The Homecoming Queen Gets Her Man

by Shirley Jump

  Anna Lee scoffed. “You’re proud of me? I’ve always been the one proud of you, though I didn’t tell you nearly enough. I was proud when you won all those pageants, when you won Miss North Carolina, when you were bound for Miss America. But I have to say—” she let out a breath “—I was proudest of you the day you walked away from all that, and prouder still when you came back here, after what happened to you. You’re a braver girl than me, Meri, and I’m sorry if I have ever implied you were anything less than perfect.”

  Tears choked Meri’s voice. “Thank you, Momma.”

  She gave Meri’s fingers a squeeze. “None of those things you say I did mean anything to me, not if I’ve lost you.” Her lower lip trembled and her perfect smile slid. “Do I...do I still have you?”

  Meri nodded. “You always will.”

  A tear slid down Anna Lee’s face, marring her makeup, but she made no move to swipe it away. Instead she drew her daughter’s hand into her lap, and the two of them sat there for a long time, hands clasped, watching life go by on the lake.

  * * *

  If Jack Barlow ever made a list of all the stupid things he had done in his life, he would surely run out of ink before he got to the end. At the top of the list was telling Meri Prescott that their relationship was over.

  After the afternoon in the woods, he had gone home rather than go after her. It had been an agonizing night, but he’d needed the time to process, to think, to be sure.

  When dawn broke, Jack realized that no matter how he felt about Meri, he couldn’t go after her—couldn’t be the man he needed to be—until he stopped running from his demons. So on a pretty Monday morning when he had a long list of things to do, he set that list aside, climbed in the truck and headed into town.

  He parked outside the bakery and headed inside. It was early yet—the bakery had only opened five minutes earlier—and there was only one customer buying some bread for that night’s dinner. Betty Delacorte greeted Jack with a big smile, then came over to him when the customer left. “Good morning, Jack! What can I get you to eat?”

  “I’m not here to eat, Miz Delacorte.” He shoved his hands into his pockets. “I’m here to talk to you and Mr. Delacorte. About...Eli.”

  The smile dimmed on her face. “I’ll call him right now. And turn that sign to Closed.”

  “Oh, you don’t have to do that. I don’t want you to lose any business or anything.”

  “You want to talk about my Eli, don’t you?”

  He nodded.

  “Then that is a reason to stop a moment and talk.” She hustled next door to get George, and when they returned, she did as she’d said and turned the lock on the door.

  The three of them sat at one of the small round tables at the front of the bakery. Jack let his gaze rest on the penciled drawing of the indigo bunting, then started to talk. He talked until his voice grew hoarse and until he’d told it all, from the day Eli first came to him to the day he had put the drawing in the mail. He glossed over the details of Eli’s death, but otherwise left nothing out, finally, fully coming clean.

  After he was done, Betty was the first to get to her feet and draw Jack into a hug. George told Jack he was glad they’d finally talked, then wrapped a beefy arm around both of them and the three of them sat there for a long time, grieving their loss.

  “I’m so sorry,” Jack said. “I should have come sooner. I should have told you all of it a year ago. Should have written a letter when I sent you that drawing. Should have done a hell of a lot of things that I didn’t. I just...I couldn’t bear to hurt you any more than I already had.”

  “You didn’t hurt us,” George said. “You gave us answers. And a connection to our boy. The stories you told, they were about him, about how he was brave and strong and everything we ever wanted.” A watery smile filled his face, and George’s blue eyes held Jack’s for a long time. “Thank you.”

  Those were the last words Jack had ever expected to hear. They humbled him, and gave him that elusive gift he had been seeking for so long.

  Peace.

  And an idea.

  * * *

  Meri was loading up her car when Jack pulled into the driveway later that day. When she saw him swing out of his truck and lope over to her, her step faltered and she almost dropped the box in her arms. Damn, he was a good-looking man. She had loved him almost all her life, and knew in her heart she was never going to stop. Heck, loving Jack Barlow was part and parcel of what made up her DNA. That was what made seeing him today ten times more painful. She clutched the box tight to her chest and willed her face to stay impassive, calm.

  “Where are you going?” he asked.

  “Back to New York.” She turned away and stowed the box in the trunk, beside her suitcase. Despite what her grandfather had said this morning, she already knew where this would end with Jack. He had broken up with her, after all, and driven her away twice now. She needed to leave, to get back to her life, before he hurt her a third time. “My grandpa is doing well now, and I need to decide if I’m going to take that job at the travel magazine or not.”

  “Don’t go. Not yet. I want to show you something.” He put out a hand. “Will you come with me?”

  She hesitated. She was ready to leave, had cemented her decision to go, but seeing Jack again, her heart did that funny little flippity-flop and she knew that if he asked, she’d go to the moon and back with him. “Okay. But I really do have to get on the road soon.”

  Yeah, look how well her resolve was holding up so far. Why did he have to look so damned good?

  “We won’t be long. I promise.” He helped her up into his truck, made sure she was buckled, then turned the pickup around and headed back to town. The truck bumped over the rutted lake road, jostling Meri into brushing up against Jack’s arm. The connection sent a searing heat through her. Okay, so maybe forgetting him wasn’t going to be as easy as she thought.

