by Susan Meier
“I have the fatal flaw,” he said, pointing at his chest. “I don’t want to be in the position where I’m always apologizing for being who I am.”
Ben Capriotti rushed into the emergency room, emerging from the corridor Tia had been taken down. Rayne hadn’t even seen Ben arrive, but that didn’t surprise her since she’d been preoccupied with settling herself down enough that she could drive to her appointments.
“Jericho! There you are!”
Both Jericho and Rayne rose from their seats. Jericho said, “How’s Tia?”
“She’s already had the baby—a girl,” he said, walking toward them. He caught Rayne’s hands. “Rayne, I can’t thank you enough.”
“Hey, I just did what anybody would do. I could see she was in trouble and stopped.”
“She told me you backed up on the Interstate,” Jericho said, facing her.
“Are you gonna arrest me?”
“He’ll answer to me, if he even tries,” Ben said, putting his arm around Rayne’s shoulders. “Come see the baby you saved.”
“I didn’t save her,” Rayne said, brushing off his praise. “Honestly, Ben, somebody would have stopped eventually.” She took a pace back, out from under Ben’s arm. “You guys go see the baby. I need to get to work.”
Jericho gaped at her. “You can’t leave without seeing the baby!”
“I’ll visit Tia after she’s home,” Rayne said, backing toward the big glass emergency room doors. “Besides, I’ve got to move my car. Don’t want to be blocking the ER entrance for too long.” She heard the automatic doors behind her open and turned and ran to her car.
No one appreciated the good fortune of having a close family more than someone who wanted one, too. But that was exactly why Rayne wouldn’t interrupt their moment. She wasn’t a part of things. Jericho didn’t want her to be a part of things. She didn’t want to spoil it for him.
So she got into her car which, without Tia, suddenly seemed quiet and dull. She almost laughed. Missing the panic of a woman in the throes of labor was a new level of loneliness for her.
Chapter Eight
When Rayne reached the intersection that would take her either back to Calhoun Corners or ahead to Tucker she decided that, as always, life went on, so she had to, too. She arrived at her first appointment an hour late and Alvin Davis, bed-and-breakfast owner, did not greet her happily.
“You’re late.”
“I know and I’m sorry. You’re never going to believe this,” she said, knowing the truth was always the best course of action. “But I stumbled on my friend on the interstate and she was in labor. I had to drive her to the hospital. For a while there I actually worried I was going to have to deliver her baby. Luckily, we made it on time.”
Alvin, a sixty-something man with thinning white hair and a face that was probably pleasant when he smiled, looked skeptical. His wife, Theresa, a round woman with bottle-red hair and sparkling blue eyes, laughed with glee. “That’s so funny.”
Rayne grimaced. “I’m not sure I’d call it funny.” Though now that she thought about it, the expression on her face as she raced Tia to the hospital had probably been worth the price of admission. “But I was glad I had appointments this morning that put me in her path.”
Theresa motioned for Rayne to follow her into her kitchen. “I’ll bet your friend was, too. Come on, you look like you could use a sweet roll.”
“And a nap,” Rayne said, suddenly realizing that she was emotionally drained.
“Saving people isn’t work for wimps,” Alvin agreed, warming up a little. “Do you prefer coffee or tea?”
“Coffee’s great,” Rayne said, taking a seat at the kitchen table. The house had the welcoming feel that Rayne expected to find in a bed-and-breakfast, but the kitchen was cozy. Warm. Home. Something she’d never had with a dad who collected anything and everything pertaining to subjects that interested him and a boyfriend who worried about appearances. Her apartment in Baltimore had been black and turquoise. Beautiful to be sure, but also startling. Certainly not warm. Definitely not home.
“Your kitchen is wonderful.”
Theresa batted a hand. “Oh, it’s a mess. After breakfast it’s always like this.”
Rayne smiled, then inhaled the rich scent of the coffee Alvin placed in front of her. “Oh, now that’s wonderful!”
