by Sara Daniel
Keeping his gaze glued to the road, Alex gritted his teeth as gravel dust and rocks slapped the paint job of the car that, up until a few months ago, he’d only been able to fantasize about buying. But the investment in his buddy Luke’s identity theft app had paid off so big, paying cash for his sweet ride hadn’t dented his bank account.
But, all the money in the world couldn’t help him avoid the upcoming weekend. He steered into the driveway, lifting his gaze just enough to take in the parking situation, but not enough to check out the sad state of the house or the barn. Adding his car to the row designated for the rehearsal guests, he inhaled and exhaled several times before exiting.
An excellent landscaping service, giant white tent, and flowered archway had transformed the normally overgrown grass lot into a manicured lawn ready to host a classy, outdoor wedding. By focusing on the nuptials, he’d ignore the real setting and maybe come through the weekend unscathed.
“Alejandro, you arrived.” Luciana waved and beamed at him, her smile too relieved for him not to feel guilty for giving her reason to worry he might not show.
He joined his sister in the open-sided tent, hugging her. Family members and friends milled around, doing a fabulous job of pretending they preferred the manure-scented air over the ocean breeze of a tropical island.
“You look gorgeous.” Not carrying the weight of a two-hundred-acre dairy farm on her shoulders had done wonders for her. Beyond radiating happiness, she managed to project an image of utter relaxation, on the eve of the biggest day of her life, no less.
“I can’t tell you how excited I am to have my two favorite men in the same room together.” Her smile carried an extra-special sparkle as she faced her fiancé, Blake Remington.
Alex offered his hand to the other man. “I’m in your debt.” Literally.
Blake had solved the family’s insurmountable money troubles when Alex hadn’t had a cent to contribute and then Blake had refused his every effort to repay him from his newly-flush bank account.
“There is no debt,” Blake assured him, his handshake solid and sincere. “If anything, I’m in yours.”
Because he’d set his sister up on a one-night stand that had led the two of them to reunite after fifteen years apart—an act of selfish desperation so Alex wouldn’t be forced to return to farm work.
“If you wanted to repay me, you could have found a nicer location for this event.”
“Dr. Gundersen was very generous in allowing us to take over the yard,” Luciana said.
“She probably needed the money. Or maybe she hoped we’d all take over the milking for a couple days.” Alex would pity the woman, except the gorgeous agricultural professor had bought the place despite a host of more palatable options.
“I’d hoped no responsibility and a boatload of money would make you less cynical,” Luciana chided.
He wasn’t a cynic—except when it came to the farm.
“How long do you intend to ignore your mother, Alejandro?” a woman in a folding chair nearby demanded in rapid-fire Spanish.
He embraced her. “Sorry. I didn’t see you. I would never ignore you, Mamá.”
“Did you bring a girl with you?”
To the farm? Not a chance. “I haven’t been out of the Marines long enough to find a place to call home, let alone meet someone.”
“No, no. You meet someone first. Then you make your home together,” Mamá said. “Another wedding in a couple of months would be perfect.”
He didn’t want to be tied to anything he couldn’t fit in his car, let alone a woman who would expect something from him. For the first time in his life, he was free, and he intended to savor it—for years, possibly decades. He needed to find someone to hang out with who wouldn’t aid his mother’s quest to marry him off.
Dr. Susan Gundersen approached the tent. Well, well. Talk about perfect timing. Not even his mother would consider tying him to the person who’d taken over their old home. And dang, the woman was even more gorgeous than he remembered. Maybe the weekend wouldn’t be so awful, after all.
“Excuse me, Mamá. Our hostess needs some assistance.” He patted her hand and escaped.
Being a red-blooded male, he checked the professor out as he sauntered toward her. She had the bluest eyes he’d ever seen, dark-red hair, and the svelte, poised figure of a model. Alex had always had an irrational weakness for blue eyes.
Luckily, hair color and body type didn’t hold any special power over him, but he still recognized a hot woman when he saw one. If all college professors looked like her, he ought to continue his schooling. “You might not remember me, but I’m—”
“Alejandro,” she finished. “I remember.”
“Alex,” he corrected. Sure, he could speak Spanish and loved his mother’s to-die-for enchiladas, but he also lived and breathed baseball and had given Uncle Sam over a decade of his life. His mother and sister hung on to their Hispanic heritage, but he was 100 percent American.
“How’s your gallbladder, Professor?”
The one time they’d come face-to-face, she’d been sharing a sterile room with his mother and had the misfortune of wearing a tacky hospital gown. That chance encounter, combined with her career in agricultural studies specializing in organic dairy farming, had convinced his mother to sell her the farm.
“No idea. I haven’t had any contact with it in a year.” Her lips quirked.
“It never calls? You two used to be so close.”
As her smile widened, his own faded. He needed to shut up. Despite the thrill of flirting with a woman who had more letters behind her name than he’d ever had in his, her excitement about fields of cow pies and dilapidated buildings meant she could only be a distraction from his mother’s matchmaking, not a woman he could consider hooking up with.
He didn’t want to witness the farm stripping her of her sparkle. He’d put his life on the line—and watched his fellow Marines die—to ensure people in this country had better options than just trying to survive. But she’d used her freedom to choose the hard, soul-sucking life.
“So, are you joining the rehearsal as an honorary member of our family?” he asked.
Her smile disappeared, the corners of her sexy mouth tightening. “I’m not trying to crash your party. I came out here because, in addition to all the stuff you never cleaned out of your room, I found some of your family’s things in my attic. I hoped you or someone else would have a few minutes to sort through the items and tell me what you want saved and what I can toss.”
He didn’t have to worry about creeping into flirtation mode anymore. “You’ll have to ask Luciana. If you leave it up to me, I’ll pitch everything without glancing at it.”
“You have a lot of childhood memories left that you’ll regret throwing out.”
As if she had any idea what kind of regrets he carried. “I keep my memories in here.” He tapped his forehead.
She opened her mouth, no doubt to convince him he needed all that stuff he’d tried so hard to leave behind. So he said the first thing he could think of to shut her up.
“Want to guess my favorite memory of you, Professor? The open-air view of your ass as you toddled around in a hospital gown.”
Table of Contents
Also by Sara Daniel
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
~A Note from Sara~
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