All For You: Halfway ThereBuckhorn Ever AfterThe One You WantOne Perfect Night

by Susan Mallery

  One day, Shohn thought, he’d build his own house on a piece of this land. It was what the family wanted, what he wanted. He couldn’t imagine living away from the lake. Not forever.

  “Why do you need to talk to Amber?” his mom asked.

  “I told you, Honey.” Morgan grinned. “Women trouble. You know Amber is the resident know-it-all.”

  Misty smacked his shoulder. “She’s very helpful to everyone.”

  “So helpful that she has them all wrapped around her little finger,” Morgan said.

  True enough, Shohn thought. Gabe’s daughters, Kady, April and Briana, rarely made a move without consulting with Amber first. Garrett, Amber’s younger brother by two years, gave her hell about being nosy but any girls he actually liked he brought to Amber for approval. Adam, Jordan’s son, who was twenty-eight, wasn’t averse to listening when Amber doled out her unique brand of wisdom. Only Lisa, Jordan’s daughter, who was a regular barracuda in the business world, seemed content to keep her own counsel. At fourteen and twelve, Casey’s kids were still a little too young to need dating advice, but they showered Amber with proper adulation.

  “My girl missed her calling working in a bookstore,” Morgan said. “She should have been a bartender.”

  “Morgan,” Misty and Honey said at the same time.

  Sawyer laughed. “At least that way, she’d always have an ear to bend.” He slapped Shohn on the shoulder. “I have early appointments tomorrow, so your mom and I are heading home. You going to stop in before you leave?”

  His dad saw more patients now than ever, but still worked from home. Shohn shook his head. “I’ll help Amber round up Rookie and then head on to my own bed. I’m leading a school field trip through the gap tomorrow. Second-graders.”

  Honey smoothed his hair, bent and kissed his ear and said, “If you need to talk, you know where to find us.”

  After shooting a dirty look at Morgan, which only made his uncle grin, Shohn tipped his head back to see Honey. “It’s fine, Mom. No worries, no women troubles, nothing like that.”

  “Famous last words,” Morgan said. Then he stood with Misty held in his arms. “Tell Amber we’re inside. You’ll have five minutes to talk before I come out to get her.”

  “Yes, sir.” Knowing how Morgan adored his family, Shohn appreciated the effort. When Amber’s truck pulled into the long driveway, he walked out to meet her. Rock music blasted from the radio, and when she cut the engine, near silence fell around them. Only the chirping of crickets and rustling of leaves disturbed the darkness.

  Long dark hair windblown from the open windows, Amber hopped from the truck, saying, “Hey, cuz, what’s up?”

  He heard the worry and hurried to say, “Not a thing. Rookie’s in the house, playing with the other dogs.”

  The animals all got along well, but together, they could be a handful. Though Morgan and Misty always offered, Amber liked to leave Rookie with Nadine for overnight stays.

  “Nadine let you have him okay? Sort of sounded like she was hesitant to turn him over to you.”

  “It’s a liability thing.” He hefted her heavy suitcase from the truck bed then spotted some boxes, too. He set the suitcase down. “I can carry this stuff in for you in a minute.”

  Amber paused, her expression alight with curiosity and anticipation. “What is it? What’s going on?”

  Yeah, she did that to everyone, already knowing stuff before she was told. “I wanted to talk to you about Nadine.”

  Throwing up her arms, Amber whooped. “I knew it! She’s perfect for you. Marry her and let her have your babies.”

  Whoa. “What the hell, Amber. Are you nuts?”

  She laughed then slugged him in the arm. “Just teasing. What about Nadine?”

  Heart still pounding, Shohn scowled at her. “No way. You were serious.”

  Holding her finger and thumb close together, Amber said, “Just a little, maybe.” She hugged his arm and leaned into him. “She really is perfect for you. But the babies can wait if you’re determined to drag your feet.”

  Jaw loose, Shohn tried to shake her off, but she clung like a damned monkey. “I’m not marrying anyone.”

  “Start with a kiss and see how that goes.”

