Match Made In Paradise

by Barbara Dunlop

  “I was thinking about Brodie.”

  “Brodie doesn’t care what I’m wearing.”

  Silas couldn’t stop himself from looking down at the lace and silk between them. “All guys care when you’re dressed like that.”

  “Brodie’s only interested in Raven.”

  Raven? That was news to him. “They have a business relationship.”

  “You think it’s all business?’ she asked, arching a perfectly sculpted brow. “Watch this. Observe how spectacularly unsuccessful I am at attracting his attention.”

  She squeezed her way past Silas, and it was all he could do not to reach out, wrap his hands around her tiny waist, feel the satin slip through his fingertips, close his palms on her warm skin and pull her into his arms for a kiss.

  He gave his head a sharp shake to get rid of the feeling. Then he blinked, focusing on her as she walked. The lace billowed slightly from her slender shoulders. Her neck was long and graceful. The swing of her arms and the length of her legs were miles and miles of sexy. And the back view was exquisite. The purple silk molded to her hips, cascading over the curve of her rear.

  She was across the room now, but his hands still itched to reach out. He could almost feel her curves under his fingertips.

  She turned then, giving him a smile that seemed to say she’d proven her point.

  Silas doubted she would have proven her point, but he had no way of knowing for sure. He hadn’t so much as glanced Brodie’s way while she crossed the floor, never mind analyzed his reaction to Mia’s outfit.

  What she had proven was that Silas couldn’t keep his eyes off her. He told himself it wasn’t his fault. There was a science to female beauty and perfection, and Mia had the formula. It was the reason they paid her to model expensive clothes.

  * * *

  * * *

  Mia had offered to help out with the roof repair, but Brodie quickly waved her off and had Raven back him up. Raven said it was too dangerous, while Brodie’s expression left Mia feeling she was an interloper and not welcome to join them. She couldn’t help but wonder if he was still annoyed about her date with Zeke.

  She couldn’t really argue back, since she’d never used a hand tool, never mind a power tool. Raven’s bizarre shower setup was the first time Mia had even seen a water pump. Truth was, she’d never changed a lightbulb.

  While the three of them hammered away up there, she reminded herself that she had other skills. The pool game at the Bear and Bar, for example. It had been satisfying to surprise Silas—in a good way for once. It was a little thing, but she couldn’t help but feel good that she’d impressed him.

  He’d liked her sleepwear too. She’d seen the heat in his eyes, and it made her feel incredibly sexy. For a minute, she thought he might say something or do something like touch her or kiss her.

  Not that the purple two-piece outfit was particularly revealing. She had cocktail dresses that fit more snugly. There wasn’t even any lace on the nightgown, no peekaboo this or that. And the cover-up sleeves came halfway down her arms.

  Its main attraction was that it was soft and comfortable. She’d had it for years.

  Raven shouted something over the sound of the hammers above Mia’s head. Her words were unintelligible from inside the cabin, but Brodie answered, and then Silas chimed in. They all laughed, and Mia tried hard not to feel left out.

  She’d changed into a pair of jeans and a jade-green top and wore a borrowed pair of knit socks from Raven as slippers. Now she poured herself coffee and moved to the screened porch. She couldn’t download any new emails, so she reread the one Marnie had sent on Friday, wanting the comfort of a connection to a friend.

  The email was upbeat and chatty, and Mia smiled at the part about Alastair’s ex-wife, Theresa, trying to charm the judge. It hadn’t worked. The judge was having none of it. Still, he hadn’t granted Marnie’s request for an expedited hearing either. So, they were likely still weeks away from a court date.

  Marnie had also been in contact with the security firm monitoring Mia’s social media. There were no recent red alerts, but there were still plenty of taunts and insults coming her way.

  Mia knew she wasn’t going to feel less lonely focusing on home and Lafayette, without Alastair and where her colleagues all seemed to have abandoned her. Still, she scrolled backward, rereading messages that reminded her of her old life, the time when she still felt part of the Lafayette Fashion team, when people kept her informed and appreciated her input.

  But as she read further, she couldn’t help seeing the messages in a different light. It was clear to her now that people been writing to Mrs. Alastair Lafayette, not to Mia Westberg. They mostly seemed to be humoring her with simplistic answers, clearly assuming she knew nothing about the business. It was odd that she’d never noticed that before. Now, it was yet another blow to her confidence.

  The front door banged open and she realized the noise on the roof had stopped.

  “—plus I’m not liking the weather forecast for tomorrow,” Raven was saying.

  “We’ll work as long as we have daylight,” Silas said.

  “There’s nothing pressing so far at WSA,” Brodie said.

  Mia came to her feet and went back into the house, putting on a smile, telling herself that even if she wasn’t a natural fit in Paradise, Raven was family. Family was important. Family was there for her.

  Raven had the fridge open and was pulling out some ham and cheese.

  “How’s it going up there?” Mia asked.

  “Good,” Raven quickly said with a nod.

  “About halfway done,” Brodie said as he pulled three soft drinks from the fridge. Then he glanced guiltily at Mia and went back for a fourth. He clearly didn’t consider Mia part of the crew.

