Get You Good (30 page)

B
y the time 9:30 p.m. rolled around, there were two things Sydney knew for sure. One, she made the best chocolate hazelnut brownies this side of Lake Ontario, and two, Hayden wasn't coming. The first she had determined by the number of people who had told her so, and by the complete consumption of her batch of three dozen just two hours into the party. The second had taken a lot longer to sink in.

Even as the crowd began to thin and Mario and Lissandra began to take the empty trays back to the kitchen, she had held out hope. She had checked the Raptors schedule, and there were no games for that night. But maybe he had training. Maybe the clinic had been booked up for the evening. She had filled her mind with excuse after excuse for him not showing up at Decadent's reopening. Even Jackie, who was more attached to Dean's bedside now that he was awake, had managed to show up for an hour.

“You did good, sweetheart,” she had said as she pulled Sydney into an embrace. “I'm so proud of you.”

“Thank you, Mom.” Sydney had beamed. It really meant a lot to hear her mother say that.

“You're welcome,” Jackie had said. “Now, pack up some of this food so I can bring it to Dean. You know that child eats like three grown men.”

She had left not long after, and as the hours passed, so had most of the old clients, walk-in customers, friends, and family who had shown up to celebrate the business's new start. The one person missing was the one person who had made the whole thing possible.

“OK, Syd,” Lissandra said with a sigh as she wiped down the counter. “We're all done here.”

Sydney smiled as she watched her sister rinse the rag and hang it up before taking a scrutinizing look around the kitchen.

“I am so proud of you,” Sydney said.

Lissandra looked up from her inspection to Sydney in surprise.

“You have really been there for me through this whole reopening thing,” Sydney said. “All the late nights with the catering jobs, the long hours to prepare for today, even sticking it out before we knew what would happen.”

“Sydney, please,” Lissandra scoffed, looking away embarrassed. “What else was I supposed to do?”

“You could have gotten another job elsewhere.” Sydney stepped toward her sister. “You have tons of experience, and skill. We both know there are places that would have scooped you up in a minute. But you stuck it out with your dear old sister.”

Lissandra grimaced. “Oh God, are you going to start crying?”

“No.” Sydney grinned. “But I am going to hug you.”

Lissandra squealed as Sydney wrapped her arms tight around her sister, but she eventually hugged her back.

“OK, OK, enough,” Lissandra said, easing Sydney away. “Geez.”

Sydney laughed. “I love you, little sister.”

“Love you back, big sister,” Lissandra said with a smile.

Mario walked back into the kitchen as they stood there grinning at each other.

“OK, so are we ready to go or what?”

“Yeah.” Lissandra grabbed her purse and turned out some of the kitchen lights. “You coming, Syd?”

“Yeah,” Sydney said. She glanced behind her one more time, then followed Lissandra and Mario out the front door.

It was barely ten o'clock by the time Sydney got home to her empty house. She sighed, kicked off her shoes, and padded into the living room. With JJ out singing and Lissandra out with Mario, Sydney was getting used to spending her evenings alone. Sometimes there would be a catering job that would keep her out late or wear her out so much that she would go straight to bed. But most nights, it was just her and the Food Network.

She had just sunk into the couch and put her feet up on the coffee table when her cell phone rang.

“Syd, it's me. I totally forgot, but they're working on the lines on our block from midnight to five a.m. so the power's going to be out. You've got to go back and plug the refrigerator and freezer into the generator.”

Sydney sat forward. “Me? Lissandra, you're the one who forgot to do it.”

“And you're the owner of the store!”

“The owner who's already home,” Sydney said grouchily. “You're still on the road; can't you just swing back and do it?”

“No,” Lissandra said. “Would I be calling you if I could? Obviously, I don't have my keys.”

“You better check that attitude,” Sydney said. “Or I might just make your fat behind come here and get the keys yourself.”

“Come on, Syd, please?” Lissandra had switched to her equally irritating whiny voice. “What about all that talk this evening about how much you love me and appreciate me. And you can't even drive twenty minutes over to the store for me?”

Sydney let out a growl and turned off the TV.

“Fine.” She got up and headed to the door. “But you owe me for this.”

“Yeah, yeah. Talk to you later.”

Sydney slipped on the same shoes and jacket she had left by the door before heading out. She might as well. It wasn't as if she had anything better to do.

