Romancing My Love (Love in Bloom: The Bradens) Contemporary Romance (28 page)

A knock at the door startled her out of her Ross-induced trance.

“Come in, Kelsey,” he said without looking at the door.

The receptionist came into the room and closed the door behind her. “I thought you could use some help.”

Elisabeth watched the two move in tandem, like they’d been working together forever as Ross took the piglet’s temperature and weighed it, which was a feat in and of itself. Elisabeth wondered if they were dating, although Kelsey looked very young and Ross looked to be in his midthirties, which would also not be out of the question by LA standards. Then again, nothing was out of the question by LA standards, which was one of the reasons she’d been overjoyed to come back to Trusty, a town she’d visited only as a child. Trusty had left such a strong impression of wholesomeness and peaceful living in her young mind that she’d built her hopes and dreams around one day returning.

Kelsey slipped out the back door of the exam room and returned a few minutes later with a baby bottle. She handed it to Ross and smiled at Elisabeth.

“I’ll get your paperwork together so you can complete it at home. You can drop it by this week sometime.” Kelsey turned back to Ross. “Mrs. Mace called and canceled. Something about her husband not feeling well.”

Ross nodded as he secured his hand beneath the piglet, with his palm against the squirming baby’s chest, and plugged its mouth with the bottle. The side of his mouth quirked up, softening his serious demeanor.

“Thanks, Kelsey. I hope he’s okay.”

Alone in the exam room again, Ross leaned his butt against the counter and finally looked at Elisabeth. He didn’t say anything at first, just lifted the side of his mouth again in a semi grin that made her insides warm.

“He’s the runt, I take it?” The piglet snarfed and grunted as it sucked the bottle. Ross’s sleeves were folded up just above his elbow. The muscles in his forearm flexed against the piglet’s efforts. He was somehow gentle yet firm with the piglet, and it drew Elisabeth to her feet and closer to him.

“Yes. He’s much littler. His name is Kennedy.”

That earned her a genuine, full-on smile. “Kennedy?”

“Yeah. I think he’s strong even though he’s little, kind of like Jackie O, but he’s a boy, so I can’t call him Jackie. I mean, I guess I could, but…” She shrugged and smiled. “I guess I just liked Kennedy.”

“It’s a fine name. Well,
Kennedy
needs nourishment. He’s squealing because he’s not getting enough. This”—he nodded at the bottle—“is goat’s milk. Piglets have trouble digesting cow’s milk. They need the immunity protection from the mother’s milk, but when they can’t get enough, supplement with goat’s milk or a goat replacement formula.”

Goat replacement formula? There is such a thing?
“Okay. Where do I get it?”

“They sell it at the feed store right in town, or if you want it straight from the farm, Wynchel’s, on the other side of town, sells it.” He looked up and their eyes caught.  

Elisabeth’s pulse quickened, and as if Ross could sense the change, he smiled.

“How’s the rest of the litter?”

“Good, I think.” She pulled her phone from her pocket. “I can bring them in for you to give them a once-over.” She texted a note to herself to buy goat’s milk.

He took the bottle from the piglet’s mouth and set it down. “You don’t have to bring them in. I’ll come by and check them out. Is there a day or time that works for you?”

Elisabeth wondered if he made house calls for everyone, or if he felt the air heat up every time their eyes connected, too, and would make a special trip just to see her.

“A house call?”

“Sure. With farm animals, it’s easier for everyone and less stressful for the animals.”

So much for him feeling the heat.

“Um, anytime is good, I guess. I’m still getting settled and trying to figure out Aunt Cora’s business and the whole farm thing.”

He ran his eyes down her body, deliberately this time.
Okay, maybe he does feel the heat after all.
She felt her insides melt. Oh, yes, Ross Braden definitely had a sexual edgy side that probably landed any woman he wanted beneath him.

“You don’t have much experience with animals, do you?” His lips curved up in a sexy smile.

She was still hung up on that seductive stroll of his eyes down her body. His remark startled and mildly offended her.

