Chapter 2
CHAPTER 2
Give a man some competition, because boys like to fight. ~ The Lady Elks Secret Archives
Dawn finished setting out the bingo cards, her mind spinning. The second floor of the Elks Lodge held a wide bar, a hodgepodge of tables, and real leather chairs that were now back in style. The floor, walls, and high ceiling were all built about a hundred years ago with wood from the local forest. Dancing Santas lined one wall, while stacks of colorful poinsettias were placed all around the room.
What in the world had happened last night? First Hawk showed up looking all wounded and sexy. Then he’d partied with Colton and had seemed more detached than ever, not even lighting up when Melanie had arrived. Finally, the guy had apologized for hanging out with friends.
The only time, definitely the only time , the man had seemed present was when their eyes had connected during the first set. She’d felt that connection down to her toes—and everywhere in between.
She bit back a grin upon remembering the look on his face when she’d left with Adam, who’d just been helping her out while her car was in the shop. Yeah. Call her petty, call her immature, but that had felt great.
Dumb-ass men.
“Are you ready, dear?” Mrs. Hudson asked, shoving wire rimmed glasses up her tiny nose as she bustled across the wide room. The spitfire was almost five feet tall with curly white hair, a perfectly symmetrical nose, and powdery skin. She’d been widowed sometime around the early sixties, had reportedly been quite wild for a while, and for the last year or so, had seemed content dating her wrinkled neighbor with no commitment.
Tonight she’d worn a lime-green tracksuit with “Juicy” bejeweled down one short leg. Someone had given the ancient gossip a BeJewler the previous Christmas, and everything she wore sparkled. Really sparkled.
“Yes, ma’am.” Dawn gestured toward the pretty red tablecloths adorning the scarred wooden tables. “Just have a seat, and as soon as everyone arrives, we’ll start calling those numbers.” She glanced around. “After tonight, we need to start decorating for the winter dance.”
“Yes. Thanks again for planning the dance this year. It’ll be a doozy.” Mrs. Hudson snapped her fingers toward her beau, Henry Bullton, who had just finished pouring a series of Cosmos into Martini glasses. “Henry? This is girl time,” she chirped.
The retired car salesman scratched his thinning gray hair and lumbered around the bar. His khaki pants dragged on the floor, and he hitched them up almost to his armpits. “All right. I’ll pick ya up after bingo.” He bowed, and cherry cough drops plunked from his pocket. “Darn.” Leaning over, he grimaced and then reloaded the pockets. “We’ll go to my place.” He grinned and sauntered out the door.
“We most certainly will not,” Mrs. Hudson called loudly before turning back toward Dawn. “Men.” She reached into a glittering bag nearly large enough to span from her shoulder to her knees. “I made you something.” She grunted and tugged out a hand-stitched pillow. Then she turned and glanced at a group of ladies setting up the coffee table near the wide wall of windows facing Mineral Lake. “Girls? Now, please.” The please was for etiquette…because there was a clear order barked into the words.
Three white-haired heads bobbed, and then Maverick County’s elite Board of Lady Elks bustled their way.
Dawn swallowed, her instincts humming.
Mrs. Hudson waited until the seniors properly surrounded Dawn before flourishing the pillow. “We had a vote at our last meeting, which was at Mertyl’s house, because we had to do something while she ordered out. Burned the rolls, you know.”
Mertyl Franks, the mayor’s mother, gasped. “Now you hush your mouth, Patty Hudson. You know my oven has been on the blink.”
Mrs. Hudson waved her hand. “Please stay on task, girls. Anyway, we voted to help you find a man. It’s time, Dawn Freeze.”
Oh no. No, no, no, no, no . Dawn tried to back away, only to be surrounded by shriveled people. Most folks would think the meddling cute, but Dawn had grown up in Maverick County. The women were serious, and they’d hound her. Really, really hound her. She waved her hands, trying to keep the panic at bay. “That’s so kind of you, Mrs. Hudson. But as you know, I just started a new job?—”
“Job, schmob,” Georgiana Millbury—of Millbury Grocery—scoffed, flipping her long hair. “A job won’t make your mama a grandma, or keep your bed warm at night.”
