What's Life Without the Sprinkles? (3 page)

When the two other women shook their heads, she said, “Then shopping it is. And while we’re out, we really need to get some new chairs for this office. These are ridiculous. We need to be happy, rich owners, not stiff ones.” And she needed to have her head checked, if that was what she’d decided to cling to so she didn’t have to think about sitting in the same room with Peter again.

****

“I’m worn through.” Claudia threw her bags onto the side table in the entryway of her apartment over their shop, then threw herself on the couch. She could happily sleep, or at least rest, for the next ten to fifteen days.

“Me, too.” Zoe lowered her bags to the floor and stretched her back. “Power shopping is not my idea of a good time. I much prefer being able to look at the stuff in a leisurely manner instead of feeling so rushed. I like to shop, but not like we’re on some sort of recon mission. Jeez.” Zoe took the big chair in the corner and rested her head against the low, rounded back.

“May had to go home and deal with some family stuff. We needed to get done as soon as possible.” And Claudia couldn’t be happier. Her feet were killing her, and her stomach churned with all the things she hadn’t let herself think about since May’s announcement. Three more calls from Nate, and now she wasn’t sure she wanted to answer him at all. He was not going to be pleased that Peter was back in town.

“I hate to leave you alone right now, but I really have to get back to Decadence to see if I have any other orders to fill.” Zoe said but made no move to get out of the chair.

“Eh, don’t worry about it. I’m just going to hang out here for the next twenty minutes, until Justin gets home from school, and then I’m taking him to Mom’s.”

“And then you have the pony date. Excuse me, the stale cookie date. Have fun with that.”

Claudia frowned at her sister.

“You know I’m right, but you’re so stubborn you’re going to have to see it yourself. I get it.” Zoe rose from the chair and whisked her pale blonde hair over her shoulder. “At least you can put Justin to bed when you get home from said date and kick back, since it’s a school night. Maybe he won’t give you any lip for at least one night.”

Claudia spent a moment wishing she looked as fresh and young as Zoe. Three years separated them, but sometimes Claudia felt it was more like twenty.

“Justin has a lot going on lately.” She pressed her fingers to her temples. “This whole new morbid pre-will thing from Roger certainly isn’t going to help with that.”

“Not unless he gets something really cool. Then I bet he’ll be fine.”

“But what about Peter being in town?” Her stomach churned again. “Do you think I should ask him to see Justin while he’s here?” That was the big question that had been gnawing at her for the past few hours. Would Justin be devastated if he knew his father had been here but hadn’t bothered to see him?

“Absolutely not. I don’t think you should let that scum near you or Justin beyond the lunch you’re determined to go to. He gave up that privilege a long time ago when he left without a backwards glance.” Zoe stomped to emphasize her point and Claudia was reminded again how young she was. Twenty-five and still relatively ignorant of the way things worked. Though she had the operation of the flower shop down to a science, she hadn’t been tested much in matters of the heart.

“I’m not sure what I’m going to do. But I do know we need to at least be civil to Peter at that lunch or you’re not going to be in the room for too long. I don’t want to antagonize him. I don’t even want to look at him. So don’t call attention to me by being a brat.”

Zoe’s answer to that was sticking her tongue out as she took the back stairs down to Decadence. Nice. Sunday ought to be a freaking blast.

And now she had to go get ready for her date with Edward-of-the-possible-toupee. What had happened to her excitement about the eight-thousand-dollar check and feeling as if her life was finally on the right track?

Chapter Two

Nate West grabbed the ringing phone as he stepped out of the shower. Slinging a towel around his hips, he walked into his master bedroom and pressed the talk button.

“Hey, Claudia. What’s up? You have another huge check to deposit? Or are you finally returning all the phone calls you’ve been avoiding from me? I don’t get why you have a cell, if you’re never going to answer it.” He laughed and waited for her to laugh, too. But she didn’t, and silence hung in the dead space of the phone wire. “Claudia?”

Throat clearing that sounded like Claudia, but nothing else. Had someone hijacked her phone?

“Claudia?”

“Yeah, I’m here, sorry. I was trying to clear my head from all the Lysol and perfume I just had to use. That boy is going to get his rear end grounded.”

