The Cottage on Juniper Ridge (16 page)

She shook her head. “I’m not. Not when we have kids in college.”

“You could start out small. Sell things on eBay.”

“Janice suggested that.”

“Less risk. Of course, you’ll have to store your inventory here.”

More stuff coming back into the house. “I’d better think about this some more....”

“Up to you,” he said. He grabbed his lunch sack and kissed her on the cheek. “Whatever you decide, I’ll support you.”

“Thanks, Deano.” He was about to rush out the door for work (wearing his rescued army jacket), but she caught his arm and pulled him to her and kissed him appreciatively. “Have I told you recently what a great husband you are?”

“Aw, you’re just saying that because it’s true,” he joked. He gave her one more kiss, then hurried off.

She sat down at the kitchen table with a second cup of coffee. Her mother would be all for this. Mom had been after her for years to get a job. Nana, on the other hand, had always encouraged her in her determination to be a stay-at-home mom. But there were no kids at home anymore. What would Nana say now? Stacy wished she could talk to her, but Nana was too busy trying to stay alive to have the energy to advise her granddaughter.

“I need a sign,” Stacy muttered.

The words were barely out of her mouth when the phone rang.

Chapter Fifteen

The best way to ensure things go smoothly is to plan ahead.

—Muriel Sterling, author of
Simplicity

I
t had seemed like a brilliant idea to go out on Valentine’s Day, like a romantic adventure, but Jen had quickly regretted hitting the bar at Zelda’s. She’d passed by the dining area on her way in and seen Garrett Armstrong and Tilda the cop eating dinner at a window table. They were just one of many couples enjoying a romantic evening, which had made her achingly aware of the fact that she was alone.

It had taken the shine off her smile, but she’d moved on to the bar, determined to enjoy her evening no matter what. There she’d also found mostly couples. She was about to turn and run when she’d spotted Emily Ward sitting at a table with a group of people. Emily worked at the library. Jen had only been in and talked to her a couple of times, but Emily had seemed friendly. Hoping she’d be open to taking in a Valentine stray, Jen had gone over to say hi and Emily had invited her to join the group, which included two other women and a couple of guys. One had been Bill Will. He’d bought Jen a drink and flirted with her, but that hardly counted as a romantic adventure since he’d flirted with the other women at the table, too.

Still, it had beaten sitting home alone and she’d enjoyed the drink, something the waitress called a Chocolate Kiss. “I like Chocolate Kisses,” she’d announced to the table when Bill Will bought her another.

She’d become instant best friends with Emily and had wound up volunteering to help with the Friends of the Library monthly book sale and to spend one afternoon a week shelving books. This on top of promising Lula Wharton at the Icicle Falls Community Church only the week before that she’d organize the church library. In her tipsy fog her brain pointed out that she’d come to Icicle Falls to simplify her life, not to get overcommitted again. But she’d silenced the warning with a reminder that it was important to make friends. And, boy, was she making friends, flirting with Bill Will and his cowboy buddy, slurping Chocolate Kisses.

Who cared if Garrett Armstrong and his cop girlfriend had now come into the bar? She didn’t need Garrett Armstrong to have fun. And to show how little she was interested in him, she’d danced like a madwoman out on the dance floor.

She’d promptly learned that dancing and Chocolate Kisses didn’t mix. She’d lost her balance at the edge of the dance floor and managed to fall into Garrett Armstrong’s lap. Of course, gentleman that he was, he’d caught her, and held her so she wouldn’t continue her downward progress and end up on the floor. He was all solid muscle, and contact with him had been headier than a hundred Chocolate Kisses.

She’d been struggling (halfheartedly) to get to her feet when she found Tilda Morrison’s face right up in hers. “I hope you’re not planning to drive in this condition.” It wasn’t said in concern. In fact, the delivery style pretty much assured her that Tilda would be there to give Jen a ticket even if she wasn’t on duty.

Jen had switched to coffee after that. She still wasn’t sure which had sobered her more, the caffeine or Tilda’s beady-eyed glare.

She wasn’t a poacher. She should have assured Tilda that she didn’t steal other women’s men. But, frankly, that glimpse of the woman’s tough side hadn’t made her anxious to stick around for girl talk.

But how serious were those two? Because Jen remembered something else about that little Valentine encounter. The look in Garrett Armstrong’s eyes when she’d landed on top of him had said, “Sex with you? Absolutely.” If Tilda hadn’t been there, what would have happened? Who knew?

