by Lori Foster
It, what? He rubbed his neck and admitted, “Maybe.”
“Does she know?”
Nadine knew he wanted her, because he’d shown her a dozen different ways and then some. She knew he liked her company because he’d only left her side for work. And she knew he trusted her. Hell, he’d given her half the responsibility for his cat.
But did she know it was even more than that? Shohn shook his head.
“Is that a denial or confusion?”
“Both?”
Morgan grinned. “Ah, they grow up so fast.”
Gabe came up behind them. “Who grew up?”
“Your mini-me.” Morgan slapped Shohn on the back and almost knocked him over.
“I’m twenty-five, damn it. Long grown.”
Both Gabe and Morgan laughed.
Jordan strolled up. “What are we laughing about?”
“Shohn’s in love.”
Shohn threw up his hands. “Did I say that?”
Gabe elbowed Jordan. “I don’t see him denying it, do you?”
They were all nuts.
Jordan asked, “Who is she?”
“Nadine Moest,” Morgan informed them. “That cute girl that runs the Animal House.”
“I know her,” Jordan said. “She’s terrific with the animals.”
Gabe gave Shohn a skeptical look. “If she’s with Shohn, then how come I saw her going to the gazebo with Garrett?”
“Damn it.” Shohn shoved away from his insane uncles and their unique brand of humor. They called after him, offering absurd advice, encouragement and a lot of guffaws.
As he went into the kitchen, intent on getting through the back door, Amber tried to snag him. “Hold up, Shohn.”
“Can’t.”
Her hands on her hips, Amber insisted, “But this is important.”
“I’ll catch you later,” he promised, and kept going.
Briana was outside. “Hey, Shohn. Will you open this stupid water bottle for me? The cap is stuck.”
More like Briana was too tiny and cute to manage it, but whatever. He slowed only long enough to twist the cap and hand it back.
“Thanks,” she said to his back.
His mom and a few other female relatives hung around an enormous grill as his dad cooked. Aunt Misty tried to ask him how many hamburgers he wanted, but he pretended not to see her.
Breathing deeply of air scented by the lake, hot breezes and suntan lotion, he tried to get it together. Birds sang from tree branches overhead. Along the shoreline, a gaggle of geese honked.
Usually the lake had such a calming effect on him. But not today.
A few yards from the shore, he saw the new gazebo that Garrett and Gabe had built. Nadine stood there, her head tipped back as she listened to Garrett go on about something.
Her silky brown hair was in a thick braid down her back. She wore a peach-colored T-shirt that looked like her own skin except for the words across her magnificent breasts that read All My Kids Have Paws. She held her sandals in one hand, her toes curled in the sun-warmed grass and her jean shorts showed off those awesomely shapely legs.
His heart felt so full, took up so much space, that it made everything else feel uncomfortable—most especially his temper.
With thunderclouds gathering inside him, Shohn stomped toward them.
They were involved in deep conversation and didn’t hear his approach. Garrett said, “Why don’t you stay and eat with us?”
Possessiveness swelled in equal measure to his heart.
Nadine shook her head. “Thank you, but I can’t. I need to get going.”
Without first speaking to him? No way. Shohn stepped up to them, his eyes narrowed, his attitude mean. He growled with menace. “You haven’t even said hi yet.”
Garrett eyed him then did a double-take. He almost split his face with his big grin. “Hey, Shohn. Where’ve you been?”
Before Shohn could answer, Nadine said “Hi” with a distinct lack of emotion, and moved to step around him.
She was leaving.
He caught her arm and pulled her back around. “Hold up.”
She didn’t quite look at him. “I need to get back to Animal House.”
Teeth locking, he kept hold of her arm. “Two minutes.” He glared at Garrett.
That knucklehead held up his hands and backed up two paces. “Hey, I’m not arguing with you. Have at it.” He even held open the door to the gazebo. “For some privacy?”
Shit. Shohn looked up and saw half the damn family peering down the hill at him. Amber stood in front, smiling in smug satisfaction.
“Yeah, okay.” Grudgingly he told Garrett, “Thanks.”
Nadine dug in her heels. “Don’t I get a say in this?”
“No.” He leaned close. “You have a bug up your butt about something—”
Nadine gasped theatrically.
“—and I have no idea why. But I’m smoldering with…well…” He glared at Garrett then snarled, “With stuff better discussed in private, damn it!”
Rigid, her mouth turned down in mulish displeasure, she flipped her braid over her shoulder and stomped into the gazebo.
Garrett whistled, gave Shohn a bow and walked away.
One breath didn’t help, so he tried a second that still had no effect. Refusing to look back at his family, Shohn opened the gazebo door and stepped in.
