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“Okay.” Bryan drummed his fingers on the arm of the couch.
“Lots of folks show up?”
“Only one.”
Dad raised his eyebrows. “One, huh?”
“Yeah, and she probably won’t be back. I’m typing up fliers later. I’ll get more people next week.”
“This class is important to you, isn’t it?”
A twinge of guilt poked at his conscience. Bryan had always been close to his father. Dad had done a good job raising the five of them after Mom died. But Dale Sheffield could not keep a secret, and the last thing Bryan wanted was town gossips whispering about his plans. They’d chattered for months about Abby’s indiscretions and the subsequent divorce. He’d just as soon drive pine needles under his fingernails than have the citizens of Lake Endwell discussing his life ever again.
Sam appeared from the hallway leading to the bedrooms. He yawned, shoving his hand through rumpled hair. “Hey, Dad. Bryan.”
“You look like you need a pot of coffee,” Dad said. “Or are you sick?”
“Long night. I’m hiring an assistant manager. The new dealership took off better than I expected.” Sam plopped onto the couch next to Bryan. His black basketball shorts and faded green tee made him look more like a college student than the CEO of Sheffield Auto. Sam had opened his own dealership after Christmas, which brought the total to five across three counties. Bryan managed two and Tommy the other two. “How did your class go?”
“Only one girl showed up,” Dad said. “She might not be back.”
Sam snorted, grinning. “Way to go, Bry. You scared her off, didn’t you?”
Bryan squirmed. He hadn’t scared her off. Not in the way Sam implied.
But you lied to her.
“Don’t say that.” Dad frowned. “Bryan knows the woods better than anyone, except maybe your granddad, may he rest in peace.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Sam reached for the remote and cocked an eyebrow at Bryan. “I still don’t know why you put the course together. This whole thing is pretty random, if you ask me.”
Bryan didn’t answer. His little brother noticed too much.
“Bryan is sharing his knowledge,” Dad said. “My father would want him to. I don’t remember you ever wanting to get your feet muddy in the woods. Maybe you should take the class.”
What a horrible idea. Bryan glowered at the bottle of iced tea in his hand. He didn’t need Sam making wisecracks while he tried to teach. It was difficult enough getting the students there. He didn’t want to fight for their respect, too.
“I’m more brains than brawn.” Sam tapped his temple.
Bryan sniffed. “More mouth than anything.”
“Hey, my conversation skills made up for your silence. You barely said a word to Lily and Kayla last weekend.”
Dad cocked his head to the side. “Who are Lily and Kayla?”
Sam stretched his arms over his head and yawned again. “Paulette insisted we meet her cousin’s daughter and friend.”
“Roxanne and Paulette are as bad as Aunt Sally.” Bryan screwed the cap back on the iced tea and set the bottle on the end table.
“Worse,” Sam said. “Kayla and Lily were nice and all, but I don’t need to be set up, especially not by middle-aged meddlers at work. I can find a date on my own.” He jerked his thumb at Bryan. “Now, this one needs all the help he can get.”
“Leave me out of it.” Bryan lurched to his feet. “I don’t want help.”
“Sure you don’t. You’re a real dating machine.”
“That’s it.” Dad rose, holding his hands out. “I’m tired of you two arguing. I’ve been saying it for months—this living arrangement isn’t working out. Maybe it’s time for one of you to move.”
“No...” Bryan shut his mouth. He’d almost blurted Sam would have the place to himself if Bryan moved to Canada this summer. If he didn’t keep a tighter lid on his plans, the whole family would be lining up to talk him out of them. He already dreaded their inevitable rant about his commitment to Sheffield Auto if he got the job. “We’re fine, Dad. Just messing with each other.”
“Don’t take things too far.” Dad gave them both a long look before asking Sam who he had in mind for the assistant manager position. Bryan let out a breath.
One problem averted. What about the other?
In this tiny town, Jade would find out soon enough he wasn’t married. He should have told her the truth right away. He didn’t want her first impression of him to be a lie. It took a lot of courage for her to come today.
It wouldn’t be hard to find her. He’d call Aunt Sally.
He owed Jade the truth.
* * *
This place was quiet. Too quiet. Dusk had fallen, which meant Jade would be exposed to outside eyes as soon as she turned the lights on.
Buy curtains.
