Man, Wife And Little Wonder

After a moment Gracie hurried over, beaming.

“I said I was sorry I spilled the cans. And he said I’m a good girl.”

“You are a good girl,” Johnny said proudly, gratified to think that a month spent with him hadn’t changed that fact, the way his parents thought it would.

Then he noticed Grace staring at him, probably contemplating the fact that he’d taken the rap for Gracie. After all, she “knew him when.” But Grace’s eyes were soft and warm and the emotion in them somehow embarrassed him. Out of earshot of Gracie he muttered, “Old grouch never gave me candy.”

“He always gave licorice to me and Janelle,” Grace recalled, her wistful tone telling Johnny she was missing Janelle the same as he. The sweet sharp coil of desire for her unraveled inside him, leaving a bittersweet compassion. He thought Grace’s pain must be as great as his own, she and Janelle had been so close.

They left the store, following Gracie down the sidewalk. “Janelle married a great guy,” Johnny said abruptly. “She was happy. But she always regretted that his work took her away from here, away from you.”

“Thank you for telling me.” Grace smiled up at him and he felt his heart stutter. “You can be pretty nice when you want to, Johnny Tremont.”

Johnny was disconcerted to realize just how nice he wanted to be.

The three of them came to a halt by his Harley. Gracie grabbed her pink-striped helmet and Johnny winked down at her. “Gracie likes the hog, don’t you, Gracie?”

Gracie gazed adoringly at Johnny. “I like the hog.”

Grace didn’t appear to share that sentiment. “Gracie shouldn’t ride that thing down the highway. We can take my car to the farm and you can leave the bike here.”

“Leave the Harley?” Was she crazy? If she’d told him to leave little Gracie, Johnny wouldn’t have been more appalled. “It might get stolen.”

“The police station is right over there.” She pointed up the block, across the street. “Who in Ashville is going to steal it anyway? Mrs. Cromwell?”

Johnny remembered Mrs. Cromwell, the florist. The thought of her plump body, clad in a floral dress and seated on his bike, made him wince.

“If you’re really worried, you could ask Eddie from the gas station to keep an eye on it.”

Johnny shuddered. Eddie of the hit-and-miss repairs was the last person he wanted around his bike.

“Remember the time you hauled the Harley in Dad’s truck?” Grace smiled wistfully. “I wish that old Ford still ran.”

Johnny wished it did, too. He wished it was parked here right now, with the Harley loaded in back because Grace was right. He didn’t want to take Gracie out on the two-lane highway on the bike. He could follow Grace along on the Harley, but he was certain little Gracie wouldn’t go in the car without him.

“I’ll lock up the bike and leave it.” Johnny swore he felt physical pain as he did just that. He grabbed his helmet and the three of them climbed into Grace’s car. They buckled Gracie in the back with her lollipop.

Johnny couldn’t help but approve of Grace’s little blue coupe. Like her salon, it was neat and clean. There were magnets shaped like hair bows holding small notes on the dash. One reminded her to pick up clothes from the cleaners. Another read, “C.S.—Saturday.”

He frowned at the second note. A date? Grace’s bare ring finger had ruled out a fiancé, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a man in her life. For Gracie’s sake, he was duty-bound to find out.

Checking to find Gracie busy with her lollipop and looking out the car window, Johnny tapped the note and asked idly, “Who’s C.S.?”

Grace raised her brows in a what-business-of- yours-is-it? look. Most likely because he’d asked her to marry him, she deigned to answer. “A customer.”

Johnny immediately relaxed. Probably one of those little old ladies who liked their hair fixed like a French poodle’s.

“Chase Sinclair. He’s one of my regulars.” While he stared at her, Grace braked for a stop, proceeded with caution and added casually, “We’ve dated a couple of times.”

Johnny stared harder.

Chase. He had never liked that name. And he didn’t like the familiar way Grace said it, or the unfamiliar ill humor he felt at her words. He hoped she realized that for Gracie’s sake, the dates had to stop if they were to marry.

With forced nonchalance, he said mockingly, “Chase and Grace. Sounds like a cartoon.”

Gracie giggled. Grace glowered. “That’s juvenile, Johnny.”

“You used to have a sense of humor,” Johnny noted.

“I had to,” Grace muttered. “Or I’d have been mad at you all the time.” At his look of protest, she added, “Take that time you put gum in my hair.”

Johnny winced, effectively chastened. Grace had had to cut bangs in her hair after that prank. Still, Johnny liked to think he’d inspired her life’s work.

“And the time you scared me and Janelle when we camped on my porch.”

Ah, yes. Her father had threatened to shoot until he realized who had made the girls scream. Grace and Janelle had had to sleep in the house the rest of the night. And all over a harmless garden snake.

A sense of nostalgia swept over Johnny and he suddenly missed Janelle more than ever. He caught Grace’s gaze, saw the grief she couldn’t quite mask. This trip down memory lane had gone on long enough. He turned in the seat. “We’re almost there, Gracie.”

“Why did you put gum in her hair?” Gracie asked.

“Ah...”

“Because Johnny was a tease. Does he like to tease you, too?” Grace asked.

There was a moment’s pause, then little Gracie overcame her shyness to tattle. “He tickles me. But he stops if I say he has to.”

“That doesn’t sound like the Johnny I know,” Grace murmured.

He frowned. Couldn’t she see he wasn’t the same person he’d been one month ago, let alone the rebellious kid he’d been as a teen? His world revolved around Gracie now.

He ran his business from Janelle’s fine home, having given up his bachelor apartment. The last date he’d had was when he took Gracie to the cinema to see Snow White. Oddly, he hadn’t missed that aspect of his life until Grace had stirred up his hormones.

Still a little surprised by that turn of events, he took a discreet survey of Grace, just testing his reaction. As she braked for the turn into the gravel lane that led to the Greens’ farmhouse, Grace’s skirt inched up her leg. Her skin looked silky smooth, and she wasn’t even wearing stockings. The strap of her sandal around her ankle riveted his attention. He imagined his hand wrapped there, his lips there...

Johnny dragged his gaze away.

The car came to a halt as Grace parked before the square garage. He remembered hiding in there once, after he’d sprayed Janelle and Grace with the hose. Grace had only been thirteen when he’d chased her and gotten her shirt all wet. He imagined she would look a little different now in a wet T-shirt.

“Here we are.”

He jerked his gaze from Grace’s shirtfront, a hot sweat breaking out on his skin. He hadn’t counted on this. Hadn’t counted on having sexual feelings for Grace. He wasn’t going to look at her that way again, wasn’t going to think about her that way. He wasn’t going to marry her.

Then little Gracie climbed out of the car and cried with delight, “This is like the house in my farm book. Where are the kittens?” she asked excitedly.

Looking at Gracie’s happy face, Johnny guessed he was getting married after all. But he was damn well going to keep his hands to himself. These feelings he was having for Grace seemed downright immoral.

Little Gracie was so excited, he was more than happy to crawl halfway under the porch and catch the kittens. They were a rambunctious trio of calicoes, everything Gracie could have hoped for. She sat cross-legged in the grassy shade of an elm, kittens crawling in and out of her lap.