The corners of his strong mouth lifted into that half-smile. And for a moment, she wanted to step into his arms and soothe whatever troubles he’d been carrying inside as long as she’d known him. The sorrow that showed in that almost-smile. The one she’d dreamed about. Owned by the guy she’d wanted since before he went and got all famous and had beautiful, rich women stuck to him like Velcro. The only man on earth who could rip her heart right out of her chest and grind it to a pulp if she let him.
She wasn’t going to let him.
She took a step back. “I’m leaving.”
His gaze dropped to her mouth. “You don’t have to.” It was an invitation. “But you probably should.”
And that was a warning. His lust-laden voice and smoky eyes clouded her senses, circled around her heart and threatened to break it in half. At least he was honest. Always had been. So Miranda gathered what little willpower she had left and walked out. Because the truth was, Talmadge was the one leaving and Miranda never would.
Chapter Five
Giving the door to the inn’s owner’s suite a frustrated slam, Miranda tossed her keys and purse onto the dinette table. She needed a shower. A hot one. Or maybe a cold one would work better after rubbing against Talmadge’s bare, muscled back, because she needed something to douse the flames still making parts of her body quiver that had absolutely no business doing so. At least not when anyone else was in the room.
A wavy, black head of messy hair peeked around the corner from the kitchen. Her younger brother, Jamie, waved and pointed to the phone at his ear. His thin build and five feet eight frame made him look more like a high school kid rather than a college sophomore.
“Mom,” he mouthed.
Miranda grimaced.
“I’ve got classes and homework tomorrow, Mom. I can’t help your new boyfriend move in.” Jamie rolled his eyes at Miranda.
Her grimace turned to a groan. Not another one. The last one was supposedly “for real this time” and was going to marry her mother and take care of her if she’d just let him move in and recover from a back injury. Yeah, he’d lasted about as long as her mother’s meager paycheck. Then he borrowed her car to go to the liquor store and never came back.
Jamie shot Miranda an evil grin. “Hold on, Mom. Miranda wants to talk to you.” He walked over and shoved the phone at her.
“I hate you.” She took the phone, and Jamie laughed.
She flicked on the floor lamp that sat in the corner of the den, and sank onto Bea’s old plaid sofa. Talmadge’s grandparents had only used the owner’s suite to rest during the day when they ran the inn, so the furnishings were sparse. Miranda lived there, and someday she’d redecorate and make it a homey little place all of her own. Right after she figured out how to pay for it. In the meantime, Bea’s old sofa was Jamie’s bed. It was a whole lot cheaper than a dorm at Highlands University.
With an exhausted breath, Miranda put the phone to her ear. “Hi, Mom.”
“How’s my little girl?” Her mother’s voice, raspy from years of inhaling smoke from menthol cigarettes and seedy biker bars, scratched at her ears like claws against a chalkboard.
Right. Miranda hadn’t been a little girl since she was two. She’d been a grown-up practically since birth, trying to fill in the gaps of responsibility in her family just to survive. Once Jamie arrived, Miranda had gone from adult to mother figure. All by the age of six and a half. While Miranda was making sure Jamie was bathed regularly and teaching him to read, her mother’s biggest concern was finding another man with a Harley.
“I’m just fine. You?” Why did she even ask?
“You sound tired, sugar.”
Oh no. Sugar usually meant her mother wanted something. And that something was usually money.
“What is it, Mom?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Her mother was already defensive.
Definitely wanted something.
Miranda exhaled. “Nothing. I’m just tired. Bea’s funeral was today, and I had the wake at the inn.”
Her mother sighed. Loudly. “You’re a good soul, Mira. Taking care of someone who wasn’t even family.” She emphasized the last three words.
“Bea did a lot for me. I owed her.” For the way Bea had taken an interest in Miranda’s life, given her the credit no one else had for raising Jamie when her mother was off doing Lord knew what with God knew whom, sometimes not coming home for days at a time, Miranda owed her a lot more than a wake.
Her heart suddenly squeezed. Her friend was never coming back.
“Listen, sugar.”
Here it came.
