Her Small-Town Romance. Jill Kemerer

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      She yawned, not bothering to cover her mouth. At least she’d made a dent in the unpacking. After her embarrassing hyperventilation session with Bryan, she’d driven back to the one-bedroom apartment above her soon-to-be store. A set of stairs outside led to the tiny kitchen with cabinets painted gray. Newer dark laminate countertops were speckled with silver flecks. In the front of the apartment was a decent-size living room complete with beige walls and tan carpet. A short hall revealed a bathroom and her bedroom—beige, of course.

      She loved every square inch of it.

      A knocking sound came from the kitchen. Jade shot to her feet, grabbed the empty bronze candleholder from the end table and crept through the piles of boxes in the kitchen. Another knock sounded.

      Just the door. She exhaled, setting the candleholder on the counter, and opened the door a sliver.

      “Hi.” Bryan loomed in the doorway. He appeared taller and his shoulders broader than when they were outside earlier. “Sorry to bother you, but I, well, I need to talk to you about something.”

      Her heartbeat galloped, partly because he was even more handsome than she remembered, and also because he’d tracked her down like some sort of stalker. Had he followed her here? She remained behind the door, using it as a shield. “How did you know where I lived?”

      “My aunt Sally. Sorry, I’m not a creeper. I didn’t follow you or anything. It’s just, well, nothing is a secret in this town. Aunt Sally is friends with Jules Reichert.”

      “My landlord.”

      “Yep.”

      What did he want to talk to her about? He probably felt sorry for her. Or was asking her not to come to class because she needed professional guidance. So help her, if he handed her the card of a therapist to work through her fears, she’d rip it up in front of him. She’d tried counseling. It hadn’t worked. She would only try it again if truly desperate.

      “I didn’t mean to interrupt you, but I need to clear something up. You could call it a confession.” Bryan shifted from one foot to the other.

      A confession? Her spirits perked right up. Confessions didn’t involve condescending advice about her problem.

      “Yeah, so earlier, I made it sound as if I’m married, but I got divorced almost five years ago.”

      “Oh.” Divorced. There went his unavailable status, which was too bad, because him being single complicated things. The fact he’d found her to clear up a tiny misunderstanding said a lot about his character, though.

      “Um, I—” he massaged the back of his neck “—well, it was wrong of me to mislead you.”

      She prepared to give him her thanks-for-stopping-by speech, but he looked so contrite and uncomfortable on her doorstep. Sympathy overrode her good judgment.

      “It’s not a big deal.” She leaned against the doorframe. She’d play it cool. Pretend she wasn’t attracted to him in the slightest. “I just want to be able to live here and drive to Target or a shopping mall, and, you know, go to one of the parks without hyperventilating.”

      His lips lifted into a lopsided grin. “I could help with that.”

      “I don’t know if anyone can help. I’m not exactly the ideal student.”

      “Yeah, but you’re my only student. I can’t afford to be picky.” His blue eyes teased, and her tummy flipped.

      “That’s true.” She nodded in mock sincerity. Why couldn’t she say goodbye and close the door? Flirting with him would get her heart in trouble the way flirting always did. When would she learn? Still, she didn’t know anyone here, and loneliness weighed heavily on her shoulders.

      “Have you eaten yet?” he asked. “There’s a pizza place around the corner.”

      Her stomach rumbled. Empty, silent apartment? Or pizza with all-wrong-for-her Bryan Sheffield? Before she could talk herself out of it, she nodded. “Let me grab my purse, and I’ll meet you outside.”

      Less than a minute later, she joined him on the sidewalk in front of her building. No light poured from the large front window, making the store appear abandoned. The chilly air slipped under her collar. She zipped her jacket to her neck.

      “This way,” Bryan said.

      Jade fell in beside him. The sun had gone to sleep, and the stars blinked on one by one in the clear, ink-black sky. “I can’t remember the last time I stepped out at night and saw such bright stars.”

      “Really?” He kept his hands in his pockets.

      “Yeah, I grew up in a seventies ranch house in Winchester, a suburb of Las Vegas not too far from downtown. City lights hazed the sky.” A far cry from her current rural address.

      “I’ve never spent much time in the city.”

      “No? The air smells different here.” Jade tried to pinpoint the source. If she had to label it, she’d call it fresh.

      “What does it smell like in Vegas?” His unhurried strides made it easy for her to keep pace with him.

      “It depends. If you’re on the sidewalks of the Strip, you’ll smell gasoline fumes, exhaust from the line of taxis and cigarette smoke. Basically, you’ll smell cigarettes everywhere outside in Las Vegas.”

      “Can’t say I’m a fan of those.”

      “Me, neither. I worked for an advertising company geared to the hotels. I loathed crossing through the lobbies when I had to go on-site and not just because they reeked of cologne. The colors, noises and smells were an assault on the senses.”

      “Advertising, huh?”

      “Yep.” She rubbed her cold hands together. “The competitive job atmosphere wasn’t my thing. Too cutthroat.” She’d never had the heart to play politics the way her coworkers had. If they wanted an account, they did whatever it took to land it, even if it meant taking credit for someone else’s work or schmoozing people they didn’t care for.

      “Did you like living in Vegas?”

      Mimi’s smiling face came to mind. So many good memories. “Yes. It was home. Living in Michigan is going to be an adjustment.” She burrowed deeper into her jacket. “The main reason I loved it there was because of my grandmother. I lived with her most of my life. Poppi worked at Nellis Air Force Base, and after he died, Mimi didn’t want to move.”

      “So you lived with your grandmother until now?” He didn’t sound judgmental, merely curious.

      “Well, there were a few months on my own in New York City, but Mimi got stomach cancer, and I moved back in with her.”

      “To take care of her.”

      “Yeah. She raised me.” Those terrible final weeks with Mimi had been excruciating, yet in many ways, joyful, too. Hospice had helped Mimi die peacefully. Jade had no doubt she and Mimi would be having cozy conversations in heaven for eternity. “I hope you don’t think I did it out of duty. I loved her.”

      “She СКАЧАТЬ