Chapter 6
6
“Nice rig.” Lettie smiled. “My husband would approve.”
“He likes GMCs?”
“He has a Chevy truck, so yeah.” Her smile grew wider. She got into the passenger seat of my truck, not needing any help. She’d explained that she drove in with her mother and her husband picked her up from work.
I closed the passenger door, then got into the driver’s seat and followed her directions to her house. I wished I could say that the streets seemed familiar, but they didn’t.
“Take a right at the next stop sign,” Lettie said. “Then we’re going to go five blocks.”
“Sounds easy enough.” I grimaced as I saw all the pink and white dogwood blossoms. My stomach started getting tight. Jesus, did every single house have to have a dogwood tree?
“You okay?” Lettie asked. Her voice was soft. Like she was talking to a girl. A child.
“Fine, ma’am.”
“Lettie,” she corrected me.
I nodded. I couldn’t get a word out, my teeth were clamped closed.
As we got closer and closer, I went slower and slower, until I was only going ten miles an hour as we passed the last stop sign.
“There it is, on the left. Do you recognize it?”
I looked out my window, and I shook my head, then nodded. There was the porch and the four steps. But there wasn’t dirt at the bottom. There was a walkway lined with purple flowers, but I lurched to a stop when I saw the red porch swing.
“Brady, are you all right?”
Again, she was talking to me like I was fragile. Same way they’d talked to me after I’d come out of my coma at Walter Reed. I was a Green Beret, I wasn’t fucking fragile.
“Brady?”
“My name is Kai. I’m fine, ma’am.” I stopped staring at the swing. “I mean, Lettie. I’m fine, Lettie.”
“This is your old house, isn’t it?”
I nodded. My jaw hurt. I opened my mouth, releasing my bite.
“Your brother is going to be mighty glad to see you,” she whispered.
Lettie was a nice enough lady, but I’d had enough. I looked at her and forced a smile. “Where can I drop you off?”
Again, she gave me that smile, as if she knew what I was feeling. She didn’t. She couldn’t.
She pointed to a house with a riot of roses and some other enormous flower on the corner. “I know the woman who’s renting the house. Would you like me to introduce you?”
I looked back over at the red porch swing. It was as I remembered it, only a lot smaller. Which made sense, since I’d been almost four years old when I’d been taken away by dear old dad.
“Kai?”
“What?” Oh yeah. Introduce . “Maybe later. I need to check out of the LeeHy Motel and check-in to the Whispering Pines Inn.”
“Oh, let me call on over to Gretchen. She’s managing things at Whisper these days. I’ll let her know you’re coming. Do you know where it is?”
“I’ll put the name into my phone and take it from there.” I knew I wasn’t paying attention and when I looked over at the woman, I saw that she could tell I wasn’t too. “Let me get you to your house.”
“All right. I don’t suppose I could invite you in for some homemade lemonade and apple brown betty?”
“I’m stuffed,” I said as I eased up to her house. Before I had a chance to turn off the engine, Lettie had her seatbelt off and the passenger door open. Then she stopped and looked at me. “You come back to the diner, you hear? It’ll make Little Grandma happy. Also, stop by my place anytime you want me to introduce you to Marlowe. I get off at three every day, and Marlowe doesn’t start work until the third week of August. She’s a teacher.”
“Who’s Marlowe again?”
“She’s the woman renting your old house. Plus, she’s the one who’s talked to your brother most recently. You’ll want to get to know her and pick her brain.”
I nodded.
She reached over and patted my shoulder. “You’re not alone. You have a whole town behind you.”
I nodded again. What in the hell else could I do? A whole town? Was she crazy?
She slipped out of my truck and walked around the front, then came around to my window. I rolled it down.
“I mean it, Kai. Ask for anything. We’ll be here for you.”
My throat was tight. All I could do was nod. She smiled and headed into her house.
Why hadn’t I talked to Lettie sooner? I’d just been walking Chaos around the neighborhood and exploring downtown for the last couple of weeks and I hadn’t even considered taking her to the woods.
Right now, my pup was in doggie heaven.
I looked in the rearview mirror.
“Aren’t you, girl? You’re loving life.”
She couldn’t hear me. She had her head out the window of the backseat of my 4Runner. I wished I had my head out the window. It was hot. And I mean hot . Lettie promised me that the forest trails up near the Whispering Pines Inn would be ten to fifteen degrees cooler, and I was counting on her being right. The last four days of one hundred-plus degree heat had me wilting. Yeah, there was air conditioning in the house. Beau hadn’t skimped on any upgrade, but I just preferred the fresh air. I was a freak like that.
Of course, right now I had the air conditioning blowing in my car. I’d take advantage of it while I could. I’d be hot enough when I started my run. I took a turn and I’ll be damned. Lettie was right, I was heading for a forest.
Duh, Marlowe. Hello, Smokey Mountains. Forests. Remember?
But still, I’d somehow thought they were farther away.
Now I was getting excited. If the trails were any good, today was going to be fantastic. I’d missed running.
I saw the sign for the Whispering Pines Inn, and I turned in. What a cute building . I loved the use of wood and glass for the fa?ade; it looked both modern and foresty.
I laughed at my made-up word. Even so, it totally looked like it fit for the area. I was bummed that the trees weren’t bumped up against it, but I knew that there needed to be a buffer zone between the forest and the dwelling in case of wildfires. Still, it would have looked pretty.
