Sandwich, With a Side of Romance

by Krista Phillips

  Not him of course.

  “Livy seems nice. When you gonna pop the question?”

  Maddie’s voice crammed sense back into his wayward mind. “There you go again, putting your nose where it doesn’t belong.”

  “You do realize you’re the biggest topic in the town gossip chain, right?”

  No, he didn’t. “How would you know that?”

  “I have ears. I don’t participate, because obviously I don’t care, but there’s Camp B and Camp E, and not much in between.”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” The woman was making no sense at all. People didn’t care about him and Livy. Their relationship was private.

  “Camp B are those who are betting on a breakup. No chance of the relationship surviving. Camp E are the ones who are convinced you’ll elope like your mom did. No one foresees a traditional wedding happening though. Except for Livy.”

  “And you found this out after being here, what, a little over a week?”

  “More like in the first forty-eight hours, give or take. You’re quite the popular man, Reuben. And for what it’s worth, Camp B is made up mostly of single women.”

  Interesting. “What camp are you in?”

  “Camp I, for sure.”

  “And that stands for?”

  “Camp I don’t give a rip as long as you pay me on time.”

  Her sentiment should please him. So why did he feel a twinge of disappointment? “You win. Camp I is definitely my favorite. And I’ll add a billion dollars to your next check if you’ll pick me up in the morning.”

  She nodded. “Sure. Who’s your doctor?”

  “Why do you need to know?”

  “Because I also need to schedule you an appointment in the morning.”

  Reuben sighed. Were all assistants so bossy?

  13

  Mom, stop hovering.” Reuben adjusted the ice pack on his ankle. The doctor had confirmed the sprain and told him to lay low for a few days. Before he could argue, Maddie had cleared his schedule. Having an assistant was proving to be quite nice.

  Mothers, on the other hand, were irritating.

  “I just want to make sure you have everything you need. Now, here are some books I got from the library, some Sports Illustrated magazines I wrestled away from Gary, and your favorite, chocolate brownies.”

  She pulled the Tupperware out of her bag to reveal the gooey chocolate squares. Never mind. Moms rocked. “Can I have one now?” He reached a hand toward the box only to have it swatted away.

  “No you don’t. Not ’til you eat your lunch.”

  Reuben started to protest, but then saw her fishing something else out of the bag of wonders. He leaned over to peek. “What’ve you got there?”

  She popped the lid on a compartmental container. “Just a little chicken and dumplings I had left over.”

  His favorite. He took it from his mom and sniffed. These were no leftovers. These were fresh-from-the-oven, melt-in-your-mouth, sent-down-from-heaven dumplings.

  “Have I ever mentioned that you’re the best mom in the world?”

  She kissed his forehead then handed him a fork. “You didn’t have to, sweetie. I can see it in your eyes. Now, eat up. Livy will be here soon.”

  The chunk of chicken he’d just started to swallow lodged in his throat. He coughed but it remained stubborn.

  “Oh dear, are you okay?” His mom grabbed him by the arm and sat him up, then proceeded to beat him on the back.

  The chicken shifted, and he swallowed. Air. Relief. “Sorry, swallowed wrong.”

  She put her hands to her hips and shook her head, her gray-streaked ponytail swinging like a bell. “Don’t ever scare me like that again!”

  He laid back onto the couch. “Livy’s on her way?”

  She busied herself with organizing the books and magazines on the coffee table. “Yes. I called her when I left. She wasn’t happy that she hadn’t heard from you. Said she didn’t even know what had happened or that you were hurt.”

  How could he be so stupid? Of course he should’ve called and let her know before she found out from someone else. She must be ticked. “I didn’t even think to call her. Maddie handled everything else and I just—”

  “Is everything okay with you two?”

  Reuben blinked. Where had that come from? “Maddie and me?”

  She arched her eyebrows and crossed her arms. “You and Livy.”

  Good question. “Yes, of course. Why do you ask?”

