Be cool, Grant told himself as Jana scrambled out of the truck to open the door for the kids. Ty and LeeLee had jabbered in his ear all the way over to Tommy’s garage, asking questions about the deer and telling him about the horses they used to ride in Tennessee. Jana had hardly said two words to him. She’d seemed to want to join the conversation, but then she’d look at him and get this stricken expression and clam up again. Now what had he done?
“Yo, Tommy!” He got out of the truck and pocketed his keys.
His brother-in-law waved a greasy hand. He had his head under the hood of a Bronco parked inside one of the bays recently added on to Lucas Import Service. Two years ago the place had been a dump, but Tommy was taking better care of his surroundings now that he had Carrie in tow.
Jana sent the kids to climb a pecan tree in the stretch of lawn between the garage and the candy shop. He wondered if she got as bent out of shape over junk as his sister did. She probably wouldn’t appreciate living on a houseboat. He kept his place neat, but it was pretty tight quarters.
The implication of that thought shocked him into a lope across the parking lot.
“Hey!” Tommy lowered the hood of the truck, then pulled a rag out of his back pocket to wipe his hands. He hooked a boisterous arm around Grant’s neck. “Dude, where’s your Bible? And where’s Jana?”
Grant shook hands and whacked his friend on the shoulder. Tommy was the closest thing he had to a brother here in Vancleave. “Bible’s in the truck. Jana’s — here she is.”
She approached, looking oddly vulnerable with her arms folded across her stomach. It was hard to imagine anybody being intimidated by Tommy. “How are you, Tommy?” She extended her hand, smiling, but Tommy ignored it and pulled her into a hug.
“I’m great!” he shouted. “God is good!”
Laughing, Jana returned the hug. “Yes, he is. All the time.” She stepped away. “It’s so good to see you again.”
“You too. We’ve got a lot to talk about, but first let me show you your car. I got it running like a little orange sewing machine.”
“I’m so relieved. It didn’t take as long as I was afraid it would.” Jana’s gaze flickered toward Grant as they walked toward the Subaru. “Can we, um, work out a payment plan of some kind?”
Tommy smiled. “It’s taken care of.”
Jana’s eyes widened. “Oh, but you can’t — ”
“I didn’t — ” Tommy stopped when Grant shot him a warning look. “I mean . . . the first service is covered under my, uh, new residents’ plan. We want your repeat business.”
“I’m not planning on running into any more cows.”
Grant couldn’t resist. “You sure taught that one not to jaywalk.”
Wrinkling her nose at his teasing, Jana got into the car and cranked it. “It hasn’t sounded this, um, normal in ages.” She removed the key from the ignition and got out, smiling up at Tommy. “Thank you so much. I’ve got to at least pay you for the parts, though. Do you have any pets? Maybe you could bring them to me for a checkup, soon as I get my clinic set up.”
Grant was tired of being ignored. “I don’t know if you’d call Skywalker a pet. He’s more like a sociopathic mooch.”
“Hey . . .” Tommy feigned offense.
“Come on, let’s head next door.” Grant popped the hood of Jana’s car with his hand. “Carrie said she’d make me some oatmeal cookies.”
Tommy shook his shaggy dark head. “The man is a total slave to his stomach.”
“Says the guy who married a professional caterer.” Grant winked at Jana.
He felt better when she smiled at him. Finally.
I’m so glad you had time to come by.” Carrie Lucas served Jana a glass of raspberry iced tea along with a warm smile. Stepping over Grant’s big, booted feet, she placed the tray on the coffee table, then sat down beside her husband.
“So am I.” Jana smiled her thanks. Grant’s older sister was brown-eyed like him, but blonde and slender in a soft yellow summer dress. “Looks like you needed a little break.”
Settling under Tommy’s arm, Carrie sipped her tea. “I’m tired.” She slipped off her sandals. “The store’s been busy today.”
“It’s beautiful. I can see why people like to come in here.”
The four of them sat in the lattice-screened alcove where Carrie held her catering consultations. Greenery warmed every corner of the store, with attractive gift baskets displayed on white-painted shelves and gauzy curtains at the windows. Jana covertly watched Grant, who looked wildly out of place in this feminine niche. He sprawled in a floral-upholstered wing chair under the window, where the afternoon sun painted gold streaks in his hair.
