Entangled

by Melissa Brayden

  Simone’s features softened and her voice was sincere when she said, “Listen to me when I tell you that you are very easy to love.”

  That did it. “You have to stop saying things that make me cry in public.”

  “I do not. I’ll make you cry all day if I get through that stubborn suit you wear.”

  “I don’t own a stubborn suit.”

  “Fantastic. Then we don’t have a problem. Do we?”

  Joey sighed. Simone, though she hated it, had a way of getting through to her. Maybe that’s what history did to two people, bonded them together. She decided to level with Simone. “Now that I’m out of it, I don’t think I can just jump back in.”

  “Okay, okay. I hear you.” Simone nodded, looking thoughtful as if working a puzzle. Finally, she met Joey’s eyes. “Remember freshman year of college when you hated calculus with all your heart and vowed to quit school forever and get drunk between the vines?”

  “Calculus is my sworn enemy. Of course I do.”

  “And what did we do to get you through it?”

  “I feel like we had that wine.”

  “After. But first? We went one problem at a time, never looking beyond the numbers in front of us. That’s what you have to do.”

  “Math? No. I refuse.”

  Simone passed her a look she deserved because it was clear Joey was purposefully deflecting. “Don’t look that far ahead. One step only. That’s all you have to concentrate on.”

  She sighed and turned over the idea, examining it. Finally, Joey nodded, feeling guarded, tentative, but not so closed off anymore. Madison’s focus-on-what-you-can-control advice had worked in the temporary, but maybe Simone’s plan could take it from here.

  “So what are you going to do?” Simone asked.

  “Well, tomorrow morning, I’m meeting with a contractor. You know her. Ryan from high school.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Joey grinned, feeling lighter. “About the new restaurant. I have a meeting in an hour, not that I can afford it. But I’m going to think about what you said.”

  “That’s all I’m asking.”

  Joey stood there a moment as a well of something unnamed passed between her and Simone, anchored in their happy and also not so happy history. Simone was getting married. Joey was at the helm of Tangle Valley. Just look at them. Life was marching forward, and there was nothing any of them could do but hold on. “Thank you for knocking me around, I guess.”

  Simone grinned back. “Least I could do.”

  “Say hello to Constance for me.” A pause. Joey found her courage. “If I haven’t said so, I’m really happy for you two, Simone. She’s a nice person.”

  Now it was Simone’s turn to mist up. She stared at the table to gather herself, and then glanced back at Joey. “Thank you. That matters to me more than you know.”

  They exchanged a weighted smile, and Joey took her leave, feeling beat-up, vulnerable, and more open than was maybe good for her. “Just go with it,” she whispered to herself as she started Dusty. “One math problem at a time.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The Bacon and Biscuit was one of those places you never forgot once you’d visited. When Becca returned to Whisper Wall after her six-week absence, she obviously stopped there first. When she stepped inside, she took a moment to simply inhale the fabulous smell of both baking bread and savory bacon. The restaurant did not mess around when it came to making the most mouthwatering food on the planet.

  Clementine was on register today, and Becca stepped right up to the counter, ready with the order she’d kept in her virtual back pocket for weeks now.

  “Well, look who’s back in town,” Clem said with a smile and a twinkle in her eye. She was a quieter presence but knew hospitality and how to make the customers at the Biscuit feel welcome.

  “Hi, Clementine. How are things?”

  “Full of butter and sass and all the good things in life. What can I get you?”

  “Oh, I’ll take a hot buttered bacon biscuit with the strawberry jam. Make that extra jam. I’m feeling indulgent.”

  Clementine rang her up. “That’s how you do it. How about a fresh cup of coffee to perk up your morning? I made it myself.” She showed off her dimples when she said it.

  “I would love that and will pay triple.”

  “No need. We like our customers happy and coming back. Wait here.”

  Becca checked her watch, assured that she had plenty of time before she needed to be in her desk chair for her ten a.m. conference call with the corporate resort ops team. There would be a lot to catch up on at The Jade, and she had Carla all ready to sit in on the call. That’s when her train of thought derailed because sitting in a booth by the window was Joey with a beautiful brunette Becca had never seen before.

