Stern

Dillon stood. “If I were you, I wouldn’t let her down. And as far as your bad mood, you know the rules, Stern. No one can bring personal garbage into the office. Canyon just got back from his honeymoon and is in a great mood, understandably so. Yet you were going at him about every idea he tossed out, just for the hell of it. You owe everyone at the meeting, especially Canyon, an apology and I expect you to give it.”

Dillon then walked to the door and opened it.

“Dil?”

Dillon stopped and turned around. “Yes?”

“Thanks for keeping me in check. I’m sorry I behaved inappropriately.”

Dillon nodded. “I accept your apology, Stern. Just make sure it doesn’t happen again.” He then walked out and closed the door behind him.

Stern rubbed his hand down his face. He could handle anybody’s disappointment but Dillon’s. When their parents, and uncle and aunt, died in a plane crash nearly twenty years ago, they’d left Dillon and his cousin Ramsey in charge. It hadn’t been easy, especially since several Westmorelands had been younger than the age of sixteen. Together, Dillon and Ramsey worked hard and made sacrifices to keep the family together. Dillon had even gone against the State of Colorado when they tried forcing him to put the youngest four kids in foster homes. Those were just a few of the reasons why Dillon deserved his utmost admiration and respect. Even now, he helped keep the family together.

Presently, there were fifteen Denver Westmorelands. Stern’s parents had had seven sons—Dillon, Micah, Jason, Riley, Canyon, Stern and Brisbane. Uncle Adam and Aunt Clarisse had had eight children: five boys—Ramsey, Zane, Derringer and the twins Aiden and Adrian—and three girls—Megan, Gemma and Bailey.

Over the past few years, everyone had gotten married except for him, the twins, Bailey and Bane. In June Megan had married Rico, a private investigator; Canyon had up and married Keisha Ashford, the mother of his two-year-old son, last month; and Riley and his fiancée, Alpha, would be getting married at the end of this month. It was still a shock to everyone that his cousin Zane, who had once sworn he would stay a bachelor for life, would marry his fiancée, Channing, over the Christmas holidays.

Stern tossed another paper clip onto the desk before picking up the phone and punching in Canyon’s extension.

“This is Canyon.”

“Can, I apologize for acting like a jerk in the meeting today.”

There was a slight pause. Then Canyon said, “It wasn’t your usual style, Stern. We haven’t argued in years. What’s going on with you? I leave to go on my honeymoon and come back and you’re not yourself. What happened on that hunting trip with JoJo?”

Instead of answering Canyon’s question, Stern said, “Let’s meet for lunch and I’ll call and ask Riley to join us. My treat.”

“What about Dillon?”

A wry smile curved Stern’s lips. “No need. He just left my office after chewing me out, so he’s straight.”

Canyon released a low whistle. “Glad it was you and not me.”

* * *

“Hey, JoJo, we need a new set of tires for a ’75 BMW and I don’t think we have the model number in stock.”

JoJo glanced up from her computer screen and smiled at the older man who’d stuck his head in her door. Willie Beeker had worked for the Golden Wrench for more than forty years, first with her father and now with her. He’d been set to retire the year after her father’s death and she knew he’d only hung around the past couple of years to give her the help and support she needed. Although he’d trained a number of good men, any of whom could step into his shoes, no one could take his place.

She’d known Beeker all of her life. He and her father had become best friends while working together as mechanics in the army. Her father had gotten out of the military, returned home to Denver and married. Years later, the two friends hooked back up when Beeker had divorced and moved to Denver. While growing up, she’d seen Beeker as more than one of her father’s outstanding employees. She’d considered him an honorary uncle.

“No problem, Beeker. I’ll start checking around immediately.”

Beeker entered her office. “Things were crazy off the bat this morning, and I didn’t get the chance to welcome you back and ask how things went last week.”

JoJo leaned back in her chair and smiled. “I brought down an elk on the third day.”

“That’s great, girl! You didn’t make my boy too mad, did you?”

Her smile widened. “Um, maybe just a little. But Stern will be fine.”

She couldn’t help remembering their final days at the lodge. They’d put up their hunting rifles and pulled out the playing cards and checkerboard. He had whipped her hands down in all the games except one, and she had a feeling he’d felt sorry for her and had given her that one.

