2
“Honestly, it was so intimate it felt like we were having sex or something,” she told Iris. She’d driven straight to her sister’s since she had to tell someone. “Well, it’s been so long since I had sex that I’m probably wrong, but it was definitely a moment of intimacy.”
“Then what did you do?” Iris was alight with curiosity. Well, she was alight with a lot of things. New life and possibilities and the happiness of knowing she was going to be a mom. Something she’d always wanted.
“A customer arrived. A pretty redhead who looked at Alexei like he was on the menu.” She tried to accept that it was a good thing they’d been interrupted. “He’s a gorgeous man who can’t help the way he looks. Women drool over him all the time. Part of his gift is that he looks at every female as though she’s the only one on earth. It’s incredible. And I’m so ordinary. Being around him reminds me of all those Greek myths where the mortal woman who messes with the gorgeous Greek god ends up being turned into a bush or something. So I left.”
Iris had been following every word with an eager expression while she expertly arranged freshly baked chocolate cookies with white chocolate chunks in the display case, and now she dropped one so it fell on its side and broke in two. Iris was never clumsy. From her stunned expression it was clear that she could not believe the words she was hearing. “You got out of there? And here I was picturing him leaning across oh, so slowly, and wiping his thumb across your bottom lip, where it was slick with olive oil, and then licking his thumb.”
“Would you stop it?” Marguerite could feel her face heating, mostly because that was pretty much the same fantasy she’d been indulging. Naturally, in her fantasy, he took the oil and…. No. She had to stop it.
Her sister picked up the two pieces of broken cookie and handed them to Marguerite. “Here, you might as well eat this since you made me break it.”
“Thanks.” She felt like she needed all the chocolate she could gobble right now.
While she munched, Iris finished putting out the cookies and then a couple of teenagers came in and ordered the day’s coffee special, so she expertly whipped up two salted caramel lattes. When they’d gone, Iris turned back to her. “I think you’re making him out to be way more hot than he really is. You’re a good looking woman, don’t sell yourself short.”
“No. Really. It’s impossible to describe how gorgeous he is until you’ve seen him.”
The ringing of the bells signaled a new arrival into the cafe, and there was their mom striding in with a big smile on her face.
“Not a word,” Iris whispered. She nodded fast, but Daphne hadn’t brought up eleven kids without learning to read lips, or use some psychic mom power only she could access. “Not a word about what?” she asked.
Iris had always been faster on her feet than Marguerite. She said, “Marguerite’s got a crush on a food truck guy, but she doesn’t want anyone to know.”
As a way of deflecting their mom, this was a pretty good ploy, but Marguerite really didn’t appreciate being thrown under the bus—or the food truck. “Iris!” she hissed in her most menacing tone, which was about as menacing as a tiny kitten’s meow.
“Do you mean Alexei? Well, that’s not news,” Daphne said cheerfully. “Every woman has a crush on him. That boy is sex on legs.”
“See?” Marguerite said, looking significantly at her sister, “I told you.”
“Come on,” Iris said, “He can’t be that gorgeous.”
Daphne fanned her face with her hand. “Oh, honey, he is. I have never seen a more beautiful man. He’s like a movie star except he doesn’t need airbrushing.” She sighed deeply. “And he can cook. You and Geoff should go there. Take a day off for a change and drive into Portland. You could visit Rose and then go to Alexei’s. He makes the best Greek food.”
“And I don’t have a crush on him.” Marguerite felt it was important to make this point clear.
Her mom turned to stare at her. “Then you need your hormone levels checked.” Daphne’s blue-green eyes began to dance. “Besides, he definitely has a crush on you.”
“No. He doesn’t. He’s the most gorgeous man on the planet and I’m a frumpy woman with dirt under her fingernails.”
“Also cat hair all over your sweater,” her sister added. “Just being helpful in case, you know, you’re going to see him again.”
She brushed at her sweater but there wasn’t much point. He’d already seen her like this.
“You’re an Earth-mother type, darling,” Daphne reminded her. “It’s who you are and a lot of men find that very attractive.”
“Not the most gorgeous man on the planet.” She bit into the other half of the broken cookie.
Daphne suddenly leaned across the bakery counter and touched the back of her hand to Iris's face. "Are you feeling all right, honey?"
Iris glanced at Marguerite in near panic before returning her gaze to her mother's concerned countenance. It really was spooky how their mom could see right into them. "I'm feel fine, Mom. Maybe a little sleep-deprived."
Daphne did not look convinced but before she could pry, which was pretty much her favorite activity, the bell rang again to announce the arrival of Geoff, carrying a beat-up brown leather briefcase and wearing a tweed jacket over jeans. He was handsome in a low-key way with light brown hair, big blue eyes and an easy way about him. Even though he and Iris had been together for less than a year, he’d become solidly part of the family and was one of Marguerite’s favorite people. He usually dropped by Sunflower on his way home from school unless he was working late, so no one was surprised to see him.
His eyes went straight to Iris, and when she saw the intimate way they looked at each other she quickly glanced away as though she was witnessing something she wasn’t meant to see. Daphne was not so tactful. She openly grinned watching her daughter and the man she loved. She added to her tact by commenting aloud, “Isn’t it wonderful to see two people so much in love?” She put her hand to her chest. “You two remind me of Jack and me when we were young and in love.”
“If you mean acting all lovey and inappropriate in front of other people, you still do that.”
