And she still had a couple of hours to kill until GG returned from her meetings.
Restless, with itchy feet and idle hands . . . what was she supposed to do with herself?
Tobin wasn’t even around to argue with.
GG had informed Tobin that he had to stay away until late afternoon. Not that Jade had heard any of this firsthand—she had, however, received a terse note from Tobin that he’d oh-so-thoughtfully stuck to the bathroom mirror:
I can’t be here until later, but there will be hell to pay if I see so much as a single packing box anywhere in this house. Don’t test me on this, darlin’. You will lose. T~
Jade had fumed for a while at his audacity. Then she created and discarded witty comebacks designed to get under his skin. And what fine, fine skin it was. Even when he annoyed the crap out of her, it’d been hard not to notice how the muscle in his cheek flexed in that broodingly sexy way few men pulled off. Or how the intense way he argued heated his magnetic eyes into a deeper shade of blue.
Stop. So the big, rugged cowboy is hot. And commanding. And imposing. And insistent. He’s clever; he figured out how to push your buttons and that’s why you should do as GG says and steer clear of him.
For now . . . she needed something familiar to calm herself, and the best way to accomplish that was through music.
Jade set up her music stand on the front porch. Playing outside for her own enjoyment was a rare treat. The wind blew harder than she expected, requiring clothespins to keep her sheet music from blowing away. But she’d played this piece so many times she had it memorized.
Perched on the edge of the chaise, she held her bow above the strings and inhaled a deep breath before she launched into “Summer” from Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons and everything became right with her world again.
GG returned home around six o’clock, completely frazzled. “Sometimes I want to strangle Maybelle and her insistence on our community involvement. We don’t even have a school here in Muddy Gap, say nothin’ of any of us havin’ grandkids or great-grandkids that attend school in Rawlins.”
“What’s going on?”
“A ‘meet the teacher’ carnival thingy tomorrow night. We sure didn’t have one of them when I was a kid. We considered ourselves lucky we had extra chalk to draw on the pavement with at recess.”
Jade folded her arms over her chest and watched GG pace as she went off on a tear.
“There’s a cakewalk at this carnival. Last month or sometime, I don’t remember, I said I’d donate, thinking because it’s a cakewalk . . . it oughta be a cake, right?” She shook her head. “Wrong. Because no little ankle-biter should ever feel left out, every cakewalk participant gets his or her own cupcake—in addition to the chance of winning a gol-durn cake!”
“What does that mean?”
GG flopped onto the couch. “That means instead of relaxing and havin’ a glass or two of bubbly with my beautiful granddaughter, I have to bake and decorate five dozen cupcakes tonight. Sixty stinkin’ cupcakes for rugrats who’ll be so hopped up from a mini-donut sugar rush or zoned out on fumes from the face-painting booth that they won’t appreciate my hard work.”
Jade perched on the edge of the recliner. “Why don’t you just buy the cupcakes and save yourself the hassle?” A woman who dropped twenty k on champagne shouldn’t balk at spending fifty bucks on baked goods.
GG patted her leg. “Oh, honey, I forget you’re not from around here. You don’t get it.”
“Yes, I think I do. This is a competition where you have to go all Martha Stewart and craft your cupcakes from scratch, then decorate them with golden coins, silver swirls and crystal flakes, or else you’re afraid you’ll be a laughingstock at the town hall?”
“Whoa. Take it down a notch, tiger.”
Jade spun to see Tobin lurking in the doorway. “Back off, buttinsky. You were not invited into this conversation. We’re persona non grata to each other, remember?”
GG ignored Jade’s outburst and peered over her shoulder at Tobin sauntering in. “Did you get the stuff?”
“What was left. Ended up with two boxes of lemon cake mix, so you’ve only got four flavors instead of five.”
Jade muttered, “No one ever listens to me.”
“Speak up, Jade. Miz G can’t hear you mumble,” Tobin said in that sexy drawl.
“Why didn’t you just buy the premade cupcakes when you were already at the store?”
“Sweetheart, there is one grocery store in town and I doubt they keep more than a hundred cupcakes on hand at each location.” GG sighed. “Even if I’d wanted to buy them? Others have also been saddled with cupcake and cake duty. Everyone goes to this carnival. They’re projecting a thousand attendees.”