JoJo always appreciated unwinding at the lodge with Stern and this past trip had been no exception. After their first conversation about her makeover, he hadn’t wanted to discuss her request again, which made her think he wasn’t crazy about the idea. But he had promised his help and she couldn’t ask for more than that.

“Did the 2010 Porsche come in while I was away?”

Beeker raised a brow. “No. Why?”

“Just curious. It’s a nice car.”

“You sure that’s all you admire?”

She held Beeker’s questioning gaze. “Yes.” Since her father’s death he’d stepped in as a surrogate father to her, but she didn’t want to worry him needlessly.

Beeker nodded. “So you think he’ll ever settle down and marry?”

Now it was JoJo who raised a brow. “Who?”

“Stern.”

JoJo frowned. How had they moved from the driver of the Porsche to Stern? “I don’t know. Why do you ask?”

Beeker shrugged. “There have been a lot of weddings in his family lately. His cousin Megan in June, Canyon last month, Riley later this month and Zane before the end of the year. The single Westmorelands seem to be falling like flies.”

“Stern dates a lot, but he doesn’t have an exclusive girl.”

Beeker chuckled. “If anyone would know, you would.” He checked his watch. “Let me know when you locate those tires so I can send Maceo to pick them up.”

Maceo Armstrong was her newest employee, fresh out of mechanic school. “I will.”

It took JoJo less than thirty minutes to make a few calls, find the tires and dispatch Maceo to make a run across town. It was only then that she allowed herself to consider Beeker’s question about Stern. Like she’d told Beeker, Stern didn’t have a serious girl right now. But she knew that didn’t mean he wouldn’t meet someone eventually. After all, as Beeker had said, there had been a lot of Westmoreland weddings and engagements lately. Because of her long friendship with Stern she also was close to his family.

She’d known that Canyon had been quite taken with Keisha Ashford three years ago, so his decision to marry wasn’t a surprise. But she had been surprised at Megan’s marriage, only because of the swiftness of the romance between her and Rico Claiborne. And Riley’s and Zane’s decisions to marry were definitely shockers. Could such a thing happen to Stern? What if Stern began seeing a woman seriously and the woman convinced him to end his close friendship with JoJo out of jealousy? So far it hadn’t happened, probably because none of the women he dated saw her as a threat.

Stern would be a good catch for any woman. Besides being handsome and wealthy, he was a nice person—insightful, kind and considerate. And she didn’t just think that because he was her best friend. He dated a lot, but he never treated any woman shabbily. He let them know up front where he stood in regards to relationships and he’d said more than once that he had no intention of settling down or thinking about marriage until after his thirty-fifth birthday. That meant he only had five years to go. And he’d only have that much time if some woman didn’t come along to sweep him off his feet. JoJo had never worried about that before, but the family trend seemed to be that the Westmoreland men were vulnerable to love.

JoJo shook her head. Vulnerable? She couldn’t imagine that word connected to Riley or Zane. And because she knew them so well, she figured that if they were making a long-term commitment, it was because they deeply loved the woman they were marrying.

And because Stern never did anything half-step, there was no doubt in her mind that one day he would meet a woman and fall in love just as deeply. And when that happened, where would it leave her? She knew the answer without having to think hard about it.

Alone.

That meant she had to move forward with her plan. It would be imperative to have someone special of her own before Stern met someone and married. Pushing away from the desk, she stretched her body before grabbing a clipboard off the wall. As she left her office she knew pursuing Walter Carmichael was more important than ever. In a few days she would know where he liked to hang out and then go from there. Wanda, her fiftysomething-year-old know-it-all receptionist, was on it and if anyone could find out the information it would be her.

Like Beeker, Wanda was another trusted employee who’d worked for the Golden Wrench for years—ever since JoJo was in high school. It had been Wanda who had explained to JoJo why it meant so much to her father that she take those etiquette classes and dance lessons, although she’d hated every minute of them. She much preferred being under the hood of a car instead of acting like a simpering idiot the way most teen girls behaved. She and her father had compromised. He would let her go hunting with him and Beeker and take the karate and archery classes she loved, if she learned what she needed to know to be a lady every once in a while.

