Love at Last (Finding Love Book 6) Read online

  “You haven’t used them yet?”

  “I don’t want to use them until I get married.”

  Mrs. Jenkins’s nose twitched again. “A pretty girl like you should be married already. This waiting around until you’re thirty is for the birds.”

  The image of Randall and April flashed in front of Rosemary’s eyes like a neon light. “I haven’t met the right person yet.”

  “You will, Rosie. Love finds you when you least expect it.”

  That was all very well, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to fall in love again, at least not for a while. Being so invested in another person came with a heavy price.

  * * * * *

  Jase followed the erratic progress of Winnie as she maneuvered the remote-control car through the grass at Lakeside Park. Since it was still early, not yet ten in the morning, they were alone except for a few energetic joggers. The chime of his phone drew his attention away from the bright head of hair. It was a text from his neighbor reminding him to make sure Winnie took her vitamins. This was the fifth such message he’d received from Isobel since she and her husband pulled out of the driveway a few hours ago.

  One had to make allowances for an overprotective mother. This was the first time Isobel had been away from Winnie for more than a few days. Her husband Paul had finally convinced her to take a trip to California for their tenth wedding anniversary. Jase was sharing the babysitting duties with Quinn and Ellen.

  He glanced back at Winnie in time to see the pink Barbie convertible leave the safety of the grass and cut across the walking trail where it made contact with the equally pink running shoe of a young woman wearing a headset. In trying to avoid stepping on the car, she had to hop over it, something she managed to do without falling. Winnie dropped the remote as if it was on fire and rushed to Jase’s side, her brown eyes wide with fright.

  “Mr. Jase! I hit that lady with the car. I didn’t mean to. It was an accident.”

  He dropped a reassuring hand on her shoulder. “I know, Winnie, but we need to apologize.” Retrieving the remote, he motioned Winnie to follow him and walked over to the woman, who was crouched down examining the car. “I’m so sorry this happened,” he said to her. “I should have been paying more attention.”

  She came to her feet slowly, her eyes nearly on the same level as his. “Don’t worry about it. This will teach me not to get so lost in Mozart that I forget where I am.”

  Jase recognized her immediately, not surprising since she’d hardly left his thoughts. The hat and magazine were gone, but the sunglasses were still firmly in place.

  “I get that way, too. I know you, don’t I? You were on the flight from Atlanta to Jacksonville weekend before last.”

  “Yes, I was,” she admitted somewhat reluctantly. Her glance went to Winnie, and her face cleared as if by magic. Jase was momentarily stunned by the beauty of the smile she sent his companion. “I like your Barbie car. Is it new?”

  Winnie nodded vigorously. “Mr. Jase bought it for me yesterday.”

  The woman looked startled, and then her glance switched back to him. “I think our acquaintance might date back further than the plane. When I was young, I used to come here to visit my grandmother. On one of those trips, I met a boy named Jase. He ended up coming over several times to play. We helped my grandmother string beans on the back porch and peeled apples for pie.”

  Jase stared at her, his mind searching and finding the image of a little girl with a pink bow in her long hair. “Are you Rosie?” This time she sent him that smile. His heart stopped, stuttered and started again.

  “My name is Rosemary, but my grandmother always called me Rosie.”

  Memories long forgotten filtered through his mind. “You taught me how to play Rummy.”

  “That’s right; and you showed me how to blow bubbles with gum.”

  “How old were we? Ten?”

  “We were eleven. I know because it was the summer before my grandmother died. This is the first time I’ve been back to St. Marys since then. A few months ago, the couple who owned my grandmother’s house put it on the market, and I bought it.”

  “Does that mean you’re planning to stick around for a while?”

  “Just for a few more weeks. I’m planning to use the house as a vacation home. I, uh, travel a lot for my job.”

