Harlequin Special Edition September 2014 - Bundle 1 of 2: Maverick for HireA Match Made by BabyOnce Upon a Bride

by Leanne Banks

  She climbed the steps into the rooming house and walked toward the den in the back. Melba was glued to the television.

  “Hi,” Cecelia said. “What are you watching?”

  “Reality show,” Melba said. “It’s the semifinals.”

  “Do you mind if I use the kitchen for baking tonight?” Cecelia asked.

  Melba shook her head. “Nope. What are you making?”

  “Apple cake with caramel frosting,” Cecelia said.

  “Sounds good. Can you make an extra one for breakfast?” Melba asked.

  “I’m experimenting,” Cecelia warned.

  “Your experiments have always turned out well,” Melba said.

  Cecelia smiled. “Thanks, marvelous Melba.”

  “You make my job easier. This way, I won’t have to make cinnamon rolls for breakfast in the morning.”

  “What about Beth?” Cecelia asked, speaking of the part-time cook Melba had recently hired. Beth Crowder was a middle-aged single mother working multiple jobs while her son finished his last year of high school. Cecelia didn’t know any specifics, but she thought Beth may have been the victim of spousal abuse. Beth often appeared tired with shadows under her eyes, but she also came across as one of the most determined people Cecelia had ever met.

  Melba shook her head. “Beth’s not coming in tomorrow, so your timing is perfect.”

  Cecelia smiled. “If you say so,” she said and turned to walk away.

  “I do and you contribute a lot to the community. Everyone loves you,” Melba said, tearing her gaze from the television. “Don’t you forget that.”

  Cecelia wasn’t sure her contributions made that much of a difference, but Melba made her feel a little better.

  “Thanks, Melba,” she said.

  “My pleasure,” Melba said. “Can’t wait to smell that apple cake.”

  Cecelia headed to the kitchen and pulled out the Granny Smith apples she’d bought earlier. She spent the next thirty minutes dicing apples, trying to chop out her frustration. Eight cups later, she was ready to start on the rest of the recipe. After she put the cakes in the oven, she sank onto a chair in the kitchen and sipped some tea. Baking usually calmed her nerves, but it hadn’t been working as well lately. She had grown to love Rust Creek Falls, but she wanted more. She wanted a family of her own, and she wasn’t finding it here. She wondered if she should get serious about going back to Thunder Canyon.

  Part of the problem with that thinking was that she’d run away from a disappointing love affair in Thunder Canyon. When was she going to stop running?

  Cecelia thought about the accountant she’d dated before he’d broken off with her for someone prettier and more sophisticated. She’d thought he’d taken her on private romantic dates because he had strong feelings for her, but in truth, he hadn’t wanted anyone to know he was dating Cecelia.

  The truth had been devastating. It still stung when she thought about it, and she tried her best not to remember.

  Between that terrible relationship and her lack of finding any real prospects here in Thunder Canyon, Cecelia was beginning to wonder if she would ever find love.

  * * *

  Halfway to the trailers set up on the edge of town, Nick saw Daphne with her head lolled back against the headrest. She was snoring like a freight train. It seemed like he was providing designated driver services to a woman who was clearly one of the Rust Creek Falls Gal Rush every other week or so. He appreciated what Lissa’s blog had done in providing volunteers and funds for Rust Creek Falls, but even Nick felt as though the resulting “Gal Rush” was overkill.

  Some of these girls were city through and through and they had no clue how rustic Rust Creek Falls really was, along with how harsh Montana winters could be. Pulling in front of the trailers, Nick had no idea which one was Daphne’s current residence.

  “Daphne,” he said, getting no response. “Daphne,” he said a bit louder, and nudged her arm. “I need to know which trailer is yours so I can help you inside.”

  Five minutes later, he was headed back to the rooming house. As soon as he arrived, he picked up a text message for Maverick for Hire and returned the call. Nick much preferred sticking to business when he was doing handyman services. No need to muddy the water.

