Farraday Country

by Chris Keniston

  For a moment Glenn wondered if there was something around the corner she needed, or merely the habit of years of performances where they’d exited to whatever dressing room arrangements they’d been given. Whichever, he wasn’t leaving her alone. Not again.

  Following her wake around the corner to the back he spotted the arrow overhead to the restrooms. At the end of the darkened hall, there she was. Against the wall. Palms flat behind her. Eyes closed. Head tipped back barely resting against the old knotty pine paneling. A single canned light shone above her. She looked like an angel. A singer in the last scene of a soon to be famous movie. More than twenty-five years may have passed but all he saw was the young woman he’d fallen so head over heels in love with.

  “You were great,” he practically whispered, moving forward.

  Turning to face him, she lifted one corner of her mouth in a weak smile. “Thanks.”

  “They loved you.”

  “Us.”

  “No. Had I played a solo of that song the reaction would have been nice and pleasant but it’s definitely you they loved.”

  Her smile grew a little stronger. “It was something.”

  “You were in your element. No one would guess you haven’t been on a professional stage in decades.”

  “Thanks for the reminder,” she chuckled softly.

  Coming to a stop in front of her, he reached down and took hold of her hand, cradling it in both of his. “I suspect every man in that room is now just a little in love with you.”

  Her head finally lifted away from the wall, her gaze leveling with his. “Is that what happened with us? Was it this?” She waved her free hand toward the opposite end of the hall and the still murmuring patrons. “Was this all we truly had?”

  The question caught him off guard. He had never considered the possibility that he’d been anything but madly and deeply in love with her. Even when he’d fallen for Sally, built a life with her. A good one. He’d never thought it made what he’d had with Eileen anything less than two people in the right place at the wrong time.

  Now here they were. The same two people. A different place and very different time. But the energy, the blood pounding through his veins, and the beautiful woman with the golden voice and penetrating blue eyes was very real. Closing in another half step, ignoring the flash of surprise in her gaze, he had to do what had been in the back of his mind since he saw her at the table that very first night and had been slowly pushing its way to the forefront of his thoughts. Lowering his head, almost directed by the familiarity of a long ago memory, his lips touched hers. Coming home.

  ****

  On stage, singing, the lights low, the music so familiar, the energy, the adrenaline, Eileen shuddered. For days she’d been inundated with forgotten memories and sensations. Tonight, out there, it had all come flooding back. Every second of all those years. She wasn’t even here in Tuckers Bluff, she was in New York, or Philly, or Tucson, or Miami. So many years had slipped away. Then, on a natural high from the applause, her gaze fell on Sean, Finn, and Ethan who had joined the table.

  The next twenty-five years paraded through her mind in the following instant. She needed a minute. Air. Maybe a drink.

  In the fog of the dim light, Glenn appeared. Tall, handsome, talented, still sexy. A few words passed. Like a Sunday comic strip, a light bulb of understanding illuminated the memories and feelings ricocheting about in her head. And then the ghost of her past leaned forward and touched his lips to hers. Slow, steady, soft and caring.

  He was kissing her. She should move. Lift her arms. Tilt her head. Something. It had been so very long since she’d been kissed by a man who wasn’t blood related and aiming for her cheek. But instinct didn’t take over. Her head continued to bat around the thoughts and feelings rushing to the surface. Foremost in her mind—she’d rather be dancing with Sean.

  Sean? That had her head springing back like a snapped rubber band.

  His one arm over her shoulder, palm against the wall for balance, Glenn stared at her through narrowed eyes. Booted heels clicked against the old wood floors and Glenn jolted back to the opposite wall.

  Eyes level, Eileen did her best to read the thoughts scrambling behind the stormy gaze. She could read Sean and the boys with the same ease she’d unravel words on a printed page, but this man, she had no idea if his thoughts were good, bad, or neither of the above.

  Sean came to a stop midway between her and Glenn. His gaze scanned the situation. Teeth clamped shut, a muscle in his jaw twitched before his throat cleared. “Thought I’d come see if everything was all right.”

