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“Welcome to Denison Field,” she said to Nick. They had arrived a half hour before the game was supposed to start, and the place was already filling up. “I spent a lot of time here as a teenager. As you can see, the whole town turns out for the games. Especially when the team is doing well.”
She laughed.
“Everybody loves a winner,” Nick said.
“Don’t they, though?”
Becca inhaled the scent of flame-grilled burger. “Mmm, smell that? It’s the best burger in town.”
The left side of Nick’s mouth turned up in a sardonic grin. “If the best burger in town is cooked by a bunch of band parents, should I be worried about my new hometown?”
“Absolutely not. The dads have gotten together and they run a food truck on weekends to raise money for the band. They’ve managed to buy a fleet of new tubas and outfit seventy-five kids with brand-new marching uniforms.”
“That’s enterprising. I hope they can cook as well as they can fund-raise.”
“Are you kidding? Apparently, the burger recipe is one that Stubby Blanchard’s great-grandmother came up with decades ago. Rumor has it that Ray Isaac, the chef at Bistro St. Germaine, offered to buy the recipe and exclusive rights from Stubby, but Stubby wouldn’t sell. Now Ray has made it his mission to figure out the recipe on his own. The town has been calling it burger wars. The funny thing is, even though Ray graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, he can’t seem to figure it out.”
“It’s probably some strange ingredient we’d never think of, like peanut butter or baking soda,” said Nick.
“Baking soda? Don’t say that out loud around Stubby. Because he gets uneasy about people trying to deconstruct his burger—and baking soda?”
First, Becca made a face, and then she shrugged. “Watch the secret ingredient turn out to be just that!”
“Becca Flannigan? Is that you?”
Becca turned to see Lucy Campbell, an old high school friend she hadn’t seen since graduation.
“Lucy! How are you? When did you get back into town?”
“Just last week. I moved back from California. I went out there to try my hand at starting my own fabric line.”
“You always were so artistic,” Becca said. “How did it go?”
“Well, the cost of living is so high, I had to take another job to support myself, and it was difficult enough to find time to devote to my designs, much less take time off work to meet with potential investors. So I decided to move back and concentrate on my art. And who’s this?”
Lucy all but batted her lashes at Nick. He seemed to have that effect on women.
“Lucy Campbell, this is Nick Ciotti. Lucy and I were good friends in high school. I can’t believe we lost touch over the years.”
Lucy offered Nick her hand; Nick shook it.
“Nice to meet you,” he said.
“Nice to meet you, too, Nick. Sooo—” Lucy looked back and forth between Becca and Nick. “Are you two dating?”
The subtext to Lucy’s question was is Nick taken or is he fair game? Even though Becca knew that Lucy was a harmless flirt, she couldn’t help but feel a tad territorial. Because the truth was she didn’t know what to say.
Actually, Lucy, tonight is our first date. Unless you count going to the obstetrician together and the night we slept together three months ago when I didn’t even know his last name. Oh, did I mention that we’re having a baby? Actually, we’re having two babies. Twins!
Good Lord.
Not unless she wanted the news broadcast all over town. Sure, Lucy was harmless, but it was the rare soul in this town who could keep a juicy secret like good-girl Becca Flannigan getting knocked up. Especially if they were the one who got to break the news.
Becca figured the best way to head off the question was simply not to answer it.
“Lucy, it was great to see you. We need to run, but let’s get together sometime soon and catch up. Okay?”
Maybe by then she would know what to say. Because right now she hadn’t given up hope that maybe she and Nick might figure it out and make it work. The thought cued the cymbal monkey in her chest, and it began banging away again.
Becca gauged right. Lucy had enough class to know better than to push the question.
“Absolutely,” she said. “I can’t wait to catch up. I’m staying with my sister until I get settled. You remember Hannah, don’t you?”
Becca nodded.
“Let me give you my cell number.” As Lucy rattled off the number, Becca added it to the contacts in her cell. “Please, give me a call, and we can set up something.”
