by Lori Wilde
At this point, Emma would do just about anything to get a job. She didn’t have time to waste going back to Austin and seeing if she could scrounge up something at the university. “Sure.”
He tossed her the ball, and she sunk it.
“You’re good.” For a second, he studied her, and Emma’s pulse rate picked up. As much as she’d like to attribute the metabolic change to being nervous, she knew that was bunk. Her heart was racing because she was attracted to Nathan. Very attracted.
“Tell me about yourself,” Nathan said.
This was hardly the place she would have picked for an interview, but at this point, she was willing to be interviewed in the middle of Interstate 20 if it meant she could get a job.
“I’m working on my doctorate in English at the University of Texas,” she told him.
“That’s where you met Leigh.”
“Yes.” She glanced toward the house, then added, “And up until a few minutes ago, we were great friends.”
Nathan laughed again, and Emma had to admit, that was a sound she could get used to without any trouble. “It’s not that bad. Things will work out. My brothers and I are used to doing damage control when necessary to pull Leigh out of the fire.”
“That doesn’t upset you?”
Nathan snagged the ball again and easily made a shot. “Don’t get me wrong. I don’t approve of Leigh’s methods. But she’s just that way. Always has been. It’s part of her personality...part of her charm.”
“Being devious and conniving?”
His grin was devilish. “Yes. You’ll get used to it.”
Emma sincerely doubted that. “Does that devious streak run in your family?”
Nathan’s smile was oh-so enticing. “Me? I’m completely harmless.”
Yeah, right, and she could wrestle crocodiles.
**
This time, Leigh had really taken the cake. Nathan glanced at the house and wondered not for the first time how pure mischief could flow through his sister’s veins. Even for her, this was a bit much. Not only was she yanking him around, but she was also embroiling one of her friends in whatever this latest scheme was. A friend who was obviously upset.
He’d bet his new car that Leigh’s motives were far from pure. If he had to guess, he’d bet his sister was up to something.
Leigh was always up to something.
And it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what. The data was pretty clear. Leigh had arranged for Emma Montgomery to not only spend the summer working at Barrett Software, but she’d also managed to have Emma living at his house. Emma, who just so happened to be smart and gorgeous--two traits he greatly admired in a woman, which Leigh knew. Could his sister be trying to fix him up? He knew she was tired of him interfering in her life. But tired enough that she’d go this far?
The concept was almost too diabolical to entertain. That would mean Leigh was willing to use her friend Emma as bait. Could Leigh actually be that sneaky?
He sighed. Of course she could. He knew for a fact that she’d meddled in their brother Chase’s life, fixing him up with the town librarian. Sure, Chase and Megan made a great couple, but he didn’t want to be fixed up, especially not by Leigh.
He glanced back at Emma. Did she realize she was a victim? Did she know her friend was setting her up? He wasn’t picking up any flirtatious vibes from her, so he was fairly certain she truly was here simply for a job.
But when she smiled at him, Nathan felt his heart rate rev. She really was gorgeous.
“Think we should stretch this out a little longer and make Leigh squirm some more?’’ he asked.
Emma nodded. “Absolutely. Squirming is good for her.”
Nathan couldn’t help pointing out, “I see a little deviousness runs in your family, too.”
“Apparently.”
He looked at his house. Leigh stood at the kitchen window, watching them.
She was guilty all right.
He turned his attention back to Emma. She had wavy auburn hair that hung to her shoulders. Auburn hair was his personal favorite. Or rather, it had become his favorite in the past few minutes. Emma also had his favorite color eyes—hazel. Again, his propensity for hazel eyes was a recent discovery, but still, he really liked that shade. A lot
Eyes like Emma Montgomery’s seemed to change color every few minutes. At the moment, they were a steely gray—sharp, intense, not missing a thing.
The back door to the house flew open and banged against the outside wall.
“I can’t take it anymore, Nathan,” Leigh hollered from the open door to the kitchen. “I swear if you send Emma home, you’ll no longer be my favorite brother.”
