Realization hit Honor’s expressive hazel eyes and she shot her husband some amused side-eye. “You didn’t.” Tension left her slim figure as she was let in on the joke.
“I was five,” Spence defended himself.
“I believed you,” Emma said, tossing her forearm over her eyes in a melodramatic imitation of being broken hearted.
“I still may need to kick your ass,” David said, humor lightening the dark chocolate of his eyes. He winked at Emma. “But only if you say so. After all, it was you he used in order to con you away from your cupcake.”
“Was it a good cupcake?” Honor asked.
“Well, not as good as yours or my mother’s,” Spence said. “But yes. It was a homemade dark chocolate cupcake with maraschino cherry inside with a fudge frosting.” Spence smacked his lips. “It was delicious.”
Honor nodded. “Mrs. Evans’s black forest cupcakes are delicious,” she agreed.
“You remember it in vivid detail twenty-some years later?”
“I can remember every dessert I’ve ever eaten,” Spence said with a one shoulder shrug. “Goes with being a first-born Spencer son and inheriting the Sugar Sight.”
“That is so sad, man.”
“Sadder than the time Andrews and you took a port call in Yokosuka?” Spence asked, his eyes lighting with mischief. “I love when you tell that story.”
“What happened?” Honor asked. “Spence hardly tells me any stories from the Navy,” she accused.
“Just because I’m Vietnamese doesn’t mean I’m an expert on all Asian cuisine,” David said. The waitress came by and they placed their orders.
“We haven’t forgotten,” Emma reminded him when it appeared he was not going to continue the story.
David rolled his eyes. “It’s not even that good a story. Pie Man’s build up is bigger than the story itself.”
“Pie man?” Emma asked. “Is that what they called you?”
“Well, that’s what Nuge here called me.”
“You got the best care packages, dude.”
“I did,” Spence agreed with a smug grin. “Now, tell the girls about Andrews.”
David sighed. “So, we pull into Yokosuka,” David started, taking a bit of bread and slathering it with honey butter. “And there was this one kid. Andrews. Small town, USA.”
“Because Harper’s Mill is so sophisticated,” Emma added with a roll of her eyes.
“Harper’s Mill is a major city compared to where I grew up,” David commented.
“Where did you grow up?” Emma asked. “I don’t think you’ve ever told me.”
“Some town in Ohio no one has ever heard of,” Spence answered. “Is there any more bread,” he asked as the waitress brought them a fresh loaf.
“Anyway, I was like, dude. You’re in Japan. You need to eat some local food. Nothing you’d have back in the States. He agrees and we go our separate ways. I still had an hour of duty left but Andrews was out for a bit.” David took a sip of his water, drawing out the story.
“He comes back and he’s all excited. ‘Nuge, guess what? I did just what you suggested.’”
Spence snorted with laughter and Emma and Honor exchanged a confused glance.
“So I was all ‘That’s great, Andrews. What did you have?’ And he’s all excited, right? He said to me, ‘Nuge, I had a corn dog!’”
Emma barked out a surprised laugh. “A corn dog?”
“I know, right?” David said. “Like for real, I didn’t even know you could get a corn dog in Yokosuka, Japan. So, I said, ‘A corndog? You could have that anywhere in the States!’”
“Are you okay,” Honor asked her husband who couldn’t seem to catch his breath.
David’s grin broadened. “Andrews then said to me, ‘No, no, Nuge. You don’t get it. I put soy sauce on it.”
Spence finally stopped fighting his laughter and collapsed on the table.
Emma blinked. “How brave of him,” she said with a giggle.
“Poor kid,” Honor agreed with a small laugh.
David shrugged. “He was okay. Just young and had never been anywhere before.” He kicked Spence under the table. “But for some reason, Pie Man likes it when I tell it.”
Spence took a bite of bread. “It’s the voices,” he explained. “It sounds just like him. Poor kid.”
“Did he ever send you a friend request?” David asked as the wait staff delivered the entrées.
“No,” Spence said as he cut into his New York strip steak to determine if it was done. “Looks perfect,” he said to the waitress. “What’s the kid up to these days?”
