Flipped! (Spinning Hills Romance 1) (10 page)

“Well, I’m going with whites and grays. I know you wanted an explanation every time I rejected one of your ideas, but all I can say is I have everything picked out, and I don’t have time to change things.”

Holly nodded and opened a folder, her motions stilted. “Um, I’ll show you anyway, since I’m here.” It was obvious she was disappointed, and he felt kind of bad for her. She laid out an aged copper insert tile and a few square beige stones around it, plus three paint chips and a gauzy ivory material. “I think this color combination brings out that nesting instinct the Craftsman style was originally about. It feels like a walk in the woods, even though it has modern touches.” She gestured around. “Are you going to put up window treatments?” she asked, giving him the gauzy material.

Without thinking, he rubbed the light, airy material between his thumb and forefinger.

“I’m not going as far as window treatments. I’m confident the house will sell without them.”

“You’re probably right.”

“What’s that?” Dan asked, pointing to a twig inside a thin, transparent envelope sticking out of her folder.

“Oh.” Holly took the twig out. “This doesn’t matter now. It’s a sample of incense sticks I would’ve burned in the master bedroom.” She took it out and lifted it just under his nose. “It’s amber, sandalwood, and star anise.”

Dan breathed the scents in, and in an instant, everything she’d laid out before him came together. In his mind’s eye, he could see the whole thing.
A walk in the woods.

His own selections now seemed cold and her color scheme made sense, but he’d be damned if he’d tell her. The whole idea of changing things because he took one whiff of an incense stick was absurd. “Why do you want to invest more time in the house if you can’t buy it from me when I’m done?”

“You’re the last person in the world who’d understand my reasons.”

Probably she was right. “Well, I’ve kept up my part of the bargain . . .”

She took the hint and gathered her things.

“I’ll walk you out.” He instinctively put his hand on the small of her back to help her navigate around the debris, but she shook it off. “You’re so predictable,” he told her.

“Well, you’re the first man to think it.”

Outside in the crisp air, Holly stuck her binder under her arm and her hands in her back pockets. “I saw you coming out of the library yesterday. Did you look up Miranda Catelli?” she asked.

Dan looked at her, gaze earnest. It wasn’t full of charm, like Johnny’s, or magnetic, like Sam’s, but there was a quiet force and directness to it. “Yeah. I saw you, too. You were about to come in, but you turned on your heel when you saw me. The library’s big enough for both of us, you know.”

“I know. But I guessed you were looking up the same information I was about to look up, so I figured I’d just ask you tonight. You don’t have the power to drive me away, O Great One.”

He grinned and gestured to the house with his head. “I’ve noticed. You wouldn’t leave that first night and I still can’t get rid of you.”

It took some effort to keep her lips from pulling up in the corners. “So . . .” she egged him on. He looked at her as if he didn’t know what she was talking about. “Miranda Catelli,” she supplied.

“She died of pneumonia the same year the house was built. I found her obituary.”

“That’s probably why the house was sold. What else did you learn?”

“I found Owen Amador’s obituary, too. He died at the age of forty-seven. Never married, no children.”

“That’s so sad. Ruby told me he’s related to you, by the way. Your grandfather’s second cousin or something like that. Did you also look up Nathaniel McDowell, by any chance? I looked him up when I found out he was the original owner of the house, but I didn’t find anything interesting.”

“All I found was a second marriage announcement. It said he was a lawyer, that he’d married a woman named Serena Cleve, and it was dated six months after Miranda died.”

“Six months?” Holly raised an eyebrow. “Jeez.”

“Maybe he was lonely and bereft.”

“Or maybe he just didn’t have a heart. He was a lawyer, after all.”

Dan
tsk
ed and tossed her a smile that reached the corners of his eyes. His eyes glittered, as if he was enjoying himself. It made her feel funny inside. “Who’s being judgmental now, Ms. Bell?” he asked.

She turned and walked away, not wanting him to see her biting back a smile.

 

Later that night, Johnny and Dan slouched on a raggedy brown sofa. They’d been watching the History Channel for over an hour. Exciting stuff.

“How’d it go with Holly?” Johnny asked.

“She’s not difficult to get along with, I guess.” He voiced the first thought in his head.

Johnny looked over at him. “She’s fun and interesting, too.”

“Why won’t you just admit you’re into her?” Dan asked. “Is it ’cause she doesn’t return your feelings or something?”

