Chapter Twenty-One
“That boy paid more attention than I thought,” True said between sips of coffee.
“To what?” Zee said, filling Hope’s cup. She didn’t have to ask what boy he was talking about, since there was only one who was a topic of conversation these days in Whiskey River.
“Remember when he used to hang out with me on jobs sometimes? Seems he learned a bit. He’s got that house in decent shape already.”
“With your help,” Zee pointed out.
“Just with a couple of two-man jobs. The rest he’s done himself. I think he’s ready to move some stuff in.”
“At least a bed to sleep in,” Hope said.
Zee’s gaze shot to her soon to be sister-in-law’s face. Her expression was bland. Too carefully bland. “Something you’d like to hint at?” she asked.
“Just wondering if Kelsey’s right, if you really picked out the color of your car because it matches his eyes.”
Zee opened her mouth. Shut it again. She hadn’t. No way she had picked that color, even waited an extra week for it to arrive from another dealer in Dallas, just because it was the same color of Jamie’s eyes. It just…
Coincidence?
Even she saw the flimsiness of that.
“Maybe I just like green,” she muttered.
“Sure,” True said easily. “Especially that particular green.”
“Remind me to snarl at Kelsey next time I see her,” she muttered.
“She’ll just smile at you like you’re a stubborn horse,” Hope said blithely.
“That is if Deck doesn’t take your head off first for daring to snarl at her,” True said, nearly as cheerfully.
“Thanks, family dearest,” she muttered.
“If we didn’t care, we wouldn’t prod,” Hope said. “Take that from an expert at being prodded by an expert.”
“Do not even go there. That’s my brother you’re talking about…prodding you.”
Hope burst out laughing. True looked smugly pleased. And Zee found herself smiling.
Later, when they had gone and she went out to her car, she stood for a moment staring at it in the Texas sun. It wasn’t exactly the color of Jamie’s eyes. Because his eyes had little wedges of lighter green amid the rest. Hard to get that in a car paint job.
But it was close enough, and she had to ruefully admit there was likely some truth to Kelsey’s theory. And she didn’t know which made her feel sillier, that she’d done it, or that she hadn’t realized—or at least admitted—it until now.
She went back inside, stopped inside the door and just stood, having trouble trying to mentally organize her day. Pretty soon she was grimacing at her own indecisiveness. Telling herself that’s what happens when you don’t have enough to do, you get to thinking you have all the time in the world.
Like Derek probably did?
She had never met him, but she knew he was—had been—younger than Jamie. Probably still thought he was immortal. Whereas Jamie, and she herself, had learned at age fourteen that no one, not even those who seem the strongest and most invincible were immortal. They—
She heard the distinctive thrum of the Mustang’s engine and whirled around in time to see the bright red car pull into the driveway behind hers. Those Dr. Seuss colors, she thought, and couldn’t help smiling. Maybe her car was Grinch green, but that meant so were his eyes. And for all his sins, that was a nickname that would never apply to Jamie Templeton.
This was the first time he’d come to her, and she found she felt a bit edgy, wondering why. She watched, from the safety of her office, as he got out of the car. He already looked better, less hollow than he had. And he moved better, too, with more of his usual grace.
See, Jamie? Only ten days back home and you’re looking like your old self again.
And suddenly she was moving, heading for the door. Realized she was nearly running, like the old days when just the sight of him made her world right and she couldn’t wait to greet him. She made herself slow down, but she still got to the door before he did.
“Hey,” he said, looking slightly self-conscious, as if now that he was here he wasn’t sure why. Or that he wanted to be.
“You look…better.”
He gave her a half-smile. “From what you said, that wouldn’t take much.”
“You did look pretty much like hell when you got here,” she said frankly.
“Felt it, too. Now I feel like I’m at least doing something.”
She grimaced. “Better than I’m doing today.”
“Then…would you come with me?”
She blinked, then belatedly realized he was holding up the key to the storage space. “Oh.”
“I need…” he began, then hesitated.
“To know where I put everything. Of course. But are you sure you don’t need True and his truck?”
