Chapter 23
“Looks like we’re having a grand opening for a major hotel in New York City.” Ophelia helped load boxes and boxes of cookies into Ursula’s SUV that Friday morning.
“That wouldn’t be nearly as important as a convenience store in Spanish Fort, Texas,” Ursula said. “A big hotel in New York City would just be another place. A store in Spanish Fort is the only one, and therefore a bigger thing.”
Ophelia threw up both palms. “I’m not arguing. I’m as tickled as everyone in this area to be able to buy gas and emergency supplies right here in town. I was simply stating a fact that there’s enough cookies here to feed an army of hungry men.”
Ursula held up one finger. “Harry Dalton.” Another finger went up. “Everett Sampson.” A third one. “Dillard Andrews.”
Ophelia laughed out loud. “Now that you mention it, maybe I ought to use the kitchen at the winery and make another six or seven dozen this morning. Just those three could eat two dozen each, and they’ll bring Walter, Bill, and Coy with them.”
“And might even set up a domino game on one of the tables we’re setting up between Luna’s place and the new store!” Ursula told her. “Isn’t life great in a small town?”
“Even better in an almost ghost town,” Ophelia said. “I’ve got to go to work. See y’all as soon as I can.”
She took a deep breath and let it out slowly as she drove away from the Paradise. She made a mental list of everything in the boxes in her back seat. The house had been a hive of hustle and bustle since before daylight, and she had loaded what she needed for the party at the winery before breakfast.
“Gift bags and cards,” she said out loud. “Cookies, decorations, tablecloth. I’m forgetting something. I know I am.” She pictured the reception hall and one by one thought about the ways she intended to decorate it.
She fussed at herself to stop overthinking. If she forgot something, the little five-person party at the winery would still be a surprise for Lester, Frankie, and Rodney. Bless their hearts, they had agreed to stay on one more week past when their original last day would be. They deserved to be sent off in style to open their new café in Henrietta.
Luna and Shane’s party would be much, much bigger, probably more on the scale of a huge class reunion. Ads had been placed in area newspapers, and the entire population of Spanish Fort—all one hundred of them—had told their relatives and friends the good news about a store finally coming to town. Hourly prizes that included a couple of bottles of Brennan wine and ten-dollar gift certificates for gas would be given away starting at ten o’clock that morning. The grand prize was a fishing trip for four to be awarded five minutes before closing that evening.
Tables had been set up in the space between Luna and Shane’s house and the store for folks to sit around to visit and enjoy cookies and either sweet tea, lemonade, or bottles of cold water. Pizza would be served at noon, and hot dogs and burgers that evening. The whole family would be taking shifts serving that day. Jake was even closing the winery at noon, and after they had their little going-away celebration, Ophelia and Jake would be taking a turn at helping with the grand opening.
For just a split second, Ophelia was a little jealous that the rest of her family would get to spend the whole day together, but then she remembered that she had a job she loved.
“And a boyfriend that I could so easily fall in love with,” she whispered.
Jake was waiting for her on the porch and hurriedly crossed the yard to open the door for her. “Good mornin’. You are so sweet to think to do this for the guys.”
She nodded toward the back seat. “We were baking for the open house anyway, so it was no trouble.”
He opened the door and grabbed one of the boxes. “This is heavy. There’s no way we’ll eat all these today.”
“What we don’t eat, we’ll bag up with a bottle of wine and send one home with each of the guys as a going-away gift,” she told him. “I brought three gift bags that have THANK YOU written on the outside, and three good-luck greeting cards. You can put their final checks in the cards.”
“You are amazing,” Jake whispered.
“Mama trained me well, but thanks for the compliment.” She picked up the second box that held all the party supplies, and followed him to the porch and then inside. “In between customers this morning, I’ll get everything ready for the party. Tertia is picking up a couple of dozen pizzas for the grand opening, so I told her to get two extra for us. They’ll be here just before noon.”
