by Gail Sattler
Sarah turned to see none other than the object of their conversation walking in behind Crystal Evans, Stan’s cousin.
Hayden leaned closer. “You know I dated her a few times, don’t you? It didn’t work out, but I heard that Crystal’s had her eye on Josh since Stan and Amber’s wedding. This could be interesting.”
Thinking back to the wedding, Sarah rolled her eyes. She’d been Amber’s maid of honor, Hayden had been Stan’s best man, and the day had been a circus.
“I remember that hectic day,” Sarah told him. “Since Amber doesn’t have any family, we did all the planning, just the two of us. Three weeks really wasn’t enough. I hardly remember much of my best friend’s wedding. The whole day passed in a blur.”
In the end everything had come together, but barely. The only time of the whole day she didn’t have something pressuring her or people looking at her had been after the ceremony when she walked down the aisle on Kathy’s lawn behind the happy bride and groom, hanging onto Hayden’s arm.
Instead of a caterer, the reception meal had been a potluck, which had meant a lot of extra work for everyone, but they couldn’t find a caterer on short notice. Instead of hiring a photographer, Bailey McCullough had taken the pictures as a wedding gift. Likewise, Helen had used everyone she could spare at her bakery and put together a spectacular wedding cake as a gift. It had almost been a miracle that Zoe, Bloomfield’s best seamstress, had managed to make a dress for Amber. Sarah and one bridesmaid had bought dresses, then Zoe had embellished them because there simply wasn’t time to decide on designs and make them from scratch. Everything had been thrown together at the last minute. Only by God’s grace had everything settled down and the details merged to become a beautiful wedding in the end.
Sarah looked up at Hayden and opened her mouth, about to go on with a story of a little disaster behind the scenes that no one had seen, but she stopped short.
Hayden had gone through the worst disaster a wedding could possibly have. And it hadn’t had a happy ending.
She didn’t know him well, but she’d never forget the day she heard that he’d caught his wife in action with another man—a man who was supposed to be his friend—less than six months after their stately wedding. Then as fast as legally possible, Marissa had served him with divorce papers and had left town before the ink was even dry.
Sarah looked down at the menu, then back up at Hayden. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be talking about stuff like this.”
He gave her the saddest smile she’d ever seen. “It’s okay. It took a while, but I’m over it and moving on. You’re right about all the stuff to do at Stan and Amber’s wedding. I had no idea there were so many details to think about. When I got married, Marissa’s mother did everything. All I had to do was go to the front and stand there.” He lowered his head, making direct eye contact with Sarah. “When I get married again, I’ll do it right. And I am looking, Sarah.”
Sarah gulped at his unasked question. She probably should also be looking to get married; after all, she was nearly thirty years old. But she wasn’t looking.
“Were you talking to Stan about the wonders of marriage?” She didn’t doubt that he had. Earlier that day, she’d received a call from Amber, spouting the same thing.
Hayden grinned, and his eyes lost focus. “Yeah. We all thought those two were bad before, but now they’re even worse. They’re already finishing each other’s sentences, then Stan laughs, then Amber whacks him with her purse or whatever she’s got in her hands, then they both laugh some more. After that, they might as well be the only two people in the room.” He sighed, not looking annoyed, but instead like he wanted exactly the same for himself.
“Hey, you two, mind if we join you?” Josh slid out a chair, seating Crystal beside Sarah, and he lowered himself into the chair beside Hayden.
“Not at all, have a seat,” Sarah grumbled. Hayden, being an accountant, always thought ahead. He’d made a reservation. For two.
Crystal smiled brightly, her blue eyes shining, making such a display of her perfect white teeth that Sarah wondered if she’d ever been in a toothpaste commercial. “This is so great.” Crystal clapped her hands together and bounced in the chair. “They said the wait would be half an hour, and I’m, like, just so absolutely starving. Josh said you wouldn’t mind and that we’d have fun.” She giggled and pressed one finger to an item on the menu. “I already know what I want.”
Crystal lowered her head, batted her long eyelashes, and stared wide-eyed at Josh and Hayden. She raised her palm in the air, then turned her hand and pressed her fingertips to her throat, drawing the men’s attention to her T-shirt, which, according to Sarah’s opinion, was far too low-cut and about two sizes too small. Crystal trailed her fingers downward until her index finger hooked in the V of her T-shirt, pulling it even lower. She sucked in a deep breath, and let it out in a long, breathy sigh. Her voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “I always ask for double sauce.”
If this had been a movie, Crystal would be the personification of a stereotyped dumb blonde. But this was no movie—this was real life.
Sarah wanted to smack both Josh and Hayden as their chins dropped and their mouths hung open. Instead, she forced herself to smile and turned toward Crystal. “I see you’ve been here before.”
Crystal nodded, making her blonde bangs bounce in her eyes. She sucked in a deep breath, pursed her lips, and blew upward to puff her hair up and out of her eyes, then batted her lashes again. “Can you tell?”
Sarah nearly bit her tongue. “A wild guess,” she muttered. No sarcasm intended. Not much, anyway.
