Authors: Susan Mallery
“Hey.”
A hand touched her shoulder at the same time she heard the voice. She screamed and tried to scramble away, only to find herself staring into Justice’s amused gaze.
“How did you get in here?” she demanded, her heart pounding in her chest.
“Through the door.”
“I locked it.”
“I knocked, but I guess you didn’t hear me.” He shrugged, then sat down in front of her. “I wanted to see you.”
“So you picked the lock on my door?”
“Uh-huh.”
A man with a variety of skills wasn’t always a good thing.
She pushed her hair out of her face and wished she’d put on something more classy than old jeans and a T-shirt with a glittery surfboard on the front. Plus, she wasn’t wearing makeup. Not that any of that would make her look like Felicia, whom she hated a lot.
“How are you?” he asked.
“Fine.” A lie, but she was okay with that.
“Seriously?”
“Sure. I’m great.” She tried to smile, but wasn’t sure she succeeded.
He reached for her hand. “About yesterday.”
That was supposed to be her line. “About yesterday. It’s over, skunk-dog.”
Only before she could speak, he brought her fingers to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. Then he gave her his best slow, sexy smile. “Impressive.”
Tinges zigzagged down her arm to her chest and belly. She ignored them and the need to swoon. “Okay,” she said cautiously. Maybe she would wait to hear what he had to say.
Then
she would end things.
“Just okay?” He studied her, then nodded, as if he’d figured out what was wrong.
She wasn’t sure that was a good thing. “I wasn’t sure what to think. Everything happened so fast.” She glanced around, hoping to find something on fire, or see an alien landing. Anything to distract him from her confused emotional state.
“I’m sorry about the timing of Felicia’s arrival,” Justice told her, his blue gaze steady.
“Me, too.”
He continued to study her. “You know she and I are friends, right? She’s like a sister to me. Always has been. Just friends. There’s never been anything between us.”
Patience felt herself start to lean toward him, then forced herself to pull back. “You mentioned something about it,” she admitted. A long time ago, when the information hadn’t seemed very important. It was much more significant now.
“We worked together and we’re family. I’ll always be there for her—like you’re always there for your mom.”
If he was trying to make her feel better, he was doing a fine job. She gave him a real smile. “Thanks for telling me that.”
“I didn’t want you worrying.” He kissed her hand again. “I’m not very good at this.”
“At what? Sitting on the floor? Because you seem to be a natural.”
He chuckled, then leaned in and kissed her mouth. “Being with someone like you. Someone regular.”
“You usually sleep with superheroes?”
“I usually don’t stick around until morning.”
“You didn’t. Technically you left with a very tall, very beautiful woman.” She sniffed. “I’m just saying.”
He grabbed her and pulled her into his arms, twisting her so she found herself draped across his lap, looking up at him.
“I missed you,” he said, staring into her eyes. “After I left. I thought about you and wondered what you were doing. Part of me wanted you to find some guy and be happy, and part of me...”
Didn’t.
“You never called. You never got in touch,” she said. “If you like me, you should have done something.”
He nodded. “I know.” He looked away, then back at her. “Patience, I’ve been places and seen things. More than seen. You’re light and good and gentle. I worry that by simply being close to you, I’m corrupting your soul.” He gave her a lopsided smile. “Maybe that’s too dramatic, but it’s how I feel. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“I don’t want that, either.”
He touched her cheek. “The smartest thing would be for me to stay away from you. Only I don’t think I can. You’ll have to be strong for both of us.”
She wasn’t sure she agreed with that plan. Especially when he lowered his head and kissed her. The pressure of his mouth on hers was soft and caring. There was passion, but it was restrained. If she had to guess, she would say this was more about connecting.
She wrapped her arms around him, hanging on, aware that the man knew how to get to her. Yesterday with how he touched her body and today with how he touched her heart.
Everything was happening so quickly, she thought. She had to step back and think. Make sure she knew what she was doing. And she would...just as soon as he stopped kissing her.
Justice raised his head. “Your mom will be here in a few seconds.”
She blinked. “How do you know?”
“I just saw her car pull up.”
Patience scrambled out of his lap and staggered to her feet. “We have a meeting. Store talk.”
“Then I should leave you to it.”
Justice rose. He lightly kissed her cheek, then walked to the door. She watched him go, thinking she wanted to call after him. But to say what? The man confused her, that was for sure.
