Larkspur Road (26 page)

“How’d I do?” Grady asked eagerly ten days later. He was sitting cross-legged on Mia’s living room floor, tossing Samson’s stuffed bear into the hall for the twentieth time and watching the dog chase after it.

“One minute and I’ll tell you.” Mia was almost finished grading the last section of the English test it had taken him less than forty minutes to complete.

Three pages of identifying verbs, adjectives, and pronouns. And then a paragraph he’d written himself, where she’d asked him to circle his adjectives in red marker, the verbs in blue, and the pronouns in yellow.

“Not bad.” Setting the last page aside, a smile broke across her face. “You got every one of them right, Grady. One hundred percent. You didn’t miss even one.”

“Guess that means I’m not such a dummy after all, huh?” The boy’s grin belied his casual words. His face flushed with pride—even the tips of his ears turned red. “Wait’ll I tell
my dad—and my mom. She won’t believe it. She told me not to get my hopes up about getting into sixth grade.”

“If I were you, I’d get my hopes way up. Way,
way
up,” she said immediately, and then remembered. If Val and Drew Baylor had their way, Grady might not have a chance to get into sixth grade in September. They’d already arranged for him to repeat fifth grade—at Broadcrest Academy.

“Can I call my dad and tell him?” Grady scrambled up from the floor. “He’s at work.”

“Be my guest.” Mia handed him her cell. “This calls for a celebration. How about a slice of peach pie and a glass of milk? Then we’ll take a look at your science homework.”

“Thanks!”

Mia smiled to herself as she cut a generous wedge of the pie and slid it onto a cornflower blue plate.

All Grady had needed, she thought, was a little guidance, attention, and structure. He was incredibly bright. Very focused when he put his mind to something. And thanks to Travis’s encouragement, he’d ventured to believe in himself. He was making great progress and it was crystal clear to Mia that he’d never been a lazy student—just one of those drop-through-the-cracks, unmotivated ones.

Seeing how well he was doing now was a pungent reminder of all the reasons she’d become a teacher. And almost made her forget for the moment her worries about Wade Collins.

Brittany’s ex-boyfriend hadn’t been seen or heard from in ten days. Everyone in Lonesome Way was on the lookout for him now. But for all anyone knew, he might have vanished into a crack in the earth.

He’d made no attempt to contact Britt since leaving the blood-drenched flowers on her bed. And though forensic testing had revealed that the blood had come from a rabbit, the State Police, Sheriff Hodge, and Deputy Zeke Mueller had nothing more to go on. In all this time, they hadn’t
spotted any trace of the car registered to him, much less Wade himself.

No one matching his description had been seen anywhere around town, and Travis told Mia privately that either the kid must have taken off for parts unknown or he was hiding out in the wilderness somewhere, biding his time, waiting until the search died down and he could chance sneaking back into town and striking out at Brittany again.

The fact that Mia had seen him outside Ponderosa Earl’s with a sack of purchases and a sleeping bag seemed to suggest he was making camp somewhere. Hiding out. Lying low.

And with all of the campgrounds, sprawling forests, mountains, ravines, and isolated bluffs in the vast wilderness spaces of Montana, the odds of finding him before he came back into town again on his own seemed slight.

There appeared little chance that he’d just give up and leave. According to what Britt had told Mia the day after Wade broke in, he had no family to anchor him, no one to return to.

He’d mentioned to her once that his mother had taken off when he was nine and he hadn’t seen her since. His dad had kicked him out of the house when he was seventeen. He’d been on his own ever since, tending bar or working as a bouncer. She’d lied to her parents about him from the very beginning—told them he was a college student because she knew they wouldn’t approve of her dating someone four years older, someone who worked in a bar.

She’d wanted to help him, Britt had explained tearfully. Mia had listened with a pang of dismay. Her niece had learned some hard lessons—and learned them the hard way. You can’t save someone who doesn’t want to save himself. And you can’t run from trouble. You need to face it head-on.

Seth had been furious when Britt told him she’d guessed who was behind the spray-painting all along and hadn’t said a word. And who could blame him? But after a few days of
miserable silence between them, the two seemed to have worked it out.

And though Mia at first thought it would be best for Britt to get out of Dodge, Steve was in China and Sam was still in Corfu, though she’d been desperately looking for an earlier flight home. But Britt had cajoled them both in long emails into letting her stay in Lonesome Way a little longer.

“Wade’s gone. He must be on the run. I bet he won’t dare come back to Lonesome Way—the cops and everyone in town are looking for him. I’m safer here right now than back in Butte—especially with the awesome security system Travis put in. Wade can’t possibly break in again, not without the whole world knowing about it the second he touches any of the doors or windows. I swear, the CIA couldn’t get into Aunt Mia’s house!”

She’d gone on and on about how much she loved working at A Bun in the Oven, though Mia suspected she just didn’t want to leave Seth.

Summer love could be a powerful thing.

So after checking with Mia and learning all of the details about the security system, and how Travis was keeping an eye on the entire situation, both her parents had agreed to let her stay. Now it was only a matter of a few more days before Sam and Alec would be home, and Steve was flying back to the States soon after.

After the first few tense days following the break-in, Mia had managed to shake off most of her unease. She
wanted
to believe that Wade Collins was gone for good, but she couldn’t help it—she still felt a chill sometimes when she entered her own home. Even with the security system Travis had installed.

It would’ve been so much easier to forget about how Britt’s ex-boyfriend had violated her home and locked up her dog and tried to terrorize Brittany if she knew for a fact he was gone.

Still, as the days passed, life had settled again into a
soothing everyday rhythm that seemed far removed from the fear and chaos of the break-in.

