Sing Me Back Home

by Eve Gaddy

  “I’d almost forgotten how small towns work,” she murmured. “Lord, that was years ago. Don’t tell me they’re matchmaking already.”

  “Okay, I won’t tell you.”

  Maya laughed and changed the subject. “Does Gina ride?”

  “Yes, she rides at my brothers’ place, but I don’t make it out there very often.”

  “That’s too bad. You used to love to ride.”

  “Between my practice and being a single parent, I can’t seem to find the time.” He glanced at her. “I’m sure you understand that, since you’re a single parent yourself.”

  Maya nodded. “It’s tough sometimes, that’s for sure. But getting back to riding, Carmen has already asked me if she could learn to ride. Is there any place you’d suggest for lessons?”

  “Olivia Canaday teaches riding out at Lane’s End. Western and English. She’s great with kids. Give her a call.”

  “Thanks. I’ll do that. How are Wyatt and Dylan?” She remembered the younger Gallagher brothers as being as wild as they were good-looking. “Are either of them married?” She couldn’t imagine it, but she still remembered them as Jack’s pain in the ass little brothers and not the grown men they were now.

  “No. Dylan came really close, but they broke up a week before the wedding. No one knows why. Wyatt says he’s too busy with the ranch to worry about women.”

  “Do you believe him?”

  “Of course not,” Jack said, and they both laughed. A few minutes later, they arrived at the restaurant, a charming wood and stone building with a wide wooden porch that started on the side of the building and wrapped around to the back.

  The hostess knew Jack and she knew who Maya was too, welcoming her back to Marietta. She chatted briefly as she led them to a quiet table in a corner, next to the bank of plate glass windows that overlooked the Yellowstone River. She left leather covered menus with them and told them someone would be with them shortly.

  The Cookhouse wasn’t a fancy place, but it was a pleasant, cheerful place with a fun, family atmosphere. Tonight it looked a bit fancier than usual, with white tablecloths, upholstered chairs, candles flickering and a vase of white roses and bluish-purple delphiniums at each table.

  “Did you ask for this table?” Maya said after they’d given the waitress their drink orders.

  “Because it’s romantic?” He smiled and shook his head. “Every time I come in with a single woman I’m not related to they seat me here.”

  “I’m crushed,” she said. “And here I thought I was special.”

  “You are.”

  Surprised, she looked up at him. There had been a note of sincerity in his voice that sent a tingle up her spine. She tingled when he touched her, tingled when he spoke. His voice had deepened with the years and was now a beautiful bass and . . . sexy, damn it.

  “Now that we’re here, we should take advantage of the seating,” he continued. “We wouldn’t want all that romance to go to waste.”

  “How do you propose we do that?” She’d heard of a silver-tongued devil. Jack Gallagher was a golden-tongued one.

  He didn’t say anything, just smiled into her eyes and took her hand. His thumb stroked her palm gently. Maya sucked in a breath. He was holding her hand for crying out loud. That shouldn’t make her feel . . . dizzy. Dizzy, tingling. Good Lord, you’d think she’d never been on a date.

  When the waitress arrived with their drinks, he let go of her hand. Red wine for Jack, white for her. It occurred to her that while she knew almost nothing of Jack as an adult, he still reminded her vividly of the boy she’d loved. Except he was older, more sophisticated, and even hotter than he’d been before.

  They studied the menu, both of them deciding on the trout, one of the Cookhouse’s specialties, and giving the waitress their orders.

  “I thought it would be more awkward when we saw each other again.” Maya sipped her wine and added, “We didn’t exactly part friends.” Might as well get it out in the open. If they were going to see each other regularly, either at school functions or in a more personal way, they had to talk about the elephant in the room sometime.

  “No, we didn’t,” he said with a wry smile. “You’ve changed since you left Marietta.”

  “I would hope so. I’m a good bit older.”

  “No, it’s not that. We’re both older. A lot older.”

  She laughed. “Gee, thanks. Nothing a woman likes better than to be reminded of her age.”

