Nobody Does it Better Read online

  Patrick Ashford laughed as he shook his head. “You think you had short notice; I was getting ready to leave for work when they called. So instead of driving to work, I had to drive almost four hours to get here.”

  “You could have flown.”

  “It seemed like a lot of effort when it was just easier to drive. Besides, it gave me to time to clear my head a bit. You know how exhausting they can be.”

  The they in question were their parents and the reason for this thrown-together family dinner.

  And he was already exhausted.

  Looking around, he noticed it was relatively quiet. “Where are they?”

  “Freshening up. I told them dinner was here so…” Pausing, he studied the table again. “Why are we eating here instead of going out?”

  “Mom requested a quiet dinner–just the four of us,” Ryder explained. “Besides, you drove through the town. Did you see anyplace worthy of Helen and Jonathan Ashford?”

  “I wasn’t paying much attention but…I’m not sure how the foil and Styrofoam containers are going to go over.”

  Ryder hadn’t thought of that, but it was too late now.

  Glancing at his watch again, he wondered how much freshening they could possibly need to do. Raking a hand through his hair, he fought the urge to growl. He hated when people weren’t considerate of other people’s time. He’d spent the earlier part of the day being photographed for an article in GQ where he’d finally had to call a stop to it because the shoot was taking longer than they agreed upon. Then his mother called and dropped the news that they were on their way to Magnolia to sit down with him and his brother, which meant he had to cancel meetings and rearrange his schedule to accommodate them, so the least they could do was come to the table when the food arrived.

  Walking over to the dining room table, Ryder looked at all the food and had to admit he was impressed. Each tray of food was beautifully plated and presented–albeit in disposable containers–and it all smelled delicious. The café might not have looked like much, but clearly he’d judged too quickly.

  Reaching out, he carefully straightened plates before walking over to pour himself a glass of wine. “So what do you think this is all about?”

  “No idea,” his brother said as he moved over to accept a glass for himself. “Mom was pretty tight-lipped.”

  That was typical, he thought to himself. Neither parent felt the need to share what they were doing or ask their sons how they felt about it. Ryder wasn’t sure why it still bothered him, but… it did.

  “Oh, something smells wonderful!” his mother said as she came up the stairs. The house had a reverse floor plan which meant the main living area and kitchen were up on the third floor. “And I’m starving!” Helen Ashford had sleek, silver hair, a full face of makeup, and dressed like she was ready to dine at a five-star restaurant.

  Again he had to stifle a groan.

  His father was right behind her and he walked over and gave Ryder a firm handshake. Heaven forbid the man give his son a hug or a sign of affection. “Thank you for dinner, Ryder,” was all he said before walking to the table and sitting down.

  Just another cozy dinner with the Ashfords…

  They all took their seats and immediately began passing plates around. This certainly wasn’t the kind of meal he envisioned serving, but he’d suffer through it for tonight.

  His mother served herself one of the Southern loaded sweet potatoes and stared at it for a solid minute as if expecting it to do something. “My goodness, Ryder, I don’t know what this is exactly, but it looks…interesting.”

  “It’s pulled pork and coleslaw served in a baked sweet potato. I was told they’re a local favorite,” he explained, although for the life of him, he couldn’t imagine why.

  Then he tried one and…

  The combination shouldn’t have worked, but it did and it was spectacular. Flavors burst on his tongue and he actually moaned with the pure delight of it. Fortunately, so was everyone else at the table and that had him reaching to try something else and seeing if it was just this one particular dish or if the chefs at Café Magnolia were truly that good.

  Crab cakes? Fried to perfection.

  Seaside egg rolls? Inspired and delicious.

  The catfish? Savory and positively superb.

  Honestly, he was more interested in the meal than the reason for it. But then again, it seemed his family felt the same way because they were all raving about the food and that was the topic throughout the meal. When they were done, he and Patrick handled the cleanup–which was fairly quick and painless thanks to the disposable containers–and once everything was in its place, Ryder braced himself for whatever this visit was about.

  “You know, Ryder, don’t you find living in a house like this to be a little…beneath you?” his father asked. “What on earth are you doing in this tiny little town?”

  Here we go…

  “I happen to like it here, Dad,” he said evenly. “When I came to check out the town, I found that I enjoyed living on the water. Most of the houses–as I’m sure you noticed when you drove in–are like this. Besides, this is just temporary. I purchased it and plan on renting it out once I’m done. It’s an investment. My other place is much bigger.”

  “That’s right,” his mother chimed in as she sat herself down on one of the sofas. “I thought your place was finished. Why aren’t you living there?”

  “I wasn’t prepared to use it full-time and I had some friends who needed a place to live while their house is being built.” Honestly, he didn’t mind renting the house to Austin and Mia, but he couldn’t wait until he could finally move in himself. This house was fine temporarily, but it was definitely not his style. After designing the other house so meticulously, he was getting antsy to actually be able to live in it.

  “Then why not just let them live here and you live in your own house?” she asked, interrupting his thoughts.

