Chapter 10
The Thursday night before the weekend of the mud run was the by-invitation-only, “soft” opening of Bailey Tucker’s new restaurant, Blue Moon. Harper hadn’t hesitated to agree to attend with Zane. Not only couldn’t she wait to get a good look inside the place, but there was also the expected arrival of the mother of the Tucker siblings. Zane said she’d promised to show during the cocktail hour before the meal slated to be served to friends and family.
They drove together in his truck in what she considered to be a contented silence. Despite his busy schedule at A To Z and her list-upon-list of what had to be accomplished before the library charity event on Sunday morning, they’d managed to see each other, talk on the phone, and even sleep in the same bed a few times—with exciting before-sleep activities that left her sated and feeling closer to him than she’d ever felt with anyone.
Still, she was careful to keep her expectations at a minimum and not take their growing relationship too seriously. After all, she’d promised.
But she’d bought a new dress in that cute boutique Jane had introduced her to before her date night. It was sapphire blue, fitted at the top with a fairly short A-line skirt. The neckline reached to her throat, but the shoulders and elbow-length sleeves were in a lace of the same deep-blue shade, which allowed her skin to peek through the delicate design.
Now she smoothed the hem lower on her thighs, and held out one foot to admire her new nude pumps.
“Did I say you make my mouth water tonight?” Zane asked.
Pleasure warmed her all over. “Thank you.” She touched her up-do, not fussy or smooth, but not messy either. It had taken the stylist an hour to get the look just right. “You’re no slouch either.”
Understatement, of course. He looked unbelievably hot in dark slacks, dress shoes, and a black-and-gray checked sports jacket over a black dress shirt, the collar unbuttoned. “Is it okay to go without a tie?”
“Adam and I told Bailey that if she made this a noose-only place, we’d refuse to step foot inside it.”
“You would never refuse,” Harper protested. She couldn’t imagine the brothers denying their sister anything.
“We wouldn’t,” Zane agreed, sending her a smile. “But the dress code doesn’t include a tie requirement anyway.”
They turned along another road, and Harper admired the way the last of the day’s sunlight filtered through the trees. Eagle’s Ridge was nothing like the city that she came from, but it had beauties and charms that were unrivaled.
“Everything in place for the mud run?” Zane asked.
“I think so.” Her belly tightened a little at the thought of what lie ahead on Sunday. “I have a remarkable young man who’s taken it on as his Eagle Scout service project. He has a future ahead in logistics, I’m just sure. Plus, he’s gotten the local Boy and Girl Scout troops to volunteer to help as well as the Friends of the Library team.”
“I’ll be there too,” Zane said. “Ready to do whatever you need. Adam, Ryder, and Wyatt will be on hand as well.”
She beamed at him but reminded herself it wasn’t just for her—that he and his brother and friends were going to be supporting the community too. “Thanks,” she said.
Her breath caught as they pulled into the parking lot of Blue Moon. “Oh.” She clasped her hands together as she caught sight of the impressive stone building with its wide mullioned windows. She knew behind it was a patio overlooking the river, but the front was spectacular too. In the gathering dusk, fairy lights sparkled in the trees and were wrapped around wine barrels filled with flowers that flanked the path to the deep porch and double front doors.
Harper almost felt like a celebrity on a red carpet as she walked up the flagstone route, her hand tucked into Zane’s elbow. Apparently Bailey had hired a photographer for the night—maybe to capture images for her website?—and as directed, she found herself smiling for the camera.
The restaurant’s interior was both elegant and inviting. Bailey was there to greet them in a long, figure-hugging dress, a midnight black that set off her lovely blonde hair. Ryder stood at her side, at ease in a dark suit and tie.
Zane didn’t hesitate to tease him about that last sartorial element, shaking his head and saying it was clear evidence that Ryder was wrapped around his sister’s little finger.
They moved farther inside to make room for more arriving guests and found Adam and Jane standing beside a charcuterie table. A server came by with a tray of filled champagne glasses. The bubbles tickled Harper’s nose, but the cool, dry taste was delicious as it slid down her throat.
Of course the brothers complained about the dearth of beer.
Zane’s arm came around her waist and tucked her close to his side.
Maybe it was the champagne. Maybe it was seeing everyone dressed in their best. But suddenly Harper’s stomach was jittering and the room seemed to spin a little.
She put her hand to Zane’s waist, steadying herself. He looked down. “Hey, are you okay?” he asked.
His blue-green eyes only made her more dizzy. “I’m good,” she lied, even as her body trembled.
“You’re ice-cold,” he said, rubbing his hand up and down her arm. “Are you sure—”
“I’m fine,” she told him, and stepped free of his hold to set her champagne flute aside. “Just…” There wasn’t a cogent explanation that she could share. Her sixth sense was suddenly nagging at her, though, setting her on edge, warning her that something big, something life-changing, was hovering over her and was no more than two breaths away from descending.
As if this nervousness was catching, a nearby server stumbled, losing one of the empty glasses on his tray. It landed with a loud shatter, hushing the crowd. Then Zane hurried over to the obviously mortified waiter. “Let me help, man. I’m an expert at crashes and clean-ups.”
Everybody laughed and went back to their conversations. Harper’s gaze followed the big man as he bent with a linen napkin in hand and scooped up the broken shards.
