by Bella Andre
At last, she left the bedroom, lured by the scent of freshly brewed coffee. In jeans and a lumberjack shirt, Daniel was all bulging muscles and absolute perfection, freshly showered and his hair still wet. She followed his gaze to the wet footprints on the deck outside and the towel hanging over the rail.
“Did you wash up in the lake?” She shivered just imagining it. The water was cold.
He ran a hand through his hair, already starting to curl as it dried. “It’s a refreshing way to wake up.”
His smile threatened to knock her to her knees, as did the image of him jumping naked into the lake. But she needed to be stronger than her hormones and her desires.
In the great room, he’d set plates on the long plank between two sawhorses, normally his workbench but now doubling as a dining table. “Ready for pancakes and eggs?”
“You don’t even have a full kitchen in yet,” she said. “How can you make pancakes and eggs?”
“You can do anything on a barbecue. It’s just another gas flame.”
He was too good. Too sweet. Too everything. Weakness stole over her again—the need to stay, the desire to trust him with all her secrets.
But what would he say once he learned that her whole life was a lie? If he knew her family were criminals? And that she’d played a part—no matter how unwitting—in swindling all those people?
She’d already overstayed her welcome, but she couldn’t simply hightail it out of here first thing in the morning. Not after he’d been so gracious about letting her stay the night and cooking for her—and not when her furry little charges were snuffling around inside their crate.
She was glad she could mask her emotions for Daniel by training her attention on the puppies. “How are you guys doing this morning?” Kneeling beside them, she reached inside the box to pick up Darla. The little puppy began to lick her fingers. “You’re just the sweetest thing.”
“I fed them again,” Daniel said, “then took them outside to do their business, and they’ve gotten a couple of catnaps in too. They seem a lot friskier today.” He knelt on the floor next to her. “The vet was able to squeeze in their appointment this afternoon before the holiday weekend.”
Up here all alone, she sometimes lost track of what day of the week it was. She’d completely forgotten that it was Memorial Day weekend. “Thank you for doing that. You should have woken me. I could have helped.”
“I’m glad you got a good night’s sleep,” he said. “It’s been my pleasure, Tasha.”
The way he said pleasure heated her skin, as if he were whispering delectably naughty things in her ear, especially after referencing her night spent in his bed.
Thankfully, he didn’t seem to have a clue about her jumbled emotions as he picked up Spanky and Froggy. “Look what I taught them.” Setting both puppies on the floor, he reached into his jeans pocket and brought out a nugget of puppy food. “Sit, Spanky.” Before he could tap the puppy’s behind, the little guy sat. Froggy did the same, although he did need a tiny reminder with a gentle finger placed on his bottom.
She could hardly believe her eyes, especially when the two puppies got their treats, then began to scamper about, rolling over each other and wrestling.
“They’re so smart, and so much better! After just one day.” She stroked Darla’s head, then put her on the floor. “Did you teach her too?”
Daniel retrieved another bite of kibble from his pocket. But Darla didn’t sit. Instead, she began to relieve herself.
“Oh no, you don’t.” Daniel set her on a thick layer of newspaper Tasha hadn’t noticed before. After the puppy was done, she trotted toward her gamboling brothers. “She’ll be fine,” he told Tasha, looking for all the world like a proud papa. “She just needs to build up her strength.” He gestured to one of the folding chairs he’d put by the makeshift table. “And so do you. Eat before everything gets cold.”
He’d set out maple syrup and raspberry jam for the pancakes, along with butter, but Tasha placed an egg on top of her pancake and broke the yolk, letting it drizzle down.
“You’re even great at making breakfast on a grill,” she said after swallowing the first bite.
She was grateful for the delicious food. For his help with the puppies and the feather-soft bed. But all the longing inside her told her it was long past time to get out, so she practically shoveled down the rest of the egg and pancake.
And almost spat it out when the front door shook with a loud banging.
“Who the heck is that?” Daniel said.
