Miracle Pie (16 page)

Rosa beamed at him. “When did you get so
smart?”

“When I moved out of my home,” Matt said.
“You gotta get smart fast.” He snagged a look at Tony.

“Are you talking about me? Hey, I’m only
twenty-three.”

“So? It’s not like you’re going to college
or school. Why’re you still living with Mom? You made fun of Derek,
but you’re not much better.”

“Don’t worry about me. I have plans.”

“Yeah? What plans?”

“The none-of-your-business kind of
plans.”

Matt sneered. “That’s what I thought you’d
say. Maybe this Gabe can get it out of you.”

“No one’s getting it out of me.”

“Not even your mother?” Rosa asked.

“See what you started?” Tony glared at his
brother, who laughed.

No mercy in that corner, Katie thought.

Tony looked back at his mom. “Sorry, Mom.
Hey, I’ve gotta help prep at work.” He put his dessert plate on the
counter then headed out the back way, giving them a wave. “See ya
later. Let me know how it goes.”

“Don’t say anything to anyone,” Rosa called.
“Not until I talk to Gabe. If I find out Linda Wegner knows about
this, I’m going to be very angry.”

“Mom!
I’m
not the family
loudmouth.”

“You better not be talking about me,” Matt
said.

“If the mouth fits...” Tony smirked, then
disappeared into the back hall.

“Brat.” Matt turned to Katie and Rosa.
“Before you do anything, you should consider how much you’ll pay
this Gabe guy. Don’t give him a percent of what the video makes.
It’s better to pay him a set amount.”

“I’ve been thinking, too.” Rosa lifted her
eyebrows. “I checked his credentials before I hired him, and he
volunteered at one of those world organizations that builds
hospitals. He filmed the making of one someplace in Africa and was
there for three years. In person he seems cool and a little
distant, but maybe he’ll do this out of the goodness of his heart.”
She gestured to Katie. “What do you think?”

Katie blinked at her. “You think he seems
cool?”

Matt snickered. Rosa frowned and at him.
“Will you be serious?”

“Then stop making me laugh.” He dropped his
grin. “Mom, maybe it’s the right thing to do, but the guy lives in
Chicago. You said he does wedding videos. That means he’s got rent
or mortgage to pay, food to buy. That kind of stuff. A guy like
that can’t afford to work for free.”

“I think you’re wrong about the pay. I think
he’ll come and do it for nothing.”

Matt didn’t roll his eyes, but to Katie it
looked like he wanted to. “Why?”

“Because he wants to sleep with Katie.”

Katie stepped back. Her jaw dropped. Did she
just hear what she heard? She wanted to say
something...anything...but her voice stuck in her throat.

Matt laughed. “So now you’re pimping Katie
out?”

Rosa reached her hand out to her. “Katie, I
didn’t mean to say it that way. I—”

Katie snapped around and ran out the front
door. She didn’t realize until she was outside in the chilly air
that she’d left her jacket behind.

Opening the driver’s door of her SUV, she
remembered her keys and cell phone were in the pockets of her
jacket. She groaned and headed back.

Right now she probably needed an Everything
Is Going Wrong Pie, but either it would be too bitter to eat or too
sugary. No inspiration for it ever came to her.

Some days she just had to settle for plain
old apple.

Chapter Twenty-six

Sitting across from the hospital
administrator, who turned out to be a friend of a friend of a
friend of Gabe’s stepfather, Gabe kept his smile on, the one he
used for the bride and the groom. And, more importantly, the
bride’s parents.

“I saw your film two years ago on the
hospital in Africa,” Evonne Black said. She was a fortyish,
medium-sized woman, with medium looks, pale skin, and easy to care
for short, brown hair. She put her knuckles over her throat. “It
was so good, I had to send money, even though the hospital was
already built. Very impressive.”

He thanked her, and she went on to tell him
she’d pass the film he’d done the other day to the hospital’s
lawyers, that he needed to get written permission from the
children’s parents or guardians before filming, and there would
need to be a parent with him at all times. She requested he email
the consent form he’d use for the parents. She’d send that to the
lawyers, too.

He nodded with every stipulation. The last
didn’t make him pause. Good for them for watching out for the kids’
safety.

