Bed, Breakfast & You

by Maddie James

  “Brad. We can do this. Together, we can. I can work here. I would be your sous chef. We can do this!”

  Brad let go the longest breath. “Suzie, I’ve seen the kitchen. As old kitchens go, it’s a fine one. Have you thought how much it would cost to bring that up to code? This whole place? It’s got 1930s everything—wiring, plumbing, appliances, roof, foundation. It won’t work. You have to give it up.”

  She shook her head. “No. I’m not going to give it up.”

  He chuckled. “What are you going to do? Chain yourself to a porch post come morning?”

  Hands on hips, she glared at him. “Brad Matthews, don’t you laugh at me.” Then her face screwed up into a crazy sort of puzzle. Shit. Tears. “Don’t you dare make fun of me, or what I think is important. Do you understand?

  “And yes, come tomorrow morning, you might just find me chained to that post out front and I’ll dare you to send those bulldozers at me!”

  The rage in her voice was one thing, but the red creeping up her neck to her face and the tears begging to spill from her eyes were another. Dammit all to hell. Was this woman worth this much trouble?

  He exhaled long and hard. Unfortunately, yes. She was.

  She ran from the room and out to the deck again.

  Holy shit. What the hell was he going to do with her?

  He found her on the deck, at the opposite end. She looked toward the lake, leaning over the thick wooden railing. The early afternoon sun tickled at the highlights of her strawberry blond mane, which fell in a cascade toward her shoulders, hiding her face from view. It seemed she was contemplating, glancing from the lake and back across toward the B&B.

  Her little home sat quaint and peaceful in the cove of trees. It really was a nice view from the deck of the old lodge. He looked around him, studying his surroundings. Large oaks hung heavy branches over the south end, making a natural awning. Pines and cedars flanked the old building to the north. As he stood still and closed his eyes, he noticed the quiet quality of life around him.

  Waves gently lapped at the shore.

  Leaves rustled.

  Suddenly, the hustle and bustle of a big hotel and restaurant on the premises seemed out of place.

  Could he make it work? As it was? Scrap his plans and take a different tack?

  Then he heard her crying.

  “Suzie?” He took the few steps to reach her and placed his hand on her shoulder. “Sweetheart, let’s settle down and talk about….”

  She turned a red, tear-stained face toward him. “Why can’t you leave this like it is?” she cried. “Why can’t you fix this!”

  Fix it. How in the hell was he going to fix it? “It’s too late, Suzie. The plans are already made. I’ve got men coming here in the morning.”

  “Too late. Too late! Well, maybe it’s too late for everything.” Dumbfounded, she glared at him. “You could fix it if you want. You don’t want to.”

  The tears rolled again and she looked away. Reaching in close, he turned her face back to him. He longed to look into those incredible blue eyes and see happy tears, not sad ones. “Suzette, listen to me. Will you just listen to me?”

  She gave him a reluctant nod.

  Taking a deep breath, he said, “Let’s call a truce here, okay? Maybe I can put the project on hold. Temporarily. I’ll get someone to look at the structure. I can’t promise anything, but….”

  A blank look broke across her face. “Really?”

  With both thumbs, he wiped the tears from beneath her eyes. “Really.”

  Suddenly her eyes squinted again. “Brad, there is something I need to tell you…there’s something else.”

  Her eyes closed for a second and he waited. It seemed she was weaving back and forth.

  “I can’t…I mean, we can’t have… Brad, about having a baby….”

  Baby?

  Before he had time to contemplate that notion any further. Suzie passed out in a dead heap on the deck floor.

  ****

  The past hour of his life was filled with frantic phone calls, an ambulance ride, juggling emergency room questions, and a very pissed off Suzie.

  She lay on the gurney in the center of the small examining room of the ER while he sat off to the right. Her arm was thrown over her eyes and forehead. She hadn’t looked at him for a while.

  “You look cute in that little flowery gown,” he offered.

  “Oh, shut up. Brad Matthews, I can’t believe you brought me here. I am fine.”

  He stood and went to her side, carefully lowered her arm to see her face—in case she decided to deck him—and gently laid it at her side. For good measure, he threaded his fingers with hers and caressed her knuckles.

  He planted a small kiss on her forehead. “Sweetheart, you’ve been sick for a few days, vomiting and everything, and you passed out like a sack of potatoes falling to the floor in half a second flat. You scared the shit out of me.”

  “But I’m fine. It’s just the flu. And I hate hospitals.”

  “Well, it’s almost over now.”

  She sat up. “You have no idea. They poke and they prod and they take blood and your temperature and make you pee in a cup and check your heart and your throat and your ears and then run this thing with icky goo all over you and…do you have any idea how much this little hospital bill will cost me?”

  “Don’t you have insurance?”

  “No.”

  “I’ll cover it then”

  “No you won’t! I’ll not let you do that for me. I can’t have you….”

  “What?”

  “Pay for me like that. I’m an independent woman and I don’t need anyone to….”

  “What if we were married?”

  That shut her up.

  “Excuse me?”

  “What if we were married?” he repeated. “Would you let me pay for you if we were married?”

