Harlequin E Contemporary Romance Box Set Volume 2: Maid to CraveAll I HaveThe Last First DateLight My Fire

by Rebecca M. Avery

  Stupid opinion at that.

  As Dell stepped out on the porch, the family’s German shepherd greeted him with a tennis ball.

  Dell hurled the tennis ball, smiled as Colby ran for it, tongue lolling out of her mouth as she raced down the hill. Nothing like a dog to cheer you up after a nice, tense dinner with dear old Dad.

  Charlie had escaped before dessert, under the guise of business—because his business was so much more important. Kenzie had disappeared to do homework, taking Mom with her.

  That had left him and Dad and tension. Was it always going to be this way? He couldn’t be someone he wasn’t and leave farming. He could go work for someone else, but then the land he’d loved his entire life would be built over into a subdivision.

  With a grunt, Dell hurled the ball again, trying to take some solace in Colby’s graceful strides.

  The screen door creaked open and Mom stepped out. While Dell could see the years’ toll on Dad’s face every time he looked at him, Mom was exactly the same as she was in Dell’s childhood memories. Sturdy jeans and boots, a flannel shirt folded up to the elbows. Slightly graying brown hair pulled back into a braid. She didn’t wrinkle or change. She was just Mom. Strong, sturdy, calming. If it wasn’t for her, he and Dad would probably have come to blows at some point.

  Mom stood next to him on the top stair of the porch, watching Colby return lazily with the ball. “You can’t let your father get to you.”

  “I’m not sure I have a choice.”

  “Of course you do. We always have a choice. I know it’s frustrating, but he isn’t trying to be the bad guy here, Dell. He’s wrong, but that doesn’t mean his reasons aren’t right.”

  “That doesn’t make a lick of sense.” Dell bent down to scratch Colby’s ears. “You know Mia Pruitt?”

  “Oh, sweet little Mia. Poor girl.”

  Dell frowned, momentarily put off the point of bringing up Mia. “Why do you say that?”

  “I just remember how she always seemed to be the butt of everyone’s jokes. And no one I’ve ever met is in more need of stick-up-her-ass removal than Sarah Pruitt. The woman made being a co-room mother for Kenzie’s kindergarten class a nightmare. That kind of stress can’t be good for young girls.”

  “They seem fine enough.” Fine enough to dance with him and infiltrate his dreams in ways he was not at all comfortable with. “Her dad’s selling her his farm.”

  “You know, it’s like that TV doctor says. Karmic debt.”

  “You really need to stop watching daytime TV.” Dell took the slobbery tennis ball from Colby’s mouth. He stood and hurled it again, farther this time. “Besides, I really don’t see how the two are related.”

  “It’s not for you to see.”

  “Mom, no offense, but sometimes that crap is a billion times more annoying than you just coming out and saying I’m a jackass.”

  Mom laughed. “Maybe that’s why I do it.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “Dell, honey, I know there’s a lot of tension over this.”

  “I don’t understand why—”

  Mom held up a hand and he stopped as he always had. “I can tell you what it’ll take to change your father’s mind. He won’t like that I told you, and he’ll still complain about you not wanting something more—which is silly, of course, because your roots are here and what more is there?”

  “Mom—”

  “The point is, it’s going to take some concentrated effort. He wants to see this farm can support you and a family, should you choose to have one. Farming is changing. New Benton is changing. He wants to see this farmer’s market and CSA give you the kind of security the pigs and corn and soybeans do.”

  “And how on earth do I prove that to him? I showed him what we did last year. I’ve given him articles on the local food movement. I’ve done everything.”

  “Oh, sweetie, it’s not everything until you’ve gotten what you want.”

  “Mom—”

  “You need to show a bigger profit each month. Show him the market is growing. You can’t grow the CSA right now, but you could cull a waiting list. Prove to him that it’s big and it’s growing.”

  “I can’t sustain that kind of growth.”

  “Just for a season. A few months of doing whatever it takes to increase profits, then once your father is convinced, you’re good to go. Maybe one of those roadside stands. Maybe adding something to your booth. Maybe adding another market to sell at. Whatever it takes.”

