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The Texan's Tennessee Romance / The Rancher & the Reluctant Princess: The Texan's Tennessee Romance / The Rancher & the Reluctant Princess
Christine Flynn

GINA WILKINS


The Texan’s Tennessee Romance Gina WilkinsAfter a false accusation destroyed her career, Natalie Lofton’s priority was getting her life back. An irresistible mongrel pup and a gorgeous handyman were distractions she couldn’t afford! What could she do about the tender feelings that Casey Walker awakened in her?The Rancher & the Reluctant Princess Christine Flynn The Montana ranch was the perfect hideaway for Princess Sophie Saxe. Until she found herself falling for a stubborn, sexy cowboy. Two people from such different worlds that a future together seemed impossible – but Sophie learned that the rancher always got his way!










THE TEXAN’S TENNESSEE ROMANCE

“I’m not looking for any commitments right now, either,” said Casey. “Just not the right time.


“For a pet,” he added.



Natalie looked at him through her lashes. “So you think we’ll be able to find a home for him?”



“I’m sure we will.” He brushed a strand of hair away from her face. “Don’t worry so much about it. He’s pretty good at taking care of himself.”



“I know.” She glanced up at him.



He toyed with the ends of her hair around her face, then touched her mouth with one finger, teasing her lips apart.



A faint flush tinged her cheeks. He felt his own pulse beating as his body reacted to the nearness of hers. He wanted to tell her how beautiful she was, but he couldn’t think of a way to do so without sounding trite or clichéd. He hoped she could see the sentiment in his eyes as he lowered his mouth to hers…




THE RANCHER & THE RELUCTANT PRINCESS

“You don’t get what you want very often, do you, Princess?” Carter asked softly.


Sophie gave a small, almost imperceptible shake of her head.



“That’s what I thought,” he murmured, and cupped her face with both hands.



It’s just a kiss, he told himself, lowering his head to hers. Just a kiss to take away that lonely look from her eyes. But that was before he felt the softness of her mouth beneath his and breathed in her small sigh.

The quick heat darting through him demanded that he kiss her more deeply, pull her taut little body into his arms, know the feel of her small breasts against his chest. She would fit perfectly there. She would fit perfectly everywhere.



With his body demanding more, but his mind telling him he’d already done more than he should, his hands drifted from her face. “That wasn’t because you’re a princess…”





The Texan’s Tennessee Romance


By




Gina Wilkins

The Rancher & The Reluctant Princess


By




Christine Flynn











www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)




Available in September 2010

from Mills & Boon®

Special Moments™


The Texas Billionaire’s Bride by Crystal Green & The Texas Bodyguard’s Proposal by Karen Rose Smith

Kids on the Doorstep by Kimberly Van Meter & Cop on Loan by Jeannie Watt

The Texan’s Tennessee Romance by Gina Wilkins & The Rancher & the Reluctant Princess by Christine Flynn

Loving the Right Brother by Marie Ferrarella

A Weaver Baby by Allison Leigh

A Small-Town Temptation by Terry McLaughlin

A Not-So-Perfect Past by Beth Andrews





The Texan’s Tennessee Romance


By



Gina Wilkins


GINA WILKINS is a bestselling and award-winning author who has written more than seventy novels for Mills & Boon. She credits her successful career in romance to her long, happy marriage and her three “extraordinary” children.

A lifelong resident of central Arkansas, Ms Wilkins sold her first story to Mills & Boon in 1987 and has been writing full-time since. She has appeared on the Waldenbooks, B Dalton and USA TODAY bestseller lists. She is a three-time recipient of the Maggie Award for Excellence, sponsored by Georgia Romance Writers, and has won several awards from the reviewers of Romantic Times BOOKreviews.


As always, for my family:

John, Courtney, Kerry, Justin and David.




Chapter One


He was quite possibly one of the worst maintenance men Natalie Lofton had ever seen. Pretty, but incompetent. Watching as he fumbled with a leaky pipe under her kitchen sink, she wondered where on earth her aunt and uncle had found this twenty-something guy, who had introduced himself only as Casey. She couldn’t imagine what had made them think he was qualified to be a handyman for the vacation cabins they owned in the Smoky Mountains around Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

“Is there anything I can do to help you?” she asked the third time she heard an ominous clang followed by a muttered curse.

Her voice from the doorway must have startled him. She saw his nice backside jerk, heard what sounded like a painful thump from beneath the sink and then yet another colorful expletive, bitten off midway.

He emerged ruefully rubbing a spot on the top of his head, and she couldn’t help noticing again that he was certainly good-looking. His appearance, she decided, defied simple, one-word adjectives. His hair was just a shade more brown than blond, and his almost-crystalline-bright eyes looked blue one moment, green the next. His jawline was sharply carved, but flashing dimples softened his cheeks. She suspected his personality was just as multifaceted.

“What did you say?” he asked.

She moved closer, bending over to see what he’d been doing under there. How much time did it take to replace a leaky trap, anyway? “I asked if there’s anything I can do to help.”

“Thanks, but I’ve got it. It won’t be much longer.”

“Uh-huh.” She hoped she didn’t sound as skeptical as she felt.

His polite smile fading, he ducked back under the sink, flipping over to lie on his back this time. She couldn’t help noticing that he looked just as good from waist down as he did above. Long legs, flat stomach, nice…

“Could you hand me that wrench, please? The big one?”

She picked up the biggest wrench she saw in his box and leaned over to hand it to him. “This one?”

“Yeah, thanks.”

She watched as he fitted it to the pipe. “Um, don’t you think you should—”

“What?” he asked loudly, unable to hear from beneath the sink. Even as he spoke, he gave the wrench a big twist. She saw the wrench slip, smashing through the thin copper water pipe next to him.

Cold water sprayed in a geyser from the broken pipe, hitting her squarely in the face. Gasping, she heard Casey sputter as he lay at the bottom of a veritable waterfall. While she stumbled backward, he scrambled frantically clanging and muttering until he reduced the gushing to a dribble by turning off the water valve.

“—shut off the water supply?” she finished her question in a grumble.

“I am so sorry,” he said, awkwardly climbing from beneath the sink. He was even wetter than Natalie, if that was possible. His light brown hair dripped around his face, and his blue polo shirt was plastered to his well-defined chest.

Which reminded her…

Glancing downward, she noted that her thin, yellow cotton shirt had molded itself to her, going almost transparent when wet. She grabbed hold of the front, pulling the fabric away from her body. “I’ll go find some towels.”

He raised his gaze quickly to her face. “Yeah, okay. I’m really sorry.”

She nodded and darted out of the kitchen, heading straight for the cabin’s only bedroom. She wasn’t bringing towels to him until she had changed her shirt.

Catching a glimpse of herself in the antique oval mirror over the rustic dresser, she groaned. Water trickled from the ends of her chin-length, honey-blond, angled bob. The bare minimum of makeup she’d applied that morning was water-splotched. And her now-transparent shirt made it very clear that she’d donned a comfy—and very thin—nude-toned bra that morning.

She changed quickly into a dry, slightly thicker bra and a dark blue, scoop-neck T-shirt. Deciding her jeans weren’t damp enough to change, she ran a brush through her wet hair. After dusting a little powder over her now-shiny face, she grabbed an armload of towels and headed back toward the kitchen where surely the world’s worst handyman waited for her.



Way to go, Casey. Drench one of the tenants. The owner’s niece, to make it even worse. Some handyman you are.

Of course, that was the problem. He wasn’t a handyman at all. Just a twenty-six-year-old man in the middle of an identity crisis.

“Here.” Reentering the room, Natalie tossed a fluffy white towel to him. “Dry yourself. I’ll start on the floor.”

He draped the towel over his head and rubbed his soaked hair, then dragged it over his neck and the front of his shirt. While he did so, he watched Natalie kneel to swab up the water pooled on the oak floor. She’d changed clothes, he noted. He tried to push away a lingering image of her wet, yellow shirt plastered to very nice curves.

“I’ll have to install a new pipe. And the flooring of the cabinet needs to be replaced,” he said. “The slow leak you found has pretty much rotted it out.”

“The fast leak you created didn’t help any, either,” she muttered, gathering wet towels to carry into the small laundry room attached to the kitchen.

He supposed he deserved that. But it rather annoyed him, anyway. Especially since he’d broken the damn pipe because she’d distracted him and made him self-conscious by watching him and talking to him while he was trying to work. Serious control issues, this one.

As if she’d read a hint of his thoughts in his eyes, she grimaced slightly. “Sorry,” she said, pushing a damp strand of hair off her cheek. “I know it was an accident.”

“Yeah. But you’re right. I didn’t help matters much,” he conceded, softened by her apology. No matter how grudgingly she’d offered it.

“How long have you worked for Uncle Mack?” she asked, glancing at the tool box beside his feet.

“Just over a week now.”

“And how long have you been a handyman?”

“Maintenance facilitator,” he corrected her with a grin. When she only looked at him, he shrugged and said, “Just over a week now.”

“Oh.” She looked as though she’d like to ask a few more questions, but either manners or lack of sufficient interest kept her from doing so. Whatever the reason, he was relieved that she kept her questions to herself.

There were a few things he would like to know about her, too. But this wasn’t the time. He reached down for his tools. “I’m going to have to get a new copper pipe to replace the one I broke. Might have to get some help changing it out. I’m afraid you’re going to be without water in here for a few hours, but you still have water in the bathroom.”

She nodded. “Aunt Jewel told me the cabin is undergoing renovations and repair work. That’s why she’s letting me use it while I—for now,” she corrected herself. “I can get by without the kitchen sink for a while.”

“Okay. Well then, I’ll be back later,” he said, moving toward the door. “Sorry again about—you know.” He motioned toward her still damp hair, then let himself out of the cabin before he made a bigger fool of himself.

Which wouldn’t be easy to do, he thought as he climbed into the black SUV parked in the gravel driveway. He hadn’t exactly wowed Natalie with his maintenance skills. No wonder she had wanted to know how long he’d been doing this.

Because it was the first week in November, the fall colors had begun to fade, and the leaves were already beginning to drop. It wasn’t cold yet, but a nip in the air promised that it would be soon. Driving down the winding mountain road that ran alongside one of the many rushing creeks in the area, Casey noted the signs of approaching winter, even as he wondered what Natalie would have said if he’d told her the whole truth about himself.

He’d been doing a few maintenance chores for the past week, but he was actually an associate attorney in a high-powered, Dallas law firm. One of the youngest ever hired by the firm, starting right after earning his law degree when he was only twenty-four.

The six-week leave of absence he’d taken almost two weeks ago hadn’t exactly cemented his future with the firm. No one but his cousin Molly Reeves understood or approved of his need to take that time now to reevaluate his life and the future that had been laid out for him almost from birth. Molly and her husband, Kyle, partners in Mack and Jewel McDooley’s vacation property management business, had given him a place to stay during the hiatus, and the space he needed to deal with his issues.

As payment for their hospitality, he’d volunteered to fill in for the regular full-time handyman, who’d been in a car accident recently and wouldn’t be able to work for at least another month. Molly had been understandably skeptical about his offer. She knew he hadn’t spent a lot of time working with his hands while he’d concentrated on school for most of his life. But he’d convinced her and the others that he could handle some simple repair work.

And darned if he hadn’t messed up for the first time right in front of the owner’s niece, he thought with a scowl. Not only that—the owner’s very hot niece.

He didn’t know what he’d been expecting when Mack mentioned that his wife’s niece was staying in one of the cabins for a few weeks, but the woman he’d met that morning had taken him by surprise. Tall and classy, she was a cool blond with warm chocolate eyes. Her age was hard to guess, but he’d estimated a little older than himself. The extra couple of years looked good on her.

She’d even held on to her dignity for the most part when he’d doused her with cold water from beneath the sink. He could still see her standing there, dripping, her wet shirt clinging to her like a second skin, her expression more exasperated than angry. He doubted that she would have appreciated knowing the thoughts that had gone through his mind at that moment, though he’d tried very hard to rein them in.

He wondered what her story was. All he’d been told was that she was taking a quiet, solitary vacation while she was between jobs. He hadn’t been informed, nor had he asked, what she did for a living or what she might be hiding from in her isolated mountain retreat.

He shook his head impatiently, bringing the speculation to an abrupt end. Just because he had issues that had sent him running to the mountains to brood and reevaluate his life didn’t mean everyone else was in the same boat. Maybe Natalie just wanted to take advantage of a free vacation in her relatives’ under-renovation cabin.

And maybe he was going to sprout wings and fly. He didn’t know Natalie Lofton or the details of her current situation, but the studied calm of her demeanor hadn’t completely hidden the storm in her deep brown eyes. That was one of his talents—reading other people’s emotions, no matter how hard they tried to keep them hidden. The skill had served him well in his law career, giving him an edge that he had never hesitated to exploit.

So while he might not know what was eating at Natalie, he knew something was. And he suspected that she wouldn’t be averse to taking her frustration out on the less-than-proficient handyman.

Casey returned just after lunch. Natalie let him back in, noting that he’d brought help this time. “Hello, Kyle,” she greeted the second man.

A hard-carved ex-soldier in his mid-thirties, Kyle Reeves had been the McDooleys’ business partner for almost five years. Their late son, Tommy—Natalie’s favorite cousin in her childhood—had been Kyle’s best friend. They had served in the military together for several years, until a roadside bomb in the Middle East had ended Tommy’s life and almost killed Kyle at the same time.

It had taken Kyle a long time to recover, both physically and emotionally. He still walked with a slight limp and had a few faintly visible scars, which only added to his rough appeal.

Because Kyle had no family of his own, Mack and Jewel had taken him in. They had given him encouragement and support and had found in him a reason to put aside their grief and focus on someone else who needed them. He had become a surrogate son to them, and Natalie had no question that they loved him like one. Nor did she doubt that Kyle would willingly die for either of the couple who had given him a reason to keep living when, from what she had surmised, he’d been all too close to giving up.

Kyle returned her greeting with a nod. “How’s it going, Natalie? You comfortable here?”

“Very much so, thank you. It’s a lovely cabin.”

“It will be when we’ve finished the renovations.” He glanced at Casey with a wry half smile. “And if I can keep my cousin-in-law, here, from flooding the place.”

“Cousin-in-law?” she repeated, glancing at Casey, who stood quietly behind the man who was probably his senior by a decade. “You’re Molly’s cousin?”

He nodded. “On my father’s side. My last name is Walker, which was Molly’s maiden name.”

“I didn’t realize.” But it explained a lot, she decided. She knew now how he’d gotten the job.

He grinned as though he had somehow read her thoughts. “Gotta love nepotism, right?”

Her lips twitched with a smile she had a hard time containing. At least he admitted he hadn’t been hired for his maintenance skills.

“Molly told me to ask you to dinner,” Kyle said, shifting a heavy toolbox in his left hand. “Maybe Friday night?”

Though she still wasn’t feeling very social, it seemed ungracious to decline. “I’d like that. Tell her I said thank you.”

He nodded again. “She’ll be pleased. Since Micah was born, she hasn’t been able to get out much. She spends a lot of time with the kids and with Jewel, but she’ll enjoy having someone new to talk with for a change.”

Because she’d been so busy with her career the past few years, Natalie hadn’t been able to visit her aunt and uncle much. She had met Molly only a few times, but she liked Kyle’s bubbly, redheaded wife quite a bit. The young mother of three-year-old Olivia and two-month-old Micah had an infectious smile and an inviting Texas drawl. She seemed to have a knack for putting people at ease within minutes of meeting her. She had certainly done so with Natalie.

Leaving the men to work in the big, eat-in kitchen, Natalie returned to the bedroom she’d been sleeping in since she’d arrived four nights ago. This was the only real bedroom, though the couch in the large living room was a sleeper that pulled out into a queen-sized bed. The cabin had two bathrooms, a smaller one with a shower off the living room, and the master bathroom with a shower-tub combo. The master bath was also being renovated during this off-season remodel. A new toilet, sink and countertop had already been installed. There was no mirror in the bathroom now, though she could see that one had hung above the sink.

She’d been told that a new mirror would be installed within the next few days. In the meantime, she was able to use the mirror over the bedroom dresser for applying her makeup and doing her hair.

Like the rest of the small, older vacation cabin, the bedroom decor was country casual. A big iron bed was covered with a hand-pieced quilt for a bedspread and lots of comfy pillows. Matching oak nightstands topped with a pair of antique lamps sat on either side of the bed. Country prints hung on the log walls. What appeared to be homemade lace curtains framed the window that looked out over the mountaintops. Too bad she hadn’t been able to really appreciate the stunning view while she’d been here.

Her laptop sat on the tiny writing desk in one corner of the room. The screen saver had activated, and colorful animated fish swam across the screen. She’d always wanted a real aquarium, but her demanding career had taken so much of her time that she wouldn’t have been able to maintain or enjoy one.

