Once Upon a Diamond (38 page)

***Look
for Teresa McCarthy’s exciting “new contemporary series” COLORADO CLEARBROOKS,
where the descendants of a duke find their brides in the Rocky Mountains of the
great Western United States! Read the excerpt from Book 1, ALMOST MIDNIGHT.

***You
might also enjoy THE CLEARBOOKS, the author’s historical series about the
duke’s family! Read the excerpt from Book 1, THE REJECTED SUITOR.

ALMOST
MIDNIGHT

(Colorado
Clearbrook series, Book 1)

Excerpt

Copyright
© Teresa McCarthy, 2012

All
rights reserved

Chapter One

You’ll
find your soulmate, honey. At the stroke of midnight, on a mountain road, when
all seems lost, he’ll come like a knight on his white horse.

Twenty-eight-year-old
Hannah Elliot dropped her head to the steering wheel of her old two-door coupe
as she thought about her mother’s dream. Okay, it was almost midnight and her
car had just died on a mountain road. That part was right. But soulmate? Knight
on a white horse? Nope, she didn’t think so. Things like that didn’t happen in
the twenty-first century in the middle of Colorado.

With
a groan, she lifted her gaze and stared straight ahead as a cool June breeze
rustled through the nearby pines. Shadows danced in the moonlight, giving the
place an almost magical charm. She had to admit a knight on a white horse who
knew something about cars would look pretty good right now.

Her
cell phone was dead. She was going to charge it last night, but of course, she
had loaned the recharger to a neighbor a few days ago, and it had never been
returned. Besides, the cell reception didn’t work to well on these mountain
roads anyway.

For
a moment she pictured a white horse dashing out of the dappled darkness and
onto the road. She sat back and tried to smile. It was more likely she would
see a white-tailed deer jumping in front of her car. Or maybe even a white
rabbit.

She
looked up and sighed. Stars twinkled in the sky, reminding her of the same
sight outside her tiny balcony apartment, a place where she wished she were
right now.

The
inventory at the library could have waited. But no, she’d insisted on finishing
it tonight. She needed the overtime. With her mother’s past medical problems
and the lady’s debts, along with her own school loans, there were too many
bills left unpaid. Now with this car, there’d be more.

She
didn’t know much about what was under the hood of her car, but knew she should
take a look before she made any decisions about what to do. She had her fingers
on the door handle when a pair of headlights flashed behind her. She turned in
her seat. The vehicle was stopping.

Her
heart beat a little faster as she fumbled for the door locks. The driver began
to exit while headlights beamed in her direction. She squinted against the
light. Was that a stretched limo? A white stretched limo? Well, this was a back
road to the airport, wasn’t it? Not that many people took the back way, but—

She
stiffened. White limo? Knight on white horse? No, it couldn’t be.

An owl
hooted eerily in the distance, and she rolled up her window to within an inch
of the top. Good Samaritan or not, she couldn’t be too careful these days. And
she highly doubted some knight in full chain mail was going to save the day if
anything else went wrong.

She
watched from her side view mirror, only able to see below the man’s shoulders
as he walked toward her. The limo’s headlights lit his way, giving her the
impression of one tall, powerfully built man. Though he seemed to be wearing a
dark suit, his nicely tailored clothes didn’t ease her apprehension. She would
not let down her guard.

I
can handle this
, she told herself, breathing slowly, trying
to relax.
Just don’t do something stupid, like get out of the car. And this
has nothing to do with Mom’s dream. It’s merely a coincidence. But please God,
let me get home tonight, safe and sound.

Yet
no matter what she told herself, panic welled in her throat when a set of wide
shoulders bent her way. This man, well, goodness, he was—

“Are
you all right, Miss?” The compassionate timbre of his voice floated through the
car like a swirl of smoke.

“W-what?” 

“I
said, are you all right?” The man lowered his face.

She
blinked, not able to generate a coherent thought as a pair of liquid silver
eyes pierced her senses. “I’m having trouble with my car.” Oh, good thing to
say to a strange man on a mountain road when she was alone without a charged
cell phone. Yeah, good thinking, girl.

His
eyes narrowed as he studied her. “Will it turn over?”

“Turn
over?”

He
smiled. “Will the engine start at all?”

She
shook her head. “No, but it clicks a little.”

He
nodded toward the front of the car. “Pop the hood. I’ll take a look.”

Hannah
did as he said, but still stayed in the car, her mother’s dream not far from
her mind.

She
haphazardly went over the facts. It was midnight on a mountain road. Okay, she
would be the first to admit her car wasn’t in the best of shape. She also lived
in Colorado where mountains were numerous. As for help, there was a fifty
percent chance a man would come to her rescue. This...this person in the white
limo was purely coincidence.

“You
have a flashlight?” he asked.

She
realized she had been staring at him. “I, uh, might have one in the trunk.”
There was no way she was getting out of this car, knight in a white limo or
not.

He
looked at her as if he could read her mind. “You got a trunk button you could
push? See if it works.”

Hannah
almost smiled. Of course she had a trunk button. That was probably the only
good thing about this tin can she owned. She pushed the button and the trunk
clicked open.

“Thanks.”
His mouth curved into an irresistible smile, and the dimple in his chin only
added to his charm. Tawny-gold hair gleamed against the moonlight. She blinked
as if she were hypnotized. Had she seen this man in town?

Yes!
Hadn’t she’d seen him at the hospital when she had brought her mother in last
week?

Or
was her mind playing tricks on her?

