Harlequin Special Edition July 2013 - Bundle 1 of 2: Marooned with the MaverickHer McKnight in Shining ArmorCelebration's Bride

by Christine Rimmer

  Ben looked impressed. “That’s an endorsement. Martha Spooner isn’t easy to please.”

  “No kidding.”

  It was on the tip of his tongue but Alex stopped short of adding that the completion deadline for Mercy Medical Clinic had potentially been in jeopardy, except Ellie had pushed herself so that wouldn’t happen. She had personal reasons, too, but hard work and resolve seemed part of her personality. It was hard to fake that. There was no quit in her.

  “So there’s nothing else you want to say?” Ben prodded.

  He sure didn’t want to mention those thoughts about Ellie to his brother. The word would spread and there’d be hell to pay, for sure. “Tell Sydney you did your best but couldn’t wear me down.”

  “Do not tell her you figured it out,” his brother demanded.

  “Never. We have to stick together. Our sister is an annoying but well-intentioned meddler.”

  “She’s protective.”

  “It runs in the family, or she couldn’t have convinced you to do her dirty work.” He had another thought. “Do you know why she’s taking a break from dating?”

  Ben shook his head. “She must have her reasons.”

  Join the club, Alex thought. “We need to set a good example and not try to get it out of her.”

  “In a perfect world that would work, but there are different rules for women.”

  “I know what you mean. As much as we’d like to ignore it, our sister is not a little girl anymore.”

  “Yeah,” Ben said ruefully. “I think she knows we’re there for her if she wants to talk.”

  “McKnights aren’t notorious for sharing their feelings.”

  “I agree.” He looked at his watch. “I also have to get back. Got patients waiting.”

  Alex nodded. “Thanks for stopping by.”

  At least for a little while he’d been distracted from wondering why he was more tense since having sex with Ellie. Now they had an agreement for nothing more than a fling. It would end when she left Blackwater Lake, and he planned to hold her to the pact.

  But now he was thinking about something else. There was no quit in her, but did that extend to interpersonal relationships? Would she put all that grit and gumption into a commitment and stick with it no matter what?

  Again he wanted to put his fist through a wall, because this was a pointless mental exercise. He would never again risk putting his heart on the line after trusting a woman who’d made a fool out of him.

  That was a mistake he wouldn’t repeat.

  If you let a woman in, she could get to the place in a man’s soul where his feelings were stored. Once she planted roots, she’d own him. Alex wasn’t going to be owned by anyone. Not ever again.

  Chapter Nine

  After work, as soon as they’d arrived back at the house, Alex disappeared into his home office “to make phone calls.” Personally, Ellie got the feeling he was simply avoiding her. He’d been acting weird all afternoon, ever since that visit from his brother. She could hang out in the family room or guest room, but as lovely as both rooms were, neither held any appeal.

  She dropped her purse on the table by the front door then “crutched” herself to the kitchen. Martha’s car was out front, so she knew the housekeeper was still around. And so far there were no negative vibes from her about having an extra person in the house.

  She thumped to a stop by the island where the woman was preparing food. “Hi.”

  Martha never looked up. “Word of advice, Ellie. Don’t quit your day job and be a cat burglar.”

  “You heard me coming?”

  “A mile away.” The older woman glanced up, her blue eyes twinkling. “But there are some, shall we say, athletic pursuits that don’t require stealth and silence.”

  She was talking about sex and even if that wasn’t what she meant, it was where Ellie’s mind went. Plus, the woman worked here. There were things a person would have to be clueless not to notice, things that pointed to the fact she’d spent the past few nights in Alex’s bed. This went under the heading of “Not Thinking It Through,” and her face burned with embarrassment.

  “Martha, it’s not what you think—”

  “So you and Alex aren’t sleeping together?” She glanced up from slicing celery. A stainless-steel, copper-bottomed pot full of boiled potatoes and other vegetables waited close by.

  “Okay, then it is what you think. But we have an agreement. It’s not serious. After all, I’m leaving when Mercy Medical Clinic is finished.”

  “I only have four things to say about that.” She glanced up for a moment. “One—when sex is involved, agreements don’t usually work out. Two—Alex is always serious, ever since his mom died. Three—there are reasons why he doesn’t ‘go out’ with women from Blackwater Lake. And four—you don’t strike me as the sort of person who goes to bed with a man just for fun, and by that I mean without any feelings for him.”

  “Hmm.” She really hoped Martha was wrong about that. In any event, there was nothing to be done about it now. “Can we talk about something else?”

  “Anything you want.”

  “If I had to guess, I’d say you’re making potato salad.”

  “Aren’t you the rocket scientist,” Martha teased. “Alex requested this to go with the steaks he’s going to throw on the grill for dinner.” She looked up quickly. “Please tell me you’re not one of those vegans who doesn’t eat anything with eyes except potatoes.”

  “Are you kidding? I’m from Texas.”

  “Okay, then.”

  “Is there anything I can do to help you?”

  “Sure. You can peel these suckers.” She pointed to where the potatoes waited. “I always make too many. But there’s a condition.”

  “What?” Stop sleeping with Alex?

