Kidnapping His Bride (Silhouette Romance)

by Hayley Gardner

  “I am not. I’m guiding him so he makes the right choices. He’s better off staying here with his family, not chasing after some dream that might never make him happy.”

  “Like your father?” Griff suggested gently.

  “Yeah, like my father.” Tessa sank down on the hard bench next to the swing and gazed down at the sand mixed in with the dirt at her feet. “And like you,” she added, because he wasn’t getting the point.

  “You don’t think I’m happy?”

  “Are you?” she asked, really wanting to know. She wanted him to be. If he were happy, she wouldn’t feel so badly—

  “No.” He shook his head. “And I’m not going to be, as long as I think you’re giving up the possibility of falling in love someday to marry Clay. Don’t you want more than that for yourself?”

  “Once, I did. But I gave up on love when I let you go follow your dream.” She didn’t wait for him to comment on that. “How about you, Griff? Do you ever think you’ll want love and a family?”

  He rose and walked past her to look at the pink and yellow blossoms lining the side of the house a few feet away. Keeping his distance, Tessa thought.

  “Sure,” he said finally.

  His admission startled her. He wanted love and a family. Maybe he had finally come to his senses. The very idea choked her up, made her wonder if she should reconsider—

  “But I don’t think I’d be happy giving up what I’ve worked so hard for,” he added, and the hope in Tessa’s heart died as suddenly as it had been born, just as it had on the day she’d first seen their baby and accepted that she couldn’t raise him herself—that she would have to give Jeb up so he could have a real family, something she and Griff could never be.

  “Just what is it you have that you don’t want to give up, Griff?” she asked, swallowing back her disappointment.

  “Security. Freedom. Respect.” He left the flowers and walked back over to her. “I’ve come to doubt if I can make any woman happy without compromising one of those somehow.”

  Needing to show him she had never thought otherwise, she gave him a tight smile. “It’s a good thing I long ago gave up the silly notion that the two of us would ever be good together, then, isn’t it?”

  He nodded grimly. And as his gaze met hers, she knew that if she were to get any peace and happiness out of her marriage to Clay and being a mother to Jeb, she’d better make her pretense a reality.

  “So what it all boils down to is that chasing your dream of freedom kept you from getting love and a family. Do you really want that for Jeb?” she asked.

  He didn’t answer. She would never know if he’d planned to, for a half a minute later, Sadie rounded the side of the house.

  “You two come on inside. What on earth are you doing out in this heat?”

  “Getting a few things straightened out,” Tessa told her, getting up to obey her grandmother. Sadie remained quiet as the two of them entered her downstairs apartment, going into the sunroom, as Sadie called it, where they found Jeb and the distinguished-looking man who had been at the bakery that morning seated at the table, snacking. The man must be relatively new to the area because Tessa couldn’t remember having seen him around that much in the bakery. She was sure she’d been introduced, but new names hadn’t been sticking at all lately, what with the wedding. Apparently, though, he knew Sadie.

  And Sadie knew him.

  “This is Horace Fortune,” Sadie said.

  Tessa frowned. Her focus changed from worrying about the tall, dark and frustrating man next to her, to the tall, gray-haired and mysterious stranger who rose and acknowledged her with a bob of his head. “I believe we met at the bakery.”

  “Did you drop by to leave a pastry order, Mr. Fortune?” Tessa asked, and then was annoyed to feel the jab of an elbow in her side. “What?” she asked, turning toward Griff.

  Sadie giggled. Giggled. Her grandmother never giggled. “Horace came by because he’s a friend of mine,” she said.

  “But all your friends are women,” Tessa reminded her.

  “Outside.” Griff put a hand on each shoulder and tried to pull her back toward the door. She stood her ground.

  “I could carry you,” Griff suggested. Sadie giggled again.

  Her jaw tightening, Tessa headed for the door, stomped down the stairs and walked toward the woods away from the house. Griff followed and caught up to her as she headed down a pine and oak shaded path, where she stopped and faced him when she thought they might be far enough away that no one would overhear.

