“Huh?” She was dressed in blue today.
“Your cheeks, darlin’,” he replied as he opened the door, now clothed in the dress shirt and pants.
His comment about the color of her cheeks made her blush even harder. She wanted to slink off quietly and hide under one of the clothing racks and give herself a chance to cool off.
She’d just seen her favorite customer partially nude. He’d had the dress shirt on, but it had been unbuttoned, and she’d seen his entire torso, completely bare in the mirror’s reflection in the brightly lit dressing room. The image of his physique was burned into her retinas now, every beautiful, glorious inch of him. Of course, the next thought to pop into her dazed mind was if he’s that long and thick when he wasn’t aroused, how big is it when he’s hard? There went her cheeks again! Hiding under a rack was looking like a better option all the time. She turned and put her hands to her burning face.
* * * *
“You okay? I’m sorry I embarrassed you, Grace,” Jack said quietly as he came up behind her. He wanted so much to reach out and touch her, even if it was only to put his hands on her shoulders. He could see how embarrassed she was, and he was worried that she would withdraw back into the shell he’d been trying to draw her from for months. “Nobody saw, I don’t think. It’ll be our little secret, okay? These pants will need a hem put in. How quick can y’all do that?” He tried to distract her and give her a chance to regain her composure before anyone else walked up.
He felt bad that she was embarrassed by what happened. He wished he could feel the same. He could have gotten by with his other suit, but being near Grace comforted him in a way that he wished he could put into words. She had been close to his mom, probably not realizing just how much Rose Marie enjoyed visiting with her on Saturday mornings. This morning there were any number of things he could have done, but he needed to see Grace’s beautiful face and hear her soft voice more than he needed to keep busy. Even if he could only interact with her as a customer, she still eased him with her sweet presence.
“Let me check real quick.” She picked up the phone at the sales counter and dialed the alterations department. They spoke for a moment, and she hung up.
“I’ll put in a rush order for you since you need them for tomorrow. It’s still early enough that we could have them ready by the end of the day, and you can wear them to the visitation at the funeral home tonight if you want to. Mona asked if you can you come by after five o’clock. We close at seven.”
“Sure, will you still be here?” he asked wishfully. Was it too much to hope he’d get to see her again later? Her sweet blue eyes sparkled at his question. Maybe that meant she’d like to see him again also.
“Yes, I should be. Just come back here and I’ll run and get them for you.” She fished around in a drawer behind the counter, looking for something.
Grace was dressed in a long denim skirt, a loose red top, and white sandals on her slim little feet. She squatted down, looking in a lower drawer, and when she did, Jack noticed how the skirt clung to her luscious derriere. He could see how tiny her waist was as she stretched to reach the back of the deep drawer, muttering to herself. Grace tended to dress very modestly. Grinning, he noticed there were little white daisies painted on her pink toenails. She was shy about everything but her pretty feet.
“You take good care of me, Grace.”
She finally found what she was looking for and stood back up.
“Don’t be so quick to jump to conclusions, Jack.” Grace smiled and then blushed a little more. “I still have to measure your inseam.” She held up her tape measure.
* * * *
His eyes twinkled back at her, and he gave her that devilish bad boy grin that told her she’d be blushing some more before they were done. She almost melted into the carpet at the effect his eyes had on her composure. She had to remind herself that she might be only part-time help here at Stigall’s, but she was still a professional. She’d measured lots and lots of customers, young and old alike, and Jack would get the same professional service everyone else got.
But somewhere between his bad boy grin and the moment she knelt in front of him to use the tape measure, something changed. Her hands hesitated, shaking with the fresh knowledge of what rested under those pants. She paused and looked up at him. He looked down at her, encouragement in his eyes, but the way he looked at her was different. She lowered her gaze and used her tape measure. He stood perfectly still, and she thought maybe he was holding his breath. She made a note of the measurement on the work order, and preparing to rise to her feet, she leaned forward and made eye contact with his erection.
