When Rayne saw Jericho at the diner the next morning, she nearly walked over and took a seat at his booth. But she couldn’t. She knew she couldn’t. He liked her best when she was happy, normal, uncomplicated, and this morning she wasn’t any of those. So pretending to be in too much of a hurry to pause to chat, she smiled and waved from her position at the counter in front of the cash register, then turned away.
The night before they’d shared their first real kiss. Jericho hadn’t kissed her to prove a point or even to demonstrate that his attraction for her was something odd and out of control that he wasn’t sure he wanted. He’d kissed her because he liked her. And why did he like her? Because she’d been relaxed and comfortable in a home that was of her own making and her own taste. He’d seen her quiet, comfortable, confident. At her best. Or at the very least at her most normal. Not somebody so poor she couldn’t eat, so empty and alone she was sarcastic and snippy. But her real self. Her strong self. The woman he liked. Then her father had called and her entire world had fallen apart.
Her “hello” was barely out of her mouth when her father had blurted that he was done. He’d taken responsibility for her mother’s family’s newspaper for decades and he’d run from the loan shark, rather than try to figure out a way to pay his debt because he just couldn’t take it anymore. The good news was that his breakdown wasn’t about Rayne. She was an adult with an education, who could go anywhere and do anything, so he had simply assumed she would move on when he did. He’d told her that she’d been an enormous help for the year she had been home, but when he couldn’t pay the loan shark the burden of the failing newspaper had become too much to bear.
Rayne had hastened to tell him that she’d not only paid off his loan shark, but also she was making the business profitable again. Advertisers were coming out of the woodwork, not just to put ads in the paper, but also seeking a spot on one of several place mats she was creating each month.
But he’d told her he was done. Finished. He was tired of being the responsible one and he wanted to be free. He wanted to see what life was like when you were the one drawing the paycheck and somebody else had all the responsibility.
Understanding that, Rayne told him that the paper would be there for him when he returned, but he’d exploded and said he didn’t want to return. Ever.
Rayne had to concede that she understood that, too. Her dad had never been popular in Calhoun Corners and after his incessant questioning of Ben Capriotti in the weeks before the election, he was very close to being hated. She accepted everything he told her and wouldn’t have been too upset, except he wouldn’t tell her where he was. He assured her that he was fine. He didn’t want her to worry. But he also didn’t want her to find him. He didn’t want anybody to find him. Then he’d hung up.
Throughout the restless night, Rayne had told herself she didn’t blame her dad. He wasn’t well liked. Calhoun Corners reminded him of his failures. And he did have a right to make a new life while he was still young enough to enjoy it.
Intellectually, she understood. Emotionally, she was spent. She was especially tired of being left behind, being dispensable. Keeping his whereabouts a secret was the same as saying she wasn’t welcome in his life.
Jericho rose from his booth and came over to pay his bill as Elaine handed Rayne her cup of coffee. She smiled a silent greeting, hoping he wouldn’t question her, and turned to leave the diner, but he caught her arm.
“Can we talk?”
In Baltimore, when Rayne was working her way up the ranks at the newspaper where she worked, when she had always dressed well and had tons of friends, she would have swept this man off his feet. In Calhoun Corners, she couldn’t get her act together. She wouldn’t sweep him off his feet because every time she thought she might have a shot, her life fell apart, and she couldn’t stop being another problem to him.
“Rayne?”
“We can talk,” she said, though she knew she wouldn’t tell him anything. What would telling him accomplish, except to make her look like a needy fool? “Pay your check and you can walk me to the paper office.”
He said, “Okay,” gave his money to Elaine and put his hand on the small of Rayne’s back as they walked to the exit.
The bell tinkled when he pushed open the door and directed her outside. She stepped onto the sidewalk, hardly noticing the frigid January air that burned the inside of her nose.
Jericho rubbed his hands together. “Sure is cold.”
She nodded and headed toward her building. It really was her building now. In the course of their phone conversation, her dad had told her that he had been considering selling the building. He’d told her that he believed the paper was worthless, but the building had value—if nothing else, the lot did. However, since she was making a go of the paper he’d decided to deed everything to her. This way if the paper failed, she’d still have the monetary value of the building. All things considered, her dad hadn’t really abandoned her. In fact, he’d given her his only two assets. His home and the building for the Chronicle. She shouldn’t feel too empty and alone.
“Yeah. It’s freezing.”
They walked a block in silence. Finally, Jericho sighed. “I’m sorry for leaving without saying goodbye last night, but I knew you would probably want to talk to your dad for a while.”
She shrugged. “Yeah, we talked for a long time.”
