April hadn’t been to an early morning farmers’ market since she was in high school. Although, back then, she hadn’t gone on her own; her mom had always dragged her there, as if seeing everyone supporting the local economy would be some big learning experience. The market opened at eight a.m., and back then, April had been either angrily grumbling about being up so early or half-asleep during most of the perusing of stalls anyway.
This time, she went on her own. She’d been cramped up in her mom’s apartment for the last few days, a constant headache festering just behind her eyes from all the paint fumes. James had really given her the creeps, and with his unnerving warning floating around her mind, she’d opted not to do a whole lot of visiting. Instead, she worked on the apartment, caught up on some movies she’d meant to watch, and did a lot of reading.
But with her mom needing to spend the whole day at her boutiques, April had volunteered to do the grocery shopping—and where better to do that than at a fresh market? The farmers usually set up their stands at the south end of Main Street, taking over a parking lot to showcase their goods. When April got there that morning, the tents and tables had spilled out into the church lot across the street too, and it seemed these morning markets had become much more popular since her teen years. Reusable shopping bags tucked under her arm, she took a deep breath before slipping into the crowds.
Occasionally, someone she knew would stop her, usually friends of her mom, and they’d have the same boring chit-chat she had with most real-world functioning adults: ‘What are you doing these days?’ The loaded question always made her skin crawl, but April would give the fake smile she’d mastered over the years, nod along to whatever they were saying, and then slip out when convenient.
“Hey, stranger.”
Unfortunately, the one person she couldn’t evade quite as easily was the one person she was supposed to avoid—or else.
Even with her floppy hat and thick black sunglasses, Van had somehow picked her out of the crowd. While she wanted to skirt off and hide behind the zucchini stand, a part of her was curious as to why Van would be at a farmers’ market at nine in the morning anyway. He stuck out like a sore thumb. Most of the crowd, herself included, were dressed in spring pastels, but Van stuck to his jeans and tee, covered with a fitted leather jacket. She raised an eyebrow as he approached, a bag of lemons in one hand and one of limes in the other.
“Hi,” she offered, pulling her sunglasses off and setting them on top of her hat. He stopped within a foot of her, close enough that she caught of a whiff of his rich cologne, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up straight.
“Haven’t heard from you in a few days,” he said, his voice low as he held her gaze. She stared back, unwilling to be the first to look away. “Thought you’d run off.”
Again. She heard the implication—but chose to ignore it.
“I’m going to be honest…” She licked her lips, trying very hard not to let her gaze flicker down to his. Soft. She remembered them being soft. “This is the last place I would have ever expected to find you.”
“Is that why you’re here?”
She held up her bags, already full with fresh produce. “I’m doing the weekly shopping. Shockingly, my world doesn’t revolve around you, Van.”
He smirked, peering into the closest bag. As he commented on the size of the heads of lettuce she’d chosen, April felt her smile steadily falling. In the back of her mind, James’s words reared their ugly heads, roaring loudly, even louder still when she looked up at Van. The man set to marry her mom had issued a chilling warning, yes, but it was the same sort of warning she should have given herself. Her guard had fallen while they were painting, but that didn’t change the fact that Van was still the same bad boy he’d always been.
He worked at a bar! He probably had women falling all over themselves to get his attention on a nightly basis, and she had to assume that was the main reason he chose that line of work.
Shaking her head, she cleared her throat and looked away, forcing James’s threats out of her mind and instead focusing on everything she needed to get for the day. Apples. Oranges. Bananas. A few loaves of bread if they had any—her mom was going through them like crazy these days.
“April?”
“Sorry, what?” she stammered, suddenly realizing he’d actually been talking while she was deep in thought. He arched an eyebrow, nodding pointedly at her bags.
“I said those looked kind of heavy,” Van told her, as he shifted all of his bags to one hand. “I was wondering if you wanted me to carry one.”
“I think I can carry some vegetables around—but thanks.”
He smirked and reached for the bag anyway, tugging it out of her hand and sliding the straps over his broad shoulder. She bit the insides of her cheeks, keeping a snarl at bay—all the while acknowledging that the bag had been a little too heavy for her. How she was going to carry everything back to the apartment was beyond her, but she definitely should have considered taking the car.
Ahh, the curse of a small town. You feel guilty for driving anywhere because everything is within walking distance, and yet when it comes down to actually walking… you’d rather shove pins in your eyes than schlep everything around town.
“So, what’s next?” Van asked, his eyes wandering between the nearby stalls, squinting in the sunlight. April crossed her arms, suddenly noticing that a few people were watching them. Another curse of small town living: the gossip mill.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean,” he continued, shooting her a grin, “what else do you need to buy?”
“Why?”
“Because we’re shopping together now.”
April’s frown deepened. “Again… Why?”
Van exhaled deeply, as he readjusted the bag strap on his shoulder. She noted the way his jaw clenched, the muscle bulging along his jawline—something she’d always found sexy on a man. Swallowing hard, April averted her gaze, hoping to distract herself, but found everywhere she looked on Van was a distraction.
“Because we’re going to be… some weird… blended family soon,” he managed, the words seeming to come slowly to him, as if he hadn’t thought he needed to justify his reasons for spending time with her. “We should get on semi-decent terms.”
April almost asked why again, but then thought better of it. He was right after all. If her mom and his dad were set to tie the knot, they’d be spending all of their holidays together in the near future. Weekends away. Thanksgiving. New Years. She could still be friendly with him without actually getting too close. It was possible to keep James and her conscience happy. Just because the possibility of a tentative friendship was on the horizon didn’t mean she’d let her guard down.
