by Nora Roberts
steps from him. Across the lawn, into the trees, scores of lightning bugs put on a show, countless pulses of warm light against the dark.
“I’m not beating myself up, or not much anymore. Or feeling sorry for myself. I’m done with that. I came home, and I brought my girl home, and I’m building that life for us. That feels right. I feel good about that. It would’ve been enough, Griffin, it would’ve been more than enough for me. Then you . . . I just . . . There were—are—feelings.”
“I planned to go slower. I figured to get you to go out with me and Emma Kate and Matt a few times, over a couple months, maybe. Get used to being around me. Then I’d ask you out. I didn’t follow the blueprint.”
“You have a blueprint?”
“I always have a blueprint. But the thing about them is, sometimes you see how to improve the whole with a change, or some changes. So you do. I planned to go slower, but . . . Did I push you?”
“No.” It was wrong, she admitted, it was unfair and wrong to let him think so. “No, you didn’t push me, Griff. You . . . appealed, and you . . .”
She looked out, all those pulses of warm yellow. He’d put a light in her, she thought. Pulses of light against the dark she’d carried.
“How much you appealed caught me off guard. I wanted—want—to be with you. You’re the opposite of Richard. And I asked myself if that was why you appealed so much. You’re so different from him. Not flashy or showy, just—”
“Dull?”
She glanced over quickly, relieved when she saw him smile. “No, not dull. Real. I needed real more than I can say, and there you were. I have feelings, and they scare me.”
“I don’t mind that. You take the time you need to work that out. Don’t make excuses not to see me—be straight about it.”
“I didn’t know how. I hadn’t figured out how because I didn’t want to stop seeing you. I felt I should, for a while, but I didn’t want to.”
“Has it been a while yet?”
“It feels like it’s been a lot longer than a while.”
“There’s a point of agreement. I’ve missed the hell out of you, Red.”
“You came by to see Callie when I was at work.”
“I missed the hell out of her, too. And Callie and I didn’t have a fight.”
With a nod, Shelby stared out at the dark, the light. “I kept thinking you’d come by to see me, too. You came to Friday Nights, but you stayed away from me.”
“You hurt me.”
She turned to him quickly. “Oh, Griff—”
“I’m telling you, Shelby, don’t stack me up against him, not in any way. It hurts me, and it really pisses me off.”
“I’m sorry for that. I can’t promise it won’t happen again, but I’ll work on it.”
“That’s good enough.”
“You hurt me, too, and really pissed me off.”
“I’m sorry for that. I can’t promise it won’t happen again, but I’ll work on it.”
That made her laugh, and mean it. “I really have missed you something awful. I don’t just mean the sex, though I’ve missed that. I just missed talking to you. But . . .”
“Uh-oh.”
“I thought I was in love once before, so fast it was like being swept under a wave. But I wasn’t in love, not the way it should count. Maybe you need a little time, too.”
“If he’d been who he pretended to be when he took you under that wave, would it have counted?”
“I . . .” She could only lift her hands, let them fall.
“You can’t say because he wasn’t. He wasn’t who you thought he was, so you can’t know. Here’s what I know. I wanted you the first second I saw you. That was more a holy shit moment than what they’d call love at first sight. Look at her. That’s the most beautiful woman I’ve seen in my life.”
She wanted to laugh again, but his words clogged her throat. “Wet and miserable, as I recall.”
“And sad and beautiful. Then you and Callie, and you walking home with her, pushing that stroller and all those groceries up those hills. You’re so mad—at yourself—so worn out. And she’s so sweet. So I wanted you, then I wanted to help you. I fell for Callie first, I’ll tell you that straight-out. She had me wrapped up in about two minutes.”
“She has a way.”
“She’s got your way. I’m surprised you don’t see it. Anyway, then I heard you sing, and I started falling. I watched you sing, and I fell harder. Then I had you, and that put the cap on it. But what twisted the cap, secured it tight, was—” He stuck his hands in his pockets as he studied her. “Hell, you might not like what twisted the cap tight.”
“I want to know. There isn’t a woman in the world who wouldn’t.”
“All right. What twisted the cap tight? You punching Melody. I don’t think I’m a particularly violent man, but when you did that, all I could think was, Well, hell, Griff, you’re in love with her. You’d be a fool not to be.”
“You’re making that up.”
