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Janie.
His Janie.
She couldn’t fall for someone else.
Janie swam in heady giddiness. Even several minutes after Grady Briggs had touched the brim of his cap, given her a shy half grin that revealed white teeth and a dimpled chin, and thanked her for the pie. And coffee. And the two refills of said coffee.
Goodness, but that man washandsome. And he’d come to her café specifically to taste her pie. He’d sat there specifically to talk with her.
Probably.
Most men didn’t linger over three cups of black coffee because they had nothing else to do. There were smartphones, after all. Games to play. Google to search. They didn’t just hang out in a mostly empty café for over an hour just to pass the time.
Did they?
Then again, this was Luna, and the man was new. Maybe he just had time to kill before a meeting or something.
I’m looking forward to some more pie, Janie Truitt.
Her heart fluttered as she leaned one elbow against the counter, propping her chin against her palm. Ignoring the supper prep that was calling to her from the kitchen, she watched Grady stride toward the Game and Parks truck parked across the road in front of the Pantry, his athletic form filling out those green pants and that gray button-down in a way that could make any girl gawk with appreciation. And Janie was sure appreciating. She sighed, a girly, swoony sound as she indulged in the last thing Grady had said before he’d walked out of her shop.
“Just as soon as possible.”
Uh, yes please! And make it quick.
That was flirting, right? Her pathetically lonely heart hadn’t made it something it wasn’t, had it?
Surely not.
Time would tell. But Janie willed Grady Briggs to find a place to rent in Luna for the next few months while he traveled to Yellowstone for his ranger gig and conducted his study on the western spotted skunk. (Ew. But if that had that sort of man hanging around Luna . . .) More, she hoped he would make himself a regular at her counter.
She’d need to work on her own flirting game. Her history had given her limited experience at that. And she’d have to work to be better at banishing Hunter’s brown eyes, all warm and intense, from poking from her memory at the most inconvenient moments. But those were doable.
So what if she hadn’t flirted in years, nor accomplished the latter item since Hunter had gone and come back home. She was a smart woman. Mountain bred and as tough as the alpine winter. She could do it.
With the help of a handsome, dark-haired man and his slow, melt-her-like-butter-on-hot-biscuits smile, Janie would finally leave whatever lingering feelings she had for Hunter Wallace in the past.
Thatwas long overdue.
Four
Bennettdroppedontotheoverstuffed chair in his mom’s living room, noting absently that the flower upholstery—a cottage-style from the early 2000s—was badly faded and the seat cushion poked at his backside. Had she owned it since before the divorce? Sheesh, that was a long time. It was time Mom had something new. He’d take her shopping—though she’d protest—before he headed back to Montana.
But old furniture wasn’t the pressing item weighing on his mind right then. Leaning forward, he ran his fingers through his freshly cut hair, then folded his hands to use them to prop up his chin.
“The visit has been long, huh?” Mom passed one of the two mugs she carried to him and then turned to move to the matching faded couch. She cozied into the corner and tucked her feet up close beside her. “Talk to me, Bennett.”
Bennett blew the steam across the top of the spiced tea Mom had given him and then sighed. “He wants me to take the kids.”
Having just sipped her tea, Mom coughed. “Your dad wants you to take your siblings?”
Nodding, Bennett met Mom’s shocked expression. “Unbelievable, right?”
She blinked twice before answering. “For how long?”
“Four months. Maybe the whole school year.” Bennett shook his head, still dazed by his father’s cavalier request. “He didn’t know.”
“School has already started, hasn’t it?”
