The Maverick's Midnight Proposal

by Brenda Harlen

  “The woman behind the counter did say that the coconut cream pie was popular,” he told her.

  “All of the pies, cakes, cookies and pastries are popular,” his sister said. “Especially if Eva did the baking.”

  “Eva?” he echoed, surprised. “The waitress?”

  “She sometimes serves customers,” Bella confirmed. “But she does most of the baking at Daisy’s. I don’t know if she has any formal training, but no one who’s tasted any of her creations would question her qualifications as a baker.”

  “Now I’m sorry I skipped the pie.”

  “But you got to meet Eva,” she noted.

  “I guess I did,” he agreed.

  “She’s very pretty, don’t you think?”

  “I think you need to work on your subtlety,” Hudson said to his wife, opening the lid of the pizza box.

  “I wasn’t trying to be subtle. I was trying to ensure Luke appreciates everything that Rust Creek Falls has to offer.”

  “I’m not looking for any kind of romantic entanglements while I’m in town,” Luke said firmly.

  Hudson grinned. “That’s what I thought, too, when I first came to Rust Creek Falls.”

  Chapter Four

  Eva had just hung up her apron when the bell above the door jingled. She glanced at Karen, a single mother who worked part-time at the doughnut shop while her kids were in school. “I have to take off,” she told her coworker. “I’ve got my final exam tonight and I want to review my notes.”

  “Yeah, I just need a sec,” Karen said, not looking up from her phone as her thumbs tapped the keypad. “Sally’s at my mom’s today, home from school with a fever.”

  Eva looked longingly toward the promised escape of the back door but, unable to fault the woman’s concern for her child, she returned to the front counter.

  Her forced smile widened naturally and her heart gave a happy bump inside her chest when it recognized the customer: Luke Stockton.

  “Are you here for food or just coffee today?”

  “Coffee,” he said. “And... I was hoping to see you.”

  Her heart bumped against her ribs again. “You wanted to see me?”

  “Hudson and Bella are both at work today, leaving me alone with my thoughts for the past few hours, and they’re really not the best company.”

  “What were you thinking about?” she asked, filling a ceramic mug from the pot.

  “Everything. And nothing.” He picked up the mug she set on the counter. “Any chance you can take a break and have a cup of coffee with me?”

  “Since I just finished my shift, there’s a very good chance,” she told him, reaching for a second mug.

  Luke carried their beverages to a booth near the window.

  Eva slid into the seat across from him. “Do you want to talk about the everything or the nothing?”

  He smiled, just a little. “The one very big thing.”

  “Which is?” she prompted.

  “My sister—and my brother, Danny—have asked me to stay in town until his wedding,” he confided.

  Eva knew—because there were very few secrets in Rust Creek Falls and because the bride had asked her to make the wedding cake—that Danny Stockton and Annie Lattimore were getting married on December 24. “It makes sense that he’d want his family to share the occasion,” she noted.

  “But Christmas Eve is still three weeks away.”

  “And you have to be back in Wyoming before then?” she guessed.

  He shook his head. “No. For the past couple of years, I’ve been working on a huge spread outside Cheyenne—there are plenty of hands to cover the work, especially this time of year.”

  “So you could stay...but you don’t want to?” she asked, seeking clarification.

  “I’m not sure what I want,” he admitted. “Bella and Hudson have gone out of their way to make me feel welcome, but it still feels strange to be back after so many years. And I haven’t even seen my brother Jamie yet.”

  Eva remained silent. Though she had a thousand questions she wanted to ask, it was obvious that he needed someone to listen—and not judge.

  “He was only fifteen when I left,” Luke continued. “Now he’s married—for the second time—and the father of three toddlers.”

  “Henry, Jared and Katie.” She opened a packet of sugar and dumped it into her cup, stirred. “They’re adorable.”

  “I guess I’ll see for myself this weekend. The invitation to their house came to me through Bella, from Jamie’s wife. I’m not even sure if my brother knows that I’ve been invited.”

  She lifted her mug and sipped.

  “You’re not saying much,” he noted.

  “You haven’t actually asked for my opinion on anything,” she pointed out.

  “Maybe I just needed an ear,” he acknowledged. “And a caffeine fix.”

  “We do have the best coffee in town,” she assured him.

  “And the best desserts, or so I’ve heard.”

  She smiled. “Your sister is a big fan of my brownie bottom cookie dough cheesecake.”

  “That’s probably a little too sweet for my taste, but maybe I will try your apple pie,” he decided.

  “Sorry,” she said sincerely. “It’s not on the menu today. But we have key lime and pecan pies, and cherry tarts.”

  “In that case, I’ll try the pecan.”

  “With salted caramel ice cream or bourbon whipped cream?”

  “Bourbon whipped cream sounds interesting,” he said.

  She slid out of the booth. “Coming right up.”

  He reached across the table and touched her arm to halt her retreat. It was a casual touch, but the moment his hand brushed her forearm, she felt a jolt of awareness arrow straight to her core. Luke drew his hand away quickly, making her suspect that the shock that had reverberated through her system might have been felt by him, too.