She’d never been interested in boys the way other girls had been, mainly because the boys sought her out and not the other way around—it hadn’t been for her looks, but for her wheels. Thanks to her dad, she’d always driven a smooth-looking muscle car, a guy’s dream. And just as Stern had known the girls’ motives for faking friendship with her, she’d been very much aware of the guys’ motives. That was yet another reason her friendship with Stern meant so much to her.

Whether it happened in a few months or in the next year, one day he would be forced to end their friendship. And the last thing she wanted him to do was feel guilty about having to cut her loose.

Then there was that other problem she’d found herself contending with during their weekend away: her newfound attraction to him. More than once while they’d been playing cards, when his attention was squarely on the hand he held, her attention had been squarely on him. When had that little mole on his upper lip started to look so sexy? And when had long eyelashes on a man become a turn-on?

If those thoughts weren’t bad enough, when he had dropped her off at home and given her the usual peck on the cheek and hug, she had felt her heart pounding deep in her chest. Yes, she was into Stern bad, and the only way out of it was to turn her attention to another man.

Still, the memory of Stern singing in the shower, whistling through the lodge while he cooked breakfast or humming late at night while they sat together on the deck playing checkers was embedded in her brain.

She was so lost in remembering that she didn’t slow her pace when she rounded the corner until her body hit the solid wall of a man’s chest.

* * *

“Whoa. Going to a fire, Jo?” Stern asked, reaching out to steady her.

She seemed to blush, and he couldn’t help wondering what she had been thinking about. He had a feeling her thoughts hadn’t been on work.

“Stern, what are you doing here?” she asked, sounding somewhat breathless.

He lifted a brow. “Any reason I shouldn’t be here?” he asked, releasing her and then turning to fall in step beside her.

“No, but it’s Monday and we just got back yesterday.”

“I know but I met Riley and Canyon for lunch at McKays, and thought I’d check to see how things are going since I was in the neighborhood.”

“Oh.”

Was that disappointment he heard in her voice? Did she wish it had been that other guy—the one whose name she refused to give him—to show up unexpectedly and not him? That thought didn’t sit well with him. “You don’t sound too happy to see me.”

She glanced over at him. “Don’t be silly. I’m always happy to see you.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment. Was he being silly? Was the whole issue silly—the very issue that had nagged at him and kept him up last night to the point where he had snapped at his brothers this morning? Had he gotten chewed out by his oldest brother for nothing?

Pushing those questions to the back of his mind, he asked her, “What are your plans for later?”

“Um, nothing. I haven’t unpacked yet and will probably do that and laundry. Why?”

“No reason.”

They entered one of the bays where Beeker and another one of her employees had a car up on the lift changing out the struts. Stern greeted the men as he and JoJo passed through.

“How many cars do you have to work on today?” he asked as he continued following her to the bay she normally used. He watched as she glanced down at her clipboard. “So far there are only five scheduled. But you know how that might end up on a Monday.”

Yes, he knew. Back in high school, when her father was alive, he and JoJo had been hired out to do odds and ends in the shop. He had enjoyed learning from her father and Beeker and all the other guys. And Wanda had been a hoot. JoJo’s father’s death had hit him as much as it had hit her. Joseph Jones had been a man Stern had looked up to, a man he had respected, a man who’d spent a lot of time with him.

Stern had spent as many days and nights with JoJo and her father as he had at home. He’d gone on hunting trips with them. Mr. Jones had taught him the proper way to handle a gun and Beeker had taught him and JoJo how to shoot.

“You want to take in a movie tomorrow night?”

She glanced up at him and he wondered why, in all the years he’d known her, he had just realized how mesmerizing her eyes were.

“A movie?”

“Yes.” They’d gone to movies together a number of times, too many to count, and never had they considered them dates or anything more than two friends hanging out. Why did he suddenly feel that this invitation was different?

“What’s playing?” she asked, eyeing him suspiciously. “The past couple of times we went to a movie we saw ones that none of your girlfriends wanted to see. So you took me. Must be one of those blood and guts flicks.”