Jericho kicked the snow. “Good.”
She nodded. “Yeah. It was a good talk.” And she really, really wanted somebody to discuss it with. She longed for someone she could fall apart with, someone who would listen and understand what it felt like to be left alone, but she refused to be in a position again where Jericho would pity her. She didn’t want his pity. She wanted him to love her, respect her, honor her. Instead she was nothing but the village idiot. “I’ve gotta get going.”
“Okay.” He caught her gaze.
Knowing she had to push herself through this without anybody’s help, she smiled broadly, as if she didn’t have a problem in the world. Let Jericho think her dad had told her where he was. Better yet, let him think her dad was coming home.
“I’ve got lots to do today. You know,” she said, gesturing with her hands, not really saying anything substantial, but enough that he’d draw his own conclusions, “with my dad and all.”
“Yeah, there’s probably lots to do at the paper.”
“And at home. If nothing else, it might take me all day to figure out how I’ll explain giving away his books and burning half his articles.”
Jericho laughed. “I’ll bet.”
She nodded. “So I guess I’ll see you around.”
Holding her gaze, Jericho said nothing for a few seconds, then finally he smiled slightly and said, “Yeah.”
Rayne could feel tears welling in her eyes. Why did her life have to be such a mess? Why couldn’t she be in a position where she could flirt and tease and make this man beg for her attention?
She had no idea why fate was tormenting her, but it was. Still, she smiled brightly before she walked away. At her building door, she took out her keys and unlocked it. Stepping inside the main room of what was now her business, Rayne looked around. This was it. This was what she had left of her life.
Glancing from desk to desk, she wondered if her dad was right. Was she only picking up a family burden?
She would have forgotten her Saturday night dinner invitation from the Davises except Alvin called. “Theresa wanted me to remind you about dinner.”
Rayne winced. “Sorry, Alvin. But I’ve been busy.”
“You still have to eat. Theresa’s been cooking all day. I’m not taking no for an answer.”
With that Alvin disconnected the call and Rayne placed her receiver in the phone’s cradle. Because it was already three o’clock and she’d been working since seven that morning, she rose from her seat. As if on autopilot, she drove home, took a long bath to relax her back and dressed in jeans and a sweater. Alvin met her at the door before she knocked.
“Come in! Come in!”
She entered the foyer of the bed-and-breakfast, the scent of roast beef wafted to her and her stomach rumbled. She smiled her first real smile in days.
Obviously having heard her stomach, Alvin smiled, too. “See that. I told you you needed to eat!” He turned toward the kitchen and yelled, “Theresa! Rayne is here.”
Rayne glanced around the foyer, looking at the family pictures scattered about. “Are these your kids?”
“Yep. These are pictures for the past ten years. It’s a tradition now. Every year each son takes a picture of his respective group when on vacation and at Christmas-time and we put the photos around the rooms.” He smiled proudly. “The newer the picture, the closer it is to the front door. It’s like a slice of their lives for us.”
Rayne picked up a photo of a handsome man with a pretty red-haired wife and three kids with missing teeth.
Alvin winced. “Oh, that was a bad year for the twins. Eleven through thirteen are awkward years for girls.”
“I very painfully remember that because I lived it.”
Alvin laughed and led Rayne into the kitchen where Theresa was setting the roast on the table. “You don’t mind eating early?”
“She needs to eat early,” Alvin said. “I heard her stomach rumbling when I took her coat.”
“Then my timing is perfect!” Theresa pointed to a seat and said, “You sit here, dear.”
They spent the next few minutes passing hot rolls, mashed potatoes, glazed carrots and roast beef around the table. Alvin said a quiet grace and Theresa happily said, “Amen! Let’s dig in.”
Rayne laughed, fully relaxing.
“So what happened in the past few days that made you sound so tired on the phone?” Alvin asked, making conversation.
Rayne smiled and said, “Nothing much.”
“Oh, dear, your shoulders are too tight,” Theresa said solemnly. “Something had to have happened.”
Shaking her head, Rayne said, “You’re too observant.”
“We see a lot of people in and out of here. We know the signs,” Alvin said, then took a bite of roast beef.
“Yeah, I guess.” Rayne drew a quick breath. There really was no sense hiding from the truth. “My dad called. He doesn’t want to come home, even though I told him I paid his debt and found a way to make the paper profitable.”
“So he’s running?” Alvin said.
“I think it’s more that he’s tired of working to provide jobs for others, and wants to find out what it’s like to work for somebody else and have real free time and an actual paycheck.”
Theresa considered that, then said, “Makes sense to me.”
