She hesitated, then shook her head. “I better run. I have company coming for dinner, and I’m behind schedule.”
“Hot date?” he asked before he could stop himself. He didn’t see a wedding band or engagement ring, but she could still be dating Reggie. Then again, Hadley was smart. Despite her long-ago loyalty to her boyfriend, surely she’d figured out sometime during the last decade what an entitled bully he was.
“My sister, actually. And if I don’t get my butt in gear, she’ll reach my house before I do.” She turned back to her abandoned cart.
“Hadley? I’m sorry I was so abrupt earlier. The boys and I just got here last night, and I’m...adjusting. To, um, everything.” Cupid’s Bow always brought out the worst in him.
“Maybe you can make it up to me with a cup of coffee sometime,” she said lightly. “It would be nice to catch up with an old friend.”
“We were never friends.” How could they have been, when he’d spent so much time holding everyone at arm’s length? Never mind that she’d been dating his nemesis.
“No, I guess we weren’t.” Her dark eyes flashed with hurt.
Crap. He hadn’t meant to insult her. “But like you said earlier...things change, right?”
She nodded, not looking entirely convinced. “I guess we’ll see.”
* * *
“OW, DAMMIT!” HADLEY yanked her hand back from the pot. As she’d dropped pasta into the boiling water, her thumb had grazed the metal.
Leanne paused in the act of uncorking the wine. “You need me to finish up cooking? You’ve been distracted since I got here. You’re lucky you didn’t catch your sleeve on fire lighting the burner.”
“I’ve got it under control now.” Possibly. “Besides, you shouldn’t have to help cook. You’re the guest.”
“Big sisters don’t count as guests. What’s on your mind, anyway? Thinking about one of your stories?”
“No.” Until Hadley had sold a couple of short stories to a mystery magazine last year, it had been a well-kept secret that the town librarian also dreamed of being an author. She was still hesitant about discussing it, but her sister had been super supportive. Leanne was the one who’d recently encouraged her to apply for a unique writer-in-residence opportunity. “I was thinking about new friends. Or old friends, I guess. If it was an old friend who wasn’t actually your friend.”
“Uh...” Leanne held up the chardonnay. “Did you finish one of these without me before I got here?”
“Ha—I barely had time to carry in the groceries, much less down a bottle of wine. I had a strange encounter at the supermarket.” She lowered her voice the way she used to when making up ghost stories to thrill her sister when they were kids. “On this stormy night, I ran in to a tall, dark man from my past.”
“For real? Last time I went to the grocery store, the most noteworthy thing that happened was I had to wait ten minutes for a price check.”
“Grayson Cox is back in town.” At Leanne’s blank look, she added, “He’s my age and was kind of a loner. You might not remember him.”
During Hadley’s junior year in high school, her older sister had run off with a man nearly a decade older. She’d declared him the love of her life, but it only lasted four months. By then, she’d had a waitressing job in Albuquerque and soon landed in an even worse relationship. Although she sounded miserable whenever Hadley talked to her on the phone, she’d been too proud to come home. It wasn’t until after their mother’s stroke that Leanne returned.
“Grayson is Violet Duncan’s nephew,” Hadley elaborated. “Bryant Cox’s son?”
“Oh. His dad was the one who crashed into that big oak tree on Spiegel.”
Fatal car accidents were rare in Cupid’s Bow; that one had made a lasting impression on everyone. As Hadley recalled, Grayson hated being defined by his dad’s death. She’d witnessed him get into more than one fight in the high-school cafeteria.
“So you and Grayson were friends?”
“Um, no. Not in the strictest sense. We didn’t hang out with the same crowd.” Hadley had always been with her softball teammates and their collective boyfriends, and Grayson had been...apart, scowling from the outskirts. Once, she’d tried to apologize to him for her boyfriend’s obnoxious idea of a joke, but Grayson had made it clear he wanted nothing to do with her. Or with any of them. “He could be abrasive, guarded. But people change, right?”
