Shifters and Sweets Collection Volume One

Chapter 26

Sitting alone in the diner, Natasha tapped her fingers in sequence on the tabletop.

Fifteen minutes late. How soon is too soon to admit he’s not coming and leave?

Pursing her lips, Natasha told herself to be patient. She wasn’t at work now – nor was she in the big city. There, it was normal to rush, to understand that people’s days were usually packed full and their schedules tight, so wasting their time or being even a few minutes late without explanation was grounds for someone to get up and walk out.

But things ran on different time in small towns – Natasha remembered it well. Things were more… relaxed.

But still – it’s a date. Being on time is just basic courtesy!

Kieran had just seemed so… so nice when she’d met him, and then again when she’d bumped into him in the woods yesterday.

Nice – and also eager to go on their date. Those dazzling smiles couldn’t possibly have been faked… could they?

Natasha hadn’t thought so, but now she was beginning to have her doubts. Usually, she prided herself on being able to get someone’s measure pretty quickly. But perhaps she’d been wrong about Kieran after all.

Or perhaps…

Or perhaps, something had happened to him?

A cold shiver ran down Natasha’s spine. If he had a habit of sleeping in the woods, then anything was possible. Could he have gotten mauled by a cougar or a bear? Was he, at this very moment, lying in a hospital bed… or even out there in the middle of the forest, hoping someone would find him? Was he waiting for her to find him?!

Oh my God. Stop letting your imagination run away with you.

No – the simplest explanation was that he just wasn’t coming. Maybe he’d gotten a better offer… or, after seeing her yesterday, he’d just decided he didn’t like her as much as he thought he had.

It wasn’t like it was so rare. Natasha was used to men telling her she didn’t live up to their expectations, or changing their minds about her after a couple of dates after seeming incredibly keen to get to know her at first. This wasn’t anything that hadn’t happened before. She’d been stood up and ghosted way too many times now for this to be a surprise.

I really, really should have known better.

Sighing, Natasha tried to push down the disappointment she could feel gathering inside her. Maybe she should have tried harder to keep thinking of Kieran as just a vacation fling, something that didn’t mean much to her.

She’d tried – she really had! But Kieran’s broad smile – the way he’d seemed so genuinely interested in her – the cute mop of blond hair – the way he’d really just seemed like he was looking forward to seeing her again – the way she’d really felt like they somehow had a real connection –

Stop. Stop remembering all the good stuff about him. And of course you didn’t have a connection – you barely even know him! And he sleeps in the woods! That’s not cute, it’s just weird!

Maybe she’d let a pretty face – and an unbelievably hot body, not that she’d had the chance to see it unclothed – turn her head. Maybe Kieran was really just a player, and she’d been played.

Natasha checked her watch again. Twenty-five minutes after their date was scheduled to start, and there was absolutely no sign of Kieran.

That’s it. I’m not going to sit here like some pathetic cliché. I mean, I barely even know the guy! Why am I sitting here like some abandoned woman?!

With a huff of resolution, Natasha slammed her palms down on the table and stood up. She didn’t care if Kieran didn’t show up for their date – she hadn’t come here to find a boyfriend, she’d come here to rest and relax and have some alone time! The next time she saw him – which, she realized with a slight sinking in her stomach, was almost inevitable given how small Girdwood Springs was – she’d just completely ignore him. She’d show him she didn’t care at all that he also didn’t apparently care!

Going to the counter, she told the young girl working the register that she’d decided to have her order to go, after all. Thankfully, it seemed that Mrs. James – Eula – wasn’t working today, otherwise Natasha wasn’t sure how she’d deal with her probably well-meaning but nonetheless intrusive questions about whether she’d been waiting for someone, and if so, who.

From the sympathetic look in the young girl’s eyes, though, as she brought out Natasha’s order – and the way she whispered, “By the way, I slipped you some extra onion rings,” – it was obvious that she’d figured out Natasha had been stood up anyway.

Ugh. Humiliating,Natasha thought as she left the diner – she did appreciate the extra onion rings, though.

Well, she had a chili dog with everything on it, she had her onion rings and soda – now all she needed was something sweet to wash away the bitter taste of the failed date from her mouth. And luckily, she knew exactly where to go.

“Oh, Natasha!” Sylvie looked up with a smile when Natasha entered her bakery – it smelled just as amazing as it had the other day.

“Nice to see you again – oh, you’ve been to Eula’s?” she said, on spotting the diner bag in Natasha’s hand. “Good choice.”

“Yeah – I figured I’d come pick out my dessert,” Natasha said, trying to inject her voice with as much false cheer as possible. It was harder than she’d thought it’d be, though.

Why the hell do I care so much?! I mean, yeah, embarrassing, but it’s not like I was invested in this guy… was I?