“Ted is moving in.”
Oh, this one’s name was Ted.
“Can we borrow your Jeep? All he has is a Harley.”
Big surprise.
Well, she wasn’t going to chance another one of her mother’s boyfriends running off with the only vehicle Miranda owned.
She’d been supporting herself and Jamie since she was eighteen, even moving them into the apartment over Lorenda’s garage. Miranda loved her mother, she really did. Who knew why her mother had turned out the way she had? She wouldn’t talk about her childhood, but Miranda had figured out a long time ago that it must’ve been hard and very, very painful. Still, she wasn’t going to keep enabling her. “Can’t, Mom. I need it to haul supplies for the renovations.”
“Maybe the inn was a bad investment, Mira.”
Miranda rubbed her eyes with a thumb and index finger. Was it too much to ask that her mother show some support? A little encouragement? Just once? “Look, Mom, I have to go.”
Jamie came out of the kitchen, munching on barbecue chips. He picked up one of his textbooks off the table and waved it at Miranda.
“Jamie needs help with his homework.”
Thank you, she mouthed to her little brother and hung up.
“Okay, I don’t hate you quite as much.” She kicked off her shoes.
“Good. So . . . I’m getting a job.” He shoved another chip into his mouth and chomped.
“What? No, you’re not.” No he wasn’t.
The drive back and forth to college because she couldn’t afford a dorm chewed up a lot of his time. Besides, she wasn’t about to let Jamie waste precious study time at a dead-end job. Not with his brains. She’d been deprived of a college education even though she’d finished first in her senior class and scored a thirty-one on the ACTs, but she’d see to it that Jamie got one if it bankrupted her.
Which it just might, because her funds were running dangerously low. If she had to choose between paying for Jamie’s tuition and paying the mortgage on the inn, she’d have to default on the note and lose her dream of becoming a business owner.
“I want you to focus on school.”
“I am focused on school,” he argued around a mouthful of chips.
She gave her head an authoritative shake, switching into mother hen mode. “I don’t want a nothing job to distract you from studying.”
Her phone rang. Good, because she was not having this conversation. She worked too hard to make sure Jamie had a better life. She didn’t want him to lose focus now that he was half finished with his degree.
“Hello.” She answered the call without even looking at the number.
“Hey, girlfriend,” said Lorenda, her BFF since high school.
“Hey yourself. Whatcha doing?”
“I’m packing to jet off to Paris for a romantic weekend with my new rich lover,” Lorenda said, all seriousness.
“Okay. Whatcha really doing?”
Lorenda laughed. She’d been mostly a single mom since her two kids were born, because her husband hadn’t come home from Afghanistan alive. Both boys were still in elementary school, so trips to Paris and romantic weekends weren’t on Lorenda’s list of priorities. “I’m cleaning the boys’ bathroom. They had the stomach flu the last two days.”
“Oh dear.” Miranda wrinkled her nose.
“Yeah, I’m living the dream.” Her tone softened. “
Sorry, I missed Bea’s funeral.”
“Bea would’ve understood.”
“My mom and dad said you did a nice job with the wake. How’d it go?”
The way Miranda saw it, she had two choices. She could tell her best friend the truth about how Talmadge had so thoroughly explored her mouth with his and how he’d done an exceptional job fondling her ass with his big, warm hand. Or she could lie.
“Oh, you know. Just an average wake, I guess.” Average wake her ass. Literally.
“Need me to come by tomorrow and help clean up?” Lorenda offered.
“Already done. Besides, it sounds like you’ve got plenty more to clean than I do.”
Lorenda laughed. “Hey, my mom just called. Did you know there was a town meeting tonight?”
“Nope.” Between losing Bea and organizing the wake, Miranda hadn’t kept up with the weekly events in Red River. “Why?”
Lorenda hesitated.
Never a good sign. “What?”
Jamie wandered into the kitchen and stuck his head in the refrigerator to look for more food.
“You were kind of elected to chair the Hot Rides and Cool Nights Festival this year.”
Miranda sat up. “Elected? I didn’t put my name in.”
