Книга - Marrying Money

Marrying Money
SUSAN MEIER


Maybe every single woman in the tiny town of Wilmore would marry handsome millionaire Tanner McConnell for his money, but not beautician Bailey Stephenson. First of all, she'd heard enough gossip in her own beauty shop about Tanner's past to scare her senseless.Second, she had deep roots in town–and Tanner hated Wilmore! And third, she was crazy about the man….Tanner knew that Bailey needed a hometown husband, but he wasn't going near an altar while in Wilmore. Yet he felt something for sweet, strong Bailey he hadn't felt in years. Something that might just make the richest man in town rethink his reasons for never, ever falling in love!









Every darned woman in the world was attracted to Tanner.


And Bailey wasn’t any different, except that she had dreams and visions, and they didn’t include settling down with a man.

At least, not yet. She was only twenty-five. Not that Tanner would want anything permanent with her, anyway. Since he and his ex had split up years ago, he hadn’t dated anybody for longer than a month. And those he had dated didn’t come from West Virginia. They were New York socialites or the daughters of influential men or executive directors of charities who donated back their salaries because they didn’t need them.

Bailey was just about certain that Tanner wouldn’t consider dating the town beautician.

In the end she wouldn’t be good enough.

And plus, there were the rumors….


Dear Reader,

Get Caught Reading. It sounds slightly scandalous, romantic and definitely exciting! I love to get lost in a book, and this month we’re joining the campaign to encourage reading everywhere. Share your favorite books with your partner, your child, your friends. And be sure to get caught reading yourself!

The popular ROYALLY WED series continues with Valerie Parv’s Code Name: Prince. King Michael is still missing—but there’s a plan to rescue him! In Quinn’s Complete Seduction Sandra Steffen returns to BACHELOR GULCH, where Crystal finally finds what she’s been searching for—and more….

Chance’s Joy launches Patricia Thayer’s exciting new miniseries, THE TEXAS BROTHERHOOD. In the first story, Chance Randell wants to buy his lovely neighbor’s land, but hadn’t bargained for a wife and baby! In McKinley’s Miracle, talented Mary Kate Holder debuts with the story of a rugged Australian rancher who meets his match.

Susan Meier is sure to please with Marrying Money, in which a small-town beautician makes a rich man rethink his reasons for refusing love. And Myrna Mackenzie gives us The Billionaire Is Back, in which a wealthy playboy fights a strong attraction to his pregnant, single cook!

Be sure to Get Caught Reading!






Mary-Theresa Hussey

Senior Editor




Marrying Money

Susan Meier





www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)


I would like to dedicate this book

to Karen Taylor Richman for all her help over the years.




Books by Susan Meier


Silhouette Romance

Stand-in Mom #1022

Temporarily Hers #1109

Wife in Training #1184

Merry Christmas, Daddy #1192

* (#litres_trial_promo)In Care of the Sheriff #1283

* (#litres_trial_promo)Guess What? We’re Married! #1338

Husband from 9 to 5 #1354

* (#litres_trial_promo)The Rancher and the Heiress #1374

† (#litres_trial_promo)The Baby Bequest #1420

† (#litres_trial_promo)Bringing up Babies #1427

† (#litres_trial_promo)Oh, Babies! #1433

His Expectant Neighbor #1468

Hunter’s Vow #1487

Cinderella and the CEO #1498

Marrying Money #1519

Silhouette Desire

Take the Risk #567


SUSAN MEIER

has written category romances for Silhouette Romance and Silhouette Desire. A full-time writer, Susan has also been an employee of a major defense contractor, a columnist for a small newspaper and a division manager of a charitable organization. But her greatest joy in her life has always been her children, who constantly surprise and amaze her. Married for over twenty years to her wonderful, understanding and gorgeous husband, Michael, Susan cherishes her role as a mother, wife, sister and friend, believing them to be life’s real treasures. She not only cherishes those roles as gifts, she tries to convey the beauty and importance of loving relationships in her books.










Contents


Chapter One (#u0487224e-08b1-5491-8f83-224052ad4df6)

Chapter Two (#ub81b7f1e-86da-5028-9afa-7684cba5e9ad)

Chapter Three (#ud8649d4f-173f-5929-8b6c-1013ffe41d9a)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)




Chapter One


“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Tanner McConnell mumbled as he drove his Mercedes into a parking space in the lot of the newly remodeled church hall in Wilmore, West Virginia.

“What was that, dear?”

Recognizing he’d grumbled loud enough for his mother to hear, Tanner cleared his throat, pretending his unintentional comment had been a cough. “Nothing, Mother. Just a little frog in my throat, that’s all.”

He got out of the car and rounded the hood. Because it was a warm June evening, and fifteen minutes remained before dinner would be served, people gathered in small conversation groups around the huge oaks and flower beds that surrounded the gray block building. Most of the men yanked at their collars, uncomfortable in their suit jackets, white shirts and ties, while their wives virtually glowed in semiformal wear and fancy upswept hairdos.

As Tanner walked around the front of the car to the passenger side, his father exited the back seat of the Mercedes and opened the car door for Tanner’s mother.

“Don’t buy that cough story,” Jim McConnell said. “What Tanner mumbled was that he can’t believe we talked him into coming to this celebration dinner.” He offered a hand to his wife to assist her from her seat. “Thinks he’s too good for us now,” he added in a stage whisper, then winked.

Tanner was a replica of his green-eyed, sandy-haired father, who remained as muscled and fit as he had been in his youth when he’d taught Tanner to play football. Jim always claimed Tanner’s mother, Doris, was still as beautiful as the day he met her. Looking at her, dressed in the coral-colored cocktail suit she had purchased on a trip to New York City with Tanner a few months before, her dark auburn hair tucked into a neat chignon and just the right amount of makeup accenting her round brown eyes, Tanner believed it. He had always been proud of his parents and proud of his life. He simply didn’t want to live it in Wilmore.

“You know that’s not it,” Tanner replied. “It’s just that I really don’t care to see Emmalee, that’s all.”

“I don’t know why. Your divorce was final years ago,” Doris said, adjusting her son’s paisley tie. “Emmalee’s married to the mayor now. She moved on years ago.”

“And so did I,” Tanner said. Though everyone else wore a standard-fare black or navy suit, Tanner didn’t feel out of place in the expensive cocoa-brown suit and ivory shirt he’d had specially made for him, because he knew people in this town expected him to look the part of who he was. “In case either of you has forgotten, I just sold my trucking company for a small fortune. I’ve more than moved on. I’m moving on again.”

“We know, dear,” his mother said, using her calm, conciliatory voice. “You’re a rich, successful ex-college football star who blew out his knee his first game in the pros and used his compensation money to start a trucking company that you sold for millions. We haven’t forgotten any of that.” She paused long enough to smile at her son. “But you’re also not married.”

“And we don’t have grandbabies,” Jim put in, peeking around Doris as the trio began to walk across the parking lot to the crowded, noisy church hall.

“Oh,” Tanner said, sighing with understanding. “So that’s what this is all about.” He looked over at the town celebration with new eyes. “You think I’ll find a wife tonight.”

“No better place to find a good woman than your hometown,” Jim said.

