Meant To Be Yours

“I don’t believe you.”

“Jasper and I are not involved. I doubt we’ve had more than a three-sentence conversation.”

Not that it took many sentences to ask Your place or mine? And while the description of predatory was nice, it gave her too much credit. Would she stalk him and pounce? Not even on her best day. Would she say yes if the man asked? She smiled again. Oh, yeah, she would. Definitely. Okay, probably. If she was feeling brave. Because while she worked her butt off to give her couples their perfect happily-ever-after day, she knew it was never going to happen for her. Those who could—did. Those who couldn’t became wedding planners.

Avoiding relationships might be the smart choice, but it was also a lonely one. She knew Jasper was into the long-term, monogamous, not-serious kind of thing and she was pretty sure she could handle that. Assuming she was his type and he was interested. They could have some laughs, lots of sex and walk away completely unscathed in the heart department. Where was the bad?

“There’s something going on and you can’t convince me otherwise,” Pallas said. “You have depths. I’m very impressed. Okay, use Jasper and then tell me the details because hey, he’s got to be great.” She yawned again. “I’m such a lightweight. I’m leaving now.”

“Good night. Hug Ryan for me.”

“You know I will.”

Pallas walked out of the reception hall. Renee continued to circle the space, looking for any forgotten handbags or phones, and noting how long it would take the cleaning service to return the huge room to order. Doing her job and not thinking about the fact that Jasper was back—that was her.

A loud whoop got her attention. She turned and saw three teenaged guys running through the fountain at the far end of the big, open room. Each of them jumped, trying to touch the arc of water dancing overhead.

The younger brother, she thought as she made her way toward them. And his friends. No doubt they were bored after so many hours with not very much to do. Regardless, she was not going to have them disrupt the reception when it was so close to being over.

As she approached the running, jumping teens, she saw both sets of parents, along with the bride and groom, still dancing. They swayed in time with the music, oblivious to the fountain and the idiots messing with it. Then several things happened at once.

The younger brother started an extra long run toward the fountain. Jim let go of Monica and spun her out the length of their arms. Monica bumped her mom, who stumbled a little. Dad grabbed Mom, moving all of them closer to the fountain and the younger brother running, who had to swerve suddenly to avoid them. As he swerved, he lost his balance and slipped, tumbling into the fountain mechanism. One of the hoses broke free, wiggling and spraying water everywhere.

Renee saw it all happening and knew there was no way she was going to allow her beautiful bride to get soaked. She lunged for the hose, caught it and held it tightly against her chest as the bride’s father rushed to turn off the water to the hose. It took only seconds, but by then the entire fountain had spilled over and Renee was drenched, shivering and had water up her nose even as she wondered if she looked half as ridiculous as she felt.

The new Mrs. Martinez hurried over. “Renee, are you all right?” She turned on her brother. “How could you? This is a wedding, not a water park.”

Aware that end-of-wedding exhaustion could easily lead to emotions spiraling out of control, Renee quickly faked a smile.

“Monica, it’s fine. Don’t worry. Keeping you and the rest of the wedding party dry was my only concern.” She glanced at the water draining onto the floor and realized part of the fountain was still pumping out water. That couldn’t be good. If she couldn’t get everything turned off, she was going to have to call in one of those companies that took care of disasters like flooding. “Really. It’s no problem.”

“You’re dripping and the water’s rising. My dad went to find the main shutoff.”

Renee wrung out her hair and hoped her makeup wasn’t too badly smudged. Then she realized the water level in the reception hall was indeed climbing and hoped Monica’s father found the shutoff soon.

She was just about to go help him when he returned.

“All turned off.” He glanced at the mini flood. “Sorry about this.”

“It’s fine,” Renee lied, her tone soothing, because that was part of her job. To pretend all was well even when they needed to be figuring out how to build an ark.

The rest of the guests were heading out. Nothing like the threat of an unexpected flood to get people moving, she thought, trying to find the humor in the situation.

“I’m so sorry,” Monica told her as she held her dress out of the water and slipped out of her shoes.

