LITMIR.BIZ

Скачать книгу

my appearance this morning. I don’t have any groceries yet and I just needed coffee, badly.”

      “And so do I,” said a masculine voice behind her.

      Cari pivoted so fast she almost fell off her perch. “Rick, good morning.” Pushing at her hair again, she wished she’d at least bothered to put on lipstick.

      Jolena leaned over the counter, her long thin braids tapping her robust shoulders. “Rick, you remember our Cari, don’t you?”

      Rick sat down next to Cari and took the cup of coffee a waitress brought him. “I do now. Didn’t at first but we talked a bit yesterday afternoon. Good to see you again, Cari. Hope you had a good first night home.”

      “It was okay,” she said, the warmth of his dark blue eyes washing over her. Could it be possible that he had matured into an even better looking man than the boy she remembered? Highly possible.

      Jolena’s gaze shifted from Rick to Cari, her grin growing with each blink. “You two went to school together, right?”

      Cari felt the crimson moving over her freckles. “Yes, we did but Rick was the big man on campus. He…we…didn’t hang out together too much.”

      “And that’s a shame,” Rick replied, winking at Cari. “But high school’s always hard, you know. I’m sure we’ve both changed since those days.”

      When Jolena’s overly interested eyebrows shot up, Cari slumped on her stool, wishing she could just dive under the counter. Did the man know the effect he had on women? Or did he just do this to her? She felt all mushy and soft-kneed. Which was just plain crazy. She wasn’t in high school anymore. And she had changed. She didn’t trust pretty boys anymore and she sure didn’t indulge in adolescent crushes these days.

      Finally, because he was still smiling at her, she said, “So why’d you come back to Knotwood Mountain, Rick?”

      The smile softened and his rich blue eyes went black. “That’s a long story and, unfortunately, I don’t have time to tell it right now. I’ve got people waiting to rent tubes for the day.” He got up, took his to-go cup of coffee and lifted it toward Jolena. “Put it on my tab.” Then he turned to Cari. “I’ll see you around, neighbor.”

      Cari waited until she heard the screen door slap back on its hinges then looked at Jolena. “What? Did I ask the wrong question?”

      Jolena, known as much for her gossip as her soul food, leaned close, her dimples deepening. “I heard it had something to do with a bad breakup. I think the man was heartbroken and hurting when he came limping into town. But he’s good now, real good. And real available.”

      Cari almost spit out her sip of coffee. “Yes, so available that he practically ran out of here. If he can’t talk about her, then he ain’t over her.”

      “He might get over her better if he had someone sweet to talk to, know what I mean?”

      “I do know what you mean, but I’m not here to find a man, Jolena. Just like Rick there, I, too, went through a bad breakup—with the man and with my money that the man took.” She pointed across the street. “You see that wilted wedding cake of a house sitting over there. I’m here to fix that house up and get my boutique going. That’s about all I have any time or energy for. And I don’t want a man standing around telling me what to do and making me feel guilty about everything from the shoes I wear to the friends I have. I want to do this my way.”

      Jolena wasn’t to be hushed. “You got a point there, honey. But you need to take time to be friendly to the other merchants along the street. We stick together around here. You’ll see. Don’t be all mean and stand-offish with Rick Adams. You might need a friend, too. But that attitude will surely scare people away.”

      Cari couldn’t deny that she needed to make a connection. But with Rick? Friend and neighboring merchant, maybe. But that would have to be it. Still, it wouldn’t hurt to know more about him—just so she’d know what not to ask him next time she saw him.

      “Okay, so he is good-looking,” she admitted on a low whisper. “It won’t be very hard to be nice to him. But that’s as far as it goes.”

      Jolena made an exaggerated frown. “Girl, that man is so pretty, well, as my mama used to say, you could spoon him up like sugar.”

      Cari had to laugh. “Your mama would tell you to put your big brown eyes right back inside your head, too, if she were here—since you’re married and have four children.”

      “You are so right,” Jolena said, waving a glitter-nailed finger in Cari’s face. “But what’s your excuse, honey? Beside thinking all men are the scum of the earth, I mean?”

      Cari frowned right back at her friend. “Me? I am not the least bit interested, especially in someone like Rick Adams. From what I remember back in high school, he had a new girl on his arm every Friday night.”

      “This ain’t high school, girl, and you’ve changed since then. Maybe he has, too. He said as much himself.” Jolena fluffed her heavy reddish-brown weave, her words echoing Cari’s own earlier thoughts. “His mother is a good Christian woman, you know. Gives to the local food bank and works there, too. Helps out with the youth at church just about every Sunday night. And my mama says Rick has settled down, changed his wild ways since his father passed.”

      That caught Cari’s attention. Had Rick had father issues just like her? “Tell me more,” she said, smiling over at Jolena. “And while you’re at it, can I have a short-stack with fresh strawberries?”

      Jolena was more than happy to oblige.

      Rick Adams. The second son of the late Lazaro Adams and widow Gayle Miller Adams. After her husband’s death, Gayle Adams had turned her husband’s Western and outfitter store into a haven for artists and craftsmen, including herself and her oldest son Simon. Then she’d put in a women’s clothing department on the second floor. According to Jolena, the big old store had struggled after Mr. Adams had died, but now her good-looking second son was back from the big city and working hard in the family business.

      Wonder what the whole story there is, Cari mused as she waited for Jolena to ring up a customer. She knew why she’d come home, but Rick? Could a woman have messed him up that badly? From what she’d heard from Jolena, he’d had it made in Atlanta. Big-time marketing guru, all-around business tycoon, etc. While she’d been mostly miserable and alienated from her father, and definitely messed up from too many bad relationships. But maybe being successful didn’t help in the love department. It sure hadn’t helped ease her misery and unhappiness.

      “So that’s supposed to make me sit up and take notice?” Cari asked when Jolena came back. “Just because he’s successful in business does not mean he’s ready for a relationship, especially if he’s been burned before. And we can’t know if he’s changed from high school. Some people change, some people don’t.”

      “You gotta have faith, honey,” Jolena said, rolling her eyes. “Haven’t I told you, if you turn it over to the Lord—”

      “The Lord will turn it all to good,” Cari finished, her voice low so she wouldn’t attract attention. “Well, you know how I feel about that. The Lord hasn’t provided me with the answers I need lately. Not since the day Doreen Stillman and her two spoiled children walked into my father’s house.”

      Jolena’s dark face turned serious and somber as the conversation shifted to the subject Cari couldn’t get off her mind. “Cari, honey, it’s been over eight years and your father has left this earth. You need to make peace with what happened. And with what didn’t happen.”

      Cari shook her head, causing sprigs of curling strawberry-blond hair to fall around her face. “I can’t do that, Jolena. I barely got to visit him when he was ill, and that’s because of Doreen’s hovering over him. He never once told me he’d forgiven me. And I prayed for that every day. I tried to tell him that I loved him, but I think it was too late. He was too sick to understand.”

      “I

Скачать книгу