Smitten (21 page)
He instantly regretted his words. She had recoiled at his tough stance and his blowing his own horn, as if he alone could keep her in Smitten. Devlin could easily offer Julia more if given the opportunity. That’s why Zak had started the plans. Though his heart was in the right place, Julia saw his actions as manipulative and controlling; the very thing she feared the most, he had made real.
Say it
, he told himself.
Tell her how you feel before she bolts again!
“Who’s deciding when I need help—you? I would have figured it out, Zak!”
He put the drill down and came toward her chair. She stood up and straightened her shoulders. She still only came up to his chest.
“You’ve been in New York too long if you trust those wimpy, feminine men over the real men of Smitten. Carson and people like him built this town. Your father built this town. Carson and I, we get what you girls want to do, but you’re forgetting something.”
“Are we?” She pressed her fist to her hip.
“You’re forgetting us men. You’re taking away our sense of pride, and you’re trying to win some invisible contest.
We’re not your competition. We want you to succeed, but forgive us for wanting to look after our women and help where we can. As the men of Smitten, we see it as our duty, even if we do think the idea is harebrained.”
“Harebrained!” She latched onto the only words she could fight, apparently.
“Do you want us to let the women take care of us? It’s not in our DNA.” He set the drill back down and drained the rest of his water glass.
She unclenched her jaw. “What if I told you that it wasn’t in mine to sit back and be told what to do?”
“I’d tell you that sometimes it’s in everyone’s best interest to sit back and be told what to do.” He took her by the hand.
“Come in and see the plans.”
He tightened his grip around her tiny wrist and led her into the restaurant/spa. “What?” he asked. He drank in her hard stare until her expression softened and the skin around her eyes crinkled into a smile.
“Thank you.”
“Was that so hard?”
She coughed. “I feel sick to my stomach, actually.”
He leaned down and kissed her on the cheek chastely.
As her brother might do. “I’m proud of you anyway. We’re going to do this together, Julia. We’ll have each other’s backs.”
“If this is really going to be a spa, then I need to get busy.
I need to get plans and—”
“All taken care of.”
“What would you know about building a spa, Zak?”
“Everything I need to.” He picked up blueprints and rolled them out on a table.
Julia recognized the floor plan. “This is Devlin’s spa.
How did you get these?”
“Correction. It’s not Devlin’s spa. I told you, it’s owned by someone named Shapiro. Devlin’s nothing more than a well-dressed con man. Well, and a manager, I suppose. The fact is he lied about it. Why?”
“Mrs. Shapiro is one of his clients, not the owner. She lent him her plane to come here.” She seemed to question herself, while she answered him firmly.
Zak rolled his eyes. “Do you ever listen, Julia?”
“Zak, he trained me on the business aspects of the spa.
Not to mention he’s one of the best estheticians in the world, but he doesn’t do that any longer. Only for Mrs. Shapiro.”
“That may well be, but he doesn’t own that spa in Manhattan. All I’m saying.”
“That’s what you knew? Why would he care if I knew that?”
“It wasn’t his money to invest, Julia. What was his reasoning? Did it ever occur to you that he might want something more out of you than—”
“He’s old enough to be my father!”
“We all know that never happens, an older man and a younger woman. Unthinkable! Especially in Manhattan.”
She stared at the floor. “Are you . . . are you jealous?” she asked.
Yes! Yes, I’m jealous. Yes, I want to kill him for messing with my sweet Julia
.
Zak pulled her in toward him until he felt her warm breath on his cheek. He wiped his hands on the front of his jeans and placed them on each side of her cheeks. Her lips were so close that he could taste them, but he heard Greg’s name whispered in his ear and pulled away. “I need to get back to work.”
“Do you want me here, Zak? In your building, I mean?”
He rolled up the blueprints and strode away from her rather than stare into those wide, beautiful eyes. “I want what’s best for Smitten.”
I
ndependence Day brought the entire town of Smitten together for Main Street’s parade and, later that night, the fireworks over the lake. The flowers in the window boxes along Main Street were all in bloom, and red, white, and blue ribbons draped from each of them festively. The town square’s green clock had been wrapped with patriotic ribbons, and underneath it, Smitten’s own Garner Sisters played their stringed instruments to their hearts’ delight. No amount of lipstick or rouge circles had been spared, and they absolutely glittered in the morning sunlight.
As the parade began, Julia found a place outside Natalie’s coffee shop beside Reese. She had so much to tell them about the spa, about her brother’s money . . . about Zak . . . but Carson and Zoe, Natalie’s cousin, stood nearby and Julia didn’t dare spill her feelings for fear that everything might come out. So she said nothing and sat beside them on the brick curb.
“Did you decide on the in-line skates?”
“Yes,” Reese said as she sipped her cinnamon latte. “Just a few more decisions and I might be ready to do this. Smitten needs an outfitters shop, don’t you think?”
“We all think so. Even those of us without a passion for outdoor activities still need to stay fit. We want to look as good as the Garner Sisters as we age, don’t we?”
Reese giggled. “I suppose we do. Speaking of health, how’s your mom?”
“She’s doing a lot better. She’s even making breakfast now, though I do wish she’d sit down and let me wait on her for a change.”
“Considering all she usually does, I suppose that’s progress.”
“True.”
Zoe carried a tray and handed out muffin pieces from Natalie’s shop. No doubt Natalie couldn’t bear to leave Zoe in charge inside on such an important day. Though Zoe was twenty-seven, she tended to blurt out whatever she thought at the time.
Julia took a piece and popped it into her mouth. “Is Nat coming out for the parade? Mia will be crushed if she doesn’t see her along the route.”
“She’ll be here when the parade starts. Mia’s Sunday school class is fourth in the lineup, so she’ll be out by then,”
Zoe answered.
