by Lori Foster
“I can’t imagine losing a brother.”
That stalled Carrie’s animosity. “Gus is gone forever.”
“I know.” She’d been living with that fact for a very long time. “The thing is, Cody is still here.”
“I know.” She looked up at Garrett. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you—”
“He’s on the wrong path.” Zoey regained her attention by saying, “And you know it.”
She shook her head. “No, he just—”
“You might be the only family he has who knows it. He needs you, Carrie. He needs someone to care enough to not make excuses.”
Carrie blanched. “I don’t—”
“He needs you to start paying attention.”
Taking that like a slap, Carrie said, “I’m not responsible for what he did!”
“Just as I wasn’t responsible for what Gus did?”
When Carrie’s bottom lip quivered, Zoey patted her hand.
“Believe me, I wish I had it to do over. I would have called the sheriff before Gus left. I would have called you. I would have…I don’t know. Taken his keys.”
At that, Carrie shared a tearful laugh with Zoey, because they both knew that hadn’t been an option. For as long as she’d known him, Gus was a rage waiting to happen.
Taking the shared laugh as an opening, Zoey reached out for Carrie’s other hand, too. “Unfortunately, we don’t get do-overs. All we have is here and now, and your other brother, Cody, is here, now.”
Carrie whispered, “I don’t know what to do.”
Looking over her shoulder at Garrett, Zoey said, “I bet you have a few ideas.” She couldn’t be wrong about that.
He looked surprised to be drawn in, but reassured her by agreeing. “I’ve been thinking about it.”
Zoey beamed at him. “I knew you would.”
“Yeah, you know me pretty well.” He rested a hand on her shoulder. “I can’t guarantee anything, but it’s possible we could convince the sheriff to let Cody do some community time at the fire station. I wouldn’t go easy on him. He needs to apologize to Zoey and rebuild the shed he burned. He needs to learn there are repercussions to the things he does.”
“And,” Zoey added, “he needs to understand the harm fire can do. It’s not something he can play with.”
Garrett nodded. “It won’t be a picnic, but it’d be better than time in juvie.”
Tears welled in Carrie’s eyes. “You’d do that for him?”
So pleased that she almost couldn’t contain herself, Zoey said, “Of course he would.”
Garrett drew Zoey closer. “You’d have to convince your parents, and Carrie, we both know that’s not going to be easy.”
More resolute now, Carrie said, “Somehow I’ll take care of it.” She swallowed hard and admitted, “They mostly don’t want to be bothered.”
“He has you,” Zoey told her. “Right?”
“Yes.” Two shuddering breaths later, she managed a small smile and said to Zoey, “I don’t understand you.”
“You don’t need to, as long as you understand Cody.”
This time it was Carrie who squeezed Zoey’s hands. “Thank you.”
Content with how that had gone, Zoey watched her walk away.
Until Garrett tipped up her chin. “You were saying something about decisions?”
Wow, he’d jumped right back to that. “Yeah, um, decisions.”
“I get that you decided to help Cody.”
“Yes. That was one of my decisions. He’s still young and his family is not easy—”
“And you know something about that, don’t you?”
She did. “I knew you’d understand.”
His smile seemed to touch her heart. “What else, honey?”
“I decided about you, too.” If she didn’t hurry it up he’d miss the entire fund-raiser because of her. “I don’t mean to rush you, but I’ve decided that I want more.”
He kissed her bottom lip, touched his tongue to her. “More with you? I like that idea.”
Her heart stammered then stalled. “Not just sex.” Then she amended, “Not that sex with you is ever just sex. That’s not what I mea—”
“I love you, Zoey.”
Her jaw dropped, but she recovered quickly. “That’s what I was trying to say to you!”
Sinking his hands into her hair, he kissed her more urgently.
“You two are causing a scene.”
They broke apart to see Shohn grinning down at them.
Garrett said, “Go help Amber and Noel with the damn corn.”
“Right.” He winked at Zoey, clapped Garrett on the shoulder and headed toward the booth.
Glad for the reprieve, Zoey rushed to say, “I’m not trying to pressure you. You have a house and I have a house and my mom is moving in and… Everything doesn’t have to change right away. We could ease into things. Keep doing what we’ve been doing, because that’s really working for me.”
“Me, too.”
“We could keep taking it one day at a time…”
Garrett hauled her close and kissed her quiet. “One day at a time works for me—as long as here on out, each day is with you.” Then he said it again. “Because I love you.”
She squeezed him tight. “I am so glad I came back to Buckhorn.”
“It’s where you belong,” Garrett whispered. “Here—with me.”
* * *
AMBER WAS SO BUSY watching her brother, she kept bumping into Noel. Not a terrible thing at all.
