A familiar truck drove into the parking lot, and Kara’s pulse skipped as Grayson slid from behind the wheel. He stood next to the truck, shading his eyes, until she waved and he saw her. He weaved his way through the tables, which gave her a few solid seconds to enjoy the view of his approach: rock-hard muscle, dark blond hair, a smile that could light up the whole mountaintop. And when he sat on the bench across from her, the faint scent of aftershave she wouldn’t mind tasting. Good Lord, was it possible for her knees to go weak even while sitting down? Desire spiraled inside her belly, and when he looked at Jade and smiled, it was all she could do not to crawl over to his side of the table, run one hand along his thigh, and wonder what else might be rock-hard underneath those shorts.
Get a grip, Kara. She pulled her hair from her neck. There were a million good-looking guys in the world. There were a handful of them in the Yawketuck Valley, even. Why this one had taken such a hold on her in the last few hours, she couldn’t guess. And he was bad news. She knew that. Every woman in the valley with a brain knew that.
The problem was, Kara’s brain seemed to take a vacation every time he was close to her.
“No luck,” he said before she could ask. He reached down and patted Turk’s head as the dog circled the table.
“No?” Kara wasn’t sure that made her feel better or worse. She didn’t really want the baby to be turned over to Social Services. Nor did she want to think about the last woman Grayson had slept with, that might’ve resulted in the child sitting next to her. Actually, she didn’t want to think about Grayson sleeping with other women at all, which was stupid, because if anyone was getting it regularly, it was this guy. I mean, look at him. He practically oozes sex. Why had she never noticed it before?
Her face went hot, and she swallowed some ice from her glass of sweet tea. Maybe she could cool herself from the inside out.
“It’s not like I had a lot of people to ask,” Grayson said, interrupting her thoughts. His cheeks had gone red. “I mean, I don’t want you to think there’s a bunch of women in the valley who I might’ve... you know. I’m careful.”
“So it wasn’t her?”
He shook his head.
“You’re sure? I mean, you can believe her?”
A look of hurt passed over his face. “Listen, I know you’ve probably heard stories about me. Hell, a lot of ’em are probably true.” He cracked his knuckles. “I haven’t made the best choices in life, that’s for damn sure. But I’m doing my best to get better. To do better. And as cute as Jade is, I don’t think she’s mine, no matter what that note says.”
Kara nodded. She wasn’t any kind of angel, and she sure couldn’t preach the high road to someone else about protected sex or unplanned pregnancies. “People tell stories all over the valley,” she said. “I’ve learned to take most of them with a shaker of salt. All kinds of people come into Helping Hands. Everyone’s carrying some kind of load, and everyone makes mistakes. I don’t think any one of us is better than the next person. We all get handed shit at some point in our lives.” She knew that better than anyone. “And we all do things we’re sorry for.”
Gratitude filled his eyes. “Even you? I have a hard time believing you’ve ever done anything to hurt someone else. You’re Yawketuck’s resident angel.”
Before she could respond, someone interrupted them.
“Kara? Is that you?”
She looked over to see Mamie Kennedy, Yawketuck’s part-time librarian and full-time gossip, staring at them from across the lawn. Mamie stood at the takeout window, a tray in her hands. As soon as she caught Kara’s eye, she trotted over. “My goodness, I said to Trinity Myers I thought that was you, but she said what would Kara McGarrity be doing with a baby at the 14 G&G?”
Kara imagined Mamie was waiting for her to answer the question, but she didn’t. She just slipped on her sunglasses and said, “Hi, Mamie. Great afternoon, isn’t it?” From the corner of her eye, she could see Grayson smile.
“Hello there,” he said in that deep baritone voice.
Did Kara imagine it, or did Mamie actually flutter at his greeting? It looked as though her eyelashes, then her fingertips, then her entire torso gave a little shimmy. Not like Kara was surprised. A guy like Grayson Hollister could do that to a woman. Mamie flushed a deep red as she looked from Kara to Grayson to the baby and back again. Kara pictured every one of Mamie’s social media accounts lighting up like wildfire the minute she got to her phone.
