by Taylor Hart
“Are you okay?”
It wasn’t often that someone snuck up on a SEAL. Shock coursed through him, and he jerked around. “Get out!” he snapped, before realizing it was Tia.
“Sorry!” Her eyes widened with fear.
Chapter 4
The man looked fierce, glorious, like one of those ancient fighters out of Sparta. The kind who drove chariots and then went to hand-to-hand combat at the Coliseum.
Tia coughed. “Sorry to startle you. I went to the house first, but you weren’t there, and then I heard the music.” Unwillingly, she stared at Jax’s shoulders, chest, and abs. Six-pack abs, maybe eight. She tore her eyes away, unsure where to look.
“Oh, hey.” He straightened, pulling his hand back from his shoulder.
Just like when she’d first met him at the flower shop, she noted how powerful his jawline was, how piercing his blue eyes were. He looked like a model out of some GQ magazine.
She had already been nervous just coming over here, but with him standing here without his shirt, she was upended. “Sorry.” She was second-guessing even coming here. “I should go.” She took a step back.
“No, wait,” he said, reaching for his shirt and quickly throwing it on. “It’s fine.”
“I, well. This was a dumb idea. Stupid.” Why had she driven out here? Nervously, she turned away from him. “Never mind.” She rushed back the way she came, jogging out of the barn and toward her car.
“Hey, wait up,” he called out to her.
She arrived at her car but paused there to see him following her; now he was holding his coat and phone. “I don’t know why I came here and then followed the music,” she said, feeling like an idiot.
“It’s fine. What’s up?” he asked, closing the gap between them even more. They’d be close enough to kiss if he leaned down. “Tia Snow, come back to me.”
Her eyes met his, and she smiled.
He smiled, too, putting his hand on her shoulder. “I’m glad you’re here. It’s fine.”
Tia nodded and forced herself to say it. “I need a date for the New Year’s dance.” Intense butterflies pummeled her gut. “I’m sorry to ask, but I lied to Brad and we …” She rubbed her forehead, feeling hopelessly stupid. “Never mind. I’ll just tell Brad I lied, it’s fine. Or I’ll just never talk to him again.”
“I’ll do it.”
She had definitely not expected such a quick answer. “What?”
He put his hand on her car and leaned in. “I’ll do it, on a couple of conditions.”
“Conditions?” It felt like the guy had already had a plan or something. “O-kay,” she said tentatively.
“Dinner.”
“It’s late, but …”
“Not tonight.” He put on his coat. “No. Let’s see.” He counted on his fingers. “There are five days until the dance. I want dinner every night with you.”
She wasn’t sure why he would want that, but she figured he might be lonely with his grandpa in the hospital. “I guess I could do dinner. I don’t cook well, but …”
“How about you cook once, and I’ll figure out the rest?”
“Okay, I can do dinner for a couple of nights.”
“Great.”
“Great.” Happiness swirled inside of her. She had a date with a smoking hot guy. The whole town would talk about it, and she could rub it in Brad’s face that she was over him. She pulled open the car door. “Thank you so much.”
“Oh. And one more thing.” He put his hand on the door.
“What is that?” Her breath shortened; he was so close.
He hesitated, and a mischievous glint sparked in his eyes. “A kiss every night after dinner.”
Awkwardness rippled through her, and she let out a scoff. “What?”
He put up his finger. “One kiss after dinner, every night, and I’ll not only be your date; I’ll be your boyfriend. You can tell the whole town I’m your boyfriend.”
The air between them sizzled with chemistry. The memory of the kiss earlier that day pulsed through her. “Uh, I guess I should tell you that I’m usually not that kind of girl, to kiss a guy I don’t know. I mean, I know I let you kiss me because of everything, but …”
“Well, I’m not just any guy,” he said, grinning. “I’m the guy you’ve been dating for a couple of months.”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “Right.”
“Right.”
It was kind of annoying that this guy was using her own lies against her; at the same time, it was the best thing that had happened in her romantic life in a while. “Um …” She was second-guessing all of this. “I don’t really know you.”
“C’mon, we’ll have fun. Plus, we’ll get to know each other.” He gestured to the house. “And I’m Roy Casey’s grandson—nothing to be afraid of.”
That was pretty cool. She liked Mr. Casey; she’d known him her whole life. Not well, but it was Snow Valley.
“Just a kiss, nothing more,” he said, cocking an eyebrow. “I’ll be a perfect gentleman.”
More doubts filled her. She asked a question she’d been wondering all day. “How old are you?”
His eyes narrowed. “Twenty-eight. Is that a problem?”
“No.”
“How old are you?”
“Twenty-three,” she fired back.
“That’s okay with me.”
A five-year difference. Her uncle Michael might not have liked her dating this guy in high school, but she wasn’t in high school, was she? “Okay.”
“Great.”
Dang, the guy was handsome. But she had to tell him something else. “So, I’ve been on a no-dating thing, and I need to keep it up because the most successful writers are single and …” She thought of the podcast she’d been listening to.
His lip tugged up. “Okay.”
Her thoughts were scattered. “No, I just need to make sure you understand that this relationship is fake. No expectations. No feeling bad when we walk away, and no—and I mean no—falling in love.”
