Harlequin Special Edition September 2014 - Bundle 1 of 2: Maverick for HireA Match Made by BabyOnce Upon a Bride

by Leanne Banks

  She shrugged. “I tried dragging him off, but he’s as heavy as lead.”

  Gabe smiled and withdrew the note from his pocket. “Feeding instructions,” he said, and dropped the paper onto the countertop. “If you want to get his food sorted, I’ll get him off the sofa.”

  “Thank you,” she said, then laid her hands on the back of a dining chair and grimaced. “Ouch.”

  He saw her shake her hand. “What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing,” she replied and shook her hand again. “Just a splinter I got earlier from my gate.”

  “Let me see.”

  She curled her hand. “It’s nothing.”

  Gabe moved around the kitchen counter. “It might become infected,” he said, suddenly serious. “Do you have a first-aid kit?”

  “It’s nothing, really.”

  “It won’t take a minute,” he insisted. “So your first-aid kit?”

  She shook her head. “I don’t like needles.”

  “Don’t be a baby.”

  Her eyes flashed, and she pushed her shoulders back as she marched into the kitchen and opened the pantry. “Here,” she said, and tossed something through the air.

  Gabe caught it one-handed and placed the kit on the table. “I’ll be gentle. Sit,” he said, and pulled out a chair.

  She glared again, and he marveled that she still managed to look stunning with a scowl on her face. She sat down and waited while he dropped into a chair opposite.

  “Hand?”

  She pushed her hand into the center of the table and turned it over. “Gentle, remember?”

  He smiled, opened the kit and took out an alcohol swab and an individually wrapped needle. When he took hold of her fingertips, his entire body crackled with a kind of heady electricity. Being so close wasn’t helping his determination to steer clear of her.

  “So what kind of work do you do?” he asked to try to get his mind off her soft skin and flowery perfume.

  “I own a bridal shop in Bellandale.”

  He stretched out her palm. “That sounds interesting.”

  “Does it?”

  Gabe looked up. She really did have the most amazing brown eyes. Warm and deep and intoxicating. She was remarkably beautiful, and he doubted she even knew it.

  “Just making conversation,” he said.

  Her brows shot up. “To what end?”

  “Are you always so suspicious?” he asked.

  “Of what?”

  “People,” he replied. “Men.”

  She tensed, and Gabe held her hand a little firmer. “Not usually,” she said quietly.

  So it was just him? “I don’t have any sinister intentions. So relax,” he said as he extracted the splinter without her noticing at first and then gently rolled her fingers into her palm. “I’m not making a pass.”

  She swallowed hard. “I didn’t think—”

  “I would,” he said quietly. “If you were looking for a no-strings, no-commitment kind of thing. But you’re not. You’re a commitment kind of girl, right? Abstaining from anything casual and with a clear plan for your future. Isn’t that why you made your vow of celibacy?”

  It felt right to get it out in the open. Maybe it would help diffuse the heat between them. Maybe it would stop him from thinking about kissing her.

  She jerked her hand back and stood. “I... What I said at the wedding... It was private and personal and not up for discussion.”

  “I’m not mocking you,” he said, and rested his elbows on the table. “On the contrary, I think I admire you for knowing what you want. And knowing what you don’t.”

  * * *

  Lauren’s skin burned. He admired her? He’d pretty much admitted he wanted her, too. The awareness between them intensified, and she wished she could deny it. She wanted to dislike him. She wanted to resent him. She wanted to get away and never speak to him again.

  “Thank you for the first aid,” she said, and managed a tight smile. “I didn’t feel a thing.”

  “Then we should keep it that way.”

  There was no mistaking his meaning. He thought it was a bad idea, too. She was happy about that. Very happy.

  “So...about the dog?”

  He stood up and pushed the chair back. “Get his feed ready and I’ll drag him off your sofa.”