  “I thought your shift was finished.”

  “It is, but—” she glanced toward the counter, where her coworker was unloading a tray of cups with one hand and continuing to text with the other “—Karen’s got a lot on her mind right now.”

  The other woman didn’t even look up when Eva moved past her to remove the pie from the case. “How’s Sally doing?” she asked as she cut a generous slice and slid it onto a plate.

  “Better,” Karen said, relief evident in her tone. “The acetaminophen has brought her temperature down, and my mom said she’s sipping ginger ale and watching cartoons now.”

  Eva found the bowl of whipped cream in the refrigerator and added a dollop to Luke’s pie.

  “Do you want me to deliver that?” her coworker asked. “I thought you said something about needing to study.”

  “I want to do a final review before the exam, but that shouldn’t take too long.”

  “Well, don’t look now,” Karen said, “but the handsome cowboy in that booth is studying you.”

  She felt her cheeks flush. “He’s just waiting for his dessert.”

  “He looks like he’s got an appetite for something sweet, that’s for sure.”

  Karen was chuckling as Eva hurried away with Luke’s pie. She was pleased that she’d managed to distract the other woman from her worries about her sick child, but she didn’t want Luke to be scared off by any speculation or gossip about their personal relationship. Especially when they didn’t have a personal relationship—at least not yet. But his admission that he’d come to Daisy’s looking for Eva gave her hope.

  “Wow,” Luke said when she set the plate in front of him. “That’s a big slab of pie.”

  “There are a lot of ranchers in this town,” she reminded him. “We’re accustomed to serving big appetites.”

  “Aside from shoveling the driveway�
��because I didn’t know that Hudson had a snowblower—I haven’t done much of anything today.”

  “If the short-term forecast is accurate, you’ll be able to shovel again tonight.”

  “More snow in Montana in December? I’m shocked.”

  She smiled at that. “Is the weather much different in Wyoming?”

  “Not much,” he confirmed, sliding a forkful of pie into his mouth, then chewing slowly. “My sister did not exaggerate,” he said after he’d swallowed. “This is...damn fine pie.”

  Eva smiled again, pleased by his reaction. Maybe accounting was a more marketable skill, but she doubted she would ever get as much joy from balancing a ledger as she did from watching a customer enjoy one of her desserts.

  And when that customer was as handsome as Luke Stockton, her joy was indescribable.

  For the next few minutes he focused his attention on the pie, and Eva sipped her coffee while she pretended not to watch him. Only when his pie was half-eaten, did he speak again.

  “One of the other things I’ve been thinking about is the surprising news I got last night.”

  “What was that?” she asked him.

  “The farm where we grew up—that we assumed would be taken by the bank that held the mortgage—belongs to me and my siblings now.”

  “And you didn’t know?”

  He shook his head. “We—at least me and Bailey and Danny—knew that my parents had added to the mortgage to buy some new equipment, so we figured the bank would have taken the property. We didn’t know that they’d also added mortgage insurance, and when they were killed, the insurance paid off the money that was owing.”

  “What about the property taxes?” she wondered.

  “Yeah, that’s still a big question mark,” he admitted.

  “You don’t know how much is owing?”

  “No, we don’t know who’s been paying them for the past dozen years, but someone has.”

  “Then there would be a record of the payments at town hall,” she pointed out.

  “You’d think so,” he agreed. “But when Hudson inquired, he was told there’s no documentation. No copies of the checks or bank drafts because the payments were cash.”

  “Cash?” she echoed, surprised.

  He nodded. “The taxes aren’t small change, either.”

  “And you have no idea who might have made the payments?”

  “None,” he confirmed, nudging his plate toward her.

  Eva held up a hand, declining his silent offer.

  “You know what they say about a chef who doesn’t eat her own cooking?” he asked.

  “No, I don’t. What do they say?”

  “I’m not sure,” he admitted. “But I think the refusal raises questions about the food.”

  “So you have questions about my pie?”

  Luke chuckled at the indignation in her tone. “Of course not. I’m just asking for help to finish what’s left of it.”

  Sharing his dessert seemed, to Eva, like an intimate act. Was it a sign that he liked her? Or was she reading too much into an innocent offer?

  She wanted to believe that his return to Daisy’s today was another sign that he was the one, but she was trying not to let her imagination run away with her heart—again. Still, she picked up the spoon she’d used to stir sugar into her coffee and scooped up some of the pie.

  “What about your grandfather?” she ventured to ask. “Is it possible that he paid the taxes?”

  Luke snorted derisively. “He’s the last person who would do anything for us.”

  “Why would you say that?”

  “Matthew and Agnes Baldwin made no secret of the fact that they felt overwhelmed by the responsibility of their grandchildren and decided that me, Bailey and Danny—as legal adults—were on our own. That’s why we left Rust Creek Falls. What we didn’t know then—what I only found out when I came back—was that even four kids were too much for them, and they sent Dana and Liza, our two youngest sisters, away to be adopted.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Eva said sincerely. “I can’t imagine how awful that must have been. Not only did you lose your parents, but only weeks later, your family was essentially torn apart, too.”

