Chasing Temptation (20 page)

Her father looked like he’d stepped out of
Fortune 500
magazine or
G.Q.
from the way the sun glinted off his glossy ebony hair. His blue eyes sparkled. “What did you do to your hair?”

“Figured my mug would be splashed everywhere, so I might as well look decent.”

“The red gave you flair. Wasn't professional, but it somehow fit.”

“It was a phase.”

He nodded in understanding. “One of many you're bound to go through before you die. So where's this bastard that's trying to put you out of business?”

Movement at the end of the street caught her eye. Nate had turned the corner with Suzie proudly leading the way.

“Speaking of the devil.” She ignored the flutter at the sight of him.

Her heart had no business doing anything, so she concentrated on how her father would see him. Goodness. Even though she wanted to kick him in the shins to put a limp in his swagger, she still sighed to herself at how yummy he looked. The little dog should have been ridiculous, should have made him look less manly, but with the way he didn't care, it only added to his power.

She loathed him.

Lynne tapped her dad's shoulder and gestured to Nate. She saw when Nate connected the dots. His steps slowed, but they weren't hesitant. More like he was trying to buy himself some time.

When he stopped in front of them, he had on a game face. “Preston Kelley? I should have seen the resemblance.”

He father's keen blue eyes took in Nate, flashed to Lynne and back. “I'm sure Lynne told you she would crush you like a bug.”

Nate smiled. “On several occasions. Never believed her.” He placed one hand in his pocket. “So today is my downfall?”

“Yes,” she said simply, but still couldn't keep the guilt from creeping in.

He nodded. “It was nice to meet you, Mr. Kelley.” His gaze settled back on her, lingered in a way that made her heart trip over itself. “I've set up the women’s section in my store. So, may the best business win.” He nodded and waited for a reply.

“Sure.”

Lynne should have said something else to patch up the crack in her bravado, but something was off with Nate, and she couldn't put her finger on it.

The more shocking, she couldn't read him. Where was the anger, the outrage, that she had given him the final blow? The arrogance even this wouldn't change anything? She should have heard that emotion leaking into his every word. She'd one-upped him and brought out heavy artillery.

He didn't even show resignation for loss of the business deal he'd needed for closure on his father's death. He didn't even scoff at her attempt, call it petty and useless. He only said, “Good luck. Let the best business win.” And walked away.

Nothing.

Her father cleared his throat. “Is there something you need to tell me, Lynne?”

She could tell her mother, maybe, that she’d had the best sex of her life with the man who just walked away, but not her father, especially about the part of loathing Nate so much it hurt.

“Absolutely nothing,” she said. “When do the media people get here? Will we have time to go home for something to eat?”

“I'm not stupid. I saw—”

Nope.
Nope
. “You're quite astute, which is why you will let the subject drop and go see Mom. I can charm with the best of them, and I will today. My store will be popular for the next week, so much so Nate won't be able to come up with a decent number to sway me to sell.”

And he'll lose any chance for closure.

“You keep telling me to go see your mother,” he said. “What's going on?”

Lynne shook her head. “Buy some roses. That's all I'm saying.”

He nodded but placed his hands on the sides of her face. “Are you ready? It's going to be a very long day.”

No. She wasn't. She couldn't tell her father how this one act was slowly killing her, but she couldn't lose something else to Nate. She had already lost her... He couldn't have her store, too.

She forced herself to smile. “I'm ready.”

Hours later, Lynne would have paid someone to cut off her feet with dull scissors. It would've hurt less. She pried off her shoes with a whimper in the foyer of her home and let them drop unceremoniously to the floor.

The clack of shoes was the only sound in her house. No smell of food being cooked in the kitchen. Lynne went there anyway and found a note on a plate covered with plastic wrap.

Dear Lynne Marie,

Your father greeted me with several dozen roses. Since they were exquisite, I won't be too mad about the hint you must have given him. The details of our reconciliation would only put you into a coma from shock, so I will leave them out of this note.

All is well.

