“Hi,” Charli said in a way-too-perky voice for someone who moments ago was going head-to-head with him. “Did you guys try that lamp trick I told you about for your foyer?”
“Lamp trick?” Reno smirked. “I’m afraid to ask.”
“We did,” Paige replied, then turned to him to explain. “Charli showed us this really cool way to turn the old cranberry jug we had sitting by the door into a neat little lamp for the hall table. Aiden is a genius with tools.” She looked up at the man by her side, and no one needed to guess how much she loved him. If Reno weren’t so damned happy for the two of them, he might be jealous.
“What are you guys doing here?” Reno asked. “Thought you’d be over at the Ashfords’ playing poker.”
“Nope. We’re celebrating.” Aiden looked at Paige and smiled. “Our official engagement.”
“He officially asked me last night,” Paige gushed. “By the creek. On bended knee.”
“Oh, how romantic.” Charli’s face lit up as Paige dangled her hand and flashed her solitaire ring. “And how beautiful.”
The dinner in Reno’s stomach turned over as he remembered the night he’d asked Diana to marry him.
It hadn’t been a glitzy affair. She’d been a quiet girl, and his proposal had followed suit. But he could still remember the exhilaration that had run through his veins when she’d said yes. He’d planned to spend the rest of his life with her. But fate and a twenty-thousand-pound truck had other plans. So here he was, sitting with a woman who couldn’t be more different, and doing her best to turn his nice, quiet existence upside down.
Ironically, at the moment, he had to admit to enjoying it.
“Congratulations.” Reno shook Aiden’s hand, truly happy that Paige had never given up on him, even when Aiden had given up on himself.
“When’s the big day?” Charli asked Paige.
“Well, we’d like to get married in Town Square because that’s where everything fell into place after Aiden came home,” Paige said. “So we thought maybe a couple of weeks from today. But we know you have the square scheduled as one of your redesigns, and we wouldn’t want to interfere.”
“Interfere?” Charli’s head went back like that was the most preposterous thing she’d ever heard. “If you can put together a wedding in two weeks, I can finish the project by then.”
Reno watched as Charli calculated everything in her head so fast, he could almost hear the bell ring when she came up with the solution. Without her saying a single word, he knew exactly where her mind had gone. Her smile slipped—just a hint. Then it came back so bright, he thought he’d need sunglasses.
“I’ll make it happen,” she finally said. “I just have one favor to ask.”
“Anything,” Paige replied.
“Can I be invited?”
Paige’s face lit up even more if that were even possible. “Are you kidding? Of course you’re invited.”
Charli slid two fingers across her frilly little handkerchief blouse. “Then I cross my heart. Town Square will be done in time for you two to get married.”
Paige squealed and scooched onto the bench beside Charli. Before Reno got caught up in all the dresses and flowers and froufrou talk, he looked up at his perplexed friend. “I think they’re going to be busy here for a while. Want to join me for a beer?”
“Yeah.” Aiden ran a hand through his hair and chuckled. “Guess I won’t be needed again till the wedding day.”
Reno stood, slapped a hand on his friend’s back, and guided him toward the bar. “Nope. All you gotta do is show up, tell her she’s beautiful, and say I do.”
“That’s easy,” Aiden said. “Paige is the most incredible woman I’ve ever known. I can’t wait to be married to her.”
The bartender slid two bottles of Shiner Bock in front of them. Aiden lifted one and took a drink. “I wasted too much time thinking all the wrong things.”
“Like?”
Aiden shrugged. “Like I didn’t deserve to be happy. Like I was supposed to live my life under a rock because I hadn’t stopped my best friends from dying on that Afghani mountainside. Like I had to stop living and let the world go on without me.”
Reno swallowed down his beer hard. He understood those thoughts. He lived those thoughts. But could he ever step outside his comfort zone as Aiden had? He didn’t know.
“Thought you didn’t want anything to do with all this changing-the-town stuff,” Aiden said, changing the subject. “So what are you doing here with Charlotte Brooks?”
“Good question, my friend.”
Reno turned his back to the bar, propped the heel of his boot against the rail, and watched Charli laugh and express herself to Paige with smiles and hand gestures.
He didn’t know exactly what had made him bring Charli here tonight other than he could tell she’d been hungry. He only knew that the more time he spent with her, the more he liked her.
The changes she’d made to the senior center had been good. Unlike what he’d expected, she hadn’t torn the place apart. She’d made it a better, happier, livelier gathering place. She’d brought smiles to the faces of those who spent time within those walls. The group had been so pleased, they’d made her an honorary member.
She was actually quite an incredible woman.
Aside from all his grumbling, Reno realized he had to be honest with himself. He liked her. But in five weeks, she would be gone. She’d pick up her measuring tape and her staple gun and head back to her real life. He didn’t know what she had waiting for her there; he only knew he couldn’t picture her anywhere but here in Sweet.
If he let himself get too close, he knew he’d get involved.
If he got involved, he’d get attached.
If he got attached, he could very well lose his heart—and lose her too.
And with all he’d already gone through, that might be a pain he’d never survive.
