Every Road to You

“The police had to come back,” Tia surmised.

Carol nodded. “But it was a different officer the second time, and he wasn’t so nice. In fact, he was rude and condescending.”

She put her a fist on her hip and wagged the index finger of her other hand. “‘Isn’t it past you Q-tips’ bedtime?’” Carol mimicked the officer. “‘Time to break it up and head back to the old-folks’ home.’”

“Uh-oh,” Tia said.

“Uh-oh is right,” Carol huffed. “I consider myself an easygoing woman, but I wasn’t having it. Especially off a kid I assisted the doctor in bringing into the world. I don’t care if he was all grown up and wearing a blue uniform.”

Tia sipped her cooling tea as she listened. At this point, Carol’s story was more interesting than her breakfast.

“I told him to watch his tone, and he said to me, ‘Settle down. I’m warning you,’” Carol mimicked again. “He’s warning me, after I fished broken crayons out of his snotty little nose when he was two,” she said. “Long story short, we argued. He got hot around the collar and hauled me downtown on some bogus charge of breaching the peace.”

Again, Tia wondered if Ethan had sat down and really talked to his grandmother, and gotten her side of the story. Carol may have been in the wrong for back-talking the law, but it was completely understandable.

“Still, I can’t believe he arrested you.”

Carol shook her head. “He didn’t. Not really. I was detained a couple of hours, and then he called Ethan, my thirty-one-year-old grandson, to come get me,” she said. “As if I were senile or a brat whose parent had been summoned to the principal’s office. I swear, I nearly lit into him all over again.”

Only pausing to take a breath, Carol continued, “Instead of Ethan reading him the riot act, he basically thanked the officer for seeing to his senile old granny.” She fixed her gaze on Tia. “Then he runs straight to you, and for what? Last time I checked, I was seventy-four, not four.”

Tia cleared her throat. “He blames me. He believes I’m the evil puppet master behind the changes you’ve made lately.”

Carol nodded at the waitress, who then topped up her coffee, and Carol turned back to Tia. “That’s a load of bull. You made me look amazing and feel good about my appearance again. However, I was the one who decided to start living the life I want to lead, and there’s not a thing my grandson can do about it.”

Tia watched the older woman open a sleek cross-body bag and pull out a folded sheet of paper. She opened it and slid it across the table.

“What’s this?” Tia asked, skimming what appeared to be some kind of list.

“My bucket list,” Carol answered proudly.

“Oh, my God, you actually did it,” Tia said. “I’m impressed.”

“When you first suggested it, I wasn’t so sure. The idea made me feel like I had one foot in the grave,” she said. “But the more I thought about it, I realized I’d been living like I’d had both my feet planted in one for years. It’s time for me to stop putting off things I really want to try. No matter how frivolous or downright silly.”

Tia could feel her chest practically expanding with pride as she smiled across the table at Carol. This was the real reason she’d started the spa division of the company. She’d wanted to use beauty and outward changes to give women the courage to take bigger, bolder steps toward their dreams.

Tia took a closer look at the typed list. It contained nearly a hundred bullet points, including skydiving, riding a Harley and playing poker in a national tournament.

“‘Pub crawling the honky-tonks on Broadway,’” Tia read, noting the red line scratching it off the list.

“Done.” Carol winked.

“‘Ride one of the biggest, baddest roller coasters of the summer,’” Tia continued to read.

Carol nodded. “When my daughter was young, we’d take her to amusement parks, and I wanted to go on the roller coasters with her, but I was just too chicken,” she said. “I’d end up sitting on a bench like a stick-in-the-mud watching everybody else have fun. I did the same thing when I took Ethan as a boy.”

Tia had no memories of amusement parks or roller coasters as a kid. There were no family vacations. Any childhood trips, like everything in her parents’ lives, revolved around Espresso company business.

She pushed the errant memory from her head, not wanting to go down that road. Still, she couldn’t help appreciate the irony. The business she once resented, she was now rallying to save.

“Are you sure you don’t want to start off with something smaller and not so bad?” Tia asked, focusing instead on her friend.

Carol shook her head. “Nope. No wussy coasters,” she said. “I read about one called Outlaw Run in Missouri on the web. Along with being one of the few wooden coasters in the country, it has a sixteen-story drop and double-barrel roll.”