She had time for an aquarium now, she thought glumly. Not that she would be able to afford one once her savings were depleted, as they would be rather quickly if the private investigator she had hired recently didn’t come up with some answers soon.

A flick of the wireless mouse made the screen saver disappear, replaced by a list of her former associates in the large Nashville law firm where she had worked for the past four-and-a-half years. It was a lengthy list—thirty-five members, seventy-five associates, and fifteen staff attorneys, which didn’t even count all the clerical staff. A big firm. A lot of suspects. And she could rule out only about half of them. She wondered if Rand Beecham, the rather eccentric P.I., had had any more success in the week that had passed since her last update from him.

She heard a clang from the kitchen, and a curse that sounded like Casey’s voice, followed by a quick laugh that might have come from Kyle. She glanced that way, then looked back at the names on her screen, her slight smile fading. Someone on this list had set her up, framed her for leaking confidential client information to the media in return for under-the-table payments. Because of that untrue accusation, she had lost a position she’d spent several long, hard years working to achieve. Until she proved her innocence, her career—her very life—was on hold.



“So, when are you coming home?”

Leaning back in a patio chair on the deck of the tiny, A-frame cabin in which he was staying—one of the two cabins currently under renovation and not rented during this off-peak season, the other being Natalie’s—Casey gazed at the wooded path stretched in front of him, and tried to come up with a satisfactory answer to his cousin’s question. “I don’t know, exactly,” he said into the cell phone he held to his ear. “A couple more weeks, maybe.”

“You’ve been there almost two weeks already,” Aaron Walker complained. “What are you doing there all this time?”

“Kyle and Mack are renovating two of their vacation cabins during the off season, and I volunteered to give them a hand.”

“You’re doing carpentry work?” Aaron made no effort to hide his skepticism.

“Yeah. And a little plumbing. Some painting. Cleaning gutters. That sort of thing.”

“You. Plumbing. That can’t be good.”

Casey was glad Aaron couldn’t see him wince as he remembered the way he’d soaked Natalie with a spray of cold water. Wouldn’t Aaron and his twin, Andrew, have gotten unholy delight out of that scene? Not to mention their slightly older cousin, Jason, who was always commenting on the younger trio’s proclivity for trouble.

Maybe he’d tell them about his first real attempt at plumbing sometime. But not now. “I’m doing okay. Kyle said I’ve been a lot of help.”

“Yeah, well, you’ve had your vacation and you’ve gotten to play with tools. So, don’t you think it’s time to come home now? Everybody’s asking about you. And this hiatus can’t look good to the powers that be at your firm. If it weren’t for the family connections, there’s no way they’d have let a junior associate take off this long without repercussions.”

Casey scowled in response to the reminder of those “family connections.” It was true that his paternal aunt Michelle D’Alessandro was one of the firm’s wealthiest and most prestigious clients. And that his maternal grandfather was a nationally known and admired prosecutor in Chicago, who’d roomed with the senior partner in Casey’s Dallas firm years ago back in their college days and had maintained that friendship ever since. And that Casey’s father was a partner in the largest and most respected private investigation and security company in Dallas and his mother the CEO of an acclaimed accounting firm. All of which might have gotten him hired in the first place, but he’d worked damned hard to justify that decision. He’d earned every dollar of his generous paychecks.

At least, he’d thought so until he’d lost the first truly high-profile case he’d been assigned. Not only had it been a defeat, it had been a particularly painful, public and humiliating one. His friends and family had rallied around him, assuring him that every attorney suffered losses, but there had been more than a few in the Dallas legal community who had taken great pleasure in seeing “the wonderboy,” as they had dubbed him, taken down a few pegs.

A week after that loss, he had suffered a second career blow. Only that time, at the hands of an arrogant young man Casey had successfully defended in a previous charge, an innocent person had died. And Casey still wondered if he was at least partially to blame for that tragedy.

“I just needed some time off,” he insisted to his cousin. “I haven’t had a break in—well, ever. Working every summer during high school and college, straight into law school, and from there directly into the job at the firm. I always meant to take a vacation, but the time never seemed to be right.”

“And you think it’s right now?” Aaron asked skeptically. “After—well, you know?”

“After I lost the Parmenter case, you mean? Yeah. I think I need this vacation now more than I’ve ever needed it before.”

There was a long pause, and then Aaron spoke again, an uncharacteristic note of caution in his voice. “Um, I suppose you’ve heard that Tamara and Fred have been getting a lot of face time around town lately?”

“Yeah, I heard they’ve been seen together at every highbrow event in Dallas for the past few weeks. And that they have an uncanny talent for being in exactly the right place every time a flashbulb goes off so their picture makes the society pages the next day.”

“Carly said she and Richard attended a charity thing this past weekend and Tamara was there flashing a doorknob-sized diamond ring. No official engagement has been announced, but…well, Carly said Tamara was looking very much like a canary-eating cat.”

“That I can believe.”

“So, uh, if they are engaged—how do you feel about that?”

“Honestly, I don’t care. If Tamara wants to marry Fred, more power to her. I hope they’ll have a great life with a couple of McMansions, two perfect kids, and a permanent spot on the social registry. That’s what she always dreamed of.”

“And she thought she was going to get there with you.”

“I guess. Until she decided that Fred will get her there faster, already being a partner in a rival firm and all.”

She had made that decision, at least openly, right after Casey’s big courtroom loss. Apparently, she’d been debating it for some time before that. And she had explored her options by seeing Fred behind Casey’s back, a juicy tidbit that had been discussed in the break rooms and around the water coolers for several weeks before Tamara had bothered to bring him into the loop. She had done so with a blunt announcement that their long-standing, though unofficial, engagement was at an end.

It took a great deal of effort, sacrifice and ruthless calculation to make it to the very peak of the social heap, she had informed him entirely without irony. She had at first thought he was willing to invest himself fully in that mission, but lately she’d been having doubts. She had no such reservations about Fred, who cared every bit as much about status and image as she did.

“You really should come home,” Aaron urged again, breaking into Casey’s grim memories. “Be seen around town with a couple of hot women. Andy and I just happen to know a few to introduce you to. Show Tamara, and everyone else, that you’re not sitting around pining for her. Get back to work, win a couple of big cases, prove you’ve still got the stuff, which we all know you do. Have some fun, raise some hell on the weekends. Just like the old days, you know?”

Casey knew what “old days” his cousin referred to. In their teens, he and the twins had been known in the family as “the terrible trio” because of the lengths they had gone to in pursuit of a good time. Practical jokes, daredevil escapades, impulsive road trips. Weekends had been their time to raise some hell. And they had excelled at that as much as they had in their separate educational pursuits.

“I’ll be home soon,” he said, unwilling to commit any more than that. “Besides, Molly and Kyle really do need my assistance for a little while longer. Their regular maintenance guy won’t be back for several more weeks. Kyle and Mack stay busy all the time trying to keep up and it helps that I can do some of the easier stuff. Gives Kyle a little more time to spend with Molly and the kids.”

He knew that was one argument Aaron would have a hard time contesting. All the cousins had a soft spot for Molly. Not to mention that family always came first for the entire Walker clan, so giving a father more time with his wife, toddler daughter and infant son would be something they’d all consider worth the effort.

Sure enough, Aaron didn’t seem to know quite what to say, except “Well, try not to destroy anything there, okay? You’re a lawyer, not a carpenter. And don’t stay too long. Frankly, I seem to be more worried about your career than you are.”

“Says the guy who is thinking of making a big job change.”

“That’s because I don’t like what I’m doing now. That isn’t true for you.”

“Yeah. Um. Right.”

They disconnected a few minutes later on a pleasant enough note, though Aaron’s warnings about Casey’s possible career jeopardy had left Casey feeling tense and irritable. To distract himself, he settled more comfortably in his chair and focused on the beauty of the wooded hillsides around him. And then he realized that an even more appealing picture had taken shape in his mind—Natalie Lofton, standing wet and startled in front of him, her thin, almost-transparent shirt revealing just enough to make his pulse race.

He was a bit surprised by the clarity of the mental image. His life was in enough turmoil right now, he told himself. He didn’t need an inconvenient attraction to a woman who seemed to be in as much of a quandary as he was.

Or maybe that was exactly what he needed, he mused, tugging thoughtfully at his lower lip. Hadn’t Aaron just said that he should start seeing other women, forget about Tamara, put his troubles out of his mind? Which meant he should be open to possibilities as he worked on the cabin in which Natalie was staying.

He would be seeing her again, he thought with a buzz of anticipation. Soon.




Chapter Two


Casey Walker was in Natalie’s cabin again, this time in her bedroom.

Sitting at the round oak table in the kitchen with her computer in front of her, Natalie could hear him banging around as he removed the wobbly old ceiling fan and prepared to install another. She hadn’t been able to resist expressing her concern about his ability to handle that task, but he’d scowled and assured her that he knew what he was doing. He and Kyle had installed a new fan in one of the other cabins only the day before, he’d informed her.

When he finished replacing the fan, he was going to hang the new mirror in the bathroom. He planned to accomplish both those tasks before he left today.

Listening to the unnerving noises coming from the back of the cabin, Natalie wondered if Kyle was investing too much confidence in his wife’s cousin.

She had offered to help, but Casey had politely declined. She suspected that he hadn’t wanted her watching him. At least he’d had the foresight to turn off the electricity to the back part of the cabin, so he was working in the sunlight streaming through the big bedroom window.

She’d just happened to observe, of course, that he looked very good standing in that sunlight, which brought out the gold strands in his blondish-brown hair.

Frowning, she turned her attention back to the monitor in front of her. It showed how frustrating this research was that she was so easily distracted by the sight of a young stud in a tool belt. Hadn’t she learned her lesson when Thad had been so eager to distance himself from her after the humiliating debacle at her law firm? Great-looking young guys were always on the prowl, hunting for a good time, but quick to disappear whenever any sign of trouble cropped up.

So maybe she’d noticed Casey looking at her when he thought she wouldn’t see, and maybe she was aware of a muted sizzle between them. Maybe she would have been intrigued by the possibility of a careful holiday flirtation if it hadn’t been for the cloud hanging over her head. As it was, she had neither the time nor the energy to give in to impulse now. Or at least she tried to convince herself of that, even as she savored another mental image of the way Casey looked in his soft work shirt and weathered jeans.

Maybe she had a little extra time…

A particularly loud thump from the back room made her start. After a momentary internal debate, she rose and moved that way, half expecting to find pieces of ceiling scattered across the floor of the bedroom.

Casey glanced around when she stopped in the doorway. The old ceiling fan sat on the floor at his feet, entirely in one piece as far as she could tell. Wires dangled from the fixture in the ceiling, but it seemed that everything was under control.

“Sorry,” he said. “I set it down a bit more heavily than I intended. I hope I didn’t distract you from anything important.”

Oh, he distracted her, all right. She just didn’t think it was a good idea to let him know that. “No, I was just checking to see if you need any assistance. Maybe I could help you hold the new fan while you install it?”

“Actually, Kyle showed me how to balance it while I connect everything. It’s just a small, fairly lightweight fan. But thanks for the offer.”

She nodded. “I’ll be in the kitchen if you need me for anything.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Back at the kitchen table, she stared again at the long list of names on her computer monitor. During the past thirty-six hours, she had shortened the list of suspects. By two names. Both of whom were dead. And she’d gotten to the point that she wasn’t even entirely sure of their innocence. She hoped Beecham would call her today. If not, she was going to try to reach him and ask if he’d made any further progress with his investigation. She was certainly making no headway with her own.

Disgusted with herself, with the entire situation, she pushed the computer away with a low growl. A beeping sound made her pull it back again.



Hey, Nat. U there?



The instant message had popped up on her screen from a sender whose screen name was “GlitRChik” and whose avatar was a slightly crazed-looking fairy.

I’m here, Natalie typed back. What’s up?



Been doing some snooping.



Natalie replied quickly, Call me on my cell, Amber. Don’t put anything in writing.



Sorry



A moment later, Natalie’s cell phone chimed. She lifted it to her ear with only a perfunctory glance at the ID screen. “Hello.”

“Hi, Nat.”

“Don’t write anything down,” Natalie repeated firmly. “Especially on your computer. Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I think I have some reason to be concerned.”

“I know you do,” Amber Keller, Natalie’s former assistant, sympathized. “I didn’t think about IMs leaving a paper trail.”

“They do. As I said, I’m probably being overly cautious, but still…what have you learned?”

“Not a lot,” her friend and former subordinate confessed. “Just one sort of interesting tidbit.”

“Which is?” Natalie prodded, even as a series of thumps sounded from the bedroom, making it hard to concentrate.

“Hang on a sec.” She stood and moved toward the kitchen doorway, thinking she would hear better if she went outside to the big wooden deck attached to the back of the vacation cabin. Closing the door behind her, she let a brisk, late-autumn breeze toss her hair as she sank into a green-painted Adirondack chair. “Okay. Now. What interesting tidbit?”

“Cathy Linski just bought a new car. A pretty fancy one. Convertible.”

Frowning, Natalie asked, “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. What does that have to do with me?”

“Well, a month ago, Cathy was whining about not having any money and being on the brink of bankruptcy. Now all of a sudden she’s spending money like crazy. When someone asked her what’s going on, she just laughed and said she came into a windfall and she’s going to enjoy it while it lasts.”

“Oh. That is interesting,” Natalie murmured, following Amber’s line of thought. She wondered if Beecham knew about this development.

“Yeah. It’s not much to report—might have nothing at all to do with your situation—but I thought you’d want to know.”

“That’s all you have?”

“I’m afraid so. Everyone’s been pretty closemouthed around here for the past couple of weeks. Nobody mentions you at all.”

Natalie bit her lower lip, then released it with a slight sigh. “Okay. Thanks, Amber. Let me know if you hear anything else, okay?”

“You got it. I’d better get back to work. Steve’s not nearly as tolerant as you were about personal time during the workday.”

“Don’t risk your job because of me. You can always call me when you get home. It’s not like I’m doing anything else in the evenings.”

“You want my advice? Try to have a little fun while you’re there in the mountains. You’ve been working too hard for a couple of years. This is your first time off work in, like, forever. Surely there’s some interesting guy there who can help you work off some frustration, if you know what I mean.”

Natalie didn’t have to ask for clarification. Amber thought there were few problems that couldn’t be alleviated by a night of partying. A hard worker during the week, she was an equally zealous fun-seeker during the weekends. She’d nagged Natalie for months to join her at some of the wilder Nashville clubs on a Friday or Saturday night, promising a “hot time” that would make all the tension knots in her neck and shoulders mysteriously disappear. Amber couldn’t understand why Natalie had been at all hesitant to accept.

At the time, Natalie had been worried about damaging her image as a serious, hardworking, ambitious attorney. Little had she known then that her reputation would soon take a much harder hit than if she’d merely been seen partying in a few clubs.

As for “some interesting guy”…she glanced toward the back door of the cabin, thinking of Casey, and knowing exactly how Amber would react if she could see him. She’d be all over the sexy maintenance man like “white on rice,” as Aunt Jewel would say, and she’d think Natalie was crazy for not at least trying to flirt with the guy. But then, Amber wasn’t in the process of fighting for her professional life, either.

“You’d better get back to work,” she said, deciding not to address her friend’s advice. “Thanks for calling.”

“You bet. We’re going to figure out who set you up this way, Nat,” Amber said loyally. “And when we do, everybody’s going to know about it. I’ll make sure of that.”

As she disconnected the call, Natalie wished there was some way she could let Amber know how much that support meant to her. So many of the people she had considered friends had dropped her like a hot potato after she was summarily fired from her position with the firm. They had been all too willing to believe she’d let greed trump ethics and had engaged in behavior that they should have realized was utterly foreign to her.

Unable to appreciate the nice weather or the beautiful scenery surrounding her, she closed her cell phone. Her lips felt dry and she realized she was thirsty. She’d stocked the fridge with her favorite bottled water. Rising, she moved toward the door, wondering idly if Casey had finished installing the fan yet.

He was standing at the sink when she entered the kitchen. Though his back was turned to her, he seemed to be fumbling with the roll of paper towels on the counter.

“Can I help you with something?” she asked.

He started and turned toward her, his left hand cupped in front of him. Something about the way he held it made her study him more closely. Only then did she notice the blood that dripped from his palm.

Sighing lightly, she moved toward him. “What have you done now? Let me see.”



If Casey’d had access to a teleporter, he would have beamed out of there right that minute. But since his sci-fi fandom was of no use to him just then, he squared his shoulders and tried to look nonchalant even though he was bleeding all over her kitchen.

“It’s just a scratch,” he assured her, closing his fist before she could see the wound. “I’ll wash it off and wrap a paper towel around it until it scabs over and it’ll be fine.”

