Finding Love in Ivy Falls

Chapter Seven

TESSA

Keep It Simple

Fall was my favorite season. Once Halloween was over, there was a sudden bite to the air in Ivy Falls. Russet and gold leaves fell lazily from the trees. Instead of summer smells like lemonade and ice cream streaming out of stores, the air turned rich with the scent of brewing coffee and wood-burning stoves.

With Dad’s help, I’d applied for the loan for the coffee bar. It was easier than I expected, but one problem still thrummed in the back of my head. Before I could truly move ahead with changes for the store, there was an issue I had to resolve.

A car rolled through the town’s single stoplight as I walked past the antique store and around the square where Mrs Vanderpool was taking her regular rest from walking Baby, her Teacup Yorkie. She’d slowed down a bit over the last year, and I was glad to see she was still getting outside with her dog, who was more like a child than a pet.

You couldn’t walk past Sugar Rush and not pause to read the sign. Barb and Susan had won the town’s ‘The Sign Says It All’ competition for the last two years. Today’s read: A little bit spicy. A little bit sweet. Come inside for a tasty treat!

The scent of cooking dough and warm spices instantly drained the stress from my bones as I walked inside the café. My mother loved this place. The way the steel tables and peony-pink wallpaper made the space feel homey. How the domed glass cases were crammed with dozens of sweet treats. When Miss Pat owned the store, we came here with Mom every Saturday morning. She called it her ‘daughter time’, and Torran and I soaked up every minute with her.

‘Hey, Tessa!’ Piper greeted me from behind the counter.

Beck’s sister had endured a lot of trauma in her life, been to rehab several times, but somehow she’d moved to the other side of it. Settling down in Ivy Falls, taking the job here with Barb and Susan, even signing up for classes at the local community college. More than once at family dinners, she’d mentioned wanting to find a place of her own. Beck and Torran always objected, saying they enjoyed having her around the big, rambling house on Huckleberry Lane they now called home.

Piper’s gaze darted around me. ‘Where are the girls today?’

‘In school. They don’t get out until two.’

‘Oh, that’s right.’ She paused, and I knew that look. Thanks to the Ivy Falls gossip train, she’d heard about the break-in too.

‘Are Barb and Susan here?’ I said quickly.

‘Yep. They’re in the office squabbling over new tablecloths. Barb wants to order the same ones we already have. Susan wants to spruce things up a bit.’

Ever since Barb and Susan purchased the shop from Miss Pat, this had been an ongoing issue. Barb was a traditionalist. Said that people liked the way the café was now. That it shouldn’t be fixed if it wasn’t broken. Susan, on the other hand, had a vision for a new and shinier version of the café. Tablecloths were only the start of their squabbles.

This was a bad idea. They were busy. I’d come back another time.

‘Oh, okay. I shouldn’t interrupt.’

‘It’s not a problem,’ Piper chirped. ‘I’ll go get them.’

Before I could protest, she was weaving her way past the stainless steel ovens and walk-in refrigerator, stopping at an open door and poking her head inside. Less than a minute later, Barb appeared. This week her hair was the color of grape soda and piled high atop her head.

‘What’s going on, Tessa?’ Her eyes darted to the racks of treats cooling behind her. ‘I’ve got sugar cookies fresh out of the oven. Want to take some to the girls?’

‘Thanks, Barb. I appreciate you thinking about them.’

This was going to be a nightmare.

‘Uh, I was wondering…’ My throat went dry. Having this conversation with her and Susan was the last thing I wanted to do. What if they got angry about me building a coffee bar? Thought I was trying to take business away from them?

Since they’d come to Ivy Falls, they’d become an important part of the community. Their leftover pastries always went straight to the local food bank. On Sundays, they held dinners at their house for the older widowed folks in town like Mrs Vanderpool and Silvio from the hardware store. They never missed one of the girls’ soccer games, and they’d held viewing parties here for Torran and Manny’s show.

Barb quirked a thick penciled-in brow at me as she waited.

‘I was hoping you and Susan might have a minute to talk to me about an idea I have.’

Barb called to Susan, who walked out of the back office. Her black bob, sprinkled with flecks of silver, swayed against her shoulders.

‘Hey, Tessa!’ she crowed happily, her warm brown cheeks bunching up into a smile.

The knot in my gut twisted into a pretzel. Not the small ones in the chip aisle at Minnie’s Market, but a thick, twisty one like you bought at a Titans’ football game.

‘Can we talk at a table? Maybe one with a little privacy?’

They gave each other a weighted stare before moving to a quiet back corner of the café. Before our butts fully hit the seats, Barb said, ‘What’s wrong? Is it the girls? Did someone try to break into your house again? Are you locking your doors?’

Susan reached out and pressed her hand to Barb’s arm, covering her shiny mermaid tattoo. ‘Give her a minute, babe. She’ll tell us why she’s here.’

I clasped my hands in my lap. Took a solid breath. Mom always said the best way to ask for something was to keep it simple.

‘I know the gossip around here is fierce, and you both already know I’m having some financial troubles with the P&P.’

They kept their faces schooled like they didn’t know, but the tic in Susan’s cheek, and the way Barb’s lips thinned, gave them away.

‘Sadly, yes,’ Barb finally spoke. ‘What can we do to help?’

‘Well,’ I hedged. ‘I have a plan to generate more business, but it’s complicated.’

‘Oh, sweetheart, we’ll support whatever you want to do,’ Susan said sweetly.

