Buch lesen: «A Buckhorn Summer»

CHAPTER ONE

ONE MONTH AGO TODAY, she’d awakened disoriented in a posh hotel in Chicago. Exhausted. Tired of travel.

Lonely.

For the longest time she’d stared at the ceiling, getting her bearings and knowing she needed a break. Her stomach had burned from too much stress. Her neck hurt from the small, flat pillow.

Lisa Sommerville had known instinctively that she needed a change, so she’d gotten up, dressed, gone down to the bar and...

“Lighten up,” her cousin Shohn said from behind her as he turned the small outboard motor on the fishing boat, steering around a sunken log and aiming toward the marina where they’d gas up and grab bait. “You’ll have fun. Guaranteed.”

On the seat in front of her, the bright morning sunlight making a halo of his fair hair, her brother, Adam, grinned. “No thinking about work, remember? If we catch you drifting off, Dad gave us permission to drop you in the lake.”

Lisa looked over the side of the boat. The water was green and cool and this early in the day, fairly smooth. “I wasn’t.”

“Fibber,” Adam said.

“That’s all you think about,” Shohn agreed. “But not today.”

She didn’t bother to correct them, to explain that her thoughts had been on her very out-of-character behavior from a month ago. On the sizzling night she’d had. On the fantasy that had come to life and still, every other minute, replayed in her mind.

“Lisa,” Adam warned, again mistaking her quiet.

She looked up at the blinding sunrise splashing colors across a cloudless sky. “I’ll probably take a dip on my own later.” She slanted a look at her brother. “On my own, without your help, after I’ve put on my suit.”

“You could swim in that,” Shohn said, indicating her outfit of shorts and a blue T-shirt.

She turned her narrowed gaze on him, prompting him to grin like the sinner she knew him to be. They all three had dark eyes, but the similarities ended there. She was medium height, with medium-length honey-blond hair and a medium figure. Shohn and Adam both topped six feet. Adam’s hair was far fairer than hers, and Shohn’s was inky black.

Both men lived and worked in Buckhorn, Shohn as a park ranger, Adam as a gym teacher.

She loved Buckhorn as well, but until that fateful night in Chicago, she’d also loved traveling the country, working 24-7, earning her barracuda rep in the business world.

Icy water hit her legs, making her gasp.

“Concentrate,” Shohn said, flicking his now wet fingers at her face, “or I’ll grab a bucketful of water instead of just a handful.”

“I was concentrating!” She brushed water droplets off her heated thighs.

“On fun,” Adam stressed. “Not work.”

Because they’d just reached the dock, Lisa didn’t reply. Without waiting for the boat to steady, she stood and leaped out, a rope in hand, and secured the front of the small boat to a cleat.

Shohn did the same to the back. Adam, holding their bait bucket, hauled himself out behind her.

Every woman around stared. Always. Her cousin and brother had that effect wherever they went. Between them, she felt insubstantial, inadequate, even bland.

Which in part explained why she’d glommed onto business. In a family full of prime physical specimens, male and female alike, she was just so-so.

Except for when it came to brains and drive. Then she excelled.

Or used to. Now she considered changing it all. She could join her family in the slower, easier life of Buckhorn County, Kentucky. Doing what, she didn’t yet know.

Fishing today. But tomorrow? She was not an idle person.

“We lost her again.”

Sure, she needed to slow down. Her health and her very recent aberrant behavior proved she needed that change. No one in her family yet knew of her tension, her migraines, her sleepless nights.

Only that one man, a man she’d never see again—

She screeched when Shohn scooped her up and headed to the side of the dock. “Ohmigod, don’t you dare!”

“You need to be dunked.”

Knotting one hand in his dark hair, the other in his worn T-shirt, she growled, “Try it and you’re going in with me. Or at least your hair is.” She gave a tug to prove her point.

Wincing, laughing, Shohn said, “I’ll jump us both in.”

“No!” Okay, sure, her lake clothes, as she called them, wouldn’t be harmed, but she’d braided her hair and didn’t want it soaked. “Seriously,” she said more calmly. “No.”

Standing beside them, Adam crossed his arms over his bare chest. “Then no more brooding over business.”

Lisa blew out a huff of breath. “If you must know, I wasn’t.”

“Bull.”