“You don’t get that much blood from ‘just a scratch,’” she argued, reaching for his wrist. “I think you should let me look at it.”

“What are you, a doctor?” he asked, reluctantly opening his fingers.

“No, but I played one on TV,” she answered absently, wincing as she looked at the ragged gash across his palm.

“Kidding,” she added with a glance up at his face. “I’m not an actor. Casey, this is more than a scratch. How did you do it?”

Amused by her automatic quip—so he wasn’t the only popculture fan in the room—he shrugged, having no intention of telling her exactly how he’d sliced himself. “Just carelessness. I really don’t think it’s all that bad.”

She studied his palm again and the sight of her bent over his hand, peering so closely he could feel her warm breath on his skin, made an odd feeling go down his spine. At least, he assumed it was her closeness and not blood loss causing that sensation. He was a healthy, red-blooded—hah—young man, after all.

She glanced up at him again. “You’re dripping blood all over my floor and you find it funny?” she asked a bit too politely.

He stifled his inappropriate grin, suspecting she wouldn’t share his humor in the situation. “Sorry. I’ll clean up the mess, of course.”

“First, we’re going to have to stop the bleeding.” She tugged him toward the table. “Sit down. There’s a first aid kit in the bathroom.”

“I don’t—”

She gave him a look that reminded him oddly of his mother’s famous don’t-argue-with-me expression. His libido effectively quashed, he sank into a chair.

She returned a few minutes later carrying a small, white plastic box which she set on the table and opened purposefully. He grimaced when he saw that the first item she removed was an alcohol pad. That was going to sting.

“When’s the last time you had a tetanus shot?” she asked, ripping open the packet containing the pad.

“Last year. I cut myself on some rusty barbed wire at my cousin’s ranch. Thought it was a good idea to have a tetanus shot after that.”

She dabbed the cut with the pad and he had to make an effort not to grunt. He’d anticipated correctly. It stung.

“Are you always so accident-prone?”

He frowned. “Not really.”

“Mmm.” She didn’t sound as if she entirely believed him.

He supposed he couldn’t blame her, really. He’d sprayed her with water fixing a pipe and sliced open his hand installing a fan. She’d probably expect him to break a leg or something if he had to climb a ladder.

“I don’t think you need stitches,” she said, studying the now-clean wound, which was still oozing blood, though the bleeding had slowed.

“Definitely don’t need stitches.”

She pulled out a tube of ointment and an adhesive bandage. “At least let me cover it so it will stay clean.”

He nodded, figuring that was a good idea.

Kneeling in front of him, she cradled his hand in hers as she carefully smoothed the ointment over his injury. She was wearing a thin, long-sleeved green sweater with a scoop neck. He realized that from this angle, he could see the creamy upper curves of her breasts. Any resemblance he’d seen in her to his mother disappeared. He lifted his gaze quickly to the window across the room before he embarrassed himself by visibly reacting to her crouching so close to him, looking like—well, like that, he thought with a fleeting glance back at her.

She looked up and met his eyes. “Am I hurting you?”

“No.” Aware that he’d spoken rather curtly, he looked out the window again. “Almost done?”

“Yes. Just let me—” She spread the bandage across his palm, centered the gauze part over the wound, then pressed down on the adhesive edges to secure it. “There. How does that feel?”

At that moment he didn’t feel a thing in his hand, though he was aware of plenty of sensations in other parts of him. Maybe the blood loss had affected him, he thought grimly, though he knew full well he hadn’t been injured badly enough for that to be an issue. “It feels fine. Thanks. I’d better wipe up in here and then get back to work. I still have to hang that mirror in the bathroom.”

“Are you sure you can work with that sore hand?”

“Oh, sure.” He flexed his fingers a few times in demonstration, managing not to wince with the movement. “It’s fine.”

“Did you finish installing the fan?”

“Yeah.” He had been cleaning up in there when he’d sliced himself with a box cutter while breaking down the fan’s cardboard box. Maybe he’d been a little distracted by the sight of a lacy nightgown peeking out of the top of a drawer. He had no intention of telling her either how—or why—he’d sustained the injury. “I’ll take care of this mess, and then I’ll hang the mirror and get out of your way.”

But she had already grabbed a paper towel and was scrubbing at the drops of blood on the countertop. “I’ve got this. You finish your work.”

It was obvious that she wasn’t one to be deterred once she’d made up her mind. Maybe she just wanted him to finish up and clear out quickly. Because it wasn’t worth an argument, he merely nodded. “All right. Thanks.”

She nodded in return, busily cleaning up the evidence of his latest act of clumsiness.

Shaking his head in self-reproof, he went back to her bedroom, suddenly wanting to be out of that cabin before his ego took an even harder hit. He seemed to feel that way every time he left Natalie, he thought with a rueful grimace.



Even as she drove the ten miles of winding roads down the mountain and into Gatlinburg early Friday evening, Natalie wished she could have found some reason to decline the dinner invitation that had brought her out of her solitude. Other than Casey and the one maintenance visit from Kyle, the only people Natalie had seen in the past week were her aunt and uncle. They’d popped in the day before to check on her and bring her a supply of Aunt Jewel’s home cooking, though she had assured them that wasn’t necessary.

She’d had phone calls, of course. Amber. Her dad. Her mom. All of them were worried about her, though only Amber and her father knew exactly why Natalie was no longer working for the firm in Nashville. She hadn’t even told her aunt Jewel the whole story, not wanting to upset her.

She had assured her callers that she was fine. She needed this time away. She needed the rest. She needed to regroup emotionally and wanted privacy in which to do some research on her own, while the private investigator she’d hired from the yellow pages did some discreet snooping back in Nashville. Her father was the only one who knew she’d hired the P.I.

Had her father lived in Nashville—or even in the same country—he might have gotten a bit more involved in the fight to clear his daughter’s name. But since he was currently working in the publishing industry in London, he’d been able to do little except offer long-distance advice and encouragement. Her mother, now married to a college professor in Oxford, Mississippi, tended to be more of a hand-wringer and worrier than a useful resource.

Natalie was pretty much on her own in this battle—but then, she was accustomed to taking care of herself. She’d done so since her parents had split up in a rather ugly divorce when she was eighteen.

Following the directions she’d been given, she parked in the driveway of Kyle and Molly’s lovely Gatlinburg home. They’d bought the house soon after their marriage just over four years ago. Before that, Molly had lived on a ranch in Texas and Kyle in one of the cabins they now rented out to vacationers.

A brightly colored, plastic, three-wheel riding toy partially blocked the stone walkway. Bypassing it, Natalie stepped onto the long porch that fronted the yellow frame house with pristine white trim and shutters. The inviting porch seemed well utilized. A swing at one end was padded with yellow and green patterned cushions; two rocking chairs with matching cushions sat nearby. Big planters held vibrant autumn chrysanthemums, and a couple more toys peeked from behind one of those pots.

She pressed the doorbell. What sounded like a small dog immediately went into a frenzy of barking inside, and she sighed. She wasn’t particularly fond of hyper, little purse puppies.

The door opened and Kyle greeted her with a slight smile. “Hi, Natalie. Did you have any trouble finding us?”

“Not a bit. Your directions were very good.”

“Come on in. Be quiet, Poppy,” he added with what sounded like weary resignation as he glanced down at the yapping brown-and-white Chihuahua at his feet.

“Sorry,” he said when Natalie walked in. “The stupid dog thinks he’s a Doberman. He doesn’t actually bite, he just wants you to think he will.”

“He? Didn’t you call it Poppy?”

He chuckled wryly. “Olivia named him. She loves the little fleabag.”

Poppy had already turned and ripped into another room, his job as guard dog apparently completed. Kyle gestured in the same direction, inviting Natalie to precede him. “Just follow the dog.”

Smiling, she moved toward an open doorway that led into what she assumed was a family room. The dog was now in the arms of a little girl with bright red curls and a freckled, pixie face. She looked strikingly like her mother, who rose from the couch as Natalie came in.

“Natalie,” Molly said, moving toward her. “We’re so glad you could come tonight.”

“I was delighted to be asked,” Natalie fibbed politely.

Something made her glance behind her. Casey sat quietly in a rocking chair holding an infant and meeting Natalie’s gaze with an openly amused expression that told her he knew she hadn’t expected to see him there. “Hi, Natalie.”

She managed to return the greeting casually enough. “Hello, Casey.”

“Kyle and I haven’t entertained since Micah was born, so we thought we’d turn this into a real dinner party,” Molly explained cheerily. “We invited Jewel and Mack, but Jewel had her Bible study group tonight, and Mack said he was a little tired.”

Natalie was on the verge of replying when something bumped her leg. She looked down to see Molly’s three-year-old daughter tapping with one hand against Natalie’s gray slacks in an obvious bid for attention. “Hi.”

As an only child whose friends were mostly singles, Natalie had been around very few small children. She moistened her lips and said, “Hello, Olivia.”

“This is Poppy,” the child added, holding up the wriggling dog that seemed to be doing its best to lick every inch of Olivia’s cheeks.

“Yes, Poppy and I met already.”

“C’mon, Livvie, let’s get you washed up for dinner,” Kyle said, scooping up both daughter and dog. Natalie noticed his slight limp, but it didn’t seem to impede his progress as he carried the giggling child and yipping dog out of the room.

Molly followed her family toward the door. “Make yourself comfortable, Natalie. I’ll be ready to serve dinner in about five minutes.”

“Let me help you,” Natalie offered quickly.

But Molly shook her head. “Everything’s almost ready. You stay and keep Casey company while he babysits for me.”

Great. Casey and a baby. Both of whom made her unaccountably nervous.

She perched on the edge of an armchair, mentally groping for something to say. “How’s your hand?”

He held his hand up, palm out, to show her a fresh bandage. “Much better. I’m keeping it covered just as a precaution, but I can tell it’s going to heal quickly.”

“That’s good.” That subject exhausted, she nodded toward the baby in the crook of Casey’s arm. “You look pretty comfortable. Do you have a lot of experience with kids?”

Casey glanced down at the sleeping infant and chuckled. “In our family, it’s hard to avoid them. I have fourteen first cousins on my dad’s side—Molly’s side—and several of them have kids. The Walker clan’s pretty tight, always getting together for some occasion or another. It’s not at all unusual for thirty or more of us to be gathered at the ranch that belongs to Molly’s dad, my uncle, Jared.”

Daunted by the mental image of all those relatives in one place, many of them children, she swallowed. “Wow.”

Casey laughed, making the baby start a little, though he didn’t wake up. “Yeah, a lot of people react that way.”

“How many siblings do you have?”

He shook his head. “I’m an only. But I never lacked for playmates with so many cousins. Especially the twins, Andrew and Aaron. There’s just a few months’ difference between our ages and our fathers are identical twins, so we spent a lot of time together, along with our cousin Jason D’Alessandro, who’s a couple years older than I am.”

“Your father’s a twin?”

“Right. And his brother has twin sons of his own. We’re all used to seeing double.”

“I see.” Sounded a bit confusing to her, but then, she didn’t have that much experience with family.

Her mother had a brother, but they hadn’t lived in the same state for decades and didn’t see each other very often, so Natalie hardly knew her cousins on that side. Her father had been one of four brothers. Jewel was the youngest sibling and the only girl. Because her father and Jewel had been the closest of the Lofton siblings, Natalie had seen her aunt Jewel more than the rest of the family. She’d always looked forward to summer vacations in Gatlinburg, back when her family had been intact and at least outwardly happy together.

Though he’d been a few years older than Natalie, Tommy had always been a gracious and patient host, taking his younger cousin hiking in the mountains, teaching her to fish in the numerous area streams and accompanying her to a nearby amusement park. He had even taken her white-water rafting when he was a mature eighteen and she a hero-worshipping fourteen-year-old.

She still missed Tommy with a pang like a knife through her heart whenever she remembered those happy childhood times, before her parents’ divorce and before Tommy had joined the military. That had been one of the hardest things about coming here to lick her wounds and plan her future, knowing that she would be surrounded by memories of the cousin who’d been such a happy part of her past.

The baby in Casey’s lap made a rather surprised sound and opened his eyes. He looked up to see who was holding him, then broke into a toothless grin.

“Well,” Casey said, grinning back, “you wake up happy, don’t you, tiger?”

Little Micah hooted as if in agreement.

Casey was still smiling when he glanced up at Natalie. “I’ve always had that effect on kids. They start laughing as soon as they see my face.”

“You’re very good with him,” she repeated, unable to think of anything else to say.

Casey gave the babbling baby a couple of bounces, eliciting a shrill giggle. And then he glanced at her and startled her by asking, “You want to hold him?”

She quickly held up her hands in a backing-away gesture. “No, thank you. He looks quite happy where he is.”

Casey lifted an eyebrow. “Don’t you like kids?”

“Sure I do. As long as someone else is taking care of them.”

Whatever Casey might have said in response was interrupted when Molly reappeared in the doorway. “Dinner is served, you two. Oh, the baby’s awake. Here, Casey, I’ll take him. You can show our guest of honor into the dining room.”

Passing off the baby, Casey turned with a flourish to offer his arm to Natalie. “Looks like you’re the guest of honor,” he said lightly. “And I’m the designated escort. Madam?”

She hoped no one noticed her slight hesitation before she rested her hand lightly on his arm.




Chapter Three


It was an interesting evening, Natalie thought as the meal progressed. Though well-behaved for a preschooler, Olivia enjoyed attention and didn’t mind performing for it. Kyle had to tell her a couple of times to settle down and eat, which worked for a few minutes until she thought of something else she wanted to say.

In contrast to her quiet husband, Molly was pretty much a nonstop talker. Not in a self-absorbed way, since she asked lots of questions and seemed genuinely interested in the replies. She just liked to keep the conversation lively.

Casey was charming. Articulate, amusing, quick-witted. Natalie couldn’t help wondering why he was working as a less-than-proficient maintenance man. He seemed very fond of Molly, friendly with Kyle, indulgent with Olivia. He gave every appearance of being a happy young man without a care in the world. And yet…

There was something in his eyes. Something about the very faint lines that appeared around his mouth on those rare occasions when she caught him not smiling. Maybe it was because she had her own secrets, but she had the distinct feeling that Casey’s smiles and jokes were hiding something not so happy. She didn’t know how he’d ended up working for his cousin’s husband, but something told her he had a story as depressing as her own.

She didn’t ask questions, partially because she didn’t want to encourage him to ask questions in return. She had asked her aunt and uncle not to tell anyone why she’d left her job in Nashville. Molly and Kyle knew only that she was no longer affiliated with the firm and was taking some time off while making some inquiries toward a new position. She figured they knew there was more to it than that, but they respected her privacy.

No one mentioned careers during dinner, keeping the conversation focused on the children and on local events. They talked about the summer tourist season that had recently ended and the upcoming winter season which would bring in holiday travelers and snow skiers. Gatlinburg, Pigeon Forge and the surrounding towns were all decorating for Christmas, with light displays and special Christmas shows and attractions to entice visitors.

“Maybe you’ll see some of the lights before you go back to Nashville,” Molly said to Natalie while wiping blackberry cobbler from Olivia’s chin.

“Maybe,” Natalie said noncommittally, though holiday displays were pretty much the last thing on her mind right then. She wasn’t in a holiday mood.

Though she consented to let Natalie help her clear the table after the meal, Molly refused to allow her to help clean the kitchen. “There’s very little left to do. Kyle and I will take care of it together after we put the kids to bed.”

Natalie lingered only a few minutes after the meal ended, just long enough that she hoped her visit wouldn’t qualify as an eat-and-run. Her chance to escape appeared when Micah began to fuss and Molly explained that he was ready to be fed. Natalie excused herself then, thanking both Molly and Kyle for the nice meal and telling them she’d like to get back up the mountain before it got too late.

Casey stood when she did. “I’ll walk you to your car.”

“That isn’t—”

But he’d already opened the door and was motioning for her to go out ahead of him. She stepped out, snuggling into her black leather coat when a cool night breeze swirled around her. Casey closed the door behind them then fell into step beside her. He hadn’t donned a coat over the long-sleeve denim shirt he wore loose over a light gray T-shirt and jeans, but he didn’t seem to notice the chill.

“Nice meal, wasn’t it?”

She nodded. “Very.”

“My cousin’s quite a talker.”

“I like her.”

“Everyone does. She’s a lot like her mom. My aunt Cassie.”

“Cassie? Were you named after her?”

“No. Mine’s a family name. On my mother’s side.” He pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I thought I’d come do some work on the outside of your cabin tomorrow, if that’s okay with you.”

“On a Saturday? Don’t you take weekends off?”

He shrugged. “I don’t really have anything else to do. And the weather’s supposed to be nice tomorrow. In the sixties. Might as well take advantage of it.”

