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A Table for Two, page 1007
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright © 2022 by Grand Central Publishing
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Lister, Sheryl, author.
Title: A table for two / Sheryl Lister.
Description: First edition. | New York : Forever, 2022. | Series: Firefly lake; 1
Identifiers: LCCN 2022004308 | ISBN 9781538755273 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781538755266 (ebook)
Subjects: LCGFT: Romance fiction. | Novels.
Classification: LCC PS3612.I863 T33 2022 | DDC 813/.6--dc23/eng/20220225
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022004308
ISBNs: 9781538755273 (paperback), 9781538755266 (ebook)
E3-20220606-DA-PC-ORI
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
RECIPES
Acknowledgments
Discover More
About the Author
For Shellie and Michelle,
my sisters of the heart.
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Tap here to learn more.
Prologue
Mmm. The taste, the texture. It’s rich, decadent, satisfying…almost orgasmic.”
Serenity Wheeler chuckled at her neighbor and friend, Andrea Cunningham. “That good, huh? Never heard my truffles compared to an orgasm, but I’ll take it.” She bit into her own, thinking it would be the only way she’d experience one these days.
Andrea stuffed the remainder of the truffle into her mouth. “Please. This is just like every other thing you make. I’m so going to miss these dinners and desserts.”
She frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“I got the promotion!” Andrea said with a huge grin.
Serenity returned her smile. “Oh my goodness, Andrea, I’m so happy for you.” She leaned over and hugged her. The two other women seated around the table, Natasha Baldwin and Dana Stephens, expressed excited congratulations as well.
“We need to toast your good news.” Natasha lifted her wineglass. “Wishing you the best of everything in your new position as Vineyard Foods’ latest regional manager.” The four women touched glasses.
Andrea took a sip of her wine. “Thanks. I’m really excited, but there’s something else. The promotion means I’ll be moving to the Seattle office.”
They all froze. Dana slowly lowered her glass. “Moving? You can’t leave.”
“My sentiments exactly,” Serenity said. When Serenity had moved from San Diego to the small town of Firefly Lake, California, six years ago, Andrea had been a godsend. She would be sad to see her go.
“Believe me, I’d rather stay here. I don’t know what I’m going to do without our semimonthly supper club nights. Serenity, you know I live for these fabulous meals you always serve.”
Serenity chuckled. What had started out as a way for her to share her love of cooking with friends had morphed into so much more over the past few years. Andrea had even nicknamed their get-togethers Serenity’s Supper Club because she said they reminded her of the old underground places where people spent hours eating, drinking, listening to music, and generally having a good time.
“I just wish Terri could’ve been here tonight for the announcement.” Terri Rhodes was the fifth member of their group. She worked as an ER nurse at the local hospital and was missing the dinner because she had to sub for another nurse who’d called in sick.
“I’ll make sure she’s off for your going-away dinner,” Serenity assured her. “So does this mean you’re going to put the house up for sale?”
“No. I talked my brother into moving here because I don’t want to leave Nana alone.” Andrea shifted in her seat to face Serenity. “I hope this isn’t an imposition, but, Serenity, could you do me a favor and help him get settled in? He’s a city boy through and through, and making this transition is going to be a big shock for him,” she added with a laugh.
Serenity met Natasha’s smiling face and knew exactly what her best friend was thinking. From the moment she’d come to town, Natasha had tried—and failed—to get Serenity to date again. Jumping back on the horse was how she’d phrased it, but Serenity wasn’t interested. Andrea had mentioned her brother a time or two, and Serenity seemed to recall her saying something about him not wanting to be in a committed relationship. In Serenity’s mind, that spelled trouble. She’d finally found a Zen-like balance in her life and had no intention of letting anyone upset that equilibrium. However, Andrea had been a wonderful friend, so she couldn’t deny the request. “Sure. I’ll be happy to help out if he needs something. I’ll even invite him to a supper club dinner.”
“Oh, that would be great.” Andrea hugged Serenity. “I know he’ll enjoy it.”
She smiled. “I hope so.” She also hoped he understood the only thing she planned to offer was a neighborly acquaintance.
Chapter 1
Pay up.”
Gabriel Cunningham glanced briefly at the door where his three best friends stood, then went back to connecting the ports on his computer. “What?”
Brent Ward sauntered over to the desk. “I bet Darius and Glenn that you’d be in here working.”
“I’m not working. I was just setting everything up.”
Both Darius Houston and Glenn Turner shook their heads. “Mm-hmm. Five more minutes and you would’ve been knee-deep in coding. You could’ve at least waited until we were gone,” Darius said. They always gave Gabriel grief for working long hours.