Now here he was, on Saturday, coming into Gingerbread Haus while she was working. He seemed surprised to see her, and not in a good way. Okay, after hearing about his first wife she got that he was scared of commitment. But, hey, she’d had her heart stomped on, too. That didn’t mean you closed up shop and barred the windows, for crying out loud.

This wasn’t the time to talk about his love life, though. He had someone with him. At the sight of the little blond-haired boy, her biological clock about had a meltdown.

“Hi,” she said to the child. “I’m Jen.”

“I’m Timmy. I’m five.”

“Do you like gingerbread boys?” Jen asked.

The child shook his head. “I like Snickerdoodles.”

“Me, too,” she said. “And we happen to have some of those.”

The child nodded his head eagerly. “I know.”

“We’ll take two,” Garrett said. “I didn’t realize you were working here,” he added.

He probably would’ve avoided coming in if he had. “I just started last week. I thought I should make sure I can pay my rent,” she said teasingly.

He obviously didn’t get the joke since he didn’t smile.

“Cass needed someone part-time,” she hurried on, “and this seemed like fun. It’s giving me a chance to meet nice little boys,” she said, smiling at Timmy. She handed over the cookies and Garrett gave her a five-dollar bill.

“We’re going to a movie,” Timmy said.

“New Pixar movie,” Garrett explained.

“I love those,” Jen said.

He raised an eyebrow. “They’re kid movies.”

“Kids shouldn’t have all the fun.”

He frowned. “That sounds like something my ex would say.”

What to reply to that? All Jen managed was, “Oh.” She tried to catch one of the thoughts swirling in her brain.
I’m not like your ex....
You can still have fun and be a responsible adult.
...
You can even fall in someone’s lap.

“Uh, my change?” he prompted.

“Oh, sure.” She counted change out of the cash register and passed it to Garrett. “Well, have a good time.”

“Thanks,” he said, and shepherded Timmy out the door.

She watched as Garrett pulled a cookie from the bag and gave it to his son, smiled as the big man took the child’s hand and led him down the street, the little boy skipping happily along, eating his cookie. Too late, she knew exactly what she should have said.
I’m not like your ex. Give me a chance and I’ll prove it.

But you don’t poach,
she reminded herself. Oh, yeah. That.

* * *

Toni called her sister, catching Jen just as she was leaving her new job at the bakery. “How’s it going up there in chocolate land? Got any hot plans for tonight?”

“I wish,” Jen grumbled.

“Yeah, well, me, neither. Valentine’s Day was such a bust, I can’t seem to work up any enthusiasm.”

“How could your Valentine’s Day be a bust?” Jen asked. “You and Wayne were going to Canlis. You can’t go to one of the nicest restaurants in Seattle and not have a good Valentine’s Day.”

“You can when your husband’s on call and there’s a tech emergency at his company.”

“You know, I’d understand that on-call thing if he was a doctor and it was a matter of life and death.”

“Tell that to Wayne’s boss,” Toni said. “When thousands of dollars are at stake, it is life and death. At least, that’s what Wayne told me.”

“I hope you didn’t have to leave right in the middle of dinner.”

“We got through the main course. But we left before dessert. And when we got home he was on his computer for the next two hours. Talk about a buzz kill.”

Toni looked out the kitchen window at the backyard of her suburban mansion. It was all perfectly landscaped. When they lived in their old house, the smaller one in the modest neighborhood, the yard was always in a state of wear and tear due to backyard soccer games. She could still picture herself pushing the kids on the swing. This yard went ignored. Everyone was too busy with his or her own activities. Even the deck with its requisite patio table and barbecue grill rarely got used.

“It’s not just Wayne. These days Jordan would rather be anywhere than home with boring old Mom.”

Listen to you,
she told herself,
you sound like such a whiner.
But if a woman couldn’t whine to her sister who could she whine to?

“I feel like my family is breaking apart,” she confessed.

“Well, Jordan is thirteen now. She’s going to be more into her friends.”

Than with you.
Thankfully, her sister didn’t finish that sentence. Toni knew in her head that it was only natural for her daughter to separate herself, start the process of becoming her own person, want to be with her peer group instead of her parents. But Toni’s heart wasn’t all that excited about this whole process. And surely it didn’t have to be that way
all
the time. Mothers and daughters didn’t need to wage war constantly, to never do anything together.

“You and I did stuff with Mom when we were teenagers,” she argued.

“Yeah, but not very often,” Jen reminded her.

Still, when they had it had been fun. Toni smiled at the memory of baking Christmas cookies together. And then there was the Sunday afternoon when they got bored and suckered their mother into playing a board game with them. “Remember that time we played Life with Mom?”

