Heart of Gold – by Tiffany Carby #5
Brain dump after brain dump, I wrote down everything I could think of that needed to be done. I’d stay all night if it meant this party would go off without a hitch.
But my thoughts kept coming back to Adam.
Ugh. How mad he made me, offering for her to stay and help. I didn’t know her . I didn’t need her help. I didn’t want to see him with her .
And to top it all off, I was starving. Surrounded by a kitchen full of ingredients, and there was nothing to eat. It was no wonder I ended up at the sink eating cookie dough too often. I sure as hell wasn’t cooking for myself.
I decided I’d figure that out later and continued to scribble plans on the board. It was late, but I knew Rory wouldn’t mind a text at this hour. Truthfully, she was probably still up working on the desserts for the party.
Everything set on your end for tomorrow? Just wanted to check in …
She responded with excited emojis and confirmation she had her part under control, which gave me a big relief. I needed to get the ice cream done and set for my part of the dessert, so I started on the base once I finished my brain dump.
Fresh cream, sugar, vanilla beans, tempered egg yolks—I got this.
My secret ingredient was butter flavoring, so the result would taste a little like butter pecan ice cream without the pecans.
I knew I couldn’t add real butter without losing the smooth consistency I wanted, but this little cheat would get my point across.
Once finished, I added it to my ice cream maker to churn.
We often had fresh ice cream at the restaurant, so this was nothing new, but it would certainly be a special dish for this party.
Fresh hot fudge and gold flakes would accompany the treat.
My stomach growled again. I was going to have to do something about that. I tossed the ice cream dishes into the sink and heard the screen door behind me open and close.
Why was Adam here?
And a better question, why was he carrying a pizza box and a bag?
His uniform shirt was untucked and unbuttoned. I assumed his belt with his service weapon was locked in his cruiser.
“I know you are mad at me, were the first words out of his mouth.
“Good to know you paid attention tonight,” I barked, and then I felt bad.
“Pizza truce and we talk?” Adam sat the things he was carrying on the empty prep station. “I got your favorite—hamburger, onions, and pickles.”
It was my favorite, and only he knew that. A combination of my two favorite fast foods: pizza and burgers. I’d never order it with anyone else around because they’d make fun of me.
“I’m starving,” I admitted and grabbed two small plates for the pizza.
“I knew you would be; you rarely take care of yourself when you get busy like this.” He emptied the bag of things he had grabbed from the store as well.
My favorite soda, a bag of Cheetos, and a jar of maraschino cherries.
“I also knew you’d need fuel to get everything done before tomorrow’s party. ”
He was right, and my anger was dulling as I took a slice of pizza.
“You eat, and I’ll work on the dishes,” he said as he took off his uniform shirt. He went back to my office and hung it on my desk chair. His crisp white undershirt hugged all the right places, but I only got a glimpse because he quickly put on my extra apron and tied it around his back.
He went straight to the sink and started cleaning the few dishes I had just put in there when I made the ice cream base.
“Adam.”
“I’ll get these done in a jiffy and we’ll start on the other stuff you need to prep tonight. I see you’ve been busy,” he said and referenced the chalkboard with all my crazy notes. It was like he couldn’t stand the silence.
“I wasn’t expecting you to come back.”
“Well, I knew that the girls wouldn’t be able to stay too long. Overtime can get expensive.” He knew my worries as a business owner too.
“Yeah.” I took another bite of pizza, again appreciating his thoughtfulness. “I meant I wasn’t expecting you to come back because I figured you’d be with … Pippa.” I had to swallow hard to get her name out.
“It was wrong of me to invite her to help—I fully admit that.” He turned around, hands all soapy, and faced me. “But was the thought of maybe me liking someone else so bad?” The timbre in his voice went all over me, and I could tell he was mad at me too.
Hell, I was mad at myself .
“I needed to be selfish today, Adam.” I sighed a little too loud and turned my back to him.
I took a swig of my favorite soda. “It’s not every day that big things happen around here, and I have an opportunity to show off.
This is a big deal .” I couldn’t look at him.
I didn’t like the way my insides felt when we were arguing.
