Next from Bliss
Next from Bliss, Kansas and the Billionaires in Blue Jeans!
Cashmere and Camo
Billionaires in Blue Jeans, book three
A friends to lovers romance…and then some.
Run a pie shop with her sisters for a year. Date for the first time at age twenty-nine. Don’t be terrified.
Well, she’s got the first thing under control at least. Mostly.
But this is exactly what a best friend is for. Advice, pep talks, matchmaking, sex education…
So what if her best friend is a guy? A very hot, tattooed, ex-Marine, mechanic guy? He’s definitely well-versed in everything she needs to know. And she trusts him. Who better to teach her the man-woman stuff she’s been missing out on?
But there could be one tiny problem. The only person causing her any butterflies…and dirty dreams…is her matchmaker himself.
Enjoy this excerpt from Cashmere and Camo!
“So, that’s Brynn Carmichael,” Mitch said to Noah as Brynn rounded the corner at the end of the block.
Noah gritted his teeth. He turned back into the shop and to the car he’d been working on.
Cars. Those he understood. Those he could fix.
God, he loved cars.
Everything else in life less so.
He picked up a wrench and leaned in over the engine. He’d known Mitch Anderson all his life. He wasn’t worried about hurting the guy’s feelings or offending him by getting back to work in the midst of a conversation.
A conversation he did not want to have.
“Mom said that things have been interesting since the Carmichael girls came to town,” Mitch commented, moving to lean against the front of the car.
Noah didn’t respond.
“Now I can see why. Have there been a lot of injuries?”
Noah frowned. “Injuries?”
“From all the men in town tripping over their tongues?”
Noah rolled his eyes. Mitch was a dumbass. A handsome, successful dumbass who had made Brynn blush. Noah gripped the wrench. “Everyone’s been very nice to them.”
“I’m sure,” Mitch mused.
Noah tried to focus on the hoses he was supposed to be replacing. It didn’t work. “Of course, Cori’s been involved with Evan from day one and Parker and Ava have been together for about three months now,” Noah said. “So it’s not like guys have been lining up or fighting over them.” Mitch made a huh sound and Noah glanced up. “What?”
“Just that Evan and Parker are with Cori and Ava.” He looked over. “No one’s with Brynn.” He paused. “Right?”
Noah clenched his jaw and straightened away from the car. He wiped his hands on a rag. No, technically no one was with Brynn. Except that he was with Brynn nearly every spare hour either of them had. They both worked a lot. Brynn spent her days at the pie shop and then at least an hour each evening on the phone or computer with people running her lab back in New York in her absence. Brynn also had her sisters and he had his mom and dad and Maggie, his buddy Jared’s mom, to take care of. So they both had other things and people taking up their time, of course. But yeah, they seemed to spend a lot of time together too.
“She’s not dating anyone,” he finally said in answer to Mitch. That much was true. What he and Brynn were doing wasn’t dating. Because dating came with the expectation of things possibly progressing and becoming more over time. He and Brynn were exactly where and what they needed to be to each other. That wasn’t going to change. She was here because her father had mandated it. And it was temporary. Thank God. Noah was looking out for her as her father had asked him to. But he could only handle it if he knew there was an end point. If he knew there was a goal.
Mitch hadn’t replied to the news of Brynn’s single status.
“You want to ask her out for real, don’t you?” Noah asked.
“For real?”
“You were just testing the waters with the invite to your back porch.” Noah didn’t phrase it as a question.
Mitch didn’t deny that. He nodded. “Yeah, I think I want to ask her out for real.”
Noah sighed. Dammit. He had to get used to this. She had to date six men. It was in the will. If she didn’t, she and her sisters didn’t inherit Rudy’s company, and his fortune. The money was important to Brynn because of the life-saving research she and her team were doing and it allowed her sisters to do what was important to them as well. She would do her part For sure.
And her time was running out. In three days, it would be exactly six months since the girls had arrived in Bliss. The pie shop was now fully renovated and open and doing fairly well. He didn’t know the specifics of their finances, but business had definitely picked up. Her sisters had met their relationship conditions. So Brynn’s dating mandate was all that was really left.
And Noah fucking hated even the thought of it.
He hated that she’d smiled at Mitch with that sweet, almost surprised smile. As if she was trying to figure out if he was really flirting with her or not.
He wanted her sweet smiles. But it was that surprised part that jabbed him in the heart and made him tamp down the urge to punch Mitch right in his pretty face. Brynn should not be surprised when a man paid her attention. At least attention that had nothing to do with her being one of the foremost pharmaceutical researchers in the country. He was sure there were brilliant, geeky scientist guys all over the place that were impressed with and intimidated by Brynn.
But Mitch wasn’t appreciating her brain. He was looking at her as the beautiful, subtly-sexy-without-even-knowing-it woman who blended into the background until you got a good look at her. Then you couldn’t look away.
She’d been sitting on his truck, in his shop, hiding out in the shadows, literally. And Noah fucking hated that. Even while he loved it.
