by Terri Osburn
“Sold to bidder thirty-four ten on the phone!”
Snow danced in her chair as Caleb silently thanked the powers that be for giving his wife the good day that she’d hoped for. “What are you going to do with all that money?” he whispered in her ear.
She flashed him a smile that took his breath away. “I’m putting in a coffee shop,” she said, taking him completely by surprise.
Lorelei was going to be so surprised. Snow had intended to add the little coffee and baked goods nook in the back of the store come spring, though that would only be possible if the store hit record sales during the holiday season. But now, the project could start right after the new year no matter what happened over the next six weeks.
Another bonus of her big day was that she’d be able to buy Caleb the present she really wanted to get him.
“How long has this coffee shop idea been brewing in that little head of yours?” Caleb asked as they traveled north up I-65.
“Since the festival,” she answered, still a little shocked to be holding a check for fifteen thousand dollars in her lap. “As I’m sure you know, the specialty coffee business is booming. Pairing that with Lorelei’s amazing baked goods is a no-brainer.”
Or so she hoped. Ardent Springs wasn’t the hippest town on the planet, but they loved Lorelei’s desserts, and she had faith they’d be willing to pay for tasty coffees to go with their cookies.
“Is Lorelei going to share the start-up costs, since you’re willing to put her name on it?”
She hadn’t thought of that. “You mean, like a partnership?”
“Sure.” Caleb passed a BMW, adding, “If it’s going to be called Lulu’s Café, then Lulu should put up some money.”
The café wasn’t Lorelei’s idea, but they had talked about her running it. She’d only been selling the baked goods for six months, and though she never complained, Snow knew that Lorelei was only making enough to cover her ingredients and keep herself mobile and fed. Not that she needed a lot of money, living with Spencer over her grandmother’s garage and all.
“I don’t know,” Snow said, uncomfortable with the idea of mixing friendship and business. “I’ll have to think about it.”
“Do you have a coffee supplier in mind?” he asked. What was up with all the questions?
“No, Caleb, I don’t. I don’t have all the answers. I don’t know if I want Lorelei to put up money, and I don’t know where we’ll get the coffee.” She tightened her jaw and stared out the window at the passing landscape. “Forget I said anything.”
Caleb squeezed her knee. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I got carried away. This is your thing, and I’ll stay out of it.”
“I don’t want you to stay out of it,” she replied. “I want just to enjoy the fact that a painting I bought for three hundred dollars just sold for fifty times that. Can we focus on the victory for right now and think about all the minute details later?”
“Yes, ma’am.” A goofy grin split his face. “You have my support and my advice whenever you want it,” Caleb said, pride clear in his voice. “But as part of this team, I should have a hand in taste-testing the new menu, right? Whenever that comes around,” he hastened to add.
Ignoring the warning bells ringing in her mind, Snow kept her eyes on the highway ahead and said, “That probably won’t come up until after the first of the year. You plan to still be around then?”
Taking her chin between two fingers, Caleb turned her face until their eyes met. With a serious expression, he said, “The only way I wouldn’t be around is if you decide we should move. You thinking about moving?”
The relief was so strong that tears threatened at the back of her eyes. Happy tears.
“What about your parents and Baton Rouge?”
He returned his focus to the road. “There’s always phone calls and holiday visits.”
Christmas with the McGraws sounded as pleasant as having her appendix removed through her big toe. Snow would much rather see her own family during the holidays, and if her mother-in-law followed through on her threat, that’s exactly where Snow would be. Headed to Birmingham by herself.
At some point in the last two weeks, hope had taken root in Snow’s heart. Could there be a chance that Caleb learning the truth might not mean the end of them? Could he forgive her?
More importantly, was Snow willing to risk it?
“You’re awfully quiet over there,” Caleb said.
Snow took his hand, choosing to stay in the moment. “Just happy,” she said.
And tried to believe it.
Caleb spent the rest of the drive home thinking about this new development. Though Ardent Springs had been growing on him, he hadn’t actually made the decision that this was where he wanted to live. Not that he had any intention of leaving Snow, but he’d never pictured himself living in a small town either.
He had no family here. No history. They didn’t even have a real home. The apartment behind Hattie’s house was cozy enough, but not anywhere he’d want to live long term. Caleb was living like an interloper in Snow’s frilly little cottage as it was.
But living arrangements were easy enough to change. If he insisted they move back to Baton Rouge, everything they’d accomplished in the last two weeks would be for naught. And Caleb had to admit, being this far from his parents wasn’t such a bad thing. Other than his mother’s constant phone calls, which he’d been ignoring more and more, there was a certain freedom in being completely on his own.
Even when he’d lived in Nashville, trips home had been frequent. His ego fought against the admission, but Caleb had to face the truth. He’d never truly cut the cord that tied him to his overbearing and demanding parents. This was his opportunity to do that. To be his own man, not Jackson and Vivien McGraw’s trophy offspring.
In Ardent Springs, he could simply be Caleb—salesman, husband, and contributing member of a community that valued his input. To the residents of this small town, he was no different from and no better than they were. A new experience he found oddly refreshing and rewarding.
