Beth Ciotta - Anything but Love

Luke zipped his coat and stepped onto the road, bracing for the frigid winds and Sam’s wrath. Spying several familiar faces, including his sister and Gram, peeking through the closed blinds of Moose-a-lotta, Luke groaned. Great. They had an audience. If things got ugly between the two cousins, the Cupcake Lovers would have a front-row seat. He wondered if Daisy had told Sam and everyone about running into Luke and Rae at the hospital. He could almost hear the conjecture and gossip buzzing in his ears. He could feel Rocky’s boot kicking his ass to the curb and out of the club for multiple reasons, but mostly for screwing over their poor widowed cousin.

Damn.

“I’m guessing this has to do with Rae,” Sam said, making the first play.

“I haven’t been entirely forthright,” Luke said while stuffing his gloved hands in his pockets. “All I can say is, it wasn’t intentional. I didn’t pursue Rae. I didn’t charm or seduce her. Hell, I didn’t even flirt. That first kiss, it went down like I said. Purely innocent. Then, because I was worried about her, I hired Jayce to track her.”

“You flew to Bel Air,” Sam surmised.

“I saw red when I found out who she was and how she’d betrayed us. There was a confrontation and an incident. I didn’t think I’d see her again. I sure as hell didn’t think there was anything between us.”

“But there is.”

“There is.” Luke rocked back on his heels, hunched his shoulders against the biting wind, and wondered if hell was going to freeze over before Sam reacted to the news.

The man just stared.

Most people crumbled under Sam’s famous death glare. But Luke was too primed. Too pissed. It wasn’t his fault that Rae had fallen for him and not Sam. He wasn’t a homewrecker. They’d never been a goddamned couple. “Are you gonna slug me?” Because Luke was suddenly itching to slug back.

“No. I’ll just wait.”

“For what?”

“For you to screw up.”

A haymaker would have hurt less. Luke had always looked up to Sam and before this thing with Rae, he’d been as tight with the man as any of his other cousins. And that was damned tight. The censure stung, but it also torqued Luke’s pride. “What if I don’t screw up, Sam? What if I make a commitment to Rae and follow through?”

“You don’t know jack shit about commitment, Luke.”

“What? Because I’ve never been engaged or married?”

“Hell, you’ve never even been monogamous.”

“You weren’t exactly a Boy Scout before you met Paula.”

“Are you saying you feel for Rae what I felt for my wife?”

“I’m saying we’re involved. Back off, Sam.”

The man warded him off with raised palms as if to say, done.

Luke didn’t believe that for one minute.

“You coming in for the rest of the meeting?” Sam asked. “We’re discussing key issues regarding the future of the club.”

“Pass.” The sooner he got back to Rae with that fortifying soup, the better.

“Yeah, well, some of us are actually invested in the cause.” Sam turned toward the café.

Luke frowned. “When did you turn into such a dick?”

“Around the same day as you.”

“Here he comes!” Rocky tagged Daisy on the shoulder and motioned everyone else away from the window.

“Do you think he knows we were watching?” Ethel asked.

“We weren’t exactly discreet,” Chloe said.

“Luke looked right at me,” Monica said.

“I wish we could have heard what they were saying,” Judy said.

Daisy snorted. “I told you to let me crack the door, but nooooh.”

Chloe shushed everyone as the bell above the door tinkled. They all flopped into chairs as Sam strode inside.

Rocky peered around her cousin, thinking her brother might follow. Even though he was a crappy baker he was still a Cupcake Lover until he resigned or they voted him out. Very few had ever been voted out. But Luke didn’t follow and Rocky worried that the rift between her brother and Sam was drifting toward alienation. That was all kinds of trouble and all kinds of wrong.

“Let’s get this out of the way so we can get on with business,” Sam said as he eased into a seat. “Luke and Rae are involved.”

“As in dating?” Helen asked.

“Something like that.”

Rocky didn’t gasp like the others. She’d had a heads-up from Rae. But she did tense. Poor Sam. She’d had a similar snafu. At one time she’d been sexually involved with Luke’s best friend Adam Brody. Then Jayce had reentered the picture. Triangles. Not pretty. One of the three usually ended up hurt. In her case Adam. In this case Sam.

“I knew it!” Daisy exclaimed. “I ran into them at the hospital. That is, I ran into Luke. He drove Rae to Pixley General. Apparently she got slammed with food poisoning.”

“Luke didn’t mention that part,” Sam said.

“I assume she’s okay,” Daisy said.

“Assume?” Rocky and Sam chimed as one then both thumbed in a text.

