He was comfortable in his life, and heading up the team for the Festival of Trees would pull him from that comfort zone.
And so would going out with Lauren Michaels.
Chapter Four
Lauren tried not to watch the clock, but when her foreman, Gene, left and then returned to Magleby Mansion, Lauren couldn’t help the restlessness in her muscles.
When would Trent show up?
His paperwork sat in her truck, because she’d been secretly planning to get him alone and ask him to the unveiling for real. As her date.
Aunt Mabel had made it clear Lauren should bring someone, and that the article about the new west wing in the Mansion would be printed in every magazine and paper from here to Forks.
Lauren had added fifteen minutes to her treadmill workout that morning in anticipation of being photographed. And to have one of Hawthorne Harbor’s most eligible—and handsome—bachelors on her arm? Lauren definitely needed to go shopping for a new dress.
But first, Trent needed to show up to sign his contract so she could ask him.
It felt like hours later when she heard a dog bark. Her heart leapt, and she forced herself to casually move over to the window so she could see if a certain man had arrived with his four doggy pals.
Sure enough, Trent stood at the tailgate of his truck, talking to the four dogs who sat in two perfect rows, apparently listening to him.
Lauren smiled at the sight but moved away from the window before anyone saw her standing there. She’d already confessed that she’d asked him out once. She didn’t need to broadcast that her old feelings had grown new life as soon as she’d seen him fumbling with that fence.
And seeing him standing at the back of his truck in his police uniform? Lauren had zero defense against this man.
It seemed to take him forever to make it upstairs, and when he did, he said, “Wow, this place is completely different.”
She watched him gaze around the room where she worked. “We’re on the finishing touches,” she said, drinking in the width of his shoulders in that uniform. Wow. Just wow. “Paint and molding. Then Aunt Mabel has the furniture and art pieces coming in.”
He lifted his hand like he could reach the chandelier, which of course, he couldn't. “I saw a flyer for the unveiling.” He met her eye and didn’t look away. “I don’t have to work that night, so if the invitation still stands, I’d love to come.”
“The whole town is invited,” Lauren said, immediately wishing she could recall the words.
Trent took a step toward her, and her fingers tightened around the paint roller she held. “I was thinking you and I could go together,” he said. “I won’t bring my son. We could go to dinner beforehand, if you’d like.”
Lauren controlled the rate her smile spread her lips. “I do need a date. Aunt Mabel is planning a big to-do, with a photographer, as I found out this morning, for all these articles she’s procured.”
“Ah, I see. So you need me to hang on your arm.” He spoke in a playful voice that set every one of Lauren’s nerves on fire.
“If you want the job for one night,” she said with a shrug, trying to control her pulse. But her heart seemed to be in a race for its life. “Dinner will be served here, and I’d love for you to come and eat with me, dance with me, stand next to me while the photographers take pictures.”
Trent’s smile was slow and easy and absolutely devastating. “I’d like that. You know what will happen if I do that, right?”
Lauren frowned at him. “No. What?”
“With articles and pictures published in newspapers and magazines?”
“Yeah,” Lauren said slowly.
“You don’t spend much time with other women.”
Lauren’s defenses flew into place, and everything she’d fought against as a female general contractor reared its ugly head. “So what?”
“So you don’t understand what kind of gossip that will start.” He settled his weight on his back leg. “I don’t mind. I’ve….” He swallowed, and Lauren was glad she wasn’t the only one who was nervous.
“I’d like to go out with you,” he said. “I’m sorry I didn’t respond well last time. I don’t even remember it. But I…don’t really remember a whole lot for that first year after my wife died.”
Lauren nodded. “It was bad timing, obviously.”
“And for full disclosure, my last, oh, ten dates have been disasters. So I can’t promise anything more than that.”
Lauren laughed, but Trent just gazed at her, that handsome smile on his lips. “Oh, you’re serious.” Lauren sobered and wanted to give him a date that wasn’t a disaster.