  “I can’t just manufacture customers.”

  She patted his shoulder. “Of course you can. You know, Kenzie told me Anna Pruitt will be doing face painting for the Pruitt Farms table Saturday. Plus she designed special coloring sheets for kids.”

  Dell ground his teeth together. “So?”

  “So, they’re offering fun and services, not just vegetables. Make it an experience. More people will come to the market if you’re offering more than vegetables. More people equals more customers.”

  He was already walking around shirtless. What more did people want? Dell folded his arms behind his head, looked up at the sky. Mom was right, though. He needed to do something, and if he busted his butt extra hard the next few months to increase profits enough to get Dad off his back, next year he could focus on sustainability more than growth.

  New customers to the market would be great, but it made more sense to work with what was already there. Since Mia was the only vendor at the market who sold exactly what he sold, that meant increasing profits had to be a direct attack against her.

  It was a shame, but he wasn’t going to let anyone get in his way. Nice ass, funny personality, didn’t matter.

  If Mia had to go down for him to get what he wanted, so be it.

  Chapter Six

  “I’m going to make it my profile pic,” Anna said with a giggle, tapping away at her phone.

  Mia was about five seconds away from wrenching the phone from her sister and throwing it as hard as she could.

  Preferably into Dell’s face.

  Mia glared at his newest sign. “Fifty cents for a picture with the Naked Farmer.” It was a hand-scrawled sign, but it was doing the job. Both her sisters had forked over the change and were now giggling over pictures of them with Dell’s bare arm over their shoulders.

  Hidden depths her ass. All that jaw clenching over his dad last weekend was probably some ploy to try and make her feel sorry for him. Well, she was not going to be a sucker. She’d played that role too many times in her life to repeat it when it mattered.

  “Someone wants their face painted, Anna.”

  Anna bounced over to the mom and her kid, chatted for a few minutes, and then the mom wandered off while Anna began the design on the boy’s face. When the mom ended up in Dell’s line, Mia had to turn away.

  “Oh, relax. It’s all in good fun.” Cara’s nose was practically plastered to her phone screen.

  “Yes. So much fun that mom is getting free babysitting while she gives Dell her money and I walk away empty-handed.”

  Cara had enough courtesy to look up and frown. “Well, that does kind of suck.”

  “You know what?” Mia looked around. There were plenty of guys. Some with women, some waiting for their spouses to be done with Dell’s booth. There were even a few there on their own.

  Mia shrugged out of the flannel shirt she’d worn over a tank top. It was a little cold to go around without sleeves, but hell, if Dell could walk around shirtless she could bare her arms.

  “Mia’s busting out the big guns.”

  “Yeah, why don’t you bust out your big guns?”

  Cara snorted, but always game, whipped off her T-shirt so she was only wearing a thin camisole. “Maybe you two could have a strip-off.”

  She slanted a look at Cara. “Just drum up some business, huh?”

  “No problem.” Cara skirted the table and went over to Anna. The two whispered about something, then Anna began to paint Cara’s arm before she started walking around the market, greeting peo
ple, chatting, flirting when appropriate.

  “You’re next,” Anna announced, grabbing Mia’s arm. Anna began to paint, the Pruitt Farms logo taking shape on Mia’s biceps.

  Mia laughed. “Smart.”

  Anna finished up the green broccoli head of the logo. “I know.”

  Over the next hour, Cara managed to woo a few more people over to their booth. Mia chatted and smiled and even flirted. It was weird and a little uncomfortable, but she really wasn’t half-bad at stepping out of her shell these days. She wasn’t quite keeping pace with Dell’s crowd, but she was starting to cut into it, between she and Cara talking to people and Anna’s free children’s arts corner.

  When Dell sauntered over, Mia knew he’d noticed it, too. But he didn’t say anything, just stood outside the crowd watching her work. A little flustered, Mia focused on the man in front of her. He was probably pushing seventy, but she smiled and fawned over him and he ate it up. He also added a bag of greens to his purchases.

