Second Chance at the Sugar Shack (4 page)

He gazed down at her through those pale eyes as if he could squash her like the ants crawling across the ground at their feet.

Okay, so she
thought
she’d been prepared for him.

Not the first time in her life she’d been horribly wrong.

Around them the night air swirled with the lingering aroma of pine and dewy blades of grass. The stars above twinkled brightly in the clear sky. And Kate wished she could just disappear in the dark.

“You lose your date?” she asked.

His lips tightened even more. “You lose your way home?”

“I’m here aren’t I?” She clutched the cold keys in her hand until they dug into her skin.

“Nice of you to show up. I’m sure your mother would be very happy.”

His words sucked the air from her lungs. “Okay, I get it,” she said. “You don’t like me. Can we at least be civil while I’m here?”

He shrugged one broad uniformed shoulder. “Sure.”

Behind them the steel door swung open with a screech. Out barged Edna Price. With her came the melody of Frank Sinatra singing
My Way
.

Edna looked up and smiled at Matt. “Gotta get home and put the dog out. Can’t leave her out for long though.” She turned a frown toward Kate. “All she’s good for is wandering.”

The old woman’s barb hit its mark. But, of course, Edna wasn’t done.

“Emma Hart’s in there looking for you, Matthew, honey. You don’t want to keep a good woman like that waiting.”

“I’ll make note of that.” Matt gave her a wave and a friendly smile as she hobbled away on her moose-head cane. “Good night, Mrs. Price.”

He turned back to Kate. “So how long
are
you staying?”

“Two days.” To guard against the icy daggers shooting at her she folded her arms across her breasts. “Think you can handle that?”

“Doesn’t really matter to me.”

“Well, at least you’re honest,” she said.

“At least one of us is.”

One hand slid to her hip. The other white-knuckled her purse strap. “I never lied to you. Exactly.”

“You never exactly told me the truth either. Would have been nice to know you’d been making plans to run away.”

“You knew I was waiting for that scholarship. I didn’t
run
away.”

He laughed. “Honey, your tennis shoes left burn marks in the road.”

She glanced across the parking lot for an escape. Her mother’s boat was four cars down. If she walked fast, she could be there in a few seconds.

“Have you been sitting around for ten years thinking up nasty things to say to me?” she asked, irritated with herself for standing there and letting him grind in the guilt.

“Hardly. I’ve got more important things to do.”

Before she could bite her tongue, she asked, “Like what?”

A smile curved his sensuous mouth. “Sorry, sweetheart, you lost the right to question me a long time ago.” His gaze cruised up her body, taking its time at all the appropriate places.

She knew that look. The one that said no matter how long ago it had been he remembered that the last time he’d seen her she’d been naked in his arms and moaning his name.

She remembered too. It would have been nice if she could have packed away the memory of that night along with her clothes when she left town. But she hadn’t. And for a long time after, she’d lie alone in her bed remembering his touch, his kiss, his attention to detail.

A shiver tingled down her spine and shot straight to her core. “Ancient history.” She refused to let those memories haunt her anymore. Tonight she’d conjure up someone else to fantasize over. And he wouldn’t have midnight hair or ice blue eyes or wear a deputy uniform or be too handsome for his own good.

She looked away from him again. Up this time. Anywhere other than at those pale eyes that watched her with such intensity.

“Wow. The North Star,” she said, knowing it sounded lame the minute it left her lips. “I haven’t seen that in awhile.”

“That’s too bad. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to be inside with the other mourners.” He touched two fingers to the brim of his Stetson and he disappeared into the Grange.

Kate stared at the hard steel doors that divided them. He thought she didn’t care about her mother, but it had never been about that. He should know it had never been about that. Matt Ryan had changed. Somewhere along the way he’d lost the warm-hearted boy he’d once been. As she headed toward the car the memory of a star-filled summer night hit her square in the chest.

“There’s the North Star, Katie.” He pointed his finger toward the half moon above them. “Make a wish.”

“My mother says wishing on stars is a waste of time.”

“Your mother doesn’t know what she’s talking about. A wish from the heart is a serious matter,” he told her. When she hesitated he kissed her nose, her eyes, and her lips then said, “Do it for me. Please.”

