Shaking her head in an effort to dispel her self-doubt, however, Tierney looked up to be guided by the signs indicating the direction to the baggage claim and hurried onward. There would be no looking back—only looking forward. That’s what Tierney had promised herself when her mother had told her that if Tierney chose to leave Monterey and go to Alec, then she was on her own. There would be no financial assistance from her parents—not ever—no matter what.
Tierney had quickly responded by telling her mother that money was not everything in life and that her mother would regret ignoring that timeless truth one day. Then, having taken only the things she’d purchased with her own money or gifts she’d received from others, Tierney turned and walked out of her parents’ home.
A wave of relief washed over Tierney as she saw Alec waiting for her at the baggage claim. He smiled, spread his arms wide, and called, “You’re free!”
Throwing herself into the strong security of her brother’s protective embrace, Tierney giggled and tried to keep her tears of mingled joy and trepidation from escaping her eyes.
“I can’t believe I’m here with you!” she exclaimed, holding tight to Alec. “I can’t believe I had the guts to do it!”
“I can,” Alec reassured her. “And life is going to begin for you now, Tiers,” he said. Ending their loving hug, he held her away from him a moment as he studied her. He smiled, nodded, and said, “You look good. No worse for the stress Mom put on you at all.”
“I’m wearing a lot of makeup,” Tierney giggled. She sighed and linked her arm through Alec’s. “I feel so much better now. Just seeing you helps so much.”
Gazing into her brother’s bright green eyes a moment, Tierney giggled, reached up, and tousled his chestnut hair. “I want that,” she said.
“What?” Alec asked, smiling.
“That look you have in your eyes,” she explained. “That ‘life is good’ look you have.”
“Oh, you’ll have it soon enough,” Alec chuckled, putting an arm around Tierney’s shoulders and pulling her snug against his side. “Don’t you worry. I promise you that you’re going to love it here, Tiers.” He nodded his reassurance once more and sighed, “Now, let’s get your bags and start home.”
“How long of a drive is it?” Tierney asked—though she’d never minded long drives in Alec’s company. In fact, she relished them—for the conversation was always, always wonderful.
“Just a couple of hours,” Alec answered. “I figure we’ll be home just in time for dinner at my favorite restaurant, Von Bomburst’s.”
“Uh oh,” Tierney giggled. “Sounds eccentric.” She wrinkled her brow.
Alec smiled. “Oh, you’ll love the food, Tiers! Very Bavarian. And I think it has the best bratwurst in town.”
Tierney shook her head. “You’re already trying to socialize me, aren’t you? Like those skittish, messed-up dogs they rescue on that animal police show we used to watch when Mom and Dad weren’t home?”
“Naw,” Alec denied. “I just want to make sure you have a good dinner your first night here.”
“Mm-hmm,” Tierney hummed with suspicion. “Dinner in a public venue…with people and everything.”
Alec laughed. “People do inhabit the earth, Tiers, and not all of them are arrogant snobs like Mom’s friends. The people in Leavenworth, they’re, like…normal. You’ll love it. And Von Bomburst’s really does have the best brats in town…in my opinion anyway.”
Tierney laughed—smiled with sudden comfort, contentment, and hope as she watched Alec retrieve her luggage from the baggage conveyer. She did feel free—free and hopeful and almost truly happy.
❦
The drive through the magnificent Cascade Mountains toward Leavenworth was awe‑inspiring! In truth, Tierney couldn’t decide whether she had never seen such beautiful mountain scenery or if her newly acquired sense of freedom simply made her more able to appreciate it. She couldn’t believe she’d left Monterey and that she was moving to a small town in Washington State—actually moving there to live.
Here and there as Alec drove them toward what would be Tierney’s new home, her stomach would begin to churn with anxiety—miserable anticipation at the job interview Alec had set up for her with the only floral shop owner in town. If she didn’t land the job with the florist, she had no idea what she’d do for employment.
