Harlequin Superromance August 2013 - Bundle 1 of 2: What Happens Between FriendsStaying at Joe'sHer Road Home

by Beth Andrews

  Mahoney, huh? Joe grunted. He knew as well as she did that client should be hers.

  “Maybe it’s a sign,” he said. “That it’s time for you to move on.”

  “It’s a sign that it’s time for you to step up and fix the mess you made. Mr. DIY.”

  “You always did put T&P first.”

  “They never let me down.”

  “Until Tackett decided to make an example out of you.”

  “I repeat. They never let me down.”

  “You really want to start comparing scars?” he asked softly.

  She clenched her teeth. “I want to keep my job.”

  “The agency means that much to you.”

  “The paycheck means that much to me.”

  “So it’s the money.” He should have known. “What, is the gold plating wearing off your toothbrush?”

  “You self-centered, egotistical son of a—”

  “Children, children, please.” They swung toward the door. Longtime Castle Creek resident Audrey Tweedy marched toward them, clapping her hands as if urging a classroom of first-graders to settle down after recess. The seventy-something woman had a voice like a pixie and a body like a lumberjack, and Joe couldn’t remember ever seeing her without that purple barrette holding her gray hair out of her face.

  For one wild, despairing moment, he considered making his escape through the window. But he’d just replaced the screen. And Audrey was faster than she looked.

  She wagged a thick finger. “I could hear you kids all the way out in the parking lot. That’s not good for business, Joseph Gallahan.”

  “I’m not open for business.”

  “That’s not the point.” She gave him a disapproving look—he was getting a lot of those lately—then leaned toward Allison, her expression complicit. “I could tell the trouble right off. You two are having a meat crisis.”

  Allison went still. “A what?”

  Joe ran a hand over his face as Audrey rummaged through a bright green purse—the one with the oversize “P” on the side. She pulled out a can of Vienna sausages. “You’re grumpy. That’s what happens when you don’t get enough protein. Have a weenie.”

  Joe held up his hands, palms out. “I’ll pass.” His gaze cut to Allison, who was staring at the old woman in fascinated dismay.

  Audrey gave him a tsk-tsk and shrugged. She jammed the can back into her purse and turned to Allison, thrust out a hand. “I’m Audrey Tweedy, dear. Welcome to Castle Creek. Care for a weenie? No?” She patted her monster of a purse. “I could fit a whole ham in here if I wanted to. I could show you where I got it, if you’d like. The purse, not the ham. ’Course, the initial on the side costs extra.”

  “What does the ‘P’ stand for?”

  Audrey shot Joe a “where’d you find this one?” look. “Protein.” She turned back to Joe. “Which you, Mr. Vegetarian, obviously don’t get enough of.”

  “I had scrambled eggs for breakfast. With cheese. And, Aud? I’m a little busy right now.”

  She sniffed. “The way you eat, Joseph, you’d think you didn’t have any teeth. You need something that’ll work that jaw—something besides insulting your visitors. And you’re not getting rid of me that easily. Have some jerky.”

  He stared down at the bright yellow stick of processed who-the-hell-knew-what. “You never give up.”

  She turned to Allison. “You eat meat, don’t you, dear?” Joe tried not to choke while Allison managed a nod. With a smile worthy of a denture commercial, Audrey swung back to face him. “Sounds like you two have some problems to work out. Why don’t you invite your friend here to stay awhile?”

  Oh, hell, no.

  Joe gave her his best “mess with me and I’ll break out my pneumatic drill” look. Audrey countered with her “humor me or I’ll hide a dead perch in your pickup” glare.

  “Sounds like Allison doesn’t have much of a job to go back to,” Audrey continued smugly. “And, Joseph, you and I both know you could use a hand around here. She has two.”

  Allison thrust out her hands, fingers spread. “Uh, and they both just had a manicure.”

  “Go ahead, Joseph. Invite her to stay.”

