Roses & Champagne Kisses

by Stacy Eaton

  There were only a couple of things for which I didn’t have concrete answers, like a sauce or filling for the mushrooms, but thankfully Roan helped me persuade Autumn that she could dwell over her choices and then get back to me in a day or two. I had the distinct impression that Roan was as fed up with her inability to decide as I was.

  I had to wonder why in the hell he would be marrying her. Was he doing it because she was beautiful, and he wanted that fake beauty on his arm, so everyone could look at them and think, Wow, that’s one attractive couple—or did he really love her, and he was just uncomfortable about it since he’d almost kissed me earlier?

  When they got up to leave, I escorted them to the door and held it open. Autumn seemed almost pleased with everything and held the copy of her menu against her chest as if she were trying to absorb it directly into her heart.

  Roan hesitated as if he wanted to say something, but luckily, one of our regular customers approached us, and I jumped into conversation with Henry and gave Roan my back. If I never saw that man again I would be happy. Sadly, I knew we were going to be seeing each other a few more times in the next three weeks.

  After leaving Henry at the counter, I took Robin’s stuff to the back. How could a man like Roan cheat on a woman like Autumn? Granted, she was seriously ultra-high maintenance, but he seemed very skilled with her level of neediness—and damn if he hadn’t seemed skilled with children, too. When he had held little Abigail in his arms earlier and spoken so lovingly to her, my ovaries had sighed with an irrational need.

  I put all of Robin’s paperwork in her office and headed back to the café. Sadie followed me out of the kitchen with a club sandwich on one plate and a burger and fries on the other.

  “How did you know that I was going to need help today?” I asked after she’d delivered them to the construction workers in the far booth. One of them waved at me, and I returned the greeting but turned away immediately. Brett, the one who had waved, had asked me out a few times, and I’d always found excuses to decline. He seemed nice enough and probably would have been fun to date, but I just wasn’t ready to jump back into that scene yet.

  Sadie interrupted my musing, “Robin called and told me what happened. She said that you were meeting with Ms. Flippity-Jiggit, and you’d probably still be dealing with her when the lunch crowd started.”

  I barked out a laugh, “What did you call her?”

  “Ms. Flippity-Jiggit because she is constantly changing her mind.”

  I was still laughing as I replied, “Man, she is the worst. If it wasn’t for Roan, she never would have decided on anything.”

  “Oh, my god, is he not the hottest thing since baked bread right out of the oven?” she gushed.

  It instantly put me on the defensive. I shrugged a shoulder. “I guess he’s cute, but he’s not all that.”

  Sadie’s jaw dropped. “Are you kidding me? Roan Waterman is all that—and a bag of chocolate truffles, too. Did you know he used to model? He traveled the world and then came back here to marry his high school sweetheart.”

  “Autumn is his high school sweetheart?” I asked quickly.

  “No!” she replied like my question was ridiculous. “He was married to a woman named Sherry. She passed away several years ago from cancer. He never got over her.”

  Sadie walked away after she’d finished because Henry was holding his hand up, ready to order. I muttered as she walked away, “I guess he’s over her now.”

  For the rest of the afternoon, Sadie helped me with the customers, and I tried to make some additional notes on the meeting from earlier today. Plus, I was going through Robin’s to-do list and calendar trying to figure out what else needed to be done. Robin sent me a text around three saying that her ankle was indeed broken, and they were getting ready to put her in a brace before she could leave. She’d need to see an orthopedist and decide what to do next. I felt horrible. If I hadn’t rushed out of the room so quickly—no, better yet—if I hadn’t let Roan’s good looks get to me, I never would have caused that mess in the kitchen and Robin would not have gotten hurt.

  I was willing to do everything I could to make it up to her, even deal with Ms. Flippity-Jiggit and her slimeball of a fiancé.

  Chapter 4

  Roan

  After I left the café, I felt frustrated and agitated, so instead of heading to the office, I went to the gym. I had a small workout area at home, but I also belonged to a larger commercial one. I used the one at home when I was working from my office or the weather was bad. The rest of the time, I went to the one in town.

  I could have enhanced my gym at home, I had the room, but I purposely didn’t so that I would leave my place and emerge in public. If I had all the weights and machines I needed at home, I’d never leave—especially now that I could have groceries delivered to my front door.

  I was on the treadmill as I thought back to several years ago when the simplest tasks such as getting dressed every day had been a chore. After Sherry died, I’d only done them because I’d had to for Wade. I’d gone through the motions for him, and him alone—maybe for my extended family, too.

  I had started my business while Sherry was sick so that I could be at home with her. After she passed, I expanded it so I would have something to keep me busy while Wade was at school. I even helped coach his swim team and made sure I was around to take him to every single meet. For a while there, he’d been my life and the only reason I had wanted to keep living.

  It took me years to do something for myself, but once I did, I learned that I didn’t need to feel guilty that I was alive. I finally began to do more for myself. I even went on a couple of dates, made a few new friends. With the help of my brother and a few other friends, I finally joined the world of the living again.

