Whiskey and Gumdrops: A Blueberry Springs Chick Lit Contemporary Romance (21 page)

Seth eyed the door and for a moment, Mandy thought he was going to knock her aside and race through it. Instead, he took a deep breath and said, "I'm being accused of money laundering and fraud."

Mandy's heart made a large
ka-thump
in her chest, then stilled. "Say that again?" Those were mobster charges...not for a guy like Seth—just some dude trying to act larger than his britches could ever be.

"It's a long story, but the short version is they don't like how I've financed things." He ran a hand through his hair and took several steps back, unable to meet her eye. "They think I've done something illegal, but I haven't. Everything is aboveboard and this publicity will actually be good for the brand because it will get us in the news. Except..."

"Except what?"

Seth waved a hand vaguely. "Expanding at the rate I have been—it's a financial balancing act. I have a lot of plates spinning on sticks and I dropped one. Lexi got mad—"

"Lexi?" Mandy breathed.

"It ended up hurting her because I had to increase the interest on her franchise loan."

"But you can't do that!" She was sure John had made sure the interest rate was set. Absolutely sure.

"Not with you, I can't." He gave her a half smile. "You've a good lawyer." His voice perked up and he said, "Don't worry. Wrap it Up will rise like a phoenix from the fire."

"That kind of implies everything is going to be reduced to ash first, Seth."

He sighed. "Bankruptcy."

She rubbed her forehead. "Can't you just give it to me straight, for once?"

Seth slowly wrapped her hands in his, his gray eyes gazing into hers with what seemed like real pain. "I never did anything wrong," he said softly. "In six months from now, this will all be over and I'll be exonerated—"

"You said you've already been exonerated!"

"Yes, but...I can't afford to go through this. I have retirement plans. I'm filing for bankruptcy."

"But you took my money. Why would you take my money if you..." She stared at him, seeing the shrewd businessman everyone else had seen—the one Frankie had warned her about. Oh, damn.
Ohhhh,
damn. She took five steps back, hand on her chest as though she'd been stabbed. "You took my money with no intention of ever letting me open! That's why everything has been delayed. It's you!" She covered her mouth. "How could I have been so stupid?"

"Mandy, no," he begged. "I
want
you to open. I want you to do well."

She pointed a finger at him, peeved that it was shaking. "You better not fuck me over, Seth. You'd better find a way to get my place set up so I can open or I will—" Will what? Everything she could have used as a threat, the cops were already nailing him on. "I'll make you regret it like you wouldn't believe. You're not messing with city girls. You're messing with Blueberry Springs."

* * *

Mandy gunned her truck up the mountain pass to Blueberry Springs and brushed a tear from her cheek. She'd keep moving forward because she trusted John and his revisions to her franchise agreement, not because she trusted Seth.

And at the end of the day, what choice did she actually have? She was already losing everything. But to throw it all away preemptively so she could slink off and hide meant she was accepting her fate. And she would not do that—whatever it took. She was not her mother. She would never allow anyone to defeat her without her permission. She could see that now. She was different. Stronger.

She flicked on her wipers, driving past mounds of dirty snow that had slid off the mountain during very late season avalanches. The highest northern ridges were still snow-covered from the late spring storms, but with the summer heat wave suddenly upon them along with the rain, they were facing daily avalanches or flash floods along the road. She couldn't recall there ever being a year like this. Mother Nature's moodiness was matching her own moods stroke for stroke.

Her truck swished through the remains of an earlier flash flood and she pushed away pangs of loneliness. She flipped her sunglasses down as her truck roared into the sunlight at the end of an avalanche tunnel. Like a rebirth.

A rebirth she couldn't have. No mulligans. No do-overs. She had to fix things all by herself.

Frankie.

My God,
Frankie
. She brushed the tears from her cheeks. He was the only one who had ever truly understood her and what had she done? Discounted his feelings for years.

