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Having the excuse to spend time with her again had taken the pressure off actually inviting her out on a real date after the pumpkin patch group outing the week before.

But he was doing a miserable job trying to hide his intentions—he couldn’t even take his eyes off her as she toured the newly renovated bar. Dressed in a slim-fitting, professional business suit, her long blond hair pulled away from her face in a low ponytail, three-inch heels echoing on the wooden bar floor, she was absolutely intimidating.

She was so far out of his league, but the week before at the pumpkin patch, they’d seemed to hit it off. He hadn’t exactly made the best of impressions earlier that day when she’d walked in on him naked, but he thought he’d redeemed himself by carrying the heaviest pumpkin she could find and had to have all around the farm the entire evening, so that no one else could steal it. His arms still ached, but seeing her laugh whenever she’d look at him, trying to seem unfazed by the eighty-pound, awkwardly shaped gourd in his arms had been worth it.

He’d yet to debrief with Jess to see if Whitney had said anything about him, but he was dying to know if he even had a shot. She was one of those women who would make a man give anything for just another minute of her time. Right now, he had her attention, and he hoped she liked the renovations and changes he’d made to the old bar.

He waited, watching her expression as she scanned the interior. When she smiled, he released a sigh of relief.

“Good?”

She nodded. “More than good. It’s amazing. Hard to believe it’s the same bar.”

Her praise meant so much, and he barely knew her. He sensed she was the type who would give it to him straight, so her opinion mattered. His mom and sisters were just so happy and proud that he was back in town and on this new life path that it was hard to discern if they were being completely honest when they claimed the bar looked great, or if their judgment was clouded by love. Either way, he valued their support.

“I can’t believe you left the old jukebox,” Whitney said. Clipboard in hand, she made notes of the things she wanted to mention in the grand opening event flyer and added the jukebox to the list.

“Are you kidding? It was the best part. I don’t think the previous owners knew what they had in this old classic beauty. I certainly didn’t tell them,” he said with a laugh. The Rock-Ola 1414 President was from the 1940s and valued at $50,000. Trent couldn’t believe the previous owners had included it with the sale price.

Whitney gently touched the machine, her hand stroking the smooth finish, and Trent had never been so jealous of an inanimate object. “Does it still work?”

He reached into his jeans pocket for a coin and handed it to her. “Give it a try.”

She popped the money in the slot, and the machine lit up. So did her expression in the neon glow, and the tug he felt in his chest told him he was a goner. Before meeting her, he would definitely have classified himself as a one-date-per-woman type of guy. He liked to have fun and spend time with the guys. In his twenties, he’d had no desire to settle down or be in a committed relationship. He hadn’t really felt the shift, but since meeting Whitney, he knew he wasn’t interested in just a casual thing with her. His mother had always warned him that one day he’d meet someone who would completely captivate him heart and soul. She’d been right. And he was utterly terrified that this woman he’d just met held the power to destroy him.

Whitney peered through the glass at the song selections and, settling on one, she keyed in the numbers. The first few beats of an old twangy country song started, and he grinned.

Could the woman be any more perfect?

He started to hum the melody, and she turned to him in surprise. “You like country music?”

“I even know how to two-step.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You’re kidding.”

He extended a hand to her.

She glanced at it, and he held his breath in her momentary hesitation. Did she feel the same connection to him as he did to her? Had the night at the pumpkin patch been something she’d been thinking about all week as well? Was he someone she might be able to see a future with? He hoped so, because all of a sudden, he saw the new future he wanted for himself. In that bar, there with her…everything suddenly fell into place, and everything made sense. He wasn’t freaked out or worried. He had zero doubt in his mind that she was the one for him.

As soon as her hand touched his and he was drawing her closer into his arms, he knew he wanted to hold that hand and hold her in his arms forever.

“I actually don’t know how to two-step,” he confessed. “But maybe we could sway?”

She moved closer and rested her head against his chest. And they swayed.

Chapter Three

Now…

“How’s the haunted house looking?” Trent asked above the sound of the wind whipping through the open windows of the Jeep as they drove along Riverside Drive toward Rejuvenation Assisted Living the next day.

“Creepy,” Whitney said distractedly, typing furiously on her iPhone. She needed to get to Rejuvenation to convince her mother to take her pills, but shit was hitting the fan back at the office. The latest fall events promotion brochures had arrived that morning with a huge, glaring typo right on the front page.

Of course, Scott had been the one to discover it.

Arguing with the designers that she hadn’t approved a proof before they were sent to the printers was sapping her energy. And on top of that mess, a press release had gone out the day before with the wrong date for the Fall Carnival.

That onemayhave been her fault, but the damn font they’d used made it very hard to tell the difference between a 1 and a 7. Once again, Scott had been the one to call attention to the mistake. He did have a good eye, she’d give him that.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com
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