by Kim Law
Clearly he’d hit a sore spot. “I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“We can’t all be big-time lawyers, Mr. Winston. But that doesn’t mean I’m not happy.”
“Hey,” he said again. He kept his tone soft and calm. “I’m not Mr. Winston, remember? I’m Zack. We’re friends. And I’m sorry I hurt your feelings. I made a mistake. I apologize.”
He wished he knew what kind of mess he’d just stepped into.
She pulled a deep breath in and held it before slowly letting it out. The sadness was back. “I’m sorry,” she muttered. “You hit a button.”
“I saw that.” He bumped her shoulder with his in a friendly manner. “Want to talk about it?”
“No.”
The word was final. He could feel her pulling in on herself. He didn’t like that.
“How about lunch then?” he suggested. “My treat. Let’s go into Gatlinburg and grab a bite, then find something fun to do. We’ll take my car. I’ll even drive fast.” He winked.
He thought the enticement of his car might make her smile again. He even expected she’d ask to drive it.
But it didn’t. And she didn’t.
She shook her head. “I have things I need to do this afternoon. We can grab something at the deli on the way back.”
And before he could protest, she’d gathered up her items and headed for the register. He was left standing there, staring after her. Wondering exactly what he’d just done.
When she turned, ready to leave, he took the bags from her hands. “Sure I can’t change your mind?” he asked as they walked to the door.
She cut her eyes to him.
“Sorry about that back there,” she said. “I shouldn’t have gotten upset over nothing. I know you were just trying to help.”
“I’d still like to.” He held the door for her and she stepped out.
“I really do have things to do this afternoon. But a drive into Gatlinburg would be fun. Especially if I was driving your car.” There was the Holly he knew. “Tomorrow?” she asked.
He stopped dead on the street as she went on ahead of him. He’d just realized something.
He liked her. Really liked her.
It had bothered him seeing her so upset. It still bothered him. He wanted to fix it, and he wanted to make sure all she ever did was smile.
Since when did he let himself care enough to have such thoughts?
She was getting under his skin, and that wasn’t allowed. That led to him wanting things he’d written off years ago.
Maybe it was simply the friendship thing. Friendship with a woman was new for him. People cared about their friends, right? That was natural.
Only, it felt like more than because she was a friend.
Which make him twitchy.
“You okay?” she asked. She’d reached her car and turned back to see him ten feet behind.
He nodded. He had to be okay. Because he couldn’t fall for her.
She had every intention of living the rest of her life in Sugar Springs.
Also, there was the fact that a relationship would get in the way of his career. Possibly he could see himself somewhere down the road having something. A live-in girlfriend maybe. But not now. Right now he had to make partner.
That came first.
Pulling himself out of his thoughts, he nodded. “Yeah, fine. Just thinking.”
“So, tomorrow then?” she asked. “Gatlinburg?”
He reached her car. “Sorry, I have somewhere to go tomorrow.”
Without thinking about the fact that they’d been storing everything in her backseat all day, he lifted the back door of the SUV to put away her purchases.
“Don’t.” She reached out to close it, but the packages tucked inside caught his eye.
“What are these?” he asked. He kept his hand clamped on the door when she tried to close it.
She had numerous wrapped items, all flat, each protected between sheets of Styrofoam.
“Nothing. Here, give me the bags. That’s why I’ve been putting everything in the backseat. Because it’s full back here.”
He handed off her bags, and when she reached to close the door again, he still didn’t let her. Instead, he picked up the top item. It was heavy in his hands.
“Don’t,” she begged.
The untaped bubble wrap slipped from one corner before he could put it back down. Curious, he propped the item on his thigh and tugged at the wrapping on the opposite corner. It was a mirror.
Holly let out a soft groan.
This mirror wasn’t at all like the ones inside the store.
Those all had standard shapes. Squares, rectangles, circles. He’d even seen a couple octagons and some triangles. But they’d each been a single shape with a unique frame.
The mirror in his hand had no frame. And it wasn’t just a rectangle. There was a rectangle in the middle, but then there were five- to ten-inch shards of mirror overlapping, and strategically placed around the outside. The shards themselves made up the frame.
It wasn’t just a mirror. It was art.
And it was stunning.
“What is this?” he asked.
He suspected he knew.
She shoved her bags in the car and didn’t make eye contact. “Just some things I picked up in Chicago.”
He set the piece down, carefully propping it against the car so he could pick up the next.
She groaned again.
This one looked like it was in an antique silver frame. The inside—the “mirror” part—was a rectangular shape running vertically with the corners rounded and bulged out slightly from the main shape. Yet the frame was what he couldn’t take his eyes off of.
At first glance it looked like scrolled silver. Lots of detail, lots of cutouts. It would be beautiful if that’s all it was.
But it wasn’t silver. It was a mirror also. Each detail looked to have been painstakingly cut, and then there were etchings along the edges that gave the whole thing a 3-D look.
