Curious friends and townspeople stopped by to chat and check out the changes at the old Elliot place. Both the grapevine and goodwill would be crucial to her business’s success, so every single time the door swung open, Tansy made sure her visitor got the nickel tour.
She knew, too, that more than a little of the curiosity had to do with the fact that Beck’s crew was doing the work. Misty Bottomers loved their gossip, and she and Beck had provided plenty of fodder in the past. A lot of her drop-ins wanted to see if the pot was being stirred between the two of them again.
Whew! If anyone caught a whiff of what had gone on the other night under the oak… Definite stirring!
As she stepped from the kitchen, the door opened and Lamont Elliot walked in. She watched nervously as his gaze traveled over the rooms, taking in the changes, watching the workmen who all stopped long enough to acknowledge him.
“What do you think?” she asked.
“I love it!” he boomed. “Exactly what this old place needed—new life and new energy.”
Tansy breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m so glad. I know it’s different, but—”
“It needed to be. Can’t do what you want and not make any changes.” He waved a hand at her. “Show me around.”
She did.
“My grandson’s doing right by the place, isn’t he?” Pride filled his voice.
“Yes. I’m so glad Beck agreed to do this remodel.”
“Why wouldn’t he?”
“Well, because—um, he—”
Lamont laughed and chucked her under the chin. “Tellin’ you, girlie, that’s water under the bridge.”
Maybe, maybe not.
When he left, he promised to return for opening day.
She watched him lumber down the sidewalk of what used to be his home and blinked back tears when the old man turned to look out over the backyard, no doubt remembering his life here, his family playing and relaxing in that yard. His Elsie.
Now, he’d entrusted the house to her, and she swore she’d do right by it.
Cricket popped in. “Have two minutes?”
“Absolutely.” She snagged a couple bottles of water from her mini fridge. “Let’s sit at the picnic table.”
With sunshine bathing them, Cricket pulled out her phone. “Wanted to show you the flowers Lacy Hampton picked out for her bridal bouquet. Thought you could use them when you design the wedding cake. She’s coming in next week for a consult.” Cricket scrolled through photos. “Her colors are emerald and melon. Very dramatic. I’ll use Juliet garden roses, sweet peas, and white lilacs for her nosegay with lots of greenery to pull in the emerald. Jenni Beth’s decided on melon for the table linens. For the tall centerpieces, I thought I’d include some vines.”
“Different.” Tansy nodded. “I like that. She’s planning on around a hundred and twenty guests, so I’ll do a four-tier, fourteen-inch-wide cake. Fresh flowers might be better than sugar ones since Lacy’s trying to keep the cost down. It won’t be as labor-intensive, so the fresh will actually be more cost-effective. Let me grab my notepad.”
As she walked in the back, the front door opened. It was Cole.
“Look what I found.” He pulled out his phone and brought up photos of a vintage pink fridge he’d found at Dinky’s, a friend’s architectural salvage place.
“What do you think? I know you’re buying Kitty’s industrial fridge for your supplies, but I thought maybe you could use this one behind the counter.”
“Yes, yes, yes! I can stock it with creamers, milk, and butters for my customers. Besides looking awesome, it’ll save hundreds of steps a day.” She grimaced. “He won’t sell it before you get back to him, will he?”
“Nope.”
“You sound awfully sure.”
“I am.” He laughed. “I already bought it. It was made for Sweet Dreams.”
She threw her arms around his neck. “You’re the best!”
“I am.” He hugged her back just as the back door opened. “Hey, Cricket.”
“Hey, yourself. Jenni Beth told me you were on a buying trip, and I walk in and find you getting all snuggly with Tansy.”
“I was on a buying trip, and Tansy threw herself at me.”
Laughing, Tansy smacked him on the arm.
“I could take it back.”
“Not if your life means anything to you, you won’t.”
He threw his hands up in surrender. “I stopped by to show this to Tansy.” He held up his phone.
Cricket took a peek and grinned. “Oh my gosh! It’s perfect.”
“Exactly my words,” Cole said. “And I need to hit the road again. Don’t suppose you could spare a coffee for a friend?”
“For you? Anything.” Tansy moved to her new machine and brewed him a cup.
“You girls locking up at night and when you’re gone?” Cole asked Cricket and Tansy.
Both of them nodded.
“You heard that Jenni Beth had an uninvited visitor a couple of times at Magnolia House?”
“I don’t understand that.” Cricket stuffed her hands into the pockets of her loose cotton pants.
“Me, either.” Cole turned to Tansy. “Have you seen Beck? I thought with his guys here…”
A hot blush raced over her chest, up her neck and face.
“Um, not lately, no.”
Cole narrowed his eyes, and Cricket tilted her head thoughtfully.
“Somethin’ goin’ on? Problem?”
