Down the Hidden Path

by Heather Burch

  “So, how will this go?” She was trying, Miah could tell, to mentally prepare herself for the night, for being on display, for being the center of attention. Gray never made a big deal out of the fact she was pretty; she just was herself and didn’t care who noticed her. In fact, she likely preferred not to be noticed, not to be in the limelight. But she deserved the spotlight. She deserved her own moon to revolve around her. And quite suddenly, Jeremiah wished he’d known about the details. He’d have pledged money for a dance with Gray. Then, the thought of her spinning around all evening in other men’s arms shot like fire through his mind. And the fun of the evening took a quick right turn and out the truck window.

  Her nervousness found its way to her fingertips. They clicked together, something he’d noticed she did when she was uncomfortable. He reached over and gave her hands a quick squeeze. He parked the truck and opened the passenger door. David bailed out, but Gray remained motionless, her giant eyes glassy and focused on something directly in front of them. “Come on, princess,” he urged.

  Reluctantly, she slid out of the truck, giving him a great view of those legs again and, side by side, they walked toward the gymnasium. David was a few steps ahead. Miah leaned over and gripped her hand. “You gonna be okay?” he whispered in her ear.

  “Not much choice. Welcome to Parenthood 101. Always get details where fund-raisers are concerned.”

  Miah watched their son walking in front of him. “It’s weird that he was so secretive about it.”

  “He knows me. I’d have never agreed.”

  Miah stopped her. With gentle pressure on her arm, he turned her to face him.

  “Not true. You’re just like me. You’d rope the moon if he asked. You can do this, Smith. You’re so much stronger than you know.” And she was beautiful. She’d put on makeup to enhance her formal attire. Her hair was down, long, lush, and waiting for his fingers to rummage through it, but he wouldn’t be doing that because they both had a card filled with names.

  “I’d have bought a dance with you.” Miah didn’t pull her closer, though her body moved in, if only slightly, and he had the suspicion that he could thaw that ice queen if he only had the time and if he didn’t mess everything up again in the process.

  “Come on, you guys.” David tugged the gym door and the banquet and dance lay just beyond.

  Gray hadn’t been able to eat during the banquet because her stomach was a ball of nerves that felt like barbed wire unraveling in her gut. The gym had been modestly enhanced with cardboard and tissue from what was likely a decade of collected Valentine decorations. Red and white and a million balloons. If the decorating committee’s goal was middle school romance, they’d nailed it. David and Stacey came over. “Okay, inside the envelope is your card. Each card has lines. On each line is the name of the person you dance with. There are ten dances.”

  Gray’s fingers bit into the envelope and she hoped for . . . well, she didn’t know what to hope for. Empty. That’s what she hoped for. She stared at the page, then hollered for David, who had already started sneaking away. He and Stacey made their way back to her.

  “There’s a mistake here. My card just says Jeremiah McKinley.”

  At that moment, as if summoned by her words, Jeremiah came toward them with the same look on his face that she was experiencing. He held the card up in front of David. “What’s this?”

  Gray tilted on her high heels to see, but couldn’t read what was on his card.

  David grinned. Stacey grinned. Finally, David raised one hand in explanation. “I told you, we could either sell dances or get people to pledge money toward a dance.”

  “So?” Jeremiah’s head tilted down and Gray realized he was finally tiring of this tug-of-war surprise, too.

  “So, you’re pledged to dance with Gray.”

  Miah nodded toward her. “But how can I dance with her when she already has a full—” He snagged her card from her hands and stared at it. She watched his eyes skitter across the page that read Jeremiah McKinley on every line.

  Miah blinked and for what was likely the first time in his life, he seemed to have nothing to say.

  “David.” Gray’s tone was low, cautious. “How did you get the money to do this? It had to be expensive.”

  “I just told people that you two were my birth parents and I wanted to give you a nice date night. Everyone was all like ‘Aaaaahhhhh, that’s so sweet.’ Then, they gave me money.”

