“Of course not.” Even as her eyes started to fill, she forced a smile. “Nothing’s wrong.”
“Baloney.” Frowning, Grace took the glass from Clair’s hand and set it on the patio table, then took her hand and led her inside the house. “Time for girl talk.”
“I’m fine,” Clair protested, but couldn’t stop the tear that slid down her cheek. Damn you, Jacob Carver.
Grace took Clair to the den, then tugged her down on the leather sofa beside her. “Something’s bothering you, Clair. Tell me what’s wrong.”
“Nothing. Really.” How pathetic she must look, Clair thought miserably and struggled to hold on to her last thread of composure. “It’s just that…so much has happened. I’m feeling a little emotional, that’s all.”
“How incredibly insensitive we’ve all been.” Her lips pressed into a thin line, Grace shook her head. “So you are in love with him, then.”
Shocked, Clair simply stared. Grace couldn’t know. No one could know. It wasn’t possible.
“All this talk about weddings and babies,” Grace went on. “After what you’ve been through. I’m so sorry.”
“You—I—” Completely frazzled, Clair didn’t know what to say. “Please don’t be sorry.”
“We could invite him here,” Grace said firmly. “Maybe if he met all of us, and we could explain face-to-face, he would understand why you did what you did.”
What I did? What had she done? And invite Jacob here? Clair thought. Good Lord, no!
“Grace,” Clair said carefully. “I—I don’t understand.”
Grace took Clair’s hands in her own. “Oliver.”
“Oliver?” Clair frowned. “What about Oliver?”
“We know about the wedding,” Grace said gently. “How you left the church.”
Clair blinked. Grace was talking about Oliver?
In spite of the situation, in spite of the ache in her heart, Clair started to laugh. Startled, Grace stared in confusion.
“What’s so funny?” A smile on her lips, Julianna came into the den and looked at Clair, then Grace.
“I have no idea.” Grace shook her head in bewilderment.
Holding little Thomas, Hannah moved into the room. “Is Clair all right?” she asked, biting her lip.
“I’m not in love with Oliver,” Clair managed to say between a mixture of tears and laughter. “I’m in love with Jacob.”
Grace lifted a brow; Julianna and Hannah looked at each other, then back at Clair.
“Oh,” they all said together.
“Julianna.” Grace kept her gaze on Clair. “Go tell the men they can feed the kids and we women will be out in a little while. Hannah, let’s you and me take Clair upstairs where it’s quiet.”
“Please don’t fuss over me.” Clair looked at all the other women. “I’m fine. I don’t want to be a bother and—”
“You are no bother,” Grace said while Julianna hurried outside and Hannah waited anxiously. “We’re family now, Clair. We’re here for you. All of us.”
Upstairs, they all listened quietly while she poured her heart out, then each one of them hugged her in turn. It didn’t seem to matter that she’d only just met these women. It felt as if she’d known them forever.
In the love and comfort they offered, Clair was certain that somehow, one day, her shattered heart would mend.
Family.
That single word made her throat thicken and the tears start all over again, but this time they were tears of joy.
Jacob slammed the nail into the two-by-four, then stood back and gave the window frame a solid shake. The house was a mere skeleton, but it was taking shape quickly; the first story was nearly complete and the sheeting for the roof was ready to drop in place. The sound of skill saws and men hammering from inside the framework mingled with the smell of freshly cut wood and damp concrete. Overhead, white puffy clouds floated on a deep blue sky.
With the hot Texas sun on his back and a hammer in his hand, Jacob moved to the next window frame. Sweat poured freely down his brow and between his shoulder blades, but he didn’t mind. It had been a long time since he’d worked with his hands like this, even longer since he’d worked side by side with Evan.
Too long, he thought. Too damn long.
“You gonna stare that nail into the stud, or hit it?”
Jacob swiveled a look at his brother, then turned back to the window frame and drove the nail in with one powerful swing of his arm.
