Flamingo Diner (13 page)

Her mother worked in silence for a few more minutes, spreading a coating of melted butter on the dough, then sprinkling a heavy dusting of cinnamon and sugar on top.

Eventually she glanced Emma’s way. “I’m sorry I’ve let you down.”

“Oh, Mama, you haven’t let us down. I know how hard this must be on you.”

“But I’m not alone in being miserable, and I’ve been acting as if I were. You and the boys are hurting, too. My heart aches for you, but I’ve been so lost in my own pain, I haven’t been able to think about anyone else’s. Helen and Jolie told me they were disappointed in me.”

“They shouldn’t be. You’re coping the best way you can. We all are.”

Her mother gave her a wry look. “Including Jeff? Do you honestly believe he’s coping? I know he hasn’t been staying at the house. I’ve listened for him to come in, but it’s been days now, hasn’t it?”

Emma hesitated, then nodded.

“Has he been in here to help?”

“No.”

Rosa shook her head. “I imagine he’s with that girl he’s been seeing, Marisol something.”

“You’ve met her?” Emma asked, surprised.

“I’ve seen her. She usually waits for him in the car, when he stops by here to ask your dad…” Her mother’s face fell and her voice faltered. For an instant, she closed her eyes as if steadying herself. “Well, I guess I don’t have to worry about that anymore. He knows not to come to me for money, especially when he won’t explain what he needs it for.”

“I thought you and Dad gave him money for expenses at school. Isn’t he expected to earn his own spending money?”

“Of course, he is, just as you were. But Jeff could always get around your father. I think it went back to the days when your father struggled to make ends meet when he was in college and we were dating. He wanted to spare Jeff that. He wanted his whole college experience to be as carefree as possible.”

Emma tried to ignore the stirring of resentment. She’d understood the rules when she’d left for college. She’d worked hard for her spending money, grateful that her tuition, room and board and books had been covered. How could Jeff have taken advantage of her father this way?

“I thought Jeff had a job off campus,” she said. “What was he doing with that money?”

Her mother shrugged. “I wish I knew,” she said as she put the tray of cinnamon rolls into the oven.

As the kitchen filled with their delicious aroma, Emma thought of the hint Matt had dropped that Jeff could be headed for trouble. At the time she’d dismissed the possibility that he could be talking about drugs, but was the idea really so outrageous? Did she
dare ask her mother? Or would the mere suggestion that Jeff was involved with drugs be too much for Rosa in her already fragile state?

“Do you think I should ask Matt to look for Jeff?” she asked instead.

Rosa shook her head. “He’ll turn up. I know he quit his job at the mall. Or maybe he was fired. I didn’t press him about it. If he hasn’t been working here, he’ll be out of money soon.” She went to the sink to wash her hands, then met Emma’s gaze. “Don’t give your brother a cent unless he earns it. And see that Andy doesn’t, either.” She dried her hands. “Now I’ve got to go. You’ll be opening soon.”

“Are you sure you won’t stay, just for a little while?” Emma asked. “People ask about you every day. They’d love to see you.”

“Not today, sweetie.” Rosa touched her cheek. “Have I told you how grateful I am that you decided to stay? I know you think Washington is your home now, but this is where you belong. I hope you come to realize that one day soon.”

“My staying now is not a problem,” Emma lied, thinking of how desperately she missed Washington and her job and friends there. She couldn’t bring herself to commit to staying forever, not when the promise would be a lie.

“Of course it is,” her mother said. “It’s a sacrifice and I know it, but it won’t be for too much longer, Emma. I promise you.”

“I’ll be here as long as you need me,” Emma reassured her. “And I’ll find those answers about Dad before I leave, so we can finally understand what happened.”

“You always do the right thing. Your father loved that about you,” Rosa told her. “He lost patience with Jeff and Andy, but never with you. From the day you were born, he said you’d never give us a moment’s worry and you haven’t.”

“I left,” Emma reminded her. “I know that disappointed him.”

“He would have loved it if you’d stayed here, that’s true,” Rosa said, brushing the hair back from Emma’s face as she had a million times when Emma was a girl. “But he was so proud of you for standing up to him, for finding something you loved and going after it. He had Flamingo Diner, so he understood all about fulfilling a dream.”

Emma was surprised. “Really?”

“The only thing he really wanted for you was your happiness, wherever that took you. He understood that the diner was his dream, not yours.”

“Thank you for saying that. I was so afraid that me being gone was one of the things weighing on him.”