Tia laughed and held up her hands. “Stop. You’re making my stomach drop and roll just talking about it.”

“I plan to ride that baby at least twice before the end of the summer,” Carol said.

“Ambitious list.” Tia was about to return the paper to her friend when a handwritten item caught her eye.

The one who got away.

She pointed it out to Carol. “What’s this?”

“Nothing.” The older woman shook her head and her brown skin flushed red.

“Are you blushing?” Tia asked, intrigued.

“Of course not. Don’t be ridiculous.” Carol hurriedly snatched the list from her hand. “I was just doodling.”

Tia stared across the table at her. She’d immediately noticed there was something different about her friend. Something that had nothing to do with her makeover or attitude shift. The handwritten item had been the clue, but Carol’s reaction confirmed it.

“Who is he?” Tia asked.

She held up a hand to forestall the denial forming on Carol’s lips. “I already know there’s a him. You were practically beaming when you walked in here, and now you’re blushing.”

Carol’s sigh held a dreamy edge. “His name is Glenn Davies and he once was the love of my life,” she admitted. “I think he still is.”

Tia leaned forward in her chair. Now she was really interested. “You didn’t mention him when you came in for your makeover, and you were at the spa all day. How long have you two been seeing each other?”

“A week.” Carol chewed at her bottom lip. “He’s only just moved back to town. We ran into each other last week and we’ve been seeing each other ever since.”

“You two are moving pretty fast, aren’t you?” Tia asked.

“We’ve wasted too much time already. Still, somehow when we’re together the decades melt away.”

Carol’s face glowed like a woman in love’s. Tia couldn’t help wonder what had broken them up in the first place.

“What happened between you two that you didn’t end up together? Well, until now.”

The older woman shrugged. “It’s a typical story, almost a cliché. Good girl falls for bad boy. I was young and my folks disapproved of our relationship. After high school, he got a job out of state and asked me to come with him. I wanted to but couldn’t bear disappointing my parents. I didn’t see him again until last week, fifty-seven years later.”

This time it was Tia who reached across the table for her old friend’s hand. “I’m happy for you.”

She meant it. Feelings that five decades apart had failed to extinguish deserved the chance to thrive.

“Thank you, dear,” Carol said. “Now, enough about me. The topic has dominated our entire conversation this morning, and it’s beginning to bore me.” She pinned Tia with her gaze. “You don’t seem yourself. Something bothering you, other than my ogre of a grandson paying you a visit?”

Tia shook her head. “Just work stuff,” she said.

The temptation to confide in Carol was strong. She hadn’t had anyone else to talk to but Max.

Her brother, Cole, was off doing his own thing, and her sister, Lola, the current face of Espresso Cosmetics, was more adept at causing problems than helping to figure out solutions.

Still, Tia didn’t want to mar Carol’s happiness by dumping her problems on her.

“Come on,” the older woman coaxed. “I’ve known you since you were seventeen. I know when you’re worried.”

Tia exhaled. “Yesterday, I tried to talk to my father about Espresso’s financial situation again. To say it didn’t go well would be an understatement.”

Concern creased Carol’s still-youthful face. “I didn’t realize things had gotten so bad.”

The pink uniform–clad waitress came to check their table, and Tia gave her the okay to clear her plate of now-cold pancakes. Replaying the scene with her father in her head had stolen her appetite anyway. She couldn’t remember ever seeing him so angry, and when she was younger she’d given her parents plenty to get angry over.

Tia grimaced. “The revenue from the spa division is the only thing keeping us afloat.”

“What about Cole?” Carol asked. “He practically ran the place single-handedly during your mother’s illness. Surely he can...”

Tia shook her head slowly. She was about to convey the brief conversation with her older brother, when the phone inside her purse rang.

She peeked inside her bag and saw it was Max. It was unusual for him to call this early, so it had to be important.

“You mind if I take this?”

“Go ahead,” Carol said.

Moments later, Tia ended the call.

“Everything okay?” Carol asked.

