by Jodi Vaughn
Chapter One
Grace Witherspoon parked her oatmeal-colored Ford Taurus near an empty alley and away from the street camera on Main Street. She tugged her baseball cap down over her dark brown hair and slid her sunglasses on before climbing out of the car. It was still early in the sleepy little town of Cloverton, Tennessee, and traffic was minimal. The sun was still sneaking its way up in the sky at a crawl as store owners turned on their Open signs and unlocked their doors.
Grace waited to make the trip into town during the week while moms were busy dropping kids off at school and the work force was settling into their familiar routines. People would hardly give her a second glance. If they did, the town folk would probably assume she was just passing through to a larger city like Nashville. She could be in and out of the grocery store in a matter of minutes.
She had eaten her last can of ravioli last night. She couldn’t put off getting food any longer. Real food. She’d survived on canned goods and ramen noodles for months. Her body craved fruits and vegetables and meals prepared in a kitchen. If she never saw prepackaged dinners again, it would be fine by her.
Stuffing her hands into her faded jeans, she hurried across the street.
Tires squealed as someone hit their brakes. From the corner of her eye, she saw a white car bearing down on her like a metal monster ready to devour. In her mind, she ran for safety. But in reality her traitorous feet remained rooted to the spot, melding to the asphalt. Her throat tightened on a scream, and she blinked as if to wake from this unrelenting nightmare.
The hood of the car slammed into her thigh, knocking her to the asphalt. The force jarred her bones, as pain shot through her nervous system. She squeezed her eyes shut against the agony, afraid to move.
“Oh, my God! Are you okay?”
Grace opened her eyes. Hovering above her was a young woman with platinum blonde hair and large brown eyes.
“Don’t move. I’m calling an ambulance.” The woman jerked her cell phone from her pocket.
“No, don’t.” Grace gritted her teeth and pushed herself up on her arms. She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from crying out at the tenderness in her thigh.
“I told you not to move. You might have a broken leg, a spinal injury, or a punctured organ.” The woman knelt and placed a gentle hand on Grace’s arm. Her soft brown eyes widened in fear, as she looked down at her cell phone and punched in numbers. She shook her head and murmured, “Sloan is going to kill me.”
Cold shivers ran down Grace’s back. She grabbed the woman’s phone and hit End Call before it could connect. “Don’t call anyone. I’m fine.”
“Are you kidding? I just hit you with my car.” The woman’s lip trembled.
“It’s my fault for not paying attention. I didn’t even walk in the crosswalk. Besides, you couldn’t have been going that fast.”
The woman worried her lip with her teeth. “I still think you need to go to the ER so they can check you out.”
“No.” Grace shook her head. Visiting the hospital required too much personal information. It was the last place she needed to be.
“Oh.” The woman gave her an understanding smile. “You don’t have insurance, do you?”
Grace breathed out a sigh of relief and shook her head. “No, I don’t.”
“That’s not a problem. I’ll pay for any medical bills.” She reached for the phone, but Grace held it away out of her reach.
“No. That’s not necessary. If I was really hurt, I think I’d know by now. Besides, I don’t want you to get in trouble.” She met the woman’s confused gaze. “You mentioned someone named Sloan.”
The woman grimaced. “He’s already lit into me about my car insurance going up. Last month I hit the neighbor’s car while I was backing out of the driveway. I thought it was the garbage can so I kept backing up, you know, to push it out of the way. It turns out I was pushing a really big dent in the side of her car.” She shook her head. “It really wasn’t my fault. She practically takes over my driveway with her garbage can.” She smiled. “I’m Allison, by the way.”
“I’m Grace.” Her legs trembled, as she forced them under her as Allison helped her up. A sharp pain shot through her thigh.
“Are you sure you’re okay? You look kind of pale.”
“I’m fine. I just got up too fast.” She slipped out of Allison’s hold and bent to pick up her baseball cap and sunglasses before gathering the strewn contents of her purse.
“No. I got it.” Allison gathered her meager belongings and shoved them back in her brown oversized purse. “You must be new here.”
Grace shouldered her purse. “I just moved here a few days ago. I was making a trip to the grocery store.”
“Before I hit you.” Allison buried her face in her palms. “I’m such an idiot.”
Grace touched her arm. Her heart tugged for the distressed woman. “Look, I’m fine, really. In fact, there’s no need for you even to tell your husband about this little incident.”
Allison dropped her hands and frowned. “My husband?”
“Sloan.”
Allison’s lip curled up in disgust. “Gross. Sloan’s my brother, not my husband.”
Grace laughed a little. “Oh, sorry. I just assumed.”
Allison waved her hand in a dismissive gesture. “He’s a little overprotective. He seems to have forgotten I’m an adult and I’m no longer a child.”
“It’s good to have someone looking out for you.” Grace swallowed the bitterness rising in the back of her throat. What did it feel like to have a support system? At times it seemed like the world was against her, continuing to stack obstacles, one after another, in her way. She’d thought she had gotten a break when she found the little town of Cloverton, right up until she got run over.
“Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“No. I’m an only child.” Grace stepped onto the curb as a few shopkeepers stepped outside and glanced around. They’d probably heard the commotion. They stared at Allison’s car parked in the middle of the street, shrugged and headed back inside.
A driver pulled up behind Allison’s car and honked. She shot him a glare and the driver drove around, shaking his head. Ignoring her illegally parked car, Allison followed Grace onto the curb. “So where do you live?”
Grace’s chest tightened. She hesitated. “I bought the Hadley property.”
Allison’s eyes widened. “Really? That’s quite a distance from town. You must get very lonely out there.”
Grace slung her purse across her shoulder and held it against her side. “Not really. I like the country. It’s very peaceful.”
Allison snorted. “You sound like Sloan. He had a shit fit when I told him I was moving out of his house and into an apartment. He acted like I was moving to Siberia.”
“Your brother seems overbearing.”
“You have no idea.”
Grace bit down on her lip to keep from speaking out against her brother. This wasn’t her town and it wasn’t her business. Her gaze raked down Allison’s arms and she relaxed a little when she didn’t see any bruises. Maybe the brother was just a jerk and not a violent man. Allison seemed too bubbly to be a victim of abuse.
“I need to be going.” Graced stepped toward the small red and white awning of the grocery store.
“Wait!” Allison ran to her car. When she returned she had a pen and paper. She scribbled something and handed the pink scrap of paper to Grace.
“What’s this?”
“It’s my number and address. You know, in case you need anything. I’m afraid I’ve left a bad first impression. We are really quite a friendly town.” Allison smiled and headed back to her white convertible.
Grace shoved the pap
er in her purse. She watched as Allison pulled away before tugging on her cap, slipping her sunglasses on, and entering the grocery store.
***
“Why did you invite me over for dinner?” Sloan Jackson cocked his head and watched his sister scurry around the kitchen. He didn’t really care for the uncomfortable-looking furniture that Allison called contemporary, or the style of the loft apartment. Completely different from the oversized leather furniture, hardwood floors and deer mounts that decorated his house in the country. He didn’t have to live here so he figured his opinion didn’t matter much.
“You act like I never cook for you anymore.”
“You don’t. Not since you moved.”
She set a steaming plate of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and green beans in front of him and scooted a plate of freshly made cornbread near his elbow. His stomach growled. He’d worked a double shift today and breakfast was long gone.
“I’ve been busy getting settled. It takes a lot of work to make a house a home. I wasn’t intentionally ignoring you.”
“I don’t mean to be a jerk.” He sighed as he took a bite. The flavor exploded on his tongue. He was beyond starving and his stomach thanked him. “I worry because you’re here. Alone.”
She laughed and took her seat. “I was alone out in the country. At least now I’m in town. Now, I’m not lonely.”
He shot her a sideways look. “Have you heard from Rob?”
Her shoulders stiffened as she slid her napkin in to her lap. “No. I haven’t, and I wish you’d quit asking.”
He waved his fork for emphasis. “Just make sure he doesn’t worm his way back into your life.”
“I’m not stupid, Sloan. Why would I take back someone who stole my money?”
His heart tugged, shewould always be that little girl in pigtails running around trying to catch fireflies because she thought they were fairies. He’d seen her change over the past year after that bastard had broken her heart. She’d learned that happily ever after didn’t really exist.
“You’re not stupid. You have a big heart and always see the best in people.”
She rested her chin in her palm and sighed. “Being bighearted is the nice word for being a fool.”
He took her hand in his. “You are nobody’s fool. Don’t forget that. Besides, if that son of a bitch shows up within a two-hundred-mile range, I’ll know about it and I’ll arrest his ass myself.”
She sighed heavily and picked up her fork. “Let’s change the subject, shall we? How was your day?”
“Long.” He took another bite. “How was yours? Anything interesting happen?”
Her fork paused halfway to her mouth. “I’ve got some beer if you want that instead of tea.”
“Tea is fine.” Sloan narrowed his gaze. “Allie?”
She shoved a fork load of potatoes in her mouth.
“What is it you’re not telling me?”
She swallowed, took a sip of tea and met his gaze. “Promise you won’t be mad?”
“Oh, God, Allie. You have talked to Rob.” Sloan dropped his fork, his appetite suddenly gone. “Where is he? I’m going to kill him.”
She shook her head. “It’s not Rob. I really haven’t heard from him. Even if he tried calling, I would just hang up on him.”
His muscles relaxed. “What is it? The last time you cooked a big meal like this you hit your neighbor’s car.”
“Stop bringing that up. That happened one time. I told you, I thought it was the garbage can.”
“What is it, then?”
She winced. “I hit something else.”
He sucked in a breath and mentally counted to ten. “Like what? A mailbox? A deer? A small child?”
“Like a person.”
The blood drained from his face. “Shit, it wasn’t a small child, was it?”
“No.” She winced.
“Who was it?”
“Well, she was crossing Main Street and I kind of bumped into her. I wasn’t going that fast and she jumped up, well, not exactly jumped up, but she did say that she was fine.”
“Jesus, Allie, did you call the ambulance?” He rubbed his hand across his face, already knowing the answer. “No, you didn’t, because I would have heard it on the police scanner. You should have at least called me.”