  “Well, I…uh… Brad Matthews, is this a proposal?”

  “Damn straight.”

  Tears welled in her eyes again. Hell. Not more tears.

  “Well?”

  “What about the lodge? What about all that?”

  “Minor problem. You were right. I should have looked into renovation long ago. My ego wants me to always think about bigger and better. Your way is much nicer and quainter and more…us.”

  She sat a little straighter. “Us. You mean that?”

  “I do.”

  “You’re not going to back out of it.”

  “What, the marriage?”

  “No, silly man. The lodge thing. You won’t change your mind, right, because if you change your mind I’ll take back my promise to marry you.”

  “Did you promise to marry me?”

  “I…um.”

  “I need an answer, Suzette.”

  She chewed on her lip. “Brad, I need…I mean…you should know that…I need to tell you that….”

  A brisk knock sounded at the door and a young male intern entered.

  “Ms. Schul?” He glanced from Suzie to Brad and back again.

  “Yes?”

  He stepped to the opposite side of the gurney from Brad, grasped her hand, and looked down at her. “How are you feeling?”

  “Better. This is all stupid. I’m not really sick. I had the flu over the weekend and I’m a little weak. It was warm outside, and the sun was beating down on me, and I hadn’t eaten much in a few days and….”

  “How is your nausea right now?” He gazed at the clipboard in front of him.

  “Well, almost non-existent. Just a little twinge once in a while, but it’s okay.”

  “Manageable then?”

  “Yes.”

  “Usually happens in the mornings?”

  “Um…maybe. I don’t really remember.”

  Finally, the man looked up and his face broke into a smile. “Good news, Ms. Schul. You are fine. Your tests came back normal. You’re a very healthy woman and the baby is okay, too.”

  Baby. At that word, Brad’s lips stretched into a
smile so big he thought he might not be able to contain it.

  The doctor turned toward the door. “My nurse will be in momentarily to give you instructions and a prescription for the nausea.”

  Brad watched Suzie’s eyes grow wide. She bolted straight up. “Wait. Wait! Did you say, baby? I mean, you can’t have said baby, did you?”

  He turned and smiled. “You didn’t know? I’m not surprised. You’re recently pregnant but everything looks fine. You were having a little morning sickness.” The doctor turned to Brad. “Have you noticed any mood swings lately?”

  Brad swallowed. Suzie glared at him. “Ah…well, maybe a little.”

  The doctor chuckled. “Don’t worry. It only lasts nine months. Usually.” Then he left with a soft click of the door.

  Suddenly, it felt like the wind had been taken out of his sails. Brad clumsily backed down in the chair behind him. A baby.

  “Brad Matthews don’t you dare pass out on me.”

  Not trusting himself to stand, he pulled the chair closer and took Suzie’s hand in both of his. Then on impulse, he reached up to caress her tummy. “A baby…” He marveled at the miracle of it all. Christ, now he felt like crying.

  Suzie was pregnant. It was real. He was going to have a family. They were going to have a family. His plan, all of it, was coming true.

  Suzie’s mouth hung open. She looked awestruck.

  “We’re pregnant,” he said to her.

  She shook her head. “No, it’s impossible, Brad. There has to be some mistake. I’m not pregnant. I can’t be pregnant.”

  What in the world was she talking about? “Suzie, you heard the man. You’re pregnant. We’re going to have a baby.” Then he frowned. “It is we, right?”

  She reached over to the supply cart and threw a bandage roll at him. “If I’m pregnant, Brad, you can be assured that it’s we.”

  “Then why would you say it’s impossible, because that night we didn’t use protection. Hell, I thought you were on the pill. Didn’t you tell me that months ago?”

  “I know. I did. It’s...” She slumped against the bed. “Brad, I didn’t want to tell you. I never thought I could get pregnant. For years I never got pregnant with Cliff. I always thought there was something wrong with me and since I couldn’t get pregnant and couldn’t give you the family you wanted that….”

  Brad put up his hand. “Suzie, shut up and kiss me.”

  “What?”

  “Come here.” He pulled her closer and then took her lips in an all-consuming kiss. Within seconds, he was up on the gurney, spooning with her, holding her close and kissing her face.

  “We’re pregnant,” he whispered. “It’s real. You and me. Just like old times. Kind of.”

  “Yes, it appears so,” she added softly. “And this baby needs a home with both parents who don’t fight and are, well…married.”

  He nodded.

  “Yes, Brad. The answer is yes. I’ll marry you.”

  Epilogue

  “Well, he was a man with a plan. He knew what he wanted and damned if he didn’t make it happen.” Suzie smiled at her husband who in turn patted her growing tummy.

  “You gotta have a plan, men, that’s all I can say. You gotta have a plan.”

  The men in the crowd chuckled and the women batted away their macho-ism with a flit of their Southern belle eyelashes. They had gathered for an impromptu celebration. A month earlier was Suzie and Brad’s Tennessee shotgun wedding (at the Mountain View Hotel in Gatlinburg). Not to mention, the hotel renovation was ahead of schedule. Suzie and Brad had felt like entertaining, so they invited over some old and new friends for an evening barbecue by the lake.

