Welcome to the Chocolate Therapist.” Kate greeted the older couple with the same enthusiasm as she had greeted every other couple and family group and friend group that had walked through the doors for the last nine hours.
Her feet, which were stuffed into her favorite pair of black Manolo Blahniks, ached like a mother, but even the pain couldn’t dim the excitement of day four in her new life. All within less than a week of the big falling out with Jaden, she’d managed to fly home, pack up her apartment, and say farewell to everyone before she’d driven straight back to Topaz Falls.
When she’d driven into town, the sun was setting over the mountains in a fiery red welcome. So far it felt like this place had always been her home. Even with long days of learning the wine and chocolate business, the shininess of her new venture still hadn’t dulled.
“Would you like a table?” she asked the couple, gracefully withdrawing two menus from the hostess stand. “Or would you prefer to sit at the bar?”
Darla appeared behind her. “I can take over, Kate. Your shift was over a half hour ago.”
“That’s okay. I’m having so much fun.” Even with achy, swollen feet, this was better than going back to her room at the Hidden Gem to spend the evening by herself. Despite the homey decorations, loneliness echoed between the walls.
“All right.” Darla drifted back to the bar. “But at least sit down after they’re seated.”
Ignoring her friend, she turned back to the elderly couple.
“We would love a table near the windows, dear.” The woman appeared to be in her early seventies with white wispy hair and jewel-like blue eyes.
Her husband was a head shorter than her and just as adorable with a rim of frizzy gray hair around a shiny bald spot. “There’s something going on down the street, and we’d like to see how it turns out.”
“Of course,” Kate sang. “Right this way.” Ignoring the pinch in her toes, she led them to a quaint table for two that looked out on Main Street. Darla had been right. She was good at this. Good with people. They always smiled at her, and even though she’d only been working here for a few days, she’d managed to defuse three grumpy patrons’ complaints and had them all smiling and laughing again within a matter of minutes.
“Here we are.” She tucked the menus under her arm and pulled out each chair with a charming smile, patiently waiting until the couple had gotten situated before she handed them the wine and chocolate list.
Instead of opening his menu, the man craned his neck as though trying to see down the street. “Any idea why all that trash is piled onto the car out there?”
“It’s not trash, Gerald,” his wife corrected. “It’s sweet. There are flowers and streamers and balloons…”
Kate choked on a gasp. Flowers. Streamers. Balloons. On a car…
She tried to keep her hopes smothered under practical logic, which had never been one of her strengths. Jaden hadn’t returned any of her emails or calls. After a few days, she’d stopped trying.
“It’s so pretty,” the woman went on. “I saw the man fixing it all up nice. He was tying heart-shaped balloons to the door handles, the sweetheart.”
Sweet Lord…
Those darn hopes threw logic to the wind and sent her heart sky-high. Bracing her hands on the table, Kate leaned forward as far as she could without bumping her forehead on the glass. Each beat of her heart thumped harder when she looked down the block to where she’d parked her car earlier. Sure enough, it was covered.
“Oh my God.” It had to be him. No one else around here knew that story.
“Um…your waiter will be right with him…I mean you,” Kate stammered to the couple. The happiness burning in her eyes made her voice all weepy. She steadied herself against their table once more and pulled off her shoes, letting them dangle from one hand as she hurried toward the door.
“Are you all right, honey?” the woman called.
“I will be.” As soon as she saw him—as soon as she felt his arms wrap around her—she would be. Kate ran down the sidewalk barefoot, her pencil skirt surely making her resemble a waddling penguin, but she didn’t care. It was such a lovely sight, her car covered in orange. There were gerbera daisies and orange hearts cut out of construction paper, and yes, even heart-shaped balloons. But she couldn’t see the front yet. Would Jaden be there? Had he really forgiven her?
“Pardon me,” she mumbled, bumping her way past people.
When she finally broke through the crowd that had gathered, her knees gave. Jaden was sitting on the hood of her car with the stem of an orange gerbera daisy between his teeth.
“Look at you…” She stumbled off the curb, nearly incapacitated by the tears and laughter, sure that the happiness of this moment could fill a whole lifetime.
“Hey, gorgeous.” He somehow managed to annunciate perfectly, even with the daisy in his mouth.
The crowd around them grew, pressing in on both sides of the street. Both locals and tourists snapped pictures and selfies on their phones. He hadn’t tried to disguise himself. No hat. No sunglasses. Just J.J. Alexander sitting on the hood of her car. None of the attention seemed to bother him, though. He stared steadily at her as she crept closer. “What’re you doing?”
“I’m asking you on a date.” He took the flower out of his mouth and dropped it on the hood and then reached for her hand. “Kate Livingston, will you go on a date with me?”
“Hell yes, she will,” Darla called from behind her. “How about right now? We can set up a nice private table in the back.”
Murmurs of approval went around the crowd. Someone even clapped.
