All of Me (16 page)

“Everyone adored her.” Bill sighed. “Such a tragic loss.”

Yes, yes, Aimee the saint
. Immediately Jillian felt bad about her uncharitable thoughts. What in the hell was wrong with her?

“So where are you from, Jillian?” Will asked.

“Houston.”

Bill’s gaze met Will’s. “I’ve got dibs on Halloween.”

Will eyed Jillian. “She’ll last at least until Thanks-giving.”

Jillian couldn’t believe this. “You guys are betting on me too?”

“What bet?” Lexi asked.

“It seems the whole town is betting on when I’ll leave, and I just got here yesterday.”

“Ooh,” Lexi said. “I want in. Who’s running the pool?”

“Not you too!”

Lexi shrugged but didn’t look the slightest chagrined. “Hey, not much happens in Salvation. We have to take our excitement
where we can find it.”

Jillian had to laugh. What else was there to do? “I’ve got to get to work, guys.”

“See ya later.” Lexi wriggled her fingers.

“If you need a good accountant,” Will said, “please, keep us in mind.”

“I will do that, thanks.”

“And don’t forget your flooring needs,” Lexi sang out.

“Never fear, when I’m ready to retile, you’re on my speed dial.” Finally Jillian escaped and climbed the stairs to the second
floor.

The old wooden staircase creaked underneath her feet. Once she reached the second floor, it was easy to locate the frosted
glass door with sutter godfrey esquire stenciled on it in dramatic black script. She pulled his keys from her purse, but the
door wasn’t locked. She turned the handle and stepped inside to find a plastic drop cloth covering the floor and a blue-jean-clad
man on a ladder. All she could see was from the waist down. The rest of him was sticking up through a pretty big hole in the
ceiling.

His butt was at Jillian’s eye level.

She’d seen that butt before. Jillian looked up at the same time Tuck looked down.

“This is your new job?” she asked, at the same time Tuck said, “Sutter hired me to repair his roof and the water damage to
his office.”

“I’m working for him too. As his assistant.”

Tuck stared at Jillian, unable to believe his crappy luck. He was going to be stuck with Jillian at home and at work? “Found
a job on your first day in town. That’s a coup. Congratulations.”

“How am I supposed to get anything done if you’re hammering and running saws?” She sank her hands on her hips.

“How am I supposed to get anything done if you’re underfoot?” he groused.

“This isn’t going to work.”

“You’re telling me.”

“Sheetrock dust.”

“Clacking, clacking on the keyboard,” he countered.

“What have you got against me?”

“Other than the fact that you’ve invaded my house?”

“It’s not my fault. Besides, it’s
my
house.”

“Just until the deed turns up.”

“I’m beginning to think there is no deed. I called the Boulder courthouse and learned a deed hasn’t been filed in your name.
I called Blake’s attorney, and he says Blake never mentioned a word to him about deeding you the lake house. In fact, Blake
never mentioned you at all.” She sank her hands on her hips. “How do I know you and Sutter aren’t in cahoots, trying to bilk
me out of my inheritance? Believe me, if that deed does turn up, I’m going over it with a fine-tooth comb.”

“
Your
inheritance?” Tuck gave an angry snort. “That house belonged to Blake’s daughter, not some skank who wormed her way into
Blake’s bed.” He folded his arms over his chest. He shouldn’t have said that. The second the words left his mouth, he knew
they were low and mean and untrue. He’d lashed out in pain and anger at the only target around.

Jillian clenched her jaw. She looked as hurt and angry as he felt. He felt like even a bigger butthead. “Excuse me, I did
not sleep with Blake Townsend!”

He wanted to apologize, but he was entrenched in his position. “So you say.”

“I’m so mad at you right now that I could grab this ladder and shake it until you fall off and break your stupid neck, but
I won’t because …” Her voice trailed off.

Tuck put a hand on the ladder just in case she decided to carry out her threat. In his other hand, he held the flashlight.
“Because of what?”

She pursed her lips.

