Lean on Me

by HelenKay Dimon

  Lean on Me

  By HelenKay Dimon

  Cassidy Clarke once climbed the world’s highest mountains, but after an unexpected illness ends her career she’s back in her hometown, broke and hoping for a little luck. But the townsfolk aren’t exactly putting out a welcome mat for the woman who once snubbed them in the media, despite her apologies now.

  Mitch Anders knows someone has set up camp on the grounds of his plant nursery, and he’s surprised to find his sexy high school crush ducking questions about where she’s staying. Though he’s sworn to stop cleaning up other people’s messes, Mitch offers Cassidy a job and a place to stay—his place. Bed-sharing optional, but definitely welcome.

  Out of options and too attracted to Mitch to keep things platonic, Cassidy says yes to his offer. She wants to get back on her feet financially and start a new career. She never expects to suffer a different kind of fall, one that has her believing Mitch just might bring her something bigger and better than luck.

  39,000 words

  Dear Reader,

  I love October because it’s the perfect month for my favorite season: fall. I adore the sights, sounds, smells and feel of the fall season. Pumpkins and straw bales, colorful mums and burning woodsmoke. And the crisp, cool weather that’s perfect for sitting on the porch and reading a book while sipping hot apple cider.

  This month, we have an excellent variety of books perfectly suited to this very thing, starting with All He Ever Desired, Shannon Stacey’s latest Kowalski family contemporary romance. As always, Shannon delivers a captivating romance with just the right touch of light humor. Joining her in the contemporary romance category is HelenKay Dimon with Lean on Me, the second book in her trilogy. Make sure to check out her first Carina Press title, It’s Not Christmas Without You, and look for We’ll Be Home for Christmas, coming in December 2012.

  If you’re gearing up for Halloween and are in the paranormal mood, check out Regan Summers’s newest novel, Running in the Dark. Debut author Bryn Donovan offers a wonderful paranormal romance in Sole Possession, while Diana Copland’s male/male paranormal romance A Reason to Believe will haunt you long after you’ve read the last page. And joining Diana with a male/male release is L.B. Gregg and her rerelease Men of Smithfield: Seth and David.

  Fans of steampunk romance will be thrilled to see new releases from two of our favorite steampunk authors: Cindy Spencer Pape and Jenny Schwartz. Look for Moonlight & Mechanicals and Courting Trouble to release in mid-October. And as an aside, can I tell you how much I love Jenny’s series name of The Bustlepunk Chronicles? It’s a perfect fit for this series about a spunky young woman in steampunk Australia.

  I’m thrilled to welcome Val Roberts to Carina Press with her newest science-fiction romance novel, The Valmont Contingency. Val and I worked together in the past and I love her voice! And returning to us with another release in the fantasy romance genre is Karalynn Lee. If you’ve never had the pleasure of immersing yourself in one of Karalynn’s worlds, now’s the time to check out Heart of the Dragon’s Realm.

  My team is especially excited about this next book from Julie Rowe. As fans of Downton Abbey, they fell in love with the first book in her new historical romance series set during World War I, Saving the Rifleman.

  If you’re wondering where the romantic suspense is, not to worry, Kate Sherwood offers up a spine-tingling suspense, Shadow Valley. And mystery author Janis Patterson returns with her newest novel, Beaded to Death.

  To round out the month of October, we have two spicy erotic romances to tempt you. With No Reservations, Lilly Cain kicks off her new erotic series, Bad Girls Know. Last, but definitely not least, the book from Christine d’Abo’s Long Shots series I’ve been waiting for. Mouthwatering sex club owner Josh is finally going to get his own happily ever after and you don’t want to miss the mind-blowing chemistry Christine has written to get him there in Calling the Shots.

  We love to hear from readers, and you can email us your thoughts, comments and questions to generalinquiries@carinapress.com. You can also interact with Carina Press staff and authors on our blog, Twitter stream and Facebook fan page.

  Happy reading!

  ~Angela James

  Executive Editor, Carina Press

  www.carinapress.com

  www.twitter.com/carinapress

  www.facebook.com/carinapress

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  About the Author

  Copyright

  Chapter One

  The steady buzz of conversation and bustle of people walking up and down the wide aisles of Thomas Nurseries ceased when Cassidy Clarke walked through the door.

  She stopped after a few steps, waiting for her hair to frizz to ten times its normal size thanks to the shift from the dry, cool October air outside to the humid air inside the greenhouse. To keep from running her hands through it a thousand or so times, she slipped in front of the display of heirloom roses and pretended she couldn’t feel the strands swelling to fill a helmet.

  She also did the I-can’t-see-you-or-hear-you thing with the crowd. The same coping mechanism she’d perfected over the last year. She assumed that’s what the folks from her hometown wanted since half the customers spoke in pseudowhispers that sounded more like yelling as they talked about her. The other half openly stared. She’d heard people mumble her name with the phrase The Fall right after about ten times now. She could only guess that referred to the end of her career…though it also applied to the complete implosion of her self-esteem.

  Ah, it’s good to be back.

