TAKE A CHANCE (Chance Colorado Series)

by Mayhue, Melissa

  With Susie settled out back, Allie went inside to fix them both glasses of tea. By the time she returned, both her mother and Grainger, curled up at Susie’s side, were sound asleep.

  Quietly, Allie went back inside. Her mother needed the rest more than she needed the tea.

  Since her grandparents had volunteered to take Matt to Denver to catch his flight, she’d taken the day off from the coffee shop to keep an eye on her mother. Susie had seemed to be doing much better for the last couple of weeks, which fit right in line with some of the things Allie had learned about chronic fatigue syndrome and stress. With Matt leaving, she wasn’t sure how her mother would respond and she wanted to make sure someone was around to keep an eye on things, just in case.

  While her mom napped, the next couple of hours were pretty much her own to do with as she pleased. She wasn’t exactly sure what to do with herself since these moments came along so rarely.

  Snagging a book off her keeper shelf, Allie strolled out to the front porch and climbed into the big wooden swing that hung from the eaves. This had always been one of her favorite spots to read.

  Birds chirped in the tree out front and a soft, warm breeze wafted over her, carrying the scent of flowers blooming in the beds beside the porch. In spite of seeing Matt off, this particular Sunday was shaping up to be a good one.

  She hadn’t read more than a couple of pages when the sound of a vehicle in the distance drew her attention. A pickup. Surely her grandparents hadn’t returned before getting Matt to Denver.

  She swung her legs to the ground and sat up, straining for a better look.

  Not her grandparents, but definitely a pickup she recognized.

  Logan pulled his truck to a stop in her drive and stepped out, heading up toward the porch where she sat.

  Her body did that excited little internal shudder thing it always did when she saw him coming her way. So ridiculous. He hadn’t even called her in the almost two weeks since they’d gone on their one official date, which should tell her something pretty important about what he thought of her.

  That or Ryan had reminded him of her high school indiscretion. Either way, she needed to get him out of her system. There was nothing worse than liking a guy who didn’t like you back, unless maybe it was a guy who told you he’d call and then didn’t.

  Now if she could just get her body on board with what her brain already knew when it came to the subject of Logan O’Connor.

  “You missed Matt,” she called out, rising to lean against the wooden post by the steps. “They left about half an hour ago.”

  Maybe she’d get lucky and he’d turn that beautiful jean-covered butt right back around and leave.

  “I didn’t come to see Matt. We said our good-byes on the phone yesterday.”

  What was that old song about bad luck being the only luck somebody had? That should be her theme song lately.

  “Okay, then. What can I do for you?”

  He stopped about four feet away from where she stood, a lazy grin lifting the corners of his mouth. Lord, but he had to know how good he looked when he did that.

  “Seems to me I owe you a makeup date.”

  After two weeks, what was this? Guilty conscience? Had Matt said something to him when they’d talked? The very idea made her stomach tighten in an uncomfortable little knot.

  “You don’t owe me anything. You’re not obligated.”

  “That’s not the way I remember it.” The grin grew larger. “Official date number one was rudely interrupted, so I promised a better date number two. I would have come by sooner but we had our first fire of the season over in Vaca Valley so I didn’t have much in the way of free time. I just got back home last night.”

  She’d heard someone in the coffee shop mention the fire and she’d seen the smoke hanging in the distance but, somehow, she’d just never connected it to Logan.

  “I didn’t realize you were gone.” How lame did that sound? “That you got called out to other places, I mean. To fight fires.”

  “Ouch.” He clasped a hand to his chest in mock pain. “Apparently, date number one not only didn’t make a good impression, it didn’t make much of an impression at all if you didn’t even realize I’d left town. All the more reason to give me a chance with date number two. I’m thinking a nice dinner. Anywhere you choose. What do you say?”

  While her brain and her body might be in constant disagreement when it came to Logan, one thing all her body parts agreed on was that you didn’t turn down an invitation from a man who looked as good as he did. Especially not when he had such a good excuse for ignoring her for the past two weeks.

  “I say yes. When?”

  “Friday night, if that works for you. Where do you want to go?”

  “Golddiggers?”

  Since it was the only nice restaurant in town, it was the only sensible choice. And yet, a frown crossed Logan’s face at the mention of the place.

  “You sure about that? It can get pretty rowdy there on Friday night. I was thinking you might like to try the restaurant up at the resort. I hear their new chef is outstanding.”

  “No.” Allie didn’t even need to think about that one. No way. Not the resort. Too many bad memories associated with a fancy night out at that place. “The twins told me that they have live music at Golddiggers on Friday nights. I think it would be fun, don’t you?”

  “Sure.” He shrugged one shoulder carelessly, but the impish grin he’d worn earlier had disappeared. “If that’s what you want, Golddiggers it is. I’ll pick you up at seven, if that’s good for you?”

  “Perfect. Friday at seven it is.”

  Allie felt as giddy as the proverbial schoolgirl as she watched Logan walk back to his truck and drive away, her thoughts already scattering to what she’d wear when she saw him next.

  Five whole days to wait until Friday. It felt like an eternity.

