Page 10 of Finding Home

Elle’s gaze darted to where Pete pointed with his spatula. Her breath hitched as a familiar figure approached. “That’s not Dr. Owens.”

Dr. Owens was in his sixties. More salt than pepper colored his hair. He wore bow ties, even to picnics. He wasnotthe man strolling across the yard toward her. A man who was now as far away from her as he’d been in that field of baby goats.

FOUR

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

~Jane Austen,Pride and Prejudice

“That’snotDr. Owens,” Elle repeated, shaking her head.

The man that strode across the yard wore a muscle-hugging black T-shirt, khaki cargo shorts, and a navy Yankee’s cap she’d last seen earlier that morning.

“It’s Doc, Dr. Owens’ son.”

Each clue clicked into place like pieces of a puzzle she had no idea she was putting together. Uncle Pete’s shock that she didn’t know his first name was Clayton. CJ stood for Clayton James; she had forgotten that.

“Mrs. Coates. Coach.” CJ smiled, reaching the bottom of the steps where Elle and Tobey stood, a pink pastry box in his hand.

“Call me Pete.”

“You can call me Countess Coates,” Janet joked, descending the stairs with her head raised like a member of the royal family.

“Yes, madam,” he chuckled, giving Janet a quick bow before handing her the pastry box.

That was sweet.Elle’s lips lifted.

“Eleanor, nice to see you again.” The brim of his ball cap hung low, hiding a wink that Elle detected with a tiny movement of his cheek.

A flood of annoyance tinted with something else she chose not to examine heated her face, while he stood across from her apologizing to Jerome for being late because he was stuck “goating.” Elle nearly spit out her wine.

“Goating?” Jerome and Tobey asked, faces pinched in confusion.

“It’s the new sheeping.” He smirked.

Prickles of embarrassment heated her skin. “Oh, look. I’m empty.” She drained her glass. “I’ll get more.”

Elle turned, swung back, and for some unknown reason curtsied as if addressing royalty. At Tobey’s slacked mouth and CJ’s bemused expression, Elle realized what she’d done and ran into the house.

Laughter followed as she stepped through the sliding glass door into the house. Placing her wineglass on the kitchen’s granite countertop, she headed to the bathroom at the back of the house.

Behind the bathroom’s closed door, she leaned against it and waved a hand in front of her face. It wasn’t like her to get tongue-tied at boys from her past. With his tattoo and muscles, Clayton James Owens AKA Doc AKA CJ was not a boy.

The most verbal interaction they’d had in school was at the Winter Ball her junior year. It was the first time she’d felt pretty thanks to her purple lace dress. Well, until Summer Michaels had squeezed her once plump arm, squishing Elle’s fat.

Upset, she sat on the school bleachers watching everyone else dance until someone touched her arm for the second time that night. Turning with a growled,“Asshole,”she had found CJ Owens. Angry, at herself, at Summer, even at CJ, she’dpivoted to leave, but a misplaced foot sent her sailing. Only the hard floor below hadn’t caught her. CJ had. For a moment he just held her until a group of boys made a joke about him doing better. He mumbled“Shut up”and righted her. They stood quiet until she walked away.

Elle blew out the memory with a long breath. As she opened the door, CJ and Janet’s voices drifted from the kitchen where they discussed the dessert he’d brought.

“Frosted sugar cookies are Eleanor’s favorite.”

CJ cleared his throat. “I know.”

He knows?Elle’s mouth dropped open.

She paused in the hall as Janet lamented the strict diet Elle had embraced thirteen years ago to lose the extra weight she’d always carried.

“We just worry,” Janet said.

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