“I’m afraid so.” Trent stuck his hands in his pockets and shrugged.
“Well, I’d still very much like to go out with you,” she said. “We can go earlier than the unveiling, if you’d like. That way, if we don’t get along, you won’t have to endure the gossip.” Lauren really hoped they’d get along, because if he wasn’t the one on her arm, she wouldn’t even know who to ask.
“Oh, I don’t think we need to worry about getting along.” Trent gave her an easy smile. “Let me look at my work schedule and talk to my sister. Maybe I can get your number and let you know?”
“Your sister?” Lauren asked, wondering where she’d even left her phone.
“She watches Porter for me when I go out.” Trent extracted his phone from his pocket and looked at her expectantly.
She dictated her number for him, and he said, “I sent you a text.”
“Great. When I find my phone, I’ll add you.”
“And just to be sure, you really don’t have a boyfriend, right?”
Lauren heard the insecurity in his voice, and she shook her head. “No boyfriend.” Not for at least five years. But she kept that to herself. Trent didn’t need to know about her “marriage” to her company, as her last boyfriend had accused her of.
“It’s a semi-formal event,” she said. “I’m wearing a fancy dress.”
His eyes slid down her body, and Lauren felt every inch of his gaze. “Will you be wearing heels?” he asked.
“Probably.”
“Can I wear my uniform? Is that formal enough?”
“Of course.” The very idea of having his uniformed presence next to her at the unveiling next week had her stomach shaking. She finally remembered why he’d come to the Mansion. “I have your contract in my truck.”
She set her paint roller in the tray and stepped in front of him, very aware of the nearness of him as he followed her downstairs.
“Lauren?” Aunt Mabel stepped out of the ballroom before Lauren could leave the Mansion. Her gaze flickered to Trent. “Hello, Trent. What are you doing here?”
“I’m hiring Lauren to do my back deck,” he said, keeping a healthy distance between them. “You’re looking good.” He stepped over to Mabel and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “The west wing looks beautiful.”
“That’s all Lauren,” Mabel said, a glint in her eye that Lauren recognized. A matchmaking glint. Little did Aunt Mabel know that Lauren had managed to get a date on her own this time.
“The contract is in my truck,” she said. “Then I’ll get right back to painting.”
“Oh, the paint can wait.” Mabel turned and started back into the ballroom. “Come try the cheesecakes for the unveiling. Trent, you can too, if you have time.”
Lauren wanted to spend more time with him, but she didn’t want to do it under the watchful eye of her great aunt.
“Thank you, Mabel,” he said diplomatically without committing to anything and followed Lauren outside.
“You don’t have to stay,” she said. “Can I pat the dogs today?” She got the contract out of her glove box and handed it to him.
“Sure, go ahead.”
She gave all four dogs a good rub while he signed and initialed. “How’d you learn to train dogs?” she asked.
“I’ve taken classes from K9 Units,” he said. “Went to Chicago for a three-week i
ntensive training and just started doing it.”
Lauren nodded and took the contract back. “I’ll start sourcing the supplies,” she said. “Payment on the first day.”
“I’ve got it here.” He pulled a slip of paper from his back pocket and handed it to her.
She took the check without looking at it. “Great. Thank you.”
“Tell your aunt thank you, but I can’t stay.”
Simultaneous disappointment and relief hit Lauren in the chest. “I’ll tell her. Thanks for driving up here.”
“Oh, it got me out of the office.” He smiled at her and walked around his truck to the driver’s door. “Say good-bye to the pretty lady, guys.”
One of the dogs barked, and Trent grinned at her before getting in his truck and driving away.
Lauren watched him go, a blissful sigh slipping through her lips even as her pulse rioted. He’d asked her out. She really hoped he could arrange everything with his son so they could go out before the unveiling, because two weeks was entirely too long to wait to see Trent again.
“What are you looking at?”
Lauren spun to find Gene standing on the top step. “Nothing.”
