Sugar Springs (5 page)

After polishing off a pancake and half her eggs, Holly propped her elbows on the table, bringing Cody back to the present and giving him a view of some impressive cleavage. She tapped one fingernail against her lips in concentration
and he worked hard to keep his focus lifted high. “I’d say it’s about a fifty-fifty chance of you succeeding here,” she began. “Of course, with you intending to stay only through the end of the year, I’d further guess it doesn’t matter so much if you’re a success or not. Those who refuse to forgive your past exploits simply better hope their animals don’t get sick in the next few weeks.”

The thought of his presence keeping animals from needed care bothered him. Proving his worth wouldn’t be easy, but it had never occurred to him that a pet might suffer simply because he existed. With the nearest vet in the next town over, many of the older residents would struggle if they had to go that far for their pets’ health.

“I certainly hope no one refuses service because of me. I’m aware it’ll take time for some to realize I’m a grown man now, not a self-centered kid, but I wouldn’t have accepted the position if I’d thought it might cause animals not to get needed care.”

Her green gaze probed his for a full thirty seconds before she nodded. “I believe you mean that.”

He blinked. “Just like that? You believe me?” He’d gotten good at reading people, and he read sincerity from her. He didn’t know anything about her, but if he had to put down a bet, he’d go with her being a genuinely good person.

A grin lit her face. “Just like that. I make snap judgments about people.” She snapped her fingers in the space between them. “And I hold a ninety-nine percent accuracy record.”

A chuckle made its way up from deep in his gut. For the first time since he’d made the decision to come, he felt he might make at least one friend while in town. “Ninety-nine percent, huh? What makes you so certain I won’t bring your record down?”

She leaned back in her seat, and he picked up his glass. “Simple,” she said. “You haven’t stared at my cleavage one time. Well, other than that first glance, but I’ll forgive you for that one. Actually, I would have been offended if you hadn’t taken a peek.”

Orange juice burned his nose as he choked. She sat patiently as he got himself under control. Finally, with eyes watering, he asked, “Were you around fourteen years ago, Holly? I don’t remember you.”

She shrugged. “I was eleven. No chest, mouth full of metal, early acne, thought boys were stupid. No reason for you to remember me.”

“Well, it’s nice meeting you now. And seeing as you’re one of only two people who’ve been friendly to me so far...” And Ms. Grayson, he suspected, had been nice simply in hopes of obtaining some juicy tidbit to share. “I hope to see you around again.” He cleaned his plate and held out his hand. Friendliness was one thing, but until he knew more about the town’s dynamics, he’d do good to remember that obvious busybodies weren’t the only people looking to share gossip. “If you’ll be so kind as to hand over my ticket, I’ll be on my way.”

“So soon?” She appeared honestly upset. “I wanted to get to know you more. Ask a few questions and figure out if some of the things I heard about you last night are true.”

He lifted a brow but didn’t ask. Probably many of them were. “Maybe another time. I got in too late to meet with Dr. Wright last night, so I need to hustle on over to the clinic. Have to get acquainted with where I’m about to spend the next few weeks.”

“Oh, then yeah, you’d better get to it. The woman is a walking time bomb. That baby could come any minute.”
She finished her juice, still ignoring his outstretched hand, and pushed her plate away. “It’s been a true pleasure, Cody. I hope you come on back in most mornings. This place could use something new to talk about.”

“No doubt that would do it,” he muttered. He reached for his wallet. “The bill?”

She shook her head. “How about you repay me by accompanying me to the junior high basketball fund-raiser in the morning? It’s at the school.”

His breath whistled through his teeth at the quick change of subject. Granted, she was good looking and funny, if a little young for his taste, but he wasn’t in town to date. “I’m...uh...not sure I can make it.”

“Are you kidding me?” Her red lips parted with a wide smile, and he noted that she really was a good-looking woman. There had to be many men in town who’d love to take her to the fund-raiser. “It’s just down the street from your apartment, and I happen to be privy to the fact that Keri plans on working tomorrow morning. After today, you won’t have to report back to the office until Monday—assuming her water doesn’t break, of course.”

“Of course,” he agreed.

Holly tilted her head and studied him with an eye that made him nervous. “Then why else turn me down? It’s not like Sugar Springs is a bustling hotbed with a plethora of options for a Saturday morning.”

That was true. He opened his mouth to try another tactic but came up with nothing. Finally, he simply shrugged. “I’m sorry, Holly. I didn’t come to town to date anyone.”

“Hmmm...not even Lee Ann, then?”

“What? No.” He shook his head and rose from his seat, feeling suddenly pinned in. “Absolutely not Lee Ann.”

“But you dated her once.”

God, he hated small-town gossip. “Yeah, I dated her once. Years ago. We were teenagers, we kissed, we drank milkshakes after school, end of story.”

“Except from what I hear, you also broke her heart when you went ape shit off the deep end and tore the town down, then left without so much as a good-bye.”

Hell.
Clearly the stories were flying fast and furious. Then something occurred to him. She’d only pointed out that he’d broken Lee Ann’s heart by leaving town. What about what he’d done with Stephanie? How had that not come up? It would soon enough. Unless...

He stared down at her, trying to figure out if it were honestly possible that what he’d done in the London living room that afternoon had been kept secret from the hordes of people who made gossiping a daily ritual. It was almost too unreal to believe. And then something else crossed his mind. Stephanie.

Shit, he hadn’t even thought about her. Was she around? Hopefully she’d gone back to Nashville for good after that day. If she’d remained in town for any length of time, he couldn’t imagine her not blurting to the world how she’d managed to screw over both the bad boy and her little sister, all in one fell swoop.

But from the obvious lack of knowledge on Holly’s part, it appeared that Lee Ann had somehow managed to keep that secret hidden. Otherwise, Holly would have mentioned it. After all, his behavior with Stephanie was the juiciest part of the gossip.

