Night Heat (Forged of Steele 2)

Leah couldn’t help but remember those times. Jocelyn had been close to their father and she had been close to their mother. She’d died when Leah had been only twelve, and all Leah could remember was how empty she’d felt. Jocelyn had always been Daddy’s girl and hadn’t experienced the same sense of loss as Leah had. From the day they’d placed her mother in the ground, Leah couldn’t wait to move away from a town filled with loneliness for her without the mother she had adored.

“I was sorry to hear about your dad, Leah. Everyone around here was. He was a good man.”

Leah nodded. She hadn’t realized just what a good man he was until she’d found herself alone, hurt and out in California on her own. More than once she’d come close to picking up the phone and telling him what had happened to her and why she’d left the way she had. But shame had kept her from doing so.

Her only saving grace was actually someone with the name of Grace. How she had ended up on the woman’s doorstep one night, she still wasn’t sure. All she knew was that she was convinced she’d heard footsteps behind her while walking home alone from the restaurant where she’d worked. Remembering what had happened to her before, she had gone almost stone-crazy and had run to the first house she’d come to and begged for help.

Help had come in the way of an older woman, no bigger than a mite, who had offered her safety. Grace Thorpe had been a godsend. After making sure Leah was safe, she’d offered her food to eat and a place to stay, much better than the dump where she’d been living.

Grace’s two sons had threatened to move their mother in with them and their wives on a rotating basis, not wanting the old woman to live alone anymore. What Grace had needed was a companion, someone to be there with her during the day and to do the grocery shopping and drive Grace to church on Sundays. Since Leah worked at the restaurant at night, she grabbed the opportunity.

Half an hour later after leaving the hair salon, Leah was strolling through downtown Newton Grove, checking out the various shops and noticing what changes the town had made over the years. After living in the hustle and bustle of L.A. for five years, she appreciated the solitude and quiet a place like Newton Grove offered. She’d never realized how much she missed living in this town until now.

Tossing her hair out of her eyes, she kept walking, remembering a place close by that used to sell breakfast and wondering if it was still open. She had gotten up early and had started a pot of coffee but hadn’t made breakfast for herself, or her sister, who rarely took the time for breakfast.

Jocelyn.

Leah couldn’t help but wonder what was going on with her sister. There was never a time she didn’t think her older sister was in control and made things happen just the way she wanted. But now, at twenty-three, Leah was seeing things through different eyes, more appreciative and caring eyes, and she hoped that whatever had caused Jocelyn to walk the floor last night would go away.

Leah passed in front of a store window and stopped. Then she noticed what had grabbed her attention. It was a baby store with a number of items on display. She pulled her jacket closer around her and not for the first time she remembered the dream she’d had to let go of years ago.

She would never have the baby she always wanted. A little one she could bounce on her knee, sing lullabies to and sprinkle with the scent of baby powder. She had dreamed about this child of hers for so long and how he would look up at her with dark-brown eyes and the same smile that had gone straight to her heart—like his father’s had done six years ago. There was nothing that could even make her think of staying in Newton Grove until she had met Reese the summer before her senior year of high school.

Love and caring hadn’t meant a damn thing to her until then. The only thing she wanted to do was hurry up and graduate and haul ass, go as far west and away from Tennessee as a plane ticket could take her.

Then, in a slow, methodical process Reese had broken down her defenses. He had done something no one else had been able to do—he’d understood her loss. He had listened when she had wanted to talk about her mother. He had understood her pain and sense of loss because he had experienced those same things himself when he’d lost his father at sixteen. With patience, care and understanding, he had made her fall in love with him in a way that was so complete that she hadn’t thought of leaving town. The only thing she had wanted to do was to hang around, marry him and have his babies.