  She didn’t really blame them. It was her fault. Well, partly the reporter’s fault, but mostly hers. It had been almost three years since the stupid article came out, since she offended every single one of the 941 residents of Holloway, West Virginia. That would teach her to give an interview from Base Camp at Mount Everest. She’d been sitting there, half delirious from exhaustion and still partially frozen from the punishing descent, when she got on the satellite phone and made the not-so-flattering comments about growing up in Holloway. After all this time she still got scolding e-mails from people who’d known her when she was a “nice girl” which she’d been informed, sometimes in very descriptive language, she no longer was.

  She drummed her fingers against the wooden table and wondered for the hundredth time why she thought returning home was such a great idea. True, she didn’t have a place to stay or money or a climbing career anymore. If she gave herself a second, she could probably work up a pretty good pity party, maybe even crawl under the table and hide. That would give the residents the kind of show they craved. But the whole how-dare-she-show-her-face thing was going to wear thin fast.

  “Cassidy?”

  She turned, ready to bat away any tomatoes that might come flying her way, and stared into a dark gray T-shirt straining against a firm, broad chest. Her gaze wandered up and over an open plaid shirt and a set of impressive shoulders underneath. Then she got to the face and the smile with the sexy cheek dimple.

  Sweet Lord.

  This guy could throw anything at her and she’d be fine so long as she got to stare at him for a few more seconds. Maybe run her fingers over the dark stubble on his chin and cheeks. He had a five-o’clock shadow at two in the afternoon, and, boy, wasn’t that the sexiest thing ever.

  Nice to know her girl parts still worked fine even on an unwanted limited-
calorie diet. “Yes, may I help you with something?”

  “When did you get back into town?”

  Figured he’d have one of those deep, husky voices that vibrated right down to her…yeah, she wasn’t letting her mind wander there. “Yesterday.”

  He put his hands on his lean hips. “Are you staying at the house?”

  Something thunked in her brain.

  His eyebrow lifted. “Cassidy?”

  “I’m sorry.” Boy, was she sorry. “But do we know each other?”

  “We dated in high school.”

  This time her brain clicked off. When it flickered back to life an error message flashed. “What are you talking about?”

  “Well, we would have if you had shown up as promised.”

  She could see every person in the room lean in closer. Even the soft music pumping through the speakers faded into the background. “Uh…”

  His smile grew wider. “You don’t remember?”

  Because it never happened. “No.”

  “I’m heartbroken.”

  “But, I…wait. When…?” She closed her mouth to stop the string of silliness.

  His eyebrow lifted as he put a finger behind his ear. “I didn’t catch all of that.”

  No way would she have left this guy stranded at a movie or anywhere else. Brown hair, sky-blue eyes and a flirty charm that started her knees shaking. Yeah, he fell into the unforgettable category. Even a woman facing the wrong side of luck could see that.

  She glanced behind him at the semicircle of onlookers standing a few feet away. A quick look to her right and left showed the same pattern. Women gathered around, scowling, and some going as far as to point. A few faces seemed familiar. One woman actually frowned and made a tsk-tsking sound as she shook her head like some sort of disappointed elementary school teacher. Cassidy thought that was overkill, but she’d take it because, well, she didn’t have much choice.

  She inhaled the fragrant mix of greenery and flowers and turned back to the guy who had her stomach bouncing to her knees. “Is this some kind of joke?”

  “No.” That dimple of his got sexier as he held out his hand.

  She stared down. Long and lean, even his fingers were attractive. She’d never noticed a guy’s hands before, but that didn’t mean she was going to walk right into a joke and become its big ole butt. “I don’t think—”

  “I’m Mitch Anders.”

  She knew the name. Heck, everyone knew the name. He’d been the star high school quarterback who took the team to the State Championship all those years ago. He’d left town on a scholarship the year after she did, with talk of a professional football career waiting in his future. She lost track of him after that.

  Admittedly, she didn’t pay much attention to anything in school, boys and classes included. She remembered him being cute, but she knew he certainly didn’t look like he did now. Wowsa.

  And they never dated. Nope. Never.

  “I’m Cassidy.”

  He leaned in and gave her a little wink. “Yeah, I know. I already said your name, remember?”

  “What happened to your neck?” She closed her eyes the minute the babble left her mouth. Her breath also caught in her throat. She blamed the fumble of words rather than the feel of his hand folded over hers. “I mean, you, ah, look slimmer. Not that you were ever fat.”

  One of the bystanders laughed.

  Cassidy rushed to cover her most recent verbal disaster, though she feared there would be more. “You were more muscular then. Like, thicker in the shoulder to jaw area. You had a neck, of course. It was just…big.”

  She swore she heard a gurgling sound. Probably had something to do with her drowning in stupidity.

  He held up his free hand as his eyes sparkled with mischief. “That compliment, if that’s what it was supposed to be, was kind of painful.”

  “It didn’t sound too great in my head either.” The same head that was now pounding.

  “But I think I know what you’re saying.”

  “That makes one of us,” she mumbled right before one of the women breached the personal space limit and stepped closer, fixing Cassidy with a glare. She sent a bug-eyed look right back at the lady. Whispering was one thing. Open rudeness called for boundaries.

