Misters of Love: A Small Town Romance Boxset

by Piper Sullivan

  I opened my mouth to answer, to tell her I had no clue what she was talking about, but Maxine wasn’t listening.

  “Do you think that’s how you endear yourself to a woman, by piling more work into her lap?” She shook her head, looking like she was ready to throttle me and my body, sick bastard that he was, chose that moment to wake up. Ready to take her up on the challenge.

  “I didn’t tell her anything,” I said but she still wouldn’t let me get a word in. I took a step closer.

  “I thought you said you wanted to get to know me,” she said, still ranting. I wondered how she could even breathe with all the talking she was doing.

  “I didn’t tell her anything,” I assured her.

  “Clearly, you were just out to manipulate me into doing your work.”

  “Max,” I snapped, grabbing her wrist before she could land another poke to the middle of my chest. “I didn’t tell the florist anything. I haven’t been to see her yet—in fact, I was headed there now.” I showed her the list I’d worked on last night.

  She frowned and snatched the list. “Plants?”

  I nodded. “You said to make a choice, so I did.”

  “Plants, though?” She looked puzzled.

  “They can keep on growing long after this fundraiser is over. That’s a better tribute to Tulip than killing a bunch of unsuspecting roses or lilies.”

  Maxine’s gaze softened for just a moment before the steely businesswoman returned.

  “Then who would have…” Realization dawned and her shoulders fell, then her head, sending a wave of auburn hair tumbling forward, teasing my fingertips. “Betty and Helen.”

  “Probably Eddy and Elizabeth, too.” I shook my head, feeling duped but not nearly as upset about it as Maxine. Though she did have a point, adding more work to her plate wasn’t smart. “Don’t worry, I only plan to bother you for advice. I’m a big boy, I’ll do the heavy lifting myself.”

  “Good. Because I don’t have the time.”

  “Okay,” I told her, giving her time to let her anger die down.

  “I already told Sarah as much, too,” she insisted, seemingly for her benefit rather than mine.

  “Okay,” I repeated again, because she needed agreement.

  “Good.”

  “Good.” I was happy to stand there for as long as she did, staring at her pretty face. At those lush lips that were fixed in a permanent pout, and her pale skin dotted with freckles she tried like hell to hide with makeup, but there was one she could never hide. No amount of concealer could hide the dark brown freckle at the corner of her mouth.

  I took a step to the side because even in her anger—or maybe especially in her anger—she was spectacular. I knew if I didn’t walk away, I would kiss the hell out of her, and I wouldn’t give a damn that we were in the middle of one of the busiest streets in Tulip. “Great,” she finally said, breathless.

  A smile touched my lips at the sight of her pulse, racing at the base of her throat. That pale strip of fluttering skin making my mouth water. “Fantastic.”

  Maxine’s growl was a jolt of heat right to my groin.

  “I need to, ah, get to the florist because I have no clue what I’m doing or how any of this will look. It’ll probably take until the end of time, so have a nice life, Maxine.” I held my breath until her smile appeared, lighting up her face and the air between us.

  “I already told her what you were interested in seeing, so you’ll just have to approve the one that looks good to you.” Then, after doing me a pretty big favor without being asked, she was gone. Just walked away, marching back towards her shop without a look back. Without a word.

  That told me something else about Maxine. She couldn’t take a compliment—which, of course, meant I would lavish them on her. When she was ready.

  I continued on to the flower shop with a spring in my step and a smile on my face. Maxine had helped me because she wanted to, because she was starting to like me.

  And, one good deed deserves another, doesn’t it? I just had to find a way to get her to agree to go out with me.

  Max

  “Mommy, can we have tacos for dinner? I love tacos, especially the crunchy ones.” Callie was off on one of her tangents which required little to no input from me—only one of many reasons I loved putting away groceries.

  “What kind of tacos would you like?” Tacos were like wine, always a good idea because it was the perfect excuse for oven-baked tortilla chips. And margaritas, but since it was just me and Callie tonight, we’d have margarita lemonade.

