by Vella, Wendy
“Teddy Bear!” she cried as she reached the door. “I need to kiss him.”
A small, warm knot formed inside his chest as she put her little arms around his neck and kissed him. Was he now one of her people? The thought was a pretty special one.
“Bye, Gracie, you have fun with your uncle.”
When they were gone, he went to Mandy, who was now standing slightly back from the couple.
“Is this it?”
“I think so. She’s getting pains quite close, and from memory that plus the waters breaking means it’s a go.”
“Memory?”
And just like that, her face closed up on him.
“I was at a birth once.” She brushed off his question.
“Really? Here in Ryker, because you were young when you arrived here, right?”
“I was nine.” Her voice was cold and flat, but Ted also knew she wasn’t the type not to answer him. Evade, yes, outright ignore, no.
“Nine?” He whistled. “You take a wrong turn at hospital?”
“No.”
“What then?” Ted kept prodding.
“My dad’s neighbor. She had four kids and went into labor. I looked after them while she gave birth.”
“In the same room?”
“It happened fast. Now I have to go.”
Ted had a feeling there was way more to that story.
“We’re going to the hospital. I’ll call Aunt Jess from there,” Dylan said. “Thanks for calling me and Joe, Ted. And you too, Mandy.”
They walked them out to the car and watched them drive away, and Ted wondered what it would be like to have a child of his own. To watch his partner give birth to a baby they’d created. The thought was a disturbing one, as before today he’d never even considered it.
“I’m not hungry now, Ted, so I think I’ll just head back to Tea Total.”
“Sure.” Ted watched Mandy walk away from him and wondered why suddenly it felt like they were strangers again. It was as he reached Bas’s garage that he realized he’d never thanked her for telling him about Niki. The knowledge that it would give him another reason to see her shouldn’t have made him as happy as it did.
Chapter 15
Ted walked toward Joe and Bailey Trainer’s bar the next evening. Tonight was the final night of the Howling boys’ bachelor holiday.
They’d certainly packed plenty of adventure into their time here. Hiking, four-wheel driving, hunting; they hadn’t sat still for long.
Apple Sours, the bar was called. The initials A.S. were lit up with white bulbs as he approached the red brick front. Joe had set the place up to appeal to everyone. Tourists and locals flocked here year-round.
Entering, he heard the hum of voices and clink of glasses, the same background sounds that he heard in his restaurant at the lodge.
With polished wood floors and muted lighting, the bar area had plenty of seating or leaning spaces. One wall was brick, another held framed prints. Ted liked it here; it was relaxing and always a change from the lodge. There he was constantly on duty. Watching, checking things were running smoothly.
Approaching the bar, he acknowledged the man behind it.
“How’s Uncle Joe tonight?”
Dylan and Piper had given birth to a boy, who they called Blake. Gracie, he’d heard, had recovered from her disappointment that she didn’t get a sister, and was now totally in love with the baby.
“I’m good, bud. You?”
“Same. How’s Piper and Blake doing?”
“Home already, and happy with Aunt Jess and Bailey fussing over them. Dylan’s coming tonight at Piper’s insistence, as she said they both need a break from each other.”
“I can imagine her saying that, actually,” Ted said.
“You go and get into it, and I’ll join you soon.” Joe waved him to the table. “I’ll bring your drink.”
The bachelor party participants were standing around a table.
“Last night in a real town, boys?” Jack was saying as Ted joined them.
Ignoring the cursing, he looked around and noticed a sign. Shit, it was karaoke night.
“We’re not doing that, are we?” Ted nodded that way.
“Of course. You just need lubrication, Teddy Bear.” Jack slapped him on the back. “I can’t, of course, as I need to maintain a certain level of dignity in this place.”
“Why? Your brother owns it, not you. And why is it okay for me, the owner of one of the biggest tourist draws in town, to make a fool of himself?”
Jack flashed his teeth. “It’ll make you seem more real. You need to unbend sometimes.”
We have to take three sedatives to ask him for anything personal. Mandy’s words slipped into his head.
“Says who?”
“Most people.”
“I’m not uptight.”
“I’ve only known you a handful of days, bud, and can see you’re the meaning of the word,” Newman said with his easy smile.
Jack and Luke simply raised their beers in agreement.
“I’m busy.” Ted tried not to sound offended. “Really busy.” This, plus the stuff Mandy had said about him, was enough to give a man a complex.
“It’s about a balance, Ted.” Fin stood across from him. “All work and no play makes for a serious-minded, grumpy Teddy Bear. We like you, so we put up with that shit. Not sure about the ladies however.”
“I’m not dignifying that with an answer.”
“He gets the ladies,” Ethan said, “because one of his workers at the lodge told me that.”
“What the hell are you doing asking my staff about me?” He didn’t roar the words exactly, but it was a near thing.
“Just talking, bud. You know what that is, right? Conversating.”
“Is there a particular reason I’m the topic of conversation right now?” Ted felt cornered.
“We’re all damn near perfect, you’re not.” Jack shrugged. “We’re helping you come up to the mark.”
“You want to arm wrestle it into me?” Ted said with a sickly sweet smile.
