Batting away the paper projectile, Andra got back to business. “I know I said I didn’t want to get too fancy with this food gig, but I have a couple of ideas I want to run by you.”
Janessa bit her upper lip. She was excited about helping Andra with her booth for the movie premiere this coming Friday night, but it had become the straw threatening to break the camel’s back of her already-packed schedule.
Andra went on. “In the spirit of our ‘Hooray for Hollywood’ theme...” She fanned out her hands at shoulder level. “How about chocolate-dipped star fruit?”
Janessa angled her a skeptical look. “I think that’s a little advanced for Thornton Springs.”
“You’re probably right.” Deflating a little, Andra gave her keyboard a few clicks. “It would be hard to get star fruit on short notice anyway.” Her eyes ignited again. “How about baked brie made to look like reels of film?”
“I thought we were sticking with hot dogs and popcorn.” Spotting Joe, the owner of the diner, wending his way through the room, she set her coffee cup right-side up. “When did this turn into Vanity Fair’s Oscar party?”
Andra sighed. “I know. It’s just that if I’m going to set up my own catering business in this town, this is my opportunity to show what I can do. The exposure this job is going to give us is phenomenal.”
Narrowing her eyes, Janessa leaned in. “Did you say us?”
“Us. Me. Whatever. My point is, there are going to be ten different food booths at this event. If we want to stand out, we have to add some personal flare.”
Janessa tipped a nod of agreement. Ever since she could remember, Andra had dreamed of having her own catering business. Now that Janessa was habitually burning the candle at both ends, there were days at Esther’s Kitchen when, if it hadn’t been for her friend’s ongoing chatter about her plans, Janessa might have just fallen asleep in the wild huckleberry buckle. She needed to be a little more supportive.
“Everyone’s going to be impressed, Andra.” She leaned on her forearms and gestured toward the laptop. “Show me what else you’ve got.”
Returning her smile, Andra rotated the screen so they could both see it. She pointed at her research photos as she tossed out ideas.
Janessa’s stomach tightened. This gig was just two days away. Between their full-time-plus jobs and Janessa’s riding classes, how did Andra expect them to bake cookies in the shape of tiny Oscars, and red-carpet red velvet cupcakes draped with fondant filmstrips?
“Evenin’, ladies.” Wiping a hand on his apron, Joe filled both their cups with hot coffee to go with the warm greeting.
“Hi, Joe.” Janessa grabbed the sugar dispenser and tipped it into the strong brew. She nodded toward the crowded room. “What’s going on in here tonight?”
“This town’s got rodeo fever. Worse’n I’ve ever seen it.” His look belied a weary but pleased reaction. “What can I get you ladies?”
“Apple pie à la mode, please.” Janessa stirred her coffee.
Andra nodded. “Same for me.”
“All right.” Joe looked at Andra. “Tomorrow mornin’ still good?”
Andra’s eyes flitted to Janessa, then back to Joe. “I’m planning on it.”
He smiled, then shifted his focus to Janessa and leaned in slightly. “And good goin’, Janessa.” With what would almost pass for a wink, he moved on to the next table.
“‘Good going’?” Janessa frowned. “And what was that about ‘tomorrow’?”
Exhaling, Andra moved the computer aside and rested her arms on the table. “You know how I’ve always talked about getting my own space for my catering business? I can’t expect Esther to let me use her kitchen forever, and my cottage is way too small.”
“Well...sure.” Andra had talked about that practically ever since Janessa had known her, but always in a someday sort of way. Janessa hadn’t considered that someday might come any time soon.
“I was in the Candy Castle yesterday picking up the Pixy Stix for our palm trees, and I overheard Cynthia and Skylar talking about how they hoped to have their kitchen moved in next to the candy store in time for the holidays.”
“Next door? Not where the Mane Event is?”
