Her Unexpected Detour (Checkerberry Inn)

by Kyra Jacobs

  Brent stood there for a moment, grappling with her words. He had hidden from love, had avoided it like the plague for years. From what he knew, Kayla had, too. Was that really what was keeping her from seeing how much she meant to him? How badly he wanted her to stay? Needed her here?

  “But what if…?”

  “Taking risks is a part of life, Brent.” Ruby’s voice was soft. “Some are well worth it.”

  His gaze shifted again to the door.

  “Stop thinking so much and go get washed up,” his grandmother commanded with a grin. “You’ve got amends to make and an inn to finish getting ready for this season.”

  “Yes, ma’am.” Brent pulled his spunky grandmother into a bear hug and whispered in her ear, “And thank you. For not giving up on me or the inn.”

  “I’d never dream of it,” she whispered back.

  Kayla returned home to a lockbox full of junk mail and a refrigerator full of spoiled food. Well, half full. She’d been due for a trip to the grocery store even before she’d skipped town a week ago. With a sigh, she started to unpack and did her best to block Brent, Ruby, Miles, and the inn from her mind.

  And failed miserably.

  After being in her silent, lonely apartment for barely an hour, Kayla headed back out the door. Usually after spending three hours in the car, she was cured of wanting to leave home again for a day or two. Not today. No, today a trip to one of their local noisy supermarkets was exactly what she needed. All that chaos might be just enough to drown out her thoughts of the surrogate family she’d left behind. A family who had received her with arms wide open, taken care of her as if she were their own, and yet she’d bailed on them when they probably needed her most.

  But it was best this way, she reminded herself as she wove mindlessly through the grocery aisles. A clean break for all of them. Ruby could shop for a quiet retirement villa, Miles could go do whatever it was finance guys do with extra time on their hands, and Brent…

  Kayla snagged a cereal box from the nearest shelf. She read every ingredient, every nutrition fact. Cheerios were heart healthy? Huh, who knew? She tossed the box into her cart and gripped the handle tighter than necessary. No more dwelling on the past. Life was too short to live wallowing in regret, and Lord knows she had plenty.

  Like her most recent—going off on Phillip Jacober while fighting late afternoon traffic as she passed through Grand Rapids. Yeah, maybe not the best time for him to call and tell her the board had rejected his recommendation to pay her for her time off. On the bright side, her former boss was sure to stop calling now. And since he’d quietly requested she clear out her desk this weekend with no one but the security guard around, she wouldn’t have to deal with any departure drama.

  At least he’d agreed to pay her six weeks of severance pay, after she’d threatened to sue Wayne Advertising for withholding overtime pay from her for years. Not enough to live off for long, but better than nothing. Maybe her hanging out with a bossy Neanderthal the past week had paid off after all.

  A bossy, sexy Neanderthal. Who’d taught her how to feel again, then stolen her heart.

  Nope, no regrets, she reminded herself as she headed to the checkout lanes. If she hadn’t met Brent, she’d still be under the illusion that Wayne Advertising appreciated and respected her. Both not true. Plus, she never would have met Ruby, or Miles, and rediscovered the importance of family—even if they had their fair share of dysfunction. Didn’t most families?

  Kayla headed home, consumed by a new dilemma—how to break the news that she’d quit to her father. That was, if Jacober hadn’t already blabbed. With her recent bout of bad luck, it wouldn’t surprise her. But if she could craft her explanation into something that her father could understand, maybe he wouldn’t be as worried about her. She had the severance pay, after all, and a terrific résumé that was certain to help her land another job soon enough.

  At least, she sure hoped so.

  She pulled her car into the lot at her complex and looked for an empty parking space. But all the ones along the front walk to her building were already taken. Lots of sports cars, shiny and new, as if to rub it in. Kayla glared at a red one as she continued past her door.

  Oh well, she thought as she slid into a spot in the back row, three doors down. At least it wasn’t—

  A raindrop hit her windshield. Then another. And another.

  She peered up at the darkening clouds in disbelief. “Are you kidding me?”

  By the time she parked and climbed out of her Impala, a gentle spring rain was falling. Gentle, but ice cold. She dug into her trunk, grabbed the bags containing frozen and refrigerated items, and hurried for her apartment. With clothes already more or less soaked, she set the bags just inside the door and didn’t bother hunting for an umbrella. Instead she turned and braced herself for a second tromp out into the great—and wet—outdoors.

