When Petals Fall
A Chance Creek Novel
A.L. Mercier
Contents
When Petals Fall
Author's Note
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
PLAYLIST
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
WHERE TO FIND ANNE
OTHER BOOKS BY ANNE
ABOUT ANNE
When Petals Fall
A Chance Creek Novel
What would you do if you were trapped between two men, one who wanted to send you bouquets of flowers and another who wanted to sprinkle the petals from those flowers over your grave?
Lizzie Thomason came home to start a business and tie up a few loose ends from her past--one of them being Jake Kramer. Tall, lean, and incredibly sexy, the smooth-talking rancher is the man she'd given her heart to many years ago, the man who'd ultimately broken it. Now he's back in her life, wanting a second chance, and heaven help her, she's considering giving it to him. But between trust and resolution lies a threat to their future and the only clue to its identity lies in a trail of pink petals.
Jake has waited seven years for a second chance with Lizzie, the five-foot bundle of sass and spirit who holds the key to his heart, and he has every intention of keeping her this time around. When deadly events start occurring around Lizzie, Jake finds himself not only having to take on Lizzie's mistrust, but also to abolish the danger lurking in the shadows, waiting to strike. Neither is a battle he intends to lose.
Copyright
When Petals Fall
A Chance Creek Novel
Copyright ©2020 Anne Mercier, A.L. Mercier
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are products of the author's imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is purely coincidental.
Cover Images: DepositPhotos.
Cover Design: Anne Mercier.
PERSONAL NOTE: The only pirates I like are Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow and Captain Morgan, which means I'd appreciate if you'd keep my books to yourself. Pirating shows a clear lack of respect for the author—me. Thank you for respecting the time and effort put into each book. I appreciate it very much.
Author's Note
Hi Everyone!
I hope you're doing well.
I wanted to let you know a brief bit about this book. I wrote it back in 2007. It was the first novel I'd ever finished. It's just been sitting around on my computer, so I figured, why not publish it. Maybe it can bring you some entertainment during the quarantines during the Covid-19 outbreak.
I let if as third person. I hope you enjoy it.
Hugs and love,
Anne
Dedication
To Tianna
Thank you for always being so supportive.
Thank you for trusting me enough to allow me to support you in return.
Thank you for the amazing friendship.
But most of all, thank you for being you.
You're one in a million.
1
Lizzie
"This totally blows." Lizzie walked around to the back of her SUV and opened the hatch. Bending forward, she slid the tire iron to the edge of the SUV, then leaned in with her whole body to reach for the jack. As she was struggling to grasp it, she heard a vehicle pull up behind her. She'd just grabbed hold of it when booted footsteps approached.
"While I'm really enjoying the view, why don't you let me help you with that, Darlin'?"
Lizzie froze. Only one man in her life had called her Darlin'. She'd known when she returned to Chance Creek, she’d see him again, but this wasn’t exactly what she had imagined. She turned and there he was—all tall, dark, and yummy. She waited for the pain of the past to return, it didn't. Maybe time did indeed have a way of healing wounds—her broken heart included.
"Jake!"
Giving in to impulse, she ran to him and jumped up, wrapped her legs around his waist, hooking her sandaled feet at the small of his back. She threw her arms around his neck and gave him a loud smacking kiss. She turned her nose into his neck and breathed in his scent. Heavenly. He still smelled like pine, man, and the fresh outdoors. Jake.
Jake laughed out loud as Lizzie reached up to catch his black Stetson before it fell off his head, put it on her head, then ran her hands through his hair. She trusted him to hold her upright.
"Hey! You've still got a full head of hair!"
"Still have all my teeth too." She watched in fascination as he, to prove the point, ran his tongue across his top teeth. They were white and straight, and she remembered them biting her, nipping her in places that hadn't been touched in a long, long time.
"Wise ass," she said with a laugh.
He just grinned. "Still feisty as ever I can see."
"Like that was ever going to change." She pulled him close and gave in to the urge to kiss his lips again, testing to see if the fireworks the first time had been a fluke.
They hadn't.
He chuckled. "I take it from your friendly greeting, you don't still want to kill me in my sleep?"