“There are at least fifteen lovely young women who are unattached and who would make you a fabulous wife,” Doris added as if spouse shopping were an everyday occurrence and Tanner shouldn’t be insulted that his parents had brought him to their version of a matrimony mall.

Over his mother’s head, Tanner scowled at his father.

“Hey, don’t make faces at me. Your mother and I are in this together,” Jim said.

Passing the small groups clustered in front of the entry, Tanner and his parents issued greetings and exchanged pleasantries but didn’t actually stop to talk. They walked to the admission window immediately inside the open door of the church hall. A petite blonde was collecting tickets.

Wearing an ink-blue sequined tank dress with a filmy, frilly ruffle at the hemline about five inches above her knees, and earrings and a necklace that seemed to be the exact hue of her dress, she looked as though she should be on television or on a magazine cover, not welcoming patrons to a dinner dance in a tiny town in the Appalachian Mountains.

“Hello, Mr. McConnell, Mrs. McConnell…” She paused and looked at Tanner. “Tanner,” she added softly.

Her voice reminded him of a lullaby. Wistful, light, airy and full of warmth. Her eyes were the color of wild violets. Her thick yellow hair was piled on her head in some sort of fancy hairdo that made him think of a Greek goddess. Strands slipped and curled from the main mass, and a long strip hung from the back like a silken waterfall. Spellbound, he stared at her.

“You remember Bailey Stephenson,” his mother said. “She owns the beauty shop.”

Tanner smiled. Of course…who else would have hair that looked like a work of art? “I’m sorry, I don’t remember you,” he said, then extended his hand, suddenly awfully darned glad his parents had insisted he attend this celebration of the town’s triumphant renewal after the unexpectedly severe spring flooding.

She took Tanner’s hand, her smooth, thin palm sliding along the calluses of his much bigger, much stronger palm, and Tanner could swear his heart stopped. She had skin like warm velvet and small, delicate, feminine bones that reminded him that he was not only considerably larger than she was, but also that he was a man and she was a woman.

Heat tingled through him. Mesmerized, confused, he gazed into her eyes, and he couldn’t seem to let go of her hand. With women throwing themselves at his feet at every turn, some because of his money, some because of his looks, it had been a long, long time since Tanner had spontaneously reacted to a woman. Not only did he like the feeling, but he wanted it to go on forever.

“I didn’t think you would remember me,” Bailey said, smiling at him, not like a woman who was flirting, but like a woman who saw him as an equal, as a person, not a personality.

Full-fledged attraction shot through him. There was no doubt about it. He liked this woman—instantly, instinctively liked this woman. Not merely because she was beautiful but because he knew that if she were attracted to him it would be for reasons other than superficial ones.

“I’m a little younger than you are,” she added. “When you left town I was probably only starting high school.”

Before Tanner had a chance to do the math on that and fret over the fact that she might be too young for him, his father muttered an oath.

“Ah, damn,” Jim said, as he patted his suit jacket pocket. “I forgot the tickets.”

“That’s okay,” the pretty beautician said, smiling at his parents. “Your names are on the list. The tickets are only a formality.”

“Are you sure?” Doris asked.

“Of course I’m sure. I chaired the committee, remember?” Bailey said with a laugh. “But, if you would like to give the committee a good-faith gesture, your son could—”

“I’ll do whatever you want,” Tanner cut in with a grin, happy to seize any chance to get close to and stay close to this woman.

“Well, don’t speak too soon.” Bailey bit back a smile. “I was about to volunteer you for the revitalization committee.”

Tanner’s grin faded. “What?”

“The members of the restoration committee, which managed the actual flood cleanup, decided we need a revitalization committee because there are so many things this town needs that one committee couldn’t handle it all.”

He stared at her.

She began ticking off items on her fingers. “We need a park for the kids. We could use some bike trails. A community college would be the best thing that could happen for our young people. And we need a senior center. There are grants and Federal money available for most of that, but we need people dedicated to going after them.”

“I—” Tanner began.

“Tanner can’t serve on a committee,” his mother interrupted, speaking for him as if he weren’t standing right beside her. “I think he would be perfect—all that business experience of his could help the town enormously—but the entire time he was building his business, he dreamed of retiring in Florida. Buying a boat. Taking people on chartered fishing tours to make pocket change while he played. He’s not interested.”

“Too bad,” Bailey said casually. “Well, you three have a good time tonight,” she added, turning her attention to the incoming group behind them.

Tanner didn’t want to serve on the committee, but he should have had the opportunity to make up his own mind. “Thank you very much, Mom. The least I could have done was hear Bailey out about the responsibilities of serving on the committee.”

That stopped him. Actually, hearing her out was the least he could do to get another five, ten or maybe even twenty minutes with her. He certainly wasn’t going to let the first woman who had piqued his interest in ten years get away without a conversation.

Bailey Stephenson watched Tanner walk into the main room of the church hall, which was decorated in a sea of red, white and blue crepe paper, the rows of long narrow tables covered with white plastic cloths and sporting fat red candles and miniature flags as centerpieces. She bit her lower lip as she collected the tickets of the Franklin family. It had been everything she could do to suppress a shiver when Tanner McConnell had taken her hand, but the truth was that every darned woman in the world was attracted to him. She wasn’t any different from anybody else, except that she had goals and visions, and they didn’t include settling down with a man.

At least not yet. She was only twenty-five. Too young to be thinking about anything permanent…not that she thought Tanner McConnell would want something permanent with her. Since he and Emmalee split up all those years ago, he hadn’t dated anybody for more than a month. And those he had dated didn’t come from West Virginia. They were New York socialites. He didn’t even date models and actresses. His taste ran to daughters of influential men. Or executive directors of charities who donated back their salaries because they didn’t need them. Or patrons of the ballet and symphony. Bailey was just about certain that Tanner wouldn’t consider the town beautician to be a member of that category. In the end she wouldn’t be good enough, just like Emmalee hadn’t been good enough to move with him when he left Wilmore to start his new life.

At least that was the rumor.

Besides, she didn’t care about Emma and Tanner and their ugly divorce. She had work to do. With her business degree languishing away while she focused on creating great hairdos to build the customer base of her beauty shop, she needed a way to keep sharp the skills she’d learned in college. And fate had given her the perfect opportunity. When she and the members of the flood recovery committee had realized how many things their town lacked and how easy it would be to get them if a few people dedicated time to going after the money, she knew this was the way to make sure she didn’t get rusty. And she also knew she had more than enough to keep her occupied. There was no room for a man in her life.

As she joined the group inside, she caught Tanner staring at her. When she caught Tanner staring at her all through dinner, she decided she had confused him by not falling at his feet…which was understandable since everybody else did. When he tried to mingle in her direction before the band started, she adroitly sidestepped all his attempts. But when he cornered her just as the band played its first romantic song, a lovely lilting waltz, Bailey knew there was no dodging the inevitable.

“Dance?” he asked, extending his hand to her and giving her the perfect, glorious smile that melted most women.

Right on cue, Bailey felt her knees weaken. His green eyes sparkled with sincerity. His tanned skin brought out the best in his sandy-brown hair, which was streaked with blond from the sun. He had a straight nose and even straighter teeth. It almost seemed that when he was created, the universe set out to combine the best of everything, and it had definitely succeeded.

