November Rains (A Year in Paradise Book 11)

by Hildred Billings

  His grand plan was to take her out for brunch. Because, apparently, Frankie Delacour was looking a little pallor.

  Since when was it his job to look after his big sister? May I remind him how much older I am? Seriously, though. He seems to have forgotten that I was the one who used to wipe his snotty nose when Mom wasn’t around. That happened more often than not once their mother realized Dear Ol’ Frankie was willing to be a surrogate mother sometimes.

  Dominic said the location would be a surprise, which meant they were going somewhere new. There was only one “new” place in town, and that was Tea & Thyme, as owned by the popular social queen Elaine Hadley. So what if I don’t know anything about how things have been going since I met her that one time? That was one time enough for Frankie to know that Elaine would soon be Little Miss Popular in Paradise Valley. Oh, and she was too energetic for Frankie to deal with. How old was Elaine, anyway? She had to be under twenty-five with all that energy. Where did she get the money to open her own business?

  So, here they were. Frankie stepped into Tea & Thyme behind her brother, wondering if everything she heard about Elaine’s cookies was worth the huff.

  “Heeeeey!” Oh, Christ. That had to be the fakest hey! Frankie had heard in her life. Should she be surprised, though? The only reason Elaine probably recognized her was because Frankie was… well, she was easy to spot. Nobody else in town had braids like hers.

  Aaaannd nobody else in town had dreads like Dominic’s, so they really stuck out, didn’t they?

  “Good to see you again!” Before Frankie could begrudgingly say hi, Dominic raised his hand in greeting. “Dominic, right? Oh! Frankie, too! From the Chamber of Commerce, right?”

  “You’ve been here before, huh?” Frankie goaded her brother, who sheepishly looked away from the pretty, vibrant woman running the new hip spot in town. Don’t tell me it’s not. Look at this place. Half full now that we’re here. Z could probably learn a thing or two from Elaine’s early success. Not that Frankie wanted to think about Z and her problems right now. Too depressing. “Should have figured. There isn’t a place in town my brother hasn’t sniffed out for a study spot.”

  Dominic laughed. “I came here last week with Xander while he was in town. He made the same joke!”

  “Of course he did. The only person in this town who knows you better than I do is Xander.”

  “Don’t get jealous, huh?” Dominic wrapped an arm around his sister’s shoulders, as if to prove that although she may be older than him, he was half a foot taller. “You seem busy, Elaine,” he then said to the grinning owner of Paradise Valley’s very own teashop. “We’ll seat ourselves and bug the crap out of Christina about what we want.”

  “Excellent. She’s looking a little bored up there. Please enjoy!” Elaine skipped away. Yes, I’m saying she skipped. Frankie suspiciously eyed that shit while Dominic led her to a two-person table along the wall.

  The chairs could have been more comfortable. At least she put a cushion in these things. She had heard of putting your metal furniture outside of your bistro, but inside? That was a… choice. The cushion only helped Frankie’s butt a little bit. Her back, though? This was a woman who stood up all day behind a counter or hunched over a cutting board. She may have had plastic chairs in her shop, but that was because her guests didn’t stay long. They were too busy slamming food in their mouths and getting back to work.

  This place was for hanging out, right? I should ask Z what kind of seating she has… Frankie pulled out her phone and opened her memos. Time to jot down a few notes so she wouldn’t forget to ask later.

  “Really, Sis?” her brother chided her. “Phones at the table?”

  That may have been a throwback to his high school days, when he could hardly keep his eyes off his phone while talking to his sister, but Frankie heard the disbelief in his voice and had to defend herself. “You remember my friend, Z? She just opened a business and it’s not doing as well as she hoped. So I was thinking up some questions I should ask her later about how she’s got her whole setup going. Like, for instance…” she wiggled in the chair. “Does she have chairs like these? Because she should get rid of them.”

  Dominic snorted, his eyes lingering on Elaine as she showed a familiar face around the shop. Is that Gloria Williams? The food reviewer? Good luck, kid. “Something about Elaine you want to share with the rest of the class? Because she seems pretty nice.”

