Chapter Four
Carly chewed on her lip as she waited for her cousin Remi to answer her front door. Remi’s fiancé, Shane Corey, was the one who opened it, looking like he was on his way out.
“Hey, Carly,” he said. “You here to distract Remi, I hope?”
Carly laughed. “Maybe. Does she need a distraction?”
“Tiffany sent over another floral design for her to consider for the wedding,” he said, mentioning Tiffany Brandt, who was engaged to his brother, Ellis.
The brothers and their fiancées had decided to have a dual wedding.
Carly didn’t know how they were going to pull it off, but she wished them luck.
Shane continued, “This is the eighth one this week. I think Remi’s getting a little overwhelmed.
I asked her if she wanted scrambled or fried eggs this morning, and I thought she was going to have a conniption. ”
Carly did her best to keep her face straight. “I’ll see what I can do to help.”
“Awesome,” Shane said. “I need to go check on the border fence. I’ll see you later.”
She waved goodbye to him before entering the house. She could hear Remi muttering to herself somewhere within, and she followed the noise until she came upon her cousin pacing back and forth in her family room.
“Hi,” Carly greeted.
Remi turned to face her. Her eyes were red rimmed like she hadn’t slept in a week, and her hair was sticking up at the crown of her head. “Did you know there are over a hundred shades of pink roses? How am I supposed to pick the correct shade?”
Carly walked over to her cousin and grabbed her hands.
“Honey, I need you to breathe with me.” She inhaled deeply, and Remi copied the motion before they exhaled in unison.
“Whatever shade you pick will be perfect. Honestly, it won’t matter in the end because the only thing that Shane cares about is marrying you.
You could show up in jean shorts carrying a bouquet of dandelions for all that matters to him. ”
Remi took another deep breath to steady herself. “Yeah. You’re right. I just want everything to be perfect.”
“It will be.”
“Thanks, cuz.” Remi beamed at her before tilting her head. “Not that I don’t appreciate you talking me down from the proverbial ledge, but what are you doing here?”
“Um…” Carly fiddled with the end of her ponytail. “I was wondering if you knew a place I could buy baked goods. And then I wanted to ask if you knew the best way to get to Jesse Abernathy’s place over on Ambling Hills.”
Remi’s jaw dropped. “Okay…why do you need to know those things?”
“I was out riding Nieve the other day, and I accidentally went onto the Abernathy property and ran into Jesse and his son. I thought they were on my property though, and I was a little passive-aggressive, if you want to call it that.”
Remi snorted. “Knowing you, I’d say that’s a fair term.”
Carly gave her a mock glare. “Anyway, he was really nice about the misunderstanding, but I feel like I should still be neighborly and offer him a peace offering.”
Remi tapped her chin thoughtfully before blurting excitedly, “Oh my God, do you have a crush on him? Does Amy know?”
Carly’s cheeks burned. “I do not have a crush. Thirty-year-olds do not have crushes.”
“Sure they do. Is he good looking?”
“I…” Carly was going to deny it, but given the knowing look Remi was sending her, she caved. “Yes, he’s sinfully good looking, with eyes like sea glass and light brown hair. He’s absolutely gorgeous.”
“Okay, then. Here’s what we’re going to do,” Remi said. “We’re going to go into town, and we’ll see if Betty’s Bakehouse has any whole pies to sell. If not, the grocery store will probably have cookies or something available. Let’s go.”
“Uh… Remi?” Carly said.
“Hmm?” Remi replied. She seemed to be looking for something. She started mumbling, “Where’d I put that purse?”
“Do you maybe want to brush your hair and put on some fresh clothes first?” Carly said as delicately as possible.
Remi frowned as she looked down at herself. She had baby’s breath sticking to her yoga pants from one of the flower bundles lying on the floor and a stain from who knew what on her shirt.
“Give me twenty minutes to take a shower and put on fresh clothes.”
“You’ve got it,” Carly replied, full of love for her family. How had she gone so long without them?
An hour later, they were pulling into Betty’s Bakehouse.
“Have you tried the desserts here yet?” Remi asked as they got out of the car.
