A Reunion And A Ring (Proposals & Promises Book 1)

by Gina Wilkins

  “He’s fine. I heard him tell his buddies that he was eager to get back to work.”

  She changed the subject abruptly, and Stevie got the message that talk of Gavin was over for the evening. Yet Jenny couldn’t help but remember the determination in Gavin’s expression when he’d assured his friends he would be back in uniform the minute he was cleared for duty. And they’d all cheered him on, damn it. Had she been the only one who worried that he wouldn’t be so lucky next time?

  Chapter Six

  “I can’t imagine what it must have been like to be stranded in a mountain cabin with an ex-boyfriend.” Tess Miller stared wide-eyed across the restaurant lunch table at Jenny the following Thursday, shaking her auburn head in dismay. “If that had been me with my ex, there might have been bloodshed before morning.”

  “Now that’s a story that sounds interesting,” Stevie commented with a lifted eyebrow.

  Tess laughed and shook her head. “It would take a great deal of wine and longer than any of us have for a lunch break.”

  Tess had called earlier that morning to say she was going to be running a business errand near Complements at lunchtime and to ask if Jenny and Stevie, both of whom she had met in a yoga class, would be free to join her. Stevie worked as a freelance interior designer specializing in kitchen remodels, and she’d happened to have a couple spare hours that afternoon to meet them at a favorite restaurant in the same shopping center as Jenny’s store.

  “Maybe we should have another girls’ night soon,” Stevie suggested, scooping rice onto her chopsticks. “I haven’t spent nearly enough time with my girlfriends lately. I really should spend more time doing things I want to do, rather than... Well, anyway.”

  Which only confirmed to Jenny that Stevie’s relationship with Joe, the bass player, wasn’t going all that well, though Stevie hadn’t yet admitted it. Even to herself, perhaps?

  Tess sighed. “I have plenty of free nights to hang out when I’m not working, considering that my experiment in online dating has been pretty much a bust so far.”

  Jenny grimaced. “The latest one didn’t work out?”

  “Let’s just say he sent me some photos of himself. I have now blocked all future communications from Captain Underpants.”

  Stevie laughed. “Captain Underpants? Oh, I definitely have to hear this story.”

  Tess shuddered delicately. “It’s going to take more than wine for that.”

  All three laughed.

  “Did you ever find the nerve to tell your mom and grandmother who you found in the cabin, Jenny?” Stevie asked.

  Groaning, Jenny nodded. “Yes. It was...uncomfortable.”

  She was wildly understating that exchange and Stevie probably knew it. Her grandmother had been horrified.

  “Nothing happened, Gran,” Jenny had assured her firmly. “Gavin was a perfect gentleman. We slept in different rooms. Considering the damage done by the storm, I’d have been in more trouble if he hadn’t been there. I’d have been stranded up there alone.”

  Pointing a fork at Jenny over the dinner table Monday night, Gran had grumbled, “That’s exactly why I said it was foolish of you to go there alone in the first place. I could understand if you’d wanted to visit a nice spa, or fly to New York to shop and see shows, or some other civilized vacation. But to make a three-hour drive by yourself to some backwoods fishing cabin made no sense to me at all.”

  Jenny’s mom had tried to defend her. “She just wanted some quiet time to work and to think, Mother.”

  “She lives alone,” Gran had pointed out acerbically. “All she had to do was turn off her phone and lock her door.”

  “I wanted to get away from the sounds of traffic and sirens for a few days. Maybe walk alongside the river and listen to birds sing. That’s not really so strange, is it?” Jenny had tried not to sound defensive, but wasn’t sure she’d been successful.

  “Hmph. I can’t help wondering if you knew that man would be there,” Gran had muttered darkly. “He always had a strong hold on you. Seems like a strange coincidence that the minute your nice, ideal boyfriend is out of town, you run off to a cabin that just happens to be owned by that...that cop.” She spat the word as if it were a synonym for criminal.

  Jenny had to bite her tongue to keep herself from snapping at her grandmother, though she had spoken acerbically. “I don’t appreciate your implication that I would sneak around and lie to either you or Thad. If I had chosen to meet Gavin—or anyone else, for that matter—at the cabin, I’d have made no secret of it.”