“So Rae and Luke are going steady?” Judy asked.

“I don’t think that phrase applies anymore,” Chloe said kindly. “More like they’re exclusive. I guess. I don’t really know.”

“It won’t last,” Monica said with a sympathetic glance at Sam.

“How can it?” Judy asked. “We’re talking about Luke.” She glanced at Daisy. “No offense.”

“I know my grandson,” Daisy said. “Big heart, wandering … you know.”

The women nodded. Sam nodded. Everyone knew about Luke and his wandering you-know-what.

“Can we get on with the meeting?” Sam glanced at his smart phone. “Rae’s all right by the way.”

“On the mend,” Rocky seconded as she read her own texted response from Rae.

“That’s a relief,” Daisy said.

The club broke out in assumptions and conjectures regarding Sugar Creek’s most unlikely couple. Rocky scrambled to take control. Usually she wasn’t so easily rattled, but this was family. “Granted this thing, whatever it is, between my brother and Rae is juicy stuff, but can we focus on business?”

“The publishing deal,” Chloe said. “I agree. Let’s wrap this up. Not to be rude, but it’s been a long day.”

“In other words, she wants to get home to my grandson,” Daisy said. “The responsible one. Ah, true love.”

Rocky didn’t doubt Chloe wanted to get home to Dev, but mostly she thought her kind-hearted future sister-in-law was desperate to end things so Sam could make his escape. That made two of them. “As I said before, Rae volunteered to use her socialite status and her mother’s fame to attract attention for the Cupcake Lovers.”

“If we do this,” Monica said, “we’ll be pulling the celebrity card. Which doesn’t make sense considering our small-town apple-pie identity.”

“It makes sense if we want attention,” Judy said.

“The goal is to raise awareness for soldiers in need of moral support,” Helen said.

“And to generate money for our various other charities,” Daisy said. “Why look a gift horse in the mouth?”

“Rae’s the gimmick we’re looking for,” Ethel added.

Leave it to the senior CLs to cut through the crap.

Meanwhile Sam said nothing, although he did catch Rocky’s eye. He thumbed something into his phone and then her phone pinged.

WE NEED TO TALK

Rocky frowned. About Rae and Luke? Rae and Sam? Rae and the Cupcake Lovers?

OK, she thumbed then garnered everyone’s attention. “So we’re going to fly with Rae’s offer. All I needed to know. I’ll touch base with her and the publisher tomorrow. Stay tuned.” Rocky glanced at Chloe, silently begging her help.

Hand on her pregnant belly, Chloe pushed to her feet with a smile. “Great. Good. Thanks for coming everyone. Not that I’m rushing you out, but I’m rushing you out. See you Thursday for our regular meeting!”

Within minutes everyone was in their cars except Sam and Rocky, who lingered curbside. “I don’t know what’s up with my brother,” she started.

“This isn’t about Luke,” Sam said. “It’s about Harper.”

“What about her?”

“I can’t work with her.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t like her.”

“I know she’s a little self-involved.”

“A little?”

“And obsessed with work.”

“Shallow work.”

Rocky gripped her cousin’s arm. “I’m desperate, Sam. I didn’t mention before, but Harper’s obsessed with that house. She wants it to be perfect, her ideal, except she’s doesn’t know what that is and everything I suggest falls flat.”

“Except for her bedroom.”

“Except for that.” Rocky shook off a chill that had nothing to do with the sub-zero temp. “For what it’s worth she dictated the look of that room, not me. The colors, the style. You recognized the era, right?”

“1940s. The Rothwell decade.”

“Kind of creepy, right?”

“A little.”

Rocky hadn’t said anything to anyone aside from Jayce. Even though Harper was eccentric, Rocky liked her. Plus she was a client. Gossiping about the woman’s longtime fascination with the Rothwell Farm seemed cheesy not to mention unethical. She said as much to Sam, following with, “I don’t think she’s nuts or anything. Just sensitive.”

“As in attuned to spirits?”

“As in a kind soul moved by another kind soul’s plight.”

“Kindred spirits,” Sam said.

“Harper’s known about the legend of the Rothwell Farm for a long time, Sam. I think she feels some sort of personal connection with Mary Rothwell. Not that she talks about it. I think she, Harper, is troubled, as in haunted by … something. I don’t know. She won’t talk about it. And that’s fine. I don’t mind dealing with her eccentricities, but I can’t deal now. Not a week before my wedding. Don’t bail on me, dammit. I know I owe you. Whatever. In spades and triple.”