“Um, Mom said Clydelle and Francine put it in because no one else volunteered.”
“But Mrs. Wilkinson usually chairs it.” A flutter settled in the pit of Miranda’s stomach, because Mrs. Wilkinson hated Miranda. With a passion. Because Miranda’s mother had caught the eye of Mr. Wilkinson many moons ago, and that didn’t go over so hot at their church since he was a deacon and Mrs. Wilkinson taught Sunday school. Of course, they painted her mother as the aggressor, and Mr. Wilkinson swore nothing physical had happened between them.
To this day, Mrs. Wilkinson’s head spun full circle when she saw anyone with the last name of Cruz. That woman had already made Miranda’s life uncomfortable by lifting her nose in the air like Miranda was dirt every time they ran into each other. Which was often in a town the size of Red River. “Why didn’t she volunteer this year?”
“Apparently, she was late to the meeting. Not a lot of people were there because of Bea’s funeral today. Clydelle made a motion to vote on it tonight, Francine seconded the motion. Right before Mrs. Wilkinson walked in claiming someone had sliced one of her tires. Mom said Old Lady Wilkinson didn’t exactly take the news with grace. So watch out for her. She’s scary.”
The woman was way beyond scary. She was one hundred and fifty percent shouldn’t-be-allowed-to-operate-heavy-equipment-or-own-a-gun crazy.
And just like that, Miranda was back in the Wilkinsons’ crosshairs.
“Your ass went viral.” Jamie shouted at Miranda over the buzzing of the electric sander in her hands. He sat on a barstool behind the inn’s kitchen counter while she tried to keep some forward momentum going with the renovations. She’d lost valuable work time because of hosting the wake yesterday . . . and because her contractor was still AWOL.
“What?” She shouted back at him without looking away from the wood beam that ran across the dining room ceiling. Because surely she’d just heard him wrong. He did not just say—
“Your ass,” he yelled, “went viral!”
When Miranda jerked her head around to look at him, the old rickety ladder she stood on shook. She went still, regained her balance, and flipped the power switch to off. The handheld sander whirred to a stop, and she glared at her brother through orange safety goggles.
With a toss of his head, Jamie pushed his long, black bangs to one side and turned his laptop so she could see the YouTube video of her on all fours. The recording appeared a little off-color from behind goggles, but it was indeed her ass. Bared for all the world to see on YouTube, except for the thin silk layer of her sheer panties.
She clamped her eyes shut.
“Guess how many views you’ve gotten just since the wake yesterday?” Little brother sounded way too happy about her butt cheeks showing up on social media.
“I was trying to help Lloyd!”
“No really. Guess.”
“Shouldn’t you be defending my honor? Hunting down the delinquents who caused my humiliation?”
He smiled. When he leaned forward so he could see the screen, too, his bangs fell across one eye. “I’d rather give them a high five. This is sick stuff. You know how many years I’ve tried to find something this good to hold over your head?” He answered his own question. “Ever since you practiced cutting my hair because you were thinking of applying to beauty school.”
“It didn’t turn out that bad.” Sort of.
“You had to take me to the barber and have it shaved to the scalp.”
True. But on the upside, she’d realized becoming a hairstylist wasn’t her thing.
She rubbed her forehead. “Can’t you take the YouTube video down?”
Jamie shrugged. “Once it’s out there, it’s out there.” He didn’t look away from the screen. “Oh, wait. This is the good part.” He held up a finger for a second, eyes intent on the screen, then burst into fits of laughter.
“Don’t you have college classes to attend? Or do you just like wasting my money?”
He flipped his laptop around again. “Online class today.” He pointed to the screen and grabbed a cookie from the bin.
“You eat more than you’re worth,” she deadpanned. Maybe she’d give him another haircut after she duct-taped him to the barstool.
He tossed his hair to one side again and munched on the cookie. “Precisely why I’m getting a job.” He grabbed another cookie, trying to satisfy his voracious metabolism. Damn him. “And I’m going to pay you back all the tuition money one day.”
