Almost Home (23 page)

“I guess the fact that she’s starting her own production company and will be making her own films is incentive enough to make the trip east,” Stef said. “Maybe people think they’ll have a better chance at scoring a role in one of her films if they come to her birthday and bring a big present.”

“Uh-uh. No gifts. Dallas put that on the invitations. She asked for donations to ‘an animal rescue shelter near you’ instead.”

“That’s nice. I like that. But of course, the no-gifts thing doesn’t apply to you.”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, she can tell everyone else not to bring her something, but you’re her honey. You have to give her a present.”

“I arranged for her to have an ice-cream flavor created just for her,” Grant reminded Stef.

“Yes, but I’m the one who’s making it. I’m the genius who’s doing the creating, so it could be said that the ice cream really is from me.”

“It was my idea,” he protested. “And I’m paying for it.”

Steffie smiled sweetly. “I’ll be sure to mention that when she’s thanking me.”

“So how’s the ice cream coming along, anyway?”

“It’s coming. And don’t change the subject.”

“I just want to make sure it’ll be ready for Saturday night.”

“It will be. Now, back to her gift …”

“You really think that no-gift thing doesn’t apply to me?” Grant sounded worried.

“Yup. You’re going to have to come up with a gift, and it’s going to have to be good.”

A very long silence followed.

“What should I do?” He sounded pathetically flummoxed.

“Two words, sport. Nana’s ring.”

“You’re sure about that?”

“I told you, it’s perfect. Unless, of course, you decided not to ask her to marry you. Which could be a break for her …”

“Very funny.” Grant sighed. “All right. I’ll call Mom and see what she thinks.”

“Go for it.” Steffie hung up and stuck her phone back into her pocket.

She checked the chocolate and found it had melted, so she turned off the stove and set the pot on a trivet
to cool, then checked the freezer to make sure she had enough canisters chilling.

“Hey, we missed you at coffee this morning.” Vanessa came through the back door with a paper bag in her hand. “I brought you lunch since I figured you’d be too busy to stop to get something for yourself, and knowing you, you didn’t bring anything from home.”

“You’re right, I didn’t. Thank you, Ness.”

“Aren’t you going to ask what it is? Maybe it’s something you don’t like.” Vanessa held up the bag and swung it in front of Steffie.

“I’m so hungry, I almost don’t care what it is,” Steffie told her. “And you’re my best friend. You wouldn’t bring me something I don’t like.”

“True.” Vanessa opened the bag. “It’s grilled chicken, Swiss, and tomato from the new place around the corner from Book ’Em.”

“That’s one of my two most favorite sandwiches.”

“I know.” Vanessa handed over the bag and Steffie peered inside.

“And an iced tea. How did you know I was dying for iced tea today?” Steffie hugged her, then turned to wash her hands at the sink.

“Daz told me,” Vanessa deadpanned.

Steffie shot a quick glance over her shoulder and Vanessa laughed. “Kidding. It just seemed to go with the sandwich.”

Stef dried her hands and unwrapped the sandwich, then looked back into the bag.

“There’s only one sandwich in here,” she noted.

“I know. I ate mine on the way down here. I had a really busy morning, so I had to multitask if I wanted to eat.” Vanessa rested her elbows on the worktable.
“I had one delivery after another this morning, which was a good thing because I sold out of so much stuff on Saturday. The charity run was good for business, Stef. Everyone was talking about it this morning.”

“Good. I’m glad. I love a win-win. Money for research, business for the merchants.”

“And we’re all looking forward to another big weekend coming up, with all the Hollywood people coming for Dallas’s party. Grace was saying this morning that her son told her they were totally booked from Thursday right through until Monday,” Vanessa told her. “Barbara heard the other two inns and all the B-and-Bs were booked as well. And Carlo told us that every table at every restaurant in town is reserved for Friday and Sunday nights. Someone booked Let’s Do Brunch for Saturday and Sunday—both days, for the entire time they’re open.” Nessa’s eyes were shining. “Of course, that’s only from ten in the morning until two in the afternoon, but still, that’s a lot of guaranteed business.” She sighed. “I hope there will be lots of those Hollywood types stopping in at Bling.”

