Tina leaned against the pillar on the front porch, watching the truck driving toward the Big House. She recognized Douglas’ truck, the one Chance had borrowed earlier. Her heartbeat sped up at the thought Chance was home. Funny how she’d come to think about the Big House as home, yet there it was. Even though Chance had his own place in town, since she’d been in Shiloh Springs, he’d spent a lot of his time here. He’d even taken off the past several days following the accident to give his shoulder time to heal, but she suspected it was also because he wanted to spend more time with her.
The thought that he might care for her sent a tingle through her, because she knew she more than cared for him. As much as she’d thought she loved her ex-husband, those feelings faded into oblivion with the attraction she felt for Chance. He was smart. He was funny. When she was with him, he made her laugh and smile, and almost forget that she had problems. Problems that wouldn’t disappear simply because she wasn’t in Portland.
The pickup pulled to a stop and he climbed out, and she couldn’t hide her smile when she noted the definite spring in his step. Guess the doctor gave him a clean bill of health.
“Afternoon, Sunshine. You staying out of trouble?”
She shook her head, fluttering her lashes at him. “Trouble, Counselor? Why would you assume I court trouble?”
“Sweetheart, I’m beginning to think trouble is your middle name.”
“Actually, it’s Fiona, but I’ve been known to answer to anything.”
“Feel like taking a walk with me? Doctor gave me the all clear, no restrictions.” He held out his hand, and she placed hers in his, and he guided her down the front steps. Taking her hand, he curled it into the crook of his arm, and she fell into step with him as he guided her toward the side of the house.
She loved the Big House. It was a gorgeous two-story house, the large white pillars on the front porch supporting both the front porch and a second porch on the upper level. Dark green shutters highlighted the windows on the front, with a curved arch over the front door. The whole house was painted white, and there was a brick cobblestone walkway from the parking area all the way to the front porch.
Huge live oaks sat on either side of the front yard, wispy drapes of Spanish moss hanging from them, reminding her she was in the South. Being from Northern California, this was a whole different way of life, and she’d discovered she loved everything about it.
Chance led her around the extension that had been added to the Big House, a massive master suite Douglas had built for Ms. Patti, with an extended patio she could access through double French doors. She loved the splashes of color on the patio, both from the throw pillows on the furniture as well as the cascade of blooms and flowers filling decorative pots. It was a glorious, relaxing sight, and she knew if it were hers, she could spend hours sitting in there, enjoying the tranquility.
“I’d like to show you something.”
“Why, Counselor, I’m not that kind of girl.”
He chuckled, letting her know he’d gotten her double entendre. “Nothing like that, Sunshine, get your mind out of the gutter. Momma has a special place here on the ranch. Most folks don’t know about it; we only show it to people we…care about.”
A subtle fluttering in her stomach started at his pronouncement. Knowing that he included her in the people he considered important, special, made her realize how important Chance’s feelings for her were. Good thing she felt the same about him.
“It’s not far. I will admit it’s one of my favorite places on the ranch. When I’m having a horrible day in court, thinking about Momma’s hideaway makes things, I don’t know, easier.”
“I can’t wait to see it.”
While they’d been talking, Chance had continued guiding her farther away from the Big House. There were huge pine trees reaching toward the skies, with a manicured lawn surrounding the Big House, and when they stepped between the pines, her breath caught in her throat.
“It’s beautiful.”
Before her appeared a wonderland. A circular white gazebo sat in a clearing, the tall pines surrounding it, their branches spreading in a canopy high above the enchanted structure. It wasn’t tiny, but actually big enough to hold several people, with room to spare.
“Dad helped clear the area not long after they were married. He felt she deserved her own special place, where she could escape when she needed, something that strictly belonged to her alone.”
Tina smiled, her fingertips trailing across the wooden pillars, with ivy and flowers climbing along the sides. The fragrance of the flora wasn’t overwhelming, but it added another layer to the whimsy and wonder of the space.
“Your father is a very smart man.”
“So he’s been told.”
Chance leaned into the opening and flicked a switch, and the whole interior of the gazebo lit with tiny white fairy lights. The golden glow added to the ambience, like a vision from a bygone age.