She was going to have to spend some serious time figuring out what was going on. Or she could simply try to get him alone so they could make love again. It wouldn’t provide any answers, but she would enjoy it more than thinking or being sensible.
Before she could pick a course of action, her mother walked in. Today Ava was using a cane. Sometimes her MS acted up and she needed her wheelchair, but since the work party, she’d been having a lot of good days. Always a blessing.
“Did I see Justice leaving?” Ava asked.
“He stopped by to say hi.”
“He’s such a nice boy.”
Patience laughed. “Mom, he’s in his thirties.”
“I knew him when he was a teenager, so he’ll always be a boy to me.” She looked around the store. “Look at what you’ve done. You should be so proud of yourself.”
“We’re in this together.”
“With you getting stuck with all the hard work. Still, I’ll be able to do more when the store is open. I’m excited to learn how to use the espresso machine.” Ava smiled. “My friends and I are talking about some after-hours parties here.”
“I don’t want to hear about spiked coffee.”
“Then I won’t tell you.”
They crossed to one of the tables where Patience had already set up their piles of paperwork. After they were seated, Patience opened the first folder. Although they’d made a few hires, they were going to need more staff.
“We have plenty of applications, which is great. We have the college kids who want to work in the evenings and a few moms with school-age kids interested in morning shifts.”
Her mother closed the folder. “I’d like for us to talk about something else, first.”
Patience fought against a rush of cold. “Mom, are you okay? Are you sick?”
Because with MS, danger always lurked. Even with the good days, there was the fear that something bad was going to happen.
“I’m fine. This isn’t about my health, but it is about something I’ve been keeping from you.” Ava glanced down at the table, then back at her daughter. “I haven’t been completely honest with you. About Steve.”
It took Patience a second to put the name with the face. “Lillie’s grandfather? What about him? Oh no. You found out something horrible about him.”
“No, it’s not that.”
Ava pressed her lips together. If Patience didn’t know better, she would swear her mother was blushing.
“Mom?”
Ava drew in a breath and looked at her. “Steve got in touch with me about five months ago. He’d just sold his business and was thinking about what to do with the rest of his life. He’d tried to make contact with Ned several times, but his son didn’t want anything to do with him. He wanted to reach out to Lillie, so he came to see me and ask my opinion.”
Patience stared at her mother. “You knew about him?”
“Yes. We talked and he seemed nice, so I agreed to meet with him. It started out innocently enough. I wanted to make sure he was the kind of man who deserved to be in Lillie’s life, and I knew you were busy. I thought I was helping.”
Which all sounded reasonable and generous, even. So why was her mother acting so strange?
Ava’s brown eyes darkened with emotion. “I’ve been seeing him regularly.”
“Okay. I get that. To make sure he wouldn’t hurt Lillie and...” Patience felt her mouth drop open as she figured out what her mother was
really
saying. “You’re dating Steve?”
“I have been for a while.”
“That’s what the secret calls have been about? The disappearances? You have a boyfriend?”
“Are you mad? I know I should have told you, but I was nervous. I felt strange, going out at my age. Plus, he’s Ned’s father. He walked out on his family the way Ned walked out on you. I thought you might see him as the enemy. I was afraid you’d disapprove. And the more I saw him the more I liked him. I guess I acted like a coward and I’m sorry.”
Her mother was dating Lillie’s grandfather? Patience turned the information over in her mind. It was a little strange and would take getting used to. But it wasn’t bad.
“Mom, I want you to be happy. If you’re having a good time with Steve, that’s great. I just wish you would have told me. I asked Justice to run a background check on him.”
“I wanted you to make your own decision about him. I didn’t want to influence you.” Ava shrugged. “I think a part of me wanted you to come to your own conclusions because I was afraid I was seeing what I wanted to see, rather than what was there. I don’t exactly have a good track record when it comes to men. It’s one thing for me to make a mistake. It’s another for me to drag you and Lillie through the mess.”
“Oh, Mom.” Patience stood and moved around the table. She bent low and hugged her mother.
Ava held on tight. “I love you so much.”
“I love you, too.” She crouched in front of her mom. “So you’re doing the wild thing with this guy?”
“Maybe.”
“You’re practicing safe sex, right? There are issues that don’t involve pregnancy.”