This ought to be good. Justin stories always were. He loved that kid, but he did not envy Claudia having to deal with his shenanigans sometimes.

“What did he do now?” He settled back on his bed with his arms crossed behind his head. He didn’t have anywhere to be tonight and had some time to kill before he made himself dinner. Telling her about Peter could wait a minute.

“Well, how about we stick with this afternoon only, since I don’t have time for the whole day. Let’s just say I smelled something foul when I walked past his bedroom. I went in armed with Lysol and came out with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich that looked like it had petrified under the bed, except it smelled horrendous. I sprayed and sprayed and sprayed. Then hit myself with an extra dose of perfume just to clear my nose. I probably reek like a whorehouse, but whatever.”

“That’s disgusting.” But he was laughing.

“You’re telling me. And don’t you dare laugh about it in front of him. I don’t want to encourage him.”

“You know I’d never do that. Whenever I’m around him I try to be on my best behavior.”

She sighed, and it sounded weary. He didn’t like Claudia to sound weary. “Do you want me to come pick him up for a little? I could take him to the batting cages or out for dinner. Maybe the skate park? I have the night free. You could come, too.”

She sniffed. He hoped to God she wasn’t crying.

“Would you mind?” she asked, her voice stronger. “My mother just called to cancel on taking Justin for the night, and I have a date.”

“Edward?” He did not particularly like the guy the one time he’d met him, but he and Claudia had always stayed out of each other’s love lives. He wasn’t going to interfere now if she wanted to be with some egghead.

“Yes, Edward. He’s going to be here in an hour and a half. Can I drop Justin off now, or is that too quick?”

“Bring him now. We’ll grill and then play some games. We’ll be fine, and I’ll have a little talk with him about cleanliness.” Of course, he should probably clean his house first, before trying to give advice on the topic.

She laughed, and that sounded much more like the Claudia he’d known since they were little. “Yeah, you do that. Let me know how it works out. And thanks for stepping in at the last minute, Nate. I really appreciate it.”

“It’s always my pleasure. It is not my pleasure to tell you something else, though.”

“I’ve had about enough with cryptic today. What else do you have to add to my plate? I’m on my third helping as it is.”

There was that weariness again. It pulled at something in his chest. But he had to tell her. “I saw Peter today in town.”

“Yeah, I heard. May told me he’ll be here for a few weeks helping with their dad’s house. Thanks for letting me know, though, so I wouldn’t be taken off guard. I’ll get through this, Nate, like I always do.”

Weariness sounded almost like defeat. That was not like Claudia. She was a fighter, scrappy to the last. “You know I’m here if you need someone.”

“I know. You’ve always been there for me. It’s only a few weeks. I’ll survive. But first I have to go on this date, and I really appreciate you helping at the last minute. I’ll see you in a few.”

She hung up and so did he, putting his phone on the dresser before pulling out a T-shirt and some jeans that had probably seen better days.

He put the towel around his neck and made a quick trip to the backyard to crank up the gas grill. This would be much better than what he had been planning, which was nothing.

Five minutes later, the front door flew open and Justin came running into the kitchen. “Nate, Nate, Nate!”

“Hey, bud, go put your stuff in the living room. Then go see if the grill is hot, like I taught you before. We’re going to have burgers and dogs.”

“Awesome!” And the kid was off like a shot.

Claudia wandered into the kitchen a second later. “Thanks, Nate. He’s really excited to be here.”

“It’s fine. I like having the guy around. Plus, he’ll save me if my brother calls to invite me out for a beer. So I have my own agenda here, too.” He laughed. “Seriously, it was a long day putting a new coat of paint on Mrs. Finkey’s window frames. Then I had to agree to talk to her grandson about maybe apprenticing with me this summer. It was a headache all the way around, even if he is a good kid. But now I just want to hang out, you know?”

“Yeah,” she said, but she was looking at his cabinets and cleared her throat again.

“Anything wrong?”

“Nope. Nothing new since we talked five minutes ago.” She gave him a big smile, but he wasn’t convinced.

“You’re sure? Do you want to talk about the Peter thing?”

“Absolutely sure, and ‘no’ on the Peter thing. Little ears and all that. It’ll be fine. I should get going, though. I have to finish getting ready for my date, and I don’t want to be late.”

