Part 17 (1/2)

Samantha beat it out of there. In her hurry to escape Bill Will, she failed to see that she'd run right into Blake. Or nearly. He moved his cup away just in time to prevent their near-collision from spilling coffee on his suit.

”Sorry,” she said, reaching for the door.

He pushed it open and followed her out. ”I didn't know you produced musicals on the side. I guess auditions are over for the day?”

She could feel her cheeks sizzling. ”You're very amusing. Maybe you should give up banking and be a stand-up comic.”

”Would you come watch me?”

”Could I throw rotten tomatoes?”

He smiled. ”I prefer money.”

Didn't she know it?

Aware that he'd stuck his foot in his mouth, he cleared his throat. ”So, is that one of your Mr. Dreamy contestants?”

She snorted. ”Why are you asking? Worried about the compet.i.tion?”

He just shook his head.

She looked at him in disgust, then said a brisk, ”Well, I'd like to stand here all day while you try to b.u.t.ter me up, but I have a company to save.” Then, before he could say anything, she dashed across the street. Cecily was right. Men!

Blake watched Samantha run across the street to her business. When G.o.d handed out perfect bodies, she must have been at the head of the line. And those full lips. Did women have any idea what it did to a man when they wore that lip gloss stuff?

He frowned and tossed his coffee in a nearby garbage can. He admired Samantha's determination to save her company and the clever ways she was coming up with to do it. He'd love to tell her that, but if he did she'd tell him where to stick his admiration. He was the villain in her story and nothing he could say or do was going to change that. What a sick twist of fate. He wasn't sure what he'd done to deserve it, but obviously Somebody Up There had it in for him.

Cecily had just finished putting up her Mr. Dreamy photo gallery when her sister returned. ”Did Bill Will find you?” Dumb question considering the expression on Samantha's face.

Samantha scowled. ”Was that fiasco your idea?”

”What did he do?” Heidi asked, replacing stock on the shelves.

”He practically gave me a lap dance in the middle of Bavarian Brews,” Samantha muttered. ”And, naturally, Nia got a picture.”

Cecily snickered. It was rude but she couldn't help it. The image of her perfect older sister getting the Bill Will treatment in public was just too funny.

”I'm glad you find it amusing. Are you sure you and Bailey didn't set that up?”

”No, honestly,” she said.

”It's true,” Heidi seconded. ”He came here looking for you and we told him you were over there. We had no idea what he was going to do.”

Except knowing Billy Williams, Cecily had suspected it would be something over-the-top. And he hadn't disappointed. His little stunt had been worth a thousand ads.

”If anyone else comes looking for me, I'm not here. I moved to Tahiti,” Samantha said, and stomped upstairs to her office.

”Your poor sister.” Heidi tried unsuccessfully to hide a smile.

”It's not easy being the queen of chocolate,” Cecily said. ”Royalty has its price.”

Being a queen with no king had its price, too, Cecily thought. Poor Sam carried a heavy burden of responsibility on her shoulders. Her life would be easier if she had a king.

And Cecily had been getting these funny impressions about who that king should be. She couldn't seem to figure out a thing for herself, but when it came to other people she had a gift for seeing who should be with whom. It was crazy, but she kept seeing her sister with Blake Preston.

That was, of course, preposterous. She was obviously losing her edge. Another reason to get out of the matchmaking business.

What she was going to wind up doing, though, she had no idea. Short-term, she'd help her sister with the festival and work for Charley. She'd gone by Zelda's and offered her services, and Charley had been more than happy to hire her as a hostess on weekends. With the stipulation that she could have the festival weekend off, of course. That money, plus the little she had in savings, would carry her through until spring. Then...who knew? Samantha would have everything up and running at Sweet Dreams again and wouldn't need her. Mom was slowly pulling out of her tailspin and would be fine and no one would really care if she moved on.

She'd often felt invisible as a child. Mom had not only filled out Samantha's baby book, she'd added extra notes and pictures. Cecily's got half-completed. Not that Mom didn't love her. Her mother hadn't been stingy with kind words or kisses. But time was a commodity she'd had difficulty distributing evenly, especially once Bailey arrived on the scene.

It was hard to feel special when you were the middle child, sandwiched between Miss Perfect and Miss Adorable. Samantha was the stellar firstborn and Bailey was the baby of the family who kept everyone entertained with her antics. Cecily was...the quiet one, the little supporting actress for the two stars.

So what did she do when she grew up? She became a matchmaker and took on another supporting role, working to give other people the love story they wanted while managing her own love life on the side and doing a poor job of it. Pathetic.

Well, after the festival she'd make a new beginning, maybe move over the mountains to Seattle and... Do what? Her future was a thick fog.

Hopefully, she'd be able to turn on her fog lights and find her way. Meanwhile, she'd go back to the house and have some lunch. ”I guess that's it for today,” she told Heidi. ”I'll get out from underfoot before your lunch-hour rush starts.”

Oh, that there would be a lunch-hour rush. Their midweek traffic so far had been spotty, yet another thing to worry Samantha.

”Too late,” Heidi said as the door burst open.

In rushed a little girl with blond curls and cornflower-blue eyes, followed by a short, slender, middle-aged woman Cecily immediately recognized as Bernadette Goodman, the mother of Luke, their production manager.

Luke had about ten years on Samantha and had been at Sweet Dreams ever since he was a teenager, when he first started working on the production line. When their production manager was lured away a few years ago by a bigger company, Luke's strong work ethic and good people skills had made him the perfect man to step in and take over. His wife had died two years earlier. Bernadette was helping him raise his daughter.

Cecily hadn't seen the child since she was a toddler. Serena had lost that baby look. She was a gorgeous little girl. How sad that her mother wasn't alive to see her daughter grow up.

”We're here to visit my daddy,” the child announced gleefully. ”My daddy is going to take us for hangab.u.g.g.e.rs.”

”Hangab.u.g.g.e.rs,” Heidi repeated seriously. ”That sounds yummy.”

”Grammy said we can come back and have a chocolate after,” Serena continued.

”An excellent idea,” Cecily said, and greeted the older woman.

”Cecily, I heard you were back in town. Are you working on the festival?” Bernadette asked.

”I am.” She'd never been around the company as much as Samantha and she certainly wasn't as high-profile as Bailey, so it pleased her that Bernadette remembered her.

”I'm sure Samantha appreciates the help,” Bernadette said.

Cecily remembered her sister's aggravation only a short while ago and smiled. ”I'm sure she does.” She bent over and said to Serena, ”You're a big girl now, aren't you?”