Tuck climbed down the ladder. “Because of what?”

Her dark eyes softened. “Because I don’t want to go to jail for manslaughter. The momentary sense of pleasure wouldn’t be
worth the consequences.”

“That’s not what you were going to say.”

“It doesn’t matter what I was going to say.”

“I want to hear it. Spit it out.”

She arched an eyebrow. “You sure you can take it?”

He jerked his chin upward. “I can handle whatever you can dish out.”

“I’m overlooking your attitude because I know how much you’re hurting over the loss of your wife.”

That got him square in the gut. “I don’t want or need your sympathy. I’m acting like a jerk because I’m a jerk, not because
my wife died.”

“You’re not a jerk.”

“You don’t know me.”

“I know you’ve been through a lot of pain.”

He hated the way she was looking at him. Just like everyone else did. As if he was an emotional cripple. “No more than the
next Joe.”

“Losing a spouse is not trivial.”

Anger rose in his chest. “Oh yeah, and you’re so well versed on what it feels like to lose a spouse? Don’t even try pulling
that empathy crap on me. You don’t have a clue what I’ve been going through.”

Jillian recoiled as if he’d slapped her, and immediately Tuck wanted to kick his own ass. “You’re absolutely right,” she murmured.
“I don’t, but I do know what it’s like to lose the only person who truly gets you.”

“Blake.”

She nodded and without another word, turned on her heels and stalked over to the desk he’d swathed in a plastic drop cloth
to protect the papers from falling ceiling debris. She batted back the plastic.

“Here, let me help.” He went toward her.

She picked up a letter opener off the desk and wielded it. “Back off. Don’t do me any favors. I can take care of myself.”

He raised both arms in a gesture of surrender and cocked her a grin. “Don’t stab, I’m backing away slowly.”

She giggled then, and it was such an odd sound coming from her that he laughed too. What an emotional roller coaster they
were both on. Tuck didn’t quite know what to make of her. She had this tough, no-nonsense way about her, but then unexpectedly,
like now, he’d glimpse another side of her. A softer side he imagined she didn’t often show.

Jillian put the letter opener down. “Sorry,” she apologized. “I can get a little defensive.”

“Yeah, well.” He pulled a rag from his back pocket and wiped his hands on it. “Me too. I suppose.”

She peered at him through lowered lashes.

“Truce.” He stuck out his hand.

“Truce.” She accepted it.

They shook hands.

The contact was electric. Tuck’s head reeled, his body stiffened and his gut clenched in a wholly enjoyable way. Damn, damn,
damn. She smelled like freshly laundered linen, crisp and clean and cozy. He thought immediately of a turned-down bed.

Her eyes widened. She dropped his hand like she’d just learned he had leprosy.

Tuck was just as shocked. He couldn’t believe he was reacting this way, and he felt ashamed.
I’m sorry, Aimee.

“Did you find somewhere else to stay?” Tuck ventured, praying she would say yes, especially after she’d just electrocuted
his hand.

“I did.”

Hallelujah, he could have his life back. “Boulder?”

“Right here in Salvation.”

“Convenient for your new job. Jefferson Baines hook you up?”

“Nope.”

From the way she was looking at him, he wasn’t getting good vibes about this. “What’s the address?”

Her gaze was steely. “Fourteen-fourteen Enchantment Lane.”

Hell, he knew that’s what she was going to say. “No, no.”

“Yes, yes.”

“You can’t stay with me.”

“From a legal standpoint, I can. Since I’m executor of Blake’s will and he left the house to me—unless you produce documentation
that says otherwise—I
can
stay in the house. I’ve unpacked my U-Haul. Like it or not, until you have that deed, I’m your new roommate.”

J
ILLIAN HELD HER BREATH
as Tuck snorted, fisted his hands at his side, pivoted on his heel, and then stalked out of Sutter’s office, slamming the
door behind him.

In the wake of his obvious anger, she felt as if she were standing alone in the desert with a hot blast of sand pelting her
as she stared at miles and miles of empty landscape.