  He heard Audrey’s words but they didn’t register. He’d finally given in to the urge to look at Allison, really look at her, for the first time in a year. She watched him back, head tipped to the side, hazel eyes narrowed, chin indignant. She’d changed her hair. Instead of the short, sleek, behind-the-ears style he remembered, she’d let it grow so a smooth, butter-colored curtain skimmed her shoulders. Not as smooth as when she’d first walked in, though. One side looked kind of poufy, as if someone had given her a noogie.

  Or she’d just rolled out of bed.

  He drew in a breath and focused on Audrey, who looked mighty pleased with herself as she stood there in her pink pants, spotless white trainers and olive drab Go Army T-shirt. A gift from his buddy Reid Macfarland, no doubt. Joe sighed.

  “Don’t you have anything better to do, Aud?”

  “Better than helping two conflicted souls find grace and understanding? Really, Joseph, how self-centered do you think I am?”

  He wasn’t touching that with a ten-foot salami. Meanwhile, Allison was looking a little wild-eyed.

  Audrey gave her a sympathetic smile. “Does it bother you, dear? That he’s one of those pesky vegetarians?”

  “Pesco,” Joe growled. “I’m a pesco-vegetarian.”

  “You did call this place a ‘hellhole,’” Audrey continued, her voice suddenly all schoolmarm. “If you stayed you could help change that.”

  Allison shook the noogie right out of her hair. “That’s not an option.”

  Joe watched her back away toward the door. He should be feeling smug. Why wasn’t he feeling smug?

  “Surely, dear, you could spare a few days to help out an old friend—”

  “Audrey Tweedy, you’re supposed to be holding a table for us at the diner. If we don’t head over there now, we won’t get any chocolate mousse.” Hazel Catlett appeared next to Allison, tapping her watch. Her gaze slid to Joe’s naked chest and her eyes sparked as bright as the neon-orange color on her lips.

  “Goodness gracious me. I see what held you up.”

  Hell. The Castle Creek paparazza had arrived. Joe shook out his shirt and scrambled to find an opening. Hazel, meanwhile, was brandishing her cell phone.

  “Why didn’t you text me?” she fussed at Audrey. The moment before Joe shoved an arm inside his T-shirt he heard a chiming sound, and Hazel shot him a wicked wink. “You’ve been holding out on us, Joe Gallahan.” Squinting at her phone’s display, she hummed her approval at the photo she’d just snapped. “We’ve got that fund-raiser for the citizens’ center coming up. What do you say we have a wet T-shirt contest? You know, the man-chest kind? Honey, who are you?” Another chime as she snapped a pic of Allison.

  “She’s a friend of Joe’s, visiting from Virginia. Allison Kincaid, meet Hazel Catlett. She and her sister, June, have the most adorable salt-and-pepper schnauzer named Baby Blue.”

  Allison blinked. Joe did his best to turn a laugh into a cough and Audrey thumped him on the back. With her purse.

  Ouch.

  Hazel glanced from Joe to Allison and back again. “You really have been holding out on us.” She sidled closer to Allison, keeping her gaze on Joe. “Tell me the truth, hon. Does the bottom half look as good as the top?”

  “Let’s go get that mousse,” Audrey said, and tugged on her friend’s arm.

  “I’m coming, I’m coming.” Hazel flapped a hand at Joe then elbowed Allison. “Ironic, isn’t it? A piece of beefcake like that, being a vegetarian?”

  “I’m standing right here,” he said.

  “And God bless you for it,” Hazel beamed.

  Audrey led Ha
zel out the door while Hazel played with her cell phone, no doubt sending copies of that damned photo to the entire population of Castle Creek. As soon as they cleared the door, Allison rounded on him.

  “I’m not staying.”

  “And I’m not going back. Glad we understand each other. Goodbye.”

  She let loose a strangled sound of exasperation and stalked over to the window. The fan-borne breeze huffed through her hair and his traitorous fingers itched to follow. His gaze skimmed downward. Damn. He shoved his hands in his pockets and forced himself to look away from the luscious lines of her ass. Tried to focus on the probability that the pants hugging that class-A ass had cost more than what he’d shelled out to tile ten bathrooms.

  Then again, hadn’t he spent thousands on suits during his stint at T&P?