“Absolutely not.” She handed him the coffee, then crossed her fingers behind her back.
He sipped his coffee. “Excellent brew. I’ll pick up that fridge in a couple days.”
“Thank you, Cole.” She clasped her hands together. “I can’t wait to get it in here!”
He threw her a wink and gave Cricket a jaunty salute. The new bell Tansy had hung over the front door tinkled merrily as he left.
“Is it my imagination, or did I detect an undercurrent just now?”
Tansy opened her mouth, then closed it. Too many ears. One of Beck’s men worked with a tile cutter while another installed those tiles as a backsplash for her work counter. “Let’s go outside.”
“Good. I brought plants and seeds for the garden. They’re in my Chevy.”
The second the door shut behind them, Cricket asked, “So what’s up?”
“Can you keep a secret?”
Cricket nodded.
“You can’t share this with anybody! Not even Sam.”
Cricket crossed her heart over her vintage sweater.
“I’m a mess. Things have thawed a little between Beck and me, but…” She spilled her guts.
Cricket whistled. “Oh boy.”
“Oh boy is right. Beck and I have all this stuff to deal with. He took a step forward the other night, and I messed it up. Then again, maybe it’s best we don’t…you know.”
Cricket nodded. “Do you still love him?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Her throat tightened. “There isn’t going to be any Disney happy ending for us, Cricket.”
“I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”
“I am. I screwed up. I hurt him. I was engaged to him and married someone else!” She rubbed her hands over her face. “The chemistry’s still there, but I destroyed his trust. Without that, we can’t possibly have a future. Sleeping with him isn’t enough. And then there’s Gracie…”
She threw her hands into the air. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
“Fair enough.” Cricket gave her a one-armed hug, then started toward her vehicle. “Come look at the pretty plants I brought you.”
* * *
The next afternoon, Sam pulled up in his old truck with Jimmy Don riding shotgun. Tansy’s fountain had come in, and Cricket had tapped the two of them to deliver it. After they’d grunted and groaned and placed it where Tansy said, she’d run inside to peek out the dining room window. A couple more trips inside and some adjustments by the guys, and the fountain sat in exactly the right spot.
Cricket showed up several hours later. She’d closed Enchanted Florist and, along with Sam and Hobo, went to work plumbing the fountain. When Tansy offered to help, they’d kicked her out. Battling guilt, she left them hard at work while she went home to spend the evening with her daughter.
By the time she walked through the door the next morning, water cascaded from the newly installed fountain and, grinning, she rushed to open the window. Like an idiot, she just stood there, listening to the soft splash.
Charlie Pearce, tool belt low on his hips, rounded the corner from the kitchen. “Like it?”
“I love it. I love the whole house! Thank you for what you’ve done here, Charlie.” Without thinking, she kissed him full on the lips. “Don’t tell Martha I did that, but isn’t this house fantastic?”
“It surely is.” His eyes twinkled. “As for the other? My lips are sealed, sweetheart. If an old man can’t get a kiss from a pretty young thing every once in a while, what good is livin’?”
She laughed and threw herself into the day’s work.
The week went from busy to busier.
Light fixtures came down; others went up.
Tansy hated that she chose her work outfits a little more carefully and bothered with makeup on the slim chance Beck would come by. When he didn’t, she told herself it was for the best. The two of them together was tinder to fire.
The built-in wall cabinets and arched nooks Lamont had installed in the dining room for his bride would be repainted a pale, pale pink and used for both storage and display of for-sale items. They’d look fantastic with her new pink refrigerator, and her refinished hardwood floors shone like a new penny.
On Thursday, Kitty’s bakery closed after over four decades, a bittersweet moment for the whole town. Much of the citizenry of Misty Bottoms had been weaned on her pastries, and her final day found the shop bursting at the seams. But new was always exciting and everybody looked forward to the Sweet Dreams opening.
“The king is dead; long live this king,” Tansy mumbled. “I hope I can live up to the town’s expectations.”
Had she bitten off more than she could chew? She prayed not. Jenni Beth had two degrees to back her up, one in business and one in events planning. Cricket had worked in a flower shop before opening her own.
Tansy grimaced. She’d taken some cake decorating classes and practiced in her kitchen, and here she was opening her own business. The biggest difference between herself and her friends? Cole had Jenni Beth’s back, and even before Sam came to town, Beck was there for Cricket. Both women had men who supported them, while she was on her own—with a child to support and care for.
Well, it was what it was. She reached in her pocket for an antacid.
* * *
A delivery truck backed into her drive, and Tansy ran outside to meet it.
The equipment from Kitty’s had arrived. The Elliots’ family kitchen had already been dismantled and what she couldn’t use upstairs in her new kitchen had been donated to Habitat for Humanity in Savannah. Beck’s crew had upgraded the electricity and plumbing to handle the industrial appliances.
