Summer Shifter Nights

by Harmony Raines

  “Ryan?” Jared asked. “Spill, or I’ll be forced to come over and see what is going on. I have to look after my kid brother’s interests, and if you have gotten yourself into trouble, please tell me.”

  Ryan laughed. “Kid brother? You make me feel like I’m ten years old again.”

  “You will always be my kid brother, you know that,” Jared said. “But seriously, what is the problem?”

  “I’ve found my mate,” Ryan blurted out, earning himself a sharp intake of breath followed by silence.

  When Jared finally spoke, he asked, “And why aren’t you jumping up and down in joy?”

  “Because her name is Josie Halliwell, and that means I am here to ruin her life.”

  “Ahh. Now I see the problem,” Jared said.

  “So I’m going to need some time.”

  “And some leeway…” Jared offered.

  “Yeah, and some leeway.” He sighed. “I said I’d give them a chance to prove they can turn this around.”

  “Ahh,” Jared said again.

  “You disapprove,” Ryan said.

  “No, not exactly. My only advice would be to not let your feelings cloud your decisions.”

  “Impossible,” Ryan said.

  “So do you want me to send someone else in? I could take the job from you, and that would lead you free to concentrate on Josie, without the complications.”

  “Not going to work. For starters, I’m already involved, and will remain involved, since this will affect her and so affect me. Secondly, she loves this town, and if the company goes under, the town is going to suffer.” He looked out of the window at the buildings in front of him. “I want to do the right thing.”

  “The right thing is not always the easiest thing,” Jared warned.

  “And the easiest thing is not always the right thing,” Ryan replied. “It would be easy to lay down the rules and say this is how it’s going to be, no matter what you say, or do. But these people have made a plan, they are willing to work together to set it right.”

  Jared chuckled. “It sounds as if you have already made your decision to help them.”

  “Didn’t we need a break once?” Ryan asked.

  “Yes, we did, and for that reason, I am going to trust to you and your decision.”

  “If it seems viable, I’ll use my own money to bail them out,” Ryan said.

  “That will be your choice, but before you make it, I want you to promise you will run it by me. I’m still your older brother, and it’s my duty to watch over you.”

  “And stop me from making stupid mistakes,” Ryan asked.

  “Mate or no mate, I am not expecting you to make a stupid mistake,” Jared said. “Because if there’s one thing I know, it’s that you are not stupid.”

  “You might change your mind when you know I’ve decided to stay in the local tavern, rather than the luxury suite of the Yodel Hotel.”

  “The things we do for love,” Jared said.

  “I’m about to find out, aren’t I?” Ryan asked.

  “Yes, you are. Keep me up to date, and don’t sweat it, little bro’,” Jared said. “It will all work out. It’s fate, remember?”

  “How could I forget?” Ryan said. “Listen, I’ll speak to you in a couple of days.”

  “Or sooner if there’s a problem,” Jared said firmly.

  “I can handle it,” Ryan said.

  “I know you can.” The call ended and Ryan sat for a moment longer, looking at the sign that declared, Silver Springs Recycling, a Forward-Thinking Company.

  If only they had thought far enough ahead to stop Donald Cresswell from taking their money. He thought back over the meeting with Josie and her brother. Was there more to this than met the eye? If he scratched the surface, would he find a reason Donald was able to get away with the cash?

  Blackmail for instance. Maybe the brother and sister were not as squeaky clean as they appeared. Maybe Michael’s friendly attitude covered the cracks, and if he scraped the top layer away, he would find deceit and corruption.

  Ryan smiled. If that were true, he really was in for a bumpy ride. Oh well, he might as well buckle up and strap himself in. No matter how bumpy it got, he was here until he worked out how to win Josie over and get her to be his wife.

  Which raised another issue. At some point he was going to have to explain the whole shifter thing to her. Now, depending on what he uncovered with regard to Donald, was there a chance she would try to blackmail Ryan? The mating bond only worked one way, since she was not a shifter, which means she had no instinctive loyalty to Ryan.