Once again, she wondered about his background, and why he had nothing better to do on a nice Saturday than work on her cabin. But she simply said, “It doesn’t matter to me if you come tomorrow. I’ll be at my computer most of the day.”

She suspected that he was as curious about her as she was about him, but he seemed no more willing to open the door to questions. He nodded. “So, I’ll see you tomorrow then. I won’t come too early, so you don’t have to worry that I’ll wake you at dawn hammering or anything.”

“I tend to be an early riser anyway.” She opened her car door. “Good night, Casey.”

“Good night, Natalie. Drive carefully.”

“Yes, I will. Thanks.”

She noted in her rearview mirror that he waited until she’d started her car and exited the driveway before he turned to go back inside.



Natalie was in the living room with her laptop and a second cup of coffee when she heard Casey’s truck in the driveway the next morning. He didn’t come to the door to announce his arrival, probably because he knew she was expecting him to show up, but went straight to work on the outside repairs. She heard the hammering start and she hoped he didn’t break anything today—especially any of his bones.

She sat on a deep-cushioned, comfortable, green microsuede sofa facing a corner rock fireplace over which hung a flat-screen TV connected to a satellite dish on the roof. A DVD player, a selection of popular DVDs and a gaming system were discreetly hidden in a cabinet beside the fireplace. A recliner and a rocker were placed on either side of the couch, convenient for conversation, television or fire watching.

A wall of big windows and a sliding glass door that opened onto the deck were just beside the fireplace, providing scenic views of the surrounding mountaintops that could compete with any electronic media for entertainment value. From those windows, Natalie had watched birds, squirrels and deer emerging from the woods backed up to the small lawn area.

She tried to concentrate on her computer screen, but she had grimly decided that she was even worse at computer investigations than Casey was at maintenance work. She’d used every search engine she knew, but she’d found nothing about anyone in the firm that could be perceived as evidence that she’d been set up by one of them to take a professional fall.

So Cathy Linski had bought a new car. That was far from incontrovertible evidence of anything except possibly questionable financial judgment.

As for her P.I.—she was beginning to have some doubts about the guy. She had tried twice to reach him that morning, and had gotten nothing but his voice mail. She should have listened to her instincts when she’d first met him. A burly, former police officer in his late thirties, he’d seemed a little sleazy, a bit of a braggart and more than a little annoying. But she’d convinced herself that most private investigators were probably like that, and that she didn’t have to like him personally to work with him. But had her intuition been trying to tell her that he wasn’t going to be a reliable resource?

She set the computer aside in frustration, wondering what the hell she was supposed to do if neither her own clumsy research nor her P.I.’s efforts turned up the evidence she needed to clear her name. Try to believe that some other firm would take a chance and hire her on the basis of her word alone that she had not betrayed the attorney-client privilege for monetary gain? Open her own storefront practice and pray the scandal wasn’t uncovered to humiliate her? Give up and find another career despite the long years of training she had put in to establish this one?

A tap on the back door broke into her unhappy musings. Sighing, she walked into the kitchen, hoping the first aid kit had the supplies to handle whatever Casey’s latest crisis was.

Automatically running a hand through her hair, she opened the door. “Good morning.”

Looking as good as ever, maybe even a little better since he wore a dark green, long-sleeve T-shirt that really brought out the emerald in his multicolored eyes, Casey smiled. “Morning. Hope I’m not bothering you.”

She shook her head, thinking he couldn’t know how relieved she was to be sidetracked from what she’d been doing. “You aren’t.”

“Do you have an old bowl or pot or something I can put some food in? There’s a stray dog out here that looks pretty hungry.”

Despite not being a “dog person,” Natalie didn’t like the thought of any creature suffering. “Hold on. I’ll find something.”

He was looking over his shoulder, presumably at the stray. “Okay, thanks. If you have any scraps or leftovers—”

“I’ll look.”

It took her only a couple of minutes to unearth an empty plastic margarine tub from one of the cabinets and fill it with water. She pulled a plate of leftover meat loaf from the fridge, nuked it just long enough to soften it, and carried both food and water to Casey. “Here. Give him this.”

Casey studied the meat loaf warily. “Are there onions in this? Because onions are really bad for dogs.”

“They’re bad for me, too,” she replied with a shake of her head. “They give me headaches. No onion in the meat loaf. Just meat, egg, ketchup, a little bell pepper and a little mustard.”

“Sounds safe enough in the absence of real dog food. Better than starving, anyway.”

Mildly curious, and needing a distraction from her frustration, she followed him outside to get a look at the stray he’d found. She didn’t bother to grab a jacket. The air was cool, but the thin red sweater she wore with her jeans was sufficient. If she happened to notice that Casey looked darned good in his own jeans from behind, she didn’t let herself dwell on the view. She forced herself to search for the dog instead.

It was a medium-sized mutt, probably a mottled brown and white after a bath, but mostly brown now. Its hair was matted, and Natalie could almost count its ribs. The dog didn’t run when Casey walked slowly toward it, but neither did it allow him to get too close, slinking backward as Casey neared. Casey stopped and set the food and water on the ground, then backed away without making any sudden moves.

“There you go, buddy. It’s all yours,” he said in a low, almost crooning voice. “We’re going to stay way back here and let you have all you want.”

The dog’s nose twitched as the aroma of the hastily warmed meat loaf reached it. Head lowered, wary eyes still fixed on the watching humans, it took a couple of tentative steps forward and sniffed the food. Moments later the plate was empty and the dog was noisily lapping up water to wash down its meal.

Watching sympathetically, Natalie asked, “Should we call animal control?”

She knew very well that the dog didn’t understand her, but the minute she’d finished speaking, it turned and ran into the woods, disappearing into the trees and undergrowth.

Casey looked at her and shrugged. “I don’t see any point now. By the time someone got here, that dog could be anywhere. At least he’s had a good meal today.”

“Was it a male?”

He shrugged again. “I have no idea.”

“Oh.” Hoping the dog would find another good meal soon, she gathered the empty plate and the half-empty bowl of water to take back inside. She turned to look at the ladder propped against the cabin and an open toolbox on the ground beside it. “How’s the work going today?”

Casey pushed a hand through his hair. “Okay. I’ve been cleaning the gutters, mostly. Hammered out a couple of dents to let the water flow better. I noticed some shingles that need to be replaced, but I’ll have to have help with that, since I’ve never done roofing. And I’ve still got to caulk and do some winterizing before the really cold weather sets in. Clean and waterproof the deck. And then Kyle and I are going to install the hot tub.”

“Hot tub?”

His lips twitched. “Yeah. It’s going onto the far end of the deck. Kyle said it seems like everyone wants a hot tub with their cabins these days. A lot of the cabins around here have pool tables and arcade-style video game rooms, but they want to keep this one a little more rustic.”

“Oh, I agree,” she said, glancing at the tidy little cabin that had offered her such welcome seclusion these past few days. She supposed a hot tub on the deck wouldn’t be so bad, for vacationers who liked to soak away tension while they relaxed, but the cabin really needed nothing more. There were hiking trails nearby, a rushing stream that passed right alongside the edge of the property, bird baths and feeders, a grill and picnic table, swings and rockers and chairs on the front porch and back deck for sitting and admiring the spectacular view. Who would want to play video games when they had all of nature for a playground?

Not that she’d taken full advantage of those pleasures while she’d been here. She’d been so obsessed with her problems. She would make a point to sit out on the deck that very day, she promised herself, even if it was with her computer.

“I guess I’d better get back to work,” Casey said, turning toward the house. “I’m going to start on the deck after I finish cleaning that last gutter. You weren’t planning to use the deck today, were you?”

Mentally revising the plans she had just made, she shook her head. “Not if you need to work on it.”

“Winter’s going to be here before we know it and the maintenance work is sort of behind because of the regular handyman’s accident. I told Kyle I’d get as much done as I can today while he works on one of the other rentals.”

“Of course. I’ll let you get back to work.”

“Thanks for helping with the dog.”

She nodded and moved toward the house. An odd feeling hit her as she walked out of the sunny, pleasantly cool daylight and into the almost hauntingly empty cabin. It wasn’t exactly dark inside, since the cabin was well-lit and had plenty of windows to let in the sunlight and the mountain views. But it somehow felt dim and lonely to her as her eyes were drawn to the computer sitting on the coffee table, animated fish swimming lifelessly across the screen.

Setting the bowl and plate in the sink, she crossed her arms over her chest, chilled now in a way she hadn’t been while out in the sun with Casey.



An hour later, Casey was moving furniture off the deck when the back door opened and Natalie stepped out. She carried an insulated, stainless-steel mug and her expression was oddly guarded. Almost as if she were nervous about something.

“I made a fresh pot of coffee,” she said when he turned to look at her. “Would you like a cup?”

He had just opened a bottle of water, but he could drink that later. “Sure,” he said, pleased that she’d made the gesture. “That sounds good, thanks.”

She handed him the mug, then glanced around the deck, from which he’d already removed the Adirondack chairs and the matching end table that sat between them. He still had to move a wrought-iron umbrella table and the four iron spring chairs surrounding it, and a couple of large planters that sat on wrought iron bases to protect the decking. A wooden swing hung on chains at the far end of the deck. That, too, would need a coat of waterproofing sealant.

“Where are you putting the furniture?”

Carefully swallowing a sip of the hot coffee, he lowered the mug to answer. “At the end of the cabin, on the concrete slab with the grill and the picnic table.”

“Could you use some help moving the rest of it? I’d like to do something useful since Aunt Jewel and Uncle Mack have been so generous letting me stay here.”

He made an effort to hide his surprise. “I won’t turn down an offer to help. But you’re sure there isn’t something you’d rather be doing? It’s such a beautiful day.”

She glanced around as if she’d barely noticed. “I have nothing else to do,” she said.

Just the hint of dejection in her voice made his heart soften. What was it about Natalie Lofton that reminded him a little bit of the stray dog they had just fed? Isolated, wary, maybe mistreated at some point, but still with an undeniable air of quiet dignity?

Suspecting that she wouldn’t appreciate that analogy at all—would more likely hate it, in fact—he kept it to himself. Setting the coffee mug on the wide deck railing, he nodded toward the wrought iron dining set. “We can start moving the chairs.”

She turned in that direction. Casey reached out to detain her. “Do you have a pair of work gloves?” he asked, glancing down at her soft-looking hands. “You don’t want to risk blisters.”

“I have driving gloves. And some knit gloves designed for warmth.”

“Either would be better than nothing.”

“Then I’ll be right back. Is there anything else we need from inside?”

“No.” He took hold of the first chair. “I’ll take this one down.”

He was returning from that short trip when he met up with Natalie again. Her hands protected by leather driving gloves, she lugged one of the chairs, hindered more by its awkward shape than by weight. He almost offered to help her, but something about the way she looked at him warned him that she’d rather do it herself.

He both understood and respected pride. Nodding, he moved past her to get the third chair. They would carry the table together, he decided. To be honest, he wasn’t sure how he’d have gotten it down the steps by himself. But because of his own slightly overdeveloped ego, he probably wouldn’t have asked for her help had she not offered.

They worked together for the next two hours, removing the remainder of the furnishings and then cleaning the deck with brooms and a small power washer Casey had brought with him. They didn’t talk much, but the quiet was companionable. The sounds of singing birds and rushing water and dried leaves blowing across the ground provided a sound track for their efforts.

Though he didn’t allow himself to stare openly at her, Casey observed Natalie surreptitiously as she worked. He was pleased to see a tint of color in her cheeks, a new sparkle of accomplishment in her eyes. She liked having a purpose, he decided, something that made her feel useful. And the crisp, fresh air wasn’t hurting either, since she’d been spending entirely too much time holed up in the cabin, from what he had observed.

“That looks good,” he announced a short while later as he and Natalie stood back to admire their work. “Tomorrow morning I’ll apply the sealer. We can replace the furniture in twenty-four to forty-eight hours after that, according to the instructions on the can.”

“There’s a lot of maintenance involved with these cabins, isn’t there? It’s mind-boggling how much hard work is involved in being a vacation landlord.”

“Yeah. Kyle and Mack both put in long days, especially now that their full-time maintenance guy’s on the bench. And your aunt stays busy with the books and reservations.”

Still looking at the empty deck, Natalie murmured, “Tommy used to complain that his family lived in a vacation destination and never had time to actually take a holiday themselves. I didn’t understand when I was a kid, but I certainly do now.”

Casey studied her face, regretting that he saw shadows of sadness in her eyes again. “Kyle’s talked about your cousin. It sounds as if he was a great guy.”

“He was.”

Seeing movement out of the corner of his eye, he turned, thinking maybe the stray dog had come back for dinner. Instead, he saw a small herd of deer wander out of the woods, grazing on the grass of the lawn. He counted three full-grown does and another that might have been a young buck.

“Natalie,” he said softly, nodding in that direction. “Look.”

She turned her head, then smiled. “They’re beautiful.”

“They are, aren’t they?”

They watched in silence for a moment, and then something—a scent, a motion, a sound, perhaps—startled one of the does. She lifted her head, looked directly at Casey and Natalie, and then turned to melt back into the woods, followed by her companions.

“We’ve certainly seen the animals today, haven’t we?” Natalie said, looking at him again. “Think a black bear will come out of the woods next?”

He grinned. “I kind of hope not. Dogs and deer I can handle. Bears—not so much.”

She chuckled. “The ones around here usually leave you alone if you do the same with them. Tommy and I saw one on a hike once. It looked at us, we looked at it, and then we all turned and went our own ways. Fortunately, Tommy and I had been making a lot of noise, so we didn’t startle the bear when we appeared. That’s when they’re particularly dangerous, when they’re frightened or protecting their young.”

“We didn’t see many bears back in Dallas. Saw a few rattlesnakes on my uncle’s ranch. I didn’t care for them, either.”

Natalie shuddered delicately. “Neither would I. I don’t like snakes.”

“Ah. So there is something that intimidates the intrepid Natalie Lofton.”

“Intrepid?” she repeated, lifting an eyebrow.

Shrugging, he admitted, “It’s a word I tend to associate with you, for some reason. Maybe because you seem so hard to rattle. Broken pipes, blood, stray dogs—bears, apparently. You deal with it all without blinking. I’ve only heard you admit to two things that intimidate you—snakes and babies.”

She blinked and he could tell that he had taken her completely off-guard, something that apparently didn’t happen much with her. And then she gave a little smile that didn’t quite reach her somber eyes and said, “I’ll admit to being wary of both snakes and babies, though maybe not quite to the same extent. As for the rest—I’m not sure intrepid is the word to describe me. Trust me, I don’t handle everything as calmly as you suggest.”

“Coulda fooled me.”

He’d always considered himself fairly proficient in interpreting body language. Something about the way she crossed her arms and then huddled a bit into her sweater made him wonder what it meant. A slightly self-protective gesture, perhaps hinting at a recent blow that had been difficult for her to handle? Or was she just chilly and he was reading too much into the emotions he’d thought he glimpsed in her expression?

“The temperature seems to be dropping,” he commented, telling himself to mind his own business. “Maybe you’d better go back inside.”

She glanced again at the clean, empty deck. “I guess so, since we’re finished here. You’re done for the day, aren’t you?”

“Yeah. It’s getting too close to dark to start anything else. I guess I’ll head on back to the cabin I’m staying in. I’m going to do some work on the floors there this evening. I’m sanding and refinishing them, starting in the kitchen.”

“So you’re working on both at once?”

“Pretty much. The regular maintenance guy had already finished the outside of mine before he was in the accident. So I’ve been working inside there for a couple hours a day after leaving here.”

“I know Kyle and Uncle Mack must appreciate your help.”

He shrugged. “As you’re well aware, I’m not the most skilled handyman, but I want to contribute what I can while I’m here.”

She took a step toward the cabin, then stopped and looked back at him. He could almost see a debate going on in her head before she asked, “You said you’re working on the kitchen floor in your cabin?”

“Yeah. I’ve got the room cleaned out and everything taped off, so I’m going to start sanding tonight.”

“What about dinner?”

“I figured I’d pick up a burger and fries on the way.”

She took a quick deep breath and then said very casually, “I have a few things I can make quickly here if you’d like to eat with me before you go. If you’re going to put in more hours of work this evening, you need to eat something a little more nutritious than a burger and fries.”

Though he was surprised that she’d offered, Casey didn’t hesitate to accept. “I’d love to join you for dinner. Thanks.”

She smiled somewhat tentatively. “Okay. Great. Come on in and you can wash up while I get started.”

Leaving his toolbox at the foot of the steps, he followed close behind her as she moved toward the door.




Chapter Four


Casey entered the kitchen a short time later sniffing the air. “Something smells really good.”

