Cinnamon and Spice Conundrum (Cinnamon Rolls and Pumpkin Spice)

Chapter 26

Ryan

When I get back to the cabin, I think over the mess I’ve made and how I’m going to fix it. Sinking down in one of the lumpy recliners, I stare around the room. This place has grown on me. The lone end table sporting a brass lamp, the scarred coffee table, and the ugly 1980s recliners give the place a cozy vibe. Even though everything is old, a little dusty, and outdated, I feel comfortable here. My luxury condo with its shiny finishes doesn’t seem nearly as enticing anymore.

“Hey buddy! Are you calling to tell me you and Sadie are engaged?” Sam teases the minute he answers my call.

Well, at least Sadie didn’t run home and call him. I thought maybe she would.

“No, quite to the contrary. We broke up,” I say with a long-suffering sigh.

“What? I thought things were going so well between you two.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose, feeling a headache forming between my eyes. “Victoria White recognized me and outed me as Ryan Turnbill right in front of Sadie.”

He grunts. “I thought you were going to tell Sadie the truth as to who you really are.”

“Obviously I never got around to it. With the festival, training a new employee, Agnes’s hip injury. .. ” My voice trails off; those excuses sound lame even to my own ears.

“Ryan, for being such a brilliant guy, you’re a doofus when it comes to relationships,” Sam chides. “You knew Sadie would react badly to your deception, so I don’t understand why, when you started having feelings for her, you didn’t come clean. Explain the situation with that eligible bachelor list and why you didn’t want anyone to know who you are.”

Sam’s comments sound reasonable. Why didn’t I admit to Sadie who I am? Did a part of me fear that she couldn’t love the billionaire Ryan and that she could only love the lowly assistant Jack? The guy who wears ugly cardigans, loves to fish, and drives a junker car?

“I was afraid she’d never love the real me, I guess,” I admit ruefully to my best friend.

Sam clicks his tongue, making a tsk-tsk sound. “She fell in love with Jack. Now you have to convince her that Ryan is Jack.”

His convoluted statement actually makes sense. If she fell in love with Jack, and other than the outward disguise I’m still him, isn’t she in love with Ryan?

“Thanks, man. That’s good advice,” I say.

Sam laughs. “Anytime. Now go fix this. I was looking forward to calling you my brother-in-law.”

I don’t sleep at all, tossing and turning the entire night. I thought it best to give Sadie the night to cool off, but I arrive at the bakery at six the next morning, ready to apologize profusely. I purchased a bouquet of somewhat wilted daisies, and I’ll get down on my knees and beg if I need to.

When I knock on the back door of the café, Judith peers through the window at me. Her scowl indicates that she’s clearly on Team Sadie, not Team Ja—, er, Team Ryan.

“I’m here to see Sadie,” I say through the glass.

“She doesn’t want to see you,” Judith replies, her voice muffled by the thick surface between us. She crosses her arms over her chest, looking every inch like a bodyguard. A puny bodyguard, but nonetheless, she looks ready to tackle me if I dare reach for the doorknob .

“Come on, Judith. How am I going to apologize and explain my actions if she won’t talk to me?” I hold up the flowers. Maybe those will appeal to Judith’s romantic nature.

There’s a slight waver in the single mom’s expression as she ponders my words and peers at the bouquet in my hand.

“This is all they had at the Pick and Save,” I explain, wishing I’d had the foresight to purchase something better at the Piney Florist last evening.

Her lips twitch, then return to a neutral expression. “Nope,” she says, firmly shaking her head. “Sadie’s not taking visitors who don’t tell the truth about who they really are.”

My hopes plummet. Judith stares at me for several more seconds, her stance not wavering.

Debating between leaving the wilted flowers or pitching them in the dumpster, I decide that a peace offering, any peace offering, might help sway the woman I love. “Please give these to Sadie,” I say as I lay the flowers on the stoop and walk away, feeling defeated. How do I get someone on my side? Sam’s on my side, but he’s in Denver. I need a local on Team Ryan. An idea hits and I drive off, energized to implement Plan B.

