Welcome Home, Bobby Winslow

“Jeez, me and my big mouth.” Bobby made his way toward her, leaning heavily on a cane. “Here, let me help—”

“Stop.” Leeann scrambled to her feet, holding out one hand. “I’m up. I’m fine. I don’t need your help.”

Bobby slowed but continued walking. “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“You didn’t.”

Conscious of her bare arms and abs thanks to the cropped tank top she wore that was nothing more than a fancy sports bra, Leeann moved past him to grab her jacket and yank it on. “What are you doing down here?”

He faced her. “I could ask you the same thing.”

She righted her ball cap without removing it, but still met his gaze. “I own this land.”

“And I own the road you used to get to this land.”

Leeann tried not to stare as Bobby leaned slightly to his left, obviously favoring one leg as he gripped the carved head of his cane. Something he hadn’t used yesterday when she’d ordered him out of his camper. “How did you even know I was—wait, you have a security system.”

“Does that surprise you?”

No, it didn’t. Not with the multimillion-dollar home he had built on the land adjacent to hers.

“There isn’t an access road from the main highway to the pond,” she explained. “I used your driveway, but I turned off just before the gate.”

“Yeah, I saw the images.”

This had to have been less than fifteen minutes ago.

Then he’d come here, using the path only the two of them had known about, the path she’d used all those years ago when she’d lived in a big house up on that same hill.

Memories of the times the two of them spent here together rushed back to her. Times they shrieked with laughter while splashing around in the icy water on a hot summer day, when she’d helped him understand the complexity of calculus, or the many times he’d held her close as she cried over yet another fight with her mother.

The time they’d fumbled through the unknown yet passion-filled moments of making love for the first time in a sleeping bag beneath a star-filled sky.

Leeann forced herself back to the present. She and Bobby were strangers to each other now.

“What are you thinking about?” He leaned forward, his gaze roaming from her head to her toes.

Just like he’d done yesterday. And like yesterday, her body responded with a heated flush she quickly blamed on her run.

“What—nothing.” She took another step backward, an automatic reaction she had drilled into her head whenever anyone invaded her physical space.

“You do realize your face still gives away your thoughts?”

Only with him.

She’d learned over the years, first with her parents and then in New York, how to put on a false face, to pretend an emotion that didn’t exist. Then later, she’d used that same skill at the police academy to prove to her instructors and fellow cadets she was more than just her looks.

Even here in Destiny among her former coworkers and friends, she worked hard to earn a reputation for having unflappable composure.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” She pulled the brim of her cap lower over her eyes and turned away, her gaze on the still waters of her pond.

“Why’d you cut your hair?”

His simple question had her spinning back to look at him. The sun on his face made it hard for her to see his eyes. Was he laughing at her?

“I think that’s why it took me so long to recognize you yesterday, that and the uniform.” Bobby switched his cane from one hand to the other. “You always vowed you’d never cut your hair. Was it because of your job?”

“Huh?”

“Were you required to cut it when you became a cop?”

Dull kitchen scissors. Piles of knotted and tangled unwashed hair littering her lap and the gleaming hardwood floor beneath her. Frantic pounding on the door. Loud clicks of the locks releasing. The shock on her aunt’s face when she found her sitting there—

Years of practice allowed her to shut down the memory.

“A deputy sheriff—” she corrected him, her voice barely a whisper. Pulling in a deep breath, she cleared her throat and answered his question. “And no, I cut my hair long before I went to the police academy.”

“After you up and disappeared from your glamorous life in New York?”

He knew about that? Not that her career in high fashion was a secret, nor was her sudden retirement.

At one time she’d been one of the highest-paid models on the circuit with either her face or body gracing a different magazine every month. She’d split her time between New York, Paris and Milan, walking more than a million miles on the runway and posing for a hundred different shots in the quest for the perfect angle, the perfect composition, until that one day when she’d been too perfect and paid a horrible price.

Bobby tilted his head to one side and Leeann realized he was waiting for an answer. “What was your question?”

“Did you cut your hair after you left New York?”

Technically, no, but thanks to her aunt she’d left the city the same night she’d hacked off the horrific reminder of what that maniac had done—

“Yes.”

“So …” He dragged out the word, and tilted his head in the other direction. “How long have you been deputy sheriff?”

“Three years.”

Bobby sighed. “You know, this would go a lot better if you gave me more than one- or two-word answers.”

Crossing her arms over her chest was a purely defensive move, but she did it anyway. “What would?”