Charlie moved up behind her. “You look like a kid in a candy store, Ms. Tansy.”
“I feel like one.”
“My men will hook these up before they go home today.”
“Thank you.” Shame on her for feeling sorry for herself. She had an entire town—minus one—rooting for her.
Yet even that one had helped her weed her front flower bed. His men worked on her house, and he’d handled the ordering, the delivery of supplies, and built shelves for her bedroom.
Reluctant or not, didn’t he, in his own way, have her back?
She’d take a page out of Scarlett’s book and think about that another day.
Right now, the house was really coming together. She ran a hand over the stainless-steel double convection oven. How many cakes had Kitty baked in this old workhorse? Like all of the equipment, it was far from new, and realistically, some would need to be replaced before long. For now, though, Tansy could live with them.
True to his word, Charlie’s crew had everything up and running before they left. Just in time, too, because in four short days, she had to deliver another wedding cake for a Magnolia House bride…and no longer had Kitty’s kitchen to use.
The bride and groom had decided on the perfect cake for their fall wedding. London would carry a simple bouquet of vibrant orange calla lilies and gold roses with fall foliage woven in. For their cake, Tansy would fashion a three-tiered lemon sponge creation with white buttercream scrollwork. The labor-intensive part was the scattering of orange and yellow fondant leaves. Each one had to be formed by hand along with the fondant acorns and minipumpkins. She’d have a lot of time invested, but this would be a cake she could be proud of. Would be proud of.
Around and above her, the sounds of late-day hammering and buzz saws provided the soundtrack for her dream. Over it all, another sound reached her ears as she knelt to finish painting the living room baseboard.
She peeked out the window and nearly swooned. Her new display case. Oh! Carefully, she set down her brush and placed the lid securely on the can. Wiping her hands on paint-stained jeans, she rushed to the door, then stopped as a pickup pulled in behind the delivery van.
Jeeters hopped out. And Beck.
Her stomach did a rather shaky cartwheel.
She hadn’t seen Beck since, well, since he’d stopped to help her weed. Okay, that wasn’t entirely true. He’d been at the store a couple times when she’d run in to pick up something or to place a new order.
They’d spoken a mumbled hello, a how-are-you kind of thing that strangers or barely acquainted people did. Inside, though, heat had licked through her. From the quickly banked expression in his eyes, she was almost certain that same flame burned inside him.
On the off chance he’d stop by, she’d actually made a practice of being the last to leave in the evenings. And how stupid was that? She was a grown woman, not some love-struck adolescent—although, to be honest, around Beck, she reverted to a moon-eyed teen. If she caught either Cricket or Jenni Beth acting so addle-headed she’d be tempted to give her a kick in the butt.
“Jeeters mixed your exterior paint today.” Beck lifted two cans from the back of his truck. “You do know we painted this house seven months ago.”
She chewed her lower lip. “I do, but I really have my heart set on different colors.”
He lifted the cans higher. “Purple and green? Haven’t we had this discussion?”
“Imagine and Julep,” she said stubbornly. “Look at the cans. Those are the colors.”
Beck rolled his eyes. “Semantics.”
“I’ll leave the gingerbread white and use the julep sparingly.”
“I sure as hell hope so. Still, purple?”
“Pale lavender. Imagine. She’ll look like one of San Francisco’s beautiful painted ladies.”
“You’re forgettin’ something.”
“What?”
“We’re in Misty Bottoms, not San Francisco.”
“Doesn’t matter. If I leave it white, it’ll still be the Elliot homestead. I need people to look at it and see Sweet Dreams.”
He snorted. “This is Misty Bottoms, sugar. It’ll be, ‘Hey, let’s go to Sweet Dreams. You know, the old Elliot homestead.’”
Because he was right, she said nothing.
When he handed the first can to her, he stepped close and defiantly invaded her personal space. Her fingers curled around the bail, and his fingers curled over hers. Their eyes met.
“You and me? We have some unfinished business, sugar.”
Her heart went from near zero to sixty.
“What? Nothin’ to say?”
She shook her head.
“Good.” He turned back to his truck to get the rest of the paint.
Then he and Jeeters, with help from some of the other guys, unloaded her new display case. Stainless steel and glass with a pristine white top. She couldn’t wait to load it full of cupcakes and cakes, cookies and doughnuts.
“Jeez, what is this made of?” Jeeters complained.
“I’m sorry. It’s heavy, but it’ll last forever. When I’m open, you have a month of free doughnuts.”
“Honest?”
“Honest.”
“I’m already payin’ you, Jeeters.”
“I know, but she offered.”
“Only because you’re whinin’ like a baby.”
“Boys, play nice.”
Beck scowled at her, and Jeeters laughed.
