There were, however, shrieks of laughter coming from the direction of the mud pit and Cori couldn’t help but smile. She was certain Evan had pushed for the mud and Ava had countered with the washing station and had somehow talked the guys into sponsoring the towels. They really were a good team. Exactly as it should be. Evan was part of a carefully laid out plan and Ava was throwing a party. This was the perfect thing for them both.
And Cori wanted to be anywhere else.
“Hi, are you Ava?”
Cori looked at the little boy beside her table. She smiled. “No, I’m Cori. Ava’s over there in the yellow shirt.” She was even wearing blue jeans.
“Okay. I have to tell her the mac and cheese pie is awesome!”
“Definitely,” Cori said with a nod. “She’ll love hearing that.”
The boy ran off and Cori watched him give Ava the compliment. Her smile was bright and sincere and Cori felt herself smile too. Then Ava looked over at her and gave her a big grin. Ava had made the pies, but it was Cori’s recipe. They were a good team too. Cori gave her a thumbs-up. Okay, maybe being here wasn’t all bad.
“This is pretty good.”
Cori turned to find Hank and Walter at her table. “Well, hey guys.” Seeing them suddenly made her aware of how much she’d missed seeing them every morning. She’d been sticking close to the house. She couldn’t risk being at the shop in case Evan stopped in. Or walked by the window. Or when someone mentioned his name.
“How’s it going? It looks nice,” Walter said.
Yep. Nice. It sure did. “Okay. We have more pie left than we’d like to. Do you think people are still coming?”
Hank glanced at his watch. “Boy, I don’t know, honey. I’d think most everyone would be here by now.”
Damn. That’s what she’d been afraid of.
“Cori.”
Tingles skittered down her spine as Evan’s voice came from behind her. Crap. She’d avoided him for most of the day. She’d seen him, of course, but they hadn’t spoken. She took a deep breath and turned. “Hey.”
“Can I show you something?”
No. Hell, no even. She wanted to just sit here, sell tickets, then go home and take a bath. And hope that now that this party was over, Evan and Ava wouldn’t need to be spending every evening together.
“I have to take tickets.”
He glanced at her table. “Anyone can do that. I need you for a minute.”
I need you. How was she supposed to respond to that? But before she could come up with anything, Hank piped up. “I can watch the table, Cori.”
And the truth was, yeah, anyone could take tickets. Crap, again.
“Fine.” She stood. Smoothed her skirt, straightened her T-shirt, and stepped around the table.
Evan reached for her hand, but she shook her head. “Come on. We can’t.” And if he touched her, even her hand, she’d shatter.
He blew out a breath. “Fine. For now. Over here.” He started across the grass toward the mud pit.
They didn’t talk and her chest ached. She had so many things—words, emotions—bottled up, it felt like they were constricting her heart, causing each beat to hurt a little. Evan stopped at the edge of the mud. He smiled at the kids who were elbow-deep.
“I saw this,” she said. “It’s great. I love the towels.”
“Yeah?” He finally looked at her again and she saw the same pain in his eyes that she was feeling. He missed her like she missed him. That was…the suckiest thing she’d ever faced. Technically in about three months, he could break up with Ava. But could he really just start dating Ava’s sister? He wasn’t that guy. He might have dated extensively, even bed hopped a bit, but it was never…scandalous.
“You and Ava did a great job,” she finally said.
He gave a nod. “I guess so. But—” He turned to face her fully. “What else would you have done with the party?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Yes you do. Come on,” he said. “What would you have done with it?”
Her heart squeezed. “This whole thing was my idea. Pie and a movie in the park.”
“That was your basic idea,” he said. He paused then said, “But what about the garnish?”
Oh, boy. She shook her head.
“I thought we’d already covered this.” He took a small step forward.
“It doesn’t matter.”
“Things that are completely fine, good even, are better with your touch.”