  “First,” she said, poking him in the chest, “don’t you ever threaten to tote me off anywhere again.”

  “I thought you needed to get out of there before your grandmother got upset. I’m sure whatever is going on between her and Mr. Fortune is harmless.”

  “We don’t know that,” she said. “He’s a stranger around here. And strangers aren’t always harmless. Look at the havoc you’ve caused.”

  Griff regarded her for a minute, and she gazed down at the ground. Why was he bringing out the worst in her?

  “I think your grandmother has had enough experience reading people not to get bamboozled by a fancy dresser,” he said, apparently choosing to ignore her remark.

  Tessa wanted to smile, but she couldn’t. “This is not amusing. I care about Sadie. I want her to be happy. I don’t want anyone to dance in and out of her life, stomping on her heart in the process.”

  She said that, Griff thought, as though he were the one she was really referring to. He hated that he was going to leave Saturday with her thinking the worst of him. His pride wanted her to think the best of him, even if she no longer loved him.

  And he thought he knew just the way. But first, he would need to talk to Jasper and find out what he knew about this man Sadie was giggling over.

  Tessa’s thoughts about helping Griff reconcile with his family simply would not leave her, so, early that evening, Tessa caught up to Clay at work, which was a block off Courthouse Square in Homer, a bustling town north of Claiborne Landing. He was heading out, so she walked back with him to his patrol car, keeping her voice low as she told him what she still wanted to do for Griff, despite the way he’d frustrated her that afternoon—try to help him reconcile with his parents.

  Through it all, Clay kept quiet. Really quiet. She hated that about Clay—unlike Griff, she never had any idea of what was behind his dark-eyed stare. Griff always ended up telling her what was on his mind, either straight out or eventually, even if she didn’t want to know. She found that comforting.

  “So I was thinking that one of the other things we could have ‘planned’ to do this week could be to spend some time with your parents. But I don’t know how to approach that with Griff. Since we just talked about that today in the bakery, I don’t think he’d believe it coming from me.”

  Arms folded across his chest, Clay leaned against the driver’s side window, and she stood in the empty parking place alongside, facing him. Around them cars drove by, people came and went, and she waited.

  “I think trying to fix Griff’s life is probably something you don’t want to be doing if you want him to leave again,” he said finally.

  “Oh, I’m not worried about him leaving.” Her heart tightened at the thought, but she ignored it. She wanted Griff to go. Absolutely. She was so close to being a mother again that she couldn’t let anything go wrong. “I’m sure he’ll go.”

  “Yeah?”

  “You don’t think so?”

  “I figured nothing would bring him back to begin with.” His eyes scanned the area around him, which she noticed he did a lot. Always on guard, always ready for…something, that was Clay. “I was wrong, wasn’t I?”

  “I guess.”

  “To tell the truth, I think he’s really back looking for something he’s been missing.”

  “Like maybe being home?”

  “Like maybe you.”

  She shook her head vehemently. “He says he’s given up on finding love. A
nd I’m not in love with him.”

  “You don’t want you three back together?” Clay asked, his voice tightening, his dark, troubled eyes finally gazing down at her. “As a family—you, Jeb and Griff?”

  “No.” She shook her head, surprised that he was actually talking to her about being Jeb’s birth mother. They had always skirted the subject, and he’d never asked her what her reasons were for not calling Griff home when she was pregnant.

  “I never thought it was a good idea, keeping Jeb secret from Griff,” Clay said.

  “You never mentioned why you agreed to it.”

  “Lindy begged and pleaded. She wanted a baby more than anything in the world. And me, I would have done anything for her,” Clay admitted, pulling his sunglasses down over his eyes. “I’m not giving my son up, Tess, even if you do tell Griff.”

  “When I gave him to you and Lindy, I meant it,” she said. “Jeb is yours. I won’t tell Griff. I promise.”

  His eyes softened perceptibly, and his shoulders seemed to relax under his tan, button front, uniform shirt.