It was dim inside, the air thick and humid. Proving there’d been some swimming or skiing earlier, wet trunks hung from a few pegs, with one tiny bikini in the mix. Probably Amber’s. Gabe went apoplectic if his daughters wore anything—in front of him—other than a one-piece. Morgan had tried to enforce that rule with Amber, but she’d only laughed at him.
“You could take inventory of wet suits without me.”
Shohn turned to find Nadine behind him, her arms crossed under her breasts, her glittering eyes bright in the shadows.
Damn it, he’d missed her last night. So much. And here she was, all put out because he wanted to talk to her. “What were you doing with Garrett?”
“Mostly trying to get away, but he can be persistent.”
Shohn ran a hand over the back of his neck. “Want me to talk to him?”
She laughed without humor. “No, thank you.”
“What is wrong with you?” He stepped closer. “Okay, so you didn’t want anyone to know we’re seeing each other. I get that. But you’re here.”
“Only to drop off…Louie.”
Had her voice just broken? Shohn bent to try to see her face, but she turned away. “Nadine?”
She shook her head.
Reaching for her shoulders, he asked gently, “What’s wrong?”
As if the whole world could see them, she jumped away from his hold. “Don’t.”
Okay, now that pissed him off. “Don’t what? Touch you? No one can see us.” But knowing his family, they had a pretty good idea of what was happening. Or at least, what Shohn wanted to happen.
“I’m going to miss Louie.” She sniffed, balled her little hands into fists and started to rush from the gazebo.
Shohn blocked her. “What the hell, Nadine? You’ll see him again.”
“Oh, no, no I will not.” She turned on him, her upset morphing into fury. “That deal is done.”
“What deal?”
“Me babysitting so you can…can…”
His brows snapped down and his voice rose. “Can what?” What the hell was she accusing him of?
“Last night,” she said with a curled lip. “You were at the park with three women.”
“Yeah, till damn near midnight. So?”
Gasping, she said with incredulity, “And you expect to just waltz back in here?”
�
��Here, in the gazebo?”
“No!” She turned then turned again to come full circle. “Here, with me.”
“Well, first off, I didn’t waltz, damn it. I walked like I always walk—” But maybe with a little more of a stomp. “And yeah, I didn’t expect you to be the jealous type.”
She huffed. “I’m leaving.”
“No.”
“No?”
Damn, everyone on the lake had probably heard that one word. “Not until you explain what’s going on.”
“You want the nitty-gritty? You want me to spell it out?”
Since he was totally lost… “Yeah.”
“Fine! You can’t two-time me.”
That sounded so absurd, Shohn gave a slow grin. “You’re kidding, right?”
Now she did storm away. Or at least she tried. Stunned, Shohn pulled her right back around again. “You’re not kidding.”
Shoving up to her tiptoes, she said into his face, “You. Were with. Another. Woman!”
“Not with her, just helping her out.” Shohn took a step closer still and replied with just as much ferocity. “Jesus, Nadine, I haven’t wanted another woman since that first time we kissed, I’ve spent every available minute with you, and I sure as hell wouldn’t abandon my cat at your place for a casual hookup!”
To his surprise, Nadine thought about it then gave a demure shrug. “Yeah, I sort of knew that. You’ve been so kind to Louie.”
His eyes flared. “Out of everything I just said that’s what you heard?” He gripped her shoulders, keeping her close. “Forget the cat. I told you that I don’t want any other woman. Just you.”
“Seriously?”
He threw up his hands.
“But you carry a spare set of clothes and an overnight kit—”
“In case I get stuck in the woods. Not because I sleep with every woman I meet.”
She raised a brow in disbelief.
“Now that’s just annoying. I don’t lie, damn it. And for your information, I don’t invite women back to my apartment, either.”
“You invited me.”
“Because you’re different.”
She frowned at him for shouting. “But Garrett said…”
“What? That the lady was flirting with me? She was.”
Nadine crossed her arms. “So why didn’t you set her straight?”
“I tried, but Garrett was there and you’re the one who doesn’t want anyone else to know we’re a couple.”
In a very small voice, she said, “We’re a couple?”
In his mind they were. “I’m damn straight not going to share you, so if that’s what you’re thinking, forget it.”
She licked her bottom lip and, gazing up at him, touched a hand to his chest. “Fine. I’m not sharing, either, then.”
“Fine. Didn’t ask you to. And I’ll repeat it again—I don’t want anyone else!”
Amber stuck her head in, her grin victorious. “You two have rather carrying voices.”
Garrett crowded in behind her, almost knocking her over. “And seriously, Nadine, he wasn’t flirting back. In fact, I wondered why he wasn’t since the lady looked so…” His gaze swept over to his sister and then back to Nadine. “Appealing.”
