LITMIR.BIZ

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one of her students with the placement of her candle wicks.

      By the time the class finished, everyone was proud of their results—Raina most of all. Not only had she successfully pulled off tutoring her first official craft lesson, but everyone had commented how much they were looking forward to returning the following week when they’d be making mason jar candles filled with oil. Some were even talking about classes in the New Year and how they’d like to bring other friends along.

      When everyone had cleaned up and gone, and Raina had locked up, she drove herself home. After paying the sitter and checking on JJ, she decided to run herself a luxurious deep bath. She’d earned the hot soak, she decided as she stripped and pulled on a robe while waiting for the bath to fill. In fact, she’d earned a celebratory glass of wine to go along with it. After a quick trip to the kitchen she was soon back with a glass of merlot. She disrobed and lowered herself into the soothing water.

      Everything was going to be okay, she told herself. While the antiques business was a little slow in getting off the ground again, she knew it wouldn’t take too long before her old customers would discover her new location. A bit of careful advertising across the county would help, and now, with the popularity of the craft classes, as well, she could afford to place those advertisements. She took a sip of her wine and allowed the mellow flavors to roll across her tongue before she swallowed.

      Yes, everything would be fine from now on. She and JJ wouldn’t want for anything. Or anyone.

      Later, as she readied for bed, she checked her phone for messages. She’d turned it off during her class and hadn’t gotten around to turning it back on yet. A bit of the shine of happiness from the evening’s success dulled when she saw she had another missed call from Jeb and that he’d left another message. Her finger hovered over the button to simply delete the message, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it. Instead, she listened and felt her happiness dull a little more.

      “Rai, c’mon, babe. Call me back. I really need some money fast. I know you’re good for it. Look, this is pretty urgent. Call me.”

      Raina closed her eyes in frustration. When would she ever be rid of the man? She’d taken all the legal steps she could to have sole custody of JJ, so she knew the little guy was safe from his father. But what would it take for Jeb to leave her alone?

      Stop giving him money. The words echoed in her head as clearly as the last time her father had uttered them to her. Not for the first time she wondered why she continued to help her ex. It wasn’t because she still bore any love for him. That had died long ago. Was it because she felt beholden to him because of JJ? No. She’d made the decision to go ahead with raising him, knowing it was unlikely that Jeb would provide any support. Maybe it was just because, despite herself, she couldn’t help but reach out when she knew a man was down. Her father had often teased her about her need to make everyone happy and feel safe. The thing was, if she kept helping Jeb, when would he ever learn to stand on his own feet and accept some responsibility for everything that happened in his life?

      She came to a decision. This ended here and now. She’d no longer be Jeb’s cash cow or his go-to person. She deleted the message and shoved her phone in her purse and climbed into bed. Let that be an end to it, she thought as she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Four

      Nolan strolled around the Courtyard the next afternoon, telling himself he wasn’t there to see Raina Patterson at all, he was merely doing his job and finding out a bit more about the other tenants. If he could present the acquisition of this parcel of land to Rafiq as an ongoing business concern rather than merely as a land purchase, maybe he could preserve the jobs and incomes of these hardworking people.

      He was taken by the work in the silversmith’s shop. The delicacy of the silversmith’s designs was exquisite and Nolan knew his mother would love the pendant designed to look like a peacock tail with tiny cabochon amethysts and peridots inset at the ends of the feathers. He eyed the price tag and decided that the cost didn’t matter. His mother’s pleasure on opening the gift would bring its own reward. She’d had little enough joy from him in the past few years as he’d avoided returning to Royal. Maybe this would help show her that despite his withdrawal from home, she was still very much in his thoughts.

      The shop assistant was effusive about his choice, almost talking him into purchasing a matching set of earrings, but he knew that less was very definitely more when it came to his mother’s tastes and that she preferred a few well-chosen pieces to a cacophony of color and design.

      “Is this a Christmas gift?” the woman asked.

      “No, just something my mom will enjoy,” he answered.

      “Ah, that’s lovely. Would you still like me to gift wrap it for you?”

      “Please.”

      “Are you new to the area?” the assistant asked as she deftly wrapped the pendant in tissue and wrapping paper.

      “I grew up here but I’ve been away for a while. Just here to see my family.”

      “Oh, that’s lovely,” the woman said with a friendly smile. She tied off a length of organza ribbon around the little packet and popped it in a gift bag. “Well, thank you for supporting the Courtyard with your purchase. I hope we see you back before you head home.”

      Murmuring a note of assent, Nolan took the gift and left the store. It was only midweek but the parking lot was almost full of vehicles and people were bustling around, their arms filled with bags emblazoned with the local artisans’ logos. This place really was a gold mine. Yesterday he hadn’t spent enough time wandering about, getting a real feel for the place—it was something he was determined to remedy today.

      A flash of color caught his eye and he turned his head to see Raina Patterson outside her store, assisting a customer putting a small side table in the back of their car. He felt a now-familiar wallop of awareness as he took in the way her bright red sweater dress clung to her feminine curves and skimmed her hips like a lover’s caress. His body heated and sprang to life, arousal beating a low thrumming pulse that reminded him all too much of the dreams he’d endured last night.

      Dreams where he’d begun to make love to his late wife, but when she’d turned toward him it had been Raina’s face before him instead.

      Nolan swiftly veered into the nearest store, determined to bring his body back under control and rid himself of the desire to walk those few yards toward the big red barn and spend time again with its proprietor. He wasn’t here to embark on an affair, he reminded himself. He was here to work.

      * * *

      Raina looked up, surprised to see Nolan Dane on the other side of the Courtyard. She raised a hand to wave, but it appeared that he hadn’t seen her as he abruptly turned and headed into the cheese maker’s store. She told herself it didn’t matter, that she hadn’t hoped to see him again anyway. Even so, she felt a tiny twinge of disappointment that she forced herself to rapidly shove aside. She had enough on her plate for today as it was. The class she had lined up for tonight was mosaic work, and she had yet to check the inventory of stock she’d ordered for her students to buy and use for their lessons. The simple mirror frame kits would hopefully be a quick and easy project for her students to tackle, all of them first-timers to mosaic work, and she was looking forward to the class.

      A prickle of uneasiness ran down her spine—the sense of disquiet making her look around before heading back into the store. She must be imagining things, she thought, pushing the feeling away and delving into the boxes of stock she’d left on the workroom tables. Last night’s message from Jeb was making her paranoid and goodness knew she had little enough time for that.

      * * *

      The week went quickly and her classes were going from strength to strength. As a side bonus, several of her students were also avid collectors of a variety of antique items including some of the delicate English china she had on display. She was excited to have sold several pieces already and had requests to look

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