Falling For Gracie. Susan Mallery

to her drink. “Do you want something different?”

      Gracie sniffed the glass, then put it on the desk. “No, it’s great. It’s just stress makes my stomach unhappy.” She pulled a roll of what looked like antacids from her pocket and popped a couple in her mouth. “Terrific room.”

      Riley followed her gaze as she glanced at the twelve-foot-high bookcases filled to overflowing. He didn’t bother telling her that the library was one of the few places he felt comfortable in the oversized house.

      “Tell me about Zeke,” he said.

      “You tell me.” She walked to the leather sofa across from the ornate fireplace and flopped down. “He’s your campaign manager. Is he having an affair?”

      “Hell if I know.” Riley paced to the desk and leaned against it. “He talks about Alexis all the time. I would say he adores her.”

      “But your meetings don’t run until three in the morning.”

      He smiled. “I’m running for mayor, not president.”

      “Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. Well, I guess I have to tell Alexis that he wasn’t here. She’s not going to like that.”

      Riley didn’t much like it, either. The election was only five weeks away and he couldn’t afford a scandal. Not when he was finally making progress with the good citizens of Los Lobos.

      He set down his drink and tugged at the picture still hanging from the camera. After peeling off the protective layer, he stared at the Polaroid photo.

      It showed the ceiling of the library and a few shelves, but nothing else.

      “You’re not very good at this,” he told Gracie.

      She rolled her eyes. “I’m not trying to be. Despite what you think of me, I didn’t grow up to be a spy or a professional stalker. I bake wedding cakes for a living.”

      She was annoyed and indignant, but also embarrassed. Color stained her cheeks and her bottom lip trembled slightly. She’d grown up, filled out, but the basics were still the same. Big blue eyes, long gold-blond hair and an air of determination that had scared the bejesus out of him back then.

      “I’m sorry,” she said. “For this and for all that. You know. Before.”

      “Are we talking about the itching powder in my boxer shorts?”

      “Yeah. I guess. I just....” She leaned forward and traced a pattern on the coffee table in front of the sofa. “Looking back, I can’t believe what I did to you. It was horrible.”

      “Folks around here are still talking about it.”

      She sat up and looked at him. “Tell me about it. Everyone else gets to leave their past behind, but not me. Noooo. I become a legend. I have to say, it seriously sucks.”

      He thought about the laxative she’d managed to sneak into his soup the afternoon before the homecoming dance. “You were creative.”

      “I was a menace. I just wanted...” Color flared again. “Well, we both know what I wanted.”

      “Date much now?”

      She tossed her head. “Some. I’m careful not to bring them here.”

      “You don’t want them hearing about the time you lured a skunk into my car, then locked it inside for a couple of hours?”

      She winced. “I paid for the cleaning.”

      “My car was never the same. I had to sell it. At auction.” He raised his glass to her. “You were hell-bent on breaking up me and Pam.” Based on what had happened, maybe he should have listened.

      Gracie’s knowing expression had him thinking she would agree with his assessment. But instead of commenting on that she said, “So what happens next?”

      “I find out what Zeke’s up to. I don’t need any trouble right now. Can you get your sister to back off until I have some concrete information?”

      When Gracie hesitated, he stared at her. “You owe me,” he reminded her.

      She shivered. “I know. Okay—I’ll do what I can with Alexis. But I can’t promise more than a couple of days. She’s a woman on a mission.”

      “And we all know what happens when you Landon women set your mind to something.”

      “Exactly.” She stood and looked at him. “I’m really sorry, Riley. I know the apology is about fourteen years too late, but I mean it from the bottom of my heart. I never meant to make your life hell.”

      “I appreciate that.”

      “Do you want me to leave my cell number so you can get in touch with me about Zeke or do you want to call Alexis directly?”

      Riley decided on the devil he knew. “Your number is fine.”

      He handed her a pad of paper. She quickly wrote on it and passed it back.

      “My camera,” she said.

      He gave it to her.

      “How long are you in town for?” he asked.

      “A few weeks. My younger sister, Vivian, is getting married. I’m here to help out with all the details and to make the wedding cake. I rented a house at the edge of town. I need a kitchen to complete my other orders.”

      “I’ll be in touch.”

      She nodded, then turned the camera over in her hands as if she wanted to say something else. He waited, but she only shrugged, then walked toward the hallway.

      He followed her to the front door. She stepped out into the night, then glanced back at him.

      “I wasn’t wrong about Pam,” she said.

      “I should have listened.”

      Her lips curved up in a smile. “Really?”

      “Sure. Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn sometimes, Gracie. Good night.”

      He closed the door, but didn’t step away. Sure enough he heard a thud, as if she’d just kicked the door.

      “That was a low blow, Riley,” she yelled. “A real low blow.”

      Despite everything that had happened and everything he had yet to do, he found himself grinning as he returned to the library.

      * * *

      GRACIE FUMED AS she stalked away from Riley’s house. “A blind squirrel,” she muttered. “My opinion on Pam wasn’t based on dumb luck. Talk about ungrateful. If he’d listened to me, he wouldn’t have married her in the first place. But no.”

      She stomped her foot once for good measure, then stopped on the sidewalk. No sign of Alexis or the car. While Los Lobos wasn’t huge, the distance from the Whitefield manor side of town to her mother’s more middle-class neighborhood would definitely qualify as a serious workout.

      She turned left and started walking. The night was pleasantly cool with a hint of brine in the air. Even though she’d been gone forever, the town felt familiar. She liked the closeness of the ocean and the quiet residential streets. She might live in a suburb back in Los Angeles, but it was a whole lot louder than this.

      At the corner, she glanced back at Riley’s house. He might have grown up poor, but he fit in there now. As she walked across the street, she smiled. Man oh man, had he looked good. She supposed she could take comfort in the fact that even at thirteen she’d had fabulous taste in men. Riley had only gotten better with age. He had the brooding, dark, good looks of a fallen angel. An angel with a diamond stud earring.

      Despite her shock and embarrassment at seeing him again, she’d felt something. Sparks. Attraction. No doubt as completely one-sided as it had ever been, which meant she had to make sure she didn’t even pretend to act on it. No way was she willing to be stalker