He stopped at another stop sign and turned his too-beautiful face to hers. “I’m sorry. I was an ass. It won’t happen again.”
“I was with you all the way up until the ‘won’t happen again’ part. You and I both know it will.” She couldn’t hold back her grin. “Probably inside of the next ten minutes. Especially since I do a pretty good job of living up to the nickname my family gave me as a little girl.”
“Nickname?”
She was so pleased by his unexpected interest in her that she turned the full wattage of her grin on him. “Naughty.”
Despite the fact that his irritated expression remained in place, she could have sworn his lips were twitching as he put his foot down on the gas pedal.
How fun would it be to actually see him smile? Lori knew she shouldn’t want it as badly as she did. Alas, she had never been very good at being prudent.
Not when impulsive had always been so much more fun.
* * *
After Grayson headed toward the hardware section, Lori found the cutest cowboy hat ever. She immediately plopped it onto her head to buy along with new boots, then waved at her teenaged friend behind the deli counter.
His face immediately turned red, just as it had the first time she’d talked to him, and his voice broke as he said, “Hello.”
She was just about to go over and do a little flirting with him when she realized her bag was buzzing. She pulled her phone out with far more caution than she usually did. Normally, her cell was like a fifth appendage. But she wasn’t ready to talk to anyone yet, and if anything other than her sister Sophie’s face had appeared on the screen, Lori would have dropped it right back into her bag unanswered.
“Hey, Soph,” she said as she put it to her ear, “how are the cutest little babies in the world doing?”
“They’re fine,” Sophie said, which was strange, because normally, asking her about her kids meant getting a good ten minutes of details that Lori was certain only a mother herself could possibly care about. “I got a call from a friend in Chicago who went to see your show. She said you weren’t there. What happened, Lor? And where the heck are you?”
Lori hated that she’d worried her sister. She hadn’t figured anyone would know she had left the show early, had hoped that she’d be able to disappear for a little while. But she should have guessed that someone in her huge family would know someone in Chicago and that word would get back before she was ready for it.
Lori had always been ready for anything, eager to grab every ounce of joy from life with both hands, both arms and legs. When, she suddenly wondered, had she stopped being ready and eager?
Especially, she thought as she caught sight of Grayson through the slats of the tall shelves on the other side of the General Store, for a man who turned her inside out with nothing more than a dark look, or a very few words. The couple of times he’d actually touched her were still imprinted on her skin as though he’d branded her instead.
“I’m okay,” she said first.
“Thank God,” Sophie said, and then, “Are you still in Chicago?”
“No.” This small farm town she’d chosen to visit on a whim couldn’t be further from the skyscrapers and busy traffic in the Windy City. “I’m actually back in California.”
“You are? Why didn’t you call to let us know you were home?”
“I needed some time to think.”
“Lori.” Her name on her twin’s lips was infused with such unconditional love that Lori nearly teared up in the middle of the store. “Tell me what happened. It was Victor, wasn’t it?”
“That’s over now.” Lori’s voice was hard.
“You’ve said that before, too many times. Do you really mean it this time?”
“Forever, Soph. I’ll never, ever go back to him. I promise you, I won’t.”
Her sister’s exhale of relief was loud and long. “How about I leave the babies with Jake tonight and you and I can go catch a double feature somewhere with extra-buttery popcorn and every box of candy in the place?”
She loved her sister so much, and it was so tempting to head back to San Francisco to let Sophie take care of her. But Lori had something to prove to herself first before she could go back to her real life.
And she hadn’t yet proved it, hadn’t even come close to turning the darkness that had settled inside her these past months back to bright, vibrant color.
“I love you, Soph,” she said first, because it was the most important thing of all. Now and forever. But she also had to say, “But I can’t come home. Not yet.”
“At least tell me where you are,” Sophie insisted.
“I’m working on a farm.”
Lori could easily picture her sister’s stunned expression as she repeated, “A farm?”
“With pigs and chickens and crops. I’m buying a pair of cowboy boots right now.”
“How could you have possibly ended up on a farm?”
“You know how these things go,” Lori said with a grin.
“There isn’t another guy involved, is there?”
“No,” Lori said, even though being around Grayson kept making her insides go all hot and fluttery. Even when he was being all grumpy and cranky. Especially then, if she was being completely honest with herself. He was just so different from any man she’d ever known. He didn’t waste one single second on trying to be charming or complimenting her so that he could get something from her. “I swear I just need to shake things up for a bit.” And, boy, had she ever done that, if the last twenty-four hours were anything to go by.
But her explanations clearly weren’t doing it for her sister, who was making little worried sounds into the phone. “Lor, this is crazy, even for you. If you won’t talk to me about what’s going on, you should at least call Mom.”
Panic skittered up Lori’s spine. If Mary Sullivan wrapped her warm arms around her daughter the way she had for as long as Lori could remember, she’d fall into a million pieces.
“Does Mom know I’m back?”
“No, not yet, but—”
Lori quickly cut her sister off. “When you and Jake had your one-night stand after Chase’s wedding and you got pregnant with the twins, I didn’t run off to blab to Mom. I kept your secret as long as you needed me to keep it. Now it’s your turn to keep mine.”
Her twin was silent for a long while. Too long for Lori’s peace of mind. Finally Sophie said, “I don’t like this. Especially when I’ve already been keeping secret everything that’s happened with Victor for almost two years.”