In the early afternoon Zack left a message on Jamie’s phone saying he’d bring dinner again that night—one of Gordon’s new recipes. The chef had been using them as guinea pigs.
At seven he arrived and Jamie let him in.
“Something wrong?” he asked, noticing how pale she was.
“No, of course not.”
“Jamie.”
“Okay, there was a rosebush run down in the yard. Maybe it happened when we were at the hospital, or during the day when I was at the stand. I didn’t see it until I got home tonight.”
He reached out for her, but she ducked away. “I’m okay and I’m not falling apart,” she insisted. “It’s only a rose. I put in a support post and it might even survive.”
They ate together in the kitchen and Zack jotted down their comments about the meal for Gordon’s benefit. Afterward they sat in the living room and Marlin jumped up to lie next to Zack.
“I’ve decided to accept your offer,” said Jamie abruptly. “The one to move the fruit stand and leave the land undeveloped. It comes closest to Granddad’s wishes.”
“That’s terrific.” Zack longed to touch her, but she was too reserved and distant. Unbelievably he found himself asking, “Are you sure?”
She focused on him. “Yes. I’ll hire someone to run it and that will give me more freedom to work on my jewelry. I can use the solitude.”
Zack sighed. He wasn’t sure where the walls between them had come from, but they’d been erected since that morning. There’d be no snuggling tonight...or anything else.
Jamie picked up a calendar. “How long do you think it will take to build the stand?”
“A week or two. I can get a crew on it right away, if you’re in a hurry.”
“It’ll be best to get things settled.”
Having the Little Blue Fruit Stand gone was exactly what Zack had wanted, so it was strange that she was now the one pushing for speed. Or was she trying to get rid of him?
“We can probably have it done by the week after the Fourth of July holiday.”
“Sounds good,” she said, pausing before going on. “You know, I need an early night.”
“Alone?” he couldn’t resist asking.
“Yeah, I’m not in the mood for company. There’s a clean bed in the room down from mine.”
“I’ll try the couch by the fire. That way I can hear anything from the front of the house better.”
“Suit yourself.”
She disappeared down the hall into her bedroom.
Perhaps it was for the best. It would give them both space to think. Yet a few minutes later, he groaned when he heard the shower running. One evening they’d showered together in the generous walk-in stall and made love in the splashing water. Made love. He didn’t know what else to call it, though Jamie didn’t seem to like the phrase. That was clear from their discussion the morning following their first night together. Yet sex seemed a cold description of what they’d shared.
Damnation. He didn’t know what was happening to him. Ever since he was a kid, he’d had one goal. Yet while Mar Vista had been his focus for so long and he was proud of what he’d accomplished, it wasn’t what he’d started out to do.
When did over-the-top luxury and five-star ratings become essential to his vision? Jamie had suggested more than once that he cared so much for his ambition that he’d lost sight of people. She could be right, though he was trying to correct that, even start planning something closer to his original idea.
He stuck a pillow under his head, pulled a quilt over him and tried to sleep.
* * *
JAMIE LAY IN her bed trying not to sniff for the scent of Zack’s aftershave. Finding the rosebush flattened hadn’t scared her; it had made her angry. Tim knew she loved roses and was trying to use the destruction to make her feel vulnerable. Fat chance. He’d taught her the pitfalls of feeling helpless and sooner or later he’d find out she was no longer a pushover.
But it had pushed her to settle the matter of the fruit stand with Zack. He’d grown far too important for a temporary lover; there was too much danger she’d fall in love with him, strange though that would have seemed a few weeks ago.
Stubbornly, Jamie rolled to the side of the mattress where Zack had slept the past few nights. She refused to pretend he was there or to imagine his arm lay around her. After a while, Marlin slunk in, meowing plaintively, as if complaining about having to choose between bed partners.
“Don’t get used to him being around,” she advised the cat. “He’s only an interval.”
It took a while, but she finally drifted off to sleep.
* * *
CRASH.
Jamie bolted upright as Marlin scrambled away. Even from her bedroom she heard the sound of splintering glass and crunching metal. Grabbing her robe, she dashed into the living room, where a large rock lay on the floor among shards of glass from the front window.
“Watch the bare feet,” Zack growled and bolted outside to face the intruder.
“It’s not worth it,” Jamie called after him.
There was a screech of tires as a vehicle sped away.
She went to the door and in the security light saw Zack checking the crumpled fender on his Mercedes SUV. That was going to cost plenty. Why hadn’t she told him to put it in the garage, where it would have been more protected?
Wearily, she went back to her bedroom, got changed and slipped shoes on her feet, renewed anger sweeping through her. It was like Tim to throw rocks in the night; at heart he was a coward and no different than a school-yard bully.
“I’ve called the sheriff’s office,” Zack said as she returned. “They should see the damage first.”
They waited as the deputy snapped pictures and took information for his report. The officer was very happy to accept the recordings from the video cameras that Jamie had set up after finding the flattened rosebush. Hopefully, they would be as illuminating as the ones she’d gotten at the trailer.
