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Thrill Me
Susan Mallery
Meet the Mitchell brothers of Fool's Gold, California—five gorgeous men who've left a trail of broken hearts in their wake…Maya Farlow learned the hard way to depend only on herself, so when she fell too deeply for the bad-boy charms of Del Mitchell, she did the only thing she could—she ran. Stunned, Del left Fool's Gold to make his name and fortune in extreme sports.Now ten years later, Maya's been hired to promote her hometown's new slogan, The Destination for Romance. The celebrity spokesman is none other than Del, the man she dumped but never forgot. Awkward!Although Del's not the type to hold a grudge, he's determined to avoid falling a second time for the woman who broke his heart. He's a daredevil, not an idiot. Trouble is, in all his adventures, he never found a rush as exhilarating as Maya's kiss. Maybe risking his heart will prove to be the biggest thrill of all…


Meet the Mitchell brothers of Fool’s Gold, California—five gorgeous men who’ve left a trail of broken hearts in their wake...
Maya Farlow learned the hard way to depend only on herself, so when she fell too deeply for the bad-boy charms of Del Mitchell, she did the only thing she could—she ran. Stunned, Del left Fool’s Gold to make his name and fortune in extreme sports.
Now ten years later, Maya’s been hired to promote her hometown’s new slogan, The Destination for Romance. The celebrity spokesman is none other than Del, the man she dumped but never forgot. Awkward!
Although Del’s not the type to hold a grudge, he’s determined to avoid falling a second time for the woman who broke his heart. He’s a daredevil, not an idiot. Trouble is, in all his adventures, he never found a rush as exhilarating as Maya’s kiss. Maybe risking his heart will prove to be the biggest thrill of all...
Praise for Susan Mallery and her New York Times bestselling Fool’s Gold series (#ulink_79d047ed-9359-59a4-839e-68e25c08733f)
“Romance novels don’t get much better than Mallery’s expert blend of emotional nuance, humor and superb storytelling.”
—Booklist
“[A] classic blend of lighthearted humor, intense emotional conflict, and a setting so real and appealing readers will want to start scoping out real estate.”
—Library Journal on Until We Touch
“Susan Mallery is one of my favorites.”
—#1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber
“Heartwarming… Deft characterization and an absorbing story line will keep readers coming back.”
—Publishers Weekly on When We Met
“Mallery delivers another engaging romance in magical Fool’s Gold.”
—Kirkus Reviews on Just One Kiss
“Both smile and tear inducing. Mallery is one of a kind.”
—RT Book Reviews on Two of a Kind, Top Pick!
“The wildly popular and prolific Mallery can always be counted on to tell an engaging story of modern romance.”
—Booklist
“Mallery infuses her story with eccentricity, gentle humor, and small-town shenanigans, and readers…will enjoy the connection between Heidi and Rafe.”
—Publishers Weekly on Summer Days
Thrill Me
Susan Mallery


www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Being the “mom” of an adorable, spoiled little dog, I know the joy that pets can bring to our lives. Animal welfare is a cause I have long supported. For me that means giving to Seattle Humane. At their 2014 Tuxes and Tails fund-raiser, I once again offered “Your Pet in a Romance Novel” as a prize.
In this book you will meet a wonderful beagle named Sophie. Her parents gave generously at the auction to have their adorable, inventive, sweet girl in this book.
One of the things that makes writing special is interacting in different ways with people. Some I talk to for research. Some are readers who want to talk characters and story lines, and some are fabulous pet parents. Sophie’s mom was so generous with her time. She told me stories about her girl, sent me a hysterically funny DVD and made her Sophie come alive. I hope I’ve done her justice in this book.
My thanks to Sophie and her parents and to the amazing people at Seattle Humane (SeattleHumane.org (http://SeattleHumane.org)). Because every pet deserves a loving family.
* * *
A special thank-you to Dani Warner from Pixel Dust Productions for her technical help. Any mistakes on the “movie making front” are mine.
Contents
Cover (#u8682b708-56c0-58fa-baa3-23a9e86c6c6d)
Back Cover Text (#u1ba16589-0bed-5bba-83a2-4d44c84c782a)
Praise (#ud731ef27-1acb-56a2-a9bb-80dbf1372a6d)
Title Page (#ubeff33ec-3ea6-5c88-8ac3-44fb009f7e12)
Dedication (#uae91c3b8-308a-5a20-897d-761a6e2e6e7a)
CHAPTER ONE (#ua95953e0-13a8-5849-927c-2819c2ed6fca)
CHAPTER TWO (#u99c0f2f6-4dbe-5586-b50c-4163e170b8c9)
CHAPTER THREE (#ua863333f-c739-5217-9f09-a8ed821c58f9)
CHAPTER FOUR (#u570cff80-137a-5275-a58a-f3ac960d0a6d)
CHAPTER FIVE (#u5f2eb892-49f1-50b9-a35f-7fb1461c47e2)
CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINETEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#u6c99cbdf-c241-5751-b34f-e265cba94e3e)
MAYA FARLOW TOLD herself there was a perfectly good explanation for the mayor of Fool’s Gold to have a picture of a man’s naked butt on her computer screen. At least she really hoped there was. She’d always liked Mayor Marsha and didn’t want to find out something more than a little icky about the woman who was now her boss.
Mayor Marsha sighed heavily and pointed to the screen. “You’re not going to believe this,” she said, and tapped a key. The picture moved as the video played and the audio started up.
“The contest closes on Friday at noon. Text your guess to this number.”
Maya stared at the computer. When the picture stopped again, she studied the phone number on-screen, the seventy-something female host frozen midgesture and the picture of the naked butt behind her. The naked, male butt, Maya corrected mentally, not sure the gender mattered as much as the nakedness.
“Okay,” Maya said slowly, knowing that she would be expected to say something else. Possibly something, you know, intelligent. But honestly, she couldn’t think of what that could be. How on earth was she supposed to make an old lady in a tracksuit talking about a naked butt contest make sense? Of course, that was a much happier concern than finding out Mayor Marsha watched porn.
Mayor Marsha pushed a couple of buttons on her computer and the image disappeared. “You can see the problem we’re having with Eddie and Gladys’s cable access show.”
“Too many naked butts?” Maya asked before she could help herself. Stating the obvious was never helpful, but what on earth else was there to say?
Mayor Marsha Tilson was California’s longest serving mayor. She looked exactly as she had twelve years ago when Maya had been a nervous sixteen-year-old, moving to a strange little town and hoping to fit in. The mayor still wore classically tailored suits and elegant pearls. Her white hair had been swept up in a tidy chignon. As a teenager, Maya hadn’t known what to make of the mayor. Today, she thought the other woman was someone to be admired. Mayor Marsha ran her town with a firm but fair hand. Even more important to Maya, the mayor had offered her a job right when Maya had known she had to make a change in her life.
So here she was, the shiny new communications director for Fool’s Gold, California. And the old lady with the naked butt contest was apparently now her problem.
“Eddie and Gladys have always been colorful,” Mayor Marsha said with a sigh. “I admire their zest for life.”
“And interest in younger men,” Maya murmured.
“You have no idea. Their cable access show is extremely popular with locals and tourists alike, but we’ve been getting some emails and phone calls about some of the content.”
“You need me to rein them in.”
“I’m not sure if that’s possible, but yes. We don’t want to have to deal with the FCC. I know two of the commissioners and I don’t want to be fielding calls from friends in high places, so to speak.” The older woman shuddered. “Or explain what on earth is going on in this town.”
After seeing a clip of the show, Maya would have guessed there was nothing anyone could say for the rest of the day that would surprise her more than a woman pushing eighty showing a naked butt on television and inviting viewers to text in their guess on which famous local celebrity it might be. Maya would have been wrong. Mayor Marsha personally knowing an FCC commissioner or two beat naked butts hands down.
So to speak.
She made a few more notes on her tablet. “Okay. I’ll talk to Eddie and Gladys and explain about the indecency restrictions for broadcast shows.”
She had a good idea what the requirements were but would have to look up the specifics. She had a feeling the TV duo were not the types to be intimidated by vague rumblings of FCC rules. She would have to go into the discussion armed.
“You are getting thrown in the deep end, aren’t you?” Mayor Marsha smiled at her. “This is only your second day. I hope you’re not regretting your decision to take the job.”
“I’m not,” Maya assured her. “I love a good challenge.”
“Then consider yourself blessed.” The mayor glanced at her notepad. “Next up we need to discuss our new video campaign. The city council wants a two-pronged approach. The first set of videos will be about our town slogan. Fool’s Gold: A destination for romance. The second set will be in support of general tourism.”
They’d discussed the new campaign at Maya’s interview. “I have a lot of ideas for both,” she said eagerly.
“Good. We’re still coming up with more ways to use the videos. They’ll be put on the town’s website, of course. But we’ll also want them to be used for commercials. Both on the internet and television.”
Maya nodded as she typed on her tablet. “So thirty-second spots for sure, with additional cuts of the material in one-and two-minute lengths? The message varying, depending on the target audience?”
“I’ll leave the technical aspects of it to you, Maya. Also, any ideas you have for increasing viewership of the videos would be appreciated. The city council is a dynamic group, but we’re not tech savvy. You’re going to have to lead the way on that.”
“Happy to.”
She had some contacts, she thought. Not anyone at the FCC, but friends in advertising who would be happy to brainstorm ideas. It would be easy to edit material so that it appealed to different interests. Focus on the outdoor activities the town had to offer on ESPN and sports websites. Show family-friendly things to do on cable channels more traditionally watched by women, with links on websites that appealed to women with children.
While this kind of work was different from what she was used to, she was excited by the possibilities. Her previous job, at a local TV station in Los Angeles, had become too comfortable. And her attempts to get hired by the network had failed, leaving her at loose ends. The job offer in Fool’s Gold had come along at exactly the right time.
“You’re going to need some help,” Mayor Marsha told her. “There’s simply too much work for one person. Especially if we want the videos done by the end of summer.”
Maya nodded in agreement. “I’d prefer to do the editing myself. There’s an art to it.” And trusting someone else with her content would be difficult. “But I could use someone to help preproduction and during the shoots.”
“Yes. Plus an on-air talent person. Is that what it’s called? Or is host a better word?”
Maya felt a minor twinge. After all, in a perfect world, she would be hosting the videos. But the truth was, the camera didn’t love her. It liked her well enough, but not so much with the love. And in the business that was any kind of recorded media, passion was required. Which meant they needed someone who dazzled on-screen.
“Someone local?” she asked, thinking of all the sports celebrities in the area. Plus, she knew that action movie superstar Jonny Blaze had just bought a ranch outside of town. If she could get him, that would be a coup.
“I had someone else in mind,” Mayor Marsha said.
As if on cue, the mayor’s assistant knocked on the door and then stepped into the room. “He’s here. Should I send him in?”
“Please do, Bailey,” Mayor Marsha told her.
Maya glanced up, curious as to whom the mayor would consider for such an important job. There was a lot on the line for the town and Mayor Marsha always put Fool’s Gold first. If he—
Maybe it was a trick of the light, Maya thought frantically as her eyes focused. Or a mistake. Because the tall, broad-shouldered, slightly scruffy guy walking toward them looked alarmingly familiar.
She took in the too-long curly hair, the three-day beard and the oversize, well-worn backpack slung over one shoulder. As if he’d just stepped off a pontoon plane direct from the Amazon forest. Or out of one of her dreams.
Delany Mitchell. Del.
The same Del who had stolen her virginity and her eighteen-year-old heart and had promised to love her forever. The Del who had wanted to marry her. The Del she’d walked out on because she’d been too young and too scared to take a chance on believing that she was the least bit lovable.
His jeans were so worn they looked as soft as a baby’s blanket. His white shirt hung loose, the long sleeves rolled up to his elbows. He was that irresistible combination of disheveled and confident. The ultimate in sex appeal.
How could he be back in town? Why hadn’t she known? And was it too late to bolt from the room?
Mayor Marsha smiled with pleasure, then rose. She crossed to the man and held out her arms. Del stepped into her embrace, hugged her, then kissed her cheek.
