Harlequin Special Edition July 2013 - Bundle 2 of 2: The Widow of Conard CountyA Match for the Single DadThe Medic's Homecoming

by Rachel Lee

  “Lucas?”

  They briefly exchanged the usual niceties. “I wanted to run something by you,” he said.

  “Sure. Did Mom tell you about Lark?” She’d zoomed right in, but brought in a whole new topic of conversation.

  “Yeah. Any idea why she wants to quit school?”

  “Lark’s not giving me any details, but I’m pretty sure it has to do with a man.”

  “Of course. Sorry to hear that.”

  “What do you think is up with all of us?” Anne asked.

  “What’re you talking about?”

  “The three of us—you, me and Lark. We all seem to run away from the best people. Granted, I don’t have a clue what’s going on with Lark and whoever, but you... Come on. You and Jocelyn have been a perfect match since you were kids.” So she hadn’t gone off topic after all.

  “Look, I didn’t call to talk about my love life, Anne.”

  “Do you think Mom and Dad screwed us up?”

  What the heck was she talking about? “How could they? They have a great marriage.”

  “I know, but maybe it’s so good, none of us think we can live up to it. Maybe we’re afraid to fail in front of them.”

  “Are you saying you’re afraid to marry Jack because if you are, I’m here to tell you...”

  “No. I’m solid on that. I was thinking about you, Little Brother. I’m suggesting you not do what I tried to do.”

  Did all the women in his life have to talk in riddles and confuse him? “Is this about that soul-mate business again? Because I’m not buying it.”

  “Well, maybe you should.”

  He shrugged at the sky, shook his head and screwed up his face. Should, what?

  “Buy it.”

  Damn it, could Anne read minds, too?

  With his stomach twisting in a thousand knots, he didn’t have the nerve to bring up the real reason he’d called—whether or not to take David up on yesterday’s offer. She’d taken him way off path, and he didn’t have the strength to bring up the subject of Jocelyn. “Listen, I’ve got to go.”

  “Let me ask you the same question you asked me a couple months ago—what do you have back east that you can’t find here?”

  “That was different, and you know it,” he said. Though in his heart he knew it wasn’t different at all.

  “Quit running, Lucas. Don’t do what I did and waste ten years.” Okay, she was a mind reader. Eerie. “I gave notice at work today. In another month, I’ll be moved out of my apartment in Portland and back home in Whispering Oaks. We could be one big happy family again. I’ve missed you.”

  That seemed to be the ongoing theme of all of his conversations lately.

  “Maybe I’ll stick around until you move home. But I can’t promise anything.”

  “I’d like that. As soon as I find out anything about Lark, I’ll let you know.”

  “You do that. And, Anne?”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m really happy for you and Jack.”

  “Thank you, Lucas. So am I. And my fingers are crossed that you’ll wake up and admit the best thing in your life is right next door.”

  “Okay, that’s it. I’m outta here.” He clicked off before he got ticked off.

  The last sound he heard before he hung up was his sister’s overconfident laugh. Why did that always bug the hell out of him? Especially when he knew she was right and he was wrong.

  Before he could “wake up” like Anne wanted, he needed to have at least one good night’s sleep. Mom’s hoodoo-voodoo homeopathic pills had helped some, but he still wasn’t there yet.

  * * *

  On Thursday, Lucas stayed home to take his dad to the doctor to have his one remaining cast on his arm removed. To give his dad an extra kick on his big day, Lucas drove the Mustang to the appointment.

  “You did a fantastic job on this,” his dad said, running his hand along the dashboard.

  Lucas nodded with pride. “I loved every minute of it, too.”

  “After today, I’ll be almost back to my old self, and you’ll be free to make that move you’ve mentioned.”

  “Yep.”

  “It’s been great having you around. Do you really have to leave the state?”

  Lucas hadn’t answered Jake’s most recent email asking to finalize the plans. “It’s a definite possibility. I like what I saw online about the athletic training program there. There are some excellent physician’s assistant programs, too.”

