Stealing His Heart (McCormick's Creek Series Book 4)

by Jen Peters

  He grabbed a protein bar, not caring about his greasy hands, then let a long, steamy shower pound the dirt away. He found a soda in the fridge, flopped on the couch, and turned his laptop on.

  An hour later, Brandt was ready to throw it against the wall. His internet was slow, his website was clunky, and he couldn’t manage to make any of the changes suggested by the four articles he’d read. Or at least not without getting the spinning wheel of death half the time.

  He’d much rather head out for an evening ride, but if he didn’t find a way to make Trailhead Bikes profitable, Rudy would be back in semi-retirement, and Brandt would find himself right back in Portland and stuck in the family business.

  His older brother fit right in to their father’s real estate empire, but Brandt? That would be a big no. He was good at matching people with a house they could afford. He wasn’t so great at up-selling past that, steering them into McMansions that were too big for their family or upscale condos that wouldn’t leave them with any money to enjoy the lifestyle. And he definitely wasn’t into the real estate investment game, the apartment buildings his brother liked to buy and sell, or the long strategy meetings the corporation demanded.

  And, unlike the rest of the family, Brandt was quite happy to put up with sunburns and bugs to have adventures.

  Gran had been the one to encourage him to follow his dreams, even if his dad tried to shush her. “He’s his own person, not your Mini-Me,” she’d said. She’d gotten the last word by leaving Brandt a separate inheritance with instructions to use it to do something new.

  Something new. Something different. Something away from offices and corporate life. He’d briefly dreamed of being an adventure guide, but he couldn’t climb mountains and run rapids forever, and he wanted more stability than that offered—having a family someday was important to him.

  Then last year, a skiing buddy had invited him to McCormick’s Creek for some mountain biking—on and off the trails. Brandt was hooked, and his friend had said it could be a mountain biker’s heaven, that the out-of-the-way location wouldn’t be a problem.

  He’d broken up with Jasmine—he wasn’t sure why he’d let it drag on so long anyway—and leased the building in early spring. Most of Gran’s money went to remodeling the shop and stocking it with a wide range of bikes and supplies. He placed a few small ads and talked it up on all the social media he could.

  It wasn’t enough.

  Sure, he’d settled into McCormick’s Creek just fine, joined the volunteer fire department, and made a few good friends, but Trailhead Bikes was the loneliest store he’d ever seen.

  There weren’t enough mountain bikers in town to support the store, which he’d known, and not enough trails to entice serious enthusiasts from farther away, which he hadn’t. He needed to get more trails built, and he needed an event to introduce them to the area, or he’d be back selling houses in Portland before he could say I failed.

  The website should be pulling people in, but it was clunky and boring. It wasn’t bringing people to town, and it wasn’t selling much. The thing was simply…well, not ugly, but not great.

  In the six months he’d been here, Brandt had come to love this town—the people, the mountains, the life. He wanted to stay. While he’d enjoy a bit of romance, he hadn’t seen anyone around town who caught his eye. Even the new cashier at Sam’s fell too much into the mold of shallow socialites, although he had to admit he’d felt some attraction. Or maybe just admiration for how she’d kept her cool under stress.

  He put her out of his mind and re-focused on his ugly, clunky website. If he didn’t change things somehow, he wouldn’t have anything left of his inheritance by mid-summer next year. He’d be left flipping burgers or calling it quits.

  And he wasn’t a quitter.

  Brandt did give up on the computer for a while. Shower-clean or not, he grabbed the axe in the backyard and started splitting wood. When you couldn’t deal with paperwork or computers, do something physical. He’d have a three year wood supply at the rate he was going.

  Set the wood on the block, heft the axe, swing it over his head and down. Thunk! There were few more satisfying sounds in the world right now. Ten minutes into the rhythm and his tension was gone.

  He’d almost matched his sweat level from the afternoon when Justin Cooper showed up. They were on the volunteer fire crew together, and Justin had introduced him to a few people, including Javi, when he had moved in.

  “Man, you’re just working too hard,” Justin said. “And it’s dark!”

