Читать книгу Tempting Janey - Mary Baxter Lynn - Страница 6

What a day.

Janey Mayfield rubbed the back of her neck, then peered at the clock behind the counter in her candy shop, Sweet Dreams. Almost closing time. Thank heaven for small favors, she thought, as she began making preparations to reverse the Open sign in the window.

What was wrong with her? The answer popped readily to mind. She was tired, but then, she had a right to be. In the month since she’d returned to South Carolina, her world had been turned upside down again. She’d had to adjust to another new home and a new career, that of a businesswoman who now owned and operated her own shop. At thirty-seven, that was no easy feat.

Often Janey felt as if she were on a treadmill that wouldn’t stop and let her get off, even for a minute.

Yet she wasn’t complaining. Her eyes surveyed the premises. This delightful shop, filled with the fanciest to the plainest of candies, was all hers, thanks to the generosity of her aunt Lois, who had chosen to retire to an assisted living facility in Savannah after suffering a stroke.

Even so, repairs of all sorts needed to be done, both upstairs and down. But they would have to wait. There was simply no money to make them.

Despite her problems, though, she had so much to be grateful for. After getting her teenage daughter Robin up and off to school, Janey always looked forward to dressing, walking downstairs to the smell of candy, chatting with her customers, then ringing up their sales.

But this day had been a particularly difficult one. Perhaps it was the fact that business had been incredibly slow that made her anxious. Sweet Dreams had to do well. There was no choice. She had no choice.

As a divorced single parent with a seventeen-year-old daughter to rear, she had to turn the shop into a profitable venture. Everything depended on it. During the last year of her aunt’s ownership, sales had begun to lag for no apparent reason, but Janey felt confident in her ability to swing sales in the other direction by introducing change and innovation.

Maybe her less than enthusiastic mood was simply weather-related. Even for the end of August, it had been cloyingly hot. The two air-conditioning units, one for the living quarters upstairs and one for the shop below, had been laboring overtime.

After summer heat so muggy and heavy that the clouds and mosquitoes could barely pierce it, fall would be an exquisite relief. Janey suddenly brightened at that thought.

In the years she’d been gone, she’d forgotten just how bad summers in the South could be. But when she’d arrived from Colorado, reality had slapped her in the face.

This, too, shall pass, she reminded herself with another dig at her neck muscles. Hot weather wouldn’t damage her, but a lack of customers just might. Refusing to dwell on that depressing thought, she grabbed the bottle of glass cleaner and a paper towel, and went to work on the counter.

“Mom, I’m home!”

The sound of her daughter’s voice never failed to buoy her spirits. Circumstances beyond her control had kept her away from her child for several months. Robin had returned to South Carolina at the end of her junior year in order to be on the drill team her senior year. But nothing would ever separate them again, she vowed fiercely. Life without Robin wasn’t worth living.

“I’m about ready to close.” Janey made her way to the side door. When she didn’t see her daughter, she asked, “Where are you, darling?”

“I’m already upstairs. I’ll be down in a sec.”

Janey always looked forward to the end of the day, when Robin would come bounding through the door, excited and eager to share the details of her day. Because she was a member of the drill team and had practice every afternoon, she didn’t get home until late.

“Hey.”

“Hey yourself.” Janey smiled, then walked over and gave Robin a quick hug. “So how was your day, young lady?”

Munching on an apple, Robin shoved a swath of shoulder-length, strawberry-blond hair behind one ear, then perched on the stool at the end of the counter. A grin enhanced her features. “Nothing special—except I aced my Trig test.”

“Why, that’s great, honey.”

Robin’s grin deepened, and Janey’s heart melted. She and her ex-husband Keith had made a lot of mistakes in their marriage, but their daughter hadn’t been one of them. Janey marveled every day at this delightful child they had created.

She was tall and slender, with light brown eyes and incredibly long lashes that were dark despite her light-colored hair.

And while Robin wasn’t perfect—not by a long shot, Janey reminded herself ruefully—she wouldn’t change anything, except maybe her daughter’s strong-willed nature.

“How did the shop do today?” Robin asked.

Janey felt her features sober. “Not good. In fact, it was the pits.”

Robin took another bite of apple, then asked, “Wonder why?”

It was on the tip of Janey’s tongue to tell her daughter not to talk with her mouth full, but she refrained. Robin would merely roll her eyes, then give her that “look.”

“I have no clue,” Janey said instead. “I’ve tried to blame it on everything, even the weather.”

Robin stood and tossed her half-eaten apple in the nearest trash basket. “Man, oh man, was it ever hot today. We sweated our buns off, practicing.”