“Every penny.” She tried to make it sound like a reprimand but ended up fighting off a smile instead. “After you finish your degree. So no job. Not unless it has something to do with a future career.”
“You know I love you, sis.” Jamie blew her a kiss, and her heart warmed even though she knew he was just sucking up. He was a great kid, and he was there to help her whenever she needed it, just the way Bea had been.
Bea believed Miranda could turn this place into a thriving focal point of the town again. It had been Bea’s idea for Miranda to buy it. But now Talmadge had inherited the note. He might consider a grace period on the payments if Miranda needed it.
She chewed the inside of her cheek. No. No way would she ask him for help. Not after how close she’d been to tossing her self-control to the wind while helping wrap his shoulder. And especially not after he insinuated that she may or may not have taken advantage of his grandmother, a woman she’d loved like a mother.
She needed to prove her mettle to Talmadge Oaks.
No. She needed to prove her mettle to herself. For Jamie’s sake, she had to prove once and for all that they didn’t have to accept the hand of poverty that had been dealt the Cruz children. Since they’d never gotten any encouragement from their bar-hopping mother, Jamie was worth Miranda’s effort.
Even though he enjoyed the humiliation of her ass going viral on YouTube.
She flipped the sander on again, but a loud knock sounded on the back door. Carefully, she leaned to the right and looked down the hall. The door swung open a second later.
Talmadge swaggered in, dressed to the nines. Overkill for Red River, in her opinion. But holy lip-smacking moly, he was the most perfectly formed man she’d ever seen.
She drew in a sharp breath and looked away, only to have his sheer male beauty draw her attention right back. She felt like a bee that had just discovered an ocean of nectar.
He flipped a pair of black aviators to the back of his head as soon as he stepped across the threshold in black tailored dress pants and black driving shoes. A sling still held the injured arm against his midsection, but a black mock turtleneck clung to the hills and valleys of his chest and arms.
He could’ve done Don Corleone proud dressed like that, except for the tiny poodle under his arm. A mob boss probab
ly would’ve preferred a pit bull over a bow-wearing toy poodle.
“Morning.” His lips seemed to mouth the words as she took him in. She looked down at the buzzing noise and snapped out of the trance. Flipped the switch to off again.
He gave her ladder a long once-over. The muscles in his jaw flexed, and several creases appeared between his eyes.
“Morning.” She touched her jaw to make sure it wasn’t hanging open, and to her surprise it wasn’t. Because the man was drool-worthy.
“Hey, Mr. Oaks, you probably don’t remember me, but I’m Miranda’s brother.” Her little brother’s voice shook with admiration.
“Kid brother.” Miranda shot him a disgusted look, because Jamie never looked at her with that kind of awe. And she was paying his way through college! “Seven years my junior.”
“Six and a half, and you never let me forget it,” Jamie mouthed off, but his expression went timid the moment his attention returned to Talmadge.
“Because you should show your elders some respect.” Miranda’s teeth were starting to hurt from grinding them so hard.
Jamie smiled at her, took an exaggerated bite of a bagel, and plunked his legs up on the counter crossed at the ankles.
“Sure, I remember you. You’re just taller now.” Talmadge chuckled and notched up his chin at her brother. Miranda thought Jamie would melt right there on the floor from hero-worship.
Really? Talmadge was an architect, not a movie star. She rolled her eyes. But part of her heart cinched tight, and she wondered if Jamie’s instant respect for Talmadge had something to do with never having a dad around. Never even knowing who his dad was. Of course, Talmadge seemed to command that respect from most people in a room simply by stepping into it.
“Did you forget something, Mr. Oaks?” Miranda turned her attention back to the other annoying male in the room.
Jamie blew out a humph like she was the biggest dream crusher in the world and straightened to tap away on his laptop again.
Talmadge gave Lloyd a boost. “I need to leave him here.”
Miranda set the sander on the flimsy metal shelf attached to the top of the ladder and grabbed a paint scraper. Furiously, she started to work on a crossbeam directly over her head. “Why would you leave him here? He’s your dog.”
It's In His Smile (A Red River Valley Novel Book 3) Page 6