“Well, you still be sure to tell her how her man saved the entire Apple Festival,” Carol said.
“It’s just a few lights,” Paige said with a smile. “I mean, saving the entire thing is a little dramatic, isn’t it?”
“It’s all of the electricity,” Carol said. “It’s the light and the sound system for the music and the PA system. It’s the outlets that will keep the cider and kettle corn warm. It’s everything.”
Paige stared at her. “You… didn’t say that.”
“I didn’t want Mitch to feel bad if he couldn’t fix it.”
“But he might not be able to fix it,” Paige said.
“Oh, he can,” Carol said with conviction and a huge smile at Mitch. “I mean, I didn’t know that when I first asked. It was just a hope that if he knew heating, he’d know electrical. But he’s clearly very confident.”
Paige agreed that he seemed sure of himself but to pin the success of the Apple Festival on him… a stranger… who had stumbled into the situation… and who she would really like to keep naked in her bed while he was in town…
But dammit, Mike and Larry shouldn’t be up on those roofs. Not that they weren’t able, but it was cold. An extra pair of hands—very capable and strong and big hands—would definitely help them out.
She felt a little pinch at the base of her spine. She looked over her shoulder at the pincher.
“It will be fine,” Mitch said, meeting her eyes before looking up at the other women. “I might need to borrow some tools, but I can do whatever needs done.”
“Tools aren’t a problem,” Carol said quickly.
“For sure,” Linda added. “Someone in this town will have anything you need. More than one someone, I’m sure.”
“Great,” Mitch said. “Then I’m your man.”
“Yeah, you are,” Melanie said, not quite under her breath.
Paige frowned at her again. That was so inappropriate. “Okay, so,” she said, stepping forward and gesturing toward the front door, “I’ll fill Mitch in on the festival, tell him where you live, connect him with my… some tools.”
Dammit. She’d almost said her dad. She was not going to introduce Mitch to her dad even in order for him to borrow tools. Her family was going to hear about Mitch soon enough, and she was certain the information would include that he’d been recruited at her yoga studio and that he was engaged to a friend of hers.
Fortunately, the word engaged would very likely be used and that would save her from having to answer questions about her interest in him.
But there was a niggle in the back of her mind that said she didn’t like the idea of having to pretend she had no interest. Or that he was connected to someone else.
A really stupid niggle.
She didn’t want them to think she was interested. She wasn’t interested. Not in a let’s-pick-out-bathroom-tile-and-maybe-a-couple-of-kids’-names way. And that’s what her mom would think “interested” should mean.
The women filed past her out into the chilly afternoon with various versions of “Nice to meet you, Mitch” and “See you later.”
She let the door close behind them and turned the lock. She didn’t have another class for an hour, and she could do without any more people ambushing them. What had started with a simple secret visit to town for a quickie had suddenly turned into Mitch helping the entire town with fix-it projects. And saving the entire Apple Festival.
She pivoted back and said, “Come on.”
She rounded the front desk and pulled open the door that revealed the staircase to the upper floor where she lived.
Paige was aware of his eyes on her ass as she climbed the steps in front of him, but he didn’t touch her or say anything until they were both inside her apartment and she had that door shut and locked as well.
“I’m engaged to Tori?” he asked.
That wasn’t what she’d been expecting. “It was the first thing to come to mind.”
“It’s really that big of a deal your mom think there’s no chance anything could happen between us?”
“It really is.”
He looked at her for a long moment. Then nodded. “Okay.”
She blew out a relieved breath. “Really?”
“I get it.”
She tipped her head. “You do?”
“I didn’t tell my family about the sassy, sexy blond I was coming all the way up here to see.”
She smiled softly. “Why not?”
“Because they’ve already noticed that I haven’t been going out as much, and I haven’t had a woman at my place since July.”
Her eyes were totally round, she was sure, by the time he finished. Oh boy, huge, flashing, cherry-red sign. He hadn’t had a woman at his place since they’d met? She had the impression that not having women over on a regular basis was very unusual. She hadn’t been with anyone since she’d met him either and that was giving her a very itchy, uncomfortable, uh-oh feeling. But to know it was the same for him…
“You should definitely go look at Linda’s furnace,” she said. She crossed the room and grabbed her phone off the short breakfast bar between her kitchen and tiny living room.
She glanced up at him as she scrolled through to find her friend Max’s phone number.
Mitch was watching her with an unreadable expression. She blew out a breath. “You do actually know how to do all the things you told the women you could do?”
“Yes.”
“You’re sure you can fix all of it?”
“One hundred percent.”
She dropped her arm and regarded him. “What do you do for a living?”
“Whatever my grandma’s restaurant and bar, or my cousins’ tour company, needs me to do. I can fix anything. Motors, electric, plumbing, brickwork, roofs, drywall. You name it.”
Without meaning to, she let her gaze travel over his body. His big, hard, muscled body.
In three seconds he was in front of her, crowding close.
“What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly, feeling her body lean into his instinctively.
“You can’t look at me like that without me coming over here and taking you up on what you’re offering.”
