Blossom Street Brides (12 page)

“Great.”

“How’s Courtney feeling?” she asked, and led the way into the kitchen.

Andrew followed her. “The morning sickness is pretty bad just yet, but it’s getting better. First thing I do is bring her a couple of saltines, which seem to help.”

“Coffee?” she asked, gesturing toward the coffeemaker.

Andrew nodded and stepped around the countertop, with his hands tucked in his back pockets. This was a sure sign he was on a mission, and probably one he would prefer to avoid. “Annie called this morning.”

That explained it. “We had a bit of a tiff,” Bethanne murmured with a regretful sigh.

“So she said.”

“She had no business giving your father a key to my house.”

“I agree.”

Andrew, she knew, would be more apt to see her side of things. “I was upset with her, but I could have handled it a lot better than I did.”

Her son got down two mugs from the cupboard.

“I was troubled about more than what Annie did,” Bethanne said, the knot returning to her throat. “Max wants me to either sell the party business or move it to California.”

Frowning, Andrew turned to face her. “Why can’t he move?”

“It’s more complicated for him than me.”

“It’s complicated either way, Mom.”

“I know. I’m afraid unless one of us makes a concession that our marriage might not survive.”

Her son’s frown darkened. “That’s crazy. You love Max. I’ve never known you to be happier, and Max is head-over-heels in love with you.”

Afraid if she spoke the tears would leak into her voice, she nodded instead.

“If you’re thinking you can’t leave because of the baby …”

“I don’t know what to do,” she whispered, and pressed her fingers to her lips.

Right away her son wrapped his arms around her. “Whatever you decide will be fine by Courtney and me. If Annie puts up a fuss, then let her. This is your life and you can’t live it for anyone else. You do what makes you the happiest.”

“Max makes me happy.”

“I know.”

A tear slipped from her eye and wove its way down her cheek. Bethanne wiped it away. Her son’s vote of confidence was exactly what she needed to hear. “Thank you, Andrew.”

“You’re welcome.” He kissed the top of her head. “Now about tonight …”

“I’ll call Annie and do what I can to repair any hurt feelings,” Bethanne assured him. “I’ll make sure there won’t be any tension between us for your special dinner.”

A car door shut in the distance. “That would be Max,” Bethanne said. “He’s changing the door locks.”

“Can’t say I blame him.” Andrew glanced at his wrist. “I’ve got to go. Courtney wants to drag me along to the grocery store this afternoon. I’ll say hi to Max and then be on my way.”

“Thanks for stopping by.” Already Bethanne felt better.

“Anytime,” Andrew said on his way out the back door.

Bethanne heard the two men chatting, and a few minutes later Max was in the house.

“Did you find everything you needed?” she asked, looking at the two huge bags Max carried.

Max set them atop the kitchen counter. “And then some. A hardware store is to men what a toy store is to ten-year-olds. I picked up lightbulbs, which were on sale, and a new garden hose, which I left in the garage, and a few other items you may or may not need in the foreseeable future.”

“On sale?”

“Naturally.”

Men weren’t so different than women after all, Bethanne decided.

“It won’t take me long to get these locks changed. Rooster called. Would you mind if we met for lunch?”

“No problem. I’ve got a few errands I need to run myself.”

Max nodded, and something in the way he looked told Bethanne this was more than two friends getting together. “Everything okay with Rooster?” she asked.

Max shrugged while he set his purchases out on the kitchen counter. “He’s down in the mouth.”

“Any particular reason?”

“He didn’t say. I’ve known Rooster for a lot of years, and I don’t know that I’ve ever heard him sound quite like this.”

“Quite like what?” Bethanne pressed.

Again, Max seemed to be at a loss for words. “Discouraged, I guess. That’s about as close as I can think to describe what was in his voice.”

Rooster was probably one of the most positive people Bethanne had ever met. She couldn’t imagine what had happened to affect Max’s closest friend this way.

Lauren didn’t sleep all night. Again and again, her mind reviewed the scene between Todd and Rooster. When Rooster stormed out of the restaurant, he’d been angry, irate, and something else. It’d taken her half the night to identify what that something else was.

Hurt.

