Getting His Way: Sapphire Falls Book Seven (6 page)

“I’ll take care of it,” she told TJ.

“You let me know if he gets out of hand,” TJ told her.

She smiled at her boss and headed back to her desk. She pulled another list out of a folder and picked up her phone.

“Hi, Mandy. It’s Tessa.”

“Hi, Tess. What’s up?”

“Wondering if you could call all of the moms of the talent show kids. We need to move rehearsal. The Blue Brigade’s fashion show needs to practice at that time.”

“No problem,” Mandy said. “I’ll call everyone. Should we move it to six or so?”

“Six will be great,” Tess agreed. “Thanks.”

Her next nine calls were to the ladies of the Blue Brigade, the group of ladies aged sixty-eight to ninety-four, whose mission was to spread goodwill and happiness throughout the town. They sent Just-Because and Thinking-of-You cards to people randomly. They handed out gift-wrapped packages of cookies for no reason other than to brighten someone’s day. And they gave out goodwill assignments. At any point, someone could pass a member of the Brigade on the street and be handed an assignment card. That person then had to carry out the task on the card as soon as possible. The assignments ranged from giving someone a hug to buying someone a cup of coffee to telling someone a joke. PG-rated, of course. Unless you were telling one to Pastor Michaels. He liked the R-rated ones.

They also did a few fundraisers throughout the year to raise money for their cards, the arbitrary singing telegrams and balloon bouquets they sent, and the five scholarships to summer camp they gave annually.

The fashion show during the festival was one of their fundraisers.

And they would be beside themselves to have a man under the age of sixty as a judge. Heck, maybe Tessa could suggest Bryan be the emcee in her place. She could sit at the table with the three other women and two men who had signed up to judge.

Yes, Bryan would be an excellent emcee.

And twenty minutes later, every member of the Blue Brigade had agreed.

Chapter Three

Bryan arrived at the Community Center at ten minutes to nine. He punched the button beside the door with the end of his crutch and it swung open automatically. He headed inside with as much bounce in his step as possible. Though, really, having a bounce was more a mindset than anything else, in his opinion. He was happy to be a part of the committee. He loved kids and he loved his hometown. But he was especially excited to sweep Tessa off her feet. Metaphorically, of course.

She was standing to one side of a stack of two by fours and chatting with Delaney Bennett. Delaney was married to Ty’s brother Tucker and was the town’s handyman. Handywoman. Contractor. Yes, he’d stick with contractor. He knew Delaney and knew she was laidback and not likely to get riled up about gender stereotypes, but Bryan wanted to show Tessa his good-guy side. Not that he’d ever mean to insult a woman doing any job, but he’d put his foot in his mouth before when he hadn’t been careful. Sometimes both feet. Around Tess, he wanted to be completely respectful, maybe even chivalrous.

Unless that was chauvinistic. He remembered some friends of his bitching because women didn’t want them to hold doors open anymore.

Damn. He was going to need to check with someone on that. His sister, Caitlyn, would know. Or Lauren or Hailey—also both Bennetts now—would definitely know.

Bryan pulled his phone from his pocket and started to dial Hailey, but just then he heard his name. From Tessa.

“Hi, Bryan.”

He turned, his best charming grin in place. “Hey, Tess.”

“We’re all so happy you signed up to help with this.”

He narrowed his eyes. He wasn’t sure he believed that at all. “Are you now?”

“I am. TJ said you were very adamant about being a part of this.”

“Yes. Of course.” He looked around. “What do you need from me?”

“Oh, so much,” Tess said.

But she was already walking away from him by the time he debated making a suggestive comment to that. It was his nature to be flirtatious and a little naughty. He loved to make women blush and maybe even stammer. But this was Tess. Sweet, forever-girl Tess. He needed to behave.

“I’m all yours,” he told her, following with one crutch. This was a full standard crutch today. For one thing, it was early. He didn’t generally need both crutches until later in the day when he got tired. And, while he preferred the forearm crutches in the bar because they stayed connected to his arms even when he was using his hands, he liked the full crutch otherwise.

“Oh, I know,” she said. “TJ told me.”

TJ had told her Bryan was all hers? He liked the sound of that.

“You can sit right here,” she told him, stopping next to a wooden armchair sitting in front of the stage. At the moment, the chairs for the audience had been removed and there were sawhorses and building materials scattered through the room, but Bryan knew at some point they’d have to move all the padded folding chairs back in and arrange them in rows.

He looked around. “I don’t need to sit. I thought TJ said something about building some backdrops?”

“Oh, Delaney’s got that handled,” Tess assured him. “We need you right here. You need to be able to see everything clearly.”

“See everything? The talents?” It just occurred to Bryan that there weren’t any kids in the room. That was strange, considering it was a kids’ talent show.

“Talents?” Tess laughed lightly. “I guess you could call them that. The girls refer to them as
assets
.”

“Assets?”

But Tess had already moved off toward a group of ladies who were gathered on the far end of the stage. Bryan knew every single one of them, and not one was what anyone would call a kid.

Unfortunately for him—and fortunately for Tess—he couldn’t go running after her. So he took a seat. Though tentative definitely described his mood now more than excited.

He sat and tapped his thumb against the arm of the chair, trying not to stare at the group of women thirty feet away. Of course, that was an impossible task, considering he was incredibly interested in what was going on, and considering Tess was one of them.

He let his eyes wander over her profile. She had long blond hair that hung in soft waves to her mid-back. The first time he’d touched it had been when they were five. He remembered her hair was the first thing he’d noticed about her. It had been long enough to touch her lower back and had been the color of sunshine. Which he’d told her when he’d been standing behind her in line to go out for recess. And he’d run his hand over it. Soft as silk. He’d never forgotten that. He’d taken advantage of the chance to touch it again two nights ago when he’d kissed her in his office. It was the thick, lush kind of hair that made a man want to bury his hands in it and run it between his fingers.

