Lucy McConnell's Snow Valley Box Set

by Lucy McConnell

  Chloe groaned. “Why do you have to sound so hopeful? If I’m not single, you lose a roommate. You’re arguing the wrong cause here.”

  “I’m selfless; what can I say?”

  “Tell me to come home.”

  “Nope. Get out there and flirt the heck out of that guy.”

  “You’re such a romantic.”

  “Don’t I know it.”

  There was a light knock on the door, and Chloe threw herself to her feet. “One moment,” she called. “I gotta go,” she whispered into the phone.

  “Keep me posted.”

  She said goodbye and ran her fingers through her hair—an experience that was still foreign to her. All the years she’d worn her hair curly had trained her to keep her hands out of her tangled locks. She ran her tongue over her teeth and opened the door with a smile. “Hey.”

  Troy’s aftershave swept into the room like the plume of a back draft, overwhelming her senses and making her head swoon. “Are you ready?”

  No! His freshly shaved jawline caught her attention. It was chiseled, and she wanted so badly to trace it with her finger. “Yep.” She cleared her throat and tried for a lower pitch. “Yes. I’m starving. For food.” She dug her nails into her palms to keep her from blurting out that she wasn’t thinking about him. Or his jaw. Or the way his polo shirt fell just right over his chest muscles. Oi. This crush thing was hard.

  Chloe leaned back in her chair and pushed the now empty bowl away from her. Troy sat beside her with Candace across from them, and his parents were bookends at the table. His dad had hardly said a word all night, but he listened to their conversation and smiled without showing his teeth quite often.

  “That was delicious, Mrs. Martin.” Chloe wipe her mouth with her napkin.

  “Thanks. It’s an old family recipe.”

  “Yeah, McCormick family,” teased Candace. Chloe immediately pictured the boxes of flavor packets in the grocery store shelf and grinned.

  Teresa threw her napkin at Candace, and they all laughed. “For that, you’re on dishes.”

  Candace got up. “I’d do ’em anyway and you know it.” She kissed her mom on the cheek as she gathered her bowl.

  Chloe watched them interact.

  Teresa fussed with the tablecloth. “Look at us, throwing things at the table. We’re going to scare poor Chloe right off.”

  Chloe grinned. “Not at all.”

  “What must you think of us?” Teresa patted the back of her perfectly styled hair. How did women of her generation manage to always look so classy and have it all together? It was like when they hit their forties everything just fell into place and never fell out again.

  “I think it’s wonderful.” Chloe swiped her thumb down the side of her cup, gathering the condensation. “My mom died when I was young. I missed out on all this mother-daughter magic, and sometimes wish I hadn’t. It’s nice to see.”

  Teresa reached across the table and patted her hand. “Well, you’ll have a daughter of your own one day. Then you won’t have to wish anymore.” She looked pointedly at Troy—as if he could reach behind his seat and hand her a daughter. “Your future family is what you decide to make it.”

  Chloe chuckled at the idea. “That would be really nice.” She took a deep breath. “I should help with the dishes.” She gathered her plate and bowl but was stopped by Troy’s hand on hers.

  His skin was warm, and the contact brought her eyes to his immediately. “I’ll take that.”

  She smiled. “Careful, big guy, I could get used to this.” Troy winked and her breath snagged in her throat.

  “I’m a man of many talents.” He headed to the kitchen, leaving a woozy fake financee behind at the table.

  Candace came back in for another load.

  Troy’s dad, Brian, took a drink of water and stacked his bowl atop hers as Candace held it out for him to do just that. “How’d you two meet?”

  She turned to the head of the table. “Troy interviewed me.”

  Candace perked up. “He interviewed you to be his girlfriend?” She elbowed Troy who’d just come back in and missed the original question. “You’re so romantic.” Her sarcasm dripped as thick as the chili.

  “No.” He scowled at her and then threw Chloe a what gives look. “For our business partner.”

  “Sure … Sure …” Candace winked at Chloe and then ducked out of the room before Troy could say anything else.

