Be Mine(42)

“I can see that. I don’t think you’re very stuck, though.”

“Can you pull me out?”

“I don’t have a tow strap with me. I’m guessing you don’t, either.” She shook her head. “I should be able to push you out. You’re not far off. Put it in Drive and when I say, ‘Let off the brake and give it some gas,’ don’t gun it. Just nice and steady.”

It wasn’t much of a ditch, but the rain runoff had built up steam and it washed over the tops of his boots as he took his place behind the little car. After a quick check of the wheel positions, he placed his hands a little right of center on the trunk and braced himself.

“Give it gas,” he yelled.

The first attempt, she was nervous and didn’t give it enough gas. The second, she overcompensated for the first and spun the tires. On the third, she got it right and he was able to push her back onto the road. Of course, once the car drove out from under his hands, he slid in the loose gravel and ended up laid out in the ditch, but he was already so wet and filthy he didn’t bother wasting a good expletive on the fall.

Once he’d accepted her thanks and refused her offer of a grocery bag to put over his truck seat, he asked her for directions to the building the old hardware and feed store had been in and got his truck turned around.

He pulled up to the future Jasper’s Pub, feeling like a muddy, wet rat, just in time to see a guy climbing into a truck that read Peterson Construction. Jake laid on the horn, getting his attention.

After getting out, he jogged over to the other truck and the guy, who had to be Derek Peterson, lowered the window. “I’m sorry I’m late. Got lost. Dirt road. Woman and kids in a car slid off into the ditch. If you can wait five minutes, we can go over the plans.”

“Not a problem,” Peterson said, which didn’t surprise Jake. The kind of work he and Kevin were having done was scarce in the northern part of the state, and Peterson wasn’t going to walk away from it because he was half an hour late.

Jake had to go back to his truck to get the ring of keys Kevin had given him and one of his duffels. Then he went up the stairs on the back of the building to his new home.

Kevin had said the apartment over the restaurant space was a little outdated. What he hadn’t mentioned was how damn brown it was. Really fake wood paneling on the walls. Brown rug. The furniture was big and bulky, with a lot of exposed wood and brown plaid cushions.

The lack of color made Jake think of Darcy. Her apartment was the kind of place that made a person feel better and...Darcy.

“Shit...shit...shit...” he muttered, shoving his hand into the front pocket of his muddy, wet jeans.

He pulled out a soggy ball of paper with a black blur where her name and phone number used to be. And he hadn’t given her his.

Well...shit.

Six weeks later

“DARCY, CAN I TALK TO YOU a minute in my office?”

“Uh, sure.” Her boss sounded serious, which made her stomach clench. Not that Kevin Kowalski wasn’t always serious about his business, but he was a friendly, laid-back kind of guy and she loved working at his busy sports bar.

She tried to brace herself for the worst, but she knew the tears would come if he let her go. The jerk she’d thought might actually be her Prince Charming had never called, and her best friend and trivia partner was in the process of moving to Rhode Island because her husband got a new job. Bad news came in threes, and she prayed getting fired wasn’t the icing on the bad luck cupcake.

“So you know I’m opening another restaurant up north,” he said when they were seated in his office, referring to the northern part of the state. She nodded, since she’d been around during many conversations Kevin had had with Paulie about his plans to open another bar in prime snowmobiling real estate. “J.P., my business partner, has been up there handling the renovations and refitting the kitchen and business crap. Generic restaurant business.”

She nodded again, since she knew that, too. Kevin went up occasionally to check on the progress, but because of Beth and Lily, he didn’t like to be away too much.

“We’ve reached a point where we need to start going beyond the generic and putting the Jasper’s stamp on it. Menus and policies and how to set things up for the best work flow and stuff. That’s not really J.P.’s thing. I don’t want to be away that long and I can’t really spare Paulie.”

Darcy wasn’t really sure what he was asking of her, but he didn’t seem to be giving her the boot. That was the important thing.

“I had planned to hire a consultant specializing in restaurants to work alongside him, but I want it to be more personal than that. I want the two places to really share a common feel, you know?”

She nodded again, starting to feel like a bobble-head.

“So.” He leaned back in his chair and laced his hands behind his head. “I guess the question is whether or not you’d be willing to go stay up north for a few weeks or maybe more and help launch Jasper’s Pub.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him he was crazy. She couldn’t just go away for a month. Sure, she didn’t have any pets and her neighbor could water the plants, but to just pack up and head almost to the Canadian border?

Then he told her how much he was willing to pay her, and the decision got a lot easier.

* * *

IT WAS ALMOST TWO WEEKS before they’d trained a temp to take over her hours at Jasper’s Bar & Grille, and Darcy had taken care of everything that needed to be done in preparation for a month or more away from home. She even put new tires on her car in anticipation of more snow than she was used to driving in. Once she’d done Christmas and New Year’s Eve with her family, it was time to hit the road.

The building wasn’t hard to find, since the only other things around were a convenience store with gas pumps, an auto parts store, a hardware store, a very expensive-looking bed-and-breakfast and—just barely in view—a couple of long, one-story motels. It didn’t look like a mecca of any sort, but Kevin had assured her it was a major crossroads on the snowmobile system.

Darcy had her choice of spots in the massive parking lot, which was designed to accommodate vehicles and snowmobiles, including trucks pulling big sled trailers. Right now it was empty. She decided to return for her bags after she got the lay of the land, got out of the car and took a deep breath. This was going to be weird.

Apparently there was a two-bedroom apartment over the restaurant and she was going to be roommates with J. P. Holland. As if this job Kevin was trusting her with wasn’t enough stress, she was going to live with a man she didn’t know. Her boss had sworn J.P. would be nothing but professional, and if it really didn’t work out, he’d put her up in one of the motels for the duration, but her practical nature shied away from wasting the money. They were adults who’d be working together.

Besides, she wasn’t a big fan of men at the moment. Even though she’d tried to prepare herself for the probability, it had hurt when Jake didn’t call.

The back door to the restaurant was locked. So was the side entrance and the front door. And a quick glance at the “no service” on her cell phone killed any hope of calling the cell number Kevin had given her for J. P. Holland. Even if she drove over to the gas station and begged the use of their landline, he probably didn’t have a signal, either.

Even though it was probably an exercise in futility, Darcy returned to the back of the building and went up the exterior stairs to what she assumed was the apartment entrance. To her

surprise, the doorknob turned in her hand and she stepped inside, realizing belatedly she probably should have knocked.

She found herself in a very drab brown apartment improved drastically by the tan expanse of naked male back in the middle of the living room. The steam curling from the bathroom and the fact that he was scrubbing his head with a towel cued her in to the fact he was fresh out of the shower. That and the droplet of water she watched make its way from the back of his neck, down over the muscles of his back to the waistband of his jeans. And thank goodness for the jeans because that body wrapped in nothing but a towel might have made her drool.

“Excuse me,” she forced herself to say.

The man spun around, lowering the towel, and Darcy’s stomach dropped. Her brain couldn’t quite grasp what was going on, but her body certainly recognized him, and only shock kept her from running back the way she’d came.

Jake stared at her for a few seconds, probably as confused as she was. “Darcy?”

“What are you doing here?”

He stared at her, then frowned. “What are you doing here?”

“I asked you first.”

“I’m supposed to be here.”

“So am I.” Darcy’s stomach knotted as she started putting the pieces together. “Oh, God. Please tell me you’re not J.P.”

“Only to Kevin. Back in the day, he knew three Jakes, so he called us by our first and middle initials—J.P., J.D. and J.R.—and I guess it stuck. Not a fan, but he never cared.” After a short pause, he muttered a curse. “You work for Kevin.”