“Thank you for thinking of all this,” Jake said. “My grandpa would say that you are a keeper.”
Ophelia set the box she was carrying on the table beside Jake’s. “Like I said, Mama raised me well, so the credit goes to her, and maybe to Endora for making the cards and a banner for us. We’d better get out of here before they catch us. We want it to be a surprise.”
Jake wrapped her up in his arms and held her tightly against his chest. “Do you really think we can hold down the fort here with just the two of us for the next couple of weeks?”
Ophelia leaned back and looked into his eyes. “I really do. We don’t have anything but Dolly’s birthday party on the calendar for the rest of June. By the time we have another big thing to plan, Lucy and Conor will be here. And speaking of holding things down with just the two of us, Tertia offered to come help out in the front. Right now Henry and his crew are remodeling the house, so they can’t do much in the way of testing recipes and she has some free time.”
“That would be great. Tell her that she can start on Tuesday,” Jake said.
“I was thinking tomorrow would be better since we’ve got that birthday party for Dolly booked in the reception room from two to four,” she reminded him.
Jake’s eyes fluttered and his lashes came to rest on his cheeks. “Yes, definitely,” he whispered just before his lips covered hers.
“Hey, Jake.” Lester’s voice came over the intercom. “We need you to make a decision back here.”
Ophelia took a step back. “That’s our cue to get to work.”
“Maybe after the reception for Dolly tomorrow, we could have a real date?” He slipped her hand into his and led her out of the room.
“Without a tornado?” she asked.
“I checked the weather, and it’s supposed to be hot and no storms.” Jake brought her hand to his lips and kissed the knuckles. “See you at noon if not before.”
“I’ll have everything ready.” She covered the hand he’d kissed with her other one, and was surprised that it wasn’t nearly as warm as it felt.
“Delivery for party number one.” Tertia carried a couple of flat boxes into the winery about thirty minutes before noon.
“Thank you, thank you,” Ophelia said. “How’s the grand opening going? Still have a few cookies left?”
“So far, so good,” Tertia answered. “Harry brought a box of dominoes, and folks are having a grand time telling fishing stories and talking about old times. They even talked Aunt Bernie and Dolly into playing a game with them.”
“That’s great,” Ophelia led the way back to the reception room. “Just set them on any table.”
“This looks awesome, Sister,” Tertia said. “The bunch of us sisters could be party planners.”
“No, thank you!” Ophelia shook her head. “That’s exhausting work, and speaking of work, Jake wants you to come help out here, starting tomorrow.”
“That’s great,” Tertia said. “I’ll be here, but right now, I’ve got pizza to deliver down the road. Oh, and one more thing, Walter is going to check into leasing the old store for a kind of senior citizens’ place where they can go play every day. Good things are going to happen around here.”
“They already have,” Ophelia waved over her shoulder.
She had no sooner left than Ursula came into the shop. “I need a bottle of watermelon wine. Endora and I were making up the gift bags and found we were one short.”
Ophelia hurried across the room, grabbed a bottle, and handed it to her sister. “Tertia just left. If you’d been five minutes earlier, I could have sent it with her.”
“I stopped by my house,” Ursula smiled. “This pregnancy makes me have to go to the bathroom every thirty minutes, and there was a line at the store. Parker showed up this morning and stuck around to help out. Looks like we’ve adopted him into the family. Think maybe Aunt Bernie is right and he’ll fall in love with Bo?”
“No, I do not!” Ophelia answered. “Study him when he’s around Endora. I think he’s got eyes for her. I’ll see y’all soon as we close up.”
Ursula waved over her shoulder. “You could be right about Endora and Parker, but it won’t happen fast like me and Remy or you and Jake.”