“Not bad for an apprentice.” Evan stepped through what would be the back sliding door of the house, one of three custom homes, each on one-acre lots that Carver Construction was under contract to build. He opened the top of a large cooler sitting beside the house and pulled out two bottles of cold water.
“Apprentice, my ass.” Jacob took the water Evan offered, then tipped his head back and guzzled half the bottle. “I taught you everything you know.”
“You mean you taught me everything you know.” Evan leaned one well-muscled shoulder against the bare wood of the doorjamb. “Which took all of five minutes.”
Jacob shot a look at his brother that would have had most men backing up. Evan simply grinned, then took a long drink from his own bottle.
Evan was a man in his element, Jacob thought. Relaxed, confident, his dark, long hair covered with a thin layer of sawdust. The blue bandanna wrapped around his head gave him the rough, wild appearance of a desperado, a look that Jacob knew was popular with the ladies. Lord knew there’d been a steady stream of “friends,” as Evan as called them, traipsing through the work site this past week.
“So when you gonna finally tell me why you’ve been hanging around here for the past week doing manual labor with those lily-white hands?” Evan wiped at his mouth with the back of his hand. “I figured either the law’s after you or it’s a woman.”
Because Evan was too close to the truth, Jacob turned his back on his brother and slammed another nail into the window frame. “Can’t a guy visit his brother without accusations and the third degree? You want me gone, say so.”
“Ah, so it is a woman.” Evan ignored Jacob’s attempt to start a fight. “So what’s the deal? She start looking at wedding rings and cooing over babies? That would send you running.”
“Evan, just shut the hell up.” Jacob dropped the hammer into the work belt slung low around his waist, was furious he couldn’t stop the twitch tugging at the corner of his eye. “And I’m not running, dammit. It just wouldn’t work, that’s all.”
It wouldn’t, he’d told himself a thousand times over the past two weeks. How could it? With her background, her money, all the people who loved her and cared about her, worried about her, what was left for him?
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Evan’s jaw had gone slack. “My brother, the Great Jacob Carver, the man who stands as an icon for the rest of the single male gender, has finally fallen.”
“The hell I have.” He might have pulled off the lie if he hadn’t denied it so hotly. “She got under my skin for a few days, but that’s behind me.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Evan said with a grin. “That’s why you haven’t gone back to Jersey and you’ve been busting your butt pounding on nails. Because it’s all behind you.”
“That does it.” Jacob unbuckled his work belt and threw it at a pile of scrap wood. Pieces of two-by-four went flying. “I’m outta here.”
He stomped off, got maybe ten feet, then whirled around and stomped back. “She went to Cotillion, for God’s sake!”
Still standing calmly against the doorjamb, Evan frowned in confusion. “She went to where?”
“Never mind.” Jacob dragged a hand through his hair and shook his head. “It just wouldn’t work.”
“I believe you already said that.” Evan pushed away from the doorjamb, then stepped back from the house and called up to his foreman. “Hank, pack it in. Full day’s pay for the crew and first round of beer at The Bunker on me.”
The men scrambled at their boss’s generous
offer. Within minutes, the site was cleared, leaving Jacob and Evan alone.
“So.” Evan folded his arms and faced his brother. “You gonna tell me, or do I have to beat it out of you?”
“As if you could,” Jacob said irritably, then sighed. He nodded at the cooler. “Got any beer in there?”
With a grin, Evan opened the lid again, dug through the ice to the bottom, then pulled out two cans and tossed one to Jacob.
Jacob popped the top and stared at the foam rushing out. “It’s complicated.”
Evan shrugged. “Since when did you ever do anything that wasn’t? Why don’t you just tell me her name.”
“God, even that’s complicated.” He blew out a breath, then decided he might as well start at the beginning.
“Twenty-three years ago…”
Pappa Pete’s sat on the corner of Main and Sixth. The ’50s diner had been there since…well, since the ’50s. It was glass and chrome, white Formica counters and red vinyl booths. The food was good, the prices fair and the service terrific.