Ava laughed. “Yes. We’re very safe.”
“Then I’m happy for you. I wish you would have told me, but I understand why you wanted me to make my own decision about Steve.” She stood and smiled. “Admit it. You were secretly thrilled when Justice’s report came back clean.”
“I was very pleased to hear the man I was dating didn’t have a criminal record.”
Patience returned to her chair. “Anything else I should know?”
“That’s it.” Ava’s humor faded. “I hope you understand. After I was diagnosed with MS, I couldn’t seem to pull myself together. Then your dad left and it was just the two of us. I was so scared. Since then, I haven’t met a man who could see past the disease. Until Steve.”
“You handled your diagnosis with grace, Mom. I mean that. You were a rock. I’m glad you’re happy with Steve. I still want to take things slow with Lillie. I don’t want her to get confused or hurt. Having her grandfather show up after a decade is a lot for her to take in.”
“I understand and I agree. No matter what, even if things don’t work out with me and Steve, he still wants to be a part of her life. But I agree with being cautious.”
They smiled at each other. Patience opened the folder. “Okay, then. Now on to company business.”
They started to talk about the store. Patience thought briefly about her mother’s decision to keep her relationship with Steve a secret. Two days ago she would have been a little more outraged. But she and Justice had recently taken things to the next level, and she had no intention of mentioning that to her mother. She supposed it wasn’t unreasonable to expect them both to have secrets. Even if it meant that she would have to keep an extra-close eye on Steve.
CHAPTER TWELVE
P
ATIENCE
SCOOPED
SOME
guacamole onto her chip and listened to her friends. It was nearly six and she was pleasantly tired after a day spent in her soon-to-be coffee shop.
The dishwasher was installed and happily doing its cleaning and sanitizing thing with the new mugs and plates. She’d hired staff, and training sessions would start in the morning.
Heidi sipped her virgin margarita. “I’m just waiting for Annabelle to tell me to leave her alone. I swear, I’m at her house every fifteen minutes.”
“She doesn’t mind,” Isabel said. “How could she? She’s a new mom, getting up four or five times a night to take care of a newborn. She’s grateful to have a little downtime.”
“I hope so.” Heidi touched her growing belly. “I promise to be happy to see any of you as much as you want when I have my baby.” She sniffed. “Don’t you love the circle of life?”
Charlie groaned. “Sweet Mother of God. What is going on with you? Is the crying thing contagious? I swear, I can’t take another crier.” She glared at Heidi. “You’d better snap out of it.”
“You’re not really mad at me, are you?”
“Of course not.” Charlie picked up her beer. “I am never getting pregnant.”
“Or married,” Isabel said cheerfully. She grinned. “No matter how many times I’ve invited Charlie over to my store, she won’t come in and try on the latest styles.”
Charlie glared. “I could so kill you and hide the body. You know that, right?”
Patience leaned back in the booth and sighed with contentment. Isabel had only been in town a few weeks, but she was already fitting in. Patience liked that all her friends got along.
“I have a new dress with French lace,” Isabel said, her voice teasing.
Charlie glared.
Heidi giggled and turned to Patience. “We should change the subject. How are you doing? Are you having sex with Justice yet?”
Patience nearly choked on her chip. “Excuse me? What kind of question is that?”
“A nosy one.”
“She’s not today,” Charlie said. “He’s gone.” She shrugged. “He worked out next to me at the gym yesterday.” She turned to Patience. “The guy’s strong. Seriously strong. If he offers to carry you anywhere, let him.”
Patience reached for her margarita and took a hasty sip. She hoped the girl-flattering lighting in the bar would hide her blush as she thought about how easily Justice had supported her when they’d had their wild encounter.
“How did you working out next to him lead you to this information?” Heidi asked.
“He and I walked out of the locker rooms at the same time. He had a suitcase with him. Said he was heading out of town.” Charlie reached for a chip. “So, do you like him?”
Isabel leaned toward her. “Yes, please tell us. My personal life is still in recovery. I need a distraction.”
“I like him,” Patience admitted. “He’s been great with the store and my mom and Lillie.”
“I respect a man who runs a good background check,” Charlie said.
Patience had already told them about Steve.
“It’s an intriguing quality,” Patience said, then glanced toward the door as it opened. A tall, beautiful redhead stepped inside. Despite Justice explaining his relationship with Felicia, Patience felt her good mood fade away.