She looked up at the star and recited the poem. Star light. Star bright. And made her silent wish.

Then Matt pulled her close, kissed her deeply, and made love to her. Her first time. It was everything she’d ever imagined and more—sweet and gentle, hot and sexy. And oh so memorable. In the aftermath when they were snuggled together beneath that plaid wool blanket, holding each other like they’d never let go, he said, “I made a wish too.” Then he whispered it in her ear.

He should never have told her.

Wishes never came true when you said them out loud.

T
he door slammed shut behind him as Matt walked into the Grange. She’d been in town less than forty-eight hours and already she had him tied up in knots. How the hell had that happened?

He’d known she’d come home someday. It was inevitable. He’d known and he’d prepared himself. Or so he’d thought.

For months after she’d left he’d tried to erase the memory of tangling his fingers in her hair, kissing her mouth, and slipping inside her where she was silky, hot, and eager. He’d tried to erase the memories of all the times they’d laughed together and held each other through times when it seemed no one around them understood. She’d been his best friend. His first love. And he foolishly thought she’d be his future.

Over the years he’d finally managed a comfortable sense of numb whenever he heard her name or was forced to look at some fashion magazine article her mother proudly showed him.

But seeing her today at her mother’s funeral, at the funeral of someone who meant the world to him, his defenses had been down and he’d been blindsided. And all his good intentions had been blown to hell.

“Matt?” Emma Hart appeared at his side. “Are you all right? Why don’t you come over here and sit down. Have a slice of Letty’s last pie.” Emma led him past a row of tables and into a folding chair across from Katie’s quarterback brother, who was busy playing football god to the Deer Lick Destroyers’ offensive line. The teenagers all but drooled as Dean explained how to get a consistent snap.

“Mr. Silverthorne insisted we save a piece just for you.” Emma slid the plate in front of him. “He said his Letty would want it that way because you were like a son to her.”

The knot in Matt’s stomach blocked his appetite, even for a slice of Letty’s famous cinnamon apple pie.

He poked his fork into the center of the crust and thought back to all the times she’d pushed him down into one of her Naugahyde chairs, shoved a hot slice of pie beneath his nose and conned him into telling her all his troubles.

“Want it a la mode?” Emma slid onto the chair next to him while in the distance Elvis sang about being lonesome. “I’m sure I could scrounge up a scoop of vanilla somewhere.”

Matt gave her a smile and shook his head. “Wouldn’t want to dilute it, being as it’s the last slice.”

Emma laid her hand on his sleeve, curled her fingers around his forearm. “I can’t imagine how difficult this must be for you. I know how close you were with her.”

Unable to speak, he took a bite of pie and savored the sweet, hot cinnamon flavor rolling around on his tongue. Letty had been the type of mother he’d always wished for. He liked to think they’d helped each other through some tough times. In Matt’s mind, the Silverthornes were an ideal husband and wife, father and mother. And for the life of him he couldn’t understand why their youngest daughter had deliberately chosen to hurt them the way she had.

As for him, he had more important things to do than worry about her sudden intrusion into his life. He’d made a promise to Letty and he had exactly five months to make it happen. Before the election in January, he had to convince the good people of Deer Lick that he deserved to be their next sheriff. In order to do that he needed to find himself a wife who would make him even more acceptable in the eyes of the community.

There had never been a bachelor sheriff in Deer Lick and he had no intentions of losing votes on that one technicality. But more than needing a wife to make him a better candidate, Matt knew he was ready to fall in love again. For years he’d pushed women—good women—away believing it was safer. If he didn’t get involved, he wouldn’t get hurt. Now he was ready to fill his life with a family and commitment. He just needed to find the right woman to make that happen.

He took another bite of pie and glanced at the attractive woman next to him. Emma’s soft blond hair, cool blue eyes, and calm demeanor were like a balm to everything inside him that raced and raged at Indy speed.

While he ate, she chatted about the community project her kindergarten students were involved in and how it would flow over into the entire school. Emma appeared to be a good teacher and an involved member of the community. She was sweet and respectable. Now was the perfect time to get to know her a little better.

