She’d heard, along with everyone else in town, about Homer Winslow’s financial issues and how he’d put Winslow Properties into financial jeopardy. It had only served to increase her anxiety about her position here.
Mellie nodded. “Definitely. Even if Winslow Properties’ resources won’t stretch far enough, and I believe that with some restructuring they should, Case has assured me that he will back us financially if need be.”
Raina didn’t quite know what to say. She filled two coffee mugs, put them on the table with shaking hands and sank into her chair. This was incredible news.
“I’m sure you know how much this means to me, Mellie. Thank you for telling me now. It’s the best Christmas present I could have imagined.”
“I thought it best to give you peace of mind as soon as I knew, and I wanted to do it myself. I know how much it means to you to be here and how hard you’ve worked.”
“But what about Samson Oil? Are they going to back off now? Seems they’ve been busy buying up everything that’s for sale around Royal and some of what’s not.”
Mellie nodded her head. “Yeah, I know. It certainly looks that way, doesn’t it?”
“And why? Everyone here knows the land isn’t worth squat for oil, and with the drought even ranching isn’t so viable. What are they thinking? Do you know who is behind it all?”
“No, all I know is that their attorney, Nolan Dane, is one stubborn guy. Every time we say no to selling, he bounces straight back with another offer. Honestly, if I hadn’t taken over from Dad, Winslow Properties’ portfolio would be looking very slim indeed.”
Raina gasped out loud and reeled at the name that had come from Mellie’s mouth. Nolan Dane? A giant fist clutched at her chest and squeezed tight, making it nearly impossible to draw breath.
“Raina? Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” she replied, feeling anything but. She forced herself to take a breath, drawing it all the way in before letting it out again. “A-are you sure Nolan Dane is their attorney?”
“He’s certainly the person we’ve been dealing with. And I’ve heard from a few of the stall holders and retailers here that he’s been sniffing around, asking all sorts of questions about the operation and about Winslow Properties. He won’t have any excuse to come out here now though. Our lawyers sent him a message today categorically stating that the Courtyard is not, and never will be, for sale. At least not as long as I’m running things,” Mellie confirmed before taking a long sip of her coffee. “Ah, this is good—just what I needed. I have a meeting with our board in—” she glanced at her watch “—oh, heck, twenty minutes. I’d better fly! Thanks for the coffee. I’ll see myself out.”
Raina remained glued to her chair in shock as Mellie put her mug in the sink, grabbed her coat and headed out of the store. Nolan was acting for Samson Oil? Did that mean that everything he’d done had been in the pursuit of getting an edge on Winslow Properties and buying the Courtyard?
She felt sick as she remembered how open she’d been about her situation. About how much all this meant to her here, to be able to start up her business again after the hellish year she’d had. And all the time he’d been planning to rip it all out from under her. Pressure built up inside her chest, growing bigger and more painful until a sob broke free. She clapped a hand over her mouth in a futile attempt to hold back the grief she felt at Nolan’s betrayal.
She’d really thought he liked her—and JJ. And all along he’d simply been using them both. This hurt far worse than anything Jeb had done. He’d made empty promises, sure, but never anything like this.
Raina tipped her head back and stared at the ceiling of the old barn, willing the burning in her eyes to stop before the tears that already blinded her began to fall. Man, she could pick ’em, couldn’t she? Did she have some sign over her head, visible only to losers and liars that said, “Soft touch and fool”?
After Jeb she’d sworn never again. She wouldn’t make the same mistakes—not when she had JJ to consider. She’d guarded herself and her privacy, spurning male attention on the occasions it had been offered, making it clear that her son and her business were her sole priorities. Until Nolan.
He’d managed to charm his way past her barriers, slowly and gently peeling them away and exposing her vulnerability. It had been more than just the physical attraction she’d felt toward him; there’d been an emotional connection there, too. It had been so tangible that she would have sworn he felt the same way. Man, had he ever taken her for a ride.
Just went to show what an appalling judge of character she was after all. Raina dashed away an errant tear from her cheek. No. There’d be no more tears over men whose sole purpose in life was to break her heart—or worse, her hope for the future. She was better than that and she deserved better than that, too.
Raina pushed herself up onto her feet and put her mug in the sink alongside Mellie’s. She was grateful the woman had come to see her today to tell her the news. What if it had been tomorrow, or even next week? Heck, she had invited Nolan to her house for dinner with her and JJ, and who knows where that might have led given the heat of their kiss on Saturday night?
She pressed trembling fingers to her lips. It took very little stretch of her imagination to relive the pressure of his lips on hers. To remember the taste of him, the strength of his arms around her and how safe and protected he had made her feel. And that hadn’t been all. He’d wanted her, she’d felt it in the hard lines of his body, and to her shame she’d wanted him back with all the heat and hunger she’d ignored for too long.
Damn him for doing this to her. For sliding under her skin and for making her want things she had no right wanting.
With a sound of disgust, Raina reached for her bag and snatched her cell phone. She pulled up Nolan’s number and viciously tapped the call button on the screen. He wasn’t welcome at her house anymore, let alone anywhere near her son. She had to tell him tonight was off. Tonight and every other night in the future.
