by Dana Moss
Taffy unlatched the door and walked into the small reception area. No one was behind the counter, but she heard voices in the back office.
“Ethan?”
He poked his head out of the office and smiled when he saw her.
“Hey, come to the back office here and meet my new employee.”
Taffy lifted the hinged part of the counter and joined him in the private back office. A girl was studying something on the computer. She stood up as soon as Taffy came in.
“Howdy,” she said with a smile and a wave.
“Taff, this is Melanie from Mendocino. Melanie, this is Taffy, my candy girl.” That joke was getting old, but he still seemed to love saying it.
Ethan slid his arm over Taffy’s shoulder while he beamed at his new park protégé. Petite and pert, Melanie had dark eyes rimmed with lashes that seemed too thick to be real, yet she was clearly not wearing any mascara. Her small frame was fit and lean and she rocked her crisp park uniform. She saluted Taffy.
“Great to meet ya.” Her tiny nose scrunched up attractively, and her natural yet perfectly pink lips stretched over clean, white teeth.
Taffy fought a wave of a feeling that felt like nausea but wasn’t.
“So… you’re just here for the summer?”
Melanie glanced at Ethan. “Uh, I’ll stay as long as I’m needed?”
Ethan released Taffy and picked up a piece of paper that looked like a resumé.
“Melanie’s had experience tending trails in the Redwoods National. Can you believe it?”
“What’s not to believe?” Taffy murmured.
“She’s a godsend this season.” Ethan patted her on the shoulder. Seeing his big, warm fingers cupping Melanie’s tiny uniformed shoulder made Taffy tense. She crossed her arms.
“So you’ve had experience doing heavy work like trail maintenance and log clearing?”
Ethan said, “She’s stronger than she looks.”
Taffy wondered how he knew that. She turned to him. “Will you have time to go home and shower before dinner tonight?”
Ethan cleared his throat. “Have I ever shown up with sawdust in my hair?”
“As a matter of fact—”
“Don’t worry, I’ll be ready on time. Melanie and I just have to go over the campground cleanup routine.”
“Right, Boss.” Melanie saluted Ethan as she smiled at him.
He said, “You don’t have to call me that.” But Taffy could tell by his lopsided grin that he didn’t really mind.
She cleared her throat. “Then I’ll pick you up before seven. I think we should take my car.”
“Are you embarrassed to pull up in the Blue Bear?”
“Only until you get the muffler fixed. Unless you’re embarrassed to pull up in the Bentley?” She couldn’t control the snobby lilt that snuck its way into her tone.
Ethan leaned down and pecked Taffy on the cheek. “Nothing much embarrasses me.”
“Sir,” Melanie said, pointing at the computer screen. “Are these the trails with the raised walkways? I’m just trying to get a feel for the layout of the park.” Ethan leaned over her chair to see what she was pointing at. Taffy didn’t like seeing them so close together.
“Yeah, you got it, the spring mud in this patch requires that we raise the trail here…” He pointed to something on the screen. “And here. But we should just drive out and have a look at it.”
“Sure!”
Taffy rolled her eyes at Melanie’s forced enthusiasm. “Guess I’ll leave you two to finish up work. Don’t be late, Ethan.”
He nodded and mumbled, “Uh, huh.”
As Taffy backed out of the office, she felt a tight churning in her gut.
Returning to her car, she sat there tapping her steering wheel.
Oh why didn’t she have her new phone yet? She desperately wanted to call up Maria and tell her what had just happened. Ethan would be working all summer with that girl? He seemed pretty happy about it too.
Taffy now recognized that slight feeling of nausea, which made her feel a little hot and dizzy too. She assessed her sickly situation: Park ranger’s green-eyed girlfriend is considering all manner of tactics to remove nauseating object of unwanted jealousy.
She knew she should go home and get ready for dinner, but she desperately needed some bestie advice from Maria first, so she took a detour to her house.
~
Rosa, Maria’s mom, was out in the garden planting some herbs. She had a hard time getting up from her knees to greet Taffy, but she was happy to see her.
