by Ava Miles
Charlie looked him up and down. “Are you sure?”
He stood. “I told you before. I don’t even really like her.”
Her eyes narrowed. “That was before you knew about Gail. Now, it makes more sense to you why Shelby was a little hard on her sister the other day. Gail is all drama, and Shelby must need to control her own emotions to work well with her. You know, like how you and I complement each other.”
Shaking his head, he walked to the door. “I should never have had everyone take that stupid Myers-Briggs personality test. You love beating that drum when it’s convenient to one of your arguments.”
“And you run away because you have avoidance tendencies while I have confrontational ones,” Charlie said, coming around her desk.
“Go kick something,” he said, walking to the door. “And don’t keep something as big as Shelby working for one of our clients from me ever again.”
“I did it for your own good, you stubborn mule,” he heard her mutter as he left her office.
When he reached his own desk, he fought his own urge to kick something himself. He wasn’t prone to temper tantrums, but Charlie had a way of bringing them out in him. She pushed and pushed, holding up his faults in his face. Usually, it helped him break open a case or a personal limit. But seriously. So what if he sometimes avoided things? He’d learned avoidance in spades from his mother and her parents. Sometimes it was a good strategy.
Avoiding his growing attraction for Shelby McGuiness was the best thing for both of them.
He picked up the phone to call her.
Chapter 9
Although Shelby hadn’t added Vander’s phone number to her contacts, she recognized the number. She was good with numbers, after all.
Her heart immediately started to race, so she took a deep breath before answering. “Hello.”
“Shelby, it’s Vander,” he said, all business. “Charlie and I found your father’s family, and I wanted to fill you in.”
“Gracious, y’all do work fast,” she said, her heart racing for a completely different reason now. “Okay, what did you find?”
“I’m headed out of the office right now,” he said. “Can you and Sadie meet me somewhere for a drink, or do you want to wait until tomorrow?”
Did he really think they’d be capable of waiting that long? “We can meet you. Let me call Sadie. Wait! What’s tonight?” She racked her brain for Sadie’s schedule.
He chuckled, and the sound was as decadent and inviting as chocolate truffles dotted with fleur de sel. “Monday, remember?”
“Right.” Goodness, she was frazzled. “She has her quilting circle.”
“Her quilting circle, huh?” Vander said, and Shelby could hear the smile in his voice.
Hadn’t she told Sadie that Vander wasn’t a quilt kind of guy? “She’s a master quilter if there is such a term. She teaches a group at the craft store on Mondays.”
“Is that where she works?” Vander asked.
“Yes,” she said, thinking about whether she should meet him alone. Her heart practically sang out the answer: yes. “Sadie’s…on edge…like me, I guess, so she’ll want to know what’s going on as soon as possible. I’ll meet you. Just tell me where.”
Vander paused, then said, “It will just be me. Charlie did the searching, so I sent her off to her usual kickboxing class.”
So it would be just the two of them? Good Lord, she needed to calm herself. “Fine. Where?”
“How about Oak Bar at the Hermitage?” he asked.
Shelby loved that classy cocktail bar in one of Nashville’s most unique hotels. She should have guessed he’d suggest a spot like that. It had originally opened as a private gentleman’s bar in 1910, and whenever Shelby went there, she could imagine it full of its original clientele—men in three-piece suits with gold timepieces smoking cigars and drinking bourbon. Vander was rather like the establishment himself, intriguing and compelling in an old-school way.
Checking the time, she calculated how far she was from the bar. “I can meet you there in half an hour. I’m finishing up some things for Gail.”
“Are you sure? Gail’s place is—”
“I have an offsite office and…sometimes work from home,” she told him. Truthfully, she’d never get anything done working at Gail’s house, and thankfully her boss agreed. She only went there for meetings.
“That works fine,” he said. “I’ll be at the bar. See you in few.”
“Great,” she answered as she hung up.