  “How does Jocelyn feel about your leaving?”

  Lucas clenched his jaw. If he ground his molars any harder, they’d push into his gums. “She’s not happy about it.”

  Showing excellent parental restraint, his dad let the subject drop.

  * * *

  “Mr. Grady, we’ll have this cast off in no time.”

  “Thank the good Lord. I’ve been through this before with my leg, so let’s not waste time explaining anything. Just cut this sucker off my arm, would you?”

  The orthopedic technician smiled, then put on protective goggles and revved up the cast cutter. Sounding more like the equipment at the auto body shop than what one would expect at a doctor’s office, he sliced through the cast with precision. When it broke free and fell off his arm, Dad sighed with relief and moved his fingers and twisted his wrist to make sure everything still worked.

  “Nice scar, Dad.”

  “Looks like you had a nasty break, Mr. Grady,” the technician said.

  “I’ve got the pins and plates to prove it, too. Ah, that’s stiff,” his dad said as he straightened his elbow. “My arm smells like hell and looks ninety years old, but I gotta tell ya, Lucas, this is the prettiest damn thing I’ve seen since I first met your mother.” He grinned wide. “I’m free! Free at last.”

  Lucas smiled at his father’s excitement. He watched him work out more kinks and thank the technician for his help, then he offered to buy Lucas lunch on the way home.

  They pulled into a new sushi restaurant on a ridge with a view of most of the city. It was another clear, cloudless blue-skied day, the usual valley breeze rustling leaves in nearby oaks, and the view made Lucas stop to take it all in. Whispering Oaks was a beautiful town—always had been—and it would always be his home.

  They decided to celebrate the cast removal with a sushi platter and Japanese beer. Lucas was fairly amazed with how well his father worked the chopsticks.

  “You know, Lucas,” his dad said, stuffing a scallop roll into his mouth. He chased it down with a long draw on his beer. “I’m really looking forward to going back to school next year as an ordinary math teacher and an assistant coach.”

  “Wait. Are you saying Jocelyn got the position of head coach?”

  “She didn’t tell you?”

  “We aren’t exactly speaking.” He dropped the portion of California roll he’d snagged between his chopsticks into the soy-and-wasabi sauce, then struggled to pick it back up.

  His response got a suspicious stare from his dad. “Found out yesterday. You mean you two aren’t even talking now?”

  Lucas took a long drink. “Let’s just say we’ve said everything we needed to say.”

  “You didn’t break up with that girl, did you?” Kieran leaned forward on his elbows.

  “Dad. We’d only gone out a few times. We weren’t going together or anything.”

  “You know damn well that she’s the kind of lady a man gets involved with. She isn’t one of those superficial flighty things you find all over the place. She’s solid. The kind of stuff you fall in love with.”

  Was the entire family conspiring against him? “And you know all of this, how?”

  “I married a girl just like her. Your mother and I met in college and fell in love. She insisted we stay friends for a while first. When it was time to graduate we forgot we lived on opposite sides of the states. Guess who decided to move across the country to make her happy?” Kieran pointed to his chest with empty chopsticks.

  Not wanting to meet his father’
s intense stare, suddenly the little green plate decoration got all of Lucas’s attention.

  “Hell, I’ve watched Jocelyn grow up, become a woman. She’s what a man should look for in a wife.”

  “Then I hope she finds the right man.” The surge of irritation, and the thought of actually losing Jocelyn, had him tearing his napkin in two.

  Dad put his beer glass down. “You’re a good man, Lucas. I wouldn’t have made it through all these weeks without your help and your sister’s before that. Your mother and I didn’t raise dummies. I’m saying this because I know I used to ride you about slacking off, but you’re a changed man, now. You’ve served your country. Matured. You know how to get things done. How to be a man. The only thing I’m not impressed with right now is you walking away from a good thing. The best thing.”

  Lucas pushed his plate away and pinched his lips tight rather than say anything disrespectful to his father like Mind your own damn business, would you?