  Joey, who must have noticed Becca first, blinked up at her with those big blue soulful eyes. The woman she was meeting with watched in curiosity.

  Becca raised a hand in hello. Her heart hammered, picking up speed.

  Joey spoke quietly to the woman and then excused herself to the counter. She seemed friendly enough, which was a relief. The last thing Becca would ever want was animosity between them. She’d missed Joey more than she’d ever missed anyone, and seeing her approach now had her stomach fluttering with nerves.

  “Hey,” Joey said and smoothed her hands down the sides of her jeans. She was nervous, too, which meant they were a pair.

  “Hi.”

  Joey hooked a thumb toward her table. “Just chatting with a contractor. I didn’t realize you were back. Hi.”

  “Just got in last night. Hi again. We’re saying that a lot.” They stared at each other tentatively. This was uncharted territory, but Becca was very aware of honoring Joey’s wishes and staying on the sidelines of her life. She’d had a few weeks to marinate on what that would entail, but she could do it for Joey. It just meant setting her heart and all it was feeling aside.

  “And the Big Easy, how was it?” Joey asked.

  Becca moved her head from side to side. “I didn’t see too much of it. No one threw a single bead at me.”

  “A travesty.” Joey shifted her weight. “The town missed you, you know.” Another pause. “I did.”

  Becca could see that the sentiment was genuine. It touched her and let her know that, God, she hadn’t been crazy. She really had mattered to Joey. “You don’t know how glad I am to hear that.”

  “Becca, your order’s up. Piping hot,” Clementine said from the counter.

  “Great. Thanks,” she said to Clementine and took the warm white bag she was offered. She held it up to announce her departure. “Well. I’m happy I ran into you.” Becca gestured to the table. “And I hope your meeting is a good one.” God, that all sounded so formal. She hated that this was who they were now. Weeks back they were snuggling naked in bed and looking to what might be a future. Now they were tiptoeing around each other in a polite competition.

  “Thanks! I hope to run into you…soon.” Joey’s cheeks colored at the declaration, and she seemed aware of it. She quickly scurried away. “And this is a good suit,” she said, almost as an afterthought she could not leave off. What it did leave was Becca confused and standing a little taller in her pinstriped navy. She nodded, headed for the door, and stole one last look over her shoulder at Joey, who claimed once last glimpse herself.

  What in the world had happened there? She stared at her reflection in her car window as she replayed the encounter. Interesting, indeed.

  * * *

  It was after closing time at Tangle Valley after a successful day that had nearly depleted the dolcetto they had stocked on the floor. Joey would need to check in with Uncle Bobby and have him restock the storage room with fresh cases. Gabriella, still wearing her chef’s coat with a dish towel on her shoulder, made her way inside and to the bar.

  “That was one of my favorite days working with Jolene. We were one with each other.”

  Joey offered a smile. “I’m happy to hear
you’re bonding. I was told by multiple guests that the spinach dumplings were the best they’ve ever tasted.”

  Gabriella beamed. “Oh yeah? I was trying something different this time.” She kissed her fingers. “I upped the truffle quotient in the parmesan truffle cream.”

  “Well, it worked.”

  “Makes it all worthwhile when I hear people like my food. It’s why I get up in the morning, ready to go.” It was true. Gabriella seemed to attack every day with enthusiastic gusto. She was a perpetual force, driven by the passion she had for her job. “How was your day?”

  “It was interesting. Becca’s back.”

  Gabriella perked right up. “You saw her?”

  “I did. It was…nice, actually. Is that crazy?”

  “Why would it be crazy. You guys have always gotten along. How did you feel, you know, laying eyes on her for the first time in so long.”

  “I don’t know that there’s a descriptor. But it was potent. It stuck with me.” Joey studied her friend with a thought. “You know how when you’re a kid, sometimes you have the best of intentions, but when you leap off that diving board, it’s a belly flop? It’s not graceful or exciting, and its hurts like hell?”

  Gabriella rubbed her stomach absently. “I remember those.”