  “So you really didn’t know you were pregnant?” Jane Smith picked at a brownie then held out something to her. “Here, I brought a book for you from my bookstore. Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Childbirth. It is a bestseller.”

  Suzie took the book. “Thanks, Jane. You’re a doll.” She leaned over and hugged her. “No, I had no clue,” she told her. “I mean, with Cliff and me…well, we never got pregnant so I thought….”

  Brad stood and hefted up his pants, broadened his shoulders. “Well, it only took me one time so that wimp of an ex-husband of yours….”

  Suzie sat up in her chair and shot Brad a startled look. “Brad Matthews! Stop that.”

  Everyone laughed.

  Suzie settled back in her chair. “Well, I suppose Cliff really was a weenie.”

  “Would you say he was teeny-weenie?” Jim butted in.

  Suzie threw her empty paper cup at him.

  Lilly poked her head out of the back screen door of the B&B. “Suzie, where did you put the watermelon?”

  “In the basement, sweetie. The big fridge. But let one of the guys get it. It’s a heavy sucker.”

  Lilly gave her a thumbs-up and then crooked her finger at Jim, who promptly rose to do his wife’s bidding.

  “Yeah, man with a plan,” Suzie chuckled. “Brad, baby, pull that big ol’ Adirondack over here for me please? I need to put my feet up.”

  “Yes, dear.”

  Everyone in the crowd chuckled.

  The baby was due in three months and Suzie felt full with life. The little munchkin growing inside thrilled her to no end. The husband sitting to her right fulfilled her every dream. And the backyard filled with friends who came to celebrate their growing family, rounded out her simple life.

  “How’s the renovation coming, Brad?” Martin asked, sitting on the arm of another Adirondack chair, his arm draped around Midnight.

  “Great! I was so amazed. Seems that it’s actually a prime candidate for a federal historic building. The bank didn’t want to put the money into to remodel according to federal specs, so they claimed it was condemned and unworkable. The new architect I hired took one look at the place and said we were fools to tear down the landmark.”

  Suzie elbowed him. “I told you so.”

  Brad grinned. “Lesson learned. Have a plan, but listen to the woman.”

  The crowd erupted in guffaws again.

  “It’s solid though, and probably not as costly as I thought. It will take a year or so but will be worth it.”

  “At least the baby will be here before then. Oh Brad, the contractor came yesterday about the addition on the house. Forgot to tell you.”

  “You’re building another room on the B&B? A baby room?” Lilly joined the group and grabbed Suzie’s hand to pull her up off the chair. “C’mon girl, we got plans to make. Show me where this new room is gonna be, and then we’ll talk about everything you need to put in it.”

  Shrugging, Suzie looked back at Brad and gave him a smile and a little finger wave good-bye.

  Lilly tugged her along. “Midnight? Jane? Y’all come too. This is a group project.”

  Brad chuckled. “Do they ever not do anything in a group?”

  Jim slapped Brad on the back. “Rarely,” he chortled. “Welcome to Legend, Mr. Matthews, and the rest of your life.”

  With a soft whistle through his teeth, Brad replied. “Well, it sort of fits the plan.”

  The End

  About the Author

  Romance novelist Maddie James bounces between contemporary, historical, and paranormal worlds, as she pens stories within, and frequently crossing, a variety of romantic genres. With 30+ titles in print, under three pen names, she feels fortunate to spend her days working with some of the quirkiest characters around—those in her head, and in her life. She lives quietly with her muses, Calliope and Clio, who most days masquerade as four-legged furry creatures. She often laments that her cats have become her children, and she has become her mother.

  Such is life. And life, such fodder for books. Que sera, sera.

  Among her work, she pens the popular The Matchmaking Chef series and is a co-author for Ladies of Legend books. To learn more about The Matchmaking Chef series, visit http://www.suziecooks.com, or the Ladies of Legend books, visit Legend, Tennessee at http://www.legendtennessee.com


  Return to Legend.

  Four authors.

  Four women.

  Four very different stories.

  One town.

  Legend, Tennessee: Where four women from different backgrounds find purpose, love, and their futures, in a town intent on preserving its past.

  The four eBook novellas.

  Claiming the Legend by Janet Eaves

  January 31, 2011

  Lilly Peach is running from something so frightening it takes a whole town to cover her back.

  Midnight in Legend, TN by Magdalena Scott

  February 7, 2011

  Lovely Midnight Shelby finds Legend on the Internet after becoming tired of being one of her now ex-husband's “beautiful things.”

  Bed, Breakfast, and You by Maddie James

  February 14, 2011

  Suzie Schul finds home only when the fling she had months earlier shows up on her doorstep.

  The Reunion Game by Jan Scarbrough

  February 21, 2011

  Plain Jane Smith reunites with her long lost love by playing a game of bait-and-switch with her famous twin sister.

  The novel.

  Finding Home

  by

  Janet Eaves, Magdalena Scott, Jan Scarbrough and Maddie James

  Four authors.

  Four women.

  One town.

  One story.

  The four novellas woven together as one stand-alone print novel.

  Coming March, 2011

  Welcome to Legend.

  www.legendtennessee.com

  Thank you!