Always Mine (Coming Home To The Grove Book 1) Read online

  She walks away, leaving me standing there.

  I watch her go. She was thin in high school and now, watching her hips sway side to side, I want to trail my hands down her curves. There’s so many things I want to do with her. But more than that there’s so much I want to say to her, but there never seems to be a right time. I know if I push too hard, I’m going to lose the only chance I’ve got. I know I have to tread softly and that she’s afraid of being hurt again. I can’t blame her. I can only hope that eventually she will open up enough to listen to what I have to say.

  I leave then to go to the Grove Grocery store. Her list from the fridge is pretty easy to figure out, but I do have to call her from the grocery store and ask her which kind of laundry detergent she wants me to buy.

  In a panicked voice, she tells me, “I forgot that I needed to pick up the things on that list. Mom made it before she left.”

  “It’s no problem. I’m taking care of it. I could tell you already have your hands full. Is there anything you want to add to it?”

  She starts to say something and stops. “Uh, no thanks.”

  “C’mon, Lacy, you want something. What is it?”

  “You’re going to make fun of me if I tell you,” she says.

  I can hear the smirk in her voice and automatically a thought comes to mind. Could it be? Surely, she’s not still eating those. “Lacy, do you want me to bring you home some Twizzlers?”

  She laughs then, and I can’t help but join in with her. She used to eat Twizzlers all the time. We always joked about it.

  “Yes. Please?”

  “Absolutely,” I tell her. If anything, it’s comforting to me that she still eats the same comforting snack she did back in high school. It tells me in a way that Lacy’s still the same girl I used to know.

  She thanks me. “You can’t just keep saving me like this.”

  I tell her bye and hang up, knowing that’s exactly what I intend to do. I want to take care of her. I want to be there for her and show her that she can count on me, she can take a chance with her heart on me again because this time I won’t hurt her.

  7

  Lacy

  “It’s no problem, I’m already here,” the handyman says as he examines the balustrade on the front porch. “It’s loose, but I can get it fixed up for you.”

  I can’t help smiling. Service in the city is nothing like this. I’d have been stuck having to schedule another visit by the handyman to fix something that he’d not come to fix for the original call, no matter how small the issue was.

  “You’re great to do this for me today. You’ve got to let me do something to thank you. I have some donuts in the kitchen. Would you like one?”

  Trent clears his throat as he carries groceries up the steps on the porch. “What’s he doing here? There’s no need for you to call a handyman with a friend like me around.”

  I look between Bradley and Trent. “Trent, that’s rude,” I tell him.

  “No, it’s not. It’s the truth. I didn’t know it needed done or else I would have done it,” he says stubbornly. I would scold him more for being rude to the handyman if I wasn’t so caught off-guard. Is Trent Keller jealous?

  No way! There’s absolutely no reason for him to be jealous. Trent and I are no more. That is in the past. And I feel like I’m going to have to keep telling myself that over and over to make me believe it.

  Trent is being amazing, but that is precisely why I need to get outside help. I don’t want to start to depend on him. I was raised in the B&B, I know it inside and out, and I have no doubt I can do this job. But dipping my toes in again is definitely going to take getting used to.

  “You’ve done enough for me, Trent. I know you’ve got your ranch to get back to. I can’t expect you to drop everything to come and help me with all the little projects I have around here.”

  Trent keeps glaring over at the handyman. I look over at Bradley, who is trying to work on the railing and act like he’s not paying any attention to Trent and me going back and forth.

  I turn back to Trent. “Thanks for picking up the groceries. I’ll meet you in the kitchen and pay you for them,” I say, walking past him to go into the house with the groceries.

  Trent

  “Please don’t tell me you were about to give the last of my donuts to that oaf out there?” I ask as I take a bite out of said donut.

  “Well, I’m not going to anymore, am I? Who knew you were so possessive over food?” Lacy says.

  “It’s not the food I’m possessive over, Lacy,” I say, looking directly into her eyes as I do.