  “Pretty nice to look at, too, huh?”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Frankie gave her brother a pointed look. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you two were a thing already?”

  “Ew, Fran!” Dominic couldn’t look more shocked if he tried. “She’s gotta be over thirty! You think I dig older women ‘cause I got an older sister?”

  “What? Over thirty?” Frankie glanced at the woman regaling Gloria Williams with some tale she probably didn’t care about. Make her wait too long to get her food, kid, and you’re looking at a lukewarm review when it will hurt you the most. “You serious? There’s no way she’s closer to my age than yours.”

  “You’re finally to that age when everyone under the age of thirty-five looks like a kid, huh? No wonder everyone thinks you’re my mom.”

  “Everyone does not think I’m your mom.”

  “Do you know how many teachers I had to tell you were my sister? How many didn’t believe it? I think Ms. McCoy believed you and our parents told me that I was your brother although you gave birth to me when you were fourteen or something.”

  “First of all,” Frankie said, “I was in high school when you were born.”

  “Yeah, yeah. Let me guess – second of all, Ms. McCoy has always had it out for you.”

  “Ever since she claimed her mother got sick from one of my meats? Yes.”

  Dominic picked up one of the two sided menus left on their table. “How about we go up and order something, huh? We should make sure Christina is earning her keep around here.”

  But Frankie’s attentions were more on the women discussing whatever the hell she couldn’t hear. I bet Z’s business would improve if she could score a decent review in a periodical.

  “Sis!”

  “What? Yes, cookies! Tea! Let’s do it, since you’re so insistent!”

  Dominic talked her into trying a strawberry flavored tea that had come highly recommended by his friend Xander. Strawberry in my tea… At first, Frankie assumed that meant either a syrup or some other additive. Instead, Christina Rath treated her to a tea that was infused with actual strawberry buds. Seriously. She opened the tin and showed Frankie, who acted like she had never seen anything like that before.

  “This place is fancy,” she muttered to her brother, when they sat back down after ordering.

  “Too fancy for you?” Dominic asked.

  She wouldn’t deign that with an answer.

  “All I’m saying,” Dominic began, “is that you work yourself a little too hard. I know, I know. You have to hustle to stay in business around here. Don’t get me wrong, Sis, you have worked your ass off. You work harder than anyone else I know. That’s why I worry about you. You’ve gotta do something to enjoy your days off.”

  “Here I thought I was hanging out with you, and that was enough.”

  “Speaking of making your family your whole life,” Dominic muttered, “what day are we going up to Olympia for Thanksgiving? I need to know if I have that Wednesday free, or if I’ll be riding in a car.”

  “Haven’t decided yet. Why?”

  “Obviously, Xander’s coming back through town for Thanksgiving, and I wanna say hi if I’ll be around.”

  Frankie had a response prepared, but she looked up at the moment Elaine brought by their tea and cookies on a platter.

  “Strawberry Maroon for you, Ms. Frankie.” She was presented with a large mug of hot, steaming tea and an oatmeal cookie topped with sea salt. “Pure Essential Sencha for you, Mr. Dominic.”

  “Now look at this,” Domi
nic said with a grin. “A couple of small town nobodies feeling all fancy for a couple of hours.”

  Out of everything Frankie wanted to say, she kept it limited to something pleasant for Elaine’s ears. “Thank you so much. It looks lovely.”

  That word was on her tongue when she glanced up and caught Elaine’s eyes. Those big, bright eyes that were full of more life than most of Paradise Valley. What am I looking at? Why do I care? Okay, so she would finally admit that Elaine was pretty. That was her official lesbian-oriented opinion, by the way, not just her making an obvious statement about pretty people. Still, this was Frankie’s first time wondering if Ms. Hadley swung a very obvious way. This was Paradise Valley, after all. What am I doing? That’s none of my business. I’m not going to date her. That’s absurd. She’s too young for me. I don’t care what my brother says, she has to be twenty-seven at the oldest. Frankie only dated women who could relate to waking up one day to lines around the eyes. Elaine looked like she didn’t have a bit of cellulite on her body.

  Not that Frankie was thinking about her naked, or anything!