“Okay, have fun with Edward. And don’t think about the other.”

“Will do,” she said, before giving him a mock salute and heading back toward the front of the house.

He hummed as he took some of his mom’s homemade potato salad out of the refrigerator. He didn’t think Claudia would really have any fun with that Edward guy, but he wasn’t going to be the one to tell her she was wasting her time. She needed someone who wanted her to be herself. Someone she could wear heels with, instead of those ugly flats she’d just been sporting. He didn’t let himself think about her as a real woman often because he didn’t want to mess with their friendship, but she looked damn fine in a pair of heels. As for Peter, if she wasn’t overly concerned, then he guessed he wasn’t either. He’d be there to protect her, as he always had, but with Claudia sometimes you had to let her fight her own battles.

Justin whooped from the backyard. Time to play with his favorite guy and forget about Claudia and her date. She was a big girl and had known her mind for a whole lot more years than he had. He just hoped there was something worthy in Edward that he couldn’t see but that worked for Claudia.

****

Claudia spritzed the back of her knees with her atomizer and, to allow the scent to air out, walked around in the black flats that went horribly with her flirty, asymmetrical skirt. She hated flats, but after their third date, she’d caved and bought the terrible shoes for the first time in her life. Edward was an inch shorter than Claudia, and she didn’t want to tower over him.

She would never tower over Nate.

The doorbell rang, slicing neatly through her thoughts. A glance at her watch told her it was Edward. He was exactly three minutes early, as he always was. And she had become just as predictable. Add that to her list of things that had gone wrong in the past ten years. That damn list seemed to grow every day.

Walking on the hardwood floor through the apartment on her way to the front door, there was no satisfying clacking of pencil-thin heels to remind Claudia she was a woman going on a hot date. Instead she felt twelve years old, listening to the muffled shuffle of her horrible flats.

Claudia pulled the heavy oak door of her upstairs apartment open and stared at Edward. The regular script would begin in a moment.

He didn’t disappoint.

Step One
. “Hello, Claudia. My, you look lovely this evening.”

Step Two
. Edward checked his watch and tapped a finger to the glass face. “Well, we should be going if we want to make the play.” This was the only part that ever changed, the location of their date. Even his voice never altered from the singsong cadence. For all she cared he could be selling the hottest thing in vacuum cleaners.

And
Step Three
. A perfunctory kiss on the cheek delivered far enough away from her lips so as not to be the least bit tantalizing. Then they were out the door.

With her hand resting lightly on Edward’s elbow, Claudia was escorted down the wooden steps of the outside staircase and led to the dull brown four-door sedan. She had nothing against sedans, she drove one herself, but this car was so blah. The interior was also brown, and Claudia felt as if she were being swallowed by a huge puddle of suffocating mud. Suffocating was a good word when applied to Edward, but she’d successfully ignored giving in to that thought for three months. She wasn’t going to succumb now. Especially since it was all Zoe’s fault that she was finding flaws in Edward. Flaws she hadn’t had a problem with before. Damn Zoe’s cake speech and the way Nate had taken her off guard with his body to die for when she’d just wanted to anonymously fantasize.

Edward started the car with a methodical movement of his hand, and they were off. She tried to break the rhythm of the night by talking right away instead of waiting for him to make the first conversational move as he liked, just to see if she could shake things up a bit. He wasn’t a bad person or a mean man, but damn it, she wanted fireworks and spontaneity. Cake instead of three-day-old cookies.

She wished she’d never heard of cake. It was plaguing her now.

She tried to settle into the familiar rhythm of their once-weekly date and found herself just a half beat off.

Thirty minutes later, over lobster bisque and wine, Claudia concluded Zoe was right, though she’d never tell her and inflate her ego. Although she was reasonably sure Edward did not in fact wear a toupee, she was thinking he might have had hair plugs put in. How had she not realized that in the three months they had been dating? If she were honest with herself, Claudia would admit she probably had noticed but just shut it up tight with every other misgiving she’d ever experienced over dating the man. She had reasons for wanting this relationship to continue along the comfortable rut they’d worn in the road. Edward was stable and dependable.