Leanne, reconciled with her once estranged family and working toward a college degree, should understand that better than anyone. “Is that why he’s back in Cupid’s Bow? Because he’s a changed man?”
“Personal emergency brought him back.” She took the glass of wine her sister offered. It seemed wrong to gossip about Grayson’s circumstances, especially given how uncomfortable he’d looked in the store, but with the way information spread, Leanne would hear all about him in the Smoky Pig anyway. “I don’t know the specifics, but he’s here for his aunt’s help. He’s raising two little boys after a friend died.”
“That’s terrible.” Leanne sipped her wine in silence. As Hadley was plating their food, she asked, “So was your encounter with him actually out of the usual, or were you just being dramatic?”
“I, uh...” Her reaction to him definitely hadn’t been typical. When he’d flashed those dimples at her, heat had coursed through her. She’d been so captivated by his smile that for a second, she’d forgotten about the surrounding mess or the noise of crying children. And when he’d rejected her offer of coffee, her disappointment had been irrationally powerful, too. She wanted to see him again. She wanted—
“You’re blushing! Let me guess, former grump Grayson Cox grew up to be good-looking.”
Extremely good-looking. “Are you implying I’m shallow?”
“I’m saying you already know most of the men in a fifty-mile radius, and none of them has put that look on your face lately. You should ask him to be your date for the reunion.”
“Oh, good grief. I just told you, he’s dealing with a lot right now. He has real priorities, and I doubt dancing in the Cupid’s Bow High gymnasium with some girl he barely remembers makes the list.” She carried the plates to the table. “Now, sit down and eat. No one should have to study on an empty stomach.”
After dinner, they spent an hour and a half on biology. “You’re so much smarter than you give yourself credit for,” Hadley said as Leanne was packing up her notes. “You need to have more faith in yourself.”
“Uh-huh. And what were your exact words when I suggested we should go suitcase shopping because you’ll need luggage after you win that writing residency in Colorado?”
Hadley’s face heated. Every time she thought about the application she’d sent in, she felt equal parts excited and nauseated. “I love that you believe in me, but I’m a longshot at best. Some of the applicants have probably published actual books, and I... Okay, I see your point. I guess we could both work on our confidence.”
Her sister nodded. “And you know what’s a good exercise for boosting self-confidence? When you ask a hot guy to your high-school reunion and he says yes.”
“Leanne! We covered this already. Now, if we’re done with the academics, I have some writing to do tonight.”
“You’re just saying that to get rid of me.”
“No, I’m saying it because it’s true. Getting rid of you is a bonus.”
“All right, I’m leaving. But when you become a rich and famous novelist, you have to take us on a fabulous spa weekend.”
“Deal.”
After locking the front door behind her sister and changing into a pair of yoga pants and her favorite Snoopy T-shirt, Hadley curled up on the couch with her laptop. As much as she loved her job at the library, this was her favorite time of day—when she got to play with words like they were clay, molding her own world and shaping fascinating characters.
Ex
cept, tonight, the characters weren’t cooperating.
The lanky inspector from Scotland Yard suddenly bore a striking resemblance to a rugged cowboy, and none of his dialogue came out right. After typing and deleting half a dozen attempts at the same sentence, she relented. For the moment, perhaps her time would be better spent on story research than the actual writing. She opened the search engine, preparing to fact-check the form of poison her villain used. But her fingers didn’t cooperate any better than her characters had. Instead of typing arsenic trioxide, she inexplicably typed Grayson Cox.
I am going to do story research. Really. Just as soon as she finished skimming a few articles about a certain rodeo champ.
* * *
GRAYSON WIPED A damp hand across his already damp jeans, noting that there seemed to be more water on him than on either of the two boys in the tub. But, silver lining, Sam and Tyler were both clean; Grayson had helped them wash their hair without anyone yelping about shampoo in his eyes and everyone seemed recovered from the earlier incident at the grocery store. He still wasn’t sure how they’d gone so quickly from a simple “Boys, no running” to total meltdown.