When she wasn’t tutoring Grady, or having supper with Travis and him and often Britt, she was checking in with Aunt Winona, bringing her meat loaf and mashed potatoes one day, casseroles and sandwiches or a salad the next—and once, another pie, this time a juicy Dutch apple with streusel topping from A Bun in the Oven.

Bit by bit Mia felt she was making progress. Chipping away at the layers of her aunt’s distrust, even though the visits never lasted longer than fifteen or twenty minutes.

Travis had taken Mia on a tour of his office space one day while Grady was having lunch at the drive-through with Evan and Justin and their mom. It was the day before Travis’s new office manager—a fifty-two-year-old former judge’s secretary from Livingston—was due to start work, and he brought in pizza and Cokes from Pepper Rony’s down the street and set up a picnic for them on a red-and-blue-checked tablecloth spread upon the floor.

After lunch they pulled the shades and tore off each other’s clothes and made love on the sofa in his private office, ignoring the ringing phones, the high-tech equipment, and the passage of time.

Aside from the Wade scare, Mia couldn’t remember any time since high school when she’d had a sweeter summer.

“My dad wants to take us all out to dinner tonight because I got one hundred on the test,” Grady announced. “He said you owe him a rain check for the Lucky Punch Saloon.”

“I seem to remember something about that.” Mia’s lips quirked up in a smile as she slid the plate of pie and a fork onto a yellow and white quilted placemat at the dining room table.

“I’ve never been to the Lucky Punch Saloon.” The boy’s green eyes were bright and hopeful on hers. “But Justin and Evan said there’s a mini mechanical bull that kids can ride. And a saddle on the wall that was supposed to belong to
Billy the Kid. Can we go? Please?” The eagerness in his tone made something tighten in her chest.

Can
we
go. He was asking as if she—and Britt—were family. Part of a tight little unit, each one of them belonging to the whole. A glorious warmth burst through her heart. She had to force herself to take a breath and keep her feet from floating off the ground. Had to remind herself that they
weren’t
family. And might never be.

She and Travis cared about each other and had dizzily wonderful, fabulous sex.

That was it.

Except for the fact that her feelings for him were deeper than they’d ever been. That she thought about him a hundred times a day and could barely work on her quilt or plan a lesson for Grady without wondering when they’d see each other again. And when she was kissing Travis or making love to him or even telling him about her day she could barely think at all.

Which scared the crap out of her.

Because beyond all that, nothing was for certain. He’d never once said he loved her. He’d never spoken a word about the future. And neither had she.

She knew Travis had to focus on looking out for his son. Making sure Grady didn’t get shoved under the rug by his mother and stepdad. He couldn’t let Grady get shipped off to boarding school or left alone to watch a fifty-inch flat-screen TV by himself. The very thought of both of those prospects made Mia burn with anger.

“Can we go?” Grady asked again, yanking her back to her kitchen as he shifted impatiently from one foot to the other, her cell phone still clutched in his small hand. “Please say yes!”

“We-ell,” she told him, happy to see the hopeful grin creasing his face as she poured him a glass of milk and brought it to the table, “Britt’s coming straight home when her shift ends at five. So,
yes
. It sounds like a plan.”

“Yippee!” Grady whooped so loudly Samson dashed over to stare at him expectantly. “Dad wants to talk to you.” He handed back the phone.

”Don’t pay any attention to what my son just said,” Travis told her. “I mean, I
do
want to talk to you. But that doesn’t begin to cover it. I want to do a whole lot more to you than that. Things I can’t repeat when there’s kids around.”

“Sounds good to me.” She smiled. Grady had slipped into the chair and was whipping through that peach pie as if he hadn’t touched a morsel of food in weeks.

“I’ve got a genius plan for after supper.”

“I’ll just bet you do.”

She almost heard his grin over the phone. “Rafe’s taking Ivy and her pals to a movie tonight. Grady and Britt—and even Seth, if he wants to go—are invited along. My brother volunteered to keep an eye on all of them for a couple of hours. Which means you and I can keep an eye on each other.”

“Nice.” Anticipation curled in her belly.

“Oh, it’s going to be a whole lot better than nice.” The husky deliberateness of Travis’s tone sent giddy shivers through her. “Guaranteed. You. Me. Wine. A real bed. The works.”

“I’m so there.”

“Me, too.” He paused a moment. “I miss you, Mia. We need to do something about that.”

“I’d like that, too. Let’s.”

Careful. He only means we need to spend more time together. Alone,
Mia reminded herself after they ended the call.
He’s not talking about love. Or marriage. He’s not thinking about happily ever after
.

And a wise little voice in her ear warned her that she shouldn’t be thinking about it either.

On the Friday morning that she was taking Aunt Winny to see the doctor, Mia woke up early.

After whipping through a fast shower she pulled on a scoop-necked white tee and dark green shorts, then drove Brittany to her early shift at the bakery, since instead of taking the Jeep to her aunt’s appointment, she’d decided to pick Winny up in Britt’s convertible instead. It would be easier for her aunt to get into Britt’s car than to maneuver herself into the SUV with a cane.

And since Britt’s shift ended at noon, Mia had another plan as well—convincing Winny to join them both for lunch after the doctor appointment.

Despite the older woman’s earlier objection to setting foot in A Bun in the Oven, Mia suspected that Britt’s joining them might just tip the scales in her favor. Winny had a soft spot for Britt.

She’s not nearly as tough as she’d like everyone to think,
Mia mused on her way back from dropping her niece at work.

Since she had plenty of time before she needed to head to the cabin, she returned home and took Samson for a walk, then enjoyed a quick cup of coffee and a blueberry crumb muffin on the porch with the little dog curled up beside her, his eyes drifting closed as the sun warmed his fur. Clouds loomed to the west, though. It looked like rain. Narrowing her eyes at the sky, Mia had a feeling thunderstorms would roll in later.