He felt divided in two. He loved that Brynn felt safe and comfortable with him. They didn’t talk much. They didn’t really do anything a lot of the time. They’d painted and redecorated the pie shop. And she sat on the hood of the truck and read while he worked. But he loved that she felt like she could just be with him. He wanted to keep her all to himself.
But he also hated that even here in his garage—maybe especially here—she was hiding out from the world. How could she figure out that she was special and amazing and that people wanted to get to know her and be close to her if she was never with people?
“There are some rules that you should be aware of before you ask her out,” Noah finally said.
Mitch turned to face him, looking amused. “Okay, like what?”
Noah sighed. He didn’t love the idea of spilling the details of Rudy’s will, but Bliss was a small town. Dating here was different. It was harder to date casually than it probably was in the bigger cities. Like New York. Or Kansas City, where Mitch had been living. Here everyone knew everyone else, knew their pasts, knew their relationship history, and paid attention to current relationships. It was also harder to date multiple people. The guys Brynn would be going out with knew one another. And their mothers were going to be upset if they only dated her once or twice and then she “moved on” to another guy. Everyone needed to understand what was really going on and not assume that this city girl was coming to sweet little Bliss to break as many hearts as she could.
That was one reason he’d held off for six months on insisting she get out there and date. He wanted the town to get to know her a little first.
And, of course, because it had taken about two hours for him to realize that he didn’t want her dating anyone. Ever.
“It was important to Brynn’s dad that she meet and date a variety of guys. She’s…” He sighed. This was coming out wrong. “Brynn’s quiet. She’s sweet. She’s happiest with her nose in a book or calculating chemical formulas in her lab,” he said, starting again. “She’s not a social butterfly, she’s not a flirt, she doesn’t date much at all.”
“She inexperienced,” Mitch filled in.
Noah had to nod. “Yeah. She’s just had a lot of more important things to think about than relationships.”
Mitch nodded.
“So when her dad decided she should live in Bliss for a year with her sisters and run his pie shop, he also made it clear that it was important to him that she go out and have some fun, but also get to know different types of guys. So she could maybe figure out what her type is.”
Mitch nodded again. “That’s pretty much what dating is, right? Looking for the perfect fit amongst all the options.”
Noah had to admit he was surprised by Mitch’s perceptiveness. “Yeah, I guess so. It’s just that with Brynn it’s actually spelled out that she has to date six different guys. And she’s only in town for six more months.”
“So nothing serious or long term. Just fun,” Mitch said.
Noah nodded.
“Well, that takes a lot of pressure off,” Mitch decided. “It’ll be more fun if it’s just about showing her a good time and knowing that no one’s thinking marriage, right?”
“I guess.” Noah supposed that was true. If the guys all knew that it was more of a project to introduce Brynn to the world of dating and that it was casual and short term and just for fun, then no one would get their hearts broken. And no one would be buying diamond rings. Noah felt like scowling even thinking about that. He knew, firsthand, how easy it was to fall for Brynn. Even with the “casual and fun” rule firmly established, he couldn’t guarantee that Brynn wouldn’t be proposed to. Six times.
So far the guys in Bliss had been staying away from her. Evan and Parker maintained it was because Noah had made it clear that she was his. But she wasn’t. They might think so, but he was simply her friend. Her guardian, maybe. He’d promised Rudy he’d look out for her and from day one he’d been determined to send her back to New York happier, more confident, and with her inheritance firmly intact. So he’d taken six months to help her adjust to small town life, get her pie shop going, and get to know her so he could more effectively set her up with the right guys.
Not because he was a selfish, possessive asshole who had taken about one day to realize that he didn’t want to share her.
He just needed to establish with all of the single guys in Bliss between ages twenty-five and thirty-five—that seemed like a good age range for the twenty-nine-year-old Brynn—that they were just a part of a larger project to show Brynn how fun dating could be. To help her practice for when she went back to New York and had to pick the nice guys out from the dickheads.
He could do that. He knew all the guys in town. He could easily spread the word that each date was a one time thing and that it better be fun for her and they’d better all be gentlemen.
Meaning no diamond rings.
And no sex.
He felt his chest tighten at that thought. Yeah, he could definitely spread that around.
He frowned at Mitch. “If you’re going to ask her out, it’s only one time and it’s just for a fun, casual date.”
Mitch didn’t say anything.
“You are going to ask her out, right?” Noah asked. He supposed he couldn’t scare all of the other guys off. But he could make sure they knew he was watching their every fucking move.
“Yeah, I am. Eventually.”
Noah felt his frown deepen. “Eventually?”
“Yeah, definitely. Eventually.”
“What’s that mean?” Noah asked.
Mitch pushed away from the car, gave Noah a grin, and clapped him on the shoulder. “Just thinking—five other guys need to ask her out too, right?”
“Right.”
“Well, with a woman like Brynn, you don’t really want to be the first, knowing she’s got to date these other guys. You kind of want to be number six, you know?”
Mitch started for the door. Noah scowled after him. “You want to be number six?”
“The last guy? The one who can stick around? The one who doesn’t have to give her up to someone else? Um, yeah.” Then he gave Noah a little wave and disappeared through the doorway.