Page 19 of Cupcake of the Month (Just Add Peaches #2)

She tossed it back to Wendy. “I’m being sued for breach of contract by the employees who lost their jobs. They shut me down when I tried to explain how that wasn’t possible.”

She had scoured her files afterward, making sure she hadn’t accidentally sent the owner the wrong report or had forgotten to code the employees correctly. There was nothing to find.

“But you’re not the one who fired them,” Wendy said.

“And why are they suing you?” Brandi asked. “Not him?”

Her friends’ loyalty warmed Jordan’s heart.

They always had her back. “See, that would make more sense. My lawyer says the fact that the owner also fired people who were happy will prove I didn’t do anything wrong.

He tried explaining my job to their lawyer, but she responded with a ridiculous settlement offer.

She was enjoying the publicity and news crews staking out my house too much. ”

“So, what, are they trying to wear you down so you’ll pay them to stop?” Wendy asked.

Jordan shrugged. She couldn’t do that, even if she wanted to, not with her professional reputation at stake. “Maybe that’s it. It’s not a secret in West Hartford that my parents and brothers have a ton of money. But I’m not going to let them win. My life’s on the line, here.”

“That seems completely unfair.” Brandi hit a ball high over Wendy’s head. “Not that I’m complaining you had to spend time with us.”

“You’re not telling us everything.” Wendy tossed a ball up and caught it in her glove.

Count on Wendy to pick up on the unspoken. “Oh, there’s so much more. We’re in it for the long haul tonight,” Jordan said.

“In that case, it’s time to switch positions.” Brandi handed Jordan the bat, then took her mitt and replaced Wendy at pitcher. “Speak.”

“I got a job offer.”

“Didn’t you just say you weren’t taking on new clients?” Wendy asked.

Jordan brought up the bat and went on her second narrative of the night, explaining how she met Congresswoman McGraw and the conversation that lead to this new position.

“Isn’t this communication with her constituents something she can do with direct mail?” Wendy asked.

“Let me ask – what do you do with the unsolicited mail in your mailbox?” Jordan said.

“Toss it.” The cousins spoke at the same time.

“Exactly. Not only that, but this is more personable and approachable. People might be intimidated talking to a congresswoman, but not to their friendly neighborhood person in a grocery store.” She swung at Brandi’s pitch and tipped the ball.

“There will be a party in a couple of weeks to introduce me to the masses. I don’t see the point since she knows I’m not staying in Georgia, but she’s the boss. You both better be there.”

“Luke McGraw’s her son, right?” Brandi fluffed her hair. “I dated him.”

“Gives a new meaning to hitting a home run,” her cousin teased. She paused for a moment, then shook her head. “Or maybe not.”

“Batter up!” Jordan chimed in.

The women dissolved into giggles. Wendy used to disapprove of the way Brandi had lived, and Brandi had spent more time finding her worth in men than finding it in herself. The cousins finally had a good balance going on at the Inn.

Wendy caught the next pitch and tossed it back to her cousin. “So what are you going to do when the case against you is laughed out of court?”

If only it were that simple. “Then I give Mrs. McGraw my research and head back to Connecticut.”

Jordan struck the ball with the force of her failures. It sailed high over Brandi’s head and got lost in the orchard. Jordan handed Wendy the bat and took up the pitcher’s position.

“What else?” Wendy tapped her shoes with the bat. It didn’t matter that this was a friendly practice. She had her rituals.

So much for keeping discreet thoughts about Josh. “There might be one more thing.”

“Really?” Brandi tossed the ball from one hand to the other. “Might be?”

“You don’t have to tell us anything you don’t want to,” Wendy said, shooting a glare at her cousin.

“You guys seem to already know something,” Jordan said.

“I might have seen your hasty exit to the vendor area at Plates of Macon with a certain tall, dark, and blue-eyed chef,” Brandi said.

“I see.”

“And we’ve observed...” Wendy pursed her lips in thought. “Moments in the kitchen over the past couple of days.”

“Anything else?” Jordan palmed the ball, ready to pitch.

Wendy got into a batting stance. “We didn’t mention anything because we figured you’d bring it up when you were ready to talk about it.”

