Читать книгу In Emmylou's Hands - Pamela Hearon - Страница 11

CHAPTER ONE

“MY FAMILY HAS a beach house in Gulf Shores, Alabama.”

No sooner were the words out of EmmyLou Creighton’s mouth than she knew she’d spoken too soon. Of course, that was nothing new—her mouth had a tendency to stay several strides ahead of her brain most of the time. Grabbing her phone in one hand, she held up a finger on the other to put the conversation with her two friends on hold while she texted her mom.

Beach house taken June 23-30?

No, came the reply.

Pencil me in.

Seriously?

I’ll explain later.

She tossed her phone down and drummed the table with her long fingernails to signal that speech could once again commence.

Bree Barlow and Audrey Dublin looked at each other and shrugged, oblivious to the amazing feat EmmyLou had just accomplished.

“Don’t you see?” She directed her comment toward Audrey. “You can use a week at the beach house as the grand prize.”

Audrey’s gray eyes, which had been pinched with worry two minutes ago, widened. “For the raffle? Oh, Emmy! You can do it just like that?” She snapped her fingers.

Emmy laughed and snapped hers in answer. “Just like that.”

Even Bree, who was enjoying her first girls’ night out since the birth of her second child, came out of her exhausted lethargy to gasp her approval. “That would be such a fabulous prize! Taylor’s Grove has never had anything like that.”

“Taylor’s Grove, Kentucky, never had anything like me.”

“Are you sure about this? I mean, a text and it’s done?”

Emmy laughed at the skepticism in Audrey’s voice. “It’s done, sugar. Trust me. Everybody in the family gets a week in the summer if we want it, but we have to claim the week, which I just did. We also get weeks during the rest of the year if it’s not rented, but it almost always is.”

Their server showed up with another tray of drinks. “Guy at the bar sent these over.”

“Again?” Bree groaned at the third bottle of sparkling water set in front of her. “Would you please tell him to save his money and just send her a beer?” She indicated Emmy with a nod, and then wagged a finger between her and Audrey. “I’m nursing and she’s a newlywed, so we’re off the market.”

The server grinned. “Different guy. But I’ll tell the next one.” She replaced the empties in front of Audrey and Emmy with full bottles.

Emmy’s glance drifted down the bar until she found the young man looking expectantly their way. “Kind of cute, but way too young. Twenty-five, maybe. Still wet behind the ears.” She raised her beer bottle with a nod of gratitude but broke eye contact immediately.

Having done this for far more years than she liked to acknowledge, Emmy was the go-to expert on all the subtleties of pickups. At thirty-five, although everyone guessed her to be eight to ten years younger, she could fill a book about turnoffs, turn-ons, tune-ins, tune-outs and tone-downs.

Years of experience, however, had brought her no Mr. Right—no one to settle down with and have the family she wanted so badly. She hadn’t lost hope, even though her close friends were now happily married with kids.

“I’d think you would like younger guys, Emmy.” Audrey took a sip of her rum and Coke. “More stamina.”

“Jackrabbits.” Emmy shivered in mock disdain. “My preferences lean toward the ones who are...slower, you know? Not like those giant tortoises that take forever. Have you ever seen those shows on the National Geographic Channel? About the huge ones that live on the Galápagos Islands? My God, you know she just wants to turn around to him and say, ‘Will you get on with it?’” She placed her hands on the table and pushed slowly out of her chair, opening her mouth and dragging out a grunt before plopping back in her chair and repeating the action.

Bree and Audrey giggled at her imitation.

“I’m looking for one of those cute turtles that plods along all efficient-like at a nice steady pace but starts to scurry when he hits the beach. And once he plunges in, he just paddles along with that smooth stroke until the tide goes down.” She fluttered her eyelids and gave a dreamy smile. “Mmm!”

Her friends exchanged knowing glances and nodded in agreement. “Mmm!”

