The Bad Boy's Secret Romance

by Jessie Gussman

  Foster grinned. “It’s a pretty good combination when you’re good at what you do and you love it too.”

  Barry nodded. “I’ve been in business for forty years, and I’ve loved every minute of it. Trucks are in my blood.”

  Thad could agree with that. He might not be as passionate about welding as he was about getting his fingers on a motor and tinkering with it, but there was definitely something satisfying about taking something that was broken and making it look like new.

  “That’s our goal,” Thad said. “To take our passion and turn it into a profitable business. That’s what we’re working toward. We have every intention of making this a lifetime business.”

  Barry smiled and nodded. “I like you guys. I’ll have one of my inspectors out at some point to take a look at your shop and your operation and your books. You’re definitely in the top three shops for contention.” He held his hand out and shook first Foster’s, then Thad’s. “I see my wife waving at me; I better go over. Looks like she has some people she wants me to meet.”

  Thad stood with his arms crossed over his chest and watched Barry walk away.

  “Pretty sure he likes us.” Foster stood shoulder to shoulder with him. He liked the solidarity and the way it felt, to know his brother stood side by side with him.

  But whatever he was going to say to answer Foster fell out of his brain as the crowd parted, and Barry Smithson walked to an older blond woman, who Thad assumed was his wife, standing with a dark-haired lady that looked very similar to the one who had met him beside the river this morning.

  Tempted to rub his eyes, he blinked a couple of times. And racked his brain, trying to remember what Justice had been wearing that morning. He never paid attention to that stuff.

  He did remember she had sneakers on. That they looked kind of odd with the dressed-up way the rest of her looked. But he couldn’t remember if her skirt was short or long or what color it was. Or maybe it was too dark to see colors. But he seemed to remember blue eyes, the color of the September sky. Deep blue, full of color and life. Beautiful eyes. Eyes he could get lost in.

  He wasn’t sure if the woman across the room had eyes like that or not. He tried not to lean forward too much as he strained to look closer.

  Foster hit his arm and knocked him off balance. He snapped back, realizing he had totally ignored whatever his brother had asked.

  “What’d you say?”

  Foster smirked. “Something about business, but looks to me like you’re staring at some good-looking girl. Guess it’s time to go. Little brother has lost his focus.”

  “I thought I saw someone I recognized.” Thad dragged his eyes away. It couldn’t be her. What would she be doing in Richmond?

  Although she had said she was going to be busy all day and wouldn’t be able to get the puppy at lunchtime.

  Maybe this was where she was going to be.

  Foster pulled his arm, and they started strolling out.

  “It sounded like we had a pretty good chance to get that contract,” Foster said in a low voice as they walked across the giant room.

  “Us, and two other companies.” Thad figured that gave them about a thirty percent chance. He didn’t like those odds. Still, it was better than no chance. “I was kind of hoping he would mention who the other companies were. We could size up our competition.”

  He couldn’t keep from turning his head, trying to see the woman with the dark hair again. He doubted he’d be able to tell if it was the same one. But maybe if he saw her now, tonight he could remember what she’d been wearing.

  “What’s the matter with you? What’s going on over there? Why do you keep staring in that direction?” Foster craned his head, trying to figure out what had captured Thad’s attention.

  “Nothing.” Thad only knew one woman named Justice. The Justice that was the sister of the woman who had lied about his brother Blade and caused him to go to prison. He hoped it wasn’t her. But he didn’t know much about Justice Hopkins.

  If only he could catch a glimpse of the dark-haired woman to try to figure out if she was the same woman, or if she was a different Justice.

  “Hey, there’s Daniel Thompson. I did his motor a couple years ago. I’m gonna run over and see if it’s still kicking. Don’t be chasing women around.” Foster smacked him on the arm before striding off.

  Thad almost rolled his eyes. When was the last time he’d chased women around? But he didn’t argue with his brother, and Foster walked away.

  He adjusted his steps, slightly, so that he was heading toward the refreshment table. It wouldn’t hurt to grab a cookie and a drink. He could always eat.

  With a drink in hand and a mouthful of cookie, he turned around, scanning the room. The woman was tall, the crowd moved just right, and he picked her out almost immediately. He chewed slowly and swallowed, trying not to stare, trying to figure out if she was the woman from this morning or not.

  He had just swallowed, and hadn’t come to any conclusions, when she lifted her eyes, looking away from Barry, who she was in deep conversation with, and snagged his gaze across the room. Almost as though she could tell he was looking at her. Or maybe more like her gaze was drawn to his.

  It was her.

  There was no doubt in his mind.

  The only doubt was whether he should go talk to her. The pull in his chest, the twisted stomach, the racing of his heart, even his palms were sweating. He wanted to go. But this wasn’t the time or place for a romantic pursuit.

  He knew it.

  She was obviously dressed for business. He was much more casual, wearing what he always did, clean but not dressy.

  She’d gone beyond dressy. Whatever she was wearing...he didn’t know exactly what a power suit was. But that was the word that came to mind.

  Their differences struck him, even as he couldn’t tear his eyes away. Maybe that helped him decide to stay put.

