Harlequin Superromance September 2014 - Bundle 1 of 2: This Good ManPromises Under the Peach TreeHusband by Choice

by Janice Kay Johnson

  God help him.

  “What about your parents?” Anna asked softly, dragging him back to the present.

  He sat very still, doing his best to give away nothing. “My mother died when I was ten. My father...is also a cop. Spokane P.D.”

  “You took after him.”

  “No.” There was more bite in the one word than he’d meant to put there. Her eyes widened. “I consider myself his antithesis,” Reid said calmly. “He’s a son of a bitch.”

  “I...see.”

  He was afraid she did. Those extraordinary eyes gazed at him as if he were a crystal ball and the mist within was clearing to reveal what she wanted to know. The sensation made his skin crawl.

  Why had he started this, against his original instinct? It wasn’t only her eyes that were spooky; it was her. A casual sexual relationship wasn’t going to be possible with this woman.

  He made a production out of draining the last of his coffee and then glanced at his watch. “We probably shouldn’t linger too long. Our frozen food will melt.”

  She didn’t call him on the absurdity of that, when the outside temp might conceivably have reached a not-so-balmy forty degrees Fahrenheit. Instead, she took a long drink of her latte and said politely, “You’re right. I’m ready if you are.”

  On the drive back to the Safeway parking lot, he asked how long she’d lived in Angel Butte. Seven years. Although she enjoyed cross-country skiing, she’d never taken up alpine. She hadn’t learned as a child and couldn’t afford the sport now even if she’d wanted to try it. He felt guilty for asking, when she had already told him she’d grown up in foster homes. Of course she hadn’t had the opportunity.

  When she came to a stop right behind his SUV and said “Thank you for the coffee” in a tone that told him she knew his interest had cooled, Reid felt...regret. He didn’t like knowing he’d probably hurt her feelings.

  Be smart.

  “My pleasure,” he said, opening his door. “Glad I ran into you.”

  She said something as meaningless. He nodded, shut the door and dug his keys out of his pocket as he walked around the driver side of the Expedition. By the time he got in and glanced in the rearview mirror, she was gone.

  Out of sight, out of mind, he told himself, but his chest constricted uncomfortably.

  All the more reason to stay clear of her. Thinking hard these past nights since his Wednesday visit to the shelter, he’d recognized that Paula might be right. A part of him did want to love this newfound brother and be loved in return. If so, it was a major step for him. The kind of intimacy it took to really love a woman... No. He did know his own boundaries. Anna Grant was outside them.

  CHAPTER THREE

  CALEB LEAPED UP from the bench and stared at Paula in outrage. “You think I set the fire.”

  “No.” Her gaze was kind, but when she said, “Sit down,” he didn’t mistake her firmness. He’d already figured out that, despite first impressions, Paula was the hard-ass, Roger the easy touch of the two.

  “Then why are you asking me—”

  “All we’re trying to do is determine whether any of you saw anything. If possible, we’d like to be sure none of you boys set the fire.”

  “Why would we?”

  She gave him a little lecture about how arson was a form of acting out and how some of the boys who came here were troubled. Good word—troubled. He hadn’t yet asked anyone else why they were here, but he knew it had to be shit as bad as he’d experienced. And, like had happened with him, the police and courts had screwed them over, too. That was what this place was—a last resort.

  Hey, pun.

  Caleb repeated that he’d been asleep until he heard Roger bellowing for help. He’d looked out his window but hadn’t seen anything—his window faced the wrong way—but then he’d stuck his head out into the hall to find out what was going on.

  “I heard you yelling there was a fire, to hurry and get dressed, so I hammered on TJ’s door.” TJ was the other guy who had a room upstairs at the lodge. Caleb didn’t really like TJ, who had a major chip on his shoulder and an explosive temper. “He yelled, ‘What?’ You know, like he was pissed I’d woken him up.”

  Paula nodded. TJ was always pissed. It was March now, and Caleb had been here since right after Christmas. TJ had already been here a couple of months then. He was probably stuck living in the lodge because no one wanted to share a cabin with him. Caleb had a really bad feeling they’d end up paired whether he liked it or not.

  “Was he dressed when he came out?” she asked.

  Caleb cast his mind back. “No, he was buck naked. His hair was flat on one side and sticking up on the other. I told him there was a fire and Roger needed help putting it out. He sort of shrugged and went back into his room.” TJ had eventually showed up to help haul buckets of water from the creek.

  “You were a big help fighting the fire,” Paula said. “Thank you.”

  “You weren’t using that cabin anyway, right?”

  She gave him sort of a funny look. “No, but the flames could have spread. And what if the same somebody decides to set another fire?”

  “How do you know it wasn’t, like, bad wiring or something?” he asked, feeling awkward but not liking what she was suggesting. What if whoever it was set the lodge on fire next time?

  “Didn’t you smell the gasoline?”

  He frowned, remembering. “I guess. I thought it was propane. I mean, there’s a tank outside the lodge.”

  “But not the cabins.”

  He nodded after a minute.