  “Black beans and corn. Marco had them for lunch yesterday and we went half-sies. I loved it.” She was so enthralled with the memory of lunch that I decided to ignore the fact that she was giving away half of her lunch, too.

  “I’m not sure if we have black beans, but I’ll check.” I should have asked the obvious question while we were still at the grocery store. Lesson learned.

  “We can use other beans. Marco’s dad is a vegetarian and they eat lots of beans. Lots of them,” she emphasized with the kind of grave seriousness only a seven-year-old could convey over beans.

  The doorbell sounded and I frowned even as my feet began to move in the direction of the front door. On the other side, I found Eddy and Helen. The match-meddlers, as I secretly called them. “Ladies. What can I do for you?”

  Helen’s eyebrows arched in surprise at my tone. These ladies were due respect, without a doubt, except when it was your life they were meddling into in the name of true love. Or whatever. “The better question is what we can do for you, young lady.”

  I sighed, too tired to play word games tonight. “Okay, I’ll bite. What can you ladies do for me?”

  Elizabeth Vargas always looked like a wealthy socialite from a daytime soap opera, and she had the same level of sophistication when she barged into my house without waiting for an invitation. “We can watch your darling little girl tonight, so you can have some time to yourself.”

  That sounded wonderful. Heavenly, even. But what would I do with an entire night to myself? “Thank you for the kind offer, but I was just getting ready to start dinner.”

  “We’re having tacos,” Callie called from the kitchen, where I knew the little scamp was taking out the necessary ingredients.

  Elizabeth gave me a suspicious look. “Certainly an area where I can help, wouldn’t you agree?”

  It’s not like I could disagree without lying or hurting her feelings. “Of course, but I’m sure you both have someplace else you’d rather be.”

  “Not at all,” they replied at the same time, wearing the same Stepford smiles. “Single parents need time for themselves, too,” Helen insisted. “The kids today call it self-care.”

  “Yes, dear, go take care of yourself. However you need to, we won’t judge.” She winked and I knew I hadn’t mistaken that twinkle in her eye. “We can stay until morning if you need us to.”

  I stared for a long moment, letting my gaze bounce from one woman to the other and back again, wondering what exactly they were up to and more importantly, why they were up to it. But I also knew when to fight and when to retreat. If I accepted this night out, this would be the end of it. Whatever it was. “Okay, fine. Thank you, ladies.”

  “Wonderful,” Elizabeth enthused, clapping her hands. “Auntie Liz will teach you how to make the perfect salsa.”

  “And I’ll teach you to eat like a real woman,” Helen insisted with a gruff smile and a wink for me. “Go have fun, Max. Paint the town red.”

  I was left standing alone in the middle of my own hallway, unsure what to do now that someone else would cook dinner and make sure Callie finished her homework. Helen and Elizabeth would make sure she brushed her teeth if I was out having a drink, and they would find creative ways to get her to eat her veggies while I was out having fun.

  Because I was an expert at having fun. Okay, maybe I wasn’t, but I had a few girlfriends who might be up for a night of fun. Grabbing my phone, I ran up to my room to call my fr
iends and see who was free. “The more things change, the more they stay the same,” I thought as I waited for Nina to answer. The call went straight to voicemail and I remembered, she and Preston were visiting a B&B near Austin for a few days.

  Penny and Ry were having date night, which is why Betty hadn’t shown up to bully me into going out tonight. When I reached the end of my pathetically short list of friends, I remembered why I stopped wishing for nights off from motherhood. I wasn’t exciting enough to have a life that didn’t include making sure Callie was fed and bathed, sheltered and loved.

  It had been so long since I’d had a life that I didn’t have a life to return to on those rare occasions I had a night off. “It was a nice thought,” I said to myself and jogged back down the hall to relay the bad news to Helen and Elizabeth. “Sorry ladies, looks like you chose the wrong night to save me.”

  None of them, not even my own daughter, paid me any attention. They were too busy rolling balls of dough while Callie broke up tomatoes with her fingers—all three of them, laughing and talking loudly like I was already gone. Helen spotted me first, a mischievous smile lighting up her face. “Oh, you haven’t left yet?”

