Kitabı oku: «The Bachelors of Blackwater Lake»

Chapter One

“Rose, this might come as a shock, but we’re not divorced.”

Lincoln Hart looked around the room to make sure there was nothing pointed, heavy, or sharp enough to take out an eye, bash in his skull or maim a fairly important body part. Satisfied, he studied the woman he hadn’t seen in ten years and realized Rose Tucker was even more beautiful than she’d been then, when she took his breath away every time he saw her. When he was so in love that being apart from her was almost a physical ache.

Rose. Even her name was lovely. She was more polished than the young woman he’d walked away from. And more hostile, but he couldn’t blame her.

After what he’d just said she was going to hate him even more than she had a decade ago, and she’d hated him quite a lot then.

“What? Not even a hello?” The hostility in her dark blue eyes wavered to make way for surprise, then suspicion.

“I thought it best to lead with the headline, make sure you got the information before slamming the door in my face.”

“You’re telling me we’re still married? I don’t believe you. What kind of game are you playing now? What in the world would you have to gain by pretending we’re still married?”

“I’m not pretending. And I’m as thrown by this as you are.”

“I doubt that.” She put a hand to her forehead as if feeling dizzy.

Linc reached out and curved his fingers around her upper arm to steady her. “Let’s sit down.”

Apparently his touch snapped her out of it because she yanked her arm away. He half expected her to take a swing at him and wouldn’t blame her if she did. This whole mess was his fault from start to finish. If there was anything at all positive about his screwup, it was that his family knew nothing about his brief, whirlwind marriage.

His brothers, Sam and Cal, would rag on him relentlessly, which was bad enough. Katherine and Hastings Hart, his mother and her husband, and his younger sister, Ellie, would be disappointed in him for the way he’d handled the situation. But none of that mattered now. He and Rose had a problem and it was all on him.

“We should probably sit—”

“Don’t be nice to me, Linc. We both know that’s not who you are.”

“What I did to you was lousy, Rose, but that’s not who I am.” He wasn’t the man she thought she’d married, but he wasn’t a complete jerk, either.

They stood in the postage-stamp-sized living area of her apartment, which was upstairs from her small interior design studio in an old, redbrick building on one of Prosper, Texas’s, side streets. The fact that this one-room place had charm was a reflection of her skill as an interior designer. The paint was pale gold except for one olive-green accent wall in the living room. The kitchen and living areas were set apart by the clever placement of the love-seat-sized sofa. Wall hangings, knickknacks, lamps and throw pillows added color without being stuffy and formal. It was homey and warm. He liked her taste very much.

“You must have questions,” he said.

“How do you know we’re not divorced?” She tucked a strand of long black hair behind her ear.

“My lawyer passed away after a short illness and I had to hire a new one to handle my personal affairs. He insisted on looking over all of my official documents. There was a marriage license but no divorce decree. After researching the situation, he discovered that the papers were never filed with the court.”

“How could that happen?”

It was hard not to cringe at her bewildered tone, especially since he’d assured her he would handle everything. “I hired a half-price lawyer and got what I paid for—half a divorce.”

“Why would you do that, Linc? Your family is worth millions and Hart Industries must have a platoon of the best and brightest legal minds around. It doesn’t make sense that you would get an attorney from outside the company, especially someone incompetent. The Harts don’t do things like that.”

Leave it to Rose to zero in on the core of the problem. It wasn’t something he wanted to talk about, but she had a right to know. “I’m not a Hart.”

“Excuse me? You’re what now?”

“Hastings Hart isn’t my father.”

“No way.” She shook her head.

“It’s true. Hastings and Katherine confirmed it. I found out right after we got married.”

“How?”

“My biological father came to see me. He confessed he had a...thing with my mother.”

“You told me your parents were deliriously happy,” Rose said with equal amounts of accusation and defensiveness in her voice.

“That was their story. Turns out there was a rough patch. My older brothers were born nine months apart—twins the hard way, she always said. The fact is she had her hands full raising them and Hastings wasn’t around much. He was traveling, working long hours to build Hart Industries into something he could leave to his sons.”

“So she turned to another man and had an affair?”

“He and my mother were legally separated and headed for a divorce, so technically it wasn’t an extramarital affair.”

“And you never knew? Never suspected?” There was skepticism in the questions.

“No. They worked through their problems and he promised to give me his name. Both of them agreed there was no reason for me to know.”