  “Sit down on that stool before you hurt yourself.”

  Ellie did as ordered, and Martha brought over a paring knife, old newspaper for the peels and the full pot of spuds.

  “How long have you been with Alex?” she asked.

  “Since he moved back from California with that pregnant woman.”

  Not wife, Ellie thought. She looked up and there was a sour, disapproving twist to Martha’s mouth. “You didn’t like his wife?”

  “No.”

  “Before or after she left Alex to go back with her child’s father?”

  “He told you.” It wasn’t a question. She took a dill pickle from the jar and tapped excess juice on the inside. “Before. After she left, I wanted to cut her heart out with an ice cream scoop.”

  That visual could turn a person against any frozen, scoopable treat. “Wow, that would hurt a lot.”

  “That’s the point.”

  “Should I be worried?” Ellie teased.

  “Only if you’re planning to break his heart.”

  “I’d never do that. Any more than he’s planning to break mine. I like and respect him too much to do that.”

  Martha met her gaze, took her measure then nodded. “I believe you.”

  “Good.” Ellie set a peeled potato in the provided bowl. “How long have you lived in Blackwater Lake?”

  “Born and raised here. You’ll never get me to say how many years ago that was.”

  “I’d guess thirty-nine.”

  “You would if you’re as smart as I think you are.” The housekeeper flashed a grin.

  “So you knew Alex when he was a boy?”

  “Yup. His mom was good people. I knew her pretty well. Sure hit that family hard when she died. Tom McKnight could barely cope with his business. Alex took over raising his brother, and Sydney was just an infant. Folks in town took care of her while their dad was at work. Myself included.”

  “That was nice of you.”

  “Not just me and not particularly nice. It’s what people do here. And I never married or had children, so I really enjoyed that baby girl.” There was a soft expression in her pale blue eyes, as if she remembered it all. “When his sister got big enough, Alex raise
d her, too.”

  Ellie figured that’s what she’d meant about him always being serious. Serious could be good because he was very serious in bed. The things he did to her body, how easily he made her want, should be illegal from coast to coast.

  It was way past time for her to change the subject and put this conversation on neutral territory. “What do you think about the bazillionaire who wants to build a summer and winter resort here in Blackwater Lake? I hear he’s a playboy.”“

  “That’s the rumor,” Ellie said.

  “I guess I think there are pros and cons,” Martha answered cryptically.

  “Such as?”

  “On the upside, that will bring a lot of money and people here. They need housing, goods and services. That kind of cash could do a lot of good in this community.”

  “But?”

  “It will bring a lot of people in and life will change unless the powers that be don’t have one eye on the bottom line and the other on keeping in balance what makes this place special.”

  Ellie nodded. “I know what you mean.”

  “And then there’s my kitchen.”

  “Because you feel the need to feed all the newcomers?” It beat the heck out of her what that remark meant. “I’m sorry, but what does your kitchen have to do with a new resort?”

  “Everything, if Adam gets the contracting job for it. They’ll bring in their own contractor but will need to coordinate with an expert in this area.”

  “So he’s being considered for the job. But I still don’t get how that impacts you.”

  “He’s been promising to remodel my kitchen ever since he came back to town. If he goes to work for the bazillionaire, he won’t have time. Again.”

  “I see your point.” Ellie peeled the last potato, then wiped her hands on the dishrag beside her. “What’s wrong with your kitchen?”

  “Too small.” Martha wrinkled her nose with distaste. “It’s narrow, like an apartment, and completely cut off from the great room, so the cook can’t socialize.”

  Ellie guessed this woman would count it a real hardship to not be able to talk. “What else?”

  “There’s not enough storage, and the pantry’s about as big as a postage stamp.”

  There was a pencil and pad of paper on the island with the beginning of a grocery list on it. Ellie tore off the top sheet, then made some bold lines, drawing what she imagined Martha’s kitchen to be as the other woman chattered on. She sketched the wall above the sink knocked out so that when Martha was preparing food, she wasn’t cut off socially. Obviously, without measurements or a visual this was all off the top of her head and not to scale, but she found room for a walk-in pantry and plenty of cupboards.

  “What’s that?” Martha’s tone was equal parts curiosity and skepticism.

  “Just something that popped into my head while you were talking. Do you want to see?”

  “Sure.”

  Ellie turned the pad toward her and explained what she’d drawn. “Since I’ve never been inside your house, this isn’t your kitchen, but—”

  “Sure looks like it.” The housekeeper inspected the drawing more closely. “That’s three times as many cupboards as I’ve got now.”

  Her assumption was that Martha’s house was older and from the description she’d guessed about the style. “This is all coming from my imagination. It’s really rough—”

  “Can you find room in there for a double oven and a bigger refrigerator?”

  “Measurements would need to be taken, and you’re working with a finite amount of space. It could be that you’d have to sacrifice some of the cupboards to do that. Compromise is a must, and only the client can decide what’s most important to them.”

  The other woman looked impressed. “Do you do that drawing stuff for a whole house, too?”

