Chapter 5
Chapter Five
Anything interesting happen at the garage sale?” Britt asked as soon as Maddie let herself into Sweet Art’s kitchen for work on Monday morning.
“We raised a thousand dollars. Then Mr. Gustafson stopped by as we were cleaning up and handed me a check for a thousand more.”
“That’s awesome . . . and also highly evasive because you know that by ‘anything interesting’ I was referring to your relationship with Leo.”
Maddie hung her jacket and purse in the closet. Sweet Art occupied a building that had once been a bank before it had been relocated to its current spot within Merryweather Historical Village. The back half of Sweet Art contained Britt’s kitchen. The shop commanded the front half.
“It really was incredibly generous of Mr. Gustafson,” Maddie said, willfully ignoring Britt’s comment about Leo.
“I’m going to keep on giving him extra truffles every time he visits.
” Mr. Gustafson was a wealthy retiree with twinkly eyes who took his therapy dog to the hospital for fun and was in possession of a sweet tooth.
“You give him free truffles?” Britt asked with mock outrage. She stood at her cutting board in her white chef’s coat, slicing ganache. She’d snatched her dark hair into a top knot then added a cloth headband for good measure. Her features were crisp and beautiful.
“Of course I give him free truffles. He pays for five times that many, and he just handed Leo and me a one-thousand-dollar check for the Huntingtons. I’d say the free truffles are a good investment.”
“Nope.” Britt smiled wolfishly. “I’m going to have to dock your pay and issue a warning.”
“Can you issue my warning in the form of a Death by Chocolate truffle?” Maddie extended her hand for her morning fix.
Britt plucked up a newly made Death by Chocolate truffle and stretched across her work space to place it on Maddie’s palm. “Now tell me how things went at the garage sale between you and Leo. I’ve been eagerly awaiting the latest installment in your tale of unrequited love.”
Maddie ate half the truffle. It melted in a deep, dark, rich stream over her tongue. “My tale is going to remain unrequited, I’m afraid.”
“But why?”
“Because Leo and Charlie are Olivia’s guys—”
“They were Olivia’s guys. Now they’re not.”
Maddie made a sound of protest.
Britt flicked a chocolate sprinkle at her.
Maddie batted it away.
“Leo is perfectly free to date anyone he wants now,” Britt stated. “And so are you.”
Maddie wanted to argue, but how could she? Technically, Britt was right. However, when it came to the bonds of friendship and contrasting loyalties and complicated matters of the heart, “technically right” didn’t have much bearing. She had a sudden craving for potato chips.
Britt gave Maddie a forceful look. “They’re not Olivia’s guys anymore. You can’t let that get in your head. Okay?”
“Okay, attack dog. I hear you.” Maddie finished her truffle.
“What else is making you think your tale has to stay unrequited?” Britt asked.
“The fact that I don’t think Leo’s interested in me.”
“You don’t know that to be a fact. Did he do or say anything promising during the garage sale? Anything?”
“Well, two very small things did happen.”
Britt cocked her head, waiting.
“He looked at me at one point as if struck by something. It was sort of an . . . arrested look? I’m not convinced, though, that it had anything to do with me. It could simply have been that he had an epiphany about eighteenth-century France.”
“What’s the other thing that happened?”
“My mom did what she’s fond of doing and tried to set me up with an unsuspecting single man right in front of Leo. It could have been my imagination, but Leo seemed displeased.”
“At the prospect of you going out with the other guy?”
Maddie nodded.
“Hmm,” Britt said speculatively.
“I probably misread Leo. He probably wasn’t displeased.”
“Or maybe he was.” Britt’s almond-shaped brown eyes sparked with excitement. “Maybe he just needs some encouragement. Leo’s reserved. What’s that saying? Quiet waters . . . something something?”
“Still waters run deep.”
Britt snapped her fingers. “Yes, exactly.” She bent her head and continued slicing the ganache into perfect squares.
“I think that Leo feels passionately underneath that calm demeanor. When he devotes himself to something he’s seriously devoted.
The problem for you is that men like Leo can be slow to make a move. ”
Britt had Leo’s personality nailed. Maddie adored the fact that Leo’s still waters ran deep.
He wasn’t glib. He wasn’t the sort of guy who used flattery to manipulate and charm to seduce.
Instead, he possessed the less-flashy qualities she cared about most. He was kind, intelligent, trustworthy, real, and sometimes just a little bit self-conscious.
When she was with him, he made her feel like the best version of herself.