“Ms. Patti’s done an amazing amount of work to get all these plants to grow. I wish I could claim to have a green thumb. I do okay with a few plants on my windowsill, but they’re probably all dead now.”
“I’m sorry we had to hustle you away from your home.”
Tina grinned and touched his hand. “I’m not. I’d never have come to Shiloh Springs. Never met your amazing family. In case you haven’t noticed, Counselor, I’m pretty spontaneous. I’ve learned to grab and go. You don’t know how lucky you are to have stability, a sense of place. To have a family who adores you. Don’t get me wrong. I love my Aunt Maxie and Uncle Stanley, but I haven’t been able to go and see them. Talking with them on the phone is sporadic because of my ex.”
“What would you do if your life were normal? I know you were in medical school before you married your ex.”
She leaned against the pillar, her fingers running along the petals of a rose, thinking about his question. “I wanted to be a surgeon. Probably would have specialized in neurosurgery, because the brain fascinated me. Everything we are, the building blocks of what makes us individuals, tie into the brain. The intricacies of each connection, they’re fascinating.”
He mirrored her stance, leaning against the gazebo, with his knee bent, his whole posture relaxed yet confident. The sunlight glistening through the pines cast dappled sunshine onto his hair, lending it blond highlights and creating a halo effect. She wondered how he’d react if she called him angel.
“What stopped you? You had excellent grades, your professors lauded your knowledge and your ability to learn things almost by osmosis. You’d have been an excellent surgeon.”
How do I tell him Jared’s jealousy put an end to my dreams?
“I had an accident.” She held up her hand, showing him the faint spiderwebbing of scars. “The surgery to repair the damage gave me limitation of motion of my fingers. It’s not bad, I can do pretty much everything, but the fine motor skills I’d need for neurosurgery?” She shrugged.
“That stinks. But couldn’t you still be a doctor? I know it’s not the specialty you’d chosen, but you’d still make a wonderful physician.”
“Maybe. I’ve thought about going back, but it’s hard when I’m constantly moving every six months. Turns out, Jared’s costing me my career all over again.”
Fortunately, he didn’t catch her faux pas, instead stepping inside the gazebo and holding out his hand. Taking his, she stepped inside, her eyes caught on the structure in the middle.
“Is that a well?”
“Sure is. When I was growing up, all of us boys called it our wishing well. I can’t tell you how many coins I’ve tossed in there.”
Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a quarter and handed it to her. “Want to take a chance?”
“Only if you make a wish, too.”
“All my wishes have already come true, Sunshine.” When he smiled, she felt all fluttery and tingly inside. How had she gone from finding him obnoxiously arrogant to the man who made her insides spark?
“Well, I’ve got lots of wishes. Hmm, what do I wish for?”
“What’s your heart’s desire?”
She gave him a wink and tossed her quarter into the well, making her secret wish. At his self-confident smirk, she decided a change of topic might be prudent.
“I know all about your little foray to the pool and the snakes, but I’ve never heard how you wound up living with the Boudreaus. Care to share? Or if it’s to personal—”
“It’s fine. It’s not a secret, or at least not to most people who live in Shiloh Springs. Small towns are notorious for knowing everything about everybody who lives there. The Boudreaus and the Big House tend to be the subject of conversation more often than not, especially when we were growing up. With new boys showing up all the time, we tended to be excellent fodder for gossip.”
Tina walked to the bench encircling the inside of the gazebo and eased onto it, patting the seat beside her. She smiled at Chance, knowing the story he intended to share was personal and intimate, and she was truly honored he felt willing to share with her.
Chance was enchanted with the genuine joy Tina exuded, both with his momma’s secret garden, and with being with him. She fascinated him in a way no other woman had before, and he wondered if she always would or would it fade with familiarity.
Telling her about his family, his past? So far, he’d found her to be open-minded and fair. In all their dealings, other than their first meeting in the hotel in Portland, when he’d surprised her coming out of the shower and she’d beaned him with the hotel ice bucket, their time together had been unique. Her sense of humor and her intelligence enticed him, making him want to know more about her, and he hoped she’d eventually open up, too.
