Chapter 2
The next morning, as Ben walked with his parents along the main street of Thornton Springs, all his senses were on high alert.
He had come to Montana for his sister, of course, and to meet his new little niece or nephew, but the thing that had really lured him away from work and back here was the opportunity to see Sheila again. Her less-than-enthusiastic response to him yesterday had been a painful blow.
He kicked a small rock, sending it skittering off the curb ahead of him. It just didn’t make sense. They had hit it off great last summer when they’d both been here for Courtney and Adam’s wedding. He’d felt like the proverbial fool for love.
Honestly, it had shocked him when Sheila had acted not only friendly but genuinely interested in him. With her porcelain-smooth skin and beautiful reddish-brown hair, she could easily be a model if she wanted to. But it had been their long conversations about everything from their favorite authors to the latest computer technology that had really snagged his heart.
He had even taken the risk of letting her know he wanted to keep seeing her, even if it had to be long-distance. She had been receptive to the suggestion, but then something had happened. The next day, she had suddenly turned into a pillar of ice. He’d racked his brain trying to figure out what he’d done wrong but had come up empty except for one disturbing thought. Had Sheila turned cold because she had suddenly seen him for the geek he was?
He’d considered asking Courtney if Sheila had said anything to her but had decided against it. It was a little embarrassing admitting he had a thing for his sister’s best friend when she was so clearly out of his league.
An uneven breath wheezed from his throat. He should have known it was too good to be true. Guys like him didn’t win the hearts of girls like her.
Of course, it didn’t help now that she was even prettier than he remembered. She had probably gotten even smarter, too. He closed his eyes as a wave of anxiety worked its way through his gut.
Might as well face it, Ben. You don’t stand a chance with her.
His mom clutched his dad by the arm, forcing him to an abrupt halt in front of the movie theater. “Oh, Bob, look. It’s the first poster we’ve seen for Courtney’s new movie.”
Ben stopped alongside them, but instead of looking at the poster, he scanned the street for the zillionth time. Courtney and Sheila had come into town earlier that morning to work in Courtney’s office, and he was well aware that they could run into them at any second.
“What do you think, son?” His dad’s voice shifted Ben’s attention back to the conversation.
“About...what?”
“Where is your head this morning, dear?” His mom looked at him askance. “We were talking about the movie.”
Ben blinked. “What movie?”
“You know. High Road to Shanghai.” Her look suggested he’d better try a little harder to keep up. “Your sister’s movie.”
“Oh. Right.” He looked at the poster then, which announced that the movie would be opening here in May. No surprise, since its hugely successful director lived just outside of town. “What about it?”
His dad spoke as they started walking again. “I was saying that it looks like a chick flick, and your mother—”
“I was saying that if Travis Bloom directed it, it most certainly would not be a ‘chick flick.’ What do you think, dear?”
He looked up the street to the windows above the ice cream parlor, where Travis Bloom had his offices. Chances were good that Courtney and Sheila were there right now tying up loose ends on this most-certainly-not-a-chick-flick. The reminder that they might encounter Sheila twisted the wave of anxiety into a near tsunami.
He winced. “I really don’t know, Mom.”
From the corner of his eye, he could tell she wore that concerned look she’d so often given him when he was a kid. When he’d refused invitations to join neighborhood softball games in favor of staying inside to play graphical games on Amiga or to mess around with a new thing called the internet. Inwardly, he braced himself for the lecture that was sure to come if he didn’t at least pretend to be a little cheerier.
He glanced around for anything to spur a change of subject. “Hey, is anybody hungry? The diner doesn’t look too busy.” Reaching the corner, he glanced both ways and prepared to cross the street. He sensed his dad wanting to follow his lead, but his mom had rooted herself in place.
“I have a better idea.” Her manner made it clear that whatever she was about to say was what they would soon be doing.
Ben exchanged a glance with his dad, who turned to give his full attention to his wife’s impending suggestion.
She looked pleased. “Let’s have lunch at Janessa’s café. We’ve been waiting to do that for months.”
The corners of his dad’s mouth turned up in contemplation. “Wonderful idea. Where did the girls say it was?”
Ben’s internal tsunami worked its way inland. Courtney had said she and Sheila were going to tour the café at some point today, because Sheila had helped design it. Since it was only just before eleven, the place would probably be between the breakfast rush and the lunch crowd—a logical time for the girls to take a break from work and go over there. The thought caused a bead of sweat to break out on his forehead.
Before he could launch an inner debate over the issue of seeing Sheila versus trying to avoid her, his parents took off across the street. His stomach tightened as he fell into stride behind them.
“They said it was on one of the side streets, dear.” Dad looked around as if he had more than two directions from which to choose.
Mom pointed to the right. “It’s around the corner from the Candy Castle, which is right over there.”
Rubbing his chin, his dad nodded in agreement and set off resolutely. Ben followed them past a row of old-fashioned brick buildings flanked by colorful awnings and brightly blooming flower boxes. He shoved his fingertips into the back pockets of his jeans and returned to his introspection as he walked. There had to be a reason for Sheila’s ice-queen act, but he was way too inexperienced with women to know for sure what it was. He could only guess.