She watched as Crystal lowered her head and carefully straightened the cutlery that she’d bumped.
No dark roots. Real blonde.
The server returned, his notepad and pencil poised. “Are you folks ready to order?”
Sarah nodded. “I’ll take the special of the day.”
Again, Crystal pressed her finger to the menu, with the other finger still hooked in the alleged neckline of her T-shirt. “I’ll take this one. With double sauce.”
The server looked up at the men. “Gentlemen?”
“I’ll have what she’s having,” they said almost in unison, both voices coming out rather gravely.
It took great effort for Sarah not to roll her eyes.
She had a feeling she’d just lost her date. But that was okay. She wasn’t looking for the same thing as Hayden, at least not yet.
And Josh, well, he was just Josh.
Chapter 3
Josh pushed the container of Moo Goo Gai Pan across the table to Sarah. “You can have the rest. What I really want is more sweet and sour chicken.”
As he looked up, Sarah batted her eyelashes. “Did you want double sauce with that?” she asked, her voice coming low and breathy.
Mid-chew, Josh nearly choked.
Sarah patted him on the back while he coughed, unable to speak, and barely able to breathe.
She leaned closer. Her voice deepened into almost a Southern drawl. “Oh, can one of you boys take some of my fries? I just can’t eat all this. They’re so very good, you know.”
He pressed his fist into his chest and cleared his throat, still coughing a little as he spoke. “I didn’t know you could be so catty, and I don’t mean the kind you make appointments for.”
She made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snort. “Sorry, but it was just too easy. Seriously, what were you thinking when you asked her out? She’s not exactly your type.”
Visions of Crystal, both before and after their last-minute dinner idea, flashed through his mind. The woman he’d picked up hadn’t been the same as the one at the restaurant. “For your information, she’s not like that at all. You met her at Stan and Amber’s wedding. You also see her at church on Sundays.”
“Yes, but I’ve never r
eally spoken to her. I was running around the wedding taking care of too many details to make chit-chat. I’ve talked to her a few times at church, but it’s always been in a large group and she never said much. I’ve never spoken to her privately. Maybe now I know why.”
Josh reached for the chicken, then opted for the chow mein instead. It didn’t have sauce. “She’s the math teacher at the high school, and she told me she volunteered to lead the drama club. She was trying to explain something about method acting before we got there, and I scoffed at it. I think she did that to get back at me. Then I guess I got caught up in watching the show.”
Sarah made that unladylike sound again and rolled her eyes. “I won’t comment on that.”
“You’ve got to admit, she’s a good actress. She sure had my attention. Hayden’s, too.” Josh reached for the sweet and sour chicken after all and helped himself, blocking out some of the rather provocative moves Crystal had made. He honestly hadn’t seen it coming. Thinking back, he was quite disappointed in himself for falling for it. That would never happen again. It had taught him a lesson about himself that wasn’t very flattering.
But one thing it had shown him was that he’d definitely been single too long. He’d been completely enraptured by Crystal’s antics, even though he knew she wasn’t really like that. Stan was right. It was time for him to start looking and settle down if he’d been so easily flummoxed by a pretty face and show of blatant stupidity. Crystal wasn’t unintelligent; she had a university education and was a high school math teacher. He’d barely passed the basic bookkeeping courses he’d taken when he went to business college, and she was teaching calculus to stubborn teenagers. Yet, last night, he’d wanted to be the big strong hero for the dumb blonde.
Not only was she smarter than him, she was way smarter. She’d played him well, even if it had just been for the duration of their meal.
He helped himself to more of the fried rice, speaking without looking at Sarah. “I think I might ask her out again. What about you? Are you going to go out with Hayden again?”
Sarah shrugged her shoulders as she chewed. “I don’t know. Probably. But I have to tell you something really strange. Remember that moron with the yappy little dog who tried to attack Scruffy at your store last week?”
“Yeah. He came in the other day ahead of schedule. He bought a couple of dog toys and told me to tell you that he and his wife have started to be more firm with the dog, and they’re having good results with the training. He wanted me to thank you for him and to tell you that the next time Enchilada needs shots, they’re going to switch vets and make an appointment with you.” Josh shook his head. “I can’t believe they named their dog Enchilada.”
Sarah smiled, then turned serious. “There’s more. Two people came in who I’ve never seen before, saying he recommended them. Neither dog needed shots, but I did give them some tips on basic dog training during their appointments and sold them each a book. One of them asked me out. Can you believe it?”
Josh’s fork froze halfway to his mouth. “What did you say?”
“I thanked him for asking, but said no. Really, I don’t know anything about him except that he has a dog.” She tilted her head and paused. “But I have his address and credit card number. I could probably have him checked out.”
He watched her face as the play of thoughts crossed through her mind. Like Sarah, he also didn’t date much, and when he did, it was always women to whom he’d been introduced by mutual friends, or had met in an organization he belonged to, like the garden club or the canine agility trials club. He wouldn’t go out on a date with a woman he’d never met before who approached him in his store. But then again, he’d never been approached for a date by a woman, anywhere.