Another thing to add to her list. Not tonight, though.
Jade sank low into her navy couch. People said small towns were so cozy and great to live in, but this silence felt eerie. Where were the traffic sounds, planes flying overhead and sirens? Without having her cable hooked up, she couldn’t turn on her television for companion noise. What she did hear unnerved her. The wind made a rippling whoosh through the siding every now and then, and the relentless drip, drip of the bathroom sink matched the pulse pounding in her temples.
Would she ever be comfortable enough to call this town home?
She yawned, not bothering to cover her mouth. At least she’d made a dent in the unpacking. After her embarrassing hyperventilation session with Bryan, she’d driven back to the one-bedroom apartment above her soon-to-be store. A set of stairs outside led to the tiny kitchen with cabinets painted gray. Newer dark laminate countertops were speckled with silver flecks. In the front of the apartment was a decent-size living room complete with beige walls and tan carpet. A short hall revealed a bathroom and her bedroom—beige, of course.
She loved every square inch of it.
A knocking sound came from the kitchen. Jade shot to her feet, grabbed the empty bronze candleholder from the end table and crept through the piles of boxes in the kitchen. Another knock sounded.
Just the door. She exhaled, setting the candleholder on the counter, and opened the door a sliver.
“Hi.” Bryan loomed in the doorway. He appeared taller and his shoulders broader than when they were outside earlier. “Sorry to bother you, but I, well, I need to talk to you about something.”
Her heartbeat galloped, partly because he was even more handsome than she remembered, and also because he’d tracked her down like some sort of stalker. Had he followed her here? She remained behind the door, using it as a shield. “How did you know where I lived?”
“My aunt Sally. Sorry, I’m not a creeper. I didn’t follow you or anything. It’s just, well, nothing is a secret in this town. Aunt Sally is friends with Jules Reichert.”
“My landlord.”
“Yep.”
What did he want to talk to her about? He probably felt sorry for her. Or was asking her not to come to class because she needed professional guidance. So help her, if he handed her the card of a therapist to work through her fears, she’d rip it up in front of him. She’d tried counseling. It hadn’t worked. She would only try it again if truly desperate.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt you, but I need to clear something up. You could call it a confession.” Bryan shifted from one foot to the other.
A confession? Her spirits perked right up. Confessions didn’t involve condescending advice about her problem.
“Yeah, so earlier, I made it sound as if I’m married, but I got divorced almost five years ago.”
“Oh.” Divorced. There went his unavailable status, which was too bad, because him being single complicated things. The fact he’d found her to clear up a tiny misunderstanding said a lot about his character, though.
“Um, I—” he massaged the back of his neck “—well, it was wrong of me to mislead you.”
She prepared to give him her thanks-for-stopping-by speech, but he looked so contrite and uncomfortable on her doorstep. Sympathy overrode her good judgment.
“It’s not a big deal.” She leaned against the doorframe. She’d play it cool. Pretend she wasn’t attracted to him in the slightest. “I just want to be able to live here and drive to Target or a shopping mall, and, you know, go to one of the parks without hyperventilating.”
His lips lifted into a lopsided grin. “I could help with that.”
“I don’t know if anyone can help. I’m not exactly the ideal student.”
“Yeah, but you’re my only student. I can’t afford to be picky.” His blue eyes teased, and her tummy flipped.
“That’s true.” She nodded in mock sincerity. Why couldn’t she say goodbye and close the door? Flirting with him would get her heart in trouble the way flirting always did. When would she learn? Still, she didn’t know anyone here, and loneliness weighed heavily on her shoulders.
“Have you eaten yet?” he asked. “There’s a pizza place around the corner.”
Her stomach rumbled. Empty, silent apartment? Or pizza with all-wrong-for-her Bryan Sheffield? Before she could talk herself out of it, she nodded. “Let me grab my purse, and I’ll meet you outside.”
Less than a minute later, she joined him on the sidewalk in front of her building. No light poured from the large front window, making the store appear abandoned. The chilly air slipped under her collar. She zipped her jacket to her neck.
“This way,” Bryan said.
Jade fell in beside him. The sun had gone to sleep, and the stars blinked on one by one in the clear, ink-black sky. “I can’t remember the last time I stepped out at night and saw such bright stars.”