  As much as he wanted to walk over.

  Beside her, Barry’s head moved, and Thad watched as she blinked, and the spell between them seemed to be broken. She shook her head just a bit, then smiled and said something to Barry, shifting so that her shoulder faced Thad and she would have to move her entire body in order to look at him again.

  He could recognize a brush-off when he saw one.

  Scanning the room, he caught Foster’s eye and jerked his head, indicating that he would go outside and wait. Suddenly, he couldn’t wait to get home.

  Chapter 5

  Justice tried to focus on the conversation with Barry, the owner of the trucking company who was awarding the contract that she was trying to get for the shop that she was financing with her friends.

  Traditionally, bodywork was a male-dominated field, and Justice was excited to be supporting Eve and Eden Baxter and their friend Rachel as they opened a welding and bodywork shop for heavy equipment just outside of the Richmond area.

  This was not a bank financing opportunity. She was doing this with her own money. It was important that women get ahead in business, true. But there were a lot of male-dominated fields in which she felt she could help. Definitely welding and bodywork, particularly on heavy equipment, consisted of almost exclusively male shops and workers. She was proud of Eve and Eden and Rachel, and she was thrilled to be able to support them.

  If they could get this contract, it would almost guarantee their success. And they hadn’t even opened their shop yet. That was happening in a few weeks.

  Justice had Barry’s wife, Bernice, completely on her side. Justice needed her. It didn’t really make sense to award a contract this big to an unproven shop.

  The only other thing they had going for them was that the shop was all women. It would look really good on the trucking company, and on Barry and Bernice, to be supporting underrepresented groups by awarding the contract to an all-female crew.

  Justice had been hammering that point home pretty hard. It hadn’t taken long to sell Bernice on it. Barry wasn’t as keen.

  He’d been beati
ng around the bush, but his biggest concern was that the quality of work wouldn’t be there. Justice was really putting her neck on the line, but she had met Eden and Eve when she worked on financing for their brother’s trucking garage in partnership with Tucker Gibson.

  Tucker and she worked in the same region for a while, and they’d partnered while working on that loan. Ben Baxter had impressed Justice, and she’d been even more impressed with his younger twin sisters. She was thrilled to be able to help them with this opportunity.

  Focusing back on what she was saying with Barry, she tried to put the man from the river out of her mind, although it shocked her to see him here. And she was dying to know what he was doing.

  He couldn’t work here. Not if he was at the river in the morning, and he’d been late for work, so she assumed he didn’t work too far from where they met.

  So why was he here?