If Stephanie
did
happen to be in town, he now worried that the silence from that day would change. Would his being back end up causing Lee Ann even more grief than he’d already
doled out?
Damn.
He hoped not. But he couldn’t imagine him being there and the past not coming back up between the two sisters. If that happened, a single conversation held anywhere but a thick, padded room would eventually be heard by the full population of Sugar Springs.

Maybe he should have thought this plan through better.

Holly was watching him silently, a gleam in her eye. “What is it, Doc? Was there more to the story than I’m privy to?”

Christ.
He had to quit letting his thoughts roam across his face. Sitting back down, he went for calm and collected and focused hard not to say anything that could later be used against him. “Of course there wasn’t. Simply remembering the past. I hadn’t thought about it in a long time.”
Liar.
“And now I really do have to go.” He held out his hand again. “The bill?”

She pushed his hand away. “Don’t worry. The fact you have a secret is safe with me. And please, think nothing of my suggestion about the fund-raiser. I’m not after you. I merely wanted some company.” She gave him a mischievous wink. “As well as to work on one teensy secret of my own. It’s something that could benefit you as well as me, actually, if you cared to hear it.”

He lifted his brows in a questioning look before he caught himself, unable to believe that he was even mildly interested in hearing what she had to say. He felt like he was already being sucked into the cyclone that made up small-town living, and he didn’t care for it one bit.

She tucked her hair behind her ear and leaned forward. “I’m after Tucker Brown,” she whispered. “For some temporary fun—at least until I get out of town for good. He’s a teacher at the junior high and he’s playing hard to get. I thought a
little jealousy by showing up with another man might push him in my direction.”

“Ah...a woman with a plan.” He couldn’t fault her for that, but that didn’t change the fact he didn’t want to go. Doing so would place him exactly where he’d sworn to himself he wouldn’t be when he’d agreed to the job. Right smack in the middle of a big community lovefest.

His plan was to express his apologies to the general population by the simple act of doing a good job. By being the guy they could depend on while Dr. Wright was indisposed. And he’d planned to do all that from the outskirts. Being involved was not in the mix. “I must admit I admire seeing a person go after what she wants, but I don’t see how that could benefit me.”

“I’ve got a plan for you, too, of course.”

“For me?” He couldn’t imagine a scenario that would interest him.

“It involves Lee Ann.” She paused and he knew she’d said the only thing that could have gotten his attention. She snickered. “Yeah, I can see just fine from the grill line. Say what you want, but I saw the way you were watching her.”

He grunted. “I wasn’t watching.”

She smiled, a slow movement of her mouth spreading wide across rosy cheeks, and she suddenly looked even younger. “You were watching. And she was watching, too. Maybe only curiosity, maybe more, I’m not sure. But given your past, I’m willing to bet there’s something left there on both sides, even if it’s merely a proper good-bye.”

Cody considered the woman across from him, uncomfortable with the fact that she seemed to be keying in on him a bit too close to home. He hadn’t come back to Sugar Springs to start anything with Lee Ann, but he did owe her that apology.
Given the way she’d run from him that morning, he suspected it was going to be hard to trap her anywhere long enough for a conversation. Could he do it at the fund-raiser?

“You think she’ll be there?” he asked.

“I know for a fact she will be. She’s in charge this year.”

His jaw sagged, and he felt his shoulders slump with the action. In charge of a junior high fund-raiser? He shook his head. Wow, the woman had changed. She may have fit into the community fine when she was younger—and yes, she’d liked to take charge and bustle everyone around to her liking—but she’d also had goals that didn’t involve this place. And she’d had definite plans on how to get herself there.

She’d wanted to get out of town, get away from the dependency her mother had on her, and make a name for herself with her photography. Yet years later she remained in the same one-stoplight town, with a portrait studio, leading fund-raisers for a bunch of kids?

Little about that made sense.

His heart sank with his next thought.
Oh, God.
She was married with a handful of kids. Was that it? Why she’d never left?

Holly shook her head with a knowing smile. “Nope, she’s not married. Never has been.”

He could see she was holding more information that she wasn’t willing to share.

“Then why would she be in charge?” he asked.

She rose from the table and smirked down at him. “There’s one easy way for you to find out, Doc.”

Go to the damned fund-raiser myself.

He held back a groan. The last thing he wanted to do was go, but the conversation had brought up some big questions
that he found himself more curious about than he should have been. “Does the entire town still come out for these things?”

“Oh, yeah.”

He scanned the remaining customers. One man still openly scowled at him while the rest had resorted to stealing peeks, all probably trying to figure out if he planned to sneak out during the middle of the night and set the town square on fire. They weren’t going to accept him back into their community easily, and he doubted that showing up in the middle of an annual town event and upsetting one of their favorites would win him any awards, either.

He returned his attention to Holly. “I’d better not. Looks like people don’t seem overly thrilled with me being here as it is. Might be safer to stay in the background for a while.”

She angled her head as if not in total disagreement, then gave a quick nod. “You think about it, stud. Breakfast’s on me this morning, but you have to promise not to make yourself scarce around here.”

“You got it.” After eating the food placed before him, he could guarantee it. He rose to leave. “Thanks for the meal.”

As he shoved his wallet back into the pocket of his jeans and made his way to the door, Holly’s voice followed along behind him. “You know where to find me when you change your mind in the morning, Doc. Come on by. We’ll go after the breakfast shift.”

The old man to his right shot him a glare so blazing it should have singed the hair off his head. Yeah, right. Like he’d be taking any of the ladies of Sugar Springs on anything remotely resembling a date. He did not have a death wish, no matter how many stupid acts he’d pulled in his younger days.