  Chloe laughed at his disgruntled face. He was different here, at home, than he was in the office. His shoulders weren’t high and the cords in his neck weren’t strung tighter than a clothesline. The lines in his forehead had melted away too, and instead he had laugh lines around his eyes and parentheses around his mouth from smiling so much. In short, he was gorgeous. Increasing his attractiveness only made all the reasons she should stay away from him seem small in comparison. Apparently, she was shallow enough to chose her best friend based on an ice cream selection and her crushes on their hotness level.

  His sister came back in with a yellow bunt cake on a cake stand in her hands and a stack of paper plates tucked under her arm. She set everything down in front of her mom and reached for the water pitcher to refill her glass.

  Mom propped her chin on her hand. “Where did Troy take you for your first date?” She wasn’t in a hurry to get to dessert.

  Chloe thought back through their time together at the office. They hadn’t ever been out socially, but there was a time … “He bought me a ham sandwich.” She blushed, thinking of what she’d said to Bree about Troy looking at her like she was a ham sandwich. Ducking to the side, she leaned slightly away from him, hoping he didn’t catch her embarrassment.

  “Wow. I hope I can find a man like you someday.” Candace passed the water to her dad.

  “Hey, it worked, didn’t it?” Troy’s arm landed on the back of Chloe’s chair in a move that was both proud and possessive.

  Chloe’s heart sped up. From somewhere deep in her soul came the desire to be a part of this family. She wanted what Troy had and wondered how he could spend any time away from Snow Valley when he had all this waiting right here. Maybe that’s how. Knowing you have this in your back pocket would be empowering enough to take on the world.

  “You find a man who treats you right,” Brian insisted. “And I expected better of you.” He pointed his fork at Troy.

  Troy lifted both his hands in the air as if the fork were a loaded weapon.

  Teresa picked up an unused butter knife and cut a slice of cake. “Here. Pass this to your father before he starts ordering people around.” She smiled fondly across the table at her sweetheart. Brian winked at her and took the cake that came his way.

  Chloe passed a piece of cake to Troy and then accepted one for herself. He left his arm across her chair, and she scooted so she was a little closer and could smell the clean, manly scent of his aftershave. It was barely there at the end of the day, but she could pick it up like a musician picking out the melody in a whole symphony of notes.

  “Actually …” She swirled her fork through the soft chocolate frosting. “I was really thankful for the meal. He didn’t know it at the time, but I’d forgotten my lunch. I was in the middle of updating our billing software—it’s a nightmare every time—and I had been there since six a.m.” She thought back to that moment when he’d set the paper bag on the corner of her desk and she’d glanced up to see his eyes full of concern. He hadn’t said anything, just nodded to the bag and then headed for the shop.

  “I knew,” said Tory softly.

  She turned to him in surprise. “How?”

  He cut off a piece of cake with his fork, paying close attention to what was happening on his plate. “Your insulated bag wasn’t in the fridge.”

  “You noticed my lunch bag wasn’t there?” She didn’t know that she’d ever paid attention to what was in that fridge, unless it smelled funny when she opened the door.

  “I noticed a lot of things about you,” he said quietly. “You kind of stand o
ut.” His head popped up, his eyes wide. “In a good way,” he scrambled to explain.

  Candace groaned. “Nice idea. Bad delivery.”

  They all chuckled, even Troy. Brian asked a question about the schedule for the next day, and he and Teresa switched topics.

  Chloe bit her lip, her heart fluttering like a napkin in a stiff breeze. She bumped Troy’s leg with her own under the table. “I thought your delivery was pretty good.”

  One side of his mouth lifted in a lopsided grin that stilled the flapping with a snap. He reached over to her knee and gave it a squeeze. She grinned at him. He grinned at her.

  Suddenly the room seemed too quiet. She glanced left and found all three Martins staring at them: Candace and Teresa with the look of hopeless romantics, and Brian with a sense of peace and maybe a little pride too.

