Diamonds and Dirt Roads

by Erin Nicholas

  And it had been the perfect excuse to come down and see his girlfriend’s sister.

  Evan rolled his eyes. “I am,” he finally answered. “Had a break and wanted to see how the cleanup is going.”

  “Well, even if there’s no pie, coffee sounds good,” Holly said. “And it looks like they’re serving that.”

  Evan was able to look back in the window and not just see Cori this time. Now he took a quick attendance and realized that all of the guys who used to hang out with Rudy were inside. Parker had to be happy about that at least. They weren’t taking up booth space and wanting constant refills at the diner.

  “I guess it does,” Evan had to admit.

  “Oh, and while we have you, we’d love to have you over for dinner tomorrow night. Your mom and dad are coming too,” Holly said.

  Diane nodded.

  “I’ll have to see if Ava has plans for us,” Evan said. She would. He’d make sure of it. “But maybe.”

  “Oh. Ava,” Holly said. “I guess I was thinking it would be nice to have you over to catch up. It’s been a while.”

  Evan lifted an eyebrow. “Just you and Larry and mom and dad and me?” he asked, knowing that was not what she’d meant.

  “And Jill, of course,” Holly said.

  Yep, that was what she’d meant.

  “She might be leaving in a few days, you know,” Holly added.

  He definitely caught the might. And the unspoken words unless something changes her mind.

  Evan gave her a smile. “I don’t know how Ava would feel about me having dinner with a beautiful woman I have a history with.”

  “Oh, you and Ava are really that serious already?” Holly asked. “She got you on a short leash quickly.”

  “Well, maybe she knows how much wandering he does,” Liz said. “Even as recently as a couple of weeks ago.”

  Technically, Jill had “wandered” over to his place, but he didn’t think pointing that out was a great idea. Both Holly and Liz were looking at him with barely disguised disdain. Evan sighed. He couldn’t even blame them. He’d slept with Jill and, according to the rumor already going around town, broken her heart. The whole story about him, Jill, and Ava had been startlingly easy to spread. And it seemed the town in general had no trouble believing that Evan had done Jill wrong. But it was, apparently, harder for them to believe that it was because he was madly in love with someone else.

  He definitely needed to sell the idea that he’d already been interested in Ava because of the things Rudy had told him and that it had become much more once they’d met. For one, because while Jill was the leaving town, on to bigger and better things, Holly and Liz weren’t. Ever. And they could make his life very unpleasant if they held a grudge. For another, the more skeptical everyone seemed over his ability to actually have real feelings for a woman, the more determined he became to prove to them that he was, in fact, capable of a committed, adult relationship.

  And then he remembered that he and Ava were faking the whole thing. And then he became even more determined to actually be a boyfriend to Ava. Maybe not in the usual sense of the word—at least in his usual sense of the word—but he could be there for her as she went through this transition in her life, help her adjust to living in a small town and running a new business, and make sure she relaxed and had fun too.

  In fact, he had to. That was part of their deal.

  “This thing with Ava…was unexpected…” Well, that was true. “…for me too.” He glanced at the window and saw Cori, a hand propped on her hip, talking to the men at the table, all of whom seemed to be hanging on her every word. “It’s amazing how quickly a bond can be formed, though,” he said, not talking about Ava.

  Cori was going to be a definite wrench in his Ava plan. Of course. Because he was naturally drawn to fun. Especially when he was supposed to be doing something responsible.

  “You’re not just filling in as the guy she needs to date to get her millions of dollars?” Liz asked.

  He turned his attention back to the women on the sidewalk. “It’s billions, actually,” he corrected dryly. Then added, “And once you meet Ava Carmichael, I think you’ll agree that she doesn’t need to ask anyone to ‘fill in’ for that. Or for any other occasion. Ever.”

  That was true enough. Ava had agreed to this plan because it was a simpler means to the end. Not because she wouldn’t have had any other eager, temporary-boyfriend candidates. The guys in Bliss would have been lining up to spend six months with her.