Alec had suggested Tierney could work for him if she didn’t bag the job with the florist. He’d explained he’d just buy another pickup and put a snowplow on it, teach Tierney how to plow, and let her have at it. There was plenty of plowing to go around. But though Tierney wasn’t averse to the hard work and midnight hours required by Alec’s business, she wasn’t sure she could hack it—at least not for long. It was a demanding job, and in truth, Tierney wasn’t all that big on the idea of being out in a blizzard in the middle of the night all by herself. She figured she could work for Alec in the summer months well enough—landscape maintenance like mowing, weed whacking, and watering. But the snowplowing—the very idea caused an enormous dread and apprehension to well in her. Still, she figured Alec had been teasing anyway about her driving a truck for him. At least, he’d been mostly teasing.
However, during the drive from Seattle to Leavenworth, each time Tierney’s nervous anxiety would begin to get the best of her, Alec would engage her in some trivial, lighthearted conversation—something to calm Tierney and help wave her worries away for the moment. It was just further proof that her brother knew Tierney better than anybody—knew her thoroughly, to her very core. Alec had known her heart better than even she’d known it at the time, and he knew how to break through her fear, feelings of obligation, and simple knuckling under to her mother’s demands. It’s why he’d sent his friend—the mysterious, nameless, sexy Latin lover guy—to her bridal shower all those months before. Alec had recognized that the one thing that could turn Tierney’s head and really get her attention was a classic Latin lover type—and it had worked.
In truth, not a day had gone by that Tierney didn’t think of the classic Latin lover Alec had sent to rescue her. In the stressful, crazy days following her breakup with Dillon, Tierney had considered asking Alec just who the most beautiful man she’d ever seen was, and how Alec was acquainted with him. But she knew how stupid it would be to press for information. The guy had simply done Alec a huge favor, that’s all. What good would it do Tierney to find out anything about him? So she’d decided just to cling to the fabulousness of what had happened—the sudden, unexpected appearance of the better looking than Antonio Banderas, smooth, suave, and very attractive in every sense of the word Latin lover who had danced with her, kissed her, and managed to convince her she would be doing the wrong thing in marrying Dillon. It had been like a dream, and Tierney would always think of it that way.
“I’ll have to bring you back out to this candy store,” Alec said, drawing Tierney’s thoughts back to him. “It’s got the best saltwater taffy I’ve ever had…and so many flavors it will totally spin your brain.”
“I love saltwater taffy,” Tierney said as she gazed out the window to the small but well‑advertised candy store.
“Oh, I know it,” Alec chuckled. “I was lucky if there was ever one piece left in my Christmas stocking by Christmas night.”
“Yeah, but it was only fair after the way you were always stealing my Almond Roca,” Tierney countered.
Alec nodded. “You gotta give that to Dad. He knew how to fill a Christmas stocking, right?”
“Totally!” Tierney giggled. And it was true. Though their mother had little or nothing to do with purchasing gifts for Alec and Tierney at Christmas and on birthdays, their father had always made sure Santa left their favorite candy and toys in their Christmas stockings on Christmas Eve and that there were plenty of thoughtful, well-planned gifts waiting under the tree for them on Christmas morning—both from Santa and their parents.
“Why do you think he stays with her?” Tierney heard herself ask. She looked to Alec to see his
expression had changed to that of worry and frustration. “Why doesn’t he just leave her? She doesn’t love him anymore. She treats him like a dog…treats us like employees or something.”
But Alec shook his head. “I don’t know,” he answered. “Maybe he’s just too trapped to get out. Or maybe he doesn’t want to go through the legal fight over everything.”
Tierney sighed with discouragement and nodded. “I felt like I was leaving an abused puppy by the side of the road when I left,” she mumbled.
“Me too,” Alec admitted. He shook his head. “But we can’t do anything about it, Tiers. Dad would have to empower himself somehow. We can’t help him unless he realizes he needs help.” He paused and then added, “He told me to leave, you know.”
“What?” Tierney exclaimed. “What do you mean? He kicked you out?”
But again Alec shook his head. “No, of course not. Just…that day I decided to leave and had that big argument with Mom…as I was packing my stuff, Dad came in and told me I’d never live a normal life, never be able to make my own decisions or know true happiness, unless I left…moved as far away from him and Mom and all their crap as I could.”
