The Lawman's Nanny Op (10 page)

“No, thanks. I’m still on duty. In fact, I need to get out of here.” Caleb stood.

“Let me know how those sparks work out,” Jacob said with a wry grin.

Caleb walked to the door and then turned to face his brother. “Trust me, they won’t work out. I’m a man meant to live alone.”

A burst of laughter left Jacob, the sound rusty as if from lack of use. Caleb hadn’t heard his brother laugh since he’d returned to Black Rock and for a moment he savored the sound. Then he straightened his shoulders and glared at his brother. “What’s so damned funny?”

“The idea of you being alone the rest of your life. I’ve never known any man less inclined to choosing to be alone than you.” Jacob’s eyes darkened. “And trust me, I know all about being alone.” Jacob raised the bottle of beer toward his lips. “Go on, get out of here. I’ll talk to you later.”

As Caleb opened the door Jacob took a deep drink of the beer and raised a hand in goodbye. Caleb frowned as he got back into his car.

Jacob had become another concern on his radar. He was drinking too much, spending far too much time alone, and it was rare that Caleb saw glimpses of the man he had been before whatever events had brought him back home.

Tom and Benjamin had jokingly mentioned that they needed to have an intervention for Jacob, force him out of the cabin and back into the world with love and concern. But Caleb knew that wasn’t going to happen. All of them respected Jacob’s need at the moment to stay reclusive. It was obvious he was working something out in his mind. Hopefully, eventually he’d rejoin the world or at least tell them what had happened to him.

As he headed back to town his thoughts skittered over the members of his family. Fear gripped his throat as he thought about Brittany and concern filled him when he considered Jacob. At least Tom had found love with Peyton, and Benjamin was just a laid-back, happy soul whose goal in life was to see everyone else just as happy.

The afternoon passed with more of the same, chasing down false leads and fighting against a frustration that threatened to be all consuming.

He left the office at dusk but before heading home he swung by Portia’s place. He wanted to make sure that Layla was really there and that Portia wasn’t all alone.

With each day that passed and in which nothing more happened, he wondered if maybe there was no further danger for Portia. Perhaps the crash on the road had truly been some sort of accident and the person responsible had simply been too scared to stop.

Whoever had a beef with Portia, maybe their anger had been vented with the posting of the flyers and the vandalism in the day care. Maybe he was looking for trouble where there was none.

Maybe he was inventing trouble in order to have a purpose in her life. The thought hit him square in the stomach and nearly stole his breath away.

Immediately he shoved it away. That was not what he was doing. There had been three incidents of violence directed at Portia. He’d be a fool and completely irresponsible not to expect a fourth.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he pulled up to the curb in front of her house and saw Layla’s sports car in the driveway.

Good, at least Portia wouldn’t be alone.

An old rush of feelings swept through him, a bittersweet pang of loss, of broken dreams and unrealized hopes. The familiar bitterness crawled up the back of his throat and he swallowed hard against it.

As the emotions swelled inside him, he knew his brother was wrong about him. No matter how many sparks there were between him and Portia, no matter how lonely he found his life, he was never going to give his heart to another woman.

Jacob was wrong. He was meant to be alone.

Chapter 7

“I
t’s going to look awesome,” Portia said as she stepped back from the bright yellow wall that they’d finished painting over the last couple of hours.

“To heck with the walls, what I want to know is what are you going to feed me for dinner? I’m starving,” Layla exclaimed as she laid down her paint roller. “You’ve practically worked me to death this afternoon.”

Portia laughed. “And just think, we get to do it all again tomorrow. We still have three walls left to paint.” She threw an arm around Layla’s shoulder. “And dinner is going to be pizza delivery. I’m too tired to cook.”

Together the two women cleaned up their brushes and rollers and left the garage and headed for the house. Once inside, Layla plopped onto the sofa while Portia grabbed the phone to order the pizza. When the pizza order had been placed Portia joined her friend on the sofa.

“I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you taking some time off and hanging out here with me,” Portia said.