The clock was ticking.

K
ate hugged herself against the chill and made a dash for the car. She’d forgotten how cold this time of year could get back home and had left her warmer jacket stuffed in her closet at the New York apartment she shared with a runway model. Male. Gay, of course. Not that there was anything wrong with that. Hollywood. New York. She was surrounded by gay. No wonder she couldn’t find a man. At least one that might be interested in her. Of course, she hadn’t been exactly looking either.

She unlocked the car door, although why she’d bothered to lock it in the first place she didn’t know. No one in their right mind would steal this heap. And she was pretty sure around here automobile theft was low, if not nonexistent.

Sliding onto the seat, she turned the key and stomped on the gas pedal several times to rev the engine and get the heater going. As soon as she backed out of the parking space, curiosity sent her toward Main Street. With all the preparations for her mother’s funeral the previous day, she hadn’t had time to notice the changes and upgrades made to the town since she’d been gone. Mostly she just needed to drive and shake off the gloom that swirled over her head.

As she turned the corner, the
Sex and the City
theme played from within her handbag. She pulled out her cell phone and glanced at the name in the display before she answered.

“Josh, what’s up?”

“It’s a damned catastrophe, Kate. When are you coming back?”

“What’s a catastrophe?”

“OMG, didn’t you see
ET
?”

“Umm, no. My mother’s funeral. Remember?”

“Oh. Sorry, sweetie.”
He didn’t sound sorry.
“Anyway, the so-called
Fashion Guru
slammed the outfit Inara wore to the premiere of
Last Breakfast in Eden
. I don’t even want to tell you what she did to Stella’s blue linen dress after I left her house.”

A lump lodged in Kate’s throat. “Don’t tell me she sliced and diced an original McCartney.”

“Worse. She bought a frickin’ BeDazzler and added . . . are you sitting down?”

“Yes.”

“Yellow rhinestones! And no, I’m not shitting you. We’ve only got four days before she attends the awards pre-show luncheon. I’m freaking out here, Kate. Somebody needs to get this trashy bitch under control!”

Kate gripped her forehead. Great. Strike three. Hello,
Variety
classifieds.

She took a deep breath.

Okay. No problem. She could handle this. She’d run interference with the entertainment media fashion hags before. She’d just do it again. She was a pro—who really didn’t feel like dealing with such a trivial issue on the day they’d laid her mother to rest. But as soon as she hung up from talking with Josh, she’d order a bribe package to be delivered to the
Guru
and get her butt back to L.A. Pronto if not sooner.

Only one little problem remained. She’d promised her brother they’d sit down tomorrow and discuss how to help their father. Crap. She couldn’t just bail on her dad the day after he’d buried his wife.

“Calm down, Josh. I’ll call Inara. The soonest I can be there is late tomorrow night. And that’s
if
I can wrap it all up here and get a flight out. In the meantime, I’m putting you in charge of not letting our pop princess out of your sight.”

Kate ended the call, pulled to the curb, ordered her bribe package, and changed her airline reservations to an earlier flight. Once business was done, she pulled back onto the road and maneuvered the car around the corner at the Gas and Grub Roundup where her friends Maggie Densworth and Oliver Barnett had once stolen Olde English from the ice locker.

Oliver and Maggie consumed all six cans that night. Two months later Maggie announced she was pregnant. When Kate lamented her situation, Maggie told her it was no big deal. Shit like that happened all the time in a small town, she’d said. Maggie’s dreams of becoming a TV news anchor had been squashed. And Kate was convinced that for
her
, a one-way ticket out of Deer Lick was the right and only decision.

Though Matt had taken precautions the night they’d made love, Kate had worried the following month. She didn’t want to end up like Maggie—trapped in a dead-end town with a dead-end job and a kid and husband who’d forever regret the day he’d married her.

In a town the size of Deer Lick, everybody knew everybody’s business. And while there were many couples who’d married young like her parents and stayed happily together, there were many more that hadn’t. When marriage went bad, it got ugly and hateful and everybody got a black eye. Especially the kids who came from those busted and broken homes.