by Julie Benson
“Considering what I found out at the printer, I bet they’re at the top of your suspect list.”
As she sat there expectantly waiting for a response, he finally said, “I can’t confirm or deny that.”
She rolled her eyes again, and he pinned her with a scowl. Couldn’t she once let him get away with something?
“Gee, nobody knows what that means,” she insisted. “Where do you go from here? How will you get evidence? What you need is to find someone who’s used their services.”
Yup, that was what he needed. Maybe he should put out a request on his Facebook page. Instead he figured he’d better end this conversation before it got completely out of control. “What I’ve told you has to stay between us.”
She nodded.
“The only reason I told you anything was because I couldn’t let you think someone broke in.”
“Thank you for that.”
She was a single woman running a bed and breakfast. People she didn’t know from Adam would be staying in her house. With her. Why hadn’t he realized that before? Anyone staying in the suite downstairs would have access to the entire house, including her room.
The vulnerability of her position hit him right between the eyes, leaving his knees weak. Protective feelings he refused to examine rippled through him, stunning him with their force. He cared what happened to Grace. Cared in other ways, too. Ways he shouldn’t.
She needed alarms on the back doors, as well as cameras to monitor via her computer. He’d needed to figure out how to prevent guests from accessing the upstairs bedrooms.
“Considering you’re a single woman who’s opening her house to people, getting a gun for protection might be a good idea.”
“No way. My luck I’d shoot myself in the foot.” She shook her head, sending riotous brown curls tumbling over her shoulders.
He’d work on upping her security tomorrow. For both their sakes, because Grace had aroused more than his passions tonight. That he could handle. “Now we’re done, and I’m leaving.” He stood, and strode out of the room. Desire. No big deal. The fact Grace stirred protective feelings in him scared the daylights out of him. Their lives were too different for anything good to come of that.
Two days after Grace caught AJ searching the house, and she hadn’t seen him once. Not even at a distance. This, after practically tripping over him whenever she left her room before.
Today as she sat on top of a horse, plodding along on her way to the wishing well, Grace couldn’t figure out what had caused the change between them.
As she followed behind Cassie on the trail, she realized a man had never confided in her the way AJ had. Or rather, she’d never allowed one to. In the past if a man tried to share, she pointed out the beauty of their relationship was that they kept their problems from sucking the fun out of it. Then she hinted if their arrangement no longer worked for him, he was free to move on.
Based on past experience, she should be thankful he put distance between them, rather than worry about why he’d done so. She definitely shouldn’t be missing him.
“How you holding up?” Cassie called out, thankfully pulling Grace away from her thoughts. When her friend slowed down, Grace caught up to ride beside her since the path had widened.
“Now that I’m up here, I’m fine.” Mounting the horse had taken three attempts, multiple contortionist moves, and more upper body strength than an Olympic weightlifter possessed. How did cowboys make it look so easy?
“I want to thank you for all you’ve done,” Cassie continued. “I don’t know what I’d do without you, but I want to apologize, too. I didn’t mean to dump running the inn on you. I meant to actually train you before I did the dumping.”
“You’ve had a lot going on, and I’m fine. If I needed help, I’d have let you know.”
Cassie flashed her a don’t-be-obtuse look. “I know you’re fine. That’s not the point. I’m trying to apologize for being a lousy boss.”
“You’ve given me free rein at the inn. How could I not love that?” Grace tried to steer her horse back on the path. She glanced at Cassie who appeared way too confident and comfortable in the saddle. “So far the job’s great, and I’m not missing the city as much as I expected.”
Instead of being miserable, and ready to sell her soul for a job back in New York, she’d found a sense of freedom she hadn’t expected. Almost as if for the first time in her life she could breathe, and her life was her own. Amazing how a break from the family drama had renewed her energy. Who would’ve guessed a short time without any phone calls or texts would accomplish so much?