Love, Mother

p.s. Your father expects an update/report within a week.

Lynne folded the paper and placed it in her pocket. The marriage crisis had been averted. It would have been avoided if her mother had told Dad a week ago, but all was well. Lynne shuddered at the implied make-up sex. She considered sitting down, but she might fall asleep in the chair.

Lynne took the plate to her room, sprawled on the bed and ate dinner that way. It seemed all the pieces of her life that had been tossed up in the air were settling back down.

Alone, she allowed herself to not loathe Nate. Not tonight. Not when in the next week she would still have Hart and Style. The store was the home she'd made and had fought to keep. It would be her Tara.

Her mother's delicious lamb tasted bitter. Like Scarlett, Lynne would have to watch the man she loved leave.

Nate's mind went on autopilot as he entered his hometown’s city limits. Seeing the same city that had raised him, taken his father, and kept his mother prisoner left him feeling bittersweet.

New buildings had cropped up, and the streets were slightly cleaner, but poverty still clung to California Avenue. The property value remained cheap because a new and budding family wouldn't step foot on this side of town. The same families that had bought the houses brand new forty years ago, still lived there. His mother included.

The street was quiet for a Sunday afternoon. Either people were at church or on their way home from it. He’d opted for a low-key rental car; otherwise he'd have to visit each person on this block to hear, “I've known you since you were knee high to a grasshopper.” He wasn't in the mood, but he had made a promise. One that was eating at Nate's gut because he wasn't bringing the good news he’d hoped for.

He parked in the driveway next to his mother's car, silently building up a resolve. Nate stepped out of the vehicle, walked up to the door, and rang the bell. A smile finally tugged at his lips when he heard her whoop from behind the oak wood. The door swung open and his mother threw herself into his arms.

“If I would have known you would be here today I would have cooked dinner myself.”

He frowned. “You don't have to do that any more, Mom.”

“I would have wanted to.” She waved her hand in the air. “Still haven't learned a thing about living. Breathing is more than surviving. If you can't do the things you want to do when you don't have to do anything, well, you might as well stop breathing.”

She hugged him again, almost brushing away the condemnation.

“Come in. Sit down.” Like a buzz of energy, she fluffed pillows on the couch until he settled back. “I'm going to have to call my friends. They won't believe who I have in my living room right now. You know what they've been saying to me?” She placed her hands on her hips. “They said the next step would be a nursing home. 'He's already got you primed and ready. You don't cook; you don't clean. Next he's going to have someone brushing your teeth for you'.”

Nate snorted. “I've been trying to convince you to move out of this neighborhood for the last six years and look where that's gotten me? A nursing home would probably get me beat up.”

She laughed and went into the kitchen. “It depends on how bad off I was. In the condition I'm in now, yes, I would borrow someone's cane and beat you with it.”

His smile faded. “Mom, I've got some bad news. Some news in general.”

“Go ahead.”

She was still in the kitchen. Nate liked it better this way. He wouldn't have to see her face when he told her.

“Um, the good news first. I've got a buyer for my chain of stores. In the next month or so all the details will be ironed out.”

“So you'll be richer than Midas. Good for you. Orange juice or soda?”

“Soda.” He cleared his throat. “The bad news is that I've been in Valley City. I tried to purchase the store dad tried to buy.” A smile tugged at his lips when he thought of Lynne. “The owner pretty much convinced me it was foolhardy, but I wanted to do it for you.”

His mother suddenly popped out of the kitchen. “Did I ask you to do it for me?”

“No.”

“So I don't feel disappointed one bit.”

She disappeared again. He rubbed his forehead trying to wrap his mind around what she had just said.

Slowly, he asked, “You don't care?”

He heard her sigh, but his mother came out of the kitchen with a glass full of clear soda. He took the glass, meeting her gaze.

“You have to start asking before you do things for me,” she said. “What you think I want and what I want are two different things. I don't need a store to bring back the memory of your father. Nor should you.” She placed a hand over his heart. “You've spoiled me rotten. Senior would have gotten a kick out of it. The reason your father wanted the store was to raise you in a better place. He didn't want you to get lost to these streets.”