So the only real problem was the little apartment, and that could be fixed with the right agent. Luckily, one of Caleb’s soon-to-be-inherited clients was the best realtor in Ardent Springs. And that would be his first call come Monday morning.
He had to admit, all the pieces of creating his and Snow’s happily ever after were falling amazingly into place. As if all they had had to do was land in this little town and start all over again. He’d have preferred not to have endured the eighteen-month hiatus to get to this point, but Caleb wasn’t one to complain about a good thing.
However they reached this point, he was just happy they’d gotten there.
Chapter 21
“I think the counter color should be blue,” Carrie said, “to match the logo.”
Carrie was referring to the Lulu’s Home Bakery logo that Snow had created back in the summer. The word Lulu’s stood out in bold blue letters on a brown oval background.
“The whole thing can’t be blue,” Lorelei commented. “It would be too masculine and stand out like a turd in the punch bowl around all the girlie stuff in the store.”
“Isn’t standing out the idea?” Carrie rubbed her protruding belly while tilting her head to the side and sizing up the corner where the café would be. “Are you sure this is the right corner?”
Snow and Lorelei gave the pregnant woman a collective stare of disbelief. “Where else would we put it?” Snow asked. They’d sized up every corner in the place and determined that this particular area, visible from the entrance and the front desk, was the perfect spot.
“Maybe it should be up front.” She leaned forward and nearly fell off her stool.
At three weeks from her due date, Carrie was under strict orders to sit as much as possible. She was also supposed to have her feet up, but refused to follow that particular dir
ective, claiming she had too much to do to lounge around with her feet in the air. Because her boss, Lorelei’s father, Mike, was afraid she’d go into labor while in the office alone, he’d insisted she cut back to half days, which was why she ended up hanging around Snow’s Curiosity Shop on a Wednesday afternoon.
“Are you trying to give us a heart attack?” Lorelei asked, righting her friend. “The idea is to get customers to check out the whole store and not just come in for a treat and leave. That’s why we all agreed the café should be in the back.”
“Oh yeah,” Carrie said. “I forgot that part.”
“You’re forgetting a lot of things these days.”
In her defense, Carrie said, “You carry a human being around for nine months and see how well your memory does.”
Lorelei looked at Snow. “Did she just curse me?”
Snow rolled her eyes. “Can we focus here? I think blue might be a good idea, but a pretty blue and only on the bottom along the front of the display case and counter. The wall behind should be white, and we’ll put the logo really big in the center, with the coffee menu on one side and the dessert menu on the other.”
“Yes,” Lorelei said. “I can see that working.”
Snow smiled as the plans fell into place. Sharing the good news with Lorelei on Saturday afternoon had been the highlight of her year. Though reuniting with her husband stood to take the lead in that race, provided the two of them could overcome the speed bump that was Vivien McGraw.
“Are we ready to break ground on this café or what?” Caleb asked, sneaking up on Snow and wrapping his arms around her.
Speak of the devil. Snow leaned into her husband, letting the rush of having him close fill her senses. “We’ve decided on the location and color scheme so far.”
“You mean you don’t have blueprints and a construction crew lined up yet?” he asked, squeezing her tight.
Snow wiggled out of his grasp. “We have a rough drawing and a good start on the menu.”
He slid his hands into the pockets of his khakis. “I still get to be taste-tester, right?”
As his exit date was still in question, Snow said, “We’ll see. Now, what are you doing here in the middle of the afternoon?”
“Can’t I stop by to see my pretty fiancée?”
“You can, but I know you’re up to something, so spill.”
This time he couldn’t distract her with sex. She should have confronted him in public before now.
“You got me,” he said, taking her hand and twirling her around the floor. “I’m here to say hurry home this evening because you have a hot date.”
They didn’t make a habit of going out on weeknights. “On a Wednesday? I’ve got this café to plan and holiday displays and sales to figure out.”
“Business can wait. Tonight we celebrate your auction triumph.” Addressing the other two women, Caleb added, “Lorelei, you and Spencer will be joining us. And Carrie, if you’re up to it, Cooper has agreed to bring you.”
“I don’t think twirling around Brubaker’s is for me,” Carrie answered.
“Nope,” Caleb said. “Not Brubaker’s. The men know where we’re going, and you ladies will find out when we get there.”
“Look at the boys getting all take-charge-y,” Lorelei mumbled. “And what time should we obedient women be ready?”
“Seven thirty should do it.”
Carrie arched her back and said, “I hope Cooper has taken his vitamins because I can barely stay awake past nine these days. He’s going to be carrying me to the car before the night is over.”
Caleb grew serious. “This night is for Snow, and I promise, you ladies are going to want to be there.”
Lorelei and Carrie exchanged a look while Snow’s heart skipped a beat.
“You’ve reeled us in, hot stuff,” Lorelei said. “We’ll be there.”
