Completely Smitten

by Susan Mallery

  His gaze narrowed. “We’re supposed to be talking about you, young lady.”

  She laughed. “All right. Keep your secrets. But if there’s a spark, I think you should pursue it.” She twisted her fingers together. “I know what you meant when you used to talk to me about loving Mom.”

  “You’ve found someone?”

  She nodded. She could feel the smile curving her lips and wouldn’t have been surprised if her entire body started to glow. “His name is Kevin and he’s a U.S. Marshal. He’s so wonderful, Daddy. He’s strong and caring and generous. He loves me and wants only the best for me. He’s a good man.”

  “So where is this paragon of virtue? As your father, it’s my duty to terrify him into taking good care of you.”

  She laughed. “That won’t be necessary. He already does.” Her humor faded. “He’s in Texas and will soon be flying to Washington, D.C. That’s where he works. That’s where I want to be.”

  Her father frowned. “What’s standing in your way? Is he married?”

  “Oh, Daddy. He’s not married. He wants me to be sure.” How exactly was she supposed to explain the complexity of her relationship with Kevin? Did her father really want to know she’d spent their entire time together trying to get him to sleep with her? She thought not.

  “He knows about Allan and how I’ve been doing what everyone wanted me to do and not what I wanted. He loves me and wants me to come back to him, but first he wants me to figure out what I want. He says I need to be doing for myself now.”

  Her father winced. “I didn’t mean not to listen.”

  “I know. It just sort of happened. I was willing to do what everyone thought was right. I should have stood up to people, but I didn’t know how.”

  “Do you now?”

  “Yes. I love you, Daddy, but I’m not going to be able to live here anymore. I want to be a schoolteacher. I want to marry Kevin and have a life with him.”

  “It sounds to me as if you’ve got everything planned.”

  “Pretty much.”

  “Then what are you doing here? I thought you said your young man was in Washington.”

  Haley caught her breath. Her father’s love and acceptance filled her heart with a joy and peace that nearly gave her wings. She threw herself at him.

  “I love you, Daddy.”

  He hugged her tightly. “I love you, too. I always have. You’re a wonderful daughter and one of the most special people it has been my privilege to know. God blessed me when he brought you into my life. But it seems to me, it’s long past time for you to be moving on. Just don’t forget your old man in all the excitement of your new life.”

  “I won’t,” she promised. “Not ever.”

  Kevin glanced at the clock and tried not to do the math. Unfortunately his brain supplied him with the information. Ten days, seven hours. That’s how long it had been since Haley had left Possum Landing. He hadn’t heard from her since.

  They’d made a deal, he reminded himself. She would go back to her old life and decide what she wanted. If it was him, she would be in touch, if not…

  He didn’t want to think about that. He didn’t want to think about a cold, empty life spent missing her. He’d done the right thing by letting her go, he only wished it didn’t have to hurt so badly.

  While he knew he wouldn’t get over her, he figured the loneliness would get easier in time. He’d accepted the promotion and was now swamped with several field projects he had to coordinate. He had his own office, an assistant and a team reporting directly to him. The pay increase meant that should Haley return they would be able to afford to get a house right off. And if she didn’t…he’d have a hell of a nest egg.

  In the meantime, he kept busy with his new responsibilities and planning his upcoming trip to California. He and Gage had decided to email their long-lost relatives. They’d found the Haynes brothers to be excited by the thought of new relatives. The date had been set for the big family reunion. Kevin’s brother, Nash, was going to meet them there, and Gage was trying to get in touch with his brother, Quinn.

  Everything was coming together—except for wanting Haley back.

  Just his dumb luck, he thought grimly. He’d finally fallen in love with someone he’d had to let go. Nothing in life was easy, right?

  The intercom buzzed. Kevin hit the button. “Yes?”

  “You have a visitor. May I send her in?”

  Her? Haley? He told himself it wasn’t possible, that it was too soon, that she might not still be in love with him… But he didn’t want to believe it.

