Chapter Eighteen

IT DIDN’T MATTER that she’d gotten home after midnight. Ana’s daily routine still called. She dragged herself out of bed at 5 a.m., then several blocks to her gym, where she once more put herself through a grueling spin class and then went straight to yoga in the studio next door. She might have proven to Bryan that she wasn’t afraid of eating, but she also knew it was time to pay the piper —there was no way she could down a plateful of ribs without consequence to her waistline . . . or more likely, her backside. By the time she staggered back to her vehicle, her legs were so shaky she could barely walk, but at least she’d burned two days’ worth of calories in two hours . . . and all by 8 a.m.

At home, she showered, dressed in jeans and a pin-tucked floral blouse, and sat down at her dining room table with her laptop. She threw an uneasy glance at her Bible and devotional book, stacked just where she’d left them, unopened, but the gnawing feeling in her stomach pulled her attention back to her to-do list. Somehow, the victory she’d felt the night before paled in comparison to the list of things that still remained. She tunneled her hands through her hair while she squinted at her laptop and waited for the files to sync between her devices.

There was no need to panic. Graphic design and the website, and consequently branding, were already under way. Bryan had said that he had the technical side of packaging under control. That meant she just needed to work on marketing messaging and distribution.

She spent two hours working on a few variations of the company’s story, which would be used on the website, marketing collateral, letters, and social media ads —direct-to-consumer sales would be the most lucrative channel, even though wholesale was more stable. Once she had a rough idea of how to craft that messaging, she moved on to distribution —which looked a whole lot like copying and pasting contact information from Google into a spreadsheet. There were a shocking number of independent coffee shops and restaurants in the Denver area alone; she could spend the next couple of days expanding the list into Fort Collins to the north and Colorado Springs to the south. Those contacts would have to be mostly by mail, but she could hand-carry samples to the local restaurants and shops. She was always more persuasive in person anyway.

With those out of the way before lunch, she opened the electronic folder that contained the information for Rachel and Alex’s wedding. The spreadsheet recorded every contract deadline and amount, from the location to the table-and-chair rentals. Or at least it was supposed to. The lines for the costs and details of the rental decor were still blank. She double-checked her email to see if Melody had sent her copies of the contract, but the only wedding-related thing in her inbox was a link to a Craigslist ad for a couple dozen hurricane lamps.

She picked up her phone, intent on calling Melody to ask, but a quick look at the time convinced her otherwise. It was only 2:45; the kitchen would close down for hot food orders in fifteen minutes, which meant that Melody would be putting out the last batch of fresh bread for the day and Rachel would be shutting down the hot line.

Well, she hadn’t had lunch. If she hurried, she could grab something before the kitchen closed. She packed her laptop into her bag, slipped on her ballet flats, and headed straight down to her car.

Ten minutes later, she was parking in the alley behind Bittersweet Café and pushing through the back entrance.

“Ana!” Melody was the first one to see her, her arms full of a stack of plastic containers as she headed for the walk-in. “What are you doing here?”

“I had some wedding questions for you. And I wanted lunch. Am I too late?”

Rachel looked up from where she was wiping down her section of the countertop. “Depends on what you want. I’ve already shut down the range and the grill for the day.”

“I’ve got some minestrone left on the warmer,” Sam, Rachel’s sous-chef, spoke up. Since the last time Ana had seen her, she’d gone from ringlets to rows of braids. “It’s pretty good if I do say so myself.”

“Your minestrone is fabulous. I’d love some.”

“Coming right up.” Sam grabbed a bowl and began to ladle the fragrant soup, while Melody rustled up a couple of slices of ciabatta and dropped them on a plate.

“You got a couple of minutes to go over wedding stuff?”

“Yeah. We can grab a seat in the break room.” Melody cast a quick look at Talia, her pastry assistant. “Keep an eye on the oven?”

“You don’t need to ask,” Talia said, not even breaking her rhythm in rolling out her laminated dough.

