A Week Till the Wedding

by Linda Winstead Jones

  A part of her wanted to believe that he hadn’t had anything to do with what was happening, but nothing else made any sense. She’d tried to come up with another reason, an alternative, but there was no other logical explanation. He was playing her, had been playing her since the moment he’d walked into her shop. And it hurt. It hurt more than she’d imagined was possible.

  Why was she surprised? It was Jacob’s MO to do whatever was necessary to get what he wanted. He didn’t lose. Ever.

  He’d rip her livelihood out from under her to make sure she had no options other than him. Did he really think she was so weak? Did he think he could frighten her into packing up and following him to the other side of the country? Well, he was wrong. She wasn’t weak and she had options. She had plenty of options that didn’t include his sorry ass!

  Again, Daisy suffered a moment’s doubt. It was true that Martin hadn’t specifically said Jacob Tasker was behind the sale, but who else could it be? What other Tasker would go to the trouble? It didn’t make any sense to buy the property for one of their businesses. Downtown Bell Grove was much too small and insignificant to be of use to the company. The fact that hers was the only space that had to be vacated immediately was definitely suspicious. She tried to think of anyone else besides Jacob who might be behind the purchase. Ben probably didn’t have the money. He and Maddy were big spenders, and she couldn’t imagine that his savings were impressive. Not yet. Caleb and Luke had cut their ties to Bell Grove long ago. Jim? No. If it had been a golf course...maybe. Susan didn’t even like the idea of Jacob and Daisy together. She wouldn’t lift a finger to push Daisy out of town, and perhaps into her son’s arms, and given the timing Daisy couldn’t think of any other reason for the unexpected sale.

  It couldn’t possibly be coincidence that a Tasker was driving her out of business. Yeah, there were a lot of Taskers around, but she’d ruled out everyone else in Jacob’s family—but him—she didn’t think any of the cousins were even aware of her existence. Downtown Bell Grove functioned, but it wasn’t great investment property by any stretch of the imagination.

  That left Jacob. He wanted her, he’d set his sights on her the way he did a floundering company he thought his employer could take over and fix. Or destroy. Would he try to fix her and then, when he discovered that he couldn’t, dismantle her? Maybe he’d get bored with her, once she was entirely his and there was no more challenge. Maybe once he had her, he wouldn’t want her anymore. Like a fool she’d fallen in love all over again, and he’d just been playing a game. A game he fully intended to win.

  Jacob Tasker always won.

  She couldn’t believe she’d let him get under her skin this way, that she’d fallen in love with him, that she’d actually allowed herself to like him. Well, at least one part of her original plan was still in place. There would be no growing apart, this time. No nagging feeling of romantic matters left unfinished.

  They were finished, all right. This time she would tell Jacob to his face that they were through.

  * * *

  Jacob packed a bag this time, before driving to Daisy’s place. There was just a little more than a week until the reunion. They’d be moving back and forth between her home and Tasker House for the next few days, but he wasn’t going to pretend anymore that he wasn’t with her. One hundred percent, he was with her.

  Maybe tonight she’d agree to move to San Francisco with him. His mother’s mention of marriage had nagged at him all afternoon. She said that was what Daisy deserved, and she was right. But he wanted to wait. It was too soon; this had happened too fast. They didn’t know each other as well as they should before he took that big step. He’d get her to San Francisco, see how they worked there, make sure what he was feeling wasn’t entirely physical. He didn’t think that was the case, but still, he tried to be more cautious these days than he’d been at twenty-four. He liked to take his time and think important decisions through.

  If he’d done that seven years ago, he would never have left Daisy behind. But that was then, this was now. Life was more complicated than it had once been.

  Jacob pulled into the driveway and parked behind Daisy’s car, blocking her in. The car had been there when he’d left, so she’d obviously walked to work. Was she home? He had to assume she was, by this time of day. If she wasn’t home he’d wait on the front porch, sitting in the rocking chair there, waving at neighbors who passed by. He grabbed his bag from the backseat, locked the car and all but danced to the front steps. Maybe tonight she’d give him a key, so when he locked the door behind him as he left he’d be able to get back inside.

