Pistols & Pies (Sweet Bites Book 2) (Sweet Bites Mysteries) (13 page)

The sounds of a muffled sob filtered through the phone. “I can’t believe he left me here. All I wanted was to make him commit. I mean, I know he loves me. Why doesn’t he want to marry me?”

I felt her pain, though getting the guy to give me the ring was never my problem. My issue was pinning my groom down to a date. I’d had two guys propose in the last few years, and neither had worked out. But looking back, I don’t think either guy really knew what love was, so I could hardly expect them to make the kind of commitment I’d felt. I had the lousiest luck with men.

“Have you talked with him about marriage in the past?” I asked. As long as they’d been together, I’d be surprised if she hadn’t.

“Of course I have. He always said someday. But I’m tired of waiting for someday. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, that I’m not good enough for him. And then he just left me here, took off for Arizona as if I didn’t even matter.” Her voice hitched and she blew her nose.

“I don’t think he feels like you don’t matter,” I told her. “He sure acts like he’s unhappy here without you. Maybe he just needs a few days to get his head straight.”

“I keep hoping that’s true, but it’s been nearly a week since our fight and still nothing.” She sighed and her voice went really low, radiating discouragement. “I’m not like the other girls he knows. I’m kind of boring and reclusive and I don’t like parties much.”

“Give me a break. He’s been with you for five years. You can’t possibly think he only dated you because it was easier than being alone? Of course not. He loves you, and he obviously doesn’t think you’re boring or too reclusive or he wouldn’t have stayed with you for so long.”

“Then what’s the problem?” Kat took a shuddering breath and sniffed into the phone.

“I don’t know, but I’ll see what I can figure out.” What I wanted to do was tell her to get her butt down here and set him straight, but I didn’t know how that would go over, and I didn’t want to push him too fast. If she came before he was ready to listen or to talk to her honestly, would it do any good?

“I’m thinking about checking out some galleries in Sedona.” Her voice took on a careful edge, as if feeling me out to see if I thought it was a good idea. “And I understand Arizona has some really great landscapes that might interest me. The pictures I’ve seen are beautiful. I thought maybe I’d take a trip to see if the area appealed.”

I did a boogie in the kitchen, then looked up and saw Jack watching me from the front of the store—how had I missed the bell ringing? My face heated in embarrassment. “Look, don’t make yourself too available to him, but yeah, a visit for your
career
and a reminder about why he loves you so much might be just what he needs.”

“Thanks for listening, Tess,” she said. “I’ll look into it. I’ll get back with you, okay?”

“Okay.” I gave her my cell phone number so she could call to let me know about her plans and hung up, returning the phone to where I found it before heading to the front to help Jack.

“Something made you happy.” A smile tweaked the corners of Jack’s mouth. “What was that all about?”

“Nothing, just sticking my nose in someone else’s business,” I said. No way was I going to talk about Lenny’s relationship. “How are you doing today? And what can I get for you?”

His eyes flitted over me for a moment that stretched just a little longer than normal. “I thought we could use one of your chocolate cakes for dinner tonight. My brother’s in town with his family for the weekend.”

“Yeah? How many kids does he have?”

“Two. My mom keeps hounding him for more, but his wife says they’re done.” His grin broadened. “It’ll be nice to have her nagging
them
for a few days.”

“You’re such a liar—like your mom ever nags you. And you love living at home with your parents again.” Mrs. King came in with her granddaughter on a regular basis and it was clear how much she loved having Sadie live with her.

He shrugged. “It’s nice to see them so much, and Sadie loves her grandparents, but if I had a normal nine-to-five job, I’d rather have a place of my own.”

“I get that. How is Sadie? I haven’t seen her for a few days.” I moved to the display case and pulled out one of our triple-chocolate eight-inch cakes and boxed it up while we made small talk. I marveled when I remembered that I used to think he was rude and obnoxious. I was wary of guys—I’d been hurt too many times not to be—but he was growing on me.

