by Stacy Finz
“At two in the morning?” she asked, sticking her chin out in challenge.
“Sure, why not?”
She lowered her voice. “But you wouldn’t sleep with me?”
“It has nothing to do with you.” He gave her another mild once-over. “I just don’t do that anymore.”
Sure he didn’t. Just wait until the next pretty face came along. Win’s promiscuity was kind of legendary. His brothers liked to joke about all the various women he went home with. Darcy had hoped that someone with his wealth of experience could teach her some things, primarily how to be more provocative. But he’d made it clear that that wasn’t on the table.
“Whatever,” she said, wanting desperately to extricate herself from the conversation and get the coffee stain out of her dress. “You’re going to be late for the meeting.”
The sunlight streaked through the window, glinting off the gold highlights in his light-brown hair. The stubble on his face looked sexy rather than unkempt. And his T-shirt matched his blue eyes. Why was life so freaking unfair?
“Meet you in there,” he said, nudging his head at the conference room. Then he cocked his hip against the wall, blocking her way to the bathroom.
“I need to get by, please.”
“Yeah? What’s it worth to you?” Again with the obnoxious smile.
“What are you, twelve?” It was too early in the morning for fun and games. Having already made a colossal fool of herself at Tart Me Up, not to mention Saturday night at Win’s, she wasn’t in the mood.
That was the beauty of Win. Even though he was the type of guy who should’ve made her stammer and blush, he made her gutsy. With him she felt emboldened to say whatever the hell she wanted and even call him on his presumptuousness. Most of the time she was accused of being mousy.
Her mother “affectionately” called her “the dish towel.” Geneva Wallace constantly accused her of being too timid, too complacent, and not outgoing enough. Then again, nothing Darcy did was ever good enough for her mother. Except Lewis. Her parents thought he was the second coming of Christ. And being the pleaser that she was, she’d married him, hoping to finally do something that made her mother proud of her. Big mistake. She supposed she’d become malleable all those years running interference between the war zone that was her parents. But with Win she could say what was on her mind.
“Come on, Darce, go to the rodeo with me tonight. I don’t have anyone to take.”
“Ah, the truth comes out. Read my lips.” She mouthed, No way in hell, then managed to squeeze by him, brushing against his front on the way to the bathroom. Everything about him was rock-hard and while their contact only lasted less than a few seconds, a jolt of electricity arced through her. That’s how hard up she was.
“Don’t kid yourself, Darce, if I wanted to find someone else to go with I could. But I want to go with you.”
She eyed him, reconsidering. He was probably up to something but it would be the closest thing she’d had to a date in ages. So why the heck not? It wasn’t like there was anything better to do on a Monday night.
As if he knew what she was thinking, he said, “I’ll pick you up at six-thirty, then.” He pushed off the wall and sauntered into the conference room.
Chapter Three
Win picked through the pastries until he found a cherry turnover. There was no sign of his three brothers yet. Usually, TJ was the first person in the conference room for the Monday morning meeting. Hell, TJ was the first person in the building and the one who turned the lights out at night. Though not so much anymore. Ever since he and Deb had gotten together, TJ had been enjoying life. Which was good, Win supposed, but was going to take some getting used to.
In the last five-and-a-half years since his parents had decided to semiretire from the company, TJ had been running the show with Josh as his newly appointed wingman. Colt helped out when he could but policing Glory Junction was a full-time job. Besides guiding tours, Win’s role in the company was … he didn’t really have one other than that but was thinking about becoming more active in the day-to-day operation as soon as he figured out what that was.
He heard Darcy in the adjacent kitchenette making coffee. The chick was a head trip. Painfully shy one minute, hopping into his bed the next. But right now, he needed a distraction during his self-imposed female freeze. And the truth was he found her interesting, even if she just wanted to use him for his body. Or maybe that was why. She’d made it clear she wasn’t into him in any kind of be-my-boyfriend way—a first and damned refreshing. But her odd behavior the other night piqued Win’s curiosity. There was something up with her. And he loved to unravel a good mystery.
