A Perfect Love

Finding a bravado she didn’t feel, Summer tossed her phone back in her tote and said, “I’m checking for messages, not that it’s any of your business.”

“Okay then.” He turned to go, his hands up in the air.

“Wait,” she said, regretting her rude nature. “I’m sorry. Look, it’s just been a long day and I’m really tired.”

“Want me to take you home?”

She raised her brows. “And where would that be?”

He shrugged, gave her a smile that made little flares of awareness shoot off in her system. “You have several choices.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. You can go to your parents’ home. You can stay here in one of the guest apartments they keep for family, or I can stay here in an apartment and…you can have the house, keeping in mind, of course, that the house is barely livable right now. But you could sleep there at least.”

Summer felt as if a soft wind had slipped up on her and knocked her flat. “You’d do that for me? Give up the house, I mean?”

“Only temporarily,” he said, grinning. “But, yes, if it would make you feel better, I’d be glad to do that. I go back and forth between Golden Vista and the house and sometimes spend the night there, but I’d stay away if you decided to stay at the house.”

Summer thought about his offer. It was so tempting, but then, the house wouldn’t be the same. Nothing was the same. Mack owned it now, for whatever reasons. She couldn’t bear to stay there without her grandparents.

“I think I’ll just stay here at Golden Vista for now,” she said, her voice hoarse with frustration. “But…thank you for the offer.”

He pushed off the post and came toward her, that predatory look in his eyes. “Want me to take you to the office, so you can get a key?”

“Sure.” She wanted a long soak and a soft bed. “I’m so tired.” Then she stopped. “I forgot about my car. I need to call a tow—”

“I already did that.”

“You did?”

“Yeah. While you were having another slice of pineapple upside-down cake.”

“I only had one slice, but it was a really big one.”

“Yeah, right. You have quite an appetite.”

She smiled then. “I can pack it away.”

“It looks good on you.”

Summer wasn’t one to blush easily, but she did now. “I like to walk,” she said by way of explaining herself. “I walk all over New York. Especially in Central Park.”

“It’s a nice park.”

Surprised that he’d been there, Summer realized she knew nothing about this man who’d moved to Athens and intruded in such a big way on her life. Or rather, the life she’d left behind. “When were you in New York?”

“Years ago,” he said as he looked off into the setting sun. “A lifetime ago.”

“And I lived here a lifetime ago,” she retorted.

“But we’re both here now.”

“Yes,” she said. “Isn’t it funny how things happen that way. You just never know—”

“No, you don’t,” he replied as he guided her back toward the covered walkway. “I never dreamed I’d wind up in a small Texas town, working at a retirement complex.”

The warm, fuzzy feelings Summer had been experiencing turned cold and harsh. “You work here?”

He nodded, looked sheepish. “Maintenance man and groundskeeper. That’s why I stay here sometimes. Sorry.”

“Why didn’t anyone tell me that?”

“Didn’t seem important. Besides, you and your grandparents were too busy having a good time.”

She regarded him as if he’d turned into roadkill. “So that little news flash sort of slipped your mind.”

He shook his head. “I didn’t think it would matter one way or another.”

“You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you?”

“You wouldn’t believe,” he said, his smile open and pure. And challenging.

Summer wanted to believe. She wanted to think that Mack Riley was just a nice man who’d become friends with her grandparents. But she’d learned not to accept things at face value. Especially pretty words coming from handsome men.

Something else was up here. Something that didn’t sit well with Summer. And she intended to find out what that something was.

Chapter Four

“Are you all settled in, honey?”

Summer turned from putting clothes in the white chest of drawers to answer her grandmother’s question. “I think so. This is a really nice apartment.”

Martha beamed her pride. “Yes, the Golden Vista is so accommodating to family members. They have two of these efficiency apartments, I think. And they keep them open to anyone who wants to come and visit. We’ve even got Internet hookup, so you can use that laptop thing I saw you unpacking.”

Summer tried to muster up some enthusiasm as she glanced around the homey L-shaped apartment. “I’ve got wireless, but that’s convenient.”

Martha rushed across the sitting room/kitchen combination. “What’s wrong, darlin’?”

Summer never could hide anything from her shrewd grandmother. “Nothing, Memaw. I’m just tired…and all of this is a bit overwhelming, I guess.”

“I told Jesse we should have called you and told you about selling the farm, but it was kind of spur of the moment. Then once we got here, well, we’re always going and doing.” She shrugged, shook her head.

“It doesn’t matter,” Summer said, finishing her unpacking with a slam of the last drawer. “I haven’t exactly been faithful in the calling-home department.”

Martha came to stand next to her, her arm going around Summer’s shoulders as they stared at their reflections in the oval mirror over the dresser. “But we always knew you were there if we needed you.”

Summer looked down at her petite grandmother, love pouring over her. “Why didn’t you…call me? I mean, if you needed money or a place to live—”