“Not yet.” His voice was quiet when he added, “I was going to say I need that moral support. Nobody’s ever done that for me better than you.” For a moment all she could do was stare at him. And then he grinned, that quick, flashing, brilliant Jamie grin. “Besides, you know you want a ride in the Mustang with the top down.”
In the face of that, there was only one answer she could give. “Let’s go.”
*
It was good to be home, Jamie finally admitted as they waved at a grinning Trey Kelly going the other way, pulling a horse trailer with the Kelly’s Champs logo.
“People seemed to be getting over the shock,” Zee said.
“Yeah. The people who knew me before are almost back to normal.”
“You mean treating you like the kid they remember?”
He glanced over at her. “Some. Old man Johnson yelled at me to stay off his lawn. But he was smiling.”
Zee laughed. And the sound of it was brighter than the sun pouring down, warming his shoulders as the wind of their passage tossed their hair.
“I like your hair like this,” he said.
“Short? It’s less of a time sink.”
“I meant all wispy and tousled.” And the way it leaves the nape of your neck bare. Even if it does make me want to kiss it.
“Windblown, you mean?”
“Whatever. I just like it. It’s sexy.”
He’d said it without thinking about it much, but the look she gave him was like a roundhouse to the stomach.
“It is,” he said stubbornly.
“So it wasn’t before?” When he’d left Whiskey River, her hair had been halfway down her back.
He looked at her as they stopped at the corner in the town square. “I didn’t say that, and quit trying to pick a fight.”
“I wasn’t.” Her mouth quirked wryly. “I just don’t know how to handle it when you say things like that.”
“Why? I used to say them all the time.”
“Exactly. Used to. When we were…an us.”
“You mean when I had the right?”
“Yes.”
That was all she said, and the words just hung there between them. Because that said it all, he thought rather grimly. He drove on in silence. When the road ahead was empty, he risked a glance at her. “Sometimes what we think we want isn’t really what we want.”
She looked startled. Then thoughtful. “Was that aimed at me, or you?”
“Yes.”
She sighed. “I got very tired of wrestling with myself.”
“The war between heart and mind has been going on for a very long time,” he said as he moved to the left slightly to clear a bicyclist who looked geared up for a cross-country ride.
“Who usually wins?” She sounded so glum he nearly smiled, but somehow that didn’t seem wise just now.
“I think they just trade off,” he said. “If you’re lucky, the right one wins when it needs to, and it comes out about even.”
“I’m not sure mine’s been even for a while now.”
“True was worried about you. After I left.”
She blinked. “What?”
“He called to ask me what the hell I’d done to you. That was the first I knew of…how angry you were.”
She was quiet for a moment. Looked thoughtful. Then she asked, “Was that right around Thanksgiving?”
He flicked her a glance. “Yeah. Why?”
“First time he asked me how we’d left it.”
“Oh.” He took in a deep breath of his own before saying, “I gather since he didn’t come hunting me down, you said you told me to go.”
“I did. I’ve never denied that.”
“But?”
“I was foolish. And young. I really thought you might come home for the holidays.”
“That’s one of the best tour legs.”
“I know that.” The slightest bit of tension had come into her voice, and he realized he was hearing a faint echo of that war she’d talked about, from all those years ago. “I just didn’t realize it then. I didn’t know much about the business end of it all.”
Jamie smiled wryly. “Believe me, neither did I in the beginning. If Rob hadn’t taken us on, we would have made a serious mess of it all. As it is, we’ll all be okay until…we decide what we’re going to do.”
A silver coupe approached, heading into town. He didn’t know who it was. He was long gone from the days where he knew what kind of car everyone he knew drove, but a light tap from the horn told him they’d recognized him.
“Another fan,” she said, but there was no bite in it.
“More likely they just liked the car.”
He felt her gaze, but kept his eyes on the road because they were nearing the storage facility. “You never did get a big head about it, did you?”
“Oh, I did. When we were flying high. But life’s got a way of slapping you down.”
“Like taking away the people you love most?”
“Yeah.”
And then taking away the only reason you were able to keep going.