Sarah tapped one finger to her cheek, sighed, and poked at the food on her plate. “If the day wasn’t already strange enough, I also saw Andy and Murray. I’ve done a little research on parrots, and we decided to work on a way to get him to stop putting up such a fuss when a door is opened. It seemed to have worked during our appointment, so he’s going to keep doing it and we’ll see if it stops Murray from going berserk every time a door opens.”
Josh nodded to acknowledge her progress with Andy’s parrot, but the words that stuck in his head were her comments that even though she’d turned down a date with a man she didn’t know, she was going to keep seeing Hayden.
Not that he had anything against Hayden. Hayden had a good head on his shoulders; after all, the guy was an accountant. He was easy to get along with and had a good sense of humor. He also wasn’t bitter about the way Marissa treated him, and he’d been able to move forward with his life despite what had to be deep scars. Hayden was a good guy.
He just wasn’t good enough for Sarah.
Sarah plopped a new catalog on the table in front of him and dragged her chair to position them side by side. “We should go through this before it gets too late. I’ve got a big day ahead of me tomorrow, and I need my beauty sleep.”
Josh opened his mouth to make a snide remark about beauty sleep, but he stopped with his mouth wide open.
He couldn’t tease Sarah about needing beauty sleep. As a kid, she’d looked kinda geeky, but now, as an adult woman, everything had grown together quite well. Actually, better than just quite well. As kids, he and Tucker had often called her “Fish Lips”, but as an adult he saw ads in magazines for women to get things done to make their lips look like Sarah’s. For a lot of money. Many men would call her downright beautiful.
Strange how he hadn’t noticed until recently.
“Why are you sitting there with your mouth hanging open? You look like a little bird waiting for its mother to shove a worm in. I’ve always thought those Shanghai noodles you like so much look a lot like worms. Do you want more to eat?”
“No. I’m good,” he mumbled, pushing his plate away. He hadn’t finished what he’d taken, but he was no longer hungry. “Let’s go through this. What are you doing tomorrow that’s going to make it such a long day?”
“It’s Pet Week at the mall, and tomorrow I’ve got a table set up for the day to advertise my clinic.”
“Oh, that’s right. I was going to get a table but I missed the deadline.”
Sarah turned to him. Side by side, they were so close he could see all the flecks of green, gold, and brown in her eyes. Fascinating eyes. Sparkling eyes. Eyes were supposed to be the window to a person’s soul. He wished he could tell what she was thinking right now, because his mind was a million miles away from the mall.
“It’s an awful big table just for one. Would you like to split it with me?”
He didn’t need to take more than a second to think about it. “Sure.” When the mall featured vendors’ tables for Pet Week, most people picked up and played with the pet toys rather than reading through literature. If he picked his samples well, all he would have to do would be to sit beside Sarah and watch her smile at people for a couple of hours. He could spend an evening like that. “Let me know what time, and we can go together.”
If she smiled again, Sarah thought her face might crack.
Every other year when she’d had a table during Pet Week, she’d given out a few dozen business cards and a handful of brochures and got through a major portion of the current novel she’d been reading.
This year, she’d sent Josh into the nearest drugstore twice to buy paper, and she’d run out again. Before that, she’d been giving people her website address and the phone number to her clinic on pieces of napkins because she’d run out of cards. Her table had a line. Last year, in her donation jar for the animal shelter, she barely had enough coins to cover the bottom. This year, the jar was nearly filled to the top, with bills as well as coins.
She didn’t know so many people in Bloomfield had pets. But then again, she hadn’t just been handing out her contact information. Everyone who had waited to talk to he
r had some issue with their pet. Or rather, the pet had some issue with something, and the owner didn’t know how to deal with it.
When one of the people in line took the time to read a few paragraphs about the behavioral problem he’d been experiencing with his dog, Sarah leaned toward Josh. “What’s going on? How is this happening? Why do all of these people suddenly think I can work wonders with their pets?”
Josh shrugged his shoulders. “Your guess is as good as mine. Just remember, this is Bloomfield where word travels faster than the speed of light. You helped a few people with their pets’ problems, and they told a few people, and they told a few people, and so on, and so on, and so on.”
At first, the only pet she could think of that she’d helped was little Enchilada, but then she remembered, just as Josh said, that Enchilada’s owner had told two friends, and they’d told two friends . . .
She really didn’t understand the theory of the mathematics, but that didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she had more and more people asking about behavioral issues.
“I’m not telling them anything they couldn’t find in a good book.”
“That doesn’t matter. They like the personal attention. Most of all, they like someone telling them they’re doing it right, which is something a book can’t do.”
She couldn’t argue with that.
She was just about to tell Josh that, regardless, she wanted to order more books when the person she’d been speaking to finished reading the selection she’d pointed out.
“This looks good,” he said. “Can I book an appointment with you for a consultation after I try it?”
All Sarah could do was smile at another new client and flip through her appointment book, which fortunately she’d thought ahead and brought. In previous years, she’d booked a maximum of four new appointments for new clients. This year, she’d booked her schedule for a solid two weeks. That didn’t include the people who were going to check out her website first, then book their appointment.