And Evan wanted to throw her over his shoulder and carry her across the park, in front of everyone, and straight up the road to his house.
“Well, that sounds wonderful,” Diane told her.
“It’s a date then.”
“And that better be the only date you’re going on.”
They turned to find John McCormick standing behind them.
Evan sighed. “Grandfather.”
“Evan.” He looked at Cori. “Corrine, I presume.”
She gave him a single nod. “You can call me Cori.”
John looked at Ava. “And you’re my grandson’s latest ex?”
Ava gave him a cool look. “Your grandson’s very good friend.”
“Ah.” John looked back at Evan. “I see you’ve screwed this up too.”
Evan ran his hand up and down Cori’s back and shook his head. “Actually, I think I’ve gotten this more right than anything I’ve ever done.”
Again, he felt Cori’s arm tighten around him and he heard her sniff. This time he did look down at her, much preferring her smile to his grandfather’s expression of displeasure.
“That was pretty great,” she told him softly.
“But there is the one, not so small detail of the trust,” John said before Evan could respond.
He looked back to his grandfather. “What do you mean?”
“You’ve broken one of the main stipulations,” John said. “Cori wasn’t supposed to date anyone, for six months.”
“We haven’t broken anything,” Evan said calmly.
“Then how do you explain how you are together?”
Evan shrugged. “Rudy didn’t want Cori to date. Since he didn’t define what ‘dating’ entailed, I assume he meant he didn’t want Cori to have relationships with men like she’s had in the past.”
“And you are somehow different?” John asked.
“Cori?” Evan asked.
“Oh, there’s no question things with Evan and me are different,” she told John. “I typically hang out at dance clubs or party on yachts or do crazy stuff like rock climbing or scuba diving with the guys I date.”
“You party on yachts?” Evan asked.
“Shh,” she told him, giving him a little pinch. “I’m making a point.” She addressed John again. “And if I’d taken my shirt off in any other guy’s car, I definitely would have gotten lucky.”
John’s eyes widened and now it was Evan that pinched her. Right on her ass.
But Cori went on. “And if I was dating Evan, it would already be over. We’re past the two-month mark here. Guys never make it that long. And I’ve baked for him. I’ve never baked for any other guy.”
Evan liked that. A lot.
“And I’ve never told any other guy about my childhood. Or anything else important,” Cori said, her tone softening a little. “I’ve never paid enough attention to anyone else to know that he prefers half and half to milk in his coffee. And I’ve definitely never met anyone else’s mother…or grandfather.”
Evan grinned, the warmth in his chest—and the need to throw her over his shoulder—growing stronger.
“What I’m doing with Evan is definitely not dating. It’s making a commitment.” Cori looked up at him. “And I can assure you, that’s absolutely something different.”
Evan kissed her quick and hard on the mouth, then focused on his grandfather again. “And I can promise we haven’t done any of the things I typically do when I date someone either. Cori and I haven’t been to a single movie, barbecue, or street dance. And I promise we won’t be doing any of that for at least another three months or so.”
John stood, studying them both, for several long seconds. Then he gave a nod. “A loophole.”
“A loophole,” Evan confirmed.
“Fine,” John agreed. “But, Evan,” he added, looking at Cori again. “You need to take this girl miniature golfing as soon as you can.”
Evan couldn’t believe it. His grandfather had not only agreed with him about the stipulations in Rudy’s trust, but he was giving his blessing to the miniature golf course. Evan swallowed hard and extended his hand. “I’ll do that.”
John took his hand and gave it a long squeeze. Then he said to his daughter, “Can I buy you a pie, Diane?”
She smiled brightly. “I’d love that.”
They moved toward the pie stand and Cori turned to face Evan, her eyes wide and her face lit up. “Wow. That was awesome. This day is perfect, Evan.”
“Actually—”
“Look out!”
Noah’s shouted warning came just as a large ball of fluff came tearing toward them. Barking.
“Now it’s perfect,” he said with a grin.
Cori froze in his arms. “Is that—”
The puppy was coming straight at them but as Evan leaned to grab him, he veered off, heading for the mud pit. “Stop him!” Evan shouted with a laugh.
Cori gave him a huge, stunned smile. “You got me an actual St. Bernard?” she asked, wonder in her voice.
Evan started to pull her close again, but Noah shouted, “Evan!” as the puppy plunged into the mud.
“It’s only fair after all of the amazing figurative St. Bernard’s you’ve given me,” Evan said.
“I hope you know what you’ve done.” But her face was full of joy.
“I told you,” he said, squeezing her hand. “I can handle chaos and messes.”
He looked over as Noah lunged for the dog—and missed. The puppy ran happily through the mud until Cori put her fingers to her lips and gave a sharp whistle. The dog, and all of the humans in the vicinity, paused. She knelt on the grass and the puppy yelped once, then made a beeline for her. The dog jumped up on her, covering her clothes with muddy paw prints and her face with wet, sloppy kisses.
