Hannah opened the office door. “Hi, Jen.”
“Hannah. Dev,” she said to the tall man standing behind the diminutive blond doctor.
“Hey, Jen.” Dev kept his hands protectively, possessively on Hannah’s shoulders.
Hannah reached up and intertwined her fingers with his. “You look like you’re closing up shop. Got a minute?”
“Sure.”
“I got a call from his lawyer wondering about the DNA tests.”
Jen didn’t need to ask who she meant. Billy Bob Adams and what he was trying to do were never far from her thoughts. “And?”
“I couldn’t delay,” Hannah said. “I had to put a rush on it. According to the lab, the results should be back in a week.”
“Okay. That’s good to know.”
Dev glanced down at his fiancée, then back at her. “Anything I can do to help Grady’s case, all you have to do is say the word.”
“Thanks. I’m working on Plan B.”
“Good.” He met her gaze. “Hannah and I are going to grab some dinner. Want to join us?”
“That’s a great idea,” Hannah agreed. “We’re planning our wedding and I’d love some input. Mom is helping, but she’s distracted. I don’t know if you heard, but she and Frank, Doc Holloway, are planning to get married, too.”
“I heard,” Jen said. Loneliness welled up inside her threatening to swallow her whole. She drew on some soul-deep reserves of strength and managed a smile. “There’s an epidemic of marriage mania sweeping Destiny. If it’s something in the water, I’m going to start drinking bottled.”
The happy couple standing just inside the doorway laughed. Dev slid his arms around Hannah’s waist and pulled her back against him. “So join us. We’ll buy you a bottle of something.”
“I wish I could. But I’ve got plans.”
Now, there was an out-and-out lie. But she was tired. She’d used up all her reserves on the happy smile a few moments ago. What she needed was a long soak in the tub. A romance novel, because her reserves on that were pretty low, too. And bed. Alone.
How pathetic was that?
“Maybe next time,” Dev said. Though the invitation had been his idea, clearly he was not disappointed he would be spending the evening alone with the woman he loved. “Have a good evening.”
Then they were gone. She turned her back on that damn window. It had seemed like a good idea when she was looking for office space. But if one more disgustingly happy couple walked through her door, she was afraid she would scream. Or worse. Burst into tears.
She straightened the files on her desk, then grabbed her purse. Behind her the door opened. Bracing herself, she turned around. Fortunately it wasn’t another happy couple. Unfortunately it was one very available, very hunky-looking Grady O’Connor. Just the man she wanted to see, and not see.
“Hi,” she said.
“Hi, yourself.” He shut the door and came into the room, standing right in front of her. “You look tired.”
You look good enough to kiss, she thought. For one heart-stopping moment she thought she’d said the words out loud. When his expression didn’t change, she figured she was safe.
“I’m a little tired,” she admitted.
She realized the two of them hadn’t exchanged any meaningful conversation since that day at Hannah’s office, when the girls had suggested their own Plan B—marrying their father. Jen’s heart pounded at the thought.
Grady stepped closer and touched one finger to her chin, nudging it up so he could study her face. “You’ve got bags under your eyes big enough to pack for an extended trip to Europe.”
Apparently looking good enough to kiss was one-sided. “How often has that silver tongue of yours landed you in a heap of trouble, hotshot?”
He grinned. “Would you believe never?”
“No.”
“Seriously, Jen. You look like you’ve been burning the candle at both ends.”
He surveyed her from the top of her head, down to her silky white blouse tucked into her straight navy skirt, the panty hose covering her legs and into her sensible low-heeled matching navy pumps. This is what the well-dressed attorney wore on a day she met with a prospective lucrative client.
“I’ve been busy. Trying to drum up business for the firm.”
“I haven’t seen much of you.”
“Yeah. No news is good news.” She sighed. “Especially considering the news I’ve got.”
“What?”
“Hannah said the DNA results will be back in about a week. That means we’ll be in court. I just talked to Jack and he’s going to step up his efforts.” She shrugged. “Pretty soon it’s show time.”
He nodded, the lines beside his nose and mouth deepening. “Okay.”
“If there’s nothing else, I’ll say good-night.”
“Actually, there is something.” He folded his arms over his chest. “Have dinner with me.”
Invitation number three. Third time’s the charm. Then common sense prevailed. Spending time with him could be hazardous to her heart. It didn’t matter that thoughts of him were never far from her mind. That was bad enough. But putting herself smack-dab in his presence, with the sight of him so handsome he took her breath away. The deep tones of his voice raising tingles on her body from head to toe. His masculine scent that surrounded her, practically seducing her. She already knew how good he tasted, thanks to kissing him twice. If he touched her one more time she could be a goner in a big way.
“Don’t you have to get home to the twins?”
He shook his head. “They’re at a sleepover. The house is going to be pretty quiet.”
Great. She was a delaying tactic to keep from going home to an empty house. Then she realized it had to have crossed his mind that the house could be empty permanently if he lost custody. Nothing like feeling the pressure during her work day and after hours, too.
“Grady, I don’t think I have the energy to have dinner with you.”
Frown lines deepened in his forehead. “I didn’t realize it took energy.”
