She fought the invading flush, turned the air-conditioning to high despite the cool day and let the chilled air bathe her skin, her face. Brooks was a friend, a know-it-all one at that, a guy whose very being screamed “loner,” and that’s where they’d leave things. No risk, no worry. Perfect.
“I want to quit. To walk away without a second glance and never look back. Your mission, Brooks Harriman, should you choose to accept it, is to talk me out of it.”
Rita’s announcement lifted Brooks’ head. He glanced from the tiny, green-tipped paintbrush to the etched scroll accenting the antiqued credenza holding center stage in his “clean” room, the area designated for finishing applications, then back to her, appraising. “Hold that thought.”
A smile tempted her mouth. She walked forward, more confident than she’d been last summer. Angled light bounced off ash-blond hair. Her cross necklace danced brightly in the slanted spring beam. He sensed her approval of his painstaking work before she walked toward the back of the room to greet his apprentice as he applied tung oil to a deacon’s bench. “Hey, Mick.”
“Rita.” Mick’s low voice greeted her while his broad hands worked oil into the receptive oak, the grain leaping to life with his attentions. “How’re you doing?”
Filling the etch with forest green, Brooks imagined her grimace. “Frustrated, peeved, disgruntled. Take your pick.”
Brooks couldn’t resist. “Whiny. Complaining. Petulant.”
“I don’t recall listing those.”
He smiled. “Nevertheless.”
“None of the above,” she retorted. “And since you’re working on something requiring a level of care, I suggest you pay mind to it.”
“Ouch.” His smile turned into a grin. “There’s coffee in the pot.”
Rita Slocum only drank tea. He knew it, but offered coffee anyway. It was an old game from her early days in AA, when he’d squire her for old-fashioned one-on-one. Bad enough to be a single mother with a drinking problem, but a single mother with a drinking problem in the North Country, well…
That was tough. There were no secrets in the small towns littering Route 11. But she’d made it so far and today’s crisis wasn’t serious or she’d have called Kim to talk it out, fight the temptation, view her choices and choose.
Her presence pushed Brooks to hurry. He dismissed the urge. Fluid green followed his strokes, filling the angles and curves. Short minutes later, he sat back, satisfied. “Done.”
“I love it.”
He’d sensed her approach, the scent of baked apples and cinnamon teasing his nose, tweaking awareness. He looked up. “How’s your tea?” His eyes swept the foam cup, the telltale tag hanging outside.
“Wonderful. Soothing. Sweet.”
He’d stocked up on various brands for when she required a sounding board. Her hair swung forward as she examined the piece, the fruity scent light and flirtatious, a delightful combination. Her sky-blue eyes twinkled. “I’m not even going to ask what something like that goes for,” she quipped, admiring.
Brooks nodded. The German-style dresser was dear. “This wouldn’t blend with your things anyway, would it?”
“At some point in time, when the term ‘discretionary funds’ reenters my vocabulary, my things will change,” she promised. She pressed her lips thin, musing. “For the moment, I’m content with the scuffed-up remnants of raising three kids.”
Brooks envisioned Brett’s soccer ball thumping against the finished sideboard. Drawers stuffed with disjointed game pieces. Skeeter using it as a support for her gymnastic maneuvers. Olivia…
At fifteen, Liv was probably the only one besides Rita who would treat the stylish cabinet with any level of respect. He bit back a sigh inspired by his thoughts and his early morning wake-up call. “In your particular case, I think refurbishing should stay on the back burner for a decade. Maybe two.”
“For years those kids weren’t allowed to live in their own house. Be creative,” she told him. “Tom wasn’t comfortable with disorder.”
Brooks stiffened at the mention of Rita’s late husband, a man who’d engineered a well-disguised Ponzi scheme that bilked money from innocent investors, then killed himself rather than face charges, leaving Rita more baggage than anyone should have to handle. Ever.
Rita didn’t notice his reaction. As her finger traced the sweep of the beautiful sideboard, she lifted her shoulders. “With Brett and Liv both teenagers, they’ll be gone before you know it. Plenty of time for change coming.”
Brooks wiped his hands on a tack rag, stood and moved to the sink to wash up, weighing her words. Rita had learned to embrace change out of necessity, a brave move for a woman alone, a single mother to boot.
Whereas he’d run fast and hard, disappearing into oblivion when the going got tough. Polar opposites to the max.
He stretched his shoulders, rolling the joints to ease the stiffening that accompanied detail work. “So. What are we quitting?”
“Mindless work a trained monkey could do,” Rita groused.
“Trained monkeys are scarce hereabouts.” He poured coffee, eyed the density, scowled and added cream. “We could import some.”
“There’s little imagination or thought that goes into industrial baking,” Rita expounded, leaning against a sturdy, unfinished logged bedstead. Her blue jeans, thin and baggy, were standard wear in the bakery. “Every cake is like every other, don’t even think you can special order a combination that isn’t in the book because you can’t, and the custard filling tastes like chemical waste.”
“It sells.”
“Because there are no alternatives,” she spouted, eyes flashing. “If the cheesecake cracks, they dummy it with extra topping and sell it anyway, at full price.” Her voice rose. “And the crème horns? The filling comes in a box. You measure out x, add y and z and voilà! White crème filling.”
“There’s another way?” She ignored the humor in his tone. Didn’t note the lift to his brow, the hint of a smile.
“The right way. The way it should be done, would be done if I were running the place.” Arching a dark brow that contrasted with her light hair and eyes, she played her trump card. “To top it all off? Add insult to injury?”
He fought a grin and nodded, the gesture inviting her to continue.
“The cannoli filling comes from a can.”
“No.”
“Yes!”
The earnestness of her expression made him lose constraint. He grinned. “Who’d have thought?”
Uh-oh. The grin made her huffy. She set her tea on his workbench with an uncharacteristic thump. “Never mind, Brooks. I shouldn’t have come.”
“Why did you?”
“I…” His question caught her off guard. She fingered the collar of her knit shirt, nonplussed, her gaze searching his.
Mick hid a chuckle beneath a cough.
Brooks met her look, unflinching, rock solid. “Reet?”
The telltale blush traveled her throat, her cheeks. She turned toward the door. He stilled her with a gentle hand on her arm. “Open your own place. You’ve talked of it often enough.”
“I can’t.”
“You don’t know that.”
“I do,” she corrected him. “I’ve done my homework on this. I’ve scoped out costs versus income, possible locations, equipment requirements, licenses, refurbishing. The start-up costs are prohibitive and no lending institution worth its salt is going to front a loan to a drunk with a pile of bills, three kids and no money.”
“What have you got to lose by filling out the applications, trying every angle?”
“Besides my self-respect and my sobriety?” She stared beyond his shoulder, gnawed her lip and drew her gaze back to his. “Rejection scares me. A lot.”
Her admission didn’t surprise Brooks. Rita’s lack of self-esteem was a big part of what had pushed her into the alcoholic abyss that almost tore apart her family. Thankfully her sister-in-law Sarah had stepped in to take charge of the kids before Rita sought recovery the previous spring. Otherwise they’d have been wrenched apart and put in foster homes, another family gone bad.
