When We Met

by Susan Mallery

  For a second he hesitated, thinking about what it would be like to work with the boys. Would they remind him of Marcus? Despite the time that had passed, he thought about his son every day. Missed him every day. Sometimes the memories were easy and sometimes they were hard, but they were always there.

  Marcus would approve of this, he reminded himself. He’d liked hanging out with his friends.

  Angel took the stairs two at a time and headed for the conference room on the second floor. He walked in and found most of the chairs around the long table were already full. Of women.

  Angel paused in the doorway as he worked the problem. It made sense that moms would want to get involved with their sons, he thought. They were the traditional caretakers of the family. But shouldn’t there be a few dads in the mix, too?

  It wasn’t that he didn’t like women. They were great. His wife had been a woman. But this was different. Teenaged boys needed a male role model.

  A woman in her fifties walked up to him and smiled. “Hello, Angel.”

  It took him a second to recognize Denise Hendrix—Ford’s mother. He’d had dinner at her house a few times since moving to town last year. She was friendly and well loved by her six children.

  “Mrs. Hendrix,” he said. “Nice to see you.”

  She shook her head. “Please, don’t call me Mrs. Hendrix. That makes me sound older than I already am. I’m Denise.”

  “Sure.” He glanced around the room. “You have an FWM grove?”

  “Not exactly. I’m the head of the Grove Council. Thank you so much for volunteering. We’re all very excited to have you aboard. Fresh blood and all that. We were afraid we’d lose you to the Boy Scouts, but we didn’t and we’re thrilled.”

  She guided him over to one of the empty chairs and started introducing him to everyone. He nodded and put names with faces, then took his seat.

  Even as he settled in his chair, he felt a prickling sensation on the back of his neck. Something was wrong. Denise’s mention of the Boy Scouts had confused him. Why would there be the FWM to help young men grow up when they could join the Boy Scouts instead? Was Fool’s Gold really big enough to support both organizations? Or had he misunderstood what the mayor had been telling him?

  Denise took her place at the head of the table and started passing out thick notebooks. As she placed one in front of him, Angel was painfully aware of the fact that not only was it pink but the lettering across the front proclaimed the motto of the FWM.

  Growing Our Girls into Capable Young Women.

  He swore silently. Girls? He couldn’t take care of a grove of girls. He’d never had a daughter, and what he knew about women wasn’t exactly helpful to anyone.

  Denise walked back to the head of the table and faced the group. “Thank you all for coming today. As you know, Marjorie has run the Grove Council for several years now and has done an excellent job.”

  Angel saw Mayor Marsha’s assistant sitting near the front of the table. She waved when her name was mentioned. While she was still obviously upset, she wasn’t currently crying, which Angel appreciated.

  “With her moving to Portland, there was an opening on the council,” Denise continued. “All three of my girls were once members of FWM.” She smiled. “Although it was a long time ago, I still remember their excitement as they grew from Acorns to Mighty Oaks. FWM was a positive influence on them in so many ways. So when I was asked to take over Marjorie’s position on the council, I said yes.”

  Everyone applauded. Angel joined in. To be honest, it didn’t matter who was in charge. Not when he’d just learned he was going to be responsible for girls. What happened to the teenaged boys? That he could handle.

  “Angel, you’re going to be starting with our newest girls,” Denise said with a smile. “You can figure it out together. I think that always works best. While your commitment is year to year, I hope we can count on you to stay with your grove until they, too, are Mighty Oaks.”

  All the women in the room were staring at him, nodding and mostly smiling. A few looked doubtful, which made sense. He was doubtful, too. Or screwed. It kind of depended on how he looked at things.

  Denise went through the rest of the “growing season.” The other groves had started in September. Only his would have a short season to get them used to the program. She mentioned a few all-grove events, then answered questions.

  Angel tuned out the conversation and reached for the notebook. The pink notebook. He flipped it open and scanned the table of contents. There were sections on each level of the FWM along with subheadings.

  He read the mission statement, then discovered that the Future Warriors of the Máa-zib marked their progress by earning small wooden beads after studying different areas of life. Some lessons were practical like learning knots and reading maps. Some were related to community. His girls were expected to take on a short-term civic project. There were also beads for family and friendship.

  He kept turning pages and saw there were girlie activities like face painting. He wondered if there was a bead for style and if he could get Taryn to be a guest speaker.

  He could do this, he told himself. Maybe just for the couple of months required for this season. Then he would explain to Denise and the mayor that he wasn’t an FWM kind of guy. No way he could take his grove through—

  He turned the page and came to a stop. He swore silently, then began to look for an exit. Holy shit. There was a bead for the feminine cycle. What had the mayor been thinking when she’d suggested this was where he should volunteer? Was the old woman starting to lose her marbles? He couldn’t talk to a bunch of—he checked which year that happened in and did the math—ten-year-olds about menstruation.

  He carefully closed the notebook and stayed in his seat. When the meeting broke up, he headed directly for Denise. He waited until the other women had left, then faced Ford’s mother.

  “I can’t do this,” he said, putting his notebook down in front of her. “I’m not the right person for the job.”