“Unlike some of my brothers, my parents were great. I was an only child, and I admit they spoiled me. They made sure I had everything I wanted. Except the BB gun I asked for on my seventh birthday. My dad was all for it; Mom threatened to rip his arms off if he bought one. Needless to say, I never got that BB gun.”
“So, no chance of shooting your eye out, like in that Christmas movie?”
He joined in her laughter, remembering the scene she mentioned. It was a cute movie and one he tried to watch every holiday season.
“I probably would have. My mom worried. I was their surprise baby. They’d tried for years, and finally decided they’d never have kids. As soon as they quit trying, voila, baby boy Chance came along. Fast forward eleven years. I was spending the night at a friend’s house. It was a Friday night, and we were going to the Saturday morning movies the next morning. His mom was going to drop us off at the drug store, which was across the street from the theater. I had plenty of money to buy enough candy to induce a diabetic coma, and we were heading over to watch Chicken Little. That’s what we told his mom.”
“But?”
He put on an innocent expression, and slapped his open palm against his heart.
“You don’t believe me?”
“I’m sure it was a great movie, but I can’t see two eleven-year-old boys wanting to see an animated kid’s story. What were you really going to see?”
He grinned. “We were going to sneak in to watch King Kong. All the guys at school were talking about it, but there’s no way my parents would have allowed me to see a monster movie.”
“Thus the sneaking in?”
“We never got that far. Tate’s mom woke us up, and I knew something was wrong. I could tell she’d been crying. Her eyes were red and her face was all blotchy. She sat beside me on the bottom bunk, and I knew. Like some sixth sense, intuition, whatever you want to call it. I knew my parents were gone.”
The look of sympathy on Tina’s face was the last thing he wanted to see. He wasn’t telling her because he wanted her to feel sorry for him. Far from it. He simply wanted her to understand one of the defining moments that shaped him into who he was, the good, the bad, and the ugly.
“I’m sorry, Chance.”
“Thank you. You know I was one of the lucky ones, though I almost screwed things up with the whole snakes in the pool incident. If anybody deserves credit for keeping me from ruining my life, its Douglas and Patricia Boudreau.”
“They are amazing. I haven’t known them long, but I think Ms. Patti is psychic. She always has her pulse on everything going on, and she had my life story out of me before I even realized I gave it to her.”
Chance grinned and patted her hand. “That’s my momma.”
Tina shifted on the bench until she was facing him head on. “What happened to your parents?”
“The police said it was a home invasion robbery. They think my parents came home and caught them in the act. They were both shot.”
“Oh, no!”
“It took several months, but the police finally caught them. They ended up in Huntsville, both serving life without parole. I didn’t have any other family, so I ended up with Child Protective Services. Floated from home to home, never sticking in any one place. Entirely my fault, because I was hurt and angry and too darn bullheaded to listen to anybody who was trying to help me. Then I ended up with the Boudreaus.”
A vision of the first time he’d met Douglas Boudreau flashed through his head. The latest in a long line of social workers drove him to Shiloh Springs. He’d been sullen and pouted the entire trip, determined not to like his new situation. It would never be home, because he longer had a home. Looking back, he couldn’t believe how wrong he’d been.
“I imagine going from child welfare to the Big House was a bit like culture shock. When I was in medical school, I interacted with a lot of kids who came into the emergency room from foster homes. Sometimes,” Tina paused, closing her eyes, “I felt helpless. There are so many kids out there who are shoved into the system because they have no one to care about them. Help them. And far too often, the home they are placed in are worse than the situations they were removed from. Being placed with the Boudreaus? You were one of the lucky ones.”
“I didn’t think so at the time. If they’d given me a choice, I’d have turned them down flat. I did not want to be in the middle of nowhere. Stuck on a ranch with a bunch of other foster kids, doing chores, shoveling out stalls. I was a city kid, and this was like being dropped into my worst nightmare.”
Tina grinned at his description, chuckling at his expression. Now, he could see the humor, but when you’re an eleven-year-old, prepubescent boy whose entire life had been uprooted, it was a nightmare. He’d expected monsters around every corner. It was “the country”, which meant rattlesnakes and coyotes, cattle rustlers and shootouts. And he was stuck, because he didn’t have any place else to go.
“Guess you found out it wasn’t as bad as you thought.”
