Crushing on Love (The Bradens of Peaceful Harbor, Book Four) Read online

  She snagged the Pop-Tarts and toilet paper, thinking twice about the toilet paper. That wasn’t exactly sexy, but it was necessary. Maybe he’d think that was what she’d been referring to. She walked through the aisles trying to think of something sexy to buy. They didn’t even have lip gloss. ChapStick would definitely not do the trick. Too bad they didn’t sell sexy lingerie.

  After ten minutes of searching for something sexy, she gave up and carried her purchases to the cashier. She spotted Steve outside talking with Rachel Gray, a local hairdresser. Rachel had worked wonders for Callie, her cousin Wes’s wife, on their wedding day a few months ago. Rachel was a pixie of a girl at barely five feet tall, with gorgeous green eyes and silky blond hair. Shannon had met her at the wedding. She was sweet and smart, a total package. It was no wonder guys waited weeks just to sit in her chair.

  And she’s smiling flirtatiously at Grizz.

  Jealousy she had no right feeling prickled her skin. She paid for her purchases and headed out to the truck.

  “Shannon? Oh my gosh!” Rachel touched Steve’s forearm, said something Shannon couldn’t hear, then hurried over and hugged her. “I had no idea you were back in town.”

  “I’m staying up on the mountain for a while, doing another research project.”

  Steve glanced at her on his way back to the truck, and her blood ran hot.

  “Lucky you,” Rachel said. “It’s beautiful up there. Maybe we can get the girls together while you’re here. Have you seen Callie’s baby bump? She’s just started showing, and I swear she’s the cutest pregnant gal around!”

  “I saw her at my uncle’s barbecue last night. She looks amazing, and Wes is over the moon.” Steve started the truck, and Shannon took the hint. “I’d better go. He’s my ride home.”

  “Oh,” Rachel said with an inquisitive light in her eyes. “You’re even luckier than I thought.” She leaned closer and lowered her voice. “He wasn’t always quite so reclusive. Maybe you can bring him out of his shell again.”

  Don’t I wish. She had the urge to ask if he was always hot and cold, or if that was new, too. But she bit her tongue, knowing the small town’s rumor mill plucked gossip from the air like flies to fly strips.

  “I can try,” she said, and headed for the truck. She set the bag on the bench seat and climbed in, wondering what had made Steve turn to the wilderness instead of people. She’d assumed he’d always liked his solitude.

  He peeked into her bag and pulled out the Pop-Tarts. “Seriously? I bought you a box of homemade goodies and you buy this garbage?”

  She snagged them from his hands and put them back in the bag. “They’re power food. And they’re shmores, which are fitting since I’m staying in a cabin.”

  “Power food.” He smiled and shook his head. Pulling out of the parking lot, he said, “S’mores, without the ‘h.’”

  “That’s what I said. Shmores.”

  “S’mores,” he repeated, emphasizing the ‘m.’

  “Whatever. I’ve never had them, anyway.”

  He looked over with a furrowed brow. “You’ve never had s’mores? I thought you lived in a beach town.”

  “I do. We have bonfires, and we roast marshmallows, but I’ve never done the whole shmore thing. You’ll probably make fun of me for this, too. I’ve never had a Happy Pack.”

  He laughed again. “A whatty what? That sounds dirty. Maybe I can help you out with whatever that is.”

  Her heart spun with the offer, but she knew he was probably messing around again, so she forced herself not to dwell on how incredible it would feel to do dirty things with her muscle-bound grizzly man.

  “A Happy Pack. You know, at McDonald’s.”

  That earned her another deep, sexy laugh. “You mean a Happy Meal? A kid’s Happy Meal?”

  “Yeah, a Happy Pack. With those cute toys, you know.”

  He shook his head, laughing under his breath. “We’ll have to change that. Everyone should experience s’mores. It’s like a rite of passage. And you’re not missing much with McDonald’s, but you should experience a Happy Meal, too.”

  She tried not to hold on to the we part of what he’d said, but inside she was doing a happy dance at the prospect of spending more time with him. She was dying to ask him about what Rachel had said. Did he really prefer a more solitary lifestyle, or was there more to it? But despite his flirty comments and sucking her finger—God, sucking my finger!—his private life was none of her business.