Tia rolled her eyes. This was the last thing Espresso needed. “It’s Lola. Apparently, there’s some trouble concerning the photo shoot for next year’s spring campaign in Albuquerque. Lola’s refusing to go,” she said. “You don’t mind if we cut this short?”

Although, technically it wasn’t her job to intervene in this issue, as a Gray, Tia considered it her responsibility to help. She signaled the waitress and quickly paid the check. Her sister was well aware of the company’s precarious finances. They no longer had the time or money to waste on her antics.

Carol glanced at her watch. “Of course not, dear. I’m supposed to meet Glenn in a few minutes anyway. There’s a special early showing of the new comic book superhero action movie opening today. Glenn’s a huge fan of the one that flies around in a red cape.”

Tia barely heard a word. Her mind had already fast-forwarded past superheroes to her next move—shaking some sense into her spoiled, entitled baby sister.

Chapter 3

Ethan’s sneakers pounded the pavement, the fresh air and afternoon sunshine a welcome change from the monotony of the treadmill.

Rescheduling his morning flight to Hawaii to one leaving that evening was already turning out to be a good decision. He’d made the move to ensure his grandmother was back to her old self but had decided to take advantage of having the morning off. So far, he’d already slept late, got a haircut and enjoyed the rare treat of reading the entire newspaper over coffee.

Swiping the sweat from his brow with his forearm, Ethan jogged in place, waiting for the traffic light to change. Now that he’d put three miles in, he’d kill the proverbial two birds by running the additional few miles to his grandmother’s house instead of driving over later.

He was eager to see if her talk with Tia had done any good.

A half hour later, Ethan paced the driveway of the house he’d grown up in with his grandparents, cooling down from his workout. He spied the curtain moving in the front window of the house next door, and not long afterward, Alice Fenton stepped out on her porch.

“Afternoon, Miss Al...”

The automatic greeting died on his lips as he took in her outfit. She’d obviously snatched a page from his grandmother’s new fashion playbook, he thought, taking in the denim cargo shorts, T-shirt and red high-top sneakers.

He shook his head at the sight. Tia Gray had a lot to answer for. Hopefully, she’d already made inroads and their breakfast visit had marked the return of his grandmother’s good sense.

“Carol’s not home.” Alice eased off the porch one step at a time, clinging to the railing.

“That’s fine. I’m sure she’ll be back soon,” Ethan said, thinking she’d probably dashed off to the store. “I’ll just let myself in and wait.”

He scanned the colorful array of petunias, marigolds and geraniums in his grandmother’s flower bed for the fake rock. Locating it, he popped open the bottom panel and retrieved a spare key to the house.

He turned around to find Alice standing beside him.

“But Carol’s gone, dear,” she said.

“What do you mean, gone?” Ethan asked, a feeling of unease creeping over him. “Did she say where she was going?”

Alice shrugged. “I don’t remember exactly. She said something about a bucket. Or was it a list of buckets?”

Ethan tried to piece it together, but she wasn’t making sense. “Focus, Miss Alice. Exactly what did Grandma say?”

The older woman laid a finger over her lips and scrunched her already wrinkled face in concentration. Ethan waited with an outward calm he didn’t feel inside.

Alice brightened. “Now I remember.” She snapped her fingers. “Carol’s off to scratch some items off her bucket list.”

Bucket list? This was the first he’d heard of his grandma having anything more than a grocery list. Ethan frowned. He didn’t have to wonder where this inane idea had come from—none other than Tia Gray.

Once again, images of the woman’s dynamite legs came to mind.

He shoved them aside. Focus, he chided himself with the same directive he’d given Alice just moments ago.

“What else did my grandmother say?” Ethan asked. “Did she say anything about what time she’d be back tonight?”

“Oh, she’s not coming back tonight. She asked me to water her flowers for a couple of weeks because she and her boyfriend were taking off on an adventure.”

“Boyfriend!”

Alice flinched, and Ethan instantly regretted his tone. The bombshell his grandmother’s friend dropped had taken him by surprise. This was the first he’d heard of his grandmother seeing anyone. In the four years since his grandfather’s death, she hadn’t expressed an iota of interest in dating.

Ethan ran a hand over his freshly cut hair. “Sorry for yelling, Miss Alice. Does this boyfriend of hers have a name?”

