Chapter Nineteen

Parv woke up the next morning and immediately plugged in and turned on her phone, which she’d forgotten to do the night before, so dazed by what she was starting to think of as the Accidental Kiss.

She wasn’t expecting Max to call, but neither did she want to miss his call just in case he felt like calling and professing his undying love to her. But when she turned on her phone it was to find two missed calls from Sidney, not her brother.

Had Max told Sidney that they’d kissed? Could he have called her for permission to date Parv?

It was too early for civilized humans to be awake, so Parv shot Sidney a text apologizing for missing her calls and telling her to call as soon as she was awake. Then she bounced out of bed, trying not to obsess, and headed to Common Grounds to open it and bake away her confusion.

But two hours later she was still as confused as ever—though at least she had cranberry orange muffins to show for her angst. She kept her phone on her—and even took it out of her pocket roughly every sixty seconds to make sure she hadn’t accidentally turned off the ringer and missed a call. From Sidney of course. Max wouldn’t call. It hadn’t even been a real kiss. He was probably as puzzled by it as she was.

But if he wasn’t…

Her phone rang, mid-daydream, and Parv jumped, fishing it out of her pocket and scooching back farther behind the counter to answer it so she wouldn’t disturb her lone Saturday morning customer. Sidney’s name showed on the screen.

“Sid?”

“Hey. What happened to you last night?” Sidney asked. “I called you three times.”

“It was Katie’s engagement party and I forgot to turn my phone back on when I got home. What’s up?” Did Max call you? Do you know?

“Oh, you know, the usual. My father hates my fiancé.”

The words were so unexpected, it took Parv a full twenty seconds to process them. “What?”

“My father was in town last night—something to do with finalizing my parents’ divorce—and since he’s here so rarely, I thought it would be a good time for him to meet Josh. I should have waited for a night when Max was available because he’s always a good buffer, but he had some thing last night that he couldn’t get out of, though he refused to tell me what it was—”

“He didn’t tell you?” Parv felt a flicker of unease. Why wouldn’t he want Sidney to know he’d been with her?

“You know how Max gets. All mysterious. Probably a confidential work thing. Or a woman he doesn’t want anyone to know he’s seeing.”

The words seared through Parv. “Probably,” she echoed weakly.

“Anyway, he wasn’t available and I stupidly went ahead with dinner anyway and without my mother or Max there to run interference it was a bloodbath.”

“Your father really hates Josh? How is that possible? Everyone loves Josh.”

“We’ve found the one person on the planet who doesn’t love Josh. Lucky me.”

“Why doesn’t he like him?” Parv asked, still unable to process the idea of anyone hating Josh.

“You name it. He’s divorced. He makes his living being charming on camera. He treats me like a princess and never makes me feel like I’m not good enough. Hell, I don’t know. Since when does my father need a reason?”

“He said he doesn’t like Josh because he treats you well?”

“No. That was just me being bitter. He said some shit about me being a Dewitt and lowering my standards—as if I’m the one who’s settling with Josh.”

“Neither of you are settling.”

“He actually accused me of turning myself into a Kardashian because we’re on reality TV. God, the engagement party is going to be a nightmare,” Sidney groaned. “If there even is an engagement party. If there even is a wedding.”

A traitorous little thought whispered in the back of her mind—that if there wasn’t a wedding maybe she’d get her best friend back—but the guilt chaser that followed made her feel sick to her stomach for even letting something so horrible and petty slither through her brain. “Of course there will be a wedding,” she insisted, firm and confident.

“Don’t be so sure,” Sidney grumbled. “He kept going on about how if this was what I wanted it was fine, but I was a Dewitt and I needed to think about what was important to me. He actually said I could do better in front of Josh. I wanted to punch him. I can only imagine how Josh felt.”

”Have you talked to him about it?”

“He’s pissed. But he keeps saying he sees my dad’s side of it. That he just wants what’s best for me. I’m terrified he’s going to realize I’m not worth the trouble and bail.”

“He isn’t going to bail.”

“You didn’t see how awful my father was. I wouldn’t want to have to put up with someone treating me like that at holidays. Let alone at the wedding! This is the man who’s supposed to walk me down the aisle. What if he gets to the altar and refuses to give me away? What if he decides to take the speak now option rather than holding his peace?”

“He won’t. Once he gets to know Josh, he’ll love him. Everyone likes Josh. He’s a prince among men.”

“Sure, but how’s he going to get to know him? He’s already on a plane back to Switzerland and God only knows when he’ll be back—and by ‘God’ I mean my father since he seems to think he’s the Almighty.”

“Maybe next time he’s back you can get together with Josh and Max. You said Max is good at smoothing things over with your father.”

“He is. That’s true. When he isn’t off banging models he refuses to bring home to meet my mother.”

Parv cringed—even though there hadn’t been any banging, she was hardly model material and she’d already met his mother. “Maybe he isn’t doing that anymore. Maybe he’s matured.” She remembered his words the night before with aching detail. “Maybe he’s thinking about settling down with someone special.”

Sidney groaned. “Oh God, not this again. Parv, do me a favor and don’t get all starry-eyed about my brother. The last thing I need right now is to be stuck in the middle when my brother and his fifteen second attention span break your heart.”

Parv winced, reliving the accidental kiss that she could not tell Sidney about, even if she desperately wanted to ask what it meant. And why Max would have hidden from his sister the fact that he was with her—which was impossible since Sidney was the sister in question.

This was why Sidney didn’t want them getting together. It blurred all sorts of lines that didn’t need to be blurred.