Tasha sat frozen as he rose to answer it. Oh God, had the investigators changed their minds? Had they decided she was as bad as her father? They’d surely send her to prison, where she would rot for being so weak, for never questioning her family, for always seeing only the good in them, and for being stupid enough to succumb to Eric’s lying charms.
But the four men barreling through Daniel’s front door weren’t wearing uniforms or dark suits. Instead, they were dressed in jeans, T-shirts, and flannel.
And each of them was as gorgeous as Daniel. Well, nearly as gorgeous.
“What are you guys doing here?” Daniel asked as he exchanged friendly backslaps and manly hugs.
Tasha’s heart was still jumping in her chest, though it was obvious these were his friends.
“We couldn’t let you spend the holiday weekend all alone,” said a member of the handsome bunch, this one with hair so dark it was almost black.
That was when another of Daniel’s friends spotted her. Pushing up his sunglasses, he smiled. “Looks like you’re not alone, after all.”
Her fear vanished, replaced by embarrassment. Here she was having breakfast with Daniel, her feet still bare, as if she’d been here all night. Which she had been, but—
What would they think?
But she already knew—they’d assume she was their friend’s secret mountain lover. From everything she’d heard, they’d be protective of Daniel, ready to swoop in to save him from a gold digger.
“This is Tasha,” Daniel told them. “She lives up the hill, and her roof sprang a few leaks last night in the storm.” He winked at her, obviously trying to put her at ease. “More than a few, actually.”
She rose and said hello as Daniel made the introductions. Will Franconi was the dark-haired one who’d explained their arrival, and Matt Tremont had first spied her at the sawhorse table. Sebastian Montgomery had devil-dark good looks. Evan Collins, wearing slacks and a polo shirt, was the last to shake her hand.
They were all tall and fit and vibrant, filling the house with so much more than just their size. They each shook her hand firmly, but she was certain they must be wondering what a scraggly woman like her was doing with the magnificent Daniel Spencer, if not trying to con him out of his money?
Lord knew she had plenty of experience with that. Con was her family’s middle name, after all.
Spanky barreled across the living room, Froggy hot on his trail, both of them knocking into Matt’s legs. He went down on his haunches.
“Who the heck are these guys?” he asked as Spanky launched himself at Matt’s shoelaces and began a tug of war.
Over the past few days, Tasha had gathered from the details Daniel revealed that his Maverick friends were also billionaires. Daniel might be a really nice anomaly who didn’t mind puppies weeing on his floor and tearing at his shoelaces, but surely other billionaires wouldn’t be so easygoing.
She was just about to pick up Spanky when Matt surprised her by laughing as he helped the puppy bite another piece of his shoelace.
“Tasha found them in the woods,” Daniel explained. “They’d been abandoned.”
She grabbed at the chance to justify her presence in Daniel’s house. “They were hiding in an old rabbit warren, and I heard them crying when I was hiking. Daniel helped me get them out. The poor little things were starving.” She retrieved Darla, who’d been watching cautiously from her position close to the box, and held the little girl close. Both of them, it see
med, needed reassurance. “We’ve been feeding them every couple of hours, and they’ve got a date with the vet this afternoon to make sure everything’s okay. Daniel’s already been up and down the houses on the road to see if anyone knows anything about them. But no one does.”
Too late, she realized she was rambling like a wild woman. Thankfully, Froggy was causing a bit of a commotion as he decided Spanky had the right idea and went for Evan’s shoelaces, tugging and growling playfully.
“That’s Froggy,” Daniel told them. “The big one is Spanky.” He pointed at the bundle of fluff in Tasha’s hands. “And this is Darla.”
Sebastian laughed. “The Little Rascals. Interesting choice in names.”
“Daniel wanted to call them Larry, Curly, and Moe,” Tasha said, raising an eyebrow in Daniel’s direction. “Or Groucho, Harpo, and Chico.”