Alvin hovered by a seat at the table. “We like it.”
Rayne took a sip of her coffee. “It’s heavenly.”
“And here’s your sweet roll,” Theresa said, set the pastry on the table, then took a seat beside Rayne. “Now, what can we do for you?”
Rayne chewed her bite of sweet roll, swallowed and said, “I’m here because I’m selling advertising for place mats to be used at the Tea Cup, Bill and Elaine Johnson’s diner in Calhoun Corners.”
Alvin grunted. “Why would we want to put an ad on place mats in another town?”
“So that people visiting relatives in Calhoun Corners, who don’t want to spend the night with those same relatives will know there’s a bed-and-breakfast just ten or so miles up the road.” Rayne took another bite of sweet roll, enjoyed it, then said, “But we can talk about that later. What I’d really like to know is if you sell these?”
Theresa laughed. “You’d come here every morning for a pastry?”
Rayne glanced around. “I’d come here every morning for the atmosphere.” She drew in a long breath. “I never realized how tired I was.”
Alvin slowly made his way to the table and pulled out a chair. “You’re Mark Fegan’s daughter, aren’t you?”
The towns were close enough that gossip typically ping-ponged back and forth, so Rayne wasn’t surprised he knew who she was and nodded.
Theresa patted her hand. “We heard about your dad leaving and the paper staff being cut.”
“It’s okay. I’m getting back on my feet.”
“It’s no wonder you’re tired.” Alvin lifted his coffee mug. “Rumor has it that you single-handedly saved that paper.”
“I wouldn’t go that far.”
“Why not?” Theresa asked with a laugh. “If it’s true, why not?”
Feeling very comfortable with the older couple, Rayne shrugged. “It just seems like I’m making my dad seem incompetent or something.”
Theresa tilted her head. “You miss him.”
“Of course, I miss him.”
“Our two boys live out of state,” Theresa said. “We’ve got grandkids in California and Kansas.”
“So, you understand?”
“People don’t always stay where you want,” Alvin said with a grunt. “And you can’t hold ’em back because you want them around.”
“No, I guess you can’t.”
“The important thing,” Theresa said, “is to hang on to the ones you have.”
Rayne chuckled ruefully. “I have no brothers and sisters and my dad wasn’t the most social man in the world so he was something of a loner in town.”
“So you probably also don’t have many friends,” Theresa speculated.
“I’m making headway. I run the paper differently. I have coffee at the diner every morning. Say hello, that kind of stuff. But these things take time.”
“Having an extra cash stream is a smart business move,” Alvin said. “Something your dad never thought of.” He caught her gaze. “You’re moving on.”
“I guess.”
“And there’s nothing wrong with that.”
Rayne laughed. “I guess.”
“So why don’t you go home today and sleep. Then come back to Tucker tomorrow and sell your ads. Stop here first,” Theresa teased, “and I’ll give you a sweet roll.”
Rayne rose from her seat. “You know what? I think you’re right. I am tired.”
“If it takes you two days to hit all the businesses,” Alvin said, walking her to the door. “You can stop for a sweet roll both days.”
When Rayne arrived home, there was a message from Jericho on her answering machine, as well a
s a message from the flower shop that Drew Wallace had sent her an arrangement that they could deliver to her house or her office. She decided to have the flowers delivered to her house and smiled when she read the thankyou note. Drew had gone from being an absolute loner to being so smitten with Tia that his life revolved around her. Apparently, now that Rayne had taken her to the hospital, she was in very good standing with Drew.
After canceling all of her ad appointments for the day, she did as Alvin and Theresa Davis suggested and went to bed. Feeling refreshed after a three-hour nap, she considered going to the office, but instead filled trash bag after trash bag with her father’s saved articles and magazines. She boxed the books, then called the library telling them she was about to make a significant contribution. At nine that night she went to bed again and when she awakened the next morning it was with a sense of happiness she hadn’t felt in two years.
