Come Back Home Again (Hope Valley Book 2)
Page 7
“Morning, Cat,” I greeted, earning an annoyed meow from the unhappy kitty. The animal might not have been friendly, but thanks to Aunt Reenie keeping her in cat food for the past few years, she’d come to expect the same from me, and she had no issues with making her displeasure known if she felt I wasn’t moving fast enough with breakfast.
“Yeah, yeah,” I grumbled at the irritable ginger. “Just hold your damn horses. I’m getting it.”
I moved into the mudroom where the bag of cat food was stashed and dumped a scoop into the empty bowl sitting on the porch. She snubbed her nose at me before hopping off the railing and dragging her fat ass in that direction.
“You’re kind of a bitch, you know that, right?” I asked the snooty feline. She simply lifted her tail, showing me her rear end before plopping down and digging in.
With a roll of my eyes, I headed into the house for a much-needed cup of coffee. If I didn’t know she was the sole reason for the lack of mice in the barn or around the house, I’d have called animal control on the pain-in-the-ass feline, but she knew she had it good here, and I could only assume that was the reason she was such an entitled brat.
I was two cups of coffee in and had already made some serious progress on the family room at the front of the house. The windows were now grime free, letting the bright sun in unimpeded. All the beautiful antique wooden furniture had been dusted until it gleamed and had a pleasantly subtle citrus smell. Stevie Nicks was belting out “Edge of Seventeen” through my earbuds, and I was dancing around, using the extendable duster wand to get the moldings and ceiling fan when a tap on my shoulder scared the living hell out of me.
My earbuds went flying as I spun around, swinging the duster wand wide.
Hayes caught it easily and pulled it from my hand as if it were nothing while fighting back his humor at having nearly given me a heart attack. “Sorry, sweetheart,” he started, looking more amused than sorry. “Didn’t mean to scare you. I knocked, but there was no answer, and I could hear you… singing,” he finished, choking like he was trying his hardest not to laugh and was losing the battle.
My face burned in mortification at being caught singing at the top of my lungs. To make matters worse, when it came to Stevie Nicks, I had a tendency to try and mimic her incredible, husky voice and usually ended up sounding like a bag of cats being drowned, not that it ever stopped me.
“I was just, um, cleaning.”
That rich brown in his eyes grew soft as his expression gentled. “I remember your love for Fleetwood Mac.”
I shifted from foot to foot, tugging on the hem of my tank. “Well, Stevie mainly. I mean, they’ve got some songs I like, but I prefer Stevie’s solo albums.”
He chuckled and shook his head. “I remember that too.”
That warmth I’d felt in the cab of his truck the night before came rushing back, melting the bit of ice still clinging on from my nightmare.
Back when we were together, Hayes used to be able to fix everything with just a touch. All my problems disappeared the moment his fingertips brushed against my jaw and down my neck.
A shiver washed over me from that memory, and I cast my eyes down, suddenly feeling extremely nervous. I wasn’t sure how to act after how we left things last night. I felt like I’d crossed a line he had firmly in place, and I didn’t know how to come back from that.
“I stopped at Muffin Top on the way here,” he said, breaking into the awkward silence that was filling the room. “I got you a coffee and a bear claw.”
“No way,” I breathed, finally noticing the white paper bag tucked between two large cups in the drink tray he was balancing in his hand. Reaching out, I divested him of his wares and placed the tray on the coffee table. The Muffin Top logo stamped on the front of the bag and the paper cups was enough to make my mouth water. “I used to love their bear claws! Thank you. You didn’t need to do that.”
“Yeah. I wasn’t sure if you’ve had them since you got back to town, but if not, they’re just as good now as they were when we were kids.”
I let out an excited squeak and dove for the bag, ripping it open and pulling the bear claw out. The moment I took that first bite, my eyes slid shut and a happy moan made its way up my throat.
“Oh my god,” I said through a mouthful of pastry. “It’s even better than I remember.”