  Meri held on to the handle on the passenger’s side door and tried to cement herself in the seat. “Where are we going?”

  “You’ll see.” A smile played on his lips as he drove away from the lake, past the mansions and down to the quaint downtown area, where it seemed as if time had stopped two hundred years in the past.

  As much as Meri loved New York, she loved this, too. Loved the homey feeling of Stone Gap, the way the entire town felt like walking into a much-loved aunt’s home. When she’d been younger, she’d seen Stone Gap as a prison, marching her down to a sentence she wanted to escape. But now, after leaving and returning, and most of all, coming into her own as an adult, she realized she loved this quirky little town.

  Jack parked the truck in front of a small vacant lot to the west of Aunt Betty’s bakery. He shut off the engine, then got out, coming around to open her door and help her down. The little act of chivalry melted her heart a little. Damn it. He was good-looking and nice to her.

  Meri crossed her arms over her chest, stood on the sidewalk and looked at the empty dirt patch before her. Just get this over with, get on the road, as soon as possible. “Um...what is this?”

  “Nothing right now. But it’s going to be a playground. With a fort over there, and a tree right there. A set of swings, a slide, and some monkey bars on that side.” He pointed and waved his hands, showing his vision for what was to come, the idea that had blossomed in his head that morning. He had some preliminary sketches sitting in his truck and had already started planning out the assembly and materials list. Maybe this could be the first step to that carpentry business Luke had told him to start. Jack liked the idea of building things where once there had been nothing. Liked that a lot. “And everything is going to be painted indigo bunting blue.”

  She turned to him, a smile curving across her face as the pieces fell into place and she realized what he was creating. “For Eli?”

  Jack nodded. “Betty and
George have owned this lot for years, thinking they’d expand or build a parking lot or something, but when I told them today that I wanted a way to honor Eli’s memory, they thought there was no better place than here. I’ve been searching for a purpose, Meri, a way to...keep him alive, I guess. And what better way to do that than to preserve it, here, in this town he loved so much.”

  “I can’t think of a better way to honor his memory, Jack. He would have loved it.” She slipped her hand into his, such a simple gesture, but it warmed Jack from the inside out. “I love it.”

  “Good.” He turned her to face him, to tell her the real reason he had brought her out here. When he’d seen her loading her car today, his heart had stopped. But she was here now, and he took that as a good sign. “Because I’m going to need help. Your help.”

  Confusion muddled her green eyes. “I can’t hammer or cut wood or anything like that.”

  “That’s what my brother Luke is for. I don’t need you for your building skills, Meri.” He took both her hands now, drawing her to him, so close he could see the flecks of gold in her eyes, catch the familiar scent of cherries and almonds. “I need you to help me make it beautiful. You have vision and an eye for that kind of thing. I’m the brawn, but you’re the creativity.”

  She tugged her hands out of his and took a step back. “I’m going back to New York, Jack. Maybe we can talk out some ideas by email, but I won’t be here to help you build this.”

  “So you’re running away?”

  She avoided his gaze. “I’m not running. I have a job offer in New York. A career.”

  “A career you could just as easily have here.” Jack stepped into her space, his height casting a shadow over her. Still she wouldn’t look at him, and he worried that he was too late. That he had waited too long and lost her before he ever really had her again. “What are you afraid of, Meri?”

  “I’m not afraid of anything.”

  “Liar.” He grinned, then cupped her face and waited for her gaze to connect with his. He saw fear flicker on her face, a fear he knew well. “I know you, better than I know myself sometimes. And I know exactly what you’re afraid of, because I’m afraid of it, too.”

  “Jack—”

  She tried to turn away but he didn’t let her go. Couldn’t let her go, not until he had said what he’d brought her here to say.

  “Remember that day we caught crawdads in the creek? You didn’t want to go down to the water and get your dress dirty, so I climbed down there, caught the biggest one I could find and brought it back to you.” He took her hand and splayed her palm, as if they were ten and twelve again, standing in the summer sunshine while the water babbled a gentle song. “I dropped it in your hands, and I thought you’d scream but you didn’t. Instead, you looked up at me with the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. I didn’t know it then, but I know it now. That was the day I fell in love with you.”

  She scoffed. “Jack, we were kids. You couldn’t possibly have been in love then.”

  “Maybe so, but I do know from that day forward, I thought about you all the time.” He traced her lip with his thumb and thought she had to be the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Not just on the outside, but on the inside, too, in the way she tended to her grandfather, worried about him, saw the world around her. Meri had opened his eyes to the beauty that existed in his heart, in his world, and for that, he could never repay or thank her. All he could do was go on loving her. “Do you know why I waited so long to ask you out? Because we were friends first, and next to Eli, you were the best friend I ever had. I didn’t want to screw that up. In the end, I did anyway, by breaking up with you. I was so mean that day in the garage, Meri. I was a jerk, and I’m sorry.”