  He nodded. “And now Bella has some idealistic notion about putting the pieces back together, and I’m not sure that’s even possible. Not after so many years have passed and so many life experiences have separated us.”

  He scooped up the last bite of pie and offered it to her.

  She shook her head. “If you want to make it work, you’ll find a way.”

  “Are you always a glass half-full kind of person?”

  “I try to be,” she admitted. “So...have you decided whether or not you’re going to stay for your brother’s wedding?”

  “No, but I’m thinking about it,” he said.

  Karen approached with a fresh pot of coffee in hand. “Refill?”

  Luke slid his mug toward her. “Sure. Thanks.”

  “Eva? An extra kick of caffeine to keep you awake while you’re studying?”

  She shook her head. “No, thanks. A pot a day is my absolute limit.”

  Her coworker smiled as she moved away.

  Luke sipped his coffee. “What are you studying?”

  “I’m taking some online courses toward my accounting degree,” she confided.

  “You’re not really a baker?”

  “That’s my job—and my passion,” she admitted. “But I went to college to study accounting. I’d just finished my first year when my dad got sick.” Even now, five years later, she felt the chill right down to her bones to recall the doctor saying the word. “Lymphoma.”

  “That sucks,” Luke said.

  She nodded in response to his simple but apt comment. “The diagnosis was devastating, for all of us. I couldn’t imagine going back to school and leaving my mom to deal with all of the doctor appointments and treatment schedules on her own.”

  “You’re an only child?” he guessed.

  “No, I’ve got two older sisters, but they’re both married and live out of town.”

  “So you quit school to help out?”

  “I took a leave of absence from my program,” she clarified. “But my dad is doing great now—and nagging me to finish my degree. So I’ve been trying to complete at least one course a term online, and I’m only four courses short now—three, after this term, assuming I pass my final exam.”

  “And I’m taking you away from your studies.”

  “I’ve been studying for the past two weeks.”

  “Still.” He pulled out his wallet and tucked some bills under his plate. “Thanks for your time.”

  “Thanks for sharing your pie.”

  He smiled, and she thought that maybe, just maybe, his gaze dropped to her mouth when he said, “Technically it was your pie, but it was my pleasure.”

  Eva watched him walk toward the door and found herself hoping that she would share a lot more pleasure with the sexy cowboy while he was in town.

  * * *

  Luke had never had any trouble walking away from a woman.

  But it was more difficult than he’d expected to slide out of the booth where Eva was still seated and walk out of the doughnut shop without glancing back.

  Maybe it had been a mistake to seek her out, because there was no denying that was exactly what he’d done. With Bella and Hudson both at the day care, their house had seemed too big and empty, and he’d had no idea what he would do to occupy his time. Then Eva Rose Armstrong’s face had popped into his mind, beckoning him with her beautiful blue eyes and welcoming smile.

  Not that he was going to “do” the pretty baker, but stopping by Daisy’s for a cup of coffee at least gave him an excuse to get out of the house for a while. A
nd to see Eva again.

  He couldn’t deny that he was drawn to her, and while he wouldn’t have said that he had a particular type when it came to the women who caught his eye, he would have said that Eva was definitely not his type. She was far too sweet for a man like him. But it was her sweetness that somehow called to him. As if everything that was light and good and whole in her might somehow fix everything that was dark and bad and broken in him.

  As if anything could.

  Determined to put her out of his mind, he got in his truck and drove. He didn’t think he had any particular destination in mind, but a short while later he turned down the familiar gravel drive of what had once been the Sunshine Farm and parked behind Danny’s vehicle.

  He climbed out of his truck and glanced toward the house but made no move in that direction. While he couldn’t deny that he’d been drawn back to the property that had once been his home, he wasn’t quite ready to face the memories that waited for him inside the house. Instead, he shifted his attention to the barn—and the Dumpster beside it half-full of old wood and garbage.

  Tucking his chin into the collar of his jacket as a defense against the wind, he moved toward the barn, his boots crunching in the snow. There were lights—and heat—inside the barn, and Luke quickly closed the door behind him to keep the cold out and the warmth in.

  He found his brother wrestling apart some boards that he recognized as part of a stall enclosure.

  “What are you doing?” Luke asked.

  Danny paused to wipe the perspiration off his brow with his sleeve. “Building an igloo.”

  Luke nodded, silently acknowledging the poor wording of his question. “Okay, maybe what I should have asked was ‘why are you gutting the barn’?”

  “I’m not gutting the whole barn,” his brother denied. “Just taking down some of the stall dividers to make room for the chairs.”

  “Chairs?” he echoed, uncomprehending.

  “Annie’s got it in her head that this would be the perfect venue for our Christmas Eve wedding.”

  Luke looked around the dim and undoubtedly aged structure. “Your fiancée wants to get married in a barn?”