  Daisy met him at the door, and when Jacob saw her face he stopped in the middle of the big porch, several steps from the doorway. He no longer felt like dancing.

  Her cheeks were flushed red, her lips thin...she was furious.

  “What’s wrong?”

  She pushed the screen door back and stepped onto the front porch, poised as if headed into battle. “As if you don’t know.”

  He didn’t know what was coming, but it couldn’t possibly be good. “I really don’t have any idea...”

  “I’ll make it easy for you.” She stopped two steps away from him. “I’m not leaving Bell Grove. I will find another place for my business, and I will survive without you. I have never needed a knight on a white horse to come riding into town to rescue me, and if I did, well, we both know you’d be lousy at the job. I could’ve used a little rescuing seven years ago, but that girl is long gone. These days I take care of myself.”

  Jacob dropped his bag onto the porch. “Daisy, tell me what happened.” He tried to remain calm, because one of them needed to be and she was anything but.

  She waved an agitated hand in his direction. “Martin Chestnut came into the shop today and told me I have a week to get out. A week! Someone with the last name Tasker bought the building, and I’m being evicted. Like I need to tell you that. No more games, Jacob. No more games!”

  “You don’t have a lease?” He was horrified, and that horror came through in his voice.

  Her face turned a deeper shade of red. “That’s all you have to say? No, I don’t have a lease,” Daisy snapped. “I haven’t needed a lease until now. How was I supposed to know you’d buy the building and kick me out to make sure I can’t stay here?”

  The situation was looking increasingly ugly, and to be honest the comment about him being a lousy white knight still stung. Even if it was true. Before he could do anything, he needed to know more about what had happened between the time she’d left the bed and this moment where she looked at him with panic and fury in her eyes and in the set of her jaw.

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about. What makes you think I’d do something like that?”

  She was angry; he was insulted.

  “Who else?” Her voice was too high-pitched, too sharp. “I’ve tried to come up with another explanation, I really have, but nothing else makes sense. You’ve always been one to get what you want, one way or another. You asked me to leave here with you, I didn’t immediately fall on my knees in gratitude and say yes, and the next thing I know...”

  Now he was angry, and he remembered some of the arguments they’d had when they’d been together. Daisy could dig in her heels. So could he. “Do you really think I have the connections to put together a sale between two in the morning when I asked you to move to San Francisco with me and whenever you got the news?”

  “I figured you were planning ahead, covering all your bases.” Finally he saw a flicker of doubt on her face. The mouth softened, and she looked down at the floorboards of her porch. Her eyes narrowed, and her body seemed to unwind. “It wasn’t you?”

  “No.” The word was clipped, and held no room for debate.

  “You swear?”

  Jacob’s hands clenched into fists; he felt a tightening in his chest, as his temper rose. “Daisy, if I was going to do something so underhanded, would I use my name?”

  Daisy shuffled her feet. Her chee
ks flushed. She’d been angry, and apparently she hadn’t thought through the details. She’d lost her temper, and now she looked to be regretting it. A little bit, at least. “Well, apparently the buyer tried to cover their tracks, but they didn’t do a very good job of it. All Martin could find out was that the buyer was a Tasker, and I can only think of one Tasker who would...”

  “Me.” So much for remaining calm. The last of his taut control washed away. “Someone is attempting to run you out of town, and you assume it has to be me.”

  “Who else, Jacob? Who else would care?”

  He took one step closer to her. “I don’t know. It’s not like the county isn’t lousy with Taskers. Maybe a cousin decided to make an investment and you were just caught in the cross fire.”

  “Investment? Have you been to downtown Bell Grove lately?” she asked, but her voice was low. Her face had returned to a somewhat normal color. “Besides, Martin was so excited that someone was paying more than the land was worth, he all but danced into my shop to share the news.”

