But it felt so right, a tiny voice inside her heart argued. Nothing in her life had ever felt as good, as right, as being with Jared.
In a record twenty-five minutes, Dee had pulled open the bathroom door. A bubble of joy had expanded in her chest when she saw him standing beside the bed, all broad shoulders and lean hips. He was every inch a male.
You are such a schoolgirl. Dee snorted as she slapped at another round of stupid tears.
A car door slammed, bringing Dee up straight. Her heart lurched in her chest as she started toward the hall.
Lucky’s sudden barking stopped Dee mid-step. The little dog was making so much noise she barely heard the knock at the door.
“Dee?”
She leaned her head against the wall as her heart sank. It was Frank.
She couldn’t face him right now, didn’t want him to see the evidence of her tears. If the streaks of mascara on her hand were any indication, her face was one big mask of evidence. “I’ll be out in a minute,” she called. “Just have a seat. He won’t hurt you.” At least she hoped not. But given the way her dog was growling, she wasn’t sure.
Dee scrubbed her face, splashed cold water over her swollen eyes, and then raced around the room searching for something to wear.
She lifted her gaze to the mirror over the dresser. How could he not have believed her? Would she have to be dead before he broke loyalty with another cop?
Well, she refused to die and she refused to mourn what had only started. She was stronger than this.
She pulled out a pair of low-rise jeans and a chick-yellow camisole. Perfect. The thin peach straps of her bra, the one he’d removed just hours before, would be clearly visible. He couldn’t miss them.
Dee hesitated briefly over a pair of flirty flip-flops, but settled for her sneakers. They were going to do some work, after all. Her first official job as a graphic designer was about to take life.
She straightened her shoulders. A small, satisfied smile curled her lips. Life was going to be good. Better than good; it would be great.
As long as she didn’t think about Jared.
“I’m ready,” Dee said as she waltzed into the kitchen. Frank, a small bag of treats in his hand, was making peace with her dog. Grabbing two towels, Dee pulled the bubbling southwest chicken casserole out of the oven. “Let’s go.”
Poor Frank. He’d been pleasant, tried to engage her in conversation, but when he pulled in to Moore’s parking lot, Dee threw open the car door and climbed out. She forced herself to slow her pace; she didn’t want to appear to be running away from him. It wasn’t his fault; he just wasn’t the right guy.
She thought she’d prepared herself, but she couldn’t stop the jolt that left her breathless when she first spotted Jared. He was sitting in a booth, his back to the door. Even as she fought it, her gaze darted repeatedly toward his dark head.
“Hi, Dee.” Katie walked up. Strain lined Katie’s face. She suffered the same issue—men.
At least Dee would have someone to talk to tonight.
“Dee,” Ray called out as he rose from the booth he’d been sharing with Mike and Jared. As he came forward in greeting, Dee’s gaze flicked to the booth. Jared’s posture had gone stiff, but he didn’t turn to acknowledge her.
She needed to set the casserole down before she dropped it. Or threw it. “I love you.” A few short hours ago, like an idiot, she’d said those words over and over. He’d never so much as acknowledged them, or any of his own feelings.
She could add wounded vanity to the mix of stinging emotions that brewed inside her.
Dee squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. She’d said it. She’d meant it. But that didn’t mean she had to fall apart because it was over. She had a job to do, and she was going to do it. And it would be a huge success.
“I don’t think you know everyone here,” Ray said as he took the dish from her numb hands and passed it to Katie. “Let me introduce you around.”
The crowd was larger than Dee had expected. Mike’s parents—Gloria and Daniel Flanders—seemed down to earth, even if his dad was another cop. Thornton Summerset, big as a redwood with a face that made Dee think she should know him—and his fiancée, Maureen Smith, who had the looks and manners and smell of someone born to wealth, but her greeting was surprisingly friendly. A wizened, purple-haired lady who could be nothing other than what she appeared, a retired school teacher who’d apparently taught everyone in the tavern.
