Undeniable (A Country Roads Novel)

by Richard, Shannon

  So the conner became the conned, and Missy hadn’t taken it very well at all. As the great, great, great niece of Robert E. Lee, she didn’t deal very well with defeat. After Missy’s heartbreak she’d gone on a full-out rampage. The woman had always been crazy, but now she was crazy with a vendetta, and it wasn’t just against her most recent ex-husband, or whatever he was, as technically they’d never really been married.

  For a while Missy had targeted Mr. Adams for a merger, so that she could liquidate his assets. Burley Adams wasn’t hurting for money. As the owner of the only funeral home in Atticus County, he was making a pretty penny. Missy had known it, and she’d wanted all of that money for herself. Interestingly enough, Missy had married Clive/Gill exactly a month after Burley and Panky had tied the knot. Coincidence? Most likely not.

  “What if we start using silks?” Missy asked, coming back into the kitchen. “Then we could reuse the flowers. No one ever pays enough attention to know the difference anyway.”

  “Excuse me?” Panky asked, looking up. Her eyes narrowed on Missy and her cheeks started to turn red.

  “I’m just saying, they aren’t that important.”

  “Excuse me?” Panky repeated.

  “We can charge the families the same price for less flowers.”

  “That’s it,” Panky said, slamming her scissors down on the counter. “I’m going to talk to my husband.” With that she stormed out of the kitchen. Missy followed, the two of them arguing as they went down the hallway.

  “What was that all about?”

  Grace looked up to find Paige waddling into the kitchen.

  “Missy is being a pain in Panky’s ass.”

  “Well, that’s new and different.” Paige grinned.

  Grace didn’t return the smile.

  “What’s going on?” Paige asked, a frown now pulling down her lips.

  “I’m fine,” Grace said.

  “Grace, fess up. You look worse than you did after Jax kissed you.”

  Grace’s face fell more. She wasn’t even sure how that was possible at this point.

  “Come on,” Paige said, grabbing Grace’s hand. She led her out the back door of the kitchen and onto the porch.

  “All right,” Paige said, letting go of Grace’s hand and rounding on her. “Did the two of you…” Paige trailed off, not finishing the question.

  “No, we didn’t have sex,” Grace whispered.

  But oh, they’d been so freaking close.

  “Almost though,” Paige said, giving a small nod of her head.

  “What are you? A mind reader these days?”

  “No, you just look really upset. What happened?” Paige reached out, running her hand up Grace’s arm.

  “You can’t tell Brendan. Promise?” Grace asked.

  “I won’t tell him,” Paige said seriously.

  “Last night, Jax came over to my apartment to apologize about the kiss at the café and the incident at the bar on Saturday.”

  “What incident at the bar?”

  “We got into an argument,” Grace said.

  “Why am I not surprised?”

  “He said some stuff. I threw a beer in his face and slapped him.”

  “I told you he was going to get a cold drink thrown in his face. But what did he do?”

  Grace told Paige all about what had happened at the Sleepy Sheep. Paige’s mouth fell open in shock.

  “You should’ve slapped him twice,” Paige said angrily.

  “He was so mean. He’s never talked to me that way before. I just don’t get it, he doesn’t want me, but he doesn’t want anybody else to have me, either. How does that make sense?”

  “When it comes to you, I think all of Jax’s sense goes out the window.”

  “I don’t think I can do it anymore,” Grace said sadly as she reached up and rubbed a spot over her heart.

  “Grace?” Paige said her name with so much concern that Grace had to close her eyes for a moment. She only opened them again after she regained some semblance of her composure.

  “I can’t wait around for him to figure it out anymore, because I don’t think he ever will figure it out. He doesn’t think he’s good enough. That’s what he said yesterday. He came over and we started kissing and… God, Paige, it felt so right. Him and me, it felt so right, so real. But too real for him, because he stopped and left. I’ve wanted that man for so long, but I think I’m done waiting.”