“Though I was impressed with your film
credits,” the administrator continued, “I have to admit, the video
of the pie baker in Wisconsin made me laugh. And the video with the
boy made me tear up. I’d like to see this go through. You have a
gift.”

“I’m mentioning the hospital,” Gabe said,
standing to hold out his hand, “and can put in a plea for donations
for the pediatric wing.”

She gave him her hand and put her left hand
over his, her eyes bright. “I hope it works out.”

He left, his spirits up. As if he’d turned a
new corner of his life, and this one was leading to the place where
he should be. As if this path had been laid out for him all along,
and somewhere he’d taken the wrong turn.

Striding down the hall, he had an urge to
call Katie that was so strong he clenched his fingers to keep from
taking his phone out of his pocket. Katie was one road; his career
was another.

He fought the urge all the way out of the
hospital. Taking in a breath of the chilly air coming from Lake
Michigan, he finally relaxed his fingers, allowing them to
uncurl.

That’s when his phone rang. He grabbed it
and looked at the caller ID.
Rosa Fabrini.
He stared as it
rang again. It wasn’t Katie, but he still felt a shot of
excitement. Not because of Katie, he told himself. This was
professional. The numbers for Katie’s video were climbing. He
expected to get sponsors soon. Not enough to live on with just one,
but if Rosa had changed her mind and he uploaded more videos with
two attractive and personable cooks, the hits would multiply and so
would the money.

He could do this and the videos for the
children. The more product, the more avenues, the more success.

And if he went to Miracle to film Rosa, he
would get to see Katie.

He put his cell phone to his ear. “Hello,
Rosa. Are you ready to step into the dark side?”

Chapter Twenty-seven

Katie woke up with her nerves tingling.

Rosa had called Gabe four days ago. He was
arriving today and would stay for the weekend to film fifty
people.

All the while she baked her pies, fed Happy,
let her out, packed her pies in the van, and then drove off on her
delivery round, her fingertips and toes tingled, the anticipation
building.

It was dark when she left home and the sun
was beaming when she returned and had an urge to make a pie crust.
She thought it was going to be a Welcome Home Pie, but when she
grabbed the strawberries and the peaches and the apples, she knew
that it wasn’t.

She was making the wrong pie, but she kept
making it. She didn’t tell the pie what to make, the pie told
her.

Oh God, this was horrible.

***

Sitting in Mo’s Pub, Gabe felt eyes on him.
It was only ten in the morning, and the place was full. On the
booths and tables, Gabe saw stacks of onion rings that he guessed
must be one of Mo’s specialties.

Gabe felt like the main course.

“It’s really Katie’s idea,” Rosa said.

Her words were a punch in Gabe’s belly. His
mouth opened but his voice caught in his throat.

“She asked me to handle it with you,” Rosa
continued, watching for his reaction. As if she knew what happened
between him and Katie and didn’t trust him.

He couldn’t blame her. The last time he was
in Miracle, he came, he enjoyed and he left.

That’s all she knew.

That’s all Katie knew.

“So she thought I should come?”

“That was my idea. It was her idea to raise
money for Trish and Gunner. We brainstormed with my two oldest
sons, and this is what we came up with.”

“Oh?” He wondered how old her sons were.

“My oldest is at the Institute of Culinary
Education in New York. He’s been showing Katie’s video to all his
school friends and their instructors. They’re all impressed.”

“Katie’s very impressive,” he said. Why
didn’t Rosa just get a hammer and bonk him on the head with it?
That would be more subtle. What should he say? That he was sorry he
didn’t get on his knees and kiss Katie’s bare toes?

He stifled a groan. Kissing Katie’s bare
toes sounded like an excellent idea.

The door opened, and Taz entered the
restaurant. Just as when Gabe walked in, everyone turned to stare
at him. Though Taz carried his boom pole and his head phones, he
looked exotic with his caramel skin and his prowling walk. Like a
tiger that escaped from the jungle.

Taz grinned, nodded at a booth of four young
women in their late teens, early twenties. The women giggled. He
spotted Gabe and strutted toward him.