“Wow,” Tierney breathed, still astonished. “I didn’t know that.”
“I didn’t have time to tell you, not with all the drama going on,” Alec admitted. He smiled and laughed a little. “I thought Mom’s head was going to blow right off that day.” He looked to Tierney and winked. “Don’t think badly of me for this, Tiers, but you’ll never know how satisfying it was for me to turn around and leave with Mom standing there looking like a screaming Roman candle on the Fourth of July.”
But Tierney didn’t think badly of her brother at all. In fact, she smiled.
“Well, don’t think badly of me,” she said, “but I felt the same way.”
Alec laughed. “Isn’t it awful? The fact that we both enjoyed escaping to the tune of Mom’s hysterics?”
Tierney laughed too. “Yeah. It is awful!”
“But here we are now—beautiful, isolated Leavenworth,” Alec said, gesturing with one hand that Tierney should look ahead of them.
At once Tierney gasped with instantaneous delight. The scene before her seemed almost as dreamy as the Latin lover Alec had sent to her bridal shower! Nestled amidst a smattering of beautiful Alpine hills, the center of Leavenworth appeared just as if Tierney had stepped out of the real world and into the perfect little Bavarian village. Every building was Bavarian-style. It seemed every window was dressed with a perfectly quaint flower box and autumn-colored mums and greenery. She half expected to see Heidi and her lederhosen-bedecked grandfather walking along the street—half expected the sinister child-catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to appear from just around the corner! She could almost hear an alpenhorn—imagined it being blown by standing on top of a hill.
As Tierney glanced over to one lovely, grass-covered hill, she smiled when Alec said, “I know, right? You half expect to see Julie Andrews twirling around singing ‘The Sound of Music.’ ”
“Why didn’t you tell me how gorgeous it was here?” Tierney asked.
“I did!” Alec answered, shaking his head with amusement.
“I mean, look at the color of these leaves. It’s surreal!” she exclaimed. “It’s like Vermont in autumn, only different. Reds, golds…oh, look at that orange! What kind of tree is that?”
“ ‘It’s like Vermont in autumn…only different,’ ” Alec mimicked in a high-pitched voice. “I see you have lost your way with words, Tiers.”
“Shut up,” Tierney giggled. “You know what I mean.”
“I do,” Alec admitted. “You mean it’s beautiful, and I’ve been telling you that for two years.”
“But you didn’t tell me it was like this!”
“And here we are at Von Bomburst’s,” Alec sighed as he parked in front of a white‑and‑brown, Bavarian-style building that stood a bit off the beaten path of the main street. “You’ve got to have a brat with sauerkraut here. They are the best in town!” As he turned the key in the ignition, the loud rumble of the diesel engine of his pickup died, and he added, “I mean, every restaurant that serves bratwurst here claims to serve the best, but this place really does have the best.”
Tierney smiled. “Sounds delicious. I’m kind of starving, actually.”
“Well, come on then,” Alec said. “I’ll get your door.”
Tierney sighed as she watched Alec hurry around the front of the pickup to the passenger’s side. She was feeling better and better—more and more hopeful. After all, though she was fiercely determined to be financially independent and self-reliant, she knew Alec would never let her starve or go without shelter. Furthermore, his company had always been comforting and joyous. Life would be better now. She’d be able to make her own decisions.
Tierney’s smile faded a little, however, as she thought of her father—still trapped in Monterey with her arrogant, controlling mother. Yet as Alec opened the pickup door for her, Tierney knew Alec had been right. No one could help their father until he wanted to help himself.
“Are you ready for some awesome food?” Alec asked, taking Tierney’s hand and hurrying her toward the restaurant entrance.
“I’m always ready for some awesome food. You know that,” she answered, smiling at him. He was a good brother—a supreme brother—and she loved him to the very depth of her soul. Tierney knew she’d never be able to repay Alec for his help, support, and encouragement—for sending that gorgeous man to her bridal shower to screw her head on right for her. But she could be loving and kind to him—supportive, encouraging, and everything else she should be anyway.
