Second Chance at the Sugar Shack (25 page)

The tires crunched on fresh fallen snow as he rounded the final bend and into the space that made up Deer Lick’s version of Lover’s Lane. His headlights swept the area.

Shit.

Through the Star Wars effect on his windshield, he saw the big brown Buick parked across the lot. With one occupant.

He cut the lights and rolled the SUV to a stop behind her. Below and beyond her front bumper the lights of the town glowed behind a haze of white. Enough to allow him to see her right hand move and flail as if she were in a heated discussion. Before he could open his door, she flung her cell phone out the window. It landed with a splat in a mound of snow.

He grabbed his hat from the seat next to him, pushed it on his head, and zipped up his jacket. He could smell trouble a mile away. And lately she came with the scent of sugar cookies and gingersnaps.

His boots crunched against the snow as he walked to her side of the car and discovered her with her back pressed against the door. He tapped on the window but wasn’t surprised when she ignored him. He noticed the door wasn’t locked and yanked it open. She nearly fell out. His gloved hands caught her and not even a layer of fleece and leather could keep him from the electricity that snapped between them.

“What the hell are you doing up here?” he asked.

She righted herself and glared at him from beneath a knit cap that looked like it had braided pigtails. “It’s my thinking spot.”

He laughed and looked around at their solid white surroundings. “You don’t have enough sense to stay home on a night like this and do your
thinking
there?”

Her smoky eyes narrowed. “Are you calling me dumb?”

“Kate. In case you haven’t noticed we’re having a white-out. I know in Glitter Town that might have something to do with a different kind of powder and might be considered a good time, but here in Redneckville we call it dangerous. So yes, I’m calling you dumb.”

She grabbed the door handle and tried to pull it closed. He put himself between her and the door and made that impossible.

“Go to hell, Matt.”

“Already been there, Hollywood.”

“I would appreciate it if you would stop calling me that.”

The commonsense side of him said to run away. Fast. “Move over,” he told her.

She looked up at him, tightened her lips, and then slid across the bench seat. With her arms folded across her puffy white parka she looked like a big marshmallow.

He slid in next to her, shut the door, and extended his arm across the back of the seat. Frosty breath curled from her nose like she was breathing fire. The snowfall had swallowed all sound and he could almost hear her blink.

Trying to ignore the memory of what had transpired in this place years before, he released a hard breath. “So this is your thinking spot, huh?”

She tightened her crossed arms. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“Don’t laugh.”

“Me? Never.”

“I like it because the town reminds me of Whoville from up here.”

“Whoville?”

“Yes. You know the place where life is wonderful and everybody holds hands and sings.” She untangled her arms and shoved a hand through her hair, knocking her pigtail cap askew, and shot him a look. “Until the Grinch shows up and ruins everything.”

He laughed. “Are you calling me a Grinch?”

“You said you wouldn’t laugh.”

He laughed again. “Sorry.”

“No, you’re not.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Are you talking the Dr. Seuss version or the Jim Carey version? Because honestly I don’t think I’m that funny.”

“Pfft. No kidding.”

He shook his head and pulled off his gloves. “So what is it you’re sitting here thinking about? Aren’t you supposed to be on your way to London by now?”

“You want to know why I’m still here?”

He shrugged. “I’ll probably kick myself for asking, but sure, Kate, why are you still here?”

“Because of my dad.” She turned toward him. “And the bakery. And this town I seem to want to be a part of. And I’m still here because of you, Matt.”

And on her list of reasons to stay, he came dead last.

He didn’t want to be last in a woman’s heart. He wanted to be first.

Was that so awful?

He wanted a woman in his life. Someone permanent. He wanted a family. Love. He wanted to protect the people in the town he called home. He was a man of simple dreams. Kate had built a life on fame, fortune, and glamour. She should be proud of herself. Hell,
he
was proud of her. Sure they had chemistry—the kind that was too explosive to even fathom. But that was all they’d ever have. Had. Past tense.

It had taken him a few days but he’d finally accepted the truth. He needed to move on. She needed to move on. Before they both went crazy. “Who was on the phone?”

She lifted her head and swept a finger beneath her eye, capturing a drop of moisture. “What?”

“Who was on the phone before you tossed it out the window?”

“Doesn’t matter. Just more threats of lawsuits and ruination.” Through the dark she looked across the cab at him long and hard. “And none of that means jack right now.” She curled her hands in the front of his jacket and pulled him toward her. She pressed a hot hungry kiss to his mouth.

Before he could respond she’d climbed onto his lap and straddled him.