Eight
Nolan pulled up outside Raina’s house and sighed. Today had been tough. They’d closed on several private deals today. While on the one hand he’d known that, under the guise of Samson Oil, Rafiq was offering many people a way out of a situation that had become untenable since the tornado—people who’d been underinsured and overmortgaged and living hand-to-mouth since the disaster—he also knew he was taking them from a way of life that had been in their families for generations.
It had taken a toll—seeing relief tempered with failure, hope for a new start tempered with sorrow at leaving behind the past. These were families and people whose kids had gone to school alongside him here in Royal. And now they were scattering to the winds, some leaving Royal altogether and others settling for a life they’d never believed they’d live in one of the new suburbs. Sure, there were those who’d ecstatically accepted Rafiq’s money and were eager to move forward with new lives. But the majority were people whose pride had been beaten down by so much loss that they had no fight left in them. It had been there in every hollow-eyed stare, every line of strain on their faces.
The shining light in his day today had been the knowledge that he’d see Raina again. His body had been buzzing with suppressed energy ever since Saturday night, and he’d realized that for the first time since Carole’s and Bennett’s deaths, he’d begun to be able to think about them without the sharp stab of pain that always accompanied the memories. Instead, he saw two new faces. Faces that he knew were fast becoming equally special to him.
Nolan got out of the SUV, hit the autolock and reached into his jacket pocket for his mobile phone before remembering he’d forgotten to charge it last night and that he’d heard the warning beeps before it shut down earlier today. It had been a blessing in disguise, he’d thought at the time, that he hadn’t had to deal with the text messages and emails while he’d dotted all the i’s and crossed all the
t’s on each individual contract that signaled the end of life as many people had known it. He strode up the front path—eager now to rid himself of the clinging mental residue of the day.
He’d no sooner knocked when the door was flung open. He was assailed by two things. JJ’s effusive greeting, as the little boy almost knocked him off his feet with a powerful hug around his legs, and the sound of Raina’s stern admonition to let her get the door. Nolan reached down and tousled JJ’s mop of dark hair. An unexpected surge of tenderness swelled inside him as JJ lifted his happy little face.
“Hi, No’an.”
This was what a man’s life should be filled with. Moments like this that were precious and memorable for their simplicity and purity. This was what he’d been missing for far too long.
“Hey, JJ. How’re you doing?”
“Good!” The little boy disengaged from Nolan’s legs and began hopping from one foot to the other. “We’re having lasagna for dinner. Yum!”
“JJ, let me talk to Mr. Dane,” Raina interrupted, coming up behind JJ and putting a hand on his shoulder to restrain him.
Nolan’s senses went on full alert. He was back to being Mr. Dane? Something was very wrong. The chill that surrounded Raina cut through JJ’s excitement and the boy stilled as he looked from his mommy to Nolan in confusion.
“Do you want money from my mommy, too?” JJ asked.
Raina’s eyes flared wide at her son’s words, and Nolan saw the shock that streaked across her face.
“Hush, JJ. Mr. Dane doesn’t want anything from me.”
Oh, she was very wrong there, he thought, but he didn’t miss the silent message in her words or her tone. Nolan squatted down to JJ’s level and gave the little guy a reassuring smile.
“No, I don’t want money from your mommy.”
“You sure?”
Nolan nodded. “Of course I’m sure.”
“Bad man hurt mommy.”
Nolan heard Raina’s gasp of shock. “JJ, don’t be telling stories.”
“But it true,” the little boy protested.
Nolan thought it a good time to interrupt before the atmosphere got any more difficult than it was already. “Hey, JJ, look at me. I would never hurt your mommy. I promise. Okay, champ?”
JJ nodded slowly and Nolan rose to his full height again. As he did, he caught a glimpse of Raina’s arm. She’d pushed the sleeves of her long-sleeved T-shirt halfway up her forearm and there was no mistaking the livid bruising around her wrist. The second she was aware he’d noticed, she pulled the sleeves down but it was too late now. He couldn’t unsee what was there and he wasn’t a fool. He knew fingermarks when he saw them. He’d seen marks like that, and worse, often enough when he was working alongside his father at his family law practice.
“You okay?”
Nolan chose his words carefully, even though he wished he had the right to demand who the hell had dared to lay a hand on her—and then hunt them down for some payback. Before she could answer him, though, JJ jumped up and down and started to speak.
“No’an! No’an! I’m gonna be Spider-Man at the C’istmas show!”
“Settle down, JJ,” Raina admonished her son. “What he means is he’s been chosen to play one of the shepherds at his day care’s Christmas pageant this year.”
“Yeah!” JJ interrupted again, unable to contain his excitement. “Can you come, No’an?”
“I’m sure Mr. Dane will be far too busy to attend the pageant, JJ.”
Raina gave Nolan a fierce look, warning him not to contradict her. In response he squatted back down to JJ’s level and put one hand on the little boy’s shoulder.
“I’m sorry, JJ. Your mom is right. I’m working that night.”
“I hate work!” JJ shouted, before turning tail and running down the hall toward his room.
“You mind telling me what that was about?” Nolan asked as he rose again to his full height and met Raina’s chilling blue gaze full-on.