“He’s a chef in a Michelin Star restaurant,” David said, setting off another round of laughter.
~~~~~*
It was late as David approached Emma’s front door. The waning moon glowed in the brisk autumn air.
“I had a good time,” she said, burrowing deeply into her wool coat. “Thank you.”
David framed her face with his strong tanned hands. “I did as well,” he said. His kiss was gossamer light. Just a gentle friction in order to generate a burgeoning heat deep within her soul. The soft scent of cinnamon swirled around her and enveloped her in its thrall. She whimpered slightly as desire was lit and met its match.
The kiss broke and their eyes opened and met. Emma longed for a more intimate embrace. Craved it with every ounce of her body. She stood on her toes in order to wrap her arms around his neck and press him closer to her but David stopped her mid-embrace.
“I need to go,” he said, his eyes drifting shut as he nuzzled against her sensitive neck. She arched it to grant him more leeway, “You want to go back to the beginning and if we go any further tonight, we’ll set that plan back.”
Emma pouted, knowing he was right but that didn’t mean she had to like it. Just whose stupid idea had it been to reset their relationship back to the beginning, anyway?
Oh. Yeah. Her own stupid idea.
“Will I see you tomorrow?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” David said, his eyes still closed. With a groan, he tore himself away from the heat and temptation of her body. “I need to go,” he repeated. He spared her a single glance as he walked back down the driveway and hopped into his still running truck.
Emma let herself into the house and waved at him to let him know it was okay to leave. She leaned against her door feeling slightly disgruntled and incomplete.
Almost as if she’d won the battle but lost the war.
Chapter Four
The morning rush faded to a steady mid-morning flow as the diner bustled with customers.
“I said I wanted another cup of coffee, Emma,” Frank Ivy said from his stool at the counter. “The one you served me last time was cold.”
Emma painted on a smile. “Coming right up, Mr. Ivy,” she said. She grabbed the coffee pot and went to freshen his cup.
He held his hand over the still full cup. “I want a fresh pot,” he said. “That one is old.”
Emma mentally counted to ten.
“I’ll get right on that, Mr. Ivy,” she finally said. She rotated the coffee carafes and began the process for a fresh pot of coffee. She hated throwing perfectly good coffee away but as the adage went, the customer was always correct.
Especially when he wasn’t.
“And while you’re at it, I want you to know that last week my sandwich was soggy. And that sister of yours is not a very good waitress. She actually spilled my cup of coffee.”
“I’m sorry to hear that, Mr. Ivy,” she said, trying to look interested. Frank had been a diner regular since Svetlana, the Russian mail order bride he had married, had left him.
“You women everywhere,” Frank continued. “You think just because you’re a woman you can serve a man a soggy sandwich and cold coffee.”
The phone rang and Emma excused herself from Frank’s tantrum in order to answer it. She took the order down and called into the kitchen.
“Ames, can you run a delivery over to Roy’s,”
Emma asked. She glanced around the dining room. Except for Frank, the other customers had left. “Payroll needs to be called in and I have to look over the spreadsheets for our vendor. Costs have gone up. I want to see if this is a permanent thing in order to adjust pricing or if it was a temporary spike due to some other reason.”
Their cook Cicco took the ticket and eyed it up. “Give me a few minutes,” he said.
Amy’s eyes glowed an almost inhuman blue as the knowing took her. She looked up from rolling flat wear into napkins and grinned at her sister. “I think you should do it,” she said with a smug grin. Her eyebrows wagged in an obvious, lascivious manner.
Normally, Emma would have been amused at her sister’s antics. Withholding information from a fun vision was a normal part of growing up Evans.
But not today. Today it set a match to the fuse Frank Ivy had already set with his put downs and attitude.
Emma glared at her sister, envy burning in her soul. The emotion shocked her. Jealousy was a new emotion for her but living without her gift wore her thin.
“I don’t have time, Amy. Didn’t you hear what I said? I need to get payroll called in and look at my vendor reports. A lot goes into running a business. A lot more than just rolling napkins or pouring coffee.”
