His homecoming is bittersweet...for both of them

Café owner Maddie Strong is finally ready to take her burgeoning cupcake business to the next level. With the help of handsome businessman Alex Perkins, her future’s all mapped out. Until her first love comes home.

At seventeen, Maddie adored Nate Barzonni with her whole heart and soul. But when he asked her to elope, she’d said no—she couldn’t let him throw away his dream of becoming a doctor. Then he vanished from her life for eleven years. Now the cardiac surgeon has returned to Indian Lake asking for a second chance, and Maddie has to choose between her new life…and the man she never stopped loving.

Maddie stared. Then she blinked. Twice.

At first, she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. She peered into the darkening day.

There, underneath the black wrought-iron Victorian street lamp, the evening fog drifting along the sidewalk, stood Nate Barzonni. He looked directly at her, and when their eyes locked, he smiled.

Her heart thrummed in her chest and blood pounded at her temples. She felt dizzy.

In the eleven years since Nate had abandoned her, Maddie had not had a single boyfriend. She had dated a few men here and there, but all her energy had gone into her business. She had convinced herself that she was strong and willful, that she owned her own power. She purposefully fanned and fueled the fire of her anger against Nate to mask even the tiniest possibility that she still had any feelings for him. For eleven years, Maddie had told her friends over and over that Nate Barzonni was the devil to her.

There was no way Nate was actually standing outside Bride’s Corner. No way. Maddie closed her eyes and opened them again.

Nate was gone.

Dear Reader,

The inspiration for my Shores of Indian Lake series came right out of my own life when I returned to my hometown after thirty-five years of living in big cities like New Orleans, Houston, Los Angeles and Scottsdale, Arizona.

It has been a revelation to me that the lives of those in small towns are filled with just as much pathos, romance, chaos and eternal struggle as people in glamorous cities.

The Shores of Indian Lake series is filled with endearing, haunting and oftentimes seemingly eccentric characters who will steal your heart. Heart’s Desire is the second book in the series. In this story, Maddie Strong is faced with impossible choices with regards to her own career dreams when her first love, Nate Barzonni, returns to Indian Lake, in pursuit of his own long-held dream of being a cardiologist and dedicating his services to those most in need. Nate finds himself face-to-face with the one woman he’d left brokenhearted…and very angry.

I would love to hear from you and what kind of story you would like to read about along the Shores of Indian Lake. You can write to me at cathlanigan1@gmail.com or visit my website at www.catherinelanigan.com. I’m on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well.

Catherine

Heart’s Desire

Catherine Lanigan

www.millsandboon.co.uk

CATHERINE LANIGAN

knew she was born to storytelling at a very young age when she told stories to her younger brothers and sister to entertain them. After years of encouragement from family and high school teachers, Catherine was shocked and brokenhearted when her freshman college creative writing professor told her that she “had no writing talent whatsoever” and that she “would never earn a dime as a writer.” He promised her that he would be her crutches and get her through his demanding class with a B grade so as not to destroy her high grade point average too much, if Catherine would promise never to write again. Catherine assumed he was the voice of authority and gave in to the bargain.

For fourteen years she did not write until she was encouraged by a television journalist to give her dream a shot. She wrote a six-hundred-page historical romantic spy-thriller set against World War I. The journalist sent the manuscript to his agent who then garnered bids from two publishers. That was nearly forty published novels, nonfiction books and anthologies ago.

MILLS & BOON

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This book is dedicated to my granddaughter, Caylin Pieszchala, whom I love with all my heart. It is my fondest wish that you have happiness, love and laughter all of your life, my darling.

Acknowledgments

There are some who would say I live under a lucky star, but I know better. It takes a choir of angels and then some to bring any novel to the readers who patiently wait for authors to pound out a story that will come alive for them and haunt them long after the cover is closed and it collects dust on a shelf.

I have been blessed for decades with exceptionally talented editors and publishing mentors. From my first Harlequin MIRA books that were honed and polished by Dianne Moggy and others on her team to my present editors and master wordsmiths, Victoria Curran and Claire Caldwell. Ladies all, it is my honor to bang our heads together, cut, slice, dice and chop my oftentimes cumbersome manuscripts into the magical romances I intended them to be. I am forever grateful.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

Acknowledgments

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

THE FEBRUARY FOG rolled across the frozen flats of Indian Lake and curled long, diaphanous fingers around the pines and maples at the water’s edge. Canadian geese flew in V-formations across the slate sky above, honking at no particular inhabitants below. There was no wind to rattle the winter-bare branches of the shrubs and neglected rosebushes around the Pine Tree Lodges of Indian Lake, and few tourists were out and about in the dark predawn hours.

Inside Cupcakes and Coffee Cafe, strings of red Valentine lights and glittering silver beads hugged the ceiling in a mock drape, reflecting happy red light into every cranny. Aromas of sugar, butter and freshly ground coffee beans mingled with the clanging of dozens of baking trays being tossed in and out of ovens.

Maddie Strong shouted instructions to her staff of one, twenty-one-year-old Chloe Knowland. Three of Maddie’s closest friends were also on board to help with her Valentine’s Day cupcake orders.

“Next year, I’ll know better than to agree to this insane torture,” Sarah Jensen said, laughing as she slung back the last smidge of Maddie’s special-brew latte. She hoisted two full trays of iced cupcakes onto an empty table marked New Buffalo, then reached for a yellow legal pad to record the details of the order. She counted twenty-four double-chocolate cupcakes with pink peppermint icing, forty-eight vanilla cupcakes with white whipped-cream icing, each topped with a red marzipan heart, and thirty-six red velvet cupcakes with white cooked-flour frosting. Sarah marked off the inventory and looked around for some bakery boxes.

“Torture is a bit strong, don’t you think, sweetie?” Maddie retorted, winking at her best friend. She yanked a very full pastry bag from a stainless-steel rack and placed a fine-point pipe on the end and secured it. The bag was filled with her new recipe for vanilla-bean whipped-buttercream filling. She stuck the pipe into the centers of several double-fudge cupcakes, which she had previously cored out, and squeezed the bag.

“It would be fine if I didn’t have to get up at 4:00 a.m.!” Sarah shouted above the latest cacophony as Isabelle Hawks dropped a stack of aluminum muffin tins on the floor.

“Sorry,” Isabelle said, whisking her dark hair away from her startlingly pretty face. She quickly gathered the muffin tins. “I’m just all thumbs today. Not enough sleep,” she said, endorsing Sarah’s comment.

“Maddie, you do know we make these sacrifices for you because we love you,” Sarah said, flashing a grin at Isabelle.

“It’s either that or you’re expecting a free cupcake out of the deal,” Maddie replied, keeping a critical eye on her work.

“I’ll take the free cupcake,” Liz Crenshaw said offhandedly as she stuck bottles of her grandfather’s new white-grape ice wine into Valentine’s baskets that already contained cupcakes and bags of Maddie’s blend of Colombian and Middle Eastern coffee beans.

Sarah tapped her cheek with her finger. “In that case, I need at least a half a dozen cupcakes. There’s Luke, Annie, Timmy, Mrs. Beabots, me and Beau, of course...”

Maddie froze and shot her best friend a horrified look. “Beau? No way your dog gets one of my gourmet creations!”

“He loves them!” Sarah grinned, keeping her eyes on Maddie’s piping bag. “Squirt a little extra cream into Beau’s cupcake. He adores that stuff.”

In mock horror, Maddie shook the piping bag at Sarah. “That dog has excellent taste. He gets a double blast.”

Sarah carefully arranged a grouping of pineapple-and-coconut cupcakes with coconut-cream frosting onto a round tray and marked it for delivery to the Pine Tree Lodges of Indian Lake. She looked quizzically at Isabelle, who had just been promoted to assistant director at the lodges. “Edgar only wants two dozen cupcakes? I would think the lodges would be booked up for months for Valentine’s dinner.”

“We are,” Isabelle answered confidently and in a somewhat smug tone. “Edgar didn’t like the idea of opening the lodges just for one night when we’re normally closed all winter. But thanks to my online winter ad campaign and the raffle for a free weekend at the lodges, even the cabins are completely booked. Truth is, I took an entire vanful of cupcakes out there last night.”

“Yeah,” Maddie said, waving her piping bag triumphantly. “We just had to make the coconut cupcakes at the last minute so they stay very fresh. I grated the coconut just an hour ago. Nothing but the best for our Isabelle. Aaaannnd,” Maddie said dramatically, piping a huge swirl of peony-pink icing onto an oversize strawberry cupcake. “Edgar Clayton is probably my most loyal customer ever.” She finished the cupcake with a flourish, then licked an errant glob of icing off her wrist.

“Having worked for Edgar for seven years,” Isabelle said, “I have to say that ‘loyal’ defines him quite well. He’s always been diligent about distributing Maddie’s business cards to tourists.”

“Word of mouth. My kind of magic.” Maddie said, never taking her eyes off the pearlized sugar spray she used to decorate the next order. “That, and unique product ideas,” she added.

Sarah finished her inventory and handed the list to Maddie. “Just how many recipes have you patented now?”

“Twenty. And at two grand a pop for legal fees, I haven’t been able to go shopping or on vacation for three years. But, it’s all been worth it.”

Maddie looked just past Sarah. Next to the register was a three-foot-high, perilously thin, black glass vase. Streaming out of the top of the vase were jungle-red anthurium flowers, green palms and white orchids. They were from Alex Perkins, of Chicago’s esteemed investment firm Ashton and Marsh. Sarah’s uncle, George Regeski, had helped Maddie prepare a business plan for franchising her “made-on-the-spot cupcakes and Italian café” concept last year. George had scoured his network of investment firms and had finally found some interest at Ashton and Marsh. Their initial response was lukewarm, but they were willing to “take a meeting,” Uncle George had told Maddie last November.

