Romance Grows in Arcadia Valley (Arcadia Valley Romance Book 0) Page 27

  “Nope. I got this.”

  So he took the remaining two, leaving Morgan free to walk along beside them, holding the door open and then following them inside, chattering and admiring the decorating and stealing a little taste of the cake.

  “Hey,” she said, “this is good!”

  “It’ll be better with icing.” Patricia frowned. “I’m no expert on that, so I hope your grandma isn’t picky.”

  “She’s not,” Alex and Morgan said at the same time. “She’ll just be happy to have the family together,” Alex went on.

  “Isn’t her favorite color pink?” Morgan asked. “I seem to remember her being dragged into L’Aubergine for some event, wearing a pink suit. Gorgeous, but she complained the whole time about how fancy and expensive the meal was. She’s pretty down to earth.”

  “Then we’ll use pink frosting and keep things simple,” Patricia declared, kneeling to pull a bowl from beneath the sink. Already, she seemed to know her way around the kitchen better than he did. “Look at all these fresh carrots and cabbages for the soup! And bell peppers and mushrooms for veggie quesadillas. Thanks so much for bringing it over.”

  When Alex walked Morgan to the door, she stopped him from coming outside. “I’m fine, go back and help her. You know you want to.”

  He grinned. To those who’d known him all his life, he was pretty transparent.

  “I like her,” Morgan added. “You should talk her into staying.”

  He lifted his hands, palms up. “How can I? I just met her.”

  Morgan shrugged. “Sometimes you just know. I think you know.” And she spun and hurried toward her car, leaving Alex to contemplate what she’d said and to realize that he did, in fact, know.

  He liked Patricia, liked her a lot. He’d really like it if she stayed in town for a while, and her future plans sounded a little flexible. This area was full of state and natural parks that needed rangers. Craters of the Moon, or the Hagerman fossil beds, just to name a couple.

  At the kitchen doorway, he paused. She was washing salad greens with a thoughtful expression on her face.

  She was helping him, no questions asked. And she’d jumped in without hesitation at the first sign of a need. Who did that?

  And it wasn’t that she was a doormat or didn’t have a life, like some of the women who’d come on to him. She had plans and dreams. But she was willing to put them on hold for a little while to help someone who needed it. That was special. She’d fit right into Arcadia Valley.

  But for that to happen, she’d have to learn the truth about him.

  Today. Soon. He’d tell her the truth very soon.

  Chapter 10

  As they picked their way down the snowy, slushy highway toward Patricia’s car, Patricia covertly studied the man next to her.

  He seemed perfectly content to walk, carrying a couple of shovels to dig out the car. Most men she knew wouldn’t have walked anywhere if a car was available, but when she’d proposed it, wanting the exercise and the sunshine, he’d readily agreed. He’d even suggested they detour to a friend’s big fenced yard and leave Bear to run there, safe and cared for while they took care of business.

  Alex was handsome and fun. Much kinder than Carl, and less self-centered. The kind of guy who could change her mind about just moving forward on her own.

  Except he was miles out of her league, and he already had a beautiful girlfriend, if the way he and Morgan had laughed and whispered together was any indication. And the sooner she got it into her head that he was taken, the better. “I liked Morgan,” she said, keeping her voice casual. “She seemed really nice.”

  “She is. Although she drives me crazy. We’re always competing about how well our restaurants are doing, and right now, she’s winning.” He shook his head. “All that local, fresh food. People seem to want it more than old fashioned tacos and enchiladas.”

  “How long have you been seeing each other?”

  “Who? Me and Morgan?” He looked over at her, forehead wrinkled. “We’re not seeing each other.”

  “You’re not?” A huge, dangerous wave of happiness washed over her.

  “Nope. If I were seeing her, you’d have known it.” He gave her a sideways look. “I don’t have a girlfriend.”

  Her heart raced. Why had he told her that?