  Once he’d left the kitchen and disappeared down the hall, Lauren got to her feet and quickly sorted the dog’s bedding and food in the laundry. A couple of minutes later, Gabe returned with Jed at his side. The dog ambled across the kitchen and into the back room and began eating.

  Relieved the hound was no longer taking up her couch, Lauren took a shallow breath. “Thank you...Gabe.”

  He looked a little amused by her sudden use of his name and the slight tremor in her voice. His mouth twisted fractionally, as if he was trying not to smile. “No problem...Lauren.”

  “Well...good night.”

  His glittering gaze was unwavering. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  Her eyes widened. “Tomorrow?”

  He grinned a little. “I told Cameron I’d take the dog to work tomorrow so he doesn’t destroy your yard trying to escape...until you can make other arrangements, of course.”

  She hadn’t spared a thought to how she would care for the dog during the day. “Oh, right,” she said vaguely, thinking about how the darn dog had suddenly become a reason why she would be forced to interact with Gabe. She made a mental note to call her friend Mary-Jayne and ask her to help. Lauren knew one thing—she didn’t want to turn up on Gabe’s doorstep again. “I’ll tie him in the back when I leave, and you can collect him from there. You don’t start until ten tomorrow, right?”

  Gabe frowned. “How do you know that?”

  “Cameron left me the roster,” she replied. “I said I’d work the Sunday shifts while he’s away if I’m needed.”

  “You’re the fill-in lifeguard?”

  “Don’t look so surprised.”

  “I’m just curious as to why your brother didn’t mention you specifically.”

  She shrugged a little. “I may have told him that I thought you were an ass.”

  Gabe laughed. “Oh, really?”

  “It was after the wedding, so who could blame me?”

  He raised his hands. “Because I innocently overheard your deepest secret?”

  “Well, that was before I...” Her words trailed. Before what? Before she realized he wasn’t quite the ogre she’d pegged him for. Now wasn’t the time to admit anything. “Anyhow...good night.”

  Once he left, Lauren forced herself to relax. She took a long shower and changed into her silliest short-legged giraffe pajamas and made a toasted cheese sandwich for dinner. She ate in the lounge room, watching television, legs crossed lotus-style, with plans to forget all about her neighbor.

  And failed.

  Because Gabe Vitali reminded her that she was a flesh-and-blood woman in every sense of the word. The way he looked, the way he walked with that kind of natural sexual confidence, the way his blue eyes glittered... It was all too easy to get swept away thinking about such things.

  And too easy to forget why she’d vowed to avoid a man like him at all costs.

  She’d made her decision to find someone steady and honest and ordinary. No powerful attraction. No blinding lust. No foolish dreams of romantic love. Just friendship and compatibility. It might sound boring and absurd to her friends, but Lauren knew what she wanted. She wanted something lasting.

  Something safe.

  Since she spent most of the night staring at the ceiling, Lauren wasn’t surprised when she awoke later than usual and had to rush to get ready for work. She fed the dog and then tied him on a generous lead to the post on her back patio and headed to the store. Her mother was ther
e already, changing mannequins and merchandising the stock that had arrived Friday afternoon. Irene Jakowski had first opened The Wedding House twenty-five years earlier. Lauren had grown up around the gowns and the brides, and it had made her fall in love with weddings. During her school years, she’d worked part-time in the store, learning from her mother. When school finished, she’d studied business and accounting for two years at college before returning to the store, taking over from her mother, who now worked part-time.

  Lauren dropped her laptop and bag on the desk in the staff room and headed to the sales floor. The rows of wedding gowns, each one immaculately pressed and presented on hangers, filled her with a mix of approval and melancholy.

  “How’s the dog?” her mother queried when she moved around the sales counter.

  Lauren grimaced. “Missing his owner and slobbering all over my furniture. You know, like in that old movie Turner & Hooch?”

  Irene laughed. “It’s not that bad, surely?”

  “Time will tell,” she replied, and managed a rueful grin. “I don’t know why he can’t go into a boarding kennel like other dogs.”

