High Heels and Haystacks: Billionaires in Blue Jeans, book two

by Erin Nicholas

“Fuck no,” Parker told him firmly, not even looking back. “Don’t even think about it.”

  19

  You have to come down to the diner.”

  Ava frowned at the apple sitting next to her cup of tea. She was trying to deal with the fact that she was never going to eat another apple again—and the fact that she really wanted to cover this one in brown sugar, cinnamon, and butter.

  “I’m in the middle of something.” Like examining everything she’d ever thought about apples. And herself.

  She’d never given apples much thought before coming to Bliss. But had she been asked what she thought of them, she would have said they were a little sweet and pretty satisfying, if maybe a little…unexciting.

  And now she was realizing how many parallels there were between apples and her life. Previously, she’d thought they were both fine. Now though, because of Parker, she realized she’d been missing sweetness and spice that could make both apples and her life so much more satisfying. In fact, she couldn’t help but think—

  “Ava!” Cori snapped in her ear.

  It yanked Ava back to the moment. It was really early in the morning to be having such deep thoughts about fruit. Or really anything.

  “You have to get down here.”

  Ava sighed. “I was planning on working at home today.”

  “Well, you can’t,” Cori said. “I’ll see you in ten minutes.”

  Then she hung up.

  Ava stared at the phone. The last person to hang up on her had been the senior vice president in charge of marketing for the manufacturing branch of Carmichael Enterprises in London. He no longer worked for the company.

  Ava started to dial Cori’s number, but before she pressed the button, she sighed. Her sisters had, so far, stayed out of everything with Parker. They’d given her space last night. They hadn’t told her that she’d messed up. They hadn’t told her that she owed Parker an apology. They hadn’t pointed out that she couldn’t just ignore him—or her feelings for him—for the next seven months and one week that she had to live and work in Bliss. They also hadn’t pointed out that she still needed to date someone and that it would be even more miserable when she was completely in love with Parker.

  She blew out a breath. Okay, they were going to force her to face him. They were going to insist she apologize. They were going to urge her to tell him how she felt about him and that she’d knocked the wall down because she was in love with him.

  A shiver went through her—part trepidation, but also part eagerness. She did want to tell him. He might not think that was a good reason to put holes in his stuff. But she needed to try to convince him that she could make it right. She could put the wall back up. She could cool it. She could stay on her own side and let him have his space.

  Probably.

  Fifteen minutes later, she walked into the pie shop. She’d made it to the diner, but walking in there directly seemed risky. Parker might be standing behind the front counter and she wasn’t sure how she’d react. She never walked into rooms without knowing exactly how the people inside would see her and react to her. But this time…there was no way to know. And that made her jumpy.

  But, of course, the second she was inside the pie shop, she was essentially inside the diner because of the wide-open doorway she’d put in.

  “Ava!”

  It wasn’t Parker who was behind the front counter of the diner, however. It was Evan. With a notepad in hand as if he was taking orders.

  The diner was packed. In fact, people were spilling over into the pie shop, eating eggs and bacon at the little round wooden tables. But then, there were people in the diner eating pie, she noted as she stepped through the doorway between the two restaurants. And was that a burger in Jeffery Jorgenson’s hands? At nine a.m.? Burgers before eleven were unheard of in Parker’s diner.

  She started for the counter and Evan.

  “Ava!” someone else called.

  She could do nothing but give a little wave as Doris Christiansen lifted her forkful of apple pie—from a table on the far side of the diner—and said, “This is delicious!”

  Then she noticed Hank and the guys sitting in the booth closest to the pie shop. They all lifted their coffee cups in salute and she saw they were cups from the pie shop. She assumed they were also filled with pie shop coffee rather than Parker’s.

  “What in the hell is going on here?” she asked as she made it to the counter. It seemed that every rule had been abandoned. “Where’s Parker?”

  Evan frowned as he turned and handed a slip of paper through the window to the kitchen. “I’m not sure. Larry Miller said he opened up early and that Parker bought a bunch of stuff from him. But no one knows for sure where he went from there.”