  “I used to do that, too. My first job out of college was with the EPA. I spent most of my time on airplanes and in hotels.” Jase felt a tiny hand slide into his. He’d been so caught up in this unexpected meeting with Rosemary that he’d completely forgotten Winnie. “Excuse my bad manners. Winnie, this is an old friend of mine, Miss Rosemary. Rosemary, this is my neighbor Winnie. Up until a few weeks ago, she was my girlfriend. I was replaced by a younger man.”

  Rosemary laughed as she held out her hand to Winnie. “It’s nice to meet you, Winnie.”

  “Mr. Jase is taking me for ice cream later. Do you wanna come with us?”

  “I wish I could,” she said with what Jase thought was genuine regret, “but I’m supposed to meet someone at my house after I finish here.”

  “That’s too bad,” he replied. “You won’t be able to see me take the banana split challenge at Fred’s Ice Cream Parlor.”

  “Is Fred’s still open?”

  “Sure is. He’s an institution around here.”

  “That place made the best pink bubble gum ice cream.”

  Jase laughed. “You seem to have a thing for pink.”

  “Yes, I do. It’s my favorite color.”

  “I like chocolate ice cream,” Winnie told Rosemary. “With sprinkles, whipped cream and a cherry.”

  “Mmm. I like the sound of that. I’ll eat whipped cream on almost anything.”

  Jase saw the quick glance she gave the fitness watch on her arm. Unless he was going to rely on chance to bring them together again, he needed to do something. “Could I take you to dinner sometime?”

  Her smile faltered slightly. “I don’t really like to eat out.”

  That wasn’t technically a ‘no’. More like a ‘maybe’. “There are several restaurants that will deliver or I could pick something up.” He saw the indecision in her face. “Just one meal; for old time’s sake.”

  “You don’t give up easily, do you?”

  “Nope. The squeaky wheel gets the grease.”

  She sent him a speculative glance that brought a grin to his face. “Do you know how to fix a leaky faucet?”

  “I do have some experience in that area.”

  “If you take care of my dripping faucet, I’ll make dinner for us.”

  “You’ve got a deal. When and where?”

  “Let’s see. How about tomorrow around five-thirty? In case you don’t remember, I’m at 401 Hibiscus Lane.”

  “I’ll be there.”

  Rosemary put her hand on Winnie’s shoulder. “Have fun eating ice cream with Mr. Jase.”

  Jase smiled wryly as he watched her jog away. He’d lost track of the conversation so many times it was embarrassing. One of those instances was when he was trying to figure out the color of her eyes, something made more difficult by the fact that she was wearing sunglasses. Now that he knew who she was, he also knew that her eyes were blue - the sort of aqua blue that reminded him of a tropical sea.

  She’d had a similar, though much less obvious, effect on him when he was eleven. Before meeting her, he’d been terrified of girls. They bossed him around, cried at the drop of a hat, and misunderstood everything he said. Rosemary had forced him to rethink his position on the opposite sex.

  In typical Jase fashion, his first case of puppy love wasn’t anyone at school, but was instead the eighteen-year-old female lifeguard who taught him to swim. Quinn had teased him about that for years. Then along came Ariel. It had been like a gift from heaven when he arrived at St. Marys High for ninth grade and saw who had the locker next to him.

  Every time their shoulders or arms brushed against each other, his heart would pound so hard in his chest he knew she mu
st be able to hear it. He’d taken a boring job in the library shelving books just so he could be close to her. Her preference for the quarterback of the football team had been a disappointment as well as an incentive to get in the weight room.

  Asking Rosemary to have dinner with him wasn’t unusual. Jase was well known in his family for his spontaneity. He truly believed that it never hurt to ask. The strange aspect of this situation was the level of anxiety he’d experienced until she accepted his invitation. He’d never been so worried about being refused before. Winnie’s voice gave his brain something less stressful to deal with.

  “Mr. Jase, I think the battery died in my car.”

  “That means it’s time to go to Fred’s.”