“I have a lot of experience with dogs and cats. I ran a pet bakery and pet spa in Los Angeles, thank you very much.” She pocketed her phone.

“Pet bakery and…Never mind. I meant farm animals.” He reached for the door and shook his head. “I’ll be right back.”

She let out a frustrated breath.
No experience with animals. Please. I love animals.

He returned with the piglet safe and secure in a cat carrier. “I’ll carry him out for you. This is safer than letting him run around your car while you drive, but don’t leave him in this once you’re back home. It’s too small.”

Still disgruntled at the way he’d dismissed her business, she snapped, “I would never leave him in there.”

If he noticed her attitude, he didn’t show it as she followed him out of the exam room. Two Labradors, one black and one tan, were waiting by the exam room door. She pet them as they followed Ross out to the car. She hadn’t had any contact with dogs and cats since leaving LA, and she missed them. Petting them helped calm her agitation.

Ross opened the back door and set the crate on the seat, then opened the driver’s side door for her.

Surprised by the gesture, she settled into the car. “Thank you for all your help.”
Mr. Tall Dark and Confusing
.

Ross rested one arm on the roof of the car and leaned down so they were eye to eye. He wore a pair of tan slacks with a black Trusty Veterinary Clinic polo shirt. She tried not to notice the impressive bulge in his pants just below his leather belt.

“Take my number in case you have any more emergencies.” A dog sat on either side of him.

She pulled out her phone and tried to act nonchalant as he rattled off his phone number and she put it into her contact list. She didn’t ask if it was his office number or personal number. She couldn’t. His eyes were boring a hole right through her. It was a wonder she could process anything at all. Surely he was just being nice, anyway. She was new in town, and he…
Oh God
. He made the smell of animals and antiseptic soap sexy. Elisabeth imagined women probably followed him around just like his dogs. The thought gave her pause and intrigued her at the same time.

Down, girl.

She set her phone on the passenger seat and turned to thank him again. His face was so close she could see every whisker on his square jaw and three sweet lines in his lower lip that she wanted to run her finger over. He smiled, and her mind turned to mush again.

Jesus, what am I? A dog in heat?
These types of thoughts surprised her. She wasn’t looking for sex, and even if she had been actively searching for a man, she wanted a relationship, not just sex. Anyone could have sex, but it took two people who were really in love to have a meaningful, lasting relationship, and that’s what she dreamed of.

“Ross,” Kelsey called from the porch of the clinic. “Luke’s on the phone for you.”

Ross held Elisabeth’s gaze for a minute longer. “Welcome to Trusty, Elisabeth. I’ll swing by when I’m free.”

It took her a minute to breathe—and to remember why he was stopping by.
To check out the piglets
. She needed to get a grip. Maybe he could give her a shot of
Ross repellant
, because she had a life to build and a business to maintain, and a man like Ross would probably chew her up and spit her out.

But, oh, would the chewing up be delicious.

(End of Sneak Peek)

To continue reading, be sure to pick up the next

LOVE IN BLOOM release:

FLIRTING WITH LOVE,
The Bradens

Love in Bloom series

Please enjoy a preview of the next
Love in Bloom
novel

Seaside

Hearts

Seaside Summers, Book Two

L
ove in Bloom Series

M
elissa
F
oster

THERE SHOULD BE an unwritten rule about drooling over construction workers, but Jenna Ward was damn glad there wasn’t. She sat on the porch of the Bookstore Restaurant, soaking up the deliciousness of the three bronzed males clad in nothing more than jeans and glistening muscles that flexed and bulged like an offering to the gods as they forced thick, sticky tar into submission. Their jeans hung low on strong hips, gripping their powerful thighs like second skins and ending in scuffed and tarred work boots. What red-blooded woman didn’t get worked up over a gorgeous shirtless man in work boots?

God help her, because she needed this distraction to take away her desire for Peter Lacroux, which went hand in hand with summers on the Cape and consumed her in the nine months they were apart. She zeroed in on one particularly handsome blond construction worker. His hair was nearly white, his jaw square and manly. She wanted to march right out to the middle of the road that split the earth between the restaurant and the beach and be manhandled into submission. Right there on the tar. Wrestled and groped until all thoughts of Pete evaporated.