Okay. Dawn could handle this, and it truly needed to be handled quickly before things got out of control. “My mother is already a grandma from Jake, and she’s about to be a grandma from Colton. Besides, I have plenty of blankets on my bed.”
Mrs. Bernie Poppins, ex-librarian, narrowed faded eyes. “If you think blankets warm a bed, we need to have a different discussion later tonight. For now, you need to understand, we care very much about choosing the right man.”
“I voted for Adam,” Mrs. Millbury said, her chin wobbling. She had several inches in height on Mrs. Hudson and kept her posture ramrod straight to take advantage of being able to see over everyone’s heads.
“Not Adam.” Mrs. Hudson glared at Mrs. Millbury. “That boy isn’t ready to settle down, and if you ask me, there’s a woman already tunneling into his heart.” She turned back to Dawn. “Unless you’re sweet on Adam. Then we could probably make him fall for you.”
“No.” Dawn shook her head. Did Adam have a love somewhere? He did seem kind of lonely sometimes, and she enjoyed his friendship, which didn’t include her three older brothers—something rare in the town. “Adam and I are just buddies.”
“Told you.” Mrs. Hudson said. “After we discussed each candidate, it was so obvious that we really didn’t debate long. Surely you know who we chose.”
Dawn tried to head off the suggestion. “Hawk isn’ t ready?—”
All four ladies sighed and nodded vigorously.
Mrs. Hudson slapped the pillow against Dawn’s chest. “Yep. You called it. You’ve mooned over that boy for decades, and he’s been alone for too long. Heck. He’s practically part of your family already.”
Mrs. Millbury clapped her hands together. “You knew it was Hawk, so it must be fate.”
Of course it was Hawk. She had dreamed silly fantasies about the guy since she’d become old enough to notice the difference between boys and girls. “Hawk doesn’t like me that way.” Yeah, the truth hurt, but it was all she had to stop this train wreck.
So when all four ladies threw back their heads and laughed, she could only gape.
Mrs. Hudson wiped her eyes. “He doesn’t like you. Youth is so wasted on you young’uns. Of course he likes you. If not, we’re gonna help you make him like you.”
Heat climbed into Dawn’s face. Panic flirted with embarrassment, and she scrambled for a way out. “I can land my own dates, ladies.”
Mrs. Hudson shook her head. “Forget dates. You need love and happily ever after. Obviously you’re not making that happen on your own.”
Dawn tried to sidle away from the huddle. Footsteps echoed on the stairs outside the room, and several more Lady Elks walked inside, stomping snow off their boots first. Her friend, Luann, followed the pack, saw the cluster of women around Dawn, and then made a sharp left for the bar. Traitor.
“Read the pillow,” Mrs. Hudson said. “We Lady Elks have rules passed down for generations.”
Oh man, this wasn’t going to be good. Her hands shaking, Dawn turned over the pillow to read the list of five rules perfectly embroidered across it.
This couldn’t possibly be happening.
How to Catch a Man
1. Make your man the only man around.
2. Don’t give the cow away (AKA NO SEX).
3. The way to his heart really is through his stomach.
4. Let your man rescue you.
5. Give him the illusion of control so you can chase him until he catches you.
Each line had been carefully hand-stitched into perfect, even formation. Dawn breathed out, her shoulders relaxing as she clutched at a definite lifeline. “Darn it. I already broke number one last night by leaving Hawk at the bar and heading out with Adam last night. Shoot.” She attempted to return the pillow to Mrs. Hudson.
Wrinkles plummeted together into a frown on Mrs. Poppins’s face. “How did Hawk look when you left with Adam?”
