No Falling Allowed (No Kissing Allowed)

by Melissa West

  By the time we reached the third platter, I found myself wishing I’d at least grabbed a cup of coffee before diving into all these sweets.

  The bell rang, signaling someone had come into the bakery, and Shirley disappeared up front, leaving Lindy to stare helplessly at me.

  “They’re all amazing. How am I going to choose?”

  “I’m betting you had a favorite. I know I did.”

  She gripped my shoulders excitedly. “Ohh, tell me. Maybe that was my favorite, too, and I’ll know it’s the one.”

  “No, ma’am. You have to make this decision on your own.”

  She leaned against the table and patted her belly. “I should have eaten breakfast first. They all started tasting the same after the second platter.”

  “I know, me, too. I need coffee.”

  “Okay, I have an idea. Let’s go get breakfast, a real breakfast, and you can help me break down the pros and cons.”

  “Of cake flavors?”

  Lindy pointed at me, and I realized that I really liked her. In another world, we could have been friends. “Hey now, this is serious business.”

  “You’re right, it is. The last wedding I did, the bride didn’t even have time to try her cake.”

  Lindy gasped. “That has to be the saddest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  I laughed, a real laugh, and I realized that I was enjoying myself. Maybe I’d survive this visit after all. “You’re going to be fun.”

  She grinned back. “You, too. Now let’s get some breakfast.”

  “And coffee. Please, God, tell me there’s coffee.”

  “Definitely coffee. Noah’s an addict, too.”

  I grabbed her arm, stopping her as we left the bakery. “Lindy…where did you say we were going for breakfast?”

  She flashed me a wicked grin. “Where else? Hunter’s Place.” And then she winked before starting back down the sidewalk.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Noah

  “Penny said you got a little flustered around the new city girl, and Zeek said you about dropped a pitcher when she walked in. What’s up with that?” Scarlett asked, her blond hair now striped with blue.

  “Don’t know what you’re talking about.” I continued busing tables, the morning crowd filtering in like I was the only place in town to eat. And though it wasn’t true, at times it felt that way.

  Scarlett stopped beside me, then cocked her head and crossed her arms. “Tell me.”

  “There’s nothing to tell.”

  The door opened again, and I pivoted on my heel, aggravated with the crowd and the early spring heat and the fact that a girl had waltzed into town and now my body refused to work properly. I glanced over at the people coming in, only to lock eyes with the perpetrator herself. Damn. Couldn’t she give me a few hours of sanity before tainting my brain again? I’d already been caught like a deer in headlights this morning, unable to look away from her as she stared out her window at the lake.

  It was just my luck that Penny put her in a room facing Hunter’s Place instead of something else. Like Brick’s Hardware. Or the old junkyard. But no, she put Grace in one of the rooms facing my bar so she could tempt me to look and my dumb ass would be helpless to the whole thing.

  Of course, Penny knew none of this, so she probably put her there because those rooms had the best view of the water, and I wanted that for Grace, because the lake was peaceful, and after a night of listening to all those doubts she had about herself, I knew she needed a little peace.

  Just not at my expense.

  “Shit.”

  Scarlett followed my gaze and bit back a laugh. “Damn, that’s her? She’s pretty. Like, supermodel pretty.”

  “I know.”

  “You know?” She peered over at me, but I refused to meet her eyes. “That’s the first time I’ve ever heard you give anybody a semblance of a compliment. How well do you know her?”

  I shrugged, my thoughts drifting back to Grace’s legs wrapped around my waist, my lips on her neck. “We met when I was in New York.”

  “And…?”

  “And that’s it.”

  “It doesn’t look like that’s it. Maybe I should just go ask her.” Scarlett started toward Grace, and I all but tripped over myself to stop her. She grinned knowingly. “You like her.”

  “What? No, I don’t.” I scratched my jaw, then went to work on the next table.

  “All right, so why aren’t you seating them? Lindy’s a friend, even if she’s probably still in love with you.”

  “Good God, do you ever shut up?”

  “I will. As soon as you go seat them.”