“That was handled neatly,” Ryder said, coming up beside Harper. “Unlike the situation in No Man’s Land the other day. Gambler broke three plates, knocked a picture off the wall, and two burgers landed face-down on the floor.”
Harper grimaced. “We left you behind with all that.” She hadn’t seen the other man since she’d run out after Zane and his dog.
“And you also left me behind with…Godfrey, was it?”
“Geoffrey.” Her lips twitched. “But you can refer to him as Godfrey if you like.”
“I plan on not referring to him ever again,” Ryder pledged, a smile in his eyes. “But I’ll let you know it took a little physical persuasion to send him on his way.”
“Wait. What?”
But Ryder’s gaze suddenly shifted and his whole body went on alert. “Excuse me, but I’ve got to get to Bailey. She’s here.”
She meaning the mother of the Tucker siblings, Harper realized. Tori Remington who had been Vicky Tucker when she’d lived in Eagle’s Ridge. From across the room, Harper stared. The beautiful woman swept into the space, wearing a dramatic gown of amethyst chiffon with jewels of the same color swinging from her ears. Her charisma could be felt even from this distance and it was almost surreal to see in real life the woman she’d watched on a TV screen time and time again.
Bailey greeted her mother with a hug and then she drew Ryder toward the older woman. Adam and Zane joined their circle next, and the reunion appeared cordial if not exactly enthusiastic.
Then Zane looked around and caught her eye only to beckon her forward. Harper took careful steps to join him.
“This is my friend Harper Grace,” he told his mother. “She’s the librarian in Eagle’s Ridge.”
His friend. She smiled through the aftermath of that small sting, shaking hands and engaging in some practiced Nob Hill chit chat with the actress. But of course she and Zane were friends, Harper reminded herself. Their relationship was casual.
She’d promised.
Soon they were called to take their seats. Zane led her to a beautifully set table and held her chair, just as he’d done on their first date. His rough fingertips caressed her bare nape as she adjusted her seat. Then he took the neighboring place and others joined them—Adam, Jane, Wyatt, Bailey, Ryder, and Tori Remington.
At another table sat the four founders of Eagle’s Ridge with the generation that followed them, including Sam and Brenda. She hadn’t seen that couple interact with Zane’s mother, but she remembered hearing that Tori/Vicki and the diner manager had been best friends once upon a time.
Then her attention was taken by Bailey, who tapped a fork to her wineglass. When the room quieted, she explained the menu and her philosophy. Farm-to-table organic foods with a French flair that included favorite dishes of both the Westbrook and the Tucker families. That night she’d given a nod to the most popular items on the menu at Veronica’s, the restaurant housed previously in the building, re-imagining them for their enjoyment.
The food was beyond delicious and the guests enthusiastic in their praise. As the meal wore on, Harper’s earlier sense of imminent disaster moved off. Zane held a succulent bite of lamb to her mouth and she stared into his smiling eyes as she slid it from his fork with her lips. His thigh pressed against hers beneath the table and she felt again that seductive, sweet intimacy.
That warm feeling went beyond just the two of them, though. As a newcomer to Eagle’s Ridge, she’d wondered how long it would take to feel part of the community—and right now she did. Adam wisecracked some joking aside to his brother and Zane laughed and Jane shared with her a happy look that made Harper feel on the inside of the Tucker family too. Accepted and liked, a feeling underlined when Bailey brushed her shoulder in a friendly gesture as she refilled Harper’s wineglass herself.
The meal ended with a decadent tasting plate of small desserts and an espresso that Bailey referred to as Café Gourmand. After savoring their last bites and final sips of coffee, Harper and Zane were not the first and not the last to take their leave. Bailey glowed with satisfaction as they delivered additional and sincere compliments followed by their affectionate goodbyes.
They both were silent on the ride home until Zane pronounced, “She’s going to be a huge success.”
Harper smiled. “I completely agree.”
“It’s her dream,” Zane added, his own grin white in the dark interior of the cab. “And she went for it.”
“I think that might be a Tucker trait,” Harper said. “Isn’t A To Z the same for you? And the adventure camp for troubled kids Adam’s dream?”
“Yeah,” he said, his tone thoughtful. “That’s so.”
His hand was warm on hers as he walked her to her condo. “As much as I’d like to stay the night, sweets, I’m going into the office extra early tomorrow and juggling like crazy to free up my Sunday for you.”
To free up my Sunday for you.
“I understand,” she said, using her key to open her door. She hesitated on the threshold and turned to him, automatically tilting up her face for his kiss.
Instead of immediately accepting the unspoken invitation, he stared down at her, a little smile curving his mouth.
His masculine beauty dizzied her again and the stars overhead seemed to reel in the sky. She was close enough to feel his heat and she wanted to rub against it, she wanted to imprint herself on him, so he would always, always…be hers.
Be hers.
Oh, no. This deep, now undeniable longing was what she’d been dreading acknowledging all evening. The disaster that had been hovering over her head.
At the realization, her heart jolted in her chest and her blood slowed as a chill fell over her. God. There was nothing casual about what she felt for him, nothing casual at all. She was in love. She was completely in love with Zane Tucker.
But she’d made that promise to keep things casual!
And she’d failed, hadn’t she? Her feelings for him had slid straight into serious territory.
She was in love with the man who rescued goofy dogs and who empowered shy librarians. She was in love with a man who loved his country and his family and gave them all he had. This honest, honorable man, who she could treat with no less honor and no less honesty.
