The Tea Shop on Lavender Lane (Life in Icicle Falls) (14 page)

“Um, everyone’s okay out there?”

“Oh, yeah. They haven’t left even a crumb. I sure would like to try one of those pastries,” Misty said, as she looked longingly at the one remaining plate.

“You will,” Bailey promised her. “That plate is for the staff.”

Misty’s eyes lit up. “Sweet! I can hardly wait.”

Bailey smiled. This was why she loved to cook. Eating made people happy. She gazed around the kitchen at the big stove, the griddle, the huge double sink, the Hobart dishwasher, the walk-in cooler. A framed piece of cross-stitch art that read Bless This Kitchen hung on one wall over the stainless-steel storage counters—a gift from Bailey’s mom to Olivia years ago. The kitchen had, indeed, been blessed, serving countless guests good food for the past twenty years and giving any number of young cooks their start, including Bailey.

This was where she belonged. Cecily had been right. It would have been stupid to let one bad experience keep her away from this forever. She inhaled deeply. The kitchen smelled of bacon. Tomorrow the menu would change, and it would have a different aroma—maybe cinnamon from Olivia’s famous cinnamon rolls or vanilla and brown sugar. Whatever was on the menu, she wanted to be part of it.

Misty had barely left the kitchen when Eric put in an appearance. “Looks like breakfast was a success.”

“I think so,” Bailey said with a grin.

“I knew you could do it.”

“I’m glad you knew. I wasn’t so sure.”

“Sometimes you have to prove it to yourself.”

“I guess you’ve been there, done that?”

Unlike his charming younger brother, Eric didn’t talk much. He certainly didn’t talk much about himself. But today he seemed inclined to. “Yeah, I remember my first big lesson when I was doing track in high school. I wiped out on the hurdles, got a ton of dirt embedded in my leg.” He shook his head. “Man, getting that cleaned out hurt like the devil. And I felt like a loser. In fact, I wanted to quit.”

Bailey nodded. She could identify with that big-time.

“My coach wouldn’t let me. He said the only real losers are the ones who go down and never get up again.” He smiled at Bailey. “Good for you for getting up.”

She smiled back. “Thanks. Can I adopt you as my older brother?”

“Sure. Sisters bake cookies for their brothers, right?”

“Absolutely.”

“Welcome to the family, sis. Oh, and by the way, my brother’s an idiot.”

Considering the woman he’d decided to fall in love with, she couldn’t have agreed more.

“I should get to work. Mom’s got a to-do list for me a mile long,” he said as he started to head out.

“Eric.”

He turned, an eyebrow raised in question.

“Thanks for the encouragement.”

“Don’t thank me. I’ve got an ulterior motive. I love cookies.”

He sauntered off, leaving her with a smile on her face. Maybe, if Bailey told Olivia she’d changed her mind, Olivia would let her help with the breakfasts every weekend.

She was taking off her apron when Olivia strolled in, looking hale and hearty in jeans and a pink sweatshirt.

“What are you doing here?” Bailey asked in surprise. “Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

“I’m feeling so much better. Just thought I’d come in and see how you’re doing. How did it go?”

“Great,” Bailey crowed.

“I’m glad. You know, I had three guests stop me to rave about breakfast.”

Rave reviews. Bailey’s lips stretched wider. “I’m so glad.”

“Can you do tomorrow’s breakfast, too?” Olivia asked.

“But you’re okay now,” Bailey protested.

“Oh, I’m still too weak to stand up in the kitchen. I realize it’s a lot to ask. You’d have to miss church.”

“I can go to the evening service,” Bailey said quickly. Already her mind was racing with what she could make—waffles with bacon bits in them, served with maple whipped cream. Or maybe oatmeal muffins and quiche.

“That would be lovely,” Olivia said. “Thank you, dear.”

“My pleasure,” Bailey said, and she meant it.

The next morning she got more raves on her waffles, which she’d served with another fruit salad, this one with a yogurt-lime dressing.

“That was wonderful,” Olivia said, coming into the kitchen.

Today she looked as hale and hearty as she had the day before. Once more Bailey wondered if Olivia had even been sick. She didn’t ask, but she did say, “You look like you’re all recovered.”

“I am,” Olivia said. “There’s nothing like having a couple of days off to make you feel like a new woman.” She leaned on the counter and took a sip from the coffee mug she was carrying. “You should be doing this full-time, honey. You know that, don’t you?”

Bailey focused on wiping down the counter. “I do love to be in the kitchen. I thought maybe you’d let me help out with breakfast once in a while.”