Since then, Maddie’s nerves had been on overload. She had worked ceaselessly since high school graduation for this one opportunity to prove to herself that she was accomplished. This was her blue ribbon; her Oscar.

Because Maddie was the only child of a single mother, Babs Strong, who worked in a bread-manufacturing plant, Maddie hadn’t had the money or means to go to college. But no one was more passionate about acquiring a business degree than Maddie.

Maddie had learned accounting and business management by copying the reading lists of the required classes her wealthier friends took in college. She read all the same materials and texts they did. It was her bet that on any given day, she was on an even par with the best of them.

It was Sarah’s mother, Ann Marie, who’d seen Maddie’s business potential and believed in her café-and-cupcake vision right from its conception. Ann Marie had gone to Austin Carlson McCreary, by far the wealthiest man in town, and asked him to be an “angel investor” in Maddie’s café. Austin, twenty-eight years old at the time and a near recluse, agreed to put up a small amount of working capital for Maddie, but only because he respected Ann Marie and her judgment.

Maddie’s café was a hit from the day the doors first opened. She worked fourteen hours a day and repaid the twenty-five thousand Austin had loaned her in less than three years. Because Austin never asked for interest or a dividend, Maddie was only too happy to fulfill his one eccentric request. Every Friday at eight in the morning, Maddie was to hand-deliver a box of seven assorted cupcakes to Austin’s front door. Maddie never missed a Friday.

After ten years in business, Maddie was about to take her first step toward her ultimate goal. She was working with Alex Perkins on franchising her café. There were hundreds of ifs between this moment and the actuality of a dozen Cupcakes and Coffee Cafés opening across the Midwest. Maddie had always believed in her dream. If she didn’t dream it, it would never happen. And she intended to make all her dreams come true.

Maddie stared at the expensive bouquet, which Alex had sent several days ago, and which she’d almost been too busy to notice, though Chloe and her girlfriends certainly had. Gazing at the spectacular flowers, she wondered why Alex would send her such an ostentatious gift. They were only business associates. She was his client, that was all. Wasn’t it?

“Are you listening to me, Maddie?” Sarah asked.

“Sorry,” Maddie said, wiping her hand on her bright red-and-white-striped apron. “Could you repeat that?”

Sarah’s eyebrow cocked inquisitively. “I said that Chicago investment firms certainly treat their clients well. That’s some pretty good PR.”

“Yeah.” Maddie smoothed her short, highlighted blond hair around her ears with her palm. “It makes me nervous,” she admitted.

“Why?”

“Is Alex sending me these flowers because he’s found an investor and he knows something I don’t, or because he can’t find anyone for my franchise? Or is it because he likes me more than he’s letting on?”

Shrugging her shoulders, Sarah asked, “Either one sounds like a winner to me. Doesn’t it to you?”

“Sure. I guess,” Maddie said. She whirled to look at the clock over the counter. “I gotta get. So do you,” she told Sarah.

“Right. I still have to run home and take Beau out for one last potty break before my big presentation for Charmaine.” She picked up two boxes of cupcakes. “I’ll put these in your car for you, Maddie. Are you taking them up to New Buffalo right away?”

“It’s first on my delivery list,” Maddie said. “You guys have been a great help to me today. I can’t thank you enough.”

“I was just teasing about the torture,” Sarah said, going to Maddie and kissing her cheek. “Keys, please.”

Maddie dug around in her jeans pocket and pulled out her car keys. “Pop the side doors in back and put the cupcakes on the driver’s side. I’ll bring out the rest of the order. Good luck with Charmaine.”

Isabelle gazed at Sarah with what looked like hero worship in her eyes. “Is it wonderful, Sarah? Your new project?”

“More than wonderful. I can’t tell you about it. Not yet, anyway. The owner wants everything kept under wraps until we get a go from the city council. But it’s exciting.”

Maddie withdrew another bakery box of cupcakes from under the counter and held them out for Sarah. “I put this together last night when Isabelle and I were working. I made Luke’s favorite lemon cake with lemon-flavored cooked icing. Dutch chocolate for Annie. Double devil’s food for Timmy. Carrot cake and cream-cheese icing for you, and of course, Beau’s cream-filled vanilla cupcake.”

Sarah smiled broadly. “This is very sweet of you.”

“Hey, you’re the generous one, giving me your time and energy when I know you probably should have been putting the final touches on your drawings.”

Sarah looked at Maddie with genuine gratitude and an air of conviction that Maddie had always admired in her friend, even when they were in high school. For a while last year, after Sarah’s mother died, that conviction, the abundant, sparkling hopefulness that Sarah shared with everyone in town, had faded under the storm of grief and loss. To lose one’s mother was always difficult, but to lose a person like Ann Marie Jensen, whose kindness was nearly legendary and whose lifelong dedication to the town had left not just a mark, but a swath of beautification, creativity and civic improvement, was almost insurmountable.

But since Sarah’s engagement to Luke Bosworth, she had come back to life, and her effervescent spirit was bubbling over with enthusiasm.

“This time my drawings are nearly perfect,” Sarah reassured her. “I’m totally confident about this presentation.”

Maddie beamed. “That’s great to hear, Sarah.” This was her friend’s first project since her boss, interior designer Charmaine Chalmers, had laid her off a year ago.

“I’m in such a different place than I was last year at this time. When I look back at the work I did then, I don’t blame Charmaine for kicking me to the curb. Thank goodness it was only temporary.”

Maddie followed Sarah to the door. “You had lost both your parents in a very short period of time. You left Indianapolis and that great architecture job. It was a lot of change. Too much change in a couple short years. Then taking care of your mother before she died. That’s heartbreaking and physically exhausting. But you’re an inspiration to us all. Like the ‘comeback kid,’ Sarah. I’m so happy for you.”

The two women walked over to Maddie’s black Yukon, which served as her delivery van. Maddie had emblazoned both sides of her SUV with her phone number, website, email, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter accounts in gold lettering. Sarah put the boxes in the back end of the SUV. “Speaking of mothers,” she said. “How is your mom?”

“We don’t speak. You know that. She lives her life with her cigarettes and television reruns and I push for my dreams. Two different universes.” Maddie shrugged her shoulders flippantly. “Doesn’t matter.”

“It’s just sad, is all,” Sarah said.

“Not really. Your mother was more of a real mother to me than Babs, whose biggest regret is that she gave birth to me. Babs will be bitter till the day she dies because my father had already picked out a new girlfriend before she even told him she was pregnant. She blames him and me for the fact that she never finished high school. She should have stuck to cheerleading and she knows it.”

Sarah squinted accusingly at Maddie. “The real truth is that your mother has been jealous of you since you were in a training bra.”

“Check.” Maddie nodded. “She thinks I’m too entrepreneurial, not that she could spell or define it. And the she hates the fact that I’m perfectly happy without a rich husband who would pay her bills so she could sit around and smoke more cigarettes and watch more innocuous television.”

“I guess it really is best you don’t see her much.”

“It took me a long time to face the fact that my mother just doesn’t like me. Enlightenment is knowing when to let go. I let go of her a long time ago, Sarah.” Maddie hugged Sarah quickly. “Beat it, or you’ll be late.”

“Deal,” Sarah said and rushed off to her car. “Don’t forget, we’re meeting at four-thirty at Bride’s Corner to choose my wedding dress!”

“It’s burned into my brain!” Maddie waved as Sarah got into her Envoy and drove off. Maddie turned her attention to the red sandstone of the clock tower on the county courthouse as the dawn rays struck the beveled-glass windows.

“Valentine’s Day,” Maddie whispered. “A moneymaker day.” She smiled, then felt her smile drop off her face like icing off a cake when it’s been sitting in the sun too long. For the first time in over a decade, Maddie remembered that Valentine’s Day was a day for love.

She’d received beautiful flowers a few days ago, which was a first for her. Alex had even called her last night to make certain they’d arrived.

“Hey, beautiful. Happy Valentine’s Day tomorrow,” he’d said, his voice filled with anticipation. He spoke in a sultry baritone she’d never heard during their office meetings. Their conversations had always been about profits, projected earnings and potentials.

“They’re just gorgeous,” she’d gushed. “So exotic. Especially for this time of year.”

“I like unusual and unexpected things. Were you surprised?”

“Very. I couldn’t figure out who would be sending me flowers.”

“Ah. That’s good,” he said. “I wanted you to have something special while I was away...” His voice trailed off as if there was something else he was going to say before he thought better of it.

So I don’t forget you? Is that what you were going to say, Alex?

“You’re going away?”

“To Dubai. For three weeks,” he’d said, as if in apology.

“United Arab Emirates,” she’d whispered as her mind flitted halfway across the globe. “That’s a long way.”

“It is. Listen, I scheduled a meeting for us when I get back. We’ll need to catch up. And I’m hoping to have an investor for you by then.”

Maddie’s heart had actually tripped a beat. “Investor?”

“I don’t want to get your hopes up quite yet. But I have someone on the line. I’ll tell you about it when I get back. You take care, Maddie. I’ll try to text you while I’m gone. I hope their cell coverage isn’t as bad as the last time I was there.”

“You’ve been to Dubai before?”

“Several times. I’m working on something....” He had a way of leaving valuable information hanging in space like tiny crumbs leading to hidden treasure.