Yes, he was just that pathetic. At twenty-eight, he had barely even dated, much less had anything that might be considered a serious relationship. Small wonder, since his crippling shyness had necessitated a pretty narrow social life. The only places he ever met anybody were work and church, where his options were extremely limited.
The trouble was, the perfect storm of mutual attraction combined with the ability to be himself around a woman never seemed to happen in his world.
Well...that wasn’t exactly true—it had happened once. But it had lasted only a week.
Passing by the Candy Castle, he couldn’t help but look through the windows. A pain settled in his chest as his eye caught the rows of bins filled with jelly beans. He and Sheila had gone in there daily when they’d been here last summer to stock up on what had turned out to be a mutual favorite. Sadness welled in his throat as he remembered the thrill he’d felt at the discovery that they shared that indulgence in common. He’d go in at some point this week, probably all alone.
He sighed as he followed his parents around the corner, and a big sign with the words Golden Pear Café became visible a short distance up the block.
“Why, there it is.” His mom clapped her hands, clearly pleased with their ability to navigate in a town no bigger than a postage stamp.
As they forged ahead, Ben tossed around the question that had plagued him for the past ten months. Had Sheila realized what a geek he was, or had her rejection been for some other reason?
They stepped into the café, and he made a quick surveillance sweep with his eyes. The place was fairly busy for this time of day, but he didn’t see his sister or Sheila.
The three of them drifted in
to a short line at the counter composed mostly of people who looked like locals. The cowboy boots and Wrangler jeans were a dead giveaway. Ben gritted his teeth, feeling just slightly out of place in his Big Star Pioneer jeans and gray chambray shirt. It wasn’t that he was overdressed or anything; he just wasn’t very cowboy.
Always a square peg. Yep. That was him.
“What looks good to you, Marlene?” Dad put a hand on Mom’s back as they studied the menu board, reminding Ben that as far as his parents were concerned, they were actually here to eat, not to act out his little drama called Desperately Seeking Sheila.
“Oh, my goodness. It all looks so wonderful. How can I decide?”
“Well, we’ll be visiting here for two weeks. I’m sure we’ll be coming back to the café more than once. We’ll be able to try whatever you want.”
Ben gave his dad a crooked smile, knowing how much he loved indulging Mom’s enjoyment of food. He swallowed hard. He wanted the opportunity to be a good husband himself to the right woman someday. But he didn’t stand a chance of even finding her unless he learned to act like a regular guy.
Like that guy. Ben observed a cowboy in front of them talking to Janessa’s friend Andra on the other side of the pastry case. Now, this was a real man’s man. He was a little taller than Ben and lanky in a Jimmy Stewart sort of way. Not only did he have the wardrobe right, from the worn boots up to the Stetson he held in his hands, but he had the confident attitude. Ben studied him, affecting a little bit of that cowboy stance without being too obvious.
When Andra disappeared through a door that evidently led to the kitchen and his parents stepped up to the counter to order, Ben eased forward. The cowboy turned to tip a nod in acknowledgment as he apparently waited for Andra’s return.
Ben cleared his throat. Maybe if he started being a little more outgoing, the habit would grow on him. He took another halting step and spoke to the cowboy. “She seems nice.”
The cowboy gave him an amiable look. “How’s that?”
“Andra,” he clarified. “She seems really nice.”
“Yeah.” He smiled. “She’s been my girl for a little while now.” He looked back to where Andra had gone.
“Oh.” Ben nodded. “Good choice.”
He gave Ben an assessing look. “You’re Courtney Greene’s brother, aren’t you?”
Nodding, Ben stuck out his hand. “I’m Ben Jacobs.”
“I remember you from the wedding.” The man’s face grew even friendlier as he shook Ben’s hand with vigor. “I’m Hank. I’m one of the hands over at the Bar-G. Congratulations on becoming an uncle soon.”
Ben smiled. He was still a little blown away by that thought. His kid sister was already married and about to become a mom, a fact that only made him feel more hopeless for his own prospects.
“What are you going to order, Ben?”
Mom waved him over as the teenage girl behind the counter looked at him with a finger poised over her register. He slanted an apologetic smile at Hank and ordered the first item that caught his eye on the board—some kind of steak sandwich.
Just as he finished ordering, the sound of female voices wafted out from the kitchen. Courtney and Janessa appeared, chattering in the way women did when they were excited about something. Panic lodged in his throat. Before he could make a decision between affecting a bravado or running like a coward, out stepped Sheila, and he discovered his third option—freezing like a statue.
When she caught sight of him, her smile dropped and she froze, too. She seemed to be surprised again to see him, but like yesterday, he couldn’t tell if that was good or bad.
He gulped. There was something he had to tell her. Something that might change how she felt about him.
Who was he kidding? It probably wouldn’t change anything. On the other hand, what did he have to lose? If there was even the slightest chance that the reason for her abrupt change of behavior was the fear of a long-distance relationship, then he had to let her know the computer-programming company he worked for had offered him a transfer to L.A.
He’d come to Montana to find out if he should tell them yes or no.