By the time they left Sweet Pickens, it was late. But Reno had promised Charli they’d go back to the store and look for her ceiling tiles. So here he was rummaging through boxes and scanning labels while she sat perched up on his desktop, legs swinging, and keeping up a conversation that distracted him at every turn.
“I think I’m going to put a lucky horseshoe up at the top of the entry to the new gazebo,” she said.
Reno pushed aside a carton of paint rollers and looked up. “What constitutes its being a lucky horseshoe?”
“You know, I’m really not sure.” She grinned. Bit her lip in deep thought. “I guess I’ll have to Google it.”
“Or you could just ask a horse.”
“Ooooh. Did you just make a funny?” She laughed. “I like it.” She lifted her hand to brush her hair back from her face. “Maybe I could just ask a certain aging bowlegged cowboy. He’s been dying to get me alone.”
Reno hated to admit it, but he’d like to get her alone too. But then, that’s exactly what he had right now, wasn’t it? And what was he doing while they were alone, and she sat there looking so kissable? Searching for boxes.
Total waste of time.
“Chester has a reputation, you know.” He moved a case of smoke detectors, thinking it was a good thing they weren’t active. Because every time he looked at Charli, he felt like he might spontaneously combust.
It wasn’t anything in particular she did or said. And it didn’t help that he’d had several talks with himself about keeping his distance. Something about the woman just turned his head. Flipped his switch. And tempted him to ignore all the warning bells clanging like a three-alarm fire. “I hear when Chester was younger, he had the ladies lined up,” he said.
Her brows drew together. “His wife must not have appreciated that.”
“Probably not.” He chuckled. “Though it would be hard to figure out which wife that would have been.”
“So Chester was a repeat offender?”
“Most folks lost track at six marriages. The last one anyone could remember was Loretta La Fleur. Rumor was he met her in
a Cajun bar in New Orleans. Of course, rumor also hinted that old Chester had paid for her favors and liked them so much he married her.”
“Whatever happened to her?”
Reno shrugged. “After she left, Chester kept pretty tight-lipped. But rumor has it she’d never divorced her previous husband and went back to Louisiana.”
A smile tilted Charli’s mouth. Everything male in him responded.
“I know the story seems funny,” she said, “but I can’t help think how sad it must be to marry so many times. I know some people go into marriage these days thinking if they don’t like it, they can just get a divorce. But that’s like claiming defeat before you even get the I Do’s over with.”
“Some would say that’s old-fashioned thinking,” he said though her thoughts echoed his own.
“I know. But that’s okay with me. I’m not the type to change my opinions because of peer pressure.”
She glanced down, then back up. Something in those amazing eyes reached into his chest and wrapped his heart in warmth. He put down the box in his hands and stepped out from the mire of cardboard containers.
“You’d probably be surprised to know I’m a lot more like you than you might think,” she said.
“How’s that?” He took a step closer.
“I believe strongly in tradition. I believe in family and friends and doing what’s necessary to keep it all together. And I believe that marriage is something sacred and that people should work hard and fight to keep the love they shared in that exact moment when they exchanged their vows.”
Her candid admission made him swallow.
“I was really young when my mother died,” she continued. “When I look at my father today, I can’t imagine what she saw in him. But somewhere . . . in the back of my memories . . . I remember hearing them together when Nick and I were supposed to be asleep. I remember them talking to each other in loving voices. I remember their laughter. And I know, regardless of my father’s frequent absences and his sometimes unpleasant behavior, they truly loved each other. Neither of them would have given up on a marriage I didn’t really understand.”
She gave a sad laugh and shook her head in a way that made her long, loose curls dance.
“I know my father’s a son of a bitch. But he loved my mother. He was never cruel—just difficult. And it broke his heart the day she died.”
“What happened to her? If you don’t mind my asking?”
“I don’t mind. I like talking about her. It keeps her alive if you know what I mean.”
He nodded.
“She was wonderful. Whimsical. Completely the opposite of my father.”
She gave a little laugh. As she talked, Reno noted how her face lit up with the happy memories. The kind that for him were the most difficult to remember amid the tragic results.
“My father always said I reminded him too much of her. I never thought that was a bad thing. But apparently he did. I was eight when she died. It was so . . . unexpected that it took a long time to sink in and realize she was never coming home.”
Reno knew that feeling only too well.
She glanced away, then looked back at him again and sighed. “My father was coming home after several long months in which Nick and I had both gotten the chicken pox, then Nick broke his arm in a bicycle race. My mom had been doing double duty, taking care of us and basically being shut in the house for a couple weeks. The cupboards were bare. She’d gotten the lady next door to watch us for a few minutes while she rushed off to the store to get the stuff to make my father’s favorite meat loaf. On the way home, she was killed by a drunk driver.”
Her voice broke, and she paused. “Hard to imagine someone could be that inebriated at four in the afternoon and rip away the life of someone who was so loved. The man who killed her wasn’t even injured.”
“I’m so . . . sorry,” Reno said, knowing that the words were inadequate.
“Thank you.” She gave him a tentative smile. “It was horrible. But the tragedy can’t erase all the wonderful things she did in her life. It can’t erase what a wonderful mother she was. Or how lucky Nick and I were to have her. Even if it was only for a short time.”