“You were going to say something obnoxious like “‘doable,’ weren’t you?” Amber shouldered him aside. “I’m not ten, Garrett, I can hear the big-boy talk.”
Making a face, Garrett grumbled, “Well, I don’t want to use it around you, okay?” Louie poked his head in between them then strolled in as if he owned the place. He wound around Shohn’s legs before doing the same to Nadine.
Dismissing her brother, Amber turned back to Shohn and Nadine and announced without apology, “I sort of manipulated you here.”
“And I did my part to keep you here,” Garrett said. “So Shohn, get that blood out of your eyes. No reason to come after me because I wasn’t going after her.” He nodded at Nadine. “Amber clued me in before she got here this morning.”
“See,” Amber said. “Am I your favorite cousin or what?”
After confessing their conspiracy, Amber and Garrett waited as if expecting accolades. Shohn stared at them both, almost heaving with restraint. “Get out.”
Amber saluted him as she turned to leave the gazebo. Garrett winked.
When they were alone again, Nadine found a seat and dropped into it. She didn’t look at him, choosing instead to pet Louie.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t know what they were doing.”
God, she was beautiful. And sweet. And sexy.
Shohn took a seat beside her. “Everyone knows I have a buttinsky family.”
“You have a lovely family—when they aren’t meddling.”
He grinned, remembering the first time she’d said that. “If you don’t mind, I’d really like to tell them.” The cat meowed, and Shohn picked him up. “And Louie, too. He’s part of the deal.”
“Tell them…what?”
He brushed a finger over her jaw, bent and kissed her lightly. “That I love you.”
When Nadine sat there, glassy-eyed and looking somewhat shocked, he said, “Well? What do you say? Can I let my family—or for that matter, all of Buckhorn, even—know that you’re mine?” And just to convince her, he added, “It’ll be safer for Garrett that way.”
“Garrett could never be any real competition for you.”
Shohn couldn’t wait to tell his cousin that. “If you think so, then you must love me, too?”
She launched off her seat to land in his lap, laughing a little, crying some, too. “Yes, I love you, Shohn. So much! I’ve loved you since we were kids.”
Louie complained at being squished between them. He wiggled free with a protesting “Meowrrrr” and crawled up and over Shohn’s shoulder, where he draped himself in lazy splendor.
“I’ve lusted after you since I was a kid.” Shohn tipped up her chin. “I might’ve been slow then, not realizing that it was everything about you that drew me, not just your awesome bod. But now as a man, you can count on me loving you for the rest of my life.”
Nadine hugged him tight. “I guess good things come to those who wait.” And under her breath, she muttered, “Take that, pride.”
Shohn started to ask her what she meant, but then she kissed him, and he forgot about it. Life was good in Buckhorn County.
Given the excited way his family chatted in the yard, they agreed.
* * * * *
ISBN-13: 9781488032912
Shohn by Lori Foster
First published as BUCKHORN EVER AFTER by Harlequin HQN in 2013
This edition published in 2017
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Going home means one las
t chance at the hero of her dreams—don’t miss this fan-favorite novella, previously titled Back to Buckhorn in 2014, from New York Times bestselling author Lori Foster.
For odd-girl-out Zoey Hodge, the best thing about Buckhorn, Kentucky, was leaving it behind. And now she’s back—at least until she can nurse her mother back to health and hightail it out of there anew. But there’s one person she doesn’t mind seeing again. Garrett Hudson was one of the few who was always kind to her. Now he’s a firefighter—still one of the good guys, but with a sexy alpha charm that’s tempting her inner bad girl.
In school, Zoey was smart, witty and unafraid to be herself. Garrett fell hard back then, and he’s falling even faster now. As far as he’s concerned, there are all kinds of reasons Zoey should stick around. Her pet grooming business. Her mom. And the chance for him to prove that he can be her real-life hero in every way that matters…
Garrett
Lori Foster
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER ONE
SUNGLASSES SHIELDING HIS EYES from the hot afternoon sun, Garrett Hudson watched the front of the airport, scanning each female who strode out. He could have gone inside to baggage claim, but then he might’ve missed her. He stayed on the alert; people changed over time, and there was a good chance Zoey would look right past him. Though she’d had a few brief visits back to the area, they hadn’t seen each other in years, and she expected his sister, Amber, to be her ride. But a busted pipe at the bookstore had sidelined Amber, and he got recruited at the last minute, which meant he was running late.
Would he recognize her? How much had she changed? He remembered her as the quirky girl from high school, the one who had danced without caring what others thought, who laughed at the oddest things.
Often the odd girl out, not that she’d ever seemed to care.
He remembered her being kind, always speaking up for the underdog, always befriending the other odd ducks, not because she minded going it alone, but because she knew they did.