“Trust me.” He helped himself to an oatmeal cookie. “It’s the food, not the decorations.” He bit off half the cookie, closing his eyes in ecstasy.
Feeling suddenly hot and fidgety, Jana bent to check on LeeLee, who had crawled under the table to play with a smoke-colored kitten. Ty was outside playing Tarzan in the tree.
“It takes so little to make them happy.” Carrie exchanged an amused look with Jana. “Your grandpa’s been so excited about you and the children moving back.”
Tommy winked. “Yeah, every time we see him in church, he’ll say, ‘Did I tell you my little Jana’s moving home this month? I ask you, what am I gonna do with her and two younguns in that little bitty old house of mine?’ ”
Jana laughed at the dead-on imitation of her grandfather’s grumpy drawl. “I should have come home a long time ago. He’s getting frail, especially since my grandmother died.”
“Well, it’s never too late,” said Tommy. “You and the kids will perk him up, just being in the same house. He’s about to bust his buttons because you made it all the way through college and vet school.”
Jana smiled at her old friend. “You’ve made something of yourself too.”
“Thanks to the Lord Jesus.” Tommy squeezed his wife’s shoulders. “Where I’d be if I hadn’t met him — man, I don’t even want to think about it.” He gave Jana a rueful grimace. “We used to think we were so cool, didn’t we? Don’t you wish you could go back and undo things?”
“Sure. But maybe those of us who’ve come out of the pits understand God’s grace better than anybody.” Jana’s gaze flickered to Grant. His watchful eyes narrowed as if he wondered how deep a pit she’d occupied. She looked down at her hands. Try the Grand Canyon. “I could’ve come home sooner, but I kept putting it off. There were so many things I didn’t want to revisit. People ask so many questions . . .”
“I know.” Carrie gave Jana a sympathetic look. “My family nearly drove me crazy when I first moved home. Interfered in everything. But then I realized they just cared — because they love me.”
“Huh. You should have seen the wall of relatives I had to climb over to get to her.” Tommy winked. “But my charm and automotive skills won them all over. Even Gonzo the Great here.”
Grant pointed a lazy finger. “Hey, the jury’s still out. You still haven’t replaced my rod and reel you left in the bayou.”
“You were the one who said there was plenty of room to cast under that cedar limb.”
“There would have been if your dumb dog hadn’t decided to jump out of the boat right then. Was I supposed to let him drown?”
“Skywalker’s not dumb, and he swims better than you do.”
“Boys, boys.” Carrie exchanged a look with Jana.
She found herself grinning. “Oh, don’t mind me. Makes me feel right at home.”
Carrie rescued the cookie jar from Grant. “Give me that, you big hog. I want to send some cookies home with the children.”
“You mean this is all there is?” Grant peered into the jar.
Tommy snorted. “She rations those things like gold.”
“I’ll say. Granny always — yeow!” Grant leaned over to pluck the gray kitten’s needlelike claws out of the leg of his jeans. He handed it to LeeLee when she poked her head out from under the table. “Hey, Sally, would you like to take this pest home with you?”
“Yes, sir, I sure would.” LeeLee enfolded the kitten in an exuberant hug. “But I told you, my name’s not Sally.”
Jana held up a hand. “Grant! You can’t give away Carrie’s cat.”
“Yes, he can.” Tommy nudged his wife. “Skywalker’ll have to go into therapy if he keeps finding kitty litter in his water bowl.”
“Look, Mommy, she loves me.” LeeLee rubbed noses with the purring kitten. “Can I please keep her?”
“No, darlin’, that’s Miss Carrie’s cat.”
“Actually, I’m not that attached.” Carrie looked apologetic. “But I understand if you don’t want the extra trouble.”
“Her name’s Glitter.” LeeLee giggled as a rough pink tongue bathed her chin.
Jana looked from Carrie to Tommy, then found her gaze drawn to Grant.
A dimple creased his cheek, making him look both smug and wretchedly attractive. “Come on now, if I could take on old Spike, I know you can handle one measly little kitten.”
Trying not to grin, Jana met Grant’s smiling brown eyes. “Okay, but if she terrorizes Grandpa’s dog, you’ll find yourself adopting a cat as well as a fawn.”
“Just what every skipper needs on his houseboat — an attack cat.”
Carrie wrinkled her nose at her brother. “If you knew what you needed, you’d be married.” She ruffled LeeLee’s hair. “I think Glitter’s a beautiful name.”