“Don’t be. You had a wonderful wedding and reception. Why don’t you and Jim start gathering your things? I have a spare set of clothes in my office. I’ll get changed, then help you make sure you have everything.”

As she spoke, she noticed the water seemed to have settled at about the six- or seven-inch level. Yup, she was going to have to call someone. No doubt she would be here all night. Oh, joy.

“I’m really sorry,” Jim said. “We thought we’d planned for every contingency.” He glared at his new brother-in-law. “Except for stupid.” He turned back to her. “Let us know the cost of cleanup. We’ll pay for it.”

“Thank you. I think the deposit should take care of it but I’ll let you know if there’s a problem. Now if you’ll let me go get changed, I’ll be back with you in ten minutes.”

Monica nodded.

Renee slipped out of her shoes and walked through the ankle-deep water. When she reached her office upstairs, she carefully closed the door behind her before undressing, then slipped on jeans and a T-shirt. Not exactly professional, but she wasn’t going to worry about that right now. Before she returned to her bride and groom, she looked up the local disaster cleaning service. The number was in her files, but wasn’t one she had had to use before.

They picked up on the first ring.

“Happily Inc CleanUp. This is Hilde. How can I help you?”

“Hi. I’m Renee Grothen at Weddings Out of the Box. We had a firefighter wedding tonight with a big fountain. There was an accident with one of the hoses and now our main reception hall is flooded.”

There was a pause. “Um, did you say firefighter wedding? Never mind. How much water?”

“About six inches.”

“That’s a lot.”

“It was a big fountain.”

“Give us thirty minutes and we’ll be there.”

“Thank you.”

Renee hung up, gave herself a second to catch her breath, then headed back to deal with the bride, the groom, the flood and anything else that might happen tonight. Because with a wedding, it was always something.

CHAPTER TWO

SIX DAYS INTO pet ownership, Jasper had no idea how he was doing. He and Koda—a name that had just kind of shown up in his brain and seemed to suit the dog—appeared to be getting along okay. Koda had slept most of the drive back, waking up for meals and for easy walks while they both stretched their legs. Along the way, Jasper had bought dog beds, some toys and more food. Koda’s appetite was good and he looked better every day.

Once they’d reached Jasper’s mountain home just outside of Happily Inc, Koda had explored the house before quickly settling into a routine. When let out to do his business, Koda didn’t stray far from the house and he seemed to prefer to be inside rather than out. They took a couple of walks a day, going slowly, Koda sniffing and Jasper thinking. Koda slept quietly while Jasper worked. When they left the office together, Koda brought his favorite toy—a stuffed rabbit—with him.

From Jasper’s point of view, Koda was pretty easy company. He slept on his dog bed in Jasper’s bedroom at night. Once, Jasper had awakened from a familiar nightmare, to find the dog on the bed, pressed hard against him, as if offering comfort. As Jasper got his bearings and was able to slow his breathing, Koda hopped down and returned to his own bed where he quickly went to sleep.

Jasper had installed an electronic doggie door so Koda could come and go as he wanted without Jasper having to worry that local wildlife could also wander into the house. Koda had figured out how to work the doggie door in about ten minutes. They had a vet appointment later in the week and Jasper had downloaded a book on having a dog as a pet to make sure he had it all covered.

He still didn’t know why he’d brought the old guy home—nor did it matter. Koda was here now and Jasper would take care of him. He had to admit, the quiet company was nice.

“I’m going into town,” he told Koda as he set out the bowl of kibble mixed with canned food. “It’s Monday night and I like to hang out at The Boardroom. It’s a bar that caters to locals. On Mondays they have board game tournaments. Most of my friends go.”

He had no idea why he was explaining any of this to the dog—it wasn’t as if Koda could understand him. Still, he couldn’t help going on.

“I won’t be that late,” he continued. “You have water and your bed. I’ll leave the radio on that classical station you like. There’s the doggie door if you need to go out.” He paused, not sure what else to say.

Koda finished his dinner, then looked at Jasper, as if processing the information. After a couple of seconds, the dog retreated to his bed in the family room and lay down.