“I need apples,” she said after a brief pause, Van’s gaze fixed on her, as she thought things over. “Green ones.”
“I saw some a few rows over.”
April let him lead the way, using his hulking figure to block out the sun a little. True to his word, Van led her straight to a woman’s stand with bushels of apples, and April was able to pick the handful she wanted. From there, they moved through the morning market, keeping their conversation safe, just like before. She talked about the merits of certain vegetables, though she was dying to chat with him about the market’s value from a business graduate’s perspective—the pros, the cons, the impact on the local economy. She’d been so buried in pointless retail drama since graduating that she hadn’t had time to exercise her brain, and this would have been the perfect opportunity.
But Van seemed busy either staring at her ass or the asses of other pretty women, and April quickly deduced that he wasn’t the type of guy to engage in a rousing business discussion anytime soon.
That wasn’t to say, however, that he lacked other appealing qualities. After taking her first bag, he refused to let her carry anything else that weighed over a couple of pounds, and by the time they were coming to the end of her list, he was overladen with her bags. Not once did he complain. Not once did she see a flicker of strain. He merely led her around the market, bringing her to whatever she needed without missing a beat.
“How do you know this place so well?” she asked finally, her curiosity getting the better of her. After all, no matter how natural he seemed there, a farmers’ market still struck her as the last place on Earth she’d ever find Van Palmer. He shrugged, his thick brown hair fluttering in the gentle breeze.
“I do most of the produce shopping for the bar,” he told her, and she nibbled her lower lip as she studied him, impressed. “We do an all-day lunch and app special Thursdays to Sundays, and I prefer to use local ingredients. It brings the customers in when you buy their product.”
“Huh.” She was sure it didn’t take much to bring the customers into a bar in a town like Cascade Falls. The town bustled with activity during the day, especially during the summer months, but there wasn’t much to do here at night. The movie theater had two screens and showed the “newest” releases for months on end, so the resort, restaurant, and bar industry had always flourished.
“You doing anything today?” Van asked, and without thinking, April shook her head. Aside from groceries and reorganizing an already organized apartment, her day was wide open. However, she quickly realized she’d given him an open, and she drew a breath to tell him a lie instead. The words fell flat when she saw him smiling, genuinely so. “Maybe after this we could—”
“April?” She turned away at the familiar voice, and her lips spread into a warm smile at the sight of Johnny Grissom. He hurried toward her, a plump golden retriever in tow, and set his bags down to hug her. “Oh my god! I didn’t know you were back in town!”
She hugged back, surprised at the outburst of affection. They’d been decent friends in high school, and, for a time, Johnny had been one of April’s school girl crushes. He was a year older, dashingly handsome, and had a reputation as the golden boy of his class back in the day. He hadn’t changed much with his strawberry-blond hair and dark blues eyes. Bulked up, yes, though he was starting to carry the beginnings of a small beer belly.
“Hi,” she said, laughing as they broke apart, his dog snuffling around her feet intrusively. “I… I didn’t really tell anyone. I’m just here to help my mom out.”
“Yeah, I heard she was getting married,” Johnny told her, nodding. His gaze then flicked over her shoulder, and his smile grew. “To this guy’s dad! How you doing, man? Family outing?”
He reached around her to shake Van’s hand, his free hand resting on April’s waist. She’d only just noticed it there, the pressure so light that she barely felt it—but Van was glaring daggers at it. Holding back a smile, April watched the two men shake hands, total opposites in appearances, each holding the other’s hand just a little too hard. Neither, it seemed, wanted to be the first to let go.
“What are you doing these days?” April asked, and she caught the flare of Van’s jaw again as the two men broke apart.
“Fighting fires,” Johnny replied with a nod. “You know… It’s a huge rush. What about you?”
“Oh, you know… This and that.”
They chatted for a few minutes, rehashing some of their lost time, and not once did Johnny remove his hand from her. By the time they said their farewells, his dog practically dragging him toward a meat stand and April promising she’d take up Johnny’s offer to go for drinks sometime, Van looked like he was about to hit the guy.
“Nice guy,” she said, hoping to add just a little extra salt to the wound before grabbing her bags again. Van followed her in silence, both of them headed for the exit of the market. By the time they’d reached Main Street, leaving the parking lot full of sellers and buyers behind, it seemed his mood have improved a little.
“Why don’t I carry these home?” he suggested, and while she knew she’d regret it, she shook her head.
“I can manage,” she insisted, dragging the bags away from him. He put up a bit of a fight at first, then he finally let her take everything. April hid a wince; all her groceries probably weighed as much as she did. When she caught him watching her, she cleared her throat and said, “I wanted to combine groceries with a workout, so… here we are.”
“I want to take you to lunch,” Van told her, as she struggled to find a way to comfortably carry everything. She let the statement sink in, and then she shook her head again—half-wondering if she’d regret that too.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
He didn’t ask her why she thought that. Instead, he reached into his wallet, produced a small card, and handed it to her. Against her better judgement, she took it and stuffed it in her pocket.
“Ladies drink free at the bar tomorrow before eleven,” he explained, and she felt a blush creeping across her cheeks. “I work from eight to one… You should drop by. Free drink.” He paused, perhaps sensing her hesitation, and then added, “Totally harmless.”
April almost laughed, and as she struggled on her walk home, the business card burning a hole in her pocket, she decided that while she always appreciated a free drink, nothing was ever harmless with a guy like Van.