She raised her sunglasses again as she drove into the last avalanche shed between her and the lower meadows of home. As she entered, something felt off. She eased up on the gas and flicked on her lights. Something was definitely wrong. Her truck was rumbling and shaking, making her vibrate in her seat. Frowning, she checked her gauges and hit her flashers. She couldn't afford a breakdown. Financially or location-wise. Between here and home, there was nowhere safe to pull over, due to no stopping zones, avalanche zones, and a long runaway lane for trucks whose brakes had gone out on the long hill down into town.

She was almost out of the tunnel when a sudden bout of vertigo hit her. She blinked hard as thundering blocked out the sound of her stereo. Mandy slammed on her brakes as snow piled in front of her, sliding into a growing mound blocking the exit with dirty snow and broken trees.

She threw her truck into reverse, and with her heart throbbing madly in her chest, she backed up, watching snow continue to thunder down over the protective tunnel. Feeling as though she was being tumbled around in a clothes dryer, she closed her eyes to steady herself, waiting for the deafening roar to come to an end.

She peeked out at the snow, which continued to mound higher and higher, trapping her. She checked her rearview mirror to confirm that the same was happening at the other end of the tunnel. The air stilled and quieted and the remaining spilling snow slowly sucked the last bit of light out of her safe, concrete cave.

After the roaring and cracking, the tunnel felt frighteningly quiet. Snow had oozed into the tunnel and fear left a bitter taste on her tongue as she checked her phone's signal. Nothing.

She was trapped. Alone. The darkness felt complete and she fought for control of her breathing. She rested her head on the steering wheel, thoughts streaming through her mind. She'd be in the papers again with all her current failures—the franchise, getting trapped here. But she'd survived humiliations. And she would again. She'd survived having Oz dump her so he could pick up with harmless Beth instead of facing reality. Mandy had told him he should get out of his father's business and chase his passion. Which he eventually did, but when he was already with Beth. Dammit it all, she'd been
good
for Oz. He was just a shitty listener who took forever to follow through on advice.

She'd also pushed Frankie to get past his fears and try TV—to gnaw on the very marrow of his passions.

But again, the town had pointed their fingers at her—
she
was the bad guy for causing change.

For years, she'd lived with a giant hand of grief clutching her heart because of Frankie. Ever since that night under the water tower when he'd come flying toward the earth after she'd screamed his name, she'd been living in fear. Fear for how much she loved her best friend. Scared her love wouldn't be enough to make him stay, just as it hadn't been enough to keep her father from leaving her and her mother to go take up with a new family across town. And later, she'd been scared that Frankie would leave her the way Oz had left her for Beth. Twice.

But of course Oz wasn't the man she was supposed to be with. Oz was the one man in town she could easily pretend to love, but never be truly crushed by.

Not like Frankie.

Fear had made her cling to Oz, to do desperate things to keep herself from having to be alone. Of having to face Frankie head on.

And after all these years, Frankie still loved her. He'd waited. He hadn't allowed her to push him away. He was right there. Ready.

And she loved him. Loved him in a way that made her dizzy and breathless.

And it was time. She knew she was strong enough now. These disasters with her business hadn't led to her collapsing the way her mother had when faced with adversity. They had only made her more determined. But if she didn't leave her fears behind, she would never get to experience true love. She had to believe she was deserving and allow him to love her.

Goddamn it. She grinned at herself. She was in love with her best friend. Crazy in love.

How on earth had she ever managed to convince herself to stay out of his arms for all these years? When she got out of this tunnel, the first thing she was going to do was run to Frankie and make him hers.

She was ready.

All in. One-hundred percent. No holding back.

Chapter 15

It had taken all her courage to drive back through those avalanche tunnels between her and the studio where Frankie was working, but she'd done it. She'd ignored her lengthy to-do list and whipped up a batch of brownies for him.

Deep in the city, Mandy parked her truck beside several souped-up cars outside Studio B. Now all she needed was the guts to get out of her truck, step through those doors and tell Frankie the truth: that she missed him and she loved him.

Oh, man. She shook out her hands and bit her lips. Driving all this way had been the easy part. Now she actually had to do it. Let go. Put herself out there.

