Welcome to Bluestone 1 - Bluestone homecoming (12 page)

He searched for a blonde head among the
people milling outside, but didn’t see her, though she’d said she’d
be here when he saw her at school earlier. He’d brought his SUV
separately from his mom’s car in the hopes that he could drive
Trinity home by way of—well, anyplace that would offer them some
privacy. It killed him to see her at school and not be able to
press a kiss to her pretty mouth, to touch that golden hair. He
hadn’t let him think about the future, about what Max would think
if Leo got involved with another woman. But for now, he savored the
anticipation of being with her, touching her, knowing it wasn’t a
great secret he was keeping.

There she was, with her brother, who towered
over all and was surrounded by a number of parishioners. Leo waited
patiently by the door, where they’d have to thin out to get
through, and he’d pull Trinity aside then.

Something was wrong. He could see it in the
lines of her face, the way her lips pulled down, the blankness in
her eyes when she finally saw him, so different from the light he
usually saw when she looked at him.

He held out a hand, but she didn’t take it,
though she slipped out of the crowd to stand beside him.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“What do you mean?”

He drew a circle in the air around her face.
“This isn’t happiness to see me.”

She blew out a little laugh and offered him a
brief genuine smile. “I am happy to see you.”

“I was hoping I could drive you home
afterwards, maybe walk by the lake a bit.”

Her former expression returned. “We’ll
see.”

“Oookay.” Something was wrong, but there was
no time to find out as the meeting was called to order. He and
Trinity found chairs behind Quinn and Lily and he shifted on the
folding chair. Trinity took the legal pad from him. He watched her
face as she read it while the old business was presented. He felt
inexplicably nervous as his time to speak grew closer, especially
since Trinity was frowning as she read. He should have talked to
her about it before, and Lily and Quinn, but there hadn’t been
time, since he finished compiling the list before he picked up
Max.

Trinity handed back the pad, her brow
furrowed. Before he could ask what she thought, Lily was called
upon to talk about the progress on the concert series. She
stood.

“I tasked Leo Erickson to do the research on
this, and he has some figures to share.” She turned to him with a
flourish worthy of Vanna White.

He stood, wiping a hand down the leg of his
jeans. He bounced the edge of the pad against his thigh and scanned
the crowd. The people had become familiar to him in the two weeks
he’d been here, but still he felt a flutter of nerves, knowing he
had to convince them of the plan. “Lily asked me to price portable
stages, sound people, lighting directors and the like. The prices I
found were…not cheap.” He raised the list to read, though he knew
the prices already. He couldn’t look at the hopeful faces of the
people. The murmurs began as he read off the prices, starting with
the council.

Quinn reached around and took the pad from
him. “Where did you get these figures on stages?”

“I called around for portable stages,
reasoning we didn’t want to leave them up all week. It’s going to
be in your lot, isn’t it?”

“For this price, we can leave it up until
winter. I’m sure I could get some volunteers to build something for
a fraction of the cost.” He handed the pad back.

“It has to be a certain size if Maddox
Bradley is coming,” Leo told him. “I haven’t heard back. Then
there’s light and sound techs. And the price of electricity.” He
listed costs for all.

“I don’t see the problem,” Quinn said.
“Lily’s putting up the bands. I can cover the electricity and get
together the guys to put up a stage. All we need are the bands.” He
twisted to look up at Leo. “You’re taking care of that, too?”

“Just Maddox. Lily’s looking for other
bands.”

“I have a couple who are interested in
coming,” Lily said, rising. “I’m working on a schedule but we’re
really waiting to hear from Maddox since we want him to kick off
the series. Is there anyone who might be able to get through to him
another way? Leo’s trying through his PR department, and well,
that’s not going so great.” She looked around the room, but no one
spoke up.

“I say we go ahead with the plan,” Quinn
said. “We’ve got this.”

The mayor nodded and instructed them to move
on.

After the meeting, Leo waited outside with
Quinn while Lily and Trinity extricated themselves from the social
aspect of the meeting.

“When are you going to get started on that
stage?” Leo asked.

