Chapter 6

 

Carley hummed along with the radio as she drove into town that Monday morning. She’d been busy the day before, unpacking and organizing and settling into her new place. She’d made time to take a walk at dusk, her favorite time of day, and had enjoyed the company of Tiny and Shamus who strolled along the pasture path with her. Otis had started to come with them but must have turned back once he realized there was no food involved.

She’d been pleasantly surprised to find how much she enjoyed the company of the mini-horse and the pig—both were good listeners, and she swore Tiny smiled at her a couple of times when she was telling them her thoughts about what was going on with Knox. And even though she’d told him she wouldn’t, she couldn’t help setting out a few scraps and some water for the yellow-and-white cat who’d claimed residence in Carley’s lap as she’d sipped a glass of wine on the porch after her walk.

Jillian had called, and they’d had a few minutes to catch up, her sister sharing all the drama and excitement of spending her honeymoon with her son, a mini-horse, two dogs, and an occasionally grumpy old man. But she’d hung on every word when Carley had told her about Knox helping her move in and their excitement in the laundry room.

“Wait,” her sister had said. “Back up. You’re telling me Knox took you to O-town on the dryer?”

“Oh yeah. And it was quite a trip.”

“But that’s crazy. You never get naked on a first date. And you haven’t done the deed in forever. This guy must be something special.”

“I still haven’t done the deed. And I wasn’t naked. That’s the crazy part of the story. We both had our clothes on. Well, Knox was missing his shirt, but I was fully dressed. I’m still not exactly sure how it happened. It had to have been the dryer.”

“Wow. Good to know. And just so we’re clear, once we get home, Ethan and I will be stopping by the bunkhouse while you’re out to ‘do some laundry.’”

They’d giggled and cracked a few more dirty puns before hanging up. Talking and laughing with her sister had been just the thing Carley had needed.

But Jillian was right about one thing. Knox did seem to be something special.

As her car rumbled over the original brick-paved main street of Creedence, she tried to take her mind off the handsome deputy by admiring the quaintness of the town. The small mountain town had a population of less than fifteen hundred, but the residents took pride in their city and the downtown area was adorned with mock gas lamps, lots of planters overflowing with colorful flowers, and green awnings that complemented the massive range of mountains the town was nestled against.

A grand stone courthouse occupied the town square with cute shops and businesses surrounding it, then filling several blocks of Main Street. It was the perfect walking town with boutiques and gift shops mixed in with a grocery store, the bank, the drugstore, and a couple of quaint coffee shops within a few blocks of each other. At the far end of town sat the Creedence Country Cafe where Bryn worked, the feed store, and the Mercantile, where you could buy anything from stamps to socks to fishing waders.

It was the perfect town, and Carley did love Creedence. If there ever was a place she could call home, it came the closest. There was something about the mountains—not just their beauty and mystery, but the way it seemed as if the majestic peaks were watching over them, keeping her residents tucked in safe and guarding them from the outside world.

Her building sat between a bookstore and the Ladybug Dress Shoppe. Its redbrick facade had flowerboxes filled with pansies in front of each window and one long green awning spanning over both the entrance to her shop and the yoga studio next door. Autumn Green and her studio had pretty much come with the building. And even though she and Autumn had their occasional differences, the yoga instructor paid her rent on time, kept the property neat, and with her bustling crowd of health enthusiasts, also kept business in the downtown area. After her classes let out, her patrons often grabbed coffees or lunch or just ran errands downtown and they had plenty of crossover customers who partook of Autumn’s classes and Carley’s hair-care services.

As she pulled into her normal parking space to the right of her building, Carley was surprised to see Knox standing in front of the shop holding two teal takeout cups, the signature color of Perk Up, her favorite coffee shop located a few doors down from the salon. So much for getting her mind off him. “Hey, there,” she called, climbing out of her car.

“Good morning, beautiful.”

Her cheeks warmed at the compliment. She hadn’t been called “beautiful” in a long time, at least not by a handsome cowboy. “What are you doing here?”

“I accidentally ordered an extra vanilla latte, then I remembered you telling me this weekend that kind was your favorite, so thought I’d see if you could use a little extra caffeine this morning.”

“Accidentally ordered an extra of my exact favorite kind of coffee? Well, isn’t that a coincidence?”

“And a heckuva one at that,” he said with an innocent grin. “And the darndest thing is that it’s even iced, just the way you said you liked it. Would you believe it?”

“No. Not really,” she said, but she couldn’t help smiling back at him as she reached for the cup. “But I’ll take the coffee anyway.”