If I could have a casual, fun relationship with Jack with no strings or expectations, and if I could be sure my heart wouldn’t get wound up in him, I’d totally ask him out for dinner and country dancing. But I wasn’t in that position and didn’t dare take the risk.

Besides, who knew if he was even interested?

I turned back to him, set the box on the counter and moved to ring up the purchase.

“So how’s the investigation going?” he asked.

“It’s coming. Slowly. Did the last one really wrap itself up in a week? At the rate things are progressing, I wonder if we’ll figure it out before the month ends.” It was discouraging, how slowly things were moving, but I knew it would come, eventually. If Detective Tingey didn’t beat us to the answer.

“Don’t be silly—it’ll be fine.” He handed me a twenty and I made change.

Our fingers brushed as I put the cash back in his hands and I couldn’t help but lift my eyes to his, swallowing hard when our gazes meshed. We hovered for the briefest second, and the pressure in the air seemed to raise around us. I pulled back, leaving the change in his palm.

My heart raced and my mouth was dry and all we had done was touch in the most casual of ways. I picked up a receipt from earlier and glanced down at it, needing a moment to regroup before I did or said something I would regret.

“I guess I should go,” he said after a long moment. Had he felt the pressure too?

“Yeah. Have a good day.” I swallowed hard, finding it strangely difficult.

He grabbed the box, exiting the store with a quick goodbye.

I slumped against the counter, wondering why I couldn’t just be happy living alone and being successful without messing up my life with men.

I returned to the kitchen to bake the cakes for tomorrow’s wedding.

“What’s going on here?” I asked as I walked into Honey’s yard. No one had answered the bell when I rang at the front door, but I could hear noises out back.

Chance, Honey’s eight-year-old son, looked up from the pieces of wood sitting in front of him. “I’m making a bird house!”

Jerry came around the corner, entering my view. Both he and Chance wore safety glasses and long sleeves, even in the July heat. An air compressor grumbled near the makeshift table where Chance held a wicked-looking mechanism.

“What have you got there?” I asked. The smell of barbecuing meat wafted to me while George stood at the grill and the girls played in a sandbox, though Madison, at five, who sat daintily on the edge, appeared to be playing only for the sake of her younger sister—she wasn’t a fan of getting dirty.

“It’s a staple gun, and Jerry’s going to let me use it.” Chance’s eyes glowed, his smile grew even wider—if such a thing were possible—and he held it aloft like a weapon.

“Should he be pointing that thing everywhere?” I asked Jerry. It looked dangerous to me.

“It’s no big deal. You can’t shoot anyone unless the latch at the front is depressed.” He pointed to a piece of metal that stuck out beyond the front of the staple gun. “Just like a nail gun, the nose has to be pushed against the wood or the staple won’t release.”

“Want me to show you?” Chance asked.

“Sure.” I set down the bag of cookies I’d brought from work and walked over, sticking my hands in my back pockets.

Chase put a couple pieces of wood together, and Jerry helped him adjust them so they matched up right. He held them while Chance pressed the tool against the wood and pulled the handle. There was a loud bang, and he lifted it away to expose the wood and the staple, which was buried all the way. “See how good I am?”

“Very good. How long do you think it’ll take you to finish that bird house?” I asked.

“We’ll finish this part of it before the burgers are ready,” Jerry said. “Then we have to sand a couple more spots and we’ll be ready to paint tonight.”

“What color are you going to use?” I asked Chance, who had returned to work setting in the staples.

“Orange, so the birds will be able to find it. If I used green, it might get lost in the leaves, don’t you think?” He pushed the safety glasses back on his nose and peered up at me, looking like a myopic puppy, always in desperate need of reassurance.

“That makes perfect sense.” I nodded and moved farther into the yard to see how things were coming with the rest of the food. “Where’s Honey?” I asked George when I drew closer. The sound of the staple gun made a staccato beat in the background.