  “I’ll put shmores and a Happy Pack on my bucket list.” She opened the bakery box and tilted it in his direction. “Do you want one of these?”

  In the space of a breath, his eyes flashed with heat. “No, thanks. They couldn’t possibly be as sweet as my last taste was.”

  He ran hot and cold like a faucet, and she was in the mood for a steamy bath. She eyed the chocolate croissant, wondering if she should switch to the pink-frosted cupcake. I was just messing with you.

  Ugh! She refocused on pulling her mind out of the gutter.

  “So…” she said. “Where are we heading now?”

  His expression turned serious, and Shannon wondered if the coy look had actually been there, or if it had simply been her wishful thinking.

  “To meet with the Cumberlands.”

  “Who are they?”

  “They own two hundred acres of land adjacent to the park near my parents’ place. They’re putting it on the market, and I want to try to convince them to put it into conservation land instead of selling.” The muscle in his jaw jumped. “It might be a while, and I’m not sure how they’ll react. Do you want me to drop you at Hal’s, or somewhere else?”

  No, she didn’t want to go to Hal’s. She wanted to learn more about him, to see what was stoking his fire. Aggression was rolling off of him like the wind, and it had come on so fast, she had to see him in action when he handled it.

  “I don’t mind going, unless you’d prefer I didn’t.” She took a bite of a chocolate croissant and he arched a brow. She looked down at the croissant. “I’m powering up to have your back.”

  “I’m sure I’ll regret this later,” he said with a hint of a smile, “but I don’t mind you coming along. Just let me do the talking.”

  “No problem. You’ll do all the talking. I’ll stand by nodding supportively and I won’t say a word. Not one single sentence. Can I give them the stink eye or—”

  He shot her a narrow-eyed look.

  She shoved the croissant in her mouth and pretended to zip her lips closed and lock them. He turned his hand palm up and motioned with his fingers. She feigned setting the key in his palm.

  He curled his fingers over hers and said, “Thanks, Butterfly.”

  He tucked the invisible key in his shirt pocket while she tried to remember how to chew.

  Chapter Three

  THE CUMBERLAND RANCH was nestled at the base of the mountains. Rolling pastures gave way to pockets of forest. It was one of the prettiest properties around. Not that there was an ugly acre in all of Colorado as far as Steve was concerned, but this was definitely right up there as one of his favorite spots. When he was younger, he and the two oldest Cumberland brothers, Mack and Will, had run wild, exploring every inch of the property.

  “Is this the plan?” Shannon asked. “Stare out at the land and hope the owners change their mind via brain waves?”

  He pulled the keys from the ignition and breathed deeply, readying for a conversation he wasn’t looking forward to having with his two old friends. Mack and Will had lost their mother two years ago, and their father had passed away last winter. Their parents had been good to Steve, treating him like one of their own, and he missed them. He was sure his friends were still grieving, and he imagined handling their parents’ estate was making things even more difficult. He didn’t want to add stress to their difficult time, but there would always be reasons not to take a stand. If he waited for a good time to present itself, it might be too late.

  “That’s what’s wrong with you
city dwellers. You’re always in a hurry to get to the next thing, when the most compelling things are right in front of you.” He shoved the keys in his pocket and tried to shake his uneasy feeling about the impending conversation with his friends. He’d also flirted more than he would have liked with Shannon, and he knew he was sending her mixed messages. But he had too much on his mind to think clearly.

  He motioned toward the gorgeous property. Every few years another parcel in Weston was sold, another farm was subdivided. It pained him to see the sprawling landscape chopped up into communities and meted out as if land were expendable. He’d been fighting the good fight for long enough to know one person could make a difference. But with a property of this size and an asking price of nearly 2.4 million dollars, he knew it would take a lot more than good intentions and a little rallying to keep it out of the hands of developers, unless his friends agreed with his idea.

  “I’m not a city dweller. I’m a beach dweller.” She glanced at him, then out the front window. “Are we getting out of the truck?”

