by Tina Leonard
“Can’t a man change his name because a beautiful woman wants him to?” Cisco was pretty proud to brag on the fact that he alone had been newly anointed by one of the town’s most awesome, sexy bachelorettes.
“Daisy?” Squint glared some more. “Daisy wants you to go by Cisco? Because I’m going to have to tell her that there’s a reason we called you Frog. Frog legs, for sure. Thin and not much meat.”
“No, Suz calls me Cisco. And you’re still annoyed that I beat you last month in the Bridesmaids Creek swim.”
“I had a leg cramp!” Squint’s glare bounced right off Cisco.
“You’re a SEAL. You should be in better shape. Anyway, it doesn’t matter.” He thumped his chest. “You’re looking at the new and improved Cisco Grant. And Suz is swimming to win me next weekend.”
“Really?” Squint sat up. “Does Daisy know?”
Cisco frowned. “I didn’t ask. Guess I didn’t care.”
“Careful,” Squint said. “You misjudge Daisy’s fineness. She comes across evil and devilish, but I’m telling you, it’s true Texas hot sauce that lady’s peddling. And I aim to eat it up, if you’ll get out of my way.”
“You’re going to have to do better than that,” Dennis observed. “If you want to win Daisy, Squint, win her. Don’t get cramps when the race is hot. You must become the rope if you want to lasso her. Frankly, I don’t think you have it in you.” He shrugged. “Cisco Frog obviously does.”
“Cisco Frog!” Cisco glared, worried that pseudonym might stick. “Just Cisco is fine, thanks.”
“Well,” Sam said, having remained silent this whole time, “I can see that the tie is going to have to go to the runner.”
They stared at Sam. Cisco was a bit suspicious. Sam was known for being many things, being clever and underhanded chief among them. In other words, he liked to be in the middle of everything, and turn it inside out just to watch everybody whirl around in different directions thanks to him.
“What runner? We’re swimming,” Cisco pointed out. “Actually, the girls are swimming.”
“Yep.” Sam got up and stretched. “And I’ve entered as a prize.”
The men gawked at Sam.
“You can’t do that. It’s my turn! The ladies want to win me. Well, Daisy does. I’m pretty sure Suz is operating out of pity, but I’m not picky,” Cisco said.
“Sheesh,” Dennis said. “Have some pride, Frog.”
Cisco sighed. “Okay. Sam, you can take my place.”
The sheriff’s office went silent for a moment.
“Did you give up that easily when you were a SEAL?” Dennis demanded. “Just throw in the towel at the first sign of difficulty?”
“No.” Cisco looked around the cramped, dark room. A small lamp sat on Dennis’s desk. The jail was down the hall, but it was empty now. Dennis’s wife, Shirley, had put some potpourri on his desk under the lamp to make it a more “homey” place, she’d said, and it did smell sweet in here. He breathed deeply, trying to clear his head. “You’re right. I don’t have any pride where Suz is concerned. My brain twirls like a pinwheel when she’s around. And she won’t kiss me. Says I might be a sloppy kisser.”
His best friends thought that was a real thigh-slapper. They roared with laughter. He shrugged, undeterred.
“I’ve been thinking,” Cisco said when the snickers and guffaws died down, “maybe I don’t really belong in BC.”
They booed that raucously.
“You belong with us,” Sam said. “You, me, Squint, we’re a team. We were a team in Afghanistan and other places that sometimes felt like hellholes, and sometimes felt real good. But we’re a team, and we stick together.”
Cisco shook his head now that the words had traveled from his brain to his mouth and hit the atmosphere. “I’m pretty sure the BC rigmarole and fiddle-faddle is beyond me. I’m not cut out for these small-town shenanigans.”
“That’s right.” Squint nodded. “Because you’re from a small town in Virginia that grows her boys strapping and proud. No high jinks in those small towns, either.”
“It’s hard to explain.” It wasn’t too hard to explain—it had to do with what his friends had observed about Suz: she just wasn’t into him.
And he was totally into her.
