LITMIR.BIZ

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      Sam was a trickster beyond compare, which was no shock to Cisco. He knew his buddy too well to fall completely for what seemed to be, at first glance, a spirited race between friends. Sam was without doubt trying to encourage him, rally the forces. This was no different than any of the tactics Sam had used in Afghanistan when rallying was needed. He was known for his good humor and slightly wild—okay, zanily wild—approach to life. Stateside, Sam flirted with all the ladies, usually long enough to make certain whatever buddy of his was in the line of fire walked right into said fire.

      The problem was, though Cisco wouldn’t mention it aloud, Suz might have eyes for Handsome Sam, as the brothers-in-arms called him. She certainly didn’t seem all that warm to the newly nicknamed Cisco.

      Heck, she hadn’t even liked his official nom de plume, which he’d been called by his serving brothers.

      She’d said he might be a slobbery kisser. And followed that up with eww.

      There was no point in taking a bet when a man could see that he was on the upside of the teeter-totter. You never knew when your teeter-tottering companion might decide to be funny and hop off, thereby leaving you with a crash landing.

      “I don’t know. Let’s head over to The Wedding Diner and see what’s cooking.” Cisco got up to his friends’ hoots.

      “Come on, Cisco,” Squint said, “take the bet.”

      “Yeah, I’m not so sure,” Cisco hedged. “Suz said she drew short straw. And I think she’s pretty proud of her dog paddle, but hasn’t got the stroke part of swimming down yet.”

      The sheriff wiped tears of laughter from his eyes. “We haven’t had so much fun in this town for years. I’m really glad Ty talked you boys into coming to BC.” He let out a few more guffaws at Cisco’s expense.

      “If you’re so hot for Daisy,” Cisco said to Squint, “do something, I beg you.”

      “Nope.” Squint shrugged. “I like to keep my lasso loose. She’ll figure it out eventually, and when she’s gotten nice and tired from running after the wrong Prince Charming, she’ll be more than happy to let me catch her.”

      “I’ve never seen your lasso do anything but droop,” Cisco said, sticking the knife in just a little. “I’d like to hear a winning plan.”

      “You don’t exactly sound like you’re a cornucopia of options,” Squint said.

      “Which is why I’m off to eat cake. Nothing bucks a man up and clarifies his thinking like four-layer chocolate cake.” Cisco slapped his Stetson down on his head and hurried out of the jail to catch up to Suz, not caring that his buddies seemed to find his prompt exit uproarious.

      They just didn’t understand the lengths to which he would go to avoid the sexy siren call of Daisy Donovan.

      * * *

      SUZ SAT IN the booth at The Wedding Diner, sipping hot honeyed tea in a delicate flowered china cup, waiting for Cisco to show up, as she hoped he would.

      It had been thirty minutes, and he was nowhere to be seen. Quite possibly, the man either couldn’t take a hint, or he didn’t understand that the proceedings next weekend were quite serious. She was trying to save him from Daisy’s clutches, and this was going to require some skill.

      First of all, she didn’t like frigid water. She didn’t fancy swimming in January, though the guys—Squint and Sam, both SEALs—had kitted her out with proper gear so toasty they swore she wouldn’t notice the cold.

      All she had to do, they claimed, was hop in Bridesmaids Creek and swim like a water moccasin. And Frog—Cisco—would be rescued.

      She hadn’t wanted to admit that swimming wasn’t her forte. Less than her forte. She actually couldn’t swim at all.

      “You can do it,” Jane Chatham, the owner of the diner said. “You can stay afloat, right?”

      “I’m pretty proud of my ability to bob like an apple.” Suz put her teacup down, glancing at the door. She wondered when Cisco was finally going to come charging in. You’d think the temptation of four-layer cake would have brought him running, but no. The man was a very, very difficult card to play.

      “You shouldn’t need much to beat Daisy,” Cosette Lafleur said. Cosette owned the shop a few doors down, called Madame Matchmaker’s Premiere Matchmaking Services. Cosette was BC’s resident lucky charm when it came to pairing people up. Only one match so far had backfired on Madame: Suz’s sister Mackenzie’s first marriage.

      Suz was hopeful—determined—that Cosette’s wand wouldn’t clog up now that Suz actually had a cowboy she wanted in her sights. Cisco, Sam and Squint had drifted to the rodeo circuit after they’d departed the navy, staying together in a tight-knit brotherhood, none of them anxious to return to their own hometowns. Handsome, bad-boy drifters, Ty Spurlock claimed when he brought them to Bridesmaids Creek. Drifters who just needed an anchor—and there were plenty of cute-as-a-button anchors in BC.

      Trust Ty to see it that way, drop the load of testosterone on BC and take off for the navy himself after he married spirited redhead Jade Harper.

      “I can beat Daisy on any field of battle but water.”

      “When you were in the Peace Corps all those years,” Jane asked, “you didn’t have to swim?”

      Suz shook her head. “I taught English, I taught math, I helped in the infirmary. I didn’t swim. I did, however, assist when there were bites from slithery things.” She shivered. “I’m actually not too fond of waterways, if I have to be immersed in them.”

      “Why didn’t you mention this when straws were being drawn?” Cosette demanded. “There were other women who would have gladly gotten the short straw.”

      “You know very well why.” Suz wondered if maybe she should order the cake now. It seemed Cisco wasn’t going to show up to join her, which was too bad, because he’d stunned her with that bit about wanting to kiss her. Of course she wasn’t going to kiss him!

      When he saw her swimming like a demented turtle, he was going to know she wasn’t the woman who was destined to be his.

      “Why?” Jane demanded, and Suz took a deep breath.

      “Both you and Madame Matchmaker know that the Bridesmaids Creek swim has never failed. Neither has the Best Man’s Fork run. Except for Mackenzie,” she said hurriedly, “and really, I blame that more on my sister’s hammerheaded ex than the charms of BC.” Or Cosette’s matchmaking. Although according to Ty, the whole bad match was his fault.

      There were always a few twists and turns in their small town that prided itself on its haunted house, good food and friendly, busybody ways.

      “Oh, you’re worried about the charm.” Cosette nodded wisely, her pink-tinted gray hair shining under the lights of the diner. “You took the straw because you don’t want anyone else to have Cisco.”

      “Maybe it’s just a superstition,” Suz said. “Maybe we bring this legend on ourselves because we want it so much. When there’s a ratio of, what, ten women to every man here? Someone made up a cute gag that claimed that whoever won those swims and races got the man of their dreams at the end. The thing is,” Suz said, worried, “we’ve never had a woman doing the actual competing. It’s all wrong. Maybe the legend doesn’t work in reverse.”

      The two women stared at her.

      “We don’t know,” Jane said. “It’s never been done.”

      “Well,” Cosette said brightly, “never mind. That’s why we have a matchmaker in town.”

      Suz wished she felt better with Cosette on the case, but there was that teeny matter of the misfire on Mackenzie’s first marriage. “Thank you. The thing is, with Daisy determined to win Cisco’s heart, I would have done better in a bake-off. Daisy can’t cook. And I can’t

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