Forgiving Jackson (39 page)

Lanie grabbed the copper pot and headed toward the marble candy table. The throbbing fatigue between her shoulder blades turned to a sharp pain and Lanie shifted the pot. The knocking resumed and escalated to banging. Lanie jumped and the pot began to tip. She jerked it back but not soon enough. Pools, rivers, oceans, of thick chocolate spread at her feet and beyond. Self-preservation made her jump back to avoid being burned.

She would have cursed if she had known a word bad enough to equal the situation. And that was saying a lot because she knew some pretty bad words. Money, time, and energy gone because she’d let herself be distracted. Another person might have gone into a cleaning frenzy, grabbing towels and mopping up chocolate but Lanie knew better. It was best to let it harden, and then scrape it up and steam clean the floor. It would be hours before the molten liquid would be cool enough to come up easily in chunks so there was no need to even miss book club — not that they got around to discussing books very often. She sometimes wondered why they didn’t just go ahead and call it Drinking, Eating, and Gossiping Club. But either way, she was ready for an evening of good wine, good food, and good gossip with her three best friends.

The banging at the front door increased to pounding. Sophie Ann must be having a real chocolate emergency. Maybe she’d like to eat off the floor like a starving dog. Lanie wiped her hands on her splattered apron and hurried from the calamity of the kitchen to the cheerful little storefront. She looked out the door and, again, would have cursed if there had been an adequate word in her bad girl vocabulary.

Not Sophie Ann. Luke Avery. And that was worse, a million times worse. She’d met Luke at a party right after he’d moved to Merritt from Mobile last fall. He’d bitten into one of the peanut butter filled chocolates she’d brought and ended up on the floor with an EpiPen stuck in his thigh. Intellectually, she knew it wasn’t her fault. Yet every time she saw him, she couldn’t stop herself from sheepishly apologizing again — and it clearly annoyed him. Well, she wouldn’t do it tonight. She unlocked the door and jerked it open with more vehemence than she knew she had.

“I don’t have any espresso made,” she said, “and the machines are clean and ready for the morning.” Seven in the morning was usually Luke’s favorite time to pound on the door and make demands, though she didn’t open until nine.

He looked her up and down and frowned disdainfully. Luke was a no nonsense kind of man and she suspected he didn’t appropriately appreciate her work clothes. Today her chef’s pants and matching apron were black, printed with multicolored jellybeans. The black chef’s clogs were ugly but they just made sense for anyone who had to stand on a concrete floor. What was she supposed to wear? Stilettos?

“I don’t want any espresso,” he said, like he was surprised, though she couldn’t fathom why. He never bought anything else. He was probably afraid there were peanuts lurking in all the candy. “I want to talk to you for a minute.”

“I have
just
a minute. I’m on my way to book club.” She stepped aside and allowed him to enter.

Luke Avery’s eyes preceded him into the room — big heartbreak eyes the color of Windex, accented by dark circles and black lashes that Lanie couldn’t have achieved with an extension job and a triple dose of mascara. Those eyes hadn’t been built for sadness but they had learned it well. His mouth looked sad too and it was a shame — full lips like his ought to be smiling. Even his high cheekbones and the smooth pronounced plains of his face looked sad, probably because he could use ten pounds. A good cut had coaxed his dark thick hair into smooth neat layers but it looked like it would curl when it was wet. His hair might be the only thing about him that wasn’t sad.

“What can I do for you, Luke?” Lanie crossed her arms and leaned on the wall.

“I suppose you’ve heard the governor appointed me to Judge Gilliam’s seat.”

Of course, she’d heard it. This was Merritt; everybody had heard. At thirty-two, he was now the youngest circuit judge in the state. After Judge Coleman Gilliam had dropped dead on the golf course, everyone had said Luke got the appointment because his father, the state senator, was tight with the governor and because people felt sorry for him at being a widower with such a young child.

“Congratulations,” Lanie said. “Are you here to alert me to start calling you Judge Avery?”

“Of course not!”

“Don’t look so offended. I was joking. Sort of.”

“I’m not offended.” He closed his eyes and opened them again, as if he was signaling that he was closing one subject and moving on to the next. “I’ve been living with my parents on their farm right outside town.”