  Realizing she was mooning over Troy in front of his family, she ducked her head and folded her napkin in her lap. Everything she’d told Bree was true. She was totally crushing on this guy, and he had the power to break her heart in one lopsided smile. If she wasn’t careful, she’d forget that they were pretending to be engaged.

  Chapter 7

  Troy

  “Whoa.”

  Troy slowed the truck down so the gingerbread house on Chloe’s lap wouldn’t end up smashed into the door. His mom entered the annual gingerbread house contest every year. She’d won a few years back by making a barn with spun-sugar hay and fondant animals but hadn’t won since. This year was more of a token entry than anything because she’d been so busy with the wedding. Still, she insisted her entry be included in the contest and had even gotten special permission to have it set up early.

  “Sorry.” He wasn’t usually a bad driver, but then again, he didn’t usually drive distracted. He wasn’t texting. And he wasn’t on his phone. It was Chloe who distracted him. She’d outright charmed his family the night before, and if he wasn’t careful, she’d charm him too.

  They’d shared a moment when their eyes met. There was no denying that the world dropped away when he looked into her eyes. He’d purposely locked eyes with her several times today, and while it was an enjoyable experience, he couldn’t produce the same results. Of course, he’d conducted his experiments while there were people around. There’d been people around last night, so that was the logical thing to do.

  He’d been reassured that the current that had flowed between them seemed to have dried up. Good thing, too, because he didn’t have time for entanglements. He just wasn’t good boyfriend material—working all the time. Heck, he was basically married to the company.

  Chloe leaned over the top of the gingerbread to check the gumdrops on the other side. “We’re good.” She turned to him, her eyes sparkling like the sugar crystals. “I think this thing could survive riding in the bed of the truck. What is in this frosting?”

  Troy snorted. “You don’t want to know. When I was five, I tried to take a bite out of one of the extra pieces on the table and ended up at Dr. Mason’s for a chipped tooth.” He shuddered at the memory. The dentist was not his favorite place.

  “You did not.”

  “I did,” he insisted. “I was too young to know any better.”

  She giggled. “I’ll bet you were a handful.”

  “A handful and a half.” He grinned as he turned in to the elementary school parking lot. There were few cars this early. “Mom said she got special permission to drop this off early, but we are supposed to be in and out so no one knows Mayor Carl bent the rules for her.”

  Chloe took off her seat belt as he parked. “The contest is cutthroat, then?”

  “It’s worse than the jam contest over the Fourth of July.” He winked and hopped out of the truck. “I’ll come get your door and take the entry.” He paused and checked his grin before saying. “Unless you want to hop out and yell at me this time.”

  She flipped her magnificent hair over her shoulder. “You’re so pigheaded.”

  He laughed and slammed his door. He was still grinning when he opened her door and took the gingerbread house from her. “You say pigheaded, I say right.”

  “You say right, I say in the dog house.”

  “I’ll build it out of my mom’s gingerbread and I’ll be safe and sound.”

  She shoved his shoulder.

  “Hey, Troy?” Chet Bauer held up a hand in greeting. Troy hadn’t seen him since the engagement party in his barn, and even then it had been in passing. He swung a set of keys on a Red Sox lanyard and was accompanied by a pretty blonde who must be his wife. Troy hadn’t come back for their wedding, although his mom told him all about it.

  “Hi, Chet. How’s life?”

  “It’s great. This is my wife, Mercedes. Sadie, this is Troy Martin and …” He waited for Troy to fill in the rest.

  “Chloe Winston.”

  “Are you new to Snow Valley too?” asked Mercedes. She had a mop of curly hair, though hers was blonde and barrel-rolled instead of the craziness awaiting Chloe after she showered. Mercedes had a slight Boston accent, and Chloe wondered what had brought her to Montana.

  “Just visiting.”

  Mercedes’s face fell. “Oh, I thought …” She pointed to the contest entry, indicating that she thought Chloe was the one entering the contest. “My sister and I moved here from Boston a little while ago. I was hoping we’d have a new face.” She stopped and wrinkled her nose. “Wait—Red Sox or Yankees?”

  Troy choked on the question. Was this woman serious?