“So you lied to Sadie and all of us about who you are?” Wilbur asks in a gravelly voice as he glares at me over his mug of plain Folgers. I invited him over to the cabin under the pretense of having a cup of coffee and one of Sadie’s delicious blueberry muffins I baked a couple days ago. I’d hoped to sweeten him up and then ask for his help in convincing Sadie to listen to me.

“Um, well...” When he puts it like that, I sound like an evil villain.

“Do I call you Jack or Ryan?” he adds, still giving me a stink eye. Is he remembering those couple times I slipped up around him ?

Ignoring his question, I sigh. “My life was miserable after being named to Denver’s most eligible bachelor list,” I say with a pout.

Twirling his finger, he says, “Poor baby.”

Surprised by his unsympathetic attitude, I say, “I had women stalking me! Hiding out here seemed like the right thing to do.” My tone sounds desperate and whiny, which it is.

“And that meant hiding your identity from Sadie? You could have let her in on the skullduggery.”

My eyes widen at his colorful vocabulary. But he’s right. Why did Sam and I think we had to hide my identity from Sadie? In retrospect, that was an idiotic decision.

“You’re right. I should have told her. A part of me was embarrassed that I landed on that dang list and women were stalking me for my money. They didn’t want to get to know Ryan, they were only interested in my bank account. It made me want to pretend I was someone else, a sweet guy who doesn’t have much money, drives a crummy car, and wears out-of-date clothes.” A persona I started out hating, but now wish were the real me. Well, maybe not the crummy car and out-of-date clothes part, but the part where Sadie fell for me .

Honesty flows from my lips. For the first time, I examine my true motivation behind the incognito act. By stripping away all the fancy, pricey accessories, would a woman see me for the real me? The list was just an excuse. Even before the list came out, I always questioned whether a woman was dating me because she was interested in Ryan Turnbill or in the billionaire CEO and his money.

It was such a relief when Sadie saw me as Jack, Sam’s lowly assistant. There was absolutely no doubt that she fell for the real me, especially since she thought my bank account was almost as anemic as hers. She even talked to Sam about giving Jack, er, me a raise.

“Those cardigans were awful. You looked like my grandad.”

His comment breaks through my thoughts.

Fashion criticism coming from a seventy-year-old ?

“I got the inspiration from Sam’s real assistant Jack,” I say.

Wilbur’s bushy eyebrows hitch. “There’s a real guy named Jack?” He slaps his leg and howls with laughter. “Oh boy! This story just gets better and better.” A rare smile lights his whiskered face.

“Never mind,” I mutter.

He picks up his muffin, takes a huge bite, and chews, staring at me like I’m a puzzle. “What do you want from me?” Wilbur asks a few seconds later.

“I need help convincing Sadie to hear me out. She won’t even see me right now.”

He sips his coffee, his expression somewhere between a glare and a smirk. “You think this old curmudgeon can help you with matters of the heart, eh?”

I laugh. “With Judith acting as her bodyguard and fully on Team Sadie, I need someone on Team Ryan who can bend Sadie’s ear. Persuade her that I’m worth listening to.”

“What if I don’t wanna help?”

I figured he might say that, so I already have a Plan C. “My plan is then to enlist Georgeanne and Agnes.”

He snorts. “My experience is that women stick together like glue. I doubt you will get much help from either of them.”

I hadn’t considered that aspect. I really need Plan B to work. “Are you in?” I ask.

He nods, a glint of excitement in his eyes. “Yep. Let’s see if Stuart, Dilbert, and Julio will also join Team Ryan.”

I groan internally. What a motley crew. Stuart will be good for reciting facts and providing data. Dilbert is in love with Sadie, so he might want to sabotage my cause rather than support it. And Julio works for Sadie, a conflict of interest.

The old man sets his cup down with a loud plunk! and hops to his feet. I’ve never seen him move so fast. “You’ve got a lot to do! Tell the other guys we’re meeting at my place around six for a fish fry and to develop a battle plan.” He gives me a surprising fist bump and ambles off back to his place.

Slumping back into my chair, I finish my muffin and coffee. I give this plan a fifty-fifty chance of working, but I’ve got to give it a shot.