She hesitated before closing the distance between them and stretching out on the tip of her toes to press her lips to his cheek.They were warm, like heated pillows that carried the scent of coconut on them thanks to her lip balm.Christ, now she’d ruined one of his favorite beachy smells, too.
“Thank you, Jace.You saved my life.”
And you’ve damned mine, he thought, though he’d keep that to himself.None of this was her fault.She turned to go, her gaze still on him, a look he didn’t recognize on her face.Was it hurt?Regret?
“You’re welcome.Take care of your friend and her husband.He’ll need all the support he can get.And hey,” he added.She stopped, a hopeful look in her eyes.“Make sure that kid grows up to know this isn’t his fault.”
She nodded, the corners of her lips and eyes falling again.
“I will.”
And with those two words, she strode back into the house.He closed his eyes against the heat that built behind them.
Fuck.How the hell had he inadvertently met the woman of his dreams, married her, made love to her in an act filled with more intimacy than he’d ever shared with anyone, and lost her, all in the span of less than two weeks?He was a record-breaking chump, wasn’t he?
He shook his head, willing the pain and images of Aurelie from his head.He had shit to do if he was still going to make this his home, and not a lot of time to do it.
In a matter of minutes, he had plans to fly Max up here, as well as a realtor to put his apartment in LA on the market.All without Cammie’s help.
He liked knowing that his efforts to make a new life for himself were on his shoulders.It brought him back to before he’d headed out to Hollywood with nothing but a backpack of clothes and dreams and a handful of cash to keep him afloat.Every single thing he’d achieved had been through hard work and a fierce determination not to end up back in Banberry.The irony wasn’t lost on him.
That led him to his next call.Or rather, string of calls.
Now that he had a name, tracking down Isaac Puckman’s contracts wasn’t all that hard.Hell, in this day and age of technology, it was a wonder the asshole’s plans had stayed as hidden as long as they had.
Jace ignored the scent of coconut and lime assaulting his senses when he stormed through the door of his new apartment.In mere minutes, he had an appointment with Puckman under the guise of becoming a silent business partner.
The only thing left was a call to his lawyer.
He got the list of properties Puckman had scooped up from failing ranches and the pending negotiations Puckman’s shell corporations had on the chopping block next.
“Are you sure you wanna go down this road?”his lawyer asked.“You’ve worked your ass off to get where you are.Is this worth it?”
Jace pinched his eyes shut, breathed in the overwhelming scent of Aurelie that he couldn’t shake no matter how hard he tried.She’d infiltrated him on a cellular level, and even though two weeks ago he’d have been asking himself the same questions Randall asked him now, something had fundamentally changed.
Simply put, he’d fallen in love.
Not just with Aurelie; he’d fallen in love with the beauty that surrounded Banberry, with the quiet that crept up on him from all sides of the expansive forests, the rugged peaks that promised adventures he’d found only during his trips to Europe.He’d even fallen in love with the quaint and charming town for the first time in his life.
“I’m as sure as anything I’ve done before.Hell, what’s the good of all the money and street cred if I can’t use it to my advantage every now and then?”
Randall laughed.“Okay.Give me a couple hours.I want to make sure we don’t miss anything.If we show our hand too quickly, we lose the element of surprise.If I’m right about my hunch, he’ll only get bolder, especially if he hasn’t been caught this far into his master plan.”
“You bet.I’ll wait for your call.”
Jace hung up the phone feeling more than a little optimistic.Besides being surrounded by the home of his new bride while she was nowhere in sight, he had a feeling this would work out.All of it.
Damn his eternal optimism, but it coursed through his nerve endings now.
When he walked back to the bedroom, he noticed the closet door Aurelie had accidentally taken off its track was shoved to the back of the small room.He rolled up his sleeves, intent on fixing the door for her, but when he saw the track itself was damaged, he typed out a list on his phone of parts he’d need to fix it for her.He’d need some new tools, too, since his dad’s were older and more in line with ranch needs; damn, he didn’t think his father had updated a single thing in the now-demolished ranch house.But the cows and horses bedded down in a state-of-the-art stable and barn.
He shook his head.At least he’d prioritize some of the right things this go-around.To that end, he might as well add some power tools and essentials to his repertoire.
If memory served him right, there was a hardware store in town he could swing by while he waited to hear back from Randall.He went to the bathroom and washed his hands, only to find the shower stuck on a slow drip.Damn, it wouldn’t budge, either.Well, add it to the list.
It felt good to get moving on something that would warrant some immediate results, something that would keep his hands and mind occupied so he didn’t go crazy thinking about Aurelie.
Before he knew it, he was in Mike’s Hardware store with a cart and a half of supplies, including every tool he thought he might need on his farm once the house was built.Where the damn hell he was gonna store all this crap until then was beyond him, but at least he didn’t have to worry about Aurelie coming home to a leaky nozzle and broken door.He wasn’t a journeyman or anything, but he could be handy if the situation called for it.Banberry and his father had done their best to leave a mark on him, and at least this time it would benefit someone he loved.