“Catching up. Getting to know each other again. It has been a few years since we’ve talked.”

Fourteen years to be exact, but between the memories and his cutting remark from yesterday, she was quickly turning into a swirling mass of hurt and confusion, and she hated that. “Funny, I was under the impression you’re not interested in anything I have to say.”

That shut him up.

“What? No quick comeback?” She dropped her arms, suddenly very tired. “You didn’t seem to have a problem putting me in my place yesterday. You must be losing your touch.”

“I’m sorry, Lee.” Bobby ran his fingers through his hair, pushing the dark strands off his face. He swayed for a moment, but adjusted his stance and kept talking. “I was a jerk and I can’t even give you a good reason why. Zip and I had been on the road for over a week. I was in pain from sitting for twelve hours, pushing us to get here. Then of all the people to run into, barely over the county line … hell, maybe I am trying to give you a reason.”

His quiet words surprised her, causing Leeann to look at him, really look at him, seeing for the first time the tension in the lines around his mouth, the stiffness in his upper body.

It was evident he’d lost weight since his accident, but dressed in dark jeans and a black, short-sleeved collared shirt with his racing logo over his heart, he looked every inch the rich and famous stock car driver/celebrity/commercial spokesman he was.

Only at this moment he wasn’t any of those things.

He was Bobby Winslow.

A boy who’d been her friend, her first love. And at one time, the most important person in her entire world.

“I’m sorry, too.” The words fell from her lips, and the pain in her chest she’d blamed on her run eased. “I didn’t expect—even with the house and all the rumors—I think I was as surprised to see you yesterday as you were to see me.”

His mouth rose into his familiar grin that always brought a devilish glint to his eyes. “So, is this a truce?”

“How about we just start over?”

“Sounds good to me.” He stuck out one hand. “Hi. I’m Bobby Winslow.”

Leeann stared at his tanned skin and long fingers. She’d bet his palm would still hold the same familiar calloused feel that spoke of years of hard work and manual labor.

It wasn’t as if she avoided all human contact since—well, it wasn’t, but over the years she’d cultivated a natural evasion to being touched.

Her fingers tingled at the prospect, but she shoved her hands into her jacket pockets. “Ah, I don’t think we need to go back that far.”

“Okay.” Bobby dropped his hand and turned to look out over the pond. “You know, I thought about this place a lot over the years. Nice to know it’s still as beautiful as ever.”

“That’s why I couldn’t part with it.”

He glanced at her, but then focused again on the water. “I’m sorry about your folks.”

“Thanks, but that was a long—” She paused, the carefully segregated memories of her parents’ death in a car accident and the horrific events of six months later tried to unite, but she mentally severed the connection and continued, “A long time ago.”

“Your Aunt Ursula’s still in town, right? Got her fingers in everyone’s business as well as their hair?”

Leeann smiled. “Yes, she still has her beauty shop.”

“I always liked her. It must’ve been nice to have her around after the fire,” Bobby said. “You know, I was surprised when I found out you’d finally put the house and land up for sale. It stood empty for so long.”

“I guess that makes us even,” she said. “I was surprised when I found out the company buying it, B.W.I., stood for Bobby Winslow Incorporated.”

“And yet you went through with the sale.”

She’d had to no matter who the new owner was, but it wasn’t her place to share the reason. “The final papers had been signed by the time I found out.”

“Meaning you wouldn’t have gone through with it if you’d known I was the buyer?”

Would she have backed out? Leeann honestly didn’t know the answer to that question.

“Do you plan to build your own place here?” he asked, filling the silence.

Making them neighbors? The words hung unspoken in the air.

Leeann shook her head. “No, I never thought about that. As you know, there isn’t even an access road to this place. Besides, I like my house in town.”

“Yeah, I never knew you and Mom lived on the same street.”

Bobby moved beside her and even through her windbreaker, she could feel the natural warmth radiating off his body. Trapped between him and the water’s edge, Leeann inched closer to the water, her sneakers sinking into the mud as she put more space between them. “I guess we keep on surprising each other. Like the fact Val wasn’t with you yesterday.”

“She was so supportive after my accident, never leaving my side, always encouraging me.” He paused, then smiled. “Or kicking my butt, whichever tactic I needed at any given moment. Once I knew I was being released from rehab, I sent her and Paula, the head nurse who’d been assigned to my care for the last few months, on a three-week European cruise.”

