A Baby Between Friends Read online

  Up until yesterday morning, Joni had believed she’d been one of the lucky ones who’d avoided getting sick. She’d awakened feeling nauseous, but she’d sipped a cup of green tea and nibbled on a slice of dry toast, and the feeling had passed. Now her stomach was lurching wildly, and she quickly changed her route from the parking lot to the ladies’ restroom. She barely made it to a stall before she emptied the contents of her stomach.

  When she was done, she stood and leaned her head against the door, waiting until the last of the nausea passed. She washed her hands, splashed water on her face and rinsed her mouth out. On most days she didn’t bother with makeup, but staring at her reflection, her skin looked a bit pale. She rummaged through her purse, hoping to find a stray tube of lipstick that could give her some color. Unfortunately there was nothing there besides a month’s worth of receipts and three crumpled napkins. She did find a pack of mints, so all wasn’t lost.

  Joni popped a mint into her mouth. Then feeling steadier, she left the bathroom and headed for her car. She hoped the stomach bug was the cause of her queasiness. Refusing to consider another reason for her upset stomach, she got into her car and drove the short distance to the diner. She’d only consider that other explanation when she couldn’t avoid it any longer.

  * * *

  Lex watched as Joni fled the room, then swallowing his disappointment and annoyance, turned to deal with the councilwoman. She’d been elected to fill the seat of one of the old-time councilmembers who’d retired after the unexpected death of his wife. Lex had hoped that Alana would be a go-getter like the other new members whose fresh ideas had helped revitalize the town in the recent years. Though she’d only been on the council for three months, he’d already determined that she didn’t share his vision for making Sweet Briar more prosperous. She had her own agenda, which involved enriching herself and her family. Lex had no problem with people making money. He and his family had made quite a lot of it over the years. But there was a difference between earning money in a private enterprise and using your elected position to take money from public coffers. He would never allow her to get rich by taking advantage of the citizens of Sweet Briar, whose interests he’d sworn to protect.

  “What can I do for you?” Lex asked, keeping his voice professional yet cool.

  “Let me take you to breakfast. I want the opportunity to convince you to move the ball to the hotel in Charlotte. I know my brother will give us a good deal. And it’ll be a lot classier than a gym no matter how it’s decorated.”

  “Thanks for the offer of breakfast, but I’ll have to pass. And as far as the location for the dance goes, we already reached a decision with the full council present. I won’t be changing my mind.”

  She stepped closer, putting a hand on his arm. “I can be very persuasive.”

  He took two steps away from her. “I don’t operate that way. I don’t make backroom deals, and I won’t undercut my council.”

  The smile faded from her face. “I’m not trying to get you to undercut the council. I just want to make sure you have all of the facts before you make a final decision.”

  “I have all of the facts that you presented in the meeting. If there were more, you should have mentioned them in front of the entire council. It’s too late now because everyone is gone. Not only that, the decision is final. Now, if there isn’t anything else, I need to get back to work.” He gestured for her to leave. She huffed out a breath and then, pulling the strap of her designer purse over her shoulder, stormed from the room. Hopefully that would be the end of her and this conversation, but he doubted it. She was probably planning on a second line of attack. He’d seen it all before and was immune.

  He wanted to give her plenty of time to leave, so he straightened the conference room. The councilmembers had polished off the pastries, leaving behind only the doughnut Joni had rejected. Lex picked it up, scraped a handful of crumbs onto a paper plate, grabbed a couple of stray napkins, then tossed the entire mess into the trash. A cupful of coffee remained in the urn, so he poured it into a mug and headed down the hall to his office.

  Mrs. Harper was already at her desk, typing. She smiled at him. “I saw Ms. Kane storm out of here. I take it that she wasn’t happy with you when she left.”

  Denise Harper was a great secretary, and not simply because she kept his office running smoothly. More than being an extremely capable assistant, she could distinguish between a fake and the real thing in less time than it took to blink. She was also discreet, and he knew that whatever was said between them would be held in the strictest confidence.

  “Not even a little bit. She might be used to manipulating people back in Charlotte, but I’m not going to be a pawn in her game. Someone must have misled her about the intelligence of small-town citizens.”

  “Or small-town mayors, at least.”

  He nodded. Alana really had thought she was playing him. If only she knew. He’d run into all sorts of vipers when he’d worked as a vice president in his family’s company. Compared to them, she was a rank amateur. “She’ll find out the truth soon enough.”

  “I also saw Joni leave.”

  Lex looked at his secretary. “How did she seem to you?”

  She took her time before answering as if considering her words. “Something’s off. I can’t put my finger on what it is exactly, but she wasn’t her usual self. But then, she might simply be sleepy. We did get an early start this morning.”

  “Maybe.” Lex was an early riser by nature, and he liked to hit the ground running, but he knew Joni was the opposite. She preferred to ease into the day slowly, building up momentum as the morning progressed.

