“It doesn’t take a genius to tell you don’t want to be at the party. The question is why?” She bent over and picked a rose off the ground, then began plucking the petals. “Is it because you’re in a tiff with your fiancée?” She studied his face. “Nope, it’s ’cause you’re fightin’ with your mama.”
He smiled. “And how could you possibly know that?”
“Because you strike me as a charmer, the kind of guy who knows how to handle a woman. So the only one who can upset you is a woman you can’t charm. Your mama.”
“You think I know how to handle a woman?”
She stepped closer to him. “You met me less than an hour ago, and you’ve already seen me half-naked and convinced me to come out here all alone with you.” Her lips were right there for the taking, and she knew it too, parting them ever so slightly. He lowered his head, but she stepped back, a second before he was going to touch her mouth.
“You want to talk about it?” she asked softly.
No, I don’t.
“She doesn’t want me to reenlist.”
She turned away from him, her smile disappearing. He touched her shoulder. “What is it?”
“It’s funny, my mother asked my father not to reenlist.”
“But he did.”
She nodded. “And he died.”
A sharp pain pierced his chest. “How old were you?”
“I wasn’t even born. But my mama, she was never the same. She never loved again.”
“I’m sorry.”
She got a faraway look in her eyes, and he squeezed her shoulder, silently encouraging her to share her anguish with him. “My mom, she had me out of wedlock, and the folks in our town, well, they weren’t very kind to her. I was okay with things, with not havin’ a daddy, until she went and died on me last year…”
A familiar ache filled his heart. “My daddy died eight months ago.”
She looked up at him with shining eyes, her pain so raw that it stung him. Without thinking, he reached out and pulled her into his arms, and she buried her head in his chest.
“He died when I was serving. I couldn’t make it back for the funeral, but I talked to him before he died. And he said he was proud of me, and he wanted me to keep on keepin’ our country safe.”
She tightened her hold on him, and he felt her softness envelop him like a warm blanket. He had grieved for his father, he’d gone through all the stages, but nothing comforted him like the touch of this girl. There was a goodness in her soul, and he held on to her, wanting her to permeate every inch of him.
Her voice was sweet in his ears. “You know, my mama always told me that you gotta be the person you are. You have to be true to yourself.”
He didn’t know how long they held each other like that, but when she shifted, he was suddenly gazing down into her upturned face.
He lowered his head and touched his lips to hers, the briefest contact.
She stiffened and broke away from him. “I’m sorry. This isn’t right.”
“Why not?”
“You’ve got a girl.”
Right.
She opened her mouth to say something, then turned away from him. He didn’t need to hear the question to know what it was. What’re you doing with a girl like that anyway?
It was the question every army buddy who met Carrie for the first time asked him. And his answer was always the same: She’s a nice girl once you get to know her.
“She’s not the girl I want.” It was the first time he’d said the words out loud, and she tilted her head, the quirk of her brows telling him it wasn’t what she was expecting to hear.
“Then why did you propose to her?”
“I didn’t.”
“Joe, here you are! I’ve been looking everywhere for you.”
He turned to see Carrie, heels in hand, walking toward him, the glare in her eyes clearly conveying the argument in his immediate future.
“You said you’d be back in a minute.” Carrie pouted. He resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He knew there was a time he’d found her pout cute, but that was a long time ago, when he’d been full of teenage hormones. His heart had grown cold since those days. Or so he thought.
“Carrie, Lily is our guest, I was showin’ her the gardens.” He kept his voice neutral, and swiveled, needing to lay eyes on Lily, to know she was real, as was the thaw he’d felt in his heart.
She was gone. And I’m never gonnasee her again.
CHAPTER THREE
“HOW was that high-falutin’ party Norma Jean took you to?”
Lily set down the tray she was holding and began unloading the dishes onto the white tile counter so the dishwasher could clean them. She turned to Becky, the diner manager, who could barely conceal her jealousy that Norma Jean had taken Lily and not her.