  * * * * *

  Rosemary regretted her actions almost immediately. All the way back to Hibiscus Lane, she chided herself for setting a precedent that she’d have to undo later. Getting close to someone in St. Marys wasn’t part of the plan for keeping a low profile. What she was feeling was nostalgia. Jase was a charming (and extremely attractive) reminder of a happier time in her life. But she wasn’t eleven anymore. Her life was complicated which was why she should have refused his dinner invitation and called the plumber her realtor suggested.

  Once again, she was coloring outside the lines and getting herself in trouble. She didn’t need a media storm of epic proportions descending on St. Marys. That would put her right back in the spotlight she’d taken such elaborate measures to escape. There was only one way to avoid that: no one here could know who she was.

  She didn’t like being in any way deceptive, but in this case the risk of her identity reaching the press outweighed the twinges of her conscience. Jase seemed as nice as ever, but Randall and April had, too. They fooled her, not for a few days or weeks, but for months. Their duplicity made trusting her instincts more difficult and was the best argument for making sure tomorrow evening was the extent of her contact with Jase.

  The contractor’s truck was parked in the driveway when she arrived, but the cab was empty. As she stepped out of the car, she saw an older man appear from the opposite side of the house. They met on the sidewalk leading to the porch.

  “I apologize for being late. I hope you haven’t been waiting long.”

  “Not long at all.” He held out his hand. “I’m Rafe Callahan.”

  When she felt his calloused fingers close around hers, she was reminded of her father’s hands. Jonas Murphy had been a master carpenter who specialized in custom cabinets, built-in bookshelves, and stairways. In his home workshop, he hardly ever bought new material for his projects. Instead, he accumulated wood with the dedication of a collector from anywhere he could find it. After his death, Rosemary spent hours in the tree house he built for her. It was the one place where she felt closest to him.

  “Hi, Rafe. I’m Rosemary Murphy. Thank you for coming on such short notice.”

  “No problem. You mentioned painting the exterior of the house. Do you want the shed in the backyard painted also?”

  “Yes, I do.”

  “Let me take some measurements and then we can look at color cards.”

  “Knock on the front door when you’re ready.” He nodded and walked to his truck. Rosemary went in the kitchen to get some water. Through the window, she could see Rafe making his way to the shed, a clipboard in one hand and an oversized tape measure wheel in the other. While she waited for him to finish, she cleared a space on the dining room table, ate the last cabbage roll, and started making a grocery list for the dinner with Jase.

  A few years ago when she was recovering from pneumonia, she put all her grandmother’s recipes on her tablet. There must have been a hundred of them. It had taken her almost a week to complete the huge task, but in the end it had been just a way to fill time. The cloth-covered book with its yellowed pages covered in spidery handwriting still went with her everywhere. Along with the white-gold diamond ring that never left the third finger of her right hand, the recipe book comprised the only personal items belonging to her grandmother that she had.

  The sound of the doorbell took her to the foyer to let in Rafe.

  “Can I get you something to drink?” she asked as she led the way to the dining room.

  “No, thanks.” He waited until she sat down and then took the chair opposite. “What colors were you thinking about?”

  “I want the main part to be white with a red door and black shutters.”

  “More of a traditional look.” He flipped through the pages and pulled out a card. “Picket Fence is a softer white; it’s not so hard on the eyes. Awning Red is a dark, rich red that contrasts nicely with the white. For the shutters, I’d go with Deep Space.”

  Rosemary took the card from him. “I think the door was actually a little brighter than this. It was more like the red paint they use on barns.”

  “How about this?” he asked, handing her another card.

  She chuckled when she saw the name. It was actually called Barn. “Yes, that’s it. Let’s go with Barn, Picket Fence and Deep Space.”

  “That’s the quickest color selection session I’ve ever had,” he said as he wrote the numbers from the cards on the estimate form.

  “For me, too. It took me a week to find the right shade to paint this room.”

  “Let me take this information back to the office, and I’ll call you tomorrow morning with a quote.”

  “If everything works out, how soon could you start?”

  “I can have a crew out here on Wednesday.”

  “That would be great. Thanks again for coming out today.”