  “Sure,” he said, telling himself he had to get over expecting her to walk through the door. He stood and waited.

  Either his mind was playing tricks on him or the world had stopped turning because twenty seconds later a pretty young woman with hazel-blue eyes and a wide, winning smile stepped into his office. She wore a short denim skirt and a cropped T-shirt that exposed a sliver of stomach and sent need racing south.

  Haley closed the door behind her. “You said to go get my life in order. That took about fifteen minutes. I didn’t think you’d believe me if I rushed right back, and I thought you had a good point. So I talked to my dad, I made lists, I tried to get over you.” She shrugged. “I can’t. I love you. So how long do I have to wait until we can be together?”

  He didn’t remember moving, but suddenly she was in his arms. He kissed her, tasting her, needing her. Loving her.

  All the pain of being alone, of missing her, faded. She loved him. She still loved him.

  “I love you. I’ve missed you,” he murmured, kissing her cheeks, her mouth, her chin, her nose. “Every damn day has been hell.”

  She looked at him and smiled. “Compound swearing. I’m so impressed.” She touched his face. “I missed you, too. With every breath. I love you, Kevin. How could I not? You wanted what was right for me, even when it hurt you. Isn’t that the real definition of love? Wanting what’s right for the other person regardless of your own needs? The thing is, you’re right for me. I know you’re not perfect, but that’s okay. I’m not perfect, either. And you’re the best man I’ve ever known. I love you so much and I’m proud to be loved by you. I want to be with you always. I want to marry you and go to California and meet your family. I want to make a home with you and have children with you. I want to grow old with you and hold hands and make love until we’re old and gray and should probably know better. But we’ll do it anyway because we can’t resist each other.”

  She paused. “But I’ll wait if you want me to.”

  He laughed and swung her around the room. “I don’t want to wait even a day.” When he set her on her feet, he stared into her eyes. “You’ve said all the fancy words, so I only have those left in my heart. Marry me, Haley. I will do my best to make you happy. I will keep you safe, honor you, love you.”

  “Yes.” She kissed him. “Yes. Of course.”

  He angled his head and deepened the kiss. Passion exploded between them. It would always be like this, he realized. He would always want her and she would always be there for him. He could see their future as clearly as if it were a movie up on the wall, and it made him humble with gratitude.

  “There’s just one thing,” she said, pulling back. “We have to go to Ohio because my dad wants to meet you and I sort of said we could be married there. Is that okay?”

  “Absolutely. As long as Allan isn’t performing the ceremony.”

  She giggled. “Nope. He’s long gone.”

  “Then Ohio it is. And then Hawaii, for our honeymoon.”

  “Well, I’ve been thinking about that. Let’s get married and then go to California to meet your family. We can do Hawaii next year.”

  “I thought that’s what had started everything. You were driving to Hawaii.”

  “It was, until I realized that I’d found my own private paradise with you. It’s not about the location. It’s about being with the man I love and having him love me back.”

  “I do,” he v
owed.

  “Forever?”

  “Longer.”

  With special thanks to Jennifer Green for believing in me and my characters.

  HERS FOR THE WEEKEND

  Bestselling Author

  Tanya Michaels

  TANYA MICHAELS

  began telling stories almost as soon as she could talk…and started stealing her mom’s Harlequin romances less than a decade later. In 2003 Tanya was thrilled to have her first book, a romantic comedy, published by Harlequin Books. Since then, Tanya has sold more than twenty books and is a two-time recipient of the Booksellers’ Best Award as well as a finalist for a Holt Medallion, National Readers’ Choice Award and Romance Writers of America’s prestigious RITA ® Award. Tanya lives in Georgia with her husband, two children and an unpredictable cat, but you can visit Tanya online at www.tanyamichaels.com.

  Chapter One

  Piper Jamieson sagged against the sofa cushions and rolled her eyes at the phone receiver. It could have been a wrong number, a pushy telephone solicitor, an obscene caller even, but nooo, it was her mother. Piper loved her mom, but all their conversations boiled down to the same argument—Piper’s love life.