Emma was ashamed of the words the instant they came out of her mouth. “I didn’t mean that, Ames,” she said, collapsing into the seat next to her sister. She took her Amy’s hands in hers. “I am so torn up inside,” she began.
The bell over the door chimed happily as another customer walked into the diner. She stood to check on Frank and the new customer and saw Thorne walked.
“Oh, it’s just you,” she said. The fresh pot finished brewing. She took the handle and turned to find Frank tossing a few dollars on the counter and standing to leave.
“I thought you wanted a hot cup of coffee,” Emma said, looking at him in stunned disbelief.
Frank merely smirked at her and left the diner.
“Jerk,” she muttered.
Thorne turned over a mug and held it out to her. She rolled her eyes but poured it for him.
“Why are you here?” Emma demanded, hating her suddenly cranky mood. First Amy and now Thorne. Why was everyone bothering her when she had work to do?
“I work here, don’t I?” Thorne asked with a raised eyebrow. He blew on his cup and took a cautious sip. Emma gritted her teeth to keep from smacking her own brother. Of course he did. He helped Cicco in the kitchen, was in charge of repairs, and pretty much everything she didn’t do.
Emma shook her arms to expell the negative energy that consumed her. This wasn’t her, she reminded herself.
She sighed as honesty clicked in. She missed her visions. She was jealous Amy still had them. But most of all she missed having sex with David. Missed the toe-curling orgasms. Missed the way his soft lips would curl with smug satisfaction as they lay entwined on the bed.
She thought a moment and wondered if the decline in her visions correlated to the last time they’d made love but it felt like too much of an effort to think about it.
Seriously, what she wouldn’t do to grab that man, tie him to a bed, and have her wicked delicious way with him.
“I’m sorry, Thorne. I just need a shirt that says that so I can stop apologizing for the crap that comes out of my mouth.”
“Here’s the order,” Amy said, coming out of the kitchen carrying a basket of still-warm muffins and a carafe of coffee. “I’m Sorry, Emma. If you need me to do more around here, I will. I can.”
“No, you do a lot,” Emma said, touching her sister’s shoulder. “I’ve been in a crappy mood. I shouldn’t have taken it out on you.”
Amy and Thorne shared a glance and Amy winked at her brother. “You’re horny, sis,” Amy said. “Now, go deliver breakfast to our customers.”
Thorne’s ears turned a decided pink at Amy’s observation. “You go,” Thorne said to his sister. “It looks like you need a break anyway.”
“But. Reports.” She shook her head and decided maybe she did need a break. “Okay, Thorne. Since you’re here, can you compare expenses and find out why our profit is down this month?” Thorne opened his mouth to complain but shut it when Amy kicked him. Thorne muttered but as part owner, he knew some of the back-end responsibilities fell on his shoulders as well.
Emma looked at Amy. “I saw your eyes flare. I don’t know why but since you had some kind of premonition, I’ll run the delivery across town.”
“Carafe of coffee, juice, fresh muffins, and a pork roll sandwich with egg and cheese. With ketchup. And two streets over is hardly across town,” Amy reminded her.
Emma’s eyes narrowed as she picked up the box Amy packed for her. It wasn’t an unusual order, for sure. This was New Jersey and pork roll was very popular but only one customer consistently ordered it with ketchup. Blech.
“I know working at the diner isn’t your dream job, Ames,” Emma said. “If you tell us what you want, you know we’ll all pull together and help you.”
Amy looked away. “That’s just it. I really don’t know what I want to do. I feel left behind. Violet is off with Brick. You and Thorne have the diner. And I just feel—” She shrugged. “I feel at loose ends.”
“You can talk to us, you know that, right Ames?” Thorne asked. “I mean, I know in a family of five kids, it’s easy to get lost. But we do want you happy.”
Amy nodded. “I’ll just go back to rolling silverware,” she said, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb. “You go ahead and deliver that before the coffee gets cold.”
Emma nodded and hugged her sister before leaving.
She slid the box in the back seat of her car and headed over to the old vaudeville theater. “Gloria,” she called, entering the employee area of the theater.