“I hope so,” Ophelia whispered, and then checked to see if everything was ready for the going-away party. She thought of a going-away party and a grand opening the same day. One was leaving, and the other was putting down roots. She and all six of her sisters couldn’t wait to get out of the tiny community or away from the Paradise to start living their individual lives. But when it was time to put down their roots, they all wanted to be right back in Spanish Fort. Then her thoughts went to what Ursula said about the romance happening fast for her and Jake. Ophelia hoped her sister was right, because she was so ready to take her relationship with Jake to the next level.
Jake winked at her and smiled when he threw open the double doors into the reception area. Lester stopped at the door and shook his head in disbelief. Frankie wiped a tear from his eyes. Rodney gave Ophelia two thumbs-up and a big smile.
“We feel so bad to leave you as it is,” Frankie’s voice quivered, “and now you go and do something like this for us?”
Jake patted Frankie on the shoulder. “This was Ophelia’s idea. My part was just to write your paychecks and tell you that when we get done eating, your week is finished. Ophelia and I need to get down to the grand opening and help out, so we’re all going home when our party here is done. Now dig in and let’s make one last memory together.”
Frankie dragged a handkerchief from the back pocket of his jeans and wiped his eyes. “Thank you both. We feel pretty special, don’t we, Poppa?”
“This is not a last memory,” Lester declared. “This is just the beginning of a new journey, and we will be returning to Spanish Fort to visit from time to time.”
“That’s so sweet.” Ophelia handed Lester a plate. “But for now, let’s have pizza before it gets cold, and then cookies.”
“Thank you,” Jake whispered in her ear. “I know I’ve already said it, but it seems so little.”
“You are welcome.”
Until you are better laid.There was no doubt in her mind that the giggles she heard came straight from her aunt Bernie.
“I could kick myself for being too stubborn to walk across the road and apologize for being rude when we were kids,” Noah said as he tied off a bulging trash bag and threw it in the back of his truck.
“Why’s that?” Tertia asked.
“Look at all the fun your family has,” Noah answered. “I could have been a part of this for all these years, and most likely saved myself a lot of heartache.”
“We are what our past makes us,” Tertia told him. “That’s why I quit coaching. I felt like I was wasting time.”
Vega, Texas, had not offered a lot of dating opportunities, and Tertia had a rule about dating anyone within the school system. That rule became written in stone after she saw what happened to Endora. But she did go out with a local doctor, an auto mechanic, and a couple of other guys during the years she taught there. None of them had ever talked about their feelings, and when the breakup came, they sure didn’t knock on the door and ask for a second chance.
“I can sure agree with you on that, and for the record, I do not intend to waste what time the present and the future give us,” Noah said.
“Amen,” Tertia agreed and then pointed to the table where the snacks were laid out. “The cookie trays are almost empty. We should go refill them before the next wave of folks come by.” She slipped her hand into Noah’s, ignored the stink eye that Bernie shot their way, and together they headed across the lawn and into the house.
“Hey,” Ophelia called out as she and Jake crossed the yard. “How’s it going?”
“Fantastic,” Tertia answered. “I thought we would be eating leftover cookies until Luna’s wedding, but if we have a dozen left, it will be a miracle.”
Ophelia and Jake stopped walking at the bottom of the porch steps. “Maybe when we start serving hot dogs and hamburgers at five, that’ll stretch out what cookies there are. Where is everyone else?”
“Remy is pumping gas today. Ursula is running the cash register, and Mama and Daddy are giving out all those cute little fishing lures with the store name on them.”
“Endora?” Jake asked.
“She and Parker were here for the noon rush on the pizza, and now they’ve gone to the church to bring in a few more folding chairs,” Noah answered. “This is turning out to be a bigger event than any of us thought it might. Even the lady who runs Horn’s Corner, a little convenience store over near Burneyville, drove over to visit. They’ve been trying to remember how long it’s been since there was any kind of business in town, but no one can come up with an exact year.”
“Does anyone remember when the old store was closed up for good?” Ophelia asked.
“One old-timer said his grandfather remembered it being open,” Noah replied. “But that would have been decades ago.”
