The sun was starting its decline, heading toward the peaks of the nearby San Juan Mountains, when Lyle packed his belongings into the toolbox in the back of his SUV. The house across the river had quieted down. He’d witnessed truck after truck from the area’s two furniture stores and a small moving van amble down the lane. Whoever had moved in had an awful lot of work ahead.
He looked at his attire. His brown T-shirt was smeared with plaster, his boots’ tread carried a mixture of mud and wood dust, and his jeans wore the marks of a hard day’s labor. Considering that was how he looked at the end of most of his days at the cabin, he figured he might as well meet his neighbor as himself.
He strode down the bank away from the cabin to where the river ran only inches deep over a wide stretch of potato rock. He carefully plodded across the swift moving water and emerged on the other side no worse for wear.
As he made his way along the narrow path that led to the house, he admired the Cuthbert property. It had once been a jewel in the valley with its lush pastures and renowned horse stock. Dodge had bought him and Kevin a mare from the Cuthberts that still grazed in the pasture near his mom’s garden. He wondered if the new owners planned to raise horses or livestock or grain. With two hundred acres and plenty of water, their options were limitless.
He pounded his boots on the small paved drive leading to the garage before making his way to the screen door where empty boxes had been disassembled and stacked for removal. Through the door, he heard music, something slow and soulful, coming from one of the back rooms. With it came the unmistakable sound of live female accompaniment.
He knocked with a decided clutch in his belly; her voice alone drew him like a moth to a flame. When the same dark-haired beauty emerged cautiously, his stomach clutched for a whole different reason. From a distance, she’d been like a vision; up close, her ivory skin and dark eyes made him want to beg at her feet.
“Can I help you?” she asked, clearly impervious to his most engaging smile.
“I’m your neighbor,” he said and wished like the devil she’d open the screen and let him get an even closer look. “From across the river. I wanted to welcome you to the area.”
Her hands clutched the opening of her simple button-down shirt. “How do you know I’m not from the area?”
“There’s no way I would have missed seeing you around town.”
The easy charm he used to win over most folks died a sudden and painful death at her feet. A disapproving line formed between her brows, and instead of walking closer to the screen and asking him in, she stepped back. “I own a gun and I know how to use it.”
Lyle lifted his hands in surrender. “I’m glad to hear that,” he joked. Somewhere, somehow, the conversation had taken a turn onto a street he’d never traveled. “But I’m not going to hurt you. I just wanted to say hello.”
“Hello.” She shortened the distance between them with two quick steps and gripped the door in a white-knuckle grasp. “I have a lot of work to do, so if you’ll excuse me…”
Before he could utter a response, she slammed the door in his face and bolted the lock. Lyle swayed backward and stood with his mouth open, staring at the door. What in the hell had just happened and how had he managed to alienate the only woman in a fifty-mile radius he wanted to get to know?
***
Erica leaned heavily against the door and held her breath, waiting to hear the stranger’s footsteps recede along the porch. When she finally heard him walk around the side of the house, she moved to the window and watched him walk slowly toward the river. Before disappearing into the trees surrounding the path, he turned around and glanced at the house with his head cocked as if he couldn’t quite figure out what had just happened.
He wasn’t the only one confused. Where had he come from and how in the world had she not heard him approach? She rushed back to the bedroom where she’d been unpacking her things and jabbed her finger on the stop button to silence the music. She should have known better than to try to relax in the new space by playing some of her favorite songs.
She knew moving out to a farm in the middle of nowhere was a bad idea. She’d lied when she said she knew how to shoot. She’d never even held a gun, but it seemed like the smart thing to say when confronted by a stranger. Even though the stranger had made her heart pound for more reasons than just the shock of hearing a knock on her door.
