Just Desserts

by Barbara Bretton

RAINBOWGIRL: i can’t get that much cash

  MKG329302: go to the bank they’ll give it to u

  MKG329302: lizzie did I lose u?

  RAINBOWGIRL: they don’t have a branch here

  MKG329302: where r u

  RAINBOWGIRL: long island w mom

  MKG329302: LI?

  RAINBOWGIRL: u haven’t seen the news

  MKG329302: no

  RAINBOWGIRL: it’s kind of major google tommy stiles u’ll see

  MKG329302: I’ll do it later—where on LI r u

  RAINBOWGIRL: one of the hamptons, east I think

  MKG329302: I’m in nyc we could meet

  MKG329302: I’ll rent a car

  RAINBOWGIRL: ill email you later let me see what I can do

  This session has ended

  Zach and Winston were teaching Lizzie how to play Texas Hold ’Em in the front living room when Finn showed up early that evening.

  “Hey, guys, Lizzie.” Zach and Winston grunted at him. Lizzie gave him a smile. “Is your mother around?” he asked the girl.

  “In the kitchen with Anton,” she said. “They’re cooking.”

  “The rest of the crowd? Are they back yet?” Tommy had rounded up Jane, John, Fiona, and CeCe that morning and taken them on a tour of the East End of Long Island. Willow, still under the weather, had opted to sleep in.

  “They’re on the deck,” Zach said, “with a pitcher of martinis.”

  He shrugged out of his jacket and tossed it over the back of a very expensive chair. “Deal me in later, okay?”

  The boys’ enthusiasm was underwhelming. Nothing like an old guy to ruin a perfectly good evening.

  When had he become the old guy anyway? He didn’t feel old. Thirty-nine wasn’t old these days, not by anyone’s standards.

  Lizzie, however, favored him with a smile that was a wonderful combination of her mother, her grandfather, and her own unique self. There was something about her that touched him deeply and he didn’t know why. He felt strangely protective of her and oddly vulnerable at the same time, a combination he had never experienced before.

  “Great timing,” Anton said as he walked into the kitchen. “We already did the heavy lifting.”

  “It smells incredible in here. What are you up to?”

  “Our asses in work,” Anton said with a wink for Hayley. “Hayley decided to make dinner for everyone tonight.”

  “Which meant Anton cooks and I bake,” Hayley said with a laugh. “I wanted an excuse to work in this fabulous kitchen.”

  Finn glanced around at the great expanse of Charles Peacock–designed marble countertops, Jenn-Air ranges, Sub-Zero fridge, things he had seen every day over the years and never really noticed.

  Hayley was bent over a white marble slab, rolling a small dark ball beneath the heel of her hand.

  “Truffles,” she said as he crossed the room to join her. “A little pre-dessert dessert.”

  He quickly nuzzled her hair, breathing in the sweet scent of sugar and shampoo.

  “Go ahead and kiss her,” Anton said with a fake scowl. “What happens in the kitchen stays in the kitchen.”

  “Just you wait until you find yourself in a real working kitchen, Anton,” Hayley said. “You want to know what’s going on in town? Step into my kitchen for five minutes and you’ll know everyone’s secrets by the time you leave.”

  “I’d like that,” Anton said. “Is that an offer?”

  “What the hell—?” Finn turned to look at his best friend.

  “Down, boy,” Anton scolded. “This is a business proposition, not personal.”

  Hayley, whose cheeks were flushed bright red, rolled her eyes. “Are you serious?” she asked Anton. “Would you really want to apprentice at Goldy’s?”

  “Tommy’s talking about retiring after this summer. If it happens, damn right I would.”

  “If it happens and you still feel this way, you’re on,” Hayley said.

  “I’m not completely worthless in the kitchen,” Finn volunteered.

  Hayley met his eyes. “I can vouch for that.”

  “It’s getting hot in here. I think I’ll step outside for a smoke.” Anton hung his apron on the peg near the back door. “I’ll knock before I come back.”

  “He thinks he’s funny,” Finn remarked.