“Bad phrasing. I wouldn’t be very good company.”
“Me, either. We can be bad company together. Who else would put up with us?”
The corners of her mouth curved up. Damn him. How did he do that? Make her smile, especially when he had his own problems. How was she supposed to resist him?
“I don’t know…”
“Look, Jen, we’ve already established you’re tired. If you were one of my deputies, I’d send you home with orders not to come back to work for a week.”
“That’s not possible. And lucky for you I’m not one of your deputies.”
But how sweet was that? He was concerned about her. But that wasn’t possible. Worry implied caring a lot. He was just her friend and also the sheriff showing professional concern for a citizen.
“You need to get your mind off my case for a while. Sometimes when you think too hard about something, it pushes the answers further out of reach.”
She lifted one eyebrow. “This is a switch. Usually it’s the attorney who takes the client out to dinner.”
“Okay, Counselor. We can do it your way. How about this? We need to have a council of war to discuss strategy for the court battle.”
He was apparently quite a dedicated sheriff determined to look out for her. It was the one argument she couldn’t ignore.
She wagged her finger at him. “Smooth, Sheriff. An invitation like that is impossible for a girl like me to resist.”
Grady stared across the shined-to-a-see-your-face-in-it gloss top of a picnic table at a restaurant two towns over from Destiny. It was dark, not fancy, but the food was great. He’d sold Jen with the “best barbecue in Texas” line, especially since she’d said she didn’t want to run into anyone they knew. Sitting there in her city-slicker, sophisticated lawyer suit, she looked as out of place as a princess at a rodeo. But the way she was putting away the all-you-can-eat ribs gave him hope.
As well as kicking
up his lust factor. It was impossible to eat ribs and stay pristine. She had sauce on her mouth, her fingers and a splatter on the breast of her silky white blouse. He wanted to kiss it off—everywhere. Yeah, that would happen. Maybe in an alternative universe. Or with someone other than Jensen Stevens. And that was the trouble. He hadn’t met anyone he wanted more than her.
If he was going to make it through the evening without embarrassing himself, he needed to take his mind off stuff like that—more specifically, her mouth.
“So tell me—why did you want to go some place where we wouldn’t run into anyone from Destiny?” he asked, remembering her directive when he’d inquired about her dinner location preferences.
Still holding a rib in both hands, she looked up. “What makes you think I had a reason?”
“Come on, Jen. This is me.” And you’re you, he thought.
“Okay, I’ll come clean.”
“All evidence to the contrary,” he said wryly.
She grinned as she put down the rib then ripped open the packet containing a wet wipe and cleaned her face and hands.
“I haven’t had ribs that good in ages,” she admitted.
“Yeah, I bet Dallas doesn’t do anything so unsophisticated.”
Was he trying to tip the scales in his favor? She’d set up a branch office for her firm in Destiny. That didn’t mean she would stay permanently to run it. Why would she stay in a town with nothing but bad memories?
“Dallas might surprise you,” was all she said. “As far as why I wanted to go to a place far from Destiny—I was getting weird vibes.”
He blinked. “You’re going to have to explain that one.”
“Okay.” She pushed her plate away, then took a sip of her white wine. “Just before you walked into my office I had separate visits from Maggie and Jack, then Hannah and Dev. They were all going out to dinner.”
“I still don’t get it.”
“They’re couples now.”
“So?”
“Aside from the fact that they’re so in love I have to bite my tongue to keep from saying get a room, it gives me a weird feeling. They were involved in some way ten years ago. It’s déjà vu all over again.”
“Yeah. I know what you mean. I felt the ripples when Mitch came back to town. Seems like it’s about time things settled.”
“Ten years.” She sighed, a big, gusty sound. “A decade. When you think about what happened ten years ago…” She looked up at him. “I meant with Taylor and Mitch. Hannah and Dev. Jack and Maggie. They’re all getting married. It’s as if the world is finally righting itself.”
“You’re certainly waxing nostalgic tonight.”
“I never wax anything if I can possibly avoid it,” she said, laughing. “But three couples have recently become engaged and I’ve had visits tonight from two of them.”
“Maybe you and I will be next,” he said. Where the hell had that come from?
“Don’t you start,” she warned.
Start? He hadn’t just started. In fact, he knew exactly where that had come from. Something had become painfully clear. The want hadn’t just begun. He’d always wanted Jen. Even ten years ago. But no way could he have acted on it then. With the death of his parents in that car accident, his life had turned upside down. So he’d wanted her from afar. And watched her go out with Mitch. Then Zach had moved in on her and the rest was history.
Instead of responding to her words, he said, “Are you aware that every guy who went to Destiny High School had the hots for you?”
Her eyes widened, then she laughed. “Way to go, Sheriff. You said I needed to forget about the custody case for a while and that did it.”
“I’m dead serious. Every single heterosexual guy older or younger—age was inconsequential when it came to worshiping at your feet—every last one wanted you.”
She blinked, then stared at him for several moments. “Including you?” Her voice was a husky whisper.
“You bet. I was their leader.”
“But I don’t…” She stopped and shook her head.
“Do you ever wonder what would have happened if you’d taken another road ten years ago?” he asked.