Then she thought about it. No one in her family had contacted her since she left New York. The flip side of that was even her parents hadn’t cared enough to make sure she arrived in Texas safely. The realization slammed into her, almost toppling her from the saddle. After everything she’d been through the past months, shouldn’t her parents be concerned about her?
Grace glanced up and noticed her horse had veered further off the path into the brush. She raised the leather straps in her hands. Reins, she corrected. “Mine don’t work.”
Cassie laughed. “Yes, they do. It’s operator error. Hold one rein in each hand. When you want her to go right gently pull on the one in that hand. For left use the other one.”
Grace tried doing as Cassie instructed, but the horse slowed and veered right instead of heading left. “I don’t think my horse knows her left from her right.”
“Don’t worry. She won’t stray far,” Cassie said, and they rode into a clearing. Tall grass spread out in front of them, but Grace’s gaze focused on a small area marked off by a simple white picket fence. The focal point of the area was the rough limestone well, with a weathered roof.
Grace didn’t know what she’d expected, but she’d imagined the well and the surrounding area would be more impressive. “This is it?”
“Every time I’m here the simplicity surprises me.”
When they stopped, Grace slid off the horse, impressing herself by accomplishing the feat without falling on her face, and strolled toward the well. As she approached, she noticed four worn headstones twenty feet behind the well.
“Who’s in the fourth grave?” Grace asked when Cassie joined her.
“Alice’s husband, Jasper. He was the man who found Sam, and brought him home.”
While she liked the idea of the tours, part of her worried she was becoming a snake oil salesman. “The sisters’ story and making a wish for someone you love are sweet, but do you believe the people who’ve said their wishes came true?”
“I’m beginning to wonder, but no matter what this well has a special place in my heart.”
“Sounds like there’s a story there.”
Instead of answering, Cassie closed her eyes for a few seconds, and inhaled deeply. “Don’t you feel it? The air’s different here. Charged, and yet filled with something I can’t describe.”
Grace stood by the fence, gazing at the land spread out in front of her. Stark, yet enduring. Strong, yet tranquil. Beautiful in its simplicity. Serenity surrounded this place, seeping into her pores, leaving her with a sense of rightness, of belonging, making her wonder how her life could have changed so drastically and irreversibly in such a short time.
AJ.
“Are you okay? You seem funny today.” Cassie placed her hand on Grace’s arm, drawing her back. “You’re too quiet and pensive.”
I’m completely baffled and captivated by a man for the first time in my life, and floating in a sea of confusion, but other than that I’m great.
“I’m fine.” Grace paused. “Really.”
Cassie stared at her as if waiting, no expecting, her to say something. When Grace remained silent, her friend said, “Why don’t I believe you? Maybe it’s the word really you added to your comment. You were trying too hard. What’s up?”
Sometimes having a best friend who knew her so well was a pain. “The moment I added that I knew I was sunk.”
“I can’t take it anymore!” Cassie spun around, pinning her with an offended best friend look as she stomped her cowboy-booted foot in frustration. “It’s AJ, isn’t it? What’s going on with you two? And don’t say nothing. I heard about how ‘cozy’ you looked in town the other day.” Cassie flashed air quotes when she said cozy. “How could you let me hear about that from my wedding planner? Now out with the details.”
Blasted small town gossip.
“There’s not much to tell.” Grace explained how they’d bumped into each other when she dropped off the brochures, and then he offered to introduce her to various shop owners. “You should see how everyone in town treats AJ. It’s as if he’s public property. It made me understand why my dad hung around with other officers.” For the first time. “He could be himself. They didn’t see him as an officer first, and a person second.”
But more importantly, he didn’t have to keep secrets with them.
“Being the boss, AJ doesn’t have that option. I knew a police officer was never really off duty, but it’s worse for him.” Grace told Cassie about their encounter with Mason. “People don’t see him. They treat AJ as if he’s nothing more than his job.”