  * * *

  Only five days until Friday. Already Logan could feel the time whizzing away from him at lightning speed. The next five days couldn’t go by slowly enough to suit him.

  Allie’s choosing Golddiggers had caught him completely off guard. He hadn’t set foot in that place even one time in the last two years. Not since the owner had died and left it all to his young wife, Shayla Jenkins.

  Shayla Jenkins-Gold, he corrected himself. Her marriage to Harvey Gold had been the talk of Chance for a short time, surprising everybody.

  Everybody but Logan. After the deceitful things she’d done while they were engaged, nothing she did could surprise him. Not even marrying a man fifty-five years her senior.

  Old Harvey had named his restaurant and bar to honor the men who had founded Chance, miners who’d braved the Colorado wilderness to seek their fortune at the end of a pick and shovel. It was just blind, twisted coincidence that the name perfectly suited the new owner.

  After the lies and the cheating that had ended his engagement to Shayla, Logan had sworn to avoid two things for the rest of his life: serious relationships and any encounter with Shayla Jenkins.

  It hadn’t been easy while living in a town as small as Chance, but he’d managed to avoid her for the last five years, and when she took over Golddiggers after Harvey’s death, he’d avoided that hot spot too.

  All that hard-won avoidance was coming to an end in five short days. He had little hope of getting in and out on a Friday night without running into the queen of Golddiggers herself.

  He pulled into the fire station parking lot and turned off the ignition, staring into his own past a few minutes longer before getting out and going inside.

  Maybe it was just as well. Maybe it was time to let the past remain in the past.

  “What the hell are you doing back here today?” Tanner tossed the kettlebell he’d been working out with to the floor and snagged a towel off the bench to wipe his face. “I thought you said all you wanted to do was sleep until it was time for your shift to start tomorrow. What’s the matter, you miss me?”

  “Yeah, that�
�s it,” Logan agreed, grinning as he walked into the kitchen and pulled a bottle of juice from the fridge. “I missed you.”

  In truth, Logan wasn’t sure what he was doing there. Maybe he was just seeking out a good friend because he couldn’t stand the idea of going home to an empty house with all these dark memories freshly exhumed.

  He came back out to the area of the station garage they’d turned into their own personal gym and slouched down on the bench next to Tanner’s abandoned towel.

  His friend had moved on to the free weights.

  “I stopped by Allie’s place on the way home.” He kept his tone light, casual, a simple opening to the conversation he needed.

  “Oh yeah?” Tanner grunted with one last lift and let the weights drop to the ground. “You know, last time I checked, the Flynn place was the exact opposite direction from your way home. So what gives?”

  Busted. It was hard to ease your way into a conversation with someone as observant as Tanner. Or as outspoken.

  “I asked her out. For dinner on Friday night. Anywhere she wanted to go.”

  Tanner wiped his hands on the towel and crossed his arms in front of him. “And she said?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then I don’t understand what’s your—” A look passed over Tanner’s face as he balled up the towel and threw it against the wall. “Hell’s bells. Don’t even tell me. Let me guess. She picked Golddiggers, didn’t she?”

  Logan nodded, downing the last swallow of juice before tossing the bottle into the trash. “Bingo.”

  “So…” Tanner chuckled and drew out the word as if something else had just popped into his mind. “Does this mean that you’re going to start pulling your weight around here when it comes time for fire inspections? No more avoiding the biggest firetrap in town?”

  Logan hadn’t even considered that. He hadn’t allowed his thoughts to wander that far into the future. He chose to deflect rather than commit.

  “Golddiggers is only one of the biggest firetraps. Chance is full of them.”

  “You got to let it go, man. It was a long time ago. Water way under the bridge. You need to get on with your life.” Tanner watched him as if he expected some imminent breakdown.

  “Yeah, I know.” Logan stood and headed toward the door. Somehow, just saying it out loud to someone who knew the whole history made it feel a little better. “Too bad you’re working tonight, Tan. I could use someone to have a beer with me.”

  “The story of our lives, right?” Tanner grinned, already reaching for the next set of weights. “It’ll be good to get a third man in the rotation.”

  It would at that.

  Logan headed back out into the fresh air. This time when he left the station, he was going straight home. Straight home and straight to bed. After seven days battling that wildfire, he felt like he could sleep for a week.

  As Tanner had said, having Matt join them when he finished up his EMT training would be excellent. Just one more body to man the phones and hold down the fort would make all the difference in the world.

  Too bad the time between then and now wouldn’t go half as quickly as he expected the next five days to pass.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  If anything, her high heels had grown even more uncomfortable after sitting in the closet for the past month. Apparently her feet were completely out of practice when it came to fancy shoes.

  Allie turned this way and that in front of the long mirror, adjusting her dress and tucking the front together to hide her bra one more time.

  Where had she put that tape, anyway? Maybe she should just change into something else. She’d worn this outfit the day of the community center dedication so Logan had already seen it.

  But it was her best. She’d paid more for this than for any dress she’d ever bought just because it looked better on her than anything else she’d ever owned. And the day of the dedication, she’d worn a light sweater to cover up the skin-baring spaghetti straps and the plunge of the neckline.

