Because it was a nice spring day, Shannon’s high school bake sale was held outdoors. That meant that it was open to the general public, allowing at least half of the residents of Spring Forest to drop by the sale at one point or other. A good many of those residents showed up to support either their own student who was attending the high school, or the students in general.
Shannon discovered that one such parent was also the owner of the local coffee shop. Surveying all the tables displaying the baked goods that had been brought in, that coffee shop owner stopped by Shannon’s table. She was obviously intrigued by all the baked goods Shannon had brought but she seemed especially interested in the chocolate biscotti.
The woman seemed to linger at the display for several minutes before she looked up at Shannon and finally asked the girl, “Do those chocolate biscottis taste as good as they look?”
“They taste even better,” Shannon assured the woman confidently.
Just before leaving her the day before, Josie had given the teen a few tips when it came to selling the baked goods.
“Remember,” she had said, “you have to believe in your product. If you don’t, no one else will. Those people attending the bake sale certainly won’t spend their hard-earned money on your baked goods if something else catches their eye. So if a potential buyer wants to know if what you’re selling tastes good,” Josie had added, gathering her things together, “just smile mysteriously at them and say something to the effect that they’ll just have to try the cookie, or cupcake, or biscotti and judge for themselves.”
“Is that how you did it with your catering business?” Shannon had asked her, trying to absorb as much as she could from her mentor.
“Usually when they came to me, they were already sold because one of their friends recommended me to them,” Josie’d explained. “But if they just came to me at random, then yes, that’s what I would say to them.” Ready to leave, Josie had patted the teen’s shoulder. “Good luck, Shannon. You’re going to do fine,” she’d promised.
The woman who had just asked Shannon about the biscotti decided that they looked too good for her to pass up. Taking out her wallet, she bought one, then sampled it right there on the spot.
Her expression indicated that she had expected the pastry to be good, but not this good. Eating the biscotti, it seemed as if her whole mouth was smiling.
“Did you have help with these?” she asked the teen.
“Yes, ma’am. The lady taking riding lessons from my uncle Declan helped me,” Shannon answered. “She said she had a catering company back in Florida.”
Without meaning to, the woman wound up consuming the entire biscotti right on the spot. She purchased another one. Handing over money for the second biscotti, the woman made a request of the teen. “Could you ask this lady who worked with you to create these wonderful biscottis if she would be interested in selling them to my shop on a regular basis? I can definitely handle as many as she can make,” the woman promised.
The smile Shannon flashed at the woman went from ear to ear. This was turning out to be far better than she had hoped.
“I will definitely ask her that,” Shannon promised.
To ensure that the message would be delivered, the woman handed Shannon a business card that advertised her coffee shop. “Don’t forget,” she requested.
Shannon tucked away the woman’s card. “Oh, I won’t,” she vowed. She liked the idea of giving Shannon an additional reason to remain in town.
After the coffee shop owner left, there seemed to be an endless line of people approaching Shannon’s table to buy the items she had on display.
Although Declan had told his niece that he didn’t have the time to stop in at the school’s bake sale, he knew how much doing well at this sale meant to her. He decided that even though he was busy, he needed to stop by to see how things were going for Shannon. If the baked goods that Josie had helped her make didn’t seem to be selling, he was prepared to purchase at least a few of them to show his support.
Part of Declan was afraid that his stoic niece might even need comforting if the sale wasn’t going as well as she had hoped.
But when he stopped by the high school’s sale, he found that there didn’t appear to be any goods left on her table. He was pleased and relieved to see that Shannon was all sold out.
“Looks like I didn’t have to worry about you,” Declan told his niece. He marveled as he looked at the empty table again. “You did good, kid.”
Shannon spread her hands out at the empty table in front of her, hardly able to believe it herself. “I sold everything,” she cried happily. “Isn’t that great?” she squealed. “Even Mrs. Winters, the principal, came by to congratulate me. I told her that I couldn’t take all of the credit. I said that Josie helped me.”
“Oh, she ‘helped’ you, did she?” Declan repeated, amused.
“Okay, I helped her,” Shannon conceded then told her uncle, “Josie said I could keep that a secret if I wanted to. But I guess it’s not right. I should give her all the credit.” She beamed at him, saying, “I’m really glad that you started giving her those riding lessons, Uncle D.”
He really couldn’t get over the change in his niece. He had never seen her quite like this before. It was like night and day between the teenager who had first walked into his house and the one he found himself talking to right now.