“Have you considered asking him out?” Britt asked.
The thought of that caused Maddie’s heart to spiral to the ground like a wounded quail. “I couldn’t.” She began to knead her knuckle.
“Why not? We both know that Olivia’s frankness helped her snag Leo.” Britt made her way to the sink and began washing her hands. “I’ve asked out plenty of men in my day, and they’ve usually said yes.”
Britt was both overtly pretty and adventurously forthright. Maddie certainly didn’t consider herself to be as pretty as Britt, nor had she been born with the I-ask-men-to-go-out-with-me gene.
Rejection didn’t scare Britt, but it did scare Maddie. Especially rejection from Leo. Especially. Maddie donned a black apron emblazoned with the shop’s logo across the front in white.
“Ask him out,” Britt encouraged.
“No, thank you.”
“Ask him out!”
Maddie escaped by pushing through the swinging door into the shop.
Britt was determined to bolster Maddie’s hopes where Leo was concerned. But it had never seemed wise to Maddie to hope that he might actually come to love her.
That longing seemed too unlikely, too destined to set her up for a fall.
“I’m not finished lecturing you,” Britt called.
“Funny, because I am finished being lectured,” Maddie called back pleasantly. “Especially about hypothetical situations concerning Leo Donnelly.”
She set about the tasks she accomplished each morning before opening the shop.
She brought the cash register to life, refilled the napkin containers, made sure each chocolate in the display case was aligned with all of its chocolate friends.
She cleaned the glass front of the antique case, the bar that lined three of the interior walls, and the tops of the accompanying barstools.
Britt shouldered through the swinging door and came to a stop, arms crossed. “Who’s the unsuspecting single man you mentioned earlier?”
“You’re just now thinking to ask?”
“I was momentarily thrown off my game by my dismay over the state of your dating life,” Britt answered.
“I’m dismayed over the fact that I’m slaving away while you’re just standing around doing nothing.”
Britt gave a sly smile. “I’m a master chocolatier, which qualifies me to stand around doing nothing.”
Maddie burst out laughing. “No, it doesn’t!” She tossed a freshly laundered dish towel to Britt.
The two of them worked side by side. Their long history joined them together as surely as did their town and their shared passion for Sweet Art’s success.
“The unsuspecting single man is Kurt Shaw,” Maddie said. “He moved back to town recently and took a job with the Merryweather police.”
“I think I remember him. Did he play baseball in high school?”
“I believe he did.”
“How does he look?”
“He looks good.”
Britt enjoyed dating and was extremely popular with, well, just about every available man in the county.
Her relationships usually broke down after a few months, though.
It was perfectly obvious to Maddie that Britt hadn’t settled down long term because none of her boyfriends had been The One.
Britt’s friend Zander was very clearly The One for her, in everyone’s opinion except Britt’s.
When Zander returned to town . . . if Zander returned to town . . . Maddie had high hopes that the two of them would finally find their happy ending together.
“Keep your sights off Kurt for now,” Maddie said. “I’d like to keep him in my back pocket as a maybe.”
“There’s no reason to keep him in your back pocket as a maybe, Maddie. Your destiny lies with Leo Donnelly.”
On December seventeenth, Maddie and Leo met to shop for clothing for Kim’s daughters.
Leo held up a conservative children’s turtleneck and jumper. “How about this?”
Maddie’s eyebrows sailed up. “Um . . . no,” she said kindly.
“No?” He glanced at the jumper then back at Maddie. The gold tones in his hair shone beneath the store’s lights.
“Nope. That outfit, while a very worthy suggestion, reminds me of a school uniform from the year 1978. Kim’s girls struck me as liking clothes a little more sparkly and modern.”
Leo hung the jumper back on its track and gave her a charmingly tilted smile. “I can pick out boy’s clothing, but I’m hopeless with female fashions.”
The last thing she wanted was to scare him away from today’s shopping expedition. The fun of this outing would vanish like smoke if he were to leave her here alone. “Be that as it may, I require the pleasure of your company as I choose female fashions.”
“You do?”
“I do. Also, you’re handy. If you weren’t here, who would push the shopping cart?”
She refrained from saying that she loved the way he subconsciously tapped out a rhythm on the bar of the cart with his thumbs.
She loved how, unlike many men his age, he almost never checked his phone.
She loved the way his soap smelled like leather and spice.
She loved his capable hands. His solemn profile. And the faint, grave lines sorrow had chiseled across his forehead.
On December eighteenth, Maddie and Leo met to shop for toys.