Something Beautiful and Lacey's Retreat: Something Beautiful / Lacey's Retreat

Lucas watched as she strolled down the garden path toward him, her smile as radiant as ever. Even if she did have shadows underneath those brilliant blue eyes.

He reached a hand out to her. “Did you get your business taken care of?”

“Yes and no.”

“And none of my concern, I suppose.”

She shook her head, causing her long ponytail to loop over one shoulder, which only made Lucas want to pull her hair out of its trendy barrette and pull it through his fingers. “No, it’s not that. I talked to my agent, and he’s fussing for me to come back to New York. Obligations and all of that.”

“Ah, obligations.” Lucas gave her a quick sideways glance as he tugged her down the path. “We do have to live up to those, don’t we?”

“I’m afraid so,” she replied. “But I told him I need a few more days here. I’m staying until Sunday, at least.”

“Or until the reporters return, at least.” He gave her a direct stare, watched as her skin blushed pink. Wondered just what was going through her mind.

“Well, I don’t want to involve you and your family in my crazy lifestyle. So, yes, if the reporters return, I’ll have to leave sooner.”

He tugged her close, bringing her around so he could hold her in his arms. “Then we’d best make good use of the time we have together. Are you afraid of flying?”

She looked puzzled, then amused. “I’ve flown in airplanes all over the world, Lucas. No, I don’t think I’m afraid of flying. In fact, it’s become a way of life.”

“Oh, really now?”

“Really.”

“But you’ve never flown with me, now, have you?”

“Well, no.” She grinned, then glanced around as they neared a large white barnlike building, where vehicles and yard equipment were kept. “And I don’t recall seeing a plane in the garage.”

“Come with me, then,” he said, coaxing her toward his Jeep. He had some obligations to fulfill, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t come along with him.

“Lucas, last time I checked, that was an automobile, not an airplane,” she said, pointing toward the sleek black vehicle.

“Yep. That’s correct.” He opened the passenger side door and bowed gallantly. “Your carriage awaits, milady.” When she stood there, he said, “Last time I checked, the private airport on the other side of town had a pretty little single-engine top of the line Ag Cat with my name on it.”

“What’s an Ag Cat?”

“A crop-dusting plane.”

“You’re teasing, right?”

“Not at all. I do a little aerial application on the side. And a few loopty-loops when the mood hits me. Want to come along for a look-see ride?”

“What’s a look-see?”

“I’m going to do a pass over of a soybean field about ten miles from here. It’s located between two thickets, so I have to decide if the chemicals can be dumped in such a way as to keep the thickets environmentally sound. Don’t want to kill anything but the bad bugs.”

“So, you won’t be spraying any chemicals today?”

“Non. In fact, after I show off my Ag Cat to you in the safety of the hangar, we’ll take out another plane—a sweet old Piper Cub J-3 that belonged to Lacey’s late husband, Neil. I use the Cub for all the fun stuff.”

He stopped, remembering how touched he’d been when Lacey had given him the plane after Neil’s death. But he didn’t want to talk about death. Not today. Not with Willa. So he went back to business.

“I couldn’t take you along on a for-real spraying. It’s illegal, for one thing, and while I’d enjoy being very close to you, we’d be a bit cramped for space, since my Ag Cat is built to precision for only one person. Plus, the chemicals are nasty.” He twisted his nose, then made a face. “Gets to the old breathing system if you don’t wear protective clothing and a respirator.”

Rolling her eyes, she said, “And you enjoy doing this? Inhaling chemicals in midair?”

“I adhere to all the safety precautions. That’s one reason I decided to become a crop duster—so I could keep an eye on the environment around here and try to control what chemicals are dumped and sprayed—and yes, I do enjoy it. It’s all in the calculation, you see. The weather, the wind, the lay of the land, they all play a part in the whole thing. When everything is in place, I just drop and dump.”

Willa shook her head, then glanced down. “I don’t know about this—going up in the clouds with a real barnstormer.”

Thinking she was going to turn him down and head to the seclusion of her room, Lucas tugged her ponytail. “I promise you’ll be safe—I’m a very good pilot. And you won’t be bored.”

She hopped up on the seat. “I can’t imagine ever being bored with you, Lucas.”