Ed Trumble’s arrival sent the entire room into momentary shock.
If Dee’s eyes were a tad too wide, her laugh a little too loud as she circled the room meeting more people, she couldn’t help it. Jared was watching. She could feel every single time his dark eyes lit on her. He wouldn’t be so careless as to let her catch him looking, but she knew.
A rustle at the door drew her attention, and Dee turned to see Jack carrying several red and white bags. She fought the grin that threatened to break loose. If there were a single piece of chicken left in the area, she would be surprised. She’d been afraid he wouldn’t come, that Jared’s suspicion would keep him away, that maybe she’d have to find another contractor after Katie had convinced her Jack was the best.
If he had the guts to come, she had the courage to use him.
Beside her, Katie sighed. “He’s gone over the top again.”
Dee followed Katie as she made her way around to help Jack. It took some rearranging, but they managed to find a place on the heavy-laden table for the four buckets of chicken before returning to Ray.
It was difficult to ignore the heated looks flashing between Mike and Jack. Impossible to miss the way Katie carefully positioned herself to include Jack and ignore Mike.
At least Dee had good company.
“I want to thank you again for bringing me on this project.” Jack spoke loud enough for his voice to carry to the tables nearby.
Conversation ceased at Jared’s table, and although no one looked up, they were all listening.
She glanced at Katie and smiled. Jack was not above rubbing salt in some wounds.
“Katie showed me some of your work yesterday. I was impressed. I’m sure we can come to an agreement on costs.”
“I’ll have the drawings to you tomorrow afternoon.”
A low growl came from the table, probably Mike, while Katie beamed. “You won’t be sorry,” she promised.
Jared leaned across the table and said something to Mike in a voice too quiet to be overheard. Whatever he said had Mike leaning back, taking a slow, deep breath. Jared was a natural-born peacemaker.
Dee had to quit looking at him.
The meal was a drawn out affair with lots of socializing. Jared circled the room sharing a laugh with everyone, and managing to do a subtle shuffle around Dee’s table without once speaking to her.
“Are you okay?” Katie whispered as Dee tracked Jared’s movements across the room.
Frustrated, flustered, Dee tore her gaze away and focused on Katie. “Fine.” Would this meal ever end?
Finally Ray signaled and Dee stood. “Attention everyone.”
The crowd quieted.
“I hope everyone brought tools. Our goal tonight is to remove as much of the sheetrock along the back wall as possible. We need to see if any of the original log structure beneath is salvageable.
A cheer went up through the crowd.
“Before we start, we have to remove the tables and chairs along that wall, and put them…” She glanced at Ray.
“Let’s just stack them in the far corner for now,” Ray said as he stood. “I’ll get the mess cleaned up and set them back out after we’re done.”
Dee nodded. “If we’re careful, the mess—and disruption to Ray’s business—should be minimal. Any questions?”
The men went to their vehicles and brought back tools, while the women began dragging aside tables and chairs. Dee joined them. Jack presented her with a hammer and indicated she should take the first whack at the painted, papered wall.
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“I have a better idea,” Dee said, and handed the hammer to Ray.
Ray’s grin split his face, and the cheers filled the tavern as he took the first swing.
“I didn’t come to stand here,” Ed Trumble said before stepping forward and swinging his own hammer.
His action opened the floodgate, and everyone with a hammer or crowbar attacked the wall. Katie kept an eye on the progress and provided direction as needed. Jack focused on the work, speaking only to answer questions.
Dee couldn’t stand still as bit-by-bit they uncovered the ancient logs. The logs were magnificent, pieces of history she’d read about but never seen. Sketching out ways she would incorporate them in her overall design kept her mind occupied and off Jared for a full sixty minutes.
Dee glanced at her watch. If she could just make it through another half hour, she would be able to leave gracefully.
She would have avoided a scene with Jared, her pride intact.
She hoped work would ease the ache in her chest that grew each time she glimpsed him across the room.