  Lacy’s breath catches, and the way she starts backing out of the kitchen, I think that maybe she’s having a mini panic attack. “I, I said friends. That’s all,” she says.

  I pushed too far. I know what I want and I’m the type to go for it at all costs. But the way Lacy is reacting I know if I keep it up, she’s going to refuse to even see me. I can’t have that. I want to push for more but not when she seems so fragile and afraid. The hard verbal shove I’d given her toward the city had been given with the best of intentions. I knew it was what she wanted, and I wanted her to be happy. I’d truly believed it was what she wanted. It was all she talked about when we were in our senior year.

  How could I tell her that I wanted her to have the chance to fulfill her dreams; I didn’t want to be the reason she was held back.

  She starts putting away the groceries, and I step in to help.

  “Trent, really, don’t you have a ranch to run?”

  I think about my answer before blurting it out. What would she think if I told her that as soon as I found out she was in town, I told my brothers I needed some time off? Ranchers don’t usually get time off, but my brothers didn’t try to stop me or even guilt trip me for slacking on work. They both know how important Lacy is to me. They saw me after she left, after I pushed her away.

  But instead of telling her all that, I just shrug my shoulders. “I have some time.”

  “Yeah, well, if you have time off from the ranch, you don’t need to be here working. When most people have free time, they go on vacation or rest. They don’t run errands and work somewhere else,” she tells me as she puts the bananas on the banana rack.

  I slide beside her to put the milk in the refrigerator. “I’m not working. I’m hanging out with an old friend.”

  When I straighten, we are staring at one another. There’s a moment, so brief, that her eyes aren’t guarded, and she’s looking at me like she used to back when she loved me. I don’t move. I don’t dare breathe because I want it to last. I want to kiss her, taste her sweetness on my lips before carrying her up the stairs, past the handyman so he knows that she is in fact mine and he doesn’t stand a chance, and then prove to her exactly how good we are together. The sound of her screaming my name as I take her is something I miss and would give anything to hear again.

  But my luck doesn’t last. She snaps her eyes closed and shakes her head as if she’s trying to put everything we could have for each other into the past where she thinks it belongs.

  She turns away then. We are both quiet as we get to work putting items away. The silence is awkward, and I can tell she’s worried about what is happening between us. I need to lighten it up a little. If anything, Lacy and I were always able to have fun with each other.

  “Have you heard from your folks? Did they make their cruise?” I ask, changing the subject.

  Lacy looks relieved, and we talk about how silly her father is going to look in his outrageous swim trunks and the bright sunblock he always wears.

  8

  Lacy

  “Picture it. Your dad in his pineapple swim trunks walking around the cruise ship with purple zinc warrior stripes on his face. And you know your mom is having fun with it. She’s done some kind of cool design, and he doesn’t have a clue.”

  I’m laughing so hard I’m holding my sides. “You’re right. Dad won’t have a clue for a while, but he’ll figure it out.”

  Trent leans back on the counter next to me. “Yeah, but your dad won’t get mad. He’ll just find a way to get her back. I always loved that about your parents. They always know how to have fun.”

  I can’t help but agree with him; my parents are something else.

  “Gosh, and your dad will do a doozy back to your mom. Can you imagine? I almost hate to miss it.” He chuckles.

  Trent has me laughing so hard that I forget to keep my guard up with him. It almost seems like the old days the way we are able to laugh and joke with each other.

  “Do you remember when your mother came to the pool where we were hanging out and she painted on the same purple zinc stripes on your face? You were trying to be all cool and everything and then well, ya’ know!” he laughs out loud at the memory.

  Gosh! He’s right; I forgot all about that. “I was so embarrassed!” I get lost in the memory.

  I laugh, remembering that I’d been embarrassed, but even though Trent doesn’t tell the rest of the story, I remember it. Trent asked my mom for some zinc too. He put on warrior purple zinc stripes and even drew a funny moustache with the stuff, and it’d taken the focus off of me. He was always doing stuff like that. Anytime I got awkward or embarrassed, he was there to save the day.