“His name’s Glenn, and he’s what we ladies of a certain age would call a silver fox.” She nudged him in the ribs with a bony elbow. “It’s why I decided to spruce up my look like your grandma. I want to snag a hottie like him for myself. After all, I’m only a few years older than Carol.”

Alice looked down at her outfit and back at him, an expectant look plastered on her face. “So what do you think, dear? Do I look good enough to find me a Glenn?”

Ethan closed his eyes and squeezed the bridge of his nose with his fingertips to temper his frustration and ward off the beginnings of a headache.

“You look fine, Miss Alice.” He opened his eyes, exhaling the words. “Is there anything else you can tell me about this Glenn or where they might have gone? Do you know his last name or happen to remember the make or model of the car they left in?”

The older woman shook her head slowly. “Sorry, I don’t know his last name.”

Ethan began climbing the porch stairs with the key to the front door in hand. He needed to find a copy of this so-called bucket list. He also had to see if there were any clues about the mysterious Glenn. He thought of his grandmother’s recent behavior and hoped like hell he wasn’t some felon she’d met during her recent stint in lockup.

“Ethan, dear,” Alice called out. “They didn’t leave in a car. Your grandma was riding on the back of Glenn’s Harley.”

Ethan turned back to the older woman. He must have heard her wrong.

“As in m-motorcycle?” he sputtered

“Yep,” Alice confirmed. “A great, big one, too. My ears are still ringing from all the noise Glenn made revving up that baby before they left.”

Ethan plopped down on the top step and put his head in his hands. This just kept getting worse. He mentally kicked himself for not coming by the house earlier; instead, he’d relied on Tia to straighten out the mess she’d created. He should have known better.

Alice approached and placed a delicate hand on his arm. “There’s no reason for you to worry,” she said.

“Why’s that?” Ethan looked up at her, grasping for anything to alleviate his growing anxiety.

“They were both wearing helmets.”

* * *

Inside his grandmother’s house, Ethan forced himself to calm down. He had to stop reacting like a frantic grandson and approach this situation the way he did everything else, with the logical mind of an attorney.

Grabbing the cordless phone from the spotless kitchen countertop, he punched in his grandmother’s mobile number. Of course, he should have thought of doing that in the first place. He’d simply ask where she was and tell her to stay put until he could get there to bring her home.

Ethan drummed the fingertips of his free hand against the counter and stared at the kitchen’s cherry-emblazoned wallpaper, waiting for the line to connect.

“Come on, Grandma, pick up,” he muttered.

Then he heard it. A faint sound coming from the other room.

“Damn.” His free hand formed into a fist, and he slammed it against the countertop.

Ethan stalked out of the kitchen and through the dining room toward the sound; however, he knew what it was before he saw the mobile phone on his grandmother’s bedroom bureau. His own name and number flashed across the small screen. Next to it was a folded paper with his name written on it.

He snatched the note off the bureau and scanned his grandmother’s familiar scrawl.

His chat with Alice had been more informative.

Basically, his grandmother had gone away to cross items off her so-called bucket list, and she’d return when she was good and ready. No indication of exactly when that would be.

Nor had she written a single word about a boyfriend named Glenn.

Ethan went to the den and fired up the desktop computer he’d bought her for Christmas. Maybe her web-browsing history would net him a few details to her whereabouts or at least point him in the right direction.

He sat down at her chair and scanned the desktop as he waited for the computer to load. A few moments later, Ethan typed bucket list into the search function, and a document with the title opened up on the screen.

He blew out a relieved breath. At least something was easy.

His relief waned as he began to read the long list. He could attest to the fact she’d already done the pub crawl on Broadway and attended a wild party.

Scrolling down, his eyes widened.

Zip-lining.

Skydiving.

Was his grandmother out of her mind? She could just delete those. No way she was doing either activity. Not after the trauma of her health scare just a few short months ago. You’d think a retired nurse would know better.

Ride cross-country on a Harley.

Ethan frowned. She and this Glenn guy may get through a few Tennessee counties. However, there was no way he was going to risk his grandmother’s safety, her life, sitting idly by while she rode off on a bike with a stranger.

