He’d said he would wait until she was able to get around well enough on her own and then he’d take her there. But he wouldn’t be going on his own. The last thing he needed was some kind of voodoo curse or something if he picked up the wrong stone.
As he drove around the next corner, he scanned the view ahead for signs of the truck. Maude had said it was next to the Quinn Valley Hotel & Spa, on an empty space of land. He spotted the hotel ahead, so drove toward it, finally noticing the taco truck surrounded by picnic tables and pergolas. It looked exactly how he would imagine a taco truck would look in a small town.
But what he wasn’t prepared for, was the lineup of people standing there waiting to order a taco. He didn’t think he’d ever seen a food truck this busy in the city. Obviously, with the warm weather, everyone had decided to get outside and enjoy some food.
He pulled into an empty parking space and hopped out of his Jeep. If he hurried, he’d be able to beat the other carload of people that had just arrived. The smell of spicy taco meat filled the air and his stomach grumbled in excitement.
A woman with long brown hair at the front of the line turned after giving her order and her eyes slammed into his. He couldn’t even tell what color they were, but something in them seemed to reach into his chest and squeeze. It wasn’t just that she was drop-dead gorgeous. He’d seen and dated enough women in his life to recognize that there was something different about her, besides her stunningly beautiful face.
But no matter how hard he stared, he couldn’t figure out what it was.
She obviously wasn’t as affected as he’d been, because after doing one more quick scan of the line-up of people, she slowly walked toward an empty table to wait for her order. He tried to ignore the disappointment that she hadn’t felt the same attraction as he had.
When he got to the front, he quickly placed the order his aunt had given him, turning his head slightly to look at the woman who sat with her back to him. What was it about her that was drawing him to her like a moth to a flame?
Groaning quietly, he chastised himself for having such cheesy thoughts. It’s not like he’d never seen a pretty woman before. He was acting like a teenage boy, standing and staring at his crush while he tried to figure out how to approach her.
He’d been accused many times over the years of being a “player,” and the accusation was one that had always bothered him. He’d dated a few women, but whenever things hadn’t worked out, as they always seemed to inevitably do, a few of the scorned women had made statements about his character that had been damaging.
He’d tried shrugging it off, and acted like he didn’t care, but the truth was that it did upset him. He wasn’t the kind of man who would ever use a woman or lead her on, even if that was what some people believed about him. He just didn’t believe in holding onto a relationship that wasn’t working, simply with the hope that things would get better. So, he really didn’t feel he should be blamed for the fact that he wasn’t willing to settle for just anyone.
If that made him a “player,” then he guessed that’s what he was.
“Is that all for today?” Jared jumped as the man’s voice, who had written down his order, interrupted his thoughts. Quickly turning his head back around, he smiled sheepishly.
“Sorry, I was a bit distracted. Yes, that’s all. My aunt Maude sent me with the order and hopefully I’ve managed to get it all right.”
The man was ringing up his order and smiled widely. “Oh, so you must be the nephew that was coming to stay with Maude. My grandma, Nellie, is one of her friends and they’ve all been talking about how nice it is that her nephew from the big city was coming here to look after her after her hip operation.”
Jared nodded and laughed as the man mimicked his grandma. “I guess if you call Philadelphia the big city, then yes, that’s me. And I know you have to be Ciran, the wonderful grandson who gave up his career as a lawyer to move home and follow his dream of running a taco truck.” Now his voice did a perfect imitation of Maude’s.
Ciran grinned as they shook their heads at how much the women in that group shared about each other’s families. “That’s me.”
Jared pulled the money out of his wallet to pay, once more turning to look at the brunette waiting for her order. Her arms were crossed in front of her as she leaned against the table she was sitting at. She seemed to be lost in thought as she stared straight-ahead.
