Page 22 of A Family Affair: The Ring
He’d traced a finger along her lips.And what about strawberries?Do you think you could grow those and dip them in dark chocolate?
Of course.You just wait.I’ll make you the best dark chocolate-covered strawberries you’ve ever tasted.When she’d smiled this time her gaze roamed his body from his lips to his thighs, back to his lips.One day I’ll teach our children to make them.
You will?
Yes, and I’ll tell them the secret ingredient is love.
Will pinched the bridge of his nose, blocked out those memories.He had to find a way to avoid her.How hard could it be?Hopefully, she’d leave town in a few weeks.But he should have known that no matter how much he thought he could control his life, sometimes destiny had other ideas.
The next morning,Will stopped at Barbara’s Boutique & Bakery for an éclair.From the second he’d entered Esther Russell’s home, the smell of chocolate chip cookies smothered his senses and he craved the taste in a way he hadn’t for years.He refused to believeherpresence had anything to do with it, but he’d be a fool to think otherwise.Maybe hewasa fool because he’d spent years avoiding reminders of Melanie Russell, acting as though refusing a chocolate chip cookie or a dark chocolate-covered strawberry or the smell of citrus… or staying away from a woman with chestnut hair and hazel eyes would make him forget.Well, maybe she’d proven her point that hecouldn’tforget, but that didn’t mean he had to act on it.
Will stepped into the bakery, made his way to the counter, just as Lily Desantro opened the backroom door.Her face lit up when she spotted him and she gave him the biggest smile.
“Hi Will!Did you come for your éclair?”She pointed to the row of chocolate éclairs, winked.“How many do you want today?”
Chocolate éclairs had become his go-to when he wanted a sweet and he usually only bought one though he really wanted two or three.Lily teased him every single time.Why don’t you save yourself a trip and just buy three instead of coming in three times in five days?
“Just one, Lily.”He let out a sigh, slid her a smile.“If I take three, you know what’s going to happen, don’t you?”
Her blue eyes sparkled.“They’ll be breakfast, lunch,anddinner.”
That comment made him laugh.“You’re a very smart girl.The only willpower I have is keeping them here and it gives me a reason to visit you.”Lily always put him in a good mood, made him wishhecould find such joy in day-to-day living.How did she do it?How did she—
“I like seeing you too, Will.So, what’s up?Any news for me?”She tapped her fingers on the counter, tilted her head as though waiting for him to spit out everything he’d been doing since the last time she saw him...almost as though she knew.
“Not really.Just the usual.”He rubbed his jaw.“Work, more work…and chocolate éclairs.”
The laugh said she liked his answer, but the raised brow said she doubted that was 100% accurate.“What’s going on with you and Delaney?I saw her at Lina’s Café and she had the saddest look on her face, like she was going to cry.She was all by herself and I almost stopped at her table to see if she was okay, but Mom said sometimes people need to be alone with their thoughts.”Her gaze narrowed behind the thick glasses, and she scrunched her nose.“I wonder what kind of thoughts she was having?Hmm.Do you think they were about you and why you haven’t asked her to marry you yet?”
Maybe heshouldstart loading up on the éclairs and make fewer visits to the bakery.Lily had a way of asking questions that poked several layers beneath the niceties and curiosity to the real issue.When she asked questions like this, it was hard to brush her off or make up excuses.“I hope not.I don’t know why she’d think that.”But after what Melanie had told him about her conversation with his mother, he had a good idea why Delaneywouldthink that.And not long ago, Pop mentioned something about Delaney wanting a ring.Are you going to give her one?If not, why are you still seeing her?Don’t send mixed messages.Will almost considered it once or twice, but he couldn’t do it.
“Or maybe she’s sad because your old girlfriend’s back in town.”
“Lily, what are you talking about?”How did Lily even know he had an old girlfriend?Somebody was talking.It would never be Nate Desantro, or Cash, or their wives, but what about Harry or Pop?
“I hear things and I put them together.It’s just little tidbits—” she lifted her hands, made a small motion to indicate how tiny the information was “—but if you get a lot of tidbits, you kind of sew them together, like when Mom’s making a quilt and then you see a pattern.”Her voice drifted, and she nodded.“So, you look at the pattern and you say, huh.What do we have here?That’s what I did with you and Melanie.You’re thirty years old and you’re not married, and that’s okay, but you’ve had a lot of girlfriends but not for very long.Then you start dating Delaney and everybody thinks she’s sweet, and she is...But I heard her asking some lady about wedding cakes and places to have a wedding.And what was the most romantic spot for a honeymoon.Isn’t that weird if you aren’t even engaged?So why would she do that?And why would she buy a bride magazine at Sal’s Marketandvisit the jewelry store?I don’t know what she did in the jewelry store, but I’m guessing she at least looked at the engagement rings.And do you want to know why?”She didn’t wait for him to answer, tossed out the zinger.“She was planning her wedding toyou.”