Layla smiled and shoved a strand of her long blond hair behind one of her ears. “Work has been slow and I had vacation time coming, and I can’t think of anyone I’d rather spend it with than you.” She wrinkled her nose and frowned. “And I think it sucks, that I don’t have some Prince Charming begging me to spend a couple of days with him.”

“This town is definitely short of Prince Charmings,” Portia agreed and her head immediately filled with a vision of Caleb.

He might have been her Prince Charming years ago but she’d believed his crown had tarnished and there was no way to get the shine back. All day long she’d wondered if she’d been wrong about him back then. Had it been her heart that had tarnished and not his princely crown?

She jumped up from the sofa. “Come on, let’s go into the kitchen and get some sodas and get ready for our pizza.” She didn’t want to think about Caleb anymore. She didn’t want to think about how much she’d wanted him the night before, how much that want still sizzled inside her.

Once they were in the kitchen Layla sat at the table and Portia pulled out plates and got their drinks. They talked about their work in the day care the next day, Layla’s lack of real-estate sales and the fact that she might have to consider a new career path because of the current economic times.

“What would you like to do if you don’t work in real estate?” Portia asked.

Layla paused a long moment. “I know it sounds totally out of character for me, but what I’d really like is to be somebody’s wife, somebody’s mother. I’d like a couple of years of being a stay-at-home wife and mother and building a home and then when the kids went to school I’d decide what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.” She flashed Portia a grin. “Lame, huh?”

“Not lame at all,” Portia replied with a new burst of warmth for her friend, “although maybe a little politically unpopular nowadays.”

“I’ve never been one for following the politically correct path,” Layla replied. “You know I had a giant crush on Jacob Grayson when I was young.”

“Really?” Portia replied in surprise. “He was definitely nice looking but he always seemed kind of scary to me.”

Layla grinned. “Your scary, my sexy.”

“That should be the pizza,” Portia said when the doorbell rang. She hurried to the door and threw it open and gasped as she saw the tall blond man standing on her porch. “Joe!” she said in surprise as a tiny edge of fear sprang to life. “What are you doing here?”

Joe Castle was a handsome man with piercing blue eyes, blond hair and a tanned, weathered face. At the moment his eyes were cold and hard and his mouth was a thin slash of displeasure as he glared at her. “Do you have a problem with me?” he asked.

Portia held tight to the edge of the door, unsure what Joe might be capable of. “Of course not,” she replied.

“Then why do I have Caleb Grayson on my ass?”

Portia breathed a small sigh of relief as Layla stepped up next to her. “Hi, Joe,” Layla said. “What’s going on?”

“I just want Portia to know that I had nothing to do with what’s happening to her. I’d never hurt a woman and I’m definitely not into vandalism.”

“Joe, I’m sorry if all this has made you uncomfortable, but Caleb has to investigate and the first thing he asked me was who had been in my life lately. I had to tell him we’d dated and unfortunately that put you on his potential-suspect list,” Portia said. “I never even considered it might be you,” she added. It was a fib, but one that instantly dispelled some of the tension in Joe.

“I’m glad to hear that,” he replied gruffly. “We dated long enough that you should know what kind of man I am, and I’m not a woman abuser.”

At that moment the pizza-delivery car pulled up to the curb and a young boy got out carrying a carton. “Looks like you’re getting ready to eat. I just wanted to tell you to your face that I had nothing to do with all this.” Joe didn’t wait for a response but instead turned on his boot heels and strode back to his car.

Portia paid for the pizza and the two women returned to the kitchen. “You think he really came here to apologize?” Layla asked as she grabbed a slice of the gooey pizza and put it on her plate.

“Why else would he have come?” Portia asked.

Layla shrugged her slender shoulders. “Maybe for attack number four?”

“That’s ridiculous. Surely he saw your car in the driveway and knew I wasn’t here all alone.”

“Maybe he thought the car in your driveway was a rental since yours is in the shop,” Layla countered.

Portia took a bite of her pizza and frowned. Surely Joe didn’t feel that kind of rage against her just because she’d decided they weren’t right for each other.

The news is filled with stories of women being murdered because of unrequited love,
a little voice whispered inside her head. “I just can’t believe this is all happening,” she finally said. “I keep thinking this is a nightmare and eventually I’m going to wake up.”