  Not satisfied with that answer, but unable to come up with a better one of his own, Lex went to his office. He and Charlotte Tyler, Sweet Briar’s manager of economic development, had been working hard to bring more businesses to town as well as investigating the feasibility of creating an arts center that would include a regional theater. He’d scheduled a meeting with her for that afternoon, so he reviewed the information she’d provided him in advance and made notes of questions he had.

  Once that was done, he grabbed his cell phone and, after waving to Mrs. Harper, headed out the door. Every couple of days, he walked around town and talked to the citizens he encountered. Many people either couldn’t attend public meetings or preferred not to. That didn’t make their opinion any less valuable. It just meant he needed to find another way to communicate with them. These casual chats seemed to work. People who wouldn’t feel comfortable visiting city hall didn’t mind making a suggestion if they ran into him on the street. Lex enjoyed the conversations and looked forward to them.

  He stopped to talk to a few men who were playing checkers in front of the barbershop. They were all retired and liked to congregate on nice days and chew the fat, as they called it. To a man, they claimed they were keeping an eye on the town as a sort of volunteer security force. Lex knew the truth. They were nosy and enjoyed gossiping. Although the four of them thought they had their fingers on the pulse of the town, they were usually the last to know about anything. Still, they were good company and often had creative suggestions for solving problems in the community.

  “How’s it going?” Lex asked as he reached the group. Mr. Harris was puffing on his pipe and studying the board. Lex dragged over an empty chair, then sat down. He glanced at the board. It didn’t look good for Harold Wilson, a newly retired pharmacist who’d only recently joined the group.

  “Fine if your name is Chester Harris,” Wilbur Bolton said with a grin. “Not so fine if it’s not.”

  The other men laughed, and Mr. Wilson shook his head. “That’s a wrap. You can take my place if you want, Mayor.”

  “Not a chance,” Lex said. “These guys are notorious for beating the unsuspecting.”

  “I was suspecting, and I still got my you-know-what handed to me.”

  Lex joined in the good
-natured laughter.

  “That’s because you’re a rookie,” Mr. Harris said. “You’ll get better after a while.”

  Lex talked to the men for a few more minutes before saying goodbye and continuing down the street. He stopped into several businesses and chatted with a few more people before he arrived at Mabel’s Diner. He’d spent more time than he’d planned conversing with people on the street, so the lunch crowd had come and gone by the time he arrived. Only a few tables were occupied.

  Marla, a longtime waitress, was clearing a table. She looked up and smiled at him. “Take any seat, Mayor, and someone will be right with you.”

  He was about to tell her he wanted to get his food to go when the bell above the door chimed, signaling the arrival of a new patron. Glancing over his shoulder, he smiled. Joni. She walked to a booth near the front and took a seat before looking up. When she spied him, she paused and then looked away. He thought she might actually get up and leave. Could she really be that upset with him?

  Once they’d been such good friends that he wouldn’t have given joining her a second thought. Now, though, he hesitated. Would she be annoyed if he sat down with her, or did she also long for the days when they’d been close but just had no idea how to get that closeness back? Deciding that the best way to get things back to the way they’d been was to act normal, he crossed the diner and stood by her table. Instead of just sitting down, he paused. “Is it okay if I join you?”

  For a second it seemed as if she wasn’t going to answer. When she nodded, he slid into the booth, across from her. She picked up her menu as if studying it, but he knew better. The diner had been serving the same meals for the entire time he’d lived in Sweet Briar. He understood from residents who lived here when the diner first opened nearly forty years ago that very little had changed. It didn’t take a genius to know that Joni wasn’t interested in having a conversation. He wouldn’t push her to talk. He was just glad she willingly let him be in her presence.

  Peggy, the waitress, came up to the table, pad in hand. “I haven’t seen the two of you together in a while. What can I get for you?”

  Joni put down the menu. “I’ll have half a turkey sandwich, a cup of chicken and rice soup and a glass of ginger ale.”

  That was different. Most days she got a burger and fries, same as him. Perhaps she was trying something new. Or maybe she didn’t feel well. She’d once told him that her mother had made her drink ginger ale whenever she’d been sick as a child and that she associated the beverage with illness. He placed his usual order and then studied Joni surreptitiously.

  It wasn’t exaggerating to say that she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever laid eyes on. With rich brown eyes, high cheekbones and clear brown skin, she had the face of an angel. Her wavy black hair reached to the middle of her back. Most days she wore a headband that held it off her face, but today it bounced freely around her shoulders. About five foot seven and built like a model, she had the grace of a ballerina.

  Although she looked good dressed in the casual clothes she wore to work at the youth center, she looked stunning when she dressed up. He’d lost his breath when he’d seen her in her bridesmaid’s dress six weeks ago. And later that night he’d lost control, something that filled him with guilt and remorse whenever he thought about it. Not that he regretted making love with her. He could never regret that. But he hated the way that one night had destroyed their friendship. He’d apologized right away, but the damage had been done. He was still searching for a way to undo it.

