“Just do it,” she said. “Or I will. I hope I don’t wobble on the ladder.” She’d learned that his sense of... What? Chivalry? Protection? Male chauvinist pigginess? Whatever it was, she knew he wouldn’t like her climbing up the ladder.
A steel platform had been installed at the bottom of the sign to make it easy to change. When she handed him the strip of vinyl, he held it. “What is this?”
“An L. I had a hundred of them made to match the signs. You paint over the S, spray glue on the back of the L, then stick it in place. Changes kisses back to Kissel.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Not at all. Dad and I have been doing it for years. When I was in high school, I caught some kids in the act of vandalizing the boards. I tried to get Uncle Frank to put them in jail, but he wouldn’t. He just made the kids repair the damage, but they had so much fun doing it, it wasn’t a punishment.”
“It is to me,” Nate grumbled as he went up the ladder. “It’s a desecration.”
Stepping back, Terri directed him. When the wind caught the white paint so it sprayed on him, Nate unbuttoned his shirt, removed it and tossed it to the ground.
Smiling at the sight of his beautiful bare upper half, Terri stretched out under the oak tree, head on her arm and ate the rest of the orange slices. She watched Nate struggle with changing the kisses. The paint blew back in his face, then the glue got on him. The top of the L stuck to the bottom, then to his hands. The same things had happened to her the first few times and she got angry at her honorary uncles, Jake and Frank, for laughing at her. But now she had to admit that watching Nate was a bit like seeing a comedy routine.
A blue Fiat full of very pretty young women came by, slowed to a roll, and they began whistling at the shirtless Nate.
“I like kisses better,” one of the blondes shouted out the window.
“I’m in cabin number seventy-one. I’m there alone on Tuesday nights,” a brunette yelled.
“Hey, Terri! Did you import him just for us?”
“I do love a hairy chest. It’s so male!”
Laughing, they sped away.
Nate looked down at Terri on the ground. “That was a friendly group.”
She stood up and dusted herself off. “If those girls got you alone, you wouldn’t live through it.” As he came down the ladder, she squinted up at the board. “That’s the worst job I’ve ever seen. You got paint on the L and you pasted it up crooked. It looks like Lake Kisse, then a slanted hyphen.”
“I was probably sending some subliminal message. I like kisses better.”
She was standing in front of him, her eyes on his bare chest. “You got paint on you.”
“It’ll come off.” He was silently watching her as she raised her hand to his chest. She meant to brush away the paint, but it didn’t come off. It was stuck to his hair and skin.
Nate didn’t move as Terri ran her hand up onto his shoulder. Her hand was so warm, so—
“Hey!” came a male voice. “Terri is mine!”
They had been so absorbed in her touching Nate’s bare skin that they hadn’t heard the Mercedes SUV stop on the road.
As though coming out of a trance, Terri dropped her hand and turned toward the car. Inside were two gorgeous, identical young men with dark hair and eyes, and those cheekbones that clothes designers so loved.
“Terri, my love, couldn’t you wait for me?” the one driving called out.
The other one leaned across. “Are we on for the Widiwick dance? You’ll be my date like last year?”
Terri picked up Nate’s shirt off the ground. “Don’t flatter yourselves. Hayley and that lot just arrived. Go pester them.”
“So who’s the tank?” He was nodding toward Nate. “Can it talk?”
“Talk and break bones,” Nate said in a menacing growl. “Why don’t you two pretty boys find the other girls and go play?”
Terri looked at Nate in surprise. Was his anger for real?
“Looks like we have some competition this year. You’re on, old man.”
Laughing, they drove away.
“Who are they?” Nate asked.
“Turner Twins.” She was staring at him. “You wouldn’t really hurt them, would you?”
Nate laughed. “Maybe a little.” He took his shirt from her. “Do you really date those morons?” He started back to the car.
“No, but I’ve thought about it. And by the way, one is in law school, and the other one is on his way to being a doctor.”