“If it is a nightmare I don’t appreciate you involving me in your bad dreams,” Layla said, making Portia grin.

For the remainder of the meal the two indulged in a little gossip. They placed bets on when Tom Grayson and Peyton would get married, how long it might be before Walt Tolliver needed to be committed and Layla’s penchant for bad boys.

“I think Benjamin Grayson is pretty hot,” she said, “but he’s just too nice for me.”

Portia thought about Caleb’s brother. Like all of the Grayson men, Benjamin was definitely a hunk but he was also the most easygoing and good-natured of all the brothers. Layla was right, she was far too tempestuous for a man like Benjamin. She’d eat him up and spit him out.

“Benjamin doesn’t date much. If fact, I can’t think of anyone he’s dated,” Portia said thoughtfully.

Layla tore a piece of crust in half and popped it into her mouth and chewed thoughtfully. “I can’t think of anyone he’s dated, either,” she finally added. “I wonder what happened to Jacob? I haven’t heard anything about him in years.”

“Who knows? Maybe we are both meant to be old maids with lots of cats and only memories of our old boyfriends to keep us warm,” Portia said.

“Mr. Whiskers is my baby, but he’s no substitute for a man. Besides, I don’t know about me, but I definitely know you’re meant to get married and have a dozen babies. That’s all you’ve ever wanted.”

A faint depression settled over Portia’s shoulders. Yes, that’s exactly what she’d always wanted—and that’s what Caleb had once promised her, love and family.

“Sometimes I wonder how different my life would have been if I hadn’t broken up with Caleb when I was in college,” she said.

Layla reached for another piece of pizza. “Maybe not so different, except that you’d be watching your own kids along with everyone else’s.”

“I sometimes wonder if I was wrong to listen to gossip instead of listening to Caleb.”

“Possibly,” Layla replied easily. “There were a lot of girls who were jealous of you in high school. Caleb was one of the hottest guys in the school and you had him wrapped around your little finger from your sophomore year on. Lots of girls would have loved to see the two of you break up so they could have a chance with him. But it’s all water under the bridge now, right?”

“Right.” Portia frowned thoughtfully. “But I have to confess that I have just a little bit of regret inside me.”

“Regret is kind of a wasted emotion unless it brings some sort of lesson with it,” Layla replied. “Of course it would be nice if we could go back and fix all the things we regret.”

Portia thought of the hardness she’d seen in Caleb’s eyes that morning. Was she partially responsible for that faint edge of anger she occasionally saw in the depths of his eyes?

She didn’t know, but what she suspected was there was no way to fix what had gone wrong between them, no way to reclaim the magic that they had had before. Besides, he’d made it clear that he was only interested in having sex with her again, not in having a real, meaningful relationship.

They finished eating and moved into the living room for more girl talk. The phone rang at eight-thirty. It was Caleb checking in to make sure they were okay.

The sound of his deep voice caused a whisper of a shiver inside her, a shiver of the sweet desire she’d felt for him the night before. She assured him they were fine, that Layla was staying with her for the rest of the week and the call ended.

“I know I have a reputation as a party girl, but all that painting and moving furniture wore me slick,” Layla said as she stifled a yawn with the back of her hand.

“I’m pooped, too,” Portia admitted, although she thought her exhaustion came more from too many thoughts about Caleb than from the physical work she’d accomplished that day.

“You aren’t going to get me up at the crack of dawn, are you?” Layla asked as the two headed down the hallway to the bedrooms. “You know how much I need my beauty sleep.”

“I promise I won’t wake you too early,” Portia replied as she turned on the light in the guest bedroom. She gave Layla a grateful hug. “Thanks.”

“For what?” Layla asked.

“For being here. For being my friend.”

Layla grinned. “I have to be your friend, you know all my secrets.”

Portia laughed and released her. “You know where everything is, but if you need something you can’t find just let me know.”

“I’ll be fine,” Layla assured her. The two said good night and Portia headed for her bedroom at the end of the hallway.

Like Layla, she was exhausted. Her arm muscles and back ached from the strain of wielding a paint roller, and a hot shower sounded like heaven at the moment.