  Today had been the first time that something other than my normal hormones was involved. Something below the surface simmered with Finley, and I was pretty sure I didn’t want to let it go without exploring it further. She had intrigued me when I’d done her background check, and that was before I had looked her in the eye. There was something there, and I wasn’t the kind of guy to shy away from something that I wanted or needed to understand. I needed to better understand this pull that I felt toward her

  I was in my third mile when my cellphone lit up the cup holder, and I rolled my eyes. Autumn was going to be the death of me. I had no clue why I’d offered to go with her today. I grinned as I picked up the phone, my thoughts returning to how frustrated Finley had been with Autumn a few times. I had seen her practically biting her tongue to hold back what she really wanted to say.

  Her thoughts and opinions shone like billboards in her eyes, and truth be told, I was right there with her. Autumn couldn’t settle on anything if her life depended on it, and it drove me up the wall.

  I slowed the machine and answered the phone, “Yeah?”

  “What are you doing?”

  “Running on the treadmill. What can I help you with, Autumn?”

  “I think I made a mistake.”

  “On what?” I slowed the machine a little more, so I could hear her better.

  “I think I should have gotten the stuffed mushrooms with cheese and herbs and not with the crabmeat.”

  “Okay, so change it.”

  “But I’m not sure, what do you think?”

  “That’s easy. I don’t eat mushrooms, so I really don’t care.”

  She hissed into the phone, “I know you don’t eat mushrooms, but other people like them.”

  “Then ask someone who likes them, Autumn.”

  “Why do you have to be so difficult?”

  I laughed, “I am not the difficult one, and you know that.”

  “Fine, whatever. Do you think the crêpes table is a good idea?”

  “Yes, I like that idea.”

  “Do you even know what a crêpe is?” she asked rudely.

  “You forget that while you were here going to school, I was traveling the world and trying different foods and c
ultures. Yes, I know what a crêpe is.”

  “Do you always have to rub that in my face?”

  “Only when you ask me a stupid question.”

  “You’re so irritating. Okay, fine. I’ll talk to you later.”

  “Bye.”

  I dropped the phone back into the holder, and as I increased the speed, I noticed two younger women watching me and giggling to themselves. Man, I hated that. Sometimes I wish that I had never modeled.

  I nodded at them and then turned my attention to the television set high in front of me and read the words on the screen as the talk show played on silently and my feet pounded on the treadmill belt.

  * * *

  Later that evening, I was sitting in Chris’s office going over what we’d wanted to discuss earlier today. Robin was upstairs lying on the couch, and her stepdaughter, Geri, sat on the floor playing with Abigail while Wade and Matt cooked dinner.

  It used to be bittersweet to come over and see Robin and Chris so in love and happy with their family, but I quickly got over that, and now I was thankful for such a great set of friends. If Chris could find the kind of love that he had with Robin after two failed marriages, then I could find someone to spend the rest of my life with—maybe.

  “Do you think using that software will fix the issues? I’m not sure the company has the appropriate firewalls for that kind of sensitive information,” I said to Chris after he requested my opinion on this new company and the software he was developing for them.

  “If they want government contacts, they are going to need to update everything, so I assume it’ll be fine, but I’ll remind them—again.”

  “I think you’re going to need to oversee it if it’s taken them this long and they haven’t changed it yet.”

  “Yeah, true.”

  “Dad!”

  Chris slid his focus over my shoulder as Geri’s sweet voice rang through the air from across the family room area outside his home office.

  “Yes?” he called back.

  “Dinner is ready!”

  “Okay, we’re coming.” The two of us made our way up the stairs from his basement office and were just reaching the landing when I heard a voice that made my heart skip a beat.

  “I don’t know,” the voice said.

  “We have plenty of food,” Matt replied. “I’ll just add another plate to the table.” He turned and disappeared into the other room.

  “Okay, if it’s not a problem, I’d love to,” Finley replied to Robin who was obviously happy with the response, and I found that I was rather content with it myself.

  “Full house, tonight,” Chris said as he stepped into the living room and approached Finley. “I didn’t get a chance to say hello to you earlier. How are you?”

  Chris pulled her into a hug, and her eyes fell on me. For a second, she froze, and then she blinked rapidly before she pulled away from Chris. “I’m doing alright. It was a crazy day.”

  “Yes, it was.” He turned to me. “You remember Roan, right?”

  Her lips pursed. “Yes, of course. How could I forget?”

  I wondered if she thought about how she’d sucked my thumb earlier today. It had been in the back of my thoughts all afternoon, not that other parts of my time with her weren’t, but those few seconds had blown my mind. Was she embarrassed? Was that why she seemed upset? I’d have to find a way to speak with her tonight and maybe ask her out for coffee or a drink.

  “Okay, dinner is ready,” Matt announced as he returned to the room.

  “Mom, do you want me to bring you a plate?” Matt glanced at his father. “I didn’t even think about that when I was setting the table.”

  “No,” Robin stated, “I want to sit at the table. I can prop my foot on another chair. I’m not going to be babied and catered to just because my ankle is broken.”

  “But you should be babied,” Chris said immediately, and she rolled her eyes at him.

