“Anytime,” I told her honestly and turned on my heels, eager to put some distance between me and the matchmakers before I forgot that I was a polite southern boy.
“Rafe, wait!” Betty Kemp called out to me and I stopped, turning without a word. “We just wanted to say that we’re sorry how things turned out.”
“You mean you’re sorry that your meddling ruined everything.” It wasn’t solely their fault, I knew that, but they were the ones who made Janey doubt herself. Made her doubt that she was anything other than a smart, beautiful and sexy woman that any man would be happy to have. “Your apology is unnecessary and unhelpful,” I growled, noticing Reese’s scowl behind them. “But appreciated,” I added insincerely.
“Stubborn idiot,” Helen muttered behind me. “If you didn’t find love so hard none of this would have been necessary.”
I kept walking, refusing to engage with the women until I could be calm and rational about all of this. Six months should do it, give or take a month.
I made my way to the table Buddy had set up and grabbed a beer. “Sure am glad to see you,” I told him before taking a long swig of icy beer.
“Everyone is always happy to see the booze. But maybe you ought to keep a clear head today?”
“It’s as clear as it’s gonna be,” I told him and raised my bottle in the air with a smile before turning my gaze to the crowd. The whole town had come out for the promise of free food and booze, and a reason to mingle and gossip out in the open.
Everyone was here except Janey and that just pissed me off. The Hometown Heroes was her thing and she’d been instrumental in getting it all off the ground but she was nowhere to be found and I couldn’t help but think it was because of me. Specifically, her desire to avoid me. Then again, it might have been her desperation to get our names and faces off the Tulip Facebook page.
Mayor Leland tapped the microphone on the makeshift stage to get everyone’s attention and my shoulders sank at the realization that Janey really wasn’t going to show up. Which meant instead of going straight home to sulk, I’d have to find her first.
Hash it out and then head home to sulk, maybe drown my sorrows in whiskey.
“Thanks to all of you for showing up once more, this time to thank our Hometown Heroes for helping us not just reach our goal for the restoration of Tulip’s Tribute, but surpass it. We have enough to provide basic maintenance and upkeep for the next two years. Maybe three!” Leland’s face was flushed red with happiness, totally in his element as the town applauded and whistled at the good news. “To that end, we have one more surprise. My niece had created something wonderful, her own celebration and donation to Tulip, the town and the heroic woman who founded it. Janey?”
My gaze was riveted to the stage as Janey stepped in front of the microphone, as beautiful as she ever was in a blue and green dress that showed off her shoulders and arms, and just a hint of cleavage. Her big green eyes were sad behind her glasses even though her mouth curved into a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. “Hey guys, thanks for coming out once again. And thank you to the calendar heroes for donating so much of your time to the cause of Tulip this past year.”
“Thank us with money!” Ry’s playful tone tugged another smile across her face and I couldn’t look away.
Janey rolled her eyes and ran a hand through thick, dark waves. “This new series I’ve been working on was inspired by not just the Hometown Heroes, but the everyday heroes as well.” Her gaze landed on mine, too damn briefly, before she went on. “We look at our heroes and see them as heroes or hotties, but they’re all so much more.” Our gazes collided once more and this time she didn’t look away. “This new series shows the reality, the grittiness of what it actually means to be a hero. It’s not just the surface stuff, the striking uniforms and shiny badges or trucks. It’s not just the service, it’s the acts they perform day in and day out.” She flashed a nervous smile and continued. “This is my thank you to our heroes and all that you do to make Tulip the best place in the world to live.”
She stepped aside and Bo and Hope pulled down a green fabric to reveal large black and white photos with a sign, Heroes In Action. There was a photo of me, front and center, brows dipped in concentration and soot smudged across my cheek. Preston and Nate carrying an injured person. Jackson and Antonio being enveloped by a crime victim who’d gotten justice. On and on they went, spectacular and emotional.
Visceral.
Emotional.
“You like?” The sound of Janey’s voice so close, startled me and pulled my gaze from the photos to the woman.
I nodded, suddenly nervous and mute now that she was here in the flesh. “They’re incredible Janey.”
“Thanks.” She blushed prettily and tucked a thick strand of hair behind her ear, looking up at me through thick lashes. “Can we talk for a minute?”
“Yeah,” I said more gruffly than I intended. “I mean, that’d be great.”
Her shoulders relaxed and she fell into step beside me. “I wanted to apologize to you Rafe, for my words at the Black Thumb.”
I stopped. “Does that mean you didn’t mean them?” It was a dumb question, born of hope I shouldn’t feel.
She shook her head. “At the time, I did mean it. But I don’t anymore.”
“What changed?”
She glanced at the photos and smiled, then turned back to me. “My perspective.”
That was promising. “There was nothing going on with me and any of those women Janey, I need you to know that.”
“I do know that, Rafe. I absolutely know that you are a man of honor, that’s what made it all hurt so much, knowing that I’d fallen in love with a man who couldn’t be mine. I saw how perfect you looked with those women.”
“Those women aren’t you, Janey.”
She huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, I’m aware.”
“On their best day they could never hope to become half the woman you are. You think they would donate so much time and energy to repair an old statue from a time gone by? Hell no.”
