of your business.” Tessa’s heart picked up its rhythm, and she took a deep breath to try to keep calm. “We aren’t that close that I would tell you my secrets.” They could never be that close again, she thought sadly. “I never cross-examined you about your marriage to Janie, did I?”
“My life’s an open book,” Griff said. Tessa couldn’t believe he was as nonchalant as he sounded. “What do you want to know?”
“Nothing!” That was true. She didn’t want to know the personal, intimate details of any facet of Griff’s life, or risk an emotional involvement with him ever again. She’d learned her lesson the first time. Besides, it would ruin everything. She had to remain determined to do what was right.
“I caused my ex a great deal of heartache by marrying her for the wrong reasons, and that’s why I’m trying so hard to get you to walk away today. I don’t want the same thing to happen to you and my brother.”
“You keep saying that. How do you know I would bring Clay heartache? You’ve been living elsewhere almost ten years, Griff. The Air Force Academy, then all that military service. None of us are the same people as when you left. Maybe marrying me would make your brother happy. Did you ever consider that?”
“Is that why you’re marrying him? He’s fallen in love with you, and you think one of you being in love is enough to hold you together? Because it isn’t. I know this from experience. It won’t give you your dream of a loving husband and a family forever after, Tessa.”
“I’m not discussing this with you.”
“Fine. Call Clay. He’ll tell me what I want to know.”
No, Tessa thought, Clay wouldn’t tell him. Clay, like she, would do anything to keep their secret, as would the only other person who knew—Sadie, her grandmother. Which made her wonder how this mysterious e-mailer could have possibly found out what he had, and what else whoever it was might know that he could tell Griff.
She couldn’t chance Griff finding out anything else about her marriage to his brother. She had to get him to leave town.
But how? Sitting back in her chair, Tessa lifted her gaze to meet Griff’s. If she pushed him too much to leave, would he begin to suspect there was something else behind her not wanting him there? Something that could change his life—and others’—forever?
Chapter Two
Before Tessa could decide what to tell Griff, the small cowbells on the front door jingled again and seconds later, two elderly men in overalls came into the section where she and Griff were, greeted the third man already there and sat down with him at a long table near the front of the room, all facing her. Tessa frowned. Doc Casey came in with her and Griff’s ice teas, then stopped at the other table to take orders, wearing a totally unfamiliar grin on his face. As Doc Casey turned to head back into the kitchen, the bells clanged again, and another elderly patron moseyed in to join the other three.
“Just my luck,” she muttered. “The bakery’s mid-morning coffee club showing up in the afternoon to see the town’s favorite deputy sheriff’s intended bride meeting with his brother. By the time they’re done building this story up, everyone’s going to think I’ll make Clay a terrible wife.”
“They’d be right, but for the wrong reasons.”
Her irritability level rose another notch, like mercury in a thermometer. She leaned in close to him and whispered, “You’re wrong. Unlike you, who had to prove the only way you could be content is to be totally free, your brother liked being married.” He’d loved his deceased wife Lindy tremendously. The whole town knew that. “Clay and I both want the same thing—to stay in Claiborne Landing among family and friends—which is why we will be compatible. That compatibility will bring us happiness.”
Griff didn’t say a word. He didn’t have to. His eyes did his talking for him, and suddenly, Tessa realized how close the two of them were, almost face-to-face, mouth to mouth. She could feel his warm breath against her cheek. Without knowing how it happened, she found herself wanting, desperately, to kiss him.
Her emotions were doing her thinking again, that’s how it had happened. She backed up abruptly. “Just how long are you going to be in town, anyway?”
“Long enough to figure out who made the effort to get me here.”
“Why would that matter?”
“Somebody besides me thought you two getting married was not a great idea. I’m kind of thinking it might be good to stick around long enough to find out who and the why behind it. Stock up ammunition.”
“It’s a wedding, Griff, not a war.”
“Divorce is a war, and I figure that’s where you two will eventually wind up if you don’t think this through all the way.”
Tessa groaned. She was going to have to get Griff out of town, and the sooner, the better. To not do so could only lead to disaster.
“I’m going to call Clay.” She rose and turned as Doc Casey rounded the corner again, this time carrying catsup and mustard bottles to the other table. Then she remembered Sadie had her purse, and she would need a quarter for the pay phone. Rather than ask Griff for anything, she walked up to Doc Casey to ask him to let her use the phone in the back, just in time to catch his last words, “Don’t worry, boys. Things’ll pick up right soon now.”
“Looks like you’re having a sudden surge of business, Doc.” She frowned with disapproval. “Could it be the entertainment?”
Doc Casey’s eyes twinkled. “Naw. There hasn’t really been any.”
“That’s good to hear.”
“But there’s fixin’ to be,” he added gleefully. “Clay just arrived.”
“You called him?”
“Have to stir up the pot for the audience,” he said, without one lick of guilt whatsoever coming from him.
Sure enough, the now grating jangle of the bells announced Clay’s entrance through the front door. He saw Tessa and came to the doorway between the dining rooms, where he stopped and stared from her to his brother with a look that asked them both, What now?
Her heart went out to him. Clay had had enough to deal with being a deputy sheriff and a single father to a six-year-old for the past year after his wife Lindy’s death from cancer; he didn’t need to be in the middle of an argument between his only brother and his soon-to-be second wife, and definitely not in front of the biggest gossips in town.
“Doc, sometimes you go too far,” Tessa said, indicating the elderly men with a nod of her head.
“C’mon, Miss Tessa, don’t spit bullets over this. Deputy sheriff’s fiancée gets carried off from the wedding by his own brother and ends up here? Biggest thing to happen around Claiborne Landing in ages. Usually Athens sees all the action. If this had been happening at your grandma’s doughnut shop, she would have called in her favorite customers, too. Have to be loco not to.” Doc Casey lumbered over to the other table and left her to deal with Clay.
“Tessa, what is going on?” he asked quietly, his face now unreadable.
“Your