  She struggled for something to balance her because this was embarrassing, mortifying. And David should have known . . . . She placed her hands firmly on his shoulders. “This was not the right thing to do.”

  And that’s when it happened. His smile disappeared, turning into a sad bow shape, his eyes lost their sparkle, and his shoulders curled forward.

  And Gray felt like crap.

  Stacey put a steadying hand on David’s arm. His brows tilted up at the inside edges, making him look sorry. And like an angel being scolded for a good deed. His gaze fell to the gym floor. “I just wanted to do something nice for you. I know you never went to a dance when you were in school.”

  Oh, why had she admitted that to him? She’d done it back when he’d wanted to go to a couples’ dance in seventh grade but never got the courage to ask one of the girls. Her eyes looked up for strength because to continue to look at David felt like pouring acid in her system. She was a horrible mother. To her left, she found Miah. A tender smile, a sympathetic hand stretching to take hers. When she moved past the embarrassment, this was the sweetest thing David could have ever done, and it made her want to hug him so hard it would hurt. She pooled her mom-power and squeezed David’s shoulder. “You know what?”

  Reluctant hope lifted his chin.

  “This is an amazing gift. You’re right. I needed this dance, this night. David, you’re so much smarter than me.” She thought of him before the accident, searching the Internet for charm bracelets for Angie. He’d wanted her gift to be perfect. And now he wanted the night to be perfect for Gray.

  His smile lit the room. Stacey bumped his shoulder and the two of them headed off in the direction of the table that housed the red velvet cake.

  She turned to find Jeremiah with his arms outstretched and waiting. Waiting for her. His massive shoulders were tucked into a suit that made him even more handsome than should be legal. “May I have this dance?” A half smile tilted his cheek.

  “This and nine more.” As the music began and the lights dimmed, Gray Smith, resident graveyard freak of the town, danced with the man she loved, in the gymnasium of her old high school. She loved him. She knew that. Could even admit it to herself.

  But for all of Gray’s trying and working and hoping, she was too vulnerable. Miah had inadvertently hurt David. He’d fixed it, sure. And David had forgiven him. But if he hurt her, she wasn’t sure she could forgive him again. She’d handled the fishing situation badly. But hadn’t been able to stop those treacherous feelings from rising from that room deep in her heart, hadn’t been able to stop them from taking over. And the worst thing of all, if Miah ever took David away, it would kill her. Sure, he had a document explaining that it was Bill and Angie’s wishes to involve her, but that wasn’t a paper giving her custody, even joint custody.

  As long as she and Miah remained friends, there was no risk to David. If something more between her and Miah developed and then blew up in their faces, would he want her around? She’d walked such a careful line with Angela. She could do it again. It was the only way to ensure she’d never lose her son. Regardless of how much she loved Miah, her love for David had to come first.

  CHAPTER 14

  “Hey,” Miah whispered and pulled her closer in his arms. They were on dance six or seven. She’d lost count. Other couples changed partners, but not Miah and Gray. With each passing song, they steadily came closer and closer until their bodies were touching, lost somewhere beneath the g
limmer of an old disco ball and a canopy of balloons. “What’s wrong?”

  She glanced up to find his eyes—midnight sexy—settled on her. How’d he know something was wrong?

  “Your muscles tensed.”

  She swallowed. “Did they?”

  He tilted closer until his lips brushed the hair covering her ear. “Yeah,” he said, but it was one quick puff of ultraheated air that caused the strands to scatter, leaving her ear exposed. She felt naked there.

  Then, there was a brush, gently, lips against the delicate skin of her lobe. All the strength left her body.

  “That’s better,” he purred.

  Okay, something had to happen because all her well-thought-out intentions were eroding and collecting at her feet. Her skin was coming alive under his touch and for a quick instant she didn’t even care that there was a room full of people watching. She put on her game face and tilted to look at him. “Jeremiah, we need to talk about—”

  And then he ruined her plan and ruined her night and possibly her life. In a quick rush, Miah feathered his lips over hers.

