With Chance Rapids.

  * * *

  The paper was still on the windows, but inside the flower shop, Emma’s vision was coming to life. The first delivery of tulips from the greenhouses in Windswan filled her cooler, and she had just gotten off the phone with Jenni and had been booked for two more summer weddings. The weekends she had imagined spending in Charlie’s bed, or exploring his property with him, suddenly looked a lot different – they were going to be filled with the nervous excitement of brides on their wedding day.

  She saw Stan, the guy who had done her floors, parked in front of Charlie’s brewery. She wondered if he was going to have to postpone the flooring, after seeing the state of his bar, there was no way he was ready for Stan. She wanted to feel smug, that her project was ahead of schedule and her business was flourishing, she wanted to rub it in Charlie’s face that she was able to get things done and he wasn’t, but instead, she felt bad for him. “Stop it,” she muttered as she cut the stems on some variegated yellow tulips. He doesn’t deserve your pity. He doesn’t deserve your thoughts period. She turned on the local radio station and let the sounds of the latest Eric Church song fill her brain instead of thoughts of Charlie.

  The newly installed bell over the front door rang and Emma glanced up to see Jenni. “Can I come in?”

  Emma waved. “Of course, you don’t have to ask, you can come in at any time.”

  Jenni was wearing a flowy sundress and what Emma had come to learn was her trademark camel-colored Brixton hat. “Ooh, these are pretty.” Jenni felt the silky tulip petals and bent to smell the ones in Emma’s hand.

  “Thanks, they’re for the grand opening.”

  “Yours?” Jenni’s eyes grew wide.

  “Yep.” Emma had chosen the yellow tulips, a flower she always associated with spring, and new beginnings, for her grand opening.

  “You must be so excited.”

  “I am.” Emma smiled. She really enjoyed spending time with Jenni, but her eyes darted around the room at everything she needed to get done. She didn’t have time for a social call. “What brings you in today?” She asked and as soon as she saw Jenni’s eyes drop to the floor, she knew that something was wrong. She paused her clipping scissors in her hand.

  “I have some bad news,” Jenni said.

  “Oookay.” Emma set down the shears and crossed her arms.

  “I don’t know how to tell you this.”

  Jenni’s cheeks were flushed and there was a stammer in her voice, she was nervous. Emma’s pulse started to race. “What? Jenni?”

  Jenni set her leather folder down on Emma’s work counter. “I just got off the phone with the groom for the wedding that we talked about the other day.”

  “Which one?” They had talked about three upcoming weddings and Emma was losing her patience.

  “The one with the pink peonies and roses. The one that you are attending as a guest.”

  Emma pursed her lips. She didn’t have to be a genius to guess that she was no longer Charlie’s plus one for the wedding. “I was wrong. I’m not going to that one.” She was actually partly relieved. It was going to be her first big contract in Chance Rapids, the one that was going to set the tone for the entire season, so now she’d be able to focus entirely on getting it perfect.

  Jenni nodded as if this wasn’t news to her. Her cheeks got pinker than the peonies on the counter and then she took a deep breath. “You’ve been fired,” she blurted out.

  “By whom? You?” Emma squeezed her eyes shut quickly and jerked her head. This was not the news she was expecting. First, she gets dumped, now she gets fired. What’s next?

  “Oh, no. Not me. I love you, Emma,” Jenni said. “I think you’re amazing.”

  “Then who? What? What happened?” Emma rapidly fired questions at the wedding planner.

  “The client fired you.” Jenni’s mouth twisted like she wanted to say more.

  Emma leaned heavily on the counter; nothing was making any sense anymore. Did people just decide randomly that they didn’t want her anymore?

  “What did I do to her? Why did she change her mind?”

  “It wasn’t the bride,” Jenni whispered. “It was the groom.”