  He scowled. If he’d lost her that promotion, then he damned well owed her. He hadn’t said a word to Danielle. But she’d been hovering over him as he cleaned out his desk and the instant she spotted the photo of Allison she’d figured it out. And apparently had gone running straight to Tackett.

  And Allison thought he’d turned tattletale. Because she’d rejected him. Because the company had stripped him of his clients. Not a bad way to get revenge, if he’d been that kind of man.

  But things had changed since then. He’d changed. And right now revenge was sounding pretty damned good.

  “I’m serious.” She turned from the window, her arms wrapped around her waist so tight it was a wonder she could breathe. “I have to get back. And you have to come with me.”

  Obviously, she wanted to be here as much as he wanted to be back in the nation’s capital. Maybe Audrey’s idea wasn’t such a ball-buster, after all. Keeping Allison around for a while would be hell, yeah, but he could string that old bastard Tackett along and at the same time score some free menial labor. He pictured Allison trying to handle a roller while fighting to protect her manicure and smiled inwardly. At the very least, he’d get some comic relief.

  And maybe, just maybe, she’d see that life in the country—life with him—wouldn’t have been so bad after all.

  Scratch that. He’d keep her here because she could help, nothing more. Though he wouldn’t mind getting her naked.

  His brain stuttered on the word “naked.”

  “Are you even listening to me?”

  The buzzing in his ears climbed an octave. As his gaze focused on Allison, he took in her furious pink face and it was all he could do to keep from grinning.

  “Two weeks,” he said, then paused. Had he said that out loud? He gave a mental shrug. “You give me two weeks and I’ll give the agency four.”

  He expected her to go ballistic—looked forward to it, in fact—but she didn’t give him the satisfaction.

  “It’s been a year,” she said calmly. “Can you really still be holding a grudge?”

  “There’s a saying. Something about a pot, a kettle and the color black?”

  Her arms dropped away from her waist and she clenched her fists. “We hadn’t even been dating for three months when you suddenly asked me to dump everything and follow you up here. Expected me to walk away from my job, my apartment, my life in the city, everything I worked so hard to achieve. And for what? Cracked sidewalks and moldy floorboards? This was your dream, Joe. Not mine.” She relaxed her hands and wiggled her fingers. “But that’s in the past. In the here and now, I’m about to lose my job and you can prevent it. So will you?”

  He ran his hands down the front of his T-shirt, smoothing out the wrinkles, pretending to consider. In the past, like hell.

  “Two weeks,” he repeated. He pictured her trading in her designer duds for a pair of his old coveralls and this time freed the smile. She snapped her spine straight.

  “I’m glad you find this amusing.” She marched to the doorway. “And I’m glad you can afford to...to humor your inner Bob the Builder fantasies up here in Mayberry-by-the-lake.” She swiveled back to face him, as graceful as a model at the end of a runway. “By the way, T&P authorized me to offer you a bonus. Ten thousand dollars. Considering you’ve already been here a year and the sidewalk has more cracks than the San Andreas Fault, I’m thinking you could use the money.”

  That did it. Fury kicked at his temples and he tried for a calming inhale, but the air had turned dense. Disappointment, he realized. His throat was thick with it.

  It always came down to money.

  “Tackett would be proud of you, Kincaid.”

  “How about you, Gallahan? Anyone proud of you?”

  It hadn’t taken her long to zero in on that soft spot. In another life he would have admired her. Praised her. Pointed her out as an example to new-hires. Now he pitied her. Almost as much as he wanted to find out if she still tasted the same.

  She must have seen something in his face she didn’t like because her chin went back up in the air. “So you won’t consider coming back.”

  “The moment you consider picking up a drywall taping knife.”

  She stared at him for a couple of beats. “Afraid you lost your edge? That you can’t do the job?”

  He grunted. “Your job security depends on two weeks of kissing up to the guy who screwed you out of a promotion. Literally. Maybe you’d better stick to worrying about yourself.”

  “I had to try.” She hesitated. The already rigid line of her shoulders tensed. “You’re looking good, Joe,” she said quietly. Her gaze locked on to his. “I’m glad.” She turned and walked out, her posture suddenly soft.