Kate shushed everyone with a frantic wave of her hand. This moment was a scene straight out of her dreams, and she didn’t want anyone to intrude.
“I’m sorry I was such an ass.” He eased off the hood and stood across from her. “I’m sorry I didn’t hear you out. I’m sorry I ripped up your article.”
“Awww. I’ll go on a date with you,” some woman yelled from the other side of the street.
“No.” Kate put her hands on his broad shoulders to make sure this was really happening. “I mean yes. Of course I’ll go on a date with you.”
Jaden lowered his face to hers, her favorite grin in the entire world flickering on his lips. “Now?”
“Now,” she confirmed.
The crowds parted. Cell phone cameras followed their every move as they huddled together and hurried back to the Chocolate Therapist, ducking through the doors so they could leave the rest of the world behind.
“Back here, you two.” Darla quickly ushered them down the hall to the room where they met for book club. She’d already had the waitstaff drag in a small round table, two chairs, and a vase with a single orange gerbera daisy she must’ve swiped from the car.
God, these women. They had the best and biggest and brightest hearts she’d ever seen. “Thank you.” Kate brushed away her tears as Darla gave her a wink and disappeared, closing the door firmly behind her.
They both sat down.
“You’re crying.” Jaden took her cheeks in his hands, using his thumbs to wipe away the tears.
“You humiliated yourself out there.” All for her. “That’ll be all over the news by tonight.” People were probably tweeting and Instagraming and Facebooking the pictures right now.
“I don’t care.” Something had changed on Jaden’s face. The day she’d met him, it had borne the lines of tension and stress, but now his features seemed softer. Relaxed. “I’m tired of caring what everyone else thinks. Except you.” He slipped his hand under hers and held on. “You were right. There is something between us. Something…special. Something I’ve never had with anyone else.”
Kate closed her eyes, letting those words soak in to heal all of the wounds he’d inflicted before. She looked at him again, wanting him to cut away that last bit of uncertainty that still dangled from her heart. “What changed?” she whispered. “You were so angry…”
“Yeah.” A sigh slipped out. “Levi pretty much put me in my place. Told me I’d better get my head out of my ass and figure things out before I lost you for good.”
“Levi, huh?” She smiled, thinking back to Jessa and Naomi’s secret little side conversation at Everly’s café the day she’d told them what had happened.
“Yeah, Levi.” His smirk confirmed her suspicions. “He reminded me that I had issues to work on too. So I went to see Kipp.”
Kate tightened her grip on his hand. “That must’ve been hard. How is he?”
“Still in rehab.” Jaden threaded his fingers with hers, and the power of it, the intimacy of that gesture, heated her eyes again.
“But I spent the afternoon with him. He’s exceeding the doctor’s expectations. He’s even taken a few steps with a walker.”
“That’s great news.” For Kipp and for Jaden. No wonder his appearance had changed so much. He’d been set free.
“I read the article too. Actually, Levi read it to me.” Jaden brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles, sending an electrical charge all the way down to her toes.
“I’m sorry I betrayed your trust.” She’d been waiting to say those words for over a week, but before now, something told her they wouldn’t have done any good. “I should’ve told you. Right away. But I was afraid you’d keep me out. And I loved being with you.”
“I loved being with you too,” he murmured, leaning over the table until his lips were nearly touching hers. “I think that’s why I lost it when I found out about the article. It was an excuse to bail. I figured you’d turn out to be like everyone else.” His gaze shied away from hers. “I haven’t exactly had much commitment in my life.”
She kissed him, hopefully taking away any lingering doubts about her feelings for him. “I meant everything I said in the article.”
This time his eyes stayed steady on hers. “I know.”
“Levi said you were thinking about moving away.” God, when she’d heard that, she’d had to excuse herself so she could cry in the bathroom.
“I was seriously considering it,” Jaden said. “Until he reminded me it wouldn’t help. I want to stop hiding. I want to make you happy. I want to focus on the future instead of the past.”
She rested her forehead against his. “Me too.”
Just as his lips brushed hers, the door swung open.
“Don’t mind us.” Darla traipsed in, followed by Everly and Jessa and Naomi, all carrying something different. They set down truffles and a bottle of wine and glasses and small china plates.
“Carry on,” Everly said, herding the others toward the door.
“Those truffles are strawberry-filled dark,” Darla called, fighting Everly’s hold on her.
“The perfect aphrodisiac,” Jessa added before Everly shoved her outside.
“Happy date night!” Naomi said with a sly grin.
Shaking her head, Everly waved at Kate and Jaden once more before closing the door.
Jaden laughed. If she could bottle up that deep throaty sound and listen to it every night before bed, she totally would.
“Levi wasn’t kidding about their persistence.”
She leaned in to claim the kiss she’d never stop craving. “Sometimes true love takes a village,” Kate murmured against his lips.
And they seemed to have found theirs.