That Runaway Summer (13 page)

“Slow down, Jill,” she told herself aloud. On her third try, she got the number right.

“Hello?” The greeting was tentative.

“Mama. It’s Jill.”

“Jill! I am so happy to hear from you.” Her mother’s familiar voice came over the line, sending warmth and love flowing through Jill. “But we talked only a couple weeks ago. Is something wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.” Jill never called from Indigo Springs, phoning only during her monthly trip to stock up on toiletries and paper products. This time, she’d waited only two weeks between visits to the store. “Quite the opposite, actually. I’ve met somebody.”

Jill almost giggled at how eager she was to blurt out the news. It had been that way when she was a teenager, too. When something notable happened in her life, she couldn’t wait to tell her mother.

“That’s wonderful, Jill!” Her mother reacted with the wholehearted happiness that made sharing good news with her such a joy. “I want to hear all about him.”

Jill leaned her back against the wall and closed her eyes, wondering how best to describe Dan Maguire.

“Let’s see. He’s kind and generous and so likable he even won over Chris. He’s a mountain biker, although I don’t think a very dedicated one. He’s the vet everybody wants to treat their pets, but his dogs aren’t well behaved.” She laughed. “You should hear those dogs bark when someone comes to the door. It hurts your ears. But that’s because Dan enjoys being around them so much he’s too soft on them, which shows you what a good heart he has.”

“That’s all well and good—” her mother’s voice held a smile “—but is this Dan hot?”

“Oh, yeah!” Jill pictured Dan the way he’d looked Sunday night when they agreed to start seeing each other. “He’s Irish, with hair as black as mine, fair skin and these gorgeous blue eyes. Tall and lean but not skinny. And he has this great, deep voice.”

“How long have you been going out?”

“Let’s see.” Jill checked her wristwatch, confirming it was nearly two in the afternoon. She’d sandwiched this trip to the store between her morning white water run and her shift at the Blue Haven. “About fifteen hours.”

“You just met him?” her mother asked.

“Oh, no. We were both at a party last night, and that’s when we decided to start dating.” She smiled at the thought of the laundry room, a memory so vivid she could almost smell the detergent and feel Dan’s lips on hers. That was as intimate as they’d gotten. After the party broke up, he’d driven her straight to Chase and Kelly’s to pick up Chris. “But we’ve been friends for a while.”

“The best relationships start as friendships,” her mother said. “So I guess this means you’ve told him about Chris.”

Jill stopped smiling. “I haven’t told anyone about Chris. I can’t.”

“You just said you and Dan were friends.”

“That has nothing to do with it,” Jill said. “You know what happened with Ray. It never occurred to me he’d tell Daddy what I was planning. I learned the best way to keep Chris safe is to say nothing.”

“So what do you say when Dan asks about your past?”

“I tell him as much of the truth as I can.” Jill swallowed, thinking about the lie she’d relayed about her father being dead. “At the same time, I say as little as possible.”

“Oh, honey.” Her mother’s words held a wealth of feeling. “I’m so sorry.”

“It can’t be helped,” Jill said. “I can’t afford to make even one more mistake.”

She heard what sounded like her mother blowing out a breath. “Unfortunately, you could be right. There’s something I have to tell you, too. Your father called me again a few days ago.”

“Is he still with Arianne?” Jill asked the question every time she and her mother talked, although she was always fairly sure of the answer.

“He’s still sticking by her,” her mother said. “I swear, that woman has your father completely fooled. I only met her the one time and it seems pretty clear to me she’s a phony who married him for his money.”

“Why did Daddy call you?” Jill’s hand clenched into a fist at her side. Although her parents managed to be civil, they generally avoided each other. The only thing they had in common, her mother often said, was Jill.

“He wanted me to tell you your time is running out,” her mother said. “He feels like you’ve backed him into a corner, so he’s giving you an ultimatum. If you don’t bring Chris back before two weeks is up, he’s going to the police.”

Jill felt the thump-thump-thump of her heart speeding up. “I’ll come back tomorrow if he kicks Arianne out of the house.”