She dressed quickly and didn’t stop at the diner. Instead, she drove directly to Alvin and Theresa’s, where French toast with warm apricot syrup awaited her. They bought a place mat ad, which she gave them for half price, and she promised to come back Saturday night for supper.
That night she finished cleaning her house with the unexplainable sense that she was closing out one phase of her life and entering another.
When Jericho saw all the lights burning in her house, he took a long breath then rested his head on his steering wheel. Damn fool woman. Her life was a mess. She’d looked to be on the verge of a breakdown the last time he’d seen her. She hadn’t gone into the office since she’d driven Tia to the hospital. Hadn’t even bought coffee at the diner. Was it any wonder that when a full day went by with no sign of her he’d been about crazy?
He slammed his gearshift into park and bounded to her front door where he didn’t bother with her dignified doorbell, but pounded on the wooden frame.
When she answered, dressed in flannel pajamas, with her damp hair tumbling down her back, apparently just out of the shower, he didn’t waste time on preliminaries and simply said, “Where the hell have you been?”
She laughed gaily. “Selling ads in Tucker! You would not believe the interest I got.”
She motioned for Jericho to enter and began to lead him to her living room—which was clean. No, not just clean. It was different. If there had been accent pieces in the room before this Jericho hadn’t seen them for the clutter. Now, the room with the old floral furniture that should have been dull somehow looked bright and cheerful. Red glass ornaments sat on the fireplace mantel and end tables, and paintings of landscapes hung on two of the walls.
“In fact, while I was talking with the town florist, the couple who owns Tucker’s little corner restaurant found me and asked if I would do a similar place mat for them.” She turned and grinned at Jericho. “I’m definitely going to have to bring back an ad salesman!”
Jericho said, “That’s great.”
Rayne gestured for him to sit on the sofa. “You don’t really sound as if you think it’s great.”
He ran his hand along the back of his neck. “I’ve been worried about you for two days. It’s a little hard to come down from that.”
Obviously pleased by his admission, Rayne smiled. “You were worried? Really?”
“Our conversation at the hospital didn’t end in the best place.”
“Where did it end?”
He gaped at her. “You don’t remember?”
“Jericho, I had just raced a woman who was in labor to the hospital. The whole drive I worried that I was going to end up delivering her baby. Things might have seemed in control by the time you arrived, but I was still a bit shell-shocked.”
Not yet relaxed enough to sit, Jericho paced to the mantel, picked up a white ceramic angel and smiled at the small feather wings. “You cleaned up.”
She nodded. “I was tired of living in a mess.”
He faced her and cocked his head in confusion. “You lived here for nearly a year with your dad without being bothered by it.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, but I was upset about my breakup.” She paused and shook her head. “No, I wasn’t upset. I was devastated. Distraught. And furious. I could have lived in a barn for the first few months I was home and not noticed.”
He would think that was a convenient excuse for her behavior when she first arrived home, except the house was so different. A quick glance into the dining room didn’t just show that it was clean, it also made him believe an entirely different person lived here. The once cluttered table was cleared and a white lace cloth covered the cherrywood table. The heavy drapes he remembered from his last visit had been removed. Clean white blinds replaced them. Everything about the house was now open, airy, clean, as if the person living here was making a fresh start.
He turned and smiled at her. “It’s so different.”
She motioned around the room. “This is me. I’m not a collector like my dad. I don’t save every article that tickles my fancy. I like pretty things, like these angels,” she said, picking up a pale blue one that sat beside the metal base lamp. “I prefer contacts to my glasses,” she said, causing Jericho to realize how pretty she looked. “I eat Danish for breakfast, but watch everything else I eat for the rest of the day. And living in Calhoun Corners, there’s no reason to work over ten hours in any given day. If something misses this week’s edition of the paper it can go in next week. Everybody hears everything through the grapevine before I print it anyway.”
Jericho laughed.
