Love, Laughter, and Happily Ever Afters Collection (Eight Fun, Romantic Novels by Eight Bestselling Authors)

by Violet Duke

  He should have let her walk.

  He never should have kissed her.

  He should have hiked up her skirt and done her on her mother’s dining room table.

  That sounded good, but he’d known better. What he never should have done was trust her. He should have questioned her motives. Should have wondered why she was all over him after years of ignoring him.

  It had been about what he could do for her—take her home, get her away from the scary dark highway, and make her feel wanted when her boyfriend was being an ass.

  Now Adrianne thought he could do something for her too.

  Mason sighed and tried to relax his shoulders. What he should have done was avoid Hailey like the plague after that night.

  Instead, he’d optimistically approached her at school the next day. With her friends around. And kissed her on the cheek.

  And she’d humiliated him.

  So what he should do tomorrow was avoid Adrianne like the plague.

  Of course, the chances of that were somewhere around a billion to one.

  And he’d very likely regret it as much as he had eleven years ago.

  Adrianne stirred the pot on the stove, mixing butter, corn syrup and sugar—the beginnings of her homemade caramels. She had to keep checking the recipe though. Which was unprecedented for her. She’d made these caramels a hundred times. But she was thinking about Mason, his kisses, how angry he’d been last night and how much she wanted him to know that she wasn’t doing any of this because of his money.

  Except that she kind of was.

  Not really. Not the kissing and stuff. But she’d been hanging out with him to preserve the chances of him donating.

  Dammit.

  This was getting complicated. And stressful. Completely opposite of what she wanted.

  Her phone rang and she grabbed it, hoping it was Mason.

  “Hello?”

  “The guys are taking him golfing.”

  “Hi, Hailey,” Adrianne said dryly. No greeting returned, not that she’d expected it.

  “They’re picking him up in half an hour.”

  She frowned. So what? Why did she need to be aware of every move Mason made? It was bad enough she couldn’t stop thinking of him on her own. Having everyone constantly alerting her of every detail of his schedule wasn’t helping.

  “And?” she asked.

  “And I think you should prep them.”

  “Prep them?” she repeated. “What’s that mean?”

  “You’ve spent some time with him now.”

  Yeah, because Hailey had messed with him in high school and Phoebe and Matt had talked her into being the buffer. Which had led to her spending time with him, which had led to her liking and wanting him, which was complicated because she had originally spent time with him for reasons other than wanting to and…

  Frankly, it was exhausting.

  “Yeah, I’ve spent time with him, so?”

  “So you need to tell the guys what to talk to him about.”

  “They should…” She thought of Drew and Tim and Steve. “Probably not talk to him at all.”

  “I know. But this was Drew’s idea, and I appreciate him trying to help out, and apparently Mason said yes so they can’t cancel now.”

  Adrianne thought back to the night before. It was possible that Drew had asked Mason because he wanted to. It didn’t necessarily have to be about the donation and the project. She thought maybe Drew, and maybe the other guys, liked Mason and wanted to get to know him better. And maybe Mason thought so too.

  Which meant she couldn’t let him golf with them.

  Not because they might screw up the donation, but because he was enjoying being one of the guys for a change. And if those guys screwed that up she’d have to kill them.

  She wasn’t meddling now because of the money.

  She wanted to protect Mason from having any more bad experiences in Sapphire Falls. Part of her even wanted him to like Sapphire Falls.

  “What do they have in common? What do they know that he would also know?” Adrianne asked.

  “You.”

  Before she could answer, her smoke alarm erupted and she whirled to find her pan of butter and sugar smoking.

  “Shit!” She pulled the pan from the burner, dumped it in the sink and started fanning the air under the smoke alarm with a towel. Finally, the beeping stopped.

  “What do you mean me?” she finally asked.

  “You’re something that they all know. They could talk about you.”

  “Oh, hell, no,” Adrianne said. There was no way she was going to let Drew or Tim talk about her to Mason.

  “Then you better think of something else. Fast.”

  She frowned but knew right away what she should do. Distraction and evasion had worked to keep Mason away from Hailey. Surely the same would work for Drew.

  “I’ve got it covered,” she told Hailey.

  “Okay, I’m counting on you.”

  Terrific.

  Adrianne headed for her basement after disconnecting. She stood staring at the hose that connected to the back of her washing machine. The cold-water hose.

  Dammit.

  She dialed Drew’s number before she touched anything.

  He answered on the second ring.

  “Oh, my God, Drew!” she exclaimed, putting the right amount of panic into her voice. “There’s water all over my laundry room. Help!”

  “Adrianne? Where’s the water coming from?”

  “I don’t know. Please get over here.”

  “Okay, okay, I’m on my way.”

  Adrianne smiled as they disconnected. The other guys wouldn’t golf without Drew. Taking a deep breath and wincing as she did it, she turned the water on and then pulled the hose free from the machine.

