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“Kim, I—” Jecca felt it was only fair to again tell of her connection to Tristan, about their many calls, even their flirtations, but Kim wasn’t listening. She was pushing her way through the three-person-deep crowd around her brother.
Jecca could feel herself getting nervous. When she was nineteen she’d had such a huge crush on Reede that she’d thought it was True Love. Over the years she’d often made Reede her “happy place.” When she broke up with her last boyfriend she’d spent hours on the phone with Kim, and she’d calmed Jecca down by telling of her brother’s latest trip into some jungle to save people.
Now Jecca was wondering what she was going to feel when she saw him again. Would her history with him eclipse her last few days with Tristan?
“Excuse me!” Kim said loudly for what had to be the eighth time. She practically elbowed a pretty girl who was standing her ground, which was smack in front of Reede, no more than two feet from him. When the young woman looked like she was ready to fight rather than step aside, Kim said, “I’m his sister!”
Kim moved into place and pulled Jecca up beside her. “Here she is!” Kim said as she propelled Jecca forward.
“Wow!” Reede said, looking Jecca up and down. “You grew up.”
She saw that Reede looked older than his years, but his sun-browned skin set well on him. His eyes had the look of someone who’d seen things in the world that no one should have to see. It went through her mind that if she hadn’t met Tristan since she’d been in town, she would probably have made a serious effort to get to know Reede better.
“And you’re wearing clothes,” she said.
“I do sometimes.” He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off of her. Mrs. Wingate had lent Jecca pearls, real ones, and they emphasized the classic lines of the dress. “Did you wear that for me?”
The nervousness Jecca had been feeling left her. While Reede was a very sexy man, that old feeling of lust she’d once felt for him was no longer there. When she’d been in New York and thought about seeing him again, she’d assumed it would be like rekindling a long-lost love. She’d expected the years to fall away as though they didn’t exist. But the truth was that Reede was a stranger. Even more important, that tingly feeling she used to have whenever he was near was gone.
While she and Reede were looking at each other, his father pushed his way through the people. “Reede,” he said, “I have someone I want you to meet.” He saw where his son’s eyes were looking and turned. “My goodness, Jecca, but you look lovely! It’s so nice to see a woman in something besides blue jeans. I’ll bring Reede right back to you. Promise.”
Kim seemed to expect Jecca to stand there and wait for Reede to return, but she didn’t want to do that. Jecca had found out what she wanted to know. There would never be anything serious between her and Reede.
When Mrs. Aldredge asked for Kim’s help, Jecca was glad. There was a person she was very interested in seeing: the woman Tristan said he’d almost fallen in love with. Since he’d told her that, Jecca had wondered what he&derere was a#8217;d meant. Had he fallen for her, but when she chose another man, did Tris force himself to fall out of love with her? Or had it been her doing? Had there been some unpleasant scene where he offered and she refused?
Most of all, Jecca wanted to know what kind of woman had been able to nearly capture Tristan’s heart.
Kim was busy helping her mother put food out, but Jecca asked her to point out a woman named Gemma.
“There,” Kim said. “See the big guy? That’s Colin Frazier, our sheriff, and Gemma’s his wife. She usually doesn’t get too far from him. Why do you want to know?”
Jecca was saved from answering by someone asking where the club soda was. She slipped away to join the group that surrounded the large man. She stood across from him and tried to not be too obvious as she stared. He was a very large man, tall, big-boned, and heavily muscled. While it was true that he was handsome, that was secondary to the size of him.
When he noticed Jecca looking at him, he nodded to her over the top of his beer, and it looked like he was on the verge of introducing himself. Jecca was about to turn away when she saw a woman standing to his side. She was pretty, but in an ordinary way, certainly not the type of face that inspired jealousy in anyone. Even though she was pregnant, Jecca could see that the woman worked out. Her arms, which were exposed by her sleeveless dress, were beautifully shaped by muscle.
As though Gemma knew she was being watched, she turned and looked at Jecca. Her eyes glowed with intelligence, as though she were interested in everything about Jecca, from who she was to where her dress came from.
Jecca had wanted to dislike the woman, wanted to be able to wonder what Tristan had ever seen in her. Instead, she had an urge to get her into a quiet corner and talk to her about the designs for the playhouse. Jecca couldn’t help thinking that she and the woman could be friends.
Gemma seemed to feel the same way, and she took a step toward Jecca. But Jecca turned away. She was afraid that if they met she would blurt out questions about Tristan.
Jecca quickly moved back into the crowd and started toward the far door. She’d seen what she wanted to, so there was no reason for her to stay. But just as she got near the door, the crowd parted enough that she saw a little girl, about eight, sitting in a big chair. She was an extraordinarily pretty child, angelic-looking really, and her arm was tucked around a teddy bear. She had on a yellow-and-green-striped sundress with a little green
jacket, an outfit that was almost as grown-up as what Jecca had on. And her eyelashes were like feathers. Jecca knew without a doubt that this was Nell, the girl she’d talked to several times on the phone. And if Nell was there, that meant Tristan was too.
Suddenly, Jecca began to hear quiet. That was an odd thing to think, but it was the only way to describe it. Nell was looking toward the front door, away from Jecca, and people there had stopped talking. They were looking at something—or someone.
By some inner sense, Jecca knew it was Tristan. It looked like he had returned a day early and now he was coming for her. She was no longer going to be in a roomful of strangers. The tingly sensation she’d once felt for Reede came back to her. Since she’d returned to Edilean, Tristan had overtaken her every thought. Her life had become intertwined wiint quicklyth his.
With her breath held and her heart pounding in her throat, Jecca stood where she was, at the end of the long room, and waited.
People stopped talking, and the silence spread; it was coming closer to her. The women in the kitchen came out to see why everyone was growing quiet.
From across the crowd, Jecca could see the top of Tristan’s head, so she knew when he halted. He was directly in front of her, but a lot of people were blocking her view of him. She could see that he was waiting for them to step back. The crowd of people began to slowly step aside. The ones closest to her looked at Jecca, then moved back toward the sides of the room. Only Nell stayed where she was in the big chair. She turned to look at Jecca and smiled, then she too looked back at her uncle.
When the last person had moved away, Jecca finally saw Tristan. If she didn’t know him as a person, she was sure she would have been staggered by the sheer beauty of him. He was wearing his tuxedo, his arm no longer in a cast, and he was as handsome as any man she’d ever seen. Whether it was on a screen, in a photo, or in person, no man she’d ever seen was better looking than he was. His black hair, his blue eyes, his broad shoulders, all of it was perfection.
But what Jecca actually saw was more than his physical beauty. She saw the man inside. Their meetings in the moonless night, their touches, their laughter, all came to mind. Their involvement in each other’s lives was between them. His niece, her father, his cousins, her friends, all of it was there.