  “How was Gavin?” her mother had interceded, just a hint of wistfulness in her tone. “He was such a sweet boy. And his mother was a nice lady. Did he say how she is?”

  Before she could reply, her grandmother had interrupted. “For heaven’s sake, Brenda, what do you care about that man’s family?” Gran had demanded with a scowl. “You should be more interested in Thad’s lovely mother. Have you heard from her since he’s been out of town, Jenny? You have spoken with Thad, haven’t you?”

  “I talk with Thad every evening,” she’d answered with every ounce of patience she’d possessed. “His parents are on a Mediterranean cruise to celebrate their fortieth anniversary.”

  “A Mediterranean cruise.” Lena Patterson’s eyes had gleamed with envy. “I’d always hoped to take a cruise with your grandfather, bless his soul. We’d have had a nice life like that, had he lived.”

  Gran made no secret of her lifelong sorrow that her young physician husband had died of an unforeseen, massive heart attack at the age of twenty-nine. He’d died just before he’d paid off the last of his education loans, before he’d been able to set up his practice and provide her the life of a respected doctor’s wife she’d fantasized about. Gran had worked long hours to help put him through medical school, along with the loans they’d taken out, and she believed now that her efforts had gone unrewarded. She’d been left a pregnant widow with no one to support her except herself. Not at all the life she’d planned.

  Still, Lena had always been a resourceful woman. She’d served as the secretary to the president of a medical supplies company, working up to a good salary and a tidy pension there. After paying off her late husband’s loans, she had invested the small life-insurance settlement from him and a modest inheritance from her own parents into rental property. For nearly forty years, while still working full-time, Gran had been a landlady. A shrewd one, at that, providing a good life for herself and her daughter. She’d sold her last property a few years ago, for enough to supplement her pension and Social Security quite comfortably. She had never remarried, which always made Jenny wonder if Gran had truly loved her husband for more than his potential earnings.

  Gran had been bitterly disappointed when her daughter had also become a debt-ridden, widowed single mother after marrying beneath her, in Gran’s opinion. Gran had been determined the pattern would end with her granddaughter.

  Gran saw Thad as embodying everything she had wanted for herself, whereas Gavin had seemed to represent all the heartache and regret she and her daughter had suffered. Gran had insisted that she didn’t want her granddaughter to marry only for money; but she’d often quoted the old adage that it was just as easy to fall in love with a rich man as a poor one.

  Jenny realized suddenly that Tess and Stevie were studying her across the table with mirroring looks of concern. She blinked. “What?”

  “You kind of zoned out there for a minute,” Tess replied quietly.

  Jenny sighed and shook her head. “I’m fine. Let’s just enjoy our lunch, okay? I have a meeting with a supplier later this afternoon, and I need to prepare for it.”

  Stevie started to speak, then stared over Jenny’s shoulder toward the entrance door with widened blue eyes. “Oh, my gosh, is that...? Yes, I think it is. Wow.”

  Jenny looked up from her lunch to study he
r friend’s face curiously. “Someone you know?”

  “Someone you know,” Stevie murmured. “And let’s just say, time has been very good to him.”

  Jenny set down her chopsticks. The tiny hairs on her arms were suddenly standing on end. She didn’t have to ask her friend for further clarification. If she were a superstitious woman, she’d wonder if she had somehow summoned Gavin with her wandering thoughts.

  * * *

  Jenny couldn’t blame either of her friends for staring when Gavin stopped at their table. He was the type of man who elicited such a reaction. Heightened senses. Accelerated heartbeat. Visceral feminine awareness. It was the way she had responded to him the first time she’d noticed him in a college classroom. She reacted the same way now.

  He was dressed in dark jeans and a short-sleeved navy pullover almost the same color as his eyes. The casual clothing emphasized his broad shoulders, strong arms and solid thighs. He hadn’t cut his hair yet. It waved back from his clean-shaven face as if he’d just run his fingers through it, the lighter streaks gleaming in the dark blond depths. She doubted that he’d deliberately tried to look like a walking sexy-bad-boy poster—he’d be appalled at the very suggestion—but he did, anyway. And judging by the admiring looks from women at nearby tables, she and her friends weren’t the only ones who noticed.

