The Pursuit of Jesse

by Helen Brenna

  Brian followed her inside and took a step toward the kitchen.

  “Ah, ah, ah,” she said, closing the door. “Stomp that snow off your boots before you start traipsing around.”

  “Seriously? What difference does it make? This place is a dump.”

  “Dump or not, it’s our dump.” Gingerly, she picked up an old wadded-up towel from the corner and laid it in front of the door. “Step on that.” The towel was dirty and smelled musty, but it would have to do for now.

  “This place is disgusting, Mom. And it smells. You sure you want to live here?”

  It was going to take some time, most of her savings and a lot of elbow grease, but this house was eventually going to look perfect, like the home of her dreams.

  “Yes, I’m sure.” She reached out and ruffled his hair.

  “Moooom!” He ducked away. “I’m not a baby.”

  No, he was nine now. Almost a man, he’d been insisting lately. Well, he could insist all he wanted. Nothing could change the fact that he’d always be her little boy.

  “I know the place needs a lot of work before we can move in,” she said. “But Garrett’s sure he can get everything done before the wedding season kicks into high gear. He’ll put in new kitchen cabinets and countertops. New bathrooms. New carpet. You can help me paint. By the time we’re finished, it’ll be beautiful.”

  “If you say so.”

  The sound of a snowmobile coming up the hill filled the quiet outside and Sarah pushed aside the moth-eaten curtain to see Garrett pulling into the yard. Excited to hear when he could start, she didn’t give the fact that he had a stranger with him much of a thought. She opened the front door as Garrett came up the steps. “Right on time.”

  “I knew you’d be excited.” Although there was a slight smile on Garrett’s face, he looked preoccupied. He stomped the snow off his boots and stepped inside. The other man followed suit and closed the door behind him. “Sarah, this is my youngest brother, Jesse.”

  As in the rolling-stone, smart-aleck, ladies’ man youngest brother? “No kidding?” she said, warily eyeing the man.

  Everyone knew Garrett had three brothers, but she’d never expected any of them to come to Mirabelle, at least not during the winter months. She’d gathered from the past comments Garrett had made that his siblings weren’t much for islands, at least not the non-Caribbean variety. While many of the single women on Mirabelle had been after Garrett to talk his brothers into coming north, Sarah had never been one of them. At least not seriously.

  “You didn’t say anything about him coming. Or did I miss that?” she asked.

  “Kind of spur-of-the-moment,” Jesse said, holding her gaze.

  Then he smiled at her, and her stomach pitched. The way his lips curved in a lopsided grin, the way his eyes twinkled, this man reminded her so much of…Bobby, it was frightening. She hadn’t thought of him in years, and she sure as hell didn’t want to think about him now. The man—that time—had been the worst mistake of her life.

  “Nice to meet you, Sarah.” All at once, Jesse took off his hat, ruffled his short dark hair and reached for her hand.

  Uh-oh. “Nice meeting you, too,” she somehow managed to murmur.

  Garrett was the more traditionally handsome of the two brothers, but Jesse, with his rugged features, including a nose that looked to have been broken more than once, dark, scruffy stubble and a tiny silver hoop in his left earlobe, was far more fascinating. At least in Sarah’s book. If the way he’d held her hand—a little longer than technically necessary—was any indication, Garrett was right. This brother was the flirt in the family, a fact that likely made up for in spades what he might be lacking in the looks department.

  Once upon a time, she would’ve been tripping all over herself to get to this man, but times had changed. She’d changed. Fun-loving rolling stones didn’t make good husband or father material. And if Sarah was attracted to him? Therein lie the first sign Jesse was no good. No woman on earth could pick a good-timing loser faster than Sarah.

  She forced her gaze away from Jesse’s face and glanced toward Brian, reminding herself of her priorities. You had your fun with bad boys, and remember how that turned out? Mother first, woman second. Or woman never as had been the case living on an island the size of Mirabelle all these years, but then that had been why she’d moved here in the first place. Very little to no temptation on Mirabelle, the tiny destination wedding spot of the Upper Midwest, and that was fine by her.

