Welcome Home, Bobby Winslow

Only at this moment he wasn’t any of those things.

He was Bobby Winslow.

A boy who’d been her friend, her first love. And at one time, the most important person in her entire world.

“I’m sorry, too.” The words fell from her lips, and the pain in her chest she’d blamed on her run eased. “I didn’t expect—even with the house and all the rumors—I think I was as surprised to see you yesterday as you were to see me.”

His mouth rose into his familiar grin that always brought a devilish glint to his eyes. “So, is this a truce?”

“How about we just start over?”

“Sounds good to me.” He stuck out one hand. “Hi. I’m Bobby Winslow.”

Leeann stared at his tanned skin and long fingers. She’d bet his palm would still hold the same familiar calloused feel that spoke of years of hard work and manual labor.

It wasn’t as if she avoided all human contact since—well, it wasn’t, but over the years she’d cultivated a natural evasion to being touched.

Her fingers tingled at the prospect, but she shoved her hands into her jacket pockets. “Ah, I don’t think we need to go back that far.”

“Okay.” Bobby dropped his hand and turned to look out over the pond. “You know, I thought about this place a lot over the years. Nice to know it’s still as beautiful as ever.”

“That’s why I couldn’t part with it.”

He glanced at her, but then focused again on the water. “I’m sorry about your folks.”

“Thanks, but that was a long—” She paused, the carefully segregated memories of her parents’ death in a car accident and the horrific events of six months later tried to unite, but she mentally severed the connection and continued, “A long time ago.”

“Your Aunt Ursula’s still in town, right? Got her fingers in everyone’s business as well as their hair?”

Leeann smiled. “Yes, she still has her beauty shop.”

“I always liked her. It must’ve been nice to have her around after the fire,” Bobby said. “You know, I was surprised when I found out you’d finally put the house and land up for sale. It stood empty for so long.”

“I guess that makes us even,” she said. “I was surprised when I found out the company buying it, B.W.I., stood for Bobby Winslow Incorporated.”

“And yet you went through with the sale.”

She’d had to no matter who the new owner was, but it wasn’t her place to share the reason. “The final papers had been signed by the time I found out.”

“Meaning you wouldn’t have gone through with it if you’d known I was the buyer?”

Would she have backed out? Leeann honestly didn’t know the answer to that question.

“Do you plan to build your own place here?” he asked, filling the silence.

Making them neighbors? The words hung unspoken in the air.

Leeann shook her head. “No, I never thought about that. As you know, there isn’t even an access road to this place. Besides, I like my house in town.”

“Yeah, I never knew you and Mom lived on the same street.”

Bobby moved beside her and even through her windbreaker, she could feel the natural warmth radiating off his body. Trapped between him and the water’s edge, Leeann inched closer to the water, her sneakers sinking into the mud as she put more space between them. “I guess we keep on surprising each other. Like the fact Val wasn’t with you yesterday.”

“She was so supportive after my accident, never leaving my side, always encouraging me.” He paused, then smiled. “Or kicking my butt, whichever tactic I needed at any given moment. Once I knew I was being released from rehab, I sent her and Paula, the head nurse who’d been assigned to my care for the last few months, on a three-week European cruise.”

“I’m surprised she agreed to go. Val was so worried about you. I found her in her driveway, close to tears and unable to even lift her suitcase into the truck of her car.” Leeann kicked at a rock, watching it plop into the water. “Once I calmed her down, I took her to the airport. I even promised I’d keep an eye on her garden while she was gone. Of course, neither of us knew she would be gone this long …”

Leeann realized Bobby had stopped walking. She turned to look at him and saw an emotion on his face she couldn’t read.

“Have you?” he asked.

“Have I what?”

“Taken care of her garden?”

Leeann smiled. “Of course. I weeded and watered, cut the flowers and harvested the veggies. Pretty soon I’ll be getting it all tucked in for winter, but maybe your mom will be back before then.”

“She said she had someone—a friend—taking care of her precious flowers, I never thought—”

“It could be me? I guess you didn’t know we had become friends after I moved back to Destiny.”

Bobby shook his head.

“Your mom was nice to me from the very start. It took a couple of weeks, but I finally worked up the courage to remind her who I was, which of course, she already knew. I never had a problem with your mom back when we—well, not that we spent a lot of time with her back then. It was my parents who hated the idea of us … spending time together.”

“Believe me, my mom wasn’t happy about you and me either. She just wasn’t as vocal about it.”

“She was afraid the town’s princess was going to hurt you.”

Bobby shrugged, but Leeann could see the truth in his eyes.

“And I did just as she feared.”

“It was a long time ago.” Bobby used his cane to point toward the old path. “So, what do you think of my house?”

“I’ve never seen it.”

“Really? The Murphys told me the construction site was a regular tourist attraction until the security system went live.”

“Yes, the local paper ran a weekly report of what was happening up here.”

“And you weren’t curious at all?”

She had been. Often when she spent time here at the pond, she could hear the low rumble of construction equipment and men talking to each other as they worked, but something always kept her from going to check the building out.

A surprise considering Leeann had never liked her former home here.

Her mother, a transplanted Southern belle, had designed the two-story Georgian mansion, complete with tall white columns that looked out of place in this majestic wooded setting.