But apparently her distress was more obvious than she’d thought, because Sylvie frowned at her, pausing before she asked, tentatively, “Is there anything wrong, Natasha?”

Natasha shook her head, but she could already feel a lump climbing up her throat. Well… perhaps if she couldn’t deny it, she could make a little joke out of it.

“Oh, it’s nothing,” she said breezily, waving a hand. “I just got stood up for a date, if you can believe that. Bizarre, right? I mean, is there so much else to do here that you’d forget you have a date?”

Her laugh sounded incredibly forced even to her own ears – and it was patently clear that it wasn’t fooling Sylvie.

“You got stood up?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. “By who – it wasn’t that Jake Summerton, was it? Natasha, he’s been a player since school, you know that. Don’t let it –”

“Oh, no, not him,” Natasha said quickly, shaking her head. To be honest, she barely even remembered Jake Summerton, and she’d definitely never had a crush on him, even though her one memory of him was that almost every other girl in Girdwood Springs definitely had. “It was just… some guy. An out-of-towner who said he was just here staying in some house in the mountains for a vacation.”

“The… the haunted house in the mountains?” Sylvie asked, frowning. “That place has been empty since… well, since Henry Holmes died. I think that was the guy’s name, anyway. He was so reclusive he became a bit of an urban legend himself. Do you remember how kids used to dare each other to go up to his front gate?”

“Um. Not really,” Natasha admitted. She’d probably been studying while the cool kids were doing things like that. She’d never really been invited on those kinds of adventures. “But you’re the second person who’s said that house is haunted! I’m beginning to think maybe that guy really is just a ghost after all. He definitely ghosted me, anyway.”

“Maybe it’s a different place up in the mountains – there are a few of them now,” Sylvie said, as she resolutely pulled off her uniform cap, and then lifted the apron with Sylvie’s Sweets and Bakery printed across the front. “Maybe he’s some rich guy who’s rented out one of the chalets that usually only get used during the ski season. Sounds like that kind of bastard.”

“Well, he didn’t seem that way to me –” Natasha began to say, before cutting herself off. He told me he was a horticulturalist… they’re not known for pulling in the big bucks, are they? But maybe that was just part of his devilish lies… Even as she thought it, however, Natasha’s mind rebelled against the idea. Kieran just hadn’t seemed at all like the sleazy moneymakers she knew in the city. But then, he also hadn’t seemed like the kind of guy who’d stand her up, either.

“But maybe you’re right,” she concluded lamely. What else could she do? In the midst of her mild depression, however, she noticed that Sylvie had marched to the door of her shop and flipped the OPEN sign to CLOSED. “Oh – are you closing? Sorry, I didn’t realize –”

“Nope,” Sylvie said, gesturing to one of the chairs at one of the little tables that lined the wall. “You missed the lunchtime rush, so things usually get a bit quiet around this time. And it sounds like you could use a friendly ear.”

“Oh, Sylvie, no, you don’t have to do that,” Natasha protested. “We haven’t even seen each other in years, and I –”

“Hey, I still consider you an old friend,” Sylvie said, shaking her head as, leaning down, she pulled a slice of what had to be the most decadent-looking chocolate cake Natasha had ever seen from the display shelf. “So if you want to talk, I’m here. And if you don’t want to talk but just eat some cake, I’m also here.”

Natasha couldn’t hold back her laugh, as, giving in, she sat herself down at the table, pulling the boxes with her diner order out of the bag. “Well… I did get some extra onion rings at the diner. I probably can’t eat them all by myself.”

Twenty minutes later, after what had to be the best chili dog and onion rings Natasha had ever tasted – or half of them, anyway – she had to admit, she was feeling a lot better.

Good food and an unexpected friend will do that, I suppose,she thought, looking fondly at Sylvie from across the table. She really hadn’t expected Sylvie to remember her at all – much less care about her romance problems. But maybe that’s what people are like here…

“Still got room for cake?” Sylvie asked, a wicked gleam in her eye.

“Oh boy, I always have room for cake,” Natasha said, returning the grin Sylvie was giving her. “I’m on vacation, so the calories don’t even count, right?”

“Who’s calories? I don’t think I know her,” Sylvie said breezily as she sawed off a hunk of the cake and passed it to Natasha. “Enjoy.”

“Oh my God,” Natasha mumbled, unable to hold back even as she took a mouthful of cake. “Sylvie, this is incredible. I always knew you liked to bake, but… oh my God… how do you do that? This is the best cake I’ve ever tasted. Are you making them with magic or something?”

“Secret ingredients,” Sylvie said, tapping the side of her nose. “But really, it’s my husband. He’s can grow anything – and I mean anything. So the nutmeg, the ginger, the cardamon you taste – all the little things that give the chocolate that extra spice – are from his garden. The cake wouldn’t be what it is without him.”