  “What exactly do I pay you for if I’ve got to seat the guests and scrub the tables?”

  Scarlett beamed back. “My charm.”

  “I’d like a refund, thanks.”

  “You’re seriously refusing to go seat them, aren’t you?”

  I sighed heavily and set down the dish bin I’d been carrying. “Clean the rest of these tables.” Then I walked toward the door, each step making me feel both enthralled and nauseous. I needed this girl out of my head before the whole town figured out how gone I was over her.

  “Hey. Two?” I asked, my eyes on Lindy, before jumping to Grace, and damn. Her green eyes pierced through me, and all logical thought went out the window. “How was your night?” I asked, because clearly I was an idiot who couldn’t control himself anymore.

  “Good.” She fidgeted. “Yours?”

  “Same.”

  “I saw you outside this morning. Nice Jeep.”

  My eyes lifted back to hers from where they’d drifted to the floor like it could somehow save me from this conversation. “I saw you, too.” She tilted her head a little and bit her bottom lip, drawing me there. Walk away, man. Please, for the love of God, walk away. But I couldn’t. That invisible force between us, the one that had drawn me to her that night in New York, now wrapped around me, locking me to the spot—locking me to her.

  It was then that I realized how quiet the bar had gotten. With effort, I peeked over my shoulder only to find what I feared. Every table had gone silent, all their eyes on us, all their ears pricked for gossip. What the hell was I thinking coming over here? I could almost hear Scarlett’s laughter from where she stood behind the bar. She’d baited me, and I fell hook, line, and sinker.

  “Anyway, I should get back…” I motioned to all the full tables and had just turned away, when Lindy called out.

  “Hey, Noah?”

  “Yeah.” I turned back and blinked at her, hoping she wasn’t going to ask me any of the questions I could see flashing across her face. “A table?” she pointed, and I followed her outstretched hand, stupefied to the core, then it hit me.

  “Right. Sorry.” I grabbed two menus, knocking three more off the table where Scarlett had stacked them that morning, but I couldn’t deal with that right now. I needed away from this vixen as quickly as possible or the whole town would have my number.

  “This fine?” I sat them by the windows, where Mary Beth had them yesterday before Grace fell and I walked her to the B&B and found out she was out of my league.

  “Perfect, thanks.” She patted my shoulder like I needed condolence, and I felt like the biggest shit-brain on the planet.

  “No problem. Scarlett’ll be by in a second.”

  Then before my mouth or body did anything else, I disappeared behind the bar and into the back where I could close my eyes and catch my breath.

  “Smooth, Hunter,” Scarlett said. “I think you just gave her a story she can tell to the grandkids some day.”

  “Funny.”

  “Actually, sad came to mind for me,” Zeek, my cook, said as he flipped some pancakes. “But funny works, too.”

  “Listen, this ends here. The last thing Jonah needs is town gossip following him around about stuff no one knows anything about.”

  Scarlett stopped in the middle of leaving the back with an arm’s full of plates. “Wait just a sec. What does this have to
do with Jonah? He’s your brother, Hunter. That doesn’t mean you can’t date. If you like the city girl, go for it. She’s a little clean-cut, if you ask me. Bet she doesn’t even have one dot of ink, and forget piercings, but if that’s your thing, go for it.”

  “I’m not going for anything.”

  “Scarlett’s right, man…though I can’t believe I just said that.” Scarlett winked at Zeek, and he went on, “You’re going to be alone forever if you don’t put yourself out there more.”

  “I’m fine.” I ran a hand over my face, then smoothed my damp palms over my jeans. “Now everybody get back to work. We’ve got a full house, and this talking ain’t feeding anybody’s bellies.”

  I pushed back out and rounded the corner to head to the bathroom for some peace, when I slammed into someone. I reached out to steady them, and my skin prickled in awareness even before my eyes registered who I’d nearly run over.

  “Sorry, I was…” I held out a hand toward the bathrooms, and Grace smiled awkwardly, before her gaze landed on my hand, still wrapped around her elbow, and suddenly we were both staring at it like that single point of contact kept us grounded.