  “You don’t need to worry. You don’t look a day over thirty.”

  “Flatterer.”

  “Truth.”

  She felt absurdly pleased.

  He took a sip of wine and went on. “The younger Maya would have avoided the issue of our mutual past as long as possible. That girl avoided possible controversy rather than meeting it head on.”

  “Like I did when I didn’t tell you about my job offer in Texas until the night of graduation?”

  He smiled, a little ruefully. “Yeah, like that.”

  Remembering, she sighed. “At the time it seemed like the only way to break the news. I’d been trying to tell you for weeks, and I just couldn’t do it until I no longer had a choice. I can look back on it now and know that was the wrong choice. I wish I’d gone about things differently.”

  “I’m not sure how you broke the news would have made a difference. I didn’t respond well either. All I heard was that you were leaving. I could have listened to you, instead of giving you an ultimatum.”

  “True. But I can’t blame you. Well, much,” she added. “After all, we were almost engaged.”

  “Almost. But I think it was more in my head than yours. You wouldn’t commit to a real engagement. You said your parents thought you were too young.”

  “They did. And obviously, I was too young.”

  “Still, I could have been a little more understanding rather than telling you to choose me or the job.” He shook his head with a chuckle. “You told me you chose the job and I could shove it.”

  “I don’t remember saying that.” She remembered crying into her pillow, though.

  “I do. It was the first time a woman told me to take a leap. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the last. I’m a slow learner.”

  Maya laughed. “Oh, I doubt that.”

  Different courses came and went. They talked sporadically until they both had their entrees in front of them.

  Maya almost moaned when she took her first bite of fish. “This trout is delicious.”

  Jack agreed and changed the subject. “We saw you in the magazines, you know. The town is very proud of you.”

  “Too bad my seven-year-old sister was the only one who believed in me.” Amy had been almost as starry-eyed about Maya’s career as Maya was herself.

  “I believed in you, Maya.”

  She stopped with her fork halfway to her mouth and stared at him. “It sure didn’t seem like it at the time,” she blurted out.

  “I’m sure it didn’t. In my defense, I was young and oblivious. Totally focused on college and medical school. Totally concerned with myself and my career. I knew you would succeed in modeling or whatever you chose. In my mind, though, your career was more flexible. So when you told me you’d accepted the job in Texas—” he shrugged. “I was too busy feeling hurt and angry to really consider your feelings.”

  “You’ve changed too,” Maya told him. “The younger Jack would never have admitted that.”

  “As you so aptly pointed out, I’m older now.” He laid his hand over hers on the table. After a moment of hesitation, she turned her hand over, so that they were palm to palm.

  Oh, God, Maya thought, gazing into his eyes. Not only dizzy, but tingling. My arm is tingling. Actually tingling. Chemistry. Instant chemistry, just like there had been all those years before. Did he feel it too? From the look in his eyes, she thought he did.

  “Why don’t we table this discussion?” he said. “We’ve talked enough about the past. Let’s talk about here and now.”

&nbs
p; “What about it?” she asked warily.

  He released her hand to take a sip of water and lean back. “Tell me about your business. I know it’s called Maya’s Models, but I haven’t heard anything else about it. Believe it or not, the busybodies don’t seem to know much about your work.”

  She hadn’t imagined that gleam in his eye. Maybe he didn’t want to come on too strong when they’d only just reconnected. Which was a good thing. Wasn’t it?

  “Maya?”

  Aware she’d been thinking about other things than business, she answered. “I haven’t been back in town long. I guess that’s why more people don’t know about it. My company is a headhunting firm for models. I have a lot of contacts from my modeling days and afterward, when I went into the management side of the agency.”

  “When did you go into management?”

  “Shortly after I found out I was pregnant with Carmen. I modeled maternity clothes until I had her and then switched over.” She laughed ruefully. “I discovered I liked eating and had no desire to starve myself back into my pre-pregnancy weight.”

  “A wise decision,” he said, looking her over appreciatively.

