Sprinkles on Top (A Sugar Springs Novel)

by Kim Law

  “We will,” she murmured. As she spoke, she reached out and touched his forearm. His skin was hot, and the muscles beneath tight. She had the urge to linger, but didn’t let herself. It didn’t seem the brightest of ideas to feel him up in front of everyone. Especially not without his permission.

  “Let’s sit first,” she urged. “They know you’re here. They had to have seen you come in. We’ll let them adjust to that before we go over.”

  His dark-brown gaze studied hers as if trying to decide if he could trust her. Finally, he gave a small nod and looked down at the quilt.

  “There’s a spot here,” Kyndall piped up. She patted the narrow area between her and her mom and blinked wide eyes up at Zack. The poor girl. Even at ten, she was experiencing what a good-looking man could do to a woman.

  “I think he’ll be more comfortable beside me,” Holly told her niece.

  Erika scooted over to close the gap between her and her daughter, and they all sat. The boys and their parents took the second quilt.

  The movie started and everyone quieted. Holly glanced around the crowd again, noticing that people were still watching. The men were watching her, the women Zack. The single women no longer had the “I know you’re evil” look in their eyes, either. They now read more like, “Call me up, hot stuff. I’ll treat you right.”

  Holly puffed her cheeks and let out a breath. She’d been hoping not to cause too big of a scene when she took Zack over to his brothers, but with the whole town watching them both, that wasn’t likely to happen.

  “What’s wrong?” Zack asked by her ear.

  She startled. She hadn’t realized he was that close. His breath smelled like mint.

  “Nothing,” she whispered. She wasn’t about to tell him that she was beginning to think his coming there tonight might be a mistake. Not when he’d actually taken that first step. She turned back to the movie and settled in to watch, keeping one eye on the Dalton brothers as she did. Nick and his fiancée had joined Cody and Lee Ann on the blanket, along with one of Cody’s twin thirteen-year-old daughters.

  The other girl, Kendra, was sitting on another quilt with a boy her age. Holly couldn’t help but smile every time she caught Kendra scooting an inch closer to her “date.” Lee Ann shot her daughter a pointed look, and the girl crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. But she didn’t scoot back over.

  “Look three blankets in front of us and five blankets to our left.” Holly leaned in and spoke softly to Zack. He hadn’t loosened up at all since he’d gotten there. Since she couldn’t concentrate on the movie anyway, she might as well try to get him to relax. “That girl with the really terrified-looking boy.” She described what she wanted Zack to see.

  “What about her?”

  “That’s one of your nieces.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, Holly saw his body still. He looked at Kendra. And then she swore that his hands began to shake. She had the urge to reach over and hold them, but wouldn’t that give everyone something to talk about?

  “They’re going to love you,” she said instead.

  He shot her a look. “You have zero reason to believe that.”

  “The one with that boy will love you for sure.”

  “What makes you say that?”

  “Because she likes to drive her parents crazy. The minute she figures out that Cody is still angry with you, she’ll be your best pal.”

  Dark eyes captured hers. “He told you he’s still angry?”

  “He didn’t have to,” she said gently. She’d seen it in his body language when Zack had driven down the street.

  Behind Zack, she saw Ms. Grayson rise from a lawn chair and head to the concession stand, and Holly suddenly knew where the rumors about her had come from. The stinking busybody had been in the diner while Holly had been talking about finding a man.

  Served Holly right. She knew better than to discuss such things in public.

  Didn’t make her any happier about it, though.

  She jumped to her feet. She had a thing or two to say to Ms. Grayson. “I’ll be right back,” she whispered down to Zack. Then she was off.

  Zack watched Holly race through the darkening night, seemingly in a rush to get to the concession stand, and he was suddenly in a similar hurry not to be sitting there with everyone sneaking glances at him.

  He’d gone out earlier today, hoping to run into Nick or Cody, but at each business he’d entered, conversation had come to a standstill. Requests had been met with stilted replies and knowing looks. Not to mention, he’d found only one spot in the whole town with Wi-Fi.

  It was near impossible to get any work done when he couldn’t hit the Internet. He’d pulled his phone out to use as a hotspot in the diner, but had learned there that Internet access was considered “spotty” everywhere.

  Perfect.

  He was stuck in nowhere Tennessee, where cell and Internet access could come and go at any moment, and everyone who lived there seemed to have an aversion to outsiders.

  And he had orders not to leave until he made peace with his brothers.

  Which yeah, he wanted to do. A semi-civil conversation shouldn’t be that hard. He was a lawyer, after all. He spoke for a living.

  Yet approaching them wouldn’t be easy. Especially knowing they were still mad at him.

  He didn’t know why Holly’s comment had surprised him. Of course they would still be upset. He’d treated them as if they were nothing. And he’d done even less to fix it.

  But hearing it spoken out loud had affected him.

  He rose from his spot on the blanket, only to feel the gazes of Erika and Kyndall follow him up. He jerked a thumb toward the direction Holly had headed. “I’ll help her carry the popcorn.”