Twenty-eight minutes. Her nerves jangled so hard at Jared’s sudden bark of laughter that she dropped her pencil.
Twenty-six minutes. Was it her imagination, or was he standing closer?
Twenty-five minutes. Dee fought the urge that boiled just below the surface to scratch out Maureen’s eyes. The blonde stood next to Jared, talking freely, her fiancé not ten feet away. How many men did she need?
Twenty-four minutes. Dee’s heart pounded in her ears. She wasn’t going to make it. The work had ended, and everyone hung about in groups admiring the log wall, speculating on the cost and effort needed to restore it.
Desperately she sought a distraction.
Katie stood, as if on cue, and started cleaning up the food.
Dodging bodies, avoiding conversations, Dee made her way over and helped. She didn’t dare look at Katie. The few times their eyes connected earlier, Dee had read her new friend’s concerned sympathy. The long evening had worn on Dee, leaving her fragile as spun glass. She was ready to go home.
Fifteen minutes to go, and only four more dishes….
“I can’t believe you’d trust him and not me.”
Jared spoke from right behind her. Everything inside her tightened at the sound of his voice. When the weight of his hand settled on her shoulder, her temper flashed.
The foil in her hands fell to the table. She straightened, a fast pivot, leading with her elbow, and he hit the floor.
Chapter Eighteen
Okay, so arguing in public wasn’t his best move. It wasn’t his fault. He took a long swallow of beer then held the cold bottle against the side of his hip. She had one sharp elbow.
“It was just one comment,” he muttered to no one in particular.
Somehow she’d managed to stand there looking confused and hurt and vulnerable. And then she started with the tears. Lots of tears. She couldn’t slap them away fast enough.
“She caught me off guard,” he continued. That was the only explanation for how he’d wound up on the floor. It didn’t quite justify the way the words, hurtful words, came barreling out of his mouth.
Didn’t that change the atmosphere of the party?
“How could she put so much faith in the accusations of a stranger against an innocent man?” The rift between them was killing him. Couldn’t she see he’d never let any harm come to her?
His heart broke, literally shattered in his chest when she stood in front of him, tears dripping from her chin.
For several long seconds the room was totally, eerily silent. As if, like him, everyone’s lungs had stopped working.
He wanted to go after her and find a way to make her see sense.
Sitting in a booth alone, Jared heaved a deep sigh while Ray and Mike cleaned the floor and Jack loaded his tools. There seemed to a theme this weekend. Communication, miscommunication. And the subsequent hurt feelings. Lifting the bottle to his lips, he tilted it up. And up. With a frown of disgust, he lifted the empty bottle above his head and shook it.
Mike’s cooler rattled, then the bottle was taken from his hand and replaced with an ice cold, full one. “What are you doing?” Mike eased himself in the booth beside him. “Trying to forget, or looking for liquid courage?”
Jared spared Mike a narrow-eyed glance before pouring a good portion of the beer down his throat.
“Why aren’t you going after her?”
“Why aren’t you dogging Katie?”
Mike’s gaze followed Jack as he went out the door. “You know there’s a difference. Dee thinks you’ve blown off her concern.”
“That’s not true.”
“Then make her understand.”
Jared snorted. Self-pity weighed on his shoulders. Dammit, he deserved a little sympathy. “She’s gone.”
“You know where she lives.”
Ray plopped two bottles of water on the table, then slid into the opposite side of the booth. “You’re going to let her walk away?”
“What’s it to you?” Jared snarled. Why did everyone act like this was his fault? “You’ve got what you wanted. You’d be better off without her around. One less person to pay.”
Instead of snarling back, Ray went into his exaggerated-patience mode, the one where he just stared until the silence practically shouted that you are an idiot.
Jared worried at the corner of the label on his bottle and avoided Ray’s gaze.
Ray was the first to crack. “I’ve been strapped ever since the divorce,” he admitted. “Really strapped. It’s no secret. I’m just now getting back on my feet.”
Jared winced.