  “This is Brian,” she said, smiling. “My son.”

  “Hey, there, Brian.” Jesse feigned a serious look. “Aren’t you supposed to be in school?”

  “School’s over for the day,” Brian said with a scowl on his face. “But I think I’d rather be there than here, anyway.”

  “It might not look like much right now,” Jesse said, glancing around. “Wait a few weeks. You won’t even recognize the place.”

  “I told you, honey, Garrett’s going to take care of everything.” She glanced up at Garrett and noticed his frown had deepened. “What’s the matter?”

  “I don’t know how to tell you this.”

  “Straight-out is usually best.”

  “There was a young couple here on Mirabelle this past summer. They stayed in one of the honeymoon suites at the Mirabelle Island Inn and expressed a lot of interest in the furniture I’d made for Marty Rousseau. I wasn’t going to hold my breath for an order, but…” He ran his hands over his face as he paced. “They called me yesterday, Sarah. Out of the blue. They’re buying a new house and want me to make their master bedroom furniture, a dining room set and some other pieces.”

  “That’s great, Garrett! Good for you.”

  “They want everything ASAP.”

  “So what does that mean?” As she held her breath, she had the feeling she knew exactly what he was trying to say.

  “It means I have to get at the order right away, and it’s going to take several months.”

  Her excitement fizzled like a candle flame doused in a bucket of water. “So you can’t help me with my house.”

  “Sarah, I’m sorry, but this is the biggest order I’ve gotten since I moved up here. There’s potential for a lot more orders. It’s just what my furniture business needs to get off and running.”

  “So now what?” she asked.

  “I can do it,” Jesse said.

  She was supposed to put her house in the hands of Garrett’s baby brother? What were the chances he’d actually follow through and get her house done on time? On top of that, she’d expected to spend a lot of time for the next several months at this house helping Garrett. Day in and day out, side by side with a confirmed ladies’ man would be Sarah’s nightmare come true.

  “Anything Garrett can do, I can do better.” Jesse chuckled. “And I won’t charge you as much.” Sarah frowned.

  “You know what?” One look in her eyes and Jesse turned around. “I think I’ll just go outside and let you two talk this over.” He crammed his hat back on his head and slipped through the front door.

  “Can I go with Jesse, Mom?” Brian asked.

  “Sure,” she said before thinking about it, but the last thing she needed was for Brian to get friendly with this guy. Who knew what kind of influence he’d be? Unfortunately, her son was already racing outside.

  The front door closed and Sarah turned to Garrett.

  “I know, I know,” he said, holding up his hands. “You probably feel as though I’m backing you into a corner, but the honest-to-God truth is that this is for the best. Jesse’s a better all-around carpenter than me.”

  It wasn’t his carpentry skills she was worried about. “If he’s so good, why can’t he build the furniture and you do my house?”

  “Because he’s never made so much as a bookshelf. He can do everything from plumbing to finishing work. Lay carpet, install windows, fix that leaky roof.” Garrett pointed to the ceiling. “But there’s a difference between all that and the detail involved in designing and
building one-of-a-kind furniture. This order’s too important to leave in the hands of a novice.”

  Sarah glanced out the window to find Brian throwing snowballs at the side of the storage shed and Garrett’s brother watching him, looking as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Her apprehension built. Through the years she’d been careful to ensure the male influences in Brian’s life had been good men, solid and dependable. She’d bet her bottom dollar Jesse was neither.

  “If I remember right,” she said, turning back to Garrett, “this is the brother you said went through women like other men went through socks. He moved around so much you were never sure where he was from one day to the next. ‘Everybody loves Jesse, but the guy can’t hold down a job to save his soul.’ Ring a bell?”

  “Yeah, I probably did say all those things.” Garrett sighed heavily. “But that was then. This is now. Sarah, give him a chance. Please. You and I have laid out every detail of this remodeling project. We’ve ordered all the supplies. All Jesse has to do is follow through.”

  “That’s the problem. Will he follow through?”

  “Yeah.” Garrett held her gaze. “This time I think he will.”