  Deliberately trying to calm herself, she focused on the semi-rural scene around her. A row of small houses was to the left, a couple of them with wire-fenced yards. One held a chicken coop, and in the other a horse stomped and blew out steamy breath. Good thing they’d left Bear at Alex’s friend’s place; he’d have been chasing those chickens and barking at the horse, for sure.

  A group of kids ran and shouted in one of the yards, having a rowdy snowball fight. The snow was already slushy, and the muddy ground smelled of spring.

  “There is something I want to tell you,” Alex said.

  “Yeah?” She looked over at him. Their steps were in sync. They were pretty much in sync.

  And he didn’t have a girlfriend! Unless... was that what he wanted to tell her? That even though he didn’t have a girlfriend, he was interested in someone? “Listen, you don’t owe me any explanations about anything. We’re two strangers who happened to encounter each other. That’s all.”

  “That’s not all it is to me. I really like you, Patricia.” He put a hand on her arm, stopping her. She turned toward him, half afraid and half eager, and lifted her eyes to his.

  “Patricia, I... wow.” He stared at her. “You are so beautiful.”

  She shook her head quickly. “No, I’m not.”

  “Yes, you are, and I’m angry at the man who let you believe otherwise.” He let the shovels he was carrying clatter to the ground and moved his hand to cup her cheek. “You look like my dreams come true.”

  Emotions stormed within her. She wanted to believe him. She didn’t dare to believe him.

  But why would he lie?

  He leaned forward, tilted her face up, and pressed his lips to hers.

  Out-of-body experience didn’t even begin to describe it. Patricia felt like she were floating, not only from his tender touch and the gentle press of his lips, but from the feeling of hope and optimism that surged in her.

  He couldn’t kiss her like this if he were faking about finding her attractive, could he?

  Something smacked into her back. Then a hit from a big, soft snowball had Alex stepping back in surprise, still holding onto her.

  Another snowball hit her wrist, sending icy snow up the sleeve of her coat. “Hey!” she said, laughing and trying to clear the snow away.

  She turned at the same moment Alex did and saw the group of kids who’d been having their own snowball fight just moments before laughing and forming new snow bombs.

  Moments before he’d kissed her and rocked her world.

  Now, the kids were running around them, laughing and hooting and bombarding them with more snowballs.

  Patricia laughed and dodged them easily. The kids were all elementary-school aged, and their aim was terrible.

  “Hey!” Alex waved a hand. “No mas! That’s enough!”

  When another snowball came their way despite his words, he narrowed his eyes. “Stand back there a minute,” he said to Patricia. “Gonna teach them a lesson.”

  “They’re just playing.”

  He scooped up snow, formed a snowball, and threw it at the kid who looked like a ringleader, bigger than the others, hitting him in the arm.

  Then he proceeded to do the exact same thing to each kid, hitting each one in the same spot. “You’re hitting them in their throwing arms!”

  “Elbows, and I didn’t pack ‘em hard.” Alex assured her.

  Who had that kind of aim?

  Several of the kids laughed and shouted and ran toward them. When they reached Alex, they jumped at him, hanging off his arms and hugging his legs, talking in Spanish so fast that she couldn’t follow.

  A freckle-faced redhead came out of one of the small houses and r
an toward them, a baseball in hand. “Can you sign this? I bought a sharpie.”

  Alex glanced over at her quickly, then back at the kid. “Sure.” He took the marker and scrawled on the baseball.

  “Get on home,” Alex said to the kids. “We’ve got work to do, and I know you’re not supposed to be out in the street. Why don’t you build a snowman?”

  “That’s a baby thing to do,” one of the older kids said.

  “Not if you have a competition. I bet Juanita and Petey can build a bigger snowman than the rest of you kids put together.” He ruffled the two youngest kids’ hair.

  “No way!” yelled a couple of the other kids.

  “Everybody build one in your own yard and then we’ll measure,” said the older kid who’d just said building a snowman was too babyish.