His eyebrows shot up.
“All I’m saying is that I’m not marrying a guy who is in the military. I mean, my cousin married a guy in the military, and he’s always gone. I’m not doing that.”
“Wow. We’re already getting married.”
“No.”
He chuckled, putting up his hand. “Kidding.”
She was saying this all wrong. “Sorry. I over talk things.”
“You think I’m going to fall in love with you?”
“No. It’s just been a rough couple of years, and I don’t need the drama of all of this.” She swallowed.
He was smiling. “I get it. And believe me, no drama is perfect. Just dinner and a kiss. No falling in love.”
His words hung in the air. There was something about this guy that was just so hot and so perplexing. Why would he need a kiss? She was pretty sure he could talk most girls into kissing him.
“Fine,” she said, her heart racing.
He whipped out his phone. “Should we exchange numbers, just to coordinate?”
She rattled off her phone number and was going to ask for his, but her phone dinged.
“Just sent you mine. I’ll text you tomorrow about what we’ll be doing for dinner tomorrow.”
“O—”
But he shut her door and then tapped the car, waving goodbye and walking back toward the house. He’d dismissed her.
She backed out of the long driveway, still not sure she’d done the right thing. Before she pulled onto the road, he turned and gave her another wave. She waved back.
This day had gone so differently than she’d expected. Oh, maybe she could use something like this in the story she was writing. Yes! She rushed home.
Chapter 5
Jax woke to the sound of someone texting him. He sat up, feeling hazy from his sleep. He usually didn’t dream, but he’d dreamt about his mother last night. He’d been a kid, and they’d been riding horses together, here in Snow Valley. They had rac
ed back to the barn, but she’d been bucked off the horse. He’d run to her, but when he’d caught up, she’d turned into Tia. And then he’d been kissing Tia when he’d woken.
He rubbed a hand over his face. He hadn’t gone to college, but in high school he’d studied Greek mythology. Had this been some reverse Oedipus thing?
It was barely light outside, not that waking early bothered him. When he grabbed his phone, he saw that the texts were from two of his buddies who were in Cabo. Both were sending selfies of themselves with the beach in the background.
Get your butt on a plane and get here, his friend Sonny wrote.
How’s your grandpa? We got two weeks in paradise. Join us, Jon added.
Jax could only imagine relaxing on a beautiful, warm beach. He sighed and stood, texting back pictures of igloos.
When he wandered into the main area of the house, he frowned. It hadn’t been this cold when he’d come in last night. The temperature said it was fifty, he went on a wild goose chase to find the heater and check the pilot light, which had gone out. He found some matches in the kitchen and tried to light it. Nothing.
After googling Snow Valley heating and air conditioning, he made the call. It went to a message machine that used a voice he recognized. He heard, “If this is an emergency, call Brad at—” followed by a number.
Brad. Tia’s Brad. What were the chances? Apparently high in a small town. He wondered if the guy would even have the courtesy to get back to him when he figured out who it was.
Jax got dressed and went to the barn to take Husky out for a ride. It’d been a long time since he’d ridden, but it came back quickly, and he rode Husky around his grandfather’s property. Luckily, there wasn’t much snow, so it was okay. A path had been carved out, likely by Chase, the guy who had been taking care of the horses.
After riding Husky, he gave Piper a turn. She was a little more skittish, almost like she didn’t want to go for a ride. After a lap, he brought her back. Quickly, he mucked the stalls, then fed them, checked the water, which had frozen. So he dumped it out and put new water in the trough.
After going back to the house, he checked his phone. It was almost eight in the morning. With nothing else to do, he did what he always did in the morning: he pulled on his running shoes and shoved on some cold-weather gear. His thoughts kept him in a daze, and he remembered kissing Tia in his dream, and compared it to the original version from yesterday.
The shrill ringing of a telephone startled him. He rushed toward the kitchen counter, where the old phone still sat. Without thinking, he answered it. “Hello.”
“Jax?”
His heart jumped into his throat. His mother. He hadn’t spoken to her in thirteen years.
“Jax?”
“Yeah.”
“We need to talk.”
He hung up.
Chapter 6
It’d been a long day for Tia. It had started early when she’d taken all of the arrangements to the funeral. There had been a whole bunch of orders to fill that others around Snow Valley had called in for the funeral and the family. She’d spent most of the day throwing together arrangement after arrangement. Luckily, Chase had come in and helped with delivering them.
As four o’clock neared, she tried to quiet her racing heart. Her heart that had been a bit excited all day long—and not because of the funeral flowers.
An image of Jax’s ripped back and shoulders flashed through her mind. She tried to push it out, but then she remembered watching him reach for his shoulder, and then seeing his abs and all the sweat when he’d faced her. She hadn’t been able to stop thinking of the strange tattoo of some type of skeleton on his back.
It didn’t help that he hadn’t reached out to her today, either.
She put her hand to her stomach; she hadn’t eaten today. It’d been too busy, and she’d been too hyper to think of food, but now her blood sugar was dipping and she felt a bit light-headed. She moved to the counter and pushed her hands down, closing her eyes for a minute.
