by Lori Wilde
“Have you always been so timid about things?” Leigh asked.
Timid? No one had ever called Erin timid in her entire life. “Just because I don’t want to interrupt his evening doesn’t mean I’m timid.”
“If you say so,” Leigh said with a shrug. “It sure seems timid to me. Maybe you could go through some sort of self-help thing with twelve steps and get over your timidness.”
That got to Erin. She wasn’t timid. Never had been. And especially now, since starting her new life, she’d made a point of being brave and independent. So what if Trent had someone over at his house? Did that mean she couldn’t stop by and tell him what had happened?
“I am not timid,” Erin said firmly to Leigh.
“Okeydokey,” Leigh said. “So you’re going over to Trent’s house, then?”
“You bet I am,” Erin said.
“Good for you.” Leigh’s smile turned downright smug. “You have a nice time.”
Suspicion trickled over Erin. There was something about Leigh’s smile that made her more than a little uncomfortable.
“I’m only going over there to tell him about the candy,” Erin felt compelled to say. “There’s nothing to smile about.”
Leigh’s smile only grew wider. “Of course that’s why you’re going. I’m only smiling because I’m happy that Trent will know what’s going on.”
Yeah, well, if Trent knew what was going on in this town, then Erin sure hoped he’d tell her. Because frankly, she hadn’t a clue.
Trent opened his front door and smiled. Now this was a pleasant surprise—Erin on his doorstep.
“Hi,” she said. Then before he could say a word, she hurried on. “I hope I haven’t disturbed you, but Leigh said I should stop by. Actually, it was more like Leigh insisted I stop by.” She peered beyond him to the inside of the house. Since Brutus was yapping at their feet, he couldn’t help wondering what she was looking for.
With a glance over his shoulder, he asked, “Is something sneaking up behind me? ’Cause if it is, I’d appreciate a little warning.”
When Erin looked at him, she frowned. “What? Oh, no. I was just making sure I wasn’t interrupting anything.”
Trent chuckled. “Well, I did have a bunch of naked dancing girls over, but when Leigh called, I decided I best send them on home. Figured you’d disapprove. Of course, I can’t promise you that Brutus doesn’t have a lady friend over. The guy’s a real animal.”
Erin gave him a wan smile, so Trent knew immediately that something was up.
“You’re not disturbing me. What’s going on?” He pushed his front door open. Brutus scampered over and did his best to escape before Trent picked him up.
“Nothing, I guess,” she said.
But when Erin only gave the pup a halfhearted pat, Trent knew she was lying.
“Come on. Fess up. As much as I’d like to think you stopped by because you were drawn by my sheer charm, I know that isn’t the case. So what happened?” he asked.
“Nothing, really.” When he continued to give her a dubious look, she added, “It’s just that I found some candy in my cart at the grocery store.”
“And?”
She blew out a breath of disgust. “I didn’t put it there. I can’t help thinking it has something to do with Pookie, the birdhouse, and the flowers.”
Trent nodded. She might be right. Or it could simply be a mix-up. But either way, Erin was upset, and it seemed like the best idea was to spend some time talking this over with her.
“What did you buy at the grocery store?” he asked.
She frowned, but she still answered him. “I picked up a few things for dinner. Why? Are you thinking that my cart looked like someone else’s and that it’s all a case of mistaken cart identity?”
“Yeah, sure. Plus, I was wondering if you had anything in your grocery bags we might cook up for dinner. I’m starving.”
For a priceless minute, Erin simply stared at him. Then she asked slowly, “You’re inviting me to dinner if I supply the food?”
“Hey, I’ll cook. Unless, of course, you bought liver. Then I withdraw the offer.” He gave a mock shudder. “I can’t stand liver.”
“I bought the ingredients for spaghetti,” she said flatly.
Trent grinned and tugged at her arm. “Good, then by all means, stay for dinner. I’ll cook, and you tell me more about what happened at the store.”