  “Are you done?” he asked as his dad finished the last of the sushi on the platter and his beer. “I’d like to spend some time this afternoon at the auto body shop.”

  “Sure,” his dad said, digging for his wallet. “Since I gave all the advice, I guess I should pay, huh?”

  “I won’t argue with that.”

  “See? I told you, you’re a wise man.”

  As they walked back to the car for the short drive home, his dad stopped. “If you haven’t been talking to Jocelyn, then you probably don’t know that she’s due to receive the Teacher of the Year award next week at an assembly.”

  Lucas’s head shot up. “Which day?” How cool was that? He knew she had what it took to be a good coach, and obviously she was a fantastic teacher. And now the students and her teacher peers were reinforcing that. A bubble of pride rose in his chest.

  “Wednesday.”

  He got into the car and waited for his dad to do the same. “Can anyone come?”

  “Of course.”

  They drove home in companionable silence. Lucas pulled into the driveway and dropped his father off, then checked his watch. Instead of going to the valley to the auto body shop like he said he would, he really headed north for his counseling appointment in Oxnard.

  Chapter Twelve

  Lucas sat at the computer in the home office Wednesday and fired off an email to Jake in North Carolina.

  “I’m leaving. Are you coming?” His dad stood at the door dangling the car keys and looking irritated.

  “Go ahead. You can drive yourself over. I’ll meet you there,” Lucas said, not looking up from the keyboard.

  His father grunted and left. Down the hall Lucas heard him on the cell phone. “Hey, since I can drive myself, Bev, stand out front at school and I’ll pick you up.” A beat later Lucas heard, “I know, free at last!”

  Truth was, his parents didn’t need him around anymore. At this point, all he’d do was get in their way. After sending the first message, Lucas sent another email to David in the valley. He’d almost made his decision.

  * * *

  Jocelyn finished grading the last quiz while sitting at her desk. Because she was in the bungalow building she could keep her door open, have fresh air and sunshine and look outside instead of into the usual noisy hallways. She glanced up to see a shadow looming at the door. The dark silhouette leaned against the frame, and her heart dropped a beat...until she recognized sandy-blond hair. It was Jack Lightfoot, her fellow teacher and Anne Grady’s fiancé.

  “What’s up?” she asked, putting her red pencil back in the holder and feeling a twinge of disappointment it was Jack instead of Lucas with a huge change of heart.

  “You about ready?”

  For what? And then she remembered. She’d been so bent on not thinking about losing Lucas, and failing miserably, she’d forgotten all about the assembly.

  “Oh! What time is it?” She glanced at her watch and realized it was time to head over to the auditorium for the end-of-year awards assembly.

  “It’s past time. Let’s go.” Tall, tan, good-looking, the math teacher and part-time volunteer fireman pulled his hands out of his slacks pockets. “Come on, I’ll walk you over.”

  She tidied her desk and locked the quizzes inside, grabbed her purse and scurried toward the door, locking it behind her. “I totally forgot.”

  “That you’re getting the Teacher of the Year award? How’d you do that?”

  The lantana bushes along the walkway flared with bright fire-orange blooms, briefly distracting her. “I’ve had a lot on my mind lately.”

  “Taking over as head coach is a big responsibility.”

  “Yeah, that too.”

  Jack’s piercing green eyes latched on to her evasive glance. “Something you want to talk about?”

  “Nah. Since you’re practically a relative, I don’t want to drag you into my problems.”

  “Whose relative?”

  “Lucas.”

  He stopped walking on the secluded path leading from the bungalows toward the grouping of larger buildings. An ancient oak tree in the center of the school shaded his face. “Talk to me.”

  “Oh, you don’t want to hear my problems. It’s just...”

  “Getting a Grady to commit is like waiting for Congress to vote unanimously on a bill.”

  “Exactly!”

  He gave her a thoughtful, knowing smile.

  “How did you get Anne to come around?”

  “You have to play dirty, Jocelyn. Twist an arm or two.”

  “But Lucas is bigger than me.”