“I know it’s a big deal, that’s why I’m here.”
“Did you get her settled at the B the truth was, I didn’t care.
“We got a bite to eat at Trixie’s and I took her and got her settled. We talked for a little bit, and?—”
“And?”
“You know the other night when we were at The Diner, and I was telling you about how unfulfilling my job has felt? That I don’t feel like I do a damn thing around this town? I help get cows out of the road and I shoo away old people from making out at Lover’s Lane.”
I didn’t need to respond. He knew I remembered.
“Today, I came upon a stranded driver who was scared and didn’t know what to do. I helped her, and even though it was tiny and insignificant, it’s the first day in a long time I’ve felt good about my job. I’m supposed to help people, to make them feel safe. And I rarely feel like I do that.”
I knew how many dishes were in the sink when he started, and I was fairly sure he had been scrubbing the same bowl the whole time he was talking.
But he still hadn’t told me what else happened with Pippa.
ADAM
It was like I didn’t know how to talk to my best friend. Had we reached a point in our lives where we just didn’t get each other anymore? I finally rinsed the bowl I had been scrubbing while all the word vomit was coming out of my mouth.
“When she asked me to come up to her room to talk, I thought she was just lonely,” I admitted. How fucking naive was I? My instincts apparently needed a tune-up. “She didn’t want to talk.”
I could hear Hen sit her soda bottle down and would have been able to hear a pin drop from that second forth.
“But I didn’t want to do anything stupid … well, stupid-er . I left and didn’t look back.”
“You left?” she said and turned around from the prep table.
“I left.”
Moment of truth?
“I feel like an idiot,” I admitted. I dried my hands off and turned back to face her.
“All day long I haven’t been able to get you out of my head.
You , Henley. Not Pippa. It seemed like every time Pippa did something, it always led back to you.
I thought about if you would have been stranded on the interstate, how worried I would have been.
If you had left your cell phone and had no way to call somebody, not knowing what to do if your car couldn’t get fixed and you were in a strange town. ”
“Stop,” she said and held up her hand. She finally rested it on my chest before taking a deep breath.
“All this time you say your job is not fulfilling. You think you’re not doing enough.
This whole town, all of us, including and especially me …
we are safe because of you. You keep our streets safe.
You help people when they are in need. You stop insignificant crimes because our small town only has those petty things for you to deal with.
Can you imagine if you were dealing with homicides and bomb threats on a daily basis? ”
I laced her fingers in mine and held her hand closer to my chest. I realized I hadn’t seen my predicament through her eyes.
“All afternoon, every time I saw Pippa giggle or brush her arm against yours or say something that made you laugh, the jealousy rose inside of me like never before. I’ve never felt like this when you were with a girl.
I’ve always been happy for you when you were in a relationship.
But something about her just gets under my skin. ”
“The milkshakes …”
“Oh, you fucker. That enraged me. That’s our thing. Our . Thing . And wasn’t meant to be shared with anybody else.”
“I realize that now,” I said quietly. “I just want you to know that I don’t plan on seeing her again. When I should have been thinking about her today, I couldn’t get you out of my mind.”
“I don’t know what we’re doing, Adam, or why our friendship has gotten so beyond what it used to be in a matter of twenty-four hours, but we must move past this. I can’t?—”
I was done talking. I pulled her hand up around my neck and kissed her hard, tugging her waist against mine.
All the cheek kisses and forehead kisses we had shared were a drop in the bucket compared to this kiss.
Sheer unabated love poured out of me, and she accepted it willingly.
I lifted her and wrapped her legs around my waist. It felt good between her legs, like we were meant to be attached at the hip.
I flipped off the kitchen light, a force of habit, and made it just a few steps out of the kitchen and into the dark dining room. I laid Henley down on the soft booth.
“It’s always been you,” I whispered as I trailed kisses from her mouth down her jawline and over to her ear. “I don’t know why it took a stranded driver to realize it, but it’s always been you , Hen.”
“It’s always been you too. I was just never brave enough to admit it out loud.” She ran her fingers through my already messy hair and kept pulling me closer to her. Kiss after kiss, tongues dancing, lips aching, breaths hard, we explored territory we had never let ourselves before.