“Then let’s go. It’s a perfect day to see the whole view from up above.”

“I’d like that,” she said.

Lucas took that as a yes.

He was right. She wasn’t bored.

The view was breathtaking, a country canvas of square fields of rich, fluttering green and clusters of all types of houses tucked between forest thickets and lush swamps near the slinking dark ribbon of the Mississippi River. The sky was a clear, warm blue with bursts of billowing clouds here and there overhead, while the carpet of the ever-changing land lay beneath like a giant picnic quilt.

He’d also given her a view of his home in all its splendor. From this height, it looked like a beautiful dollhouse, complete with tiny flowers and trees. The double line of great oaks stretched toward them like two arms opening in welcome.

The bayou stretched and shifted beyond the gardens, its dark waters and bearded cypress trees holding their secrets close. In one quiet cove, a dense clutter of cypress knees held a nest of egrets. The birds sat on the gray-tinged limbs and moss-draped stumps, looking like white flower petals. But the roar of the big bird overhead caused the elegant birds to lift and fly en masse across the black-bottomed bayou.

Willa had been in all types of airplanes, but she’d never felt so alive, so exhilarated. Maybe that feeling of complete freedom and lightness had more to do with the highly skilled pilot at the controls than it did with being in the clouds.

Lucas was an expert, but he was also certainly a daredevil, a combination that made him that much more appealing in her eyes.

He’d promised her some loops and twists.

And he’d given her exactly that.

Lucas apparently liked to live on the edge.

Willa laughed over her shoulder at him from where she sat in the front section. He rewarded her with a brilliant grin. With his dark hair tucked beneath a vintage World War Two aviator cap, he looked even more dashing and dangerous than he did out in a pirogue.

Then her heart dropped to her shaky feet as Lucas tilted the plane into a quick spin, setting it right before she had time to be scared. Willa screamed, both delighted and relieved, as he did what he had earlier explained as a P turn, taking her right over Bayou le Jardin and the surrounding swamps and woods.

“It’s a tricky maneuver, because the plane can stall out and you’re flying about one hundred feet above the earth. You have to concentrate and have good coordination. But don’t worry. I’ve done about a thousand or so such turns and I had to do about a third of those in flight school just to get my license.”

She’d believed him when he’d told her this inside the hangar, and she believed him now. And she felt completely safe in his capable hands.

Which was amazing.

Willa knew she’d never been one to take chances. She liked everything laid out in an orderly, chronological fashion. Perhaps she’d learned that trait from her precise, carefully in-control mother. Candace didn’t make a move unless it was completely calculated. And each move had been one step up the social ladder, one more planned achievement for her mother to celebrate.

Yes, Willa had learned from the best. She’d mapped out her career as a model, grim determination making her want to become the best, to show her parents she could, for one thing, and to prove to herself that she could be self-sufficient, for another.

But in all those years of working and traveling and setting almost unreachable goals for herself, she’d never once felt like this.

Only Lucas could make her feel this way—as if each step she took was like jumping off a cliff into clear blue waters. Jumping without a parachute.

A leap of faith.

Get your head out of the clouds, Willa, she told herself as Lucas banked the purring yellow plane and brought it down for the landing. She reminded herself she’d be leaving here soon; she’d be back in New York, back to globetrotting and working long, grueling hours in what most thought was a very lucrative, glamorous job. Her work was that and more, but was it still enough? And did she have enough time to stop and enjoy living? She was the only one who could find the answers to those questions.

But being with Lucas was making her see her life in a whole different light. And from a very different view.

As her heart settled to a steady rhythm, Willa looked at the sky, of which she’d just so daringly been a part.

And suddenly, she wanted to live. Very much so.

She just didn’t know how she was ever going to face all the turmoil in her life in order to be able to do that, at long last.

About an hour later they pulled into the long drive leading to the back gardens of the mansion. After parking the Jeep, Lucas came around to Willa’s side to open the door, then leaned in through the open window, his face inches from hers. “What can you imagine with me, then?”

She hadn’t said much on the short drive home. He wondered if she was having second thoughts about hanging with him. Maybe he’d scared her off before he’d even had a chance with her.

She blinked. “What?”