“You’re here early.” TJ came into the conference room, carrying his tablet.
“Where’s Deb?” He glanced at his brother’s oversize grin and threw up a little in his mouth. Not because TJ had gotten engaged to Win’s high school girlfriend—he was cool with that—but because when Garner men fell they looked like drooling idiots. Not Win, though. Even with ample opportunity, he’d never fallen hard and was starting to think there was something wrong with him.
“She had stuff to do,” TJ said, and went back to grinning like a loon.
“Let’s do this thing.” Colt entered in his Glory Junction police uniform and a fresh suntan from his honeymoon. Another drooling idiot. He went over to Win and gave him a noogie. “What’s up with you, lover boy?”
“I’ve got nothing. Where’s Josh?”
“Right here.” He walked in and immediately started rummaging through the pastry box until he found the other cherry turnover. “No doughnuts today?”
“Darcy went to Tart Me Up,” Win said. Usually they got a couple dozen doughnuts from the Morning Glory diner, just down the street.
Darcy brought a carafe of coffee, set it in the center of the table, and took a seat. The front of her dress was wet as if she’d been scrubbing it in the sink and her hair had come loose from its ponytail with frizzy tendrils sticking to the sides of her face. She looked like she’d run a marathon. And lost.
TJ opened his tablet and fired it up, then turned his attention to Win. “How do you know Madison De Wolk?”
Madison De Wolk? Win searched his brain for a connection but the name didn’t ring a bell. “I don’t. Why, am I supposed to?”
“She’s the CEO of FlashTag.” When Win gave his brother a blank stare, TJ said, “It’s a social media start-up in Silicon Valley. Investors include Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.”
“The Facebook dude? Yeah, so?”
TJ exchanged a glance with Colt and shook his head. “She’s interested in contracting with Garner Adventure to do corporate team building and she specifically requested you.”
“Win?” Josh pretended to choke on his coffee. “Why Win?”
“Isn’t that obvious?” Win said blandly. No one could deny he was the king of extreme sports. Before he’d thrown away his chances by quitting the US Olympic freestyle ski team, he’d been a favorite to medal.
“She says she met you on a kayaking trip in Alaska.”
Win remembered the trip—seven days at sea, whale-watching in the George Islands—but not De Wolk. He hitched his shoulders. “I don’t remember anyone by that name.”
TJ tapped the keys on his tablet and turned the screen so Win could have a look. A bio picture of a smoking-hot brunette smiled back at him and a vague recollection of that face tugged at his memory.
“Ah, jeez, you didn’t sleep with her, did you?” Colt got up and grabbed a Danish from the box.
“No.” He’d taken the trip with Haley, a former GA guide who’d had friends at the Alaska tour company. As a professional courtesy, the company had given them a deal. The trip had been a blast and he and Haley had had a good time together, going their separate ways afterward. Last he’d heard, she’d moved to Costa Rica. “Not that it’s any of your business.”
“Well it’s my business if I’m going to put you on the account, the account we haven’t gotten y
et,” TJ said, and added for emphasis, “The account we could really use to offset the cost of Stanley Royce.” Royce, one of their clients, had sued GA after tumbling down a mountainside in a porta-potty. Long story. The short version: GA had settled out of court and instead of having their insurance handle it and watch their premiums skyrocket, they’d dipped into their reserves. The whole fiasco had cost the company plenty and it had happened on Win’s watch, putting the blame squarely in his court.
“FlashTag is also looking at another company out of Mammoth. Mountain Adventure. It’s between us and them so we need to kill it.” TJ turned to Darcy, who as usual never said a word during these meetings. Despite being a closet sex fiend, she was an introvert around his brothers. “I want you on this too.”
“Me?” She shrunk back.
Win had to admit it was odd casting. Darcy’s knowledge of adventure sports was right up there with Win’s experience giving birth.
TJ drummed his fingers on the table. “You still want that promotion? If so, I need both of you to get this account. Win, you dazzle them with the sports stuff and Darcy … you keep things organized.”
