Love Inspired June 2014 - Bundle 2 of 2: Single Dad CowboyThe Bachelor Meets His MatchUnexpected Reunion

by Brenda Minton

  Okay, he was only human. He gave her his full attention, then wished he hadn’t. She hadn’t changed much since she had first come to live with his grandparents. Still slim, but now more womanly in her appearance, she moved in quick and easy—even cheerful—movements. To his immense regret, she still made him want to take her under his arm and protect her from the sources of all pain in the world, including himself.

  He cleared the knot of tension from his throat. “Where are the others?”

  Ruthie straightened and caught him watching her, but did not blush as she might have in the past. She just seemed both pleased and matter-of-fact, as if his attention was a foregone conclusion. It was the same confidence he’d seen in her whenever she prayed for something and then received the result she’d asked for.

  “They went to pick up Daisy. I had to finish some work at the shop, so I told them to go ahead and I would meet them here. They should arrive soon.” She smiled and swept her glance around the room once more. “You must be doing well to have such a nice office. I’m glad for you.”

  On the one hand, he was glad they had this time to themselves. On the other, he wished the others would hurry and get here so their presence could dilute the thick tension in the room.

  “It’s not all mine,” he said. “I share the receptionist, meeting rooms and storage area with a lawyer.” He didn’t bother to mention that he was already outgrowing the space and would need to look elsewhere when the lease expired. “Come on. I’ll give you a quick tour while we wait for the others to show up.”

  It shouldn’t have mattered, but he wanted to impress her. Wanted to know she approved of all he had achieved. Of all he had become.

  He stopped himself on that last one. She might approve of the signs of business success he showed her, but if he himself didn’t approve of the kind of man he had become, how could she? He shook off the uneasy feeling and steered the conversation to something he was only slightly more comfortable talking about.

  “I called the antique-car clubs in Richmond and even spread out to all the ones I could find in Virginia.”

  She’d been casing the perimeter of his office, trailing a finger over the books in the case, lingering especially over one title. Security Management: How to Identify Vulnerabilities. She looked back at him and smiled, a hint of knowing tugging at her lips.

  “Unfortunately, none of their members has a ’61 Mazda Coupe.”

  Ruthie frowned, but even that didn’t dim the prettiness of her features. Didn’t make him want to kiss her any less. She moved to the window and glanced down at the street. Then she dropped her hand to the framed photograph on the sill.

  “But one club was aware of the car.” Good! Look away from the photo. “Said they’d seen it on West Franklin Street, near the Maury monument.”

  She nodded and turned her attention back to the picture. “Maybe we can drive around and look to see if it’s parked on the street. Then knock on the neighboring doors until we find the owner and ask to buy the doll back.”

  “I hate to burst your bubble, but a car like that is not likely to be parked on the street. It’s probably in a garage.” And right now he wished that picture were hidden away in that garage.

  He moved closer to take it from her hands but got distracted by the wispy waves of her hair.

  “I’ve always loved this picture,” she said, holding it up for him to see. “Sobo and Pop were so happy to have the entire family together.”

  They were happy because their whole brood had been gathered together at the same time, a near impossibility given his father’s and uncle’s crazy work schedules at that time. He and his sister, their parents and his aunt and uncle and their three kids all smiled at the camera. And, of course, Ruthie. Her smile was the biggest. And prettiest. The photo was taken about a year after she had come to live with his grandparents. Shortly before their first date. Sobo had arranged everyone on the broad front-porch steps, then enlisted a passerby to seal the image of all of them in a photograph. He and Ruthie had stood on opposite sides of the stairs, but the camera’s flash had caught the glimmer of awareness toward each other in their eyes.

  He reached for the photo and set it back in its place on the windowsill, hoping to end this conversation before she gave too much thought to why he’d chosen to display this particular picture. “The others should be getting here soo—”

  “Oh, look, they just drove up.” Ruthie spun away from the window to launch herself across the room but smacked into his chest instead.