She closed her eyes and slid out of her truck, balancing the plate of brownies on her upheld hand. She took two steps forward, then turned back to her truck.

She couldn't do it. What if he rejected her? What if it was too late? What if he said yes but only wanted a weekend with her? What if he said yes and she fell so deep and hard and something happened to him?

She lowered her forehead to the warm metal of her truck. She couldn't do this. She wasn't strong enough. And she didn't have anything to offer him. She was a dragonfly's wingspan away from failure. From losing his inheritance. She wasn't a big fish. She wasn't even a waitress anymore. She was nothing. She wasn't even a good friend.

She closed her eyes against the tornado of emotions battling inside. She needed to get a grip on her fears. She couldn't let them run her life any longer. She wanted this. She'd already taken the first steps to changing her life. All she had to do was keep up the momentum.

Sucking in a deep breath, she pulled her head off her truck, ignoring the oily smear she'd left behind, and marched herself into the studios. Huge walls rose up on either side of her and oversized doors led into various rooms. She paused in the dim halls until she spotted the man-sized door that hid Frankie. She stared at it. Was she supposed to knock? What if they were filming?

A woman came up, reached over and opened the door. "Those will be popular," she said, eyeing the plate wavering in Mandy's hand. She pointed to a darkened light to the right of doorjamb. "When the light is off, you're safe to go in."

"Oh, right. Thanks."

The room overpowered her with the scent of oil, gasoline, paint, and pretty much everything that made her heart ache for Frankie. Large fans struggled to keep the fumes out, providing a constant hum in the background. The old roadster sat under huge lights that were so bright, the rest of the room disappeared when you focused on it. A man in a t-shirt sporting the TV show's logo worked on a rusty fender. A few large cameras were set up around the room, and shiny toolboxes on wheels were scattered about, along with state-of-the-art tools that must have had Frankie drooling. A dream come true.

She smiled, knowing he had to be loving it and would come home inspired to get his bodywork business off the ground and leave parts stocking in his past.

She turned to leave, feeling as though she shouldn't have come, that the timing wasn't right, and caught Frankie's eye. For a second, she faltered and their eyes locked.

Frankie resumed his work and she watched his hands deftly move the metal to grind it into a perfect circle. Summoning her courage, she made her way over to him, stepping over the various cords and hoses taped to the floor.

"Hey," she said as he turned off the grinder and lifted his safety goggles. "Um." She glanced at the rusty old roadster frame in the middle of the room and, unable to think of something brilliant to say, shoved the brownies in Frankie's direction and said, "I brought you brownies."

His eyes flickered to the other workers, who had stopped their projects to check out what was happening with him and the dame with a plate full of goodies.

"Brownies," she said, giving the plate a light lift in the air, answering their unspoken question.

"All right!" The men moved in and she teased them with the plate.

"They're for Frankie," she scolded gently. She pointed to one side of the plate. "These ones win the fall fair every year, and these ones—" she pointed to the new batch "—are my latest creation. I'm going to enter them in the bake-off this year. I was hoping to get Frankie's opinion." She swung the plate away from reaching fingers, her heart doing a little Olympic diving stunt in her chest when she turned back to face Frankie. "But maybe he'll share." She shot the men a coy look.

The guys turned to Frankie and he shrugged, his face a mask as he said, "Help yourselves."

Dirty fingers grabbed the dark chocolate squares, leaving one of the new recipe squares for Frankie. Mandy offered it to him. "This is my newest recipe."

Frankie ignored it while fiddling with the grinder's guard and she slowly lowered the plate. "The roadster looks great."

"Not really," he replied.

"Um. Your mom is really excited and proud of you."

Frankie gave her a sidelong look, arms crossed. "You came all this way to tell me that?"

"And a few other things." She pressed her finger on a brownie crumb and lifted it to her mouth. "I've missed you," she said quietly, studying the plate. He was right there, listening. Waiting. And she couldn't make herself put it out there. Of all the things she'd expected, she didn't expect him to be so...distant.

"I didn't think you'd notice I was gone."