Nathan grinned and winked at Emma. “Is that a promise?”
“Ha, ha. Now stop tormenting us and help un-pack Emma’s car. You two have to go to work tomorrow. You can’t stand around here all day yammering on the basketball court.” Without waiting for his response, Leigh headed over to the small yellow compact car parked in his driveway.
“Guess she told us,” Nathan said, waiting for Emma to precede him to her car.
“You know, we don’t have to do what she says,” Emma pointed out. “I mean, you don’t have to give me a job...if you really don’t want to.”
Nathan knew that. Just because Leigh might have concocted some sort of scheme didn’t mean he was going to fall for it. Oh sure, he’d let Emma work at Barrett Software. He’d even let her live in the apartment once they got it straightened up. But that was all. He wasn’t going to fall for Emma Montgomery, no matter how hard his sister tried.
“It’s no problem, Emma,” he assured her. “We’ll work something out.”
Feeling more in control of the situation, he headed toward the car to help. “Hey, Leigh, hold up. The garage apartment is full of junk. Emma will have to stay in the house for a couple of nights.”
Emma had been walking along next to him, but now she stopped.
“I’m turning into a real inconvenience,” she said. “I feel terrible about this.”
They were close enough for Leigh to hear them, and his sister answered before he had the chance.
“Emma, stop being so polite to Nathan. It will make him think even higher of himself than he does already, and none of us wants that. The whole town adores him. Everyone goes gaga over him, so don’t puff up his ego anymore or he’s apt to float away.”
Nathan nudged his sister. “Hey, remember kiddo, I’m helping you out. Don’t bite the hand that’s saving your tush.”
She rolled her eyes at him, looking more like a six-year-old than a young woman about to graduate from college.
“You know I love you,” she said. ‘‘But you also have more than your fair share of self-confidence. You don’t need Emma telling you how great you are.” She fluttered her eyelashes. ‘‘You’ve got the ladies of Honey to do that”
Emma gave him an inquisitive look. “You do?”
Before Nathan could make even a token effort to rescue his reputation, Leigh jumped back in.
“All the ladies in town are besotted with my brother. They chase him relentlessly.”
“No, they don’t. Not exactly.” He ruffled his sister’s hair and grabbed a couple of suitcases out of the car.
Leigh turned to Emma. “Trust me. That’s exactly what they do. They. Chase. Him.”
Nathan shook his head and headed toward the kitchen. There was no sense wasting his breath fighting with Leigh. When she got going, there was nothing to do but hang on for the ride. He could hear the women talking as they followed behind him. His sister discussing him was never a good thing, so he decided to change the subject.
“Emma, you sure you don’t want to take the summer off?” Nathan asked. “You could laze around on a beach somewhere.”
“I really do need a job this summer. If you don’t think—”
“Nathan, you’re upsetting Emma,” Leigh said. “Stop being rude and assure her that you have a job.”
“I already t
old her I’d work something out.” He set down the suitcases and stared at his sister. “In case you’ve forgotten, up until ten minutes ago, I didn’t know you intended on bringing someone home with you. All you told me on the phone last night was that you’d caught a ride with a friend.”
If he’d expected Leigh to look contrite, he would have been disappointed. She glared at him.
“Get over that, Nathan. Jeez. It’s like ancient history. So I surprised you. Big woo. Now accept that Emma is here and give her a job.”
“Leigh, do you always push your brother around like this?” Emma asked.
Nathan pinned Leigh with a direct look. “Yes. She does.”
“Oh, you poor baby. I’m so mean to you.” Leigh leaned over and gave him another kiss on the cheek. “You adore me, and you know it. If it weren’t for me livening up your life, you’d fall into a big pile of computer code and never come out. Admit it— you’ve been bored while I’ve been at college, haven’t you?”
He pretended to consider her question. “Bored? Have I been bored? My life has been restful while you’ve been gone.”