  She surprised him by smiling. “Done in by the feminine cycle?”

  He felt himself flush. “Look, I’ve faced a lot in my life. There are things I know, things I’ve done. Camping, sure. Knots and map reading, I’m good. But the rest of it? No way. These are little girls. They need a woman. Or at least a man with a daughter.”

  Denise’s mouth straightened. “Angel, I understand your fear.” She paused. “All right, I don’t, but I believe it’s real to you.”

  Talk about not being very supportive, he thought grimly.

  “Most of the girls who have signed up for FWM this year come from either broken homes or they have suffered some kind of loss. While I want to believe nothing bad ever happens in Fool’s Gold, that’s not true. Mayor Marsha and I talked about this at length. We believe you’re the right man for the job.”

  She put her hand on his forearm. “You said you’d take this on and I’m going to hold you to your commitment. Not only do I think it will be good for you, but there isn’t anyone else I can get at such short notice. Please take the grove through this first short season. If at the end of that you want to be done, you can walk away.”

  He hesitated, torn by guilt. He had given his word, dammit. “Fine. Two months and then I’m done.”

  “We’ll discuss that when the time comes.” She pulled an index card out of her handbag. “In the meantime we’ve come up with what we think will be an excellent civic project for your girls. Max Thurman runs K9Rx Therapy Dog Kennels just outside town. Have you heard of it?”

  He nodded slowly. “Dogs that visit sick people. Stuff like that.”

  “It’s slightly more complicated, but that’s close enough. Max has a new litter of puppies that need to be socialized. I think seven-year-old girls are perfect for the job. My daughter Montana works for Max. She’ll be in touch with you to set up the schedule.”

  She rattled off a few more bits of information. Angel made note of them on his phone, then, when they were done, grabbe
d his pink notebook and escaped.

  He walked out into the afternoon and told himself it was way too early to get drunk.

  Girls. He was going to be responsible for seven-year-old girls. He paused by the curb and stared at his motorcycle. He rode a Harley. What if there were trips with the girls and he was expected to drive? People could die in a car accident. His scarred heart was living proof. He swore again, this time loudly and with emphasis.

  He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and pushed a couple of buttons.

  “It’s me. What’s your afternoon like?”

  He waited for Consuelo to tell him she was too busy to bother with him, but she surprised him by pausing and saying, “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. Everything. I’m screwed.”

  “What do you need?”

  He stared at the Harley. He loved riding it. Loved the feel of the wind, the speed. The sense of freedom.

  “I need to buy a car.”

  “What?”

  “I need something safe. That holds a lot of people. Like an SUV.” Or a minivan. Only he couldn’t even say the word. “One of those three-row ones.”

  He could feel the walls of life closing in on him.

  “Do I want to know why?” Consuelo asked.

  “No.”

  “Okay. See you at home in fifteen minutes.”

  * * *

  TARYN STARED AT the simple dark chocolate truffle that had been delivered to her office, along with a note. There was a restaurant name and a time. No signature, no greeting. Just Henri’s and seven o’clock. Either Angel was showing that he was into making an effort or he really didn’t like to pick up the phone.

  Before she could decide, Kenny and Jack walked in. Kenny dropped a massive backpack onto her desk and grinned.

  “You’re back,” she said, stating the obvious.

  “We are back and we’re the best,” Kenny told her.

  Jack sat on the corner of her desk and shrugged. “We can’t help it,” he said modestly. “We’re simply that good.”

  “Lucky me.”

  Jack and Kenny had been in Los Angeles for the meeting with the owner of Living Life at a Run.

  “So your conversation went well?” she asked.

  “You know it. You’re going to love Cole,” Jack said as he slapped the top of the pack and grinned. “And he’s going to love you.”

  Kenny nodded enthusiastically. “We talked sports, of course. He’s a football fan.”

  “Who isn’t?” Taryn asked, trying not to look at the jumbo backpack taking up most of her desk. It was huge and very black. There were poles on one side. If she didn’t know better, she would think they went against the body—maybe to distribute the weight more evenly. A horrifying thought.

  But the LL@R logo was facing her, so it was unlikely that part went against your back. Besides, if it didn’t face out, how would you open it? Still, she wasn’t sure she was excited about wearing something so heavy that it needed weight-distribution engineering built into its design.

  “He skis,” Kenny added, sounding impressed. “He knows Kipling Gilmore.”

  Taryn had learned long ago that it was easier to fit in with her business partners than to fight the inevitable. Besides, there were three of them and only one of her. So she’d learned the language of sports. She could intelligently discuss nearly every game played with a ball or even a puck. She understood which had innings, quarters and periods. Every year she sat with the boys during the NFL draft and listened to them tell what it had been like for them when they’d gone through it. Which meant she knew exactly who Kipling Gilmore was.

  Kipling Gilmore was an American skier who had dominated at the Olympics. He’d taken the gold in both the Super-G and the combined events.

  “I’m sure they’re brushing each other’s hair even as we speak,” she said.

  Kenny shook his head. “Why aren’t you impressed by sports celebrities?”

  “Because I have you and Sam and Jack already. What could be better?”