  Kayla dashed back out into the blinding rain. Several men came running from the parking lot, headed in the opposite direction. So much for modern chivalry.

  To her surprise, a man came up beside her and reached into the trunk to help. Usually, she’d be wary of help from a stranger, even in her safe pocket of Fort Wayne. But not today. Today she just wanted to get out of the rain and into some warm, dry clothes.

  “Thanks so much,” she said, reaching to pull the far bags closer to the edge.

  “Anytime, princess.”

  Kayla stopped in mid stretch. That voice. It couldn’t possibly be.

  She turned to get a better look at the man peering down into the grocery bag in his hands and gasped. “Brent? W-what are you doing here?”

  “Helping you unload groceries, from the look of things.” He stood beside her, his rain-soaked T-shirt matted to his muscular torso, looking like some Greek god. As rivulets of water cascaded down his face, a slow smile formed on his lips. “I had no idea you were such a chocoholic.”

  “I’m not.” Mortified, Kayla swiped her shopping bag from him, set it back in the trunk, and shifted to stand between him and her stash. Usually when she went on a pity trip to the store, the reason for her mass intake of chocolate wasn’t around to witness it. “There was a sale.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “There was!” Which wasn’t a complete lie. “Now, dang it, answer my question.”

  Confusion clouded his handsome face. “I said I was—”

  “No. Why. Are. You. Here?”

  “You forgot something.”

  “I did?” The hope spawned by his appearance beside her car faded. “Well, why didn’t you just put it in the mail?”

  “Because. This item doesn’t travel well in the back of a UPS truck.”

  “Oh?” She couldn’t think of anything she’d left behind that might have been too fragile to ship. “What is it?”

  Brent cupped a hand to her cheek, then lowered his face to within a whisper of hers. “Me.”

  He pressed his wet lips softly into hers, and a rush of warmth swept through Kayla’s rain-soaked body.

  “You told me to go.”

  He kissed her forehead. “I was an idiot.”

  “Not gonna argue with that. Though I didn’t give you much of a chance to say otherwise.”

  “No, you didn’t. So I had to make a road trip, ask you to reconsider in person.”

  She grinned up at him. “Ruby made you come, didn’t she?”

  “She might have smacked some sense into me.”

  “Smart woman.”

  “Almost as smart as the one I’ve fallen in love with.” He brushed a thumb across her damp cheek. “Too bad she lives out of state.”

  Kayla’s heart swelled with hope. “She does?”

  “Yep. Damn Hoosier.”

  A grin crept across her face. “Something tells me if you made her a good enough offer, she might be willing to consider it. Maybe even relocate.”

  “And leave her old job?” he asked.

  “Already done. Funny what love can give you the courage to do.”


  He kissed her then, and the world around them seemed to fall away. Kayla no longer cared about what obstacles might lay ahead with her career or her father. With Brent by her side she felt ready to take on the world.

  A car drove through the lot, splashing them with water from a nearby growing puddle. Their kiss ended as both gasped in shock from the icy deluge. Kayla clung to Brent in an attempt to stay warm.

  “So,” he said. “I guess all she needs now is that good offer, huh?”

  “Yep.”

  “How about we go inside and I share that offer with you?” Brent looked toward her apartment building and back, then arched his right brow. “In great detail.”

  Kayla gazed up at Brent’s handsome face, made even more so by the ornery grin tugging at his lips. Oh yeah, she was in love with this man. He had given so much of himself to her this past week, and she to him. Each had helped the other face their old nightmares, conquer them, and provide the strength to move on.

  All of that had been enough to win her over. But any man willing to drive three hours to confess his love to her, and then, once there, do it in the pouring rain? Well, that man definitely deserved a chance at forever.

  “Does this offer happen to include a hot shower?” she asked.

  “For you, princess,” he said, swinging her up into his arms. “Anything.”

  Epilogue

  Kayla stood in her empty living room, giving the space one last glance before heading to the main office and dropping off her keys. She was doing it—she was actually going to leave Indiana behind. While she hadn’t been in this particular—and overly pricey—apartment for long, she’d lived in the Fort her whole life. But it was high time she turned over a new leaf.

  Even her father had agreed.

  “Good grief, woman. Aren’t you ready yet?”

  She turned to see Brent standing in the foyer, hands on hips and impatience written all over his flushed face. If she’d learned one thing about him these past few weeks, it was that Brent Masterson didn’t sit still for long. She’d break him of that, eventually. For now, she didn’t mind him keeping her in motion—at the inn, or in their bedroom.