“Hey, wait a minute. What’s wrong with this picture?” Emmy slapped the table with her palm. “Here I am, offering my family’s beach house to raise funds for a school I never attended in a town I’ve only lived in for a couple of years, but said town’s not taking care of my needs in return. Y’all snatched up the last two good turtles Taylor’s Grove may ever hatch.”

“True, we got the best ones,” Audrey agreed. She shook a finger in Emmy’s direction. “But Sol Beecher’s still available...and he’s your closest neighbor.”

The name caused Emmy’s teeth to clench. “Yeah. Thank God that translates as a quarter mile away.” She snorted. “Try raffling off that snapping turtle and see how much you get for him. I wouldn’t give a plugged nickel for a night with him.” She doubted the present company was aware she’d had a night with Taylor’s Grove’s most eligible bachelor fourteen years ago, shortly after she and her friend Maggie Wells had started the hair salon in Paducah, Kentucky—just outside of Taylor’s Grove.

Maggie, a Taylor’s Grove native, had introduced Emmy to her friend—handsome and oh-so-sexy Sol Beecher. Three dates in, they’d ended up in bed, and he’d never called again. She could still feel the sting if she thought about it...which she didn’t.

But Audrey’s and Bree’s husbands, Mark and Kale, were Sol’s best friends. And Kale and his dad had just purchased the local marina from Sol at a hefty price if word on the street was correct. Emmy could sense a lecture coming on from Bree about her teasing of Sol.

Bree squinted as if trying to remember something difficult to recall. “He’s different than he used to be in high school. He was Mr. Popular then. Outgoing...fun. Of course, he chased anything that wore a skirt.”

“Until it came off...um... I’ll bet.” Emmy covered her slip of the tongue.

“Something happened in Afghanistan.” Audrey stared into her drink as if the answer could be found there. “He came home with that limp—”

“Caused by the weight of that chip on his shoulder,” EmmyLou interjected.

Audrey leaned back and crossed her arms, tilting her head and turning a studious eye Emmy’s direction. “I’ve never heard you come down on anybody the way you do him. What’s he done to you?”

Emmy had said too much, so she pulled out her humor to cover, like always. “I’m just wondering how long I’d have to bang that shell with these hammers—” she put a hand on the outside of each breast and pushed, making her generous cleavage mound up even closer to her chin “—before it would finally crack.”

“You’re cracked.” Audrey’s giggle was a bit too loud, and Bree laughed around a yawn, both signals it was time to go home.

But Emmy couldn’t let the subject of Sol Beecher go without a last dig. “Now that Mr. Beecher’s come into a right good sum of money, it’ll be interesting to see how much he’ll pony up for good ol’ Taylor’s Grove Elementary.”

She raised her beer in the air, loudly da-dumming her way through a college football fight song she’d picked up somewhere.

* * *

“IT’S SMALL COMPARED to your grandparents’ old place, Sol. I mean...tiny. After living in that big, rambling house, wouldn’t you feel cooped up in a space like this?” Regina Dallas wrinkled her nose as she glanced around the modest two-bedroom she’d put at the end of the list of properties to show him today.

Sol leaned on the kitchen counter and gazed out the window into the backyard, pretending to ponder her question. What he really did was get the weight off his leg so he could answer without gritting his teeth. “It’s more like what I’m looking for, although I can’t convince you of that.”

He’d allowed the friend of the family, a real estate agent, to drag his ass in and out of houses for the past three days and was frustrated with her choices. Anybody else he would’ve fired for not listening to him after the first two showings.

Behind him, Regina gave a motherly sigh. “I just don’t understand why you’d want to downsize at your age. One of these days, you’ll get married...have kids...”

Sol ignored how her words made him feel like he’d been kicked in the chest by a mule.

“And then you’ll wish you’d taken the money from the marina and fixed up the old home place.”

The fact that she was thinking about him personally and not the money she would make in a business transaction softened his response. He didn’t growl back that a wife and kids weren’t in his future. Instead, he shrugged. “Maybe. But for now, downsizing to something more manageable seems the smartest move.” He still faced the window, but he was certain her eyes had dropped to his bad leg.