I pulled into the guest parking spot and got out of my 4Runner. As I started toward the front of the building, I could hear Chaos whining. I went back to my Jeep.
I was such a pushover. Seriously, I needed to grow a backbone.
I popped the lock and gave my baby a long rub. “I’ll be right back, then we’ll go for a run. I promise.” I pointed to my shorts and top. “Look, I’m dressed for running. Now no more whining, okay?”
She lay down on the back seat. “Good girl.”
I heard a chuckle behind me. It wasn’t the first time that somebody laughed at me talking to my girl. But it was the first time that a chuckle raced down my spine, swirled around until I felt it in my gut. I closed the backseat door and slowly turned around.
My eyes took in a tight white t-shirt that showed off a ripped abdomen and shoulders that I’d only seen in movies. Male legs encased in black bicycle shorts showed off thick, muscular thighs.
He chuckled again, and I realized I was staring.
Oh God . I’d never objectified a man like I had just now. I felt the heat climbing up my cheeks.
I looked up at his face and saw that he had a twinkle in his eye, and he was coming toward me.
His eyes.
His face.
“Beau? What are you doing here? I thought you were in Europe?”
He stopped in his tracks.
“Beau’s in Europe?”
“What are you talking about?” I shook my head. “I talked to you six weeks ago. You said you would never be coming back here. Why are you here?”
“You talked to Beau?”
I shook my head again.
“Beau, what are you talking about?”
He walked closer, and was soon a foot away from me. He’d looked good ten yards away, but three feet away from me, he was overwhelming.
“Beau’s my brother,” he said softly.
“Your brother?” My voice was just as quiet as his had been. “Why didn’t Beau tell me that he had a brother living here?”
He tilted his head and bit his lip and I thought I might melt into a puddle, and not because of the heat.
“Beau didn’t know I’d be here. Are you the woman renting Beau’s house?”
I nodded. It took more than a moment for me to find words. “What’s your name?”
“Kai Davies.”
“Hi.” I took a deep breath. Enough of the breathy shit. “I’m Marlowe Jones.” I thrust out my hand.
He took my hand, and I felt electricity spark. Honest-to-God electricity, like I had touched a live wire. I looked into his eyes and he looked as surprised as I was.
“Hello, Marlowe.”
He let go of my hand and I sighed. I would have been fine having him hold my hand all day.
“Why wouldn’t Beau have known you were here?”
“I grew up in Alaska. We didn’t know about each other.”
I tilted my head and frowned.
“It’s complicated.”
“Oh. I didn’t mean to pry. Really, I didn’t.”
This left side of his mouth kicked up a bit, the same as his brother’s. I remembered that was the best smile I ever got out of Beau, too. And I had worked hard to get him to smile.
“I didn’t think you were prying, Marlowe. But it would have been fine if you were. I’ve learned that in this town, butting into everyone else’s business is kind of the norm.”
I giggled. Shit, when was the last time I actually giggled?
“You’re right about that. I’ve only been living here for three weeks, and I swear that half the town knows my name and has read my resume.”
He frowned. “Read your resume?”
“I applied to be the new high school math teacher. The school board had to vote. Apparently, the vote was during a public meeting and they read my resume out loud. The way Lettie tells it, there were a lot of opinions.”
I watched as Beau’s brother almost smiled.
“There were? What was the consensus?”
“Well, I got the job, but a lot of people wanted to see a picture of me. They were worried that a pretty, single female might be too distracting for their boys.”
“They must not have had a picture handy, since you’re not pretty, you’re beautiful.”
I rolled my eyes. “Geesh, let’s not go overboard. And anyway, none of the boys in my classes ever found me to be a distraction in the past.”
“Sure, they haven’t,” he teased. “Instead, they’ve all been lining up for extra credit and extra tutoring.”
Damn . He was right. “Umm, I think I need to go in and check-in with Gretchen. Lettie told me that there were some great running trails around here that I could take my dog on.”
This time Beau actually did smile, and what a smile it was. He had laugh lines that fanned out at his eyes, and his teeth gleamed white like he was some kind of model.
“Enjoy your run.”
“What about you? It looks like you’re suited up for a run.”
“Cycling. My running days are over. These days I road ride, less impact. My bike’s over there.” He pointed to a bright green gravel bike leaning up against the stairs.
“Injury?”
He nodded.
“Damn, that’s a tough break. I’m sorry, but at least you can ride.”
“That’s how I see it.”
“Enjoy your day.”
He didn’t move, instead he continued to stare at me.
Please ask me out. Please ask me out.
“I don’t suppose you’d like to grab lunch sometime?”
I stopped myself from doing a fist pump.
“I would absolutely love to grab lunch sometime.” I grinned.
“I don’t have my phone with me.”
I turned around and opened the driver’s side door and fished my phone out of my purse. “Give me your number, and I’ll call it, then you’ll have mine.” He gave me his number and I dialed it.
“You free tomorrow?” he asked.
Oh boy was I.
“Yep,” I said calmly.
“Okay, then I can pick you up at your house at eleven-thirty, how does that sound?”
“You know where I live?”
“You’re renting Beau’s house, right?”
I frowned. “How do you know that?”
“Lettie told me.”
I shook my head and smiled. “It sure is a small town. Yeah, pick me up tomorrow.”
He held out his hand and I juggled my phone so I could shake his. It was the same as before, but this time I was ready for it. The jolt of electricity shot through my hand, up my arm, and I savored it.
What would happen if we kissed?