  “Be nice, I’m having a moment.”

  He came to stand behind her and wrapped a pair of warm, strong arms around her waist. “Sorry,” he whispered. “I don’t think like a girl.”

  “We’ll work on that.”

  “No we won’t, that’s why I have you. So you can think like that.”

  “And you’ll just think with your muscles, right?”

  His breath washed over her as he pressed a kiss into the hollow beneath her ear. “Or maybe just one.”

  “I’m trying to be serious here.”

  “Me too.” He nipped at her earlobe. “It’s too bad the bed’s already loaded. We could have—”

  “Don’t tell me you two are in here making out again? If this keeps up, we’ll never get on the road.”

  “Shut it, Miles,” said Brent.

  Kayla grinned. She’d missed having Tommy around these last few years, and the playful banter they used to share. In a few hours, she’d be living in the same town as him once again, along with her new beau and surrogate brother and grandmother. There would be plenty of banter to go around, that was for sure. Hopefully plenty of freelance advertising work to be found as well.

  Brent tried to pull back from her, but Kayla hugged his arms against her, savoring the moment.

  “You worried about your father?”

  Her gaze shifted instinctively to the mantle where a picture of her family used to sit. “A little, but he swore to me he’d be just fine, and that I could call or come back for a visit anytime. Honestly, when I went to visit him last night I got the feeling he couldn’t wait for me to leave. Said he was going out.”

  “Oooh, somebody’s old man had a date.”

  Kayla shot Miles a dirty look. “It was with a friend. Who might also have been female.”

  “Nothing wrong with that.” Miles waggled his brows.

  “Speaking of which,” she asked. “How did yours go last night, lover boy?”

  “You know, the usual. Dinner, dancing, came back to my place.” He shrugged. “She couldn’t get enough of me.”

  “You keep telling yourself that, buddy,” Brent said.

  “Be nice.” Kayla turned to throw him a look that said the same. “Miles will find love someday, too.”

  “Oh, no I won’t.” He shook his head, backing away toward the door. “Love is definitely not in the future for this guy. Thanks, but no thanks.”

  “Mmm hmm.” Kayla watched him disappear out the front door. “We’ll see.”

  “Not if we don’t get on the road already.” Brent gave her belt loop a gentle tug. “Can we go now?”

  “You really don’t like being away from the inn, do you?”

  “No, it’s that I don’t like being away so long from you. These past few days without you were brutal.”

  Kayla grinned. Coming home to pack after spending the two weeks helping with the inn’s successful season opening had sucked. Sleeping alone had sucked even more. It was funny how quickly she’d gotten used to sharing a bed with the brawny man before her. “Me too. Though you do realize that long road trips always wear me out.”

  “Good thing I have a nice, comfy bed at my place.” Brent pulled her close and kissed her thoroughly. “We could always go back and rest. Or something.”

  She stared up at the handsome man before her, still trying to believe that this was all real. That her luck had finally changed. Who would have thought an unexpected detour on a dreadful, icy day could bring her true love?

  “Hmm,” she said. “How about ‘or something’ and then we take a nap together?”

  Brent grinned. “Now there’s an offer I’ll never turn down.”

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  Acknowledgments

  I’d like to send a big shout-out to my wonderful beta readers Michele, Kelly, Shari, Jen, and Jessica. Your eagerness to read and offer feedback gives me the boost I need to keep writing every time. Thank you also to my beloved KickAss Chicks, who entertained, inspired, and comforted me during my edits and rewrites. To my agent, Dawn, thank you for your excitement about this series and all the hard work you do. Many thanks also to Alycia at Entangled who helped me craft Detour into an even more beautiful love story. And last, but not least, thank you to my wonderful, supportive cast of family and friends. I love you all!

  About the Author

  Kyra Jacobs is an extroverted introvert who writes of love, humor, and mystery in the Midwest and beyond. Her romance novels range from sweet contemporaries to urban suspense, and paranormal/fantasy to YA. No matter the setting, Kyra employs both humor and chaos to help her characters find inspiration and/or redemption on their way to happily ever after.

  When the Hoosier native isn’t pounding out scenes for her next book, she’s likely outside, elbow-deep in snapdragons or spending quality time with her sports-loving family. Kyra also loves to read, tries to golf, and is an avid college football fan.

  Be sure to stop by her website www.KyraJacobs.wordpress.com to learn more about her novels and ways to connect with her on social media.

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