by Carrie Elks
A Better Man
Carrie Elks
Contents
Join Me!
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Epilogue
Dear Reader
About the Author
Also by Carrie Elks
Acknowledgments
A BETTER MAN by Carrie Elks
Copyright © 2020 Carrie Elks
All rights reserved
241020
Edited by Rose David
Proofread by Proofreading by Mich
Cover Designed by The Pretty Little Design Co.
Interior Image: clipartof.com
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are fictitious products of the author’s imagination.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
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Chapter One
Courtney Roberts was late. And dirty. Neither of which was a good thing. Her cheeks were smeared with dust from the chicken coop, thanks to a half hour battle with Hester, the feistiest of her hens. Grabbing a clean tissue from her purse, she leaned forward in the car seat, angling the mirror to see the damage.
Was that poop in her hair? Ugh. There was no other option but an old spit-n-clean the way her granny used to do. Holding out a tissue and saying ‘spit’ as though it made it any better to have your face cleaned by your own saliva.
A knock on the window caused her to look up from her poor attempts to look like a normal thirty-one-year-old. Seeing the familiar smiling face, she rolled down the window, a sheepish expression molding her features.
“What are you doing?” her best friend Lainey asked. “Oh jeez, what’s that on your face?” She wrinkled her nose.
“I had a battle with Hester.” Courtney crumpled the tissue in her palm.
“Looks like she came out on top. Now come in and I’ll get you cleaned up. There’s no point in doing it yourself. It’s like mopping the floors before a cleaner comes. Just leave it to the professionals.”
Courtney grinned and climbed out of her car, following Lainey into the I Can Make You Beautiful salon, the strong smell of hairspray and polish remover wafting over her. It was sparkling clean in here, the way it always had been since Lainey opened the beauty salon. Courtney could remember the two of them giggling over possible names for the place, ruling out Curl Up And Dye along with Julius Scissors.
Was that really only a few years ago? It felt like a lifetime had passed. A different life. Courtney smiled and waved at the stylists standing behind their clients, and tried to ignore the way they were all giving her curious looks.
Maybe she could pretend it was due to her dirty face. But that wasn’t true. They were interested because she so rarely came into town. This was the second time in the last year that Lainey had persuaded her to actually sit in one of the cream padded seats and let her tame Courtney’s wild curls. She usually wore them up – a must when you spent your day knee deep in muck, trying to scrape a living from your small farm.
“Sit down and I’ll grab a cape,” Lainey told her. “Then we can talk through a game plan. I’m thinking hair, nails, and a facial. Does that work?”
Courtney glanced at her watch. It was past two p.m. “I don’t know if I have time. I promised Mary and Ellis I’d join them for dinner.”
“What time do you need to be there?” Lainey asked.
“Five.”
Lainey nodded, her expression serious. “We can do this. I’ll ask Nicole to do your manicure while Rhian does your facial. And I’ll attack the hair.” She pulled out a piece of hay, holding it up to the mirror with a deadpan expression. “You really should come here more than once a year.”
“I’ve been busy,” Courtney reminded her.
“I know.” Lainey’s expression softened as their eyes met again. They’d been friends for years. Ever since Courtney had arrived in town, a brand new ring on her wedding finger along with her new role as a farmer’s wife.
Another life. She sighed, looking down at her now-bare finger. It had taken her a year to take the ring off. It still felt wrong. Shaun was dead, but he was still her husband. She’d cried like crazy the day she finally put the slim diamond ring in the red velvet box beside her dresser.
“I think we’ll need to take a couple of inches off,” Lainey said, pulling the band from Courtney’s hair and letting her dark curls tumble over her shoulders. “Get rid of the split ends, give it some shape again. Did you even use that deep conditioner I gave you?”
“Yes.” Courtney bit down a smile at Lainey’s incredulous expression. “Okay, so I used it once.”
“Honey, you have to deep condition. You wouldn’t let the chickens go without water, so why do you starve your curls of moisture?”
Courtney scrunched her nose up. “I don’t have time to sit with that stuff in my hair for an hour. I’m lucky if I get to stand in the shower for five minutes.”
“I can tell that.” Lainey passed Courtney a pack of face wipes. “Now girl, clean your pretty face. We’ve got work to do here.”
Two and a half hours later, Courtney emerged from the salon blinking at the still-bright sun, as Lainey held the door. Courtney’s hair was gleaming, the curls framing her face in a way that she knew would only last until tomorrow morning when she’d have to tie them back and clean out the chicken coop. Her fingers actually looked feminine for once. Her normally-ragged nails were perfectly almond shaped, coated with a pale pink polish that she promised Lainey she’d try to keep as long as possible.