“I was thinking of...a guy.” There, she thought. Chew on that.

Both men laughed.

Laughed.

Was it so unheard of for her to be socially interested and interesting? Admitting the pathetic truth, she knew that yes, it was. At thirty, she’d never had a single serious romantic relationship.

She’d had some dates. She’d had some sex.

She’d had that one amazing night that would forever leave her warm and wanting...for more, more, more.

But she’d never been involved. And damn it, that hurt.

Mouth tight and brows angled down, Lisa turned her face away.

The laughter died.

Shohn slowly lowered her to her feet, obliging her to release his hair.

Without a word, Adam slung an arm around her shoulders and again got them heading along the dock to the gravel lot alongside the boat launch and then up the worn path to the small renovated structure that sold anything and everything boaters might need.

Hoping to clear the air, Lisa asked, “When did this change?” She remembered the structure being smaller, more weatherworn and utilitarian. Now it looked like a regular two-story house, complete with flowers planted around the exterior.

The double front doors, standing open, and the picnic tables placed all around the area made it clear the store remained, but otherwise it could have been any other home in Buckhorn.

“Rosemary sold the marina some years back to a married couple who did the additions. But they sold it a few weeks ago and retired to Arizona to be nearer to their grandkids. A new guy stepped right in and the place never closed, not even for a day. It was pretty seamless.”

“Huh.” So it had changed hands twice and she’d been unaware. Crazy how detached she’d been from her home. “I like the addition of a second level. Does the owner live here?”

“I dunno,” Shohn said. “I’ve only met him a few times. He’s friendly, but not real talkative, which I guess makes sense given he’s a retired cop.”

“You’ll probably like him,” Adam teased. “All the single ladies seem to.”

Sure enough, as they stepped into the building, Lisa saw a trio of bikini-clad women huddled around the front counter and register, giggling in amped-up flirt mode.

She snorted. It was barely eight a.m., but the ladies were already on the prowl. The new guy must be interesting. Then again, Buckhorn was such a small, intimate town that anyone new got plenty of attention.

Shohn headed for the live bait selection, Adam went to fill the cooler with drinks and she moseyed down an aisle to pick up sunscreen. As a kid, she’d kept a light tan. As a woman who’d spent most of her time traveling from one business meeting to the next, her skin rarely saw prolonged exposure to the sun.

She remembered fishing trips from her youth and knew the guys would keep her out for hours, maybe right through lunch. She grabbed the sunscreen and a straw hat.

Heading for the snacks, she turned, took two steps—and gasped.

So did the man standing in front of her.

The big, sinfully gorgeous man.

The man with the amazing bod and killer smile and devour-you sex drive.

The man from a month ago.

Her...fantasy.

* * *

GRAY NARROWED HIS EYES, but the vision didn’t change. Big brown eyes locked on his. Those sweet, lush lips parted. Color filled her cheeks.

It was her, but an all-new version of her. A softer, sexier version, though how that was possible, he didn’t know, because every night for a freaking month he’d remembered her as so damned sexy, he felt obsessed.

Neither of them spoke. Hell, he didn’t know what to say.

Let’s go for round two didn’t seem appropriate.

Shohn Hudson and Adam Sommerville, cousins he’d met before, suddenly flanked her.

Cocking a brow, expression cautious, Shohn asked, “Problem?”

Yeah, about a hundred of them. Gray didn’t know her name, didn’t know why she was here, didn’t know if she remembered him or was horrified at seeing him again or if, God willing, she’d like to get reacquainted.

Adam slipped his arm around her and, yeah, that was another problem. Don’t let her be married. Or even involved. In any way.

“You’re new,” Gray finally said, regaining his voice, rough and low as it sounded. His interest must’ve been obvious given how both Adam and Shohn looked at her again, almost as if they’d never seen her before.

She cleared her throat, worked up a very bright, false smile, and stepped away from the two men with her hand extended. “Hello. I’m Lisa Sommerville. Adam’s sister.”

Related? Now that she’d said it, he could see it. She and Adam shared similar dark eyes. And if they were siblings, that’d make Hudson her cousin. Nice. Only related, not involved. He could work with that.

Tucking a small box of candy bars under his left arm, Gray accepted her hand and held on. “Gray Neely.” Her hands were as small and soft as he remembered, her skin just as warm.