Everybody’s did.

Managing anything very long with this damn bad leg was a struggle, but keeping the secret all these years that it was a prosthesis was even harder.

The pity he saw in people’s eyes now made him want to spit. Being thought of as an amputee would have been more than he was able to bear.

He swiveled around to face her using the spin technique he’d perfected. “Washer and dryer hookups?”

“Basement.”

He nodded like that was no big deal rather than acknowledging it as a definite no. Stairs were a problem with both hands free—impossible with a laundry basket. He’d been forced to turn the formal dining room in his current house into a makeshift bedroom. Oh, he was definitely capable of getting up the steps to bed. But the thought of trying to get out in the event of a fire would have kept him awake.

“This leads to the garage.” Regina headed toward the door at the west end of the kitchen, and Sol followed. When they stepped through the opening, the sight of the small garage almost made him smile with relief. He’d found his reason to decline this house without admitting that the basement laundry was the real problem.

“I need at least a two-car garage for the car and boat. Preferably a three. I’d like to garage the truck, too.”

Regina rolled her eyes and made a noise he recognized as annoyance. “One bedroom, one bath, a three-car garage on several acres. You’re asking for something that doesn’t exist. At least not around Taylor’s Grove.”

“Just keep looking, okay?” He hit the button that raised the overhead door. “Give me a call when you find something.” He made his exit, leaving lockup duties to Regina.

Since selling the marina, he didn’t have a whole lot pressing on him these days. Finding a job would be a necessity come fall—mentally if not financially. Sitting around doing nothing wasn’t an idea he relished. But he was treating himself to this one summer off. He’d never had one, even as a kid. Summers were a time to work from sunup to sundown when you owned a marina.

The next four months were his. He would fish Kentucky Lake and swim in the warm water after dark when nobody could see him. He knew that was dangerous, but he didn’t give a rat’s ass. Hell, he might live even more dangerously and give up these damn blue jeans for a pair of shorts every now and then. Sit in the backyard in the sunshine. Get a little bit of a tan on his pasty white leg...and the pasty white stump alongside it.

Maybe a tan would help him remember the bronzed kid with the great physique who had girls hanging all over him...help him remember a time when he wasn’t a pitiful freak.

“Get off the damn pity pot,” he admonished himself in his rearview mirror as he arrived in Taylor’s Grove. “Some never made it back at all.”

The circular park at the center of town was the local gathering spot. Today a small crowd had gathered in a knot around what looked to be a lemonade stand.

Sol would’ve preferred to drive by without having to interact, but his friend Mark Dublin’s wife, Audrey, and her daughter, Tess, were working the stand. They spotted him, flagging him down with friendly waves.

Guilt got the best of him. He groaned an “Oh hell” under his breath as he parked.

Nell Bradley met him at the curb as she headed to her car. She insisted on a hug, as always. And Johnny Bob Luther stopped him to share a joke that he’d heard maybe thirty times before from the old man. He laughed in appreciation of Johnny Bob’s skillful telling rather than the punch line. And then there was IvaDawn Carrol’s inquiry about how his parents were enjoying life in Florida. Even though they’d been there for five years now, IvaDawn always made it sound as if they’d just moved. Audrey’s mother, Helen, sat on the bench in the gazebo—silently nodding to the voices in her head that her early-onset Alzheimer’s provided.

By the time he got to the lemonade stand, the crowd had moved away. And surprisingly, it turned out not to be a lemonade stand at all.

“We’re selling raffle tickets,” Tess informed him. “Ten dollars apiece.”

Sol gave a low whistle. “What happened to three for five dollars?” That had been the going price for as far back as he could remember.

Audrey flashed him an apologetic smile. “We’ve got a grand prize this year that’s a real bargain for ten dollars.”

“Better than Patti’s pie a week for a year?” The owner of the diner across the street was notorious for her decadently delicious pies.

“A week at a beach house in Gulf Shores!” Tess fist-pumped the air with cheerleader enthusiasm and an infectious grin that showed off her new missing tooth.