He could tell Erin was torn. She obviously didn’t know what to say, so Trent played his trump card. “Please stay. Look at Brutus’ sad face. He wants you to stay. He’s so upset at the mere thought that you might leave.”
His argument would have carried more weight if Brutus hadn’t been panting and looking about as happy as a puppy could be.
Finally, Erin shrugged. “Fine. I’ll stay. But I want it on the record that I think you’re as devious as your sister.”
He nodded. “Duly noted. Now where are those groceries?”
Before she could argue, he headed toward her car to grab the food. She might think he was devious, but he really did want to talk over what had happened. And sure, he’d like to spend some time with Erin as well. Dinner seemed like the natural solution.
And after all, a guy had to grab every opportunity that came his way.
6
Trent took a great deal of satisfaction watching Erin be amazed by his culinary skill. Why was it that women thought men knew everything about cars and nothing about cooking? Well, he was one rancher’s son who knew his way around a kitchen.
And he didn’t mind showing off for a pretty lady.
“Tada,” he said when he set the bowl of perfectly cooked pasta next to the savory sauce he’d created from the ingredients she’d bought and a few of his own thrown in.
“I’m really impressed,” Erin said, and he chuckled at her surprised tone.
“Did you honestly think I couldn’t cook?” he asked, sitting after she had.
“No. Yes. I guess I didn’t picture you as the domestic type.”
He handed the bowl of pasta to her and waited while she served herself. “Oh, I’m not domestic. Not in the sense a lot of people mean it. But I can cook. And I clean my own house. Doesn’t mean I’m the type to start picking out china patterns, but I can tend to myself.”
Erin laughed, and Trent had to admit, he surely loved that sound.
“Calm down,” she said. “I wasn’t asking you to marry me. I just meant that it’s nice when people surprise you with talents you hadn’t yet discovered they have.”
Okay, now there was no way as a self-respecting male that he could let that comment go without a response.
“I have a lot of talents you haven’t discovered yet.”
This time when Erin laughed, he was less than enchanted. Especially when she said, “I can’t believe you used a line on me.”
“Hey, it’s not a line,” he told her, knowing full well it was a line and not a very good one. But he wasn’t about to admit that to her.
She was still laughing when she countered, “Oh, yes, it most certainly was a line. You were intimating something, probably something like what you said in class a couple of weeks ago.”
A light flush colored her face, and Trent leaned forward. “Gee, Erin, I have no idea what you’re talking about. What line in class?”
He expected her to get flustered or glance away, but she didn’t. Instead, she stopped laughing and looked him dead in the eye as she said, “You know exactly what I’m talking about.”
He pretended to consider what she’d said. “I’m racking my brain here, and I still don’t remember a thing,” he teased.
“Liar,” she said softly.
“For the record, that definitely wasn’t a line. And also, you were the one who started it with all that talk about consistency and firmness.” He took a long sip of iced tea before he added, “I was being a perfect gentleman at the time.”
“To quote your sister—” she said, then she snorted.
Laughter burst out
of Trent, and Erin laughed, too. Brutus joined in, yapping and chasing his own tail. By the time Trent finally got himself under control, he realized he hadn’t laughed that much in a long, long time.
For a second, they sat looking at each other, humor still in their gazes. But along with the humor was attraction. Strong, vibrant attraction that made Trent want to kiss her again.
“Do you want more?” she asked.
Oh, yeah, did he ever.
He could picture it now. He’d give her a grin, then circle around to her side of the table, take her in his arms, pull her soft, warm body close and—
“No!”
Trent froze. “Excuse me?”
Thankfully, Erin indicated Brutus. “He’s thinking about making a move.”
Yeah, well, Brutus wasn’t the only guy in the room thinking along those lines. The idea had a lot of appeal to Trent as well.
With effort, he reined in his libido and asked, “What’s the furball up to now?”
“He’s definitely eyeing your shoelaces. I swear, I’m starting to worry about Brutus. He seems to have a one-track mind.”
