Charlotte's Homecoming

Gray’s eyes rested on her face, but she didn’t have the courage to meet them. After a moment he lightly rapped his knuckles on the table, said, “Have a good dinner,” and left them. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw him join two older men in a booth that was close enough for her to hear the murmur of their voices but not what they said.

Charlotte tried for all she was worth not to be lousy company, but despite her best efforts she kept catching herself straining to hear Gray’s voice, picturing his face, wondering what he was thinking.

She hated responding so strongly to a man. She never had before. Faith used to tease her about being commitment phobic, which might have been true back then. No guy, she had always told herself fiercely, was keeping her in West Fork. But even later … Maybe she shied away whenever a man got too serious, or maybe she just hadn’t met the right one.

All she knew was, she’d been desperate to escape her hometown, while Gray Van Dusen had chosen to make West Fork his life. She wasn’t going to be idiot enough to let herself be tempted by him.

Which meant it was a good thing he’d seen her tonight having dinner with Ben Wheeler. That had been her plan, hadn’t it? She bet he wouldn’t be stopping by the Russell farm again anytime soon.

She just wished she could forget the look of hurt on his face that he hadn’t been able to hide quite fast enough when he first saw her with Ben.

CHAPTER FOUR

FAITH WAS ASHAMED OF HERSELF to be so glad when Charlotte offered to grocery shop and departed, list in hand. In all the years of conflicted emotions toward her twin, she’d never been jealous before. Last night, she was.

There wasn’t any good reason for it. Ben Wheeler had asked Charlotte out, not her; it was Charlotte who drew him, not her. And Char had no idea Faith had wished it was otherwise.

And wasn’t that pathetic? She was twenty-nine years old, and she’d never in her life felt that twist of desire when setting her eyes on a man. The sight of a smile had never had her heart flopping in her chest like a trout hooked and tossed to shore. Faith had had boyfriends in high school, and then Rory, but her relationship with Rory had been a gradual settling into a contented belief that he was a man she could be happy with, a man who wanted the same kind of life she did. It hadn’t been like walking into a glass door, leaving her dazed but still able to see through to where she’d meant to go.

Last night, she’d sat in the living room pretending to read while Char and Ben stayed outside in his SUV and talked or made out for a good fifteen minutes. By the time Char came in the kitchen door and the SUV turned in a circle and left, Faith had stiffly stood in one position so long her body felt locked. She’d thought she might crack when she had to turn her head to greet her sister.

It hurt, damn it. She knew it wasn’t Char’s fault that Ben wanted her instead, but Faith figured she was entitled to a sulk anyway, and that’s what she was indulging in.

Her brooding made this a lousy time for her to look out of the barn and see a squad car pull in and West Fork Police Chief Ben Wheeler get out. If Char had been here, Faith knew damn well she would have bolted for the house.

Instead, as she watched him saunter toward the counter, his narrowed gaze first scanning the barn and finally settling on her, she summoned an unruffled smile and said, “Chief Wheeler. I didn’t expect to see you today.”

He raised his brows. “I told you I’d let you know what Coffey and Hardesty had to say.”

“Char told me you don’t think Rory set the fire.”

He leaned against the counter. “If he did, he’s a good liar.”

“He can be,” she said with more restraint than she felt. She didn’t like remembering how, after hitting her, Rory would take her to the hospital and hover with such love and worry on his face, not a single doctor or nurse had ever questioned her broken bones or vicious purple bruises.

“I’m a little less satisfied today,” the chief said. “I sat down with Sean Coffey an hour ago, and I’d have to say I agree with your assessment of him. He flushed a little when he insisted that the time you caught him was the first time he tried to steal from you, which tells me it wasn’t. But temptation overcame him because he wanted something real bad, and I think he was telling the truth when he said he was grateful you hadn’t called the police or his parents.”