It took only a few seconds to notice that he’d changed. His jeans were new and fit him perfectly, and the black Henley he wore under a worn leather jacket seemed to stretch across his chest as if it caressed him. Her cheeks flamed at the thought.
“Mommy! Man!” JJ said from his booster seat, and he waved again.
“Hey there,” Nolan said as he drew next to the table.
“I’m having nuggets ’n’ fries,” JJ informed him importantly. “You wanna eat with me?”
“Oh, no, JJ. I’m sure Mr. Dane has other plans,” Raina said quickly, feeling her blush deepen on her cheeks.
“Please, call me Nolan and, actually, no, I don’t. But I don’t want to intrude. I can eat at another table.”
Raina felt terrible. She’d all but told him he wasn’t welcome to sit with them. JJ’s face fell. How bad could it be? she asked herself.
“Oh, please sit down. Seriously, it’s okay. We haven’t ordered yet, anyway. Join us.”
“Well, if you’re sure.”
She nodded and gestured to the empty space next to JJ’s booster seat. Nolan slid into the booth and stretched his long legs out under the table. She shifted slightly as his leg brushed hers.
“Do you guys eat here often?” Nolan asked.
“No, this is a treat for JJ. Aside from the mess with your suit, he’s been a really good boy for me today, haven’t you, JJ?”
JJ nodded emphatically and reached for his water glass. Nolan helped him steady the large glass as he drank and then put it back on the table for him.
“You’re good at that,” Raina commented. “Do you have kids of your own?”
A bleak emptiness appeared in his eyes, its presence so brief she wondered if she’d imagined it, but it was enough to make her realize she’d been prying where she had no right to.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be so rude. I didn’t mean to pry.”
“No, it’s okay,” Nolan brushed off her concern. “Maybe we should just put it down to self-preservation. I’ve seen how lethal he is with an ice cream cone.”
* * *
Nolan watched Raina from across the table and silently congratulated himself on managing to keep his past locked firmly where it belonged. The waitress came by and took their orders, distracting Raina from asking any further questions. She was less relaxed than she’d been when he’d left the store. Was it his presence at the table that did that to her, he wondered, or was it something else? The waitress returned promptly with JJ’s order, and while the little boy dug in, Nolan thought it time to ease conversation back to the Courtyard.
“So tell me a little more about the Courtyard,” he started.
“The idea for it really only took off a few months after the tornado. A lot of us lost our stores and several of Royal’s local artisans lost workshops and homes. The Courtyard gave us all a fresh start—gave us a new community to be proud of.” Her eyes grew worried and a frown marred the smoothness of her forehead. “There’s talk that some oil company is looking to buy the land. It worries me.”
“Why’s that? What difference would a new landlord make?” Nolan probed.
Raina looked away, her face thoughtful, before directing her blue gaze straight back at him. “The Courtyard actually became a symbol of hope for a lot of us. A chance to get our feet back firmly on the ground and get us back to normal in a world that got turned upside down in one awful day. You can’t put a price on that. We need stability now. We need to be able to know from one day to the next that after all our hard work, we aren’t simply going to be turned out.
“An oil company isn’t going to want to keep us as tenants, you can be sure of that. They’ll want the land for testing, although why they think there’s oil there, I don’t know. I haven’t lived in Royal all that long and even I know the land is barely suitable for grazing, although with the drought that’s questionable, too.”
She fiddled with the salt and pepper shakers in front of her. “No, the Winslows did the right thing turning the ranch buildings into the Courtyard. Mellie assures me they’re not selling. I only hope nothing happens to change her mind. None of us there can afford to have our businesses fold or see our rents increase. What with the cost of increased insurance premiums and setting up all over again, it wouldn’t take much to destroy us.”
A pang of guilt pulled at him. If he was successful in changing the Winslows’ minds, and Rafe got hold of the Courtyard, Nolan knew there were no guarantees that his boss would keep the tenants. And it was true. Raina had a point—while the greater Maverick County area had yielded some successful oil fields, none had been in this general area. Nolan shifted uncomfortably. For the first time he was seeing the personal face of his assignment: someone who’d be directly and negatively impacted by his boss’s plan. And he didn’t like it. Not one bit.