stared at Jack, glanced at Betsy and then at his shiny new truck with Jack O’Malley Constructions on the door, and finally back at him. “Jack? You’re my contractor?”
“You inherited the house from your Aunt Missy?”
She shrugged. “Sort of. It’s a long story.”
One Jack was curious about since if anyone should have inherited, he’d expected it to be Gracie’s bum of a father. So Mike was well aware of who the owner was and Jack’s connection to her.
Meddling Mike wasn’t above a bit of matchmaking. Well, he’d lose any bets on this one.
Mike probably figured Jack wouldn’t be able to say no to his high school sweetheart. Mike was wrong.
“I’m not your contractor,” he said, almost wishing—perversely—that he was. He had something to prove to Gracie Saunders. “I agreed to do an estimate, for comparison’s sake. That’s all.”
“He told me...” She suddenly seemed to remember that her shoe was still stuck in the sidewalk and bent again to try pulling it out. Since the heels were so high and her dress so short and tight-fitting, it wasn’t an easy task.
“Allow me,” Jack said, and knelt at her feet. He grimaced at the metaphor. He’d virtually worshipped the ground Gracie walked on in high school. She’d been his first girlfriend. His first lover. And then she’d walked all over his heart.
He gently grasped her ankle in one hand and her shoe in the other.
* * *
GRACE FELT A SHOT of heat race up her leg at Jack’s touch. She watched as those big, capable hands eased her foot from her Christian Louboutin pump and placed it on the sidewalk while he worked on getting her shoe out of the crack. Jack had sure grown up. No wonder she hadn’t recognized him. He was so much taller, so much broader. Jack was no longer a high school boy; he was a man, and that resonated deep inside her.
But Jack was the one person whose path she hadn’t wanted to cross in Spruce Lake. If they spent any time together, she was afraid he’d discover her secret, which had the potential to destroy them both.
“Careful!” she warned as he pulled her shoe from the walk.
Jack stood to his full height, towering over her by at least eight inches now that she was balancing on her foot without the benefit of six-inch heels.
He examined the shoe, then handed it to her, saying, “Why anyone would want to wear something as impractical as this is beyond my comprehension.”
Grace had worn those shoes to impress. Impress anyone from her past she might happen to run into in Spruce Lake. She wanted to show them that Grace Saunders—in spite of her crappy home life, her loser parents, her hand-me-down clothes—had made good. In fact, she’d made better than good. She was a successful Boston pediatrician with a long list of patients.
Her shoulders sagged. A list of patients she’d handed over in her haste to leave town. She might be financially secure and successful. But she was also completely burned out.
She took the shoe from Jack and examined the heel. It was shattered. She cursed.
“Thank you is the usual form of appreciation in this town,” he said.
She glanced up at him and said, “So, I heard you’d become a priest or something?”
* * *
HE NODDED. “OR SOMETHING. I’m now a contractor.” No point in telling her the whole story. She wouldn’t be in town long enough for it to matter.
“My contractor.”
He shook his head. “I’ve already told Mike I couldn’t do this job.”
“Even if I paid you double?”
Now he stuck both hands in the back pockets of his jeans. She had him there. Money always talked and he had plenty of community projects he could direct some extra funds to, but Adam and Carly were family. He owed them.
“Not even then.”
“I don’t remember you being such a hard case in high school, Jack,” she said, practically batting her eyelashes at him.
“High school was a long time ago, Gracie,” he said, since she seemed to be avoiding the fact that they’d dated for two years.
When Gracie had put her name forward as a peer tutor, Jack, struggling because of dyslexia, had signed up. They’d spent a lot of time together after school hours and eventually he’d built up the courage to ask her out. She’d said, “What took you so long? Where did you have in mind?”
Jack had been so flabbergasted, never believing she’d say yes, that he didn’t have anywhere in mind. Except to go parking at Inspiration Point, the local necking spot. Not that he’d ever necked with a girl. And he didn’t get to do it that night, either. But later...
“What do you mean, ‘Not even then’?” she demanded, bringing him back to the present.
Jack crossed his arms and widened his stance. “I’m due to start work on my brother’s house outside town tomorrow. I don’t break my promises.”
* * *
GRACE ADMIRED HIS candor. Then a need to prick the confidence he was projecting made her say, “Didn’t you break your promise to the church by leaving the priesthood?” Aunt Missy had written her about it.
His eyes narrowed. “My relationship with the church, and why I left, is none of your business.”
Dammit! She was intrigued and couldn’t let it go. “Did you fall in love with one of your parishioners?”
“And you just stepped way over the mark.” He gave her a tiny salute, saying, “Goodbye, Gracie,” turned on his heel and headed to his truck. “I’d say it’s been a pleasure. But it hasn’t.”
“It’s Grace!” she shouted to his back. “Not Gracie.” How dare he just walk away like that!
He shrugged and pulled open the door of his truck. “Whatever,” he said, and climbed in.
“Wait!” she cried, and hobbled toward his truck, one shoe on and one off.
She went to rest her arms on the passenger’s side window frame, then noticed it was dusty. She touched the frame with her fingertips and leaned in. “I’m sorry, Jack. I didn’t mean to pry.”
“Yes, you did.” He started the truck.
“You can’t leave me here like this! You promised to give me an estimate.”
“I promised Mike I’d give him an estimate. That was before I knew who his doctor client was. Goodbye, Grace.”
Chapter Two
Jack hated being played for a sucker. Mike knew exactly who he was dealing with, that was why he’d avoided using the doctor’s name. And Mike knew
