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Johnny angry she could handle. Johnny flirtatious and cute she definitely could not. No sane, reasonable, breathing woman could. It was bad enough that she was half-crippled and helpless, she hated to be emotionally helpless on top of it. As emotionally helpless as only Johnny Walker had ever been able to make her.
Helplessness had never agreed with her, emotionally or physically. Nor, she realized as she thought about him taking her to a clinic with pricey X-rays, had poverty. An Ace bandage from the clinic would probably cost more than a bag of groceries. And right now, a little pain seemed preferable to starvation.
Having sprained her ankle enough as a kid, she recognized the symptoms. All she needed was a good soak, a strong bandage—which her grandmother had always kept on hand—and some aspirin. Or a belt of something strong to numb the pain in her ankle and the confusion in her brain.
She doubted her grandmother had ever stocked anything strong enough to numb the abject humiliation of the scene in the store.
“I don’t need to go to the clinic,” she said.
He just shook his head. “Don’t start that again.”
Knowing he probably figured she was arguing for argument’s sake, Emma turned in her seat. She placed her hand on his arm, just below the rolled up sleeve of his dress shirt, to try to convince him she was serious. Bad move. Waaaaay bad. It was impossible to ignore the sudden blast of heat shooting through her fingertips at the feel of his smooth skin against hers. General Electric could have learned something about stoves from this guy’s skin.
Hot. Fevered. Powerful.
She gulped away the momentary insanity. “I mean it,” she finally said when she felt capable of speech. “I’ve sprained and twisted my ankle enough times to know what it feels like. This one’s not bad.” Even to her own ears, her voice sounded thin and unconvincing. Not surprising. She could barely focus on anything but the knowledge that she was really here, breathing the same air, actually touching him after all these years.
Though behind the wheel, he seemed unable to tear his gaze away from her hand, starkly pale against his own deeply tanned skin. She finally pulled it away, wondering why her fingertips still tingled even after she’d clenched her fists in her lap.
Then, noting where her fists had landed, she jerked her hands lower toward the knee part of her lap. Away from the, umh…upper thigh part. That territory was too alert already. It had been ever since she’d seen him in the grocery store.
Emma, you are one pathetic, sex-starved woman.
Yeah. She definitely was. Which was why she needed to get away from the six-foot tall walking pile of solid sin.
“My grandmother had a well-stocked medicine cabinet at the house,” she mumbled, knowing the house wasn’t too far away. “I can bandage it myself. I’ve had lots of experience. Can you just give me a ride to her place?”
He cleared his throat, gave one nod and turned at the next corner. They rode in silence for a few moments, but finally, as they pulled out onto Main Street, Johnny glanced at her again. “I’m sorry about your grandma. She’s sorely missed. Most of the town turned up at her funeral.”
She heard an unspoken question in his voice. “I was in the hospital after a car accident.”
He cast her a quick look that might have been concern but was more likely curiosity.
“I’m fine now,” she quickly explained. “But I was laid up for a few weeks.” She glanced out the window, unable to hide the regret in her voice. “My parents didn’t even tell me she’d died until two days after the funeral. They knew I’d have tried to get here.”
“I’m sorry, Em.”
“Me too,” she whispered, then she cleared her throat. “But at least I got to see her right before she died. She came to visit me in New York while I was in the hospital.”
“What happened? Were you in traction? Broken legs?” he asked, glancing at her thighs, exposed to an almost indecently high level due to her short skirt. Then he quickly glanced away and a funny tick started in his temple.
Johnny always had been a leg man.
She thrust the thought—and the flash of unmistakable heat it caused—out of her head. Swallowing hard, she forced a note of nonchalance in her voice. “Nope, not legs. Broken head.”
He gaped. “Are you kidding?”
“Minor swelling on the brain knocked me out but good for a few days. I woke up after surgery bald as a cue ball, a little confused about who I was and wondering whether Brad Pitt really had been painting my toenails while I slept.”
This time, he hit his brakes, coming to a stop in the middle of the street. Darn good thing they weren’t being tailgated, or he would have been rear-ended for sure. “You’re serious?”