He shouldn’t have given Snow such a hard time about being anxious the day of the auction, because tonight was Caleb’s turn to be a sweating mass of nerves. He’d set this up with the certainty that Snow would love it, but the closer they got to the Second Chance Saloon, the more he questioned his decision. She’d told him she didn’t sing anymore, but Snow had loved being on stage back when they were dating. The joy on her face translated to anyone watching. He wanted her to know that their marriage didn’t mean she had to give up on her dream.
“What are we doing here?” Snow asked as Caleb parked the Jeep in front of the country bar. The Second Chance was smaller than Brubaker’s, and it looked at least twenty years older.
“I told you,” he said, “you’ll find out soon enough.”
“If you wanted to dance, we could have gone to Brubaker’s. There was no reason to come to the edge of the county.”
Caleb took her face in his hands. “We’re not here to dance, Snow. You’re here to sing.”
Amber eyes went wide. “What?”
“I’ve set it up. Wes Tillman is playing tonight, and he’s agreed to let you sing with him.”
“Sing with Wes Tillman?” Snow shoved his hands away. “Are you crazy? What makes you think I’d want to do that? I told you, I don’t sing anymore.”
“Singing was your passion back in Nashville. Why would you give that up?”
She clung to her seat belt and stared out the windshield. “Take me home, Caleb.”
“I can’t do that.” He didn’t know why, but something told him to push her on this. “We’re going inside.”
“You might be going inside,” she argued, “but I’m staying right here.”
“Snow—”
“Better yet, I’ll walk home.” She was out of the Jeep before he could react.
Caleb unhooked his seat belt and bolted out after her. “Why won’t you do this?” he asked, his voice demanding an answer.
“I don’t want to.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“Well it’s the only answer you’re going to get.”
“Snow,” he said, spinning her by her shoulders. “I’ve seen you light up on stage. I know that you love it. Now tell me what’s really going on.”
A Dodge truck pulled into the lot and stopped next to them. “Is everything good out here?” Spencer asked through his open window.
Without taking his eyes off Snow, who was staring at the gravel, Caleb said, “We need a minute.”
“You got it,” Spencer said, driving across the lot to park closer to the entrance.
“I can’t believe you did this,” Snow said, her voice low. “I thought you’d changed. I thought you were listening to me, but nothing has changed.”
On the verge of panic, Caleb stepped close, but kept his hands to himself. “Darling, I heard you when you said you don’t sing anymore. I swear I did. But I was there. I saw what this meant to you in Nashville. The only thing that stopped you was us getting married, and I don’t want you to give up your dream because of me. I don’t want you to look back ten years from now and resent me because you gave this up.”
Snow met his eyes with fierce determination in her own. “I didn’t give up singing for you, Caleb. I never wanted to sing in the first place, okay? I just used my talent to get away from my hometown. To break away from the boring life available to me back there. But I never really intended to become famous or really do it for a living. That’s not me at all.”
As if the wind had been knocked out of him, Caleb backed up to lean on the back of the Jeep.
“I don’t need to chase that dream, Caleb,” she said, closing the distance between them. “All I need is you.”
He pulled her close, leaning his forehead against hers. “You have me, Snow. But this isn’t a major Nashville audition.” Caleb lifted his head. “This is you getting to spend a little time back in the spotlight doing something you love to do. That’s all. Let me give this to you.”
Placing a kiss on his lips, she said, “I’m sorry you thought you killed my dream.”
“I want you to be happy,” he said. And he’d never meant anything so much in his life.
Snow sighed. “I’m happy, I promise.”
Relieved to hear the words, he asked, “Are we going inside?”
She nodded. “We are.” Slipping her hand into his, she turned and stepped toward the bar. “Am I really about to sing with Wes Tillman?” she asked, a trace of awe in her voice.
“You are.” He gave her hand a squeeze for encouragement. “And you’re going to blow him away.”
“I don’t know. I’m a bit rusty.”
“Darling, even on your worst day, you’re still the best singer I’ve ever heard.”
She tucked in close against his side. “That’s complete BS, but I love you for saying it.”
“It’s the truth,” he said. “And I love you, too.”
They stopped and stared at each other, both realizing what the other had said. Caleb looked as if she’d smacked him with a two-by-four, and Snow felt the same.
“Did you just . . .” he started.
Snow’s chin bobbed up and down. “And you did, too.”
Lifting his wife off the ground, Caleb kissed her until she was dizzy and gasping for air.
“Are y’all done with your lovers’ spat?” Cooper asked from the front of the building. “We gots us a pregnant woman in need of the little girls’ room out here.”
“By all means,” Caleb yelled, dropping Snow back to her feet, “let the woman pee!”
Several minutes after entering the bar, Snow was still reeling. She’d said she loved him, and Caleb said it back. Without hesitation. And then he’d kissed her with unmitigated joy as if she’d given him the best present ever.
As Lorelei would say, shit just got real.
“I can’t believe how empty this place is,” Lorelei said. “Wes Tillman might not be ruling on the radio much anymore, but I’d expect a bigger crowd for a guy who’s won pretty much every award out there.”