  I glanced toward Finley and noticed her fidgeting with her purse as if she wanted to bolt.

  “Finley, Autumn and I were talking earlier, and she said she was thinking about changing the stuffed mushrooms.”

  She seemed to inhale deeply, as if to fortify herself before she looked at me. “Okay, did you all decide what you wanted to change it to?”

  “I couldn’t care less, I don’t eat mushrooms. I’m just giving you the heads up that she’s already starting to waver.”

  Robin laughed, “I don’t know how you deal with her, Roan. She boggles my mind. If she wasn’t such a good customer and didn’t give me so many awesome referrals, I’d have stopped working with her months ago.”

  “Geez, you’re telling me. The woman drives me nuts. Sometimes I want to shake her and say just make a damn decision already.”

  Finley’s face snapped to mine, and she looked appalled for some reason, but before I could ask her why, Chris had helped Robin off the couch and they were moving toward the dining area.

  “You know, I just remembered I have to be someplace,” Finley inserted and shuffled backward.

  “No, you don’t,” Robin replied loudly as she tried to get her crutches to work properly.

  “Yeah, I do,” she said as she turned toward the door, but I was standing in her way.

  I glanced over her head to make sure everyone had walked into the other room and then spoke softly, “I get the feeling you’re leaving because of me.”

  She shook her luminous hair back from her face, lifted her chin, and set her heated, dark-green eyes on me. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

  I couldn’t help but chuckle a little bit, “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

  “It means, Mr. Waterman, that not all women will fall at your feet or want your attention—especially when you are promised to another.” She brushed past me.

  My jaw dropped. “What?”

  She had just reached the door and opened it when she spun around and barked, “Seriously? Do you really want to play that game with me? Do you not remember that I sat today for over an hour and a half and helped you and your fiancée on the menu for your wedding?”

  I stared to laugh. I couldn’t help it. The fact that I started laughing must have pissed her off even more because she sneered at me and then slammed the door behind her.

  Chris popped his head back into the living room. “What was that? Where did Finley go?”

  I shook my head. “Everything is fine. She had some things to do, that’s all.”

  As I followed Chris to the table, I realized that I needed to find a way to explain to Finley that I was not the sucker about to marry little Ms. Constant Headache. No, that honor was going to my brother who was out of town on business.

  “So, Robin,” I took a seat at the table between Wade and Matt, “does Finley work every day during the week at the café?”

  Chapter 5

  Finley

  The gall of that playboy! I was steaming as I stomped to my car. How could he say those things about his fiancée? If he really felt that way about her, why was he marrying her? It had to be because she was rich, and he was after her money, or her family was well-known, and he wanted a piece of the action. No matter the reason, he didn’t have the right to do that to her, or me. I refused to even think about him anymore.

  I hightailed it back to town and to the little tavern on the outskirts. I was starving, and I’d heard they had good burgers, but I’d never had the opportunity to visit it. Tonight, the opportunity was knocking on my door, and I was ready to answer.

  The hostess led me to a small two-top table in the dimly lit back corner, and I was thankful to be off to the side with a good view of the place from my vantage point. I could unwind while I enjoyed a beer, or two, and munch on a burger and fries while I wrestled with my subconscious to keep the idiot out of my head!

  I had just handed my menu to the waitress with my order when I glanced at the wall beside me. My eyes practically popped out of my skull and my jaw cartoon-dropped to the wood surface of the table as I sta
red at a glossy magazine cover behind the glass. It was Roan. He was probably ten to twelve years younger, but it was unmistakably him, and he was dressed in a tux jacket with the white shirt unbuttoned. His smooth chest was tantalizing as my gaze absorbed every inch it could see from neck to waist. Holy—Freaking—Heineken.

  My stare slid along the wall to another frame and found an even younger picture of him, maybe in his late teens, early twenties. In that one, he was practically naked as he pushed himself out of the pool. His biceps bulged, and his pectoral muscles were deep and well-defined, and I was instantly hungry for ribs—sweet, juicy ribs. His wet hair was messy around his head as if he’d just popped out from under the water and had shaken it wildly, and his green eyes called seductively out of the picture. I swallowed and wished like hell my beer had arrived. How many women, or men, had sat here and fantasized about slipping in the water beside that hunk of a man?

  I took a moment to search the rest of the wall and take in each single picture. This entire section was covered in photographs of Roan in various states of dress and—oh, my chocolate pizza—undress. I needed a fan or a bucket of ice water poured over my head. I wondered if the kitchen staff would mind if I slipped into their walk-in freezer for a few moments.

  Just thinking of the freezer reminded me of what had happened earlier and how Robin had gotten hurt because of me. Ugh, and then when I went over to apologize, I took off like a chicken with my head cut off. She was probably wondering what she had ever seen in me—or how she could get rid of me.

  By the time my beer arrived, I told the waitress to bring me another one, and I gulped over half of the first one in one long haul. I was dying of thirst, but the beer wasn’t quenching it. I had an achy feeling that only one thing would, and the possibility of that ache being relieved was too far removed.