“All right.” Jasper put his food bowl in the sink. “I’ll see you when I get back.”

He got in his truck and started down the mountain. The road was familiar and when compared with the RV he’d been driving, the 4X4 truck was practically sporty.

The thought made him smile. The long book tour had been good for him. The RV had given him a home base. Although his publisher had offered to rent a fancy bus with pop-outs and an onboard washer and dryer, Jasper had decided to buy an old, used RV instead. He’d thought he might want to use it again, for a tour and maybe a trip of his own. He’d liked being on the road.

As he headed into town he wondered if Koda would enjoy another trip or if he’d been too traumatized by what had happened to him in San Antonio. He supposed he could take an overnight trip and see how it went. Although any time away would have to wait. He was getting back into his book and had a deadline looming. For the next few months, his primary focus would be getting the story right, then getting it down on paper. Well, not paper, exactly. He used a computer, but the concept was the same.

He reached the main part of town and turned into The Boardroom’s parking lot. He saw plenty of familiar cars and smiled. His friends would be there, as would other local residents. He would kick a little ass on the board game front, have a beer and a burger, talk to his buddies, then head home. A perfect evening.

Four years ago, if someone had told him he would settle in this quirky wedding-based town, he would have said that person was crazier than him, but here he was—doing better than anyone could have expected. Forward progress, he thought as he made his way inside. It beat getting left behind.

“Jasper! You’re back.”

“Hey, stranger. How was the book tour?”

“When’d you get home?”

The calls came from every corner of the bar. Jasper nodded at his buddies, waved at a few people he knew by sight and scanned the room, looking for an open spot at the tables set up for four.

Mathias Mitchell, an artist who worked with glass, walked past him, a beer in one hand and a glass of wine in the other.

“Hey, man, you made it. Good to see you.” Mathias nodded toward a table. “Come sit with us. Carol’s friend, Renee, is hanging out with us, so you’d make a fourth.”

“Will do.”

Jasper walked around for a few minutes, greeting his friends and giving a brief account of his three-month book tour. When a gong sounded, giving the ten-minute warning before the game started, he walked to the bar and ordered himself a beer. He figured he would get the burger later.

As he took his drink, he glanced around the room and caught sight of a petite redhead talking to Carol, Mathias’s wife. Renee Something, he thought. The woman Mathias had mentioned. She was maybe five-one. Despite her slight stature, there was something powerful about her. As if she would do whatever was necessary to get what she wanted.

He held in a grin. Right. Because he was just that good at assessing women. The truth was he knew nothing about her, which was fine. Even though it had been nearly a year since he and Wynn had ended their not-quite relationship, he wasn’t looking for anything else right now. Still, there was something about a woman with long hair. Especially long, red hair.

As if aware of his scrutiny, Renee turned toward him. For a brief second, their eyes met. Jasper was about to offer a wave when Renee surprised him by flushing slightly and looking away. As if she’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t.

He glanced around, trying to figure out what could have caused her discomfort. When nothing obvious showed itself, he figured he’d simply misinterpreted the situation. Hardly a surprise—he wasn’t just a guy, he was a guy who knew diddly about women. A fact proven by his inability to create a love interest for the hero of his latest novel. He knew the guy needed a woman in his life—it was a great way to wrap up the series—but he had yet to figure out who she was and how she fit into the story. Or how to write her. So far the only sentence he’d managed to write and then not delete was: She was tall, with short, blond hair. Oh, yeah, the royalty checks were going to roll in on that one.

He was still chuckling when he approached the table. Carol rose and hugged him.

“You made it back! Welcome home. Did you miss us?”

“I did.”

Mathias held out his hand. “Good to see you. How was the tour?”

“Good. Long. Plenty of stops.”

“And adoring fans?” Carol asked, her voice teasing.

“There were some.” Jasper turned to Renee. “Mind if I join you?”

She smiled and waved to the empty chair. “Please. Your reputation precedes you, so I’m happy to be on the same team.”

Whatever weirdness had existed before—or hadn’t existed—was obviously gone.

He raised a shoulder. “I haven’t played board games in a few months. I’m probably rusty.”

