The Maverick's Midnight Proposal

by Brenda Harlen

  Jamie nodded and let him get to work.

  Luke had only been in Rust Creek Falls for a week but, in that time, he’d missed the physical labor that ranching entailed. Within a few hours, however, his unused muscles were feeling the effects of exertion. When he dumped the last of the soiled bedding, he was more than ready to be done.

  He returned the wheelbarrow and shovel to the barn just as Jamie was coming out of his office.

  “I appreciate the help,” his brother said only a little begrudgingly. “Especially since I promised Danny that I’d squeeze out some time to give him a hand at Sunshine Farm this afternoon.”

  “I’m heading over there myself in a little while,” Luke told him, having promised the groom-to-be the same thing.

  “Well, you might as well come in for lunch first,” Jamie said. “You’ve earned a meal.”

  Luke had planned to head into town and grab a bite at Daisy’s Donut Shop. Not that he was deliberately trying to cross paths with Eva, but he did have the empty trifle bowl in his truck to return to her. The unexpected offer from his brother, though, was one that he couldn’t refuse.

  * * *

  Three days after she’d cooked dinner for Luke—three days after he’d kissed her until her head was spinning so that she could barely remember her own name—Eva acknowledged that maybe her sister was right to be worried.

  She was aware that she had a tendency to fall hard and fast and, as a result, she’d had her heart broken more times than she wanted to count. But after the kiss they’d shared, she’d let herself believe that he wouldn’t break her heart. That this time, she wouldn’t be the only one to fall—and she wouldn’t end up alone.

  But after three days with only a few words exchanged between them when he came into Daisy’s to grab a cup of coffee to go—and once to return the bowl he’d taken home with the leftover trifle—she’d started to doubt her own convictions. And then finally, late on Saturday afternoon, Luke stopped by the doughnut shop and settled into an empty seat at the counter.

  “This is a surprise,” Eva said.

  “I thought I should get out for a while and give the newlyweds some space.”

  “I’d guess that they have plenty of space in that big house.”

  “They do,” he agreed. “But I’m sure they’re aware that they aren’t alone, so I told them I was going to be out for a few hours.”

  “And what do you plan on doing for those few hours?”

  “That depends on you,” he told her.

  “Me?” she asked, pleased and surprised that he’d sought her out.

  “Do you have any plans tonight?”

  “None,” she said quickly.

  Maybe too quickly.

  Did she sound too eager? Too desperate?

  Maybe she should have pretended to have a social life—or at least feigned the possibility by checking the calendar on her phone.

  But she had no plans—no social life at all, in fact. And if Luke wanted to spend time with her, then she was more than happy to do so.

  “What did you have in mind?”

  “A flyer posted on the community board at Crawford’s advertised Elf as tonight’s feature movie at the high school,” he told her.

  “Who doesn’t love Will Ferrell?”

  He smiled. “Is that a yes?”

  “If you’re asking if I want to go with you...sure,” she decided.

  He nodded. “The movie starts at eight—what time do you finish here?”

  “I’m not actually working,” Eva said, untying the apron she’d wrapped around her waist to protect her clothes while she was in the kitchen. “I just came in to assemble and decorate the cake for a seventy-fifth birthday.”

  “Then why don’t we make it dinner and a movie?” he suggested.

  Dinner and a movie sounded a lot like a date to Eva, and she felt a giddy rush of anticipation through her veins. But she knew that Luke was wary about any romantic involvement, and just because it sounded like a date to her didn’t mean that it was a date to him, so she tried to play it cool.

  “We’ve got meatloaf with mushroom gravy and mashed potatoes on the menu tonight,” she told him.

  He shook his head. “I had something else in mind.”

  She frowned at his quick response. “You don’t like meatloaf?”

  “I don’t think you’d be able to sit here and enjoy a meal without rushing into the kitchen to check on one thing or another,” he said.

  “You’ve been away for a lot of years,” she reminded him. “Perhaps you’ve forgotten that there aren’t a lot of dining options in this town.”

  “I haven’t forgotten,” he assured her. “In fact, I’ve been craving a bacon cheeseburger from the Ace in the Hole since I passed the ‘Welcome to Rust Creek Falls’ sign.”

  “They do make a good burger,” she acknowledged. And although the local bar and grill was a little rough around the edges and frequently the site of fisticuffs between cowboys who liked to work hard and party harder, the food was usually decent and the beer was always cold.

  “I know the crowd there can get a little rowdy on weekends,” he noted, anticipating her objection. “But we should be in and out before any of the local ranch hands get too drunk and stupid.”

  “I’m not worried,” she said. “But I do want to go home to freshen up and change my clothes first.”

  His gaze skimmed over her from the top of her head to the toes of her cowboy boots and back again. The slow appraisal made her skin tingle and her heart pound. Then he spoke—

  “Why?” he asked. “You look fine to me.”

  —and the bubble burst.

  “Because I’m a girl,” she said with just a hint of exasperation in her voice. “And I’d like to elevate my appearance to something more than fine.”