“Not at first. I didn’t fit in with the others. I shared a room with Brody. He snored and he was a tattletale.”
Tina’s laughter was a panacea to his soul. Her sunny disposition gave her an inner light that warmed him, which was why he’d taken to calling her Sunshine.
“Brody, the Boy Scout, a tattletale? Hard to picture that with the man I’ve met.”
“He grew out of that phase, thank goodness, because if he hadn’t, I’d have had to beat it out of him.”
“You love your family, don’t deny it.”
“Every last one of them. When my parents were killed, I never thought I’d find a new family. Especially one filled with love and respect and values. It didn’t happen overnight. And I fought caring about them. It somehow felt like a betrayal of what I felt for my biological parents.”
“I get it. My situation was pretty much the reverse. I didn’t have the best parents. They weren’t abusive, more like inattentive. As long as I went to school and got passable grades and didn’t get into trouble, they pretty much ignored me. Until Jared started showing an interest in me. Then they were Johnny-On-The-Spot, portraying our home life as the best family since the Brady Bunch. What a joke. My Aunt Maxie and Uncle Stanley were more actual parents to me than my biological family.”
“Working in the district attorney’s office, I’ve found nobody has the perfect family. Even the Boudreaus have had their issues. We’ve had boys who didn’t make it living here. I can think of a couple right off the top of my head. Sometimes, no matter how much love you give a person, you can’t change the path they’re on. You can only hope they make different choices.”
“Well, I’m glad things worked out for you, because you belong here. With this family. In this town. I’ve watched you around the citizenry, interacting with people in Shiloh Springs. You care about every single one of them, and they care about you. I can’t imagine you anyplace else.”
“Me either. I went to SMU to study law. Dallas is a huge city, even though it’s a sprawling metropolis. I was there long enough to realize there’s no place like home. And Shiloh Springs, the Boudreaus, for me that’s home.”
Tina stared over his shoulder, her gaze distant, like she was lost in her thoughts. Was he boring her with his life story? She’d asked, but maybe she was simply being polite.
“Do you realize how lucky you are?” Her words were said softly, almost a whisper. “I’ve never felt that. I wasn’t settled after I graduated high school. I went into college not knowing what I wanted, and then I found medicine. I loved it, everything about it called to me. Then it was taken away from me, stolen away a little at a time, until it was gone and I felt cast adrift. When I left Jared, I didn’t have any idea where I’d land, and ended up moving, trying to stay one step ahead of him. I’m still like that, never settling, never finding…home.”
It felt like a fist punched him in the middle of his chest. He wanted that for her, to find the place where she belonged. To find the sense of peace he’d found when he’d moved back to Shiloh Springs. But more, he wanted her to find her home in him. With him. Because he knew with a certainty that was unshakable, she’d stolen his heart, and he’d never get it back.
He raised his hand, and brushed a lock of hair that had blown across her cheek behind her ear. Her eyes widened at his touch, the moment seeming to stretch out, as their gazes locked. Moving slowly, giving her time to say no, he leaned forward and brushed his lips against hers.
The sweetness of the kiss felt perfect when she responded. Her lips moved beneath his, and his breath caught. Within seconds, he deepened the kiss, his teeth tugging softly on her bottom lip until hers parted. This felt right. Everything around him disappeared except the feel of her lips beneath his, and he never wanted it to end.
Tina’s arms snaked around his neck, pressing her lips harder against his, and he knew he was lost. He continued to kiss her, trailing his lips along her jawline and her cheek before returning to her mouth. Never had a kiss felt right, perfect, and he never wanted to stop.
Finally, he pulled back, watching Tina’s fingertips touch her lips, her cheeks flushed.
“We’d better get back to the house.”
“Okay.” She took his offered hand. “Thank you for this afternoon. I love your mother’s garden, and I’m touched you’d share it with me.”
How could he tell her he wanted to share everything with her? He wanted to, desperately. But until she was free from the danger stalking her, she needed time and space, and he’d give it to her. Even if it killed him.
One of the things he’d discovered after moving to the Big House and living with a passel of brothers—he had a wealth of patience, and he’d wait until she was ready. But he wasn’t going away, and he wasn’t going to lose her.
Ever.