  “Hello, Gavin,” she said when he didn’t immediately speak. She took some pride in hearing the evenness of her tone; she doubted that anyone who heard her could tell how rapidly her heart was racing. “Were you looking for me or is this another crazy coincidence?”

  “The manager at your store told me I could find you here.” He set a bag from a nearby shoe store on the table next to her plate. Her left hand rested there and he brushed her bare ring finger with his fingertips as he released the bag. Was that merely an accident?

  “I figured since you were close by, I’d deliver this to you personally,” he said, his voice a shade deeper than usual.

  “What...?” She glanced into the bag, then shook her head when she saw the familiar shoebox. According to the label, this was an identical pair of shoes to the ones she’d ruined at the cabin, right down to the neon-green color. They were not inexpensive shoes. Even though he’d told her he would, she hadn’t really expected him to replace them, especially not in person. “You didn’t have to buy me new shoes.”

  He shrugged. “It was the least I could do after you helped me clean up the storm damage. Did the new leasing agent refund your credit card?”

  “Yes, thank you. Did you fire Lizzie?”

  “Wasn’t my call to make, though I did file a complaint with the company. I understand she quit Monday afternoon. She didn’t care for the job apparently.” He turned his head to nod to her companions. “Ladies.”

  Remembering her manners, she said quickly, “Oh, sorry. Gavin, this is my friend Tess Miller. And you remember Stevie McLane?”

  “Of course he does.” Stevie hopped from her chair to give Gavin a typical Southern greeting of a quick hug. “Gavin, you look great. You’ve hardly changed. I knew you right away.”

  He gazed down at her when she stepped back. “Were you this blonde in college?”

  She giggled. “Why, of course I was.”

  Though they all knew she wasn’t fooling him in the least, he merely chuckled. “Well, it works for you. You look good.”

  Stevie batted her lashes. “Thank you, sir.”

  Jenny remembered that Gavin and Stevie had flirted teasingly in college—all in good fun, neither of them taking it seriously. She’d never felt even a twinge of jealousy toward them then. She told herself it didn’t bother her now that he was smiling down at her friend, looking relaxed as he hadn’t been with her.

  Tess was eyeing Gavin with a slight frown. “I think we’ve met before. Aren’t you the officer who responded to a break-in at my office a couple of months ago? Prince Construction Company?”

  “Yes, I thought you looked familiar. Your boss’s office was ransacked, but nothing taken that you could see, right?”

  She nodded. “We finally decided it was someone looking for quick cash. And since we don’t keep cash at the office, they were out of luck.”

  “It’s nice to see you again under more pleasant circumstances.”

  “You, too, Officer Locke.”

  “Call me Gavin.”

  “This is quite a coincidence. That you’ve met before, I mean,” Stevie said, looking from Gavin to Tess.

  Gavin’s eyes turned to Jenny as he murmured, “There’ve been quite a few of those lately.”

  Stevie made a sound as if she’d suddenly had a brilliant idea. Because she’d seen so many of Stevie’s brilliant ideas go terribly wrong, Jenny tensed as Stevie tugged at Gavin’s arm and burst into excited speech.

  “My boyfriend’s band is playing on the deck at Benoit’s Pier Saturday night. Very informal, and it’s an over-twenty-one-only crowd, so we don’t have to deal with teens and frat boys. It’s a twenty-dollar cover charge to pay the band and to keep out the troublemakers. There’s going to be a donation box to raise money for the victims of the spring storms that have hit Arkansas this year, but it’s a no-pressure fund-raiser. You could even bring one or two of your buddies if they’d like to come hear some great music and meet new people. Or, um, bring a girlfriend if you have one.”

  Jenny had to stop herself from openly grimacing. It seemed she’d been right to worry. What was Stevie thinking?

  Gavin smiled at Stevie as if her wording had amused him. “No girlfriend at the moment.”

