by Laura Drewry
Main Street was almost deserted as Ellie headed out. Thayer and Thackery Ostlund—or T-Squared, as they were generally known—were the only ones left, and once they finished sweeping the walk in front of their hardware store, that would be it. Main Street would be tucked in and put to bed for another night.
The lights were out in both Maya’s flower shop and her apartment above Jayne’s bookstore, so she must have already left. It wasn’t unusual for Maya to go ahead of Ellie, but it was highly unusual for Ellie to check over her shoulder as she walked down the street. There were no buildings in the block and a half between T-Squared’s and Chalker’s, just a community garden and a fenced-in lot that had been empty since Ellie moved to town.
In all the times she’d walked that stretch between her store and Chalker’s, this was the first time she’d felt the slightest wave of unease.
“That’s what you get for listening to your mother go on about Gibbs’s cases,” Ellie muttered, hustling up the stairs and into the lobby of the giant log building that housed not only Chalker’s Pub but also a restaurant and hotel. She spied Maya the second she stepped into the pub, and instantly the creepy feeling disappeared.
Regan arrived a minute later, and, as usual, Shelley had already set Jayne’s drink on the table before she got there.
“Sorry I’m late.” It was the same thing she said every week, the same thing the rest of them barely even noticed anymore, but when she took the seat beside Ellie, there was something in the way she looked at her, like she…Oh, crap.
“Now that we’re all here”—Regan popped a peanut into her mouth and grinned—“something you want to tell us, Ellie?”
“No.” She shook her head over her glass. “Not particularly.”
Halfway through a sip of her wine, Maya perked right up. “Oooh, what?”
Damn it, she should have expected it from Regan. Ellie had ribbed her pretty bad when Regan first hooked up with Carter, so it wasn’t too surprising that the tables would turn if Regan got the chance. This was night-and-day different from what went on between Regan and Carter though.
It was apples ’n’ oranges. Cops ’n’ robbers. Brett ’n’ Ellie.
Ugh!
“What?” Maya repeated. Regan just kept grinning, and Jayne refused to make eye contact with anyone, which spoke volumes all on its own. “Is it a guy? Holy jumpin’…Are you seeing someone, Ellie?”
“No.”
“Yes,” Regan corrected. “Sort of. She had dinner with him last week and conveniently forgot to mention it to any of us.”
“Who?” Maya hurried to set her glass down so she could wrap both hands around Ellie’s forearm. “Who?”
Ellie loved these three like sisters, but sometimes…
“It’s not what it sounds like,” Ellie started slowly, glaring hard at Regan before turning back to Maya, whose blue eyes were round as dinner plates. “I don’t know what Dudley Do-Right’s been saying, but this is what actually happened.”
By the time Ellie got as far as Brett offering to drop her bike at Tim’s, Maya was struggling to keep her mouth pinched tight. The second she heard that Brett had sat down at Ellie’s table the day after revoking her license, though, she wasn’t even trying to hold anything back.
Maya didn’t just laugh; she snorted. And the harder she laughed, the louder she snorted, until tears rolled down both her cheeks, taking most of her mascara with it. It wasn’t long before the rest of them were laughing along with her, including Ellie.
“So you can see why I wasn’t really keen on sharing this with you,” she said. “And why I begged my mom not to say anything at Jayne’s the other night. Karma is one coldhearted bitch, I tell ya.”
“And…and…” Maya held up her hand as she tried to catch her breath. “And now you’re taking driving lessons with him.”
The snorting started all over again.
“If I was him,” Regan quipped, “I’d fail you just on principle.”
“I know you would.” Still grinning, Ellie shook her head at Regan. “And thank you, I appreciate the support.”
“Hey—how many times have the three of us told you Brett’s a good guy?” Regan didn’t wait for Ellie to answer. “Uh-huh. Exactly. If anyone’s earned the right to treat you like crap, it’s him, and you can’t even begin to deny that.”
“Can we get some nachos or something?” Jayne cut in. “I’ve got a hankering.”