  “Larry owns the hardware store, right?” Ava asked.

  “Yep.”

  She sighed. “He probably went to get stuff to patch up the huge holes I made in his wall.”

  Evan looked over at her but didn’t say anything. “Cori was hoping you could help out. We’re swamped.”

  “We’re swamped?” Ava asked. “You and Cori are running the diner?”

  “Do you want fries with that Reuben or what?”

  Ava turned to find Brynn poking her head through the window from the kitchen.

  “Fuck if I know,” Evan told her.

  “Well, Cori needs to know,” Brynn said. She noticed Ava. “Oh, good you’re here. Where does Parker keep the butter?”

  Ava shook her head. “Um…in the fridge.”

  “There’s none in there,” Brynn said.

  Ava flushed. She’d taken the last of his butter last week, but she’d assumed he would notice and restock. Of course, he’d been closed since then because she’d whisked him off to New York. “Go check the pie shop.”

  Brynn started to turn away, and Ava added, “And of course it’s fries with the Reuben. It’s always fries.” Then she frowned. “Why are people eating Reubens at nine in the morning anyway?”

  Brynn shrugged. “It’s anarchy.”

  That seemed about right.

  “Who’s cooking?” Ava asked.

  “Cori and Noah,” Brynn said. “I’m helping some.”

  Well, Cori was an excellent cook. “Does she know how Parker makes everything?” Ava asked.

  “I’m pretty sure we’re doing Cori versions of things today,” Brynn said with a grin.

  Which meant they’d be delicious. But they wouldn’t be the way Parker liked them. And for some reason, that bugged her. She headed through the swinging door.

  If the front had seemed crazy, the kitchen was downright chaotic. Food and supplies were spread out over every surface, cupboard doors were hanging open, every burner held a pot or pan, and Cori and Noah were rushing around, nearly bumping into one another at every turn.

  “Hey.”

  No one even looked at her.

  Ava planted her hands on her hips. “Hey!”

  They all stopped what they were doing and turned. Cori held a bunch of carrots in her two hands. Noah was holding a frying pan. Brynn had a stick of butter in her hand.

  “Are you guys okay?” Ava asked.

  “We’re going nuts!” Cori exclaimed. “I have no idea how Parker does this every day all by himself.”

  “Well, when someone wants something on his menu, he doesn’t have to stop and look up the recipe,” she said, pointing to the two cookbooks open on the center island. “And he doesn’t let people order Reubens before eleven and when they order the breakfast special number one, they get eggs, bacon, toast, and hash browns with no substitutions, and if they want pie they have to go next door so they’re not taking up a booth someone else needs.” Okay, so as she said it, she realized that his rules for the diner weren’t just about control, but that there were some practical reasons for them too.

  Cori nodded. “Yeah, okay. Well, none of that really helps us right now. Everyone’s here and even if we wanted to stick with the breakfast specials, I don’t know what every one of those
are, and since we already made a couple of Reubens, we can’t start telling people no now.”

  Ava thought about that. Maybe Cori couldn’t tell them no, but she certainly could. “What can you make easily and quickly without a recipe?”

  “Pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon and fruit salad,” Cori said.

  “Then start making that.” Ava turned on her heel and headed for the front of the diner. She stopped in the middle of the room, put her fingers to her lips and gave a shrill whistle. Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned.

  “Good morning, everyone,” she said. “I’m so happy you’re all here. But you’re making us crazy. So, just to get everyone on the same page, here is the menu for the rest of the day. Breakfast is pancakes, scrambled eggs, bacon, and fruit salad. No substitutions.” There was a low murmur in the room, but she held her hand up and it stopped. “Lunch will be…” She glanced toward the window to the kitchen. Cori shrugged. “Lunch will be Reubens.” Hell, they’d already been making those.

  “Just Reubens?” someone asked.

