Love Finds You in Hershey, Pennsylvania (25 page)

He felt a wave of apprehension and hoped Sadie wouldn’t blow things out of proportion. She was humming ever so slightly beneath her breath as she continued to slowly sway in his arms.

“I received a phone call the other day, and it gave me mixed emotions.”

He hadn’t expected the introduction to his announcement to grip her by such surprise, but apparently it did. She stopped swaying and pulled back, her eyes wide.

“What did you say?”

His eyebrows drew together in confusion. “I didn’t say anything yet…well, not really. Not what I meant to say, that is.”

“No, before that,” she pressed.

“Before what?” He was completely baffled.

“Something about emotions,” she prompted.

He frowned. “Mixed emotions? The call gave me mixed emotions?”

“That’s it!” She snapped her fingers, her eyes lighting with that wild gleam again. “Mixed! Of course! Why haven’t I tried that already? A
mixed-berry compote
! In a chocolate trifle!” she added as his face still registered confusion.

A prick of annoyance dug into him. “Sadie, can we please forget the desserts for a minute?”

“Raspberry and peaches! Or strawberry and cherry! Huckleberry and blueberry!” She spun around at the very idea, and then her eyes widened again as a new thought struck. “
What if
we placed
different
flavors in every layer? Like those candles you see in the craft shops? A peach base with a raspberry middle and blueberry on top! Or wait!” She held out a hand to silence him although he hadn’t even been trying to continue. “Maybe bananas followed by strawberries and then the blueberry? Like a red, white, and blue theme!”

“Sadie,” Jasper pleaded, his tone much quieter than it had been, “I really have to tell you this.
Now
.” He didn’t think he could wait another week to share his news. And at the rate Sadie was going, Sara Lee herself couldn’t schedule an appointment. The competition was still several days away, and as long as it lingered on the horizon, it seemed he’d never get a chance to have a heart-to-heart with her. “Please?”

But Sadie’s eyes were all scrunched up, and he recognized the signs of her visualizing the steps for the recipe and composing the trifle layers in her head.

She did another twirl and whirled herself right into Jasper’s arms, pecking him on the cheek. “I’ve finally got it, Jas! This one
can’t
go wrong!”

Still humming under her breath, she danced back into the kitchen, leaving a forlorn and disappointed Jasper staring after her. With Sadie determined to compete, he didn’t see how he ever could.

He sank down onto the hall steps and sighed. Mac entered the room with two cans of cola in his hands. He must have snuck them into the house in his coat pocket, since Sadie didn’t generally allow soda around. If it could corrode a penny, she didn’t want to begin to consider what it did to a five-year-old’s gastrointestinal tract.

“Still no luck?” Mac asked with sympathy as he handed over one of the cans.

Jasper popped the tab with a weary sigh and shook his head.

“I don’t know how much longer this can go on, Mac.”

Mac settled himself beside Jasper on the steps. Kylie’s cartoon continued to play in the other room, keeping her contentedly occupied for the time being.

“Are you talking about Sadie…or yourself?”

Jasper dropped his head. “I don’t really know.”

Mac paused for a moment. “Have you prayed about it?” he asked at last.

Jasper scoffed, though it wasn’t really out of scorn. It was still an adjustment—hearing Mac mention spiritual things. But it was a habit he was growing to enjoy. Tonight, though, he just didn’t have much spiritual energy in him.

“Yeah, absolutely,” Jasper responded in an effort to be more conciliatory. “It just seems like God’s holding the ball on this one rather than sharing it with the team.”

Mac nodded with an expression of such complete understanding that Jasper felt a great relief. The feeling caused him to open up a little more.

“I’m just so…” He paused to gather his thoughts. “I’m so afraid of losing her, Mac. But if she’s always going to be like this, I don’t see how I can ever keep her. She likes to think of herself as totally independent, not needing anyone. No offense, but I think that’s partly because of your not being around when she was younger.”

Mac dropped his head in acknowledgment but did not appear offended.

“But it’s not like it’s just your fault. I mean, there’s Ned’s accident and Amelia’s death, and in some ways, I don’t blame her for not wanting to rely on anybody else.”

“But she does, son,” Mac cut in. “She relies on you more than either of you realize. She always has.”

Jasper fell silent at these words, analyzing the truth of them. He didn’t voice his thoughts aloud, however, when he continued. “I have to tell her about that phone call,” he determined, “but what’ll I do if she… What if she thinks…” He couldn’t go on with scenarios too dreadful to think about.

“She’ll know you love her,” Mac assured. “That’ll count for something.”

“Yeah,” Jasper admitted, “but I’m really not sure if it’ll be enough.”

To add to his apprehension, Mac didn’t disagree with him.

Jasper made several attempts throughout the remainder of the week to tell Sadie his news, but each time, his announcement was foiled by her preoccupation with the Cocoa Cook-Off competition. His nerves began to stretch nearly as taut as hers over the dessert distractions, the added responsibility of full-time care of Kylie, and the occasional conversation with Glynda regarding the restaurant. No wonder Sadie lived in a nearly perpetual state of agitation. He’d thought several times over the last few days that he’d lose his mind completely if he had to constantly put up with such pressure.

But the strain bearing on him the heaviest was the knowledge that Sadie must be told, one way or another, what was going on, and he didn’t have the faintest clue how to break the news to her. In a rational world, it needn’t be such a dramatic moment, but Sadie’s outlook was anything but rational. And he knew, as surely as he knew how disastrously the Cocoa Cook-Off was fated to turn out, that Sadie would see his news as the inevitability she had known would eventually come.