“There’s paint drying in a tray upstairs.”
“I just had a new client come sign his paperwork,” she said. “And now my aunt wants me to taste cheesecake. Then I’ll get back to painting.”
Gene looked down the drive again, as if Lauren had lied about what she was looking at. She marched past him, determined to keep her crush on the gorgeous police officer a secret for just a little longer.
* * *
Lauren arrived in the parking lot for Wedding Row five minutes after the agreed meeting time. She didn’t want to be here, but when Gillian’s enthusiastic face filled her window, Lauren couldn’t help laughing.
“Come on,” Gillian said as Lauren opened her door and got out. “We’re buying a dress today.” Gillian spoke like buying a dress was akin to winning a million dollars.
But Lauren didn’t have a date with Trent on the horizon, and the last thing she wanted to spend her Saturday morning on was shopping. But the unveiling was only a week away, and it seemed like that would be the next time she saw Trent.
So she better get something to really wow him. He had texted a little bit, but he wasn’t particularly loquacious and didn’t seem interested in using his device to get to know her or reveal anything about himself.
Gillian linked her arm through Lauren’s. “Come on, girl. Maybe you’ll meet your knight in shining armor next week.”
“Maybe,” Lauren said, a twinge of guilt pulling through her. She’d kept Trent a secret from everyone, which honestly wasn’t hard. Her all-male crew didn’t care who she went out with. Neither did Camo, her lizard. And while she talked with Gillian every day and they’d arranged this shopping trip, Lauren hadn’t said anything.
As Gillian opened the door to the wedding dress shop, Lauren felt like she’d been punched in the gut. “Do they even have party dresses here?”
“Of course they do.” Gillian glided into the store as if she’d been there countless times before, which of course, she probably had. “My friend needs a dress for the Magleby Mansion unveiling next weekend,” she said to a dark-haired woman, who scanned Lauren.
“Size six?”
“Yes,” Lauren said, wondering how the woman knew. “It will probably have to be altered in the bust.”
“We’ll see.” She gave Lauren a warm smile. “I’m Amanda. What colors were you thinking?”
“She’s the general contractor over the whole build,” Gillian said, much too loudly. “And she likes to blend in.” She nudged Lauren forward, but her face burned with embarrassment, and she’d forgotten the question.
“Are you looking to blend in or stand out?” Amanda asked, and Lauren had no idea how to answer. Aunt Mabel would probably want her to stand out.
“I guess I could wear something a little brighter.”
“With your hair and skin tone, you’d look great in teal. And I happen to have something that just came in.” She moved over to a rack and pulled a dress from seemingly nowhere. It had a hemline that would barely reach her knees and absolutely no straps.
“There’s no way I have enough goods to hold that up,” she said.
“Our seamstresses are miracle workers.” Amanda folded the dress over her arm. “I have something in cream too. And this black might be perfect. It’s a standout and a blend-in all in one.”
They started with the teal one, and sure enough, Lauren’s chest was nowhere big enough to fill it out. She also thought it was so bright she’d blind anyone who looked her way.
The cream dress fell awkwardly to her calf and had a layer of lace over the whole thing that made her feel like she was going to marry a man she’d never met.
As Amanda helped her step into the black dress, Lauren could tell this one would be perfect. It hugged her waist and flared to her knee from there, with beautiful roses that adorned the waistline.
The bust would need to be taken in, but with the thick straps over the shoulders, it at least looked like it could be altered to fit.
“And if you wore a spunky pair of colored heels, you’d steal the show.”
“I want to see,” Gillian called from the other side of the door, and Lauren stepped out of the oversized dressing room to show her best friend.
Gillian gasped and covered her mouth, her blue eyes flitting from Lauren’s shoulder to her knee to her waist. “It’s awesome, Lauren.” She brushed her blonde bangs out of her eyes. “You can get it altered in time, right?”
“Of course.” Amanda looked at Lauren. “Is this the one?”