  A lot of answers shouted at Eileen, but all right was most definitely not one of them.

  ****

  “Wow.” Fancy turned to Garrett. “Just wow.”

  “I thought she’d knocked it out of the park the last time we heard her. This is like over the green monster, out of the park, across town, and on a highway to heaven.”

  Joanna chuckled. “You may have missed your calling as a writer.”

  “Do songs count?” Garrett asked.

  “Absolutely,” Joanna confirmed.

  “So,” Fancy looked to the hall where Eileen had disappeared and Ethan’s father had followed, “haven’t known the family very long, but should someone maybe go see what’s going on back there?”

  Finn shook his head. “Nope. They’re all grown up. It’s time they figured this out for themselves.”

  “This?” Ethan asked. “I know I’ve been a little preoccupied, but what exactly is this?”

  Finn shrugged.

  “Sometimes being a grown up isn’t enough.” Fancy reached out for her sister’s hand. She’d arrived in Tuckers Bluff filled with high hopes, doubts and more fear than she knew how to deal with. She should have realized her baby sister would be smart enough to sort it all out and make Fancy see things were exactly as they were meant to be. Mama Fancy suited her just fine. “Every once in a while we need our family to kick our butts.”

  “Well, I couldn’t have kicked him any harder if I’d worn steel tipped boots.”

  “What did you do?” Ethan frowned at him.

  Finn shrugged. “Nothing much. Just told Dad if he didn’t like Glenn making a move on Aunt Eileen then maybe he should.”

  “What?” Ethan nearly spit out his beer.

  “Oh, put your eyes back in your head. Y’all have seen them in action for as long as I have. Until now it wasn’t our place to say anything.”

  “Not sure it is now either,” Ethan mumbled.

  A nearby chair scraped across the floor and Fancy turned to see DJ spinning it around and taking a seat at the table then toss a piece of paper onto the table. “Report’s in.”

  “And?” the two brothers echoed.

  “The guy is so squeaky clean I could wash my windows with him.”

  Allison and Joanna leaned back in their seats and both women crossed their arms and sported told-you-so grins.

  “Don’t look at me like that.” DJ hung his wrists over the back of the chair. “We couldn’t take a risk.”

  Blowing out a heavy breath, Allison unfolded her arms and leaned forward. “Sometimes I think y’all watch too many shoot ‘em up conspiracy movies, but what’s done is done. Now what are you going to do?”

  DJ shrugged. Ethan fiddled with the label corner on his beer bottle. It was the younger brother who smiled and tipped his longneck at his brothers. “Told ya. It’s up to Dad now.”

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  The air in the narrow back hallway felt thicker than swamp air after a storm. The gentleman in Sean told him to let the lady and her fellow finish their business. The man in Sean wanted to see how many of Glenn’s teeth he could knock out with a single right cross.

  “I think,” Glenn eased slightly to one side, closer to Sean, “I should get back to the table.” His gaze lifted to Sean then back to Eileen. “You’re in good hands.” Turning in place, he nodded curtly to Sean and walked away.

  Stepping closer, dari
ng to gently let his fingers rest on her arm, he repeated, “Are you all right?”

  “I don’t know.” She shifted away from the wall to face him, one hand landing flat against his chest. “I honestly don’t know.”

  Heat from her fingertips seeped through his shirt, his chest, and seared his heart. “Eileen—”

  She lifted her finger to his lips and shook her head. “Would you do one thing for me?”

  He nodded.

  “And promise not to hold it against me?”

  A spark of fear poked at him from inside, but whatever she wanted from him, whether it was freedom to travel around the world entertaining the masses, or his blessing to return to the man she almost married, for her he’d do anything. Her finger still on his lips, he bobbed his head.

  Her finger slipped away. “Kiss me like you mean it.”