“Wipe the drool from your chin,
chica
.” Amy Maples handed Jenna a margarita and, pointedly, a fresh napkin, as she settled into the chair across from her. “Good Lord, woman. What’s up with you this summer? I swear you’re in heat. I can practically smell your pheromones from over here.”

Jenna gulped her drink and righted her red bikini top, which was trying its damnedest to relieve itself of her enormous breasts. Even her bikini top was ready for a man. A
real
man. A man who craved her as much as she craved him.

Jenna reluctantly turned away from Testosterone Road and faced her best friends. The women she had spent her summers with here in Wellfleet, Massachusetts, for as long as she could remember and the women she hoped would help her through her most important summer
ever
. 

Okay, she’d self-defined it as such, and it was probably a poor excuse for
most important
, but that’s how it felt. Huge. Momentous. Gargantuan.
Great
. Now she was thinking about other huge things…

“You’ve been here for a week, and you still haven’t told us why you’re all claws and hormones. Want to clue us in, or are we supposed to guess?” Bella Abbascia was a brazen blonde—and she, like Leanna Bray, the disorganized brunette of their bestie clan—had already found her true love. A feat Jenna only dreamed of. Ached for might be more accurate, and Bella was right; it was time to come clean.

Jenna downed the last of her drink and slapped her palms on the table.

“I don’t care what it takes; this is
my
summer. I’m done pussyfooting around. I want a man. A
real
man.” She slid her eyes to the construction workers again.
Yum!
She tried to convince herself to feel something more for the construction worker, but the only person her mind found yummy was Pete—and it didn’t seem to want to make room for others.

She wasn’t above faking it to pull herself through the charade. Maybe if she tried hard enough, she could talk herself into believing it.

“So, you’re going after Pete?” Leanna sipped her margarita and arched a brow. “How is that any different than every single one of the last five summers?”

“Oh no. Peter Lacroux can kiss my big, sexy ass.”

“Jenna!” Amy’s eyes widened. The sweetest of the group, she was perfectly petite, with kindness that sailed from her green eyes like a summer breeze.

“You do have a mighty fine ass, Jen,” Bella said. “But you’ve had a wicked crush on that man forever. If you’re going to focus your attention on someone—” Bella bit her lower lip and shook her head as one of the construction workers wiped sweat from his brow, pecs in full, drool-inciting view. Bella raked her eyes down his sculpted abs. “Um…Okay, yeah. They’re pretty damn hot. But why throw Pete away?”

Jenna had been over this in her mind a hundred times. She locked her eyes on her glass and exhaled. “Because I’m not going to spend another summer chasing a man who doesn’t want me. And this is a tough summer for me. I have to break up with my mother, and that’s enough heartache for a few short weeks.”

“Break up with your mom? Can a person do that?” Amy glanced around the table.

“I gather she’s not taking your dad getting remarried well?” Leanna asked. “I had such high hopes when she didn’t fall apart during the divorce.”

Jenna rolled her eyes. “So did I. You’d think that two years after her divorce, she’d be able to sort of compartmentalize it all, but, girls, you have no idea.” Jenna shook her head and held up her glass, indicating to the bartender that she needed another drink. She could have gotten up and retrieved the drink herself, but Jenna wanted the diversion of the sexy waiter who would deliver it to their table. She’d take as many diversions as she could get to keep from thinking of Pete.

“She’s gone…hmm…how do I say this respectfully? She’s not gone cougar, but she’s definitely acting different. She’s dressing way too young for a fifty-seven-year-old woman, and I swear she thinks she’s my new best friend. She wants to talk about guys and sex, and what’s worse is that she suddenly wants to go dancing and to bars. I love my mom, but I don’t need to go to bars with her, and talking about sex with her?
Please
.”

