The Tea Shop on Lavender Lane

by Sheila Roberts

  Bill Will was there playing pool with Ashley Armstrong, and he called out a friendly greeting. So did a couple of the guys who worked in the warehouse.

  That meant Luke would know on Tuesday that she’d been in here, hanging out with Todd. She reminded herself that it didn’t matter what Luke knew because now she and Luke were just friends.

  Todd was behind the bar, helping Pete distribute beer to his thirsty patrons. At the sight of her, though, he abandoned his post and walked over to meet her. “Well, well, what have we here? And where’s the mammoth?”

  She frowned in disapproval. “Luke is probably with his family.”

  Todd smiled. “And that means you’re all alone on a Saturday night? What a waste.”

  “I thought so,” she said. “That’s why I’m here.”

  “Come on over to the bar. I’ll get you a Coke. No rum,” he added. “We can save that for later.”

  Cocky devil, thinking there’d be a later. Of course, he was right. There would. She followed him to the bar and settled on a stool next to a grizzled older man in coveralls and a hat that said John Deere.

  He smiled at her. “Well, hello there.”

  “Don’t be hitting on my girl, Henry,” Todd said from the other side of the bar.

  Henry pouted. “Are you his girl?”

  “He’s working on it,” Cecily said.

  “Hey, until somebody’s engaged, she’s fair game.” Henry gave Cecily a wink. “These young guys, they don’t know how to treat a woman.”

  “So, you old guys who’ve been divorced twice have it all figured out, huh, Henry?” Todd teased as he slid a glass of pop in front of Cecily.

  “Aw, I just didn’t pick too good. It’s hard getting it right,” Henry explained to Cecily

  She couldn’t argue with that.

  “Want to have another go at the pinball machine?” Todd suggested.

  “Sure,” she said, and they left Henry to contemplate the mysteries of love.

  “I take it he’s one of your regulars,” Cecily said as they walked away.

  “Yep. We got Henry through his divorce a little while ago. Now he’s got his eye on Olivia over at Icicle Creek Lodge.”

  “Olivia?” Cecily said in shock. Surely Olivia could do better than Henry.

  Todd nodded. “He’s been going over for their Sunday brunches for the last couple of months. He wants a woman who can cook.”

  “That’s romantic,” Cecily said in disgust. “And what does Henry bring to the table—so to speak?”

  “A lot of money. He owns a packing plant over in Wenatchee. Plus, he’s got a stock portfolio I’d kill for.”

  Cecily looked across the room to where Henry sat nursing a beer and tried to picture him as a successful businessman. “Seriously?”

  “Not every rich man wears a suit and drives a Porsche. Didn’t you ever read The Millionaire Next Door?”

  Cecily shook her head.

  “There are a lot of guys out there like Henry who’ve worked hard and been smart with their money.”

  “If not with their women,” Cecily couldn’t resist adding.

  “Figuring out women is harder than figuring out money,” Todd said, making her wonder what exactly had happened to turn him into such a cynic.

  “Okay,” he said, motioning to the pinball machine. “Let’s see if last time was a fluke.”

  She proved that it wasn’t, and, as with her previous visit to The Man Cave, she drew half the men in the place over to watch her.

  “Man, you sure can work that thing,” Bill Will said when she finally stepped away.

  “Where did you learn to do that?” Todd asked.

  “A retro place in L.A. that I used to go to with my sister.” She’d also gone there with fiancé Number One. She didn’t bother to mention that.

  “Okay, now I get to show off,” Todd said and led her over to the dartboard.

  There she was, just as pathetic as she’d always been.

  “Let’s work on that toss.” He stepped up behind her, and she was suddenly very aware of all that hard male muscle tucked up against her. He took her hand, but instead of helping her throw the dart, he stood there, his mouth close to her ear. “You smell good,” he told her, his breath tickling her ear.

  You feel good. “I thought you were going to show me how to throw.”

  “Yeah, but I like doing this better,” he said and nipped playfully at her ear.

  Zing!

  “Let’s get out of here,” he whispered.

  Great idea.

  They were about to leave when the bar had a sudden influx of patrons—Joe Coyote and his pals. “I need to help serve these guys,” Todd said. “You mind hanging around for a while?”

  No, she didn’t. Until she saw Luke trooping in at the tail end of the group. She felt awkward and embarrassed, as if she’d been caught doing something naughty.

  There were six other men besides him accompanying Joe, and it wasn’t hard to guess why they were there.

  Sure enough, Jay Jorgenson, who managed the Safeway produce department, slapped Joe on the back and said to Todd, “Give our boy a Heineken and a shot of sympathy. This is his last weekend as a free man.”

  “Getting hitched, huh?” Todd said as he complied. “Tough luck, dude.”

  Tough luck? Cecily supposed Todd was joking around, but maybe he really felt that way about marriage. She could see how broken up Joe was about losing his so-called freedom. If his smile got any bigger, it would split his face in two.

  Luke was at the bar now, along with the other members of the bachelor party. He took a seat next to Cecily and said a casual hello, but from the squinty-eyed look he gave Todd and the way he practically strangled his beer bottle, she could tell he wasn’t feeling casual.