“That’s what I offered when you first came in,” Olivia reminded her. “And, of course, the offer still stands, but I’d love to see you strike out on your own.”

“I don’t think there’s much demand for caterers here in Icicle Falls,” Bailey said. It wasn’t like L.A., where everyone was either too busy or too important to cook. Anyway, she didn’t want to cater. She was done with catering.

“You might consider it anyway. Why not come with me to the chamber-of-commerce meeting this week?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Bailey said. Helping Olivia in her kitchen was one thing. Going to the chamber-of-commerce meeting and mingling with all the successful businesspeople in town was quite another.

“You might get some ideas.”

Ideas would be good. She still needed to make that list of options her mother had talked about in her book.

“You can come as my guest,” Olivia said.

“But who’ll watch the front desk?”

“Eric can do it. We won’t be gone that long anyway.” Olivia checked her watch. “Speaking of guests, we’ll have some of them checking out soon. Why don’t you go to the front desk, and I’ll finish cleaning up in here.”

Well, that settled it. It looked as though Bailey was going to the chamber-of-commerce meeting whether she wanted to or not.

Chapter Twelve

T
he banquet room at Pancake Haus was packed with the town’s movers and shakers. Ed York, who owned D’vine Wines, stood visiting with several people, including Sammy and Cecily’s friend Charlene Masters. Also in the circle stood longtime family friend Pat Wilder. From the way Ed looked at her when she talked, it was easy to tell he was smitten. And the way she looked back—well, she was smitten, too. All the bed-and-breakfast and motel owners were present, as well as most of the shop owners. Del Stone, the town’s mayor, was just finding a seat at the center of the large table next to Dot Morrison, who owned Pancake Haus, and on her other side sat Bubba Swank, who owned The Big Brats, the town’s favorite spot for sausages and great German potato salad.

Various people were still filing in. Here came skinny Hildy Johnson, followed by Tina Swift, who sent Bailey an uncomfortable smile and then scooted past her. Samantha entered the room after her, a picture of business casual in dark jeans, a crisp, white blouse and a red leather jacket, her long, brown hair falling loose to her shoulders.

She blinked at the sight of Bailey and hurried over to give her a hug. “This is a surprise.”
As in, what are
you
doing here?

“Olivia invited me,” Bailey said.

Samantha nodded approvingly. “Good idea. You might get inspired.”

Before Bailey could ask what, exactly, her big sister thought she’d get inspired to do, Ed York spoke from his end of the banquet room.

“Okay, people,” he said, raising his voice to be heard over the hubbub. “Please go ahead and find a seat.”

Everyone obliged, and they were almost all seated when one last person slipped into the room.

Saffron, basil and thyme!
Who the heck was that? Bailey hadn’t seen anyone so beautiful in town since Brandon left. Where had this dark-haired piece of gorgeous been hiding? He should be in Hollywood. He was better-looking than half the aspiring stars down there.

He gave her a sexy smile as he sat down opposite her and Olivia and said, “Hi.”

“Hi,” she stuttered. Hard to stutter a one-syllable word, but Bailey managed. She also managed to knock over her mug, spilling a river of coffee in his direction. “Oh, sorry.” She reached for a napkin to mop it up and knocked over her water glass, as well.

He moved his chair away from the table. “No problem.” He grabbed a napkin and mopped up some of it, then disappeared.

Way to drive away a good-looking man, she scolded herself.

“Don’t worry. He’ll be back,” Olivia said.

Sure enough, he was back a moment later with a handful of napkins. “Olivia, I see you finally found someone as pretty as yourself to hang out with,” he teased as he wiped up the mess.

Olivia’s plump cheeks turned pink. “You are so full of frijoles,” she scolded him. “This is Bailey Sterling.”

“Sterling. You’re Cecily’s sister?”

“Yes. You know her?” Silly question. Everyone in Icicle Falls knew everyone else. So, how come Bailey didn’t know
him?

He nodded. “I do.”

Okay. So, how come Cecily hadn’t mentioned him?

“Todd Black owns The Man Cave,” Olivia explained. “It’s a, um...”

“Tavern,” Todd supplied.

“Bailey’s just returned home from Los Angeles,” Olivia said to Todd.

He disposed of the wet napkins, then settled back in his seat, and Bailey kept her hands in her lap, determined not to spill anything else. “What are you doing now that you’re here?” he asked.

“I’m working for Olivia.”

“Bailey’s a caterer. She cooked breakfast for my guests this last weekend and got rave reviews,” Olivia said.

The waitress arrived at their end of the table and that stopped conversation for the moment. But once she’d moved on, they picked it up again with Todd asking Bailey about L.A. and where she’d lived.