“No way. Can you imagine this town without a beauty salon? They’re moving into the place on the other side, where the used bookstore used to be. It’s big enough for the candy ladies to put in a whole new state-of-the-art kitchen and packing facility that will open right into their store.”
“Good for them. No more carting their chocolates down the street and around the corner.”
“Right. Joe owns their old kitchen space and he needs to find a new tenant. The rent isn’t exactly cheap, but I’m seriously considering it.”
Swallowing a bitter lump of mixed feelings, Janessa nodded reassurance. “It sounds like it could be a good move.”
Andra bit her lower lip. “I hate to ask, but do you have time to come check out the space with me tomorrow morning before work? It’s a big decision and I really need your advice.”
Janessa’s dedication to her best friend wrapped around a knee-jerk refusal, taking it captive in her throat. She had promised herself she’d exercise Molly every morning, but how could she say no to Andra? She smiled sincerely. “Of course.”
Andra broke into a relieved grin.
Joe returned and set two towering wedges of his famous apple pie, dripping with Moo’s finest alluringly melty vanilla. He topped off their coffee and they grabbed their forks and dug in.
As Janessa closed her eyes to savor that first bite of apple-and-cinnamon perfection, the bell above the door sliced into her serenity. A group of girls she recognized as having been a year behind her in school made a lively entrance. One of them carried something that looked like a large roll of paper in her arms.
As a unit, they scanned the room, their collective gaze landing, surprisingly, on Janessa. She swallowed hard as the girls pointed and chattered to each other in undecipherable girl-speak.
That was the last straw for her tired nerves. “What on earth is going on?”
A couple of the girls took the roll of paper—or whatever it was—over to Joe at the counter, while Keely Rogers broke from the group and made her way toward Janessa.
Janessa drew in a breath. She only really spoke to Keely when she went into Moo for ice cream to go with a dessert she was making. Even then their only real topic of conversation, besides vanilla bean versus French, was the rodeo.
Keely’s blond ponytail swung behind her as she trotted over to their table. “Oh, Janessa. Aren’t you just so excited?”
Janessa exchanged a confused look with Andra.
Keely bounced on her toes like a show pony. “It’s always been my dream to go into professional roping, but I know I’ve never been good enough. Now I feel like I might actually stand a chance. This is amazing!”
Half-formed questions fluttered around in Janessa’s head as she waited for Keely to fill in the gaps.
“So I just wanted to say thank-you, because...well, I know this wouldn’t be happening if it weren’t for you.” Breaking into the biggest grin Janessa had seen on her face since she’d gotten her braces removed two years ago, Keely swooped around and joined the other girls at a table they’d claimed on the far side of the room.
Janessa frowned at Andra. “Do things seem a little Twilight Zone-y in here tonight?”
Andra looked around. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say people are talking about you.”
“Me? But why—” Her phone began vibrating with the song “Brave” by Nichole Nordeman. A hasty glance at the caller ID told her it was Hana. She groaned. “Finally. Do you mind if I answer?”
Andra shrugged and returned her attention to the computer.
Scrutinizing the group of girls the way a lion would eye a pack of
hyenas, Janessa held her phone to her ear. “Hey, Hana.”
“Oh, my gosh. You’re not going to believe the place I found for us. It has everything. Two bedrooms with their own balconies, two bathrooms, a fireplace, a pool, free covered parking, a workout room. And there’s a community room that you can book for parties. Way cool.”
“Whoa. That sounds amazing, but how much does it cost?” She’d created her school year budget based on Hana’s assurance that she shouldn’t have to plan on more than three hundred fifty a month for her share of the rent.
“I’m getting to that. It’s in an ultranice neighborhood. Pretty close to your school and to the boutique where—knock wood—I think I’m going to be working. It even has a name. It’s called Cascadian Vista. Doesn’t that sound way cool? We can tell our friends ‘We live at the Cascadian Vista.’”
“Yeah, cool, but how much—”
“You’re not going to believe it. It’s only five hundred a month.”