Her hands protected by oven mitts, she set the pan of broiled fish on a trivet. “I hope you like fish tacos.”

“Love ’em.”

They sat at the kitchen table with their meals, and Natalie searched her mind for conversational topics that didn’t stray too far into personal territory. They talked more about the renovations to the cabin, and a few more things that needed to be done inside before it was rented out again. They chatted about the A-frame in which Casey had been staying, and how Kyle and Mack had decided to install a pool table in the loft now being used as a cozy sitting room with a spectacular view.

Casey admitted he hadn’t taken advantage of the many local tourist attractions during his stay. He added that Molly wanted him to accompany her and Olivia to the Dollywood theme park the following week, leaving the baby with Jewel. Kyle wasn’t enthusiastic about amusement parks, but Molly had promised Olivia she would take her soon.

“I haven’t been to the park in years,” Natalie said, “but I always had a good time there. I’m sure you’ll have fun with Molly and Olivia.”

Casey took another bite of his almost completely eaten taco. Washing it down with a sip of the peach tea she had prepared, he complimented her again on the simple meal. That led to a casual discussion of their favorite foods and specialty restaurants.

“There’s a place back home in Dallas that makes the best barbecue pizza anywhere,” Casey enthused. “Topped with pulled pork, barbecue sauce, onions, jalapeños and three different kinds of cheese. The best.”

“Sounds messy.”

“Totally. And a lot of people follow it up with an antacid chaser. But it’s still good.”

“I’ve only been to Texas a few times,” she said. “And then only to Dallas and Houston for business purposes. I haven’t seen much of the state except for the insides of some very nice conference hotels.”

“Oh, there’s lots to see in Texas,” he assured her. “From the coast to the plains, it’s a pretty diverse state. I’ve spent most of my life in the Dallas area.”

“I always seem to be there midsummer. It was always hot.”

He shrugged. “You get used to it.”

“Will you be going back soon?”

She hadn’t meant to ask any questions for fear of giving him an opening to ask a few in return. That one had just slipped out.

Casey didn’t seem to find the offhand inquiry particularly significant. “Yeah. I guess. I mean, well, most of my family’s there. I just came here to visit Molly and Kyle, and then I volunteered to help out a little with the repairs. I’ll probably head back to Texas in another week or so.”

She couldn’t help noticing that he looked as if he were discussing an upcoming dental procedure. What was so bad at home that he would rather hole up here, cleaning gutters and scrubbing a deck on a pleasant Saturday?

He gave a slight shake of his head, as if clearing his mind of unpleasant thoughts. “What about you? When are you going back to Nashville?”

“I don’t know yet,” she said, looking down at her plate. “I’m…between jobs at the moment, and I’m taking the time to make some career decisions.”

She stood abruptly before he could respond. “Aunt Jewel made me one of her famous key lime pies. I haven’t even had a chance to cut into it yet. Would you like a slice for dessert?”

“Sure. I love key lime pie.”

“I’ll make some decaf coffee to go with it.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“No, thanks. It’ll just take a few minutes. Feel free to move into the living room, if you’d be more comfortable. The TV remote is on the coffee table if you want to watch the news or something while I make the coffee.”

“Yeah, I think I’ll check the weather forecasts. I’m hoping they aren’t predicting rain tomorrow. I’d like to get the sealant applied to the deck in the morning.”

“Sure, go ahead. I’ll bring the pie and coffee into the living room when it’s ready.”

She heard a weatherman’s booming voice from the other room before she even had the kettle filled with water. Setting the kettle on a burner, she scooped coffee beans into the small grinder she’d brought with her from home.

It had been surprisingly easy to be with Casey tonight, she mused as she transferred the coarsely ground coffee into a French press and set a kitchen timer for four minutes. He hadn’t done anything to make her feel uncomfortable, hadn’t asked any questions except a follow-up to the one she’d asked. He’d been pleasant, entertaining, a little flirtatious. And her bruised feminine ego had responded eagerly.

She needed this right now, she told herself. Needed to spend some time with someone who wasn’t looking at her suspiciously, who could make her forget about all the problems back home and just have a little fun for a change.

She was in no hurry for the evening to end.



Casey sprawled on the couch, a remote in his hand as he only half concentrated on the cable weather channel playing on the flat-screen TV above the fireplace. He jumped to his feet when Natalie appeared around the partial wall that separated the kitchen from the living room. He cleared off a couple of books and a basket of apples from the coffee table so she could set the tray there.

“Wow, that pie looks good,” he said as Natalie took a seat on the couch beside him. He noted that she could have sat in one of the chairs, but she’d chosen to sit next to him instead. Very friendly and companionable. Maybe she was starting to like him a little despite his questionable maintenance skills.

Unaware of the direction his thoughts were taking, she replied lightly to his comment, “My aunt is a really good cook. Desserts are her specialty.”

“It tastes even better than it looks,” he said, swallowing a creamy bite and reaching for his coffee. “Good coffee, too,” he said after taking a cautious sip of the hot beverage.

“Thanks. I buy my beans from a coffee and tea specialty store in Nashville. It’s one of my favorite places to browse.”

He set his cup down and then turned to face her on the couch while he swallowed another bite of the pie. He was fully aware that she didn’t want to answer questions about herself. He’d have to be blind to miss the signals. While she was perfectly amenable to congenial small talk, she had no intention of sharing too much of herself.

He’d gone along with her obvious wishes during dinner. But now he was tempted to push his luck a little. Because Natalie Lofton intrigued him too much for him not to at least try to learn a little more about her. Preferably from her, rather than anyone else.

“How long have you lived in Nashville?” That seemed an innocuous enough way to begin.

She looked into her coffee cup. “Pretty much all my life.”

“I’ve always lived within a few miles of Dallas, myself,” he confided. “I guess we have that in common. Not moving around a lot, I mean.”

“I suppose so.”

He suspected that she did not want to talk about careers, since she didn’t seem to have one at the moment. He wasn’t particularly interested in talking about his own, either. He would be hard-pressed to explain exactly what had led him to take an unpaid and inconveniently timed leave of absence.

Family seemed like another relatively harmless topic. “Do your parents still live in Nashville?”

“No. My mother and her husband live in Mississippi, and my dad lives in London.”

He hadn’t realized that her parents were divorced. He knew his family was atypical, but divorce just didn’t happen in the Walker clan, so it hadn’t occurred to him. But she hadn’t sounded particularly bitter, so maybe that wasn’t a sensitive subject for her. “Your dad is Jewel’s brother, right?”

“Yes. They were the closest in age of the five siblings.”

“Five?”

She nodded. “Only three are still living.”

“So you come from a big family, too.”

“You’d think so, but Tommy was Aunt Jewel’s only son, I’m Dad’s only offspring, one of my uncles never had children and the others had three kids between them, none of whom I know very well. I asked my dad once why his family wasn’t closer and he said he didn’t really know. They just drifted apart after their mother died when he and Aunt Jewel were still in school.”

“But you’ve been close to your aunt.”

“Yes. Not as close as I would have liked, since we live several hours apart, and I haven’t been able to make it to east Tennessee very often the last few years. But we’ve always had a special bond between us.”

“I’m pretty close to my aunts, too,” he offered. “Especially Aunt Taylor—she’s married to my dad’s twin brother. Since I was almost always with their boys, Aaron and Andrew, she and my mom claim they pretty much co-mothered the three of us. The rest of the family called us the ‘terrible trio.’”

That made her laugh, and he found himself mesmerized by a quick flash of dimples at the corners of her mouth. He hadn’t noticed those before—but he hadn’t seen her laugh that many times before. At the risk of sounding clichéd, he thought she really should do so more often.

“I don’t know why that doesn’t surprise me,” she said. “Were you known as, um, accident-prone, perhaps?”

He frowned at her. “Very funny.”

“Sorry.” She set her empty pie plate back on the tray. “You said you and your twin cousins are the same age?”

“Almost. Aaron and Andrew are a few months younger than I am. They’re twenty-five. I turned twenty-six in July.”

She gave a little smile. “I’ll celebrate my thirtieth birthday this coming January.”

Which confirmed his guess about her age. “So you’re, what? An Aquarius?”

She waved a hand. “Capricorn, though I don’t really follow horoscopes.”

“I’m a Leo. I have a cousin who’s recently gotten into that sort of thing. She’s pretty good with it. It’s amazing how accurate she can be with her charting and stuff.”

His cousin Dawne had actually warned him that he was headed for a crisis a year ago, when it had appeared to everyone else—and to him, for that matter—that he was leading a charmed life. She’d seen something in his stars that had told her he had some serious choices to make, and that the outcome of those choices could lead either to a lifetime of contentment or one of quiet despair.

He’d almost forgotten that conversation until now. Maybe he should call Dawne tomorrow and ask if her star charts had any useful advice for him now that he’d actually reached the crossroads he’d been warned about.

Natalie seemed to have no interest in discussing astrology. “Can I get you any more coffee?”

“No, thanks. I guess I’d better be leaving if I’m going to get more done tonight.”

She put her cup on the tray. “Just set your dishes on the tray,” she said, motioning toward the coffee cup he’d just drained. “I’ll take care of them.”

Somewhat reluctantly, he stood. “Thanks for the meal, Natalie. It was really good.”

She walked with him toward the door. “It was nice having the company.” She sounded as if she really meant it.

“So I’ll see you tomorrow then. I should be around sometime late morning to waterproof the deck.”

“I won’t be here much tomorrow. I promised Aunt Jewel I’d join them for church in the morning and then for Sunday lunch. Do you have a key if you need to get into the cabin while I’m gone?”

He told himself there was no reason for him to be disappointed that she had other plans. He wasn’t coming back for social reasons, but to work. He probably wouldn’t have seen her much, anyway. “I’ll bring Kyle’s key, but I’m planning on just working outside tomorrow.”

“Yes, well, feel free to come in if you need anything.”

“Thanks.” He stepped out onto the porch, then hesitated. Turning, he said, “Hey, Natalie?”

She paused in the act of closing the door behind him. “Yes?”

“Maybe I could return the favor sometime. Treat you to dinner, I mean.” Not exactly a smooth invitation, he thought with a slight wince. “There’s a really nice steak-and-seafood place in town. I’ve been told the trout there is the best. Maybe we could try it out one night this week?”

He could almost see the debate going on inside her head. She looked tempted…but a little nervous about accepting. What was it about him that would make her nervous?

“Maybe,” she said after a moment. “If there’s time.”

He wasn’t sure what that meant, but at least it wasn’t an outright rejection. “Okay. We’ll talk about it later then.”

She moved back a step into the cabin. “Good night, Casey.”

“Goo—”

But she had already closed the door between them.



Casey’s truck was in the driveway when Natalie returned to the cabin after visiting her aunt and uncle for most of Sunday afternoon. The fact that her heart started beating a little faster at the thought of seeing him again made her pause behind the wheel.

She winced as she remembered her reaction when he’d asked her out. Even though he’d framed the invitation as a way of repaying her for the dinner, it had been clear that what he’d suggested was a date. She’d been so disconcerted that she’d all but shut the door in his face. It wasn’t like her to be so flustered by a simple dinner invitation.

The truth was, Casey Walker made her nervous. And while she’d told herself that it was nice to have such an attractive diversion from her current problems, she wondered if it would be a mistake to get involved—even temporarily—with a good-looking, younger man who obviously harbored secrets of his own.

She really should be focusing more intently on her problems at home, she chided herself. She didn’t have time for a dalliance. But Casey was pure temptation in blue jeans and a tool belt. Would there really be any harm in flirting with him a bit while Beecham conducted her investigation?

Carrying the bag of leftovers her aunt had insisted on sending with her, she entered through the front door and went straight to the kitchen to put the food away. She debated whether she should go out to greet Casey. It wasn’t as if he was there for a social reason. He was working, and she didn’t want to interfere with that process.

Coward.

She slammed the refrigerator door shut, annoyed with that nagging little voice in her head and with herself for acting so foolishly. And then she cursed herself again when someone knocked loudly on the front door and she almost jumped out of her shoes.

Sighing in exasperation, she walked through the living room to open the front door with a smile. “Hello, Casey.”

He nodded, looking a little distracted. He wore a denim shirt, blue plaid flannel jacket and jeans, all of which showed evidence that he’d been doing rather dirty manual labor that day. “Hi. Listen, that dog’s hovering around again. I think maybe he came back for another meal. Do you have anything?”

“I just brought home enough leftover pot roast for a whole pack of dogs. I’ll get him some, and a bowl of water.”

“I’ll come in and help you carry it out. We can’t walk on the deck because the sealant is still drying.”

“All right.”

He followed her into the kitchen. “Did you have a nice visit with your aunt and uncle?”

She answered as she refilled the plastic bowl she’d used the day before with fresh water. “Yes, I did. Very nice.”

Handing him the water, she opened the fridge and pulled out the plate of leftover roast. “Did you have any problems sealing the deck?” she asked to keep the small talk going.

“No. I used Kyle’s sprayer and everything worked fine.”

“Good. So I should be able to walk on it tomorrow?”

“Yeah. Give it twenty-four hours or so and it should be good to go.”

She warmed the meat just to room temperature, only a few seconds. She didn’t want the hungry dog to burn its mouth. “Okay,” she said, taking the plate from the microwave. “Let’s go see if he’s still there.”

“I have a feeling he will be,” Casey replied, letting her precede him. “He looked pretty hungry. And hopeful.”

“Should we call animal control while it’s here?”

Casey hesitated. “Give me a couple of days to see if I can make friends with him first. Maybe Kyle will know someone who’d give the dog a home if we can get it to trust us.”

Natalie was still wearing the clothes she had donned for church that morning, a black waist-length jacket buttoned over a lace-trimmed green cami with a knee-length, black-and-green checked skirt. Fortunately, her black shoes had a reasonably sensible, two-inch heel so she had little trouble following Casey across the uneven lawn toward the woods.

She spotted the dog just as Casey stopped ahead of her. Looking as ragged and dirty as it had the day before, it lurked in the shadows, watching them warily, prepared to run if they made any sudden moves.

Holding the water bowl in his left hand, Casey reached out with his right to take the food plate from Natalie. He crooned quietly to the dog as he took a few slow steps forward and knelt to set the bowls on the ground. “Here you go, buddy. Come on. Have some nice pot roast.”

Casey stayed by the plates, waiting to see if the dog was hungry enough to approach the food even with Casey so close. The dog remained where it was, looking from the food to Casey and then back again, its thin body quivering.

Casey sighed, stood and moved back to Natalie’s side, several yards from the food. “Okay. We won’t get too close.”

Apparently reassured, the dog crept closer to the food. It ate quickly, finishing the roast and then cleaning the plate with a few more licks before washing the meal down with several noisy laps of water. Satisfied, it looked at Natalie and Casey again. After a moment in which none of them moved, it gave a couple of quick, tentative wags of its matted tail, then turned and ran back into the woods.

“I think he thanked us,” Casey murmured, glancing at Natalie with a grin.

Though she wasn’t prone to anthropomorphizing, she returned the smile and said, “Maybe he did. Do you think he’ll be back?”

“Could be. I’ll pick up some dog food this evening. That would be healthier for him than table scraps.”

“I’m not sure we’re doing him any favors by not calling animal control. At least he’d be safe and well-fed in an animal shelter. And the nights are starting to get pretty cold.”

“I don’t think they’d be able to catch him,” Casey argued. “And I don’t like the thought of him being trapped. I think I’ll be able to tame him enough to find him a home. He seems like he wants to make friends. He’s just a little skittish.”

“And how long do you think it will take to tame him to that point?”

“I, uh, don’t know,” he admitted with a shrug. “If I haven’t made any progress in the next couple of days, I’ll call animal control and ask for advice.”

She looked at him curiously. “Why are you so reluctant to call them? I’m sure they can catch him very humanely. And it would be so much safer for him to be…”

“In a cage?” Casey broke in to ask. “Deprived of his freedom and locked up somewhere for his own good?”

Startled by his tone, she tilted her head to study him more closely. “Um—?”

His face darkened with what might have been a flush. “Sorry. You’re right, he’d probably be better off in a shelter. But I’d still like to give it a couple of days. The weather’s supposed to be nice for the rest of the week, so I think he’ll be fine.”

She couldn’t say she understood, but it wasn’t as if the dog was bothering her. “Should we leave the water bowl out?”

Still looking a little sheepish, Casey shrugged. “Wouldn’t hurt, though there’s plenty of water around this area.”

“And the food?”

“No. Too many other critters to be lured out if you leave food sitting out here. We’ll just feed the dog when we see him.”

She nodded and picked up the empty plate. “Fine. There’s more of the leftover pot roast, if you’re hungry.”

He chuckled. “Feeding the other stray in your yard?”