Oh, my sweet heaven.
Now she knew the answer to her earlier question. Great balls of fire. Her mouth actually started watering!
Offering her his tanned, callused hand, he helped her rise to her feet and was slow to release her hand. She wondered if he could feel the heat coming off her cheeks, but the sudden dampness in her panties was even more disconcerting. He was her customer, and here she was lusting after him. Okay, so he was her favorite, very sexy, very handsome in a cowboy sort of way customer. But she also counted him as a friend, thanks to his mom. And that was the sobering thought. She shouldn’t be thinking these thoughts, not when he’d just lost his mom.
He returned to the dressing room and changed back into the denim shirt, blue jeans, and boots she was used to seeing him in, most of which he bought at this very store. She even did the embroidery above the left breast pocket that carried his name and company logo. That had been her idea. Grace’s full-time job was at a local screen printing and embroidery shop in their little city of Divine. All the local sports teams had their jerseys and hats printed there, and local businesses had similar items embroidered with their company names and logos. She’d asked him if he had a company logo, and when he’d told her no, she invited him to come by the shop with all the new shirts he’d purchased from her. She’d helped him design a logo and had done the embroidery herself. Thanks to Jack, they had received a lot of referrals for more work.
She wrote up the alteration order and attached it with a straight pin to the pants he handed back to her, neatly hung on the hanger. Jack was always a considerate customer. Lots of people left heaps of clothes littering the dressing room floors after trying on half the store or threw the wadded up rejects to her and left the hangers still hanging in the dressing room. He was always neat as a pin about things like that.
“Do you have any neckties, Jack?”
“Yes, but all the ones at home are old. How about you set me up with something that will look good for tomorrow?” He looked down into her eyes, giving her that winsome smile that made her heart do flip-flops every time she saw him. She walked over to the tie rack and came back with a dark aquamarine silk tie. She held up the necktie to his shirtfront to see if it was the right color.
“This one reminds me of your eye color. Your mom would have loved it. Did the jacket fit okay in the sleeves? Not too long or short?”
“No, the jacket was fine. I’ll take the tie and the shirt.”
“Jack, is there anything I can do? To help out, I mean?”
“No, Mom and Dad’s Sunday school class is bringing over food to the house for after the funeral, and he’s already got a refrigerator and freezer full of casseroles. But I appreciate the thought, Grace.”
She knew he assumed she was asking if his dad was covered for food, but she’d meant for Jack. He looked like he could use a home-cooked meal. He paid for his purchases and promised to be back after five o’clock. The morning was slow, and at two o’clock her boss let her go home. She was disappointed she wouldn’t see Jack but left word that he’d pick up the pants later that day.
She stopped at the grocery store and got everything she’d need to make a nice home-cooked meal for Jack and his roommates. Owen wasn’t at home, so she was able to work in peace. She baked bread, made homemade beef stew, and baked a cake, too. With everything loaded on the front seat of
her little Honda, she drove out to the Divine Creek Ranch.
Jack and two friends owned equal shares in the ranch. All three were self-employed. Jack was a general contractor and electrician, Ethan Grant was bartender and co-owner of a local night club, The Dancing Pony, and Adam Davis was also a contractor.
The opportunity to buy the horse ranch had come along, and they’d decided to sell their homes, live in the ranch house, and invest the money from the sale of the houses in the ranch. From the looks of things, their investment was paying off. She knew all this because Rose Marie told her all about them in extensive, glowing detail. Up until that moment, Grace hadn’t met any of Jack’s roommates.
The only associate of Jack’s she knew personally was his ranch foreman, Angel Martinez. She liked Angel because he was always polite to her and made direct eye contact when talking to her, but she sometimes got the impression he was flirting with her.
