Getting Lucky (The Portland Pioneers Book 2) (8 page)

After saying goodbye to Cal, Maggie returned her attention back to her email. When she’d first been interrupted, she’d been unsure exactly of how to begin or even what to say to her sister, but now it seemed crystal clear.

She started typing.

Tabitha,

I hope things are good with you at the new job. Business at the Café is going better, and several of the business owners have formed a council to drum up additional tourism. I don’t have a lot of hope it’ll work, but it’s better than doing nothing.

I had a visitor show up at the Café this week. A Noah Fox. He says he knows you and would like to talk to you. I said I didn’t have your permission to pass on any contact information, but he convinced me to at least ask you.

Your taste in men has definitely improved. I said I wouldn’t interfere or give you advice you don’t want, but I can’t help it this time. He’s a good guy and I think he really cares about you. You could do worse.

Maggie

Maggie wasn’t surprised when she woke up the next morning and didn’t see a response from Tabitha in her email.

She also wasn’t surprised when she checked her inbox after cleaning up after lunch service and found emails confirming a produce order and a summary of the Café’s Facebook activity, but still nothing from her older sister.

Noah had been in the Café for lunch that day, joking with Janice that if he ate here twice a day, he’d never be able to steal a base come March.

Maggie’s heart had ached at those seemingly carefree words. The more she’d thought about it, the more she was sure that black hole of sadness she’d glimpsed that first night was more about baseball than it was about Tabitha.

But Tabitha was the reason he was in Sand Point, and ultimately the reason he kept stopping by the Café. Though he’d caught her arm as she’d rushed through the dining room once and told her that the caprese pasta salad he’d chosen as a side to accompany his roast beef sandwich was so good, he couldn’t even put it into words.

It probably wouldn’t be the last time someone sang the praises of her caprese pasta salad, but she’d probably remember the particular wonder on his face a little longer than the rest. Maybe because she got the impression he could use a little more of her food therapy than he had originally let on. She still remembered the way he’d savored the breakfast she’d served him after fixing the fan—she’d understood then that it had been a long
time since someone had really, truly fed him and though she’d resolved to stop personally involving herself so much in her patrons, he made it difficult to hold to her promise.

As Noah had laughed with Janice, she’d wanted so badly to go up to him, and place a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay,” she’d say, “you don’t have to work so hard to make people like you.” The gregarious charmer act might have been natural at one time, but now Maggie suspected he was only keeping up appearances.

It was only after staring in a now-empty email inbox, the produce confirmation filed away and the Facebook message deleted, that it dawned on Maggie that she’d spent more time during the last day pondering Noah than thinking about Cal.

Guilt instantly swamped her. She’d sat at this very booth only twenty-four hours ago and promised
that she’d consider Cal’s offer. It didn’t matter how intriguing she found Noah Fox. She’d still given her word.

Ella Pomeroy was perched on her high stool behind the counter, reading a worn paperback, when Maggie entered the tiny, cluttered shop three doors down from the Café.

“Mags!” Ella smiled wide, the lines bracketing her magenta-lipsticked mouth growing deeper. “So good to see you.”

Maggie slid sideways behind the counter, narrowly avoiding tipping over a circular rack of funny greeting cards while simultaneously stepping around several boxes overflowing with stuffed animals wearing shirts that read “Sand Point” in bright red lettering. Leaning over, she hugged Ella, the other woman’s wiry arms wrapping around her with a surprising strength that belied her small stature.

“What brings you my way?” Ella asked as Maggie perched on another, lower stool and wrapped her arms around her knees.

“I need some advice,” Maggie confessed quietly. When she’d realized just how much she’d thought of Noah and how little of Cal, she’d known she needed some real perspective. If Cal hadn’t been involved, she would have gone to him. Ella was the other person in Sand Point she was close to, and even better, Ella knew them both and had for years. She would be able to tell Maggie if it was a terrible idea to get involved with her best friend.

Ella’s face, haloed in unnaturally bright red curls, grew solemn and she set down the book she’d been reading. “What’s wrong, honey? Is business that bad?”

Maggie laughed ruefully. “No, I almost wish it was that simple. Business I might be able to fix, but this. . .”

“Well, out with it then,” Ella said briskly. She refused to put up with idiots and had a rather colorful, somewhat cantankerous reputation as a result.

Taking a deep breath, Maggie decided it might be easier to just rip the band aid off and get it over with. “Cal wants to date,” she said baldly. “Me.”

Ella didn’t look nearly as shocked as Maggie had expected she would. “Hmmmm,” Ella pondered, resting one neon-green Croc-clad foot on a crate filled with zebra print t-shirts. “And you said?”

Maggie glared. “You’re not surprised at all by this.”

“Honestly, I figured it would come up at one point or another. You two are so close, and, well, last time I checked, he’s got the right boy parts. You can’t work yourself to death forever, you know.”

“But we’re best friends,” Maggie protested. “I’ve never thought of him that way, not
once
.”

“I bet he’s thought about you, though,” Ella said slyly.

“Apparently
.
I asked him if he was in love with me, and he denied it. He said he
loved
me, but he wasn’t
in love
with me. Then he said all this crap about how we’re each other’s best option. I don’t want
a best option. I don’t want to be some girl he settles for because he’s lonely.” Maggie rested her chin on her knees, hating the whiny, plaintive edge to her voice.

“So he came at you with logic, then,” Ella stated.

