by June Shaw
Travis had sounded as though even if she didn’t come back yet, he would give her another chance. He’d be phoning at three, she remembered with a slight smile, and all would be well, at least with that part of her life she could preserve back at home.
Disquieted with that thought, she left the chair and stretched in the hammock, finding it wide enough to hold another person. She peered at leaves laced along branches above with slightly swaying moss, and imagined the great love that must have existed between Tilly and Cliff. An equally exciting romance had persisted between Anna and Dane.
She glanced at the driveway, wishing to see a truck driving on it. Erin let her eyes shut, new admiration filling her for the man who lived here, the man who had known how to give such great love.
Trickles of a soft breeze swept across Erin’s face and woke her. She let her eyes open in increments. Her body felt relaxed, rested on the hammock, her soul satisfied. She stretched and then rose, luxuriating in the peaceful setting.
Her car, alone on the driveway, made her suddenly lonely.
She glanced at her wrist.
“That’s unusual,” she uttered, seeing she’d forgotten to put on her watch. She ambled to the house watching leaves of bushes dancing in the wind that had strengthened. The sun’s rays held a new angle from where they had been when she’d first stretched out on the hammock.
The kitchen clock told her she had slept too late. She scurried to the phone.
“Doggone it, answer,” she said to it after she dialed Travis’s number. It was 3:37, past the time she’d promised to call him, but not that much too late. He’d see that she was calling from this number.
He could have easily answered his cell phone, but it continued to ring, letting her know that he wouldn’t.
Dane stretched his neck forward while he drove toward the deserted chicken coop and then the garage.
Yes, Erin’s car still sat in his driveway.
Excitement rammed through his chest. He had been telling himself while working the fields that he hoped she would be gone when he returned home. But he’d had to force himself to believe that’s what he wanted, and now that he saw her car, knew he’d been fighting a losing battle. He liked having Erin in his house. His renewed enthusiasm proved it.
He parked next to her car and dashed up the steps to the back door. Before he opened it, he turned to scan the yard. Finding no sign of her, he hustled inside.
He did not find her in the kitchen. An inexplicable emptiness swept through him. She wasn’t in the dining room. “Erin,” Dane called, entering the office.
“In here.” Her quiet words had come from the living room.
His eyes needed to adjust to the dark. She sat at an end of the sofa, holding a throw pillow.
“Is something wrong?” he asked, stepping near. “Were you sleeping?”
She gave her head a sad shake. Her chest rose with a heavy breath. “I was just grieving, experiencing all my losses.”
Dane sank to the sofa beside her, his heart wrenching when he witnessed her misery. This woman should always be happy. “Can I help?”
“No one can bring Aunt Tilly back.” Her throat moved with her swallow, as though she tried to bite back tears. “Everything that felt permanent in my life is gone. First Aunt Tilly. Now my job. I won’t even be able to afford my apartment when I get back.” She sighed. “But I imagine I’ll find something. Self pity’s a horrible state, don’t you think? I’m sorry. I’m ordinarily grateful for even the simple things. Maybe I took them all for granted.”
The emptiness of her usually expressive eyes sent a rush of anguish through Dane. She couldn’t be so miserable. She should never be miserable.
He wrapped an arm around her shoulder. “You’ll be okay. Things will get better. I promise.” He gave her shoulder a squeeze, a sudden consideration jumping to mind. He’d meant those words of consolation for Erin, but felt as though he’d spoken to himself. He had lost Anna. Erin, warm against his side, had lost all.
She peered at him, her brown eyes darker with no lights in the room. She seemed to be searching his face, trying to discern whether he’d spoken the truth.
He switched on the lamp beyond her. The light picked out the glistening of her hair and let him examine her features. Erin’s high cheekbones stood out, casting shadows on the small hollows below. Her eyes watched him, studying. Her rosy lips generously curved.
Dane leaned over. He brushed a kiss across her forehead. He leaned closer, pressing his lips against hers.