“I doubt that,” Carol said as she sat down. “Speaking of rusty, I want to warn everyone that this is my first night away from Devon. I’ve been away during the day, but never at night.”

Jasper wanted to ask how one was different from the other, but knew there was no point. Her reasoning might be based on the fact that her baby was maybe five months old, or it might be a female thing, or it could be something everyone else understood intuitively.

Mathias reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “You know she’s fine, right? And it’s not like she’s with someone we don’t know.”

Renee smiled and leaned toward Jasper. “Pallas and Carol share a nanny. With their kids only ten days apart in age, it makes sense. The woman is terrific and does a great job, but they’re both uncomfortable being away from their babies.” Her tone softened. “You know what new moms are like.”

He nodded rather than say something along the lines of “not really.” He knew even less about young mothers than women in general. His stint in the army had given him a range of skills that could be useful in a wartime situation but they hadn’t been much on training him for life with regular people. As for that small town where he’d grown up...well, that was eight lifetimes ago.

He studied Renee, taking in her freckles and the cute way her nose turned up a little at the end. She had green eyes—although hers were more gray than his. There was something about her smile he liked. If he were to describe her in a book he would probably mention her long bangs and...

And what? Her height? Her eyes? The shape of her mouth? Did anyone care about that kind of crap? Dammit—he was a number one New York Times best-selling author and he couldn’t describe a woman? His career was obviously over.

He pushed that thought away. He would dwell on his inability to write later. Tonight was about having a good time.

“What’s the game?” he asked as several of the servers started passing out board games. “Ah, Monopoly. Excellent.”

Carol picked up the piece of paper that had been left on the table. “Traditional rules,” she read. “Whoever has the most money at the end of an hour goes on to the next round. After that, rounds are thirty minutes.” She glanced at her teammates. “That sounds easy enough.”

Renee nodded and turned to Jasper. “While you were gone, we had a Monopoly Junior tournament and odd number rolls didn’t count. Things got quite heated.”

“I’ll bet.”

Her conversation was completely normal. He must have imagined whatever had happened before. Only was she leaning toward him or was he imagining it?

They unpacked the game and chose tokens. Mathias counted the money and passed the right amount to everyone, then they rolled to see who would go first. As usual, Jasper rolled the highest number and got to start. He rolled double sixes, followed by a five. He bought the Electric Company property, then collected two hundred dollars from the Community Chest card he drew from the top of the stack. Carol was on his left, so he handed the dice to her.

She stared at him. “I’d forgotten what it was like to play against you. I don’t think I like it.”

He flashed her a smile. “What can I say? I’m a lucky guy.”

She made a huffing sound and rolled a seven. “How did the cleanup go yesterday?” she asked Renee.

“We are back to normal. The water is gone, everything is dried out and there’s not really any serious damage.” She glanced at Jasper. “We had a little accident at the firefighter wedding on Saturday night. Someone bumped the hose fountain and nearly flooded the place.”

“What’s a firefighter wedding?”

She took the dice from Mathias and rolled. “Weddings Out of the Box does theme weddings. In this case, the theme was firefighters. The wedding colors were red, yellow and orange. The flower girl carried flowers in a fireman’s helmet. That sort of thing.”

“People do that?”

Renee grinned. “Jasper, you’ve driven by Weddings Out of the Box. One side of the building looks like a Tuscan villa and another looks like a castle. What did you think was happening there?”

“I thought Pallas was quirky.”

“Theme weddings are big business,” she told him. “There are the usual ones. Princess, pirate, weddings based on books or movies. This fall we’re having a Halloween wedding, a football wedding and an apple wedding.”

“What’s an apple wedding?” he asked.

“They’re apple lovers.” She laughed. “It’s kind of hard to explain.”

An apple wedding? Was that really a thing? He felt as if there was a whole world out there, about which he knew nothing. First women and now weddings. He needed to work on his life skills education.

Mathias rolled the dice and then moved his token. “I’m going to make a quick call to our nanny,” he said, then shrugged sheepishly. “Like we said before, it’s the first time we’ve left Devon at night, so...”