Remembering their phone conversation, Maddie’s head was filled with thoughts of Alex. He was like a dream to her. He was tall, blond and wide-shouldered, and had a very strong jaw that looked as if it was chiseled from granite and a dimple in his chin. His blue eyes were the color of cornflowers in summer. His smile revealed sparkling white even teeth, and his full lips completed a face so handsome she finally understood why the Greeks invented a god of male beauty. Alex could have been a dead ringer for Adonis.

The first time she’d met him in his office, she was impressed with his confidence, sincerity and assuredness. He was the kind of man people trusted with their entire life’s savings. He was the kind of executive people turned to when their world was crashing down around them. Maddie’s first impression was that this man was smart enough, savvy enough, to turn around even the worst-case scenarios.

Now, he’d sent her flowers, and he’d been especially sweet to her on the phone, making her think about things romantic.

It had been a long, long time since Maddie had had time or room in her thoughts for anything other than her passion for her career.

Romance was something she’d discarded when she was seventeen, when Nate Barzonni had asked her to marry him and then left town the next day. He’d never called or written. She’d never received an explanation. He’d simply disappeared.

For over a decade, she’d been heartbroken and very, very angry.

No, Maddie thought. Romance was something that existed only in her past.

CHAPTER TWO

NATE BARZONNI WAS early for his seven o’clock meeting with Dr. Roger Caldwell, chief surgeon and head of the new cardiology wing at Indian Lake Hospital. Nate had been sitting in his car in the foggy cold since six thirty-five, his hands wrapped around a large, double-shot latte from the drive-through window at Book Shop and Java Stop.

As he entered the hospital and took the elevator up to Dr. Caldwell’s office, Nate realized he was nervous as a cat about this interview. It wasn’t that he didn’t think he’d get the job. He knew the position was his for the taking. He was the only applicant who had any experience with the new cold beam laser surgeries that every hospital in the nation wanted. Though catheter ablation surgery, the process of “burning” away misfiring nerves inside the heart to treat arrythmia, had become as common as bypass surgery, the cold beam laser was truly cutting-edge technology. Cold beam created a clean, open channel to the heart by drilling several holes from a dying heart muscle to the left ventricle. Once the holes healed, they triggered a growth of new muscle, so oxygenated blood could flow into the heart, which hadn’t been receiving proper oxygen and nutrients. Finding the surgeons to perform the procedure was difficult. Nate was keenly aware that he could have gone to Los Angeles or San Francisco, and he’d been offered a position in Scottsdale, but most hospitals wanted him to sign a three-year contract. Indian Lake demanded only a single year. One year was more to his liking because Nate wanted to prove himself—fast. With a year under his belt as a top cardiac surgeon at the Indian Lake Hospital and working in their Ablation Department, he could go wherever he wished and he would get the kind of financial backing he would need. For years, Nate had dreamed of one day landing a department chief position at a major hospital. But last year, that all changed.

Nate had spent a year on an Indian reservation in Arizona, ostensibly to whittle his medical school loans down by half. He’d learned about the government plan that enticed newly-licensed doctors and dentists from a shipmate of his in the Navy. Within a few days of treating patients on the reservation, Nate saw a desperate need for doctors with his skill level. He’d never considered himself a humanitarian, but something happened to him during that year that changed his view of life. These people could not afford highly specialized ablation surgery. And there were very few surgeons in his field willing to sacrifice money and possibly fame to help them. Nate realized he could make a real difference in the world.

By the end of his stint at the reservation hospital, Nate had come face to face with his life’s passion.

Indian Lake was exactly the place Nate needed to be for the short term. And afterward...he’d ratchet himself up another several notches toward his dream.

* * *

“DR. BARZONNI?” A MAN’S voice asked in a clear, clipped tone.

“Yes, sir.” Nate snapped to his feet from the uncomfortable metal-and-plastic chair he’d been seated in. Nate presented his hand to the tall, slender man with an angular face. Dr. Roger Caldwell was in his late forties and looked fit, in a long-distance-runner way. He wore black slacks and a long white lab coat over a cheap maroon oxford-cloth shirt and blue-and-red-striped polyester tie. This was the third interview Nate had been on, and at every hospital, every major clinic, the administrator responsible for choosing the hospital uniforms and outlining the dress codes apparently won the job based on their obvious lack of fashion sense and color blindness. “Dr. Caldwell. It’s a pleasure to finally meet you, sir.”

They began walking down a carpeted hallway.

“You can drop the ‘sir.’ We aren’t all that formal around here.” Dr. Caldwell flipped through some papers in a manila folder marked with Nate’s name. “And you haven’t been in the navy for quite some time.”

“Sorry, sir. I mean Doctor. It’s my upbringing as much as the navy.” Nate smiled.

“I know your parents quite well, so I understand completely.”

“They’re still old-world Italian, I’m afraid. In fact, they’re insisting I live at home with them once I move back to Indian Lake.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” Dr. Caldwell replied, scratching his temple. “Frankly, I’d like to see a bit more of it myself.” He took a couple steps back and then waved his right arm in front of an open door. “Let’s step into my office, shall we?”

“Thank you very much, sir. Doctor.” Nate laughed good-naturedly.

For as austere and sparse as the waiting area was, Dr. Caldwell’s office was quite the opposite. Colorful Persian rugs covered the laminate floors. The furniture was modern and sleek, made of glass, chrome and wood. A butter-yellow leather sofa sat against the back wall with two massive, off-white leather Barcelona chairs flanking it. A squatty black vase of tropical flowers sat in the middle of a kidney-shaped coffee table. The room was lit by dozens of tiny halogen ceiling fixtures, and natural light flowed in from skylights and a very large window that looked out on Main Street where the morning traffic was building to a bustling crescendo. The sun skirted around and through huge snow clouds, which had come to perform their own kind of magic and alter the scene below. Slowly, a very light snow started to fall. From the fifth floor, the view was captivating, and as Nate gazed out across the commercial-building rooftops and toward the housetops of Maple Avenue and Lily Avenue, he realized he was eye level to the many church spires that dotted nearly every block of Indian Lake. From this height, it didn’t take much imagination to see the fantasy aspect of the town. As the snowflakes grew in size and number, they fell delicately on the grand shoulders of the Presbyterian church, creating white, lacy epaulettes. Nate had always loved all the churches of his hometown and how they stood for hundreds of years, never swerving, never capitulating or seeming to decay. Unlike many other cities or towns, the people of Indian Lake renovated, renewed and shored up their treasures. They put new foundations on their buildings, installed new roofs on their banks and fixed storefront windows. They adapted and perfected, modernized and improved, but they never destroyed the original structure, the soul of their buildings, which was part of the soul of the town. He’d forgotten how little things like that mattered to him.

“Nice view, isn’t it?” Dr. Caldwell asked.

“Spellbinding.”

“Interesting you say that. I thought the same thing when I moved here. I came from New Jersey. The unpretty part of New Jersey. I was a class-A nerd in a street-gang-infested world. I couldn’t wait to get out of there.”

“Is that why you joined the navy as well, sir?”

“It is. Best move I ever made. I fell in love with Chicago the minute I walked off the bus. But once I got married and left the navy, we started looking around for a small town. You know, to raise kids and all. We came here on a winter vacation, actually, and stayed four days. Everyone was so friendly and we loved all the little shops and cafés. My wife and I were hooked. I’ve always wanted to live in a small town.”

“Funny. When I was growing up here, I couldn’t wait to leave. See the world. Have an adventure.”

Dr. Caldwell laughed and sat in his black leather desk chair. He leaned back in the chair and watched the falling snow. “I had plenty of adventure. Persian Gulf. I was fortunate enough to be part of the launch of the Sullivan to the Mediterranean Sea on August 12, 1995. I’ll never forget it. This was the second ship, Nate, to be named for the Sullivan family, who’d suffered the greatest loss of any one American family in the Second World War.”

“I remember the story well.”

Dr. Caldwell smiled to himself. “I was lucky. I sailed over half my naval career. How about you?”

“Not so much. I spent most of my navy years in and around the Great Lakes. I signed up as a corpsman and worked at the Great Lakes Naval Hospital while I received my training. I didn’t mind it so much, though. I used my time wisely. I took advantage of the extracurricular college classes. I took every class that was a requirement for premed. By the time I finished my service, I had three years of credits piled up. I went to Northwestern on the GI Bill and finished up my undergrad. Then I got more loans for medical school and stayed on at Northwestern. I rejoined the navy as a doctor after med school and completed my internship and surgical residency. I finished my cardiology residency at Northwestern as well. As you know, I’m finishing up my year-long contract at an Indian reservation in Arizona, which pays off the bulk of my loans. I’ll still have a bit of debt, but it’ll be manageable.”

“No family?”

“No, sir. I have a single-track mind and I wanted to get myself set up in medicine before I took on that kind of responsibility. Frankly, taking care of me was just about all I could handle.”

“Smart man,” Dr. Caldwell replied.

Nate glanced outside at the spires that poked through the frosty cotton quilt that nature was spreading across the town and wondered why the scene tugged at him. Nostalgia, probably. “Thanks.”

“These letters of recommendation from Northwestern, from your commanding officers, the other naval doctors you’ve worked with and the head of the Hopi and Navajo tribes attest to the fact that you’re quite a gifted heart surgeon, Dr. Barzonni. Imagine what you could do here with all our new equipment.”

“I’m very excited about working with the cold beam laser. I got my initiation at Northwestern when I was doing ablations with Dr. Henry Klein. Do you know him?”

“Haven’t had the pleasure.”

“He’s been my mentor for years,” Nate replied, his words laced with respect.

Nate was extremely grateful for the guidance and friendship Dr. Klein had given him. Nate was also aware that the man looked upon him almost as family.