  Looking at her now, her skin didn’t possess its usual glow. And her eyes didn’t sparkle the way they did on most days. Maybe the strain on their friendship was affecting her physically. If that was the case, she wasn’t alone. He wasn’t sleeping well and spent most nights tossing and turning. There was disquiet in his spirit, and the only way to get rid of it was to get their relationship back on track. He might be wrong, but he thought Joni’s issues might be related. Perhaps they both needed to get back to normal in order to feel better.

  “How are things at the center?” he asked.

  She sighed and finally looked straight at him. “Busy. Now that school is out, we’re bursting at the seams. Not that I’m complaining. I prefer having the kids at the center to leaving them to their own devices. I have a lot of things planned for the summer.”

  “Like what?”

  She smiled and leaned against the back of the booth and began to go into detail about her latest plans. As she talked, her shoulders relaxed, and she once more was the woman he’d known so well. They’d hit it off from the moment they’d met nearly five years ago, becoming fast friends. Before long they were spending most of their free time together. Now that she was angry at him, he was left with time on his hands. Even after six weeks, he was still amazed by how deeply it hurt not having her around and how much he missed her.

  While they ate, Lex noted with relief that the color returned to Joni’s skin. Perhaps ginger ale did contain medicinal properties after all. More importantly, the tension between them that had been an unwanted third wheel had eased a bit. Lex didn’t delude himself into believing all was right between them now. It would take more than one lunch to do that. But he was committed to becoming close friends again. He just needed a chance.

  Chapter Two

  “What are you doing Friday?”

  Joni swallowed the last of her ginger ale and placed the empty glass on the table. She’d managed to eat all of her lunch and finally felt human again. Not only that, for the first time in weeks she felt comfortable with Lex. It was as if the night they’d spent together and the horribly embarrassing morning after hadn’t happened. But it had happened, and she couldn’t allow herself to pretend otherwise. To do so would only cause more problems and bring her more pain. Sadly there was no going back for her and Lex. Their friendship had been damaged much too badly for that.

  Perhaps she wasn’t as nice a person as she’d believed. Maybe a nicer person would get over her hurt and move on from here as if nothing had happened. But that would leave her vulnerable, and she was determined to protect her heart this time. This wasn’t the first time a man had taken all she had to give and then rejected her. And though he may not acknowledge it, Lex had rejected her. He hadn’t been as rude and cruel as Darrin had been when he’d told her that he no longer loved her and then asked for his engagement ring back. He hadn’t let her absorb that shock before saying that he’d been seeing one of her sorority sisters behind her back. Oh and by the way, he intended to marry Trina instead of Joni.

  No, Lex had simply emphasized that sleeping with Joni had been a mistake—one that he had no intention of making again. Surely he had to know how deeply that had hurt her. They’d been friends long enough for him to know that she didn’t take sex lightly. He had to have been aware that she would never have slept with him if she didn’t care about him a great deal. Apparently they didn’t know each other as well as she’d thought they had, because Lex hadn’t understood any of that. He had no clue what she’d been feeling then or what she felt now.

  Here he sat, staring at her with those gorgeous brown eyes, rubbing the neatly trimmed hair of his beard and waiting for her to fall back into their pattern of spending all of their spare time together. She’d spent the past six weeks binge-watching TV and eating endless pints of Ben & Jerry’s Chocolate Therapy ice cream. Though she’d missed his running commentary on the shows she watched almost as much as she missed falling asleep on his shoulder, she wasn’t going to slip back into that habit. She’d get over it eventually. Even so, it was hard to force out the words. “I have plans.”

  The disappointment that snatched away his hopeful, dimpled smile was like a dart to her heart. She wouldn’t weaken, though. She needed to consider her own feelings. He’d be fine without her. After all, Alana was lurking in the background, ready to provide Lex with whatever he wanted. All he had to do was ask.

  Le
x beckoned Peggy, who immediately brought over their checks. He took both and handed her several bills before Joni had a chance to move. “Keep the change.”

  The waitress glanced at the money in her hand and then flashed him a broad smile. “Thanks, Mayor. I hope you both have a great day.”

  “I could have paid for my own lunch,” Joni said as she stood.

  “I know.” Lex jumped to his feet. His ingrained manners wouldn’t allow him to remain seated. “You can pay next time.”

  She sputtered. While she was searching for the words to let him know there would be no next time, he continued talking.

  “I’ve got a meeting in a few minutes. See you later.”

  Not if I see you first. Unable to stop herself, she watched as he left the diner. It was okay to admire his muscular physique from a distance. As long as she didn’t get confused and allow herself to get swept away by her overactive imagination and start believing they had a future together, she could look all she wanted.

  Before returning to the youth center, Joni made a detour to Louanne’s Homemade Candy and ordered a pound of chocolate-covered almonds. After a second’s hesitation, she added a pound of chocolate-covered pretzels.

  “It must be some kind of day,” Louanne said as she measured the chocolate on the scale, dropping the last few nuts one at a time until the arrow pointed at one pound. “Or maybe that time of the month.”

  “I just had a taste for chocolate,” Joni said. Ordinarily she would engage in conversation, but Lex’s comments had left her rattled. He’d been making it plain that he wasn’t going to vanish from her life.