“Nope,” Carly replied as they entered the cute bakery. A long glass counter filled with doughnuts and baked goods ran along the wall opposite of the main door. The whole place smelled like dough and sugar, causing Carly’s mouth to water.
“I’ll be right with you,” a woman called out from the back.
“Take your time,” Remi replied.
The baker finally came to the front, a splotch of flour on her cheek. “Remi! What brings you in today?”
“Hi, Betty,” she said. “This is my cousin Carly, and she needs to buy a pie. One that says Sorry I was a douche to you.”
“Remi!” Carly said, burying her face in her hands.
“Male or female?” Betty asked matter-of-factly.
“Male,” Remi answered. “And hot as sin too.”
“Remember that nice moment we had earlier?” Carly grumbled. “I’m taking it back.”
“You love me and you know it,” Remi replied.
Betty looked thoughtful before she turned and waved to a glass display cabinet. It was loaded with mouth-watering desserts.
“We don’t serve humble pie,” Betty said, causing Remi to snort. “But we do offer a delicious apple.”
“We’ll take it,” Carly said, wanting nothing more than to get out of the situation.
Betty grabbed one from the case and put it on the counter for Carly to approve. It looked amazing, and she quickly paid for it so that they could leave.
“Who’s the lucky man?” the baker asked as she handed Carly the pie.
“Oh, it’s nothing,” Carly insisted as she took it from the waitress. “Just my apology for being a douche, like Remi said.”
Remi looked like she was about to burst from holding in her laughter.
“Anyway, we should go,” Carly said, her ears burning.
“Come see us again soon,” Betty replied, looking more than a little amused. They waved goodbye and hurried outside.
“I cannot believe you said all that,” Carly said under her breath when she and Remi made their way back to the car.
“It was going to be all over town anyway that you were buying a mystery gift for someone. Might as well rip the Band-Aid off now and give the gossips some fat to chew on.”
Carly rolled her eyes, but a part of her worried if that was true. What if the press got a hold of it? Carly Hawkins breaks Fletch Alistair’s heart for hot Montana cowboy.
Her agent, Dex, would have a panic attack.
She didn’t want to deal with the press again anytime soon.
Despite her best efforts, she thought back to that time after she and Fletch broke up.
The media had gotten so ugly. The paparazzi had been relentless, following her everywhere.
She couldn’t deny that they were a tiny part of why she’d decided to leave Australia.
She’d be perfectly fine if she never had a camera shoved in her face again.
When Remi started driving toward Ambling Hills instead of back to her house for Carly to get her car, Carly snapped back to attention. “Wait, where are you going?”
“You didn’t think I was going to miss this, did you?” Remi said. “Besides, you said you wanted to distract me. Color me entertained.”
Carly leaned back in the passenger seat and closed her eyes, accepting defeat. “Let’s just get this done.”
They eventually turned down the only road that ran along Ambling Hills. On one side of the road was a fenced-in area that had cattle roaming freely. On the other side was a half-assembled fence.
“This is all Grayson Abernathy’s property,” Remi explained. “It was really nice of him to let his brother have a piece of land.”
“Yeah, it was.” It warmed Carly that Jesse came from a family like that, and then she scolded herself. She was only here to apologize and then move on with her life.
The land grew more structured as they came up to a small house on the hill. In the distance, she could see two men hammering vinyl siding on one part of the house. They were both about the same height with the same color hair.
“Looks like Grayson is here too,” Remi said as she pulled up the driveway.
“Awesome,” Carly mumbled. One more person there to witness her eat crow.
Once they were parked, Remi winked at her. “Go get ’em.”
“What? After all this, you’re not coming with me?”
“I’m just here for moral support,” Remi replied, her face angelic. “You’ve got this.”
Carly glowered at her. “Thanks.” But she couldn’t help the snort that slipped out when Remi winked back.
She got out of the car, careful not to dump the pie. As she headed toward the house, one of the men came toward her. He looked like Jesse. It had to be his brother.
“Hello,” she said.
“Can I help you?” His face was polite, even as his eyes drifted down to what she was holding. He did a double take, as though it was unusual for a strange woman to show up at a construction site bearing pie. Which was completely fair.