She responded with hesitation at first, and then her lips answered with an insistence of their own.
With slow motion, Erin drew her head back.
Dane felt his heart start beating again. When he was finally able, he spoke. “You’re safe here. Maybe you could stay awhile—until you get your bearings.”
Her gaze traveled slowly around his face. She inhaled, exhaled and met his eyes. “This isn’t my place to stay.”
“You can feel your aunt’s presence here. And have a quiet place to contemplate your future.” Dane had surprised himself by making the offer for her to remain. Now he felt stunned after pushing her to stay. He gave Erin a small grin. “Of course you’d have to keep talking and walking slower.”
She offered a soft smile, and his smile widened. His hand remained clasped to her shoulder, keeping her close. With hesitation, he let her go. He didn’t want her to think that staying in this house would mean having relations with him, although the idea enticed him.
As her personal space expanded, it seemed so did her thoughts. “I have no idea what Aunt Tilly wanted me to do tomorrow. But after that, what would I do here?”
His mind skidded, trying to locate stable thoughts. “Some parts of the house have gotten fixed up, and other places haven’t. Maybe you could look over the place and come up with ideas for making the rest of it look better.”
She made an appraising glance around the room. “Possibly. Those heavy drapes could go, for one thing, so this room wouldn’t feel so dreary.” She smiled at Dane, her smile quickly fading. “But renovations would be costly. I’m afraid I wouldn’t have the money.”
I do. The words rushed to Dane’s mouth, but he squelched them. Now wasn’t the time to make certain she ascertained that this entire plantation belonged to him.
“Payments could be worked out,” he said, trying to come up with some way to convince her to stay. Anna had fixed some of the house and planned to renovate other sections. He’d wanted the rest of his place fixed up but had no idea how or interest in doing it himself. He would have her come up with suggestions, and then she could leave.
Emptiness swept through Dane with that thought.
No, he told himself. He couldn’t love this woman. Loving meant the possibility of losing the object of all your affection. He steeled his heart, unwilling to take the risk.
If Erin stayed, she would have time to reconsider and then locate employment back where she came from. She could find a new apartment if she lost hers, and as for losing that guy Travis, good riddance. She needed a man who would treasure her.
“Oh, that’s true,” she said, her face brightening. “Harvest for the sugar cane is coming, and some of the money earned might be used for renovations.”
“Good idea.” He rose from the sofa, needing to put more distance between him and her. She’d felt too comfortable to snuggle against, too much of an intimate reminder.
She sat looking exquisite beneath the lamp’s glow. “I can’t imagine that Aunt Tilly’s brother would want to move down here. And that seems a pity. Right now, I can’t imagine anyone not wanting to remain in this peaceful setting. I’d hate to see this place go to someone who didn’t adore it.” Her face turned up, aiming her tempting lips at him again.
With all the restraint he could muster, Dane stepped away. “I feel the same way.”
“Maybe someone who deeply cares will soon own this plantation.” That idea made Erin’s eyes sparkle.
Dane had no ide
a what other thoughts her pretty head held but knew his own instincts kept drawing him to her.
But he couldn’t become attached to a woman he could cherish. And then lose. No way.
“Of course,” she said, following him out the room, “I know my aunt’s husband had no dependents either, but he may have willed the property to others that we aren’t aware of. Or maybe you do know.”
“Cliff was unusual for a Cajun. He didn’t have any relatives left—except Tilly.”
A slow smile spread across Erin’s lips. “I wonder what she wrote as instructions for me tomorrow.”
“How did you make out today—just chilling?” he asked with a grin.
Erin waved a hand. “At first it was really difficult. But then the day became pleasant.” Concern reached her eyes. “Except for parts of it.”
He smirked. “I don’t suppose you used some of your time fixing supper?”
“Dane, all I was supposed to do today was relax. I didn’t think that meant shopping for a meal and cooking.” She cocked her head reflectively. “Sometimes working in the kitchen eases my soul. But today I found different avenues for reflection.”