“You gonna finish those?”
Clair polished off the last bite of hamburger she’d ordered, then glanced up at Seth. His expression was hopeful as he stared at the French fries still on her plate.
“Yes, I am,” she said evenly. “And don’t think I didn’t notice there were some missing after I returned from the ladies’ room.”
“That was Rand.” Seth looked at his brother, whose handsome, rugged face suddenly turned innocent.
“Not me.” Rand held his hands up, then looked past Clair’s shoulder and lifted his chin. “Hey, do you know that woman over there? She’s trying to get your attention.”
“What woman?” Clair turned to look, but didn’t see anyone. “I don’t see—”
The fries had been cleaned off her plate when she turned back. Folding her arms, she sat back in her seat and frowned at her brothers. “That was rude and unforgivable.”
“One chocolate shake with extra whip cream, just like you boys ordered for the little lady.” Madge, the middle-aged platinum-blond owner of Pappa Pete’s, set the shake down in front of Clair.
“Forgive us now?” Rand asked, lifting one brow.
Clair smiled and reached for a spoon. “Absolutely.”
The past week had flown by. There’d been two meetings with the lawyer to finalize the paperwork for the estate, a bridal shower for Grace and Hannah and a christening for baby Thomas. Her head was still spinning from all the activity, but she’d been thankful for the distractions.
Anything to keep her mind off Jacob.
It had helped to share her heartbreak with Julianna, Grace and Hannah, but Clair knew that she had a long, long way to go before the pain of losing him eased. And in spite of everything, in spite of the emptiness in her soul, she still cherished every minute they’d shared and grieved for what might have been.
“I say we go find him and kick his butt.”
Startled, Clair looked up at Rand’s words. His eyes were narrowed in anger, his gaze locked on Seth. Darn it. Her brothers knew exactly where her mind had drifted, and the person she’d been thinking about.
“No argument from me,” Seth replied tightly.
Clair had been careful not to let her feelings show this past week. Though Rand and Seth had no details, they were well aware of the fact that their sister had fallen in love with Jacob.
“I’m fine,” Clair insisted and squared her shoulders. “I appreciate your concern, but really, I’m fine.”
Rand shook his head. “She said she was fine twice in the same sentence.”
Seth nodded. “Doesn’t sound fine to me.”
It hardly seemed possible that in such a few short days these two men could come to mean so much to her. Twenty-three years had slipped away and they were family again. Yesterday the three of them had gone to the ravine off Cold Springs Road where their parents had lost their lives, and where their own lives had been torn apart. They’d held hands there, stood as one, and felt the peace fill them, felt the broken bond heal and grow strong in the love surrounding them.
Their parents’ had been there, as well, watching them, smiling. Clair had felt their presence, knew that they were happy now, that they could finally be at rest.
When her eyes started to tear, the heat in Rand and Seth’s eyes cooled.
“Dammit,” Seth muttered. “He made her cry. Now I really am gonna go find that jerk and kick his butt.”
“I’m not crying over Jacob,” she said, shaking her head. He was part of her tumultuous emotions, Clair thought, but only a part. “I’m crying because…because I love you both so much.”
Though they’d shown each other how they felt over the past week, she was the first one to say the words out loud. It threw Rand and Seth a curve ball.
They were silent for a long moment, then Seth said, “So can I have your shake, then?”
“Touch it—” Clair pulled her glass closer “—and you’ll see whose butt gets kicked.”
They all grinned at each other, then Rand cleared his throat and reached across the table to take her hand. “I love you, too, Liz.”
Rand and Seth both had been careful to call her Clair all week, but every so often, the name they’d always known her by—Lizzie—would sneak out. Every time it happened, she’d feel a little catch in her throat and a hitch in her chest.
“Me, too,” Seth added, then hugged her.
It felt so good, she thought.
Almost whole.