  She started to put her feet up on the oval coffee table, but stopped suddenly, as though her mother could see through the phone line and into her apartment. “So, how’ve you been doing, Mom?”

  “Never mind that. I’m more concerned with how you are,” her mother said. “You don’t feel acute appendicitis coming on, right? You aren’t going to call us tomorrow with a severe case of forty-eight-hour east Brazilian mumps or something?”

  Piper groaned. Although she’d bailed out on all of the family reunions in recent years, she’d used legitimate work-related excuses, never fictional medical ones. But this year she’d made a promise to her grandmother.

  This year, there would be no reprieve.

  “I’ll be there,” she assured her mother. “And I’m looking forward to seeing you all.” Mostly.

  “We’re looking forward to seeing you, too, honey. Especially Nana. When I went to visit her at the hospital last week—”

  “Hospital?” Piper’s chest tightened. She adored her grandmother, even if Nana did stubbornly insist women needed husbands. “Daphne told me she was under the weather, but no one said anything about the hospital.” As Nana advanced in years, Piper couldn’t help worrying over her grandmother’s health.

  A worry her mother was not above exploiting. “You know what would help your Nana? If she knew you had a good man to take care of you.”

  Ah, yes—here came the Good Man Speech. Piper knew it well.

  “You’ve always been independent,” her mother was saying, “but there’s such a thing as being too stubborn. Before you know it, you’ll wake up fifty, without anyone to share your life….”

  Knowing from experience that it did no good to point out she was decades away from turning fifty, Piper stretched across her couch. Might as well be comfy while she waited for her mother to wind down.

  Though she’d escaped her small hometown of Rebecca, Texas, and now lived in Houston, Piper couldn’t escape her family’s shared belief that a woman’s purpose in life was to get married. Piper’s sole brush with matrimony had been a broken engagement that still left her with a sense of dazed relief—how had she come so close to spending her life with a man who’d wanted her to be someone different? When her sister, Daphne, had married, Piper thought the pressure would ease, that their mother would be happy to finally have a married daughter. Instead, Mrs. Jamieson was scandalized that her youngest was married, now pregnant, while her oldest didn’t even date.

  As her mom continued to wax ominous about the downfalls of growing old alone, Piper stared vacantly at the dead ficus tree in the corner of her living room. I should water that poor thing. Although, at this point, it was probably more in need of a dirge than H2O.

  “Piper! Are you even listening to me?”

  “Y— Mostly.”

  “I asked if that bagel man was still giving you trouble.”

  Mercifully, her mother had moved on to the next topic. Too bad Piper had no idea what that topic was. “Bagel?”

  Then realization dawned. Her mother must mean Stanley Kagle, vice president of Callahan, Kagle and Munroe, the architectural firm where Piper worked as the only female draftsman. Make that draftswoman. In Kagle’s unvoiced opinion, Piper’s job description should be brewing coffee and answering phones with Ginger and Maria, the two assistants who had been with the firm since it opened. Luckily, Callahan and Munroe held more liberated views.

  “You mean Mr. Kagle, Mom?”

  “Whichever one is always hassling you at work.” She paused. “You know, you wouldn’t have to work at all if you’d find a nice man and raise some babies.”

  Piper could actually hear her blood pressure rising. One of only a handful of female students in her degree program at Texas A&M, she’d busted her butt to excel in her drafting and detailing courses, and was now working even harder to prove herself amid her male colleagues. Why couldn’t her family be proud of that? Proud of her?

  “Mom, I like my job. I like my life. I wish you’d just accept that I’m happy.”

  “How happy could you be? Daphne says you’re underappreciated and that one of your bosses has it in for you.”

  And thank you so much, Daphne, for passing on that information.

  “Daph caught me after a rough week, and I was just venting,” Piper said. “I love the actual drafting part.” And loved the feeling she got when she was in the middle of a drawing and knew it was damn good, the pride of passing a building downtown and seeing one of her suspended walkways. If things continued to go well, Piper was hoping her next review with Callahan would lead to her first project as a team leader.

