Chapter 2
I t took Lincoln a moment to realize what Amanda meant, but in a rush, he understood the opening she’d given him. When Carter came home to Elliott Ridge two months ago, he’d bought one of the town’s long-empty houses for himself at market rate, but when he spotted Amanda for the first time, he’d decided then and there he was going to marry her someday. To lure her to the Ridge and keep her there long enough to start a relationship, he’d made up the newcomer deal and offered to sell her his house for a dollar. Of course, at the time, she hadn’t known it was his house…
It had worked. Amanda had moved to the Ridge, accepted Carter’s help with her new house’s renovations, and they’d fallen in love. Now it was their house.
Was Amanda urging him to try the same trick with Charlotte? He sure wouldn’t mind spending time with her to see where things went. Awareness of her prickled over every inch of his skin, and his fingers itched to touch her. The sweet curve of her cheek, her long, dark lashes and full lips all called to him .
Still, he held back. There were several reasons why offering Charlotte the newcomer deal wasn’t an option. For one thing, he hadn’t bought one of the houses in Lucy’s Corner, the part of the town they’d received permission to subdivide.
For another, he’d planned to use all his savings to help cover the debts his family owed when their loans came due next spring.
For a third—
Charlotte reached up absently and tugged on her ponytail, elongating the curl at the end and letting it go so it bounced up and down a couple of times.
His throat went dry, and his pulse kicked up.
He’d like to wrap that ponytail around his hand and pull her in for a kiss. Feel her body against his. Get her alone and—
Hell.
Wait. What had he been thinking about?
“I think Charlotte would fit right in on Elliott Ridge,” Amanda said brightly. “Maybe she should come and look at the houses at the very least.”
“What is the newcomer deal?” Charlotte was focused on Amanda, and Lincoln hoped she hadn’t tracked where his thoughts had gone. He didn’t know what was the matter with him. He had a plan—a good one. And there wasn’t room for a woman in it.
Even if she was the one .
He looked Charlotte over again, thinking it had to be raw lust interfering with his reason. He hadn’t been with anyone for a while, and he was overdue for some fun. Unfortunately, it was going to be a long time until fun—or love, or marriage, for that matter—came into the picture. He had work to do.
The one. What a joke. You couldn’t know seconds after seeing a woman that you wanted to spend your life with her. Guilt pricked his conscience, however, as he thought back to what his father and Carter had said on the deck several days ago. Family lore insisted you could. Even Lincoln’s grandfather, when he was alive, had claimed he’d fallen for Lincoln’s grandmother at first sight. Supposedly, it had been the same for Elliott men for generations.
“We’re offering some of the homes at a discount. House37 is particularly nice,” Amanda said.
Lincoln turned to her sharply. He’d had his eye on number37 ever since Carter claimed number23. Had Amanda guessed that somehow, or was it just a coincidence?
“It’s a great starter home for a family,” Amanda went on. “Do you plan to have kids, Charlotte?”
Charlotte’s brows rose, and Lincoln couldn’t blame her. What kind of question was that?
“I’m curious because I want my kids—when I have some—to have friends who live close by,” Amanda clarified.
“Oh. I… don’t know.” Charlotte’s gaze flicked to Lincoln again. “I guess… someday?”
Kids? Lincoln swallowed hard. He wanted kids if he was honest with himself. He didn’t want to wait a whole lot longer, either. Still, paying those debts came first.
“If you move to Elliott Ridge, you’ll have to hurry up and start your family,” Amanda was saying. “Or your children won’t be the same age as mine.”
“Amanda.” Lincoln shot her a look. She was going to scare Charlotte off if she kept going like that, and he didn’t want to scare her off, whether or not she was the one . He wanted…
Lincoln wasn’t ready to admit what he wanted.
“Lincoln told you about his brothers. Three of them are single,” Amanda said with a mischievous grin.
“Amanda!” Lincoln turned back to Charlotte. “She’s got matchmaking on the brain,” he said apologetically. He didn’t like the idea of Charlotte considering any of his brothers as a possible father to her future children.
Charlotte shrugged after a moment. “I guess there are worse things to be obsessed with.” The furrow between her brows was back, though.
