nearby woods. When she hesitated, he frowned. “Unless you’d rather not be alone out in the boonies with a guy you just met. I’d totally understand.”
“It’s not that,” she assured him quickly, relieved to see some of the tension leave his face. “It’s just that I’ve been all over the area painting landscapes, and I didn’t realize there was a house over this way. It’s so overgrown, I figured it was all woods and deer trails.”
“It is.” Chuckling, he picked up her empty basket and balanced the shovel on his shoulder. “That’s what I like most about it.”
When he stepped back, she realized he was cueing her to walk in front of him. A Southern gentleman in raggedy jeans and a faded T-shirt, she mused with a little grin. That was the last thing she’d expect to find in this tall, quiet man clearly laboring to steer his life back on track.
Intuition told her there was a lot more to Scott Barrett than his good looks and cool reserve. Peeling away those layers would be fascinating. Or dangerous, that irritating little voice cautioned her while she and Scott walked side by side toward the top of the hill. Harsh experience had taught her that the male species was like that, which was why she resisted getting tangled up with anyone in particular. Her gypsy lifestyle enabled her to stay clear of the doomed cycle she’d watched her hopelessly romantic mother go through over and over like a hamster on a wheel. Always frantically running at top speed, never getting anywhere.
Determined to avoid that sort of endless heartache, Jenna had chosen to live each day as it came. When circumstances allowed, she shared those moments with someone. When that wasn’t reasonable, she enjoyed them on her own. As an only child, she’d grown up appreciating her own company, so solitude didn’t bother her. To her mind, it was better than throwing everything you had into a relationship only to wind up bitter and lonely in the end.
It was a beautiful day, she chided herself, not the time for serious thoughts. As she and Scott made their way through the sunlit hillside meadow, she took a deep breath of air scented with honeysuckle and the wild roses that rambled alongside the faint path that wound through the tall grass. Spots of color here and there showed her patches of fresh buttercups and lilies of the valley, along with wildflowers that ranged from periwinkle blue to deep, vibrant pink. A hawk soared into view overhead, sailing effortlessly on the warm spring breeze in search of his breakfast.
He spotted something and dived, arcing back into the sky with a small rodent clutched in his claws. Impressed by his hunting display, Jenna watched him until he banked in midair and sped off into the distance with his prize.
“Amazing, huh?” Scott asked in a tone laced with the same respect she’d felt for the hawk. “I’ve always wondered what they see from up there.”
“Us?”
“Yeah, but what does he think of us?” When she gave him a blank look, he went on. “I mean, does he think we’re interesting, like we do with him? Or does he think we’re nuts, racing around all the time and not accomplishing much of anything?”
“So you’re the philosophical type,” she teased. “Is there anything else I should know?”
“I don’t know. Is there?” Raising an eyebrow, he gave her a mischievous grin that made her laugh.
“Don’t you be trying that on me, Barrett. I’ve met all your brothers, and I’ve seen enough of that troublemaker smile to know better.”
“Busted.” Still grinning, he said, “But to answer your question, I guess I was always the thinker in the family. Greg and Connor are the responsible ones, Paul’s the jock, Jason’s the clown and I’m the serious one.”
If that was the case, how on earth had he landed in such a bad situation in Texas? she wondered. She’d never ask him that, of course, but she couldn’t help wondering, just the same.
“Her name was Kelly,” he said, completely out of the blue. “And yes, I was in love with her, and yes, she used that against me. She asked me to pick her and her brothers up at the bank.” Pausing, he grimaced and shook his head. “Unfortunately, she neglected to tell me they’d be coming out carrying a bunch of cash that didn’t belong to them. By the time I knew what was happening, we were on the run from the cops.”
“With you as the innocent getaway driver.” Jenna filled in the blank tersely. “Nice girl.”
“Well, not so innocent,” he corrected her in a tone devoid of emotion. “I could’ve climbed outta the car and left them to the cops, but I didn’t. I tried to talk them into surrendering, but that went about how you’d expect. By the time the police caught up to us, I was pretty much as guilty as they were. I told the detective I had no idea what they had planned for that bank, but Kelly and her brothers claimed otherwise. It ended up being their word against mine, and there were three of them.”
When he stopped talking, Jenna tried to come up with some encouraging words. He’d been through a lot, and she didn’t want to make him feel any worse than he already did by saying the wrong thing. “Well, now you’re here, at home with your family. You can put all those bad times behind you.”
He didn’t respond to that, but from his sigh, she knew he wasn’t buying her upbeat assessment of his situation. For some reason she didn’t begin to understand, she really wanted to prove it to him. The question was, how?
As they crested the hill, that dilemma was blown from her mind as she took in the view down in the shallow valley. She knew she was standing there like some kind of moronic statue, but all she could think of to say was “Wow.”
Although his trek down memory lane hadn’t been all that pleasant, Scott was amused by Jenna’s awestruck reaction to where he was living. Built in 1866 when the old sawmill was put into service, the original Barrett farmhouse wasn’t much to look at these days, with its sagging roof and sad excuse for a front porch. But the timbers holding it all up were solid Virginia oak, and they’d still be standing for many generations to come.
Nearby, in a partially overgrown clearing, a tiny chapel with half a roof was losing its battle against the encroaching trees. He’d hacked some of the worst offenders down, but he had a lot of work ahead of him yet. And that didn’t count shoring up the building itself. To most folks, he was certain the place would’ve looked like a lost cause right out of the gate, but it suited Scott perfectly. It gave him plenty to do, tucked away in the woods with only the wildlife for company. Considering people’s varying responses to him since his return, he actually preferred hanging out with the animals.
Angling a look up at him, his pretty guest said, “I wish I’d known about this spot sooner. With all the different colors and shafts of light coming down through the branches, it would make a great painting.”
“Most folks’ve forgotten all about it,” he acknowledged.
“How did you end up here, though? You’ve got family in town and over in Cambridge. Why aren’t you staying with one of them?”
Her forthright manner caught him off guard. He’d grown accustomed to people who kept their mouths shut and their heads down. The few old acquaintances he’d seen since coming back to Barrett’s Mill were polite but understandably reserved with him. This slender woman looked him straight in the eye and spoke openly to him. He wasn’t sure if that appealed to him or not, but it made her different,