“I don’t think so.” Jack smiled back. “But we could go for a nice long trail ride and talk about it like women do. You know, really get in touch with your feelings. Rory told me I needed to do that a bit more. This could be my chance.”
Everyone around the table howled with laughter; Ted refused to, so he hid his smile in the beer Joe had handed him, and raised a finger… the middle one.
“Don’t bite, bud, they back away then,” Buster said to him.
“Sure, like that actually works.”
Dylan Howard arrived and slapped him on the shoulder as if he knew what had been happening.
“Daddy!” Everyone raised a glass. “Get that man a beer, his life is about to end!”
“I love my babies,” Dylan said around a yawn.
“Sure you do. You got baby puke on your shirt, FYI,” Jake McBride said.
“Buster, you got a minute?” Ted said.
“Sure. What’s up?”
Ted motioned for the man to follow him outside. He then headed up the street to Timms’s Bookstore.
“Mandy wants to take over the lease on this place. They’d add more tables and cabinets, and turn that area into a reading nook, story-telling.” He pointed at the glass.
Buster pressed his face to the window. The shop had lights on, so he could see enough.
“She’s moving in upstairs, which has nothing to do with this, so I’m not sure why I’m telling you that,” Ted added.
“Because you care about her, so it’s natural you’ll worry too.”
“Sure, we all do.” Ted ran a finger around the collar of his shirt. Not sure why it was suddenly so tight when the top button was open.
“Right,” Buster drawled, looking back through the window. “Could work. But it would need someone to really think through the space and what should go where. I was talking to her about Tea Total, and she said she was keen to change things up. I hadn’t realized she’d de
cided on this place, though.”
“She talked to you about that?” Ted wasn’t sure why it pissed him off that Mandy had spoken to Buster.
“Sure, I’m an easy guy to talk to.”
To Ted, he looked like someone who’d made his career in the boxing ring, not the kitchens. Not as tall as the others, he had big shoulders and short-cropped hair. He was quiet, like Mandy, and a watcher too.
“Sure, chat chat chat, that’s you all right,” Ted said, looking in the window beside him.
“Mandy should run with this. It would be good for her. You going to help her do that, Ted?”
“Me? No.” He shook his head.
“Sure?”
“Yes.”
“Then why am I here?”
“Because according to Jake McBride, you’re the person who knows about this kind of stuff. You have more than one cafe and are successful.”
“Right. And setting up a lodge and what you’ve done in your past doesn’t count, right? Plus there’s Joe, who set up that bar we were just drinking in.”
“Something like that. You ready for a beer?”
“Born ready, Teddy, born ready. I’ll tell you what I’ll do. You flick me your email, and I’ll send you through some ideas that I think could work. I’ll take a walk through this place before I leave tomorrow.”
“Thanks, that’d be great, and I’ll pass them on to Mandy.”
“Sounds good. Can I offer you one more piece of advice, bud?”
“Shoot.”
“Don’t waste time. If you want her, then make sure she knows it.”
“What? No way? Mandy? We’re just friends.” The words toppled out one on top of the other. “Different people entirely.”
“Okay, I must have got the wrong read on that then.”
Buster gave him that small, lopsided smile, and then he disappeared back into A.S., leaving Ted wondering again who else had noticed his interest in Mandy.
The place had filled up, he noticed as he walked back to the boys. One of the tables held Mandy and her aunts. Miss Marla had her foot resting on a chair. Ted nodded, but didn’t look that way again.
He didn’t need his friends joining the dots and linking him and Mandy together. There would be hell to pay.
Ted definitely hadn’t noticed that Mandy wore a pale blue dress that was loose enough to fit him in there too. Her hair was scraped back into a knot at the back of her head.
The beer and snacks started flowing, and soon Ted was in conversation with Newman about his job. The man stepped in to help failing companies and did some troubleshooting.
“Write down what you want to sing.” Joe handed a piece of paper to Ted, who pushed it straight to Newman.
“You’re chickenshit, is what you are, Hosking.”
He didn’t disagree.
The singing ranged from good, to terrible, and then worse. When Bas from the garage got up with his wife and sang a love song, they all sighed. The man sang like an angel. When he finished there were whistles and calls for more. Blushing Bas promised to sing again later.
“Mandy and Miss Sarah to sing next!”
Ted turned as someone spoke and looked at Mandy, who was looking horrified. She said something to her aunt, who simply got to her feet and took her niece’s hand. Mandy shook her head. Miss Marla appeared to start crying.
“They’re good, those two.”
“What?” Ted looked at Jack.
“Miss Sarah wants Mandy to sing with her because usually she sings with Miss Marla, but due to her broken leg she’s opting out. Mandy’s not keen, as is evidenced by the dramatic head shaking, so Miss Marla has started crying.”
“That’s hardly fair,” Ted protested. “If she doesn’t want to do it, she shouldn’t be forced to.”
“It’s not like they’re asking her to drive a getaway car, Ted. Just sing a song. Lighten up, bud.”
“Mandy doesn’t like being the center of attention.”