Nate continued. “Dr. Klein is the one who talked me into doing work on the reservation. Not only was the program government run and would pay a good chunk of my student loans, but he said I needed to get my hands away from the luxuries of big-city methods and equipment. He wanted me to learn how to use my instincts. Listen to my gut when dealing with patients. He wanted me to treat the patient not just the disease. My entire perspective on life changed. Thanks to him and my time on the reservation, I believe I found my calling.”

“Interesting. Is that what he did? Work on a reservation?”

“No. He spent five years in Kenya.”

Dr. Caldwell whistled. “When was this?”

“It was back in the eighties, when the AIDS epidemic was rampant. Not that it isn’t now.”

“Sounds like a good man. I’d like to meet him.” Dr. Caldwell steepled his fingers, placed his lips against them and considered Nate. “Do you mind my asking why you aren’t going back to Chicago and working with Dr. Klein? I’m sure he wants you.”

“He does. Desperately, in fact.

“I’ll be frank if I may. I have an offer from Dr. Klein. But working in Chicago or at any big-name hospital, where I’m just another rat in the pack, isn’t what I want anymore. I want to go back to Arizona and work on the reservations out there. There’s an incredible need and I believe I can fill it. But to do that, I need the experience with cold laser beam surgeries.”

“And that’s why you need me?”

“Yes, sir.”

“So, you’re going to hold me to that one-year contract.”

“That’s my intention, yes. Barring anything unforeseen.”

Dr. Caldwell leaned forward. “I know your family fairly well. Your mother is still active with the hospital foundation. There are no health issues with either of your parents?”

Nate smiled broadly. “No, no. Mother and Dad are just fine. As are my brothers.”

“Well, my team would very much like having you on staff. Now, I’d like to show you our electrophysiology lab. It’s quite something. We have fourteen different computer screens on which the team watches an in-progress ablation. We have two new ORs for open-heart and bypass surgeries. We’re performing a half-dozen pacemaker and defibrillator implants a day. We would do more, but we’re taking on the more difficult hypertrophic cardiomyopathy cases. Those surgeries last about four hours each, as you know.”

“I do. Makes for a long day,” Nate commented as he rose and followed Dr. Caldwell out to the newly carpeted corridor that led to the surgical area.

“I guess I’d better tell you now, Nate, this hospital pulls from an eight-county area, and it’s my goal to really put this cardiac center on the map. I want the best on my team, and so far I’ve been able to get them. South Bend has the orthopedic business socked. But this hospital has been shooting for awards in the cardiac field for twenty years. In the past six years or so, we’ve made some real headway. I want to be the best of the best. I sense a competitiveness about you as well. My conjecture is that you have the makings of an exceptional surgeon.”

“I’m flattered you consider me that good.”

“You aren’t yet, but you will be. You’re a man of single focus, and that’s what I need. This job will be a lot of hard work.”

Nate smiled as they approached the elevator and Dr. Caldwell pressed the up button. “I like challenges,” Nate said firmly and sincerely. “They make for the sweetest victories.”

CHAPTER THREE

MRS. BEABOTS SMOOTHED the skirt of her black silk dress with the red-rosebud print and white starched collar that she loved so much. It was the last dress her husband had bought for her before he died, and therefore, it carried great sentimentality for her. It was important for her to wear something special today. Despite it being Valentine’s Day, today was a most remarkable day in her life and that of Sarah’s as well. Mrs. Beabots was here at Bride’s Corner to give her opinion and advice about this most auspicious of all dresses a woman would ever wear—her wedding gown.

She was honored that Sarah had sought her counsel, but she had also told Sarah she would tell the unvarnished truth. “You look like a strumpet,” Mrs. Beabots said evenly. “It’s not that I don’t like it, it’s just not what I pictured you would want.”

“Come on. This is a designer dress. It was featured in two of the fourteen bridal magazines I bought. I thought it was...” Sarah looked at herself in the mirror and frowned. “I thought it was sophisticated and the clean lines made me look a bit taller. Thinner.”

“Stay away from Maddie’s cupcakes and you won’t need to worry about your waistline,” Mrs. Beabots said with a smile on her face that nearly dripped honey. She knew exactly how to deliver the truth when the truth was not exactly what was expected. She swept her eyes over the yards of white peau de soie that were tucked and wrapped around Sarah’s perfect figure. The dress was strapless, in the mermaid style, which was all the rage, Mrs. Beabots had been told. A bolero jacket covered Sarah’s bare shoulders with dozens of lace and silk flowers around the collar and bottom of the jacket. At the lower hips, the tightly wound section ended, and the skirt flared out into a long fantail of peau de soie. It was sophisticated. It was extraordinarily elegant. But it wasn’t Sarah.

Maddie sat next to Mrs. Beabots on the faded gold brocade settee that faced the large front window in the store. On either side of the window, angling in toward the room were enormous cheval mirrors.

Sarah looked at Maddie. “What do you think?”

“It’s too low-cut for St. Mark’s, that’s for sure.” She tilted her head to the right and then the left. “It’s a beautiful gown, but I always thought of you in something wistful and dreamy, with a train of little boys in white satin knee pants behind you.”

Sarah turned and observed her backside in the long mirror. “Maybe I’m not the city sophisticate I thought I was.”

“I doubt that’s how Luke sees you, dear,” Mrs. Beabots said flatly. “I know I don’t. You’re too sweet.” Mrs. Beabots shuddered. Being sophisticated was a bitter-tasting idea.

“True,” Sarah replied. “I just look too...”

“Poured in,” Maddie said, getting up. “The dress is lovely, Sarah, but this mermaid style is so formfitting that no woman but a very confident supermodel would be comfortable in it. You need...” Maddie wandered over to a rack of spring wedding dresses that Audra Billingsly, the owner, had just rolled into the front room.

Audra pressed a clump of errant red hair back with her palm as she bent down to put the brake on the rack. “These just came in, Sarah. None have been ironed, but maybe there’s something here that suits you better. I’ve got several top designers as well as some very affordable gowns. My yummiest is this Carolina Herrara, with embroidered cabbage roses along the tiered second hem. It’s frightfully expensive, though.”

Sarah shook her head as she looked at the price tag. “It’s gorgeous, but out of my league.”

“This Claire Pettibone has a knee-high hem in front and falls to a train in back, and look at all the appliquéd spring flowers. Isn’t it gorgeous?”

“It is,” Sarah agreed, “but it’s still not quite right.” Sarah sank onto the settee next to Mrs. Beabots. “I had no idea this was going to be so difficult. I can’t seem to choose—they’re all so beautiful. I like these dresses with the high-low hem, since we’re going to be on the beach for the reception. But if I spend more on the dress, I don’t think I’ll be able to afford flowers. And as much as I envision a church filled with flowers, I’m afraid my budget can’t stretch that far.”

“Don’t worry about flowers now, Sarah,” Mrs. Beabots said. “I’ll be planting a new rose garden for you this spring and we’ll have plenty.” She nodded reassuringly.

Sarah gave her a hug. “You are always a step ahead of me, aren’t you?”

“I should be. I’ve been around longer.”

Maddie perused the rack of new gowns and took a dress off the rack and held it up to herself. “Sarah, now, this is your dress.” She turned to Audra. “Who’s the designer?”

“You have exquisite taste, Maddie. It’s an Oscar de la Renta. Why don’t you try it on. It’s a six, just your size.”

The elegant, A-line, white peau de soie skirt was embroidered with green-and-white lilies of the valley. With the green-and-white strapless bodice, the dress would give the impression that the bride had just walked out of a forest garden.

“That would be fun, Maddie,” Sarah urged. “You and I are about the same size and both blonde. Let me see what it looks like on you. Besides, it will take a crowbar to get me out of this gown, and we’d be here till dinnertime if we had to wait on me.”

Maddie couldn’t tear her eyes from the gown. “I’ve never seen anything like it. May I?”

“Absolutely. Let’s go into room two. I’ll help you with the dress.” Audra led Maddie toward the fitting rooms.

While Sarah and Mrs. Beabots discussed floral arrangements for the church and possible plans for their spring gardens, Maddie went to the dressing room and let Audra help her into the gown.

Audra supplied a white lace strapless corset and bra, and a straight white nylon half slip. Then Maddie donned a horsehair net underskirt that would allow the A-line of the skirt to bell out. Over that, she pulled on a second underskirt of white silk. Audra handed Maddie a pair of thigh-high, elastic-topped white hose to wear and a pair of white peau de soie pumps with two-inch heels. Finally, Maddie stepped into the gown and Audra zipped up the back and fastened the white satin ribbon that encircled Maddie’s waist, tying a bow in back. In the center of the bow she pinned a tiny fabric nosegay of lily of the valley. The entire bodice and skirt were covered in eight-inch leaves in varying shades of green. The flowers were embroidered in white silk, and in the center of each was a crystal bead, so that each time Maddie turned under the chandelier in the dressing room, she sparkled a if dew had just settled on each flower.

“It’s absolute magic,” Maddie gushed in an awe-filled whisper as she looked at her reflection in the gilded mirror. “I had no idea...”

“That you were so beautiful?” Audra finished the thought for her.

Maddie was spellbound by her own reflection. She honestly didn’t know who that woman with the sparkling green eyes could be. She’d been so used to working in jeans, corduroys, sweatshirts and aprons nearly all her adult life that she’d never once stopped to think of herself as a girl who wore pretty dresses or gowns, or even as a...bride.

And you aren’t a bride. This is just pretend. Standing in. Wishful thinking.