“Was I…” She had to stop and wet her lips. “Was I offering you something?”
“This sweet body spread out on that countertop behind you,” he said with a nod.
“I was checking you out.”
“Yeah and wanting everything you know I can do to you.”
Well, that was true.
“I… you… need to go get those repairs done.”
“You’re throwing me out because I freaked you out.”
“I…” She pressed her lips together and nodded. “Yeah.”
“I haven’t wanted anyone but you since we met.”
“Yeah, that’s… a little freaky.”
“You’re sorry I haven’t fucked anyone else since you?”
God, when he talked like that how was she supposed to stay on topic? Especially the topic of not wanting him to be all hers all the time, and to hell with the fact that she was too damned young to be serious about someone.
“Not sorry,” she confessed.
“Me neither.”
Her heart kicked in her chest. “You’re not falling in love with me,” she told him softly.
“That would be ridiculous,” he agreed.
“It would.” But it really should have felt more ridiculous than it did.
“But,” he said, “I don’t want to be with anyone else. And I’m afraid I might not get over that.”
Another kick against her rib cage. And a shot of fear. Because she felt the same way if she were being totally honest.
“You don’t want to move to Iowa,” she pointed out.
“I don’t mind it so far.”
She gave a soft laugh. “Give it time.”
“Okay.”
She sobered immediately. “Mitch—”
He lowered his head and covered her mouth with his. He kissed her long and
deep, cupping her face with one hand and her hip with the other in a sweet, possessive hold.
When he broke the kiss long seconds later, he simply said, “Don’t freak out.”
Too late.
4
An impressive fifteen minutes later, Mitch was in a bulky winter coat with a toolbox in hand—thanks to Paige’s friend Max—and was walking up the front sidewalk to Linda Ritter’s house.
He wasn’t even sure how that had all happened. It was like Paige snapped her fingers, and everything she needed to get him out of her apartment and, most importantly, out of her personal space, had appeared.
The door had almost hit him in the ass on the way out.
You just want her because she’s safe. She lives a thousand miles away and she doesn’t want a relationship. It’s safe to think you want more than sex with her because you barely know her.
That was all true.
Somehow, it wasn’t making him wonder less about the men in her life since July.
He hadn’t meant to be celibate. He hadn’t met her and thought she’s the one for me forever. But all the women he'd met since then had just been, well, less.
Which was crazy because he barely knew Paige.
“Mitch!”
Linda’s voice calling to him from the porch of the big, two-story house, pulled his attention away from his infatuation with the blond who had practically dressed him in this coat and shoved him out the door.
“Hi, Linda.” Mitch gave her a smile and climbed the steps.
“Thank you so much for coming over.” The older woman gave him a bright, sincere smile.
“Of course. You don’t need to go without heat if I can do something about it.”
She looked genuinely touched by that. “But you don’t even know us.”
“Well, I don’t need to know you to know you get cold when it’s twenty-two degrees outside,” he said with a smile.
Twenty-two fucking degrees. He’d never been in weather this cold. It was great. He certainly wouldn’t want to work outside in it on a regular basis, but the air was brisk and fresh and he found it exhilarating.
And he didn’t have to know Larry and Mike to know that they wouldn’t use that word to describe the weather when they were up on those rooftops trying to mend the holes.
He might not feel exhilarated after he climbed up to help them out either.
“I guess you’re right,” Linda said. “I really didn’t want to ask you, but when I heard you were looking at Paige’s furnace…”
“It’s completely fine,” he assured her, feeling a twinge of guilt over Paige’s furnace story. It hadn’t even been his story. Thank God he did know about heating and air-conditioning. And all of the other things the ladies, and town, needed help with.
He shook his head with a grin as he followed Linda into her house. This was exactly how Autre, Louisiana worked. If someone needed something and you could do it or provide it or help with it, you did. Period. No questions. He liked that Appleby and Autre had that in common. Just with a seventy-something-degree temperature difference separating them this time of year.
It also fit that a Landry would be in town for about two hours and would already be involved in the town festival and pitching in to help. His grandparents would be so proud. His dad too. Sean Landry had always told him, “Don’t be any trouble. Help out and do your part. Make ’em glad you’re there.”
Mitch had been doing that since he’d been a little boy.
Linda led Mitch through the house to the kitchen at the back. The entire house was decorated with an apple theme. The sofa had throw pillows with apples stitched on them and a red-and-white blanket draped over the back. The rocking chair near the window had an apple-patterned cushion. The mantel over the fireplace was decorated with a variety of ceramic apples. The entire room looked like a picture postcard.
The rest of the house was similarly decorated. The dining room table had a red runner down the center with a bowl full apples as a centerpiece. The kitchen even had a set of fat-apple canisters on the counter and a large red apple rug covering the wooden floor.
Mitch took it all in as he followed Linda to the basement door and down the steps. The house was a wonderful, old, two story that was well kept, and it was a damned shame this family hadn’t been able to be here enjoying it all because their furnace had conked out. He was happy to be here to help.
