Winning her Brother's Best Friend

Ginny Hart slumped into a small chair in the corner of Tea for Two and groaned in exhaustion. “Why are Saturday mornings the busiest times of the whole week?”

Carol, her friend and co-owner of their tea shop in Blacksburg, Virginia, was sipping a cup of Earl Grey and looking just as tired and hassled as Ginny felt. “I’d think that would be obvious.”

It was obvious. Saturday mornings were when locals had enough leisure time to walk through town and stop in for a cup of tea and a pastry. But Saturday mornings were also when Ginny least felt like working.

The launch of the tea shop they’d opened six months ago had gone well, and business was better than either of them had hoped for when they’d developed their business plan. Blacksburg wasn’t a big city, but it was a vibrant university town, and there were plenty of college kids and locals to sustain a small business like Tea for Two.

The tea shop had been Carol’s idea, but she’d recruited Ginny to help since Ginny had a degree in marketing and hadn’t liked her previous job. Overall, Ginny was happier than ever, working with one of her best friends since childhood and generally making her own schedule and being her own boss.

But she still dreaded Saturday mornings.

It was two in the afternoon now, and the earlier crowds had finally thinned out. There were plenty of people coming and going through the front door, but the two college students they’d hired to work the tables and behind the counter could easily handle it.

Ginny and Carol sat in silence, both of them recovering for about five minutes before the bell jangled on the door of the shop and their other best friend, Emma Stevenson, walked in. Emma was small and pretty with dark hair and a serious demeanor. She was smiling now though.

She’d been smiling a lot for the past few months, ever since she’d gotten together with Ginny’s brother, Noah.

Today Emma was by herself, which Ginny was glad to see. She loved her older brother, but she occasionally got annoyed that she could rarely see her best friend without him since the two seemed to be joined at the hip lately.

Falling in love was all well and good but so was a little friend time without one’s brother always hanging around.

She tried not to complain, however. She’d never seen Noah happier, and he’d moved back to town when she’d thought he never would.

“Where’s Noah?” Carol asked as Emma sat down at the table with them.

“Why is that always the first thing you ask me? We’re not joined at the hip, you know.” Despite the slightly tart words, Emma’s expression was amused.

That was such a close reflection of Ginny’s thoughts just a moment ago that she gave a little jerk of surprise. “I hate to break it to you,” she said, “but you kind of are. I’ve never seen so much of my brother in my entire life as I have since you and he got together.”

“I guess so.” Emma’s eyes searched Ginny’s face and then Carol’s. “Have we been obnoxious about it?”

Carol, who’d always been the most creative and romantic of the three of them and who was also the most earnest, shook her head. “Of course not. We’re so happy for both of you!”

Ginny laughed. “You haven’t been too bad since you keep the PDA to a minimum. He’s my brother. There’s only so much of him making out I want to see.”

“I can understand that. If either of you hooked up with Patrick, I’d do my share of cringing.” Emma paused. “Not that it’s likely to ever happen since Patrick won’t let himself be dragged away from his computer for even long enough to go on a date.”

That last part was true. Ginny had known Emma’s older brother, Patrick, for as long as she’d known Emma—since their three older brothers had become best friends one summer in camp when they’d been twelve. The girls, thrown together by their families, had been ten and had become best friends themselves shortly afterward. In all that time, Ginny could only remember Patrick going out with three women. His high school girlfriend. His college girlfriend. And a woman he’d dated for six months about three years ago. He was a classic workaholic on top of being a computer geek. She sometimes wondered if the only way he’d ever hook up was if a woman showed up in his office naked.

Not that she was that woman. Patrick was like another brother to her.

“Oh, speaking of…” Carol began.

Ginny’s eyebrows shot up. “Speaking of dates? Do you have a date?”

Carol rolled her big silver-gray eyes. She was as pretty as Emma but in a soft, curvy way. “No. I don’t have a date. I haven’t had a date in ten months and four days.”

“You’re keeping track?” Emma asked with wide eyes.

“Of course I’m keeping track! When it gets to be a year, I’m going to do something drastic. I mean it.”

Ginny chuckled. “I kind of hope it gets to that point just so I can see what kind of drastic action you’re willing to take.” She didn’t know why more guys didn’t ask Carol out. She was pretty and sweet and smart and a fantastic cook. She was sometimes a little shy, so that probably explained it.

Ginny herself had never been shy.

“Anyway,” Carol went on, “Ryan wants us all to go out this evening. There’s that new club that’s opened up down the street he wants to check out. Beauty Like the Night.”

Ginny shook her head. “Only in Blacksburg would they open up a nightclub named after a Byron poem.”

“It’s supposed to be kind of cool. Ryan said I should get you all to come tonight.”