by Susan Meier
“Or he could be alone, living on other credit cards, running.”
“I’m sorry. But that’s his choice.”
She nodded, but Jericho could see from the expression in her pretty eyes what she was thinking. Her dad might have had the right and reason to go, but he’d left her to clean up his mess—literally.
“You know, you could sell this house and pay off your dad’s bills and walk away. Or you could just pay off the debts secured by this property and keep the rest of the money. Or you could rent the house and go back to Baltimore.”
“Wow. You sure seem to be in a hurry for me to go.”
He shook his head in protest. “I’m not.” But he was. Every time he looked at her, he saw her as another person. Worse, when she spoke civilly, as she was right now, he felt as if he could see that other person inside her, struggling to get out. And that was not only stupid, it was none of his concern. Yet part of him wanted—no part of him longed—to free her.
And that was the most ridiculous thing of all.
“I’m pointing out your options as a way to help you.”
She laughed and combed her fingers through her hair, calling his attention to it, reminding him it wasn’t just long, it was also thick. Thick and probably silky.
He swallowed.
“The next thing you know, you’ll be volunteering to help me clean it out so I can rent it.”
“You could get a renter to clear it out himself by offering to give him the first month’s rent free.”
She gasped. “You are trying to get rid of me!”
“I’m trying to help you! Can’t you just accept it?”
“No! Not help from you, anyway! Your family hates mine, Jericho.”
When she used his name, Jericho’s chest tightened and his nerves sprang to life. Never before had his name sounded so intimate. So personal. So sensual.
“I won’t be run out of town.”
“I’m not running you out of town.”
“Right! What other reason could you possibly have for wanting me to go.”
Knowing she wouldn’t believe him if he put this into words, Jericho grabbed her shoulders, yanked her to him and kissed her.
He kissed her deeply, instantly falling into the act as if he were made to kiss her. He devoured her mouth, tasting her, enjoying her, and she responded. As if she were made to kiss him.
That realization was the one that penetrated the haze being created by the sheer pleasure of kissing her. He could easily tag and accept what he felt for her as lust. When she got involved, things weren’t so simple any more. He didn’t want to hurt her. He also didn’t want to like her. He most certainly wouldn’t get involved in a relationship with a woman from Calhoun Corners that was only sexual. People in his little town didn’t date for fun. They courted. Anybody seeing anybody else was doing so with the intention of deciding if they were right for marriage. That was just the way small towns were. If you didn’t want to marry somebody you didn’t date her. Since he didn’t want to marry anybody, he couldn’t date anybody. At least not anybody in town.
He pulled away and she blinked at him. For all he knew, she had been surprised by the kiss and would be angry.
Hell, she should be angry.
“Sorry.”
She gaped at him. “Sorry? What kind of comment is that?”
“It’s the kind of comment that says I shouldn’t have kissed you,” he shot back. “For Pete’s sake! We’re oil and water. I don’t want to be involved with you.”
She stretched to a nearby table and grabbed her glasses, then shoved them on. With the lenses that allowed her to see clearly, she studied his face, spending a long time looking into his eyes. Finally she smiled.
“You’re really attracted to me.”
“Big deal. You’re a pretty girl.”
“No, I’m not!” she said, then she laughed. “I mean, I know that if I spend time at the beauty parlor and put on makeup I can be as attractive as the next girl—”
Jericho couldn’t help his expression of disbelief. As attractive as the next girl? Wow, she had no idea.
“But, right now, dressed like this,” she said, grabbing a handful of her pant leg and stretching it to illustrate its complete formlessness, “I’m not even average. I’m waaaay below average.”
“All right.” Being attracted to the town ugly duckling made him sound either slightly nuts or like a guy looking to take advantage of her vulnerability. He wasn’t either of those, but he wasn’t going to get out of this without an explanation. “All this can be cleared up if I make a simple admission.”
She raised one eyebrow in question.
“I saw you once.”
“You saw me?”
“At a party in Baltimore. You were all dressed up. And I thought you looked really good.” He took a breath. “Men are pigs. I saw you looking great and it caused all kinds of questions to enter my head. Including things like what kissing you would be like. Now I know.”
She tilted her head in question, then said, “Yeah, now you know.”
But there was an odd quality to her voice. It wasn’t disbelief. Disbelief he could have handled. He would have liked disbelief. Then he could feel they were kindred spirits. Instead, the tone of her voice was more of a curiosity, as if she found his attraction to her interesting. And that was just plain wrong.
“So now we can both get on with the rest of our lives.” Her expression changed and he quickly added, “Not that I’m trying to get you to leave town. You can stay. You can go. In fact, that’s what I’m going to do right now. Go.”
Chapter Five
Dumbstruck, Rayne watched Jericho leave her house. She was shocked that he’d seen her in Baltimore. Everybody thought he hadn’t been anywhere near Calhoun Corners after he moved west, but obviously he had visited friends here on the East Coast. When she’d lived in Baltimore she’d had a totally different life. She’d gone to lots of parties, worn bright, sometimes revealing clothes, had an expense account, lived with a man.