Although it had never been her intent, Lauren had angered and hurt Rooster. It went against her nature to inflict pain on anyone, especially someone she happened to like a great deal. They’d known each other briefly, but in that short amount of time, Lauren had come to feel a strong connection to Rooster. She enjoyed his wit and his down-to-earth approach to life. He didn’t put on airs or work to impress her. What struck her was how he seemed to concentrate on her instead of focusing on himself and his own accomplishments. The more she dwelled on their one dinner date, the more she wanted to get to know Rooster and spend more time with him.

It would have been easy to simply let this unpleasant episode go, she realized. The incident had left her embarrassed and uncomfortable. Rooster had made it clear that he didn’t want to see her again, but Lauren found she simply couldn’t leave matters as they were. At the very least, she needed to explain, and apologize.

At eight Saturday morning, when she’d abandoned all hope of sleeping, she tossed aside the covers and sat on the edge of her bed. Her eyes stung as she rubbed her hand across her face.

Her one goal for the day was to find Rooster. It’d been shortsighted of her to choose that particular restaurant for their dinner date. Not once had it occurred to her that Todd would even think to seek her out. And worse, that he’d make a spectacle of himself, her, and Rooster.

The first thing she did was try to phone Rooster. She had his cell number, but he didn’t answer. The night before, she’d left a message, but he either chose to ignore it or had deleted it without listening. Unwilling to leave it alone, she decided that if he wouldn’t talk to her then she’d personally find him and force him to listen.

That first night, Rooster had said he’d booked a room in a local hotel, but if he’d mentioned the name of the hotel, she had no memory of it. Bethanne Scranton’s husband, the woman she’d met at A Good Yarn, was a friend of Rooster’s, so the first thing Lauren did when the shop opened at ten was contact Lydia at the yarn store.

“Oh, Lydia, I’m so glad I caught you,” Lauren said, when the other woman picked up the phone.

“Lauren, is that you?”

“Yes, yes, it’s me. Would you mind giving me Bethanne’s phone number?”

Lydia hesitated. “I’m sorry, Lauren. I don’t generally give out customers’ personal information.”

“I wouldn’t ask if this wasn’t important,” she said, and then realized Lydia was right. Elisa and Garry wouldn’t want her handing out a customer’s phone number, either. “If this goes against store policy, I understand. But would you be willing to contact her on my behalf?”

“Of course.”

“Oh, thank you. Would you ask Bethanne to phone me back right away?”

Lydia agreed she would do that first thing. “You sound upset. Is everything all right?”

“No. I need to make amends.”

“To Bethanne?”

“No, to the man who came into the shop last Thursday with her husband.”

“Rooster?”

So Lydia already knew Rooster. “I appreciate the help. I need to talk to him.”

“I’ll do my best to reach Bethanne, but no promises.”

“Do what you can; that’s all I ask. Thanks again, Lydia. I appreciate this more than you know.”

While Lauren waited to hear from the other woman, she decided to do her Saturday shopping. She had to keep herself occupied or she’d go stir-crazy sitting around the condo waiting. She tried to knit, but it was useless; her mind
leaped in twenty different directions when she needed to concentrate to reacquaint herself with the skill.

Just as she was walking out of the Pike Place Market with its long rows of fresh vegetables, meats, and assortments of specialty foods, her cellphone beeped. In her eagerness to answer, Lauren struggled to hold on to her bag of groceries.

“Hello,” she said, hoping against hope that it was her fellow knitter.

“Is this Lauren?” the vaguely familiar voice asked.

“Bethanne?”

“Yes, Lydia got hold of me and said it was important that I contact you. What’s going on?”

“It’s Rooster,” Lauren blurted out. “We had an unfortunate misunderstanding and I need to find him to explain. Can you tell me where he’s staying?”

Bethanne hesitated, as if unsure this was the right thing to do. “I’d like to help, but I can’t. Rooster didn’t mention the name of the hotel.”

“Would your husband know?”

“I’m sure Max would, but he isn’t here just now.”

“Oh.” Disappointment echoed in her voice. This was getting more complicated by the moment. “When do you expect him back?”

“He didn’t say.”

Unwilling to leave it at that, Lauren pressed further. “Could you give me a guesstimate of when you’ll see him?”

Bethanne’s sigh was audible, as though even now she wasn’t sure she should be giving out information. “I can
definitely tell you Max will return before six; we’re having a family dinner.”