“She ran to the store for some salads. She got sucked into the web design she’s working on and lost track of time.” He grinned, not bothered by it.

I understood that kind of focus well enough myself.

The back door opened and Honey appeared, two plastic grocery bags in hand. “Hey, I saw your car outside,” she greeted me. “How are things at the shop?”

“Great. Today’s receipts were good, and I’ll get tomorrow’s wedding cake finished up tonight. How’s your web project coming along? George said you’ve been buried in it all day.”

“So much fun!  I’ve been playing with new features I’ve never done before. I have some new ideas for your site now and I can’t wait to show them to you.” She glanced around the yard. “Where’s Lenny?”

“Hopefully finding a place of his own.” We made small talk while we waited for the food to finish and Lenny to appear from his apartment search. He’d been gone all afternoon and I knew there weren’t that many places to rent, so I hoped it meant he’d found somewhere and was signing documents. My couch was starting to smell like cigarette smoke where he stretched out to watch TV. I really had to incentivize him to quit.

When he showed up, he walked with a jaunty step and was smiling. “You’re in luck, Tess, I’ll be out of your hair on Monday. I found a great place just a few blocks from the shop.”

That was music to my ears. Seeing him so excited about his place was nice too—it was the most enthusiastic I’d seen him since he arrived. “Yeah? One bedroom or two?”

“Two, and it has southern exposure coming in from the second bedroom with huge windows—the light is going to be awesome—and...  ” He stopped, as if realizing that he’d just picked out a place with a room for Kat to paint in, even though he’d been insisting he didn’t want to get married. He stood there with disappointment sliding onto his face.

I kept my thoughts to myself as I asked him about the kitchen and other rooms. I wondered if he thought Kat would move here on his terms after all, or if he was planning to pop the question so she’d move to Arizona. I wondered if she would eventually give in and move to the area without a ring. She might, if she would give anything to be with him, even if she couldn’t have things the way she wanted. As it stood, it would be mighty hard for the two of them to reconcile if she was living halfway across the country.

I was torn by the thought—I wanted her to get what she wanted. She and Lenny were cute together, finishing each other’s sentences, opposites in so many ways, but oddly complimenting each other rather than working in different directions. Was it really best for them to get married? If Lenny gave in and proposed, would he regret it and back out as my two former fiancés had done, breaking her heart? Or would they be better off, luckier than I had been? I didn’t know.

Since I wanted to see him happy again, I was willing to interfere, but I vowed not to let myself unduly influence either of them. There were limits to what a friend did, right?

Nearly two-year-old Zoey ran over to me and I swung her up in my arms. The youngest of Honey’s children, she was a breath of joy. And she loved me—how could I fault her good taste?

“Auntie Tess. Cookie!” Yes, she knew exactly what Auntie Tess was good for. Cookies. And cupcakes, and other yummy things. I made sure she always got at least a taste when Honey brought her into the shop, even if it was a small one. Since I wasn’t going to have a family of my own anytime soon, I’d live vicariously through Honey.

“Auntie Tess,” Madison said, coming up beside me. “Your sandals are so cool.”

I looked down at them, turning my ankle slightly so I could enjoy the flash of sunlight off the gold, strappy darlings. It was nice to wear something cute for a change. “Thank you. Aren’t they pretty? I wish I could wear them more often, but I can’t at work. Yours are great too.” Hers were covered in purple glitter.

She beamed at me and latched onto my free hand. “Come sit by me. I’m so hungry, aren’t you? Guess what? Today I went to Tanya’s house and we played Barbies.” She spoke triple-time, making sure I knew all of the details, pertinent or not.

I held in the chuckle bubbling inside me. I loved these kids; they were a bundle of fun.

When George’s parents arrived a few minutes later, the sound of the staple gun ceased, the air compressor turned off and the burgers and dogs came off the grill. Happy, I soaked in the warmth of spending time with family. Even if it wasn’t my own.