Not that Norma Jean had done her any favors. After Carrie showed up with murder in her eyes, Lucy had hightailed it to the car and spent the rest of the afternoon sitting in the hot sun until Norma Jean was ready to go. “It was amazing. This plantation was spectacular, lots of good food and drinks, many, many eligible bachelors.” And one who I wish was a bachelor.
Becky pressed her lips together. “You know, I think I’ll let Lenny go home early today. The diner’s not busy. You can wash the rest of these.”
Becky and Lily had gone to high school together. Lily had been working as a waitress at the diner a year longer than Becky, but when it came time for old man Al to retire, who did he choose to run the diner? The pretty one, of course. The head cheerleader, the one who always got the boy in school. So now Becky lorded it over Lily every chance she got.
Lily didn’t care. She could use the extra hours. The savings account had dwindled since her mom’s death, and Lily would have to figure out more than just the diner job if she was going to make ends meet. No more taking time off work to go to parties she had no business being at. And definitely no more thinking about a man who was off-limits.
“You close up, Lily. Dylan and I have date night. We’re talking wedding plans.” Becky singsonged on her way out. She was twisting the big knife that she’d stuck in Lily’s back. Dylan was the new postmaster who had moved to Hell’s Bells a year ago. Lily thought they were falling in love, until Becky set her eyes on him. Then it was all over. Becky was shinier and came with more bells and whistles than Lily. Normally, the boys Lily liked were well below Becky’s standards, but Hell’s Bells was a small town, and there weren’t that many single men left.
“Lock the door on your way out,” she yelled back.
Once Lily heard the door close, she went to the jukebox and punched in the manager’s code. She selected the songs she wanted and turned it up. This was how she liked to clean.
She let the music beat into her, swinging her hips and rocking her feet to the sounds of modern country as she finished washing the dishes and wiping down the counters. She moved into the main dining hall with the broom to sweep up the last crumbs. “Yeah, that’s my kinda man,” she sang into the handle of the broom.
“You’ve got quite a voice on you.”
She whirled and smacked the guy square on the chest with the broom. He staggered back, a hand on his heart.
“Joe! What’re you doing here? You gave me a fright.”
“Sorry, the door was open.”
“But how…what…when did you…” She closed her mouth until she could formulate a coherent sentence.
“I called Aunt Norma Jean to ask about you, and she said you worked here.” Hell’s Bells was a good fourteen-hour drive from his house. Well, closer to seventeen hours if you were traveling with Norma Jean, who had to pee every hour. Lily and Norma Jean had stayed the night at the house of one of Norma Jean’s friends, then driven back all day. Apparently, Bridgette had offered to let them stay the night in the palace-slash-plantation, but Norma Jean had refused. Something about not wanting to put Bridgette out. Lily got the distinct impression that the two women didn’t get along, and Norma Jean couldn’t resist annoying Brid
gette by accepting the perfunctory invitation to the party Joe’s father had been Norma Jean’s cousin; Bridgette was the in-law.
“I had a heck of a time tryin’ to find a town named Hell’s Bells on the GPS until someone told me it’s really called Bellhaven.”
“That’s the official name. The townspeople call it Hell’s Bells ’cause of the bell tower.” She raised a brow. “What’re you doing here?”
“I came to see you.”
Yes! Warmth spread through her, making her face hot. “And why would you want to do that?”
“If I could answer that question, I wouldn’t be here.”
“It’s not fair to Carrie.”
“I want to explain it to you.”
This I can’t wait to hear. She should tell him to go home. No matter how good he looked in his bootcut jeans, green T-shirt, and perfect hair, he was taken. Not only did she not need hands off my man drama, she was exhausted and wanted to crawl into bed and sleep for eight hours before she had to be back at the diner for breakfast.
“I’ve been driving for fifteen hours straight. Any chance I can get a burger and fries? And maybe a milkshake?”
