Currant Creek Valley. RaeAnne Thayne

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      Yet another worry that kept her up at night. How would she face everyone in town who believed in her if she couldn’t make Brazen a success?

      “This place is going to be one of the restaurants that makes it,” Mary Ella declared loyally. “Assuming you do get a kitchen and don’t have to cook everything on a barbecue grill out back.”

      Alex sighed. “For now, you’re going to have to use your imagination about the kitchen. Trust me when I tell you it’s going to be fantastic. I’ve gone over the plans with Jack and Brodie. You’ve all seen Brodie’s other restaurants in town. I’m sure you can guess this one is going to have state-of-the-art everything.”

      “So when will we actually be able to eat here?” Maura asked.

      “You’re eating now,” she retorted. “A particularly delicious chopped spinach salad, if I do say so myself.”

      Her sister made a face. “That’s not what I meant, Alexandra. When is Brazen supposed to open?”

      She firmly ignored the flutters in her stomach. “Near the end of May but before Memorial Day weekend. We wanted to have a few weeks to work out the kinks before the summer tourist season hits.”

      “That doesn’t give you much time, if the contractor still needs three weeks to finish the kitchen,” Ruth pointed out, helpful as always.

      “Yes, I know. He’s supposed to be coming to town this weekend. It won’t be soon enough for me.”

      “He’ll be here,” Evie assured her. “And I promise, you’ll love the job he does.”

      She still couldn’t believe the single most important component of her new restaurant wasn’t complete. The previous contractor should have started in the kitchen and worked out from there, as far as she was concerned.

      “Don’t worry. Everything’s going to be fantastic,” Claire assured her. “Everyone knows what a brilliant chef you are. You’re going to have people lined up from here to Silver Strike Canyon, waiting for your food.”

      She loved Claire dearly for her unwavering faith but had to take it with more than a grain of salt. Claire would probably bite her own tongue off before she would say anything that might be construed as even a sprinkle or two on Alex’s parade.

      “Thanks, hon.”

      To her relief, the conversation shifted away from the restaurant and on to the reason they ostensibly met, the book they had read that month. They discussed the mismatches in the book, Emma’s strong and sometimes unlikeable personality, how different she was from many Austen heroines.

      By the time the lively discussion trickled out and the conversation shifted again to gossip around town, most of the book club members had moved on to dessert.

      “Charlotte, how’s your brother?” Mary Ella asked into a rare lull.

      Charlotte set down the sugar-free cookie Alex had specially fixed for her. Whenever she fixed a meal for the book club, she tried to remember that the candy-store owner was very aware of each bite after losing nearly eighty pounds over the past year.

      “He’s coming home, finally.”

      “Oh, I hadn’t heard!” Katherine exclaimed. “That’s wonderful news.”

      Charlotte didn’t look as if she completely agreed but she gave a forced-looking smile. “He was officially released from Walter Reed several months ago but he stayed in the area for rehab. Dad will be happy to have him home.”

      Much to Alex’s amusement, Katherine looked a little flustered at the mention of Dermot Caine, who owned the Center of Hope Café in town. The two of them shared a mutual crush but so far neither had done anything about it.

      Dermot would certainly take good care of his son’s nutrition needs, but Alex still made a mental note to add Dylan Caine to her informal list of food deliveries. The café served good, hearty comfort food, but a war hero like Dylan deserved gourmet fare once in a while.

      “We’ll have to throw a barbecue for him or something,” Mary Ella said.

      Charlotte shook her head quickly. “He would hate that. He’s very...different from the Dylan you all probably remember. He will barely talk to any of us.”

      Charlotte came from a family as large as Alex’s, though she was the only girl in a household of boys, while Alex had four sisters and only one brother, Claire’s husband, Riley.

      “I guess I should get back to the bookstore,” Maura said. “Jack has Henry this afternoon over at his office and he’s probably ready for a nap.”

      “Who? Jack or Henry?” Mary Ella asked.

      “Both. Definitely.”

      Maura’s adopted son was just about the most adorable ten-month-old Alex knew, but he was already turning into a handful.

      “I need to go, too,” Claire said. “We left Hannah in charge of String Fever while we were gone. She has such a soft heart, she just might give away half my inventory.”

      Alex had to swallow a laugh at the irony of Claire worrying about anyone else’s soft heart when she was renowned for her overwhelming generosity.

      “I really do love your place, Alex,” she said.

      “Same goes,” Maura said, kissing her cheek. Alex almost wanted to cry to see her sister’s obvious happiness, when she thought Maura would never be able to find joy again.

      “We’re all coming on opening night. Just try to keep us away,” Katherine added.

      Her friends gathered up their things, and Alex watched as they all began heading down the hill toward downtown.

      Her mother was the last to leave. Mary Ella hugged her hard, surrounding her with the familiar scent of flowers and fabric softener. “I love this place, darling. It’s so good to see you happy.”

      She drew away from her mother’s embrace. “What are you talking about? I’m always happy.”

      “Are you?”

      She wasn’t in the mood for her mother’s concern today. “Yes. I’m so happy, I beam with it. I’m a freaking glow stick. Why wouldn’t I be?”

      Annoyance flickered in Mary Ella’s green eyes that she had passed on to each of her children.

      “The restaurant is going to be wonderful. I just...hope it’s everything you want.”

      “It will be,” she said firmly.

      “You know I worry about you.”

      “Because I’m not happily married, you mean, like everybody else, and cranking out grandbabies for you.”

      She meant her tone to sound flippant but she had a strong feeling she sounded prickly and sensitive instead.

      Mary Ella stiffened. “That’s not what I’m talking about.”

      She СКАЧАТЬ