“I was going to call the ambulance, but she wouldn’t let me. I even told her I would pay for all the medical bills because she said she didn’t have insurance. She said she was fine. She got up and everything.”
“Who was it?” He closed his eyes, thinking of a list of possible victims. There were a lot of businesses on Main Street so it could have been any number of people.
“Nobody you know. Her name is Grace and she just moved to town.” Allie took a sip of tea. “I gave her my number and address in case she changed her mind about going to see a doctor. She seemed okay. Plus she got up and everything.”
“You said that already.”
“I think it needs to be emphasized.”
Sloan shook his head. “You should have insisted she go to the hospital. If something happens she can come back and sue you.”
Allie’s face paled. “Oh, God. I didn’t think about that. She seemed so adamant about not going. I even saw her go into the grocery store afterwards.”
He stood and stared at the panicked expression on his sister’s face. He took Allie gently by the arms. “You know what? You’re probably right. She’s probably fine and feeling a little embarrassed about the whole thing.”
“You think?” She gave him a look of hope.
He nodded. “Where did she move to?”
“The old Hadley place.”
“I was beginning to think that place would never sell. It was on the market for a while. How about I ride out there tomorrow morning to check on her myself?” He needed to see for himself not only if this woman was okay, but also that she wasn’t aiming to sue Allison down the road. He didn’t want to see his sister go through an ordeal like she’d been through with her lying ex-boyfriend.
Allison let out a sigh of relief. “Would you? That would make me feel better. I’ll even make a cake for you to take to her.”
Sloan grimaced. “I don’t know about that, Allie. Shouldn’t that be something you take out there? It sounds like a girl thing.”
She gave him a wide smile. “Actually it will be perfect if you took it. What better way to say ‘welcome’ than an eligible bachelor showing up on her doorstep with a cake?”
***
Grace curled her hands around the steaming cup of coffee and gazed out her kitchen window. The lush green foliage surrounding the back of her house were highlighted with the first tips of sunlight. The overgrown grass swayed slightly in the early morning breeze as the call of a mockingbird echoed on the wind. She wished she felt as brilliant as the day promised to be.
She’d taken ibuprofen before bed and managed to sleep through the night. Today her muscles were stiff and her right thigh ached from the impact of the car.
She had to force herself to roll out of her new, comfy bed this morning, knowing if she laid around all day she’d be worse. Upon buying the Hadley place, she had made few conditions but getting a new mattress delivered to the house before she arrived was one of them.
She’d slept too many nights in her car or in a sleeping bag while on the move across the United States waiting for the right moment to find a home.
The Hadley house had been that moment.
Grace had searched computer libraries in several states for a home. When she saw the picture of the Hadley house and the land that went with it, she knew she’d found it. The Hadley house sat on twenty acres of land. Her nearest neighbor was ten miles away. She made a lowball offer on the house and, to her surprise, it had been accepted.
Turning away from the window, pain shot through her thigh. Setting her coffee cup down, she took a tentative step toward the back door. The pain lessened a degree with each forced step. Today was going to be rough with all the cleaning
she had planned.
Her fingertips brushed the top of the wooden baseball bat, tucked in the corner for her peace of mind, before she reached for the doorknob. The soft tinkle of the bell above the door drifted out into the quiet yard. She thought it strange that the previous owners installed a bell over the back door. She didn’t mind the extra security so she ended up leaving it.
A quiet smile rested on her lips as she stepped out onto the porch and gazed at the lush green woods that bordered the backyard. Born and bred in New England, Grace never thought she would end up living in rural Tennessee.
Her smile faltered. There were a lot of things she had never thought would happen that, indeed, did happen. Her life had turned into a game of survival. Things that were once so important no longer held their appeal. She shivered as she thought back over the last few months, staying out of sight and keeping on the run.
That life was over. This was her life now.
She closed her eyes and inhaled the scent of spring, crisp air, and fragrant flowers. After a season of winter, Grace desperately needed a spring.
***
A little before eight o’clock Sloan pulled up to the old Hadley property in his white Dodge truck. The brilliant blue sky shone with the promise of spring, signaling the end of cold nights and dreary days. He was looking forward to long weekends of grilling, fishing and drinking ice-cold beer.
He grimaced as he grabbed the plated cake wrapped in plastic and topped with a frilly green ribbon, compliments of Allison.
He picked his way up the uneven brick walkway to the front porch feeling like a complete tool. The house bore signs of sitting many years, empty and unused. The roof was littered with branches from the last storm, and the gutters were clogged with rotting leaves. Unruly shrubs crept up the porch railing, threatening to take over the porchthat looked over a yard full of weeds.
The porch fared no better, littered with leaves and creaking with each step he took. The wood plank at the front door gave way. He eased back a step, inspecting the loose board.
The poor woman had been suckered into buying a money pit.
He used his free hand to wipe a layer of grime off the window to peer inside. The empty living room looked the same. The walls were dressed in an outdated wallpaper of tiny pink roses with green climbing vines, and the original hardwood floors needed to be refinished. The only furniture was a white wicker sofa that he’d bet came with the house.
