Every Kind of Heaven (8 page)

“I can handle it, thanks.”

“It's just that I know what happened with Whitney. It wasn't your fault.” Maura kindly didn't say more on that topic. “I hope you know what you're doing. You haven't dated in a long time.”

“Thanks, Maura, but I have a plan.”

“Well, if you need a woman's opinion, you can always run it by me.” She hesitated again. “Thanks for the scones. They are wonderful.” And finally she was gone, shutting the door tight behind her.

A plan? That wasn't what he'd thought to call it before now. He lifted the length of wood from the bench, a smooth piece of oak that would gleam like honey when he was through with it. He had a plan, of sorts. He intended to work hard. To deliver on his promise to Ava. To show her that he could help her with this dream. Maybe—God willing—with all her dreams.

The problem was, he didn't know if he could get her to go to dinner with him. It wasn't looking promising at this moment in time.

Based on his experience with her so far, he feared that Ava McKaslin might be the Mt. Everest equivalent of dating—a nearly impossible feat to accomplish and not for the faint of heart. A smart man would choose a much smaller mountain that required less effort.

He, apparently, wasn't a smart man, but he was a dedicated one and he recognized her value. He set his goggles in place, grabbed another length of oak from the lumber pile. He had long hours of detail
ing to do and he intended to bring this in on time. He'd work on this dream first.

Then he'd try to tackle the rest of them.

I
n the serenity of her oldest sister's snazzy kitchen, Ava piped careful scrollwork across the final dozen cookies in the shape of a baby's shoe. Madeline, the caterer, had subcontracted with her for six dozen specialty cookies for a baby shower and they were going perfectly. It was a good feeling, a relieved feeling. The first she'd had in two days. That's how long she'd gone without seeing Brice.

You'd think that would be enough time to get her feelings under control, right? But no, she thought as she piped the final curlicue on the last cookie and stretched her aching back. She had feelings for him, and she liked him. But that didn't mean she had to actually do anything about it, right?

She'd been avoiding seeing him. Oh, she'd continued to deliver baked goods for the construction dudes, but she arrived way early, well before Brice
was supposed to show, and just left the box in the kitchen.
Drive-by baking,
as he'd called it.

She hit the Off button on her digital music player and plucked the buds from her ears just in time. Katherine was tapping down the hall, coming her way. Since she was in big, deep favor-debt to her sister, Ava snatched a ceramic mug from the cabinet and poured a brisk cup of tea she'd had ready, steeping. The instant Katherine stepped foot in the kitchen, she had the cup on the breakfast bar and was heating a monster muffin in the microwave.

“Wow, it smells amazing in here.” Dressed in a modest summer dress and sensible flat sandals, Katherine slid onto a breakfast bar stool. The classy act that she was, she didn't even comment on the shambles of her ordinarily super-tidy kitchen. “These cookies are too beautiful to eat. Your customer will be delighted, I'm sure.”

Talk about a great sister. Ava rescued the muffin from the microwave and set it next to the tea. “Ta da! I promise I'll have this place spic-and-span by the time you get home today.”

“I'm not worried about it in the slightest.”

Katherine had so much faith in her, sometimes it was hard to get past the fear of letting her down. Ava went back to her cookies, boxing the ones that were ready, leaving the others to dry a few more minutes. The icing was still a tad tacky. Out of the corner of her eye she watched her sister bow her head and whisper a blessing over the meal. Her
mammoth engagement diamond glinted in the overhead lights.

Katherine hadn't had the easiest time with things, but she'd made a success of her life. She'd become such a graceful woman. It was no wonder at all why she'd found a good man to fall love with her and promise her the real thing—true love—for a lifetime to come.

Katherine was the kind of lady true love happened to. Ava laid a sheet of waxed paper across the first layer of cookies in the box, not at all sure that true love would ever happen to her personally. She loved the dream, but all she had to do was to think of the long string of romantic disasters lying behind her like a desolate wasteland, and she knew, soul deep, it wasn't possible for her.

Or was it? Brice liked her. He had from the very start. Like he was either desperate, or maybe—
maybe
—this could be the start of something extraordinary. Something rare. Because she had to admit, what she felt for him was simply unusual. She had gotten to know him more, and he was a great guy—not just on the outside. He had a big heart, was an honorable character. He could see her dreams.

But was that enough to risk amending her no-dating policy?
That
was the million-dollar question.