The sweet taste of her filled his mouth. The delicious scent of her skin saturated his senses. He welcomed the punch of white-hot lust that twisted his insides as she knocked his hat off and plunged her fingers into his hair. A moan stuck in her throat, then broke free as the kiss turned into a carnal assault.

Then she was gone.

When he opened his eyes, she was staring into the backseat as if she’d seen a ghost.

“Not here,” she rasped.

“What?”

She pushed the door open, crawled off him, and yanked him outside.

“Kate?”

She pulled him by the hand through the snow to his patrol car, opened the door, and slid inside. “Get in,” she said and peeled off the marshmallow parka.

K
ate watched him hesitate. Without giving him another moment to think she reached for him, dragged him into the car, and dove into the passion spreading across her skin like a summer wildfire. Held within his arms her heart swelled and the emptiness began to subside. When his hot breath brushed her cheek, her words escaped on a breathless plea. “I need you, Matt.” She reached for the buttons on his shirt and closed her eyes as the eagerness to feel his warm skin, his heart beating beneath her fingers, consumed her.

His big hands manacled her wrists. “Stop.”

Her eyes popped open. “What?”

“I said stop.”

She leaned back to see if he was kidding. “Seriously?”

He lifted her off his lap and set her onto the seat beside him. Humiliation burned her cheeks and she scooted toward the door.

“We can’t do this, Kate.” His icy glare cut through the darkness. “
I
can’t do this.”

She tore her gaze from his and stared out the windshield at the heavy snow collecting on the glass.

He exhaled. “Honestly, in the beginning I thought it would be enough just be with you a few times. But I can’t. I want more. And I can’t play this game. No matter how much it tears me up inside.”

She looked at him. “What if I were to tell you I plan to stay? Here. In Deer Lick.”

“Why would you do that when you’ve got clients and employees and lawsuits and a whole other life that has nothing to do with me?” As if easing the pain he rubbed at the back of his neck.

“
I
want you, Kate. All of you. But I guess I’m old-fashioned. I won’t settle for less. I can’t base the rest of my life on someone who
plans
to stay. And I just don’t think you’re ready to take a leap of faith and
definitely
stay.”

Everything inside of her froze and restricted in her chest as he reached for the door handle. She grabbed his arm. “Where are you going?”

“To get my hat, pull your cell phone out of the snow, and lock your car.” He pulled the handle back and opened the door. Big fat snowflakes fell on the sleeve of his dark green jacket. “Then I’m taking you home and saying good-bye.”

“What do you mean
good-bye
?”

“You’re a smart woman. Figure it out.” He gave her a look that broke her heart. “Go back to Hollywood, Kate, because you’re too late. Way too fucking late.”

The realization hit her like a rock-filled snowball between the eyes. He meant good-bye. Forever. Just like that, everything she really wanted but had been too wimpy to grasp had now become completely out of her reach.

C
HAPTER
S
IXTEEN

H
alloween arrived a few days later with blue skies and sunshine that turned the snow to slush. Heartaches tended to turn everything upside down and Kate hadn’t slept since Matt had dropped her off at her father’s house. And since she was now close to losing every ounce of remaining normal brain cells she possessed, she was desperate for a distraction. Trick or Treat night had always been one of her favorites and she decided to indulge.

Even if she did so on autopilot.

The bakery door had been swinging all day with patrons filing in for orders of spiced pumpkin cookies or black marshmallow cats. The mice she’d made of Hershey’s kisses and the haunted house designer cake she’d donated to the senior citizen center were a hit. Her Little Red Riding Hood ensemble was anything but innocent, but her only other choices had been Carnal Cave Girl or Hottie Heidi the Upstairs Maid. And, okay, she looked pretty darned good. So sue her if she hoped the elusive Deputy Ryan might come by for a tuna sub.

Her father, with his offbeat sense of humor, had dressed as Melvin the Mad Butcher. Though with their brisk business, she didn’t imagine the hatchet sticking from his head would deter many from sampling the new menu.

From the back room she grabbed a few fresh towels from the shelf. The click of toenails came up behind her. “What’s up, my little pimp?”

Togged up in his very own costume, the dog looked up at her with utter humiliation in his big brown eyes. Kate squatted down and cupped her hands around his adorable mug. “Who’s the cutest widdle doggie in the world?” She pressed her nose against his and kissed the top of his head. If the purple velour and cheetah print jacket and pimped-out fedora—green feather included—weren’t enough, the poor little guy had to endure her baby talk too.

She washed her hands and returned to the counter. As she slid a bat-shaped cake into an oversized pastry box for Irene Neilson’s book club party, the bell over the door chimed. With moose-head cane leading the way, Edna Price hobbled inside. The collar of her worn red coat had been pulled up and her usual thick beige hose had been replaced with a pair she’d obviously hand-dyed orange. Her idea of a Halloween costume, Kate assumed.