  Once he was done, Mia realized her crowd was gone and Dell was still looming. “What do you want?” She skirted the table so she stood between him and their stuff. Not a very effective barrier, though, considering she barely came up to his shoulders.

  “I thought you guys had a good idea. Maybe I’ll have Anna draw a big Morning Sun Farms logo on my chest.”

  “I think the muscles and chest hair would get in the way,” Anna replied, before dissolving into a fit of giggles.

  “You’re ridiculous.” Everyone was being ridiculous. This whole thing had gotten completely out of hand. She needed to get back to a place of sanity and quiet Saturday mornings at the market.

  “Don’t be jealous, sugar.”

  Okay, screw sanity. “So help me God, you call me sugar again, I will personally kick your ass.”

  “That’s such a frightening prospect considering I could haul you over my shoulder like a sack of potatoes.”

  “Please, I’m just as strong as you are.”

  Dell looked her up and down dismissively. “Uh-huh.”

  “You guys should arm wrestle.”

  Mia glared at Cara, who only grinned in return. Without customers to distract them, Cara and Anna were all ears behind the table.

  “Push-up contest?” Anna offered with barely contained glee.

  “Is everything all right over here?” Val appeared, clutching her clipboard as she studied the situation.

  “Dell and Mia are going to have a push-up contest. A little entertainment for customers.”

  Mia was going to kill Cara. “No, we are not.”

  “Chicken?” Dell smiled casually.

  She was not falling for that. She was not biting. She was absolutely not going to embarrass herself just because he was standing there with that smug grin and his impressive arms folded over a broad, muscled chest. Nope. Nope. Nope.

  “It’s okay. Wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself, darlin’.”

  “Okay, you’re on.” She’d find a way to wipe the smug grin off his face, and maybe shove the darlin’ down his throat.

  “So, what? Who can do the most? The most in a certain amount of time?” Cara rubbed her hands together.

  “One minute. Who can do the most real push-ups.” Dell emphasized the world real and Mia resisted elbowing him right in the stomach. “Who’ll judge?”

  “We need someone impartial,” Cara said.

  “How about Val?” Anna suggested.

  “Oh, yes!” Val practically threw her clipboard on the table and pulled out her phone. “I am so putting this on the market Facebook page. That’ll be some publicity.”

  Mia just stared at the small crowd gathering. How had this escalated so quickly? How was she in the middle of it? A push-up contest with Dell in the middle of the farmer’s market. What the hell? How on earth had this happened?

  “I’ll give you a five-second start…sugar.”

  That’s how it happened. Irritating, smug male. Mia clapped her hands together, knelt down to the ground. “You’re going down, Wainwright.”

  “No, that was just an uncomfortable dream I had last night,” he mumbled, kneeling next to her.

  Mia tried to ignore the double entendre, but heat spread up her neck. She stared hard at the ground. He was trying to psyche her out and she was not going to take the bait.

  “All right, when I say go, you go. Cara’s got the timer. I’ll count Dell and Farrah will count Mia. All the way down. All the way up. Oh, man, this is going to be great. People are going to flood the market after this. We’ll have to make it a weekly event.” Val practically danced. “Okay, ready, set, go.”

  Mia started, paid no attention to Dell or if he did in fact give her a head start. At the farm she routinely lifted hay bales, weeded, hefted pounds and pounds of vegetables, raked, hoed. She might not be a man, but she was damn well strong enough to put in a good showing.

  So, she focused on that instead of the screaming of the muscles in her arms or the rough ground digging into her palms. She focused on making each push-up count, and ignored every last sound until Cara gleefully yelled stop.

  Mia pushed back into a sitting position, trying to catch her breath. She glanced at Dell. He wasn’t nearly as out of breath, but sweat glistened around his shoulders.

  Oh, yum.

  Oh, no. No yum thoughts allowed.

  Val and Farrah conferenced over numbers. “All right, listen up everyone. The winner of the first ever Millertown Farmers’ Market push-up contest is…a tie! Mia and Dell had exactly the same number!”

  “What?”