“What’s this ‘we’ stuff? I wanted to hold you down until you dished about your hot and heavy moments, but my stick-in-the-mud cousin wouldn’t let me.”

“Imagine the visual,” Wendy said. “She’d scare the guests.”

“ Oy . You guys.” Jordan pitched the ball, her heart full for these two women. “It’s… complicated.”

“Do you like him?” Wendy asked.

“We’re just having fun.” The words tasted sour in her mouth, but she chose to believe them anyway.

“Not that much fun. You guys haven’t had sex yet,” Brandi declared. “I’d know.”

“She would,” Wendy agreed. “It’s a scary gift.”

Jordan nodded as if in agreement. Brandi meant recently.

Though her friends had noticed when Josh stopped hanging around in college, she had glossed over his absence.

At the time, being left alone in bed after a wild night had been too mortifying.

Now, she chalked it up to experience. “So, now you know.”

“We don’t know anything we didn’t already know, but we’ll let that go for now,” Wendy said.

“For now,” Brandi echoed with her own self-satisfied grin. “And if we’re done with you, let’s talk about me.”

Jordan was only too happy to let the attention shift. “What about you?”

“Weelllll,” Brandi said, dragging out the syllable, but excitement flashed in her unusual eyes. “I met a guy. His name is Blake.”

Jordan and Wendy exchanged a glance, but didn’t mention Prince Charming. Sebastien could’ve held a class on pining for Brandi from afar in college while she had gone through men like their Georgia bullpen went through bubble gum.

“When did you have time to meet anyone?” Wendy asked. “You’re always here or at Belle’s.”

“Hey, you met your guy at work. I wanted to follow in my way smarter cousin’s footsteps.” She gave Wendy a hug.

Jordan ignored the twinge of guilt over Sebastien. The man had his chance. “What about the guy you met at Plates of Macon?”

“Sunil? No, we chatted a few times and went out for coffee, but decided that was enough. Blake and I had more chemistry when we went out, and I think it might go somewhere. You guys, he’s amazing. I really like him.”

“Good for you,” Jordan bumped her friend with her shoulder. “It’s about time you learned to have fun.”

Brandi pointed her bat. “Wrong cousin.”

“Damn straight.” Wendy smacked her glove a few times and crouched down.

They spent the next half hour laughing about nothing and chatting about everything in between pitches and hits and balls that sailed into the orchard.

When the sun dipped below the tree line, they gathered the balls in the quickly waning light, then put everything away in the rec room closet.

Jordan said good night to her friends and headed to her room.

It was hard to conquer the urge to check her phone for one last message from Josh, but she made it into the stables first.

No texts.

She fought the chaos in her body as she got ready for bed. Josh had said he was going to sleep. So what if she wanted his last thought to be of her?

***

The catered Friday night gathering was a casual affair with a slow pace at the house of a nice, older couple. It was a relaxing change from the constant in and out of larger events. Josh dipped his gloved hands into bowl of briny olives just as his phone vibrated in his pocket.

The text brought a rush of dopamine that surged through him like he was in a constant state of foreplay. He glanced at Zach, peeling a carrot, at Barb, putting something into the oven, and at the time. Damn. They were barely on schedule.

Josh hadn’t been spending as much time as he wanted with his brother, so bringing him to this catering job was an easy decision. Zach liked helping in the kitchen.

“I’ve been thinking about Mom and Dad.” Zach peeled a carrot and kept his gaze averted.

The rush fled into brittle, jagged pieces. Josh eyeballed the wine measurement for the olive dish and tried to keep his voice casual. “Yeah?”

Zach nodded. “I miss them.”

“So do I, buddy.” Maybe not them as people, but what they had represented. Family. Security. A future.

“I need that wine, Josh.” Barb waved her hand. “And make sure none of those olives have pits.”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, grateful for the distraction. He would’ve already gone insane if he’d been unable to confide in her.

Jordan could have been his confidant all those years ago, if only he’d been able to admit his role in his current nightmare. Images of her eyes narrowing behind her squared glasses, of her nose wrinkling in distaste were all in his imagination.

Or so he’d like to believe. Everything he thought was good in his life had been tainted by the actions of Marian and Clint. He didn’t want to suffer the same disillusionment with Jordan.