  I shrugged. “No place to go. Everyone is busy.”

  “Everyone but you,” Elizabeth added. Unnecessarily.

  Luckily, the doorbell rang—again—before I could say something I would regret to a woman I respected. “I’ll just get that. Maybe another set of meddling old ladies has come to offer more help.”

  “Who are you callin’ old?” Helen called out, making me smile even though I didn’t want to.

  “Derek? What are you doing here?” And why on earth did he always have to look so delicious? Could you even call a man delicious these days? Because it fit. Slightly dressy in a fitted pair of jeans and a crisp white button-up shirt that made his eyes look like royal gems, especially against the backdrop of his olive skin.

  “I ran into Eddy today and she said you had some ideas for the silent auction. I didn’t even know that was an option.” Once again, I was struck at how easy Derek found it to admit when he was out of his depth. It was a dangerously appealing trait. That, and the way he raked his fingers through those thick black locks whenever he felt overwhelmed.

  “Careful. You keep rubbing your hair like that and you’ll end up with a bald spot.”

  He frowned, momentarily distracted from thoughts of the silent auction. “That’s a myth. Hair loss is hereditary or environmental, or sometimes a symptom of a larger problem.”

  “Go on then, risk it,” I told him playfully. “I dare you.”

  His hand slowed and then stopped. “So, the silent auction?”

  Right. “Sorry, but I think you’ve been played, Doc. This is the first I’ve heard about a silent auction and I haven’t seen Eddy in a few days.” But it was all starting to make sense. “You have plans tonight?”

  “You asking me out?”

  I shrugged. “No. But Helen and Elizabeth have given me a night off I didn’t ask for and now they’re refusing to leave. You’re the only other person I know who has no plans tonight. We might as well have no plans together.”

  “I have plans,” he insisted, squaring his shoulders and puffing his chest out. “I planned to walk over to Reese’s to have too much barbecue and too many beers before I walk home and watch football highlights while I figure out what to put up for silent auction.”

  “That sounds… pathetic.” His offended look tore a laugh from me, and I doubled over, laughing harder than I’d laughed in a long damn time. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that how it sounds.”

  “I don’t know how else it could sound, Maxine.”

  The formal, uptight way he said my name sent me into another fit of giggles and suddenly, I couldn’t stop laughing. My eyes watered and I was sure I made the most unattractive picture he’d ever seen, which only made me laugh harder. Maybe it was delirium or hysteria. Maybe it was his cologne. “Sorry. I just expected a handsome, single doctor to have more exciting plans for the evening.”

  Derek, like the man he was, homed in on what he deemed the most important part of my statement. “You think I’m handsome?”

  “Don’t fish for compliments, boy, it’s unattractive,” Helen shouted from the kitchen.

  “Of course, she thinks you’re handsome—she has eyes, doesn’t she?” That came from Elizabeth.

  His cheeks grew an interesting shade of red and I had to work hard to keep my laughter to myself. “I thought you ladies were babysitting,” he grumbled, loud enough for them to hear.

  “We are, and we’ll get back to it as soon as you two get on out of here. Have fun, and please, stay out late,” Helen commanded in what could only be called an affectionate growl.

  I turned back to Derek and his gleaming blue eyes, deciding that Nina was right. I could at least get my toes a little wet with a gorgeous doctor who kissed like the devil. “Want to let a single mom crash your pathetic dinner for one?”

  “Nope. But I’m willing to let a beautiful woman crash my guys’ night barbecue feast. If that works for you.” He held out a hand, flashing the flirtiest smile I’d seen aimed my way in long time, if you didn’t count the guys at the events I catered.

  “Best offer I’ve had all night,” I told him and put my hand in his, grabbing my purse and a jacket before he yanked me out of the door.

  “Just all night? Guess I’ve got my work cut out for me, Maxine.”

  With the confidence arrogance I came to expect from him, Derek grabbed my hand and wrapped it around his bicep, keeping our bodies close as we walked to Reese’s Famous BBQ.