“Rafe,” she said, her tone soft and pleading.
“No dammit, I need you to know how amazing you are Janey. How beautiful and incredible you are, as a woman. A friend. A lover.” Her cheeks turned bright pink and she squeezed her eyes shut against the growing interest of the crowd.
“Rafe, please.”
“I’m serious. And I’m sorry too Janey.”
She frowned. “You don’t need to apologize Rafe.”
“I do,” I told her and grabbed her hands in mine, brushing a gentle kiss across each knuckle. “I screwed up too, by no telling you how amazing you are. How gorgeous and fun you are. But most of all I screwed up because I let you believe there was another woman on the planet capable of turning my head more than you already do. There is no other woman for me Janey. You’re it. I love you.”
Her green eyes widened in shock and slowly, pleasure suffused her face. “Rafe,” she whispered and put a hand to my cheek. “You stole my thunder,” she whined, producing enough laughter to fill a late night talk show audience. The sound startled her and she looked around, suddenly aware that all of Tulip had their eyes on us.
“Don’t pay attention to them,” I told her. “That’s how we got in this mess.”
She flashed a smile at my words and rolled her eyes. “You still stole my thunder.”
“Nah, sweetheart. There’s enough thunder for the both of us,” I told her and brushed a kiss over her lips.
Janey pulled back and tangled her fingers in the tiny hairs at the nape of my neck. “Good because this,” she waved a hand towards the stage and the photos, “was my way of showing you that I see you Rafe. I see the man you are and I know that man is good and sweet and honorable. And sexy as hell.”
“Go on,” I teased and she let out a soft, husky laugh.
“I see the man you are and I love him. I love you Rafe.”
God, had any three words ever felt better? My chest constricted tight and when it rel
eased, I finally understood what the fuss was all about. And when Janey pulled me down until our lips touched and kissed me like I was the best thing in the whole damn world, I knew I would do anything in the world to make this woman happy. “That’s some thunder you’ve got sweetheart, all on your own.”
She threw her head back and laughed, a sound that filled my heart with more joy than I knew was possible, and wrapped her arms around my neck. “Ah, Rafe. I have a feeling that loving you is gonna be so much fun.”
“Damn straight it is, babe. Because I’m gonna do whatever it takes to make sure you never regret giving me your heart.”
Her smile brightened. “You can start by kissing me.”
And that’s just what I did, right there in front of the whole damn town, including the meddling foursome who’d nearly cost us everything. I poured all the words I hadn’t said to her yet, all the words I wasn’t ready to say to her, into that kiss. I held her close and deepened the kiss so Janey knew how precious she was to me. How honored I was to have her love. I kissed her long and hard, and so damn deep we both almost forgot where we were.
“That’s a good start,” she smiled with swollen lips and sparkling eyes.
“You ain’t see nothin’ yet.”
* * *
The End
Preview: To Catch A Player
Jackson
Yeah, I messed things up the first time round.
Now the sexy little Chef that heats my blood is wary.
I don’t blame her.
But I’ll be damned if I let her ignore this sizzling attraction between us.
The Town matchmakers have me and Reese in their sights.
And this gives me a second chance to make things right.
But am I too late? I seem to have a rival…
Reese
I’m capable, not cute.
Practical, not precious.
Yet I have it bad for a gorgeous Detective.
I knew better. Really.
A player like Jackson was bad news for a Small Town girl like me.
Still, I couldn’t quite resist his smoldering, intimate glances.
Worse… I’ve succumbed once already.
And I have NO intention of repeating that mistake, thank you very much.
If only I could just convince myself of that...
Reese
“Well? What do you think?” I sat opposite Rafe inside a booth at my restaurant, just as the lunch rush started to die down.
Rafe licked his fingers with a satisfied smile, taking his sweet time for no other reason than he knew it would torture me. After sucking each digit clean, he made use of the moist toilette that came with his half rack of rib and chicken platter.
“Do I taste pineapple in there?”
I nodded excitedly at the mention of my favorite topic, barbecue sauce. The Tulip County cook-off was exactly six weeks from Saturday, and I had a title to defend. Not the big title - not yet anyway - but just a little thing called ‘The Best Damn Sauce in Texas’ award, thank you very much. And I needed something new and original this year.
“Yeah,” I told him. “Rum, pineapple juice, and unsweetened coconut flakes, along with all the other usual suspects.”
Rafe leaned back in the booth and patted his rock-hard midsection that was the result of a combination of his work as the Fire Chief and the time he spent in the gym.
“You’re too good to me, woman. I’d add a pinch of something spicy and smoky, to bring it out more in the meat. Otherwise, it’s perfect.”
“Thanks.” Who would have thought that Rafe, the guy every girl in school wanted, and me, the girl everyone ignored, would become friends as adults? As a pair, we were about as unlikely as they came, but he’d been a good friend over the past few years. “Worth the free food?” I teased, jotting down a few spices to test out later.
“Worth the anxiety that it might taste terrible.”
I laughed, not caring if we drew stares. Or more gossip. “When was the last time anything I made tasted terrible?”