‘I need to bring in more customers. Figure out another revenue stream. Manny and I were talking, and he offered to help build a coffee bar. I discussed it with my dad. He agreed that it might help get more people in the store.’

The color drained from Barb’s rouged cheeks, and Susan let out a conflicted squeak.

As if the entire café was listening, the room went pin-drop silent.

This was bad. I was an idiot. Why did I ever think they’d say it was okay?

Barb drummed her fingers on the tabletop. Susan looked at her shoes. She was about as good at conflict as I was.

‘It wouldn’t draw too much business away from here because I don’t open until ten, and you close around two.’ Even to my own ears, I sounded weak and desperate.

Barb stayed quiet, which made me all the more nervous because she had a comment for everything. She yelled at contractors when they walked muddy boots across the café floors. Wagged a finger at Silvio when he put too much sugar in his coffee, because she knew he was having issues with his health. More than once, she’d whispered not so quietly to Beck that he should get off his backside and ‘put a ring on it’ with Torran.

‘Well, uh, that’s uh, great, honey.’ Barb’s brittle tone said she thought it was anything but great. ‘Susan and I appreciate you discussing it with us.’

‘Your friendship means a lot to me, and I wanted to be honest about what I was planning.’

Barb gave a firm nod and pushed back from the table. ‘We’ve got more paperwork to go over in the office.’

Susan stood and hesitated. ‘Are you…’ She shoved her hands into the pockets of her carnation-pink apron. ‘Will you serve food too?’

‘No. Just coffee and maybe a few varieties of tea.’

‘Okay,’ she said quietly and followed Barb back to the kitchen.

I sank lower in my seat. Stares from the other tables flicked in my direction, and I swore I saw judgment in everyone’s eyes. This was a total mess. The coffee bar would never work if people in Ivy Falls didn’t accept it.

An out-of-towner moved into the square five years ago and set up a smoke shop. Mrs Vanderpool let everyone know through the town whisper network that she’d skewer anyone who went inside. The place lasted less than six months before it closed.

I pushed back from the table and raced out the door, swallowing down my tears.

It was times like these I needed my mother. The ache of losing her was still rooted so deep in my bones that the grief often made me lose my breath. I rushed down the sidewalk, not bothering to look where I was going, and slammed straight into a wall of hard muscle.

‘Hey.’ The low growl of a voice I’d know anywhere forced me to look up into stormy gray eyes. ‘Where are you headed like your tail is on fire?’

I sank deeper into Manny’s chest, not caring that I was blurring my boundaries with him again. I needed someone to hold me. Tell me that my life was not swirling straight down the toilet. That all my choices weren’t ruining my girls’ lives.

‘I’m going back to the store and hiding out for a while after the mess I just made of things.’

‘Mess?’ He pulled back and stared into my eyes. ‘What’s going on, Tess?’

Every time he said my name it sent a shot of warmth through my center. It was equal parts honey and gravel, and I could listen to him say it all day long.

‘I talked to Barb and Susan. Let them know I was planning to build the coffee bar. It wasn’t right to go ahead without telling them about it. How it might affect their business.’

‘And I take it from the way you’re buzzing through town, head hung low, it didn’t go well?’

My shoulders sank, and he gripped my hand and pulled me to a metal bench in front of the Dairy Dip.

‘It wasn’t like they argued about it,’ I gulped over the rawness in my throat. ‘They just looked hurt.’

Manny waited for a minute. Scrubbed a hand behind his neck. Kids sped by on their bikes and scooters. A few cars rumbled past the square.

‘No one can expect to be the only game in town,’ he said to soothe me. ‘We still have so many empty storefronts down here that it’d be easy for someone to come in and set up a competing shop. Even the Ivy Falls Inn serves breakfast, which takes business from Sugar Rush.

‘That’s different.’

‘How?’ He slid his hand over my face, pushing back a hair stuck to my cheek. We shared a gentle look that made my heart slow. How did he always know the right time to touch me so I could take a breath? Calm down.

‘Because the Ivy Falls Inn was here before Barb and Susan,’ I said softly. ‘Me, I’m sort of infringing on their business afterward.’

‘You caught them off guard, that’s all. Give them time to think it over. They want you to be a success. For all of Ivy Falls to thrive.’

‘I don’t know.’

He slid closer like he could sense my fear, my slow spiral into panic.

‘Tell me what else has you worried.’

‘Do you think my mother would be disappointed that I’ve messed things up so badly? That I even have to consider building a coffee bar?’

‘This town’s been floundering for a while, and you inherited a store caught in that storm. I’d say you’ve done a damn good job of running the P&P, all things considered.’

His steady stare was always a comfort to me. The voice of reason to my frenzied panic. These moments were why I couldn’t risk a relationship with him. What we had in this moment, our steady friendship, wasn’t something I could afford to lose. But still, when he looked at me with that sweet gaze, it was hard not to lean into him. Let him hold me until my heart beat out a steady rhythm again.

‘Let me walk you back to the store,’ he offered.

‘What are you doing down here anyway?’ I said, letting him pull me to my feet.

‘Silvio ordered a specific paint sample for the interior of the old Thomas Place, and I was headed to pick it up.’

‘Go take care of that. I can get back to the store on my own.’

‘Tess.’ He moved behind me and gently pressed his mitt-sized hands to my shoulders. Heat licked through me, and I reveled in it. It’d been so long since someone had really touched me. ‘Silvio can wait five minutes.’

He steered me across the brick-paved street, past the memorial fountain, and in the direction of the P&P on the corner.