  He could imagine the scene now, hey, I’m a shifter, I can turn into a bear.

  Great, so if you clear my debt, I’ll keep your secret.

  Not happening, his bear said. We make sure she is ours before we tell her.

  Ryan started the car, and drove out of the parking lot. Time to go and find this tavern, and get himself checked in. He planned to take the opportunity to mix with the locals too, and maybe get a real feel for the Halliwells. The best way to do that was over a drink or two. People let their guard down and said things they might not in the cold light of a sober day. If he unearthed dirt on Donald too, that would be a bonus.

  A short five-minute drive brought him to the center of Silver Springs. The town was small, with one main street, along which he found the tavern. Parking his car, he got out, leaving his luggage in the trunk. His plan was to stay here in town, but if the tavern wasn’t suitable, he would get back in his car and drive to the Yodel. He was not willing to slum it for the sake of this job.

  What about for the sake of our mate? his bear asked.

  I can drive back in later, he said.

  His bear grumbled about that and then sat down in a sulk, resting his head on his front paws.

  Ryan got out, feeling out of place in his expensive business suit, while everyone else around him wore jeans and Tshirts, the men at least. The women wore casual clothes too, some of them in summer dresses, others in jeans, or shorts.

  He paused, letting the sun shine down on his face. Ryan had been so busy for the last few years that he rarely stopped to smell the roses. Since his brother had found his mate, Ryan had picked up the slack, trying to pay his brother back for supporting his mom and younger brothers when their father left them destitute all those years ago.

  It worried Ryan that meeting his mate was already influencing him. As he stood and watched mothers pushing their babies, and couples walk along hand in hand, he wanted slice of that. Hell, not just a slice, he wanted the whole cake. But he could he also eat it too?

  “Can I help you?” the woman behind the reception desk asked, as he walked inside the cool building that was Silver Springs Tavern. It wasn’t what he expected. Tavern conjured up visions of wooden tables with hard benches pulled up to them, beer spilt on a sawdust floor, and bad food.

  Silver Springs Tavern was clean, with wooden tables, but they were situated in small alcoves, and there were no benches in sight, nor sawdust.

  “I wondered if you have a room free?” Ryan asked.

  “Are you kidding, we always have rooms free this time of year. Early spring, the tourist season has not started yet.” The woman looked him over, bold and appraising. “If I didn’t run the bar alongside the letting rooms, I would have shutters on the windows and a closed sign on the door.”

  “Do you get a good many locals in the bar?” Ryan asked.

  “Yes, we do. A few of them come in straight off shifts from the recycling plant. Those are the ones who don’t have wives and families to go home to. Do you have a family to go home to?”

  “Subtle,” Ryan said.

  She smiled, tilting her head to one side. “Can’t blame a girl. I’m Lynsey, by the way, if ever you are not spoken for.”

  “No, I can’t, Lynsey,” Ryan said. “Unfortunately, I’m already spoken for.”

  “OK, enough said, I’m not the kind of woman who is interested in another woman’s man,” Lynsey said.

&
nbsp; “Here, room eleven is free. Best room in the place, view over the river.”

  “Thanks,” Ryan said, accepting the key. “I’ll go and get my luggage.”

  “I’d ask the bell boy, but we don’t have one out of season,” Lynsey said with a smile. “But I’m guessing a big strong guy like you can manage on his own.”

  “I can,” Ryan said, and nodded to Lynsey before turning to walk away. But as he headed for the door, a strange, unfamiliar sensation crept over him. His legs felt weak, and the hairs along the back of his neck stood on end.

  Trying to shake it off, he walked outside, the sunlight bright in his face. So bright it blinded him to the fact there was someone walking toward him, carrying two boxes of vegetables, over which she was trying to see.

  They collided, and he reached out to stop the boxes dropping to the floor and spilling their contents. Only to be rewarded by the sound of cursing.