“Well, if she can make you smile like that, Shannon, then so am I,” he told her.
Declan saw no point in telling his niece that the woman intrigued him as well. Not until something came of that situation at any rate. He might have loosened up a little, at least to a degree, but he still wasn’t very big on sharing his personal details.
Because of his work schedule, the only free time Declan could manage to come up with was in the morning, right after Shannon left for school. So that was when he arranged with Josie to come over so she could take her missed riding lesson.
When Josie arrived at the stables, the first thing out of her mouth was to ask about Shannon.
“So how did the bake sale wind up going?” she wanted to know.
“Shannon didn’t stop smiling all day. At least, every time that I saw her, she was positively glowing. She managed to sell everything she had brought down to the last crumb.” Declan looked at the woman as they rode out of the stable. “I know that I’ve got you to thank for that.” He paused then said, “Thank you.”
“Your niece is a good kid,” Josie assured him. “I just baked some things that she could bring in for that sale. Shannon was simply really trying to fit in and she was afraid that she wouldn’t. I wanted to make sure that she had something to bring, but if I hadn’t been around, it would have all worked out anyway.”
Declan wasn’t as convinced as she was and he said as much. “I don’t know about that. Kids that age are pretty aware of their shortcomings. They tend to magnify what they do wrong and downplay whatever they get right—that is, if they don’t have a huge ego,” he qualified.
Josie looked at him, surprised. “That’s pretty insightful for a bachelor,” she told him. He had the potential of being a really good father when the time came, she couldn’t help thinking.
“Yeah, well she doesn’t always make it easy, but I do care about her,” Declan confided. “Poor kid already feels like her mother keeps abandoning her, doing that with a fair amount of regularity. Couldn’t make her feel like she couldn’t depend on me as well. It just wouldn’t be right,” he pointed out. “As for you,” he went on to tell Josie, smiling at the woman, “you’re the big hero in her book.”
His observation made Josie laugh out loud.
The sound wove its way deep into his system. He liked how it seemed to cast sunshine all through him. “What’s so funny?” he asked after a beat.
Josie’s eyes were twinkling as she answered. “I knew making mint chocolate-chip brownies would come in handy someday.”
“It certainly did,” he agreed, smiling.
They had come to a stream on his property. Reaching it, Declan pulled up his stallion’s reins. “Why don’t we stop here?” he suggested. “The horses could use the break. And the water,” he noted. “The day’s already getting warm and it isn’t even noon.”
She saw no reason not to agree. Pulling up on Marigold’s reins, Josie brought the mare to a halt right next to his stallion. Once she was certain that her horse had stopped moving, she dismounted.
Declan took the time to observe her form and then he nodded, more to himself than at her. “You’re getting better at that,” he told her.
The casual comment pleased her. Coming from him, it seemed like high praise. “Thank you.” She patted the mare’s neck. “I think that Marigold’s getting used to me.”
“There is that,” he agreed, his mouth curving ever so slightly. “But you’re also becoming more confident and the mare can pick up on that,” Declan told her.
“I guess we’re learning about each other,” she concluded, pleased that she was making some sort of headway and that Declan had actually noticed it.
Not wanting to make any further comment about herself, Josie looked around. “This is really very pretty country,” she told Declan.
He glanced around ever so slowly, as if he really hadn’t assessed the area before.
“Yes, it is,” Declan agreed. “I’m usually working too hard at any given time to actually notice that,” he admitted.
She turned toward him. “Maybe you should do what people are always saying to do. Every once in a while, you should stop and just smell the roses.” She knew that had to sound so trite, but she really did believe in what she was saying.
Declan looked at her, about to make a comment about her less than original observation, but the words seemed to just stick in his mouth.
Damn but she looked pretty, he thought.
More than pretty, he silently amended. With the sunlight threading through her hair, highlighting it until it seemed to almost to shimmer like strands of gold begging to be touched, she looked absolutely gorgeous. He could almost feel that softness beneath his fingertips.
“Maybe I should,” he murmured, although smelling roses was the furthest thing from his mind.
His voice almost seemed to caress her.
Josie told herself that she was imagining things. That Declan was just making conversation and that she was allowing her imagination to run away with her. But being logical didn’t seem to be helping.
She felt a warmth spreading all through her, touching every part of her body like rays of sunshine.
Josie could feel her very skin growing hot, and the weather had nothing to do with it.
