Yet the scene around Josie’s dinner table wasn’t all he’d hoped. Gary had cooled toward Josie. And as a result, she’d become more reserved. It wasn’t enough to affect Lisa, but he could feel the undercurrent. By the time they’d finished eating, the adult conversation had waned, and Lisa began to nod off.
“Off to bed, Lisa,” Josie said. “You need sleep to finish healing.”
“Uninterrupted sleep,” she mumbled with her eyes half-closed.
“I promise I’ll leave you alone tonight.”
Lisa hugged Gary, then Josie. “Night.”
For a moment, Michael was afraid she had forgotten him. But she came the long way around to hug him. And to kiss his cheek. “I love you Uncle Mike. Night.”
“I love you, too, pumpkin.” He managed to say the whole sentence before a lump fully wedged in his throat. He coughed to clear it out. “Sleep well.”
After she left the kitchen, Michael caught Gary staring at him. “What?”
“I’m amazed at the transformation,” Gary said. “You’ve done wonders.”
“Josie’s been the one keeping me straight.”
“No, Mike’s done all the work,” she said. “I’ve only given suggestions.”
“And she’s called me a few choice names along the way. All well deserved, I might add.”
Josie nodded. “Like hopeless…and—”
“I believe Gary gets the picture.”
Gary looked back and forth between the two of them with narrowed eyes. “I believe I do,” he said with a concerned frown.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Michael asked, his nerves on ultra-alert to the undertones of Gary’s words.
“It means he probably sees the sparks flying between us,” Josie said, hoping to irritate Gary. She was tired of the attitude he’d copped since he’d arrived and met her. “He’s noticed the way you look at me with longing, with love, with total devotion….” She smiled at Gary with the same condescending smile he’d been sporting.
Gary was a true competitor. He came right back with “Josie, you’ve been exactly what Michael and Lisa needed for this temporary family crisis. Thank you for all you’ve done.” He slapped his knees and stood. “Now, if you’ll give me a key to your house, Michael, I think I’ll turn in. I need to leave early tomorrow. Unless you’re going to go back to negotiate that contract?”
“What contract?” Josie asked. “You’re leaving?” Forget the competition with Gary. She wanted answers.
Mike looked as if he’d been caught with his hand in the till. “Gary’s run into a snag with Tom Mason.”
“Why didn’t you tell me? You’ve been talking like you were staying here a while longer no matter what.”
“I hadn’t decided what to do about Mason. I wanted to wait and see how Lisa was. Besides, Gary offered to stay while I’m gone.”
Just what she wanted. The cautiously-cool-turned-antagonistic brother hanging around.
Gary stood and held out his hand. “The keys? I’ll let you two talk.”
Yeah, sure. Drop your bomb and head out. Well, she wouldn’t stand for it. She hopped up to meet him eye to eye. “Gary, can I ask why you’ve taken such a dislike to me?”
He flushed, two big splotches of red streaking across his cheeks. “I’m just trying to protect Michael. I know you’ve done a great deal for Lisa. But my brother has his place back in Charleston. He needs to get back to work as soon as Lisa’s ready.”
“That’s the plan. So what’s bothering you?”
“I see more than that going on.”
“No, there’s not.” But she knew better. There was definitely something brewing.
“And that would be between Josie and me if there were,” Mike said.
“Whatever you say,” Gary said as he headed toward the kitchen door and rapid escape. “I’ll leave you two to talk about Michael’s trip to Charleston.”
He was gone in a flash, the little chicken.
That left her alone with Mike and a syrupy thick silence. “Well. That was enlightening.”
“I don’t know what got into him.”
“He thinks I’m not good enough for you.”
“No, Gary’s not like that. It’s probably all about getting me home quickly, and he fears I’ll want to stay.”
“Because he figured out we may have feelings for each other.”
“We do, don’t we, Josie? Have feelings for each other?”
Her chest ached. Her throat tightened. She swallowed past the hurt of the evening. “Yes. Even though I don’t want us to.”
He placed his warm hands on her cheeks and rubbed his thumbs just below her eyes. She dared tears to fall where he would feel them.
“Could it be more? Love, even?” he asked.
She couldn’t speak it. It would make it too real. Too scary. Especially since it was impossible. So she let her forehead fall against his chest and whispered, “I don’t know.”
He kissed the top of her head, then set her away from him. “I’m going to go talk to him.”
“What about going to Charleston?”
“I haven’t decided. If I don’t go, we’ll lose the account….” He waited as if wanting her to tell him to go.
She wouldn’t make it that easy for him. It could devastate Lisa for him to go. She might interpret it as him backing out on her. As far as Josie knew, Mike hadn’t even told Lisa that he wasn’t sending her back to boarding school.
For once, Lisa needed Mike to choose her over everything else.
Josie did, too.
Michael let himself in the front door of his rental home and found his baby brother slouched on the couch. “Do you mind telling me what that scene was all about?”
“I’m just trying to keep you from getting hurt.”
“I’m a big boy now and can handle it.”
“Not where women are concerned.”