As they stepped into Von Bomburst’s, Tierney couldn’t help but giggle. It was definitely a themed restaurant—and very well done!
She leaned over to Alec and whispered, “I feel like you should be wearing lederhosen.”
“Tierney,” he said, looking at her with a scowl, “I love it here…but you will never see me in a pair of lederhosen.”
Tierney laughed, imagining that, whether or not Alec thought lederhosen were cool, he would look awfully cute in them.
“But you’d get to wear knee socks and stuff,” she added.
Alec rolled his eyes with feigned exasperation. “Do you want me to feed you or not?” he teased as a hostess approached. Tierney smiled, for the girl was dressed in a traditional Bavarian outfit as well. She looked exactly like Truly Scrumptious turning around on a music box.
“Von Bomburst’s!” she exclaimed then.
Alec smiled. “I was wondering when you would figure that out.”
Tierney continued to smile with amused delight as Alec spoke to the pretty hostess and she showed them to their table. Baron Bomburst—the idiot, childlike ruler of Vulgaria who wants to possess the magical flying car Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Tierney could see that not only was the restaurant named after the villain of Ian Fleming’s novel but also the interior was decorated as the reader might imagine Baron Bomburst’s kitchens to look like. It was adorable! Cozy, wildly atmospheric—perfect!
“Oh, I love this!” Tierney whispered as the hostess left her and Alec alone at their table. “It’s wonderful!”
Alec was smiling from ear to ear. “I knew you’d like it. And they really do have the best brats in town.”
Tierney picked up the menu the hostess had left. “So are you saying I don’t even get to look at the menu?”
“Oh, you can look at it…but I really want you to try the bratwurst tonight, okay?” Alec nearly begged.
Tierney giggled. “You can order the bratwurst and sauerkraut for me, Alec, but I still want to look at the menu—you know, for next time.”
“Okay,” Alec agreed. “And thanks for trying it for me.”
“It’s the least I can do, considering everything,” Tierney said as she began to look over the menu. “Mmmm!” she hummed. “Look at all this stuff I can’t pronounce. I love that!”
“Hey, man!” Tierney heard a man’s
voice exclaim. She looked up over the top of her menu, expecting to see their waiter greeting Alec. She gasped, however—gulped and nearly choked on her astonishment as she saw none other than her gorgeous, dream-borne Latin lover of all those months before standing at their table shaking hands with Alec.
Quickly, for her blush was already the color of radishes, Tierney raised her menu in order to hide her entire face.
“What’re you doing here?” she heard Alec ask. “Are your mom and dad shorthanded again? And where’s your lederhosen?”
“Dude, shut up…or I’ll shove some lederhosen down your throat, man,” the Latin lover warned. “Yeah, two waiters quit this morning. So I’m filling in.” There was silence for a moment, and then Tierney heard the Latin lover lower his voice and ask Alec, “Is it the girl from the Christmas Shoppe?”
“No way, man!” Alec answered. “Do you think I suddenly grew an extra set of guts or what?”
“Well, then who is it?” the Latin lover asked.
The moment was upon her. Tierney knew she could either continue to be a coward or simply find the extra set of guts Alec had just mentioned and man-up.
Therefore, from behind her menu, she said, “I’ll have one classic Latin lover, please.” Slowly then she lowered her menu—radish-red–faced and all—and forced a friendly grin as the gorgeous, handsome, delicious, illegally attractive man smiled at her with recognition.
“Hey! It’s you!” he exclaimed. “Alec told me you were coming out here.” He glanced to Alec a moment, adding, “But he didn’t say when.”
“You remember Rome, don’t you, Tierney?” Alec asked.
Tierney glared at him a moment—miffed at his not warning her that the Latin lover would be in Leavenworth. “Of course,” Tierney said, attempting to appear unrattled. “How could I ever forget?”
“I don’t think we’ve officially met,” the Latin lover said, offering a hand to Tierney.
“Not officially, no,” Tierney agreed, accepting his offered hand.
One Classic Latin Lover, Please Page 3