“Once you get me the measurements. We can go
get the lumber this week.”

“You’ve done something like this before?”

“Did the renovations on the bar myself.”

“There are renovations on the bar?” Leo
asked, confused. The place didn’t look like any improvements had
been made in twenty years.

Quinn cuffed his shoulder as the women walked
out.

“You guys coming by for a beer?” Quinn asked,
walking backwards toward the bar.

“Not tonight. I think we’re going to go for a
drive,” Leo said when Trinity approached.

Quinn’s lips twitched in understanding as he
looked from Trinity to Leo.

“Ready to go?” Leo asked Trinity, reaching
for her.

“Sure.” Avoiding his hand, she headed down
the steps toward the parking lot.

“Something wrong?” he asked, catching up to
her. Had he been premature in announcing their plans? Or had he
been too obvious?

“Just—a lot of parents here. I don’t want to
get called in for fraternizing with a parent.”

Right. Conflict of interest. He wasn’t doing
Trinity any favors here, being so open in his interest. “Trinity,
it’s a small town. Not fraternizing with parents limits your
options.”

“Tell me about it.” She stopped at the door
of his SUV.

“You don’t have to be home right away, do
you?” he asked, aware it was silly to ask a grown woman that.

“I’m not ready to go home. You? Is Max
waiting?”

“My dad tucked him in probably an hour ago.”
He unlocked the door and helped her in. Anticipation buzzed through
him as he rounded the SUV and got in, but Trinity’s mood was off.
She hadn’t been herself before the meeting, either, so…

“Something wrong?” he asked as he turned
north on the main road out of town.

“No, why?”

“You’re quiet.”

She cast him a half-smile. “What are you
saying? I’m usually talkative?”

“No, but you’re usually more, I don’t know,
energetic. So I figure something’s bothering you.”

“Nothing for you to worry about. Just—things
at home. I’ll deal.”

He waited a moment longer for her to expand,
but she didn’t. “Your parents don’t come to the town hall meetings?
Seems like a former minister would be more involved in the
town.”

She blew out a breath, and some of her
tension seemed to go with it. “The parishioners like my father more
than my brother. My father thinks it’s best that he keeps his
distance now that he’s retired and lets David take over the
leadership. It’s hard for my mother because she’s fairly social,
and David doesn’t have a wife to fulfill the duties that usually
fall to a minister’s wife. I wish they’d focus their energy on
him.”

“Instead of you?”

She nodded.

“Do they have a problem with me?”

She swept her hair behind her ear and rested
her elbow on the passenger door. “I don’t think they’re aware just
yet.”

“Then what?”

“I disappointed them once. I probably will
never be able to make that up to them.”

“So much for forgiveness.”

“Oh, they’ve forgiven me. They just haven’t
let me forget.”

“What is it that you did?” he asked with a
grin, unable to imagine.

She shook her head, lips pressed together as
if holding the secret inside. She should know better than to try to
keep a secret from a reporter. That only made him more curious.

He turned into a scenic outlook and parked,
then shifted on the seat toward her. “We can go home if you
want.”

“I don’t want.” She moved so her back was
against the passenger door, and she folded her feet on the seat in
front of her.

Okay, not the most welcoming pose for what he
had in mind. So they’d talk.

“Sorry we put all this on you, all the phone
calls and everything,” she said.

He lifted a shoulder. “It was nothing. I do
it all the time for my job.”

She angled her head. “So you’re planning to
go back?”

He turned his head to look out at the lake.
“Not until summer, anyway. I took a leave of absence.” Officially,
now, though his editor continued to call for updates on the article
he was writing, and ideas for the next assignment. Leo had deleted
the voicemails, not liking the tension that knotted his stomach
when he saw the number. That was new. He usually felt a shot of
adrenaline when the number appeared. “I figured by then I’ll know
if Max is better off here than Excelsior.”

“Is that where you’re from?”

He hadn’t told her that, had he? “Yeah, it’s
where we lived before.”

She wrapped her arms around her legs and for
a bad minute, he thought she wanted to talk about Liv. Instead she
rested her chin on her knee. “I’m trying to picture you as Mr.
Suburbs.”