  “Don’t get any ideas, Derek.”

  He turned to me with a grin so charming, I almost leaned forward to kiss it. “Oh, I’m full of ideas, Maxine. Just you wait.”

  Derek

  “When you said you were full of ideas, I thought you meant good ideas.” Sighing, Maxine sat back in one of the larger booths inside Reese’s Famous BBQ, examining her sauce-covered fingers before sliding them into her mouth one by one, completely oblivious to the effect she was having on me. “Seriously, Derek.”

  After I’d bitten back at least a dozen different groans since the meal began, one finally escaped and drew Maxine’s attention. It was comforting that something about me could get her attention. Other than that kiss. “Seems like a very good idea from where I’m sitting.” My gaze lasered in on her fingers, shiny from her mouth. Her tongue.

  Max’s eyes widened a fraction before they crinkled in laughter. “You’re ridiculous, you know that, right?” That’s what her words said but even she couldn’t stop the smile that spread from ear to ear.

  I shrugged. “You’re beautiful and watching you lick your fingers is why I haven’t gotten up once in the past hour.” She laughed, this time it was loud and unguarded and with her whole body. I grew more addicted to the sound by the second.

  “That’s all it takes, a few licks?” Her brows arched in challenge and I slumped against the booth, trying hard not to yank her onto my lap and show her just what it would take.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know,” I shot back, flashing a satisfied smile when she buried her face in her glass. It was nice, being with Maxine in a relaxed environment. Even inside Reese’s place, with its casual rustic décor, she looked beautiful. Sophisticated. Elegant. Even though she tried to hide it behind jeans, t-shirts, and her chef’s whites. I didn’t have the heart to tell her it wasn’t working.

  Her blue eyes sized me up for a long time and before I could ask her what she was thinking, she spoke. “Maybe. I’m not sure yet.”

  That answer shocked the hell out of me. “Well, play this dinner right and you just might get a chance.”

  Another laugh erupted and this time, I joined her. “Good to know, Dr. Cahill,” she said.

  “That’s Dr. Derek to you, ma’am.”

  She shuddered. “Please, don’t ever call me ‘ma’am.’ Ever.”

  Her words shocked me. “Don’t tell me you’re wo
rried about your age, because if you are, let me be the first to tell you that you look amazing.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Wow, you must really need my help if you’re laying it on so thick.”

  “Then explain why I’m doing this.” Getting under Maxine’s skin and surprising her were becoming two of my favorite hobbies, and she was very surprised when I reached across the table and swiped a dollop of barbecue sauce from the corner of her mouth and popped it into mine. With a groan. “Damn, I should’ve gotten the Jack Daniels sauce.”

  She blinked twice and then coughed. I slid my water across the table and earned a glare for my efforts while she continued to choke on whatever smartass comment she’d been about to unleash. “Because you are a sadist?”

  It was my turn to laugh with my whole body. “No. You go well with barbecue sauce, Maxine. That’s good to know.”

  Her cheeks blushed furiously, the only downside I could imagine to having such fair skin. “Yeah? Does it help you with ideas for the auction?”

  “No, but that’s not the only thing on my mind.”

  She sighed and put my cup down, sliding it back to its original spot. “What’s going on, Derek? Why are you so interested in me all of a sudden? We don’t even know each other.”

  “Exactly. We’ve known each other for years, we’re even casual friends, but I don’t know you. And I want to.” I could tell she wasn’t sure yet, and that was just about what I expected. “What would you be doing tonight if the matchmakers hadn’t been meddling?” I was curious about everything, particularly how she spent her free time and who with.

  “Making tacos and virgin margarita lemonade with Callie. What about you?”

  “This. Treating myself to a meal or ordering in and watching TV. Sometimes, I’ll hang out with the guys, but when I’m not at the hospital I like to keep things relaxed.”

  “No kidding. Life is always so hectic that I appreciate a good session of vegging in front of the TV and bingeing on garbage food. Or just game night with my kid.”