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“You disdain him,” her sister corrected mildly.
“That, too. He ruined everything. It’s so unfair. I was minding my own business, and then suddenly, there he was, polluting my world.” Violet reached for a donut and took a bite. “I know he can’t hurt me. Nana Winifred is going to be furious when she finds out about this. I hope she slaps him.” The thought of the elderly woman backhanding Ulrich across his high cheekbones brightened her morning.
“You have quite the vindictive streak,” Carol said mildly. “I totally respect it and you. So you’re not going to do anything.”
“I’m not sure what I would do. Call his grandmother? That sounds like tattling. Plus it would break her heart and I don’t want that. She adores Ulrich.” Which meant the cliché of there being no accounting for taste was painfully true.
“What’s the next step?”
“Aside from whining to you?” Violet sighed. “There isn’t one. I’m only sorry I danced with him.” And liked it. That was the real kick in the gut. That she’d liked the dance and the man and she’d imagined oh so many wonderful things about him.
“But if I ever see him again, I’m going to tell him he’s a complete and total jerk.”
“You go girl,” Carol told her.
* * *
MATHIAS GLANCED AT the clock and knew he didn’t have much time. He put down the small glass piece he was working and pulled off his protective goggles. It was nearly three in the afternoon, so approaching eight in the morning outside of Shanghai. Maya, his brother Del’s fiancée, had emailed him requesting a video call. They’d settled on a date and time, although Mathias honestly had no idea why she wanted to speak to him. He barely knew Maya.
She’d been his brother’s girlfriend back in high school, but he hadn’t bothered paying attention to much beyond his own life. By the time she’d returned to Fool’s Gold a few years ago, he and Ronan had already left their little hometown in the California mountains. They’d met a couple of times since, but that was it. So what did she want with him now?
A question that would be answered soon enough, he told himself just as his screen shifted to show an incoming call.
He hit the video button and Maya appeared on his screen. She was a pretty, green-eyed blonde wearing an oversize T-shirt and holding a mug.
“Morning,” she said with a smile.
“Afternoon. How’s China?”
“Good. How are the States?”
“Also good.”
Maya grinned. “I hear you’re taking care of Sophie for a month. How’s that going?”
He grimaced. “Let’s not talk about that. I’ve had to bribe Natalie, our office manager, to keep her in her office while I work. That dog has an uncanny ability to find the most expensive piece of glass with her tail and destroy it.”
“Yikes. I’m sorry.”
“Me, too. I’ve hired a dog walker in a futile attempt to tire her out. She gets two walks a day. She sleeps well, but loudly.” He thought about mentioning the massive piles of poop, but decided against it. Maya was probably still on her first cup of coffee.
“You’re being domesticated,” Maya teased. “By the time Elaine’s back, you won’t want to let Sophie go.”
Mathias leaned back in his chair. “Right. That’s going to happen.”
She laughed. “Okay, maybe you won’t be sobbing, but I suspect she’ll find her way into your heart.” She took a sip of her drink. “So you’re probably wondering what I wanted to talk about.”
“I am.”
“It’s the wedding. You know it’s at the end of the month, right?”
“I received your charming email invite, so yes.”
“Good. I was hoping you could help with that.”
“I don’t understand. With what?”
“The wedding. Planning it, really.”
Mathias nearly came out of his chair. “You’re getting married in less than four weeks and you haven’t planned your wedding?”
He was aware that he sounded painfully like a woman, but even he knew that weddings took months to pull together. There were a million details about which he knew nothing.
“I have my dress,” Maya said helpfully. “That’s something. Originally Del and I were just going to do the justice of the peace thing but we’ve been talking and we want a traditional wedding. There’s a business in town—Weddings Out of the Box. I’ve spoken with the owner. Do you know her? Is she the one engaged to Nick?”
“She is and you should be talking to her, not me.”
“I’m going to but I was hoping you would go to the meetings, too. Be my representative in person.”
Mathias wanted to writhe in his chair. He wanted to stand up and say there was no way in hell. “Why not ask Nick?”
