Chapter 6 #2
“Yeah. I expected her to slam the door in my face. Instead, she invited me inside. She said her mother had talked of me often, and she’d left me something in her will.
I couldn’t imagine what. We were…well more than strangers by that point, but…
” Misty trailed off, struggling against emotion.
“She’d left me the globe. It was beautiful.
All bleeding colors and this sort of vignette inside that looked like the moon and stars.
She said it was called Moonbeams and Sweet Dreams, and it had been one of Judy’s favorites.
I didn’t know then what it was worth, but I thanked her daughter and took it.
Then I turned in my letter of resignation.
I didn’t know what I was going to do next, but there wasn’t a chance in hell I could go back to that job.
Eventually, I ended up here. I started this shop as a way to honor her memory. ”
Misty lifted her gaze to his. “Today is the four year anniversary of her death. It always gets me down.”
She needed comfort and kindness. Denver recognized that. But he couldn’t seem to make himself lift his hand to touch her.
She was one of them. A part of the system that had killed his father and broken his life. An unwilling part, but a part nonetheless. And he couldn’t unsee that, couldn’t unknow it. He couldn’t chain down his anger. Not now.
“I’m sorry.” They were, if not the right words, acceptable words.
They were all he could manage past the noxious swirl of shit her story had stirred up.
He needed to get the hell out of here before he spewed any of it out and made everything worse.
She didn’t deserve to be the target of his unfettered resentment.
“I hope the sandwich helps. I have to go.”
“Go?” She blinked, those big, trusting brown eyes he suddenly couldn’t look at anymore. “You’re not staying to eat with me?”
“No. I have a…thing.” Denver took a step back, then another. “I’m sorry,” he repeated, and walked away.
“It’s open!”
In response to Cayla’s shouted invitation, Misty opened the front door and stepped into chaos.
The cushions from the sofa were scattered on the floor.
A bowl of popcorn was upended in front of the TV, where Frozen was playing at low volume, and a half-full sippy cup lay abandoned on the coffee table.
Even as she watched, a giggling toddler went streaking down the hall—literally.
The kid was naked as the day she was born.
A harried-looking Cayla chased after her. “Madeleine Faith, you get your tush back to the bathroom. It’s time for your bath!”
Already up to the middle name. Clearly the night wasn’t going well. Now Misty understood why Cayla had asked her to stop by her house instead of bringing the ribbon she’d picked up by the shop.
Shutting the door behind her, Misty dumped her purse and stepped into the hallway.
When the little girl came racing toward her, Misty scooped her up and blew raspberries on her belly.
“I spy a dirty little girl.” Indeed, a fair portion of whatever had been for dinner was smeared all over her face.
Mac and cheese had definitely been part of the menu.
“No!” Maddie giggled.
“Don’t want a bath?” Misty asked.
“No!” Maddie shouted. “I’m a princess! I don’t have to.”
“Princesses have to be clean. It’s in the handbook.”
“What’s a handbook?”
Misty began walking down the hall, carrying the squirming bundle of little girl. “It’s like the Princess Rulebook. Elsa and Anna are always clean, aren’t they?”
Maddie screwed up her face in thought, and Misty prayed she hadn’t misremembered the movie.
“Yeah,’ Maddie admitted slowly.
“Don’t you want to be a princess like Elsa?”
Maddie shrieked a fresh giggle. “I wanna be a reindeer like Sven!”
“But then you’d have to eat hay. You don’t wanna do that, do you?”
She made a squished face of disgust. “I don’t like hay.”
“Then princess it is. And princesses take baths.” Misty set her into the tub, which was already filled with bubbles.
“And check it. Your mom put in these cool colored bubbles. They’re blue, just like Elsa’s dress!
” She scooped up a handful and set them on Maddie’s head. “There, now you have a crown.”
Maddie preened.
“If you play quietly and finish your bath, you can have two stories tonight before bed,” Cayla promised from the doorway.
“’Kay.”
“Mommy and Miss Misty are gonna be right out here, okay?”
But Maddie was already lost in her adventure, which Misty was pretty sure was a reenactment of Elsa and Anna’s parents’ ship sinking.
Cayla stepped into the hall and blew out a breath. “Thanks for that. It’s been a…day. And thank you for coming by. I’m sure I interrupted plans with Denver.”
It was Misty’s turn to blow out a breath. “You’d be wrong. I haven’t spoken to him in a week.” Not since he’d so abruptly left her shop.
Cayla frowned. “What? Why? Did y’all break up?”
“Breaking up would imply we were formally together in the first place.” Which, yeah, okay, she’d thought they were—or at least had been heading hard in that direction.
“What happened?”
“I have no idea. Things were good. Great, even. Or so I thought. Then last week he came by the shop with lunch from the diner. It was the anniversary of Judy’s death, so I was pretty down.
He wanted to know what was wrong, so I told him about her.
And something about that set him off.” Misty had played the whole thing over and over in her mind and couldn’t figure out the problem. What had she said? What had she done?
“Was he ugly to you?”
“No. He just hightailed it out of there. Left his own lunch in the process. I’ve tried to call him all week, but he’s not answering or returning my calls.
I even went by one day, but he didn’t answer the door.
” Yet a new tire had been waiting for her at the back door to the shop.
No note. Maybe that was a message in and of itself.
“Have you been by the tavern?”
“No. I’m not going to confront him in his place of business. And even if I were the kind of woman to do that, Trish Morgan is the biggest gossip in town. We both value our privacy.”
Cayla crossed her arms and scowled. “That just doesn’t make any sense. That’s not how it was supposed to work.”
“How what was supposed to work?”
“Oh, Denver has had a thing for you for years. So Kennedy and I conspired to throw you two together so he’d finally get to know you instead of just watching from afar.”
She’d wondered what that whole steam roller routine was about. “Yeah, well, obviously reality didn’t live up to expectation.” It was the fear that had kept her tossing and turning every night since he’d walked away.
“Misty Pennebaker, you stop that right now.”
Misty had to smile a little at the mom voice. “Yes ma’am.”
“I’m serious. You are awesome. And by all indications, Denver agrees with that assessment. So we need to figure out what’s got his panties in a wad.”
“We don’t need to figure out anything but the last-minute details for Kennedy’s wedding. Seriously, Cayla, I just want to do this job and go back to my shop.” So I can lick my wounds in private.
“So you don’t want to know what happened?”
Misty threw up her hands. “Of course I do. But what if I don’t like the answer?
What if he decided he doesn’t like forward, pushy women?
Because I had to make all the first moves in this relationship.
I asked him to dinner. I kissed him first.” I seduced him first. Maybe sleeping with him had been jumping the gun, but she couldn’t figure out why.
“I’m not going to make the move to chase after him.
That smacks too much of desperation, and I’ve got some pride left. ”
Cayla sighed. “Well, I don’t like it, but fine. I promise I won’t do anything.”
“Thank you.”
“Even if he does need a crowbar to pry his head out of his ass,” she muttered under her breath.
Misty mustered a smile. “Maybe he’ll get there on his own. Eventually.” But she wasn’t holding her breath.