  She sat on the edge of the coffee table and leaned over to pat a hand on his knee. “It’s not a good sign when your girlfriend is the last to know you’re hurt.”

  “I told you, I just didn’t think about it. But you’re right. I should’ve had Maddie call her too.”

  From her sour expression, the answer didn’t please her. “Reuben, as your mother, you know I reserve the right to ask personal questions even though you won’t like them, right?”

  This couldn’t be good. His mother usually whipped out whatever question she wanted, no matter how personal, without batting an eye. For her to feel the need to use a preamble frightened him. Reuben nodded while unsure if he wanted to hear what came next.

  “Are you going to ask Livy to marry you or not?”

  First Maddie, then his mother. “With the new restaurants opening, we haven’t had time to talk about it. Maybe I just need to ask her and get it out of the way.”

  The moment he said the words, regret stabbed at him.

  A spark lit in his mother’s eye brighter than the fireworks that would light up the sky in just a few weeks. “A marriage is not something you ‘get out of the way,’ Reuben. It’s a lifelong commitment to—”

  He interrupted her before she could launch into her tirade on the aspects of a quality marriage. “I know, Mom. Just a poor choice of words.”

  Like she was one to talk nowadays anyway. She married Gary when Dad was barely cold in the ground.

  He didn’t blame her for that though. Gary was the one who’d manipulated her into it.

  His mom stood and set the tub of brownies on the coffee table. “I just want you to pray long and hard about it, dear. The way I see it, your words hit the bull’s-eye.”

  He narrowed his eyes. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Only that—”

  The opening of the front door interrupted. “Yoo-hoo!”

  The object of their conversation glided into the room, a pouty frown on her lips. “Oh Reuben, why didn’t you call me?”

  His neck flushed hot under his T-shirt collar. “It’s been a crazy morning. I’m sorry, Liv.”

  “I mean last night when it happened. You could’ve been hurt, Reub. Did someone really try to break in?”

  “I doubt it. Probably just a kid or something. All I saw was the shadow.” It sounded even more moronic now. He had been scared by a shadow in the dark. What kind of man was he anyway?

  All he’d thought about at the time was keeping Maddie safe.

  But he wasn’t about to relay that information to Livy.

  “Well, you should have at least called me so I could take you home.”

  “Maddie was there, so she dropped me off.”

  Livy’s mouth tightened and his mom took a step back. “I need to be going, Reuben. Call me if you need anything, all right?”

  “Yes, Mother. And thanks for the food.”

  After the door shut, Livy walked over to the couch and knelt beside him. Before he could utter a word, she took his face in her hands and pressed a kiss to his lips.

  He kissed her in return, as he had many times in the last ten years. No sparks flew, but that was normal. They’d known each other so long they were almost like a married couple.

  Almost.

  She broke the kiss then inched back. “Next time, call me. I know she’s your assistant, but I want to be the one who takes care of you.”

  “I will, I promise. It was just late and I didn’t want to wake—”

  Another k
iss broke off his words. When her hands began to trail down his shirt and her shiny blonde hair fell across his cheek, his body rebelled and responded to her touch. He broke the kiss. “Livy—”

  She leaned down to his ear and whispered. “We need to talk.”

  He gripped her shoulders and pushed her back an inch. “I already told you, Liv—”

  She rocked back on her knees. “Yes, I know. You’re busy. But we have time now. I need to know what you want, if there’s a future. I love you, Reub.”

  Guilt crushed him when a tear rolled down her cheek. “I know you do. And I love you too.”

  Livy used her fist to erase the errant tear, then leaned forward. Her emerald eyes shone bright. “Then let’s do it. Get married. We can elope, go to Vegas this weekend, I don’t really care. As long as I’m with you.”

  He leaned up on one elbow and caught her cheek in his other hand. “Okay. We’ll get married.”

  She squeezed him as if he were a bottle of ketchup down to its last drop. “I’ll book our tickets to Vegas tonight.”