“You sound like a woman who’s worried about a man she’s interested in.”
Cassie’s words rattled around in Grace’s head. She couldn’t deny she cared about AJ, but as to how much, that was where her thought process turned fuzzy. “I don’t know what to think about him. Just hearing his sexy drawl makes my hormones run roughshod over my brain.”
“Roughshod? I can’t believe you said that, and used the word correctly.”
“What can I say? It’s the old when-in-Rome thing. I want to fit in.”
“You also said AJ has a sexy drawl.”
Grace placed her hands against the rough limestone and peered into the well’s darkness as if the answer of what to do about AJ would materialize from the depths. Thinking about him? More like fantasizing in great detail, and way more often than she should.
“You were right when you said AJ is one of the good guys. That’s what worries me.”
“You lost me.”
Grace had grown up watching her parents’ marriage dissolve into a dysfunctional mess. When she’d stumbled upon her mother’s infidelity, instead of ending the affair, her mother used Grace’s knowledge as an opportunity for her to play confidant, and worse yet, an occasional alibi. Grace never knew, but often wondered if her father had affairs, too, before her parents called it quits. With the speed her oldest brother had remarried after his first divorce, she suspected he was repeating their parents’ cycle.
Throughout her adult life she’d bailed on relationships whenever a boyfriend hinted at getting serious. “I told myself I wouldn’t make the mistakes my family’s made relationship-wise, and I haven’t. But only because I’ve never had a serious relationship.”
“If you don’t like the choices you’ve made, start making different ones.”
Such a simple concept, but did she possess the courage to try? She hadn’t considered the option until she met AJ. At first she believed what she felt for him was nothing more than dynamic chemistry. But since he’d been staying at the inn, she’d learned she enjoyed his company, enjoyed being with him. Now she wondered where the path she’d been on would take her. Probably crazy cat ladyhood, and the thought unsettled her further.
“In the past when a relationship ended, it didn’t bother me because I never tried to make it work. But what if I try with AJ and it falls apart? If I can’t have a relationship with a great guy like him, I’ll have to admit it’s me.” Grace chewed on her lower lip to still its trembling.
There. She’d voiced the words. A fist pressed on her chest making breathing difficult. What if she lacked the ability, the necessary heart and empathy to sustain a meaningful, intimate relationship?
“Wow. As Ty would say, you’ve put the cart so far in front of the horse they’re in different counties.”
“Care to translate that for us brand new Texans.”
Brand new Texan? A breeze skimmed over Grace’s skin, raising goose bumps on her arms.
“What that means is, slow down, and quit thinking so far ahead. Enjoy where you are, and worry about the future when it gets here. Don’t borrow trouble.”
Cassie’s calm voice soothed Grace’s battered nerves. “Another Ty-ism?”
Cassie nodded, a silly, dreamy, bride-to-be look of contentment on her face. “You wouldn’t believe how many he has. Sometimes he drives me nuts with them. But blast the man, they almost always apply, making it hard to get mad.”
Grace had heard a sign of true love was a couple knowing each other’s faults, but being willing to overlook them. That appeared to be the case with Cassie and Ty.
What would having a man love her enough to overlook her flaws be like? She couldn’t imagine a life with that kind of acceptance.
“What he makes me feel scares me, and I don’t know what to do. I can’t think straight where AJ’s concerned.”
“Which would you regret more, letting AJ go without ever having seen what might have been, or having it not work out?”
In an instant, Grace possessed her answer. Regretting not knowing what might have been. Without a doubt.
When Grace returned from the well later that afternoon and walked into her office, she discovered a note from AJ on her desk. Put alarms on the outside doors, and set up cameras to monitor them via the computer. Sorry it took so long, but I had to order the stuff. Still working on how to secure private rooms. Under the note she found owner information on the items he’d installed.