“I love these.” Katherine studied the muffin she'd bitten into. “Are you going to put these in your bakery? You'll have people beating down the door for them.”

“From your lips to God's ears. Wouldn't that be something, if I actually succeeded at this? I've got a bunch of leftover muffins. Do you want to take some to the store? Maybe the early morning customers would like a muffin break.”

“That'd be perfect. We have a reader's group this morning.”

“Oh, and I've got the last of the cake sketches done. Do you want to see them now?”

“Are you kidding? Show me what you've got, sweetie.”

Ava hauled out her mammoth sketch pad and removed the soft, pastel-colored drawings from the front. “I know you're going with a roses theme. Pinks and ivory. So I went with that.”

She slid the drawings one by one onto the breakfast bar, carefully watching her sister's face for signs of dismay and abhorrence, but there was only a happy gasp of delight.

“Ava, these are so wonderful! I'm never going to be able to choose between them.”

Whew. What a relief. The last thing she ever wanted to do was to disappoint her sister. Her family was all she had, and she loved them so much. “If you can't choose, maybe I should do a few more sketches. The right design should just jump out at you. It's something your heart decides.”

“No, sweetie, you misunderstand. I feel that way about each one these. I love this rose garden theme. Can you really do this with frosting?”

“It's easy.”

“I'm going to show these to Jack and see what he has to say. But…oh, the golden climbing roses on this ivory cake, with the leaves, that's stunning too.”

“I can amend any of this, too. That's not carved in stone, you know. A little erasing and redrawing and
ta da
, the wedding cake of your dreams.”

Katherine gathered up the sketches with care. “Are you okay? You seem a little down this morning.”

“Down? No, not me. I'm always in a good mood.” As long as she didn't think about Brice, that is. She moved away—quick—before Katherine figured it out, and started assembling a second bakery box. “I've got a lot on my mind. The renovation is stressful.”

“I've heard nothing but renovation horror stories. What problems are you having?”

Katherine was watching her carefully over the rim of her teacup, so Ava did her best to steer the topic away from her confused, tangled up heart. “None. Not a single problem. The construction workers are organized. They've got their schedule, they do their work on time, they've already got the inspectors lined up, so there's hardly any downtime. I haven't been by yet, but they are supposed to have all the wallboard up and taped. Can you believe it? My shop is going to have brand new pretty walls and wiring that's up to code.”

“I'm thrilled for you.”

“I should be able to open on time. Danielle is going to help me set up my books. I've been throwing all my receipts into a shoebox in my closet. That's not going to work for a long-term bookkeeping solution, or so she tells me.”

“No, sorry.” Katherine smiled in that gentle, caring way of hers. “Now, tell me the truth. Something's bothering you. Is it the stress of getting a start-up business off the ground? You know you have us to help.”

Ava nodded, slipping the last of the cookies into the box and snapping shut the lid. She deftly avoided mentioning her romantic confusion. “Tell Spence I might be a little late for my shift this afternoon. I have an ad to put into the church bulletin. The deadline's today. Oh, and I'm meeting Danielle for a bookkeeping session.”

“Sure.” She kept sipping her tea, assessing over the rim.

Ava knew what was coming. “Well, I've got a busy morning. See you—”

“Wait a minute. Don't run off just yet. You haven't told me what's wrong.” Katherine was a sharp tack. “That leaves only one possibility left. You like Brice Donovan, don't you?”

“
Like?
That's a pretty strong word. Especially for a woman who has a brilliant no-dating policy.” The smartest thing she'd ever done, hands down. Because without it, she'd be letting Brice charm her. Letting him close. Letting him into her heart.
“I know you just want me to be happy, but I'm nothing but a country love song gone wrong.”

“There's not one thing wrong with you. Maybe with some of the men you've spent time with, but you made the right decision in the end. Besides, you can't really get to know a man—any man, good or not so good—unless you spend time with him and get to know what he's really like.”

That was the problem with Katherine. She always saw the good side. She believed that good things happened to good people, but she just didn't see the truth. Good men happened to
other
women, not her.

“Says the happily engaged woman. Get back to me on those sketches, right?” She grabbed the cookie box and her keys. If she left fast enough, Katherine couldn't say—

“Not every man is going to leave you, Ava. Not every man is going to let you down.”

Too late. Ava stopped dead in her tracks, with her hand on the garage door. “I'm not going to give any man a chance to. I'll see you later, alligator.”