She drove through the gated entryway, holding the lid on the pot to keep it steady as she drove over the cattle guard, and headed down the long gravel drive to the large rock-faced ranch house. Horses grazed on thick green grass in fenced pastures on both sides of the drive, and she noticed a couple of the dappled gray mares looked like they would be foaling soon.
She followed the drive around where it curved in front of the house and parked by the porch steps. She saw a truck parked on the side of the house, so at least one of them had to be home. She gathered up the box that had the cake and bread in it and climbed the steps that led up to the welcoming shade of the front porch. She rang the doorbell.
Half a minute later, the heavy oak door was opened by a gorgeous man dressed in faded jeans and an unbuttoned plaid shirt, which revealed his muscular chest and abdomen. He stood in the doorway toweling his shoulder-length brown hair dry. He must have been fresh from his shower, judging by the clean, masculine scent that followed the gust of cooled air that swept past her when he opened the front door. Her nostrils were filled with his spicy scent, and her mouth watered as she tried to pull enough brain cells together to form words into sentences.
He spoke in a voice that was like velvet, soft and smooth, with a slight Texan accent. “Hi. What can I do for you?” He smiled warmly at her, looking curiously at the box she held.
“I’m a friend of Jack’s and wanted to bring him some food to help out. He told me that his father had plenty of food at his house, but he didn’t say anything about at his own home. I have a big pot of homemade beef stew out in the car, and I made y’all fresh bread and a cake.”
Smiling, he opened the door for her and stepped aside so she could enter. “Let me get my boots on and I’ll carry in the pot for you.”
It was then that she noticed he was barefoot.
He disappeared for a moment and came back with socks and boots. “Sorry, you caught me coming out of the shower,” he said with a grin.
One moment she was thinking what a nice visual image he had provided her with, and the next second, she was wondering why she would think something like that. A small part of her knew for certain that though it might not go anywhere, she already had the hots for his roommate Jack. Where was her loyalty, even if it was only loyalty to a fantasy?
“I’m sure Jack will really appreciate your thoughtfulness—” He paused, waiting for her name.
“Grace! Grace Stuart. I’m sorry. I should have introduced myself properly before barging in your house.” She saw pleased recognition in his eyes, and a big grin crossed his handsome face.
“You’re Grace! I’ve heard a lot of nice things about you. It’s good to finally meet you.”
Had Jack told his roommate about her? The dawning recognition in his eyes mixed with a little surprise had her very curious. She wondered what exactly Jack had said about her. His roommate was already headed out the door. She followed him down the limestone steps to the car. The hot summer sun beat down on them as they left the shade of the deep wrap-around porch. He opened the front passenger door, and the smell of the stew wafted out.
“That smells really good, Grace.” He lifted the cardboard box lined with a towel that contained the stew pot. “I have a feeling we’re going to eat good tonight.”
She followed him back into the house, still carrying the smaller box. “I know from experience that when you’re dealing with the loss of someone really close to you, it’s easy to neglect the mundane tasks like preparing meals. I’m still in shock that Rose Marie passed away. She was my favorite customer at Stigall’s.”
“Jack hasn’t been home a lot since it happened. He’s been trying to make arrangements and watch over his dad. He probably has missed a few meals. It’ll mean a lot to him that you took the time to come all the way out here for him. I’m sure we’ll all be singing your praises later.” He placed the cardboard box on the black and gray granite counter top.
His compliments made her blush and feel self-conscious. She lifted the covered pot from the cardboard box and set it on the back burner of their stove. The beautiful kitchen had stainless steel appliances and granite countertops. The floors were all hardwood, with area rugs scattered here and there. Their dining table positioned in the breakfast nook was counter height and surrounded by four barstools. The walls in the kitchen were done in a beautiful rich, dark-colored wood, but the walls in the living room that opened out from the kitchen were done in a light cream color, giving the space a light, airy, and open feeling. The back of the house must have a deep covered porch as well, as she could see out the back windows to the shaded area where several rockers and an old-fashioned glider sat in shadow. The red horse barns in the distance provided a pastoral backdrop. She thought that glider would be a wonderful place to spend the evening, even in this heat.