  He turned around and leaned his elbows on the bar, watching the pool game in progress. “So, when we were hiking, you already had plans for tonight.”

  “No.” She didn’t have to explain herself to Luke since they were nothing more than friends, but she explained anyway. “This came up later.”

  He slugged down some beer, digesting that information. But the expression on his face told her he found it difficult to digest.

  Meanwhile Gary Gruber, one of the members of the bachelor party, was filling Todd in on the festivities that lay ahead. “We’re hitting Zelda’s after this. Gonna give the boy one last look at all the action he’ll miss once he’s hog-tied. Then we’re going back to Willis’s place. He’s got a keg of Hale’s Ale waiting for us.” He lowered his voice. “And I got a surprise coming, the kind a guy can’t have once he’s married, if you get my drift.”

  Where he’d imported that kind of surprise Cecily couldn’t imagine. Certainly not anywhere in town. Next to her, Luke scowled, a sure sign he’d be leaving the party early.

  “Another reason to stay single,” Todd cracked.

  Now Luke wasn’t the only one frowning. Really?

  Cecily could feel Luke’s disapproval swinging in her direction. “Do you know what you’re doing?” he asked.

  No. “Yes,” she said stubbornly.

  The bachelor party got louder after a couple of drinks, making Henry and the older patrons glare, so Todd sent the boys on to their next destination. They left, still teasing Joe as they went.

  “That poor guy is in for a long night,” Todd predicted as they filed out the door.

  “But it’s his last weekend of freedom,” Cecily reminded him, only half joking.

  “Guy humor,” Todd informed her. “You’ve got to say that when someone’s getting married.”

  Luke hadn’t indulged in guy humor. She nodded slowly. “I…see.”

  “No, you don’t,” Todd said with a grin. “Come on. Let’s go.”

  And so
Cecily took another ride on Todd’s motorcycle, but this time he didn’t take her to his house. Instead they wound up at The Red Barn, a popular honky-tonk just outside town. The parking lot was packed, and the old red building practically throbbed with the beat of the music playing inside. Whoever the band was, they were loud.

  “Bet you thought I was going to take you back to my place, didn’t you?” Todd said as they removed their helmets.

  “Actually, I did.”

  “I did think about it, but I don’t want to be accused of trying to cheap out on a date.”

  “Is that what this is, a date?”

  He leaned in close. “It’s whatever you want to call it. And the night’s not over yet. You might still end up at my place.”

  The thought gave her a little shiver. Things with Todd could start moving at warp speed. Was she ready for that?

  Of course she was. She was tired of her go-nowhere love life.

  The Red Barn was an old converted barn, and the inside was decorated appropriately, the lobby occupied by a life-size plastic Jersey cow. Framed photos of barns around eastern Washington hung on the walls. The dance floor was huge, but it was crowded with patrons from neighboring towns like Peshastin and Cashmere, a veritable beehive of dancers and drinkers. Nearly every table between the bar and the dance floor was occupied, if not by people then by the drinks they’d left behind while they hit the dance floor, and there wasn’t a seat to be had at the bar. The old hardwood floor was a swirl of denim skirts and jeans as dancers whirled around the floor in a cowboy cha-cha.

  Todd attracted other women’s attention like a magnet attracted nails, and Cecily was very aware of the glances, the winks and the outright drooling going on as they found their way to the last vacant table in a far corner. Hardly surprising, considering those dark brown eyes, the let me kiss you senseless lips and the strong jaw. And then there was that nice set of pecs and the lean torso. He was a fine specimen, all right.

  On the outside. She hoped he proved to be as perfect on the inside.

  So far, so good. If he was at all aware of the female attention he was garnering, he didn’t let on. Instead he focused solely on her as they settled at their table.

  “So, how about I go order us a couple of Cokes?”

  She cocked her head. “No alcohol?”

  “Alcohol makes for sloppy dancing,” he said. He ran a hand along her arm. “I did promise to give you a tango lesson a long time ago. Remember?”

  She remembered. She’d been on the beat-up leather couch in his shadowy back room, recovering from an encounter with an angry dog, and Todd had been close enough to put her on sensory overload. He seemed to have a gift for doing that.

  “This isn’t exactly a ballroom,” she said, looking at all the couples now country two-stepping around the old wooden floor.

  “No? Wait and see,” he said. “Be right back.”

  She watched as he threaded his way between tables. Women’s heads swiveled as he passed, and their men frowned. Cecily realized she was frowning, too. Being with Todd Black would require constant vigilance because there’d always be other women waiting to take him away.

  Do you know what you’re doing? she asked herself, echoing Luke’s question. Yes, she answered, this time I do.

  Her pal Juliet Gerard was out on the floor with her husband, Neil. Once the dance ended and Juliet caught sight of her, she came over with Neil in tow. “You should’ve told me you were coming here tonight,” Juliet scolded. “You could have come with us.”

  “I didn’t know myself until a few minutes ago.”

  Just then Todd returned with their drinks and Juliet’s eyes got big. “Oh.”

