Reunion on Rocky Shores Page 11

  He still wanted it. That was what had bothered him for three weeks. Even though he hadn’t seen her in all that time, she hadn’t been far from his thoughts.

  He remembered the taste of her, sweet and welcoming, the softness of her skin under his fingers, the subtle peace he had so briefly savored.

  He couldn’t seem to shake this achy sense that with that single kiss, everything in his world had changed, in a way he couldn’t explain but knew he didn’t like.

  He didn’t want change. Yeah, he hated his life and missed Robin and Cara so much he sometimes couldn’t breathe around the pain. But it was his pain.

  He was used to it now, and somewhere deep inside, he worried that letting go of that grief would mean letting go of his wife and baby girl, something he wasn’t ready to face yet.

  He knew his reaction was absurd. Plenty of people had lost loved ones and had moved ahead with their lives. His own mother had married again, just a few years after his father died, when Will was in his early twenties. She had moved to San Diego with her new husband, where the two of them seemed to be extremely happy together. They played golf, they went sailing on the bay, they enjoyed an active social life.

  Will didn’t begrudge his mother her happiness. He liked his stepfather and was grateful his mother had found someone else.

  Intellectually, he knew it was possible, even expected, for him to date again sometime. He just wasn’t sure he was ready yet—indeed, that he would ever be ready.

  It had just been a kiss, he reminded himself. Not a damn marriage proposal.

  As he sat in the driveway, gearing himself to go inside, the moist sea breeze drifted through his cracked window and he could suddenly swear he smelled cherry blossoms.

  It was nearing the end of September, for heaven’s sake, and was a cool, damp morning. He had absolutely no business smelling the spring scent of cherry blossoms on the breeze.

  No doubt it was only the power of suggestion at work—he was thinking about Julia and his subconscious somehow managed to conjure the scent that always seemed to cling to her.

  He closed his eyes and for just a moment allowed his mind to wander over that kiss again—the way she had responded to him with such warm enthusiasm, the silky softness of her mouth, the comfort of her hands against his skin.

  Just a damn kiss!

  His sigh filled the cab of the pickup and he stiffened his resolve and reached for the door handle.

  Enough. Anna and Sage weren’t paying him to sit on his butt and moon over their tenant. He had work to do. He’d been promising Anna for weeks he would get to her moldings and he couldn’t keep putting it off.

  A Garrett man kept his promises.

  He climbed out and strapped on his tool belt with a dogged determination he would have found amusing under other circumstances, then grabbed as many of the moldings out of the back as he could lift.

  He carried them to the porch and set them as close to the house as he could, then went back to his pickup for the rest. Judging by the steely clouds overhead, they were in for rain soon and he needed to keep the custom-cut oak dry.

  He nearly dropped his second load when the front door suddenly swung open. A second later, Conan bounded through and barked with excitement.

  He set the wood down with the other pile and gave the dog the obligatory scratch. “You’re opening the door by yourself now? Pretty soon you’re going to be driving yourself to the store to pick up dog food. You won’t need any of us anymore.”

  “Until that amazing day arrives, he’ll continue to keep us all as willing slaves. Hi, Will.”

  His entire insides had clenched at the sound of that first word spoken in a low, musical voice, and he slowly lifted his gaze to find Julia standing in the doorway.

  She looked beautiful, fresh and lovely, and he could almost feel the churn of his heart.

  “What are you doing here?” he said abruptly. “I figured you’d be at school.”

  Too late, he realized all that his words revealed—that he had given her more than a minute’s thought in the last three weeks. She wasn’t a stupid woman. No doubt she would quickly read between the lines and figure out he had purposely planned the project for a time when he was unlikely to encounter her.

  To his vast relief, she didn’t seem to notice. “I should be. At school, I mean. But Maddie’s caught some kind of a bug. She was running a fever this morning and I decided I had better stay home and keep an eye on her.”

  “Is it a problem, missing your class?”

  She shook her head. “I hate having to bring in a substitute this early in the school year but it can’t be helped. The school district knew when they hired me that my daughter’s health was fragile. So far they’ve been amazingly cooperative.”

  “She’s okay, isn’t she?”

  All he could think about even as he asked the question was the irony of the whole thing. Above all else, he had tried his best to avoid bumping into her. So how, in heaven’s name, had he managed to pick the one day she was home to finish the job?

  “I think she’s only caught a little cold,” Julia answered. “At least that’s what I hope it is. She’s sniffly and coughing a bit but her fever broke about an hour ago. I hope it’s just one of those twenty-four hour bugs.”

  “That’s good.”

  “Her night was a little unsettled but she’s sleeping soundly now. I figured rest was the best thing for her so I’m letting her sleep as long as she needs to beat this thing.”

  “Sounds like a smart plan.”

  “I guess you’re here to do the moldings in Anna’s apartment.”

  He nodded curtly, not knowing what else to say.

  “Do you have more supplies in your truck that need to come in? I can help you carry things.”

  “This is it.” His voice was more brusque than he intended and Conan made a snarly kind of growl at him.

