the throw pillows. She had a headache, a stomachache, and a date lined up for every night of the following three weeks, five for this coming weekend. It wasn’t enough that Jeff was enjoying their time-share in the Keys with his new wife, or that when they came home Sara would be cooking in Lexi’s kitchen, serving her customers her special menu. Now Lexi was back in St. Helena, a divorcée with a grandmother who thought she was too pathetic to get her own dates.
“I don’t think chocolate’s going to fix this one,” Pricilla said, sounding bewildered by her own statement.
Lexi pulled the pillow off her face and glanced up to see her grandmother in the doorway, all soft curves and frosted tips. Wearing a concert tee and a black pleather skort, she looked more like a geriatric roadie than one of the most distinguished pâtissiers in the country.
She came bustling over, two teacups dangling from one hand and a bottle of Angelica in the other. It was barely past the lunch hour, too early to start drinking. Especially since Pricilla put her own Parisian twist on her Angelica, meaning she fortified it with cognac so it was strong enough to cure copper pots.
“I was hoping that the party would have lasted a little longer,” she said, setting the teacups next to a plate of miniquiches on the coffee table. She filled each cup to the rim before swatting Lexi’s legs off the couch and taking up residence in the now-vacant spot. “You shooed everyone away before Chad Stevens showed up.”
“Chad Stevens?” The guy who used to sit across from her in homeroom? He was popular, good looking, played football, and smelled like Ovaltine. He also had boundary issues, meaning he took issue when other people expressed that they had boundaries.
“He’s been asking about your arrival for weeks. Did I mention that he works at Stevens, Stevens, and Stevens?”
“He’s a lawyer?” The idea that a guy like Chad, even though he came from a family of suits, was a legitimate part of the judicial process made her pick up her cup by the dainty handle and chug.
If it was afternoon in St. Helena, it was happy hour in New York.
“And quite the looker, if you ask me. Tall, dark, wears custom suits. I always liked a man who took the time to have his clothes tailored. Your grandpa, God rest his soul, always wore his clothes pressed and tailored.”
“I thought Grandpa owned a tire shop.”
“Didn’t mean that he lacked the respect to dress like a gentleman,” Pricilla chided.
“Grandma, it’s sweet that you went to all the trouble to throw me a party and”—she choked on the next words—“arranged for me to meet some nice men, but—”
Pricilla grabbed a quiche and, before Lexi could seal her lips closed, shoved it in, silencing any further disagreement. “There’s more on that Match site. After ChiChi and Lucinda helped me post your profile, we had nearly a hundred winks—and all local.”
Oh God, there were more men? She needed another refill. And a quiche.
“You don’t even own a computer.”
“I do now. Gabe’s new wife, Regan, has us ladies all teched up and web savvy. I even have a smartphone for when I’m out and want to use the Twitter. My handle is HotBuns, one word with the circled little a before it, if you want to follow me. I’m up to seven thousand followers.”
“Grandma, I’m just not ready to jump back into dating yet,” Lexi said, and lame excuse or not, it was true.
After Lexi interrupted the great basting debacle of her marriage, her confidence took a serious hit. Up until that moment, she’d assumed Jeffery’s lack of interest in sex was due to the long hours he was working, not that her sex appeal lacked interest.
She used to consider herself a romantic. Not anymore. She’d been there, done that, already returned the T-shirt.
“And going out with a bunch of guys that my grandma set me up with will make me look even more pathetic,” she added.
“Oh, honey. I didn’t place that ad because I didn’t think you could find your own gentleman friend. I did it because I knew you would bury yourself in work and spend every night alone in this apartment wondering what went wrong in New York.” Pricilla set her cup down and wrapped a meaty arm around Lexi’s shoulders, tugging her close. “But I’d like to hear why you think you’re pathetic.”
Lexi wrapped her arms around Pricilla’s waist and snuggled