She didn’t know. But she knew that, for Jesse’s sake, she was going to have to find a way.
Chapter 3
HEIDI COULDN’T IMAGINE what her mother wanted her for. It wasn’t like Alice to be cagey. But all she’d said on the phone was that she needed to see Heidi and could she please come over to the house when she had the chance?
Heidi put the last of the dough in the fridge and then leaned against the kitchen island and sighed. It was after nine and it had been a long day. But since she wanted tomorrow off for a catering job, she’d needed to put in the hours. She was lucky that Nina and Kevin allowed her to work around her class schedule and whatever else came up. Definitely different from any other employer she’d worked for. And if she wanted to use the kitchen after hours to prepare for any catering gigs that she’d put together, that was all right, too.
Of course, her long day had left her no time to stop by her mother’s. Which was just as well, because after the day she’d had, she wasn’t sure she was up for any surprises. At least not any more surprises. She had her hands full trying to figure out what she was going to do about Kyle. More specifically, she had to get a handle on her sudden, runaway attraction to him.
Jesse was busy tonight with softball practice and would no doubt be at the pub with the rest of the gang right about now. She’d spoken to him earlier and bowed out of his invitation to meet him there when she finished. She was tired and, okay, more than a little distracted. She didn’t think it was a good idea that she be anywhere near Kyle until she figured out what was going on between them.
Or rather, what was going on with her. Because if there was one thing she was relatively sure of, it was that Kyle Trapper wasn’t interested in her. Not one iota. He’d made that abundantly clear with his constant frowns in her presence, and he’d gone out of his way not to interact with her in any capacity.
Until now.
Heidi untied her apron and lifted it over her head, hanging it next to the door before going out into the café. The place was quiet. Nina had left some time ago and asked her to close up shop. She switched off all the lights save the one over the display counter which was always kept lit, and walked toward the music center. It was dark as well except for a couple of backlights in the public area. The same applied to the bookstore division, which was set up to look like a comfortable living room-library combination in a large, century-old house. Although the fireplace was empty of logs, the explosion of flowering plants in the hearth still made it the center of attention, and the overstuffed sofas and chairs invited road-weary shoppers to sit down for a moment and crack open one of the books in carefully arranged stacks on the nearby coffee and end tables.
The utter quiet brought Heidi a brief sense of relief, a feeling of control that she liked. There were no customers to wait on, no bosses to answer to. Her time was her own.
And she really should be getting home to catch up on her course work.
She checked to make sure the back door was locked, then headed toward the front, clutching her purse to her side. She turned the key to let herself out, and nearly fell backward when someone appeared on the other side of the glass.
It would have been bad enough had it been a stranger. What made it worse was that it was Kyle.
HE’D FRIGHTENED her.
Kyle held open the door, prepared to steady Heidi. He’d been hoping to catch her as she was leaving the store, but he hadn’t planned to scare her.
“I’m sorry. I startled you.”
“No, no. That’s okay,” she said quickly, her color high, her breathing uneven. She easily stepped out of touching range.
Damn, but she looked good. Her hair was a dark cloud around her pretty face, her eyes but shadows in the dim light. It had only been a few hours since he’d last seen her, and she’d looked good then. But that had been in the plain light of day. Now that it was night…
“What are you doing here, Kyle?”
Now that was a question.
“When you told me you’d consider my request, we didn’t name a time when you’d give me your answer.” Kyle’s gaze dropped to the pulse at the base of her slender throat. “Since Jesse’s birthday’s in less than two weeks…I figured that if you don’t want to help, I need to know now.”
Her frown made her prettier, if that were possible. She looked around the parking lot, where few cars remained. He hadn’t parked there.
He didn’t think it was a good idea for them to be seen spending time together without a valid reason.
“I’m around back,” he said.
She looked at him.
“So have you thought about it?”
“Yes.” She dropped her gaze.
“And?”
“And I’m not sure if it’s such a good idea.”
“The party?”
“Our working together to arrange it.”
Kyle raised his brows.
Okay, he’d be lying if he said he hadn’t picked up on the spark of attraction that had ignited between them, turning what had been his one-sided lusting into a reciprocal need.
Probably it wasn’t a good idea to encourage that, considering she was his best friend’s girl. But he’d been mentally planning Jesse’s twenty-fifth birthday party for months now. And he was determined to make it a reality.
“We’re adults, aren’t we?” he asked.
“What?”
“We’re both capable of putting aside personal differences so that we can work together.”
She gestured with her hand. “Sure.”
She didn’t look too sure.
Causing Kyle to look more closely at her.
Footsteps sounded on the sidewalk and then the jingling of keys. “Good night, Heidi,” a middle-aged man from the next-door business called as he locked up.
“Yes…good night, Mr. Bannon. See you tomorrow morning.”
Bannon glanced at Kyle and nodded once.
He returned the gesture. Even though he’d been in Fantasy for a relatively short time, he still hadn’t gotten used to how small a town it was. Everybody seemed to know everybody else’s business.
“Um, I think we should go inside,” Heidi whispered, although there was no longer anyone around to hear her.
Kyle didn’t argue as she opened the door and ducked inside. He followed, waiting for her to lock the doors before leading the way through the bookstore, then the music center until finally they were in the café where she worked.
She stopped in the middle of the room, the display case backlighting her sexy form. She appeared about ready to jump out of her skin as she took in the large window overlooking the walk and the parking lot beyond.
“The kitchen.” She gestured over her shoulder. “I think it’s better if we go in there.”
Moments later, Kyle stood across a large, stainless steel island from Heidi, wondering why she was acting as if he posed some sort of threat to her. He didn’t look threatening, did he? He slid his hands in his pockets and grimaced. “This is where you work then? In the kitchen?”
Stupid question. He knew she was a certified chef. That she had a busy catering business and that as soon as she obtained her MBA she planned to apply for a loan to expand the company to include employees and her own store front.
“Yes,”