She smiled and took in the picture of a much younger Rill, a woman, and a boy. By the time she and Coop hung out at his store, he’d had lost his family in some sort of accident.
“You’re scanning the depressing wall. Check out the fun one.” He pointed across the room.
She moved over there and gazed at the picture of a little girl in pigtails with a boy tugging on them, both kids laughed. Her heart squeezed. “It’s me and Coop.”
“Keep looking.” He edged closer and touched a frame. “This is the picture of you two in the school play. And right here,” he slid his finger to the next one, “at the playground.” He chuckled. “You two were inseparable.”
They were. Feeling the pang of missing what she and Coop once had, she bit her lip to fight tears and spotted another picture. Coop walked toward the camera, his mouth taut. Eyes sad. In the background, she and Wally talked.
As if her feet buried in the sand and a tidal wave rushed to shore, the surge—the pain etched on his face—smacked and enveloped her, temporarily taking her oxygen. “Why…” She managed to gasp in some air. “Do you have this picture up?”
“So, when you came to see me, you’d know.”
She rubbed her hands over her wet face. “You knew I’d come?”
“One day, yep sure did. Took longer than I thought.” He waved a hand to follow him. “Come on, let’s have some tea.”
She sat in a wooden chair opposite him and retrieved a mug from the glass-topped table. “You know why I’m here?”
“I assume it’s because of the candy hearts.”
“Yes.” She sipped the hot tea. It didn’t lessen the sting of figuring out how to ask why he’d lied. “I recently learned the FIND ME story isn’t true.”
He drank some tea. “Says who?”
“Your nephew.”
“That boy. He’s so filled with science, he can’t see past the nose on his face.”
“So, it’s true?”
“Honey, I can tell you what I know. It’s for you to decide what you believe.” He studied her a long, powerful moment. “My nephew means a lot to me. He’s the one in this God forsaken world who checks on me and my sister, and her husband. If you hurt him—”
“Hurt him? He hurt me.”
“Did he?” Rill arched a brow. “From where I’m sitting, it was the other way around. He always did what you asked. You saw the pictures. They don’t lie.” He swallowed a mouthful of tea on a slurp. “When he walked into my store after I snapped the last picture, his pain tore at my soul, so I divulged the story I hadn’t planned on telling anyone. That night, Cooper and I processed the pictures. When I snapped the shot, I wasn’t after a picture of my nephew in pain. I wanted an image of you in his arms. I saw the two of you, cozy on the street and not caring who watched.”
True. They hadn’t cared who observed them snuggling. They didn’t do anything out of line but be perfectly comfortable with one another. “I had stumbled on the sidewalk, and Coop caught me.”
“Well, that’s the picture I wanted, but the shutter stuck. When I got it working, I raised the camera and clicked. Call it a momentary lapse in judgement. I didn’t peer through the viewfinder to see the situation had changed.” He released a sigh-snort. “The next day, I gave you a bag of candy hearts.”
She’d been upset about not finding Coop she hadn’t cared about anything. “I didn’t look at them.”
“Obviously.”
“How can it be?”
“I’ll answer that if you tell me why you’re here?”
She wasn’t used to him being so snarky. “Recently, I received a box of Valentine’s candies. In the box was a FIND ME heart.”
“You don’t say.” His eyebrows narrowed, and he ran a hand along his neck.
“I came here to learn how I’m supposed to know who my soul mate is.”
“Only two FIND ME candies are manufactured each year. You have to find the other person who has it.”
More and more she wondered if receiving the special candy was a setup. “Does Coop have the other one? Did you arrange this?”
“I never took part in the pairing of a FIND ME candy couple. I do know who they are, but I’m not privy to give out the information. I will tell you this, the box of candy I gave Cooper the day after I told you the story—”
“Yes,” she rushed out.
“It contained the piece of candy. I know because he threw it at me. Did you have the other one?”
She shook her head and lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know. The neighbor’s dog ate it.”
“Hmm. For someone who blabbed to the whole town about the myth, you didn’t give it much stock.”
“Coop withdrew. That day, I needed to talk and couldn’t locate him. I was too mad to look at the print on the candies.” Her voice grew deeper and more impatient, but he put her on the defensive.