“Yes,” Lauren and Gillian said at the same time, and Amanda called someone over to help her pin and measure.
“You’re definitely going to sweep someone off their feet,” Gillian gushed as Lauren stepped up to the counter to pay.
“I’ve already got a date,” Lauren said, deciding that since shopping had been so easy, she’d share her secret with Gillian.
“You what?” Gillian stepped to Lauren’s side and stared at her until Lauren turned toward her. “Who is it?”
Lauren flicked her gaze to the clerk, who could certainly calculate tax and listen at the same time. So she gave a quick shake of her head, a system of communicating she and Gillian had worked out long ago.
As soon as they hit the sidewalk, Gillian said, “Girl, you better start talking.”
Lauren gathered her hair into a ponytail and said, “I think I want a burger for lunch.”
“No way.” Gillian shook her head. “They’re altering the bust on that dress. Not the waist.”
Lauren couldn’t argue, so she went into the trendy bistro with Gillian and stuck to the salad side of the menu. They’d barely ordered before Gillian asked, “So who are you going to the unveiling with?”
“Promise not to tell? Or act weird. Or shriek,” Lauren tacked onto the end.
Gillian looked offended. “I would never shriek in a bistro.”
Lauren shook her head, holding onto Trent’s name just a little longer. Right when it looked like Gillian would launch herself across the table and throttle her, Lauren said, “It’s Trent Baker.”
Gillian shrieked, just as Lauren expected, drawing the interest of everyone in the bistro on that busy Saturday.
“Gillian,” Lauren hissed, heat rushing to her face. How was she going to handle the press? Or the gossip once everyone in town saw her and Trent together?
“How did this happen?” Gillian had never looked so alive. “I mean, you asked him out years ago and he said no.”
“He actually didn’t say anything,” Lauren said, the memory of her first invitation as vivid in her mind as if she’d done it yesterday. “He said he doesn’t remember me asking him. He’d just returned to town after the death of his first wife. I shouldn’t have even asked.” She shrugged like she hadn’t thought about his rejection for months afterward.
“I just can’t…Trent Baker.” Gillian spoke as if the man was the white whale, untouchable somehow. “And how are we feeling about his son?”
Lauren hadn’t let herself think about it too much. “I don’t know. I don’t even know if Trent and I will make it past one date. He said the last ten he’s been on have been disasters.”
“Yeah, because the last woman he went out with was Kathy Winston.”
“What? She’s been dating Bruce for months. Oh.” Suddenly his obsessive questions about her having a boyfriend made so much sense. Her heart beat out sympathy for the man, and she spent lunch detailing how she and Trent had agreed to attend the unveiling together.
Even with the shopping, it honestly was one of the best Saturdays of her life. So far. Because next Saturday would hopefully be the one where she and Trent made a love connection.
Chapter Five
Trent could barely find a spare minute to eat, let alone make time for a date with Lauren. He disliked that, but he wanted to do a good job on the Festival of Trees security plan for Chief Herrin, so he devoted his time to that, helping Porter get his letters going the right way, and taking care of the dogs.
By the time the new week rolled around, Trent went over the plan with Lou one more time, then Jason, and finally, he knocked on the Chief’s door.
“Yep.”
Trent found Adam behind his desk, his fingers twisting a Rubix cube. The man didn’t even look at the puzzle, just turned and flipped the cube while he gazed at Trent.
“You okay, Chief?” Trent knew Adam completed Rubix cubes when he had particularly difficult problems to work through. Trent’s yard was so immaculate for the same reason. He couldn’t stand to be idle, because being inside his mind wasn’t that great of a place to be.
“Just thinking,” Adam said, setting the cube on the edge of his desk. “You’ve got the plan?” He extended his hand to take the folder of information Trent had prepared.
He passed it over and took a seat across from the Chief. “We’ll need six additional men,” Trent said. “I figured that was okay, because we’ve hired seasonally for our festivals before.”
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