  * * *

  Cecelia must have fallen asleep, because the timer awakened her. Lifting her head from the table, Cecelia shook off her drowsiness and checked the cakes. They looked perfect, so she pulled them from the oven and put them on a cooling rack. The scent of cinnamon, apples and vanilla flowed through the air, calming her senses.

  The back door opened and Nick strode into the kitchen. “Smells great. Can I have some?”

  She shot a withering look at him. “Haven’t you had enough sweets tonight?”

  He returned her look with a deadly expression. “You know I wouldn’t take advantage of a drunken woman,” he said. “I got her into her trailer and left. That was the plan.”

  “Hmm,” Cecelia said and frowned.

  “What?” he said. “A woman doesn’t have to be inebriated for me to get laid.”

  Cecelia winced. “That’s a nice way of putting it.”

  “Well, it’s true,” he said and looked at the cakes. “Aren’t they cool enough to eat yet?”

  “Not unless you want to burn your tongue,” she retorted.

  “I’m game,” he said. “I think you’re too conservative.”

  “Okay,” she said and cut a small bite then stuffed it into his open mouth.

  His eyes bulged and he took several shallow breaths. He closed his eyes and made a choking sound.

  Cecelia wondered if she should perform the Heimlich maneuver. “Need water?”

  “Yeah,” he managed.

  She filled a glass and offered it to him. “Here you go.”

  He gulped the water then swiped his mouth. “Thank goodness. Give me more of that cake. Best. Ever.”

  Cecelia couldn’t help laughing. “But you nearly choked and burned yourself.”

  “It didn’t kill me,” he said. “Give me more.”

  For one hot second, she wondered what it would be like for Nick to use those words give me more in a totally different situation. She felt her cheeks heat at the thought. “I need to let them cool. I want to put a caramel glaze on top,” she said and turned away.

  “Whew,” he said. “I didn’t think it could get better, but maybe...”

  Cecelia smiled. She wouldn’t admit it, but Nick’s obvious craving for her baked goods made her feel warm inside. “Melba is going to serve some of it for breakfast tomorrow.”

  “I’ll make sure to get up early. This won’t last long. You’re a doggone good cook, Cecelia. You’re gonna make some man a happy husband, and it will be a sad day for the rest of us.”

  Cecelia rolled her eyes at his long face. “Something tells me you’ll survive.” She lowered her voice. “Plus, there’s no happy husband in my immediate future, so no worries.”

  * * *

  The next morning, Cecelia rose early and ate a quick bite of breakfast before she left to post signs for the food drive she had started for families still struggling after the Great Flood. Then she headed to one of her work sites to make sure the plumbers showed up for a house that needed massive reconstruction. As usual, the plumbers arrived late, but she pushed them to finish the job. After work, she drove throughout the county to post signs for the food drive. By the time she arrived back in Rust Creek Falls, it was dark. She headed to the Ace in the Hole just because she wasn’t quite ready to go back to her room.

  Nick waved at her from the bar. “Let me buy you a beer,” he called over the loud fray of the crowd.

  “Buy me a water,” she said as she walked toward him. “I’m dying of thirst.”

  “Done,” he said
and waved at the bartender.

  Seconds later, a glass of ice water appeared. She sat down beside him at the bar. “I’m working on the food drive. I hope people will respond. I’m posting notices everywhere. Ever since I learned that some of the kids in school weren’t getting the food they needed months after the flood, I thought I should do something. Hopefully people will be generous. Their families still can’t afford to buy what they need. Some people are still struggling to make up income since the disaster.”

  “You’re a good woman,” Nick said and lifted his beer to her glass of water.

  She laughed and clicked her glass against his. “If you say so. I still think I may be heading back to Thunder Canyon soon. My time here may be just about done.”

  Nick frowned. “No. The town still needs you. We all still need you.”