  14

  Blood pounded in Reuben’s ear while he was smothered by his now fiancée.

  What had he just agreed to?

  The words had slipped out of his mouth, a product of his intense desire not to see the woman who’d been a part of his life for the past decade cry because of him. But he couldn’t just up and marry her. Not right now at least.

  He wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment type guy. And he definitely wasn’t a Vegas type guy.

  He had to fix this. Before plane tickets were booked.

  Should he tell her he’d marry her, but just not in Vegas? Plan a church wedding for a year from now? It’d give him time to get used to the idea anyway.

  Or he could call the whole thing off for a final time. Everything they’d been the last decade could stop this very moment. Livy would be mad. Hurt. Distraught.

  Reuben wasn’t sure what he would be. Relieved?

  But what if he regretted it the next day? What if he woke up and realized Livy was no longer his? What if the thought of never being with her hit him once she was gone for good?

  They’d taken breaks in the past. When he went to college. And after a few especially bad fights since then.

  This was different though. Defining.

  That she worked for him now only added to the mess. If they broke up, would she quit? And if she didn’t quit, could he handle working next to her?

  He blinked, the direction of his thoughts dawning on him like a blinding light. He couldn’t break up with her. What was he thinking? They were Reuben and Livy. A team. The invincibles. He remembered the summer they coined the term for themselves.

  The day before he had left to go to college Livy had cried herself dry in his arms on his parent’s front porch swing. “It’ll be okay, Liv. I’ll be back at Thanksgiving.”

  She sniffled. “But that’s months away. I’ll miss you.”

  He kissed her forehead. “We’ll be okay. You love me, and I love you. That’s all that matters. Four years, and I’ll be done with school. Then I’ll never have to leave you again.”

  She looked up at him with those dangerous green eyes. “You promise you won’t leave me for some gorgeous girl who flirts with you at college?”

  He shuddered at even the thought. “I promise. You and me, we’re a team. Reuben and Livy. Together, we’re invincible, love. No one can come between us.”

  She leaned up and pecked him on the lips. “I like that. We’re the invicibles.”

  Two months later, she’d called it off. Said she couldn’t wait around for him forever.

  But when he returned six years later, Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in hand, she’d been single. They’d naturally drifted back together. She’d joked that even though time had passed, they proved their relationship really was invincible.

  Livy was safe. Nice. Beautiful. The perfect wife for an upand-coming businessman. She’d been there for him after his dad died, and when Gary successfully brainwashed his mom.

  Sparks weren’t everything. Relationships needed to be more solid than that.

  He pulled back and looked her in the eyes. “You deserve better than Vegas, Livy.”

  “As long as I have you, that’s all that matters.”

  “No. We’ll do it right. A church wedding, big dress, nice flowers, the works.”

  She shook her head, her blonde hair swishing around her shoulders. “That’ll take too long. I want to marry you now. Plus that’s expensive. Neither of us can afford a big wedding, and my mom certainly can’t handle the expense.”

  “It doesn’t have to be extravagant. We’ll set a date for next summer, save our pennies between now and then. No more BMWs.”

  Her mouth pulled down into a familiar pout. “But that’s a year from now. I don’t want to wait that long.”

  He needed a distraction. “We can go ring shopping on Sunday.”

  Her perfectly red lips tipped into a smile. “Fine. But I think a winter wedding would be better. Maybe January.”

  “We’ll see. Are we on for Sunday though?”

  She leaned forward and pressed a quick kiss to his mouth. “You betcha. Now, I need to get back to the Emporium and get ready for the dinner rush.”

  Business. Back to a conversation he could handle. “How was lunch?”

  “Busy.”

  Good. They needed busy. The thought of finances made his head ache again. And now he had a wedding to pay for too. Livy’s mother lived on disability, so it’d be up to him.

  And knowing his designer-loving fiancée, he doubted the idea of a scaled-down wedding would last too long.