“Because he and Pallas are a couple and he won’t tell her if I don’t like something. Mathias, please? I’ve seen your work and I like how you create. Your pieces make me feel really good inside. I want that for my wedding.”
Was there a conspiracy? First his mother and now his future sister-in-law, both wanting something from him. Something he didn’t want to give. Something he should absolutely refuse.
“Please,” Maya said quietly. “I need you, Mathias. I need your help to make this happen.”
He swore under his breath before glaring at her. “You’re going to owe me, Maya.”
She laughed and clapped her hands together. “Forever, I swear. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have the first meeting set up already. I’ll email you the information. You’re the best.”
“Yeah, yeah. Sell it somewhere else. I meant what I said—you owe me.”
She blew him a kiss and hung up. Mathias stared at the screen before closing the program and reaching for his cell phone.
“Hello?”
Some people’s voices were distorted over the phone, but not Carol’s. That combination of slightly sexy, slightly sweet came through perfectly. Mathias told himself to ignore the automatic tightening in his gut.
“It’s Mathias. I need your help.”
“Don’t you want to start by asking about my day? Or commenting on the weather?”
“Not really.”
“You’re such a guy. Fine. What’s wrong? And if it’s about Sophie, I’m going to tell you to suck it up. She’s a sweet little girl and you are more than capable of taking care of her.”
“Thanks for your undying emotional support,” he said drily. “I’m calling because my future sister-in-law wants me to help plan her wedding. I don’t know what she’s thinking, but I would be a disaster and I need you to help me.”
“Shouldn’t you call Violet? She’s the one with the style sense.”
“I don’t want Violet.”
He spoke without thinking and then was stuck with the truth hanging out there—flapping in the breeze. He wanted Carol, he had for a long time. Things being what they were, he wasn’t going to do anything about the wanting, but helping him with the wedding wasn’t that. It was...
He realized he’d called Carol without a second thought, without considering who would be better. Why was that? Maybe because of the dreams, or maybe because...
“My sister will be heartbroken.” Carol sounded more cheerful than upset, then she laughed. “Well, crap. I just realized you’re asking me because I’m a woman. Just to be clear, being female doesn’t mean we’re all born with an innate ability to plan a wedding.”
“Sure you are. It comes with having breasts.”
“You’re the most annoying man on the planet.”
“So that’s a yes?”
She sighed. “Yes, Mathias, I will help you plan the wedding. I assume it’s in town?”
“At Weddings Out of the Box.”
“Perfect! Pallas will make sure we don’t mess up.”
“I’ll let you know when we have our first meeting. And thanks, Carol.”
“You’re welcome.”
She hung up. He did the same and left his phone on the desk before walking back to the glass piece he’d been working on. The small giraffe was maybe eight inches tall. The features were all there, but the little statue was static. He wanted movement and didn’t know how to make that happen.
Nick walked into the studio. “Hey. Didn’t you have a call with Maya?”
“She wants me to help with her wedding.”
Nick grinned. “Better you than me.”
“Apparently. Obviously I’m the one she trusts.”
“Or she figures you’re the soft touch.”
“Either way, I’m the good brother.”
Mathias studied the giraffe before tossing it into the recycling bin where it shattered into dozens of pieces.
“You gotta stop doing that,” Nick told him. “It was good.”
“Not good enough. If it’s not perfect, it can’t live.”
“Can’t or won’t?” Nick asked.
Mathias ignored the question.
“What about those?” His brother pointed to the shelves filled with imperfect pieces. Plates that weren’t exactly round or vases that sloped on one side. “They’re still alive.”
“Not alive, just not worth destroying.” They were pedestrian and didn’t matter. The everyday stuff was simply how he made his living. It wasn’t art.
Natalie came into the studio with Sophie on her leash. “I have to go run some errands,” she said, crossing to him. “You’re going to have to deal with your dog.”
“She’s not my dog,” Mathias muttered, only to have Sophie shoot him a wounded look. As if she’d understood what he was saying.
He took the leash. Sophie turned her back to him. He sighed. Why was this happening to him? First the dog and now a wedding. It wasn’t fair.
“Fine,” he grumbled. “I’m sorry. You’re a good girl.”