  “I spent most of my teens and early twenties in the gym. When my football career ended, so did my unreasonable need to be as big as possible. Eventually my neck returned to human size. I’m hoping my brain will one day get there, too,” he said as if he hadn’t noticed the female-to-female silent battle waging around him.

  Cassidy gave her hand a gentle tug but he didn’t let go. Fine, she’d bumble through this on words alone. “I didn’t mean all of that the way it sounded.”

  “I wasn’t offended.” He glanced to his left and nodded a hello to part of their unwanted audience. That fast the crowd of women disbursed. Even the ones on the other side who hadn’t gotten the welcome stepped back. A low mumble that signaled the return to civilized conversation started a second later.

  “Impressive. Teach me how to do that.”

  “It comes with the dimple.” He pointed to it as if she hadn’t seen it.

  Since she had eyes, she had. She also guessed his cool superpower over gossipmongers had more to do with the combination of the face, the shoulders, the chest…and every other sinfully adorable part of him.

  “We didn’t go out.” She blurted out the words because, really, the conversation couldn’t go worse if she weighed them first.

  “I tried.”

  “You…” Somewhere near her an overhead sprinkler went off. She heard the spray and felt the mist. It took all the control she had not to flatten her hair with her palms. Then his words fully registered. “Wait, what?”

  “We were supposed to meet at Schmidt’s Diner for breakfast the day before classes ended your senior year. You never showed.”

  A memory tickled at the back of her mind. When he squeezed her hand then dropped it, the facts came rushing back. “But that was a joke.”

  He tucked those mesmerizing fingers into the front pockets of his faded jeans and rocked back on his heels. “Um, no.”

  He’d been a year behind her and traveling in a pack of rowdy athletes who barely noticed her through the cloud of testosterone swirling around them. They sure didn’t talk to her throughout school. She wasn’t a brain and wasn’t a jock. Not that kind of jock. She’d always preferred the outdoors and quiet, solitary climbs to group sports.

  “You were standing with your friends and laughing and told me it would break your heart if we didn’t share pancakes.” The long-forgotten memory came back spiraling back at her in vivid detail.

  This time he shot her the irresistible, dimpled nod he’d just bragged about. “And you said you’d come.”

  “I certainly didn’t.”

  “True.” He nodded. “Technically you said ‘I’ll get right on that,’ but it’s the same thing.”

  “In what universe?”

  “Uh, this one?”

  “Not really.”

  He waved his hand as if dismissing her argument. “Good news is I’ve gotten over it.”

  “Well, it has been ten years.” And she’d bet he forgot he’d asked her out the second after he did it.

  He leaned against the table with one ankle crossed over the other, oblivious to the water spray putting a soft glisten in his hair. “Are you here for a visit?”

  She wondered what it must feel like not to worry about frizzy hair, to be so unconditionally accepted and so comfortable in his surroundings. The constant attention made her insides jump around. Between the staring and eavesdropping, she was ten seconds away from climbing out of her skin.

  “You mean the nursery?” She switched her weight from foot to foot as she asked the question.

  “I meant Holloway. You know, the same town in West Virginia where you were born.” His eyes narrowed. “You okay?”

  “I’m not exactly the town’s favorite daughter.”

&n
bsp; “I believe the town refers to that incident as The Snub.”

  “What?”

  He shrugged. “People around here like to make up names for thing.”

  Something inside her deflated. She actually felt her shoulders slump. “That’s just fabulous.”

  “You called Holloway a pit. Wait.” He held up a finger and stared at the ceiling for a second as if in deep thought. “I think the term was rotting pit.”

  She winced liked she always did when someone reminded her of the interview. “You read the article.”

  He chuckled. “Everyone read it.”

  From the look of it, every resident of Holloway stood in the same room with her, more than ready to lecture her on her long ago behavior. “Apparently.”

  “You could use a better PR team.”

  Since she barely had money for a sandwich, his insight made her laugh. “Or a quicker brain.”

  “Hungry?”

  Maybe her brain was even slower than she thought. “I feel like I keep saying this, but what?”

  “I assume superathletes eat.”

  “What are we talking about now?” She lowered her voice to a whisper even though he kept talking as if they were the only ones standing in the room.

  “That date. Way I figure it, you still owe me.”

  Right. They’d eat and his girlfriend or wife would come in and make a scene. That would give everyone in town a new reason to hate her. No. Thank. You.

  “You can’t possibly be this hard up for a meal companion,” she said.

  “You make dating sound so sexy.”

  She bit her lip to keep from laughing. “Let’s just say I’ve known some interesting guys.” Then the words registered. “Wait, did you say date?”

  “Tomorrow at seven at Schmidt’s.”

  That bit of news sent her mind racing down another track. “It’s still open? Old Man Schmidt was ninety when we were in school.”

  “And still makes a mean pancake.” Mitch took out his phone. “What’s your number?”

  She beat back a sigh. “I don’t have one.”

  He shot her one of those you’re-so-full-of-it looks men did so well. “Everyone has a phone.”