by Lola Kidd
She wondered if there was a way to go back and tell Jack that she wasn’t taken. Would that make her look crazy or desperate?
Maybe she should wait. Get to know him a little better. Then, once she’d made her choice, she would tell him that things with her and her husband hadn’t worked out.
That was the smarter decision. It wasn’t like she even knew he was single. He hadn’t mentioned a girlfriend, but she hadn’t asked—and she was going to be on pins and needles until she knew. She would have to ask her mom what she knew about the bull shifter. Her mom had lived in this town for years and did like to have the occasional drink.
She pulled into the driveway and put her head on the steering wheel. Her head was all over the place. She couldn’t go in and talk to Jill or her mom like this. It was like she was a hormonal teenager or something. Jack was attractive, but he wasn’t that attractive. Was he?
It was possible that she had just gone too long without a man. That had to be it. Now that she was away and on her own again, she had the chance to spread her wings. Her body and mind were distracted by all of this freedom. She was sure she would be just as obsessed with any other hot man she came across. Her divorce was so close, and her mind was starting to get used to the idea that she was truly single again.
She took a deep breath and put her hands on her cheeks. Her face was red-hot. She rolled her eyes at her silly lust. The time for single-girl fun and games was over. It was time to put on her mom face again, and her daughter face.
Ever since she’d moved home, her mom had been all over her constantly. Not in a nitpicking and complaining way; more in an I-can’t-get-enough-of-you way. If she walked into the house red-faced and disoriented and asked her mom about the hot bartender Jack, her mom would never let it go. She would probably march Macy down there and insist that Jack and Macy go on a date right away. That was all Macy needed. At the very least, she could see her mom going to the bar and asking Jack back to the house for dinner. That seemed innocent enough, but Macy would be so embarrassed.
There was a knock at the window, and Macy jumped. She saw two little hands on the window and smiled.
She rolled down the window. “Can I help you, miss?”
Jill stood on her tiptoes so her eyes were above the top of the window. “Hi, Mommy! What are you doing out here?”
“Mommy’s taking a minute before she comes inside. What have you been doing while I was gone?”
“Me and Grandma played a game.” Jill hoped from one foot to the other impatiently. “Are you coming inside now?”
Macy got out of the car and picked Jill up. She was almost too big for Macy to do that anymore. “Yup. Have you guys started dinner yet?”
Jill shook her head. “I didn’t make any food today. But Grandma made something, and she said I can help make dinner tomorrow. We’re going to make pizzas!”
Macy smiled. She remembered making pizzas with her mom in that same kitchen when she was a child. “That sounds like fun.”
“Macy, is that you? I’m in the kitchen!” her mom, Shirley, called from the back of the house.
Macy could have guessed that by the smell. Her mom was making her “world-famous” mac and cheese. The whole house smelled of cheesy goodness. That was the one of the greatest parts about being home—her mom was the best cook. Macy was good herself, thanks to a lifetime of learning at her mother’s elbow, but nothing could compare to her mom’s home-cooked food. It made up for all the nosy prying.
She set Jill down at the table and hugged her mom around the shoulders. “That smells delicious.”
“Thank you, dear,” her mother said. “What have you been up to this time? You’re looking a little flushed.”
Jill giggled. “Like the toilet?”
“No, like she’s all red,” Shirley explained to Jill before turning back to Macy. “So, what have you been up to?”
“Just looking around town. Taking a break for myself,” Macy said.
“Did you see anything interesting?” Shirley asked, wiping her hands on a dish towel.
“Not much,” Macy lied. She couldn’t ask her mom about Jack just yet. She had to wait for the time to be right.
“You want to see the picture I drew?” Jill was off and running before Macy even had a chance to answer.
Macy sat at the table to wait for Jill. “I hope she wasn’t too much trouble.”
Shirley joined her, and they both sniffed the air, enjoying that wonderful aroma of mac and cheese. “You ask that every time,” Shirley said. “You know I love having you girls here. I wish you had come sooner.”
“Me too. I don’t know what I waited so long for. I forgot how great Maple Creek is.”
“Did you just say Maple Creek was great? Maybe you’ve had too much to drink,” Shirley said with a laugh.
“You can smell it on me?” Macy put her hand to her mouth and breathed out. “I can’t smell anything.”
“Just a little. I don’t think you’re drunk or anything. I’m just glad you finally took some time to loosen up and enjoy yourself.”
“I have been wound pretty tight since we got here,” Macy admitted.
“What did you think of the Brazen Bull?” Her mom waggled her eyebrows. “And you have to have something to say about the bull himself. That Jack Keller is one hot dish.”
Macy could feel her flush deepening. “He’s all right. He does make a mean drink.”
Her mom rolled her eyes. “Don’t try to pretend you didn’t notice he was good-looking. You don’t find a man like that every day. I know Jack is just your type, and he’s single too.”
Jackpot! She didn’t even have to go fishing. Her mother had brought it up herself.
Macy almost squealed with delight now that she knew Jack was single. She still had a chance to get to know him better and maybe date him. One day. Eventually. Once she was ready, anyway.
