Jessie Belle: The Women of Merryton - Book One by Jennifer Peel Read Free Book Online

didn’t seem
capable at the moment, but it sounded like the old me and I missed me.
    “I
was thinking about joining your baseball team this summer. Shane mentioned you
had a couple spots you needed to fill. The thing is, I would need someone to
watch Emmy during some of the games and maybe even during the practices.”
    “I
would love to.” I had been worried we wouldn’t get enough guys together this
year to form a team. I had been sponsoring a team for the city’s adult summer
league for the past four years. Shane, Abby’s husband, was the team captain. A
couple of our regulars couldn’t play and we’d been scrambling to find willing
and able bodies. We were determined to take down Riley Insurance. The last two
years we had met them in the championship only to lose. Landon Riley was going
to have his over-inflated ego knocked down a few notches this year.
    “That
would be great, thank you,” he responded.
    “No.
Thank you. You play well, right?”
    He
chuckled some. “I know my way around a ball field.”
    “Perfect.”
I smiled and then stood up. I was still hungry and didn’t want people to start
talking. More and more I was beginning to believe the rumors about Easton and
his wife were true, and I had a feeling that their marriage was probably in
more trouble than mine. I didn’t need to add any more rumors to the mill. “I’ll
see you later.”
    “Hey,”
he called after I had turned around, “Do you think you could talk Blake into
being the second guy?”
    I
shook my head sullenly. “No.” I turned back around before he could respond. I
had wanted Blake to play every year. I thought it would be fun. And it was fun.
I loved spending some of my summer at the ballpark with my friends, but I
wanted Blake to be part of it. I wanted him to be with me at team parties and I
wouldn’t mind seeing him in baseball pants. I knew he would do them justice.
But every year he had declined, citing it was his busiest time of year. I had
no plans to ask him this year.
    On
that dismal note, I said hi to a few more regulars and then made my way to the
kitchen. There I found my staff busy as bees. Aaron was overseeing it all and
he looked surprised to see me.
    “How’s
it going?” Aaron asked.
    “It’s
going.” I smiled. “I was just coming back to say hi and perhaps whip up a
smoothie. I also wanted to talk to you about my ideas for a new fall lineup.”
    He
looked pleased that I wanted to include him.
    I
knew I should let him do what I hired him to do. Letting go was hard,
especially when it seemed like there was nothing else to hold on to.
    I
spent the rest of the afternoon with Aaron discussing my graham treats and
ideas. He added his own ideas—individualized cheesecakes with graham cracker
crusts. We already served triple-chocolate mousse pies that way and they were a
big seller. I liked the addition, plus my mom had a killer recipe I could steal
and perhaps put my own spin on. I still needed to work on both the graham
cookie and the cannoli shell recipes.
    On
my way home from work, I stopped by City Market and picked up some additional
ingredients for my experiments. I planned on making a mess in my kitchen
tonight. I had nothing better going on, except maybe reruns of NCIS . I
had a tiny crush on Mark Harmon. He had aged to perfection. Michael Weatherly
wasn’t half bad, either.
    I
walked into my empty house and, after pulling up season three of NCIS and hitting play, I immediately went to work. Even though I wouldn’t be
watching it, the sound was comforting. I hated always feeling like I was alone
at home.
    I
started out by making a cookie using graham flour, but it was too soft and
there was no way it would stand up to the dark chocolate. I called my mom to
get her take and she suggested adding oatmeal to the next batch to firm it up
some. While it did add some firmness I didn’t like the texture or the taste.
    I
pondered on what to try next and ate dinner, drooling over Mark Harmon a bit.
It was