“You should absolutely check in,” Renee told him. “You’ll feel better.”

Carol watched him go. “It’s funny. All the things I worried about before we had Devon haven’t been a problem. Instead there are so many other things to worry about. Like leaving her alone.”

Renee patted her arm. “It will get better. You’re a terrific mom. She’s lucky to have you.”

“Thanks.”

Jasper looked at Renee. “Do you have kids?”

“Me? No. I’m not married.” She flushed slightly. “Not that you need to be married to have children. I wasn’t saying that. Or judging. I just mean...” She cleared her throat, lowered her gaze, then looked at him. “Um, no. You?”

He shook his head.

Okay, there was something going on with her. He was sure of it. Fairly sure. Reasonably sure, at least. He really had to get out more. He hadn’t felt the need before, but being around people again made him aware of his solitary state. Not to mention the lack of sex in his life.

He looked at Renee. She was small, but everything was in the right place. She had a sense of humor and he liked her smile. What were the odds she was looking for a brief but satisfying fling that would go absolutely nowhere?

Mathias returned and took his seat. “Everything is fine,” he told Carol. “Devon’s asleep and nothing is wrong.”

Their eyes locked. “I want to go home,” Carol said softly.

“Thank God. Me, too.” Mathias sprang to his feet. “Sorry about this, but it’s a baby thing.”

Renee waved her hand toward the door. “Go be with your beautiful baby. Great progress was made tonight. Next time you’ll stay the whole first hour.”

Carol laughed. “Thanks for understanding. See you at lunch tomorrow.”

“You will,” Renee told her.

Seconds later, they were gone. Jasper looked at Renee. “I guess the odds of one of us heading to the finals just went up.”

“They did.”

She held his gaze a second past what he would consider normal, friendly interaction, shifting them into the maybe I’m interested category. Or was that just wishful thinking on his part? He really had to get this whole man/woman thing figured out. At sixteen, being socially awkward could be considered a little charming. At his age, it was pathetic.

“Monopoly is less fun with just two players,” he said. “Could I buy you a drink instead?”

RENEE TOLD HERSELF there was absolutely no pressure. Jasper had invited her for a drink and she had said yes. Big whoop. Men and women met for drinks hundreds of times a day and it was all completely normal. Boring even. Only sitting across from Jasper wasn’t anything she would describe as normal, and it could never be boring.

For one thing, the guy was hot. He was tall, with broad shoulders, but more than that, there was an air of casual strength about him. As if he could handle himself in any situation. Should scary-looking bad guys burst into the place, Renee knew Jasper would handle the situation. She, on the other hand, would run screaming into the night. Or hide. Or faint.

He also had that hint of slightly wounded male about him. He’d been damaged in his past and it showed. It took a stronger woman than her to resist that kind of yumminess. Although this was just a drink, she reminded herself as Jasper walked over to small corner table they’d moved to. He set a cosmo in front of her before taking a seat across from her and picking up his gin and tonic.

He took a sip, studying her over the glass. She had no idea what he was thinking, nor did she know what to say. Nerves gripped her tightly, making her feel awkward. She hadn’t been on a date since moving to Happily Inc, and before that she’d been getting over a shattered heart, and before that she’d been in a nearly three-year relationship, and before that...

“So, how was your book tour?” she asked brightly, hoping the question and his answer would distract her brain. “You were gone a long time.”

“I was. My publisher tried something new, sending me out in an RV.”

“I’d heard something about that but I thought maybe people were kidding. You really traveled the country in an RV for a month?”

“Three,” he said with another one of his sexy smiles. “Before that I spent a few weeks in Europe. Traveling more conventionally.”

“You must have a lot of fans. I knew you were a successful author, but you’re internationally famous.”

She meant the words to be teasing, but didn’t think they came out that way. Probably because she hadn’t actually put together who Jasper was. In her mind, he was the slightly mysterious, former military guy who kept to himself and provided plenty of take me now, big guy fantasies. Apparently he was a little too close to, say, Chris Pine territory for her purposes.