Getting Lucky

Getting Lucky

Sapphire Falls book five

Erin Nicholas

TJ Bennett knows one thing for certain—being in love isn’t for him. Been there, done that, has the scars to prove it.

But that’s before he meets colorful, sweet, slightly kooky Hope Daniels.

Hope is only in town temporarily. She simply wants to have a cup of coffee with the father she’s never known. That’s it. She doesn’t need to buy any Father’s Day cards or have a date for any Father-Daughter dances. She just wants to have a conversation with the man who stole her mother’s heart twenty-six summers ago in Sapphire Falls.

But when her directions lead her to TJ’s house instead, everything becomes a lot more complicated…and a lot more interesting.

Because there’s nothing like a big gruff introvert to push this extrovert’s let-me-make-it-all-better buttons.

All of TJ’s plans to stay uninvolved and out of her way evaporate quickly and before he knows it, Hope’s got him thinking differently about everything—family, home, heartbreak and maybe, just maybe, the fact that he’s never actually been in love…before now.

Dedication

First, always, to my family—my husband and kids who put up with so much and yet really get it. Wow, did I get lucky with you guys. I couldn’t do it without you on my side.

And to my mom and dad who have always just wanted us to be happy—even if that means spending an inordinate amount of time with people who exist only in my head. Thank you for being the first phone call I make with good news.

And to my sister and her family who make remind me that what I do is “so cool”.

And to all of my friends who think this is all “really crazy but really awesome”.

Thank you for loving me and being proud of me.

On second thought—it’s not luck at all… I am truly
blessed
.

Chapter One

Her bare feet had bright-pink nails and multiple toe rings. Her long, tanned legs stretched out beneath the flowing multicolored skirt that had been hiked to mid-thigh to expose the smooth skin to the sun, and various bracelets circled her ankles. Her midriff was bare below a white blousy top that was filled with a pair of luscious, firm breasts. Her silky blond hair was so light it was almost white—which made the vivid pink tips all the more noticeable—and curled tantalizingly against the one shoulder left bare by the top. A variety of bracelets wrapped around delicate wrists, multiple rings adorned slender fingers and a line of six earrings sparkled from the sexy curve of her ear.

Sexy curve of her
ear
?

What the hell was
that
?

She looked like a damn hippie.

TJ completed the inventory of the woman who was reclining on the hood of a little yellow car attached to the tiniest camper he had ever seen. Her eyes were hidden behind a humongous pair of sunglasses, the frames also bright pink—to match her toenails and hair, evidently. Her lips were parted slightly and he thought she was maybe dozing.

Dozing on the hood of the yellow car that was parked in the half-circle drive in front of his house, under his favorite tree.

He’d been distracted by the legs and breasts and, apparently, her ear, but now TJ felt his frown forming. Who the hell was this and why was she parked under his tree?

There was a lot of…color here. He preferred brown. Maybe green. Like dirt and grass. Women with pink streaks in their hair, who wore multicolored skirts and drove yellow cars, were not his type.

He liked farm girls. Girls who wore boots and blue jeans and knew that all those bracelets and rings could be downright dangerous on a farm. There were too many things for them to get caught on, and serious injuries could occur.

So he was
not
going to be attracted to this woman. Whoever she was. Period.

“Can I help you?” He knew it sounded less like a question and more like a demand.

The woman rolled her head to look at him, a smile in place. Then the smile died, and she slowly pushed her sunglasses to the top of her head as she came up to a sitting position.

She looked stunned. Or something. “Holy crap.” She said it softly, almost to herself.

“Are you okay?” He put his good hand on his hip, annoyed by the arm sling yet again. He wasn’t exactly concerned about her mental health. He was concerned about getting her and her car and her camper off his property before that mental health, or possible lack thereof, became his problem.

She turned to face him and tucked her legs under her like kids did. The move made her plethora of jewelry tinkle like little bells. It also shifted the skirt over most of her legs, and TJ worked on not being disappointed about that.

Then she smiled at him. And he promptly forgot even the color of the car she’d parked under his favorite tree.

“I’m looking for Thomas John Bennett.”

“What for?” He didn’t have to be polite. She was on his property uninvited. And when she’d moved, the skirt had pulled down and her top had pulled up, and he’d noticed there was a tattoo running along the side of her torso. If his neurons weren’t firing perfectly, surely he could be forgiven?

The tattoo was a swirling pattern that, from where he stood, could be a design of some kind but could also be words in a script font. He wanted to find out which it was. Personally, up close, with his own two eyes.

Fuck.

He didn’t have time for this.

“It’s personal, actually,” she answered.

His gaze snapped back to her face. Which was just as distracting, frankly. She had a cute nose that went with the cute ear he’d already noticed, and she had the biggest, roundest eyes he’d ever seen. He wasn’t close enough to see the color. But he really wanted to be.

She looked like a pixie. And if that was the damnedest thing he’d ever thought, he didn’t know what was.

He wasn’t a romantic, whimsical kind of guy. Which was exactly why her jingling bracelets and flimsy skirt and pink toes and hair did
not
do it for him.

Not at all.

But she was looking for him for a personal reason? That was interesting.