  “And you know your brother was here this morning to take a look. He showed Roger where the fire started. It wasn’t near an electrical outlet or in the kitchen area where there were any appliances.”

  Your brother. He hadn’t gotten used to those words. They made him feel...twitchy. As if he couldn’t sit still.

  “I know you boys are talking about it.” Paula sounded weary. “I wouldn’t normally encourage any of you to rat on each other, but this is serious. Even scary. Please come to Roger or me—or Reid,” she added, “if you hear anything that makes you uneasy.”

  That was one of the reasons he wasn’t settling in here. It was knowing the only reason they’d taken him was Reid. That Reid was like their real son, and Caleb was only a favor they were doing for him.

  He nodded, even though he didn’t know if he was really agreeing to anything, and asked, “Can I go?”

  “Yes. Thank you, Caleb. If you see Isaac, will you send him in?”

  “Um...sure.”

  He went outside to look for Diego, who’d been grilled right before Caleb. Fun Sunday—taking turns facing an inquisition. And after they’d all busted their asses helping to put out the fire last night.

  He found Diego splitting wood, watched by two of the other guys, Damon and Isaac. They must have been talking, because they all turned and looked at him.

  “Paula wants you,” Caleb said to Isaac, a lanky, beak-nosed seventeen-year-old. He was some kind of math genius who’d helped Caleb with his geometry the other day.

  Isaac nodded and left. He never had much to say. He’d probably been doing nothing but listening to what the other two were saying.

  Diego lifted the ax and swung. Thud. A chunk of wood split and fell from the big round of fir they used as a base.

  Damon glanced over his shoulder, as if to make sure Isaac was really out of earshot. “Palmer doesn’t think Isaac was in his cabin when Roger woke everyone up,” he said.

  “What?” Diego stared at him, the ax dangling from his hand. “How would Palmer know? He’s, like, two cabins away.”

  “That’s what he says. Only Apollo came out.”

  “Did anyone ask Apollo?”

  Damon sneered. “Like he’d say. They’re tight.”

/>   “Tight enough to lie about something like that?” Caleb asked, almost reluctantly.

  “Shit, yeah!”

  “I don’t know.” Diego sounded doubtful.

  “What?” Damon stepped forward, his stance aggressive. “You’re saying Palmer’s lying?”

  “I’m saying maybe Isaac was sound asleep and slower to get up. He’s been here, like, three years. If he wanted to set fires, why wouldn’t he have done it before?”

  “Who says he hasn’t? None of the rest of us have been here that long.”

  Caleb shook his head. “This is stupid. We don’t know anything. We shouldn’t be making accusations because somebody said somebody else said.”

  Damon swung an angry stare at Caleb. “Who are you calling stupid?”

  Caleb balanced on his feet in case this asshole decided to make it physical. “Nobody. I’m saying we should stick together, not whisper about each other.”

  “You would say that.”

  Caleb was getting pissed. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “It means you’re new here. You could have gone out easy. Come back in just as easy.”

  “I don’t set fires,” he said flatly, when what he wanted to do was plant his fist in the guy’s mouth.

  “Yeah? We don’t know you.”

  “You mean, you don’t know shit,” Caleb shot back.

  Damon launched himself. A moment later, they were rolling on the ground and Caleb had the satisfaction of feeling his knuckles connecting with Damon’s nose.

  * * *

  CALEB’S SPLIT LIP had crusted over. The black eye had faded to mauve and puce, but was still visible. Reid assessed the range of colors. The fight must have taken place in the neighborhood of three days ago. Today was Wednesday, so the injury had likely happened Sunday after the fire. When suspicion had begun to gather.

  “What?” Caleb snarled. “I suppose you’re here to give me some big lecture about being a good boy and not fighting while your best buds the Hales are being generous enough to give me a home.”

  They were in the front room of the lodge, temporarily alone. Determined to hide the tension his brother had awakened with his obvious hostility, Reid leaned back where he sat on the sagging sofa and clasped his hands behind his head. “I didn’t know you’d been in a fight until I saw your face,” he said mildly. “I came to see you.”

  “Oh, right. Like they didn’t call you the minute it happened.”

  Reid shook his head, his experienced eye dating the progression of the bruises. “Has to have been a few days.”

  Caleb stared stubbornly at him.

  Reid sighed. “This is not a school. They don’t call me every time you get in trouble.”

  “I don’t believe you.”

  “Your privilege.” He raised his eyebrows. “Do you want to tell me?”

  It was disconcerting seeing the sullenness gathered on a face that looked so much like his own. Caleb must be giving the Hales flashbacks. “What if I say no?” his brother challenged him.

  “That’s your privilege, too.”

  They sat in silence for what had to be a minute. Clattering came from the kitchen, but nobody appeared. It wasn’t Paula; Reid knew she’d driven up to Bend to load up on basics at Costco.

  Caleb glanced toward the kitchen, but the two of them were far enough away to go unheard.

  “There’s been a lot of shit talked since the fire,” he mumbled. “This one guy said I’m the newest, so it must be me who set it.” He shrugged. “I told him I didn’t, and to shut up.”

  Reid’s mouth quirked. “He didn’t like that, I gather.”