“You’ve been so quiet since we came back down to earth,” he said, his need to get inside her head flaring with a liquid warmth. “Earlier, you said you couldn’t imagine being bored with me. So what are you imagining right now, chère?”

Her eyes turned a sparkling blue, as pure and wide as the Louisiana sky over their heads. Her luscious mouth parted as she took a quick breath. Then she spoke. “I imagine being with you will always be like a wild airplane ride, with lots of loops and free falls.”

He lowered his head just a notch. “And that’s a bad thing?”

“No, no.” She held his gaze, then placed a hand on his arm. “It’s just that…Lucas, I came here to work through some things in my life, to make some decisions about my future—”

“A future that doesn’t include any heavy commitments and any flighty flings with a poor Cajun boy?”

She shook her head. “A future that is very unsure right now. It wouldn’t be fair to drag you into my problems.”

“If you’re talking about finding your birth mother—”

“It’s more than that. I’ve just got a lot to deal with and not much time to get it all figured out.”

“So I don’t fit into the equation?”

“I don’t want to fit you into the equation. I hope you understand. It wouldn’t be right between us, it wouldn’t be fair to you.”

He leaned closer. He wanted to kiss her bad, but instinct told him that wasn’t such a good idea when she was giving him the proverbial brush-off. “Why don’t you let me be the judge of that—unless of course, I’m reading all the signs wrong and you’re really not as madly in love with me as I am with you.”

She reached up then, to touch a hand to his face, to run a slender, polished nail through his wind-tossed hair. “Lorna told me you fall in love very easily.”

He grabbed her hand, brought it to his lips. “My sister should mind her own business. Just because she’s finally found her soul mate, she thinks she’s the local authority on the rest of this miserable lot.”

“She cares about you and she worries about you.”

He kissed her fingers one by one and enjoyed the way she blushed, the way she seemed to like his touch. “I can take care of myself. Been doing it for years.”

“Can you?” Willa watched as he touched her fingers to his mouth, her eyelashes fluttering softly against her cheeks before she looked into his eyes. Lucas saw the attraction jolt through her as it had pushed through him.

Okay, she did have a point. He was losing control. This could turn out to be more dangerous than any of the other stunts he’d tried.

“I used to think I could handle anything,” he admitted as he held her hand against his lips. “But it’s different with you. I think…I think I’m scared of you, certainly of what you do to me.”

She touched her forehead to his. “Oh, Lucas, I don’t think you’re afraid of anything. I just think you need to know…you need to be warned…I’m not right for you.”

Abruptly, he let go of her hand and backed away. “Then maybe I should be scared. At least, that’s what you’re trying to tell me.” Irritated, he opened the door and tugged her out of the Jeep and right into his waiting arms. “Am I right? Are you deliberately trying to scare me away, Willa?”

He saw the answer in the blue of her eyes. And he also saw the contradiction. She was trying to deny her feelings toward him. Lucas took that as a personal challenge to win her over.

“Answer the question, chère,” he said, his voice low.

She looked down, her expression full of regret. “Yes, I guess I am. For your own good, Lucas.”

The anger flared deep inside him, but he tried to hide it as he shifted her closer in his arms. “I really wish everyone would quit telling me what’s for my own good.”

“Look, I didn’t mean to make you mad. It’s just that—”

He didn’t let her finish that sentence. He couldn’t bear to hear the words. Instead, he gently nudged her against the Jeep so he could wrap his arms around her. Then he kissed her with all the pent-up frustration and long-held need that was raging inside his heart.

With the first touch of their lips, however, his rage turned to relief. She was sweet, soft, yielding, promising. She filled that empty place in his soul, the place he only brought out whenever he visited his lost, forlorn garden. The place he’d often prayed would be healed.

Willa was like that prayer being answered at long last.

When he lifted his head, he couldn’t take his eyes away from her. He could tell the kiss had affected her, too. It was there in the bright hope of her eyes, there in the sweet innocent flush of her skin, there in the soft sigh of her breath on his cheek. She might be able to deny her feelings, but she could never again deny the attraction between them.

Their kiss had pretty much made that a certainty and a fact.

But kisses aside, they had a lot of ground to cover before this was settled between them.

“Je regrette—I’m sorry,” he told her in a whisper. “It’s just that…I really needed to do that. For my own good.”