When she didn’t answer him, he stepped a little closer, opened his hand a little wider. “It’s only a dance,” he coaxed, but Bailey didn’t think so. When she looked into the depths of his eyes, instincts she didn’t know she possessed surged to the forefront. She could fall madly in love with him. Quickly. Easily. Any woman could. And he would hurt her. She wasn’t any more sophisticated than Emmalee had been, so undoubtedly he would drop her after a date or two. Since she wasn’t the kind for a casual fling or temporary relationship, she was just a tad too naive for the likes of Tanner McConnell.

Still staring into his eyes, she swallowed, then said, “I don’t think so. I should go into the kitchen to make sure the cleanup committee isn’t having any trouble.”

She turned to go, but Tanner caught her hand and spun her around again. “It’s not a good idea to micromanage.”

“What?”

“It’s never a good idea to micromanage,” he said, easily manipulating her onto the dance floor by preoccupying her with the explanation of what he had said. “Because you’re the committee head,” he added, his arm casually, smoothly sliding across the small of her back, “you’re everybody’s boss. If you keep going back to check on them, people will think you don’t trust them.”

“They won’t think I care about them and I’m trying to keep up my end of the work?” she asked, while inside her heart tripped out a frantic rhythm, and awareness of him hummed through her. Tall and masculine, picture-perfect gorgeous, with a smile that forced her to smile in response, Tanner McConnell incited feelings and sensations in her that were probably illegal in conservative states.

Tanner laughed, effortlessly guiding her around the dance floor in a waltz. “No. They’ll think you’re robbing them of an opportunity to please you, to impress you.”

She tilted her head in question. He was such a handsome man that people forgot he was also ultrasuccessful. Someday Bailey wanted to be ultrasuccessful, too. If fate was giving her nudges in his direction, maybe it wasn’t for romance, but to get his guidance. “Is that how you ran your business?”

He nodded. “Put enough faith in people, show them you believe they can succeed, and they will do anything you ask.”

She smiled. “Really?”

“Really.”

“That is so interesting, because I just hired a new stylist who is very talented, but when it comes to the crunch hairdos, she just sort of freaks out on me.”

“Crunch hairdos?”

“The big deals,” Bailey explained, catching his gaze. “You know, wedding parties, upsweeps for the prom, the important hairdos.”

“Oh, those are your critical success factors for your business,” he said, understanding.

“Precisely. Those are the things that make or break you. Owning the beauty shop is like being the florist. If a bride likes the flowers you do for her wedding, she’ll get her mother’s day bouquets from you. If a girl likes the way you do her hair for the prom, you’re a shoo-in to do her wedding.”

Tanner nodded approvingly, like a man who was not only listening, but also comprehending, but Bailey suddenly felt incredibly stupid. She was dancing with the most attractive man in the world and though she knew talking about business was the best way to keep herself out of trouble, talking about upsweeps for the prom might be carrying things too far.

She licked her lips, trying to think of something to say, but when she caught his gaze again the words died on her tongue. As he swept her around the floor, with her feet feeling as if they were barely touching the ground, the ruffle of her dress flowing around her, and the room spinning by, she felt like a princess. Mesmerized by his beautiful green eyes, she couldn’t help but wish this dance, this moment, could go on forever. She felt his hand tighten at her waist, watched his lips as they bowed upward into a broad smile, and her stomach sank to the floor. She had never wanted anything so much in her entire life, in spite of the fact that she knew it was dead wrong and that she wasn’t going to get it.

She almost willed the band to play an extra chorus and when they did she used that unexpected gift of two more minutes to memorize his scent, the look in his eyes, the way his hand felt on the small of her back. She remembered every tingle resonating through her, every pinpoint of awareness inspired by his touch, every good and happy thought that raced through her brain. Because when the song was over and they broke apart to applaud she knew she would do what she had to do.

She faced him, smiled and politely said, “Thank you for the dance,” then ran like the wind into the kitchen.

A quick glance around the stainless steel and Formica room told her everything had been wiped down, washed or returned to its proper position. She faced Ricky Avery, ready to ask him if certain tasks had been done, but remembering the business advice Tanner had given her as he held her in his arms, she smiled and said, “Looks good in here.”

Tall, lanky, curly haired Ricky beamed and peered around with self-satisfaction. “You think so?”

“Yeah,” she said, patting his shoulder. “You did very, very well. I’m proud of you.”

Ricky straightened his shoulders and suddenly looked ten feet tall. “Thanks.”

Bailey smiled. “You’re welcome,” she said, then grabbed the purse she had left with the kitchen staff for safekeeping. “I’ll see you around town,” she added, and started for the door.

Ricky gave her a puzzled frown. “You’re leaving?”

“I’ve already had enough excitement for one night. Besides, I’m working in the morning.”

“But tomorrow’s Sunday.”

“Somebody’s still got to comb out all those up-dos,” Bailey quickly countered. “If everybody wraps their hair for bed tonight like I told them, they’ll be okay for church in the morning, but after church nobody’s going to want to walk around in blue jeans and a T-shirt, looking like Athena.”

“But you planned this…and the night’s only started,” Ricky protested, obviously confused.

Bailey smiled a response, but seeing that Tanner had finally made his way to the kitchen and was about to walk through the door, she said, “I know. See you tomorrow.”

She raced out into the dark, empty night. In her haste she was very careful to make sure she didn’t lose one of her shoes because then for sure she would have felt like Cinderella leaving the ball. And she wasn’t. She was a beautician from Wilmore, West Virginia, trying to build a business, trying to help her town. She was a common, simple, ordinary woman. Not royalty. Not a princess destined to marry a prince.

She climbed into her SUV and shoved the key in the ignition just in time to see Tanner come out of the back door of the church hall. He waved. She yanked her gearshift into drive and drove off. Content with one dance. One very happy memory.




Chapter Two


But Tanner wasn’t nearly satisfied with a memory. He trudged back into the red, white and blue church hall, his lips pursed, his mind going a million miles a second.

“She dumped you,” his father said casually as Tanner pulled out a folding chair and sat beside his mother.

Tanner loosened his tie and grimaced. “She went home. Ricky Avery said she said something about having to comb out up-dos in the morning.”

“If she said she does, she does,” Tanner’s mother confirmed, then popped an olive in her mouth. “Not everybody’s retired like you are.”

“No kidding,” Tanner said.

“In fact, she just bought her beauty shop from Flora Mae Houser. Flora Mae had it for the past thirty years. You probably don’t remember her, but she was the woman who—”

Tanner scowled at his mother.

“Sorry, dear,” she said, then smiled. “I keep forgetting my two men hate it when I switch topics without warning. We can go back to talking about how Bailey doesn’t want to have anything to do with you.”

“If she hadn’t just run like her shoes were on fire, I would have sworn you set this up for me to meet her,” Tanner grumbled. There wasn’t another woman in the room who came close to Bailey. Nobody else he cared to even talk to, let alone dance with. And his parents would have known he’d like her from the first hello.

“Not me,” Jim McConnell said.