The temptation came to lean his head aside as she did and meet her lips with his. Dane dismissed the urge and stood straighter. “Would you like to go out for supper, or would you rather if I’d pick up something for us to eat here?”
Her smile came, expressed mostly from her eyes. “Here sounds better. How about if I wait, and you surprise me?”
He tapped his finger on the tip of her nose. “A surprise it is. Get ready, young lady.”
Erin’s smile spreading beneath that nose made Dane call up all the restraint he could muster to turn and walk out the door.
Erin remained in place for long minutes after he left. Her breaths needed to calm.
Her lips still felt moist and warm from his kiss. Moments ago when he’d stood close, she had wanted to kiss him again, to hold onto him and have him hold her as he’d done on the sofa and not let go.
Foolish, she told herself. He had only hugged and kissed her to give comfort from all her complaints. Surely the feelings she experienced from his closeness hadn’t been the same for him.
Erin shook her head, moving from the spot where she’d stood frozen, forcing her mind to refocus. If she remained here awhile, as Dane suggested, she’d have to come up with ideas for remodeling.
She glanced across the dining room. Those stacks of papers and boxes would come off the table first, and then she’d use liquid polish to bring out the furniture’s hidden sheen. She’d get the tarnish off the silver tea set. She would add only a few antique items, maybe a milk glass vase with fresh roses from the garden. Or not, if Dane complained. The rear bedroom could use a little sprucing, maybe a charming quilt folded over a stand and a kidney-shaped desk. And that room with boxed vegetables inside the back door needed cleaning out before she could imagine how to refurbish it.
But the place that drew Erin’s interest the most had been hidden. Up that stairwell. She needed to get into the room to see how she might fix it up as an extra bedroom.
Chapter Fifteen
Erin was in that room when Dane walked through the house, calling her name.
“Up here.” She left the room and answered him from the top of the stairwell.
He stood below, one hand on the rail, his eyes narrowed. “What are you doing up there?”
“Looking around.” She retreated through the small door, knowing he’d follow. His hard quick footsteps on the stairs told her he was coming.
She stood amidst all the boxes when he ducked to enter the doorway, his face harsh as he scanned the room. Only two hanging bulbs lit their space inside the unfinished sloping walls with shutters to the dormer windows still closed, but Erin could easily see his fury.
His gaze fell to a gauzy white dress on top of an open box. Tenderly, Dane lifted the dress. Caressing it against his chest, he peered at Erin, his mouth grim. “How’d you get in here?”
“There had to be a key, so I looked in the top drawer in the desk down in the office. The key was right inside. Of course you knew that.”
With a vacant gaze, he peered across the room.
“I didn’t have time to go through many things up here,” she said, scanning all the sealed boxes and some garments hanging in a corner. “I imagine some of them were for Aunt Tilly and her husband. But I believe most of these things belonged to your wife.”
Dane’s jaw lowered, his lips parting. His forehead creased with furrows.
Anguish bit into Erin. She wanted to hold him tight and take away all his pain. But no one could start the healing process but himself.
His eyes seemed unable to see anything in front of him.
Erin expelled the breath she’d held. “You keep all that anger stored up, but until you let it go… Dane, unless you allow yourself to feel the pain of losing her, you’ll never be able to let anyone else get close to you.”
His vision seemed to focus. Erin had witnessed snatches of him at peace and joyful, and she wanted him happy again.
She gave his shoulder a light squeeze of support. “I wish it wasn’t true… but Anna won’t ever come back.”
Fury flashed in his eyes. He deposited the dress in the box, closed the flap, and resealed it with tape. Dane stood, his face harsh. “I imagine you dug through all my personal belongings.” He turned on his heels and stomped out the room. “Well keep digging, if that’s what makes you satisfied.”
She followed to the top of the stairs. “I didn’t plan to dig. I went to the cemetery and found the flowers you placed at her grave.”