“I makes sense to me, too.” Rayne shrugged. “At least logically.”
“But emotionally you’re having doubts?” Theresa asked.
“It’s not really doubts. I feel empty.”
Alvin said, “You need a guy.”
At his complete lack of guile, Rayne laughed. “Oh, really?”
“I think so, too,” Theresa said. “You’re what? Twenty-four? Twenty-five?”
“Twenty-four.”
“And you’re about to take over the business,” Alvin said. “Probably make it your whole life.”
“I don’t want to do that,” Rayne said. “It was my dad’s whole life and look where he is.”
“Which is exactly why you need a fella.” Theresa reached for her coffee. “Life’s all about balance, but without somebody to balance with, you won’t find time for anything but work because work will always seem more important, more pressing.” She took a sip of coffee, then asked, “Is there somebody?”
“No.”
“Of course, there’s somebody,” Alvin scoffed. “Otherwise you would have taken the first road out of Calhoun Corners and never looked back.”
“I stayed so my dad would know he still had the paper to come home to.”
“So why aren’t you going now that he’s called and said he doesn’t want to come home? Why didn’t you pack Friday morning and head out of town?”
“My dad said he was turning over the business to me.”
Theresa caught her gaze. “So why didn’t you tell him not to?”
Rayne closed her eyes. Why hadn’t she?
Alvin chuckled. “So who is he?”
“Jericho Capriotti.”
“Oh, the new chief of police,” Theresa crooned. “I hear he’s cute.”
“He’s very cute,” Rayne said with a laugh. “And out of my league.”
“Nobody’s ever out of your league, kid,” Alvin said, pointing his fork at her.
Theresa said, “He’s right, Rayne. If you like this guy and he likes you, you need to make a move.”
Alvin shook his head. “That’s not the way to go about it. No man wants a woman he thinks is too available. You’ve got to somehow make yourself irresistible while making him think you’re off limits.”
As if it were that simple. Rayne just barely kept herself from rolling her eyes heavenward. “Right.”
“It’s like this,” Alvin said, gesturing with his fork. “You’ve got to ignore him for a time, then be somewhere like a party together.”
“His brother’s wedding is coming up. February 14.”
“That’s good. It will give you a chance to dress really pretty,” Theresa said.
Rayne shook her head. “I left out something important in this story. The day after my dad called, Jericho walked me to work. He was fishing for information about the phone call but I didn’t want to tell him my dad wasn’t coming home.” She wasn’t exactly sorry that she hadn’t poured out her troubles to Jericho. That was the only way to preserve at least a little of her dignity. But now that she had worked through the emotions of her dad not coming home, she realized what she had said that day and how she had behaved might have been a bit extreme.
“Ever since Jericho returned to Calhoun Corners my life has been a mess. I didn’t want any more of Jericho’s pity, so I didn’t tell him about my dad and the way the conversation ended it looked like I was giving him the brush-off.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Alvin said. “In fact it might actually make you more interesting that you sort of gave him the boot.”
Rayne laughed at his typical optimism, but Alvin continued. “Now what you have to do is go to his brother’s wedding dressed like a knockout, then flirt with everybody else at the wedding but him.”
Rayne gaped at him. “Isn’t that counterproductive?”
“Nope. Make him think you’re the girl every man wants and he’ll want you, too.”
Rayne grimaced. She wished she had enough courage or confidence to flit around the wedding reception making Jericho jealous. “Sorry, but I can’t do that.”
“Of course you can,” Theresa said at the same time that Alvin said, “We’ve got almost a month of Saturday night dinners to talk you into it. You think you screwed things up, but you actually set the stage by looking disinterested. Now he needs a little push. But you don’t push by flirting with him, you make him come to you and he will.”
Rayne took a breath. She had to admit Alvin’s idea sounded like something she might have done in Baltimore, back when she had confidence. And she was tired of being a loser. Maybe it was time to take a positive step? To do something productive.
“Besides,” Alvin said, suddenly serious. “It’s better to look ahead than backward. You can’t forget your dad. But he’s your past. This Jericho guy, he sounds like your future. Smart people forget the past and go after their future.”
Rayne had no trouble ignoring Jericho for the next few weeks. Busy with the place mats, bringing back one of her salespeople and writing each week’s edition of the paper, she didn’t have time to seek him out. As Rick’s best man, Jericho appeared to be equally occupied.
The Saturday afternoon of Rick and Ashley’s Valentine’s Day wedding, as Rayne stood in front of her closet, looking at her choices for wedding attire, she stumbled upon the red dress. The one she guessed Jericho must have seen her wearing at the party in Baltimore.