“Zane,” she said, and her voice sounded unlike her, rough and scratchy. Her eyes stung and she blinked to keep the tears at bay.
“Sweets?”
Sweets. So, so sweet.
She stepped back and gripped the edge of the door, ready to swing it shut. “I can’t do this anymore,” she whispered.
“What?”
“I can’t keep my promise. I can’t be casual about this any longer. About us. And it will break me if I pretend otherwise, if I try to continue on this way.”
He stared, clearly dumbfounded.
“I…goodbye,” she croaked out, and shut the door in his face.
Saturday afternoon, in a murderous temper that had been brewing since late Thursday night, Zane stomped through the back door of No Man’s Land. Just to make a crap couple of days even crappier, a last-minute cancellation left him with some free hours.
When all he wanted was to stay so busy he didn’t have time to think.
Or feel.
But he didn’t have any effing feelings, he told himself. At least not the kind that got all weepy and whiny just because some woman decided she didn’t want to see him anymore. Stuff like that didn’t faze Zane Tucker, not when his relationships were always of the temporary variety.
That he’d been blindsided by the librarian breaking it off was no big deal.
Really. It shouldn’t bother him at all. He was an easygoing kind of guy. Everybody said so.
He marched into the kitchen, hoping to find a burger and fries already plated up that he could liberate from whatever patron they were intended for. His dad would only need to slap another patty on the grill to satisfy the customer.
And Zane was in no mood to wait.
Sam glanced over his shoulder as he expertly flipped some sizzling meat. Then his eyes widened. “You okay, Son? You look a bit…rough around the edges.”
“I am rough around the edges,” Zane said, but automatically ran his hand over his bristly chin. If he’d been still seeing Harper, he’d keep to a smooth shave so as not to mar her soft, tender skin.
But he wasn’t still seeing Harper.
A plate sat under the warming lights on the pass-through. A chicken sandwich would have to do, and the fries looked hot and crisp.
“I’m taking this Dad,” he said, and grabbed the food.
His father sighed and moved to the refrigerator to snag another breaded chicken breast. “If Mandy was doing her job right, that meal would already be delivered to the table.”
Leaning against the counter by the sink, Zane wolfed down a late lunch. Then he set the plate aside and poured himself milk into a pebbled plastic glass that he drained in one go.
Sam glanced over at him again. “You still look ready to strangle a grizzly with your bare hands. Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.” What would he say? He had no right to be pissed at Harper for being truthful.
I can’t be casual about this any longer.
Casual was his choice. The way he’d wanted to conduct their relationship, the same as with the other women in his past. When that no longer worked for her, then she was right to end things.
It will break me if I continue this way.
At the thought of Harper being broken, that he might have a hand in hurting her, his rage erupted. His arm came up and he threw the plastic glass into the stainless steel sink with such force that it shattered like an egg.
“Son.” Sam moved away from the grill, his expression concerned, and dragged out a chair from the breakroom. “Sit down. Tell me what’s going on.”
Zane dropped onto the seat and hung his head, his hands in his hair. After a few slow breaths he felt marginally calmer. “I’m okay,” he said, looking up to meet his father’s gaze. “I’ll be all right.”
“I’m here to listen.”
“Thanks, Dad.” Zane pushed his hands through his hair another time. “But…there’s no words.” He couldn’t explain to himself why he was so angry. So frustrated too. It wasn’t with Harper. It was because…hell, he just didn’t know.
“I have something to say, then.” Sam built a burger, then slid it onto a plate, put the plate on the pass-through. “It’s about me and Brenda.”
Zane straightened, glad for the distraction. “Yeah, Dad?” He was pretty certain he knew where this was going. His father was about to confess he was dating the diner manager. He’d heard from Adam who’d heard from Jane that Sam had invited Brenda to the house to have dinner and spend the night.
That last part he tried very hard not to think about.
“I’m moving in with her,” Sam said.
Blinking, Zane felt his mouth drop. “Huh?”
“It makes sense,” his dad continued. “We’ll start our lives together in her place. She moved there after her husband died, so there’s no ghosts. Not like at our house.”
“But…” Surprise stole Zane’s words.
“It’s time I get out of my rut, as Brenda has been telling me.”
“Grandpa Max lives there,” Zane pointed out, still trying to absorb the news.
“And he can stay on in the apartment over the garage or go back to his house once it’s repaired. You know how he likes his own space. He won’t be sorry to live alone again.”
“Do you…does she…” He shook his head, still amazed by the changes his father was proposing.
“I love her,” Sam said simply. “She loves me. The past is behind us and we want a future together. And we want that future to start right now. As a matter of fact, we’re looking at the calendar to determine when we’ll become husband and wife.”
Husband and wife? Zane blinked again, trying to take in this next piece of information. Really? He opened his mouth, about to gently suggest they slow the Sam-and-Brenda train down a little, but then he recalled what Harper once told him. A man who really wants to marry someone should want to settle on a date right away.
“Well.” Zane got to his feet to man-hug his dad, adding a bone-jolting slap to his back. “I’m happy for you, Dad.”
And he was, now that he was getting more accustomed to the idea. Happy for Brenda too. “Where is the lucky lady? I’d like to offer her my best wishes.”
Sam nodded toward the pass-through. “At a table in the corner.”