“I’m pretty sure,” Daniel reminded her with a grin, “that you suggested the Marx Brothers, not me.”
Tasha belatedly realized his friends had fallen silent, watching them banter. Especially Evan, whose eyes narrowed as he gazed at her.
Why couldn’t she remember to hold her cards close to her chest?
Froggy began to piddle on the floor and commanded their attention as Daniel scooped the puppy up and got him to the newspapers. “Obviously,” Daniel said, “they’re still in training.”
“Noah will go crazy when he sees them.” Matt, still crouching, twirled Spanky around in circles until the puppy started to chase his own tail. “A puppy is every six-year-old’s dream.”
When Froggy ran back into the melee, Tasha set Darla on the floor. She’d never seen big, powerful, successful men go all gooey like this. Especially when Daniel showed off the trick he’d taught the puppies, even if it was only to sit when their rump was patted.
Her ex, by contrast, had always acted like he was too cool, too important, to moon over babies or puppies or kittens. It was, she realized now, a crucial test of whether a man was worthy or not.
Sebastian got Darla to sit for a piece of kibble. Soon, the puppies were running amok again, snatching at shoelaces, tumbling all over the floor, and skidding into the sawhorses. The men were just as bad—big, jovial kids.
Tasha was utterly charmed.
She wanted to stay, wanted to get down on her knees and play too, wanted to learn all about them—ask them what they did, whether they were married, how many kids they had. But at the same time, seeing them together made her miss her friends so much that her heart ached.
Weakness hit her all over again. Along with the sure knowledge that she didn’t belong here, no matter how much she wished she did.
Chapter Ten
“It’s been great to meet all of you,” Tasha said, “but I need to get back to my place and see if it’s still standing after the storm.”
Daniel had been aware of her the whole time that she’d stood back, simply watching. Her avid gaze betrayed how badly she wanted to dive in and play, but when it appeared she might lose herself in the fun, she seemed determined to force herself to back off.
He’d had her to himself all last night, and that had to be enough for now. The more he pushed, the more she’d shy away. Then he’d never get the answers he was looking for, the ones he hoped would put his mind at ease when it came to considering a full-fledged relationship with her.
Unfortunately, patience had never been his strong suit. He’d always gotten in there with his hands and tools to fix whatever was broken or to build whatever he needed. But he couldn’t simply mold Tasha into what he wanted her to be. She was fiercely independent and more than capable of fixing things for herself.
“Okay, guys,” he made himself say. “Let’s get the puppies into the box so Tasha can carry them home.”
“Harper sent a picnic basket for the drive up,” Will said. “I’ll clean it out, and we can use that.”
But once they’d emptied the basket, the puppies had other ideas for the perfect game. Just when one puppy was settled in, another would jump out. Even Darla found the energy to join in the fun.
They were all hysterical with laughter by the time the puppies were firmly tucked into the basket with a towel and Tasha had it hooked over her elbow, the bag of Puppy Chow under her other arm as she backed toward the door.
“Don’t forget the vet appointment,” Daniel reminded her at the door. “Three o’clock. I’ll bring the crate up when I come to get you.”
The guys were on him the minute she closed the door, demanding to know all about her.
Daniel tried to play it down for Tasha’s sake. She wouldn’t appreciate his friends making something out of her being at his breakfast table. “She’s my neighbor. I let her borrow some tools and helped her out with the puppies, and when her roof was leaking last night, it made sense for them to come here.” Evan didn’t look convinced, but before he could say anything, Daniel asked, “So how did your better halves all agree to let you go on a holiday weekend?”
Will pulled over a beanbag and plopped into it, eyebrows raised. “You suck at changing the subject. Especially since we’re not going to leave you alone until you tell us what we want to know.”
Daniel stopped fighting the inevitable. These were his best friends in all the world. They’d been through hell and back together. They’d each gotten out too, just the way they’d sworn they would, every one of them hitting the big time without forgetting their past or how much Susan and Bob had helped them. When the money started rolling in, the first thing the Mavericks had done was buy his mom and dad a new house in a decent neighborhood. Daniel hadn’t needed to ask any of them to pitch in and help; that came naturally. And, of course, when they each found the woman of their dreams, he’d cheered for them.