  “All the more reason for you to come, then.” She patted his arm lightly. “Lots of hot single women will be there. Tess, here, for example.”

  Tess choked on a sip of tea. “Stevie!”

  Stevie gave her a blandly sweet smile. “Just saying.”

  She gazed back up at Gavin. “Well? Are you interested?”

  He shrugged the shoulder Jenny knew to be uninjured while she held her breath waiting for his reply. He would say no, wouldn’t he? Surely he would say no.

  “Maybe,” he said instead, making her fingers curl tightly in her lap. She wasn’t sure who she most wanted to strangle, him or Stevie. Gavin glanced her way before asking, “Are you all going to be there?”

  “Yes, we are,” Stevie answered cheerily. “Tess and Jen have already promised they’d be there to keep me company while my boyfriend is playing. My friends always keep their promises.”

  Jenny glanced at her friend and resisted the urge to shove the napkin in her mouth.

  “So, we’ll see you Saturday?” Stevie prodded Gavin.

  “Sure. Why not?” He winked at Jenny and her heart clenched. “See you.”

  He turned and strode out of the restaurant in a rolling gait that was undeniably sexy. Jenny was well aware that she was only one of many appreciative women studying his very fine backside as he left. Damn it.

  Dragging her eyes away, she whirled on Stevie, who was settling back into her seat with an exaggeratedly innocent expression. “What the hell was that?”

  “What?”

  “Why did you invite Gavin for Saturday night?”

  “Just an impulse. Why not invite him? Maybe he’ll bring some cute cop friends.”

  Jenny asked pointedly, “Aren’t you going to be there with Joe? You know, your current boyfriend?”

  Stevie waved a hand. “I am. But Tess, here, is looking. And I have other single friends who’ll thank me for inviting Gavin. Sandy, for example. You know she has a thing for men in uniform.”

  “Sandy has a thing for men. Period.” She could only imagine how Sandy would react to seeing Gavin among the usual crowd. Like a hungry hawk spotting a particularly tasty prey, most likely. The image made her stomach tighten, but only because she’d hate to see any of her male acquaintances caught up i
n Sandy’s avaricious talons, she assured herself.

  Stevie giggled. “True. But there’s still Tess. You thought Gavin was good-looking, right, Tess?”

  “I have eyes,” Tess said drily. “But I also have a rule against dating friends’ exes. That never works out well for the friendship.”

  This was Jenny’s cue to assure Tess that she had no objections at all if Tess and Gavin were to hook up at the party. But she toyed with the remains of her lunch and said nothing.

  “Besides,” Tess said speculatively, “it seemed to me as though Gavin is still interested in Jenny. You saw the way he looked at her, right?”

  Jenny reached hastily for her water glass and took a deep sip before saying, “You’re wrong about that. He’s aware that I’m seeing someone else. But even if I weren’t, trust me, Gavin is no more interested in getting involved with me again than I am with him. That ship sailed—and sank—a long time ago.”

  “So you’d be fine with him dating Tess, or anyone else he might meet at the party?”

  Shooting Stevie an irritated look, Jenny muttered, “Of course.”

  She pushed her plate away then. “I really should get back to the store. I have a ton of things to do today.”

  Stevie reached out quickly to touch her hand. “Sorry, Jen. Don’t rush off. I’m just teasing you.”

  “Yes, I know. It’s just a busy day for me.”

  Her teasing amusement gone now, Stevie looked anxious. “You didn’t really mind that I invited Gavin, did you? You said the two of you got along fine at the cabin, so I figured it was okay to invite him and maybe some of his friends. For the band and the fund-raiser’s sake, of course.”

  “No,” Jenny lied evenly. “Of course I don’t mind. It just surprised me, that’s all.”

  Maybe she’d come up with a reasonable excuse so she wouldn’t have to attend. It wasn’t her type of gathering, anyway. She was only going because Stevie had wheedled a promise out of her, saying she needed someone to talk to while Joe was playing. Since Thad was out of town, anyway, it wasn’t as if Jenny had anything better to do. Now if only there were some honorable way to get out of that promise...