“I think I’m falling in love with her.” He’d stated it simply, when there was nothing at all simple about what he was feeling.
“You don’t have to tell me. I can see it.”
“I could really use your support, even though I still can’t see my future with Josie. At this point, I can’t see her and Mother having lunch at the club.”
“Don’t make this mistake, Michael. Mother will eat Josie alive. She’ll end up more hurt in the long run. And you might just end up out of a job and booted out of the family circle.”
“Oh, I think I can hold my own. And I know Josie can. But I don’t want her to have to.”
Gary chuckled. “She handled me pretty well tonight.”
“You deserved it. You were awful.”
“I don’t want you to start this war, big brother. Things at the bank are finally looking up for me—provided you’ll hurry home for negotiations.”
“If I go back to Charleston for you, will you promise to be nice to Josie?”
“I can guarantee I’ll be nicer than Mother will be tomorrow. She’ll want to protect her golden boy from a strange woman who could be after his money.”
No way. Not now. “They’re really coming?”
“Yes. They said they’d arrive around five.”
What more could go wrong?
He sat in silence, waiting for the ceiling to fall in.
“If she could fit in better, then she would stand a better chance of surviving a visit with Mother,” Gary said. “Do you think—”
“Don’t even think it, Gary. I wouldn’t want to change a thing about her.”
“Not change her. Just something little like having her dye her hair a color that’s found in nature. Maybe buy a more conservative outfit.”
Anger, and embarrassment for Josie, burned inside him. “You know nothing about it. The hair color was something nice she did for your niece.”
Gary slowly unfolded himself from his lounging position on the couch. “I’m sorry. I’m shutting up and going to bed.”
As Gary rattled around his luggage looking for a toothbrush, and Micha
el’s temper settled, some of the ideas he’d had about the future began to take shape.
“What do you think of the idea of me turning over day-to-day bank operations to you?” Michael asked, wanting to test the waters. “I’d remain a stockholder, of course. I could work some from home so I’d be there for Lisa after school. Remaining on the board of directors of a couple of companies in the Southeast or doing consulting work would give me a nice income. And I wouldn’t have to travel too much.”
“You’d be in Charleston, though, right?”
“That’s what I’m thinking.”
Gary looked sorely tempted. “Do you really think I could handle the everyday operations?”
“What have you been doing for the last week?”
“Well, I may have lost a major client.”
“That one’s on me. It doesn’t count. Over all, you did great.”
“I have really enjoyed it. Dad seems surprised at the fact that I’ve managed as well as I have.”
“I’m sorry he’s never shown enough faith in you.”
“And I’m sorry he’s put so much pressure on you your whole life. I wouldn’t have traded places.”
“Until now.” Michael smiled. “So, what do you think?”
“I think I’m not that easily bribed into changing my mind.” He untucked his shirt and kicked off his shoes. “End it with Josie now, before you both get hurt. No woman is worth the damage this could cause your family and your career.”
Chapter Fifteen
Early the next morning, Josie plopped herself down on a tall stool near the grill.
“So what brings you here on your day off?” Bud asked.
“Oh, nothin’.”
“Uh-huh.” He scraped bits of fried egg off the sizzling surface.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Feeling on edge, are we?”
She looked at the old man who’d been more of a father to her than her own father had been. And more of a mother than her own mother, for that matter. “I met Mike’s brother last night.”
“Meetin’ the family so soon?” He set the spatula aside and wiped his hands on his apron.
“It’s been nearly two weeks, thank you.”
“It’s been eleven days.” He touched his finger to her forehead. “Have you lost your mind?”
“No. Only my heart.”
“Seems to me you’ve lost both.”
“The brother, Gary, hated me.”
Bud’s expression hardened. “Why, that no good—”
“He has good reason. He’s worried about Mike leaving the bank, causing family strife.”
“That makes it okay?” He walked around the counter and sat on the stool beside her. “I’m serious. I’ve been afraid that man would hurt you.”
“I imagine Mike and I are afraid of the same thing.”
“Of me taking out my shotgun?”
His overprotectiveness eased some of the tightness from her chest. She poked him in the arm. “No, silly. Of falling in love when our worlds don’t fit together.”
“But your world—the one you’ve been ignoring—does fit with his if you want it to.”
“That’s not the real me. I don’t want the kind of life my parents had.”
“Then tell Mr. Throckmorton goodbye and get back to your own peaceful life.”
“Peaceful, lonely life.”
He slid off the stool and headed for the grill. “Plenty of fellas out there.”
“Just between you and me, there’s no one out there who makes me so happy.”
“Happy like you are right now?”
She sighed loud enough for him to hear.
“Just be careful.”
“You know, Bud, I’ve tried to be. But now I’m wondering if I should trust that God brought us together and has plans for us.”
Bud stood and waved a hand at her. “You need to be realistic.”
“I’m about as realistic as they come.”
“Not where Throckmorton is concerned.”
“My whole life I’ve been in self-protect mode. That’s all good and fine if there’s no one I’m interested in. But that’s changed now. There’s a good man whose company I enjoy, and who appears, wonder of all wonders, to care for me. He laughs at my jokes and likes me for me. The real me. And even though I can’t imagine how we could possibly have a future, I’m tempted to risk giving him a chance.”