  Watching water run over her floor made her want to cry, so she headed back upstairs.

  This thing with Mason kept getting messier and messier. Literally.

  Of course, it didn’t take long for Drew to fix the problem, but he was kind enough to stay around and help her clean up. It took far too long to salvage his game, but he wasn’t upset.

  In fact, Drew was a pretty nice guy.

  A guy that could have been a good friend for Mason.

  Dammit.

  She wanted to find Mason but she also felt like she should leave him alone. He was mad at her, she’d hurt his feelings, she’d made him doubt her. She felt like she should wait for him to come to her.

  She was going to try to do that.

  She’d see how long she could hold out.

  MASON MIGHT NOT have been the most popular guy in school, but even he had attended the Sapphire Falls Annual Festival. Everyone within a ninety-mile radius had. Bringing a Ferris wheel and corn dogs to a town without any entertainment beyond school programs and recreational sports was a sure-fire recipe for good attendance.

  Walking the sidewalk from the bed and breakfast toward the town square, Mason felt nostalgic. Not necessarily for his own memories of the festival, but for the memories he wished he had. More than one girl had been kissed for the first time on the Ferris wheel at the festival. It had turned into a kind of tradition. If the girl had already been kissed by the time she went with you to the festival, then the next step was taking her to the haunted house. Scary encounters in the dark made girls press close, and the multiple dark corners in the old Herschfield House—which was always used as the haunted house on Halloween and for the festival—were very conducive to getting on to other firsts. Finally, if all of that was old hat, then there was the fireworks show. It had become tradition that if you had a girlfriend, you took her to the top of Klein’s Hill, the hill in the middle of the field where the fireworks were lit. Blankets w
ere spread out and things moved beyond what the Herschfield House had seen.

  Not that everything about being a teenager centered around physical boy-girl interactions but…oh, who was he kidding? Of course everything centered around that.

  Especially at festival time.

  Part of Mason’s problem in high school had been that he was two years younger than the other boys. They were more developed, more confident and, yes, more hormonal than he had been. And part of the problem had been that Mason…had been a geek.

  He knew it. He remembered it well. He’d known it even then and had honestly not done much to change that impression. His life was less dramatic, less angst-ridden, less distracted than that of his peers. And he’d been smart enough to recognize that as a good thing. Mostly.

  At least when he hadn’t been thinking how much he’d like to be normal and do normal things—like make out on a Saturday night. Or any night.

  His one and only high school make out experience had been with Hailey, which had been very not normal.

  Now, as he approached the square and the lights and the sounds and the smells of the festival, he thought about how he’d really like to get Adrianne Scott on the Ferris wheel. Yes, he’d already kissed her—and done at least a few of the things that went on in the haunted house—but he wouldn’t mind doing it all again. And heading for Klein’s hill later.

  Or, since he was an adult with a large credit limit capable of putting him in the best room in town, back to the bed and breakfast.

  He was going to be here for two more days. It would be a fling at best. But it had the potential to be the best two days he’d ever spent in Sapphire Falls.

  As he stepped onto the sidewalk that ran the east edge of the town square, Mason immediately spotted Adrianne. She stood near the fountain in the center of the square talking to two teenage girls.

  She gestured with her hands, then frowned and shook her head. The girls replied and Adrianne threw her head back and laughed. He couldn’t even hear it, yet it caught him in the gut the way it had when he’d bid three hundred dollars on a few dances with her.

  She was so…real. She hadn’t told him about the candy shop, but looking at her now, he couldn’t believe it was for devious reasons. Her reactions to things were freely broadcast, from her enjoyment of a joke to her frustration over the opposing team’s homerun in a softball game.

  He really liked that. He could tell what she was thinking and feeling. That was very refreshing after spending time with politicians and especially nice after his past experiences in Sapphire Falls. He appreciated straightforward cause and effect. If Adrianne felt something, she showed it.

  He took a step in her direction.

  “Mason, there you are!”

  Suddenly, he was surrounded by guys. The guys. Drew led the group, but Steve, Tim and Jake were all there too. The group that Mason had never been a part of.

  Until last night. He’d been at the table for the poker game and then today they’d invited him to golf. The game had been cancelled, but he’d been invited.

  He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t been looking forward to it. He could hold his own in golf.

  “Hey.”

  “Sorry about the golf game today, man,” Drew said. “Had to go bail Adrianne out. Couldn’t wait.”

  “Adrianne?” He couldn’t believe the way his heart sped up at the sound of her name.

  “Her washing machine sprang a leak and she had a little flooding.”

  “Is she okay?” he asked.

  “Definitely. No problem. We got it all fixed and cleaned up.”

  It was completely irrational, but Mason really hated that Drew had been called and able to help Adrianne with her problem. Especially considering that he wouldn’t have had the first idea how to fix the plumbing problem. Still, he wanted to be the one she called. For everything.

