Josie Day Is Coming Home (35 page)

“Heck, no.” Tallulah chuckled. “We’re all
filthy rich.” She shrugged. “We come by it naturally. Ever since
Angus Donovan opened his lumber mill and founded this town, there’s been one
entrepreneur after another in the family.”

“Hmmm.” Josie nodded slowly, seeming to let that
sink in. “Did all the Donovans specialize in lying, like Luke? Or is that
his own particular area of expertise?”

“Err…” Tallulah looked at Ambrose.

Luke had to do something. Hurriedly, he stepped toward
Josie, reaching for her.

“I tried to tell you. I tried to straighten things out.
The other night. Last night,” he said urgently. “And before that,
too. Hell, I must’ve contacted Ambrose a dozen times, but I couldn’t reach
him.”

“Why?” Josie asked, her eyes wide. “Did you
want to have
me
thrown out of this place, too?”

“At first, yes.” Anguished, Luke thrust his hand
through his hair. He couldn’t lie to her anymore. Not after this. “But
then everything changed—”

“Then you realized you could dupe me into
staying,” she interrupted, her voice wavering. “You must have really
gotten a laugh out of me, huh? You and TJ. Pretending to be regular guys, with
the Top Ramen and the beer and the ‘handyman’ jobs. I’m dying to know—is TJ a
secret gazillionaire, too?”

“Josie—”

“You’re right. It doesn’t really matter.” She
waved off his next touch, talking much too quickly. “What matters is, I’m
officially trespassing.” She shivered, pulling her robe closer around her.
“I guess I’d better get my stuff and clear out before the founding family
of Donovan’s Corner has me booted out.”

“No, Red!” Tallulah protested. “We’d never do
that.”

But Josie only turned away, glancing upstairs as though
gauging the long trek ahead of her. She drew in a breath.

This couldn’t be happening. Luke reached for her.

“Wait. Let me explain.”

“I’ve heard plenty.” Ignoring him, Josie extended
her hand stiffly to Tallulah. “I know you meant well. Thank you. This
place will always have special memories for me.” At that, her composure
faltered. She managed to suck in another breath and continue. “I’m grateful
for that. Just visiting here was more than a trailer-park refugee like me could
ever have hoped for. Honestly.”

She shook Ambrose’s hand next. “You’re a kind man. I
know this wasn’t really your fault, so please don’t worry about it. I hope you
and Tallulah will be very happy together.”

Ambrose nodded, clasping her hand warmly. He murmured an
apology. Softly, Tallulah did the same. Luke only stared.

Josie was leaving.

This
really
couldn’t be happening. Not like this.

Helpless and pissed and confused, Luke stood by with one
fist clenched and the other holding up his stupid blanket. He felt Josie
slipping away with every moment that passed, and he didn’t have the damnedest
idea how to stop it. She was turning into someone he didn’t know, someone
polite and distant and cool.

He shook his head, denying it all.

“She’s not really leaving,” he told his aunt and
Ambrose, desperate to make that understood. His voice cracked, forcing him to
clear his throat. “She’s just mad right now. She knows she doesn’t have
to—”

“Good-bye, Luke.”

The next thing he knew, he was staring at Josie’s
outstretched hand. The hand that had touched him so sweetly last night. The
hand that had helped him repair the last piece of his legacy, the hand that had
held his own during awkward mambos and romantic moments. The hand that had
cradled his face as he’d heard her say “I love you” for the first
time.

“Good-bye,” she repeated.

Defiantly, Luke tightened his jaw. He wouldn’t allow this to
be over between them. He wouldn’t accept it.

“Shake her hand,” Tallulah commanded. “Don’t
be an ass.”

“This is a rather awkward situation,” Ambrose
added, sympathy in his voice. “It really wouldn’t be chivalrous to prolong
things, Luke.”

Screw that. He’d prolong things as much as he wanted, if it
meant keeping Josie near. If it meant making things right between them again.

“No,” he told her roughly. “I won’t let you
go.”

“Well, now there’s where you’re mistaken.” Josie
swallowed hard, her eyelashes fluttering. She clenched her robe tighter,
pulling at the silky fabric. “Because you don’t get to decide. This might
have all been some kind of game to you, Luke. But it wasn’t to me. It never was
to me.”