* * *
Standing behind the counter at the Golden Pear, Sheila thought for a second that her heart had actually stopped. Sure, she knew she might run into Ben around the ranch, but seeing him at the café made her consider surreptitiously slipping a cowbell around his neck. At least then she’d have time to either brace herself or run the other way.
Come on, Sheila. She’d better get used to him showing up everywhere for the next couple of weeks. This was Thornton Springs, after all, not L.A. All she had to do was avoid being alone with him, and she should survive just fine.
“Hey, Ben.” Courtney lobbed him a casual glance. “What are you up to today?”
Sheila winced at the effortless greeting, as if his being here hadn’t changed the very configuration of the air in the room.
“I decided to tag along with Mom and Dad.” He gestured toward a window table where Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs were settling in.
“Oh, good.” Courtney turned to Sheila. “Hey, Sheil. Let’s have lunch with my family.”
Sheila swallowed so hard it was probably audible, even over the soft Newsboys song wafting from the speaker system. Returning a smile-and-wave from Mr. and Mrs. Jacobs, she sensed Ben’s eyes on her, waiting for a response.
A flash of wistfulness for last summer took her by surprise. That had been a heady week, with the two of them as thick as thieves. She had felt so right about spending time with him then. Why couldn’t that have been real?
Not wanting to let on that anything was bothering her now, she nodded. Of course she would sit with her best friend’s family for lunch. It was no big deal. She didn’t even care that Ben was there.
Right.
By the time they’d ordered a couple of pear salads, Ben had moved a second table next to the one his parents occupied and had come back to escort them. This conscientiousness—what she’d taken to be genuine chivalry—had wormed its way into her heart last summer. She gritted her teeth, resolving not to be so easily snowed this time around.
As they reached the table, Courtney took the closest chair. That left two open seats right next to each other. Sheila bit her lip. Of course Courtney would assume she’d want to sit by Ben. As far as she knew, nothing had changed between them. She drew in a breath as he pulled out the chair nearest her, waiting for her to sit.
Why did he have to be such a gentleman?
As she maneuvered around the chair, her eyes met his, catching that glimmer of sincerity she’d once found so appealing. Ouch. It stung to not just pick up where they’d left off. She glanced away, certain that if she looked him in the eye for too long, she’d melt like chocolate in a double boiler.
Feeling a wave of heat flush her cheeks, she flipped her hair back from her face. This was crazy. It must have been the small-town air or something, but she was starting to get a little light-headed.
She muttered something that sounded vaguely like “Thank you” and lowered herself into the chair. He took the remaining seat, sitting stiffly with his hands folded on the table.
Normally, she could shed an attraction that was based on false hope, but there was something about Ben that almost made her think she couldn’t trust her intuition. Ridiculous. He was no different than any of the guys she’d dated in the past who had let her down, often in humiliating ways. She needed to keep him at arm’s length or risk making herself vulnerable to his obvious charms.
“Sheila.” Mrs. Jacobs regarded the cheerful, high-ceilinged room that had up until recently served as the packing facility for the local candy store. “The café looks just beautiful.”
“Thank you.” Shifting a little, Sheila attempted to block Ben from her peripheral vision as she looked around proudly at the old-fash
ioned fishbowl lights, hardwood floors and high stamped-metal ceiling. The intentionally eclectic design made it easy to overlook the mismatched tables and chairs and the floor that needed to be redone.
“Did you notice the display of some of Janessa’s rodeo trophies and Andra’s culinary awards?” With a presentational sweep of her hand, Sheila pointed out some of the personal touches that adorned the walls of the dining area.
As everyone looked around admiringly, Sheila chewed her lower lip. In spite of her efforts to distract herself, her entire body seemed to vibrate in awareness of Ben’s proximity. What was the matter with her, anyway? He was really nothing more than another short-lived crush. Why couldn’t she just get over it?
She shifted again, not wanting to appear rude by turning her back on him. She could be polite, but that would be the extent of the attention she’d spare him.
The conversation progressed to how much harder it had been to get the business going than Janessa and Andra had anticipated and the string of unexpected expenses they’d incurred.
“What they really need is to keep the tourists coming in,” Courtney explained. “Joe’s Diner gets a lot of the day-to-day local business, but the café thrives mostly on catering and out-of-towners.”
“It’s a good thing the town has gotten so much attention recently.” Mrs. Jacobs patted Courtney’s hand, as though she considered Thornton Springs’ success to be Courtney’s own personal doing. “What with your movie being shot here and then Micah competing in your rodeo.”
Ben turned his head toward Sheila, as if he wanted to say something just to her. A wisp of warm breath tickled her cheek, and she quickly twisted the other way. Where was Tawny with their drinks? She could sure use a gulp of icy-cold liquid right about now.
When she faced front again, Ben had apparently changed his mind about talking to her. An odd mixture of disappointment and relief coursed through her. Did that even make sense?
“Our Sheila does more than design restaurants—she knows them inside and out.” Mr. Jacobs spoke with the optimistic pride of a dad even though he wasn’t her dad. “Maybe she can give them a few pointers while she’s here.”
Rocky Mountain Romance Page 3