  “It’s not really a big deal,” he said before sitting on the opposite sofa. “So why don’t you tell me what brings you here? Patrick and I are curious.” His brother sat beside him as his father took his place beside his mother.

  “I’m retiring.”

  “Seriously?” Patrick asked with a small, nervous laugh. “I thought you were going to give it another five years or so.”

  Waving him off, their father explained. “We talked about it and I could still do it, but we’ve decided that we wanted to move it up so we can spend some time traveling to all the places we always said we were going to go to but never did.”

  Patrick started rattling off a ton of questions, but Ryder simply sat back and observed.

  The Ashfords came from old money. There were many stories about where their wealth originated, but Ryder had never quite believed some of the theories. Either way, his father had made a fortune in the financial business whereas Ryder had opted to take a different approach and went with industrial conglomerates and, more recently, real estate.

  The topic of retirement had always been pointless because his father vowed he’d work until he died because he loved what he did. So what changed? And besides that, why bother telling him and Patrick about it? They never discussed their decisions before. Most of the time they made big, life-altering decisions and didn’t consult with anyone. When he and Patrick were growing up, they rarely saw their parents. So why share the news now?

  Sitting across from him, he watched as his mother stared lovingly at his father, but she seemed a little… restless.

  Which was completely out of character for her.

  Something was going on and it had nothing to do with traveling for pleasure, but he wasn’t going to get to the bottom of it tonight. For now, he’d bide his time and figure it out.

  “So where do you plan on going first?” Patrick asked.

  “Alaska,” his mother replied. “I’ve always wanted to go. We’re going to do one of those cruises.” She smiled at Ryder. “We’re going to go whale watching.”

  Th
rilling…

  For the better part of an hour, he listened to their proposed travel itinerary, and what stuck out to him the most was that they had no plans to spend time with either of their sons. Not that he was surprised, but… it definitely irked him a bit.

  But he brushed it off like he always did.

  “How about some dessert?” he suggested as he stood and stretched. “Dad, I got a pecan pie. I know that’s one of your favorites. And Mom, I got a sweet tea cake. It sounded interesting and I thought you might enjoy it.”

  “That’s very considerate of you, Ryder. Thank you,” she said as she walked into the kitchen. “Do you happen to have any decaf coffee?”

  “Of course.” And following her, he brewed her a cup. “What about you, Dad? Decaf?”

  “Sure, why not? You didn’t order it from the café, too, did you? Hopefully we won’t have to drink out of Styrofoam cups.”

  Ryder chose to ignore the comment and made them all coffee before sitting back down at the table for dessert. Fortunately, the topic of travel had been exhausted and Patrick decided to talk about what was going on in his life.

  His brother had no interest in finance or business, but he was making a decent living as a civil engineer. He was living up in Virginia and seemed happy enough. Honestly, Ryder had no idea how he did it–working at one job day in and day out. It would make him crazy. Instead, Ryder spent years investing in different businesses and trying his hand in a multitude of things. His newest venture was the resort he was planning on building here in Magnolia, and he couldn’t wait to get the ball rolling. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that the additions he was making to the town would benefit everyone, and it wouldn’t be long until it was literally the perfect place to live.

  And that was his end game–settling in one perfect place that he chose rather than constantly being told where he should live based on his last name. The choice was his and no one was going to dictate that to him ever again.

  The remainder of the evening was relatively boring and uneventful. His father went to bed, Patrick said he had work to do, and it was down to just Ryder and his mother to clean up dessert.

  “Everything was wonderful tonight,” she said as she loaded the dishwasher. “Wherever you got the food from, it was delicious. I was pleasantly surprised. I wouldn’t mind seeing if they can pack up some of those dishes for us to take home with us.”

  With a soft laugh, Ryder wiped down the table. “What time are you flying back tomorrow?”

  “I believe we decided on after lunch, so maybe we can order something and pick it up on the way to the airport. What do you think?”

  “I don’t know if they’re open early enough for that to happen…” But then again, he wasn’t sure. “Hang on and I’ll check.” Picking up his phone, he searched online for Café Magnolia and found himself smiling when a picture of the building came up right next to a picture of Peyton Bishop. She really didn’t look old enough to own the business, but it was obvious now that she did and that she knew what she was doing.

  He wondered if she would be interested in sitting down with him and advising him on the restaurant he planned on putting in the resort.

  Stepping up beside him, his mother glanced at the screen. “Who’s that? She’s very pretty.”

  Ryder had to agree, but he kept it to himself. “That’s Peyton Bishop. She owns the café where I got tonight’s dinner.”

  “Are they open in the morning? Maybe we can all go there for breakfast,” she suggested.

  “They open at eight,” he read when he clicked on the website. “But unfortunately, I have a meeting at that time so I won’t be able to join you.”

  “Oh, Ryder, you work too hard,” she said as she gently patted his arm. “The world won’t fall apart if you skip a meeting or work a little less. Maybe ask out a pretty girl…”

  Good Lord…

  “Mom, I already had to skip two meetings today. I can’t skip another one in the morning.”