Craning his neck, Zane indeed saw Brenda, sitting with a mug in front of her. Across from his mother.
He looked back at his dad. “She’s still here?”
“For a couple more days, from what I understand. You should go out and say hello.”
Beyond the brief and superficial conversation he’d had with his mother at Bailey’s soft opening, he’d not seen her or exchanged additional words with her. Engrossed in work and wrapped up in his bad mood, he’d actually not given her another thought.
If he had, he’d guess she’d been hanging with Bailey. Adam certainly hadn’t mentioned her.
But now she was inside No Man’s Land, with Brenda. Though that wasn’t so very weird, was it? Years ago, they’d been good friends. Good enough friends, he supposed now—hoped so, anyway—that his mother didn’t begrudge a new chapter of life for her ex-husband and the woman he’d worked alongside for so many years.
“Go on, Son,” Sam counseled, in that dad tone of voice that was impossible to ignore. “It will be good for both of you.”
As Zane approached the two women, Brenda rose from her seat. She’d done something to her hair, it was much shorter now and framed her face. But Zane guessed the new youthfulness he sensed about her was due more to the joy she’d found with Sam than a hairdresser’s scissors.
Way to go, Brenda.
“Hey.” He kissed her cheek as she passed him on her path to the kitchen. “Welcome to the family.”
That brought a sheen of tears to her eyes.
He recalled the same in Harper’s Thursday night when she’d dumped him and felt another flood of…whatever it was. He ruthlessly tamped it down, though, and continued to his mother. She watched carefully as he lowered into the chair across from her.
“Zane,” she said, inclining her head.
“Mom.” He studied her face, unsurprised to find she looked older, but just as beautiful in the natural light of day. “You’re still in town.”
“I have a suite at the Broadleaf. I’m going home Monday morning, but I want to be with Bailey at Blue Moon during its first weekend.”
“I’m sure she appreciates that.”
His mother glanced down at her mug, her hand turning it in idle circles. “I have considered stopping at A To Z Watersports, but I wasn’t sure of my welcome.”
Zane shrugged. “You should come by if you can make the time. It’s no fancy farm-to-table restaurant, but Adam and I like it. It’s the perfect business for us.”
She glanced up at him now, a small smile curving her mouth. “I’m so glad. I always said you’d get everything you wanted.”
“Yeah.” Even when he’d been struggling for his next breath, she’d been certain, so he’d been certain. “Thanks for that.”
“I know I hurt you, though, by leaving. That I was selfish—”
“Let’s not go there.” He didn’t say it to be kind, he said it because it was all so long ago he saw no point in raking through the old pain. The anger he’d felt then had no place in his present.
“All right.” His mother nodded, then sipped from her mug, set it down again. “I enjoyed meeting your friend the other night. Though I’m supposing Harper’s a little more that.”
He was already shaking his head. “It’s not going to work out between us.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“I’m not the right guy for her,” he found himself telling his mother. “I’ve always been a man not interested in settling down—I just don’t see myself that way. And she deserves more. A forever type who’ll be all that that means.”
“And you aren’t one of those forever types?”
“Nope, like I said, I just don’t see myself that way.” He linked his hands on the table. “I’m going to be the bachelor uncle. The ice guy.”
His mom tilted her head. “The what?”
“You know. The guy who’s only trusted to brings bags of ice to the holiday bashes. Maybe a dozen rolls or two if I really prove myself.”
She laughed. He suddenly recalled that sound, the lightness of it and how it had once filled their old house. “That doesn’t sound like much to look forward to.”
“It’s who I am.” He shrugged. “How I’ve always been.”
“That doesn’t mean you can’t change, Zane. Be different. You can change your plans for yourself and what your future might be.”
As his dad would say, get out of his rut? But he shook his head again. “No. I—”
“Take it from me,” his mother said, reaching across the table to touch her fingertips to the back of his hand. “Things might turn out different than you expect. Sometimes a dream drags you forward, right out of your comfort zone.”
Sunday morning, Zane woke when it was still dark. He stared in the direction of the ceiling and for the first time felt the silence of his house as oppressive. Not to mention lonely. The A-frame could use more laughter, he thought. A softer touch. A woman’s voice.
Echoes of her voice and of her perfume.
He jackknifed up, eager to get away from that uncomfortable notion. At the first thump of his feet to the floor, Gambler came awake, shaking and dancing and communicating his impatience for breakfast with a cold nose in the cup of Zane’s palm.
The dog scrambled down the stairs ahead of him and then ran circles in the kitchen, his tail sweeping the pencil sharpener off the low desk. “Whoa, boy,” Zane said, as always amazed by his dog’s unceasing energy. It was incredible how this bundle of furred mania and odd panics could quiet when around books and little Bella.
The child’s presence calmed him and it seemed, with her, he’d found his canine purpose.
Not unlike the peace Zane had found with Harper. He’d slept in her library and on her couch, both unprecedented. Things he’d never shared with his twin—about his hapless romance with the Southern belle and about the guilt he’d felt when his mother left—he’d revealed to Harper. He’d never let down his guard like that with any other woman.
Then there was that bookmark he continued carrying around like a talisman. Why couldn’t he let it go?
Why didn’t he want to let her go?
Because she’s your purpose, a voice inside him said. Your purpose is to make Harper happy. To be that forever man she deserves.