“The only flaw seems to be his business partner. I’m not a fan. She’s so beautiful and apparently smart. I’m sure tiny forest animals come and dress her every morning while singing about how glorious she is.”
Heidi grinned. “You’re not kidding about not being a fan.”
“I hate her. Okay, maybe not hate her, but I don’t like her much and I wish she hadn’t moved to town.”
Charlie groaned. “I wish you’d mentioned this sooner,” she said, holding up an arm and waving. “I met her earlier and invited her to join us.”
Felicia spotted Charlie and waved back.
Patience sank back in the booth. “You didn’t.”
“I try to be friendly from time to time. I figure I need to balance out my karma.”
Isabel scooted over to make room for Felicia. “This is going to be so great. Like a flash mob or something.”
“You need more than four or five people for a flash mob,” Heidi said helpfully.
“Good point.”
Patience shifted. “No one say anything,” she said in a low whisper.
Heidi gave her a quick hug. “I swear we’ll always like you best.”
“You’d better.”
Felicia reached the table and gave them all a warm smile. “Hi. I’m Felicia Swift. It’s nice to meet all of you.”
“You know me,” Charlie said. “This is Heidi Stryker, Patience McGraw and Isabel Beebe.”
Felicia’s gaze settled on Patience. “Oh, hi. We’ve met. I’m Justice’s friend.”
“Uh-huh,” Patience murmured. “Nice to see you again.”
Felicia slid in next to Isabel. Her long red hair was still perfectly layered and curled. She had on a bit of makeup, but with her features, she didn’t need the help. Her pale yellow sweater clung to perfect curves. Patience thought about the rips in her jeans and how her hands were a wreck from all the work she’d done at the store and the fact that her T-shirt featured a grinning possum. Not exactly sophisticated.
“How do you like Fool’s Gold?” Charlie asked.
“It’s wonderful.” Felicia’s large green eyes sparkled with excitement. “I’ve never lived in a small town before. I’ve lived on a university campus, which has some similarities in size and sense of community but the demographics are totally different.”
Jo hurried by. “What’ll you have?” she asked, barely slowing.
“A margarita,” Felicia called after her.
Heidi turned to Felicia. “Your parents were professors?”
Felicia hesitated. She reached for a chip, then pulled back her hands and rested them on her lap. She seemed to be making a decision. “I was raised by several professors and scientists, but they weren’t my parents.”
Charlie leaned toward her. “What? Why is that?”
“I’m very intelligent. I was doing complex math equations when I was three, and by the time I was four I’d become more than my parents could handle. When a professor approached them about admitting me into a special program through the university, they agreed.” She gave a brief smile. “It was for the best. I would have been impossible in a regular school.”
Patience stared at her, trying to process the matter-of-factly delivered information. “You didn’t live with your parents?”
“No. They moved away and had other children. Oh, they also adopted several special-needs kids. That was easier for them to handle. I stayed at the university until I was sixteen. Then I joined the army.”
She shrugged. “I admit I forged my identification so that it said I was eighteen. I handled logistics and got moved to Special Forces, which is where I met Justice.”
She relaxed as she said his name. “He’s been my family all these years. When I was in my car accident, he was the one who took care of me.”
Patience felt as if her head was spinning and she was on her first margarita. “Car accident?”
“I was hit by a car. I had several broken bones, mostly in my face, but everything turned out great.” Felicia glanced around and lowered her voice. “I was really unattractive before the accident. But when my face got smashed up, the plastic surgeon who fixed it made a few tweaks. Actually we collaborated. I made a few sketches of how the bones could be adjusted and the muscles placed, and he agreed.”
Felicia reached for a chip. “Our standards of beauty can be reduced to a mathematical formula. It’s all about symmetry. When I saw what he’d done, I was thrilled. It’s really tough being the smartest person in the room, let me tell you. Add in some mismatched features and it’s nearly impossible to fit in.”
Heidi looked at Patience and raised her eyebrows. Patience knew what her friend was thinking. Felicia was a little bit strange but not unlikable.
“How smart?” Charlie asked.
Felicia sighed. “You don’t want to know. People get scared when I tell them.”
“How many degrees do you have?”