“Rach, you joining us?” Melody called.

“Yeah, just a second.” Rachel spoke quickly to Sam in hushed tones, then pulled off her apron and headed toward the tiny break room with Melody and Ana.

Once inside, Ana pulled up one of the molded plastic chairs to the scarred Formica table. “Sorry to pull you out of work, but we only have two months until the wedding and I wanted to make sure we haven’t forgotten anything.”

Melody and Rachel exchanged a look as she opened her laptop to a spreadsheet that was a graphical representation of her type A personality. “We’ve got the venue taken care of, along with the flowers, obviously. But there’s still the matter of all the decor rental. Tables, chairs, lighting . . . plus whatever we need to run all the lighting and music. Does anyone know if we’re going to need generators?”

“No, there’s power run in the barn, which is our choice of setup for the reception. And we’re going to do a late-afternoon ceremony in the garden, right?” Melody shot a quick look at Rachel to make sure they were all on the same page. Rachel nodded. “We’ve already gotten the lanterns off Craigslist —the ones I showed you —and I’ve got a lead on some really cool picnic benches that we can bring in for seating.”

“You’ve got a lead or you’ve got them nailed down?”

“I should know in a week or so if my guy can get them.”

Ana paused, her hands poised over her keyboard. “What guy? Should I follow up for you?”

“No, it’s fine. I’ve got a reminder in my phone.” Melody narrowed her eyes at Ana. “What’s going on? You seem unusually tense over this, even for you.”

“Gee, thanks.” Ana smoothed a lock of hair behind her ear. “I’ve just got a lot going on. I’m working on the entire marketing and promotion plan for Solid Grounds at the same time I’m supposed to be helping with Rachel’s wedding. I feel like I’m going to drop a ball if I don’t have the full picture.”

Rachel chuckled and put her hand on Ana’s shoulder. “Okay, first of all, calm down. You were only supposed to be helping with all the venue and contract stuff. Melody and I were taking care of all the details. You’re off the hook there.”

“That’s when I still had a job,” Ana said. “You guys work full-time. It’s only fair I take up some of the slack.”

“Sounds like you’ve got a full-time job now too,” Melody said, “flying to St. Louis at a moment’s notice and everything. How’d that go?”

Ana shrugged. “Fine. Flew there, looked at the roaster, drove home. I managed to get him down $1,500 on the price, which I figure pays for my plane ticket and my hotel room. Not sure I’d ever drive eight hundred miles in a twenty-year-old moving van again, though.”

“No, that’s not it.” Melody stared at Ana closely. “Something happened.”

Rachel gasped. “Between you and Bryan?”

Ana shook her head, but heat was already creeping into her cheeks.

“It did!” Melody said. “Tell us everything!”

She had to shut this down before they started going off on the wrong track entirely. “Nothing happened between Bryan and me.”

“But you look like a tomato, so something happened.” Rachel looked at her closely. “Or is it that you wish something had happened?”

Ana’s traitorous face confirmed the suspicion by heating even further. Why was it that she could control her expression in every other situation but this one? “Guys, it’s no big deal.”

Melody rubbed her hands together almost gleefully. “There is something going on there! You, what? Have feelings for him?”

Ana buried her face in her hands, hoping that those feelings weren’t written as plainly on her face as she suspected they were. “I don’t know. You know I’ve . . . been attracted to him . . . since we met. But I haven’t acted on it because frankly, he was a bit of a dog. And I didn’t think he was serious about me anyway.”

“But now . . . ,” Rachel prompted. “He’s come back, seems to be a changed man . . .”

“Ana and Bryan sitting in a tree . . . K-I-S-S-I-N-G,” Melody singsonged.

Ana picked up an empty Styrofoam cup and launched it at Melody’s head. The baker dodged it, laughing.

“There was no kissing at any point. There was maybe a little hand-holding.”

“Ooh la la,” Rachel said.

“No, not ooh la la. It wasn’t even like that. We were talking, we had a moment . . . he took my hand. That’s it.”

