“You certainly snagged the most eligible bachelor in Rust Creek Falls,” Helen Ganley said with a scowl as she marched up to Marissa at the reception desk in the sheriff’s station. Helen lived in Anne’s neighborhood and was the one who complained incessantly about dog walkers allowing their “mutts to pee on the edge of my property!”
Marissa felt her cheeks burn. Naturally, her boss was in his office and had likely heard every embarrassing word. Sheriff Christensen’s two new deputies, a rookie guy and the very experienced Daniella Patterson, glanced up, the rookie wiggling his eyebrows and Daniella giving Marissa a thumbs-up.
God. Did everyone know her business? Yes. They did. Because this was a small town and she herself had paraded her business all over Rust Creek Falls.
“If you are talking about Autry Jones,” Marissa said in a louder voice than usual, “we are just friends.”
“Sure you are, hon,” Helen said. “I want to file another complaint about the lady who lets her dog pee on my lawn.”
“The very edge of your lawn?” Marissa asked. “Technically, that strip is public property, Helen.”
“It’s still my lawn,” the woman said. “It’s very bad for the grass! It dies!”
“Well, I personally have spoken to the lady in question and she has promised not to let her dog lift its leg on your property ever again.”
“Good!” Helen snapped. “Finally.”
“Helen, maybe it’s time you adopted a puppy,” Marissa said. “I heard the animal shelter just rescued a mother dog and her month-old pups from the woods.”
Helen’s face fell. “I don’t think I’ll ever be ready for another dog.” Marissa knew that Helen’s beloved miniature black poodle, Chumley, had died after sixteen years together, and the woman had gotten grumpier and grumpier ever since. But underneath that brittle exterior was a softy who needed something to dote on.
“I clock out at five,” Marissa said, glancing at her watch. It was four fifty. “Let’s walk over and just see them. I hear they’re really cute. Black-and-white.”
“Black-and-white?” Helen said, her face lifting a bit. “I suppose we could take a look.”
A half hour later, Helen had signed on to foster all four pups and the mother dog, with the intention of adopting the mom and one puppy when they were ready. Marissa had a feeling that Helen would not be complaining about anything or anyone anymore.
After a day’s work and a trip to the Rust Creek Falls Animal Shelter, all Marissa wanted to do was go home and soak in a bathtub. But it was her turn to cook, and Kiera wanted to practice her reading, and Kaylee wanted to learn to count to a hundred by tens. Wasn’t that what older sisters were for? She’d put Abby on that. Except Abby wanted to redecorate her room, and Marissa had promised she’d help move the desk and bed and dresser around so that her father wouldn’t throw out his back.
But when Marissa arrived home, Autry had not only rearranged Abby’s bedroom and had Kaylee already working on up to fifty in the counting by tens, but was sitting on the sofa with Kiera, patiently listening to her sound out a tough word, her little finger on the page, her tongue out in concentration. “Peh-oh-pel?”
“Pee-pul,” Autry said. “That’s a toughie. Some words can’t really be sounded out. You just have to learn them by sight.”
“Like house,” Kaylee said. “I learned that one.”
“High five!” Autry said, hand up.
Kaylee beamed and high-fived him.
“Sorry I’m late,” Marissa said. “I had an errand to run.”
“Actually, it’s good you’re late, because dinner is just about ready. Two more minutes.”
He cooks. He teaches kids to read. He teaches kids to count. He rearranges furniture.
He kisses...like he means it.
“I’ll come help,” she said, and Autry followed her into the kitchen. “I didn’t know you were coming over tonight.”
“I only have a week left. I want to spend as much time with you as I can.”
“As friends.”
He held her gaze. “As friends.”
“Thanks for everything in there,” she said, gesturing toward the other room. “I was swamped at work today, then I helped Helen Ganley turn her long-time frown upside down. And I thought I had a couple heavy hours of mom duty ahead of me. But then you were here.”
“Autry Jones, at your service,” he said, taking a bow. His smile almost undid her, sending a jolt to her knees.
God, she loved this man.
She froze, then felt herself tremble and took a step back.
What? She loved him?
Say something, she ordered herself. Get that thought out of your head immediately!