He couldn’t help but chuckle because she knew him so well. “There is this new action movie that came out this weekend. Riley claims it’s good.”

“And the reason you can’t find a date for tomorrow?”

“Not trying to find one. We still need to talk.”

“About what?” she asked, checking her watch.

“About that request you asked of me at the lodge.”

She stopped walking and hung the clipboard at its designated place on the wall. “If I remember correctly, you didn’t want to talk about it.”

She was right. The more he thought about the makeover, the more he thought it wasn’t a good idea. If a man only cared about outside appearances, then he might not get to know the JoJo that Stern knew from the inside out. She had a heart of gold, and she was cheating herself if she pursued a man who would only zero in on her looks.

But he knew JoJo and she had made up her mind about this guy whose name she refused to give him. The thought of this unnamed man made him mad, and then madder each and every time he thought about him. So Stern decided that the best thing to do was to keep an eye on her and make sure she didn’t get into trouble or into any situation she couldn’t handle.

“Well, I do want to talk about it now, and I’m thinking a makeover might not work after all.”

She frowned. “Why?”

He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Your mystery man won’t get to know the real you.”

She rolled her eyes. “He can get to know the real me later. First, I need to get him to notice me. So I think the makeover will work, and you did say you would help me. Don’t try wiggling out of it now.”

“I’m not.” He paused. “I just don’t want you to get hurt.”

“Hurt?” She glanced around as if to make sure none of her employees were within hearing range. “Are you saying you don’t think that a makeover will help me? That I’m so much of a reject that even a makeover wouldn’t do me any good?”

“No, that’s not what—”

“Well I’ve got news for you, Stern. I’ve seen even the ugliest of women and men become beautiful and handsome. So there’s no reason to believe a makeover can’t do wonders for me, too.”

“That’s not what I was insinuating, JoJo.”

“Doesn’t matter. I’ll show you,” she said, then walked off toward the first car she would be working on.

He rubbed his hand down his face in frustration. What was going on here? He and JoJo never fought or argued about anything, and now they seemed to be bickering back and forth about every damn thing.

All he’d said was that he didn’t want to see her hurt. Why would she think he’d meant that a makeover wouldn’t help her? In truth, he knew it would help her and that’s what he was worried about. Men would be coming on to her for all the wrong reasons.

He glanced over at her as she leaned over the car to look under the hood. He couldn’t help noticing how her work pants stretched tightly over her backside. Her perfectly shaped backside. Damn, why was he checking out JoJo?

He drew in a frustrated breath. “I’ll call you later.”

“Whatever,” she mumbled without even bothering to look up.

Stern left, feeling as if he’d made the situation between them worse instead of better.

Three

“Here’s the information you wanted on that Carmichael dude.”

JoJo looked up into the face of a petite blonde who didn’t look her age. A copy of Wanda’s birth certificate in her employment file indicated she was nearing sixty, but if you asked Wanda she would swear she wasn’t even fifty yet. And since she had the face and figure to back it up, no one had dared to call her on it.

JoJo picked up the card Wanda had tossed on her desk. “He lives in Cherry Hills Village.” The Village was one of the most affluent suburbs in Denver.

“You’re surprised? Look how he dresses. Look at the car he drives. Not to mention what he does for a living.”

JoJo nodded. “He’s thirty-one, the same age as Stern. And according to what you’ve found out, he’s not in an exclusive relationship.”

“Also like Stern.”

JoJo shifted her gaze from the card to Wanda, who was pretending to peruse JoJo’s bulletin board. She’d known Wanda long enough to recognize the smile the older woman was trying to hide. “Well, yes,” JoJo admitted. “Like Stern.”

Wanda tilted her head and met JoJo’s gaze. “Come to think of it, there’s a lot about this Carmichael man that would remind a person of Stern. Is there a reason for that?”

JoJo decided she didn’t want to hold Wanda’s gaze any longer. The woman was sharp. “What do you think?”

JoJo couldn’t resist watching Wanda out of the corners of her eyes. She saw Wanda look thoughtful for a moment before she said, “Do you really want me to tell you what I think, Jovonnie?”

JoJo tried to ignore the tension building at her temples. Whenever Wanda called her by her full name JoJo knew Wanda would go into “it’s time I tell it the way I see it” mode.

