Sarah scanned the document and signed. As a rule she didn’t get much mail. Bills came online and were paid that way, while her friends in Los Angeles preferred to call or email.
“Here you go.” She handed the release back to him.
“Thanks.” He sorted through the new packages she’d brought him. “I’ll have these checked. Are you sure you don’t have a glass baby booty paperweight in your collection? Or had one that’s now missing?”
His face was bleak and Sarah winced, remembering his wife had been pregnant when she died. Babies must be a painful subject for him.
“I...uh, yes, I’m certain. Not that it’s a collection exactly,” she added, hoping to move the discussion away from babies. “Dad started bringing me paperweights when he was in the army because they didn’t break easily in his duffel bag.”
Zach nodded. “A heavy chunk of glass doesn’t come apart without effort.”
“Or rage.”
“I didn’t want to mention that, but yes. Please be careful, Sarah.”
She got up. “Don’t worry. I feel as if everyone in town is on guard duty. Speaking of which, I’d better get going, I’m meeting Gabe McKinley at my house for him to install a security system.”
“Gabe told me about it. I’m glad.”
Sarah left, unsure of how glad she felt. Thanks to her father and Tyler and everybody else, she was coming down with a raging case of cabin fever.
Her dad followed her home every night, and Tyler showed up within an hour of him leaving. Her neighbors were spending an inordinate amount of time doing yard work and had even called 911 the day Tyler swapped his rental sedan for an SUV. She rarely had a minute to herself except when she crawled into bed, and even then she was conscious of the patrols going up and down the street...along with the police cruiser that always seemed to be there when she left in the morning.
The worst part was knowing she did feel safer with so many people watching out for her. What did that say about her independence...and did it matter?
Maybe it didn’t matter. Surely Tyler was right that accepting help with this harassment didn’t mean she was weak.
* * *
“KEEP THIS WITH YOU in the house,” Gabe instructed Sarah several hours later, handing her a gadget on a cord. “Just press the button and help will come immediately.”
A panic button?
Instead of protesting, she smiled politely and let him show her how the system worked, also checking to be sure the exterior cameras wouldn’t invade her neighbor’s privacy.
“Thanks, Gabe,” she said as he was leaving.
“I just wish you’d let me put it in sooner. This person might already be in jail.”
Perhaps, but Sarah suspected the cameras would have just frightened the vandal away. Deterrence was part of the reason for a security system.
Her father showed up a short time later with a load of fruits and vegetables he’d gotten for her and carried them into the kitchen.
“Want me to stay?” he asked hopefully.
“I’m fine, Dad. I’ve got the security system now, and nobody can get near the house without alarms screaming. Besides, you’d be bored to tears. I’ll be cooking and canning, and Tyler is coming over with a floor plan for me to look at. Go home and stop worrying.”
“Set the alarm,” Kurt urged as he was leaving.
Sarah dutifully set the system, only to turn it off when Tyler arrived.
“Why are my eyes burning?” he asked as he walked into the kitchen.
“That’s from the peppers.” She gestured to the piles of bright red jalapeno and red Italian peppers she’d cleaned and seeded. She’d already blended some in the food processor and made a batch of her sweet-hot pepper sauce.
“Hmm. Fragrant.”
She grinned. “It’s worse when I make sriracha. The peppers and garlic have to ferment together for a few days. The garlic gets stronger and stronger and permeates the house. By the time it’s ready to cook, you’re ready to gag on the odor. I can only tolerate making it every other year.”
“Something for me to look forward to.”
Sarah nearly dropped her ladle. While Tyler had been coming to the house for days on the flimsiest of excuses, she didn’t expect it to continue. The idea that he’d be around by the time she was ready to make sriracha sauce was startling. And she hadn’t even said which year she’d be making it.
Still, if he ended up designing her cousin’s house, as well as the hospital, he’d probably be visiting Glimmer Creek often for a while. He might even check on the progress of her remodeling.
A flutter went through her stomach, and her mind began racing with questions.
She kept hoping Tyler would fall in love with her, but what if he did? What about his career plans? How could she fit in with them? She’d have to give up the shop and any thought of children. He’d want to live in a large, urban area close to clients and where he had access to a major airport. Obviously that wasn’t Glimmer Creek. He would be gone for weeks or months working on projects, while she started resenting him.
Stop, Sarah ordered.
Tyler Prentiss wasn’t in love with her. She didn’t have to choose between him and everything else she cared about.
“Um, has Rosemary told Nathan about your sister?” she asked. They’d discussed it after Tyler had learned the truth, and he’d seemed deeply shaken by his mother’s revelations.
“I’m not sure. Nathan hasn’t brought it up, and Mom hasn’t mentioned Kittie since that evening.”
“It took courage to tell you. She could be worried about how Nathan will take it and wants to see how you handle it first.”
“Possibly. Mostly I keep thinking how different our lives might have been if my sister had lived.”
Sarah nodded. “It’s hard not to ask ‘what if.’ I do the same thing about my mom. Like, if she’d stayed with us, what would be different? Maybe I wouldn’t have grown up in Glimmer Creek, or I’d have siblings. Who knows? I might have become an architect instead of a cook,” she said lightly.