“I don’t suppose you know who she is? I noticed you both seemed familiar with each other when she was ordering.” When Ciran looked toward the woman he’d tilted his head toward, then back at him with a raised eyebrow, Jared’s cheeks burned. He’d gone from feeling like a shy schoolboy to full-blown stalker.
“Well, that’s Brooke Quinn. She’s my wife’s cousin. And also the granddaughter to one of your aunt’s dearest friends, Gertrude.” Jared was sure the last sentence was said as some kind of warning, in case he was having any ideas that would potentially harm the woman. Maude had filled him all in about the Quinn family and how close they all were.
“One of the famous Quinns. Maude tells me the town was founded by the Quinn family and they are all still living around here. I suspect I’ll be meeting most of them over the time I’m here, with my aunt being connected so closely with the grandmother.” He took his change from Ciran’s outstretched hand and nodded before moving out of the way to let the group behind him place their order. With the amount of orders to fill, Jared expected to have a bit of a wait now until his was ready.
His legs were already taking him toward the woman—Brooke. Her name suited her. Now, if he could just keep his cool and not embarrass himself in front of her. Maybe the best way to be was up front and let her know he knew who she was already and see if he could join her.
“Hi, Brooke.” Before he could tell her he was the nephew of one of her grandmother’s friends, she whipped her head around and gave him a tentative smile, rendering him speechless.
If his friends could see him now, they’d be laughing at his complete lack of cool.
“You must be Jason.” She stood up and put her hand out for him. When he wrapped his fingers around the warmth of her skin, he had to struggle to concentrate on what she was saying.
“Um, it’s Jared.” Her grandma must have already talked about him to her. He wondered how she was able to figure out it was him so quickly.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I must have remembered it wrong. I’ve already ordered my taco and am just waiting for it.”
“I’ve just ordered mine too. Mind if I join you while we wait?”
Her eyebrows came together briefly, but then she nodded and gestured to the other side of the picnic table. “Of course.”
As he sat down, he tried not to make her uncomfortable by staring at her, but he just couldn’t take his eyes off her face. She smiled, but there was something in her eyes that was holding back, and it made him want to find out why. He wanted to see her entire face light up with a smile.
“I was beginning to think I’d been stood up. I thought we’d arranged to meet here an hour ago, but I must have gotten the time wrong along with your name. I was just going to take my taco home with me. You can never be too sure when you arrange dates through those websites who will turn up,” she said.
His breath caught as he realized what had happened. She was supposed to be meeting some guy named Jason and had thought he was him. But the fact that this Jason jerk had stood her up made his stomach curl in knots. How was he supposed to be the one to have to tell her?
Pushing his guilty conscience aside, he decided he wasn’t. He couldn’t do that to her. If it meant she’d keep that beautiful smile on her face, he’d pretend he was exactly who she thought he was. He wouldn’t come right out and lie, and if she asked him, he would tell her the truth. It’s not like he was doing anything wrong…
Maybe someday when they were old and gray, rocking in the chairs on their front porch, they would be able to look back at this and laugh.
Chapter Thr
ee
Brooke glanced at the man across the table, noticing the strong jawline beneath the bright eyes staring back at her. Her heart did a little jump when he smiled but she reminded herself not to be taken in too quickly by a handsome face. Lord knew she’d run into enough pretty faces over the past few weeks who’d ended up being either complete jerks or mentally unstable.
She was definitely going to have to keep her guard up. Especially since this guy had already been an hour late and hadn’t tried to apologize. When she’d said she thought they’d agreed to meet an hour earlier, he hadn’t even said anything. And she knew she hadn’t gotten the time wrong. Although she was still sure his name had been Jason…
“So, how long have you been in Quinn Valley? Your profile mentioned that you were new to town.” She hated having to make small talk with strangers.
Just one more…then you don’t ever have to do this again!
She reminded herself about the promise she’d made last night during the scene at the restaurant. This was the last date she was signing up for through that website. No more strange men trying to get a free diagnosis. No more awkward goodbyes at the end of the date as the man tried to find out if he could call her again, or worse yet, tried to kiss her.
