Before We Kiss

by Susan Mallery

“With pictures and everything. You know how Sam guards his privacy. This would have devastated any man, but for Sam it was worse.”

  Dellina started to hand it back. Taryn shook her head. “Keep it. Read it. Learn from her mistakes. Just don’t break Sam’s heart.”

  * * *

  SAM TURNED ONTO Forest Highway as he headed out of town. Dellina sat next to him in his car, her clipboard in hand.

  “I’m thinking the drive out to Castle Ranch will be a good time for a little history on the area,” she was saying. “We can tell them about the first known residents. The Máa-zib tribe, then a few lines about the Spanish settlers. I’m not sure we need to go into the history of the ranch itself.” She paused and looked at him. “Do you think that would be interesting?”

  He’d already turned on Mother Bear Road and was quickly approaching the ranch. “Is there time for much more information?”

  She glanced around. “Not really. It’s a quick trip. Have you been here before?”

  “No.”

  He slowed at the sign and turned onto a paved driveway. He could see a large house that seemed to be in the middle of major renovation, along with a big barn. There was another house in the distance and some kind of fenced-in structure that was smaller than the barn, but obviously not a residence.

  He parked by a pickup and a Mercedes, then turned off the engine. Dellina was already climbing out of the car.

  The woman had energy, he thought, following her. As always, she’d dressed appropriately. A T-shirt and jeans over boots. And real boots—not the kind Taryn wore with ridiculous heels and exotic skins. Dellina was more casual. More approachable. Sexier.

  He shook off the last thought and moved next to her.

  “Horses,” she said, pointing. “They only have a few that they board. Mostly the horses are at Shane and Annabelle’s place. That’s a few miles away. On the other side is where Charlie and Clay live. Clay owns the Haycation Village.”

  “Haycation?”

  “People come for a week to experience ranch and farm life. A simpler time, only with Wi-Fi. Rafe, Clay and Shane are brothers. Rafe is a developer. Heidi raises goats. She makes cheese and soap.” Dellina pointed to the largest fenced-in area. “The brothers’ mother is the animal rescue person. That’s her elephant, Priscilla, along with her pony, Reno.”

  He nearly confirmed that the “her” who had the pony was the human in the sentence, but stopped himself. It sounded familiar and, of course, this was Fool’s Gold and it was far more likely that Priscilla had the pony.

  A pretty blonde with pigtails approached. She greeted Dellina with a hug, then introduced herself as Heidi Stryker.

  “Come on,” Heidi said. “I’ve got several ideas for our Sunday morning with your kids. You can pick and choose the ones you think will be best.”

  They walked to the main house. Once inside he saw the kitchen had already been remodeled. It was big and open, with lots of counter space and an eat-in area. Heidi got them iced tea, then joined them at the table. She passed out several sheets of paper.

  “We have options,” she said. “Given the range of ages, I thought that was important. Shane can be available for a basic roping lesson.” She smiled. “It’s pretty fun. We set up a sawhorse with a little toy cow head on one end and a fake tail on the other. We’ll also have several gentle horses available for riding. Shane teaches kids how to ride all the time. He’s really patient.”

  Sam studied the list. “Cheese and soapmaking?”

  Heidi nodded. “I can do a demo only or we can get the kids involved. The problem is that soap has to cure or dry for several days. So while they could work on it, they can’t take that batch home with them.”

  Dellina was busy making notes. She glanced up long enough to ask, “Cheese making is going to be the same, right? They can’t take home what they start.”

  “Right.”

  “We’ll talk about it and get back to you,” Dellina said.

  They went over the lunch menu next. Sam thought the choices were fine. Dellina asked a lot of questions and had some suggestions, which was why he’d hired her.

  He liked her quiet efficiency and how she thought through the details. Now that he’d been spending time with her, he couldn’t figure out why he’d gotten so spooked that night. No normal woman kept that many wedding dresses in her house without a good reason. Even the crazy ones would only have a couple.

  He should have stayed to ask, he thought. He should have taken a breath and figured out what was happening. Because then he wouldn’t have disappeared into the night and he and Dellina would have...

  Would have what? he asked himself. Kept seeing each other? To what end? Hadn’t he been down that road enough?

  * * *

  “THIS IS GOING to be the best part of the party,” Dellina said as she and Sam headed back to town. “The kids are going to love the ranch. It will be a great time for them and their parents are going to appreciate that they not only had fun but are nice and tired.”

  “Is that the voice of experience?” he asked, his voice teasing. “Your sisters were teenagers when you had to take care of them. Hardly an age where you want them tired.”

  She laughed. “Okay, that’s true, although I’ll admit it was nice when they came home exhausted and simply went to bed. There was less worry.” She shook her head. “That’s not fair. Both Ana Raquel and Fayrene worked really hard to be responsible and not give me reason to worry. We’d all suffered a horrible loss and we pulled together.”

  He lightly touched the back of her hand with his fingers. “I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories.”

  “You didn’t.”

  She leaned back in the comfortable leather seat. Sam’s Mercedes sure was nice, she thought idly. It was like him. Steady and dependable. There might be those who were more interested in something like a Ferrari, but she thought he and his car were just right.