  Sixteen

  His raincoat didn’t seem to dry out that week. Every morning, Charlie woke up feeling like it was Groundhog Day. A week after the drywall was finished, he finally had enough time to go home and spend one night in his own bed. He pulled back the curtain in his loft to see the silhouette of the Sugar Peaks Range cloaked in mist. A moat of rain had formed around his house from the drips off the metal roof edge. His daily life had turned into a rerun, wake up, hammer, nail, and paint at the brewpub. Get lunch delivered from the Sugar Peaks Café or the G-Spot, and then head to The Last Chance for his shift, then back to the brewpub to work until his body couldn’t work any longer.

  He hopped off his bike and leaned it against the gas hookup in the alley beside the brewpub. He took off his hat and wiped the rain from his brow. A flurry of activity in front of the flower shop caught his eye. A crane was positioned in the street and a crowd of people stood watching as the operator swung the sign into place.

  ‘Don’t look,’ Charlie thought to himself, but like a car accident, couldn’t stop himself from scanning the crowd for a certain tiny blond. There were three of them, Serena, Jenni, and Emma all stood next to the crane, their gazes trained at the front of the building. Serena was filming the installation on her phone, and beside her, Emma stood, with her hands clasped around a travel mug, her eyes trained on the action in front of her. Before he could look away, her head turned in his direction.

  Busted.

  He lifted his hand in a half-wave. She pursed her lips and looked away. Charlie’s heart hammered against his chest as he unlocked the front door to the brewpub. His grueling work schedule had been hard on him, but in a way, he was thankful for the distraction. But even through his exhaustion, the last thing he thought of before he went to sleep every night was Emma’s smile. He hadn’t slept in his bed since she was there with him, and he threw the second pillow onto the floor the second he’d smelled Emma’s vanilla scent. It was torture.

  He unzipped his raincoat and slipped from his rubber boots into his work boots. His task for the day was installing the trim and baseboard and then meeting with the chef he had hired. He was going to start with a small menu and a small staff and then expand if necessary. Stepping around boxes piled in the middle of the room, he found his clipboard and scanned his to-do list. He crossed off everything he had done and noticed that, for the first time, there were more items crossed off than not. A week earlier, his projected opening date had looked impossible, now his chest puffed with pride and butterflies filled his belly, it was going to happen.

  He stacked the boxes of menus in the center of the room and buckled up his tool belt.

  “Hello?”

  His back was to the door and he froze when he heard the feminine greeting. He set down the clipboard and took a deep breath. He didn’t want to see Emma or talk to her. He needed to stick to his guns. He hadn’t messaged her all week, but he knew that if he was in the same room as her, his body would want to forgive her, to forget what his brain had found out about her. His body didn’t know that she was a bad person, his body knew that she was the softest, sweetest, sexiest thing that it had ever touched. His body missed Emma’s body. His brain missed her too, but there was no way he could get involved with someone when it was only a matter of time before she’d hurt him.

  “Hey.” He turned, ready to tell her to go away, but paused when he saw that it was Serena, not Emma. “Oh, hi,” he smiled, the tension instantly released from his body.

  “Expecting someone else?” Serena raised her eyebrows.

  “Nah, just busy.” Charlie picked up the hammer. “What’s up?”

  Serena’s eyes scanned the entire place up and down, then she said,“I went for a hike with Emma the other day.”

  “Oh yeah?”

  “Yeah,” Serena said. “Why are you being such an idiot?”

  “Me?” Charlie pointed at himself with his pen. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Serena sighed. “Freddie told me that you broke things off with her, but I have yet to hear a good reason from anyone, Freddie or Emma, as to why you did it. So, I decided to come to the source.”

  He had to tread lightly, Serena was his best friend’s fiancée, but he didn’t appreciate being accosted in his bar about something that wasn’t anyone’s business. “I’ll tell you what I told Freddie. Look around, I don’t have time for myself, let alone a woman.”

  “I don’t believe you.” Serena narrowed her eyes at him. She crossed her arms and leaned against the bar. “Now spill, Chuck. I can see that you have a lot of work to get done, and I’m not leaving until you can give me one good reason as to why you broke that sweet woman’s heart.”

  “Broke her heart?” He couldn’t believe Serena’s audacity. “You don’t know the whole story.” He could feel his cheeks burning beneath his beard.

