How embarrassing.

It was a good thing no one else could see what was happening just then.

When she looked up at Jon, heat still lingering in his blue eyes, Patti felt herself blush all the way down to her toes. Not just because Jon was staring at her as if he wanted to eat her up all over again, but because Walter was standing right there, watching the silent communication pass between them as if he knew the details of the message being sent.

“Oh, okay,” she said, forcing her smile up a notch. “I would say have fun, but, well…” She shrugged. There was nothing fun about hard labor in this kind of heat, and they well knew it. She was sweating enough as it was, and she had the benefit of being shaded by a tree.

Jon winked at her, and then turned to walk away. Patti’s heart thumped wildly in her chest. Just being near him drove her wild. If she weren’t careful now, he might take her heart as his prize when he walked away. Because he would. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day. They always did.

But for now, Patti smiled to herself. For now, she had him, and she was going to enjoy him.

“Uh oh, I know that look.” Stephanie joined her at the table and dropped an armload of clothing on to it. Patti reached out and picked up a pair of jeans to help fold.

“What look is that?” she asked curiously.

“The one that says you’re hopelessly, madly in love with my son.” Stephanie flashed her megawatt smile at her.

Patti sucked air between her teeth and shook her head in denial, but the words that spilled out of her mouth surprised her. “What’s not to love? He’s intelligent, successful, confident, strong and…” She blew out a steadying breath as her eyes sought him out among the growing crowd. She found him, arms flexing, butt firm as he helped another man load up a mattress set into the bed of a truck.

“Hot?” Stephanie offered.

“Hot,” Patti echoed.

“Yeah, he gets it from his father,” she sighed whimsically. “When we were younger, I had to practically beat the girls away, until one day I got so sick and tired of keeping guard over him, I let him know it. And do you know what he said to me? He said, ‘Babe, you’re the only girl I see.’” They sighed as one at the sheer level of romance packed into that single statement, which surprised the hell out of Patti. She was not a sigher! “He knew he had me, and that was when I finally realized that I had him, too.”

“That’s a really sweet story,” Patti told her honestly. “Maybe one day I’ll find someone like that.” Okay, so maybe she was still suffering from a bit of denial. It would pass.

Dropping what she was doing, Stephanie placed her hand on Patti’s shoulder and turned her so they were standing face-to-face. “You already have. Jonathon might not know it yet, but he’s completely in love with you.”

Patti’s eyes widened. She didn’t know what to say to that. “How do you know?” Again, her gaze strayed to the house across the street, searching. When she found him, she felt a weird twisting sensation in her stomach.

“Because a mother knows,” Stephanie said beside her, following her line of sight.

Just then, as if feeling her eyes on him, Jon lifted his head and looked her way. His mouth turned up in that wide, sexy smile she loved so much, and suddenly, the rest of the world fell away. It was just the two of them, in their own little world, smiling at each other. And she knew, beyond a doubt, with one hundred and fifty percent certainty, she had fallen head over heels in love with the man.

Shaken by her revelation, she passed him a brief smile and got back to work. The next couple of hours passed with relative ease. Patti handled dozens of transactions, met what seemed like half the neighborhood during that time, all of which seemed to have already heard about her and Jon dating. They gushed over that, though Patti couldn’t understand why. It was as though everyone there was deeply embedded in one another’s lives, interested and invested in their happiness and success in life. She was so baffled by the close-knit community that she felt almost like an imposter. She had never in her life witnessed such caring between strangers. It was nothing at all like living in the city where everyone was out for themselves, too busy putting one foot in front of the other to bother caring about the person beside them.

Possibly even more disturbing: she never expected to feel so at home here. All the smiling faces, the innocent questions of people genuinely interested in her well-being, threw her for a loop, but it felt damn good, too. It gave her a new respect for Jon’s life while growing up as a child, and what it must have been like to know so many people cared. His parents alone were amazing.

Patti found herself studying Walter. He was as tall as Jon was, with the same thick build and gorgeous blue eyes. His smile was wide and brilliant and so expressive, she imagined he could pull attention from women of all ages just as well today as he had forty years ago. If Jon aged half as well as his father, she could see herself tripping over her own feet every time he walked into a room well into their golden years.

Thinking of Jon’s father, his absolute kindness and sincerity, the warmth that seeped from him, the way he put his arm around Jon and patted him on the shoulder, called up memories of her own father.

She remembered all the times her dad had made the same gestures toward her. That type of smile was unmistakable, even from this distance. He did it every time he was proud of her, which was often. He never let an opportunity slip through his fingers to let her know how much he loved her, how proud of her he was. He was never short on advice. Through his eyes, Patti saw how worthy she was of all the good things in life, and with him now gone, she felt a deep pain at the loss. That is, until she met Jon. Now, the pinch of sorrow grew less and less each day.

Her brows furrowed as she realized she had missed her regular visit to the cemetery that morning, and she hadn’t even realized it. It simply hadn’t crossed her mind. Could it be that Jon was an even bigger influence on her life than she had initially thought?

Tears stung her eyes as a note of guilt attempted to wiggle its way into her conscious. She shoved it away, swallowing convulsively. She shifted her focus on the older couple that approached.