He leaned in and flashed that handsome smile that had three different tables of women lingering in hopes of capturing his attention. “I’ve got two words for ya, Reese: pickle juice.”
I groaned at the reminder. “It was on trend, I had to try it out.”
He shivered dramatically, face twisted into a scowl. “I still regret it, but otherwise, you have not disappointed. Keep it up.”
“Thanks. And you’re awful smug for being one of the last two Hometown Heroes standing. I would’ve thought you might be a bit more… worried.”
Eddy, Betty, Elizabeth and Helen ate lunch here a few times a week and they were always good for a laugh, not to mention the lowdown on all Tulip gossip.
Rafe shrugged, but he couldn’t hide the tension that showed around his eyes. “Nothing I can do about what they’re up to. All I have to do is not fall for any of their tricks.
“That easy?”
He laughed nervously and slid out of the booth. “I didn’t say that. I just said it was all I had to do.”
That pulled another laugh from me and I stood, too, cleaning the table as a big group of tourists stepped inside. “Well, good luck to you, and be safe out there.”
“You don’t have to say that every single time, Reese.”
I looked up with a frown. “Of course I do.” It was terrifying being close friends with someone with such a dangerous job. In a way, I pitied the woman who fell for Rafe. “See you tomorrow.”
He gave a casual wave, dropped an unnecessary tip on the table, and strolled out of my little restaurant with a smile plastered on his face. That was Rafe in a nutshell, totally unaffected by people’s view of him. I envied that about him, because until a few years ago it was pretty much all I thought about.
These days, the only stress in my life was Reese’s Famous BBQ. My very own barbecue joint, where I was responsible for the quality, the taste, and the way the business was run. Whether it succeeded or failed was totally up to me—and that was just how I liked things, perfectly within my control.
“Hey, Maven. I’m back, so let me know what you need.”
The twenty-year-old part-timer flashed a beaming smile and nodded. “I need to refill a few things, if you don’t mind handling the counter?”
I nodded and we switched spots. The restaurant was small, only able to sit fifty-four people at full capacity, and that was perfect to me. I didn’t need long lines and reservations, not when I had a steady stream of customers who loved my food.
It was exactly what my Aunt Bette had always taught me: Good food was the key to running a good restaurant, and the rest of it was just accessories. It was too bad her health and memory were failing because she would have gotten a kick out of working with me behind the counter. Painting the perfect amount of sauce on the ribs and adding another pinch of salt to everything, because she was convinced I skimped on the salt just to mess with her.
I did.
Aunt Bette taught me everything I knew about cooking, about barbecue and pleasing Texas palates. Hell, the truth was, the woman had taught me everything I knew from the moment she’d taken me in at the ripe old age of four, when my parents had decided to run off in the middle of the night to get married in Vegas and make it official before I turned five. A birthday present for me. It would have been great, really, except they hadn’t even made it out of Texas before getting smashed between two eighteen-wheelers.
From that moment on, it was me and Bette—well, and her husband, my Uncle Cameron. And their five children, too, but a whole decade separated me from their youngest and we never quite bonded. Not how me and Aunt Bette did, and now it was just the two of us.
“All right, boss, I’m back.” Maven bounced into her spot beside me, a sleeve of napkins in her arms. “It’s nice and cool in the back.”
“Guess you’re reconsidering college in Texas right about now?”
She laughed. “Are you kiddin’? I grew up in Alaska, I love this heat!”
“Most people would have gone to Florida or California for college,” I told her, not for the first time. Or the tenth.
“Yeah, but cowboys are a lot harder to find in Florida and California. I wanted an abundance of cowboys. More than I can handle.”
“You’ve got that in spades, I’d say.”
“Damn skippy,” she shot back and flashed a bright smile for the elderly tourists with the selfie sticks hanging from their belt loops. “What delicious barbecue can I get for you folks today?”
She was a natural with the customers, and the tourists were charmed as she talked them into ordering dessert before they were seated.
I looked out at the restaurant with a smile. A packed dining room always brought a smile to my face, more so when it happened in the middle of the week. This place was my whole life; my first and only love. And to see it doing so well meant everything to me, especially when there were so many customers that my face ached from smiling.
“What a rush! Thank goodness it’s over.”
Maven smiled and shook her head. “The pits of being the boss.”
“No kidding,” I told her with a satisfied smile that died the instant I saw the Sheriff walk in with Jackson close behind. He was the last person I wanted to talk to—ever, really, but especially today. Right now.
“I’m gonna go check on the sauces. Holler if you need me,” I told Maven before making a quick exit.
Jackson was the last person I wanted to see these days, but it hadn’t always been that way. When he first came to town a few years back, I was ambivalent. Well, ambivalent and attracted, because not only did Detective Jackson Slater have that whole mysterious-stranger thing going on, he also had the dark, brooding looks to back it up—thick, dark brown hair that he wore just long enough that you see it curl, and hazel eyes that had big gold flakes in them. It was easy to see why he’d had all the women in town in a tizzy. But that ambivalence had fostered a small crush that had persisted for years until one night about a year ago, when my passion and my curiosity had been satisfied.
That Hot Night: A Firefighter Romance Page 16