  Brandt snorted. “I’m supposed to be working on my website, but it hates me. I’m working off my frustration before I go back to it.”

  “You’ve got to be kidding. It’s nine o’clock and you already worked a full day, plus this. Time to relax.”

  “Nope. Have to figure out what to do with the site, some better way to market myself and McCormick’s Creek.”

  Justin chuckled. “You definitely need to come over to my place. A bunch of us are just hanging out, and my sister’s a whiz at marketing—she can give you plenty of advice. And besides, Mom dropped off an apple pie.”

  Brandt’s body ached, and all he really wanted to do was crash on the sofa. But if Justin’s sister could help… “Sure, just let me clean up first.” Nora Cooper’s pie sounded pretty good, too.

  Half an hour later, Brandt pulled up to Justin’s odd house. His friend had built a spectacular addition and hadn’t gotten around to rehabbing the half that was the original cottage. And he probably wouldn’t now—he and Cat were finishing an abandoned building project a couple miles away and would live there once they got married. Whenever they got around to setting a date.

  Inside, the noise level promised a livelier group than Brandt had energy for. Justin and Javi were looking at something out the two-story window, a couple of people Brandt didn’t know sprawled across the sofas and chatted, and Cat was playing with Robin’s fluffy little dog and Justin’s white Pipsqueak.

  “Hey, man, glad you could make it,” Justin said. “Robin, Brandt’s here!”

  “Oh, let him relax a bit first,” Cat called back.

  Brandt grinned. “Women.” But it was nice to just sit down and listen to people. And Mrs. Cooper’s pie was melt-in-your-mouth awesome.

  Eventually Robin sat down next to him. “Justin seems to think I know everything, which I don’t, but what kind of marketing help are you looking for?”

  “Huh. What am I not looking for? I’ll take whatever help you can give.”

  “Come on, I’ve got my laptop in the kitchen. Pull up your website and let me take a look.”

  He helped himself to another piece of pie while she perused it silently, clicking on various tabs until she had explored everything. “OK, tell me about your business goals.”

  “To earn a million dollars?”

  “Right. Try again,” she said.

  “Um, to earn enough money to stay in my shack and ride the trails?”

  Robin rolled her eyes but didn’t quite throw her hands up. “You must have some business goals!”

  “But that really is my end goal.” Brandt stared at her innocently, then gave a dramatic sigh. “Okay, if I’m dreaming, I want to be the go-to place for mountain biking in Oregon. I want to sell the right bike for the right person. I want to host rallies and races up here. I want to have all the accessories and repair supplies that anyone needs when they come here.”

  Robin nodded, closing her eyes in thought. Or maybe she was just listening to the others laugh.

  She straightened suddenly. “Here’s what I’m thinking.”

  Twenty minutes later, he had a scribbled list of pages and videos his website needed, instructions to write articles with information and personality, and a scolding for not knowing anything about putting on the rally he wanted to do next year. He didn’t know what other events might conflict with the dates he wanted, or even the deadline to be included in the mountain biking calendars.

  Brandt stared across
the room, rather stupefied. He’d never thought of himself as unprepared before.

  “You’ve got another big project too.” He looked up to see Justin leaning against the doorway.

  “Yeah?”

  Justin perused the pies still left and took the last piece of lemon meringue. “People who come are going to look for more than just Devil’s Hill and Sharptail, right? Javi said he was working on another trail with you?”

  Brandt nodded.

  “So how long does a trail take to clear? Or build, or whatever. And how many different trails do you need?”

  He shrugged. “Could be a few weeks, could be months—depends on what we base the trail on and how long it is. And we really need three or four different ones to start with. Five would be better—I think we’ve got room for them in the area the Forest Service gave us to build—but not this year.”

  Money, people, time—all things in short supply. They talked plans for a few minutes, and Brandt’s head was spinning. He’d known they needed a whole trail system, but sponsors? Blogging or articles or whatever? YouTube videos?

  He tuned back into the conversation to hear Justin talk about town dollars. “What do you mean?”

