Fighting Love

by Melissa West

  Sophie almost rolled her eyes. Every single person in this town was an old friend of Zac’s. She’d like to meet a person who didn’t consider him or herself a friend of Zac’s. Didn’t the man have any enemies? But instead of saying as much, she bit her tongue and flashed him another bright smile. “Right. You used to play football together, right?”

  Justin glanced from the basket to her. “Who told you that?”

  “Zac. He’s the one who sent me here to talk to you about the auction.” Which wasn’t exactly true, but it would be after she called Zac and ordered him to vouch for her story.

  “Oh. All right then.”

  “And I know y’all like to do fruit and all, but I’d be happy to give you a deal on pastry baskets as well and even jelly and jams for the event if you’re interested.”

  Justin didn’t look convinced. “And Zac told you to stop by?”

  Sophie waved her hand in the air. “Yep. We’re great friends. Hang out all the time.”

  His eyebrows lifted. “You and Zac.”

  “Mmm hmm.” Sophie couldn’t bring herself to tell another lie and was already feeling the weight of this one on her back. She was anxious to leave so she could call Zac and turn the lie into some truth.

  “Well, all right then,” Justin repeated. “I guess if Zac is okay with it . . .”

  “He is. Totally is.”

  “Okay. I guess, then, why don’t you pull together some numbers for me?”

  Sophie fought the urge to jump up and down and punch the air. “Of course,” she said, her voice as even as a spray tan. “About a hundred baskets?”

  “More like five hundred or so this year. We’re teaming up with a few neighboring towns to make it a collective event.”

  “Wow.” Sophie covered her excitement by walking away to place the basket on a bench; the remaining firefighters rushed over and emptied it almost immediately. “Okay, then.” She laughed, then waved to Justin. “See you later. And I’ll get those numbers to you by tomorrow morning.”

  “Sounds good. And maybe bring by some more of these when you come?” He lifted up a half-eaten cherry turnover. “You know, if it’s not too much trouble?”

  She tilted her head and offered a true Southern-lady smile. “Absolutely. You take care now.” She waved good-bye, then slipped into her car and dialed Zac even before she’d pulled out of the station, her left wedge sandal tapping away in impatience.

  “Come on! I know you’re around. Pick up already.”

  “I did.”

  “Oh! Sorry about that.”

  “Is there something I can do for you, Ms. Marsh, or were you calling to hear the sound of my voice?”

  Maybe a little of that, but Sophie refused to admit it to him. “Actually, Mr. Thinks One Date Equals A Girl Gone Wild For You, I need a favor.”

  “Does it involve accepting your apology for that insult? Because I think that’ll take a bit. You know, like another date. Your pick this time, remember?”

  A smile crept across her face. “I remember. And I’m thinking on it. But for now, I need to know something.”

  “Which is?”

  Sophie turned right and headed toward Fresh Foods the long way, which might or might not require her to drive by Littleton Farms, where she might or might not hope to spy a certain tattooed farmer. “What’s your stance on lying?”

  Chapter Nine

  “Lying? Like in a bed with you beside me? Because I could get behind that idea. Or are we talking the slap-on-the-wrist kind?”

  Zac tucked his phone under his chin and picked up his jeans, slipping them on as he tried to continue the conversation without dropping his cell and losing the call. Which was about as crazy as hell, because he could call her right back, but then what if she didn’t answer?

  And he’d officially become that dude.

  “The pray-to-God-for-forgiveness kind. What are you doing anyway? It sounds like you keep covering the receiver.”

  Zac placed his phone in his mouth and tugged on a Littleton Farms T-shirt, then returned the phone to his ear. “Getting dressed. What about you?”

  “It’s nine, though.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’d think you’d be up earlier.”

  “Had a late night.”

  He smiled at the pause on the other end, the sharp inhale. Maybe he wasn’t the only one having reactions around here.

  “Oh.”

  “Carrie had a last-minute school project. Took me all night to finish it.”

