Page 12 of Sweet Temptation (Honeysuckle, Texas #3)

So far, all was well with the world. At least the part where the Sweet siblings all married for a year to save the ranch.

Garret’s mom was happy as a pig in slop, grinning every time he and Jackie walked into a room, every time she spotted him standing close, intentionally gazing at her as if she had been plucked from heaven just for him, when he brought her flowers, and her favorite candy tied to a balloon that still floated in her room. All in just a couple of days.

Adding to everyone’s good mood, Jackie heard from the high school sooner than anyone had expected that she’d gotten the job.

The principal was delighted to have someone with Jackie’s skills apply for the position.

The woman fawned over Jackie as if afraid her new hire would have a thunderbolt revelation that she was too good for a small-town administrative job.

Now came the next challenge. Getting the town’s gossip mill on board with the plan.

Gentle fingertips brushed across his shoulder. He knew exactly who stood behind him. “Sleep well?” Jackie glanced casually across the kitchen, noticing his mother’s gaze nonchalantly on the two of them, and kissed him on the temple.

Never in his life had he been so intrigued by a mere kiss on the side of his head.

A small part of him thought back to that old television show about being lost in space and the robot shouting Danger Will Robinson, danger .

Deep down, his inner robot knew this whole plan was like a kid playing with matches—someone was going to get burned, and he was pretty sure, when Jackie walked away in a little more than a year, he was going to be the one thoroughly singed.

“I’m ready if you are.” Inching back, Jackie’s tone held the same sweetness as her smile.

“Corn hole here we come.” Standing, he took hold of her hand. After all, he had a part to play.

His mom looked up from the sink. “Oh, you’re going to town today?”

“The four of us. Rachel and Jillian are coming too,” he supplied.

A few more minutes, some chatter and the four were in the car heading to town.

“We’d be there by now if you’d let me drive,” Rachel sighed from the back seat.

“And that,” Jillian smiled too sweetly at her twin, “is why Garret’s driving.”

Crossing her arms, Rachel made a momentary attempt at being insulted before letting her arms fall to her side and leaning forward, beamed at her brother and Jackie. “I say things are going well, don’t you think?”

Garret nodded. He didn’t really want to have a detailed conversation about how often he’d suddenly found himself wishing at least some of this was for real.

In town, he pulled into an available parking spot close to the park.

The three women hopped out, and elbows linked, made themselves at home at the open court closest to the street.

They’d planned all of this ahead, of course—well, maybe not the linked elbows.

He had a feeling that it was just some female bonding going on.

If Jackie were really a lifetime love partner, the way the three were getting along like a house on fire would have been a good thing.

“Okay.” Rachel rubbed her hands together with more enthusiasm than the situation called for. “It will be Jill and me against you and Garret.”

Jackie nodded and looked at him, her gaze a little lost. The urge to squeeze her hand and reassure her that she was going to be great was stronger than he’d anticipated, and since they were supposed to put on a show for the town, he went ahead and did what came naturally.

Not only did he squeeze her hand, he gave her the slightest of pecks on the lips. “You’ve got this.”

As expected, Jillian and Rachel had aced all their tosses. On her first throw, Jackie’s bean bag flew across the wooden board and landed almost a foot away. “Oops?”

There was no stopping the chuckle that escaped from deep in his throat at her innocent expression.

He was pretty sure she’d done that on purpose to help with the act, but regardless, she looked so darn cute.

“Let me show you.” Standing behind her, he brushed up close, his breath momentarily catching in his throat before he found the strength to take her right hand in his and slowly swing her arm forward and back again. “It’s an easy motion.”

“Easy,” she repeated.

Doing it once again, this time with a bag in her hand, he led her arm forward and back and then on the forward swing, whispered in her ear, “Let it go.”

She dropped it right on the floor beside her.

This time he forced a soft chuckle. She might be acting, but he was pretty sure her reaction to his voice was purely carnal, and that made him happier than it should have.

A few more tries and he stood back, letting her toss the bag.

A hole in one. While he’d like to think he was a darn good teacher, he had to accept that Jackie was more likely a darn good actress.

After an hour or so of putting on a show for the town, and beating his sisters quite handsomely, they were all set to head to the café for a late lunch when Aunt Vicky appeared.

Hurrying up to them, his aunt was practically out of breath, her grin wide and her gaze settling on Jackie. “I see we have another champion in town.”

It took Jackie a moment to realize his aunt was excited about her. Her hand flew to her chest as her head shook feverishly from side to side. “Not me. I’m just learning.”

“Well then, if this is beginning, I can’t wait to see how you play after a little more practice!”

“We were just heading to lunch.” Jillian smiled at her aunt. “Would you like to join us?”

For a second Garret thought his sister might have lost her mind, and then he remembered, they had a town to convince and his aunt Vicky would be as good as Iris Hathaway at spreading the word.

“Thank you, dear.” His aunt rested her hand on Jillian’s arm.

“I wish I could but I need to get back to the shop.” She turned to face Garret.

“Which is really why I came over. There are a few boxes in the back of my pickup that need to go into the store room and they weigh more than I do. Could you please help us unload them?”

“Of course.” He reached for Jackie’s hand. “I’ll only be a few minutes. Why don’t you ladies go ahead and get us a table?”

All three women nodded and he wondered, not for the first time, if he was getting into much more than he could handle for a whole year.