“Looks like someone left you a note,” he said, gesturing to the sheet of paper taped to her front door.

“It’s from my neighbor,” Carley said, already recognizing the pink page with the yoga studio letterhead and Autumn’s familiar loopy handwriting, as she unlocked the front door. She pulled it from the glass as she walked in, reading the note aloud, “‘Dear Carley, This is Autumn, from next door’…she always introduces herself in her notes. Even though they’re on letterhead, and I’ve been her landlord for almost five years now. Well, technically you could say Evelyn is still her landlord. She and I share ownership of the building, but I mostly take care of it. She used to own it with Paul, but he signed his half over to me in the divorce settlement. It was the best thing I got out of our marriage. That and my relationship with Evelyn. She’s like a grandmother to me. And I’ve always treated her better than Paul ever did.”

“How could anyone not treat Miss Evelyn well?” Knox asked. “She’s the sweetest.”

“I know, right?” She turned back to the note and kept reading. “‘I heard you had a confrontation in the salon the other day and wanted to mention that I do offer a Conflict Contemplation Class for folks who have disputes or disagreements. I’d be willing to offer your customers 15% off the class, since we’re neighbors and all. If they’re not interested in a class, I could always whip them up a half-price batch of my “special-secret-ingredient” Rocky Mountain High Brownies—they’re great for “mellowing” out arguments. Let me know. Have a good day. Namaste.’”

“Wow,” Knox said. “That’s quite an offer. Have you tried her special-secret-ingredient brownies?”

Carley chuckled as she tossed the note on the counter. “No. Not my thing. Although she did offer them to me a few months ago, along with her Conflict Contemplation Class, when she and I were arguing over if we should spend an extra hundred dollars apiece to get eco-friendly coconut husk welcome mats for our shops when ours wore out.”

“A hundred extra dollars for a welcome mat? The place you wipe the dirt off your feet?”

“I know.”

“I probably would have sided with you on that one,” he said. “Do you all argue a lot?”

She shook her head. “No. We usually get along fine. She’s sweet, and her heart’s in the right place, but we share the building, and she rented from Evelyn before I took over, so we still have our occasional skirmishes.”

“Like the kind I broke up the other day with the scissors and that curling iron thing?”

“That was a flat iron, there’s a difference,” she corrected. “And no. We haven’t resorted to using weapons, hair care or otherwise. At least not yet.”

“Good. Let’s keep it that way. I don’t want our first date to be postponed because you’re behind bars for assaulting your neighbor with a hair styling doohickey.”

She took a sip of coffee, then offered him a coy smile over the top of her cup. “Who said anything about a first date? Have I agreed to a date yet?”

“Not yet. But I feel like I might be wearing you down.” He flashed her one of his roguish grins. “Speaking of wearing, I left a few shirts in the washer this morning and wondered if I could bring them over later to throw in your dryer?”

She laughed but was saved from having to come up with a clever answer by the bell above the door as Erica wheeled in a stroller. “Hey, there. Anyone up for a new baby visit?”

“Oh my gosh, yes,” Carley squealed as she hurried toward her stylist, giving her a gentle hug before peering into the stroller. “Oh honey, she’s just precious.”

“Isn’t she though?” She lifted the tiny bundle from the stroller and passed her to Carley’s waiting arms. “This is Lily. We named her after my grandmother.”

“She is sooo sweet,” Carley said, her chest tightening as the baby wrapped her fingers around her pinkie. She’d wanted kids right away when she and Paul had first gotten married, but he’d always had a reason to put it off—not enough money saved, not enough room in their apartment, too much time spent on the road chasing another rodeo. She was glad now that they hadn’t had kids and didn’t have to drag them through their ugly divorce, but her heart still hurt at the years wasted that she’d thought would have been spent as a mom. She hugged the precious bundle closer to her chest as she turned back to Erica. “You look amazing. And I can’t believe you’re out and about already.”

Erica shrugged. “Oh, shoot yes. She’s an easy baby, and she’s my third, so no rest for the wicked or new moms. She gets me up early, so this morning I’ve already put supper in the Crock-Pot, dropped my oldest off at soccer practice, my middle at piano lessons, and mopped the kitchen floor. I was just taking a break to grab a latte at the coffee shop and to come show off my new girl.”

“After a morning like that, your coffee’s on me,” Knox said, pulling out his phone and tapping at the screen. “I’m texting Victoria over at Perk Up right now to tell her to put your coffee and a pastry on my tab.”

Carley was surprised at the tinge of jealousy she felt at Knox having the cute coffee-shop owner’s number in his cell phone. Before she could think too much about it, the bell rang again as two more customers entered the shop and were immediately drawn to the new baby in her arms.

