by Judith Yates
“I’m not throwing money around.”
“It’s a matter of perception.”
“Warped perception, if you ask me.”
“In any case, Jordan, I’m afraid you’re in for a tough rezoning fight with this place.”
“Even if it’s all for you?”
“To a lot of people, I’m still a newcomer,” Holly revealed. “As a matter of fact, the real old-timers may even consider us partners in crime in this project.”
Disbelief glinted in his eyes. “But you’ve been in Golden five years. You own a business here.”
She knew Jordan wouldn’t understand. “It’s a small-town quirk—if you haven’t lived here all your life, you’re a newcomer.”
“Then Stephanie is considered a newcomer, too?”
“No. Being born here means she’s accepted, one of the fold.” Actually, Golden valued all its children, which was the thing she loved best about the town. If something should happen to her, Holly knew the community would rally around Steph. As a single mother with no family nearby, this knowledge gave her great peace of mind.
Jordan Mason, however, was an altogether different matter as far as Golden was concerned. Holly told him more about the rumors flying around and the presentment many townspeople already felt toward the nameless buyer.
“After you apply for a zoning change for this property, a vote will be taken at the town meeting,” she advised. “Be ready for a lot of resistance.”
“Ah, small towns—how I love them.” Jordan dropped his notebook and the building plans on an empty steel shelf in what used to be the plant’s office.
“Sorry to put a damper on your enthusiasm. But I thought you should know.”
“Hey, I’m glad you told me. And don’t worry,” he added with a wave of his hand. “After the way you reacted when I broke the news, I gathered something like this was going on.”
“Did you?” She thought he was being rather blasé about the whole thing.
Nodding, he pulled a slightly crumpled snapshot from the back pocket of his jeans. “That’s why I signed a contract to buy a house to live in until the project’s completed.”
“You bought a house here in Golden? When did you do that?”
“Yesterday, after the barbecue.” He handed her the photograph. “I figured owning a home here will show that I have a personal interest in the town. So, I called the guy who owns Golden Real Estate and he offered to help me right away. This is the first house he showed me.”
Holly took one look at the picture and shook her head. “You bought the old Paget house.”
“Yeah.” He came up beside her. “You know the place?”
“Oh, yes, I know it,” she said, wanting to give Jordan a good hard shake. “Everyone knows the Paget place. And everyone knows it’s the most expensive lakefront property in Golden.”
“Well, it comes fully furnished and I can move in by the middle of the week. That’s all I needed to know.” He stuffed the snapshot back into his pocket. “If I stay in that motel out on Route 16 much longer, I’ll turn into a zombie.”
The absurdity of the entire situation finally struck Holly. Jordan had purchased the apple packing plant to help her. He chose the Paget house because he wanted a good night’s sleep. Yet who in town would believe his motives were as simple as that? It was actually kind of funny. She couldn’t help but laugh. As the newest resident of Golden, Jordan was in for one interesting adventure. But then again, so was Golden.
Jordan looked at her as if she were crazy. “Why are you laughing?”
“Because,” she began, breathless from trying to not laugh anymore. “Because—you’re impossible.”
“I’ve been told that before, Hol,” he remarked with that dry tinge of irony she remembered well. “But this is the first time anyone’s said it doubled over with laughter.”
She tried hard to temper her smile. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. You have a great laugh.”
Before Holly realized what was happening, he had curved his arm around her shoulders.
“I haven’t heard it for a long time.”
Jordan was smiling as he drew her to his side. As she peered into his ink-blue eyes, her own mirth melted. She couldn’t think of what had been so funny. In fact, she couldn’t think of anything but the distinct masculine smell of his skin, and the reassuring weight of his arm on her shoulders.
“You’re not thrilled I bought this building, I know that.”
He stood so close she could feel his breath on her forehead as he spoke. “I’m not thrilled that you bought it for me,” she corrected, hoping to God she sounded more coherent than she felt.