What? You thought taking over a man’s home was going to be easy?

No, but she hadn’t expected to feel so … What was she feeling?

Jillian swallowed against the vacant, lost sensation surging inside her, and she flashed back to that day in court where the
same emotions consumed her. Coming to Salvation was supposed to fix this hollow feeling. It was supposed to make her whole.
Fill her up.

Instead, she was adrift, unsure of herself, isolated. But that was no different than she’d been for most of her life. Maybe
she should reconsider staying at the lake house.

And go where? Back to Houston? There was nothing left for her there.

She sucked her bottom lip between her top teeth and stared dismally at the shambles around her.

This is where you start. This is square one. This is your new beginning.

The sound of footsteps tromping on the roof drew her gaze upward.
Stomp, stomp, stomp.
Had to be Tuck and from the sound of it, he was still steamed.

Too bad.

It was time to take a stand. Sure, she could just pack up and drive away, but no matter where she went, she now realized things
wouldn’t be any different. She’d feel the same sense of loneliness. There was only one way to overcome it. Step from her aloofness.
Entrench herself in a community. Make friends. She loved the town, loved the house, and by gosh, if she made an effort, she
could love these people and they could come to love her.

Really?
whispered the ugly little voice in the back of her head.
You really think that anyone is going to love you? Your own mother didn’t love you. Why would these people?

Jillian closed her eyes against the sudden rush of tears. She would not cry. She would not. Gulping, she sniffed, blinked.

No, she would not cry, but neither would she run. For better or worse, she’d made her decision. She’d come to Salvation to
find a home, and that’s what she was going to do. Come what may, she wasn’t going to let Tuck Manning stop her.

L
ATER THAT DAY
, Tuck stalked into the lake house, planning on laying down the law and telling Jillian why she simply could not stay there.
He had the arguments all prepped in his head when he heard her singing at the top of her lungs from the direction of the bathroom.
The cheerful sound stopped him in his tracks.

He canted his head, listening to identify the tune over the sound of the shower running—“I Can See Clearly Now.”

The tune reached out and smacked him. He sucked in his breath.

Aimee used to hum it when things were going badly. She’d told him once it was the song her father hummed just before he went
into court for his final summation. She recalled sitting on the bed in her parents’ bedroom, watching Blake knot up his tie
in front of the mirror while belting out the old Johnny Nash tune.

Tuck had asked, “If it’s a song favored by your dad, why do you sing it?”

“It gives me courage and hope.”

“But you and your dad don’t get along.”

She shook her head and looked at him as if he were a naïve child. “I love my father with all my heart, Tuck. I just can’t
forgive him for destroying our family.”

And that was Aimee’s greatest flaw. Her inability to forgive if you’d wronged her. He’d never wronged her, so he’d never been
on the receiving end of her unforgiving nature, but suddenly he had an unexpected empathy for Blake. And a deep sadness for
Aimee, who’d been unable to let her father make amends.

Had Jillian picked up the song from her mentor? Did she, too, hum the tune when things were going badly? Was it the equivalent
to whistling in the dark, pretending you weren’t scared of the boogeyman?

The thought dissipated his anger.

And before he could move, the bathroom door opened and Jillian stepped into the hallway, wrapped in nothing but a beach towel
while she busily dried her hair with a bath towel.

“Oh,” they exclaimed simultaneously as their eyes met.

And for one long moment, time just hung.

Tuck stared at her, his throat muscles paralyzed. He couldn’t speak or swallow.

She stared back, her dark eyes glimmering in the light from the hallway bulb, rich as cocoa beans dipped in Swiss chocolate.

Something inside Tuck slipped. An awareness that he’d never felt before. For the first time, he noticed the little imperfections
on Jillian’s face. The tiny half-moon-shaped scar in the center of her forehead. The way her eyelashes were so long they looked
fake. How the hairline on her left side grew farther back than on the right side. Oddly, those imperfections served to make
her more appealing.