“I was wondering what was going on when she texted you a hundred times last night.” Bella pulled her hair back and secured it with an elastic band. “She’s going through a hard time, Jenna. Give her a break. She was married for thirty-four years. That’s a long time. I’m not even married to Caden yet, and if we broke up and he married a younger chick, I’d be devastated.” Bella and Caden met last year when Bella had been busy rearranging her own life. She’d started a work-study program for the local school district, fallen in love with Caden Grant, a cop on the Cape, and now she was as close as a mother to his almost sixteen-year-old son, Evan. The Cape was a narrow stretch of land between the bay and the ocean. Bella and Caden lived on the bay side in a house that Caden had owned when they’d met, and they would be staying at Bella’s Seaside cottage on and off this summer.

“I get it, okay? I just…God, it’s just so hard to see her struggling with her looks, and honestly, you know I adore her, but she’s sort of making a fool of herself. It’s been two years since the divorce. She just needs to get over it and move on. I do feel bad because I had to take a firm stand and tell her that I wasn’t going to come home until
after
the summer.”

“Why do you feel bad? That’s what you do every summer.” Amy eyed one of the construction workers, a water bottle held above his mouth, a stream of wetness disappearing down his throat. “Holy hotness.” She fanned herself with her napkin.

Jenna watched the guy wipe his mouth with his heavily muscled forearm. “Yeah, but she wanted me to come home to
hang out
with her a few times.” The sexy waiter brought Jenna her drink.

“Thank you, doll.” She watched his fine ass as he walked away.

“Doll?” Amy giggled.

“See?” Jenna bonked her forehead on the table. “That’s
her
word. Doll? Who says that? You have to help me. She’ll ruin me, and I swear if I spend one more summer lusting after Pete, then I’ll be empty on all accounts. My mother will hate me, my hoo-ha will be lonely, and I’ll use words like
doll
. Jesus, do us all a favor and shoot me now.”

“Yeah, well, about that whole Pete thing?” Leanna nodded toward the crosswalk, where Pete Lacroux was crossing the road carrying the cutest damn puppy. 

Holy mother of God, he is fine. I want to be that puppy
. Those construction workers couldn’t hold a candle to Pete, and Jenna’s body was proof as her pulse quickened and her mouth went dry. His shoulders were twice as broad as those of the boys on the pavement, his waist was trim and—
holy hell
—he shifted the pup to the side, giving Jenna a clear view of the pronounced muscles that blazed a path south from his abs and disappeared into his snug jeans. Those damn muscles turned her mind to mush. Yup. She’d gone as dumb as a doorknob. 

“Breathe, Jenna,” Amy whispered. “You are so not over him.”

Jenna couldn’t tear her eyes from him. Years of lust and anticipation brewed deep in her belly.
Just one more summer? One more try?

No. No. I can’t do this anymore
. “The man’s one big tease. I’m moving on.” She forced herself to tear her eyes away from him and guzzle her drink.

And then it happened.

She felt his presence behind her before he ever said a word. Jenna, the woman who could talk to anyone, anytime, had spent years fumbling for words and making atrocious attempts at flirting with the six-foot-two, dark-haired, mysterious specimen that was Peter Lacroux, but despite catching a few heated glances from him, she remained in the friend zone.

Regardless of how her body reacted to him, she didn’t need to beg for a man she could barely talk to, or follow after him like that adorable puppy snuggled against his powerful chest.

She was totally, utterly, done with him.

Maybe
.

PETE EYED THE women from the Seaside cottage community, or the Seaside girls, as he’d come to refer to them, on his way across the street. They hadn’t spotted him watching them as they ogled the young construction workers from the patio of the Bookstore Restaurant. Pete had done the community and pool maintenance for the cottages at Seaside for about six years. He was a boat restorer by trade, but when he’d begun working at Seaside, his career hadn’t yet taken off. By the time word got around that he was an exceptional craftsman, he was too loyal of a man to stop doing the maintenance work. Besides, the girls were fun, and he’d become friends with the guys in the community, Tony Black, a professional surfer and motivational speaker, and Jamie Reed, who’d developed OneClick, a search engine second only to Google. And then there was Jenna Ward, the buxom brunette with the killer ass, a cackle of a laugh, and the most intense, alluring blue eyes he’d ever seen.