We’d been making out like teenagers for probably a half-hour, and we were starting to lose clothes along the way.
The screen door on the back slammed and we both gasped and jerked up into the booth.
“Are you expecting someone?”
She shook her head no and I pointed at her to stay in the booth. My weapon was locked in my cruiser across the street with my radio, and my cell phone was laying on her desk.
Thank God my keys were in my pocket.
“Come on,” I said and pulled her down as we crouched and quickly walked to the front door, quietly turning the lock to get out of the building.
“You parked across the street?” she asked as we went across the street to my car.
“Yeah, it’s dark in the back and I like to leave my cruiser in well-lit areas. We really need to get your parking lot lights fixed.”
I instructed her to get in the front seat and I unlocked my weapon and radio.
Possible 10-62 in progress at Baldwin’s Restaurant. Send backup. I called into the station.
En route, two minutes away, Walker. Wait on us and we’ll cover you.
That was good to hear. I reached over and grabbed Henley’s hand, bringing it to my lips.
“Wait here, ’k? Probably nothing, but just in case …”
“Walker, what are you doing here at this time of night?”
“Henley has a big party tomorrow, and I was helping. My gear was all locked in the car when we heard someone come in the back.”
Upchurch looked at me like he knew there was more than that story. We went through the front quietly and I let him lead. His partner Foley went around back in case whomever had entered tried to quickly escape.
“Hands up, you’re surrounded,” Upchurch hollered as he pushed open the door to the kitchen.
And there stood Alec Garcia, Henley’s bartender. He had two bottles of expensive bourbon in hand and the package of gold flakes she had just bought earlier that night.
“What the fuck, Alec? You’ve been the one skimming ingredients and stealing bourbon. Why, man?”
I could see it in his face that he was going to turn to flee, but Foley was in the doorway blocking him.
He rolled his eyes and put up his hands.
I let Upchurch and Foley deal with him and ran back out front to let Henley know everything was okay.
“Is this okay? What we did tonight?” I asked before we went inside so she could tell Alec she was pressing charges. “If we hadn't been making out in the dining room, he would have never come in the kitchen and likely never been caught, so …”
She stopped me. “I think this was the best scenario all around.”
I kissed her forehead and grabbed her hand as we headed back inside the restaurant.
“Can we push pause on this new us for a couple of hours and get the rest of the things prepared for tomorrow’s party?”
My grunt was followed by a big smile, and she knew I understood.
“Only if you agree to let me stay over tonight,” I protested.
“Deal.”
HENLEY
What an amazing night seeing all the Griffins dressed to the nines and filling my restaurant to the brim.
Raleigh and Dafne’s anniversary party went off without a hitch, and they were super impressed with everything.
Their sons and wives were in town along with family from out of town.
Their local family members also were there along with close friends and business associates that I had never met before.
The restaurant was decked out in gold from the floor to the ceiling. The china had gold embellishments, and Adam, my stand-in-bartender-slash-boyfriend, had the idea to serve special golden-hued cocktails.
The butter-vanilla ice cream was served in frozen dishes with tiny pitchers of hot fudge alongside and a sprinkling of gold flecks on top. It was truly a gold-plated sundae.
I stole a minute to myself after the big toast and went behind the bar to Adam’s side.
“Thank you for supporting me tonight, and every night. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
“Well, there’s a potential of cows being in the road without me around,” he teased and pulled me close.
“In all seriousness, you save the day much more than you know and deserve a lot more credit than you get,” I told him. “You’re my favorite protector.”
“You’re my favorite person to protect,” he added.
“What do you want to do when this party is all wrapped up?” I held him close as we enjoyed people-watching across the bar top.
“Got any ice cream left?”
“Yep, why? Want a sundae?”
“Only if there’s chocolate and cherries. The best combination.”
The only combination.
Tiffany Carby is a Kentucky native skilled in the art of storytelling. Former journalist, columnist, and blogger who now works in communications, she has a knack for narrative. In addition to penning romance, she and her daughter write children’s books.
Carby resides near Lexington with her husband, curly-headed daughter, and three sweet kitty cats.