Smiling a little, she said, “I’ll even get you a bowl of water, if you’re thirsty.”

He shook his head. “Thanks, but I’ve already eaten. I brought lunch with me today. I ate at the picnic table and enjoyed the view. It was nice.”

“So, you’re finished for the day?”

“Almost. I just need to do a little more caulking on the west end of the cabin. Maybe another hour or so today.”

She nodded. “Let me know if you need anything. I’ll be inside.”

“Okay, thanks.”

Without looking back at him, she went inside. She changed into jeans and a sweater, then put water on to boil for tea. Her computer sat on the coffee table. She reached for it, then changed her mind. She just couldn’t face another fruitless search right then.

Glancing at her watch, she noted that it was only four o’clock. She had a long evening ahead with little to do. It was too late to go out for a walk, since it would be dark soon. She thought about calling someone—her mom, her dad, or Amber, maybe. But she couldn’t think of anything to say if she did. Nothing had changed.

She picked up a novel she’d been trying to read for the past week, though she’d had a hard time concentrating on it. She made it through about five pages before a tap on the front door brought her attention out of the story again.

The way Casey glanced downward let her know he’d noticed she’d changed clothes, though he didn’t comment. “I’m calling it a day. Anything you need before I leave?”

“No, thank you. Have a nice evening.”

His mouth crooked into a wry smile in response to her ridiculously clichéd words. “Thanks. Same to you.”

She’d almost closed the door before she jerked it impulsively back open. “Casey?”

Halfway down the steps, he looked over his shoulder. “Yeah?”

She tried to think of a good reason to keep him there a little longer, to delay the inevitable return to solitude and worry. “Do you like to play games? You know, cards and board games?”

His eyes lit up. “Sure. Doesn’t everyone?”

“I found a whole stack of games in the cabinet next to the fireplace. Maybe you’d like to stay and play Scrabble or something for a while? I have some of Aunt Jewel’s leftovers I can heat for dinner. If you don’t have any other plans, of course,” she finished, belatedly realizing that he might have things he’d rather do.

He smiled. “I was going to work in the cabin tonight, but playing games sounds like a much nicer way to spend the evening. I warn you, though, I’m pretty good at Scrabble. And I play to win.”

Something about his smile made her very glad she’d let herself give in to temptation. She smiled back at him, ignoring the little voice in her head warning her to step carefully. “So do I.”

He walked back up the steps. “Looks like the competition’s on.”




Chapter Five


Casey could almost see Natalie loosening up as the evening progressed. She had been so tense earlier, her eyes shadowed, her mouth taut, but after a couple of no-holds-barred Scrabble games, one game won by each of them, she was laughing and relaxed. He took full credit for the transformation, though he did so privately.

“Would you like another glass of wine?” she asked, reaching for the bottle on the table beside her glass.

Okay, so maybe he couldn’t take all the credit, he thought, shaking his head with a smile. “I have to drive in a little while. Considering those winding roads, I’d better stick to coffee now.”

She slapped her forehead lightly. “Of course. I wasn’t even thinking. Let me refill your coffee cup.”

“Thanks.”

She poured herself another glass of white wine. “Whose turn is it?”

“Yours.” He tapped the Scrabble board. “I played ‘quid.’ For a tidy number of points, I might add, considering that the Q is on a triple-letter square.”

She studied his play and then her tiles. A smile tipped up her lips, and then she set several tiles on the board with a flourish. “Vista,” she said rather gloatingly. “With, you will note, the S in front of your ‘quid,’ turning it into ‘squid.’ And may I also direct your attention to the triple-word square beneath the V.”

He couldn’t help laughing at her obvious delight in besting him. As competitive as he was, he didn’t mind losing when Natalie seemed to be having such a nice time winning. Whether because of the wine or the game or—he wanted to believe—the company, she was smiling more than he’d ever seen her, and the lighthearted mood looked good on her.

“It’s been years since I played board games,” she said, taking another sip of the wine. “I’d almost forgotten how much fun they can be.”

He picked up his coffee mug. “Your friends back in Nashville don’t get together to play games?”

Her smile dimmed a few watts. “Not so much. I’ve been hanging around with a bunch of workaholics for the past few years, I guess. Their idea of fun is a cocktail party with plenty of networking opportunities.”

So she’d been corporate. Didn’t surprise him. He still couldn’t decide if she’d burned out or lost her job, but something made him suspect the latter. Laying out tiles to spell “maid,” the longest word he could manage at the time, he said casually, “Sounds to me like you needed a vacation.”

“I suppose I did.” She took a few moments to study her tile rack, then played on his M.

“Not much fun, though, if you’re spending it all here in this cabin.”

She shrugged. “I needed the rest.”

“Maybe you’d like to do something a little different this week? Maybe a hike or something? I’ve been told there are some pretty nice trails around here.”

“I haven’t been hiking in a long time, either. But maybe I will go this week.”

“You know, this is my first visit to this area. I’d like to go with you on a hike, if you don’t mind.”

She didn’t even hesitate this time before she picked up her wine glass again and nodded. “Sure. Why not? I could use the diversion.”

He wasn’t sure how he felt about being used as a diversion—but then again, wasn’t that what he was looking for, as well? Something to think about other than returning home and taking up his life where he’d left off—a prospect that left him feeling empty and inexplicably anxious?

She won the game, by less than twenty points. “That makes you the champ tonight,” he said. “Two games to one.”

“It was close,” she replied, beginning to gather the game pieces. “We’re pretty evenly matched.”

He thought about those words for a moment, but decided not to comment on them. Instead, he took another sip of coffee while Natalie closed the Scrabble game box.

Her gaze met his across the table between them and he was struck by something he saw in her eyes. His well-developed intuition told him that though she had laughed and played for a couple of hours, something was still eating at her. Something an evening of games—and half a bottle of wine—couldn’t entirely banish.

He wondered just how much of a “diversion” she was looking for with him.

She drained the wine from her glass, and looked for a moment as if she were tempted to refill it again. But then she pushed her glass away and replaced the stopper in the wine bottle. “Can I get you some more coffee?”

“Actually, it’s getting late. I guess I’d better be going.”

He saw the expression in her eyes before she lowered her lids, but he couldn’t interpret what he had seen. Was she reluctant for him to leave? If so, was it because she really wanted him to stay—or because she didn’t want to be alone?

She followed him through the living room. “I’ll see you tomorrow, I suppose.”

“Yeah. Thanks for dinner. And the games.”

“You’re welcome. I enjoyed the company.”

“You mean, the diversion,” he murmured, remembering what she’d said earlier.

“That, too,” she replied with a slight shrug.

She reached for the door at the same time he did. They collided, and Casey caught her shoulders to steady her. “Okay?”

Smiling a bit sheepishly up at him, she said, “Clumsy. I rarely drink wine. I must have overdone it a little tonight.”

He didn’t release her immediately. Nor did she step away, instead gazing up at him as he searched her face. Her cheeks were a bit flushed, her eyes a little too bright, and it was all he could do not to cover her slightly parted lips with his own. He suspected she knew full well that he wanted to kiss her. Just as he suspected she wouldn’t mind so much. Maybe she even wanted him to kiss her.

But because she’d had too much wine, and because she’d admitted that she wasn’t quite steady tonight, he allowed himself only to touch her face as he brushed back a strand of hair from her cheek.

He wanted to tell her that he was a pretty good listener, if she wanted to talk, but he didn’t think she would respond to that just now. It was obvious that she didn’t want to talk about whatever had brought her here, which he could certainly understand. But he wanted to do something to make her feel better.

“I was serious about wanting to go on a hike with you,” he said, keeping his tone casual. “It sounds like fun. How about tomorrow morning? I can’t put the furniture back on the deck until afternoon at the earliest, so I don’t have a lot to do tomorrow. Unless you have something you would rather do?”

Her mouth twitched a little, as if his somewhat pointed question had hit home. “No, not really,” she admitted after a moment. “A hike could be fun.”

He hoped his smile didn’t look smug, but he was pleased that she had accepted his invitation. “I’ll see you in the morning, then. I’ll pick you up at nine o’clock?”

She nodded. “I’ll be ready.”

He brushed her cheek with his hand again, not to tuck back her hair this time, but simply to enjoy the feel of her soft skin. “Let your problems go for a while,” he said lightly. “Have some fun. You’ll know what to do when it’s time.”

Her eyes narrowed and she pulled back. “What do you mean? You haven’t been talking about me behind my back, have you?”

Giving an exaggerated sigh, he shook his head. “I know nothing about you that you haven’t told me yourself, or that I haven’t observed while I’ve been with you. I can just tell that something is causing you stress. I hope you can leave it behind tomorrow and have a little fun.”

She looked at him a moment longer, then gave a rather weary-looking smile and said, “Thanks. I’ll try.”

He caught just a hint of the dimples at the corners of her mouth. Just enough to make him want to see them again.

He cleared his throat and forced himself to move away from her before he forgot that he was trying to be a gentleman. “Okay then, see you in the morning.”

“Good night, Casey.”

“Good night.” Hearing the door close behind him, he moved thoughtfully toward his truck. So maybe the evening had almost ended awkwardly, thanks to his poorly timed advice to her. But he would be seeing Natalie again in the morning.

That prospect made him feel just a little too eager for his own peace of mind.



Natalie yanked on the laces of her left hiking boot with a bit more force than necessary, tying them tightly enough to cut off the circulation in her foot. And then she loosened them a little because her self-recriminations didn’t extend to inflicting actual pain.

It wasn’t that she was annoyed with herself for agreeing to go hiking with Casey. Though it had been a while since she’d been, she liked to hike. And she was the first to admit that she needed to get out of the cabin, spend a day doing something else, getting some fresh air, trying to clear her mind. Casey would be an entertaining companion, the pleasant diversion she had acknowledged needing and which he didn’t seem to mind providing.

What really irked her about last night was that she had been so out of control of her emotions that she’d allowed Casey to see that she was wrestling with a problem. She’d let herself drink too much, something she almost never did, and apparently her unguarded expressions had given away much more than she had intended. She must have looked pathetic. Casey hadn’t asked her any personal questions, but he’d made it clear that he’d noticed her behavior and that he was sympathetic, if not outright curious.

She wondered why he hadn’t kissed her when he left, when they both knew he had wanted to.

Shaking her head impatiently, she put thoughts of kissing Casey out of her mind. For now.

She could only hope he wouldn’t start asking questions today. She wouldn’t lie to him, but she didn’t want to talk about what had happened, either. Even though she suspected that he would be a very good listener. And she couldn’t help being curious about him and what he was running from back in Dallas.

For their outing, she wore a long-sleeve white pullover with a high-necked, half-zip front, slim navy hiking pants, a quilted red vest and mid-height hiking boots. Her hair was too short for a ponytail, but she’d topped it with a red baseball cap to keep it out of her face. The weather was predicted to be cool, in the low 60s. It would be even cooler in the higher elevations, so she had tried to dress appropriately.

Ready a little early, she decided to try to call Beecham again. Because of the one-hour time difference, it was quite early in Nashville, but she didn’t care if she woke him. She needed to know that he, at least, was making some progress while she whiled away the morning with Casey.

Expecting his voice mail again, she was pleased when he answered, instead. “Rand Beecham,” he said briskly, as if he’d been up for hours.

Because she had no doubt that he’d checked his caller ID before answering, she wasn’t particularly impressed. “It’s Natalie Lofton,” she said, anyway. “I haven’t heard from you in several days. What have you found out?”

“I’m following several leads, Ms. Lofton. Several very promising leads.”

“Like what?”

“Like there’s a woman in your firm who’s suddenly come into some money.”

“I’m aware of that. Everyone knows that. Have you found out where the money came from?”

“I can’t prove anything yet, but don’t you worry. I’ll find out what’s going on. Just give me another few days to put together a strong case.”

Another few days to bill her account, she added silently with a frown, not to mention the fairly sizable amount she’d paid upfront. She wished she had more experience with this sort of thing, but she tended to focus more on the business aspect of the law. Contracts, prenups, bankruptcies…hired snoops were hardly her area of expertise. “Mr. Beecham, I must insist that you provide some results soon or I’ll have to find someone else who can. My career is on hold until you find who framed me. I can’t afford to wait much longer, for several reasons.”

“I’m on that, Ms. Lofton. I’ll call you as soon as I’ve got what you’re looking for, okay?”

She would have liked to push him more, but a tapping on her door let her know that Casey had arrived. Telling Beecham she expected to hear from him soon, she disconnected, completely dissatisfied with the conversation.

Trying to smooth the frown from her face, she moved to open the door.

Casey wore jeans, a denim jacket over a gray pullover and sneakers. “Whoa,” he said when she opened the door to him. “You look great. Very hiker chic.”

He could make her smile, even when she was still stinging from the way she’d behaved the night before, and still brooding over her less-than-satisfactory conversation with Beecham. “Thank you. Actually, I haven’t been hiking in years. I bought this outfit last year when I was planning a vacation that fell through. It’s nice to have a chance to wear it.”

“How long has it been since you’ve been on a vacation?”

She wrinkled her nose. “Longer than I like to admit.”

Chuckling, he made a motion toward his truck. “Then let’s go have some fun.”

She snatched up the small nylon backpack she’d prepared for the hike. “I brought a very light lunch in case we get hungry,” she told him, slinging the bag over her shoulder.

He grinned as they fell in step toward his truck. “We won’t go hungry. I’ve got a pack with some granola bars and bottles of water. I wasn’t sure what else to bring.”

He opened the passenger door of his truck for her, and she climbed in, reaching for the seat belt when he closed the door. He loped around the front of the truck, slid behind the wheel and fastened himself in before starting the engine. “Do you have a favorite trail?”

“I looked up a few online last night. Tommy’s favorite was the Ramsey Cascades Trail. He took me on that one a couple of times when I was a kid, and the cascades at the end of the graded trail are spectacular. The hiking guides list it as ‘moderate to strenuous’ in difficulty. It’s pretty steep, rising more than two thousand feet in four miles. The guidebook said it’s an eight mile roundtrip, about a five-hour hike on average. Or there’s an easier trail…”

“That one sounds nice,” he said, putting the truck in Reverse. “I’ve got a few extra hours today. I’d like to see the cascades.”

She nodded. The memories of that trail were bittersweet, but she would like to see the falls again. She remembered thinking they had to be the most beautiful place on earth. She could use some natural beauty today.

“Which way do I turn?” Casey asked, pausing at the end of the driveway.

“Left,” she said, and sat back in her seat.

He was right, she decided. She needed to forget about her problems and have fun today. She deserved that, darn it.

Looking at his attractive profile from beneath her lashes, she decided she had chosen exactly the right companion for a day of determinedly carefree fun.



Casey couldn’t decide which was more beautiful—the stunning mountain scenery on the trail, or Natalie. He finally decided it was almost a tie, with her having just a slight edge, at least as far as he was concerned.

The trail began as an old gravel logging road through the forest running alongside a tumbling stream that Natalie called “The Ramsey Prong” of the Little Pigeon River. In the summer, Casey imagined the trail would be shady and very green. As it was, there was still some color in the leaves that rained down on them with every cool breeze.

The gravel road was surrounded by mossy fallen tree trunks and enormous boulders, but not particularly steep yet. She had warned him that it got much steeper when the old road ended and the trail became a worn footpath.

“In the summer there are wildflowers through here,” she said, gesturing toward the leaf-strewn forest floor, her thin digital camera in her other hand. “Little violets and irises and other things I never learned to identify.”

“There are probably more hikers in the summer, too,” he commented, and though he spoke quietly, his voice sounded almost loud in the hushed forest. It felt as if he and Natalie were the only ones on the mountain, but he’d seen a couple other cars in the lot when they’d parked.

“Oh, yes, especially during the weekends. This is nice, isn’t it? Having the trail pretty much to ourselves?”

He put a hand lightly at the small of her back, ostensibly to help her around a boulder, mostly just because he wanted to touch her. “Yeah. It’s very nice.”

It pleased him that she made no effort to move away from his hand as they continued to walk, stepping ahead only when the path grew too narrow to navigate side by side.

He lifted an eyebrow when they came to a footbridge over the stream. The bridge was a long, somewhat bouncy-looking, narrow log with a single handrail. Water tumbled noisily over boulders beneath the bridge—and the water looked cold.

Lowering her camera after taking a shot of the bridge, Natalie looked back at him. “Problem?”

“No. Just hoping the traction on these shoes is all the ads claim it to be.”

She laughed. “Come on. I promise not to push you in. As long as you behave.”

Was that a hint for him to keep his hands to himself? Watching her delicately crossing the bridge, he told himself it might be worth a cold dunking to touch her again.

“Smile,” she said from the other side of the prong.

Posing in the middle of the bridge, he grinned as she snapped his picture.