“Then we still would have met.”
His comment came close to suggesting that they’d been fated to meet, which didn’t sound like Tyler. He was pragmatic, not whimsical.
Yet he’d helped open her eyes wider about her disastrous marriage. Forgiving herself would be a step forward.
“Will knowing about Kittie change how you see your childhood?” Sarah queried.
“In time, perhaps. I feel awful for Mom and haven’t known what to say to her. It’s as if nothing could be enough. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to lose a child.”
Her heart turned over. Tyler’s expression was filled with regret and compassion. For once he wasn’t holding back. But empathizing with his mother’s grief didn’t mean he’d changed his mind about having a family.
Besides, wouldn’t it be selfish to want something that hindered his dream?
“It was a terrible secret to carry all these years.” Sarah lifted a rack of jars from the canning kettle and set them on the counter to cool.
“Yeah.” After a moment Tyler dropped his gaze to the new blueprints he’d unrolled on the table, and she knew he was ready to talk about something less personal. It was curious how she could understand that and still be so confused about him.
Maybe her only choice was to enjoy the time she had with him, accepting the broken heart that seemed inevitable.
“What are you showing me tonight?” she asked. “You’ve wanted me to keep an open mind until I’ve seen all the options.”
“That’s right.” Tyler gestured to a spot on the top blueprint. “This is probably the last one. Yesterday you said it would be nice to preserve the original speakeasy staircase, so this plan incorporates that idea.”
Sarah deliberately brus
hed his arm and shoulder as she leaned over the blueprint and felt him stiffen. “I like this plan the best.”
“Uh, yeah.” He sounded hoarse.
With a satisfied smile, she went back to her peppers and began pureeing more of them in the food processor.
“What are you making?” Tyler asked. He’d gotten up to watch. Unlike some people, he didn’t hover at her elbow, staying far enough back that he didn’t interfere.
“Sweet-hot pepper sauce. It’s simple, but the family likes it on Mexican food or over cream cheese. Alone or mixed with mustard, it’s a zippy sandwich spread. All sorts of uses.”
* * *
“SO IT ISN’T a new recipe.” Tyler’s body was still burning at the not-so-innocent way Sarah had leaned against him.
“Just an old favorite. Have a taste.” Sarah poured a spoonful of sauce over cream cheese on a cracker and handed it to him.
Tyler popped the morsel in his mouth. The sweet heat of the sauce was a perfect accompaniment to the cream cheese. “Mmm, that’s fabulous.”
“Thank you.” She’d eaten a cracker herself and flicked her tongue over a trace of sauce on her upper lip.
He eyed her. Sarah wasn’t the type to tease him too much without doing something about it.
As if reading his mind, she rose on her toes and kissed him. “Come upstairs with me,” she whispered against his lips.
Tyler’s heart began pounding so hard he thought it might burst through his chest.
“Okay.”
Sarah led him to the stairs, and he saw her cat sitting on the top landing. The feline spotted him and scrambled away with a hiss.
“I don’t think he likes me.”
“Don’t take it personally. I told you before, Theo doesn’t like strangers.”
A surge of longing went through Tyler. He wanted to stop being a stranger to the people he cared about, but especially to Sarah. She’d already uncovered parts of his soul that he hadn’t known existed. Yet the thought scattered as he watched the gentle sway of her hips.
Her bedroom was simple and uncluttered, with a quilt on the bed in deep blues and greens and turquoise. He pulled her close for a kiss so long and deep that they were both gasping when it ended.
“You’re good at that,” she said.
“You are, too.”
“I haven’t had much practice lately. Except, you know, with you.”
He grinned. “You’ve got natural talent. It’s a quality I appreciate.”
* * *
SARAH’S PULSE RACED. If anyone had told her making love with Tyler Prentiss would be both fun and sizzling, she would have said they were crazy. But here he was, proving she was wrong. It helped that he was totally hot and that his true smile, which she was seeing more and more often, was hell on a woman’s equilibrium.
The phone rang as she stepped backward to remove her chef’s apron. Tyler groaned when she grabbed the receiver and looked at the caller ID. It was Tessa’s business line at Poppy Gold.
Sarah tossed the phone in her T-shirt drawer where it rang one more time, the sound muffled.
Tyler’s smile widened. “Not urgent?”
“This is more urgent. I’ll call back later.” She sat on the bed and gave him a challenging look. “I did a striptease for you the last time, but you didn’t even get your jeans off before the fireworks. It’s my turn to see the show.”
He looked embarrassed, but fair was fair. “Any chance of you inspiring me?” he asked.
“I have to think about it. You’re prepared, right? Anything I’ve got is really old.”
“Always. So, how about that inspiration?”
She debated for a moment, then took her blouse off. Most of the time she wore sensible undergarments, but that morning she’d indulged in silk and lace. Apparently seeing her in a skimpy, semitransparent bra was sufficiently inspiring—Tyler instantly began kicking away his shoes and removing the rest of his clothes. When his boxers came off, her mouth went dry. He really was impressive.
