Page 3 of Calling His Bluff
“I had to put some space between us and that night,” Jack said. “You’re a hard woman to find, even for a private detective. It’s just luck that I’m here.”
“Just luck,” she repeated, warning herself not to believe a word of it. “Apparently not my good luck.”
He stepped closer. “Actually, it felt like fate to me. I’ve always wanted to see you in a wedding dress.” His smile was all glistening white teeth. Nothing to fear here. But she wasno longer Little Red Riding Hood coming across her first charming wolf.
“Who knows,” Jack continued. “Maybe someday I’ll get to see you in one of those fancy dresses back there. I would really love that.”
She groaned inwardly. If he was staying in Wild Rose Point, then he had ulterior motives that had nothing to do with her. But looking into his handsome face, those blue eyes intent on her, she had a bad feeling that Jack might be telling the truth.
He was here because ofher.
All she had to do was figure out his angle. “You should probably go,” she said, dragging her gaze from his.
“If that’s what you want.” He sounded disappointed. That was fine with her.
“I’m not leaving town though. I’ll be sticking around.” His look made it clear what he hoped would happen again.
“Suit yourself,” she said and narrowed her eyes. If he thought she would be falling back into bed with him, he was going to be disappointed.
With a knowing grin and a shrug, he dropped the roll of money on the end table piled with wedding magazines, then headed for the door. She watched him go, hating the way her chest ached, and her blood ran hot. No man had ever gotten to her like Jack Rawlins, and damned if he didn’t know it.
Josephine reminded herself that she wasn’t some babe in the woods. Her Aunt Clara had taught her poker, but also how to cut her losses and walk away from a game table—and a bad hand.
When it came to love, her father had taught her that it couldn’t be trusted. As hot as it could blaze, so hot it burned you, it often cooled and died. Harry Bodine had been the poster boy on how to move on and not look back, leaving whatever it had been in ashes.
And Jack? He’d taught her not to trust a man like him any farther than she could pick him up and throw him.
At the door, he stopped to look back at her. She took him in, standing there. No wonder she’d fallen for the cowboy. He looked…good enough to eat. She felt the pull of him, that need for the kind of physical pleasure the man could give her.
He must have seen it in her eyes because he hesitated at the door as if he thought she might call him back. She ground her teeth, narrowing her eyes and fighting that wild desire for this sexy man. With pleasure came pain with a man like Jack.
After a long moment, he touched the brim of his Stetson, his blue eyes luminous. “It’s good to see you, Josephine.”
She turned her back on him, anxious to hear the door close behind him. As it did, she let out the breath she’d been holding and felt a foolish weakness in her knees before picking up the money he’d left and angrily stuffing it into her pocket. Spotting the envelope she’d dropped before Jack Rawlins had shown up, she distractedly opened it and pulled out the single sheet of folded notebook paper inside.
She was thinking of Jack and selling this place as quickly as possible as she unfolded the note. In that same handwriting as the envelope were the words,Do you feel lucky, Josephine?
The words, while not exactly threatening, brought a fissure of alarm. She stared at the handprinted note and envelope. Who had slid this under her door? Someone in Wild Rose Point? Someone who knew about her being left the shop? Someone she knew?
She hated that a simple note could disarm her the way this one had. It confirmed what she already knew, she thought as she wadded up both the note and envelope and threw it across the room in frustration. It landed in the corner behind one of the chairs for potential clients. She had no business out here on the West Coast. Worse, there was something very wrong about this inheritance.
She’d been right. She’d had every reason to worry about this particular gift horse. Something had been suspicious about it from the beginning. Hadn’t her aunt taught her that when she’d been dealt a bad hand, to get out fast? “Don’t try to ride a dead horse,” Clara had said. “Bury it and move on.”
Pulling out her phone, she called the first Realtor that came up on her phone search. She would sell this place and leave here as quickly as possible. She thought about the note—and Jack Rawlins. Wild Rose Point had gotten too crowded.
-#-
Jack didn’t go far after he left Seaside Vows. Up the block, he stopped to search the street behind him. Dark clouds hung over the Pacific. Wind rippled over the surface of the sea. The promise of rain hung in the freshening air.
He didn’t see the man he’d spotted earlier watching the bridal shop—and Josephine. Maybe he was nobody. Just someone curious about the new owner of Seaside Vows. Or not.
It was not knowing that worried him.
Seeing Josephine again had been harder than he’d even expected. He kept remembering the two of them, her beautiful, long russet brown hair wound in his fingers, hernaked body entwined with his, her brown eyes wide with desire.
Jack swore, afraid he’d managed to push her away—just as he had before. Of course, she didn’t trust him. He should have left her a note that morning he’d taken their money and headed down to the craps table. Even after that, fool that he was, he had thought he could walk away from her and not look back.
Since that moment, his life had been pure hell. As soon as he’d heard about Josephine winning a bridal shop in Oregon in a poker hand, he’d had the strangest feeling she was in trouble. He tried to tell himself he was just looking for an excuse to see her again, although he had little hope of making things right between them.