Tingles started in her chest, radiating outward, down her arm to her fingertips. Warmth, fuzzy and delightful followed. She hadn’t seen him in days, but he’d taken time he couldn’t afford to spare from work to install alarms and cameras to ease her worries over being alone in the house? Apparently she wasn’t the only one confused.
Cassie’s words pounded in Grace’s head. Which would you regret more, letting AJ go without ever having seen what might have been, or having it not work out?
She’d give him a chance to show up for dinner tonight, but if he didn’t, then she’d confront him. Enough was enough.
Chapter Ten
At seven o’clock, Grace sat at the kitchen breakfast bar picking at the crust of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and admitted AJ wasn’t coming to the Main House for dinner. The idea of walking to the Carriage House, knocking on his door, and when he answered, asking if he was embarrassed over the other night, left her a little queasy. After all, she’d like to maintain a sliver of pride and dignity, and that plan bordered on desperate with a touch of needy, which never looked good on anyone.
She needed an excuse to see him, but what could she use? If she’d gotten her act together and gone to the grocery store like she planned, she could take him dinner.
Here, AJ, I brought you a PB and J sandwich for dinner, and by the way, have you been avoiding me?
Not the smoothest move, but what else could she do? She picked up her plate and slid off the bar stool, her thighs and back groaning in protest from her morning horseback ride.
She smiled, latching on to the perfect excuse, the hot tub in the Carriage House. AJ said she could use the spa any time, and a long soak with bubbling jets was exactly what her sore thighs and stiff back needed.
Half an hour later after locating her bathing suit in a box of personal items she hadn’t unpacked, and shaving all necessary areas, she threw on a baggy T-shirt and gym shorts over her low cut, sleek one-piece swimming suit, and slipped into her flip flops. After closing the door to her bedroom, which now looked more like Walmart after a tornado ripped through it because of everything she’d tossed around during her search, she headed outside before she lost her courage.
As she walked across the grassy area between the Main House and the other buildings, she stubbed her toe on a root in the darkness, and stumbled. Cursing her clumsiness, she pulled out her phone to u
se as a flashlight, and traversed the distance to the Carriage House without further injury. Once there, she knocked on the front door, and waited, trying to ignore the World Cup soccer match going on in her stomach.
Seconds passed, but no AJ. She noted glowing lights behind the window blinds, squinted, and thought she saw the TV on as well. Clearly he was there. Maybe this wasn’t such a great idea. No one needed to drop a house on her to tell her to get out of Dodge. Occasionally retreating to regroup proved the wiser decision. He couldn’t avoid her forever, and as long as she cleared the air before the wedding rehearsal, everything would be fine. She turned to leave, but the door creaked open behind her.
Really, he waited until she decided to leave to open the door? She bet he did that on purpose because the man seemed determine to keep her off balance. Either that or drive her crazy, but no way would she let him see the fact.
Plastering a smile on her face, she spun around and locked her gaze squarely on the large T with a smaller A and M under it in the middle of the burgundy shirt stretched over his broad chest. She didn’t dare look him in the eye, for fear she’d lose her nerve. “You said I could use the hot tub any time I wanted. Cassie and I went riding today, and I can’t believe how sore my thighs are. And my back. Between the ride and hunching over the computer after that, I’m afraid I’ll end up resembling Quasimodo.”
She pinched her lips together. Lord, please help me stop babbling like a love-starved woman. “Anyway, I thought I’d take you up on your offer for a long, hot soak.”
Silence stretched while she waited for him to say something. Anything. Even get lost. She glanced down, trying to figure out a graceful way to get out of the mess she’d made, and noticed his crooked little toe poking through a hole in his left sock. “You need new socks.”
The toes wiggled. “Guess I do.” Then he stepped away from the door. “Come in.”
His voice sounded oddly tight and when she glanced at his face, she discovered him gazing over his shoulder into the living room, his attention on the giant screen TV. He hooked a hitchhiker thumb to his right. “The Jacuzzi’s on the deck through the double doors.”