“So everything’s still going all right with the team?”

Robin’s face lighted. “Things are awesome, actually. We learned a new routine today that we’re going to perform at the first home game. Can’t wait for you and Dad to see it.”

“Well, you don’t have long to wait. Friday night next week, right?”

“Righto,” Robin replied, heading toward the door. “I’m going up and drown in the shower. I’m icky.”

Janey wrinkled her nose. “I wondered what that unpleasant odor was.”

“Jeez, Mom!”

Janey laughed. “Just teasing.”

“So what’s for dinner?”

“What do you want?”

“Pizza.”

“When you get through drowning, call it in.”

After Robin had disappeared up the stairs, Janey shook her head. Teenagers—a different breed. At times not human. Maybe that was a more apt description. She didn’t know many parents who would argue that point with her.

But she wouldn’t want it any other way. She would take the good with the bad and enjoy every moment. As it was, her daughter was growing up much too fast to suit her. She would have liked to slow time down so she would have more moments to savor. Since that wasn’t possible, she would make the most of the time Robin still had at home.

If only she didn’t have to share Robin with her ex-husband. If only she didn’t feel guilty about the divorce because of Robin. Keith had turned out to be a womanizing lush, and theirs was a family ripped apart at the seams. It had been a terribly difficult adjustment for Robin.

“Hey, Mom.”

Saved. Her daughter’s timing was perfect. She hated it when her guilty feelings resurfaced and she dwelled on them.

“Yes, dear?”

“I’m going after the pizza.”

“Be careful.”

Noticing that the clock registered five-thirty, she headed to the front door. That was when she saw a utility vehicle pull up. For a moment she was tempted to turn the sign around, anyway, but she didn’t. She needed the money more than she needed the time.

She’d barely made it back to the counter when she heard the buzzer on the door. She swung around with a smile, only to feel it freeze on her lips.

Dillon Reed.

Janey’s breath caught as she struggled to hide her warring emotions. It had been inevitable that one day she would see him again. For one thing, he was her daughter’s principal. For another, this was a small town. Sooner or later, everyone’s paths crossed, like it or not.

“Janey?”

She strove to make her voice sound as normal as possible, though she wasn’t sure she could pull it off. “Hello, Dillon.”

He hadn’t changed all that much in the three-plus years since she’d last seen him. His hair was still unruly and night-dark, but now with a few sprinkles of gray—not unexpected, since he was forty.

His blue eyes certainly hadn’t changed in intensity. They still had the power to cut straight to a person’s soul. Possibly that was why he was so good with kids. He appeared taller and more muscular than she recalled, as if he’d been using the weights.

He was dressed in jeans, a shirt, a casual sports jacket and boots. He looked like he ought to be running a ranch instead of a school. The only thing missing was the Stetson.

Had he always been such a hunk?

Hunk or not, character lines scored his lean features, and there was a rugged hardness about his mouth.

“Is this place yours?” Dillon asked, shattering the tense silence.

“Yes, as of a little over a month ago.”

“Well, I have to say I’m shocked. I never expected you to come back to Hunter.”

“I never expected to, either.”

She turned away, unable to meet the challenge of those deep-set eyes or that earnest gaze.

“So how’ve you been?” he asked in his caramel-smooth tone.

Was there a slight strain in that voice, or had she imagined it? She faced him again, though with reluctance. Was he as uncomfortable with the situation as she was? No doubt she was agitated and on guard, but she couldn’t gauge his reaction at all. He was a master at hiding his thoughts.

“I have no complaints,” she said at last, forcing herself to loosen up.

“You look great.”

She looked away, then back. “Thanks.”

“So how’s Robin?”

“Attending your school and performing with the drill team.”

He looked sheepish for a moment. “Sorry, somehow that fact got by me.”

“That’s understandable. You have hundreds of students.” She felt as though she was rattling on, but she couldn’t seem to stop. “You can’t be expected to remember them all.”

He shifted from one booted foot to the other, then stared at her out of bleak eyes. “Look, Janey—”

“It’s all right,” she interrupted quickly, taking a deep breath. “There’s nothing else to say. So let’s just give things a rest, okay?”

He didn’t respond for a moment. Then he shrugged. “It’s your call.”

“So what can I do for you?”

His eyes had darkened now, and she experienced an involuntary shiver. “Sell me a box of candy.”

Janey forced a smile. “Now that I can do.”

A few minutes later, after she locked up behind him and watched him drive off, Janey leaned against the door, her heart pounding like a jackhammer inside her chest.