“Not me, either,” Doris seconded. “Nobody sets anything up for a woman like Bailey. Besides, look around you. There are plenty of fish in this proverbial sea. Just go ask somebody to dance.”

“I’m out of the mood,” Tanner said, rising from his seat. “I think I’ll go home, too.”

Doris smiled. “You can’t go home. You drove us, remember?”

He sighed. Now he knew for sure his parents hadn’t set him up with Bailey. If they had, they wouldn’t have ridden with him in his car. They would have given him access to drive Bailey home. Or to follow her when she ran, since his mother probably knew Bailey would leave early because of work. He hadn’t been set up. His parents didn’t want him married to Bailey Stephenson. They simply wanted him married.

Tanner’s mother waved her hand in the direction of the crowd. “Go ask somebody to dance. Your good mood will come back.”

Tanner didn’t bother to argue that he hadn’t been in a good mood about this dinner dance until he met Bailey. He didn’t want to mention it to his parents, because then he would have to explain it to himself. And if he started explaining it to himself he would have to use words like intrigued, fascinated, maybe even smitten. Which was ridiculous. He’d hardly said two words to the woman. He couldn’t be interested in someone he didn’t know beyond eye color and occupation. Besides, she obviously didn’t want to have anything to do with him. He couldn’t be smitten with someone who didn’t even like him. It wasn’t normal.

It was for that very reason that Tanner rousted himself from his seat and did ask a few of the eligible women to dance. But though lovely, intelligent and fun, none of them seemed to intrigue him the way Bailey had. He didn’t know what it was about her that drew him, but something did. And it was something more than the fact that she was a challenge. She fit in his arms. She smelled wonderful. And he saw those darned violet eyes of hers the minute he closed his eyes that night in bed.

In church the next morning, Tanner decided he was just tired, and overwhelmed from selling his business on the spur of the moment and drastically changing his life. There would be plenty of women in Florida, maybe even a woman who knew more about operating a charter boat business than he did. He didn’t need Bailey Stephenson. Hell, he wasn’t even sure he wanted Bailey Stephenson. Half of what he thought he felt might have been his imagination. He was a happy guy with a great life and a future most people would fight for. He had everything he wanted and needed.

Unfortunately, just as he got himself comfortable with that thought, Mayor Thorpe and his wife Emmalee marched down the center aisle with their three perfectly behaved, well-dressed children. Tanner’s heart sank. The family, the life Emmalee had now was exactly what they’d envisioned having together. Except if she had stayed married to Tanner, Emma would have had a bigger house and more security. Yet, she’d dumped him. Tanner wasn’t such a simpleton that he thought money meant more than love, but she had loved him. He had loved her. They’d been crazy about each other. But here she was, walking down the center aisle of the church with another man’s children.

Even after ten years it still hurt. Not that he wasn’t over her. He was. He knew that the man he’d become couldn’t live the life she had here in Wilmore. He needed more. He needed different things. And he usually got them, because, when the need arose, he could be ruthless.

Single-minded, self-centered and ruthless.

Emmalee was, in fact, the person who had told him that. She had told him to move on because his big dreams had changed him and he didn’t fit in this town anymore. She was tired of pretending that he was great and wonderful to grace them with his presence a few times a month, faking that he belonged here when he didn’t. He belonged anywhere but quiet, mellow Wilmore. She was even the one who suggested that he try living somewhere like New York where aggressiveness was an art, not a transgression.

So he did move and he discovered she was right. He did fit better in a bigger city. But just because she had hit the nail on the head, that didn’t mean it hadn’t hurt like hell to lose his wife and his hometown all in one quick swoop.

Which was exactly why he knew he had to stay away from Bailey Stephenson and every other woman in this town. He didn’t belong here. Even a woman who had adored him had known it and sent him packing. He was only here now to supervise the repair of the flood damage to his parents’ property, and to say goodbye to some old friends before he moved a thousand miles away, because when the month was out, he was off to Florida. And he wasn’t coming back. Not even for sporadic visits. The plan was that his parents would visit him, not vice versa. He would never return to West Virginia. So there was no sense making any more ties.

He felt comfortable with that assessment and even took a minute to objectively appreciate how adorable Emmalee’s kids were and to recognize that Artie Thorpe was definitely more suited to being Emma’s husband than Tanner had been. And he happily realized he could probably hold a pleasant conversation with them after the service.

And then Bailey walked in.

Unlike the other women who still sported sagging upsweeps from the night before, Bailey’s blond hair hung straight and silky to the middle of her back. Wearing a simple floral sheath that accented her curves and showed off her long, shapely legs, Bailey Stephenson was everything he remembered from the night before, and every feeling, every sensation he had while dancing with her came flooding back.

Tanner completely forgot about Artie and Emma Thorpe. He forgot he didn’t belong in this town. He forgot that half the congregation was undoubtedly watching him. All he could do was stare at Bailey and remember the fluttering in his stomach when he looked at her, when he danced with her.

She turned to walk into the pew she had chosen and caught sight of Tanner and his parents. Tanner’s mother gave Bailey the subtle, fingers-only wave women used for a greeting when they were trying to be discreet, and Bailey returned the smile and the wave, her gaze straying to Tanner.

He almost sighed with relief, because from the look in her eyes it was obvious she found him attractive, too. But when it appeared hard for her to pull her gaze away from his, the fluttering in his stomach flared again. By the time she sat down and the service started, Tanner not only forgot all about the pain of the past, he had shifted back into his normal way of looking at things. His rule of thumb was to make the best of the life he had, not pine for the one he’d lost. And right now he had a sixth sense that fate was handing him the chance to spend some time with an absolutely stunning, unpretentious woman. He almost grinned. Life was incredibly good to him.

He actually found himself timing the sermon with growing irritation. Reverend Daniels seemed to be in a particularly talkative mood. With every five-minute segment that ticked off on Tanner’s watch, his squirming grew more evident. But because Bailey’s squirming grew more evident, too, he was absolutely positive they would literally run into each other’s arms at the end of the service. However, when the good pastor finally let them go, Bailey exploded from the church and scrambled to her car…not to him.

Standing on the church steps, too far away to even hope to catch her, Tanner had to forcefully stop himself from cursing out loud.

“Hey, Tanner.”

Tanner turned to see Artie and Emma and three little blond munchkins huddled around them, looking as if they were velcroed to their parents’ knees. With thoughts of Bailey still clouding his brain, he automatically smiled his public-relations smile and extended his hand to Artie. “Hi, Artie,” he said, shaking his hand. “Emma,” he added, nodding to his ex-wife. “Who are these guys?”

“I’m Sam,” the first child said, then he sniffed.

“Oh, darn,” Emma said, sounding exasperated. “We forgot his allergy medicine this morning.”

Sam sniffed more loudly. “That’s okay.”

“No, it’s not, Samuel Eugene Thorpe,” Emma said. A tall beauty, with red hair and porcelain skin, Emma made a pretty picture as a mother. “You might not like to take those pills, but you need them!” She faced Tanner again. “I’m sorry, Tanner, but we’ve got to go.”

“Hey, never let it be said that I stood in the way of proper child care.”

“How long are you in town?” she asked, studying him cautiously.

Tanner’s gaze strolled in the direction Bailey’s SUV had taken and then he pulled it back to his ex-wife. “I don’t know.”

