Rolling down my window, I smile back at her when she shoots me a wide smile that glows from her bright green eyes. Cocking my head I wonder why she looks so familiar.
“Hello? Did you need help? The police station is back that way. I’m not sure what help I can be.”
“You’re Posy right? Posy Barker?”
Ice trickles down my spine. “Yes? Do I know you?”
Just as she opens her mouth, I realize why she looks so damn familiar.
“Yes, I am. Is there something you need?”
Like she’d been waiting for me to ask, she shoots me a quick, wide smile. “Why, I’d love for you to come over for dinner, Posy! I’ve heard so much about you from my boys. Especially my Stone. He’s been singing your praises all over the place. Posy this and Posy that. I wanted to get to know the girl better that has my boy so flustered and fascinated.”
Those are two words that I would never use with Stone Jacobson.
“Ummm. I don’t know…”
She taps my door and grins, backing away. “Don’t you worry, I’ll send Jules after you. We’re not fancy for dinner so wear whatever you want. About six? We eat fairly early. Gotta get some sleep before the next day’s work you know.”
She’s still talking when she turns around and walks away so fast that I don’t even get another chance to answer her.
Shaking my head, I reach over and pull the donut out of the bag, groaning when I sink my teeth into all that sweet, doughy goodness.
“So good,” I mutter under my breath and start my car.
I honestly don’t know how the hell I make it back home without wrecking. My little cottage on the outskirts of town is surrounded by drought-resistant landscaping and it’s so cutethat I usually get a charge every time I get home and lay eyes on it.
But today I’ve got some issues of my own. Namely the woman who invited me over to her place tonight.
Stone’s place. A frisson of heat curls in my belly and I groan, banging my head off the steering wheel after I park.
This same woman has been telling the whole town that I’m engaged to her son and I’m guessing he doesn’t have a clue.
Briefly I wish I was as clueless as him. It’d be so much safer.
Because a crazy thought keeps running through my mind. What if I was engaged to Stone?
My heart sings before I shove that thought down. I’m not and I never will be.
I’ve heard about Stone and there’s some reason he doesn’t like women. And then there’s the way he kissed me and then told me to get home.
He doesn’t seem like he’s interested in me at all.
And if he is, he doesn’t want to be.
I think Mrs. Jacobson is going to have to look somewhere else for her son. I don’t think he wants me at all.
Strangely, that’s the thought that makes tears spurt to my eyes. I’ve been alone a long time and it feels like I always will be.
I almost wish I really was Stone’s woman. Just to feel like I belong somewhere and that someone really wants me.
Slamming into the kitchen I start my coffee pot and wait impatiently for the black gold to stop running.
I have a feeling I’m gonna need all my faculties later today to keep from blurting out to the handsome man that I’d like to go on a real date and not with his whole family either.
Those are pointless wishes though. Nothing ever changes for me and it never will.
And that’s as it should be. Soon I’ll move on again and I’ll think about this place sometimes with a smile.