“Oh, we’re going to talk about our feelings?” Johnny clapped his hands like a teenage girl and sat cross-legged on the couch.

Dan laughed. “Forget it. I think we came home too early tonight. What’s with us, anyway?”

“We’re getting older, but we’re not maturing. Part of me wishes I
was
in love with Holly.”

The first thought that popped into Dan’s head was that he no longer had to feel weird about finding her attractive. It was the first time he’d acknowledged the attraction, and it caught him off guard. He, of all people, should know better than to find an unstable woman attractive. Probably it was in his genes. There was evidence enough of that.

He shook his head and said, “You’re all of twenty-seven. I’m almost thirty-two. We just need to get away from the UD college crowd is all, that’s what’s making us feel old.”

“Jenny mentioned she’d be at a wine bar with a few friends tonight. Do you want to meet up with her?” he asked, mentioning the young waitress who worked at Huffy’s. The one Holly had accused him of flirting with.

Dan wasn’t much into drinking wine, but it was a hell of a lot better than talking about feelings. They called Sam and he agreed to meet them there.

 

As it turned out, he ended up talking about feelings anyway.

Johnny and one of Jenny’s friends were at the sleek, black-lacquered bar, Johnny leaning in close to listen to what the young woman was saying. Jenny, Sam, and Dan were testing a few wines at a pub table. “I hope Johnny doesn’t mess with my friend,” Jenny said.

Low-hanging lights, textured maroon wallpaper, and smooth jazz gave off the adult ambience he and Johnny had been talking about. It sucked. “Johnny’s not the messing-around type. If he’s not looking to get serious, I’ll bet he’s already made that clear,” Dan said.

“He’s a good guy,” Sam added.

“What about you?” Jenny looked at Dan.

He bit his lip. “Uh, dating has gotten tough. Not into younger girls, and women closer to my age want something more. I don’t have what it takes to be something more.”

“I want something more.” Jenny sipped her wine.

“Friends it is, then.” Dan winked.

“Friends it is.” She laughed. “Now, tell me about that curse that supposedly haunts the Amador boys.”

Sam and Dan looked at each other for a moment. For some reason, telling people about the curse never got old. He and his brothers had always gotten a kick out of being a small part of their town’s history. The fact that it put their family name in a bad light was even better, as far as they were concerned. Everyone loved a bad boy.

“Johnny tells it best,” Sam said. He caught his younger brother’s eye and waved him over.

Johnny and Jenny’s friend came over and sat at the table with them, and Jenny asked him about the curse. “Sam said you tell it best.”

Johnny leaned back. “We’re descendants of these two Spanish brothers who came down to Dayton after working the coal mines in West Virginia. The story is that Sergio Amador set fire to the house he’d built for his fiancée, knowing she was inside. His fiancée was a member of a famous gypsy clan that had moved here from England about a hundred and fifty years ago, and they put a curse on him when they found out what he did.”

Dan and Sam exchanged puzzled looks. Johnny wasn’t telling the story with his usual flare.

Jenny’s mouth hung open. “He did what! Why?”

Johnny took a sip of wine, frowned at the goblet, and put it down. “Well, he and his brother, Juan, had come down to Dayton to breed horses, and they’d built a successful partnership with gypsy traders. Sergio fell in love with some other woman before the wedding, but he knew if he dared break his engagement with the gypsy girl he’d lose his livelihood. So he set his future bride up, sending a drifter to her house one night so he could accuse her of betraying him with another. He locked them in and set fire to the house, so she and the drifter could be found together. His bride-to-be was the granddaughter of the entire nation’s gypsy king and queen, and everyone knew her pretty well. No one believed Sergio’s story. Legend has it they commissioned a special curse for Sergio. No Amador will find true love until the curse is broken, but no one knows how to break it.”

“Do you guys believe in it?” Jenny’s friend asked, a familiar glow in her eyes.

This had always been the main reason the brothers loved telling people about the curse. There was always a woman who believed it and wanted to be the one to break the curse somehow. Jenny seemed like a smart girl and she looked like she wasn’t having any of it.

At some point, though, the fun had worn off for him. “No. True love doesn’t exist,” Dan quipped.

Jenny laughed. “
Definitely
just friends, then,” she said.

Her friend shushed her. “I meant if you believe in the curse.”

Johnny, who’d always been the one to milk the story the most, shrugged before telling her the simple truth. “Nope. Not a bit of it.”