“It’s going to be all right,” Zack said once they were alone again.
“I know. Tim is a bug. Someday he’ll get smashed on somebody’s windshield. I hope it’s a garbage truck.”
Grimly she began sweeping up the splinters of glass on the living-room floor. Outside, Zack nailed boards over the window while she filled the trash can with glass, then ran the vacuum to get the smaller splinters. When she switched it off to move a chair, Zack tried to pull her into a hug.
“I’m okay,” Jamie said, shrugging away.
“For pity’s sake,” he exclaimed. “Letting someone close enough to give you support doesn’t make you weak.”
“It doesn’t make you strong, either,” she snapped.
“Maybe it does, if it’s two people making each other stronger.”
“Yeah, well, that sounds nice, but I live on the other side of the mirror.”
Zack gestured around the house. “Do you want to be so fiercely independent that you’re just like your grandfather, a strange old hermit who was eccentric as hell?”
“How dare you?” she snarled.
“You called him ‘eccentric,’ and if I hadn’t said you were like him, you wouldn’t have had a problem with it. But I will admit one thing—even if your grandfather was alone, at least he was memorializing a magnificent love. All you’re doing is turning your back on the world because you don’t trust yourself to be strong unless you’re alone. Why would you let a jerk of an ex-husband have that much power over your life?”
“You don’t have a clue what my life is about, so don’t try any mumbo-jumbo, pop psychology on me,” she declared. She shoved the vacuum toward him. “You want to help so much? Finish cleaning up.”
She stalked to her bedroom and slammed the door. He didn’t get it. Sure, she’d been hurt by her failed
marriage, but Zack was the problem, not Tim. She wouldn’t have even met Zack if he hadn’t gone ballistic over Granddad’s fruit stand for fear it might damage the image of his precious resort.
He might have cleaned up his act with his employees, but Mar Vista was still his obsession. He lived, drank, slept and literally ate everything connected with it. And who knew when he’d get irrational about some other dumb thing?
What did he expect her to do? Go nutty and throw herself into the arms of a guy who cared more about a piece of real estate than he did her? He might be a magnificent lover, but as soon as she needed him for something, he’d probably say he had to play golf with a guest or check registrations. She had more self-respect than to remain involved with a man of that sort...a man who could easily break her heart.
The sooner he was out of her hair, the better.
* * *
JAMIE TRUDGED THROUGH the next week. The broken window was repaired. She put up signs saying she was relocating, which piqued her customers’ curiosity. The ones who knew about the dispute with Mar Vista tended to be annoyed at first, but cooled off once they heard the details. Others were disappointed, while acknowledging the new site would be convenient. But everyone agreed it was great to keep the shore and dunes undeveloped for people to enjoy.
Zack showed her several plans for the building, and offered to have them altered, even to incorporate the little blue trailer. She considered it, then decided to retire the trailer to the barn where her grandfather had kept it every winter. Maybe, someday, if she got ambitious, she’d take it on a road trip, visit Yellowstone and travel Route 66 like her grandparents had on their honeymoon. In the meantime, she needed to forget her other associations with it.
Zack was excruciatingly polite. He came each evening without fail, spending the night on the couch. Marlin split his attentions between the two of them; he was going to be miserable when Zack was no longer there.
Aside from the two incidents at the house, nothing more happened, and Tim seemed to have dropped off the face of the earth. Curt had checked with her ex-husband’s office and they said he was out of touch on a business trip. On the next inquiry, they explained he was taking an extended vacation. Jamie knew Tim had plenty of vacation time saved, but she doubted he’d abandoned his plan to intimidate her so he could go sit on a beach in Hawaii.
At night, she slept poorly; it was hard knowing how much comfort and pleasure was available on her living-room couch. But hard as it was, she had to think of the long-term instead of what she immediately craved.
* * *
AFTER SO MANY days of being near Jamie without touching her or getting any closer, Zack was suffering extreme frustration. He had tried to get her interested in the plans for the new fruit stand, but she’d barely glanced at them and said they were fine and to pick the one he thought would work best. He couldn’t tell if she was angry, or simply too tired to care. It was obvious she wasn’t getting much rest and he missed those few days when their fatigue had come from giving each other pleasure.
He also hated seeing Brad’s grim demeanor. What was going on between Kim and his brother? There was no evidence of an argument, and they weren’t the type to hold grudges anyway. So what could it be?
“Has Brad said anything about Kim? Did something happen?” he asked Jamie one night as they sat in the living room in a semblance of cordiality.
Jamie’s face warmed, becoming less remote. “He hasn’t mentioned a problem, but he doesn’t talk about Kim anymore. At first he did—that’s how I knew he had feelings for her. Now he sticks to baseball, or telling stories about places he’s been, kids he saw overseas, that kind of thing. When he talks at all, that is. He’s quieter now than when he first began coming by the stand.”
Zack tossed aside the book he’d been pretending to read. “I really thought we’d gotten them together.”
She regarded him with more sympathy than usual. “They still might figure it out.”