“I’m surprised she agreed to go. Val was so worried about you. I found her in her driveway, close to tears and unable to even lift her suitcase into the truck of her car.” Leeann kicked at a rock, watching it plop into the water. “Once I calmed her down, I took her to the airport. I even promised I’d keep an eye on her garden while she was gone. Of course, neither of us knew she would be gone this long …”

Leeann realized Bobby had stopped walking. She turned to look at him and saw an emotion on his face she couldn’t read.

“Have you?” he asked.

“Have I what?”

“Taken care of her garden?”

Leeann smiled. “Of course. I weeded and watered, cut the flowers and harvested the veggies. Pretty soon I’ll be getting it all tucked in for winter, but maybe your mom will be back before then.”

“She said she had someone—a friend—taking care of her precious flowers, I never thought—”

“It could be me? I guess you didn’t know we had become friends after I moved back to Destiny.”

Bobby shook his head.

“Your mom was nice to me from the very start. It took a couple of weeks, but I finally worked up the courage to remind her who I was, which of course, she already knew. I never had a problem with your mom back when we—well, not that we spent a lot of time with her back then. It was my parents who hated the idea of us … spending time together.”

“Believe me, my mom wasn’t happy about you and me either. She just wasn’t as vocal about it.”

“She was afraid the town’s princess was going to hurt you.”

Bobby shrugged, but Leeann could see the truth in his eyes.

“And I did just as she feared.”

“It was a long time ago.” Bobby used his cane to point toward the old path. “So, what do you think of my house?”

“I’ve never seen it.”

“Really? The Murphys told me the construction site was a regular tourist attraction until the security system went live.”

“Yes, the local paper ran a weekly report of what was happening up here.”

“And you weren’t curious at all?”

She had been. Often when she spent time here at the pond, she could hear the low rumble of construction equipment and men talking to each other as they worked, but something always kept her from going to check the building out.

A surprise considering Leeann had never liked her former home here.

Her mother, a transplanted Southern belle, had designed the two-story Georgian mansion, complete with tall white columns that looked out of place in this majestic wooded setting.

Plus a complicated pregnancy had resulted in Leeann being an only child, making her a constant reminder of why only two of the home’s six bedrooms had been filled.

Her life had changed so much since she’d broken free of the gilded cage, it’d almost been a relief when a fire had made the house uninhabitable, then the quick sale—

“Do you want to come take a look?”

His softly spoken question caused Leeann to focus on the ground to keep Bobby from seeing her face beneath the brim of her cap. “Oh, no, I should be heading back to town.”

“Are you working today?”

“No, I’m—” A rumbling from Leeann’s stomach stopped her words. She slapped her hands over her midsection.

Bobby offered a light chuckle, then said, “Come on, I’ll even feed you.”

Leeann looked at him and saw his familiar smile again, more relaxed now. A throwback to his rogue rebel days. Before she knew it, they were at the path she hadn’t used since selling the land.

“Ladies first.”

The ground was smoother here and more defined, but it still must’ve been hard for Bobby to get down to the pond, especially on a cane. “Why don’t you go first?”

“I can handle the climb, Lee. I don’t need you to play rescuer if I take a tumble.”

“You’ve only been out of rehab a few days.”

He raised one eyebrow in a quizzical glance.

“Yesterday’s headlines were about you.” She quickly filled him in on the front-page article. “They even had a picture of you in a wheelchair.”

A shadow passed over his eyes, then it was gone. He swung the cane easily in front of him. “No worries. I’ve been walking on my own since the middle of July. I only use this on occasion.”

Leeann didn’t want to argue so she started up the dirt path, conscious of his gaze on her backside the entire way. When they reached the clearing, she paused, amazed at the scattering of log buildings, including a huge log barn with a red metal roof.

“Wow, that barn is amazing.”

“I replaced the original structure, which was in terrible condition, and matched the style of the other buildings,” Bobby said, joining her.

“Well, you’ve built more than just a house it seems. You’ve got your own compound.” She kept her gaze forward, but her peripheral vision allowed her to see the exertion on Bobby’s face. His slow, deep breaths told her the climb had been harder on him than he’d let on. “What are you going to do with all those buildings?”

“Some are for storage,” Bobby pointed out as he kept walking. “The remaining are empty, but they can be used as staff—ah, guest quarters.”

She followed his lead and they crossed the clearing. Leeann climbed into the passenger side of what looked like a souped-up golf cart with all-terrain tires and a cargo box on the back.

Bobby slid behind the wheel and soon he was maneuvering the vehicle along the freshly paved road, its twists and turns so familiar to her, laid out so because her mother hadn’t wanted to see the old barn from her front porch.

