“So I’ve noticed,” Ronnie said wryly. “And given the number of two-by-fours out back, I suppose I’m lucky you didn’t decide to get your message across literally. Are you going to relax and have fun now?”
“Absolutely,” she assured him. “But I think I’ll keep my eye on her, just the same.”
Ronnie cupped Dana Sue’s face in his hands and kissed her again. “Just one more to help you get the message,” he said when he released her. “You don’t need to worry about Mary Vaughn.”
“Maybe I should,” Dana Sue said, grinning. “Especially if it means you’ll keep on kissing me like that.”
“Darlin’, I’d do that anyway. Anytime, anyplace you’d like.”
The front door opened before she could reply, and Maddie and Cal came in, followed by Annie and Ty.
“We’ll finish this conversation later,” she told him. “Go say hi to your first customers. Cal could probably use some help buying tools to put together all that unassembled baby furniture he bought the other day. He decided his daughter needed more than a bassinet, and bought out the entire baby department at some fancy store over in Charleston.”
“You just want to brag to Maddie about putting Mary Vaughn in her place,” Ronnie teased in a low voice, before heading off to greet Cal.
“Well, of course I do,” she called after him. “What’s a victory if you can’t share it with your friends?”
Maddie frowned as she joined Dana Sue. “What are you gloating about?”
“Nothing I can talk about here,” Dana Sue told her with a pointed glance toward the back. “Could I show you some nails or bolts or something?”
“No, you can show me the food,” Maddie said. “You promised there would be food.”
Dana Sue laughed. “One of these days you’re going to regret this free-for-all eating you’re still doing. Nachos in the middle of the night, now this. At our age, the pounds don’t come off that easily. Besides, do you really want to give Helen and me this much of an edge in our contest? I’ll have you know I didn’t sample one little hors d’oeuvre that I made.”
“Good for you,” Maddie said serenely. “And don’t worry about me getting too far behind you and Helen in reaching my goals. I have every intention of behaving myself once I stop nursing the baby, but until then I am going to enjoy every mouthful.”
“What about our goals? Does Helen have any idea you’re secretly slacking off?”
Maddie looked vaguely uneasy. “No, which is one reason I need to get to the food now before she’s here to lecture me.”
“Then I recommend you start with the mini crab cakes,” Dana Sue advised. “Erik outdid himself with those. He insisted that the crab meat be flown in from our supplier in Maryland. Since it’s out of season, it cost an arm and a leg. They’ll be the first things to go.”
Maddie grabbed three and put them on a plate, then added a couple of cheese straws. “So, when is Helen supposed to get here?” she asked, glancing nervously toward the front door.
Dana Sue grinned. “Actually, you might want to sit down for this.”
Maddie regarded her with alarm. “What? Has something happened to her?”
“Not exactly,” Dana Sue said. “But she volunteered to help Erik in the kitchen at Sullivan’s today, since Karen called in with another emergency and I needed to be here.”
“And you let her?” Maddie asked incredulously.
“It was my idea, as a matter of fact,” Dana Sue said blithely. “It’s only for a few hours. How much damage can she do to the place’s reputation in that amount of time? Erik’s keeping a close eye on her.”
“But who’s keeping an eye on Erik to make sure he survives?” Maddie asked. “You know how Helen is. She’s even more of a control freak than you are. Doesn’t matter if she has a clue what she’s talking about. She’ll probably start telling him how he ought to do things, and who knows where that could lead? Murder? Mayhem?”
Dana Sue grinned. “I know. It kind of boggles the mind, doesn’t it?”
“And you’re okay with the potential for bloodshed?” Maddie asked.
“As long as they clean the place up before I get back there, I think it will be good for both of them to butt up against another immovable object.”
“Erik already has you for that,” Maddie reminded her. “This could be more than he can take.”
“Not a chance,” Dana Sue said calmly. “When it comes to a battle of wills between those two, my money’s on Erik.”
Maddie stared at her, suddenly looking suspicious. “What are you really up to, Dana Sue?”
“Not a thing,” she swore innocently. “Just making sure the restaurant’s covered for a couple of hours.”
If something else heated up in that kitchen, well, that would just be nature taking its course.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Since opening his store, Ronnie had been working night and day. He’d had no idea how time-consuming owning his own business would be, especially one that required him to get out and meet with developers several times a week. He did his best to schedule those meetings over dinner, so he could spend at least a little time with Dana Sue and Annie at the end of the day, but it didn’t always work out that way. Too often several days would pass without him catching so much as a glimpse of either of them. He began to wonder if he’d been a little too ambitious for his own good.
How was he going to prove anything to Dana Sue if he almost never crossed paths with her? Even Annie seemed to be losing patience with the number of times he’d had to cancel plans with her because of a last-minute business meeting with a potential client.
Serenity Hardware & Supplies had been open for three weeks and he was well ahead of his most ambitious projections, when Butch called on Tuesday to schedule a Friday-night dinner meeting with him at Dana Sue’s restaurant.
“I know Christmas
