That Runaway Summer

by Darlene Gardner

  Dan laughed, figuring it couldn’t hurt to add his vote of confidence that Jill could handle the job. Besides, the more time he spent around her, the better his chances of wearing her down.

  “Okay,” he said. “I’m in.”

  THE RAUCOUS STRAINS of “Ain’t Nothin’ but a Hound Dog” filled the Blue Haven, alerting Annie that Buster Dreher was at the controls of the jukebox.

  Buster danced across the floor, gyrating his hips and torso. His pants were too tight for a slightly over-weight man in his early fifties. He wore his jet-black hair slicked back from his face. A lock fell onto his forehead from his otherwise perfect pompadour.

  “Elvis is in the house,” Buster shouted, then threw back his head and laughed.

  It might have been funny if Jill hadn’t watched Buster perform the same act at least once a week for the past year. So, apparently, had everyone else. She spotted only one person in the bar who was laughing with Buster.

  Then again, she would have noticed her friend Dan no matter what he was doing.

  Since he’d come into the Blue Haven with Stanley and Charlie Bradford, the person in the house she’d been most interested in wasn’t fake Elvis.

  The three men were sharing a pitcher of beer, the same way Stanley and Charlie did every week. But why had the two longtime pals broken from tradition and invited Dan along? And why hadn’t Dan told her he’d be here tonight?

  “Did you forget about my whiskey on the rocks?” called a man sitting at the bar. She whirled to face the guy, a tourist who’d been insistent about his preferred brand.

  “Course not. I wouldn’t do a thing like that,” she said. “It’s coming right up.”

  She plucked a glass from an overhead shelf, set it down on the bar, filled it with ice cubes and poured. Despite a mental reminder to focus on her work, her gaze returned to Dan. He was really quite a good-looking man. He had a strong profile, his nose long and straight, his chin square, the dark hair springing back from a high forehead.

  Almost as though he felt her looking at him, he turned his head and met her eyes across the room. His lips curved into a smile, warm and slow. And…flirtatious? No. That couldn’t be. The two of them were friends.

  “Hey, lady, you trying to get me drunk or what?” The tourist’s voice once again broke her out of a trance.

  She dragged her gaze from Dan, and the tourist pointed at the glass, which she’d filled nearly to the brim with whiskey. She abruptly tilted the bottle upright before the amber liquid spilled over.

  “Sorry about that,” she said.

  “Nothing to apologize for,” he retorted, rising from his stool and sliding the glass toward him. He lowered his head and sipped the first inch before picking up the drink.

  She made a mental note to pay more attention to the tourist’s sobriety level and less to Dan.

  “Hey there, good-looking.” Dan sauntered up to the bar, wreaking havoc with her plan. He wore a blue oxford cloth shirt with the sleeves rolled up, which showed off the definition in his arms and called attention to the color of his eyes. They were smiling. “Having a good night?”

  “I always do.” She felt a surge of joy, which wasn’t unexpected. She was generally a happy person. “I’m surprised to see you here.”

  He leaned forward, resting his forearms on the bar, and indicated with a slight nod that she should come nearer. She did, leaning so close she could see the beginnings of his five-o’clock shadow. She had a wild urge to run her hand over his lower face.

  “I was roped into it,” he whispered, those blue eyes trained on her. “The mayor thinks I can persuade you to come over to our table on your break. He has something he wants to talk to you about.”

  Oh, no. Not this again. She straightened, the crazy spell broken, and crossed her arms over her chest. “The bike race?”

  “How’d you guess?”

  “Charlie does not do subtle,” she said. “That darned man has been trying to get me to help him out with that for weeks.”

  “He doesn’t understand why you won’t say yes,” Dan said. “He seems to think you’re into community work.”

  That was her fault for gushing about how much she’d enjoyed working on the spring festival. But how was she to know the next opportunity to help out would involve a mountain bike race?

  “It’s in Charlie’s best interest to believe all his citizens enjoy community work.” Jill kept her reply carefully neutral. “He’s a wily old devil.”