  “You think?” She had at least one wedding scheduled for every weekend throughout the summer. Come June first, she’d be so busy, she wouldn’t have time to take a breath, let alone move into this house. “This is too important to me for you to guess, Garrett. I need you to know.”

  “What I know is that if he doesn’t come through, I will. One way or another. I promise.”

  If there was a man whose promise meant the world and then some, it was Garrett’s. He and his wife, Erica, were two of her best friends, and his troubled gaze spoke volumes. Sarah had the distinct feeling she was going to regret this, but if the positions were reversed, Garrett would do this for her in a heartbeat. “Take the furniture order. I’ll deal.”

  He looked only slightly relieved.

  That, more than anything, set her on edge. “There’s more, though, isn’t there?”

  “Yeah,” he said. “Before you make up your mind, you should know…Jesse…well, he’s had some tough luck.” Then Garrett shook his head. “No, that’s not true. He brought it on himself.”

  “Brought what on?”

  “There’s no easy way to say this.” He held her gaze. “Jesse just got out of prison. Today.”

  The words had a hard time registering. “What? Did you say prison? As in guards, bars, cells? Criminals?”

  Garrett nodded. “He served an almost four-year term. Was released this morning.”

  She sucked in a breath, absorbing what he’d said. “What did he do to deserve going to prison?”

  Garrett took a couple steps away from her and then looked back. “I promised Jesse I’d let him decide when and how much to tell the islanders. But, Sarah, he’s not dangerous to you or Brian. I swear. On my life. On the lives of my family. I care too much for both you and Brian to put either one of you in harm’s way.”

  “So you want me to welcome an ex-con into my home, into my life. Into my son’s life.” She pointed out the window. “Without the slightest indication—”

  “Jesse’s done his time. He deserves a chance to get back on his feet, and I know the most important part of the process for my brother is going to be keeping him busy.”

  Outside, Brian was laughing and talking with Garrett’s brother as he threw snowballs at a tree in the woods. Jesse stood there for a moment, watching Brian before picking up a handful of snow and tossing it, then he glanced up and caught her looking at him through the window. His grin brightened for an instant, and an answering wave of attraction pummeled her. As he held her gaze, he clearly sensed her apprehension and his smile slowly disappeared.

  Mentally, she kicked herself. Snap out of it!

  The irony of the fact that she’d even dated a couple of felons a long time ago wasn’t lost on her, but no one here on Mirabelle knew about her wild days. She’d moved to Mirabelle to get away from all that, to put the past behind her and start over, start fresh.

  She turned back toward Garrett. “I don’t think—”

  “You know I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. Please, Sarah. This is the best opportunity I’ve had yet to get my furniture business going. Give Jesse a chance. For me and Erica.”

  Garrett had never asked her for anything, and he’d given so much back to this small community, to her. Could she really turn her back on him simply because she was worried that one man was all it would take to ruin the good life she’d built here on Mirabelle? “The Setterbergs need me out of my apartment by the end of May,” she said. “If this house isn’t ready, I’ll have no place else to go.”

  “It’ll be ready. Even if I have to drop my furniture order and do it myself.”

  Suddenly, she was sick of looking into the faces of men like Jesse and having to fight the urge to run like hell in the opposite direction. She had a good life here on Mirabelle. It was time to prove to herself once and for all that she wasn’t going to risk it all over a man, any man. “All right, Garrett. For you. I’ll give Jesse a chance.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  JESSE CLIMBED OFF the snowmobile and stared at the log home sitting in the middle of at least an acre-size lot bordered by massive evergreens and bare-branched hardwoods. The structure was old, but clearly solid as a rock. Whoever had taken the time to restore it had done a good job. “Did you do the work on this place yourself?” he asked Garrett.

  “Naw, it was mostly finished when I bought it. Did some of the interior work, though.”

  This setting was a far cry from the inner streets of Chicago where they’d grown up, but somehow this rustic lifestyle seemed to fit the new, settled Garrett.