“But it’s like Dee came at the perfect time. Her plans match what I’d been thinking.” Ray picked up a bottle of water and drank. “I want it all. And I want to do it right the first time.”
Jared gave a slow nod.
“So what are you going to do about Dee?” Ray asked.
“You love her.” Mike’s voice was quiet, confident.
Love? Is that what had been burning a hole in his gut all afternoon? Love?
“Loving her doesn’t have to be the end of your life. It could be the beginning.”
Ray had more tricks up his sleeve and more pseudo-psychological advice stored in his head than Dr. Phil. But this statement didn’t feel so schmaltzy. Its truth caught Jared square in the chest and left him exposed. These guys knew what he’d lived through. They’d been young and foolish together. They’d drank; they’d partied; they’d talked. They knew his weaknesses and his strengths. They knew his deepest fears.
“She’s not pulling you away from prior commitments,” Mike said.
No, up to this point, he’d avoided commitments.
“And she’s not after your money,” Ray put in.
She hadn’t asked for a thing.
“She fits in.” Mike said.
“But she’s a cop hater.”
“Up until today, she didn’t hate you,” Mike pointed out.
Heat bloomed across Jared’s face while Mike and Ray laughed.
“How hard is it to take another look at this guy?” Ray asked. “Dee seems sure.”
The room grew quiet. Were they right? Did he still have a chance?
Sensing his shift, Ray leaned over the table. “What are you waiting for?”
“Go get her.” Mike said.
Jared nodded. He’d been miserable all afternoon. If this is what losing love felt like, he was going to pound on Dee’s door until she opened up and forgave him.
Ray continued to push. “How did Dee get home?”
“Frank took her.” He’d been adamant, too, that Jared come to Dee’s as soon as possible. “He’s going to stay until I show up.”
“See?” Mike said. “You never really had a choice.”
Jared nudged Mike out of the booth, stood and took two steps toward the door. “Maybe I should wait till morning.”
“Are you going to sleep in the car?” Mike demanded. “
You’re not going to leave her unprotected.”
“But what’ll I say?”
“You’ll think of something,” Ray said.
“She’s probably still pissed.”
“So you better make it good.”
Jared took another step, stopped as a cold sweat covered him. “It might be better if I gave her the night to cool off. You”—he nodded toward Mike—“could stay with her tonight.”
Mike flapped his arms and clucked like a chicken.
“You accuse Dee of running away from her problems,” Ray said. “Isn’t avoidance a form of running away?”
Jared rested his hands on his hips and studied his friends.
“If you love her,” Ray added, “nothing’s more important.”
“I’m going.” Saying the words solidified his conviction. He was going to see Dee, and convince her to give him, give them, a second chance. He’d do whatever it took, because like Ray, he wanted it all. A house, marriage, kids, the whole thing.
With her.
Ray slapped his hand on the table, a huge grin splitting his face.
Mike stood. “Let’s go.”
“I appreciate your help,” Jared said. And he did. They were the best friends a guy could have. “But I can do this on my own.”
“We’ll all be heading that way in just a few minutes.” Ray said as he looked out the window. “I’m going to help Jack get the last of his tools in the truck, then I’m done. I’ll make sure you’re not sitting at the end of the driveway with cold feet.”
In a dramatic gesture, Mike swept around Jared and opened the door. “Don’t take no for an answer.”
Jared slanted a glance at Jack as a crowbar clanged into the back of the pickup. No one needed to say a word; tension thickened the air between them. Accused and accuser. Frank, Mike, even he could be wrong about Jack, but Jared refused to regret any steps taken to keep Dee safe.
With Dee determined to have Jack work with her, he and Jack were going to have to find a way to work it out. If apologies were necessary, he’d find the words and do it.
After he cleared the air with Dee.
Jared climbed into his car and sat. Dee filled his mind. How could he approach her? What were the right words to win her back? Faith. It was all about faith. She had to know, he had to prove, that he had faith in her. That he believed her.
Unforgettable Heroes II Boxed Set Page 249
