Knock knock.
They both glanced at the door.
“Maisy, it’s Perry, are you in there?”
“Come on in,” Maisy called. She was relieved to have the teenager interrupt the life lecture she was getting from Savanah. She knew her friend was right. She knew her track record was bad and that Ryder wasn’t like any man she’d ever dated before. He made her feel so much more. Lord, it was terrifying.
“Hi,” Perry said. She included both Savannah and Maisy in her greeting. “Is George in here?”
“Under the hideous black sweater with cherries on it,” Savannah said.
“Hey!” Maisy protested.
“What’s going on?” Perry asked. “Are you cleaning out your closet?”
“No, she’s having a fashion meltdown, because she can’t decide what to wear on a date with your da—” Savannah began, but Maisy interrupted.
“Perry, your dad asked me to dinner and I said yes,” Maisy explained. She tried to sound casual while gauging the girl’s feelings. “Does it bother you that your dad and I are going to dinner?”
Perry dug George out from beneath the sweater. She cuddled him close and he let out a happy squeak of recognition. Perry smiled and then her face crumbled and she looked so sad. She glanced up at Maisy with tears in her eyes.
“Why would it bother me when I’m going to be moving away in a few weeks and so is Dad?” she asked.
“You’re moving?” Maisy asked. Thankfully, Perry was so preoccupied with George, she didn’t notice the shocked look on Maisy’s face.
“Yes, I’m going to a private high school for girls in Connecticut, and Dad is taking a job on the board of a historic preservation society in Charleston, South Carolina,” she said.
“Boarding school in Connecticut?” Savy asked. She sounded horrified. “By choice?”
Perry shrugged. “They have a really strong science program, which is my thing. It’s also where my mother went to school and her mother before her. It was always understood that I’d go, too. My dad says he wants the best for me, and he thinks Saint Mary’s Prep is the best.”
Maisy and Savy exchanged a glance. This was the first Maisy had heard of Perry’s leaving. She and her dad were so close, Maisy had a hard time imagining Ryder letting her go. It was also the first time she’d heard of Ryder leaving, too. The thought made her stomach hurt.
“But is that where you want to go?” Savy asked.
“I thought I did,” Perry said. She glanced quickly at Maisy and suddenly it was all coming into focus.
“Cooper,” she said.
“Yeah,” Perry muttered. She pressed her face against George’s soft fur. “But not just him. There’s King George, and all of my friends, my teachers, Uncle Quino, and the horses at Shadow Pine. I love my life here. I love Fairdale. I don’t want to leave the place that’s been my home for the past three years. This is the longest I’ve lived anywhere and it’s . . . home.”
Tears coursed down her cheeks, and Maisy felt her heart twist. She loved Fairdale, too. She had been born here and had never left. She couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.
“I’m so sorry, Perry,” Maisy said. “I know change is difficult.”
Savannah gave her a bug-eyed look as if to say What changes?
“I’ve made changes,” Maisy insisted. “I gave up a job to open a bookstore.”
“Fine, I’ll give you that one,” Savy said. She turned her attention back to Perry. “Listen, I’ve moved around a lot, too. I know how you feel, I do. Have you considered talking to your dad?”
“I can’t,” she said. “This has been the plan for so long and he’s worked so hard to make it happen. It would crush him if I told him I didn’t want to go.”
“But will it crush you to leave a place you love?” Maisy asked.
Perry shrugged. She looked sad but resigned. “Please don’t tell him I said anything. I love my dad, and I don’t want to hurt him.” She walked toward the door with George. “I’m going to go feed him.” She glanced at Maisy’s closet. “Wear the teal-colored dress hanging there. Dad loves that color.”
The door shut behind her and Maisy went to the closet and pulled out the teal dress. It had a halter top and a flared skirt. It was light and pretty and very feminine. Given that Ryder had seen her mostly in yoga pants and T-shirts, this might prove a refreshing change for him.
“So, how do you feel about Ryder leaving?” Savannah asked.