  “What’s wrong with fine?” he asked, clearly baffled by her response.

  She just shook her head. “Fine is—” she searched for an explanation that would make sense to him. “It’s the equivalent of satisfactory or adequate.”

  “You’d rather be unsatisfactory or inadequate?”

  “I’d rather look nice,” she told him. “Maybe even pretty.”

  His brows drew together. “Why would you aim for nice or pretty when you’re already beautiful?”

  His matter-of-fact tone stunned her as much as his words. “If you think I’m beautiful, why did you say I looked fine?” she demanded, full-on exasperation in her tone now.

  “Because I figured you didn’t need to be told and I didn’t want you to worry that I was hitting on you.”

  She only wished he was hitting on her, but he’d been clear that wasn’t going to happen—which didn’t mean she couldn’t attempt to change his mind.

  “I’d still like to change before we go out,” she told him.

  Luke shrugged. “How much time do you need?”

  “I’ll be ready in half an hour.”

  And she would use every one of those thirty minutes to ensure that when he looked at her, he wouldn’t be thinking that she looked fine.

  * * *

  There were a lot of reasons that Eva loved her job at Daisy’s—one of which was the proximity of the doughnut shop to her parents’ house. Less than five minutes after she left Luke sitting with his coffee, she was climbing the steps to the front porch of her childhood home.

  She was surprised that her dad’s SUV wasn’t in the driveway, which meant that one or both of her parents was out. If it was both, she would be saved from having to explain her own plans. Marion was already worried about the time Eva was spending with Luke, and she didn’t want maternal concern to put a damper on her excitement about the evening ahead.

  She’d just opened the door when her cell phone chimed to indicate a text message.
>
  Gone out for dinner. There’s leftover chicken and rice in the fridge if you want it.

  Love Mom & Dad

  Eva keyed in her reply.

  OK. I’m going to the movie at the high school tonight. See you later. XO

  Then she hurried upstairs to survey the contents of her closet, trying to decide what to wear for a date that wasn’t really a date.

  She didn’t usually bother with much makeup because the heat from the ovens caused it to melt off her face. Since she didn’t have to worry about that tonight, she darkened her lashes with mascara, colored her cheeks with powder and slicked her lips with gloss. Then she unbraided her hair and brushed it out so it hung in loose waves to her shoulders. She wrinkled her nose at the reflection in the mirror, glanced at the time and plugged in her straightening iron.

  While the appliance was heating, she stripped out of her clothes and rifled through her closet, looking for her favorite wrap-style skirt. It was navy with tiny flowers embroidered all over it, and it paired nicely with the slim-fitting V-neck cashmere top in the same pale shade of blue as the flowers. She found what she was looking for and tossed both garments on top of her bed while she wriggled into a pair of wool tights. They weren’t sexy but they were necessary in December, and they wouldn’t be visible beneath the long skirt anyway.

  After dressing, she straightened her hair, then added hoop earrings, a trio of bangle bracelets and a teardrop-style pendant on a long chain that hung between her breasts. Maybe it wasn’t very subtle, but if Luke still intended to leave town after the holidays, she didn’t have time for subtlety. A light spritz of perfume and she was ready to go.

  And just in time, she realized, as the doorbell chimed.

  She stuffed her feet into her boots, grabbed her jacket from the hook and opened the door.

  * * *

  Luke had decided to hang out at Daisy’s for the half hour Eva had said she needed, though he was skeptical of that claim. If she could truly be ready in thirty minutes, she was more efficient than any other woman he’d ever dated.

  Not that this was a date—not really. He’d left his sister’s house with the intention of grabbing a bite and catching a movie, and since he enjoyed Eva’s company, he’d asked her to join him. And even if a man and woman sharing a meal and enjoying entertainment together might technically fit the definition of a date, he’d made it clear to Eva that he wasn’t looking to get involved.

  But that was before she opened the door in response to his knock and he discovered that she had, indeed, elevated her appearance from beautiful to breathtaking.

  * * *

  His gaze skimmed over her, from the top of her head to the toes of her boots and back again. The heat in his eyes as they made their slow perusal warmed every part of her—including some parts that had been cold for a very long time.

  “You look like champagne and caviar, not beer and burgers,” he told her.

  Eva ignored the way her heart was bumping against her ribs and replied lightly, “I’m flattered you think so, but my champagne and caviar outfit is at the dry cleaners.”

  “I didn’t think Rust Creek Falls had a dry cleaner.”

  “It doesn’t,” she said. “I had to take it into Kalispell.”

  He chuckled as he offered his arm and led her to his truck.

  It was a testament to the quality of the food even more than the limited dining options in Rust Creek Falls that the Ace was always packed on Friday and Saturday nights. Luke took her hand to help her up the rough-hewn wooden steps, then opened the door beneath the oversize ace of hearts playing card that blinked in red neon. They stepped inside the dimly lit bar just as a waitress moved past with a tray full of drinks.

  “Grab a seat anywhere,” she told them. “If you can find one.”

  Luke took a moment to glance around, then steered her toward a booth that had just been vacated, staking claim to it while the busboy was still clearing away the dirty dishes.

