It was time to stop playing games and just be honest. Tonight, Ella Dove would be introduced to the real Gray. He only hoped it didn’t scare her into running for the hills.
CHAPTER 14 ANGELA
Across town, Angela picked up her plate and took a deep breath. “There you are, my little beauty.” She’d just used the toaster oven to heat the final white chocolate and cranberry scone she’d talked Mark into bringing her from the Pink Magnolia Tearoom yesterday, and it smelled divine. She’d eaten the other one last night, and not only had it been delicious, but Ella’s baking had done its usual magic and left Angela with some thoroughly delightful and bittersweet memories of her first anniversary with John.
What a time that had been. They’d been wildly in love, unable to keep their hands off each other. On that day, it had been raining cats and dogs and she’d come down with a sniffle. To her surprise, John had canceled their fancy dinner reservations and had instead ordered a feast delivered to their New York apartment. He’d spread a blanket on the floor, opened the doors to the balcony wide so they were enveloped in the sound of pouring rain, and had what John called “a romantic urban picnic.”
The memory had been as sweet as the white chocolate icing on the scone and had left her with both tears and a smile. It was lovely to remember him in such a vivid, real way, like visiting another time and place.
Angela closed her eyes and held the plate closer, savoring the scone deliciousness that rose to meet her. I hope I have a Christmas memory this time. John always loved Christmas. He—
The front door opened, and Jules called out, “Mom?”
Uh-oh! Heavens, didn’t anyone stick to their work schedule in this town? Angela looked around wildly for a place to safely store her scone. Her gaze fell on the toaster oven, but it was still hot and might overheat it. I’ll hide it in the real oven.
That would work. She opened the oven door and bent down to slide the plate inside. No one would look for it in here. After Jules went back to work, Angela could retrieve her scone and eat it in peace and qui—
“Mom! What are you doing?” Jules’s hand closed around Angela’s arm and yanked her away from the oven.
It took all of Angela’s skill to keep her scone on its small plate. As soon as she was sure it was safe, she pulled her arm free from Jules’s viselike grip. “Look what you almost made me do! I could have dropped it!”
Jules’s gaze fell on the plate now cupped between Angela’s hands. Relief spread across her face. “You were getting something out of the oven. I thought—” She couldn’t seem to finish the sentence.
But Angela had noticed that Jules’s eyes were now shiny. Oh dear, she thought I was trying to— “No, no, no. I was just trying to keep this scone safe.”
“Safe from what?”
Angela gave a weak shrug. “Mice?”
Jules’s eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute. You were going to eat it.”
Sighing, Angela nodded.
“You’re not supposed to have sugar. Where did you get it?”
“Oh. Somebody brought it to me. Gray or Mark or… I can’t remember who.”
“They know better than that.” Jules reached over to take the plate from Angela’s hands.
Angela didn’t let go.
Jules frowned and tugged again.
Angela held tighter, watching anxiously as the scone slid toward the edge of the plate.
“Mom!”
Darn it! Angela reluctantly tore her gaze from the plate. “It’s just a scone.”
Jules’s mouth thinned. She released the plate. “Fine. Go ahead. No one is listening to me today anyway.” She turned on her heel and went to drop her purse on the kitchen table. She yanked out a chair and sank into it, her face turned toward the window as if she were just now seeing the mums that had sprung up last week. Angela noticed the faint shadows under Jules’s eyes, the tightness around her mouth. As much as it pained her, it was clear that Jules needed the scone more than she did.
“Here.” Angela carried the plate to the table and placed it in front of Jules. “You eat it.”
Jules raised a startled gaze to Angela and then flushed. “No, no. It’s yours. I’m being silly. Here.” She slid the plate in front of the empty chair beside her. “Please. Go ahead. It’s—I don’t know why I was making such a big deal over it.”
Angela sat down and slid the plate in between then. “Why don’t we share?” She picked up the butter knife and cut the scone in two. “There. One for each of us.”
“Mom, that’s nice, but you don’t have to.” And yet the lines around Jules’s mouth had eased.
“Just think of all the harm you’d be preventing by keeping me from eating this by myself. And look, since I cut it in half, the calories have drained out of it.”
A reluctant smile touched Jules’s mouth. “It does smell good.”
Angela slathered butter on both pieces of the scone. “It’s white chocolate and cranberry. It might be lethally delicious.”
Jules gave a wry grin. “I guess we’ll just take our chances, won’t we?”
Angela smiled and scooted the plate a little closer to Jules. “So… tell me about this very bad day you’re having.”
“Oh, Mom.” Jules looked as if she were a half inch from crying. “I think I made a mistake.”
Things at the café must have been stressful today. “Did you order too much hamburger meat? Your dad did that once. Put an entire extra zero on an order. That’s why the Moonlight now has the meatloaf special. We did that so we could sell at least some of that meat before it went bad. To our surprise, it was so popular, it became a regular thing.”
Jules sent her a surprised look. “I worked with Dad at the Moonlight from the time I was fifteen and he never once told me about that.”
“Your dad never remembers that sort of thing. But ask him about a time you messed something up instead of him, and you can’t get him to stop talking.”
Jules shook her head, laughing. “I love Dad, but he is a bit stuffy.”
Oh, the things Angela could say to that. “What was this mistake you think you made?”
“It’s not about work. And it didn’t even happen today, but I keep thinking about it and… I shouldn’t have done it. It’s about Gray.”
Uh-oh. “You said something to Ella.”
Jules gave an embarrassed wince. “I told her to leave Gray alone. Actually, I ordered her to do it.”
“Rookie mistake. That’ll just encourage her.” Angela knew that because she knew she’d react the exact same way.
“I know, I know.” Jules sighed and pulled the scone plate closer. “I shouldn’t have done it. I knew it even while I was saying it, but I was already too far gone to stop. He’ll be furious when he finds out.”
“Has he said anything to you about it?”
“Not yet. But he will the second she tells him.”
Angela thought about it for a minute. “I know Ella pretty well. If she hasn’t told him yet, I’ll wager she’s not going to.”
Hope flickered across Jules’s face. “You really think so?”