Page 91 of Guilty as Sin
He drove away again after kissing her good-bye. Not on her sore mouth, but on her cheek. And no kind of a passionate clinch. A gentle hold, a tender touch, the back of his hand brushing down the side of her face. He could have said it was for effect, but it would have been a lie. And when she smiled into his eyes and said, “See you at Lily’s at six-fifteen?” and he said, “Yeah”—that felt real.
She was limping when she walked across to the shop. The boards still covered the window, and the bold, brave sign and pink-and-white balloons still announced a special, secret sale that you had to come inside to find. Making lemonade out of those lemons. Rising to the challenge. Again.
He turned the ute around and headed for home. Said, “Tobias, mate—” then realized that Tobias wasn’t there.
He headed up the mountain. Time to install some more cameras, some more sensors. Get the cabin ready for whatever anybody wanted to throw at it. Paige wanted to be that mama bird dragging its wing, drawing the predator away from the nest? He got it, even though he suspected Lily was a bit tired of being the baby bird. But the mama bird had better have some armor. So to speak. And whether she liked it or not, part of that armor was going to be him.
Up his drive on the thought, then rocking to a hard stop in front of the garage.
He should have brought Tobias.
The lunch rush was slowing down, Paige was selling a clearance nightgown, and Hailey was starting to set up theThrill Him Tonightplus-size display when Paige’s phone buzzed on the counter. She knew it was Lily before she looked. Checking in on her.
The customer, a blonde whom Paige was pretending to know, said, “All of us are so shocked about what happened to you the other night. It’s all anybody’s been talking about.”
“Really?” Paige swiped the woman’s credit card and keyed in the amount. “Nobody’s talking about Jace?”
“Well, maybe.” The blonde sighed. “I wish I’d been there last night so I could have seen the pictures. It all sounded very exciting. I’m sure you don’t need that kind of excitement, of course. I mean,” she went on hastily when Paige smiled, “the attack part. Oh, dear. Sorry.”
Paige laughed. It still hurt, but it helped. “Yeah. Some excitement is better than others.” She wrapped the nightgown in tissue, set it carefully into a cream-striped Sinful Desires carrier bag, and handed it over. “Here you go.”
“Thanks,” the woman said. “I’ll be back.”
She left, and the store was empty for the moment, so Paige seized her chance and called Lily back. Lily said, “Paige.”
“I’m doing great for your business,” Paige told her sister. “You should see how many women are coming in today just for the news value. And then they see our sale rack. Wait until we make our switch and they all realize what’s actually been going on. That’llreallybe something. You’ll have a line out the door.”
“Wait,” Lily said. “Listen.”
It was the tone in her voice. Paige had already grabbed her purse and was out from behind the counter. She told Lily, “Hang up and call 911. I’m on my way.” How hadn’t she realized something was happening? And why hadn’t Lily called Jace? That had been the plan.
She was halfway to the door when Lily said, “It’s not me. Get back in there. Just listen. It’s Jace.”
“What?”
“He didn’t call you?” Lily asked. “See, that’s what I was worried about. Why do you both have to be so tough all the time? He only calledmeto warn me. Otherwise, he’d have bitten the bullet. Would he even have told you tonight?”
“Lily. What happened? And where is he?”Oh, no.She’d been thinking so much about Lily’s safety, she hadn’t thought nearly enough about Jace’s.
“He’s at home. Somebody trashed his place. And Paige. When you talk to him—remember that he’s just like you. He’s not worried about himself. He’s worried about you.”
Ten minutes later, she was there. No cop car at his cabin. No Tobias. Nothing but Jace’s black truck backed all the way up to the porch and a boarded-over front window on the cabin that matched the one at the shop. And two kitchen chairs, a pile of couch cushions, and a few trash bags stacked neatly in the back of the pickup like it was moving day. Except that it wasn’t anything like that.
By the time Paige had turned the car off, her pulse rate had picked all the way up, and she was having to work to control her breathing. Jace stepped out onto the porch holding two green trash bags, and no matter what Lily had said, Paige couldn’t help it. She was coming in hot.
Jace slung the bags off the porch and into the bed of the truck and said, “Get your hands off your hips and take a breath. It’s fine. I’ve got a plan.”
She didn’t do either. “It is not fine. Why would you say that? Why didn’t you get Tobias back? Lily said you refused. Did you call the cops? What did they say? Tell me they took it seriously this time.”
He regarded her much too calmly. “Which question do you want me to answer first? And do you want to hear, or do you want to fight? What did I say about your hands?”
Oh.They were still on her hips. She relaxed her arms with an effort, heaved some air into her lungs, and said, “OK. I’m calm. OK.”
“Good. And you could give me the rest of that earbashing from down there, or you could come on up here with me.”
She headed up the stairs, and he took her good right hand and helped her. When she got there, she blew out a breath and said, “I was scared for you.”
“I know.” He pulled her in gently, kissed her cheek, rubbed a slow hand over her back, and said, “It’s good to see you, too.”