“Man, these trees are huge,” he commented a few minutes later as the trail wound between massive trunks. Gnarled roots snaked across the worn path, waiting to snag a carelessly placed foot or twist an ankle. Patches of moss added to the challenge, which was why, he supposed, the guidebooks rated this hike as strenuous. That, and the increase in altitude.

Natalie placed her hand on the rough bark of a tree that had to be twelve feet in diameter. “Yellow poplars. This is virgin forest. Beautiful, isn’t it?”

Frowning at some initials clumsily carved into the bark of another massive tree, he nodded. “Wonder why some people can’t appreciate nature’s beauty without making their own marks on it.”

“Or leaving their trash behind,” she agreed with a look of distaste. “Nothing makes me madder than to see a beautiful place soiled with beer bottles and aluminum cans.”

They pulled water bottles out of their packs and took a few sips while they looked around. “How far do you think we’ve walked?” he asked, guessing at a couple of miles.

“About two and a half miles, I think,” she hazarded, confirming his own guess. “A little over halfway.”

Capping her water bottle, she returned it to her pack, then raised the camera and focused on a tangle of roots with wild fern growing among them. He’d noticed that she had a flair for photography; she’d taken some interesting shots during their walk so far. He would have to ask for copies.

“Natalie.” He nudged her arm and pointed to where two wild turkeys strutted across the path.

She swung the camera in that direction, snapping a couple of shots before the big birds fluttered into the woods. “Cool,” she said, lowering the camera with a smile.

He took the camera from her hand and stepped back. “Stand in front of those two black cherry trees,” he instructed. “Right between them. Yes, there.”

He took the picture, then glanced at the screen on the back of the camera. “Nice. Now move over there, by the water.”

She shook her head, but obliged, anyway. “I didn’t bring the camera so I’d have a lot of pictures of me.”

“I don’t know why not. You’ve been taking shots of natural beauty all day.”

She groaned and snatched the camera away from him, leaving him grinning as they started walking again. He was almost sure she’d had to struggle not to smile in response to his corny quip.

They crossed another log bridge and walked between two more large poplars, where they encountered a doe quietly foraging for vegetation. She looked up at them, waited politely for Natalie to snap her picture, then bounded away in graceful leaps, leaving her human admirers smiling. A squirrel barked in a tree above them, and Casey looked up to see it watching them and twitching its tail. “The wildlife out here is certainly accustomed to people.”

“Considering how many thousands take this hike every year, it’s no wonder,” Natalie replied. She zipped the front of her bright red vest. “It’s getting cooler as we climb higher, isn’t it?”

“Are you cold? You can wear my jacket.”

“Thanks, but I’m fine. This vest is actually pretty warm. We’ve only got about a mile to go before we reach the falls.”

He stepped carefully over a pile of somewhat slippery rocks. “I’m really glad we decided to do this. It feels good to get away from everything for a while.”

She took the hand he extended to help her over the rocks. “It does feel good,” she acknowledged, and then smiled ruefully. “I have to admit I’m a little out of shape. Too much desk time, not enough gym time the past couple of years.”

It might have been a good time to slip in a question about what she’d done at that desk, but Casey decided to let the moment pass. All he wanted to do now was to enjoy this day. This moment. And he suspected Natalie felt the same way.

“Your shape looks good to me,” he said, earning himself another groan—and another fleeting glimpse of dimples.

She glanced down. “You’re still holding my hand,” she pointed out.

He tightened his fingers just a little. “I know. It’s a very nice hand.”

Lacing her fingers with his, she smiled. “You’re flirting.”

“So, you noticed this time.”

She looked up at him through her lashes, which made his pulse rate flutter a little in response. A typical male response to a very feminine look, he thought, even as she murmured, “I’ve noticed before.”

His face was close to hers now, their lips only a few inches apart. “And did you like it?”

With a laugh, she disentangled their hands and took a step away, lifting her camera to snap his picture. “Let’s keep moving,” she said, turning to head up the trail again.

Grinning in intrigue, he followed her.

The trail narrowed again and rose even more steeply as they neared the end. They’d been accompanied almost all the way by the sounds of water—rushing, tumbling, spilling over small ledges, gurgling in pools—but now Casey could hear a distinctive waterfall roar, as he thought of it. They climbed over a few more fallen trees, hopped across a couple more rocks, and then they were at their destination. And it was everything Natalie had promised it would be.

“Wow,” he said, raising his voice a little to be heard over the noise. “This is amazing.”

Breathing a little hard from the challenge of the last part of the trail, she smiled. “I told you.”

The cascades, formed by the joining of two separate creeks at the top, tumbled ninety feet downward over a series of rock ledges into a clear pool at the bottom. Signs were posted around the area warning hikers not to try to climb the ledges, as several people had died trying to do so. Feeling the cold, breeze-borne spray on his face, Casey wasn’t even tempted to do anything so foolish. Just seeing this place was reward enough for the strenuous hike.

He turned to Natalie, who’d found a flat-topped boulder on which to rest. Her cheeks were red and she was still breathing a bit more quickly than usual, but she seemed to be rapidly recovering. She gazed at the falls with an expression that made him think she was seeing it both in the present and in her memories of earlier hikes with the late cousin she had obviously loved.

Sensing that he was looking at her, she met his eyes with a slight smile. “It didn’t take me as long to catch my breath when I came up here as a kid,” she admitted, wrinkling her nose in a way that he found very appealing. “And don’t think I haven’t noticed that you aren’t even breathing hard.”

He shrugged. “I’ve been doing a lot of manual labor lately.”

“Not to mention that you’re almost four years younger than I am,” she grumbled.

Laughing, he settled beside her on the boulder. “Like that’s enough to matter.”

She made a sound he couldn’t quite interpret, and then she swung her little backpack around in front of her and pulled out her water bottle again. “Are you hungry?”

“I could eat.”

She dug in the pack and started pulling out the food she’d brought along. They spent the next half hour eating in the damp, chilly air beside the cascades, enjoying the scenery and the companionship. Casey doubted that they’d have been lucky enough to have the site to themselves had it been a weekend, or a summer day. Which made him even more glad that he and Natalie had chosen a November Monday morning for their excursion. He liked being alone with her here.

They stuffed their trash into a plastic bag Natalie had brought for that purpose, then put that back into her backpack, making sure they left no trace of their visit behind. Fully rested now, Natalie took some pictures of the cascades and of Casey posed in front of them, and then he returned the favor, snapping several shots of her.

“That’s enough,” she said when he’d taken the third picture of her. “We’d probably better head back now.”

She started to move toward him, but her left foot slipped on a wet, mossy rock. She stumbled forward, then fell, landing solidly on her right hip.

Casey had tried to catch her, but he just hadn’t been fast enough. He reached her almost the moment she made contact with the ground. “Natalie? Are you okay?”

Looking thoroughly embarrassed, she nodded, reaching for her cap, which had fallen off in her tumble. “I’m fine. Just lost my footing. Stupid.”

“It could have been worse,” he said, his pulse rate still a bit too fast. “You could have fallen backward.”

She glanced at the falls behind them and made a face. “That would definitely have been worse.”

“Can you stand?”

“Of course. I’m fine, Casey, really.”

“Here, let me help you.” Setting the camera aside, he took her left arm and supported her while she rose unsteadily to her feet. The way she winced when she put weight on her right leg told him that she was hurt a bit worse than she wanted him to know, but a few tentative steps convinced him that nothing was broken or even sprained.

He kept his hand on her arm until she was on more even ground. She glanced up at him with an awkward smile. “I really am okay,” she assured him again. “I’m going to have a very colorful bruise, but that’s the extent of it.”

“Probably going to be sore, too.”

She shrugged. “That was already inevitable after the hike.”

She’d put her cap back on a bit crookedly. He reached up to straighten it, tucking her honey-blond hair away from her face. The gesture brought him closer to her and she tipped her head back to look at him from beneath the brim of her red cap. She stood very still as he traced a fingertip down her jawline, wiping a smudge of dirt from her chin.

“Bet you thought I’d be the one to wipe out today,” he teased quietly, hoping to make her smile again.

She did. “I guess we’re both a little accident-prone.”

He chuckled. “Maybe.”

“Of course, the hike isn’t over yet. You could still ‘wipe out.’”

“I do have a tendency to press my luck,” he admitted, his hand still touching her face. He spread his fingers until his palm cupped her cheek. “Gets me in trouble sometimes.”

She made a slight sound that might have been a swallowed laugh. “I can see that.”

“Sometimes it’s worth it,” he murmured, lowering his head. Holding her gaze with his own, he said, “You never answered my question earlier.”

“Which question?” she asked, tilting her head back a little more.

“Do you like it when I flirt with you? Because, you know, I’ll stop if you don’t.”

She gave a little shrug. “There’s no need to stop. I like it well enough.”

Amused by her nonchalant tone, he said, “Let me guess. I’m a pleasant diversion.”

“You could put it that way.”

Grinning, he spoke against her lips. “I’ve got no complaints about that.”




Chapter Six


Rationally, Natalie knew this was risky. The timing was terrible, and she wasn’t the vacation-fling type, anyway. But the truth was, kissing Casey felt too darned good. As she had suspected it would.

He lifted his head slowly, his gaze locked with hers. “Going to push me into the water now?”

She slid her hand around the back of his neck. “Maybe later,” she said and pulled his mouth to hers again.

He smiled for a moment against her lips, until the kiss deepened and amusement faded into something very different. Natalie felt her breathing start to quicken again, but this time she couldn’t blame it on exertion or altitude. This reaction was due totally to Casey.

The sound of voices mingled with the rush of water, seeping into her consciousness. Someone laughed, and she and Casey broke apart, staggering backward as if caught doing something they shouldn’t. Rubbing her sore thigh, she looked toward the trail just in time to see two couples in their late teens or early twenties climb into sight. They were chattering and laughing and roughhousing a little, and seemed to be having a great time. And not one of the fit-looking foursome appeared to be at all winded by the climb, Natalie noted with a frown.

The newcomers greeted Natalie and Casey with friendly nods, then moved to the side of the cascades to exclaim excitedly over the view. Natalie and Casey shared a glance, then moved in unspoken unison toward the trail.

The return drive to the cabin was quiet, but not uncomfortably so. Natalie sat back in her seat, watching the passing mountainsides, occasionally looking at Casey. He caught her gaze at times and smiled. They talked about how much fun they’d had, the beautiful trail, what a joy it had been to reach the falls. They didn’t specifically mention the kisses they had shared, but she had no doubt that he was thinking about them, just as she was.

Casey parked in front of her cabin and turned off the truck. “I’ll put the furniture back on the deck before I leave.”

“I’ll help you.”

“Thanks. I could use your help with the table, especially.”

They went inside only long enough to freshen up and for Natalie to make a pot of coffee. They drank half a cup each, just for the energy boost, and then she poured the rest into an insulated carafe for drinking later. Casey went out to get started on the deck, and she followed him after changing from her hiking boots into more comfortable sneakers.

They had just replaced the last chair when Casey looked past her and smiled. “The dog’s back. Want to bring some fresh water and a bowl for the food I brought?”

She’d almost forgotten about the dog. “I’ll be right back.”

The dog waited by the edge of the woods, watching them with the now-familiar wary anticipation. Casey set the bowls on the ground, talking in the quietly reassuring voice he used with the stray. “It’s dry food today, not fancy meat, but it’s better for you. More of the nutrients you need. So try it before you turn up your nose, okay?”

Natalie smiled. The dog wasn’t in a position to turn up its nose at any kind of food. It attacked the dry food as hungrily as it had the meat loaf and pot roast, crunching noisily as it gulped down the meal.

“He is a boy,” Casey murmured, having caught a glimpse of something Natalie couldn’t see because of all the matted fur.

“So you guessed correctly.”

“He just acted like another guy. Right, buddy?”

Still chewing, the dog glanced at Casey and gave a quick wave of its tail.

Natalie and Casey looked at each other in surprise. “Did you see that?” he asked.

“I did. He wagged his tail. I think he’s starting to respond to you.”

“Maybe he is, a little.” Taking a step closer to the dog, Casey crouched and held out a hand.

The dog glanced at that hand, then at Casey’s face. He stretched out his head a couple of inches and sniffed the air around Casey’s hand. His tail wagged a couple more times. Natalie held her breath. She didn’t think the dog was in any way aggressive, but she still felt as if Casey was taking a risk reaching out that way.

The dog looked up at Casey from beneath what, to Natalie, looked like beetled brows. As if it were trying to gauge Casey’s motivations. And then it took a step closer to him.

Very carefully, moving very slowly, Casey touched the dog’s head. He spoke in a low voice, “That’s a good boy. We’re getting to be friends, aren’t we? You just need to learn to trust me a little.”

The dog wagged its tail once more, before moving back. He eyed Casey for another minute, glanced at Natalie, then turned and trotted away. Natalie couldn’t imagine why the past few moments had left her with a lump in her throat.

Straightening, Casey smiled at her, and she thought she saw a hint of her own emotions in his eyes. “He’s getting there,” he said.

“Yes, I suppose he is. How long do you think it will take until he’s ready to be placed in a home? Or at least a shelter for the winter?”

“I’ll give it another couple of days, while I finish up the work here. In the meantime, I’ll ask Kyle if he knows anyone who might be interested in taking the dog in.”

“It’s starting to get dark. I have some food ready to heat. I thought you might be hungry early since we had such a light lunch.”

“As a matter of fact, I’m starving,” he admitted. “I could almost eat a bowl of that kibble.”

She laughed. “You won’t have to resort to that. I’ll heat one of Aunt Jewel’s famous chicken casseroles.”

“Sounds great.” He turned with her toward the house, each of them carrying one of the bowls in which they’d served the stray food and water. “I’ve got to wash my hands. Our dog needs a bath.”

Something about the way he said “our dog” took her aback. That sounded just a bit too cozy for her comfort, though she doubted that he’d meant it quite that way.



They talked about Casey’s work schedule during dinner. He would be over early the next morning, he said, to begin caulking, a job that would take at least a full day. Window washing and the hot tub installation were also on his To-Do list for the week.

“That sounds like a lot,” Natalie commented, trying not to sound envious that he had worthwhile things to do.

He shrugged. “I like to stay busy.”

“So do I,” she murmured, looking away from him.

He waited a beat, then asked casually, “How’s the job search going?”

She couldn’t meet his eyes as she replied, “I’m waiting to hear from some people.”

“I see. Well, I hope you find what you’re looking for soon.”

“Yes, so do I. Would you like some more coffee?”

He shook his head. “No, I’ve had plenty. I guess I’ll head home.”

Home. Though she knew it was just a figure of speech, she found it rather odd that he referred to his temporary cabin that way. Didn’t he miss his life in Dallas? His family and friends? He certainly didn’t talk about his life there much, not that she had exactly encouraged discussions about their lives before they’d met.

She stood, then winced when her bruised thigh protested the movement. She should have known Casey wouldn’t miss that telltale expression.

“Are you hurting?”

She shook her head. “Just a little sore from my fall. It’s nothing, only a bruise.”

“Bet you wish that hot tub was already installed, don’t you?” he teased.

She smiled. “It would probably feel good tonight. But I suppose I’ll make do with a hot bath, instead.”

He had followed her to the sink, carrying his plate and utensils from dinner. When she turned, he was right there, standing so close they were almost touching, his gaze locked with hers in a way that made her breath catch.

“Am I going to get my face slapped if I say I wouldn’t mind joining you in a hot tub sometime?” he asked, his tone somehow whimsical and serious all at the same time.

“I don’t slap,” she replied a bit huskily. “I punch.”

He laughed. “Of course you do.”

And then his smile faded as he reached up to touch a corner of her mouth. “Have I mentioned how much I like these dimples?”

“You’re flirting again.”

He grinned. “I do have permission.”

She rested her hands on his chest. “So you do.”

He kissed her lingeringly. Her fingers clenched in his shirt. The man definitely knew how to kiss. Flexing her fingers, she noted the strength of the muscles beneath his shirt. Maybe he didn’t do a lot of manual labor, but he certainly stayed in fine shape. If a woman happened to be in the market for a vacation fling with a good-looking, great-kissing, charmingly entertaining young stud, Casey Walker was darn near the perfect choice.

Lifting his head very slowly, he smiled down at her, his eyes gleaming in a way that made her wonder if he was more talented at mind reading than maintenance work.

“I’m sure you’re tired,” he said. “I should probably go.”

Though feminine instinct urged her to detain him longer, she moistened her well-kissed lips and nodded with some reluctance. “That’s probably a good idea.”

She walked with him to the door. “Good night, Natalie,” he said from the open doorway. “I really enjoyed the hike. Thanks for letting me go along. Oh, and thanks again for dinner.”

“You’re welcome. For both.”