Was she really meeting Vander for a drink by herself? Heavens preserve her, she felt faint, like she’d drunk too much pink champagne and was walking along a cliff. In one word: exciting. She texted Sadie to make herself feel better.
Vander called to say he has some news already. I’m meeting with him tonight even though I know you have your circle. I didn’t think you’d want to wait. We’re at Oak Bar if you get out early and want to join us. Call me when you’re done.
Sadie’s quilting circle ran from seven to nine thirty, and it was seven thirty now. They’d be long gone by then.
Wouldn’t they?
She touched up her makeup like she would for any evening business meeting, telling herself she’d do the same no matter whom she was meeting. But she knew she was full of it.
“Oh, poo,” she said in the mirror as she finished adding a nude pink lipstick to her lips. Heck, she’d even chosen a color with the word nude in it, she realized. The thought of seeing Vander nude made her cheeks hot…and did other things to her.
What in the world was she thinking?
She knew what she was thinking. She was about to have Vander all to herself for once, and part of her couldn’t wait. There was trouble here. Business, she told herself again, this is a business meeting.
Still, Shelby made her hips sway a little extra as she walked into the cocktail bar perfectly on time. After all, she was a woman. Sure enough, he was already waiting for her, nursing a bourbon at the dark-wood paneled bar. A neat one, from the looks of it. His face was in profile, and she couldn’t help but admire the hard line of his jaw. He was a handsome man, and he certainly filled out that suit he was wearing. The thought of him naked intruded again, and she imagined what those muscles must look like when he was shirtless.
Stick to business, she reminded herself as she approached him.
He must have sensed her presence because he suddenly turned when she was halfway to him. She stilled, unable to move. Then he smiled, and the way his mouth tilted up to the right was downright dangerous. Yeah, they were flirting with trouble, and they both knew it.
She made herself continue forward with her head held high and her shoulders back like any Southern debutante fresh out of finishing school. “Hello, Vander,” she said, sliding onto the vacant bar stool next to him.
“Shelby,” he said, his aquamarine eyes taking her measure.
“I texted Sadie to let her know we’re here in case her circle breaks up early,” she found herself telling him.
His mouth crooked up. “Good thinking. What can I get you to drink?”
While she and her sisters normally drank white wine—something J.P. teased them about mercilessly—Oak Bar had one of the finest bourbon collections in Nashville. But did she really want to drink something that strong? No, she decided. Not for a meeting with Vander. “I’ll have the Farmer’s Daughter cocktail.”
“I should have guessed,” he said, signaling the bartender.
“Why?” she asked. “Because it’s a girly drink?”
“You said it. Not me. Do you want a snack? I’m starved. I didn’t have lunch.”
She was hungry as well, but her stomach was too nervous for words. “Perhaps I’ll order something after we’ve talked about the case.”
He nodded. “Of course.”
The bartender took her order, and Vander nursed his bourbon. When her drink arrived, she took a fortifying sip. “All right, I’m ready.”
He turned to face her completely, and she did the same. T
heir knees brushed, sending a tingle shooting through her body.
“We found some of your kin, and the one we think we should interview first is your father’s mother.”
Her heart contracted as hurt welled up. “Oh,” she managed to say. “She’s still alive then?”
“Yes,” he told her. “She’s living in Memphis.”
Her grandma was alive and living not three and a half hours away, and she’d never met her. “I just realized…I don’t know her name.”
His eyes turned somber. “It’s Lenore, and she’s seventy-eight years old.”
She took a hasty drink of her cocktail. “And his other family?”
He told her about a deceased uncle, and her aunt living in Texas. It blew Shelby’s mind to realize her grandmother had had her first child at sixteen. She’d been married at an age when Shelby’s only thoughts had been about how to get random pimples under control or who might take her to prom.
“Hearing you have kin out there—even ones you’ve never heard of—does something powerful to you inside.” In this case, it simply made her sad and even more curious. Vander had told her she looked more like her daddy. Did these other relatives look like her too?