  “Why don’t you fill me in?”

  “No,” Charlie growled. “Serena. You’re my friend. You’re also my best friend’s girlfriend. So, I need you to leave before I say something that I regret.”

  Serena pushed away from the bar. “The best thing that ever happened to you just fell into your lap and you’re going to throw it all away because you’re scared.”

  “Is that a question?” Charlie hammered a nail into a piece of trim a little harder than necessary, regretting it when he saw the dent around the nail. He needed to get to work and to get Serena off his back. “I’m not scared of commitment. I’m just not in the habit of getting together with a cheater and a thief.” As soon as the words came out of his mouth, he regretted them. As much as he missed Emma and longed for the days when he thought that she was the perfect woman, and as much as he hated the fact that he could never trust her, with his heart, or his money, he didn’t want to ruin her reputation in town.

  “What?” Serena slowly unfolded her arms. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’ve already said too much.” He hung his head. “Please, Serena. I did what I had to do. Now, I need to get this renovation done and get this pub open.” For the first time since he’d met Serena, her lips were open, and she seemed lost for words. She moved as if to speak, but then closed her mouth.

  “You must know something that I don’t. I’m sorry, Charlie.”

  “It’s not for me to say, Serena. All you and that nosy fiancé of yours need to know is that I did what I had to do. Emma knows what she did.”

  Serena stepped in close to Charlie and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. She squeezed him tightly. “Charlie, the place looks great.” She stepped back and adjusted her purse on her shoulder. “I’ll leave you to your work.”

  “Serena,” he said. She paused and turned. “I’m sorry for being such a grouch. I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

  She gave him a closed mouth smile and then spoke. “It’s okay.” She took a step and then paused with her hand on the door. “Charlie?”

  “Yeah.”

  “She has no idea.”

  He furrowed his brow. “No idea? What are you talking about?”

  “Emma,” Serena said. “She doesn’t know. She has no idea why you broke things off with her.”

  “I find that hard to believe.” Charlie shoved one hand into the pocket of his jeans, the one holding the hammer fell to his side.

  “Well, I believe her,” Serena said. “You might want to make sure whatever it is that you heard about her is true.”

  Charlie pursed his lips and nodded. “I have it from a good source.” But as he said it, a sliver of doubt crept in. His brother wouldn’t intentionally ruin something for him. There was no reason for him to lie about Emma.

  “Well,” Serena shrugged and pushed open the door. “You’re not a jerk, Charlie. You might want to tell Emma what she did to deserve this kind of behavior, because I’m telling you, she doesn’t know.”

  Seventeen

  The door to Jenni’s apartment was painted a violet purple with a gold door knocker.

  The second Emma stepped into Jenni’s apartment, she was overwhelmed with the smell of cinnamon and sugar. “Oh my.” Her mouth instantly started watering. Jenni lived above the Sugar Peaks Café and her entire place smelled like a Cinnabon, only ten million times better. “How are you not five million pounds?”

  “I don’t even smell it anymore. Come in,” Jenni smiled. “Can I make you a cup of tea, or a coffee, or something stronger?”

  Emma sat down on Jenni’s white sofa. “Got any whiskey?”

  “I think I do.” Jenni turned and disappeared around the corner.

  “I was joking,” Emma shouted.

  Jenni peeked from the kitchen. “I have some wine samples that I have to taste. Want to help me with that? It’s totally work-related.” She didn’t wait for Emma to respond, she returned to the boho style living room clutching three bottles of white wine to her silky tank top.

  “I shouldn’t,” Emma said.

  Jenni pulled two mismatched wine glasses from a shabby chic cabinet that also housed half a dozen worn looking quilts and set them on the coffee table. She pulled the cork from a bottle that had been previously opened and wordlessly poured two glasses. She raised her eyebrows at Emma. “I could really use your opinion.” She picked up the glass closest to her and raised it.