Amanda must have noticed it, too. “I’m just kidding, Charlotte. Forget Lincoln and his brothers. When you’re ready to meet someone, there’s a whole town full of men in Chance Creek. No one’s going to bother you if you don’t want to be bothered. Except maybe Hudson,” she added with an impish smile. “But you can handle him.”
“Hudson?”
“Lincoln’s twin. Same face, different personality.” Amanda’s smile broadened. “He flirts a lot, but he’s a good guy. They all are.”
Charlotte’s gaze flicked Lincoln’s way again. “There are two of you?” The idea must have struck her as funny because she smiled—for a moment. Lincoln’s whole body woke up as if lightning had struck him.
“I’m the better version.” Hell, there he went again, flirting with her, which he shouldn’t do since he didn’t have time for women.
Charlotte’s smile faded. “I don’t want trouble from any men.”
Lincoln sobered quickly. He could tell there was a story behind that statement, one that involved Charlotte being hurt. His hands balled into fists, and he forced them open again. He didn’t know anything about her past, and she hadn’t asked him to avenge it, either.
He wanted to be the man she’d ask if she had anything to avenge, Lincoln decided. He wanted—
“Had enough trouble from men already?” Amanda asked Charlotte gently.
After a moment, Charlotte nodded. “That’s all behind me now, though. I’m looking to make a new life of my own. Do you think I can do that on the Ridge?”
“Absolutely,” Amanda said. “It’s paradise there. You’ll see. The perfect place to start over.”
Lincoln was glad Amanda was there to answer, because he was stuck on the idea that Charlotte had experienced trouble from men. Now his protective instinct really kicked in, leaving him itching to get closer to her. He’d never thought of himself as a possessive type, but he had the feeling he could be that way about Charlotte. He wanted to step between her and any trouble she might encounter. Wanted to tell other men to back off.
Then he wanted to get to know her a whole lot better. What made this woman tick? When she was among friends, was she outgoing? Reserved? What were her hobbies?
What did she think of men like him?
He supposed he’d better offer her the newcomer deal if he wanted to find out. He could make sure she had all the peace and time to herself she needed to heal from whatever happened in her past. Meanwhile, he could work hard and make a success of the mill so his family could pay off its debt. Maybe when he’d done his bit and was ready to welcome a woman into his life, Charlotte would be ready to welcome a man.
Was she the one?
Yes , something told him. Some inner certainty it was hard to ignore. He almost took a step closer to her when he remembered he’d just met this woman. He didn’t want to scare her off.
“Amanda’s right,” he said, with more conviction than he had any right to. “The Ridge is just the place for a person looking to start over.”
“And we need more women. Please say you’ll come and check it out. Carolyn Snyder is great, but she’s busy all the time, and I need a friend my own age,” Amanda said.
For a long moment, Lincoln was afraid Charlotte would say no. She bit her lip as she considered the plan, making his blood heat again. He wanted to kiss that mouth of hers someday—but he needed to be patient.
“Please?” Amanda reiterated .
Charlotte twirled the end of her ponytail around her fingers, driving Lincoln wild. “Okay,” she said finally. “I’ll come and look. No promises.”
Relief rocked Lincoln to the core, and he realized he didn’t know what he would have done if she’d said no. Kept going, he supposed, but all his joy in returning to the Ridge would have been gone.
He was putting too much weight on this chance meeting. Lincoln didn’t like the way his emotions had been hijacked and his life script was careening out of control. For all he knew, Charlotte had a million irritating habits, and he’d hate her in a week.
No , that interior voice said. You won’t. She’s the one.
“No promises,” Amanda agreed, bouncing on the balls of her feet. “But you’re going to love it there. I swear. Do you have a car?”
Charlotte shook her head. “Not yet.”
“No problem. You can ride with us.”
As Amanda led the way to the row where he’d parked his truck, Lincoln gave up fighting the situation. Charlotte was coming to check out the Ridge. If she stayed, he was going to pursue a relationship with her—someday.
“You don’t mind a quick stop at the grocery store, do you?” Amanda asked Charlotte. “I’m the head chef, and I need a few things for dinner tonight.”
“Head chef, huh?”
“Town manager, librarian and postmistress, too,” Amanda told her happily.
“I don’t know what we’d do without her,” Lincoln said. He hoped neither woman noticed the huskiness of his voice. Had the last five minutes changed the course of his entire life? Somehow, he knew they had.