  I swallowed as she pulled free and went to her right at the same time I went to my left, then we both tried the other way, colliding again. This time her hands braced on my chest, her eyes widening, and I couldn’t help it. I placed a hand over hers, fixing her to me.

  “Grace, look at me.”

  Slowly, she glanced up, a soul’s worth of emotions hitting me dead on.

  “I’m sorry I left. I’m sorry.”

  Her hand twitched below mine. “I never thought I’d see you again.”

  “I know.”

  “Have you… I mean…” Her eyes darted away. “Do you ever think about that night?”

  I closed my hand around hers, my voice barely a whisper. “It consumes me.”

  “Hey, Hunter, we need you to—”

  Grace jumped away from me at the sound of Scarlett’s voice, and the separation was enough to make my brain work properly again. What was I doing? My life belonged here, hers hundreds of miles away. Plus we were from two different worlds. This would never work. So why couldn’t I walk away?

  “I should get back to Lindy.”

  “Yeah, you should.”

  “See you later, Noah.”

  “You called me Noah.” My breathing slowed, the name settling over me, warming me. So few people called me Noah that it always sounded foreign, but from Grace it sounded like coming home.

  She glanced back over her shoulder at me. “It fits you.”

  I tried to swallow, but couldn’t make my throat work.

  “Well…see you around.”

  “Yeah…see you around.”

  And despite myself, I prayed that I would.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Grace

  I walked outside with Lindy after an awkward breakfast of her hinting for details that I would never share. I still couldn’t figure out what had happened by the bathroom, but two things were clear—Noah said he was sorry, even if he still hadn’t explained why he’d left, and two, the undeniable attraction I felt for him that night was still very much a thing.

  “So this is it,” Lindy said as we made our way down the dock to the gazebo at its end.

  I peered around at the stained wood, the small metal details like the lantern at one end, a cowbell at the other. The red tin roof matched the roof of Hunter’s Place. It held a world’s worth of hard work and character that only time and family and laughter could create.

  “I love it.”

  She smiled. “You do?”

  “I do.” Then we both laughed at the irony of my saying those words in the very place she would say them in a few weeks. “How did he propose?”

  With a wistful look over the water, Lindy leaned against one of the railings and tapped her fingers against the wood to a beat only she could hear. “We’d been dating a year or so and my daddy had just passed away a month before. I was so sad, and Dane had tried everything to cheer me up. Random notes. Flowers. Funny movies. Then one night he brought me out here, sat an old boombox on one of the benches, started a song, and then reached out for my hand.”

  Lindy paused, swallowed, as though trying to control her emotions, and I contemplated giving her a hug, like I would have Cameron or Lauren, but maybe she needed space. I couldn’t be sure, so I let her keep going.

  “He said he was sorry, and that he wished more than anything he could make it better, but maybe he didn’t need to make it better. Maybe what he needed to do was be there for me. Then he led me to him, and we started dancing, and before long I noticed his cheeks were wet. I pulled away to look at him and asked if he was okay, and he said no. Said his heart was tied to mine, and until I was happy again he couldn’t be, either, but he’d spend his whole life trying to help me find happiness again.” Lindy smiled and walked over to the center of the gazebo. “Then he dropped down on one knee and said the timing wasn’t right, but maybe it never would be, and all he wanted in life was me by his side.”

  I drew a shaky breath, embarrassed by how the story had impacted me. Here I was fighting with my father, and Lindy no longer had hers. “I’m sorry about your father.”

  “It’s okay. Well, it’s not, but you find a way to move on,” she said, shrugging. “But anyway, it was then that I knew that, good or bad, Dane was my partner. He gave me his grandmother’s ring the next day, and the rest is history as they say.” She smiled again as she blinked back tears.

  “No wonder you want to say your vows here.”

  “If I do it here, I’m celebrating not just marrying Dane but the moment I realized I could go on without Daddy. Like maybe he’ll be watching, you know? You probably think that’s stupid.”