“An ambulance chaser and a quack. Just what the world needs more of.”
Laughing, Terri got in the car beside him.
It took nearly two hours to change all three signs. On the second one, Terri climbed up to the platform and showed Nate how to do it. Everything was accompanied by laughter and the teasing they’d so easily fallen into.
By the time they finished, it was midafternoon and Nate said he was dying of hunger. Again, Terri suggested tacos, but Nate insisted on Summer Hill. Neither of them seemed to think of eating separately.
As soon as they reached the first house in town, a pretty white clapboard with a deep porch, Nate was aware of the way Terri gripped the seat. In the years he’d spent with Kit, he’d learned that subtle body movements told as much as—and sometimes more than—words did. In this case, Terri’s words had been light, sounding as though she found the town of Summer Hill too boring to even visit.
But as he watched from the side of his eye, never full on, he got the impression that Terri was... Well, afraid of something.
Even as he thought about what he was going to do, he regretted it. Damn you to hell and back, Kit Montgomery, he thought as he parallel parked on the street. Kit had created in Nate an insatiable need to know.
“The only decent restaurant is down there,” Terri said. “Are you parking here because you don’t get enough exercise at the lake?”
Smiling at her joke, he got out, went around and opened the door for her. He knew she hadn’t waited for him but she was picking up the orange peels where they’d fallen onto the floor. He liked that she cleaned up after herself, and sometimes after him. He liked—
Actually, so far there wasn’t anything he didn’t like about Terri Rayburn. He imagined a lifetime of friendship between them. He told himself that friendship was why he was doing what he was. He’d seen her reaction to the mention of the flower shop and he meant to find out what caused it. “I need to go in here,” he said as soon as she was out of the car. He watched her intently, the same way he studied people when Kit dropped a bombshell on them. Later, Kit would ask Nate what he’d read on the faces of the people.
When Nate nodded toward the flower shop, Garden Day, about half the blood drained out of Terri’s face.
“I’ll meet you at the bookstore,” she said. “It’s over—”
“I know where it is. I want you to help me pick out flowers for Jamie’s wife. I need to thank her for putting up with me for those first days. What do you think I should get for her?”
“I’ve never met her so I have no idea. Ask...them. They’ll know.”
Nate blinked at the underlying venom in her voice. It looked like someone in the flower shop had been part of something bad in Terri’s life. He didn’t want to force her to relive whatever it was. “Okay, let’s go to lunch. I’ll do this later.” He knew he shouldn’t do it in a gossipy little town, but he slipped his arm through hers.
Before Nate could take a step, a pickup truck stopped beside them. Inside was a large man, older than Terri, who looked as though he might have once been in shape, but now he had a belly and the beginning of a double chin.
“Hey, Rayburn!” he said, his voice taunting. “Good to see you finally got the courage to come into town.” He looked at Nate with a smirk. “Looks like you hooked another one.” With that, he sped off down the road.
&nbs
p; Nate was truly aghast. “What was that about?” When he saw the truck halt at a stop sign, he took a step toward it. “I think I’ll have a talk with him.”
“It’s nothing.” Surprising him, Terri clamped down on Nate’s arm, threw open the door to the flower shop and tugged at him to go inside.
It took him a moment to adjust to the dim light, and besides, he was frowning deeply after the jerk in the truck. Even so, he could feel how Terri had stiffened beside him. Her fingers were digging into his forearm so hard it was almost painful.
It was a pretty shop and it smelled good. There were shelves of flower arrangements, a big wall refrigerator to the right. Before them was a counter and a register, a curtain behind it.
When the curtain moved, Terri’s hand gripped even harder. He was certainly glad her nails were short!
A girl, high school age, a cell phone in her hand, came out from the back—and Terri let go of his arm in what seemed to be relief.
“Can I help you?” the girl asked as though she didn’t really mean it.
“We need flowers for Dr. Jamie’s wife,” Terri said.