  It was an odd situation, he’d give her that, but at the moment he could only concentrate on one thing: she’d been given the opportunity to think the worst of him, and that’s exactly what she’d done.

  “If I was going to buy that building in an attempt to run you out of town, to come in here like some lousy white knight and create my own opportunity to rescue you, you can be assured that I could manage to do so without the Tasker name being involved. I could rip that building out from under you and you would never have a clue that I was the buyer. I’d run it through so many lawyers and companies that it would take a very long time to sort out the details. You’d never know. Chestnut would never know. Not that I’m so desperate for you to come with me that I’d try to force you into that position. Do I look desperate, Daisy?”

  “No.” There was a hint of concession in her voice.

  He took another step forward; she matched him with a step back.

  “No,” he repeated. “I was hoping you would decide to come home with me of your own free will, I was hoping it might be a choice you’d gladly make. Judging by the look on your face, I was wrong.” Judging by the look on her face, she was furious not only that someone had bought the building she leased, but that she might have to leave Bell Grove. He’d been right about that all along. Daisy belonged in Bell Grove. She wasn’t going anywhere.

  “I don’t know what I want anymore,” Daisy said.

  “I was hoping you might want me.”

  She shook her head. “I did. I do. Dammit, Jacob, I’m so angry right now, I’m so hurt and confused. I don’t know what comes next.”

  He stepped back, picked up his bag and turned around, glad that he couldn’t see the pained expression on her face anymore. Glad that she couldn’t see his.

  “I’ll find out who’s behind this,” he said as he walked down the steps. “I’ll let you know.” So much for taking Daisy home with him. So much for seeing how things worked out for them. If she was so quick to condemn him without even asking a single question, if she really thought so little of him, they didn’t have a chance.

  * * *

  It was dark out when the doorbell rang. Daisy jumped. Surely Jacob hadn’t come back! If it really wasn’t him who’d bought the building out from under her, and he’d found out who had, he would’ve just called. She hadn’t missed the fury in his eyes as she’d accused him. She couldn’t possibly have misread the way he’d closed off, shut down.

  She still didn’t know who else might’ve done it, but she’d believed Jacob when he’d said it wasn’t him. Too late. He’d never forgive her for doubting him, and if she was so quick to believe the worst maybe that was just as well. All they had was a bit of history and great sex. Neither was enough to build a lasting relationship upon.

  When she peeked through the security viewer, she sighed in relief. Then she opened the door and asked, “What on earth are you doing here?”

  Lily Bell had always been the difficult middle child. If there was a disagreement to be had, she was right in the middle of it. She’d argue any point just for the sake of arguing. There had been a while, a tough while, when her idea of a good time had included too much beer and staying out all night. For the past several years she’d dyed her dark blond hair black—or red or platinum, though it was normally black and it was black tonight—because she wanted to be different from her sisters.

  She didn’t have to dye her hair to be different. Lily had always been edgier than her sisters. Tougher, through and through. And at the moment, she was steaming.

  “Those bastards,” Lily said as she walked inside. Then she explained. “Mari called and told me what was going on. She can’t miss class tomorrow or Friday, so I took the rest of the week off and drove up.” Hands on hips, she asked. “Why didn’t you call me? I mean, the first call was fine. Getting out of the business, selling the house, blah, blah, blah. But the second call, the one I didn’t get? The Taskers?”

  “I know you’re busy with the new job,” Daisy explained weakly. “I didn’t want to bother you.”

  Lily responded by giving Daisy a big hug. “It’s never a bother to hear from you. We’re family. We stick together.” She kept her hands on Daisy’s shoulders as she pulled away. “Do you have a plan?”

  Daisy shook her head. A plan? She still wasn’t sure what she was going to do about dinner Friday night! Miss Vivian was expecting a dinner at the Tasker House with her old friend and rival, but if Daisy didn’t fix her hair and take her she wouldn’t go. And the old woman might never get another chance.

