LITMIR.BIZ

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looked across the Thanksgiving table at Cliff and smiled, but her mind was a thousand miles away—in Georgia, where Will was spending the holiday with his wife and longtime friends.

      After two days without word from him, she was suffering withdrawal symptoms. Her fingers itched for a computer keyboard so she could log on and talk to Will. When she’d inquired, Grace learned that Lisa and her husband had a computer, but it was kept in a corner of their bedroom. She felt awkward about asking to use it. Lisa hadn’t offered, and Grace had been forced to drop the matter. The fact that chatting online with Will had become so important confused and bothered her. Only a few months ago he was a boy from her past, a high-school crush, and suddenly he was so much more.

      Then there was Cliff, and her feelings toward him were equally confusing. She was grateful to spend Thanksgiving with him and at the same time regretted accepting his invitation.

      “Grace?” Cliff broke into her rambling thoughts.

      She glanced at him and realized she’d missed something. She shook her head. “I’m sorry?”

      “Lisa was asking if you’d like more turkey.”

      She stared down at her plate and shook her head. “Thank you, but no, I’m stuffed.” She placed her hands on her stomach to give the impression that she’d overeaten, but she’d barely touched her dinner.

      This trip to Maryland was more difficult than Grace had anticipated. They’d made the cross-country flight without problems, but sitting with Cliff for several hours the day before had been…uncomfortable. At one point early on, Cliff had reached for her hand, lacing his fingers with hers, creating a mood of intimacy she didn’t want and couldn’t feel.

      Lisa and her husband, Rich, were at the airport when Cliff and Grace landed. Cliff’s three-year-old granddaughter, April, had raced to his arms and he’d lifted her high in the air.

      Thanksgiving morning, Grace had spent some time with Cliff’s daughter. Grace had liked Lisa immediately. She was very close to her father, and her adoration reminded Grace of the way Kelly had felt about Dan. As far as Kelly was concerned, Dan was about as perfect as a father could be. Lisa felt protective of her father, as Kelly had, drilling Grace at every opportunity to find out more about the relationship between her and Cliff.

      When they’d finished their meal, the men wandered into the living room, to watch a football game on television. April went down for her nap, and Grace helped Lisa clear off the table. During her trips from the dining room to the kitchen, Grace noticed Cliff watching her. When he realized she knew, he smiled sheepishly and looked away.

      Grace’s heart fell. Cliff was obviously in love with her. For a while she’d been convinced she loved him, too, but now she was no longer sure of that—or anything.

      “You’re the first woman my father’s shown any interest in since he and my mother divorced,” Lisa said as Grace set the last of the dirty dishes on the kitchen counter. The house was cozy, and Lisa had decorated it in a kind of English-cottage style. She was a tall, lithe blonde; Grace wondered if that was how Susan, Cliff’s ex-wife, had looked, too.

      “I think the world of your father,” Grace told her, and it was true.

      Lisa ran water into the sink, adding detergent, and slid the pans into the suds. “Mom hurt him badly. It’s taken a long time for Dad to get over the divorce. I was beginning to wonder if he ever would.”

      “Some wounds go very deep,” Grace said as a niggling guilt worked on her conscience—because it was Will who dominated her thoughts, Will who sent her pulse soaring. If she’d needed anything to prove how strongly she felt about him, these last two days had done exactly that.

      Accepting Cliff’s invitation had encouraged the relationship, and that had been wrong for both of them. Although Grace liked Cliff, enjoyed his company, she considered him a friend, a very dear and good friend, but nothing more.

      “Dad’s been so busy lately, he’s worried that you’ve given up on him,” Lisa said. “We talk every week, and you’re the main topic of conversation.”

      “Me?”

      “You and the guy who turned up dead at the bed-and-breakfast,” she joked, then grew serious. “He asks my advice.

      I was the one who urged him to ask you out that first time.”

      “Then I should thank you.”

      “He admired the fact that you refused until your divorce was final.” Those had been bleak days in Grace’s life, as she’d confronted the unknown. Dan’s body had yet to be found, and she’d felt certain he was with another woman. Her self-esteem had been in tatters, and then along came this handsome rancher who courted her with gentleness and humor.

      “I told Dad he should hire a full-time trainer, otherwise he was going to lose you,” Lisa said. She opened the dishwasher, a model as old as Grace’s, and arranged the dishes inside.

      “I understand what it’s like to start up a new business,” Grace hurriedly assured her. The truth was, she’d barely noticed that she hadn’t heard from him much lately. Anytime she did hear from Cliff, it had seemed like an intrusion.

      She hated feeling this way, but she couldn’t help it. Cliff was like Buttercup. He was big and warm and friendly and there when she needed him. On the other hand, her friendship with Will was exciting and new. The two of them talking for hours every day and keeping it a secret held a hint of intrigue. They were conspirators.

      “Are you in love with my father?” Lisa asked, her arms elbow-deep in dishwater.

      “I…I—”

      “Are you embarrassing our dinner guest?” Cliff asked as he stepped into the kitchen. He stood behind Grace, slid his arms around her waist and kissed the side of her neck. She closed her eyes—not to savor the tenderness of the moment, but in relief because she didn’t have to answer Lisa’s question.

      This was wrong, but she couldn’t say anything to Cliff. Not with his daughter and her husband so close. Not with Cliff’s granddaughter napping in the other room. It would have to wait until they were back in Cedar Cove, in familiar territory.

      She could have told him on the flight home, but Grace refused to do that to him, especially after the hospitality his family had shown her. That would’ve piled wrong on top of wrong.

      The instant Grace was back in Cedar Cove, she collected Buttercup from Kelly and Paul’s and headed home. Ten minutes after she walked in the front door, she was sitting in front of her computer.

      “Oh, be there,” she whispered as she logged onto the Internet. She brought up the message board and hit the appropriate icons and waited an interminable few moments.

      “Will, are you there?” she typed.

      Almost immediately he responded. “Welcome back. How was Thanksgiving with your boyfriend?”

      “Wonderful. How about yours?” she typed, wincing at the half lie.

      “All right, I guess.”

      “I had a good time, but I missed our chats,” she typed.

      It seemed forever before Will answered. “Grace, thank you. I hated being without you. I didn’t realize how much I’ve come to rely on our talks to get me through the day.”

      “I rely on you, too,” her fingers raced to tell him. She gnawed on her lower lip. “I thought about you constantly.”

      Another long moment passed. “You’re all I thought about, too.”

      Grace shouldn’t be this happy, but joy filled her. She felt like a teenager all over again—a teenager head over heels in love.

      Fourteen

      Thick, dark clouds marred the December-morning sky over Cedar Cove. Peggy Beldon walked down the stairs, and from her view through the upper hallway window, she saw that the waters of the cove

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