  She sucked a breath.

  His smile had disappeared. There was an intensity reaching toward her that she’d only seen in him a few times in her life. The night. That night in the cabin with their skin still slick and wet from the rain and the hint of a chill in the summer air and Jeremiah in her arms.

  And he knew she was thinking about it. Knew it and it made him smile. Not his practiced smile, but something special, something intimate, something reserved for only her.

  “You possessed me that night,” he said, quite out of the blue, his golden eyes dazzling with a strange light she’d never seen before. Her feet stopped moving on the dance floor.

  Miah filled his lungs. “I’d never experienced anything like it. And I haven’t since.”

  What? What?

  “I kept telling myself it was because it was forbidden. You know, you being my best friend. I shouldn’t have felt . . . like that. Nothing’s ever come close.”

  Gray needed to breathe. There was no air in the room. But instead of helping her or giving her mouth-to-mouth or even calling an ambulance, his head dove again to the bare skin of her ear and she wished she’d worn earmuffs. “Gray, promise me one day you’ll make good on everything you promised me that night.”

  What had she promised? He was the one who’d called it a great send-off, not her. She’d wanted . . . she’d wanted him. That night and forever. She’d given him everything because it was all she had and if she’d had more, she’d freely have given that, too, even if it took her life. Because Miah was her forever, and if it couldn’t be him, it might as well be no one. Everything she’d been and felt was poured into him that night.

  His hand pressed at the small of her back. “I’m not rushing you. Just . . . just promise me one day you’ll give yourself to me like that again.”

  But she couldn’t, because back then there was hope and faith and trust that everything would work out. And now she was a realist. She knew things never went as planned. Her hands had fisted into his suit coat.

  He grasped a hand with his free one, untwining it, and drew it to his lips. “I know you’re scared.”

  She hadn’t said anything. Nothing. But Miah was carrying on an entire conversation as if she were speaking each thought that entered her mind. “I’m scared, too. For David’s sake. But I’m willing to try.”

  She wanted to look away, to find David at the cake table and be reminded that there were more important things than love and lust and having a man to curl up with. “It would destroy him if things didn’t work out between us. Gas and fire, remember?”

  “You’re so certain I will fail you. What if I don’t? What if I could be a great dad and a great husband?”

  Husband. Whoa there.

  “If you could give me a little room to make mistakes. I know you’re scared to trust me, and believe me, I understand why, but give me a chance, Gray. Maybe I’ll surprise you.”

  Tears rushed her eyes because she knew, had always known she was balancing on the edge of a sword. One wrong decision, one wrong move and Bill and Angela could have denied her access to David. And now it was Miah holding the hilt. “I’ve always felt one step away from losing him. How do I know I won’t lose him if things don’t work out between us?”

  Miah’s hands cupped her face. “You’re not going to lose him. That will never happen. I swear on my father’s grave.”

  Tiny spots appeared before her eyes. Gray drew a deep breath and let it out slowly. When she pulled another, there was something there, some strange sensation that trickled over her skin and into her chest. It was freedom. She’d take Jeremiah at his word. His word was golden and if he said he’d never take David away, then it was the truth.

  Still, she found herself repeating the words. “You swear?”

  The smile was tender. “I swear.”

  Gray threaded her hands around his neck and stretched right up off her high heels to hug him tighter, harder. A sound, like popcorn in a microwave, caused her to draw back.

  Applause. It was applause, and it came from around the entire gymnasium. Embarrassment clawed up her throat and settled on scorching her cheeks. Jeremiah chuckled. “We’re quite the spectacle.”

  “Yeah,” she agreed, but her heart was so light and so full of hope, she didn’t even mind. “Just imagine if they knew about us kissing in the graveyard.”

  His gaze narrowed playfully. “Is that what you call that?”