He pulled up one of the folding chairs and sat. “Here’s what I know so far: Tasha has been living in that run-down shack for three months, almost completely unplugged from the world. She’s not afraid of hard work—you should see what she’s done to her cabin so far, even installing the toilet completely by herself, just from watching do-it-yourself videos.”
“We should have known you’d fall for a woman who gets breathless over your tool belt,” Sebastian said on a laugh.
Daniel laughed too, but didn’t say aloud that her tool belt actually made him hot. “She’s putty in those puppies’ paws and would have done absolutely anything to save them. And…” He looked at his best friends, knowing they’d understand better than anyone, even if it was something he was still trying to wrap his own head around. “She makes me feel something.” He knocked his fist into his chest. “Here.”
“Finally,” Sebastian said. “We’ve been wondering when you were going to meet someone worthy of you.” Matt and Will grinned and nodded their agreement.
Only Evan held out, asking, “But is she really what you need?”
“Hell, yes,” Daniel said, immediately defensive on her behalf. Though he still hadn’t learned nearly enough about her, he realized that he’d already discovered everything that counted.
She was sweet and strong and caring and determined.
On top of it all, she made his heart race and his palms sweat—and every cell in his body crave.
“I want to believe you,” Evan said, “but what do you really know about her?” He looked at the empty puppy box. “Apart from how much she likes dogs and how great she is at installing toilets. Sounds to me like she’s hiding out from something.”
“Don’t listen to anything that guy says.” Sebastian jerked a thumb at Evan. “He’s still gun-shy after Whitney. Always looking for the catch.”
“Paige should have broken you of that habit by now,” Will said to Evan. “You’ve got a good woman, so you can start looking on the bright side.”
“I know exactly how good I’ve got it,” Evan agreed. “But I’m still going to keep looking out for my friends.”
Of them all, Evan had experienced the very worst where relationships were concerned. With Matt a close second. Thankfully, they’d both
finally found incredible women they loved and who loved them back with equal fervor.
Will chimed in with his vote of confidence. “I’ll bet Mom will love Tasha.” Susan Spencer’s approval was everyone’s litmus test. “Can you believe it’s been a year since our last Memorial Day barbecue?”
A year since Will had brought Harper and her brother, Jeremy, into their group, and six months since they’d married. Memorial Day had been the beginning of the truly big changes in their lives. Daniel suspected it had also been the day Evan started to see his now ex-wife, Whitney, for what she truly was, after she’d gone ballistic when Jeremy spilled a margarita on her. Susan, of course, had been instrumental in the positive changes for her sons.
Daniel was tempted to ask his foster brothers if his mother had said anything to any of them about bumps. But he knew they saw his parents’ marriage exactly as he did—as the one truly perfect, honest relationship out there, with total commitment, never doubting each other. And he didn’t want to darken that perfection for any of the guys. Especially if his mom hadn’t actually meant anything by her strange comment.
“It’s been a good year,” Daniel finally said. “But where’s Jeremy? Why didn’t you bring him along?”
“He’s going to camp.” Will put his hands behind his head and scooched deeper into the beanbag. “He’s been dying to go, and it starts tomorrow. Otherwise, he’d have loved to come with us.”
Jeremy was eighteen, but he’d had a bicycle accident when he was a kid—hit by a car—and now had the cognitive ability of a seven-year-old. He was a great person, and he adored Will like an older brother. Will felt exactly the same about him.
“Ari’s got a ton of fun things planned for Noah while we’re gone.” Like a man totally besotted, Matt smiled from his spot on one of the beanbags. “Mommy and son time. She couldn’t wait to have Noah all to herself.” Ari would soon be Noah’s stepmom, and the little guy loved her like a mother.