“It wasn’t to me, either.” He kept his hand at his
side. “I never wanted this to happen.”

“Well.” A ghost of a smile. “I don’t doubt
that. This isn’t half as much fun as fooling me, is it?”

She withdrew her hand. Gave him a long, silent look.

“I don’t have much to pack,” she said. “I’ll
have my stuff out in half an hour.”

Her chin wobbled. Yanking it higher, Josie hurried upstairs.
A few moments later, her bedroom door closed behind her with a muted click.
Luke stood frozen to the spot, wondering what the hell to do now.

Tallulah marched over. She whacked him on the shoulder.

“What did you do to that girl?” she demanded.
“She looked heartbroken.”

“Yes, Luke.” Ambrose delivered a similarly steely
glare. “Explain yourself. I’d say your aunt deserves elucidation.”

“I want you both to leave,” Luke said woodenly.

They peered at him. Both seemed taken aback.

“Now,” he clarified.

They hesitated, glancing at each other and then at him.

“You understand why I couldn’t answer your e-mails
about this matter, don’t you?” Ambrose asked. “If Tallulah had
realized this business with Miss Day and Blue Moon was problematic, she would
have wanted to come home. She would have booked a stateside flight from Curacao
or St. Martin. I would have missed my opportunity to show her how I feel
about—”

“
Now
!” Luke roared.

They jumped. Muttering indignantly under her breath,
Tallulah strode to Ambrose’s side. He caught her elbow in his hand and escorted
her across the room. At the threshold, they both glanced backward.

“You’re making a mistake,” his aunt said.
“It’s not us you’re mad at. It’s yourself.”

“If you don’t follow her, you’ll regret it,”
Ambrose added.

The hell of it was, Luke already did.

“Leave me alone,” he said. “Just…. Leave me
alone.”

An instant later, they did. But Luke didn’t feel any better.
He gazed upstairs, deliberating. Then he hitched up his blanket and went to
find his pants. Some things a man just shouldn’t have to face without
underwear.

Chapter Twenty

Josie was freezing. She dragged another sweater on top of
the clothes she’d already shivered into, keeping one eye on the bedroom door
the whole time.

Any minute now, she assured herself as her teeth clattered,
Luke would come knocking. He’d explain everything. And his explanation—although
she couldn’t imagine what it might be—would make everything make sense. He’d
pull her in his arms and kiss her. Everything would be okay, just like it had
been before.

Before she’d known he’d lied to her from the start.

Hurting anew at the thought of it, Josie marched to her
closet. Moving was better. Moving kept all those terrible thoughts at bay.
Moving kept her from remembering the night she and Luke had just shared, the
things they’d said, the closeness they’d found.

I love you.

Had Luke been lying about that, too? Yanking clothes from
their hangers, she threw everything on her rumpled bed. She refused to think
about waking up with Luke gone, about hearing voices downstairs, about the
instant she’d realized why Tallulah and Ambrose might have come—to take Blue
Moon away from her.

If only she’d known. Blue Moon was gone, that was true. But
Josie had lost something a lot more precious. She’d lost Luke. Or at least the
Luke she’d thought she knew.

A bitter laugh escaped her, mingled with a sob. The hoarse
sound scared her. If she didn’t get out of here soon, she wouldn’t be able to
drive. She’d be crying too hard to see the road.

Blinking rapidly, she glanced at the door again. Nothing. It
had been ten minutes now, long enough for her to shakily dress and start
grabbing her things. Where was Luke?

Why did she even want to see him?

Angrily, Josie scraped the rest of her clothes across the
rod. She grabbed an armload and dropped it on the bed, hangers and all. Luke
had lied to her. He wasn’t the person she’d thought he was. Neither was she, if
she’d been gullible enough to buy his handyman routine. For all she knew, he
owned Blue Moon and half of Donovan’s Corner, too.

It was all so humiliating. So hurtful. So stupid.

In the midst of searching for a box to pack her things in,
Josie paused. Her chest hurt. Her eyes burned. She needed another sweater. Or
maybe some mittens. Wishing she had a pair for her icy fingers, she put her
hands in her pockets and stared in the closet. Where were the cardboard boxes
she’d used to move in?