  I shook my head. “No. I think it’s perfect.”

  “Really?”

  I thought of everything Lindy had told me, her obvious grief. Some people would let that kind of sadness overcome them until it swallowed them whole. But love had seen her through the hard times, helped her find happiness again. I’d never heard anything more romantic in all my life. “Really.”

  “Well, you’ll need to help me keep my mama and Annalise on track then, because this joint isn’t holding more than my wedding party and Pastor Jacob and even that’s a risk.” A humorous look crossed her face, and I was glad to see her mood changing. “But we’re thinking we’ll set up chairs on the bank.”

  I turned to see how much room there was on the bank and caught Noah standing by one of the windows, his gaze trained on us, before he went back to work clearing a table.

  Lindy filled the space beside me. “You know, I have no idea what happened between y’all, but I do know Noah, and you’ve done something to him. Affected him.”

  I watched as Noah laughed with a customer. My heart stilled. “He’s affected me, too.”

  “Then what’s the problem?”

  Glancing out over the water, I thought of the connection I’d felt with him before, how rare that had to be. But he lived here, had his life already set, and I wanted different things than this. My father wasn’t a perfect man, but he’d taught me how to differentiate want from need, settling for less from reaching for more. And I knew in my heart I wanted a lot more than this.

  “We’re too different. Besides, I barely know him.”

  Lindy cocked her head, considering something, then snapped her fingers. “Yes. I think it’s time we change that.”

  “What do you mean?” My eyes widened, and I feared she was going to order Noah out here to give me a rundown on his life, but all she did was continue to smile. “Why do I get the feeling you’re up to something?”

  “Nope, nothing. Just meet me at Miracle Circle at five today. Sound okay?”

  “Miracle Circle?”

  “That turnaround at the end of Pretty Street. There’s a giant fountain in the center. You can’t miss it.”

  I wanted to comment on Pretty Street and ask whether that was
really the street’s name, but I feared it’d come out too sarcastic, and I liked Lindy too much to risk offending her.

  “Sure, no problem. Do you need me to bring anything?”

  Her smile spread, and a glint sparkled in her eyes. This was getting more dangerous by the second. “Nope, just yourself.”

  “Okay…”

  Then Lindy glanced down at her watch and jumped. “Cripes! Gotta run. Five o’clock, okay?”

  I smiled after her as she jogged down the dock. “I’ll be there!”

  …

  I spent the next several hours going over the emails Cameron had sent me, making calls to her vendors, and checking that everything was set up. There was only one casualty in the whole mess, and with any hope, my new boss could create a miracle to fix the whole thing. I hadn’t seen Annalise since that morning, but her room was directly across from mine, so maybe I could just…

  Slipping out of my room, I padded across the hall to Annalise’s and knocked gently twice before taking a deliberate step back. At first, I thought she wasn’t there, but then the door opened, Annalise on the other side, her cell to her ear. She waved me inside, and with trepidation, I followed, only to be overcome with amazement.

  Every square inch of space was covered in a different wedding detail. Catalogues with flower options, linen samples, dress color samples…You name it, Annalise had it, though I couldn’t imagine why she’d brought all of it with her. Come to think of it, I didn’t remember her bringing any of this with her.

  She covered her cell, and as though she’d sensed my thoughts said, “I had them shipped to me.”

  I nodded. “Ah.”

  “Yes, but I need a white gold and crystal tiara. No, sterling silver won’t do. No. The bride is highly allergic to nickel, which is often found in even the finest of silvers. I can’t take the risk. We need white gold, and to be safe, I’ll need you to have it tested for nickel. Yes, I’m serious. Do you think a bride wants to be covered in red patches and hives on her wedding day? No, I didn’t think so. Wonderful. Send me confirmation once you have it. Great, okay, thank you.”

  She ended the call with a long sigh then spun around to face me, exuberance replacing exhaustion. “I hear Lindy absolutely adores you. Well done. She wasn’t a fan of my regional director, which was one of the reasons I took over the account myself.”