She sighed. “I can cook somethin’ up for you.”
He followed her to the kitchen, where she had just wiped down the grill and cleaned the deep fryer. She turned everything back on and brought out food. She slapped a burger on the grill and took a generous portion of fries out of the freezer and put them in the fryer basket. She had to wait until the oil came up to temperature.
She gave him a sideways glance. He perched himself on the counter, like he owned the place. And he probably could. “I work as a waitress here. I just happen to be closing tonight.” She didn’t want him thinking she was the cleaning lady, not that there was anything wrong with that.
“Nice place.”
Did that high-pitched laugh come out of her? “Sorry, didn’t mean to scoff, but you don’t seem like the type to eat in diners.”
“My usual fare is an MRE, a meal ready to eat. It’s this rubbery stuff full of preservatives that they seal in packages, that we eat sitting on rock or sand. This is luxury.”
She busied herself scooping ice cream from the freezer into the blender. She added milk and turned on the machine. The growl of the blender filled the space between them.
The burger began to sizzle on the grill, and the oil was hot, so she dipped the french fry bucket. She added cheese to his burger, then deftly plated it, adding the fries and handing him the milkshake in a large glass.
“Wow, you really know how to multitask.”
“I’ve done every job in this place. Been working here since high school.”
He bit into his burger, and Lily gave him credit for not asking the question that everyone else did: You seem like a smart girl. Why didn’t you go to college?
He took a long sip of his shake. “Thank you, this tastes like heaven.”
It should, she’d put a few extra scoops of ice cream in there. She crossed her arms.
“You’re probably waitin’ on me to talk, huh?” he said.
She couldn’t help smiling at his impish grin. He wiped his mouth with the napkin she handed him.
“I know it’s crazy, but I haven’t stopped thinkin’ about you, and it got me wondering what if. I know I sound crazy…”
Yeah, you do. But it wasn’t as if she hadn’t thought about him every minute since she’d met him.
“…but I knew if I went on my next tour without at least seeing you, without figuring out what it was between us, I’d be kickin’ myself.”
His next tour. Her chest tightened at the thought. She’d known this man for all of one hour, and she knew without a doubt that all she’d be thinking about when he left was him overseas, at war.
“So you’re reenlisting.”
He nodded. “Probably. You’re the one who convinced me.”
What? I should really learn to keep my mouth shut.
“When you said I have to be the man I am, it really hit me, y’know? All my life, I’ve tried to be what my mother wants. And I’ve never lived up to anyone’s expectations, most of all my own.”
“Is that what Carrie’s about?”
He laughed mirthlessly. “There was a time that I thought I loved Carrie. When we were both sixteen.”
The picture on his computer.
“I asked her to marry me with all the seriousness of a tenth grader, and she really took the words to heart. We’re family friends. You know they own the mansion next door…”
Lily suppressed a laugh at the last part.
“She made it into this whole thing that we were going to be married when we were older, and our families ate it up. When I turned twenty-one, my mother dug up my grandmother’s ring and asked me to present it to Carrie.”
Lily’s pulse quickened. She could see it unfolding in her mind’s eye. They would have a tasteful garden wedding with a thousand of their closest friends. Carrie would wear a strapless thing designed by Vera Wang and carry an artfully designed bouquet of calla lilies.
“I couldn’t. I think that’s why I enlisted, to hit the pause button on all the plans that were being made around me, without me having a say-so.”
“Why didn’t you just say no?” He didn’t seem like a man who let people walk all over him.
“I know, it seems foolish. But at the time, I felt like I couldn’t control the things happenin’ around me. I just needed to get out of there.”
“So what now?”
“I keep finding a way to stay in the army. I did a college degree and then had to stay in to pay back the loan. I’ve been in the army for almost ten years now. I can leave if I wanna.”
“So you’re still running away.”