  Chloe tapped her finger on her chin. “Well, my dad used to listen to the Red Sox on the road, so I guess that makes me a Sox fan by default.”

  Mercedes looped her arm through Chloe’s. “Good answer.” She pulled Chloe ahead with her and led the way into the school.

  “How are things on the ranch?” Troy asked Chet. They headed into the school. Not much had changed since Troy had terrorized these halls. The brown brick was shiny with a fresh coat of lacquer, and the industrial carpet had a pattern he didn’t recognize. Finger-painted pictures of snowmen hung outside the first-grade classroom, and the lunch menu was posted outside the cafeteria doors.

  Chet jerked his chin towards his wife. “Good. A little slower this time of year, but not much. Mercedes works part-time as the handyman for the school.”

  “Sounds like a good life.” Troy tucked his chin.

  “It’s the best. Working hard all day and coming home to Mercedes and my son—it’s like holding the world in the palm of my hand.” Chet cupped his hands in front of him. “You know what I mean?” He held the door for Troy.

  Troy was starting to. Having Chloe to run around with this morning was much more fun than going around on his own. What if he went home with her at night? Slow, lazy dinners. Movies on the couch, sharing body heat and a blanket and kisses that led to … “I—”

  “Chet!” Mercedes yelled as she waved her hand for him to come over. “Check out this ring.” She lifted Chloe’s left hand in the air. The giant diamond—fake diamond—caught the light and blinged.

  Chet’s face lit up. He smacked Troy on the back. “I guess you do know what I’m talking about. Congratulations.”

  Troy cleared his throat. “Thanks.”

  Chet and Mercedes congratulated Chloe and him again before they went off to look at a leaky pipe in the girls’ bathroom.

  Chloe folded her left hand under her right arm. “Sorry about that. I took off my mitten and she pounced on the ring like a bloodhound.”

  Troy lifted a shoulder and headed to the teachers’ lounge, where he’d leave the gingerbread house. “I’d like a dog that could sniff out diamonds.”

  “Wouldn’t that be great? Can you plant a money tree in the backyard while you’re at it?”

  He didn’t have a chance to respond no matter how much he wanted to stand there and joke around with Chloe. She was so fresh, so real to talk to that he kicked himself for missing out on these conversations at work. He should have paid more attention.

  “Troy.” The
mayor looked both ways and motioned for him to enter the room, barely giving Troy enough space to get through. Just as Chloe was going to come in, he stepped in front of her. “Who are you?”

  “I’m with him.” She pointed at Troy.

  “No entry unless you’re the one dropping off or an assistant.”

  “Um?” She looked at Troy for help.

  “I’ll vouch for her.” Troy headed for one of the side tables. He slid the support board onto the table and picked up the entry form. “Will you fill this out?”

  “Why? Do you want them to be able to read it?” Chloe teased.

  He scowled playfully. “Hey. My handwriting’s not that bad.”

  “Pah-lease. You’re worse than a doctor.” She wrote quickly, and legibly. “I’ve almost figured out how to decipher your chicken scratches.”

  He stuffed his hands in his pockets. “Writing takes time—and time is a limited commodity.” He suddenly wondered if he made her job harder by not doing his very well. He could certainly try more if it would help her. “We do pretty good at the office, don’t we?”

  “You’re lucky you found me.” She signed with a flourish, indicating that the entry was not made by a professional. “I’m easygoing.”

  He wanted to tease her, but she was so right. She put up with his lack of caring about paperwork, even though it probably drove her nuts. She wiped down and returned his tools to all the right places. She even hung his jacket on the hook when he left it in a pile on his chair. “You’re low-maintenance.”

  Her chin jerked.

  “In all the best ways.” He wanted to smack himself. “I just mean, you don’t get all riled up about dumb things.”

  “Gee. Thanks.”

  He ran his hands through his hair and glanced at the door, wishing there was an easy way to pull his foot out of his mouth. He scratched his cheek. “So, how about I buy you a new pair of coveralls and you forget I opened my mouth.”

  She stuck out her hand. “Deal.”