  “He is funny.” Hayley pressed a quick kiss to the underside of his chin. “And talented, and kind, and a very good friend to you.”

  “You’d really hire him at the bakery?”

  “In a heartbeat,” she said. “Did you know he wants to open a restaurant when he gets off the road for good?”

  “I figured he was moving in that direction but I didn’t know he had anything concrete in mind.”

  “We could use a great little café in town. I hope he falls in love with Lakeside and decides to settle down.”

  “Did he tell you about his wife, Lyssa? She’s not exactly the small-town type.”

  “Her loss,” Hayley said. “Lakeside’s a great town and Anton’s a great guy.”

  “Put me to work,” Finn said.

  “You’re kidding.”

  “I’m a quick learner.”

  She brushed her hands on her apron then took his hands in hers. “Too hot to work with chocolate. How about kneading the dough for pizza.”

  He was clumsy at first and self-conscious but she had an easygoing manner that made learning both fun and painless. She asked him questions about Tommy’s daughters while they worked and he tried to paint a picture of the girls he had known and the women they had become.

  “They’re all gorgeous,” Hayley observed as she showed him how to stretch the pizza dough. “Did you ever date any of them?”

  “They’re like sisters,” he said, practically recoiling at the thought.

  “Not even tempted?”

  “They were too young when I moved in and by the time they were old enough, we had the sibling bond going.”

  He made her laugh as he described Gigi and then he made her frown when he told her about Zach and Winston and their current struggle getting through high school.

  “My little brothers,” she said with a shake of her head. “I feel like I’m going to wake up back in my own bed and this will all have been a dream.”

  “Lizzie might be a good influence on them,” Finn said as he watched her slide the first pie onto a huge wooden paddle.

  “If she ever comes out of her room.”

  “She’s not only out of her room, she’s in the living room playing poker with the boys.”

  “You’re joking.”

  “Texas Hold ’Em. I think she’s winning.”

  “You know them better than I do. Should I worry?”

  “They’re good kids. A little undisciplined but basically good.”

  “So I’ll still worry but not quite as much.”

  “You know you’re a lot like Tommy.”

  “Is that good or bad?”

  “He’s a worrier too.”

  “Really? He seems like a hang-loose kind of guy to me.”

  “That’s what he wants you to think. When it comes to worrying about his kids, he could give you a run for your money.”

  “He’s lucky he didn’t know me in my teens. That lovely head of hair of his would be a whole lot grayer.”

  “Not if his stylist had anything to do with it.”

  “He colors his hair?”

  “Welcome to show business, Goldstein. How many sun-bleached blond sixty-year-old men do you see walking around Lakeside?”

  “You’re in show business too,” she said as she slid the pizza into the oven. “Do you color your hair?”

  “I’m a lawyer. Lawyers are allowed to go gray. In fact it’s encouraged.”

  “You were in show business the other night.”

  “The gray hairs are all mine,” he said. “I earned them vetting prenups for Tom.”

  “I’m thinking maybe CeCe should lighten up on the color. I’m not sure that shade of red exists in nature.”


  “She’s been a little tough on you,” Finn admitted, “but she’ll ease up as soon as she realizes you’re not a threat.”

  “How could I be a threat to her?”

  “Every woman in her boy’s life is a potential threat to her crown. It’s what keeps her young.”

  “This is one strange genetic soup I’ve got simmering,” she said. “Life was a lot simpler when I thought my father was a test tube from Corning Glass.”

  He was still laughing when Anton rapped on the door. “I’m back,” he called out. “Cease and desist or risk Page Six exposure.”

  Anton put Finn to work chopping onions for a tomato sauce. Hayley moved on to peeling apples for a crisp. Tommy came in to get a pitcher of orange juice and got caught up refereeing a debate on the merits of Silpat over parchment. Fee, eyeing the tiled floor with distrust, poked her head in the doorway and called out, “We need OJ, rock star!” and they all laughed uproariously at the look on Tommy’s face.

  Next thing Finn knew, CeCe was critiquing Anton’s knife skills, Jane was washing and drying salad greens, and John was waxing eloquent on the virtues of the vodka martini.

