Her Minnesota Man (A Christian Romance Novel) (19 page)

Laney didn't need to look. He was describing Rae. And the woman's jeans weren't merely tight—they looked like they'd been airbrushed onto her curvy body.

"The four of us should go out."

"The four of us?" Laney
echoed faintly
. Was he seriously suggesting a double date?

"Yeah." He stuffed the last of the cookie into his mouth and talked around it. "Is Saturday night good for you?"

Absolutely not. "I don't think I could stomach watching chirpy Rae flirt with you over a meal, Jeb."

"I know we've never done anything like this, princess, but if I don't set something up, Steve might not find the courage to ask you. And even if he does, you'll still need me to help the conversation along."

"Need
you
?" Laney snorted. "Jeb, the Death Stare is hardly conducive to good conversation."

"I can be sociable if I have to. And Steve owns a hardware store and three horses. How perfect is that?"

"I give up." Noticing that Rae's head had just turned in their direction and that she was again playing with her super-highlighted hair, Laney laid a hand on Jeb's arm. "How perfect
is
it?"

He looked pointedly at her hand,
and
then lifted it by the wrist and pressed his empty cup into her palm.

"A hardware guy would be handy around the house," he said patiently. "And when you were going with the veterinarian, didn't you love riding his horses?" He balled up his napkin and dropped it in the cup. Then he slid his hands into his pockets, probably to prevent Laney from claiming one. "You and Steve also have that whole business-owner thing in common."

Not for long, Laney reflected morosely. The tearoom's days were numbered.

"Jeb, this doesn't feel right."

"Okay, forget Steve for the moment. See the guy he's talking to? That's Eric Swenson. Somebody said he's a dentist."

"An amazingly handsome widowed dentist," Laney said with a touch of amusement. "Yes, I know." She eyed the tall, well-dressed blond who obviously spent as much time lifting weights as he did drilling teeth. Sarah Jane hadn't exaggerated one bit about that chiseled jaw and those bluer-than-blue eyes.

"You know him?" Jeb sounded oddly deflated.

"Not exactly. He's Sarah Jane's cousin. We were supposed to go on a blind date, but I had to cancel at the last minute. He wasn't very understanding about it."

Jeb's head swung back in Eric's direction.

"Don't bother glaring at him," Laney said. "It was nothing. But listen, Jeb, I've changed my mind about getting married."

"What?" His gaze flew back to her and he shook his head. "No, you haven't."

"Yes, I have." Looking again at the beauteous Rae, Laney fought a surge of despair. Didn't she have enough troubles without the unreasonable jealousy she was feeling tonight? Where had this awful emotion come from?

"Could we just go home?" she asked, trying not to sound as dejected as she suddenly felt. "I can't play volleyball in a dress, and you're hungry. We could heat up that venison chili and then go for a walk or something."

His eyes searched her face. "And talk about last night."

"What's to talk about?" Laney's gaze faltered. "You know I'm sorry. I haven't been sleeping well, that's all. You know how cranky I get when I'm overtired." It wasn't much of an apology, but if she tried to give him any more right now, she'd end up in tears.

He studied her for another moment, and then he nodded. "All right. I was hoping to accomplish more tonight, but we did okay. I'm optimistic about next week."

"That makes one of us," Laney said under her breath as she preceded him out the door.

"It's been twelve days, Jackson."

"Yes, Shari." Holding the phone against his ear with a hunched shoulder, Jeb sniffed the inside of his Thermos bottle and decided it wasn't too funky to fill with the fresh hot coffee he'd just made. "We do have calendars here in Minnesota." He moved to the sink and ran some warm tap water into the bottle.

Shari didn't immediately respond. Jeb died a little when he realized she was probably sucking on a cigarette.

He'd gone more than two weeks without one.

"You can't just leave us hanging," Shari said finally.

Jeb's temper flared. "I told you I needed to get away from the band and think. Twelve days is not an unreasonable amount of time for that." He swished the water around in his Thermos and then dumped it into the sink.

Shari started to say something else, but Jeb heard his Call Waiting signal and pulled the phone away from his ear to check the display. It was Taylor.

"Shari, I have to go. I'll be in touch." He switched to the other call. "What's up, Taylor?"

"Just called to say hey, man."

"All right, you said it." Jeb grabbed the carafe from his coffeemaker's warming plate and poured a steady stream of extra-strong coffee into the Thermos. "Just like Aaron said it yesterday and just like Shari was saying it when I hung up on her to take your call."

"Sorry, man. We're concerned, you know?"

Jeb sighed. "I know. But I can't get any thinking done with you guys hounding me like this."

"Okay, just forget I called." Taylor ended the connection.

"I'll do my best," Jeb muttered as he capped the Thermos. He dropped the phone into his pocket and rolled his shoulders to ease the tension there.

Twelve days, and he wasn't any closer to the answers he'd come home to find. He couldn't stay in Owatonna much longer because of Laney, but another week ought to be okay. After that, maybe he'd head to that deserted beach in Mexico, just like he'd planned to do before he'd decided to come home.

On second thought, there was an awful lot of tequila down there. He'd better avoid Mexican beaches until he dried out a little more.

He was reading his Bible every day. That was alternately comforting and terrifying, just like his daily forays into the mysteries of prayer. It was an awesome thing, asking Almighty God to help him, especially when he was never entirely sure what to ask for or how to format his prayers.

He couldn't wait to spill his secret and ask Laney to instruct him.

Laney. She'd spent sixteen years praying for him before it had paid off, but he'd finally seen the light and renounced his sinful ways.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Jeb wondered whether Shari and the guys had anyone praying for them.

What if they didn't?