  “And the pretty girl?” she prompted, taking the phone from his hand and looking over the café’s site.

  “I ask out plenty of beautiful women,” he assured her.

  “Hmm…” After a moment, she handed his phone back to him. “All I’m saying is that it’s okay to take a little time for yourself. Life is too short and you should take the time to enjoy it instead of working all the time.”

  He was about to ask her what exactly she meant and if that had anything to do with his father’s decision to retire when she wished him a good night and walked away.

  Scrubbing a hand over his face, Ryder decided he might as well call it a night, too. It wasn’t particularly late, but he knew he’d sit in bed with his laptop and work for a while before actually going to sleep. After walking around and turning off all the lights, he went into his bedroom, quietly closing the door behind him. Within minutes, he was down to his boxer briefs and in bed, looking over several financial statements. But his attention span was short tonight and his mind was wandering to other things.

  Specifically, Peyton Bishop.

  He thought about how she stood her ground with him and how at first he’d been offended. Annoyed.

  Then he’d been mildly impressed.

  And after tasting her food, he was downright dazzled.

  He thought of the look on her face as she walked away from him and smiled. She might be young, but she was certainly unafraid to speak her mind.

  Young. That kept playing over and over in his mind, and now he was curious about just how young she was and how she managed to own her own business already. Ryder knew he could simply ask Austin the next time they spoke, but he wasn’t sure he could explain why he was so curious.

  So he decided to do his own sleuthing to find out what he could–searching the usual social media sites. There were tons of pictures of her–always smiling, always laughing–and he found himself drawn to her smile. She was beautiful in a wholesome, girl-next-door way and not the kind of woman he ever gave much thought to, but as he continued to scroll through her posts, there was no denying he was attracted to her.

  It felt wrong, not only because of the age difference, but because of his friendship with Austin. He knew they were only cousins, but it still felt like he was breaking some kind of unwritten rule.

  And yet he still kept reading her posts–some about the café, some about local events–but nothing told him much about her personally.

  Until he spotted a recent post titled “My 25th Birthday” and Ryder suddenly felt like a total jerk for searching like this. She was eleven years younger than him and it felt like he was some seriously creepy old guy stalking her and immediately left the site.

  And shut his laptop.

  It wasn’t until the lights were out that he allowed himself to think about the events of the day after meeting Peyton Bishop.

  Primarily tonight’s family dinner.

  First, his father was retiring–out of the blue–and he was certain there was more to that story. Second, he had a feeling his mother had something to do with it, but he was more focused on her comment about him dating a pretty girl. It was the closest she’d ever come to nudging him toward meeting someone and settling down–or even any interest in his personal life. It wasn’t something he normally thought about–primarily because he was busy running his businesses and traveling and making money. All those things were very fulfilling and satisfying.

  But…were they?

  For some reason, he was beginning to feel like they weren’t. Maybe that’s why he was pushing so hard to right all the wrongs he found here in Magnolia Sound. There were only a few parcels of land that were zoned for commercial use, and he planned on buying them and making sure the town had everything it could possibly need. Besides the resort, he planned on building another restaurant–something a little more upscale than The Sand Bar or The Mystic Magnolia–then he’d like to see a bookstore, a coffee shop, and one of those old-fashioned candy shops. At least…that was his vision right now. It
was so close to being perfect, and once it was, he knew this was where he’d make his permanent home.

  Maybe ask out a pretty girl…

  Peyton Bishop’s face came to mind again. He’d seen her at several Coleman family events, he realized that now, and he had to wonder how it was that they’d never been introduced. But now that they had? Ryder knew he’d be seeking her out again.

  And not only for her catering skills.

  It had been a long time since he’d pursued a woman–too long. So many projects were going on right now, but for the foreseeable future, he was going to be in Magnolia Sound. They were in the final planning stages for his new resort and other than some occasional trips out of town to deal with a few of his other investments, this was where he was going to spend the bulk of his time. Why not fill up his free time with a beautiful woman?

  There was Peyton’s face again and he couldn’t imagine any reason why the two of them couldn’t go out to dinner sometime–regardless of the age difference.

  Although…if he allowed himself to think a little deeper, he realized that Peyton was still a small-town girl–the kind who maybe didn’t do casual relationships. Up until now, that was the only kind Ryder did.

  But maybe it’s time to change that, he thought.

  Maybe ask out a pretty girl…

  Rolling onto his side, he got more comfortable and thought of the best way to approach Peyton again. He hoped by ordering such a large dinner tonight she’d see he wasn’t such a bad guy. Now he’d give her a day or two before he reached out to her again with a gesture that had nothing to do with food and was perhaps just verging on a hint of romantic.

  It was a pleasant final thought before he fell asleep.

  2

  My compliments to your chef. The food was amazing. Thank you for such an enjoyable dinner. Ryder.

  Peyton stared at the card in her hands and then the gorgeous bouquet of flowers it came with in stunned silence. She’d never received flowers from a customer because of her food and it was kind of an awesome compliment.