  Those warm feelings make it hard to remember that I should be backing out of the kitchen when Trent draws closer to me.

  The laughter that filled the room only seconds ago is gone and now it’s only complete silence. I don’t know who stopped first or whatever, but I do know one thing.

  I shouldn’t be doing this.

  My fingers shouldn’t tremble as he reaches for them and holds them tight and laces our fingers together. I shouldn’t be looking at our combined hands and be remembering the love we once shared and how we used to hold hands all the time. I definitely shouldn’t be raising my eyes to look at him. I know that if I look into his blue eyes, I’m not going to have the strength to pull away.

  He tilts my chin upward and looks down at me like he’s going to kiss me. I can see in his face how much he wants to, and I’m sure the same thing is expressed in my face. I wait for it. I can feel myself swaying toward him even though I know I need to stop. I know all it would take is one kiss. One kiss and I’d be a goner for Trent Keller again. Closer and closer his face comes toward mine, and now I’m a mindless mess, not breathing, but feeling like I’m about to hyperventilate, waiting for the touch of his lips on my own.

  I feel his breath on my cheek just as water starts to drip down my back. One drop of water turns into two. And then another.

  I pull back and look up at the ceiling. “What the—?” I ask, still dazed from our closeness.

  There is water dripping from the ceiling. The upstairs bathroom is leaking!

  Trent

  There can’t be a guy with worse luck than me.

  I was so close to kissing Lacy. If only I’d kissed her a few seconds earlier. I am confident it would only take a secure lip lock for Lacy to feel the magic we always had between us.

  The water starts to stream quicker from the ceiling, and we both look at one another before bounding for the steps. I let her go first and follow close behind. She stops outside the new tenants’ door and knocks incessantly. They open it, looking at us without a care in the world, both of them with pamphlets on the town in their hands.

  “Can we check your bathroom? There seems to be a leak,” Lacy tells them.

  “Oh my! I forgot I started the bath!” the woman exclaims.

  Lacy and I start for the bathroom. The floor is soaked, and sure enough, the water is flowing freely out of the tub.

  I could have joked with them about how if you blink as you drive through town, you’ll miss it all, but that’s not really true anymore. The town has built up, offering winery tours, horseback and trail riding, and a national park that is close by. There’s actually a lot to see and do now. Too bad they weren’t out doing it instead of reading about it, though.

  Water can damage property faster than most things. I get to work getting the water mess cleaned up and call over some of my friends that have the industrial size fans used to dry out property after flooding. I set one up in the bathroom while Lacy helps the guests move to another room. Then I go downstairs and set another fan in the kitchen.

  I gather up all the towels—I’m pretty sure we’ve used all the ones in the house—and put a load into the laundry after moving the load Lacy had started earlier. I finish cleaning up as well as I can, and luckily the stream of water is no longer falling into the kitchen.

  I lean against the counter in the kitchen thinking about our almost kiss before the flood. I don’t mind helping Lacy, but missing my chance at that kiss makes me worry that she’ll throw up her walls of defense again.

  Come on, give a guy a break.

  9

  Lacy

  Trent has been here all day. He’s worked tirelessly helping me with every emergency that has popped up. Who knew taking over the B&B would be this hard? Who knew my first day would be like this? I knew things could get crazy sometimes, but I honestly was expecting an easier day than this.

  If I don’t do something to make him see that I’m not going to lose my heart to him again, then I’ll mess up and do just that. How close was that almost kiss? Way too close, if you ask me. If water hadn’t doused my back, I’d probably be tangled up in blankets on my bed with Trent right now.

  Landing in bed with Trent would be disastrous. If I allowed my heart to be broken by Trent again, it would be worse than before because this time I won’t be able to leave and go somewhere to heal when he hurts me again. I’d have to stay right here and probably see him at least once a week in town. There’s no way I can do it. It hurts me even now to see him. I won’t do that to myself again.