  He reclaimed the paint roller, dipped it and faced the wall. Struggled to find the strength to raise his arms.

  She still talked a good fight, but sometime during the past year her confidence level had taken a massive hit. How much of that was his fault? He looked over his shoulder, at the empty doorway.

  He needed a whiskey.

  Make that a double.

  * * *

  ALLISON SEETHED AS she guided her Camry around the pits in the motel parking lot, then slowed for a pair of squirrels that tumbled across the pavement toward a scraggly pine.

  Damn Joe Gallahan and his miserable excuse for a motel, anyway. She was the injured party here. She was the one with the grievance. Yet there he had stood, acting all smug and superior, like the advertising hotshot he used to be. Though to be fair, despite the unruly, sun-streaked hair and construction worker getup, the hot part still applied. Or maybe it applied because of those things.

  Good grief. Could she be any more pathetic?

  She pulled out onto the highway, shaking her head over Hazel Catlett swooning over Joe’s bare chest and Audrey Tweedy knitting her brow over his protein consumption.

  Joe Gallahan, still a sensation with the ladies. Her giggle turned into a groan and her fingers clamped tighter around the steering wheel. Sudden tears blurred her vision and she blinked, panic overtaking frustration. Time to pull over before she wrecked her car. Or worse.

  Two minutes after passing a sign indicating a picnic area ahead, she parked in a small gravel lot and made her way along a path that led through a grove of shaggy pine trees down to the lake. Arms wrapped around her waist, shoulders hunched, she lingered above the beach, squinting across the choppy, platinum waters toward Canada.

  He knew what he’d done. That confused look on his face? Had to be an act. He knew.

  Mist-laden air swirled around her, flashing rainbows whenever the spray caught the waning sun. She dragged in a deep breath, smelled fresh water, decaying fish and seaweed. Over the hissing rush of the surf she heard a series of echoing thuds—oars, maybe, banging against the rim of a rowboat? Another breath, and gradually her panic began to recede. Despite the occasional drone of a car traveling the road behind her, she felt more alone than she had in a very long while.

  Which was ridiculous. She was on edge only because she was u
sed to having half a dozen people demanding half a dozen things from her, all at the same time—usually during her lunch hour. This “being alone” thing...she never did handle that well. She needed to get back to work. Back to her old self.

  Though if she went back without Joe her old self would be out pounding the pavement, looking for a job in a bleak economy. Her stomach gave an unpleasant wriggle.

  Maybe that’s why seeing Joe upset her so much. At Tackett & Pike, she was doing what she wanted to do. What she’d struggled to learn the skills to do. She reached out to the nearest tree and snagged a pinch of pine needles. Rolled them idly between her thumb and forefinger, releasing a sharp, sweet scent. Yeah, that was why she’d dreaded this visit.

  She steered her mind away from Joe Gallahan, sprinkled the needles into the wind and stepped out of her pumps. Cautiously, she ventured out onto the beach, the sun-warmed stones grinding and clattering beneath her. A glint of green caught her eye and she bent over to get a closer look. Her cell rang, and a glance at the incoming number roused a sigh from the deepest, darkest pit of her belly.

  She thought of the produce stand she’d passed on her way into town, pictured the heaping quarts of strawberries lined up for sale. She pasted a bottle of rum, a tray of ice and a blender into the picture, bit back a whimper and answered her phone.

  “Mr. Tackett.”

  He grunted. “See, the way you just said my name right there, that tells me you don’t have good news. And I need good news, Kincaid. The company needs good news.”

  The man was doomed to disappointment. Unfortunately, so was she.

  “He’s not interested, Mr. Tackett.”

  “Make him interested.”

  She’d get right on that. As soon as she solved the energy crisis and invented a toilet seat that put itself down.

  “Why don’t you arrange for the client to contact Joe directly?” She bent over, left palm braced on her knee, and scoured the beach for another glimpse of that green. “Mr. Mahoney would have more success talking him around, seeing that Joe’s—” a chauvinist pig “—more likely to respond to a man.”