When Shohn came around the booth and started tying on an apron, she said, “I love it when a plan comes together.”
Shohn gave her a look. “Been scheming again, huh?”
Smug, she said, “Think maybe we could make it a double wedding?”
He glanced at Noel. “You getting married?”
Noel choked.
Amber felt her face go hot, but she ignored it. “I meant you and Nadine, Garrett and Zoey.”
“Hey, I’m game. Nadine and I are ready to set the date anyway. But you’ll have to corral the others.”
“I can handle that.” She smiled…until she saw Noel shaking his head at her.
So he thought she was a busybody? So what. She gave him a look of disdain and asked, “Want to dance?”
Shohn’s brows went up.
Noel just smiled as he handed his tongs to Shohn. “Thought you’d never ask.”
* * * * *
ISBN-13: 9781488032929
Garrett by Lori Foster
First published as BACK TO BUCKHORN by Harlequin HQN in 2013
This edition published in 2017
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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F
rom New York Times bestselling author Lori Foster comes a fan-favorite novella about first flings and second chances. Previously published as A Buckhorn Summer in 2015.
Lisa Sommerville’s wild one-night-stand was completely out of character for the workaholic businesswoman. So when she arrives in Buckhorn, Kentucky to spend a summer rethinking her career, she’s stunned to find that Gray Neely has stepped out of her steamy memories and taken up residence in her hometown. What’s more, the laid-back ex-cop wants to pick up where they left off.
Lisa has been on Gray’s mind every day since that mind-blowing encounter. He was reeling from a tragedy in the line of duty, and their connection was instant and intense. Still is. But sleepy Buckhorn is a million miles from her corporate world. And he has one sweet, hot summer to prove they have a future there, together…
Gray
Lori Foster
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER ONE
ONE MONTH AGO TODAY, she’d awakened disoriented in a posh hotel in Chicago. Exhausted. Tired of travel.
Lonely.
For the longest time she’d stared at the ceiling, getting her bearings and knowing she needed a break. Her stomach had burned from too much stress. Her neck hurt from the small, flat pillow.
Lisa Sommerville had known instinctively that she needed a change, so she’d gotten up, dressed, gone down to the bar and…
“Lighten up,” her cousin Shohn said from behind her as he turned the small outboard motor on the fishing boat, steering around a sunken log and aiming toward the marina where they’d gas up and grab bait. “You’ll have fun. Guaranteed.”
On the seat in front of her, the bright morning sunlight making a halo of his fair hair, her brother, Adam, grinned. “No thinking about work, remember? If we catch you drifting off, Dad gave us permission to drop you in the lake.”
Lisa looked over the side of the boat. The water was green and cool and this early in the day, fairly smooth. “I wasn’t.”
“Fibber,” Adam said.
“That’s all you think about,” Shohn agreed. “But not today.”
She didn’t bother to correct them, to explain that her thoughts had been on her very out-of-character behavior from a month ago. On the sizzling night she’d had. On the fantasy that had come to life and still, every other minute, replayed in her mind.
“Lisa,” Adam warned, again mistaking her quiet.
She looked up at the blinding sunrise splashing colors across a cloudless sky. “I’ll probably take a dip on my own later.” She slanted a look at her brother. “On my own, without your help, after I’ve put on my suit.”
“You could swim in that,” Shohn said, indicating her outfit of shorts and a blue T-shirt.
She turned her narrowed gaze on him, prompting him to grin like the sinner she knew him to be. They all three had dark eyes, but the similarities ended there. She was medium height, with medium-length honey-blond hair and a medium figure. Shohn and Adam both topped six feet. Adam’s hair was far fairer than hers, and Shohn’s was inky black.
Both men lived and worked in Buckhorn, Shohn as a park ranger, Adam as a gym teacher.
She loved Buckhorn as well, but until that fateful night in Chicago, she’d also loved traveling the country, working 24-7, earning her barracuda rep in the business world.
Icy water hit her legs, making her gasp.
“Concentrate,” Shohn said, flicking his now wet fingers at her face, “or I’ll grab a bucketful of water instead of just a handful.”
“I was concentrating!” She brushed water droplets off her heated thighs.
“On fun,” Adam stressed. “Not work.”
Because they’d just reached the dock, Lisa didn’t reply. Without waiting for the boat to steady, she stood and leaped out, a rope in hand, and secured the front of the small boat to a cleat.
Shohn did the same to the back. Adam, holding their bait bucket, hauled himself out behind her.
Every woman around stared. Always. Her cousin and brother had that effect wherever they went. Between them, she felt insubstantial, inadequate, even bland.
Which in part explained why she’d glommed onto business. In a family full of prime physical specimens, male and female alike, she was just so-so.