  Already done, and it had been oh-so-hot. But no way would he encourage Amber by telling her so. “You’re nuts.”

  Amber grabbed him by his ears. “Have I ever steered you wrong?”

  No, but today seemed to be a day full of firsts. Like the first time he’d really gotten turned on by Nadine, the first time he’d kissed her.

  The first time a woman made him brood, just as Uncle Morgan claimed.

  Shohn smothered a groan and asked, “Why Nadine? What makes you think she’s so great?”

  “Oh, my God, it was incredible.” Always a little dramatic, Amber hunkered in close as if telling a state secret. “I was dropping off Rookie. He loves that place, you know, which makes it easier not to fret about him when I’m gone. I mean, he loves Mom and Dad, too, but the doggy hotel is like a vacay for him. Anyway, Nadine was filling out the paperwork, and two other chickies were in there.”

  “Chickies?”

  She flapped a hand. “Two of your flighty exes—women I had not approved, by the way. And they were prattling on about getting you up in the woods and out of your uni. Really explicit stuff, Shohn. Made me blush.”

  Yeah, right. Nothing made Amber blush. “Baloney. You’re making that up.”

  “Just the blushing part. Those two airheads were talking loud enough for even poor Fred to hear. He’s Nadine’s new groundskeeper in case you don’t know.”

  “I heard all about Fred.”

  “So anyway, they were talking about you like you were heaven’s gift to women and all, and I looked at Nadine, and she rolled her eyes.” Amber watched him expectantly, as if that should somehow be important.

  “Sorry, hon, but if that’s the punch line, I don’t get it.”

  Huffing, Amber clarified, “She was disgusted, Shohn.”

  “Great. I disgust her.” Not when kissing her, but yeah, at other times, she had acted pretty put out over stuff. “How does that make her perfect?”

  “Don’t be obtuse.” Amber shoved him, or at least she tried to.

  Since she’d been doing that sort of thing forever, roughhousing as if she were one of the boys, Shohn stayed prepared around her. He didn’t budge a single inch. He lifted a brow and waited.

  Grabbing his shirt, Amber pulled him down to her level and enunciated clearly. “She doesn’t buy into your awesome rep, cuz.”

  Well, that sucked, because he made a lot of headway with that rep, a rep he’d carefully cultivated with the ladies.

  “She’s above that nonsense,” Amber said. “Nadine doesn’t see you as a charming stud at all.”

  “Lucky me.”

  Amber laughed at his lack of enthusiasm. “No, it’s better than that. I asked her a few things about you—”

  He groaned. “God help me.”

  “—and you know what? She thinks you’re smart and considerate. She respects your job and she knows some of the more heroic crap you’ve done, which means she’s been paying attention, just not to the hype.”

  Shohn scoffed, but he was intrigued enough to prompt Amber. “I haven’t done any heroic crap.”

  “Puh-leeze.” Amber walked around him and opened the truck gate. “You went out on the frozen lake to save that dog last winter.”

  “I had all the right equipment so it wasn’t—”

  “And,” Amber said with emphasis, “you helped track that one dope dealer who was trying to hide in the hills.”

  “We were all tracking him. I was just lucky to find him fir—”

  “And,” she interrupted again, “you scaled down Culper’s Cliff to save
that boy when his doofus dad let him fall over.”

  “Yeah,” Shohn agreed. “That was a little harrowing.” But anyone would have done the same.

  “You’ve done tons of awesome stuff and Nadine knew about all of it.” Amber hauled out a heavy box. “She even remembered that time back when you two were early teens and you stopped that loudmouth Bob from calling her names.”

  Shohn nodded slowly. “I was fourteen, but she was only twelve.”

  “Bob,” Amber said, “was fifteen, and still you beat him up.”

  “Bob was a damned coward who enjoyed making fun of people.” Shohn recalled that day as if it had just happened. They were all at the lake, swimming and flirting and doing what kids did. Nadine hadn’t worn a suit, which he remembered thinking odd. During summer in Buckhorn, especially on the lake, everyone wore a suit.

