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“Sorry I woke you,” he said.
Self-conscious, she swung her feet to the floor and pushed herself upright, trying to smooth her tousled hair. It bothered her to think he’d walked right past her as she’d slept, leaving her feeling uncomfortably vulnerable. That was a little hard to deal with this morning.
Light filtered in through the windows. She could hear rain still falling on the roof, though the height of the storm had passed. She saw no lights burning inside, so she assumed the power was still out. “What time is it?”
“A little after eight.”
Later than she usually slept, but she hardly felt well-rested. “What’s it like out there?”
His response was blunt. “A mess. Lots of limbs on the ground. There’s a big tree over the road a few yards from the house, totally blocking the drive, and I’m sure there’s flooding beyond that. You’re lucky you got here when you did last night. You won’t be leaving for a while yet. No way to get down the hill in your car.”
Not promising. She moistened her dry lips before asking, “Is my car damaged?”
“A few hail dings. You were fortunate. A good-size limb fell only a couple feet away from your hood.”
While she was relieved her car hadn’t sustained damage, she wasn’t sure fortunate was the right word to describe her current situation. “How long do you think it will take for them to clear the tree from the road?”
“Them?”
“The county? Highway department? Whoever does that sort of thing.”
“Highway department doesn’t take care of rural gravel roads. And the tree’s on private property, so the county isn’t going to deal with it. I’m sure they have their hands full elsewhere. From what I saw on my phone news feed, there was quite a bit of damage around this part of the state last night.”
“Oh.” She swallowed, feeling suddenly a bit panicky at the thought of being trapped here with Gavin for much longer. It wasn’t that she feared for her safety—but she couldn’t say the same for her peace of mind. “So, what are we going to do?”
“I’ve got a chain saw in the back of my truck. I was planning to do some light trimming and clearing this weekend, anyway, assuming my shoulder cooperated. I’ll tackle the tree when the rain stops, but it’s going to take a while with only the one sixteen-inch saw. As for the flooding, you’ll just have to wait for that to recede. There’s too much water over the road for you to risk driving through it, even if you could figure out a way to get around the tree. You’d be swept into the river before you made it across.”
Unsurprised that he hadn’t planned to let his injury stop him from the work he’d wanted to do, she twisted her fingers in front of her. “How long do you think it will take for the flooding to recede?”
He glanced upward, silently indicating the still-falling rain. “This county remains under a flash flood alert. It’s going to take a few hours for all the water to drain off once the rain stops.”
“Have you heard from home? Was there storm damage in the Little Rock area?”
He shook his head. “The worst of the storms were confined to this part of the state.”
She was relieved that her family and her business had escaped the brunt of the storms she’d so foolishly driven into, but she wasn’t looking forward to spending several hours alone here with Gavin and their shared memories. “Surely I can get out somehow. Is there a back road, maybe?”
“Look, Jenny, I’m no more pleased about this than you are, but you might as well face facts. You’d be risking your life to try to make it down that hill now.”
She sighed and pushed her hair out of her face, silently conceding his point. At least he wasn’t pretending to be delighted to have her here. If there was one thing she remembered about Gavin Locke, it was that he had always been bluntly, sometimes painfully, honest.
“You had planned to stay for three nights, anyway,” he reminded her. “It’s not as if you have anyplace else you need to be today.”
“True. But I had expected to be here alone.”
“I’ll try to stay out of your way.”
“That’s not what I meant. I’m the one who’s intruding.”
He made a dismissive gesture, though he didn’t assure her that it was no bother to have her here. They both knew better.
“At least let me cook breakfast,” she said, deciding to attempt to act as dispassionate as he was about the situation. “I brought a few nonperishable groceries with me. The bags are out in my car. I was going to try to find a market for some fresh food if I decided to stay the full three days, but I...”
“I have food,” he broke in curtly. “The kitchen’s stocked. Help yourself to anything you find in the cabinets or pantry. I doubt there’s anything salvageable in the fridge. I’m not hungry, but I’d take coffee if you want to make it while I wash up. There’s a French press in the cabinet by the stove.”
“Are you still running a fever?” She resisted an impulse to step forward and touch his face. He hadn’t seemed to like that last night. It was probably best to keep the touching to a minimum, anyway, while they were stranded here together.
“I’m fine.”
She wasn’t sure she believed him entirely, but figured it would be a waste of time to argue. Or even to point out that a man with an injured shoulder probably shouldn’t be out in the rain clearing storm debris.