  After he left, she locked the door and returned to the dining room to finish the grocery list. If she was going to make pot roast, she would need a crockpot. And dishes. She couldn’t expect Jase to eat dinner out of the plastic bowls and plates she’d been using.

  Later when she was pushing a shopping cart through the almost empty store, she realized that she hadn’t cooked dinner for anyone in years. The one time she’d done so for Randall had been a disaster. She didn’t mind that he didn’t want to try the stuffed pork chops or the Brussel sprouts, but when he refused the macaroni and cheese, the warning bells should have gone off in her head. What man in his right mind doesn’t like pasta and melted cheese?

  Chapter Three

  Jase stared at the blinking cursor on his screen, something he’d been doing for the last several hours. His usual remedy for writer’s block hadn’t worked. Neither had checking his phone every ten minutes to see what time it was. All he could think about was the evening with Rosemary. After closing the document he’d made very little progress on, he pushed away from the desk.

  Since he wasn’t doing anything productive on his book, he might as well see if Ellen needed any help with Winnie. He walked the short distance from his cottage to his brother’s house and knocked on the door.

  “Come in, Jase,” Ellen called out to him.

  Following the sound of childish laughter, he turned in the direction of the kitchen. Winnie was sitting at the table eating a bowl of green Jell-O with what looked like pineapple chunks in it. His sister-in-law was standing on a chair in front of the window that faced his cottage, a curtain rod in her hand. That explained how she knew he was at the door.

  “Does Quinn know you’re doing that?”

  She glanced over her shoulder. “No, and you’re not going to tell him. I’m only two feet off the ground.”

  “You know I can’t do that. Quinn will have my head on a platter if he finds out, and I can’t afford to get him mad at me. I need to borrow his tools, and you know how he is about his tools.” He held out his hand. “Let me hang the curtain for you.”

  She laughed as she gave him the rod and then took the hand he offered to help her step down from the chair. “The fastest way to bring out the protective instinct in a man is to get pregnant. Suddenly you’re helpless and incapable of being left alone or do anything. Do you know that your brother has somehow infected Frank with this obsessive beha
vior? I’m not allowed to load the delivery van anymore.”

  “It’s only for five more months. At that point, Quinn will transfer all his anxiety to the baby. He’s caring and dedicated to his patients. Can you imagine how he’s going to be with his own child?”

  “I won’t mind that.”

  Jase chuckled as he maneuvered the rod into place. “At least you’ve got a man who won’t mind getting up in the middle of the night to feed the baby or run from the room when it’s time to change a diaper.”

  Behind them, Winnie started to laugh. “Mr. Jase, your tummy is showing. I can see your belly button.”

  He finished with his task and lowered his arms. “Then I guess you’ll have to show me yours.” Winnie’s mouth formed a big ‘O’. Jase pulled one of her pigtails as he slid the chair back into place. “I’m just kidding, silly girl.”

  “We’re going to Miss Ellen’s shop for a while, and then we’re going to get our hair cut.”

  “Do you want to come with us?” Ellen asked, eyeing his uncombed hair with amusement. “You could use a trim.”

  “Really? I guess I’ll go then. I’ve got a date. Sort of.”

  “How do you ‘sort of’ have a date?”

  “That’s when one person wants it to be a date, but isn’t sure the other person thinks it’s a date.”

  “So it’s a prequel to a date. Who’s the lucky woman?”

  “Her name is Rosemary. It’s a funny story. We first met years ago when she came to visit her grandmother. We were both eleven then. More recently, I ran into her at the airport when I was coming back from New York and again yesterday at the park. She bought her grandmother’s house and is planning to use it as a vacation home.”

  “So she’s not going to live here all the time?”

  “No. Her job involves a lot of traveling, but I don’t know what it is. I didn’t want to hit her with twenty questions at the first meeting.”

  “She likes pink bubble gum ice cream, Miss Ellen,” piped in Winnie from behind them. “And her ears are pierced in three places. Do you think my mommy would let me do that?”