“We both know that’s not going to happen. The woman can do no wrong in his eyes.”

“Then the answer’s no,” Jill said. “I’m not putting Chris at risk. No matter what.”

“Your father says the police have access to more resources than a private eye,” her mother said. “He says it would only be a matter of time before they found you.”

Jill’s stomach knotted and her chest tightened, but she raised her chin. “We’ll see about that.”

Her mother was silent for a few beats. “This Dan you were telling me about—you’re not in love with him, are you?”

It was too early for Jill to put a label on her feelings. Or maybe she hadn’t put a name on them because caution had become the watchword in her life.

She didn’t need her mother to tell her the inevitable. That the only outcome to the situation her father had thrust her into spelled the end of her relationship.

Either she and Chris left Indigo Springs before the cops got close. Or she stayed too long, dooming Chris to life with a cruel witch in designer clothing and herself to a possible jail sentence.

“No. I can’t afford to fall in love,” Jill said.

The man was a behemoth, weighing more than three hundred pounds and topping six feet by a good four or five inches. He was looming over the bar, and one of his hands was balled into a fist, his anger a dark palpable force directed behind the bar.

At Jill.

Adrenaline coursed through Dan. He rushed forward, almost careening into a man rising from his chair.

“Sorry,” he mumbled, but kept going, his eyes on the scene unfolding at the bar.

“You don’t mean that, darlin’.” Jill’s expression was pleasant, her posture fully relaxed, her voice soft. “You know the reason I won’t pour you another beer is because I’m looking out for you.”

“Yesh, I do mean it!” the drunk yelled, slurring his words. “You do what I shay! Or…or…”

“Or nothing.” Jill actually took a step closer to him and leaned over the bar. “We both know you’re too good of a guy to ever hurt your favorite bartender.”

All the anger seeped out of the man, as though someone had deflated a balloon. Dan stopped in his tracks, hardly believing what he was seeing.

“Shorry.” The man bowed his head, sounding ashamed. “But I shtill want a beer.”

“And I’m still not giving you one,” Jill said. “I’ll tell you what I can do, though. I can give your brother a call and get you a ride home. You’re still living with Pete, right?”

“No need to bother Pete.” Another man rose from his stool, his movements and speech marking him as sober. “I was just leaving. I can give him a ride. C’mon, Big Ron.”

The drunk man shuffled obediently behind him, all the fight gone from him.

Jill looked up and spotted Dan. Surprise registered on her face, which was more emotion than she’d shown when dealing with Big Ron. “Hey, Dan. What are you doing here?”

“I dropped by to say hello.”

“At eleven-thirty?” Her eyebrows rose and disappeared under her curly hair. Her clothes were subdued by Jill standards, a T-shirt with a starburst design paired with faded blue jeans. Her only jewelry consisted of a watch and huge blue hoop earrings. She looked delectable. “Don’t you have to get up early tomorrow for work?”

Since the party on Sunday night, he hadn’t seen her at all. Either she’d been working or he had. She normally had Tuesday nights off, but had traded shifts with another bartender in order to attend the party.

“It’s worth losing sleep to see you,” he said, a line that didn’t get him the smile he was shooting for. He winked at her. “I said that just in case you liked a smooth-talking man.”

Her lips curved.

Only a few of the stools around the bar were taken. He settled onto an empty one and nodded in the direction the departing men had taken. “What was that all about?”

She looked at him blankly.

“The big guy yelling threats at you,” he clarified. “I was headed over here to defend you.” Recalling the guy’s size, he quirked one side of his mouth. “Or, at least, to try to defend you.”

“From Big Ron?” Jill shook her head. “Big Ron is harmless.”

“He didn’t sound harmless when he was trying to bully you into pouring him a beer.”

“He gets like that about once a month when we cut him off,” Jill said. “I don’t take it personally. He’ll be in here tomorrow apologizing all over himself.”

“Sounds like a bar isn’t the best place for him to hang out,” Dan said.