“And your biological father was all right with the arrangement?”

“He was a lawyer on the partner track at an ultraconservative law firm that specialized in divorce. Sleeping with a client and getting her pregnant would have caused a scandal that might have cost him his career, so keeping it secret was fine with him.”

“Yet he told you all those years later. Why?”

“Midlife crisis, I guess. He never had children.” He stopped, waiting for the anger to roll through him so he could continue the act and pretend he was reconciled to the ugly secret. “No one to carry on the family name got to him, probably.”

“You don’t know?”

“It was a short conversation. At that moment I didn’t know whether or not he was lying.” Turned out the guy was the only one who hadn’t lied. “Hastings and Katherine confirmed.”

“And you haven’t talked to your father since? Asked him why he finally came forward?”

“No.” The man ruined his life. Sharing DNA didn’t make that okay. “The narcissistic bastard only thought about the fact that he had a son, not what the revelation would do to that son.”

“Oh, God. Linc—” Shock and resentment were replaced by pity in her eyes and that wasn’t much of an improvement. “I guess it hit you hard.”

“Let’s just say finding out your parents lied to you about Santa Claus is nothing compared to learning your father isn’t who you thought.” Linc had had no idea who he was and his only thought was to protect Rose, even from himself.

He remembered that time as if it was yesterday. She’d been hired for the summer at Hart Industries in the real-estate development branch of the company he was taking over. They fell madly in love, had a whirlwind romance and he swept her away to Las Vegas, where they got married. It was the best time of his life and he’d never been happier. Then everything went to hell.

He shook his head and met her gaze. “You thought you married a Hart but I’m not one.”

Understanding dawned in her eyes. “You think that was important to me?”

Intensity rotated through him and was nearly as powerful as what he’d felt ten years ago. He recalled the anguish and pain in her voice when she’d pleaded with him to tell her why he was leaving. What she’d done. It was an understatement to say he hadn’t been thinking clearly. He left the Harts, too, and stayed away for a long time. “It mattered to me.”

“So you had to split from me and got a half-price lawyer to do it.”

“I didn’t feel it was right to use a Hart attorney since I wasn’t really part of the family. And in the spirit of full disclosure, I walked away from everyone.” He backpacked through Europe, although it would be more accurate to say that he drank his way from one country to the next. “After two years I came back.” But he never forgot that he was the bastard son who always needed to prove himself.

“And your father? The biological one?”

“What about him?”

“What’s he like?”

“Good question. Like I said, I don’t see him. And if it’s all the same to you I don’t want to talk about him. I only brought it up for context.”

“Don’t expect me to forgive you,” she said.

“I don’t.” But seeing her again, remembering that they’d once been two halves of a whole, made him wish she could. “I just thought you should know about the divorce.”

“It is kind of important,” she agreed. “Chances are I would have found out the hard way pretty soon.”

“Oh?”

“I’ve been dating someone and it’s getting serious.” She turned away and walked over to the couch, absently rearranging throw pillows. “Lately he’s been hinting about getting married.”

Linc had absolutely no right to the feeling but that didn’t stop the blast of raw jealousy that roared through him. “I guess it would have been awkward to apply for a marriage license and find out you were still married.”

“You think?”

He detected the tiniest bit of defensiveness in her voice and decided to take a shot. “You never told him you’d been married before?”

“We were married for fifteen minutes.” Ten years ago her eyes took on shades of gray when she was annoyed and they looked that way now. “It was a long time ago. I’ve been busy. It didn’t seem important.”

“The thing is, you never checked to find out about the divorce,” he reminded her.

“Neither did you.”

“Fair enough. I will take care of it now. Mason, my new lawyer, will handle the details and send the papers to you for your signature. Then it will be behind us.” At least the paperwork part. His feelings were a lot more complicated than he’d expected.

“Okay.” She frowned. “How did you know where I was?”

“How does anyone find anyone? I looked you up on the internet.”

Also he’d checked her out, found out what she’d been doing all these years. First college, then five years working with a prestigious design firm in Dallas before opening her own business not quite two years ago. And it wasn’t doing well. If she was, she’d still be located in Dallas, not thirty-five miles away, where office and living spaces were combined and cheap.

She ran everything herself, no hired help and therefore no payroll. There were a few flooring, window-covering and paint samples in her downstairs studio, but not what you’d see in a larger, successful company.