  “You got that right. How do you think he convinced me to help him persuade you?” Dan winked at her. “Don’t worry. I’m taking your side, whatever it is.”

  The problem was that she couldn’t adequately explain why it was imperative she refuse, Jill ruminated a short time later when she joined the three men.

  “Hi, Jill.” Charlie greeted her like an old friend. “We were just talking about Chase and Kelly. Did you hear they went off to Vegas last week and got married?”

  The unexpected subject momentarily threw her. Chase, the mayor’s only child, had been living with his fiancée for nearly a year. They were in the process of adopting an adorable two-year-old named Toby who was much better off with Chase than with his biological mother, a con artist serving a prison term.

  “I heard.” She took the chair Dan held out for her. Their bodies brushed, the touch electric. She stole a look at him, and he was smiling. “It’s all over town by now.”

  “Hell of a thing,” Charlie said. “They wait all this time, then run off like that. Who does that?”

  “That’s what you and Teresa did,” Stanley said. “Chase told me he got the idea from you.”

  “He should know better than to use his old man as an example.” Charlie shook his graying head. “They say they didn’t want anyone to make a fuss, but a fuss is what they’re getting. Teresa sent you all an invitation to the party we’re having for them on Sunday night, right?”

  “I’ll be sorry to miss it,” Stanley said. “I’m going out of town on a fishing trip.”

  “I’ll be there,” Jill said.

  “How about you, Dan?” Charlie asked.

  “I’m coming,” he said.

  “Really?” Jill peered at him. “You know Kelly and Chase?”

  “I know Chase.” Dan shifted in his seat, bringing his body closer to her. His clean scent overrode the smell of beer. “He’s a wildlife conservation officer. Where do you think he brings the injured animals he comes across?”

  She hadn’t thought of that. With Buster singing another Elvis song in the background and Dan only inches from her, it was hard to think at all.

  “As much as I love talking about my son, Jill will have to get back to work soon.” Charlie leaned forward, his full attention zeroed in on her. “So let’s talk about the bike race.”

  She shifted so she was a little farther from Dan, the better to keep her wits about her.

  “Tell me,” Charlie continued, “did I get it wrong about how much fun you had working on the spring festival?”

  “You’re not wrong,” she said, “but you already have people working on this far more qualified than I am.”

  “None of them is a cyclist,” he said, “and that’s what I think would put us over the top. All you’d need to do is figure out a couple of route options that would end on Main Street and meet with the nominating committee in Lake Wallenpaupack to present the proposal.”

  “Shouldn’t you have somebody on the borough council do that?” Jill wouldn’t let on that she’d been meaning to visit the Poconos Mountain community, having heard it was almost as pretty as Indigo Springs.

  “Not necessarily,” Charlie said. “But speaking of the council, I think Chad’s right. You should run for office.”

  “I’d vote for you.” Stanley set his beer mug down with a thump while she mentally damned the quiet pharmacist for opening his mouth. “How about you, Dan?”

  “I’d campaign for her,” he said, “except Jill might have reasons for not going into politics.”
>
  She drew in a quick breath, nonsensically afraid he’d read her mind. Then reason surfaced. She’d told him she was thinking about moving and asked that he keep her confidence. He was on her side, exactly as he’d claimed.

  “How did we get on this tangent?” Jill asked. “I never once thought about being a council member before Chad brought it up.”

  “You’re right. Running for council is a big decision,” Charlie said, as though she were actually considering it. “Tell you what. I won’t pressure you about the council if you agree to submit the proposal.”

  She chewed her bottom lip. The risk of running into someone she knew in the biking world was slight, given that they weren’t in Georgia. A greater hazard was drawing suspicion to herself by continuing to refuse a reasonable request, one that everybody could see she wanted to accept.

  “When is the proposal due?” she asked.

  Charlie grinned. “The weekend after next.”

  “Okay,” Jill said, “but you can’t blame me if we don’t get the nod. I’m not good at talking people into doing things.”