If Daisy won the race, he was a gigged Frog. Two times won and for sure the Bridesmaids Creek charm would kick in. “I don’t think Suz is all that motivated to get in shape to win. She was heading off to eat some four-layer cake.”
The men didn’t laugh like he’d expected.
“Look,” Squint said, “Dennis is right. We’re going to have to bait your trap better. We’ll help you.”
“I said nothing like that,” Dennis said. “Suz is hometown-grown. She’s stubborn and independent, and no one’s going to make her do anything she doesn’t want to do.”
“Which is why,” Cisco said after a long, deliberate examination one more time of his options, “I’ve decided to head back to the rodeo circuit.”
“Yeah, right.” Sam laughed. “And leave sweet Suz to me?”
“You?” Cisco’s gaze jerked to Sam. “Since when has Suz been sweet to you?”
Sam grinned. “I didn’t say she had been. I’m saying that you and me setting up a side race—or side bet, whichever you prefer—would make things very interesting.”
“Side race?” Cisco was all ears to this.
“Sure. Let’s see which one of us can win Suz’s heart before the big race. Before you throw in the towel and go get killed by a bull.” Sam smiled, glancing around at his brothers before leaning forward to shake Cisco’s hand. “May the best man win. Which will be me—and I won’t even have to change my name to do it, Cisco, my friend.”
Chapter Two
Sam was a trickster beyond compare, which was no shock to Cisco. He knew his buddy too well to fall completely for what seemed to be, at first glance, a spirited race between friends. Sam was without doubt trying to encourage him, rally the forces. This was no different than any of the tactics Sam had used in Afghanistan when rallying was needed. He was known for his good humor and slightly wild—okay, zanily wild—approach to life. Stateside, Sam flirted with all the ladies, usually long enough to make certain whatever buddy of his was in the line of fire walked right into said fire.
The problem was, though Cisco wouldn’t mention it aloud, Suz might have eyes for Handsome Sam, as the brothers-in-arms called him. She certainly didn’t seem all that warm to the newly nicknamed Cisco.
Heck, she hadn’t even liked his official nom de plume, which he’d been called by his serving brothers.
She’d said he might be a slobbery kisser. And followed that up with eww.
There was no point in taking a bet when a man could see that he was on the upside of the teeter-totter. You never knew when your teeter-tottering companion might decide to be funny and hop off, thereby leaving you with a crash landing.
“I don’t know. Let’s head over to The Wedding Diner and see what’s cooking.” Cisco got up to his friends’ hoots.
“Come on, Cisco,” Squint said, “take the bet.”
“Yeah, I’m not so sure,” Cisco hedged. “Suz said she drew short straw. And I think she’s pretty proud of her dog paddle, but hasn’t got the stroke part of swimming down yet.”
The sheriff wiped tears of laughter from his eyes. “We haven’t had so much fun in this town for years. I’m really glad Ty talked you boys into coming to BC.” He let out a few more guffaws at Cisco’s expense.
“If you’re so hot for Daisy,” Cisco said to Squint, “do something, I beg you.”
“Nope.” Squint shrugged. “I like to keep my lasso loose. She’ll figure it out eventually, and when she’s gotten nice and tired from running after the wrong Prince Charming, she’ll be more than happy to let me catch h
er.”
“I’ve never seen your lasso do anything but droop,” Cisco said, sticking the knife in just a little. “I’d like to hear a winning plan.”
“You don’t exactly sound like you’re a cornucopia of options,” Squint said.
“Which is why I’m off to eat cake. Nothing bucks a man up and clarifies his thinking like four-layer chocolate cake.” Cisco slapped his Stetson down on his head and hurried out of the jail to catch up to Suz, not caring that his buddies seemed to find his prompt exit uproarious.
They just didn’t understand the lengths to which he would go to avoid the sexy siren call of Daisy Donovan.
* * *
SUZ SAT IN the booth at The Wedding Diner, sipping hot honeyed tea in a delicate flowered china cup, waiting for Cisco to show up, as she hoped he would.
It had been thirty minutes, and he was nowhere to be seen. Quite possibly, the man either couldn’t take a hint, or he didn’t understand that the proceedings next weekend were quite serious. She was trying to save him from Daisy’s clutches, and this was going to require some skill.