“Maybe, except that’s never gonna change,” Jill said. “Big Ron thinks of the other regulars as family. He can hold his booze most of the time. He’s just upset today because he got word his son has bronchitis and isn’t coming to visit. His son’s thirteen. He lives in California with Big Ron’s ex.”

“How do you know all that?” he asked.

“Are you kidding me? A good bartender specializes in listening. The job’s only ten percent about making drinks.” She slapped her palms on the bar. “So what can I get you?”

“Whatever ale you have on tap,” he said. “High-test, not unloaded.”

“Just to be clear, that means no light beer, right?”

So much for trying to be a smooth talker. “Right,” he said.

Although there was a smattering of people at the tables, the crowd was light, with nobody clamoring for her attention.

“Where is everybody tonight?” he asked.

“Tuesdays have been slow since Chuck started staying open on Mondays.” She took a tall glass from a shelf behind her. “He switched out Two for Tuesdays for Maniac Mondays. It thinned out the crowd so much that now he’s thinking of closing on Tuesdays.”

“I’m in favor of anything that’ll give you more free time.”

“Free time? What’s that?” She tilted the glass under the tap and filled it with pale ale, leaving a thin layer of foam at the top. “Here you go.”

She set the glass down before he could take it from her. He got the impression she didn’t want to risk physical contact, even if it was the merest brushing of fingers. But that was crazy. Two nights ago they’d decided to see where their attraction would lead.

“Where’d you learn how to bartend anyway?” he asked.

“On-the-job training,” she said. “School wasn’t for me, not even bartending school.”

“And?” he asked when she didn’t elaborate.

“And by the time I graduated high school, I was sick of waitressing. So I nagged my boss until he let me learn the ropes behind the bar.”

“Was this in South Carolina?” he asked.

“That’s right.”

He couldn’t remember her ever naming a specific town where she’d lived. “Whereabouts in South Carolina?”

“Oh, here and there,” she said airily. “I told you I lived with my mama, right? We moved around.”

“Even after high school?”

“By then it was a habit. Be right back.” She moved away before he could ask more questions, adding to his feeling that she wasn’t particularly glad to see him. Or perhaps she didn’t realize that no detail about her past was too small, even a listing of all the places she’d lived.

He watched her check to see if the two other people sitting at the bar wanted a refill. They were a young couple not much older than the legal drinking age. They shook their heads, barely taking their eyes off each other.

She headed back his way, her hoop earrings swinging.

“I don’t have any bartending experience,” Dan said, “but I’d say that couple wants to be left alone.”

“You got that right,” she said, then…silence.

“I saw Chris today,” Dan said. “He came by to visit the goats, the same as always. After a while he pulled this crumpled piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to me. It was an invitation to a birthday party.”

Her expression brightened. Finally he’d sparked her interest. “Did you get the impression he wanted to go?”

“Yeah, I did. Why?”

“Chris didn’t even know who Timmy Waverly was until I told him he was Brittany’s brother,” Jill said. “Apparently Timmy didn’t say a word to Chris while we were at Hershey.”

“They why did Timmy invite Chris to his birthday party?”

“My guess is his mother did the guest list,” Jill said. “Chris and Brittany hit it off so well, she might have invited Chris so Brittany has someone to hang out with.”

“That could be true,” Dan said, “but this is a chance for Chris to get to know some of the boys better.”

“Exactly what I told him,” Jill said. “Thank God the party’s at the miniature golf course.”

“Yeah, Chris told me he’s pretty good at mini golf.”

“He’s darn near a ringer,” she said. “I’ve taken him a few times, and he always beats me.”

“You and I should go this weekend. I’m not bad.” Dan smiled at her. “Maybe I could coach you up.”

“You can coach me up some other time,” she said, repeating the phrase with the same Southern flair he’d given it. “I’m busy this weekend.”

“Don’t you have Friday night off?”

“Not this week,” she said. “I’m working Friday so I can get Saturday night off. You know that bike race proposal? I’m going to Lake Wallenpaupack on Saturday to present it.”