Instantly the girl’s eyes brightened. “I think Dr. Jamie would like roses. Or maybe sunflowers. My mom makes me go to Dr. Kyle, but Dr. Jamie is always there. Maybe next year I can go to him.”
Terri had gone from looking scared to smiling. “This is Nate. He’s Dr. Jamie’s first cousin.”
The girl’s eyes widened. She glanced up and down Nate as though appraising him. “You do look like him, but you’re older.”
Glaring over the girl’s head, Nate narrowed his eyes at Terri. He’d get her back for this! “I am very old,” he said solemnly. “And I’m nothing more than a boat jockey, not a doctor like Jamie is. Did you know that he’s a military hero?”
“Is he?”
The girl started to ask questions, but Nate sidestepped and went to Terri, who was looking at the flowers on the far side. “For that, you have to cook dinner tonight,” he said under his breath.
“And where do you plan to eat?”
“Good point. I’ll think of another punishment.”
“How about a trip into Summer Hill? That should be repayment enough. What about these flowers? They look good. I think I better go before—” She broke off.
“Before what?”
He saw Terri’s head come up and her body become as rigid as steel. As though she knew someone was watching her, she turned around slowly.
The girl was gone, and standing behind them was a woman about Terri’s age, with dark blond hair. Everything about her was thin: hair, eyes, shoulders, arms. But it wasn’t a fashionable thinness. Unless Nate missed his guess, this girl had grown up without enough to eat.
She was staring at Terri as though she needed something from her. Nate couldn’t identify what her eyes were pleading for. Pity? Sympathy? No. He thought it looked like she wanted forgiveness.
For a moment Terri just stared, then she mumbled, “I’ll meet you at the bookstore.” In the space of a breath, she was out the door, and he saw her hurrying down the street.
Nate turned back to the young woman. He wanted to ask her questions, but he didn’t know where to begin.
With Terri gone, her expression changed to businesslike. “What can I help you with?”
“These,” Nate said, and picked up a vase full of yellow and blue flowers.
“Certainly.” She took the vase and put it on the counter. “Do you want them delivered or will you take them?”
“I’ll take them.” Nate was looking out the front window. Terri was nowhere to be seen. He looked at the woman who had her back to him as she wrapped the flowers in yellow tissue paper. He was a stranger in town so he knew better than to directly ask her what was going on. “Mind if I ask you a personal question?”
He saw her narrow shoulders rise as though she was about to fend off a blow. “Of course not.” She didn’t turn around.
“Just as we came in here, a guy in a pickup stopped and made some unpleasant remarks to Terri. What was that about?”
When she turned around, she was smiling, showing perfect teeth that he was willing to bet had all been capped. Needed because of an accident? Or a childhood without a dentist?
“Red truck? Hasn’t shaved in a week? Dirty baseball cap?”
“You must have seen him.” Nate knew his tone was flirtatious, but he didn’t want her to refuse to answer.
“That’s Hector. When Terri was a kid, she knocked him down. He says she injured his spine so badly that he missed out on a career as a pro football player. Truth is that it was booze and drugs and lack of talent that did it. But it’s easier for him to blame someone else.”
Nate was frowning. “He said Terri had ‘another one.’”
Just as Terri had done earlier, the woman’s face seemed to lose color. “She used to date a guy named Billy Thorndyke. He was big, like you. Everyone in town thought they were going to...” She didn’t finish her sentence as she pushed the flowers across the counter toward him.
As Nate handed her a credit card, she put up her hand.
“No, thanks. You’re a friend of Terri’s so there’s no charge. Listen, Mr.—”
“Nate Taggert.”
“Take care of her. Terri Rayburn is a very good person.”
He nodded, his mind trying to piece together what he’d been seeing and hearing. “Actually, could you please send these to Dr. Jamie’s house for his wife? Tell her thanks and love from Nate. I changed my mind. I think I’ll take Terri out for tacos.”