  His head tipped forward, his eyes leveled with hers and if he was dreaming all of this, he hoped to high heaven that he never had to wake up. Taking his time, ignoring the need to brand her as his, he slid an arm around her waist, pulled her close enough that she could probably feel his heart pounding against his rib cage, and let his lips touch hers.

  The world spun into its own orbit. Outside noises dimmed to the hum of two hearts beating in time. Toes curled. Heat flared. And he never wanted to stop. Everything about this moment felt perfectly right.

  A throat cleared in the distance. Eileen’s fingers twirled a lazy circle at the base of his neck and he pulled her even closer.

  Louder and more forced, another throat cleared, followed by a feminine gasp. Alarms in the back of his head flashed warning beacons.

  A burst of laughter overrode all other sounds, followed by Finn’s familiar voice muttering, “Told ya Dad could handle it.”

  “But…” Ethan muttered, followed by DJ’s “I’ll be damned,” and Connor’s “About time.”

  They were in a public place. A family place. And none of what Sean wanted to do next was intended for public display.

  “Okay, boys, give them some privacy,” Allison’s voice drifted down the hall.

  “Like the man said,” Joanna joined her sister-in-law, “Dad can handle this. He doesn’t need a cheerleading squad.”

  Bless his daughters-in-law.

  Letting his forehead rest on hers, unable to release his hold on her, he swallowed a deep breath. “Was that what you wanted?”

  “Mm,” she mumbled, slowly opening her eyes to look at him. “Could we, uh, do it again?”

  His heart did a somersault. “I’d like to say yes, but I think we need to give Jamison back his hallway.”

  Eileen turned her head toward the other end of the hall and muffled a smile at the sight of Allison and Joanna’s backs ushering his muttering sons over to the table. “They’re going to be impossible about this.”

  “They are.” He couldn’t stop himself from smiling. “Are we really going to do this?”

  Her head bobbed. “I’d sure like to try.”

  For a moment he wasn’t sure what exactly it was she wanted to try, them or singing or both. Not that it mattered. If she wanted to sing in Timbuktu, he’d be right there cheering her on. “Are you going to sing again?”

  Still in the fold of his heat, she nodded.

  He’d been expecting that. He could work with it. As long as there was a chance for them.

  “I want to do the reunion show.”

  He waited for the other shoe.

  “But that’s all I want.”

  Not fully understanding, he leaned back a bit to see her eyes.

  “I’m not that person anymore. I love this life. The ranch, the kids, their wives, the next generation, even the stubborn cows.” She chuckled a second then straightened her spine and sucked in another breath that made her chest rise and fall and him nearly swallow his tongue. “And, I think, you.”

  ****

  Oh lord how she wished her heart would stop battering her ribs like an angry ram. She’d done it. She’d gone after what she really wanted, put her heart on the line, and now she wasn’t sure she could take another breath without her heart hurting.

  “Eileen.” Sean blinked, looked to his left and down the hall, then back. “I don’t think anything.”

  Her breath caught in her throat.

  “I know I love you.” He swallowed hard. “However long you need. Whatever time you want. I’m willing to work at this until you too know for sure.”

  Eileen almost laughed out loud. “Don’t you think over twenty-five years has been long enough?”

  His brows dipped in a confused V, Sean tilted his head. “What are you saying?”

  “I think this is a whole lot of change in a very short time.”

  This time his cheeks pulled with amusement. “You mean more than twenty-five years short?”

  “I mean this week. My eyes have been opened. I’d like to give us a little—and I mean little—bit of time to make sure we haven’t both lost our minds.”

  “I can agree to that.” He smiled at her. The full wattage smile all his sons had inherited from him. “How little?”

  “Not very much.” She grinned up at him. “I’d say let’s hold off on telling the rest of the family, but I suspect by now every last one of them knows.”

  A burst of laughter erupted from deep in Sean’s chest. “Honey, I think they all knew about it long before we did.”

  Honey. The endearment played around in her head. She liked it. Yep. Life was about to get a whole lot sweeter.