“To risk getting hurt.”
“Isn’t every relationship a risk?”
He harrumphed.
“I like to think this is a God-thing, and want to have faith.”
Bud sighed, then went back to his grill.
“If by some miracle he’ll stay in Gatlinburg, we might have a chance to make this work. So I’m going out on a limb this time, Bud.”
“If you fall off, you know you have a shoulder to cry on here at the diner.”
Her tender heart bruised a little more. This man that she’d grown to love wouldn’t be here for her forever. “Thank you. And—” She stood and hugged him. “I love you, you grouchy old man.”
He patted her on the back. “I love you, too, you opinionated, hardheaded gal.”
She laughed. “What would I do without you?”
With another dismissive wave of his hand, he slapped a sausage patty on the surface. “Oh, you can’t get rid of someone as mean as me.”
“So I’ll have you here to bother me forever?”
“Yep. Looks like it. You tell that man he’ll have to go through me if he thinks he’s gonna marry you.”
“We haven’t come close to thinking about that.”
“Oh, he will. I’ve seen it in that whipped-puppy look he gives you.”
A little thrill caught in her belly, making it feel as if she were flying down Roller Coaster Road. Was Bud right? It wasn’t like him to play around.
If only he were.
Josie sat on her bed studying the antique-looking portrait of Mike and her. She was struck by her expression of pure joy. She’d had a sense of completeness since she and Mike and Lisa had bonded. She’d found the family she had craved for so long. The family Bud had tried to give her the last couple of years.
The doorbell rang, and she rushed to the door and opened it.
“Hi.” Mike stood on her front porch wearing a troubled expression. A far cry from the one in the photo.
“Hi to you. Where’s Lisa?”
“I left her at my house eating breakfast.”
“With Gary?”
“Yes.”
She knew why he’d come, then. And why he didn’t look happy. “So you’re going to Charleston?”
“Yes. I should be back late tomorrow.”
“How did she handle it?”
“Okay once she realized Gary would be staying.”
So now Josie didn’t have the excuse of worrying about Lisa. She should just go ahead and cry, Don’t leave me! the way her mind was screaming. “Have a safe trip, then.”
“So you’re okay with my going?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” she snapped.
“All you have to do is say the word, and I’ll stay.”
“I wouldn’t dream of stopping you,” she said, way too waspishly. But, she wanted him to decide on his own.
Maybe she was being too scared. Then again, maybe he’d go home and forget about her. Forget what they’d had together.
Well, she would never know for sure if he didn’t go.
“I know you and Gary had a rough start,” he said. “But I talked to him last night. I think he’ll behave.”
She pressed her hand into his chest to stop him. “Do what you need to do. I’ll deal with it.”
“I’m afraid you may have to deal with my parents, too. They’re driving up to check on Lisa and should be here late this afternoon.”
“Well, that’s just dandy. Bring ’em on. The whole Throckmorton clan.”
“Josie…”
Resignation blotted out the fear. It was
time to either move forward or give up. Yet she couldn’t bear to think about the latter. “No. I’m serious. I may as well have my trial by fire. If your family and I survive the meeting without killing each other, then maybe when you come back, we can try this you-and-me thing and see where it leads.”
He smiled his heartbreaking, knee-melting smile. “Thank you.”
“Yeah, well…” She shooed him away.
He stepped closer, reached out, brushed a curl back from her temple. Would he finally kiss her?
She was ready this time. She nearly cried with the realization of how badly she wanted him to.
“Josie, I—”
She looked into his gorgeous blue eyes, hoping…waiting….
“I’ve got to get on the road.”
She blew out a deep breath, the one she’d been holding. Disappointment made her want to wail. Instead, she said, “Go. I’ll hold down the fort.”
“I promise I’ll be back as soon as I possibly can. We’ll talk then, about our future.”
Her heart turned over, sending her world into slow motion. Before she could manage to utter a word, he smiled, then ran to his car. With a jaunty wave, he backed out and drove away.
Toward Charleston. Toward his home. Toward his real life.
Would he change back to the man who’d driven into town a couple of weeks ago?
She could only wait. And pray.
Gritting her teeth, Josie picked up the phone and called Gary. She was proud at how civilly she spoke. She even invited him and Lisa to come have dinner with her. He very graciously accepted. Then very smoothly suggested he take them out to eat since his parents would be joining them.
“You’re smooth, Gary. Very smooth.”
He chuckled, a lot like Mike. “How about we come over there at five o’clock when they’re supposed to arrive?”
“Fine. I’ll be here.”
Once she hung up, she looked at herself in the full-length mirror on the back of her closet door. Pink hair. Grungy clothes. Her own mother wouldn’t know her.
Did she have to look her worst for Mike’s parents just to prove herself?
Lord, sometimes I don’t know who I really am. I have this past that’s so different from who I am now. Which is the real me? Since meeting Gary, I wonder.
Her Unlikely Family Page 17