  “I’m done. Do you need anything else while I’m here?” Bradley interrupts my thoughts as I walk down the stairs and meet him at the entryway.

  I forgot all about Bradley still being here. My first day running the B&B has definitely been a hectic one. I’m ready to call it a day and fall into a bathtub at this point.

  “No, that’s about it. Thank you for getting the railing too while you were here. How much do I owe you?” I ask, already walking toward the office that has the checkbook locked in it.

  “I’ll invoice you.”

  “Oh, great! Okay, then. Well—"

  He interrupts me. “I was wondering if you’d like to go out to a movie with me?”

  “Tonight?” I ask him.

  He just shrugs his shoulders. “Sure.”

  I swear I hear a sort of growl coming from behind me, and I’m almost positive that Trent is listening in. I don’t agree to go on the date with Bradley with the intent to hurt Trent. I agree because I know I need to put some distance between Trent and me.

  “I can’t tonight. How about tomorrow night?”

  Bradley smiles at me. “That’s perfect. I’ll pick you up at six.”

  I walk Bradley out to the porch and stand there as he drives off in his work truck.

  Trent

  Some things are hard for a man to hear.

  Listening to Bradley Crawford, the local handyman and total womanizer, ask out the woman that I’m in love with ranks up there with attending a funeral.

  Bradley was in my older brother’s grade. He was butt ugly and fat in school, and he’s made it his life’s purpose to use and lose women. Somehow, I need to warn Lacy about him.

  I walk out onto the porch, and before I can calm down, I tell her, “You shouldn’t go out with Bradley.”

  She looks at me, tilting her head to the side. I know that look. Nothing I can say is going to sway her at this point, but it doesn’t mean I’m going to give up.

  “Why not? He seems nice enough.”

  “You know why not, Lacy.” I gesture between the two of us. Surely she knows how I feel about her. I know we can get back what we once had. I just need her cooperation.

  “This”—she points between the two of us—“is not going to happen.”

  “You can’t go out with him, Lacy,” I tell her between clenched teeth.

  We go back and forth on it, and it turns out that warning her while I’m jealous and angry isn’t the smartest move. I come off sounding like I’m just trying to sabotage any relationship she might get in that isn’t with me.

  “You don’t understand. I mean, of course I don’t want you to go out with him—well, with anyone besides me really—but that’s not the point. Bradley was fat and ugly in high school. He’s spent his time since then just using women. He’s only in it for a good time. That’s it.”

  “Aww, he had a hard time in high school? That’s sad. But he’s been nice to me.”

  Well, that backfired. I just wanted to tell her what kind of guy Bradley is, but all she hears is that he had it hard in school and new she feels bad for him. Nice.

  “You just met him today. Today, Lacy!”

  She rolls her eyes. “Yeah, you’re right. I just met a nice man in the small town of Forest Grove where everyone knows everyone. It’s not like he’s a stranger on the street in a big city.” She rolls her eyes and starts walking toward the door to the B&B. “I think it’s time for you to go home, Trent. Thank you for all your help today.”

  She’s no sooner got the thank you out before she’s shut the door in my face.

  I stand there staring at the wood door with the flowered welcome sign. I put my hand on the doorknob to walk in but stop myself. I know if I go in there, I’m going to make matters worse. I need to go home.

  I back away from the door and trail down the steps toward my truck in the driveway.

  I go home, help out at the ranch, and then fall into bed. But I can’t sleep. All I can think about is Lacy and spending the day with her today. It was crazy and almost frantic, but it’s the best day I’ve had in a long time. Probably since before Lacy left town. I know we can make a go of it. I just have to prove it to her. Of course, it’s going to be hard with Bradley in the picture. I can’t sleep I’m so upset a scum ball like Bradley is dating Lacy.