A glance over his shoulder was the only response he gave.
“And she planted those roses, didn’t she?” Erin asked, making him stop. “That’s why you got so angry when I cut some of them.”
The knuckles of his hand clasping the stair railing turned white.
“Dane,” she said, stepping down the stairs, “I’m only speaking about your past because I care.” The truth that she’d discovered made her admit what her heart told her. “And maybe I care about you too much.”
He watched her descent, his face clouding with what seemed varying emotions. Erin was almost to him, and he spun away. “There’s food on the table. I’m not hungry,” he said.
The dining room’s door slammed, followed by the sound of his truck roaring to life and then screeching away.
Dejection ran through Erin. She meandered through rooms and found herself in the kitchen and staring at the rose petals that had begun to wither. She moved away from them and spied a large bag on the counter, the printing on it saying T-Fred’s Diner.
She didn’t want food. Curiosity about what he’d chosen for her meal made her inspect the bag’s contents.
Plastic containers had the same words printed on top: Frog legs for Dane and Erin.
“Frog legs?” she said, unable to stop her grin. Surely he’d figured she had never eaten such things in New York. He must have smiled when he’d ordered it. Erin needed to see what cooked frogs’ legs looked like.
Opening a take-out box, she found salad, fries, and half a dozen legs that looked similar to fried chicken drumsticks, except these were smaller. Okay, she had to try this. Lifting one, she nibbled.
The white meat was tender, its batter crunchy. She did like the flavor but still wasn’t hungry since her exchanged words with Dane. She set the boxes in the refrigerator, making a sad smile, looking at the words above them again, where T-Fred had paired her with Dane.
She closed the refrigerator. Now that she’d butted into Dane’s life and pain, he would surely want her to leave. Maybe the plantation still legally belonged to Tilly and Cliff, but they’d let Dane live in this house. If Erin remained, her stay would only cause him misery. God, that man knew how to love a woman.
Resigning herself to letting go of something—or someone—she might want to remain near, Erin considered her future. She had one more thing to definitely accomplish whi
le she was here.
She headed for her aunt’s envelope, looking forward to seeing what her delightful mother figure had planned for her to do tomorrow, her last day on the plantation.
Chapter Sixteen
You have just spent three days here, the words topping the fourth day’s page said. I am about to ask you to do one more thing.
Erin stared at the handwriting, the pain from losing her aunt squeezing through her heart, making her eyes mist. She let her mind play out the image of Tilly, flouncing about the kitchen in her old house, where she’d invited little Erin almost every weekend while they had lived in the same town. Erin’s mother squandered attention on some rich male, but her aunt gave every bit of love to her.
Replaying those images made Erin laugh and cry, until she was able to tuck those scenes away in her heart, knowing they and her aunt would remain there. She rubbed her eyes and read more, heartbeats speeding as she anticipated the final challenge.
Day 4 Instructions: DO WHATEVER YOU WANT.
Anger welled inside Erin, surprising her. She’d had to stay here and lose all—just for this? At her aunt’s prompting, she had given up all that meant security. Permanence. Had her devious elder only been playing, not realizing that she would pull away the carpet of stability from under Erin, making her tumble from the places and people she’d held onto?
“Aunt Tilly,” Erin whispered with a slow shake of her head, “you were really something.” She stared at the paper, willing her eyes to focus on the last few words written.
My dearest Erin, if you followed my requests during these last days, you have probably come to find peace. I know that your parents, in their frailties, left you to feel orphaned, and I have always been aware that you clung to me because I made you feel at home. (And because I’m so pretty.) That comment, alongside the smiley face with ringlets, made Erin laugh. With a stoic face, she read more. But my child, I knew one day I’d also have to be leaving you. Sweetie, you need to retain great love in your heart. Don’t settle for less. I was fortunate to finally discover a man who could cherish me as much as I cherished him. I wish the same for you.