Quickly she shrugged out of the rest of her clothes, and he pulled her to him, hot skin to skin, every inch, her breasts tingling against the dark hair on his chest. Their legs tangled together as they rolled across her quilt, and her breath escaped in a hiss.
Moments like this could be all they ever had, and she wanted to savor every one.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
AT 3:30 A.M. Sarah opened her eyes and stuck her tongue out at the digital clock. It was never light when she left for the shop, even at the summer solstice.
Getting out of bed was particularly unappealing with Tyler’s arms wrapped snugly around her. Her body felt drugged with satisfaction.
Rise and shine, Sarah ordered.
She tried to ease away from Tyler without disturbing him, but his arms tightened.
“Where are you going?” he muttered groggily. “It’s the middle of the night.”
“I need to shower and get to work. Stay and sleep if you want.”
“I’m not interested in sleeping any longer.” He teased her nipples, sending tingles everywhere, so she elbowed his ribs.
“You’re out of protection,” she reminded him. They’d made love twice and would have a third time, except he only carried two condoms in his wallet. She remembered discussing a trip to the twenty-four-hour convenience store on the edge of town, but they must have fallen asleep before a decision was made.
“Right.”
His fingers stopped their tantalizing dance, and Sarah got up, wishing she could stay. She’d slept better than she had in weeks. Getting a healthy amount of exercise might be partly responsible, but she’d also felt safer with Tyler sleeping next to her.
She got into the shower and washed her hair, arguing that it was normal to feel safer under the circumstances. But she hadn’t seduced Tyler for any reason except wanting to have as much time as possible with him before he left.
The shower curtain opened, and he stepped into the tub, big as life and fully aroused.
“There isn’t enough room for two,” she advised, averting her eyes. One of them needed to exercise self-control. Not that getting pregnant with Tyler’s baby would bother her, but he’d insist on doing the “right thing,” which would go against what she’d decided...that she couldn’t be the reason he lost out on the future he wanted.
“This is a big bathtub. I’m sure we can manage.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea. No protection, remember?”
Tyler gave her a devilish smile. “Trust me, I can do wonders with my hands.”
Sarah already knew that, but he proceeded to prove it to her again...
“See?” he murmured when the world had stopped spinning.
She reached around and turned the water off. “And all it cost was a shower curtain and a few gallons of water on the bathroom floor.”
“Sorry about that.” He looked at the torn curtain. “I’ll buy you another one. Get dressed while I mop up the flood.”
It was even harder now to care about going to the sweet shop, but Sarah donned her usual jeans and T-shirt and French braided her damp hair. Downstairs, she sighed at the mess she’d left in her kitchen and began loading everything into the dishwasher.
* * *
TYLER USED THICK TOWELS to soak up the water in the bathroom, mentally designing a home with a shower large enough for two. Perhaps it could be lined in natural stone tile and set so deeply that aquatic-related gymnastics wouldn’t cause a problem.
Damn, he felt good.
Sarah was a generous lover, but it wasn’t just the mind-blowing sex that had cheered him. It was the spirit and laughter she brought to everything. How many people could deal with a stalker and continue being that way?
He walked downstairs and found Sarah making omelets.
His stomach rumbled. “I left the wet towels in the bathtub, but I can bring them down if you want,” he offered.
“I’ll do it later.” Her knife began flying over a cutting board.
“Did your cousin leave a message?” he asked, recalling the way Sarah had ignored the phone the night before.
“What? Oh, I checked and it wasn’t urgent. She’s making plans for Uncle Liam’s birthday party in October. She plans ahead, just like me. I’ll talk to her later.”
Sarah handed him a cup of coffee.
“Are you having baby pangs or is this related to your baby-obsessed stalker?” he asked idly, looking down at a health magazine next to the phone.
“Excuse me?”
Tyler leafed through the publication. “This is devoted to the hospital’s obstetrics department.”
“Drat, that came the day the postman gave me all those packages, but I didn’t think to give it to Zach. I saw him yesterday, by the way.”
“Has he come to any conclusions?”
“Nope, other than there seems to be a baby theme.” Sarah checked the omelets on the stove. “But it could just be a distraction. Complaints to the city and slashing my catering vehicle tires aren’t baby-related. I just don’t know why anyone would be angry about the shop or how it could be a case of mistaken identity.” She turned and frowned. “Unless someone else is the target, and it’s classic misdirection.”
“That would be an extreme case.” Tyler set the magazine down and rolled up the blueprints he’d shown her. “The food smells great.”
“Dig in,” she urged, putting the plates on the table.
Tyler hurriedly ate. Then he stood outside and watched as Sarah backed out of her garage. He knew her staff would be on pins and needles until she arrived; the entire community seemed to be on alert, watching after her. The thought was underscored when he saw a police car drive by.
Reluctant to be questioned about his presence outside her house, Tyler got into his rental and returned to Poppy Gold Inns. He let himself into the side door of the suite and listened. Everything seemed peaceful. In the living room, he found Nathan asleep on the couch, his body relaxed.
Bachelor Protector Page 23