“Emma! I’m so glad you’re here,” Gloria Hamilton called out as she approached her friend and fellow small-business owner. She grabbed both carafes of coffee and lead Emma into the auditorium.
Emma’s china blue eyes snapped up as she met the deep dark chocolate brown of her boyfriend’s. Her eyes narrowed as the implication of her sister’s vision hit her. “What are you doing here?” they both asked at the same time.
David smiled but the smile didn’t meet his eyes. “I quit my job with Homeland,” he said after a long moment. “I bought in with Gloria and we’re working on turning Ray’s into a full-time venue.”
“We just had dinner. Why didn’t you tell me,” Emma said as she set the basket of food down with a firm hand. Heat flushed her cheeks as she realized David had kept something from her. It was a little like that negative G-force from a rollercoaster. The trust she thought they’d had taken a dip.
David’s hand shot out for his pork roll sandwich and more clues fell into place.
“Isn’t it great, Emma?” Gloria said. “Richard and David have been working with the building code people to get us up to ADA standards. Those steps out front are not wheelchair accessible you know. Spence came down yesterday and the two boys worked on the electric. We’ll still need to hire an electrician because I want it all done correctly but I’ll feel much better knowing David will be overseeing the whole thing.” Gloria paused in her speech to grab a muffin.
“He’s a regular jack of all trades,” Emma said. Her words were mild but her eyes spoke volumes to David, who had at least had the sense to look embarrassed. It wasn’t the change just— she struggled to find the words. It was that he hadn’t told her.
“Oh, I love Honor’s muffins,” Gloria gushed. She inhaled the fresh scent of sugar and blueberries. “I swear that girl is an absolute treasure. I, for one, am so glad she’s back in town. Where she belongs. Never understood why Simon and Ruthanne were so against that match.”
Emma bit her lip, not wanting to comment on the past. Gloria blithely continued, discussing her plans. “David here is also an old movie aficionado, but I’m sure you knew that, didn’t you, dear? He’s discussed it with some film critics to do a theme
d movie week. You know, like mini festivals. Hitchcock, of course. Billy Wilder. Orson Welles. Maybe even a month of Charlie Chaplin movies if I can get them in. Halloween themed movies all throughout October. Maybe even a Horror Week.” Gloria shuddered in mock fear. “Not that I’d personally watch that but it will be so much fun to see the old girl alive and running, won’t it?”
“Film critics,” Emma asked, stunned. How long had all this been going on? “David?”
“Yes?” David looked at her, his dark eyes clear and guileless. He wiped his face free of any ketchup marks and reached for a paper cup and the coffee.
“Why didn’t you tell me what you were doing?” Her emotions pushed against her skin, sparkling and fizzing like a freshly poured cola.
Gloria realized tensions were growing and indicated to her husband to leave his post near the dress circle seating.
“I don’t know. I’ve been here for a few weeks. It didn’t really come up last night. I didn’t think you would care one way or another,” David said with mounting caution.
“You’re my boyfriend. Don’t you think I should have known all this?”
David shrugged. “This was all in the works before you decided to give us a second chance. Dinner last night was great and I enjoyed seeing Spence and Honor and talking to them.” He shrugged. “I didn’t even think to mention it. Before the gleaning weekend, you’d been been avoiding me for months. I mean, except for sex, when do you ever call me to see what I’m doing?”
Emma gasped at his sharp words but couldn’t actually deny the truth of them. “We agreed to start dating,” she reminded him. “We agreed to start our relationship out on a firm foundation, remember?”
“Yeah, we did. Two days ago,” David said, his shoulders firming with anger as he faced Emma’s ire. He hated being scolded like a child. It reminded him too much of his mother’s harsh criticism and his father’s disappointment.
“We went out on Saturday,” Emma pressed. “Why didn’t you tell me then?”
“It didn’t seem the right place or time,” David defended. “Honor and Pie Man joined us and. Well. It was easier to stick to light topics.”
Honeysuckle and Roses (Harper's Mill Book 5) Page 3