Smoky Mountain Sweethearts

by Cheryl Harper

  She eased back against the Cadillac’s plush leather seat. “I could do that, polish up my rusty skills. Janet and I’ve had to slow down since Avery got back to town, but we can pick up a new project, too.”

  Rusty skills. She hadn’t lost a step that he could see.

  And if she and Janet found a new project, Avery would be dragged along once they saw through her faked decline.

  He might owe Avery an apology when he got back home, but he’d wait to find out what the mothers cooked up.

  Satisfied he’d stirred the pot well enough to leave for a couple of days without it boiling over, Sam opened the driver’s-side door, got out and pulled his duffel from the back seat. When they met at the trunk, he kissed his mother’s cheek. “Love you, Mom.” The hug she gave him convinced him she was hale and hearty and would be fine without him. Some of the tension that had been a knot in his stomach eased.

  “Knock ’em dead, son. You want it? You get it.” She tapped his chest and then eased around him. Sam followed her and opened the door to close it softly behind her as she buckled herself in.

  “Be careful driving home.” He wasn’t sure he’d gotten the last word out before she raised a hand in a jaunty wave and hit the gas.

  The hustle of making it through airport check-in and security distracted him from the loop of worry that had made it impossible to sleep, but when Sam sat down at the gate twenty minutes before boarding, everything came flooding back.

  The nagging question about whether he’d be able to make the move even if he got the job offer was so annoying. Of course he would. How often in his life had he worried like this? This was no time to start second-guessing.

  The buzz of his phone in his pocket snapped him out of the angry pro-and-con conversation in his head. He shifted to pull his phone out of his cargoes.

  You got this. His mother’s emoji game was growing stronger. After the short message, she’d included multiple flexed biceps, a few mountains and a blue ribbon.

  “Emoji answer or should I use my words?” Sam muttered. “A stern word about texting and driving is definitely required.” Then he checked the time and realized his mother was exactly twenty minutes away. The time matched the distance to her favorite outlet mall. “Retail therapy, huh?”

  He sent back, Take care of yourself, with a string of emojis she’d love. The dancing woman in the red dress was one of her favorites.

  Before he shoved the phone back in his pocket, another text dinged. This one was from Ash. Heard about the interview. Don’t blow it, sweetheart.

  Sam was still searching through the emojis for the proper answer when the gate crew called his group for boarding. He settled on the little yellow guy blowing kisses and hit Send, certain Ash would understand his meaning.

  “You got this,” Sam muttered as he grabbed his duffel and joined the queue. He had less than twenty-four hours to get his head screwed on straight before the interview. Any lingering doubts would have to wait their turn.

  CHAPTER NINE

  A FEW TIMES in her life Avery had made promises that she regretted. Keeping the mothers preoccupied had sounded easy enough, but she’d underestimated them. Instead of worrying over Sam, they’d turned their attention to plotting a no-fail way to keep him in Sweetwater.

  Romance appeared to be their favorite option. Avery sipped her plain black coffee and made herself as puny as possible.

  “I think it’s got to be a girl,” Janet suggested as she studied the list she and Regina had been drawing up over dinner while Avery attempted different versions of “sickly and withdrawn.” The hour she’d spent walking the downtown of Sweetwater between the end of her library shift and this meet-up might have negated the effect. Her cheeks were still red from the windy afternoon, which was not conducive to faking a weak constitution. The satisfaction of being able to walk that long without gasping for air or collapsing in fatigue on the nearest bench made it easier to sit through the plotting session taking place over the red-and-white-checked vinyl tablecloth in a cramped corner of Smoky Joe’s, Sweetwater’s original and only coffee shop. If the national chain sweeping the nation like kudzu wanted to add a Sweetwater location, they’d have a town of outraged locals and a few loyal tourists who hated the busyness of other local tourist towns up in arms.

  Unfortunately, Smoky Joe’s had opened approximately sixty years ago and the furnishings had gone from current to kitsch to “what is going on in this place?” Cookie jars lined the walls. All of the walls. So many cookie jars. Avery stared up at a bear peeking over the top of an outhouse and wondered who would want to put their cookies inside.

  It was definitely a conversation piece.

  Still, a single sip of the strong black coffee was enough to convince her that she’d missed this place and would have to be a regular visitor. Since her mother and Regina Blackburn were busy, she had plenty of time to enjoy each sip.

  Until she remembered her promise to Sam.

  So, she tried sighing. Loudly. Both mothers glanced up, but there was little concern in either one’s expression.

  “We’ll have to do some searching since we aren’t getting any help,” Regina said with a pointed glance at Avery. “Astrid over at the library is cute and bubbly. Sam could use fun in his life.” She tapped the notepad. “I should also fall and break something as a safety net.” Her slight frown convinced Avery that Sam’s mother was completely serious.

  Avery clapped a hand over her forehead, the sound loud enough to cause the diners at the next table to turn. “You have got to be kidding me. That’s it, right? This is you, pranking me?” Avery held up her coffee cup and looked around, anxious for another shot of caffeine. “You both need to get a grip. I cannot be pranked, and the option to ‘accidentally’ break something in the effort to keep Sam in town had better be one lousy joke.”