  “It’s not just my sisters,” she said. “It’s how the town pulled together for us. Like with Heidi. She grew up in the carnival.”

  Sam glanced at her, then turned his attention back to the road. “Traveling around the country with a carnival?”

  “That’s her. She said she always dreamed of a house that was attached to city plumbing and couldn’t be moved. She bought Castle Ranch and moved here with her grandmother. He fell in love, she fell in love, her husband’s brothers and sister fell in love. Now they all live here. It’s the town. Something happens when people settle here.”

  She started to say more, then caught sight of Sam’s pinched expression. She chuckled.

  “Go ahead,” she told him. “Resist. I can see you want to. But it won’t help.”

  “We’ll see.”

  “You’re saying it’s a little too perfect?”

  “I’m saying you’ve idealized reality.”

  “A cynic. We like that. It makes convincing you all the more satisfying.” She glanced down at her ever-present list. They were getting closer and closer to the event and she was starting to feel the pressure. In the next couple of days, she was going to have to start finalizing everything.

  “We have to discuss goodie bags,” she told him. “I have samples at my place and I have to make the final orders. As it is, everything will be shipping overnight.”

  “Say when and I’ll be there.”

  Now that sounded nice, she thought, knowing what he meant and how she would like him to mean it. She was debating pushing at the limits of their business relationship just a little when her cell rang. She pulled it out of her pocket and glanced at the screen. “Fayrene,” she told Sam before pushing the talk button. “Hey, what’s going on?”

  “There’s a fire at the storage center.” Fayrene’s voice was frantic. “It’s the rabbits.”

  Dellina went cold. “No,” she breat
hed. “Where are you?”

  “On my way. I can’t get ahold of Ryan. He’s flown out to an installation site and won’t be back for a couple of days.” Her voice was thick with tears. “The rabbits.”

  “I know,” Dellina told her. “We’ll get there in time.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  SAM FOLLOWED DELLINA’S frantic instructions as they headed into town. She was pale and shaking. All he’d been able to get out of her was, “It’s the rabbits.” A sentence that didn’t make sense. What rabbits? He’d never seen rabbits in town.

  The closer they got, the more traffic clogged the streets. Dellina tapped impatiently on her armrest, then shook her head. “I’m getting out.”

  He barely had time to slow the car before she jumped out and started running along the sidewalk. He swore, then pulled into the first parking space he found and sprinted after her.

  As he did, he was aware of dozens of people running in the same direction. He also noticed the smell of smoke in the air. Seconds later he heard sirens. All of which made sense. What didn’t was a handful of people walking in the opposite direction with what looked like piles of white fur in their arms. Then there were two guys with giant rabbit heads tucked under each arm.

  Sam caught up with Dellina at the corner. He grabbed her arm. “What’s going on?”

  Her eyes were wide, her expression frantic. “There’s a fire at the storage place that stores all the rabbit costumes.” He must have looked blank because she added, “Every Easter families dress up in them and there’s a parade. It’s a tradition.”

  Tears filled her brown eyes. “I used to walk in the parade with my parents and my sisters. We can’t let anything happen to the costumes. Do you have any idea how many memories are in those costumes? They last for years. We have to hurry. We have to help!”

  Then she took off again. Sam stood on the sidewalk as the street filled with people carrying costumes. Armfuls, including the heads and giant rabbit feet. It was strange and funny and maybe a little moving.

  He saw a woman in her late forties staggering with a pile of costumes that nearly went over her head. He jogged toward her and took the costumes from her arms. She wiped away the tears trickling down her cheeks.

  “Thank you,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. “The fire is under control, but the smoke could damage everything. If you could just carry those to the park.”

  “Sure.”

  He held the costumes easily as the woman went off to help someone else.

  He followed the moving crowd and found himself in Pyrite Park by the lake. Several deputies were there along with city officials. Order had been restored and people were laying costumes out on the grass so they could air out.

  Sam put his down where directed, then stepped back to study the odd site of a couple of hundred rabbit costumes lying on dark green grass on a summer afternoon. Several people were checking tags and matching large heads with bodies. Others were doing the same with the feet. The scene was both funny and slightly horrific. Like a shot from a movie.

  Sam helped several more people with their piles of costumes. He spotted Dellina and walked over to her. She stood with her arms wrapped around her body, looking shell-shocked.

  He wanted to tell her they were just costumes and could be replaced. But he knew they were much more than that. Somehow these ridiculous bits of fake fur and plastic had become important—a part of a tradition. So instead of speaking, he pulled her into his embrace and held her close.

  She leaned against him, pressing her cheek to his shoulder.

  “It’s so awful,” she whispered.

  “They’re all safe now. After they air out, they’ll be fine.”

  “I know. It could have been much worse, but still...”

  He kissed her forehead, then led her back to his car. “You live in a really weird little town,” he told her.

  She managed a laugh. “I do and I love it. One day you’ll love it, too.”

  Not enough to rush into a burning building and rescue rabbit costumes, he thought. Although God knew, he’d been wrong before.