“You haven’t changed at all,” he said by way of greeting.
“And you’ve changed quite a bit. You’re successful and famous now, Delany. It’s good to have you back.”
Maya stood, not sure what she was supposed to do or say. Back as in back? No way, no how. She would have heard. Elaine would have warned her. All living, breathing, handsome proof to the contrary, she thought.
Ten years later, Del still looked good. Better than good.
She found herself fighting old feelings—both emotional and physical. She felt breathless and foolish and was grateful neither of them was looking at her. She had a second to get herself under control.
She’d been so young back then, she thought wistfully. So in love and so afraid. Sadly, fear had won out and she’d ended things with Del in a horrible way. Maybe now she would finally get the chance to explain and apologize. Assuming he was interested in either.
The mayor stepped back and motioned to her. “I think you remember Maya Farlow. Didn’t the two of you used to see each other?”
Del turned to glance at her. His expression was an ode to mild curiosity and nothing else. “We dated,” he said, dismissing their intense, passionate relationship with casual disregard. “Hello, Maya. It’s been a long time.”
“Del. Nice to see you.”
The words sounded normal enough, she told herself. He wouldn’t guess that her heart was pounding and her stomach had flopped over so many times she feared it would never be right again.
Was it that he didn’t remember the past, or had he truly put it all behind him? Was she just an old girlfriend he barely recalled? She would have thought that was impossible, and she would have been wrong.
He looked good, she thought, taking in what was new and what was exactly as it had been. His features were sharper, more honed. His body bigger. He’d filled out. Grown up. There was a confidence to his gaze. She’d fallen in love with a twenty-year-old, but before her was the adult male version.
The puzzle pieces fell into place. Her meeting and discussion with the mayor. What was expected of her as far as promoting the town. The need for a well-known person to host the videos.
Her lips formed the word No even as her brain held in the sound. She turned to Mayor Marsha.
“You want us to work together?”
The older woman smiled and took her seat at the conference table, then motioned for Del to sit, as well.
“Yes. Del’s back in town for a couple of months.”
“Just for the rest of the summer.” He settled in a chair that seemed too small for him. His grin was as easy as his posture. “You guilted me into helping.”
Mayor Marsha’s blue eyes twinkled with amusement. “I might have done what needed doing to get you to agree,” she admitted. She turned to Maya. “Del has experience with filming. He’s made some videos himself.”
He shrugged. “Nothing that special, but I do know my way around a camera.”
“As does Maya. I would like the two of you to collaborate on the project.”
Maya told herself to keep breathing. That later, when she was alone, she would scream or keen or throw something. Right now, she had to remain calm and act like a professional. She had a brand-new job she very much wanted to keep. She loved Fool’s Gold, and since moving back to town, she’d felt more content than she could remember ever feeling before. She didn’t want that to change.
She could handle Del being back. Obviously he was 100 percent over her. Which was a good thing. She was over him, too. Way over. So over as to almost not remembering him. Del who?
“Sounds like fun,” she said with a smile. “Let’s set up a meeting to brainstorm what has to be done.”
* * *
SHE WAS SMOOTH, Del thought, watching Maya from across the small conference table. Professional. She’d stayed friends with his mother, so he heard about her every now and then. How she’d been promoted to senior producer at the local news station in Los Angeles, and how she wanted to get to a network position. Showing up in Fool’s Gold was an unexpected left turn in her career path.
Just as unanticipated had been the call from Mayor Marsha, inviting him to be a part of the town’s new publicity project. She’d phoned about fifteen minutes after he’d already decided he was coming home for the summer. The woman had mad skills.
“How about tomorrow?” Maya asked. “Why don’t you call me in the morning and we’ll set up a day and time?”
“Works for me.”
She gave him her cell number.
Mayor Marsha’s desk phone beeped.
“Excuse me,” the mayor said. “I need to take this call. I’ll leave you two to work out the details.”
They all rose. Del and Maya walked into the hallway. Once there, he half expected her to bolt, but she surprised him by pausing.
“When was the last time you were back?” she asked.
“It’s been a couple of years. You?”
“I came home to visit Zane and Chase a couple of months ago and never left.”
Her brothers, he thought. Technically her stepbrothers, but he knew they were the only family she had. While he’d grown up in a loud, close-knit, crazy family, Maya hadn’t had anyone but an indifferent mother. She’d made her own way in the world. Something he’d respected about her, until that trait had turned around and bit him on the ass.
“You’re a long way from Hollywood,” he said.
“You’re a long way from the Himalayas.”
“So neither of us belongs here.”
“Yet here we are.” She smiled. “It’s good to see you, Del.”
You, too.
He thought the words, but didn’t say them. Because it was good, damn her. And he didn’t want it to be. Maya was born trouble. At least she had been for him. Not that he would make that mistake again. He’d trusted her with everything he had and she’d thrown it back in his face. Lesson learned.
He nodded at her, then swung his backpack over his shoulder. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow.”
Her smile faltered for a second before returning. “Yes, you will.”
He watched her go. When she was out of sight, he thought about going after her. Not that there was anything to say. Their last conversation, a decade ago, had made everything clear.
He told himself the past was the past. That he’d moved on and was long over her. He’d gone his way and she’d gone hers. Everything had worked out for the best.
He walked out of City Hall and toward the lakefront. There was a continuity to the town, he thought as he looked around and saw tourists and residents coexisting. City workers were changing the banners, taking down those celebrating the Dog Days of Summer Festival and hanging the ones proclaiming the Máa-zib Festival. This time last year, they’d been doing the same thing. And the year before and a year from now. While there were a handful of recent businesses opening, truth was the heart of the town never changed.
Brew-haha might be a new place to get coffee, but he knew that when he walked inside he would be greeted, very possibly by name. There would be a bulletin board advertising everything from dog-walking services to upcoming civic meetings. That while some of the friends he’d had in high school had moved on, most of them had stayed. Nearly all the girls he’d kissed as a kid were still around. Most of them married. This was their home and where they felt they belonged. Their kids would grow up to go to the same elementary school, middle and high school. Their kids would play in Pyrite Park and go to the same festivals. Here, life had a rhythm.
Once Del had thought he would be a part of it. That he would stick around and run the family business. Find the right girl, fall in love and—
Talk about a long time ago, he told himself. Talk about being a child himself. He could barely remember what it had been like back then. Before he’d left. When his dreams had been simple and he’d known that he was going to spend the rest of his life with Maya.
For a second he allowed himself to think of her. Of how in love he’d been. Back then he would have said they’d been in love, but she’d proved him wrong. At the time he’d been devastated, but now he was grateful. Because of her, he’d left Fool’s Gold. Because of her, he’d been free to leave and could return home the conquering hero.
He waited for the flush of pride. There wasn’t any. Maybe because in the past couple of months, he’d started to realize he had to figure out a new direction. Since selling his company, he’d been restless. Sure there were offers, but none that interested him. So he’d come back to where it all started. To see his family. To celebrate his dad’s sixtieth birthday. To figure out where he went from here.
For the second time in as many minutes, he thought about Maya. How nothing had ever been as beautiful as her green eyes when she smiled up at him. How—
Del hesitated for a nanosecond before crossing the street, then he brushed the memory away, as if it had never been. Maya was his past. He was moving forward. Mayor Marsha wanted them to work together, which was fine by him. He would enjoy the challenge, and then move on. That’s what he did these days. He moved on. Just as Maya had taught him.
* * *
WHILE THE MITCHELLS couldn’t claim to be one of the founding families of Fool’s Gold, they’d only missed that distinction by a single generation. They’d been around longer than most and had the interesting family history to prove it.
Maya had first met Elaine Mitchell over ten years before when she’d applied for a part-time job with Mitchell Fool’s Gold Tours. The friendly, outgoing woman had promised fair pay and flexible shifts. As Maya had been saving every penny for college, she’d been thrilled with the offer. There wasn’t going to be any help from her family, so it was up to her to get scholarships, grants and loans, then supplement the rest with whatever she could save.
Two unexpected things had happened that fateful summer. Maya had met and fallen in love with Del—Elaine’s oldest son. But she’d also made a friend in the Mitchell matriarch. Elaine was married to famous glass artist Ceallach Mitchell and was the mother of five boys. She’d been born and raised in Fool’s Gold. Her life was the best kind of chaos—one defined by a growing, happy family.
Maya had been the only child of an exotic dancer who had married for money and suffered the consequences. While Maya had felt badly for her mother, she had loved moving to Fool’s Gold and being a relatively normal teen for the first time ever.
On the surface the two women had little in common, Maya thought as she hurried out of City Hall and headed for her car. They were worlds and lifetimes apart. Yet they’d always seemed to have something to talk about and, despite how Maya’s relationship with Del had ended, she and Elaine had stayed in touch.
Now she got in her car and drove the six miles out of town toward the Mitchell family house. It stood on acres of land, separate from the town. Ceallach needed quiet for his creativity and space for his huge glass installations.
So the family lived outside of town and the five brothers had grown up on the side of a mountain, running through the rugged terrain, doing whatever it was young boys did when outdoors and unsupervised.
Maya thought back to all the stories Del had told her, when they’d been together. And what Elaine shared in their frequent emails. She knew her friend missed having all five of her sons at home. Del and the twins had moved away, and while Nick and Aidan were still in town, neither lived at the family house anymore.
Maya turned left and headed up the long driveway. When she finally reached the house, she was relieved to see Elaine’s SUV parked in front.
She’d barely made it up the front porch stairs when the door opened and Elaine smiled at her.
“You’re an unexpected surprise. What’s up?”
Del had his mother’s eyes. The rest of him—his size, his build—came from his father, but those brown eyes were pure Elaine.
“You didn’t know?” Maya asked, climbing the porch stairs. “Del’s back.”
Elaine’s openmouthed surprise confirmed what Maya had expected. Her friend hadn’t known. Which was so like a guy. Why tell your mom you were coming home?
“Since when?” Elaine asked, hugging her, then motioning her inside. “He could have called. I swear, he’s the worst of them.” Her mouth twisted as she led the way to the kitchen, her athletic shoes making no sound on the hardwood floors. “And the twins. I should disown all three of them.”
“Or post their embarrassing baby pictures on the internet,” Maya offered, stepping into the huge kitchen.
“That would be a better solution,” Elaine said as she crossed to the refrigerator and pulled out a pitcher of iced tea. “Then I’d hear from them for sure. So what happened? Where did you see him? What did he say?”
“Not much. I was too surprised to ask many questions.”
Maya took her usual seat at the big kitchen table. The overhead light fixture was made up of five pendant lights—each a rainbow of colors that swirled and seemed to move, even as they were perfectly still. She’d earned decent money as a senior producer back in Los Angeles, but there was no way she would have been able to afford those pendant lights. Or the stunning piece in the corner of the family room. Ceallach’s work was scattered throughout the house. One of the advantages of being married to a famous artist, she thought, accepting the glass of tea Elaine passed her.
Her friend already knew about Maya’s new job as the Fool’s Gold communications director. Now Maya told her about the meeting with Mayor Marsha and the plans for the various videos.
“We agreed there should be a host,” Maya continued. “Someone good on-screen.”
“I know where this is going.” Elaine gave her a sympathetic glance. “What about you?”
“You’re sweet to pretend I had a chance, but being in front of the camera...” Maya wrinkled her nose. “Anyway, I thought about some of the athletes who live in town. I mean why not? Or maybe Jonny Blaze.”
“Too young for me, but still sexy.”
Maya grinned. “I agree on the latter, if not the former.”
Elaine laughed. “And that’s why we’re friends. So not Mr. Blaze?”
“No. As if he’d been listening in the other room, in walked Del. I couldn’t believe it.”
Elaine pulled her cell phone from her jeans pocket and glanced at the screen. “Me, either. I wonder how long he’ll be in town. He’s not texting me about staying here at the house, which means he’s bunking somewhere else.” Her mouth twisted. “Apparently I did a bad job with my boys.”
“Don’t say that. You were a great mom.”
Maya would know. Her own mother had been on the dark side of awful, so she had a frame of reference. While her mother had been busy making sure Maya understood that she was the reason for her every disappointment, Elaine had been raising happy, loved children.