When I opened my eyes to look at him, that gentleness in his expression was gone, replaced by something raw and starving. It was a look I used to love, a look that made my skin break out in goose bumps as my body quivered with excitement.
“Hayes,” I whispered, unable to say anything else.
At the sound of me saying his name, he took a step closer, and my blood began to sing. But before anything could happen, a knock on the front door broke through the moment, shattering its spell completely.
I bit back the curses that wanted to spill out at the interruption and moved to the front door, whipping it open in agitation. A woman I didn’t recognize was standing on the other side, holding a huge crystal vase filled with clouds of white and blue hydrangeas so big they nearly dwarfed her.
“Temperance Levine?” she asked, having to lean to the side to see me past the flowers.
“Yeah, that’s me,” I replied, my forehead puckering with a frown.
“These are for you.” She shoved the obnoxiously large bouquet at me, but something in my gut made me take a small step back.
“Who are they from?”
The woman’s head tipped in confusion. “Huh?”
“Who are they from?” I repeated, refusing to take the arrangement until I got an answer. It wasn’t that they weren’t beautiful, and hydrangeas were my favorite, especially white and blue ones, but there were very few people in my life who knew that.
“Look, lady, this vase isn’t exactly light. Can you just sign for the flowers already?” She shoved them at me again, and again I took a step back.
“I got it.” Hayes came into my line of vision, divesting the woman of the flowers and giving me a look like I’d just lost my mind.
“Sooo,” the lady at the door dragged out. “You gonna sign, or what?”
Instead of grabbing the clipboard in her outstretched hand, I snatched the small white envelope tucked between my favorite flowers and ripped it open.
Temperance,
Always thinking of you.
-P
“Take them back.” My voice came out in a whisper that shook almost as bad as my hands.
“What?” Flower Lady asked incredulously.
My voice came out stronger as I looked up and clenched my hand into a fist so tight the card crumpled. “I said take them back. I don’t want them.”
“Tempie, sweetheart, what—”
“I can’t just take ’em back,” Flower Lady argued. “They’ve already been paid for.”
“Fine.” Yanking the clipboard from her, I scribbled my signature at the bottom and snapped, “There. They’re signed for. Now take them back. I don’t care what you do with them. Resell them, throw them in the trash on your way back, I don’t give a damn. You can tell your boss they were delivered safe and sound.”
I grabbed the arrangement from Hayes and pushed them into Flower Lady’s arms. “Please. Just get them outta here.”
“Oh… kay.” She looked at me like I was crazy, but thankfully took the arrangement and hightailed it off the porch and back to her delivery van.
I slammed the door closed and turned back around, blowing out the heaviest sigh as my shoulders slumped.
“You wanna tell me what the fuck that was all about?”
Looking up at Hayes, I chewed on my bottom lip before finally admitting, “I think I need to get a restraining order.”
Chapter Eight
Temperance
“What the hell are you talking about?” Hayes clipped, stomping toward me. Reaching for my hand, he uncurled my fingers and pulled out the little card, smoothing it out the best he could to read the words scrawled on it.
“Not even close,” I grumbled. I crossed the living room and picked up the discarded bear claw, opening my mouth like an anaconda unhinging its jaw and shoving half the damn thing inside. “He’s a doctor at the hospital where I work,” I said through puffed cheeks. I chomped and swallowed before picking up the coffee to wash it down. I was so angry I couldn’t even enjoy the wonder that was Muffin Top’s incredible coffee. “We went on three dates. Three! And when I realized he was a complete and total asshole, I ended it,” I ranted, growing increasingly pissed.
Unable to stand still, I started pacing the length of the room. “He was the reason I needed to drink last night, you know. I had to change my number before I came back to Hope Valley because of him, and that son of a bitch still managed to track it down. And now the flowers? Jesus Christ, Hayes!” I cried frantically. “I never told him where I was, let alone my aunt’s address! How the hell did he find me?”