They chatted a bit about the curse before the women excused themselves and went off to the restroom.

Dan leaned back on his chair’s legs and took in Sam and Johnny’s dress shirts and slacks. “Aww. Will you look at my little brothers, all dressed up and smelling good.”

Sam shook his head. “How the hell did we end up at a fancy wine bar, anyway?” he asked.

“Dan and I decided we were mature,” Johnny answered.

“Now there’s a depressing thought.” Sam grinned.

H
olly rushed past the old fire station that now housed Augusta Latin and Ballroom Dance Studio. It was an unwelcome reminder that she should be doing some sort of exercise on a daily basis, instead of eating dessert on a daily basis. She then hurried past Gypsy Fortune. If Rosa or her grandmother saw her, they’d feed her more dessert. Amador Construction and Preservation was the last commercial building on Hillside, and she had a special delivery for Sam.

It was her lunch break, and it was a glorious fall day. The sky was clear and bright. The mature oaks and maples that lined the streets were known for their spectacular fall foliage, and Holly never tired of the display. The patios of all three downtown restaurants were full for lunch, and Holly knew some of the tourists would make their way to her shop afterward.

She walked into Sam’s office and froze. His mom was sitting on a chair in front of Sam’s desk. Alone. Holly slapped her best smile on her face and stepped inside, glancing quickly at her watch. Sam had told her he’d meet her at noon. It was noon. “Hello, Mrs. Amador. How are you?”

“Just sitting here, waiting for my Sam.” She looked at the package Holly was carrying. “If you have something for him, you can leave it with me.”

God, why did things always have to be so uncomfortable with this woman? Sam wanted the contents of the package kept private. It was the signature scent she’d created for him. “Um, well, he asked me to wait for him.”

The older woman’s rose-tinted lips tightened ever so slightly. But she merely asked, “How is Ella?” in a polite, but bored tone.

“She’s great,” Holly replied.

“I’m glad to hear it.” Her eyes traveled over Holly’s frame. “How’s everything with you, dear? You look like you’ve put on some weight.”

Polite tone? Check. Innocent look? Check. Catty comment? Check.
Holly racked her brain for a good comeback, but couldn’t find one. The door behind her opened and she turned, hoping to see Sam.

Instead, Dan rammed straight into her. He stepped back so fast he nearly tripped and she instinctively grabbed his arms.

 

Dan had been feeling progressively worse since he’d woken up. A splitting headache and a constant cough had brought him back to Johnny’s for some cough syrup and aspirin. He walked through the door and nearly collided with Holly.

He then stepped back and almost tripped, but Holly grabbed on to his arms and his hands automatically went down to her hips. Without thinking, he held her in place and breathed her in a moment. It took his mind away from his misery for that one millisecond. He then coughed in her face.

Holly scrunched her face up and stepped back. “Sorry,” Dan said, before feeling a cough coming on again. When he turned to cough into his arm, he caught sight of Marianne.

Great, just what he needed. “Dan, hello!” Marianne called out to him, as if they’d just spoken yesterday, when in fact they hadn’t spoken in over five years.

“Hey,” he said in a casual tone, as if Marianne’s presence didn’t feel as toxic now as it had when he was five. “No worries, I won’t interrupt you guys. I’m just going up to Johnny’s to see if he has any cough medicine.”

“Oh, you’re not interrupting us, I was just about to leave,” Holly said to him. “You look miserable and I’m sure your mom would love to dote on you.”

There was a moment of tense silence before Marianne said, “Oh honey. I’m flattered, but I thought you knew.”

Dan turned to look at Holly, wondering what the hell she was up to, but Holly was looking at Marianne, a confused look on her face. He spoke up before Marianne could get in another word, “Marianne’s not my mother, Holly.”

Holly looked up at him, her eyes huge. “Oh. I, uh, I didn’t know.” She looked so flustered and her cheeks were so flushed, he believed her. “Sorry.”

“Nothing to be sorry about,” Marianne said with a perfect smile, but Dan understood the double meaning.

Holly looked at her watch. “I was supposed to meet Sam real quick at noon, but since he’s not here—” She stuffed the bag she was holding into Dan’s arms. “That’s for Sam, but it’s private. Well, I’ve got to get back to the shop and prepare for the after-lunch crowd. See you around. ’Bye.” And Holly was out the door.