  But not Nadine. She’d been in shorts and a shirt.

  Then Bob had pushed her in and she’d gotten soaked. Her T-shirt had glued itself to her chest in a way that had them all gawking. Even back then, Nadine had been chesty. He remembered being floored by his first shot of honest-to-God breasts.

  It had left him curious as only a horny fourteen-year-old boy could be.

  Then, out of the blue, Bob had called her a cow. Big tears had joined the lake water on Nadine’s face, and Shohn had suffered his very first bout of possessiveness.

  CHAPTER THREE

  FISTS CURLING, SHOHN got furious all over again. If Bob hadn’t mellowed into a decent enough guy he’d be tempted to go whip his ass all over again.

  Amber deliberately elbowed him as she walked past with the box, saying, “Nadine is the one.”

  The one what? He snatched up a box and her suitcase and followed her to the porch. “So you like her?”

  “A lot. She’s supersmart and really compassionate.” Using her foot, Amber got the door open, and then suddenly Morgan was there.

  “Give me that.” He took the box from her, bent to kiss her forehead and said, “Your mom is waiting in the kitchen with pie and coffee.”

  “Love you, Dad,” Amber said sweetly.

  Shohn shook his head. Only with Morgan was Amber ever that sugary. “Move so I can set this stuff down.”

  She did, but because Morgan had only gone as far as the living room, she leaned in again to whisper, “Go after her, Shohn. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”

  “How?” he whispered back while keeping an eye on his uncle. “She wasn’t exactly receptive.”

  “Well, duh. She knows your rep, whether she buys into it or not, and as I already said, she’s not a dummy.”

  Done with being insulted, Shohn turned to go. “A lot of help you are.”

  She followed him out. “Get a dog.”

  He stopped midstep. That was...ingenious. “Yeah.” He nodded while thinking it through. “I could do that.” Hell, he loved animals. Most everyone in the family had pets. And he could use the excuse of having Nadine watch the dog for him when he worked. She wasn’t overly expensive, dogs loved her and then he’d have a reason to visit her.

  Often.

  “This is why you come to me,” Amber announced with great fanfare. “Go to the shelter. There are a lot of dogs there looking for a home.”

  He saluted her, and now, with a plan in mind, he felt better. Less unsettled. Tomorrow, on his way to work, he’d get a dog. Something easy and friendly. A mature dog that wouldn’t need to be trained.

  Then he’d have all the reason in the world to hang around Nadine, and maybe, just maybe, he’d be able to figure out what it was about her that suddenly pushed all the right buttons.

  * * *

  IT WAS JUST after 9:00 a.m., but the sun blazed in a bright blue sky, promising a scorcher. Suffocating humidity left the air dense, but Fred had mowed the yard an hour earlier and the freshly cut grass smelled oh-so-sweet.

  As she did every morning, Nadine faced the new day with a sense of promise, never mind the sleepless night spent mooning over Shohn Hudson.

  For years, she’d done her best to block him from her thoughts. She was a realist, and she knew anything more than a shallow friendship wasn’t meant to be. Shohn seemed to see her as an asexual being.

  Or at least, he used to.

  Last night...what a difference. But she could probably chalk that up to boredom or a full moon or some other fleeting happenstance that would never again occur.

  Still, that kiss had kept her awake long into the night, making her think about “what ifs” and keeping her too hot and achy and hungry.

  As she came in from bathing a dog, she again shoved thoughts of Shohn and his awesome bod and well-deserved confidence from her mind. Because she’d been sluggish that morning, she’d put her hair in sloppy braids down her back. Somehow the ends had gotten soaked along with her T-shirt and shorts. She had mud on her nose, dog hair stuck to her cheek and her feet were bare. Sadie, an older German shepherd, loved her baths so much that she bounded and splashed and played and made it almost impossible to get her clean.

  So sweet, and so much fun. Nadine was lucky to have a job she enjoyed that also paid well enough for her to keep her independence. And if the hours kept her single for the entirety of her life, well, that one kiss with Shohn would have to suffice for a fantasy life.