And interesting was the last thing TJ wanted this woman—or any woman—to be.

His grumpy bachelorhood was firmly in place. He didn’t do
personal
anymore. Impersonal one-night stands, sure. Personal? No way.

“I can assure you he’s not buying or hiring,” he said. He needed to get rid of her. He had work to do. And his shoulder was killing him.

He’d let his mother and Delaney, his brother’s fiancée, talk him into undergoing the scope to clean up the bone spur and arthritis in his shoulder. Now he was stiff and sore and stuck in a sling and unable to take the pain medications because they made him groggy.

So he’d settled on being pissy instead.

It wasn’t that different from how he usually was, in all honesty. He liked to keep to himself most of the time anyway. Being an asshole to everyone who cared about him over the past week had ensured a lot of alone time.

Only his mother and Delaney were tough enough to put up with his crabby ass. He hadn’t even seen his brothers in days.

And now this.

A distracting woman who had clearly never set foot on a farm had her car and camper parked on his land and was looking for him for
personal
reasons.

He
really
didn’t have the time, or temper, for this.

“So you do know him?” she asked.

He nodded without thinking.

“So you can tell me where to find him.”

“Why would I do that?” he asked. “You’re a total stranger, and I don’t know why you need to find him.”

She chewed on the inside of her cheek for a moment, watching him. Actually, she was checking him out, if he wasn’t mistaken. Her gaze roamed from his ball cap to the tips of his boots. Slowly.

“Why don’t you tell me who
you
are,” she finally said.

He almost laughed at that. “No. For the same reasons.”

“I’m not here selling anything.”

“Okay.”

She sighed. “I know an old friend of his. She just passed away and I thought he would maybe like to know.”

TJ frowned. “Who?” He couldn’t imagine who this girl might know. Most of his friends—old and new—lived right here in Sapphire Falls. But he did have some buddies who he’d met during his stint in the Army National Guard. He’d lost touch with a couple of them.

The girl swallowed. And she really was a girl. She couldn’t have been more than twenty-five, if that. If she was a wife or girlfriend of one of his Guard buddies, the guy had gone about seven years younger.

“Melody Daniels.”

Didn’t sound familiar at all. “Sorry, I don’t know her.”

The pixie frowned at him. “I don’t care if
you
know her. I’m here to talk to Thomas Bennett.”

“You’re talkin’ to him.”

Okay, so there
was
another Thomas John Bennett in town. And TJ had a bad feeling in his gut suddenly. Who was this girl? And who was Melody Daniels? She wasn’t from here. TJ knew everyone in Sapphire Falls. There were no Daniels here at all and hadn’t been in his lifetime.

Of course, there was another Thomas’s lifetime that might be important here.

The girl was giving him an irritated look now. “You can’t be Thomas Bennett.”

He shrugged. “I am. I promise you.”

“Thomas John Bennett,” she clarified.

“I go by TJ. But, yes.”

She shook her head. “But…you can’t be.” She reached behind her for a cloth bag. She lifted it into her lap and started digging through it. “Here.” She pulled something from the depths and tossed the bag back onto the hood. She slid to the ground, her bracelets all jingling like she was covered in sleigh bells.

The skirt swung down, covering her legs to her ankles, but it hung low enough from her slim hips to widen the strip of bare stomach and show more of that damn tattoo. Any hope he’d had that the top would also shift and cover more of her was dashed. Seemed the white blouse thingy was intentionally short. It fell just below her breasts and still hung off one shoulder.

TJ’s mind started to wander. How far did the tattoo extend up and down? Did she have others? Where were those and what were they of?

“This says Thomas John Bennett on the back.” She held up an old photograph.

His attention was right back on their conversation with that.

He held out a hand and she came forward on bare feet, ignoring the pair of flip-flops—pink, of course—lying next to the wheel of her car.

Green. Her eyes were green. And she had a light sprinkling of freckles on her nose.

He kept his eyes off of the tattoo. Somehow.

He took the photo from her, dreading it for some reason. Looking down, he saw a younger version of his dad and his dad’s best friend, Dan. Between them was a beautiful girl who TJ had never seen. A girl who looked a lot like the one in front of him.

The dread in his gut increased.

“Where did you get this?” he asked.

“From Melody.” She leaned in to point at the woman in the photo.

She smelled like flowers. Wild flowers. And fresh air.

TJ cleared his throat. Jesus.

“And who is Melody, exactly?” he asked.

The girl looked up at him. She crossed her arms. “You know, you’re a total stranger to me too.”

“You know my name is TJ Bennett and where I live. I’d say you’re a little ahead here.”

She sighed and took the photo back from him. “Okay, fine. Melody was my mom. I’m here to find Thomas because she…” She stopped and cleared her throat, staring down at the photo instead of looking at TJ. “She passed away recently. She used to talk about Sapphire Falls all the time. Always very fondly. And then I found this photo in her stuff. There were lots of photos, but this was the only one with a name on it. So I wanted to come and meet him.” She lifted her eyes to TJ’s. “But you’re obviously not the Thomas John I’m looking for.”

“Obviously.” The Thomas John in the photo was clearly his father. About twenty-five years ago.

Yep, that ball of dread kept getting bigger and bigger.