When the older woman peered into the display case, mentally selecting the perfect chunk of brownie, Kate grinned and reached beneath the counter to retrieve the special treat she’d made for her sparring cohort. Kate hoped the small token of apology would soften the woman’s bitterness.

“I have something special for you today, Mrs. Price.”

Edna looked up and peered at her suspiciously. “Why?”

“Because it’s Halloween and I thought you might like something a little different but equally as delicious as those plain old brownies.” Kate pushed the white box bearing the Sugar Shack logo across the counter.

An extra wrinkle or two creased Edna’s forehead as she lifted the lid and looked inside. “Is this supposed to be funny?”

“Funny?”

Edna’s faded eyes narrowed. “Are you trying to insult me?”

“I wouldn’t do that, Mrs. Price. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I’m talking about you calling me a witch.” Edna shoved the box at her across the counter, turned, and hobbled toward the door.

“What?” Kate lifted the box lid and groaned when she realized she’d grabbed Felicity Houtman’s witch cake instead of the happy pumpkin brownie she’d decorated especially for Edna. “Mrs. Price! Wait!” But all that remained of Mrs. Price was a flash of her red coat as she turned the corner.

Seconds later, as Kate stood there with her gut burning from her stupid mistake; James Harley strolled in with one of his famous woman-eating grins.

“Afternoon, Red.”

Kate glanced down at the black lace-up corset and red skirt wishing her basket of goodies for grandma included a magic mirror to disappear through.

“Why the gloomy face?” James asked. “I’d have thought with business booming you’d be overjoyed enough to accept a date.”

Kate glanced around the bustling shop, then looked back at James. “Business has been great.”

He shrugged. “I figured it would with all the folks Ryan has been boasting to about the new menu.”

“
Matt?
”

“Yeah, he’s promoting this place like he owns stock or something.”

Go figure. The man wanted nothing to do with
her
yet he’d brag about her treats to send people to her door. It might not have been quite a shocker when he’d told her she was too late. No, make that way too effing late. If she’d figured things out and spoken up sooner, she wouldn’t have had to hear those words coming from his gorgeous mouth. Her fault. Not his.

That night after he’d taken her home, she stopped playing games with herself. She knew it didn’t matter if she walked away from her business or if someone took it away. She simply didn’t care anymore. She’d built a life here. She loved this town. She loved her cakes. And she loved Matt Ryan. Not necessarily in that order.

She knew she was a good person, most days, and she deserved to be loved as much as anybody else. It was long past time she did something about it. And for once, she planned to make her intentions perfectly clear. Scratch that. Matt didn’t like the word
plan
. Too iffy. She’d
definitely
make her intentions clear.

“Well, thank him for me, will you?” she told James.

“Sure thing.” He grinned and a dimple appeared deep in his right cheek. “Now about that date?”

“Two tuna subs, no tomato?” she asked, evading the question with a smile.

“I’ll take that as a hell no,” James said. “Sorry, Red, just one order today. Ryan took the day off. Something about an important date.”

“An important date?”
Please Deputy Harley, tell me more.

“Yep.” James tucked his hands in his jacket pockets. “I drove by him earlier. He had a woman in the car. Must be serious. That boy rarely takes a day off.”

A woman?
Kate’s heart climbed into her throat. Maybe that’s what he’d meant when he’d said she was way too late. He’d agreed his list was stupid, but maybe he’d found someone else. True it had only been a few days since they’d parted but . . . “Well, he is looking for the right woman to marry,” she said.

James’s dark eyes captured her gaze and held. “Yeah. And I think he found her.”

Kate swallowed the jealousy rising like acid in her throat. She grabbed a picnic roll from the tray, shoved the serrated knife through the center, and sawed away like she was Leatherface in
Texas Chainsaw Massacre
.

T
he moon floated high above Deer Lick and the Trick or Treaters were winding down their great candy caper. The line at the Grange’s annual haunted house had dwindled and Kate had to juggle her purse and her pimped-out puppy while she unlocked the bakery’s back door. In a hurry to unload the remainder of the Halloween-shaped cookies on the senior center, she’d left her coat behind. The temperature had dipped below thirty degrees and no one in their right mind would be caught outside in a tiny skirt, a thin red hood, and some severely mangled fishnet stockings. Puppy claws were deadly to a good pair of hose—which was not to say the pair on her legs were good to begin with.

She set the pup down inside, closed the door, then did a walk-through to make sure everything was locked down and turned off for the night. As she passed the lunch counter, the pastry box on the shelf below the register caught her eye. She pulled it out, set it on the counter, and lifted the lid.