He’d used the same words before. She shook her head again. “You and Ava—”
“Are fine. But nothing…special.”
Cori wet her lips, but again shook her head. “Evan—”
“We need your touch. I need your touch.” He moved closer again. “In lots of ways. In everything.”
She swallowed hard. “It doesn’t matter.”
“But that’s the thing. It does. It really matters.”
He took another step, close enough to kiss her. So she stepped back and said quickly, “Pie trivia. And a town vote on what our next new flavor should be.”
She had to stop him from…whatever he was doing. Getting closer. Talking. Tempting. Making her miss him even while he was standing right there in front of her.
He did stop. And gave her a half grin that made her heart trip. “Pie trivia? Are there lots of interesting facts about pie?”
Well, she didn’t know about a lot. But… “Nineteen percent of Americans say apple is their favorite and only nine percent say cherry.” Yeah, she’d looked some stuff up working at the dining room table with her sisters.
“I guess there are.” Evan gave her another grin.
“But this is all really good as is,” she said. “Really.”
He clearly wanted to say more, but finally he nodded. “Fine.” He took a breath. “Did you see the sign?”
“The sign?” She followed his finger. He was pointing at a wooden sign beside the mud pit.
Future site of the Rudy Carmichael Memorial Miniature Golf Course.
She read it three times, then looked back at Evan, her heart thundering. “Really?”
He nodded. “We needed a mud pit and I needed a ground breaking, so we combined them.”
Cori felt tears threatening. “You’re going ahead with it?”
“Yeah. Because I realized something.” He stepped closer again and she didn’t stop him this time. “Rudy was wrong.”
Her heart thumped. “He was?”
“The only thing that came of him sending that St. Bernard puppy away was him not having a St. Bernard puppy. He didn’t tame or even change your spirit. He just made it so he didn’t get to see as much of it. And he missed out.”
He moved closer as Cori sniffed. Dammit. She couldn’t kiss him here in public in front of the whole town. But he was making it really impossible to resist.
“And I realized if he was so wrong about you, then he could have been wrong about me too,” Evan continued. “I don’t know if he meant I should do more of what I already do or if I should be doing something else, but it if was something else, then he was wrong. I make people happy. And it took having someone make me incredibly, impossibly happy to realize how truly fucking important that is.”
She caught her breath and actually pressed her fingers to her lips.
“Cori, I thought I was happy. I thought I understood fun and goodness. But until you, I didn’t realize that things could be even better. And he was completely wrong about Ava being right for me. She’s great, but the thing is, I love your St. Bernards. I don’t mind the mess. I can absolutely handle chaos, and I love surprises. All of which makes me right for you. I love you. I want every crazy, over-the-top idea and plan you have. In fact, I need it. This party is fine. But why would I want fine when I can have amazing?”
Cori felt one tear roll over her cheek. This man…he did more than tolerate her craziness. He embraced it. He encouraged it.
Evan started to lift his hand to her face, but she ducked out o
f the way. “Hold that thought, okay?” She wanted desperately to go into his arms and let him hold her. But once she was there again, she didn’t plan on leaving for the next several hours. Or days. Or ever. And there was something she needed to do first.
“What?” He took a step after her. “Where are you going?”
“I have to go…round up some puppies.” She shot him a grin, but didn’t wait for his response. She turned on her heel and ran for the ticket table, her mind spinning. “Hank!” she puffed a minute later. “Who’s the Mayor of Bliss?”
Hank laughed. “Really?”
“Yes, really. I need to talk to him or her. Right away.”
“Well, honey, that’s me.”
“You’re the mayor?” How did she not know that? Hank had turned into one of her best friends in Bliss. And she didn’t even know he was the mayor. “I feel like this is something we should have talked about.”
He winked at her. “I have so many stories. We might need to have afternoon coffee too.”
“I’m in. But right now, I need a favor. I’ll explain on the way.”
Five minutes later, she burst into the pie shop, ran to the back and turned into Parker’s kitchen. “I need a can opener.”