Maisy stopped examining her reflection with the dress held up in front of her and stepped into her walk-in closet to change.
“I feel okay, I guess.” Which was a total lie. She was shocked. She’d thought he and Perry were established here. She’d had no inkling that they might leave. And she hated the idea. And now her pre-date freak-out seemed silly since her date was leaving the state in a few weeks. She peeked around the doorjamb and looked at Savy. “I guess it kind of takes the pressure off. I mean, how serious can we get if he’s leaving?”
“Making him the perfect guy for you,” Savannah said. “I take back everything I said about him being a good guy. I don’t think you should go out with him.”
“What? Why not?” Maisy stepped back in the closet, pulled the dress over her head, and smoothed the skirt down.
“Because you are going to get your heart broken,” Savannah said.
“But I won’t,” Maisy insisted. Judging by the pain in her chest, she was sure her heart was already breaking. “Because he’s leaving.”
“Which finally answers the question of what’s wrong with him,” Savannah said. “He’s a tumbling tumbleweed, who is just going to show you a good time for the moment and then roll right on out of your life, ruining you for any other man. Damn it, Maisy. You deserve better than this.”
Chapter Twenty
MAISY froze. She stared at her reflection in the mirror. Looking back from the glass was a woman who had her heart on her sleeve. Heck, she had her heart in her hands, offering it to Ryder like it was a cupcake.
It hit her then that she didn’t want to play the fool again. The dingleberry had lied to her and conned her and made her feel gullible and dumb. Now, here was Ryder kissing her delirious and asking her out for a “conversation” just before he blew town. She had a good idea what that “conversation” was going to be about—him leaving. When exactly had he been planning to tell her he was leaving? Had he been planning to tell her at all? She didn’t think her poor battered heart could take another tumble.
“You’re right,” she said. “I have to friend-zone him.”
She hurried back into her closet and pulled out her favorite pair of overalls. She took off the teal dress and pulled on a bright-orange tank top and then the overalls. She then slid on her floral sneakers. Yep, she looked like she should be out wrestling hogs. She stepped out of the closet, looking prepared for battle rather than a date.
“Wait, what is that?” Savy asked. “You can friend-zone him and not give the poor man nightmares.”
“I won’t,” Maisy said. “This is me dressing cute.”
“Cute is for Frisbee in the park or a day at the carnival,” Savy said. “Not for grown-up dates, where menus and moonlight and honest conversations are involved.”
Maisy faced her. She had to come clean, if not with Savannah then with herself. “No, you’re right. Ryder does have the potential to break my heart. I have to protect myself.”
“And your go-to method is to dress like Farmer Ted instead of just being honest with him?”
“Well, that and this pretty much guarantees that no passes will be made tonight,” Maisy said. She ran her thumbs under the suspenders and rocked back on her heels. “I mean, what sort of guy is going to fight his way through all of this?”
“You’re an idiot,” Savy said. But there was affection in her voice, so Maisy didn’t take offense.
“Hello?” a male voice called from the apartment. Ryder’s voice.
Maisy felt her insides clench. This was it. Her heart thumped hard in her chest. She was full-on panicking. And now she was in overalls. Savy was right. She looked like an idiot. Maybe she should change. No, no, there was no time. Oh, jeez, what a nightmare.
She was woefully unprepared to date. What had she been thinking? She should have said no. She should have made up an excuse. She should have . . . but then she remembered their kiss. That’s what had gotten her into this mess. She was so starved for affection that she was going on a date. With her cowboy architect. This had bad Idea! written all over it.
“Do you want me to stall him so you can change?” Savannah asked hopefully.
“Nope.” Maisy tipped up her chin. “What he sees is what he gets.”
“Oh, brother,” Savy muttered. She opened the door and led the way out. It took everything Maisy had not to retreat and hide in her closet.
“Hi, Ryder,” Savy greeted him. She glanced back at Maisy and mouthed the words, Last chance. Maisy shook her head, and Savannah said, “Okay, you kids have fun.”
