Page 28 of Scarlett and the Big Bad Billionaire
Cookies.
“Oh. I brought you something.” Belatedly remembering the gift basket I’d brought from Minnesota, I held it out to her.
She clapped her hands like a five-year-old. “You brought me goodies. Thank you, dear. Let’s sit down and have some. All that exercise has worked up my appetite, and all Stephanie will bring us is cucumber sandwiches and fruit salad and tea.”
With a wink, she added, “She’s so old school.”
My nerves were displaced by a genuine chuckle. This lady was a hot sketch.
“Want to bring the basket out to the loggia so we can enjoy the breeze while we eat?” she asked.
“That would be lovely,” was what I said. Inside I was thinking,What’s a loggia?
I soon found out. Mrs. Hood led me from the parlor down a hallway to a set of glass doors that revealed blue sky and even bluer water. Pushing through them, I realized they led to the largest balcony I’d ever seen.
Balcony wasn’t even the right word, as the covered outdoor space was wide and deep and would have easily held fifty or more people. The floor was covered in tiny tiles forming mosaic images of shells and mermaids, dolphins, and crashing waves. It was stunning.
The view past the loggia’s half-wall was even more breathtaking. The open Atlantic Ocean stretched to the lighter blue of the horizon.
As she’d promised, a pleasant breeze stirred my hair and the skirt of my dress.
Mrs. Hood walked all the way to the front of the structure, stopping at the safety wall and throwing her arms out to the side like Leonardo DiCaprio in Titanic.
“Isn’t it glorious, dear? You absolutely must see the sunset from here. The ones we watched together in Florida were pretty, but Eastport Bay sunsets aren’t too shabby either.”
“I’m sure. Where would you like me to set up the food, Mrs. Hood? Is this table okay?”
She turned to face me, hands crossed over her sternum. “Oh no, this breaks my heart. Do you not remember me at all then?”
“No, I remember you. A little.”
“Do you remember what you used to call me?” she asked.
“Vivi,” I answered shyly. The word felt foreign on my tongue, I hadn’t said it in so long.
She smiled. “I’d love for you to still call me Vivi… if you wouldn’t mind.”
“Okay.” I swallowed. “Vivi. Would you like to sit here and eat?”
“That would be fine, Scarlett dear.” She made her way slowly to the small round table. “Now let’s see what you’ve brought for me.”
“I thought you might like to try some Minnesota classics.” I removed the flatbread from its packaging. “This is lefse—it’s flatbread made from mashed potatoes, a Scandinavian traditional food. So is this… it’s called krumkake.”
“Those look like ice cream cones,” she declared with amusement.
“They’d probably make good ones. These are usually filled with whipped cream, but they’re delicious just as they are.”
Mrs. Hood—Vivi—picked up a krumkake and nibbled on it while I withdrew the final item from the basket.
“These are Sweet Scarlett’s cookies. They’re chocolate chip, and they’re pretty popular in Minnesota. People buy them by the bucketful at the State Fair every year. Just recently, a few grocery stores in my local area have started stocking the dough.”
I stopped short of telling her Sweet Scarlett’s was actually my company. I wasn’t ready yet to share things of a personal nature, and the small side-business I’d poured my heart into was the definition of personal.
“Well, they have your name, so I know they’ll be sweet,” Vivi said as she took one from the mini-bucket.
After eating three and declaring them delicious, she seemed ready to get down to the reason for my visit.
“Thank you for coming here today, Scarlett. I was so excited when Gray told me he’d managed to track you down. I know you haven’t had much interest in keeping in touch, but as we are quite literally running out of time, I thought I’d make one last effort.”