  Emma picked up the glass, “Just one.” She smiled for the first time in days. The past week had been one of the most emotionally draining one of her life, second only to the one six months ago when she discovered Adam and Alison’s betrayal. There were a few odds and ends to sort out, but the flower shop was done, and she was gearing up for her big grand opening. She should’ve been excited, but even this morning, when the Flower Girl sign was revealed and affixed to the front of her store, she was filled with a mixture of emotions: pride, fear, and when she saw Charlie standing and watching, his blue eyes following the crane and then meeting hers, she felt sadness. She wanted someone to share in moments like this with her. Someone who would slip their hand into hers and whisper into her ear that he was proud of her.

  That morning Charlie had turned his back and walked away. She still had no idea why he had broken things off, and as much as she told herself she didn’t care. She did. Big time.

  Three glasses of wine later, her cheeks were warm and rosy, and so were Jenni’s. The two of them had finished off the open bottle and had moved on to the California Sauvignon Blanc. “I like this one better.” Emma took a sip and clicked her tongue on the roof of her mouth.

  “Me too,” Jenni said. “Although, we probably should’ve started with the most expensive one. By the time we’re on the Chardonnay, it might as well be ginger ale.” She laughed and took another sip. The two had migrated from the sofa and vintage wingback chair to the floor in front of the coffee table where they perused bridal magazines and shared opinions. Emma’s taste was more classic, where Jenni’s was shabby chic. “You don’t worry that a macramé arbor is going to look too dated in ten years?” Emma pointed to the photo they were admiring, a wooden arbor covered in dahlias, a curtain of macramé rope seemed to wave lazily in a warm Caribbean breeze.

  “Anything is going to look dated in ten years,” Jenni said. “Remember Princess Di’s sleeves?” Everyone in the eighties had those. “My mom even wore a hat.”

  “Oh, the eighties.” Emma smiled. “Baby’s breath and spiral perms.”

  A drop of condensation from Jenni’s wine glass fell on the image and Emma wiped it away with her sleeve.

  “I am a wedding planner, but if I ever find a decent man, I’d be happy with going to city hall.” There was a hint of sadness in Jenni’s voice.

  “What do you mean? When you find a decent man? You’re still so young – there’s plenty of men out there.”

  “In Chance Rapids?” Jenni shook her head. “You know what they say about Rapidian men, don’t you?” She hopped up from the floor and returned to her spot with a bowl of potato chips in hand.

  Emma plucked a large chip from the bowl and took a bite. She shook her head.

  “Well,” Emma crunched a chip and then washed it down with some wine. “Your odds are good, but the good ones are odd.”

  “What does that even mean?” Emma furrowed her brow.

  “They’re all boys. I mean, even the fifty-year-old men care more about their bicycles and powder days than they do about having a steady girlfriend. Yeah, there are lots of hot guys here – you haven’t been here in winter yet, have you? I mean, the ski patrollers, there’s something about a man in uniform…” Jenni’s voice faded out and she seemed to be thinking about some mountain man.

  Emma snapped her salty fingers in front of Jenni’s face. “Earth to Jenni.”

  “Sorry,” Jenni smiled, her cheeks pink. “I was just thinking about this guy I met last winter. He’s supposed to be coming back in the fall.”

  Emma nodded. In some ways, Jenni seemed mature beyond her years, and in others, like a lovesick senior, doodling some guy’s last name after hers. “Well, maybe I’ll turn into one of those guys. I’m just going to focus on my business and getting some good hiking boots. Maybe I’ll even take up biking. And skiing, or snowboarding.” The wine was starting to go to Emma’s head. “I’m going to forget about men completely.”

  Jenni snort laughed and choked on her wine. “The whole Peter Pan thing only works if you’re a dude.” She pounded her fist on her chest.

  “Well, maybe it’s time to change that.”

  “I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I could give up men cold turkey. I’m just taking a break.” Jenni finished her glass of wine and poured another.

  “There’s no one in this town who is on your radar?” Emma secretly wondered if Charlie and Jenni had ever hooked up. Other than Ethan, she couldn’t picture Jenni with any of the other locals she’s seen around town.