“Hey.” He showed her his palm. “I’m not upset with you for telling everyone. You brought me a lot of business.” He chuckled. “And this town made some serious money. Tell me, are emotions or myths driving you?”
“I don’t know.”
“Here’s what I’m gonna do. The company sent me an extra shipment this year by mistake. Since you don’t know who to trust or what to believe, I’ll get some kids to bag them and pass the boxes out at the reunion, so I’m not involved. If the FIND ME candies are in there, then you have your answer.”
“But what if no one receives any?”
“If that happens, then no one in the room is meant for you.” He paused. “I have one question; you don’t need to answer to me, but to yourself. Is this what you want, to let a piece of candy decide who is right for you?”
After a bear hug from Rill, Lyse left his house more confused than ever. The pictures on the wall flashed in her mind like a movie reel. Fun, happiness, and smiling then the hurt in Coop’s features. The picture of herself surprised her most. She hadn’t been looking at Wally, but at Coop, her expression as troubled as his.
She rubbed her fingers over her chest in response to the familiar pain. She’d made a mess of things. Telling Wally she’d go to the dance topped her “dumb list”. If she’d refused, none of this would have happened. The fault of her and Coop’s declining friendship wasn’t his alone.
****
“I said no!” Coop stood beside the round table in his office, glaring at his marketing team. “No more probing the Nashville area. If Mr. Haynes wants to open a store then let him come to us.”
Almost as if the angelfish stood at attention on a slant, they eyed him. He shouldn’t have yelled.
“But, sir,” Yaci said from a chair off to the side. She usually hung close in case anyone needed anything or to fill in information.
“Find another ‘must-have’ spot. Gaining what we want at the expense of others is not who I am.” He pinched his lips to stop from confiding too much to his associates. He shouldn’t have let the acquisition go this far. If Lyse ever found out…he ended his train of thought. She would find out because he planned to come clean. She would learn how he manipulated her. By him doing so, she was in his life. Something he wanted down to his core. For that, he would never apologize.
“Lyse Haynes said she liked the idea,” Yaci said, breaking into his thoughts. “She loves your store and the ice cream.”
Someone overheard his and Lyse’s conversation on the sidewalk the other day. He wished people didn’t run their mouths so much in this town. Everyone knowing everything about each other’s business grated on his nerves.
“One last time, and I’m not repeating myself again. No!” He grabbed his papers from the table, stuffed them in a folder, and into his briefcase. “I have a reunion. Have a good evening,” he said and exited the room before anyone had a chance to respond. He jogged down the stairs, and peeked into the ice cream shop.
Cass rung up costumers as two other employees scooped ice cream. Good, everything was under control. He exited the rear entrance to the parking lot and climbed into his Lexus.
Hot and bothered from the discussion over the Haynes’ space and more hot and bothered because of the woman who controlled it, he wanted to spit nails. It’d been two days since they’d spoken. She didn’t knock on his door and didn’t stop by the ice cream shop. She didn’t do anything so they could see one another and talk.
He started the car and pulled out into traffic on Heart Avenue.
Working across the street from the B&B, he kept one eye on the window and one on the road. Okay, maybe both eyes stayed glued to the window waiting for her to walk out. In passing, he’d asked Felicia if Lyse planned to check out early. Learning she hadn’t was a relief, but he still didn’t know if she would come to the reunion.
Traffic crawled. At this rate, he would be lucky if he got there on time. The committee probably had everything under wraps anyway. After the initial meetings, they had done most of the work and only contacted him if they needed funds or if any problems arose.
A couple minutes’ ride turned into a half hour by the time he reached the school. He grabbed a few boxes out of the backseat, took them inside, and returned for his suit.
Chapter Four
All my stories are like myths, legends
.
~Rill Babcock
Lyse parked her car in Heather Ridge B&B parking lot. It took her forever to get from one end of town to the next. She hurried inside. With any luck, she could catch Coop before he left, maybe they could ride together. She jogged up the stairs and knocked on his door. No answer. She raced downstairs, skimmed the main living area. No one. The place was empty. Usually, a person or two reclined on the couches watching television or reading a book.