Fucking Jenna
. 

He watched her eyes shift to him as he neared the restaurant. Other than his craftsman skills, reading women was Pete’s next best finely honed ability—or so he thought. He could tell when a woman was into him, or when she was toying with the idea of being into him, but Jenna Ward? Jenna confused the hell out of him. She was confident and funny, smart, and too fucking cute for her own good when she was around her friends. Just watching Jenna sent fire through his veins, but when it came to Pete, Jenna lost all that gumption, and she turned into a…Hell, he didn’t know what happened to her. She grew quiet and tentative when she was near him. Pete liked confident women.
A lily to look at and a tigress in the bedroom
. His mouth quirked up at the thought. He wasn’t a Neanderthal. He respected women, but he also knew what he liked. He wanted to devour and be devoured—and with Jenna, who swallowed her confidence around him, he feared his sexual appetite would scare her off. Besides, with his alcoholic father to care for, he didn’t have time for a relationship.

Jenna turned away as he stepped behind her. Her hair was longer this summer, framing her face in rich chocolate waves that fell past her shoulders. Pete preferred long hair. There was nothing like the feeling of burying his hands in a woman’s hair and giving it a gentle tug when she was just about to come apart beneath him.

He held Joey, the female golden retriever he’d rescued a few weeks earlier, in one arm, placed his other hand on the back of Jenna’s chair, and inhaled deeply. Jenna smelled like no other woman he’d ever known, a tantalizing combination of sweet and spicy. Her scent, and the view of her cleavage from above, pushed all of his sexual buttons, despite her tentative nature around him. But he had no endgame with Jenna Ward. No matter how much he wanted to explore the white-hot attraction he felt toward her, he respected Jenna and treasured her friendship too much to take her for a test ride.

“Hello, ladies.”

“Aww. Can I hold her?” Amy jumped to her feet and took the puppy from his hands. Joey covered her face with kisses.

“She’s a little shy,” Pete teased. He’d found the pup in a duffel bag by a Dumpster behind Mac’s Seafood, down at the Wellfleet Pier. The poor thing was hungry and scared, but other than that, she wasn’t too bad off. The first night Pete had her, the pup had slept curled up against Pete’s chest, and they’d been constant companions ever since.

“Yeah, real shy. How’s she doing?” Leanna asked.

“She’s great. She sticks to me like glue.” He shrugged. “I was just coming over to get her a bowl of fresh water, maybe a hamburger.”

“Hamburger?” Leanna wrinkled her thinly manicured brow. “How about puppy food?”

“Puppies love burgers.” Chicks were so weird with their rules about proper foods. He glanced down at Jenna, whose eyes were locked on the table. She usually went ape shit over puppies, and he wondered what was up with her cool demeanor.

“Want to join us for a drink?” Bella slid a slanty-eyed look in Jenna’s direction.

He felt Jenna bristle at the offer. He should probably walk away and give her some breathing room. She obviously wasn’t herself today. He was just about to leave when Amy grabbed his arm and pulled him down to the chair beside Jenna.
Great
. Now Jenna had a death stare locked on Amy. Pete was beginning to take her standoffishness personally.

“Sit for a while. I want to play with Joey anyway.” When Amy met Jenna’s heated stare, she rolled her eyes and kissed Joey’s head.

“How’s the boat coming along?” Leanna Bray was a quirky woman, too. Her cottage had always been a mess before she met her fiancé, Kurt Remington. Every time Pete had gone by to fix a broken cabinet or a faucet, she’d had laundry piles everywhere, and sticky goo from her jam making seemed to cover every surface, including herself. Almost all of her clothing had conspicuous stains in various shades of red, purple, and orange. Kurt was as neat and organized as Jenna. He’d taken over the laundry and didn’t seem to mind picking up after Leanna. In any case, her place was much more organized these days.