  Silas seemed unnaturally focused on washing his hands at the kitchen sink, while Raven lifted a heavy cast iron frying pan from a ceiling hook. Brodie saw what she was doing and caught it halfway down, setting it on the propane stove.

  Silas dried his hands, while Raven and Brodie gathered supplies from the fridge.

  Then Silas held up a loaf of bread. “This one?” he asked Raven.

  “That’ll work.”

  His gaze finally met Mia’s and held there for a second. Then he took in her outfit, and she wondered what he was thinking—that he preferred this morning’s look or that she fit in better here dressed like this?

  Before she could guess his thoughts, he took the wooden cutting board from behind the canisters, pulled a knife from the butcher’s block and started efficiently slicing the bread.

  Mia envied their easy camaraderie. She wished she could spot something to just pick up and do the way the rest of them had. But everything seemed to be under control, and the small kitchen was already overcrowded with three people in it. Even if she could see a way to help, she’d only be in the way.

  She hung back, and in what seemed like only minutes, they were gathered around the tiny kitchen table in front of grilled ham, cheese and tomato sandwiches.

  “I talked to the commissioner yesterday,” Brodie casually tossed out, his gaze surreptitiously on Raven, seeming to watch for her reaction as he spoke.

  Raven sat up straight, her interest clearly perking up. “You did?”

  Brodie nodded as he chewed and swallowed.

  “On a Saturday?” she asked.

  “The number you scored was for his personal cell.”

  “Really?” She looked happily surprised. “I thought it was the direct line for his office.”

  “Nicely done.” Brodie gave her a smile and a brow wag of admiration.

  “I threatened them with you,” she said. “That’s what worked.”

  Mia glanced at Silas, wondering if he was seeing the same thing she was. It was so obvious that Brodie and Raven lit up around each other.

  She nudged Silas u
nder the table, and he looked her way.

  She cocked her head toward Raven and Brodie, putting on her best see-what-I-mean expression.

  “What?” Silas asked her out loud.

  Raven and Brodie looked expectantly her way.

  Silent conversations were obviously not Silas’s strong suit. She didn’t know why she thought they’d be on the same wavelength.

  “Uh . . . great news.” She beamed at Raven and Brodie to cover up her misstep. “About the commissioner, I mean.”

  Everyone looked puzzled, and she felt more like an outsider than ever.

  But then Raven gave her a compassionate smile. “I sure hope it’s good news.” Her attention went back to Brodie. “What exactly did he say?’

  “He’s calling the foreman and requesting they upgrade the road material and put in culverts at Grant Creek and on the bend of the river, plus a couple more.”

  The explanation meant nothing to Mia, and she fell silent, eating her way through the crispy sandwich.

  The other three ate and drank more quickly than she did, and Silas was the first to rise from the table. He lifted his and Raven’s empty plates. “You guys head on up. I’ll take care of these.”

  “You sure?” Raven asked.

  “Sounds good,” Brodie said. “We’ll start ripping that rotten patch on the north side. We might need to replace the sheathing.”

  Feeling slow and out of step, Mia dug in on the second half of her sandwich.

  “Will they have sheathing at the hardware store?” Raven asked as she came to her feet.

  Brodie polished off his soda and stood beside her. “If we’re lucky.”

  “Please tell me we’re not going backward on this.”

  Brodie smiled. “Don’t be a pessimist.”

  As the two of them chatted their way out the door, Silas turned the heat on under a kettle of water and efficiently moved the dishes from the table to the counter beside the sink.

  Quickly finishing her sandwich, Mia joined Silas in the kitchen.

  “There must be something I can do,” she said. She didn’t like admitting her insecurity to him of all people, but she hated feeling this way.

  “Do about what?” he asked, running some cold water into the dishpan and squirting in a stream of soap.

  “Up there.” She pointed to the roof. “I really would like to help.”

  He paused and braced the heels of his hands on the lip of the counter. “Have you done any roofing before?”

  “You know I haven’t.”

  “Ever climbed a ladder?”

  “No.”

  “Pounded a nail?”

  “Are you making this painful on purpose?”

  “I’m not trying to make it painful. I’m making it realistic. It’s dangerous for you up there.”

  “I’m not a toddler. I won’t wander too close to the edge.”

  His lips twitched as he clearly fought a smile.

  “Don’t,” she said.

  The kettle whistled and he shut the heat off beneath it. “Sorry.”

  “I don’t laugh at you.” She hit him with a reproachful glare.

  “You might.” He poured the hot water into the sink. “If we were at some snooty fashion event in LA and I showed up in my cargo pants and work boots.”

  A comical picture formed in her mind. “Your work boots?”

  “You’d laugh at me then.”

  “I would not. Besides, you’d know what to wear.”

  “What? My good suit? I haven’t owned a good suit in years.”

  “Nobody gets married around here?”

  He washed the first plate, setting it in the drying rack. “Not in a formal ceremony, they don’t. They usually travel outside if they’re going to have a big wedding. We’ve had a few locally in the clearing by the river, dance afterward outside at the Bear and Bar. They were nice but pretty casual. No suit required.”