Charlotte ignored him. “I don’t mind waiting while you run your errand,” she said to Amanda.
“Great,” Amanda said.
Satisfaction filled Lincoln. He was going to marry Charlotte. It was only a matter of time.
Lincoln’s truck was dusty but solid-looking, a workhorse of a vehicle meant to be used, not shown off—a little like its owner, Charlotte thought.
“You sure you didn’t leave any luggage in the airport?” Lincoln asked as he opened the door for her.
Charlotte shook her head, finding it hard to talk directly to Amanda’s husband, still way too attracted to him for comfort. She’d have to work on that if she was going to live near him.
“Leave her alone, Lincoln,” Amanda said, settling into the passenger seat. “Charlotte doesn’t owe us any explanations. Charlotte, if you’re looking for a new life, you’ve come to the right place. When I got here a few months ago, I thought mine was over. Now I’m married and the happiest I’ve ever been.”
“A few months?” Charlotte couldn’t hide her surprise. Amanda had married Lincoln that quickly after she’d met him?
Amanda laughed. “The Elliott men work fast.”
“That we do.” Lincoln shut the door, walked around the vehicle and got in on the driver’s side. “We’ve been back in Chance Creek only a few months ourselves.”
“Where were you before?” Charlotte asked, trying to imagine a whirlwind romance like that.
“Scattered to the winds with the military,” Lincoln said. “I was in the Army.”
“Oh.” So she’d been right.
“It’s only ten minutes to town,” Amanda said brightly. She pointed out landmarks on the short drive, and when they pulled into the grocery store parking lot, she said, “Do you want anything?”
“I can come in and give you a hand,” Charlotte said.
“Only if you need to buy something, too. Otherwise it’ll be quicker if I go on my own.” Amanda got out of the truck. “Keep Charlotte company, Lincoln.”
“Will do.”
“Don’t you want to go with your wife?” Charlotte asked him, panicking a little at the idea of being alone with a married man she found so damn attractive. With her luck, she’d stutter and blush when he spoke to her.
Amanda laughed, one hand on the door. “I’m not married to Lincoln. I’m married to his brother—Carter. Be right back.”
Having dropped that bombshell, she shut the door and walked away. Suddenly the truck’s cab felt far smaller than it had a minute ago.
“Carter is the youngest in the family,” Lincoln explained. “Strange that he was the first to marry, but as soon as he met Amanda, they got on like a house on fire. That’s why we were at the airport just now. My folks came out for the wedding last Saturday and spent the week with us. We were seeing them off.”
“Got it. So you’re…”
“Single,” he affirmed, as if reading her mind. He held up his left hand and wiggled his fingers.
No ring.
He smiled, and she swallowed, desire curling deep inside her.
He was single.
Available.
If she was smart, she’d get out of his truck right now.
Charlotte was about to bolt.
Despite the hungry way she’d looked at him a moment ago, her interest had turned to panic, and now she was reaching for the door. If she clutched her purse any tighter, she was going to snap its straps.
“Don’t worry; I won’t bite.”
Her eyes grew larger, and Lincoln cursed himself inwardly. Wrong thing to say. “I have way too much on my plate to think about women,” he added, not sure if he was making things better or worse. “How about you? Is there an angry husband combing Montana for you?”
She pulled back. “No. I’ve never been married.”
“You’re not running from the law, are you?” he joked.
“What? No. Nothing like that!”
“Lincoln! Good to see you!”
Lincoln sighed in relief when Megan Lawrence rushed up to the open passenger-side window and leaned her arms on the door. He was making a mess of things and a distraction was just what they both needed. “Megan. Good to see you, too. Just dropped my folks at the airport.”
“You must have been sorry to see them go. It was so nice to meet them again at Carter’s wedding after all these years. I wasn’t sure if they remembered me.”
“Of course they did.”
“I was a teenager when you all left,” she pointed out. She barely looked older than that now, with her cheeks flushed and her curly hair a little wild. She must be having a busy day.