She drew a long breath. A man who had ultimately hurt her. And Jericho Capriotti would hurt her, too. Except…
She needed to know if her dad really had been protecting her rather than deserting her, when he’d left Calhoun Corners. She didn’t want to carry around the empty, lonely feeling of being abandoned if it wasn’t true. But if he had deserted her, she needed to move on.
But she couldn’t do either until she knew the truth and she wouldn’t know the truth until she found her dad. And she couldn’t find her dad without help. Rayne was smart enough to figure out that when Jericho said searching for her dad would be a long process, he was also saying the process would be even longer if she hired less than the best private investigator. So she needed the best, somebody like his skip tracer friend.
But when she’d told Mac she couldn’t pay his fee up front, he’d been agreeable to a payment plan as long as she passed a credit check. But she hadn’t passed the credit check because technically she didn’t have an income. At least not as long as she stayed at the Chronicle.
But if Jericho vouched for her, saying that she was good for the money, his friend might go to work on the promise of being paid later.
But Jericho wouldn’t vouch for her if they weren’t friends. Or something.
The “or something” made her swallow. It wasn’t her intention to sleep with Jericho Capriotti, but his kissing her proved that he felt something for her and a little flirting might inspire him to put in a good word for her with his friend. She wasn’t worried that their flirtation would go any further than that. From the way he’d run out of her house after kissing her, it was clear he didn’t want to follow through on the attraction he felt for her. His family didn’t like her and he wouldn’t want to upset them. She couldn’t blame him for that. But she and Jericho could indulge in a private flirtation and he could even do her a private favor without anyone in the Capriotti clan discovering.
Her reasoning made so much sense she ran up the s
teps and down the short hall to her bedroom. She ripped open the closet door and rummaged past her few normal clothes—the bland, oversize T-shirts and jeans she wore now—until she got to the things in the back.
At the sudden sight of so much color she caught her breath, remembering how she had behaved, the person she had been wearing those clothes. She couldn’t believe she was considering turning into that other person again. But if she wanted to find out the truth, she had to be willing to do this.
She reached for a pretty peacock-blue suit.
The next morning Jericho walked into the borough building with a splitting headache. He hadn’t slept much the night before. He’d kept going over that kiss and the reasons for it until eventually he realized both he and Rayne were victims of emotional overwhelm. Since the end result of his tossing and turning the night before was that he had absolved himself of any guilt for kissing Rayne, Jericho was fine with a little headache.
After handling his typical morning routine, he rode with Martha for the school patrol. When he returned to the borough building, he found his brother Rick sitting on the corner of Greg’s desk entertaining him with stories about his daughter Ruthie.
“What’s up?” he asked, walking up the aisle between the four desks.
Rick rose. “Nothing. Ashley took Ruthie shopping and I thought I’d check on you.”
Jericho laughed. “You? Check on me?”
“Hey, I’m the settled one now. Officially the family good child.”
“Tia’s officially the family good child. Always has been. Always will be.”
“Okay, then I’m officially the family good boy.”
“Mom sent you, didn’t she?”
Rick grimaced. “Yes. She says you do nothing but work and she’s worried.”
Jericho laughed. “Wow. How times have changed.”
“I know,” Rick agreed. “They used to wonder if we’d ever be able to hold down a job. Now Mom’s worried that you work too much.” He slapped Jericho on the back. “So, let’s have a late breakfast together, then I can go to Mom’s and at least tell her you stop for meals.”
Jericho glanced at his watch. Nine o’clock. The breakfast rush would be over at the diner, and he hadn’t yet eaten. A break for food wasn’t such a bad idea. “You buying?”
Rich shrugged. “I guess it’s the least I can do for a poorly paid public servant.”
“My thought exactly.” He turned to Greg. “I’ll be back in an hour.”
“Right, Chief.”
They walked out into the warm November day and Rick said, “Does that bother you?”
“What?”
“That everybody calls you Chief?”
“I’m getting accustomed to it,” Jericho said, stepping to the side to let Emma Jean Johnson pass.
“Morning, Chief,” she said, and Rick laughed.
“I guess you have to get accustomed to it or spend the rest of your life here angry.”
“There’s nothing wrong with being a little angry,” Jericho said, pushing open the diner door. “Keeps a guy on his toes.”
“Also keeps a guy broke and in jail.”
When Jericho opened his mouth to rebut his statement, Rick held up a hand. “You’ve been to jail. We’ve both spent a night or two in jail for fighting. Don’t deny it.”
“I can’t deny it,” Jericho said as Elaine motioned for them to seat themselves since the diner was now fairly empty. “I can’t deny that I’m reformed. But I’m also not going to turn into a sap.”
“A sap?”
“You know,” Jericho said, sliding onto the bench seat of the booth. “One of those guys who thinks growing up means he has to be nice to everybody.”
“You wouldn’t by any chance be throwing slings and arrows my way?”
Jericho’s brow furrowed and he stared at Rick. “For what?”
“Are you backhandedly telling me I got soft just because I stopped getting arrested for bar fights?”