“Ohhhh, isn’t she sweet?” one said as the other held out her arms for her turn to hold her.

Carley passed Lily to her, already missing the sweet bundle. She let out a breath and peered around the shop, searching for something to busy her hands with, and caught Knox looking at her, a soft expression on his face, almost as if he knew holding Erica’s baby made her happy and sad at the same time.

It wasn’t the first time she’d felt like he just got her. It had been so long since she’d felt any kind of connection with a man that it kept tripping her up how many moments like this they’d had. She wasn’t used to sharing secret smiles and having that feeling that one of them just knew what the other was thinking. But she had that feeling with Knox, and as much as her heart seemed to be getting all giddy every time it happened, she wasn’t sure if the rational part of her was as happy about it.

Another customer stopped in to buy some conditioner and took her turn holding Lily. “She’s just the cutest,” she said passing the baby back to her mother.

“I should probably get going,” Erica said, as she took her daughter. She turned to Knox. “You want to hold her before I go, Deputy?”

“You bet. I love babies,” Knox said, taking Lily and cuddling the baby close to his chest. He gently bounced her and murmured sweet nothings as she stared up at him, her tiny lips pursed in a perfect pink bow.

The other women in the beauty shop stared at them, seemingly transfixed by either the sweet infant or the hunky cowboy who’d so deftly swept her into his arms. Was there anything quite as aww-inducing as a tough guy cuddling a newborn?

“Wow, I’m impressed,” Erica said. “Most men are scared of babies.”

He flashed a sidelong glance at Carley. “I am not most men. And it takes a whole lot more than this adorable bundle to scare me.”

Lily must have taken his declaration as a challenge, because she took that moment to projectile vomit a spray of milky white liquid onto the front of his shirt.

“Oh, no,” Erica said, passing Knox a burp rag as she took back the baby. “Sorry about that. I fed her before we came in, and she does that sometimes after she eats. I can pay to have your shirt cleaned.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Knox told her as he wiped the spit-up from his shirt. “The department has a service, and I can assure you this is not the worst thing this shirt has ever seen.” He looked at Carley, his grin conveying another one of those secret messages. “Looks like I’ve got something on my shirt. You got a place where I can clean this up?”

“Come on,” she said, leading him toward the back of the shop and ignoring the swirl of butterflies in her stomach at the memory of the last time he had something on his shirt. “I’ll check in with you later. Thanks for bringing Lily in,” she called to Erica. “She’s adorable.”

“And don’t forget your coffee and a pastry are on me,” Knox said. “Maybe get two. You need to keep your strength up with that cutie.” He waved before ducking behind the curtain with Carley.

She wet a hand towel at the sink and dabbed at the spot on his shirt.

“I swear every time I’m around you, something is getting spilled on me,” Knox told her. “It’s like the universe is conspiring to get us naked together.”

She tried to laugh off his joke and pretend that her body hadn’t just responded to him saying the words “naked together” as she pressed the dry side of the towel against the wet area on his magnificently muscled chest. “Or maybe you just happen to get stuff spilled on you a lot.”

“I’m not sure you really got the spot well enough. I’d be happy to take my shirt off,” Knox said, glancing around the back room. “There’s gotta be a dryer around here somewhere. Please let there be a dryer here.”

“Stop it,” she said, playfully nudging his arm. “I do have a dryer, but I’ve also got a shop full of customers. Who are all probably wildly speculating about what we’re doing back here, so we should get back out there.”

“We could always give them something to talk about.” He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. Leaning in, he nuzzled her neck, his voice low as he said, “Give me four minutes, and I bet I could find a way to get your cheeks flushed and your hair mussed.”

She fought the thrill of heat that ran down her spine and that small voice that was begging her to give him the time. Instead, and with massive amounts of willpower, she pulled away. “Only four minutes, huh?”

He grinned down at her. “Yeah. But just imagine what I could do if you gave me an hour.”

She barked out a bawdy laugh. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she said as she playfully pushed him out of the back room. Her hand was still on his forearm—how did she keep finding ways to touch him—as they emerged from behind the pink curtain.

The laughter died on her lips as she spotted the brown-haired man standing in the middle of the shop.

She hadn’t seen him in almost five years. Not since they’d signed the divorce papers.

Anger, resentment, shock, and that sneaky bastard of an emotion—abandonment—all flooded through her as she opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again when no words came out. After what seemed like hours, she finally managed to sputter his name. “P-paul? What the hell are you doing here?”