  But better to argue her point in a language her mom could understand. “I’ll admit to occasional work-related stress, but are you trying to tell me that marriage and motherhood are stress-free?”

  Silence stretched across the phone line.

  Aha! I have you there.

  Then Mrs. Jamieson sighed as though this conversation epitomized her motherhood stress. “Honey, you aren’t getting any younger, and women can’t—”

  Recognizing the introductory phrase of her Don’t You Hear Your Biological Clock Ticking Speech, Piper interrupted. “I’d love to chat more Mom, but…” She thought fast, determined to rescue herself from this black hole of a conversation. “I have to run because I have dinner plans.”

  “You have a dinner date! With a man?”

  Did she really want to lie to her mother? Piper gnawed at her lower lip. She’d already told one white lie. Besides, if it would save her from another round of “you’d be such a pretty girl if you just fixed yourself up,” why not? Her imaginary person might as well be an imaginary man.

  “Yes.” Guilt over the uncharacteristic fib immediately niggled at her, but she pressed forward. “It’s a man.”

  “Good heavens. I can’t believe you let me go on all this time and didn’t say anything about having a boyfriend!”

  Boyfriend? She’d only meant to allude to a dinner date to buy herself some peace and quiet, not invent a full-blown relationship. “Wait, I—”

  “What does your young man look like, dear?”

  Piper blurted the first thing that came to mind. “Tall, dark and handsome.” Oh, very original! “Dark-haired with green eyes,” she elaborated.

  “And you’ll bring him home with you for the reunion, right?”

  “Well, no, I—”

  “We can’t wait to meet him. I was hoping this weekend would give you the chance to get reacquainted with Charlie, but I didn’t know you had a boyfriend.”

  “Charlie?” Piper would invent a dozen fake boyfriends before she let herself go down that road again. “Mom, I don’t want to see Charlie.”

  Her mother’s uneasy silence made it clear that it was too late for Piper to avoid her ex-fiancé.

  “You’ve invite
d him for dinner or something, haven’t you?” What did it take to convince people that she and Charlie were over? Not over in the-timing-just-wasn’t-right, maybe-later kind of way. Over in the stone-cold, do-not-resuscitate, rest-in-peace kind of way.

  “Piper, he’s like one of the family.”

  More so than she was, it would seem.

  “And I don’t know why you sound so appalled whenever you mention him,” her mother continued. “Charlie Conway is a good man, and he’s the most eligible bachelor in the entire county.”

  That was probably true. Handsome, funny and smart, Charlie Conway had been a fellow Rebecca native and A&M student. He’d been so sought after in high school that Piper had been surprised when he pursued her in college. He’d claimed to love her because she was so refreshingly different from the girls they’d grown up with, and he’d eventually proposed. Their engagement had been strained, however, by his decision to return to Rebecca and carry on the Conway mayoral tradition, and Piper had returned the heirloom diamond ring when she realized that the allure of “refreshingly different” had faded. The longer she’d been with Charlie, the more he’d tried to change her.

  “Mom, I don’t care how eligible he is. He’s not right for me.” She’d tried to explain this before, but since she was rejecting the very lifestyle most of her family and childhood friends had chosen, they didn’t quite understand. Piper knew they were fond of Charlie—she had been, too, at one point—but she hadn’t liked the person she’d become when she was with him. “Promise me you’re not going to spend the weekend trying to throw us together.”

  “Well, of course not, dear—not with this new young man in your life. We can’t wait to meet him!” her mother repeated.

  “I’ll, um, see if he’s available.” Piper hated the blatant dishonesty, but not as much as she hated the thought of an entire weekend explaining why the county’s most eligible bachelor wasn’t good enough for her.

  “This is so exciting,” her mom said. “I can’t wait to call everyone and let them know. Oh, and honey, if you’re going out tonight, I hope you’ll think about wearing a dress for a ch—”