“Yeah,” she said with a rueful sigh. “Unfortunately, Brad hadn’t been visiting me during my unconscious state. That part was just a dream. Did you know they take off your nail polish when you have surgery? I didn’t know until I woke up and peeked at my toes. They were dreadfully bare, so that’s how I knew Brad hadn’t come around.”
He shot her a glare. “Would you shut up about your nail polish and get back to the bald part? Jesus, Emma Jean, did you have brain surgery?”
“The swelling had to be relieved.” She fingered a short curl beside her cheek, twisting it around her finger. “Ah, well, I’d always wanted to do something drastic with my hair.”
“Baldness is pretty drastic.”
“So are scars on your head. Believe me, this hairdo is positively lush in comparison.”
He stared at her hair, at the curl wound around her index finger. At her face.
Emma’s heart skipped a beat in her chest as she took stock of the moment. God, of all the things she’d envisioned about her homecoming, there’d never been anything close to this.
Alone with Johnny. And him looking at her with the same old combination of interest, frustration and aloofness that had always driven her crazy. She wondered what he could be thinking to make his eyes sparkle such a brilliant blue, a vivid color she’d only ever before seen in the waters of the Caribbean.
Behind them, someone laid on a horn, and Johnny jerked his attention back to the road. Emma took the moment to order her heart to get back to doing its job, regular and even. And she reminded herself to breathe.
In. Out. Slower. Deeper. Calm. Relax.
Hitting the gas, Johnny took off down the street, shaking his head and muttering something beneath his breath.
“Ahem, if you’re going to speak to me, could you do it louder? I didn’t quite hear you.”
He mumbled again, then glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She grinned.
“A lush hairdo? You always were one to see the silver lining, weren’t you?” he finally said.
Not always. Not on prom night, anyway. Not until he’d shown her the silver lining. And a lot more.
“So you don’t like my hair?” Emma wasn’t particularly vain, but she’d thought the Marilyn Monroe look suited her. And at least, it got people to stop seeing her only as the sweet, long-haired golden girl.
The hairdo had inspired other changes, including a wardrobe renovation. Not to mention her cute sporty car. Within weeks, Emma Jean had transformed into a slightly bad girl. That was one positive thing to come out of her accident, anyway.
“I like your hair Emma Jean,” he admitted. “But I meant the other silver lining. I guess you bless your accident a bit, since you got to see your grandmother one last time.”
Definitely. “Yes. I’m very thankful I got to see her again.”
It hurt to think of their last visit, fourteen months before, and not just because it had been the last time they’d been together. A very concerned Grandma Emmajean had said she was thinking of making some changes. She’d talked about leaving Georgia. Someone was interested in buying her land, and she’d thought to sell the house, too, and buy a small place in New York to be near her family. Namely her.
Those words had shocked Emma. Joyful was her grandmother’s life. The house and the grove had been in her family for decades. It had been heartbreakingly clear how lonely Grandma Emmajean had become, and how selfish Emma had been to stay away just because of some embarrassment she’d suffered as a teenager.
She’d asked Grandma Emmajean not to do it, and had promised to come for a long visit once she was well enough. Nothing would have stopped Emma from keeping her promise. Nothing…except the twist of fate that caused her much-loved grandmother’s tired heart to stop beating in her sleep the following week.
“You must have been pretty upset with your parents for not telling you,” he said. “They’re still trying to keep their princess safe, huh? Bet that one was hard to forgive.”
He understood. Instantly. Unlike anyone else, Johnny could sympathize with her anger at her parents. They’d been so worried, they’d denied her the chance to grieve the most important person in her life. Like always, they’d protected her. “Yes. It was.”
“They ever find out why you left Joyful before graduation?”
She listened for an edge in his voice, but didn’t hear it. “No. Grandma Emmajean kept them from hearing everything.”
He gave a dry chuckle. “Good thing. I remember how much they fought against you staying with her and going to Joyful High for a year.”
She vividly remembered the conversation when she’d told Johnny about her life. It had been eleven summers ago. Spotting him tinkering under the hood of his truck on the side of a country road near her grandmother’s pecan orchard, she’d stopped to give him a lift. Her heart had pounded wildly, sweat making her hands slick on the steering wheel.
It had been dangerous. Exciting. Thrilling to finally be alone with the baddest of the bad-boy Walkers.