“Well,” Emma said carefully, glancing at her husband who was talking to Dave Banister, one of the town’s two councilmen. “I think you and I need to talk. There’s some stuff—”

“After ten years,” Tanner interrupted. “I doubt it, Emma.”

He hadn’t intended to be so cool or so cruel, but those darned memories crept up on him when he didn’t want them to. Ten years ago she had her say and she had succinctly told him what a terrible husband he was. And he agreed. As a husband, he was a washout. But right now he didn’t need to be reminded that the prettiest girl from his high school class had dumped him. Especially not when the pretty beautician who currently intrigued him—the woman he instinctively knew was the one he was supposed to be spending time with—wouldn’t give him that time, probably because she’d heard the rumors about his divorce. Again this confirmed what Emma had said the day she asked him to leave: in New York, he could do absolutely anything he wanted. In West Virginia his past haunted him. After he got to Florida, he would send Emma flowers with an apology to make up for his rudeness, but right now he just wanted to go home.

Luckily, his parents were starving and had done a lot of socializing last night so they’d all headed back to the house. Feeling spurned by Bailey without a real chance to explain himself or his intentions, Tanner wasn’t surprised that he devised a plan to see her while his mother was putting the finishing touches on lunch. And it also didn’t surprise him when he left the house with a mumbled apology before the food was served. Because he really wasn’t hungry. He felt like a man with a mission. Not that he was going to force Bailey to go out with him or even to pay attention to him. He had never had to use manipulation or coercion with a woman. And he was sure that, given an opportunity to see that he wasn’t a bad guy—he was just a sort of transient guy—Bailey wouldn’t have to be forced, either.

After rushing to her apartment to change into jeans and a T-shirt, and racing to her parents’ house to have a quick lunch with her family, Bailey hurried to her shop. But when she arrived it wasn’t to discover a line of impatient, flat-haired women awaiting her. Bailey only found Tanner McConnell on the top step leading to her salon door. He was handsome enough that even dressed in simple jeans and a plain white polo shirt, with his short sandy-brown hair ruffled by the June breeze and his green eyes clear and direct, watching her every move as she exited her SUV, the man could stop women’s hearts. But not hers. She had already had this conversation with herself.

She frowned. “What are you doing here?”

“I want you to comb out my up-do.”

He said it so sincerely that Bailey giggled. “You don’t have an up-do. In fact, you could never get an up-do. Your hair is too short.”

“You want to restyle it?” he asked hopefully.

She shook her head. “No. It’s fine the way it is…great actually.”

He smiled. “Really? You like it? I mean, that’s your professional opinion?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Whoever styled your hair knew exactly what he was doing.”

“Roberto will be relieved I’m sure.”

“Good. Go call him now to tell him, because I have work to do.”

“You’re blowing me off again.”

Fumbling with her keys, she managed the dual purpose of avoiding his eyes and unlocking her shop. “No, I’m not.”

“Good, then trim my hair. Leave the style just like Roberto has it, but take off that annoying fraction of an inch or so that keeps getting in my way.”

Leading him into the spotlessly clean shop, she said, “You’re not serious.”

“Is this a hair salon?” he asked, looking around at the four black stylists chairs, low-bowled chrome sinks and white-hooded dryers.

She nodded.

“Are you open for business?”

This time Bailey sighed. She knew she had no choice but to do what he wanted. Because if she told him she wasn’t open and one of her regulars came by to get rid of her day-old curls from the celebration, Bailey wouldn’t be able to take her in. At this point, with a huge business loan and customers not quite sure if they wanted to be loyal to the shop or try their luck somewhere else, Bailey couldn’t afford to offend anyone.

“I’m open.”

“Okay, then. I want my hair trimmed.”

She directed Tanner to sit on her salon chair, and pulled out the big black cape she used to cover the clothes of customers. She draped it over his white polo shirt and jeans. “I see you went home and changed after church, like I did.”

“Is that where you went?” he asked casually, but from the looks he had given her all through the service Bailey knew he had been planning to chat with her and undoubtedly she irritated him by speeding off.

“To change and to have lunch with my family,” she explained, occupied now with selecting scissors.

“That’s nice. You must be close to your family,” he said. He sounded truly interested, but Bailey didn’t think it was prudent to get into a personal discussion with him. No sense in encouraging him when they didn’t have a future together. He wasn’t staying in Wilmore, and even if by some miracle he fell madly in love with her, she was tied to the town by a big loan. He could not carry her off on his white horse. No one could. She was stuck here.

She brushed her fingers through the back of his already-short hair and was surprised by how silky it was. “Your hair doesn’t really need to be trimmed, you know.”

“Sure it does,” he insisted.

“Okay,” she said, combing her nails through the short, satiny locks again. She had cut enough hair in her lifetime that she thought she had felt all possible combinations of textures and naps, but there was something unsettlingly different about Tanner’s hair. It tingled against her fingertips and palm, as if it were alive.

She cleared her throat. “I’m only taking off about an eighth of an inch.”

“That’s good. That’s about how much I figure has been getting in the way when I blow dry.”

The very absurdity of that statement made her laugh again. “Stop that,” she said, but she sounded like a silly schoolgirl flirting with the star athlete.

“Why? Don’t you like to laugh?”

“I love to laugh, but if you’re smart you won’t want the person who has scissors to your head to get a case of the giggles. I could ruin your hair.”

“It would grow back.”

She drew in a resigned breath. “Do you always have an answer for everything?”

“Yes,” he said, quickly, concisely. He was so serious about it that he caught her wrist to prevent her scissors from reaching his hair, and he turned on the chair to face her. “Yes, I have an answer for everything, so if you would just tell me why you keep avoiding me I could probably resolve the issue in your mind and we could have a good time while I’m here in Wilmore.”

“Oh, I see,” she said. She wiggled her wrist from his grasp, set her scissors on the counter and untied the smock he wore to protect his clothes from the hair she would have cut, if she had cut any. “That’s what this is all about. You don’t like rejection.”

“I take rejection just fine. I not only started a new business, I ran it for eight years. I know all about rejection. And this has nothing to do with rejection. I like you.”

“We haven’t even had a twenty-minute conversation,” Bailey said, leaning against her counter and crossing her arms on her chest. “How can you say you like me? You don’t even know me.”

“And you don’t know me enough to keep blowing me off like this,” Tanner countered with a smile. “So have dinner with me tonight. We’ll get to know each other and then we can make an informed decision.”

Bailey shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

“Why not?” Tanner asked, sounding totally confused.

She would have told him there was no future for them and, therefore, no point in their going out, but before the words clearly formed in her brain, her shop door opened.

“Hi, Bailey,” Norma Alexander greeted, then she saw Tanner. “Oops! Sorry!” she said, her eyes wide and round with surprise. “I thought you were open for business.”

“I am open for business. Tanner was just leaving.”

“Actually, Norma,” Tanner said, pulling out all his charm and pouring it on poor unsuspecting Norma through his warm, sincere voice, broad smile and earnest eyes. “I could use about another five minutes with Bailey. If you wouldn’t mind…”

“She minds!” Bailey said, grabbing Norma’s arm to guide her into the shop. “For Pete’s sake, Tanner. I’m trying to make a living here.”

