by Jill Sanders
Thinking about it reminded her how awkward of a teen she had been. Not only a klutz, but nerdy too. Because her parents had been older, she’d been raised almost as if she’d been from a different era. She’d watched a movie once where a kid had been raised in a bunker by his folks, who had believed a nuclear war had actually taken place. When he’d emerged, he’d been so far out of his element, kids had made fun of him. Tracy had been that kind of teen.
But that time was over, so naturally she talked herself into climbing up the ladder while her father watched, giving directions. They had gone into town and purchased all the metal sheets and screws needed to replace the roof.
“Once you get the old metal down, I can—”
“No.” All morning long she’d been fighting with him about staying off the ladder. “You’re keeping both feet on the ground.” She glared at him. “Besides, there isn’t that much to do. It’s not like our chickens have a luxury mansion.” She chuckled as she tossed another piece of the old metal down, and he went inside to get out of the heat.
She was wearing her father’s thick gloves to keep from banging up her fingers this time. Even though it was almost a hundred degrees out, she was wearing a pair of her father’s long overalls with a long-sleeved shirt and steel-toed boots. There was no way she was going to end up in the clinic this time.
She was just tossing the last piece of metal down into the yard when a white truck pulled into the drive. Instantly, everything shifted inside her. She wished more than anything that she’d gone in to shower and was sitting on the front porch in a flowing white dress with her hair and makeup firmly in place.
Why did Luke always come around when she least expected? She quickly glanced down at her attire and groaned. She thought about ducking behind the back side of the coop until he left, but he stepped out of the truck and waved in her direction.
“What in the hell are you doing up there?” He rushed towards her, a sexy frown marring his lips.
“Replacing the roof on the chicken coop.” She decided to act cool and continued scraping off the remaining metal chunks.
She was so focused on her task; she hadn’t heard him climb the ladder. She stopped herself from squealing when his hands wrapped around her waist and lifted her up.
“Why in the hell are you the one doing this?” he growled next to her ear as he pulled her towards the ladder.
“Let go.” She pushed his hands away from her, scared she would fall.
“Not until you’re safely back on the ground.” He hoisted her up and easily carried her down the ladder, much like she’d been carted off the last roof she’d been on.
When her feet hit the ground, she reached up and pushed him, hard, on the chest. He didn’t budge. Instead, he smiled.
She reached up and pushed a strand of her sweaty hair out of her eyes and then stuck her hands on her hips. “Who do you think you are? Coming onto my land, tossing me around?” She took a step closer to him. “You have no right…”
His smile just continued, so she started back up the ladder to finish her job.
“Oh no, you don’t.” His hands once more covered her waist. “If it needs to get done, hire someone.” He picked her up once more and moved between her and the coop.
“I can’t afford to. Now would you kindly move.”
“Then I’ll do it,” he said as he started rolling up his sleeves.
“The hell you will.” She crossed her arms over her chest and frowned at him. “If you think—”
He stopped her by just touching her arm. “Tessa, what kind of friend would I be if I let you climb back up there and you ended up getting hurt.” He finished rolling up his sleeves. “You can hand me up the new stuff.” He nodded towards the pile of sheet metal. She had been wondering how she was going to get it up the ladder all by herself. “All you have to do is hand them up to me.” He tucked the cordless drill under his arm and climbed the ladder. “Here,” he said once he’d made it up. “Like this.” He waited until she maneuvered a piece to the side and held it up on its tall end. He easily reached down and took the piece from her bare-handed.
“My father has more work gloves.” She quickly retrieved the extra pair and tossed them up to him. “You don’t have to do this, you know.”
“Sure I do,” he said between securing the screws in. He glanced down at her. “I owe you an apology for bugging out on you like I did at the birthday party. I’ve already apologized to Chase and Lauren for skipping out.”
She stood back and watched him work, trying hard not to drool. “It was probably my fault. I can’t even remember what I said that had you running.”
He chuckled and took the next piece of metal from her. “Nothing. Sometimes my mind just snaps to the wrong things.” He shrugged. “Like I have PTSD.” He moved and secured the next piece of metal.
“Were you in the service?” she asked.
“Special Forces for a few years. I got out early late year.” So many things about him fell into place. He fell silent while he worked. He secured three more pieces before talking again. “I guess that’s part of the problem.”
“What is?” she asked, rolling her neck to get a better look at him. He moved to the edge and smiled down at her.
“I have a hard time opening up. Or so they told me.”
“Oh?” She felt her heart kick when his brown eyes met hers. She waited for him to continue.
“I guess I’m just worried about too many things.” He waited as he pulled up the next piece. At the rate they were going, they would be done in less than an hour.
“What kind of things?” she asked, curious.
“This and that. My feelings and thoughts, I suppose.”
She bit back so many questions she wanted to ask him. “Why do you think that you are afraid to open up?” He shook his head and she noticed his eyes had grown dark. “You don’t have to tell me,” she added quickly.