  Before either could answer, the diner’s owner, a woman named Odella who had been ancient the last time Avery ate here, tottered over, a coffeepot in her hand. She was a tiny woman, but tough. One look was all it took to see years of hard work in the lines on her face and the wispy knot of white hair on top of her head, but she moved quickly enough to serve her entire coffee shop single-handedly. “You girls need a refill?” Before anyone could answer, she was pouring. “When you gonna come in to help me redecorate the place, Janet? Last time I checked, you was all booked up. Don’t trust nobody but you.”

  Avery straightened in her chair, surprised and excited...and deflated when she watched her mother laugh like it was the funniest question in the world. The furtive look she exchanged with Regina immediately caught Avery’s attention. What were they hiding?

  “Now, Odella, you know I don’t know anything about decorating restaurants.” Her mother pointed at the shelves of cookie jars lining the walls. “Besides, what would people think if they come into Smoky Joe’s and don’t see your collection?”

  Who could say? They wouldn’t be trying to calculate the last time all of them were dusted, though. Avery leaned forward. “Come on, Mama. This is a new challenge. It could be fun. Miss Regina, wouldn’t you like to help?” Getting them out of the house and occupying them with something other than Sam’s possible move and her own meltdown would give them all some breathing room.

  Her mother’s wrinkled brow was an indication of how serious this conversation was. She didn’t do frown lines if she could help it.

  Sam’s mother raised one eyebrow. “Help with what? I do not do manual labor.” She flashed her manicure.

  Avery laughed, thinking she might be joking. No one else laughed. “But you could hire out that part, right?”

  “You been working with Ethan Pace, ain’t you?” Odella said as she scooped up the trash on the table. “His daddy’s been in, looking for thermos refills, since they work sunup to sundown right about now. Kid does good work, although I’ll allow he’s as busy as you
been.”

  “I like the manual-labor part,” her mother said, one hand over her heart. “I purely love to paint. I mean, when this world fades, my house will still be standing, held together by years of new paint colors. That doesn’t mean a project this size is for me.”

  “Who’s Ethan Pace, Mama?” Avery asked as she added a dash of milk and stirred her hot coffee with a spoon. Something wasn’t adding up. What had been keeping Janet Abernathy too busy to help with the redesign of Smoky Joe’s?

  And why did her eyes brighten at the mention of the Misters Pace? Either Ethan, or more likely his father, was a handsome man. That had to be the explanation, and Avery needed a few more tidbits to track them down.

  “Ethan’s her contractor. The one who did all the renovation on the house,” Regina blurted with a quick glance at Janet. If that wasn’t enough to set Avery’s alarms blaring, then she deserved to be out of the loop. Getting them to confess to the truth was going to take some work, though. She could see that in the speed with which her mother nodded in a “good answer, good answer” kind of way.

  “And his father?” Avery asked before sipping her coffee oh so innocently.

  Regina raised her hands to her mouth to stage-whisper, “Has got the bluest blue eyes you ever saw and they are locked on your mama.” Regina batted her eyelashes innocently.

  Avery felt the zing of renewed energy as she watched her mother squirm in her seat. In a town this size, finding two Paces who did construction should be easy enough. Figuring out what else her mother was up to was a bigger puzzle.

  “I could pay you.” Odella slipped the handwritten ticket on the table under their empty plates.

  The buttermilk pie had been delicious, but Avery was wishing for brain food at that second. The answer to her question was right there, on the edge of her mind, but she couldn’t come up with the answer to two plus two. It was too bad Sam wasn’t seated next to her. They’d always been good at solving mysteries together.

  “I couldn’t pay you much, but you could hang out a sign for advertising.” Odella turned in a slow half circle. “I do love this place, but time’s come to get it ready to sell, you know? I want to retire to a beach. Get me a two-piece and a sunny spot.”

  Avery’s eyebrows shot up. Miss Odella on a beach... It might not be the most relaxing sight for other beachgoers, but good for her.

  “And the clock’s ticking. Life’s short. This girl here knows what I mean,” Odella said as she pointed at Avery. “Once we know what we want, we got to go after it. New paint, floors, some way to display Smoky Joe’s fine collection of rustic artwork, but fresh and clean. Then I sell, the new owner takes over, and Smoky Joe’s is still a part of Sweetwater’s square. That’s how it should be.”

  “Have you already listed the restaurant?” Regina said as she eyed the large square room. Avery wondered what sort of calculations she was doing, but then she realized this powerful distraction was successfully derailing their plot against Sam.

  “Naw, I want to get top dollar and all them decorating shows say you gotta spend some money to make money.” Odella tipped her head to the side. “But if the right buyer was to come along, I could be persuaded. Ticking clock and all that. I’d say this place was ripe to be flipped, wouldn’t you, Regina?”

  Regina gave a big, fake chuckle. “How would I know?”

  Avery was trying to come up with the right questions to keep the conversation rolling when another customer hailed Odella and she tottered off.

  “I can’t believe you two,” Avery said and snatched the notepad that they’d been studying out from under their noses. “This is a waste of time. Sam is going to do whatever Sam wants to do, and he doesn’t need the pressure of two mothers working against him.”

