“Not to me anymore either. Not when a beautiful woman stood in a crowded diner and claimed I handled her delicate and decorous self just fine.”
Harper felt her face redden. “I did that, didn’t I? In front of everybody.”
Zane grinned. “It was great. But only half as great as the next thing you said to that jerk ex of yours.”
Nothing about you matters, including you not seeing me as who I am and who I’m becoming, because he does.
“I meant it, Zane,” she said now. “All of it.”
And I don’t need a ring or promises from him. Just that one simple thing.
“I know, sweets,” he said, and the serious expression on his face made her heart jolt and every inch of her skin flush with heat.
She swallowed, trying to think of something to say that wouldn’t betray how much she was beginning to feel for him. This was supposed to stay casual, after all.
But he beat her to it, taking the moment from tender to naughty just by plucking the sheet from her fingers to reveal her bare breasts.
“And now I think it’s time I made an honest pair of us by proving just exactly how dirty you can get with me,” he said, tweaking one nipple.
It instantly peaked and a jolt of heat shot to the soft place between her legs. “Well, I could use some more training,” she said, already going breathless. “Especially because there’s something I’ve always wanted to get really, really good at.”
Then she dived beneath the covers, gratified by his instant groan when her hands and mouth found that he had, indeed, recovered.
Chapter 10
The Thursday night before the weekend of the mud run was the by-invitation-only, “soft” opening of Bailey Tucker’s new restaurant, Blue Moon. Harper hadn’t hesitated to agree to attend with Zane. Not only couldn’t she wait to get a good look inside the place, but there was also the expected arrival of the mother of the Tucker siblings. Zane said she’d promised to show during the cocktail hour before the meal slated to be served to friends and family.
They drove together in his truck in what she considered to be a contented silence. Despite his busy schedule at A To Z and her list-upon-list of what had to be accomplished before the library charity event on Sunday morning, they’d managed to see each other, talk on the phone, and even sleep in the same bed a few times—with exciting before-sleep activities that left her sated and feeling closer to him than she’d ever felt with anyone.
Still, she was careful to keep her expectations at a minimum and not take their growing relationship too seriously. After all, she’d promised.
But she’d bought a new dress in that cute boutique Jane had introduced her to before her date night. It was sapphire blue, fitted at the top with a fairly short A-line skirt. The neckline reached to her throat, but the shoulders and elbow-length sleeves were in a lace of the same deep-blue shade, which allowed her skin to peek through the delicate design.
Now she smoothed the hem lower on her thighs, and held out one foot to admire her new nude pumps.
“Did I say you make my mouth water tonight?” Zane asked.
Pleasure warmed her all over. “Thank you.” She touched her up-do, not fussy or smooth, but not messy either. It had taken the stylist an hour to get the look just right. “You’re no slouch either.”
Understatement, of course. He looked unbelievably hot in dark slacks, dress shoes, and a black-and-gray checked sports jacket over a black dress shirt, the collar unbuttoned. “Is it okay to go without a tie?”
“Adam and I told Bailey that if she made this a noose-only place, we’d refuse to step foot inside it.”
“You would never refuse,” Harper protested. She couldn’t imagine the brothers denying their sister anything.
“We wouldn’t,” Zane agreed, sending her a smile. “But the dress code doesn’t include a tie requirement anyway.”
They turned along another road, and Harper admired the way the last of the day’s sunlight filtered through the trees. Eagle’s Ridge was nothing like the city that she came from, but it had beauties and charms that were unrivaled.
“Everything in place for the mud run?” Zane asked.
“I think so.” Her belly tightened a little at the thought of what lie ahead on Sunday. “I have a remarkable young man who’s taken it on as his Eagle Scout service project. He has a future ahead in logistics, I’m just sure. Plus, he’s gotten the local Boy and Girl Scout troops to volunteer to help as well as the Friends of the Library team.”
“I’ll be there too,” Zane said. “Ready to do whatever you need. Adam, Ryder, and Wyatt will be on hand as well.”