“Man!” Sol was indeed shocked at the extravagant prize. “That put somebody back a chunk.” A zing of guilt flashed through him. He’d just gotten that huge amount of money from Kale in the sale of the marina, and he hadn’t yet given a dime of it to the school.

“The house belongs to EmmyLou Creighton’s family. Emmy’s donating her week to us.”

EmmyLou Creighton. The sexy-as-hell-and-didn’t-she-know-it bombshell who’d hit the local scene, what...maybe fifteen years ago? He’d gone out with her a few times when they were younger. Back then he’d been too full of himself to stay with anyone for very long. And now? If he thought about it too hard, he might think that EmmyLou intimidated the hell out of him with her grab-the-world-by-the-tail attitude.

The only thing he was up to grabbing most nights was the whiskey decanter.

“How are sales?” he asked.

Audrey gave a relieved sigh. “Really good. Better than we’d hoped for.”

“Tell you what, Tess.” He took his wallet out and handed the little girl a fifty. “Put my name on five of those suckers.”

Tess grabbed the pen and counted out five tickets. “How do you spell Sol?”

He winked at the little girl, who was the spitting image of her mom at that age. “S-O-L.”

Tess went right to work on her project.

Sol leaned closer to Audrey and lowered his voice. “And I’ll tell you what I’d like to do. When all the sales are finished, I want to match whatever you make. I’d like to have everybody in Taylor’s Grove’s name on at least one ticket. Can you do that?”

“You bet we can! Wow! Thank you so much, Sol!”

Audrey gave him a huge hug. The first time a good-looking woman had hugged him with happiness instead of sympathy in eight years.

It felt damn good.

* * *

“MATCH? AS IN give dollar-for-dollar everything you make?” Emmy grabbed the can of hair spray from her workstation at the salon and added the final touches to Audrey’s newly straightened locks. “Girl, you’ve got the most gorgeous natural color I’ve ever seen. You need to let me go wild with the teasing someday. And then you could put on a crop top and short shorts and look just like one of those models in the Guess ads. Mark would get an erection so hard he’d pole vault over the bed.”

Her friend’s face turned as red as her hair, and she did a quick glance around to see if anybody else heard. The quietest of her friends, Audrey was easy to shock, so of course Emmy tried every chance she got. “You’ve got weird thought processes, Emmy,” Audrey observed. “We were discussing Sol’s raffle contribution. How you went from that to Mark’s erection—” she whispered the last two words “—is beyond me.”

“You want me to explain?” Emmy made eye contact with Audrey in the mirror. “It just occurred to me that Sol’s doing this nice thing, which seems totally out of character for someone who goes around with a sneer on his face ninety-nine percent of the time.” Audrey opened her mouth, probably to take up for him, but Emmy wouldn’t hear it. “Don’t give me all that but he’s crippled crap. Everybody’s got stuff they have to deal with, and yeah, he took a bullet or something and I hate that for him, but he doesn’t have to act like the whole world’s his enemy.” She used the end of the comb to lift the hair at Audrey’s crown to form a perfect bump. “Soooo, I was thinking that he’s got a hard-on for the world, but it’s totally different from the hard-on Mark would have for you if you dressed up like one of those models in the Guess ads.”

Audrey dropped her head back and winked. “God, you are such a freak. But I love you anyway.”

“What’s not to love?” Emmy propped her hands on her hips and thrust her chest out, eyeing herself in the mirror. She worked hard at staying fit and doing everything humanly possible to fight the years. But it was Saturday, and while Audrey was going home to a husband who loved her, EmmyLou Creighton would be spending the night alone.

With a show of the innate closeness the two of them had developed, her dog Bentley came to her then and nudged her hand with his nose. He’d gotten too big to pick up, but she squatted and gave him a tight hug as Audrey stood up and stretched.

“It’s hard to believe Bentley and Bandit came from the same litter.” Audrey scratched Bentley behind the ears.