“Okay, then, you asked for this,” Tanner said, his eyes narrowing as if he had calculated this risk and decided to take it. “I want to have dinner with you tonight, and I’m not taking no for an answer.”

Norma’s eyes lit up and she said, “Oh!” as if she had been witness to an historic event.

Bailey shook her head, refusing him in spite of his declaration that he wouldn’t take no for an answer. “No.”

“Give me one good reason.”

“I have a committee meeting.”

“I thought the whole purpose of that dinner dance last night was to celebrate that the flood cleanup was over. You shouldn’t be having meetings anymore.”

“You forgot the revitalization committee, the one your mother said you couldn’t join because you’re leaving town.”

He sighed. “No, I haven’t forgotten.”

“We’re meeting tonight.”

“What kind of committee meets on a Sunday night?” he asked.

Obviously exasperated, he took a few steps in her direction, as if being closer could somehow sway things in his favor. When he got to within a foot of her and her pulse began to scramble, her breathing felt heavy and the blood virtually tingled through her veins, Bailey recognized he was right. Since his nearness endangered her sanity, there was a very real possibility that she would agree to anything he wanted…right before she melted into a puddle at his feet.

Playing with the locket at her neck, she looked him in the eyes and didn’t say anything until she had mustered her most firm, most authoritative voice. What came out was more like a squeak, but at least she was still standing.

“The kind with a lot of busy people on it.”

Apparently sensing victory because of her shaky voice, he smiled. “Tomorrow night, then?”

“Shop’s open Monday nights.”

“Tuesday?”

“It’s hot wing night at my dad’s bar.”

“Great. I’ll see you there.”

“All you’ll do is see me because I waitress. I won’t have time to stop and chat.”

“Are you ever free?” he asked in exasperation.

Bailey grinned. “Nope.”

Glancing from Tanner to Bailey and then back again, Norma laughed. “Tanner McConnell, I think you’d better give up before Bailey ruins your reputation of being a ladies man.”

Tanner turned his smile on Norma again. “I wouldn’t be placing any money on that bet if I were you.”

Norma giggled with happiness, but Bailey felt her heart swell with the frustration of wanting something she couldn’t have. She was very tempted to throw caution to the wind and spend some time with him. But all she had to do was glance around at her shop to realize she couldn’t afford three months of depression after he left her. She had utility bills, stylists’ salaries and a big loan to pay. Depression would stop all that cold.

“Okay, Tanner,” she said, then pointed him to her door. “I have work to do. Fun’s over.”

He smiled. “The fun’s only begun Bailey,” he said, then pivoted and made the best exit Bailey had ever seen anyone make through Flora Mae’s old shop door. Not just because he was smiling and walking tall, but because both Norma and Bailey got a very nice view of his back profile.

Norma sighed with female appreciation.

Bailey sighed, too. “You can say that again.”

Happy to have shaken up Bailey the way she continually shook him, Tanner left the salon. But as soon as he stepped out into the Sunday-afternoon sunshine, he realized he didn’t have a darned thing to be happy about. He hadn’t gotten a date. He really hadn’t made any headway. She obviously had her reasons for not wanting to go out with him, but he still didn’t know what they were. So far all she had given him were excuses, not reasons.

Though the obvious guess was that she was afraid to get involved with him because of the rumors after his divorce, he had a weird sense that Bailey couldn’t be scared off by something like that; she wouldn’t blindly believe gossip. She would give him a chance to have his say. So her reasons had to be more practical, more personal, but he still didn’t know what the hell they were.

With a sigh he started walking toward his car, but when he stopped to insert the key into the lock, he heard someone calling him.

“Tanner! Tanner McConnell!”

Tanner glanced up and saw Joe Johnson, one of his high school football teammates. “Hey, Joe!” he greeted as Joe ambled over.

A few inches shorter than Tanner and obviously going bald, Joe had kept himself physically fit and looked as strong and athletic as he had fifteen years ago.

“How the heck are ya?” Joe asked, vigorously pumping the hand Tanner extended.

“I’m fine. Actually, I’m glad I ran into you. You’re one of the people on my list to call before I move to Florida,” Tanner said. “How long has it been, anyway?”

“Would you believe since high school?”

“Yeah, I would believe it,” Tanner said. He didn’t come home often enough to keep in touch with his friends and he sadly realized that was another casualty of his divorce. “Why weren’t you at the dinner last night?”

“The renovation celebration?” Joe asked, frowning.

Tanner nodded.

“Are you kidding? Any self-respecting former jock wouldn’t be caught dead at one of those schmaltzy town functions.” Joe’s eyes narrowed. “You went?”

“My mother made me.”

Joe laughed heartily. “No kidding. Your mother made you? Somehow I thought you were one of those guys who stopped listening to his mother long ago.”

“Well, typically it’s not an issue because she usually stays out of my life.”

Tanner made the statement in a matter-of-fact way, but Joe eyed him curiously, and Tanner felt his reputation slip another notch. First Norma saw Bailey turn him down, now Joe knew he still listened to his mother.

Giving Tanner an odd look, Joe asked, “What happened this time?”

“I think she wants grandchildren,” Tanner said, deciding he might as well be honest. Events in little Wilmore, West Virginia, really didn’t have any impact on the rest of his life. This was a stopover, nothing more. Besides, he was cool. He had always been cool. Even his divorce from Emma hadn’t ruined that part of his reputation. If he played this right, he could make obeying your mother the hip, trendy thing to do.

Joe laughed. “Oh, you are in trouble.”

“It’s worse than you think. Not only did I go to the dinner dance, but I actually found someone I liked.”

“You lie,” Joe said, as if shocked.

Tanner shook his head. “Do you know Bailey Stephenson?”

Joe stared at him. “The beautician?”

Tanner nodded.

“Forget that!” Joe said. “She doesn’t go out with anyone.”

“Since when have I ever run from a challenge?”

“Never,” Joe said. “But Bailey’s not a challenge. She’s one of those crusader types. Revitalization committee, renovation committee, build a park committee. If there was a division of Save the Whales nearby she’d be on that committee, too.”

“So, she’s not avoiding me because she doesn’t like me personally?”

“I doubt it. The woman’s not interested in anyone and every man who’s ever been interested in her ends up on a committee. And after she gets the guy on the committee she keeps him too busy to have time to see her. Nobody’s ever figured out how to beat her system.”

“Maybe,” Tanner proposed, thinking this through as if it were a business deal, not a romantic possibility, “nobody’s ever tried to make the best of the time spent on the committee?”

Joe shook his head. “I don’t know. I only know that letting her know you want to take her out is the worst thing you can do. If you like her, the best thing to do is keep it to yourself…” He stopped to grin. “Of course, if you keep it to yourself, there’s no point in being interested, right?

For about thirty seconds silence reigned, then Joe again asked, “Right?”

Tanner knew Joe was looking for Tanner’s agreement that the situation was hopeless, but he didn’t precisely agree. The trick to getting time with Bailey appeared to be striking a balance. Being in her company because of the committee work and somehow wangling private time to go along with it. To him, the formula was obvious and almost foolproof.