“I can’t bring myself to like that woman,” Marianne said the moment the door shut. “I don’t know what Johnny sees in her.”

So, Marianne thought Johnny might be into Holly, too. Sharing a thought with Marianne would be a first.

It only took Dan an instant to guess why she didn’t approve of Holly, but he wouldn’t give Marianne the satisfaction of telling him her reason. It would end up being another little attack on him.

He turned to look at his stepmom and caught her frowning at the bag. “Well, it’s nice seeing you,” he lied, and crossed the room.

“Then why haven’t you been by to say hello?” Marianne called after him.

“I’ve been busy,” he tossed back.

“People are talking. They’re saying you’re ungrateful, and as much as I’d like to deny it, I don’t know what to say to them.”

“Then try,
real hard
, not saying anything at all.” He climbed the stairs.

 

Holly acquired two new customers and satisfied the curiosity of a few lookie-loos. Her mind was centered on Dan, wondering who his real mom was and what his relationship with Marianne was like, and trying to shake her embarrassment. Something had been off between them, that had been obvious.

She also couldn’t shake the odd feeling plaguing her heart. Ridiculous as it seemed, she felt like an outsider once again. Five years she’d lived in town. Five years of friendship with Johnny and Sam, and she hadn’t known Dan was their half brother.

Emily hadn’t known a thing, either, and she couldn’t believe Leo hadn’t told her. Leo had chalked it up to it being such old news to everyone in town that they no longer gave it a second thought. Everyone assumed everyone else knew, if they even thought about it at all.

Emily and Leo were taking the girls to see a movie at the Greene after work, so Holly locked up and walked up to the café.

Sherry was making coffee in a black lace “Kiss the Barista” apron, Rosa was boxing up some pastries, which seemed difficult considering her long rhinestone-tipped nails, and her grandmother was chatting to someone about how pecan pie was a great gift for a hardheaded person.

This was the after-work crowd, taking coffee and pastries to go. There would be a lull before the after-dinner crowd came in.

Rosa made her way to Holly first. She sat down next to her and patted her hand. “Tell Aunt Rosa what’s wrong.”

Sherry and Grandma Ruby hurried over. “Whew. We finally got rid of everybody. Now tell us what’s on your mind, sweetie,” Sherry said as soon as she sat down.

“I’m just sitting here, why do you all think something’s wrong?”

“You’re here, but you’re not
here
,” Grandma Ruby said to her.

“Right. Well, at first I was wondering why no one ever told me that Marianne Amador wasn’t Dan’s mom, too, but who cares why I wasn’t told? It’s not about me, it’s about them. Big of me to realize the world doesn’t revolve around me, huh?” she joked.

“You didn’t know?” Sherry seemed surprised.

“No.” She shook her head, remembering the embarrassing moment. “Why didn’t you tell me the day I was in here whining about him and the house?”

“You weren’t whining, honey. You were saying you had accepted it. We were the ones too busy whining about it to think about anything else,” Rosa said.

“How did you find out?” her grandmother asked.

“I ran into Dan and Marianne at Sam’s office. He seemed sick, she hates me, so I told them I was leaving because I was sure Marianne wanted to dote on her son. You should’ve seen their faces.”

Sherry’s eyes widened. “Oh sweetie. You always seem to be stepping into doodoo with those two.”

“Well, how was I supposed to know? No one ever told me. Why didn’t
you
tell me?” Holly looked at her grandmother.

“You never asked.” Grandma Ruby looked at her as if this was a perfectly reasonable response.

“Why would I ask?”

“Yes, why would she ask?” Sherry laughed.

Grandma Ruby grinned. “You’re right. I guess it’s just one of those things that people talked to death about at the time, but then it became irrelevant when Dan grew up and moved away.”

Sherry regarded Holly. “Johnny never said anything to you?”

Holly shook her head and they were all quiet for a few beats. “I guess I can see why he wouldn’t,” Sherry considered. “He and Sam always looked up to Dan, and Dan never let anyone mess with them. Why would any of them want to talk about the one thing that separated them?”

Holly turned it all over in her head. “Do you think Marianne is the reason Dan went away?”

“I don’t doubt it,” Sherry said.

“Doubt it, I’d bet my closet that was the main reason.” Rosa scowled.

As much as Holly deplored Ella’s obsession with fairy tales, life sometimes felt like one. Dan Amador had a wicked stepmother. Except—“But so many people in town look up to Marianne. How bad could she have been?”