  “You’re brother says he pines when he’s away from home,” Irene told her. “And it’s only until the house sitter returns, isn’t it?”

  “Yeah,” Lauren said, and sighed. “Gabe is taking him to the surf club today, so at least my patio furniture is safe while I’m here.”

  Her mother’s eyes widened. “Gabe is? Really?”

  Of course her mother knew Gabe Vitali. She’d mentioned him several times over the past six months. Irene Jakowski was always on the lookout for a new son-in-law, since the old one hadn’t worked out. The fact he’d bought the house next door was like gold to a matchmaking parent.

  “Matka,” Lauren warned, using the Polish word for mother when she saw the familiar gleam in her mother’s eyes. “Stop.”

  “I was only—”

  “I know what you’re doing,” Lauren said, smiling. “Now, let’s get the store open.”

  * * *

  By the time Gabe returned home that afternoon, he was short on patience and more than happy to hand Jed over to his neighbor. Damned dog had chewed his car keys, his sneakers and escaped twice through the automatic doors at the clubhouse.

  When he pulled into the driveway, he spotted the fencing contractor he’d called earlier that day parked across the lawn. He locked Jed in Lauren’s front garden and headed back to his own yard. He was twenty minutes into his meeting with the contractor when she arrived home. Gabe was in the front yard with the tradesman, talking prices and time frames, as the older man began pushing at the low timber fence that separated the two allotments and then wrote in a notepad.

  She walked around the hedge and met him by the letterbox, eyeing the contractor’s battered truck suspiciously. “What’s going on?” she asked, looking all business in her black skirt and white blouse.

  “A new fence,” Gabe supplied and watched her curiosity quickly turn into a frown.

  “I wasn’t aware we needed a new one.”

  “This one’s falling down,” he said, and introduced her to the contractor before the other man waved his notepad and said he’d get back to him tomorrow.

  Once the battered truck was reversing from the yard, she clamped her hands to her hips. “Shouldn’t we have discussed it first?”

  “It’s only an estimate,” he told her. “Nothing’s decided yet.”

  She didn’t look convinced. “Really?”

  “Really,” he assured her. “Although the fence does need replacing.”

  Her eyes flashed. “I know it’s my responsibility to pay for half of any fence that’s built, but at the moment I’m—”

  Gabe shook his head. “I intend to pay for the fence, should it come to that.”

  She glared at him, then the fence, then back to him. “You don’t get to decide that for me,” she snapped, still glaring.

  He looked at her, bemused by her sudden annoyance. “I don’t?”

  “It’s my fence, too.”

  “Of course,” he replied. “I was only—”

  “Taking over? And probably thinking I couldn’t possibly afford it and then feeling sorry for me, right?”

  He had a whole lot of feelings churning through his blood when it came to Lauren Jakowski...pity definitely wasn’t one of them. “Just being neighborly,” he said, and figured he shouldn’t smile, even though he wanted to. “But hey, if you want to pay for half the fence, go ahead.”

  “I will,” she replied through tight lips. “Just let me know how much and when.”

  “Of course,” he said.

  She huffed a little. “Good. And have you been messing around with my gate?”

  Ah. So the real reason why she looked like she wanted to slug him. “Yes, I fixed your gate this morning.”

  “Because?”

  “Because it was broken,” he replied, watching her temper flare as the seconds ticked by. And broken things should be fixed. He’d spent most of his adult life fixing things. Fixing people. But she didn’t know that. And he wasn’t about to tell her. “No point risking more splinters.”

  “I liked my gate how it was,” she said, hands still on hips.

  Gabe raised a brow. “Really?”

  She scowled. “Really.”

  “You’re mad at me because I repaired your gate?”

  “I’m mad at you because it wasn’t your gate to repair. I don’t need anyone to fix things. I don’t need a white knight, okay?”