The door dinged open.
“Tia, what do you think you’re doing going to dinner with that jerk?”
Tia’s eyes flashed open. Brad was thundering toward her, dressed in his Snow Valley AC/Cooling uniform. He’d been working for his dad’s company for as long as she could remember. She stepped back, entirely unprepared for this amount of outrage. “What are you doing here?”
Brad yanked off the beanie cap he had on and jerked a thumb to the door. “Imagine my surprise when I get a call from your ‘boyfriend,’ and I am called out to the Casey ranch because the heat’s not working.” He wagged a finger at her. “Mind you, I wouldn’t have gone and helped that guy, except, well, my dad and Roy have been friends for years.”
Her mind was catching up. She crossed her arms. “So you’re saying your dad made you go help a friend out?”
Brad’s nostrils flared, making him look like he was about to join in another wrestling match in high school. “I’m saying that the guy is a jerk, and I don’t know why he’s your boyfriend. If he really is. I don’t even believe that you knew each other before.”
She moved around the counter and pointed at the door. “Get out, Brad,” she said, seeing nothing but red.
Brad laughed and took a step back. He held up his hand. “Look, I’m just looking out for you because I don’t know how you know that guy, but I think he’s dangerous.”
“Really? You’re looking out for me?” She stepped right into his space. “Like when you were cheating on me? Were you looking out for me then, too?”
“I’m not … What do you know about him? Huh? I’ve been checking around and asking some questions. He’s military. Special ops, did you know that? The guy is dangerous. I was with him all day. You should have heard some of the stories he was telling me.”
This took her by surprise. They’d been talking all day?
“You know he’s killed people, right? And I watched this documentary last year that told about how killing people takes its toll on people—like, changes their brain chemistry. They change. They’re not normal anymore.”
Tia hadn’t thought about that, but she wasn’t going to listen to her ex drone on and on about the dangers of her fake boyfriend. She moved to the door and opened it, waiting. “Get out.”
“You need to be careful.” Brad moved to the doorway but didn’t go through it. “You’re not even listening to me.”
“Get out!” she yelled at him, so tired of him, this town, and the pain of the past year.
“I just want you to be safe.”
“Jax Casey has already treated me with far more respect than you ever did.”
“But—”
“I think the lady asked you to leave,” a voice said rather calmly. “You don’t seem to ever listen to her.”
Chapter 7
Jax had never been the hotheaded type. His team teased him about his lack of response to intense situations. He could always keep a cool head. But looking at this idiot … He wanted to throw the guy to the ground and teach him some manners. Especially after having to listen to him go on and on about how he and Tia were meant to be together.
The guy was a rude, belligerent jerk and had no respect for people. He was the kind of guy who went into the military and was instantly brought down a couple of notches. One thing you learned in basic training was that if you bragged and acted like an idiot, you’d better have the fighting skills to back it up. The guys in the military weren’t afraid to bring you pain to shut your trap.
Now, as Tia turned to him, she looked pale.
“Are you okay, sweetie?” he asked.
She blinked and her eyes grew misty with unshed tears. “Yeah.”
Brad let out an irritated sigh and pushed past him out of the doorway. “I guess your boyfriend thinks he can tell me what to do now, too.” He kept his eyes on Tia’s.
Tia stared back at him.
Brad’s lip curled into a snarl. “We have been friends our whole lives, Tia. Friend
s. And I had to listen to this guy telling me about how you met months ago in New York and it was a whirlwind romance, and you went dancing and you just dug his dancing skills so much that you went out again the next night. Pfft.” He rolled his eyes. “He said that he’s read your book. I didn’t even know you finished one.”
Crap. Jax probably should have texted or called her. He’d been planning on meeting with her at dinner tonight to collaborate their story.
Tia blatantly ignored Brad, moving to Jax’s side. She stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his cheek. “Missed you today. I loved going out dancing with you. It was the best.” She leaned into him and took his hand. “How was your day?”
Bam! He was so into this. He wrapped an arm around her. “Better now.” Which was the truth.
“Oh, puke. Don’t say I didn’t warn you when things blow up.” Brad rushed out, getting into his truck and driving off.
Jax turned and evaluated her. “Are you okay?”
Carefully, she extracted herself from his arm and let out a nervous laugh. “Low blood sugar. Should we go eat?”
“Yeah.”
“Let me get my purse and lock up.”
He waited outside but watched her through the front window. Her red hair was a stark contrast to her pale skin. It made her even more striking.
He pushed open the door for her.
“Thanks.” She locked it.
He inhaled deeply, breathing in her flowery scent.
“Are you smelling me?” she asked giving him a confused look.
Lazily, he took her hand and led her toward his grandpa’s truck. He found that a lot easier to drive around in this town. “Just keeping up appearances of the whole boyfriend thing, right?”
She stared at their hands.
“This okay?”
She looked embarrassed. “Yeah, I just …”
Jax remembered how much Brad had upset her. “The guy’s a jerk with a loud mouth.” He opened her door for her.
“Sorry to bring you into all of this drama. I know neither of us want that.” She looked around. “But it’s a small town, and people are always watching.”