  “I thought so,” she agreed. “Anyway, after several years working in downtown Dallas, I was tired of the commute and tired of missing so much with Carmen. So a few years ago, I started an online agency that brings together models, photographers, modeling studios, and basically anything else to do with modeling.”

  “Is it Internet only?”

  “No, but it’s getting there. I haven’t quite managed it yet. With video chats of all kinds to not only talk to people but see them as well, it can almost feel like being there.” Once she had her assistant completely trained, she could let her do the necessary traveling, or at least most of it, especially the international traveling.

  “How much do you travel?”

  “Not often. I traveled a lot when I first started the company, but her father and I shared custody, so I was able to plan my trips during his time with her. He recently remarried and moved to Europe so Carmen and I came here.”

  “I’m glad you did.”

  “So am I,” she said slowly. But that didn’t mean she was ready to immediately jump into a relationship the moment she returned to Marietta. Not with Jack, not with anyone.

  But Jack was sure tempting her.

  Chapter Four

  “Do you want to come in?” Maya asked Jack when he walked her to the door.

  He glanced at his watch. “Sure, but I can’t stay long. I told Gina I wouldn’t be late.”

  “Carmen is staying with my sister tonight.”

  Idle conversation, he wondered, shooting her a speculative glance. Or something else?

  “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded,” she said, flustered.

  He couldn’t resist teasing her. “How did it sound?”

  Now she looked annoyed. “You know very well what it sounded like. Like I was dropping the biggest, most obvious hint possible. I said the first thing that came into my head. I wasn’t inviting you to jump into bed with me.”

  Jack laughed. “I didn’t think you were. Which is too bad.” Really too bad, he thought. Maya was without doubt one of the most beautiful women he’d ever known. Long, dark hair, classic features, a perfect complexion. Gray eyes, rimmed with a darker gray, unusual and compelling. An angel she wasn’t, though. More like a siren. “You blew me away when I first saw you tonight.”

  Her lips curved. “Good. I meant to.”

  “You always did have a wicked streak.” As a teenager, Maya had been pretty, but now she was downright dangerous.

  “What would you have done if I had been dropping a hint? If I invited you to stay?”

  He didn’t have to think about that. “I’d have taken your hand and walked with you to your bedroom and—” he put his hands on her waist and gently pulled her closer—“I’d have done this.” He kissed her. Slowly. Reacquainted himself with that luscious mouth. Her beautiful mouth he’d been thinking about since he saw her up close for the first time in years.

  Maya moved closer. Instant heat flared between them. He took the kiss deeper, until he drowned in her taste, her scent, the feel of her arms around his neck and her soft curves pressing against his chest.

  Jack broke the kiss, but he couldn’t make himself move away. Maya wasn’t unaffected either. Her breathing was fast and her lips were parted, wet from his kiss. As he stared at her, she ran her tongue delicately around her lips, making them, if possible, even more inviting.

  “Damn.” He kissed her again, harder, more briefly, and resolutely set her away from him. “I have to go home.”

  “Yes. You do.”

  “I want to kiss you again.”

  “I know. I want to kiss you again too.”

  He was tempted. Oh, man, was he tempted. Instead, he turned around and walked to her door. Once there, he turned back and looked at Maya, standing where he’d left her. “I’ll call you. Soon.”

  “Good.” Her smile could have seduced a dead man, and Jack was far from dead.

  He left before he said to hell with it and devoured her.

  Though Maya tried not to work on the weekends, she couldn’t always swing it. Saturday morning found her tying up loose ends. She had just finished a video chat with a client when Amy brought Carmen back from her house. Carmen ran off immediately.

  “Hi to you too,” Maya muttered, watching her daughter go. “What’s up with that?” she asked, turning to her sister.

  Amy and Maya looked nothing alike. Whereas Maya was tall and nicely curved, with long dark brown hair, gray eyes and a creamy complexion, Amy was short and voluptuous with short, light brown hair, blue eyes, and to her disgust, freckles. She always complained that she shouldn’t be saddled with lack of height, overly generous curves and freckles to boot, especially since freckles were out of place with her body.