“No, Grams, I’m fine. Really I am. I know.

Yes, change can be good.” Or tough. Or maybe just a bit of a miracle.

“No, I don’t need any money.” Not any more.

“I have a nice place to stay. How much?” She probably shouldn’t have told her grandmother she’d left Houston.

Avoiding the never-ending questions was becoming harder and harder.

“What? No, I’m not being evasive.” But now she was fibbing.

Sometimes she felt like her grandmother still saw her as the ten-year-old girl, confused by the sudden loss of her mom, and lying to her now, that’s exactly how she felt.

Nodding at her grandmother’s ramblings about staying warm, safe, and eating well, her gaze landed at the far corner of the café.

It couldn’t be. Could it? Her brows buckled and she narrowed her eyes in an effort to see more clearly. How could that be?

“Is something wrong?” Jillian and Rachel’s heads bounced left then right, from her to the direction she was gazing. “Is your grandma okay?”

At the same time, her grandmother was repeating her name in her ear, she realized she was staring open jawed at none other than Brad Peters, but who the heck was the woman with him? “Grams, I have to go, folks are waiting on me… Yes, I love you too.”

It took her a few more seconds to say her goodbyes and then she grabbed hold of her racing thoughts.

“You look an odd shade of green.” Rachel continued to stare off, searching for what had triggered Jackie.

Clearing her throat, there were a couple of things she realized: first, she’d been surprised to see Brad, but nothing else.

No longing, no sadness, no regrets, just confusion about who he was with.

The other thing that came to her was that in only a few days, she’d grown fully at ease with Garret’s sisters.

Enough to tell them the truth. Or at least, some of it.

“By any chance, do you know who the blonde in the pink shirt is at that back table with that man?”

Both their eyes scanned in the same general direction before the two sisters nodded their heads slightly at the same time. They were not identical twins by any stretch of the imagination, but whenever they made unified reactions like a moment ago, boy did they look like two peas in a pod.

“That’s Angela Simpson,” Rachel volunteered.

Jillian continued to watch the table. “You know the type—head cheerleader, Harvest Queen, and always has man candy on her arm.”

“She doesn’t seem to be changing her ways.” Rachel studied the two people at the back table. “That guy looks like he could be on the cover of a magazine.”

“So you don’t know him?” Jackie asked as casually as she could.

Both heads turned from side to side.

Again, Rachel spoke first. “Definitely not from around here. You can’t hide looks like that from the gossip mill.”

Boy, did she have gossip to add to the mill. “His name is Brad Peters. He used to live in Houston. Now he lives in Millers Creek.” Here went nothing. “With his wife.”

Like a pair of matching bookends, big blue eyes rounded, surrounded by a large swath of white.

Rachel’s head whipped around to face her. “Are you sure he’s married?”

She didn’t bother speaking, just nodded.

Her gaze narrowed, Jillian tipped her head, facing her slowly. “And you know this how?”

This was it. “He’s the reason I came to Millers Creek.”

Now the two siblings blinked, raising their brows high on their foreheads, completely forgetting about the couple across the café.

“Don’t stop there.” Rachel’s gaze remained fixed on Jackie.

“I thought he was the perfect catch. When he lost his job in Houston and had to move back to where he was from, I thought he ended things because he didn’t want to subject city girl me to country living.”

Patiently, their expressions blank, the two sisters waited for her to continue. At least so far, they didn’t seem to be judging her.

“I got it in my head, once he saw me in his world and realized that I was happily willing to give everything up to be with him, that he’d change his mind about marriage and children and we’d live happily ever after.”

“Everything?” Jillian asked carefully.

“I quit my job, sold or donated most of my things, and foolishly landed on his doorstep.”

“Uh-oh.” Rachel had inched closer against the table.

“Yeah. I wouldn’t have even known where he lived if I hadn’t found a card in the pile of mail in my kitchen.

My first surprise was that he lived in a cute cottage with flowers in the window boxes.

But the doozy of a start came when the woman who answered the door informed me that her husband wasn’t home right then.

I scrambled away as fast as I could. Found myself in the parking lot of the Bronco Lounge.

I remember ordering a drink and sulking, then everything else is a blank until I woke up in a strange motel room with a note from your brother telling me to call if I needed a ride somewhere. ”

“He left you a note?” Rachel looked confused.

Jackie nodded. “He’d rented two rooms, one for me and one for him.”

A knowing smile formed on Jillian’s face. “The guy always was a goody two shoes. He scolded the heck out of Carson for knocking up Jess after a one night stand. Though I think he was more annoyed with the one night stand part more than the baby part.”

“He was an Eagle Scout,” Rachel chimed in, the same smile on her lips.

“That would explain why having me pass out in his car didn’t seem to faze him.” Jackie couldn’t imagine anyone else on the planet being as nice to her as Garret had been.

Jillian cocked her head to one side. “I thought you said everything that night was a blank?”

“Any information I have, came from your brother.”

“Makes sense.” Rachel nodded, then her gaze suddenly narrowed again. “Jackie?”

“Mm?”

“Does this Brad guy know that you know he’s married?”

“I don’t think so. Why?”

“Oh, nothing. Just thinking.”

Just thinking. Jackie had seen a look like that in her grandmother’s eyes a time or two, usually right before she’d play the card that won her the poker pot in a family card game.