From the second he’d arrived, he’d felt a cold vibe coming from Raina that was at complete odds with the way they’d parted last time they’d been together. What the hell had gone wrong between then and now? He could have sworn that they were both heading in the same direction and now it seemed that she was slamming on the brakes. Did it have something to do with those marks on her wrist?
Again Nolan felt the slow burn of anger flicker inside at the fact that anyone had dared to lay a hand on Raina. But it was nothing compared to the irritation he felt at being manipulated into letting JJ down just now.
Raina lifted her chin and crossed her arms in front of her. Her body language was clear. She was shutting him out in more ways than one.
“Sure,” she said abruptly. “I don’t mind telling you. I know why you’re here.”
For a split second he was confused and then it dawned on him. She’d found out about his connection to Samson Oil. “I’m guessing it’s not because of your invitation to dinner, right?”
“Don’t you dare try to make a joke of it. You used me.”
Nolan couldn’t refute her accusation. “I’m sorry about that. Believe me, I—”
“Believe you?” she interrupted with an incredulous expression on her face. “No way. Not ever. You may have missed this in Lawyer 101, Mr. Dane, but where I come from belief comes along with trust, and I don’t trust you anymore. Not now. Not after what you’ve been doing.”
“Raina! Please? Listen to me.”
“No way. Do you even understand what you were doing to me? You were working to take away my sole security. If I can’t run my business at the Courtyard, JJ and I will lose everything I’ve worked to provide for us—we’re barely making ends meet now as it is. My son deserves a bright future, one that only I can give him because God knows there’s no one else there for him. By doing what you were doing, attempting to buy out that land, you threatened everything I hold dear. So, no, I won’t listen to you. Not now and not ever again. Get out of my house. I don’t want to ever see you here again.”
Her voice broke and there were tears in her eyes as she finished her impassioned speech.
“Look, Raina, you have to let me explain—”
“The time for explanations was when you met me. Before you started pumping me for information about the Courtyard and about Royal. Not now.”
The fact that she was totally right made her scorn no less galling or painful.
“Can I at least say bye to JJ?”
“No, you may not.”
Raina stepped toward the front door and hauled it open. The chill air outside rushed in, enveloping them both in its icy swirl. He stared at Raina’s face for a moment, but her expression remained implacable. He knew he had to pick his battles. This was definitely not the time to press her.
Silent, he passed her and went out the door. Before his feet had even struck the paved path to the road, he heard the door slam resoundingly behind him. He didn’t look back, not even when he climbed into the SUV and pulled away from the curb.
On the drive back to his hotel and during a lonely dinner, he couldn’t stop thinking about those bruises Raina had so swiftly hidden and who might have been responsible for them. The very idea that someone had felt they had the right to harm her like that made his blood boil and roused every protective instinct in him. Who was the bad man JJ had referred to and what was he to Raina? Was it the ex she’d said so little about? Nolan was suddenly reminded of the shadowy figure he’d seen the other night. Was it him? The thought left a sour taste in his mouth and made him determined to get to the root of what had happened to her, one way or another.
Nine
Raina was still bristling mad about Nolan’s lies two days later. It had been tough breaking it to JJ that Nolan wouldn’t be staying for dinner. He’d gone to bed that night grumpy and woken
yesterday morning in the same state. It seemed her little guy could hold a grudge, and he laid the blame for his new idol not being around very firmly at her feet. She could only hope that the rehearsals for the pageant would distract him from his disappointment.
She thanked her lucky stars that she hadn’t had time to let things go any further with Nolan than they already had. One kiss, that’s all it had been—but what a kiss, her subconscious reminded her uncomfortably. She shoved the thought to the back of her mind and tried to focus on her preparations for the mosaic class she had scheduled tonight. Her group had enjoyed getting started on their mirror frames last week and she had no doubt that a few of them would finish gluing their pieces tonight and be ready to grout them.
She felt another flush of anger at Nolan as she remembered how his actions, if successful, would have taken all of this away from her. She hadn’t been kidding when she’d told him on that first night that the Courtyard had become a symbol of hope for so many people. But then hope was obviously a cheap commodity for a man like him, along with belief and trust.
No matter how angry she was, though, she couldn’t help but feel a numbing sense of loss. Her attraction to him had come out of the blue, startling her with its intensity. “Hormones, just hormones,” she growled under her breath as she did her final checks around the room. Obviously she’d never learned her lesson about the kind of guy she should be attracted to. In the future, if there was any spark at all, she’d take it as a warning and then run a mile in the opposite direction. Fast.
“Hi, Raina!”
She looked up and greeted her students as they came in through the workroom’s exterior door. In no time the workbenches were full. She’d had to restrict numbers on this class, as well as her Thursday night stained-glass classes purely because people needed to be able to spread their tools and supplies out while working. It was something she needed to consider when she came up with costing out her next cycle of classes in the New Year. While this first cycle had been a short one, geared mainly toward making gifts in time for Christmas, for her to maximize earnings and rebuild that little nest egg she’d had to withdraw for Jeb, she might need to have two evenings with large classes focused on smaller crafts and only one evening devoted to the larger projects.
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