“Yeah, right up there with Forrest.” Grant stood up, stretching. “Come on, Tom, I came over here for Bible study, not a tea party. Jana, tell your grandpa I’ll stop by to see him on my way home.”
“All right.” She hid her dismay. What if Grant talked her grandfather into signing a contract before she’d had a chance to change his mind? “Tommy, thanks again for fixing my car.”
“No problem.”
The two men left, arguing amicably over dogs and fishing poles, leaving Jana to help Carrie clear away the tea things. Terrifying that Grant Gonzales could reel her in for the second time in her life. He was even more attractive than he’d been as a teenager, and still funny in that teasing way that slid under her guard and made her stomach fizz.
Worst of all, she knew who’d paid for her car to be fixed. She hadn’t missed the look exchanged between Grant and Tommy when she’d mentioned the bill. She was such a sucker for secret kindness. Why did it have to be his property that she needed?
Grant shoved open the screen door of the Farm and Feed, disappointed that Jana’s little Subaru wasn’t in the parking lot. Good thing she wouldn’t be around to distract him. That sweet, curling mouth invited kissing, especially when it hung open after he’d teased her. You couldn’t go around kissing a woman you’d only talked to twice in ten years.
He’d have to learn to hide his attraction, though. Tommy had spent the first fifteen minutes of their Bible study giving him a hard time about Jana and the deer. Their prayer time had been productive, although Tommy tended to probe into emotions Grant would just as soon ignore. An engineer through and through, he liked things cut and dried. Just the facts, ma’am, like Sergeant Friday.
Listening to Tommy pray for his wife was a revelation. She wanted a baby more than anything, and Tommy was feeling the pressure. How goofy was that? As if it were his fault.
They’d prayed for Grant’s former business partner too, despite his firm conviction that the guy was beyond redemption. As costly as the split had been, he was well out of that affiliation, and he was determined to be more careful about future partnerships.
“Hey, Alvin?” He stood in the front of the store looking around. The old man wasn’t behind the counter, but a lot of times he hung out in the rear of the store with his buddy CJ or his twin brother, Elvin.
Sure enough, he heard “Back here” coming from somewhere near the warehouse entrance.
If he ran this place, he’d have somebody at the front to make sure people didn’t walk out with the merchandise. No telling how many customers Alvin lost while he was occupied playing checkers.
Grant found Alvin and CJ perched like Hekyll and Jekyll on each side of a burlap checkerboard. Old metal soft-drink tops served as game pieces. Grant dropped down on a sawed-off stool and tipped it back on two legs. Hard to gauge Alvin’s mood. The old man looked sanguine for a change. Maybe he was eating better now that Jana was cooking for him.
Alvin moved a Nehi Grape cap and peered over his glasses at Grant. “You need some help with something, boy, or are you just in here to pester me about that Twin Creek property again?”
So much for an oblique attack. “You told me you were ready to sell, so I had an agent draw us up a contract. I’ve been carrying it around in my car for weeks. I can’t develop my camp property until I can put a road in there.”
Alvin’s sharp old eyes narrowed. “Been meaning to talk to you about that.”
An old ulcer in Grant’s stomach started to ache.
“You may have to find another piece of property.” Alvin studied the checkerboard. “I’m thinkin’ about hanging on to that one.”
Grant had known he might have to wait. But he’d never imagined the old man might completely back out. “Mr. Alvin, there’s not another piece of property for miles that isn’t owned by either the state or the feds. You promised — ”
“Now, look. You and I both know it ain’t a done deal until both of us sign on the dotted line. Don’t get all bent out of shape. I just said I’m reconsidering my options.”
“But I don’t have any other options!” Grant had been taught all his life to honor and respect his elders, a philosophy that had, for the most part, served him well. He had to slam his teeth together and mentally recite the preamble to the Constitution to keep from forgetting he was a Christian and a gentleman.
There was something under that veneer of calm, something watchful and conniving. Was the old man out for more money? Grant’s offer was above fair market value — more than he could afford. He corralled his temper and his tongue. His mother would have been proud of him. Besides, he didn’t have any choice. Doug Briscoe had told him the legal options were more complicated than he had time for. The truth was, he’d acted on presumption.
He was not going to go through this again.
He took a deep breath. “Okay, Mr. Alvin. You reconsider your options. But I sure hope you’re gonna be reasonable.”