“True.” Plus she lived in Chance Creek, not on Elliott Ridge, so she wasn’t around a whole lot. “I’m pretty sure they knew who you are, though. Megan, meet Charlotte. Charlotte, this is Megan Lawrence. She’s our real estate agent and a good friend.” For a little while he’d thought she and Gage might become a couple. They’d clicked at a mutual friend’s wedding after he and his brothers had returned to town, but nothing seemed to come of it.
“Hi. Nice to meet you,” Charlotte said from the back seat of the extended cab. Megan leaned farther in.
“Nice to meet you, too. How do you know Lincoln?”
“We just met,” Charlotte said.
“At the airport,” Lincoln said. “Charlotte’s looking for a house, and we’re going to show her some.” Too late, he realized his mistake.
“On the Ridge?” Megan asked in surprise. “To buy or to rent?”
“I… offered her the newcomer deal,” Lincoln said, bracing himself. Megan knew all about the newcomer deal from the time Carter had employed it, and she wasn’t going to like it that Lincoln was doing the same thing.
A series of emotions crossed Megan’s pretty face. Shock. Disbelief. Anger. “Really?” Her voice was thick with all the things she didn’t say. He and his brothers had offered her the commissions for any house sales she made in Lucy’s Corner, once they’d fixed up those houses a bit in preparation to sell. If he and his brothers kept giving them away before they were even on the market, she wasn’t going to earn a dime. He’d have to buy one at full price before selling it to Charlotte for a dollar, but they didn’t pay commissions to Megan for houses they bought from themselves.
“Don’t worry—we’re working hard to clean out the rest of them. We’ll have a bunch ready to sell soon.” He caught Megan’s eye and lifted his brows meaningfully.
“Oh. Sure thing.”
Lincoln could tell she didn’t believe him.
“I mean it,” he said firmly. “It’s a priority to get you those listings.”
Megan accepted that with a sigh. “Good to hear.”
“Is there something wrong?” Charlotte asked, looking from one to the other.
Megan straightened a little, suddenly all business. “Not at all,” she assured her. “Lucy’s Corner is a part of Elliott Ridge that only recently received permission to be subdivided, and Lincoln and his brothers are cleaning all the empty houses there so I can sell them.” She smiled at him sweetly, letting him know she was going to hold him to his promise soon. Did that mean he’d have to rush to finish cleaning them out?
Pursuing Charlotte was becoming complicated.
Lincoln decided he didn’t care one bit. He’d simply work at the mill all day and clean those houses at night, giving him two ways to earn money to add to his family’s coffers. The faster they paid off those debts, the sooner he could move on with his life.
“Where are you from, Charlotte?” Megan asked.
“Saratoga,” she said. “In New York.” Lincoln was happy to see she wasn’t clutching the door handle anymore.
An East Coast girl, he thought. “Isn’t there a racetrack there?” he asked.
“That’s right.”
“Never been to one,” he admitted.
“Me, neither,” Megan said.
“You aren’t missing much,” Charlotte said.
“Any family back there?” Megan asked.
“Not anymore. I lost my grandmother recently. She was all the family I had. My father died shortly after I was born, and my mother passed away when I was eleven. Health issues.”
Megan’s face creased in concern. “I’m so sorry to hear that. What a hard time you’ve had.”
“Thank you. I miss them all,” she admitted.
No wonder she felt she needed a fresh start, Lincoln thought. He understood grief. When he’d left Elliott Ridge at twenty, he’d thought it might kill him, and it had taken years to think of the past without his breath hitching in his lungs. He was so lucky to be given a second chance. Maybe he could give Charlotte one, as well. He and his brothers—and Megan and everyone else on the Ridge—could become her new family.
“I lost my folks not too long ago, and I’m… having a hard time, too,” Megan said. She looked surprised by her own admission, and guilt squeezed Lincoln’s chest. It wasn’t just Gage who’d taken Megan for granted. They all had.
“You should come up to the Ridge more often,” he told her. “Charlotte is going to need friends.”
Both women looked a little startled by his statement, but Charlotte nodded. “He’s right. I will—if I stay.”
“I hope you do stay. Let me get your number, and I’ll call you in a few days. I can show you around Chance Creek after you settle in a bit,” Megan said. “You’ll want to come down off the Ridge sometimes.” The women exchanged numbers, and Lincoln put Charlotte’s number in his phone, too, liking the feeling of having it there.