  “I’ll be back in tomorrow.”

  She kissed him one last time and left.

  Reuben reached for the Tupperware of brownies, hoping to get his mind off what just happened.

  Engaged. To Livy. It shouldn’t sound so odd. Everyone knew they’d eventually get married. It was assumed.

  He bit into one of his mother’s triple-fudge, Sandwich-famous brownies that normally melted in his mouth.

  Today, given the way his stomach revolted, it might as well be liverwurst.

  Maddie glanced at Reuben’s laptop screen. Finally, five o’clock.

  She’d felt odd taking over his computer, but it was the stubborn man’s own fault. If he’d gotten her desk earlier and brought in his old computer, she wouldn’t have to borrow his.

  Closing the top of the computer, she glanced at the closed door, then pulled out her cell phone and dialed Mrs. Blakely’s number. She hadn’t talked to Kyle in almost a week, and it was killing her.

  The older woman answered. “Blakely residence.”

  “It’s Maddie. Kyle around?”

  A moment of silence was followed by a sigh. “Hold on, I’ll get him.”

  At least she didn’t try to cut her out. That was something. “Thanks.”

  She heard a muffled Mrs. Blakely yell for Kyle, then a hushed dialogue she couldn’t make out. A minute later, a familiar voice drifted through the line. “Hey, sis.”

  “Hey. How’s everything?”

  “Fine I guess.” His voice sounded like a shrug.

  “You like being out of school?”

  “I dunno. I’m just stuck in this dumb house. I wanna go skateboarding but the Sergeant won’t let me.”

  Maddie winced at the nickname she’d coined for the woman after her first visit to Kyle’s foster home. Unfortunately, it fit well the woman who liked to manage her household with direct commands and required yes ma’am’s in return. “She can’t hear you, can she?”

  “I’m not stupid. She went outside to prune her precious garden.”

  The woman tried to grow vegetables every year, but had a red thumb. Her rows of peas produced a pod or two if she was lucky. “Still, it’s not nice to call names.”

  “Whatever. You’re the one who started it.”

  Mothering your little brother wasn’t the easiest thing in the world. Still, she determined t
o do her best. “Everyone makes mistakes, even me, little squirt.”

  “Now who’s calling someone names?”

  Maddie smiled. “That’s different. I said it with love.”

  “I did too. I love calling her Sergeant.”

  Time to change the subject on what would prove to be a losing battle. “Any big plans for the summer?”

  “Watch TV. Eat. I dunno.”

  Typical Kyle. “I should see if you could come visit me sometime.”

  “Would they let me do that?”

  The thought had been a spur of the moment one, one she should have kept to herself until she talked to Corina. “Maybe. Let me ask. But this is between you and me, okay?”

  “Sarge won’t care. She’ll be happy to be rid of me.”

  The drillmaster might care more than Kyle realized. “Just keep it quiet and don’t get your hopes too high, okay?”

  “Fine. Hey, I gotta go. Sid and I were gonna play some Xbox when he got home, and he just walked in the door.”

  Sid, Mr. Blakely, was the one thing that made having her brother away from her tolerable. He played video games with Kyle like an overgrown kid himself, and was the only person who could get Sarge to loosen the reigns a hair.

  “Okay, I’ll talk to you next week, ’kay?”

  “Sure. Bye.”

  She listened to the dial tone for a second before hanging up and blinking away tears that threatened to fall.

  Kyle was the only thing she had left. She refused to lose him.

  While she’d been probably the worst role model possible the last few years, she had changed. God had gotten hold of her, and now everything in her wanted to make up for all she’d put him through.

  A knock on the door brought her to her feet. She rubbed the bottom of her eyes to make sure they were clear. “Come in.”

  Tilly poked her head in. “Hey, do you know if Reuben was coming in at all tonight?”

  “No, he can’t be on his foot for a few days. Do you need something?”