  Amy had been a concert pianist with the Philadelphia Philharmonic Orchestra for several years shortly after graduating college. Everyone, including Maya, was surprised when Amy abruptly left the orchestra, returned to Marietta and began teaching piano lessons out of her home. Amy rarely spoke of her time with the orchestra, although once after several margaritas she’d admitted to Maya that she’d left because of a failed love affair. But that was all Maya had gotten out of her.

  Amy snorted. “Men. Or, in this case, boys. We saw Carmen’s heartthrob at the movies. He pretended he didn’t know her. Needless to say, she’s heartbroken and furious and the hours she spent talking to me and on the phone and texting last night to her friends were not nearly enough to thoroughly dissect the issue. I imagine she’s going to call one of her friends. Again.”

  “Poor baby.” Nothing was worse than being humiliated by a boy you liked. “He’s the one she was talking to when she went into anaphylactic shock at the potluck. He used some pretty fancy moves to get away as fast as he could. Turkey,” she added.

  “I heard that.” Amy smiled ruefully. “About forty-seven times. I wouldn’t be a teenager again for anything.”

  “Me neither,” Maya said. “Want some coffee? I just made a fresh pot.”

  “Sure.” Amy followed her into the kitchen, accepted a cup of coffee, added milk and a couple of packets of artificial sweetener, and sat at the table. “So, Maya, spill. Inquiring minds want to know.”

  “You mean about my date?”

  “No, about the dry cleaners. Yes, the date. What else?”

  “There’s nothing to spill. I had a date with Jack last night. We had a nice time. No big deal.”

  “Your nose is growing,” Amy observed dryly. “Come on, Maya. Out with it. Was the old zing still there?”

  Maya laughed. She had never been able to hide anything from her sister, even though they were ten years apart in age. “Yes.” She patted her heart. “And then some.”

  “I knew it! Did you sleep with him?”

  “Amy!”

  “What? Carmen isn’t anywhere near. It’s a reason
able question. Did you?”

  “No.” Remembering the kiss, she flushed. “We hadn’t seen each other in twenty years. At least, we haven’t been close enough to speak before the potluck and then later at the hospital.”

  “If nothing happened, then why are you blushing?”

  Maya eyed her sister, then sighed. “I didn’t say nothing happened. I said I didn’t sleep with him.” But she’d sure been tempted. “We kissed,” she added.

  “All that blushing for a kiss?”

  “It was a hell of a kiss.” Before Amy could probe further, Maya’s cell rang. She had a feeling it was Jack, even though his name didn’t come up on the screen. “Hello.”

  “Maya, it’s Jack.”

  “Hi,” she said, aware her voice sounded as goofily happy as she felt.

  “Do you have plans tonight?” he asked.

  “Other than taking Carmen to a party, no.”

  “Gina’s going to a party too. I imagine it’s the same one. Do you want to have some dinner?”

  “I’d love to. I’m taking Carmen and her friend Mattie to the party, so it will have to be after that.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll pick you up around eight.”

  Maya put her phone in her pocket and found Amy staring at her. “Oh, sister, you’ve got it bad.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s just a date.”

  “The second one in as many nights.”

  Maya felt almost giddy. Maybe she and Jack were both reliving their teenage years. Except, she didn’t feel anything at all like she had as a teenager. No, they were all grown up now. “Why don’t you do something useful and help me find something to wear?”

  “If you insist. Dressy? Casual?”

  “He didn’t say.”

  “So, something to make his eyes fall out of his head?” Amy asked, eyes twinkling.

  “Absolutely,” she said, and led the way to her bedroom.

  Jack drove to his office Saturday afternoon wondering what his brother Dylan’s latest injury was. He didn’t ordinarily work on weekends other than making rounds. But he was always willing to open when family or close friends called. Since Dylan wouldn’t have called him for something minor, he hoped it wasn’t too bad.