  “Back to me,” she said, realizing they’d wandered from the subject.

  He grinned. “Used to having all the attention, are you?”

  “I didn’t mean it like that. I meant me and the roof.”

  “There is no you and the roof. Because we’re fine without you, and we don’t want anything bad to happen. We like you, Mia.”

  “Brodie doesn’t.”

  “You’re imagining things.”

  She realized they’d wandered off topic again. “I want to help. I hate feeling like . . . like the annoying little sister you have to take along to the park.”

  He lifted a brow. “My annoying little sister?”

  “You know what I mean, the person nobody wants there and who ruins the game.”

  His gaze and his tone softened together. “Mia, the last game we played was pool. You definitely didn’t ruin it.”

  “You’re deliberately missing my point.”

  “What’s your point?”

  “That I want to help.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then grab a dish towel and start drying.”

  The suggestion threw her off balance. She looked at the four plates and two glasses standing in the rack and realized it was ridiculously obvious. She quickly grabbed the green-and-white-checkerboard dish towel and started to dry.

  “Most of the time you can just jump in,” he said. “You usually don’t need permission to help.”

  Mia thought back to the almost choreographed way Silas, Raven and Brodie had made their lunch. She cast her gaze to the ceiling. “So, I can just climb right on up there and start pounding nails?”

  “No, not that.”

  “Then what? It seems like you’re making up the rules as you go along.” She set the little stack of dried plates back on the shelf. “I want to be on the team, the Paradise team.”

  “Why not think of this as a vacation?”

  “Because a vacation is only fun when everyone else is relaxing too.”

  He looked like she had him stumped. “That’s a reasonable point.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  They worked in silence for a few minutes.

  “What about Galina?” she asked, casting around for ideas.

  “What about it?”

  “I could do something there.”

  He looked her over. “You own a hard hat, steel-toed boots and a high-vis vest?”

  She was warming up to the idea. “Is that what I need to work there?”

  “Warehouses are dangerous places too.”

  “Will you stop with that? Everything in the world can’t be too dangerous for me.” She pressed her lips together, staring up at him, daring him to argue back.

  Instead of arguing, he smiled and she felt it right to her toes. He took the dish towel from her hands and eased in. “All right.”

  “So, you think it’s a good idea?” For some reason, it warmed her to have his approval.

  “I think, Mia, that you’re smart enough to do whatever you set your mind to doing.”

  She liked the authenticity in his eyes. It made her feel secure. It made her feel bold and senselessly happy.

  His eyes darkened then and he narrowed the gap between them.

  Her pulse jumped a beat, settling into a faster rhythm. Wavelets of energy teased her skin, intoxicating energy that lit up her hormones. She wanted to reach out and touch him to get a bigger dose, but she settled for inching in, trying to capture by osmosis whatever it was he was giving off.

  “Mia.” Her name was breathy on his lips.

  It wasn’t a question, so she didn’t answer.

  He brought his head down a few inches. Then he paused. His lips seemed to part, but he was out of focus now, so she couldn’t be sure. His warm hand closed gently around her waist.

 
; She tipped her chin and stretched up, wondering if this was going to end the same as last time, with him pulling away and frustration chilling her for long minutes afterward.

  But his lips touched hers, and the circuit was complete. His heat, his taste and his energy engulfed her. She stepped forward, her body brushing his. Then his arms snaked around her, pulling her close, enveloping her in a strong, sexy embrace.

  Now this was a kiss, a throw-caution-to-the-wind, tear-off-your-clothes, run-to-the-nearest bed kiss. She’d never felt anything like it.

  He braced the small of her back and bent her backward. She wound her arms around his neck, holding him tight, sliding her fingertips across his skin, dipping into his hairline.

  He dropped his hand, cupping her rear, pulling her tight against the vee of his thighs.

  “Yes,” she whispered.

  He stilled, going tense.

  She knew what that meant. She could feel the shift in his stance, the change in his energy. She wanted to rage at the unfairness of what he’d done to her. How could he stop like that? How could he tease her with paradise and then back off?

  His arms slackened, loosening the embrace.

  She firmed her knees beneath her.

  He drew back, his lungs expanding his chest, hands still resting on the top of her hips. “I shouldn’t have done that.”

  “You didn’t do it alone.” She’d been an enthusiastic participant, still was. His kisses left her warm and alive, feeling like she could do anything.

  “This is too complicated.” He tilted his head upward for a minute like he was gathering his strength. Then he smoothed her hair back from her temple.

  “Everything’s complicated.” She wanted to feel it all again. She looked up at him, inviting him for another kiss.

  “We need to leave it alone.” He slipped sideways, breaking their contact.

  She felt the loss like a bucket of cold water. Did he mean now? Did he mean forever? Had the kiss not blown him away like it had her?

  “Brodie and Raven need my help.”

  “Right,” she said, feeling hypersensitive. “Because you’re skilled and useful.”

  “Because it’s going to rain tomorrow.”

  She steeled herself and waved him away. “Go be useful. I’ll just stay here and be . . . I don’t know . . . decorative and useless.”