“Absolutely not!” Rosa sighed heavily. “I suppose we’re all afraid that it was something we did that made him…” she hesitated “…careless,” she said at last. She met Emma’s gaze. “Helen and Jolie told me about a group at Saint Luke’s. It’s for those who are grieving a loved one. Would you want to go with me?”

“It might help,” Emma conceded without enthusiasm. “Of course, if you need me to, I’ll go with you.”

Her mother gave her a sad smile. “But you’d rather not, am I right?”

“I don’t think that’s where I’ll find the answers I need,” Emma admitted.

“I’m not sure I will either, but I have to start somewhere,” Rosa said. “You have a good day, sweetie. I’ll see you at home.”

Emma pulled her mother into her arms and hugged her tightly, noting that she’d lost weight. She was no longer plump. In fact, she felt almost fragile. “I am so glad you came in this morning, Mama. I’m glad we had a chance to talk.”

“Me, too. I was thinking of cooking a special dinner for you and Andy tonight.”

Emma thought of her plans with Matt to go to Cori’s. She could cancel.

“What?” her mother said. “Do you already have plans?”

“It’s not a problem. I can change them.”

“Don’t you dare. You deserve to have some fun. Maybe Andy and I will go out for pizza. I owe him some undivided attention.”

Emma studied her closely. “Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.” She grinned. “I’ll even wait up so I can sneak a peek at your date.”

“It’s not a date,” Emma protested. “It’s Matt.”

Her mother looked startled at first, then pleased. “I always thought there was something between the two of you.”

“Mama, I told you, it’s not a date.”

“He’s a good man. Your father always liked him.”

“That’s the thing,” Emma explained. “He’s part of the family.” She wasn’t about to mention how she’d momentarily forgotten that when he’d touched her.

Her mother just laughed. “That’s how it was with
your father and me, too. My mother and father loved him before I did. I was in lust,” she admitted, blushing. “What I didn’t understand at the time was that they thought he was terrific company for them, but not marriage material for me.”

“Why?”

“He wasn’t Cuban,” Rosa said simply.

“That’s why they never came to visit?” Emma asked.

“Yes. They got into the habit of staying away when we were first married. Even though they mellowed later, the rift was already there. It broke my heart that we never fully mended it.”

“I always wondered about that,” Emma said. “I loved going to visit Abuela Conchita, but there was always some sort of tension I didn’t understand.”

“Families aren’t easy sometimes,” Rosa said. “In many ways, we’ve been lucky. Your grandmother and grandfather Killian were here for you for many years, even though things were once strained between them and your father. Until now, we haven’t suffered any tragedies. Business has been good. We’ve been blessed. It’s time I tried to focus on that.”

“We’ll make it, Mama. We just have to take one step at a time. You took a huge one this morning.”

“And now I have to go,” Rosa said, glancing at the clock. “I’m sure Gabe and Harley will be on the doorstep any minute now. I’m not ready to face them.”

Emma walked her to the door and watched her until she reached her car, then waved and went back inside. She flipped the sign on the door to Open and turned on the burners on the stove. When she had bacon and
sausage sizzling, she took the first batch of cinnamon rolls from the oven and put in another tray.

When the door opened for the first customer, she turned, expecting to see Gabe and Harley, but it was Matt who stood there, freshly showered and sexy as sin in a tight T-shirt and jeans.

“I called Andy and told him to sleep in this morning,” he said. “I told him I’d help out in here.”

Emma couldn’t seem to tear her gaze away from him. “Why did you do that?”

“I had a hunch you were going to start baking cinnamon rolls this morning, and I figured you’d give me one free if I helped out.”

Emma bit back a smile. “Things must be tough if you can’t afford to buy your own breakfast.”

“Oh, I could pay,” he told her, moving closer, crowding her just a little. “But I thought it might be a lot more fun trying to coax one of those sinful rolls away from you.”

Her breath hitched. “Oh?”

His thumb touched the corner of her mouth. “You have a little bit of sugar right here. Have you been sneaking samples?”

Emma grinned. “Of course. What’s wrong with that? Isn’t that exactly what you’re hoping to do?”

“Um-hmm,” he murmured, his gaze steady and disconcerting.

“The cinnamon rolls are on the counter,” she whispered.

“I know, but I thought I’d start here,” he said, touching his lips to the corner of her mouth. “And I’m pretty sure I saw a little bit of sugar over here.” His tongue flicked lightly against her lower lip.

“Matt?” His name barely squeezed past the giant boulder suddenly lodged in her throat.

“Hmm?”

“What are you doing?”

“Sweetheart, if you don’t know, I must not be doing it right.”

“But why?”

“Because I woke up this morning with you on my mind.”