“You don’t have one?” Parker asked.
“I do. But I need another. And another set of hands to use it.”
Parker sighed. “Like mine?”
She grinned. “Yep. We need to open every can of pie filling Ava has stashed in our storeroom.”
“She has cans of pie filling?” Parker asked with a scowl.
Shit. “We’ll deal with that later,” Cori said quickly. “We need to hurry.”
“Tell me why.”
“Because I’m in love with your best friend and will make him very happy.”
Parker sighed. “You’re going to screw up the trust, aren’t you?”
“Nope. Just going to use a little loophole. Or two.”
Evan was nearly out of his mind. Cori had run off over thirty minutes ago and wasn’t answering calls or texts.
“What the hell?” he asked Ava for the seventh time.
Ava frowned at him. “I’ll shove you into that mud pit, Evan. Don’t think I won’t.”
Evan had no doubt. “She just ran off. She—”
Suddenly Parker pulled into the park in his truck. He drove right past the ticket table where Evan was pacing. Evan frowned. Parker didn’t do parties. He didn’t even let them call football parties, parties. He preferred “gathering” or even better, no label at all. He didn’t understand why they couldn’t just get together and watch a game without calling it something. As he pointed out every time. Which just made it even more fun to call their get togethers shindigs and bashes. And Parker definitely didn’t do parties with kids’ movies being shown. But before he could ask his friend what was going on, he saw Cori in the passenger seat. And nothing else mattered.
She jumped out as Parker stopped the truck and ran to the back of the truck. Evan stalked forward, intent on getting his hands on Cori before anything else happened. But she dropped the tailgate—and Evan got distracted. “What the hell is this?”
“This is a kiddie pool filled with pie filling. It’s all different kinds. We didn’t have enough of any one kind. But that’s okay.”
Cori climbed into the back of the truck and shot him a grin as she bent over to push the pool to the edge of the tailgate.
Parker moved to grab it and Evan found himself taking the other side as they lowered it to the ground.
“Why?” was all Ava said.
“This is what the winning tug-of-war team will pull the losing team into,” Cori said.
“We’re having a tug-of-war?” Ava asked.
“We are. The starting high school basketball team against some of the starting football players.” Cori jumped out of the truck and wiped her hands on her skirt.
“Where do you want these?” Hank came up to Cori carrying two pie plates.
“Oh, in the pavilion,” Cori said.
“What’s this?” Evan asked, his heart suddenly racing. He didn’t even care really. The look on Cori’s face made him want to pull her into that kiddie pool for some pie filling wrestling.
“Those are whipped cream pies,” Cori said, almost triumphantly.
“Why?” Ava said again.
Cori kept her eyes on Evan as she said, “There’s not much that I do that doesn’t involve whipped cream.”
Her grin was mischievous and insured that Evan would be getting a can of pie filling on his way home. “What’s going on?”
“For two dollars you can throw a pie at a prominent Bliss citizen,” Cori said. “If you hit Parker in the face, you get a free breakfast. If you hit Noah, you get a free oil change. For Principal Tompkins, you get a Bliss Bandits sweatshirt. And if you hit Mayor Hank in the face, you get to have coffee with him every day for a week.”
“This is—” But Ava apparently didn’t know what this was. Or at least what to call it.
“I thought we were maybe missing some demographics. We’ve got the kids and parents, but now the basketball and football team will get their friends up here and a bunch of Hank’s friends want to see him covered in whipped cream.”
“Not in the dirty way,” Hank said. “Except maybe for Maggie Collins.” He winked as Cori snorted.
And Evan had never wanted someone as much as he wanted her.
He grabbed her hand and pulled her close. “Amazing,” he said in her ear.
“Well, if I’d had time I would have painted the pool to look like a pie crust,” she said with a shrug.
“Of course you would have.”
