How Sweet It Is (33 page)

“You’re very astute. Right this way. Our table, and the very handsome Robert, await our presence. Be nice, whatever you do.”

She batted her eyelashes. “I’m always nice.” Plastering a smile on her face, she followed George to their table. Robert’s back was to them as they approached, but when he saw George, he stood politely and turned.

She froze. Absolutely speechless, that’s how she felt.

He, on the other, looked nervous. “Hey, Jordy. Good to see ya.”

“Little Bobby.” She turned to George in shock. “You’re dating Little Bobby? Robert is Bobby?” Worlds were colliding. She swiveled back to Bobby. “You’re seeing George? I didn’t know you were—Wait. We have to rewind. That makes you gay. You’re
gay
?”

Bobby offered a small smile and shrugged. “No one knew except me. And, well, George. He seems to have a way of just knowing things.” He exchanged a private look with George who motioned for them all to sit.

“So all of this time you two have been seeing each other? Since your stay in Applewood?” Jordan looked from one of her friends to the other. Her mind was still scrambling to catch up.

George offered her an apologetic look. “Guilty. But in all fairness, we were taking things slow.”

“At my request,” Bobby supplied. “I’ve known who I am for some time now, but I never acted on it in any sort of
official
capacity like this. And until I met George, I thought I never would. I was planning on bachelorhood for life. This is so much better.”

Jordan shook her head. “I don’t know what to say. I’m floored.” Except as she saw the happiness between them, the genuine warmth of their stares, she found the words. “I love both of you dearly, and once the shock subsides, will be so very happy you’ve found each other. I’m mystified, but in a really good way. To new beginnings.” She raised her glass to the two wonderful men in front of her, who clinked their glasses and beamed back at her.

And for the first time in weeks, the smile on her face felt genuine. “I’m still the best friend though, right?”

“Right,” they answered in unison.

The rest of dinner consisted of talk about Journey, location scouting, and an agreement on some last-minute equipment purchases. They were scheduled to start shooting their first project in just five short weeks, and Jordan couldn’t have been more ready. Anything to distract her mind from the very acute sense of sadness she’d been inundated with these past few weeks.

George settled his chin onto his hand. “There is one more thing I’ve been meaning to tell you.”

“I don’t think anything you could say will shock me more than you already have. Go for it.”

“I’m moving to Applewood.” He raised a hand to preclude her from interjecting too quickly. “Robert’s got the bar to run, and I’m perfectly capable of commuting. It shouldn’t change my role in the shoot at all, as most of it will be on location anyway. It just means on office days, I’ll have to wake up a little earlier to make the drive to the city. I’m capable of driving. I’ll even sing in the car.”

She thought it over in amusement. “George Underwood living in small town, USA. Someone should make a film about
this
. Who needs suicide forests?”

Bobby slid her a hopeful look. “You could move home too, Jordan. Make your parents happy.”

“That it would. But I think I’m best right where I am.”

George studied her. “You’re not over her, you know. Molly. And don’t look so surprised. I filled Robert in on all the details, and he brought to the table a few details of his own. We’re on to you. You act like it was just a little fling, a blip in your history, when we all know it was much more than that.”

“It was more than that. But it’s done now. The movie’s over.”

“It doesn’t have to be. Why are you running?”

She tossed her napkin onto the table. “You know what? There’s a lot there and I’d rather not get into it.”

“But look how miserable you are,” Bobby pointed out. “It’s written all over your face. Molly’s too. And now that Flour Child’s closing, she’s been even more withdrawn. Barely shows her face anymore.”

Jordan paused as her stomach dropped out from beneath her automatically. “What do you mean it’s closing? When did this happen?”

Bobby studied her curiously. “Molly put the word out a couple of weeks ago. Thursday is the shop’s last day. You didn’t know?”

She shook her head. Her parents hadn’t mentioned anything, but then Molly seemed to be a subject matter they purposefully avoided. She turned to Bobby as she tried to piece it together. “I don’t understand. She had a plan, a business deal with a distributor that would fund the business, get it back in shape.”

“I heard it fell through,” Bobby said. “The whole town’s broken up about losing the shop. Wish they’d thought of that before they gave so much of their business to that stupid Starbucks.”

