Always on My Mind
ALWAYS ON MY MIND
Lori & Grayson ~ The Sullivans #8
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After a tragic loss three years ago, Grayson Tyler left his life in New York City behind and started over in the rolling hills of the California coast. He’s convinced himself that all he’ll ever need again is the blue sky, a thousand acres of pasture, and the crashing waves of the ocean. Until one day, Lori Sullivan barges into his life and promptly blows his emotionless and solitary world to shreds, driving him crazy as only a woman nicknamed Naughty can. But will Lori be able to convince him that it’s safe to love her...and that forever isn’t actually out of reach?
A note from Bella:
The first time Lori Sullivan opened her mouth, she made me laugh. Over the years, I’ve written strong heroines, sassy heroines, and sweet heroines, but I’ve never written anyone quite like Lori. Naughty has never been afraid to take a risk. Even after failing. And even when it turns out that falling in love just might be the biggest risk of all.
But there’s another reason why I absolutely loved writing this book: Grayson Tyler. Out on his farm, in his cowboy hat and boots, he couldn’t have seemed more wrong for Lori. But I promise you that he is the only man who could have captured her heart (and mine, as well, while he was at it!). I hope he captures your heart, too.
Happy reading,
Bella
P.S. So many of you have written to ask if Lori’s book is the last of the Sullivan series. I’m extremely happy to tell you that it most definitely isn’t! This summer, the first Seattle Sullivan cousin—Rafe Sullivan, a supersexy P.I.—will take center stage in THE WAY YOU LOOK TONIGHT, and he has four siblings who are all going to need a happily-ever-after, too. And…after receiving countless requests for Mary and Jack Sullivan’s love story, I’m thrilled to let you know that I also have something very special planned for them this fall. I hope you really love Lori and Grayson’s story!
Chapter One
Lori Sullivan wasn’t looking for trouble. She swore she wasn’t.
Just because her nickname was
Naughty
and trouble seemed to follow her wherever she went didn’t mean she wanted any today. On the contrary—for the first time ever, she was looking for some peace and quiet.
No one in her family knew she was back in San Francisco, having just flown in on the red-eye from Chicago. Even though she loved them more than anyone else in the world, she just couldn’t face them right now. Her six brothers, twin sister, and mother were the best family a girl could have...and yet, if they found out that she was back, they’d not only want to know why she’d walked out on her show halfway through its run, but they also wouldn’t back off until they’d wrung every horrible detail out of her.
How did she know that?
Because it was exactly what she’d done to every one of them over the past twenty-five years.
So, instead of wheeling her suitcase from the San Francisco Airport baggage claim area over to the taxi station to head home to her apartment, she impulsively headed for the rental-car desk.
“Good morning, how can I help you?” chirped the blonde woman behind the desk.
Lori guessed the two of them had to be around the same age, but by contrast she felt at least a decade wearier. “I need a car.”
“Great! Where are you headed and how long do you need it for?”
The woman’s smile was so bright, Lori felt her eyes tearing up from the glare. Fortunately, after her bleary-eyed flight across the country, immediately upon landing she’d put on her sunglasses to deal with the blinding sunlight pouring in through her small airplane window. She’d hate for the woman to think she was crying.
No, Lori refused to cry over anything that had happened in Chicago. Or during the year and a half before that.
She wasn’t a crier, damn it. Never had been, never would be.
The world would have do a heck of a lot more than give her a cheating scum of a boyfriend and take away her entire dancing career to make her cry.
She was young. She was healthy. She had her whole life ahead of her.
Somehow, some way, she’d figure out what to do with the next seventy years.
Which brought her back to the car rental woman’s questions. Where was she going? And for how long?
Blaming lack of sleep for the fact that all her brain could come up with was blanks, she asked, “Where’s your favorite place to go?”
The woman was momentarily surprised by Lori’s question, but then her face got all dreamy. “Pescadero.”
Lori slipped her sunglasses down her nose so that she could peer at the woman over the frames. “Pescadero?”
Having lived in Northern California her entire life, Lori figured she must have driven through there at some point, but as far as she could recall, Pescadero had been nothing more than a bunch of farms strung together.
The woman nodded happily. “I just love the green rolling hills that seem to go on forever, all those sheep and cows munching away, and the fact that the ocean is at the end of nearly every farm road.”
Lori loved living in the city. She loved working in cities, too, especially since her dance career had always been intrinsically tied to the movement all around her. A sleepy farm town was the last place she would ever have thought to pick for an impromptu vacation.