Dark shadows filled Maddie’s eyes as she continued to look at herself. Was it possible that only today, the flutter of a memory of Nate Barzonni, her first love, a high school romance, had haunted her? Even now, as she recalled his blazing Mediterranean-blue eyes and the intoxicating, addictive kisses they’d shared, her emotions were a storm of anger and pain. Nate had abandoned her eleven years ago, and she still felt the heartbreak.

If she ever saw him again, it would be too soon.

But then, there was the very real fact of Alex’s flowers—real and aggressive. He was spinning her dream for her, and though he would be gone for nearly a month, he promised to call and text her often. He’d told her they were close to finding an investor. Alex knew there was nothing more important to her than her business.

“You’re beautiful, Maddie,” Audra said. “This dress was made for you. The green in the lilies matches the green of your eyes. I can watch your thoughts in your eyes. Did you know that? Your eyes change from light green to dark green along with your mood.”

“My mood?”

“Uh-huh. When you first saw yourself in the mirror, you were happy, and your eyes were a sparkling, light spring green. Then they turned darker, as if you were thinking of something disturbing.”

“Hmm. Disturbing,” Maddie grumbled. Nate was always a disturbance. “You could see that?”

“Yes.”

“I didn’t know I was so transparent.”

Audra hid her smirk by bending down and passing her palms over the skirt to smooth out a few wrinkles. “I see a great deal in my business. Weddings are like funerals. People usually reveal part of themselves at both events, and it isn’t always the best side that I see, even though people think of weddings as being a happy time. It’s a very stressful time. All big decisions are.”

“But it’s not my wedding,” Maddie said. “So, I’m off the hook.”

“I’m thinking that you wish it were your wedding,” Audra offered, leveling her brown eyes on Maddie.

“Not hardly,” Maddie retorted.

Audra waved away her objection. “I’ve always found it just as interesting to watch the bridesmaids and maid of honor as to watch the bride. There are so many little dramas going on around us every day. Dozens of innuendos and intrigues, mistakes and missed fortunes. Lives being slowly knit together and others, sometimes sadly and methodically, being torn apart. Most people are oblivious to these little underpinnings of life. But they are what form the structure of our lives and create our finales for us. Me? I pride myself on observations.”

“Well, there’s nothing to observe here. I have no fiancé. No boyfriend. And to be honest, I have a lot of world to conquer before I get tied down with marriage.”

Audra smiled. “Is that right?”

“Absolutely.” Maddie looked at herself again. “Still. It’s a very pretty dress, isn’t it?”

“It was made for you. Just you.”

“I think it would look marvelous on Sarah.”

Audra chewed her bottom lip thoughtfully and walked around Maddie, studying the dress from all angles. “I have another theory. It’s taken me over twenty years in the bridal business to come to the conclusion that there really is one perfect wedding dress for every woman, and when the dress finds her, sometimes it’s an omen of changes to come.”

“I bet you believe in soul mates, too.”

“I wouldn’t be in the wedding business if I didn’t.”

Maddie stared at Audra as if she was nuts. This wasn’t the kind of conversation she needed to have, today of all days. She came here to help Sarah pick a dress, and now she was standing here, looking frankly fantabulous—better than she ever knew she could look—and this woman was telling her this dress had “found” her and was mystically going to change her life. Maybe Audra had been hitting the champagne a bit early. Or maybe she was just trying to make an extra sale.

“Well, let’s see what Sarah thinks of the gown, shall we?”

Audra took the change of subject as her cue to open the dressing room door. “We should, indeed.”

Maddie walked into the main showroom and up to the front window where there was a step-up round riser. She lifted her skirt and heard the swishing of all the underskirts and the peau de soie next to the horsehair net. She stood still and looked at herself in the two cheval mirrors. The gleam of the light from the crystal chandelier overhead pirouetted off the crystals in the dress.

Mrs. Beabots clasped her hands together and brought them to her smiling lips. “You are a vision for my eyes, my dear!”

Sarah was dumbstruck and could barely speak. “It’s you, Maddie. The dress is like the angels made it for you.”

“I can’t deny I feel like Cinderella,” Maddie said, admiring herself once again, still not believing her own reflection. Maddie turned back to Sarah. “But I thought it was perfect for you.”

Mrs. Beabots and Sarah stared at Maddie and allowed her to revel in the moment.

“Let me see the back,” Sarah said.

“Oh, I just love the little bow and nosegay,” Maddie said, turning toward the front window.

Maddie stared. Then she blinked. Twice.

At first, she thought her eyes were playing tricks on her. She peered into the darkening day.

There, underneath the black, wrought-iron Victorian street lamp, the evening fog drifting along the sidewalk, stood Nate. He looked directly at her, and when their eyes locked, he smiled.

Her heart thrummed in her chest and she could feel a pounding of hot blood at her temples. She felt dizzy for a moment, but steadied herself by using the mind-over-matter techniques Sarah’s uncle George had once taught her.

In the eleven years since Nate had abandoned her, Maddie had not had a single boyfriend. She had dated a few men here and there, but all her energy had gone into her business. She had convinced herself that she was strong and willful, that she owned her own power. She firmly denied and crushed any idea that she might fear being rejected again by a man, especially Nate, and moved on. She purposefully fanned and fueled the fires of her anger against Nate to mask even the tiniest possibility that she still had any feelings for him. Maddie didn’t dare think about Nate and love in the same thought. Such musings could lead to her ruin. For eleven years, Maddie had told her friends over and over that Nate Barzonni was the devil to her.

Maddie continued to stare at the vision outside the window.

If it was at all possible, Nate was more handsome than ever, with a man’s face and a man’s physique under a double-breasted black wool coat. His dark hair was worn shorter than she remembered, but still parted on the right side. He wore a grey, black-and-white-plaid scarf around his neck, and suddenly she realized it was a scarf she’d bought for him their last Christmas together, in his senior year of high school. His hands were shoved into the pockets of the coat, and he did not raise one to wave to her.

He only stared.

She was spellbound.

There was no way Nate was actually standing outside Bride’s Corner. No way.

Until today, she hadn’t thought about Nate in months. Okay, weeks. After more than a decade, she could now go a full two, sometimes even three, weeks, and never actually think about him, wonder about him, curse him, rail against him and the cruel, heartless fates that had brought them together in the first place. Maddie closed her eyes and opened them again.

Nate was gone.

CHAPTER FOUR

“DID YOU SEE him?” Maddie asked Sarah and Mrs. Beabots, raising a shaking arm and pointing out the window.

“See whom, dear?” Mrs. Beabots asked.

“Nate. He was there.”

Sarah jumped up from the settee and rushed to the window. “Nate Barzonni was here? In Indian Lake? Right now?” She turned to Maddie.

Maddie felt the color drain from her face. “I swear I saw him,” she repeated as her eyes flitted from Sarah’s concerned expression to Mrs. Beabot’s clear, blue compassion-filled eyes. She wanted desperately for her friends to believe her, but even more important, she wished to high heaven that they’d seen Nate as well. Clearly, they hadn’t, or they would be confirming her statement. Instead, their gazes were filled with surprise and censure. She wasn’t sure if they just didn’t believe her, or if they disapproved of Nate, as well. Hopefully, they would still side with her against the slimy jerk who had abandoned her with no explanation. Maddie couldn’t help wondering if they, and her other friends, would think if Nate came back and finally gave his side of the story, whatever that side might be.

Clearly, he was a jerk. A creep to the nth degree. A scum that no one could or should ever trust. What kind of guy tells a girl he’ll love her till the end of time and then disappears? Vanishes without a single goodbye? For eleven years?

Now that Maddie thought about it, if Nate was truly back, she would have to face the humiliation all over again. She would have to go through the entire abandonment, the dumping, the heartache all over again because everyone would want to talk about it. Again.

Why couldn’t he just stay away?

God, but she felt violently ill.

Maddie placed her shaking hand on her flushed but icy cheek. She felt beads of sweat trickle from her temples. “I don’t feel so good,” she said, her voice warbling.

Sarah rushed to her side and grabbed her arm. “And you don’t look good. You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

Maddie sat next to Mrs. Beabots on the settee, barely noticing that she was trembling from head to foot. Suddenly, Sarah’s words sunk in.

“That was it! I saw a ghost. That’s what it was.” She was off the hook. He wasn’t back at all. She was just seeing things. She wouldn’t have to go through the humiliation and embarrassment in front of the whole town again at all.

Mrs. Beabots harrumphed and pulled her hands together, then pressed them into her lap. “Fine day for ghosts. It’s Valentine’s Day not Halloween. You’d think they’d know the difference.”

Maddie shook her head to clear it. She was stronger than this. She couldn’t push the truth under the rug anymore, and she wasn’t one to run from a confrontation. The best way to beat a fear was to meet it head-on, vanquish it and be the conqueror. “What’s wrong with me?” she said aloud. “Why would I start hallucinating all of a sudden? I mean, what’s so special about now?”

“I can think of a few things, dearie,” Mrs. Beabots offered.

Maddie and Sarah lifted their heads and looked at their octogenarian friend. “Like what?” they asked in unison.

“This is a very critical time in your life, Maddie. Your best friend is getting married soon and you haven’t a prospect in sight. What’s more, you’ve been pushing to expand your business and get this franchising idea off the ground, but it’s been a longer process than you’d anticipated....”

“Hey, how do you know that?” Maddie demanded and looked accusingly at Sarah. “Maybe someone has a big mouth.”

“I—” Sarah began but Mrs. Beabots interrupted her.

“I have other sources than cross-your-heart Sarah, who would never betray a confidence. I know a lot of things that go on in this town, especially to those whom I love,” Mrs. Beabots replied with a haughty tilt to her chin and a twinkle in her eye. “In addition, you’re not getting any younger, Maddie Strong, and it’s high time you began beating the bushes for a beau instead of sending every prospective groom out your café door with a cynical retort and a very icy shoulder.”