  An answer that she didn’t want to hear trickled through her brain. She shoved that aside. She would not, under any circumstances, be derailed from making sure and trying her hardest to see that Eden and Eve and Rachel got the money and the contract. It didn’t matter if the man from the river wanted it too.

  ~~~

  It was a couple of hours until dark when Thad parked his bike in the parking lot at the trail, grabbed the dog treats that he bought at the store earlier in the day, and started up the trail. He’d left before Justice, who was deep in conversation and wasn’t showing any sign of leaving. So he figured she wouldn’t be there much before dark, as she had said that morning. There were a few other cars in the parking lot, so he might have some people interested in what he was doing, but that was the risk he took by coming early.

  He’d been restless, and the shop was closed for the day. Sometimes, he’d go in after hours and work on something for himself or even for the shop, just because he liked it. But not today.

  He’d realized on the way home that he and Justice might be pulling for different teams. He’d already suspected that. If her last name was Hopkins, they definitely were. A good reason for them not to exchange more information and just keep the make-believe world they’d agreed to.

  His brother’s trial had been six years ago, and while Thad remembered that one of the sisters had dark hair, he didn’t remember blue eyes or a tall and slim figure.

  Didn’t mean she wasn’t there, just that he hadn’t noticed. His brother had been on the stand, and they all hated pretty much everything that had to do with the Hopkins family. He wouldn’t have been looking at any girls and thinking romance.

  Other than that, he didn’t recall seeing her around town. Maybe she worked in Richmond. It would make sense, since she had to leave early the other morning.

  He was kinda tired of wondering about it. He just wanted to ask her today when she came. But at the same time, he wanted to do what they had said yesterday, and that was just let this be their fairy tale. They didn’t need to be real people when they were here. Rather, they could be real, they just didn’t need to be the people that they were during the day. Like this was their downtime and who they were and what they did didn’t matter. He liked that idea.

  She might have some questions though. Because he was sure she recognized him, too. He’d answer them. He wasn’t going to hide anything.

  There were no people in sight as he approached the rock, although he had passed several couples and a single speed walker on his way in.

  He slowed his steps, looking in the bushes carefully and scanning the area around. It was another twenty yards to the river from where the rock was, although he could hear the gurgle of the water clearly from where he stood. The pup could be anywhere. It could have left. Someone could have taken it.

  Someone could have shot it.

  He stopped just short of where they’d seen it before and looked around, listening. He didn’t see it, but he would assume that didn’t mean it wasn’t there. Taking the bag of dog treats, he opened it and got several in his hand, tossing them down to where he’d seen the puppy the first time.

  The treats smelled good. If he were a dog, he’d eat them. Heck, he was a person, and he was still tempted to eat them. If the animal was anywhere around, unless it had a clothespin over its nose, it would definitely smell them. He gathered another handful, in case the pup appeared.

  He watched carefully, trying to keep his thoughts away from Justice. Funny how he had such a hard time thinking about anything except for her. Crazy how she took over his whole brain. He supposed that’s why his grandma always said girls made boys stupid. It was true. He didn’t want to think of anything else. Even though he had a complicated repair that had come into the shop today, and his brother Blade had called him about it and wanted to help him give an estimate on the work in the morning. He should be thinking about it. Turning it over in his head, imagining the different ways he could patch it back together, figuring out which one was the best.

  He should be using his phone and looking up prices of parts, or he could have stayed at the shop and looked the trailer over, so he’d have the night to think about it. It was easy to miss something, and when he was dealing with heavy equipment like he was, that “something” could be a pretty expensive thing. It could be a ten-thousand-dollar difference.

  Part of the shop’s reputation was making sure they got things right the first time.

  But no, he was here at the river, looking for a dog and thinking about a girl.

  It was like he was a teenager all over again.

  As dumb as he knew that made him, he could hardly help it. She was all he wanted to think about.

  After thirty minutes of standing there fighting himself, it was obvious the dog wasn’t going to come. But he wasn’t ready to head back yet. He didn’t feel like going back to the shop but didn’t want to go back to his house alone either. So he pushed off from the rock and walked down to the river.

  There was a trail, with weeds on both sides, but it wasn’t hard to find his way. The sun had started to go down, but it was still light enough to see.

  There was a large wide spot along the river’s edge, with a bunch of small rocks, and he stood on them, watching the water flow by.

  He’d never felt anything like wanderlust. He supposed he understood it, but looking at the river did not make him want to go anywhere. It just made him admire the beauty.

  Other than his truck, he didn’t have too many pretty things in his life. He supposed that was why God provided nature. To give a guy like him something to admire.

  A whine startled him, but he didn’t jerk. Slowly, he moved his head around.

  To his left, the pup lay crouched down on his belly, his ears flat, his tail wagging, his eyes staring up, watching, like he was ready to run at any moment.

  Definitely, the thing was skinny. Despite all the fur, it wasn’t hard for Thad to pick out each rib. It made his heart ache and his stomach clench.

  He had one hand in his pocket, and the dog treats were still in it. So he pulled them out.

  He didn’t want to scare the pup by throwing them at him. But it was all he had to try to get the pup to trust him and come closer.

  Thad crouched down slowly, careful not to move too fast.

  After he was sure the pup was okay with his new position, he transferred all the treats out of his left hand and into his right, except one, which he tossed slowly and carefully in the direction of the pup.

  As he’d feared, the motion made the pup jump and run back. But only for a few steps. It stopped and turned and sniffed.

  Thad smiled to himself and thought that maybe the dog, after they had left the other night, had eaten the meat that they had put out for him. Maybe he was starting to associate them with good food.

  Whatever it was, the pup crept closer. Slowly.

  But Thad had all night, and he could be patient. He was pretty sure, with the way the pup finally got to the treat and gobbled it up, that he and the pup would end up being good friends before the night was over.

  Chapter 6<
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  Justice slammed her car door shut and started walking down the trail. She’d taken the time to stop at the house and change, grabbing a bite to eat, but other than that, she’d come straight from the open house in Richmond.

  She couldn’t believe this guy, this man by the river, as she thought of him, had been at the open house. What were the odds? She was sure it had been him. And he’d been staring at her. So he knew she was there too.

  She’d been curious, almost to the point of not being able to focus on anything else, as to what he would say.

  Why was he there?

  She was pretty deep in thought about it and didn’t realize until she was almost on them that it was his form on top of the rock, lying down, one hand under his head and one foot braced with the knee bent. The pup that they’d been trying to catch snuggled in his arms.

  She couldn’t tell which one of them was snoring.

  She grinned a little bit. It was a cute snore, so it was probably the pup.

  She hadn’t seen the guy walk out, but after she had finished talking to Barry, she looked around for him and didn’t see him. She assumed he’d left. But for all she knew, he could’ve been touring the shop as well. There were lots of reasons for a bunch of different people to be there today.

  Bernice’s last words to her rang in her ears. “I’ll talk to Barry, honey,” she had said with a pat on Justice’s arm. “I’ll make sure your girls get that contract.” At that point, Bernice had given her a crafty smile and a little wink. “Us girls have to stick together.”

  Justice couldn’t agree more, and Bernice’s words had given her a surge of hope and a little trickle of triumph. Bernice wouldn’t say it if she didn’t think it could be done.

  Still, there was the regular mingling that she had to do, and her boss had other people he wanted her to meet. She wasn’t just there about the contract. That was personal anyway. There were a lot of business contacts, and the company was looking at some expansion. Not just opening a terminal in Florida but adding one hundred new units to their fleet. She spent several hours trying to make sure she would be the banker that they got their loan through.