Chapter Six

“So my brother took you up in the Piper this morning.”

It was a statement, said with Lacey’s soft, cultured Southern drawl.

Willa nodded then glanced around the quaint Garden restaurant, wondering where Lucas had gone off to this time. They’d agreed to meet here for a quiet dinner, but instead of finding Lucas waiting for her, she’d run into his older sister, Lacey.

Sensing a hint of disapproval in Lacey’s cool gaze, she said, “Yes, he did. And I have to admit, I enjoyed it way too much.”

“Lucas has that effect on people. He thinks we all should just drop everything when the mood strikes and go off into the wild blue yonder. He’s very impulsive, I’m afraid.”

Willa got the distinct impression she was being reprimanded. Or was it yet another warning for her to stay away from Lucas? His sisters sure were protective, even if they did claim to condemn his wild ways.

Before she could respond, Lorna leaned over the table. “I’ve already warned her, Lacey.”

Wanting to defend Lucas, Willa tossed her hair off her shoulder, then placed both hands on the table. “Would you two stop hovering over me? I can take care of things with Lucas. So you both can stop worrying. I’m not sure whether you’re trying to protect me, or your brother from me. But I can assure both of you—there is nothing serious going on between Lucas and me.”

Lorna took that as her cue to sit with them. “Oh, really? Then why do you look positively dreamy every time we mention his name? And why are you sitting here, waiting for him to walk through that door?”

“Yes, she sure has all the signs,” Lacey said, her gaze as still as the quiet swamp waters that ran behind the small building.

“We were supposed to meet here tonight,” Willa said, her tone low and level in spite of her fluttering heart. She wouldn’t dare tell them that since Lucas had kissed her this morning, she’d counted the hours until she’d see him again. Even while she dreaded seeing him again. Lacey was right. He’d had an effect on her. A profound one.

She’d never been a touchy-feely person, but for some reason she couldn’t keep her hands off Lucas Dorsette. She liked the feel of his rough-shaven skin, liked the crisp, springy curls of his dark chocolate hair, liked holding his big, callused hands. Loved looking into his mysterious eyes.

But she had to remember that Lucas flirted with a lot of women. Probably took them all flying in his fancy plane. And he probably kissed all the pretty girls and made them cry, too.

“Another date?” Lacey smiled at her sister, then gave Willa the once-over. “That’s three dates with the same woman in three days. He’s right on schedule.”

Seeing the teasing gleam in both sisters’ eyes, Willa relaxed and smiled. “I get the point. Okay. And honestly, let me repeat—there is nothing going on between Lucas and me. We haven’t actually had what one would term dates. We’re just…friends. He’s been showing me around—”

“From several vantage points, I gather,” Lorna interrupted, her chef hat bobbing as she moved her head. “I wonder where he’ll take you next. There’s lots of rooms in the house, several private spots in the gardens and the whole swamp out back to explore. And he’ll probably want to take you horseback riding—on that wild animal he calls a horse and keeps on his place out in the bayou. That could turn into a lot of…what one could term dates.”

“Oh, all right, enough,” Willa replied. “I did have fun up in the plane—”

Lorna held out a hand. “Yes, we couldn’t help but notice the two of you, since Lucas made it a point to fly right over the house and grounds. Show-off.”

“I wish he hadn’t done that,” Lacey said in a rough whisper. Then, horror and embarrassment in her eyes, she looked across the table at Willa. “I’m sorry. I mean—”

Lorna put a hand on her sister’s arm, then glanced at Willa. “It’s the plane—it makes her think of Neil.”

Willa immediately felt like sinking into the polished wooden floor. “Oh, Lacey. I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories—”

“No,” Lacey replied, her blue eyes bright. “I don’t have any bad memories. Neil used to take me up in that plane, just the way Lucas did you today. I loved it, loved being with him. Then today, when I heard the roar, saw the plane coming across the sky, for a minute—” She stopped, shook her head. “It was silly of me, to think that Neil—”

“Oh, I am sorry,” Willa said again, wishing she’d never left her room. “It must be hard, seeing the plane, remembering all the good times you had with your husband.”

Lacey barely lifted her chin. “It is. That vintage plane was my husband’s pride and joy. But I’m okay, really. Neil left the plane to me, and I…I wanted Lucas to have it. So I should be used to seeing it up in the clouds by now.”