“There will be if Dallas tells everyone that she shops there.” Steffie took a bite of her sandwich, thinking that she should make extra ice cream as well. The forecast was for unseasonably warm weather. She knew from experience that the warmer temperatures alone would increase her business. Add an extra hundred people to the mix and she would run out early if she didn’t prepare in advance for the increase in foot traffic. “This is delicious, thanks. I appreciate it.”

“What are friends for?” Vanessa paused before adding, “Besides, I promised everyone I’d pump you for info on Saturday night.”

“I told you, I didn’t have a date with Jesse. Didn’t you tell everyone that?”

“Yes, but apparently half of St. Dennis was in Walt’s on Saturday night. The other half was in the parking lot.”

“Oh. That.” Another exercise in frustration that she didn’t feel like reliving right then.

“So …?”

“So he walked me out to my car and he caught me in a lip-lock.”

“And …” Vanessa rolled her eyes. “Am I going to have drag every little detail from you?”

“Depends.”

“On what?”

“On what you’ve already heard.”

“Brooke stopped in at Bling this morning, and she said that her brother and Wade were eating at the bar and they saw you with Jesse, and Wade looked put out about it.”

“She said that? Wade was put out because I was with Jesse?”

Vanessa nodded.

“So what else did she say?”

“She said that you and Jesse stopped at the bar on the way out, and she got into a conversation with him about something to do with her will, and that when she looked up, you and Wade were gone.”

“True enough. Brooke did seem interested in Jesse, and he sure seemed interested in her,” Stef told her.

“That’s not the way it’s supposed to happen.” Vanessa frowned.

“The way what’s not supposed to happen?”

“Unless …” Vanessa bit her bottom lip. “Unless somehow Brooke was walking past the house …”

“What are you talking about?”

“The”—Vanessa looked around, then lowered her voice—“incantation wasn’t intended to draw anyone into Brooke’s life. It was supposed to draw them into yours.”

“I’m having a really hard time keeping a straight face right now, Ness.” Steffie looked up from measuring ingredients. “I just thought you should know.”

“Skeptic.”

“Well, at least you can feel vindicated that Brooke and Jesse really hit it off.” Stef bit back a grin. “So even if your … incantation went haywire, at least you know it hit home somewhere.”

“Very funny.”

“I guess it was the universe that brought everyone together at Walt’s on Saturday night,” Stef said. “Clay and Wade were at the bar after I sat down at my parents’ table, then Brooke joined them. I wondered what they were talking about. They had their heads together for a long time.”

“Beer.” Vanessa took another swipe at the chocolate. “They were talking about beer.”

“Why?”

“Brooke said Clay might be interested in starting his own brewery here in St. Dennis.”

“And he wanted to hire Wade to work for him?”

Vanessa shook her head. “He wanted Wade to tell him some of his beer-making secrets, I think. Since Wade will be leaving next week to go to his new job, he and Clay wouldn’t be in competition.”

Steffie put her sandwich down on the paper it had been wrapped in.

“He’s leaving next week?”

“So he told Clay, and Clay told Brooke.” Vanessa and Stef stared at each other. “He didn’t tell you, did he.” It wasn’t a question.

Stef shook her head.

“Crap. I’m sorry. I thought you knew.” Vanessa frowned.

“No big deal.” Stef waved it off. “What difference does it make if he goes next week or next month? The bottom line is that he’s going.”

“Still …”

“It’s okay. Really.” Steffie took a sip of iced tea and checked her watch just as the timer went off.

“What’s the timer for?”

“The chocolate’s ready.” She removed a cold canister from the freezer.

“I have to get back to the shop and you’re busy.” Vanessa hiked up her shoulder bag. “Stef, I’m really sorry.”