She beamed at him but reminded herself it wasn’t just for her—that he and his brother and friends were going to be supporting the community too. “Thanks,” she said.
Her breath caught as they pulled into the parking lot of Blue Moon. “Oh.” She clasped her hands together as she caught sight of the impressive stone building with its wide mullioned windows. She knew behind it was a patio overlooking the river, but the front was spectacular too. In the gathering dusk, fairy lights sparkled in the trees and were wrapped around wine barrels filled with flowers that flanked the path to the deep porch and double front doors.
Harper almost felt like a celebrity on a red carpet as she walked up the flagstone route, her hand tucked into Zane’s elbow. Apparently Bailey had hired a photographer for the night—maybe to capture images for her website?—and as directed, she found herself smiling for the camera.
The restaurant’s interior was both elegant and inviting. Bailey was there to greet them in a long, figure-hugging dress, a midnight black that set off her lovely blonde hair. Ryder stood at her side, at ease in a dark suit and tie.
Zane didn’t hesitate to tease him about that last sartorial element, shaking his head and saying it was clear evidence that Ryder was wrapped around his sister’s little finger.
They moved farther inside to make room for more arriving guests and found Adam and Jane standing beside a charcuterie table. A server came by with a tray of filled champagne glasses. The bubbles tickled Harper’s nose, but the cool, dry taste was delicious as it slid down her throat.
Of course the brothers complained about the dearth of beer.
Zane’s arm came around her waist and tucked her close to his side.
Maybe it was the champagne. Maybe it was seeing everyone dressed in their best. But suddenly Harper’s stomach was jittering and the room seemed to spin a little.
She put her hand to Zane’s waist, steadying herself. He looked down. “Hey, are you okay?” he asked.
His blue-green eyes only made her more dizzy. “I’m good,” she lied, even as her body trembled.
“You’re ice-cold,” he said, rubbing his hand up and down her arm. “Are you sure—”
“I’m fine,” she told him, and stepped free of his hold to set her champagne flute aside. “Just…” There wasn’t a cogent explanation that she could share. Her sixth sense was suddenly nagging at her, though, setting her on edge, warning her that something big, something life-changing, was hovering over her and was no more than two breaths away from descending.
As if this nervousness was catching, a nearby server stumbled, losing one of the empty glasses on his tray. It landed with a loud shatter, hushing the crowd. Then Zane hurried over to the obviously mortified waiter. “Let me help, man. I’m an expert at crashes and clean-ups.”
Everybody laughed and went back to their conversations. Harper’s gaze followed the big man as he bent with a linen napkin in hand and scooped up the broken shards.
“That was handled neatly,” Ryder said, coming up beside Harper. “Unlike the situation in No Man’s Land the other day. Gambler broke three plates, knocked a picture off the wall, and two burgers landed face-down on the floor.”
Harper grimaced. “We left you behind with all that.” She hadn’t seen the other man since she’d run out after Zane and his dog.
“And you also left me behind with…Godfr
ey, was it?”
“Geoffrey.” Her lips twitched. “But you can refer to him as Godfrey if you like.”
“I plan on not referring to him ever again,” Ryder pledged, a smile in his eyes. “But I’ll let you know it took a little physical persuasion to send him on his way.”
“Wait. What?”
But Ryder’s gaze suddenly shifted and his whole body went on alert. “Excuse me, but I’ve got to get to Bailey. She’s here.”
She meaning the mother of the Tucker siblings, Harper realized. Tori Remington who had been Vicky Tucker when she’d lived in Eagle’s Ridge. From across the room, Harper stared. The beautiful woman swept into the space, wearing a dramatic gown of amethyst chiffon with jewels of the same color swinging from her ears. Her charisma could be felt even from this distance and it was almost surreal to see in real life the woman she’d watched on a TV screen time and time again.
Bailey greeted her mother with a hug and then she drew Ryder toward the older woman. Adam and Zane joined their circle next, and the reunion appeared cordial if not exactly enthusiastic.