He disappeared into his bedroom. After folding away the sleeper sofa and neatly stacking the sheets and pillows, Jenny rummaged in the kitchen. She filled the kettle with water and when it boiled she made the coffee, then two bowls of instant oatmeal she found in the pantry. A few bananas were turning brown on the counter, so she sliced a couple on top of the oatmeal and set the steaming bowls and mugs on the table. She’d just taken her seat when Gavin joined her again. He hadn’t changed, but he’d tried to clean the mud splatters on his clothes, leaving damp, streaked spots behind. She had to glance quickly down at her oatmeal to hide any hint of the feminine appreciation that flooded unbidden through her again. She was really going to have to put a stop to this, she thought irritably.
“I said I’m not hungry.” He dropped into his chair and studied the oatmeal with a scowl, proving himself to be just as grouchy as she was feeling. Was it possible he was dealing with some of the same unwelcome emotions she was trying to suppress?
She shrugged and answered with outward nonchalance. “Don’t eat it, if you don’t want it. I’ll have yours for seconds. But it’s there if you think you need to fuel up before doing any work outside today.”
After a moment, he heaved a gusty sigh and picked up his spoon. “Fine.”
She smothered a smile by stuffing a spoonful of oatmeal and bananas into her mouth. After washing it down with a sip of the passable coffee, she tried to ease the tension between them with small talk. “When did you buy the cabin?”
“My dad bought it nearly seven years ago. When he died five years later, I ended up with it.”
She replied with genuine sympathy. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know about your dad. He was a good man.”
Gavin nodded. “He was.”
“How’s your mother?”
“She’s well, thanks. Yours?”
“Still working as a nurse in a hospital in Little Rock.” Her mother had liked Gavin, and had been openly disappointed when Jenny broke up with him.
“And your grandmother? Still living?”
Her grandmother, on the other hand, had not approved of Gavin, and the antipathy had been reciprocal. Jenny could still hear the faint edge of resentment in his voice, though the question had been civil enough. She focused on her breakfast when she said, “Still feisty as ever.”
He responded to that understatement with a grunt.
Maybe that subject was a bit too touchy still. She changed it quickly. “How’s Holly?”
“Married to an air force pilot. They’ve got two boys, Noah and Henry, six and four. They’re living in Illinois at the moment. Scott Air Force Base.”
An only child herself, Jenny had always been somewhat envious of the warm relationship Gavin had with his older sister. They’d gotten along amazingly well for siblings. During the time Jenny had spent with them, there had always been friends of Gavin’s and Holly’s around, usually engaged in good-natured but fierce competitions—basketball or softball or flag football, or spirited board games indoors. The memory of all that fun and laughter made her throat tighten as she studied the unsmiling, hard-looking man across the table. It had taken a lot worse than a college breakup to leave those dark shadows within his navy eyes.
“How do you like being an uncle?”
She was pleased to see a shadow of his old grin flit across his firm lips. “The boys tend to think of me as an automatic treat dispenser. Tug at my jeans and candy magically emerges from my pocket. Holly says it’s a good thing I don’t see them often or she’d have to put a stop to it. As it is, she turns a blind eye. She knows I won’t overdo it. And I always get them to work up a sweat to burn off the extra sugar.”
An image of him roughhousing with two cute little boys distracted her for several moments. As prickly as he could sometimes be with adults, Gavin had always liked kids, and the feeling had been mutual. She would bet he was the kind of uncle who would roll in the dirt with his nephews, let them climb all over him, sticky fingers and all.
Thad would be more likely to teach his nephews, if he had any, to play chess. Which would also be quite cute, she assured herself quickly, feeling a vague, totally unjustified ripple of guilt course through her, as if she’d been disloyal.
Gavin changed the subject. “What are you doing these days?”
“I own a fashion and accessories boutique in Little Rock.”
“What’s it called?”
“Complements.”
He nodded. “I’ve heard of the place. Someone I dated briefly shopped there a lot.”
“That’s good to hear. That she liked my store, I mean.”
He chuckled drily. “She complained about the high prices, but she still shopped there enough to max out her credit cards.”
“We carry high-end merchandise,” Jenny replied without apology. “Designer items that can’t be found in the local department stores.”
“Yes, well, it’s been a year or so since I’ve seen her, but I’m sure she’s still a loyal customer.”