Maddie graced her octogenarian friend with a smile. Mrs. Beabots’s view of life was charmingly old-fashioned, but Maddie strongly believed she would have plenty of time for love and romance after she had her business secure. Maddie’s life was happy and very full with her work and friends.

“I’m too busy for men.”

“So you say, but I wasn’t the one seeing an apparition of my former sweetheart out that window,” Mrs. Beabots concluded with the kind of sharp clip to the end of her comment that warned others that the Oracle had spoken.

Sarah’s eyes tracked from Mrs. Beabots back to Maddie, who was clearly confused and still a bit shaken by the vision or ghost or whatever it was she saw. “Maybe it was just all the excitement of these gorgeous gowns and dressing up. Maybe...”

“No, Sarah. My corset is not too tight and the dress is not so elegant that my brain went off track. I saw Nate out there. In the flesh. He’s come back. I’d know him anywhere. What I don’t know is what he’s doing here and why he would choose the very moment I’m standing in the window of Bride’s Corner in a wedding gown to stare at me?”

Mrs. Beabots nodded. “Stalking. That’s it.”

Sarah sighed deeply. “Nate is not stalking Maddie.”

“How do you know?” Mrs. Beabots asked. “I watch CSI Miami and Law and Order and even Elementary and The Mentalist. Every single one of those detective shows has a murder a month committed by a stalker. It’s quite common.” She looked from Sarah to Maddie, but neither woman appeared to be following her line of reasoning.

“Nate’s been gone for eleven years. Why would he stalk Maddie now?” Sarah asked. “Why not just come into the shop and talk to her?”

“Good point,” Mrs. Beabots answered.

Maddie looked at Sarah. “You think I was seeing things?”

“Uh-huh. I do. But don’t take my word for it. Just call his mother and ask if he’s in town.”

“What?” Maddie jumped up and put her hands on her hips. “You know she’s never liked me. Always thought I was after the Barzonni millions and that I didn’t really love her son. I wouldn’t call her if I was facing the devil himself!”

Sarah stood and put her hand on Maddie’s arm. “I know, sweetie. I know.”

Tears filled Maddie’s eyes in an instant. She crumpled into Sarah’s arms and let her friend hug her. “I don’t understand what’s the matter with me.”

“You had a shock. That’s all. The only reason you would have had such a hallucination would be if you’d been obsessing about Nate lately, and we all know that’s not true. It was probably just some look-alike.”

Maddie sniffed and straightened to look Sarah in the eyes. “Right. I haven’t been thinking about Nate. Well, not so much. I always said that if I saw him on the street I’d ignore him like he was nothing. Just like he’s done to me all these years. He told me every day in high school that he loved me. He wanted to run away to Kentucky and get married, but I was the stable one. I was the one who said we should put our careers first. He proposed right there on my doorstep on the Fourth of July. And the next day, he was gone, without a word to anyone! Anyone, Sarah!” Maddie nearly spit she was so angry. “He left me. He was able to forget me. It didn’t cause him any pain or heartache. He just took off. He wanted to see the world, he said. Guess he did. All of it! What a jerk.”

“I’m glad you remembered that aspect of his character, dearie,” Mrs. Beabots said. “He treated you shabbily and you deserve the very best, just like my sweet Sarah.”

“I agree,” Sarah said. “You know what, this just isn’t the right day to find my dress. Let’s go over to my house for a glass of wine to celebrate Valentine’s Day.”

“I thought you and Luke were going out tonight,” Mrs. Beabots said.

“Not a chance. I’m making dinner for all of us at home. I decorated the house with valentines and red lights. I have homemade heart-shaped sugar cookies for Annie and Timmy. But they won’t be over until six-thirty. We have time for a girl toast beforehand.”

“Done!” Maddie said, and started walking toward the dressing room. “I’ll be out in a jiffy,” she promised.

Sarah swished into the dressing room next to Maddie’s.

Mrs. Beabots smiled at both women, and then turned around to gaze out the front window. The sun had gone down and the street lamps were coming on. Moving closer to the pane, she craned her neck to see a tall man dressed in a double-breasted black wool coat pass under the lamp and then vanish into the dark of nightfall.

Mrs. Beabots sat back on the settee. She knew a ghost when she saw one. She’d been seeing her husband’s spirit for years. Ghosts didn’t fool her one bit, even though people often did. No, what she saw tonight was a real man.

It was Nate Barzonni.

CHAPTER FIVE

NATE BARZONNI HAD always been a man of single purpose and clear-minded goals. Never once had he thought his mind was incapable of reasoning out the best course of action for the highest possible good. He was a man of honor and conviction. He was a leader, and little swayed him off his chosen course or derailed him from his beliefs. He’d never been drunk, never used drugs, never lied or cheated. His mind was as sharp as a razor and as tight as a trap.

But that day, Nate was sure he’d lost all his senses and the entirety of his reasoning ability when he’d purposefully gone back to that bridal shop to confirm whether what he’d seen was real or a mirage. The shock of seeing Maddie Strong trying on a wedding gown was enough to rip his insides apart. No earthquake under his feet or hurricane at sea had ever unsettled him as much as the sight of her. Even after he’d walked away, when he realized she’d seen him and recognized him, he could barely put one foot in front of the other to get back to his Hummer. Climbing numbly into his vehicle, he tried to catch his ragged breath. His mouth had gone dry. He attempted to rake his hand through his hair and wipe the sweat from his brow, but his hand was shaking too much.

He’d seen beautiful women before, but the moment he saw Maddie in that wedding gown, lights glinting off the flowers in her dress like tiny fairies attending an earth angel, he thought he’d lost his mind and certainly his heart to her all over again.

She’s getting married? Nate stared at his hands as they gripped the steering wheel and his knuckles turned white.

For the past eleven years, Nate had pursued all his dreams. After literally leaving Maddie on her doorstep, he’d packed his camping duffel bag and taken the bus to Great Lakes Naval Station to enlist in the navy. He hadn’t left a note to his parents for fear they would talk him out of his decision, and to be truthful, he’d known he would have been convinced.

At eighteen, Nate had no fear of the unknown, but he was an absolute coward when it came to confrontation with his mother and father.

His loving mother, Gina, had doted on him and his three brothers all their lives. He loved her dearly and it crushed him to leave like he did, but he knew no other way. His father, Angelo, was possessive of his mother and his sons. He expected them all to carry on with the lucrative family farming business. Though each of the Barzonni boys secretly harbored their own dreams and ambitions, Angelo would not tolerate even a whisper of dissention. Their lives were to be lived Angelo’s way and only his way.

Though the navy was a six-year stint, Nate didn’t care. He would have signed up for twelve years if that had been a requirement. He wanted to leave Indian Lake behind and get on with his dream of becoming a doctor.

His only regret was leaving Maddie. But to do what he knew he needed to do for himself, he felt he had to cut all his ties to his past. Above all, Nate wanted to find out who Nate was, and to do that, he needed to disappear.

Nate declared in boot camp that he was interested in medicine and being a medic. He didn’t travel overseas, as a great deal of his fellow recruits did, but remained near Chicago, where he later went to Northwestern’s medical school, completing his internship and residency there as well.

After six weeks in boot camp, Nate buckled under to the need to call his parents and make his explanations. He wanted to be sure he was locked into his commitment to the navy before he told his parents his life plans. Because he’d graduated, he wanted them to attend the Review and be a part of his new life. He was terrified to tell them the truth. They were angry and disappointed...at first.

Nate had planned the reunion well. Being surrounded by the pomp and pageantry of the navy graduates marching in their navy whites for the Review altered his parents’ attitude considerably. His mother, Gina, especially, was overcome with love and pride for Nate and hugged him with tear-filled eyes.

From his brothers, Nate had heard the gossip about him and the fact that half the town had sided with Maddie. She’d painted him as the jerk of all time. He knew that if Maddie ever found out where he was, she would come after him, and he would cave to her. They would run away together and he would never realize his dream. She had been so right to refuse his proposal. She’d been wise and forward-thinking.

Nate asked his parents never to reveal his whereabouts to anyone in Indian Lake. No one outside the Barzonni family ever knew where Nate was or what happened to him.

Despite body-and mind-numbing days in boot camp and the years he spent in the Navy and pursuing his career, Nate never forgot Maddie, not for a single day.

Nate looked out the Hummer’s windshield to the bridal shop. Maddie. They had been so young and naive back then, but she was the only one who knew him inside and out. It was as if she held his heart in her hand and gazed into it like a crystal ball. The great mystery to him was that his heart had spoken back to her.

Nate told Maddie he wanted a career in medicine, but he’d never told anyone about the moment when a cosmic clash had taken place in his life. It had been as if his future had rushed to the present and shown him his path.

Nate was only ten when he spent an entire afternoon huddled in the horse barn with one of his father’s prize mares, who was in labor. His father, Angelo, had called for the vet, but the man was late in coming to the farm. Angelo had been anxious and short with the vet. This mare was his most prized horse. He was terrified she would die.

Nate stroked the horse’s neck and calmed her with soothing words and whispers, never leaving her side. When the vet finally arrived, he went straight to work. The mare’s heart was weak, and though Angelo had been warned not to breed her every year, he had not listened. The strain on her heart was too much. However, the vet was a skilled and knowledgeable man and saved both the mare and the colt.

Nate had decided that day that he wanted to be a doctor. Not a vet or a general practitioner. He wanted to be a cardiac surgeon. His mind was made up.