“Your life will be restful when you’re dead, too, but that doesn’t make it a good thing.”
Nathan laughed. Truthfully, he was glad Leigh was home. Sure, she was a pain at times, but she also was a lot of fun.
“One of these days, I’m going to move and not give you the forwarding address,” he teased as he picked up the suitcases and headed inside the house.
“Won’t happen. Now figure out what you’re going to do to help Emma.”
As he led the way inside the house, he debated which of the two open jobs to offer Emma. One was in personnel, and Emma struck him as the type who would be good with people. The other job was as his assistant His current assistant was on maternity leave, and he was desperate.
“My assistant just had a baby, and I need someone to fill in for a few weeks. Barrett Software is working on an easily customized accounting package for small businesses that we’re going to demo in Dallas in six weeks at BizExpo, one of the biggest tech shows in the country. The time frame is kind of tight and the program still has some problems, but if we make it, we’ll get a lot of publicity. I really need help keeping everything moving. Sound like something you could do?”
“Of course, Emma can do it,” Leigh said with a huff. “She’s amazing. Unbelievable. Incredible.”
Emma sighed. “Leigh, so help me, if you say I can leap tall buildings in a single bound, I’m heading back to Austin.”
“Har-de-har-har,” Leigh said. “You two are just a couple of comedians. Here I’ve gone to all this trouble to help both of you, and you don’t even seem to appreciate what I’ve done.”
Nathan winked at Emma. “Do you believe this? She’s playing the martyr.”
“Doing it well, too,” Emma said.
Nathan smiled at her, liking the auburn-haired beauty more and more. He was still looking at Emma when Leigh snorted.
“Fine. Laugh all you want. But there’s going to come a day when both of you will thank me for this. Trust me.” With that, Leigh flounced up the stairs, carrying one of Emma’s suitcases with her.
Emma had come to stand next to him. She smelled like flowers—rich, luxurious flowers, probably due to her shampoo rather than any perfume. The scent was too unintentional to be perfume.
But something about that scent tantalized him more than any expensive perfume ever could.
“Was that a promise or a threat?” Emma asked.
“Sometimes with Leigh, it’s hard to tell the difference,” he admitted.
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Excerpt: Handsome Lawman
“Trent Barrett, I insist you arrest Erin Weber immediately. The woman is a thief and belongs in jail,” Delia Haverhill hollered, her arms crossed under her ample chest. “Arrest her right now.”
Trent scratched his jaw and considered the middle-aged woman in front of him. Delia wasn’t what you would call the sweetest person in Honey, Texas. Truth be told, she put the cur in curmudgeon.
But still, as chief of police of Honey, he couldn’t simply ignore Delia’s complaint. And the woman hadn’t, to his knowledge, ever had anyone arrested before. There very well could be some truth in what she was saying. A least a little.
“Why don’t you tell me what the problem is and who Erin Weber might be,” he said in a calm, soft voice, hoping Delia might follow suit and stop hollering at the top of her lungs. “Then we can figure out what’s the best course of action to take.”
Unfortunately, Delia didn’t lower her volume one bit. She leaned halfway across his desk and said, “I’ve already told you what action needs to be taken. Erin Weber needs to be arrested. Now get up from behind that desk and come with me. I’ll show you who this woman is and what she did. You won’t believe her nerve. I was nice enough to visit her store last Saturday with my grandson, and she rewards me by stealing my Pookie. And to make it worse, she’s displaying Pookie right outside her store. The woman belongs in jail, I tell you.” Trent thought he was up to date on all the street names for drugs, but he’d never heard of pookie. “What in the world is pookie?”
Delia wagged a finger at him. “Get out of your chair, and I’ll show you.”
Reluctantly, Trent stood. “I’ll be happy to get one of my officers to help you, Delia. But I have a meeting with the mayor in about an hour.”
Delia frowned. “Did I or did I not change your diapers when you were too young to know your feet from your hands?”