First of all, she didn’t like frigid water. She didn’t fancy swimming in January, though the guys—Squint and Sam, both SEALs—had kitted her out with proper gear so toasty they swore she wouldn’t notice the cold.
All she had to do, they claimed, was hop in Bridesmaids Creek and swim like a water moccasin. And Frog—Cisco—would be rescued.
She hadn’t wanted to admit that swimming wasn’t her forte. Less than her forte. She actually couldn’t swim at all.
“You can do it,” Jane Chatham, the owner of the diner said. “You can stay afloat, right?”
“I’m pretty proud of my ability to bob like an apple.” Suz put her teacup down, glancing at the door. She wondered when Cisco was finally going to come charging in. You’d think the temptation of four-layer cake would have brought him running, but no. The man was a very, very difficult card to play.
“You shouldn’t need much to beat Daisy,” Cosette Lafleur said. Cosette owned the shop a few doors down, called Madame Matchmaker’s Premiere Matchmaking Services. Cosette was BC’s resident lucky charm when it came to pairing people up. Only one match so far had backfired on Madame: Suz’s sister Mackenzie’s first marriage.
Suz was hopeful—determined—that Cosette’s wand wouldn’t clog up now that Suz actually had a cowboy she wanted in her sights. Cisco, Sam and Squint had drifted to the rodeo circuit after they’d departed the navy, staying together in a tight-knit brotherhood, none of them anxious to return to their own hometowns. Handsome, bad-boy drifters, Ty Spurlock claimed when he brought them to Bridesmaids Creek. Drifters who just needed an anchor—and there were plenty of cute-as-a-button anchors in BC.
Trust Ty to see it that way, drop the load of testosterone on BC and take off for the navy himself after he married spirited redhead Jade Harper.
“I can beat Daisy on any field of battle but water.”
“When you were in the Peace Corps all those years,” Jane asked, “you didn’t have to swim?”
Suz shook her head. “I taught English, I taught math, I helped in the infirmary. I didn’t swim. I did, however, assist when there were bites from slithery things.” She shivered. “I’m actually not too fond of waterways, if I have to be immersed in them.”
“Why didn’t you mention this when straws were being drawn?” Cosette demanded. “There were other women who would have gladly gotten the short straw.”
“You know very well why.” Suz wondered if maybe she should order the cake now. It seemed Cisco wasn’t going to show up to join her, which was too bad, because he’d stunned her with that bit about wanting to kiss her. Of course she wasn’t going to kiss him!
When he saw her swimming like a demented turtle, he was going to know she wasn’t the woman who was destined to be his.
“Why?” Jane demanded, and Suz took a deep breath.
“Both you and Madame Matchmaker know that the Bridesmaids Creek swim has never failed. Neither has the Best Man’s Fork run. Except for Mackenzie,” she said hurriedly, “and really, I blame that more on my sister’s hammerheaded ex than the charms of BC.” Or Cosette’s matchmaking. Although according to Ty, the whole bad match was his fault.
There were always a few twists and turns in their small town that prided itself on its haunted house, good food and friendly, busybody ways.
“Oh, you’re worried about the charm.” Cosette nodded wisely, her pink-tinted gray hair shining under the lights of the diner. “You took the straw because you don’t want anyone else to have Cisco.”
“Maybe it’s just a superstition,” Suz said. “Maybe we bring this legend on ourselves because we want it so much. When there’s a ratio of, what, ten women to every man here? Someone made up a cute gag that claimed that whoever won those swims and races got the man of their dreams at the end. The thing is,” Suz said, worried, “we’ve never had a woman doing the actual competing. It’s all wrong. Maybe the legend doesn’t work in reverse.”
The two women stared at her.
“We don’t know,” Jane said. “It’s never been done.”
“Well,” Cosette said brightly, “never mind. That’s why we have a matchmaker in town.”
Suz wished she felt better with Cosette on the case, but there was that teeny matter of the misfire on Mackenzie’s first marriage. “Thank you. The thing is, with Daisy determined to win Cisco’s heart, I would have done better in a bake-off. Daisy can’t cook. And I can’t swim.”