  Dell’s incredulous question was enough to make Mia smile as she sucked in a breath and stretched out her tired arms. The cold of the cement started to seep through her jeans, but she was too tired to get up.

  “A tie. That means you guys had the exact same number,” Cara explained. “Maybe if you hadn’t offered her a head start, you would have won.”

  Dell glared at her and Mia laughed. It was totally stupid, but this was the best thing to happen all season.

  “Guess you’ll have to rematch next week,” Val said hopefully.

  “Sure thing,” Mia replied.

  Dell shook his head, but as he stood he held out a hand to her. Mia hesitated for a second before letting him help her up.

  He grinned. “All right. Rematch next week, but you’re not getting a head start.” When Mia was on her feet, Dell didn’t let go of her hand. Instead, he drew her closer.

  “This time, you’ll be the one going down,” he said, low enough only she could hear. Close enough she could feel his breath on her neck.

  Oh, no, she was so not affected by that. Whatever shivery feeling in her core was some aftereffect of push-ups. Yup.

  “I thought we established that was only in your dreams.”

  Go. Her.

  Dell chuckled, completely unfazed. Damn it. “Sweet dreams, then.” He released her hand and sauntered back to his booth, a trail of women following him.

  “Great. All we did was make him all hot and sweaty so now even more women are flocking to him,” Cara said with disgust. “I changed my mind on all this. I’m with Mia now. I hate Dell.”

  “I don’t hate Dell. He was a good sport. We just…need a different tactic.”

  “Oh, God, you’re not falling for all that oversexed farmer-boy charm, are you?”

  “Absolutely not!”

  “Good.” Cara crossed her arms over her chest. “Ugh. I don’t even know why I care about this. It’s vegetables for Chrissake.”

  “Probably because you hate to lose.”

  “Oh, right. So, how do we win? Daisy Duke shorts and a carwash?”

  “You know, you’re going about this all wrong,” Anna said casually, packing up her paints.

  “What do you know, squirt?” Cara demanded.

  “I know that if you want to win against the hottest guy in school, or in this case, the farmer’s market, you don’t fight with sex appeal.”

  “That’s why we were doing the fami
ly angle, but it’s barely registered.” Mia looked at the pile of coloring sheets no one had picked up. Anna’s face painting had been glorified babysitting.

  Anna shook her head. “A girl’s going to go for the hot guy nine times out of ten. The one time she’s not? When it’s boy versus girl. You want to win? You make this a battle of the sexes.”

  Mia gaped at her. It had never crossed her mind, but…Anna had a point. A really, really good point. Even Cara wrote off the hot guy if she thought she was losing to him. “She’s right. Holy moly, she is right. But how do we start a battle of the sexes?”

  “Honey, you just did.” Anna pointed to where the contest had taken place.

  Mia laughed, laughed until she could barely catch her breath. “He’ll never know what hit him.”

  * * *

  “Way to get your ass handed to you by a girl.”

  “We tied. That is not an ass handing.” But it certainly didn’t sit well, even if Mia looked awfully good rumpled and laughing.

  “It is when you call yourself the Naked Farmer and a girl the size of Tinkerbell beats you.”

  Dell glared at his brother. “She didn’t beat me. We tied. And I sold an extra ten cabbages after that, so I don’t really care.” Profits were all that mattered. His pride could be bloody and broken before he’d give a shit.

  Charlie shook his head, pulled his cap farther down on his head to shade the phone in his hand.

  “Surprised you even noticed with your nose stuck to that thing.”

  “Hey, I’m looking after you, bro. You know that shit’s going to show up on the internet.”

  Dell loaded the truck with the empty pallets. What could be the harm in that? If women liked seeing him take his shirt off, surely they wouldn’t mind watching him do some push-ups. Probably help him, actually.

  Dell grinned at the thought. If Val used it for publicity, that meant more customers. New customers. New money. And, if they were women, he had a pretty good chance.

  “Man, they don’t waste time.”

  “Huh?”

  Charlie held out his phone. Dell squinted at the screen. “Battle of the Sexes. Saturday May 2 at 10:00 a.m.” Dell frowned. “Battle of the sexes?”