  She leaned toward him and lowered her voice. “The truth is the pickings are a lot slimmer here than I anticipated.”

  “For what?” Nick asked.

  “Men,” she said.

  “Ohhhh,” Nick said and leaned back in his chair. “Well, I told you that’s because you’ve been approaching this all wrong.”

  Cecelia shook her head. “There’s nothing wrong with my approach. I am who I am.”

  Nick sighed. “I told you before. You have to sell yourself.”

  “I still say that sounds like prostitution,” she said.

  “It’s not,” he said. “I don’t mean it that way. You just need to put on some lipstick and flirt a little. For starters,” he said and took a swig of beer.

  “Why should I have to put on lipstick? Why shouldn’t he have to put on some lipstick?”

  Nick gawked at her. “Why would a guy wear lipstick?”

  “That’s not the point. Why should I have to work so hard to get a guy? Why shouldn’t he have to work harder to get me?”

  Nick shrugged. “Because a guy doesn’t have to work hard. We’ll eat beans and weenies and watch sports on television until some woman drives us from our cave.”

  “That’s ridiculous,” she said and took a long drink from her glass of water in hopes of cooling herself down.

  “Ridiculous or not, it’s true. You can fight it till the cows come home, but men love the chase. They love when a woman flirts and makes an effort to win them over.”

  Disgusted, she barely resisted throwing her water at Nick. She really wanted to smack him, but Cecelia was generally against violence. “Then you and all your men friends are going to miss out on the best women they could get,” she said and rose and walked away.

  The next couple of days, Cecelia avoided Nick. Every time she thought about his philosophy about how to catch a man, it made her brain fry. Late Friday afternoon, as she supervised a construction site, one of the men, Bill Dayton, approached her.

  “Hey there,” he said, tipping his hat.

  “Hi,” she said and nodded in return. Bill was a hard worker and had always been friendly to her.

  “I was thinking you and I could spend some time with each other. You want to get together tomorrow night?” he asked.

  Surprised by his invitation, she paused a half beat, then asked herself why not? “What did you have in mind?”

  “Dinner and just hanging out at my place,” he said. “Would that work for you?”

  Cecelia swallowed a sigh. She wasn’t all that attracted to Bill, but she felt a voice on her shoulder urge her to give him a try. What did she have to lose? “Okay,” she said. “What time?”

  “Four or four-thirty,” he said.

  “That early?” she said.

  He gave a sheepish grin. “Better to start early than late. I go to bed early,” he said.

  Feeling a softening inside her, she smiled in response. “Well, thank you very much. Four-thirty will work for me.”

  He nodded. “I’ll pick you up at Strickland’s.”

  “That sounds good,” she said.

  “I look forward to it,” he said and walked away.

  The next day, Cecelia donned her nicest jeans, a new sweater and a peacoat as she tromped down the stairs to wait for Bill. Nick met her halfway down the steps and looked her up and down. “Where are you headed?” he asked.

  “I have a date,” she said proudly.

  Nick checked his watch. “It’s kinda early.”

  “Maybe he’s eager,” she said.

  Nick frowned. “Don’t let him be too eager. Don’t let him—well, compromise you,” he said.

  “Compromise?” she echoed. “I’m not a teenager.”

  Nick scowled. “Well, you’re no loose woman either.”

  Cecelia met his gaze. “Are you calling my morals into question?”

  “Not really, but—”

  “No buts,” she said, waving her hands in dismissal. “Go get your dinner from Melba or some other woman. I have plans for the evening.”

  Nick stared at her. “Hmm.”

  “Hmm, yourself,” she said in return. “Good night.”

  She stomped the rest of the way down the stairs and took a seat on the sofa in the sitting room. One minute later, she stood and began to pace.

  At four thirty-five, Bill appeared at the front door of the rooming house. “Hey,” he said with a dimpled smile. “You ready?”

  Hoping this date would turn out well, she smiled in return. “I’m ready. What’s the plan?”