  Zach and Winston wandered in from the living room to see what all the laughter was about and they were immediately put to work crushing tomatoes by hand. Lizzie sat quietly in the far corner of the room sipping orange juice while a pair of look-alike black cats vied for pride of place on her lap.

  He wasn’t the worrier. Hayley was. So why the feeling of dread that suddenly lodged itself in the pit of his stomach and wouldn’t go away?

  There was nothing wrong with the picture, nothing out of place. No reason to explain the sense that something terrible was right around the corner and he was the only one who knew it was coming.

  “The only thing missing is the boardwalk,” Hayley whispered as they ducked behind a sand dune a few hours later. The rest of the family was either asleep or trading war stories in the sunroom. This was their first chance to be alone all day. “Every teenager in South Jersey has an under-the-boardwalk story.”

  “I have a boardwalk story,” he said.

  “Do I want to hear it?”

  “You tell me yours and I’ll tell you mine.”

  “High school prom,” she said as he unbuttoned her blouse and unhooked her bra. “Twenty-one years ago. We went to the…umm, yes…beach after the dance and I don’t really like the water so…oh God, Finn, keep doing that…somebody brought a couple Thermoses of screwdrivers…the other nipple…oh yes…and I thought it was orange juice and…” She couldn’t think much less talk with his teeth grazing her nipple.

  She slid her hands under his sweater and ran her palms across his chest, rubbing his flat male nipples until they grew almost as hard as his erection.

  “Finish your boardwalk story,” he said as he unzipped her jeans and slipped his hand into her panties.

  “I made out with my date until my lips were so swollen I couldn’t talk.”

  She arched against him as he claimed her lips.

  “We can do better than that.” He slid two fingers inside her and she arched against him, clutching him tightly with her body. “You’re wet,” he said. “You’d taste sweet on my tongue.”

  He rolled her over onto her back and slid her jeans and panties down over her hips so he could prove it. She came against his mouth, hard and long. The silence made it even more exciting. He moved back up her body and slid his tongue into her mouth.

  “Sweet,” he said. “Very sweet.”

  “Your turn,” she whispered, and he rolled onto his back. She unzipped his jeans, not an easy thing to do, then laughed softly at the sight of his huge erect penis. She cupped his length with her hands, gently rubbing the head over her lips, again and again, touching her tongue to the tiny bead of moisture, strange and familiar both. Slowly, cautiously, she began to take him into her mouth, cupping his balls with her hands, stroking, pressing, aware of nothing but the smell and size and feel of him, wanting nothing beyond that moment, the thrill of knowing she was the one who made him lose control and cry out her name in the still night air.

  “You should have warned me,” she said as they lay together waiting for their heartbeats to return to something close to normal.

  He drew her closer and kissed her temple. “Warned you about what?”

  She waved her hand in the air. “About this,” she said. “The beach, that house, the way you live. I thought I knew what to expect, but I was wrong.”

  “The way I live? I have a cottage in Montauk, not a mansion like Tom.”

  “A cottage? That cottage is bigger than most four-bedroom Colonials where I come from.”

  He had stopped seeing his surroundings a long time ago. They were just part of the scenery. “Really?”

  “Really.” She cuddled closer. “If I’d realized you were one of them, I might not have let you seduce me.”

  He laughed softly. “Funny.”

  “When do you think I’ll be able to go home?”

  “You’re not having a good time?”

  “I’m having a fine time, but I need to get home.”

  “Another day or so should do it,” he said. “Tommy gave two interviews this morning before he left on that sightseeing trip. They went a long way toward satisfying the media outlets. We should be able to start seeing each other without garnering too much publicity.”

  She didn’t move an inch but she might as well have. He could feel the distance between them grow.

  “I don’t belong here.”

  “You’re Tommy’s daughter.”

  “I’m a single mother from New Jersey with a bakery to run and a daughter to raise. Being Tommy’s daughter is an accident of biology. It doesn’t change who and what I am. I wish—” She stopped and he heard her long intake of breath. “Forget I said anything. We should all have my problems, right?”