Her reputation was good, but her business was going down with a whimper. Unless someone gave her a high-profile opportunity.

“Look, Rose, there’s another reason I came to see you.”

“What else could there possibly be? Isn’t the fact that we’re not legally divorced enough?”

“This is a good thing. Trust me.”

“Seriously? You have the nerve to ask me to trust you? Getting involved with you was the worst mistake of my life.”

“Right.” He refused to react, to let her know the arrow hit its mark. “You have no reason to trust me. And that doesn’t bode well, because I want to offer you a job.”

“Doing what?”

“Decorating.” He moved closer. “My condo in Blackwater Lake, Montana.”

“And why would I want to do that?”

“Because the town is about to be on the rich-and-famous radar when a new hotel, condo and retail project opens. The hotel is entering the last phase of construction and will need decorating. I know the developer. Use my condo for your résumé and dazzle them. I’ll put in a good word.” Linc pitched her the rest of the details, then asked, “What do you think?”

“I think I want to know what your angle is.”

“No ulterior motive.” Except giving her business a helping hand might earn him some redemption points.

“I don’t need your charity.”

“That’s not what this is.” He slid his fingertips into the pockets of his slacks. “I don’t deserve a favor, but I’m asking for one. Just think about it.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re good at what you do.” He pulled a card from his wallet and set it on the coffee table. “Call me in a few days with your decision. And before you think about not calling, you should know that I’ll contact you.”

“Okay.”

Linc was reluctant to leave but decided not to push his luck. The weird thing was he’d never planned to offer her a job. That changed when he saw her.

Accepting his proposition would mean traveling to Blackwater Lake with him and he really wanted her to do that. For old time’s sake. For her business. To make things up to her so he would feel better about what he’d done.

Ultimately the reasons were about him, which did, in fact, make him a self-centered bastard like his father.

* * *

“What do you mean you’re married? More important—why do I not know this about you? And don’t even get me started on why I wasn’t invited to the wedding.”

Rose stared at her BFF, Vicki Jeffers. After Linc left she couldn’t stop shaking. He was a ghost from the past and she’d barely held it together when he showed up out of the blue. She’d really needed to talk to someone and begged her friend to come over. Apparently her shocked and shaky tone had convinced the other woman to break a date. So Rose told her story and the other woman was now staring at her as if she had two heads.

“I’m not married so much as not quite divorced.” She took another sip of the wine Vicki had brought. It was a nice vintage, more than Rose could afford. The business she’d launched eighteen months ago wasn’t exactly setting the world on fire. Paying her bills was a challenge and left no room in the budget for an expensive bottle of cabernet.

“So you’ve been married for ten years.”

“Not technically,” Rose objected.

“Yeah, technically,” Vicki countered. “Because if you’re not divorced, you’re still married. And you just said that happened almost ten years ago.”

“It ended after a nanosecond, so not really married that long.”

“Might not feel that way but legally you’ve been his wife all these years.” Vicki sighed and held up a hand. She was sitting at the other end of the couch and tucked her legs up beside her, settling in for a marathon heart-to-heart. “Why don’t you start at the beginning?”

Rose blew out a long breath as the highs and lows of that emotional time tumbled through her mind. “It was the summer before I started college. I got a clerical job at Hart Industries. Lincoln Hart had just finished his master’s degree in business and was taking his place in the company his father started.” Although now she knew Hastings Hart wasn’t his biological father.

“So... What? He hit on you? Used his position of power to sexually harass you?”

“Why would you think such a thing?”

“Because I’m a lawyer,” Vicki said.

“A very cynical one.” Rose shook her head. “He was a perfect gentleman. The truth is we fell madly in love and got married.”

“And you never saw fit to say a word about it when we met at school? I thought we shared all of our secrets.” There was just a tinge of hurt in her friend’s brown eyes. Vicki wrapped a long strand of silky blond hair around her finger and stared accusingly. “But you kept the secret that you were Rose Hart.”

The name had a nice ring to it, but she’d never even had a chance to change the last name on her driver’s license. “Linc abruptly ended things and said he would handle the divorce details and a lawyer would contact me if he needed anything from me. No one did, so I thought it was done.”

“And you didn’t wonder why you never heard anything about signing the settlement papers?”