Dawn paused. Surprised, irritated, and…lost. Hawk had looked lost standing alone in the snow, and at the thought, her heart thumped. Hard. “He looked just fine and happy to be heading home.”
“Hmmm.” Mrs. Hudson glanced around at her posse. “That’s all right. Really, number one doesn’t count much. So long as you follow the rest of the list, you’ll get your man.”
“Hawk isn’t my man.” The words hurt, even though she’d spent the last lonely months accustoming herself to that fact…and the reality that he’d never be hers. She liked him, and she wanted him in her life—even as a friend. So she’d had to let go. “Hawk will never be mine.”
Mrs. Hudson’s chin firmed. “Oh, sister. He will be. I promise.”
Dawn shook off the odd feeling of Mrs. Hudson calling her sister and hustled over to the bar, where Luann drank a Wallace Brewery Huckleberry Ale. Luann was the lead guitarist for Sizzled Pink, and at school they’d often played bars together. When she’d said she needed to talk, Dawn had asked her up to the Elks for a drink. “Sorry. Now what did you want to chat about?” Dawn asked. “I have a couple of minutes before bingo starts.”
Luann pushed streaked purple hair over her shoulder, her green eyes sparkling. “Nice pillow.”
“Be quiet.” Dawn bit back a chuckle, stuffing the cushion onto the barstool beside her. “They mean well, but seriously, they won’t let up. Together, strong and banded, they’re dangerous. Trust me.”
Luann, who was originally from Houston, just chuckled. The two had become friends in college, sharing fun nights singing, but Dawn had studied finance, and Luann Eastern Philosophy. Then they’d traveled to Berlin for a couple of post-college intensives that lasted six months, and they’d had an amazing time. “Whatever. Are you ready to ditch the small town and come on tour with us? We booked a place in Paris and are going to take Europe by storm this time. Please come.”
Dawn grinned. “While touring Europe with Sizzled Pink would be a blast, I just started at the family company and need to work on updating the software and double-checking the current investments.” She’d traveled enough and wanted to be home. She glanced over her shoulder to where Mrs. Hudson was carefully picking through bingo cards for just the right one. “I like it here, and I’m ready to hang tight for a while.”
Luann rolled her eyes. “You’re ready to hang tight with Hawk Rain for a while, and I get that. He’s a serious Hottie McHottie of Hottieness.” She leaned forward, losing her smile. “He also has one combat boot out the door, if you ask me. Even while watching you sing last night, he didn’t relax. Not once.”
Dawn swallowed. Hawk never stayed home for long, and there wasn’t any sign that he’d changed. Sure, she’d thought that once she’d finally graduated with her many degrees, he’d see her as all grown up. Maybe he had finally understood she was an adult, but that hadn’t stopped him from leaving. While he was home now, he might not stay. “Even if Hawk takes off again, which I admit is definitely a possibility, I want to be home for a while. Settle in and take over the finances at Lodge-Freeze.”
Luann shook her head. “Working with family. Sounds crazy to me.”
Dawn shrugged. “Not my family. We’ve always worked together, and that’s one of the reasons I earned the business degrees. I like numbers and making them line up.”
“You sing like a star, though.” Luann played with a cocktail napkin.
Dawn grinned. “I sing okay, but it’s not a passion. I do that for fun.” She’d never get her college buddy to understand, but she tried anyway. “Being here and working the ranches as well as the business feels right. That’s my passion.”
Luann snorted. “Hawk Rain is your passion, and it’s more likely he’ll be here than in Europe. Don’t kid me.”
Dawn shook her head. “Hawk and I are just friends.”
Luann sighed. “Promise me you’ll think about the tour. Just keep an open mind.”
“I promise.” Dawn nodded as Mrs. Hudson waved a card. “Looks like I’m up. Talk to you later.” She left her friend and walked to the bingo table, quickly shoving the pillow out of sight. Seriously. A pillow? She had to dissuade the ladies as soon as possible, or they’d never leave her alone.
How was she going to do that?