  “Oh, sweetie,” Paige said sadly.

  “It’s fine. I’ll be fine,” Grace said, but she knew she was just lying to herself.

  “Grace, can I ask you one thing?”

  “Yes.” She nodded slowly.

  “Do you think you can get over him?” Paige asked seriously, doubt written all over her face.

  Grace laughed, except there was absolutely no humor in it. “Ohhh, if it were only that easy. No, I’ll never get over him. Jaxson Anderson will haunt me for the rest of my life.”

  * * *

  The day proved to be a long one. All of the days felt long when Jax wasn’t in them. After Grace left the funeral home, she went back to the café and kept up her routine of secluding herself in the kitchen. She finished her last batch of cookies, cleaned the kitchen, and left before Lula Mae closed up. She pulled into the parking lot of her apartment just after five.

  “Oh, fantastic,” she mumbled to herself as she spotted the man leaning against his black BMW. He really was a sight, with his thick, windswept blond hair and his long tanned legs that shot out of his khakis and ended in his worn-out dock shoes. Wouldn’t her life be so much easier if she could just be in love with him?

  “What do you want?” she asked as she got out of her Bug and closed the door.

  “You and I are going to dinner,” Preston said, pushing himself off the door of his car.

  “Oh, are we?” Grace asked, raising her eyebrows.

  “Yup, you’re not sulking by yourself for the rest of the night.”

  “I’m not sulking,” she said, folding her arms across her chest.

  “Riiight, and I’m your fairy godmother.”

  “Well—”

  “Shut up, and get in my car.”

  “You’re such a pain in the ass. Remind me why we’re friends again?” she asked as she made her way around to the passenger side.

  “It’s my charm and magnetism. You can’t resist me.” He grinned.

  “Now who’s delusional?” Grace slid into the tan leather seats and buckled herself in.

  Preston turned the car on and pulled out of the parking lot. “You ready for this?” he asked as he rolled down the windows.

  “Always,” she said, leaning back in her seat.

  Preston leaned forward and turned the stereo on. A deep, rich voice, that knew the meaning of a broken heart, filled the car and blasted out the windows. Grace’s blond hair whipped around as she opened her mouth and sang as loud as she could.

  * * *

  Never in Jax’s life had he done anything more difficult than walk away from Grace. For so long it had been her walking away from him, giving him that empty feeling that settled in his chest and made him ache.

  He’d gone over to her apartment to fix things. Instead, he ruined everything. She’d said there was no going back to the way things had been before. She told him there was only one direction their relationship could go. But he just couldn’t let it go there.

  Truth be told, there was no going back for Jax, either. Not after he’d kissed her that first time in the café, and definitely not after that episode on her couch. They’d been so close to having sex, so freaking close.

  He’d been too shocked to do anything when Grace tackled him to the couch. The second she straddled him, all his inhibitions had gone out the window. And now he knew. He knew what it was like to be on top of her, knew the sounds she made when he sucked on her breasts, knew what it felt like to have her stroke him. Yeah, there was absolutely no going back for him. Ever.

  But he wasn’t wrong. Grace d
eserved someone better than him.

  She already had had a difficult enough life. She had no father and then she lost her mother to breast cancer when she was only ten years old. She deserved her happy ending. No, she deserved the whole package. She deserved a guy who wasn’t damaged, a guy who wasn’t screwed up beyond repair, someone who could give her a house and a family, someone who would always keep her safe. She deserved a life with someone who could give her every single one of her dreams.

  That someone wasn’t Jax. He could never be that guy. He would never be able to give her happily ever after.

  But letting go was going to be a bitch. Every time Jax thought about Grace being with some other guy he wanted to hurt someone, punch his fist through a wall. It was a shame that the demolition portion of the house was finished, because he would have loved to pound a sledgehammer through a wall. Instead he’d spent the day channeling his aggression with a nail gun.

  He’d met Shep at the house under construction early on Monday morning. As they worked that day, Shep was unusually quiet. Jax knew it was just a matter of time before the questions came. And they came at the end of the day.