During their brief ride, when he’d teased her about picking up strange guys, she’d told him how happy she was to live like a normal teenager. With her parents busy getting on with their jet-setting lives on the other side of the globe, they couldn’t constantly protect their “little girl” from danger.
At seventeen, being alone in a small car with the object of her most torrid virgin fantasies had ranked pretty high on Emma’s danger meter. Considering the tense, aware atmosphere between them now, she suspected things hadn’t changed much.
Not even thinking about it, Emma moved her hand to her face as she stared out the window. Another memory filled her mind…of the teasing kiss Johnny had given her that day to thank her for the ride. It had been on her cheek, but not high up, not chaste and friendly. Not at all. He’d kissed her close to her mouth, as if wanting to taste the tiny dimple in her cheek. Then he’d shifted to brush his lips against the corner of hers. Even more amazing, he’d stolen a wicked taste of her lip gloss with a heart-stopping flick of his tongue.
Right before he’d gotten out of the car, that sexy hunk who’d already had her shaking in her seat had moved his mouth to her ear, nibbling on the lobe as he whispered, “I have such a thing for ankle bracelets.” Reaching down, he’d caressed her calf, then stolen her anklet right off her leg. She hadn’t even had the strength to protest as he’d put it in his pocket.
His wicked expression had told her he’d taken it as a souvenir.
The pounding in her heart had said, let him.
That had been the last time she’d been alone with Johnny for a while. Because the next time she saw him—when he was home from college for Thanksgiving weekend—she’d been wearing another guy’s jacket. So she could never tell him that from the first time she’d laid eyes on him, she’d fallen headfirst into the most intense infatuation of her life. She couldn’t have owned up to her many erotic dreams after their one, much-too-brief kiss.
No. Those were not exactly the kinds of things a girl could tell her boyfriend’s older brother. Especially not one as rebellious—and hot—as Johnny Walker. Because she would never have been able to tell what he might do with such information.
Or how she might react to it.
He interrupted her musings. “Tell me more about this car accident you had.”
“I’m fine,” she assured him, “it wasn’t that serious.”
“You never could lie worth a damn.”
Smiling, she elaborated. “I got T-boned by an uninsured, unlicensed driver. It took a while, but I’m fully recovered. Though I don’t know if my insurance company is.”
“I figured it had to have been bad, Emma Jean, because I know even a bald head wouldn’t have stopped you from being here if you could.”
“Just Emma,” she murmured, surprised by the concern lacing his tone. Not to mention his certainty that she would have been in Joyful if she’d been able. She’d figured other people would notice her absence at the funeral and make some negative assumptions. Not Johnny.
His unexpected confidence in her was a strong reminder of one thing she’d tried to forget in her years away from this place. Though he hadn’t known her long, Johnny Walker had known her better than anyone else. She’d spilled her most secret heart to him in the few short hours they’d shared together.
The acknowledgement almost hurt, making her flinch.
He glanced over. “You okay? In pain? Emma?”
“I’ll be fine.”
“We’re almost to the house. If you want to give me your keys, I’ll get somebody to bring your car over later.”
Keys. The keys! She looked at him sheepishly. “I’m so sorry, Johnny, I forgot. I don’t have keys to the house. I have to go by and pick them up from the Realtor.”
He stiffened.
“I really hate to be such a bother.”
“It’s not a bother,” he insisted. “But, knowing there’s only one realty office in town, can I assume you mean Jimbo Boyd’s place?”
At her nod, she heard him give an audible sigh. Then he looked at his watch. “It’s twenty till six.” He lowered his voice, almost as if speaking to himself. “The office should be closed by now. I’m sure she’s…the secretary’s…left.”
She shrugged. “Probably. But I told Mr. Boyd I’d be getting in around dinnertime. He said he’d be working late on some paperwork and that I should just knock if the front door was locked.”
The tenseness in his shoulders appeared to ease a bit. “Okay, no problem,” he said with a nod as he pulled over to turn the SUV around. “Let’s go to Mr. Boyd’s office.”
THOUGH SHE’D RAISED her voice and refused to budge out of the way, Daneen Walker had finally realized that nothing short of the miraculous landing of a spaceship in the middle of the street—or possibly a blue-light special on support hose—was going to prevent Cora Dillon from barreling into the Boyd Realty office. The woman was as relentless about her money as she was about her gossiping, and she wanted to get paid now.