“That might be the hottest you’ve ever looked,” he told her taking in the muddy paw prints on her shirt, the streaks of dirt on her legs and the huge, happy grin on her face.
“What’s his name?” she asked as the dog wiggled free and suddenly headed toward Ava.
Ava shrieked and stepped behind Parker just before he scooped up the wriggling ball of fur.
“I think Rudy.”
Cori looked up at him. She stretched to standing. “Really? A messy troublemaker? Does that fit?”
Evan brushed her hair back and looked into her eyes. “A big ball of happiness that makes everyone around him smile.”
Her eyes suddenly got misty. “I like that idea of him.”
“It was him. I promise.”
She sniffed and then wrapped her arms around his neck, getting mud all over him too. “I love you, Evan Stone.”
He settled his hands on her butt and squeezed. “I love you too. Which is why I got you a puppy. He’ll make it harder to leave in nine months.”
“Well, no worries,” she said, smiling though her voice was thick. “I only leave after we hit the high point, remember? And I have a feeling there’s always going to be more of those to come with you.”
Relief, love, gratitude—and yes, lust—washed though him. “Well, I might have learned a little bit from Ava about plans and schedules and deadlines, but—” He dipped his head and put his lips against hers, “—high points are my specialty.”
Then he kissed her as her St. Bernard, Rudy, went barreling toward the table full of whipped cream pies.
High Heels and Haystacks
Don’t miss Ava and Parker’s story, High Heels and Haystacks!
Find out more now!
Only three things stand between Ava Carmichael and her twelve billion dollar inheritance:
1. A year of living in Bliss, Kansas.
2. A relationship that lasts six consecutive months.
3. A pie.
Ava has run a multi-billion-dollar company, negotiated with shark investors, and hobnobbed with business royalty, but she’s about to be defeated by her inability to turn sugar, flour, and apple pie filling into something edible.
Conveniently, the owner of the diner ne
xt door, Parker Blake, is magic in the kitchen. And he technically works for her. So she can make him teach her to bake. And, hey, if everyone assumes they’re heating up more than the oven during their time in the kitchen…well, that’s called multitasking.
Parker Blake likes his women the way he likes his coffee: not in his diner. But gorgeous, strong-willed, type-A Ava clearly isn’t going to stop messing up his kitchen—or his simple, stress-free small town life—until the conditions of her daddy’s will are met. So, sure, he’ll teach his “boss” to bake.
But once the kitchen door closes, it’s pretty clear who’s really in charge.
Enjoy this excerpt from High Heels and Haystacks!
The next day, the diner was packed. Every single chair, booth, and stool was filled. There were even a couple of guys standing off to one side, leaning against the wall, eating their burgers.
And every one of the people in those seats turned to look at Ava as she stepped through the front door.
Parker almost dropped the plate he was holding.
Holy hell.
He supposed that she thought she was dressed for fruit picking. Her hair, normally stick straight and sleek, was now pulled back into a pony tail. That alone was strangely sexy. Seeing her in a new way. A less polished way, he supposed. She also had sunglasses propped on top of her head. The bright red rims matched the t-shirt she wore. He’d also never seen her in a t-shirt. She’d worn a hoodie for the game night she and her sisters had hosted at their house about a month ago. That, too, had been surprisingly sexy. Seeing her let go a little. But this… well, this t-shirt was her sister, Cori’s. It had to be. It was bright red, nice and fitted to her curves, and read In my defense, I was left unsupervised.
That didn’t fit Ava at all. But the shirt…it fit a little too well.
And then there were the jeans. He had never seen her in blue jeans. He’d wanted to. In his mind, that was going to be a sign that she was trying to fit in to small town life and that she was going to figure out how to dress for function and comfort rather than the I’ll-take-over-your-company-make-a-million-dollars-by-lunch-and-look-hot-as-hell-while-doing-it look she usually had going.
But the jeans hugging Ava’s hips, ass, and long legs were making his jeans fit a lot less comfortably, and the only functions he could come up with her were inappropriate, probably sexist, and involved smudging the lipstick that matched her sunglasses and t-shirt perfectly.
And her heels.
His eyes finally made it past the slim-fitting denim to her feet. And these shoes, if nothing else, reminded him of exactly who Ava Carmichael was. The three-inch red heels weren’t practical for fruit picking in the least. They weren’t practical for much of anything around Bliss, as a matter of fact.
But he didn’t want her to take them off.
Damn, he’d never been a shoe guy before. He was fairly certain he’d never noticed what his dates wore on their feet. But with Ava Carmichael, her heels were as much a part of her as the long blonde hair and the I’m-out-of-your-league attitude.
The silence in the diner stretched, all eyes on her, until she smiled and focused on him.
“It’s twelve fifty-five.”
That’s all she said, looking straight at Parker, but several people turned back to their plates and started eating faster.
“Boss is here,” Mark Johnson commented to Parker.