  A minute later he stopped dead at the step up to the platform of the concession stand. It was a concrete structure that appeared to be multipurpose. Concession stand for movie nights, and if the sign above was a correct indication, it was also an info stop for tourists during the day.

  But what stopped him was seeing Holly in the glow from the lights . . . now surrounded by a gaggle of men.

  She stood there in her yellow-and-white dress. It hit her just above the knees, nipped in at her waist, and except for the one-inch-wide straps, left her shoulders bare. The material clung at just the right places, outlining everything a man would want highlighted.

  She was gorgeous.

  Added to it, she had her hair down tonight. All that gold flowing to the middle of her back perfectly capped off her look. The only thing that could be classified as even remotely wrong was that she once again had on too much makeup. She still looked good. But she looked like she was trying too hard.

  And she didn’t need to try hard.

  Her freshness was her beauty.

  Though the effort did seem to be paying off as the men pushed in harder, closing around her. Each one seemed to be fighting for position to be near her. One even carried a shoebox with a ribbon tied around it. As if he intended to present it to her as a gift.

  What in the world was wrong with these people?

  Holly glanced around when she was bumped from the side, unease lacing her eyes, and a basic instinct kicked in inside of Zack. He had to help her. Before he could take a step forward, though, he was shoved to the side and almost knocked to the ground.

  “Out of the way,” a teenager said as he moved up on the step in front of Zack.

  Zack bit down on the words he wanted to spit out at the kid. It wasn’t so much the rudeness that bothered him—though that was bad enough—but that he’d been in town for three days, and in that short span of time, he’d felt more like he was back in high school, junior high even, than he had in years.

  He was being talked about, shoved out of the way as if he were no one, and looked down upon. The instant he made some sort of amends with his brothers, he
would be out of there.

  Holly snagged his attention again, but this time because of her laugh. It was pinched and tight. He didn’t wait around for someone else to shove him out of the way. This time he did the moving.

  He stepped into the group, and reached his arm through the rowdy men until he wrapped his fingers around Holly’s elbow. She whirled around as if ready to fight. When she saw it was him, relief softened her eyes. Seeing that reaction gave Zack a high he hadn’t felt in years.

  “Come on,” he mouthed.

  She nodded, and he tugged her through the men until she popped free.

  “Sorry, guys,” he said. He pulled her to his side. Her body fit securely against his, though she felt more fragile than she came across. “She’s with me tonight.”

  More than one groan echoed around them, and then the guy with the shoebox stepped forward. He thrust the box at Holly.

  “I heard you like shoes,” he said. He had no hair on the top of his head, and at both sides of the bald patch the coarse hair pointed straight out. He looked like he had wings.

  Zack peered down at Holly’s confused expression before deciding not to wait for her reaction. She didn’t need this guy. He shoved the box out of the way. “Get out of here,” Zack growled.

  The man puffed out his chest as if he thought he would fight for the right. The right to what, Zack wasn’t sure. Maul a woman in the middle of a crowd?

  Zack made it clear with one look that the man wasn’t getting anywhere near Holly. With a weak dip of his eyes, the guy mumbled under his breath, then left along with the rest of the group. Holly turned her face up to Zack’s. Her cheeks were rosy and flushed.

  He wanted to kiss her.

  “Do you attract the crazies every time you step out?” he asked. Kissing her would not be a good idea.

  She shook her head, and a slight smile returned. Her face lost its strain. “I’m going to kill Ms. Grayson,” she whispered.

  He had no idea what she was talking about or who Ms. Grayson was, but before he could ask, Holly slid her hand down to his and pulled him to the far side of the building. They ended up in the shadows where the movie screen wasn’t visible, and, amazingly, no one followed.

  “Oh. My. God,” she whispered as they stopped. Mixed in with the words was slight laughter. The woman was laughing at almost being trampled to death. She turned loose of his hand and dropped back against the building. She rested her head on the concrete wall and sucked in a deep breath of air, and her chest lifted with the movement. She exhaled and her chest deflated.

  “What was that about?” he asked. He nodded toward the front of the building.

  Her eyes met his. “About me getting married.”

  “Pardon?” His stomach rolled. He had not seen that coming. “You’re getting married?”

  Not that there was a reason she shouldn’t get married. He just hadn’t pictured her as “taken.”

  Or maybe he didn’t want to picture her taken.

  He wanted to picture her naked and sweaty and sliding over his body. With his palms molding her every curve.

  She nodded, wiped the back of her hand across her brow, then seemed to realize which way her head was moving and switched to the negative.

  “Which is it?” he asked. “And please tell me you don’t really have your eye on the guy with the shoes.”

  Laughter sprang up from her then, and this time it was more than a chuckle. The sound was so pure and happy that he couldn’t help but join in with a smile.

  “It is him, isn’t it?” He took a step closer. “You like a balding man who’ll bring you shoes.”

  She laughed more. Just what he’d wanted to hear. It was far better than the holy shit look he’d seen written in her eyes only moments before.

  “Probably they were cheap gold lamé with some gaudy bauble on top,” he suggested.

  “Hey.” She stopped laughing and turned her head in the direction they’d come. “You think?”