The drive over to Decadent took only fifteen minutes, thanks to the absence of traffic on the highway. There was no specialized store parking at this location, and so Sydney and the rest of her staff usually had to take their chances with the metered parking on the street. Thankfully, the spot right in front of the store was open.

She didn't bother turning on the main lights but went straight to the kitchen, where she plugged the refrigerator and the freezer into the generator and unplugged everything else from the wall sockets. They really needed to get a generator that was connected to their electrical system, instead of an emergency one that sat out back with a cord running inside. But they couldn't afford that kind of system yet. Maybe in a couple months. As a last precaution, she found the electrical power panel for the store and shut off the power at the main disconnect. Then, with all the lights out, she felt her way through the dark store to the entrance. One sore shin and bumped knee later, she found herself outside.

She had just pulled her keys out of the locked door when she saw him. The scattered leaves on the spindly branches of a tree near the edge of the sidewalk threw shadows over his face. But she didn't need the light to recognize him. She could pick him out of a crowd from one hundred feet away.

She stood frozen at the door, unable to speak, and afraid that if she did, he would vanish and prove to be nothing more than a figment of her overworked brain.

“Guess I'm too late,” Hayden said after several moments had passed.

Sydney let out a cautious breath. “Depends what you came for.”

He stuck his hands in his pockets. “I wish I knew. Maybe if I did, I wouldn't have spent the last twenty minutes circling the block.”

Sydney tried to decipher some kind of meaning from his words, from his posture, from the way he looked at her but didn't. But she couldn't get anything.

“Why are you here, Hayden?”

“I don't know.”

“Are you still mad at me?”

“I don't know.”

She opened her hands. “What am I supposed to do with that, Hayden? What do you want me to say? Tell me what you want me to say. . . .”

“I don't know, Sydney.” His frustration echoed hers. “I've never been here before—in love with a girl I thought I knew, only to find out I'm wrong.”

“You're not wrong,” Sydney said, stepping forward. “It's still me. Just grown up and a little bruised from the journey.”

She took a deep breath. “Besides, it's not just me. You're different, too.”

He shook his head. “I'm the same person I used to be.”

Sydney gave him a sad smile. “No, you're not. In so many ways you're not.”

He looked confused and she shook her head in wonder. He couldn't see it even though it was so obvious to her.

“The Dub I knew was not as focused as you,” she explained. “Not as caring. Not as forgiving. Not as connected where it counts. The Dub I knew never made me think about life outside of myself. About what real love is, and how it can't be real without God.”

She dropped her gaze. “The Dub I knew could never have helped me see the things that needed to be changed in me. But you did.”

He stepped out of the shadows, and in the glow of streetlight she could see everything clearly on his angular face. Everything he wondered. Everything he felt. Everything he couldn't say. She saw it in his eyes. And in that moment, she knew that in the weeks that had passed, she hadn't been the only one drowning in emotions.

“Dub.” His name slipped from her lips with the breath she had been holding. “I can't lose you again.” She searched his eyes as he stepped closer to her. “I think I kind of need you.”

He was so close now that she had to tilt her head to meet his gaze. But as his hand touched her cheek, her eyes closed on reflex. She reveled in the feel of his firm hand against her smooth skin, his warm breath next to her ear.

“You never lost me.” His words were like music to her ears. “I was always yours.”

And then to prove it, he leaned down and touched her lips with his. It wasn't the most passionate kiss he had ever given her, but it was the most honest. And it took her breath away.

She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against his as the cool night air swirled around them. He said he was always hers. She suspected that she had always been his—except she hadn't even known it.

“So what now?” Sydney asked, her eyes still closed.

His thumb stroked her cheek. “Now we start over. We do this the right way, get to know each other again. No secrets, no ulterior motives, no deception.”

“I'm so sorry I lied to you,” Sydney whispered. “So sorry I hurt you.”

“I forgive you.” He slipped his arms round her. “And I'm sorry for my part, too. We both could have handled things better.”

She opened her eyes and stared up at him, amazed that the conversation they were having was even possible.

“So . . . we're starting over?”

He smiled slowly and a flutter of activity began in the pit of her stomach. “We're starting over.”

She squealed as he suddenly lifted her into his arms and swung her around. Two guys passing by on the sidewalk snickered, but she didn't care. This was the new Dub. And she was so glad she had met him.

“So I guess I missed our party,” he said when he finally set her down.