"Oh, Cowboy, if I wanted to kill you, it wouldn't be in your sleep."
He raised a brow. "No?"
"Oh no. I'd want you to see it coming so you'd know it was me."
At that, he laughed out loud. "That's my girl."
He gave her a hug, then kissed her forehead, drawing out a smile. Her heart beat wildly in her chest. He could still get her hotter than a blazing inferno with one simple touch.
The wind swirled around them, for a few short seconds cocooning them in its embrace, blocking out the rest of the world. Brown eyes met green, both searching for something but hesitant at what they'd find. And when the wind whirled away, she sighed, wishing it could have lasted a few seconds longer so she could have, maybe, figured ou
t a few of Jake's secrets.
"Until this very minute I didn't realize how much I missed you."
"If you move a little to the left, you'll know just how much I missed you too."
Lizzie swatted his arm and plopped his hat back on his head. "Perv."
She unhooked her legs and slid to the ground. God, he was beautiful. From his dark brown eyes to his booted feet. He looked just as she remembered. Gorgeous. And, being completely honest with herself, she admitted that she still wanted him. She'd figured as much before she came home, but the lust coursing through her veins was more powerful than she expected.
"What do you say I give you a hand with the flat?"
Lizzie met his gaze. "You know, I really can handle changing a tire. It won't be the first time."
"But then you wouldn't get to see me flex my manly muscles."
Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Oh boy. Here we go."
"What? Like you hadn't noticed."
"What exactly is it that I'm supposed to have noticed?" Lizzie looked him up and down, admiring every hard inch of him. "Hmm, I suppose you have gotten bigger."
She ran her hands across his shoulders, down his chest, to his arms. "Very nice, Jake."
He grunted and his nostrils flared.
Her hands drifted to his abs, running across them. "Rock hard abs."
"That's not all that's hard."
Lizzie looked down at his straining erection and her fingers itched to touch it. "Wow. Impressive."
"Bring back memories?"
Lizzie grinned. "A few."
Their gazes held, identical flames of desire burned, before Jake's jaw clenched and he turned away.
"Let's get to that tire."
Lizzie nodded as Jake stepped forward, reached into the back of the SUV, and pulled out the jack that she'd barely been able to reach with her fingertips. Sometimes it sucked being short.
"How'd you get a flat anyway?"
"I was looking at the scenery and didn't see that board lying in the road which, of course, had a nail in it."
Jake looked at the tire, then over to the board just a ways down the road. "I wonder where this came from."
"What do you mean? Both of our ranches border this road with wooden and barbed wire fencing."
"That's true, but even from here I can see that that wood is new. You see any new fencing around here?"
Lizzie looked around and saw older boards, four by four posts with rusty barbed wire.
"Probably fell out of the back of a truck."
"Probably," Jake said.
She turned, catching a glimpse of herself in the side window and groaned inwardly. Her hair was a disaster, she had a dirt streak down her right cheek, and she was sweating. So not the look she'd been hoping to have when she saw Jake Kramer for the first time in seven years.
Lizzie slipped off her sweatshirt, wiped her sweaty and dirty face with the sleeve, and threw it in the back of the SUV, leaving her in a pink tank top. She tilted her head back and let the refreshing breeze wash over her. Oh Lord that felt good.
"I forgot how hot it got in Wyoming in June."
Jake grunted as he removed the last of the lug nuts and set the tire iron aside.
He paused to remove his button-down shirt, leaving him in a navy-blue t-shirt. His muscles flexed and rippled with each movement, and when he bent over to remove the flat tire, with the sun beating on her back, Lizzie took the liberty of enjoying the view of his spectacular ass. He sure did grow up well.
"Stop ogling me, Lizzie, and help me get out the spare," he said as he straightened.
"I wasn't ogling." Not exactly.
"You were. It's okay. You weren't the only one doing the ogling."
She walked with him to the back of the SUV. "Tire's in there. Yes, just turn that knobby thingy and lift that up."
He lifted the lid to uncover the spare tire in its compartment beneath the trunk floor.
"Well, fuck me."
Lizzie smirked at Jake's exasperated tone. "Is that an invitation?"