You’ll never believe who...
What do you think of...
...saw them with a baby that I never...
“I didn’t realize the two of you...” Mamie began, but she didn’t finish the thought. “It is a nice day, yes,” she said instead.
“We’re just doing some babysitting,” Grayson offered, and Mamie seemed to accept his words at face value.
“She’s beautiful,” Mamie said, “and so alert.” She chucked Jade under the chin with one finger, and the baby cooed up at her. Kara thought probably most of the world’s problems could be solved with a baby’s smile and sweet scent.
Mamie mumbled a goodbye and carried her tray over to the picnic table where her friends waited. Only when she’d left earshot did Kara dare to speak. “You know everyone in town will hear about this within the hour. You and I and a baby at the 14 G&G. We’ll be the talk of the valley all week.”
Grayson grinned. “I know. But maybe that’s not a bad thing. Maybe someone will, I don’t know....” He shrugged. “Maybe someone will know who Jade belongs to.”
“Maybe. Of course, Mamie’s been known to exaggerate. All of Yawketuck will probably think you and I are having a torrid affair with three other kids back at the house if she has anything to say about it.” Her cheeks burned as she said it, but Grayson only grinned some more in response.
“What did the doctor say?” he asked after a moment.
“That she’s about four months old and in perfect health.” She paused. “And that we’ll have to turn her over to Social Services by tomorrow morning if we can’t find the mother.” Or the father, she thought, but she didn’t have the nerve to suggest a paternity test.
“Okay. So that gives us sixteen hours or so.” His gaze moved to Jade. “I just want to do the right thing, you know? I feel like, I don’t know, someone left her with me, trusted me, and I....” He looked lost.
Kara’s phone buzzed, and she looked down to see three text messages from Harmony. “Oh, shoot. I told Harmony I’d be at the pantry by now. I’m never late. She probably thinks I’m dead.”
“You need help?”
“Can you take the baby?” But as soon as she asked the question, he blanched. “Grayson, she won’t break.”
“What if I crash my truck with her inside?”
“When’s the last time you crashed your truck?”
“I don’t know. That’s not the point. Anything could happen. If it’s just me, it’s one thing, but she’s a little kid. What if she gets sick? Or needs a diaper change? I don’t know the first thing about any of that.”
“Well, I have to go to the pantry and help Harmony set up for tonight. Could you follow me there and give us a hand? It’s just unloading boxes of supplies.”
“Sure thing.” He got up and took Jade’s car seat in one hand, and the tattoos on his arm bulged and danced with the movement.
Kara had to look away again. She wondered how long ago she’d put batteries in her vibrator. She couldn’t remember when she’d used it, but she had a feeling that tonight it was going to be her best friend.
Turk fell in behind his master, tail and ears up and tongue lolling with joy. And then, not much differently from the animal—except doing her best to keep her tongue in her mouth—Kara followed Grayson to the parking lot, taking her time and enjoying the view so she could memorize it and call upon it later that night when darkness fell.
5:00 p.m.
Grayson let Kara go first, leading the way down the hill from the restaurant. She didn’t take the
interstate back into Yawketuck but instead followed Highway 14 through Greenway and along the valley. She drove at about two miles under the speed limit, which he appreciated considering her valuable cargo. After a little wheedling, he’d convinced Turk to ride shotgun with him in the truck, but the dog sat at attention with his eyes on the Mazda just ahead.
Soon enough, they reached the outer limits of Yawketuck. Kara turned onto Cinnamon Lane, which ran straight down to the river and was home to a half mile of modest houses, a laundromat, and the Helping Hands food pantry. She pulled up to the pantry’s front door, and Grayson parked beside her. He’d never been down this road, nor inside Helping Hands. He held the door as Kara carried Jade inside. Turk trotted behind them.
“It okay if he comes in?”
“Of course.”
