The Sweetness of Honey (A Hope Springs Novel)
Page 7
She caught up to Kaylie just as she and Magoo reached Luna’s front door. Well, Kaylie reached the door. Magoo ran off with Luna’s dog, Francisco, who was a quarter his size and obviously in charge. Indiana would’ve enjoyed watching the mismatched two rough-and-tumble across the yard, but she was too focused on the Butters Bakery box in Kaylie’s hand. “I hope you have an extra muffin in there. I’m starving.”
Kaylie laughed, then as Indiana came closer, frowned. Luna opened the door just as Kaylie asked of Indiana, “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, why?”
“Well, not to be rude, but your hair is a bit wilder than usual. You obviously slept in more makeup than I think I’ve ever seen you wear.” Kaylie paused to continue her once-over. “I’m going to guess you also slept in the clothes you have on, clothes, by the way, which I have never seen on you before.”
“Those are date clothes,” Luna said, causing Indiana to look down at her skinny black pants and frothy white swing top, at the ruby stilettos on her feet that had her missing her boots. “And that’s what’s left of a date face.”
Then it was back to Kaylie. “Which brings us to the question of where you went to bed, and if you went there alone.”
Indiana started to ask herself if caffeine was worth this grilling. Then she stopped. “I slept on the floor of the cottage between two furniture pads.” Truth was stranger than fiction.
“Because . . .” Kaylie let the sentence trail.
That one was easy. “I got back late from Austin and didn’t want to drive home.”
But Kaylie wasn’t appeased. “Buda’s between Austin and Hope Springs. That doesn’t make sense.”
“It does if she had to come back here because she wasn’t alone,” Luna said, still standing in the barn’s doorway.
These two women gave better third degree than Tennessee. “I wasn’t alone in Austin. I was alone in my cottage. And I think I may have a problem.”
“You think?” Luna asked on top of Kaylie’s “You don’t know?”
“I’m kinda in over my head here,” Indiana said in answer to both.
“There’s only one thing it can be.” This from Kaylie.
“A man.” This from Luna.
“Yes. And no.” Indiana looked from one woman to the other. “More like two men.”
Kaylie glanced down at the box she held. “I’m not sure we have enough muffins for this story.”
It wasn’t the muffins Indiana was worried about. “There won’t be any story if I don’t get coffee ASAP.”
“Coffee I can do,” Luna said, urging both Kaylie and Indiana through the door, then through what had once been a barn, but had since been converted, and into a kitchen Indiana could see herself never leaving.
She, who grew vegetables for a living but wasn’t much of a foodie, not to mention a terrible cook. “Luna. This is amazing.”
Spice racks and suspended copper pots and bakeware glazed in delicious shades of olive and aubergine. The walls were exposed brick and what looked like original wood weathered to gray, the floor a variegated travertine to match. The small appliances were the same stainless steel as the large ones, all of it brought together by a center island with barstools along two sides.
“It is, and it’s more deserving of someone who actually has time to enjoy it.” Luna turned on the espresso maker, and filled the milk-foaming attachment before snapping it into place. Then she pulled three latte mugs from the cupboard. “Angelo and I end up eating out way too often, though it turns out when he has the time, he can put together Tex-Mex to die for.”
“In this kitchen?” Indiana wondered if she could replicate this design on a smaller scale in her cottage. “Even I could put together Tex-Mex to die for.”
“Which reminds me,” Luna said, as she switched out a full mug for an empty and ran the machine through its cycle again. “You’re coming to our Halloween party next week, yes? Mitch and Dolly are doing a huge taco spread, and we’ll have tons of goodies.”
“Of course, though I have no idea what I’m going to do about a costume.” Indiana accepted the mug and sugar bowl Luna handed her, stirring in a spoonful while she added, “But I do know what goodies I’m going to bring.”
“The goodies can wait,” Kaylie said, setting out muffins on the three plates that matched the mugs, and matched the linen napkins bearing the same exclusive Patchwork Moon label found on the scarves Luna wove. “It’s time to hear about the men. Both of them.”
