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Chapter 1
“Please don’t bemad at me.” Dina Bautista tucked a strand of brown hair behind her ear. “I’ve taken care of a problem for you.”
Natalie Brooks removed her apron and tossed it on the counter. Accepting her former mother-in-law’s help always came with sparkly strings attached. During the past six months she’d worked at the dinky bakery in Suarez, Texas, Dina had bossed her around always with the excuse of “helping.” Natalie drew in a breath and crossed her arms. What could Dina have done this time? If I didn’t need the money I’d be so out of here. “What happened?”
“I asked Vincent to come help you with your house,” Dina said, and the way she fixed her short bob hinted at that even she knew she’d overstepped.
“What the heck?” During the years she’d been married to Clint, she’d met her forty-year-old father-in-law a handful of times. After divorcing Dina a couple of decades ago, he’d moved to upstate New York where he ran a contractor company. “Why would you do that?” The last time she’d seen Vincent had been four years ago at Clint’s funeral.
“Face it Natalie, your house is falling apart. It’s way too big for you to maintain and you don’t have the funds to hire anyone to fix it.” Dina leaned her slim body against the counter. At forty-six, she had a tighter body than a lot of women in their twenties. “So I called Vincent and reminded him you stood by our son when he needed you most and it wasn’t fair for him to just walk out on you after Clint died.”
Natalie washed her hands and wished she could splash some cold water on Dina’s face to pull her out of that madness. Sure, the house she’d bought while married had fallen into disrepair, but she’d planned to fix it. That’s why she’d abandoned the idea of making pottery and ended up fine-tuning cupcakes and the like at Dina’s Delicious Cakes, the black and pink polka dot shop on Main Street. “Well, tell him I’m just fine. When’s he supposed to arrive?” She didn’t need Vincent’s help. Especially since during the few occasions she’d met him, he made her feel strange. Aware. Prickly. She shook her head, willing those thoughts away.
Dina cleared her throat. “He’s already in town.”
Dang it.“As in Suarez?” Natalie entered the office and picked up her purse. She squeezed her car keys in her palm, wishing she could do the same with Dina’s neck.
“As in your house, mija.” Dina followed her.
“Come again?” Natalie swallowed the razors in her throat. How the hell did he even get the key? Oh. Dina had asked for a spare in the case of an emergency. And she, dumb ass she that she was, had given in to her. She didn’t hate her mother-in-law/boss/stalker but she certainly didn’t welcome that level of intrusion. “You can’t invite someone to my house when I’m not even there.”
Dina stopped in her tracks, narrowing her brown eyes. “Honey, I’m forty-six. When you get to be my age, you cut the bullshit. If I had told you, you would have said no. You’re too proud. And he wants to do this… for not having been there for his son, hell, for us,” Dina said, her voice softening. “I offered to let him stay at my house but he declined You know, because of our history.”
Dina and Vincent had gotten together when he’d been seventeen, and she six years older. From what Natalie knew, Dina had gotten accidentally pregnant. They married when he turned eighteen just before their son Clint was born.
“Whoa. Wait a second. He’s staying with me?” she said, and a shiver zapped down her spine like a cold draft had invaded the room. The image of that disturbingly handsome man snuck up on her, and she had to blink to will away the memories of his rugged face and striking dark hazel eyes. He was probably forty, and from how she remembered the clothes clinging to his muscles, had a body that put a lot of twenty-something guys to shame.
“Yes. This way he can get through the remodeling projects faster,” Dina said nonchalantly. “He doesn’t have a lot of time off from his work and Sally’s Motel isn’t necessarily the Ritz,” she said, referencing to the only motel within the next fifty miles.
The door chime announced a customer’s arrival.
“Listen, it’ll be free labor. You won’t even know he’s there,” Dina said.
The image of the broody, large man formed again in Natalie’s head. She doubted she wouldn’t notice Vincent while he stayed at her house.
* * *
Natalie slammedthe door of her old Silverado and kicked gravel out of her way. A brand new shiny truck was parked in her driveway, the evidence of Vincent’s arrival. Her stomach clenched.
In the few times she’d been around Vincent, he’d unsettled her. While Clint had been a man-child pampered by his overbearing mother, Vincent seemed like he a real man through and through. And now said real man was going to live under the same roof with her for weeks. How weird is this going to be?
She opened her door, tossed her keys into the wooden bowl by the entrance and walked in. Muggy heat welcomed her as it had for the past two weeks when the AC failed for the tenth time.
Sweat beaded on her forehead, and she swiped at it with the back of her hand. She walked into the kitchen to grab some cold water, leaned down and reached into the refrigerator for the jug of filtered water in the back. She welcomed the freezing waves touching her face, and breathed in the cold clean scent.
“You’re home,” said a deep baritone behind her.
She startled, and some water splashed out of the jug she held. Crap. Shaking her head, she stood upright, and grabbed the jug, closing the refrigerator door behind her.
In the past four years, Vincent hadn’t changed much. Maybe there were one or two more creases around his gorgeous hazel eyes but her father-in-law remained disturbingly handsome. His dirty blonde hair was pushed back. The bits of lighter shades peeking through the brown hinted he worked under the sun.
He dwarfed her with his well over six-foot-two muscly frame. Vincent was forty though he didn’t look a day older than thirty-four. A fine ass thirty-four year old. She cleared her throat. “Hi.”
He offered her a half-smile and gave nothing away. “Looks like you’re surprised to see me. Hasn’t Dina spoken to you?”
“She did.” Like ten minutes ago. A heat wave spread across her cheeks, and when she sat the water jug on the countertop, more water splashed out. “It’s just been a long day.” And she doubted she’d be able to get a good night’s sleep knowing he stayed under the same roof as her—as far as she was concerned, he was little more than a stranger. A sexy, ridiculously manly… stranger.
“I understand,” he said, then glanced at her. “Listen, I’m here to help. Dina was right about the disrepair in this house… we need to get things fixed,” he said, twirling his fingers in a circular motion.
