Every Kind of Heaven & Everyday Blessings: Every Kind of Heaven / Everyday Blessings

It was as simple as that. And if the tiny hope in her heart wished for more, that he truly was what he seemed, did she risk finding out? Face it, she didn’t have Aubrey’s quiet beauty or her sister Katherine’s classic poise. She’d driven her own mother away.

Don’t think about that. She squeezed the pain from her heart. Erased the thought from her mind. Purposefully turned her thoughts from her failures and to her business. Her shop. She had more sketching to do tonight when they got home. And breakfast treats to bake for the construction dudes.

Maybe she’d do a batch of scones. She’d lose herself in the kitchen. Baking always made everything right. Baking made her problems and failures turn from shouts into silence.

There would be no dreaming. She’d lost too many dreams to waste them on what could never truly be. Brice had given her the perfect solution. He’d said he was happy to be friends. He didn’t want anything to complicate their business relationship, and she was going to hold him to it, whether her heart liked it or not.

Pleased with that plan, she led Aubrey out of the church hall and through the parking lot, beeped the SUV unlocked and headed straight to the ice creamery.

Chapter Seven

Brice climbed out of his truck and into the morning. The hiss of the sprinkler system in the city park diagonally across the street provided enough background noise to drown out the faint hum of distant traffic. It was early enough yet that only an infrequent car motored down the nearby street. Birds took flight from the tree overhead when Rex hopped onto the sun-warmed blacktop. The parking lot was empty, except for them. He’d beaten Ava here. Again.

Ava. Spotting her in the restaurant last night had given him a chance to clear the air. The only problem was, nothing felt clearer. Their agreement to keep it to business, sure, that was crystal clear. But his feelings for her became more complicated every time he was around her.

Lord, You know I’m in over my head. Please, I need some help. If it’s not too much trouble, show me the way.

As if in answer, he felt a shift in the calm peace of the morning. It was as if the nearly nonexistent breeze had completely vanished, as if the world stopped spinning on its axis. As if for one nanosecond, the rotation of the earth ceased. Brice felt an odd prickling at the back of his neck. When he turned around, there she was.

Or, more accurately, there she was in her yellow SUV driving straight toward him. The morning light cut at an angle through her windshield, illumining her clearly. Those sunglasses were perched on her nose again, and the bill of the baseball cap—pink, today—framed her heart-shaped face. She whipped into the parking space closest to the front door. Right beside his truck.

Her nearness was like taking an unexpected punch to the chest. Brice rocked back on his heels from the impact. He watched her through the windshield as she chattered on her cell while cutting the engine, pulling the e-brake and gathering up her things.

Knowing there would be more bakery boxes and careens of coffee and spiced tea, he moved to help. Rex bounded ahead, whining in anticipation of being with Ava.

“I know just how you feel, buddy.” He scrubbed his dog’s head with his knuckles.

Her driver’s side door was open, but she’d turned away, still busy gathering her things and absorbed in her phone conversation. Her dulcet, cheerful tone was as soft as the morning breeze. “Yes, Madeline, I’d be happy to bring by my catalogue. If your client wants something unique, then I’m the right baker. I specialize in one-of-a-kind designs.”

She backed out of the vehicle, dragging her enormous purse with her. The bulk of it clattered over the console and snagged on the emergency brake, which stopped her progress. No one was cuter. Captivated, he could not look away as she freed her bag from the snag. Once it was free, she hooked the big bag over her shoulder, absently, and went to slam the door. With the keys inside.

Suddenly it wasn’t a mystery how she kept locking herself out. He caught the edge of the door.

“Goodbye, Madeline and—” She stopped, apparently startled to find him latched onto her door. For the tiniest part of a millisecond she gazed up at him unguarded, forgetting to finish her conversation. “Uh… thanks again, Madeline, for this opportunity. I won’t let you down. Bye!”

She snapped her phone shut. “Thank you, too. You keep showing up right when I need rescuing.”

“It’s a knack of mine.” He waited for her to step out of the way before he settled behind the steering wheel and snagged the keys from the ignition. He started fiddling with the remote.