“Yes, you did,” Sydney said, grinning up at him. “But I saved you something.”

He shot her a curious look, but instead of answering, she grabbed his hand and pulled him toward the entrance. Once inside, she hit the switch by the door.

“Hey, what's up with the lights?” he asked, confused.

“No lights.” Sydney squeezed his hand before placing it on her shoulder. “You're just going to have to trust me, Dub.”

“OK, Nini,” Hayden said, as he stepped closer and let her lead him toward the kitchen. “But remember, I'm a lot taller than you. So, no crawl spaces.”

Sydney giggled but managed to lead him through an obstacle-free path to a stool at the kitchen island. She opened the refrigerator and a triangle of light flooded the large space.

“OK, Miss Isaacs. You want to tell me why you're using a generator to power the appliances in the kitchen?” he asked, an eyebrow raised. “Should I be worried?”

She threw a smile behind her from where she was rummaging in the fridge. “No and no.”

Before he could conjure up more questions, she pulled a small square box from the back shelf of the refrigerator. Then, with the refrigerator door still open, she pulled three tea lights in vases from a cupboard below the island and placed them in the space between her and Hayden. She watched a smile curl his lips as she lit the candles before nudging the fridge door closed.

“This is yours,” she said, sliding the box with his name in front of him.

His eyes sparkled in the glow of the candlelight. He gazed at her a moment before opening the box. The smile that he was already wearing spread even wider.

“Is this what I think it is?”

“Yes,” she said with a laugh. “It's a red velvet cupcake.”

“It looks a bit larger than your average cupcake,” he said, taking out the delicious-looking confection and discarding the box.

“It was specially made.”

His eyes met hers and Sydney felt the symphony in her stomach start again.

“How did you know I would come?” he asked, still holding her gaze.

Sydney shrugged. “I didn't. But I love you. And love hopes all things.”

She had spent a lot of her life hoping for all sorts of things. For approval from her dad, for success in her career, for more clients for her business, for less complication from her family. But she had never hoped for love. Not like the love she was beginning to experience with Hayden. Not like the love that God had been offering her all along.

He reached over and took her hand.

“I love you, too.”

And as the beauty of his words filled her ears and her heart, she rested in the knowledge that now, for the first time, they both understood exactly what that meant.

S
ydney entered the upscale restaurant and tried not to think too hard about why her sisters had decided to have lunch an hour away from Toronto in Orangeville.

“I'm here with the Isaacs party?” Sydney said to the hostess.

The woman smiled and led her through the restaurant to the back. When she pulled away the curtain to the private reserved section, she found Lissandra, JJ, Zelia, and her Aunt Essie waiting.

“I think you're the last of your party to arrive,” the hostess said, leaving Sydney to enter. “Your waitress for the afternoon just started her shift. She should be here momentarily.”

“Well, it's about time you got here,” Lissandra said, taking a swig of something that looked suspiciously like red wine.

“Nice to see you, too, Sandi,” Sydney said, taking the second-to-last seat at the table, after greeting her other sisters. “Next time you guys decide to have lunch out of town, maybe you could give me advance warning.”

“Blame it on Essie,” Zelia said. “This was all her idea.”

Sydney's eyes narrowed as she considered her aunt. “What's going on, Essie?”

Her aunt smiled. “Just a little family reunion.”

Just then the curtain swooped open and their waitress appeared.

“Welcome to One99! I'll be your waitress for the after—”

The rest of the words got lost as the menus slipped from the young woman's hands, falling to the floor. Her mouth fell open as she stared at the last five women in the world she wanted to see.

“Well, well,” Lissandra said. “I guess now the whole family is here.”

“Sure looks that way,” said Zelia. With an outstretched leg, she slid the last remaining chair out from the table for Sheree, who stood frozen at the entrance to the private area.

Sydney sat forward—not sure she could believe what she was seeing

“Please, Sheree, have a seat,” Essie said, her eyes fixed on the redheaded woman's. “I think we have a lot to talk about.”

Sheree glanced around at all of them before sighing and sitting down, a resigned look on her face. As she sat, her waistless dress shifted to reveal her protruding stomach.

Lissandra swore and Sydney's mind spun back to three months earlier, before they knew Sheree was a liar.

“Yes, sisters,” Sheree said with a wry smile as she rubbed her pregnant belly. “We certainly do.”