He finished the last of his burger, and she eyed the fries still on his plate. Her own stomach was starting to rumble. She reached over and swiped a fry from his plate. He eyed her with amusement, then gestured to his plate. She didn’t need an engraved invitation. She reached over and grabbed a handful, debating whether it was worth reheating the deep fryer for more.
“You eat fries.”
“Yeah, who doesn’t?”
He didn’t need to answer that question. She knew. No girl as thin as Carrie ate fries.
He pushed his plate toward her. “Here, have the rest, I’m full.”
“So you were telling me how you prefer being shot at and eating MREs to marrying Carrie.”
He laughed, a deep baritone laugh that gave her goose bumps and brought the memory of his kiss, that light touch of his lips on hers. Her entire body heated, and she popped a fry into her mouth to take her mind off it.
“You must think I’m such a tool, not bein’ able to stand up to my mother.” He shook his head. “The situation has changed. Apparently, Daddy lost a ton of money in bad investments. The house, the land, everything we have is mortgaged to the hilt.”
“And let me guess, Carrie’s family is gonna bail you out if you marry her.”
“Sounds like a bad Western drama, doesn’t it.”
“Sounds like you have to choose between your life and your wealth.”
“I wish it were that easy.” He hung his head. “The choice is between letting my mother enjoy the last years of her life or puttin’ her through a greater hell than what the chemo will do to her.”
She put a hand to her mouth, her heart squeezing painfully. “Your mother has cancer?”
He nodded. “Norma Jean said that’s what got your mother.”
“I know this isn’t the right way to say it, but my mama was lucky. She went quickly after she found out. It was too far gone for chemo and surgery. She died comfortably in our home. Didn’t have to go through all the stuff.”
“Mom’s stage two. It’s treatable, but only if we pursue it aggressively. Except that Daddy didn’t leave us with much, and she can’t go through chemo and losin’ her house all at the same time. My mom grew up in style. She’s never…”
“…been poor,” Lily
finished. Her mother hadn’t had much growing up, and neither did she. They didn’t even have health insurance. Maybe if they had, her mother would’ve found out much earlier. Maybe there would’ve been a chance.
“Why does Carrie wanna marry you knowing you don’t love her?”
He looked away.
“She doesn’t know, does she? She doesn’t know you don’t want her.” She picked up his plate and took it to the sink. She grabbed the brush and began cleaning the grill. She could hear him moving behind her, but she didn’t want to look at him again. Did she have a bull’s-eye painted on her heart?
“Lily…”
“Why’re you here, Joe?”
“I just… I wanted to see you.”
And then it hit her, why he was here, and she whirled. “I’m not that kind of girl, Joe, I’ve never been with a man that way, and I don’t intend to, not without marriage.”
His feet hit the floor as he slid off the counter and in a flash, he closed the distance between them and put his hands on her arms and spun her around. “Lily, oh my God, please don’t think that for a second. That’s not why I’m here.”
She searched his eyes, wishing to see the smarmy desire that she’d seen in all the high school boys who only wanted to be seen with her behind the bleachers or in empty classrooms. If he was one of them, then she knew how to deal with him. But she didn’t see any of that. All she saw was anguish, and a genuine beseeching plea. And now she had no idea what to do. The earnestness of his look made him all the more lovable.
“Those few minutes we spent at the party, they felt real to me. You feel real to me. I wanted to come here today and see that I was delusional, that I’d made you up in my head, so I can stop thinking about you.”
“And…?”
“I’m never gonna be able to stop thinkin’ about you.”
CHAPTER FOUR
LILY woke up to the smell of coffee. She sat up straight in bed. When had she fallen asleep? Oh my God, Joe’s here! She threw off her covers and rushed into the bathroom. She frantically brushed her teeth while staring in the mirror, wondering how she was going to tame her hair and control the giant pimple that had popped on her face overnight. Hair first.
Then Comes Love: Welcome to Bellhaven Page 2