The Tea Shop on Lavender Lane. Sheila Roberts

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СКАЧАТЬ had diplomatically kept her mouth shut on that subject. She’d enjoyed having the privacy.

      “This will be fun,” Bailey had said, smiling brightly.

      But later that night Cecily had heard her crying.

      It was hard to come home feeling like a failure, but Cecily hoped that once some of the pain wore off, Bailey would be glad she’d decided to return. Meanwhile, she was going to have to keep working her way through the misery.

      “Are you sure you don’t mind if I go out?” she asked as she came into the living room.

      Bailey was parked on the couch with a can of pop, a bag of veggie chips and a stack of Oreos. She had the TV on and turned to the Food Network. Cecily looked to see what program she was watching, and Bailey quickly aimed the remote and killed it.

      But not before Cecily had seen what was playing. “Isn’t that Serve It Up?”

      Bailey pulled a chip out of the bag and studied it. “I was channel surfing.”

      “Uh-huh.” Just what her sister needed—to sit around watching a reality TV show about successful caterers. “Why don’t you come out with us,” she suggested.

      Bailey stared at her in horror. “On your date?”

      “Luke wouldn’t mind.” Well, maybe he would, but Cecily was sure he’d understand.

      “No,” Bailey said with a firm shake of the head. “I’ll be fine. Really.”

      “If you watch that show, it’s only going to make you feel worse,” Cecily cautioned.

      “I don’t think anything can make me feel worse.”

      Cecily remembered how she’d tortured herself watching The Bachelorette after breaking up with Fiancé Number Two. “Trust me,” she said over her shoulder. “There’s always something that can make you feel worse. Come on,” she urged. “Come out with us.”

      “No way,” Bailey said stubbornly. “I’ll be fine here. Really.”

      “Okay, then promise me you won’t watch Serve It Up.”

      Bailey heaved a dramatic sigh. “I promise.”

      The doorbell rang and Cecily went to let Luke in. She opened the door, and there he stood, holding a single red rose and wearing a smile. Luke Goodman wasn’t the handsomest man Cecily had ever dated. He certainly didn’t have the swarthy good looks of a Todd Black. But he had a strong chin and broad shoulders. Broad enough to cry on. Hmm. Maybe he and Bailey...

      “Hi,” he said and handed over the flower.

      “Thanks,” she said. “That was really sweet.”

      “I figured there was no sense bringing chocolate.”

      She opened the door wide and invited him in.

      He saw Bailey camped out on the couch and gave her a nod and a friendly smile. No chemistry there, Cecily could immediately tell. “Hi, Bailey,” he said. “You home visiting?”

      “No,” she replied. “I’m...home.”

      “Yeah? Did you come back to work at Sweet Dreams?”

      “No. I...” She bit her lip. “I’m...I’m not sure yet what I’m going to do.”

      He nodded, taking that in. “Well, it’s good to see you. Welcome back.”

      “Thanks,” she said and frowned at her can of pop.

      “We should get going,” Cecily said. “Are you absolutely sure you don’t want to come with us?” she asked in one last attempt to get her sister out and having fun. She was aware of Luke next to her, blinking in astonishment.

      But he recovered quickly. “Schwangau has a killer new menu.”

      If she’d had any doubts (which she hadn’t), here was proof positive that Luke Goodman was a super nice man. Yes, for once in her life she was being smart about love.

      Bailey passed on the offer and shooed them on their way.

      “So now we have all the Sterling sisters back in Icicle Falls, huh?” Luke said as they walked to his car.

      “It looks like it. Of course, she’s not exactly home because she wants to be.”

      “I know.”

      She glanced at him in surprise. Although why should she have been surprised? It was a small town, and, for all she knew, Luke had even contributed to Bailey’s legal war chest.

      “Hey, I check out the magazine covers when I’m waiting in the checkout line, too,” he said. Then, as though he’d read her mind, he added, “Yeah, I kicked in a few bucks for the cause.”

      Once inside the car, which was a hybrid, she smiled. Luke’s head practically reached the ceiling. “Do you ever get claustrophobic in this?”

      “I did at first,” he admitted. “But it’s good for the environment and good for the budget, so I adjusted.”

      It seemed that he’d had to adjust to a lot of things, probably the hardest being the loss of his wife. How did he manage to stay so cheerful? Wired the same as Bailey, obviously. Those two should have been a match.

      But there was no understanding the heart. After all, she shouldn’t be the least bit interested in Todd Black.

      She wasn’t, she told herself. Not anymore.

      “I think, in the long run, your sister will be glad she came back here,” Luke said.

      “Now you sound like Samantha. According to her, Icicle Falls is the center of the universe.”

      He smiled. “Isn’t it?”

      “Well, there are other places in the world,” Cecily said.

      “But not like this one.”

      She laughed. “Just how many other places have you seen?”

      “Seattle.”

      “Well, there you go.”

      “Paris.”

      The Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the perfume factories! Paris was a city Cecily had always wanted to visit. “You were in Paris?”

      Now his smile wasn’t quite so happy. “My wife and I went there for our honeymoon.”

      “Oh.” Cecily tried to think of something else, anything else, to say, but couldn’t.

      “I have great memories of our time in that city, but it has more to do with her than the spots we visited. I have this theory. Any place can be great if you’re with people you care about.”

      Oh, melt. This man was СКАЧАТЬ