“I’d like to light a fire under his ass and get him to San Francisco somehow. I considered asking him to hand deliver something for me, then realized that might be too obvious.”
“A little,” Jamie agreed in a dry voice.
“Any suggestions?” he asked.
“No. I’m going into my workroom to cast some pendants. Maybe I’ll think of something.”
“Sure. I’ll...finish my book.”
Zack would rather have watched her work; he enjoyed seeing the deft way she handled the molten silver and how the pieces she’d designed emerged for the final finishing touches. After a couple of times, though, she had said it made her nervous to have someone observing her, so he’d left her alone.
He stood and looked out the windows into the dark woods that half circled the house. The night before, Jamie had irritably exclaimed she wished Tim would do what he was going to do so the waiting would be over. With everything in limbo, Zack almost felt the same. It was his private desire to personally catch the slimy bastard and plant a fist square on his nose.
* * *
KIM STARED INTO her fireplace at the flames dancing over the gas log. There hadn’t been any need to light it for warmth; San Francisco was in the middle of an unusually warm June, but she’d craved the cheer and energy of a fire.
She’d accomplished little at the office for more than a week. And just as she’d begun to find her focus, she’d gotten a call from Zack asking her to draw up a very specialized contract. Jamie was to receive unlimited free use of a building on a new piece of Zack’s property. In return, she would leave the beachside parcel unoccupied, and he agreed to do the same for all of the adjacent land.
The compromise surprised Kim, especially since it appeared to be Zack’s idea. In fact, he’d become almost passionate about keeping the land natural for people to experience, saying Jamie had mentioned it was her grandfather’s original plan and that was what had given him the idea. It didn’t necessarily mean Jamie was happy about the arrangement, but at least she’d agreed.
Zack’s enthusiasm surprised Kim even more than the compromise; if she hadn’t known better, she’d think he was changing. Yet it was hard to imagine him no longer being utterly driven and intent on success.
So she had written up the contract and sent it to Mar Vista—her one real accomplishment that week. But it had stirred emotions about Brad that she had been trying to ignore. Even while performing the simplest of tasks over the past week, she’d found herself replaying the hours they had spent together. Finally, she had to ask one of the partners to review her recent briefs and contracts. It wasn’t fair to clients otherwise. Thankfully, so far they’d found nothing amiss except for a few grammatical errors.
Picking up the phone, she called her mother in Southern California. They chatted about inconsequential subjects until her mother grew exasperated.
“Kim, this isn’t like you. Why don’t you get to the point?”
It made her smile. Her mother should have been a lawyer. Her dad always said it was Mom who’d passed on the analytical brain that powered his daughter’s law career.
“No...there wasn’t any particular reason.... Well...that’s not true,” Kim admitted. “Wasn’t Dad in the navy when you two met?”
“Yes, you know he was.”
“Did he worry about being with you because of that?”
Her mother was silent a long moment. “He was aware of it. The Vietnam War was over, but there was always a chance something could happen. He didn’t want me to be one of those women you see on TV, trying to be stoic as she watches a flag-draped coffin come off an airplane.”
“The two of you got together anyway.”
Her mother’s voice became soft. “Kim, honey, have you become involved with a military man?”
“Uh...yes. Sort of. He’s holding back.”
“And you think he might be worried that
it’s unfair to you.”
“I honestly don’t know. But he was badly injured, so he’s especially aware of the dangers in today’s world.”
“Brad Denning?”
Kim closed her eyes; how had her mother guessed? “Yes.”
“I’ve always had a feeling about the two of you. He’s a fine man.”
“He won’t even kiss me. We do things together and he’s pleasant...but that’s all.”
“Who says you can’t make the first move? If I’d waited on your daddy, right now you’d still be a young law-school student.”
Kim laughed.
“Just one thing, honey,” her mother continued. “Be sure you’re ready for what you’re getting into. For the spouse of a soldier, a police officer, a fireman...any of those careers...it takes a toll. Be fair to yourself and to Brad, and don’t get so carried away by romance that you forget the reality of what will come in the years afterward. Talk to your aunt. She came very close to losing Graham in that embassy incident.”
The reminder was sobering, and Kim knew it deserved serious examination.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
JAMIE OPENED THE large envelope Zack had given her that morning; inside were legal papers regarding the land use. As far as she could tell, the agreement was simple and straightforward. In drawing it up, Kim Wheeler had avoided the legalese that could mean anything or nothing to a nonlawyer.
Deciding she should be smart, Jamie dropped it off at the office of her grandfather’s attorney and met with him the next day. Zeb Barney had known Granddad for years, and was one of the few people who’d visited him during the isolated winters at the house.
“It’s a fair contract,” he told her. “Denning is giving up more than you are, and putting money in also, for the land and building.”
“Then you think it’s safe to sign?”
“Certainly, and I admit it makes me feel good to know that whole section will stay the way it was when I was a boy. It’s also what George would have wanted.”
“That means the most to me, too,” Jamie agreed.
Harlequin Superromance January 2014 - Bundle 1 of 2: Everywhere She GoesA Promise for the BabyThat Summer at the Shore Page 80