“You sound just like my shrink.” He stooped and glanced at her. “Sounds like you’ve been to one too.” When she just continued to look up at him, he sighed and turned back to his task. “I might tell you, maybe some other time...” He took the next-to-last piece. “If you’ve decided to stick around Fairplay.”
She was thankful she was bending down to pick up the last piece of metal, so he didn’t see the blood leave her face. “I haven’t decided, yet,” she lied.
“Why the aversion towards the town?”
She held the metal, waiting, while he secured the last piece.
“Not the town, directly. Just some of the people in it. They are the reason I went to counseling.”
His dark eyebrows shot up as he reached for the last piece of metal. “Everyone I’ve met so far seems pretty nice.”
“Oh, I’m sure they are. But you’ve only met a few.”
He nodded. “True enough, but I can’t imagine damning an entire town for a handful of misfits.” He glanced down at her, then back to his task. “Besides, school kids can be so cruel. Most of them grow out of it once they start their own families or move away.”
She laughed. “Some don’t.”
He finished up and climbed back down the ladder as she held it steady for him. The way his jeans hugged him had her heart rate spiking. She mentally decided it had been way too long since her last date.
When he got down from the ladder, he swiped at the sweat on his forehead and smiled at her. “You know, I probably was one of “those” kids in school.”
“Oh?” She doubted it. After all, the man had just spent almost an hour up on the roof of her chicken coop in almost a hundred-degree weather, all because he didn’t want her to get hurt. A man like that, she just couldn’t imagine making fun of a girl because she wore braces or had stringy hair and wore outdated outfits.
“Sure, I mean, I was captain of the basketball team, I played quarterback in football, then, after graduation, I entered the forces and was head of my unit. I got engaged to the head cheerleader…”
He stopped all mo
vement as he quickly retreated into his mind. She noticed the change in him right away. He lost a few shades of coloring and his dark eyes focused on something far away. He was so deep in his mind that she doubted anything or anyone could reach.
Moving closer, she touched his arm. He jumped slightly and blinked a few too many times.
“Are you okay?” she asked. When he just nodded his head and opened and closed his mouth a few times, she felt bad for him.
“I’m a terrible host. Here you are, working and sweating in the heat and I haven’t even offered you a glass of tea yet.” She took a step back, then turned around quickly. “I’ll be right back.” She rushed towards the house, not wanting to take a chance to glance around and see if he was still there.
She walked into the house and rushed up the stairs and into her room to change out of the overalls. Pulling on a pair of shorts and a tank top, she desperately wished for a shower, but knew there wasn’t enough time. Instead, she sprayed herself a few times with her favorite perfume and double-checked her hair and face in the mirror.
Then she rushed downstairs and pulled the pitcher of tea out along with two glasses and made her way back outside.
She was surprised to find him sitting on the front porch swing. It looked like he’d cooled off some and was enjoying the cool breeze coming from the hills.
“You’ve got a nice place here,” he said once she set the pitcher and glasses down.
“It’s always been my favorite thing about Fairplay.” She sat next to him and poured them both some tea. “What brought you into town?” she asked as she handed him his glass.
“I suppose the same thing that brings others to a small rural town in Texas.” He leaned back after taking a long drink from the tea. “Peace and quiet.”
She couldn’t hold in the sarcastic chuckle.
“What?” he asked, turning slightly towards her.
“You don’t move to a small town in Texas for peace and quiet.”
“No?” He looked amused.
“No. Small towns in Texas are full of scandals, gossip, and politics.”
“Oh?” He reached down and poured himself some more tea.
“Sure. I guess you weren’t here when the mayor’s wife almost shot and killed Grant, or when the tornado ripped through, destroying half of the town. Or when there was a drug gang that burned down half the hillside, or the other time the drug cartel came into town and…” She stopped and shook her head. “Needless to say, Fairplay has had its fair share of excitement.”
“I guess so.” He smiled. “Then again, anywhere you go… things happen.” He sighed and rested back, his eyes moving over the chicken coop. “I think they like it.” He nodded to the chickens who were busy pecking around the yard. Some of them had already wandered into the building to check things out.
“Yup, beats getting rained on.”
“So…” He reached up and set his glass down. “What else needs to be done around here?”
***
He didn’t know what had caused him to ask the question, but something was drawing him to help her. He knew how fragile her father was and doubted he was able to do most things around the place that needed to get done.
He chalked it up to just being friendly, but the truth was, he liked being around her. She was really the only person he’d met in Fairplay that he felt completely comfortable around. The funny thing was, he wasn’t quite sure why.
It had taken him a long time to build up the courage to come apologize for his actions. He’d talked himself out of it over a dozen times. But he’d run into Chase at the grocery store and had to admit that he needed closure with Tessa before she moved away. That was, if she was going to leave, something everyone in town was still speculating about.
She had avoided answering his questions. For some reason, he desperately wanted to know the answer.
He’d heard at the store that she’d been signed with an agent and that her music was being highly sought after by a few big-name artists. The list he’d heard was most impressive, but kept changing and growing every time he heard it. He wondered what she was doing hanging around a town she obviously hated so much.