Following her hair down her back, of course, led to the sweet swell of her ass and the curve of her hips. The kind of hips that made a man want to take them in his hands and squeeze while he—

Bryan coughed and shifted in the chair. He had to stop that shit. Thinking Tess was beautiful and looked nice in the simple white sundress and sandals she wore was one thing. Thinking about putting her up on the edge of his desk and gripping those gorgeous hips while he thrust into her was something else altogether.

Tess wasn’t one of his typical girls. She wasn’t overtly sexy, she wasn’t a flirt, she didn’t wear revealing clothes and she didn’t get up on the edges of desks. At least not for sex. In fact, she barely dated. Which was part of the reason her chewing his ass for telling guys not to ask her out was funny. She typically turned them down when they did ask. Why did she care if Bryan told them not to?

But that was even more reason for him to just chill the hell out, take his time, court her even. She was the type for courting. And she deserved it. God knew, she’d been waiting for him to come home long enough.

Which made him frown again. He really thought she had been waiting for him to come home, but she certainly hadn’t acted happy about his proclamation that he was ready to be her boyfriend.

Maybe she just didn’t believe him. He could understand that. He’d been waiting until all of his rehab was done and things were going well at the bar, until he was settled in his own place and not needing his mom and sister’s help. Things had been on track until he’d gone to Texas to see Eli play ball with the minor league Kilby Catfish. Bryan and Ty had gone out on the town and Bryan had gotten cocky. That cockiness had ended up with him on his ass with a broken hip. That had certainly set him back. Hell, it had almost prevented his sister, Caitlyn, from pursuing a relationship with Eli.

Thankfully, Bryan had convinced her he was fine—or was going to be, anyway—and she’d ended up going to California with Eli when he was called up to the Majors.

But Bryan really was fine. He was the strongest he’d been since the accident, he was settled into his new life in Sapphire Falls, and he was ready to move on with everything else.

Besides, if something did happen again, like the fucking broken hip, there was no better person to be helping him out than Tessa. She was sweet and kind and caring and every bit the nurturing type. He hated other people fussing over him, but Tess made him consider faking a pain or two. Tess had been the cherry on top that he’d most been looking forward to.

Finally, she headed back in his direction.

Sweet. Kind. Pretty
. Bryan repeated the words in his mind as she approached, rather than letting himself take in the gorgeous breasts filling out the top of her dress or the smooth, tanned expanse of her legs under the skirt. But he couldn’t help taking in the great muscle tone in her legs. Tess had always been cute and curvy, but he thought maybe there was more muscle definition in her quads and calves now. He wondered if she’d started a workout program of some kind. She looked tighter and more confident, and no matter how much he tried to keep his thoughts on her smile and her pretty brown eyes, below the belt, he responded to everything else.

“Okay, I think we’re ready,” Tess told him. “Here’s the script. You can read along while the ladies rehearse and we’ll make sure everything matches up.”

“Why would
I
be reading the script?” Bryan asked, taking the pages from her. Maybe he was just filling in while they practiced.

“Because you’re the emcee,” Tess told him, as if it should have been obvious. “The ladies are thrilled. Jack Morgan did it the past three years, and they’re excited to have someone young and new.”

“I’m the
what
?” Bryan glanced over at the older women. They were all watching him and smiling and a couple of them waved when they saw him looking.

“The emcee.”

Tess’s big grin told him that she knew he was
not
thrilled.

“I thought I was helping with the kids’ talent show,” he said. Not that he wasn’t great with older women—okay, all women. But he was great with kids too, and he had kind of thought that would be a good way to soften Tess up. Guys who were cute with kids were attractive, right?

Plus, he wanted to show her that he could handle construction projects and other physical activities.

“Oh, that rehearsal got moved. And when TJ put you on the schedule and said you were so enthusiastic, I figured you would be up for whatever we needed.”

Bryan sighed. What he’d signed up for was to work with
her
. Which this was. Okay, fine. He’d charm all of their socks off. And maybe Tessa’s panties…

He shut that thought down and focused on the script. He needed to stop thinking about Tessa’s panties. Especially getting them off.

He shook his head. No. He needed to stop thinking about them altogether. Because even if she had them
on
he would still—

Dammit.
He cleared his throat and focused on the script, reading out loud.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to this year’s fashion show. Over the years, we’ve brought you evening gowns, summer wear, swimsuits—” Bryan coughed. He hadn’t been aware that the lovely older ladies of Sapphire Falls had been modeling swimming suits in the past. He had missed the last three fashion shows. “This year,” he continued. “We’re excited to bring you linger—” He broke off and looked up at Tessa. “Seriously?”

“What?” she asked innocently.

He looked around and dropped his voice. “Lingerie? Really?”

“Yes,” she said, as if that was the most normal thing for a bunch of women, the youngest of who was pushing seventy, to be modeling lingerie.

He took a deep breath and went on, though he was sure she could hear the hesitation in his voice. Because there was a lot of hesitation there.

“We’re excited—” he thought maybe he’d edit that word, “—to bring you lingerie for women who know what to do with it.” Okay. So this was not what he’d been expecting.

That pretty much summed up his entire life right now.

Not the least of which was the blond with the nice legs standing next to him. She was supposed to be falling into his arms. He had no idea what was going on there.

But he was the master at handling the unexpected.

Tess lifted an eyebrow. “If you’re not interested in helping out with this committee, it’s okay. I understand.” She started to reach for the script.