  “Good answer,” Jack told her, and patted the backpack again. “Cole’s excited about our meeting. The plan is for us to do an introductory presentation. Then we go camping for the weekend, followed by a more detailed discussion of what we could do for him.”

  Taryn nodded. This wasn’t the first time a client had made that sort of a request. Many of them wanted to be sure the PR firm understood the product. They’d had a great time in Cabo with a client who made tequila. She had a feeling that for her, camping equipment and sports gear wouldn’t be as fun. Not that she would get that intimately involved.

  She was about to tell them to have a good time when she noticed how Kenny and Jack were looking at everything but each other. And her.

  “What?” she demanded. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Kenny nudged Jack. “You do it.”

  “You said you would.”

  “You were married to her.”

  Jack sighed. “Chicken.”

  “I’m good with that,” Kenny admitted, then smiled at her. “Jack has something to tell you.”

  Taryn didn’t like the tone of this conversation. “I’ve guessed that.” She looked at Jack and raised her eyebrows. “Yes?”

  “Cole wants us to take a weekend trip with him.”

  She nodded.

  “All of us.”

  “Sure. You, Kenny and Sam.” She paused as his gaze stayed locked on her face, then stood up and stepped behind her chair. Not to mention away from the backpack. “No.”

  “Taryn, you’re a partner in the firm. He said all the partners. It’s only for a couple of days.”

  “It’s camping. Outdoors. On purpose. It’s one thing if you crash your car and end up in a ravine. That could happen to anyone. Then sleeping outside until you’re rescued is no big deal. Because you can’t help it. But this is on purpose. In dirt.”

  “We’d go to a campsite,” Kenny added quickly. “With bathrooms.”

  Jack elbowed him. Kenny winced. “Okay, not the running-water kind.”

  “That’s disgusting. You can pee standing up. That’s not an option for me.”

  She didn’t do the outdoors. Didn’t like it. When she needed to commune with nature, she dined alfresco. Or bought a plant. Her most athletic project to date was planning how her walled-in garden was going to look. So far it was all on paper. She had yet to touch actual soil.

  “Have you seen my shoes? Do I look like a camper to you?”

  Jack walked around her desk and approached her. He put his large hands on her shoulders and stared into her eyes. “Taryn, this is a big account. Not so much in size but in opportunity. We’ve worked the distribution side of things, but we’ve never made it in the retail world. This is our way in. It’s one weekend of camping. We’ll all be there with you. This is important to all of us.”

  She looked at him and knew he was right. About all of it. She sighed. “I’ll do it.”

  “Really?” Kenny sounded surprised. “That’s great. We can help you prepare, if you want.”

  “No, thanks. I’ll take care of that end of things.”

  No way she wanted the guys watching her struggle to learn whatever it was she needed to know to camp. It was hard enough keeping them all in line without giving them that much ammunition. Besides, she thought, remembering a pair of broad shoulders and cool gray eyes, she had resources.

  “You won’t regret this,” Jack told her with a grin. “It’s going to be great. We’ll get the account and then there’s no stopping us.”

  He and Kenny headed out of her office. When he was in the doorway, Jack turned back and pointed to the pack. “You can keep that,” he said graciously. “It’s got everything you’re going to need for our weekend.”

  “Great.”

  She waited until they left before moving toward her desk. She poked the backpack, then went to pick it up. It didn’t budge.

  She tried again, this time using two hands, and was barely able to lift it off
the desk.

  “Very funny,” she muttered, unfastening the clasp. No doubt Kenny and Jack had put rocks or bricks inside, just to mess with her.

  But when she flipped open the top, all she saw was stuff that looked a lot like camping gear. Not that she’d experienced it in person, but she’d seen pictures.

  She tried to lift the pack a third time and not only broke a nail but felt a sharp pain in her shoulders.

  “This,” she murmured to the empty room, “is going to be a problem.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  HENRI’S WAS A five-star restaurant tucked into the grandeur that was the Gold Rush Ski Lodge and Resort. A name that made Taryn wince. Whatever had the owners been thinking? The name was so long that it would always look awkward on signage, and she would guess their business cards were a cluttered mess. When it came to names, less was more. Still, not her rock to carry, she told herself as she stepped out of her car and handed the keys to the valet. Her rock was an oversize backpack still sitting on her desk.

  She started toward the building, but before taking a step, she paused. A slight shiver tiptoed up her spine. It wasn’t a familiar sensation, but it got her attention. If she didn’t know better, she would swear that she was being stalked. Or at the very least, watched. She turned and saw a black SUV had pulled in behind her car.

  The windows were tinted, so she couldn’t see the driver. Had it been any other vehicle, she would have assumed it was Angel. As much as she would never admit it, he seemed to be the only man who had ever had the power to make her quiver with just a look. Only she’d seen what he drove, and the large, loud, aggressive Harley he favored had nothing in common with the Chevy Traverse in front of her.

  She was about to head into the hotel when she hesitated a fraction of a second. Then she saw the driver and blinked in surprise. It was Angel. Once again dressed in black and looking very man-about-town.

  She waited until he joined her, then glanced back at the SUV being driven away.