He wasn’t, actually, the Landry most people called for help with things. Leo, his grandfather, or Sawyer, his oldest cousin, were most often the go-tos. There were plenty of others who were always around and willing to help out, of course, and if Leo or Sawyer couldn’t be found, Josh, Owen, Ellie, Cora, Maddie, Kennedy… just about any of the others could be. Mitch was the one the Landrys then called. He was in the background. The supporter. The one who had their backs. Quietly. He could always be counted on and his family knew that. He just wasn’t in the town’s spotlight. Or anyone’s spotlight.
Being a Landry, it was pretty easy to play the wallflower, actually. The Landry clan was loud and boisterous and loved to one-up one another. They laughed and teased and loved and joked loud and often, and it was easy to just sit back and be there without adding to the noise.
“Right in here.” Linda led him into the room that held the furnace, water heater, and what looked like box upon box of Christmas decorations.
“Great.” He moved to the furnace and set the tools down.
“Do you need anything?” Linda asked.
Mitch could tell she was feeling a little guilty about him being here. There was no way he would have been able to let anyone go cold if there was anything he could do about it, but she didn’t know him and didn’t know that about him. Paige had already turned down Linda’s dinner invitation, which was fine; he’d much rather spend his non-furnace-fixing time with Paige, but he also knew the dinner invite had been about repaying him somehow.
He guessed Linda would try to give him money at some point. Which he would, of course, turn down. But she needed to feel she wasn’t putting him out entirely.
“I could use somebody to hold the light, actually,” he said, pulling the big work light that Max had included with the tools. That wasn’t completely true. He could have found a way to set it up on boxes or something, but having Linda hold it and move it for him would be helpful.
Her face brightened. “Oh, of course.” She took the light from him and plugged it into an outlet a few feet away.
“And you can entertain me while I work,” he told her with a grin as he shrugged out of the coat and tossed it over a box labeled front yard blow ups.
He hadn’t noticed blow-up decorations in the front yard so clearly they’d been deflated. Which was too bad. He wanted to get this furnace going again so this family could get back to this house and blow those things up.
“Like singing or something?” she asked with a smile.
“That would work. Do you know any Taylor Swift?”
“You like Taylor Swift?” Linda asked, her smile growing.
“Well, and now you know one of my deepest secrets,” he said. “So I’m going to have to do a really good job on this furnace so you don’t spread that around.”
She laughed. “I do know Taylor Swift, by the way. My oldest daughter is a fan. But you do not want me to sing.”
“Okay, then something else,” he said. “How about town stories.”
“Stories about Appleby?” Linda asked. “Oh, I can do that for days.”
He chuckled. “I figured.” He met her gaze. “I’m from a small town too. I know how that goes.”
“And you’re interested in our little town?”
He lifted a shoulder. “Seems like a good place.” He was supposedly engaged to another woman so he couldn’t seem too interested in a certain citizen of this town, but he could hope that Linda knew Paige or at least about Paige. For some reason, he had the feeling that Paige didn’t let a lot of people close. Of course, she’d spent her life here so people surely kne
w things about her.
“It’s a very good place,” Linda said with an affectionate smile.
People in Autre definitely got a similar look on their faces when asked about their little town.
He crouched next to the furnace and started pulling tools out of Max’s toolbox. “So why a festival in January instead of a holiday festival at Christmastime? Or in the fall when it’s warmer?” he asked with a grin, opening the access door on the furnace.
Linda moved in, shining the light over his shoulder on what he was doing.
“Oh, in the fall we have football,” she said with a grin. “And Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas. People are happy and full of excitement for all of that. But January,” she said, shaking her head, “is a long, cold, dark month here in Iowa. We need something to look forward to.”
Mitch located the problem in the furnace easily enough and set to work fixing it. “What all happens at the festival?”
“Oh goodness,” Linda said.
He could hear the smile in her voice even from behind him.
“It’s all about our apples. We have booths with lots of treats. Pies and cobblers and crisps and cookies and cider.”
Mitch chuckled. “I’m not sure I’ve ever fully appreciated all you can do with apples.”
“You should certainly stick around. We’ll make you love apples. We also have ice skating and sledding and a snowman-building contest and karaoke and sleigh rides and even a snowball fight.”
“An organized snowball fight?” Mitch asked. “That sounds interesting. Nobody worried about kids getting hurt, huh?”
She laughed. “It’s adults doing the fighting.”
He glanced over his shoulder. “No way.”
She nodded. “Yep. It gets wild. It happens in the town square. It’s kind of like paintball. Each team has a different color snowball—watercolor paints work great—and they have to wear white sweatpants and sweatshirts so you can see the colors show up. That’s how you know who wins.”
Mitch knew his eyes were wide. “That sounds awesome.”
Linda nodded. “It’s a lot of fun. There are rules and referees, of course.”
He was nodding, thinking about his cousins and friends. They would have a blast with a colored-snowball fight. Or any snowball fight. It was really too bad a snowball would last about a minute in Louisiana.
Oh, Fudge: Hot Cakes Book Five Page 5