LITMIR.BIZ

      Chapter Three

      Jazzy had no sooner hopped into Brooks’s truck Friday morning—he’d waited outside today—when she fastened her seat belt and turned to him. “I have a favor to ask.”

      Brooks cocked his head and his face said he was ready for almost anything. “I’d guess but I’ll probably guess wrong.”

      “What makes you think you’d guess wrong?” she joked.

      “Because I cannot read a woman’s mind. What’s the favor?”

      “I’ve been helping Dean at the elementary school when I’m not needed somewhere else, even though my carpentry skills are at a minimum. Still, I don’t want to let him down. Can we stop over there on the way to Kalispell? I tried to call last night and kept getting his voice mail.”

      “He’s engaged now, isn’t he?” Brooks asked, obviously tuned in to the local chatter.

      “He is. He bought a place with some land and he’s just moved in with Shelby and her daughter Caitlin.”

      “Shelby works at the Ace in the Hole, right?”

      “Yes, but for not much longer, she hopes. She’s going to reapply for a job as an elementary school teacher once the school’s up and running again.”

      “That could be a while.”

      “It might be, but that’s what she wants to do. Anyway, he doesn’t always answer his phone in the evenings. So I thought it might be just as well if we could stop at the school. I’ll explain I’ll be working with you, but I’ll still help out around the school on weekends.”

      “You want his blessing?” Brooks didn’t sound judgmental. He actually sounded as if he understood.

      “Something like that.”

      “We can pick up donuts on the way and bribe him.”

      “Brooks!”

      “I’m kidding. I often pick up donuts and drop off a couple of boxes for people who are volunteering. We all do what we can to say thank you.”

      After a stop at Daisy’s, they drove to the elementary school property in a drizzling rain that had begun to fall. The low-hanging gray clouds predicted more of the same. Just what Rust Creek Falls didn’t need.

      At the school, the building crew had made progress, but it was slow going without money for materials, and work often had to stop while they waited for supplies. Today, however, Dean was there with a crew. They found him easily in the school library, building shelves. He looked up when he saw Jazzy and did a double-take as he spotted Brooks.

      After Jazzy explained why they were there, Dean gave her an odd look. “You’re not going back to Thunder Canyon?”

      “I don’t know when. For now working with Brooks will give me experience to open that horse rescue ranch I want to open someday.”

      “She’s good with animals,” Brooks assured Dean. To Jazzy he said, “If you’re going to be a few minutes, I’ll look around.”

      Perceptively Brooks probably sensed that she needed to convince Dean this was the best move for her. She nodded.

      When Brooks left the library, Dean frowned. “What kind of relationship do you have with Brooks? I didn’t even know you knew him.”

      “I didn’t before the other night. But we hit it off.”

      “Hit it off as in—”

      She knew she shouldn’t get impatient with Dean. He cared as an older brother would. But his attitude was much like her family’s when they second-guessed the decisions she made. “I know you think you have to look out for me while I’m here. But I’m thirty years old and old enough to know what I’m doing.”

      Assessing her with a penetrating glare, he asked bluntly, “Did you hook up with him?”

      “No, I didn’t hook up with him!” Her voice had risen and she lowered it. “He’s going to be my boss, so don’t get any ideas you shouldn’t.”

      With a glance in the direction Brooks had taken, Dean offered, “Maybe he’ll get some ideas he shouldn’t.”

      Jazzy vehemently shook her head. “He’s not like that.”

      Dean sighed. “I guess you’d know after a couple of days?”

      “My radar’s good, Dean. I know if I’m ‘safe’ around a man.”

      “Woman’s intuition?” he asked with a cynical arched brow.

      “Scoff if you want, but I believe in mine.”

      It was probably woman’s intuition that had made her break off the relationship with Griff. Her instincts had told her he simply wasn’t the one. There hadn’t been enough passion, enough of those I-can’t-live-without-you feelings. Something important had been missing.

      “Okay,” Dean conceded. “But be careful. I heard he’s a confirmed bachelor with good reason. If you fall for him, you’ll only get hurt.”

      She couldn’t let this opportunity to find out information about Brooks pass her by. “Why is he a confirmed bachelor?”

      After an assessing look that said he was telling her this for her own good, he kept his voice low. “He has a broken engagement in his history that cut him pretty deep. A wounded man is the worst kind to fall for. Watch your step, Jazzy, or you will get hurt. I don’t want to see that happen. Not on my watch.”

      “I’m not your responsibility,” she said, frustrated, and stalked out.

      Ten minutes later with rain pouring down faster now, she and Brooks sat in his truck again, headed toward Kalispell. Dean’s words still rang in her head. A wounded man is the worst kind to fall for. She wouldn’t fall for Brooks. She couldn’t. Besides, she didn’t fall easily. Her relationship with Griff was proof of that.

      Still, as she surreptitiously eyed his strong profile, her stomach did a little somersault. To counteract the unsettling sensation, she remarked casually, “Progress is being made on the school, but it’s going so slow.”

      “A ton of funds and a larger crew could fix that. But the way it is now, the elementary school teachers are going to be holding classes in their homes for a long while.”

      “The town has come a long way since I first arrived, though.”

      He nodded. “Yes, it has. The mayoral election next month should be interesting.”

      “Collin Traub against Nate Crawford.”

      “Yep. They butted heads trying to get the town back on its feet. Their families have a history of butting heads.”

      “A feud?”

      “Some people say so. I don’t know how it started. I don’t know if anybody remembers. But because of it, the election is even more heated.”

      She wouldn’t ask him who he was voting for. That was really none of her business. But other things were. “How did your clinic in Kalispell take the news you’d be leaving?”

      He didn’t answer right away, but when he did, he looked troubled. “I don’t want to leave them in the lurch, and I won’t. The other two vets in the practice understand why I have to do this. Family has to come first.”

      Her parents had always instilled that belief in their children, too.

      Two hours later, Jazzy was still thinking about Brooks’s broken engagement as well as everything she’d learned from the clinic’s

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