“So,” she said, spreading her hands. “I’m fine.”
“Yeah, you are.”
“I was about to have some cocoa. Would you like some?”
He took a breath. He had just gotten off duty, but his parents didn’t expect him to keep hours that would bring him home at a set time. He could spend a minute unwinding.
He shrugged. “Sure.”
He followed her into the kitchen, which also sparkled from a recent cleaning. Oak cabinets dominated the room. Red floor tile gave it color. “Now, I know how you spent the past two days.”
“Two nights,” Rayne corrected with a laugh.
“That’s right. You spent the day selling ads.”
“I spent most of the first day sleeping.” Pulling a half gallon of milk from the refrigerator, she grimaced. “I can’t really take credit for being so successful in Tucker. The day I took Tia to the hospital, I arrived at my first appointment shell-shocked. The couple I was meeting runs a bed and breakfast. Somehow I ended up eating a sweet roll in their kitchen and they convinced me to go home and get some sleep.”
Jericho chuckled as she poured the milk into a pot and turned on a burner of the stainless steel electric stove. “That’s an interesting way to get rid of a salesman you don’t want to buy from.”
She shook her head. “No. They weren’t getting rid of me. The truth is they’re two softhearted people who saw right through my big deal saleswoman act. They told me I needed food and sleep and to go home and get both and come back the next day.”
“Did you go back?”
After retrieving mugs from a cabinet, she turned and smiled. “Yes. They gave me apricot French toast, bought a place mat ad and invited me to dinner Saturday night. And I also think they spread the word that I needed help, paving the way for all my sales.”
“That’s the nice thing about living in a small town. People take care of each other.”
She nodded and set the mugs on a counter. “I think I forgot that living in Baltimore as long as I did.”
He slid onto a stool beside the butcher block in the center of the room. “It took me about two weeks to remember,” he admitted with another chuckle. “At first I got annoyed at everyone’s interference. Then one day Mrs. Gregory’s cat was lost and half the town showed up for a search party.”
Rayne laughed with glee. “A search party for a cat.”
“She’s Mrs. Gregory’s baby girl,” Jericho said, knowing it was true because the old schoolteacher didn’t have childre
n. “When we found Cecilia,” he said, referring to the cat, “and everybody was as relieved as if we’d found a lost child, it all came back like an avalanche. These are people who care for each other. They gossip. They nitpick. They want to know what everybody else is doing. But when the chips are down, they are here for each other.”
Shoveling heaping spoons of cocoa into the mugs, Rayne smiled. “Yeah.”
Without looking at him, she turned and snapped off the burner, grabbed a red-and-white-checkered pot holder and lifted the pot of warm milk. She looked soft, homey and very, very feminine, and for the first time in a long, long time Jericho relaxed.
“Thanks for this,” he said quietly.
“What? A cup of cocoa?”
“No, five minutes to talk like a real person.”
Obviously understanding, she nodded. “Even in a small town being chief of police isn’t a low-stress job.”
“Believe it or not I spend most of my time warding off people trying to pry information from me.”
She peeked over at him. “Me, too.” Handing him his mug of cocoa she said, “Want to go back to the living room?”
“Yeah. Sure.”
He settled on the sofa again and watched Rayne as she looked at the chair. It took him a second before he realized there was no end table by the chair and with his cocoa on a coaster on the coffee table in front of him, he patted the cushion beside him. “Sit. I won’t bite.”
She grimaced. “Sorry. My dad wasn’t much on furniture.”
Not wanting to get into a discussion about her dad when he was feeling comfortable for the first time in what seemed like forever, he changed the subject. “So, I guess your ex was a real pain in the butt.”
“Funny thing,” Rayne said, setting her cocoa on a coaster as she sat on the opposite edge of the sofa. “Now that a little time has passed, I’m beginning to think he was normal.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“We were really good for each other the four years in college and even our first year after, but now that I look back on things I can see he was struggling our entire last year together.”