Trent knew exactly how the puppy felt. Whenever he was around Erin, he seemed to have a one-track mind as well. He gave the pup a stern look. Sure enough, Brutus was slowly creeping toward Trent’s feet.
“Furball, what is it with you and shoelaces? Do you need more roughage in your diet?”
“He likes being around you,” Erin said. “Dogs are pack animals. You’re part of his pack.”
“And chewing on my shoelaces would be a sign of what?”
“He wants to play with you.”
“After dinner. Right now, I’m playing with you.” As soon as the words left Trent’s mouth, he knew what Erin’s response would be. She didn’t disappoint him, either. She immediately frowned.
“There you go with the pickup lines again,” she said, then turned her attention back to her dinner.
“That’s not a pickup line,” he protested. “A double entendre, maybe. But not a line. You’ve got it all confused. A line is something like ‘Hey baby, Heaven’s missing an angel since you’re here on Earth.’”
She crinkled her nose. “Yuck. Tell me you’ve never said anything so lame before. No woman would ever fall for something that dumb.”
Trent decided not to enlighten Erin and risk ending up with a plateful of spaghetti in his lap. He hated to admit it, but he’d used that line and several like it before with great results.
“Okay, that’s a bad example,” he admitted. “A good line doesn’t sound a thing like a line.”
For a few minutes, they ate in silence. Trent knew Erin was dying to ask him what a good line was, but he also could tell she was trying her hardest not to ask. Finally, she dropped her fork on her plate and looked at him.
“Okay, I can’t stand it. Give me an example of a good line.”
Trent barely refrained from smiling. Instead, he shook his head. “A good line is no line at all. It’s taking the time to really understand the lady you’re interested in and being honest with her.” He leaned forward a little, then said, “For instance, do you know you have the most amazing laugh? I love the way it sounds. So free. So wild. I’ve never met anyone who laughs as great as you do.”
Erin stared at him, her brown eyes filled with doubt. She didn’t know if what he’d just told her was a line he’d used a million times before or the truth. With any other woman, he’d flash a grin and assure her that he was telling the honest truth.
But the funny thing was, this time, he really was telling the truth. He loved the way Erin laughed. And he needed her to know it wasn’t a line.
The problem became how to convince her. He knew Erin thought he was a player. Heck, he was. He made no secret of the fact that he liked his single lifestyle.
“I mean it,” he said. “You have a great laugh.”
Erin rolled her eyes. “You proved your point. The best lines don’t sound like lines at all.”
“I guess there’s no way for me to convince you that wasn’t a line, is there?”
She pretended to consider his question, then said, “Nope.”
“Okay. So then, why don’t you tell me what happened at the grocery store? If I can’t convince you of my sincerity, maybe I can impress you with my razor-sharp deductive abilities.”
Erin quickly explained what had happened at the store. When she finished, Trent wasn’t sure what to make of the candy. More than likely, it had been a mix-up.
“Don’t you think it’s odd that all of these things keep happening? The flowers, okay, maybe Leigh was right. Maybe they’d been dropped by accident. And sure, maybe the candy was an accident, too.” She shrugged. “It just strikes me as an awful lot of accidents.”
“Strikes me that way, too.” He took another sip of his iced tea and considered her. “Sadly, the video from the weeds/flowers wasn’t helpful. Someone did weed the flowerbox across the street from your store, but it was early morning and still dark. I couldn’t see who it was. I asked around, and everyone I talked to had no idea what I meant. It was a kind of short person wearing a hoodie. That’s all I could make out. It looked like when they finished pulling the weeds, they headed across the street, probably to the trash can. On the way, they dropped lots of the weeds, mostly in front of your store.”
Erin was frowning at him. “Did it look like it was on purpose?”
“Hard to tell. Anything else odd happen lately?”
“You mean besides you asking me to stay for dinner so you could use up all of my groceries?”
He chuckled. “Yeah, besides that.”