  Will just barely managed not to snarl back. He didn’t need a dog making him feel guilty. He could do that all on his own.

  It wasn’t Julia’s fault she stirred all kinds of unwelcome feelings in him and it wasn’t at all fair of him to take out his bad mood on her.

  He forced himself to temper his tone. “Would you mind holding the door open for me, though? It’s going to rain soon and I’d hate for all this oak to get wet.”

  “Oh! Of course.” She hurried to open the door. The only tricky part now was that he would have to move past her to get inside, he realized. He should have considered that little detail.

  Too late now.

  He let out a sigh of defeat and picked up several of the moldings and squeezed past her, doing his best not to bang the wood on the doorway on his way inside.

  Going in wasn’t so tough. Walking back out for a second load with his arms unencumbered was an entirely different story. He was painfully aware of her—that scent of spring, the heat of her body, the flicker of awareness in her green eyes as he passed.

  Oh, he was in trouble.

  His only consolation was that she seemed just as disconcerted by his presence.

  “I guess you probably have a key to Anna’s apartment, don’t you?” she asked.

  He nodded. “I have keys to the whole house so I can come and go when I’m working on something. All but your apartment. I gave it back to Anna and Sage when I finished up on the second floor.”

  “Good to know,” she murmured.

  He cleared his throat, set down the moldings in the entry and fished in his pocket, then pulled out the Brambleberry keyring. Of course, his hands seemed to fumble as he tried to find the right one to fit the lock for Anna’s apartment, but he finally located it and opened her door.

  “Would you mind holding the apartment door open as well? I need to be careful not to hit the wood on the frame. If you could guide it through, that would be great.”

  “Sure!” She hurried to prop open the door with an eagerness that made him blink. Even though it was akin to torture, he had to walk past her all over again and he force
d himself to put away this sizzle of awareness and focus on the job.

  She followed him inside as he carried the eight-foot-long moldings in and set them behind Anna’s couch.

  “Can I give you a hand with anything else?” Julia asked. “To be honest, I’m a bit at loose ends this morning and was looking for a distraction. I’ve already finished my lesson plans for the next month and I’m completely caught up with my homework grading. I was just contemplating rearranging my kitchen cabinets in alphabetical order, just to kill the boredom. I’d love the chance to do something constructive.”

  That was just about the last thing on earth he needed right now, to have to work with Julia looking on. She was the very definition of distraction. With his luck, he’d probably be so busy trying not to smell her that he would glue his sleeve to the wood.

  His hesitation dragged on just a moment too long, he realized as he watched heat soak her cheeks.

  “You’re used to working alone and I would probably only get in the way, wouldn’t I? Forget I said anything.”

  He hated her distress, hated making her think he didn’t want her around. Was he a coward or was he a man who could contain his own unwanted desires?

  “I am used to working alone,” he said slowly, already regretting the words. “But I guess I wouldn’t mind the company.”

  It was almost worth his impending discomfort to see her face light up with such delight. She must really be bored if she could get so excited about handing him tools and watching him nail up moldings.

  “I’ll just run up and grab the walkie-talkie I let the kids use when they’re sick to call out to me when they need drinks and things. That way Maddie will be able to find me when she wakes up.”

  He nodded, though she didn’t seem to expect much of an answer as she hurried out the door and up the stairs.

  What the hell had he just done? he wondered. The whole point of scheduling this project during this time had been to avoid bumping into her. He certainly didn’t expect to find himself inviting her to spend the next hour or so right next to him, crowding his space, posing far too much of a temptation for his peace of mind.

  “What are you grinning at?” he growled to Conan.

  The dog just woofed at him and settled onto the rug in front of the empty fireplace. When Abigail was alive, that had always been his favorite place, Will remembered.

  He supposed it was nice to see a few things didn’t change, even though he felt as if the rest of his life was a deck of cards that had suddenly been thrown into the teeth of the wind.

  * * *

  She was a fool when it came to Will Garrett.

  Up in her apartment, Julia quickly ran a brush through her hair. She thought about touching up the quick makeup job she’d done that morning but she figured Will would probably notice—and wonder—if she put on fresh lipstick.

  Would he really notice? The snide voice in her head asked. He had made it plain he wasn’t interested in her. Or at least that he didn’t want to be interested in her, which amounted to the same thing.

  More reason she was a fool for Will Garrett. Some part of her held out some foolish hope that this time might be different, that this time he might be able to see beyond the past.

  Her conversation with Anna seemed to play through her head again. He’s a wonderful man who’s been through a terrible tragedy. But he’ll get through it. Have a little faith.

  She understood grief. Understood and accepted it. Despite their marital problems toward the end, she had mourned Kevin’s death for the children’s sake and for the sake of all those dreams they had once shared, the dreams that had been lost along the way somewhere.

  She understood Will’s sorrow. But she also accepted that she had missed him these last few weeks.

  He hadn’t been far from her thoughts, even as she went about the business of living—settling into the school year, getting to know her new students and coworkers at the elementary school, helping Simon and Maddie with their schoolwork.