“I can’t,” he said aloud, alarmed by the concept. His mouth dried and his stomach went queasy. “Even if I wanted to, I’m not—”
Sometimes a dream drags you forward. His mother’s voice echoed in his head now. Right out of your comfort zone.
You can change your plans for yourself and what your future might be.
Change. That damn word that had been plaguing him for weeks. He didn’t want to, damn it—or more precisely, he didn’t think he could. Nobody had ever considered him husband material before and that’s what Harper Grace deserved…a man who could be soft when she needed him to be. A man who could be gentle. Everybody knew Zane was that bull in a china shop only guaranteed to break things.
Later, still troubled by his early morning thoughts, he met his brother, Ryder, and Wyatt at the staging center for the mud run, just on the outskirts of Sentinel Park. Though they did some heavy lifting—cases of water, boxes of first aid supplies—all looked to be in readiness for the nine o’clock start time. Kudos to the Eagle Scout-in-the-making and particularly the volunteers from the fire department. They’d designed and built the mud-and-obstacle course on a vast tract of cleared county land that usually stored heavy machinery as well as supplies for road and sewer repair.
What he didn’t see was any sign of Harper, even when there was a mere hour to go before the runners were to set off. Had she decided not to participate after all?
He was standing beside Wyatt, both of them dressed in athletic wear and with their contestant numbers pinned to their shirts, when the sassy swing of a ponytail caught his eye.
Half-turning, he saw her twenty-five yards away, her head bent over a clipboard, dressed in running tights and a matching long-sleeved runner’s tee. Someone walked by and paused to have a word with her. She looked up at the person, smiled.
And Zane felt that heart he’d always supposed to be as hard and unmovable as the rest of him tumble down to his toes, then bounce up to his throat, before settling behind his ribs once again, beating there at a frantic, urgent pace.
It was then that the truth that had been swirling around him all morning—hell, probably since she’d shut the door in his face Thursday night—finally penetrated his stubborn brain.
He was in love.
He was in love with Harper Grace.
That’s what it meant, the peace he experienced when he was around her, the purpose he felt compelled to pursue—her happiness—the anticipation rising inside him as he imagined explaining this to her and persuading her into his arms once again.
Would she believe he wanted a forever with her now? Because, so help him, he did. Badly.
It was a change, sure, but change was in the air, and if Bailey could do it, and Adam, and even his dad and Brenda, then Zane was going after what he now wanted too.
“You are gone for that woman,” Wyatt said. “Don’t even bother lying to me about it.”
Zane looked over at his friend. “I—” he began, ready to deny the charge.
But he never wanted to lie about that, he realized. To himself, to anyone. “I do,” he told Wyatt, his heart still beating wildly. The sun seemed to shine brighter and the trees and sky bombarded him with an extra dose of beauty. “God help me, I really do.”
“Then you owe me,” the other man said. “And I have spent some time considering my end of the wager. As a matter of fact, I’ve struck upon the perfect thing.”
Uh-oh. Wyatt’s oh-so-cheerful expression didn’t give Zane a good feeling in his gut.
It only got worse when the man shared the exact price Zane would have to pay for falling in love.
Protest was compulsory, because hell, it was just too much to expect. “Damn it, Wyatt, come on—”
The former SEAL crossed his arms over his chest. “A bet is a bet.”
A bet is a bet. Words Zane had lived by, and might possibly die of humiliation by. “Fine, whatever.” Still, he glared at his friend. “If this causes me to permanently lose the girl, I personally guarantee your next career move will be to Seattle’s Woodland Park Zoo, where you’ll be elephant shit scooper-in-chief.”
Harper’s nerves were strung to the breaking point as she walked about the mud run staging area checking on the final last minute details. Not only did she want the event to be a success for the library, but she’d realized it was also a testing ground for her ability to remain in Eagle’s Ridge. Thanks to all that needed to be accomplished in the last couple of days, she’d had plenty of reasons to remain holed up in her office. But today she’d be forced to face community members, new friends, and Zane’s family.
She wasn’t entirely sure, but maybe even Zane himself.
If that hurt too much, if knowing she could never have him as her own was going to make every day in Eagle’s Ridge a misery, then she was going to have to move on.
In the middle of a sleepless night, alone in her bed and remembering his every touch, his every word, his smile, she’d struck upon the idea that the mud run would be her trial. The four miles of mud and obstacles were sure to exact a physical and emotional toll—because her determination to participate came straight back to Zane, after all—but if she could cross the finish line on her own, then she was strong enough to stay in this town even when he moved on to some other woman.
In a place so small, she’d be sure to hear about it. See it.
Just the thought ripped a tear in her heart, but maybe she could find the inner strength to carry on. This morning she’d find out.
Now it was time to gather near the starting line, with its wide banner declaring Get Dirty for Books! She handed off her clipboard to Josh, the almost-Eagle Scout, and took a place at the very back. Though she’d considered saying a few words before the “gun” went off—they’d be using the siren function on a megaphone—she left that to the mayor and the fire chief.
Mayor Warren thanked the hundreds of participants and the dozens of volunteers. The fire chief explained where to find the aid stations, urged participants not to push too hard, especially those young, old, and new to physical endurance trials. After that he led them all in a pledge, making them repeat they understood that the event was “a challenge, not a race.” “Teamwork” and “partnerships,” he told them, were more important than individual achievement this Sunday morning.