She stared into the depths of his eyes and swallowed hard at the desire she saw there. “Oh.”

He laughed. “Oh, indeed.”

The door opened just then and Harley and Gabe came in, already bickering. They fell silent the instant they spotted Emma in Matt’s arms.

“Well, will you look at that?” Gabe muttered.

“About time,” Harley said.

“Ain’t that the truth,” Gabe said.

Matt winked at Emma. “Guess I’d better get to work. I’m pretty sure the bacon’s burning.”

Emma blinked and sniffed the air. Sure enough, she could smell it. Matt was already heading off to handle the problem, which left her to face Gabe and Harley and their knowing smirks.

She picked up two mugs and the pot of coffee and headed their way. “One word and this can be on top of you, instead of in your cups, okay?”

“My lips are zipped,” Gabe said, still smirking.

“Mine, too,” Harley agreed. “Long as you know that we approve.”

“There is nothing for you to approve of,” Emma said. “What you saw, or think you saw, was nothing.”

“Whatever you say,” Gabe said, giving Harley a sharp poke in the ribs.

“Yeah, Emma, whatever you say.”

She gave the two old busybodies a satisfied look, then marched back behind the counter and tried to catch her breath. It took everything in her to keep from touching a finger to her lips, where she could still feel the sensation of Matt’s mouth, warm and gentle against hers. She’d always thought of Winter Cove as a boring little place where nothing happened, but all of a sudden that image was changing. Her life, at least, was getting damned complicated.

M
att wasn’t sure what had gotten into him that morning. Okay, he’d awakened fully aroused with Emma very much on his mind, but that wasn’t an entirely new experience. Never before had he gone over to Flamingo Diner and kissed her just because he felt like it. He wouldn’t have dared to as long as Don was alive. Was he taking advantage of his friend’s death in a way that was totally inappropriate? Maybe.

He had to admit, though, that he had no regrets. Emma hadn’t exactly kissed him back, but she hadn’t slapped him silly, either. He wouldn’t have blamed her if she had. Instead, though, he’d managed to put some color into her too pale cheeks. Maybe tonight, after dinner at Cori’s, he’d see what he could do about bringing that color back. He recalled her claim of having once been attracted to bad boys. Perhaps it was time he showed her that he had a dangerous side of his own.

Assuming she gave him the chance. He glanced toward the passenger seat and noted that Emma was staring straight ahead, her spine so rigid it looked as if she had a yardstick running up her back. She looked unyielding and pretty much as if she were biting her
tongue. He figured holding in all that anger couldn’t be healthy.

“Okay, go ahead and spit it out,” he said.

She scowled at him. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You’re still ticked off about that kiss this morning.” He studied her intently. “Or are you only upset that Gabe and Harley walked in before it could go any further?”

“Go to hell,” she retorted.

Matt laughed. “There you go, Emma,” he said approvingly. “Say what’s on your mind.”

“Okay, then, why did you kiss me this morning and then go running off before I had a chance to tell you what a pig I thought you were? What gave you the right to come into my place of business and kiss me where anyone could see? You know how people in this town love to talk. Gabe and Harley won’t keep their mouths shut. You know they won’t.”

“So? It was a kiss, Emma, a tiny little peck at that. I didn’t have you sprawled across the counter.”

A riot of color bloomed in her cheeks. “Thank heaven for that.”

“I’m not saying there won’t come a day when I go for that,” he warned her, his gaze steady. “I’ve decided I’ve been patient long enough. I’m going after what I want and what I want is you.”

She stared at him with obvious shock. “Don’t you dare even think about it,” she said heatedly. “Matt, nothing can happen between us.”

Irritated by her certainty, he pulled off the highway, cut the engine and turned to look at her, barely managing to keep a tight rein on his temper. “Because you don’t want it to, or because you do?”

She opened her mouth to reply, then snapped it shut again.

He stroked a finger down her cheek, felt the quick rise of heat, saw the shudder that washed over her. “Tell the truth, Emma.”

Frowning, she met his gaze. “Okay, you’re right. Maybe I am attracted to you, but I don’t want to be, and you shouldn’t want me to be, either,” she insisted. “Everything’s such a mess. I’m not thinking straight. Why start something when it’s doomed?”

“How about because we’re two consenting adults, who are perfectly capable of keeping things in perspective? I’ve wanted you for a long time, Emma. Since we were teenagers, in fact. And now I think you want me. The signs are there, in the way you look at me, in the way you touch me.” He looked into her eyes. “Tell the truth, am I misreading anything?”

She regarded him miserably. “No.”