“And,” Luna said as Indiana swallowed her first mouthful of coffee, “I’m going to guess their names are Will and Oliver.”
Indiana nodded, but before she could reply, Kaylie did. “Wow. I think I see your problem. I can’t imagine picking between two more different men.”
“I didn’t exactly pick them,” Indiana said, breaking open a glazed lemon-blueberry muffin, her stomach growling in anticipation. “They just happened. Kinda like Francisco just happened to Luna, showing up when she wasn’t looking for a dog. I mean, I wasn’t looking for a relationship, and it’s not like I have a relationship—”
“Two,” Luna said, holding up her fingers in a victory vee. “Two relationships.”
“Two friendships,” Indiana said, making the state of things perfectly clear. Then, feeling a remembered rush of the heat Will Bowman had generated, hovering when they’d kissed, she admitted, “Though I’m not sure using one’s tongue is the best way to kiss a friend good night.”
“Who was it?” Kaylie asked as Indiana reached for another bite of muffin, only to have her very impatient sister-in-law-to-be nearly slap it out of her hand. “Enough with the torture already. Luna and I are very happily paired off, and must now get our thrills vicariously.”
“I don’t know about you,” Luna put in, “but my thrills are very much the real thing.”
“Well, sure,” Kaylie said, pulling the paper from her muffin. “Mine are, too. But there’s just something so exciting about new love—”
Okay. Time to rein in the runaways. “No one said anything about love. And it was Will,” she said, and when she got nothing but silence, added, “Bowman. Will Bowman. Will is the one I went out with last night. The one I kissed. The one who kissed me.”
“Huh,” Luna said, frowning. “I would’ve sworn you were going to say Oliver. Angelo told me . . .”
And now Indiana was the one to frown. “Angelo told you what?”
Lifting her mug, Luna shrugged. “Nothing, really.”
“If it was nothing, you wouldn’t have mentioned it. Now spill.”
Another shrug, then, “He walked into the living room at the arts center the other morning, and saw Oliver watching you.”
“Watching me?” Indiana asked, wondering if she had Oliver’s interest all wrong. Wondering, too, what she’d been doing, what she’d been wearing, though it had to have been her boots and a sundress. One of these days she really should try a little harder . . .
“It wasn’t anything pervy,” Luna was quick to assure her. “You were standing in the driveway staring across the street. He was drinking his coffee.”
That must’ve been the morning they went to breakfast. “And looking at me.”
“Unless he was looking at some other scenery,” Luna said, fighting the twist of a smile.
“Oh, so now I’m scenery.”
“To Oliver, I’ll bet you were,” Kaylie said, adding, “Or are. To Will, too.”
Luna huffed. “Every woman is scenery to Will.”
It was hard to argue with that, Indiana mused, having seen Will’s gaze wander more than a few times when they’d been in the same room. But it hadn’t wandered once last night. He’d talked to her. He’d paid attention to her. He’d looked only at her. He’d needed her.
And then Luna went on to say, “Though I suppose, considering his situation, that’s not surprising.”
Both women shook their heads; then Kaylie said, “I don’t even think Ten knows.”
“And he hired him anyway?” Luna asked.
Kaylie handed over her mug for a refill, too. “Manny knows Ten’s requirements for the parolees he takes on. He doesn’t send him violent offenders, or sexual offenders, or repeat offenders.”
Giving them the second chance he hadn’t been able to give his own brother. Indiana knew what drove Tennessee to do what he did, and that made her more curious than ever about Will’s crime.
“It does make it hard not to wonder what he did. And why,” Luna said, giving Indiana back her mug. “But mostly I want to know which one of you asked the other one out.”
“We were looking through the cottage, and out of the blue he asks if I’d like to have dinner and see a show,” Indiana said. “I was so surprised I almost blurted out yes, not even thinking, but I kept my wits long enough to make him tell me if we were friends having dinner, or if it was a date.”