  “I kind of think we’re all heading for disaster,” he said, “but I’ll do this your way. For now. If I can arrange it with them this evening, tomorrow I’ll tell Griff I was going to help Dad fix his barn roof, and Mom clean out the attic. I’ll make sure he gets there tomorrow morning, and you can take over at one, when I have to go to work. If it falls through, I’ll stick around him anyway.”

  “Roofing in the ninety-degree heat.” She couldn’t help but smile at him. “Is this to help Griff reconcile with your parents, or some sort of revenge?”

  He gave her the barest of smiles. “It’s a guarantee that he’ll hotfoot it out of here at the earliest possible convenience. And that’s what we all want, isn’t it?”

  “Especially Griff,” she agreed without really agreeing.

  “Just look at it this way, Tessa. If he stays on that roof the whole time it takes to finish that job and mends the scorched bridges between himself and Dad and Mom like you want, I’d be willing to say anything could happen,” Clay told her. “Just think. You could get the miracle you’re looking for.”

  “I’m not looking for any miracle,” she denied.

  “Sure you are, Tessa,” he said, giving her a knowing look. “We all are, when it comes to love. It’s just that some of us aren’t going to be in the dole. Maybe you’ll get lucky.”

  He might be right, Tessa thought. But just like Clay, she didn’t think she was in line for any more miracles. She’d gotten a second chance with Jeb, was going to hold on to that chance for dear life, and Griff would either take the opportunity she was about to hand him to reconcile with his family, or leave town. Either way, she was going to be happy.

  She swore she was.

  Chapter Six

  Working the eight-thirty rush in the bakery the next morning, Tessa almost dropped her pencil when she saw Griff come through the door. He was supposed to be safely tied up at his parents’, roofing. Something must have fallen through with that. Even so, Clay had promised to stick by him all morning until she was done working. Where was he?

  “Hey, Tessa. Sadie around?”

  “Why?”

  That half curved, devilishly appealing grin of his appeared again. “You share your secrets, darlin’, I’ll share mine.”

  She would have given him a cute answer, but remembered there were customers all around eating up every word instead of focusing on her pastries. “She’s in the back, Griff.”

  He set off through the door to the kitchen, whistling.

  Frustration bubbled in her. Griff was making her nervous. It should be obvious to a dead man that she wasn’t about to call off the wedding to Clay, and Griff was no corpse. In fact, he’d never looked more alive—or delicious—than in the form-fitting blue jeans and blueberry colored, short sleeve shirt he was wearing at the moment. Anyway, he had to know by now she and Clay weren’t going to leave him alone so that this mysterious e-mailer could approach him, so why wouldn’t he just go?

  The fact that there was still some person out there who had wanted to break up her wedding added to her irritation, and she cast a suspicious gaze around the handful of customers they had. Her perusal was interrupted by her grandmother’s laughter. She looked to her left.

  Sadie was scurrying toward the door, and she flung her apron to Tessa as she went past her. “Griff gave me today off, too!” Sadie said merrily and, like a tiny tornado, breezed out the door.

  He had? Tessa carried the apron to the back along with her orders. Griff was standing by the worktable, putting on a fresh apron, grinning from ear to ear.

  “I don’t think I’ve seen my grandmother that happy in a long time.” Except for yesterday afternoon around Horace Fortune, but she wasn’t going to think about that. “It was nice of you to volunteer again.” She gave him a small, but genuine smile. For all she wished him gone, anyone who made Sadie happy made her happy, too.

  “Glad to do it.” Griff had done more than volunteer to work for Sadie. After finding out from Jasper the night before that Horace Fortune was a fine man who was trying to work up the courage to court Sadie, Griff had driven out to Horace’s place and encouraged him. The man was waiting in his car outside to take Sadie out for the day. Just as Griff had expected, Sadie had jumped at the chance. He’d done it to show Tessa he did care about family, but he wasn’t going to tell her that. If it all worked out well, she’d know in good time, and she would have him to thank.