He thought he’d read the worst of it until he got to the last item on the list, and his stomach fell as if he’d been on that roller coaster his grandmother wanted to ride.

Get married in Las Vegas with Elvis officiating.

“Oh, hell, no!” Ethan’s voice echoed throughout the house.

Hawaii could wait. He was going to find his grandmother, and if he had to drag her kicking and screaming all the way back home, so be it.

And Ethan knew exactly who was going to help him.

* * *

Tia willed herself to get out of her office chair and head downstairs for the spa’s last yoga class of the day. It would be the perfect way to get centered before she tackled the stack of work on her desk—things she should have accomplished during business hours.

Unfortunately, her body refused to cooperate.

Instead, she toed off her pumps, eased back in the ultrasuede chair and propped her feet on the smooth surface of her glass desk.

Tia hadn’t intended to spend a good chunk of the day shoving her temperamental sister aboard a flight to New Mexico for the location shoot for next spring’s line. Then it had taken an hour on the phone soothing the ruffled feathers of an irate Rafael, the internationally renowned photographer and reality-show judge Lola had kept waiting.

Tia had also returned to her father’s office earlier in the day, trying once again to explain her position, only for it to end in a replay of their previous visit.

Now she was exhausted, both physically and mentally.

She shifted into a more comfortable position and closed her eyes. Her plan was to chill for another minute or two, then grab a mug of strong tea from the relaxation room and dig into the mountain of awaiting paperwork.

The spa would remain open for another couple of hours, but the rest of the office staff had cleared out promptly at five. Max had offered to stay late to help her catch up, but Tia had refused, knowing his five-year-old son and her godson had a T-ball game.

Exhaling, Tia dug deep for the motivation to move, but it eluded her.

“Ms. Gray.”

Tia jerked at the sound of her surname rumbling through the room on the deep, booming voice. She opened her eyes and looked toward the open door to find the frame filled by none other than Ethan Wright.

Judging by the firm set of his jaw, he was unhappy with her.

Again.

Dark brown eyes drilled into hers before his gaze strayed to her legs and lingered as if he found their current position offensive.

It wasn’t as if she’d invited him to her office, Tia thought. It was after business hours. They were her legs, atop her desk, and it was none of his business what she did with them.

Still, she swung them down and slid her feet back into her pumps. As she did, Tia stole a moment to appreciate him—solely on his eye-candy appeal.

Smooth, dark skin, dreamy brown eyes and a lean, fit body. Yum, she thought, fighting an urge to smack her lips. He’d eschewed yesterday’s suit and tie for a baseball cap, khakis and a black polo shirt, its short sleeves revealing strong, muscled arms. Nope. Her mind hadn’t exaggerated his attractiveness. Not at all.

“Ethan, I didn’t expect to see you again,” she said.

“I didn’t expect to have to return.”

Tia rose from her desk. She definitely needed that tea now. “Well, I was just headed downstairs for a cup of tea. Can I bring one for you?”

Tia wasn’t positive, but she thought she saw a lightning bolt split the storm clouds gathering above his head. The expression on his handsome face darkened to downright thunderous.

“I don’t want any tea,” he said, every word laced with barely contained fury. “You and I need to talk. Right now.”

Apparently, her mind hadn’t exaggerated his obnoxiousness either.

Tia crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s been a long day. I’m tired, and I have a lot of work to do,” she said. “I spoke with Carol this morning, and she seemed perfectly fine to me. In fact, the more I talked to her, the more I realized you’re the one who needs to sit down and have a conversation with her. If you’d just listen to what she has to say, I’m sure it would put your mind at ease.”

He took a step toward her, and she couldn’t help noticing his Yankees cap covered a fresh haircut, the sideburns giving it away. Underneath the brim, his brown eyes bored into hers with razor sharpness. “I can’t talk to my grandmother, Ms. Gray, and my mind definitely is not at ease, because she’s gone.”

For a moment, his declaration made Tia nervous. Then she remembered how he’d gotten her all wound up over the jail thing, which turned out not to be a big deal at all.

“She’s probably just out for the evening,” Tia said, careful not to mention Glenn. Something told her Carol hadn’t mentioned reuniting with an old boyfriend to her grandson.