“What? You want free doughnuts, too?”
“Doughnuts weren’t quite what I was thinkin’ of, sugar.”
Jeeters snorted.
“Coffee, then,” she said. “And that’s my final offer.”
“We’ll see about that.”
She led them to where the dining room wall had once stood. “Right here. It’ll separate the sales area from the dining space.”
As they muscled it into place, she sighed. “It’s gorgeous.”
“Yeah, it is.” Beck moved toward the door. Hand on the knob, he turned. “Absolutely beautiful.”
But he wasn’t looking at the case. His eyes ran over her, making her painfully aware of her paint-splattered jeans with a hole in the knee, the oversized plaid shirt, and her wild hair. Why hadn’t he come on one of the days she’d looked nice? Self-conscious, she reached up to smooth the tangled mass, then remembered too late she still had paint on her hands.
Beck laughed. “Nice look, Red. My guess? You saved a ton on highlighting.”
Then he was gone.
* * *
That evening after dinner, when dishes were finished and Gracie tucked in for the night, Tansy gave in to her need for solitude.
“Think I’ll take a long bubble bath, Mom.”
“Good for you.” With a gentle hand, Rexanna brushed a paint-streaked strand of hair from Tansy’s face. “You were awfully quiet at dinner.”
“I’m so tired. It’s been a crazy few weeks.”
“It has. A lot going on and a lot of changes. I think there’s more, though.”
Tansy squirmed. Her mother always had seen right through her lies and half-truths. She guessed that, at least, hadn’t changed. “Nothing some quiet time won’t take care of.”
“A bubble bath should do the trick, then. Take a good book and a glass of wine in with you.”
“I will.”
“And don’t worry about Gracie. I’ll keep an ear open in case she wakes and needs anything.”
“Thank you.” She gave her mom a quick cheek kiss.
Twenty minutes later, Tansy realized that while she was turning the pages of her favorite author’s new book, she hadn’t absorbed a single word. Her mind kept wandering to Beck. To those kisses beneath the old oak. To memories.
She was confused. Every two seconds she changed her mind about what to do, what she wanted.
Run. Fast. Away from Beck.
Run. Fast. To Beck.
Did he think she’d been teasing him, leading him on? But he’d started it, and damn it, they hadn’t finished it!
She slapped at the water, spraying droplets on her book. Closing it, she tossed it across the room. Another sip of wine, and she leaned her head against the back of the tub, her eyes drifting shut.
What if they had finished it? If they’d gone inside? How would she feel tonight if they’d—
“Tansy!” Her mother’s voice came through the door.
“What?” Instantly alert at her tone, Tansy straightened.
“Everything okay? You didn’t answer the first couple times I called. You scared me.”
“Sorry, Mom. Guess I was woolgathering.”
“Let me know if you need anything.”
“I will. Sorry again for scaring you.”
As her footsteps faded, Tansy thought about what she’d told her mother. Sorry. That’s exactly how she’d feel if she and Beck had finished what he’d started. But, then, didn’t she feel sorry anyway? And frustrated to boot!
God, she missed him. Missed what they’d had.
A tear trickled down her cheek and dripped from her chin. A second, then a third followed.
She was tired. Tired of floating aimlessly. Tired of being alone. Even when she’d been married, she’d been alone except for Gracie. She and Emerson had never been a couple, never shared dreams or set goals, never shared love.
She and Beck had.
When the sobs racked her, she turned on the water to cover the sound and simply let the tears flow. Her life was a mess. Beck didn’t like her anymore, her daddy was gone, and she was all but broke.
She cried and cried, afraid that, now she’d let them loose, the tears would never stop. Placing a cool washcloth over her eyes, she laid back and cried her heart out. Finally, feeling wrung out, she watched the water swirl down the drain.
A glance at her mother’s quirky little jeweled elephant clock told her it was time to call it a night. That morning alarm would go off all too soon. But when she caught sight of herself in the mirror, she winced. Her red and swollen eyes would give her away if her mom saw her.
She’d have to be sure she didn’t.
Intent on sneaking to her room, she wrapped herself in a thick terry robe and tiptoed from the steam-filled bath. Her mother stood at the end of the hallway, but whatever she’d been going to say never came. Instead, she simply opened her arms.
Tansy rushed into them, fighting back the tears that threatened to start again.
Rexanna hugged her tightly.
“It’s damned hard to lose our men, isn’t it?” she whispered into her daughter’s hair.
“It’s not Emerson,” she choked out.
“I know. I’ve always known.”
Tansy nodded wordlessly and lost the battle. She gave in to fresh tears that mingled with her mother’s as they cried together. For her dad. For Beck. For lost love and dreams.
Hiccupping, Tansy finally managed a soft, “How do you do it, Mom?”
“One day at a time, honey. One day at a time.”