  A sad smile filled her face. “No, you were a reality check. I didn’t like what you had to say and I spent about a year being mad at you for saying it, but you were right. I was becoming the very thing I didn’t want to be. Your words eventually gave me the courage to walk away from all that I knew and start over again in New York. Doing what I wanted to do, not what someone else prescribed for me.”

  He could only imagine how much strength that had taken, for her to give up her crown, turn down the penultimate pageant and start from scratch in a whole new city. “You are a beautiful, incredible, strong woman, Meredith Prescott,” he said to her, looking deep into her eyes, past the scar that he no longer saw, “and I hope to God I haven’t lost you a second time.”

  A heartbeat passed between them. Cars drove down the street, the soft whoosh of their tires along the pavement serving as a quiet undertow for the voices of people moving around the downtown area. But Meri didn’t hear any of them. She only heard the words Jack had said. That was the day I fell in love with you.

  All this time, she’d thought she’d been the only one in love. That she’d been a silly schoolgirl with an unrequited crush. When it turned out the two of them had just been scared teenagers who didn’t know what they were giving up. And now, if she ran off to New York, she’d be that same scared girl who could risk her career but had yet to risk her heart. Did she really want to be living in the city again, alone and regretting what might have been?

  “You didn’t lose me, Jack. Not in here.” She placed a palm on her heart, then on his.

  “Then stay here, with me. And let’s build this playground and build a future. Right here in Stone Gap.” He laid his hand over hers and she felt the steady thump-thump of his heart beneath her palm. It was as reliable and sure as this man. “You were right about me. I have so many scars deep inside me, scars I never thought could heal. Then you came along and reminded me that there is goodness in this world, a life that I still want. A life I want with you, Meri, because I love you.”

  The words settled over her heart like a butterfly landing on a flower. She held them, savoring them, for a long time, then wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you, too, Jack. I always have.”

  A smile winged across his face, broad and real and joyous. “Then how about you try on one more title for size?”

  “What title is that?”

  “Mrs. Jack Barlow. It doesn’t come with a crown, or even a fancy ribbon, and I can’t promise that there will always be roses, but there will be plenty of opportunities to wear high heels and smile.”

  She laughed. Only Jack would throw the high heels perk into the mix. “Are there any other former beauty queens in contention for this title?”

  He pretended to think for a second. “Nope. It’s a lock. Although—” he gave her a teasing grin “—there may be a bathing suit competition.”

  “I thought I already won the skinny-dipping one.”

  “Oh, yes, you did. Ten times over. Scratch the bathing suit competition. In fact, scratch the bathing suit altogether.”

  She laughed again. “Mrs. Jack Barlow sounds like the perfect title for me.” She rose on her tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his lips. He opened his mouth against hers and cradled her head in his hands. This kiss was sweet and slow, like molasses running through her veins, and she thought it was definitely possible to melt into someone. When she pulled back, she saw him watching her with those blue eyes that had seen the world and come back here, to her. How she was going to love seeing those eyes every morning for the rest of her life. “We do have one more thing to settle, Jack.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Somebody owes me a picnic with desserts. But right now, I think all we need is the blanket. The desserts can come later.” She leaned into him again and kissed him a second time, less leisurely, more demanding, the fire erupting between them so quickly she could barely mumble, “Much, much later.”

  * * * * *

  Don’t miss Luke Barlow’s story,

  the next installment in

  New York Times bestselling author Shirley Jump’s

  new miniseries,

  THE BARLOW BROTHERSr />
  Coming soon from Harlequin Special Edition!

  Keep reading for an excerpt from CLAIMING HIS BROTHER’S BABY by Helen Lacey.

  We hope you enjoyed this Harlequin Special Edition story.

  You know that romance is for life. Harlequin Special Edition stories show that every chapter in a relationship has its challenges and delights and that love can be renewed with each turn of the page.

  Enjoy six new stories from Harlequin Special Edition every month!

  Visit Harlequin.com to find your next great read.

  Connect with us on Harlequin.com for info on our new releases, access to exclusive offers, free online reads and much more!

  Other ways to keep in touch:

  Harlequin.com/newsletters

  Facebook.com/HarlequinBooks

  Twitter.com/HarlequinBooks

  HarlequinBlog.com

  Chapter One

  Cassie Duncan placed her four-month-old son in his bed and gently rubbed his belly through the pale blue cotton onesie. Oliver’s breathing slowed and she watched his tiny chest rise and fall, marveling at the perfect little person who’d come into her life.

  If only your daddy was here...

  But Doug was gone. Killed eight months earlier while on tour in the Middle East, he never got to see his son born. Now it was just the two of them, getting through each day. Cassie adored being a mother and loved Oliver more than she’d imagined she could love anyone. But she was sad that Doug would miss seeing his son grow up. He’d had very little family, just a younger brother in South Dakota he rarely saw. And Crystal Point was a long way from there. With a population of eight hundred, the small Australian beachside town sat at the southernmost point of the Great Barrier Reef. It was the perfect place to raise her child—quiet and safe—a place where she fit in, where she led a valuable life.