  She shoved the notepad in her purse. “Whether he goes or stays, the two of you need to find a new obsession. And not me, either.” She pointed her finger. “I’m going to get myself together. Sam has agreed to help. You two need to work on yourselves.” Avery leaned out of the cracked red leather booth and waved at Odella.

  “Mama’s going to have some plans for you in two weeks—” Avery checked over her shoulder and took her mother’s weak nod as agreement “—and Regina would like to help you find investors for this property. She needs to do some figuring to determine the correct price first.” Sam’s mother cleared her throat. Avery took that as her agreement. “Does two weeks work for you, Odella?”

  Avery did not glance back at Regina Blackburn. She was already pressing her luck with her own mother.

  “Well, Miss Avery, that sounds fine,” Odella said, “and I’m gonna box you up a brownie to go for your help facilitatin’.”

  Since Odella had won blue ribbons for her brownies before she’d decided to give the rest of the competition a fighting chance and stopped entering, it was a pretty good reward.

  Pleased with herself, Avery turned back around to see two angry women, one blonde and one brunette, with their crossed arms braced on the table.

  “Now, what did you go and do that for?” her mother snapped. “I don’t have the time for a project like this, never mind the training.”

  “If you stop fussing over me, you’ll have a few extra hours every day,” Avery said sweetly. “You work three days a week at the school. On the other four, you and Regina better get to researching.” Hearing the old familiar speech patterns coming out of her own mouth took adjustment. As soon as she said cain’t without thinking about it, she’d know she’d settled back home.

  “Research? What research?” Regina asked suspiciously.

  “We’re going to need to study the competition, and not here in Sweetwater.” Janet Abernathy thumped back against the booth. “Visit some other restaurants. Find out what’s workin’ for ’em. Then we take the best, bring it back home. That’s how we know we’re on the right track, since we’ve never done this before.” Watching her mother raise her eyebrows at Regina was all it took to turn the light bulb on. They had done this before. Why was it a secret?

  “All I need to do is set a price. I could do that with some quick computer searches.” Regina waved a hand. “Not that I’m saying no to traveling to Knoxville to eat at some good restaurants.”

  “You could find the investor, broker the deal and earn a commission.” Avery watched as Regina straightened in her seat. If they were flipping properties, her mother had the vision and Regina had the hard-nosed business experience. Everything was so clear that it was hard not to yell “aha” and point an accusing finger. “If it’s such a good opportunity, you should think about going into business yourself. What do I know about these things? I never finished law school.” Avery shot a quick look at her mother to see the corner of her mouth turn up in a reluctant smile.

  “Me? In business? A restaurant?” Regina studied the flow of customers and the view out the window. “It does sit nicely on the square. I could add some souvenirs, play up the history of Smoky Joe’s.” She tapped bright red nails on the table. “But I’m retired.”

  Janet chuckled. “And you hate almost every minute of it.”

  “I like playing cards, Janet.” Regina shot her a pointed stare. “I’m not the one who’s picking out paint chips for a perfectly lovely living room.”

  Avery watched them frown at each other, speaking volumes without a single sound.

  “Already, Mama?” Avery leaned forward. “You gotta spread your wings. Try this. You can spend less time watching me as carefully as a vulture watches the oldest, slowest mouse in the field. I can cook my own breakfast. I lived all on my own for quite some time.”

  “If you’d eat some of those breakfasts, you might be strong enough to sass me, girl.” Her mother tapped her chin. “Restaurant fixtures,” she said slowly. “I’m going to have to get some catalogs, that’s for sure.”

  Avery wondered if she should give the post office a warning
. They were about to experience an uptick in mail headed to Hickory Lane and fast.

  Then she realized both ladies across from her were watching her closely.

  “You think this will keep us from worrying about our children, do you?” Janet said slowly.

  Avery reached across the table to wrap her hands around her mother’s. “Maybe this will help your children stop worrying about you.”

  Janet and Regina exchanged a look of pure exasperation. Janet was the first to speak. “Worried about us, living the good life over here while one races off to fight fires and the other...”

  “...nearly grieves herself to death,” Avery said. “Yeah, but I’m better. These jeans? They fit again. They don’t hang off my hips, thanks to Miss Rachel’s pies. I walked for a full hour while I waited for you two. I have a job...for now. And when Sam gets back, I’m going to learn to keep up with him again, give him a run for his money.”

  Her mother wasn’t convinced, so Avery added, “You’ll see, Mama. I’m okay. Thanks to you, I’m okay, and all I want is for you to find something you love.” She turned to Regina. “I won’t tell you everything Sam said in his career-day talk because...” Avery shivered. “But he said something really smart. Everyone deserves to work at whatever they think is the greatest job in the world. Maybe it’s not owning a restaurant, but you’ve got the time to do some looking around.”

  Regina pursed her lips. “What if I want to retire to a beach?” She glanced at the small elderly woman who was toting a heavy tray of empty dishes. “A different beach than the one Odella’s going to be sunbathing at, obviously, but somewhere with fruity drinks and umbrellas.”

  “Sam would be the first person to say do it.” Avery had no doubt about that.