  The relieved breath he heard sent a surge straight to his chest. Zac ordered himself to slow down, keep this in check, or he’d never be able to control his feelings. It had already become a struggle. The way he looked for her in town, the way his ears pricked to listen when he heard someone say her name. It’d been less than a week since their date, four days to be exact, and he was going out of his mind to see her again. Which wasn’t healthy for a man like him who had responsibilities and obligations and other shit that meant he didn’t have time for anything or anyone else.

  “Sounds like you’re in need of some rest.”

  “Why, you offering to help me get some?”

  “You are such a ridiculous flirt.”

  “I told you, only with you.”

  The phone went silent again, and Zac leaned against his dresser, his arms crossed. “What do you need me to lie about? I should warn you that I lie about as good as I apply nail polish, and Carrie will be the first to tell you that’s a nightmare. So ask at your own risk. I may out you without realizing it.”

  “I told Justin Zilla at the fire station that you sent me there to talk about supplying the baskets at the bachelor auction this year.”

  “And why would I do that?”

  Another pause and he could almost see her chewing that thumbnail of hers, that guilty spark in her eyes. “You know, because you want me to have their business this year.”

  At that, Zac burst into laughter. “Want you to have it? I agreed to help you impress the town, not hand over half the farm’s earnings.”

  “I know, I know. But please. This will be huge for us, and maybe we could split it because they’re doing a new auction this year that includes some neighboring towns. Instead of the normal one hundred baskets, he needs five hundred. So maybe we split it, which is still way more than you normally do.”

  A knock on the door interrupted Zac’s thoughts, and he opened it to find his daughter on the other side, tapping her watch and her foot in time. “We need to go or we’ll be late,” she whispered.

  “Give me a second.”

  “A second to think about it or a second to call Justin and confirm my story, because I know he’s going to ask you. Nobody in this town can do a thing without calling everybody else to make sure it happened.”

  Zac grinned at the phone. “Actually, I was talking to Carrie-Anne.”

  “Sorry. I’m a little tense.”

  “And why’s that?”

  “Well, the lying thing. It makes me jittery. I need you to hurry up and agree, or I’m going to need another Xanax to calm myself down.”

  Another Xanax? Zac filed that away in his mind as something to uncover later. Tons of people took stuff for all sorts of reasons, so he wasn’t about to judge. But he was curious.

  “Now we don’t want that. Let me make sure I understand this—you want me to lie to make your lie truthful?”

  “Exactly!” She exhaled. “It’s so nice to talk to someone who gets what I’m saying. So, you’ll do it?”

  To anyone else, Zac would tell them they got themselves into this mess and they could get themselves out. Then he’d smile and say he’d be sure to say a prayer to help it along. But somehow, instead of telling Sophie to figure it out on her own, he found himself smiling like an idiot, smitten by this woman who drove him insane ninety percent of the time.

  “All right. I’ll cover you, but you have to do something for me.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “Our next date. This
Friday.”

  “If I didn’t know any better, I’d suspect you were growing fond of me.”

  “Now let’s not get carried away. I just need to keep up appearances here.”

  “Right . . . appearances.”

  “So, Friday then?”

  “Actually, no, Saturday. I’ve been trying to go to all the local organic farms who have U-Picks to check out their layout, so I’m visiting one in Tennessee on Saturday. Just over the border. You game?”

  “First lying, now spying on the competition? You trying to turn God against me or something?”

  Sophie laughed, and the sound filled him with such contentment that he almost asked her to do it again. “Not possible, Zac Littleton. Your name has been on God’s good list since you were born. But no harm in a girl tempting you to the dark side from time to time. Test out those golden morals and all.”

  “Ah . . . so you’re a temptress now?” His voice went low as he asked it, new thoughts circling through his mind, each more dangerous than the last. Sophie in his bed, him over her, that spark and sass of hers taking the ordinary to the extraordinary. And damn it, now he was hard.

  “If it works. Did it work?” she asked, her tone dropping to match his, a hint of sultry in the sweet.

