known to put one foot in front of the other now and then.” He smiled faintly and took her arm, walking leisurely along the tree-lined sidewalk. “But don’t tell Carmel, or she’ll start refusing to fetch and carry for me.”
“I can’t imagine there is anything that Carmel would refuse you.”
“You haven’t seen our Monday-morning battles over who’s supposed to make the coffee.”
Darby managed a smile. He was deliberately trying to put her at ease. It was so utterly backward, and he didn’t even know it.
They walked on in silence. In and out of the shadows of the lacy leaves overhead. They crossed streets, left behind the business of the courthouse district, walking along a winding street that led gently upward. Past the park at the base of the waterfalls, past long, private drives that led to gracious older estates.
Estates like her aunt’s.
Like Caldwell Carson’s.
The road narrowed and Garrett moved to Darby’s left side, between her and the sporadic traffic. On the other side of her, a waist-high stone wall guarded the edge of the increasingly deep drop-off. Below, Fisher Falls lay like a sparkling jewel. Several yards ahead, she could see the discreet sign of The Overlook.
She ran her hand along the aging stone. “It is so beautiful here.”
“You make that sound like a bad thing.”
“Not bad,” she demurred. “Just hard to leave.”
“You’re planning on going somewhere?”
“Not if I can avoid it,” she admitted truthfully. “Didn’t you miss it when you left?” She lifted her hand, gesturing to the lush green beauty that surrounded them. “You must have. You came back.”
“I came back because Fisher Falls is on the verge of a construction boom. Business, Darby. That’s all it was.”
“Now you sound like my brother again.”
“What does he do?”
She shook her head slightly. “How do you know we’re on the verge of anything, much less a construction boom?”
“Trade secret.”
“In other words, you’re not going to tell me.”
“You tell me something about your brother, instead of avoiding it, and I’ll tell you about G&G.”
Darby stopped, pointing at the restaurant sign. “Well look at that. We’re here.”
Garrett wrapped his palm around her slender finger, feeling the little jerk she couldn’t hide. Darby no longer looked like she was going to pass out, but she was far from relaxed, despite the effort she’d been making to convince him otherwise. “You’re shivering.”
She looked up, above their heads. “We’re standing in the shade.”
“Don’t do that, Darby.”
She slid her hand out from his, her fingertips fluttering nervously to her throat. “I was just a little unnerved in the elevator. That’s all.” She tried to step around him toward the rustic-looking restaurant, but Garrett shifted, blocking the path.
“Unnerved. Seems a puny word to me. You got claustrophobic. You don’t have to hide it.”
“I’m not. I just…just— There were so many people inside the elevator. I…I was fine when we arrived, you know.”
He wouldn’t go quite that far, but it was true enough. She hadn’t been ready to climb out of her skin. “There were only a few people on the elevator when we took it up to the courtroom,” he allowed. “So it’s just overcrowded small places that get to you?”
Her cheeks were red, her eyes embarrassed. Evasive. “Something like that.”
Embarrassment he could understand, even though it wasn’t necessary. The evasiveness was another matter.
“Does it have anything to do with this?” He rubbed his thumb gently over her throat, and he felt her nervous swallow. “The injury to your vocal chords?”
“Why does it matter?”
“It still affects you.”
“So?”
He kept his patience with an effort. “So I’m interested in—”
Her eyes widened.
“—in your…welfare,” he finished, taking his hand from her smooth neck and pushing it into his pocket. Everyone was entitled to their privacy, he reminded himself. Wondering when the hell he’d forgotten it. “You’ve helped me out. I owe you.”
“No.” She shook her head, her expression growing even more pained. “You don’t owe me anything, Garrett. You really don’t.”
She might as well have posted Keep Away banners around herself. Unfortunately, Garrett couldn’t remember why he should be glad of that.
He looked at her mouth. What he did remember was the way she’d tasted. Of sunshine and cold water from the hose. Of smiles and laughter from kids who were hardly even old enough to know they had little reason to laugh.
“Well, I hope that doesn’t mean you’ve decided against lunch.” He lifted his chin toward the restaurant. “Now that you’ve made me hoof it all this way.”
“Made you—” Her mouth snapped shut. “You’re teasing me again,” she finally said.
“Maybe.”
She sighed noisily. But he could still see the twitch at the corner of her soft lips. “Why?” she asked tartly. “Why do you do that?”
He shrugged and nudged her toward the restaurant. “Because I’m beginning to think you have had as few smiles in your life as I’ve had in mine.”
Chapter Nine
Darby shook her head when the waiter offered her coffee and watched him fill Garrett’s ivory cup. “I don’t know how you can just sit there so relaxed when Mayor Carson is right across this very dining room glaring at us.”
“His presence is bugging you a hell of a lot more ’n it’s bugging me.”
“Obviously.”
The corner of Garrett’s mobile mouth twitched. “But it does show that this town ain’t big enough for the two of us,” he added.
She twisted the linen napkin in her lap another knot or two. The small table she and Garrett shared was next to the window, and she shifted the last available inch to look outside. The mayor had come into the restaurant after Darby and Garrett had already been served. “I’ve always hated being watched.” She shifted again, uncomfortable.
“Then you should walk around with a bag over your
