Heart's Desire

Sarah’s eyebrow cocked inquisitively. “I said that Chicago investment firms certainly treat their clients well. That’s some pretty good PR.”

“Yeah.” Maddie smoothed her short, highlighted blond hair around her ears with her palm. “It makes me nervous,” she admitted.

“Why?”

“Is Alex sending me these flowers because he’s found an investor and he knows something I don’t, or because he can’t find anyone for my franchise? Or is it because he likes me more than he’s letting on?”

Shrugging her shoulders, Sarah asked, “Either one sounds like a winner to me. Doesn’t it to you?”

“Sure. I guess,” Maddie said. She whirled to look at the clock over the counter. “I gotta get. So do you,” she told Sarah.

“Right. I still have to run home and take Beau out for one last potty break before my big presentation for Charmaine.” She picked up two boxes of cupcakes. “I’ll put these in your car for you, Maddie. Are you taking them up to New Buffalo right away?”

“It’s first on my delivery list,” Maddie said. “You guys have been a great help to me today. I can’t thank you enough.”

“I was just teasing about the torture,” Sarah said, going to Maddie and kissing her cheek. “Keys, please.”

Maddie dug around in her jeans pocket and pulled out her car keys. “Pop the side doors in back and put the cupcakes on the driver’s side. I’ll bring out the rest of the order. Good luck with Charmaine.”

Isabelle gazed at Sarah with what looked like hero worship in her eyes. “Is it wonderful, Sarah? Your new project?”

“More than wonderful. I can’t tell you about it. Not yet, anyway. The owner wants everything kept under wraps until we get a go from the city council. But it’s exciting.”

Maddie withdrew another bakery box of cupcakes from under the counter and held them out for Sarah. “I put this together last night when Isabelle and I were working. I made Luke’s favorite lemon cake with lemon-flavored cooked icing. Dutch chocolate for Annie. Double devil’s food for Timmy. Carrot cake and cream-cheese icing for you, and of course, Beau’s cream-filled vanilla cupcake.”

Sarah smiled broadly. “This is very sweet of you.”

“Hey, you’re the generous one, giving me your time and energy when I know you probably should have been putting the final touches on your drawings.”

Sarah looked at Maddie with genuine gratitude and an air of conviction that Maddie had always admired in her friend, even when they were in high school. For a while last year, after Sarah’s mother died, that conviction, the abundant, sparkling hopefulness that Sarah shared with everyone in town, had faded under the storm of grief and loss. To lose one’s mother was always difficult, but to lose a person like Ann Marie Jensen, whose kindness was nearly legendary and whose lifelong dedication to the town had left not just a mark, but a swath of beautification, creativity and civic improvement, was almost insurmountable.

But since Sarah’s engagement to Luke Bosworth, she had come back to life, and her effervescent spirit was bubbling over with enthusiasm.

“This time my drawings are nearly perfect,” Sarah reassured her. “I’m totally confident about this presentation.”

Maddie beamed. “That’s great to hear, Sarah.” This was her friend’s first project since her boss, interior designer Charmaine Chalmers, had laid her off a year ago.

“I’m in such a different place than I was last year at this time. When I look back at the work I did then, I don’t blame Charmaine for kicking me to the curb. Thank goodness it was only temporary.”

Maddie followed Sarah to the door. “You had lost both your parents in a very short period of time. You left Indianapolis and that great architecture job. It was a lot of change. Too much change in a couple short years. Then taking care of your mother before she died. That’s heartbreaking and physically exhausting. But you’re an inspiration to us all. Like the ‘comeback kid,’ Sarah. I’m so happy for you.”

The two women walked over to Maddie’s black Yukon, which served as her delivery van. Maddie had emblazoned both sides of her SUV with her phone number, website, email, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts in gold lettering. Sarah put the boxes in the back end of the SUV. “Speaking of mothers,” she said. “How is your mom?”

“We don’t speak. You know that. She lives her life with her cigarettes and television reruns and I push for my dreams. Two different universes.” Maddie shrugged her shoulders flippantly. “Doesn’t matter.”