Judging from his dispassionate tone, she doubted he’d been particularly invested in the relationship. If the woman was a regular patron at Complements, it was entirely possible Jenny knew her, but she had no intention of asking him. It was none of her business who Gavin had dated since she’d last seen him. Nor if he was dating anyone seriously now. Just as she saw no reason to discuss Thad with him.
He pushed away his empty bowl and picked up his coffee cup. “So you accomplished your lifelong goal. You own your own successful business. I assume you obtained an MBA, as well? That was always the plan, wasn’t it?”
She felt her chin rise in instinctive irritation, and she lowered it deliberately, keeping her expression composed. “Yes. I’m planning to open a second store in the next few months. I love my work.”
Which was absolutely true—and another reason she was having trouble deciding whether to accept Thad’s proposal, she thought somberly. Marrying Thad would change her life significantly. Though he’d always expressed his respect and admiration for her business achievements, he’d been quite candid about what he was looking for in a life partner. Supporting his political aspirations was high on his list of attributes in a mate. To keep up with the demands of that undertaking, she’d either have to sell her business eventually or at the very least turn over most of the daily operations to employees. After spending so much time tenaciously building her clientele and reputation, it was hard to contemplate putting Complements in the hands of anyone else.
None of which she was going to discuss with Gavin, of course. She sipped her rapidly cooling coffee, then set the cup on the table. “So, you did what you wanted, as well. You became a police officer.”
She hadn’t forgotten that he’d once wanted that career more than he’d wanted her. She wouldn’t lie to herself that there wasn’t still a little sting to the memories, but she hoped she’d hidden any remaining bitterness.
He nodded. “Went back and earned a degree in criminal justice, too. I took night classes and online courses when I was off-duty. Made my dad somewhat happier, anyway.”
Both Gavin’s parents had been educators. Neither had been pleased when he’d decided at an early age that he wanted to be a police officer. Their objection hadn’t been the social status or modest pay scale of police—which had been the bluntly stated basis of her grandmother’s disdain for the job—but rather the danger and unsavory situations in which their son would spend many of his working hours. They’d made no secret that they’d hoped he would change his mind while he obtained his college degree.
Jenny had met him in a sophomore sociology class. The attraction had been immediate and powerful. After they’d started dating, she’d added her arguments to his parents’, trying to convince him to channel his interest in criminal justice into a less dangerous profession. At first, he’d seemed to concur and begun to study for the law school entrance exam, to put away bad guys as a prosecutor rather than an officer. Truthfully, she’d been aware of his underlying lack of enthusiasm for that career path, but in her youthful optimism, she’d been sure he would learn to like it.
On the very rare occasions when she had looked back at their eighteen-month-long relationship through the viewpoint of a more mature adult, she’d realized it was probably his feelings of being pressured into a career he didn’t want that had made him turn sullen and difficult. He must have felt as if his own desires were always being disparaged and discouraged. He’d quarreled more and more often with his parents, and with her. He’d accused her of being so obsessed with her own ambitions, of trying so hard to please her grandmother, that she was willing to sacrifice their relationship to achieve her aims.
Maybe her lofty goals didn’t include being married to an ordinary cop, he’d snarled. Maybe the reason she kept urging him to go to law school had been more for her own ambitions than for his. During the ensuing years, she’d wondered uncomfortably if there had been some grain of truth in his allegations. She’d always assured herself that, like his parents, she had worried more about the risk and uncertainty of a police officer’s work rather than any lack of social status. She had witnessed her own mother’s grief after being widowed at a young age by a charming, daredevil firefighter, who’d been as reckless off-duty as on the job and had died in a drag-racing accident. Having struggled with that gaping loss herself, Jenny hadn’t been able to deal with the thought of losing the man she loved in the line of dangerous duty. The image still made her blood chill.
She’d been unable to convince Gavin exactly how upsetting that possibility had been to her. They’d had one last, fierce quarrel in which they’d both said very hurtful things, and that had been the end of their romance. The emotions had been too raw, the anger too hot, to allow them an amicable parting. A week later, she’d been shocked to learn that Gavin had left the university, only three semesters short of graduation. She assumed he’d entered the police academy soon afterward, though she’d never heard from him again. She had thrown herself into her studies, shedding her tears in private and burying the pain as deeply as possible, rarely to be acknowledged since.
