then she laughed, and kept laughing.

  “What?” Seth and Bailey asked at the same time.

  She finally opened her eyes and looked at both of them, her mouth curved in a deep, wry grin. “It’s just, as you might imagine, over the past eleven—well, I guess it’s closer to twelve months now—I’ve given this moment a great deal of thought. What would be the first note I’d sing? What song would it be? Where would it happen? Would I be alone? In a studio? In the privacy of my own shower, perhaps? I’ve played it out so many times, so many ways.” She shook her head and tipped it back against the post. “Never once did I think it would happen and I wouldn’t even notice.”

  Seth smiled with her, but there was still concern for her in his gaze, and that made her heart squeeze a little, too. Concern fo
r her, not simply her voice. He wasn’t worried about her career, he was worried about how she felt.

  “Did it hurt?” Bailey asked.

  Pippa shook her head. “No. I’m healed. If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be laughing, much less singing. And I couldn’t do that, either, for a very long time.” She reflexively continued to massage her throat anyway. How could she have spent almost a year all but paralyzed in fear, then gone and done it, and not even noticed? It made her feel even more ridiculous than before.

  “So, why have you waited so long to try?” Bailey walked over and sat down cross-legged on the porch, right next to Pippa, her blue eyes as baleful as Pippa had ever seen them. “You’re afraid it’s going to happen again.”

  Pippa nodded and felt the sudden sting of tears at the corners of her eyes, which was silly. It was over now, and about as anticlimactic as it could possibly have been. “Maybe not from singing one song, or two, or even a whole record of songs. But singing one song will lead to another, and someday another album, because that’s how my job works.”

  “And a new album means touring, or at least performing, and not in the controlled environment of a studio,” Seth said. “But up on stage.”

  Pippa looked at him, and their gazes met, held. She should have felt exposed in that moment, naked for the world to see, her deepest fear finally revealed. Instead, she felt ... protected. Seth understood, truly understood. He’d understood the moment she’d gotten her music back, too. He knew how monumental this was for her. And he was neither babying her nor bullying her. He was simply listening to her, being there for her. And that felt like the safest place in the world to her. “Aye,” she said.

  “Like before,” Bailey said quietly, drawing Pippa’s attention back to her.

  Pippa nodded. “It’s silly, mostly,” she said, not wanting Bailey to be afraid for her. “I mean, it could happen, but it takes a lot to do that kind of harm. I’d take better care, not strain my voice so badly. It’s not like I’m going to walk out, launch into a song, then—” She broke off as that moment flashed through her mind again, making her heart lurch in a painful squeeze, and her stomach to do a queasy little flip.

  Bailey leaned over and clasped Pippa’s shoulders in a fierce hug. “I’d be afraid, too,” she whispered in Pippa’s ear before sitting upright again. “It would be weird if you weren’t.”

  Pippa gave a watery little laugh at that. From the mouth of babes. “True, I suppose, when you put it like that.” She reached for Bailey’s hand, squeezed it. “Thanks,” Pippa told her.

  “So, maybe you start slow,” Bailey said. “Maybe you record songs as you write them so there’s time in between. And you don’t have to do tours, right? I mean, you could just make records.”

  “Yes, I could,” Pippa said. “But what feeds me as an artist, what pushes me to write music, to find the words to sing, the notes to play, is the performing. Not so much to stand up on a stage, but because that’s the only way to join together with others and let the music unite us. It’s hard to explain, but I don’t play or write music for myself. I do it to share with others, and I want to be part of that sharing.”

  Bailey sat there and thought about what she’d said and Pippa took that moment to risk glancing at Seth. He had the same fierce, contemplative expression as Bailey and she smiled, thinking how lucky she was to have found two souls so intent on helping her save her own. And that should be enough, shouldn’t it?

  “I’ll find my way,” she told Bailey, not wanting them to feel they had a responsibility to help someone who was still trying to figure out how to help herself. “That little bit just now was a bigger step than you know.” She smiled. “Who knows what’s next?” she said, wiggling her eyebrows. “Maybe a whole advert jingle while washing dishes.”

  Seth smiled at that, as did Bailey, but Pippa knew they didn’t buy her casual nonchalance, because she wasn’t buying it. She had some major thinking to do, but for that, she needed to be alone.

  Something of that need must have shown on her face, because Seth pushed himself to his feet. “Why don’t you go grab your things,” he told Bailey. “I’m sure Addie Pearl is home by now. I’ll just take you there directly.”

  Bailey nodded, scrambled up and turned to go into the cabin. She stopped in the doorway and looked back at them. “I’m really glad I got to hear it,” she told Pippa. “Your voice is even prettier now than on the songs Jake played for me. I promise I won’t tell anyone, about you singing again, okay?”