  “He’ll know better than to go for me next time. I broke his nose.”

  God. How was he supposed to handle this? A fatherly lecture wouldn’t go over well, assuming he knew how to give one. All their father would have wanted to know was why Caleb had let a fist get through his defenses.

  I’m not his father. I’m his brother.

  Yeah, no on-the-job experience there, either. The feeling of helplessness didn’t sit well with Reid.

  “So you know how to fight” was the best he could come up with.

  Caleb bent his head so Reid couldn’t see his face. “I guess.”

  “You miss being on sports teams?”

  Caleb shrugged.

  This was going nowhere. Reid decided to let it drop and get to what he’d come out here for. Besides visiting his brother, making sure he was okay.

  “Dad called.”

  “What?” The boy’s head snapped up. “You mean, that stuff about him thinking you were dead was bullshit?”

  “He never thought that,” Reid said flatly. “He just didn’t want to give you any ideas.”

  Caleb shook his head as if dazed. “Wait. He knows where you are?”

  “After I turned eighteen and started college, my guess is he’s always tracked me. I thought about changing my name, but I never did. I figured, what could he do to me?” Reid’s turn to shrug. He didn’t like saying this, but had to. “He asked if I had you.”

  Fear darkened Caleb’s eyes. “What did you say?”

  “No, of course.” That wasn’t all he’d said. He’d also said mockingly, So you lost another son. Guess you didn’t learn anything the first time around.

  It might have been smarter to ask who the hell Caleb was. He doubted his father would have bought the pretense, though. If he’d kept checking on Reid over the years, Dean Sawyer would know his oldest son was a cop. They were a paranoid bunch, and his father was more paranoid than most, as well as arrogant. He was bound to assume Reid had remained wary enough to keep checking up on him.

  Caleb jumped to his feet, his face pinched with fear. “What if he comes here looking for me?”

  Reid let his hands fall to his sides. “What if he does? Not many people know what the Hales’ place is. It’s way out of town. How could he possibly find you here?”

  “I don’t know, but— Jesus.”

  Reid straightened. “It does mean you need to stick close to home. Don’t go into town for now. If a car pulls into the driveway, stay out of sight. If Dad comes down to Oregon to look around, he’ll find out I live alone. The job was a promotion for me. There’s no reason for him to question why I moved here. I haven’t told anyone about you or my connection to the shelter.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about! He won’t let me go.”

  Reid added steel to his voice. “You’re already gone. You told me that yourself. Remember?”

  “If he shows up, some of the guys would tell him in a second I’m here!” Caleb’s panic was unreasoning. He backed away and almost stumbled over a side table.

  “And why is that?” Reid asked.

  His brother’s face twisted into an ugly expression and he let loose an expletive. “Has to be my fault, right?”

  Reid rose to his feet. “I didn’t say—”

  “Yeah, well, you’ve warned me.” His gaze raked Reid. “Nothing like having a brother who’ll nobly risk everything for my sake.”

  The churning inside felt like heartburn or something worse. Reid held Caleb’s gaze. “You want to come home with me right now? Take Daddy on? Is that it?”

  “No!” the boy shouted. “I don’t need you, okay? Thank you for coming. Goodbye.”

  The front door of the lodge slammed behind him. Reid was left standing alone, baffled, frustrated, angry...and hurt.

  * * *

  ANNA DIDN’T REMEMBER ever setting eyes on Reid Sawyer’s predecessor in real life. On television when he was campaigning, but that was different.

  So she couldn’t believe it when Reid appeared at the back of the room when she was giving a talk at the library Wednesday night. “The Joys and Frustrations of Providing Foste
r Care: An Honest Q & A,” the flyer had said. She’d been pleasantly surprised to have an audience of twelve people. Who knew, she might get a new foster home out of this group.

  She’d been rolling along, being truthful but upbeat, even eliciting some laughs, when a flicker of movement drew her gaze to the man who’d paused in the open doorway leading to the lobby. It had been only a few days since he’d stung her by making it plain he wouldn’t be calling. What were the odds they’d happen to run into each other three times in one week?

  Hair tousled and wearing jeans and an unzipped parka with gloves sticking out of one pocket, he might have gone unrecognized by her audience if she hadn’t felt such a flare of...something. Anger, she told herself, and knew better.

  With malice aforethought, she said in a ringing voice, “Captain Sawyer. How good of you to stop in.” Her entire audience swiveled to stare at the newcomer. “Folks, this is our new Angel Butte Police Department captain of Investigative and Support Services. Say hi.”

  A chorus of voices greeted him.

  His eyes met hers very briefly, expressing an astonishing amount given that she doubted anyone else in the room would so much as notice.

  “Glad to see such a turnout,” he said, inclining his head.

  “Would you like to join us?” she asked.

  “No, I, uh...” He backed up. “Just thought I’d look in.”

  His retreat duly noted, the audience turned back to her. Trying to put him out of her mind, Anna struggled to remember where she’d been in her familiar script. She sneaked a glance at the clock. Oh, well. With only fifteen minutes left to go, she could fill the time with questions.