“I was just outside of L.A.,” he said.

“Icicle Falls must seem pretty dull after that,” Bailey said. “Why’d you end up here?”

“I came through on a bike trip with my brother. Saw the for-sale sign on the tavern and decided to buy it.”

“Just like that?”

He shrugged. “I had some money saved up. I liked the town, and it looked like a good investment. Things worked out well for me. And I enjoy being here. There’s plenty to do—river surfing, fishing, hiking.”

All outdoor rough stuff. Obviously she and Todd Black had nothing in common. The way her luck had been going, it figured.

“There’s usually a decent band playing at The Red Barn,” he continued.

“Do you like to dance?” she asked hopefully.

“I’m not bad on the dance floor,” he said with a confident smile.

Yes! A man who liked to dance.

“I hear you bought the Halverson place over on Lavender Lane,” Olivia said.

He nodded. “Yep. Good business location, right around the corner from Bavarian Brews. A new coat of paint, and it’ll make a nice shop or restaurant.”

“Smart,” Olivia said. “This man is going places,” she told Bailey.

I wouldn’t mind going with him,
Bailey thought.

Breakfast orders began to arrive, and the chamber members chitchatted as they ate bacon and eggs, pancakes, and Belgian waffles smothered in strawberries and whipped cream, all washed down with juice and Dot’s notoriously strong coffee. Everyone was about halfway through when Ed called their meeting to order.

“Before we begin, I’m sure you’ve all seen that we have a visitor this morning. Welcome home, Bailey. It’s wonderful to have you back in Icicle Falls.”

“They can’t stay away,” Dot cracked. “Once an Icicle, always an Icicle.”

Bailey felt her cheeks heating under the warmth of the smiles she saw around the table. Most of these people had seen her grow up. She’d been so excited to leave and make her mark on the world. Now she was back again, a failure, seated amid a crowd of successful people. What was she doing here?

Eric would say she was getting up and getting back in the race. Well, maybe she was.

The business meeting began, starting with a discussion on the upcoming summer wine walk. Then a newcomer who’d recently opened an ice cream and candy shop lobbied to be allowed to put up a larger sign. He was quickly shot down.

“We have a template for the size of our signs and the colors we use,” Ed explained, “and we all follow it. That’s what keeps Icicle Falls unique, and that’s what keeps the visitors coming back. And we all know how important tourism is to our economy.”

Everyone nodded. They did, indeed. Tourism had rebuilt their town.

Thanks to the loss of the railroad and the logging industry, by the end of the 1950s Icicle Falls had been on the verge of extinction. The few remaining citizens had taken a look at their mountain setting and concluded that it could be as lovely as any Alpine village. The town had pulled together and remade itself, putting Bavarian facades on the old Western buildings, adding window boxes with flowers and opening shops designed to lure visitors. With the scenery and winter sports working in its favor, Icicle Falls succeeded in turning itself into a charming tourist destination.

But no matter how many visitors came through, it kept its small-town feel, and the people stayed close. Bailey reminded herself that she could have picked a worse place to come and heal her emotional wounds.

“If that’s all the business for today, we can adjourn,” Ed told the group.

Chairs scraped, people started getting up, and the room was full of voices as everyone began to leave the restaurant and go back to their businesses. Samantha gave Bailey a quick kiss and then was gone, off to run the Sweet Dreams empire. Bailey had planned to follow her out, but that didn’t happen.

Ivy Bohn, whose family owned Christmas Haus, a shop that sold Christmas trimmings all year round, caught up to her quickly. “I’m sorry things didn’t work out in L.A.”

Bailey nodded and said a polite thank-you.

“Have you thought about what you want to do now that you’re here?” Ivy asked.

“I’m still trying to figure it out,” Bailey said.

“Whatever you do, I hope it’ll involve cooking,” Ivy said with an encouraging smile. “Let’s have coffee sometime.”

She and Ivy hadn’t been besties in school. In fact, with Ivy a couple of classes ahead of her, they’d moved in different social circles, which made her kindness all the more touching.

“I’d like that,” Bailey said.

Everyone here was being so nice to her. It was typical of the people in this town and heartwarming. And yet, so discomfiting. She felt like a caterpillar wandering around loose in a room filled with butterflies.

She was edging toward the door when Ed York caught her arm. “Well,” he said cheerfully, “now we have all the Sterling sisters back home again. Have you considered opening a catering business here in Icicle Falls?”

“Oh, no.” Bailey shook her head. “I think I need to try something else.” She was aware of Todd Black hovering at the edge of their group. Again, she wondered how much he knew about why she was home.