  Ava put her hand on her hip. “Yes. Just Reubens. And they will come with fries. And only fries. And for dinner…” She looked over at Cori, but her sister just shrugged again. “For dinner, we will be serving pork and peach pie over at the pie shop.”

  The rumbling in the room started again and Ava crossed her arms and waited. It quieted quickly.

  “The pork and peach is a new pie from the line of savory pies we’ll be introducing at Blissfully Baked. There will be a new one each week on Mondays for the rest of this month. We hope you’ll stop over and tell us what you think.”

  She was prepared to make those pies. She didn’t have a recipe and they were maybe going to suck. But she was going to try. She’d sampled more than just cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger when she’d been taste-testing the spices. She could probably make a filling that was edible if she tasted it as she went along.

  But she was definitely stealing pastry dough from Parker’s kitchen for the crusts.

  She went back into the kitchen. “Okay, now what else can I do?”

  Cori grinned at her. “You can go find Parker, tell him you love him, and then go…pick some peaches.”

  “And that’s not a euphemism,” Brynn said. “You don’t have time for a euphemism.”

  There was a choking noise, and Ava looked over to find Noah running a hand over his face. She wished she had time to get into whatever that was. But her heart was pounding, thinking of going after Parker.

  “Well, I think I might know where he is,” she said of Parker. “If I don’t have to go looking all over town for him, we might just have time for a quick euphemism.”

  She had no idea why she was feeling optimistic about their reunion. Except that she really did love him, and she thought he loved her, and she wanted him and…she always got what she wanted. Maybe not things that she couldn’t buy, up ’til now, but this was as good a time as any to make that change too and go after something she had to work for.

  “Peaches,” Cori said. “Lots and lots of peaches.”

  And then Ava realized what she’d done. “Oh, crap,” she groaned. “There are no peaches in season right now either, are there?”

  “I can make a run to the grocery stores around,” Noah said. “After this rush is over, I’ll go get whatever I can.”

  “Really?”

  He gave her a grin. “We’ll figure it out. If nothing else, there are canned peaches.”

  She laughed at that. “But you don’t have to work today?”

  Noah shrugged. “Everyone knows that Parker walked out today. They’ll know to find me and Evan here if they need us.”

  And for just a second, Ava felt tears pricking at her eyes. She’d never had people like this in her life. Everyone she knew came to work and put in extra time for the money, to kiss up to the boss, or for the chance at a partnership or promotion. None of them did it out of simple friendship. “Thanks, Noah.”

  “Of course.”

  And it really was that simple for the people here. Of course they would show up to help a friend. Of course they would stick with the crazy rules of the local diner so that it could keep operating. Of course they would show up to try the new pie at the pie shop.

  She sniffed and nodded. “Okay, I’ll go find Parker.”

  She was lost in thought as she made her way back through the pie shop toward the front door, and she was startled to feel a hand wrap around her wrist as she passed one of the tables. She stopped and looked at who was holding her. “Oh, hey, Hank.”

  He was eating a burger. In the pie shop. Parker would hate that.

  “Hi, honey.” He pulled her closer. “I’m going to need you to sit down for a minute.”

  “I can’t right now. I really need to go find Parker.”

  “This is about Parker.”

  She glanced at the door, then back at the older man. “Okay, maybe for just a second.”

  “Do you know Barbara Spencer?” Hank asked as she slid into the chair across from him.

  Ava shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  Hank pointed at a table in the diner. An older woman sat, eating pancakes and nursing a cup of tea while she looked at her phone.

  “Oh, I recognize her. She works at the post office, right?” Ava asked.

  Hank nodded. “And she’s an excellent cook.”

  “Okay.”

  “Do you know why she eats pancakes in here every Monday?”

  “I don’t.”

  “Because she used to bring her granddaughter, Hannah, in for breakfast every Monday before school. Hannah just left for college this past fall. But Barbara still comes in for those pancakes. And she told me Hannah goes and has pancakes every Monday at a diner near campus. They text or talk on the phone while they eat. It makes them feel close even though Hannah is far away.”

