All of Me (The Bridesmaids Club Book 1) (2 page)

“Thank goodness you’re back. The Groovy Grans will be here in an hour.” She took the grocery bags out of his hands and walked into the kitchen.

“The Groovy Grans?” Logan followed her. The ovens were on and it looked as if a batch of scones were already cooking. She’d been in the middle of making something else. A bowl of creamy butter sat beside a bag of flour and a carton of milk.

“Can you pass me one of the small bowls?” Tess pointed in the general direction of the pantry.

He looked inside and grabbed a bowl. “This one?”

She nodded and took it out of his hands. “The Groovy Grans are from Billings. They’re all grandmas who drive motorcycles. They go on weekend tours. On the first and third Saturday of each month, they pass through Bozeman for breakfast.”

“How many are you expecting?”

Tess broke four eggs into the bowl and started whisking them. “Fifteen.” She took a measuring cup off the counter and started pouring buttermilk into it. “How good are you in the kitchen?”

“Depends on what you had in mind?” He tried not to laugh at the scowl she sent his way.

“Do you know how to use a griddle?”

He looked at the stove and frowned at the heavy metal pan. “I’ve been running for forty minutes. I’m not smelling that sweet at the moment.”

“The pancakes won’t care what you smell like. Wash your hands and I’ll show you how to cook a pancake.”

Tess wiped her hands on her apron and took something out of a cupboard. She walked toward him with a determined look in her eyes. “Hold your arms up.”

“What do you…You’ve got to be joking?”

“Up. I’m on a tight time frame.” Tess held her spray deodorant in front of him.

“It’s pink.”

“Don’t be a wuss. The pancakes might not have a nose, but I do. Up.”

He stuck his arms in the air and glared at her. “As long as you know I’m doing this for humanitarian reasons only. If you tell anyone I put girls’ deodorant on I won’t help in the kitchen again.”

“The chance of you ever being out here with me again is almost zilch, so I guess we’re both safe.” She sprayed the outside of his t-shirt and put the lid on with a self-satisfied smirk. “Now you smell pretty.”

Logan sniffed the air. “I’m going home for a shower after I’ve cooked the pancakes.”

“I hope so.” She pulled open a drawer and took out an apron. “Put this on.”

“Have you always been this bossy?”

“Only when I’m desperate,” she muttered. “Annie won’t be here for another half hour.”

Annie was Tess’ part-time baker. They’d worked together for as long as Logan had been in Bozeman.

Tess walked across to the long stainless steel counter in the middle of the room. “I’ve already put the dry ingredients in a bowl for the pancakes. I just need to add the buttermilk, eggs, and melted butter.” She picked up a spoon and started mixing everything together. She moved across to the stove, grabbing a stick of butter on the way through. “The griddle’s hot, so the pancakes can go straight on it. Put a pat of butter in the pan, then after it’s melted, wipe it around the pan with a paper towel.”

He pulled a paper towel off the roll and did what she’d said. “Doesn’t wiping it off defeat the whole purpose of putting it there in the first place?”

“If you’ve got excess butter in the pan, it will burn and that gives the pancakes a nasty flavor.” Tess took a ladle out of a drawer and started spooning pancake batter onto the griddle. “Half a ladle per pancake is enough. Just pour it on, then add another one. You should get four pancakes on the griddle at a time.”

Logan looked over Tess’ shoulder. “The pancake mixture is lumpy.”

“It’s supposed to be. Small to medium lumps are your friend. That way the pancakes will be light and fluffy. After the pancakes are on the griddle add a small handful of blueberries to the top of each one, like this.” Tess sprinkled fresh blueberries on the pancakes and reached for a spatula. “They’ll take about two minutes to cook on the first side and less on the second.”

“How do I know when to turn them over?”

“Air bubbles should have risen to the surface and they’ll look a little dry around the edges.”