“And?”
The word came in stereo, and Indiana smiled. “All he said was that I didn’t want to date him.”
“Do you?” Luna asked before Kaylie could free her mouth of muffin.
“I don’t know.”
This time Kaylie was ready. “Because things didn’t go well? Which is hard to believe, looking at you the morning after. Or because of Oliver?”
“I don’t know,” she said again, until both women gave her a look letting her know that answer didn’t cut it. “Okay. Okay. It’s not about Oliver, and it’s not even about Will, and things did go well, thank you. It’s about me, and needing to fix things with my brothers.”
Luna glanced at Kaylie. “Did she say brothers?”
Kaylie glanced at Indiana, as if to ask permission before giving Luna an answer. Indiana nodded, and Kaylie said, “Brothers plural, yes. She’s hired my investigator to find Dakota.”
“Oh. I had no idea you were going to look for him.”
“No one knew but Kaylie. I haven’t even told Tennessee yet.”
“Why wouldn’t you tell Ten?”
She thought back to the explanation she’d given Oliver. “Tennessee doesn’t like it when he’s not the one putting things in motion. If I tell him now, before I have something, anything, to report, he’ll want to put the kibosh on the whole thing until he can be the one to make the arrangements.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” Luna said. “Dakota’s his brother, too. Why wouldn’t he be just as anxious to find him as you are?”
“He’ll say that if Dakota wanted to be found, he’d let us know where he was. Except I don’t believe that.” Indiana wrapped her hands around her near-empty mug and stared down, focusing on the one thing that mattered. “I need to hear Dakota tell me that himself.”
“And if he does?”
Luna’s question was one Indiana had forced herself to consider, and it broke her heart to respond. “Then I’ll leave him alone.”
“In the meantime,” Kaylie said, “you never know where things might go with Oliver or Will. And I can’t imagine Dakota being happy about you putting your life on hold for him, because that’s what it sounds like you’re doing.”
No. That wasn’t it. That wasn’t it at all. “It’s moot anyway. With the annex going in, I can’t afford the distraction of a relationship.”
“You know,” Luna began, picking at her muffin as she weighed her words, “it almost sounds like the annex, and even the search for Dakota, are the distractions.”
“How so?”
“If you stay busy enough, you won’t have to make a choice.”
“I don’t know if I can make a choice,” Indiana admitted. “They’re such completely different personalities. Both are so smart, and so . . . compelling, I guess is a good word. Oliver seems to have everything going for him, though he has so much tragedy in his family. Will just seems lost, yet has absolutely no fear. He asks what he wants to know; he does what he wants to do. It’s like consequences don’t exist for him. Oliver is much more reserved, but so aware and deliberate at the same time.”
“You’ve gone out with Oliver, too?” Kaylie asked.
Indiana nodded. “I had breakfast with Oliver Friday morning, then dinner with Will last night. And I’ve spent time with both when I’ve been here to check on the property. Really. I’m not dating either. I just don’t get why, after all these years of drought, I have two men in my life at the same time.”
“I get that it’s frustrating,” Luna said, “but it’s not a bad problem to have.”
“Can you roll with it?” Kaylie asked. “Don’t think about it so much? Don’t worry about it? Just see what happens?”
“If I want to stay sane,” Indiana said, thinking it was probably too late, “I don’t have much choice.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Halloween night, Indiana arrived at Luna and Angelo’s barn bearing chocolate cupcakes frosted with chocolate buttercream, and orange marmalade cookies with an icing of orange zest. The chocolate wasn’t exactly black, but close enough to serve as one of Halloween’s traditional colors. The orange spoke for itself.
It was a strange holiday this year, not being home to give out candy to costumed kids, but she liked this new circle of friends she found herself a part of. All because seven months ago Kaylie had wanted a garden, and Tennessee had wanted to give Kaylie everything. That it had taken her brother’s love for a woman to get him to reach out to her might have given Indiana pause if she, too, didn’t find Kaylie irresistible.