Emotion knotted in his chest, and he recognized that he too was lucky. His feet moved before he could tell them to stop. In a blink, he was standing before her.
Tilting her head back, she looked up and lifted her hand to touch his cheek. “What is it, Reno? What’s got you so tangled up inside?”
He placed his hand over hers, closed his eyes, and savored the softness of her palm against the rough stubble of his beard. He wanted to say it was her who had him tangled up, but right now he could think of better things to do with his mouth than talk. He lowered his head and pressed his lips to hers.
Because he was a man who never took what wasn’t offered, he ended the kiss and leaned away. Her hand on the back of his neck stopped his retreat. She looked up at him with understanding, desire, and need.
“Kiss me again, Cowboy.”
Permission granted.
Again he bent his head and covered her mouth with his own. On a slow intake of air, he blotted out everything in his mind but her—the sweet scent of barbecue that lingered in her hair, the softness of her skin, the slick slide and tangle of their tongues. She tasted like honey, and passion, and promise.
She swayed against him and slid both her hands up and around his neck. He stepped into that warm space between her thighs. Pulled her up and against him. Beneath the thin handkerchief blouse, her nipples tightened and pushed against his chest.
A simple tilt of her head gave him better access and turned up the heat. The kiss turned urgent, wet, and visceral. Fire spread through his body and made him light-headed. He welcomed the loss of control, grabbed hold of her with both hands, and drew her firm against the bulge straining against his jeans. As his body reacted to hers he completely forgot why he’d tried to convince himself to keep his distance.
Her fingers weaved into his hair.
His hands slipped beneath that flimsy little top and connected with soft, warm, bare skin. He slid his palms up. His thumbs brushed the underside of her breasts. She moaned in his mouth, and sensation tingled in his fingertips.
A hard knock on the back door broke them apart.
“Wilder?” the deep voice on the opposite side said. “That you in there?”
“Shit.”
Reno ran a hand through his hair while he looked at Charli, her lips moist and red from his kiss. He wanted to ignore the man at the door, take her in his arms, and kiss her again.
“Who is that?” she asked with a little giggle.
“Brady Bennett.”
Her eyes widened. “Deputy Bennett?”
“The one and only.”
“What do you think he wants?” she whispered.
When he looked at her rumpled hair, her well-kissed lips, and flimsy little blouse askew, he couldn’t have cared less about what the good deputy wanted. “Guess we’d better find out.”
He opened the door. “What’s up?” he asked when he found Brady standing back, hand hovering above his sidearm.
“Took you damn long enough.” Brady dropped his arm to his side. “Thought maybe you were being robbed.”
Reno stepped out the door, hoping the darkness would be a screen for any evidence going on below his belt. “Nope.” He popped the P and figured if he got Brady the hell out of there, maybe he and Charli could get back to business. “I was just—”
“Deputy Bennett.” Charli slipped beneath Reno’s arm and turned on the charm. “How nice of you to check on things at this late hour. It’s really nice to know all our materials are safe with you on patrol.”
Brady touched two fingers to the brim of his Stetson. “Ms. Brooks.”
Reno didn’t like the way his childhood friend and a favorite of the single ladies in town was looking at her. Then again, it wasn’t all that different than the way most of the men in town looked at her. Men who included his own
brothers.
“Mr. Wilder and I were trying to find some items he misplaced.” She flashed a smile and clasped a hand to the front of the blouse he’d just had his hand up. “I hate to admit that our production company seems to have overrun his stockroom.”
“Uh-huh.” Brady looked at Reno. Looked at Charli. Then looked back at Reno and smiled. “Guess I’d best let you two get back to your search.”
“Thanks for stopping by.” Reno began to shut the door as Brady stepped away.
“Oh. And Wilder?” Brady turned back again. “You might want to tuck in your shirt.”
Reno looked down, and sure enough, his shirt looked like he’d had it about halfway off. He smirked. “Yeah. I’ll get right on that.”
Charli looked up at Reno and grinned. “Busted.”
“Big-time.”
Once he closed the door, she curled her fingers into his shirt and leaned in. “Now. Where were we?”
Fortunately—or unfortunately, however he chose to look at it—the cool air and the sight of a deputy badge flashing at him in the dark of the night brought all his senses back.
Charli wasn’t the type of woman a man did on top of a desk the first time. She deserved to be treated like a lady. And as much as it killed him, he knew the fun and games were over.
At least for now.
“I was about to take you to your car so you can go home and get some sleep.”
Her bottom lip came out in a sexy little pout. “What if I told you I wasn’t tired?”
He sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. He could think of at least a thousand ways to wear her out.
“You won’t think that come morning.” He reached down and took her hand in his. “Didn’t you say you were working tomorrow, so you can get Town Square done for Paige and Aiden’s wedding?”
Her slim shoulders lifted, then dropped with an exaggerated sigh. Her nose wrinkled. “Yes.”
He reached behind her and grabbed his hat off the hook near the door. “Then it might be best to call it a night.”
“But what about my ceiling tiles,” she asked, as he began to close the door behind them.
Candis Terry - [Sweet, Texas 01] Page 13