“Look!” Jill came running into the room with a piece of paper in her hand.
Macy had been so excited about Jack, she had forgotten Jill was off retrieving a picture. She picked up her daughter and pulled her into her lap. “Let me get a look at this.”
“I drew my family. This is me,” Jill said, pointing to the small figure on her picture. “And this is Grandma and you.”
Macy nodded. Unexpectedly, the simple drawing tugged at her heartstrings. It was a picture of the three of them in front of the house. None of them was drawn particularly well, but it was a sweet drawing. Macy couldn’t help but notice that Don was missing from the family picture.
She had the urge to ask, but she also didn’t want to remind Jill that her father wasn’t with them. It hurt her to think that Don had done such a bad job as a father that his daughter barely noticed his absence. For Jill, it was normal for Don never to be around. Macy wondered if her daughter thought life was better without her father around, or if she just didn’t remember him.
How depressing. When she was first pregnant, she had been filled with such hope. But Don had been a disappointment right away. It was one thing to disappoint Macy, but to disappoint their daughter was something entirely different.
It was one of the main reasons Macy had decided to leave. While she was driving to her mom’s house in tears, unable to figure out how she was going to do this all alone, she had vowed not to make the same mistake again. She would take great care with whomever she chose to date or marry next. She wanted never to bring someone else into Jill’s life who would let her down.
“What a beautiful picture,” Macy said. She kissed the top of Jill’s jet-black hair.
“Dinner will be ready soon,” her mom said. “Maybe you should check your emails before we sit down to eat?”
Macy narrowed her eyes. “Why would I check my emails?”
Her mother shrugged. “I have no idea. Maybe you’ll find something nice there.”
“Mom!” Macy cried. The legs of her chair squealed on the tile as she backed up quickly. “Have you been looking at my emails again?”
&nb
sp; “Don’t sound so accusing,” her mother said, looking abashed. “I didn’t mean to. If I did it. Not that I’m saying I did.”
Jill put her fingers over her mouth. She looked from her grandma to her mom. Macy knew she wasn’t going to talk, but the little gesture gave it away. Jill always put her fingers over her mouth when she had a secret she wanted to tell.
“Fine, I’ll check my email,” Macy grumbled.
She went to the computer in the family room and opened the browser. She quickly navigated to her emails and saw that she had many unread messages. The one that would interest her mom stood out from the rest. It was a congratulations email from Lovely and Kind Brides.
Macy gasped and put her hand over her mouth. She’d only signed up a couple of weeks before her visit to her mom’s. When she had decided that her marriage was over, her mother had been very practical, telling her to sign up on some dating sites. She had signed up for only three, and as time went on, she’d forgotten all about them and let her membership on two of them lapse. She wasn’t ready to date, so it was no use having a profile on a dating site.
But she had completely forgotten to shut down her LK Brides profile. It had been so long, and she hadn’t gotten any match from the site. Of all days, this was the one when they’d found her someone. She didn’t need to become a mail-order bride anymore. She knew she could find men on her own when she was ready. She felt awful, but she was going to have to turn down the match.
“What’s wrong?” Jill asked, putting her hand on Macy’s face. “Is it the flush?”
Macy shook her head. “Mommy just had a little surprise.”
Her mother came out of the kitchen. She couldn’t keep the glee off her face. “Did you see?”
“I saw,” Macy said. “I can’t believe I got a match. I forgot to shut down my profile.”
“You have a match.” Shirley sat down on the couch and clapped her hands together in delight. “I can’t believe this. Who is it? Is anyone we know? How far way does he live?”
“Calm down, Mom. I haven’t even opened the email yet.”
Jill slid off Macy’s lap and went to sit with her grandmother on the couch. Shirley waited anxiously as Macy opened her email and read quietly to herself.
The contents were even more shocking than the initial email. She had to read it four times, and even then she didn’t believe it.
“Jack Keller,” she breathed.
“Forget about the barkeep,” Shirley said dismissively. “Who’s your match?”
“Jack Keller.” Macy moved around so her mother could see. Right there on the computer screen was Jack’s smiling picture on his profile page. His luminescent green eyes twinkled with mischief even in the 2-D picture. Macy could stare at it all day.
He was her match. This couldn’t just be a coincidence. She’d been mooning over the bartender ever since she’d seen him for the first time all of one hour ago. And now here he was, matched with her on Lovely and Kind Brides.
Maybe they were supposed to be together. At the very least, it warranted going on at least one date.
“Are you kidding me?” Her mother glared at her. “You knew! You went on and on about the Brazen Bull just to get me to make a fool of myself. Nice job. You got your old mom. But Jack Keller is a nice man and very handsome. I stand by what I said earlier. You could have just told me, Macy. There was no need to be sneaky.”
Macy rolled her eyes. “I didn’t know. I really did stop in for a drink today. This is all a big coincidence.”
“Sure it is. And I’m the queen of England,” Shirley said, standing up. “Dinner will be ready soon. Jill, go wash your hands.”
Macy stared at the screen. Jack Keller.
She would respond to him after she had some food in her stomach. She didn’t know if it was the drink or staring at Jack’s picture for too long that was making her lightheaded.