Edna’s happy pumpkin brownie stared up at her.

How had she managed to screw up so badly? She’d been trying to make amends. Instead she’d sent the poor old woman scurrying away as though she’d been poked with a cattle prod.

Kate closed the lid and sighed. She ran her fingers over the imprinted Sugar Shack logo, then turned and looked down at the pup who was trying to dislodge the green feather from his purple fedora.

If she was going to make her good intentions clear, now was a good time to start.

“Feel like taking a ride?” she asked him.

He responded with a sneeze.

“You sure? We might get the door slammed in our faces.”

Another sneeze. “Okay, but if she turns a fire hose on us, it’s going to be your fault.”

Kate grabbed her coat off the hook and shoved her arms through the sleeves. Then she leaned down and removed the fedora from the pup’s head. “I’ve tortured you enough for one day, little man.” He looked up at her and his tail swept happily across the floor. “Fine, I’ll take off the jacket too. But don’t tell me you didn’t have fun playing dress-up.”

He sneezed, then rubbed a paw over his nose.

“Yeah, that’s what all you dogs say. But deep inside I know you really love it.”

K
ate parked her mother’s boat in front of a quaint little cabin with a jack-o-lantern grinning out from the front porch. Smoke curled from the chimney and only a single light glowed from behind the white curtain. She grabbed the box from the backseat and told the pup to stay before she closed the door. He put his paws on the window ledge and whined as she walked up the path to Edna’s front door.

She tugged down her skirt trying for a little more modesty, but nothing would make her look any less slutty in Edna’s eyes. Kate didn’t even know why she bothered. She raised her hand and rapped twice on a door that could use a good coat of wood sealer.

The door swung open and Edna stood there in a poufy pumpkin suit with her hand-dyed orange stockings. On top of her head she wore a green Leprechaun hat. At her feet a strawberry blonde Pekinese yipped and tapped its small feet. Edna held a purple and black bat-shaped bowl half full with packets of plain and peanut M&M’s. Her eyes widened.

“What the hell do you want?” she growled.

“Now is that any way for a pumpkin to talk?” Kate asked and held out the pastry box.

Edna’s faded eyes zeroed in. “What’s that?”

“
This
is the special treat I made for you.
This
is the treat I meant to hand you earlier. Not Felicity Houtman’s witch cake.”

Kate’s nerves were grinding as she waited for the door to slam in her face. Instead Edna surprised her by setting the bat bowl on a chair near the door and taking the box from Kate’s hands. Her mother’s dearest friend lifted the lid, looked inside, and for a moment was completely silent. Then she looked up into Kate’s eyes and something passed between them. It wasn’t exactly a truce, but more like someone had come along and sprinkled water on the fire that always sparked between them.

“You made this? Just for me?”

Kate nodded.

A large intake of breath lifted the eyes on Edna’s pumpkin suit. “Well . . . it looks . . .”

Delicious. Please say it looks delicious.

“It looks . . . better than anything your mom ever made for me,” she said as her face crackled with a small smile.

Kate didn’t know why but the compliment Edna Price had just bestowed on her felt better than any red carpet mention she’d ever received. “Thank you, Mrs. Price. That means a lot. I’m really very sorry about the mix-up earlier.” Kate glanced at a trio of teenaged witches skipping down the sidewalk. “Could I . . . um . . . talk to you a minute?”

“About?”

“My mother. Her heart. And a few things that might completely surprise you.”

Edna stepped back. “Why don’t you come on in and have a brownie?”

“Oh. Well . . . I’ve got the puppy in the car and—”

“Well, bring him in. I’ve got some kibble. Skipper won’t mind sharing.”

“Are you sure?”

Edna grinned. “I’ve got hot cocoa too.”

Kate smiled back. Who was she to turn down a double dose of chocolate? “I’ll be right back.”

She trotted down the path as fast as her Loubitan’s would allow her to go and opened the car door. As she reached for the pup, a rosy glow filled the center of the backseat. Kate drew the pup into her arms and blinked. When she opened her eyes, her mother sat there in her overalls and red plaid shirt. Not a hair had gone askew in the bun on top of her head. She looked exactly the same as she had every time before.

Yet something was different.

“Mom?”

“You’re a good girl, Katherine.”

Kate’s heart skipped.

Her mother gave her a smile and reached out her hand. Kate shifted the pup into her other arm and reached out her hand too. In the center of the Buick their hands met and Kate felt a warm tingle whisper across her palm.

“Can you feel that?”

Kate nodded as tears clogged her throat and stung her eyes. “What is it?”

“A mother’s love, daughter. Even death can’t take that away.”