“Six,” Lauren blurted out. She didn’t want to wait that long. If she didn’t talk to Rooster soon, it would drive her nuts.

“Why is it so important that you find him?”

“Like I said, we had a misunderstanding,” Lauren explained without going into details.

“What kind of misunderstanding?” Bethanne pressed.

Reluctantly, Lauren gave Bethanne a thumbnail sketch of what had happened between Rooster and Todd and then between her and Rooster. She explained that it was particularly embarrassing because Todd was so easily recognizable.

“This is Todd Hampton, from Channel Eight news?” Bethanne sounded incredulous.

“Yes.”

“You’re dating Todd Hampton?”

“
Was
dating.” She placed emphasis on the past tense. “I broke it off, and now it seems Todd believes this is all a ploy to get him to marry me. It isn’t. I broke it off and all of a sudden Todd’s convinced he can’t live without me.”

“You like Rooster?”

“Very much. Would you be willing to call Max on his cell?” She should have thought of that first thing.

“I would, but he left it here, charging.”

“Oh.” Every which way she turned, she hit a dead end. Lauren was fast losing hope. “Can you help me, Bethanne?”

Once more she heard the hesitation in the other woman’s voice. “I don’t know.”

“I feel wretched over what happened. Although we just met, I think given the opportunity we could be more than friends. I’d hate to leave matters the way they are. I can’t let him believe that I would use him.”

Bethanne paused as if she was giving consideration to Lauren’s words. “Max ran an errand this morning and apparently while he was out Rooster contacted him.”

“He did?”

“Rooster suggested they meet. He had something he needed to talk out with Max.”

Hope sprang up inside Lauren like Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park. “So Max is currently with Rooster.”

“I believe so. Rooster’s call is all beginning to add up now that we’ve talked.”

“What do you mean?” Lauren asked.

“Well, it seems to me Rooster appears to have taken a liking to you as well.”

So Lauren hadn’t been imagining this attraction; it was mutual. Knowing this made her feel worlds better and more determined than ever to set matters straight.

“Do you happen to know where they’re having lunch?” Lauren asked.

“I do, but Lauren, this is definitely a guys’ place.” Bethanne mentioned the name, which was unfamiliar to her. “It wouldn’t be a good idea for you to go there on your own.”

“I don’t care.”

“You’re going to a lot of trouble.”

“It’s important.”

“Lauren, it’s a biker bar.”

She swallowed tightly; it could be worse. “Thanks for telling me.”

“All right, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

“I can’t thank you enough, Bethanne.”

“You like Rooster this much?”

Lauren didn’t hesitate: “Yes.”

“Good luck to you, then.”

“Thank you.”

Feeling better than she had all night, Lauren returned to her condo and hurriedly put away her groceries. As soon as she’d finished, she considered changing clothes but didn’t want to waste the time.

Dressed in designer jeans, a pink cashmere and silk sweater, and knee-high boots, she headed out the door, determined to find Rooster Wayne. No doubt she’d stick out in the bar crowd, but she didn’t care.

What was important was finding Rooster.

Rooster cracked open a peanut, chewed down the nuts, and tossed the shell onto the floor. A group of bikers gathered around a pool table in a hotly contested game. Their chatter and shouts echoed around the cavernous room along with the loud honky-tonk music that blared from speakers on the other side of the tavern.

Sitting on a bar stool at the counter with Max, Rooster waited for lunch. Hog’s Hideout was known for its grilled Philly sandwich, which he’d ordered for lunch with a side of slaw.

“You haven’t said much,” Max said, and tossed an empty peanut shell onto the floor.

“Not much to say.”

“I thought you were going to look up an old high school buddy while you were in town.”

Rooster shrugged. He’d forgotten all about that. “Didn’t feel up to it.”

Max leaned closer to the bar, paused, and then asked,
“So, how’d your dinner date with Lauren go?”

Rooster wasn’t up to talking about that, either. “Not so good.” Even now he wasn’t sure why he’d contacted Max. It’d seemed like a good idea at the time, he supposed. In retrospect, it wasn’t. The mistake he’d made was mentioning Lauren in the first place. He’d been taken with her, and had enjoyed their Thai food experience. Max had jumped all over that, reminiscing about his first meeting with Bethanne. Well, Lauren was no Bethanne, and he wasn’t Max.