“Then maybe we can go out Saturday night when you get back.”

“My appointment isn’t until the late afternoon,” she said, “so I’m not sure when I’ll be back.”

“Why don’t I come to Lake Wallenpaupack with you?” As soon as he came up with the notion, he knew it was the right one. “We can even make a weekend of it. What do you say? Can Indigo River Rafters do without you on Sunday morning?”

“That’s not such a good idea. It’s just that…” She didn’t seem to know how to proceed, which was unlike her. “When you think about it, it would be our first official date. It just seems a bit, well,
intense
for a first date.”

He looked around, then lowered his voice. “We can get separate rooms. I should have made that clear.”

“We’d still be staying overnight,” she said. “I’m just not comfortable with that.”

“Then let’s make it a day trip.”

She winced. “I think I’m just gonna go on up there alone. I’ll be so nervous about the presentation, I’d probably be lousy company anyway.”

He refrained from pointing out that he could help calm her nerves, that she could even practice her pitch on him during the drive up.

“Jill,” Chuck Dudza, the bar owner, called. “Can you come over here a minute?”

“Sure, boss,” she said with alacrity. To Dan, she added, “Be right back.”

He rewound the conversation, trying to figure out where he’d taken a wrong turn. He’d had the vague impression Jill wasn’t particularly glad to see him, but it had gotten worse when he’d mentioned an overnight trip.

“It’s slow tonight,” Chuck remarked to Jill. He wasn’t talking loudly, but his voice carried to Dan. “You want to take off early?”

“Oh, no,” Jill answered quickly. “You go ahead. I’ll close up.”

In his peripheral vision, Dan saw Chuck shoot him a pointed glance that Jill couldn’t have missed. “You sure?”

“Absolutely.” Jill’s head bobbed. “You closed for me last week. It’s my turn.”

Dan got the hint. He finished the last of his beer and stood up. “I’m taking off,” he called to Jill.

She walked over to him, her face a polite mask. “Probably a smart idea. I’ll be here a while.”

“Walk me out?” he asked.

“Go ahead, Jill,” Chuck interjected before she could answer. Her boss was at the sink, rinsing dishes, watching their interaction. “I’m not leaving for at least ten more minutes.”

Long moments passed before Jill nodded. When they were outside the bar, she kept a few feet between them. He motioned her away from the well-lit bar to the front of a darkened store, feeling the need to set things right.

“I’m sorry about what just happened in there.” He put his hands on either side of her shoulders. “I swear to you, I didn’t suggest I come with you on Saturday so I could get you in bed.”

“I—”

He covered her lips with three fingers. “Let me finish. It’s not that I don’t want to sleep with you. Nothing could be further from the truth. But I won’t rush you. I promise. We can go entirely at your pace.”

She gazed up at him. The spot where he’d led her was so dark that all he could make out of her eyes were the whites. He couldn’t see any nuances of her expression.

She said nothing for so long he thought she was devising a way to tell him she’d changed her mind about dating him. Just when he was about to make another plea for understanding, she grabbed the front of his shirt, stood on tiptoe and kissed him.

The heat of the kiss enveloped him, the passion accelerating like a sports car going from cruising speed to eighty miles per hour. She kissed him as she had in the laundry room but with more desperation, as though she’d been waiting to get him alone again.

He knew the feeling. He accommodated her, slanting his mouth over hers, meeting the thrusts of her tongue with his own. Never in his thirty years had he ever wanted a woman this badly. Not even Maggie.

And then the kiss was over. She stepped back, out of his arms, her face and body in shadows. There was enough ambient light, however, that he could see her chest heaving.

“Good night, Dan.” Her words were breathy.

“Good night.”

She whirled and headed quickly toward the bar, disappearing inside and leaving him to wonder what that had been all about. One moment, she’d seemed to be distancing herself from him. The next, she hadn’t been able to get close enough.

He was certain of one thing, however. If kisses like that were his reward, he was prepared to be patient for a very, very long time.