  “My first attempt at having something with Becca, I was terrified. I went for it anyway, raced to the edge of that diving board, and I belly flopped.”

  Gabriella rubbed her stomach again. “I think you have to stop saying that word.”

  Joey waved her off. “You get the point, though. And now, I have an opportunity to take my time and use the belly—uh, the prior knowledge to formulate a more graceful maneuver.”

  “A swan dive,” Gabriella supplied with flourish. “A beautiful one.”

  “Yes. That would be the goal. But I would have to do things differently. I showed up on her doorstep and threw myself at her in the middle of a thunderstorm, Gabs.”

  “Oh, I like that very much.”

  “No, it was a bad move. It was us leaping in feet first. I need to see if I can go slow this time.”

  “What are we talking about?” Madison asked, coming into the tasting room rubbing the back of her neck. She’d been working in the tank room all day, tinkering and tasting and tinkering some more, and it showed.

  “We are not talking about anything,” Joey said, gesturing between her and Madison. “Because one of us told Simone way too much.”

  Gabriella’s eyebrows shot up, and Madison had the decency to look guilty.

  “Buddy, hear me out.” Madison held up a hand. “My heart was in the right place, and I had this tugging that told me that Simone was a key player in all of this, whether we want her to be or not. You needed to hear from her, JoJo.”

  Joey leveled a look at Madison. “Hearts can be in the right place and still be wildly out of bounds.”

  “Agreed, but I love you and had to take the risk. How did it go?”

  “Horribly. I cried like a child in the grocery store café.”

  Gabriella held up a finger. “She’s leaving off the part where she’s gonna swan dive her way back to Becca, so it must have been a helpful conversation.”

  “I refuse to give her the satisfaction,” Joey said, smug.

  “I’m in favor of swan diving,” Madison said, now energized and taking a seat at the bar. “I’ll applaud all day long.”

  “She’s back in town,” Joey said and went about wiping the counter. She felt the corners of her mouth turn up with hope despite her best attempt to appear blandly informative.

  “Joey Wilder, you minx and a half. See her yet?” Gabriella asked.

  She nodded. “She was at the Biscuit picking up breakfast wearing a business suit and looking like a sophisticated million bucks.”

  “How’d that go?” Madison asked. “Was she friendly? Was there a hostile vibe? Sometimes pain can shift to anger and back again.”

  Joey moved a strand of hair behind her ear. “She wasn’t hostile at all. She’s Becca. She’s always friendly even if she’s secretly throwing darts at my photo for dropping her over a business deal.”

  “Belly flop,” Gabriella said, and rubbed her stomach.

  “Listen, you guys, I’m not saying Becca and I should ride off into the sunset, but I’m going to take a breath and see if I can punch a few of my neuroses in the face, to paraphrase Simone.”

  “Who in a million years thought we’d be listening to Simone.”

  “Right?” Joey marveled. She took out the open bottle of pinot and poured three small glasses.

  Madison swirled hers automatically and studied the color as if she hadn’t seen it a million and nine times. “Now what?”

  “Well, that’s a valid question. Today I told her she looked good in her suit. So that’s something small.”

  Gabriella’s mouth fell open. “You did not.”

  “Did. And I’m still standing. Now I need to sit with that. Next time, maybe I lean into that same brand of honesty and dip another toe in. Nothing too major.”

  Gabriella nodded. “I like the water motif we have going here.”

  “Me, too,” Joey said. “I’m really embracing it.”

  “Rightfully so.” They touched glasses in satisfaction and sipped.

  “Any word on the restaurant?” Madison asked. Right away, she saw Gabriella perk up.

  Joey set down her glass. “I met with the contractor I told you about, the one everyone recommends.”

  “That Ryan woman, right? She was a few grades ahead of us in school.”

  “That would be her, yes.” Joey turned to Gabriella. “She has her own company now and listened to everything I had in mind”—she gestured between them—“all the details we’ve brainstormed, and she sent me a budget this morning.” Deep breath. “If I can pull a few rabbits out of a hat, we should be able to still make it happen.”