  “With that sweet smile and that Southern accent of yours, I’ve got to disagree with that,” Dan said. “You could talk me into just about anything.”

  A shiver of pleasure danced over her, more worrisome than the prospect of reentering the mountain bike community.

  She hadn’t imagined it.

  Just when she’d started to let down her guard around Dan, he’d started flirting with her.

  And she wasn’t at all sure she could handle it.

  CHAPTER NINE

  DAN COULDN’T HAVE TIMED his arrival better.

  As soon as he stepped onto the curb in front of Teresa and Charlie Bradford’s house Sunday night, he spotted Jill approaching on the sidewalk a half block away. She carried a silver gift bag topped with an elaborate matching bow.

  He pocketed the keys to his pickup and headed for her, noticing it was taking him twice as long to close the gap as it should have.

  Because, he realized, she was frozen in place.

  “Is it my imagination,” he asked as he approached her, “or are you not moving?”

  “I figured you might not see me if I didn’t move,” she said with a lift of her shoulders, “but I must’ve miscalculated.”

  “Just a little.” He felt the corners of his mouth rise. She was wearing another of her funky outfits—a yellow minidress with a belt slung low across her hips, multi-colored beads draped over her neck, matching bracelets on her arms. “You shouldn’t have worn that if you didn’t want to be noticed.”

  She looked down at herself. “Good point.”

  “So why are you trying to be invisible?”

  “The same reason I told you not to pick me up. People already think we’re dating without us fueling the fire by arriving together.”

  He didn’t consider that prospect to be a negative. He’d take all the help he could get in his quest to change her mind about dating him.

  “The party’s already in full swing.” He lightly placed a hand at her back. Her body jumped slightly but perceptibly. Yep. He was right. She did react every time he touched her. “Nobody’s going to pay us much notice.”

  “Famous last words,” she muttered, but went along. When they reached the door, he punched the bell with his index finger, then bent his head close to hers. He deliberately took her hand, this time noticing a slight tremor. He was encouraged that she didn’t yank it away.

  “By the way,” he said, his breath brushing her ear, “you look especially lovely in yellow.”

  She met his eyes, her mouth parting but no words emerging, With her glossy black hair, green eyes and freckles, she was becoming the standard by which he measured all other women. Lately all he could think about was how much he wanted to kiss her. Her mouth was close. So close.

  The door abruptly swung open, breaking the spell. Instead of one of the Bradfords, it was Penelope Pollock, wearing a white halter dress that showed off the tan she’d acquired during her second honeymoon trip to Hawaii.

  “You two make such a cute couple!” she practically squealed.

  Annie Whitmore was passing behind Penelope, holding a drink containing a colorful miniature umbrella. A laugh was on her lips, her husband Ryan’s arm around her.

  “Look, Annie! Ryan! Didn’t I tell you Jill and Dan were dating?” Penelope beamed, her tan making her teeth seem almost blindingly white. “I knew you two were right for each other.”

  Jill slanted Dan an exasperated look and jerked her hand from his. She didn’t, however, deny Penelope’s assumption. He’d like to think he was making inroads, but it was just as likely she realized disavowal would be pointless.

  Penelope opened the door wide. “Come on in. You’re the last ones to arrive.”

  “Hey, look who’s here,” Charlie Bradford called, coming forward to take the gift bag from Jill and bottle of wine from Dan. His wife, Teresa, was at his side, looking elegant in a summery pantsuit, her silvery-blond hair swept off her neck. Charlie had dressed for the occasion, too, forsaking the neon-orange he’d worn the other day for more subdued colors. “Teresa, you know Jill.”

  “Certainly,” Teresa said pleasantly. “Jill’s the one you browbeat into submitting that proposal for you.”

  “Charmed into submitting, dear.” Charlie’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “I’m not sure if you know the lucky guy with her. Dan Maguire is the vet who works with Stanley.”

  “Nice to meet you, Dan.” Teresa took one of his hands in both of hers, then included Jill in her gracious smile. “I’m so glad you both could come.”