Barb snapped her fingers and Josh handed her the bowl of olives and the measured wine. Then he went to work on the mini beef filets.

“Do you think they think about me?” asked his tenacious brother. “I know they’re busy trying to prove their innocence, but they must think about me sometimes. And you, too.”

The letters from his parents that the FBI had returned were hidden in the apartment where Zach would never find them.

Knowing how little space they spared for him would break his heart.

“I’m sure they do.” Maybe by the time Zach was old enough to understand everything that happened, they’d have been located and extradited from wherever they were back to Georgia.

“I think I have enough carrots, Zach.” Barb placed a bowl of sour cream and a cutting board with dill in front of the boy. “Chop. Finely.”

Zach took the knife and focused on the herb, his tongue peeking out between his lips. “I was watching a movie where a guy was receiving coded messages in the newspaper. Do you think they’d try something like that? But we don’t get the newspaper. Maybe there’s a website we could try.”

Yeah, like Felons and Families.com.

“Maybe,” Josh stalled. He used to be able to get around Zach’s ideas, but the kid was older now. He wouldn’t be distracted as easily.

Protecting his brother’s ideals of what a family was supposed to be gave him the same raw ache Josh experienced when he received the early morning phone call from Zach’s dad Clint, telling him they were leaving Zach behind and fleeing before their sentencing.

Reminding Josh of the part he had played.

Threatening Josh, more like it.

Josh would never let his brother experience that feeling of abandonment, of knowing he ranked second behind their parents’ own selfish wants.

Zach had to come first. It had meant sneaking out of Jordan’s apartment that morning.

He had figured then once everything got straightened out, he’d call her and explain what happened.

Things never got straightened out.

But now he needed a change of subject, and fast. “Hey, Monday after school. Want to go bowling?”

“Yeah! Can we go to the one next to the ice cream place?”

Josh laughed, finding joy in the simple things that made his brother happy. “Sure thing.”

“You’re flying solo at Fountenoy Hall tomorrow, right?” Barb asked.

“Yes.” Josh took the dill from Zach and made it finer. “Ms. Eulalee is leaving sometime after lunch for the city of love. Plus I’m pulling a double shift.”

“I would wish you luck, but I won’t lie to you. I want you to fail miserably so you have to take over when I retire.”

That wouldn’t be happening anytime soon. “How did I get to have such a cold hearted boss?”

“Great misfortune.”

Once food had begun circulating, Josh took a break and read the text. A fierce surge of emotions wrapped around his heart at Jordan’s words.

In case I don’t see you, good luck tomorrow.

He glanced around, on the edge of being embarrassed by the swell of feelings. He wasn’t worthy of having her in his corner, but there she was.

An ache filled his gut. She’d leave again once she realized he betrayed his own family by giving evidence to the police, even though he did was right. He shoved his phone into his pocket and got back to work.

He and Barb managed to keep Zach busy for the rest of the party so the conversation never turned back to their parents. After Barb dropped them off, Zach scurried inside.

Josh waited until his brother was out of earshot. “Thanks for helping me with him tonight.”

“You can tell him about his parents, you know,” Barb said. “About what they did. Better that than he find out on his own you’ve been lying to him for eight years.”

“Protecting him.”

“Tomato, tomahto. Just be careful.”

Josh saluted Barb as she drove away. He hoisted his backpack off the pavement along with the bag of goodies for the apartment residents’ Sunday night dinner and checked his mail box.

Several flyers addressed to current resident and nothing else.

He stared up the staircase to the landing, then sighed and lowered himself to bottom step, absently thumbing the gouge in the wooden bannister.

Zach deserved answers, and Josh had run out.

Berry’s door remained closed, so either he had checked in when Zach flew upstairs or the man was out.

Part of him was grateful for the solitude. The rest of him burned.

He shuffled his phone out of his pocket and stared at the blank screen. Finally he swiped.

Found a recipe I’m going to make for breakfast tomorrow , he texted Jordan, followed by a link. For an anchovy gelatin mold with chipped beef and toast.

It took only a few seconds for her to text back. Delish. Think Ms. Eulalee would approve?

I won’t know unless I try.

And that went for more than just the food.