He seemed smaller in person, almost skinny. But the way his shirt stretched across his defined chest more than made up for his lankiness. Erica shook her head. Who cared how the man looked? He was a stranger and a damn forward one at that. How dare he show up at dusk and scare the wits out of her! Before she heard his knock, she’d just started to relax and enjoy the way the sun inched lower in the sky, casting the river in shadows, and the occasional shafts of brilliant light that shone through the clouds.
He’d gone and ruined her mood and derailed her efforts to have everything set up before she retrieved Jack. Jack was insistent about spending the night in the new house even though all she wanted was to take a long, hot shower at the hotel and slip under the covers of a bed that already had sheets.
Erica knew she wouldn’t be able to relax in the house alone since her sexy neighbor had scared the life out of her. She may as well go get Jack and let him start acquainting himself with the new house before she made any more progress. At least with Jack fumbling around, she wouldn’t be alone. She double checked the lock on the back door before she exited the front and started her car. She pulled away from the house while staring across the river in her rear view mirror. That man, whoever he was, spelled trouble. Erica felt it in her bones.
Chapter 12
Olivia couldn’t believe after working as a teacher—leaving the house at six a.m. and not getting home until ten hours later—her brother still expected her to help out and wait tables at the Tap on the weekends. The man was a slave driver and a total cheapskate. The last thing she wanted to do was spend another day on her feet.
She’d taken to teaching like a newborn takes to her mother’s milk. She loved being in the classroom and interacting with kids. Surprisingly, she’d been given a seventh grade history class to teach on her own. The challenge of following the curriculum, keeping the kids’ attention, and acclimating to the new routine had left her both exhilarated and exhausted. She desperately wanted a day to sleep in and veg out—a foreign concept to her workaholic brother.
The restaurant was crowded for a Saturday. With the opening of bow season for big game and some bird hunting underway, huntsmen were as plentiful and hungry as the area’s mainstay of fisherman. A dizzying array of camouflage littered the restaurant.
When Olivia saw Lyle walk in and search the room for a table, she made a beeline to where he stood by the sign that read, “Seat yourself.”
“You’re really crowded today,” he said.
“You may as well have a seat at the bar.” Olivia nodded toward the long wooden bar with a few empty seats. “A table’s going to take about ten minutes.”
“I’ll wait.” He scanned the crowd. “I’m early anyway.”
Olivia glanced at his khaki pants and button-down shirt. “Why are you so dressed up? Are you meeting someone?”
Lyle’s smile bloomed. “My subject, Jack Forrester.”
“The bajillionaire’s coming here?”
Lyle grabbed Olivia’s arm and walked her toward the kitchen door. “Can you keep your voice down, please? I’m pretty sure Forrester doesn’t want everyone knowing the size of his bank account.”
“Why would you bring him here?” She glanced around the restaurant, trying to see it the same way as someone used to dining in the finest establishments in the country. The Tap looked best at night when the lights were dim and the music live and loud. In the daylight, every scar on the mahogany bar stood out, the faded red vinyl seats seemed more dingy than vintage, and the neon lights against the brick wall seemed garish. “What in the world were you thinking?”
“He wanted to meet somewhere in Lower Fork. This is the best place in town. What else would I have suggested? Grab a hot dog at the convenience store?”
“It’s your funeral.”
Lyle nodded. “There’s a four top that just got up. Can you bus that table and seat us there?”
“Sure thing, but I’m warning you now, that’s my table. I’m going to expect a big tip.”
He patted her cheek. “All you have to do is earn it.”
Lyle wandered to the bar and started chatting with a customer while Olivia went back to work refilling drinks, delivering food, and searching the kitchen for the bus boy to get busy clearing tables. When she saw her brother enter the restaurant and try to sail through to the kitchen, she cut him off behind the bar. “Where have you been?” she demanded.
“I had a meeting.” When he tried to step around her and she blocked his path again, his brows shot up to his dark brown hair.
“When you asked me to work today, I assumed you’d be here, too. I have a job, you know. A real job. I don’t appreciate being summoned to work when you’re not pulling your weight.”
