Grady took a long drink of his tea and set the glass back on the small end table. “I need help in more ways than one, and we used to be friends, so I came to you.”
Addy drank part of her tea and held the cold glass against her cheek. “Spit it out, Grady.”
“I need to get away for six months,” he said, “maybe a year.”
“Why?” Addy asked.
He removed his glasses and cleaned them with a white handkerchief that he pulled from his pocket. “I called my new girlfriend Amelia when we were…” He stammered and blushed. “When we were…”
“When you were in bed?” Addy asked.
“Yes,” Grady said. “You were right. I was just trying to replace my wife with another woman. I’m not ready to move on yet and I’m confused, so I’ve agreed to a stint with Doctors Without Borders. Do you think I should go?”
“That’s your decision, not mine, and even if we were still good friends, I wouldn’t make the decision for you.”
“Addy, I’ve never been good at decisions. My folks decided that I should be a doctor. Amelia asked me on our first date. She’s the one who proposed to me and planned the wedding. She decided that we should stay in this area when we were offered jobs in big cities. Then Aurelia decided I couldn’t be friends with you, and now Crystal—I went out with her because she had a name that didn’t sound like Amelia—has dumped me. Tell me what to do,” Grady said.
“I’d say it’s time for you to examine your life and decide what makes you happy,” Addy said. “Take control and learn to stand up for what you want.”
“I don’t know if I can do that,” he almost whined.
“Well, it’s your job to do if you’re ever going to be happy,” she said.
“Are you happy? I hear that you’re living with Jesse now.” Grady’s tone turned a little cold.
“Yes, I am, and I’ve promised Cody to help him with his new project,” she said.
“Maybe you should check into Jesse’s past before you make up your mind. He wasn’t an angel those twenty years that he was in the military.” Grady tapped a folder that was lying between them on the seat.
“What’s that?” she asked.
“Just a little research that I thought you might be interested in,” Grady said.
Addy felt a chill chase down her spine in spite of the heat when she saw Jesse Ryan’s name on the outside. “What’s in it? You had Jesse investigated? Why would you do such a thing?”
Grady’s smile looked more like a sneer. “I figured out a couple of years ago that Mia belonged to him, and then when I heard he was coming home for good, I thought you might be right where you are today—in love with him all over again. So I did a little background research on him. That’s what friends are for, right?”
Addy stared at the folder as if it were a rattlesnake. The other shoe had definitely dropped. “That’s just wrong. You shouldn’t pry into his past.”
“He’s got an exemplary military record, but his personal life is what you’ll want to take a look at. Do you want to spend your life with a man who hopped from one woman to another? He’ll grow tired of you in six months, and then you’ll be asked to leave the ranch. You don’t have a thing in common with him.”
Grady stood up, but he didn’t pick up the folder. “You can take that thing with you, and if you hadn’t ended our friendship, I damn sure would today. What you did is inexcusable.”
“Read that before you get too involved.” Grady crossed the porch and yard, and went to his SUV.
Addy picked up the folder and went into the cool house. She sat down on the ladder-back chair right inside the door and stared at the bright red folder.
“What’s that?” Jesse startled her when he peeked around the kitchen door.
“Grady isn’t the friend I thought he was,” she said.
“Okay, but what’s in that folder?” Jesse sat down in the chair beside her.
“This is a full investigative report on your military and your personal life for the past twenty years. I’m not sure how he got all this, but here it is,” Addy said.
Jesse inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. “Why in the hell would he do that?”
“He says that he knew I’d fall in love with you, and I should know what kind of man you are,” Addy answered.
“I have not been a saint, Addy,” Jesse admitted in a husky voice.
“I didn’t think you had been,” she said. “I haven’t even opened this, but Grady read it and said that you hopped from woman to woman.”
“I did have a few relationships, a few one-night stands, and some second and third dates. None of them lasted because I kept measuring all the women by your standard, and they all came up short,” he admitted.
Addy stood up and headed for the office with him right behind her. “I’m all for leaving the past in the past, darlin’,” she said as she stuck the whole folder into the shredder. “I love you, Jesse. What either of us did or didn’t do the past twenty years is over and done with. We don’t need to hash out all that old news, and I’m not worried about the future.”
* * *
Jesse took her in his arms and held her close to his chest. “You are one amazing woman, Addison Hall.”
“Thank you for that, Jesse, but just for the record, how many women are we talking about?” she asked.
“Show me yours, and I’ll show you mine,” he teased.
“Fair enough.” She giggled as she went up on her tiptoes for a kiss. “We’ll just nail that box shut with tenpenny nails.”
“I agree, but I can promise you one thing,” he whispered. “There won’t be any children coming out of the woodwork.”
“Other than Mia, you mean?” she asked.
“That’s right, and I can promise you another thing. I’m right proud to be Mia’s father,” Jesse said. “Now, I hear folks coming in for dinner and the noise of Dad’s cane tapping on the hardwood floor. Let’s eat and get a visit before we head off to Bonham. I was right to measure all the other women by your standard.” Jesse took her hand in his and led her across the hallway into the kitchen. “You always put other folks before yourself.”
“Hey, what was Grady doing here?” Sonny asked.
“I’ll tell you all about it after you say grace.” Jesse was in a state of shock that Addy had shredded the file without even looking inside it. He doubted that the thing was as complete as Grady had thought because it simply didn’t look thick enough to have covered all his military commendations plus the women that he had spent time with through the years. Besides, how on earth would anyone know about some of those ladies? They were scattered all over the blasted world.
Sonny bowed his head and said a short prayer, then reached for a couple of sandwiches. “I’m ready now. Did Grady have bad news about me?”
“Nope, it was bad news about me.” Jesse chuckled and told them what Grady had done.
“Sweet Lord!” Mia gasped. “That’s downright dirty of him, and to think I actually liked the man at one time. Why would he do that anyway?”