Still, he’d felt guilty enough to help her with the roof and to ask her if she needed any more help around the place. He’d been avoiding women, in particular, since the accident. He didn’t believe that, one day, he would be able to move on, even though everyone close to him had said it would happen, eventually.
All the shrinks in the world couldn’t lift the humongous guilt from him. Nor did he want them to. No, he deserved to spend the rest of his days alone.
Tessa had tried to convince him that she could handle anything else that needed to be done around the place, and had accepted his apology for running off on her at the party.
After her father had come out on the porch, Luke had made a quick retreat back to his house. He was becoming very comfortable in his seclusion, something he’d never really experienced before moving to Fairplay.
His life had been full of so many friends and family members that he’d never felt lonely before. Now, as he looked back on his childhood, he knew it had been too full. He’d never taken the time to turn inward and think about what he wanted. Who he was.
His father had molded him from a young age to be who he wanted. Sports were his priority during school. After graduation, the weight of the knowledge that, once his father retired, he would be handed a multi-billion-dollar company had caused him to disobey his father and join the military.
He’d gone straight off to basic, thinking he’d pissed off his old man. But when he returned, his father couldn’t have been more proud of his decision. Almost like he’d planned it all along.
He cringed as he thought about going back to that kind of life, where he couldn’t be himself or follow his own dreams. He glanced around his small farm and couldn’t hold back the smile.
This is what he was meant to do. This is where he truly belonged. Not in some high rise, sitting behind a mahogany desk, balancing so many other’s lives in his hands.
Hell, he’d even gotten a dog. Chase had convinced him to stop by and pick up the little one from his clinic. Now, the little girl was settled in his place like she belonged there. He still hadn’t picked out a name for her, but was liking the name Lucky, since he’d been lucky not to squash the poor thing in the first place.
Here, he could wake up and do what he wanted every day and the only one that mattered was himself.
Chapter Five
Tessa wanted to rip out her hair. She was sitting at a crowded Mama’s, trying to work on her latest song, and instead was staring at a blank screen. Where there used to be a fountain of words that flowed from her, now, there was complete and utter silence in her mind.
Why?
What was going on with her? She glanced around the room and her eyes narrowed. It had to be this town. These people.
Sure, there were a few people sitting in the diner that she considered friends, but the others… She hid a shiver and leaned back.
She glanced over her laptop towards the couple in the next booth. Todd Wellington and Heather Snider were two of the reasons she wanted to vacate Fairplay as soon as possible.
Her eyes moved over to the table across the room where Christy and Stephany sat huddled together, giggling about one thing or another.
The two girls were thing one and thing two in Tessa’s book of reasons her life growing up in town had sucked.
There had been plenty of reasons why they had made fun of her growing up. In elementary school she had talked with a slight lisp because of her teeth. She’d been thrilled and excited to finally get braces, but they had started calling her Tracy Bracy and making fun of her metal mouth and guards.
After two years, they removed the braces and it was her clothing that had been too big or too old-fashioned. In junior high, she’d had to have the braces on once more. Her hair had gone through this greasy stage, which hadn’t helped at all.
She supposed a lot of what she’d gone through was her own fault. She’d never really had a female role model to look up to. At least not until she’d met Savannah on the bridge that one day. The day she’d first thought about jumping.
“What are you doing?” someone asked, causing her to jump slightly.
She blinked a few times as her eyes focused on another reason she’d hated going to school. John Drake stood next to her booth, smiling down at her.
“Working.” She turned back to her screen, only to feel him slide in next to her in the booth, blocking her in. She moved over until her shoulder pushed up against the window.
His chuckle was soft, causing her teeth to clench. It was hard to believe that at one point that laugh would had turned her knees weak and caused her stomach to flutter.
“Looks like you’re not getting very far.” His arm came around her and his fingers started playing with her hair. She leaned up slightly to get away.
“It’s a little too loud in here.” She glanced around, wishing more than anything that Mama was working. Instead, there were two ladies she didn’t know rushing around like they were late for everything. “I think I’ll try to head—”
“Oh, don’t go just yet.” He started rubbing her shoulders and she felt shivers run down her arms. Her mind whirled to what she would have given in her youth to be sitting in a booth with Johnny Drake’s arm wrapped around her like this. “We’re just getting reacquainted. I’ve heard so much about you lately. Heard you’re writing songs for Garth Brooks now. You’ve come a long way from Tracy Bracy.” His eyes ran up and down her, making her almost gag.
Tessa held in a laugh. The rumors were being spun and had weaved their way to every ear in town. Most of them, as usual, were untrue.
“You shouldn’t believe everything you hear.” She shut her computer down, slid it into its case, and glared at him. “I’d like to go now.”
Instead of moving away, he moved closer. She could smell the beer on his breath and cringed. It was only eleven in the morning and he appeared drunk already.
He’d really fallen far from his quarterback and prom king status from a few years back. Her eyes moved over his face. Not only were his once-sexy blue eyes bloodshot, he had a few pimples on his nose and his blonde hair was greasy and pushed back under a hat that looked like it hadn’t been taken off in a few years.