  “I went to New York to help her and her sisters understand the will, and I was prepared to be their liaison for anything they needed here, and their friend. But once we met, it became much more.” That was true too. They’d met and formed this plan. Which was more than just showing her around town or keeping track of the trust from a legal perspective.

  It was him spending time with and committing to a woman for more than sex. Or, more accurately, for something other than sex. It was her settling him down and teaching him to be a boyfriend and not just a hookup, dammit.

  Which was not something Cori could help him with.

  Evan frowned. Where had that come from? That thought was completely unwelcome and probably unfair. He only knew what Rudy had told him about Cori, and he got the impression that neither Rudy nor Cori had really known the other that well. And just because Rudy had mentioned that Evan and Cori had a lot in common didn’t mean they had everything in common. Evan only went for short-term flings and fun, but that didn’t mean she did. And hell, there was nothing wrong with that anyway. She was a gorgeous, adventurous woman who liked to have a good time. So what if she didn’t know how to make a commitment or have a long-term relationship? He was hardly one to judge.

  And none of it mattered at all. Ava was the one he was involved with. With Ava, it was a win-win situation. Cori and her feelings about relationships and settling down had nothing to do with him. Even if it felt like it all really mattered anyway.

  “Anyway, I definitely shouldn’t be having dinner with another woman,” he told Holly. That was also true. He was serious enough about this relationship with Ava and what it meant for both of them to not fuck it up. He hoped.

  “Well, then I’m even more interested to meet her. Since we also haven’t seen you out together. At all,” Holly said.

  Right. The public appearance thing. The being in love in front of people. They were going to have to do that. Convincingly. Evan nodded. “She’s been very busy, relocating her life here, getting the shop up and running, dealing with her grief.”

  He’d laid that on a little thick, but Holly did have the decency to look slightly abashed with that reminder of all that Ava was going through.

  “Of course,” Holly said, her tone gentler now.

  “Maybe we should come back another time,” Diane said.

  Evan gave her a grateful smile. “That might be best. Maybe next week sometime.” After he’d had a chance to talk to Ava about how they were going to act in public. It might be best for them to not be overly touchy-feely. That would require less acting and would mean less chance of screwing something up. Ava was beautiful, but they didn’t have much chemistry. Every bit of this won’t be so bad that he’d felt in the hallway outside of her apartment had been because it was really Cori that he was feeling it with.

  And there he was with Cori on his mind again. Or still.

  “If you’re this serious, then there’s no reason for her not to say hello to your mother,” Holly said, pushing past him. “We won’t stay long.”

  Evan sighed. Ava was a bright woman. She knew what was going on. Surely she’d be able to act happy to see him. “Fine. A quick hello.” He put a hand on his mother’s back and steered her around Holly to the door. When he pulled it open, he was surprised by the merry tinkle of a bell overhead. He looked up. Rudy had never had a bell. Then he was hit by the smell of fresh paint.

  He hadn’t been able to see the entire shop through the window…okay, that wasn’t true. He hadn’t l
ooked past Cori to see anything else about the shop.

  Now the scene inside made him think of a preschool. There were bright pastel colors everywhere, it was a huge mess, several voices were talking at once, and someone was saying, “Okay, hold up your cups if you want more” in an upbeat, yet firm voice.

  He zeroed in on that voice. Cori. She was refilling the coffee cups that had been hoisted into the air over one of the tables. That table had been pushed to the side, off of the huge plastic drop cloths that covered everything else. There were buckets of paint, brushes, two ladders, a long-handled roller, several rags, and paint trays scattered throughout the room. The wall behind the counter had been painted a robin egg blue, the wall to his left was the same green as the front of the shop, the wall behind him—he noted as he turned to take it all in—was a sunshine yellow, and Brynn was up on a step stool painting the last wall bubblegum pink.

  “Hi.”

  He focused on Cori again. She was coming toward him with a bright smile and a coffeepot. Two of his favorite things. Smiles and coffee. Not Cori and coffee. No, of course not.

  “Hi.”

  “What do you think?”

  “I think it looks like a rainbow tornado hit the place,” he said with a grin.