“So...what’s for dinner?” she asked, her heart beating so fast she was surprised he couldn’t hear it.
“My world-famous meatballs and spaghetti, with garlic bread and a green salad.”
She grinned. “I may faint with happiness. So will my father. And the girls.”
“Marissa, I did one more thing.”
“You couldn’t possibly have,” she said. What was there left for this man to do?
“I know I should have asked, but the opportunity presented itself right then and there and I took it.”
She tilted her head.
“A friend of mine bought eight tickets to a concert for his family, but there was a conflict, so he asked if I’d like to buy them and I did. I’d like to invite your entire family to go. You, me, your parents and the girls. And since there’s an extra, maybe Abby would like to invite a friend.”
“A concert? What kind?”
“It’s 2LOVEU,” he said. “With a certain dimpled lead singer named Lyle. Did I mention a backstage pass comes along with the tickets?”
“Oh my God. Abby might pass out. But I don’t know, Autry. That’s kind of out of our league.”
“Not mine,” he said.
“Let me talk to my mom.”
“Does she like 2LOVEU?” he asked.
“Everyone does. I heard her humming one of their songs while folding laundry the other day. Abby plays their album so often that the ear worm has got us all. Even Kaylee knows half the songs by heart.”
“I would love to take you all. The concert is in Seattle.”
“Seattle?” she said. “But—”
“Private jet and a hotel for the night—you, your parents and the girls will have a large suite with three bedrooms, and I’ll have a suite down the hall. If we’re going front row to a boy-band concert, we have to do it right.”
She laughed. “You really are from another universe.”
He held her gaze, his expression turning serious. “Except I’m right here in your kitchen, making spaghetti and meatballs.”
Tears poked at her eyes and she quickly blinked them back. That was the problem. He was so close—and yet so damned far away.
And leaving in a week.
And she loved him. She loved Autry Jones.
* * *
As Marissa and her mom unloaded the dishwasher long after Autry had gone home, Marissa figured it was time to bring up the 2LOVEU concert. The conversation would go one of two ways. Either her mom would say “Oh, how generous and nice, what a wonderful family trip!” or “Absolutely not, that’s too much, and setting up expectations for not only Abby but the younger girls, too.”
Her eyes narrowed, her chin lifted, Roberta listened as Marissa explained the details of the big concert trip to Seattle.
“Marissa, that’s very generous of him, but come on. Front-row tickets to the concert everyone is talking about. In Seattle. A private jet there. A hotel overnight. Backstage passes. This isn’t us, Marissa. It’s not our life. And it’s not going to be our future. Autry is leaving in a week. Then life suddenly goes back to regular.”
Marissa had to smile at how her mother managed to double up on what Marissa had figured she’d say. “So maybe a special once-in-a-lifetime event isn’t such a terrible thing.”
Her mother frowned and put the mugs in the cabinet. “I don’t know, Marissa. Honestly, I’m just not sure. He’s a good person, that much I know. He’s genuine. He is leaving in a week, and yet he was here tonight, making spaghetti and meatballs, helping Kiera read, helping Kaylee count, rearranging Abby’s bedroom furniture, going over Dad’s stock picks and fixing the crazy font increase on my desktop that I couldn’t figure out. He’s doing everyday things. Family things. He’s spent a lot of time here, Marissa, when he could have just taken you out on the town. So I can’t say he’s not a lovely, family-oriented person.”
“He doesn’t think he’s family oriented,” Marissa said. “It’s part of the problem.”
She thought about the woman who’d hurt Autry, the baby he’d lost all contact with. He’d hardened his heart against having a family for himself, against loving again, against expectations.
“For a man who came to town to visit his family and has been spending time with them and a family of three kids, two grandparents and a widowed mom, he’s more family focused than he must realize.”
Marissa nodded, taking out a stack of plates. “Do you think Abby will be hurt when he leaves?” she asked.
“I think Abby will be fine. Autry is kind of like Lyle from 2LOVEU to Abby. Sort of a celebrity, except she got to know this one a little. That he’s leaving won’t be a surprise, and you’ve prepared her well for that. I think it’s you who’ll be hurt.”