“I know. I drove you there that time I nearly killed you. Remember?”

He frowned some more. “Now that I’m on the bench, I need to live nearer to the courthouse. Besides, my little girl just turned three and started nursery school in town. I think we need to move.”

“You have my blessing and permission to move to town.”

He rolled his eyes — those big blue eyes. “I hear you have an apartment for rent.”

Lanie uncrossed her arms and straightened up. That got her attention. Indeed, the apartment upstairs, across the hall from her own, was empty and she needed to rent it. Business had been good but she’d gotten carried away and spent too much on too many upscale renovations to the shop and the apartments. The rent she needed to charge was unheard of for an apartment in a town the size of Merritt — and she needed that rent to hire some staff. Kathryn, the shop manager, and Allison, Internet sales manager, were hard workers but if they were stretched thin, Lanie was practically transparent.

She wanted — needed — to hire someone to help with the Internet sales and open the shop earlier so the coffee bar she’d installed could live up to its potential. When she’d bought the thing, she’d fanaticized about chatting with the good people of Merritt in the early morning hours while she made them lattes and sold them muffins. She thought it would be fun but had never found out. Unfortunately — or fortunately — to keep up with the candy making, she found herself in the industrial kitchen earlier every morning and later every night. Still, her good business sense wouldn’t allow her to hire a new person until she rented that apartment. Luke might be just the person to pay what she was asking. Everybody knew Luke Avery was a trust fund baby and the widower of a real estate heiress.

Everybody also knew the story of how Carrie Avery had wrapped her Mercedes SUV around a telephone pole — and how Luke’s best friend had been with her. Some claimed the two of them were cheating on Luke. Others said Carrie was just driving Jake Hampton to the airport. Either way, the story would have never made it from Mobile to Merritt if Luke’s father hadn’t been a state senator and Jake hadn’t been a linebacker for the New Orleans Saints.

“You want an
apartment
?” She would have figured he’d want a house in the historical district or out by the country club.

“I want to move. Soon. How many bedrooms does it have?”

“Three, though one of them barely deserves to be called a room, let alone a bedroom.” She wanted to bite her tongue. This was no way to go about renting an apartment.

But he didn’t appear to be put off. “That’s what I need. I have to hire a nanny. I’m not looking for a live-in, but she might have to stay over sometimes. Emma goes to school half days. My mother has been picking her up but she’s about to go back to the state capital with my father.”

“Do you want to see the apartment?” Book club could wait for this.

Luke looked at his watch. She liked that he wore a watch. These days, most people pulled out their phones to check the time. “I need to get home now but I could come back tomorrow.”

“Three-thirty would be good for me.”

“I’ll see you then.”

Without so much as a goodbye or a backward glance, Luke got in his green Porsche and drove away.

Lanie wondered if she should have the website completely revamped or just update what she had. That kept her from dwelling on what it would be like to have a child underfoot.

• • •

Missy Bragg opened the door of her stately federal-style house and air kissed Lanie’s cheek. Missy was tall, blond, and moved like the cheerleader she’d been.

“Come on in. Tolly’s here. We’re out on the sun porch.” Tolly — short for Townshend — Lee was Lanie’s closest friend.

“No Lucy?” Lanie handed Missy a candy box and removed her jacket.

“Not yet.” Missy led her to the sunroom and set the candy box on the coffee table beside a platter of homemade calzones, antipasto, and meatballs.

“Oh, yum,” Lanie said. “I’m starving.” Though it was a well-kept secret from all but those closest to her, Missy was probably the best cook in Merritt. She didn’t let it get out because she didn’t want to be called on to run every food-related fundraiser in the county.

“There’s tiramisu for dessert.” Missy opened the box of candy and lifted out an amaretto chocolate star. “And these can be pre-dessert.”

“Pre-dessert is my favorite course,” Tolly said and drained her wine glass. “Except for pre-drinks and drinks.”

Lanie moved to the bar, poured herself a glass of wine, and refilled Tolly’s.

“There’s a marzipan rabbit for Beau under the bottom layer of tissue,” Lanie said, referring to Missy’s three-year-old son.

Missy lifted out the little yellow confection. “Oh, Lanie, this is beautiful. You’re an artist. Beau will love it. You’re so sweet to him. Harris took him to watch football practice at the high school. Then they’re going to get some dinner with Nathan afterwards.”

