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“No, no, I really don’t think it was like that,” I responded, before Charlotte got any ideas about retaliation.
“He honestly seemed like he was just concerned about her driving, and not that he was interested in any one-on-one time with her off the record. I do think having had him there is going to be a good thing for the blog post in general. Other than some standard anti-Holly Ridge snobbery, it was overall a successful day.”
“Well, good,” Charlotte responded, gathering up her lunch remnants and my now empty can of soda. “I know you were nervous about the interview, so I’m glad to hear it went well and that the unexpected appearance of Cole didn’t mess things up too badly. Do you think he’ll be back to avoiding meeting with you in person now, or will he be a bit more normal that the post-Pepper’s seal has been broken?”
“We didn’t really get a chance to talk about our next meeting with the way the day worked itself out,” I realized. “But I think he’s not going to be able to get away with pushing us back to virtual as much. Things are going to start to heat up and we’ll need to start meeting with volunteers and vendors.”
“Heat up, huh?” Charlotte winked at me as she clung to my unintentional word choice. “Well, my hope is the heat ratchets itself up to ghost pepper heat and not just Pepper’s parking lot heat.” She looked pleased with herself for her Dad joke.
I snorted and rolled my eyes at her.
“Go back to work. I’m going to stay here and follow-up with the vendors we met with today and get a jump on making my to-do list for next week. I’m honestly surprised Cole didn’t ask me for it first thing this morning.”
“Maybe he was too busy thinking about a certain parking lot almost-kiss himself,” she said as she walked away snickering.
Just you wait, Charlotte, I thought to myself as I opened my laptop and dug into getting myself set up for next week. What goes around definitely comes around.
Chapter 11
Cole
After a few cups of coffee, some spins around the Holly Ridge square, and more conversation about blogs and the direction Tanya hoped to take hers in than I honestly thought two humans could have, Tanya departed for her drive home, pouting slightly about my refusal to share my personal number with her “for any further quotes or questions” she might have. I felt a bit bad about mixing signals to get her to stay so she’d have time to sober up, but I felt much better about her being behind the wheel now than I did right after lunch. I told myself that the real reason I gave her only my business card was because she was involved with the festival and had nothing to do with the way Blaire had looked at Tanya’s hand on my arm during lunch.
The day had completely gotten away from me, but luckily, Friday was a remote workday for me, so I hadn’t missed any meetings or anything that I couldn’t catch up on over the weekend. I was due at my mom’s house for dinner with her and Austin in thirty minutes, and I would just have time to stop and pick up the food I had ordered during a blog-talk bathroom break earlier this afternoon.
As I drove back across the river, the memories of my mom trying to stop my dad from driving after too much to drink finally crept back in after being held at bay all day. I was a lot more successful at charming Tanya into delaying her trip than mom often was with dad when I was growing up. He had called her all sorts of names, accusing her of killing his buzz and being a worry wart—couched in much harsher terms, much too harsh for someone you had once promised to love and to cherish. Mom had bounced back some from the emotional abuse since he left, but she still preferred to stay within the confines of my childhood home whenever she could. These weekly dinners with her were something I started after college, even though I saw her several other times a week, and Austin joined us when he could, having become a surrogate son.
Armed with bags of hot food, some fresh-cut flowers from the florist next door to the restaurant and a six-pack of Austin’s favorite IPA, I opened the kitchen door to hear the two of them already in the living room laughing over something. I put my phone and keys down in the kitchen before I approached the living room cautiously. Austin’s favorite topics to make my mom laugh were his outrageous dating stories, or worse, stories about me.
“What’s so funny in here?”
I crossed into the room from the kitchen, not able to stop myself from smiling at the grin on my mom’s face while she sat in her favorite recliner.
“Oh, just telling Mrs. T about the failed app date I went on last night. It turns out that inflammable and nonflammable are not the same, and I did not impress my volunteer firefighter date when I mixed them up at the restaurant.”
Austin’s eyes twinkled while he poked fun at himself good-naturedly. Austin was an outgoing guy, but he was sensitive underneath all that humor and I made a note to check in with him later to be sure his date’s brush off over his mix-up hadn’t actually hurt his feelings.
“Austin, you’re such a catch. Anyone who isn’t willing to overlook something small like that was definitely going to be more trouble than they were worth in the long run. You don’t need someone that judgmental in your life,” my mom responded, standing up from the chair to check what food I had picked up for dinner and started getting plates and silverware for the table in the kitchen. No matter how many times I told her I could handle that, she refused to let me help set the table, saying my bringing dinner over to the house was enough.
“You’re probably right, Mrs. T,” Austin replied to her retreating back, turning his head to me with mischievous intent in his eyes. “I was just hoping for a little snuggle in the parking lot afterward. I hear that’s all the rage these days.”
I looked at Austin, wondering if murdering him would tarnish my record with the state audit office, but luckily, Mom was too busy getting dishes and a vase for the flowers out of the cabinet to respond to his targeted response.
“How was today, bro?” Austin asked, in a quieter voice that wouldn’t carry into the kitchen. While he liked to rib me when he got the chance, he respected my private intentions about women around my mom. I didn’t need her to get all excited that I was going to meet someone in the area, settle down, and give her any grandkids to dote on.
“It was . . . a day.”
I thought about how the day started with me obsessing over yet another one of Blaire’s blazers, took a sharp turn with an overly familiar, yet brainiac surfer dude turned ice-rink mastermind, and ended with an unexpected diversion in the form of a festival blogger.
“Did she bring up the parking lot incident at all?” Austin pushed, knowing mom would be calling us into the kitchen to eat any second, and like a dog chasing a bone, wasn’t content to let me stay completely mum.
“No, of course not,” I responded. “I think it’s pretty clear it was a near miss, and that there’s a whole host of reasons we didn’t actually kiss that night.”
“Oh, you mean because you bolted mid-lean and then haven’t had the stones to see her in person since?” Austin said, not bothering to sugarcoat anything.
I groaned into my hands, being forced to remember again how I had just left her shell-shocked in the parking lot without a word. “What was I supposed to do? Be an emotionally well-adjusted adult and talk about how we almost did the one thing the state audit office indicated could screw up my position with them next year? Yeah, I don’t think so. Especially because it makes no sense I would want to kiss her, since she annoys the daylights out of me on a regular basis. And anyway, I’m sure she doesn’t want to talk about it anymore than I do.”
Her priority was the festival and saving Holly Ridge and mine was leaving Winterberry Glen and my past in the rearview mirror. Even if the state office hadn’t laid down the rules regarding our personal relationship, it could never work. At that cheery thought, Mom called us into the kitchen, and I turned my attention to one of my favorite hours of the week.