“Besides, isn’t the point of raising children to get them to where they’re contributing members of society?” Maya asked gently. “You did that times five.”
Before her friend could answer, the doggie door moved a little. Maya caught sight of a brown nose, followed by a happy blur of colors as Sophie, Elaine’s beagle, raced into the kitchen.
Sophie was a bright-eyed sweetheart. Her traditional white with brown-and-black splotches was very beagle-like but her personality was pure Sophie. She lived with gusto, pouring all her energy into whatever had captured her attention. Right now it was giving her mom a couple of quick kisses before moving to greet Maya. In a few minutes she would probably be figuring out a way to open the refrigerator and devour whatever was planned for dinner.
“Hey, pretty girl,” Maya said, lowering herself to the hardwood floor and holding out her arms.
Sophie raced toward her, her soft puppy mouth forming a perfect O as she bayed out her greeting. She then climbed onto Maya’s lap for a proper snuggle. Big paws scrambled as Sophie gave her best kisses and shimmied even closer for hugs.
“You have the prettiest eyes,” Maya said, admiring the rim of dark brown, then rubbing the dog’s ears. “It must be nice to be a natural beauty.”
“Unlike the rest of us,” Elaine murmured. “There are mornings when I swear, it takes a village.”
“Tell me about it.”
Maya gave Sophie one last pat, then returned to her chair. Sophie circled the kitchen, sniffing the floor, before settling into her bed by the fireplace.
Maya looked at her friend. She noticed dark circles under her eyes and an air of something—maybe weariness.
“Are you okay?”
Elaine stiffened. “What? I’m fine. I’m upset about Del not telling me he was coming home. He mentioned in an email that he might, but there were no firm plans.”
“Maybe he wanted to surprise you.”
“I’m sure that’s it.”
Maya decided a change of subject would probably be a good thing. “How are the plans for Ceallach’s big party going?”
“Ceallach won’t make a decision whether or not he wants a big blowout or a small family get-together for his birthday. At this rate, I’m going to have to lock him in a closet until he makes up his mind.”
Maya smiled. Elaine’s words were tough, but there was a lot of love and time behind them. Del’s parents had been together over thirty-five years. Theirs had been a love match, when both Elaine and Ceallach had still been in their early twenties. The ride had been bumpy. Maya knew about Ceallach’s drinking and artistic temperament. But Elaine was devoted and they’d raised five kids.
For a second she wondered what that must be like. To be married so long, it was hard to remember any other life. To know your place in the long line of family members who had come before and would come after. To be one of the many.
She’d never had that. When she’d been little, it had just been her and her mom. And Maya’s mother had made it clear that having a child around had been nothing but a pain in her ass.
CHAPTER TWO (#u6c99cbdf-c241-5751-b34f-e265cba94e3e)
MAYA HAD HOPED that hanging out with her friend would be enough to chase all the Del from her mind. But she’d been wrong. The night had been an uncomfortable experience of being awake more than asleep. And when she finally did doze, it was only to dream of Del. Not current, sexy, stubbly Del, but the twenty-year-old who had stolen her heart.
She woke exhausted and with memory hangover. Funny how, until she’d seen him, she’d been able to forget him. But now that he was back, she was trapped in a past-present rip in the space-time continuum.
Or she was simply dealing with some unfinished business, she thought as she stepped into the shower. Because as much as she might like to think the universe revolved around her, truth was, it didn’t.
Thirty minutes later she was reasonably presentable. She knew the only thing that would make her day livable was lots and lots of coffee. So she left her tiny rental house, pausing to give her newly planted flowers a quick watering before heading to Brew-haha.
Fool’s Gold had grown in the ten years she’d been away. Giving walking tours of the city as a part-time job in high school meant she was familiar with the history and layout. She had a feeling the schedule of festivals she’d once memorized still existed in her brain. Probably stored next to all the words to Kelly Clarkson’s “Since U Been Gone.”
The thought made her smile and, humming the song, she walked into Brew-haha.
The coffee place had been decorated simply, with bright colors and lots of places to sit. There was a long counter up front, a display of tempting, high-calorie pastries and a tall, broad-shouldered man at the front of a six-person line.
Maya froze, half in, half out of the store. Now what? She was going to have to face Del at some point. Thanks to Mayor Marsha, they would be working together. But she hadn’t thought she would have to deal with him precoffee.
The downside to an otherwise perfectly lovely town, she thought, sucking up her doubts and joining the line.
As Del finished placing his order, whatever he’d said had the cashier laughing. He moved over to wait for his order and immediately started talking to the barista.
Had he always been so friendly? Maya wondered, watching him, while trying to appear as if she wasn’t paying attention at all. A trick that had her still slightly sleepy self struggling to keep up.
The line moved forward. Several other customers stopped to talk to Del, greeting him and then pausing to chat. No doubt catching up, she thought. Del had grown up here. He would know a lot of people.
A few words of the conversations drifted to her. She caught bits about his skysurfing and the business he’d sold. Because when Del had left town, he’d not only gotten involved in a new and highly risky sport, he’d designed a board, founded a company and then sold it for a lot of money. Which was impressive. And the tiniest bit annoying.
It wasn’t that she didn’t want him to have done great. But maybe he didn’t have to be so good-looking at the same time as being so successful. Was a disfiguring scar too much to ask for? Something to level the playing field?
But no. With his three days’ worth of beard and easy smile, he was still movie-star handsome. She would know. She’d seen plenty of him on video and he was impressive. The camera loved him and that meant the audience did, too.
She reached the front of the line and placed her order for the largest latte they had. She thought about ordering an extra shot of espresso, then acknowledged she would be most likely returning later. Better to spread out the caffeine.
She stepped to the side to wait for her drink. Del was still talking with a couple of people. She expected him to finish his conversation and leave. Instead, he headed for her.
“Morning,” she said as he approached. Her lingering sleepiness faded as odd tingles began in her toes and raced up to the top of her head. Horror replaced trepidation.
No, no, no! There couldn’t be tingles or awareness or any of that. Uh-uh. No way. Not her. She refused to be attracted to Delany Mitchell. Not after ten years and thousands of miles. The miles being metaphorical for her and literal for him. They were done. They’d moved on. Okay, technically she’d dumped him in a cruel and immature way, but regardless of her failings, it was so over as to be a relationship fossil.
Exhaustion, she told herself desperately. The tingles were the result of exhaustion. And maybe hunger. She would probably faint next and then everything would be fine.
“Morning,” he said as he stopped in front of her. “You ratted me out to my mother.”
The words were so at odds with what she’d been thinking that she had trouble understanding their meaning. When the mental smoke cleared, she was able to breathe again.
“You mean I told her you were in town?”
“Yeah. You could have given me fifteen minutes to get in touch with her.”
She smiled. “You never said it was a secret. I stopped by to see a friend and told her you were back. She was surprised.”
“That’s one way to put it. She gave me an earful.”
The barista handed Maya her latte. Maya took it and started for the door. “If you’re expecting me to feel guilty about that, it’s so not happening. How could you not bother telling your mother you were coming home? I’m not the bad guy here.”
Del fell into step with her. “I wanted it to be a surprise.”
“Is that what we’re calling it these days?”
He held open the door of Brew-haha. When they got to the sidewalk, he pointed to the left and she walked along with him. Because, well—why not?
“You’re saying I should have let her know I was home for the rest of the summer?”
“Speaking as your mom’s friend, yes, you should have told her you were coming. Or that you’d arrived. And if you didn’t want me to tell her, you should have said something. If she scolded you, it’s your own fault. I accept absolutely no guilt or blame on the topic.”
He surprised her by laughing. “You always did have attitude.”
Back then it had been bravado. She liked to think she now had a little experience or even substance to back it up.
They reached the lake. Del turned toward the path that led to the rental cabins on the far side. Maya went with him. The day was sunny and promised to be plenty warm. August was often the hottest part of summer in Fool’s Gold. Up in the mountains fall came early, but not in the town itself.
Along the shores of Lake Ciara, just south of the Golden Bear Inn, was a cluster of summer cabins. They ranged from small studios to large three-bedroom structures. Each cabin had a big porch with plenty of room for sitting out and watching the lake. There was a play area for the kids, a communal fire pit and easy walking access to Fool’s Gold.
Del led the way to one of the smaller cabins. There was plenty of seating on a surprisingly large porch.
“Not a suite at Ronan’s Lodge?” she asked, taking the chair he offered.
He settled next to her. “I spend enough time in hotels when I travel. This is better.”
“But there’s no room service.”
He glanced at her, one brow raised. “You think I can’t cook?”
It had been ten years, she thought. “I guess I don’t know that much about you.” Anymore. She didn’t say the last word, but she thought it. Because there had been a time when she’d known everything about Del. Not just his hopes and dreams, but how he laughed and kissed and tasted.
First love was usually intense. For her it had been that and more. With Del, for the first time in her life she’d allowed herself to hope she might not have to go it alone. That maybe, just maybe she could believe that someone else would be there for her. To look out for her. To give a damn.
“To start with, I can cook,” he said, drawing her back to the present. “There was a last-minute cancellation so I got the cabin.”
A couple of little boys played down by the water. Their mother watched from a blanket on the grass. Their shrieks and laughter carried over to them.
“It’s going to be noisy,” she said.
“That’s okay. I like being around kids. They don’t know who I am, and if they do, they don’t care.”
Some people would care, she thought, wondering how difficult his version of fame had become.
He’d made a name for himself on the extreme sports circuit. Crazy downhill snowboarding stunts had morphed into skysurfing. He’d become the face of a growing sport with the press clamoring to know why anyone would jump out of a plane with a board attached to their feet and deliberately spin and turn the whole way down.
After a few years of being a media darling, he’d made yet another change, designing a better board, and then starting the company that built them. That move had made him more mainstream—at least for the business crowd—and he’d become a popular guest on business shows. When he’d sold the company—walking away with cash and not announcing what he would do—he’d become the stuff of legends. A daredevil willing to take life on his own terms.
She’d wanted that once. Not the danger, but the being famous part. It would have been one of the perks of being in front of the camera instead of behind it. For her it hadn’t been about money or getting a reservation at a popular restaurant. It had been about belonging. That if others cared about her, she must have value. Be worthy, in some small way.
Time and maturity had helped her see the fallacy of that argument, but the hollowness of needing it had never completely gone away. With that dream over, she would have to find another way to make peace with her past.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
She shook her head. “Nothing. I’m getting way too philosophical for this early in the morning.” She sipped her coffee. “So you’re back for the rest of summer and you’re going to be helping me with the promo videos. I appreciate that.”
He gave her a look that implied he wasn’t buying that.
“I do,” she repeated. “You’ll be a great host.”
“If you say so.”
“I do.”
He studied her. “I’m back because my dad’s turning sixty and I haven’t seen my family in a while. What are you doing here?”
A direct question. She decided on a direct answer. “I was tired of what I was doing. I’d made my third and what will be my final attempt at a network job.” She drew in a breath. “The truth is I don’t translate well on camera. On paper, I should be exactly right. I’m attractive enough and intelligent enough and warm enough, and yet it simply doesn’t work. Going back to producing hard news was an option, but I couldn’t get excited about it. I was visiting my stepbrothers and while I was here, Mayor Marsha approached me about the job. I said yes.”
The offer had been unexpected, but she hadn’t taken long to accept. Getting out of LA had been appealing and being close to family had felt right. She’d never considered that Del would be coming back.
She glanced at him from under her lashes. Would that have made a difference? She told herself it wouldn’t have. He was only home for a few weeks. She could manage to hold it together for that long. Besides, the tingling was probably a onetime thing. A knee-jerk reaction to an unexpected visit from her past.
Del had been her first love. Of course there would be residual emotions. Knowing him, caring about him, had changed her forever.
“About the videos,” she said.
“You have lots of ideas.”
“How did you know?”
He looked at her, his dark eyes bright with amusement. “You always did and you were forceful with your opinions.”
“That’s not a bad thing.”
“I agree. You told me what they were, then explained why I was an idiot if I didn’t listen to you.”
