Ever After (Nantucket Brides 3)

“You are too much! Just behave yourself and don’t hurt Braden.”

“Hurt him?” Jamie said. “What makes you think I’d—?” But Hallie had left the big pantry and closed the door behind her. He leaned back against the wall and closed his eyes. He did need to get himself under control.

There was a sound, as though something on the shelves had moved. He opened his eyes and saw that by the door into the tea room, a little wooden butter mold had fallen to the floor. When he picked it up and put it back on the shelf, he saw the piles of clothes on the couch. He could tell the clothes were for him and he guessed that Hallie had brought them back from her shopping trip.

Why had she left them in the tea room? Why hadn’t she shown them to him?

All he could figure out was that she was very angry at him about something, but he had no idea what. All day yesterday, every time he got too near her, she jumped away. She had stayed intently focused on trying to find a job somewhere in the U.S. If he so much as mentioned that he might possibly like to spend time with her past when his knee was healed, she bit his head off.

Jamie had backed down, pretended to read a book, and just answered questions. He refrained from saying, “I have PTSD. What’s your excuse?” He didn’t think Hallie’s bad mood would allow her to laugh.

But that evening, the arrival of a drunken, stinking, blond lawyer had turned her into a pot of melting honey. Instantly, her snapping turtle persona was gone and in its place was an ooey-gooey, eyelash-batting girl who nearly swooned at the sight of a skinny, pale guy with regurgitated beer down the front of his shirt.

Jamie was sure his own actions got him some high marks in Heaven. He had helped his rival get into bed, checked his vitals, and even got the boys to help clean him up a bit.

All for Hallie.

Jamie picked up a sweater off the couch. It was exactly the kind he liked: good quality but not flashy. The complete opposite of that hideous ring that was nearly welded to Hallie’s finger.

“You two did this, didn’t you?” he said aloud to the spirits in the room. “You’re two well-meaning old biddies who want Hallie to get a whole man, not a damaged one like me. That’s what this is about, isn’t it?”

Jamie threw the sweater back onto the couch. “The hell with the lot of you!” He turned on his crutches and went out the door. He needed to get dressed for his aunt’s wedding and as soon as it was over he was going home. Back to Colorado, where only horses stamped a man’s heart to the ground.

In the tea room, two beautiful young women looked at each other and smiled. In their experience, sometimes you had to light a fire under a man to get him to do what he should.

Chapter Nineteen

“Hallie,” Braden said when she entered the kitchen. He’d showered, washed his hair, and put on one of Jamie’s sweatshirts—which hung on him. “I was beginning to think I’d dreamed you last night.”

“No, I’m very real. Want some coffee? There are muffins on the table.”

“Actually, I am hungry, but I don’t see the muffins.”

Hallie looked up from the coffee pot and saw that the basket was gone. She looked under the table, but it wasn’t there either.

> “Wind blow them off?” he asked.

“Something like that. How about some toast?” She had to turn away so he wouldn’t see her blush. Jamie tossing her onto the table must have sent the whole basket flying somewhere.

“Hallie, you look great. Have you lost weight?”

“I think so, but I don’t know how. There’s a B&B next door and the owner’s mother brings us lavish teas with cakes and cookies, and we eat every bite.”

“The ‘we’ refers to you and your client? Is he the big guy I just met? On crutches?”

“Yes, that’s Jamie. He got you into bed last night.”

“I’ll have to thank him.”

Hallie put a plate of buttered toast in front of him.

“That’s an interesting ring you’re wearing,” Braden said.

Hallie tugged at it but it didn’t move. “Sorry. I couldn’t get it off. Jamie tried but no luck.” She poured him a cup of coffee. “I’ll stay away from the salt today and it’ll come off.”

“I think it looks good on you. I didn’t, by chance, ask you to marry me, did I?”

Hallie smiled as she cracked eggs into a bowl. “’Fraid you did, but I won’t hold you to it.”