Chapter Three
Jack rubbed his eyes. He’d been staring at the computer screen for ten minutes. It didn’t matter how long he looked or how many times he reread it. The darn thing didn’t make sense.
He’d signed up for LK Brides’ mail-order bride service a few hours earlier. He’d been on his phone looking at his favorite websites and browsing the internet when he heard the familiar ping. He had a new email. He’d assumed it was another welcome from LK. But, nope, it was an email congratulating him on his new match.
He knew he should have waited until he was off work. He was so nervous it was ridiculous. He wasn’t sure how he was going to pour a drink with his shaking hands.
The last few hours of his shift were going to be torture. He had to wait until the woman agreed to initiate contact before he could view her profile. If she did it before he got off work, he was going to have to close the place down early. There was no way he’d be able to wait even an hour more.
Sure enough, half an hour later, he’d gotten another ping. And here he was, in his back room hunched over his laptop with the beautiful face of Macy Peach filling the screen.
What the heck? She’d said that she was married. Jack remembered how disappointed he and his bull had been when he heard that. It hadn’t even been six hours earlier. Her glass was still sitting in the sink waiting to be washed. He hadn’t imagined meeting the woman, and he was positive she’d said she was taken.
Yet she was his match, according to LK Brides. He didn’t know how to feel. Cheated was the first thought that ran through his mind. He was being cheated out of his real match. He wanted to know how this kind of thing could happen. LK had a fantastic reputation. This kind of thing didn’t happen often.
His second thought was, what kind of woman was Macy? She was a cheater or a liar, obviously. Peach… There was an older woman with the same surname who came into the bar on occasion. Gin and tonic drinker. She was a sweet old lady and was always talking about her sweet granddaughter. She had to be Macy’s mother.
Macy had talked about a daughter and said she’d lived in town when she was a child. The Mrs. Peach he knew had a daughter and a granddaughter. The last he’d seen her, she had been saying that she didn’t get to see her grandbaby often enough. Jack even vaguely remembered where she lived.
If he was still wound up about it, he would drive by on his way to work the next morning and see. He would ask Macy directly what was going on. It wasn’t the kind of thing he wanted to talk about in an email. He found using electronics to converse less than ideal. They were cold, and you couldn’t see how the other person was reacting to your words. He was a face-to-face kind of man.
All that night, Jack barely slept a wink. He was feeling sick to his stomach by the next morning. He’d had such a good feeling about Macy. His bull had even liked her. He was usually a great judge of character and couldn’t believe he’d gotten this so wrong.
He had to speak to her. He didn’t live too far from her mother’s home, so he drove over with a heavy heart. When he got to the neighborhood where she lived, he had to look around. He remembered what Mrs. Peach’s car looked like, and he wanted to be sure before he knocked on someone’s door.
It turned out that Jack didn’t have to search at all. As he drove down the block, there on the front steps of one of the homes was Macy Peach. She was smiling at her little girl and a man who was standing on the doorstep. Jack’s heart clenched. That had to be her husband. He could tell by the way the man was holding the little girl.
Jack drove on, staring ahead resolutely. He was going to have to find a better time to talk to Macy, but he knew there was no more chance of her having lied. She did have a husband. Now the only question was, why had she signed up for a mail-order bride agency?
Chapter Four
Macy had been ready to head out for another afternoon of job searching when she got a surprise. A familiar face greeted her on the doorstep when she tried to step outside. “Don? What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to say I’m sorry.”
He took his hand from behind his back and held a gorgeous bo
uquet of flowers under her nose. He looked like the same old Don. His gorgeous, angular face with a jaw line that could cut glass and his taut, wiry body would still make many a woman gawk. He had nothing on brawny Jack, but Don had a tight swimmer’s body and he could talk the birds out of the trees.
But this was a new trick from her old flame. He had never brought her flowers before. She wondered if he knew that tulips were her favorite or if he’d just guessed.
She took the flowers awkwardly. “Okay. Thank you. What are you doing here? I have places to go.”
“I know. I’m sorry for wasting your time, honey. I was hoping you would consider taking me back.” He looked at her hopefully. “I see you’re not wearing your ring, but we could change that.”
She shook her head. “The divorce is going to be final soon. We’ve been over for a long time, and pretty flowers aren’t going to change that.”
“I was afraid you’d say that.” He looked down sadly. “Are you liking it here?”
“I am. I haven’t found a job yet, but it’s been really nice for all of us. You were right about this place. We should have come back here a long time ago.”
“It was probably the only thing I was right about,” he said quietly. “That, and having a child with you. I don’t think I could have asked for a better mother for my only child.”
Macy felt herself softening around the edges. He’d never said anything so nice to her the entire time they were together. Now he was giving her flowers and compliments, and he looked despondent that she wouldn’t take him back.
Maybe leaving Don had been the best thing for their relationship. Maybe he had finally realized what he was so close to losing. She’d been so excited when she’d seen that she was a match for Jack, but something had held her back. Maybe this was it. Maybe she was supposed to get back with Don and give her family another try.