  “My woodworking shop.” He pointed to a standalone building. “I have duplicates of all my tools, so take whatever you need to work on Sarah’s house. With one condition. I want everything back when you’re finished. Okay?”

  That stung. “What? You think I’m going to skip the island with your tools?” Jesse may have pulled a lot of stunts through the years, but he’d never stolen a damned thing in his life. Well, except for those couple packs of bubble gum he’d snitched from Wolter’s candy shop when he was ten.

  “Come on,” Garrett said, letting the issue hang between them. “It’s freezing out here. Let’s go inside.”

  Feeling more than a little out of sorts, Jesse followed his brother up the steps and onto the wide porch. Though the wind had let up a bit, the snow was still falling steadily and the sun had all but set, leaving behind frigid temperatures. The moment the front door opened, a blast of warm, garlic-and-meat-scented air hit Jesse square in the face.

  Quickly, he glanced around. A mudroom combination laundry room was positioned to their left, and a large kitchen opened in front of them with a family room off to the right. Pots and pans bubbled on the stove, a fire sizzled in a stone hearth and a kid’s video game quietly played out on a wide-screen TV.

  An attractive dark-haired woman came toward them from the kitchen and Garrett grinned as he shrugged out of his coat and hung it on a nearby hook. “Hey, you.” Garrett planted a kiss on his wife’s lips.

  Jesse would’ve expected a quick peck on a closed mouth given the couple had been married for a while, but, no. This contact was instantly intimate. The petite woman nearly disappeared when Garrett wrapped his big arms firmly around her.

  Caught off guard, Jesse found himself staring. What would it feel like to be welcomed home that sweetly? Hell, it’d been so long since he’d been kissed, he’d surely forgotten what a woman’s lips felt like. Although the exchange lasted only a second or two, it was long enough for Jesse to feel as if he were intruding.

  Garrett stepped back, his arm still draped over his wife’s shoulder. “Jesse, this is Erica.”

  Jesse nodded and reached out to shake her hand. “Nice to finally meet you.” Per Jesse’s orders his family and friends had not been allowed to visit him while he’d been behind
bars, and suddenly, he felt awkward and shy, meeting for the first time this woman who’d become so important to his brother in such a short amount of time.

  Chuckling, she glanced at his hand. “That’s a joke, right? We’re family.” Then she threw her arms around him and hugged him. “I’m glad you’re finally…here.”

  Jesse made an attempt at hugging her back, but it didn’t feel right. After so many years of holding the world at arm’s length, he wasn’t sure he remembered everyday niceties.

  “Daddy, Daddy!” A toddler sat in a high chair near the kitchen’s center island, his arms impatiently outstretched toward Garrett.

  “And this is David.” Garrett kissed the cheesy-sauced cheek of his young son and scooped him out of the high chair. Cute kid. Reminded Jesse of baby pictures of Garrett. His brother sure did seem comfortable around all this domesticity.

  “Zach?” Erica called. “Come and meet your uncle, kiddo.”

  A young boy popped up from the family-room floor and came toward them, his hands hanging awkwardly at his sides. “Hey.”

  “Hey, Zach.” Jesse reached out and shook the boy’s hand.

  From what Garrett had written in his infrequent emails to Jesse, Garrett and Erica had adopted her nephew after Erica’s sister had been murdered by her husband, Zach’s dad. Damn. And Jesse thought he’d had a tough childhood. The kid’s real name was Jason, but he went by Zach or Zachary, the name he’d chosen when he and Erica had first come to Mirabelle to hide from her abusive brother-in-law. Sounded to Jesse like a way to evade the past and all its pain, but who was Jesse to judge? The kid looked as if he was doing okay.

  “You look like you’re about Brian’s age, huh?” Jesse said. “Sarah’s son. You two friends?”

  “Yeah.” Zach’s eyes lit up. “Best friends.”

  “That’s cool. He seems like a nice kid.” For a moment, Jesse stood there, unsure of what to do next.

  “Well, settle in quick,” Erica said, heading back to the stove. “Dinner’s ready in a few minutes. Hope you like pork chops. Mashed potatoes and gravy.”