“I haven’t been here long.”
Well, that was vague. Okay, maybe he didn’t want to talk about it.
“Oh, well where did you come from?”
“Philadelphia. But I used to come here to visit family as a kid and always liked the area.”
She laughed quietly and shrugged. “It is beautiful here, but I imagine it’s a far cry from what you’re used to in a city that big.”
He looked around and shook his head. “Not really. When you live in a large city, you usually just hang around the same spots anyway. So not really that much different than a smaller town. Although I have to admit, I do enjoy how much slower life seems to move around here. I was never one to like the fast pace of everyone hurrying to make a dollar.”
Well, so far, she had to admit he seemed more normal than anyone else she’d met online. But she wasn’t letting her guard down yet. Especially since she was sure his profile had said he was an online stockbroker. Wouldn’t that be exactly the opposite of the kind of lifestyle he’d just mentioned he preferred?
“So I guess with your job, you can work pretty much anywhere in the world. You wouldn’t need to stay in the city. It must be an exciting career, though.”
He stared at her for a moment, and she thought he was going to say something before he averted his eyes and looked down at the table briefly. She heard Ciran call out an order that was ready before hers.
Finally, he looked back up and nodded. “It is. I love doing what I do. And being able to work from anywhere makes it easy to travel to places whenever I’m needed.”
This guy had to be holding something back. Something just didn’t seem right. His answers were so vague that he could be talking about anything.
Her last shred of hope for this man being any different than all the others just slipped away. Brooke didn’t have time for any drama from a brooding man. Maybe she could fake suddenly feeling sick.
Just then, her cousin Roxane came over with her hands filled with wrapped food. “Here you go, Brooke. I just came down to grab a bite to sneak back up to my office, so Ciran asked me to drop this off for you on my way by.” Roxie was looking at Jared intently as she handed one of the tacos to her. “And Ciran tells me you’re Jared, Maude Butler’s nephew. It’s nice of you to come out here to help her while she recovers.”
Brooke’s heart sank to her feet as she suddenly realized what had just happened. Jared wasn’t even the man she was supposed to be meeting, yet he’d let her believe he was! No wonder he’d been a bit confused in the beginning. Maude had told her about her nephew coming from the city to stay with her, but he certainly wasn’t planning to live here and wouldn’t have had a profile up on the SoulMates website.
She felt like a complete fool.
Glaring at him across the table, she waited while he talked with Roxane. Brooke wasn’t the kind of woman to cause a scene, at least not in public, so she would wait until her cousin was gone so she wouldn’t have to see her embarrassment.
Jared kept his eyes on Roxie’s retreating back as she walked away, obviously aware he’d just been found out and hoping for some time to figure out what to say. When he finally looked at her, he put his hands up in front of himself. “Listen, I was going to tell you, but I didn’t want you to think you’d been stood up by some loser who couldn’t even bother to let you know he wasn’t coming. It isn’t my fault you got me mixed up and by the time I realized who you thought I was, I wasn’t sure how to let you know the truth.”
Her eyes squinted together in anger as she tried to control her words. She was a well-known family doctor in this town and she couldn’t very well be carrying on like a raging lunatic in front of a taco stand.
“I would have expected you to have the decency to just tell me, so I wasn’t wasting my time. Instead, you were sitting here laughing at me.”
He shook his head adamantly. “No. I wasn’t laughing at you. The simple truth is that I saw you, I wanted to come over and introduce myself, and you mistakenly thought I was someone else. I didn’t come over here to intentionally lead you on. I just wanted to have the chance to talk to you.”
She stood up, grabbing her purse off the seat with her empty hand while she flung her legs over the seat of the picnic table. “Well, you had the chance. If you’d just told me who you were to begin with, I would’ve talked to you anyway. But instead you decided to make a complete fool of me.”