Okay, Win was willing to concede that he wasn’t the most systematized. But if someone told him when and where to show up, he brought his A game. He glanced over at Darcy but couldn’t get a read on her. Other than doing that twirling thing with her finger and hair, her face remained neutral. Sometimes, he’d catch her at the front desk, talking on the phone, smiling, and those dimples of hers would deepen. It lit him up, those dimples.
“You down with this?” he asked her because sometimes TJ was overzealous and tried to bend people in ways they didn’t want to bend.
“I want a promotion.” She stared down at her lap.
Win took that as a yes. “Okay,” he said. “We’re on.”
TJ mapped out the plan, which entailed a lot of wining and dining. Not really Win’s thing. Give him a kayak, a raft, skis, rock-climbing gear and he was good to go. Otherwise, he was a bit out of his element. And he doubted bashful Darcy was any better at buttering up slick Silicon Valley suits. She was the quiet, studious type. That is when she wasn’t breaking into men’s homes and jumping their bones.
“Where do we come in?” Josh asked, motioning between him and Colt.
“Anything Win or Darcy wants you to do to make this deal happen,” TJ said. “It’s Win’s contact so he takes the lead.”
“So we’re resting the future of GA on Win’s delicate shoulders?”
Win responded by giving Josh a middle-finger salute.
“Scary, but we aim to deliver and Madison De Wolk wants Win. What can I say? There’s no accounting for taste.” TJ pretended to shudder.
Win, being the youngest, was often the butt of his family’s jokes (though no one was immune from being razzed in the Garner family). Admittedly, part of the teasing he’d brought on himself. Between the carousing and the women, he wasn’t taken too seriously. But he was working to rectify his reputation. And if he could help turn around the company … Royce had not only cost them a good chunk of change, he’d hurt GA’s reputation. In the age of social media, it didn’t take much to derail a business. Since the porta-potty incident, GA had seen a drop-off in clients.
He and his brothers would fight with all they had to save their parents’ legacy. Gray and Mary Garner founded the company in the 1970s and had weathered recessions, bad investments, and the expense of four college tuitions. But after the Royce setback they couldn’t afford to give Darcy a raise with her promotion. Or buy new gear. As far as Win’s shoulders being delicate, ha, he wasn’t even going to dignify that with a comeback. But more than anything he’d like to prove himself, show the family he was just as important to Garner Adventure as the rest of them.
“Meeting adjourned, then?” Colt fiddled with his cell phone. He didn’t like to leave the police station for too long. Jack, his assistant chief, had his back but Colt was a control freak.
All Win’s brothers were, making him wonder how that particular trait had skipped him.
After the meeting, he went in search of Darcy, who’d disappeared. Maybe she’d ducked into the john again to work on that stain. It was too early for lunch and Win didn’t have a tour until that afternoon. A couple who wanted to go parasailing for their thirtieth anniversary. He couldn’t think of a better way of celebrating.
To kill time, he left the building, thinking Darcy might’ve stepped out too. It occurred to him that he didn’t know how she spent her time out of the office and didn’t have the first clue where to look for her. So he headed in the direction of Paddle and Pedal on the boardwalk. The company did a killer business in summer, renting everything from kayaks and canoes to bikes and surreys to the tourists. Surrounded by a lake, a river, and five major ski resorts, Glory Junction was an outdoor adventurer’s paradise. And Paddle and Pedal was a good spot to connect with prospective clients. Plus, he liked shooting the breeze with the two guys who owned the shop.
Halfway down Main Street a beat-up Chevrolet pickup drew up next to him.
“Where you off to?” Rita Tucker, the town’s mayor, asked in her gravelly smoker’s voice, and gave him a thorough up and down. “I have some new ideas for the calendar.”
“I think I’m out this year, Rita.”
She pulled to the shoulder and turned off her engine. Ah, hell, Win didn’t want to spend his morning facing off with the mayor over her pervy calendar, even if it did raise tons of cash for the volunteer fire department. But posing, oiled up in nothing but a Santa hat and a holly wreath, was precisely the image he was fighting against.