He glanced over at her and raised a brow. "Do you want it to be?"
More than she cared to admit, but she wasn't going to let him know that. Instead she shrugged.
"What's the problem?"
"Your spare is flat too."
"What?" She shoved him out of the way. "Let me see."
The tire was indeed flat.
"You have got to be kidding me! How on earth did that happen? I checked the spare before I came home."
A chill ran through her. If Jake hadn't come along, she'd have been stranded here, at least until she'd been able to reach someone at the Bar T, her family's ranch. Even that could have taken a while, especially in the middle of the day when everyone was out working. She'd have been up shit creek without a paddle.
Jake shrugged. "Could have been a slow leak."
"Maybe." Lizzie sighed. Just her luck.
He tipped his hat back and blew out a breath.
"There's not much we can do at this point. Instead of leaving it here on the side of the road, why don't I call Ed for a tow?"
Lizzie nodded. "Yeah, thanks.”
Jake pulled out his cell phone and hit the speed dial for Ed's Auto Shop. It was a number absolutely necessary to have on hand when you owned a ranch. More than once he'd needed to call Ed out to the fields to help pull him out of a mud hole.
Jake told Ed what was up and where they were, then hung up the phone.
"He'll be here shortly."
2
Jake
Jake wiped his brow and adjusted his hat, then went to grab the flat tire.
He looked over at her, sweltering in that barely-there pink spaghetti-strapped shirt and his mouth went dry. Even though they'd spent the last seven years apart, it still felt like yesterday. She still set him on fire. He couldn't remember a time when she didn't, couldn't remember a time when he didn't want her.
He opened the rear door of his king-cab and opened the cooler.
"Soda?"
Lizzie licked her lips. "Please."
"Here you go."
She took a sip, let out an "Ahhh" as the refreshing cold liquid flowed down her throat.
"Darlin', why don't we go sit in the back of your SUV and wait? The sun shifted so there's shade from the tree."
"Oh, God. Let's do that. I'm not used to the heat."
They walked to her SUV and sat in the back with the hatch lifted and waited for Ed.
"Spoiled by the air conditioning in the city?"
"Something like that."
"Well, you better buck up if you're going to be hanging around a while."
She lifted her chin. Ah, how he'd missed her sass. "I can handle it just fine."
Jake swiped his finger across the condensation on the Coke bottle. "How long are you staying?"
"A good six months for sure. We've got a lot to do before we set up in Jackson."
Jake nodded as she confirmed the rumors. The gossip mill in Chance Creek was nothing if not accurate, but only six months? Would that be long enough, he wondered.
"See all the familiar faces in town?"
"Yes." She rolled her eyes. "Only everyone when I stopped to fill up at the QuickMart. I'm the talk of the town. Everyone and their brother is saying their hellos and asking a gazillion questions."
He nodded. The joys of a small town. Everyone knew your business whether you wanted them to or not.
"They're just glad your back is all. This too shall pass."
"I remember your mama using that phrase," Lizzie leaned over and put her hand on his arm. "I miss her like crazy."
Jake nodded.
“It won’t be the same being back home and not getting to stop by for a chat and some of her apple pie with cinnamon and sugar sprinkled on top. The best ever.”
"The best. Amy's pretty good at duplicating the recipe, but no one will make a homemade pie crust as good as Ma."
She remembered Amy, Jake’s little sister who, no doubt, wasn’t so little anymore.
A companionable silence surrounded them as he remembered his mother, her long blonde hair and infectious laugh. His dad hadn't been the same since the cancer took her, but the old man was holding his own. Along with his melancholy, the silence whisked off with the breeze as the leaves swished with the wind.
Jake lifted his head and looked to the West. "Looks like rain."
"Sure enough. Probably just a brief shower."
"Yep. That's probably not going to be enough to give us what we need, but I'll take it."
Jake took a drink of his Coke as Lizzie got up and started walking up the road.
"What're you doing, Darlin'?"
"Backtracking," she called over her shoulder. "I want to go look at that board. Wouldn’t it get stuck in the tire?"
When Petals Fall: A Cowboy, Second Chance Romantic Suspense (Chance Creek Book 1) Page 1