  “I’d say so. See you Saturday.”

  “Are you hanging up?”

  “Yeah. Apparently I have to call Justin Zilla and dish that white lie of yours. Let’s hope I deliver it better over the phone than I would in person or you’re screwed.”

  “Screwed, huh?”

  Ah hell, there it was again.

  “See you soon, Zac.”

  “Later.” He hung up and walked into his bathroom to help himself calm down, then set out into the hallway.

  “You’re smiling,” Carrie said.

  He wrapped an arm around his daughter. “So I am, kiddo. So I am.”

  * * *

  The long, winding drive into Hamilton Stables always made Zac feel like he was entering another world. Lush green pastures, white fencing that rivaled the snow’s brilliance, a staff dressed in shirts and hats embroidered with the Hamilton Stables logo, the pride both on their clothes and across their faces. These people lived and breathed this farm, and while Zac knew farming could break a spirit as much as it could emblazon it, he’d never once seen anyone on the Hamilton Stables staff appear anything but thankful to be here.

  It made Zac wish he could re-create the same sense of joy at Littleton, but he suspected happiness like what was found here had less to do with management and more to do with some magical dirt that possessed anyone who stepped foot on it.

  Or maybe he was just an ass, and that was why his staff didn’t wear a grin all the damn time. But it did make him wonder how Sophie’s staff acted. Were they all giggles and smiles like Hamilton Stables’s staff, or did they work with their heads down like his staff?

  “Daddy?”

  “Huh?” Zac peered over at his daughter.

  “You parked. We’re here.”

  “Right. Sorry.” He opened his door and closed it quickly, eager to get his thoughts right again. This organic farmer he was pretending to date had loosened a bolt or two in his brain, and he kept drifting off into regions he had no right to explore.

  “Late. Again.”

  Zac glanced up at the same time that Carrie-Anne squealed, “Aunt Kate,” and took off running toward his sister.

  “I told him to hurry up, but he was on the phone with Ms. Marsh again, and he never gets off when she calls. It’s ridiculous.”

  “Hey, it doesn’t count as late if we didn’t set a time,” Zac said, hugging Kate close.

  But Kate pushed him playfully, her long red ponytail swinging with the move, her green eyes flashing. “We did have a time, loser.”

  “Well, then, I must have forgotten.” He winked and then dodged out of Kate’s grasp before she could push him again.

  “Emery has important things to do. You should respect her time.”

  “Like what?” He stared at his sister.

  “Um. Like . . .”

  “I’m listening.”

  “All right, fine, she’s here all day, but that’s not the point.”

  “Aunt Kate, can I go on down to see him?”

  “You go ahead, honey.” Kate grinned at her niece, and Zac thought he really shouldn’t give Kate such a hard time. But then he realized that if he didn’t, no one would, and everybody needed someone to keep them in line.

  Kate waited until Carrie-Anne cleared the barn, well on her way to the practice ring behind it, to turn on her brother. Zac wished he’d dropped Carrie off and left before Kate had an opportunity to question him.

  Already talk of Zac and Sophie together at Captain Jack’s had spread around town, which meant Kate knew and would want to know why someone else had to tell her that her brother was dating someone.

  “So, what’s the deal with Sophie Marsh, and why did I have to hear about it from Patty instead of you?” And there it was.

  “I don’t recall you calling me every time you went out with someone when you were dating.”

  Kate crossed her arms. “Different. I have three brothers, each of you ready to throw a punch at any guy who even thought about talking to me. I had to keep my dates a secret to protect them. You’re doing it to be secretive. The question is why?”

  “I’m not being secretive. We went out. It’s not really a big deal.”

  Kate released a sarcastic laugh, and Zac glanced past her to Carrie-Anne getting set up on her favorite horse, Barkley, for her weekly riding lesson with Emery, who was married to Trip Hamilton, the eldest of the Hamilton brothers. It seemed like yesterday that Emery and Kate were running around the farm, Emery always a tiny thing, but she was born to be a rider. Still, no one expected her to go on to become a successful jockey and now jockey trainer.