She sipped her coffee. “I doubt I said idiot,” she murmured.
“You were thinking it.”
She laughed. “Maybe.”
She had been forceful and determined. Instead of finding her annoying, Del had encouraged her to explain herself. He’d wanted to know what she was thinking.
“You had some good ideas to improve the tours,” he said. “I’m sure you’ll have good ideas about the videos. Of course, I have some experience with the medium myself.”
He could have acted like a bastard, she thought, remembering how things had ended. Of course, if he’d still been angry, he would have refused to work with her.
“Challenging my authority?” she asked lightly.
“We’ll see.”
She glanced at her watch. “I need to get to work.” She suggested a day and time for their first official meeting, then stood and walked back toward town.
Partway down the path, she had the urge to turn back. To see if Del was watching her. When she glanced over her shoulder, she saw he wasn’t. He’d gone inside.
Foolishness, she told herself. Just like the tingles. If she ignored it, it would go away. At least that was the plan.
* * *
DEL FINISHED HIS COFFEE, then accepted the inevitable and drove to his parents’ house. As he pulled into the long driveway, he braced himself for the inescapable drama. Because this was his family and nothing was ever easy.
He parked and walked toward the front door. The huge rambler looked as it always had—sprawling with a large garden front and back. Beyond the rear yard was the workshop his father used. Two stories of windows in a steel frame, because of the light. Ceallach also had a studio on the far side of town for when he needed to get away.
His father was a famous glass artist. World famous. When he was good, he was the best. But when he drank...
Del tried to shake off the memories, but they were persistent. His father had been sober several years now. He no longer destroyed a year’s worth of work in a single afternoon’s drunken tantrum and left the family desperate and destitute. It was better now. But for Ceallach’s five sons, better had come too late.
A happy bark drew him back to the present. A brown, black and white beagle raced around the side of the house and headed for him. Sophie bayed her pleasure as she rushed at him.
“Hey, pretty girl,” he said, scooping her up and standing. She wriggled in his arms, trying to get closer and give kisses at the same time.
“You probably don’t remember me,” he told the dog. “You’d be this happy to greet a serial killer.”
Sophie gave a doggie grin in agreement. He put her on the ground and followed her to the front door. His mother opened it before he could knock and shook her head.
“You couldn’t shave?”
He chuckled, then hugged her. “Hey, Mom.”
She held on tight, then drew back and shook her head. “Seriously. Would it kill you to use a razor?”
He rubbed his jaw. “Most mothers want to talk grandchildren.”
“That would work for me, too. Come on.” She held open the door.
He stepped into the house and back into the past. Very little had changed. The living room had different sofas, but in the same spot. His father’s glasswork was everywhere, all carefully mounted or secured so Sophie or her wagging tail didn’t do any damage.
Del turned his attention back to his mother. Elaine had met Ceallach Mitchell when she’d been twenty. According to her, it had been love at first sight. His father had never told his side of the story. They’d married four months later and Del had been born a year after that. Four more sons had followed, each about a year apart until the twins.
His mom looked as she always had, with dark, shoulder-length hair and an easy smile. But as he studied her, he saw that there were a few differences. She was older, but it was more than that. She seemed tired, maybe.
“You okay, Mom?”
“I’m fine. I don’t sleep as well as I used to.” She shrugged. “The change.”
He wasn’t sure exactly which change she was referring to, but he wasn’t going there. Rather than take a safe step back and escape, he moved to the sofa. Sophie jumped up next to him and immediately settled in for a nap.
His mother sat across from him. “How long are you in town?”
“The rest of the summer. You said to be home for Dad’s birthday. I came back early.”
“Your father will be pleased.”
Del was less sure about that. Ceallach might be brilliant, but he was also temperamental. In his mind what mattered was art. Everything else was a far second. A lesser kind of living. He had no patience for or interest in mere mortal lives or pursuits.
“You’re here by yourself?” his mother asked.
Del nodded. Last time he’d been home he’d brought Hyacinth. He’d been so sure they were going to make it. But they hadn’t. She’d been unable to promise herself to a single man and he’d been unable to accept the string of what she swore were insignificant lovers that moved in and out of her bed. While he’d loathed the cheating, the dishonesty had been just as bad.
“Traveling light,” he told his mother.
“Del, you need to settle down.”
“I’ve never wanted to settle.”
“You know what I mean. Don’t you want a family?”
“Finally playing the grandkid card?”
She smiled. “Yes. It’s time. Your father and I have been married thirty-five years and yet none of my boys has ever gotten married. Why is that?”
He couldn’t speak for his brothers. He’d been in love twice in his life, first with Maya and then with Hyacinth. Both relationships had ended badly. And the common denominator? Him.
His father strolled into the living room. Ceallach Mitchell was tall and broad-shouldered. Despite being weeks away from turning sixty, he was still strong, with the muscles required to wrestle large pieces of molten glass into submission. Del acknowledged his father’s genius—there was no denying brilliance. But he also knew it came at a price.
“Del’s home,” Elaine said, motioning to the sofa.
Ceallach stared at his son. For a second Del wondered if his father was trying to figure out which of his offspring he was.
“He came back for your birthday,” his mother added.
“Good to know. What are you doing these days? Surfing?”
Del thought about the board he’d created, the company he’d started, how much he’d sold it for and the impressive amount sitting in his bank account.
“Most days,” he said, dropping his hand to rub Sophie’s tummy. The beagle shifted onto her back and sighed.
“You seen Nick?” his father asked. “He’s still working in that bar, wasting his talent. No one can get through to him. I’m done trying.”
With that, Ceallach walked out of the room.
Del stared after him. “Good to see you, too, Dad.”
His mother pressed her lips together. “Don’t be like that,” she said. “You know how he gets. It’s just his way. He’s glad you’re back.”
Del was less sure about that, but didn’t want to start a fight. Nothing had changed. Ceallach only cared about his art and other people with the potential to create art, and Elaine still stood between him and the world, acting as both buffer and defender.
“What are you up to these days?” she asked. “I know you sold your company. Congratulations.”
“Thanks. I’m still deciding what’s next. I’ve been offered some design work.”
“Are you going to take it?”
“No. I came up with my board on my own. I’m not a designer. There are a couple of venture capitalists who want to fund my next big idea.” Which would be great if he had one. What he most wanted to do— Well, that wasn’t going the way he’d hoped.
“You have time to decide what’s important.”
The right words, but again he had the sense she was hiding something. Not that he was going to ask again. Secrets were an ongoing part of life in the Mitchell family. He’d learned early to wait until they were shared.
“You could go to work for your brother,” she said.
“Aidan?” Del laughed. “At the family business? No thanks. And I doubt he’d appreciate you offering my help.”
“He’s busy all the time. Especially in summer.”
He couldn’t imagine what his brother would have to say about his advice. These days they barely kept in touch. Del remembered when they’d been close and wondered what had happened. Sure he’d been gone, but he emailed and texted.
Another problem for another day, he told himself and rose.
“Good to see you, Mom,” he said as he crossed to her and kissed her on the cheek.
“You, too. I expect to see a lot of you while you’re in town.”
“You will.”
“And shave.”
CHAPTER THREE (#u6c99cbdf-c241-5751-b34f-e265cba94e3e)
MAYA’S OFFICE WAS in the same building as the Fool’s Gold cable access studio. The local news had its own location on the other side of town. Until this minute she’d enjoyed the separation. Having to see “real” reporters on a daily basis would have been depressing. It wasn’t that she wanted to be one anymore. It was just having to look into the eyes of her abandoned dream, as it were, could have been difficult. Although at this second, facing down a wild, hungry bear would have been preferable to what she was doing.
“I don’t understand,” Eddie Carberry said stubbornly. “People like our show. Did one of the Gionni sisters say something to you? Because I know they’re pissed that we’re getting better ratings than they are. Who wants to watch a TV show about hair when there are naked butts to be seen? Plus, they each have a show because of their feud, so it’s twice as much of the same.”
“The shows are about styling hair,” her friend Gladys pointed out. “Not that watching someone work a curling iron is all that interesting.”
Eddie and Gladys had to be in their seventies. They were spry enough and certainly determined, Maya thought grimly. Had Mayor Marsha realized the impossibility of the task when she’d hired Maya? Because Maya had always thought she and the mayor were friends. Maybe she’d been imagining the connection.
“Styling or talking, hair is hair. What we do is more interesting and Bella and Julia can’t stand that.” Eddie put her hands on her hips. As she was wearing a bright yellow velour tracksuit, she looked a bit more comical than intimidating, but there was a gleam in her eye that had Maya keeping a safe distance.
She continued to hold out the piece of paper. “I’ve cut and pasted the exact language from the government website,” she said firmly. “It’s very clear. The FCC has defined broadcast indecency as ‘language or material that, in context, depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory organs or activities.’“
“What’s excretory?” Gladys asked.
“What does it sound like?” Eddie gave her a pointed look.
Gladys wrinkled her nose. “Yuck. We’d never do that. What about free speech? We claim the First Amendment.”
“What she said,” Eddie added. “We have the right to free speech.”
Maya looked at her notes. “The court says that you can’t show naked butts when children might be watching.”
Gladys and Eddie exchanged a look.
“So not on our five o’clock broadcast but we can show them at eleven?” Eddie asked.
Maya held in a groan. “I’d rather you didn’t show them at all.”
“But you’re not the boss of us,” Eddie pointed out. “And what about all those TV dramas that show butts?”
“They’re on at ten,” Gladys added. “So we’ll show butts at eleven. It’s an excellent compromise.”
One Maya hoped Mayor Marsha could live with.
“But not at five,” she clarified. “You don’t want the FCC shutting you down or fining the station. If we had to pay a fine, we’d lose our budget and then you wouldn’t have a show at all.”
“Your job is to make sure that doesn’t happen,” Eddie told her.
“No, my job is to manage the cable access shows. Your job is to follow the rules.”
Eddie gave her a smile. “You have backbone. I like that. I remember when you were a teenager, waiting to go off to college. Look at you now—all grown-up.”
“Ladies.”
The male voice had them all turning. Maya caught sight of Del and nearly threw herself in his arms. Not that she wasn’t thrilled to see him, but the distraction was even better.
“Del!” Gladys hurried toward him. “You’re back.”
“You know it.”
He caught the old lady in his arms and hugged her, then turned to Eddie. After kissing them both on the cheek, he winked.
“Are you two making trouble?”
“Always,” Eddie said proudly.
Maya shook her head. “No more trouble. They both just agreed not to show naked butts before eleven. It’s a victory for decency standards.”
Eddie sniffed. “But after eleven, we’re all butts, all the time. Del, give us a picture of yours. We hold a contest for people to guess whose butt belongs to whom. No one’s seen yours in ages. It would be fun.”
He laughed and hugged them. “I’ve missed you two. There’s no one like you anywhere I’ve traveled.”
“If you think we’re all that,” Gladys said, “why don’t you come back and sleep with us? Seventy is the new thirty-five.”
Del’s amusement didn’t waver. “Let’s not ruin the promise of what can never be,” he told them.
“He’s turning us down,” Eddie said with a sigh. “Men are idiots.”
Gladys patted his cheek. “She’s right, but you can’t help it.”
The old ladies waved and walked out of Maya’s office. She sank into her chair and wondered if she’d actually escaped so easily or if there were more early-afternoon butt issues in her future.
Del took the empty chair across from hers. “They’re really doing a butt contest?”
“Yes, and I’d rather not talk about it. Mayor Marsha is worried about the FCC getting involved. I had to look up the definitions and everything. Not my favorite part of the job.”
He glanced toward the door. “I missed them a lot. They’re one of the best parts of this town.”
“Seriously? They frighten a lot of guys.”
“No way. They’re fun.”
“I wonder if we should redefine our terms,” she murmured.
He leaned back in his chair. “Relax. They like you. They’ll listen.”
“I hope you’re right. What brings you here?” Their appointment wasn’t for a couple of days.
He shrugged. “I was in the neighborhood.”
Easy enough to be, she thought. Fool’s Gold was hardly a big place. But still. “Everything okay?”