“I imagine so,” Vander said, fingering the edge of the napkin under his drink.
She paused, then said, “I mean, what could she tell us about our daddy? We don’t know much about him beyond that he loved to sing. How did he grow up? Did he learn how to fish when he was a kid? Did he play sports? What did he like to do?” She realized Vander was watching her intently as her voice rose in volume. “I’m sorry. I’m babbling, aren’t I?”
She took a breath as he laid a hand on her forearm. While it was a touch designed to comfort, they both started. He immediately removed it.
“Any time someone is abandoned, there are a lot of questions. It’s natural, Shelby. What you and your sister have chosen to do isn’t easy.”
She remembered him saying he’d lost his family—she’d thought about it all evening—but it didn’t seem like the right time to ask about it.
“It might not be easy, but it’s necessary,” she told him, reaching for her drink and taking a sip. “Let me talk to Sadie. I think she’ll want to meet our grandma too. I can’t be sure about my brother and sister, but we’ll ask them. Once we know, we’ll figure out when we can get to Memphis to speak with her.” Her mind was spinning at the mere thought.
His brow rose. “Ah…I wasn’t thinking you’d meet her at first. I was planning on going.”
Shelby sat back. “How could we not go? She’s our grandmother.”
He sighed. “Shelby, listen. You don’t know how you might be received. So far the case has been all about gathering information, and as hard as that’s been, meeting a member of your father’s family in the flesh…it’s a different ball of wax.”
“But she’s my daddy’s mama,” Shelby told him. “She birthed him, and that’s a powerful bond. She’ll know stories about him, even if she doesn’t know where he is.”
“I’m glad you realize she might not know your father’s whereabouts, but meeting her might be tough. She might not welcome you with open arms.”
But she might, and that was enough for her. She wasn’t sure her other siblings would agree. “We won’t know until we try. Whatever went down between my parents and Daddy’s family is in the past. I’ll tell her we McGuiness children want to start anew.”
His jaw locked, and he turned away from her, facing the bar again. “Shelby, why don’t we see how Lenore reacts to my questions about your father first? I don’t want to put you and your sister in a hurtful situation unnecessarily.”
This time she wanted to place her hand on his arm to assure him, but she knew better. The imprints of his fingers still felt burned into her arm. “We’re tougher than you give us credit for.”
He looked at her then, and his eyes were heated. “You work for Gail, which is evidence enough for me. I’m not so sure about Sadie, though. She has a soft heart, not that I’m saying you don’t.”
She took no offense. Sadie was a softer touch, and all the McGuinesses knew it. “Go on.”
“Your grandmother…”
“What?” she asked when he trailed off.
“My gut tells me your grandmother isn’t going to be an easy woman,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s just a feeling.”
“My mama calls those feelings guidance,” she said. How was she going to feel if her grandma was unpleasant? Surely it wouldn’t be too awful. “All right, maybe you could come along with us.”
He studied her as soft jazz played on the speakers, something she hadn’t noticed until now. “If you’re going to insist on going, I’m going to insist on coming. Shelby, that way I can step in and stop you from getting hurt any further, should things go with Lenore like I fear they will.”
There was a warm feeling in her chest from his words. “I still don’t see how can I be hurt by someone I don’t know.”
“We react all the time to people we don’t know,” he said, staring at her. “Sometimes we even find ourselves caring about them and their feelings without fully knowing why.”
Oxygen backed up in her lungs as she realized he meant her. Or at least she thought he meant her. “Oh.”
He held her gaze a moment longer, and everything seemed to slow down. She was conscious of the buzz of other people’s conversations in the background, a woman’s sudden high-pitched laughter, and the smell of truffle parmesan fries wafting under her nose.