  A white knight? Yeah, right. But there was an edge of vulnerability in her voice that stopped him from smiling. Was she broken? Was that part of what drew him to her? Like meets like? He knew she was divorced, and at her brother’s wedding she’d admitted her marriage hadn’t been a happy one. But Gabe didn’t want to speculate. And he didn’t want to ask. The less he knew, the better.

  “Okay,” he said simply.

  For a moment, he thought she might argue some more. Instead, she dropped her gaze and asked an obvious question. “What happened to your shoe?”

  He glanced down. The back of his left sneaker was torn and the lace was missing. “Jed.”

  She looked up again, and he saw her mouth curve. “Was that the only damage?”

  “Other than chewing my car keys and making a run for it whenever he got the chance.”

  She moaned softly. “Sorry about that. I’ll get Cameron to replace them when he gets back.”

  Gabe shrugged. “No need. It’s only a shoe.”

  She nodded, turned and walked back around the hedge. Gabe shook his shoulders and made a concerted effort to forget all about her.

  And failed.

  * * *

  I really need to stop reacting like that.

  Lauren was still thinking it forty minutes later when she emerged from the shower and pulled on frayed gray sweats. Her reaction, or rather her overreaction, to Gabe’s news about the fence was amplified by his interference with her gate.

  She didn’t want him fixing things.

  Lauren didn’t want any man fixing things.

  It was a road she’d traveled before. She knew what she wanted and white knights need not apply. Her ex-husband had tried to fix things—to fix her—and it had ended in disaster.

  James Wallace had ridden into her life in his carpenter’s truck, all charm and good looks. He’d arrived at The Wedding House to make repairs to the changing rooms, and she’d been unexpectedly drawn to his blatant flirting. An hour later, she’d accepted his invitation to go out with him that night. They ended up at a local bistro for drinks and then dinner, and by midnight he’d kissed her in the car park, and she was halfway in lust with him.

  Three months later, she had a fairy-tale wedding.

  Even though it was
the wedding she’d planned to have to someone else.

  To Tim. Sweet, handsome Tim Mannering. Her first love. Her only love. He had been her college boyfriend and the man she’d intended to marry. They’d made plans for the future. They’d talked about everything from building their dream home, taking an African-safari vacation, to how many kids they would have. They’d loved one another deeply and promised each other the world.

  Except Tim had died three weeks before their wedding.

  And Lauren walked down the aisle with another man less than two years later.

  She swallowed the tightness in her throat. Thinking about Tim still filled her with sadness. And she was sad about James, too. She should never have married him. She hadn’t loved him. They’d shared a fleeting attraction that had faded just months into their marriage. They’d had little in common and very different dreams. Within a year, James was gone, tired of what he called her cold, unfeeling heart. And Lauren was alone once more.

  But she still hoped to share her life with someone. And she wanted the children she’d planned for since the day she and Tim had become engaged. Only next time, Lauren was determined to go into it with her eyes wide-open and not glazed over by romantic illusions. What she’d had with James wasn’t enough. And what she’d had with Tim had left her broken inside. Now all she wanted was the middle road. Just mutual respect, trust and compatibility. No fireworks. No deep feelings. Lust was unreliable. Love was painful when lost.

  There was nothing wrong with settling. Nothing at all. Settling was safe. All she had to do was remember what she wanted and why. And forget all about Gabe Vitali and his glittering blue eyes and broad shoulders. Because he was pure heartbreak material. And her heart wasn’t up for grabs.

  Not now.

  Not ever again.

  Chapter Three

  Gabe went to his cousin’s for dinner Wednesday night and expected the usual lecture about his life. Scott Jones was family and his closest friend, and even though he knew the other man’s intentions were born from a sincere interest in his well-being, Gabe generally pulled no punches when it came to telling his cousin to mind his own business.

  Scott’s wife, Evie, was pure earth mother. She was strikingly attractive and possessed a calm, generous spirit. Gabe knew his cousin was besotted with his wife and baby daughter, and he was genuinely happy for him.