She disappeared into her room, giving Maisy her first full glance at her date.
Oh, crud. He was dressed in a suit with a tie and he was holding a huge bunch of pink peonies, her favorite. Maisy glanced down at her overalls. The urge to punch herself in the temple and knock herself out had never been so strong.
She shook her head, making her curls bounce around her face. She was just going to have to brazen it out. Her hair and makeup were on point so that was something. Besides, what did she care? Ryder was going to be leaving soon. It wasn’t as if there was a relationship at stake here. With that thought lodged firmly at the front of her mind, she forced her lips into a smile and strode forward.
“Hi, Ryder,” she said. To his credit, his face revealed nothing of what he thought about her outfit. Meanwhile, in a black jacket and pants, with a gray dress shirt and matching tie, the man looked positively edible. Ugh.
“Hi,” he said. He held out the flowers. “These are for you.”
“Thank you. Peonies are my favorite,” she said. She took the bouquet and sighed. The blooms were about the size of her fist, pale pink with deep-pink edges, just beautiful.
“I know,” he said. “Jeri told me.”
Maisy led the way to the kitchen. “Can I get you a drink? Wine? Beer?”
“No, thanks,” he said. He slid onto a stool at the counter while she put the flowers in water.
Maisy arranged the flowers and set them on the center of the small café table where she and Savannah ate their meals. The light from the window shone on the flowers, making them look translucent. Maisy smiled at Ryder.
“They really are lovely. Thank you,” she said.
“Don’t mention it,” he said. “Are you ready to go?”
“Yes,” she said. She waited for him to ask if she wanted to change. He didn’t. Instead, he led the way to the door, leaving Maisy no choice but to grab her purse and follow. It occurred to her that her decision to wear overalls might be the worst idea she’d had since she’d gotten her first eyebrow wax and asked to having arching brows like Angelina Jolie. She’d spent the next month looking like she was in a constant state of surprise.
They walked side by side through the house, which now had actual hallways with no books in them, rooms with books on shelves only, as well as fresh paint and plasterwork. Under the old carpets, wood flooring had been discovered and was in the process of being sanded, varnished, and polished to a high sheen.
Thick plastic sheeting separated work areas from nonwork areas, but Maisy had a good feeling about their progress and Ryder’s ability to make her vision a reality. It distracted her from her outfit and put a spring in her step. The Happily Ever After Bookshop was on its way.
“Any word on final sales today?” Ryder asked. He stepped into the foyer and turned to look at her.
“Jeri is still tallying the credit card purchases, but she said it far exceeded expectations,” she said.
“Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
He opened the door for her and Maisy stepped out, waiting for him to follow so she could lock the door behind them. The books and tables had been cleared from the lawn and it was hard for her to reconcile the empty space with the bustling yard sale it had been just a few hours earlier.
Ryder’s green truck was parked in the driveway and he opened the passenger door for Maisy, closing it behind her when she climbed inside. He circled around the front and again she noted that he was about the handsomest man she had ever seen. Her heart did a somersault in her chest and she knew that the overalls were a good choice. She had to maintain some buffer against him otherwise she’d be lost. With that thought firmly in mind, she kept her smile in place and tried her level best to think of Ryder as a brother or a neighbor or a cousin, anything but hot cowboy-architect guy.
He took off his jacket and his tie and tossed them both into the backseat, where he kept his hat. Maisy didn’t say anything even though she was a bit sorry to see the snappy jacket and tie go.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“It’s a surprise,” he said. He gave her a small smile and Maisy relaxed back against her seat. She trusted him.
* * *
• • •
WHERE were they going? Ryder had no freaking idea. He’d had reservations for a fancy French bistro in the heart of town but given Maisy’s decidedly casual style of dress, he figured that was out. She clearly wasn’t thinking of their date as the intimate one-on-one conversation he’d envisioned.