Uneasiness left him feeling slightly queasy as the Saturday morning of the community fair and dessert competition dawned flawlessly sunny and bright over Hershey. He picked up a cup of coffee at the gas station before driving over to Sadie’s to help load Kylie and Sadie’s dessert into the Nova.

Sadie’s constant agitation of the past few weeks had mellowed into a rather sickening silence as Jasper carefully laid her dessert entry on the backseat. She bit her lip and wiped several beads of perspiration from her temple before breathlessly suggesting that perhaps she should sit in the back and Kylie could have the front this time around.

Kylie had no problems with this. She had informed him the day before that she’d be happy when Mommy was herself again, which indicated how thin her five-year-old patience had grown. Jasper couldn’t blame her. At this point, he too would have liked nothing better than to have Sadie back in place of the harried madwoman who only
looked
like his best friend.

The drive to the church was tense and quiet as Sadie guarded the backseat with all the possessiveness of a lioness while Jasper and Kylie exchanged “Oh boy” looks in the front. They knew better than to indulge in sing-alongs or banal chatter at such a crucial stage of the game.

The parking lot was already one-third full when they pulled up beside the church, a fact that caused Sadie to mutter ominously but unintelligibly from the backseat. As Jasper turned the car toward the front of the building, he spotted Mac’s pickup sitting nearby. Sadie’s father was leaning against the door with his face upturned to the warm sunshine. He must have felt the same apprehension for Sadie that Jasper and Kylie did; his presence hours before the activities began proved it.

Kylie clapped her hands together in delight at the sight of her grandpa, and Jasper slowed the car to a stop by the pickup so she could jump out and join him. Mac’s grin and Kylie’s exuberance in their greeting warmed Jasper’s heart, thawing some of the worry he felt. He tried to meet Sadie’s eye in the backseat, but she was distractedly checking off cars in an attempt to discover who had beaten her to the setup table.

So instead of sharing a glance with Sadie, he ended up sharing one with Mac—a mutual frown of distress. Jasper waved Kylie into Mac’s care and then drove on to a parking space before slowly turning off the ignition and gathering his strength.

It took him by surprise when Sadie didn’t immediately vault from the car as soon as it ceased motion. Everything thus far indicated that she was tearing to get inside and start things rolling. He shifted in his seat to get a good look at her, the vinyl creaking in response to his movement.

She sat there staring straight ahead, with flickers of fear dancing in the depths of her eyes. Her fingers clutched the edges of her dessert containers with such a pale steel grip that he feared she might actually bend the plastic and ruin her entry before she even got it through the door.

She swallowed loudly and then expelled a little breath. Jasper didn’t think it would take more than one loud “Boo!” to send her running in retreat. His heart ached for what she chose to put herself through, so he tried one last time to talk sense.

“You don’t have to go through with this, Sadie. Whatever you think you have to prove, I think you proved it a long time ago. You’ve got Suncatchers; you’ve got Kylie. You’ve got Mac, and”—he grinned in an awkward attempt to coax a smile onto her pinched face— “you’ve got me. I think all that speaks pretty well to what you’ve been able to accomplish in your life.”

The silence stretched out thinly as Sadie made no response. He wondered if she had even heard him.

“Sadie?”

She kept staring at the church door, keeping a white-knuckled grip on her dessert. He reached out and laid a hand on her knee. This action finally drew her to attention, and her eyes darted to his face… but everything in her gaze felt hollow.

“You don’t have to do this,” he repeated.

She hesitated, and for one brief, hopeful moment, he thought she might relent. But then there came the sound of two high-pitched voices, hallooing another arrival as they made their way to the door.

Jasper inwardly groaned as he watched Sadie’s eyes flicker toward the sound. Smith and Jones ambled across the parking lot, a small cooler held tightly between them, as they accosted Dmitri Velichko before he could enter the building. He paused politely to greet them, flashing a charming European smile and holding the door as they cooed and fussed.

He held a white cardboard box in his hands. A dessert. His dessert. His entry.

Sadie’s eyes flashed fire.

The sight of Dmitri sparked the initiative she needed, and she reached for the door handle with sudden decisiveness, tugging it toward her with a vicious jerk and then stepping outside. Jasper lowered his head and allowed himself a brief sigh before rushing to catch up with her.

Registering for the competition took all of ten minutes, and after Sadie set up her display inside the church, there was little to do but mingle and wait until things got under way.

After weeks of experimenting, taste-testing, and analyzing, Sadie had at last decided on a dish. A creamy mousse base, flavored with almond extract, rested atop a graham cracker crust. The cocoa confection was topped with a rich berry compote comprised of blackberry, raspberry, and blueberry and would be garnished with a thick dollop of cream along with a strawberry fan. Jasper had to admit that it looked and sounded tantalizing. Each contestant was required to make two of the same dessert for their entry. The first one was plated up for the display so that every angle of the entry could be viewed and analyzed, and the second was set aside or refrigerated for the judges’ taste-testing.

Sadie’s dessert sat in deceptive decadence, the berries swimming in a thick syrup of sticky delight atop the creamy chocolate mousse. Sugary brown crumbs peeped out from the bottom, looking temptingly tasty. It
appeared
to be a perfect offering.