She was several orders in when Wiley Scott, the former owner and editor of the Recorder, called after her.
“Why, if it isn’t my favorite story chaser!” he said.
“Boisterous as ever,” she said, going over to where he sat at the bar.
They hugged, and if she didn’t know better, she would’ve thought that Wiley was putting out an extra effort to welcome her amid the other cold shoulders.
He held her away from him, giving her a paternal once-over. He was a man who looked far more likely to be at home at a chuck wagon than anywhere else. His silver hair stood up on one side, as if he’d had his hand against that part of his head as he leaned his elbow on the bar.
It was obvious that there was true pride in him as he squeezed her arm. Besides her family, he’d been one of the first people she’d told about the journalism scholarship for the University of California. Such an earned honor didn’t happen to very many miner’s kids in St. Valentine.
“How’re you doing?” she asked.
“I hate retirement. I should’ve never sold the paper to Davis. That’s how I’m doing.”
At the sound of Davis’s name, a tap-tap-tap went off in Violet’s chest. She blushed and hoped Wiley didn’t notice.
“Speaking of which,” he said kiddingly, “I saw you going into the Recorder while I was walking here. You looking for a new job?”
Obviously, her parents hadn’t told him about the layoff yet.
“No.” She fiddled with her ordering pad. “The Times had to cut staff, but something’s bound to come down the pike any time now.” She didn’t add that she hopefully would be back on her feet and in the city long before she even had time to settle at a desk here.
“That’s a real shame, but if anyone can land on all fours, it’s you.” He drained his beer mug. A line of foam clung to his bristled upper lip before he wiped it away with his flannel shirtsleeve. “Too bad you won’t stick around for a place on the Recorder, though. You and Davis made a good team back in the day. I remember how well you two worked together whenever you’d come in to get the school paper printed in the office.”
She thought of standing next to Davis just under a half hour ago, thought of how good he still smelled, like cedar chips, fresh and manly.
Manly. He was a man, no longer a boy, and her body was reacting to that.
She realized it’d been like that, too, back in high school, every time he’d stood close by, leaning over her shoulder while she’d typed up a story.
And she would’ve pretended to ignore him before he’d broken open her emotional dam with one kiss. But, deep down, she would’ve gone weak, her pulse warbling as she wished he would tease her some more. That he would adore her just as much as she did him, even though she would’ve died before admitting it first.
Not that any of it mattered now, even as Wiley gave her a mischievous glance, as if he could tell just what she was thinking.
Obviously, when he’d retired from reporting, he hadn’t left everything behind.
Violet signaled to her dad behind the bar so he’d get Wiley another beer. “Anything else you need?”
He rested a hand on her arm. “Yeah. I need for you to keep that chin up, even as you’re eating humble pie.”
He didn’t have to explain—not when he was sending a loaded look to the rest of the people in the room.
Like her great-aunt Jeanne, Wiley had pumped up all her aspirations. It was just that he hadn’t died and left her with the final advice of Follow your dreams for me, okay? That push had persuaded Violet that she needed to leave this little town and go for it outside someday.
She half smiled at his suggestion. Humble pie. Sounded appropriate for a person who’d returned here temporarily to lick her wounds. But how could she take that first step with everyone, show them that she didn’t hold St. Valentine in contempt as much as they probably thought she did?
Before she could ask Wiley, his gaze widened as he looked at something behind her.
When she turned around, she almost smacked into the wall of a man’s chest.
She looked up into Davis Jackson’s face, his blue eyes unreadable, and her blood began to churn in her veins.
She couldn’t do much more than stare up at Davis, who had loosened the tie from around his neck, giving him a devil-may-care appearance. He’d shocked her with his unexpected presence, and now desire was flaring over her, sending the fine hairs on her arms to standing straight.
She didn’t have to guess what he was seeing in her—her eyes were probably like a fawn in the headlights. And the heat on her cheeks …
Probably couldn’t be more obvious.
As they locked gazes, someone turned on the jukebox, and a Carrie Underwood song brought Violet back to earth.
“Your party’s over?” she asked over the tune as Davis stood by a bar stool next to Wiley.
“I skipped dessert but said my good-nights and closed up the office. The mayor is kindly handling the stragglers in the tents out back.” He glanced around, and a redhead Violet didn’t know gave Davis a look that just about shouted out that he knew her. As in maybe even biblically.
“The night’s still young enough here,” he said, loosening his tie even more as he nodded to the woman. She raised an eyebrow at him then went back to the man she’d been talking to.
Violet was confused. Why had Davis even come to the saloon when he should’ve been avoiding her?
Maybe he was just bent on making some kind of point to her—that he could move on with a social life, and certainly already had.
That had always been his reputation with the girls. But Vi had discovered there was much more to him—a soul filled with longings about the world outside, a boy who missed the father who’d died when he was only four years old.
He was a person who was capable of finding someone to love, even if he seemed to be the last guy who’d ever fall into it….
Wiley got up from his seat, saying something about a trip to the john. Davis hovered, staring down at Vi, even as she tried to avoid his gaze.
She felt it, though, as if he were the only other person in the room. The weight of that stare thrilled her through and through.
“Davis,” she whispered. A warning, slightly panicked because of what he was doing to her—what she couldn’t afford during this temporary detour in her life.
When she finally risked a glance at him, he had that look again—the same fervent one he’d worn after he’d first kissed her all those years ago.
Then it disappeared, as if it’d never happened.
“Whiskey,” Davis said to her, sitting on the stool next to Wiley’s.
He doffed his jacket, leaving her with a view of muscle underneath linen, the hint of tanned skin at his neck.
She tried not to look, even though it was hard not to.
She left him so she could place his order and take care of her other tables, but the entire time she knew he was there, at the bar, watching.
Just as she was about to scream from the tension, her sixth sense tickled her, and she turned around to see a man walking through the swinging doors of the entrance and toward the other end of the bar, near a corner where liquor bottles caught the light.
Another customer in her section, thank God. More reason to keep