She
heard him moving a few things in the trunk, acting as if every day he helped a
stranded woman on a two lane mountain road. The trunk snapped closed, and after
returning to his limo, the man made his way toward her hood, flashlight in
hand.

She
immediately noticed he had taken off his jacket. His shirt sleeves were rolled
up, his tie was missing, and his collar was open at the neck.

He
disappeared beneath the hood and after several minutes, he came toward her,
wiping his hands on a handkerchief he’d pulled out of his pocket. A
handkerchief? Who used a handkerchief these days?

“Okay,
Hannah, I think it was a loose connector to your alternator.”

The
flashlight shone into the car. Her shocked gaze met his amused one. “Pardon
me?”

He
chuckled. “Hannah Elliot. I saw the name on a notebook in the back.”

“Oh,”
she said, wanting to smack herself. Of course she put her name on her notebook.

She
probably had left one of her notebooks in the trunk from her class the other
day. She had been moving books from the library and must have forgotten about
it.

“Does
that mean it’s fixed?”

“No,
I’ll have to bring my limo around to jump it. The battery was being drained
because your connection to the alternator was loose. You had just enough juice
to click your trunk open. I’m betting your lights probably dimmed before your
car stopped.”

She
frowned. It had to be the battery. It had happened just as he said. Her lights
had dimmed to nothing.

He
leaned against her car. “Once the alternator is connected, all we have to do is
give the battery a little kick to get it going. If you don’t mind, I’m going to
link up my battery with yours.” He cleared his throat.

Hannah
felt herself blush. “I see.” Right. She really hoped this man knew what he was
doing.

It
seemed he did. Within minutes he had jump started her car and the engine was
purring like a kitten. For some reason she knew that wouldn’t last long. Still,
she wanted to repay this man in some way.

It
had been kind of him to stop. He seemed harmless, but one never knew. He
appeared to be in his early thirties, his good boy looks reminding her of Nick.

Nick.

Reality
slapped her hard. She didn’t need any more Nicks in her life.

After
putting away his tools and asking her to open the trunk again to return the
flashlight, he walked up to her window.

She
swallowed. “Um, thank you. I don’t know what to say. Can I pay you?”

“Don’t
worry your pretty head about paying me.”

Pretty
head?

He
tilted his head in the direction of the limousine and shook his head. “Good
thing I stopped by. I usually take another route to the airport. I don’t think
the police comb these areas too much after ten o’clock. You would have been
left out here like a lamb in the woods.”

“A
lamb?” she murmured to herself, avoiding his gaze by turning to the side.

Lamb
and a wolf maybe.

“I
didn’t hear that. You know, we could talk better if you rolled down the window a
bit.”

He
didn’t seem to think she needed to roll the window down before. Keeping her
safety of the utmost concern, she eased the opening wider by another inch. He
leaned closer, so close in fact that she detected the musky scent of cologne.
She wished he would move back a few feet. His nearness was overwhelming, making
it hard to think.

“Smart
girl, Hannah.” A smile lit his eyes as he inspected the sparse opening.
“Doesn’t pay to be too careless.” 

Her
lips parted in surprise, and she bristled, wondering if he knew the direction
of her thoughts. “I don’t think that’s funny, Mr.—”

“Tanner,”
he said, his eyes still twinkling with mischief. “Just call me, Tanner. And I
didn’t think it was funny at all. I think you’re smart not to get out of the
car. But you should have a cell phone. Do you? It’s a stupid thing for a woman
not to have a cell phone. If you were—”

“If
you don’t mind,” she said interrupting him, not wanting to hear about her
stupidity from a stranger. “I’d like to get on my way. Thanks again for helping
me.” 

His
smile widened in what seemed to be a look of respect, and if she didn’t know
better, she would have thought he’d made some deal with the moon, making it
shine down on them with such pointed brightness she wished she’d put on her
lipstick.

“No
need to thank me any more than you have. I always enjoy helping a lady in
distress.” 

Oh,
he definitely had one of those knight complexes. Maybe her mother had been
right about that, but he was definitely not her soulmate.

“But
I will take down your phone number.”

Hannah
blinked. “My phone number?”

“Yes,
your phone number. Does that surprise you? It’s not like I haven’t seen you in
Clearbrook Valley. But you don’t know me, do you?” He studied her intensely, as
if letting her know he wouldn’t forget her face.

Heat
flew to her cheeks. So, he remembered her too. She did live in town, so perhaps
he had seen her.

Yet
why in the world would he expect her to know him? She didn’t have a lot of time
to socialize with her busy schedule - but what an ego! 

Clearbrook
Valley wasn’t the biggest place in Colorado, but she guessed that with such a
small community many people knew everyone’s business. But not her. She didn’t
have time to do much but go to work, go to school, and take care of her mother.
The lady wasn’t an invalid by any means and her mother was rather independent,
but cancer had taken a toll on her. And staying off the dating scene was just
fine with Hannah.

Even
though it seemed obvious that she and this man Tanner had seen each other from
afar, he was still a stranger. And though a helpful stranger, she didn’t want
to give him her phone number. There were too many crazies out there.

He
leaned in further and cleared his throat. “Thought I could give you a call
sometime and we could go out to dinner.”

Dinner?
In your dreams, buddy.

So,
there was a price to be paid, just not in money. Though there was a slight
vulnerability in his voice that was there for only a second or two, she wasn’t
about to let that sway her. 

But
what if she said no? Would he get mad?

Despite
his handsome looks, her past had taught her well. Maybe he wasn’t crazy, but
she would never make the mistake of falling for a man like him again. Good
looking, sure of himself, and acting like he owned the world. No, he was Nick
all over again.