She cupped his cheek with her hand. “You didn't. At least not in the way Senior had in mind. The man I see sitting here today is lost in a different way. You've got to start living for you. Don't let Senior's death be in vain.”

He took a sip of the soda before speaking, his hand tight around the glass. “I'm not too lost. I gave up the store for someone else. To make her happy. But I felt like I was betraying Senior's memory.”

She sighed heavily. “You could have told me before I started that speech.”

Laughing, he pulled her hand so she was sitting next to him. “Want to know more about her?”

She leaned back on the couch cushions. “Start from the day you met her.”

Nate did and couldn't keep the smile off his face.

*****

Lynne stood up to the crush of new customers for a week before hiring more people. Annabel's twin girls were easy to convince once she told them they would get employee discounts. Jeremy was fine as long as they still closed by eight so he could take Sylvia up on whatever offer she'd promised in the morning.

But Lynne had inflicted enough people with her sour mood. Today was a stay-at-home, mope-and-get-over-it day. She planned to play
Forrest Gump
until she didn't even get misty eyed when Gump talked to Jenny's grave. She'd weep and carry on until the Nate-sized ache went away. It had to.

Someone knocked at the door. She didn't bother to grab a bathrobe to hide the fact she was still in her pajamas and didn't care to cover up the fact. It bordered on noon, and no telling what the people of this town would say. Good God, what they would do if they knew she had the mopes.

Lynne opened the door and her mouth dropped, and then she screamed, “Finally! Thought I was going to have to put out smoke signals.”

Her friend hugged her until Lynne cried uncle. Megan stepped back. A frown accentuated the heart-shaped face. She’d let the bangs grow out and her hair swooped to the side. Nothing and everything had changed. Her friend, simply, looked happy.

“Aiden was right to be worried about you,” Megan said. “He heard the messages and said it was more than your usual dramatic self. So I came right away.” She leaned down and picked up two large grocery bags. “I can see you have what I'm going to guess is your natural hair color again. What is wrong? Start from the top without missing a detail.”

“What's in the grocery bags?” Lynne trailed behind her to the kitchen.

“Makings for margaritas. Both to loosen your lips and to celebrate the incredible job you've done with the store. I knew I left it in the right hands.”

“I would've hounded you until you did.”

Megan dumped ice into the blender. “I know.”

Lynne took a moment to look Megan over while pouring the ingredients into the blender. She looked the same except her hair was longer and underneath there was a certain peace to Megan.

Lynne said, “I just realized how much I can't stand you now that you're married, got another store going and doing great. Without me.”

“Let's not forget it was your fault.” Megan handed her a glass, ice chips foaming at the top. “I figure it's my turn to make it my fault. It should be fun, but you've got to tell me what I'm up against.”

Since she’d had her week of vacillating between loathing and loving him, she was now mourning the loss of Nate. “Nothing to intervene on. I'm not the one being pigheaded.”

Megan snorted and poured a glass for herself. “I should warn you, I got the scoop from Jeremy. Hence the margaritas. Then of course everyone in town had to tell me of the showdown that basically made the store yours.”

“Technically, it was a media blitz. Beside the point, what am I supposed to tell you?”

“Tell me your side, and I mean everything the busybodies didn't witness.”

“That'll take about two minutes.”

Megan was silent while Lynne told her everything. When Lynne got to the last time she'd seen Nate, Megan threw her head back and laughed so hard she had to hold her sides.

“I'm hurting here, and you're laughing,” Lynne said.

Megan straightened, but couldn’t stop the laughter for another moment or two. “I'm laughing because you finally found someone just as stubborn as you. Someone who can read people and overall run another person's life if you let him. I couldn't have picked a better man for you myself. And you must be deep in love if you can't see the obvious.”

“I don't like this intervention.” Lynne pouted.

“I didn't either, but I needed to hear it. You need a new perspective.”