He watched Tess flip the first batch, then put them in the oven to keep warm. She handed him the ladle and smiled. “Don’t look so worried. As long as they don’t burn they’ll taste great. You do the next batch and I’ll watch.”

Logan felt as if he was going for a job interview. He poured the batter into the pan, added the blueberries, then watched them carefully while they cooked. He never would have thought cooking pancakes could be so stressful. He slid his first batch into the oven and relaxed.

“Good job,” Tess said. “Let me know when you’re getting low on batter. I’ll make some more for you.”

He nodded and added more pancake mixture to the pan. Tess went back to whatever she was making, working with a quick efficiency that impressed him.

He flipped the pancakes and watched them rise. “You started work late this morning.”

Tess glanced up from the bowl of ingredients she was mixing.

Heat hit Logan’s face and it had nothing to do with the stove. “I run. I notice things.”

Tess grunted and pulled a baking sheet out of a drawer. She started rolling balls of dough in her hands. “Why do you run so early?”

Logan opened the oven and put the cooked pancakes inside. He didn’t feel comfortable talking about the real reason he ran. Ever since he’d come back from Afghanistan, he couldn’t sleep, couldn’t forget the images that were stamped on his brain. He’d written award-winning stories and nearly killed himself in the process.

Tess was still waiting for a reply, so he did what he normally did. Answered as close to the truth as he dared to go. “I wake up early. It keeps me fit.” He sprinkled blueberries on the next batch of pancake batter and stared at the pan.

The front door banged open. “Sorry I’m late,” Annie yelled from the front of the café. “How’s your head this morning?”

A mini tornado of red sweater and jeans arrived in the kitchen. “Molly didn’t get…” she stopped in the middle of the room. “Logan? What are you doing here?”

“Tess had an emergency.”

“You’re making pancakes?”

He nodded. “Blueberry.”

Annie looked between them and smiled. “What do you want me to do?”

“Make the apple huckleberry pies,” Tess said. “I’m just about to start the pecan pie Mr. Donaldson ordered.” Logan moved out of her way as she put a tray of cookies in the oven. “The Groovy Grans will be here soon.”

Annie washed her hands and nodded. She lifted a container of sugar onto the counter and measured flour and baking powder into a bowl.

He watched Annie and Tess move around the kitchen, adding random ingredients to bowls. “Where are your recipe books?”

Annie grinned. “We don’t need them, not for the regular recipes anyway.”

Logan poured another batch of pancake batter onto the griddle. “I’m going to need more pancake mix.”

“Already on it,” Tess said. She left a bowl of batter beside him. “I’ll just check the café.”

She walked out of the room and Logan watched Annie roll out the pie crusts.

Annie smiled. “You must have done something really nice for Tess.”

“Because she’s not growling at me?”

“You noticed?” She looked over at the kitchen door. “We had a really late night last night. I’m surprised she made it in here on time.”

“Where did you go?”

“Ennis.” The beeper on the oven went off and Annie took the scones out.

Logan laughed as he flipped the pancakes. “I wouldn’t have thought there’d be a whole lot of action happening in Ennis on a Friday night.”

Annie started peeling a bowl of apples. “You are so wrong. We had a great time. Molly and Tess hadn’t tasted moonshine before. Willie’s Distillery makes the best legal moonshine ever. Just don’t mention their bourbon whiskey to Sally when you next see her.”

“She liked it too much?”

“Enough to buy a few bottles to bring home. Can you pass me two of the lemons beside you?”

Logan looked along the counter and handed Annie the lemons. He heard the distant roar of motorcycle engines and checked how many pancakes he’d made.

Annie dropped the half-peeled apple in her bowl and raced over to a set of cupboards. “They’re early. They don’t usually arrive for another fifteen minutes.” She started lifting out glasses, putting them on trays and moving into the café.

The kitchen door opened and Tess headed straight across to the fridge. “The Groovy Grans are down the street. Keep those pancakes coming, Logan. I’ll be back soon.” She took two jugs of juice into the café and he looked around the kitchen.