“It sounds perfect. How long can I have the car?”
Again, the woman gave her a slightly strange look before saying, “One month, and then I’ll need to fill out additional paperwork. But it’s really more of a day trip. A shortish one, at that. I can’t imagine how you could possibly spend a month in Pescadero.”
Even though Lori was silently wondering the same thing, she handed over her credit card and signed a dozen forms promising that she wouldn’t damage the car. A few minutes later, she was holding the keys and about to walk away from the rental desk, when she turned back.
“Any idea how to get to Pescadero from here?”
* * *
An hour and a half later, Lori was wondering if the farmland was ever going to end when she saw a roof. Feeling like a sailor who had been out to sea for months before finally catching sight of land, she put her foot down harder on the gas pedal and sped toward what she could now see was the teeny-tiny Pescadero Main Street.
The car rental lady had been right about the pretty green fields and the cute sheep, but she’d somehow forgotten to mention how quiet silence was...or how lonesome.
Lori had filled her world with loud music and tall buildings and vibrant people for so long that it was strange to be surrounded by none of the above. She’d flipped on the car radio at one point, but it had felt akin to turning on a boom box in the middle of a church, so she’d immediately turned it off.
Still, for all that her mood wasn’t exactly at its best, since it was the first sunny day she’d seen in weeks, she was determined to enjoy the warm sun and blue skies. Plus, just as her auto-mechanic-slash-mogul brother Zach had always claimed, there really was something about getting in a car and going for a drive. Granted, she thought as she looked down at her little rental car, he usually did his joyrides in a Ferrari. Besides, he didn’t do them alone anymore, now that he and Heather were in love and engaged.
Lori pulled up in front of the Pescadero General Store just as a little girl walked outside carrying a big bag of dog food and wearing a huge smile. A man Lori easily assumed was her grandfather was barely a beat behind her holding a brand-new dog crate. Wearing cowboy boots and well-worn blue jeans, they both fit perfectly into the farm town.
As she got out of the car, Lori saw the girl’s puppy. His leash had been tied to a nearby post and when he caught sight of the little girl, the black and white dog started wagging its tail so hard its whole body looked like a kite flying in the breeze. The girl immediately dropped the dog food bag on the ground and picked up the puppy in her arms to give it kisses. The grizzled old farmer said, “You’re going to spoil him,” in a gruff voice, but his eyes were full of love.
For the second time, Lori felt her eyes start to water. She’d gotten used to the bright sunlight and had flipped her sunglasses up on top of her head a while ago, but now she plopped them back over her eyes.
As she stepped onto the sidewalk, both the man and the girl stopped to look at her, each of them doing a double take. She couldn’t figure out what had shocked them so much...not until she finally looked down at herself.
Oh yeah, this was why. The form-fitting, sleeveless, bright-pink top covered in multicolored sequins that ended at mid-thigh, and nearly opaque tights combined with the glittery heels she’d been dancing in, were a little strange to be wearing in the middle of the day. Not just here, but anywhere, really.
She’d completely forgotten what she was wearing when she’d stormed out of the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago, thrown her things into her suitcase at the hotel, then headed to the airport to catch the next plane to San Francisco. She’d wrapped an oversized scarf around herself on the plane and in the airport, but it was so warm and sunny during her drive that she’d stripped it off and had left it on the passenger seat.
Of course the puppy didn’t care what she was wearing, and when she reached for it, he wriggled his furry body toward her. “What a cute puppy,” she said to the little girl. “What’s his name?”
“Jonas.”
“That’s a great name,” Lori said as she smiled and patted the dog, but just as her fingertips stroked the soft fur between the puppy’s ears, the girl’s grandfather dragged them away.
A moment later, when Lori turned to head for the General Store’s front door, the ground felt as though it was moving beneath her. Bracing herself against the wall, Lori realized she hadn’t had anything to eat for nearly twenty-four hours. Despite what most people thought dancers’ lives were like, she had a healthy appetite and a fast metabolism, and knew she shouldn’t have gone so long without eating.
It was just that food hadn’t sounded very good for a while now...
With renewed purpose, she pushed through the door. Animal feed and supplies ran the length of one entire side of the store. In the middle was a display of knitwear, jeans, cowboy boots, and what looked like packages of underwear and socks. The other side of the store had a deli counter, several refrigerated units holding eggs and cheese and milk, plus shelves weighed down with canned food.