Then the siren blasted and the crowd began to move.
From her position at the very back, Harper and the knot of participants around her at first could only manage a slow jog. Caught as she was amongst them, she really couldn’t see what was in store and mostly worked on managing to avoid the elbows of the people on either side of her and trying not to step on the heels of the person directly in front of her as they climbed a substantial hill.
Still, the incline and her lingering nerves had her breathing hard as she breached the top. The woman beside her was panting too, and she gave Harper a sidelong look. “It gets harder than this,” she said. “I hope I don’t embarrass myself.”
“Yeah, me…” Then her words trailed off as the ground fell away below them and they could see what lay ahead.
Yellow flags, the small ones like landscapers used, delineated the snaking path that led from obstacle to obstacle. She saw muddy ponds of water, low hills, a maze of old tires hanging from chains. Then a couple more ponds, these topped with lines of “razor wire”—she’d been told it was actually flexible and rubber covered—that would require participants to bend or crawl, followed by wooden walls with long ropes flung over them to aid in climbing. More mud. More water. Balance beams across even more rectangles of sludgy water. Hay, piled twenty feet high would be interesting to scale when one was damp and dirty. Beyond them, metal culverts were half-buried and would require more crawling and ducking.
She exchanged a look with the other woman. “Fun?”
Her companion lifted her hand, inviting a high-five. “Let’s get dirty for books!”
And then they set off, their pace still impeded by the crowd ahead. But they persisted, encouraged by the volunteers and spectators milling about the space, yet staying well clear of the inevitable muddy arcs of water as people ran, stumbled, and fell in the process of moving through, up, over, or down what was put in their way.
Harper quickly understood where her training had been incomplete. While the actual one-foot-in-front-of-the-other was doable, she should have also worked on her upper body strength. On the first wooden wall she was expected to mount, she stalled, her hands slipping on the rope that was supposed to aid her way.
Disappointment and frustration made her scowl. She couldn’t give up so easily. Then she felt a hand on her behind, boosting her up. “C’mon, you can do it.”
She glanced over her shoulder to meet distinctive blue-green eyes, and for a moment her heart squeezed and her grip went slack. That hand gave another push and she realized it was Adam, not Zane, who was behind her. With renewed determination, she scrambled upward, and upon reaching the top was able to give him a breathless “Thanks.”
He smiled, its similarity to his brother’s giving her heart another quick wring. “You okay?”
His kindness made her nose sting and she blinked away hot tears. “Great,” she mumbled.
“I’ll watch you climb down,” he said gently. “Go slow. It’ll be okay, I promise.”
Why did that sound like he referred to something else? she wondered, as she picked her way to the bottom, using the 2 x 4 footholds provided.
Then Adam was passing her, with a pat on the back and a quick wink. “Keep an eye out for my brother.”
Oh, no, she groaned silently. That meant he was here, didn’t it? But she wasn’t going to be looking for him. She was going to keep her head down and cross the finish line without giving him another thought.
Okay, she thought of him a dozen times as she struggled along the route. Nerves jangling, worried that any moment she might come across him, she stumbled and fell face first in a waist-high vat of thick mud. Chagrined, she clambered to her feet, rivulets of wet dirt oozing off of her, and was grateful to find a firefighter once she climbed out who had a hose in hand, ready to spray clean water. She closed her eyes as he rinsed her down and only opened them to see Bailey standing nearby, Gambler on a leash at her side.
The other woman waved gaily and gave her a big thumbs-up. Harper responded with a weak one of her own, and then trudged ahead, refusing to feel humiliated.
She was going to do this. She was going to survive the mud run.
She was going to survive a broken heart.
Now she didn’t look to either side. Her focus was trained straight ahead and her attention solely on the next task. She belly-crawled through metal tubes, she spit hay from her mouth after scaling the top of that hill and sliding down the other side, she slogged through a muddy maze of low wooden structures.
The finish line finally came in sight.
More spectators lined the path and those participants already finished were gathered near tents where she knew volunteers were prepared to hand out juice, coffee, tea, and a variety of healthy and not-so-healthy foodstuffs. Her stomach roiled at the thought of eating and she paused, trying to calm it, which only allowed the muscles in her legs to turn to lead.
Harper closed her eyes. Must. Make. It.
The onlookers were suddenly shouting encouragement and laughing, but she didn’t have the energy to determine what that was all about. Instead she plodded forward, her gaze on the last two obstacles—a series of parallel balance beams set over another long, rectangular tank of mud, and then a final wall. Her heart fell to her belly as she studied that one. While it wasn’t as tall as another she’d managed that day, it had a lip like a skateboarding halfpipe. Watching others ahead of her, she could see it required people to get a running start in order to make it over that curve, or else they’d slide right back to the bottom.
“One challenge at a time,” a voice advised. A familiar voice. Zane. “Don’t get worried about the next until you do the one right in front of you.”
She didn’t dare look at him, even though his very presence gave her the incentive to move. Head down, she hurried to a balance beam. Stepped onto it.
This should be doable, she thought. She had narrow feet. Just walk, heel-to-toe.
Miracle of miracles, she managed, even though she was wholly aware that Zane was traversing a neighboring balance beam, moving at her same speed. Still, she didn’t look at him, even when she wobbled and from the corner of her eye saw his hand shoot out, ready to steady her. Ignoring it, she made it all the way across on her own.