  “We’re glad to be here,” Dan said before Jill could state they hadn’t come together. “Where’s the happy couple?”

  “Through the house on the deck,” Charlie said. “You’ll see why Teresa and I bought this place when you get back there. Just call us the entertainers!”

  The Bradford house was indeed made for entertaining. A large family room with high ceilings led to a spacious, screened-in deck complete with skylights, a whirring ceiling fan and recessed lighting. White chrysanthemums in gold vases graced tables covered in white lace. Shiny satin ribbons in white and gold had been placed in strategic places. A “Just Married” banner in matching colors hung above the venue.

  Chase stood at the center of the deck with the woman who must surely be his bride. Their arms encircled each other’s waists while they held champagne glasses in opposite hands. Her dress was red and so was his shirt. That wasn’t the only thing that matched. Their wide smiles were nearly identical.

  “They look so thrilled to be married,” Jill remarked.

  The newlyweds, however, were far from the only happy couple present. The place was ripe with them.

  There were Sara Brenneman and Michael Donahue. Sara was an attorney who stood out because of her height and the dynamic colors she favored, like the aqua dress she wore tonight. She’d married Michael, a partner in Johnny Pollock’s construction business, in a big church wedding earlier that summer.

  Sara and Michael were talking to Johnny and a heavily pregnant woman with brown hair even curlier than Jill’s. The woman held a glass of what looked like ginger ale. A man of medium height with brown hair that hung to his collar absently rubbed her back.

  On the other side of the deck Annie Whitmore was twirling the umbrella in her drink and laughing uproariously at something her husband, Ryan, said. Ryan was the family physician who’d given Dan his last physical.

  “I feel like we’ve stepped into The Twilight Zone,” Jill said in a voice soft enough that only Dan could hear. “We’re the only people here who aren’t part of a couple.”

  “Dan! Jill!” Penelope motioned them over to the kitchen adjacent to the family room, where she was filling a wineglass with ruby liquid. “Would you like me to pour you some wine?”

  “Thanks, but I’ll take a beer.” Dan withdrew a bottle from the cooler in the corner of the kitchen and popped the top.

  “I�
��d love some wine,” Jill said. “When did you and Johnny get back from Hawaii, Penelope?”

  “Last night. I promise to bore you later with details of our trip, but first I want to know when this happened.” Penelope used her index finger to point back and forth from Jill to Dan.

  Jill spoke first. “I hate to disappoint you, Penelope, but we didn’t come together.”

  “Johnny and I used to make plans to meet up, too. Sometimes we’d pretend we were strangers just to spice things up. I recommend it.” Penelope’s eyes lit up and she waved. “Oh, my gosh. Laurie Grieb looks like she’s going to have that baby any day. Isn’t it cute how Kenny’s hovering over her?”

  She bustled off in the direction of the expectant couple, who Dan now knew were the Griebs. Soft classical music played in the background, but Dan still heard Jill sigh.

  “I’m never going to get through to her that we aren’t an item, am I?” Jill asked. “Highly doubtful.”

  “Then I guess we might as well go congratulate Chase and Kelly together.”

  There was nothing he’d like better. “I’ve never met Kelly.”

  “You’ll like her.” Jill gestured to the other woman with her wineglass. “Everybody does. Did you hear how they met?” At Dan’s shake of the head, she continued, “It’s a wild story. Kelly was falsely accused of kidnapping a baby and jumped bail to clear her name. Her trail led her to Indigo Springs.”

  “I heard something about that,” Dan said. “Didn’t Chase help her find the real kidnapper and set things right with the authorities?”

  “He did. And now they’re married and the parents of a little boy they adore,” Jill said. “C’mon. I’ll introduce you to Kelly.”

  The new bride had girl-next-door good looks and a sweetness that emanated from her. She greeted Dan warmly, then turned to Jill. “It’s so nice to see you.”

  “It’s nice to see you married.” Jill took the other woman’s left hand. A white-gold wedding band complemented a diamond engagement ring. “You two are great at keeping a secret.”