“What’s hard to believe is that anybody would’ve dropped off a precious mama dog like Cher and her puppies. Some people are just too ornery for words.” Emmy kissed Bentley several times around the eyes. “I think Cher showed herself to you on purpose, knowing you’d take her in and find good homes for her babies. Probably even knew you’d keep one, they were so stinking cute. I know I was a goner for Bentley as soon as I saw him and those big puppy eyes. That’s why he’s so big. Nobody can resist him, so everybody feeds him.” He licked her nose, which made her laugh. She wasn’t going home alone tonight after all. She’d be in the company of Bentley, who adored her. “Sol Beecher’s one of those people who are too ornery for words, too. The man needs a dog to get his mind off himself.”

Audrey laughed and shook her head as she laid her payment on Emmy’s workstation. “And the conversation has come full circle back to Sol.”

“So he’s gonna match the funds, huh?” He was doing a good deed, but it made her peevish just the same. Everything about the man made her feel that way.

“That’s what he said.” Audrey nodded. “I even called him later in the week to see if he wanted to change his mind. I mean, this could turn out to be pretty expensive for him. But he insisted that he wants to match dollar-for-dollar.”

An idea popped into Emmy’s mind, no doubt borne on peevish wings—a way she could raise more money for the school and aggravate the hell out of Sol Beecher in the process.

“Give me a stack of those raffle tickets, Audrey.” She smiled innocently at her friend. “I’ll bet I can sell jillions of them here at the salon.”

* * *

EVERY SEAT WAS filled in Taylor’s Grove Elementary’s gymnasium/cafeteria on raffle drawing night. The cacophony rivaled that of a basketball game, and the crowd of bodies had heated the temperature at least fifteen degrees since Sol had arrived—reluctant, but here nevertheless.

Audrey’s plan to thank him publicly for his donation made him as uncomfortable as wearing a wool suit in July. In fact, he’d initially refused to attend when she first brought it up. But then they’d sent in the big guns in the form of little Tess, whose pleading gray eyes had been his undoing. So here he was, having given up his seat to Miss Beulah May Johnson, with his leg aching so badly he had to smile through clenched teeth, speaking to people and pretending to be enjoying himself when all he wanted to do was get the hell out of there and go home where he could gnash his teeth in private.

His checkbook was hollering louder than his stump, though. This event was about to set him back twenty-three hundred twenty dollars. When he’d told Audrey he’d match whatever they made, he’d expected the usual thousand or so, maybe less since they were charging ten dollars a ticket. He’d never have guessed Taylor’s Grove residents would give up tens so readily. Apparently a week at the beach was a hotter commodity than he’d realized. The kids had even set up tables around the squares in nearby towns and sold the hell out of tickets in places where Taylor’s Grove Elementary was considered a rival.

The donation was for a worthy cause—as many new computers as the money would buy—so it was hard for him to be too disturbed about the high amount.

What did disturb him, though, was the wicked grin EmmyLou Creighton shot his way just now as she entered. It was as though her eyes had sought him out of the crowd when she walked into the gym even though she wasn’t usually prone to smile at him at all. Her high heels announced her approach to Audrey, who looked surprised but thrilled to see her. Actually, every man in the place looked thrilled to see her in the tight lime-green skirt that pulled the eye straight to her ass no matter how hard you tried to look away.

The temperature in the gym rose another twenty degrees...

An astonished look swept over Audrey’s face when Emmy handed her an envelope, and then both women glanced his way. Audrey’s look was wide-eyed and apologetic, while EmmyLou’s smile oozed with smug.

Oh shit. The price has just gone up.

A trickle of sweat found the crease along the center of his spine, which he straightened as Audrey headed his way. His gaze locked with Emmy’s and stayed there. “I don’t care how much it is,” he whispered when Audrey got close. “I’ll match it.”

“But, Sol, it’s—”

“Dollar-for-dollar, Audrey. I gave my word.” He broke eye contact with Emmy and caught Audrey’s smile. The gleam in her eye elevated him to hero status—a place he hadn’t been in a long time. It sent a flicker of warmth through him. Of course, he didn’t dare look Emmy’s way again. The brunette had bested him and she knew it—and looking at her was what she expected every man to do.