“Yes, perhaps this didn’t get set up properly. But Cisco won Daisy fair and square last month,” Cosette reminded them. “He swam the race, he came in first place. The competition was fierce that day, and Squid—”
“Squint,” Jane and Suz said, trying to be helpful because on occasion Cosette’s native French hit a bump or two.
“Squint had his shot. But he came in dead last.” Cosette shook her head. “There’ll be no wedding for him in Bridesmaids Creek.”
And Squint was the only bachelor who saw Daisy as something she wasn’t. The handsome SEAL thought Daisy was a misunderstood bad girl, with a hidden heart of gold.
Although there was as much of a chance that Squint just had the hots for Daisy. Either way, he’d pulled up with a leg cramp, beaten even by Daisy’s gang of five bad boys. “Someone needs to save Squint from the legend.”
“Could be,” Madame Cosette said cheerfully. “But magic isn’t really tweakable. What we have here in BC is magic.”
“Ty says we’re just a town of carneys selling our small-town shtick.”
“Is that the word he uses?” Jane wondered.
“When he’s being polite. Other times, he goes for a little more flavor in his comments. However, since his marriage to Jade—after the legend worked on his behalf—he’s more inclined to lay off the flavoring.” Suz breathed a sigh of relief when Cisco appeared in the doorway, backed up by the sheriff, Squint and Sam. She perked up so he’d see her.
It was like he had radar—Suz was sure of it. He came right to their table, doffing his tan Stetson respectfully.
“Ladies,” Cisco said.
Cosette squished over next to Jane, both their ample forms filling the booth, so that Cisco would have no choice but to slide in with Suz. Which he did, not appearing to notice their friends’ obvious ploy to get them together.
His mind seemed elsewhere, which wasn’t good, as far as Suz was concerned.
“What about us?” Sheriff McAdams asked, clearly hoping for an invite to scoot himself and his buddies into the booth, too.
The booth would have accommodated them, but Cosette absently flopped a hand toward an empty one. “That spot’s open.”
The three men went off, looking comically disappointed. Suz slid a glance at Cisco, checking out his big, handsome, very sexy self.
“Have you had your chocolate cake?” Cisco asked.
She shook her head. Cosette and Jane pushed out of the booth. “I’ll get it,” Jane said.
“I’ll help. Tea or water?” Cosette asked Cisco.
“Milk and coffee, please.” He turned to Suz, and Suz’s heart seemed to melt inside her.
“Can we talk about the race next weekend?”
She nodded. “Talk away.”
“You don’t seem all that enthusiastic.”
“I’m not.” Suz concentrated on the scent of man and woodsy cologne, and the realization that he seemed to have no intention of taking up the space across the tabletop where Cosette and Jane had left a vacant seat. “I told you, I don’t really swim.”
He grinned at her, slow and easy, lighting a fire in her body where it hadn’t been lit before. “I’ve taken that into consideration, and I have a plan.”
“You do?” Suz stared at his mouth, completely oblivious to Jane plunking down their cake and Cosette spilling a little coffee. You couldn’t expect the matchmaker not to be a little nervous, Suz decided when she looked up and realized Cosette was mopping up coffee faster than you could say, “Cleanup in booth one.”
She went back to considering Cisco’s rugged face.
He smiled at her again, completely ruining her ability to remember that Daisy, the mean, mean girl of Bridesmaids Creek, who’d written the book on mean after her father had scribed the first chapter, had won Cisco just a few short weeks ago. No, all she could think of was why she’d never before realized that Francisco Rodriguez Olivier Grant had such a sexy, steamy set of lips.
She’d been so reaching when she’d told him she didn’t want to kiss him. Keeping distance was her specialty; she’d done it all her life. The truth was, she was pretty certain and would bet the farm—that being the Hanging H where she and her sister had grown up and currently lived—that this man knew exactly what to do with his mouth in very special, woman-pleasing ways.
He smiled at her. “I’m going to teach you. And when I get done with you, Suz Hawthorne, you’re going to be able to swim like a mermaid.”