She didn’t see a spaceship, and the closest K-Mart was miles away, but Daneen got a miracle, anyway. The rumble of an engine pulling up along the front curb made Cora take a step back and turn around so Daneen could come all the way outside.
“Isn’t that Johnny?” Cora asked. She moved one work-worn hand up to shield her eyes from the late-afternoon sun shining directly onto the front of the building.
Daneen nodded, recognizing the SUV. Her heart sank and her stomach tightened. As if Cora wasn’t bad enough, now she had to try to act naturally in front of Johnny? This was bad. Johnny Walker knew her better than just about anyone. He usually saw through her lies whenever she tried to tell one. He had that prosecutor thing down pat, as Daneen had learned more than once in the years since she’d been related to the man.
She should’ve hung up on Jimbo as soon as she’d heard his voice last night. Or never answered the phone to begin with, since she had caller ID. Then she might not have been such a pushover this afternoon and wouldn’t have been caught unaware by the biggest busybody in town…and by Johnny.
Since Cora was no more able to turn her eyes away from the hunkiest, most talked-about man in Joyful than any other female, Daneen took advantage of her distraction and risked a quick button-check of her blouse and skirt. All clear.
“Who’s that with him?” Cora continued.
Daneen hadn’t even noticed the other occupant of the car. Like Cora, she shielded her eyes, tightening her jaw as she spied a woman’s blond head inside the vehicle. “I have no idea.”
Then Johnny was out of the car, walking around to the passenger’s side. He looked up and saw them, but instead of returning Daneen’s friendly wave, he froze, as if surprised to see her. Why he’d be surprised to see her standing outside her own place of employment, she couldn’t say.
Nor could Daneen say much of anything else when the other door of his SUV opened and a long, slim female leg slid out. The day suddenly seemed to get a little cloudier, and the mouthful of air she’d just inhaled turned stale in her lungs.
Daneen tensed, watching Johnny square up those big, broad shoulders of his, then help the woman out. They exchanged a few words as he easily lifted her down.
The blonde leaned into him, hobbling a bit as they approached the front of the building. Daneen rolled her eyes…typical woman’s trick, she’d used it herself. A twisted ankle was a good way to get chest to chest with any hunky male with a hero complex. Straight Vixen-101 stuff.
The question remained—who was the blond-haired bimbo trying women’s tricks on Johnny Walker, the man Daneen had grown used to thinking of as her personal property?
IF JOHNNY hadn’t already gotten out of the truck by the time he spotted Daneen standing outside Jimbo’s office, he would have come up with some lame excuse and driven away. The last thing he wanted was to bring the two women face-to-face within the first hour of Emma Jean’s arrival back in town.
Too late now. Emma wanted her key, and Daneen would be even more angry if she realized they’d tried to avoid her. Nor would Emma consider staying in the truck. She wanted to speak to Mr. Boyd and no twisted ankle was going to stop her. Besides, she insisted she was already feeling better—an outright lie if he’d ever heard one, given the way her lips trembled and her eyes teared up when she tried to stand up unaided.
“’Evening,” Johnny said with a nod as they approached the front door. Emma was leaning into his side, his arm supporting her around her waist as comfortable and easy as could be. Only a cardiologist would have been able to tell his heart was beating hard enough to bust out of his chest. He told himself it was merely the thought of having to deal with Emma and Daneen together. But somewhere, deep inside his gut, he knew it was more likely because of the way Emma felt pressed against his side.
Just about perfect.
“Mrs. Dillon,” he said, easily recognizing the dour-faced woman standing beside Daneen.
Cora Dillon had once worked as a lunch lady at the Joyful Primary School and now did cleaning work wherever she could get it. He half expected her to rap his knuckles with a wooden spoon, the way she would way back in second grade when he’d try to sneak an extra piece of fruit from the lunch line. “Reduced price lunch for poor folks means one apple, Mr. Walker,” she’d say, loud enough for every kid in the cafeteria to hear. “And no cookie!”
That pretty much summed up his childhood. One apple and no cookie. Some steely-eyed adult like Mrs. Dillon always seemed to be around to make sure no trashy Walker kid tried to snitch anything more than his charitable due.