  She glanced out the window at his workshop, tucked away behind his house beneath the trees. How many nights had she stood at the window, watching the lights flicker there, wondering how he was, what he was thinking, what he might be working on?

  She was obsessed with the man. Pure and simple. Perhaps they would both be better off if she just stayed up here with her daughter and pushed thoughts of him out of her head.

  She sighed. She wasn’t going to, because of that whole being-a-fool thing again. She couldn’t resist this chance to talk to him again, to indulge herself with his company and perhaps come to know a little more about the man he had become.

  She opened Maddie’s door and found her daughter still sleeping, her skin a healthy color and her breathing even. Julia scribbled a quick note to tell her where she was.

  “I have the other walkie-talkie so just let me know when you wake up,” she wrote and slipped the note under the other wireless handset on Maddie’s bedside table where she couldn’t miss it.

  She spent one more moment watching the miracle of her daughter sleeping.

  It was exactly the reminder she needed to wake her to the harsh reality of just how cautious she needed to be around Will Garrett.

  Girlhood crushes were one thing, but she had two children to worry about now. She couldn’t risk their feelings, couldn’t let them come to care any more about a man who quite plainly wasn’t ready to let anyone else into his life.

  She would walk downstairs and be friendly in a polite, completely casual way, she told herself as she headed for the door. She wouldn’t push him, she wouldn’t dig too deeply.

  She would simply help him with his project and try to bridge the tension between them so they could remain on friendly terms.

  Anything else would be beyond foolish, when she had her children’s emotional well-being to consider.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  When she returned to Anna’s apartment, she found Conan sleeping on his favorite rug but no sign of Will. His tools and the boards he had brought in were still in evidence but Will wasn’t anywhere to be found so Julia settled down to wait.

  A moment later, she heard the front door open. Conan opened one eye and slapped his tail on the floor but didn’t bother rising when Will came in carrying a small tool box and a container of nails.

  He faltered a little when he saw her, as if he had forgotten her presence, or, worse, had maybe hoped it was all a bad dream. She was tempted again to abandon the whole idea and return upstairs to Maddie. But some part of her was still intensely curious to know why he seemed so uncomfortable in her presence.

  He obviously wasn’t completely impervious to her or he wouldn’t care whether she hung around or not, any more than it bothered him to have Conan watching him work.

  Was that a good sign, or just more evidence that she ought to just leave the poor man alone?

  “Are you sure there’s not anything else I can bring inside for you?” she asked. “I’m not good for much but I can carry tools or something.”

  “No. This should be everything I need.”

  He said nothing more, just started laying out tools, and she might have thought he had completely forgotten her presence if not for the barest clenching of muscle along his jawline and a hint of red at the tips of his ears.

  She knew she shouldn’t find that tiny reaction so fascinating but she couldn’t seem to stop staring.

  She found everything about Will Garrett fascinating, she acknowledged somewhat grimly.

  From the tool belt riding low on his hips to the broad shoulders he had gained from hard work over the years to the tiny network of lines around his eyes that had probably once been laugh lines.

  She wanted to hear him laugh again. The strength of her desire burned through her chest and she would have given anything just then to be able to come up with some kind of hilarious story that would be guaranteed to have him in stitches.

  “Since you’re here, can you do me a favor?” he spoke suddenly as she was wra
cking her brain trying to come up with something.

  “Of course.” She jumped up, pathetically grateful for any task, no matter how humble.

  “I need to double check my measurements. I’ve checked them several times but I want to be sure before I make the final cuts.”

  “I guess you can’t be too careful in your line of work.”

  “Not when you’re dealing with oak trim that costs an arm and a leg,” he answered.

  “It’s gorgeous, though.”

  “Worth every penny,” he agreed, and for one breathless moment, he looked as if he wanted to smile. Just before the lighthearted expression would have broken free, his features sobered and he held out the end of the tape measure to her.

  He was a man who devoted scrupulous attention to detail, she thought as they measured and re-measured the circumference of the room. He had kissed her the same way, thoroughly and completely, as if he couldn’t bear the idea of missing a single second.

  Her stomach quivered at the memory of his arms around her and the intensity of his mouth searching hers.

  Maybe this hadn’t been such a grand idea, the two of them alone here in the quiet hush of a rainy day morning with only Conan for company.

  “What do you do when you don’t have a fumbling and inept—but well-meaning—assistant to help you out with things like this?” she asked, to break the sudden hushed intimacy.

  He shrugged. “I usually make do. I have a couple of high school kids who help me sometimes. Most jobs I can handle on my own but sometimes an extra set of hands can definitely make the work a lot easier.”

  She was grateful again that she had offered help, even if he still seemed uneasy about accepting.

  “Well, I can’t promise that my hands are good for much, but I’m happy to use them for anything you need.”

  As soon as the words left her mouth, she realized how they could be misconstrued. She flushed, but to her vast relief he didn’t seem to notice either her blush or her unintentionally provocative statement.

  “Thanks. I appreciate that.”

  He paused after writing down one more measurement then retracting the tape measure. “Robin was always after me to hire a full-time assistant,” he said after a moment.