Let Me Be the One (28 page)

“If you have time. I just happened to be in town.”

Just happened to be in town. The Brett of a year and half ago would have been in town for fifteen minutes before he had a party going. She frowned at Brian who shook his head. “Brian said he bumped into you at the Touchstone offices.”

“Yeah, I kinda wanted to talk to you about that. On the Q.T.”

On the Q.T. Interestinger and interestinger. “Anything for you. I’m expecting a ton of work to hit me in about three days so it’s got to be before then.”

“Tomorrow?”

“Hang on, let me make sure Brian doesn’t have plans for us.” She pressed her thumb over the receiver. “Brett wants to have lunch with me tomorrow. That okay with you?”

“Like I could stop you.”

“You make me sound like I run off on you all the time.”

“No, you just dive into the bushes.”

Suzi stuck out her tongue, and Brian grinned. “It’s okay with you then?”

“Tell him he has to bring you back in the condition he borrowed you in.” Brian smoothed his hand over her still flat belly, causing a warm flutter.

“Not a problem. I’m yours for the day, but Brian says you have to bring me back in the condition you borrowed me in.”

“I will. I’ll pick you up at noon.”

“You’re gonna get up early for me? I’m honored. You know where the house is?”

“Sure. Wear something pretty for me,” he told her.

“Always. See ya tomorrow.”

“I can’t believe it. Just back from the honeymoon yesterday, and she’s already running around with other men.”

Suzi dropped her phone on the table so she could run her hands up her arms. He had great arms. So strong and flexible and supportive. “You know I’ll come back.”

“And why is that?”

Suzi rose up on her toes. “You want me to show you, we’re going to have to go somewhere a little more private. We don’t want to warp your kids anymore than they already are.”

“Too late. Totally disgusted,” Tess said from the stairs. “Seriously, I am doing what Candy did and adopting a couple of kids from Africa.”

“China,” Brian said.

“Maybe I’ll adopt more than two.” Tess put her hand on her hip.

“Take your time. I’m not ready to be a grandmother yet.”

“Speaking of grandmothers,” Brian said. “Did you call your mom?”

“My mom?” Suzi squirmed. Brian had insisted on meeting her parents before the wedding and on them being at the ceremony. Her father wasn’t too sure about her choice of husband, but he had given her away. Her mother hadn’t figured out how to transition from fan to mother-in-law yet.

“You don’t want her finding out she’s going to be a grandmother because there’s a story on
Inside Edition
. Besides, you might want her help with the baby, and with the step-kids.”

Suzi leaned her head on Brian’s chest. Was she ready to be a mom? If she wasn’t, Brian would be there to back her up. And wasn’t that the best feeling?

Christa Maurice
has been obsessed with rock stars from early childhood when her older brother started randomly quizzing her on rock trivia. How many first graders knew who the headliners were on the Black and Blue Tour? Christa did. (Black Sabbath and Blue Oyster Cult.) When not listening to music and/or writing, she enjoys traveling, reading and science fiction. Let Me Be The One is the fourth book in her Drawn to the Rhythm Romance series. Readers can find Christa on Facebook or visit her website at christamaurice.wordpress.com.

Be sure not to miss Christa Maurice’s Book 1 of the Arden FD series

Three Alarm Tenant

Three Alarm Tenant by Christa Maurice

Arden FD #1

Katherine lost one hero in the line of duty—can she risk loving another?

Katherine Pelham’s fiancé was a police officer, shot and killed during a robbery. Left with a house she can’t afford, she must rent out the first floor to solve her money woes. Before she can finishing putting up the For Rent sign, along comes a man who seems interested in more than just the apartment.

Fireman Jack Connelly is in a bind: he’s rescued a dog, and his lease doesn’t allow pets. The new apartment would be great. The new landlady, even better…

Three Alarm Tenant available now in digital and print.

Learn more about Christa at

http://www.kensingtonbooks.com/author.aspx/29516

Katherine Pelham hefted the hammer and pounded the For Rent sign into the frozen ground.

“Happy Val-En-Tine’s Day,” she emphasized each syllable with a thwack. A truck slowed on the street, but she resisted the urge to look. She’d probably smash her thumb. Already this morning, she’d stubbed her toe, spilled hot coffee, and ripped a hole in her skirt getting it out of the dryer. Going back to bed sounded ideal.

She stepped back to admire her handiwork. The sign wasn’t crooked and the post hadn’t snapped. The perverse Ohio weather that transformed her yard to concrete had warmed the air until she only needed a sweatshirt. With the apartment done, she needed a reliable tenant. Then she could handle the mortgage, the credit cards and her leftover college loans. She started toward the front door and stopped. It wasn’t her door anymore. Her apartment opened from the side.

The servants’ entrance.

Oh, she could have taken the first floor, but it still would be half the house. And the half closer to the basement spiders. She walked around the side and up her new steps. As she reached for the door, a car pulled into the drive.

A truck actually. A green pick-up. A tall, broad-shouldered man climbed out. He looked as if he’d stepped out of an action adventure movie.

“Hi. You have a place for rent?”

His warm tenor voice worked its way through her ears and made straight for other parts of her body. She nodded.

“Do you take pets?”

“What kind of pets?” she asked.

“A dog.”

A dog. She’d never had a dog and envied people who did. When other girls wanted ponies, she’d wanted a puppy. How wonderful would it be to have a dog romping in the back yard? How wonderful would it be to have this gorgeous man romping in the backyard with the dog? “What kind?”

“A big mutt.” He held his hand two feet above the ground. Katherine wondered if that meant head height or shoulder height. Either one wasn’t bad. Plenty to play with.

“Sure.”

“How much is it?”

“Six hundred.” Everybody said it was too low, but it sounded high to her. It covered the mortgage payment, freeing up her paycheck for other non-essentials like food.

