Crush: A YA Romance Collection

by Lavinia Leigh

  “Now, Ginny, seriously! You’re a starving student, you don’t have to bring her presents all the time,” Emmeline chastised.

  “I know, but this way I can confirm that I am her favorite aunt.” Ginny’s eyes followed Millie as she ran around the house, trying to bat the little ball attached by a string to the paddle.

  “You’re buying her love. You don’t have to do that,” Emmeline teased. Millie loved her no matter what; the hours she spent with her reading stories when she was around, or listening to her talk about random things over the phone, made Auntie Ginny in Millie’s eyes one of the best people she knew. Emmeline was lucky to have Ginny and Callum as a constant source of support over the years.

  “It’s my pleasure. Besides, I just got everything from the Dollar Store. So, are you up for a major evening of gossip and maybe more than a few glasses of wine? We seriously have to catch up!” Ginny said.

  “Yes! I’ve been waiting for weeks for this. I swear all I do these days is work.”

  “Me too. This semester is horrible. The amount of homework is tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment!”

  “I kind of envy you, at university, preparing yourself for greatness.” Emmeline winked. “Meeting guys, going to parties…”

  “The hangovers, the walk of shame home the next morning.” Ginny laughed, rolling her eyes. “Who has time for that?”

  “So, no one in particular?”

  “Did you not hear me? All I ever do is go to class and do homework. This is the most fun I’ve had in weeks. How about you?”

  Emmeline paused.

  “Oooooh,” Ginny teased, sensing something pretty juicy was coming her way.

  “No, not like that. It’s just I hadn’t really thought about it for years, you know? Then a couple of weeks ago this guy came into the bakery. Ginny, I turned into an idiot, and called him a tart! It’s like I was overcome by some disease that took over my body for the express purpose of making me look stupid.”

  “Foot in mouth disease again?”

  “Major sufferer right here!” she said, pointing at herself.

  “So, did you ask him out?”

  “No!” She rubbed her forehead. “I could hardly talk to him. I was just so shocked that he had this effect on me. I’m not exactly sure what it was about him that got to me. Maybe his smile, or his eyes…anyway, he was tall, and well, he comes in regularly now. I can hardly bring myself to look at him when he does.”

  “Someone’s got a crush,” sang Ginny.

  “Someone has a brush,” Millie sang back.

  “There’s my girl,” Ginny said.

  “Are you finished brushing your teeth?” Emmeline asked.

  “Yesss,” Millie answered in an exaggerated way.

  “Good girl, now off to bed.”

  After a few minutes of protest and an extra story from Auntie Ginny, Millie was in bed for the night and they could spend time properly catching up.

  “So, when are you going to see him next?” Ginny asked, curling up with a glass of wine on the sofa.

  “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”

  “Nope, too much fun. I haven’t heard you talk about a guy in years.”

  “I don’t know if it’s good or not, but he comes in now all the time. I think he has a bit of a sweet tooth.”

  “So what are you waiting for? A guy with a sweet tooth, and you the master baker. Sounds like you two are a match made in heaven,” Ginny teased.

  “I am not waiting for anything. There’s nothing to wait for.”

  “Blah, you are such a scaredy pants. Your life isn’t over. Look at you, you’re gorgeous, you have this curvy body that would make Marilyn Monroe jealous. Guys must be falling all over themselves to get to you.”

  “No, not even one,” Emmeline said dryly.

  “I have a feeling that you are just too blind to see it. Now give me more details about this sweet-toothed Sugar Boy.”

  “Sugar Boy?”

  “Well, do you even know his name yet?”

  “No,” Emmeline answered shyly. “Do you think we can change the subject? How about you?” The phone on the coffee table rang, and she pounced on it, picking up the receiver in seconds.

  “Hey,” Emmeline answered. She paused for a moment to listen, then responded, “Can I call you back later? Ginny’s here, and I just put Millie to bed. It’s time for a little girl talk. You can come on over and join us if you like.” She giggled. Ginny looked puzzled, unsure of who Emmeline was talking to. “Bye.”