  She nodded and laughed. “Right? But hey, if the town likes bright colors, we thought, why not? The trim and the floor will be white. So will the chairs and tables, but we’re going to do different colored cushions on the chairs. Mix it up. Like a giant crayon box got dumped out.”

  Her grin was contagious. “I didn’t know you were open for business,” Evan said, looking pointedly at the men sitting at the table.

  She shrugged. “The door was unlocked, these guys came in and asked if I had coffee, which of course I did, and so they pulled out chairs and sat down.”

  “She asked me if I wanted caramel and cream in mine,” Walter said. “I said I’d never tried it and she said that she couldn’t let me leave here without at least one cup.”

  Evan grinned. “And?”

  “Maybe the best thing I’ve ever tasted,” Walter said. “Then again, I’m pretty sure Cori could make anything taste good.”

  Great. Cori had a fan club. As if he was surprised. It hit him that Cori had the same openly accepting and warm air that Rudy had always had. He knew that she wasn’t aware of that commonality with her father. And he really wanted her to know that. He wondered if that was part of why these men were so drawn to her. It was clear that they were. Sure, the short shorts didn’t hurt, but Cori’s wide smile and willingness to drop her work for a cup of coffee and some conversation were definitely a lot of it.

  Cori laughed. “I think the paint fumes are getting to them,” she said. Then she whispered, still loud enough for them all to hear, “I figured the fumes would get rid of them actually, but they’ve been here for over an hour.”

  Evan gave her a once-over, which he made sure she noticed, then turned to where Brynn was stretching up to paint a high spot on the wall. She also wore shorts and her T-shirt pulled away from the waistband as she reached.

  “Hot girls and hot coffee?” he asked. “They’re never going to leave.”

  “Well, maybe we have our new marketing plan,” Cori said. “Like Hooters only with pie and coffee.”

  “I’m in,” Walter told her.

  “You’ll be rich,” Hank agreed.

  Evan couldn’t help but laugh at the irony of that statement.

  “Now you need to invest in a cappuccino machine or one of those fancy espresso things?” he asked.

  “Can’t afford it,” Cori said. She tipped her head to the side. “Did you know that we’re broke, by the way?”

  Ah. She’d been doing her job with the books and had made a visit to the bank. Yes, he did know that the pie shop account was dry. But Rudy had told him that the girls were supposed to figure everything out themselves. “Rudy and I—”

  “Ahem.”

  His mother elbowed him in the side and Evan realized he’d forgotten about the women who had accompanied him inside. Damn. But they were a great reason to not delve into the pie shop business right now. And the fact that he hadn’t warned the triplets about the financial situation. “Oh, hey, Cori, I’d like you to meet my mom, Diane. Mom, this is Cori, one of Ava’s sisters.”

  “Hello, dear,” Diane said. “It’s very nice to meet you.”

  “Evan’s mom?” Cori repeated. “Wow! It’s really nice to meet you too!”

  “And this is her friend, Holly,” Evan said. “Her daughter Jill is a classmate and good friend of mine.”

  Would Cori remember the conversation in the hallway outside of Ava’s apartment in New York? Would she realize who Jill was?

  “Oh, Evan told me about Jill.” She grabbed Holly’s hand and pumped it up and down. “It’s amazing that she’s a wildlife vet. She must be so smart. He is really proud of her and the new job she’s going to be starting. I totally got sucked into that giraffe cam thing they had at that animal park in New York,” she said. “Does Jill work with giraffes?”

  “Penguins, actually,” Holly said, looking a bit flummoxed.

  Evan was impressed. Cori had managed to warmly welcome Holly, compliment her daughter, make Evan look like a great friend, and strike Holly practically speechless all at once.

  “Oh, penguins are so cool,” Cori said. Then she flashed Evan a grin and a wink. “Get it? So cool?”

  Holly actually laughed too and Evan felt a wave of affection for Cori that he couldn’t quite understand. She was…something.

  “Jill and Evan have been friends their entire lives,” Liz interjected. “They’ve always been close. It will be hard for her to be away from him.”