  “Hey, Todd,” Neil said, shaking hands with him. “How’s it going?”

  “Not bad,” Todd said.

  “You guys wanna join us over at our table?” Neil motioned to a table where Chita, from Cecily’s book club, was sitting down with her new husband, Ken Wolfe. “We can always drag up a couple more chairs.”

  “We’re good here,” Todd said, “but thanks.”

  Neil shrugged. “Suit yourself. See you at practice next week.”

  “Practice?” Cecily asked as the two made their way back to their table.

  “He’s on my softball team,” Todd explained. “The Falls Neanderthals.”

  “Catchy. Do you all wear caveman jerseys?”

  “Now, there’s an idea for next year,” he said and guzzled down some of his pop. A new song was starting, and he set the glass down. “Come on. Let’s two-step.”

  Once on the dance floor, he showed her that he knew what he was doing, leading her through several fancy moves.

  “Okay, that was impressive,” she said as they walked off the floor.

  “I can be impressive when I want to be,” he said.

  He could be impressive without even trying. Cecily was well aware of two women at a nearby table eyeing him as though he were the last piece of chocolate on the planet. “How is it you’re still single?” she asked.

  “I could ask you the same thing,” he said.

  “I asked you first.”

  He took a drink of his pop. “I’m cautious.”

  “And why is that?”

  “Don’t want to get burned.”

  “Have you been burned?”

  “Once or twice. Okay, now it’s your turn.”

  “Wait a minute,” she protested. “You didn’t go into very much detail.”

  He leaned an arm on the table and regarded her. “Why do women always want details about stuff like this? It’s kind of ghoulish, doncha think?”

  “No.”

  “Well, then let’s go into detail about your past. How is it that a beautiful, smart woman like you is still single?”

  “Bad choices.”

  His brows drew together. “Didn’t you say you used to own a dating service?”

  She should never have started this conversation. “I guess it was easier to match up other people than myself.”

  “Because?”

  “Because?” she repeated. No one had ever asked her that before.

  “Yeah, because. Why do you think that was?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. She was like the matchmaking equivalent of a doctor who smoked—knew better but still did dumb stuff anyway. She hoped being with Todd wouldn’t turn out to be yet another dumb move.

  “So, what, were you out there searching for Mr. Perfect?”

  “There’s no such thing,” she scoffed. She’d seen enough to know that.

  “You’ve got that right. There’s not,” he agreed. “Or a Ms. Perfect, either. Just the one person who’s perfect for you.”

  It was precisely what she’d thought herself, but it seemed like such a non-Todd thing to say. She could feel her mouth dropping.

  “Hey, don’t look so surprised. I’m not a total Neanderthal.” The band had switched to Gloriana’s “Good Night,” and Todd nodded at the rapidly filling dance floor. “Come on. It’s time you learned how to tango.”

  “To this?”

  “Trust me,” he said and held out his hand.

  She didn’t trust him at all. Didn’t trust herself, either. What was she doing? She took his hand and took a jolt to the heart.

  Out on the floor he pulled her close so they were chest to chest. She was going to ignite here on the dance floor. “Start on your right foot,” he said, his breath tickling her ear as he started moving her backward. “Two slow steps. One more and then side and touch,” he finished, guiding her through the moves.

  She’d done some dancing, so after a couple of missteps it wasn’t hard to catch on to what he was doing. Then, just when she’d mastered the first basic step, he brought out a new one, moving back and pulling her against him, reminding
her of his muscle and male strength. All her female parts did a happy dance.

  “Not bad,” he whispered and kissed her ear.

  Not bad at all, she thought as he guided her backward again, weaving them through the swaying throng. No one else was doing a ballroom dance, but that didn’t faze him. Todd Black obviously liked to go his own way.

  And he did it beautifully. With each step she was increasingly aware of his hand on the small of her back, the closeness of his body, the beat of the music like a shared heartbeat between them as they moved in unison. By the time the song was over, her whole body was humming.

  And he was still holding her. “You’re good on the dance floor, Cecily Sterling,” he murmured. He nibbled her neck before turning her loose, and she wandered back to the table, feeling completely off-balance.

  She was even more off-balance later that night when he took her to his house and proceeded to show her some more moves, this time on the couch. Her body was having so much fun, it refused to listen to her brain as Todd’s seduction special moved her down the track toward utter conquest. Finally, her sensible self pulled the brakes.

  She squirmed away before every stitch of clothing she owned could go missing.

  “Hey, now,” he murmured, “that’s not very friendly.”

  “That’s about as friendly as I want to get until I’ve figured out what this is.” She still wasn’t sure if he was serious or simply looking for sex.

  “How about instead of analyzing this to death, we enjoy the ride,” he said, closing the distance between them. He pushed aside her hair and nuzzled her neck.

  She shut her eyes and went surfing on the next wave of pleasure. Mouth dry, she swallowed, then said, “We should talk about some things.”

  “How about you talk and I listen,” he said, as his lips began moving south.

  “How do you feel about kids?”

  Todd’s journey stopped. “Kids?”