She’d booked a flight out tomorrow morning for Charleston, was anxious to see her mother and father and begin to rebuild their relationship. Though they’d talked on the phone every day, Clair hadn’t told her adopted parents yet that she would be moving to Wolf River. She thought she should do that in person, knew that they were not going to easily accept her leaving South Carolina.
“Sorry, boys, but I’ve got to get back to the hotel.” She slipped out of the booth and gave both Rand and Seth a peck on the cheek. “Grace and Hannah are meeting me there so I can try on a bridesmaid dress.”
“Someone getting married?” Rand asked.
Clair rolled her eyes. In one week, Rand and Seth were having a small double ceremony in the same church where their parents had been married. Clair was flying back to Wolf River the day before the wedding, and if all went well with her parents this week, she intended to ask them to come with her.
“Adagio’s at eight tonight,” she reminded Rand and Seth of the reservations she’d made at the hotel restaurant. “My treat.”
The day was pleasant, warm with a soft breeze and the scent of fall lingering in the air. Scarecrows and cornstalks decorated the windows of the local merchants and banners announced a Halloween Festival in three weeks. Julianna was in charge of the dime toss booth and Clair had already been recruited to help.
She couldn’t wait.
It was a short walk to the hotel and Clair strolled casually down Main street. People passing by smiled and waved. Sylvia, a waitress from Pappa Pete’s honked as she drove by in a blue pickup. Everyone in Wolf River knew who she was, knew how she and her brothers had been adopted out and were now all back together. There had even been an article in the local newspaper detailing what had happened. The town had welcomed them all with open arms, offered sympathy and support.
In the few short days she’d been here, Clair knew this was where she belonged.
If she couldn’t have Jacob, couldn’t be a part of his life, or him a part of hers, then she’d make a life of her own. It certainly was time, she thought. It was past time.
She started to pass the drugstore across the street from the hotel when she remembered the roll of film she’d dropped off earlier in the week. When she’d first pulled the plastic cylinder out of her suitcase, she hadn’t wanted to see the pictures. She’d even tossed it in the trash can, determined to put the past week behind her and move on.
But in the end, her heart won the argument with her head and she’d retrieved the ro
ll of film from the trash, then taken it to be developed, cursing her weakness the entire time.
Just one look, she told herself as she ducked into the drugstore and quickly paid for the developing, then she’d throw every picture away and move on with her life.
She would.
Five minutes later, sitting on the sofa in the living room of her motel room, her hands shaking, she opened the package.
The first few pictures were the ones she’d shot on the road—the barns, the fields, the abandoned tractor. The memories of every moment came rushing back and made her smile.
Her heart skipped as she stared at the picture Jacob had taken of her in the shower—just her startled face, thank goodness, then came the pictures she’d taken of him. Remembering that moment made her laugh out loud, but it blurred her vision, as well.
There was a shot of Jacob sitting in his car, frowning at her—she certainly didn’t need a picture to remember that look. A picture she’d taken of Dorothy, the motel clerk who had told them to say hello to her cousin Angie in Wolf River. Two more pictures of Jacob she’d snapped when they’d stopped along the road, both of them candid.
She was nearly to the end of the roll when she realized there were other snapshots on the roll that Jacob must have taken. They were slightly dark, obviously taken at nighttime. A man and woman coming out of a motel room. She looked closer, then gasped.
Oliver and Susan?
Her gaze darted to the date and time in the corner. The picture had been taken the night before the wedding!
Oliver and Susan?
Jaw slack, she quickly went through the rest of the pictures. Oliver and Susan kissing outside the motel room, another one with the two of them embracing and Oliver groping Susan’s bottom. There were three other shots, all showing her fiancé and best friend being extremely intimate with each other.
Good God, what an idiot she’d been!
She was torn between wanting to laugh at the absurdity of it, her outrage at betrayal by two people she’d trusted, and her ultimate relief that she hadn’t gone through with the wedding.
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