Trouble in Tennessee

Maybe she should tackle his instead. “Do you have relatives in the area?”

“No.” His jaw tightened in punctuation.

Well, she was just batting a thousand. By the time they parked in front of Adam’s Ribs, her appetite was no longer her top concern. What had Keith heard about her? Charity wouldn’t have said anything bad, not purposefully, but the doctor was a friend of Harrison’s. Had her stepfather disparaged her? Was he glad she’d done the sisterly thing by coming home, or did he wish she was still in another state? Treble told herself she didn’t personally care, she just didn’t want any latent tension or awkward moments upsetting Charity this late in a complicated pregnancy.

Whatever bad karma was responsible for her defunct car apparently hadn’t finished toying with her. Feeling borderline apprehensive already, the last person she needed to see the second she stepped into the smoke-scented restaurant was Rich Danner. Now you know that’s not true, Treb. It could have been Mitchell Reyes… But her mind immediately shied away from that memory and the pain associated with it. Rich Danner was bad enough.

He’d been a high school senior, two years older than her, the year her mother had been killed by a drunk driver. Treble had desperately needed solace and felt outside the circle of grief Harrison Breckfield shared with his younger natural daughter. Blindly adoring, Treble had turned to Rich.

More than a decade later and he was still good-looking, she noted dispassionately. Was there no justice in the world? Ex-boy-friends who casually took your virginity, then moved on to college and older girls, were supposed to go bald and develop a paunch. It should be a law of physics. Rich’s black hair was close-cropped, but showed no signs of male pattern baldness. His body was as lean as ever.

Rich had been enjoying a plate of the best spareribs in the state, but looked up as if he’d felt her watching. For a second he was frozen with surprise. Then his lips curved into a slow, meaningful grin. As if he was remembering the “good times” they’d shared.

Good times that had ended one muggy August night. “It wouldn’t be fair of me to ask you to wait until we can be together again,” he’d cooed with persuasive and patently false caring. “I’m moving on, and you’ll be here with football games and high school dances you shouldn’t be cheated out of. There will be plenty of guys your age who want to go out with you.” Yeah, especially after Rich shot off his mouth about how willing she’d been in the backseat of his dad’s Cadillac.

Looking away from Rich, she whirled around so quickly she almost collided with Keith, Treble conjured a bright smile and equally bright tone. “It’s been forever since I ate here. What do you recommend?”

“I’m fond of the pulled pork sandwich.” He raised an eyebrow. “I would have you pegged as a woman who liked to decide her own order without advice.”

Pouting prettily, she wagged a finger at him. “Shame on you, judging so quickly. Wouldn’t it be more fun to get to know me? I don’t bite. Well, rarely.”

He studied her, looking unimpressed. “Are you always so…flirtatious with virtual strangers?”

Embarrassment warmed her cheeks, but she refused to get defensive. “That was just joking around, Doc. If I decide to flirt with you, trust me, you’ll know.” Irritating man. She hadn’t been coming on to him. She’d been anxious after his responses—make that non responses—about her family, and seeing Rich had been the toxic icing on the cake. Would it have killed Keith to smile back at her? Surely a guy who looked like this had some experience bantering with women.

“If you decide to flirt,” he said blandly, “give me a heads up so I can be elsewhere. I prefer genuine to calculated feminine wiles.”

No wonder the man was good friends with Harrison. Two like-minded judgmental sticks-in-the-mud.

A gangly teenager with minor acne and major amounts of musky aftershave cleared his throat, making it clear Keith and Treble were blocking the entrance. The doctor mumbled an apology and steered her away with his hand on her elbow. His touch was gentle but seared her skin nonetheless.

She jerked her arm away, then sighed inwardly. Now she probably looked petulant on top of everything else. What if she approached the situation as she would a caller she had inadvertently offended? Debate and sassy comebacks were good for the show, but there was a line she didn’t cross when it came to antagonizing listeners. Why not just try the direct approach?

“Sorry if I was snippy there for a moment.” Unwilling to discuss the family part of how difficult coming home was, particularly when she had a feeling Keith was already prejudiced on the subject, she gave him the other half of the truth. “There’s an ex-boyfriend of mine in here.”

She gave Keith credit for not turning to scope the ex in question, which Alana would have done immediately. Then again, Alana was a friend with a vested interest in Treble; Keith most likely didn’t care.

“Bad breakup?” he guessed.

With aching, unwanted clarity, she remembered crying all night over the one-two punch of losing her mother, then her first love. She’d gone behind Harrison’s back and against his wishes to see Rich; learning that her stepfather had been correct in his assessment had only made her angrier. How could Harrison be so perceptive when it came to a teenage boy he barely knew yet remain so blind about how much Treble needed him?

She swallowed. “Bad enough. I wasn’t trying to use you to make him jealous or anything. I haven’t even thought about him in years. It was just disorienting, walking through the door and…Sometimes we’re not prepared to come face-to-face with our past, you know?”