  “Do you know what you want or do you need to look at a menu?” he asked as the waitress approached.

  Though what she really wanted wasn’t something she would find on the menu, Eva smiled at the server and said, “I’ll have the bacon cheeseburger.”

  “With fries?”

  “Sure,” she agreed, because no one went to the Ace for a salad.

  “Anything to drink?”

  “Diet cola.”

  The waitress jotted the order down on her pad then turned to Luke.

  “I’ll have the same,” he said. “But real cola.”

  After she’d gone, Luke leaned back in his seat and looked around the room. “Does that ancient Wurlitzer still work?”

  “It does,” Eva confirmed. “And it still plays three songs for a quarter.”

  “What’s with the giant-screen TV on the stage?”

  “Rosey had that brought in so her customers can watch The Great Roundup on Friday nights.”

  “People actually come to a bar to watch a reality show?” he asked.

  “They do,” she confirmed. “Because Rust Creek Falls has two residents—Travis Dalton and Brenna O’Reilly—competing for the prize money and, of course, we’re all rooting for one of them to win.”

  “Yeah, my sister told me.” But he still looked skeptical.

  “You should be here on a Friday night,” she told him. “It’s standing room only. Once I heard a customer grumble about the number of people packed into the place, but his threat to report the establishment to the fire chief was overheard by the fire chief, who promised to look into the situation as soon as the final credits rolled.”

  Luke chuckled at that, then did a double take. “Wow—there’s a man over there who looks just like my high school history teacher.”

  Eva didn’t need to follow the direction of his gaze. “Did you have Mr. Armstrong for history?”

  He nodded. “You, too?”

  “No, but I know him very well. He’s actually the principal of the high school now. And my father.”

  Chapter Nine

  Eva held her breath as she waited for Luke to respond to her confession.

  “That would explain the glare,” he noted.

  “He’s not really glaring,” she hastened to assure him. “He’s just trying to figure out who you are because he’s not wearing his glasses.”

  Luke shook his head. “I can’t believe I didn’t make the connection between Eva Armstrong and Mr. Armstrong in the history department.”

  “Armstrong isn’t an uncommon name,” she said. “And a lot of people try to forget about high school history.”

  “It wasn’t so bad,” he said.

  She just lifted a brow, making him laugh.

  “Okay, it was awful,” he admitted. “But the truth is, I didn’t enjoy any of my subjects because the whole time that I was stuck inside a classroom, I only wanted to be helping my dad out on the ranch.”

  “A cowboy through and through,” she noted.

  “I guess so,” he acknowledged.

  Thankfully, her parents had finished their meals and, after they’d paid their check, stood up to leave. But of course, they didn’t go without stopping by their daughter’s table first.

  Luke automatically rose to his feet.

  Ray Armstrong shook his hand. “Luke Stockton—I heard that you were back in town. From Wyoming?”

  Luke confirmed with a nod.

  “You plan on moving back to Rust Creek Falls?” his former teacher asked.

  “No, sir. Just visiting for a while.”

  “Obviously you know my dad,” Eva said, eager to cut off her father’s interrogation. “And this is my mom, Marion.”

  Luke inclined his head. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, ma’am.”

  “And it’s nice
to finally put a face to the name Eva has been—”

  “Your message didn’t say where you’d gone for dinner,” Eva interjected before her mother could complete her sentence.

  “I was hoping to talk your father into going somewhere else,” Marion confided. “He knows this isn’t one of my favorite places.”

  “But nowhere else does a burger like the Ace,” Ray pointed out.

  “Actually, the burgers you cook on the backyard grill are even better,” his wife noted.

  “The backyard grill that’s currently under eighteen inches of snow?”

  Marion sighed. “Which is why we’re here.”

  “But now we’re going,” Ray said, and Eva sent him a quick smile of thanks.

  Her father didn’t smile back, and Eva suspected that he would be watching the clock as he waited for her to return home after the movie.

  “Was that as uncomfortable for you as it was for me?” she asked Luke when her parents had gone.

  “Actually, it wasn’t as uncomfortable as I’d feared,” he said.

  “At least that brief conversation confirmed that I hit the jackpot with their Christmas present,” she noted.

  “What did you get them?” Luke asked after the waitress had delivered their drinks.

  “An indoor grill.”

  He studied her across the table. “Did you know that you get a sparkle in your eye whenever you talk about the holidays?”

  “I love Christmas,” she said simply.

  He picked up his glass and sipped.

  “And you don’t,” she guessed, feeling disappointed for him that he wasn’t looking forward to the holiday.

  “I don’t dislike it,” he denied. “I just don’t get all excited about it, like...”

  “Like a kid at Christmas?” she finished for him.

  The corner of his mouth turned up in a half smile. “Yeah, like that.”

  “Why not?”

  He shrugged. “I have a lot of happy memories of Christmases from my childhood, but when my parents died, everything changed.”

  She touched a hand to his arm. “I’m sorry.”

  “It was a long time ago,” he said.