  No, this was what she wanted to wear tonight.

  The tape must be in her underwear drawer. She was positive that was where she’d put it. It had to be there. Of course, she’d been positive about the last five places she’d looked, too.

  This time she was right.

  “Process of elimination,” she muttered. When you run out of places, it has to be in the last place you look.

  One strategic strip of tape and her wardrobe malfunction worries were over. Thank goodness she’d found it. The last thing she needed was to have the whole town see her half-naked.

  The faint notes of the doorbell sounded and she gave herself one last quick examination in the mirror. Not bad. Not bad at all.

  Logan waited by the front door, chatting with her mother. He stopped speaking mid-sentence when she walked into the room, a silly grin spreading over his face.

  That expression alone was worth the fuss she’d gone to over wearing this dress tonight.

  “You look great.”

  His words tickled down her spine and lodged somewhere near her heart. They must have, because her heart started beating a mile a minute.

  “Thanks. You clean up pretty good yourself.”

  Did he ever! Here she’d spent all this time thinking the world had invented jeans and black T-shirts especially for Logan, only to find that he looked equally good in a tie and sports coat.

  “We’d better get going. Our reservation is for seven fifteen.”

  “Great. I’m all ready.” Allie gave her mother a quick kiss on the cheek. “Dulcie is bringing your dinner over any minute now and she’ll stay here until I get home. You need anything else before I go?”

  “I’m fine. You kiddos go ahead and take off. Enjoy your evening.” Susie settled into her chair in front of the television. “You two behave yourselves, you hear?” she added over her shoulder.

  Allie walked toward Logan’s truck, her face on fire from her mother’s caution. After all these years of living on her own, she hadn’t expected her mother to treat her as if she were a teenager again. More than that, she hadn’t expected to feel like one.

  “Your mom’s sweet,” Logan said, stepping in front of her to open the passenger-side door. “Worrying about you, and all.”

  So much for any hope that he might have missed her mother’s admonition.

  “Sorry about that. I guess it’s hard for her to think of me in terms of being an adult now.”

  “No apology necessary. She’s your mom. They’re all like that. You’ll always be her little girl, even when you’re fifty. That’s one of the awesome things about moms. They never give up on you.”

  He grinned again, just before placing one hand on her back and another on her arm to assist her into the pickup.

  Her skin tingled where he touched her and her brain sizzled with his nearness, setting her heart pounding all over again. This close, the light scent of his aftershave wafted over her and she knew, without a doubt, had he not been supporting her, she would have stumbled.

  It was the shoes. At least, that was what she chose to blame it on.

  She had a moment to collect herself while he made his way around to the driver’s door and joined her inside the cab of the truck.

  “Seat belt,” he reminded as he turned the key in the ignition.

  Good Lord. She was so frazzled she hadn’t even thought about her seat belt. Maybe her mother wasn’t so far off base in treating her like an inexperienced teen.

  The drive to the restaurant passed in silence, leaving Allie only a short time to wonder whether Logan might be struggling as she was to find something to say.

  The parking lot at Golddiggers appeared to be only about three-quarters filled, but Logan passed it by and turned at the corner heading down Miner Road. A few blocks down, he pulled the pickup to a stop in front of the abandoned assay building and stared out the window as the vehicle idled.

  “Why are we parking here?”

  A walk of this distance wouldn’t be her fir
st choice. Nor her second. Not in these shoes.

  Another full minute passed before he unfastened his seat belt and turned toward her. “There’s been something weighing on my mind ever since that day out at the ranch. I don’t think I can sit through dinner with you until I’ve dealt with it.”

  This was it. Ryan had reminded him of how devious she’d been in dating him to get to his brother. It was so far in the past, it shouldn’t matter anymore, but it did. It must. And if there was any chance for them even as friends, she needed to face her past.

  “Then you’d best get that weight off your mind now.”

  “I hoped you’d say something like that.”

  She steeled herself for whatever he might say next, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he lifted the console blocking the seat between them and slid toward her. Without a word, he slipped a hand under her hair and his warm fingers caressed her neck. Gently, he guided her forward until his lips met hers.

  The unexpected kiss was exquisite. His touch was warm and caressing, and when his tongue traced the contour of her lower lip, it stole her breath and curled her toes. Only the seat belt snapping tight across her chest kept her from launching herself at him and defying her mother’s final warning.

  She opened her eyes when he lifted his lips from hers, not remembering when she’d closed them.

  “Good,” he said, a satisfied grin settling on his face as he slid back over behind the steering wheel. “I can enjoy my evening now that I have that out of the way. You can’t imagine how often I’ve thought of doing that for the last two weeks.”

  Oh, yes, she could imagine. Two weeks? She could tell him a thing or two. Try fantasizing that move for half your life.

  She still hadn’t quite recovered when they pulled into the parking lot and he opened her door for her. She fumbled with her seat belt for a moment, stopping when he reached in to help her.

  She climbed down from the truck, his hands around her waist, his body blocking her from moving anywhere except closer to him.