The narrow foyer opened into a wide, bright room lined with tables and chairs, each with a red or blue tablecloth, napkins, and salt and pepper on top. Open shelves lined the walls, many stacked with boxes and cans of nonperishable foods. Tall windows brought in the light and along the back wall, a view of the river. At the back of the room, one door opened into a kitchen, the other into a room jam-packed with racks of clothes.
“That’s our secondhand shop,” Kara said as he flipped on a light and looked inside. “Free to anyone who needs anything.”
“Are they all donations?”
She nodded and set the car seat on a table. Jade was sound asleep, a little bubble of spit in one corner of her mouth. Grayson bent over her. God, she was so small. So innocent. A fierce sense of protection reared up inside him, and for a minute he could almost understand his dog’s basic need to watch over her. Didn’t matter if she belonged to him or not—something this tiny and vulnerable deserved whatever safety he could provide.
Kara walked into the kitchen, where a teenage girl stood in the corner, writing on a clipboard. “I’m sorry I’m late. I totally lost track of time.”
“It’s okay. You’re allowed to have a life. And you’re not late, late. Doors haven’t opened yet.”
“I know. I said I’d be here earlier, though. We had a lot of drop-offs scheduled.”
“You know you’re literally the only person I know who’s never been late for work. Like, ever.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment.”
“You should,” the girl said. “If you’re ever actually late, I’ll know something’s wrong, like you’ve been kidnapped or you’re dead in a ditch somewhere.”
“Fair enough,” Kara said.
The girl glanced up at him. “You’re Grayson Hollister,” she said without expression.
“Yep. Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise. I’m Harmony.” She looked past his shoulder and squealed. “Oh, my God. Is that a baby?” In an instant she was hovering over Jade’s carrier. “Is she yours? She’s adorable.”
“Ah, no. She’s not mine.” Grayson turned three shades of red and looked to Kara for help.
“He’s babysitting today,” Kara explained. Like that wasn’t the understatement of the year.
Harmony tickled Jade’s toes. “You’re lucky. She’s beautiful.” After another few seconds of cooing over the baby, she returned to her clipboard. “Everything’s here,” she said to Kara. “In the parking lot. I’m just about done with inventory.”
“A couple of the bigger stores in Greenway give us their extras and day-olds,” Kara explained to Grayson. “Thankfully, we have a lot of locals who donate too. It just takes us a while to put everything on the shelves.” She checked the clock that hung on the wall above an industrial-sized sink. Two giant coolers and a huge stove sat beside it.
“You provide meals, too?”
Kara nodded and propped open the back door. He could see stacks of boxes sitting in the parking lot. “Soup, salad, and bread between six and seven thirty each night. Turkey dinner, or pot roast, or whatever we have the most of Sundays at four.”
Grayson whistled in admiration. He’d had a general idea of what Helping Hands provided to the town’s needy residents, but he hadn’t imagined the extent of it or what must go on behind the scenes.
“Let me help,” he said, and within ten minutes, he’d carried all the boxes inside and set them on a table. “Does everything go on those shelves?”
“Except what needs to be refrigerated. You can just match stuff to what’s already there, or find space if they don’t match anything.”
“You’re sure you trust me to do that? You’re pretty organized. I wouldn’t want to put something in the wrong place.” He thought of her home, her garage, the space under her kitchen sink.
She put her hands on her hips and smiled. “Are you making fun of me?”
He almost put his own hands atop hers, just to feel the swell of her hips and deepen the blush in her cheeks. “Maybe a little. But only in a good way.”
“Fine. As long as it’s good.” She let her gaze linger on his, and he wondered if they were flirting, despite the crazy mess of the day and the very real concern of a motherless child sitting on a table between them. He couldn’t recall the last time he’d done that, simply flirted with a woman, without the next step being getting naked and into bed. Maybe high school. Maybe earlier than that.
After a moment, Kara returned to the kitchen, and Grayson set to work finding a place for all the cans and boxes of instant food. Soup, beans, powdered mashed potatoes, bags of regular potatoes, coffee, tea, a giant box of chocolate bars. He wondered how they doled things out. Was it by person? By the number of kids each family had to feed? Income level?
