Chapter 3
TUESDAY
CHELSEY SCHOOLED HER features into nonchalance, but her stomach and brain didn’t get the memo. Her stomach twisted and her brain kept shouting: Taylor Compton’s here. He’s really here. In Juniper Valley.
And he looked good. He dressed as if coming from an executive meeting; his clothes and shoes probably cost more than her monthly mortgage. This was a different look from his high school standard of denim, graphic tees and skater shoes. He’d lost his baby fat around his face and his broad shoulders…
Chelsey tried to look away from him. Her face heated up when his mouth lifted on one side, revealing that blasted dimple. Oh man. What was she doing checking him out?
Stay focused.
She had three nights until the auction, and she didn’t need any distractions, no matter how handsome they were.
She cleared her throat and brushed imaginary lint off her shirt while she tried to shift through various ways to escape from Taylor as fast as humanly possible. Go back to the office on an imaginary errand? Go get breakfast? Break a leg?
No. She didn’t need to fake an escape. She wanted him out of here and away from her and her heart. She hadn’t thought she’d see him so soon after Dan’s warning and she wasn’t prepared for the way he made her heart thump against her rib cage.
“So, I assume you two know each other?” Wendy arched an eyebrow at Chelsey as if to say So, this is the guy who broke your heart? The guy you cried over for months and months while eating gallons of cookie dough ice cream?
Yes, this is the guy.
“Wendy Greenwood, meet Taylor Compton.”
Chelsey needed space to breathe, preferably away from Taylor’s too familiar smile, but she wasn’t the one that was leaving.
Chelsey planted her feet and put a hand on her hip.
She didn’t want anyone to think she was still hurt by him, but the way she lost the use of her words told her she had to stop lying to herself about missing Taylor.
He had dreams too big for this small town, and so she’d set him free—at least that’s what she’d told herself the first year after he left.
“Nice to meet you, Mrs. Greenwood.” Taylor’s voice sounded deeper and smoother, sending stupid goosebumps up Chelsey’s arms.
“Please, call me Wendy.” She shook hands with Taylor. “So, you’re not here to fill in as a bachelor?”
“I’m actually looking for Dan”
Reality check. Ouch. Chelsey shouldn’t be surprised Taylor wasn’t here for her. He hadn’t been around for her in the last seven years. But for him to say it out loud was harsh. His words helped her strengthen her resolve to put some distance between the two of them.
He must’ve read her face, because Taylor reached out to her, then dropped his hand. “I mean, I should talk to him about—”
“Ms. Hooper?” One of the paid interns, Janice Jones, waved from across the room. Thank heavens for a distraction. “Rich wanted me to let you know that his help had to leave early.”
His “help” meaning his teenage son, Garrett. He and his dad were working outside to get the finale for the auction ready. He’d been working on a way to make sparklers shoot off like they do for concerts, but on a much smaller scale.
“Tell him I’ll figure something out.” There were plenty of teenagers who needed a job right now.
The problem was, Chelsey had offered to pay Garrett in food.
Burgers and fries from Smokin’ BBQ. She twisted her watch around her wrist as she mentally listed all the teens who might be willing to work for fast food.
Janice, Heather’s younger sister, gave her a thumbs–up and darted off again. A tattoo of a strawberry on the back of her shoulder peeked out of her tank top. It seemed loving the Strawberry Festival ran in the Jones family, as well as high energy.
“What are we going to do, hon?” Wendy tried to blow a piece of corkscrew hair off her forehead, but it bounced back into place again. “We don’t have to do the sparklers. It’s something new we wanted to add this year, so no one will know.”
Wendy was right. No one would know how they’d planned to end the night’s festivities.
All Chelsey had wanted to do was add a touch of her own flair to her mom’s plans.
She always thought of this event as her mom’s, even more so now that she was gone.
What would her mom do in this moment? Would she push forward with the idea or let it go?
“Can I help?” Taylor asked, the deep timbre of his voice drawing Chelsey’s attention.
Chelsey didn’t have time for Taylor Andrew Compton or the memories that were trying to creep in at the sight of him.
He’d left her and the dreams they’d made together without a word.
He never said goodbye and he’d never reached out to her again.
Anger fueled with long buried pain added steel to her spine.
She took out her phone and texted Malcom.
He quickly texted back. “Dan’s in a meeting right now, but I can set up an appointment for later today.
” She turned the phone around so Taylor could see the screen.
