Love's Secret Ingredient
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Michele Dunaway
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Prologue
Chocolate chip cookies are a tiny bite of heaven.
—Auntie Jayne
Beaumont’s historic Main Street wasn’t the type of place for shopping, especially if you didn’t have money. Looking at all the stores window displays turned on your wanter—that part of you that desired things you couldn’t have.
Sixteen-year-old Nick Reilly wanted a lot. He wanted the heck out of Beaumont. He wanted his mom not to have to work so hard and maybe cook dinner once in a while. He wanted a really fast computer. He wanted...the list was endless.
He hurried along Main Street, on the centuries-old brick sidewalks running alongside the cobblestone-lined street dating back to Lewis and Clark’s expedition. Nick wanted most to be a doer, a guy who got things done. Like those who’d built this town, put it on the map, and made something of themselves.
Nick ignored his reflection, one that showed clothes scrounged from bargain bins or resale shops. His mom hadn’t resorted to taking charity—yet. In fact, she had a line on an opportunity that would get them out of this place. “California,” she’d told him, as if the Golden State might be the promised land. For her sake and his, he hoped so.
Nick drew his jacket closer, one he’d paid for himself at a church rummage sale. About a month ago, he’d started washing dishes at Caldwell’s, a bar on North Main, and he headed there now. Caldwell’s didn’t serve food as it was mainly a “drink booze and eat peanuts” type of a place. It was also filled with cigarette smoke. Nick had read some places around the country were smoke-free, but Caldwell’s wasn’t there yet. He’d decided money earned outweighed smelly clothes and a lack of free nights and weekends.
Too poor for a car, he had several more blocks to go, but with two dollar bills in his pocket, he could afford to stop today at his favorite place on Main, Auntie Jayne’s Cookies.
After all, it would be a long time before he got home and ate something, and nothing, absolutely nothing, tasted as good as one of the shop’s chocolate chip cookies. Nick’s mouth watered at the thought of it.
He crossed the street, weaving between cars that were parallel parked, and climbed the steps. A jangling bell announced his arrival.
“Welcome to Auntie Jayne’s,” a light and cheery voice called, and Nick almost froze in his tracks. Zoe James was here today. But she wasn’t looking at him because she was serving a woman buying three dozen cookies. For a moment he thought about leaving, but as the woman stepped aside and toward the door, Zoe caught his gaze and smiled expectantly.
Even though she saw him as nothing but another customer, there was nothing like a Zoe James smile. The clouds parted and heavens brightened. Nick felt the wattage down to his toes, which tingled in too-tight, worn tennis shoes. No wonder she’d been voted homecoming queen. Zoe was gorgeous, smart, and kind, and Nick had the biggest crush on her. Half the boys in the school did. She was the holy grail. The unobtainable. Perfection.
Even dressed in an unflattering Auntie Jayne’s gingham dress and starched white apron, complete with the silly cap sitting atop brown hair that caught the light just so, no girl at Beaumont High compared. As a senior, Zoe ruled the roost. Unfortunately, Nick was so far down the pecking order he didn’t even rate admission to the barn.
“What would you like today?” Her fingers caught an apron string as she waited, and Nick fought nerves. She was out of his league. Not only was he a grade behind her, but she was dating Ted Smith, homecoming king and varsity football quarterback. Nick was all angles and zits, lanky and geeky, the type of guy seniors picked on. Status quo meant the likes of Zoe James never went for guys with dirty blond hair worn far too long and tucked up under a ball cap. He found his voice, which had recently begun to deepen.
“Two chocolate chips cookies. One for now and one for later. Oh, and a third one. I should bring home one for my mom.” He wouldn’t have a lot of money in his pocket after he paid, but his mom deserved a cookie too. Especially after... Nick pushed aside the rage he felt at the marks her last ex had left on her face.
“That’s nice of you.” The bell jangled again as Zoe dropped three cookies into a small white bag and straightened. She greeted the new customers, and Nick worked to regain her attention.
“I wash dishes at Caldwell’s so this is my snack.” That sounded so lame and so he rushed out, “My real goal is to work with computers. I’m building one right now. Plan to major in computer science.”
Zoe handed him the bag and moved to check him out. “Half the time I can’t even figure out this new cash register.”
He was actually talking to Zoe. “What are your plans?”
“To work here, of course. I’ll own the shop. I’m going to River Bend for a double major in business and culinary arts. Then I’m going to take over from my mom, marry Ted and have a family. It’s all mapped out.”
“Well, I’m getting out of here,” he declared.
“My sister, Sierra, is in the naval academy,” she told him.
Nick took the crumpled bills out of his wallet and began to hand them to her. She waved them off.
“They’re on the house. Least I can do to help you get out of here if that’s what you want.”
“Thanks.” Not one to argue when it came to saving money, which was often in short supply, Nick shoved the bills back into his pocket. “You’re pretty cool, Zoe.”
He swore she blushed. Her cheeks flushed pink and her brown eyes darkened. But before he could add anything else, the door jangled and in walked Ted. Behind him trailed two more of his friends. Ted took one look at Nick and immediately went on the offense.
“This guy bothering you, Zoe?”
Nick heard the infinite patience and some strain in Zoe’s voice as the lady behind Nick edged away. “Stop scaring the customers, Ted. He’s buying cookies for his mother. Leave him alone.”
“You know I don’t like you working the counter by yourself,” Ted said.
Zoe was already handing Ted’s two friends one chocolate chip cookie each. “My mom’s in the back.”
“What’s going on here?”
Nick used the arrival of Auntie Jayne from the kitchen as an opportunity to escape. He darted out the door and speed walked to Caldwell’s, clocking in five minutes late. His boss glared but said nothing. Few wanted the misery of this job and his boss knew it. As Nick ate both his cookies later, he tried to forget his earlier encounter with Zoe. Girls as pretty as she was dated guys like Ted. They certainly didn’t date poorer-than-dirt nobodies who had nothing to offer. Nick’s crush was as unrequited as it was stupid. Finished with the last morsel, Nick slid a load of tall beer glasses through the commercial dishwasher, the steam whooshing into his face and making him sweat as he pulled the green tray out when done. He hoped his mom got the job. If not, he’d simply have to work harder or guys like Ted would always be better than him, and frankly Nick’s wanter wasn’t going to be satisfied. He wanted a fine life and a woman like Zoe.
Yeah, come hell or high water, which was a distinct possibility if the Missouri River a block east got too much rain in the spring, Nick was getting out of this town.