He looked at her mouth, then back up at her eyes. And then he gave a firm little nod, and closed the door behind him, refusing to give in to the temptation that she hoped had been as strong for him as it was for her.

Hearing his truck engine fade away down the mountainside, Natalie lifted a hand to her mouth. Oddly enough, she felt as though he had kissed her good-night with just a look.

Casey Walker was definitely proving to be a distraction. Much more than she had planned on, she was afraid.



Because it was still relatively early, Casey stopped by to talk to Kyle after leaving Natalie. He’d called first to make sure it was a good time, and Kyle had assured him that it was. Molly opened the door to him, greeting him with a smile and a kiss on the cheek. “Come in. Kyle’s reading Olivia her bedtime story. He’ll be down when he’s finished. How was your hike today?”

“We had a great time,” Casey replied, taking a seat in the living room with his cousin. “Beautiful scenery. Have you been up to the cascades?”

“Yes, Kyle and I went there once. It was breathtaking.”

“Really is. Well worth the trek up.”

“Did Natalie have a good time?”

“She seemed to.”

“Good. She needs to have little fun. She just seems so sad.”

Sad. It was a good word for what Casey, himself, had sensed in Natalie from the start. “I think she enjoyed the outing,” he said again, not knowing what else to say, since he had assured Natalie he wasn’t asking questions behind her back.

“Good. And maybe she’ll find a new job soon. I don’t know what happened, exactly, but Jewel was always talking about what a great position her niece had with that fancy law firm in Nashville. It must have been a bitter split for Natalie to be taking it so hard.”

As much as he had told himself he wouldn’t ask any questions, Casey couldn’t stop himself from asking, “Wait—Natalie worked for a law firm?”

“She’s a lawyer—like you. I, um, thought you knew that.”

“No,” he said grimly. “No, I didn’t.”

“Oh.” Molly bit her lip. “Maybe she didn’t want to talk about it. Maybe since you’ve still got that great position with the firm in Dallas—”

“We haven’t talked about jobs. She might not know what I do. Unless you’ve told her?”

“No, it never came up.”

“Well then, unless her aunt has mentioned it—”

“Jewel doesn’t know what you do for a living. You said you didn’t want to talk about work while you were here, so I just didn’t mention it.”

“So I guess Natalie doesn’t know.”

“No, probably not.”

“So, maybe we should just keep it that way for now.”

Molly lifted her eyebrows. “You don’t want to tell her?”

“I don’t want anyone else to tell her,” he corrected. “I mean, if she’s lost her position and is still upset about it, she’s probably not going to want to hear that the maintenance guy is an attorney with a big firm in Dallas.”

“Oh. Well, I guess that makes sense. I’ll tell Kyle to be sure and let you be the one to bring it up with her.”

“Thanks.”

“Speaking of your job, and I don’t mean the maintenance work…”

“Don’t you start, too,” Casey warned with a frown.

She blinked her big green eyes at him in a patented innocent-Molly look. “Start what?”

“Nagging me about going back to work. Mom calls every morning, Dad calls at night. Jason, Aaron and Andrew take the tag-team approach, and most of the aunts have checked in at least once while I’ve been here. Everyone’s afraid I’ve had a meltdown or something, and they all want to pipe in with advice before I ruin my life. The only ones who don’t seem concerned that I’ve taken a long vacation are my superiors at the firm.”

“Your superiors are hoping the vacation will help get your head together so you can come back in top form again. They know they have a potential gold mine in you, and they don’t want to give up on it too quickly.”

He shrugged, but he had to acknowledge she was probably right, as she so often was. Like her mother, Molly had a talent for cutting through the b.s. and getting straight to the heart of a discussion.

“You can’t really blame the family, though,” she continued. “It was unexpected of you to just drop everything and take off the way you did. They can’t help worrying that the setbacks you’ve had during the past few months have shaken your confidence in yourself. You know how strongly the Walkers believe in getting right back on the horse that threw you.”

How many times had he heard that adage growing up? He shook his head in bemusement. “So what do you think?”

“I don’t think you’ve lost your confidence,” she replied after a moment. “Losing that big case—well, that’s part of the job, and you know that. No matter how well you prepare, how passionately you believe in your client, how hard you work to get the win, sometimes you’re just going to lose. I think you were bummed about it, especially since it was such a high-profile case, but I don’t believe it destroyed your confidence or anything like that.

“As for the breakup with Tamara,” she continued matter-offactly, “I don’t think that was particularly devastating to you, either. Truth is, I’ve thought for a while that you were with her more out of habit and everyone else’s expectations than because you were really in love with her. When you told me she’d broken it off with you, you sounded more relieved than upset, though you’re too nice a guy to admit, even to yourself, that you were glad it was over after such a long time together.”

He shifted uncomfortably on the couch. Maybe Molly was a bit too perceptive. He’d only admitted to himself recently that the breakup with Tamara had been a relief, in a way. He’d tried so hard during the past year to keep her happy and keep their relationship together that he hadn’t spent enough time asking himself if that was what he really wanted. But it still stung that after all he’d done, she hadn’t even had the decency to leave him before she’d started seeing someone else behind his back.

Molly wasn’t quite finished. “I think everyone else is so busy focusing on those big things, naturally enough, that they missed the real incident that left you questioning yourself and the path you’ve been on.”

He studied her with narrowed eyes. “What do you mean?” he asked, though he was afraid he already knew.

Her face soft with sympathy, Molly laid a hand on his knee. “It wasn’t your fault, Casey. You didn’t put Ian Duvall in that car that night.”

His throat tightened, making him speak in a growl. “I might as well have.”

Her fingers tightened. “No. You did your job. You got him acquitted on those earlier charges.”

Casey swallowed. “I knew he was guilty.”

“You did your job,” she repeated firmly. “It wasn’t your place to decide guilt or innocence. It was the jury’s. And they decided to acquit him.”

“Because I did my job so damned well.”

“Exactly. The fact that he chose—he chose, Casey—to drive drunk less than a year later had nothing to do with you.”

Giving his knee one last pat, she sat back. “You needed this vacation. Needed a chance to think, away from the craziness back home. I don’t think that’s so strange. And heaven knows we needed your help right now. So don’t let everyone else make you question yourself, okay? Do what you have to do.”

Molly knew all about following her own path. To the consternation of almost the entire Walker clan, she’d left her family ranch, the teaching position she’d held there and everything she’d known back in Dallas to move to Gatlinburg with Kyle. Though she would always be close to her family, Casey didn’t think she’d had one day of regret about leaving behind the life she’d always expected to have among them in Texas.

Maybe that was part of what had drawn him to Molly when he’d made his great escape. She had made a huge change that had left everyone else bewildered and worried, and it had worked out for her. He wasn’t saying that he wanted to make a huge change, really—he wasn’t sure yet just what he wanted—but it was nice to see that it could be done, and successfully, by someone from the same family boat in which he’d been floating so safely for the past twenty-six years.

Do what you have to do. Sounded simple enough. Now all he had to do was figure out what that was.

Natalie was on the phone with Amber when she heard Casey’s truck in the drive the next morning. Her pulse rate jumped involuntarily, but she made an effort to concentrate on the call.

“So Cathy’s sporting some new clothes,” she said as a way of reminding herself what they’d been talking about.

“A whole new wardrobe,” Amber emphasized. “Not just a few new sweaters or anything. And from what I can tell, she’s scored some expensive designer stuff.”

“And she hasn’t said where all this money is coming from?”

“No. She just giggles whenever anyone asks and sort of coyly says she’s found a new source of income. She won’t say anything more about it. Which makes me wonder if her new source of income is selling client information to the tabloids.”

“What bothers me is that she’s so open about the spending,” Natalie fretted. “Is she really foolish enough to brag in the firm if she’s making the money by exploiting her job?”

“Have you met Cathy?” Amber asked drily. “She’s stupid enough to think no one would even notice.”

“Has anyone noticed? Anyone in the upper tiers of the firm, I mean, not the other clerical staff.”

“I don’t know. If they have, nothing’s been done. I mean, she’s still here.”

Natalie sighed in frustration. “And I suppose there have been no more information leaks since I left.”

“None,” Amber said, sounding almost apologetic. “The leaks stopped the day you left.”

“Which only makes me look more guilty.”

“I, um…”

“Never mind.” There really was nothing Amber could say to make this situation any better. “I know you need to get to work. Thanks for calling.”

“I just wanted to check on you. You’re sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine.” She was already hearing noises from outside that indicated Casey had started working. “Really.”

“I hope you took my advice the last time we talked. Have you done something fun while you’re there?”

“I went hiking yesterday, actually. I had a very nice time.”

“Hey, that’s great. Got any big plans for today?”

Another thump sounded from outside. “There are a few things I could do,” she replied vaguely.

“Good. Take advantage of the time off. I’d love to be in a cabin in the Smokies right now instead of just about to start a day of boring filing.”

“Yes, well…”

“Have you heard from any other firms yet? I mean, you are sending out résumés, aren’t you?”

“I haven’t heard anything yet,” Natalie said evasively. She saw no need to mention that she hadn’t quite gotten up the nerve to send out any inquiries yet. How could she, before she’d found some way of clearing her name? Who would hire her now?

“Well, hang in there, okay? You’ll find something. You’re too good at what you do not to. Not everyone’s going to believe the accusations against you, especially after they meet you and realize you’re not like that.”

Natalie wasn’t so sure of that.

They disconnected only moments later. Natalie tried immediately to call Beecham, but was routed to his voice mail again, to her annoyance. Tossing the cell phone aside, she rubbed her temples where a dull ache threatened. A tapping sound made her look up, and her eyes met Casey’s through the sliding glass door that led out to the deck. Seeing his look of concern, she pasted on a smile and moved to open the door.




Chapter Seven


“Are you okay?” Casey asked before she could even speak.

“Yes, I’m fine. A little headache.”

He didn’t seem entirely reassured, and she wondered just how disheartened she’d appeared after her talk with Amber. “Is there something you need?” she asked to change the subject.

“Yeah. The dog bowls.”

“He’s back?”

“Yes.”

“He’s earlier than usual.”

“He’s hungry, I guess.”

She moved toward the kitchen. “I’ll get the bowls.”

The dog sat at the edge of the woods again, but maybe a bit closer to the cabin than he’d ventured before. His tail wagged against the ground when Casey and Natalie brought the bowls. And Natalie would have sworn the dog smiled just a little when they set them in front of him.

The dog ate part of the food, and drank a little of the water. And then he just sat there, watching them.

“He doesn’t seem to be as hungry as he has been,” Natalie remarked.

“Well, yeah. We’ve been feeding him. Maybe he just wanted to make sure we were still here with the food.”

“Maybe he did.” She studied the dog, then on impulse knelt down and held out her hand.

“Hi, buddy,” she said, using the same soft tone and nickname that Casey always employed with the stray. “Have you figured out we’re not going to hurt you?”

It was almost as if he’d been waiting for her to reach out. The dog rose, walked straight toward her, sniffed her fingers, then licked her hand. His tail wagged behind him as he gazed up at her with what could only be called a melting look.

“Wow,” Casey said, sounding both startled and amused. “He’s certainly taking to you. Are you wearing beef-scented perfume or something today?”

Tentatively, she patted the dog’s dirty head. The matted tail wagged more eagerly. “I don’t think he understands that I’m not really a dog person.”

“He thinks you are.” Casey knelt beside her and the dog sniffed his hand, then allowed Casey to pet him briefly on the head. And then the dog turned back to Natalie, moving closer to her, his body touching her knees.

Though the mutt was in dire need of a bath, Natalie didn’t recoil. A little dirt wouldn’t hurt her jeans. And she had to admit that she was rather touched that he seemed to have taken to her. Maybe it would be easier to find a good home for him if they could convince him that humans could be nice to have around. “How old do you think he is?”

“A year, maybe? Year-and-a-half at the most.”

“I wonder if he’s ever had a home.”

“My guess would be yes. I think he’s been socialized at some point. He was probably dumped or abandoned when someone moved or when he got bigger than expected or maybe they just got tired of him. Or maybe he got lost and never found his way back home again.”

“Do you think someone is looking for him?”

“No collar. And he’s ragged enough that he looks like he’s been on his own for a while. So, no, probably not.”

Giving the mutt one last pat, she rose from the uncomfortable crouch. The dog gazed up at her, then trotted over to take another drink, after which he curled in the sun and watched them from sleepy-lidded eyes.

“Doesn’t look like he’s going anywhere for now,” Casey commented. “He’s staying near the food.”

“Have you mentioned him to Kyle or Molly yet? To see if they know someone who would be willing to take him?”

“No, not yet. I wanted to see if he showed the potential to be a family pet. After this morning, I’m thinking yes.”

She looked back over her shoulder as they moved toward the house. The dog lay in his sunny spot, his eyes closed now. The air was chilly, and the ground was probably still cold from the night, but he seemed to be getting enough warmth from the bright morning sun to keep him comfortable. “He’d probably be more appealing to a potential owner if he had a bath.”

“We’ll take it one step at a time for now.”

That sounded like a good idea—in a lot of ways, she decided.

She looked at the ladder and caulking supplies sitting by the side of the cabin where Casey had been working before he’d spotted the dog. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“Sure, if you’re looking for something to do.”

She nodded on a sudden decision. “I’d like to help.”

Anything to get her out of that house. Away from the computer that was doing her so little good. Away from the phone that remained frustratingly silent, except from the occasional call from Amber. And distracted from the nagging fears that she was going to run out of savings before she cleared her name and found another position.

“You might want to get a jacket. And your gloves. Maybe a cap.”

“Can I bring you anything?”

“I’m okay for now.”

“Then I’ll be right back.”

She was inside less than ten minutes. Returning with her gloves, she came to a stop on the deck when she saw that the dog had moved closer to the cabin and was now sitting only a few yards from the steps, gazing expectantly up at her. “I didn’t bring you any more food, Buddy.”

“He’s been sitting there ever since you went inside. I just looked around and there he was. What did you do, hypnotize him?”

“I didn’t do anything. You were the one who talked to him most and fed him and everything.”

Shrugging, Casey quipped, “Guess he just fell under your irresistible spell.”

She rolled her eyes. “Let’s get to work, shall we?”

Casey laughed and turned with her toward the cabin. The dog curled up nearby, apparently content to be near them and the food without being too close for his own comfort level.



Had anyone asked, Natalie would have had a hard time explaining how she and Casey ended up visiting the large aquarium in downtown Gatlinburg at six that evening. They’d finished working on the cabin only an hour earlier, and here they were, walking into a popular tourist attraction.

She wasn’t even sure who’d first mentioned the aquarium, though she knew Casey was the one who’d suggested they visit after she admitted that she loved them. He hadn’t even had to work very hard to convince her to agree. She had looked at the empty cabin waiting for her and then at Casey’s smiling face, and she’d weighed her choices. Obsessing about her problems—or spending a few hours in an aquarium with a very likable and attractive man. It was a no-brainer, really.

She spent the next two hours laughing. A lot. She laughed at the “fishy-faces” Casey made at the colorful inhabitants of the many tanks. She laughed when he held a horseshoe crab and talked her into holding one, too. She laughed when he reached down to pat a ray in a sandy-bottomed petting tank and got splashed in the face when one of the rays playfully slapped the water with a broad wing.

They stared mesmerized at the otherworldly jellyfish undulating through water to the strains of piped-in, new age music. They rode the moving walkway through a long Plexiglas tube that gave them up-close views of sharks swimming toward them and over their heads. They oohed and aahed over the vivid colors and spectacular markings of the many different types of fish in the tropical displays. They admired sea horses and leafy sea dragons, and watched a sea turtle slowly surface for air. They had fun.

Walking out of the aquarium with a bag full of the souvenirs Casey had insisted on buying her in the gift shop—a coffee mug and a T-shirt printed with the aquarium logo and a stuffed shark—Natalie was bemused that a day that had started so glumly had ended so pleasurably. The downtown area was beautiful, already wrapped in thousands of tiny LED lights that created a spectacular winter wonderland for the upcoming holidays. Trolleys ran from the aquarium all around the area on Christmas-light-viewing tours and even on a weeknight two weeks before Thanksgiving, business was already brisk.

She glanced at Casey and saw that he was watching her with an almost smug expression. Had he read her a little too well again? Was he privately taking credit for putting a smile on her face after catching her at a low point that morning?

She supposed she couldn’t blame him, since it was entirely true.

“How about a walk along the river?” he asked, motioning toward the walkway that meandered alongside the gurgling Little Pigeon River.

Lined with benches and gazebos, the walkway was festooned with twinkling holiday lights overhead and was already being enjoyed by several couples. There couldn’t be a more romantic setting for an after-dark stroll with a handsome man, and Natalie saw no reason at all to decline. “I’d like that.”




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