“Yeah.” He glanced away, but not before she saw the sudden intensity in his eyes.

Her earlier annoyance faded into curiosity. She knew what her issues were. What lurked in Dr. Caldwell’s past that he’d rather not face?

LUNCH WITH Treble reminded Keith of his first-year labs in med school. Part of him had enjoyed the challenge while the rest of him was edgy because he’d sometimes second-guessed whether he knew what the hell he was doing.

Treble’s earlier moment of vulnerability had startled him, leaving him to wonder if he’d imagined it as she effortlessly dazzled the young man working the register. By the time they left the counter with their food, Keith concluded that his companion was as unpredictable as she was gorgeous, which was saying something. The more moods he watched play across that expressive face, the more the full impact of her beauty hit him. Did she know men were watching her as she sauntered across the room?

Of course she does. She paints her fingernails blue and carries bright red luggage. This is not a woman who hides from attention. And yet she’d seemed sincerely nervous about running into some long-ago flame. From her reaction, Keith guessed the guy must have dumped her. Had this ex been the jealous type and didn’t like others checking out Treble? Or maybe he’d been intimidated by her. Or—

“Well, well, well. Looks like Trouble’s back in town.” A man stopped next to Treble’s chair. “Time’s been good to you, darlin’.”

“Certainly better than you ever were,” she returned sweetly.

Or maybe the guy who dumped her was just a jerk, Keith concluded. He didn’t know Rich Danner very well except that the landscaper had moved back to Joyous about two months ago, apparently licking his wounds from a divorce. He’d remarked to Keith that they were the most eligible bachelors in town. “Us and Jason McDeere, but he’s raising a toddler, which puts us ahead in desirability. ’Course there’s plenty of fillies to go around for all three of us.”

Now, Rich was turning green eyes full of apology toward the “filly” he’d let get away. “Don’t be like that, Treb. I was a kid. Teenagers make bad romantic decisions.”

She reached for her sandwich. “I couldn’t agree more.”

Keith grinned at her implication, but the diss had obviously sailed over Rich’s head.

“I knew you’d understand. How about I join you, and we can reminisce about what good times we had before I screwed up?”

“Actually,” Keith interjected, his impulsive words surprising him, “I kind of wanted Treble all to myself for another few minutes before we have to leave. She was fascinating me with stories about her job as a DJ in Atlanta.”

Treble’s eyebrows shot up, but she played along. Truthfully, they’d never once discussed what she did for a living, but Charity had mentioned it. Whereas Harrison rarely spoke of his stepdaughter, Charity was effusively proud of her older sister, her naked affection almost masking her disappointment when Treble missed yet another holiday or birthday at home.

“Sure, buddy.” Rich held his hands in front of him and gave a quick nod of male understanding. “I get it. But, Treble, we’ll have to catch up some other time.”

When they were alone again, Treble said, “Thank you. I don’t need a man to rescue me, but I’m not gonna look a gift horse in the mouth, either.”

“Does everyone born in Tennessee compare people to livestock?”

“What?” Lines of confusion furrowed her brow.

“Never mind. And you’re welcome,” he added. “That guy can get on my nerves.”

She nodded, taking a big bite of her sandwich and letting out a moan of pleasure. “God, I forgot how great Tennessee barbecue is. I mean, I knew I loved it, but this…This is better than sex.”

He squeezed his own sandwich and barbecue sauce ran down his fingers.

If she’d noticed, he would have been embarrassed, but she seemed oblivious, lost in enjoyment of her food. Some of the women in town would have fainted—blushed, at the very least—at having the word sex tossed casually into meal conversation, but Treble clearly thought nothing of it.

She washed down her food with a swallow of soda. “Earlier, you said people ‘born in Tennessee.’ So you’re not a native?”

“Nope. Charity first mentioned you when she heard I’d moved here from Atlanta. I went to med school and interned there. Grew up in Savannah.”

A city steeped in rich tradition and history, Savannah seemed like a good place for ghosts. He preferred to leave his there. In the E.R. of a major Atlanta hospital, he’d found himself dealing with too many reminders, too much trauma. He’d become a doctor because he wanted to save people, but if he’d stayed where he was, he was the one who’d wind up needing saving. So he’d found salvation in the relatively peaceful town of Joyous. He had the practice, real friends. Of course, Charity tutted that he’d be even happier once he found a girlfriend.

“It’s not as if there aren’t willing women,” she’d teased, threatening to count the number of foil-covered casseroles in his freezer.

He’d considered deflecting her interest in setting him up by suggesting she encourage her dad to date instead—Harrison needed something in his life besides control of the dairy business and grueling workweeks. But even though it had been a long time since Charity’s mother died, Keith didn’t push the idea of a replacement romance. Losing family was hard, and Charity had mentioned how much she’d been missing her mom lately.

“I suppose you think it’s pitiful that I called my sister and begged her to come be with me?” Charity had asked.