His secretary, Ann Seaver, had walked in midway through Delia’s comment. She raised one eyebrow and looked precariously close to giggling.
Trent shook his head and sighed. “Delia, I sure do hope you’re talking about when you used to babysit me decades ago. If you mean something else, then one of us is seriously warped.”
Delia was obviously not amused. She looked at Trent like he was something stuck on the bottom of her shoes. “Of course I’m talking about when I babysat you. And I would think that means you’ll be happy to help me now.”
She gave him a squinty-eyed look. “After all, I never let you cry yourself to sleep like some babysitters do. I rocked you to sleep and sang you pretty songs.”
Ann made a spurting sound behind the hand she had across her mouth. Trent was certain she wasn’t the only one who would be laughing today about what Delia had said. No doubt Ann would tell most of the officers, and by the end of the day, everyone would be quoting Delia Haverhill.
Dang it all.
“Come on, Delia. Show me what this pookie is.” He circled his desk and stood next to the older woman. “I think you’ve already shared enough babysitting stories for one day.”
Delia didn’t even crack a smile. She simply nodded and headed toward the door. When they drew even with Ann, his secretary was still laughing.
“What in the world are you laughing about, young lady?” Delia asked her. “Seems to me I changed more than a few of your diapers, too.”
Ann turned bright red, and Trent chuckled as he trailed after Delia. That was one major advantage of growing up in a small town. Sure, everyone knew embarrassing things about you. But hey, you knew embarrassing things about them as well.
“So, Delia, how long do you expect this to take?” he had to ask as they headed for the front door.
“It will take however long you need to read Erin Weber her Melissa rights.”
The bright sunshine hit him once they were outside, so Trent pulled his sunglasses out of his pocket and slipped them on. “Miranda.”
“What?”
“Not Melissa. Miranda.”
Delia waved one hand and started down the street. “Melissa. Miranda. What difference does it make? Just read her the rights and toss her in jail. Now come on.”
Reluctantly, Trent followed. He sure didn’t like being ordered around, but as the chief of police, he had to keep the people of Honey happy.
“Tell me, what is this pookie stuff
you think some woman stole from you?” he asked once they were headed down Main Street.
“First off, it isn’t pookie stuff. His name is Pookie. Pay attention, Trent.”
He thought he had been, but reading smoke signals would be easier than understanding Delia Haverhill. “Sorry if I misunderstood.”
“Second off, it isn’t just some woman who stole my Pookie. It’s Erin Weber, the woman who opened the pet shop over on Collier Street. Naturally, I suspected her as soon as Pookie disappeared.”
By now, he and Delia had turned off Main Street and were halfway down Collier. Delia pointed to the front door of a store.
“There’s Pookie. Big as life. On display for the whole town to see. Erin certainly has some nerve.”
Trent looked where she was pointing and bit back a grin. Pookie was a plastic statue of a rabbit, the kind you might put in your garden or flowerbed. The statue was old and well-worn and couldn’t be worth more than a couple of bucks.
But Delia was cooing and fussing over the blasted thing like it was real.
“Now go on inside and arrest her,” Delia said.
Trent slipped off his sunglasses and glanced around. As he could have predicted, he and Delia were starting to draw a crowd. Honey didn’t offer a lot of diversions, so anytime anything even moderately interesting happened, everyone rushed out to see what was going on. He better head on in and talk to this Erin Weber before he found himself knee-deep in nosy citizens.
“Arrest her, arrest her, arrest her,” Delia said loudly. Then she folded her arms under her ample chest once more and took on the expression of one who believes herself incapable of error.
Damn, what a way to start the day.
With about as much enthusiasm as a ten-year-old boy stuck at a Girl Scout meeting, Trent shoved open the door of Precious Pets and walked inside.
He’d only made it a few steps when a woman yelled, “Freeze!”
Trent froze as instructed and started to go for his gun when a petite, brown-haired dynamo rushed at him from the back of the store.