for those summer months when Jim Mason would ship her and Leah off to Aunt Susan in Florida.
Their mother’s sister was as refined and proper as the words could get, and had been determined to pass those characteristics on to her nieces no matter how much they’d balked at the idea. After a while, Jocelyn and Leah discovered it was easier to just go with the flow and accept all the lacy, frilly dresses, the tea parties and the countless hours of walking with a book on their heads to perfect that graceful walk.
Now that she was a grown woman, Jocelyn appreciated her aunt’s teachings and guidance to a degree she’d never thought would be possible as a young girl. She was glad she’d had the chance to express her gratitude to Aunt Susan before she died a few years ago. Jocelyn thought about the deaths of the three people who’d meant a lot to her—her mother when she’d turned sixteen; her Aunt Susan around six years ago and now her dad.
“If you keep beating that nail to death you’ll whack it all the way through and bust up that board. Who ruffled your feathers today?”
Expelling a deep breath and clutching the hammer more tightly in her hand, Jocelyn decided Reese was right. There was no reason to take out her anger and frustration on a piece of wood.
She glanced up at him and knew he was waiting for an answer. It hadn’t taken much for the men who worked for her to tell she was in a relatively foul mood, which is the reason they had been avoiding her. Reese had been at lunch when she’d arrived. Evidently the guys hadn’t wasted any time giving him fair warning. Too bad all those deeply ingrained proper manners and stiff rules Aunt Susan had taught her weren’t working for her today, especially the one about a lady not letting a man get on her last nerve, at least not to the point of showing it. A lady kept her cool and handled a man with charm and diplomatic grace.
Today, thanks to Sebastian Steele, all she could say to that notion was hogwash!
After leaving Jason’s office she had gone home long enough to change into her work clothes, then joined the men at this particular jobsite. The only reason she hadn’t been here at the crack of dawn like they had was because the mayor had requested her presence at a meeting in his office at eight. He liked being kept abreast of the plans for the city’s Founder’s Day Celebration next month, and since she was this year’s chairperson, she had brought him up to date over bagels and coffee. And then there had been that ten o’clock meeting in Jason’s office, the one she wished she could delete from her mind.
Jocelyn put the hammer down, deciding at the moment it was rather dangerous in her hand. “If you must know, Sebastian Steele is the person who ruffled my feathers. He has to be the most infuriating man I’ve ever met.”
Reese smirked at her. “In other words, he wouldn’t let you have your way with anything.”
Jocelyn picked up the hammer again and hit it a couple of times in the palm of her hand. “You like your face, Reese?”
He grinned. “Yeah, I like my face, considering it’s the only one I got.”
And Jocelyn knew all the local girls thought it was a rather good-looking face, making him the most sought-after bachelor in town. But he was also the most elusive. She’d known Reese for six years, ever since his family had moved to Tennessee from Alabama when Reese was nineteen. The first time he’d seen her and Leah together out at the county fair, he had decided the then seventeen-year-old Leah, who was about to become a senior in high school, would one day be his wife. He was convinced he could erase the thought from Leah’s mind of ever moving away from Newton Grove.
He’d been wrong and had gotten a broken heart to prove it.
“Well, if you like it so much, then knock it off. I’m not in a teasing mood.”
“So I gather. Hey, this Steele guy can’t be all bad since Jim thought enough of him to leave him part of the company.”
Jocelyn frowned, narrowed her eyes, preferring not to be reminded of that. “Just because Dad liked him doesn’t mean that I have to like him, too.”
“No, but still I’d think you’d respect your father’s wishes and try to make things work.”
Jocelyn started hitting the hammer in the palm of her hand again. “You’re really making me mad. Don’t you have something to do?”
Reese grinned. “Yeah, but I thought I’d come over here to make sure you’ll be more help than a hindrance today. You know how I feel about going behind you and—”
Oh, that did it! He had really pushed her the wrong way, and just from the smile on his face she knew he was enjoying every single minute of getting her riled. She shot him a dark look. “Okay, just wait until you have to follow Steele’s orders and see how much you like it.”
Reese leaned against a window casement. “I don’t mind following orders as long as they’re solid and sound. And like I said Jim evidently trusted this man’s judgment or he wouldn’t be here.”
“And it doesn’t bother you that Dad didn’t leave you a part of the company?”
The smile on Reese’s face suddenly disappeared and he said in a quiet tone. “The only thing I ever wanted from your father was his baby girl. But that’s history. Some days I wish I had never laid eyes on Leah.”
Jocelyn nodded, understanding his feelings completely. Because of the four-year gap in their ages and the differences in their personalities, she and Leah hadn’t been particularly close while growing up and she could never understand how her sister could walk away from a man who loved her as much as Reese had.
She waited, knowing Reese had more to say. For years he had kept his battered feelings locked inside, refusing to talk to anyone, even her father, about Leah and the hurt she’d caused him. But they’d known and accepted that the main reason Reese had joined the army within months of Leah’s departure was to get away for a while. And he’d stayed away for two years.
“And why is she still hanging around? When is she returning to California?” he asked, with deep bitterness in his voice.
Jocelyn asked herself those same questions every morning when she awoke to find her sister still there. It wouldn’t surprise her if Leah left during the night without saying goodbye. That was how she’d done it the first time. Her father had been devastated, Reese heartbroken and Jocelyn left wondering if she could have done something, anything, to improve their relationship while growing up, if she should have been less overprotective and smothering as Leah had claimed.
“I don’t know why she’s still here, Reese. A part of me would like to think she’s finally decided to come home to stay, but I won’t get my hopes up wishing for that one.”
“And I’m hoping for just the opposite. I wish she would leave and go back to wherever the hell she’s been for the past five years.”
Jocelyn felt Reese’s pain and a part of her knew that even after all these years, he hadn’t gotten over what Leah had done to him.
“Hope I’m not interrupting anything.”
Jocelyn swirled around and her gaze collided with Sebastian Steele. She was surprised to see him, but should have known he would show up sooner or later. Her eyes narrowed. “Yes, your very presence is interrupting everything.”
And with nothing else to say, she walked off.
No