  He grabbed her arms, righted her and summoned his military training to try to calm the rapid pounding of his heart. She looked as nervous as he felt, and he wondered if she was reacting to him or to the fact that her friends would be left standing on the front stoop if they didn’t get out there soon and unlock the front door. A twinge of pride made him wish for the former, but common sense dictated it would be better for both of them if she hadn’t been foolish enough to let her heart stay stuck in the past.

  Foolish like him.

  He set his jaw and stepped away from the window—away from the woman at the window—and marched back to the reception area to let in the four laughing women, all but one dressed in exercise clothes. Daisy wore jeans.

  He could feel Ruthie’s presence behind him as he directed the latecomers inside.

  “What?” Savannah’s gaze shot past him to Ruthie. “Did we interrupt something?”

  It was anyone’s guess what she must have seen on Ruthie’s face, but he decided now would be a good time to direct their attention to the purpose of this gathering. “We were just waiting for everyone to arrive so we could get started.”

  Even to his own ears, his words sounded gruff and unwelcoming. Daisy widened her eyes and took two tentative steps back, letting the others serve as her buffer. Great. Now he’d gone and intimidated the kid.

  Paisley, on the other hand, was not the least bit put out by his tone. She waltzed over to the chairs lined up around the wall and flung her purse onto one of them. “We invited ourselves over to Nikki’s for a movie and sleepover tonight,” she announced. “Ruthie, there’s an extra sleeping bag for you. We’re going to watch Casablanca because Daisy has never seen it. Do you two want to join us for the movie?”

  He answered quickly. Maybe a little too quickly. “No!”

  Ruthie’s voice blended with his, but she was polite enough to add a thank-you after her no and explained that she had paperwork to finish.

  The last thing he needed was to watch a romantic movie with her in the same room and all her friends shooting speculative glances at them. All he wanted to do was find Sobo’s doll, give Ruthie some personal-safety skills and keep a polite distance from her at family gatherings.

  He needed to get rolling with this self-defense lesson. The sooner they got started, the sooner it would end. And then they could go back to living their mostly separate lives.

  He moved to the door, pushed it closed and turned the lock.

  * * *

  Ruthie moved to the middle of the floor, behind Savannah, Paisley and Nikki. She stood in the back row with Daisy, and they exchanged encouraging glances. Each wanted something from Gray. Daisy wanted to learn how to make it safely on the street until she was able to get her and her father into some decent housing. And if affordable precluded decent, she’d need the skills in her future home, as well. Ruthie just wanted Gray’s love. For herself and for the God he used to know.

  She gave herself a mental kick for allowing herself to jump back on that train of thought. Sure, he had that picture of her—of the whole family, actually, but she was quite visible in it—on his windowsill. That didn’t necessarily mean anything. Not by itself, it didn’t. But paired with his noticeable agitation when she had picked it up, she’d venture a guess that he still harbored a minuscule ember, maybe even a tiny flame, for her.

 
Even so, she reminded herself, if God wanted them together—and she believed He did—He would allow it to happen. In the meantime, she would be wise not to rush God’s timing. Instead, she would accept opportunities such as this self-defense class to spend time with Gray while God worked on softening his heart. Not to mention using proximity and that fragrance he used to like to snag his full attention.

  She tried to pay attention while Gray went over the handouts. She mentally mapped out the route by which she sometimes rode her bicycle to work and contemplated whether she should detour around a particular shady block with the spooky overhanging tree limbs and unkempt yards. Considered the height of the bushes in front of their house and wondered if they were tall enough and thick enough to hide an aggressor. And decided she should get a pepper-spray keychain for those rare occasions when she opened or closed the shops by herself.

  By now Gray had finished going over the written materials and moved on to the block, evade and escape demonstrations. “I’ll be the attacker. Who wants to go first?”

  The front row moved back as one, putting Ruthie and Daisy at point.