“Sorry. You’re right.” His three friends had been nice enough to help him move from Atlanta to Firefly Lake. The least he could do in return was see them off before he jumped into things.
Glenn propped a hip on the desk and folded his arms. “It’s Saturday, Gabe. Being here is supposed to give you a chance to learn balance and relax more, not continue on the same path to burnout you were on at home. And you agreed to take off two or three weeks. You haven’t taken a vacation in years.”
“No, I moved here because my sister got a promotion, and I agreed to look out for Nana. And I consented to cut my work hours down for a few weeks, not cut them completely.” He hadn’t really wanted to leave Atlanta, but he agreed that someone needed to keep an eye on their seventy-eight-year-old grandmother. Andrea had uprooted her life several years ago and stepped in to care for Nana after a stroke had left her with weakness on one side. Although she’d made a complete recovery, neither had wanted her to be alone. His sister had put her dreams on hold, and now, at thirty-two and four years his junior, it was time for her to live them. And as she’d pointed out during their phone conversation two weeks ago, Gabriel could do his software engineering job anywhere, particularly since he owned the company with Brent and Darius. And, yes, he’d been working…a lot…okay, nonstop for the past couple of years, but work helped him forget about things he’d rather not remember.
Brent waved a dismissive hand. “Semantics. The goal is the same. I agree with Glenn, and since he’s the doctor here, he knows what he’s talking about.” Glenn worked as a physician in his father’s family practice.
“Thank you,” Glenn said. “I didn’t go to school all those years for nothing. The slower pace of a small town will do you some good.”
“Whatever.” Gabriel stood. “I don’t know why I keep y’all around,” he said, trying to hide his smile. They’d all met at Morehouse, pledged the same fraternit
y, and were as close as brothers. No matter how much they got on each other’s nerves at times, he knew there was nothing they wouldn’t do for each other.
Darius shrugged. “Somebody’s got to keep you in line.” They all laughed. “Speaking of small towns, are there any women here under the age of fifty? We’ve been here for twenty-four hours, and I don’t think I’ve seen one. The two women I saw down the block were definitely over forty.”
Chuckling, Gabriel said, “I have no idea. Why is that always your first question every time we go somewhere?”
“Because I like women. And you ever know when I might luck up on my Mrs. Right. I can’t leave Glenn in marriage-land all alone.”
Glenn grinned. “Don’t hate. But he does have a point. At least Darius and Brent make time to play, but you work all the time. When was the last time you had a date?”
“None of your business,” Gabriel grumbled. His love life—or lack of one—had been an ongoing conversation since he’d broken up with his ex a couple of years ago. Sure, he’d been brokenhearted and had buried himself in his job to cover the hurt. Though he wasn’t consumed by the pain anymore, he hadn’t changed his work habits. He found the long hours kept his mind off his nearly nonexistent social life. He dated sporadically and rarely asked a woman out more than once.
“Now that we agree Gabriel doesn’t have a love life,” Brent said, “do you know anything about the neighbor Drea mentioned?”
“Nothing other than she’s supposed to be a nice lady who does this dinner thing a couple of times a month with a small group of friends. Drea said she can throw down in the kitchen. This morning when I went out to the car, I found a note from her inviting me to a welcome dinner tonight. Nana’s invited, too.” Gabriel considered himself a foodie of sorts and enjoyed great food. He’d go once to check it out and hoped his sister was right.
Darius made a face. “Nana’s going, too? So, basically, that means she’s probably old enough to be your mother or grandmother. I don’t know any women our age who’d be cooking like that for people on a regular basis.”
“I guess I’ll find out tonight and let you know.”
Glenn glanced at his watch. “We’d better get on the road. I checked the traffic and it’s a little slow, and I want to get to the airport in plenty of time. I’m eager to get back home to my beautiful wife.” He and his wife had been married for only two years and were still in the honeymoon phase.
“What time does the flight leave?”
“Five. It’s going to be a long night because we don’t get in until early tomorrow morning.”
“I hear you.” Firefly Lake was about half an hour from Napa Valley, and the closest major airport was in Oakland. The flight wouldn’t leave for another four hours, but depending on the traffic, it could take two or three hours to get there. “I appreciate you guys making the trip to help me out.” He’d hired a moving company to transport a few larger items like his bed, his favorite recliner, large flat-screen TV, and his gym equipment. The guys had helped him out by renting an SUV, and between that and his Acura SUV, they’d managed to transport the rest of the things he would need for the duration of his stay. He followed his friends to the living room where they’d left their bags, then out to the car.
