LITMIR.BIZ

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preventing me from getting soaked to the bone.”

      “I’d give you that except she agreed to have lunch with you, too.”

      “It wasn’t her first choice.” As Angel finally drove out of the lot onto Main Street, he told her how he and Lauren had come to share a table.

      “She could have waited for takeout or gone somewhere else.”

      “Yeah, but she was hungry then.”

      “Whatever. I just think you must have made a good impression.”

      He hoped so, and he tried to tell himself it was only for professional reasons.

      “I think she’s already in Verona’s crosshairs.”

      “I wonder who Verona has in mind for her,” Angel said, not even trying to disguise her teasing tone.

      “Well, judging by Lauren’s reaction to the idea of a matchmaker, I’m guessing Verona is out of luck on this one.”

      “Oh, I suppose that does make sense.”

      “What does that mean?”

      “Lauren went through a really ugly and public breakup with her fiancé. And then the bastard took her to court, tried to sue her for a big chunk of her profits.”

      “Did he help her start her business or something?”

      “No. From what I read, he claimed she’d promised him a half stake when they got married. When the engagement got called off, he sued, saying he was still entitled to what he was promised.”

      “He sounds like an ass.” Adam supposed this ex could have been cheated somehow, but his gut told him Lauren wasn’t the type of person who would treat someone that way. He based that on the look he’d seen on her face when the woman at the café had mentioned the guy doing Lauren wrong. She’d seemed very adamant in her support of Lauren. What was it with men who couldn’t treat women decently?

      “That’s the general consensus,” Angel said.

      “Verona ought to know about that and lay off.”

      “Maybe she thinks the way to get past such a bad breakup is to find someone new and better.”

      “She might mean well, but she should mind her own business.”

      “I’ve wondered sometimes if Verona is lonely. She’s never married, and I’ve never seen her out with anyone.”

      “Still doesn’t give her the right to push people together.”

      “I think it’s more like gentle nudges.”

      Adam snorted. “I’d hate to receive one of those nudges if I was anywhere near a cliff.”

      When they reached the ranch, he changed back into work clothes so he could help his brothers replace some rotting timbers on the side of the barn. As he rounded the corner of the barn, he spotted Neil first. His eldest brother was standing back and watching as Ben nailed a board in place.

      “Playing supervisor again?” Adam asked.

      Neil smiled. “Perk of being the oldest.”

      “Yeah, you’re going to feel old soon when that baby gets here,” Ben said. “I speak from experience. There were days in those early months after Cassie was born that I almost had to tape my eyes open to get any work done.”

      Suddenly, Adam felt more separate from his brothers than he ever had before. Their lives had moved into a different stage, which included marriage and children. They could share experiences, along with their sister, Sloane, to which he had nothing to add. Even Angel had a child, though no husband. In that moment, Adam felt more like an outsider than he had since arriving on this ranch as a child.

      “How’d the meeting go?” Neil asked, drawing Adam’s attention back to something they did have in common—the ranch and its long-term viability.

      “Pretty good. Will be a while before anything can come from it, though.”

      “Just make sure you kick Wainwright’s butt this time,” Ben said.

      Adam decided not to reveal that Wainwright had beaten him to Lauren’s door. He had to believe that one of these days the Rocking Horse operation was going to triumph over Carrington. And he admitted to himself that there was another reason he hoped he would win the contract with Lauren. It would be no hardship to see her on a regular basis. Or would it? He was attracted to her, but he respected that the feeling wasn’t mutual. It would have to be enough if they had a business relationship, maybe even became friends.

      But as he helped Ben and Neil finish making the repairs to the barn, he couldn’t manage to push Lauren from his thoughts. He considered how Neil, Ben and Sloane had all found their other halves when they were least expecting it. And tried not to think about how he sure hadn’t expected his reaction to Lauren Shayne.

      * * *

      LAUREN WALKED OUTSIDE the restaurant with two cold bottles of water in hand to find Ella Bryant and her husband, Austin, loading the last of the tables onto a trailer hooked up to their pickup.

      “You two look thirsty,” Lauren said as she extended the bottles toward them.

      “I feel as if I could drink the lake,” Austin said as he hopped down from the trailer.

      “Eww,” Ella said.

      Lauren laughed. “Pretty does not equal potable.”

      Austin did manage to drink half the contents of his bottle before coming up for air, however.

      “I really appreciate all this,” Ella said.

      “Thank Adam Hartley. He’s the one who suggested I call you.”

      “I’ll do that. He’s a good guy. All the Hartleys are good people.”

      “That’s reassuring to hear about someone I might do business with in the future.”

      “I haven’t had their beef,” Austin said, “but that family is as honest as anyone you’d ever hope to meet.”

      Now that was more welcome to hear than they could possibly know. Honesty was pretty much at the top of her list of desirable traits these days.

      Lauren pointed toward the load of discarded furniture. “I have to admit I’m curious to see what you do with all that.”

      “I have more ideas and materials now than I have time to implement. But I guess that’s a good problem to have.”

      “It is indeed.”

      Ella nodded toward the building. “Do you know what style you’re going to put in its place?”

      “Honestly, it’s going to be like picking the building—I’ll know it when I see it. But I want it to be Texas-themed. Part of the building is going to be a store filled with items with that theme, as well.”

      “You should check out the antiques stores in Poppy. They’ve always got neat stuff, lots of big items that could be turned into unique tables, large metal Texas stars. And there are a lot of craftsmen and artists in the area who I’m sure would be interested in putting their items in your store if that’s the way you want to go with it. We have a local arts-and-crafts trail, so you could surreptitiously check them out in advance if you wanted to.”

      Now that did sound promising. “Thanks for the tip. I’ll do that whenever I get the chance.”

      “Well, we’ll let you get back to work,” Austin said. “We look forward to your opening.”

      “Thanks.” She waved goodbye to them, then went back inside to tackle washing all the windows. She’d been putting it off for three days because she hated the task so much. It probably made sense to just wait until all the interior work was done, but she wanted a better idea of how the place would look at different points of the day through actual clean windows.

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