Through Kaylie, she’d met Luna; her husband, Angelo; and Kaylie’s father, Mitch Pepper. Mitch had been a constant around Kaylie’s house as she prepared again—second time being a charm, the first delayed by a fire—to open Two Owls Café. Kaylie baked most of her own brownies, but Mitch, along with his new wife, Dolly (they’d surprised everyone by getting married last Saturday), would be responsible for the daily buffet of casserole, salad, and the best hot rolls Indiana had ever eaten in her life, the recipe handed down to Kaylie by the foster mother with whom she’d lived in the very house she now owned.
Then there was Will. And Oliver. She doubted Oliver had ever worked a day in his life. Nice gig for those who could get it, or those born into that world. Will was more of an enigma. He did construction work for her brother, but she couldn’t imagine him using what Tennessee paid him for more than pocket change; after all, he’d bought a loft in the same building as the one where Luna now did her weaving and would’ve needed a substantial chunk for that.
Like Oliver, Will appeared to be financially independent, though the source of his wealth wasn’t as obvious. If he came from a well-to-do family, he’d never let on. In fact, he hadn’t said much to anyone about his past, except to tell Luna he’d been raised by wolves. Sometimes, Indiana believed that he had been. He had a certain look, predatory, she supposed, though Oliver often gave off the same vibe.
Oh, what did she know about men? Her brothers had vanished from her life when she was only sixteen. She’d never told her parents what had happened with Robby Hunt, and doubted Robby had spoken of it to anyone; why would he? A would-be rapist confessing his crime willingly to explain why he’d been beaten with a baseball bat by his victim’s brother?
No, he’d stayed just as silent as Indiana had, letting Dakota take the fall. Growing up with that on her plate had made dating less than palatable. She was a smart woman. She’d been a smart teen. She knew what had happened had not been her fault, no matter her history with Robby. That didn’t make it any easier to deal with. She’d been plagued for years with if onlys . . .
If only her parents hadn’t gone out that night. If only Robby’s parents h
ad insisted he go with them on his family’s spring-break vacation rather than allowing him to spend the week with Dakota and Tennessee.
If only Tennessee had been the one to come down and check on the frozen pizza. If only Dakota hadn’t been playing his stereo loud enough to drown out the scuffle, though since most of that had been outside . . .
Funny how her if onlys weren’t anything she could’ve controlled or done differently—though if only she’d stayed in her bedroom with the door locked all night had crossed her mind more than once.
“Look at you!” Luna said, breaking into Indiana’s musings while giving her costume a once-over. “Turn around. Do you have a stinger?”
Indiana turned, wiggling her backside. The padded cone fixed between the black and yellow tiers of her bumblebee skirt wiggled, too.
“Absolutely adorable. Also, the corset is a very nice touch.”
“That’s all the costume company’s doing,” she said, tugging up on the asset-revealing bodice that was making it hard to breathe. “I don’t have that much imagination, but you certainly do,” she said, taking in Luna’s halo and wings and the rest of her sexy-angel getup—the sheer white stockings, the white minidress with a bustier top, and the very high and sparkly heels with white feathered cuffs.
“With all the remodeling going on, I was lucky to manage this, though Angelo made it a lot easier when he decided to dress like the devil.” Luna cast a glance toward the new river-rock fireplace where her husband stood with friends. He was dressed all in black, a collared, red cape over his shoulders, horns on either side of his head. “Which, I must say, suits his new look, all that slicked-back long hair.”
“The goatee doesn’t hurt, either,” Indiana said, looking from Angelo back to the treats she’d brought. “Where should I put this?”
“Did you bake these?” Luna took the platter of cookies off the top of the bakery box Indiana still held, revealing the logo when she did. “Ah, Butters Bakery. I think we should probably just put these away in the kitchen until everyone else is gone.”