  “In a sec, Butterfly. I’m just taking it all in. I played frontier with Mack and Will Cumberland in those fields. Sneaking out at night, spending hours climbing trees, finding snakes and frogs and scaring my sister with them.” He laughed with the memory. “We used to hide in the hayloft in that barn down there. I remember the sound of their father sliding the heavy wooden doors open and the feel of my pulse racing, the pungent smell of hay as we buried ourselves in it. The way the smell invaded my lungs and tickled my throat and I had to choke back coughs.” He rubbed his forearm. “I can still feel the scratches it left on my arms and legs.”

  He opened the truck door and met her intense gaze. “Can you get that on your Pinterest boards?” He walked around the truck and opened her door, offering her a hand to step down.

  “Pinterest has pictures of everything.”

  She took his hand as she stepped from the truck, and he led her to the fence surrounding the pastures, nodding in the direction of the woods in the distance toward their left. “At night we used to meet in those woods with our flashlights. I love this land, and I really don’t want to see it fall into the wrong hands.” Even back then he’d wanted to live in the mountains, and he wondered whether Shannon saw the beauty he saw, or like so many others who didn’t grow up there, if she saw land ripe for development. “What do you see when you look out there?”

  She was quiet for a moment. “I see majestic mountains, pastures, trees.” She smiled and her gaze dropped to their joined hands.

  He hadn’t realized he was still holding her hand, and released it.

  She lifted her eyes to his and said, “And I see a guy who gets lost in those things.”

  The way she was looking at him made his thoughts stumble. “And that’s a bad thing?”

  “No. It’s a curious thing. Do you ever wonder if you’re missing out on things? Technological advances? Things like that?”

  He shrugged. “I read the news. It’s not like I don’t have the Internet. But I don’t live for the news, or for what anyone else is doing. I think you and I live in different worlds, Butterfly.”

  She stepped closer, bringing with her that scintillating scent he already knew by heart. “Do we? Or do we look at the same world differently?” Before he could come up with an answer, she asked, “Why do you call me ‘Butterfly’?”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” He held her gaze, taking pleasure in the way her cheeks pinked up.

  “Not to me,” she said sweetly.

  She went from mouthy to sweet, and that sweetness got to him every damn time. “Why do you call me Grizz?”

  She laughed and brushed her fingers through the ends of his hair. Her hand slid to his cheek, grazing his whiskers. “Isn’t it obvious?”

  Her hand was warm and soft against his cheek. Despite how nice it felt, despite his mounting desire to gather her in his arms and finally take his first taste of the woman who was slowly driving him out of his mind, he knew he had to find that elusive space he desperately needed. He placed his hand over hers, enjoying the smooth, delicate feel of it before reluctantly drawing it away.

  “We should go get this over with.” He nodded toward the house.

  “Right.” She blinked several times, as if he’d confused her as badly as his actions confused him.

  He forced himself to break the spell and headed for the cedar-sided home where he’d spent many nights of his youth.

  Mack came around the side of the house and waved them over. “Hey, buddy! Come on back.”

  Steve tried not to dissect the fact that his hand immediately took up residence on Shannon’s lower back as they approached his friend.

  Mack pulled him into a manly embrace. “I missed you, man.” At six two, Mack stood nearly eye to eye with Steve.

  “Me too, bro,” Steve said. “How are you guys? How’s Casey?” Casey was Mack and Will’s younger brother. A late-in-life baby for their parents, at twenty-two Casey was thirteen years younger than Mack. He’d been just a boy when Mack and Steve had gone off to college.

  “Casey’s good. He’s living with me, finding his way. You know. We’re all back to the bump and grind of the business world. Trying to wrap up Dad’s estate.” Mack had moved away from Weston after college to work for a computer software development company and had settled in Allure, a neighboring town. He glanced curiously at Shannon.

  “This is Shannon Braden.” Without any cognitive thought, Steve placed a possessive hand on her back again. “She’s doing research up on the mountain.”

  “Related to Hal?” Mack asked, flashing the killer smile. He and Will were a year apart, and they looked like twins, with deep-set pale blue eyes, olive skin, and jet-black hair, all of which made them chick magnets. Their outgoing personalities helped with the ladies, too.