He tried to remember when he asked her out if he’d given her the idea that this was just a friendly outing between pals. No, he was pretty sure, after they’d shared that brain-melter of a kiss, that he’d asked her out for a real dinner date. Sure, he’d been planning to let her down easy sometime between the vichyssoise and the crème brûlée, but now he wondered why he’d even bothered. Clearly, their kiss hadn’t rocked her world as much as his. The realization made him cranky.
He’d thought when he asked her out to dinner she would know he meant it was an eating at a nice restaurant with cloth napkins and candlelight experience, but maybe she thought a sack of burgers and a milkshake was a big night out. He wasn’t sure what to make of the overalls, although she did look pretty cute in those. He wondered what that said about him that he thought a woman in overalls and sneakers was equally as hot as a woman in high heels and a dress. Hmm.
He drove through town with Maisy beside him, staring out the window as if she’d never seen Fairdale before. Maybe she didn’t get out that much. He debated taking her back to his house, where he could cook dinner, but Perry, Joaquin, and Desi were there, having dinner before their movie, so that would be awkward. He didn’t particularly want Perry with him on his outing with Maisy, because even though they’d clearly had mixed signals about tonight, he knew he still needed to hammer it home to Maisy that he was not a datable prospect.
He thought about picking up beer and a pizza and having a picnic in the bed of his pickup truck on Whiskey Mountain, but he was afraid they’d get cold, plus by the time the pizza was ready, they’d miss the sunset and just be sitting in the dark, which would be weird.
He had enough struggles with the whole sharing-his-feelings thing without starting off awkwardly. Who was he kidding? They were already at uncomfortable. What the heck had happened?
He felt as if someone, Maisy, had flipped the script on him. He’d delivered the do not get attached to me speech to every woman he’d dated since his divorce. He had it down. It worked like a charm, and after their kiss today, he’d been gearing up to deliver the talk to Maisy, but it looked like she didn’t need it.
Ryder had the feeling Maisy had already decided he wasn’t going to be more than a friend. He wasn’t
sure how he felt about that. He knew he should be relieved, but he wasn’t, which made him feel as if everything he’d ever believed to be true was wrong.
There was no doubt that he was different with Maisy. She made him open up more than any person he’d ever known. Heck, he’d even gotten watered up while talking about Perry’s determination to save George. He’d shown more emotion in that moment than he had in years.
There was something about Maisy, the way her eyes turned up in the corners when she smiled, the calming scent of her when she was nearby, the feeling of being safe that he felt with her, that he had never experienced with another person. Perhaps that was how she made everyone feel and to her it was no big deal. Ryder tried to ignore the twist in his gut at the probability that he meant no more to her than dingleberry had. Even though he knew it was for the best, the thought did not sit well.
He turned onto an old postal route, locally known as the beeline highway, that ran to his favorite barbeque joint, Adam’s Rib. It was named for the owner, Adam Jacobs, a big blustery black man who made a Carolina barbeque sauce so good, Ryder was pretty sure angels sang when he served it. Of course, being from Austin he had to insist that it didn’t hold a candle to Texas barbeque, but in truth, between the barbeque and the cobbler, Adam’s Rib was his favorite restaurant in Fairdale.
With a course set in mind, Ryder stepped on the gas and they wound their way along the serpentine route until they broke through the trees and parked beside the old converted barn that housed the restaurant.
“Adam’s Rib,” Maisy said. “I love this place.”
“Glad to hear it.” Ryder smiled. Okay, he could do this. If they were just going to be friends, he could totally hang with that. He parked in a row of pickup trucks and then jogged around the front of the truck to get Maisy’s door for her. She had already popped it open, but he was there in time to give her a hand down.
He put his hand on the gentle curve of her lower back and walked her to the front door. The rolling doors on the front of the big barn were pulled back, and music spilled out of the building along with the overhead lights that cut a bright path in the dark. Peanut shells covered the floor and the room was filled with picnic tables with checkered cloths. Families filled the big tables and smaller ones were scattered around the room.
The Good Ones Page 19