“Marianne does a good job of selling herself, but she isn’t built for certain things.” Grandma Ruby explained.

Sherry nodded. “Like taking a child who isn’t hers into her heart.” “Um, maybe you guys could start at the beginning?” Holly told them.

Grandma Ruby turned around to look at the door, as if to make sure no one else was there. “Short story or long story?”

“Short, please.” Experience told her the long version would meander more than all of Spinning Hills’s winding roads put together.

Her grandmother nodded. “Marianne is originally from West Kettering. Her dad was a top GM exec, well known in the area. Marianne had just graduated from Our Ladies and she was majoring in something or other at UD,” Grandma Ruby began. “Jacob was from the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak, but he just had this great magnetism about him. Imagine Johnny’s charismatic smile, Sam’s magnetism, and Dan’s looks and rough edges all wrapped up into one man. That was Jacob.”

“How’d they meet?” Holly leaned forward.

“I’m not sure . . .” Grandma Ruby chewed her lip.

“Jacob was working on a house on Carillon Boulevard,” Rosa reminded her, mentioning the street that bordered Spinning Hills and Kettering. “Marianne’s house was on the other side of that street.”

“That’s right. Jacob was young, but he was a hard worker and such a polite young man. I don’t know how he and Marianne actually got together, but Marianne’s friends sometimes came by here and they’d gossip about how Marianne wouldn’t let him go, no matter what her father said. I know Marianne was enthralled with him. To her credit, I think she was every bit as enthralled with him the day he died as the day they met.”

“Still, I’m not sure Marianne would’ve signed up to take care of a little one, no matter how
enthralled
she was,” Rosa said.

“Did Jacob already have Dan?” Holly asked.

“Yes, but he didn’t know,” Rosa replied, eyes wide.

“What do you mean, he didn’t know?” Holly asked, avoiding her grandmother’s gaze. Grandma Ruby would know what Holly was thinking.

Sherry leaned in. “Apparently, Dan was born to an old girlfriend who didn’t say anything to him about it. Jacob didn’t find out until Dan was two. He and Marianne were already married and Sam was a newborn. Jacob was doing well, and I guess Dan’s mom couldn’t take care of him by herself.”

“His mother’s motives for everything were always selfish, Holly. That much was clear.” Grandma Ruby reached under the table for Holly’s hand and squeezed it tight.

“And Marianne wasn’t happy about it. I think that’s when some of us got to know the real Marianne. A lot people still go around kissing her butt, though. She just has that air of superiority and condescension about her. She’s not a bad person, and she was a devoted mom to Sam and Johnny, but she isn’t a
good
person, either.” Grandma Ruby shrugged.

Rosa nodded. “She’d go around town, insinuating that maybe Dan wasn’t Jacob’s and acting like a saint for taking him in, ignoring that Dan was his father’s spitting image and just a little boy who had nothing to do with adult choices.”

“Who’s his mom?” Holly asked next, her stomach twisting. Ella had been mostly deprived of her dad, too. Because of an adult’s—
her
—choices.

“No one knows.” Grandma Ruby replied. “Jacob was tight-lipped, and Marianne wouldn’t cross him on that. It seemed Dan would spend more and more time with Jacob as the years went by until he just started living with them. I think he must’ve been seven or eight. Dan would just shrug and tell curious kids that his real mom left. Like it didn’t matter.”

Holly’s self-doubt was replaced with heartache over Dan. His mom had left him? What kind of a woman left her child? And why would Marianne be mean to him? How could the woman’s heart not go out to a little kid who didn’t meet his father until he was two and whose mom left him? “Did Dan give Marianne a lot of trouble?” she asked, bewildered.

Grandma Ruby shook her head. “Dan was always straight as an arrow, acing school, playing every sport he could, and generally throwing himself into everything. He started working side by side with Jacob as soon as he was old enough.”

“The kid never had time to get in trouble,” Sherry said.

“Johnny didn’t need time to get in trouble, though, it just followed him everywhere.” Rosa smiled. “And Sam wanted to play his guitar and work next to Jacob all day. Marianne always blamed both things on Dan’s influence.”

Holly stared at the wall in front of her, feeling angry at Marianne, and wondering at Johnny, Sam, and their father. Had anyone ever stood up for Dan?

Marianne’s words echoed in her head.
Nothing to be sorry about.
It was just like Marianne. But many people took what she said at face value.