“How could I forget? She was always a cop.”

Toni couldn’t help snickering. “She was also the banker and she was terrible at it. She kept mixing up her money with the bank’s.”

“I still think that was on purpose.”

“I want to play Life with my kids,” Toni said suddenly. “I want to
see
my kids. The only time I see them these days is when I’m driving them to someone else’s house or to meet friends at the mall. I’m tired of them not being here when they’re here. They’re slipping away, Jen, just like Wayne.” She found it hard to finish her sentence. Her throat was tightening. She could feel tears rising in her eyes. Okay, it was that time of month. This was probably her hormones speaking.

“They’re growing up,” her sister said gently.

No, it was more than hormones. Her children were growing up too fast. Life was so unfair. One minute you were celebrating when the last child finally started kindergarten and you could have a morning of peace and quiet, and the next you were desperately holding on, trying to keep them close to you, wishing you could turn back the clock.

She didn’t want to turn back the clock, she told herself. She just wanted to make sure they survived these next few years. She wanted the same kind of closeness with her family that she’d enjoyed growing up. Yes, it was a different world. She understood that. But all the technology in the world couldn’t change the fact that family was still family. Darn it all! They were going to stay close even if it killed them.

“I’m going to do something about this,” she vowed.

“You guys need to get away someplace where there are no distractions,” Jen said. “Like here.”

After her weekend at the chocolate festival Toni couldn’t agree more. “I wonder what my family would do if I rented us a mountain cabin for our summer vacation,” she mused.

“Go through internet withdrawal? Poison your coffee and leave you for dead?”

“Yes, they love me that much.”

But Toni couldn’t get the idea of a tech-free vacation out of her mind. After she finished talking to her sister she got online and did some poking around.

It didn’t take her long to find what she was looking for—a website that offered rustic vacations for people wanting to get away from it all. And lo and behold, one of those places was right in the Cascade Mountains, not far from Icicle Falls. She read the blurb beneath the picture of a quaint log cabin nestled among fir trees.

Cozy cabins allow you to experience nature at its finest while harking back to a simpler time. Go hiking, fishing and picking berries. Cabins come complete with games and puzzles. No TVs, no cable, no Wi-Fi. Enjoy the simple life and connect with those you love.

Perfect. She fished her charge card out of her purse and made a reservation. This summer they were going on vacation and really getting away from it all. She could hardly wait.

“Guess what I booked for our vacation this year,” she said at dinner.

“Disneyland!” cried Jeffrey.

“A cruise?” her daughter guessed hopefully.

Her husband said nothing. Instead, he sat at the table, frowning at his pork chop.

Toni pretended not to notice. “No. We’re going to have a wilderness adventure.”

Jordan’s mouth turned down. “Like, in a tent?”

“No, in a rustic log cabin.”

Jeffrey was all for it. “Cool!”

“Sounds boring,” Jordan said.

“A cabin,” Wayne repeated, and he looked about as happy as Jordan.

“Not far from Icicle Falls,” Toni explained. “Up in the mountains.”

“At least let’s stay with Aunt Jen,” Jordan said. “I don’t want to stay in some dirty old cabin.”

“I’m sure they’re not dirty. Anyway, that would get pretty crowded.” Toni smiled. “But we’ll see her. And we can go into town and shop,” she added, hoping to sweeten the pot.

“I want to go to that bakery where Aunt Jen’s working,” Jeffrey said.

Her daughter was still looking less than thrilled. “Why can’t we stay in a motel in town? With a pool.”

Because they have Wi-Fi and cell phone reception.
“This will be fun,” Toni said brightly.

“I don’t want to do it. Let’s go to Disneyland,” Jordan said.

“Too late. I already booked our cabin.”

Jordan stared at her mother as if she’d just sold her into slavery. “This is gonna be dumb.”

Her husband’s reaction was even stronger. “That was damn high-handed,” he said later that night after they’d sent the kids to bed.

Yes, it had been. They always discussed where they wanted to vacation. But this time she didn’t want the usual—a nice motel with an internet connection where Wayne could get sucked into his computer. She wanted them all to be together,
really
together, and she said as much.

“So you decided to be benevolent dictator. Is that it? Sorry, Ton. That’s not gonna fly. You can go do your mountain thing if you want, but count me out,” he said, and went to the kitchen, leaving her sitting on the family room couch.

This was not going according to plan. She followed him and watched while he pulled a bottle of his favorite micro brew from the fridge. “Come on, Wayne. Don’t be like that.”