“Way to go, Harper,” he said, warm with praise. “I knew you could do it.”
Could she? Could she really? Spend her life in Eagle’s Ridge bumping up against Zane Tucker on mud runs or in the diner or maybe when he came to check out another Western novel?
Rather than responding, she continued onward, that daunting obstacle up ahead. Zane passed her, she felt the air whoosh by her as the big man moved, but her vision narrowed to a tunnel as she pulled air into her lungs.
She was so tired. Quitting didn’t sound so bad.
She couldn’t believe she would ever get over him anyway.
Someone yelled her name and she turned her head to see Bailey and Gambler keeping stride—slow, deliberate—along with her. “Go, Harper!” the other woman called out. “Just a little bit more!”
Unable to dredge up even a smile, her gaze swung back to the obstacle ahead. And then there was nothing to do but gather her flagging power and make a run for it.
Halfway up, she slid down the slick muddied surface.
The second time, she didn’t even make it that far.
At the bottom, she bent over, her hands on her knees, trying to breathe. A third attempt seemed impossible.
“Harper!” Zane again.
Nearly ready to admit defeat, she raised her eyes in the direction of his voice. He straddled the top of the lipped wall, and his arm reached down in her direction. “Try again, sweets, and I’ll catch you.”
Instead, she backed away. “I have to do it myself,” she whispered.
“What’s that?” His face was smeared with mud and his clothes too. They seemed to be ripped…or something. Her brain was tired like the rest of her and couldn’t figure it out, not even the odd band circling his head.
He bent to stretch his arm farther. “Harper, come on baby, try it again. I’m here for you.”
But he wouldn’t be there for her even if she made it over the stupid thing and it sparked her temper for some absurd reason. She glared at him, and decided it was better than crying. “I need to do it alone,” she yelled up at him. “All by myself.”
An expression crossed his face that she couldn’t interpret. “No, baby. Not ever again. Never by yourself again. Harper, I love you.”
She stared at him in shock.
“I do, baby. I’m in love with you.” His hand beckoned her. “Now let me help you over this last hurdle and we can talk about it.”
Something tickled the back of her neck. Maybe it was drying mud, but she looked around and realized the pair of them were the center of attention, spectators and volunteers alike standing around, apparently riveted by their little drama.
Her anger spiked again, her other emotions so tangled she couldn’t sort through how she felt about his public declaration or even if she could believe in it. If she should believe in it.
It hurt so much to love and to trust.
Pushed now by her renewed temper, she backed up from the curved wooden wall. Do it, Harper, she told herself, and made another run at it. Momentum propelled her forward and her feet scrambled higher than ever before. Her breath caught, elation sang in her blood. Almost there!
Then she felt herself begin to slide.
No, no, no, she thought, tears once again stinging her eyes. But she could see that outstretched hand in front of her. Large, male, strong.
“Take it,” Zane commanded, his tone urgent.
And instinct won out over caution. Her fingers wrapped his and his grip—as solid as the rest of him—hauled her the last crucial distance.
Now they both straddled the top, face-to-face. Dirty and breathing hard, they looked into each other’s eyes.
“You didn’t have to say that, you know,” Harper managed to get out.
“Say what?”
She glanced away. “That ‘I love you’ business.” It had taken her a moment, but now she understood why he’d said such a thing. “I appreciate you thought it was a motivation—”
“I said it because it’s true.”
Her gaze jerked to his. “No…”
“Yes.” Though they were dangling on the top of the wooden wall, he didn’t seem inclined to move. Nor lower his voice. “I don’t want our relationship to be casual either.”
Other participants were attempting the ascent on either side of them, but they might as well be ants as far as Harper was concerned. “I didn’t think you wanted to be serious.”
One corner of his mouth lifted. “I didn’t. But then a pretty librarian came into my life and made me see things differently. See myself differently. She made me want different things too.”
“Me?” she asked, still disbelieving.
“You.” He fished in his muddy garments and from somewhere withdrew a small scrap of fabric, lifting it for her to see.
“My bookmark.” She reached for it, but he quickly tucked it away again.
“I’ve been carrying it around like a boy with a lock of his sweetheart’s hair,” Zane said with a crooked smile. “I guess it proves I have a soft side after all.”
Her throat tightened as she tried to take this in. “Are you…are you saying you’re the leopard that changed its spots?”
“You changed them, Harper.” His gaze intensified. “Do you believe me?”
She couldn’t think, not when he was looking at her like that. She could only feel a sweet, sweet surge of joy. “I…yes.”
“Then take me,” Zane said, his mesmerizing eyes filling her vision. “Say you’ll be mine.”
Be his? Oh, it was such a tempting, delicious idea, if only she could truly believe in it. To be Zane’s woman, to live life within the protective circle of his arms. Harper swayed toward him.
Zane reached for her. “Say you’ll be mine and then we’ll complete this damn run together.”
Complete this damn run together. Her spine snapped straight, putting distance between them again, as she remembered she’d come here to Eagle’s Ridge to change her spots too. To not be protected, cocooned, or coddled. To live with more zest.
To prove that she could, she wanted to, no, needed to, cross that finish line alone.
Then they’d see what they might be.
So instead of speaking, she slithered down the other side and started off once more. Her noodle legs didn’t help much, but she kept at it, aware that Zane was right behind her.