George reached for her hand. “You’re not gonna leave her out there on her own on this, are you? Sweetheart, she could use some moral support about now.”

She pulled her hand away, her mood having taken a horrible hit after the news she’d just received. The concept of Molly without Flour Child was unthinkable, and it made her sick to her stomach just thinking about how Molly must be feeling. She could no longer concentrate on the conversation. Her brain had taken a sharp detour. “I don’t know what I’m going to do. It’s important that I not upset her life right now.”

George gave her a long look. “And dropping out of it completely isn’t upsetting for her?”

Damn it, he had a point.

*

Jordan was pacing, which was so cliché and straight from some sort of Perry Mason movie that she couldn’t believe she was doing it. Yet, somehow it helped her think, or not think, which she thought might be a better alternative.

It was after ten. Too late to call. That and the fifteen other million excuses she’d dreamed up argued that she should skip the whole thing and watch boring late night television to dull her senses, possibly pour herself a scotch.

But, no. Absolutely not. She was more mature than that, and it was time to start acting like it. She decided to just go for it. Before she knew it, she’d dialed the number and held her breath as it rang a second, a third, and a fourth time. Finally, there she was.

“Hello.”

She closed her eyes at the sound of Molly’s voice. The voice she’d spent the past few weeks attempting, rather unsuccessfully, to push from her thoughts.

“Hey. I hope I didn’t wake you.

“Uh, no. Just in time though.”

A long pause. “How are you?

“Getting by. You?”

“I’m fine, I guess.” She kept her eyes closed against the onslaught of emotion she was already feeling. God, this was hard. “I heard about the shop today, and I wanted to call and tell you how sorry I am.”

“Thanks. Me too.” Molly blew out a breath and Jordan could tell she was settling into the conversation. Despite everything, they still seemed to be dialed into each other. “The deal fell through. It was all a sham. At least I think it was. Probably some sort of front for Tranton’s behind the scenes business transactions. He was arrested last week in Florida. He’s a criminal.”

“That’s horrible. I can’t even imagine what you’re feeling.”

“It’s been hard. I had to tell my dad yesterday. That was the worst part.”

“How did he take it?”

“Just as you would imagine. He says all the right things. He’s the best dad ever, but underneath, I could tell it crushed him. I could see it right there in his eyes. He and my mom started the business in their early twenties. He trusted me with it and I—” Her voice was strangled when she broke off, and Jordan could tell that emotion had gotten her.

“Molly, listen to me. You did everything you possibly could. Everyone loves that place, and they just took for granted that you would always be there.”

“Thanks for saying that. It helps, I don’t know, to hear that from you.” A pause. “I guess I should go. I’m glad you called.”

“Me too. Hang in there.”

“I will.”

God, she missed her. “Molly?”

“Yeah?”

“Are we going to be okay?”

Another pause. “Maybe over time. This is a start. I suppose I’ll see you at the next family gathering. Fourth of July?”

“I love fireworks.”

“I know.”

“Good night, Molly.”

“Night.”

Jordan stared at the phone for a good twenty minutes before pulling herself off the couch and heading into her cold, empty bedroom.

Early Sunday evening, Molly closed up shop for the day and headed off down the sidewalk to her car. She had four days left as a small business owner and then it would be time to decide what life had in store for her next. Deb Paulson, who owned the diner down the street, had offered her a position. She was hoping to spice up her dessert menu and was thrilled to have a chance to bring Molly in. That or she was just a nice lady who saw someone in need of a job. It could really be either.

She decided to pick up dinner for her dad. It would be a nice change from the cafeteria food. She carried the baked chicken into his room and found him staring intently at a chessboard midgame.

“Beating yourself again?”

He looked up and smiled. “I get so frustrated at how good I am. Look at this. I never seem to be able to take myself down.”

“Funny how that works. I hope you’re hungry. Fabulous daughter that I am, I’ve brought us chicken dinners.”

“I hope it’s fried.”

“No dice, Daddy. But I hear the baked is just as good.”

“You heard wrong,” he grumbled, but it was good-natured.