“Oh, and then
,
when I got mad for him treating it like some cold-blooded business arrangement, he tried to kiss me.”

Ella’s face lit with interest. “Oh?”

“I said
tried
,” Maggie grumbled. “He couldn’t even manage that.”

“That doesn’t sound anything like Cal.”

That was something Maggie could agree with. Once Cal put his mind to an action, he did it. He was single-minded and had a focus like a laser beam. His hesitation at the last moment was maybe the strangest part of this whole debacle—and the part that made her wonder if deep down he was as conflicted as she was.

“What should I do?”

Ella regarded her with the most solemn expression she’d ever seen the older lady wear. “You know I can’t tell you that, Mags. Only you know whether you should risk your friendship with him. If it doesn’t work, you may never be able to turn the clock back. On the other hand, maybe he’s onto something and you should give it a chance.” She leaned forward, and Maggie caught a whiff of Ella’s favorite rose potpourri and the sandalwood incense that Maggie knew she liked to burn in the back room of the shop. “Only you can say for sure. But it’s not a decision to rush, I don’t think.”

“He’s trying to rush me,” Maggie said. “I think because he believes it’ll result in a positive response.”

“That doesn’t sound like Cal either,” Ella pointed out.

“This whole thing doesn’t sound like Cal.” Maggie’s words were practically wrenched from her in agonized frustration. “From the very beginning this has been completely unlike him.”

The heavy bronze bell hanging from the front door tinkled and Maggie glanced up to see Noah Fox pushing up his sunglasses and greeting them with one of his easy smiles.

“Maggie,” Ella whispered not very quietly. “Look at that man.
Look at him
.”

Nudging Ella to
be quiet
with a subtle push of her leg, Maggie unhooked her arms and stood. It paid to be prepared when it was Noah Fox. “Noah, I’m surprised to see you here,” she said. Ella was still apparently in shock from his appearance because uncharacteristically, she’d yet to utter a word.

“Taking a tour of the town,” he said with a wry grin that told her he’d realized just how short of a tour this would be. She couldn’t argue with him on that point.

“Pretty boring up at the hotel, then?” she said sweetly. “I can imagine being used to the big city and all, Sand Point can be a trifle quiet.”

His contemplative expression was nothing she’d expected. “I like it, actually,” he said. “The fast lane gets exhausting after a while.”

Maggie supposed the fast lane would seem even worse after a serious concussion.

“This is a . . .” Noah glanced around and Maggie had to hide her amusement as he searched for an adjective that could even remotely begin to describe the visual cacophony of Ella’s shop. “It’s a nice store,” he finished, and the answering amusement in his glance towards Maggie made her heart accelerate embarrassingly. Thank god he couldn’t know about her betraying organ. The very last thing he needed to realize was that she wasn’t nearly as immune to him as she pretended to be.

“Oh, it’s just a bit of this and a bit of that,” Ella piped up, an awestruck tremor in her voice. “And who might you be?” Maggie had to stifle the laughter as Ella literally batted her lashes at him.

“Noah Fox, ma’am.” He stepped forward and confidently thrust his arm forward. Ella took one glance at the bronzed skin of his exposed forearm and its pronounced muscles and blushed as she hesitantly shook his hand.

“I’m Ella Pomeroy. I own this store. And you know my Maggie,” Ella said so proudly, not so subtly putting a hand on Maggie’s back and giving her an encouraging push forward. Maggie didn’t need to even see Ella’s expression to imagine the fevered expectation there.

“I do,” he said with another devastating smile. “I heard the Café was the place to get a great meal in this town, and I wasn’t disappointed.”

“Maggie’s the best cook in these parts.” Ella’s voice dropped to a conspiratorial whisper. “Some say the Cliffs does a better meal, but if Maggie served dinner, she’d put them to shame.”

Maggie couldn’t help but flush in pleased embarrassment. “Lucas serves a whole different experience,” she tried to explain. “Lucas Corrgian. He owns the Cliffs.”

“That’s the building with all the windows up on the hill, right?” Noah asked. Maggie was very nearly astonished he hadn’t eaten dinner there yet.

“It’s a nice hike up there, but then you’ve got the muscles for it,” Ella said appreciatively, openly eyeing the legs that were exposed by his running shorts.

“What?” Ella asked as Maggie tried unsuccessfully to smuggle a chuckle, “I’m old, not dead.”

“Maybe I’ll head up there this afternoon,” Noah said. “You know, just to prove I’m not dead either.” He flashed Ella a killer smile, and Maggie had a horrible vision of Ella literally swooning from the power of it. He looked over at Maggie, and she’d have to be a lot blinder to miss the warm appreciation in his gaze. “You want to come with me?”

Oh god,
Maggie thought,
I am never going to live this down.

“She’d love to,” Ella burst in with determination before Maggie could even get in a polite refusal.

“Uh, I would, but it was an early morning and a long shift at the Café. I’ve got some errands to run, then it’s an early night for me.”

Maggie thought she saw genuine regret on his face. “That’s too bad,” he said. “I’ll leave you ladies to it. See you tomorrow, Maggie.”

Ella pounced nearly the instant the door shut closed. “Maggie May King, what were you
thinking
? You should have gone with him!”

She forced herself to shrug casually, as if she regularly received and declined invitations from famous, super-hot baseball players. “He’s just bored, Ella. It didn’t mean anything.”