“Really?” He kept his hands in his pockets.
“Yeah, I grew up in a seventies ranch house in Winchester, a suburb of Las Vegas not too far from downtown. City lights hazed the sky.” A far cry from her current rural address.
“I’ve never spent much time in the city.”
“No? The air smells different here.” Jade tried to pinpoint the source. If she had to label it, she’d call it fresh.
“What does it smell like in Vegas?” His unhurried strides made it easy for her to keep pace with him.
“It depends. If you’re on the sidewalks of the Strip, you’ll smell gasoline fumes, exhaust from the line of taxis and cigarette smoke. Basically, you’ll smell cigarettes everywhere outside in Las Vegas.”
“Can’t say I’m a fan of those.”
“Me, neither. I worked for an advertising company geared to the hotels. I loathed crossing through the lobbies when I had to go on-site and not just because they reeked of cologne. The colors, noises and smells were an assault on the senses.”
“Advertising, huh?”
“Yep.” She rubbed her cold hands together. “The competitive job atmosphere wasn’t my thing. Too cutthroat.” She’d never had the heart to play politics the way her coworkers had. If they wanted an account, they did whatever it took to land it, even if it meant taking credit for someone else’s work or schmoozing people they didn’t care for.
“Did you like living in Vegas?”
Mimi’s smiling face came to mind. So many good memories. “Yes. It was home. Living in Michigan is going to be an adjustment.” She burrowed deeper into her jacket. “The main reason I loved it there was because of my grandmother. I lived with her most of my life. Poppi worked at Nellis Air Force Base, and after he died, Mimi didn’t want to move.”
“So you lived with your grandmother until now?” He didn’t sound judgmental, merely curious.
“Well, there were a few months on my own in New York City, but Mimi got stomach cancer, and I moved back in with her.”
“To take care of her.”
“Yeah. She raised me.” Those terrible final weeks with Mimi had been excruciating, yet in many ways, joyful, too. Hospice had helped Mimi die peacefully. Jade had no doubt she and Mimi would be having cozy conversations in heaven for eternity. “I hope you don’t think I did it out of duty. I loved her.”
“She passed, then?” When they reached Main Street, he turned left.
“Two months ago.”
Jade paused as Bryan opened the wooden door of a brick storefront. Light spilled onto the sidewalk from the huge window. Lake Endwell Pizza was etched in bold black letters with a traditional font. Not flashy, but good, smart branding. A little round table for two had been centered under the window, and a young couple simultaneously reached for slices, then laughed as cheese stretched from their pizza back to the metal pan.
“You coming?” He swept his hand for her to enter. She savored the aroma of oregano and garlic and enjoyed the warmth of the room. He led her to a rectangular table for four next to an exposed brick wall. Teenagers clad in black tees, jeans and white aprons joked behind the counter. Most of the tables, all wooden, were occupied. No one looked out of place here. Jeans, sweaters and hoodies ruled.
Bryan scrutinized a menu as if it held the secret to world peace. She didn’t bother picking one up. Three women in their fifties laughed at something, and Jade smiled. Their happiness was contagious.
“What toppings do you like?” He peered over the menu.
“Anything but onions. Oh, and no anchovies.”
His lips curved up, and her breath caught in her throat. What a smile. Maybe she would have been better off staying home in her empty apartment. She had a bad habit of falling for a killer smile, then being left to pick up the pieces when its owner vanished.
A scrawny teen with a pen in one hand and a slim pad of paper in the other appeared next to their table. “What can I get you?”
They ordered drinks and the Deluxe minus onions, and the kid disappeared.
She tilted her head to the side. “So is this the best pizza place in town or the only one?”
“The best.”
“Hey, Bryan.” A tall, dark-haired man waved and approached their table. Following him was a stunning young woman with long blond hair, dark skinny jeans and a baby-blue sweater that perfectly matched her cornflower eyes. They made a striking couple. The blondie kept tugging on the man’s arm, shaking her head and whispering something.
The muscle in Bryan’s cheek flickered. “Libby. Jake.”
Jade’s brain went into overdrive. Who was this mystery couple whom Bryan clearly didn’t want to see?
“Jade—” his eyes were all apology “—this is my little sister, Libby, and her husband, Jake.”
“Hi, nice to meet you.” Jade shifted and smiled.