Noah opened the door and stood back to let the ladies go first. “You are going to enjoy all the stories that are being told. Aunt Bernie is having a ball listening to them and adding tales of her bar. Plus, she’s getting to know a lot more people.”
“Next thing you know, she’ll be looking at the old store building to put in a bar,” Ophelia said.
“Shhh…” Tertia put a finger over her lips. “She might hear you, and besides Walter is wanting to put a domino hall in there. Parker said that if that doesn’t work, the old guys can use the fellowship hall for a senior citizens center through the week. There come Endora and Parker with the chairs now. They’re going to hand out fishing lures until supper, and Mama and Daddy are going to be on serving duty.”
“And we take over to man the store so Luna and Shane can eat and mingle with the folks, right?” Jake asked.
Tertia nodded. “We’ll be back at the tables in a few minutes. If you hear a funny story, remember every word to tell us later.”
“Will do,” Jake said.
Noah stopped inside the front door and wrapped his arms around Tertia. “We can get a lot done in a few minutes.”
She rolled up on her tiptoes and moistened her lips. “Such as?”
“This for starters…” His mouth closed over hers.
Five minutes later when she came up for air, they had somehow moved to the sofa and she was sitting in his lap. Her heart pounded, and her pulse raced. She could hardly breathe and her hormones were screaming for more than kisses.
Not here, not now,the voice in her head whispered.
She agreed with the warning. When and if she and Noah took the next step, it shouldn’t be a hurried thing. Reluctantly, she stood up and took a step backwards, stumbled over the leg of the coffee table, and fell flat on her butt. Noah jumped up, tripped over her feet, and landed with his head in her lap. The back door hinges squeaked, and Luna and Shane’s two half-grown dogs bounded into the room. Mutt came to a long, sliding stop on the hardwood floor and licked Noah up across the face. Tertia covered her face with her hands to keep Holly from doing the same.
Tertia removed her hands when she heard her mother ask, “What’s going on in here?”
Her neck felt as hot as her insides, and then the blush moved around to her face.
Noah pushed the dogs away, sat up, and then stood. He extended a hand to Tertia to help her. “We came to get more cookies, and…”
“There’s a perfectly good sofa right there,” Joe Clay said with a chuckle. “I’m sure Luna and Shane wouldn’t mind you sitting on it.”
“I stumbled and fell,” Tertia explained.
“And then my feet got twisted up in hers, and I wound up flat on my back,” Noah said.
“I raised beautiful girls, not graceful ones.” Mary Jane winked at Tertia. “We are here to get another box of lures and a case of water. Are you kids all right? That had to be a pretty nasty fall.”
“The only thing hurting is my dignity,” Tertia answered.
“I could say the same thing,” Noah said with a nod. “But on a different subject, I think having a grand opening like this and serving food all day is a wonderful idea. I’m going to do something like this when we open the café.”
Joe Clay picked up a box with promotional fishing lures in it. “Do you think you’ll have a house ready to move into soon?”
“I haven’t even told Tertia this yet, but”—he took a deep breath—“I’m checking into having my grandparents’ house moved rather than buying something else.”
Joe Clay nodded in agreement. “Sounds like a smart idea. Where is it located now?”
“About halfway between my place and Nocona. I could live there and drive, but I’d rather live where I could just walk across to the café,” Noah answered. “It’s an old two-story farmhouse. The bones are good, but the inside might need some cosmetic help. If that’s feasible, the movers could easily get it up here and set it in place by our grand opening for the café. What do you think, Tertia?”
“It would sure come with a lot of memories,” she told him.
“Lots of good ones,” Noah admitted, “and more could be layered on top of those.”
Tertia thought she knew what he was saying, and hoped she was right.
“Why don’t you take a couple of trays of cookies out and tell me more about this idea? Where are you planning to set it?” Joe Clay asked.