“You’re the one with the dream, Holly. But I can help make it happen. Besides, what good is having money if I can’t use it to help a friend?”
How could she respond to such a remark? Who was she to doubt his sentiment, no matter how much it differed from the materialistic bent of the Jordan she used to know?
“We’d make a good team on this project, Holly. And don’t worry about what people in town think. You and I will make them come around.” He squeezed her shoulder gently. “Come on, Holly, be my partner in crime.”
She smiled in spite of herself. The man was persuasive; she’d give him that.
Jordan’s face brightened. “Does that smile mean you’re in with me?”
Holly found it difficult to remember the drawbacks when he was all around her like this. “You are so impossible,” she repeated out of a halfhearted frustration.
“C’mon, Holly, yes or no?”
Yes or no? She wished it were that simple. The situation with the town would be dicey enough, but Holly wondered what might happen with Jordan living in Golden and working with her. It could be a disaster. She bit her lip and gazed into his eyes. Only then did she realize the choice was clear. The gift and its bearer were too irresistible to turn down.
“All right, Jordan. You can count me in.”
With a whoop of delight, Jordan swooped her up in an exuberant hug. “You won’t be sorry, Holly.”
She laughed. His excitement was contagious. “I know I won’t!”
His arms tightened around her when he smiled into her eyes. “We’ll turn this mess into a showplace,” he proclaimed before planting an enthusiastic kiss on her mouth.
Holly stared at him, wide-eyed, as his lips brushed hers. Their gazes caught. Jordan’s eyes widened, and instead of pulling back, he pressed closer. The first kiss flowed seamlessly into a second, deeper, kiss, and Holly, closing her eyes, flowed right along with it. His smooth, strong mouth fanned a stirring warmth low in her body, making her limbs feel weak. Yet she stayed with Jordan’s kiss, mindless of anything but the sizzling probing of his tongue and the aching pressure of his hard body.
It had been so long since she’d been held like this, and so long since she had kissed... Her skin grew hot as her need intensified, and a soft moan hummed from deep in her throat. Jordan groaned in reply, clutching her even more tightly.
His groan reverberated off the cement walls of the empty old office, and the echo shook her back to her senses. Her eyes flew open. She lifted her hands to Jordan’s cheeks and pushed his mouth away with trembling fingers.
“Jordan, we can’t,” Holly gasped, pulling herself out of his arms.
Breathing fast and hard, she stepped back. She was stunned, horrified and embarrassed, too. She couldn’t believe she had kissed Jordan like that. Of all people.
Battling awkwardness, Holly made herself look at him. Although wisps of dark-brown hair fell over his eyes, she saw a startled confusion that mirrored her own.
“I’m sorry, Holly,” Jordan whispered, still a little breathless himself.
Sorry? So was she—especially for responding like a love-starved idiot. “We both got caught up in the excitement of the moment. That’s all it was.”
Jordan nodded, his fingers combing the hair back from his eyes. “It never should’ve happened.”
“You’re right. Business partners shouldn’t get carried away. Not even partners in crime,” she added lightly, hoping to ease the tension between them.
He smiled. “Certainly not with each other.”
As she drove home, Holly knew the impact of Jordan’s kiss was not her only problem. There was the matter of Stephanie. Jordan’s return to Golden had forced her to reconsider her plans for informing Lawrence Mason about Scott’s child. She had stayed awake all last night thinking about it. How could she continue keeping Stephanie’s paternity secret now that Jordan had practically planted himself on her doorstep? It wouldn’t be right. She would have to tell him soon.
But a new dimension had been thrust into the situation. It complicated everything. Telling Jordan the truth now would not be as straightforward as it had seemed several weeks ago. Not after what had happened back in the building. And certainly not after the way his kiss had made her feel.
Chapter Six
On Wednesday, Jordan went about his business with single-minded determination. There would be no more ruminating over what had happened between him and Holly. He’d done enough of that during his last restless nights at the motel.