He half wished the old woman would get charged with jaywalking, or lifting a piece of candy out of the Brach’s sampler display at the grocery store without paying for it.
There was one case he’d sure as hell prosecute.
Mrs. Dillon gave what for her probably passed as a friendly smile. “Mr. Walker,” she said in greeting.
Johnny kept his hands well out of spoon range, just in case, even though he knew she couldn’t very well rap the knuckles of the county prosecutor. Particularly not when one of her own rowdy grandsons was a recent beneficiary of Johnny’s goodwill toward the high-spirited youth of Joyful.
“Nice to see you, ma’am,” he replied, every bit as evenly.
Then the woman turned her attention on Emma Jean, studying her like someone might study a particularly difficult crossword puzzle or riddle.
“This is Emma Jean Frasier. I’m sure you knew her grandmother,” he explained.
“It’s just Emma,” his companion murmured under her breath.
Her words were lost under Daneen’s surprised gasp, which Cora Dillon echoed. Daneen’s reaction he could have predicted. Mrs. Dillon, though, was probably annoyed at being caught not knowing the name, marital status and credit history of a new arrival to Joyful. Maybe Cora was losing her touch—she wasn’t often caught unaware when it came to gossip-worthy newcomers.
“Hello, Daneen,” Emma said when neither of the other women made any effort to speak. Johnny had to wonder how she hid her tension beneath that smooth, cultured voice. Her whole body was tight enough to snap in half.
Little wonder. Daneen had, after all, stolen Emma’s man away once upon a time.
“Emma Jean,” Daneen whispered, sounding the tiniest bit unsure of herself. Very unusual for this particular woman, who hardly ever let anyone see her weaknesses.
A variety of expressions crossed Daneen’s face, ranging from dismay, to dislike, and perhaps even a bit of embarrassment. With reason, of course, as they all well knew.
But Daneen quickly did her thing, tossing her head and ignoring whatever guilt she might still be feeling about what had happened back in high school. “Well, I had no idea you were coming back to Joyful.” Daneen’s tone sounded forced as she straightened her shoulders in a failed attempt at indifference.
“Never can tell where one of us bad pennies is going to turn up,” Emma said with a too-bright laugh. “How…nice…it is to see you, too.”
That sounded about as sincere as a televangelist asking for forgiveness for screwing over his flock, but Johnny figured Emma Jean had a right to be spiteful. Daneen had done her dirty, all right. In front of the whole town, to boot.
“Johnny, wherever did you find her?” Daneen asked. “I didn’t even know you two were…acquainted.”
He frowned slightly at the blatant lie. There was no way Daneen hadn’t heard about prom night, even though she hadn’t been there to witness it firsthand. She’d run off, leaving Joyful in a tizzy that same day. Still, she’d come back soon enough afterward to hear the story. It had been whispered over and over, just like all the other scandalous tidbits of local folklore.
The prom night interlude between rebel Johnny Walker and golden girl Emma Jean Frasier was probably repeated almost as often as the tale of how Joyful had gotten its name. Frankly, Johnny had always found the name story a lot more interesting. Reportedly two hundred or so years ago, one of the town’s founders had stopped at the tiny two-road crossing and pronounced, “This place is about as joyful as a fi’ty cent whore with a toothache.” And Joyful had been christened.
How could a couple of teenagers caught bare-ass naked at the gazebo by most of the members of the senior class of Joyful High compare with that?
Unfortunately, he appeared to be the only person in Joyful who believed it couldn’t.
“Emma and I ran into each other at the grocery store,” he finally said. “She needed some help. I’m going to drop her off at her grandmother’s place, but we need the key.”
Cora, who they’d nearly forgotten about, reached into her pocket and dug out a small key ring. “Here you go,” she murmured, still staring with avid interest at Emma. “I cleaned it up for you this morning. I was dropping the key back off to Mr. Boyd.”
“Thank you very much, Mrs. Dillon,” Emma said, sounding as refined and genteel as her late grandmother, who’d been every inch a lady. Had Emma sounded as dignified when asking him to make love to her? He couldn’t really remember.
Liar. He remembered everything about that night. And no, she hadn’t sounded proper and refined at all. She’d sounded sweet and hungry. Enticing, alluring and innocent. A lot more innocent than he’d ever expected, to his utter shock.