“Hey, hey.” Hayes came close, pulling me against him and wrapping me in his strong embrace. “Shh. It’s okay. It’ll all be okay.”
I looped my arms around him and pressed in deeper, needing his warmth to fight off the chill seeping its way into my bones.
Turning my head, I rested her cheek against my chest and whispered, “I never told him my favorite flower, Hayes. Never.”
“Fuck,” he growled viciously, and I couldn’t help but cower into him like I was hoping his body would absorb me.
“How’d he know?” I asked in a weak, pathetic voice.
“I don’t know,” he gritted, “but I’m sure as fuck gonna find out.”
Hayes
“So, you think this guy’s gonna be trouble?”
I forced my attention from the window of the conference room where Temperance was currently sitting with Leo Drake and Micah Langford, two more detectives on the force. Before I left her house earlier, I made her promise me she’d come in and file a restraining order against the prick harassing her, but I was smart enough to know there was no way in hell I could handle it myself as an objective third party, so I’d punted it to my colleagues, knowing I could trust them to take care of her.
At Trick’s question, that red started creeping into my vision again. I wanted to find the motherfucker who’d scared Tempie so goddamn bad that she’d practically tried to fuse herself to me back at the farmhouse. She’d been shaking like a leaf as she clung to me like her life depended on it, and I could kill this prick for putting that fear in her.
“No,” I answered firmly. “He won’t be a problem ’cause I won’t fuckin’ let him be.”
“Gotta say, man, I don’t have a good feeling about this one. Five women have filed complaints on this guy. Three for harassment, two for stalking. Each complaint was dead in the water before anything was done, and then the asshole moved on to another state. Guy like this? He could easily snap, brother. Wouldn’t take much to set him off.”
Looking back at conference room, I watched as Tempie stood, shaking hands with Micah and Leo. “He shows his face in this town, I’ll rip his goddamn head off,” I stated, meaning every word. Perry Frasier wasn’t going to get anywhere near Temperance. I’d make sure of that.
Tempie started out of the conference room but stopped at the edge of the stairs, her eyes scanning the bullpen in search of something. I felt a tightening in my chest and groin the moment those pale blues landed on me and her lips quirked up in a smile. Fuck me, I was losing my mind. All rational thought fled when it came to her. No matter how many times I tried to keep a straight head, just one look at her and everything scrambled. And now that I knew there was a threat to her out there, all bets were off.
I was well and truly fucked.
Her gaze remained pinned on mine as she moved through the bullpen, and it wasn’t lost on me that nearly every one of the assholes I worked with was watching her. I knew exactly what they were thinking, and seeing the appreciation and want on their faces set my teeth on edge.
“Hey,” she said softly once she reached my desk.
“Hey back. Everything go okay in there?”
“Oh, yeah. It was good. They were really helpful” She stopped talking, shifting uneasily from foot to foot as she cast a glance at Trick.
Reading the situation, he stood and announced, “I need caffeine. Think I’ll head over to Muffin Top for a pick-me-up. You want anything?”
I shook my head and bit back my grin at his obviousness. “Nah, I’m good.”
Tempie watched him turn on his boots and disappear from sight before looking back at me. “So, I just wanted to say thank you for everything. I mean, I’m sure you didn’t expect to walk into a full-blown drama when you dropped my car off earlier.”
“It’s not a problem, sweetheart. Really.” And it wasn’t. No matter the number of warnings I gave myself, no matter the determination to keep my heart locked far away from this woman in front of me, I just couldn’t seem to help myself. I’d barely spent more than a handful of minutes in her presence in twenty-one years, and already I craved more. More of her time, more of her shy little blushes, more of that sweet voice saying my name as her eyes flickered. I knew I was on thin ice that was already cracking, but there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.
She ran her tongue across her bottom lip, and a shaft of desire shot through me as I looked to those full pink lips.