  He thought he had walked straight into his mate. He hadn’t; instead, he was confronted by a young woman who looked at him with thunder in her eyes. “Why don’t you look where you are going?” she accused.

  Placing the boxes on the ground, he tried to figure out why he had thought he sensed his mate. Looking past the angry young woman, he saw her, Josie, standing by a truck dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, looking good enough to eat, just like the apples that had spilled out of the boxes.

  His heart contracted. She looked achingly beautiful as her hair escaped its ponytail and blew across her face. He had to have her. At any cost.

  5

  Josie

  “Oh, hell,” Josie cursed under her breath. Anna, one of her employees, with anger issues and a chip on her shoulder a mile wide, was squaring up to a man in a suit. Wait, not just any man in a suit.

  “Oh, hells bells,” she cursed louder this time, and returned the two boxes of produce in her arms to the truck. Damage-limitation time. She was used to it around Anna, but usually Josie was dealing with people from Silver Springs. People who knew Anna’s history and were willing to cut her some slack.

  But Ryan Sinclair? He seemed a no-nonsense kind of a guy. Worse, if this escalated, it could harm the chances of Michael winning him over and allowing them extra time to repay the debt.

  “Anna, what’s the problem?” Josie asked, running across the parking lot, picking up a couple of stray apples as she moved.

  “The problem is, that this idiot was not looking where he was going,” Anna said.

  “OK, why don’t you take the produce inside to Lynsey and let her check it over, while I talk to Mr. Sinclair.”

  Mr. Sinclair, who was staring, not at Anna, but at Josie. Making her body prickle, her nerve endings responding in a way that was as inappropriate as it could get. What was wrong with her? Hadn’t she learned her lesson from Donny? When men look at you like that, when you first meet, it means they want something. But she could not, for the life of her, understand what Ryan Sinclair would want from her.

  He was the kind of man who could have almost any woman he wanted. Rich, well dressed, good-looking, a body carved from granite. Oh, yeah, it would take more than a well-cut suit to hide that. Wide shoulders, broad chest, slim thighs. And those blue eyes under blond hair. He looked like a billionaire playboy, not a man used to getting down and dirty.

  Not your type, she consoled herself, as she walked up to Ryan, fixing a smile on her face and hoping she wasn’t about to make things worse for Michael.

  “Hi there,” he said, smiling. Hell, he had dimples. How had she not noticed those suckers before?

  “Hi, again, Mr. Sinclair.” Josie smiled, finding those dimples irresistible. “Thanks for saving the apples.” Her grin widened, out of embarrassment, but then she realized she had nothing to prove, no one to impress, with her witty words.

  “It seems I am capable of saving something,” he said, his smile genuine as he gazed at her.

  She blushed, unable to help the heat creeping across her cheeks. “I’m sorry if Anna was rude.”

  “She is a forceful character,” Ryan said, breaking contact with her eyes and giving her time to catch her breath, as he looked behind his back to check that Anna wasn’t there.

  “That’s one way to describe it. She means well, and works hard. Just doesn’t always have the social awareness expected in today’s society.”

  Ryan frowned at her. “Social awareness?”

  “She’s had a tough upbringing.” Josie smiled apologetically. “The rest is confidential.”

  “I understand,” he said graciously. “What’s her role at the recycling plant?” He threw an apple into the air and caught it. “And why the apples?”

  “Oh, she doesn’t work at the recycling plant,” Josie said.

  “I see.” He held the apple out, and Josie took it from him.

  “Thanks.” Josie made to turn around; she needed to get the rest of the delivery inside.

  “No, I don’t see,” Ryan said, coming up beside her, his closeness making her face flush redder. She must look like a ripe tomato. “Why are you delivering groceries?”

  “I own a community farm.” She pulled the boxes toward her, but before she could lift them, Ryan took them from the truck.

  “A community farm. That intrigues me.”

  “Why?” Josie asked.

  “Because I always liked the outdoor life.” He turned toward the tavern. “This way?”

  “Yes, thanks.” Josie shut the tailgate and then caught up with him. “You don’t look like a farm boy.”