Oh, another gardener,Natasha thought, unwillingly thinking of Kieran again. But if he and Sylvie are married, I guess he can actually stick around…

Giving herself a mental shake, Natasha pushed the idea from her head. She really didn’t know what had gotten into her – was she this down in the dumps about a guy she barely knew, and had been doing her best to convince herself would only be a fling anyway?

But that’s just it, I couldn’t really convince myself of that. I really liked him, dammit! And… there was just something about him that –

“Oh, speak of the devil,” Sylvie said, wiping the cake crumbs from her hands and standing up, “here’s Gale now.”

Natasha turned as Sylvie went to the shop door, opening it. On the other side there stood an unbelievably tall and handsome man, with salt and pepper hair, tanned skin, and unusual silvery eyes.

Wow,Natasha thought, blinking. Sylvie’s done well for herself. Is he someone we knew at school?

As much as she racked her brain, however, Natasha couldn’t remember anyone like him at school – nor anyone called Gale. So, she supposed, he must have been someone from out of town.

“Gale, this is an old friend of mine, Natasha,” Sylvie said, introducing them warmly. “Natasha, this is my husband, Gale.”

“Nice to meet you,” Gale said, flashing a heartbreakingly gorgeous smile. “I hope I’m not interrupting anything – I just thought I’d come over and see how things were going, ask if you needed me to pick anything up.”

“Not just now,” Sylvie said, shaking her head. “We’re having a girls’ heart-to-heart. So no men allowed, I’m afraid.”

“Ohh, I see,” Gale said, nodding mock-sagely. “Well in that case, I’ll see myself out. It was nice to meet you, Natasha, however briefly.”

“You know I’m only joking,” Sylvie said, laughing. “You can stay if you want – I mean, if Natasha doesn’t mind.”

“No, of course not.” Natasha shook her head. She supposed maybe she ought to feel envious of Sylvie’s apparently amazing good fortune in having married such a good-looking – and apparently very considerate – man, especially considering her own current predicament. But she found in the end she could only really feel happy that Sylvie had done so well for herself – her own apparently successful bakery, a good husband, and glowing with obvious contentment.

Maybe one day I’ll get that way too…Natasha thought wistfully, as Gale and Sylvie briefly chatted about their mornings, clearly at ease with each other in a way that made Natasha’s chest ache just a little. Sylvie left Girdwood Springs for a time and then came back to set up shop here. Maybe… maybe…

“But how did you two meet?” Natasha asked, cutting off the thought before it could fully form. “Gale, you’re not from Girdwood Springs?”

“No, I’m not,” Gale said with a warm smile. “I just came here to get away from the city for a while – I used to work as a chef. I didn’t really have any intention of staying, but then I met Sylvie and, well… boom. That was it for me. And I’ve been here ever since.”

“Wow,” Natasha said, blinking. “Sounds like a real whirlwind romance.”

“I guess you could say that,” Sylvie said, her own ridiculously happy grin mirroring Gale’s. “But you know… sometimes you just meet someone, and you know. There’s no explaining it. You just have to go with it.”

Natasha stifled a sigh. Yeah, that would have been nice! she thought – but she knew it was a bitter thought.

“Sylvie was telling me the other day that you run the garden center down the street,” Natasha said, turning her thoughts away from her own still strong disappointment, and taking sincere pleasure in the happiness of others. “And you used to be a chef? Sounds like you’re a man of many talents.”

Gale laughed. “Well, I don’t know if I’d go that far, but definitely I like to garden – it was my first passion, before I got into cooking. So I guess I get the best of both worlds now, what with running the garden center and helping Sylvie out with the bakery. I’ve been incredibly lucky.”

“Well, how about we all sit down and have some more cake, then?” Sylvie said with a laugh. “I feel like I didn’t get to ask you much about how you’ve been doing, Natasha – you’ll have to catch me up on everything!”

Slowly, as they talked and ate the next piece of cake Sylvie brought out from behind the counter – this time some kind of amazingly delicious layered honey cake – Natasha felt the sadness and disappointment of her missed date beginning to melt away from her heart.

She’d never imagined she’d feel so at home again here – or that she’d be welcomed back so warmly.

It does make me miss the place just a little,she thought, as Sylvie offered them all coffee. And so what if I just got stood up? Kieran’s not the only man in the world! Who needs him? If he’s going to behave like that, then I certainly don’t!

And yet, even as Natasha laughed at some story or other Sylvie was telling about some people they’d known in school, she couldn’t help but feel a pang in her chest as she remembered the way Kieran’s eyes had sparkled as he smiled at her – that dazzling, amazing, heart-warming smile…

No! No. I didn’t come here to find a boyfriend,Natasha told herself sternly. I won’t fall for that again – I’m not agreeing to another date, not even if he comes to me with the best excuse ever and the world’s most groveling apology. Never, ever again!