He hesitated just long enough for her to wonder what wasn’t going well before saying, “It’s great. I saw my mom. You can’t hold that over me anymore.”
“Because you were so worried I would. Do you want to talk business while you’re here?”
“Sure.”
She pulled out the two folders she’d started on their projects.
“Mayor Marsha and the City Council want a two-part campaign. Part one will support local tourism efforts. I’m working with several city officials on that. The goal is pretty simple. Make videos that entice people to visit the area.”
She thought about the format discussed. “You’ll be hosting and starring in those.”
He raised an eyebrow. “You’re saying I’m the talent?”
“You wish.”
He was dressed much as he had been the past two times she’d seen him. In jeans and a casual shirt. He looked at ease, as if comfortable in any environment. The beard was a little thicker, the hair a tad longer. The word scruffy came to mind, as it had before. But the sexy version.
She forced her attention back to the conversation. “The second part is a campaign celebrating the town’s new slogan. A destination for romance.”
“Interviewing people in love?” he asked.
“Easy enough,” she agreed. “I have a list of potential couples, including one that has been together for over seventy years.”
“Impressive. On the tourism videos, what do you want to do? Go film different locations with me talking about them?”
“Yes, but I’m hoping we can do something more inspired. If the clips are interesting, we can use them in advertising.”
“Or get them picked up by local news.”
“I’m less sure about that. Local news stories average forty-one seconds. National news stories average two minutes and twenty-three seconds. I’d rather get Good Morning America interested.”
“There are a lot of people trying to get noticed on GMA,” he said. “We’ll have to be innovative.”
She liked that he hadn’t dismissed her idea outright. How strange that they were working together like this, she thought. Until moving back to Fool’s Gold a few weeks ago, she hadn’t thought of Del much at all. Since returning, he’d been on her mind, but that had been a proximity thing. Hard to ignore the only man she’d ever loved when she was returning to the scene of the heartbreak. Then, out of the blue—thanks to Mayor Marsha—he was back in her life.
She wondered if he ever thought about the past. Before meeting him, she would have guessed they had to clear the air. But he didn’t seem to be upset about what had happened between them. Nor could she figure out a good way to broach the subject.
“Hey, Del, sorry I was such a bitch when I broke up with you.” No, that wasn’t going to happen. Maybe she would wait and see if there was a more organic way to have the conversation.
“Any celebrity contacts you can use?” he asked.
“I did the studio work in LA,” she told him. “The celebrities don’t know me.”
“Sorry you didn’t get to meet Ryan Gosling?”
“The pain keeps me up at night, but I’m dealing.”
He chuckled, then the humor faded. “How’d you get away from news?”
A question she’d asked herself a thousand times. “I was tempted by the devil and gave in,” she admitted, knowing it was true. “I’d been working my way up in local news, producing more and more segments. The gossip show gave me a chance to be in front of the camera.” Sadly, her lack of chemistry had made that a short-lived solution. “When that didn’t work, they offered me a promotion working behind the scenes. With the wisdom of hindsight, I’m pretty sure that was their plan all along. But they knew I would never have left the job I had to take the producer job.”
“Hard feelings?”
“No. I made the choices. I get to live with the consequences.”
“And now you’re here.”
She smiled. “So far, so good.”
“Except for Eddie and Gladys,” he teased.
“I’ll figure out how to get them to toe the line. Just in a way that doesn’t break their spirit. I like that they push boundaries.”
“You’re taking their side?”
“I’m saying creativity should always be encouraged.”
His shirt pocket beeped. He pulled out his phone and glanced at the screen. “Mayor Marsha. She said to ask you about the videos you did of me.” Both eyebrows rose. “Did I make it onto your celebrity show?”
“No,” she said, lying before she could stop herself. “Strange. I have no idea what she’s talking about.”
His dark eyes gave nothing away. “She must have you confused with someone else.”
“I’m sure that’s it.” She glanced down at her open folder. “I thought we could do a segment on Priscilla, the elephant, and her pony, Reno.”
“Who and who?”
She wasn’t sure if the distraction worked, but if he was willing to pretend, then she was, as well. Before she showed Del any videos she’d done, she needed to have someone else look at them. Someone she could trust to have her back. The last thing she wanted was for her ex-boyfriend/fiancé to think she’d spent the past ten years unable to get over him.
* * *
DEL HEADED ACROSS TOWN. He and Maya had plans to work on the videos starting in a few days. She still had preproduction schedules to work out, including renting equipment. While the camera was important, the right lenses could make or break a shoot. She would be renting the ones they needed.
Until then, he was on his own. As he’d already started down memory lane with his family, he might as well continue. He crossed the street and headed into The Man Cave.
While the sign out front said the sports bar was closed, the door was propped open. He stepped inside and looked around.
The overhead lights were on, illuminating the big, open space. The ceilings were high with a second-story balcony wrapping around like a catwalk. Tables and chairs had been pushed out of the way for cleaning. There were dartboards, pool tables and a big stage at one end. The long bar dominated the room at the other end.
Sports memorabilia covered the walls. There were sports posters, along with a Tour de France jersey, and signed footballs and helmets.
His brother walked out from a back room and grinned.
“I heard you were dead,” Nick said cheerfully.
“You wish.”
“Naw. I like being the middle brother. It adds symmetry.”
They hugged briefly. Del studied his sibling. Nick looked good. Older and comfortable in his surroundings. Whatever Ceallach had going on about Nick’s chosen profession, Nick wasn’t equally troubled.
“Have a seat,” Nick said, pulling a table out from the cluster by the wall, then grabbing two chairs. “Want a beer?”
“Sure.”
Nick went behind the bar and pulled a bottle out of a refrigerator. He poured himself a soda. Del was about to ask why, then told himself Nick worked in a bar. Probably best if he wasn’t sampling product in the middle of the afternoon.
Nick returned with the drinks and they sat across from each other.
His brother was about his size. All the Mitchell sons were within an inch or so of their father’s height. Nick was more muscled than Aidan or Del. Some of that was genetic and some of it came from the heavy materials he worked with. Or it had, Del thought, wondering when his brother had stopped working with glass and started managing a bar.
“How’s business?” he asked.
“Good.” Nick grinned. “We had a bit of a rough start, but we’re busy now. We get a good crowd. A nice mix of tourists and locals. The karaoke is popular.” He nodded at the stage. “You should come sing sometime.”
Del laughed. “That’s not gonna happen.” He glanced around. “How long have you been working here?”
“Since it opened.” Nick’s humor faded. “Don’t you get on me, too. I have to take that crap from Dad. You don’t get to talk about it.”
The “it” being his brother’s talent, Del thought. Because while he and Aidan lacked Ceallach’s phenomenal ability, Nick and the twins were nearly as gifted.
Del held up both hands. “Fine. I won’t say a word.”
Nick glared at him for a second before sighing. “You saw him, didn’t you?”
“Yesterday.”
“That’s the same tone of voice Aidan uses when he talks about Dad.”
“We’re not chosen,” Del said lightly, thinking about how Ceallach always dismissed their mother’s small tour company as unimportant, despite how many times it had put food on the table. From what he’d seen so far, their brother Aidan had grown the company even more. But none of that would matter to Ceallach.
“You’re still doing well,” Nick said. “Congratulations on selling the company.”
Del sipped his beer. “How’d you know?”
“I read the business section of the paper every now and then. You got a big write-up here. Local boy makes good. What are you going to do next?”
“I have no idea.”
“Part of the reason you came home?”
“That and Dad’s birthday.”
“Which isn’t for a few weeks. That’s a long time to contemplate your navel.”
Del chuckled. “Not my style. I’m helping Maya Farlow with some promotional videos for the town. To support tourism and the new slogan.”
Nick’s brows rose. “Seriously?”
“It’s no big deal.”
“You were going to marry her, and when she dumped you, you left town. Mom was hysterical for weeks. That Maya?”
“Yes, and thanks for the recap.”
“You’re welcome.” Nick studied him. “You’re really going to work with her?”
“So it seems.”
Del thought about seeing Maya. She had become an interesting combination of the girl he remembered and someone completely different. Still gorgeous, but beautiful women were easy to find. She was smart, and he liked that. Conversation was as important as sex, in his world.
“We were friends,” he told his brother. “There’s no reason for that to have changed. Besides, I’m grateful for what happened.”
“That’s an interesting way to look at it.”
Del thought about the life he’d had planned. Before Maya, he’d been ready to take over the family business and live out his days in Fool’s Gold.
“Because of her I got to travel and see the world. There’s a whole lot of interesting stuff going on out there. If I’d stayed, I would have been miserable.”
“Even with Maya?”
A question he couldn’t answer. Nor did he want to try. If Maya had married him...
For a second he allowed himself to picture a house with a yard and a couple of kids. Maya pregnant with a third. Could he have been happy with her? With them?
Ten years ago, he would have sworn the answer was yes. Now, while he wanted the wife and kids, he wasn’t sure he could handle the settling down in one place part.
“I’m happy,” he said firmly. Lonely, maybe, but still happy. “What she and I had was over years ago. I can work with her, no problem.”
Nick picked up his soda. “I find it hard to believe you’re that forgiving, but okay. I applaud your mature, if slightly puzzling, response to her being back in town.” He brightened. “Hey, make her fall in love with you again, then dump her.”
“When did you get vindictive?”
A muscle tightened in Nick’s jaw. “Shit happens.”
Del thought about asking what, but figured Nick would tell him when he was ready. “Thanks for the suggestion of revenge, but no thanks. Wanting to punish her means I’m not over her, and I am. Completely.”
He was a one-woman man, still looking for the right woman. He’d thought he’d found her twice. First with Maya and then with Hyacinth. One of the things both women had taught him was the importance of being honest. With the other person and with yourself. Hyacinth and Maya had lied to him. In different ways, but they’d still withheld the truth. If a woman couldn’t be direct and open, he wasn’t interested.
Nick raised his glass. “To getting over her.”
Del raised his bottle. He knew who his “her” was, but wondered about Nick’s. Not that he would find out. Theirs was a family that flourished on secrets.
* * *
THE NICHOLSON RANCH had been in the Nicholson family for something impossible like five generations. Maya wasn’t sure of the exact number. What she knew for sure was how impressed she’d been when she’d first seen it twelve years ago. She’d been a scared sixteen-year-old who’d only ever lived in Las Vegas. Going from barren desert that grew neon rather than actual trees to the ranch had been like something out of a PBS miniseries.
The two-story house had seemed impossibly huge. There had been acres of grass and trees, horses and cattle, along with cashmere goats.
Her mother had hit the jackpot when she’d met Rick Nicholson. They’d dated for two weeks, then had married in a drive-through church. Less than a month later, Maya and her mother were leaving everything behind and moving to California. Maya hadn’t known what to expect, but every hope and dream had been fulfilled when she’d first seen the ranch.
It didn’t matter that Rick wasn’t especially friendly. Being ignored by her mother’s new husband was far preferable to the attention from some of the woman’s previous boyfriends. She’d had her own room, with a bathroom! Three meals a day and two stepbrothers. While the older brother, Zane, had glared at her with contempt, little Chase had been adorable.
Even more incredible, had been the town. Fool’s Gold had been clean, friendly and welcoming. She’d made friends, she’d had teachers who not only knew her name but cared about how she was doing. For the first time in her life, Maya had allowed herself to hope she could have a future. She’d dared to whisper the possibility of going to college.
Now she drove onto the ranch property and headed for the main house. After her mother and Rick had divorced, Maya had stayed in touch with both Zane and Chase. While her relationship with Zane had been more adversarial than familial, she hadn’t given up on him. The previous month, they’d reconciled, helped by Zane falling totally and completely in love with Maya’s best friend, Phoebe.
Maya parked and grabbed her oversize bag before heading toward the house. She knocked once on the front door, then stepped inside.
“It’s me,” she called.
Phoebe, a petite, curvy brunette, stepped out of the kitchen and smiled. “Yay. I love it being you.”
They hugged, then walked into the kitchen, where Phoebe poured them glasses of iced tea.
Maya sat at the old, battered table and watched her friend collect a salad from the refrigerator, along with tiny sandwiches.