“I have to get back to work. Talk soon!” Megan loped off with a bounce in her step, and Lincoln thought he’d done a good thing by promoting a friendship between the women.
“There’s Amanda,” Charlotte said.
Charlotte sat back and watched the scenery go by as Lincoln drove, more comfortable with the situation after talking to Megan. If two normal, well-adjusted women were so at ease with Lincoln, he couldn’t be a bad guy.
Just as he’d told her, the trip took about forty-five minutes, winding first through town and then out of it, heading through ranch land and up into the hills.
Amanda pointed out landmarks of interest, telling her who owned the ranches and how long their families had been in the area. Lincoln corrected her when she got the information wrong, and Charlotte could tell Amanda was trying hard to belong here the way Lincoln and his family did. When they began to drive through the forested hills, Lincoln gestured at the landscape outside his window.
“My family owns a large parcel of forest out that way on High Ridge. We’ll start logging it again soon.” He told her how his family had tried to balance harvesting trees with planting new ones. How important it had been to his father that they treat their property as a resource for countless generations of Elliotts, not just for the personal gain of the current one. She liked listening to him. Ivan had never talked about things like legacy. He had no interest in children or building something to pass on. The horses he bought to fill Gasparyn Stables were for his own financial benefit, not for a future generation’s. Long before she’d left him, Charlotte had wondered why one man needed so much. “It’s hard to get the balance right,” Lincoln finished. “You can’t plant a forest and have it turn out the way nature does it. I wish we could.”
“It sounds like you feel a real connection to your family’s property and business,” she said.
“I do.” He glanced her way in the rearview mirror. “Don’t you feel connected to Saratoga?”
“No,” she said. “Maybe I used to, but not anymore. My family never owned much property, anyway.”
“Got it.”
“What made you want to be a vet?” Amanda asked. “Did you have pets when you were a kid?”
“No. Grandma did offer to get me a kitten once, but I wanted a horse. Needless to say that was out of the question.”
“You wanted to learn to ride?”
“I wanted to be a jockey.” Charlotte pressed her lips together. She hadn’t meant to tell them that. “Unfortunately, my dad was six-four. My mom was five-seven. By the time I hit sixth grade, it was clear I wasn’t jockey material. I figured the next best thing was to buy a racehorse. Then my grandmother told me how much one cost.” She shook her head. “That’s when I hit on veterinary school.”
“That’s expensive, too,” Amanda said. “Did she help with it?”
“As much as she could.” This was treading on dangerous territory. Despite her scholarships and her grandmother’s assistance, she’d had student loans when she’d met Ivan, which is part of how he’d gotten control of her so quickly.
“So you do like the races,” Lincoln said .
“I used to.”
Not anymore.
Lincoln nodded. “Welcome to Elliott Ridge,” he said a moment later, dropping the topic. He turned onto a road marked Elliott Way, which wound uphill, then made a large circle around a grassy area. The settlement spread out around them. To her right, a rambling, white clapboard house overlooked a lake. Ahead of her were several larger buildings. To her left, more houses marched in curving rows, some clustered on flat ground, others in tiers up the side of the ridge that must give the little community its name. It all looked tidy, except for several piles of broken-down appliances in the grassy circle. Those were eyesores, but she figured they were there for a reason. Given the clean interior of Lincoln’s truck, she doubted he was a man who let trash pile up.
She clutched her oversize purse and took in her surroundings as Lincoln parked in front of the white house. The lake was sparkling in the sunshine, riffled by a light breeze. The forested Ridge was pretty enough now in high summer but might cast a shadow over the houses during the long Montana winter. The small, unassuming homes suited the little community.
Across the Circle, a road cut through the houses and disappeared into the forest.
“The mill is down that way,” Lincoln told her, then pointed to another road that edged along the lake. “That one eventually leads to the old silver mine.”
“Whose house is this?” She gestured to the white one they’d parked in front of.
“My parents’. I grew up here. They live in South Carolina now, but we hope they’ll move back when the town fills up again. Carter and Amanda live in number23 on Second Street, but the rest of us are still camping out in our old bedrooms.” He pointed at the road that led to the mill. “That part of town to the left of Center Street is called Lucy’s Corner. Those are the homes we have for sale.”