They’d barely given Shelley the nachos order before Regan changed the subject.
Thank God.
“Guess who’s looking for a stylist again?”
“No way,” Maya choked. “Again?”
“Yup. It’s a small indie film he’s doing with a friend of his, and they’ll be filming out in the valley for a week or so in June, so…”
“Okay,” Ellie grunted. “I have to ask. What does Carter think about all this? I mean, come on, we’re talking about Griffin freaking Carr here—they don’t come any hotter than him!”
“I disagree.” Regan’s grin made them all laugh. “I’ve got the hottest guy in the world sitting at home in his Death Star boxers right now, and no amount of money, travel, or fancy Oscar statues could possibly be better than that.”
“The guy’s a sleazeball,” Maya said, with more than a little bit of disgust. “Every week he’s on a different tabloid with a different chick on his arm.”
Again, Regan shrugged. “Sleazeball or not, I had an idea.”
The other three chorused an “uh-oh” as they all sat back in their chairs.
“No, this is a good one,” she laughed. “The film’s budget is like next to nothing, so I was thinking that instead of charging for my services, I’d do a swap with Griffin. I’ll be his stylist, and in turn maybe I can get him to come out and play for us in an exhibition game or something. We could charge a small admission, set up a beer garden, and donate all the proceeds to the hospital. What do you think?”
Silence hung between them for a few seconds before Maya finally spoke.
“Seriously? I think it’s brilliant.”
“I know, right?” Regan turned to Ellie. “Will Brett still be here to play in June?”
“How would I know?”
“Wait, what?” Maya frowned. “Why wouldn’t he be here?”
When Ellie didn’t answer, Regan did: “He put in for a transfer.”
“He what?” Maya gaped at Ellie. “Why?”
Why were they all looking at Ellie like that—like she should not only have the answer to Maya’s question but should be properly chapped about him leaving.
“What?” She took a long sip of her wine, then rolled her eyes. “It’s got nothing to do with me.”
“But…” Maya glanced over at Regan and Jayne, as though seeking another tidbit she didn’t know, then returned her gaze to Ellie. “That’s too bad.”
“Oh, my…” Ellie scoffed. “We had one dinner together, and that was only because Mom bullied us both into it, and now we’re being forced together because he’s the only instructor in town. That’s it. Nothing’s changed.”
“Yeah, but—”
“There’s no ‘but.’ ” She didn’t mean to sound harsh, but how many times did they have to have this same conversation? None of them had been arrested and charged with a crime they hadn’t committed, none of them had sat in a concrete cell while their father did nothing to help, and none of them had been made to feel like she was little more than a hysterical female whose giant ego imagined that Kurt wouldn’t leave her alone.
Thankfully, they didn’t push it any further, and the four of them spent the rest of the evening talking about Regan’s idea for the ball game and if she and Carter had made any headway on wedding plans.
They hadn’t, and neither one of them was the least bit keen on starting them. As far as they were concerned, they’d committed themselves to each other long before Carter slipped that iceberg on her hand, so nothing else really mattered, least of all a piece of paper.
“That
’s great,” Maya said, her smile soft and gentle. “Really, that’s so cool.”
“Very cool,” Ellie agreed, wrapping her fingers around the stem of her glass. “I’m not gonna lie—when I see you and Carter or Jayne and Nick together, it makes me a little jealous.”
“How’s that?”
“You know, you both had that moment,” she said. “The lightning.”
“Come again?” With the nachos long gone, Regan picked up the lone olive left on the plate and swallowed it.
“The very first time you met Carter, and the first time Jayne met Nick, that was it. You all just knew.”
“Not the first time I met him,” Regan snorted, then shrugged guiltily. “Okay, yeah, maybe there was a little bit of lightning the first time, but it’s not like I could have done anything about it then—I was with Todd, remember?”
“Ugh,” Jayne grunted, rolling her eyes for effect. “I think we’d all rather forget about that. And as for me and Nick, it might have been lightning for me, but it sure as hell wasn’t for him.”