Except for when it came to brains and drive. Then she excelled.
Or used to. Now she considered changing it all. She could join her family in the slower, easier life of Buckhorn County, Kentucky. Doing what, she didn’t yet know.
Fishing today. But tomorrow? She was not an idle person.
“We lost her again.”
Sure, she needed to slow down. Her health and her very recent aberrant behavior proved she needed that change. No one in her family yet knew of her tension, her migraines, her sleepless nights.
Only that one man, a man she’d never see again—
She screeched when Shohn scooped her up and headed to the side of the dock. “Ohmigod, don’t you dare!”
“You need to be dunked.”
Knotting one hand in his dark hair, the other in his worn T-shirt, she growled, “Try it and you’re going in with me. Or at least your hair is.” She gave a tug to prove her point.
Wincing, laughing, Shohn said, “I’ll jump us both in.”
“No!” Okay, sure, her lake clothes, as she called them, wouldn’t be harmed, but she’d braided her hair and didn’t want it soaked. “Seriously,” she said more calmly. “No.”
Standing beside them, Adam crossed his arms over his bare chest. “Then no more brooding over business.”
Lisa blew out a huff of breath. “If you must know, I wasn’t.”
“Bull.”
“I was thinking of…a guy.” There, she thought. Chew on that.
Both men laughed.
Laughed.
Was it so unheard of for her to be socially interested and interesting? Admitting the pathetic truth, she knew that yes, it was. At thirty, she’d never had a single serious romantic relationship.
She’d had some dates. She’d had some sex.
She’d had that one amazing night that would forever leave her warm and wanting…for more, more, more.
But she’d never been involved. And damn it, that hurt.
Mouth tight and brows angled down, Lisa turned her face away.
The laughter died.
Shohn slowly lowered her to her feet, obliging her to release his hair.
Without a word, Adam slung an arm around her shoulders and again got them heading along the dock to the gravel lot alongside the boat launch and then up the worn path to the small renovated structure that sold anything and everything boaters might need.
Hoping to clear the air, Lisa asked, “When did this change?” She remembered the structure being smaller, more weatherworn and utilitarian. Now it looked like a regular two-story house, complete with flowers planted around the exterior.
The double front doors, standing open, and the picnic tables placed all around the area made it clear the store remained, but otherwise it could have been any other home in Buckhorn.
“Rosemary sold the marina some years back to a married couple who did the additions. But they sold it a few weeks ago and retired to Arizona to be nearer to their grandkids. A new guy stepped right in and the place never closed, not even for a day. It was pretty seamless.”
“Huh.” So it had changed hands twice and she’d been unaware. Crazy how detached she’d been from her home. “I like the addition of a second level. Does the owner live here?”
“I dunno,” Shohn said. “I’ve only met him a few
times. He’s friendly, but not real talkative, which I guess makes sense given he’s a retired cop.”
“You’ll probably like him,” Adam teased. “All the single ladies seem to.”
Sure enough, as they stepped into the building, Lisa saw a trio of bikini-clad women huddled around the front counter and register, giggling in amped-up flirt mode.
She snorted. It was barely eight a.m., but the ladies were already on the prowl. The new guy must be interesting. Then again, Buckhorn was such a small, intimate town that anyone new got plenty of attention.
Shohn headed for the live bait selection, Adam went to fill the cooler with drinks and she moseyed down an aisle to pick up sunscreen. As a kid, she’d kept a light tan. As a woman who’d spent most of her time traveling from one business meeting to the next, her skin rarely saw prolonged exposure to the sun.
She remembered fishing trips from her youth and knew the guys would keep her out for hours, maybe right through lunch. She grabbed the sunscreen and a straw hat.
Heading for the snacks, she turned, took two steps—and gasped.
So did the man standing in front of her.
The big, sinfully gorgeous man.
The man with the amazing bod and killer smile and devour-you sex drive.
The man from a month ago.
Her…fantasy.
* * *
GRAY NARROWED HIS EYES, but the vision didn’t change. Big brown eyes locked on his. Those sweet, lush lips parted. Color filled her cheeks.
It was her, but an all-new version of her. A softer, sexier version, though how that was possible, he didn’t know, because every night for a freaking month he’d remembered her as so damned sexy, he felt obsessed.
Neither of them spoke. Hell, he didn’t know what to say.
Let’s go for round two didn’t seem appropriate.
Shohn Hudson and Adam Sommerville, cousins he’d met before, suddenly flanked her.
Cocking a brow, expression cautious, Shohn asked, “Problem?”
Yeah, about a hundred of them. Gray didn’t know her name, didn’t know why she was here, didn’t know if she remembered him or was horrified at seeing him again or if, God willing, she’d like to get reacquainted.