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in. It caught him unaware and put him on guard. Wary, he braced for her to notice him, too.
    She scanned the room quickly, eyes widening as they moved from one stranger to another while he waited with tension knotting inside him.
    “What . . .” she began, and then her gaze found him and her words faded away.
    Their eyes locked and held. Confusion turned hers silver and made him want to charge across the room while at the same time urging him to run in the opposite direction. She took a hesitant step forward, as if she couldn’t help herself. He did, too, pulled by the same insane compulsion.
    “What . . .” she said again, and then suddenly her eyes shuttered and she stiffened. “What are you doing here?”
    Moment lost, Reilly allowed himself a breath of relief. Only relief was hell and gone from how he really felt. “Good to see you, too, Gracie.”
     

Diablo Springs: Chapter Five
     
     
    Gracie had driven across the desert at breakneck speeds, thinking of nothing but Analise. Now she was here, expecting to see Eddie Rodriguez waiting with her contrite daughter nearby. She’d never thought she’d find Reilly Alexander instead.
    “What are you doing in my grandmother’s house?” she demanded, staring at the man who’d destroyed her life with as much dignity as she could muster while wrestling two Great Danes on leashes and holding one wet Yorkie in her arms. “Where are Eddie and my daughter?”
    “Eddie Rodriguez?” Reilly said, shock widening his pretty eyes, reminding her of the boy she’d fallen in love with so long ago. The boy who’d promised to sweep her away and care for her forever. The boy who’d knocked her up and then disappeared with her hopes and dreams.
    He was a man now. Taller, broader through the shoulders and chest, bigger all around. She’d never forget those hazel eyes, though, or the face of the man who’d hurt her so badly she’d thought she’d never recover.
    What was he doing here? And where was Eddie with her daughter?
    She gave the dogs a sharp command to sit and put Romeo down next to them before pulling out her cell phone and hitting the last number dialed to reach Eddie. She’d talked to him a half hour ago and he’d said he’d be at the Diablo with Analise by the time she got here.
    As the phone rang, she took in her surroundings. Nothing looked the same as it had when she’d lived there with her grandmother seventeen years ago. Not the furniture, the pictures, the curtains. Not the strangers crowded inside, either. She tried to sort through her confusion as she stared at the clustered group of people. A man who looked as if he’d neglected to remove his Dracula costume after Halloween; an older, dark-skinned woman wearing an African turban and tunic. Hanging back stood a priest wearing dingy white gloves and rounding out the group was an older man with silver at the temples, wearing a gray sweater with leather patches at the elbows. He must be Jonathan, the caretaker Eddie said her grandmother had finally hired. He’d described him as distinguished looking, in a seedy kind of way. The man seemed to fit the bill.
    At their fringes stood Reilly Alexander. Her heart stuttered at the sight of him.
    Eddie’s phone kept ringing in her ear, but headlights shot through the windows and climbed the walls. Gracie hit the “end” button and hurried to the porch as Eddie Rodriguez got out of a police car and ran around to the other side. Sheltering his passenger from the rain, he hurried them both up to where Gracie waited. When he lowered the umbrella, Analise stepped forward into her mother’s waiting arms.
    Gracie cried as she embraced her only child, mumbling words that didn’t need to make sense as they held one another.
    “She’s fine, Gracie,” Eddie said, patting her shoulder awkwardly. “Dr. Graebel checked her out. She has a bump on her head and she’s shook up, but no permanent damage. He thinks the boy will be okay, too.”
    The boy?
    “Brendan?” she