  Gabriella’s eyes went wide. “I’m staying? I’m a Tangle Valley regular?” She screamed, leapt off the stool, and lifted her feet in a fast-paced tap dance celebration, as Joey came around the bar.

  “Yes, it’s true. We’re keeping you,” Joey said, embracing Gabriella from the front as Madison hugged her from the side. “We are a cheesy sitcom right now, and I love it.”

  “Oh, we need a theme song,” Gabriella said, her face red from excitement. “I’ll work on that, probably after the Sunday rush.”

  “See? Multitalented,” Madison said, ruffling Gabriella’s hair. “Movie tonight? Rom-com?”

  “Definitely,” Joey said with a happy sigh. They’d dragged a projector into the empty building that would one day soon be their restaurant, and the picture took up an entire wall. Gabriella made them all buttery popcorn with parmesan, and Joey supplied the wine. They’d only watched one so far, but Joey had a feeling the tradition might continue. Lighthearted love stories with your friends and snacks? Not a bad night.

  Two hours later they laughed and snacked under blankets watching Imagine Me & You, a flick Gabriella had shockingly never seen. By the end of the film and romantic journey, Joey was filled with the hope that though love didn’t always come easy, without cost, in the end, what could be better?

  “Getting any ideas, JoJo?” Madison asked once the lights were on and they folded the blankets.

  “One step at a time,” she said conservatively with butterflies flitting around in her midsection. She remembered Simone smashing her cart into Joey’s and proclaiming her easy to love a short time later. She and Simone had ended badly. She and Becca might, too. But honestly? She wouldn’t trade away the memories she had with Simone given the chance. They were part of her. That had to mean something, right? So why was she sidestepping a potential connection that could prove to be just as important? “Maybe I’ll swing by The Jade tomorrow. See how our wine is doing.”

  Gabriella and Madison nodded.

  “I’m sure it desperately needs checking on,” Madison said.

  Gabriella feigned urgency. “Damn it. You be
tter get over there, then. Wine woes are no joke.”

  “I’ll see what I can do. Is there more popcorn?”

  Madison held up the empty oversized tin bowl. “Want to lick the bottom?”

  “Um, yes.”

  A pause. “That’s what she said,” Gabriella whispered.

  Joey gasped. “Aren’t you supposed to be the sweet one?”

  Gabriella covered her grin with her hand. “Sorry.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Joey stared at the orange drink in the fancy coupe glass with a dark purple cherry on a stick lying across the top of it. She was not a fancy cherry on a stick kind of girl. She worked on a farm and drank wine from a tank. She glanced down at her outfit, which she could now see she’d worked too hard on. The black sweater was too low-cut for a Thursday night. She gave it a tug upward. Didn’t change much.

  “Va-va-voom,” Bruno said, rounding the corner into the bar area of The Crown Jewel.

  “No va-va-ing,” Joey said and sipped her drink and winced internally. Oh, that was sweet. People liked this stuff? Didn’t matter. It was a sexy-looking drink, which was why she’d ordered it, having seen a girl group at one of the high tops toasting with them. “I’m just here for a simple beverage, Bruno. Then I must take my leave.”

  “Oh, you must, must you?”

  “Indeed.”

  He stared at her. “Something’s different about you.”

  “No, I’m just a girl drinking out of a coupe glass at the end of a long day.”

  He squinted as he walked away. “You’re up to something. That’s what I think. Must run.”

  She waved with just her fingers. That was new.

  Joey had chosen a seat at the bar very close to the lobby entrance in case Becca walked by. In case? Who was she fooling, she’d planned entirely for Becca to walk by and maybe they could engage in a brief conversation. Couldn’t hurt. It wasn’t like she was dying to see her but refusing to give in to her craving. She did, however, have her sights set on a very casual exchange. She was not at all a weirdo, either. Why were her palms sweaty? She knew why. Because she was committing to the idea of Becca this time. Something she never allowed herself to do fully before. If she had, a little dustup over the wine deal would have been survivable for them. Couples suffered worse setbacks all the time. If both were committed to making it work, they rode it out. Joey’s new goal was that level of commitment, doing it right this time, provided they got that far. For all she knew, she’d scared Becca away for good.