He was up now and raced over to her side, reaching out to take her arm. “I’m sorry. I really am. I should have told you as soon as I figured it out, but I didn’t know how. I promise I’m not a bad guy. I just make stupid decisions sometimes.”
He tried to offer her a sheepish smile, but she wasn’t falling for it. Too many bad dates in the course of at least six weeks had played her out. She had no more to give anyone and she certainly wasn’t going to be swayed by his charming smile.
He was no better than the rest of them she’d met.
And he was no better than the man who’d destroyed any chances she’d ever have of trusting another man again.
“Maybe next time you’ll think twice before leaving your brain out of a decision that could end up making someone else feeling horrible. All I can say is that I’m glad I didn’t have to waste any more of my time sitting here with you.”
Ciran must have noticed something was up because he came over holding a bag that he held out to Jared. Ciran normally just called out the orders for people to come and pick them up, so the fact he was out here gave her some relief. “Here’s the order for your aunt.”
He stared at Jared for a moment, waiting until the man let go of her arm before looking back at her. “Everything okay?”
Brooke smiled sweetly while piercing Jared with her glare. “Everything is fine. I was just leaving to enjoy my taco in peace. There is absolutely no reason to sit and eat it here.”
As she turned to walk away, she enjoyed a moment of joy as she saw that charming smile drop from his face.
Did it make her a bad doctor if there was a tiny part of her hoping he choked on his taco?
Chapter Four
“Can’t I just skip family game night for once, and sit here wallowing in my self-pity? It’s not like I ever win any of the games anyway.” Brooke held a pillow clenched to her stomach while she stroked the soft fur of the orange cat snuggled up on her chest. “Besides, Winston is so comfy I’d hate to make him move.”
Joel, her twin brother leaned against the doorway as his large, long-haired golden retriever Stanley pushed past him to jump on the couch beside her, sending Winston jumping away in a flurry of hissing and scratching. Stanley plopped his big head onto her lap and looked up at her with sad eyes, begging her to give him attention.
“See, even Stanley
thinks it would be a good idea to just stay here. You go on ahead, Stanley and I can have a quiet night eating ice cream and watching a movie.”
“Brooke, just so you know, Robyn texted me this morning and told me about the less than stellar dates you had this weekend. So I know that’s why you’re sitting here feeling sorry for yourself. Honestly, I don’t know what you expected from an online dating site. I don’t know how you ever let our sisters talk you into that. Do you see either of them trying online dating? No—because even they know what a farce it would be.”
She glared at Joel, letting her fingers move over the soft fur beneath them as they talked about Robyn and Vicki. Her younger sisters had helped her set up her profile and choose who she should respond to. It had seemed kind of fun in the beginning, hanging out with them and sharing in the excitement. That had changed pretty much after the first failed date, though.
“Well, considering the fact that they are younger than me, they still have better prospects around here than I do. And I don’t exactly have the spare time to go places where I might find a date like they do.” She rolled her eyes and shivered. “Anyway, I’m done with online dating. After my experience yesterday, I will never agree to a date with someone I don’t know. The nerve of that man!”
She’d been fuming ever since yesterday afternoon and had sat up most of the night cursing Maude’s nephew and wishing all kind of unseemly ailments on him. The worst part of it all was that she’d actually started to think he might have been different. Maybe he could have been the one normal date she’d managed to have in the past few weeks, months, and years since she’d had a boyfriend.
But no. He was the same. Or worse even. What kind of a guy let a woman believe he was the blind date she was supposed to meet?
She got angry again just thinking about it.
Joel pushed his fingers through his thick hair and sighed. “I agree, and if I see him, I assure you I will pummel him to within an inch of his life. Will that make you happy? Now, will you get off the couch and come with me? If we’re late, I’m not taking the blame. Vicki already can’t come because she’s been called in to work, so Mom won’t be impressed if her favorite son is late.”
Becoming Brooke (Quinn Valley Ranch Book 6) Page 2
