The Tea Shop on Lavender Lane (Life in Icicle Falls) by Sheila Roberts Page A

demanded.
    “Hey, I had a late night.”
    So had Todd. He hadn’t gotten home from work until after two, but he was awake. “Yeah, well, it’s time to get up, Sleeping Ugly. It’s Mother’s Day.”
    “What, you want me to send you a bouquet?” joked Devon.
    “No. I want you to get your butt out of bed and go over to Mom’s and take her out to eat, dickhead.”
    “Hey, I was going to go over there.”
    “Don’t sucker her into cooking for you, either.”
    “What do you think I am?”
    Selfish, irresponsible.
    “I’m gonna go by and surprise her, take her out to dinner.”
    Now that Todd had called and reminded him. Sheesh. How could anyone manage to forget Mother’s Day? There were ads promoting it everywhere you turned.
    “Hey, I’m glad you called,” Devon said.
    Uh-oh. Todd gritted his teeth. Here it comes.
    “I’m having kind of a cash-flow problem. I was hoping you could float me a loan for a couple of weeks.”
    Oh, no. Had he lost his job? “You still working?”
    “Yeah, of course. It’s just that, well, I had a losing streak at poker, and I owe this guy some money.”
    “Ask Dad.”
    “Come on. You know I can’t.”
    Yes, their father would draw the line at paying a gambling debt. “You can be stupid with your money,” the old man liked to say, “but I won’t give you mine to be stupid with.” He’d said as much to Todd when he’d wanted to buy The Man Cave. It had almost killed him later to admit that Todd had made a smart investment.
    “How much?” Todd said, resigned to his fate.
    “Just a couple hundred. Well, three to be exact.”
    Todd swore under his breath.
    “I’ll pay you back, come payday,” Devon said immediately.
    Todd doubted that. His brother forgot more debts than he remembered. “Okay. I’ll wire it to you.”
    “Hey, thanks.”
    “But only after I hear from Mom that you took her out for Mother’s Day.”
    “I said I was going to.”
    “Yeah, well, this will make sure you do.”
    “You’re a real shit sometimes, you know that?” Devon snapped.
    “I try,” Todd said and ended the call. And there was another codependent moment to deposit in the old memory bank.
    Family ties—they could strangle a guy. In his opinion, romance writers and the movie folks both did their part to keep the propaganda going, convincing people that a happy life meant the house with the white picket fence and the dog crapping in the yard and the kids running around spilling stuff and fighting. And Mom and Dad in the middle of it all like the center of a wheel, stable and content and keeping everyone together. He figured it worked that way for some people, but if you asked him, the whole family thing was the world’s biggest crapshoot.
    He was in no hurry to throw the dice. It was a lot of grief and hassle all for a cheap tie once a year on Father’s Day. Or, in the case of his mom, some flowers and a day spent hoping she’d see one of her sons. Nope, no hurry at all. Maintaining a relationship with a woman that lasted longer than six months was a big enough goal.
    And definitely a worthwhile one when it came to Cecily, he thought with a smile. Heck, with her he could even look beyond that six-month marker and still see them together. But the house, the picket fence, the tie, the kids? Okay, he wasn’t ready to look quite that far into the future yet. Too damned scary.
    * * *
    The next morning Cecily ran into Todd Black at Bavarian Brews. Funny how they both seemed to come in around the same time every morning lately. She wasn’t doing this consciously, was she?
    “Are you stalking me?” he teased.
    “I was just going to ask you the same thing.”
    “Well, here’s to mutual stalking,” he said and touched his coffee cup to hers. “So, how was your weekend?” he asked casually.
    “Great. My sister’s all moved in.”
    “Good. And how was Saturday?”
    “Very nice,” she said. The words were barely out of her mouth before a vision of herself on a gangplank in a