  “Who was that?” asked Ginny.

  “It was Callum.”

  “He still calls regularly, doesn’t he?” Ginny said thoughtfully.

  “Yeah, every few days or so, just to check in. He was here on the weekend for a few hours.”

  “Interesting…”

  “Be quiet, you! Now, how did this get back to me? I thought we were going to be talking about you. You’re the one with everything going on.”

  They spent the rest of the evening talking, laughing, and polishing off the bottle of wine before settling into an Indiana Jones marathon and a plate of fresh made cookies, Emmeline’s own recipe.

  They fell asleep on the couch, and Emmeline wriggled uneasily as her subconscious tormented her with a dream.

  Water poured down. She turned around, her shoes lost. She frantically started looking for them in the middle of an abandoned town. The water rose, flooding the streets; then everything turned green. She was sitting in a robot, operating it awkwardly. The world turned upside down and the robot handed her a piece of paper as big as she was. She stared at it as though it made sense.

  Nicholas was there, and then, in a flash, he was gone. All of a sudden, she was in a tropical paradise with someone—a man, she couldn’t quite tell who. They were drinking coffee. She talked to him and then hot coffee poured all over both of them. They were about to kiss, and then everything turned white, and there was church music.

  Emmeline woke up in a cold sweat. Sitting straight up on the couch, she caught her breath. As she stared out into the darkness, her mind flashed back to the different scenes, the church music playing in her ears. It was Nicholas’s face that lingered in her mind. That’s what he was now, just a dream. He was gone, but maybe this was him telling her it was time to move on. Time to rejoin that land of the living. Time to perhaps open herself up to love, just as Ginny kept telling her to; Pernella as well. Maybe she shouldn’t hide forever.

  Chapter 22

  On Monday, Ginny left to go back to university and Emmeline went back to work. All morning she thought about what she’d say if she saw Sugar Boy. She spent a few extra minutes doing her hair just in case, and made sure that she dusted off the flour while she was working so she stayed somewhat decent. Of course, he didn’t show up that day at all, leaving Emmeline disappointed, but relieved.

  When three or four days passed and he still hadn’t shown up, Emmeline started to worry that perhaps he wasn’t going to come back. That is, until he did walk in the door, catching her completely off guard. Her breath hitched as she tried, unsuccessfully, not to stare at him. His hair was cut short on the sides, but tousled on top. Adding to the perfection of his barely-there beard was a fine straight nose. He wore the same distressed black leather jacket as before, which appeared casual and yet fit his body well enough to accentuate the outline of his muscular shoulders. The added effect of a simple white tee underneath the jacket and a plaid shirt tied around his waist made him more like a vision—way better-looking than anyone she’d ever seen in real life, more like a page cut out of a magazine.

  Those familiar butterflies started to tingle in her stomach, and her breath became slightly erratic. How was she supposed to ask him out when she could hardly stay standing? She wanted to hide, but Kathy suspiciously had to go to the bathroom, leaving Emmeline alone with Sugar Boy as he searched through the display case.

  Okay, she told herself, baby steps. I will aim for not calling him a tart, and perhaps strike up a conver
sation.

  He walked up to the counter and opened his mouth to speak, but Emmeline interrupted.

  “Coffee, cream, three sugars, right?” she said, letting the words running into each other like a car crash.

  He pressed his lips together to supress a small laugh.

  Damn! she thought. Way to go Emmeline!

  “What was that?” he asked.

  Emmeline could feel her cheeks going red. Slow down!

  “Sorry, too much coffee this morning!” she said as she pushed a few stray hairs behind her ear. “Would you like some coffee?” she tried again.

  “Yeah, and do you have any of those chocolate chip cookies? They are so good! I seriously can’t get enough of them.” He paused. “They used to be terrible, what happened?”

  “Really? Thank you so much!” She beamed. “I’ve been warking—working for ages on the recipe, and last month I-c-convinced-my-boss to let me change the old recipe for this one.”