  Evan sighed. “Cori, this is Liz. One of Jill’s best friends.”

  Cori nodded at her. “Hey, he must have that effect,” Cori said. “Ava was a bitch to live with for those few days when Evan came back to Bliss and we were still in New York.”

  Evan bit back a smile. And the urge to kiss Cori. He had no doubt Ava had been hard to live with as they packed up their lives for a trip to Kansas they hadn’t expected and didn’t want, but missing him had nothing to do with it.

  “But I’ve got to ask you something,” Cori said, moving closer to Liz and dropping her voice, even though everyone in the place could still hear every word.

  The men drinking coffee at the table had gone silent. Evan rolled his eyes.

  “What?” Liz asked.

  “Well, in a town this size, since there aren’t that many people your age, do you all just eventually hook up at some point or another? I mean, I figure that must be the way it is.”

  Clearly Cori had figured out that Jill wasn’t the only classmate and longtime friend that Evan had messed around with. Suddenly Evan had the urge to pinch her. The brat. Maybe right on the ass. Or spank her. On that ass that looked like it was made to wear cut-off denim…

  Liz’s cheeks got pink, but she said, “Yeah, kind of.”

  Cori nodded. “I knew it. I mean, Evan and Noah—”

  She waved her hand in Noah’s direction, and Evan realized for the first time that his friend was even in the room. He had to have been out of the room when Evan had first walked in. But he was now rolling pink paint onto the wall right next to Brynn. How had Evan not noticed him coming into the room? Noah wasn’t exactly small. The ex-marine stood six-one and was wide and muscled. He was generally pretty quiet, and he supposed Noah’s training had taught him to be stealthy and stuff—Evan wouldn’t really know since Noah never, ever talked about his time in the Marines—but damn.

  Of course, Cori Carmichael did have a way of pulling all the attention to her. At least his attention.

  “—and Parker,” Cori went on. “I mean, you have some very hot guys here. No way would I be able to keep my hands to myself if I’d grown up here.”

  Yep, she was definitely why he hadn’t even noticed his friend painting a wall pink.

  Liz’s cheeks were even redder now, but she was
smiling. “We do have some really great guys here.” She’d married one of those great guys she’d gone to school with, in fact.

  Cori sighed dramatically. “Too bad I’m taking a dating hiatus,” she said.

  “Your dad said that you really like dating,” Hank said as he took a drink of his coffee.

  Cori turned to him with an arched eyebrow. “Did he now? I’m not sure it’s very gentlemanly of you to repeat gossip about me.”

  Hank chuckled. “Nobody’s ever accused me of bein’ a gentleman, darlin’.”

  Cori’s face broke into a huge grin. “Then you’re just my type, Hank. Too bad I’m taking a break.”

  Damn, no wonder they were all in love with her. Not only was she gorgeous but she had this…light. Something that seemed to glow from inside her that made a person want to get closer.

  Or maybe that was just him.

  All of the men at the table laughed at that, and Roger said, “I think you’d kill him on date one, Cori.”

  Hank nodded. “But what a way to go.”

  Okay, not just him.

  Cori laughed, without so much as a faint blush, Evan noted, and said, “Well, I kind of like you, Hank. How about we keep our relationship about dark roast and caramel syrup and keep you alive?”

  Hank held up his cup. “As long as we’ve got whipped cream too, darlin’.”

  Hearing Hank, who was seventy-one and widowed, call Cori darlin’ annoyed Evan. Strangely. And stupidly.

  But Cori winked at Hank and said, “There’s not much that I do that doesn’t involve whipped cream.”

  And suddenly it hit Evan that he was incredibly happy about her dating hiatus. He couldn’t handle Cori dating the town of Bliss. With—or without—whipped cream.

  Cori focused on Evan and the ladies with him, who were all watching her with avid fascination. “But thankfully, Ava’s not taking a hiatus and she grabbed this guy right up,” Cori said, gesturing at Evan with her thumb. “I’m guessing he’s got a waiting list of girls.”