“Five. Oh, I assume you meant advanced. Like PhD level. If you want me to count up all of them—”
Charlie nearly choked on her beer. “Pretend I didn’t ask.”
Heidi smiled at Felicia. “Are you married?”
“No. I don’t date much. Men are afraid of me. Some of it is I’m not very good with the details of mating rituals. Growing up the way I did, I missed normal socialization. I’m trying to figure it out, but it’s not going well. Getting a guy to sleep with me the first time was so complicated.”
She paused. “I shouldn’t have said that, right? It’s too soon. I’m not used to having girlfriends, either. My assignments in the military put me around men, and with the traveling...” She pressed her lips together. “Not that I’m implying we’re friends. We’ve just met and—”
Patience had been prepared to really hate Felicia. She was too beautiful not to. But after five minutes, she realized that despite the incredible good looks and perfect body and apparently the genius mind, Felicia was just like anyone else. She wanted to fit in and wasn’t sure she would be accepted for who she was.
Patience leaned toward her. “Felicia, we’re friends. Now relax. We’re all crazy here. You get to be crazy, too.”
Felicia nodded. “Actually the health profession doesn’t use the word
crazy
as a definition for mental illness.” She paused. “That’s not what you meant, is it?”
“No.”
Felicia nodded. “Sometimes I have that problem. I know nearly everything you can learn in a book and very little that you learn in life. Like my fear of spiders. It’s silly, really. I’ve studied arachnids in an effort to get over my ridiculous overreaction, but still, every time I see one...” She shuddered. “It’s not pretty. I simply can’t control myself. A flaw—one of many.”
“If you’re not perfect, then you came to the right place,” Charlie told her. “Fool’s Gold is a lively town with plenty of characters. You’ll get a crash course in how the little people live.”
“I hope I can fit in.”
Patience saw the concern in Felicia’s eyes and touched her arm. “You’re going to do just fine.”
* * *
F
ORTY
-
EIGHT
hours and counting, Patience thought as she put mugs into the dishwasher.
Melissa Sutton walked into the back room with a tray in her hands. “This is the last of the dishes,” she said. “I wiped down the tables and the chairs.”
Patience took the tray and set it on the stainless-steel counter. “Thanks, Melissa. You’re great. I appreciate all you’re doing.”
The statement had the advantage of not only being true, but sounding so rational. It sure beat “I’m going to throw up from nerves” or “Never, ever open your own business.”
She’d reached the place of panic, which was a little scary. With two days left before the opening, where did that leave her to go? Extreme panic? Extreme, extreme, icky panic?
Either Patience was doing a good job of pretending to be normal or Melissa was really polite, because the eighteen-year-old only smiled.
“I’m happy to be working here,” she said. “It’s a cool job that’s going to be lots of fun.”
“Saving money for college?” Patience asked. Melissa was working through the summer.
“I am. I go in late August. UC San Diego. My mom is a little nervous about me going out on my own. I keep telling her I’ll be living in a dorm and not to worry, but you know how she gets.”
Patience wasn’t close friends with Liz Sutton-Hendrix, but they’d known each other most of their lives. Liz was a few years older. Technically Melissa and Melissa’s younger sister, Abby, were Liz’s nieces. A few years ago Liz had moved back to Fool’s Gold to raise them when their dad went to prison and their stepmom skipped out on them.
Complicating everything was Liz’s relationship with Ethan Hendrix and the fact that he had a son Liz had never told him about. They’d worked through their issues and were happily married. Patience understood Liz’s worry about her oldest going away to school. She didn’t think she would ever be emotionally prepared to let Lillie move out.
“You might want to go talk to Isabel at Paper Moon,” Patience told the teen. “She had an unexpected experience at UCLA. You need to avoid what she did.”
Melissa laughed. “It didn’t go well?”
“She had beautiful highlights and a fabulous surfer boyfriend, but didn’t do so well with the going-to-class part.”
“That’s never good.”
“It’s not.”
Melissa shook her head. “You don’t have to worry about me. I’m big on being responsible. I would never blow off class for a guy.”
“Good for you. Picked a major yet?”
“I’m looking at a couple of different options. What I do know is that I’m going to law school. I’m thinking Harvard.”
“Ambitious. You don’t want to be a writer like your mom?”
“I think I have just enough of her skill to write a good brief.” Melissa untied her apron. “I’ll be here at four opening morning.”