Getting over your first crush seems impossible - especially when he's the star of the world's biggest movie franchise.
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Jess Wheeler is happily single and perfectly content with her simple life in Hemlock Landing, South Carolina, where all she kn...
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Teresa and I stay up way too late, swapping stories in an ice cream-fueled reverie that only ends when my mother gets home with Kayley – who still has Bay-shaped stars in her eyes – and demands that everyone provide her with some peace and quiet so that she can sleep and prepare herself to deal with the upcoming week. I can't blame her for feeling stressed; that seems to be going around a lot lately.
My friend and I say goodnight before she retires to the guest room and I go to pass out in my bed. Despite my anxieties about the Homecoming Week festivities starting in earnest tomorrow, I sleep like a baby and only wake up when Teresa knocks on my door in the morning to inform me that she forgot to pack toothpaste.
"You can use mine," I grumble, blinking sleep from my eyes, and I'm pretty sure it comes out sounding like, "Oogan ooze my."
"Okay, thanks," she says, trying to close my door as quietly as possible, but the damage is done when I glance at the clock and realize that it's coming up on nine in the morning. Usually, ten a.m. is when I head over to the B&B to make up the rooms and check in on the chef. But right now, the B&B is the last place I want to be.
I'm so tired that I'm nearly in tears by the time I get dressed, freshen up in the bathroom, and join Teresa and Kayley in the kitchen. Cody towers over the stove, cooking something that smells delicious, and a surge of appreciation wakes me up a little.
"Wow, sleepyhead. Looks like someone had a wild night," he teases, the corners of his eyes crinkling as he flips what looks like a slice of french toast with a bright yellow spatula.
"We all did," I respond, yawning.
"Jess, you didn't tell me that Cody cooks you breakfast every morning," Teresa says, taking a sip from a steaming mug. "It took my parents years just to buy a coffee maker."
"That's because he doesn't," I say. "He's just showing off."
"More like pulling out all the stops," Cody says with a smile. "It's not every day that Teresa Liu is in town, right?" Teresa gives me an Is he the best, or what? look as he circles the table and divides eight pieces of french toast between four plates.
And, I have to agree with Teresa: Cody is the best. Ever since the fateful day when he was dispatched to put out a kitchen fire at the B&B, he's been my mother's saving grace. When my biological father abandoned us both, we were destitute, even having to sell our house and move into the B&B for a few years to make ends meet. But Cody swooped in like a real-life superhero and – literally – swept my mother off of her feet, showing us that it was still possible to be a family and to feel secure. They fell fast for each other, like characters in the cheesiest romance novel, and pretty soon afterwards we moved into this house together. Business improved, my mother starting smiling again, Kayley was born, and the rest is history.
"Where's Mom?" I ask, realizing that a plate isn't set out for her. Usually, she's accustomed to an early bird schedule so she can spend some time with Cody before she goes into work. As a firefighter, he has to work nights: basically, he has the total opposite schedule from all of us, which is why he looks so tired right now. And which is why it's so sweet of him to cook breakfast for all of us instead of collapsing in bed.