“Don’t you have a switchboard to cover? You are on payroll,” she reminded her.

“Don’t try pulling rank on me, young lady. This is my lunch break, and need I remind you I am entitled to one?”

“No you don’t have to remind me, but I’m working through mine, so if you don’t mind, I—”

“I do mind,” Wanda interrupted, resting her hip on the edge of JoJo’s desk. “And the reason I mind is because I think you’re making a big mistake.”

Seeing that she wouldn’t be getting any work done until Wanda had her say, JoJo tossed her pen on her desk and leaned back in her chair. “Evidently, you want to get something off your chest.”

“I do.”

JoJo nodded. “All right, you have the floor.” She placed the card down on her desk.

Taking JoJo at her word, Wanda stood and paced in front of JoJo’s desk. Wanda was a beautiful woman who had gone through two marriages. The first had ended in death and the other in divorce. Wanda would tell anyone that the second marriage had been a mistake because she’d tried to find a man who could replace a husband who was irreplaceable.

Wanda had fallen in love with a cop at the age of twenty-one, and he’d left her a widow with a newborn baby at twenty-eight. She had remarried at thirty-four and divorced at thirty-seven. She and her ex were both still single and remained friends. It wasn’t unusual for him to drop by the shop every so often to take Wanda to lunch or dinner.

Tension now throbbed at JoJo’s temples. She had a ton of paperwork to do, and like she’d told Stern, she needed to go home to unpack and do laundry. She’d become impatient with the pacing when Wanda finally stopped, snagged her gaze and said, “You’ve fallen in love with Stern.”

JoJo was glad her backside was firmly planted in the chair or she would have fallen out of it. She was totally positive she hadn’t given her feelings away so how had Wanda figured things out? JoJo didn’t want to believe what her father had always jokingly said about Wanda: that she had a sixth sense about stuff that wasn’t any of her business.

When JoJo didn’t say anything, but just sat there and stared, Wanda said, “Admit it.”

JoJo quickly snapped out of her moment of stunned silence. She reached across her desk and picked up the pen she’d tossed aside earlier and pretended to jot something down on one of the documents she picked up. “I won’t admit anything. Don’t be silly.”

“Not silly, just observant. And you should know by now that I don’t miss a thing.”

JoJo replaced her pen on the desk and tilted her head. “And just what do you think you haven’t been missing?”

Wanda smiled. “The way you’ve started looking at Stern when you think he won’t notice. The way you smile whenever you see him. How excited you were to go on that hunting trip with him. You acted like it was your first time when you do it two or three times a year.”

JoJo waved off her words. “All circumstantial evidence.”

“Yes, but then you decide to check out a guy who could be Stern’s clone. To me that’s an obvious sign.”

JoJo nibbled on her bottom lip before allowing a frown to settle on her face. “You make me sound pathetic.”

Wanda shook her head. “Not pathetic. Just confused.”

Now it was JoJo who needed to stand. Instead of pacing, she moved to the window. It was a beautiful September day, but all she had to do was look up at the high mountains to know Denver would get an early winter. And a pretty cold one, too.

She turned around and, not surprisingly, she found Wanda leaning her hips on JoJo’s desk. “Let’s just say your theory is true. Mind you, I’m not saying that it is,” JoJo said. “But let’s say, for the sake of argument, that it is. What’s wrong with me moving toward a sure thing instead of getting hung up on a lost cause?”

“Why would you think Stern is a lost cause?”

JoJo thought long and hard about Wanda’s question before answering. “He’s only a lost cause when it pertains to me. I know him. He’s my best friend, and he knows that’s all he’ll ever be to me. There’s no need for me to waste my time wanting more. Knowing that, I’d go to a plan that might work.”

“Walter Carmichael?”

“Yes. He’s just what I need to move ahead in another direction.” Away from Stern.

“And what if that doesn’t work?”

JoJo smiled. “It will. I intend to learn from the best.”

Wanda stared at her for a minute. “Please tell me you’re not doing what I think you’re doing.”

JoJo shrugged as she went back to her desk and sat down. “Okay, I won’t tell you.”