Yet, without the resulting meltdown, Hadley never would have poked her head around the corner to help.
Despite past irritations with her and the graceless way he’d handled their conversation, he didn’t regret seeing her. For one thing, she was a lot of fun to look at, with her dark shining eyes and full lips. He recalled her suggestion that they meet for coffee sometime. If he was successful in finding a job, who knew how long he and the boys would be in Cupid’s Bow? It would be nice to have a friend. Then again, a curvy brunette friend who’d stared at him with alternating interest and disappointment might be a complication he didn’t have room for right now.
He turned his attention back to the twins, who were happily splashing around like a couple of river otters. “All right, you two, if we don’t get you out, you’ll wrinkle into prunes.” He held up a towel. “Who’s first?”
They’d progressed to the pajama stage—Grayson helped Tyler correct course before he inadvertently stuck his head through the sleeve a third time—when Vi rapped her knuckles against the partially open door.
“Need any help?” she asked.
“I think we’re good now.” Except for the state of her bathroom. “But if you want to read them their story, I can mop up—”
“You won’t be there for story?” Sam’s eyes grew huge.
Grayson rocked back on his heels, meeting the boy’s gaze. “I was just going to let Violet read tonight so I can clean up the mess we made.”
The boy thrust his bottom lip out. “You hafta stay with us! ’til we fall asleep.”
Tyler nodded solemnly.
Grayson ran a hand over his jaw. His guess was that if you let kids dictate your actions, you ended up with spoiled monsters. But the twins were coping with extenuating circumstances. He stood. “Tell you what, I’ll straighten up in here while you two take this stuff to the laundry room. Violet can show you where, if you forgot.” He balled up their dirty clothes and a towel from the floor. “I’ll meet you in your room in time for story, okay?”
This met with everyone’s approval, but even forty minutes later, as Sam yawned and his eyes fluttered closed, a note of apprehension lingered in his voice. “You’ll be here tomorrow?”
“Absolutely,” Grayson said. “I’ll be here every day.” The enormity of his responsibility hit him anew. He was looking at years, decades, of trying to figure out what was right for these kids.
“And Violet will be here, too? And Tiff and Buster and Shep?”
Buster lifted his head from where he was lying at the foot of the bed, thumping his tail in reassurance. The boys had befriended the dogs immediately.
He squeezed Sam close. “We’ll all be here, buddy.” Grayson did have one appointment tomorrow—for a job interview Vi had arranged—but he’d remind the boys about that in the morning. For now, he just wanted Sam to feel secure. He understood the question the boy was really asking: are we going to get left again by the people we love? I miss them, too, buddy.
Once Sam finally yielded to sleep and both boys were softly snoring, Grayson padded down the hallway to the kitchen. Where the cookie jar lived.
He drew up short at the sight of his aunt working at the kitchen table. Her laptop and a mug of tea sat in front of her. Client folders were scattered across the surface. Because she gave her office to me. “I’ve displaced you.”
She glanced up with an absent frown “What are you talking about?”
“The boys and I will find a house when I have the money for it,” he vowed. “We won’t inconvenience you forever.”
“I get to work in my jammies with a dog lying across my feet. My life couldn’t be any more convenient. Boys asleep?”
He nodded. “When I was trying to decide which of their belongings were critical to keep with us and which could be left in Oklahoma for now, I overlooked the importance of bedtime stories. I’ve read the same four books so often I’ve memorized them.”
“Take the boys to the library. All the bedtime stories you could want.” Her lips twitched in a small smile. “Just ask Hadley.”
He choked on a bite of cookie. “H-Hadley?” His mind got hung up on the brunette mentioned in the same sentence as bedtime, and the tips of his ears burned the way they had when Vi had caught him kissing Julia Yanic on the living room couch thirteen years ago.