  “Let me know if you two need anything else,” Elaine said with a friendly smile. The kind that Frankie kept thinking about after the woman in question left.

  When she finally turned back to her brother, expecting to see him serving the tea like he had trained his whole life for the moment, she met a scathing look that she hadn’t seen since the day Dominic caught her hypocritical ass smoking pot. You know, a few days after he got in big trouble for doing it himself. With Xander Rath, no less.

  “What?” Frankie barked.

  “You’re sitting here,” Dominic began, nostrils flaring and the whites of his eyes piercing a terrible gaze straight into his sister’s soul, “giving me crap for potentially flirting with the new girl in town – who, by the way, is waaaay too old for me – while you’re checking out her ass as she walks away?”

  That’s when he cracked. Gone was the demeanor of scathing inflection. Instead, Dominic caved beneath his sister’s rolling eyes, his laughter almost summoning Elaine back to their side of the café.

  “You’re a little brat, you know that?” Frankie muttered. “Let’s drink this stupid tea.”

  She hated it when he cornered her like that, as if he knew what it was like to be a grown woman in a compromising romantic position. This was a boy who had barely known his sister to ever be in a relationship. Not because she hid them from him, but because he had always lived elsewhere. Frankie had never dated since coming to Paradise Valley several years ago. A part of her was disappointed, of course, since like so many other women she had moved there to see if some casual dreams could come true. Casual… I make it sound like there’s anything more to it than utter desperation. Frankie had tried her hand at some dating when she first arrived, of course, but after nobody showed interest in her, she gave up. Better to focus all of her attentions on her business. The real reason she had moved into town, lest she forget.

  “This tea ain’t so bad,” she muttered against the rim of her steaming cup. “Strawberry, huh? You can’t buy this at the supermarket.”

  “Or at Wal-Mart,” Dominic added, as if it needed to be said. “I can’t decide if this is a brilliant business plan, or if she’s wasting her talent for good tea and sweets on a town like this. When have you ever gotten the impression that there was room for more than one café in Paradise Valley?”

  “Hmph. You’ll be amused to hear that at the Chamber meeting she implied she wasn’t in competition with Heaven’s.”

  “Really?” Dominic glanced around the wide, bright, and open space they occupied. “I think they’re in like… half-competition. Heaven’s is really casual. It’s the kind of place you stop in to get a to-go coffee and a snack. I know she has events there, but you can’t really plan on there being a spot for your group if you show up at the wrong time of day. This place… it’s got potential. This is where the church groups are gonna start meeting. Mark my words, Sis.”

  “The church groups, huh?” Frankie didn’t wish them on anyone, good business or no.

  “Yup. They wanna feel fancy. Hard to feel fancy in Heaven’s. You could definitely feel fancy over tea, though!”

  “Clearly, you would know.”

  “Give me all the crap you want, Sis, but we both know I’m right. Eh, I think this place will do okay. Now, what about that friend of yours, huh? You think her place is gonna be okay?”

  Gee, could he give her more whiplash with that change in topic? “No idea, really. You know we don’t share a whole lot of personal information.”

  “Which is weird, considering you’ve been friends with this ‘Z’ since I moved here.”

  “How do you know her…”

  “When you’re in a texting frenzy,” Dominic interrupted, “you don’t realize how many times I see the notifications blow up your phone. Really, Sis, here’s hoping you never try to hide an affair from somebody, because you would be terrible at it.”

  “Since when do I care about your opinion about… that?”

  Dominic didn’t have the chance to respond. As soon as he opened his mouth, Elaine reappeared, an exasperated look on her face.

  “I really, really hate to interrupt your time together like this,” she hissed in Frankie’s direction, “but do you know anything about this lady reviewing my teashop?”

  Frankie glanced at the woman sniffing the samples of tea by the register. She gave Christina a friendly wave, but Frankie already knew that the Rath girl’s less-than-pleasant demeanor would be a strike against Tea & Thyme.

  “She gets around,” was all Frankie said at first. Then, “Sorry. I mean, she’s a known entity around the county. Should’ve seen the real stinker she gave my deli about a year after I opened. There are only a few places around here she gave a decent review, and one of them was Heaven’s.”