Then Zane looked around and caught her eye only to beckon her forward. Harper took careful steps to join him.
“This is my friend Harper Grace,” he told his mother. “She’s the librarian in Eagle’s Ridge.”
His friend. She smiled through the aftermath of that small sting, shaking hands and engaging in some practiced Nob Hill chit chat with the actress. But of course she and Zane were friends, Harper reminded herself. Their relationship was casual.
She’d promised.
Soon they were called to take their seats. Zane led her to a beautifully set table and held her chair, just as he’d done on their first date. His rough fingertips caressed her bare nape as she adjusted her seat. Then he took the neighboring place and others joined them—Adam, Jane, Wyatt, Bailey, Ryder, and Tori Remington.
At another table sat the four founders of Eagle’s Ridge with the generation that followed them, including Sam and Brenda. She hadn’t seen that couple interact with Zane’s mother, but she remembered hearing that Tori/Vicki and the diner manager had been best friends once upon a time.
Then her attention was taken by Bailey, who tapped a fork to her wineglass. When the room quieted, she explained the menu and her philosophy. Farm-to-table organic foods with a French flair that included favorite dishes of both the Westbrook and the Tucker families. That night she’d given a nod to the most popular items on the menu at Veronica’s, the restaurant housed previously in the building, re-imagining them for their enjoyment.
The food was beyond delicious and the guests enthusiastic in their praise. As the meal wore on, Harper’s earlier sense of imminent disaster moved off. Zane held a succulent bite of lamb to her mouth and she stared into his smiling eyes as she slid it from his fork with her lips. His thigh pressed against hers beneath the table and she felt again that seductive, sweet intimacy.
That warm feeling went beyond just the two of them, though. As a newcomer to Eagle’s Ridge, she’d wondered how long it would take to feel part of the community—and right now she did. Adam wisecracked some joking aside to his brother and Zane laughed and Jane shared with her a happy look that made Harper feel on the inside of the Tucker family too. Accepted and liked, a feeling underlined when Bailey brushed her shoulder in a friendly gesture as she refilled Harper’s wineglass herself.
The meal ended with a decadent tasting plate of small desserts and an espresso that Bailey referred to as Café Gourmand. After savoring their last bites and final sips of coffee, Harper and Zane were not the first and not the last to take their leave. Bailey glowed with satisfaction as they delivered additional and sincere compliments followed by their affectionate goodbyes.
They both were silent on the ride home until Zane pronounced, “She’s going to be a huge success.”
Harper smiled. “I completely agree.”
“It’s her dream,” Zane added, his own grin white in the dark interior of the cab. “And she went for it.”
“I think that might be a Tucker trait,” Harper said. “Isn’t A To Z the same for you? And the adventure camp for troubled kids Adam’s dream?”
“Yeah,” he said, his tone thoughtful. “That’s so.”
His hand was warm on hers as he walked her to her condo. “As much as I’d like to stay the night, sweets, I’m going into the office extra early tomorrow and juggling like crazy to free up my Sunday for you.”
To free up my Sunday for you.
“I understand,” she said, using her key to open her door. She hesitated on the threshold and turned to him, automatically tilting up her face for his kiss.
Instead of immediately accepting the unspoken invitation, he stared down at her, a little smile curving his mouth.
His masculine beauty dizzied her again and the stars overhead seemed to reel in the sky. She was close enough to feel his heat and she wanted to rub against it, she wanted to imprint herself on him, so he would always, always…be hers.
Be hers.
Oh, no. This deep, now undeniable longing was what she’d been dreading acknowledging all evening. The disaster that had been hovering over her head.
At the realization, her heart jolted in her chest and her blood slowed as a chill fell over her. God. There was nothing casual about what she felt for him, nothing casual at all. She was in love. She was completely in love with Zane Tucker.
But she’d made that promise to keep things casual!
And she’d failed, hadn’t she? Her feelings for him had slid straight into serious territory.
