Griffin swore in French, but his meaning was perfectly clear. “Do you honestly believe I’m grabbing for an excuse to stop seeing you?”
“No, I’m not that insecure, but I can’t bear to have you mad at me.”
She looked so contrite Griffin did
n’t doubt her remorse, but neither could he overlook how careless he’d been. “I really like the fact that you’re a spontaneous person who runs with her instincts. It makes for great sex, but there’s a whole lot more at stake here. Let me sort it out on my own.”
“Do I have any choice?”
“No, but I will call you when I get home.”
He swung the door open and walked out before she could tell him that she’d heard that one before, but this time, she felt truly abandoned.
Chapter Fifteen
Christy Joy had requested a couple of days to sleep before they had dinner together, but by Friday afternoon, Jeremy couldn’t wait any longer to see her. He was surprised to find the sandbags gone from the front door, the shop open and Mary Beth behind the counter. If he hadn’t known better, he would have believed the week had been as balmy as any other.
“Hi, Captain,” Mary Beth called as he entered. “I’m glad to see you didn’t go down with your ship in the storm.”
“Impossible, I float like a cork. Where’s Christy Joy?”
“She went to the market, but she’ll be back in a minute. Want to leave a message?”
Jeremy couldn’t think of a thing he’d care to say or write for Mary Beth to pass along. “No, thanks, just tell her I stopped by.”
He wandered on out to the nursery, where Darcy and the men were stacking pots outside the shed. “Need another hand?” he asked.
“Thanks, but what I really need is to call the carpenter who built the arbor up at Griffin’s. He’ll be expensive, but he’ll be able to really repair the shed, while all we can do is prop it up.”
“Won’t Griffin foot the bill? After all, you are his tenants.”
Darcy glanced away. “He’s leaving for France, but I’ll try to find a time to discuss it with him.”
“Come on, he’d do just about anything to please you,” Jeremy offered with a ready grin.
After the scene they’d suffered through that morning, Darcy harbored no such romantic illusions and promptly redirected their conversation. “I’m going to mark everything down and have a gigantic clearance sale out here. Do you have time to help change prices?”
“Sure, just show me where to begin.”
Darcy put him right to work. She was grateful to be able to keep busy rather than dwell on the mess she’d made with Griffin. They hadn’t known each other long, so despite Jeremy’s optimistic assurance, she doubted she’d built up enough good will to win his forgiveness. Especially when in his view she’d carelessly jeopardized the security of the free world. But at least she could whip the nursery into shape.
Jeremy was relieved to have something useful to do so he wasn’t just hanging around until Christy Joy arrived home. When half an hour later she parked in the back, he hurried out to help her carry the shopping bags upstairs.
Once they had everything inside, she began fumbling through her groceries to sort them and put them away. “We were lucky the power came on before everything I had in the freezer was ruined. Not that Twink and I eat a great deal, mind you, but I seemed to have run out of everything.”
Jeremy reached for his wallet. “Let me pay for some of this. After all, Griffin and I ate more than our share while we were here.”
“No, I wouldn’t think of it,” she insisted, “not after all the hard work you put in.”
He slid his wallet back in his pants, but he still felt he owed her. “Thank you, but it was my pleasure. Now we talked about having dinner, would you rather wait until tomorrow night?”
Christy Joy stacked the soup cans in the cupboard before answering. “I know we talked about going out, but—”
Jeremy’s heart fell. “You’ve changed your mind?”
“No, not at all, and it would obviously be easier to go out while Twink’s with her dad, but she called me last night before she went to bed, and I don’t want to miss talking with her.”
Relieved she hadn’t just shown him the door, Jeremy reined in his grin before it became reckless. “The restaurants are all open late on the weekends. We could go out after Twink calls.”