She laughed without humor. “That’s a diplomatic way of putting it. Of course I wonder. With me out of the equation, Zach would have been single and in a position to do the right thing by Lacey. He would have married her and taken responsibility for the girls.”
“Not necessarily…”
“Of course. What was I thinking?” she asked, shrugging. “That crush thing was just a joke. You would have married Lacey no matter what. You love her.”
He wondered about her use of present tense. Did she think he was still in love with Lacey? She’d indicated more than once that she thought he’d loved his wife very much, because he’d married her and raised another man’s children. It was time to come clean about the past, to set the record straight—to set things right. All of it.
“Jen?” He met her gaze, willing her to listen and believe what he was going to say. “About Lacey and me. I never loved her. Not the way you’re thinking. Not as more than a friend.”
Chapter Ten
Jen held her breath. He’d had a crush on her ten years ago? He never loved Lacey? Any second an alien spacecraft would appear and beam her up. The world was spinning out of control—that’s all it would take to finish her off.
“I don’t believe you,” she said, standing. “It’s a lie. Why would you say something like that?”
But the serious, open, honest look on his handsome face scared her. Waiting to hear more wasn’t an option. She whirled around and walked away from him. Heading for the exit, she saw a sign for the rest room. Good idea. She felt grimy, and not just from eating ribs. A decade of dirt weighed her down. She went in, then stopped in front of the sink. After turning on the water, she washed her hands, then splashed the coolness in her face. Good Lord. Was everything about the past ten years a lie?
Grady had had a crush on her? She looked in the mirror, at her haunted eyes with bags large enough to pack for an extended trip to Europe. He was right. She looked awful. Probably because she felt awful. Surely any attraction he’d felt had flickered out after she’d run off with Zach.
Sighing, she realized she couldn’t stay in the bathroom forever, no matter how much she might want to. And she wanted to a lot. More than anything she wished she could be by herself. But they’d dropped her car off at Taylor’s ranch. Grady had driven the two of them to dinner. Right about now he probably thought she’d lost her mind, and was calling the sheriff’s department dispatch to send out the men in the white coats. So maybe she didn’t need a ride home after all.
When she left the ladies’ room, the impossibly young, blond, blue-eyed hostess stopped her. “The man you came in with said to tell you he’s waiting for you by the car.”
Jen nodded. “Thanks.”
She walked outside and a warm breeze cooled her still-damp cheeks. Only the lights from the restaurant kept the parking lot from pitch-blackness. Beyond the nuisance light, stars twinkled in the inky-black Texas sky. Any other time, under different circumstances, she would appreciate this beautiful night. It would take a heart of stone not to notice that romance swirled in the air. She so didn’t want romance.
Taking a deep breath, she spotted Grady. In the first parking space by the door, he leaned against the passenger side of his black sport utility vehicle. All she could see was his back, and she wondered what he was thinking. He’d changed out of his uniform at the office. His broad shoulders looked even wider in the white cotton shirt. The vehicle blocked her view of the rest of him. And that was a damn shame considering he had one spectacular butt—in uniform or jeans. Still, burned into her memory was an image of the soft denim molded to his lean hips and muscular thighs.
Good grief, she was an idiot. Standing there drooling was completely counterproductive. Unless she was prepared to hoof it home, she had to actually see him again. Knowing that if he wasn’t telling
a whopper, ten years ago he’d had a crush on her.
He glanced at her when her shoes clicked on the blacktop. She walked around the front of the car and stood in front of him.
“I wouldn’t lie to you, Jen.”
Somehow she’d known. His words had shocked her, but she would bet her life that Grady O’Connor didn’t lie. Which meant he’d definitely noticed her in high school. But she couldn’t think about that now. Let alone talk about it.
“Why did you marry her? I know you told me she was running away because she was afraid. But she had nothing to be ashamed of. There were other ways you could have helped.”
“If anyone should understand it’s you. We were young.” He folded his arms over his chest. “She was desperate. It seemed like the right thing to do. She was afraid her dad would do something to Zach. Get himself into trouble. If he’d found out…”
“I wish he had. If the truth had come out then, maybe—”
“What? You wouldn’t have married Zach?”
“Maybe. Yes. No. I don’t know.” Damn, she was confused. “Zach should have done the right thing. If not voluntarily, then by force.”
“The timing was off.”
“Because he was already married,” she clarified, guilt knotting her insides.
“Yeah. Lacey didn’t see any way out but to run.”
“That still doesn’t explain why you married her. When you didn’t love her,” she added.
“I owed her family. They were there for me after my folks were killed in the accident. I had less than a year till graduation. But I was already eighteen and ineligible for state assistance. The Millers took me in because Lacey insisted. She and I were best friends, and with their help I could finish high school.”
“But she was pregnant with another man’s child,” she protested.
“It was her child, too.”
“A child you’d be responsible for.”
He shrugged. “She was desperate. Marriage solved her immediate problem. I could do that.”
Jen remembered what he’d told her before—that Lacey lived long enough for Grady and her father to reconcile. “It created some problems, too. Her father thought you got her pregnant, didn’t he?”
What If We Fall in Love? Page 11