Laughter erupted from the kitchen.
“Lyse?” Felicia’s voice drifted from beyond the swinging door.
She stopped short.
“Yes,” said a woman Lyse didn’t recognize. “Your brother tricked her into coming to the reunion by putting a FIND ME heart in her box. Now, he’s used his sex appeal to tempt her out of the prime real estate space her family owns in Nashville.”
All the air wheezed out of her lungs.
“Marketing has been trying to get Mr. Haynes to sell or lease, but the family won’t give. Your brother’s company, Redfern, LLC doesn’t want to give up.”
Unable to move, speak, or do anything in her defense, she placed a shaky hand over her mouth to stop from telling them off. What good would it do anyway? Coop needed the tongue-lashing, not them. She turned on her heels, stormed upstairs, and banged again on his door. Still no answer. “Son of a bitch!”
At her door, she dug her key out of her jeans pocket and stuck it in the keyhole, missed, and tried again. Her anger blinded her enough, she couldn’t see straight. On the third try, it went in. She opened the door and slammed it shut behind her.
“What the hell?” She paced the length of the room. The information she learned the last few days about Coop didn’t compare to this atrocity!
He’s an evil fuckhead.
“I’ll show him. Let the candies work their magic.”
She jumped into the shower and a half hour later, she stared at herself in the mirror, and touched black eyeliner to her top lid. The cool shower hadn’t lessened her anger; her hand shook as she drew a line right above her eyelashes, the line coming out jagged. She snatched a makeup remover pad, wiped it off, and sucked in a deep breath before attempting again. This time, the line came out perfect.
At least, she didn’t have to fight with her hair by putting it up. Coop liked it bouncing around her shoulders. Since everything she did tonight focused on getting under his skin, she left it down, so he got the full impact of what he missed.
Dressed in what she hoped would knock Coop on his ass, she moved swiftly through the house avoiding the kitchen for fear of seeing Felicia and whomever she had spoken to earlier.
Thirty-five minutes later, she pulled into the high school’s full parking lot and backed out. “Damn!” She parked on a side street and walked toward the reunion with the most eloquence she could muster in four-inch heels, ignored the air chilling her skin, and pretended she didn’t possess legs as long as a giraffe that wobbled. The high heels, another getting-under-Coop’s-skin tactic, would have her topping him by two inches…easily, something he hated. “Ha!”
By the time she reached the door, her nerves jumped and her skin flushed. She inhaled and released the breath slowly and opened the door.
“Hi!” she said to her former soccer teammate, and so it went as she checked in, received her nametag, and walked inside the gymnasium. No one mentioned her graduation fiasco, no PIP.
Pink curtains draped the ceiling and hid the ugly brown walls. Spotlights ran along a track in the center, casting shades of purple and whites around the room. In the center of the room, a white tile dance floor with colorful strobe lights flashing beams of light over the area. “Breathtaking.”
“Yes, you are.” Coop’s voice flowed over her like candy dipped desire, snapping every erotic zone she possessed to life. He handed her a cocktail glass with juice in it. “Red never looked so good.”
Little sensations of the happy-dance variety skipped across her skin. She took in her cocktail dress with a heart-shaped cutout flaunting her cleavage. With her thirty-four inch inseam and the dress stopping mid-thigh, her endless legs no doubt made him notice. He loved legs long and shapely. Yes, the Valentine’s Day outfit perfected the let’s-get-under-Coop’s-skin theme. “Non-alcoholic, I assume.”
“School property.”
“The class president needs to have a better plan for the next reunion,” she snapped, refusing to release her anger. “I could use a shot.”
His intense gaze heated, increasing his potency. The exciting thrills she experienced the first day she returned to Heather Ridge when she saw him reappeared for a do-over. They paid no attention to his manipulation. She downed the juice as if it was strong liquor and moved to the table for some more. Felicia stood behind the punch bowl, her face impassive. “I heard you and your friend.”
Felicia filled her glass and handed it back to her. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Brows up, she sent her a you’ve-got-be-kidding glare.
“In the kitchen, not long ago.”
Felicia’s face fell. “No. Yaci’s mistaken. She—” Her words broke off, and her attention went to the person behind Lyse.