“So, you work at Stigall’s?”
“Yes, part-time in the men’s department and full-time at Harper’s Embroidery. I did the embroidery work for Jack’s work shirts. Angel’s, too.”
“Yes, I know. He told me. Y’all do good work. I stopped in there myself the other day, but I must have been in on your lunch hour or day off. I’m having some shirts done for The Dancing Pony.”
“Oh! So you must be—”
“Ethan Grant. I’m sorry, bad manners. I should have introduced myself when you got here,” he said sheepishly, holding out his hand.
When he took her hand in his, she noticed how warm it was. He had tanned, callused working man’s hands, just like Jack. Jack was just a few inches taller than she, tending toward a stockier, more powerful build, strong and sturdy. Ethan was taller, maybe two inches over six feet, and more wiry. Though callused, his hands were long and graceful and strong. He had a gentle but firm grip, and when he touched her, she felt a little tremor go through her body. This man set all her senses on edge in a good way.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, Ethan. I’m sorry I haven’t ever been into The Dancing Pony before. I don’t have much opportunity to go out these days with working two jobs.”
Yeah, and having a no-account boyfriend who doesn’t ever take me out anywhere but probably knows the interior of The Dancing Pony better than his own home.
And that was all the internal griping she was going to allow herself. Thoughts of her loser boyfriend overshadowed the nice visit she was having with Ethan.
She really needed to sit down and take stock in her life, make some decisions and some changes. Owen was at the top of that list of things to change, but she hated the thought of upsetting him. It never seemed to be a good time, and she wound up putting off the inevitable. If she was truly being honest with herself, she was a little afraid to tell Owen to get the hell out of her house and her life, especially when he was drunk, which was often enough.
“Well, you are always welcome to stop by. I’ll even buy you a drink.”
“That’s sweet of you. I really should be going. My boyfriend will wonder where I am.” Damn. She watched as his smile faded a bit.
Awkward.
“You sure you don’t want to hang around? Jack
will probably be home soon. You could say hello.” He seemed almost reluctant to let her leave.
“I can’t, but I did see him earlier today when he came to get a suit for the funeral.”
“That’s right. He said he was going in to see you.”
Grace was surprised by that comment. He’d come in especially to see her that morning?
Ethan walked her to the door and opened it. The gust of heat, even this early in the summer, was stifling.
“Ugh, I should have rolled my windows down. You could probably fry an egg on my hood.”
“You know, Jack and I tried that once when we were boys, and it actually worked, but his mom was not too happy about the mess on the hood of her Lincoln Continental.”
“Y’all have known each other a long time?”
“Oh, yeah. We’re very distant cousins. Our families were all neighbors out here growing up, and all three of us have known each other since we were little bitty. I grew up just down the road from here. That’s one of the reasons we bought this place. We love the area. We used to jump the back fence and swim and fish in the creek that runs through this property. Our Tarzan rope still hangs in one of the trees, I think.”
“I’ll bet y’all have some funny stories to tell.”
“Yeah, maybe someday we’ll tell some of them to ya,” Ethan replied. He said it like he planned on it, and though she didn’t understand why he would want that, she wished it could be so. She could just imagine the trouble and adventures three little boys could get themselves into roaming around the countryside. She looked up at Ethan to say good-bye and was mesmerized by the way the sunlight lit his angular features, and she thought he had the warmest sparkling blue eyes.
“Jack will be sorry he missed you, but I’m glad I finally got to meet you,” he said softly to her. She had the feeling that there was a lot more to what he was saying than the words he spoke, but it was really time for her to go.
The Divine Creek Ranch Collection, Volume 1 [Book 1 - Divine Grace, Book 2 - Her Gentle Giant, Book 3 - Heavenly Angel] (Siren Everlasting Collection) Page 2