His husky words trailed off and the video went black before switching to a violently colorful commercial for Frosted Fruity Flakes.
I think you should know that...
“You’re a liar, Jay Cross,” she said thickly.
Because there was no question in her mind that he and the singer were one and the same.
She’d know those green eyes anywhere.
“Why’s Jay a liar?” Tyler bounced onto the couch beside her, and then nearly fell over himself getting back off again when she looked at him.
“Here.” She handed him the remote control again. Tyler hooted and quickly punched buttons but she barely noticed. She was too busy punching buttons on her own phone.
Only as soon as Jay’s line started to ring, she chickened out and hung up again.
She was such a monumental fool.
How many times had she mentioned how much she detested that darned song? And he’d just...gone along!
Squelching a moan, she sank down onto the couch and didn’t even protest when Murphy jumped onto her lap. She held her phone above the dog’s head and opened a browser. She didn’t even have to finish typing in the words Jett Carr before the video she’d just watched popped to the top of her list on her phone.
She turned down the volume and watched the video all the way through.
Even though she knew.
“Never gonna trust again,” she whispered soundlessly. “Not even you.”
Chapter Thirteen
Jay drove from the flower shop back to his grandmother’s and carried the fern inside. She was in the kitchen, nursing the big metal pot she used to cook down her strawberries.
He set the plant on the table. “Are you tired of ferns, Gran?”
She glanced around the veritable jungle growing inside her house. “It’s what your grandpa always gave me. How could I get tired of them?”
He leaned his hip against the table. “I told Detective Teas who I was.”
She gave him a sidelong look. “Thought you were just Jay Cross.”
“You know what I mean.”
“Do you know what you mean?”
He muttered an oath and rubbed his forehead. “I’m too tired for your cryptic comments. Jett Carr’s a stage persona. That’s it.”
She turned and gently drew her fingers along the fern’s feathery edges. “Jet-pack. Your grandpa loved you more’n anything on this earth. And I loved him more’n anything on this earth. That’s why I took on O’Brien when he asked young Louella Carr to marry him.” She poked him once in the chest with a finger that was definitely not gentle. “Jett Carr isn’t just some name you plucked outta thin air. Your problem with Jett Carr was that you were letting other people control who he was. Instead of being who you wanted to be.”
“Some things aren’t that easy.”
She made a disgusted sound and returned to her pot.
He dropped it. “Was there ever something between him and Mabel?”
She threw back her head and laughed. “Lord no.”
“And I know you didn’t steal her jam recipe.”
She snorted, still laughing. “No, sir, I did not.”
“Then what the hell happened between the two of you?”
She gave him a look over her shoulder. “You really want to know?”
He spread his hands helplessly. “I’m asking, aren’t I?” He’d been asking for days now.
She gave a huge sigh. “Shop-World wants to pay me a boatload of money to put my jam in all their stores. From California to Wyoming to Texas.”
Jay was glad he was leaning against the counter, because he probably would have fallen on his butt otherwise. “What?”
She gave him an annoyed look. “You heard me.” She tapped her long wooden spoon against the side of the pot. “My mistake was telling Mabel about it. She’s always had a pea-green streak about her. She’ll get over it in time.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about it? Does Mom know?”
“What good would that do?” She looked even more annoyed. “Wouldn’t make your mama stop trying to get me to give up my home and move into a dinky bedroom at that house she shares with your dad. Nothing wrong with that house, mind you, but it isn’t mine.”
“Are you going to take the offer?”
“Would’ve done it already if it weren’t for you.”
“What have I got to do with it? Gran, you’ll make a fortune.”
“Never wanted a fortune,” she muttered. “Just wanted my home and my family.” She stuck her spoon back into her pot. “And soon as I take it, word is going to spread around this town like wildfire. Shop-World wants to do a whole advertising thing about me growing my strawberries and all that. How’s that gonna play when my grandson’s famous and afraid to get his face seen on some newscaster’s camera?”
“I’m not famous.”
“Jett Carr damn sure is now whether you like it or not.” She gave him a fierce look. “I know you’ve been spending time with Arabella. Quality time.”
“I’m not having a discussion about my love life with you, Gran.” He wanted to dunk his head in the stream outside his barn just thinking about it.
“There’s nothing new under the sun,” she told him tartly. “Why d’you think Herb and I had such a quick wedding? That’s the problem with all you young people. Thinking you’re the only ones who ever invented sex.”
He covered his eyes and wanted to be anywhere other than there.
“You want to keep having your way with that young lady, you’d better do more than ’fess up to that detective person. Arabella’s the one who matters, isn’t she?”
He dropped his hand. “Yes.”
She gave him a narrow-eyed glare. Then after a moment nodded decisively and pointed the end of her dripping red spoon at a drawer. “There’s a metal box in there. Get it for me.”
He pulled open the junk-filled drawer and managed to extract the flattish, rectangular box. He started to hand it to her but she just waved with her spoon. “Open it.” He did so, expecting the deck of cards that he vaguely remembered it once contained.
Instead, sitting on a folded yellowed hankie were two delicate, glittering necklaces and one small diamond ring.
“I