“Look, I’ve got so much on my plate right now, I can barely remember if I’m coming or going. When Jill left, you said you’d fill in so I didn’t have to hire someone full time.”
Guilt would get him a long way down her road but not all the way. “I didn’t mean I’d continue after September,” she pouted. “Seriously, Tommy, I need a break.”
“You’re not on tomorrow.”
“And that’s the only reason I showed up today.”
“I’m about to close the raft shop in a couple of weeks. Just a few more Saturdays and you’re off the hook.”
Olivia huffed and threw her hands on her hips. “Fine, but the minute—” Every thought left her head when the door to the restaurant opened and he walked in. Every. Single. Thought. It was as if some behind-the-scenes director had cued tall, dark, and handsome to enter stage right. Of course, he was on the arm of tall, dark, and beautiful, but that didn’t stop Olivia’s heart from galloping like a wild mustang. His simple blue shirt accentuated every ripple of his chest, every hill and valley of his arms. The sharp angles of his face, his deep, dark, fathomless eyes, and the wind-mussed perfection of his nearly black hair left Olivia thunderstruck. She half expected to see shards of marble at his feet from where a Renaissance sculptor had completed his work.
Tommy snapped his fingers in front of her face, jarring her from the moment, but not entirely breaking the spell. “Hello? Earth to Olivia?”
She ignored him and leaned over the bar, happy she’d worn the one shirt from the Tap that dipped low enough to showcase her chest as she placed her elbows on the surface and tossed her hair from her face. The Greek God didn’t notice, but his companion sure did, narrowing her eyes at Olivia before she skimmed the restaurant and whispered in her boyfriend’s ear. He shrugged, said something so low Olivia couldn’t hear, and stared straight ahead while the woman glanced around.
Lyle appeared from the back of the restaurant. “Jack Forrester?” he asked, but he wasn’t looking at the male model. His eyes were glued to Jack’s dark-haired escort.
“You’re Lyle Woodward?” the woman said as her already pale face drained of color.
Lyle shook Jack’s outstretched hand. Olivia couldn’t be certain, but something wasn’t right about Jack Forrester. For such a gorgeous man, his movements were jerky, almost hesitant, and not once did he try to disengage from the woman at his side.
Olivia bit her lip when the guy at table three waved her over, shaking his empty glass to let her know he needed a refill. She grabbed the pitcher and moved away, hoping to catch Jack Forrester’s eye. Unfortunately, he seemed too involved with Lyle to notice the sexy sway of her hips. Damn. Maybe she was losing her touch.
***
Lyle couldn’t believe his luck, or his misfortune, at having Jack Forrester’s sister scowl at him from across the table. What were the odds, Lyle wondered, of accosting the sister of his subject? He hadn’t accosted Erica Forrester, but she’d sure made him feel as if he had. Lyle doubted she’d told Jack about her nosy neighbor who’d scared her half to death.
“I wasn’t expecting a third,” Lyle said in reference to the two place settings at the table he’d requested. “I’ll get some more silverware when the waitress arrives.”
“Erica accompanies me on most of my out of the office meetings. She won’t always be present, but since we’ll be working so closely together over the next few months, I thought it wise for you to meet.”
Lyle stared at Erica, trying unsuccessfully to catch her eye. “I’m not sure if Erica mentioned it, but we sort of met a few days ago.”
“Really?” Jack tilted his head in Erica’s direction. “No, she didn’t mention it.”
“I didn’t know it was him,” Erica said. “He knocked on the door when I was alone at the house. I was rude, but he scared me. I didn’t hear a car pull up.”
“We’re neighbors,” Lyle explained. “I crossed the river after I saw the furniture delivery trucks and the moving van.” He rubbed at the back of his neck when her irritated stare had his hair standing on end. “I just wanted to say hello.”
Jack laughed. “Let me guess. Did she slam the door in your face?”
Lyle felt himself relax just a fraction. “Sort of. After she told me she knew how to use a gun.”