She narrowed her eyes at me, color popping on her cheeks.
Fran glanced between us with a smile. "An angel, huh?" She nudged Grace. "Now that's a new one for you, sweetie."
"Do you need some help getting the car over to the Winston’s?" I asked.
"Don't worry about it. We'll give the garage a call after her daddy gets off work. He and Robert will get it settled. Thank you, Tuck."
Ahh, the last puzzle piece. Daughter of Glenn, Robert's brother, whose ex-wife and two kids moved off to California years ago. No wonder I didn't know who she was.
In the pocket of my jeans, my phone started buzzing. Not wanting to be rude, I reached in and silenced it. "Well, I'll leave you two to visit." I held Grace's eyes and nodded. "Grace, it sure was a pleasure to meet you."
She pulled in a deep breath, visibly fortifying herself. "Thank you for helping me," she said, and oh, I saw how much it pained her to pull those words out.
I nodded to both of them as I climbed back in my truck. "Welcome to Green Valley, Miss Buchanan."
Her glare made me laugh, and the two women started into the house as I shifted the truck into reverse. My phone started buzzing again, and I pulled it out of my pocket.
Magnolia.
I let out a slow breath before I answered it. "Hey there."
"So I just got the strangest phone call," her sweet voice said. "Daddy heard from Scotia who said you passed her going through town with a strange woman in your truck. She didn't have the faintest idea who it was."
"You checking up on me?" I was smiling, and she must have known it, because she let out a breathy laugh.
"No. Just curious."
"Just helping out Fran and Robert's niece. Her car broke down outside of town and she needed a ride."
"Poor thing. Well, I'm glad you could help. Are you coming over?"
I glanced in my rearview mirror, the house and the angry girl completely out of view.
"Yup. I'm on my way," I told my girlfriend.
Chapter 3
Grace
“Shouldn't we be helping them?" I asked Aunt Fran.
In unison, our heads tilted to the side while Uncle Robert and my cousin Connor unloaded suitcases out of bed of his truck. My car was safely towed to the Winston's Garage, after they'd divested the defunct automobile of all my belongings.
"Yeah," Connor said with a grunt. "Shouldn't you be helping us?"
"Hush," Aunt Fran chimed in. "She had a rough landing. No harm in having some tea and a visit while you two put those God-given muscles to use."
Before he turned back to grab another one from the truck, I caught an eye roll. When he grabbed the handle of the one holding all my books, I couldn't resist. "Lift with your legs, Connor. That's a heavy one."
The jar of tea, loaded with ice and sun-warmed flavor, hid my grin when Connor gave me a dirty look.
"Missed you too, cousin," I called out.
Aunt Fran clucked her tongue when he flipped me his middle finger. The laugh that popped from inside of me felt like it swept away the last of the foul aftertaste from the first part of my day. I shifted in the solid wood Adirondack underneath me, tucking one leg underneath the other while my brain flashed back to my ride into town.
The foul taste was back.
I didn't want to think about Tucker Ames Haywood.
In fact, just thinking his name made my body shudder. A wave of recoil from the bottom of my feet up to the tippy top of my head. But it came off like I was cold, because Aunt Fran turned to me.
"Sweetpea, it's hotter than a grave in hell out here. You're not coming down with something, are you?"
I shook my head. "Just thinking about that rough landing."
Her eyes twinkled, even though she didn't smile. "I'm just glad that Tucker drove past. He's good people."
"Is he?" I mumbled under my breath.
"Grace Bailey," she chided gently. "You weren't with him long enough to not like him. Everybody likes him."
Wanna bet? I thought. But I kept the words locked down in my throat, because the last thing I wanted was to come off as ungrateful. My dad's apartment didn't have near the space for Grady and I to be able to stay with him, even for a single night, and the kindness of people like Aunt Fran and Uncle Robert was the reason I was able to make this transcontinental switch.
Which is why Tucker was the absolute last thing I wanted to talk about.
I didn't want to talk about his deep, steady voice.
I didn't want to talk about his dark hair or broad shoulders.
I didn't want to talk about his gratingly steady presence or the way he drove his truck with one hand resting easily on top of the steering wheel.
The way he looked at me like he was amused with my irrational hatred of him.
Not just amused, he incited it once we were locked together in the confines of his good-smelling truck.
I blew out a slow breath and shoved his face out of my mind. One violent, brutal shove.
"My dad couldn't get off work?"
She shook her head. "It's a busy time of year at the Bait and Tackle. It will be until winter. I'm sure he would've left early if Bobby Jo said it was okay."
The thought of my dad, gruff and quiet, hair sparse and gray, cheeks scratchy from the stubble that he could never get rid of, settled me a bit. He gave the best hugs in the world, and my arms fairly itched to give him one.
He was a simple man, something that my mom despised now, but at one point, she must have been drawn to it. Long enough to let him slip a ring on her finger, say I do, and procreate two kids in one go. Their marriage had only lasted four years, and I didn't have a single recollection of them together.
Living in California, my mom's home state and where she moved us after they got divorced, was as foreign to my dad as if I'd come from Hong Kong.
"He likes working there?"
"He does. Working at the lumber yard got to be too much for his back, and even though he makes a bit less now, it’s work that makes him happy." She glanced over at me. “You know your father doesn’t need much, other than that.”
We shared a smile, thinking of his sparsely furnished apartment. He had his recliner and his TV. A small table to eat his meals, and a small balcony overlooking downtown Green Valley where he smoked his clove cigarettes. One every night before bed.
"No, he doesn't." My heart tugged painfully in my chest when I thought of him. "I love that about him."
Aunt Fran patted my hand. "Me too, sweetpea."
Uncle Robert winked at us when he pulled the last box out of the truck and walked it into the garage apartment that I'd be staying in until I got my feet under me. My cousin Levi used to live there until he moved to Seattle with his girlfriend, and since I got here a few days before my brother, I claimed that shit real fast.
"Speaking of jobs," I said slowly. "I'm going to need something to do."
She nodded and took a sip of her tea. "I know. I've been puzzling over that the last few days."
"I have too, I just don't know the places to puzzle about like you do."
"Well," she said thoughtfully, "it'll be hard to find something like your last job. But I think you know that."