Page 18 of Sweet Summertide (Christmas Cove #4)

Alfonso made the task look easy as the three of them worked together to maneuver the large counter out to the sidewalk. They placed it alongside the front windows and out of the way of any pedestrians. “Thank you, Alfonso. And don’t forget to give the note to Teddy.”

“Are you sure?” Millie said and shook her head at Alfonso. “I wouldn’t. Why don’t you write something else. Maybe an apology?”

“No.” A rift was opening in Holly’s heart and distracting her from her goals.

She was attracted to Teddy, like a comet hurling towards the sun.

His bright light served as a spotlight on all of her insecurities and traumas.

The only way to nip this in the bud was to let it go. “Make sure he gets that, Alfonso.”

They watched Alfonso walk across the street and Millie put her arm around Holly’s waist. “For the record, I think you’re making another huge mistake.

You shoot from the hip, which normally does you good, but I think you’re having a hard time squaring what you want for your future with what’s right in front of you. ”

“What I want is to lay the flooring.” Holly chose to ignore Millie rather than internalize any of her words and risk the discomfort that might come from admitting the truth to herself.

Inside, Millie gathered the supplies to lay the floor tiles. “This choice of materials, however, is one of your better decisions, Holly.”

Holly had selected the luxury vinyl tiles because they looked like expensive stone and would be the most durable and easy to install option. “Just because I was spending someone else’s money doesn’t mean I wasn’t conscious about the budget.”

“It’s a smart purchase, if we don’t screw up the install,” Millie added. “First, we need to unpack the boxes and mix the tiles up, that way if there’s any variance in dye-lot, you won’t have a patch that looks totally different.”

“How do you know all this?” Holly asked as she began to unbox the dark gray and white marbled squares. “Design school?”

“Heck no. HGTV,” Millie said and giggled. “I’ve always wanted to try and do this.”

“Amelia Anne! Are you telling me you’ve never laid tile before?”

“How hard can it be?” She pulled a sheet of paper from one of the boxes and presented it to Holly. “We just have to follow the instructions. Look, these snap together. So long as the first line is straight, it should go together like bam, bam, bam. Instant floor.”

Holly seriously doubted it would be an instant floor but decided to go along with her fearless DIY leader.

At this point in her day, she had been up for more hours than she thought was natural, been arrested, felt all the emotions one could feel towards a person, and now, she was in crunch time to get the floors done.

Together, the women snapped a chalk line along the front of the shop and another up the center length of the room all the way to the rear.

Holly wanted the tiles placed like a checkerboard and on a diagonal to make the room appear larger and more whimsical.

Luckily, her plan wasn’t thwarted by her ambition and once the first line of tiles was laid, the rest snapped into place with ease.

“Knocky-knock,” Alfonso poked his head in the front door with the streetlamp casting a long, chef-shaped shadow across the newly installed flooring.

“Note delivery.” He tossed a balled-up piece of paper across the room towards Holly where she was crouched down on her knees.

The paper bounced like a skipping rock on the lake and rolled to a stop an arm’s reach away to her left.

“ Buona notte, Signorine . Alfonso go now.”

Millie popped to her feet and ran to the doorway where Alfonso stood. “Are we okay?” She kissed his cheek like she had done earlier and gave a brief hug. Alfonso nodded and returned a kiss on her cheek.

From where Holly was scrambling to reach the note, laid out on her belly, she was unable to hear what else Millie and Alfonso were saying with words, but no words were necessary to see that there was something more romantic happening between them.

Millie giggled and Alfonso’s chuckle filled the room.

She stood perched like a flamingo with one leg bent and resting against her inner thigh of the other leg.

There were more hand gestures than Holly knew what to make of, but she was certain the two were up to something.

When he departed, Millie’s crimson cheeks gave her feelings away.

“Oh my gosh. You like really like him,” Holly teased and sat crisscross. Millie joined her on the floor as she tossed and caught the little paper ball in her palm. “I don’t want to read it.”

“First, of course I like him …” Millie paused and shook her head. “But we’re just friends. I’ve gotten to see him a lot since working on America and Leo’s house reno, that’s all.”

“Could have fooled me,” Holly said and rolled the balled-up note between her fingers. “And the second thing?”

“You do want to know what that note says. You’re not the only person who can read the room. Do you want me to look first?” Millie presented an open palm and pumped her fingers open and closed. “We don’t have all night for you to decide. Give it.”

A dozen possible responses ran through her mind.

She might have blamed him for being rotten, but she knew she had crossed a line that morning.

Even though getting arrested was a wake-up call, she still needed to win the money.

She could play nice and not work against him anymore, but she didn’t know how her previous actions would impact what was left of their relationship.

She tossed the paper to Millie who caught it and wasted no time in unfurling it.

“I shouldn’t have written that last note.” Holly hung her head in her hands.

“Probably not. That’s always been your biggest problem. You act or speak before you really think things over.” Millie bit her lips between her teeth and her brows pinched together in the middle.

“What? Millie, what does it say?”

Millie turned the paper around already giggling in her throat.

“‘Made you look!’ That’s all it says.” Confusion warped her own face. “What does that mean?”

The answer was standing in the glow of the twinkle-lights strung across the road outside, tapping on the windows. “Made you look!” Teddy yelled through the glass and waved.

By the time she shot to her feet and ran to the door, he turned tail and ran down the street with his little sidekick, Alfonso, trailing behind. She let out a grunt and stomped her feet. “That man drives me crazy. Why do you think he’s still teasing me, after everything?”

“Perhaps he’s not done with you despite your best efforts.”

Holly shrugged and flopped against the floor, harder than she had wanted to, and let out an exasperated sigh.

“That man is your soulmate, you know that right?” Millie tossed the paper back to Holly. “You’ll see it eventually, if you don’t ruin it first.”

“You’re one to talk, signorina ,” Holly said in her best Italian accent and threw the paper back.

“Let’s just get this done, and you can go back to plotting against that sexy man later.”

“Maybe my plotting days are over,” Holly said as she considered if she had already dashed any chance of a relationship with Teddy. The way he had pressed her back against the tree and breathed her in, his hands holding her firmly, and his lips … “I don’t know what to do.”

“Yes, you do.”

Could Holly truly have been wrong about everything?

She considered Millie’s words, despite her best efforts to ignore them.

Holly was the one causing all the problems. Millie was only trying to save her from herself the way a best friend does.

“I think I should just focus on making the creamery the best establishment in town, and I’ll win the money fair and square. ”