“And now what are you doing?”

“Reprogramming this for you. So it won’t auto lock. There.”

He was starting to look more and more like a fictitious knight in shining armor…well, more like a knight with a tool belt. It was nice to be rescued by such a good guy.

“Who was on the phone?” he asked over a few electronic beeps that came from inside the SUV.

“That was Madeline from Madeline’s Catering. She provided the food for your sister’s wedding reception. She asked me to make the desserts for a baby shower she’s catering. The funniest thing, though. She said you had highly recommended me.”

“I might have.” He angled out from behind the wheel and closed the door.

“Thank you. I met with Maxime Frost yesterday, and her daughter Carly chose one of my designs. Also because of your recommendation.”

“I’m just glad it worked out. If you want to head in, I’ll bring in the boxes. Take a look at the plans. They’re on the worktable.”

“Oh. Well, okay.” Ava tried so hard not to like Brice more, but found it impossible. Fighting her feelings, she accepted Rex’s good morning jump up, hugged him and promised him his own scone. Thrilled, his doggy tongue hanging, he bounded ahead of her on the way to the front door as if to say, hurry, faster!

“It’s too bad I really don’t like your dog,” she said, not quite comfortable saying the truth, of how very much she adored Rex.

“Yeah, I don’t like him either,” Brice said with a wink.

She ducked her head to dig for her office keys in the mess of her bag. Truth was, she didn’t want to keep looking at Brice. And see more and more good things to like about him. But her attempts were futile. There was Brice’s reflection in the glass as she went to unlock the door.

My, he was such a fine man. Her heart gave a little tumble—just the tiniest fall.

It’s just business. That’s all. That’s what it had to be.

So, why didn’t that rationale feel convincing? Best not to think about that too much. She pushed open the door. Rex sprang in, expertly dodging the sawhorses and piles of fresh wallboard, and she lingered, turning to watch Brice. It was hard not to notice the powerful agile way he hefted the boxes, shut the back of the SUV and locked up.

He was a great guy—wait, rephrase that. He was a really awesome man. Why did that make her panic?

“It’s starting to take shape.” His voice and his boots echoed in the big empty shop. “You can see we’ve got the rewiring done. The inspector’s supposed to be here in an hour. Once we get that okayed, the wallboard goes up. Do you like the cathedral ceilings? We were able to punch up a few feet higher than we’d first thought.”

See? Just business. Ava managed to push aside the lump of feelings all wadded up in her chest. Did her best not to notice how she felt happy when he was near.

“I love the ceilings. It’s better than I hoped for.” She walked around, giving Brice time to head into the kitchen with the morning’s treats, and to put space between them. “The guys have done a great job.”

She could see her dreams of the new shop taking shape in the shell of the old. She’d have warm honeyed woods, cheerful yellow walls and the scent of happiness in the air. It was finally happening. For real. She thought of Madeline’s call—was it a sign her business would boom? Maybe.

She had a business to build, not more mistakes to make. She caught sight of Brice unboxing the scones. A tiny question whispered inside her heart: What if he wasn’t a mistake?

“Ava, you’ve topped yourself.” He had one of the sunshine face scones in hand.

“I made a double batch, so the construction dudes can take some home to their families.”

“Once you get this shop open, I hope you know that you’re going to be in demand.”

“From your lips to God’s ears,” she said, trying to stay focused on the business. The business. Not on Brice’s kind words.

He took a bite. “Sheer heaven. You’ll be open soon. Do you have hired help all lined up?”

“Are you kidding? I’ve got enough extended family to hire without even putting an ad in the paper. I’m just hoping this doesn’t wind up being another failure.”

“It won’t be.” Brice could see the burden of it weighing her down. “You have an excellent quality of product, and the decorating is top-notch. It’s all I heard at Chloe’s reception. I think you should believe in yourself a little more. It will turn out fine.”

“You’re just saying that to be nice, mister.”

“That’s the idea. I want to be nice to you. This is business, remember? We have this business relationship, but after that, I’m hoping you’ll want more.”