Wishes At First Light. Joanne RockЧитать онлайн книгу.
identifiable in the black nylon case.
She ordered a vegetable scramble and coffee while he got the âBig Buckâ platter with some of everything on it. His appetite hadnât changed. Heâd always been a bottomless pit at mealtime. Familiarity felt good in the middle of so much change in him.
âI thought you were lured here by the scent of bacon?â he said when the red-headed waitress departed with their menus.
âIâm actually a vegetarian. Just because I donât eat bacon doesnât mean I canât love the smell. I think itâs universally the most missed food of the vegetarian world.â
The waitress returned with two mugs and a coffee carafe, pouring them each a cup before hustling off to the next table. The place was busy with most of the tables filled and a half dozen uniformed wait staff serving the crowd. With a backwoods theme heavy on pine logs and willow branches in the decor, the restaurant hadnât changed since the last time sheâd been here, right down to Rodney and his wife holding court at a table near the kitchen with some other local old-timers including Mrs. Spencer and Harlan Brady. The two looked to be an item now, judging by the way he kissed her ringed fingers and whispered in her ear.
So sweet. Mrs. Spencer had been a widow for a long time even when Gabriella left town.
âIn that caseââ Clayton raised his coffee mug and clinked it to hers on the table ââcheers to your restraint.â
âCheers.â Picking up her own cup, she saluted him briefly before taking a sip. The strong java soothed her nerves for a moment and gave her an excuse to plot a course of action with him. How much should she say over breakfast? She sure as heck couldnât blurt out her past in the middle of Heartacheâs most popular breakfast joint.
First, sheâd do some fact-gathering. Get to know what heâd been up to these last years. Then maybe she could ask to see him another time. Privately.
Even thinking about it made her jittery all over again. Hot and cold. She swallowed hard and took another long swig of her coffee.
âSo I just left your brotherâs house.â He eased back from the table to sprawl one arm along the back of the booth. âI was staying with him to keep an eye on his fiancée after she was threatened, but it seems like Sam has nailed down where the threats were coming from.â
The mention of the threats made her struggle not to wince from the old guilt about not coming forward. But she needed to repeat the mantra from the counselor sheâd seen. It wasnât her fault. She wasnât responsible for the actions of others.
Easier chanted than believed.
At least she wasnât caught flat-footed by what Clay had said. Gabriella had spoken to her friend Amy Finley, whoâd given her the heads-up that Clayton was in town, sparking last nightâs bad dream. She hadnât spoken to her brother much since his fiancéeâs frightening ordeal with Covington, but it didnât surprise her that Zach had hired someone to help protect the woman he loved.
âThat was good of you. I havenât called Zach yet to let him know Iâm back in town. I just got in yesterday.â She had been on a speaking tour these last two weeks and had taken a last-minute engagement in Nashville prior to her trip to Heartache, putting her in town a bit earlier than sheâd anticipated since sheâd decided it wasnât worth flying back home first.
And while she should have known, at least in a peripheral way, that Clayton might end up in Heartache for the Hastingsâ family foster reunion, she hadnât really expected he would show up until Amy had told her the news. For one thing, he had always looked forward to putting distance between himself and his birth father, who lived just outside Heartache. Heâd made it clear he was never setting foot in this town after graduation. Besides, sheâd probably only added to his reasons to dislike Heartache when sheâd left without saying goodbye. Then again, maybe it was silly of her to think that her leaving town abruptly might have affected him one way or another.
âDid you come for the Covington trial?â he asked, his jacket drifting open to show off the gray tee underneath it and more muscles she didnât remember.
The trial? Tough to chant the mantra with so many dark shadows lurking around every corner here. Her counselor had also told her if the mantra didnât work, find a positive distraction. Lucky for her, she had one right across the booth.
If sheâd just met him today for the first time, she would have never gotten up the nerve to flirt with him. Heâd turned out far too handsome. Sheâd been a lot braver as a teen before her world fell apart.
âYes,â she answered tightly, uncertain how much he knew about what happened to her. âIâm not sure what youâve heard about that night I left town. But if youâve been staying with Zach...â She let the words hang, hoping heâd fill in the blanks.
It would be strange having the whole town know her long-kept secrets. Once her testimony against Jeremy Covington was made public during the trial, the truth about her past would be common knowledge.
âYour brother told me youâd been cyber stalked and ran into trouble at the quarry with a masked man.â His jaw flexed. âSam roughed up the guy he now knows must have been Covington and you left Heartache with Sam and your brother to prevent Sam from being brought up on charges since heâd had run-ins with the law in his past.â He summarized it neatly, his eyes steady on hers and giving her no reason to believe he knew more than he was telling.
Or that he thought badly of her for running away without telling anyone. Later in life, sheâd learned some of her motherâs family thought she and Zach were highly ungrateful children for leaving their mother in âher time of needâ after their father went to jail. What her mother wanted had been the last thing on her mind at the time. Gabriella had done all she could do to keep herself together. Two weeks after that attack, sheâd overdosed and was lucky to be alive.
âRight.â Gabriella leaned back from the table as their food arrived, the plates still steaming as the waitress set them down on the plank table. âMy brother came back to town a couple of years ago to find some closure. Since we didnât report the guy to the cops at the time, weâd always worried what if it wasnât an isolated incident. Turns out, it wasnât. And now theyâve finally caught Jeremy Covington.â
âA former town council member and a prominent local business owner.â Clayton shook his head as he tossed some pepper on his eggs. âI couldnât believe the story when I read it in the Memphis newspaper. I didnât find out until I spoke to Zach that youâd been a victim, too.â He set the shaker down and reached across the table to cover her hand with his. âIâm so damn sorry, Gabby.â
The contact was brief, but the sympathy in his gaze lingered. And even after all this time, she welcomed that. Appreciated his words.
âThank you.â She cleared her throat and willed away the sudden emotion. âIâve done a lot of healing since then with the help of a good counselor, but Iâve been back here a few times and it is always a mixed blessing for me.â
âIâve never been a fan of this town myself. But I hear youâve got a home out on the West Coast.â He speared a forkful of pancake and focused on his food, a kindness that helped her get her emotions back under control.
She took a bite of her veggie scramble and tried not to think about all she wasnât saying. All the ways Clayton figured into that life-changing night that sent her running in the first place.
âItâs a town home in San Jose with a rooftop garden that lets me pretend I still have a yard and can grow things.â Her mind drifted home while he shoveled through his breakfast. She loved that garden, opening it up to the town home association residents as a community