Besides, this was moving day. When the cleaning crew van pulled away from his new home, Jordan settled in with two suitcases of clothes and a bag of groceries from the general store. He devoted the afternoon to business-related calls, using his cellular phone until a technician arrived to book up several new lines in the house.
As he microwaved his dinner, Jordan poured a beer and congratulated himself on how much he had accomplished. He had succeeded in putting Holly and that indescribable kiss out of his mind. He was doing fine.
But on his way into town for a 7 p.m. meeting with Gabe Sawyer, Jordan drove past the apple packing plant. That was all it took. The memory of those few hot moments in that cold, empty building flooded his thoughts with a vengeance. Everything came back to him—how good it had felt to hold Holly’s soft, scented body; how sweet her lips tasted and how inviting they’d been. The suddenness of the kiss, how the heat in it had sent his pulse soaring.
And he couldn’t forget Holly’s uninhibited reaction... the way she had opened up to him....
Yesterday, the sheer shock of her eager response had excited him tremendously. Tonight, the mere memory of it was driving him to distraction. A meeting with Dr. Sawyer was the last thing he wanted to sit through now.
Gabe was waiting for him in the selectmen’s office at the Golden Town Hall. “I usually have people just come over to the house to talk,” Gabe said after offering Jordan a seat at the small round conference table. “But my nephew’s Scout meeting is at our place. A dozen eight-year-old boys aren’t conducive to discussing zoning changes.”
Jordan couldn’t believe a town official was apologizing for meeting in his office. He figured it was another of those small-town quirks Holly kept mentioning. “I take it you know I bought the apple packing plant,” he said, selecting a seat across the table from Gabe.
“Holly told me this morning, and I have to admit I was surprised. I was under the impression you didn’t care much for Golden.”
“She told you why I’m doing this, didn’t she?”
“To help her out,” Gabe confirmed. “Which makes complete sense. Believe me, I understand.”
I just bet you do, Dr. Gabe, Jordan thought with a twinge of resentment Yet he knew he must keep Holly’s relationship with Gabe—whatever it was—separate from the matter at hand.
Once he did, the meeting proceeded better than he’d expected.
Gabe believed they could get the zoning approved at the upcoming town meeting. “I’m not saying it won’t be close,” he warned. “And you’ll hear a lot of bellyaching in the next few weeks. But people will come around eventually—as long as you don’t try to shove anything down their throats.”
In spite of himself, Jordan liked the man. Sawyer was a straight-shooter, and it was obvious he thought a great deal of Holly. Quite obvious. Yet what about what had happened three days ago? How did that kiss he and Holly had shared fit into the picture?
“You and Holly seem to be, ah, close,” Jordan ventured, attempting to get a fix on the situation.
Gabe hesitated. “You could say that, I guess.”
“Well, I’m not aiming to horn in on you and Holly. I want you to know that.”
“That’s decent of you, Jordan. But there’s nothing to horn in on.”
“There isn’t?” He felt an absurd flicker of relief.
“Holly and I went out for a while when she first came to Golden. But we didn’t really click, if you know what I mean.” Gabe leaned back, clasping his hands behind his head. “She was still hung up on some guy at that point.”
“Stephanie’s father?” Jordan asked, although he didn’t know why. Holly had made the nature of that relationship painfully clear.
“No. She said it was someone else. Someone she was supposed to marry. Holly didn’t say much more than that.” Gabe shrugged. “Besides, you probably know what happened back then better than L”
“Yeah, I do,” he mumbled.
Gabe gave him a strange look. “You didn’t come back just to help Holly out financially.”
“The hell I didn’t.”
“You’ve got a thing for her. Don’t you?”
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Jordan moved restlessly in the uncomfortable chair. He was tired of sitting and the air in the office felt stuffy.
“That’s it,” Gabe noted with a smile that was all too wry for Jordan’s taste. “She’s the real reason you’ve come to Golden.”