  “Are you going to answer me?”

  He was still watching his daughter, and the thought of her suffering a fall like Emery had suffered in the Kentucky Oaks was enough to make him question whether he should allow her to ride at all. But Carrie-Anne had put her hands on her hips and told him if she was allowed to go diving, then she should be allowed to ride a horse. And that ended the argument right there because she was right.

  “Zac. Are you going to answer me?”

  “Wasn’t planning to.”

  “Seriously? You’re dating a woman. This warrants a conversation. I mean, I thought you hated Sophie. Sure, she’s cute in that polished-for-a-TV-movie kind of way, but she has to grate on your nerves. That smile? Come on.”

  He stared at his sister, his patience growing thinner by the second. “What’s wrong with her smile?”

  “Nothing, but she sure throws it around a lot. Seems odd, right? I don’t know if you can trust a person who smiles that much. Gotta have skeletons in her closet right, and—wait a second.”

  Zac glanced over to find her pointing at him. “Oh. My. God. You like her.”

  “What?”

  “Don’t even try to deny it. I can see it all over your face. You’re fighting to stay quiet, but you want to defend her. You are defending her.”

  “So what if I defend her? You’re pissing all over her because she smiles too much? Who does that? Since when is smiling a problem? I like it.”

  Kate clapped her hands together and grinned. “Oh my God.”

  “You said that already.”

  “You are totally smitten!”

  “Shut up.”

  And now she was laughing. Loudly. Loud enough that Trip and Alex came out of the barn, where Zac hadn’t even known they’d been working, to see what all the fuss was about.

  “What did we miss?” Alex asked as he wrapped an arm around Kate and kissed his wife on the cheek, then lifted her hand to his face and kissed her palm, as if one show of affection wasn’t enough.

  “Zac likes a girl.”

  He rolled his eyes and stepped back. “Freaking hell, what are you, fifteen?”

 
; “Hey, I’m not the one with a schoolyard crush.”

  “All right, that’s my cue.” Zac started for the backseat of his truck to get Carrie’s bags, and Kate continued her jokes.

  “Does she know you like her? Does she like you back? Or did she ditch you after she realized that you talk in your sleep?”

  “I don’t . . .” Zac trailed off and shook his head, stopping himself from letting his sister bait him. “This conversation is over.”

  “Do you want me to put in a good word for you? Tell her you can cook real good or something? Or wait, she’s a baker, right? So that won’t impress her. I’ve got it!” She snapped her fingers, and Zac contemplated leaving without saying good-bye to Carrie just so he could escape the scrutiny. “You need to fix something. Maybe her car or something at her house. You’re, like, weirdly handy, and girls totally love that.”

  He stared at his sister. “Are you seriously trying to give me dating advice when you ended up with this one?” He nodded toward Alex, who simply laughed good-naturedly.

  “Well, he’s got you there, Red.”

  “He just insulted you.”

  “Hey, if the shoe fits,” Trip said, knocking knuckles with Zac. “Want a beer? Save you from this conversation?”

  “Appreciate it, but I’m heading into town for a few errands.”

  “All right, suit yourself.”

  “Why aren’t you offering me a beer?” Alex called after Trip as they disappeared back inside the barn.

  Kate remained behind. “Hey.”

  Zac glanced up. “Hey.”

  “I’m just messing with you.”

  “I know.” He flashed her a grin to let her know he wasn’t angry. “I grew up with you, remember? I’m well versed in your antics.”

  “But seriously, though. If you like her as much as I think you do, then don’t let your fears keep you from going for it. Maybe all those smiles will rub off on you a little. You could use a bit of that happiness.”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s early. We’ll see how it goes.” Then he called out a good-bye to Carrie-Anne because he knew she wouldn’t want him to come over and kiss her cheek or hug her in front of the other two girls who took lessons with Emery. He waved good-bye to the others before disappearing back into his truck where he could think without anyone around to judge or mock him.