“It’s just sad, is all,” Sarah said.

“Not really. Your mother was more of a real mother to me than Babs, whose biggest regret is that she gave birth to me. Babs will be bitter till the day she dies because my father had already picked out a new girlfriend before she even told him she was pregnant. She blames him and me for the fact that she never finished high school. She should have stuck to cheerleading and she knows it.”

Sarah squinted accusingly at Maddie. “The real truth is that your mother has been jealous of you since you were in a training bra.”

“Check.” Maddie nodded. “She thinks I’m too entrepreneurial, not that she could spell or define it. And the she hates the fact that I’m perfectly happy without a rich husband who would pay her bills so she could sit around and smoke more cigarettes and watch more innocuous television.”

“I guess it really is best you don’t see her much.”

“It took me a long time to face the fact that my mother just doesn’t like me. Enlightenment is knowing when to let go. I let go of her a long time ago, Sarah.” Maddie hugged Sarah quickly. “Beat it, or you’ll be late.”

“Deal,” Sarah said and rushed off to her car. “Don’t forget, we’re meeting at four-thirty at Bride’s Corner to choose my wedding dress!”

“It’s burned into my brain!” Maddie waved as Sarah got into her Envoy and drove off. Maddie turned her attention to the red sandstone of the clock tower on the county courthouse as the dawn rays struck the beveled-glass windows.

“Valentine’s Day,” Maddie whispered. “A moneymaker day.” She smiled, then felt her smile drop off her face like icing off a cake when it’s been sitting in the sun too long. For the first time in over a decade, Maddie remembered that Valentine’s Day was a day for love.

She’d received beautiful flowers a few days ago, which was a first for her. Alex had even called her last night to make certain they’d arrived.

“Hey, beautiful. Happy Valentine’s Day tomorrow,” he’d said, his voice filled with anticipation. He spoke in a sultry baritone she’d never heard during their office meetings. Their conversations had always been about profits, projected earnings and potentials.

“They’re just gorgeous,” she’d gushed. “So exotic. Especially for this time of year.”

“I like unusual and unexpected things. Were you surprised?”

“Very. I couldn’t figure out who would be sending me flowers.”

“Ah. That’s good,” he said. “I wanted you to have something special while I was away...” His voice trailed off as if there was something else he was going to say before he thought better of it.

So I don’t forget you? Is that what you were going to say, Alex?

“You’re going away?”

“To Dubai. For three weeks,” he’d said, as if in apology.

“United Arab Emirates,” she’d whispered as her mind flitted halfway across the globe. “That’s a long way.”

“It is. Listen, I scheduled a meeting for us when I get back. We’ll need to catch up. And I’m hoping to have an investor for you by then.”

Maddie’s heart had actually tripped a beat. “Investor?”

“I don’t want to get your hopes up quite yet. But I have someone on the line. I’ll tell you about it when I get back. You take care, Maddie. I’ll try to text you while I’m gone. I hope their cell coverage isn’t as bad as the last time I was there.”

“You’ve been to Dubai before?”

“Several times. I’m working on something....” He had a way of leaving valuable information hanging in space like tiny crumbs leading to hidden treasure.

Remembering their phone conversation, Maddie’s head was filled with thoughts of Alex. He was like a dream to her. He was tall, blond and wide-shouldered, and had a very strong jaw that looked as if it was chiseled from granite and a dimple in his chin. His blue eyes were the color of cornflowers in summer. His smile revealed sparkling white even teeth, and his full lips completed a face so handsome she finally understood why the Greeks invented a god of male beauty. Alex could have been a dead ringer for Adonis.

The first time she’d met him in his office, she was impressed with his confidence, sincerity and assuredness. He was the kind of man people trusted with their entire life’s savings. He was the kind of executive people turned to when their world was crashing down around them. Maddie’s first impression was that this man was smart enough, savvy enough, to turn around even the worst-case scenarios.

Now, he’d sent her flowers, and he’d been especially sweet to her on the phone, making her think about things romantic.