If it had been a calm oasis when he arrived, it wasn’t now. And with the amount of noise coming from the street, it wasn’t about to get any better.

***

Tess took another sip of orange juice and sighed. The morning rush was over. She could have a break, enjoy some peace and quiet in the café before the lunch crowd descended.

“Do you want to share a pancake. You look as though you need it.” Logan sent a sunny smile her way and she scowled.

“No, thanks.”

He ate another big fork of pancake and shrugged his shoulders. “You don’t know what you’re missing.”

She did know what she was missing and she still didn’t care. Her head felt like it was pounding off her shoulders. She’d swallowed a couple of Tylenol halfway through the Groovy Grans’ breakfast, but it hadn’t made much difference.

“Moonshine can do that to you if you’re not careful.” Logan drizzled more maple syrup on his last pancake.

Tess watched Logan put the cap back on the bottle and pick up his knife and fork. After the Groovy Grans had left on their motorcycles, Logan had gone home, had a shower and returned to eat his promised pancakes.

“How do you know I was drinking Moonshine?”

Annie put a grilled cheese sandwich in front of Tess. “That would have been me. We were, you know, passing the time of day. I happened to mention our late night.”

Tess looked at the sandwich. She didn’t know if she could eat it.

Annie put the weekend newspaper on the table and patted her shoulder. “I’ll look after the café. Take as long as you need.”

“Thanks, Annie.” Tess watched her friend walk to the front counter.

“You should go for a run. Sweat the alcohol out of your body.”

Tess flicked open the paper and ignored Logan.

“So we’re back to bickering buddies again? I wondered how long our truce would last.”

“We didn’t have a truce and we aren’t buddies. Although I do appreciate your help this morning.”

“Nice to know there’s a heart in there somewhere.”

Logan didn’t seem particularly devastated by Tess’ lack of enthusiasm where he was concerned. And he shouldn’t have been. They weren’t friends, but Tess supposed he could be called an acquaintance. Especially after her one disastrous attempt to find out why he was living in Bozeman. He ate at her café at least three times a week and had a soft spot for pancakes. The only thing they had in common was that Logan was a reporter and she hated reporters. Most days they didn’t have a lot to say to each other.

“Pancakes tasted good.”

Tess looked up. “Thanks.”

“What I don’t understand is how you can be so nice one minute, then in the next breath turn into an ice maiden. Someone must have burned you real bad.”

Tess squinted at Logan. “I believe the correct phrasing is ‘really bad’.”

“So who was he? Some heart-throb who spurned you at the altar? Or maybe you didn’t get that far. Maybe he dumped you for your best friend and you’ve never forgiven him?”

Tess turned over another page in the newspaper. Logan didn’t know how close he’d gotten to the truth. Except it hadn’t been as simple as her boyfriend running off with her best friend. Her best friend had died and Andrew Gibson had walked away a free man.

Logan wiped his mouth on a napkin and took his dirty dishes across to Annie. Before he left the café, he came and stood beside Tess’ table.

He leaned down, close enough that she could smell his aftershave and the clean scent that was all man. “Someday you’re going to tell me why you don’t like me. And when you do, I’m going to show you how wrong you are.”

Tess looked him straight in the eyes. “That someday will never come.”

Logan smiled. “It almost happened once.” His eyes dropped to her mouth and Tess blushed.

“Well, if it’s not Mr. Hot and Steamy.” Sally, Tess’ friend, stood beside Logan, smiling at him as if she’d seen something funny. “Don’t worry about, Tess. She doesn’t appreciate a good man when she sees one.”

“You can say that again,” he muttered. “I’ve got to go. Enjoy your weekend.” He smiled at Sally and nodded at Tess.

Tess went back to reading the paper.

“You can be such a witch sometimes.” Sally dropped into the seat opposite her. “Logan’s a good guy. You don’t like reporters, and I guess you’ve got your reasons. But that’s no excuse to treat him like the enemy.”