  “You talk to Grace?” Shep asked as they started to put the tools away.

  “Yeah.” Jax would’ve laughed, but nothing about life was funny at the moment.

  “You made it worse, didn’t you?”

  “Why do you say that?”

  “Because you’re about as cheerful as a sleeping bear that just got poked in the eye,” Shep said as he closed the toolbox.

  “You have such a way with words.”

  “You’re worse today than you were last week, so I’m guessing you fixed nothing with Grace. The two of you still aren’t talking, are you?”

  “There’s nothing going on. So how about you not worry about that?” Jax asked as he put the last of the tools in the garage closet. He locked the door and turned around to find Shep looking at him. Shep’s arms were folded across his chest and he was shaking his head, his face filled with pity.

  “What?” Jax asked before he could stop himself.

  “When are you going to figure it out?”

  “Figure what out?”

  “Nothing,” Shep said, shaking his head again. “You ready? I’m starving.”

  They pulled into the parking lot of Potbellied Portman’s Barbeque fives minute later. Jax hopped out of his truck and walked around to where Shep had parked. Brendan and Jax had helped Shep restore his ’67 mustang, and it still looked like it did ten years ago. That car was Shep’s baby and he treated it as such.

  As they made their way up to the front door, it opened and two people stumbled out laughing.

  “Oh, shit,” Shep said coming to a halt.

  Oh, shit didn’t even begin to cover it. It was Grace and Preston. He had his arm around her shoulders and was grinning down at her while she beamed right back up at him.

  Jax’s blood began to pound in his veins, and he wouldn’t have been surprised if steam was coming out of his ears. That smarmy prick was all over her, and she was all over him. Jax wanted to break something, and Preston’s face was at the top of the list.

  Grace looked up and came up short when she saw Jax and Shep, the grin disappearing from her face like she’d been slapped. He knew the feeling; he felt like he’d just been slugged in the face, too.

  They all stood there for a second before Preston cleared his throat. “How you doing, Shep?” he asked as he stuck his hand out to Shep, while the other stayed firmly in place around Grace’s shoulders.

  “Doing good,” Shep said, taking the outstretched hand and shaking it. “You?”

  “Same old, same old,” he said as they let go. “Jax, how have you been?” he said, sticking his hand out for Jax.

  Jax’s hesitation before he grabbed Preston’s hand was obvious. He didn’t want to be friendly to the jackass. He also had the urge to squeeze the shit out of Preston’s hand, ’cause if it was broken, he couldn’t have it on Grace.

  “Staying busy,” Jax said before he let go.

  “Yeah, I heard about the house remodel. I’d like to see it when it’s all done.”

  Preston would come into Jax’s house over his dead body. But Jax only nodded because he couldn’t unhinge his jaw to say anything else.

  “All right, well,” Shep said, slapping his hands together. “Good seeing you, Gracie.” He swept in and kissed her on the cheek. “We’re off to eat dinner. You two have a good night.”

  Preston led Grace away, and it took everything in Jax not to follow. Not to pull her out of Preston’s arms. Were they going back to his place? Or hers? Were they going to sleep together?

  Oh, God.

  Jax looked back, he couldn’t stop himself, and he saw Grace looking over her shoulder at him. She closed her eyes and turned away, and Jax felt a punch right in his stomach.

  “Yeah, nothing going on my ass.”

  Jax turned around and didn’t even look at Shep as he walked into the restaurant. It wasn’t crowded so the hostess showed them to a table immediately. Shep waited until after they ordered before he started the third degree.

  “What the hell happened? And don’t say nothing. Something is going on between you and Grace. Between that incident at the bar and what just happened out there, you can’t honestly think I’m going to believe you when you say nothing. You two could barely look at each other, and I thought you were going to crack a molar you were grinding your teeth so hard.”

  Jax leaned back in his chair and drummed his fingers on the table.

