Sweat drips down my spine as I stand in the middle of the small kitchen and add another twenty potatoes to the enormous pot of water boiling on the stove.

Lindsey Malburg looks over and grins. “Lucy, I really can’t thank you enough for pitching in. You’re a real-life saver.”

“Yeah, no problem,” I tell her.

I wasn’t like I had much choice. Suzie had woken me up early this morning with a panicked phone call, completely freaked out that the catering company she’d hired for the reception workforce had been hit by the flu bug. They told her that while they were happy to bring the food they’d prepared in advance, if they couldn’t find some extra hands to help out, some sacrifices would have to be made.

Suzie, knowing I like cooking, begged me to step in. And since Lindsey happens to be a good friend of mine, she agreed to let me into her kitchen. At least I’ll be getting paid for the hours I work alongside Lindsey. She’ll simply add the time I spend to the final bill when she gives it to Suzie. It’ll be the first time I’ve gotten a dime for all the extra work I’ve put into this wedding.

The potatoes temporarily taken care of, I turn my attention to the large piles of fresh cut-up vegetables that need to be put onto mini-skewers.

“So, anything new and exciting to report?” A giant cloud of hot steam fills the kitchen as Lindsay drains a large pot of pasta.

“Nope.” I slide a thin slice of tomato onto the first plastic skewer.

“Really?” Lindsay shoots a sideways glance at me over her shoulder. “The pictures I saw of you tell a very different story.”

My head snaps up. “What pictures?”

“The ones that showed up on my Facebook feed.” Lindsay lifts the strainer out of the sink and pours the bowtie pasta into a large bowl. “They were taken in Giuseppe’s parking lot. Kind of grainy and dark, but good enough to see that one Ryan Jakes had his tongue stuck down the throat of some woman. I didn’t see her name anywhere, but the coat the woman was wearing looked very familiar. In fact, it looks just like the one you showed up in this morning.”

“I saw them too,” Bea, Lindsay’s assistant, chimes in from the meat marinating station.

Heat floods my face.

“So, want to tell me how a quiet office manager at a medical facility manages to connect with a hometown hottie like Ryan Jakes?” Lindsay’s hands still and her expression dims. “Oh God. Please tell me he’s not in the throes of some deadly disease and one of Doctor Collins’ patients.”

“No. He’s not a patient,” I reassure her. I finish the first veggie skewer and start a second one.

“Thank God.” Lindsay breathes out a sigh and opens the dishwasher door. “Now spill.”

“He’s doing some promotional work for the hospital.” I stick to the story Ryan and I agreed on yesterday. I fill her in on the program and tell her all about Nathan.

“Oh, that poor boy.” Lindsay wipes at a tear. “I wonder if he’s in Jackson’s class.” In addition to running the most popular catering service in the county, Lindsay is also a fantastic single mother to an exuberant son, Jackson.

“I don’t know. He seemed too small, but that could be because he’s sick.”

Lindsay nods. “So is Ryan still into comic books?”

My head snaps up and I drop the skewer into the bowl of sliced tomatoes. “You know him?”

“I wouldn’t say that. More like I knew him,” Lindsay says. “He was…” She wrinkles her nose and thinks for a moment. “Two years ahead of me and one year behind my oldest brother, and we didn’t run in the same circles. He was a quiet kid, seemed nice enough, but didn’t talk much. Had a few close friends. When I was a sophomore, we took psych together. He sat two desks in front of me and was starting to turn really cute, so I spent more time staring at him than I did listening to the teacher.”

“It’s strange,” I tell her. “Even though I know he’s from around here, I have a hard time picturing him actually living here, of knowing people, having local friends.”

“Well it’s been a long time since he lived here,” Bea points out. “And honestly, if he hadn’t gone on to become a movie star, most of us probably would have forgotten about him.”

“Did you go to school with him?” I ask her, intrigued by what she might tell me.

Bea shakes her head, causing her dangling silver star earrings to ring. “Nope. I was out of school before he started. But once he started showing up in movies, I heard about him.” She shoots a side eye at Lindsay. “Remember how everyone claimed they were his best friend while he lived here, Linds?”

“Yep, and most of them were lying. A few of the people who really had been his friend, like Christian, called them on out on their BS.” Lindsay frowns. “The one thing that no one talks about out loud, but spends a ton of time speculating about in the privacy of their homes, is why he left town. One day he was here and the next day he was gone. No one heard anything about him until he popped up in a commercial for fizzy water.”

The front door’s buzzer rings, causing Lindsay to curse. “I knew I should have hung out the closed sign and left that damned door closed. If that’s a customer, I’ll wring their neck.” She removes her food-stained apron and marches out of the kitchen.

Bea shoots me a sly glance. “So, tell me. Is Ryan Jakes as good a kisser in real life as he is in the movies?” She transfers a dripping chicken breast to a baking pan and swoons theatrically. “Puh-lease tell me he is!”

I roll my eyes. “You and Lindsay are two of the nosiest people I know. And since when did you start paying attention to the way Ryan kisses? I thought you were all gaga over Chris Hemsworth?”

Bea smiles and shrugs. “There’s plenty of room in my fantasies for both of them.”

I laugh. The sound startles me. How long has it been since I felt relaxed enough to really enjoy myself, to have fun? “I’ve missed this.”

“What?” Bea asks.

“This kind of thing.” I stab the short skewer through a slice of green pepper. “Working with my hands. Talking to other women. You know what I’m talking about, right?”

“I think I do.” Bea slides the pan of marinated chicken into one of Lindsay’s enormous commercial ovens. “You know, there’s a way that you could get more girl time. Make it a regular part of your life.”

“How’s that?” I impale a piece of carrot.

“You could quit your job at the medical office and start working for Lindsay.”

“Give up my cushy office job so I can spend all of my nights and weekends behind a stove? I’m not sure that sounds like such a great exchange.”

“You might have a point, but you’d get to spend all those nights with me and Lindsay. Plus, you wouldn’t be working for the she-bitch from hell, Suzie Collins.” Bea shudders the way she always does when Suzie’s name is mentioned.

“Suzie’s not so bad. She’s just really stressed.”

Bea gapes at me. “’How can you say that? Not after the way that she’s dumped this entire wedding thing on you…” She slams the over door closed with more force than necessary.

I glance around the kitchen, taking in its state of organized chaos. “All of this is for Suzie’s wedding, so you’re working for her too.”

“Not the same thing,” Bea retorts. “And at least I get to go to the thing, well the reception at any rate, and everyone knows that’s the best part. Has Suzie bothered to invite you to this matrimonial disaster?”

“Well, no,” I reluctantly admit. It’s starting to feel like I’m the only person in the entire town who isn’t going to the wedding. “But that’s okay. While you’re schlepping drinks and appetizers to wedding guests, I’m going to be home, curled up with a good book.”

“I’d be more impressed if you told me you were planning on spending the time with Ryan Jakes, in bed, naked and burning up the sheets,” Bea says.

Just as I open my mouth to respond, Lindsay walks back into the kitchen. She shoots me a puzzled look. “Luce, you’ve got a visitor.”