Then she remembered. She’d flattened them all and given them
to Luke and TJ to use while they painted the rooms at Blue Moon. She’d thought
they’d make good cardboard drop cloths to protect the floors. By then, she’d
decided to stay. She’d never expected to need those boxes again.

Hah. The joke was on her, wasn’t it?

Resolutely, Josie grabbed her car keys. She opened the
bedroom door and cautiously examined the hallway. Everything seemed quiet.
Probably Luke was busy cooking up another alter ego. IRS agent. Longshoreman.
Lounge singer. Before today, any one of those would have seemed about as likely
his turning out to be a secret multimillionaire.

Loaded down with clothes, she headed downstairs. Some of the
pants and shirts and sweaters were hers; some were things she’d borrowed from
Jenna. They all had to go. Everything had to go. Including her.

At her convertible, Josie hurled everything in the back
seat. Since the top was down, packing was going to be a breeze. Five trips
later, she’d nearly crammed her old Chevy completely full. Shoes and pillows
poked out of the pile at odd angles. A framed picture of her family rested in
the passenger seat and her scented candles lined the floor in the back. Her
celebrity gossip magazines wedged into the space behind the driver’s seat.

Even out here in the sunshine, Josie felt cold. She hugged
her arms to herself and glanced up at the Arizona sky, trying not to think
about anything except packing, leaving, moving on.

Preferably before she buckled and starting bawling.

All that remained were a few pairs of shoes and the box she
kept Frank in. Striding inside, Josie thought about her ponytail hair extension.
Now that she no longer had a job at Enchanté, she didn’t really need it. She
didn’t see how she could ever dance again, given the way she felt right now.
But she scooped Frank up from her former bureau anyway, then paused in her
bedroom for one last look.

Her throat clogged with tears. Another cold front threatened
to overtake her. Shivering, Josie closed her eyes against the misery that
swamped her. Why couldn’t Luke just love her? she wondered. Why, why, why?

Okay. This whole “last look” stuff wasn’t working
out so well. No wonder she’d always made it her policy to leave without looking
back—to move on to the next adventure without mourning the last. It was better
that way. Less painful.

Picking up the pace, Josie hurried downstairs. She passed
the ballroom-turned-dance-studio, but didn’t dare peek inside. That would only
make her remember her dreams, her hopes…the laughter-filled afternoons she’d
spent teaching Luke how to dance.

By the time she reached the porch, everything looked blurry.
Juggling Frank’s box and her rainbow wedgies, she stopped to swipe her hand
across her eyes. When she’d pulled herself together enough to drag in a deep
breath and move forward, what she saw waiting for her stopped her in her
tracks.

Luke.

He leaned against her convertible, dressed in jeans and a
black T-shirt, his arms crossed over his chest and his expression inscrutable.
He looked as though he’d been there for days. Which was only fair. Because all
at once, Josie felt as though she’d waited at least that long to see him again.

Idiotic hope sprang to life inside her. This was it! Luke
was going to explain. He was going to make everything okay. He was going to
morph back into the man she loved…the man who loved her. Gathering all her
strength, Josie traversed the few steps separating them. She met his gaze
squarely.

His jaw was a stony line, his eyes a bleak blue. In them,
she thought she detected regret…even a heartache that matched her own. She
was right. He was going to explain everything. She held her breath, waiting.

“Why are you wearing all that stuff?” he asked,
looking bemused as he nodded toward her outfit. “Sweatpants, a scarf, a
T-shirt. A sweatshirt
and
a sweater.” His gaze meandered to her
head. “A hat?”

Defensively, Josie adjusted her knit cap. “I was cold.”

“It’s seventy-five degrees out.”

“So?” He didn’t even know about her silk long
johns, her wool socks, or the leggings beneath her sweatpants. Thank
God
he didn’t know the real reason she needed all this. “Wearing it was easier
than packing it. Get off my back.”

They stared at each other for a minute. Josie felt pulled
toward him, drawn to claim a little of the warmth they used to share. Resisting
it, she waited. Luke
had
to have an explanation in him somewhere.

As though realizing he hadn’t yet delivered it, he spoke.

“You can’t leave,” he said in a rough voice.
“You have dance students to think about. Hannah. Sophie’s twin daughters.
That uncoordinated kid with the freckles. They’re counting on you.”