“You didn’t have to feed me,” Maya said, knowing Phoebe couldn’t help herself. She was born to take care of the world.
“I thought you might be hungry.”
Phoebe set the food on the table, then collected napkins and flatware.
She moved easily—as if she’d always lived in the old house. Even better, Phoebe looked content. Happiness radiated out of her brown eyes. She was relaxed. Every now and then, she glanced at the diamond ring sparkling on her left ring finger. The beautiful solitaire would soon be joined by a wedding band.
Phoebe sat across from her and grinned. “The ranch closed. I got my commission check.”
It took Maya a second to make the transition.
Recently, Phoebe had sold a nearby ranch to action movie superstar Jonny Blaze. It had been Phoebe’s last real estate deal before moving in with Zane and probably the only one where she’d made any money. Until the unexpected deal with Jonny Blaze, Phoebe had specialized in starter homes—a challenge in the expensive LA real estate market.
“You’re rich,” Maya teased gently.
“I am for me.” Phoebe sounded thrilled. “I have no idea what to do with the money. Zane told me to keep it in a separate account. That I earned it before the wedding, so it’s mine rather than ours.”
Because Zane would always take care of her, Maya thought, still amazed at how falling in love had mellowed her usually tight-ass brother.
“Are you going to listen to him?” Maya asked.
Phoebe nibbled on her bottom lip. “I think it should be ours.”
“Zane has the ranch. Keep the money. You’ll feel better having a nest egg.”
“Maybe.”
“You’re going to buy him something, aren’t you?”
Phoebe laughed. “I haven’t decided. So what’s going on with you?”
Maya told her about the videos planned for the town. “I’ll be working with Del.”
Phoebe’s brown eyes widened. “Del, the guy you knew after high school? The one who wanted to marry you?”
Maya shifted on her seat. If only it was that simple. “He’s the one,” she said, hoping her tone sounded light rather than guilty.
“What’s that like?”
“I don’t know. I thought it would be awkward, but he seems fine with us handling the project together.”
“How do you feel?”
“Confused.” Maya pulled the tablet out of her bag. “I told you that Del and I fell crazy in love that summer.”
“Uh-huh. It was after high school, right?”
Phoebe knew enough about her past that Maya didn’t have to explain about her mother or how difficult times had been before the move to Fool’s Gold.
“I loved him,” Maya said, feeling the guilt forming a knot in her stomach. “But I was so scared. Scared of what getting married would mean. Scared of getting stuck.”
“Scared you’d turn into your mom.”
Maya nodded. “I always knew that there wasn’t going to be a white knight on a horse riding in to rescue me. I knew I’d have to rescue myself. But with Del, I started to believe.”
“Loving him wasn’t enough,” Phoebe said quietly.
“It wasn’t. The closer we got to the date when we were going to run off, the more I started to freak. I finally had an opportunity to break free. To make something of myself. Was I really going to give that up for a guy?”
Phoebe leaned toward her. “Did you ask him about that? About going to college with you or finding some kind of compromise? Did you tell him you were scared?”
“No.” Maya swallowed. “I dumped him. I told him he was boring and this town was boring and that I didn’t want anything to do with him. Then I left.”
The truth was, she’d run. Away from Del, away from Fool’s Gold. Part of her wondered if she was still running. Fear was a powerful motivator.
“Ouch. You never talked to him again?” Phoebe asked.
“Not until a few days ago, when he walked into Mayor Marsha’s office.”
“How was he?”
“Fine. Friendly. Charming. He didn’t say a word.”
“How do you feel?”
“Guilty,” Maya admitted. “Like I have to apologize. But the timing is tricky. We’re working together. I don’t want it to be weird, but I owe him an apology and an explanation. Even if he has completely moved on, I need to do it for myself.”
“Then you have a plan.”
“I do. I also need you to look at a video I did. It’s a story about him. I have no idea how Mayor Marsha ever saw it, but she did and mentioned it to Del. So I’m going to have to show it to him. Can you watch it and tell me if it’s okay?”
What she really meant was, were there signs of unrequited love or anything else remotely humiliating? But she wouldn’t have to say that to Phoebe. Her friend would understand what she meant.
“I love watching your work,” Phoebe told her. “Let’s see what brilliance you’ve created.”
Maya set her tablet on the table, then cued up the video. While Phoebe watched it, she crossed to the family room and took in the changes her friend had made.
The chintz chairs and dark red sofa had been replaced with large couches covered in warm, family-friendly fabric. The walls had been painted and the artwork moved around. Fresh flowers in pretty vases had been scattered around the room.
Phoebe couldn’t help improving everything she touched, Maya thought, a little envious of the skill. Phoebe had never cared about ambition. Her dreams had been about belonging.
They’d met in college. Phoebe always told the story as if Maya had rescued her from loneliness and obscurity, but Maya knew it was the other way around. Her friend had been a rock—one of the few stable relationships she’d been able to count on.
Zane had been there, too, Maya thought. In his own curmudgeonly way. And Chase. But Chase was a kid, and Zane and she had had some difficult times. Being friends with Phoebe had always been so very easy.
Phoebe looked up from the tablet. “You’re so talented. I love this. You bring Del alive. I’ve never met him and I already like him. I love how you take us on the journey as he goes from extreme sport media darling to supercool businessman.” She looked at her watch. “In what? A three-minute segment? There’s nothing to worry about. This is an impressive story told by a news professional.”
Maya returned to the table and took the tablet. “Thank you. I don’t deserve the compliments, but I’ll accept them because I’m needy.” She paused. “So there’s nothing...”
Phoebe shook her head. “No unrequited like, let alone love. Don’t worry.”
“Thank you.” Maya dropped the tablet into her bag. “Enough about me. Tell me what’s going on with the wedding. Are you freaking out yet?”
“No, but it’s in my eight-day plan.” Phoebe grinned. “Actually I don’t think I have to freak out. Dellina Ridge is planning everything and she’s so into the details. Oh, that reminds me. We’re going to have a fitting for our dresses soon. I’ll let you know the second they come into the store.”
Phoebe had only wanted one attendant, and that was Maya. Chase would stand up with his brother. A family affair, Maya thought, still touched by the decision.
“I can’t wait,” Maya told her, and meant the words. She wanted to be there when Phoebe married Zane. She wanted to be a part of things. She might not have gotten the network job she’d wanted, but coming back to Fool’s Gold was going to be a good thing.
An hour later Maya hugged Phoebe goodbye. Before heading to her car, she detoured by the barn. Zane kept his office there. She found her ex-stepbrother working on his computer. When he saw her, he smiled.
“Phoebe said you were stopping by. Did she mention the dresses will be in soon?”
Maya stared at the man who had always seemed so disapproving and stern. “Seriously? You want to talk wedding fashions?”
“If it’s important to Phoebe, it’s important to me.”
She grinned and took the visitor’s chair. “Is that a chill I feel from the depths of hell?”
“Just taking care of what matters.”
Maya couldn’t believe how mean old Zane had changed. Although the truth was, he’d never been old or mean. He’d been the one trying to hold the family together after his father died, and neither she nor Chase had made that job easy. His younger brother had been more than a handful and she’d enjoyed pushing Zane’s buttons.
She studied him now, taking in the handsome lines of his face. In truth, they weren’t blood relatives and they’d only lived in the same house for two years. A case could be made that they could have fallen for each other. Only from the second she’d met him, she’d seen him as a brother. An annoying brother with a stick firmly planted up his ass, but family all the same. From what she could tell, he’d thought the same about her. Minus the stick.
Which meant he’d been available to fall for Phoebe. A fact that still made Maya very, very happy.
“She does want to discuss what color the Jordan almonds will be. Lilac, light blue or mauve.”
He made a note on a pad of paper. “I’ll talk to her about it later.”
She blinked. “Really? Just like that.”
“Sure.”
Maya shook her head. “You really are crazy about her. There’s no Jordan almond question. I was just messing with you.”
His mouth curved into a smile. “I’m happy to help her decide. After I look up what they are.”
“Thank God for Google.”
“Absolutely.” He studied her. “It’s nice to have you around, Maya.”
“It’s nice to be around.” She thought about her earlier conversation with Phoebe. How she’d felt safe for the first time when she’d moved to Fool’s Gold. How her teachers had cared and she’d gotten a scholarship for college.
“Was it you?” she asked. “Who funded my college scholarship?”
Zane shook his head. “Sorry, no. I should have offered to help pay for it, but I didn’t think of it. Money was tight back then, so I don’t think my dad would have agreed.”
She remembered. But their brand of money being tight had been a whole lot nicer than her mother’s.
“I just wondered. Somebody put up the money. Mayor Marsha would never tell me who.”
“Maybe they wanted to be anonymous. You should let it be.”
She laughed. “Because I’m going to start taking your advice now?”
“Stranger things have happened.”
“Maybe, but that’s not one of them.” She stood and circled the desk, then gave him a hug. “You’re going to research Jordan almonds, aren’t you?”
“Of course.”
Which only made her love him more.
CHAPTER FOUR (#u6c99cbdf-c241-5751-b34f-e265cba94e3e)
DEL SAT ON the front porch stairs of his cabin. It was late in the afternoon but still a long way from sunset. The temperature was warm and the kids in the area were out playing. He could hear shrieks of laughter, along with friendly taunts.
Being lazy felt good, he thought, reminding himself he should enjoy the moment. Because soon enough he would get restless and want to be doing something. The question was what. He wasn’t an entrepreneur by blood. He’d stumbled into his sky board company in an attempt to please himself. Despite the many offers to collaborate, he wasn’t interested in trying to duplicate the success.
A sleek gray convertible pulled up next to his battered truck. The visitor’s car screamed LA and he knew who it was before she got out.
In the past ten years Maya had changed, the way women did when they grew up. Like the car, she was sleek, with great lines and plenty of power. The analogy made him chuckle. He doubted she would see the compliment.
She wore jeans and boots. A simple loose T-shirt had been tucked into her jeans. She slung a tote bag over her shoulder as she walked toward him. She looked confident and sexy. A nearly unbeatable combination.
For a second, as he watched her, he remembered what it had been like before. When Maya hadn’t been quite so in charge. When she’d stared at him wide-eyed, her mouth trembling right before he’d kissed her.
Their first meeting had been a lightning strike—at least for him. He’d seen her and wanted her. Later, when he’d gotten to know her, he’d found himself as attracted to every part of her. Hearing her laugh had made his day brighter. He’d fallen hard, and for that entire summer, he’d known she was the one.
When she’d accepted his proposal, he’d expected they would spend the rest of their lives together. He’d imagined kids and a yard and everything that went with happily ever after. When she’d dumped him...
“Hey,” she said as she approached.
He wrenched his mind from the past and focused on the present. Maya stopped at the porch stairs and held out her tablet.
“I brought over a copy of that video Mayor Marsha mentioned. I thought it would give you an idea of how I work.”
The video she’d claimed to know nothing about? Curious, he thought as he stood. Why had she pretended to be confused and why the change of heart? He thought about asking, then decided it was probably a chick thing and he was better off not knowing.
“Let’s take a look,” he said, and headed inside.
The cabin was simply furnished with an open floor plan. The kitchen and living room were up front with a half wall dividing the sleeping area from the rest of the cabin. The only separate area was the small three-quarter bath.
Del walked to the square dining table by the window and sat down. Maya handed him the tablet, but instead of sitting next to him, she hovered just behind his right shoulder.
“Just push the button,” she told him.
“Nervous?” he asked without turning to look at her.
“A little. It’s my work.”
Which implied it had significance to her. He got that but, “It’s not like my opinion is going to make a difference.”
“You’re the subject. Of course I care what you think.”
Good to know, he thought as he glanced at the screen.
The frozen picture showed him just after he’d jumped from an airplane. He pushed Play and the piece started.
It was about two or three minutes long with Maya providing the voice-over. The footage was all stock stuff, easily available on the internet. There were clips from other interviews he’d done while he’d still been involved in the sport and later, when he’d transitioned to entrepreneur.
When the video ended, he turned to look at her. “This wasn’t for your TV show.”