“Well, it meant a lot to me nonetheless, and I’d like to show my appreciation by making you dinner tonight.” Her cheeks suddenly grew flushed and I grew even harder at the sight of it as she continued, “That is, if you’re free. Um, I mean, if you don’t already have plans.”
Well fuck me, I hadn’t been expecting that.
Temperance
Oh god.
I was so nervous.
Why the hell was I so nervous? My palms were clammy and sweat was dripping down the small of my back, making me very uncomfortable.
Hayes’s forehead wrinkled as he asked, “You wanna make me dinner?”
“Well….” Why was I making this so damn difficult? It was just a nice gesture, after all. I only wanted to thank him for being so supportive and helpful. “Yeah. I basically lost it this morning, and you were there for me while I had my freak-out. That meant a lot to me, and I want to say thank you.”
He gave me a look I couldn’t quite decipher. “Sweetheart, you just said it yourself, you had an emotional breakdown this morning. And aren’t you about to go work a shift at a diner that’s pretty much packed from open to close?”
My stomach dropped to the floor. I felt like the dorky teenage girl who’d just asked out the captain of the football team and was about to be shot down in front of the entire high school cafeteria.
“Um….”
“Tell you what,” he said before I could shoot up a prayer for God to strike me with lightning just so I could be put out of my misery. “Since you’ve already had a rough day, and it’s only eleven in the morning, why don’t I make you dinner tonight?”
“I….” What’s happening right now? “You’re going to cook for me?”
Those perfectly straight white teeth made an appearance as his lips parted in a sexy grin. “You sound surprised.”
“Well, yeah, actually. I’m just a little surprised. You can cook?”
“I’m a forty-year-old single man,” he replied with humor laced through his words. “And a cop, which means I don’t exactly have unlimited funds. It was either learn to cook or starve.”
“Oh.” A nervous giggle burst from my lips. “Well okay then.”
“Let’s say seven? I’ll text you my address.”
“Yeah, all right. I’ll see you then.” My smile probably looked ridiculous, but I just couldn’t help it.
Hayes Walker was making me dinner tonight.
And I couldn’t... freaking... wait
.
What had started off as a day from hell had taken a surprising turn. I knew I shouldn’t have been so excited at the aspect of dinner with Hayes. That was just going down a road that would inevitably lead to nowhere good—I lived in a totally different state, after all. But the longer I spent in Hope Valley, and the more time I spent around Hayes, the more it reminded me of all the amazing things I’d left behind. I’d spent so many years closed off, feeling completely alone in a city of millions, that I found myself chasing the feelings only Hayes had ever been able to bring out in me. And damn, but I didn’t want to stop, even knowing it would more than likely hurt me.
“Hey, sweetie.” Sally came scurrying from behind the register at the diner and pulled me into a tight hug, her tone full of worry as she asked, “How are you? Everything okay?”
My arms were pinned to my sides as I looked down at her in confusion. “Yeah, everything’s good. Why do you ask?” I managed to pull from her death grip and pointed at the creases between her eyes. “And why are you making that face?”
“Word around town is that you were seen at the police station this morning. I’ve been worried sick.”
“Word around—jeez, Sal, that literally just happened! How does everyone already know that?”
“Sue Ellen Mayfield works the front desk at the station. Didn’t you see her?”
“Crap,” I muttered, knowing from childhood the kind of shit that came with Sue Ellen Mayfield. “No. Hayes met me at the doors and walked me in so I wasn’t really paying attention. I take it Sue Ellen’s just as nosy now as she was when we were kids.”
“Oh no,” Sally said with an ominous shake of her head. “That girl’s so much worse now. And she’s hitched herself to Harley Madison, so what’s usually just harmless gossip has a tendency to end up nasty. Those two are a piece of work.”
I felt my lip curl in indignation at the sound of Harley’s name. I didn’t like that girl in elementary or middle school, and by the time we reached high school, that dislike grew into full-blown hatred.