Willa didn’t know how to respond. She’d never dealt with such grief. “It is a beautiful plane,” she said. “And Lucas keeps it in tip-top shape.”

“He’d better,” Lacey replied, laughing to hide the tears misting her eyes. “Now, I’d better get back down to the house. I’ve got so much work to do at the shop. I’ll probably be working into the wee hours tonight.”

“I’d love to stop by and see some of your antiques,” Willa said, glad to be off the subject of Lacey’s late husband. “I understand you have some beautiful pieces.”

Lacey smiled. “Yes, I’m proud of the shop. But I’ve been busy all summer trying to find pieces to replace some of the furnishings that got damaged in the flood. We were fortunate that only a few inches of water got into the house, but as you’ve seen, the downstairs rooms suffered some water damage. We’ve been working hard to repair it, though.”

“Lucas explained to me,” Willa said. “It’s a beautiful house, and I’m so glad Lorna invited me to come down and see it. I just hope I didn’t pick a bad time.”

“Of course not. We’ve had a light summer,” Lorna told her, waving a hand at the restaurant’s few patrons. “Because of the flooding, we’ve only booked guests who return each year. And we’re planning a full shutdown this fall, so we can get things back in proper order for the holidays and the spring season.”

Willa couldn’t help but admire the two sisters. “You really are a team, all of you—Aunt Hilda, Lucas and you two.”

“And now Mick, too,” Lorna said, her eyes going as dreamy as she’d accused Willa’s of earlier. “He’s out somewhere with Justin. Those two stay busy these days.”

“Oh, she’s about to get all sappy on us, and I think we’ve had enough of that for one night,” Lacey said, walking toward the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Good night,” Willa said, watching as the prim blonde left. Then she turned to Lorna. “I hope I didn’t upset her.”

“It’s all right,” Lorna said, getting up to head to the kitchen. “She and Neil were very much in love, and it’s been hard these last few years. She gets this way every time Lucas takes the plane up. And she refuses to fly in it anymore.”

“I can’t imagine that kind of pain,” Willa said, a deep, nagging worry grabbing her in the stomach. “I’ve never known that kind of love. It must be so special.”

“It is,” Lorna said, holding out her hand to admire her wedding band. “I never thought I could find anyone to love, but God sent Mick, and I thank Him every day for my life with my new husband.” Then she glanced over Willa’s head to the front door. “Speaking of love and marriage, my handsome brother just walked in the door. And he’s headed for your table.” With that, she grinned, waved to Lucas, then pivoted toward the kitchen.

Love and marriage. Willa certainly hadn’t given much thought to either of those subjects. There had been no room for such notions in her carefully planned, carefully arranged career. But she wouldn’t be young and pretty forever. Would she wind up all alone, old and lonely?

If she lived to grow old at all?

The thought, coupled with Lacey’s obvious grief over losing her husband, only added to Willa’s concerns. Which was exactly why she couldn’t get involved with Lucas Dorsette, no matter how much his kisses affected her. Better to stay uninvolved and alone than to risk that kind of pain. Especially when her future was so uncertain.

She looked uncertain, sitting alone in the candlelight. She looked fragile, like a delicate blossom. She looked lovely in her shimmering blue sleeveless sheath, like a summer night full of stars.

Get a grip, Lucas. You’re a bad poet on a good day and even worse when your poor heart is filled with newfound love.

Was that what he’d been feeling since he’d kissed Willa? Was that this thing that had jolted throughout his body and kept him humming like a taut guitar string all day long? Was that why he’d stolen two of Aunt Hilda’s most beautiful salmon and pink-tinged roses to hand to the woman he planned to have dinner with and maybe spend the rest of his life with?

Now, that was surely something he’d never considered with any other woman.

He knew the odds weren’t in his favor. First of all, she was exactly his type—blond and leggy. That usually meant he’d lose interest soon enough. Second, he did have a tendency to fall and fall hard for a pretty face. And that meant this wouldn’t last too long—they never did. And last but certainly not least, she couldn’t stay here forever. She’d be gone soon, back to that world that seemed so far out of his reach. Back to that world of glamour and fame, a world he didn’t dare compete with.