  “Yes, ma’am. I can do it for pretty much any building. When you’re starting from scratch it’s a longer process. There are a lot of meetings to figure out what the customer wants, and at that stage nothing is carved in stone. It’s exciting when you can capture exactly what a person has been trying to put into words.”

  “Well, honey, you sure got mine right. You must have a gift for it.”

  “Listening is important. But now computers are an indispensable tool in the process. I can create a three-dimensional image to really see what the finished product is going to look like.”

  “Make sure your customer can picture the real thing when living there,” the housekeeper mused.

  “Exactly.”

  Not unlike her current situation with Alex, she thought. The two of them were sleeping together, to be totally honest. More than roommates, but not a couple. They occupied space under the same roof, and by any interpretation that was called living together. But she was definitely getting a picture of what the real thing could be.

  So far it had been great. In bed, Alex made her heart pound and her skin tingle. At work during the day she could hardly wait for quitting time when they went to his house together. He was funny and generous, and he’d taken care of her when she’d needed him. But only because he needed her, too. By mutual consent, when they didn’t need each other any longer, this living-together thing would be over.

  Part of her didn’t want it to end, but the practical part knew that was inevitable. Having the rules spelled out ahead of time should have brought peace of mind, but that wasn’t how she felt. Every day that went by made her less sure about being able to walk away with her heart unscathed.

  Whatever was going on between her and Alex went against everything she’d learned and all the training she’d had becoming an architect. Unlike the structures she designed, this relationship wasn’t built to last.

  * * *

  “Alex?”

  At the sound of Ellie’s soft voice, he looked up from the building supply list he’d been studying. She was standing in the doorway of his office balancing on the crutches.

  The most absurd thought crossed his mind. There were rubber pads on the curved part, but when you used it to take body weight, there had to be discomfort. “Do those things hurt your arms?”

  She glanced down to where her hands curved on the horizontal hold. “Not much anymore.”

  That meant it did at first and she’d never once complained. Just one more thing to respect. To like.

  She was wearing denim shorts and a T-shirt that said Blackwater Lake, Montana, on the front. It matched the hot-pink cast on her leg. All of a sudden he wanted her, and the feeling was so big, so deep, so consuming there wasn’t room for anything else.

  “Are you still working?” she asked.

  “Not really.”

  “Getting hungry?”

  She didn’t mean it as a loaded question, but he took it that way because of where his mind was. He was hungry for her, and he hadn’t been working even before she came in because he couldn’t stop thinking about her.

  “I could eat,” he finally said.

  “Martha made potato salad. I helped,” she added. “But don’t worry, it was grunt work. She said you were going to barbecue steaks.”

  “Yeah.” Then a thought struck him. “You’re not a vegetarian, are you?”

  “Why do y’all keep asking me that? I’m from Texas.”

  “Good.”

  “You’ve seen me eat meat.”

  He grinned. A woman after his own heart. Well, not after it, because he’d made clear that it wasn’t part of their agreement. This was about having fun, and that’s what he was going to do.

  He stood. “Let’s get dinner going.”

  “About dang time.” She quickly backed up and maneuvered toward the kitchen.

  “You’re getting pretty good on those things.”

  “I know. Wanna race?” She glanced over her shoulder and grinned.

  “I’m afraid you’d win.”

  “Like everything else, practice makes perfect.” She stopped and looked at him. “But when I get this pink plastic piece of torture off, I hope I never
have to use this skill again.”

  “Is the cast hurting?”

  “No. My leg itches. Ben warned me not to try and slide anything down there to scratch it, because that usually doesn’t end well.”

  “My brother, the orthopedist, should know.”

  Alex sort of missed carrying her around. At first it had been a chance to hold her, but now with their current arrangement he held her every night. Still, he liked picking her up; she was small and delicate and... He couldn’t explain the feeling because it would make him sound like a caveman. Just thinking this made him feel stupid.

  In the kitchen doorway Ellie stopped. “Do you want me to set the table?”

  “Why don’t we eat outside?” The idea was spontaneous, and he wasn’t sure where it came from.

  “That sounds wonderful.” Her delighted smile made him feel as if he’d just handed her the moon.

  “I’ll carry everything to the patio and you can arrange it on the table.” She nodded and he added, “What else did Martha fix?”

  “Green salad, corn on the cob in foil and berries with cream for dessert.”

  “Let’s get this show on the road. I’m starving.” He hoped she didn’t notice him staring at her mouth when he said that.

  It took a few trips in and out to get everything, and Ellie kept apologizing for not being able to help more. He didn’t mind. The company was a rare treat, and he’d enjoy it for the time being.

  While he grilled the filets and corn, she arranged place mats and plates on the round redwood table for four situated on the covered patio. Up against the house there was a matching wooden love seat and chairs with padded seats that formed a conversation area.

  The back grass stretched out for an acre to the forest of fir trees that was a natural property line. Bushes and flowers ringed the perimeter of the yard and looked just about perfect, which wasn’t bragging, in his humble opinion.

  When the food was cooked, he put it on the platter and turned off the propane barbecue, then brought everything to the table where Ellie was already sitting.

  “Yum, that smells good. I tossed the salad. Hope y’all like ranch dressing.”