All's Fair in Love and Chocolate (Marietta Chocolate Wars #1) - Amy Andrews Page 0,14

momma pinning her hopes on Viv and being chased out of town with a rolling pin when her secret marriage-and-grandbaby-plans failed to launch.

Viv didn’t have a problem with marriage and babies—she’d just never seen them as part of her picture. Never met someone who’d even tempted her to rethink.

Picking up her wine she swallowed down the last couple of mouthfuls, the glass making a slight scraping noise as she set it down on the wooden tabletop. “Well, this has been—” Educational “—lovely. But…” She scanned the bar area quickly, the feeling of eyes on her not pleasant. “I think it’s time I headed back to the cottage.”

“Okay.” He pushed his empty beer bottle to the center of the table. “I’ll walk you.”

“No. It’s fine. It’s a five-minute walk.”

That smile was back on his lips as he made a chicken noise. “Bok, bok, bok.”

“Really?” Viv shot him an impatient look.

“I’m offering to walk you home like a perfect gentleman. That’s it. If you had schoolbooks I’d offer to carry them.”

Viv laughed at the old-fashioned notion. “You shouldn’t be seen out and about with public enemy number one and I think we’ve caused enough gossip for one day, don’t you?”

He gave a half laugh. “Look…this will blow over. Sure, Marietta has its share of gossip and those who peddle it. But, trust me, you’ll quickly find that it’s a really friendly little town that will welcome you with open arms. If you let it.”

Except letting people in was Viv’s problem. Her transient lifestyle had been antithetical to forming relationships and she’d become a self-fulfilling prophecy, holding herself aloof from getting too close to anyone.

“Okay.” She slid out from the booth and stood. To her relief Reuben didn’t push the whole walking home thing. “Opening day is Monday if you’re interested.”

“I can’t wait to sample your delights,” he said, his smile full of innuendo that gained him another eye roll.

But, the truth was, Viv couldn’t wait for him to sample them either. She just wasn’t sure despite their Vivian pledge that she was thinking about the chocolate.

Chapter Three

Monday was slooooow.

The slowest opening day Viv had ever been part of and this was her eleventh store in the past decade. She’d become their youngest ever manager at twenty-two. She’d applied to dozens of colleges near and far during her final year of high school. Denver had been the first to offer and she’d taken it without thinking twice or waiting for any other colleges to throw their hat into the ring.

Viv hadn’t cared where she went as long as she went.

She’d been in Denver for ten days when she landed a part-time job at Delish and had worked there all through her college years and, when she’d had her brand-new sparkling business degree in hand, she’d been promoted to assistant manager. A year later, the top spot had become hers when the manager had left permanently to have a baby.

She’d spent two years at the store and taken two trips to Belgium to see how the chocolate was made in that time and, when the second Denver store had opened and the regular new store representative had taken ill the night before, Viv had been the closest manager to step into that role and she’d done it with aplomb and pizazz and had been doing the role ever since.

So…she’d seen a lot of opening days and this one was a real doozy.

She’d come in on the weekend to make sure every shelf sparkled, every display lured and invited. This morning she’d come in early to cut her samples and place them temptingly on the main counter, which was an elegant, brushed pewter trimmed with polished brass that she could see her face in. All the fixtures were smoky glass with brass trim, which was elegant and understated beneath the warm yellow lighting that glowed overhead.

Viv had placed bunches of rich, matte, honeycomb-gold-colored helium balloons in the window and at various spots around the store. Not tacky dime store balloons, the kind to be found at expensive society weddings and sophisticated photo shoots. And there was, of course, the normal discounts and loss leaders on offer as there always was the first week of any store opening.

But…there’d only been three people in all morning. And they’d not been locals.

There’d been plenty of frowns shot at her through the windows, the odd small groups of two and three standing outside clearly gossiping and saying loudly they were off to the Copper Mountain chocolate shop. Or people