But he didn’t like using formulas or trickery of any kind to romance a woman. On top of that, the last thing in the world he needed was to get involved with a crusader. And since he now knew that her justification for not wanting to go out with him was nothing more serious than that she was busy, there was no reason for Tanner to feel insulted or curious. He really could take no for an answer.

He really should take no for an answer.

But he still had that tingly feeling in the pit of his stomach that wouldn’t leave him alone. He wanted to go out with her. Really wanted to. Not because there wasn’t anything else to do in this one-horse town, but because he liked her. He liked the way he felt when he was with her.

In his teens that was the only reason to go out with a girl. Because he liked her and liked the way he felt about himself when he was with her. Being in Wilmore was bringing all that back for him. The wisdom of his youth. A sense of self that suddenly felt very comfortable. With everything in his life changing at a frantic pace, it felt good to have a kind of order or maybe roots. He wasn’t quite sure how he had turned into the guy who hurt Emma, but he did know it seemed right to get back to basics, and he wanted to follow those instincts and intuitions.

The only problem was, the woman he liked didn’t want to see him. Of course, he had already figured out the formula to fix that. All Tanner had to do was keep her confused about his purposes for being around her until she realized he was a nice guy who deserved a date or two. Hell, if push came to shove, Tanner could find a branch of Save the Whales and take her to a meeting. That kind of gesture was exactly what he needed. It would prove he was benevolent and it would also be a way to spend time with her.

He glanced at Joe, deciding inside help was standing right in front of him. Though Joe thought a date with Bailey was an impossible dream, he had all kinds of facts at his disposal that Tanner could use to take it from impossible to possible.

He put his arm around Joe’s shoulder and led him in the direction of the diner. “Can I buy you lunch?”

“I already ate.”

“How about a cup of coffee?”

Joe shrugged. “I could drink a cup.”

“Good,” Tanner said, then he smiled. He would get Miss Bailey Stephenson to see he was a nice guy. And when he did, she would be glad, because a date with him wasn’t exactly torture. Most of the women he dated thought he was fun…interesting…lots of good stuff. This time next week, Bailey would be thanking him.




Chapter Three


Darkness had descended by the time Bailey arrived at the church hall for the revitalization committee meeting that night. As she had suspected, there was a late-afternoon rush of women who wanted her to remove the pins from their upswept hair and wash out the spray gel that had kept the style alive for over twenty-four hours.

She’d shampooed heads, treasure hunted hairpins and carefully combed out tangles for hours, and she was beat. Sure that the meeting would be over by the time she left the shop, it was only a formality that she drove up the hill to the church. When she saw the lights were still on in the hall, duty and responsibility wouldn’t let her turn around and drive away. She parked her SUV, climbed out and headed inside.

The red, white and blue streamers from the celebration the night before were gone and so were the white plastic table covers. All that remained was a utilitarian cement block structure, lit only enough to accommodate the meeting, and furnished with rows of empty tables and green folding chairs.

As she walked through the entryway, she saw Tanner McConnell. Looking like a king holding court with his subjects, he sat at the head of the first long table. The six men in attendance with him made two columns of rapt attention down the table’s sides.

When Tanner saw her, he grinned. “Hey, Bailey, come on in.”

“Yeah, Bailey, where have you been?” Artie Thorpe asked, sounding annoyed with her.

“I’ve been shampooing hair. Making a living,” she said as she took the seat farthest away from Tanner. She didn’t have to be a genius to know what was going on here. He was following her. He couldn’t get her to go out with him, so he came to her meeting.

“Tanner has been generous enough to volunteer to be a part of our group until he leaves for Florida,” Artie said.

Bailey only gave Tanner a deadpan look, telling him with her expression that she knew what he was doing. Tanner raised his coffee cup as if toasting.

“You missed two hours’ worth of his good ideas.”

“Oh, they weren’t that good,” Tanner said, waving away the praise. “The things I told you were just plain old-fashioned business sense, that’s all.”

“Business sense most of us don’t have,” Doug McDonald said. And in some way, shape or form everybody at the table agreed with him because they were laborers who worked in the factory in a neighboring city. They weren’t company owners or even supervisors at the plant. The only one at the table with any kind of business experience was Bailey. Until Tanner’s appearance, she was the one everyone wanted to hear.

“I think we’re very lucky to have you here on the committee,” Artie said, and that was when Bailey remembered that Artie was married to Tanner’s ex-wife. The woman Tanner had left behind. She took a minute to consider that it was generous of Artie to forgive Tanner for hurting Emmalee, then realized Artie wouldn’t be married to Em if Tanner hadn’t divorced her. And the truth was no one really knew that Tanner hadn’t asked Emma to go with him when he left for New York ten years ago. All Emma ever said was that Tanner had moved on to bigger and better things. Everybody assumed he hadn’t asked her to move on with him. If he had and she refused, everything about this situation would be backward. Right now it would take great effort for Tanner to be nice to Artie, not the other way around.

“So, anyway,” Tanner was saying when Bailey came out of her thoughts. “I have to hang around long enough to make sure that the erosion and sedimentation controls are properly installed in the banks of the stream at the back of my parents’ property. Then the lane to the house has to be rebuilt.” He stopped to laugh. “The flood left ruts and dips that won’t go away without the help of several pieces of heavy equipment and about eighteen tons of gravel.” He grimaced. “My exhaust system and I found that out the hard way.”

“Yeah, too bad about your car,” Doug said. “You’ll have to talk with Frank in the morning, but I’m pretty sure he doesn’t stock Mercedes parts.”

“I think you’re looking at being in Wilmore at least a month,” Artie said, pretending to be sympathetic.

Tanner playfully punched his arm. “Don’t kid a kidder. You’re glad I’m forced to be around that long because you want my help.”

Artie grinned. “I won’t lie and say I don’t.”

“Good,” Tanner said. “Then I won’t lie and say I’m not flattered that you asked for my help,” he added, and Bailey felt a flash of appreciation and respect for Tanner. He might have joined this committee to be with her, but he really did intend to do his part. And not in a condescending fashion, but like one of the team.

Oh, Lord, now he had done it! By joining the committee he tricked her into seeing he was a normal guy, not an icon, not a prince. Just a guy. If she refused to go out with him, she wouldn’t be rejecting an image or a personality, she would be rejecting a real person, someone she had to deal with and see at least twice a week for the next three weeks.

Tanner yawned and stretched. “Well, it looks like this good country air has me a little more tired than I’m used to.”

“It’s the mountains,” Doug said.

Tanner nodded. “Probably.”

“Let’s adjourn the meeting, then,” Artie said, rising from his seat.

Though Bailey had been chairperson of the renovation committee, which had been responsible for overseeing flood repairs, everyone had agreed that Artie, as mayor, was a better choice as head of the revitalization committee.

“We’ll meet again Wednesday night. Any objections?” he asked, glancing around.

Because Wednesday night was the only weeknight Bailey was available, she certainly didn’t have any objections and was grateful when no one else had any, either. They took the adjournment to a vote, it passed unanimously, and everyone started shuffling toward the door.

“Are you ready, Tanner?” Artie asked, fishing his car keys out of his pocket.