  “I thought I would take you to the grocery store so you could pick out what we would have for dinner,” he said as they walked away from the rooming house.

  “Um,” she said, because she couldn’t think of anything else to say.

  “Yeah. I’ve heard you’re a good cook, so this way, you and I can get the best food around,” he said.

  “Oh,” Cecelia said, feeling a shot of disappointment. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

  “Well, you seem like a practical girl. You’re a handyman and a cook.”

  “Oh,” Cecelia said, feeling a sinking sensation in her stomach.

  “You can cook our dinner then do a little cleaning.”

  She blinked at him. Disbelief rippled through her. “Clean?” she echoed.

  “Sure. If you can cook and fix a pipe, then you can clean.”

  Cecelia could only stare at him in surprise.

  “Yeah, and after you clean, maybe you and I can spend a little time in the sack,” he said with a wink.

  Cecelia counted to five. Ten was far too long. “No way,” she said. “Never in a million years.”

  “Hey, I’ve heard I’m pretty good in the sack,” he said.

  She turned away and headed back to the rooming house.

  Furious, Cecelia stomped the entire way to the Strickland’s. She stomped up the stairs to the door and prayed she wouldn’t run into anyone who would ask questions.

  She was so blind with anger, she walked straight into a hard male body.

  Cecelia swore under her breath.

  “Whoa,” Nick said. “What’s happening?”

  “Nothing,” she said. “Absolutely nothing.”

  “I thought you had a date,” he said, looking at her curiously.

  “You were wrong. I was wrong. This wasn’t a date,” she said, trying to conceal her fury.

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “I mean, this was not a date,” she said. “No date,” she repeated.

  “But,” he said, “this was going to be your dream guy.”

  “Shut up,” she said. “There is no dream guy. At this rate, there’ll never be a dream guy for me.”

  “Are you sure?” he asked. “That sounds kinda drastic.”

  “Very sure,” she said as she stomped up the steps to her room, slamming the door behind her.

  Cecelia w
as so upset she didn’t know what to do. She’d been hoping that this date with Bill would turn out well. It wasn’t as if she was in love with him, but she just needed a little encouragement. She needed to feel attractive. She needed to feel that it was possible for a man to want her.

  Tears sprang to her eyes. Her frustration grew at the overwhelming emotions racing through her.

  A knock sounded at her bedroom door. “Cecelia,” Nick said. “Are you okay?”

  She sniffed, swiping at her tears. “I’m fine,” she said. “Just fine.”

  Silence followed, and she took a breath.

  “You don’t sound fine. Let me buy you a burger at the Ace in the Hole. You need to get out.”

  Cecelia glanced around her room and felt as if the walls were closing in around her. Maybe she should go with him. She was certainly in no mood to stay in her room all night.

  Chapter Two

  “Come on. Sit down and tell me all about it,” Nick said to Cecelia after he’d finally talked her into joining him at the bar on Saturday night. “I’ll buy you a beer and a burger.”

  Cecelia shot him a deadly look that might have made another man wince, but Nick had known her too long for that. “A beer isn’t going to make this better. I don’t like beer that much, anyway.”

  Surprise rippled through him. “Oh, really? I wonder why I never noticed.”

  “Because it would take too much effort to notice, and I’m apparently not worth the effort,” she said with a frown.

  “Whoa,” he said, lifting his hand. “No need to club me. I’m on your side, remember?”

  Cecelia shook her head, clearly contrite. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come. I’m not good company for anyone at the moment. I need to shake off this funk. Maybe I really should be making more firm plans to go back home.”

  Nick hated it when Cecelia talked about moving back to Thunder Canyon. It wasn’t as if he had any romantic feelings for the woman he’d known since childhood—she was practically like his little sister—but he knew he would miss her. Sometime along the way she’d become a buddy he could count on. “Hey, my coaching offer is still open. You could just give it a try. You could end up with better-quality dates.”