  “What were you going to say?”

  “I’m the glass-is-half-empty girl, remember? Pay no attention to me. This was wonderful, Finn.”

  “Was?”

  “It is wonderful, but I feel like I woke up in the middle of some other woman’s life.”

  “That’s not necessarily a bad thing, is it?”

  “If it were just one part of my life, I’d agree with you, but it’s everything. I suddenly have a father I never knew existed and he’s not a plumber or a professor, he’s a rock star. My half sisters can’t seem to get it through their heads that I’m not just the hired help. My half brothers taught my daughter how to play Texas Hold ’Em and God knows what else. My brand-new grandmother suggested I contact the Extreme Makeover people for an overhaul. And as if that’s not enough, my mother’s cancer is back. Every time I look at her holding hands with John I feel like crying, yet I’ve never seen her happier or more serene.”

  “She’s in love,” Finn said. “Love can do that to the best of us.”

  It seemed Hayley was just getting started. “And then there’s you.”

  “I figured I was your one problem-free zone.”

  “You’re not a problem.”

  He mimed a big sigh of relief. “You had me worried.”

  “I’m the problem. I’ve been on my own for a long time now. The one thing a lousy marriage does for a woman is teach her how to take care of herself. I’m the one Lizzie depends on and until she’s in college and on her own, it’s going to have to stay that way.”

  He felt like he had been body slammed. “So now I know where I stand.”

  “She’s my daughter, Finn. I managed just fine without a father figure in my life, but Lizzie is different. She loves her dad even though the son of a—” She stopped and shook her head. “If her own father doesn’t care enough to put her first, how can I expect any other man to step in and do it for him?”

  No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t find the answer.

  24

  Hayley’s cell phone vibrated at 4:32 Sunday morning and it wasn’t good news.

  “Trouble,” Michie
said. “The water heater blew.”

  “Blew as in exploded or blew as in broken.”

  “Broken,” Michie said. “We have a major flood. The emergency plumber is here. He wants to talk to you.”

  Five minutes and two thousand dollars later Michie got back on the phone.

  “Any more good news?” Hayley asked.

  “A reporter tracked Ma down in Florida looking for dirt on you.”

  “Oh great. I can just imagine what Connie had to say.”

  “Actually she told him to fuck off.”

  Hayley’s jaw dropped. “Is that a direct quote?”

  “No,” Michie admitted. “Ma told him to get lost but it’s the same thing, isn’t it?”

  They talked a few minutes longer. Michie wanted all the details on Hayley’s extended family and Hayley had to promise to deliver the goods the second she got home.

  “So when will that be?” Michie asked.

  “Tomorrow morning,” she promised. “I guess we’ll have to use Tommy’s limo again to get us all back down to Lakeside.”

  “That poor driver must still be talking about loading three cat carriers, a parrot cage, and an eighty-pound dog into a hundred-thousand-dollar stretch.”

  “We might have to zap Fee with a tranquilizer dart to get her back to New Jersey. You wouldn’t believe how fast she took to the good life.”

  “So how about you? Will you be opening a chain of Goldy’s bakeries in the Hamptons?”

  “Not a chance,” Hayley said. “It’s a whole other world out here, Michie. I might as well have Jersey Girl stamped on my forehead.”

  “If they’re being snotty to you, I’ll—”

  “No, no! I didn’t mean to give you the wrong idea. Everyone’s been fine to me.” Almost everyone, if you ignored Willow and CeCe and the chilly teenaged acceptance from Winston and Zach.

  “Are you and the lawyer getting along?”

  “We’re getting along.”

  “That’s all you’re going to give me?”

  “That’s all I’ve got.”

  “What’s his place like? Typical bachelor? Is poor Fee sleeping on some ratty beer-stained couch?”

  “‘Poor Fee’ has her own guest suite,” Hayley said. “Trust me, Michie, nothing is the way I thought it would be. It’s like Tommy is a money machine and everyone who comes in contact with him catches the overflow.”