Carly bit her lip at how ridiculous she was starting to feel. “Uh… I was hoping I could speak to Jesse?” she said.
The man she figured was Grayson nodded before calling out, “Jess, there’s someone with pie here to see you.”
She resisted the urge to bury her face in said pie, but she stopped thinking completely when Jesse came around the corner. He didn’t see her at first because he was using the end of his T-shirt to wipe the sweat off his brow, putting his abs on full display.
“What?” he said, his voice muffled.
“Stop showing off the six-pack,” the lookalike told him.
Six-pack? Try a twenty-four-pack. Lordy.
Jesse finally pulled his shirt away and glanced at Carly. He immediately dropped his shirt, to her disappointment. “Carly?” he said.
“Hi,” she replied.
“Hi.” He took a couple of hesitant steps toward her. “Grayson, this is Carly Hawkins. Our new neighbor.”
“Howdy,” Grayson said, and she smiled politely at him. He turned to Jesse. “I’m going to start measuring out the rest of that board.”
He disappeared around the corner, leaving Jesse and Carly momentarily alone.
She wished she’d dressed a little nicer.
She had on an old T-shirt with the Australian Rodeo Circuit logo on it, capris, and flip-flops.
Her hair was in its usual ponytail. She had been determined when she’d left the house to make her apologies and leave, so she had no reason to dress to impress.
And even though he was wearing a T-shirt that had seen better days, she felt like a toad next to him.
Not that she wanted to make a better impression or anything.
Nope, this was simply a visit to be a good neighbor and make sure she didn’t set off on the wrong foot with the Abernathys.
From what Amy had told her, his family had a lot of influence in Montana.
She glanced at the house. “This is nice. It’s going to be really cute when it’s done.”
“Thanks,” Jesse finally said. “So…what brings you out this way?”
“Hmm? Oh!” Carly hurried up to him and handed him the pie. “I wanted to give you this.”
Jesse looked down at it. “An apple pie?”
“More of what I’d call an apology pie.”
Jesse glanced back at her, his eyes crinkling in the corners. Damn, he was good looking. “No need to apologize again. You didn’t know you had crossed onto our property.”
“I don’t just mean for not knowing directions very well. I felt like I was a little rude to you, and I wanted to apologize for that.”
Jesse’s eyes seemed to see right inside of her. He gave her an understanding look. “I get it. Women these days have to be extra cautious, especially in the woods. If I’d known we were about to cross paths, I would have made my presence known long before I did.”
“Regardless, I could have been nicer.”
He flashed a dimpled smile at her. “We’ll have to agree to disagree on that.”
She grinned back. “Deal.”
“Still…” he said, looking back at the gift. “You didn’t need to bake me a pie.”
She laughed. She couldn’t help herself. “That’s courtesy of Betty’s Bakery. Trust me, you don’t want me anywhere near a kitchen. Last time I tried to cook anything, I gave myself food poisoning.”
Jesse’s smile widened. “Noted.”
“Well…” Carly said. “I should let you get back to what you were doing.”
He lifted the pie. “Thanks again for dessert.”
“You’re welcome.” She nodded awkwardly and then hurried back to Remi’s car, even though she really didn’t want to leave him just yet.
It was the silliest thing. This was only the second time she’d met the man.
There was no reason to feel like her feet were filling with lead with each step she took away from him.
As she settled in the car, she realized that he was still watching her. She waved at him before buckling her seat belt. She forced her eyes straight ahead, not daring to look his way again.
Remi started the vehicle, and they drove in silence for several seconds.
Her cousin finally said, “Damn, Carly.”
“I know,” Carly muttered.
“Sinfully hot.”
“Yep,” she replied.
“What are you going to do about that?”
What was she going to do? Absolutely nothing.
Hadn’t she been telling herself since she moved to Tenacity that she needed to figure out the next steps in her life?
It hadn’t even been a year since her breakup with Fletch made national news.
She didn’t need to rush into anything new. Carly wanted to focus on herself.
Not on the man’s dimples or the way his hair curled at the ends or…
Carly slouched in her seat and closed her eyes.
She was so totally screwed.