“Now you tell me, Taffy, isn’t Maria taking her sweet time settling down with Finn?”
“They’ve only been dating a few months.”
“In my day, that’s all it took to know.”
Maria had seen Taffy pull up and stepped out from the house. “Aren’t we meeting at the restaurant?”
“I need to talk to you about something.”
“If it’s about Tyler Bradford, you know after we—”
Rosa interjected, laying her soil-dusted palm on Taffy’s arm. “She doesn’t want to talk to you about your work. She wants to talk to you about your boyfriend and why he hasn’t proposed yet.”
“I doubt that, Mama. Though I know that’s all you ever want to talk about.”
Rosa shook her head and clucked her tongue. “Will I ever live to see the day?”
“Mama, you’re not going to die tomorrow. Relax.”
“But the wedding. And honeymoon. And grandchildren. I don’t want to die before I see you married.”
“You see what I have to put up with?” Maria said to Taffy. “It’s not even safe to bring Finn around.”
“Tell him I’ll make his favorite meals. In my day, that was the way to keep a man around. Fill his stomach.”
“There are some new techniques since your day, Mama.” Maria snickered. Taffy giggled along with her.
Rosa grew serious. “There are no new techniques when it comes to love. You love, you trust, you commit. That’s it.” She waggled her finger at the both of them. “The other stuff you like to giggle about is acrobatics. Not that I’m knocking vigorous exercise.”
She got back down on her knees to finish planting, grunting with the effort.
“Let me know when you’re finished and I’ll put the tools away,” Maria said as she led Taffy into the bungalow Maria shared with her mother. Out of Rosa’s earshot, Maria said, “She insists on doing that gardening herself, but it’s getting harder and harder. Her health seems to have taken a turn for the worse. I’ve got her set up to see the doctor next week.”
“Nothing serious, I hope?”
“I just want the doctor to tell her not to push herself so hard. Maybe he can give her a new prescription for her arthritis pain.”
They bypassed the living room and went straight to the kitchen. Maria stirred a pot of sauce on the stove. The aroma wafting in the air was heavenly. “Your mom might be right about the food thing, at least this kind of food. I hope Ted’s bistro is as good as he says, or else I’ll be regretting I didn’t stay here for dinner. Finn will be too.”
“Finn’s not safe in a room with my mother. She’s always squeezing his biceps and feeling the thickness of his hair and marveling at his genetic traits. It’s downright embarrassing and will no doubt scare him off eventually.”
“Scared is not the way he looks around you. More like smitten.”
Taffy tore off a chunk of baguette sitting on the counter, dipped the end of it in the sauce, and then shoved it into her mouth. Then she opened the fridge, pulled out a jar of olives, and fingered out four or five.
Maria leaned against the counter and crossed her arms. “You’re stuffing your face. What’s wrong?”
Taffy stopped adding more to her mouth and chewed what was in there. She dropped down into a chair.
“I don’t know exactly. I went by to see Ethan, and I think I met my nemesis. He’s hired some bimbo from California.”
Maria poured Taff
y a glass of water and dropped in some ice. “Sounds dramatic. Why don’t you tell me the real story.”
“I’m serious. Her name is Melanie, and she’s from Mendocino.”
“I suppose it won’t be long before you’re calling her Medusa.”
“Exactly! Evil villain, turning men to stone…” Taffy held her head in her hands.
“And you’ll get out your mirror and cut her head off with your sword.” Maria nodded encouragingly, and Taffy felt all warm and fuzzy with the thought of taking vengeance, and then Maria frowned and shook her head. “Taff, snap out of it. This is Ethan we’re talking about. He is not a wayward lad.”
“But you didn’t see her,” Taffy lamented. “How pretty and cute she is, and so outdoorsy. It’s sickening.”
“This is your jealousy talking.”
“It is?”
“It’s not that big of a deal.”
“It isn’t?”
“Ethan only has eyes for you. So he had to hire help for the summer. So what? That’s normal for this time of year.”
“But why can’t it be an overweight guy with a harelip?”