She pulled it out. She wasn’t entirely sure why it was such a showstopper to men. It wasn’t low cut. It also wasn’t all that short. Only an inch or two above the knee. She slipped into it and studied herself in the mirror. The simple sheath flowed over her curves and, without being overt, accented her tiny waist. Stopping an inch or two above the knee it also hinted that she had good legs. Other than those two things, though, a guy was on his own. The dress was so simple men had to use their imaginations to find it sexy. Still, if Alvin was right, men liked that.
Satisfied with her choice of dress, she applied makeup, then removed the electric rollers she had put in her hair and carefully brushed the long locks so the curls would be loose and disorganized.
Though it was cold, the snow had melted and the sidewalks were clear, so Rayne put on her highest red heels, grabbed her red-sequined clutch bag and slid into her black wool coat.
She walked to the church and sat quietly in one of the back pews as the happy couple exchanged their vows. Wearing a strapless white gown with elaborate beading, Ashley was stunning. With his black hair and piercing blue eyes, Rick was his usual handsome self in his black tux. But Jericho looked amazing. He didn’t have Rick’s playboy good looks. Instead he had the intense, mature appearance of a man of purpose and power.
Right then and there Rayne realized her friends the Davises were correct. He was the man for her. Not because he was handsome, though he was. Not because he was sexy, though he was sexy in spades. But because he was mature. Serious. He was a man of purpose and power, and though her crush might have been what had initially drawn her to him, it was his integrity that kept her from being able to forget him.
In the quiet church, Rayne realized she might have lost her illusions about changing the world, but today, she suddenly saw that maintaining the peaceful environment in a town where a family could raise children was a trust not to be ignored. In a sense, as the owner of the newspaper and the chief of police, she and Jericho had been called to assure this town stayed as it was for the next generation. They were partners of a sort. That was why they understood each other.
After congratulating the bride and groom on the church steps, Rayne skillfully sidestepped greeting Jericho who had turned to speak with another of the groomsmen. She didn’t want him to see her in her simple black wool coat. She wanted him to see her when she walked into the country club ballroom, without a coat, surefooted on floor rather than potentially icy church steps. She wanted her hair to be perfect. Her makeup without flaw.
She wanted him to feel what she always felt when he walked into the room, and if it took a sort of entrance to accomplish that, then so be it.
At the country club she met Bert in the parking lot, Elaine and Ron in the coatroom, Mrs. Gregory in the reception line, and all of the giggling high school cheerleaders in the rest room and realized that she wasn’t going to walk into the ballroom alone. The lights wouldn’t dim on her arrival. No spotlight would hit her. The band wouldn’t strike up a tune.
This was Calhoun Corners.
She sat at a table for eight with Elaine and Ron, Janie Alberter, owner of the dress shop, Pete Forwalt, her rehired salesperson, and his wife, Millie and a couple who introduced themselves as the Maitlands, friends of Gene Meljac from New York city. Millie mentioned that she loved Rayne’s hair. Elaine told her red was a good color for her, but otherwise nobody fussed over her appearance.
They ate dinner chatting about the happy couple, the happy parents of both the bride and groom, and the general state of the economy, and while everybody was finishing dessert Rayne glanced down at her dress. It didn’t have a low neck. It wasn’t short. Or tight. Or really anything special and she shook her head.
She was insane. Not only had she dressed for a man who appeared quite capable of ignoring her, but also she had to wonder about the memory of the man in question since her dress hadn’t as much as gotten one compliment. Yet it had driven him to fantasies.
The band began to play. Rick and Ashley danced the first dance. Ashley danced the second dance with her father. Then Ashley announced her dad’s engagement from the bandstand and that the next dance was for him and his fiancée, a pretty thirty-something brunette. The band then played a slow tune and Elaine and Ron and Pete and Millie joined Ben and Elizabeth Capriotti on the dance floor.
Sighing, Rayne made her way to the bar. Because she was driving she could only have one drink and she decided she needed it now. She walked up to the white leather bar, told the tuxedo-clad bartender she wanted a whiskey sour and studied the array of liquor bottles that lined the back wall.
“I like your dress.”
Since there was apparently only one person on the entire planet who liked her dress, Rayne knew it had to be Jericho beside her. Wanting to pop him for steering her wrong, she turned to tell him he was the only one who liked her dress, but when she saw him her breath caught.
Leaning against the white leather, with a crooked sexy smile and his brown hair casually brushing his forehead, he looked about as good as a man could look. And everything Rayne wanted to say flew out of her head. The only thing that came out of her mouth was, “This old thing.”