  “We have a grant committee to give money for tourism events,” Justin said. “It comes from the hotel taxes through the state. It’s not a lot, but it’s something. Put together a proposal—we meet in two weeks for next year’s money.”

  Two weeks! That didn’t give him much time, but he could knuckle down and work on that. First thing was to check for a date.

  Chapter 5

  “Are you gonna stay with us forever?” Tyler looked up from his cereal with guileless eyes.

  How to explain life’s problems to a kid? An age-appropriate explanation, anyway. “For a while, but not forever,” Raine said. “I don’t know if I’m staying in McCormick’s Creek or getting a job somewhere else. But even if I’m here, I’ll get my own place.”

  Both Tori and Tyler had asked her to stay with them, and Raine was quite happy to get Tyler off to school when she wasn’t working an early shift. But she couldn’t sleep on a sofa long-term, no matter how nice her family was.

  “But we like you being here. You’re fun. And you’re the bestest artist I know.”

  Raine chuckled—she doubted the six-year-old knew many artists. But she did like to color with him, and she’d done a few sketches that he’d pinned up in his room.

  “You about done there? It’s time to leave for school.” Taking him in the morning was one thing she could do to help Tori, who wouldn’t accept any money for room and board. But since Tori started work before Tyler started school, at least this way she didn’t have to pay as much in before-school program fees.

  Tyler gave her a kiss and a wave in the drop-off line and went running into the school with a passel of other kids. Raine smiled after him then decided to treat herself to a coffee and muffin at the Sunshine Cafe.

  The aroma was heavenly, and she decided to splurge on both a dark roast and a pumpkin muffin. She shuddered at the thought of facing more people at Sam’s. People who knew her and judged her. Perhaps they were right, but she was trying not to be the same person she had been. She just needed to solidify the changes and then find a way to prove it.

  Raine took her order to a table by the window and had just taken the lid off her coffee when she heard someone call her name.

  “I heard you were back in town.” Chelsea Perkins sauntered over, dressed in a decent business suit, her hair in a stylish cut, and chewing her ever-present gum. “This is great! Are you here to stay or just visiting?”

  “Staying, at least for a while. Just got a job at Sam’s.”

  “Sam’s, really? Weren’t you doing something fancy in Seattle?”

  Raine nodded. “Event planning, parties. But there’s not much call for that around here.”

  “So why’d you come back?”

  Raine motioned her to sit, but Chelsea waved her off. “I’m only here to pick up coffee for the office. I’m in real estate now. But what about you?”

  Another question of how to explain. She had better get used to it. “I’m sort of re-evaluating my life. Seeing what direction I want to go.” That was enough to tell anyone.

  “That’s okay, some people take longer to figure things out than others.”

  Raine stared at Chelsea, who didn’t seem to realize she’d said anything insulting. Or maybe she did.

  “You staying with Tori? Cool,” Chelsea said. “Well, look, I have to get back, and I don’t even have the coffee yet! But call me.” She pulled a business card out of her purse. “The gang’s mostly still around—it’ll be just like old times.”

  She hurried off. Raine stirred her coffee and nodded at Chelsea as she left the cafe with her hands full. Did she want to get together with the girls from high school again? Especially those girls?

  Chelsea had been their leader, setting up parties, dictating fashion trends, saying which kids were okay to talk to, and, to be honest, which kids to pick on. And when Chelsea chose someone to target…well, it wasn’t pleasant.

  She’d gladly steer clear of a couple of the gals who were probably still in town. But seeing Amy would be nice. She’d been fun and liked to draw too. Quiet Linda had been the ultimate follower; Raine wondered if she had grown into her own person.

  Raine hadn’t lied to Chelsea, though—she was reevaluating her life. Or rather, she had already evaluated it, found it shallow, and was trying to reinvent herself as an honorable person. So maybe she shouldn’t get back in with Chelsea, who didn’t seem like she’d changed much herself.

  “In real estate,” Chelsea had said. Raine glanced again at Chelsea’s business card and snorted. Administrative Assistant was a long way from being a Realtor.