  Tessa knew she couldn’t ask him about going to his folks’ house, as she didn’t know why Clay hadn’t already brought him, and didn’t want to give Griff any information he didn’t need. So she put him to work, trying hard not to think of Griff’s motivations for volunteering at a job for which he was obviously ill suited as they filled customers’ orders and baked until the ten o’clock coffee club came in. By that time, they were so busy that she only nodded distractedly when Griff offered to help her serve. He unloaded the retirees’ orders carefully in front of each man as she filled their coffee mugs, but then, instead of following Tessa into the kitchen, he asked for—and got—their attention.

  “I’d like to ask you all a question about an e-mail I received.”

  Before anyone could speak, Tessa was tugging on his sleeve. “Uh, Griff, we’re too busy to talk to the customers.”

  “Let the man speak, Tessa,” Kinley Boison said. “What e-mail would that be?”

  Griff scanned all five men, one by one, and nothing registered in their faces except curiosity. He would bet money no one there had contacted him. Tessa had progressed to pulling on his arm, and he purposely avoided looking at her so that the men wouldn’t connect her with his questions. Instead of being grateful, she sighed and let go of him.

  “Someone sent me an unsigned e-mail to get me back here, and I’m trying to figure out who might have done it.”

  “Heck, Griff, about the only ones I can think of who might want you home for a visit would be your mama and daddy,” Jasper said. “Did you ask them?”

  “Not yet.” Griff shook his head. Turning with a “Thanks, anyway,” he headed back to the kitchen, with Tessa on his heels. He stopped just inside the door, which she shut.

  “It would be so much easier if you would just tell me what’s going on,” he said, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms over his chest. “Then you wouldn’t have to have a heart attack every time I talk to anyone.”

  Tessa picked up a bowl of ingredients she’d mixed before the interruption and searched for a large spoon in the drawer. “Maybe you should ask your parents about the e-mail,” she said, trying her best to sound nonchalant but not quite sure if she succeeded, from the dark way Griff looked at her. “Really.”

  She had three reasons for pushing him doing so. First, she thought it would help open up a conversation between Griff, his mom and his dad, and ease the tension Clay had told her had built up from Griff’s years of neglect. Secondly, she knew they didn’t know about Jeb. She w
as positive, because she couldn’t imagine Griff’s father remaining silent about that. Third, it would seclude him away from the public for a while, and give her a break. All around, getting him to go to the Ledoux’s was a great idea.

  “I don’t think so,” Griff said, watching the oven timer and catching it just before it was set to go off. “I’ve got more likely people I can think of to talk to.”

  Tessa, Griff thought, was not looking happy. Not at all. Retrieving the chocolate chip cookies from the oven, he set them on a rack to cool. Done with that, he turned and watched her for a minute. Her eyes staring down at the bowl, she was beating up the dough. She was edgy, and that had started when he’d been questioning the patrons.

  She had been sticking to him like glue since he’d gotten there. That was, when Clay wasn’t home.

  His eyes narrowed. Moving closer to her, so close that he could feel her gasp when his bare forearm touched hers, he said quietly, “I know I asked you already, but I’m going to ask you again, and I want the truth. You didn’t send that e-mail, did you, Tessa?”

  “No!” she protested. “Of course not!”

  “Well, what’s got you beating up on that dough?”

  “Nothing. I’m fine.” But she wasn’t. She was a nervous wreck. Initially her upset had stemmed from his being here to begin with, then from his catching her by surprise after a whole morning yesterday of his not asking any customers anything. But she’d seen the looks on all the men’s faces, and they clearly hadn’t known what he was talking about, so she didn’t have that immediate concern that all hell was about to break loose.

  No, she was beating the dough because he was confusing her so badly. One minute she was liking him all over again for making her grandmother so happy with another day off, and the next minute she would cheerfully drive him to that Air Force Base in North Carolina all by herself if that’s what it would take to get him out of her life.

  And then there was his being close enough now to kiss her again, and her wanting him to do that, and maybe even more, and that was especially making her nervous. She wasn’t supposed to be feeling this way about him. He’d broken her heart, darn it all!