“I’m the most reasonable person in this county.” Alvin wagged a knobby finger. “You can take that to the bank.”
“Alvin, it’s your turn.” CJ frowned, gesturing with his pipe.
Grant had forgotten all about him. He grabbed for the lesson he and Tommy had just worked through from the book of Jeremiah. Broken cisterns a person dug for himself wouldn’t hold water. The more he pushed, the more obstinate Alvin was going to get. And he was out of time. Lord, I was sure you wanted me to open this camp. What do I do?
Jana’s pretty face swam across his mind’s eye. What if he could get her to intervene with her grandfather? He was already babysitting her fawn. Maybe he could invite the kids to swim off his houseboat. Ty was a nice kid, after all, and LeeLee was cute as a button. He could even help Jana find a place to build her veterinary clinic.
He surged to his feet. “I’ll leave you alone for now, Mr. Alvin, but don’t forget about me, okay?” He picked up an Orange Crush checker and took a jump CJ had missed. “Crown him.” He headed for the door.
After a storm that crackled and boomed and poured all weekend, Monday dawned with a hot sun that sent blinding sparkles dancing along the river. Grant decided to spend the morning sanding the deck of the houseboat and tweaking his battle plan.
The main strategy was patience. He was good at being patient. His mother translated that as “bullheaded,” but whatever. One of his favorite Scripture passages was the one about the lady who kept harassing the judge until he gave her justice.
He scrubbed his wire brush across the deck. Come on, Lord, I need that property.
A distant whistle shrilled over the jam box blasting Audio Adrenaline through the open window of his sleeping berth. He looked around, but all he saw were a couple of seagulls squabbling over a fish out in the water. The whistle sounded again, louder this time, from beyond the tree line at the top of the bank.
Checking his watch, he got to his feet. Just past nine o’clock. The only drawback to not having office hours was that people assumed you weren’t busy and dropped in without notice. Grabbing a T-shirt off the rail, he jumped to the pier and took the cedar steps up the steep bank three at a time.
“Down here!” He wiped paint flecks and sawdust off his hands as he went. “Who’s there?”
As the boom of the bass from the CD player faded, he heard someone — from the amount of noise, probably two some-ones — shoving through the trees. A few months ago he’d built a long pier, starting from the end of Alvin’s road and winding through a tangle of trees and underbrush, out to the river where he’d anchored the Minnow. So far, Alvin had let Grant cross his property without interference, but he was going to need true ingress and egress for construction crews to come in.
There were two rough cabins already on the property, but he had to have better facilities if he expected to make the business grow. Mainly he needed a lodge with a kitchen. The best place for that would be Alvin’s property, which was on high ground fronting the highway.
He stopped and shaded his eyes against the sun with one hand. Willis and Crowbar Dyer tottered at the top of the bank like a couple of denim-and-plaid babushka dolls.
“Hey, boys. What’s up?”
For a couple of weeks now, the Dyer brothers had been parking their camper on his property, essentially trespassing. Knowing they’d both been laid off from the shipyard and evicted from their trailer park, he let them stay. They’d move on when work picked up again.
“Hey, yourself.” Crowbar’s ferretlike features were framed by a bleached blond mullet haircut and a drooping, straw-colored mustache. “How’s it going down there?”
“Well, maybe I won’t have to bail next time it rains.” Were they looking for food?
Willis grinned, looming close to seven feet tall with sweat pouring down a face as red as his nylon-mesh cap.
Jerking a thumb in the direction of the Minnow, Crowbar produced an ingratiating smile. “Got her looking good.”
“Thanks.” Grant turned to survey his project. From this distance and elevation, the houseboat listed a bit to port. With half her paint sanded off, she looked as if she had a bad case of mange. “But I’m sorta busy. What can I do for y’all this morning?”
Crowbar stuck his thumbs in his belt. “Thought you might want to know old man Goff’s granddaughter and them two kids are up there fooling around with your deer.”
“It’s not my deer.” Still, his heartbeat accelerated as he headed toward the clearing where he’d set up the deer pen.
The Dyers tromped along behind him. They seemed to have a mighty proprietary attitude toward what didn’t belong to them. He turned to find the brothers looking around, Crowbar muttering to himself and Willis happy just to have someone to follow.
“Guys, I have an idea. Why don’t you go see if Mr. Alvin needs some help down at the feed store? He was in there all by himself the other day.”