“Well, maybe it’s past time she learned,” Jack added. “That girl’s been in hiding too long. I hadn’t realized it until Rory told me some stuff.”
“What stuff?”
He watched the debate raging between the Robbins sisters and Mandy. She was waving a hand about; Miss Marla had a napkin and was dabbing her eyes.
“Stuff, girl talk. I can’t share as it was told in confidence, and Rory would be pissed if she knew.”
“Chickenshit.”
“You know my girl, right?”
“You have a point,” Ted said, still watching Mandy’s table. Rory could be mean when she wanted to.
“Bingo,” Jack said when Mandy threw her hands in the air.
Mandy let Miss Sarah lead her up on the stage. She was dying on the inside, Ted could see that by the hand wringing and pale complexion, but she was up there.
He wanted to grab her and make a run for it. Which told him he was right in needing to distance himself from this woman.
He should date someone; that would get rid of this infatuation with Mandy. He knew it would pass. He just wished it would hurry up.
The music started, and Miss Sarah started to sing. Her voice was nice, kind of sweet, and then Mandy joined in, and he forgot to breathe. She was tentative at first, but there was no doubting she could carry a tune. He’d heard her the other day, but he hadn’t realized just quite how good she was.
“Holy crap.” Luke whistled.
The men all stopped talking and listened. She sang in a soft, gravelly voice that sounded like it should come from someone else.
“She’s hidden that talent well. I went to school with her and never once heard her sing,” Luke said.
“Her dad was an entertainer, I think,” Jack said.
“Yeah?” Luke whistled softly.
She lost some of her tension as the song grew; she even looked away from her aunt, and her eyes caught his. Ted felt the breath lodge in his throat.
“You all good there, bud? You look like someone stole your Velcro sneakers.”
“Sure,” he replied to Dylan. But he wasn’t. He was deeply disturbed by Mandy Robbins and the emergence of the woman she was becoming. She was smiling now, and it was so sweet it hurt something inside his chest. Ted made himself look away.
“Anyone need a drink?”
There was a chorus of agreement, so he headed to the bar while Mandy sang. The applause when she finished was loud, but he didn’t turn around or join in. In fact, he didn’t look at her again until he felt a trickle of awareness. Looking around the room, he saw her leaving A.S. Ted guessed not for long, as her aunts were still here.
When she hadn’t returned ten minutes later, unease travelled up his spine. Excusing himself, he followed. This was Ryker Falls, he reminded himself, but there were bad people everywhere if you looked hard enough.
The streetlights showed him she wasn’t out front, so he looked left and right. Still no sign of her.
Heading around the back of Tea Total, he found her beside her aunts’ car. As he approached, he heard her talking into her phone.
“Why are you calling me? Hello?”
“Mandy?” She turned so fast, she fell back against the car. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. I just needed to get something out of my car for Aunt Marla.”
“Who are you talking to?”
“No one.”
“Then why did you ask who was calling you?”
She looked down at the phone clenched in her hand, then back up at him.
“I had five missed calls in a matter of minutes. I was ringing the number back to see why.”
“Give me your phone.”
“I can handle this, Ted. Some kids obviously decided to prank me. It’s all part of being strong, right? Mentally tough.”
She was panicking, he could tell by the little rasps of breath she was exhaling between words.
“Let me see the number. We’ll give it to Dylan, and he can get it traced.”
“No. That’s ridiculous. This kind
of stuff happens all the time.”
She let out a shaky breath.
“Just when something happens to make me feel strong, something happens to remind me I’m not.”
“You don’t think things happen that scare me? That I still get shaken up from time to time?” Ted jammed his hands in the pockets of his chinos so he didn’t touch her. “We all have weak moments, Mandy. It’s how we deal with them and move on that makes us different.”
“What scares you?” Her eyes searched his face.
How I feel about you.
“Branch’s waistline.”
“Ha, but seriously.”
“We’re not talking about me, Mandy—”
“We’re always talking about me. I want you to answer my question.”
She never would have persisted like this a few weeks ago. Against his better judgement, Ted moved closer. Close enough so his body was touching hers.
“You scare me.” He cupped her cheek and kissed her.
They’d kissed once before at the lodge, and he remembered how he’d felt. As if someone had punched him hard in the gut. This was no different.
Her lips were sinfully soft, she smelled of something elusive, and her body pressed to his felt way better than it should.
“Why d-do I scare you?” She asked the question as he eased back slightly.
“You need to ask that after what we just shared? I want you, and I don’t know what to do about it.”
Chapter 16
Mandy had forgotten about the missed calls on her phone as soon as Ted kissed her. She wanted more, and what surprised her was that she was determined to get it.
She grabbed his shoulders, tugging him closer. Rising to her toes, this time she kissed him.
She’d never instigated a kiss before; in fact, she was a novice in that area after sharing only one with this man. He made her feel things inside. Things she’d often wondered about but never thought to experience.
A large hand on the back of her head tilted it slightly and then he took over. It wasn’t gentle anymore. This was desperation.
“Mandy,” he rasped against her lips. “This has to stop.”
“Why?”
“We’re different people. You’re innocent and sweet, and I’m not.”