He pulled over a chair so he could stand on it and reach the top shelf. When he finally finished storing the last boxes of mac and cheese, he turned around to see Kara watching him.
“Thanks. You have no idea what a big help that was.”
“I’d like to do more.” He pulled his wallet from his back pocket. “Here.” He found three twenties inside and wished they were fifties instead. He handed them to her as he climbed down.
“Oh, Grayson, you really don’t have to.”
“Are you telling me you don’t need it?”
“We always need it.”
“Then take it.” HTC was doing better than he’d ever expected it to. He felt almost foolish, thinking about what he charged people to come to his gym and spar when other people in this same town couldn’t even put food on the table.
He looked at Jade. Was that what had happened to her? He’d originally thought her mother left her on the porch for spite, or because she was tired of taking care of a baby, but what if she simply wasn’t able to? What if she couldn’t afford the formula, the diapers, the bottles and carriers and car seats and hundreds of other things it must take to raise a child?
Harmony stuck her head out from the kitchen. “I can take of things here if you guys need to do whatever.”
“I’ll stay for a while,” Kara said. “I don’t think it’ll be too busy for a Tuesday, but you never know.”
“Okay.” The girl glanced at Jade. “She sure is cute.” Then she was gone, and a moment later Grayson heard the heavy back door slam shut.
“Going outside for her cigarette,” Kara said. “I told her those things’ll kill her, but what do I know? She’s nineteen and thinks she’ll live forever.”
Grayson thought of himself as a nineteen-year-old, defiant, invincible, smoking, drinking, and hitting everything he could get his hands on. He’d thought for sure he was tough enough to live forever. Only time and a near-fatal blow to the head had convinced him to change. Even now, after all this time, change was hard. Sometimes it was damn near impossible.
He glanced at the time on his phone. Shit. He was running late.
“Ah, well,” Kara went on, “I guess I was like that once too. Guess we all were.” She walked around the room, straightening chairs as she went. “So what’s the plan?” she asked over her shoulder. “Any idea where we go looking next?”
“Not really.” He cracked his knuckles. “Should we tell t
he police?”
“They’ll probably take her if we do. You okay with that?”
But even after a few short hours, he wasn’t. He remained convinced that Jade’s mother was someplace close by, maybe scared or frustrated or just bone-tired. “I feel like we haven’t looked hard enough.” Jade was left with me for a reason. Her mother knows me. And that made him think she hadn’t just driven down the other side of the Yawketuck Mountain and out of town. She was still here, still close by. He could feel it. “That might sound stupid, but....”
“It doesn’t. We can’t keep her forever, but I agree. Let’s drive around and ask people if they know anything. Sandie’ll be calling Social Services tomorrow morning if we don’t find the mom. We might as well take the night to try.” A thoughtful expression crossed her face. “I actually know a couple doors I might knock on. Forgot about them until just now.”
Grayson looked at his phone again.
“Got a hot date?”
“Not really, but I do have someplace I’m supposed to be.” He glanced up at her. “It’s not a woman. It’s kind of important, though. But I can cancel.”
She waved a hand. “Not if it’s important. Jade’s sound asleep, we have diapers and formula here, so I’ll just keep her until the first wave of dinner passes through. After the first hour, the crowd is usually light. Harmony can take care of the rest without me.” She took the empty boxes and stacked them in the corner. “I just have to flatten these for the recycle bin. Meet you back on the mountain around seven?”
“Sounds like a plan. But let me help with that first.” He carried the bigger boxes outside, then pulled a switchblade from his pocket to slice them and lay them flat. It was quiet there, the only sounds a faint rushing from the river and the quick swish of his knife through cardboard. The sun beat down on his back, but it was a good heat. The heavy humidity of the day had subsided, and he could feel the easy calm of evening settling in around them.
“That’s quite a truck,” Kara said.
He looked up to see her shading her eyes. Around the corner of the building, the edge of his jacked-up black pickup was just visible.
Countdown: Grayson Page 5