She gave him a nervous smile. “No. You were famous, but not that famous.” One shoulder rose and fell. “Unless we were talking about your love life. Then you made the show.”
“At the end,” he said absently, thinking that his relationship with Hyacinth—a world champion figure skater—had captured the media’s attention, if only on the periphery.
“I did some freelance work,” she added. “Pieces like this that could be used on local morning shows.”
He turned back to the tablet and tapped the screen to watch it again. This time he turned off the sound and studied the pictures. She’d taken ordinary shots and woven them together into something greater than the individual clips.
She was a good editor—better than good. He’d taken some video himself and tried to edit it, and the results had been dismal.
“Nice,” he said, pointing at the screen. “I like what you did here. You cropped the shot differently. Or something.”
She pulled up a chair and settled next to him. “You’re right. The action was great, but you weren’t at the center of the frame. I moved you as best I could. The line of sight is better, too.”
She kept talking and motioning to the action playing on the tablet, but he wasn’t paying attention. Not anymore. Not when he could inhale the scent of what he guessed was her shampoo, or maybe her lotion. Maya had never been one to wear perfume. Although he guessed that could be different now.
She’d changed just enough to be intriguing, he thought. The line of her jaw was tighter. Her walk a bit more determined. He didn’t know what she’d been through over the past ten years, but whatever it was had honed her.
She probably saw differences in him, too, but he found those less interesting. He knew what had happened to him. None of it was especially compelling.
He turned and looked into her green eyes. Ten years ago he would have sworn that he would never forgive her for what she’d said. For how she’d rejected him. For lying. Now he searched for residual anger or resentment and there wasn’t any. They’d both been gone too long for any of that to matter.
She was a beautiful woman. Under other circumstances, he might have been tempted. But while he could forgive and move on, he wasn’t going to give her a second chance. Not when he knew she hadn’t told him the truth. She had said that she loved him and wanted to marry him, but it had all been a lie. Still, they were going to work together. It made sense to be friends.
“Want to have dinner?” he asked.
She blinked. “There’s a shift in topic. Now?”
“Sure. We can go to the store and grab a couple of steaks. Barbecue them here. There’s a communal grill by the lake. You in?”
She gave him a slow, sexy smile that hit him like a fist to the gut.
“I’m in.”
They rose and walked toward the front door.
“Wait,” she said, and ran back for her tablet, then tucked it in her tote. “I can’t let my technology out of my sight.”
He nodded, because it was still too difficult to breathe, let alone speak.
He knew what that fist to the gut meant and he planned on completely ignoring the message. He was willing to forget the past, to work with Maya and even to be her friend. But he was never going to allow himself to be tempted by her. Not now, not ever.
Been there, done that and bought the T-shirt. He was a guy who looked forward. To something new. And that didn’t include her. Once his mind was made up, Del refused to be swayed. There was no way he was going to let Maya get to him.
* * *
MAYA PUT THE green salad on the table Del had carried from the kitchen to the grassy area on the side of the cabin. From there they had a clear view of the lake. Because of how the other cabins were spaced, that side of his place was relatively private. They could hear the other families, but not see them or be seen.
Under other circumstances, she would have thought the setting romantic, but she knew better. She and Del were collaborating together. This was a working relationship, which she appreciated. They were both professionals. They respected each other’s abilities. If she found him handsome and appealing, well, that was nice, but not helpful. Or useful. Friendship was much better. Or at the very least, safer.
She returned to the kitchen for the bottle of red wine they’d purchased, along with the deli potato salad. She collected two glasses and went back out just as Del called that the steaks were done.
They met at the table and each took a chair. He used the jumbo tongs to put her steak on her plate while she poured wine. Music drifted out from one of the cabins, and down by the water, several children shrieked and laughed.
“There’s a lot of humanity around here,” she said as she passed him the green salad.
“I like it. Being around kids is fun. They always have the most interesting questions and so much curiosity about what life is like everywhere. That’s what I got asked the most when I traveled. Is America really like the movies?” He grinned. “That and if Wolverine was real.”
“What did you say?”
“That he was one of the good guys.”
She laughed. “I didn’t know the two of you were close.”
“I don’t like to talk about it.”
“Fool’s Gold must seem so small,” she murmured, and cut into her steak. “How do you stand being away from your bromance?”
“He texts me all the time. Sometimes it gets annoying.”
She nodded. “I can imagine. Speaking of famous people, have you seen your dad?”
“Killjoy.”
“Should I take that as a yes?”
Del leaned back in his chair. “I stopped by the house and saw both my parents. My father wanted to talk about Nick wasting his talent.”
Maya remembered how Ceallach had always preferred the three younger sons. The ones who took after him. “I suppose there’s some comfort in consistency.”
“That’s the optimist in you. I prefer to think of my father as...” He reached for his glass. “No reason to go there.” He sipped. “Yes, I saw my father and he seems well.” He glanced at her. “Are you going to be helping my mom with the plans for my dad’s party?”
“I’ve offered. Why?”
“Because it’s a lot for her to do on her own.”
“You could take care of some of it.”
“I’ll do my best, but you know halfway through, she’ll take it all away from me and explain how she can do it better.”
Maya sighed. “Yes, she will. Elaine does like to maintain control over every situation.”
“So do you.”
“I wish. I gave up control a long time ago. A hazard of the job. There are a million things that can go wrong on any given story and I’ve had to deal with them all.”
“Is that why you left television?”
“Partly. I left because I was tired of beating my head against a wall that was never going to give way.” She frowned. “Is that what’s supposed to happen? The wall gives way? You break through. Man, I hate it when I don’t think through a cliché.”
He grinned at her. “Good to know you’re not perfect.”
“I’m far from that.”
Miles, she thought. Miles and miles. Although being with Del was nice. More comfortable than she would have thought. He’d always been easy on the eyes, but she’d thought there might be some tension between them. Because of how things had ended.
Apparently not. Here they were, having dinner as if they were old friends. She took a bite of steak. Maybe they were. Maybe they’d both moved on enough that the past didn’t matter.
“There’s no Mr. Farlow?” he asked, the question unexpected.
“Uh, no. What about you?”
“No Mr. Mitchell,” he said, his eyes bright with amusement.
She groaned. “You know what I mean.”
“Hey, my romantic life was public knowledge.”
It had been, she thought. “That kind of comes with being semifamous and then dating a beautiful figure skater,” she said gently.
“Semifamous.” He pressed a hand to his chest. “Way to go for the kill shot.”
She rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. You know what I mean. You were known, but not a tabloid regular. Plus, you’re not interested in fame.”
“You sure about that?”
She studied him for a second, then nodded. “Absolutely.”
He picked up his wine. “You’re right. I never liked that part of dating Hyacinth. There were choices made to put us more in the public eye. I didn’t love those, either.” He shrugged. “Relationships are all about compromise.”
There was something in his tone. “You say that like it’s not a good thing.”
“Oh, it can be. Until one person needs the other to go too far.”
Interesting, she thought. Not that she had a clue what it meant. She’d heard that Del and Hyacinth had broken up, then gotten back together for a short period of time before ending things a year or so back. What she didn’t know was why.
There had been speculation that one or the other had cheated. She would put her money on Del staying faithful. Despite his traveling lifestyle, he was a traditionalist at heart. A one-man, one-woman kind of guy. She couldn’t say for sure how she knew that, but believed it down to her bones.
“What about you?” he asked. “You had the luxury of a private life. Who do you want to trash over dinner?”
“No one,” she said with a smile. “There were relationships and they didn’t work out.”
“Or there’d be a Mr. Farlow?”
“Exactly.”
She’d dated, but had never gotten serious with anyone. Not since Del. She’d figured out the reason. She’d learned early that she couldn’t trust anyone to rescue her. She was going to have to take care of herself. While that wasn’t inherently a bad thing, it had kept her at an emotional distance from the men in her life. The ones who had wanted more had been frustrated by her reluctance to risk getting more involved.
Unfortunately, knowing the problem didn’t seem to make it easier to solve. As long as she wasn’t willing to take the chance, she would never have that elusive happily ever after ending. A part of her genuinely didn’t think she had it in her to love anyone, so why try? But without trying, she would never get there. An emotional paradox.
“So what festival are you looking forward to the most, now that you’re back?” Del asked.
“A tidy change of subject? Is this to ensure I don’t pry into your reasons for not being married?”
“Something like that.”
She laughed. “An honest man.”
“I try.”
She thought for a second. “I think the Book Fair is my favorite.”
“An unexpected choice. I would have thought something at the holidays.”
“No. The Book Fair.”
Because that summer they’d spent together, Del had first told her he loved her during the Book Fair. They’d made love in her bedroom. She’d been a virgin and he couldn’t have been more considerate and careful. Not to mention quiet, what with everyone else in her family sleeping on the same floor.
They’d been so young, she thought wistfully. So confident in their feelings for each other. So sure of their future. Even though she knew exactly what had happened and why, she couldn’t help wishing it had been different. That she had been different.
Not that she regretted going to college. That had been the right choice, and Del had obviously needed to leave Fool’s Gold. She’d unexpectedly provided the catalyst. But if she could take back the words, she would.
“I like the Tulip Festival best,” he said.
She stared at him. “Seriously?”
“Sure. They’re pretty. It’s a sign of spring coming. The changing of the season.”
“Tulips?”
“What? You’re saying a real man doesn’t like flowers?”
“I’m saying you surprise me.”
“That’s me. A constant mystery. Chicks dig mystery guys.”
“If only you had a cool scar.”
“I know. I kept hoping for some scar-inducing injury, but it never happened. I’m just that good.”
She laughed, and the opportunity to discuss the past and maybe apologize was over. But she could get there, she told herself. This new version of Del might not need to hear the words, but they needed to be said.
* * *
“ACTION!”
Del looked at the camera, knowing that while he might be uncomfortable staring directly at the lens, looking somewhere else didn’t translate well. His job was to engage with the viewer and that meant making eye contact.
“In Fool’s Gold, you can taste wine,” he said, then raised a glass of local merlot. Despite the fact that it was only a few minutes after sunrise, he pretended to take a sip. When this was done, he was so getting more coffee.
Day one of shooting had started at an ungodly hour and would go until sunset. They were starting with the tourist videos—showing all sides of the town. He and Maya had an aggressive filming schedule that would take them over much of Fool’s Gold. This morning they were focused on the wineries, followed by a couple of shots in town. The afternoon, with the harshest light of the day, would be spent by the wind turbines outside of town. If the sunset was cooperative, they would end with a view of the sun setting behind the town.
“Again,” Maya said. “Wait a second.”
She moved from behind the camera and got one of the equipment boxes, then dragged it toward him. When he started to move to help, she held up a hand.
“Stay where you are. You’re framed perfectly. I don’t want to have to start over.” She pushed the trunk in front of him, then stared at him. “Okay, put your left foot on the trunk, like you’re doing a lunge. I want you leaning forward. The wine goes in your right hand.”
He did as she asked. “This feels awkward.”
“No one cares,” she said as she returned to her spot behind the tripod. “It looks great. Really great. The camera loves you. Love it back.”
She turned and adjusted one of the lights, then stepped back to the camera. “Okay, leaning forward. You love the wine. You’re going to have sex with Scarlett Johansson later.”
He shook his head. “I’m not a big fan of Scarlett.”
Maya glared at him. “Del, it’s early days yet, but I can be forced into killing you. Just so we’re clear.”
“You’re crabby.”
“Yes. It would help to remember that. Wine and sex and action.”
She picked up the clapperboard, changed take one to take two, then positioned it in front of the camera and snapped it shut.
“Sound speeding,” she said. “And we have action.” She pointed at him.
Del hesitated a second, feeling ridiculous, then obligingly thought about wine followed by sex. Only instead of the very pretty Ms. Johansson, he remembered what it had been like to kiss Maya.
Her mouth had been soft. The kind of soft that gentled a man, despite how much he wanted the woman in question. Because a mouth that soft deserved attention. Slow attention and careful nurturing.
Even though he and Maya had become lovers that summer, he’d made sure to spend a lot of time just kissing her. Because that had been its own reward. And if he’d known how rare a mouth like hers was, he would have done it even more.
“Del?”