“Yeah, you should ask Hadley for children’s book recommendations. She is the town librarian after all.”
Oh. Right. Hadn’t she mentioned something about story hour at the library? “Weird. Not the part about her being a librarian. She always loved books.” He had a sudden stray memory of her carrying around a large book of wonders of the world in middle school, asking him if he wanted to know how many kilometers long the Great Wall of China was. “But I can’t believe she’s stuck in Cupid’s Bow.”
Violet sighed. “I realize your childhood wasn’t idyllic, but some of us like it here.”
Some people, maybe, but not his mother. Her own son hadn’t been enough to hold Rachel Cox here. “I didn’t mean to sound so derisive. I just thought Hadley was going out of state for college, headed for bigger things.”
Vi’s brow furrowed. “I don’t remember all the details, but there was something about her getting hurt and losing her softball scholarship to college.”
“Damn,” he said softly. “Does life work out for anyone?”
“Plenty of people. I can’t complain.”
Couldn’t she? She’d spent her twenties raising him and now here she was in her late thirties taking on his problems again.
She scowled, her tone firm. “Quit being so negative. Is that how you want the boys to view life? Hopeless?”
“No, ma’am.”
“Good. Then start looking for the hope around you. And if you don’t see any, do the world—and yourself—a favor. Create some.”
Chapter Four
Grayson kept half his attention on the twins playing air hockey at the child-sized table behind him, and the other half on the apologetic blonde behind the front desk. He knew it had been a long shot to ask if they were hiring here. The community center was staffed largely by volunteers and high-school seniors, who coached little kids’ basketball. But he’d decided that since he was dropping off Vi anyway, it couldn’t hurt to ask.
“We’re just not hiring right now for any of our full-time positions,” the blonde said. “If there’s a specific area of expertise you think the community will find useful, you can sign up to teach one of our six-week classes. We’ve done whittling, self-defense, introduction to Spanish... Otherwise, all I can do is take your name and number and let you know if anything opens up.” She passed him a clipboard and a pen. “Oh, and if you could list two local references, that would be useful.”
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br /> He grimaced, having gotten a similar request at his interview this morning. The construction foreman said he typically preferred three references; he was willing to bend that rule as a favor to Vi. He might also be swayed by Grayson’s roofing experience after high school and willingness to do manual labor in the Texas heat. But if the construction job didn’t work out, Grayson would need local references for his next interview. It suddenly struck him how many times he’d written Blaine Stowe’s name on forms; his best friend and honorary big brother had been everything from a character reference to an emergency contact.
After filling out his contact info, Grayson thanked the woman for her time and handed back the board. Then he collected the boys and they departed. The plan was to run to the nearby library while Violet had her meeting.
“We’ll check out some books and then, if there’s enough time before Vi’s ready to go, you two can play more air hockey. Or we can walk through the rest of the center and see what other activities they have,” he said as he started the truck. “And just wait until summer comes! Cupid’s Bow has a really huge pool. You’ll love it.” He’d promised Vi, for the boys’ sake, that he’d focus on the positive.
His aunt was certainly an inspiration for positive thinking—and for positive action. Her meeting today was with Mayor Johnston and a few other citizens to discuss starting a peer mentorship program where, instead of turning to adults, teens having a difficult time could help each other.
This morning, as they’d cleaned up the breakfast dishes, Violet had said she believed teenagers were more likely to be honest about their problems with kids their own age. Plus, she believed that some teens branded as troublemakers would be motivated to turn themselves around when given responsibility as a peer counselor. That part of the conversation had him choking on his own guilt. Should he confess to his aunt the teenage crimes he’d gotten away with or leave the past alone? She’d worked so hard to shape him into a good person. It would devastate her to learn what a mess he’d been. At the time, he’d convinced himself he was in the right. His rebellions had felt like justice.
The Cowboy's Texas Twins Page 3