“Actually, Artie,” Tanner said. “Since Bailey has an SUV it might be better if she took me home. Your van drove in a little low, and that lane really is nothing but ruts and mud pits. I’ll just ride home with Bailey.” He turned, smiled at her. “You don’t mind, do you?”

Doing favors was such a natural thing for Bailey that without thinking she assured him it was no problem. But as soon as the words were out of her mouth, she felt uncomfortable about them. He might be a real person to her now, and he might even be someone willing to help the town, but regardless of how “real” he was or how nice he was, they were still strangers. And he had finagled a ride home with her. Down some of the darkest, loneliest roads in the county.

Her discomfort grew when they headed out of the hall. Most of the group left as soon as the meeting adjourned, and Artie was nowhere around, having gone to turn off the lights. Tanner and Bailey walked through the cement-block entryway alone.

Without giving Bailey a chance to lift her hand to get the doorknob, Tanner reached around her and opened the door. Because she was unaccustomed to such chivalry, she tossed him a puzzled look, and he smiled. Even in the darkened corridor she could see the twinkle in his eyes, the devilment in his grin.

But, oddly, that grin, that symbol of male assurance saved her, because it fueled her determination not to let him get any farther past her defenses than he already had. She refused to be charmed just because he was nice to his ex-wife’s new husband, really would help the committee and was endearingly determined to spend time with her. Because, God help her, even his persistence was starting to seem sweet to her. There had never been a man in her life so interested in her that he would go to such lengths just to be in her company…but she wasn’t going to let that sway her. She wasn’t going to let him charm her. There was no way they could ever have a real relationship and so there was no sense in playing with fire.

She led him to her SUV and unlocked the passenger side door, leaving him no choice but to open it and enter so he could unlock her door for her. Neither said a word while she jumped in, started the engine and pulled out of the parking lot.

“You’re not upset with me being on the committee, are you?” Tanner asked.

Because they really needed his help and she was smart enough to know that, she said, “No.”

“Well, Artie mentioned that you’re the resident expert, since you have a business degree, and I just wanted to make sure you didn’t feel like I was usurping your territory.”

Surprised that he seemed genuinely concerned that he might have stepped on her toes when that thought had never even occurred to her, Bailey flashed him a quick, assessing look. “This town can use all the help it can get.”

“You really believe that, don’t you?”

Bailey nodded. “It takes manpower…or womanpower to get the Federal aid, and find the private grants available to accomplish our special projects. For twenty years we sat back and settled for what we could afford from taxes, and when the flood came we realized it wasn’t much. But the flood was an unexpected blessing, too, because it forced us to apply for Federal money for disaster aid. Now that everybody’s accustomed to dealing with the government, we’re not as inhibited as we had been. And we’re not afraid to go after more, to take the next steps. We have a chance to propel ourselves into the twenty-first century. I want to take it.”

“Well, I’m behind you 100 percent.”

“Really?” she asked, happy to give him the benefit of the doubt. They sure as heck could use his assistance.

“Really,” he confirmed, but as soon as he said it she remembered he was leaving. And soon. He wouldn’t be around to see any of these projects through to completion. She suddenly worried that his popping onto the committee for a few weeks might do more harm than good.

Maneuvering her vehicle onto the rut-filled lane that led to his parents’ small farm, she said, “I’m just a little bit concerned that everybody’s going to be disappointed when you leave.”

“Are you speaking for the committee now, or for yourself?”

Again she cast him a quick, assessing glance. The dim light from the dashboard barely illuminated his handsome face and his short sandy brown hair that was carefully styled to look careless and natural. He had those classic boy-next-door good looks. Light brown hair streaked with yellow by the sun, big green eyes, sun-tanned skin. And at the meeting he had shown her that he could be nice. Considerate. Fair.

Part of her actually wished she could be honest and tell him that she didn’t want to get involved with him because he would leave her and any woman would miss a man like him when he was gone. But if she turned this into a personal discussion, she’d lose the opportunity to explain the very serious concerns she had about him jumping in to help only to disappear in a few weeks.

Using her most patient voice, she said, “Tanner, this town needs help, and these guys respect and like you enough that they’re willing to humble themselves and admit that they don’t know what their next steps should be. I’m afraid if they humble themselves too far, depend on you too much, they’ll lose the confidence it took them all spring to build. And when you’re gone I’ll be starting from scratch again. Cheerleading to make them believe they can do all this. But more than that, this isn’t like the big city where volunteers are a dime a dozen. If you start a hundred projects then leave in the middle of them, we could very well be stranded.”

Her last statement took them to the end of the lane, almost to the bottom step of his parents’ front porch. She jerked the gearshift into park, and faced him, because really that was the bottom line. Not just to his being on the committee, but to his being in her life. “To you this might be noble and sort of fun for the moment, but I’m the one who’s going to be left picking up the pieces or trying to hold everything together when you leave.”

“I won’t leave in the middle of something,” he said, capturing her gaze, looking like he was talking more about them personally, than the town or the committee and its problems. “And I won’t start something that I can’t finish.”

“Getting the funding for some of these projects will take years,” Bailey protested over the ripple of yearning that swept through her at his sincere voice, the honesty in his simple words. She genuinely believed he didn’t understand what he was dragging her or her poor town into. “You’re not going to hang around for years.”

“No,” he agreed, shaking his head to emphasize it. “But there are telephones and fax machines and even e-mail and instant messages. If you want to communicate with someone badly enough, you can.”

That made her laugh. “I’m about the only one in this town who has e-mail and even knows what an instant message is.”

“You’re the only one I care about.”

Her head shot up and she stared at him. Though he had hovered around the fine line between talking about the committee and talking about her, with that comment he crossed over. Fear nearly paralyzed her. No matter how cute he was, how sincere he sounded, how nice he was to the people on her committee, or even how much she wanted this, she absolutely, positively could not get involved with this man. He was leaving. She was staying. They were a disaster waiting to happen. She would not willfully put herself in a position of getting hurt. That would be insanity.

But before she could say anything, he said, “You know what I mean.” Then he grinned and yanked on the handle of the passenger side door. “As long as there is one person to contact, I can be in touch. This isn’t hard, Bailey. Don’t make it hard.”

With that he jumped out and slammed her car door. Bailey waited until he was inside the house before she put her gearshift into drive and bounced her way out of his parents’ lane, feeling oddly empty. But she had done the right thing. She knew she had done the right thing.

It wasn’t until she was at the door of her apartment that she realized he hadn’t made a move to kiss her. And he hadn’t actually flirted with her, either. Most of the time she thought he might have been talking about a relationship with her, he could have been talking about the committee. All he had really done was confuse her.

Or maybe she had confused herself. Since he hadn’t kissed her or tried, hadn’t asked her out or tried. Maybe she was only complimenting herself to think he joined the committee to be with her.

“Cora, I’m telling you it was the most confusing situation I’ve ever been in.”

“I don’t see how,” Cora Beth Johnson said, balancing her fist on her right hip as she stared at Bailey. Tall, thin, brown-eyed Cora had been Bailey’s best friend since grade school and now was her best employee. The two were supposed to be doing a late-Monday-night inventory before a salesman arrived Tuesday morning, but so far all Cora had done was stand and stare at Bailey.





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