Part 13 (2/2)

”How about you, Samantha?” Maria asked.

”ChocoVine.”

”You'll have to go to a party at Charley's for that, amiga,” Maria said. ”Why don't you try the huckleberry martini? It's a little sweet. You'll like it.”

”Okay, I'll try it.”

”We should get Hank to make up a signature chocolate drink for the festival,” Cecily said, giving a lock of hair a thoughtful twirl as Maria left to fill their drink orders. ”A chocolate kiss. Doesn't that sound good?” she asked the table in general.

”A kiss sounds good to me,” agreed Blake.

Samantha ignored him.

She continued to ignore him as they sipped their drinks, and Ed and Cecily tossed plans back and forth. The men ordered dinner and Ed insisted the sisters have another drink on him. He didn't have to force Samantha. She decided she liked huckleberry martinis.

But she still didn't like Blake Preston. He was a snake.

”Lila Ward is definitely in the minority when it comes to the festival,” Ed was saying.

”Few ideas get one hundred percent support,” Blake said. ”I hope this flies for you, though.”

Samantha c.o.c.ked an eyebrow. ”Do you?”

”Of course I do,” he said earnestly.

She took a giant-sized sip from her martini. ”Well, of course. Silly of me to doubt you. The bank has already been so supportive.”

”We should probably get going,” her sister said.

Excellent idea.

There was no enjoying herself after that. (Not that Samantha had planned on enjoying herself, anyway. Stress and fun didn't mix.) Running into Blake the Snake had been enough to curdle her entire weekend.

She tried putting him out of her mind by going for an early-morning run on Sat.u.r.day, but with every slushy footfall she could hear his voice. Hope this flies, hope this flies. Did he? Really?

Attending Ca.s.s's weekly chick-flick night on Sunday evening didn't improve Samantha's mood. It had been Charley's turn to pick and she brought You've Got Mail. Samantha found herself squirming as she watched Meg Ryan's character fall for the man who'd ruined her business.

Well, unlike Meg, she wasn't going to give in to temptation.

Chapter Eleven.

Every day brings something new. But if you don't open your arms to receive it, it will pa.s.s you by.

-Muriel Sterling, Knowing Who You Are: One Woman's Journey Samantha had work to do before the festival committee meeting. She didn't have time to hand-deliver the chocolates she'd promised to Todd Black. So Cecily, being a good sister, volunteered for gofer duty.

”That's the only reason, right?” Samantha asked, regarding her suspiciously. ”I mean, I'll admit he's a hunk and a half, but I'd be willing to bet that man has a trail of broken hearts stretching from here to Tahiti.”

”Don't worry, Mother,” Cecily said, tucking the pink box tied with gold ribbon under her arm. ”I've been vaccinated.”

”I'm not sure the vaccine for that one has been invented.”

”I'm just going to drop it and run,” Cecily a.s.sured her.

”Okay. If you're not back here in twenty minutes I'm sending out a search party.”

Cecily smiled and shook her head. Really, sometimes Samantha could be so overprotective. But there was no need. Cecily had weathered two c.r.a.ppy relations.h.i.+ps. She wasn't about to strike out a third time. And she was only running this errand to be helpful. That was why she was here, to help.

Anyway, he probably wouldn't even be there. It was morning. Taverns never closed until the wee hours and he was probably home, wherever that was, in bed.

Bed. Todd Black in bed. What did he wear to bed?

What did she care? She was so going to drop this candy and run.

She got to the tavern to find the neon beer sign in the window turned off and the potholed parking lot deserted except for one lone car-a mud-spattered Jeep. One caveman left in the Man Cave. It wasn't hard to guess who it belonged to.

She didn't see any lights on inside, though. Maybe Todd Black had been too drunk to drive home after work. Maybe he was pa.s.sed out on the floor somewhere.

Cecily got out of her car and picked her way across the parking lot. As she got closer she could see through the window into Todd Black's kingdom. Chairs were upended on top of tables, waiting for someone to sweep the floor. In the dingy light she spied a dartboard hanging on a wall and a vintage pinball machine in a far corner. The requisite TV hung over the bar, which held upended bar stools that looked like they'd been imported from some old movie set. Places like this always seemed so seedy and forlorn in the daytime.

She'd heard this one really hopped at night, attracting a rowdy crowd, mostly men. No surprise there. What woman in her right mind would come in here when she could be drinking wine or huckleberry martinis at Zelda's? Maybe a woman who liked to play pinball, she thought with a smile, and then added, But not you.

She knocked tentatively on the door. No one came.

Just as well, she told herself. She didn't want to see Todd Black.

She knocked again, a little louder. She was here, after all, and she hated to leave the candy outside to get ruined by the weather or eaten by a pa.s.sing dog. Chocolate was poisonous to dogs. She owed it to the canine population to make sure this candy got to Todd. She knocked one last time-and was rewarded by the sight of a shadow moving across the room toward the door. A moment later it opened and there stood Todd Black in jeans and a black sweater, unshaved and scruffy and tempting.

He leaned one hand on the door frame and treated himself to a lazy perusal of her from head to toe. ”Well, if it isn't the California girl.”

When a hot guy was single after a certain age there was usually a reason. Now she knew why this one was on his own. He had a real gift for irritating a woman.

She decided not to respond in kind. Instead, she simply smiled and handed over the box of candy. ”I'm dropping off a thank-you from my sister for changing her tire.”

He grinned. ”Pink, just my color.”

”I thought so.”

He swung the door open wider. In the distance the vintage pinball machine beckoned. ”Want to come in and help me eat these?”

Step into my parlor, said the spider to the fly. ”I'm sure you can handle that all by yourself.”

”Yeah, but it won't be as much fun. Anyway, I could use a break. Couldn't you?”

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