Noah picked up a tray of cookies in each hand. “I’d love to, and I’ll help greet the folks while Miz Mary Jane catches her breath.”
Joe Clay led the way out the back door with both dogs at his feet. “Glad y’all took a tumble in here. If you had dropped two trays of cookies in the backyard, these two mutts would have been glad to scarf them right down. And if Bernie had seen y’all all tangled up together, she would have fried both of you right into the dirt.”
Mary Jane sat down on the sofa, leaned her head back, and closed her eyes. “I need a few minutes away from the crowd.”
Tertia sat down beside her mother. “Mama, Noah is acting like the café is ours, not his, but I haven’t even told him for sure that I would work for him. And I don’t know what to say about him living in his grandparents’ old farmhouse.”
“Honey, in his mind, you two are already in a committed relationship—both as business partners and otherwise. Now the ball is in your court as what to do with that. Forget your aunt Bernie. She’s just putting on a show, and like I said before, she’s going to claim credit for the match if it works out. Just figure out what you want to do and go after it.”
“I want to be sure, but my heart tells me that it’s falling in love with Noah,” Tertia whispered.
“Then tell him,” Mary Jane said without opening her eyes. “I love all this, but I’m used to spending hours in my office where the only noise I hear is the clicking of the keyboard and the voices in my head arguing about the plot.”
“The wedding is going to be even bigger,” Tertia reminded her mother. “We start on Friday with the spa stuff they’re setting up in the living room, and the hairdressers arrive on Saturday morning.”
“I will live through it,” Mary Jane said, “but if you and Noah ever decide to get married, let’s go to Las Vegas and let an Elvis impersonator to do the honors.”
“Will you and Daddy and my sisters go with us?” Tertia asked.
“Of course, and that’s all,” Mary Jane said with a long sigh.
“And Aunt Bernie, of course.”
Mary Jane reached over and patted Tertia on the shoulder. “She will be there. She wouldn’t miss all those bars for anything in the world, or to gloat that her reverse psychology is what put you and Noah together.”
“If you are wrong, and she boycotts my wedding, she and Pepper can stay home and take care of the cats.” Tertia closed her eyes. “Not to worry, though. I’m not getting married for a long time. Ophelia will be the next one down the aisle. Or maybe Endora and Parker.”
“They do seem to have some chemistry between them, don’t they?”
“I think so, but Endora will need to be doubly sure before she enters into a relationship, so it will be a long time before it gets hot enough to boil,” Tertia answered.
Ophelia’s feet were aching by the time she crawled into Jake’s truck at nine o’clock that evening. “It’s been a great day, what with the party we gave the guys and the grand opening, but I’m really tired.”
“But the night is still young,” Jake said. “Want to go to my trailer, prop up our feet, and have a beer while we watch a movie on television?”
She covered a yawn with the back of her hand. “I might fall asleep, but a beer sounds really good.”
Jake put his truck in gear and headed away from town. “If you do fall asleep, I’ll wake you up in time to eat breakfast.”
“Who’s cooking? Me or you?” she asked.
“I make a mean stack of pancakes,” he answered as they passed the turnoff to the Paradise.
“That actually sounds good for a midnight snack,” she said. “I was so busy that I never did get around to having a hot dog or a burger. Seems like the evening rush of folks was even bigger than what was there all morning and afternoon.”
“You got it, darlin’.” Jake grinned. “I’ll make pancakes and bacon as soon as we get to the trailer.”
“Thank you,” Ophelia said. “We can even call this our tornado makeup date night. And thank you for closing shop and helping with everything today.”
Jake turned down the gravel road, drove around the winery down the path back to his trailer, and parked in front of it. He got out and, as always, opened the truck door for her. “You are welcome to both, but if we’re passing out thanks, I believe I owe you more than you owe me. You planned the whole going-away party for the guys and let me be a part of your family the rest of the day.”
“We’ll just call it even.”