  Elaine’s face fell. “Oh, no…”

  “I’m sure it will be fine.” Frankie cleared her throat. “Don’t let her feel like she’s not being constantly waited on. I think that’s where I failed in my surprise review.” That lady liked ass kissing. Lots of it. Something Frankie was never in the mood to do, nor did she promise any puckered lips on her menu. “Uh oh. She’s looking forlorn. You better get over there before she docks you a grade.”

  Gasping, Elaine rushed over to the counter, where she intercepted the reviewer from Christina’s indifferent gaze.

  “Damn,” Dominic muttered. “Nice going, Sis. Freak out the new girl.”

  “You think I’m joking about that lady? She’ll ruin you if you want to be known for your hospitality in any way, shape, or form.” Frankie grinned. “That’s why I’m still trucking.”

  Dominic chuckled. “Let’s get back to the subject, though. When do you think you’ll be getting back into the dating game, huh? How about asking that Z friend of yours where she lives and what she thinks about meeting up with you finally?”

  “You make it sound like that’s the end game with online friendships.”

  “I am a Gen Z-er.” Dominic shrugged. “If there’s one thing I want, it’s to find the love of my life on the internet.”

  “You also want world peace and a clean environment, apparently.”

  “Why can’t I have all three?”

  Frankie didn’t know if the laughing came from the absurdity of their conversation or from a lack of anything else to express. Sometimes she wondered what these talks with her brother sounded like to other people. They were so laced in sarcasm and the occasional bouts of dark humor that they must have sounded crazy.

  She glanced at Elaine, who made such a fuss over the reviewer that she was probably going to get docked for being annoying. Oh, well. Lesson learned. Frankie tried to think of something else to talk about. Otherwise, Dominic was going to lead the conversation back to her love life, and she’d rather talk about a rusty nail going through her big toe.

  Chapter 10

  ELAINE

  Two things rattled Elaine as she came
off a decent weekend. Or, at least, it was more decent than she originally expected.

  First was the reviewer, who seemed to enjoy her stay at Tea & Thyme, but Elaine could never be too sure. For all I know, she faked enthusiasm the whole time. Like a bad date. Boy, Elaine had seen her fair share of those over the years. Girls – and women, sigh – who couldn’t hold interest in her for more than two seconds. Sometimes, it was the ones who tried a little too hard that freaked her out the most. For all she knew, they were hiding disdain like one might hide a smoking gun beneath their trench coat.

  The second thing was Frankie. Who wasn’t a thing at all. All right, so neither was that reviewer! Elaine had gone to bed that night with a pillow smashed against the side of her head, hoping that she could somehow squeeze out both the reviewer and Frankie.

  She didn’t know what it was about Frankie that rattled her so much. She wasn’t intimidated by the older woman, who had been nothing but helpful in the few interactions she and Elaine had. Nor was she worried that Frankie didn’t like her since… well, why wouldn’t she? Frankie didn’t have to love Elaine, but Elaine had given Frankie no reason to be annoyed with her. If anything, the way she had complimented the cookies before leaving with her brother had implied she wished for nothing more than Elaine to succeed at her business.

  What has me all topsy turvy is her… well, her!

  Frankie had a certain air about her that made Elaine look twice. She was confident. She was successful, since any woman who kept her business afloat after several years had to be successful. She had a nice relationship with her brother, who had to be a whole generation younger than her, if Elaine could believe it. I asked around and… yeah, that’s definitely not her son. There was a story there, though. If Dominic was Frankie’s half-brother, it would make more sense. Sounded like a father who remarried someone who wanted a kid of their own. `

  Not that Elaine was nosy about that…

  Elaine had met many striking women in her life. Most of them wanted nothing to do with her, since she didn’t fit neatly into any boxes besides, well, ahem. Most of the women she was attracted to, however, were either straight or wanted someone so femme that Elaine didn’t score a chance in hell. She often lamented that she wanted the unobtainable women. The ones who either didn’t want her at all, or the ones that asked her to be someone she wasn’t. I may not be a stone cold stud, but I’m far from an uber-femme. Since when did the middle-ground alienate so many people? Wasn’t it 2019?