  “I’m not. But that doesn’t mean I don’t have a hankering for the outdoor life.” He stood still while she opened the doors for him. “But sometimes you end up living the life you have to, not the one you choose.”

  “That is where we differ. I am living the life I want to lead. Or at least I was…”

  They stood facing each other in the dim light of the tavern entrance. “What’s changed?” he asked gently.

  She shook her head. “Nothing. It’s nothing to do with you. And I need to get on with my deliveries.”

  “Now I’m more intrigued. A woman of mystery,” Ryan said, relinquishing the boxes to her.

  “Don’t be. There’s no big secret,” Josie assured him.

  “Then tell me.”

  She pressed her lips together. “I’ve made a decision to sell the farm. Well, it’s not really my decision.”

  “Why?” he asked.

  Why? Why did she feel compelled to share so much information with him? That was the question she should be answering.

  “Because it will raise enough money to pay off the arrears at the recycling plant.”

  “Josie, there you are,” Anna said, appearing from the reception area. “I thought you had gotten lost. Or worse.” She eyed Ryan with open hostility. “Is he still bothering you?”

  “No, he was helping me carry the boxes,” Josie said, and let Anna take them.

  “We don’t need his help,” Anna said, turning on her heel and marching off with the boxes.

  If only that were true, Josie thought.

  “Did the recycling plant fund the farm purchase?” Ryan asked.

  “No,” she said, shaking her head firmly.

  “Then why sell it?”

  “Because Silver Springs Recycling provides jobs for a lot more people in town. The same people whose kids come over and work the farm. In some ways the two are symbiotic. While the recycling plant will survive without the farm, the farm will not survive if there is no one left in town. So it’s the sensible thing to do.”

  Ryan nodded. “Have dinner with me.”

  His offer hit her in the solar plexus, and she opened and closed her mouth like a goldfish trying to figure out what to say. “I can’t” were the words she settled for.

  “Why?” he asked, studying her in that unsettling way of his once again.

  “Because I’m … busy.”

  “Doing?”

  “I have to go over to Michael’s and discuss contingency plans,” she said
lamely.

  “Contingency plans? I didn’t know you had any.”

  She frowned. “That is why I’m meeting with him. To find one.”

  He sighed. “Tomorrow?”

  “I’m…”

  “Making excuses?”

  “No.” She put her hands on her hips, needing him to understand her position. “I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  “You won’t know unless you try,” he said, smiling, and flashing those dimples once more.

  “I do know. I know that you said this was a formal business arrangement. And I can’t do… Be… Whatever it is you think you want from me, please forget it.” She turned away from him, but he caught her arm and pulled her back.

  “Dinner. That is all I want. And a chance to see the town through your eyes.” Her body was so close to his, she could feel the heat emanating from him, and she longed to lean into it, to seek comfort and solace. She needed to be true to herself.

  “Please don’t play me, Mr. Sinclair.”

  “Call me Ryan.”

  “No.” She shook her head as if trying to shake him off, but he had caught hold of her soul, his fingers digging in and holding on tight. “I want you to give us a chance, to show you we can do what Michael says. But please don’t be the sort of man who uses me. I can’t do that. Not again.”

  Knowing she had said too much, she turned on her heel, walking purposefully away, leaving him watching her as she moved. With each step, she could feel his eyes on her, judging, assessing.

  “There you are, Josie Jo,” Lynsey said. “How are you?”

  “I’m good, thanks, Lynsey. Here are the rest of the boxes,” Josie said, setting them down on the reception desk.

  “Thanks, honey, you want to take them through to the kitchen? Otis will be about half an hour, I’ll let him stow it all away. I have to drool over Mr. Dimples. Shame he is spoken for, because I would sure like a rumble in the sack with that one.”

  “Spoken for?” Josie asked.

  “That’s what the man told me. I do like a man who is loyal to an absent love. Lord knows I see enough men come through here who are more than willing to cheat on their significant other when they think they will not get found out.”