  Her thoughts had gone full-circle to him yet again. “Just stop it,” she told herself.

  “Stop what?”

  Oh, no, no, no. Trying not to grimace, she looked up, and there stood Shohn.

  Her heart threatened to punch out of her chest. Her bare toes curled on the linoleum floor, and a vise closed around her lungs.

  Oh, for heaven’s sake. The memory of his kiss, of being pressed to that tall muscular body, was good, sure, but it didn’t warrant all that.

  Liar.

  Shohn looked down at his lap. “Is my fly open or something?”

  “What?”

  “You’re staring.”

  “Oh. Sorry.” She straightened her shirt and used a wrist to try to swipe away the mud on her nose. “What are you doing here?”

  Rather than answer, he gave her that cocky, crooked and endearing smile. “What have you been up to? Mud wrestling?”

  “No.” She felt a little slow and stupid, but ho boy, he looked good first thing in the morning. He was freshly shaved, his uniform shirt opened at the throat, showing off a little peek of chest hair. He had his hat pushed back, his thick utility belt hanging around his lean hips.

  She’d seen sheriffs and cops and military men, but not until Shohn became a ranger had she truly gotten the appeal of a man in uniform.

  “No?” he asked. “That’s it?”

  “What?”

  His smile widened, became intimate and knowing. “Having trouble keeping up today, huh? Me, too.” He reached out to tweak one of her braids. “I asked how you got so messy.”

  “Dog bath.”

  His attention went to the front of her shirt and a brow lifted. “Did the dog bathe you, or vice versa?”

  “Little of both.”

  He nodded at her chest. “Nice shirt.”

  Remembering the shirt she’d chosen sent heat into Nadine’s face. It read I Like Tiny Wieners and came with a picture of a dachshund.

  With a load of suggestiveness, Shohn said, “I hope that doesn’t take me out of the running.”

  The running for what? He didn’t want her, not for anything more than a joke or a way to kill time or some equally repugnant motive. She had to remember that.

  Trying to switch the topic to something less stimulating than his size, she gestured at the carrier he held in one hand. “What do you have there?”

  He twisted his mouth. “Well, see, after being here with you, around all the animals, I mean, I kept thinking about getting a do
g.”

  “Really?” Her heart swelled with pride. If nothing else, she’d been a positive influence.

  “I went to the shelter first thing this morning.”

  “Perfect!” Adopting a rescue was always better than buying some fancy little dog with a pedigree or, God forbid, paying a puppy mill.

  “The thing is—”

  She leaned down to look in the carrier—and a distinct “Meorwwwww” came out.

  Nadine straightened. “Funny sounding dog.”

  “Yeah, see, I was looking at the dogs...”

  She took the carrier from him and moved to the counter, where she could better see. She looked in. Yup. “That’s a cat, Shohn.”

  “I know it’s a cat, smart-ass.” He braced a hand on his gun. “His name is Louie.”

  She’d noticed that was a familiar stance for him. “Friendly?”

  He rubbed the back of his neck. “Superfriendly, actually.”

  “Come on.” Curiosity got the better of her. She loved animals, all of them, and she wanted to meet this wonderful cat that had won over Shohn Hudson.

  “Where are we going?”

  “To a private room so I can let him out.”

  “You’re not going to coax me in there and then lock the door on me, are you?” He followed her in. “I need to head to work soon.”

  “Don’t be dumb.” She closed the door to a small waiting room—not the storage closet—and set the carrier on a table. Leaning down again, she looked in and said, “Hi, Louie.”

  “Meorrrwww.”

  “Yeah, baby, you want out of there, don’t you?” She reached a finger in through the opening, and Louie rubbed his square head against her knuckle. “Very sweet.”

  “Yeah,” Shohn said with clear doubt. “Sweet.”

  “He looks older.”

  “Ancient, even.” He dropped into a chair. “The shelter wasn’t sure of his age, though. They just know he’s mature and kind of set in his ways.”