But if Max wanted to be with her…

She wasn’t going to say no. No matter how much Sidney might want to keep things easy between them. Some things were worth the complication.

That was what she told herself on Saturday, when she told Sidney everything was fine and got of the phone as quickly as possible. By the time Monday had rolled around and she still hadn’t seen or heard from Max, her rational side had managed to overrule her heart—reminding her that Max wasn’t known for his relationship longevity. For all she knew, he’d already lost interest. Or he regretted the kiss as much as she feared.

The more she thought about it, the more she couldn’t remember how it had started. She thought it had just sort of happened, but what if she’d leaned in and made the connection without realizing it and he’d just been too much of a gentleman to push her away? What if the accidental kiss had really been her accidentally throwing herself at him?

Was he avoiding her because he felt so awkward about the fact that she’d made a pass at him and he didn’t know how to let her down easy? If he’d wanted to kiss her, wouldn’t he have at least called by now? They were in the habit of talking almost every day. Or at least texting. And suddenly all she heard were crickets—and not the kind that came as a text notification.

By Monday afternoon, she was convinced she’d thrown herself at him and completely destroyed their friendship. Things were going to be strained between them now. This was exactly what Sidney had feared. One little accidental kiss could ruin everything—Parv didn’t even want to think about how much worse it would have been if she’d accidentally slept with him.

Though at least then she would have the memory of sleeping with him—and if the memory of the kiss was anything to go by, that might have been worth it.

But no. She’d stupidly fallen in love with him—or convinced herself that she had because he was a good friend with the body of a Greek god and she’d let herself over-rely on him because she was feeling lonely and lost. And then when she believed it was true love, she’d taken him to a family gathering designed to brainwash her into thinking romantically and then attacked him at the end of the night, ruining everything.

She needed distance. It was good that he’d been avoiding her for two days. She was never going to learn to stand on her own two feet if he was always there to support her. And she was a strong, independent woman. She was going to stand herself back up, damn it.

So she left the shop in Madison’s capable hands and walked down the block, ringing the bell over the door of Lacey’s Cakes.

Lacey stepped out of the back when she heard the bell, cleaning icing off her hands with the towel tucked into her apron, and stopped, frowning when she saw Parv in her lobby. Lacey had none of the delicacy of her name. A large, middle-aged Germanic woman with a perpetual glower, she aimed it at Parv now. “Can I help you?” she asked skeptically.

Lacey was on the town council that had denied all of Parv’s requests to extend Common Grounds’ hours. She was also Parv’s primary competitor for sweet treats on Main Street. Parv had always thought Lacey should have recused herself from those votes because of a potential conflict of interest, but Lacey hadn’t shared her opinion—and their relationship had been strained at best ever since.

But Lacey’s Cakes was also the best bakery in Eden and the only other one within walking distance of her place—which was a necessity considering how frequently the Jetta had taken to breaking down lately.

Parv straightened her spine and bit the bullet. “I’m sure you’ve heard Common Grounds is closing.”

“I have,” Lacey admitted—and at least she didn’t look pleased. Parv wasn’t sure she could have gone on if Lacey had done a victory lap.

“I was wondering if you needed some extra help over the holidays.”

Lacey frowned. “Look, I know your counter girls are good, but I don’t need someone on the cash register full time. What I need during the holiday rush is another baker.”

“I know. I wasn’t asking for Madison and Anna.” The two of them had both sworn to her that they already had jobs lined up for the winter semester. “I was asking for me.”

Lacey’s grumpy expression didn’t budge, but she did take a moment to consider it. “You wouldn’t be allowed to change any of my recipes,” she said finally. “I don’t want creativity. I want a worker bee.”

“I can do that.”

Lacey eyed her, speculative through her perma-glower. “It would be part time. And only fifteen dollars an hour.”

Parv resisted the urge to point out that after running a failing small business the money Lacey could pay her would actually be a raise. “I can work with that.”

“And just for the holidays. I don’t need help year round and I’m not going to keep you on for charity.”

“I wouldn’t expect you to.”

Lacey continued to eye her. “Okay,” she said finally. “But you’ll have to sign a non-compete and if I catch you trying to poach any of my customers, I’ll fire your ass in a second and make sure no one else in Eden will ever hire you.”

“I’m not going to have a business, so I don’t know what I would do with your customers if I could poach them. Though you might be able to pick up some of mine if you consider letting me make one or two of their favorites.”

“I’ll consider it,” Lacey allowed grudgingly. “When can you start?”

“November sixteenth?” It was the day after her lease expired on Common Grounds. She would need to jump right in to keep herself from wallowing in depression anyway. And she would need the money if she wanted to keep eating and paying her rent.

Lacey nodded. “All right. The sixteenth.”

Parv wasn’t overly optimistic about the work environment at Lacey’s Cakes, but Lacey did know her stuff. Her wedding cakes were works of art and Parv would be able to learn from her, if nothing else. And make some money without the stress of worrying about paying her employees or covering her overhead.

She crossed back to Common Grounds and Madison looked up from the milk she was frothing when Parv joined her behind the counter. “Your friend was just here.”

“My friend?”

“The cute, flirty one. Max. You just missed him.”

“Story of my life. Did he leave a message?”

“Nope. Just took his Americano to go.” Madison eyed her, her baby blues concerned. “You okay, boss?”

“I’m great.” For a woman who’d just realized her accidental kiss was never going to be repeated. He hadn’t even said he’d be back or he’d see her soon. And apparently he’d flirted with Madison. Her love life just kept getting better and better.