“No,” Jericho said, then he laughed. “Actually, Rick, it seems to me you’ve got the world by a string. You found somebody and you also found your calling. You didn’t let the gossip push you around, or your past dictate who you have to be. And you didn’t have to strap on a badge to prove anything.”
“Do you think you did?”
Jericho glanced around the nearly empty diner. “I don’t know.”
“Do you think people would like you less if you weren’t the chief of police?”
“No. I think coming back as a respected member of law enforcement has made it easy for people to accept me. Now, I want to keep their respect.”
Rick shrugged. “Nothing wrong with that.”
Elaine came over and took their order. She didn’t seem angry today, and Jericho assumed he’d been forgiven. After she left, the conversation shifted to Rick’s plans for Seven Hills and Jericho felt a wave of respect for his brother. Only Rick could fall in love with a debutante, be deeded half of a multimillion-dollar business as an engagement present and not give a damn what anybody thought. He loved Ashley. He intended to make a life with her. He no longer felt the need to prove himself.
Jericho didn’t exactly believe he had to prove himself, but he didn’t want anybody confusing him with the troublemaker he had been in the past. At the same time, he couldn’t let anybody think that straightening out his life had weakened him. If anything, he wanted them to realize that the straight and narrow path he’d chosen had made him stronger.
After they ate, Elaine brought their check and Rick grabbed it. Jericho tried to take it from him. “I was kidding when I said breakfast was on you.”
“I know. But I wasn’t kidding when I said I was paying. So finish your coffee and let’s get going.”
Knowing there was no point arguing with his pig-headed brother, Jericho picked up his white mug to drain the last of his coffee, glancing over at the diner door as it opened. Rayne entered. When he saw her bright blue suit, with a skirt that ended far enough above to knee to remind him that she had great legs, his mug stopped halfway to his mouth.
Rick said, “What?” then turned and followed the direction of Jericho’s gaze. When he saw Rayne, he burst out laughing. “I’ll be damned.”
“Shut up, Rick!”
“What?” Rick said, giving Jericho a curious look before angling his body to get another peek at Rayne. As she walked to the counter, Rick studied her enough that Jericho felt like reaching across the table and forcing him to turn around.
“Aren’t you engaged?”
“I’m not looking because I’m interested. I’m looking because I’m confused. What the hell has gotten into her?”
At the complete lack of attraction in Rick’s voice, Jericho relaxed. “Her dad left her with a business that’s failing. I think she has a right to be a little confused.”
“She doesn’t look confused to me. She looks very comfortable in that…that…”
“Color?” Jericho asked pointedly, and Rick again hooted with laughter.
“You like her!”
“No, I do not like her. I feel sorry for her. And believe me I have reason, which I am not going to tell you.”
“Don’t want to be part of the gossip mill?”
Jericho shook his head. “No. Don’t want to break a confidence.”
“A confidence.” Rick whistled. “Wow. A confidence with a Fegan. That’s gotta be against one of Dad’s rules.”
“It’s more of a chief-of-police confidence than a Capriotti confidence. So stop. And stop staring.”
Rick turned from staring at Rayne and grinned at his brother.
“Grow up, Rick.”
Rick shook his head. “Are you nuts? I’m teasing you.”
“Whatever.”
“Boy, either you really like this woman or you’re more sensitive about coming home to your hell-raising roots than I thought.”
“I’m not interested.”
He might be physically attracted to Rayne, but he didn’t like her. As if
to prove it, he rose from the booth and walked to the counter.
“My brother’s paying,” he told Elaine before he casually turned to Rayne, if only to show his damned brother that he could be in the same room with a pretty female without being overwhelmed with lust like a randy teenager.
But when she smiled up at him, his breath stuttered. Lord, she was beautiful. Her contacts didn’t diminish the bright color of her blue eyes the way the thick lenses of her glasses did. Without the distraction of her glasses it was also easy to see her flawless complexion. Add that to the way her yellow hair tumbled to her shoulders and the way the color of the suit just made her look pretty, and Jericho fell speechless.
Rick nudged him in the back. “Yeah, I’m paying because I’m not so sure my brother can figure out the tip right now.”
He said it as if he were teasing, but Jericho knew that Rick was right and it infuriated him. He was behaving like an idiot. And it had to stop.
He said, “Good morning, Rayne,” then turned and slapped Rick on the back. “I’ll see you later. Thanks for breakfast.”
He walked out into the sunny November morning without another word. He wasn’t mad at Rick for teasing him. Teasing was what brothers did. He wasn’t angry with Rayne for dressing up. If he were the suspicious type, he would think that now that she knew he found her attractive she was taunting him. But he wasn’t a sixteen-year-old. He didn’t believe the whole world revolved around him or his sex life. He knew Rayne had personal problems. He knew she was confused. And as a mature, intelligent man with a town to protect, he was taking the logical route and deciding she’d worn something pretty to cheer herself up. End of story.
When Jericho and Rick left the diner, Elaine handed Rayne her cup of coffee. “Here you are, sweetie.”
Striving to be casual, Rayne paid for the coffee with coins she found in a cup behind some things in the pantry and casually said, “No comment about my suit?”
Elaine tilted her head, studying Rayne. “That color is very good on you.”