But for the first time in a long time, desire flushed through him. Not a desire to get laid. A desire to get even.

The sassy siren needed to be taught that she couldn’t get her way about everything.

In his peripheral vision, he saw Emmy clicking her way toward him, hips swaying with more action than a tow sack full of cats in heat. His chest tightened with a breath that caught on an inhale. Thankfully she was merely taking the seat that Arlo James had offered.

It was at the end of the row where Sol stood, close enough that he caught the scent of her perfume once his breathing resumed. It was nice...light. Not at all the scent he would’ve imagined a woman like EmmyLou Creighton wearing. He would’ve pegged her as the kind whose perfume invaded your nose before she invaded your space and then hung around long after she was gone. And—

Why in the hell was he dwelling on the woman’s damn perfume? Wouldn’t she have loved that?

He swiveled to lean his back against the wall, shifting his weight to his artificial leg.

Emmy cast a sidelong look his direction that started at his knee and moved up slowly to his face. “You want to sit?”

“Naw.” The scowl he gave her came naturally, stemming from part pain, part anger and part embarrassment that a woman was offering him her damn seat. “I’m good.” He crossed his arms over his chest and pushed away from the wall. “But you keep traipsing around in those heels and someday you’ll limp worse than I do.”

She arched one cool eyebrow. “I’ll only limp worse than you do if one of them breaks off.”

Sol could swear he felt a vacuum as the people within earshot sucked in a simultaneous breath.

Nobody spoke to him like that. Nobody ever mentioned his leg. They treated it like the crazy cousin confined to the attic in years past. Everybody knew it was there, but no one was willing to bring it up. People kept their eyes averted, but he could feel the looks.

This woman had balls, although how she could hide them under that tight skirt was beyond him. He snorted a half laugh at the thought...just as Audrey approached the microphone.

Thank God this would all be over soon.

* * *

EMMY HAD NEVER been to one of these raffle nights and hadn’t realized it would go on for...forever, if the numbness of her butt was any indication.

She really needed to get up, and stubborn-ass Sol Beecher standing next to her obviously needed to sit. She heard his painful grunts every time his weight shifted. But she’d offered once, and he’d come back with one of his smart-ass answers uttered through that ever-present scowl. She wouldn’t offer again.

The man had major attitude problems. What had she ever seen in him? Besides the sculpted chest and broad shoulders that filled out those T-shirts he was so fond of wearing. And he did have gorgeous brown eyes that caught you by surprise because his hair was a golden, sun-streaked blond.

But that hair! She shivered in disgust. What used to be cute, sexy, surfer dude shaggy was now just flat-out unkempt and screamed I don’t give a rat’s ass. Oh, it was clean—she’d give him that. But just once she’d like to go at it with a pair of her shears.

The thought of running her fingers through his fresh, just-cut hair brought on the familiar sensation that curled low in her belly.

Seriously...sad sack Sol? Oh, please... She rolled her eyes at her overactive imagination.

But her butt tingled to life as the eighth graders started their skit.

Whatever it takes to get through this, she decided.

Ten nice prizes had been donated to the raffle from Taylor’s Grove businesses, so the committee had decided to space out the drawings by letting each class perform some kind of act. Emmy had loved the kindergartners’ rendition of “Old MacDonald” complete with animal costumes, and the first graders’ skit about the animals of the Serengeti had been cute and informative. But somewhere around the fourth grade’s recitation of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, her attention in the kids had waned and turned to the man standing beside her.

“And we finally get to the reason most of y’all are here.” Audrey’s voice boomed over the microphone, and a chuckle passed through the crowd. “But before we draw the ticket for the grand prize, there are a couple of people we need to recognize for their generous donations of both time and money. EmmyLou and Sol, would y’all come over here and stand by me?”