“I keep telling her she was born to cook,” Olivia said.

Now Pat Wilder had joined them. “You know what we need?”

This should be interesting. Bailey couldn’t imagine another thing the town needed. Icicle Falls had everything from a business supply store to a lingerie shop. And it already had almost every kind of restaurant a person could want. Well, except for a Thai or Chinese restaurant. But even that itch could be scratched thanks to the Safeway deli’s offering of pad Thai, General Tso’s chicken and egg rolls.

“What?” Olivia asked on Bailey’s behalf.

“A tearoom,” Pat said. “It would be lovely to have someplace girlie for visitors and for us locals to go with our sisters and daughters and girlfriends.”

A feeling came over Bailey that she hadn’t experienced since her first year in L.A. Excitement. It rampaged through her brain and down to her heart like a powerful drug.

She could picture it so easily. A cute little cottage. Tables spread with linen tablecloths and decked out with fine china. She could serve scones and cakes and cucumber sandwiches, and she could also sell fancy teas and lovely treats like lemon curd and Devonshire cream. And chocolate, of course, like Sweet Dreams truffles. And pretty teapots and accessories!

But think of the risk.
She did and immediately backed away from the precipice of failure.

Todd Black spoke up. “I might have the perfect location for something like that.”

“The Halversons’ Victorian!” Olivia said. “That would be charming.”

And once more Bailey was back at the precipice, enticed by the vision of a sweet Victorian house with lace curtains at the window. It would be the ideal setting for a little tea shop with a tearoom in it.

“Well, there you go,” Olivia said as if that settled it all.

Reality stomped onto the scene like an elephant and crushed the vision before it had a chance to grow. “I don’t have any start-up money,” Bailey said.

“We might be able to work something out,” Todd said, taking her arm and walking her out of the room. “Why don’t you come take a look at the place, see what you think?”

She glanced over her shoulder at Olivia, who made a shooing gesture. “Go on, honey. It can’t hurt to check it out. I’m sure Todd won’t mind giving you a lift back to the lodge when you’re done.”

She was right—what could it hurt? “Okay,” Bailey said.

As Todd led her out the door, she could hear Olivia saying to Pat, “Aren’t they a cute couple?”

Well, that was embarrassing. She stole a look at Todd. He was facing straight ahead, pretending not to have heard.

“I really would love to do this,” she said. “I can think of so many fabulous things to make and serve. But...” She bit her lip. “It’s not just the money.” How could she explain that to him?

“Like I said, let’s take a look at the place.” He led the way to a black truck parked near the restaurant. “If you like it, then we can talk about all your objections.”

Once in the truck she couldn’t come up with anything to say. Excitement and dread had each taken one end of her tongue and tied it in a giant knot.

“So, you enjoy being back home?” Todd asked in an obvious attempt to put her at ease.

“Yes. It’s fun to stay with my sister again. Just like when we were kids.”

“Doesn’t give either of you much privacy.”

She turned to him, puzzled. “For what?”

He cocked an eyebrow. “For entertaining.”

“Oh, well, I love to cook, so I’m happy to help Cecily entertain anyone she wants to invite over.”

“What if she wants to have a man over?”

Bailey’s face felt like a giant flambé. “Oh,
that
kind of entertaining. If she wants to have Luke over, I can always go to Sammy’s.”

“Sammy? You’ve found somebody here already?”

“No, I meant my sister Samantha. I call her Sammy.”

“And what does she call you?”

“When we were growing up, she called me a pest. So did Cecily.” Bailey rolled her eyes. “Sometimes I think they still see me as the baby of the family.”

Todd smiled at that. “Well, I still see my brother that way, too. I’ve bailed that dude out of half a dozen messes.”

Bailey thought of Samantha buying her airline ticket and shipping her home after the Samba Barrett incident. Birth order—and its imperatives—never changed, no matter how old you got.

“Here we are,” he said and pulled to a stop in front of a small Victorian. It was a faded white and had equally faded blue shutters at the windows, but it also had a charming front porch and all the gingerbread trim a girl could wish for. Flower beds filled with primroses, and, in keeping with the street name, lavender lined the front walk. The flower beds sported azaleas and rhubarb.

“Look, it’s got its own supply of rhubarb and lavender,” Bailey said gleefully. She could envision herself making lavender–white chocolate scones, lavender cake and rhubarb muffins. And she could see the place with a new coat of white paint, the shutters painted lavender. She could imagine customers inside, browsing shelves stocked with tea and teapots and pretty table decorations. Oh, yes, it was house lust at first sight.