However, Nate’s parents had always insisted their sons devote their careers to the ever-expanding farm and produce business. Nate struggled for years with schemes and scenarios for how he would tell his parents about his own dreams. He believed Gina would understand, but there was no doubt in his mind that she wanted him to live at home.

By the time Nate was in high school, he had observed that his parents weren’t affectionate toward each other. They didn’t hold hands the way he held Maddie’s hand. He never once saw his father put his arm around Gina. And whenever they sat anywhere in public—baseball games, movies, plays—they always placed the boys between them as if trying to keep their distance from each other.

Angelo was domineering and he had high standards when it came to his sons. By the time Nate graduated from high school, he’d allowed his parents to think that a degree in agriculture was just fine with him. He’d been accepted at Purdue and pretended to make all the necessary plans for the fall semester.

He’d been a coward, and it had caused a lot of people a great deal of pain.

Nate took one last look at the bridal shop where Maddie was no doubt making more wedding plans. When Nate first applied for the job at the Indian Lake Hospital, he’d briefly thought about Maddie, but he’d he’d shelved his memories of her a long time ago.

Nate believed that people didn’t change their core personalities as they matured. Even at seventeen, Maddie had been compassionate, kind, bright, fun and deeply loving.

There had been times during his stint in the navy and later in med school when he’d remembered all too well what it was like to be with Maddie. To love her. As much as he wanted back then to return to Indian Lake and sweep her off her feet, he couldn’t do it. It wouldn’t have been true to himself. He’d sacrificed love in order to be the cardiac surgeon he was today.

Nate had saved numerous lives already, and he intended to go on saving more.

In all his planning and goal-setting and returning for his interview with Dr. Caldwell, not once had he considered that he might actually see Maddie. Seeing her in that gown was a shock. He hadn’t counted on his immense reaction to her—even from a distance. He hadn’t planned for jealousy.

His entire past with her rumbled over him like a tsunami, and he was swept away in it. For the first time in a long time, he felt helpless. He didn’t know who the other guy in her life was, but at this moment he couldn’t imagine any man having ever loved a girl as much as he’d loved Maddie Strong.

Nate expelled a deep breath as a new realization hit him like a fist to his chest. I still do.

CHAPTER SIX

MADDIE PARKED IN a garage off West Lake and South Wacker drives, as she had on her previous trips to Chicago to meet with Alex. She walked down Wacker to the large granite-and-glass office building that housed Ashton and Marsh and checked in with the security guard at the front desk. The guard was a tall, older man with a barrel chest so large, Maddie wondered if he wore a bulletproof vest under his shirt. She noticed he had Mace, a billy club and a pistol attached to his thick leather belt. Maddie should have been used to him by now, but still she found herself swallowing hard as she approached him. She was certainly not in Indian Lake.

“Maddie Strong to see Alex Perkins at Ashton and Marsh.”

“I see it here,” the man said, running his finger down a list of today’s appointments for all the offices in this building. “Sixth floor. Hey, I remember you! Maddie, isn’t it?” He smiled broadly.

“Yes. Thanks for remembering.”

“No one would forget you,” he said with an appreciative glimmer in his dark eyes.

“See you on the way out,” she said, and crossed the black granite floor to the bank of brass elevator doors. She pressed the up button and watched the numbers tracking the elevator’s descent.

Almost a dozen people walked out of the elevator when the doors opened. Maddie noticed, once again, that nearly everyone looked to be about her age; men and women handsomely dressed, smiling and chatting with one another about which restaurant in the area was best for lunch.

So very not Indian Lake.

Maddie got in the elevator and hit the button for the sixth floor.

When she stepped off the elevator, she was face-to-face with enormous, heavy glass doors etched with the Ashton and Marsh name and logo.

The reception area was decorated sparely, with modern Asian furniture and a few plants. The reception desk was a curved glass block, lit from the inside and topped with tortoiseshell granite.

“Hi,” Maddie said to the new receptionist, who hadn’t looked up from her computer screen when she’d walked in. “I have an appointment with Alex Perkins.”

The girl lifted her beautiful face, her scarlet lips covered in enough gloss to refract fluorescent light. “And you are?”

“Maddie Strong.”

The receptionist’s expression lit up. “You’re the cupcake lady!”

“Uh. Yes. I guess so.”

“I was so excited to meet you.” The girl practically jumped out of her chair to shake Maddie’s hand. “I love your concept. Alex, I mean Mr. Perkins, let us taste the cupcakes you sent. They were to die for! I’ve never had anything so...decadent,” she practically squealed.

“I’m glad you liked them.”

“I loved them! We all did. Oh, gosh. So sorry. I’ll let Alex’s assistant know you’re here.” She tapped her earpiece. “Sean. Miss Strong is here to see Mr. Perkins.” She nodded several times, still looking at Maddie as if she’d just seen her first Christmas. “Sean will be right out. Alex is finishing up a call. It won’t be long. Would you like a water or some tea? We have a nice variety. Hot or cold?”

“Water is just fine,” Maddie replied as she glanced around for a comfortable chair. She spotted an angular S chair next to a gold pot that held six-foot-high bamboo.

Maddie sat down, and though there was a smattering of financial magazines and newspapers laid out in painfully neat rows on the glass coffee table, she was too nervous to read anything. Not only had Alex implied that a bona fide investor might be in her future, but there was the matter of his ostentatious Valentine’s flowers and his text to her last night: Can’t wait to see you.

What did that mean, exactly?

The receptionist came back, her high-heeled boots clomping on the wood floor, and handed Maddie a chilled bottle of water. “My name’s Mia, by the way. Julie left two weeks ago.” Mia leaned close. “Pregnant.” With a toss of her hair, she twirled away gleefully, as if she’d just won the lottery.

Just then, a thin man in his early twenties nearly pounced into the reception area from the long hallway leading to the offices. “Miss Strong? Mr. Perkins will see you now.” He looked down at her water and briefcase. “Can I take any of that for you?”

“I’m fine,” Maddie replied, hoisting her purse strap onto her shoulder and following Sean.

“So nice to see you again,” Sean babbled. “You do know we all just adore your cupcakes. Just yummy,” he said. “I can’t eat too many sweets, you know. Bad for the waistline, and God forbid I’d develop diabetes or something.”

They arrived at Alex’s enormous corner office with a window that peeked through to a narrow view of the Chicago River. “Thank you, Sean,” she said.

“Ciao,” Sean chirped and whisked himself away.

Alex rose from his desk. “Maddie! You look terrific.” He walked around his desk and took her hand, leading her to a chair opposite his. “Please, sit. Thanks for meeting me at the office. I had some calls to New York and I just couldn’t put them off any longer. I’ve been swamped since I got back.”

“Understandable,” she said. “This is fine.”

“Actually, it’s not.”

“No?”

“Is Bandera okay with you?”

“Uh,” she stammered, not understanding what he was talking about.

“I mean, we could go to a sushi bar if you like. Or Thai? There’s a great Thai restaurant...”

Maddie giggled, covering her mouth with her hand. “Bandera is a restaurant.”

“Yeah. American food. That okay?”

“Sure. I’ve never been there.”

“Oh. Right. Sure.” His expression became serious. “I guess I should tell you right off the bat I found you an angel.”

Maddie’s eyes widened. “For real? But I haven’t even shown you my new concept drawings for the café interiors. My friend, Sarah Jensen, did them for me.” Maddie dug into the leather briefcase that Mrs. Beabots had loaned her and pulled out the professionally bound report that she and Sarah had prepared. “I was thinking that because I sell so much cappuccino and espresso, we could do an Italian theme, you know, with yellow-and-white awnings out front, Italian chairs and stools, and of course, brass-and-copper espresso machines as the focal point—”

“We can get to that in a bit,” Alex interrupted, glancing at his watch. “I ordered a car to take us to the restaurant. Let’s get a jump on things and head out. You bring your drawings and let’s see.” He picked up several manila folders.

Maddie rose and Alex followed her out of the office. He stopped for a moment at Sean’s desk.

“I’m on my cell if Quinton needs me. If that Dubai call comes through, patch them over to my cell. We’ll be at Bandera. Hold any other calls.”

“Yes, sir,” Sean said. He shot a wink at Maddie and gave her two thumbs-up.

They rode the elevator in silence as Alex texted someone. Once out on the street, he pointed to a black Lincoln Town Car parked in a no parking zone.

“This is it,” Alex said, rushing to get the door for Maddie.

She climbed in and Alex got into the backseat with her.

“It’s only a few blocks to Bandera, but they kept saying it was going to rain today and I didn’t want us to get caught in a downpour.”

“Thank you for thinking of that,” Maddie replied, realizing she hadn’t checked the weather forecast in days. Only the worst snow blizzards kept her customers away. On most rainy days, the café was packed. It was Maddie’s theory that people liked to “huddle” on dreary days, looking for energy from others to give them a boost...along with the sugar and caffeine she offered. She hoped Chloe was doing all right with only a few hours’ help from Sarah’s aunt Emily, who had volunteered to work part of the day so that Maddie could come to this meeting.

Emily explained that George, her husband, was quite excited about the prospect of Alex and his company putting together a franchise for Maddie. Emily also wanted to do her part in giving Maddie a shot at her dream.

They pulled up to the restaurant and Maddie got out. Alex gave the driver some instructions and then followed her into the restaurant. The hostess led them to a booth. Soft lighting emanated from linen-covered chrome cylinders on the walls and tables. Overhead was a dark wood ceiling from which were suspended flat, oval-shaped paper lanterns that reminded Maddie of flying saucers. There was an open kitchen where the patrons could watch the cooks preparing the meals.

The smell of garlic, onion, beef, chicken and shrimp were laced with the smoky, woodsy aroma of the open-pit grill where trout and other seafood were mesquite grilled.