Her scent every bit as stirring.

She tugged, and he had no choice but to let her go. “Actually,” she said, now a little breathless, “I’m local. You’re the new one.”

An accusation? “So you live here?” That’d be too much of a coincidence—the first good luck he’d had in a year.

Her chin lifted. “Yes.”

A slow smile growing, Adam looked between them. “Lisa’s a shark, usually away wheeling and dealing with the big dawgs in business.”

“She’s settling back in for a spell, though,” Shohn added.

“Maybe just the summer,” she was quick to say.

Tipping his chin, Shohn asked, “You two know each other?”

Gray waited, and sure enough Lisa—pretty name—said too quickly, her voice a little high, “No.”

Okay, he got that. Their time together wasn’t really the sort you discussed with a brother or cousin.

“Not yet,” Gray corrected, and watched her face go warm. He nodded at the hat she held. “Good idea. Going to be a scorcher today.” And with that he continued on his way, restocking the candy bars on the shelf.

He heard whispering, curiosity from the guys, insistence from Lisa.

Damn, he really liked that name. It suited her.

Nice that he could now add it into the repeat fantasy that played in his head every other minute. That fantasy had been his recent salvation.

He’d met her on a desperate night during a time when nothing made sense and he hadn’t known which way to turn. She’d been fighting her own demons and things had just...happened.

Scorching-hot things that had burned away his indecision and the pain of forced changes. For the remainder of the night they’d stayed tangled in erotic activity. He’d finally passed out, exhausted, sated, his brain blessedly clear of guilt and anger, her slim body held in his arms.

When he woke in the morning, she was gone.

But he’d tackled the day with a new outlook on life, and ended up in Buckhorn.

Now she was here, in the flesh, close at hand.

Glancing up, he saw the guys were teasing her and felt safe approaching again. “So how many of you are there in the area? Your family is large, right?”

Lisa moved on, pretending to consider the healthy snacks, but Adam and Shohn remained. “There’s a bunch of us,” Adam said, launching into a recitation of the many relatives, some of whom Gray had met, some he hadn’t.

They were an impressive lot, and from what he could tell, they influenced a lot of the town. “I need to take notes to keep you all straight.”

“Amber could help you with that. She’s Garrett’s sister.”

“Met her,” Gray said. Amber Hudson was beautiful, with dark hair and bright blue eyes and a smile that’d win over the darkest heart.

She also scared the pants off him. She had a bold manner and a controlling streak that kept him two cautious steps away. Not that two steps had been far enough. Within five minutes of meeting him she’d managed to get more info out of him than the rest of her relatives combined.

When Lisa looked up at him, he felt it. Her brows were slightly pinched, her expression uneasy. Because he’d met Amber?

Needing her to understand, to know his intent, he stepped away from Shohn and Adam and approached her. “If you stay, what will you do?”

She breathed a little faster. “Do?”

Yeah, he liked the way her mind worked. Suppressing a smile, he said, “Jobwise.”

“Oh.”

Now she just looked flustered, and that was so different from the confident woman she’d been with him before that he had to feel his way carefully. “You are staying, right? That’s what your cousin said.”

She snatched up a granola bar, stared at it and put it back.

Indecisive? That, too, was different, but he didn’t mind. He took a step closer, near enough to inhale the scent of her sun-warmed skin and hair. God, he remembered that scent, how it had mingled with his own when he’d moved over her, both of them naked.

“I’m not... I don’t know yet.” She licked her bottom lip, glanced past him to her relatives, saw they were chatting up some other customers and stared up at him with those big, soulful eyes.

“Shh,” he whispered. “It’s okay.”

She swallowed.

“Far as anyone knows, or will ever know, this is the first time we’ve met.” By sheer force of will he kept his hands to himself when what he really wanted, what he needed, was to touch her, to pull her small, soft body in against his—again. “You have my word.”

She released a tense breath. “Thank you.” As her cousin and brother drew near again, she added, “I haven’t left my job. I mean, I tried to. I gave my four weeks’ notice, but they countered with another promotion. I declined and they requested that I take the summer to think about it. So I guess I’m on a hiatus.”

That night in the dim hotel bar in Chicago, she’d been teeming with restless energy. But here, now, he could see the remnants of exhaustion. Bone deep. The type of tiredness a person learned to live with.