He tucked the Thermos under his arm, grabbed a shabby old coat with a pair of canvas gloves jammed into the pockets, and hit the button by his back door to open the garage. He had some thinking to do, and thinking was always a lot easier when he held a fishing rod.

He meant to pray some, too. And not just for himself this time.

He tossed his canoe on top of the Explorer and headed over to Lincoln's GGMM—"Gas, Garage & Mini Mart"—where he stuck a gas nozzle in the SUV's tank.

The world needed more places like Lincoln's, he reflected as he stared up at the clear blue sky. Places where a guy could refuel his truck and then maybe get a quick oil change while he ducked into the Mini Mart to grab a free cup of coffee and buy some fresh hot doughnuts and a box of nightcrawlers. Places where the cashier could always tell a guy what fish were biting at the nearby lakes.

"Bell! I thought that was you!" Ollie Lincoln strode toward him from the garage, a welcoming smile on his grease-smudged face.

"It's been a long time," Ollie said as he wiped his hands on a faded red rag. Apparently unsatisfied that his right hand was clean enough for a handshake, he simply nodded at Jeb and stuffed the rag into a pocket of his coveralls.

Jeb returned the nod. "Thanks for the venison. Too bad about your truck."

"Not my favorite way to bag a deer," Ollie said ruefully. He ran a hand through his spiky red hair. "You doing okay, then?"

"Can't complain." This had already gone further than Jeb normally allowed any non-essential conversation to progress, but he was a changed man now, so he exerted himself, just as he'd done last Tuesday night and then again yesterday morning at church. "I hear you got married."

"I sure did." Ollie's ruddy complexion brightened further as he grinned. "You should give it a try."

"Marriage?" Jeb snorted. "I don't think so."

"What about Laney?"

"It's not like that with us," Jeb said.

As Ollie's eyes narrowed in what looked like amused speculation, Jeb struggled to steer the conversation past that dangerous curve. What did normal guys talk about?

Sports. He recalled Laney mentioning that Ollie was as talented with a curling stone as Jeb was with a basketball.

"You still curling?" he asked.

"You bet. Ever done any, yourself?"

"No." The gas nozzle clicked off and Jeb removed it from the tank. He'd never been especially interested in what looked to him like shuffleboard on ice, but he was determined to become a better conversationalist, so he padded his terse reply with more words. "Never thought about it."

That was all the encouragement Ollie seemed to need. He spent the next couple of minutes rhapsodizing about the sport and about his member-owned club.

"Come by any Thursday night," he
said
. "That's when my team practices. You could try throwing a few stones."

"I might do that," Jeb murmured, surprised to find himself actually considering it. What was happening to the guy who'd quit the high school basketball team because he'd been so uncomfortable with all that high-fiving and camaraderie?

"Great," Ollie said. "Hey, I hear you're going to church now."

Jeb hesitated. How could he respond without provoking questions he couldn't yet answer because of Laney?

In his old life, he'd simply ignored questions he didn't like. But he was a different man now, so he should have been prepared for this. He should have realized the local grapevine would be buzzing with the news that Jackson Bell had
been spotted in a house of worship, of all places. He should have known somebody would eventually corner him.

He stalled for time by removing his sunglasses and rubbing an imaginary smudge off one lens with his thumb, but God didn't take that opportunity to insert any useful thoughts into his mind. He slid the glasses back on and was opening his mouth with no earthly idea what was about to come out of it when he was saved by a guy bellowing from the garage that Ollie's wife was on the phone.

Ollie grinned. "
Gotta
go. Don't forget, we curl on Thursdays at eight." He turned and jogged back to the garage.

Jeb paid for his gas and bought a bag of minnows. Climbing back into the Explorer, he wondered how much longer he could avoid telling Laney he'd given his heart to God. He'd been praying about it, but he wasn't sure he was praying correctly. Neither was he certain he'd recognize an answer from God if he received one.

At least he'd gotten her back to church. If he hadn't made any other progress, there was still that. Yesterday he had accompanied her to the worship service and Sunday school class for the second week in a row. And tomorrow they'd go to the singles' thing again.

Maybe he could talk her into giving Steve What's-his-name a chance. Maybe if he prayed hard enough, she'd fall in love with Steve or with some other deserving guy. And then when she was finally headed down the road to happily-ever-after, maybe Jeb's foolish heart would stop yearning for things it could never have.

Yeah. Maybe.

He was driving past the tearoom when he noticed something was happening there, even though it was Monday and the place was closed. Laney usually did her bookkeeping and cleaning on Mondays, so it was no surprise to see Francine in the parking lot. But the Graces' Buick was there, too, and another car.

Was everything all right? Jeb turned the Explorer around and went to find out.

He parked in front of the building and was making for the kitchen entrance just around the corner when the dining room door swung open and Aggie beckoned urgently. He pivoted on the ball of one foot and walked toward her.

"You can't go in the kitchen." Behind her glasses,
Aggie's
blue eyes twinkled as she backed up to allow him to cross the threshold. "Laney's got a man in there."

A man? Jeb stared at the closed kitchen door and wondered why he'd been left out of the matchmaking loop.

"A real estate agent," Millie clarified, taking Jeb's arm and steering him to the Graces' favorite table, where Caroline sat. "She showed this guy around one morning last week before we got here. She didn't even tell us until hours later."

And she hadn't told Jeb at all. Poor princess. She was probably afraid he'd offer her money again.

Nodding to Caroline, he held Millie's chair while she sat down.

"First thing this morning," Caroline said, "she decided to invite him back. And this time she told us, so we came right over to give her some moral support."

"Also because we're nosey," Aggie admitted as she settled onto her chair like a fluffy old hen.