It was spectacular.
“Oh, my God,” breathed out someone beside him. “Is that for sale? I’ll buy it.”
He and Holly looked around at the person who’d spoken. A woman who’d just come from the consignment store.
“I saw the other mirrors inside, and there were several I wanted,” the lady went on. “But we’re just up for the weekend, and my whole family is with me. I don’t really have room in the car to get a mirror back to Alabama safely. But this . . .”
She held her hands out in front of her as if wanting to hold it. “This is so amazing I’ll pay to have it shipped. Or I’ll make one of my boys walk home just so I can put it in his seat,” she added with a laugh. “The teenage one. It’ll be nice without him in the car.” She reached out her hands again. “Can I look at it?”
Zack turned to Holly. Her face had taken on a pinched, wary look, but when Zack raised his brows at her, she slowly nodded. He handed the mirror over to the lady.
“It’s exquisite,” she whispered. Her head tilted at an angle as she studied the intricacies of the edges. “Did you make this?”
Holly didn’t answer. Instead, she just stood there. Silent.
The woman angled her head in the opposite direction and studied the other side. When she didn’t say anything else, Holly finally asked, “Did you really want to buy it?”
Zack watched her. He’d never seen her look so unsure about anything, but that was definitely the look she was wearing now. Why would she have her doubts about anyone wanting to buy this piece?
“Absolutely,” the woman said. She handed it back to Zack. “Just tell me how much and I’ll take it.”
Holly’s jaw dropped open.
The two women quickly negotiated a steep, yet in Zack’s opinion, very fair price, and the woman walked off, still staring at the piece in aw
e.
Then someone else stopped and bought the mirror Zack had propped against the side of the car. When she left, he turned to Holly and gave her a pointed look. “You are such a liar.”
She continued to look dumbfounded over what had just happened. “How so?”
“You did not pick these up in Chicago.”
Her eyes locked with his. This time he saw fear.
What could possibly scare her about selling these?
“Can we just go?” she asked.
He nodded and closed the hatchback, then went around to the passenger side and climbed in.
At least she wasn’t the only one confused. He had no idea what was going on either.
And something told him she wasn’t about to fill him in.
Chapter Eleven
The smack of the bell echoed a ding from the order window. “Table fourteen up,” Holly shouted out. She went back to the grill and started on the next order.
Her parents had returned home the day before, so Holly wasn’t needed at the house anymore. Thus, she’d gotten up early and come into the diner. It felt good to be back. Also, it took her mind off what had happened on the street in front of the consignment store two days ago.
And the call she’d gotten from her cousin yesterday afternoon.
Someone in Chicago loved one of her mirrors.
Holly had let Megan pick one out as a gift for letting her stay there, and Saturday night Megan had thrown a party. One of her guests had fallen in love with Holly’s mirror. The guest said she knew someone who knew someone.
Supposedly those someones would be talking this week.
Six weeks Holly had spent up there, and she couldn’t even get in the door. No one would so much as look at her pieces because they couldn’t get past her. She was small town. A no one.
They wouldn’t give her a chance.
She’d been laughed at by more than one snotty bitch.
“Table two needs two stacks with bacon.”
Holly nodded at Janice’s request and grabbed the tub of batter as her mind returned to Saturday morning out on the sidewalk.
Two total strangers had bought her mirrors out of the back of her car. For a lot of money.
How had that happened?
She looked up through the order window and out the front of the restaurant as she replayed it in her mind. She’d been embarrassed when Zack had lifted the first mirror in his hands. She hadn’t wanted anyone to see those. They meant too much to her.
And then . . . without even trying, she’d sold two pieces.
It made her wonder about the others.
Had it been a fluke?
She could see the consignment store from here. It was closed up now, but would soon open for the day. Should she take some of her originals in there?
People didn’t normally go to the consignment store looking to pay hundreds for a single item, though. It could hurt business as much as help it.
Her gaze landed on the storefront sitting empty on the other side of the square. At one point she’d thought Nick might rent it as an office for his construction company. Joanie had mentioned a while back that he was trying to decide whether he needed a physical location or not. It would be a great spot for him.
But now she wondered if it might not also be a great spot for someone else.
Like her.
And her mirrors.
She’d never considered doing that before, but after what had happened Saturday, the thought had poked around in her head all weekend.
“Three full houses for number six,” another waitress chimed out. The cook who’d replaced Holly when she’d gone to Chicago went to work on the order, and Holly returned to finishing up the pancakes for number two.
If she opened a store, she wouldn’t get to work in here anymore.
Or maybe she could still work mornings here and open the store later in the day.
But she would need time to create her mirrors, as well. And how could she do that if she had a business to run?
Brian came in the back door, his blond hair ruffled from the wind, looking relaxed and happy. As if he’d already had a great morning. Probably it had to do with whatever woman he’d spent the night with. Rarely did he find himself sleeping alone.