Maria frowned. “Have you looked in the mirror lately? Do you have any idea what other women think when they look at you?”
Taffy sat up straighter. “Does someone want to cut my head off?”
“Remember it wasn’t that long ago you were jealous of me?”
“Yeah, but—”
“Jealousy is your problem, not the other person’s. Don’t let your insecurities ruin the good thing you have with Ethan.”
“I know, you’re right. You’re right.”
“You think I made a big stink when Finn hired his new paralegal?”
Taffy raised her eyebrow. “Mrs. Vaughn is fifty-five, married, and has a glass eye.”
“The point is, if she’d been someone like Melanie, do you think I’d kick up a fuss?”
“You might.”
Maria shook her head. “I wouldn’t. Because I trust Finn. Mama’s right about love needing to be held up by trust.”
“You’re not exactly rushing to commit, though, are you?”
Maria poured herself some water. “There’s no reason to rush.”
Taffy sighed. “I know you’re right. I’m being irrational. I knew you’d straighten me out.”
“And we’ve got to be at Ted’s in less than an hour, so I suggest you go home and change.”
Taffy stood up to go. “Were you going to tell me something about the Bradford case?”
“Oh, yeah… After Malcolm picked me up today, I had him drive by the gym, but Noel’s Lexus wasn’t out front. On a hunch, we cruised by the B and B that Cara had mentioned, the Blue Bird, and that’s where he was.”
“Did you go in?”
Maria shook her head. “Malcolm had to get back to the station, so I picked up my car there and then went back. By then Noel’s car was gone, and Mrs. Hawthorne, the B and B owner? She said Shannon, the other Mrs. Bradford, was out for a walk, so I left a note to say I’d stop by again in the morning. I know she’s going to be visited by the police department’s therapist, so I’ll go by after that.”
“I’d like to meet her.”
“There’s no pretense for me to bring you along this time, but I suppose if you were there and Shannon was okay with it, you could join us.”
“I could stop by and leave some tour brochures with Mrs. Hawthorne. She includes our Wafer Wonders on her cookie plates at tea time, and maybe some of her guests will be interested in visiting the factory where they’re made.”
“You’d better bring her some taffies, too.” Maria winked.
“Always. She prefers the lemon cream.”
Maria walked Taffy out to the yard, where Rosa was rising from her knees again and dusting off her soil-caked hands.
“When’s your Nana coming back to town?” Rosa said.
“This Saturday.”
“I’ll be glad to see my old friend. We should go dancing again.” Rosa and Nana had really cut a rug at Ted’s karaoke bar during Nana’s seventy-fifth birthday party. “And how’s that wild father of yours?”
“On tour with his band.”
“Your mother is irreplaceable, but I do hope he settles down with someone nice again.”
Maria rolled her eyes. “You just want to play matchmaker to everyone, don’t you?”
Rosa grabbed hold of each of their hands. “I’d be content with just you two. Now, Maria, help me drag these tired bones inside.”
Maria said to Taffy, “I always offer to help, but she always turns me down.”
“You have two black thumbs. You may be good at police work but plants wither at your touch.”
“Mama!”
Taffy laughed. “You can’t be good at everything.”
Taffy told Maria she’d see her later at dinner, and then she went home to make an extra effort for this double date.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Taffy hadn’t left herself much time to get ready for dinner, but she did the best spit-and-polish she could manage. She curled her hair, squished into tight jeans, layered on two coats of extra-lengthening mascara, and spritzed herself liberally with Ethan’s favorite vanilla-scented perfume. She coughed. She might have overdone it with the perfume.
On the way back to her car, she checked on the bird’s nest in the porch rafters. She could hear cheeping. Midnight prowled nearby. Thankfully, the birds were well out of reach of the cat. The mama and papa robins had to fly under the roof of the porch and then land sideways on a rafter and crawl into the nest tucked under the roof joists. Midnight watched attentively.
“Don’t you dare think about hurting those nestlings,” Taffy warned.
Midnight flicked his tail and padded on down the steps and over the grass.