  Jack slid her a tolerant glance. “I got Anne to come around by refusing to take no for an answer. By making sure she knew exactly how I felt about her. By pinning her in a corner and not letting her skip out until she gave me the answer I wanted to hear.” He glanced over her shoulder, sidetracked in his own thoughts for a second. “I knew she loved me, but getting her to see it took some work.”

  Jocelyn sighed and started walking again. She’d told Lucas she loved him, and all he’d done was stare at the fireplace bricks. So much for laying the cards on the table. As of today, she was completely out of ideas. They approached the auditorium in silence, but just before they reached the backstage steps, Jack pulled her aside.

  “Don’t let him leave without facing you again. Make him tell you straight up he doesn’t care about you. He can’t, because he does. He’ll crack. I guarantee.”

  She started to protest, the mere thought of getting her heart stomped on again made her stomach do a double backflip. “You know something I don’t?”

  “He’s a guy, so he needs prodding. If you love him, go after him. That’s what I did with Anne—not that she’s a guy, just a stubborn Grady—and come September...well, you already know that story.”

  Jocelyn smiled remembering how miserable Jack was a few short months ago when he’d enlisted her into helping him get a date with Anne, as opposed to how happy he was these days. Engaged! His never-back-down technique had certainly paid off for him. Maybe it could for her, too? But how much more humiliation could her ego take?

  “Come on, you guys. They’ve already started the awards ceremony.” A student stagehand stood by the entrance. They skipped up the steps, and he rushed them toward the curtains, then urged Jocelyn to sit in the one remaining chair at the closest end of the stage. The principal, Mrs. Saroyan, was already standing at the podium on a booster block. She was wearing her signature business suit, spike heels and all, and giving her opening remarks.

  It was time to switch gears, put Lucas out of her mind and smile for the school and the students who’d voted her Teacher of the Year. She didn’t necessarily feel as if she deserved this honor, but she needed to bask in the love from everyone giving her this award. She’d given teaching and coaching her best efforts this year, and it had paid off.

  Too bad all of her efforts on Lucas’s behalf at the up-close-and-personal level hadn’t been as successful as her school year.

  He hadn’t called all week. She
hadn’t seen him since she’d told him she loved him. Well, she was through being his personal rah-rah, you-can-do-it cheerleader. It was time for Lucas to step up for himself. She couldn’t force him into loving her, no matter how much she loved him. Now if she could just convince herself to give up hope.

  She glanced down the row of chairs on the stage at Jack Lightfoot taking his seat on the other end. If only the Jack Lightfoot method for winning over the love of your life could work for her, too.

  Across the stage, a long table was covered in trophies and certificates. This would be one long assembly. Jocelyn settled in, trying her best to keep her attention on Mrs. Saroyan.

  * * *

  Lucas combed his hair, patted on some aftershave and headed out the door for the Mustang. According to his watch, the assembly had already started. He didn’t want to miss Jocelyn’s big moment, so he pressed the speed limit on the way there. Five minutes later he rolled into a full parking lot and found a space way at the back. Sprinting toward the building he blew through the entry doors and slid across the foyer linoleum toward the auditorium entrance.

  The room was packed and dark, and he didn’t want to disrupt any of the ceremony, so he leaned against the back wall, soon finding Jocelyn on stage at the end of the front row. She looked pretty, as usual, with her hair down, and she wore a dress. He especially liked when she wore dresses. This one was dark blue with a short powder-blue sweater. He also liked watching her crossed leg nervously pump, waiting while the principal made introduction after introduction, handing out department trophies like free lunches. The shoe dangling off the end of Jocelyn’s toes, as she pumped away, gave him pause.

  Finally, they came to Teacher of the Year.

  Mrs. Saroyan introduced his dad, who appeared from backstage and received a warm and exuberant welcome. Lucas hadn’t expected him to be involved in the presentation. He sauntered across the stage like he owned the place, and when he got to the podium his dad lifted his left leg and right arm. “Look, no casts!”

  That drew raucous applause. “Go, Coach!” And some razzing. “Finally!” and “Where’s the Harley?”