  Ava blinked, her throat a little tight. “That’s really nice.”

  Hank nodded. Then he pointed at another table. Ava turned to look.

  “Those four guys in the corner booth?”

  “Yeah?”

  “They all went to high school together. They don’t see each other much anymore, but Tyler is home visiting. So they all came to the diner catch up. They’re sitting in the booth where they probably ate a hundred burgers together over the years growing up.”

  Ava nodded, starting to understand where Hank was going with this. “People come in here to eat, but also because they have happy memories here.”

  “Yep. But then there’s Tom Conner,” Hank said. “He and his wife will be in for an early lunch later on, like every Monday and Thursday. And the Perkins family. They have five little kids and they come in for dinner on Wednesdays after the kids are done with their different practices and rehearsals because it’s usually late and their mom doesn’t feel like cooking. And there’s Jason Harper. He’s a Big Brother to Hunter. They come in on Saturdays and Jason helps with homework and they talk about their weeks. So, see,” Hank said. “They don’t come in to relive memories. They’re making them now.”

  Ava took a deep breath. “And having things be consistent and like they’ve always been is important to them.”

  “It is.” Hank leaned in and covered her hand. “Parker is giving people around here a lot more than just good food.”

  She pressed her lips together. “I shouldn’t have changed things up in here. This diner staying the same is important for everyone.”

  Hank shook his head. “That’s not what I said.”

  “That’s not what you meant?”

  “Honey, Parker gets to help give people all these memories.”

  “Right.”

  “And that’s really good for him too.”

  “I agree.”

  “But why should he be the only one?”

  Ava felt her heart trip. “You mean me?”

  Hank laughed. “Yes, Ava, you’ve already made this place a lot more memorable, and I think that you deserve to have a place tha
t makes you feel the way this diner makes all of us, including Parker, feel.”

  “Like home,” she said softly. “That’s how this place makes him feel.”

  Hank nodded. “It’s how it feels for a lot of us.”

  “I think it already feels that way to me too,” she said, realizing it as she said it.

  Hank squeezed her hand. “There you go.”

  On impulse, Ava leaned across the table and kissed the older man’s cheek. “Thanks for making this place feel that way for my dad.”

  Hank was smiling but blinking rapidly when she sat back.

  * * *

  Parker’s truck was in front of his house.

  Ava parked Elvira, the Caddy Rudy had left her and her sisters, next to it. She took a deep breath and got out. Smoothing her hands down the thighs of her jeans, she looked around. She figured he was either in the greenhouse or cutting wood. She didn’t know what he’d gotten at the hardware store—and even knowing that wouldn’t have guaranteed she’d know what he was doing with any of it—but she assumed it was outside stuff. So she started across the grass. She didn’t hear the chainsaw so she headed for the greenhouse first.

  There was fresh soil on the floor next to the table where she and Parker had gotten dirty the other day and a new plant in a pot on the top of the table. But no Parker. She checked the wood pile, where there were new cut logs, and even the chicken coop, but there was no Parker.

  That left the house. She picked up her pace as she realized that he might be in the shower after working outside. She wasn’t sure she’d surprise him in there, considering she wasn’t sure about their current status, but she could absolutely be waiting in the bedroom when he came out.

  But as soon as she entered the house she heard the pounding—very loud pounding—coming from the second floor.

  She took the steps two at a time and followed the noise to Parker’s bedroom. More specifically to the closet in Parker’s bedroom. Ava rounded the corner and…whoa.

  The sight that met her surprised her and instantly made tingles erupt all over her body.

  Parker was standing in his closet, shirtless, his blue jeans riding low on his hips, his feet braced, causing the denim to pull tight across his ass. He had his arms raised as he lifted a sledgehammer. His skin was slick with sweat, his muscles bunching and rippling. She watched as he swung the hammer against the wall, enlarging the hole already there, the impact seemingly causing his entire body to tighten.