“Hello,” she said as cheerfully as she could manage. Their drawn faces caught her attention first. Standing before her, they studied her with grim faces. Her immediate impression was that they didn’t fit here. They weren’t like the other people she had met earlier. Everything about them, from the dark circles under their eyes to their pinched mouths and lack of friendly demeanor, had her immediately on edge.

“Is there something you were looking for in particular that I can try to help you find?” she asked, noticing that their hands were empty.

The woman spoke first. “Are you Patricia?”

“Yes, that’s me,” she replied hesitantly. The smile she wore strained as her gaze shot between them. “Can I help you?”

“And you’re Jonathon Bradshaw’s girlfriend?” the woman asked her.

Patti’s growing nerves made her feel twitchy. “I am. I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “I didn’t catch your names.”

“I’m Cynthia Collier and this is my husband Max Collier,” the woman said casually. She pinned Patti with worry-filled gray eyes. “We’re Nora’s parents.”

Patti’s brows rose slightly. This woman, Cynthia, stared at her as though the name should mean something to her. It didn’t. She nodded politely and cast a look around, searching for Jon, or Stephanie, anyone who could help her withdraw from this uncomfortable situation.

“I take it he hasn’t told you,” the woman went on. She and her husband exchanged meaningful looks. “I can’t say that I’m surprised. He always was a coward.”

“I’m sorry,” Patti said, sidestepping the table. She didn’t know what the woman was rambling about, but she knew enough to know the comment was directed toward Jon, and it pissed her the hell off.

She glanced around again, finding herself alone. Well, if no one were coming to her rescue, then she’d rescue her damn self. The way they kept staring at her was weirding her out. Actually, their whole weirdo vibe was weirding her out. She needed to get away from them, and that’s exactly what she was going to do. “I hate to be rude, but—”

“He killed my daughter,” the woman blurted out. “I bet he didn’t tell you that, did he?”

Patti stopped in her tracks, unable to believe her ears. “Excuse me?”

Together they closed the small gap, and the woman lowered her voice to a more private tone. “Jonathon, he killed our Nora. He killed her, and then he went off to live his life as if it never happened. Just forget it and it’s gone. Poof!” Her voice began to rise and Patti could see the hysteria flashing in her crazed eyes.

She held her ground, refusing to believe anything she just heard. They must be mistaken. Jon would never hurt anyone. Would he? No. No, she decided, he wouldn’t. But what she said was like a seed being planted in the forefront of her mind. It set in roots of doubt and out of it grew concern.

The woman’s husband placed a restraining hand on his wife’s shoulder as she pressed both hands on the table and leaned in. He lowered his mouth to her ear and whispered something that Patti assumed was meant to calm the woman, but she was beyond reasoning. With wide eyes she cried, “He’s poison. He’ll kill you, too.”

The force of Patti’s blood was pounding in her ears. She didn’t know what to make of these people, didn’t know whether to believe a word they said. All she knew was that something wasn’t right here.

Thankfully, that was the moment Jon decided to show up.

18

After Jon finished helping out the Shelbys, he was sidetracked helping out another man who had purchased a bed and mattress set. Then he and his father ran into an old friend of the family and got to talking. By the time they finished up, he was more than eager to get back across the street and start packing up so he could get Patricia home and ravage her body.

He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her all day. No matter what he was doing, he found his attention straying, seeking her out. He just couldn’t get over how incredibly beautiful she was.

Already his parents adored her, so the approval he realized he’d been seeking when he brought her here today had been granted, and after his talk with his father earlier, Jon was growing more and more confident in the knowledge that Patricia might be just what he needed to help him move on with his life.

Then he’d looked up to find a deep frown on Patricia’s delicate features, and when he looked for the source of her discontent, the bottom dropped out of his world.

That’s when he’d broken into a sprint, racing across the street to intervene in what was going to amount to a clusterfuck of monumental proportions. All he could do was shout in his head for this to be a dream—a dream that he would wake up from at any moment to find his world intact with Patricia by his side. But as he took in Patricia’s puzzled and concerned face he knew, this wasn’t a dream. It was a fucking nightmare.

Inserting himself between her and his ex’s parents, he turned a vicious glare on them. “What the hell are you doing here? I thought we told you that you were no longer welcome on our property.”

“It’s a free country, Jon,” Max drawled. The two men stared each other down. Hatred gleamed in the old man’s eyes, and Jon felt the familiar clawing sense of guilt begin to build in his abdomen.

Over his shoulder, Jon asked Patricia, “What did they say to you?” He already knew what her answer would be, but he needed to hear her say it.

Before she could utter a word, Cynthia snarled, “I told her the truth. That you’re a cold-blooded murderer.”

Jon squeezed his eyes shut. His entire body vibrated with anger and resentment, but most of all, worry. He didn’t have to turn around to see the look on her face. He knew the words Cynthia had spoken changed everything for Patricia. She wouldn’t want him after this. She would throw him away, kick him out of her life forever, and he couldn’t blame her for it.

He always knew this was coming, and a part of him had resigned himself to the inevitable: he would hurt her, and she would leave. There was never any other outcome, although he had begun to hope that there could be. He never should have allowed hope to step in. It just made the fall that much harder.