“Ness, it’s fine.”

“Maybe some night this week we could have that sleepover we talked about,” Vanessa said from the doorway. “Grady took a group hiking in Idaho and he won’t be back until Friday afternoon.”

“Sounds good to me.” Stef looked up and smiled. “The sleepover, not the hiking.”

“I’ll talk to you later.”

Steffie nodded. “Thanks again for bringing me lunch.”

“Anytime.” Vanessa looked about to say something else, but apparently had second thoughts. She closed the door behind her without another word.

Stef put the pot of chocolate on a trivet on the table and wondered how long she’d feel as if she had a
stake through her heart. She heard the bell ring in the shop several times and was glad that Claire was there to serve her customers, because she really didn’t feel like seeing anyone right then.

Get a grip
, she told herself.
You had no reason to believe he’d be sticking around
.

She almost wished there was something to that spell of Vanessa’s. It would certainly make life easier, one way or another. Either Wade would be falling at her feet, or else she’d be able to wave good-bye to him knowing that something better was right around the bend, and it wouldn’t hurt so much that he was leaving. And it did hurt that he hadn’t told her himself that he’d be gone soon. Just as it had hurt when he’d pulled away right as she was thinking about dragging him home with her, though now she was beginning to think she understood why.

Secretly, she’d thought that maybe this time, he’d stay around for a while, at least long enough for her to get him out of her system once and for all. And secretly, in her heart of hearts, she’d harbored the belief that he was the one. Somehow she must have projected that, he’d picked up on it, and he’d decided to put the skids on things before they went any further. She supposed she should thank him for that.

“Time to say good-bye to my Wade fantasy for good,” she muttered. “I may have obsessed about him when I was a kid, but I haven’t pined for him since high school. I’m not going to start now.”

The wall phone rang and she rose from the stool to answer it.

“One Scoop or Two. This is Steffie. How can I help you …?”

Diary ~

You’d think that once the season had ended, we’d have seen the last of the tourists, but no! Not this year! Dallas MacGregor is celebrating her birthday here in St. Dennis next weekend, and the guest list is a veritable Who’s Who in Hollywood. Why, on Monday evening, I happened to answer the phone at the inn’s reservation desk—don’t ask me where Becky was, she wasn’t at the desk when I walked by—and who was on the other end but Sidney Warren! At least, that’s how he identified himself! He wanted to book a suite of rooms from Friday through Sunday, and I had the disappointing task of telling him that not only do we not have suites, but that we were totally booked for the weekend. Oh, the pain of having to turn away a genuine heartthrob (and my heart was throbbing!). I did, however, direct him to several other establishments and I told him to check back later in the week in case there were cancellations (fat chance, but one can hope!). He left his phone number for us to call in the event that something opened up
.

And it’s been like that all over town for the past two weeks—stars and superstars and famous directors and producers, and yes, even tabloid reporters all calling for rooms.
Well, we all—the hoteliers here in town, that is—got together and decided not to book rooms for anyone who worked for one of those sleazy papers. Dallas deserves to have a happy birthday in the company of her family and friends without the rest of the world watching
.

So who’s next? The paparazzi??

Oh—and Vanessa stopped in on Sunday afternoon and dropped off all of Alice’s journals. Some, but perhaps not all. I imagine as she finds others, she’ll pass those along to me as well. I admit that I do feel better now, knowing they’re safely in my keeping. Bless the girl for remembering that I’d asked for them
.

~ Grace ~

H
EY
, buddy, where are you going?” Wade followed his son’s toddling steps across Berry’s backyard.

“Geeses.” Austin pointed a chubby finger in the direction of the river.

“Yes, those are geese. Did Cody teach you that?”

“Uh-huh.” Austin’s head bobbed up and down. “Cody.”

Austin continued down to the dock with Wade close behind. When he came to the end, the little boy lay down on his stomach and peered slowly over the edge.