  “I’ll get my mom’s yardstick,” said the oldest-looking girl. And then all of them ran back toward their houses.

  Once they were gone, Alex picked up their shovels and started to walk again but Patricia slowed him down with a hand on his arm. “What was that baseball business about?”

  He started to say something, paused, then started again. “Come on, we need to dig out your car.”

  She crossed her arms. “I’m waiting.”

  “I’m... I was... a baseball player.”

  “Professional?”

  He waved a self-deprecating hand. “Yeah.”

  She nodded. She wanted to know more, but it sounded like he hadn’t done too well. Professional sports were so competitive; even she knew that. She didn’t want to probe into what was probably a painful subject: he’d once been on a track to the big leagues, and now he was a restaurant cook.

  Still, it was nice the local kids admired him. “So, if you’re not going to play baseball anymore, what do you want to do?”

  He glanced sideways at her as if gauging her interest. “I’ve been giving it a lot of thought.”

  “So share it with me. I told you my dreams last night; it’s only fair that you share yours.”

  “Maybe.” But he kept walking and didn’t comment more.

  The sun glinted on the snow like sparkling diamonds, and the air was crisp and cool. Even with the boots Alex had loaned her, her feet felt a little wet. “There it is,” she said, gesturing toward the car, off the road and nosing into a snowdrift. “Wow, it got buried.”

  “We can get it out.” He handed her one of the two shovels he’d carried on his shoulder. “Why don’t you work on the new snow and I’ll dig out the front, where the plow piled up.”

  Giving her the easier job. She was starting to see that was his way. Quietly kind.. A true gentleman.

  They dug for a few minutes. A couple of cars went by slowly and Alex waved to the drivers, obviously well known in town. What would that be like, to know everyone in town? How cool would that be?

  “You didn’t answer my question,” she reminded him. “What are you thinking of, career wise?”

  He tossed a shovelful of snow toward the fence at the other side of the berm. “Well, I like kids.” He looked at her as if daring her to laugh at him.

  “That’s cool. Like, teaching or coaching or something else?”

  “That’s what I can’t figure out. I’d probably like either of those things, but whether in some kind of community program or in the public schools, that I don’t know. I didn’t go to college.” Again, he looked at her as if checking her reaction. “So I would have a lot of work ahead if I decided to go the traditional route.”

  “And that’s expensive.”

  He gave her a strange look and nodded. “I could handle the expense.”

  “Are you good in school?”

  He grinned and with the sun shining on his face, he was so handsome that he took her breath away. “I’m good when I focus. And I’m sure I’d focus better now than I did when I was a teenager.”

  “That’s true for most of us.” She shoveled a little more and then stopped, leaning on her shovel. “You didn’t ask me for advice, but I’d say go for the teaching certification, if you can afford it. There are a lot of part time programs, online classes... you could still work. And once you get that education, no one can ever take it away from you.”

  “You liked college.” It was a statement, not a question.

  “Yeah. I love learning. I bet you would, too.”

  He smiled at her, reached out, and pushed a strand of hair to one side. “You know, I just might.”

  Once they’d gotten the car shoveled out, it became obvious that the front end had suffered some damage, and when she started the car, an oil light came on. “Oh, great,” she fretted to Alex, who was sliding into the passenger seat. “I wonder how serious that is.”

  “You’d better get it checked out before driving far. I don’t like the looks of that front end.”

  “I guess I should. Do you know a place?”

  He nodded, thought a minute, and then pointed to the road ahead. “Take the next right. We’ll go to my place, get my other car, and then take your car to my friend Manuel’s shop. He’ll get you in and out quickly, and meanwhile, you can come back to the restaurant with me.”

  “Or you can just drop me off there...” Except she didn’t want that.

  “Can you come help a little more?” He smiled at her. “I’d be sorry to say goodbye to you so soon. And remember, I still want to talk to you.”