“Wear gloves,” Lainey told her. “At all times. That’s an order not a request.”
And of course her friend had refused any payment from Courtney. “Think of it as an early birthday gift,” Lainey said.
“It’s not my birthday until next January,” Courtney pointed out.
Lainey had grinned. “I meant my birthday. That’s next month. And I want to see my best friend look pretty for it.”
“I can’t guarantee I’ll still look like this next month.” Courtney grimaced. “The chickens might have something to say about that.”
; “That’s why I’ve booked you for an appointment in four weeks.” Lainey passed her a gold embossed appointment card. Courtney turned it over. Sure enough, there was an appointment already made. “And don’t try to get out of it,” Lainey warned. “I’ll hunt you down. You know I will.”
“Thank you.” Courtney hugged her. “I appreciate it.” And she’d be sure to put a tray of eggs outside Lainey’s front door tomorrow. It wasn’t anywhere near enough, but that’s how they did things in their small town of Hartson’s Creek. A neighbor made you a cake, you helped them repair their roof. The barter system was still alive and well in this little part of Virginia.
That was one of the things Courtney loved about living here.
“You’re beautiful, you know that?” Lainey asked her. “Like, model beautiful.” She sighed. “Have you thought about dating again?”
“You waited three hours to ask.” Courtney nudged Lainey with her shoulder. “I think that’s a record. And no, I haven’t thought about dating again. But I promise to tell you when I have.” It wasn’t a lie. Although, not quite the truth either.
Lainey said something under her breath, but Courtney didn’t hear it over the blood rushing through her ears. Because he was there. Walking across the square with two men – his brothers? He’d told her he had three of them, she remembered that much. Her breath caught in her throat as she took him in. Dark tailored pants perfectly molded to his strong, muscled thighs. A white shirt rolled at the sleeves and unbuttoned at the neck. And mirrored aviators that covered eyes she knew were hazel with flecks of blue and green. Eyes that felt like he could see right through her.
Eyes that made her feel things she hadn’t felt in years.
As if he could feel the heat of her stare, the man slowly turned his head, and even with those sunglasses on she knew he was looking at her. She had to remind herself to breathe, because her lungs felt like they were on fire. He slowly lifted his sunglasses from his face, and his gaze met hers.
Suddenly, her legs felt boneless.
“Honey, are you okay?” Lainey asked.
Courtney let out a slow breath. “Yeah,” she said, her voice tight. “I’m fine.”
Lainey glanced over to the square, her eyes widening as she took the three men in. “Ah, the Heartbreak Brothers. I swear they get sexier every time I see them. Can you believe Gray Hartson lives in our little town? He’s like a superstar.” Lainey lowered her voice. “Though you probably should stop staring. It’s kinda embarrassing.”
It wasn’t Gray Hartson that Courtney was looking at, though she didn’t bother to correct her best friend. It was only natural that Lainey would think she was staring at the rock star.
But it was his brother, Logan, who took Courtney’s breath away. The man on Gray’s left who was the same height, but with a broader build, and thick muscled arms that could pin a woman to the wall with ease.
Don’t ask her how she knew.
Reluctantly, Courtney pulled her gaze away. There was only so long they could stare at each other before people got to talking. And she’d had enough of that in the last two years. Kind words, sympathetic glances, worried discussions behind her back. She’d been called Poor Courtney so many times she wondered if it was her new name.
“I need to go,” Courtney said quickly. “I’m late for Mary and Ellis.” Her in-laws. Or ex-in-laws. What were they after your husband – their son – died? She had no idea. All she knew was that they were reality, along with the chickens, the dirt, and the curls she always had to wear in a hairband.
As for Logan Hartson, he was a fantasy. A brief dip into something she should never have touched.
And if she could still feel him staring at her as she climbed into her old F150 and pull the door behind her? Well, that was fine. She could live with the way he made her skin tingle.
Logan Hartson stared at Courtney Roberts, his eyes dark as they met hers. Everything about her affected him. Even from ten yards away, while walking with his brothers across the square of the town he grew up in, he was so damn aware of her it made his muscles tight and his skin heat up. He swallowed hard, his eyes still on her as she climbed into her huge truck and slammed the door shut. The only thing he could see was that mass of curls through the narrow window at the back of the cab.
“Dammit, Logan, are you listening to me?”
