Feels Like Family by Sherryl Woods

ordered.
    “There is no me and Helen,” Erik assured him. “It’s all in your wife’s imagination.”
    “I did not imagine that kiss last night,” Dana Sue told him. “That kiss was hot enough to solder steel.”
    “How much do you know about soldering steel?” Erik asked.
    “Beside the point,” Dana Sue retorted. “You get the picture. Now, answer me. Did you kiss and make up when you walked her back to her office?”
    “We walked. We talked. End of story. May I go now?” Erik said. “My bread pudding is probably burned to a crisp.”
    “It’s not due out of the oven for another ten minutes and you know it,” Dana Sue said without hesitation. “I want details about what happened between you and Helen.”
    Erik slid out of the booth. “Then call Helen. The doors of this place open in less than an hour and I have work to do, something I would think that you, as the owner, would remember.”
    He walked away without looking back.
    “I won’t forget about this,” Dana Sue called after him.
    Sadly, he knew that was the truth. Like most women, Dana Sue had a long memory. Worse yet, she had a streak of determination that could rival a wartime general’s. Something told him her full-throttle campaign to get him hooked up with Helen had just begun.

4
    H elen hadn’t been able to forget the way her evening had ended at Sullivan’s a few days earlier. Nor had she been able to forget the speculative glances Dana Sue had given her and Erik during their tense meeting with Karen the next day. She knew that kind of look. Her friend thought there was something going on between Erik and her. Or maybe she just wanted something to be going on so she could feel good about her matchmaking skills. Either way, Helen was not looking forward to her next encounter with Dana Sue and the questions that awaited.
    Unfortunately, she couldn’t put off seeing her any longer. She, Dana Sue and Maddie were scheduled for one of their morning get-togethers at The Corner Spa today. Since Helen had been all for these regular meetings to discuss spa business, she could hardly skip one. Her absence would just bring Dana Sue’s curiosity to a boil.
    Besides, what with Maddie’s increasingly hectic schedule—a new husband and a new baby took up most of her time—and Dana Sue’s demands at Sullivan’s and her remarriage to Ronnie, the three of them hardly had any time to themselves anymore. Helen missed their leisurely chats.She’d started to feel a little like an outsider in their busy lives, though both of them would be appalled if they knew she felt that way.
    Filled with a peculiar sense of dread, she braced herself as she walked through the bustling workout room. Personal trainer Elliott Cruz waved to her, as did several of the women who were sweating through a spinning class. The instructor was really putting them through their paces on the stationary bikes.
    Helen paused to stick her head into the lavender-scented spa area where Jeanette was busy giving a facial to a blissful customer. The relaxing aroma reminded Helen that she’d been promising herself a massage for weeks now, hoping it would ease the constant tension in her shoulders.
    “Everything okay with you?” she asked Jeanette, whom they’d stolen from a very upscale spa in Charleston. With her very short black hair and huge dark eyes, there was something exotic about Jeanette that made most of their clientele think she’d come from Europe. At least until they heard her speak. Her accent was as slow and sugary sweet as any South Carolinian’s.
    “Perfect,” Jeanette told her. “Be sure to ask Maddie about the idea I had the other day.”
    “Will do,” Helen promised.
    Jeanette had more ideas, most of them excellent, than everyone else combined. She’d brought a lot of experience and creativity with her when she’d come to work for them. Their day spa services had increased in revenue at an even faster clip than their gym memberships. The days of Helen