Alex and Maddie sat opposite each other in the booth. After the waiter took their drink and appetizer orders, Alex said, “I didn’t mean to rush you out of the office, but I worked till after ten last night, didn’t have any supper except for a stale half a bagel someone left in the break room, and I am starving.”

“I can understand why,” she replied.

“Besides, I had those two calls coming in and they could wind up taking all our lunch hour. And I really didn’t want that to happen. So,” he said, searching her face with his blue eyes. “Gosh, you look great.”

Maddie smiled, tilted her head and then peered at him from the corner of her eye. “You’re flattering me a lot, Alex. Is this because I’m about to be rich?”

Alex laughed, then covered his mouth with his napkin. “I hate to burst your bubble, but this is just the beginning of a long trip.”

“Rich is a relative term, is it not?” she asked.

“True. But do you know what the best part is?”

“What?”

“We’ll be making the journey together. I’ll be there every step of the way. At least for most of them.”

“I need a professional to guide me,” she said.

“I, er...was hoping for a bit more than that.” Alex stared at his silverware, then lifted his head and shot her a purposeful look.

Responding to the intensity in his eyes, she asked, “What do you want, Alex?”

“A date.”

“This could be a date,” she observed, noting the chic businesswomen and -men in the booths near them.

“This? Nah. This is steak and business. I was thinking more like escargots, truffles and champagne in a really nice joint.”

Maddie was surprised, though she shouldn’t have been. Alex wasn’t just flirting with her, and wasn’t just interested in her as a client. He wanted a romance. But did she? The idea instantly filled her with trepidation.

Alex glanced at her hand, which was trembling. “Okay. Forget the escargots. Let’s stick to business for the time being.”

Maddie exhaled. She couldn’t imagine what was wrong with her. Here was a perfectly formed dreamboat—every girl’s ideal—and she was refusing his offer. She must have lost her mind. Maddie had to move her hands to her lap and clamp them together to keep from shaking.

What is the matter with me?

Just then, the waiter brought the chips and spinach dip Alex had asked for. Maddie smiled at the waiter. Alex kept his eyes on Maddie, observing her every move.

“Let me see these drawings you have,” he said. He took huge gulps of iced tea and wolfed down the first few chips as if he truly hadn’t eaten much in days.

Maddie reached into the briefcase and withdrew the bound folder. “Do you often work such long hours? No dinner and all that?”

“Absolutely. Especially when I’m obsessed with hitting my project out of the park. In this case, that would be you,” he said, glancing at her seductively.

Maddie only blinked.

He dropped his eyes and wiped his hands on his napkin. He took the folder from Maddie. “It’s my bet you’re no stranger to long hours.”

“A lot of nights it’s midnight or later by the time I get home. Business has been picking up.”

“Looks like it. Or maybe you just haven’t done the necessary hiring,” he said critically, but then softened his face with a sincere smile.

“It’s hard to find good people,” Maddie retorted. She watched him slowly go through the drawings. He stayed silent and didn’t look at her. Maddie realized that Alex was truly unnerved by her rejection. Despite the fact that he’d sent her flowers, she hadn’t been prepared for a personal discussion about “them” today. She certainly hadn’t thought about a relationship, either. Maddie didn’t have time for love...or so she’d told herself for the eleven years since Nate Barzonni abandoned her for no reason at all. She invested her energy and emotion into her business.

She wanted to achieve her dream. All of it. For years she’d told her herself that all she needed in life was to reach her goal of franchising her business. Romance was for other women. Maybe she’d find love one day, but Maddie couldn’t allow it to get in the way of her success.

“It’s a matter of trust, Maddie,” Alex said, his stern voice piercing the Kevlar vest of excuses Maddie wore around her heart.

“Trust?”

“The real reason you haven’t hired someone to do the night work is because then they would know your recipes. You don’t want anyone to steal them because in the recipes lies one of the secrets to your business.”

Maddie stopped midmotion as she took a sip of her tea. “That is the reason I haven’t hired anyone but Chloe, and she just works days. At the counter, selling.”

“My point.”

“How would you know that?”

“I know business, and I know your business—what you’re doing and not doing.”

Alex polished off the last of the chips, wiped his hands and sat back, putting an arm on the top of the banquette. “From what I can tell, you’ve always seen your business as a small-town, small-time operation. It makes enough to cover your overhead and pay for you to live. Deep down, you’re scared someone will steal your recipes. So, you trademarked them along with your iced-on-the-spot concept, and you don’t let anyone have access to the recipes themselves. That’s good. But not good enough. Once you franchise, all your ‘partners,’ we’ll call them, will sign nondisclosures. The employees they hire will sign iron-clad nondisclosures as well. If they leave and steal a recipe, we sue. We can garnishee their wages, put a lien on their house or car.”

“You can do that?”

He shrugged his shoulders. “It’s done all the time, and has been done for a hundred years, especially in R & D departments in big corporations. You own your idea. No one has come up with this one in quite the way you have. I’m not the only one who thinks so.”

“There are others?” She urged him on.

“Quinton Marsh thinks so, and he runs the company. You saw the excitement from my staff. They love your cupcakes.”

“So, it’s the cupcakes that are different.”

“And the way you sell them...made to order. Brilliant.”

Maddie noticed that he grew more excited with every breath he took and every word he spoke. He gestured when making a point and his face beamed with enthusiasm. Maddie realized that Alex cared for her business as if it were his own.

“Just remember, Becky Field made chocolate chip cookies,” he continued. “Nothing special about that. Except her megamillions.”

She smiled back at him. “You flatter me.”

His smiled dropped. “I’m not conning you,” he said defensively.

“I didn’t mean it the way it sounded. It’s just that where I live, where I come from, no one has talked to me the way you do. No one has ever given me—”

“Respect?” he interjected.

“Exactly.” Sadness filled her as she thought about her mother and all the complaining and harping she’d done over the years as Maddie had struggled to make her little café a success. Babs had hounded her to get a “safe” job in the bread factory, just as Babs had done. Babs told Maddie constantly that no one was going to pay four dollars for a fancy coffee and over three dollars for a cupcake. She ridiculed everything that Maddie said or did.

As Maddie gazed at Alex’s handsome, confident face, she realized that her mother had not wanted her own daughter to succeed. Suddenly, realizations about her own past were flying at her like the myriad of stars that pass by a spaceship as it zooms through space. “Yes. Respect. It’s been a tremendous amount of hard work.”

“And now you’re getting your payoff.” Alex smiled even more brightly, if that were possible.

He opened one of the manila folders he’d carried with him from the office. “Your investor is named James Stapleton. Ever hear of him?”

“No. Should I have?”

“Probably not. He’s been investing in restaurant chains and buying franchises since the sixties. He buys only a few at a time—two to six locations—and then waits to see how they do. If he doesn’t make any money, he shuts them down, and he may or may not use the location for a new franchise. He’s been moving businesses from the suburbs back into the city since 2000. I think it’s because as he’s gotten older, the suburbs are too boring for him and he and his wife like city life.”

“City life?” Maddie stopped him by reaching forward but not actually touching Alex’s hand. It was an unconscious move, motivated by years of standing on the shore of Lake Michigan and staring out to the west to see the skyline of Chicago glittering in the sun. She dreamed of living in the city, of leaving Indian Lake and all her heartbreaks behind. If she had this success, if she had respect, she could dare to live another life. A better life. A happy life.

Alex looked down at Maddie’s hand but didn’t make a move.

Maddie was dreamy-eyed when she asked, “Do you know what about the city they enjoy?”

“His wife is a theater buff. Goes all the time. She also likes the ballet, and I think she’s on a couple foundations around town. She’s a busy lady for someone nearly eighty.”

“Sounds wonderful.” Maddie smiled wistfully. “One of my two best friends will turn eighty-one this summer. She loves the theater. I should bring her with me sometime. We could see a play.”

“Or I could take you,” Alex said, and before Maddie could retract her hand, he captured it and raised it to his lips, kissing her fingers. “Maddie, I would like very much to show you my Chicago.”

Maddie squirmed in her seat. “Alex...”

“Do I make you that nervous, Maddie?” he asked with a chuckle.

“It’s not you, Alex. It’s just that I’ve put my heart and soul into my business and until it’s a real deal, I’m just not geared to think about anything else. Not plays or escargot, and certainly not champagne.”

A slow smile crept across Alex’s face. “Then I’m almost in the clear. How does a hundred thousand sound to you?”

“For what?” she asked.

“For the first two franchises of your cafés. James wants six, but I declined. After this first purchase, if James or any other investor wants to open a Cupcakes and Cappuccino Café, they’ll be a hundred thousand a pop. Once the first twenty are sold, our price moves to a quarter million for each opening. I didn’t think you would want to go low.”

“Go low?”

“You know, ask for just two hundred thousand for the entire franchise and let James open six cafés. It doesn’t work that way. At least not for me,” Alex explained.

“And they’ll need money for the build out and decor. The appliances and the brass-and-copper cappuccino machine.”

“James knows that. We’ll supply them with drawings, blueprints, scripts for employees, operation procedures, the standard regulations. You would be required to help train the managers and some staff in the beginning until these first cafes are up and running. And there would be the usual consulting. So, the hundred grand goes straight to you until we sell more sites. And believe me, I’ll make that happen for you.”

“You think so?”

“Absolutely. I can give you your dream, Maddie,” Alex replied. There was such earnestness in his eyes, Maddie felt warmth ripple through her body.

Maddie believed Alex was the right man to could sell her franchises. She couldn’t help wondering how many of her “dreams” he was scripting himself into.

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