“What did I know about a divorce?” And if she was being honest, there’d been a lot of denial going on. And she’d been so hurt. The pain of not being with him was almost more than she could bear. So many awful feelings. The shock of being dumped without an explanation. Overwhelming bewilderment. Now she knew what happened but still didn’t understand why he had to leave her. She would have done anything for Lincoln Hart—or whatever his name was. “I was practically a baby.”

“You weren’t too young to get married.”

“He swept me off my feet. I couldn’t say no to him. And he—”

“What?” Vicki’s eyes narrowed. “Did he do something?”

“Not what you’re probably thinking. He was incredibly sweet and understanding.” Not to mention sexy and handsome and completely irresistible. Unfortunately the “sexy and handsome” part hadn’t changed. But he was totally resistible to her now. “I was a virgin.”

Vicki nearly choked on her wine. “How is that possible?”

“You make me sound like a weirdo. I was only eighteen.”

“And crazy in love,” Vicki reminded her. “You just told me that you couldn’t say no.”

“To marriage,” she amended. “My mom drilled into me that a man has no need to buy the cow when he gets the milk for free. And if you give it away, he’ll just mosey on down the road to another cow. That’s what happened to her. Unfortunately when my father moseyed, she was stuck with a baby.” Rose pointed to herself. “Yours truly.”

“Ah.”

“She was determined that the same thing wouldn’t happen to me and never let up with the warning not to sleep with a man until I had a ring on my finger. I thought I got really lucky that the man of my dreams was determined to marry me. Of course I couldn’t say no.”

“So he married you to...” Vicki tapped her lips. “Pop your cherry?”

“That’s what I believed for ten years.” Rose recalled every word of what he’d said before walking out of her life. She remembered him telling her that he couldn’t be with her because he wasn’t in her league. She’d thought that was about him having more money than God and her not fitting into his world. Now she knew he’d been talking about himself because his father wasn’t who he’d thought. “He had a crisis of identity.”

Vicki rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I can see how that could happen. Must be tough figuring out which billions belong to you or your brothers when you’re a Hart.”

That’s just it. At the time he’d recently learned he wasn’t biologically a part of the family. But she didn’t feel comfortable revealing that.

“Things aren’t always what they seem.” Rose knew that statement was cryptic, but it wasn’t her secret to share, not even with the friend who was like a sister to her.

“A case could be made,” Vicki said pointedly, “that he proposed because he was after one thing. Correct me if I’m wrong, but he got what he wanted, then said adios.”

“You’re not wrong.” But there was more to it.

“And you’re not divorced? Seems to me someone from the legal department at Hart Industries should be canned over this.”

“You’d think.” Rose shrugged. “It’s probably not a stretch to say that my vow of chastity could have impacted the haste of his proposal. But, I am my mother’s daughter.” Although she’d made up her mind to be different from Janie Tucker and not play the victim card for the rest of her life.

“So, how was it?” Vicki sipped the last of the wine in her glass. “Seeing him again, I mean?”

“It was surreal. He hasn’t changed, other than being ten years older. But it looks good on him.” And she hated that. If he was fat, bald and irritating the trauma of having her heart ripped out and handed back would have been worth it. But her luck wasn’t that good.

His eyes were still a mesmerizing shade of dark blue. He was tall, lean and broad-shouldered. Walking, talking animal magnetism that was so powerful she could hardly remember what she’d said to him. “And, darn him, like all men he just looks better. Call me shallow, but this would be so much easier if he looked like a troll.”

“Very annoying of him.” Vicki shifted her position on the couch. “Were there still sparks between you?”

Not unless anger counted. Or maybe it never went away. It had been hard, but ten years ago she pulled herself together and patched the hole Linc left in her life. There was a good possibility that anger had filled up that empty space. “Nope. No sparks.”

“So, he came to personally inform you that your divorce never happened.” Her friend tilted her head. “That means your tenth wedding anniversary is coming up soon.”

“Since we haven’t lived together, I don’t think there will be an exchange of gifts.” Sarcasm was good, Rose thought. It was a sign that she was rebounding.

“I wonder what you give for ten years of marriage.”

“A divorce, hopefully.” Yay her. A pithy comeback. She was on a roll.

Vicki shook her head, still trying to take in the situation. “How could you never tell me about all this?”

“Haven’t you ever done something that is so completely mortifying and humiliating that you didn’t want anyone to know about it ever?”