Charlotte nodded. From what she could see, the houses in Lucy’s Corner were on the small side but big enough for her purposes. All she wanted to do was disappear for as long as it took for Ivan to forget she’d ever existed.
However long that was.
“Who’s that?” she asked, catching sight of an old man heading their way. His stride had a hell of a hitch, like an old mule that had seen some hard living. Someone ought to have worked on that leg long ago. Would have saved him a lot of pain.
Charlotte stopped herself. She had a bad habit of seeing every living creature through the lens of her veterinary practice, judging their gait and working out the parameters of care needed to fix it. She wasn’t in charge of fixing men, she told herself. She wasn’t even in charge of fixing horses anymore.
“That’s Dennis. Don’t mind him,” Amanda said. “He’s gruff, but he’s an old softy once you get to know him. He’s been caretaker around this place his whole life. He kept it together during the twelve years everyone was gone.” She opened the door to the truck and got out, and Charlotte followed suit. Lincoln joined them by the truck bed.
The caretaker looked to be in his seventies, with a heavy paunch, a halo of thinning white hair and a deep frown. Dressed in work-worn pants and a torn flannel shirt over a grubby undershirt, he wouldn’t have been tolerated around Gasparyn stables, but Charlotte knew that looks could be deceiving. Anyone who moved that fast with that painful gait had to be a hard worker.
“More trouble, huh?” the man said to Lincoln as he shambled up to them.
Lincoln frowned. “No trouble here.”
“That’s what your brother said when he brought her back here.” He jabbed a thumb toward Amanda. “I told him he’d regret it, and I was right!”
Lincoln faced him. “You know very well Carter doesn’t regret bringing Amanda here one bit. You walked her down the aisle at her wedding last week! Stop being such a drama queen. Charlotte, this is Dennis. Dennis, meet Charlotte. She’s come to look at the houses we have for sale, and if you don’t scare her away, she might buy one.”
Dennis harrumphed. “Her coming here settles it. It’s another Calamity Year, just like I told you. Where are you from?” he demanded, turning to Charlotte.
“New York, originally,” she told him. Calamity Year? She supposed that summed up her life pretty well right now, but she didn’t know how he could guess it.
“New York?” Dennis made it sound like she’d said the moon. “Who comes from New York?”
“About twenty million people.”
Dennis narrowed his eyes, but she thought she might have scored a point. “What’re you doing here?”
“Charlotte is a veterinarian,” Lincoln said. “I figure there’s lots of work for a vet around here. Hell, we have some horses of our own, and we’ll probably have a lot more of them by the time we’re done.” He turned to Amanda. “Would you mind if we take Charlotte to your place first? She can freshen up and check out your renovation before we look at the other houses. That way she’ll know what’s possible. See you around, Dennis.”
“I’m happy to have met you, Dennis,” Charlotte said. She was. Good workers were valuable, and this man obviously cared about Elliott Ridge. She bet he knew everything there was to know about the place.
Dennis grumbled but walked away.
“He should really get that looked at,” Charlotte said, watching him go.
“What do you mean?” Lincoln asked.
“That limp.”
“That’s an old injury.” Lincoln brushed it off. “He’s walked like that all my life. He wouldn’t appreciate us interfering, either.” He retrieved the bag of groceries. “Let’s go.”
Charlotte put the problem out of her mind and followed Lincoln and Amanda across the Circle, down Center Street and left onto Second Avenue, where they turned in the driveway of a pretty, cabin-like house with a nice front porch. Amanda took the lead, but Charlotte’s gaze kept slipping back to Lincoln. His gait was strong and true. He wasn’t a thoroughbred, but his lines were pleasing, and he was obviously healthy. In his prime.
Stop it , she told herself. Good gait or not, Lincoln should be off limits until she’d learned to stand on her own two feet. When she had a home and a job, could easily pay her bills and was saving for her future each month, then she could think about dating again. This time, she’d make sure at least five friends approved before she allowed a man near her. Five new friends, since she’d lost all her old ones.
Charlotte squared her shoulders and followed Amanda and Lincoln to Amanda’s house. Things were different now. She would never let a man isolate her like that again. She wouldn’t let one get close to her until she was sure she could hold her own in a relationship.
But when Lincoln offered her his hand as they walked up the steps, she took it.
Which didn’t make any sense at all.