Crowbar shook his head. “Already asked him. Says he don’t need no help.”
Grant winced when Willis’s stomach gave a mighty growl. “Well, if you don’t have anything else to do, you can go back down to my boat and finish sanding it for me. I’ll buy you lunch.”
Willis’s expression lightened, but Crowbar scratched his chin. “Lunch and fifty dollars if we paint too?”
Grant sighed. “Oh, all right.”
The brothers high-fived one another and disappeared.
As he walked into the clearing, he saw both of his dogs lolling against Ty Cutrere, who had knelt to scratch their bellies. LeeLee sat on a fallen tree nearby, singing to her kitten. It had on a — he looked again. It had on a dress.
And there was Jana, kneeling inside the pen, feeding the fawn from a plastic baby bottle. He hadn’t seen her since Friday. Coming upon her on his turf was an unexpected gift. He’d been trying to figure out how he was going to approach her. Laughing at the deer’s greedy sucking, she looked like a wood sprite dressed in dark green shorts and a knit top. A really hot wood sprite.
“Y’all are up mighty early this morning.” He skinned his hand across Ty’s head. “Boy, watch out, that dog’ll take your arm off.”
“Yes, sir.” Ty grinned as Josh swiped a tongue across his hand.
Jana looked around, her smile open and warm. “You’ve done a good job taking care of Forrest. You’ll have to build a taller fence, though, or he’ll be jumping out of here as soon as his cast comes off.”
Elated at her praise, Grant opened the makeshift gate in the enclosure he’d fashioned from two-by-fours and a roll of chicken wire. “How long will that be?”
“About five more weeks. He’s young, so the bone will knit fast. Heath did a good job setting it.” The deer’s ears twitched as he followed the movement of the bottle in Jana’s hand.
She complimented everybody, even Redmond. Realizing she was craning her neck to talk to him, Grant crouched beside her. The fawn jumped away. “Hey, buster, who’s been manning the chuck wagon around here for two days? Let’s have a little gratitude.” When Jana laughed, he met her sparkling sapphire eyes. “He seems to like your bottle better than the one I’ve been giving him.”
“This is goat’s milk. A lot closer to what his mommy would have fed him, since the white-tail deer formula I ordered hasn’t come in yet.”
“Now how come Redmond didn’t tell me that?”
“He probably didn’t know. I volunteered at a wildlife center while I was in vet school.”
Her gaze skittered away from his, a bit like the fawn avoiding his touch. He remembered kids in high school calling her “Wild Child” behind her back. And it hadn’t been a compliment.
Grant studied the irresistible sprinkle of freckles across her nose and cheeks. His gaze dropped to her long fingers, strong and gentle and comfortable handling the little animal. A fleeting male curiosity about the texture of those fingers breezed across his brain. “Did you always want to be a vet?”
“Pretty much. I never would have done it, though, if the Lord hadn’t intervened.” She gave him a shy glance as she pulled the nipple out of the fawn’s mouth with a soft pop. The deer let out a burp as he lurched for the empty bottle again.
Grant laughed with Jana. “Where are your manners, boy?” He took the bottle from her and examined it. “Goat’s milk, huh? Guess I’ll have to drive into Mobile for that. Don’t think they carry it at the Quick-Stop.”
“Grandpa has a nanny goat. I’d be glad to send Ty over here a couple times a week with some milk.”
Resting his forearms on his knees, he gave her an exasperated look. “You could’ve taken this thing home with you that first day! How come you dumped him off on me?”
She blushed. “Well . . . Grandpa’s not crazy about wild animals. They get into his garden and eat his peaches. Besides, I thought it would be good for you to take care of a sweet baby like Forrest.”
“You thought it would be good for me, huh? What is this, ruminant therapy?”
She grinned a little. “Did it work?”
“No, ma’am, it did not. This deer gets big enough to fend for himself, and he’s out on his little white tail. Which reminds me . . .” He looked at her sideways, tugging the bill of his cap down. “I need a favor.”
“A favor?” Her expression turned wary. “What is it?”
“I’m not asking for your firstborn child. I just need you to help me out with your grandpa. You were right about him balking on selling me his property. I have to tell you I’m getting just a little desperate.”
She swallowed hard. “Do you mind telling me what you want it for?”
“I can’t believe you’ve been in Vancleave a whole week and nobody’s told you I’m setting up a hunting camp.”