“You mean two hundred fifty apiece? For a two bedroom apartment?” She cast a look at Andra who returned a wide-eyed look of amazement. “That’s unbelievable.”
“There are deals in this city,” Hana confidently crooned. “You just have to luck into them.”
“Great. Let’s go for it before someone else snaps it up.”
“Hold on.” Her voice sterned. “There are steps we have to take. I emailed the guy and he wrote back that I could drive by the building, which I did. It’s even better than it sounds in the ad. It’s all landscaped, and it’s on a hill so we get a view of Puget Sound. If we get a corner unit, we might even be able to see Mount Rainier. When it isn’t raining.”
“A view? Awesome.” Janessa was distracted by the sight of Joe stepping up onto a small ladder behind the counter. Two of the girls held up the roll of paper, and he started to hang it above the board that proclaimed his daily specials. People had started to crowd around the counter, filling the air with an excited buzz.
Janessa frowned, trying to keep her attention focused on her conversation with Hana. “So, what’s our next step?”
“Well, I emailed the guy again, and he wrote right back. I mean, like in an instant. He sent a form for us to fill out. I’m emailing your copy to you right now. Are you home?”
“No...” She watched as Joe pounded a few tacks or something into the wall, securing one end of the paper, then got down off the ladder as the girls supported the rest of the roll. “When do you get to see the apartment?”
“Just as soon as we get the form back to him. So I need you to fill it out, like ASAP. Where are you?”
“I’m...” She watched as patrons moved in closer and Joe shifted his ladder. “Shouldn’t you get to see the place before we go to all the work of filling out forms? What if you wind up not liking it?”
“Janessa, we’re going to love it. Don’t worry. But I need you to go home so you can download this form and get it to me pronto. If we don’t get it back to him, we could lose our place in line.”
Janessa read silently as the girls unfurled what was clearly some sort of hand-painted banner. Thornton Springs Welcomes National Rodeo Star Micah Brody Vs. Local Champion Janessa Greene.
“What the—”
“I mean it. You snooze, you lose.”
“Huh? Oh...I have to go.” She clicked her phone off, glaring in disbelief. “What on earth?”
Andra looked up at the banner, which was garnering a considerable amount of enthusiasm from the other diners. She clucked her tongue. “I thought you said this wasn’t a real competition.”
“It isn’t.” Janessa grabbed her purse and scooted out of the booth. “I have to go clear this up. Right now.”
Andra frowned. “But what about—”
“Sorry, Andra.” She tossed down some bills for her mostly uneaten pie. “We’ll have to talk about the booth tomorrow. Right now I have a certain big-shot cowboy I need to set straight.”
Chapter 4
Micah pushed his chair back from the table in the ranch hands’ dining room, which was just off the kitchen of the main house. It felt good to eat home cooking, something he hadn’t done on a regular basis in a very long time before coming to the Bar-G.
Even with his heavy workload all day at the ranch, he had kept his mind occupied, planning what to say to Janessa the next time he saw her. With any luck, he’d get to her before word got around that he’d gone and signed them both up for the rodeo.
He glanced across the table at Owen who, after asking all the obvious questions on the ride back to the ranch that morning, had been fairly silent all day. Micah was having a really hard time figuring him out. Couldn’t the guy see what an incredible opportunity this was to win over the girl of his dreams?
Just then, Tandy reached around Micah to take his plate. He grinned up at her. “I believe that was the best fried chicken I’ve ever eaten.”
“Why, thank you.” Her round cheeks turned pink as she added his plate to the stack in her arms, then scurried back to the kitchen with an extra bounce in her step.
“Don’t get too used to being catered to.” Hank, a jovial sort of guy in his midtwenties or so, elbowed Micah’s arm. “Tandy cooks for us during the week, but weekends, we’re on our own.”
Leonard, the lead hand, chimed in. “Saturdays we take turns cooking over at the bunkhouse. We have a little tradition of breaking new guys in right away.”