  “That’s your recipe? You’ve got talent. I don’t say that lightly either.”

  “Thank you,” she managed to squeak out. Finally, she was doing something right. She poured his coffee and picked out a couple of cookies, putting them into a paper bag. “Two enough?”

  “Maybe for today. I don’t know about tomorrow, though.”

  Emmeline grinned. It was nice to hear someone appreciating something that she had worked so hard on. Do it, ask him out, do it, her mind chanted the words over and over.

  “Umm, I’m Emmeline,” she said, holding her hand out, trying to force her body to relax. Arms, please don’t shake, please don’t shake.

  “Joel.”

  Tingles shot up her spine as his hand touched hers; without thinking she gently closed her fingers, holding on tighter than she should have. Realizing what she was doing, Emmeline panicked and abruptly put both arms behind her back. Did he feel the spark too?

  “I, um, should perhaps—hot—I meant bread,” she stumbled. Shut up, shut up shut up!

  Joel chuckled. “Go get your bread, I’d be devastated if it burnt. In fact, I’ll wait here until you take it out, and I’ll buy it. I’m off to a meeting with my manager. It might make it go a little smoother if I brought him some of your bread. Especially right out of the oven.”

  “He can be bribed with food, I see.” They were having an actual conversation. It couldn’t go better than that, even if she sounded like an idiot.

  “Usually.” He grinned. “I’m a food blogger. We all can be bribed with food.”

  “I’ll have to keep that in mind.” Emmeline put her hand on her hip and thrust her chest out slightly in a sad attempt to flirt. Joel grinned.

  “The bread?” he reminded her.

  “Ahh!” Startled, she ran back into the kitchen, and found Kathy already pulling the hot tray out of the oven. The whole room smelled of yummy hot bread goodness.

  “It looked like you were doing just fine out there by yourself, so I thought I’d take over back here.”

  Emmeline rolled her eyes.

  “I don’t blame you, he’s pretty cute. If I was a few years younger, I’d be all over him. Wait, do you think he’s into older women?” An evil grin spread across Kathy’s face, her imagination clearly running away with her.

  “Don’t know, you want me to ask?”

  “Nah, I’ll let you have a shot at him first,” Kathy said. All the same, Emmeline became nervous for Joel’s possible future if she didn’t get back out there quickly.

  “He wants the bread,” she said, grabbing a paper bag and gently easing the loaf inside.

  She checked in the mirror on her way out to the front. There wasn’t much she could do, even if she wanted to fix her hair again or something. She brought the bread out to Joel.

  “For you. Careful, it’s super hot.”

  He reached out and took the bread, pausing slightly to look at her, which made Emmeline extremely uncomfortable. She shifted her weight back and forth from one leg to the other. She ran through the words she just said, paranoid that she had said he was hot and not the bread. She was pretty sure she’d said bread, but not a hundred percent.

  “Thanks,” he finally said, putting some money on the counter. “This will get me out of trouble with my boss. He always hates it when I’m late.”

  “I take it you’re late a lot.”

  “More than I should be. But I’d say being late today is worth is, especially since I didn’t get called a tart this time.”

  Emmeline scrunched up her face, shooting him a look tinged with amusement and disgust. All right, he was a teaser. She could handle that.

  “Enjoy,” she said, then boldly added, “and come back…I mean, anytime. I’ll make more of the cookies.”

  “Deal,” he said, then looked at his shoes for a moment. “I should go.”

  Emmeline smiled. She made a small wave and watched him leave, cursing the fact that he had that shirt tied around his waist.

  “So,” said Kathy, coming up from behind Emmeline to resume her role in the front of the store as the door closed behind Joel. “Are you two in love yet?”

  “Well, maybe not in love, but I know his name. Isn’t that step one?”

  “Perhaps. I’m sure I knew the name of my first husband, although I seem to have forgotten it now,” Kathy said, grinning mischievously.

  “Goof!” Emmeline said, returning to where she was the most comfortable—the kitchen where dreamy guys couldn’t disturb her.