“Where’s Shelby?” Julia asked.
“She’s walking with her students, remember?” Reese replied. “She’s going to have them all dressed up as little brides in white lace to sell our idea to the men of this town. Hopefully they’ll find it cute, and we’ll offer them some hope.”
“Or they’ll aim the fireworks at us tonight instead of upward.”
Reese laughed with her.
“Oh. My. Gosh. Little Julia Bourne, is that you down there? You’re still so tiny!”
Julia looked up at the long, jean-clad legs in front of her until she reached the mane of long blond hair highlighted by the sun, which glowed as if the woman wore a supernatural halo.
“Amy Hastings,” Julia stuttered. “You’re back in Smitten?”
Time had perfected the woman’s appearance as if she’d ripened like a fresh summer peach instead of aging like the rest of them. Julia ventured a gaze at Reese, who rolled her eyes.
“Only for the Fourth. I’ll come back for Sawyer’s wedding, naturally, but things are going so well in California, I barely have time to think about Smitten. It’s still as charming as ever. I heard you girls have big plans, right? That is so cute, I just have to tell you.”
“Right,” Reese said.
“It’s hard for me to think of Smitten as romantic, though, having grown up here. The men in California are so sophisticated. I love how they’re not above using all the antiaging products or doing their best to stay fit. It’s not like here, where guys use a bar of soap and think they’re suddenly Don Juan. You can see how it’s hard for me to view this place as romantic and not backwoods.”
Julia stood. “Not really. I prefer manly men. I don’t care to share my hair product with a guy. I’m funny that way.”
Amy gave a polite laugh.
“So what brings you back?” And in her mind Julia added,
And what will make you leave again?
“Do you remember Zak Grant?” Amy smiled. “What am I asking—of course you do. Your brother was his best friend!
How is Greg?”
“He’s in Afghanistan, but he’s doing well,” she said. “He flies a Black Hawk.”
“The military?”
Julia nodded. “So you’re here all the way from California to see Zak?”
I’m not jealous. I’m not jealous. I’m not jealous
. She’d say it to herself as many times as she needed to hear it. Zak thought of her as his little sister, and besides, who wanted a Christian woman who thought of marriage as a plague?
No one that I can think of!
Julia didn’t need romance. She needed to make the world more beautiful. That was her place in life.
“He’s remodeling his restaurant. He wants to make it more intimate. So I guess I’m here to see the Smitten Grill.”
“Oh?” She hoped her open-ended answer would lead to more information. Julia thought
she
was supposed to offer advice on the restaurant. Leave it to Zak to ask any female he thought would fall for his line.
Amy placed her slender, manicured hands on her chest.
“Oh, you don’t know. I forget you’re so many years younger than I am. That’s what I do. I design restaurant interiors in Los Angeles. Granted, Smitten is a world apart, but great restaurant design is universal. It had been some time since I’d seen my parents anyway, so I thought, why not help Zak? It’s the least I can do, considering our history.”
“What does great restaurant design mean?” She’d keep asking questions until she got the answer she wanted. Was Amy here with designs for the restaurant or designs on Zak?
Though she couldn’t imagine Zak sharing hair product with anyone, much less the bleached blonde in front of her.
“It makes all the difference in the flow of customers, how much they spend in the bar, how they’ll linger over dessert.
It’s an art form. But forget about me . . . What’s Greg’s little sister been up to?”
“I’ve been in New York. I’m . . . I . . . facials.”
Word salad
.
She cringed at her inability to speak when nervous.
“She’s an esthetician,” Reese interrupted with a distinct flip of her ponytail. “Julia’s done some of the biggest names in Manhattan and learned at the premier spa in the Upper East Side. Now she’s here to bring her expertise to Smitten and, of course, Sawyer’s fans.”
“Sawyer, right. Didn’t you and Sawyer used to date?” Amy asked Reese, and the look on her friend’s face made Julia want to slap Amy for her heartless ploy. “That must be awkward, to have him bring his bride back here.”
“Not really,” Reese answered. “That was ages ago. I mean, do you even remember who you dated in high school, Julia?”
“Yes,” Julia said. “Only because it was nobody, so it’s not all that difficult to remember.” She slunk down to sit again on the curb.
Amy bent her long legs and balanced on her toes to crouch beside them. “You always were so cute.” Amy touched the side of Julia’s face. “Oh my gosh, to have those dimples! No wonder I was so jealous of you.”
“Jealous of me?” Julia asked. “Weren’t you homecoming queen?” Dare she mention that she had won the regional chemistry fair?
“Only prom queen,” she said.
Julia and her friends were the queens of Saturday night television, so it hardly mattered which title Amy wore.
“Zak always spoke so highly of you. He wanted to make sure you kept out of trouble, and it used to make me so jealous! I used to call you Saint Julia when he made me angry. I wanted him to care about me like that, but he thought of me as just another girl. You were like his sister, and he looked out for you. I hated that.”
“So why’d you come back here for his restaurant?” Reese asked.
“My boyfriend wanted to know the same thing, but Zak’s my friend and Smitten’s my hometown. With Sawyer’s wedding, there’s a good chance we can all make our names known.
When Sawyer eats at the Smitten Grill, I want my name quoted in
People
magazine alongside Zak’s, right? Maybe I have something to prove to my hometown, who knows?” Amy rose to her full height, which seemed to go forever from Julia’s curb viewpoint. “So, it was great to see you. Maybe I’ll see you again before I leave. But if you’re ever in California, come and see me. I could do a lot with your hair, Julia.”
“Yeah, that’d be great.” Julia wondered if she should explain about the spa and the grill, but what was the point?
She watched Amy’s sultry saunter as the blonde sashayed away from them. “She’s hardly dressed for a parade.”