She pushed open the door and stomped out of the cab. “Since when?”
He tried for diplomacy, instead of telling her the calendar was cheesy as hell. “I think it’s time to give someone else a chance. What about Boden?”
“I have him penciled in for March. You’ve always been December, the Christmas gift that keeps on giving.” She cackled while leering lasciviously at his crotch. It made him feel dirty. The woman was almost old enough to be his grandmother.
“What about Chip, then? He hasn’t been in the calendar for a while.”
“Never again!” Rita’s expression went sour.
Back when Chip had been drinking, there’d been an incident. No one knew for sure exactly what had transpired between Rita and the Fish and Wildlife warden. But it had something to do with a bottle of Jim Beam, a bear rug, and a lewd proposition.
He could see they weren’t getting anywhere and he didn’t want to waste an hour arguing with Rita so he humored her. “All right, let me think about. We’ve got time.”
“Not much.”
The calendar came out in January. It was only June. “You can afford a day.” Or a week or month. It’s not like the calendar was high art or that Annie Leibovitz was taking the photos. Just Rita with her ancient Nikon. He and eleven other local guys, including his brothers, had been volunteer models for the last three years. But Win got the most ribbing for it, including some of the female shopkeepers tacking December up all year long. While he liked the idea of raising money for the GJVF it was, well, embarrassing—and undignified to have his junk on display across town.
“You better make up your mind while I’m still young.” She harrumphed, got back in her truck, and drove away. It was hard to believe they let someone like that be mayor.
He continued to the rental shop, wending his way through throngs of tourists who strolled along Main Street and the boardwalk, taking in the sights. There was a line outside of Oh Fudge! And the Morning Glory appeared to still be doing a brisk breakfast business, even though it was past ten. He waved across the street to his sister-in-law, Hannah, who was creating new window displays in her store, Glorious Gifts.
“Looking good,” he called, giving her a thumbs-up, and she waved back.
He credited Hannah with saving Josh. After his brother nearly lost his leg in a roadside bombing in Afghanistan, Josh had returned home in a deep funk. The kind
of depression you didn’t easily come out of. But Hannah had whipped his ass into shape by helping him get through physical therapy and generally not letting him feel sorry for himself. Thanks to good doctors and a succession of successful surgeries, Josh barely walked with a limp anymore. He’d been able to come back to the family business, guiding tours, though Win took the more challenging ones.
When he got to Paddle and Pedal, Sawyer and Ethan were busy assisting two families with bikes. A couple of teenage girls were waiting to rent paddleboards so Win jumped in to give the shop owners a hand. It was a good town that way; everyone helped one another.
When Sawyer and Ethan came up for air, Win shot the breeze with them for a while. He told them about FlashTag’s interest in Garner Adventure and Glory Junction. Corporate accounts like that were a boon to the entire town. Hotels, restaurants, and shops all benefited from the business. Win tried to remember what he could of Madison De Wolk but nothing was standing out. He’d spent most of his time on that humpback whale–watching trip with Haley.
On his way back to the office, he popped into the Morning Glory, hoping to find Darcy. She wasn’t there so he grabbed a tuna melt and ate it at his desk. He didn’t like spending time in the office, or indoors for that matter, but part of his plan to become more involved in the day-to-day business at GA was to put in more face time.
Darcy passed his office on the way to the bathroom and he called her in.
“I’ve been looking for you. What do think of us working together?” He cleared off a chair for her to sit in but she remained standing.
“It’ll be weird.”
He cocked a brow. “Because you tried to have your way with me in my sleep?” When her face turned fifty shades of red, he said, “For Christ’s sake, I’m teasing, Darcy.”
“No you’re not. You’re never going to let me live it down, are you?”
It wasn’t as if she were fragile, at least not where he was concerned. She gave as good as she got, so much so that he’d started thinking of her as an honorary Garner. Still, he was pretty sure Saturday night had been an aberration. Darcy didn’t strike him as the type who made sex calls in the middle of the night. He started to visualize her in that teeny teddy, got a little hot, and made himself shut it down.
