A Valentine's Wish. Betsy St. Amant

returned her smile, trying not to read too much into her greeting. She had no idea—he’d almost missed her by a lot more than ten minutes. If it hadn’t been for Pastor Mike and the church board, he might have missed her by a lifetime. How could he have never noticed the parade of nerves inside his stomach while in her presence all these years?

      Andy suddenly realized he had yet to speak and cleared his throat. “Oh, right. I came to get a dessert for the youth service tonight. Sorry I’m late.” He wouldn’t have been if he hadn’t stopped to second-guess himself the entire way here. But she didn’t need that information.

      Lori frowned. “You should have just called me. I could have brought it and saved you the trip.”

      Andy leaned casually against the counter. “Well, I was just going to, you know, say hi. Or whatever.” He couldn’t tell her about Bella’s request. Hopefully Lori wouldn’t require further explanation. He cleared his throat again to stall, his eyes scanning the area behind the display even though he wasn’t exactly sure what he expected to see. The flowers were already out front and center. What better reaction could he hope for?

      “You’ll see me in a few hours.” Lori pulled a plastic glove over her hand and slid open the display case. “Just because I’m a shop manager now doesn’t mean I’m going to skip out on my responsibility to the youth group.”

      “Of course not.” Andy rubbed at his throat. What was that lump doing there? Other than blocking everything he was trying so hard to say. “I never thought that.”

      “Good.” Lori snapped the edge of her glove against her hand with a flourish. “What’ll it be, sir?” She grinned.

      He opened his mouth to order three dozen chocolate-filled crème cookies. But the words lingered on his lips, unspoken. The silly cartoon card was propped against the register, where Lori could easily see it all day.

      His neck warmed, and he tugged at his polo collar. “Uh…”

      Lori quirked an eyebrow, her hand hovering over the display, waiting to know which item to grab. “Sorry, we’re fresh out of uh. I must have burned them with the sponge cake yesterday.”

      Andy shook his head to clear it, forcing his eyes not to dart back to the telltale card. Or was he reading more into it than he should? He suddenly remembered all the reasons why he hadn’t dated in so long. This was complicated stuff. “What’s a sponge cake?”

      “It’s supposed to be a very light, airy cake. But because of me, it was a very dark, hard cake.”

      “Bad day?”

      “An eventful afternoon, to say the least.” Lori snorted. “I think I still have fudge in my hair.”

      Andy’s stomach clenched again. Fudge in her hair—did that mean a food fight? He imagined Lori and that smooth-talking Italian flinging batter and dough and laughing together in the kitchen, the camaraderie and teasing maybe leading to a kiss. He swallowed. “I thought that guy did all the cooking?”

      “Monny does do all the baking. But I was helping out, and well—it was disastrous.” Lori rolled her eyes. “I don’t know how much inventory I wasted. I probably won’t be doing much baking anymore.”

      Good. Andy cleared his throat. “Sorry you had a tough time.”

      “Oh, it’s gotten better. Monny and Summer are showing me how things work. It’s been fun.”

      Great. Private tutoring. He straightened his shoulders and tried to ignore the way his heart began a slow descent toward his toes. “I guess I’ll take a few dozen of those cookies there.” He tapped the display window with his finger and tried to cheer up. At least Lori seemed to like his gift. Otherwise she would have thrown the card in the trash, right?

      “Here you go.” Lori bagged his order, then tossed the used glove in a wastebasket and punched buttons on the register. “At least I haven’t messed this part up yet. If Summer and I can keep this drawer balanced every night, then I won’t feel I’ve failed Bella’s business.”

      Andy handed her his business credit card and watched as she swiped it through the machine. “You’ll be fine. You can do anything you put your mind to.” Too bad she hadn’t put her mind to dating him. Or had she? Did she suspect the gift was from him at all? He really should have talked to Haley and gotten the details of the drop-off before coming in here. If Lori had seen Haley with the flowers, the odds of Lori’s figuring out who her secret admirer was were much higher.

      He was getting another headache. Maybe this secret-admirer plan wasn’t his best idea. Andy shoved the credit card back into his wallet and took the pink paper bag from Lori’s outstretched hand. “Listen, Lori—”

      “Guess what—”

      They spoke at the same time. Andy gestured with his hand. “Ladies first.” It would give him time to stall the truth.

      Lori shoved loose strands of her hair behind her ears. “I was just going to say guess what happened today?”

      “What? Another brownie blowout?” He grinned at her excitement. How had he never noticed how beautiful she was before?

      She slugged him in the arm over the counter, and his easy smile faltered at her touch. “No, silly. I learned that lesson.”

      He tried to ignore the way his shoulder warmed under his sleeve. “I give up, then.”

      “I have a secret admirer.”

      Andy nearly choked on his own spit. Play it cool, play it cool. He rotated his shoulders and cracked his neck, mentally preparing his confession. Maybe her no-dating stage was nearing an end. Maybe she would consider him after all. “Really?”

      Lori glanced over her shoulder. “Yep.” Then she leaned over the counter to whisper, “And I think it might be Monny.”

      Chapter Five

      Andy fiddled with the microphone attachment on the waistband of his jeans, turning the volume in his headpiece up, then down. Up, down. At least it made him look busy and hopefully hid the fact that he remained unable to keep his eyes off Lori. She hurried around the kitchen area in the back of the gymnasium, setting out plastic cups and piles of napkins for the after-service snack.

      He should be thinking about the announcements he needed to make during the service, or about the sermon he was about to deliver to his dwindling youth group, but all he could focus on was the fact that Lori seemed thrilled about her secret admirer—which would be a good thing if she realized it was him, and not that Italian cheese-ball.

      He cranked the volume up again, then quickly back down as the feedback threatened his ears. Maybe the church board was right—he would be less distracted if he had a wife, though not in the way they assumed. Ironically, he hadn’t been distracted at all until they’d approached him about the matter and brought to light his interest in Lori. If Pastor Mike hadn’t said those things in his office last week, Andy would probably be reviewing his sermon notes right now instead of wearing a callus in his thumb from all the volume switching….

      “Pastor Andy, watch out!” A Nerf football whizzed past Andy’s head with inches to spare. He jerked and turned to see Jeremy jogging after the renegade ball, head ducked low in embarrassment. “Sorry, I told Peter to go long,” he called over his shoulder as he chased the blur of rolling blue sponge.

      Andy glanced at the kitchen again in time to see Lori leaning over the counter, laughing so hard her hair nearly covered her face. “Let me guess. You never made the team?” she shouted through cupped hands.

      Like he’d even had a chance at catching that pass. He just waved and offered a smile, probably a pretty goofy one since he could feel his neck flushing a little. She probably thought Monny could have caught that ball and mixed up cake batter all at the same time. Women.

      Haley appeared at his side with a soda can. “Here, Pastor Andy. Lori told me to give you this.