She shook her head in amazement. Without Ms. Grayson running around town telling everyone she was hard up for a husband, she couldn’t get a man to notice her. Yet Brian got all the women looking his way.
She flipped the bacon and pulled the pancakes off the grill while Brian shot her a look.
“You back?” he asked.
“Not back,” she said. She wasn’t sure why she said it. Likely she’d be in the diner every morning from here on out. “Just wanted to make sure people don’t forget me.”
Brian popped her with his apron. “No chance of that, brat. Good to have you back.”
“Special request from the front,” Janice called out, and Holly ignored her brother to return to the job. They had a counter that ran across the front. Mostly it was used for people wanting milkshakes later in the day, but when the place was packed, diners sat there too.
She looked up from the grill and her gaze landed on Zack. She smiled. She was glad to see him.
His returning grin gave her heart palpitations.
He hadn’t been around yesterday except for his quick stop in the dining room to grab a scone on his way out the door. He’d left before seven and hadn’t returned until well after she’d gone to her bedroom for the night.
And yeah, she’d been listening.
He hadn’t said where he was going, but if she were to guess, she’d say to see a woman. He was a virile man, after all. There wasn’t much to offer someone like him in Sugar Springs.
Of course, he could have had Gina.
But then, as far as she knew, he had. Possibly Friday and Saturday night both. And hell, maybe that’s who he’d been with all day yesterday.
He’d said Gina had done nothing for him while they’d been dancing, but that didn’t mean she’d given up easily. Plus, Zack had come home well after midnight Friday night. Then he’d gone out again Saturday night.
Not that it mattered. He could do what he wanted.
She could have had her own date anyway. She thought about the two men who’d called her up Saturday afternoon. Yeah, she could have had a date. Or two. But both those men had been looking for only one thing.
She’d danced with each of them at the Bungalow the night before, and had quickly determined that their interest had nothing at all to do with long-term. Unless long-term meant staying until morning.
And she wasn’t even sure either would do that.
No, she wasn’t looking to get laid. That wasn’t what she was about. But it would be nice to have a good man.
She’d also like to give Ms. Grayson a piece of her mind. The old busybody had scurried away the other night before Holly had managed to catch up with her. She still owed her a good talking-to.
Pushing thoughts of old ladies and horny men aside, Holly held up the tub of pancake batter to Zack. He was there to see her. And he’d lost their bet. “You here to pay up?”
God, he’d missed her.
He’d gone only one day without seeing her, yet it had seemed like the longest day of his life. Which was silly and overdramatic. And he didn’t get silly and overdramatic.
But the fact was, being around Holly made Zack’s day better.
Now he needed to get her out from behind the grill so he could see what kind of shoes she had on.
“Only if you join me,” he taunted.
Today her hair was twisted into some sort of braid on the top of her head with a ponytail coming out the middle of it. It reminded him of Barbara Eden in the old reruns of I Dream of Jeannie. Holly didn’t have on the little hat or scarf the character had w
orn, and there was glittery silver on her eyelids that he didn’t remember Jeannie having, but there was what appeared to be a strand of pearls twined through the braid. From her ears hung tiny pink tassels.
And dipped low in the front was some sort of pink shirt he could only halfway make out.
He wanted to see more.
“You got it.” She nodded and blinked her eyes at the same time and he burst out laughing.
“I knew you were going for an I Dream of Jeannie look.”
She just grinned. The dimple that he loved appeared. “I was in the mood for something different today,” she told him. “I thought about wearing my Jeannie costume that I wore for Halloween a few years back, but decided I didn’t want to have my stomach exposed back here at the grill. That might be more painful than fun.”
Good call, he thought, but bad for him. He wanted to see her stomach exposed.
Just like he wanted to touch her. And kiss her.
And spend the whole day with her.
Saturday had been fun, but it had ended way too soon. She’d refused to talk about her mirrors on the way back to the house, and the minute they’d returned she’d pulled the quad out of the shed and taken off.
He’d been surprised to find himself upset that she hadn’t offered to take him with her.
He’d spent his free time catching up on work and checking in with his boss, then he’d taken Nick up on the offer of dinner. They’d driven into Pigeon Forge and had steaks, watched a baseball game, and drank a couple beers. It had been a good evening.
Things were going well with Nick. Now he had to make the same happen with Cody.
Which was where he was headed next.
He watched as Holly worked in the kitchen. She didn’t appear quite as cheerful and happy as normal. She laughed and smiled with the other cook and with the waitresses as they placed orders at the window, and then elbowed her brother in the stomach when he walked up and said something behind her.
Brian bent down, holding his gut, and peered through the window at Zack. The look wasn’t any more pleasant than it had been Friday night.
Zack stared back at the other man, daring him to say something.
Yeah, Zack wanted Holly. Didn’t mean he was going to act on it.