He reluctantly pulled his gaze away, though he still listened to the roar of the old engine as she started it up. The smell of gasoline filled the air, mixing with the scent of the flowers lining the beds around the square. That truck was ridiculous. Old, rusty, and so big it dwarfed all the cars around it. Yet somehow it made her more attractive.
“What?” he asked, looking at his oldest, and most famous brother, Gray. A rock star who’d taken the world by storm, Gray had moved back to Hartson’s Creek a couple of years ago, after falling for a waitress in the local diner. Now the two of them were up to their knees in diapers and toddler toys, thanks to Maddie having given birth to twins the previous year. They were the reason Logan was here – to celebrate their first birthday.
“I asked how the restaurant refit was going.” Gray’s voice was full of amusement. “You were somewhere else for a minute.”
Taking a deep breath, Logan brought his attention back to his brother. Even with his gaze firmly averted from the truck, he could still hear the rumble of the engine as it pulled away. He gritted his teeth to keep himself from turning to watch her leave the town square.
He lifted his hand, raking it through his stylishly trimmed dark hair. He’d always prided himself on his appearance. Today he was wearing dress pants and a shirt – his tie rolled up and stuffed in his pocket – thanks to the early morning business meeting he’d had before leaving Boston for his home town.
He’d been living in Boston for years. Ever since he’d graduated and started working in the restaurant business. He’d slowly worked his way up through management, before striking out on his own. Now he owned three – make that almost four – restaurants across the city, all of which were highly rated by critics, thanks to his attention to detail.
“It’s going slowly,” Logan told him, wincing at the memory of his meeting this morning. “We’ve had a few snafus, and a couple of arguments over the building regulations, but we’ll get there. Paris is going in this weekend to make sure we’re on track.” Paris Northman was his business partner. She had been for the last five years. Initially, she’d brought the money while he brought the drive and expertise. But after all this time, they were on a level playing field. Both of them lived for their careers, spending stupid hours at their restaurants, and their free time scouting for new locations.
“Ah, the lovely Paris.” Gray winked at him. “How is she?”
“She’s hot,” Tanner agreed. “You tapping that, bro?”
Logan screwed up his nose. “No. We’re in business together.” And anyway, he hadn’t touched any woman for months. Not since he was last in Hartson’s Creek. Hadn’t had the inclination to, not even when one of his old friends-with-benefits had called him looking for an evening of fun.
He blamed the new restaurant. It was taking all his energy and concentration, leaving no time for things like sex. He was too busy to think about women.
Yeah, you carry on believing that. So why do you have a hard-on just from looking at Courtney Roberts?
“Are we gonna stand around here and gossip all day, or are we gonna go into the bar?” Logan asked them. He already knew his twin – the fourth of the Hartson brothers – was waiting inside for them. Though Cam also lived in Boston, he’d taken a later flight in and headed straight for the Moonlight Bar on the edge of the town square. No doubt wearing a cap down low on his face to hide his identity.
Like Gray, Cam was famous, though for a completely different reason. He played defense for the Boston Bobcats, the town’s NFL team, and was beloved by their legion of fans. Here in Virginia, he was still a familiar face. Logan thanked god that his twin wore his hair longer than he d
id. It meant that he didn’t have to explain to everybody he met that he wasn’t Cam Hartson.
Though enough people still made that mistake.
“Yeah, let’s hurry up and get a drink,” Tanner agreed. “I have a hot date with my wife tonight.” Tanner and Van – his childhood best friend – had reconnected last year, after a decade of not talking to each other. They ran the local drive-in movie theater, and were disgustingly in love.
“Young love.” Logan grinned. “Give it a year and you two’ll be desperate for a night apart.”
“I doubt it.” Tanner shrugged. “You’ll understand when you meet the right woman.”
Gray laughed loudly. “Logan’s married to his restaurants. We all know that.”
“Yeah,” Tanner agreed as they walked into the bar. “But do they keep him warm at night?”
Logan shook his head, sighing at his brothers’ teasing. “Why don’t you ask Cam when he’s going to settle down?” he asked, as he spotted his twin sitting at the bar. Cam stood up from the stool he was sitting on, a huge grin on his face as he walked over to hug his brothers one by one.
“Why are you talking about me settling down?” Cam asked, looking genuinely confused. As expected, he had his Boston Bobcats hat pulled low on his head. He was wearing a pair of low-slung jeans and a black t-shirt. The days of Logan and Cam dressing identically were long-gone, thank God. Logan winced at the thought of it.