“Good,” she said, and went back to smiling. “I’m Kris Lennon. Anything you need for Terri, just tell me. Night or day, I’ll be there.” She wrote on the back of a business card and handed it to him. “This is my cell number. Call anytime.”
“Sure. Okay,” Nate said, and left the store. Outside, he looked up and down the street. It was such a pretty little town, and so peaceful that it looked as though nothing bad could ever have happened there.
But it had. And whatever it was, Terri seemed to be on the receiving end of it.
Nate pulled out his phone and sent a text message to Jamie.
Could you get Aunt Cale to send some autographed books to Terri at the lake? Do you know what happened between her and Kris at the flower shop?
The reply came back right away.
No idea. Della Kissel is the town gossip. I’ll have Mom overnight books. I hear the entire lake is invited to a party at your house.
You two coming?
Nope. I’m staying home and frying bananas for my pregnant wife. How’s Stacy?
Fine, Nate wrote back, then put the phone back in his pocket. When it buzzed again, he didn’t answer it, but he reminded himself that he needed to call Stacy tonight. He went across the road to the bookstore.
Chapter 6
Terri was dreaming about Nate. They were in her boat, the one her father’d had built for her. She and Nate rode in silence but when they looked at each other, they smiled as if they were sharing some secret.
They went to one of the houses Terri looked after. It was a beauty, rented out last summer to an actor who ended up in jail. As she and Nate went inside, she began telling him the story of the actor and the local play, but Nate suddenly turned. His eyes were dark. Hot. Wanting her. Telling her it was time.
Terri drew in her breath. In the next second, Nate pulled her into his arms and—
“Are you gonna get out of bed or laze around all day?” Nate said from the doorway.
Reluctantly, Terri opened her eyes halfway. Her bedroom curtains were closed, but she could see that it wasn’t full daylight yet. She turned onto her stomach. “Go away.”
“Today’s the party and you said you were going to help cook, so we need to get started. And there’s a pile of trash in the lake. I can see it from the front windows. It has to
be cleaned up.”
“Udah.”
“What?” When he walked to her bed, he could barely see the top of her head.
Terri pulled the cover down a bit. “It’s where the old dock was. Things catch on the poles. Could you please leave? I was having a great dream.”
“About those skinny boys?”
“Yes. All about them,” she said.
Nate sat down on the side of the bed. “I may have invited too many people for tonight. Or rather, this afternoon. The kids asked if they could come and I couldn’t say no, so I really do need to start cooking.”
“Order pizza,” Terri mumbled.
“I promised them a Bedouin feast.”
Terri turned over and pulled the cover down to her neck to stare at him. “You promised to cook some foreign banquet for what appears to be the whole lake?”
“Not all of them are coming. Who lives in the big house on the hill?”
“Stanley Cresnor.”
“Yeah? He’s one of my uncles’ clients. I had no idea he was here.”
“Or you would have invited him?”
“Ah. Sarcasm,” Nate said. “Now that’s my Terri. Come on and get up and help me get this show underway.”
Terri yawned, then stretched. And when she looked back at him, he was staring at her. For the flash of a second, the hot eyes she’d seen in her dream were his.
“Where is everyone?” came a familiar voice down the hall.
“Go out the door,” Terri hissed.
It took only three long steps and Nate disappeared out Terri’s bedroom door.
“In here, Dad,” Terri called as she got out of bed and pulled on her jeans. She had on a bra and T-shirt before her dad got to her bedroom. “What are you doing here so early?”
Brody was looking around the room and at the bed. “Where’s Nate?”
“I have no idea.” Terri’s voice was a model of innocence.
Brody opened the curtains to let the early morning light in and he let out a sigh of relief. “There he is. Where’s he going?”
Terri went to stand by her father and saw Nate in her boat going toward the east shore. “Probably to the old dock. You can see that it has something on it.”
Met Her Match Page 7