  Heaven help her, but she didn’t want to leave him. As they headed toward his place, she asked, “how come you didn’t mention you were a baseball player? I thought you’d been a full time cook.” Now it was coming back to her. “Was that the training you mentioned? You were away at baseball training when your mom passed?”

  He nodded without speaking.

  Something about his expression concerned her. “Were you... did you feel bad about how the baseball thing turned out?”

  He shrugged. “You might say that.”

  Giving him space, she focused on the town of Arcadia Valley. Brick buildings lined the quaint main street, housing small businesses, with trees that would provide summer shade. Soon they’d reached the end of the commercial area, and after a bit Alex directed her to turn right toward a less populated area that merged into country. Five minutes later, they drove up a long driveway to an impressive mansion overlooking the river, surrounded by trees.

  She stopped the car. “This is where you live?”

  “Home, sweet home,” he said, looking sideways at her. “A little oversized. Which is why it’s for sale.” He nodded at the small for-sale sign tucked into a rock arrangement in the massive yard.

  He was out of the car and around to Patricia’s side before she’d stopped staring.

  She’d thought Carl had been wealthy. But the family home he’d lived in with his parents was less than half this fancy.

  Alex was holding her door open. “Come on, I just need to run inside for a quick shower and change of clothes, and then grab my car and I’ll lead you to Manuel’s.” He frowned. “Unless you don’t want to go inside? I can always give you directions to the shop, but it’s a little complicated.”

  “No, I’ll... I’ll come in.” She got out, slowly. Looked from him, to the house, and back again.

  “You’re welcome to shower here too, if you’d like. There’s a whole guest suite, and I’m sure some of my sister’s clothes are available, though we could also pull your clothes out of your car. Your choice. Is your suitcase in the back?” He seemed to be talking a lot, and fast.

  “Sure, I... I guess I’ll clean up and change.” Why not take advantage of the opportunity to look around probably the fanciest house she’d ever see?

  Maybe it would distract her from the shocked, hollow feeling in her chest.

  She followed him through the massive downstairs and then up to the top floor. He carried her suitcase into a guest suite bigger than Patricia’s entire apartment back in California and set it down on a stand. “Make yourself at home. There should be towels, soap, whatever you need, in the b
athroom. I don’t know, I never go in there, but I think the maid keeps it stocked.”

  The maid. Of course.

  After he’d gone to some other part of the house, she dimly heard a shower running. He’d be ready to go quickly, but she couldn’t pull herself together to hurry up. She sat down on the soft-as-a-cloud bed and looked around, trying to take in the new reality of the man she’d come to like so well.

  Alex wasn’t just a restaurant cook. He was a millionaire or more, if this house was to be believed. How ridiculous he must have found her talk of ways to afford college. And he’d surely been lying about wanting to teach or coach. People who lived in houses like this didn’t do that.

  Alex was in the same income bracket as Carl. Higher. Not only was he handsome and charming, but he was also rich.

  About as far out of her stratosphere as anyone could ever be. Her foolish notions of what might develop between them seemed ten times as ridiculous as before.

  She rummaged through her clothes and found her baggiest shirt and longest skirt, took a quick shower, and pulled her hair up in a ponytail. No point in trying to look nice. No point in trying to charm Alex.

  He was way, way out of her league.

  And he’d lied about it. If not openly, then by omission. Had he enjoyed the slumming, pretending to be something he wasn’t? Making a fool of her?

  She threw her things back into her suitcase, hard, and practically ran down to the front door. When he offered to bring around the car, she just nodded.

  Checked her phone, acted like she was in a hurry to get her car fixed. Walked outside.

  He pulled a Jaguar around in front of her. Of course he had a second, fancier car in addition to the SUV he said he’d loaned to his sister.

  She prayed for calm while she followed him to the mechanic’s place. He set things up with his friend to repair the car immediately and deliver it back to the restaurant. When he pushed a pile of cash across the counter, she started to protest, but her voice quavered and she broke off. He could afford to give her a loan. She’d mail him a check once she’d gotten far, far away from here.