He took her hand in his and led her up onto the deck. A big dog came from around the end of the place and lay down at her feet. “This is Stubborn, or Stubby for short. He and I both welcome you to the Brennan home. It’s not fancy or the size of the Paradise, but it’s home.”
She bent down and scratched the animal’s ears. “He looks like a stubby with that nub for a tail. Why did you name him Stubborn?”
“He was too stubborn to leave,” Jake answered. “The first three days he was here, I refused to feed him in hopes that someone would claim him, or else he would just go away, but every morning he showed up on the deck again. I would say, ‘You are a stubborn rascal,’ and he’d just wag his tail. Then I saw him running pesky animals out of the grape arbors, and I decided to give him table scraps. Now I’m buying fifty-pound bags of dog food.”
Jake stepped around the dog and threw open the door. “Come on inside and make yourself at home while I wow you with my cooking skills.”
She expected a small single-wide trailer, but this was so much more.
“Does your expression mean that you don’t like the place, or that you are surprised that I’m a neat freak?” he asked as he left her inside the open living space and went straight for the refrigerator.
“Both,” she answered. “I didn’t realize this was a double-wide, but then I’ve never driven all the way back here. All I could see from the winery was the front of the place.”
“I looked at the smaller ones, but they were too cramped to suit me.” He took eggs and milk from the fridge and set them on the cooking island. “Master bedroom is on the left over there. Two bedrooms and a bath on your right. That’s where Lucy and Conor will be living when they arrive. I talked to him again last night, and he said that they would like to move a prefab home like this down the pathway toward the farm pond. I sent pictures of a couple of areas, and Lucy really liked the idea of living in that place. It’s spring fed, so the water is pretty and clear all the time.”
“You’re going to have a community of your own back here,” Ophelia said. “What can I do to help you?”
“You can put on a pot of coffee, unless you’d rather have beer with your pancakes,” Jake responded. “I’ll handle the rest for a kiss.”
She planted a soft kiss on his cheek.
He slipped an arm around her waist and pulled her to his chest. “Darlin’, that’s not a kiss. This is a kiss!”
She didn’t even have time to moisten her lips before his mouth settled on hers in a kiss so passionate that it practically curled her toes. When it ended, he took a step back and poured flour into a bowl.
“I agree,” she said breathlessly. “That was a kiss.”
He wiggled his eyebrows and grinned. “I’ve got lots more that I will share with you anytime you want.”
“Be careful what you offer,” Ophelia flirted.
“It’s not just an offer. It’s a promise that you can collect anytime, night or day or anywhere in between,” Jake said. “You want more kisses before or after pancakes?”
Ophelia wanted more than kisses and had since they had made up after the argument they had several days ago. There had been kisses, hand-holding and lots of romantic flirting, but he hadn’t made a move to take it to the next level. An instant visual of the two of them tangled up in the bed she could see through the open door into the master bedroom made her break out in a hot flash.
That’s your biological clock, not a hot flash.Bernie was back in her head.
Go away. This isn’t the time or place for you to be here, she thought.
“Who are you arguing with?” Jake asked, “And who is winning.”
She filled the coffeepot with water and set it to the side. “How do you know I’m fighting with anyone? Maybe I’m just hungry.”
He removed his glasses, cleaned them on a tea towel, and leaned in closer to her. “Nope, your stomach isn’t growling. That look says you are doing some internal arguing.”
“Busted!” she said with a grin. “I was fighting with myself over the issue of being a brazen hussy.”
“Oh?” he frowned.
“I think my heart is going to win the battle. I was thinking maybe we could have dessert first.”
“Why, Ophelia Simmons, are you…?” He chuckled.
“I am,” she said.
“Thank God!” He laid his glasses on the counter, swept her up in his arms, and carried her to the master bedroom. “I’ve been dreaming about this for the past two weeks.”
“Me too,” she said as she kicked the door shut with her bare foot.