“In the meantime, this is a closed area until the auction, so I’ll have to ask you to leave. ”
Taylor plastered on a smile and smoothed one of his eyebrows.
A telltale sign that he was nervous about something.
He’d done the same thing when he’d asked her out for the first time their freshman year, just before their first kiss at sixteen, and when he’d told her he’d been accepted to school in another state—after they’d agreed to go to the local community college together.
She didn’t know if he’d smoothed his eyebrows when he left the country seven years ago since he’d never talked to her about leaving.
Movement at the window caught Chelsy’s attention. Rich took off his gloves and wiped the sweat from his face on his sleeve. His work overalls were splattered with dirt and his boots were covered in mud. Why was he so muddy?
She walked outside. “What’s going on, Rich? What do mud and sparklers have to do with each other?”
Rich wiped his forehead, leaving a smear of dirt on his face. “When I was digging a spot for one of the platforms, I hit a waterline.” He shook his head. “Rookie move. I’ll need to go find parts to fix it. But it will take me most of the day to repair everything and finish the platforms.”
Chelsey’s heart sank. “Why don’t we forget the finale this year? We can come up with a better plan for next year.”
“Maybe I can help?”
Chelsey glanced at Taylor and his very nice and expensive clothes and shoes.
Taylor raised his chin in a challenge. “I can handle anything.” He rolled up his sleeves to reveal toned forearms. Was the rest of him—Nope. She didn’t have time to think about his strong legs—
“Are you sure?” Wendy said to Taylor as they followed Rich outside.
Taylor glanced at Chelsey and gave her a big, toothy smile. “I’m good.”
She glanced at his shoes. “Do you want to go home and change?”
“I’m good,” he repeated.
Chelsey wanted to walk away, no run, from him, but she would stand her ground and fight her battle with a happy face. She hoped he would give up within an hour and go home to nurse his blisters and ego. “Have you been home yet?”
“They aren’t expecting me until dinner time, so I have time.”
“I could really use the extra help.” Rich stuck out his big, dirty hand to Taylor. “Dadgum, Taylor Compton. How are ya?”
Taylor didn’t hesitate in giving Rich a big hug, even with the mud and grass. Rich left a muddy handprint on the back of Taylor’s shirt. “I’m your intern for the day. Where do you want me to start?”
“Interns work for free, right? Or would you take a raspberry cinnamon roll as payment?” Rich handed a pair of extra gloves from his tool kit to Taylor.
“You didn’t pay me much before when I helped you move pipes on your land.”
“I fed you every day, didn’t I?” Rich slipped his gloves back on and handed a shovel to Taylor. “You took me to the brink of bankruptcy with that appetite of yours.”
The muscles on Taylor’s back rippled as he threw a shovelful of dirt into a wheelbarrow. His shoulders strained against his shirt—
Taylor glanced up and caught Chelsey staring at him. He leaned on the shovel and grinned at her.
What was she doing?
Chelsey turned away and went back inside with Wendy. There was too much going on right now for her to be distracted. She rubbed the back of her neck. She should’ve sent Taylor away when she had the chance.
Taylor’s familiar laugh came through the open back door and Chelsey glanced over her shoulder.
Somehow, Taylor’s laugh sounded deeper, and it made Chelsey smile.
He and Rich were laughing as they dug in the mud.
What were they talking about? She took an involuntary step toward them just as Wendy came through the back door and blocked Chelsey’s view.
“They make a pretty good team. And Mr. Fancy Pants doesn’t seem to mind getting his expensive shoes dirty.”
Chelsey bit back a laugh. “Mr. Fancy Pants?”
“Yup.” Wendy tapped her chin with a manicured finger as she stared out the window. “You know, we are short one bachelor.”
“That won’t work.” No way was she going to be around Taylor for that many days.
“I think he’s only in town for a couple of nights.
” She had no idea how long he would be around, and she didn’t care, so long as this was the last time they met.
She had too many things to do leading up to the auction. She had to stay focused.
“That’s why you’re the boss.” Wendy handed Chelsey an invoice. “And you get to pay the bills too. This is for the strawberries and cream.”
“Sounds good.” Chelsey looked at her watch, grabbed the pen from her hair and signed the paper. She paused when she read how many gallons of cream they were paying for. But Annie was a professional and knew what she was doing. “Anything else?”
Wendy hesitated, as if she wanted to say something more, but her phone rang, and she turned away to answer it. Chelsey left the pen on the table where she’d find it later and turned in the opposite direction to give Wendy some privacy.