“I’m not.” He stepped toward her, laid his hands on her shoulders. “I had to pull you off—sort of wished I didn’t have to—but I realized, yeah, I want her. I want to help her. I can fix some things for her. But goddamn, a woman who throws a punch like that? She can fix some things, too. She can do whatever she needs to do.”
She’d thought hearing that he was in love with her rattled her. But that last sentence, the tone of admiration, just stunned. “You thought that?”
“I know that. I’ve seen it. I admire the hell out of it. And I love you. So I don’t mind scaring you a little because you’ll handle it. But when you look at me, Shelby, you’d better see me. Just me. When you think of me, just me.”
“I don’t think of anyone but you when you kiss me, when you touch me.”
“Then I should do more of that.”
“Oh God, I wish you would.”
She wrapped herself around him, pressed her mouth to his.
And he did a lot more of it.
“Come inside.” He couldn’t get enough. “Come to bed.”
“Yes.” She ran her hands up his back, thrilled to feel hard muscle again. “Yes.” Drew in his scent—sweat and sawdust. “Yes.”
They circled toward the door, and she said, “Oh. Wait.”
“Please God, don’t turn that into a no.”
“No—I mean yes.” Still wrapped around him, she managed a breathless laugh. “I mean, I need to text Mama. I told her I wouldn’t be long, and I’m going to be longer.”
“Okay. Text and walk.”
“I can do that.” She took out her phone, worked to keep her hands steady enough to write the quick text. “She knew I was coming to see you, so I don’t think she’ll be surprised to— She’s sure quick to answer.”
They’d made it inside, to the stairs, had started up. Shelby stopped halfway.
“Problem?”
“No. No, not a problem. She says—” Shelby let out another quick laugh. “She says you’ll follow me home, so why don’t I save you the trouble of that, stay the night here. Then she says—I guess you could say she knows me—don’t worry about Callie wondering where I am in the morning. We should get up early enough for me to bring you home for breakfast. She’ll make pancakes.”
“I like pancakes.”
“Yes, but—”
“Text: Thank you, Mama. We’ll see you in the morning.”
He nudged her up another step so they were eye level, then laid his lips on hers. “Stay. Sleep with me tonight. Wake up with me in the morning.”
How could she resist? Why would she? She trailed her fingers over his cheeks. “I wasn’t expecting to. I don’t have a thing to sleep in.”
“If that’s an issue, I won’t sleep in anything, either. We’ll be even.”
“That’s fair.” She laughed again, a little giddy, when he swept her up, carried her the rest of the way with the puppy running to catch up.
26
Shelby wound her way into the fifties, mi
xed up the playlist with bluegrass.
She slipped in early to rehearse, thought it wonderful and amazing that she already had more than half a dozen Friday Nights in her pocket.
Tansy applauded when she finished “Rolling in My Sweet Baby’s Arms.”
“Love it!”
“I didn’t see you over there. I thought I’d punch in some bluegrass, mix in the folk and traditional with the standards. I thought I’d weave in a lot of Patsy Cline. Like a featured artist?”
“I love that, too. It’s going to be even better when we bring in some musicians, have a real stage. Which we will by September—October latest, according to Matt. The permits came in this morning!”
“Tansy, that’s such good news.”
“I can’t wait to get started. I’m scared, too, as we’re pouring a lot of money into this expansion. But . . . the last few weeks sure show people like coming in on the weekend, hearing live music.”
“You talked Derrick into trying every Saturday night for a band, didn’t you?”
Raising her joined hands over her head, Tansy turned a victory circle. “We’re going to try it for the rest of the summer, then see if the take justifies the outlay. You’re a big part of why we can do all this, Shelby. I don’t know how long it would’ve taken me to talk Derrick into the expansion if you hadn’t hit it with Friday Nights.”
“I love doing it, and you gave me a chance. I guess it’s worked out pretty damn perfect for both of us.” She stepped off the little stage. “How’re you feeling?”
“Just a little queasy first thing in the morning still, but Derrick brings me saltines and ginger ale, and that usually settles it down. And look!” She turned to the side, cupped her hands on her belly. “I’m showing!”
“My goodness.” Shelby widened her eyes at the tiny, tiny bulge. “You’re enormous.”
“Maybe not yet,” Tansy said with a laugh, “but”—she lifted her shirt—“I had to jury-rig my pants with a carabiner. Can’t button them anymore. I’m going to move into yoga pants, and buy myself some maternity clothes first chance I get.”