  * * *

  SAM GOT BACK to the office an hour later. He headed directly for the locker room where he always kept a change of clothes. After stripping out of the ones that smelled like smoke and singed fake fur, he grabbed a towel from the stack and headed for the showers.

  Score had been remodeled to the partners’ exact specifications. The offices were large, the colors neutral and the locker room was a combination of pro-sports-team efficient and five-star-hotel fancy. The big showers were kept stocked with high-quality products, the water was extrahot and there was plenty of room for the guys to congregate if they wanted.

  So it was no surprise to step out of his shower and find Kenny and Jack lounging on the benches by the lockers. Sam finished drying off and walked to his locker.

  “There was a fire,” Kenny said conversationally. “We’ve been getting calls. There are rabbits in danger. What do you know about this? Should we be worried?”

  “Is Larissa involved?” Jack asked. “She has to be. Rabbits are just like her. Is she rescuing them? Am I going to have fifty rabbits in my house?”

  Because whatever Larissa was involved with, she dragged Jack along. Sam found their relationship interesting. He knew they weren’t romantically involved. Larissa was the partners’ private masseuse, but she was Jack’s personal assistant. She also allowed him to stay emotionally detached while she got in the thick of things for him.

  He’d often wondered how she kept her distance, emotionally. Every now and then he thought he saw something in her eyes, but then it was gone. He figured if Jack wasn’t worried, he wouldn’t be, either.

  “There weren’t any rabbits,” he started, only to be interrupted by Taryn walking into the locker room.

  He’d already pulled on briefs, but didn’t bother covering up. Taryn had seen it all before, with all of them. Sometimes, just to mess with her, they insisted on holding meetings in the steam room. Not that she cared about them all being naked. Instead she objected to what the moist heat did to her hair.

  “Someone set fire to a bunch of rabbits?” she asked as she approached. “And you saved them?”

  Sam pulled on a pair of jeans. “Rabbit costumes,” he corrected. “There were rabbit costumes. Hundreds of them.”

  His three partners stared at him blankly.

  “Hey, I can’t explain it, either,” he told them. “They have a parade every Easter and people dress up like rabbits.”

  Taryn frowned. “Bunnies,” she murmured. “I read about it in the Acorn handbook. It’s a tradition. Our girls will be in the parade next year.”

  A couple of months ago Taryn had agreed to help Angel with a special project. Fool’s Gold had its own version of scouting called Future Warriors of the Máa-zib. The youngest were Acorns. Even now, Sam couldn’t imagine Taryn sitting around with a bunch of little girls, but from what he’d heard, she’d been very popular with the Acorn set.

  Kenny grinned. “So you’re going to dress up in a slightly crispy rabbit costume?”

  Taryn wrinkled her nose. “Of course not. I’ll order one custom-made. Are they all right? The rabbits?”

  “De-smoking out in Pyrite Park.” Sam shrugged into a fresh shirt. “The weather looks good. They’ll be fine.”

  Taryn sighed. “My hero.”

  * * *

  KIPLING GILMORE FLEW down the mountain. Probably not his smartest move after so long away, but part of his need for speed was because of time spent partying and promoting and generally enjoying the end of a season that had included two Olympic gold medals.

  Now he leaned forward and let gravity and aerodynamics increase his speed. He cleared his mind of conscious thought, allowing his body to react. The adjustments were automatic. Tigh
tening, leaning, reaching for every advantage. In his game, failure was measured in hundredths of a second.

  Serious training would start in a couple of days. Kipling was ready. He’d given up the late nights and the drinking. And the women. Now he would focus. The cold felt good, as did his body. His time in the gym paid off in quick responses. He was in control.

  But he wasn’t alone on the mountain. His goggles impeded his peripheral vision just enough that he wasn’t sure what the blur was that raced across the side of the mountain. He was far enough away that it wasn’t a problem, but the guy on his left involuntarily jerked—and at sixty miles an hour, that could be deadly.

  Kipling shifted out of the way, but it wasn’t enough. One second he was flying and the next he was falling.

  For several heartbeats there was only silence and the world spinning and spinning. He knew he was in trouble, but he didn’t have time to consciously react. Trees came up hard and fast and when he hit there was a blinding light, followed by nothing at all.

  * * *

  DELLINA HAD KNOWN the panic would come. It was inevitable with a project this big. The trick was to hold it off for as long as possible. To stay in the moment and be focused on her list. Because in the end, good planning would save her.

  Only she’d woken up that morning with what felt like a giant clock ticking in her head. They were less than two weeks away from the weekend and she didn’t have finalized menus or a completed schedule or goodie bags. She had to get the decisions made so she could lock it in with her vendors. Why didn’t Sam understand that?

  She sucked in a breath and crossed to her front door. She pulled it open, glared at the handsome man standing on her front porch, then announced, “You’re not making this any easier.”

  Sam’s eyebrows drew together. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m panicking. We have to make some decisions. There isn’t enough time.”

  “What has you freaked out specifically?”

  “Everything. Pretend it’s tax season.”

  His frown deepened, then cleared. “Finance,” he told her. “Not accounting. I don’t do tax season.”