“Taz is here.” Gabe glanced around. “Where
are we filming?”

“Mo offered the break room, but I thought
his office would be better.”

Apparently Mo had agreed. Rosa was a hard
person to say no to.

“Is Katie here?” The question spilled out of
him, ignoring the
shut up
message from his mind.

“I called her about ten minutes ago, and
she’s baking a pie. Why? Do you want her to be here?”

“Just curious. Taz and I are ready to
start.” Taz reached their table, and Gabe nodded at him.

Rosa gave Gabe a look, as if she saw through
him, straight to his soul. He slid out of the booth. Maybe his soul
had a few stains, but God owed him a few breaks.

She stood. “Everyone is counting on you. I
expect you to do a great job.”

“That’s comforting,” he said, following her.
Behind him, Taz laughed.

Gabe felt the curious gazes again as they
headed past the bar where a man with several missing teeth beamed
at him and a tall, masculine looking woman gave him the once over.
Gabe grinned at them. He never liked doing cookie-cutter projects,
and this was far from any cookie forms.

He’d taken this job for two reasons: It
sounded interesting and he’d get to see Katie again.

For the last reason alone, he would have
come. He was doing this for half his usual price, but if Rosa
hadn’t budged, he would have done it for free just to see
Katie.

He suspected he was setting himself up for
heartache, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself from coming.
Before he’d taken the first job for Rosa, she’d told him that some
people were addicted to Katie’s pies. He suspected he was just
addicted to Katie, and one thing he knew about addictions was that
they never ended well.

Chapter Twenty-eight

Like a lot of things in Miracle, Mo’s back
office wasn’t what Gabe expected. Gabe thought it would be crowded
and small. Instead it ran nearly the width of the back of the bar
with a wide window that let in plenty of light. Gabe guessed it had
been a living room at one time. Despite the table pushed into a
corner, it still looked like a living room. There was an old brown
recliner with a crack in the seat and a blue wing chair, with a low
table between the two.

Gabe immediately decided on the wing chair.
Everyone looked good in blue. Anyone sitting in the brown one would
look as if they were settling in to watch a football game on
TV.

“Why don’t I film you first?” he asked Rosa.
They’d talked on the phone once a day for the last four days, and
he’d found out more about her. That she was a unique combination of
an Italian mom and American mom. That she was a sex bomb and
sometimes wasn’t afraid to use it. And last, that she had her own
ideas on how the film should go.

“I should be last,” she said. “Earl Raasch,
our village president, is first.”

“Anything I should know about him?”

“You want cheat sheets?”

Taz laughed.

“The more I know,” Gabe said, “the better
questions I can ask.”

“Maybe you’ll ask better questions if you
don’t know the answers.”

“Maybe you’re right. But maybe I’m
right.”

She stared at him, the way he’d seen a cat
stare at a dog once before it pounced, claws out. But Rosa just
shook her head. “You’re the first man that ever said that to me.
Even my own sons.
Everyone
thinks they’re right.”

He shrugged. “The world’s not black and
white.”

“I’ll second that.” Taz raised his hand.

“You’re dangerous.” Rosa stared at Gabe,
ignoring Taz. “You know women too well. How did that happen?”

“I don’t know women well.” He felt
uncomfortable. “I know what matters.”

“What does matter?”

“Who’s doing the interviewing?”

“Can I interview you at the end?”

He went still. “This isn’t about me. This is
about Miracle and your friends.”

“You just don’t want to be interviewed.”

“That’s right, I don’t.”

“At least you’re honest.”

“Lies are like acid. They burn holes in your
soul.” He glanced at Taz. “I hope you’re listening,
grasshopper.”

“Lies are a part of life. Everyone does
them.”

“Like women when they tell you you’re
cute?”

“I’m very cute. Aren’t I, Rosa?”

She looked him up and down then shrugged.
“If you like cute.”

Gabe laughed. “You win. Send Earl in. I’ll
wing it.”

Two minutes later he was checking the
lighting on Earl. With his wrinkles and grizzled gray hair, the
burly village president needed all the lighting tricks Gabe could
think of. The red in his black-and-red flannel shirt matched the
color of his nose, not helping Gabe’s job any.