Maybe Gavin’s thoughts, too, had drifted back to their painful breakup, because before she could reply, he shoved his chair back abruptly from the table. “I’m going to start on that tree. Thanks for the breakfast.”
“You should take care with that shoulder.”
He merely gave her a look and walked out, leaving her shaking her head in exasperation. While Gavin had changed in many noticeable ways since she’d last seen him, it was obvious that he was still as stubborn as ever.
* * *
The rain had dwindled to little more than a cool mist while he’d been inside. Gavin tossed damp hair out of his face and lifted the chain saw from the back of his truck with his good arm. Pulling the starter was going to be a challenge, but he’d manage. The sooner he cleared that tree out of the way, the sooner he or Jenny or both of them could get away from here. And the sooner there would be an end to those uncomfortable catch-up conversations.
Why the hell had he felt the need to tell her he’d gotten his degree? He’d heard himself blurting it out almost before he’d realized it. That damned degree didn’t make him any more worthy, as far as he was concerned. Jenny could have a dozen advanced degrees and own a Fortune 500 company, and he would still take pride in the uniform he donned every working day.
He remembered vividly the way Jenny’s grandmother’s lip had curled when he’d mentioned his intention to enter the police academy after finishing college. Lena Patterson had made it quite clear that she had higher aspirations for her granddaughter than to align herself with a “low-level civil servant.” Having known by then that Jenny’s father’s death had left them grief-stricken and financially burdened, Gavin had decided that Lena Patterson was a pompous, bitter woman. She had channeled her personal disappointments into her bright, beautiful and motivated granddaughter, pushing Jenny toward higher education and a socially and economically advantageous marriage.
The old woman had done a damned good job of programming her granddaughter from a very early age. He’d seen the way Jenny lit up in response to Lena’s sparsely doled praise. That had been hard for him to compete with at twenty-one. He doubted he could do so even now, if he were inclined to try.
He set the chain saw beside the other tools he’d already gathered around the fallen tree and stepped back to analyze the project. The oak was big. The uptilted root ball came almost to his shoulder. A tangle of leafy branches covered the driveway in a dense barrier. Even with two good arms, this tree would require hours to remove.
His phone buzzed in his pocket and he removed one bulky work glove to draw it out, sighing when he saw his mother’s number.
“I’m fine, Mom,” he said without giving her a chance to say anything.
She laughed softly, unperturbed by his sardonic tone. “I’m glad to hear it. It sounds as if your area got hit hard by last night’s storms.”
“Lost a couple of trees, a bunch of limbs. Couple leaks in the back bedroom I’m going to have to patch. Other than that, no real damage done.”
“I heard there was flooding up that way.”
“There’s flooding down the road, but just a few wet patches up here on the hill.” His dad had always said that the river would have to be at hundred-year flood stages to creep up to the cabin.
“Can you get out?”
“Not yet, but the water should go down fairly quickly once the rain finally stops.” He hoped the road would be dry enough for safe travel by the end of the day, though the heavy cloud cover did not look promising. He wouldn’t be surprised to be drenched again at any minute.
“How’s your shoulder? Is the infection better?”
“Better. No fever today.”
“I’m glad to hear it. Now, please use common sense and try not to overdo it with the storm cleanup. I know better than to try to make you promise not to tackle any of it today.”
“I won’t overdo it.”
“I worry about you being up there all alone when you haven’t been out of the hospital for a whole week yet. I know you don’t like being hovered over, but I wish you’d stayed a bit closer to home for at least a few more days.”
“Gavin, do you have an extra pair of work gloves I can use?” Jenny called from behind him before he could reassure his mom again. “I’d be glad to help you clear this... Oh. I’m sorry.” Spotting the phone in his hand, she grimaced in apology.
He should have known his too-perceptive mother wouldn’t miss a beat. “Gavin? Someone is there with you? Is it anyone I know?”
There was no way he was telling her at the moment about his ex-girlfriend’s presence. His mom had liked Jenny back in the day, even though she’d reacted in true overprotective mama-bear mode when Jenny broke up with him. She’d insisted that Jenny had broken her son’s heart. Gavin wouldn’t have phrased it quite that way. Then again, he couldn’t really argue it, either.
“I have to take care of some things around here before the rain starts again,” he said into the phone, ignoring her questions. “I’ll call you later, okay?”
He heard her sigh, but his mother surrendered to the inevitable. No doubt she’d grill him good later, face-to-face. “Fine. Just...take care of yourself, will you?”