Relief flooded through him, despite how obviously unhappy she was about her feelings for him. “Okay, then.”

“Matt, I need you to be my friend,” she said plaintively.

He regarded her with surprise. “This doesn’t change anything,” he reassured her. “I will always be your friend. That’s a given.”

“No, that’s impossible. Sex always changes things between a man and a woman.”

“Not with us,” he insisted. “I’m not going to stop being your friend, not ever. And I’m not going to rush you about the rest. If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen. I’m just giving you fair warning about where my head is.”

She gave him a familiar wry look. “As if your head has anything at all to do with this.”

He grinned. “Yeah, well, I did consult it.”

“And?”

“It didn’t have anything important to add to the discussion.”

She laughed then, breaking the sizzling tension between them. But when he touched her again, just a light stroke of his knuckle along her jaw, the laughter died and the tension came back.

“Fair warning, okay?” he said.

She nodded slowly. “Fair warning.”

“Now I’d better get to Cori’s before dinner gets cold. I hear pregnant women lose their sense of humor somewhere around the third trimester.”

“Aren’t you being a little sexist?” Emma asked.

“I’m being a lot sexist,” Matt conceded. “But some things are fact, and that’s one of them. You’ll see one of these days.”

She regarded him with a startled look, as if the prospect of having a child had never once occurred to her.

“You are planning to have children, aren’t you?” he asked.

“I guess I’ve been so busy I haven’t given it much thought,” she admitted.

“Then you’re obviously not involved with anyone who’s making you think about happily-ever-after,” Matt said, barely able to contain the note of glee threatening to creep into his voice. He didn’t want her to hear him gloating.

“No, I’m not.” She ventured a glance in his direction. “What about you? Do you want kids?”

“Three or four, at least,” he said, surprising him
self. He’d always figured he was lousy father material given his own father’s lack of skill in that department. But since Emma had come home, he’d begun to dream. He was pretty sure he was willing to risk it, since any kids would have her to make up for his shortcomings. And he had had Don as an example for a lot of years. Until recently, he would have said that could make up for any bad traits he’d inherited from his own father.

He grinned at her suddenly wary expression. “Don’t look so panicked. Maybe we should both remain noncommittal until we get through this evening. I hear Cori’s first two kids are spoiled brats.”

Emma regarded him with obvious surprise. “This isn’t her first?”

“Nope, her third. And because she and her husband both work, they tend to give the kids whatever they want to make up for the lack of attention.”

“Do you see much of them?”

“Not really.”

“Then how do you know all this?”

He hesitated, trying to decide if he should admit that there had been a brief time when he and Jennifer Sawyer had spent time with the Fletchers. He doubted Cori would bring it up. She was too eagerly pursuing this little matchmaking plan. He concluded that bringing it up himself would only muddy the waters between them. He settled for another part of the truth. “They used to come in Flamingo Diner every Sunday morning. The kids ran wild, while Cori made a pretense of trying to contain them.”

“What about her husband?”

“He read the paper and ignored them.”

“They haven’t been in recently,” Emma said.

“Because the last time they were there, one of the regulars told them they should leave the kids at home unless they could keep them under control. They left in a huff.”

“I’m amazed Mama didn’t step in and try to smooth things over,” Emma said.

“If you ask me, your mother’s the one behind the suggestion. It was Jolie who made it, and she didn’t look one bit sorry after the words left her mouth. She even took a little bow when the cheers went up after Cori and her family took off and peace once again reigned.”

“I had no idea,” Emma murmured. “Maybe we’d better check the food for arsenic tonight.”

Matt grinned. “Only if she offers you a doggie bag to take home to your mother.”

After what Matt had told her to expect, Emma was pleasantly surprised by Cori’s family. The children were on their best behavior, offering polite responses to questions and behaving with impeccable manners at the dinner table.

After the meal, Emma followed Cori into the kitchen to help with the dishes.

“The food was wonderful,” she told her old friend. “You’ve become a fabulous cook.”

“At least I have a more diverse repertoire than the hot dogs and hamburgers I used to specialize in for all our parties back in high school.”

“You seem really happy.”

Cori smiled, her hand resting on her huge belly. “I am. I love my husband and lately I actually love my kids. I owe your mom and Jolie for that. I kept trying to pretend that they weren’t turning into little hellions,
but Jolie called me on it. I haven’t taken ’em out to eat in public since, and we’ve been working on the behavior problems. They’re both hyperactive, but I don’t want to resort to medicine to keep them under control.”

“They were angels tonight, so whatever you’ve been doing has worked.”