“Holly and I go too far back,” Jordan said, waving the notion off.
“I’ll tell you what I think.” Leaning forward, Gabe peered at him from across the table. “If Holly ever looked at me the way she was looking at you at the barbecue, this conversation would be moot. She and I would have definitely clicked.”
“What are you talking about?”
“When you were at the preschool booth with Stephanie—I could barely get Holly’s attention. She couldn’t take her eyes off you.”
Jordan got to his feet. “Her eyes were on Stephanie. She idolizes that kid.”
“Too bad I’ m not a betting man,” Gabe said with a laugh. “I’d make a killing off you.”
Jordan refused to argue.
Apparently, Gabe didn’t know Holly as well as he had first thought. Nor did Gabe know him. True, helping Holly wasn’t his only reason for buying and rehabbing the apple packing plant. After the past few wasted months, he needed to find something productive to do. After losing CompWare, he needed a reason to be.
None of this was Sawyer’s business, and Jordan offered no further explanation. Although the meeting ended with a friendly handshake, Jordan was none too pleased with the grin on Gabe’s face.
Still, Jordan found it tough to put everything Sawyer had said out of his mind. Especially after the way Holly had kissed him. Could Gabe have been right about how she had looked at him at the chicken barbecue?
As he walked out to his car, Jordan glanced toward Holly’s shop. A few lights shined through the front window. Since everything else along the common was closed up tight, he grew concerned. With the glow from the three-quarters moon to guide him in the dark, he crossed the sloping green in no time. He peered inside the shop window, and his apprehensions vanished. Holly was busily unpacking boxes. She appeared to be alone, but safe.
Jordan watched her move about as she took the colorful bottles and jars and stocked the shelves. She wore a simple white T-shirt tucked into blue jeans; her pale hair was swept back in a loose ponytail. He could almost feel his heart smile. That was the Holly West he’d known all those years ago.
Well, it was and it wasn’t. The luscious figure bending and lifting now bore little resemblance to the gangly, flat-chested teen he remembered. Hell, nothing resembled what used to be, least of all his feelings toward Holly. Even as she wore her “uniform” of old,
he found it impossible to think of her as the girl whom he’d grown up with, the girl who had almost married his brother.
And the memory of that damn kiss didn’t help.
Jordan tapped his knuckles on the window. Holly turned, her brows lifting in surprise. He couldn’t tell if she was glad to see him or not.
“What are you doing here?” she asked after unlocking the front door.
He told her about his meeting with Gabe Sawyer. “When I saw the shop lights on, I thought I’d better check. You’re here pretty late, aren’t you?”
“I spent the morning on a field trip to the library and post office with Steph’s preschool class,” she explained, returning to her boxes and inventory list. “I’m trying to catch up with this latest shipment.”
“Can I give you a hand?”
Holly looked at the many unopened cartons stacked behind the counter. “I hope you meant that, Jordan. Cause I’m taking you up on it.”
“At your service, ma’am,” he replied, glad to help and happy she hadn’t sent him on his way.
He didn’t want to go back to an empty house right now. Although he couldn’t think why. After all, he’d been returning to empty hotel rooms, apartments and houses most of his adult life. Only occasionally had someone been waiting for him.
Holly pointed to the boxes marked “Summer Sunflower Gold,” directing him to cart them over to the front shelves. “Then you can pull whatever’s left of the spring strawberry line and shelve the new summer line.”
Jordan got to it, and before long the two of them were working in companionable silence. He couldn’t help stealing a look at Holly every so often. When he wasn’t preoccupied with her soft curves and fluid moves, Jordan observed how hard she worked. Diligence like that he understood. Diligence had been his hallmark at Mason CompWare, and perhaps his downfall, too.
With only half a shelf left to fill, Jordan ripped open the last sunflower line box. Lifting a slim gold-colored canister of hairstyling mousse from the box, he was reminded of Stephanie’s “moose” for mooses. He chuckled.