“The new barn will hold eight horses total. I’ve got three coming up from a farm in North Carolina in the next month or so, before winter sets in,” Bobby said. “I recently bought two more from a ranch in Texas called Still Waters, but they won’t be here until next spring.”

The name of the ranch caught her by surprise. “That’s Landon’s ranch.”

“Landon Cartwright, right?”

“How did you know that?”

“I dealt with a Chase Cartwright down in Texas,” Bobby said. “When I told him where I needed the horses sent, he mentioned his brother lived up here.”

“Landon is married to Maggie Stevens—do you remember Maggie?” Bobby nodded, so she continued, “Anyway, they married a year ago and run The Crescent Moon ranch here in Destiny, together, but he’s still involved with his family’s ranch in Texas, too.”

“Talk about a small world. I plan to talk to Maggie about getting even more horses from her place.”

Leeann had read enough about Bobby’s career over the past few years to know his entire racing operation was based in North Carolina. Having horses seemed to suggest his stay would be permanent, unless of course, he planned to have a staff to take care of them, and in turn, take care of his house.

Last night she’d finally nodded off convinced Bobby was only back in town temporarily as he continued recovering from his accident. She knew they were bound to run into each other again while he was here, she just hadn’t expected it to be as soon as today.

But after clearing the air back at the pond, they were talking and acting like adults who allowed their shared history to stay where it belonged.

In the past.

Would that change if he—

“Are you planning on sticking around?” The words fell from her mouth before she could stop them. “I’m so sorry,” she hastily added, “that was rude. It’s really none of my business.”

Was it none of her business?

Up until an hour ago, Bobby would’ve agreed with her. He would’ve made it clear that despite building his dream home, he hadn’t planned to reside in Destiny full-time, even though the thought of moving back home had crossed his mind a few times during his rehabilitation. He knew his mom wanted him here. No matter how many times he’d tried to convince her to move south to live closer to him, she’d refused.

If pressed, he’d have to admit he’d purchased the land and built the house just because all this once belonged to Leeann’s parents.

Then he’d come up with the idea of creating new headquarters for his racing organization. A place complete with a regulation-size test track, now that he had all the room he needed right here on his land.

Of course, all of that had been before he’d found out Leeann was back in town.

Did that changed everything?

He had no idea.

Silence stretched between them as Bobby eased the cart around the circular drive, passing the garage to the left, two bays on either side of a covered pull through that led to the main road.

He slowed to a stop, shut off the engine and stared straight ahead, his hands gripping the steering wheel. “Would that be so bad? Me sticking around?”

When she didn’t answer him, he turned to her. She had slid out of the passenger side of the utility cart and was standing there, staring up at his home.

He joined her, a shot of pure pleasure racing through his veins at the stunned expression on her face. Unable to see her eyes from beneath that ball cap she wore, he found his gaze locked on her mouth and the way her plump, pink lips parted.

He wanted to kiss her.

Right here. Right now.

Forget the fourteen years that separated them, forget the way she’d destroyed his dreams, forget all he’d accomplished in order to prove to everyone, to her, that there was more to Bobby Winslow than they’d ever known.

He pulled in a deep breath, bringing with it the clean, biting scent of the forest of trees surrounding them, the warm sun and the woman standing next to him.

A powerful need filled him, a need to hold her in his arms, to feel the tightly toned body he’d gotten a glimpse of earlier before she’d hid it beneath her jacket.

“Oh, Bobby.”

Her words came out in a reverent whisper and he had to grip the cane with two hands to stop himself from acting on an impulse he was sure was only one-sided.

“I can’t even put it into words … I can’t describe …”

She turned to him, having to tip her head back as he stood so close. Now he could see her eyes. They widened, the hazel coloring that always looked more golden than green flashing at him as their gazes locked and held.

What did she see when she looked at him?

The rebellious punk he’d been as a kid, always breaking the rules, with a white-hot temper his mother said came from his wayward father?

Or did she see the successful businessman he’d become?

A man who’d left the army after serving honorably for four years and then worked his way up through the ranks to become one of the best drivers in the America’s Cup Pro Racing circuit. A spokesperson that promoted more products than Jeff Gordon and Shaquille O’Neal and appeared in more print ads and commercials than all the Kardashian sisters combined.

A man who accomplished all he’d vowed to do.

“Yes, it is beautiful … and mine. Finally, I’m allowed inside. And unlike the way your parents treated me, you’re welcome in my home anytime.”

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