Shelby remembered well that feeling, that glow. “They make such cute ones, so you don’t feel like you’re wearing a tent or your granny’s tablecloth.”
“I’ve already got some in a shopping basket online. I just want to make one more pass before I order. Now I know you want to get back to rehearsing, but I want to know how you’re doing.”
It couldn’t be avoided, Shelby thought. The past dogged her like a shadow at high noon. “I’m so sorry you had to talk to those agents.”
“Derrick and I were fine with that, don’t you worry.”
“Forrest said they’ve gone back to Atlanta. There wasn’t much I could do to help them find all Richard stole. I know it’s silly, but I feel like if I could remember something, or tell them something that leads them to finding even one more thing, I’d be better about it all. When it comes down to it, they told me more than I could tell them.”
“It’s hard, what they told you.”
“It taught me something. If I want Callie to grow up to be a smart, strong woman, someone who values family and friends, and respects herself, I have to show her. If I want her to know the satisfaction of making something of herself with effort and work, I have to show her. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
“It’s what you are doing.”
“I feel like I have to counterbalance—you know what I mean—all she’s going to hear one day about her father.”
“When she does, she’ll have you, and your family. She’ll have us, your friends.”
“Seems like Richard never learned, never understood that’s more than all the jewels he stole, all the money he swindled. If the years with him had any good to them, it was putting that bone deep in me. I took too much for granted before that.”
• • •
SHE TOOK NOTHING for granted now, not the laughter inside the salon or the sighs of pleasure in the Relaxation Room.
She gave her grandmother a quick, impulsive hug after she set more towels at the shampoo stations.
“What’s that one for?”
“Just for you. I’m happy being here with you. I’m just happy.”
“I’d be happy, too, if I had a man like Griffin Lott looking at me like I was the Venus de Milo, Charlize Theron and Taylor Swift all at once.” Crystal paused in her work, snapped her scissors. “I swear, I want a man for sex, but if Charlize Theron walked in and said, ‘Hey there, Crystal, how about we go on over to your place and roll around in the sheets?’ I believe I’d take her straight home and give that a go.”
Amused, Viola rinsed off her customer’s hair. “Charlize Theron. Is she the only one who’d tempt you to switch over from a man?”
“I believe she is. Now, that Jennifer Lawrence. She’s as pretty as they come, and I do believe she’d be nothing but fun to sit around and have a drink with. But she’s no Charlize Theron. Who’d you switch with, Shelby?”
“What?”
“Who’s your fantasy lesbian lover?”
“I never thought about it.”
Crystal just circled a finger in the air. “Give it a minute.”
No, Shelby thought again, she’d never take these crazy fun conversations for granted.
“I’d try Mystique,” she decided, and had Crystal frowning at her.
“Who?”
“She’s a super villain—from the X-Men. Forrest and Clay were just crazy for the X-Men, remember, Granny? Jennifer Lawrence, the one you’d like to have a drink with, plays her in the movies now. Mystique can change into anybody, any shape, anything. So it seems to me a roll in the sheets with her would cover about anything you were after.”
“I believe we have a winner,” Viola decreed, and sat her client down in the chair.
A couple of hours later, she cuddled baby Beau and watched Callie and Jackson play on the swing set. She thought it would rain by nightfall, she could scent it, see it. But for this moment, it was about as perfect a late spring evening as she could ask for.
Her father was delayed at the clinic, so Clay saw to a few little gardening chores, and Gilly sat in the porch rocker, banished from the kitchen by her mother-in-law.
“It ought to be illegal to feel this happy,” Gilly said.
“I’m awful glad it’s not. Today, I’d be sharing a cell with you.”
“I saw Griff today.”
She’d have to get used to people equating her happiness with Griff. And they weren’t altogether wrong. “You did?”
“I took the boys for a walk this morning, before the heat set in, and he was down the road a bit, fixing Miz Hardigan’s gate—the sheriff’s mama.”
“She was in the salon today.”
“I stopped for a while. It’s nice of him to go by and see to little things like that for her. They don’t charge her for those little things. I know, ’cause she told me herself. She gives them baked goods, and she knitted them both caps and gloves for Christmas.
“Look how big Jackson is! It wasn’t so long ago he couldn’t get up on that swing unless one of us lifted him onto it.”
And Gilly’s eyes filled.
She waved a hand in the air as Shelby patted her arm. “I’ve still got too many hormones, I guess. But . . . I don’t think I’m