  He groaned. She had to be kidding him.

  “Maybe I should hunt him down.”

  He recalled her shoes from the day he’d met her. Then the giraffe shoes she’d had on that morning. He glanced down at her feet now. It was too dark to see, but he’d taken notice of them earlier. She should be in a movie carrying a dog and spouting how there was no place like home.

  The woman had serious issues when it came to shoes.

  “You can’t have him,” Zack said. He didn’t know why he sounded so possessive. He leaned in closer. “I already scared him off.”

  For good, he hoped.

  Her bottom lip came out in a fake pout and he caught himself smiling at her again.

  “I like it when you smile,” she told him.

  His mouth flattened.

  “Ah, come on,” she pleaded. She poked at the corner of his mouth. “Don’t turn back into Grumpy Zack so soon.”

  “I’m not grumpy,” he grumbled. He grabbed her finger and pulled her hand to his side.

  She laughed again and pushed at his chest, moving him back out of her space. He released her hand. “You’re totally grumpy,” she stated. “But that’s okay. It works with my master plan.”

  She had him more than a bit confused. And more than a bit turned on. She was still leaning back against the building, looking hot and lush, and about half spread out for him, and he couldn’t remember ever wanting to touch someone so badly.

  He gulped.

  “What master plan?” He needed to quit thinking about her like that. They were alone. In the dark.

  He could have her mouth under his in mere seconds.

  “To help you,” she said.

  He shook his head. “I don’t need help.”

  She grew still as she watched him. They both knew he wouldn’t be there tonight if he hadn’t come for help.

  Didn’t mean he needed it. Maybe the truth was that he just wanted to be around Holly.

  Which reminded him . . . “About this marriage thing,” he said. Best to keep in mind that she wasn’t his type. He certainly didn’t need to get tangled up with someone looking for a ring. Been there, done that. It wasn’t happening again.

  She waved her hand in the air between them as if the decision was of no consequence. “I recently spent some time in Chicago, where I decided that the big city wasn’t my style. So I came home. Now I’m looking to get married.”

  He just stared at her. She was off her rocker.

  “So yeah.” She chuckled again. The sound struck him as forced. “I’m looking for a man. You know, husband, babies. The works. Only, I wasn’t aware the whole county had been brought into my plans.”

  “Yet clearly they are.” He paused. “Why did you go to Chicago?”

  Her eyes grew shrewd. “To visit my cousin. And now I’m going to kill Ms. Grayson.”

  He wanted to know what had been in Chicago. “And Ms. Grayson is?”

  “The source of most gossip,” Holly explained. “She was in the diner yesterday when I was explaining my plan to Cody and Lee Ann. I should have known the woman was eavesdropping,” she muttered, shaking her head. “But anyway, she pretty much knows all, and her goal in life is to be the first one to share it.”

  “So she helped you out, then?” he asked. He didn’t understand a goal of getting married.

  He understood getting married. It worked for some people. A few even made it seem nice.

  But it didn’t come before a career.

  For others, it didn’t come at all.

  What he didn’t understand, though, was how a person could want only marriage. Didn’t she have ambitions outside of a ring on her finger?

  “I don’t know about that,” she said now. “She threw a wrench in things. I wanted to be a bit more selective, you know? But I can make this work. Might be easier anyway. Obviously I have candidates to choose f
rom.”

  “Obviously.” He didn’t like it. Not one bit. “Thanks to Ms. Grayson.”

  “Right. Seriously, if you ever need to know anything, she’s your woman. Only, she missed out on the big news about you.”

  His eye began to twitch. “What big news about me?”

  “About how Cody and Nick came to see you in Atlanta, and how you told them to take a hike. She ran out of the diner right before we got to that.”

  Things were beginning to become clear. “That’s why everyone in town seems to hate me? Not just because I’m not from around here?”

  “Honey, look around. Half the people here tonight aren’t from around here. We love tourists.” She shrugged. “They’re our livelihood. We just don’t love you.”

  Ouch. “Because I was rude to my brothers?”

  “Right.”

  Having an entire town backing a person was a completely foreign thing to him.

  And he wasn’t sure he disapproved.

  That was something he’d have to think about later.

  “Will they ever get over it?” he asked. Strangely, he wanted them to. Which made no sense. Since when did he care what people thought?

  She gave another shrug. “If Cody and Nick get over it.”

  Which was why he was here. With frustration, he shoved a hand through his hair. He had to make things right. They hadn’t deserved the treatment he’d doled out that night. He’d had his facts wrong.

  “We should get you over to your brothers,” she said, as if reading his thoughts. She pushed off the wall and turned to leave. When he didn’t follow, she stopped. “Don’t you want to?”

  Of course he wanted to. Otherwise he’d be doing something more productive. Like staying in and working.

  But now that the moment had arrived, he found he’d rather get back in his car and go for another long drive.

  “Come on.” Her voice softened. She held out a hand to him, and he didn’t let himself think about the fact that it looked like a life raft in the middle of a stormy ocean.

  He took it and squeezed. He nodded. “Lead the way.”