“Uh, yeah, it was,” Regan said. “Just ask Carter or anyone else who knew you guys growing up. Problem with Nick is his head’s so damn thick it took a while for anything to penetrate.”
“See,” Ellie laughed. “That’s great. That’s what it’s about.”
Maya frowned. “But you never spend more than half an hour with a guy, so how…Ooooh! I get it now.”
“What can I say?” Ellie lifted her hands in surrender. “I think you know pretty quick if the lightning’s going to strike or not, and if it doesn’t, why waste each other’s time trying to force it?”
“Well, jeez, Ellie,” Jayne said. “If you’d give me a little time, I bet I could find you—”
“No!”
“What about that guy you were with when you lived back east?” Regan asked. “Was he a lightning moment?”
“Nope. I loved him—before I knew what a piece of crap he was—but there was no lightning. No moment.” Ellie chuckled quietly. “Guess that should’ve been a clue right there, huh?”
“And there hasn’t been anyone else who…?” Thankfully, Maya’s snorting laugh stopped Regan’s question before she could finish asking it.
“Sometimes lightning ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.” She tipped her almost empty glass toward Ellie before cursing under her breath. “In my experience, lightning is nothing more than a warning sign of a big-ass storm brewing.”
“I wholeheartedly disagree,” Regan said with a grin. “There is, however, an exception to every rule, and I think your dickhead ex is just that.”
“What?” Maya laughed. “A dickhead or an exception to the rule?”
“Both, of course.”
The four of them clinked glasses a final time before settling their tab and heading out. As usual, Ellie walked Maya as far as her apartment, then headed down Victoria Street toward home. It wasn’t until she rounded the corner of her street that the vague feeling of unease hit her again.
What the heck?
The last of the hazy pink-and-gray dusk had almost given up to the growing darkness, but the streetlights were all on, and the McLarens’ beagle was barking itself silly, as it did every time they let it out in the yard. Across the street, Jackie was trying to herd her four-year-old twins into the house, and next door to them, big Dickie Garner sat on his front step, the burning tip of his cigarette glowing brighter when he inhaled.
Yup, everything was just as it should be. Her mom had even moved the porch chairs back to the way Ellie liked them.
“Hey, Mom.” She made sure to lock the door behind herself, then tossed her keys in the bowl on the table. “How was Gibbs tonight?”
“Even better-looking than last week.” Gail winked over the rim of her glasses. “Gabbie called. She’s got some time off, so I’m going to head out there on Thursday for a week or so. How was your evening?”
“Good.” Except for the part where she’d started to worry that the whole lightning thing might not happen for her—or, worse, that it already had and she was choosing to ignore it because of something in the past she was too stubborn to let go of.
But maybe she didn’t need the whole lightning thing. She couldn’t ask for better friends, she owned her own home, ran a successful business, and God knew there were plenty of guys out there looking for a date if she so chose, so really, she should be happy. And she was.
For the most part.
Maybe she should get a dog.
—
Brett waited just inside the door of Maya’s flower shop while she finished up with the guy at the counter.
“A dozen white?” she asked. “I’m sorry, we don’t have them in stock, as we don’t get a lot of call for white tulips—except during wedding season, of course.”
The guy nodded. “There’s no rush.”
“When would you like them?”
“Next week’s fine.” His voice was low, quiet. Smooth. Brett instantly didn’t like it.
“No problem. I get deliveries a couple times a week, so I can have them here on Monday or next Thursday.”
“Thursday’s fine.”
“Great. If you want to leave me your name and phone number, I’ll—”
“No, I’ll call back next week.”
“Okay, but I’ll need your—”
The guy turned and headed straight for the door, he and Brett giving each other a brief once-over before he exited and walked down the street. Medium build, shaggy brown hair, brown eyes, thin scar running along half of his chin, both ears double pierced, and purplish-tinted sunglasses. Not a local, at least not one Brett had ever seen, but there was something oddly familiar about him.