  “Well, I have a plan.” Lily plopped down on the couch. “At first I was just furious, but on the drive up I did some thinking. You sell the house like you planned, and come stay with me. Screw the Taskers. They can buy all of downtown Bell Grove for all I care, and they can choke on it. Go back to school, Daisy, or better yet take a job styling hair in Atlanta...”

  “I can’t work in Atlanta! The competition there is...”

  “You’re as good as any of them,” Lily said. “Better than most. I know styling hair isn’t what you planned to do when you went to school, but you’re good at it and I think you like it. Why do you think I drive all the way to Bell Grove to get my hair cut?”

  “Because I don’t charge you?”

  Lily laughed. “Okay, there is that. But if you weren’t the best I’d pay someone else to do it and save the gas money.”

  “I don’t know...” Daisy sat beside her sister. It was nice, not to be alone with her out-of-control thoughts and regrets.

  “Maybe this is a blessing,” Lily said, sounding oddly calm and reasonable.

  “How can you say that?”

  Lily looked Daisy in the eye. “You’re stuck here, you’re in a rut. Face it, Daisy, you don’t belong in Bell Grove anymore. What are you going to do here, even if you stay and find another location for the shop? Keep on running Mom and Dad’s business, make enough to get by and eventually marry some local guy. Though, honestly, I can’t think of a single man in town who’s good enough for you. If you move to Atlanta you’ll have so many more options. You can start over. The world is so much bigger than Bell Grove, Daisy, and you need to be a part of it. It’s time.”

  Time. Past time. “Will you miss it?” she asked, watching Lily’s face for a clue to her feelings.

  “Miss what?”

  “The shop, the house...” She almost choked on the words. “What’s left of Mom and Dad. Once it’s all gone there won’t be any getting that back.”

  “Oh, Daisy.” Lily leaned in for a hug. “Of course I’ll miss it. But nothing stays the same, and it’s been such a long time. Is that why you stayed here? Please tell me you didn’t stay for us, for me and Mari.”

  “No, I stayed for myself, because I couldn’t let what was left of them go. I didn’t even realize it until a few hours ago.”

  Daisy had been furious. Before that she’d been shocked, and sad, and relieved and hopeful. All in the space of a fe
w hours. Talking to Jacob had settled her down some, even though their conversation hadn’t ended on a happy note. Now Lily opened her eyes to options she hadn’t considered. A spark of excitement grew where her fear had been. Everything and everyone in Bell Grove was familiar to her. She was safe here, and she felt her parents’ presence everywhere. It had been comfortable, but it hadn’t been right. She knew that, now.

  It was time to set safety aside in the name of moving on. Not with Jacob, not to the other side of the country, but moving on just the same.

  Daisy rested her head on Lily’s shoulder. “I’m glad you came.”

  “Me, too.”

  Lily’s voice brightened. “Now that we have that settled, who do we kill first?”

  * * *

  Jacob didn’t see anyone when he entered the house, but he was sure they could hear him. He didn’t try to be quiet, didn’t soften the slam of the door behind him. He walked up the stairs to his bedroom, opened the door, threw his bag onto the floor and headed for the closet and his cell phone.

  With a flick of his thumb he turned it on, and within seconds the icons for voice mail messages and texts popped up. He didn’t have time to listen to or read a single message, not now. Maybe later, when he couldn’t sleep. Jacob was pretty sure he wouldn’t be sleeping tonight. He was too wound up, too disappointed. It was three hours earlier in San Francisco, and he knew Ted would still be in the office.

  Ted didn’t have a personal life any more than Jacob did.

  He dialed on a direct line, and Ted answered.

  As soon as Jacob spoke, Ted interrupted and began his rant. “Where the hell have you been! Hudson’s been calling you, and he’s furious that you haven’t called him back.”

  “Hudson’s always furious,” Jacob said. “And I’m on vacation. I need a favor.”

  “A favor. You leave me here all alone...”

  “You’re hardly alone.”