“She the boss of you everywhere?” Don Arnold asked under the diner noise so that only Parker, Mark, and Brian Watson heard.
“I’d let her tell me what to do,” Brian agreed.
“Shut the fuck up,” Parker told them. But it didn’t have a lot of force behind it. He’d expected to get crap about Ava being his boss at the pie shop. And lots of waggled eyebrows and innuendo about the time they spent together.
He didn’t care that everyone was enjoying the idea of Ava as his boss. Even outside of the diner. He didn’t get too worried about what people thought of him in general. The people here knew him. He’d been the same guy for the past fifteen years and he had no plans to change.
So there was no way anyone here actually thought that he was going to get all worked up about Ava. No way they really thought that he was going to suddenly change all of his habits or shirk his responsibilities even for a chance to peel those blue jeans off of her. So what if he was closing for a couple of hours this afternoon. That was supposed to be how this worked every day. Working six a.m. to six p.m. every single day in a little town where everything else was open eight to five left little time for chores at his farm, changing the oil in his truck, errands like picking up a new phone charger, or even stopping at the post office.
And frankly, no one needed a burger at three in the afternoon. He supposed some might say that was just his opinion, but truthfully, it was right. He didn’t like the whole breakfast-for-dinner idea either, where people had pancakes and eggs for dinner. Don’t even get him started on brunch. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner were three distinct meals that each had their own special tastes and style. In his diner, breakfast ended at nine o’clock, lunch ended at one, and dinner ended at six and that was perfectly reasonable. And had been the schedule for twelve years now. Ever since Parker had taken over.
However, he did care that their teasing words about how Ava bossed him around did nothing to get his mind away from the idea of her telling him exactly what she liked—how hard, how fast, and how long.
“I’m suddenly in the mood for fruit pie,” Mark added.
Parker gave him a stern look. “Knock it off.”
It was only because he didn’t need his mind wandering to the idea of Ava with pie filling spread all over her…
Fuck.
Parker worked on not reacting. And not moving out from behind the counter that was blocking the erection that was suddenly pressing insistently against his fly.
But he was torn between laughing and rolling his eyes as she crossed the diner, the red purse swinging from her arm, her heels clicking on his tile like some kind of fucking countdown clock ticking away. He simply reached behind the counter and started handing out to go boxes. Which people filled immediately.
This damned town. He’d been trying to get people out of the diner at one p.m. every day for the past twelve years. But the door rarely closed behind the last customer until at least a quarter after. And all Ava had to do was strut in here in her kick-ass red heels and mention the time.
Of course, no one was shoveling their fries in because they were scared of her. It was because they all wanted Parker to get lucky. It should probably be disturbing to think that the entire town was this interested in him getting laid. But he was used to these people being in his business—his actual business and his personal business—and this was exactly where he wanted their minds to be right now.
He didn’t respond to Ava as she leaned a hip against the counter next to the cash register, watching as people reached for their wallets. As if she was overseeing her subjects.
Amazingly, the door bumped shut behind the last customer at 1:03 p.m.
Ava hadn’t even blinked as people told her to have a good time and that they were happy she was getting Parker out of the diner for a while and to enjoy the fruit picking. If she’d noticed the way they said “fruit picking”, she didn’t show it. She’d smiled, nodded, and said goodbye sweetly to everyone who had spoken to her.
After they were gone, she crossed back to the door, turned the lock and flipped the CLOSED sign around as if it was her diner, her door and her sign.
Find out more now!
About the Author
Erin Nicholas is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over thirty sexy contemporary romances. Her stories have been described as toe-curling, enchanting, steamy and fun. She loves to write about reluctant heroes, imperfect heroines and happily ever afters. She lives in the Midwest with her husband who only wants to read the sex scenes in her books, her kids who will never read the sex scenes in her books, and family and friends
who say they’re shocked by the sex scenes in her books (yeah, right!).
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More from Erin
More sexy, contemporary romance…
Now Available at all book retailers
Sapphire Falls
Welcome to Sapphire Falls
Getting Out of Hand
Getting Worked Up
Getting Dirty
Naughty and Nice in Sapphire Falls
Getting In the Spirit, Christmas novella
Getting In the Mood, Valentine’s Day novella
Getting to the Church On Time, wedding novella
Ferris Wheels & Fireflies in Sapphire Falls
Getting It All
Getting Lucky
Getting Over It
Getting to Her (companion novella)
Getting His Way
Ever After in Sapphire Falls
After All
After You
After Tonight (coming spring 2018)
Lots more from Sapphire Falls at
www.SapphireFalls.net
The Bradfords
Just Right (book 1)
Just Like That (book 2)
Just My Type (book 3)
Just for Fun (book 4)
Just a Kiss (book 5)
Just What I Need: The Epilogue (novella, book 6)
Counting On Love
Just Count on Me (prequel)
She’s the One
Diamonds and Dirt Roads Page 28