“Even better. Sharing moments.” Rachel waggled her eyebrows until Ana shot her the Look of Death. “Okay, seriously, though. I’ve always liked Bryan. Deep down he’s a good guy with a kind heart. And from what Alex tells me, he really has gotten in touch with his faith again. You know, before Vivian, he was this committed, one-woman guy. I don’t know what she did to him, but whatever it was, it messed with his head.”

“I’m not sure if that’s reassuring or a warning,” Ana said. “It’s supposed to make me feel better that he’s been damaged by past relationships?”

“Haven’t we all?” Melody said wryly.

“What are you going to do?” Rachel asked.

“What is there to do? Nothing. Regardless of what I may or may not have felt in a moment of weakness, this isn’t a relationship that would make any sense. We’re friends. You know what would happen if we got together and then broke up. It would be weird. Alex would side with Bryan, you guys would side with me, and then it would be really tense. Totally not worth it.”

“Unless it is,” Melody said with a smile.

Ana kneaded her temples with her fingertips, already regretting her openness. All this talk about Bryan made her head hurt, and now her friends were going to be rooting for something that should never happen. That she’d never let happen. She and Bryan would go on like they had been going on. She would just ignore the fact that every time she remembered the feel of his fingertips on her neck and shoulders, it sent a shiver through her entire body.

Because that was not helpful at all.

“I shouldn’t have brought it up. Nothing’s going to happen. I’m not going to let it happen. It’s not —he’s not —what I want.”

Rachel held up her hands. “Okay then. We’re sorry. We just happen to love you both, and we think it’s an interesting idea, the two of you together. You know, you’re not as dissimilar as you might think.”

“Right.”

Melody counted off on her fingers. “You’re both fitness freaks. You’re both super-smart even though he hides it sometimes. And you both really don’t like people to crawl beneath that armor of yours to see the real person underneath. His just happens to be the life of the party and yours is . . .”

“Unapproachable. Yeah, I know. Bryan told me.”

“And you let him live?” Rachel asked.

Ana shrugged. “He’s not wrong, exactly. The only difference is that he seems to think it’s a problem and I see it as an asset.”

Rachel and Melody exchanged a glance, but Ana ignored it as she shut down her laptop and shoved it into her bag. “I feel better now that I know I haven’t forgotten anything. Melody, you’ll email me as soon as you get the final confirmation on the tables and benches?”

Melody nodded. “Sure will. But you didn’t even touch your soup.”

Ana paused, having completely forgotten about her lunch on the table next to her. “Any chance I can take it to go? I want to pop in and see if the coffee beans got delivered as planned.”

Another glance exchanged, but Rachel rose. “Sure. I’ll put it in a to-go container for you.” She picked up Ana’s dishes and headed back into the kitchen.

Ana sensed Melody looking at her, trying to broach a subject while she packed up. Finally, she just turned to her and asked, “What?”

“I’m sorry if we made you uncomfortable. Don’t stop talking to us, okay? When you guys didn’t approve of Justin, I stopped talking to you and I missed so much. I don’t want that to happen again.”

Ana softened. Melody looked truly worried. She gave her a quick hug. “Trust me, I’m not going to ditch you guys because you want to set me up. We’ve been through too much together. But, Mel, just let me handle this, okay? I don’t need anyone getting more involved in my love life than I am.”

Melody laughed and squeezed her tight. “Okay, just checking.”

Rachel came back into the room and handed over a paper bag. “Your lunch to go. Let us know how things are going over there. I’m looking forward to trying the coffee.”

“No more than we are.” Ana gave Rachel a quick, one-armed hug. “Okay, I’m off. Check in with you later.”

Ana strode decisively out of the bakery and to her car parked in the alley, her resolve strengthened. No matter how great they thought the idea of her and Bryan together was, their very investment proved that it was a bad idea. Not that she needed any reinforcement for that thought. Her own experience had proven as much already.