  Amused, she took a bite of her muffin—absolutely scrumptious—and looked around. A couple of elderly people, a couple of young moms with babies or toddlers. People standing in line, chatting while they waited for a coffee to take to work. Raine wondered where her newfound self would fit in this town.

  She hadn’t brought a book to read and wasn’t in the mood to play games on her phone, so she listened to conversations around her while she enjoyed her melt-in-her-mouth muffin.

  Justin Cooper came in, tool belt hanging from his waist, and said hi to a guy just getting his coffee. A very good-looking guy with shoulders and arms that begged to be stroked. She chuckled. Just because she was taking a sabbatical from men didn’t mean she couldn’t admire them from afar. Of course, Justin was good-looking and muscled too, but he was Robin’s brother, and that added an ick factor.

  Then she looked closer—the guy with the shoulders was the same dirt-covered man from her checkout line, all cleaned up and making her heart pound. He wore a close-fitting T-shirt with his snug jeans, and she had to force her attention back to his face.

  “Did Robin’s advice help?” Justin asked him.

  “Yeah, she was great,” the guy said. “You’ve got one of the best kid sisters around.”

  Dang, Raine thought. He was probably Robin’s boyfriend.

  She pulled her attention away and tuned into a couple of women talking.

  “I don’t know how the mansion is going to make it as a Bed and Breakfast without more people coming to town,” one said. “It’d go under quickly if it didn’t have all Mitchell Blake’s money behind it.”

  “Have you been for one of their weekend dinners?”

  “Hmph. I’d love to, but my shop isn’t doing well enough for me to afford a dinner like that. I’ll stick with Nora’s Place.”

  Raine was pretty sure that was Susie with the dress shop. The 3Rs had gone there when they had some money to splurge, but that hadn’t been often while she was growing up. And it sounded like nothing much had changed in town.

  There was that new bike shop—she wondered how it was doing and who started it. Somebody she knew? Or someone dumb enough to move here and try to sell expensive stuff?

  Old Mac from
the hardware store came in, bushy eyebrows and all. He’d probably just set the store sign to “back in ten minutes” and come for a donut. The three of them used to hang out there when they were younger, exploring all his gadgets, but all Chelsea’s group had done was make fun of him.

  Raine heard snippets of conversation about fall break for the kids, and someone talked about a Halloween festival over in Frederick.

  She wondered why McCormick’s Creek didn’t have any festivals. There was the Founder’s Day Parade, of course, and the Spring Fling carnival at the high school, but those were all she could think of. Nothing for fall, nothing for Thanksgiving, and only Santa at the community center for Christmas.

  It was a cute town, even if it was off the beaten path a bit, and it deserved to have a little more excitement. Her mind started running with possibilities—scarecrow decorating for Halloween, a festival of lights for Christmas, maybe even an antique show. Mrs. Mahoney and her little antique shop could be the anchor, and they could probably get someone to do an Antiques Roadshow type evaluation.

  Or why not a full-fledged gala? Not a fancy ball, not for this town, but something with a theme and a couple of big draws to pull out-of-towners in. Something they could become known for.

  A nearby baby chortled at Raine, and she broke out of her thoughts to make faces back at him. The moms were talking about Justin’s fiancé, Cat, and the house they were finishing just out of town. “I wonder when they’ll set a wedding date,” one said.

  “Don’t rush it—they’ve only been engaged a few months.”

  “Yeah, but I wouldn’t let it drag on, not with Justin Cooper as the prize.”

  They giggled, and Raine felt something deflate within her. It seemed like everyone in town was attached to someone. Ree had Mitchell Blake, Robin had a guy named Cliff. Justin and this Cat person. Even Chelsea was married—her name had been different on her business card.

  Raine thought about the guy Justin had been talking to and wondered if he really was Robin’s boyfriend. Raine wondered how long it would take to get her act together to the point she felt comfortable starting a relationship again. How long before she could trust herself to not jump headlong into something without thinking about the consequences.