Brent clapped Gabriel on the shoulder. “That’s what friends do. I hope you enjoy small-town living.”
Gabriel scanned the neighborhood. The house was located in one of the newer subdivisions and had a more modern feel, but it still screamed small town. “Yeah.” Temporarily. He hadn’t told his sister, but he couldn’t see himself relegated to this place forever. Gabriel had paid the lease on his condo for the next four months, and the guys would keep an eye on his place until Gabriel returned to Atlanta. He planned to return by fall and figured he’d use these three summer months to convince his grandmother to move back with him. He didn’t think it would be too hard.
“We’ll talk on Monday about the new account,” Darius said. “I’m thinking around noon or one since you’ll be behind three hours.”
He’d forgotten about the time difference. “Sounds good. I can send the video conference link tomorrow evening.”
Brent and Darius nodded. The three men loaded the bags into the trunk, then after a round of handshakes and one-arm hugs, climbed in and drove off.
After taking another look around the area that would be his short-term home, Gabriel went back into the house. As soon as he closed the door, his cell rang. He dug it out of his pocket and sighed.
“Yes, Drea.”
Andrea’s laughter came through the earpiece. “Hey, big brother. Just checking to see if you’ve gotten settled in.”
“I’ve talked to you three times in less than twenty-four hours, and the answer is still the same.”
“Okay, okay. Have you met Serenity yet?”
“No, but she invited me and Nana to dinner tonight.”
“Oh, good. Nana came with me a few times, so she’ll be able to introduce you to everyone. You’re in for a treat. The woman can cook her butt off, and I know how much you like to eat.”
He had to smile at that. “Hmm. Is she a chef?” Gabriel stretched out on the sofa in the living room.
“No. She’s a nurse. When she first came to town, she worked in the hospital’s ER department. Now she works in Dr. Jacobs’s office. Serenity said she was getting too old for those erratic hours.”
“Isn’t that Nana’s doctor?”
“Yep.”
Great. Darius was right. The woman is probably pushing fifty. He’d be polite, but he didn’t plan to spend hours with a bunch of old ladies. Changing the subject, he asked, “How are you liking the new job?”
“So far, so good. A lot of training for now, though. I just hate that I didn’t get a chance to see you and show you around. Things are a lot more updated since the last time you spent more than a day or so there.”
“Same here.” The siblings had planned to spend a week together before Andrea began her new position, but the company moved up her start date. “And what are you talking about? I was here for Thanksgiving.”
“Ha! Is that what you called it? You were here about as long as a flight layover. You got in on Wednesday evening and were gone Friday morning. And please don’t try to tell me you had to work because nobody works the day after Thanksgiving unless you’re in retail with all the Black Friday sales.”
Okay, he’d concede to her that point. Growing up, Gabriel had never taken to the town and whenever his family visited, he’d been ready to leave almost immediately. For a city boy, those week-long visits to a place where everything shut down when the streetlights came on had lasted a week too long in his estimation.
“By the way, Serenity said she’d be available if you needed help with anything.”
“That’s nice of her, but I should be able to manage. I would like to take a bottle of wine for dinner. Do you know what she likes?”
“That’s a great idea. I’ll text you the names of a few.”
“Thanks, Sis. I need to get going. I want to do some grocery shopping before picking up Nana.” Last night he’d stopped at a store in Oakland and bought only enough to get him through the night.
“All right. Let me know how it goes. I promise I won’t call you for at least a week,” she added with a giggle.
Gabriel smiled. “Liar. You won’t be able to hold out until Monday.” With their parents gone, he’d become even more protective of her, and they rarely went a week without talking, either by text, phone, or FaceTime.
“Oh, hush. You wouldn’t know what to do if you didn’t hear my lovely voice on the regular.”
He laughed. “Yeah, whatever. You’re a pain in the butt sometimes, but I love you anyway.”
“You’d better. Love you, big brother. Later.”
Gabriel disconnected and thought about how proud he was of his sister. When their parents had died in a car accident eight years ago, Andrea hadn’t hesitated in packing up and moving to Firefly Lake. Their parents had purchased this house so their family would have somewhere to stay during their semiannual visits when Nana and Grandpa’s small two-bedroom home had become too cramped as he and Andrea had gotten older. His parents had eventually relocated to the town a few years before their deaths, shortly after Grandpa passed away. He took another glance around. Although he had always been in a rush to get back to Atlanta then, he had to admit there had been a lot of laughter between these walls.