Missy’s husband, Harris, had played quarterback at the University of Alabama before going to law school. Now he and Tolly were in a law practice together. Nathan Scott had been Harris’s teammate and was now head coach at Merritt High School.

“They’re practicing football on a Tuesday night in March?” Tolly asked disdainfully. For a woman born and raised in the heart of the South Eastern Conference, Tolly didn’t have much tolerance for football.

“Spring training, Tolly,” Missy said. “You’d never know you were Harris’s cousin.”

Missy was intent on matchmaking Nathan with Lanie, something that was never going to work out. Lanie hoped this conversation would drift onto something other than her love life.

No such luck.

“So, what do you hear from Nathan, Lanie?” Missy asked.

“I hear he’s in the middle of spring training.”

“Have you talked to him? How are things going with y’all?” Tolly asked.

“He came by after practice last night and talked to me while I made toffee. Things are going great with us.” That much was true. After two dates and a few granite-lipped kisses, she and Nathan had admitted there was no spark and agreed to be friends. Now, they’d been seen together enough that everyone in town thought they were romantically involved. Neither of them did anything to correct that opinion. Nathan wanted to be left alone to get his team in shape and Lanie had reasons of her own.

“So give some details,” Missy said.

Missy would never talk about her own sex life but that didn’t mean she didn’t want to hear about everyone else’s. Lanie doubted that her friends would be delighted to hear that the sexiest thing about Nathan was his willingness to haul a hundred pound sack of sugar from the storeroom to the kitchen.

Missy persisted. “Have you seen what he looks like in the morning yet?”

It was her own damned fault for being in this uncomfortable predicament. It had been easy to join in the sexy girl talk and complain about how there was no one to date in Merritt. After that, it had been nigh on impossible to tell Missy she wasn’t interested in going out with Nathan. Truth was, she’d learned a long time ago that she was not cut out for a relationship. She was simply no good at the one thing that seemed to be so fundamental to every other member of the human race, and other animals too. But her friends didn’t know that and never would. She might never have the things they had and would have, but she could be spared that particular humiliation.

“I
do
know what Nathan looks like in the morning,” Lanie said. “We met at Lou Anne’s Diner for breakfast last Saturday morning.”

“Lanie, I demand — ” Missy began but she was interrupted by the sound of laughter and footsteps coming down the hall.

“Look who I found on the doorstep.” Harris Bragg entered with Lucy Mead, who danced into the room with Beau in her arms. “Hi, Lanie. Brat.” He ruffled Tolly’s hair.

Lucy set Beau down and he squealed and ran toward the platters of food.

“No you don’t.” Tolly caught his hands just short of the platter of meatballs.

“Want meatball!”

Tolly lifted him to her lap and reached for a plate and fork. “And you’ll have one. But what do you say we eat in a civilized manner?” She placed a bite in his mouth and dropped a kiss on top of his head. Tolly and Harris were the children of identical twins, and with their silky white-blond hair and gray-blue eyes, they looked more like siblings than cousins. Consequently, Beau looked enough like Tolly to be her child. Mothers and children. They were everywhere. Lanie was drowning in them. She directed her attention back to Missy and Harris.

“What are you doing back here?” Missy asked her husband. “You know this is girls’ night.”

“After practice, I stopped and got this for you.” Harris pressed a cup from the Dairy Delish in Missy’s hand. “We’re about to go catch up with Nathan.”

“Then go. We were about to get something good out of Lanie.”

“Never let it be said that I impeded the collection of information.” Harris lifted Beau from Tolly’s lap and stepped toward Missy. “Give your mama a kiss.”

From the bar Lucy said, “Can I pour you a glass of wine, Missy?”

“I have a chocolate milkshake.” She held up her cup and lifted her face for Harris’s goodbye kiss.

The kiss was brief, no more than a peck really, but oh, so intimate. When Harris pulled away, he and Missy swapped smiles and she offered him some of her milkshake. He took the straw in his mouth, smiling around it the whole time. Then, in a motion that was so ordinary that most wouldn’t have noticed, Harris placed his hand on Missy’s abdomen. Their expressions changed — not much but just enough.