  “He’s my uncle,” Shannon said, flashing her own pearly whites.

  “He’s a good man,” Mack said, pulling his phone from his pocket. “Let me get Will up here. He’s down at the barn.” He thumbed a text and shoved the phone in his pocket, then winked at Steve and said, “He’s probably up in that loft.”

  Steve laughed. “Good times, Mack. Good times.”

  “Come on. Let’s sit down and talk. Can I get y’all a drink?” Mack led them to the slate patio. “Soda? Water? Beer?”

  “Shannon?” Steve asked, pulling a chair out from beneath the glass table for her.

  “I’m okay, thanks.” She sat down, and he claimed the seat beside her.

  “I’m cool, too. Thanks for making time for me today, Mack. I know you’re busy.”

  “Man, you’re like our brother.” Mack took the seat opposite Steve. “You know we’ll always make time for you.”

  “You can’t imagine how much that means to me. You know I feel the same way.” Steve rose to his feet as Will came up the hill. Will’s eyes made a beeline for Shannon, who looked radiant with the sun beating down on her beautiful face. Steve set a hand on the back of her chair, hating himself a little for laying claim to a woman who wasn’t his.

  “Steve!” Will opened his arms and yanked him in tight. “Damn, I’ve missed you.”

  “Missed you, too, bud.” He hadn’t seen them since a few weeks after their father passed away.

  “Who’s this gorgeous creature?” Will bent down on one knee beside Shannon and kissed her hand.

  “Get up, you fool,” Mack said. “Can’t you see she’s spoken for?”

  “No, I’m not,” Shannon said, wrinkling her nose in confusion.

  Steve tried to remember why he’d thought it was a good idea for her to come along when he knew damn well Will and Mack would be crazy not to try to pick her up.

  “Will, Shannon Braden. Shannon, Will Cumberland.” Steve grabbed Will by the arm and lifted him to his feet. “Braden. As in Rex will kick your ass halfway across the state if you mess with her.”

  Will laughed and sat across from Shannon. “As I remember it, he kicked your ass for saying you wouldn’t
mind getting a piece of his sister, Savannah.”

  “Yeah, let’s not go there.” Steve scrubbed a hand down his face.

  “Really?” Shannon’s eyes lit up. “Oh my gosh, you have to tell me about that.”

  “No, I don’t,” Steve said, hoping to throw her off the scent of that particularly embarrassing story.

  “Rex is so possessive,” Shannon said. “You should see him with their new baby, Hal, named for Rex’s father, of course. I swear that baby is attached to Rex every minute he’s not running the ranch, and half the time when he is. He’s so freaking adorable. Anyway, Rex is the same way with his nieces and nephews. He’s always got kids clinging to him. No one messes with Rex Braden’s family.” She grabbed Steve’s arm and leaned in so close her breath became his. “I want every last detail. Did you put up a good fight, at least?”

  “Wow, you don’t let up, do you?” Mack said with a grin. “She definitely has Braden blood.”

  “Thank you,” Shannon said with a proud smile.

  “She’s tenacious,” Steve agreed. “Since we’re not here to talk about old times, how about I share that with you later?” Like in a million years.

  “Oh, right.” She pressed her lips together but failed in containing her contagious smile. She lowered her voice and whispered, “But if you don’t tell me, I’ll ask Rex.”

  Will and Mack burst into laughter.

  “Damn, you are a wild one,” Will said. “How’d you like to have a drink with me tonight?”

  Mack’s brows rose with amusement. Steve’s slanted in anger.

  WOW. STEVE KNEW how to pick his friends. Mack and Will were smokin’ hot. They looked like a double shot of Henry Cavill, complete with matching dimples in their chins. But they had nothing on her grizzly man. She shifted her eyes to Steve, who had a death stare locked on Will. He quickly tried to mask the threatening look with splayed hands and a halfhearted smile.

  With hope that he wasn’t messing with her after all, she said, “Actually, I’m supposed to scout locations for my research with Steve tonight.”