EmmyLou stood and smoothed her skirt as Sol stepped in front of her and crooked his elbow, offering his arm to her. She took his arm graciously, trying to ignore the masculine feel of him beneath her fingers. His gait was odd, his hip bumping hers as they walked, and she was much too aware of his tightening bicep every time he bumped her that told her he was straining hard to keep from limping.

She drew a relieved breath when they reached the center of the room, grateful that they hadn’t been called up on the stage, and then realizing that Audrey had chosen not to be onstage for Sol’s sake.

Audrey held her hand out, and Emmy felt herself being traded from Sol to her friend.

“EmmyLou Creighton hasn’t lived in Taylor’s Grove all her life,” Audrey said, “but she acts as if she has. Not only has she provided us with the biggest grand prize we’ve ever had but also took it upon herself to sell the largest number of tickets.” Audrey’s voice quivered with excitement. “Thanks to EmmyLou, we added three hundred eighty-seven more tickets to the drawing—” Audrey paused and gave a laugh “—which you may or may not want to thank her for.” A responding laugh moved through the audience. “But that translates to an additional three thousand eight hundred seventy dollars for the school!”

The audience surged to their feet in a standing ovation, and Emmy’s heart, which should have swelled with pride, instead flew into a panicked rhythm as Audrey pulled her into a hug.

After all these years, she’d thought the stage fright was gone. But here it was—the invisible fist that reached from her tonsils to her breastbone, the grip that crushed her airways until she was sure she would die.

She tried to breathe through the panic like always, but it seldom worked. Oh God...the hug was over...the applause was dying down...people were lowering back into their seats...and the freaking microphone was being held to her mouth.

She had to say something.

The crowd grew quiet. Everyone was waiting...listening for her voice.

“I...uh...” Crap! Her mind went blank. She couldn’t remember the words she was supposed to say. Nothing behind her eyes—her brain was just a big blank wall with nothing written on it. She shrugged and forced a smile. Tell the truth. “I...um...” Her voice vibrated with fear. “I just did it...um...to aggravate Sol.”

A roar of laughter met her admission, and some people rose to their feet as she strutted back to her seat, confident now that she was done speaking and feeling like she’d dodged a bullet.

When the crowd was again seated and quiet, Audrey continued. “It’s no surprise that the man of the hour is none other than our own Sol Beecher, whose generosity to Taylor’s Grove is unprecedented. He not only requested that every person in our community have a ticket in the drawing—”

“Yay, Sol!” A man’s voice boomed through the auditorium, followed by a round of applause in agreement.

“—but also allowed his name to go on a measly five tickets even though he agreed to match the total sales dollar-for-dollar. And in case you missed it, I offered him an out on that when Emmy showed up with her surprising last-minute addition. He refused.”

An astonished gasp came from the woman behind Emmy, and she felt the flicker of guilt in her stomach. She extinguished it quickly by reminding herself that she’d already confessed her sin in front of God and this whole crowd.

“And so, by doubling the amount collected from raffle ticket sales, we now have a new total of—” Audrey nodded to a kid in the band, who broke into a drum roll “—twelve thousand three hundred eighty dollars!”

Another roar went through the crowd, which was once more on its feet. The standing ovation went on and on, lasting even longer than the Gettysburg Address, by Emmy’s estimation.

Sol looked positively miserable, and for once Emmy empathized with him...until Audrey handed him the microphone, and his deep, clear voice rang through the auditorium with not a single bobble.

“Taylor’s Grove has always been there for me, and I’m grateful. Of course, I didn’t realize I was...” Emmy again saw the handsome twenty-something he’d once been shining through the gruff camouflage as he glanced at Audrey’s paper and grinned sheepishly. “Six thousand one hundred ninety dollars’ worth of grateful.” The audience laughed, and he waited for them to quiet. “But I love this town and all of y’all—except EmmyLou Creighton.”

Another wave of laughter and another standing ovation as he limped back to the wall beside her, never looking her way.

Emmy’s shoulders drew back as her spine stiffened in anger at the rebuff.

But an easy smile covered her wrath...and the knowledge that the jerk’s admission was exactly as truthful as her own.