“We still have good days and bad, but they’re really good kids at heart. Maybe if I weren’t working, it would help, but I love working for Jennifer, or at least I did until lately, and we need the money. I’ve just stopped using that as a cop-out for not spending time with the kids. The truth was, I didn’t enjoy it, so I didn’t do it, and things went from bad to worse. Now I’m working hard to make sure they know I love them.”

She looked Emma in the eye. “Enough about me. What’s going on with you and Matt?”

“We’re friends,” Emma said.

“A good place to start,” Cori said, grinning as if she didn’t believe for a second that that’s all it was. “But there’s enough electricity in the air when you two are in a room to light all of Winter Cove during the holidays, and you do know how we love to decorate around here.”

“I can’t think about any of that right now,” Emma said, repeating what she’d told Matt in the car.

“Maybe it shouldn’t be about thinking.”

Cori’s words echoed in Emma’s head as she and Matt drove home a short time later. It wasn’t the first time she’d been reminded that Matt could make her feel alive. Would it be so wrong to let him? Would it be so terrible to spend a few hours in the arms of
a man who made her feel attractive and sexy and desirable?

She’d been reminded all too vividly lately that life could be short and unpredictable.

“I can practically hear the wheels turning in your head,” Matt said, glancing at her as he pulled to a stop in front of her house. “What’s on your mind?”

“Cori said something earlier, something that made me take a fresh look at things.”

“Oh?”

“She said I think too much.”

“About?”

“You and me.”

“I see,” he said softly. He reached for her hand and brought it to his lips. “Anytime you want to stop thinking, just say the word. My place is only a few miles away.”

Was that what she wanted? To go home with Matt? She’d never slept with a man simply for the pleasure of it. In fact, the pitiful truth was, she’d slept with only two men, because she’d always believed that making love should be reserved for someone who truly meant something. Ironically, Matt probably meant more to her than either of the men she’d convinced herself she loved. He’d been in her life longer, too, and in recent weeks he’d proved himself to be steady and dependable, unlike either of the lousy choices she’d made in the past.

If she had to think this hard, though, could it possibly be right? Both of her prior relationships had developed out of some sort of spontaneous combustion the first time she’d met the men. She might not have slept with them right away, but she’d known it was
inevitable from the first instant she’d looked into their eyes.

When she looked into Matt’s eyes, she felt a kind of longing, a sense that there was something wonderful awaiting them. It was quieter, less intense, but it held the promise that it would last, rather than burning itself out.

In the end, maybe that was what scared her the most, the possibility that she and Matt might find something so deep, so irresistible that she would never escape Winter Cove again.

She lifted her gaze to meet Matt’s. “I wish this were easier.”

“It would be, if you’d turn off your brain,” he teased. “Then again, I don’t want you to do something you’ll wind up regretting. I’m a patient man, and you’re worth waiting for.” He released the hand he’d been holding and put both of his hands on the steering wheel, as if to prevent himself from reaching for her.

“I should go in,” she said. “There’s a light on in her room, so Mama’s probably waiting up.”

Matt nodded. “I’ll walk you to the door.”

Even as she protested, he was around the car and opening her door. He took her hand to help her out, then pulled her toward him.

“One last thing,” he murmured, covering her mouth with his.

Emma let herself drift into the kiss, let it take over her senses. If the kiss in the diner had riled her, this one overwhelmed her. Matt definitely knew how to take a simple good-night kiss and turn it into something spectacular, she thought in the one instant be
fore her senses scrambled and her mind shut down completely.

When he pulled away eventually, she was thoroughly shaken. He rubbed a thumb across her lower lip, sending sweet little waves of desire washing over her.

He put his hand at the base of her spine and steered her toward the front door on unsteady legs.

“Good night, Emma.”

Still dazed, she merely nodded.

“See you in the morning.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Lock the door when you go inside.”

“Uh, sure.”

He laughed, looking downright pleased with the fact that he’d rendered her all but speechless.

Emma stepped into the foyer at last, then watched as Matt strode back to his car, whistling an annoyingly cheery little tune.

So much for quiet longing, she thought as he drove away. Once he put his mind to it, Matt’s kisses packed enough heat to spontaneously combust and burn down everything between here and Orlando. If she didn’t watch her step, she was going to go up in flames, too.

When she heard the car, Rosa went to the bedroom window hoping to see Jeff coming home at last. Instead, she caught a glimpse of Matt kissing her daughter as if there were no tomorrow. She couldn’t help grinning, even as she felt a vague trace of envy that Emma was just starting out on a romantic adventure, while her own days of romance were over.