  Gray stared for a long moment at Ruthie, and she thought for sure he was going to pull her out to the middle of the floor. Her heart fluttered crazily at the thought of him wrapping his arms around her in a mock capture, and she doubted her body would obey when she told it to block, evade and escape his warm, strong clutches.

  He jerked his gaze away from her, leading her to wonder if he’d somehow read her mind. Maybe he worried she would attack him.

  “You,” he said, pointing to Daisy. “Let’s show ’em how it’s done.”

  The teen hesitated and looked to Ruthie for guidance. Daisy wasn’t normally a timid girl, but in this case, Gray’s large size and drill-sergeant demeanor seemed to overwhelm her. Considering his earlier lapse in Southern hospitality, it was no wonder the girl found him overpowering.

  Gray eased back, apparently having come to the same conclusion. Bypassing Ruthie, he beckoned Paisley, the smallest of the five females, to step forward. “You two will be partners.” A smart move, considering Daisy’s uncharacteristic show of nervousness.

  The circle widened, and he coached the pair through the exercise. “Paisley, you’ll be the attacker, so come right here behind Daisy and—”

  “I’d rather not.” Paisley backed away, palms out. Her fingers trembled ever so slightly.

  Gray scowled, obviously trying to get his head around her reluctance to play the role, then softened. “Okay, you’ll be the victim. Just stand here and—”

  Paisley shook her head and sidestepped his guiding hand. She looked to Savannah, concern marring her delicate features. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have come. This was a mistake.”

  “Come on. It’ll be fine,” Savannah urged. “We all need this training.” She stressed the word all as if to remind Paisley that she needed it even more than the others.

  Now Gray was confused. And Ruthie was almost as in the dark as he was about why her friend had developed a sudden reluctance to participate in learning the techniques they’d come here for. All she knew was that something had happened in Paisley’s past, before she came as a young college student to the U.S. Something she didn’t talk about.

  Gray rubbed the palm of his hand over his jaw while he seemed to ponder how to handle this unexpected resistance. “It’s hard to teach a hands-on demonstration without going hands-on,” he said at last.

  Savannah stepped forward to take Paisley’s place and shooed her friend to join the other observers. “She has her reasons. Show me what to do.”

  With Paisley watching from the sidelines, Gray showed them how to walk and scan their surroundings for potential predators in a way that exuded confidence rather than fear. By the time the one-man demonstration ended, Paisley seemed to have gotten over her aversion to the exercise, and she and Nikki paired up to practice with each other. Then Savannah and Daisy chose each other as partners, leaving Ruthie to act out the scenario with Gray.

  Was it her imagination, or did his Adam’s apple bob when he realized he’d be paired with her? Ruthie involuntarily mimicked the action, swallowed hard and, following his instruction, aimed the heel of her left hand toward his nose.

  Gray intercepted her slow-motion gesture, fully aware that she was afraid of hurting him. He grabbed her arm firmly and pulled her to him, coaching her through the countermoves to block his advances. If only it were this easy to teach her to block the furtive looks he often found himself aiming her way. But every time he caught her gaze, her wide hazel eyes projected the message that he had already knocked her off her feet, without even touching her.

  He still cared about her. Couldn’t be close like this without caring. And wanting to kiss her. It was clear something was going to give, and he was afraid it would be his determination to do right by Ruthie and hold her at arm’s length.

  It was getting late. He’d better end this class before he did something stupid. Like pull her into his arms and give her a kiss that would make her forget her own name. If he did that, though, he’d better be prepared to forget about the reason they no longer shared the same faith.

  Her faith involved reliance on a capricious God who sometimes answered prayers and other times left a believer floundering alone and wondering why he had been abandoned. His faith, on the other hand, involved reliance on knowledge, strength and sometimes a bit of luck. Those were what had gotten him through the tough times...the times when God hadn’t been there for him.

