Janet Evanovich - Love in a Nutshell

“Good, dear. Now see if you can find a chef to cook for us. I just want to relax with the family. If you can’t, we might have to come up with another option. Perhaps a restaurant up that way?”

“I’ll start looking.”

“Keep me abreast of the plans.”

“Sure thing. Give my love to Dad.”

Kate hung up and went facedown on the desk. She’d forgotten about Matt. How was she going to explain that they were living together to her parents? Matt entered the room and settled into a guest chair. “What’s up?”

Little wrinkle lines were forming on Kate’s forehead. “My whole family is coming to The Nutshell for Thanksgiving.”

“And?”

Kate bit her lower lip. “I’ve got two problems. One is of the big variety. The other could be huge.”

“Lay it on me.”

Kate sighed. “You know how Charlie Brown had a Thanksgiving party for Peppermint Patty, excent t=”0ept that he could only make popcorn and toast?”

Matt laughed. “Yeah.”

“Well, I can only make toast.”

Matt got out of his chair and hugged her close. It was nice-friendly and loving. Like she had known him all her life. “No worries. I’ll help. It’ll be fun. Was that the big or huge problem?”

In Matt’s arms, her problems seemed small. “My parents are a little…” She paused. “Conservative.”

Matt smiled. “No problem. We can bond over our shared opposition to the hippie menace.”

“If they find out I’m living with a guy, they’ll be horrified. They won’t understand that cosmic forces are to blame.”

Matt shook his head. “Isn’t this Barb the table dancer we’re talking about?”

“Barb, the married table dancer,” Kate pointed out. “It’s like the 1960s in my family. It’s all about the order of events. You don’t skip past the entrée straight to dessert and you don’t shack up. The only thing that could make it worse is announcing at Thanksgiving that you’re my baby daddy.”

Matt’s eyebrows perked up. He held her tighter. “That can be arranged, too. And, on the plus side, no one will care about only having toast for Thanksgiving.”

“I’m serious.”

Matt brushed her hair away from her face. “So we have a minor inconvenience to deal with.”

Kate looked at him for a long while. “And, it’s Thanksgiving. And, if I can’t find your saboteur by then, my house belongs to you. So it really isn’t a ‘we’ problem. It’s my problem.”

“I see.”

Kate felt bad. The truth was, she wanted it to be their problem. And, in her heart, she’d said something very different to Matt. But her hasty words had just sort of popped out and hung in the air like a bad smell. Kate decided to change the subject. She’d try to make it right with Matt later, after work.

“The first thing I need to do is get a locksmith, then move back and get The Nutshell ready for them,” she said.

“Thanksgiving is still over a week off. What’s the rush?”

“I just think it’s time. It’s been pretty quiet the past few weeks. Maybe the jerk has gotten bored with the whole thing and moved on. Anyway, I’m feeling safer now.”

She hesitated and looked at Matt with wide, hopeful eyes. ”And you can get your life back.”

“For the record, I’m okay with my life the way li hesitatedit is. But all the same, even though I don’t like it or fully understand it, I’m not going to stop you from moving back out there,” Matt said.

“Thanks.”

It was what she’d asked for, but it wasn’t what she’d wanted. She wanted to add that she knew she was being weird. That this was what dealing with her parents did to her, and she just couldn’t stop herself.

“Chuck has kind of grown to like having Stella around,” Matt said.

She knew what he was saying, and it had nothing to do with dogs. But maybe she was more traditional than she wanted to believe.

“Maybe I can bring Stella over to visit every now and then?”

“Chuck would like that,” Matt said. He hitched his thumb toward the door. “Do you think you could head out to the taproom? I need a couple of minutes to get my notes together.”

She needed a couple of minutes to pull herself together, too. This had hurt way more than she’d thought it would.

After Kate left, Matt sat at his desk. He had no notes. All he had was a numb sensation he’d last felt when he’d fallen off his roof and nearly knocked himself out.

Matt couldn’t nail the exact moment, but at some point reality and he had parted ways. Having Kate in his house and in his life had felt real to him, not just an arrangement. But even though they’d had breakfast together, gone to work together, and flipped a coin over whether to watch football or movies at night, it hadn’t been real.

If he’d been rational, he’d have known it had been all the illusion and none of the substance of being a couple. But he wasn’t rational. He was in love.

Still, no matter how crappy he might be feeling, he had a roomful of people waiting for him out there. So he’d move on and deal with his feelings for Kate later. Matt joined his crew in the taproom, and when he looked at his gang, he felt better, if not perfect.

“Thanks to those of you who weren’t scheduled for coming in, and the rest of you for being here early,” he said. “I don’t have a lot of big-picture updates about what’s going on here at Depot Brewing, except to officially announce the start of a music series next summer that Kate’s been putting together, and I’m sure most of you have heard about it, anyway. I think we’re going to see a big jump in business on formerly slow nights, and I want to put on more part-time staff. If you know of anyone good, send them my way.”

Steve, the server, raised his hand. “I’ve heard that Bagger’s is cutting staff down to one server a shift. You might pick up someone there.”

“Thanks,” Matt said.

He’d known that traffic had been down for Harley, but he hadn’t known it was that bad. If it was time to give Harley a hand, Matt was glad to do it.

“And now on to other news,” Matt said. “I know that a lot of you have had questions about where I go when I’m not around the brewery. To make a long answer short, I’ve been spending a lot of time in Traverse City, and that time investment is starting to pay off. By next summer, I’ll be looking for staff for a microbrewery up there, plus for a new motel and restaurant. I’m also opening a new restaurant in Keene’s Harbor. It’s a couple miles out of town on the lake. If any of you are interested in making the move, you’ll get first shot at the openings. Think it over and let me know. No rush, okay? And now I’m going to turn the meeting over to Jerry to update you on front of the house matters.”

His manager had just started talking when Matt motioned Kate over. They walked into the hallway by his office.

“Why don’t you take the rest of the day off? Get your locksmith and whatever else you need done lined up so that you can move back to The Nutshell,” he said.

“And what’s the point?” She felt anger rising in her voice. “New locks on a great old house you’re just going to bulldoze. I never had a chance. I wouldn’t be surprised if you put Junior up to the mess he caused me just to seal the deal.”

She knew she’d gone too far, but he’d caught her by surprise with his announcement, and it had all come gushing out.

FOUR DAYS later, Kate stood in The Nutshell’s living room steeling herself for her parents’ impending arrival. She was pretty sure she had her act together, since she’d prepared as she would for any natural disaster. Kate had stocked up on Manhattan mixings and maraschino cherries for her dad and champagne and crossword puzzles for her mom. She’d also hidden a handful of candy bars and three bags of potato chips in her bedroom in case she needed to take shelter for an extended period of time.