“I have some very good memories involving that old thing.”
Rayne sighed and took the drink the bartender handed her. “You’re the only one. Look,” she said, holding out her leg. “It falls almost to my knee.” She yanked at the round neck. “I’m not showing cleavage.” She pivoted. “And there’s a full back. What the devil did you find attractive?”
“Maybe I’m just a guy who likes to unwrap the package.”
Rayne’s heart skittered to a stop. He was flirting with her! Alvin was right. Even if Jericho had thought she’d given him the brush-off the day after her father called, he still liked her. She hadn’t ruined everything.
“Want to dance?”
“Yes,” she whispered, but her feet didn’t move.
Jericho chuckled, took her drink from her hand, set it on the bar and led her to the dance floor. He pulled her to him and as if in slow motion she felt every inch as their bodies came into contact. He nestled her closer, resting his chin against her temple and Rayne’s breathing stuttered.
“I’m glad you came.”
“Huh?”
He pulled away and smiled down at her. “I’m glad you came. You’ve been sort of a hermit for the past few weeks.”
She stared at him, studying his eyes, finally comprehending that he really was paying attention to her. Not only that, but he liked her. She could see a sort of amused affection in the depths of his pretty green eyes.
Boy, she owed Alvin big time for his advice.
She swallowed. “I needed some time to get adjusted to everything my dad told me.”
“Yeah. So I hear you’re a business owner now?”
She liked the fact that he hadn’t come right out and confronted her about her dad not coming home. Saying she was a business owner was a much more positive way to admit he’d heard the gossip and he understood. Plus, the truth of her new status sort of swirled through her as they waltzed around the circular dance floor of the country club. She wasn’t an abandoned daughter. She was a business owner. And the business wasn’t failing as it had been while her dad ran it. And she felt a sacred trust to the town. She wasn’t downtrodden or burdened. She was okay. No, she was more than okay. She was a successful business owner.
She suddenly wondered if it wasn’t her dad’s lack of passion for the little paper and the town itself that had prevented him from seeing the opportunities, then decided she didn’t care. Whatever her father had done or hadn’t was the past. She was moving on. And she was doing it well.
She stood a little taller. “More important to you, I’m a citizen of your town. You better watch your step around me, buddy, because I won’t hesitate to complain to the mayor.”
Jericho laughed. “I think this dress makes you funny.”
“No, I’ve always been funny.” She had been. In Baltimore, making people laugh was her claim to fame. “You just came home when I was going through a life crisis. I like to laugh. I like to joke. And I don’t like this dress. I think you’re the only one who does.”
He tightened his hold on her. “Good.”
Rayne shifted back so she could look at him. “Have you been drinking?”
“No,” he said, then he lowered his voice. “I just spent two weeks thinking about you. Missing you. Tonight I realized that if I don’t do something about that soon, some other guy will.”
Rayne glanced around looking for either a wicked stepmother, fairy godmother or a big clock about to strike midnight. Alvin’s advice might have had merit, but all of this was absolutely too good to be true.
The music ended, and though they parted to applaud the band, Jericho immediately took her hand again when they stopped clapping. He led her off the floor and over to his parents, who were standing on the edge of the dance floor watching Rick’s one-year-old daughter Ruthie.
“Good evening, Rayne,” Elizabeth said, then hugged her. “Thank you for coming.”
“Thank you for inviting me,” Rayne said as Ben reached around his granddaughter and extended his hand to shake hers.
“I understand you’re the town’s newest member of the chamber of commerce.”
Rayne nodded.
“Her dad gave her the business,” Jericho supplied before Rayne could.
Ben murmured his approval, but Ruthie squirmed in his arms. “Hey, little girl. You be nice or Pap won’t dance with you.”
“Why don’t you let me take her?” Jericho said, reaching for her. “Rayne and I will show her the cake.”
At that point, Rayne surreptitiously pinched herself. The pain she felt confirmed that she wasn’t dreaming. Ruthie wrapped herself around Jericho and he kissed her temple.
Rayne smiled. “You’re very good with her.”
“I adore her. Mom baby-sits her and Tia and Drew’s little girl a lot, and they’re spoiling me.”
“Don’t you mean you’re spoiling them?”
“No,” he said, catching her gaze over Ruthie’s little head. “They’re spoiling me. There’s nothing like the unconditional love of a child and I’m beginning to realize that I wasted a lot of years not knowing what I was missing.”
Held in his mesmerizing gaze, Rayne’s entire body quivered. He wanted kids. He wanted to settle down. He was choosing her.