  “Before we wrap it up,” he said, “look around you for a weapon to swing or throw at the assailant and an exit route for escape. No matter what your environment, always make yourself aware of the tools at hand that can assist you if you’re ever approached by someone intent on harming you. Even if you don’t render your attacker unconscious, you’ll want to throw him off-balance to give you a few seconds to get away.”

  Ruthie didn’t need to throw a table lamp at him. She had already knocked him off kilter just by being here. Just by being herself. By being the same woman he’d fallen in love with. Worse...by having grown into an even better version of the young woman whose heart he’d been forced to break a few years ago.

  After they restored the reception area to order, the young women left amid a flurry of thank-yous and see-you-laters. All but Ruthie, who had put on her bike helmet and now poked the white earbuds back into her ears.

  Gray reached forward and plucked them out. He wrapped the cord around his hand, tied a tidy little knot and handed the earphones back to her. “How are you going to be aware of your surroundings with music pounding in your ears?”

  She pushed them into a tiny key pocket in her yoga pants. “Oops, forgot.”

  Outside, Savannah’s car pulled away from the curb, drawing his attention to the fading daylight. Ruthie’s bike ride wouldn’t take more than about fifteen or twenty minutes, but he didn’t like the idea of her going home to an empty house at dusk.

  He pulled his keys from his pocket. “You can take off your helmet. I’ll give you a ride home.”

  “That’s not necessary. I’m fine.”

  Of course she was fine. Better than fine. She was superb, a fact that wouldn’t go unnoticed by someone with criminal intent. Sure, the likelihood of her being accosted by some random stranger was slim, but recent news reports of a prowler in the area had sent his protective instincts into overdrive.

  “Okay, you go first,” he said, holding the door. “I’ll follow you in my car to make sure you get home safely.”

  She did a cute little eye roll reminiscent of her teen years when Sobo had insisted she let him walk with her whenever she left the house after dark.

  “Bristow men protect their gokazoku,” Sobo had said, referring to family. “And their women let them.”

  Ruthie hesitated, then a tiny glimmer lit her eyes. A glimmer that
he had come to know meant she was up to something. A glimmer that had him wondering if he was about to be laid low by this little snip of a woman.

  “I suppose we are still kazoku,” she said, using the more intimate version of the word for family. She swept the helmet off her head and sent those red strands flying. She stepped past him into the hallway where her bike awaited. “Thank you. Are you sure you have room in your car?”

  He had plenty of room in the car for her bike. But nowhere near enough for all the baggage they lugged between them.

  * * *

  Ruthie’s spirits soared on the drive home. There was still hope.

  She’d noticed the awareness that had passed between them, as she was sure he’d also noticed. Yet here he was, driving her home despite everything that had transpired between them, both today and in the past. She was still kazoku to him. Not sister family but bonded-by-the-heart family. Once he let someone in, that person was always his.

  Gray pulled into an open parking spot in front of her house on Floyd Avenue. Shadows fell beneath the ancient maple tree, casting the sidewalk in a mottled pattern that created an illusion of movement beneath her feet. The house lay dark before her. Ordinarily, she wouldn’t think twice about the eerie effect, but today’s class had made her hyperaware of all aspects of her surroundings. Especially of the big strong male hoisting her bike out of his car.

  She moved ahead, keys in hand, and pushed the gate open on her side of the house. Divided down the middle, with separate entrances and a white picket fence between the two halves, the blue two-story frame house exuded a quaint charm that harkened back to the early 1920s.

  Should she invite Gray in? How would he interpret such an invitation? Would it scare him off? Despite a few bumpy moments, the day had gone well, and the last thing she wanted was to make things awkward between them.

  Something snapped. At first Ruthie thought the noise came from the latch she lifted to open the gate. She moved it again, up and down, but the noise did not repeat itself. Their neighbors, a young married couple with a spoiled miniature dachshund, were away for the weekend, so the sound couldn’t be attributed to Rotten Ralphie snuffling through the postage-stamp yard.