Sophie still kept her back to him.
Giving in to the inevitable, Mathias opened one of his desk drawers and pulled out a bag of dog treats. Sophie spun to face him, her ears forward, her tail going about eighty miles an hour.
“Apparently you’re forgiven,” Nick pointed out. “It’s good to see you finally in a relationship.”
CHAPTER FIVE (#ud45861f3-7c9d-5a70-a6ed-79e3e914f669)
THE SWEET DREAMS INN off of Eternal Drive was the stuff of nightmares—at least for Ulrich. His plan had been to leave Happily Inc after he concluded his business with Violet Lund—thief and swindler—return to Los Angeles and catch a flight back to England. Only nothing had gone according to plan.
His meeting with the surprisingly attractive and very animated woman had left him feeling both awkward and confused. She had been able to produce a bill of sale for the buttons his grandmother had sent, and buttons were not what had been stolen from the house. Was she not the thief and if not her, then who?
Ulrich had driven to LA only to reschedule his flight and return to Happily Inc. The Sweet Dreams Inn had been the first hotel he’d seen, so he’d pulled in. Too late he’d discovered it was a themed hotel with each of the rooms representing something ridiculous. For reasons not completely clear to him, he’d agreed to a couple of nights in the Drive-In Room, which was how he found himself with a mattress fit into a red, 1959 Cadillac convertible, a television the size of a movie screen and a sitting room decorated like a concession stand. Even he had to admit the car was beautiful—with big fins and white-walled tires. Still, it wasn’t where one expected to sleep. Regardless of the strange surroundings, the Wi-Fi was excellent and the kitchen delivered meals to his room.
Ulrich had spent nearly a day researching Violet Lund and antique buttons only to come to the conclusion that it was more than possible that she had been telling the truth. There was money to be made in the world of buttons. Even more troubling, it seemed Miss Violet Lund was nothing more than a very honest shopkeeper.
She had no criminal record, no trouble with the IRS, not even a ticket. He’d used several online sites to investigate her and she’d come back annoyingly normal and law-abiding. How could he have been so wrong?
He was never wrong—he made it a point to be sure of things. He’d only been seriously fooled once in his life and that had been by his ex-wife, Penelope. In that case, the deception had been deliberate—at least on her part. Thinking about that didn’t help him at all, and he mentally turned his back on his former wife. The bigger question was what to do about Violet. He’d slept on the information, then had woken up in the morning with no clear idea of what to do next.
After showering, he ordered breakfast and knew he had to come up with a plan—only he had no idea what it would be. He opened another file on his computer and reviewed the list of missing items provided to him by his housekeeper and his own investigation.
The trouble had started three months ago when Ulrich had ordered a complete inventory of the house, including the attics. The project had taken over a month and they’d discovered some truly wonderful pieces. But many things had also been missing.
The public rooms were closely monitored and protected, and the guests who stayed in the hotel wing didn’t have access to the private residence without an escort. The previous inventory had been conducted by his father, nearly five years before. Ulrich had no way of knowing what had been taken when. Or so he’d thought.
His grandmother’s new secretary had offered a possible explanation when she’d told him about the packages being sent to one Violet Lund in Happily Inc, California. He’d kept watch and had seen the last one mailed himself. He’d guessed on the delivery date and when it had aligned with his trip to Los Angeles, he’d decided to make a slight detour to confront the thief. All for naught.
His cell phone rang. He glanced at his watch and calculated the time difference, then answered the call.
“Please tell me you’re having tea. Good, English tea. What they serve here is dreadful.”
His grandmother laughed. “Poor Ulrich, lost in America. I wish I could say the adventure will do you good, but we both know that’s not the case. How is Los Angeles? Is it sunny this morning? Are you staying by the ocean? I have to say, the Pacific is my favorite of all the oceans.”
Ulrich briefly thought about not telling his grandmother where he was, then dismissed the idea. He was a man of his word and as such, truthful in all things. At least when it came to those he loved. As that list seemed to begin and end with his grandmother—in terms of people and not places—he had to come clean.
“I’m not in Los Angeles. I’m in Happily Inc.”