  Chapter 23

  It took a few more weeks of restless dreams before Emmeline actually got up the courage to ask Joel out. She had been holding out, hoping that he would take the initiative, but so far, he hadn’t, and the more she saw him, the more she wanted to spend further time with him. She just hoped he felt even a little of what she was feeling every time his face floated through her mind. It would be incredibly embarrassing if she was the only one who felt the spark between them.

  There was something about him that she couldn’t stop thinking about. His voice, his smile—the one that made her feel like the most important person in the world.

  She decided that the next time he came in, she was going to ask him out on a date, or resolve to forget about him entirely. She was done torturing herself with the possibility of “what if?”

  When he finally did come in, she immediately regretted her decision, and tried to run and hide. Kathy was having none of it, telling her either to go and ask that man out, or she would do it for her. Emmeline knew she was defeated.

  Joel rang the little bell on the counter four times before she timidly showed her face.

  “Hey, Joel.” She tried to look natural, which meant she looked anything but.

  “Where were you hiding?” He shoved his hand into his pocket and gave her a heart-melting grin.

  “Oh, nothing, I, um, sorry. Coffee?” Emmeline stared at her shoes, avoiding eye contact, and she tried to figure if there was any courage in her jelly-like spine.

  “Yes, please?” he said, sounding a little confused.

  “Yes coffee, no tart.”

  “Are you calling me a tart again?” He laughed weirdly. “What’s wrong?”

  “Listen,” she started. This is not going as planned! “We do this all the time, we talk, we talk about coffee, how about we just go ahead and do it?”

  His eyes widened.

  “I mean, not it, it—oh crap! I meant…” She buried her head in her hands.

  “Yes…” He was clearly enjoying her discomfort.

  “A date!” she finally managed to blurted out.

  “You want to go out on a date with me?” he asked. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes, I mean, I think so?” Emmeline was dying inside, she was so embarrassed. If only she could have a do-over.

  “So, you think you want to go out with me?” He was flat out laughing.

  “Put me out of my misery, please,” Emmeline begged, her cheeks burning.

  “How about this?” he said, that cocky smile plastered permanently
on his face.

  “What?”

  “Miss Emmeline, queen of the chocolate chip cookies, will you please go out on a date with me?”

  “Yes!”

  By this time, she was starting to laugh as well. Thank goodness someone knew what they were doing. She wanted to crawl into a hole, but at least she got a date. It wasn’t pretty, but a date was a date.

  She gave him her number and crossed her fingers. He called later that day, and they ended up talking for an hour, much less awkwardly on Emmeline’s part especially. It helped that she wasn’t quite as nervous.

  They decided to meet that Friday. Emmeline made sure that he knew that she had a kid, and that she would have to wait until Millie was asleep before she could go out. She didn’t want to explain to Millie where she was going and what she was doing. It was really important that if she did start dating again, Millie wouldn’t be exposed to any dud dates. Ideally, Millie would never know Emmeline was going out until she felt like this was a serious thing. She had seen too many kids getting attached to their parents’ new love interest and then having to be separated from them. It wasn’t fair and that just wasn’t going to happen. Emmeline might want a life beyond that of Mom, but Millie didn’t have to know about it. Besides, one date—it could be a disaster.

  By the time Friday hit, Pernella was full-out pushy for Emmeline to leave.

  “I can’t help but feel like you’re trying to kick me out of the house,” Emmeline said, eyeing Pernella suspiciously.

  “Sweetie, that’s because I am. Only old people get cooped up in this house.”

  “Listen, I’ve been fine on my own all this time. There is no rush to go out on this date.”

  “Only if you call playing hide and seek with the world fine.”

  Emmeline rolled her eyes. Over the years Pernella had constantly pointed out new guys that she thought would be potentially a perfect match for her, and she was much relieved that Emmeline had finally picked one out for herself. Pernella was so excited, she went through her own closet, pulled out a tight black skirt that would barely cover her bum and encouraged Emmeline to wear it.