Katherine said nothing, nothing at all, not that Ava gave her much of a chance to. She'd practically leaped into the garage and closed the inner door after her. Trying to shove out the words echoing in her head.
Not every man is going to leave you, Ava. Not every man is going to let you down

And Brice's words,
With me, what you see is what you get.

Business wise, right?
she'd asked.

Always.

Would believing in him be the right thing? Heart pounding, she caught her breath in the echoing garage, feeling the pieces of her past rain down on her like soot and ash, willing away the sadness. It came anyway. Sharp and bone-deep and in her mother's voice.

Why, after all these years, did she still feel like that seven-year-old girl, standing in their old backyard beneath the snap of the clothes drying on the line, watching the blur of their 1960s Ford disappear down the alley? Why did she still feel the panic of being to blame? Why did it feel as if every failure just added to that pain?

She'd prayed for as long as she could remember with every fiber of her being for a good man to come into her life. But unlike all her other prayers, that one had remained unanswered. Over the years, her wishes had faded in luster and possibility until she couldn't see them anymore.

And she was better off that way, really. Her no-man policy had been working perfectly fine. She'd already taken the leap to start a business. Already bought a shop and had placed advertisements, and already word-of-mouth recommendations were starting to come in. Okay, people weren't exactly knocking down her door, but it was a start, right?

She'd finally learned to stop spending her life with her head in the clouds and now what?

Brice.

She'd finally stopped looking for the one man whose heart was stalwart enough to love her through all time and accepted that he didn't exist. At least, not for her. And then what?

Brice. He came into her life like the impossible dream she'd given up on. But was he so impossible?

 

“Ava? Hel-
lo?
Earth to Ava.” Aubrey slowed the SUV to a crawl. “You've been a space cadet all day.”

“I know. Sorry.” Ava blinked, focusing. She'd been trying to think of everything but Brice all day, and what was she doing? Looking out the window to see if his pickup was in her shop's parking lot. Pathetic, she thought, undoing her seat belt. It looked as if the coast was clear. “Just park here at the curb.”

“Are you kidding? I'm coming, too. I've been dying to see this all week.” Aubrey cut the engine and pulled the e-brake. She never forgot to remove the keys. “Just think, this time next week it will be done. Can you believe it?”

“No. Yes. I don't have to be too terrified of this venture failing until I open the doors, officially, for business.” It wasn't the business she was terrified of, at the moment, but of not seeing Brice. Of turning down his more-than-friends offer to date, after the shop was done.

“You won't fail,” Aubrey said with confidence. “You don't give yourself enough credit.”

What did she say to that? Ava stumbled out into the stifling heat. The temperature was in the high nineties, and heat radiated off the pavement. She had to stop and dig through her purse to find her keys, no small feat. It gave her plenty of time to think over Aubrey's words.

She gave herself plenty of credit. But what did you do when you succeeded at attracting doom? Most of the time, she didn't let it bother her, but now….

Now, it was Brice. She could really fall for him, harder than any man she'd ever known. And that meant her heart could really be broken, right?

“Let me.” Aubrey grabbed Ava's bag, plunged her hand in and pulled out the wallet so thick with debit and credit card receipts that it wouldn't snap shut. “There they are—at the bottom.”

“I keep meaning to clean this bag out.”

“I know.” Aubrey dumped the wallet, papers and all, back into the bag and unlocked the door. She looked around the inside of the shop. “Wow, this looks
great.
”

“Wow. It does.” Ava followed her sister inside. The cooled air washed over her as she stared in awe at the tall cathedral ceilings and real walls. All the mess had been cleaned up. The cement slab was perfectly swept. The taped and mudded wallboard wasn't pretty, but it took no imagination at all to add paint and trim and flooring to see the airy, sunny result.

Footsteps boomed in the kitchen behind them. Heavy, booted steps. Ava heard her sister yelp, felt
Aubrey's instant fear, but she
knew
the sound and rhythm of that gait. The instant she'd stepped foot into the building, she should have recognized his presence.

“Your dream is taking shape.” Brice Donovan filled the threshold between the kitchen and the main room looking like her dream come true in a simple black T-shirt, black jeans and boots. He looked stalwart and easygoing, like a guy a girl could always depend on.

Her heart wished for him a tiny bit more. It was a sweet twist of pain that moved through her. She stepped toward him and her spirit brightened. “Your construction guys have done a wonderful job. It's just right.”