Taffy slid into her Bentley and drove over to Ethan’s to pick him up. His truck wasn’t there.
He wasn’t there.
She frowned. Without a phone, she couldn’t call him to find out where he was. Her car clock said it was five minutes to seven. She waited a good ten minutes before backing out of his driveway.
Had he been held up at work? With that backwoods bimbo? Taffy bit her lip. What had come over her? Was she really so worked up about a new attractive co-worker? As Maria said, it was just work. Taffy shouldn’t be feeling so keyed up.
She drove down to the marina so she wouldn’t be too late meeting Finn and Maria.
Ted’s bistro was called the Crow’s Nest. The nautical theme was one step down from tasteful because he’d wanted it to be kitschy enough for tourists to write home about while at the same time having a knockout menu to counter the corny decor, which included a nine-foot Styrofoam lobster mounted on the wall, a rickety wooden crab dangling over the bar, and a googly-eyed geoduck, or giant clam, sitting on a shelf above the hall leading to the restrooms.
Maria and Finn were there when she arrived. They both stood up and said, at the same time, “Ethan called us.” When they stopped laughing at their stereo report, Maria explained, “He got held up at work. Something about his truck getting stuck in the mud.”
“Plucked from the same excuse generator as ‘the dog ate my homework.’”
“Taffy, remember what we talked about?”
“What? Whad-I miss?” said Finn, sitting back down. He had a square jaw, prominent brow, thick dark hair, wide green eyes, and a laughing mouth. He held Maria’s hand every chance he could. He’d moved to town half a year ago, taking over the law office on Main Street, and he’d fallen for Maria hard. And she for him, though she played it cooler, in part to keep her mother’s imagination in check. Taffy could tell Maria was building up her trust, not exactly in Finn, who seemed unimpeachably trustworthy, a rare trait in a lawyer and one that would guarantee his success, but in love and happiness. Her last target of infatuation had ended up being implicated in a crime, and so she was a tad gun shy. But Taffy could see through her tough, independent veneer. Maria was as devoted to Finn as he was to her.
It would just be a matter of time before they sealed the deal.
Ethan and Taffy, on the other hand… Maria seemed more sure about Ethan than Taffy was at the moment. Something strange had come over her since meeting Melanie this afternoon. She didn’t trust her.
Fifteen minutes later, Ethan strode in and headed right for their table.
“Sorry I’m late.” He looked directly at Taffy. “I couldn’t reach you because of your phone. I called Maria and Finn. Melanie and I went down to check out one of the trails, and my truck got stuck in a patch of mud. I’ll have to get a tow out of there tomorrow.”
The way he said “Melanie and I” made Taffy’s brain go all foggy. She hardly registered the other details. “So how did you get here?”
“Mel was kind enough to drop me off—”
He was calling her Mel now? Oh, how cute.
“What kind of car does she drive?”
“An older model Jeep Sahara. Why?”
So that’s what outdoorsy girls drove. “No reason.”
Taffy tugged on the napkin on her lap. Had it been paper, she might have ripped it, but Ted’s place had opted for cloth napkins—which was a classy contradiction to the plastic bibs she saw some people wearing as they tucked into crab legs and lobster tails. She twisted one corner of her napkin tightly around one finger.
Ethan sat down and took a long drink of water. “After you left, Mel told me she enjoyed meeting you. She said I was one lucky guy to have such a beautiful girlfriend.” Ethan leaned over and kissed her lightly on the lips. He might not have showered, but he had managed to brush his teeth or chew some gum, because he tasted minty.
“So who’s this Mel, or Melanie, person?” Finn said affably.
Maria looked at Taffy. Taffy looked at Ethan. And Ethan looked at Finn and said, “My new park assistant. A real find. Fresh from California.”
“Fresh and fabulous,” Taffy blurted.
Everyone looked at her. She held up her menu. “Ted’s menu. Doesn’t it look fresh? And fabulous?”
Taffy buried her nose in what she thought was her menu. Until she realized her breath was steaming up the wine list.