Every Kind of Heaven & Everyday Blessings. Jillian Hart

      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.

       Chapter Six

      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.

      Ava lifted her hand to finger wave back but the sight of the appetizers in platters placed in three parts of the table stopped her in her tracks. “I can’t believe you ordered without me.”

      “You’re twenty minutes late.” Spence huffed. “The assistant manager wasn’t going to hold the reservation just for you.”

      Personally, this was why she thought Spence wasn’t married, but now was probably not the time to mention it. “Oops. Sorry.” She didn’t bother to explain the extra appointment she squeezed in, and that she’d left a message on Aubrey’s phone that she’d be late, and there had been a major traffic snarl from some wild moose who was wandering Glenrose Street. It was easier to endure Spence’s scowl.

      She dropped into the empty seat next to her twin. “Do you check your messages?”

      “I was out at the studio and lost track of time. I barely got here myself.” Aubrey grabbed the platter in front of her and began sliding a stack of deep-fried zucchini slices onto Ava’s plate. “Don’t worry about Spence. It’s that assistant manager who works here. The one that had that date with Katherine long ago and it didn’t go well? He’s always snippy with us. The construction—”

      “Is going well.” Ava paused to bow her head and gave a quick grace, since she’d missed Spence’s blessing.

      Aubrey spooned a heap of creamy dip next to the zucchini slices on Ava’s plate. “And how’s Brice?”

      “Fine, I guess. I didn’t see him today.”

      “And that wouldn’t be because you’re avoiding him?”

      “I’m not avoiding him.” It wasn’t true but she wanted it to be. “Fine, I just avoided him for the day. Maybe I’ll try again tomorrow.”

      “He’s supposed to be this great guy. Wasn’t he this year’s most eligible bachelor or something?”

      “Let’s not talk about him.” She glanced around the table to see if everyone was straining to listen. They were. “Later, okay?”

      Katherine spoke up. “Didn’t you do a wedding cake for Brice’s sister?”

      “Yeah. Just.” Like she wanted to talk about it? This was the downside of being in a big family. Nothing was secret for long. “He’s the contractor doing the renovation.”

      Spence leaned in. “You mean it’s his company doing the renovation. He’s not doing the actual work. He’s an owner.”

      “No, he’s like the on-site manager guy. Trust me, he had a hammer and everything.” She hedged because everyone in her family but Aubrey was way too eager to marry her off. “Chloe recommended the company.”

      It didn’t look like anyone at the table was fooled by that.

      Katherine passed her hunky fiancé a platter of mozzarella sticks. “I thought Brice Donovan was engaged.”

      “No,” Aubrey dragged a zucchini slice through a puddle of dip. “I read in the paper over a year ago that she called it off. The wedding was cancelled something like two days before it was supposed to happen. That had to be very hard for both of them.”

      Ava couldn’t seem to swallow. The part of her that was afraid of getting close to him wanted to use this new piece of news as a reason to keep away from him. He’d already had one failed relationship. He was probably at fault, and she didn’t need some flawed guy, right? On the surface, it sounded like the best reasoning.

      But she knew it wasn’t. Brice was a good guy—that much was clear. The real question was, how far down did that kindness go? Was it superficial, or the real thing?

      The cracked pieces of her heart ached with a wish she couldn’t let herself voice. Brice had a lot of redeeming qualities, so what? She had to resist. What she had to do was clear every thought of him from her mind. His every image from her memory. No more thoughts of Brice Donovan allowed.

      “Good evening, McKaslin family,” said a familiar voice behind her. Brice’s voice.

      Of course.

      Why did it have to be him? She felt as if she’d been hit with the debris from a fast approaching tornado. She couldn’t outrun it, escape it and there was no hope of avoiding it as Brice Donovan stepped into sight.

      To her surprise her brother stood, nodding a greeting. “Good to see you again, Brice. Would you care to join us, or are you here with your family?”

      “With family. It’s my mother’s birthday, but thanks for the invite. I just spotted Ava and I thought I’d come over. Let her know a few things about the job today, if she’s got time before her meal arrives.”

      Ava could