  “So what are you up to nowadays, Mason? You’re in Chicago right?” Jake asked.

  “Yes, Chicago. I’m involved in a number of projects with my research firm. Mostly agricultural research.” If he expanded on that, he would not only sound like the geek he’d always been, but he’d bore the guys to death. But he had no idea what else to say. He had nothing in common with these men.

  “Adrianne told me you’ve been to the White House,” Drew said, glancing at the others.

  So Adrianne had been talking about him? She’d definitely done her homework on him, which still surprised him, but it surprised him even more that she was sharing her knowledge. Or had she been prepping them for conversation with him? To make him feel included? He didn’t really think she was physically involved with him because of his potential donation, but he couldn’t help it if her motives for other things were suspect.

  But…nah…but then again…it was convenient that her plumbing problem had come up in time to interrupt the golf game.

  And she’d been making a habit of saving him from awkward situations with both softball and poker.

  Dammit.

  That woman needed to get a hobby beyond protecting him.

  Like sleeping with him.

  Mason nodded, tucking his hands into his pockets and forcing himself to think through what he was going to say before speaking. Lauren had taught him that. In small social groups like this, if he talked off the cuff he often used terminology and went off on tangents that confused his audience. His usual talk was fine when he was lecturing in front of a bunch of other scientists or when he was in the lab, but talking to guys he’d gone to high school with took some tweaking.

  “Yeah, I’ve been there a few times. I was a part of a special advisory group.”

  “For the president?” Jake asked.

  “Yes, indirectly. We worked with the Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary of State.”

  “Did you meet the president?” Jake asked.

  Mason nodded. “A few times.” They hadn’t really gotten along though. The president wanted a quick fix to smooth relations with foreign countries. He’d wanted to use the advisory group to spur ideas for foreign countries that needed to diversify their crop production. Unfortunately, things like that took longer than the president liked.

  Still, Mason’s ideas had worked, so they were tentative friends.

  “That’s cool.” Drew gave him a sincere grin.

  Mason smiled in return, if less warmly. “I agree.” What he did really was cool. It was just that most people didn’t even know about it, not to mention understand it or respect it. He did enjoy his work and believe it was important, but he hated the politics. Intensely. Having people who knew nothing about what he did tell him what he should do made him want to yell. Which he did on occasion. He also swore from time to time. Even at important people.

  “What’s involved in agricultural research anyway?” Steve asked. “I’m farming with my brother now. Sounds like something I’d be interested in.”

  Steve had been the quarterback. The leader of the male in-crowd. He’d even passed biology and chemistry. With help.

  “The most recent project is working on more resilient seed for a number of crops. They can go into the ground sooner and be harvested faster.”

  Steve frowned. “Why would we need to plant sooner? It’s not like you can change the weather and that’s what decides when we get in the fields.”

  He couldn’t change the weather, so he was changing the plants’ reactions to it.

  “It’s for countries where the growing seasons are short enough—due to rain or cold seasons—to prohibit some crops from being viable.”

  “So you’re working for other countries?”

  “Yes.”

  “Which ones?”

  “Various.”
/>
  “If they grow their own stuff, they won’t need our crops.”

  Mason frowned. It wasn’t a new argument, but the fact that these were the most words the Sapphire Falls quarterback had ever said to him rubbed him wrong. “Most of the countries we’re working with have severe food shortages.”

  That wasn’t how it had started with the White House. It had been initiated as a foreign-relations plan, but when they’d resisted working with the poorer countries—who didn’t have anything to really offer the US—Mason and Lauren had taken the plans and expanded it on their own to the countries most in need of food crops.

  “They need our crops,” Steve said.

  “They need all the food they can get,” Mason said. “But if they can grow their own, they’ll be less dependent—”

  “And the demand for our crops goes down.”

  Mason sighed. He understood the farmer’s concern, he really did. Steve wasn’t entirely wrong, but the global truth was that these countries had years to go before they were self-sufficient, if that ever truly happened. There were so many factors. It wasn’t as easy as handing more resilient seeds to a bunch of average Joes and having them throw them in the ground.

  But it was a start. He and Lauren had the luxury at this point of having made enough contacts that they truly could do more than develop the seeds.

  But they had to have the seeds before they could move forward. And they were nearly there.

  “I understand where you’re coming from, Steve, but—”

  “Oh, you work for the government. You don’t care. You’re not out getting your hands dirty like the rest of us.”

  That also wasn’t entirely true. Mason loved nothing more than digging in the dirt. He didn’t do it daily, but their greenhouse was his favorite place, and he always led the planting projects personally. Like he was planning to do in Haiti in a few months. He’d be there personally to put the seeds in the ground. His hands would definitely get dirty.

  There was no use trying to convince Steve of that, however. He was going to think what he was going to think. And Mason could honestly say he didn’t care what Steve thought of him.