CHAPTER TWO
Eva had just popped the top on Eden’s beer when the front door of the cottage burst open. “I can’t leave you alone for two seconds without you nearly dying naked in a fire!” Eva’s sister Gia, all long red curls and yoga wear, stormed into the house dragging her husband behind her. “Why didn’t you call me?”
“My phone is in my pants, which are on the floor of the dressing room of Second Chances.” At least she wouldn’t have to deal with the dozens of texts and calls from nosy family and neighbors checking in to make sure she was okay, made it home, and put on some clothes.
“Hi, Eden,” Beckett said, offering a wave. “How’s the B&B?”
“Business is booming. How’s the lawyer/mayor biz?”
“Small talk later!” Gia shoved her phone in Eva’s face. “Explain!”
“I’m going to kill that Anthony guy,” Eva gasped, yanking the phone out of her sister’s grip. Eden crowded in to study the image on the screen. Eva, in her mismatched bra and underwear, was cowering behind the pantless Eden. Sheriff Cardona was staring at them both as if they were a zoo exhibit.
“At least we look pretty good,” Eden sighed. “Toned. Right?”
Gia snatched her phone back. “You both look great. Now, how did you start the fire?”
Eva rolled her eyes. As the youngest in the family, she had a reputation for finding trouble. Her oldest sister Emma was a disciplined adult with schedules and spreadsheets. Gia was a multi-tasking forgetful yoga warrior. And Eva was the misunderstood dreamer. Their father insisted it was her natural sense of adventure that got her into trouble. Her sisters felt it was her disdain for responsibility. Eva thought both theories carried merit.
“I swear, this time I didn’t do anything. I was trying on clothes when Mayva’s grilled cheese on the hot plate set some inventory on fire.”
“So, you don’t need a lawyer?” Beckett clarified. He was one of Blue Moon’s infamous Pierces. A trio of brothers so attractive that a magazine had once tried to offer them all modeling contracts. They’d been more embarrassed than flattered.
“No lawyering necessary,” Eva winked at her brother-in-law. “But I appreciate the familial panic.”
“I guess we can get back to that thing…” Beckett said, looking hopefully at Gia. The look on his face left no doubt as to what “that thing” was.
Gia flushed and grinned. “If you’ll excuse us, my husband and I have a… uh, lunch… meeting.” And just as she’d towed him inside, Gia dragged Beckett back out. “Glad you’re alive,” she called over her shoulder. “Bye, Eden!”
“Afternoon delight?” Eden mused.
“They look forward to the school year all summer long.”
Watching her sisters and their husbands enjoy their marital benefits made Eva feel the thinnest edge of jealousy. Not that she begrudged them their happiness. As far as she was concerned, her sisters were the best people in the world next to her father. It was just that she wouldn’t mind ending the dry spell that had plagued her since her move to the hippie town in upstate New York. In her case, a dry spell not only affected her personal life but also her professional life.
She sighed, and Eden joined her at the kitchen island. They lifted their beers simultaneously.
“Please tell me all the good men in town aren’t taken,” Eva groaned.
“I’m sure there are a handful left,” Eden predicted. She didn’t sound confident.
“So, you run a B&B?” Eva asked, changing the subject
“Yep,” Eden said, studying the beer bottle. “It’s just south of town. Big, rambling Victorian. Pond. Couple of fluffy dogs.”
“Oh! Right next to the winery!” Eva had seen the place. Three stories high with turrets, attic rooms, and an incredible navy, purple, and yellow paint scheme that somehow paid charming homage to both the architecture and the town. A burly pair of curly blonde dogs romped the grounds.
Eden grimaced at the mention of the winery and changed the subject. “What do you do for a living?”
“Oh, I’m a technical writer. Manuals and instructions mostly. Things like that.” The fib rolled off Eva’s tongue as glibly as the truth. Technically, up until a year ago, it had been the truth.
“That sounds…”
“Boring? Coma-inducing?” Eva supplied.
Eden laughed. “Hey, scrubbing guest toilets and baking muffins every day isn’t exactly glamorous. It’s like being a housewife to a bunch of strangers.”
“It’s amazing neither one of us has a drinking problem,” Eva joked. She raised her beer in a silent toast.
“How long do you think it will be before Sheriff Sexy lets us get our stuff out of the shop?” Eden asked.
“So, it’s not just me? He’s really that gorgeous?”
“Blindingly beautiful,” Eden agreed.
“He’s caught me in every embarrassing situation known to single women since I moved here. I think he thinks I’m an idiot.”
“It can’t be that bad.”
“He’s pulled me over for speeding the day after I moved in. I fell out of a tree almost on top of him at a picnic, and then I walked into a screen door carrying a cherry pie, and I just know he was watching.”
“Maybe he’s watching because he’s interested?” Eden suggested.
“Maybe he was watching because he considers me a menace to society.”
“At least he’s watching,” Eden pointed out, sliding onto a barstool.
Eva huffed out a breath.
Just once in her life she wanted to get the guy. Not the online loser who lied about being divorced or the meet-cute-turned-weirdo who still lived in his mother’s basement and insisted on “no crusts” through the intercom. The sheriff was the perfect representation of the kind of man who was her ideal and completely out of her league. Sexy as hell, built like a professional athlete, kind-hearted, even-tempered, responsible, carried a gun for a living—which was seriously hot—and probably also carried some nice equipment beneath those uniform pants…
Eva wanted a man like Donovan Cardona to take one look at her and fall madly, hopelessly in lust with her. And then rip her clothes off and take her to bed for two weeks straight.
But that was a fantasy, and she knew fantasy from reality. In reality, it wasn’t so much about the man as it was being seen as the kind of woman she’d always wanted to be. Smart, beautiful, witty, graceful, interesting, sexy. She was tired of being the screw up, the baby, the only Merill to need a tutor just to scrape by in geometry.
She had goals. She promised herself that she would become that woman once she’d conquered her demons and finally put the past in the past.
Eva sighed and pushed it all aside. She was in Blue Moon to be close to her family and focus on what came next in life. She’d have plenty of time to moon over Sheriff Sexy later.
“Let’s see what else our pal Anthony said about the fire.” Eva grabbed her laptop off the dining table and opened it on the counter. She navigated to Blue Moon’s Facebook group and scowled at the screen. She had to scroll past seven pictures of herself prancing around downtown like an underwear model before she found the story. “According to Anthony’s attempt at journalism, the fire is out. ‘No injuries unless the two nearly naked customers—whose names have been withheld for privacy reasons—caught cold.’”
“That skinny little asshole,” Eden grumbled. “As if everyone in the county doesn’t know everyone else. We don’t even need to run names with obituaries. Everyone already knows who’s dead and who their second cousins are.”
Eva had been warned about the gossip group but had dismissed it as small town exaggeration. She hadn’t considered the possibility that she’d make her debut in the group in her underwear. Her father would be so proud. Next thing she knew, the Beautification Committee would come knocking trying to marry her off to a bellbottom-wearing hippie... who probably insisted that his mother cut the crusts off his PB&Js.