She was in love with the man who rescued goofy dogs and who empowered shy librarians. She was in love with a man who loved his country and his family and gave them all he had. This honest, honorable man, who she could treat with no less honor and no less honesty.
“Zane,” she said, and her voice sounded unlike her, rough and scratchy. Her eyes stung and she blinked to keep the tears at bay.
“Sweets?”
Sweets. So, so sweet.
She stepped back and gripped the edge of the door, ready to swing it shut. “I can’t do this anymore,” she whispered.
“What?”
“I can’t keep my promise. I can’t be casual about this any longer. About us. And it will break me if I pretend otherwise, if I try to continue on this way.”
He stared, clearly dumbfounded.
“I…goodbye,” she croaked out, and shut the door in his face.
Saturday afternoon, in a murderous temper that had been brewing since late Thursday night, Zane stomped through the back door of No Man’s Land. Just to make a crap couple of days even crappier, a last-minute cancellation left him with some free hours.
When all he wanted was to stay so busy he didn’t have time to think.
Or feel.
But he didn’t have any effing feelings, he told himself. At least not the kind that got all weepy and whiny just because some woman decided she didn’t want to see him anymore. Stuff like that didn’t faze Zane Tucker, not when his relationships were always of the temporary variety.
That he’d been blindsided by the librarian breaking it off was no big deal.
Really. It shouldn’t bother him at all. He was an easygoing kind of guy. Everybody said so.
He marched into the kitchen, hoping to find a burger and fries already plated up that he could liberate from whatever patron they were intended for. His dad would only need to slap another patty on the grill to satisfy the customer.
And Zane was in no mood to wait.
Sam glanced over his shoulder as he expertly flipped some sizzling meat. Then his eyes widened. “You okay, Son? You look a bit…rough around the edges.”
“I am rough around the edges,” Zane said, but automatically ran his hand over his bristly chin. If he’d been still seeing Harper, he’d keep to a smooth shave so as not to mar her soft, tender skin.
But he wasn’t still seeing Harper.
A plate sat under the warming lights on
the pass-through. A chicken sandwich would have to do, and the fries looked hot and crisp.
“I’m taking this Dad,” he said, and grabbed the food.
His father sighed and moved to the refrigerator to snag another breaded chicken breast. “If Mandy was doing her job right, that meal would already be delivered to the table.”
Leaning against the counter by the sink, Zane wolfed down a late lunch. Then he set the plate aside and poured himself milk into a pebbled plastic glass that he drained in one go.
Sam glanced over at him again. “You still look ready to strangle a grizzly with your bare hands. Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.” What would he say? He had no right to be pissed at Harper for being truthful.
I can’t be casual about this any longer.
Casual was his choice. The way he’d wanted to conduct their relationship, the same as with the other women in his past. When that no longer worked for her, then she was right to end things.
It will break me if I continue this way.
At the thought of Harper being broken, that he might have a hand in hurting her, his rage erupted. His arm came up and he threw the plastic glass into the stainless steel sink with such force that it shattered like an egg.
“Son.” Sam moved away from the grill, his expression concerned, and dragged out a chair from the breakroom. “Sit down. Tell me what’s going on.”
Zane dropped onto the seat and hung his head, his hands in his hair. After a few slow breaths he felt marginally calmer. “I’m okay,” he said, looking up to meet his father’s gaze. “I’ll be all right.”
“I’m here to listen.”
“Thanks, Dad.” Zane pushed his hands through his hair another time. “But…there’s no words.” He couldn’t explain to himself why he was so angry. So frustrated too. It wasn’t with Harper. It was because…hell, he just didn’t know.
“I have something to say, then.” Sam built a burger, then slid it onto a plate, put the plate on the pass-through. “It’s about me and Brenda.”
Zane straightened, glad for the distraction. “Yeah, Dad?” He was pretty certain he knew where this was going. His father was about to confess he was dating the diner manager. He’d heard from Adam who’d heard from Jane that Sam had invited Brenda to the house to have dinner and spend the night.
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