Lily placed her hands on the counter, leaned forward and whispered as though there were ten people in the bakery.“She’s been doing this stuff for three months, but now she’s sad and that doesn’t make any sense, unless…you told her you’renotgetting married or shethoughtyou were getting married to her and then your old girlfriend who is also your ex-fiancée came back to town, and now you’re acting different.”
“Lily, I amnotacting different.I’m still the same guy who comes in here for éclairs, goes to work every morning, and runs five miles a day.”
She shook her head and if she weren’t wearing a hairnet those curls would’ve danced about her face.“Nope.You’reactingthe same way Cash did when Tess came back to town.He isthemost handsome man in the world, and I remember how he did not want to still be in love with Tess and she didnotwant to still be in love with him.”Her voice dipped and she sighed.“But they were.”
The whole town knew Lily had a serious crush on Cash and compared every man to him and every situation to his.“Well, this isn’t the same.Melanie came back to clean out her grandmother’s house and that’s all.”
The look she gave him said try another excuse, and the words confirmed the look.“And that’s why you’re not seeing Delaney anymore?That’s why your face gets all twitchy when I say Melanie’s name?”
14
The storm rolled through Magdalena on a Wednesday at 6:52 p.m.Will had just finished the last of his mother’s manicotti and was reading an article about a thirty-two-year-old entrepreneur when the rain started.There was nothing like a good rain, but when the winds kicked in and the thunder and lightning blasted the area, that’s when he knew this storm was trouble.Will pushed back his chair, headed to the kitchen window and glanced outside.The trees bent and swayed as the rain pelted the house, landing sideways on the paned windows and siding.There’d been warnings about a severe storm watch, but who took them seriously when 75% of the “weather predictions” never happened?
People loved their drama and Will stopped listening to the hype three years ago when he stocked up on supplies for the once-every-100-year storm that didn’t happen.After that day, he started ignoring the weather predictions and studied the radar maps himself.He could usually count on his analysis to guide him, but when he wasn’t sure, he conferred with Jack Finnegan.The guy might be crusty and sparse with his words, but he knew his weather.I can smell it coming.Or Jack would point to his beagle and sayI been watching the way Roland’s walking the perimeter of the property, nose in the air, like he’s onto something, and it’s not a rabbit.He smells it, too.Jack and Will might seem like unlikely friends—Jack favored hip waders and beef jerky while Will didn’t own a fishing pole and avoided smoked meats.But when Will helped Jack’s nephew after he got into tax trouble for “creative accounting,” the two men became friends.Not the let’s-hang-out-and-drink-beer kind, but the I’ve-got-your-back, just-let-me-know kind.
Will was glad he’d listened to Cash and hired someone to trim the trees, shore up the dead stuff and lessen the chances of a tree landing on his house.He recalled a few years back when a storm rolled through and uprooted five trees on Rex McGregor’s lot.They were lucky no one got hurt and no structures were damaged.His thoughts shifted to Esther Russell’s place.Had she kept up with her tree maintenance?Surely, Cash would have taken care of any issues for her.The guy had treated her like family, and she’d done the same.That knowledge pinged his brain, shot to his gut and gave him heartburn, which he blamed on the second helping of manicotti.
There’d been a time when Will had thoughthe’dbe Esther’s relative, and while they’d had numerous conversations over the years, there’d always been giant holes in them because neither ever referenced “family.”Except for that one time when Esther brought it up.Seven months after the incident that changed their lives, Esther told him she needed to see him.Courtesy and respect had forced him to her doorstep and while he’d refused to admit it, curiosity propelled him inside.There’d been iced tea and the best sugar cookies he’d ever tasted.He sipped the iced tea and downed three cookies while Esther talked about the blessings of living in Magdalena, the friendship of neighbors like Cash and Tess Casherdon, and how they kept an eye on her.Will should have picked up on the way she made subtle comments about Cash and Tess, adding in snippets about pure love and getting past heartache to build a future together.But he’d been so busy stuffing cookies in his mouth and trying not to stare at the pictures on the mantel of the woman who’d crushed his heart that he’d missed the message until it hit him head on.
Forgiveness was the only chance that couple had to share a life together, but they refused to see it.It almost destroyed Cash.Esther had leaned toward Will, placed a hand on his.Poor boy was so lost, scared and running, depending on all sorts of vices to make him forget.Of course, there was only one thing that could help him recover.She’d looked at him with those blue eyes, waited for him to ask what that was.