  “Grace and I kissed.”

  “At the café? I figured as much. But that was over a week ago.”

  Jax checked to make sure no one was in hearing distance before he continued.

  “No. Well, yes, we did kiss at the café, but that’s not what I’m talking about. Last night I went over to her house to talk to her, and we did a little bit more than talking.”

  Shep raised his eyebrows.

  “It didn’t go that far,” Jax said, shaking his head. “I stopped it before it did. Told her we can’t be together.”

  “Why the hell not?” Shep said loudly. The couple a few tables over looked up at them for a moment before they went back to their ribs.

  “Can you not be so loud?” Jax asked as the waitress came over and gave them their beers.

  “Fine, why the hell not?” Shep whispered as she walked away.

  “She can do better than what I can offer her.”

  “You’re serious? With who? Preston? He’s a good guy, but he isn’t for Grace.”

  “No, not Preston,” Jax said, grabbing his beer and taking a long pull.

  “Then who? Because as far as I can remember you’ve never approved of any guy Grace has brought home. And that’s saying something considering the fact that Brendan hasn’t shown as much dislike to the guys as you have. So tell me, who’s she supposed to be with?”

  “I don’t know, all right, but it isn’t me.”

  “Look, I’m not going to bust your ass about this the rest of the night, because I’m sure we’ll both get tired of it. But I hope for your sake that you figure things out before it’s too late. If you lose that girl you’re never going to forgive yourself. And you want to know how I know this, Jax? Because I did. I lost the girl I was supposed to be with.”

  “Hannah,” Jax said knowingly.

  “Hannah.” Shep nodded. “You never forget,” he said, grabbing his beer and downing half of it.

  Hannah Sterling had come to Mirabelle the summer after Jax, Shep, and Brendan graduated from high school. She was a year younger than them, with strawberry blond hair and eyes the color of green sea glass. Shep had fallen for her the moment he’d seen her.

  But Hannah’s dreams had extended much further than a boy in a small Southern town. She’d left at the end of those three months, and Shep had let her.

  “Would you change it? If you could go back, would you do things differently?”

  “No,” Shep said, sha
king his head. “I had to let her go. If I hadn’t she would’ve never followed her dreams. I couldn’t hold her back.”

  “How is that any different from this?”

  “Because you think you’re not good enough for Grace. But the thing is, you’re the only one who is good enough for her. Her life is here and she wants to spend it with you. You’re holding her back from her dreams by doing what you’re doing.”

  Jax didn’t say anything. He just sat there and drank his beer in silence. Shep was quiet, too, now in his own head, haunted by his own memories of the girl he couldn’t have.

  Chapter Seven

  Desperately

  When Jax walked into the Sleepy Sheep on Wednesday night it was pouring. Sheets of rain fell from the sky. Lightning danced in the background, and thunder boomed overhead. Jax had another long day, but it wasn’t because he’d been busy with work. He’d woken up at four that morning, another nightmare about Grace making him feel like he was dying.

  In this one, she’d been trapped in the funeral home. The entire downstairs was in flames and she was in a room on the second floor, banging on a window and screaming, as the smoke got thicker around her. He woke up choking on air that felt like fire.

  He needed to see Grace, had to see her. But he couldn’t. It wasn’t an option. Nope, the only thing he could do was try to stay busy. Too bad work had moved at a sloth’s pace. All he’d been able to do was think of Grace, and he was so damn twitchy he thought he was going to go crazy. He was now running on three hours of sleep and more cups of coffee than he could count.

  He really wasn’t in a socializing mood, but the idea of going back to his house and sitting alone with his thoughts sounded like torture. Besides, he needed to go over the new plans for the kitchen with Bennett and Shep, so they’d decided to meet at the Sheep for a drink.

  Bennett wasn’t there when Jax walked in, but Shep was working behind the counter.

  “Hey, what do you want? More Jack?” He grinned.

  “No, just a beer. And only the one,” Jax said, taking an empty seat.