And then, before she could think of some sort of a response to make in answer to what Declan had just said, she felt the man gently thread his fingers through her hair, drawing her face up closer to his.
He lowered his head until his mouth was barely a breath away from hers. Josie could actually feel his breath slipping along her skin.
Her heart started racing.
This was where she drew the line, she told herself. This was where she pulled back, curtailing this moment before it could blossom into something more, into what she was secretly hoping would happen.
And yet...
And yet who was she kidding? No matter how hard she tried, Josie couldn’t make herself draw away, couldn’t even make herself create so much as a sliver of distance between them.
In fact, she caught herself willing the moment to happen.
Her heart was really racing now. Any second, she was certain it was going to wind up leaping out of her chest.
Declan was looking into her eyes, searching for some sign that he had presumed too much, that she actually wanted him to pull away and give her some breathing space so that she could retreat from this mistake they were both about to make.
He was finding himself getting lost in her incredibly blue eyes, aware just how damn hard it would be for him if he did have to pull away. Even so, Declan knew that he would pull away if she told him to because there was no way he wanted to just force himself on Josie in any manner, shape or form.
But the only thing he saw in her eyes was blatant hunger.
Hunger that matched the hunger he felt growing in his own soul.
Tilting her head back just the slightest bit, Declan finally lowered his mouth and brought his lips down over hers.
The burst of energy, of blazing fulfillment, he felt rocked him down to the very toes of his boots. He was suddenly made a prisoner of the sensation that was shooting through his body, holding him so very tightly in its grip.
Without even thinking about it, he closed his arms around Josie, held her fast against him and lost himself in the very warmth, the heated glow, of her. The sensation completely wrapped itself all around him.
For the very first time in his life, he felt himself becoming a part of someone else, especially when she wrapped her arms around him and stood on her toes so that she was able to sink into his kiss more fully.
This is insane, a voice in her head echoed.
All the reasons she had already laid out in her mind why this was a bad thing came rushing back to her in bright, vivid detail. She had decided she was just too old for this man.
Nothing had changed since then.
Well, maybe one thing had changed. The deep, all-consuming hunger for him had only managed to become even more intense. As he went on kissing her, his lips feeling as if they were invading every part of her without moving an inch, that hunger within her only grew stronger.
Even though she knew this was wrong, even though she knew she would regret this move, Josie still couldn’t make herself stop, couldn’t make herself draw back much less pull away.
Whatever regrets she would have would come later. As for now, all she wanted to do was sink even more deeply into his kiss.
Nothing else seemed to matter.
Damn but he wanted her. Wanted to take her, to make love with her. And yet he knew that whatever pleasure he would derive from making that moment become a reality, he would eventually wind up paying for it.
Dearly.
This wasn’t like him, Declan chastised himself. It was as if a spell had been cast over him.
For all he knew, she might even terminate any contact between them. And in his heart, he knew that also would include his niece. Shannon would never forgive him for that. Since she had just shown him that there was this happy new side to her, he couldn’t allow his own needs to cause that side to just disappear. That would be beyond cruel.
So, though it took almost superhuman effort on his part, Declan forced himself to stop. Stop kissing her, if not stop wanting her, since he doubted that the latter was even possible.
Taking a breath to fortify himself, Declan drew back. When he saw the confused, partially wounded look in Josie’s eyes, he almost caved. But somehow he managed to hold his ground.
It was far from easy.
“We’re going too fast,” Declan told her, holding her face in his hands and creating a sliver of distance between them.
Her heart was still slamming wildly against her chest. It was extremely hard for her to pull herself together, but she knew that Declan was right. Knew that if he pushed the situation even just the tiniest bit, she would more than willingly make love with him.
And that, she was very certain, would cause both of them to draw away afterward. Once that happened, most likely they would wind up never seeing one another again.
She drew in a shaky breath. She couldn’t allow her own personal hunger to torpedo everything else that had been created, like her friendship with a lonely teenager.
Josie’s mouth curved ever so slightly as she nodded, silently agreeing with him.
“You’re right,” she told Declan, her voice barely above a whisper. “We almost let something happen that would have changed everything.”
Turning away, she mounted her mare. “I think we need to be getting back.”
He didn’t want to be getting back. He wanted to remain here. With her. But he knew he had to agree. It was the only way to keep himself from caving in. He was too smart to just live in the moment without being aware of the repercussions that would have.
“Yeah, we do,” he replied, getting back up on Midnight.
As they rode to the stable, it was mostly in silence.