Jillian Hart - Every Kind of Heaven & Everyday Blessings - Every Kind of Heaven / Everyday Blessings

Right when he’d thought he was making progress with her, getting to know her, letting her know the kind of man he was, he’d hit a brick wall.

Apparently Ava wasn’t as taken with him as he was with her.

Wow. That felt like a hard blow to his sternum. Here was the question: Did he pursue this or not? Sure, they’d gotten off on the wrong foot when she’d mistaken him for Chloe’s groom, but even after that, she’d been determined to put some distance between them.

Face it, this was one-sided. He’d stood right here in this kitchen and got to know her, seen right through to her dreams. He was captivated by her. He was falling in serious like with her.

But now? She was missing in action.

Rex’s bark echoed in the vacant kitchen.

“Okay, okay.” Brice popped open the huge bakery box. “Only one, and I mean it this time. All this baked stuff can’t be good for you—”

He fell silent at the treats inside the box. She’d promised muffins, but these weren’t like anything he’d ever seen. They were huge muffins shaped like cute, round monsters. They had ropy icing for hair, big goofy eyes, a potato nose and a wide grin. Two dozen monster faces stared up at him, colorful and whimsical.

Ava made the ordinary unusual and fun. He liked that about her. Very much.

He’d been praying, to find a good woman to love and marry. Have a few kids. Live a happy life. That had been part of his plan for a long time, but it just hadn’t worked out for one reason or another. In fact, it hadn’t worked out for such a length of time that began to feel as if his prayer was destined to remain unanswered.

The front door swung open and heavy boots pounded against the floor, echoing in the demolished room. It was Tim, the electrician. “Hey, where are those muffins she promised?”

“In here.”

“I gotta tell ya,” Tim said as he dropped his tool bags on the floor, “this might be the best job we’ve done yet. The doughnuts yesterday were something. You think she’s gonna keep bakin’ for us?” Tim’s jaw dropped in disbelief when he saw the muffins. “Look at that. Think anyone would mind if I took one home for my little girl? She’d get a kick out of that.”

Brice realized that Ava had made five times the number of muffins they needed for their small work crew. “Go for it.”

“Cool.” Tim grabbed a mammoth monster muffin and took a bite. “Mmm,” he said around a full mouth, as if surprised by how good it tasted.

Not that Brice was surprised by that. He flipped open his phone and dialed. While he waited for the call to connect, he took a muffin for Rex on the way out the back door. The sunshine felt hot and dry as he sat on the back step and unwrapped the muffin. The dog gobbled his muffin in three bites.

Ava picked up on the sixth ring. “Hi there. Is there a problem at the shop?”

Caller ID, he guessed. “A problem? You could say that.”

“What’s wrong? I was there and everything looked fine. Okay, it was like a total wreck, but it’s supposed to look like that, right?”

“Right. That wasn’t the kind of problem I meant.” He leaned back, resting his spine against the building. He wondered where she was. A lot of clanging sounded in the background. “You left a box of monsters behind. Why didn’t you stay and say hello?”

“I didn’t want to be in the way.”

“I hope you didn’t feel uncomfortable with me yesterday. You know I like you.”

“I’m trying to ignore that.”

“Is there any particular reason for that?”

“Well, you’re doing the renovation on my shop, for starters.”

“Good reason. Look, I don’t want you to feel uncomfortable. Not around me. Not around my men. Not when it comes to the work we’re doing for you.”

“Sure, I know that.”

It didn’t seem as if she did. She sounded as vulnerable as she’d looked yesterday when she’d been talking about her baking. Okay, so maybe what he felt wasn’t a two-way street. “How about you and I agree to be friends. Would that make you more comfortable?”

“Friends? Uh, sure. Wait.” He could imagine her biting her bottom lip while she thought, the cute little furrow digging in between her eyes. “You mean like platonic friends.”

“I mean that whatever this is going on between us, let’s put in on hold until your renovation is done. That way you don’t have to come to your own shop before 6:45 a.m. just to avoid me.”

“I wasn’t necessarily avoiding you .” Ava knew her voice sounded thin and honest. She was no good at subterfuge of any kind. Another reason she’d never understood men who had hidden agendas. “You see, it’s not you. It’s me. All me.”

“You want to explain that?” he asked in that kind way he had, but he obviously didn’t understand.

There it was, doom, hovering right in front of her, and its name was Brice Donovan.

“It’s just that—” she blurted out, nearly losing hold of her grocery cart in the dairy aisle. “I have the worst luck dating. If there’s a loser anywhere near me, he’ll be the one I think is nice. I’m like a disaster magnet. That’s why I have a policy.”

“What policy? I don’t understand.”

She felt her heart weakening. She liked this man—and wasn’t that the exact problem? She had to be totally tough. Cool. Focused. Strong. That’s what she had to be. Strong enough to stick to her guns. “It’s an ironclad, nonnegotiable no-man, no-dating policy.”

“That’s a pretty strict policy. There’s a good reason for it, huh?”

Her throat tightened. When she spoke, she knew she sounded as if she were struggling. “Yeah. Nothing horrible, just disappointing. I don’t want to spend my life believing in a man’s goodness and being blind to any terrible faults that I just can’t see until it’s too late. You see, it’s like being color-blind. I’m just…” She didn’t know what to say.

Apparently Brice didn’t either. No sound came from his end of the connection. Nothing at all.

“I’m sorry.” That came out strangled sounding.

So she was never going to be a tough business woman. She wasn’t a tough anything. Sadness hit her like the cold from the refrigerated dairy case. Was she disappointed?

Surprisingly, yes.

“Okay, then. I’ll call you if we have any questions over here.” He broke the silence, sounding business as usual, but beneath, she thought she heard disappointment, too.

Maybe it was best not to think about that, she thought as she closed her phone, dumped it into her bag and put the milk jug into her cart. She couldn’t say why she would be feeling deflated, because she did the right thing by putting him off. She just had to stay focused on her goals and her path in life, she thought as she grabbed a carton of whipping cream.

Her phone rang again and she went fishing for it in her messy tote. Luckily it was still ringing when she found it. She didn’t recognize the number on the screen. “Hello?”

“Uh, yes,” came a refined woman’s voice. “My name is Maxime Frost and I was at Chloe Donovan’s wedding. Brice highly recommended you, and I just had to call. We simply must have one of your cakes for my Carly’s wedding.”

“I’m sure I can design something both you and Carly will love.”

She wrote down an appointment time on the inside of her checkbook and ended the call. How about that? Brice had recommended her in spite of the mistaken identity incident.

Just when she thought she was sure she’d made the right decision to stick to her no-date policy, look what happened. He made her start wishing all over again—and reconsidering.

Everyone was at the restaurant by the time she got there, seated in a big table at the back, between a cozy intersection of booths. Of course, she was late because she was time-challenged. From the head of the table, Spence spotted her first and his dour frown darkened a notch. He highly prized timeliness. Katherine sat between him and her fiancé, Jack Munroe. Seated next to her dad, the teenaged Hayden gave a finger wave.