She set up dinner for them in the corner of the room by the window and opened it, so they could watch the sunset. There was a serenity about the meal and they ate in companionable silence for a bit. Finally, her dad sat back in his chair and regarded her. “So have you decided? Are you planning to take the job at the diner?”

It was the twenty million dollar question.

She would probably have to, but the thought of not heading into Flour Child each morning still hadn’t completely sunk in. She didn’t want to consider other options. And she wouldn’t have had to, if her life had only gone according to plan.

“I guess so. It’ll be a change though. That’s for sure. I’m more worried about my staff. Louise is planning to retire, but what’s going to happen to Eden and Damon? They’ll need a paycheck. I just feel so responsible.”

“While that’s admirable, I’m more worried about you.”

“Well, you don’t have to be. I told you. I’ll take the diner job, come up with some amazing desserts, make that place famous and that’s the end of it. I’ll be just fine.”

He gazed at her. “That’s not what I mean.”

She sobered because there was this knowing look on his face that made her feel instantly vulnerable, as if he knew everything that was going on inside her. “I don’t understand.”

“I’m talking about your heart. Something’s happened. And if I had to guess, I’d say it has to do with Jordan.”

She stared at her hands. Hearing the very intuitive words caught her off guard, but it wasn’t like she could hide from him. She’d never been very good at that. She raised her eyes to his in question. “How did you know that?”

“Lots of clues. The way you talked to each other at dinner that night. How she looked at you when she thought I wasn’t looking. The fact that you were acutely aware of her every move at the birthday party. Love’s a hard thing to hide. Even an old fool like me knows that.”

She nodded as tears sprang into her eyes. “I was in love. You’re right. And I don’t know why I’m crying now. I promise you, I’ve been strong this whole time. I’ve held it together.”

“Because it’s your old dad you’re talking to now. I’m the guy that put Band-Aids on your scraped knee, remember? I calmed you down when you had a nightmare.”

“And got me through the darkest year of my life.” He was right. He had always been her soft place to fall, so of course she let go of emotion when she was with him. It’s what they did.

“Tell me what went wrong.”

Molly blew out a breath, wiped the tears from her cheeks, and explained the series of events at the birthday party. The complications they faced when it came to Jordan’s parents, and the guilt she continually struggled with herself regarding Cassie. She raised a shoulder helplessly. “I pulled away from her that night. We were supposed to spend the weekend together, and I could barely look her in the eye after everything. The next thing I knew, she ended things. Said we were heading in different directions.”

“Are you?”

“I don’t know. I wish I did. We felt in sync in almost every way. At least that was my impression.” She thought on it and countered. “No, it was hers too. I know it was.”

He thought for a minute. “Maybe she sensed just how hard all of this was on you and did what she thought was noble.”

She let the idea settle. “She was trying to let me off the hook?”

“It’s possible.”

She shook her head. “I screwed everything up, Dad. I held parts of myself back from her because I felt like they belonged to someone else. I didn’t fully see it then, but I do now. Because I wasn’t ready, I may have blown the best thing that’s ever happened to me.” She shook her head. Letting Jordan go was breathtakingly stupid and now she couldn’t imagine why she’d done it.

He sat forward in his chair. “And what are you going to do about it?”

“I don’t know that there’s anything I can do.”

He shot her a frustrated look. “You have to take control of your own life, Molly. I can’t leave this world—”

“Dad, don’t say that.”

“Let me finish,” he said sternly. The intensity in his tone shut her up immediately. “I know it’s not fun to talk about, but this is what it comes down to. I’m sick, and little by little, I feel my strength slipping away.” He reached out and clutched her hand in his. “I can’t stand the thought of leaving this world knowing you’re not okay, do you hear me?”

“Yes, sir,” she said solemnly.

“You’re a fighter, Molly, but sometimes you forget that. I don’t want you to walk through life alone. Now, you’ve been dealt some tough blows along the way, but those trials don’t define you. You can’t let them hold you back from getting out there and living.” There was fire in his eyes as he continued. “If you love this girl, damn it, you go out there and get her. The rest of the world will just have to deal with it. And if it’s guilt that’s eating you alive, well, then you figure out how to deal with that too because life is too short. Understand me?”