  Gray took his face in her hands and planted a peck on his lips. The applause continued, a few catcalls interspersed, and suddenly, David was at their feet. “You guys are totally embarrassing me. Stop it!”

  Gray shrugged. “You created this monster, now live with it, Dr. Frankenstein.”

  David grinned, half his face contorting in an attempt to scowl. He had a bit of red cake crumbs in the corner of his mouth. “Okay, well, PDAs are not allowed on school grounds, so please control yourselves.”

  David disappeared when the crowd lost interest in Gray and Jeremiah. Stacey and he were back at the cake table. When it was announced that David had raised the most money for the basketball team, a flurry of tall, gawky boys surrounded him in congratulations. It was the perfect night.

  Four dances later, with a heart warm and full, Gray fought the voice in her head that told her fairy tales rarely came true and when it seems like everything’s perfect, things were likely about to collapse around you.

  They drove her home and Jeremiah walked her to the door, his fingers twined around hers, and in his grip, she felt the reluctance to let go. He kissed her. Not as deeply or as completely as she would have liked—they had a twelve-year-old audience, after all. But a tender kiss that promised both a future and a happily ever after.

  “I want to see you again this weekend.”

  Those words raced down her spine, leaving a tingling sensation as they went.

  “Sunday night. Dinner with me. David will be at Stacey’s. They’re working on a project.”

  Gray chewed her lip and cast a glance at the truck.

  “Come on, Smith.” Miah stepped into her, trapping her at her front door. “Don’t start chickening out now. We agreed to do this.”

  She huffed. “Well, it’s not like I can think straight with you pressed against me like you are. Your son is watching.”

  “Our son. And I don’t think it would be horrible for him to know I’m pretty fond of his mother.”

  She placed her hands on his chest and shoved, but it was like moving a brick wall. “I’ll go to dinner with you. Now back off, McKinley, or I’ll go get my gun.”

  He laughed. “Your gun. Right. Did I tell you how incredible you look tonight?”

  She continued to push, but it was halfhearted at best. “You might have mentioned it.”

  “Wear some
thing nice on Sunday night. You’re going to love the place I have in mind.”

  Her brows and the corners of her mouth both tilted up. “Neon Moon?”

  “A real date. Dress for it. You won’t be disappointed.”

  “You always did know how to romance the ladies. Fine.” She feigned a yawn.

  He pressed his chest against hers. “You are one hard-to-impress female.”

  Her head tipped back innocently. “Or perhaps you’re one overconfident male.”

  One of his brows tilted seductively. “I guess you’ll find out.”

  The shiver ran from her neck down, sending her nerve endings dancing from the tops of her shoulders to the tips of her toes. There was no way she’d sleep tonight.

  He kissed the end of her nose. “Stay warm, Mary Grace.”

  Stay with me, she wanted to say. But that would serve no purpose at all except thoroughly wrecking whatever this was they were trying to build. She placed a hand to his cheek. It was cold from the night’s wind and smooth beneath her touch. “Good night, Jeremiah.”

  He turned to leave and she dropped her weight against the doorjamb to watch him go.

  “Oh, wait.” She ran inside and brought back the heavy plastic box she’d kept in her hall closet.

  He took it. “What is this?”

  “It’s David’s life. Up to now, of course. I thought you’d like to look through it. There are photos, video, his first birthday, his first science fair. Miah, I’m so sorry for all I denied you. Maybe these can . . . can help.”

  He took the box and handled it like the treasure it was. His eyes were misty. “Thank you, Gray. Thank you so much.”

  Over the box, she pecked his cheek. “See ya.”

  He nodded, but she didn’t think he trusted his voice to speak. It was a sensation she understood. She waved good-bye to David as Miah returned to his truck. In a moment, father and son were driving away and Gray was realizing maybe things really were going to be all right.

  Jeremiah started to place the container in the back of the truck but decided it was too precious to risk. He slid it inside between him and his son.