citizens of Blackwood change their minds about me.”
“Don’t want to talk about Julee, huh?” Bert looked at him with a half smile.
“Nothing to talk about.” He reached down to rub his knee. Thinking about Julee stirred up all his old aches and pains, some of them higher up than his knee. “She zoomed in here like a mosquito. Once she’s zapped everyone’s blood, she’ll zoom right back out. The sooner, the better, as far as I’m concerned.”
As he started to rise, the hospital administrator tapped in on low-heeled pumps to tack a huge poster on the bulletin board. Tate lifted a hand in greeting, then let it fall to the table, sinking back into his chair. A photo of Julee and her famous legs stared out at him below a caption announcing the bone-marrow drive. And if that wasn’t enough to make him swallow the peppermint whole, the celebrity herself swept into the center, long, glorious legs drawing the stares of everyone in the place.
Julianna’s heart took one giant leap from her chest to her throat. Tate, looking too handsome to be real, scowled at her from across a checkerboard. For the hundredth time since the meeting at his office, she asked herself why he disliked her so much. He’d been the one to betray her and find someone else in a painfully short amount of time. She’d known then that his love had not run as deep as he’d claimed.
Julee remembered the morning she’d left Blackwood like yesterday. Tate, wearing his high-school letter jacket, long black hair slicked into a ponytail, leaned his backside against a beat-up old Ford pickup, pulled her between the V of his legs and held her until the bus arrived.
She couldn’t recall much of anything they’d said, just the feel of his rock-hard arms holding her close, the wool and leather scent of his jacket, and the warmth of his breath on her hair. The heavy ache of parting hung in the air between them. When the bus arrived, air brakes ripping the quiet morning, she’d started to cry. The Oklahoma wind had whipped her long hair around her face. Tate had smoothed it back, then cradled her face in his hands and brushed away the tears.
“Promise you’ll come back,” he whispered fiercely. “Promise.”
Since the day she’d received the call from the Body Parts Agency in California, he’d agreed she had to go. He knew how badly she and her widowed mother needed the money this contract promised. No matter how much she loved Tate, this was a chance in a lifetime she had to take.
“I’ll be back. I promise.”
But the tormented look in his green eyes said he was just as scared as she was.
Heart breaking, she’d almost backed out, almost decided not to go when he pushed her up the steps.
“Go.” He shoved twenty dollars in her hand and stepped back. “They’re gonna love you out there.”
As the double doors folded inward, he pressed two fingers to his lips and laid them on the window. She’d held his eyes, frantically mouthing “I love you, I love you,” until the bus rumbled away and he was lost in the smoke and fumes. Hands shoved deep in his jacket pockets, he’d stared back at her with a stark, broken expression. She’d cried all the way to L.A., fearing that last kiss was his final farewell.
It had been. Regardless of his promise to wait, he’d found someone else and married before she’d even discovered she was pregnant with his child. So much for his promises of undying love. He’d moved on with his life and eventually so had she. So, why was he staring at her now as though she was a hair in his hamburger?
Self-conscious beneath his scrutiny, she smoothed both hands down the sides of her powder-blue sheath. Though she’d intentionally dressed to appear successful and confident, she felt as gawky and insecure as she had in high school, the skinny girl who was all legs.
To make matters worse, the hospital administrator, who was nearly as excited about the bone-marrow drive as she, drew the attention of everyone in the room. “Look, Julianna,” she squealed. “There’s the man you need.”
Julee cringed. Oh, she needed him all right, though she prayed he’d never find out just how much. Reluctantly, she left the woman’s side and moved in Tate’s direction. Since the disastrous meeting in his office, she’d steered clear, hoping public pressure would convince him to donate after she couldn’t do the job. Now, time was growing short. She had to be certain he would be in town that day. If worse came to worst, she’d do the unthinkable. Against her mother’s advice and at the risk of causing trouble for Tate and his wife, she’d tell him about Megan.
Approaching the table she recognized Bert Atkins, the man who’d been sheriff in her high-school days. Since arriving in Blackwood she’d renewed a number of old acquaintances, and though she didn’t want to be here, had never planned to return, she was surprised to feel an unexpected nostalgia for her hometown.
“Hello, Mr. Atkins,” she said cordially, training her eyes on him instead of Tate. Even then, she could imagine the heat of disapproval simmering from the county sheriff. Her pulse thudded disconcertingly.
“Howdy, Miss Julee. How’s the big city?”
“Hectic. Noisy.”
Bert grinned. “Yep, that’s the way I remember cities.”
“But L.A.’s a great city,” she hurried to interject, not wanting him or Tate to know just how hectic life had become or how peaceful and pleasant Blackwood seemed after the crowded stress of L.A. “How about you? How’s the family?”
“Good. Good. Shelly’s a counselor over at the high school now and got two little ones, Zack and Amy. I’m a granddaddy.”
A counselor. Julee’s sense of worth dropped another notch. While she was flashing her legs for a camera, Tate’s wife helped young people find direction and guidance.
And Tate had other children now. She glanced at him, but his green eyes were as hard and unreadable as marbles.
“I’m glad, Mr. Atkins. Tell her hello for me.”
“You can tell her yourself. She’ll be here the day of your big blood drive. I guess half the county will be.”
“I hope so. That’s what I needed to see the sheriff about.”
“Well, sit down then.” The older man hopped up and pulled out a chair. “You two go on and talk while I find me a cup of coffee.” He glanced at Tate with a grin. “Guess Mildred isn’t planning to bring me one.”
Though she had no idea what he meant, Julee smiled in response and accepted the chair as Bert moved away, leaving her alone with Tate. For some reason, her legs grew weak every time she encountered Sheriff Congeniality. Scooting up to the table her knee bumped his, sending a warm awareness straight to her midsection. The contact had the opposite effect on Tate. He jerked as though she’d stabbed him.
Julee felt a trickle of remorse as realization struck. “Is it your knee?”
The question caught him by surprise. He blinked, reflexively reaching for the old injury. “No. The knee’s fine.”
“Oh. Good.” An uncomfortable silence hung between them. After their initial encounter Julianna wasn’t sure how to begin. What else could she possibly say to this familiar stranger that would change his mind?
“Could we declare a truce? Start all over?”
His