His aquamarine eyes had a gold ring around them, she realized, and sexy dark stubble lined his strong jaw. His gaze slid to her mouth, and she found herself unable to draw breath. Then, just like that, he was standing up and taking a money clip out of his pocket.
She fell back to earth.
“Talk to Sadie when she gets out of her quilting thing,” he said, laying down a couple of twenties on the bar. “I imagine you’ll speak with your brother and sister shortly as well. Once you know who’s going, we can talk details and sync schedules.”
His haste to leave was as unexpected as a summer tornado. “I thought you were hungry.”
Those heated eyes of his met her own again, and she felt the punch all the way to her toes. “We both know that’s not the best decision. Good night, Shelby.”
She watched him walk out of the restaurant.
Shelby realized she was more unsettled by his abrupt exit than she was by the prospect of meeting her grandmother.
Chapter 10
Sadie hugged the five women in her quilting circle as they broke for the night. Each of them was at a different skill level, but they were all committed, which was all she asked. Teaching people how to quilt was as new to her as making quilts for people to buy.
She was experiencing some growing pains, like a girl who’d outgrown last year’s Easter dress, but it felt good to share her talent. Especially after this afternoon’s meeting.
When she checked her messages, her happiness popped like a birthday balloon. Vander had news already? Charlie had said she was getting started right away, but Sadie hadn’t expected a same-day turnaround. Shelby had correctly assumed she wouldn’t want to wait to hear the news, and goodness gracious, she was almost as curious about the meeting between her sister and Vander. Sparks flew between them in a professional setting, and Oak Bar was exactly the sort of sultry place suited to flirting.
She texted her sister to tell her she was finished with her circle, and Shelby immediately responded she was at home. Apparently, the meeting hadn’t gone on for too long.
After locking up and getting in her car, she called her sister. “All right,” she said with some urgency, “what did Vander say?”
“They found our grandmother in Memphis and think she’s the best place to start,” her sister said without beating around the bush. “I know we need to talk to the others first, but I told Vander that I want to go meet her. Do you?”
Sadie gripped the steering wheel, thinking hard abou
t that. The softer tone of Shelby’s voice indicated she was a little scared by the prospect too.
“I won’t let you go alone,” Sadie responded. “Besides, I have lots of questions myself.”
“I wonder if J.P. will want to go,” Shelby said.
Sadie found herself nodding even though her sister couldn’t see her.
“What about Susannah?” she asked, her gut worrying over her eldest sister’s reaction.
“We ask her,” Shelby said, “but we can expect a lot of emotion all around. I’m afraid they might want to stop us, but I…I need to see this through. Even though I’m fixing to come undone about the prospect of seeing her. Sadie, I didn’t even know her name. It’s Lenore. That made me sad.”
It brought tears to her eyes too. “I think we should all meet up tonight,” Sadie said. “Neither of them go to bed early.”
“They’re newlyweds,” Shelby reminded her, making her start to cough violently.
“Yuck. Did you have to go there? Darn it all, Shelby, I want to deal with this tonight. I won’t be able to sleep a wink.”
“All right, let’s text them and see what they say.” Shelby paused for a moment. “I should confess Vander isn’t sold on the idea of us going. At all! He wanted to make the trip by himself, but I told him we have to go.”
“But she’s our grandmother!” Sadie exclaimed, deciding to pull into the parking lot of a Dairy Queen for some ice cream. She deserved a treat after all this stress. “Why wouldn’t we go?”
“He doesn’t want us to get hurt,” Shelby told her, and that made Sadie’s heart warm.
“Vander really is a good man,” Sadie said, cutting the engine. “How did your…ah…meeting go?”
Her sister sighed. “He pretty much bolted out of Oak Bar after sharing the news.”
Wasn’t that interesting? “Then he has ethics, which makes me like him even more. If you like him, you’re going to have to be the one to make the move. I know I told you to be careful, but this changes my mind.”
“Sadie McGuiness! Did you and your quilting circle up and smoke something tonight?”