He swore silently and pushed the memories away. “In Fool’s Gold, you can taste wine.”
She motioned for him to do it again.
He said the line three more times, using different inflections, sometimes smiling, sometimes not. When they were done, he glanced at the sunrise.
“We should have that over my shoulder,” he said. “It would be a great shot.”
She glanced to where he pointed, then shook her head. “Too much light. I can’t control it with the equipment I have with me. Plus, the way the sun is angled will mean shifting the picture so the eye line will be off.”
“It’s a great shot,” he repeated. “We should try it.” When she didn’t answer, he added, “I’ve done some shooting of my own, Maya. I know what I’m talking about.”
He waited for her to say something like his amateur shoots were nothing compared to her professional experience. He had a feeling that in her position, that was what he would have been saying.
“Fine,” she said at last. “We’ll do it my way, then we’ll do it your way. Once we’re back in the studio and editing, we’ll see what’s what. Fair enough?”
He nodded.
They shifted the equipment so that the sun was over his shoulder, then he put his foot up on the trunk and raised his glass of wine.
“I’m thinking about coffee this time,” he told her as she reached for the clapperboard. “Lots and lots of coffee.”
She laughed and called for action.
* * *
MAYA WAS STILL tired when she walked into The Fox and Hound to meet Elaine for lunch. The previous day’s photo shoot had gone until sunset. They’d gotten some great footage, but today she was wiped out. She was sure Del was equally tired. Posing in front of a camera didn’t sound like work, but it required complete focus, not to mention a lot of standing. By the end of the day, her brain was fuzzy and her back hurting and she was sure he felt a lot of the same. Today she was playing catch-up and tomorrow would be all about the editing. She was curious to see how their shooting styles would translate onto the screen.
She wanted to say she knew her stuff would be better, but she’d been in the business long enough to know it wasn’t always possible to judge. Sometimes the unexpected jumped out at the viewer. Not often, of course, but sometimes. Del could surprise her.
She smiled when she saw her friend had already been seated at a booth.
“Hi,” she said as she sat across from Elaine. “How’s it going?”
Before Elaine could answer, their waitress walked over. Maya studied the sixty-something woman and tried to hold in a grin. It seemed that in the past ten years, Wilma hadn’t changed a bit.
She still wore her hair short, with glasses perched on her nose. She snapped gum and looked ready to take on the world.
“You’re back,” she said to Maya, then nodded at Elaine. “We’re doing a new roast beef sandwich with a horseradish cream. The bread is from the bakery. Trust me, order that, or you’re an idiot. What would you like to drink?”
They both ordered iced tea.
“I’ll give you a minute to look over the menu,” Wilma said with a sigh. “Not everyone listens to me.”
When she’d walked away, Maya leaned toward her friend. “I think I’m getting the roast beef sandwich.”
“Me, too. How was the photo shoot yesterday?”
“Good. Long.” Maya shook her head. “Your son can be stubborn. He seems to have forgotten I’m in the business. He had ideas about every location.”
“Good ones?”
“We’ll see when we start editing.”
Elaine smiled. “I can tell by your tone, you’re thinking he’s made some bad choices.”
“They’re his to make. As I said, we’ll see. Maybe he’s secretly brilliant.”
“If he is, he wouldn’t make a secret of it. Trust me, none of my boys would.”
Wilma returned with their iced teas. As Elaine ordered the sandwich, Maya noticed there were shadows under her eyes. She studied the other woman more closely and couldn’t help thinking she seemed tired. No, not tired. But there was something off.
Maya waited until their waitress had given them a choice between fruit, chips or fries and then walked away. She picked up her tea, put it down, then decided to simply spit it out.
“Are you okay?” she asked, doing her best to keep her voice from sounding abrupt. “Tell me I’m crazy, but I feel like something isn’t right.”
Elaine’s eyes widened. “Why would you say that?”
“I have no idea. Am I wrong?”
The other woman hesitated just long enough for Maya to realize she’d stumbled on the truth. Even if she didn’t know what it was.
“Tell me,” she said gently. “Please.”
Elaine nodded. “I hadn’t planned on saying anything to anyone. You weren’t supposed to guess.”
Normally Maya would have made a joke about being perceptive, but somehow this didn’t seem like the right time.
“I need you to promise not to say a word to anyone,” her friend continued. “I mean it, Maya. You have to swear.”
Maya was clear on the danger of making a promise without having all the facts. Even so, she didn’t hesitate. “I promise I will keep your secret for as long as you tell me to. No matter what it is.”
“Thank you.” Elaine gave her a shaky smile that faded quickly. “I have breast cancer. The tumor is small and was caught early, but still. Cancer.”
Maya’s stomach tightened as she did her best not to visibly react. Fear for her friend ripped through her. She reached across the table and grabbed Elaine’s hand. “What? No. I’m so sorry. What can I do to help? How can I make this better?”
“By keeping my secret.”
Maya drew in a breath. “You’re not telling Ceallach?” she asked in a whisper.
“No. Or the boys. I don’t want them to know. They won’t take it well. You know they won’t. The last thing I need right now is to be making them feel better. I just want to get through it.”
Maya nodded, even if she didn’t agree with the decision. Elaine would need support from more than her. She was dealing with a scary diagnosis and the treatment that would follow.
Elaine explained how her routine mammogram had detected a small mass. It had been biopsied and she’d gotten the diagnosis. She paused as Wilma returned with their lunches.
“Eat up,” the older woman instructed before leaving.
Maya stared at her sandwich and knew she would have to take it home.
“We have to eat,” Elaine told her. “Not only because Wilma will yell at us if we don’t, but because not eating won’t help me. We’re both going to need our strength.”
“Okay.” Maya reluctantly took a bite. “So what’s the treatment plan?”
“A lumpectomy followed by six weeks of radiation.”
“You have to tell them,” Maya said quietly. “They need to know.”
“They don’t. Maya, I appreciate what you’re saying, but this is my decision. I’m going to get through this, then I’ll deal with my family.” Her dark eyes narrowed. “You gave me your word.”
“I know, and I’ll keep it.” Even though she knew her friend was wrong. Ceallach and her sons would want to know. They would want to be there for her.
“I’ve rented a studio apartment in the same building as Morgan’s Bookstore,” Elaine told her. “A place to go rest after my radiation. I’ve heard the treatment can make me tired. I can get myself back and forth to the clinic or whatever it’s called for that, but I will need help after the lumpectomy.”
Maya forced herself to chew the bite she’d taken, but the sandwich had no flavor and she knew she wouldn’t be able to get down much more.
“Of course. What can I do?”
“Drive me there, then bring me back to your place. I’d like to stay the night.”
Because she would have had surgery, Maya thought. “Can you schedule for a Friday morning? We can say we’re having a girls’ weekend. You won’t have to go home until Sunday. By then you should be feeling better.”
Elaine gave her a grateful smile. “Thank you. They said the lumpectomy shouldn’t take long.”
“However long it takes, I’ll be there.”
Maya was more than happy to take care of her friend, but she now regretted the promise to keep the secret. Elaine was making a mistake. But as of now, it didn’t seem as if she could be talked out of it.
CHAPTER FIVE (#u6c99cbdf-c241-5751-b34f-e265cba94e3e)
DEL STUDIED THE screen in front of him. “You were right,” he said flatly. “The sunrise doesn’t work at all.”
Maya barely glanced up. “There’s too much light and it’s in the wrong place. It was impossible to make the shot and keep you in the center. So it feels off.”
He saw she had identified the problem. While he hadn’t been able to define what was wrong, he’d sensed it. Now he was able to see how he wasn’t in the middle of the screen. Although he was supposed to be the focus, he was off to the side, with the sun making a glaring appearance.
He waited a second, then said, “Are you going to say ‘I told you so’?”
She continued to stare at the monitor in front of her. “You said it for me.” She finally looked at him. “It’s okay, Del. I do this for a living. The show I worked on was small enough that I had to handle more than just producing the segments. I edited, I wrote copy and sometimes I worked the camera.”
“Meaning I should shut up and keep out of your way?”
“No.” She gave him a faint smile. “Meaning there’s more to producing good material than simply pointing a camera and pushing a button. Look at this.”
She typed on the keyboard and brought up more of his footage, then started it running. There wasn’t any sound, but he remembered the shot. It was taken up by the wind turbines.
He was walking through the frame, pointing and talking. Everything was in focus, but he knew instinctively something was off.
“It’s the eye line,” she told him, using her pen to point at the screen. “As a rule, the screen in divided into thirds, horizontally. The subject’s eye should be even with this line.” She drew an imaginary line across the screen. “You’re too low in the shot. There’s nothing in the eye line. Not you, not the wind turbines.”
She typed again and brought up her footage of the same scene. The camera focused on him and this time his face was right where she said it should be. As he watched, the camera panned, bringing the wind turbines into view. Then the center of the blades was in the eye line.
“Just like that,” he said and shook his head.
“There’s some other stuff,” she told him. “You changed the camera settings at the same scene. You shot half your material in SD and half in HD. While we can bring HD down to SD, there’s no way to take it up. Because some of this material may become a TV commercial, we have to shoot in HD. It would be different if we were just going to put it on a website.”
High definition instead of standard definition, he thought, remembering that he’d wanted to confirm the settings, but must have changed them instead.
“Why didn’t you say something?” he asked.
She turned to him. They were sitting close. Close enough for him to be aware of the curve of her cheek and the shape of her mouth. Dark lashes framed big, green eyes.
Need started slowly, almost in the background. It was more of a whisper, a hint, one that grew over time. He thought about how her skin would feel against his fingers if he touched her. Of the way her lips fit against his. If he took her in his arms, would she be as he remembered, or were there changes?
He would have thought he would be pissed at her, or disinterested. He was neither. Being around Maya was easy. She challenged him. They got along. The wanting might be a problem, but he was a big boy. He could keep himself under control.
“You were determined,” she said, drawing him back to the conversation. “I figured it was easier to let you do what you wanted and see what happened. Maybe you were naturally gifted.”
He laughed. “You’re saying I’m not?”
“I’m saying what I said before. It’s harder than it looks.”
She turned back to the screen and pulled up her footage. He watched her edit the few seconds of video. She then played as much of the clip as she had finished.
“Nice,” he told her when it was done. “Mayor Marsha is going to be happy.”
“I hope so.”
He glanced at Maya. “You okay?”
She stiffened, then relaxed. “Sure. Why?”
“I don’t know.” Something was off. He couldn’t figure out what, though. Women were mysterious that way. “You feeling all right?”
She smiled at him. “I’m completely fine. Now let me get back to work. Taking pictures is sometimes the easy part of the job.”
“Pretend I’m not here,” he said, leaning back in his chair and watching her do her thing.
She was good, he thought. Better than good.
For a second he debated telling her about his project. The one he wanted to be his next act, only he hadn’t been able to make it work. Looking at her raw footage, he knew that he’d been the problem. Could what he had be fixed?
He studied Maya’s profile, then looked at her rapidly manipulating the mouse. He had a feeling that if his project could be saved, she was the one to do it, then he shook his head. No, he told himself. He liked Maya. He respected her, but there was no way he was willing to trust her with something like that.
After a couple of minutes, she glanced at him. “Are you just going to sit there, staring, watching me work?”
“Pretty much.”
She smiled. “I don’t think so. I mean this in the nicest possible way, but get out.”
“Just like that?”
“Uh-huh.”
Del stood and stretched. “You’ll miss me when I’m gone.”
Something flashed in her eyes. An emotion that was gone so quickly, he wasn’t able to read it. Had she missed him? Before? When she’d ended things so abruptly? Had she regretted her decision to end their relationship?
Not that it mattered, he told himself. The past was firmly in the past. He didn’t believe in going home, all evidence to the contrary. Because he wasn’t back for more than his father’s birthday. Over the past ten years he’d learned a lot of things. And one of the most important was that he didn’t go back. Not ever.
* * *
AFTER MAYA KICKED him out, Del wandered around Fool’s Gold. Somehow he found himself heading for the Mitchell Adventure Tour offices. Despite the small size of the town, he hadn’t run into Aidan since he’d been back.

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