  Pippa hadn’t even thought about that. It was a measure of just how deeply Blue Hollow Falls had lulled her into feeling safe and secure. It made her heart catch, thinking she had this little warrior looking out for her. “Thank you,” she said with heartfelt sincerity. Then she smiled. “It wasn’t much to listen to, but I’m glad you were here, too.” And she meant that, too.

  Bailey flushed with pleasure, then ducked into the cabin.

  Pippa stood and turned to find Seth standing on the step two down from hers, which brought their gazes level for the first time. Well, the first time when both of them were standing, anyway. She tried not to think about that, but it was hard not to because she was already all caught up in those soul-deep eyes of his, and thinking about what his hands had felt like on her, and that beautifully sensual mouth.

  “What did you mean?” she asked, grasping for any conversational thread, trying to ignore the wobble he put into her knees, heck, her heart, when he looked at her like he was right now. “About Bonnie’s song, I mean,” she added. “We got off track.” She tried to run through the song lyrics in her head, but he’d lifted his hand to gently pull hers away from her throat. She hadn’t even realized she was still massaging it.

  In response, he slid her hand to his shoulder, then took her other one in his, sliding his free hand around her waist. He swayed their bodies in a slow rocking motion, then lowered his mouth to her ear, his soft beard brushing the side of her neck, and stunned her speechless by quietly singing a stanza from the song. The one about how the singer thought that if folks were going to talk about her and a particular gentleman she knew, then maybe they should silence those rumors by . . . giving them something to talk about.

  Her mouth dropped open in a silent “oh” as she turned her head just enough to meet his gaze, which put his lips so close to hers he had only to lean the tiniest fraction closer to mate them together.

  It was as if everything else stilled around them, and there was only that moment, and only them inside of it. She searched his gaze, as he did hers, wondering if he meant they should pretend to—or if he meant he’d changed his mind and really wanted—but instead of waiting for answers, she decided to give him a few of her own. So she closed the space between them and kissed him gently on the lips.

  In response, he slipped his arm around her waist and slowly pulled her fully against him, then kissed her back, until she melted into him and let all the rest drift away.

  Behind them, standing on the porch, her pillows and hoodie clutched against her chest, Bailey smiled. “Finally,” she said under her breath. “Adults are so dense sometimes.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “I’m sorry, what?” Sawyer set the blue cheese and smoked pepper-bacon burger he’d been about to bite into back on his plate.

  Seth went ahead and sank his teeth into his Vermont cheddar, glazed onion, and beer-mustard burger, then groaned in appreciation. “This is a definite yes,” he said, and made a pencil mark on the paper Sawyer’s new chef, Hudson Walker, had laid on their table when he’d delivered their first taste-testers. “Seriously, I can’t believe Noah let you hire that guy away from him.”

  Sawyer grinned at that. “I think Noah realized early on that Hudson was destined for greater things than his inn kitchen. Besides, I didn’t steal him so much as swap him. Bert was the perfect hire for the glorified food-truck type menu I thought I’d launch with, but the moment Hudson dropped by and began riffing ideas about turning my expanded food-truck theory into a full-blow
n artisanal menu, locally sourcing all the food and pairing it with my craft beers . . .” Sawyer shrugged. “It just came together. Bert is happy at the inn. He’s a very charming guy, so he gets to mingle with the guests directly, which is more his style anyway than being stuck back in the kitchen. Noah says everyone loves him. Win-win, really.”

  Seth traded their plates and took a bite from Sawyer’s untouched burger over his protests, then closed his eyes on a slow groan of pleasure. “He’s a genius. You’ve hired a genius.” Seth reached over and marked the box on Sawyer’s sheet. “I don’t think this taste test is necessary,” he said. “Just let the man cook. It’s a safe bet anything he puts on a plate is going to be a home run.”

  “This was his idea,” Sawyer said. He glanced around at the handful of other tables and got numerous thumbs-up from the guild artists that Hudson had invited for that afternoon’s private “menu development meeting” as he called it. “He’s just trying to pare down to the best ones.”

  Seth noted everyone was either busy eating or scribbling enthusiastically on their response sheets. He grinned at Sawyer. “I don’t think this is going to help narrow it down much. It’s going to be a ten-page menu before we’re done.”

  “And this is just for the burger section,” Sawyer said, then picked up Seth’s burger, turned it around, and took a bite from the other side. His reaction was pretty much the same. “You might have a point,” Sawyer conceded as he set the sandwich down and wiped his chin with a napkin. “Also, you’re not going to just drop that bomb in my lap and pretend it’s business as usual. What do you mean, you and Pippa are going to ‘give the people what they want’? What does that even mean?”

  Seth took a sip of beer, then tried to explain. “I was in my truck heading into town the other day and heard that Bonnie Raitt song ‘Something to Talk About.’ You know it?”