Ready to pick her up if she fell, she had no doubt.
Her steps faltered at the thought. She had no doubt.
But that revelation was to be examined later, and she lowered her head and began to jog. People were clapping and calling her name and she felt a new power growing inside her the closer she came to that line.
Almost there.
Why it happened next, she didn’t know. Perhaps it was one of the volunteers, eager to encourage her that last small distance, who picked up the megaphone and let out another earsplitting siren blast. It was followed by an unearthly howl, shouts, Harper thought she heard Bailey’s voice, and then someone was yelling Zane’s name. She turned in time to see the big man bowled over by his dog, the animal shoving his owner flat to his face in mud before fleeing beyond the finish line.
Zane lay there as if stunned, or dead.
Harper’s heart slammed against her ribs. She ran back to bend over him. “Zane!” she choked out his name, alarmed by his stillness and afraid she wouldn’t survive if he did not. “Are you all right?”
His head slowly lifted. He blinked up at her. “Just…just the wind. Knocked. Out of me.”
Relief rushed through her and she clasped her muddy hands beneath her chin. “Are you sure?”
“Go.” He coughed. And she knew he understood how important it was for her to accomplish this on her own. “Go ahead. Finish. I’ll be along.”
But then Harper recalled the fire chief’s speech. The one about “teamwork” and “partnerships” and she hunkered down in the mud beside the man she definitely wanted by her side for the rest of her life.
Take me. Be mine.
“I’ll wait right here for you,” she told him. Because while she wasn’t quite strong enough to pick him up, she’d always be there for him if he fell.
That was the real change that had happened to her in Eagle’s Ridge, she realized now. She’d gained confidence in herself to know that she could be a protector, defender, and partner to Zane too. Stroking his back with muddy fingers, she felt a new thrilling sort of serenity course through her bloodstream—a kind of lover’s high, she thought.
It didn’t take long for Zane to regain his breath and she helped him to his feet. They looked at each other and exchanged smiles. Then, filthy and exhausted, they limped toward the finish and stepped over the line, hand-in-hand.
Together.
Nearby, another volunteer was stationed with a hose to wash down the finishers. They waited their turn, fingers still entwined, while Zane’s people gathered around them, including Adam, Jane, Brenda, Sam, Wyatt, and Bailey.
“I’m so sorry I lost control of Gambler,” his sister said. “We’ve got another item to put on the Terror List.”
Ryder strolled up with the dog then, now back under control. He had the megaphone in his other hand.
“Confiscated,” he said, holding it up. “I’m not taking any chances. And this dog needs to be enrolled in obedience school immediately.”
The hose person beckoned them forward. Harper tried to disentangle their hands, but Zane said, “I’m not taking any chances either,” and they stood together under the spray as layers of mud slid away.
Only then, when they were dripping, but clean, did Harper realize what he was wearing over his athletic shorts and T-shirt.
A red, blue, and gold spangled costume, complete with skirt, bodice, arm bands, and head ornament.
She stared. “What’s this?” Her free hand gestured toward him.
Zane sighed. “The outcome of a little bet.” He shot a fulminating look at Wyatt. “You better be ready to pack your bags and include a big ol’ shovel, friend, if the lady won’t accept that I’m in love with her and says she feels the same.”
Everyone surrounding them appeared to be caught somewhere between laughter and concern.
But she shut them out and looked only at the man who’d made a very public declaration in a town that would talk about this for years to come.
While dressed as Wonder Woman, in fact.
“You do love me,” she said, amazed all over again, but now believing it completely.
“Enough to don this ridiculous costume,” he said promptly. Then he grinned. “Remind me to outfit that John Westbrook statue in something more macho next time.”
“What?”
“Never mind.” He pulled her into his arms, either no longer patient, very sure of her, or some of both. “Tell me you’re in love with me too,” he demanded.
“I’m in love with you too.” Why not say it? She was brave enough to take the chance now. The chance to have it all.
“We’re setting a date,” he said firmly. “A wedding date. Today. Tonight. Soonest.”
Her eyes rounded.
“Because a person once told me that a man who wants to marry someone should want to settle on a date right away.”
He’d always heard her, hadn’t he?
“Okay.” Harper thought she might float off the ground, she felt that light. Her hands gripped Wonder Woman’s now-tattered bodice as she looked into the handsome, beloved face of Zane Tucker. Only her guy could look so sexy and not an iota less manly wearing a superheroine’s tiara. “Bet me we’ll be happy?”
“I’ll take that bet.” He kissed her. “And we’ll both end up winners.”
# # #
Dear Reader:
I hope you enjoyed , my book in the 7 Brides for 7 Soldiers series! I had a blast writing such a sexy and fun hero (not to mention lovable Gambler too—modeled a bit after my own darling yellow Lab) and collaborating with such a talented pool of authors. I know you’ll want to read every soldier’s story—each handsome man has a delicious and satisfying romance of his own.
Interested in sharing your thoughts with other readers? I hope you’ll leave a review for the book .
Continue on to read an excerpt of Lynne Rae Harris’s , who is the next ex-military man in Eagle’s Ridge to embark on a romantic adventure. Then find an excerpt to the first book in my Billionaire’s Beach series, , guaranteed to make your heart sing.
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Best wishes!
Christie Ridgway