“—credit card number. Damn it. Hey, Brett. How’s it going?”
“Good. Yeah.” Blinking, he turned toward the counter. “Do you know that guy?”
“Nope, never seen him before.” Maya sighed down at her notepad. “That scar makes him look a little like Harrison Ford, don’t you think? Like Han Solo Harrison Ford.”
“What?”
“Never mind. What’s up?”
“I need to, uh—” He looked back over his shoulder as if he expected the guy to be standing there, waiting for Brett to figure out why he knew him.
“Generally speaking, I’d suggest roses. They’re classic, it’s hard to go wrong, though at this stage, it’s definitely too early for red. Pink, maybe…or yellow. Yellow doesn’t just mean jealousy, you know, it’s also for—”
Brett finally blinked her into focus. “What? No, no roses.”
“Too soon? Okay, what about daisies or lilies?”
“Too soon for what? What are you talking about?”
“I heard you had dinner with…” Maya’s eyes widened and flashed toward the huge plate-glass window, then back. “And when you looked over there just now, I…Okay…my bad, never mind.”
“What…No, I wasn’t looking over there.” Except as he said it, he did turn and look across the street at Ellie’s store, which is exactly what Maya thought he’d been doing the first time.
“Sure, yeah, whatever you say.” She didn’t seem even the slightest bit convinced, and she proved that even more by leaning over the counter. “But just a heads-up before you spend your money on flowers for her: she’ll have them dead before the ink’s dry on the card, and I’m not even kidding. You want to buy her a plant, make it silk, and even then…well…Forget it, stay clear of all plants, real or fake. Buy her a book instead, or—”
“Stop!” He didn’t mean to say it that loud, but at least he got her attention. “Whoa already, I’m not buying her anything. I just need to send some flowers to my mom.”
“Oh.” She took a second, letting that sink in; then she turned to look at the calendar hanging above her computer monitor. “Right, it’s April. Pink lilies with a few purple mums?”
“Uh, yeah. How’d you know?”
Maya typed his name into her computer and up popped his purchasing history. Six transactions
, each occurring in early to mid-April, and always the same order: pink lilies with purple mums. He’d never bought flowers from her any other time, and why would he? It wasn’t like he had someone to give them to.
“Your mom’s birthday or something?”
“No.” He cleared his throat and pulled some cash out of his pocket. “An anniversary of sorts.”
Click click click and his order was placed.
“And delivery for…” She ran her finger down the screen, then looked back at him. “The twenty-first again?”
“Make it the week before this time, please.”
“Done.” She nodded at the computer as the printer cranked out his receipt. “You not working today?”
“I’m on nights.”
“Ugh.” She grimaced. “That can’t be much fun.”
“It’s never boring, that’s for sure. Thanks for your help.” He turned to go, but Maya called him back.
“How’s it going with you and Ellie?”
“What…what do you mean?” And why was his throat so dry all of a sudden?
“The driving classes and all that. I hope she’s not giving you too much of a hard time.”
“Well, it’s only been one class,” he managed, one hand on the door already. “So far, so good.”
“None of us expect you to cut her any slack with the whole driving thing, but she hasn’t exactly had the best luck with cops, which is why she’s a little wary around you guys now. That’s why she’s so…well, you know how she is.”
“Mm-hmm.” “Wary” wasn’t the word Brett would have chosen, but for the sake of speed, he wouldn’t argue. “Thanks for taking care of that order for me, I gotta—”
“It’s too bad,” Maya went on. “I bet under different circumstances, you two would make a cute couple.”
“Who?” he sputtered. “Ellie and me? Jeez, Maya, she’d rip your tongue out if she knew you were even thinking that.”
“Maybe.” The phone rang, cutting off her quiet laugh. “Thank you for calling The Stalk Market.”
She covered the mouthpiece with her hand and tipped her chin up toward Brett. “She’s pretty amazing once you get past all that lippy crap.”