  ****

  Despite locking lips in the hallway like they’d been the only two people in the pub, Eileen and Sean returned to the table side by side but slightly apart, the same way they might have any other day of the week. And same as he would have any other day of the week, Sean held her chair for her and went to the bar to order her a fresh drink. In so many ways knowing each other so well would make things so much easier, and possibly so much harder. She wanted to try very hard to get this right. Without the entire town gossiping about them.

  The band struck up a familiar tune and everyone, except for Sean still at the bar and Rick at the other end of the table chatting away with a couple of ladies at the next table, had gone off to dance leaving her and Glenn alone in a packed room.

  “I, uh,” he started over her, “uhm about.”

  “You first,” they echoed, then smiled.

  “I apologize for kissing you before.” Glenn glanced at the dance floor and back. “I admit that the last few days it was fun being together. Re-covering common ground. All the energy and fire in performing again.” He sighed. “I guess I got a little carried away confusing feeling alive again with—”

  “Feeling love?” she asked.

  He nodded.

  “Sort of like kissing your sister?” She bit back a smile. As shocked as she’d been, she was alert enough to recognize the difference in his reaction to her kiss versus Sean’s. Glenn hadn’t had one.

  Heat rising in his cheeks, he nodded again. “Hadn’t seen that coming.”

  “Friends then?” She shot her hand out to him.

  “Friends.” Glenn accepted the hand and gave a single firm shake. “Will you do the show?”

  For a single performance, doing this one last time would be fun. “Absolutely. Will you be sticking around a little longer?”

  “Nah.” He smiled at her. “I’d like to get home. See my daughters. Start on the final details for the show and there’s an old coot at my summer lake house who I owe a few hands of cards.”

  “Sounds good.”

  “Yes. Yes, it does. Thank you.”

  Her gaze shifted to Sean walking toward the table, two drinks in hand, then back to Glenn. “No.” She patted his hand. “Thank you.”

  Sean took a seat and Glenn pushed away from the table. “If you two will excuse me, I have a show that still needs some details worked out. Thanks for dropping off the car.”

  “No problem,” Eileen answered.

  “None at all,” Sean concurred
.

  “Very well, then.” Glenn waved goodbye, slapped Rick on the shoulder on the way out, and just as quickly as he’d waltzed back into her life, he’d waltzed back out.

  “That was fun.” Fancy took a long sip of her ice water before collapsing into her seat. “I’m usually the one on stage, not the one dancing.”

  “Tell me about it,” Eileen laughed.

  “If y’all will excuse me for a minute, I’m going to use the ladies room.”

  Garrett stood, watched Fancy disappear through the array of tables, then retook his seat beside Eileen.

  Leaning away from Sean, who was now talking with Rick about the pros and cons of summer and fall calving, though she had no idea why Rick the musician would care, she faced Garrett. “I’m at that age where I can get away with saying anything I want.”

  Garrett smiled. “You strike me as someone who got away with whatever you wanted from the cradle. Which, by the way, you’re barely out of.”

  “Oh,” she grinned, “a charmer.”

  He shook his head and tinkered with a cocktail napkin. “Not really.”

  “Does she know?”

  His gaze shot from the distraction on the table to hers.

  “That you’re in love with her?” As if he didn’t know what she was talking about.

  He shook his head. “No. It’s not like that—” His gaze returned to the table and he sighed. “No. She doesn’t.” He shifted his attention to Eileen. “She’s not ready. Not yet.”

  Eileen looked at the nice man before her and the pretty young woman making her way to the restrooms. “She will be. Probably sooner than you think.”

  He gave her a half-hearted smile. “I’ll be here when she is.”

  “One word of advice,” she said.

  Garrett nodded at her.

  “Don’t wait twenty-five years.”

  ****

  As much as Sean wanted to dance with Eileen, he knew that gossip would take over before they had a chance to grow comfortable with the new normal themselves. Instead he slipped his hand under the table and nearly jumped for joy when she held on tight squeezing his.