“Is it that hard to imagine?”

“You pushing a lawnmower and driving carpool?
Oh, yeah.”

“To be fair, I would rather pay someone than
do any of that.” He hadn’t been home much, but he didn’t want to
talk about that, either, about the guilt he felt for wasting the
time he’d had with Liv.

“
That
I can imagine.” She softened the
words with a smile.

“I didn’t bring you here so you could find
out what a rotten human I am.”

“I know why you brought me here.” Her smile
shifted, grew sultry, as she rose on her knees. She leaned over and
curved her hand on his jaw. “I feel like an idiot teenager.”

“Not sure about you, but when I was an idiot
teenager, I didn’t have such lovely company.” He trailed his
fingers across her cheek. Damn, she was so pretty. The men in
Bluestone must be blind and ball-less, if her being a preacher’s
daughter was what kept them away.

“I’m sure you had all kinds of company, being
the smoking hot pitcher and all.” She nestled closer.

He laughed. “Smoking hot, huh?”

“No need to be modest.” She traced the line
of his hair with her fingertips. “I have ways of knowing.”

“Don’t believe everything you hear,” he
warned, and unable to resist any longer, covered her mouth with
his.

She felt so good and it had been so long. His
hands rested on her ribcage as he drew her closer, easing from
beneath the steering wheel. He wanted to lay her back on the seat,
wanted to stretch out over her, but her heart was already pounding
under his hand, her breath coming hot and ragged as they kissed. He
shifted again and pulled her onto his lap. She straddled him, took
his face in her hands and parted her lips. He curved his hands over
her ass and drew her closer. Her giggle against his mouth was the
sweetest sound, especially after her somber mood earlier. He
chuckled back, and let his hand course up her side, resting just
below her breast. The urge to fill his hand with of plump flesh
made him feel like a horny teenager.

He turned his head to her sweet-smelling
throat, her silky hair catching in his stubble, and he cupped her
breast, drawing a gasp from her. She covered his hand with hers and
for a moment he thought she would push him away. Instead, she
arched into his touch with a moan, dragging her hands over his
shoulders and down over his chest, rubbing up and down in rhythm
with his thumb on her nipple.

She turned to find his mouth with hers, and
he dipped his tongue between her lips, teasing at first, then
deeper.

She broke the kiss, pressing her hands to his
chest. “We have to—I’m sorry, Leo. I can’t.”

Disappointment rolled through him. He wasn’t
planning to make love to her, but he was reluctant to release her
just yet, to surrender the sensation of her body against his,
making his heart race just as finding the right story did. But her
hands were insistent and he recognized the tremor of nerves than
ran through her. He released her and watched her straighten her
clothes, not looking at him. Her earlier tension had returned.

He didn’t like seeing her like this. “Sorry,”
he said quietly. “Got a little carried away.”

She turned to smile brightly, but the
expression was forced. “I did too. It’s just—been a long day and
it’s another long day tomorrow and I really don’t want to make love
in the front seat of an SUV.” All of this was said on a breath.

He huffed out a laugh. “No. I need a proper
bed to do it right. Unlikely with both of us living at home.”

For a moment she said nothing, and he
wondered if he presumed too much, that making love was a foregone
conclusion. A thought struck him, hard enough to knock the breath
from him. She was a reverend’s daughter, a reverend’s sister who
lived at home. Was she a virgin? She couldn’t be, could she? Not
and kiss like that.

Even if she wasn’t, she couldn’t have a lot
of experience, had probably never slept in a man’s arms. Jesus,
that was a big responsibility on him.

Whoa, wait a minute. Yes, she was beautiful
and he wanted her, but how had he gotten from there to figuring out
how to spend the night with her? That would take some serious
manipulation. And if she was as innocent as he suspected, virgin or
not, she’d have expectations. He couldn’t deal with that just now.
He wasn’t staying.

“I’ll get you home,” he murmured, and put the
car in gear.

When he pulled in front of her house, she
straightened her clothes one last time and ran up the sidewalk
without another look back.