“Oh, yeah?” Micah gave a contented stretch.
“That means this coming Saturday you’re up,” Hank explained. “I hope you don’t mind cooking.”
“Not a problem.” Micah pictured himself opening a can of pork and beans, sticking six spoons in it and setting it in the middle of the table.
“We expect a real meal,” Jimmy, who looked barely out of high school, added. “You can’t just boil hot dogs.”
Liam clapped him on the back. “Jimmy tried that his first night and we almost boiled him.”
“It’s got to be real food. That’s the deal.” Leonard seemed serious, like he was reciting the rules to a TV game show. “No boxes or mixes. Fresh vegetables. And it has to be edible.”
“No scrambled eggs, either.” Jimmy shook his head as if recollecting another ill-fated personal experience.
“And don’t even think about ordering a pizza.” Liam wagged a warning finger.
“No problem.” Micah patted his belly. “I’ll make you guys the best meal you’ve ever seen come out of that kitchen. There’s nothing to cooking.”
Something started to churn in his gut that felt suspiciously like panic. He had never cooked a meal in his life—had scarcely even boiled water. Now he was supposed to cook for a bunch of hungry ranch hands, and he couldn’t just stick something in the microwave. What was with these guys? Did they harbor a personal vendetta against Birds Eye?
And why had he bragged about his cooking prowess, as if he actually had any?
As everyone started to take up other topics of conversation and rise from the table, Micah got the distinct feeling that Owen might be ready to break his silence. The two of them hung back as the others filed out the door to the yard.
As soon as it banged shut, Owen came to life. “It’ll never work, you know.”
“What won’t?”
“Your plan. Janessa will never go for it.”
“She will if I break it to her gently. You have to know how to handle women. Once I tell her about you and Keely—”
“Do you have to?” Owen paled. “That’s kind of personal.”
“She’ll be on your side.” Micah grabbed his hat from a hook by the door. “Besides, we’ll need a woman’s advice on this.”
“Why?” Sounding a little panicky, Owen followed Micah outside. “You know all about women.”
Micah smiled inwardly at the naive presu
mption. True, he had refined the use of an aptly timed word, a raised brow, or just the right hint of a smile to accomplish in seconds what might take other guys hours. But when it came to establishing an actual meaningful relationship, he was more in the dark than anybody. “I’m afraid I’m no expert at getting the kind of results you’re hoping for.”
Owen looked at him like a puppy who’d just been scolded. “Right now I’d settle for not making her laugh at me again.”
Hooking his thumbs in his belt loops, Micah started along the pathway that led toward the bunkhouse. “You have nothing to worry about.”
It came as a surprise that he might have to prove himself to Owen. He wasn’t used to people questioning his ability to follow through on his promises with absolute success. Failure, as his father had always insisted, was never an option. You keep going even if it kills you.
On the heels of that thought came the memories that Micah had done his best to bury for the past several weeks. He shoved them back down. No point in dredging all that up now.
Just as they stepped up onto the small front porch of the bunkhouse, the clatter of Janessa’s car brought their attention to the driveway that ran up to the space between the main house and the barn. The vehicle lurched to a stop and Janessa leaped out, slammed the door, and charged toward the bunkhouse with a fire in her eyes that Micah could see even from that distance.
“Uh-oh,” Owen muttered. “You’re on your own for this one.” He cracked open the front door and escaped inside.
“Hey!” Janessa shouted as she approached.
Micah moved to the edge of the porch, quickly recalculating his strategy. Obviously, he hadn’t gotten to her in time.
“How is it that the whole town is under the impression that you and I are competing against each other in the rodeo?” By the time she’d finished the question, she had firmly planted her feet in the small yard of the bunkhouse and folded her arms in front of her, making herself look surprisingly fierce for such a tiny woman.
Assuming a casual stance that he hoped would encourage her to see reason, he let out a chuckle.
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