He understood that, since he’d felt it himself many times. “They must appreciate you.”

She nodded.

“What is it you do?”

Before she could answer, Shohn bragged on her. “She’s a top-notch troubleshooter.”

“Meaning she goes to businesses that are in trouble,” Adam explained, “and analyzes their problems, then tells them the best way to be more efficient and profitable.”

“She’s been all over the country,” Shohn added. “And sometimes out of the country.”

“Guys...” Lisa protested.

“I think she should loaf for the summer.” Adam nudged her. “Regroup and just play.”

“She’s earned it.” Shohn added, “Problem is, Lisa doesn’t do well with idle time. Never has.”

“She’d go screaming nuts in under a week.”

Giving them both a quelling frown, Lisa said to Gray, “I’m still considering my job prospects.”

Prospects that could take her right back out of Buckhorn? Not if he could help it. “Could I make a suggestion?”

The guys were interested, but Lisa just looked appalled. Mind made up, he forged on. “I haven’t been here that long and I’m still learning the ropes. If you’re related to those two, then I assume you know everyone in town, and most of what there is to know about catering to vacationers.”

She opened her mouth, but it was Shohn who said, “She does.”

Adam added, “She’s driven her fair share of boats, launched them, too, and even worked on them a few times with our uncle Gabe.”

“Gabe, the handyman.” Gray had met his daughters, all three of them. They were very pretty girls who flirted playfully. And they were all too young for him—not that he’d been interested anyway.

“When my uncle Jordan married Lisa’s mom, she was still a kid,” Shohn explained. “So she grew up around here. She knows everyone.”

“Jordan, the vet?”

“Yup,” Shohn said. “He has a real nice way with animals.”

So one of the icons was her dad? “Got it.”

“And,” Adam continued, “being the overachiever she’s always been, she’s organized plenty of community activities with our uncle Morgan, back when he was sheriff and since he’s been mayor.”

Morgan, the big, badass protector. Who the hell wasn’t her relative? Gray said only, “Met him, liked him.”

Shohn said, “She’s also—”

“Stop selling me!”

Her brother and cousin gaped at her. Grinning, Gray shook his head. “Amazing to me that either of you have hooked up. Not smooth, guys. Not smooth at all.”

Adam scowled. “Now wait a minute. I wasn’t—”

“It’s okay,” Gray assured him. Hell, he was already sold. It didn’t require a pitch. Then to Lisa, he asked, “Why don’t you come by tomorrow morning, say around six before I open, and we can discuss it?”

Her eyes widened. Both men stayed mute.

“The pay won’t be what you’re used to, but the work won’t be, either. You want to enjoy the summer but also stay busy, right? I figure we can probably work out something fair. I’ll be flexible on what hours you need to be here.”

Amazingly, her eyes widened even more.

Cute as well as sexy. He could get lost in those dark eyes. In her slim throat, a pulse thrummed wildly. Her gaze remained fixed on his, and hell if he’d look away first. Didn’t matter to him if they stood there all day.

Shohn nudged her, maybe a little harder than he meant to given that she stumbled.

Startled, she turned and smacked him. “What is wrong with you?”

“Me?” Shohn pointed at her. “You were the one gawking.”

She flared. “I was not!”

Rolling his eyes, Adam said, “Yeah, you were.”

Gray grinned. “You’re all close, huh?”

“Very,” Adam said with what sounded like a belated warning.

Having been a cop in a shit area rife with violent crime, Gray didn’t pay a lot of attention to bluster. “What do you say, Lisa?” As an incentive, he added, “I promise to keep you busy without overworking you, and if you enjoy the lake, well, then, it could feel as much like an extended vacation as not.”

Put on the spot, she finally nodded. “All right. Fine. I’ll be here at six and we can discuss it.”

“Not too early for you?”

Adam snorted. “She’ll just be finishing up her jog.”

Huh. So she liked to run? They had that in common. Gray wanted to know every little thing about her, but he could be patient. Maybe.

“If you’re ready, I can ring you up.”

Everyone followed him to the counter, and a minute after that he watched her go—his gaze glued to her small rounded butt in the short shorts. Damn. He remembered that sweet behind all too well, how it had fit in his hands, the tantalizing contrast of soft and firm.

With any luck at all, he’d be getting familiar again real soon.