“Of course.” Her friend grinned. “But nothing this spectacular. And you know all of my mortifying and humiliating escapades. Yet you kept this to yourself.”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, no. Don’t give me those big, blue Kewpie-doll eyes. You’re only sorry you got caught. I want to know why I didn’t hear about this until crisis time.”

“At first I just wanted to forget. Start college and put it behind me.” She’d thought not talking about it would make the pain go away but she’d been wrong. Time had been the cure. “You and I met, and clicked, but I didn’t really know you that well. Then the longer I didn’t say anything, the more I didn’t know how to bring it up. Besides, I thought I was quietly divorced and no one ever had to know.”

If no one knew, it wouldn’t hurt as bad, right?

“Speaking of that... It’s probably a good thing that you found out. Otherwise, when you and Chandler went to get a marriage license, that could have been a shock,” Vicki commented.

“That’s what Linc said.”

“Good. He knows you haven’t been pining for him.”

If she’d never seen him again Rose would accept that as true. But the rush of emotions when she’d answered her door and instantly recognized him stirred memories of that brief, shining moment when she’d had everything she ever wanted. Had there been pining going on and she wasn’t aware of it?

Vicki set her empty glass on the coffee table. “How did Chandler take this ‘being married and not divorced’ thing?”

“He doesn’t know.”

“You haven’t told him yet?” Her friend looked more shocked about that than any revelation so far.

“No.”

“Keeping important details to yourself is starting to form a disturbing pattern. Why haven’t you told him?”

“It just happened a few hours ago,” Rose protested.

“You called me. It’s not a stretch that you could have clued Chandler in on this.”

“I needed to wrap my head around it before dumping this kind of news on him. And—” Rose loved her friend, but this rational side could be annoying. Mostly because Vicki was right. “The situation got even more complicated.”

“I don’t see how.”

“Linc offered me a job decorating his condo. A very high-profile project that will generate a lot of attention and publicity.”

“There’s more, right?” her friend asked suspiciously.

“If it goes well, there’s a chance I could get more work in the area. These guys—the Holdens—are building a hotel and resort, all of which will need decorating. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

“Obviously you didn’t say no.”

“You’re a lawyer. If someone offered you a case that was the equivalent of this, would you walk away from it? No matter who was doing the asking?”

“I see your point,” Vicki reluctantly agreed.

“This could be really lucrative. A career maker.” She filled in even more details about the development and the area with luxury homes cropping up. “We both know if I don’t get a break Tucker Designs is finished.”

“Maybe not—”

Rose’s look stopped the words. “I’m going down, Vee. You’re my attorney. You’ve seen my financials. I don’t even want to think about that loan from the small business association. And then there’s my mom. She raised me completely by herself and worked so hard all her life to take care of me. Waitressing isn’t easy and I’d like her to be able to cut back. Enjoy herself more. You know?”

“Yes, but—” Vicki stopped and shook her head.

“How do you think Chandler would take it?” Rose asked.

“Let me think about this.” Vicki hummed the Jeopardy theme. “You tell the man you’re all but engaged to that you’re going to Montana with the man you married ten years ago and aren’t quite divorced from to do a job in order to save your business.”

Rose nodded. “Yes.”

“I think any man’s head would explode given that scenario.”

“That’s what I figured, too.” This was what Rose really wanted to talk to her friend about. She’d revealed her history with Linc because it had a direct bearing on her decision. As Linc would say—context. “What do you think I should do?”

It didn’t take Vicki very long to come up with an answer. “Tell Chandler and don’t take the job.”

Rose nearly choked on her wine. That’s not what she’d expected. “What? I thought you understood.”

“I do. But I also saw your face when you talked about Lincoln Hart.” There was sympathy in her friend’s expression. “I’ve known you for a long time and you’ve never looked like that before. Tell me I’m nuts but whether you’re willing to admit it or not, you have feelings for the man.”

“Of course I do. All of them bad.”

“Take it from me. Accepting that job will dredge up more feelings and all the crap comes up, too. Just leave it alone. You’re doing fine. Don’t give him a chance to hurt you again.”

“He can’t.”

“Okay.” Vicki’s tone was full of “if you say so but I think you’re wrong.” “For what it’s worth, my advice is to talk this over with Chandler. I’m sure he’ll tell you the same thing. Do not take this job.”

“Wow, don’t hold back. Tell me how you really feel.”

“I always do.” Her friend smiled. “And just so you know, I want to look over those divorce papers before you sign anything. This time things will run smoothly or you’ll know why.”