“And we didn’t have time to—”
Evan cut her off by wrapping his arm around her, dipping her back, and kissing her. In front of everyone.
She gripped the front of his shirt and opened her mouth under his, but when he lifted his head, she just said, “Evan.”
“I love you Corrine Michelle Carmichael,” he announced loudly. He righted her and turned to face the people who were watching.
“Then you do realize that the woman you’re kissing isn’t your girlfriend?” Holly Morris came to stand right in front of them.
“Evan!”
Evan turned, taking Cori with him. To face his mother. “Hi, Mom.”
“What are you doing?” Diane looked from Evan to Cori and back. “That’s not Ava.”
Evan grinned at Cori. “No. It’s definitely not.”
“But—”
“This is scandalous, even for you,” Holly cut Diane off. She crossed her arms. “I don’t believe you’ve ever cheated on someone with her sister before. But—” She looked Cori up and down. “—anyone who is as free with her sprinkles as this one, probably gets a lot of guys into trouble.”
Oh, no. He was not going to let her insult Cori like that. He was not going to let this bitch ruin this day for Cori. “Listen, the only thing you need—”
“Holly.”
The quiet but firm voice stopped him from speaking and Holly from scowling at him. They both turned to face Diane.
“What?” Holly asked her old friend.
“Shut up.”
Evan felt his eyes widen and Cori start with surprise. Holly looked like Diane had just slapped her.
“Excuse me?” Holly asked.
“Evan has always been one of the happiest people I know,” Diane said, calmly. She looked Evan directly in the eye. “But this…how he is since meeting Cori…is so much more than he’s ever been before.”
Evan heard a tiny gasp from Cori and felt her arm tighten around his waist. But he couldn’t look away from his mother.
“So,” Diane continued, looking at Holly, “if you have anything to say to him other than ‘I’m very happy for you, Evan’, then you need to just shut up.”
Evan felt shock rumble through him. But right on its heels was an incredible feeling of relief. And then contentment. His mother was sticking up for him. It was late. It
was just this one moment. But it still mattered. He didn’t care what Holly thought, but Diane did, and she was standing up for him to her friend.
More, she saw his happiness, what Cori had done to him. And that mattered.
Evan looked at Holly. “You’re not the only one who is going to wonder what happened,” he told her. “And I’m sure you’re all going to talk about it.” He glanced at Hank and Walter, knowing they would definitely help spread the story. “But it’s very simple—I was dating Ava.” He had been. His intentions had been good. And he and Ava had definitely spent time together. “But that meant I saw a lot of Cori too. And she’s…” He glanced at her, his chest filling with warmth and desire and love. “…amazing,” he finished, though it didn’t seem like a strong enough word. “I fell for her completely. Yes, it might seem ‘scandalous’ to go from one sister to the other, but Ava and I were nothing more than friends and Cori and I are so much more than a weekend fling.”
“And it would take an idiot not to see what was happening between Evan and Cori,” Ava said, coming to stand next to her sister. “They belong together and I’m thrilled.”
Cori leaned over and hugged Ava, and Evan gave her a grin and a wink over the top of Cori’s head.
Holly narrowed her eyes, but said nothing. Diane stepped forward and Evan leaned down so she could kiss his cheek. Then she kissed Cori’s, sniffed, and said with a wobbly smile, “I hope we can all get together soon.”
“I’d love to make you a cup of coffee tomorrow,” Cori told her. “And maybe we could talk for a little while.”
“I’ve never had sprinkles on my coffee,” Diane said. She glanced at Evan. “But that sounds like something your dad would have loved.”
Evan felt his throat tighten and he could only nod.
“Well, I might even have to pull out my blowtorch for this,” Cori said.
Diane’s eyes widened. “What?”
“Really?” Evan asked her.
Cori grinned at him, then at Diane. “Toasted marshmallows aren’t only for pie. I make a fantastic s’mores latte.”
Diamonds and Dirt Roads Page 27