“Plus utilities?”

She shook her head. “I cover utilities, but I control the thermostat.”

He nodded. “What’s the deposit?”

“One month’s rent.”

“And the pet deposit?”

Katherine bit her lip. Should she charge extra for pets? How much damage could it do? She supposed that depended on the animal, but the landlord book hadn’t mentioned that, and she didn’t want to take advantage. “Even for the dog.”

He blinked. “Wow. Can I see the place?”

“Now?” Katherine’s mind reeled. She’d just hammered the sign in the yard. She hadn’t even put a notice in the paper yet. Everyone warned her it might take a month or, God forbid two, before anyone answered her ad. The book said she might show it dozens of times before an acceptable tenant came along. She’d braced herself to show the apartment until summer. This could be another annoyance in an already bad day, or a sign her luck was turning.

“If you’ve got time,” he added.

“Of course.” She walked back down the steps and tried to get a better look at him. Did he look crazy? No, he looked nice. Tall, well-proportioned, dark blond hair. His expression seemed to settle into bright-eyed amusement, as if life entertained him. He filled out his blue fleece jacket nicely. She caught her breath as she stepped past him to the door, wanting to run her hands over his fleece to see how soft and warm it was. What had gotten hold of her? His height? She didn’t know many adult men anymore. Most of the males in her life were high school boys, or high school janitors who acted like juveniles.

“My name is Jack. Jack Conley,” he announced, holding out his hand.

She caught his gaze sweeping up her body. He was checking her out. For a split second it annoyed her, but pleasure swamped that reaction. She waited until his eyes met hers before shaking his hand. His eyes were extraordinary. Golden brown and smiling even when his face was serious. He had a good grip, firm, not crushing. His touch spread a liquid shiver up her arm.

“Katherine Pelham. Pleased to meet you,” she said, struggling to keep the tremor out of her voice.

“Pleased to meet you, too.” He raised one eyebrow.

She unlocked the front door. The foyer still looked strange with the stairs blocked off. It seemed cramped even though she’d painted the walls a pale tan to make it appear larger.

“The back door lets into the yard. This is the foyer, and there’s the living room.” She gestured through the archway as he pushed the door closed. She jumped away at the soft click. Her nerves hummed, but the sensation wasn’t unpleasant, which confused her more.

“What?” he asked. His hand rested on the doorknob.

“Nothing.” She stared at his hand. His fingers were long, graceful and ringless. She forced herself to meet his eyes.

He searched her face—his lips tightening to the closest thing she’d seen to a frown on him. “So. This is the foyer?”

Katherine forced herself to take a deep breath. She was acting like a fool. She couldn’t deny a certain sense of tension around him, but it didn’t feel like the tension of a scary situation. More like a warm ache she remembered feeling once or twice, a long time ago.

“It could be anything you want. It was the foyer before we divided the house. Through here is the kitchen.” She started down the hall, pointing to another door. “This leads to the basement. This is the bathroom.” She pushed open the bathroom door. “The shower’s behind the door. It’s very small.”

He crowded behind her to peer into the narrow bathroom, which she’d painted mint green to brighten the windowless space.

Katherine found herself leaning toward him rather than away. He smelled good. His firm jaw came to the top of her head.

And he was looking down at her with those amused eyes.

She frowned, but didn’t move. “It’s very small,” she repeated.

“It’s fine.”

She fled to the kitchen and waited for him, swearing she would gain control over this interview right now.

“This is the kitchen. The bathroom used to be part of the kitchen, so it was much larger. There’s plenty of room in the nook for a table, but the floor gets cold in the wintertime. I don’t think there’s any insulation under there.”

She’d loved the big kitchen when they bought the house. She considered it the heart of the house. Now it was the smallest room because she’d had to carve out space for the bathroom. “Through this door is—was, the dining room. I suppose it would make a wonderful bedroom.” She blushed at the image of this room as a bedroom with him in it. She was developing some sort of obsession. Too many nights with a book and a bowl of soup. Nothing to do with the way he looked at her. Or the way she hoped he looked at her. She pushed open a door and stepped through it.

Jack crossed the room and peered at the inset china cabinet. He ran his finger along the dark mullion windows, studying the uneven glass. “Is this original?”

“As far as I know. The house was built in nineteen thirteen, and it was very fashionable back then to have built-in cabinets.” Katherine tried to pull herself together. First time in a long time around an attractive man, and she started babbling like a schoolgirl in a chance encounter with the captain of the football team. So what if he was handsome? So what if she could almost feel his strong hands gliding down her spine?

She clenched her teeth and walked out of the dining room, acutely aware of him behind her. “There’s another little room back here. We used it for storage. It’s not insulated. Anything you put back here has to be able to take huge temperature fluctuations.” She tugged open the French door leading to the storeroom. It popped open and she stepped through. “That’s the back door. You could put in a doggie door, then your dog could get out if he needed to.”

“Archer would like that.”

Katherine found herself trapped between Jack and the door, struggling with the bolt. Blood rushed in her ears, and she couldn’t remember when she’d last taken a decent breath. She seized the doorknob and yanked.

The door burst open. She stumbled backward. For an eternal moment, Jack’s arms wrapped around her shoulders. Heat rushed to her face as she felt his hard chest through his coat. She wanted to sink into his embrace and stay there.

“Sticky door,” he said, setting her on her feet. His hand trailed up her arm.

Katherine tried not to sound like a breathless fool. “It’s worse in the summer when the wood swells.” She pushed through the storm door and took a large step away to gain some room. Unfortunately, two feet of porch wasn’t enough to slow her pulse or clear her mind. “This is the backyard. It’s fenced and it goes all the way back to the alley.” She pointed to the tree line.