“No. And when I stop to think about it all, it seems silly to be upset.” She ran one finger up and down the side of her glass. “It was only a few bags of candy in my cart.”
“Still, I’ll look into it. A person can’t be too careful.”
Erin nodded, and then her glance met his. For a second, the attraction level between them zoomed.
Then she said, “You’re absolutely right. A person can’t be too careful...about a lot of things.”
Erin tipped her head and studied Brutus. “I think he’s getting worse rather than better.”
Trent nodded. “Yeah, I think so, too. But dang if I can figure out why. I keep doing everything you’ve shown us in class. But each day, the boy seems to get rowdier.”
“He definitely fits into your family,” she couldn’t resist saying.
Rather than being offended, Trent laughed. “He does at that, doesn’t he?”
He scooped up the puppy. “At least, he’s definitely related to Leigh. Furball here no more finishes making one mess before he’s off making another. Keeps a man busy.”
Erin smiled, watching Trent hold Brutus at eye level. No matter what the sexy chief of police said, Erin could tell he really liked the puppy. The two males were cute to watch together, although Erin would prefer it if Brutus took to the lessons a little better.
“Since he just ate, I’m going to take your advice and let him run in the backyard for a bit,” Trent said.
“That’s a good idea since you’re trying to train him.”
“Trying is the operative word in that sentence.” He glanced at the clock. “Can you stick around for a while longer? I have to go stand outside with Brutus or else he won’t take care of business.”
That seemed odd. “Why on earth not?”
Trent gave her a rueful grin. “He’s afraid of the neighbor’s cat. Fluffy scares the bejeepers out of him.”
Erin laughed. “This I’ve got to see. Mind if I come with you two?”
With a wave toward the back door, Trent let her precede him outside. Sure enough, as soon as they got out, Trent had to shoo a cat away before Brutus would step off the patio.
“Yep. That’s my dog. Afraid of a cat,” Trent said dryly.
“In Brutus’ defense, it is a big cat, and he’s a small dog.”
Trent snorted. “He’s also not too keen on spiders, and yesterday he ran b
ack inside after encountering a cricket. Face it, my dog is a coward.”
“He’s still a puppy. Give him a chance. Besides, Brutus is more of a lover than a fighter.”
“Is that a fact? Well, since you’re making me get the boy fixed, he won’t be a lover for much longer.”
“He’ll still be sweet and cuddly.”
Trent groaned. “Great. I’m going to have a cuddly dog. Just what every chief of police needs. Maybe I should stock up on pink bows in case he feels like dressing up.”
Erin laughed. “You are so predictable.”
“Why?”
“Why? Look at you. You’re taking this personally that your dog isn’t some man-eating killer.” She couldn’t help adding, “You know, women like guys who aren’t he-men all the time. It’s nice to show a softer side of your personality now and then.”
Trent turned to face her, and he had pure mischief in his eyes. “Oh, really? Is that all women?”
Oops. She should have thought that comment through before she’d made it. Now he was giving her one of his bona fide sure-to-melt-the-toughest-heart looks.
Her gaze drifted to his lips. Just like that. Wham. She was staring at his lips like she had no self-control at all.
Now this was why she shouldn’t have stayed for dinner. Sure, visiting with Trent and Brutus had been a lot of fun. And talking to Trent had made her worries about the cart mix-up fade. She now was convinced it had been an accident.
But being around Trent hadn’t done a thing to squash the out-of-control attraction she felt toward him. Nope. That was still thriving. Big time. In fact, the attraction factor had gotten a whole lot worse while she’d been here. Not only had he cooked a great dinner for them, but he’d also been a wonderful host.
Now how was she supposed to resist a man who insisted on being terrific? It simply wasn’t fair.
He took a deliberate step closer to her. “So are you one of those women who likes men to have a softer side?”
“I was speaking in general terms,” she said, although her words would have carried more weight if they hadn’t come out all breathless and husky. “I didn’t mean me.”