скачать книгу бесплатно
All I Have
Nicole Helm
Let the battle begin Mia Pruitt wishes Dell Wainwright would keep his shirt on. The Naked Farmer lures customers by stripping to his perfectly worn jeans while he and Mia sell vegetables from competing stands at the farmers' market. It's time for a showdown, and they're each in it to win.Yet when both farms end up in jeopardy, Mia and Dell suddenly find themselves on the same team. If their rivalry was hot, their attraction is steaming, but they can't seem to agree on a plan. If they could only learn to grow together, they might reap the best harvest of all…
Let the battle begin
Mia Pruitt wishes Dell Wainwright would keep his shirt on. The Naked Farmer lures customers by stripping to his perfectly worn jeans while he and Mia sell vegetables from competing stands at the farmers’ market. It’s time for a showdown, and they’re each in it to win.
Yet when both farms end up in jeopardy, Mia and Dell suddenly find themselves on the same team. If their rivalry was hot, their attraction is steaming, but they can’t seem to agree on a plan. If they could only learn to grow together, they might reap the best harvest of all...
“What are you doing?”
What was he doing? Well, he certainly wasn’t thinking. Mia was like a salve to a wound, and since everything was all mixed up and tangled anyway... “Considering kissing you, actually.”
She pulled her head back even more, holding out her hands like double stop signs. “You can’t kiss me!”
It was such a strange response to him trying to kiss her, Dell was almost amused. Refusal he’d expected. Some kind of scathing comment, yup. A sort of weird panic complete with squeaky voice and bug eyes? It was kind of cute.
“Why not?”
Dear Reader (#u8b9351f7-199d-555c-a864-cf9eb2cefdac),
I’ve been in love with farms since I can remember. The romantic side of me likes to think love is a gene, passed down from generations before. My grandfather had to quit farming long before I was born, but when I was a kid he bought back the farmhouse he’d grown up in. He’s always told me that farmhouse is his heart. The poetry of that sentiment stuck with me, and I was determined to put that heart into a book. So I wrote a story about two farmers whose farms were their hearts.
I sold that book (and a second book in the series) to Harlequin E in 2013, and in 2014 that book came out as part of the Harlequin E Contemporary Box Set Volume 2, and then on its own in September of 2014 under the title All I Have.
When Harlequin E folded, the awesome Harlequin Superromance team offered to move the entire Farmers' Market series to Superromance. Since the original two books were shorter, this came with the caveat that All I Have would need an additional 20,000 words. So, here we are!
All I Have is longer than the original version, but it’s the same story of two people whose hearts are their farms and belong to each other.
Happy reading!
Nicole Helm
nicolehelm.wordpress.com (http://www.nicolehelm.wordpress.com)
All I Have
Nicole Helm
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
NICOLE HELM grew up with her nose in a book and a dream of becoming a writer. Luckily, after a few failed career choices, a husband and two kids, she gets to pursue that writing dream. She lives in Missouri with her husband and two sons and dreams of someday owning a barn.
To my Grandpa Beck. You once said the farm was your heart, so I gave Mia and Dell your heart.
Many thanks to the people at Harlequin, especially Alissa Davis for believing in this book from the beginning and making it even stronger, and Piya Campana for bringing it to Harlequin Superromance. I will be forever grateful for having the opportunity to work with both of you.
Contents
Cover (#u1317ec09-42a5-5879-8eb6-c51cd5a230b2)
Back Cover Text (#u767fb11e-84d6-5210-95c8-5b5fdb005887)
Introduction (#u301c4f9f-3f20-5816-87c2-d99c85e48b38)
Dear Reader
Title Page (#u5c0d88b3-9dbc-575f-a01c-600eaa33b305)
About the Author (#u92c26eaf-b0bb-51bd-b4ac-f8c6760912f5)
Dedication (#u390f6f4f-c751-5ffe-b6fe-66f1c6c72a22)
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
EPILOGUE
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#u8b9351f7-199d-555c-a864-cf9eb2cefdac)
“GUH.”
Mia Pruitt ran smack-dab into her sister’s back, causing the pallet full of cabbages she was carrying to drop to the ground. Green spheres bounced against the concrete with a thud and rolled in every direction.
“Damn it, Cara.” At least cabbage was one of the hardier vegetables Mia had for the early-spring market. The drop wouldn’t really damage them.
“Sorry.” But Cara didn’t move. She stood frozen directly in the path between the truck bed and Mia’s stand at the farmers’ market, cabbage strewn about her feet.
Mia looked where Cara’s gaze was transfixed and groaned. “Is he serious? It’s not even fifty degrees. Can’t he wait until July for that crap?”
“Who cares?” Cara fanned her face with her hand. “He can take his shirt off any day he wants. And if he gets cold, I will gladly step in to warm him up.”
Dell Wainwright and his stupid shirtless antics had put a serious dent in their farmers’ market profits last year. Cara didn’t care, but this wasn’t her full-time job. Mia was the one taking over the farm. Mia was the one making this stand into a living. She cared, and she was going to find a way to combat him this year.
Dell might look like a god among men shirtless behind his table full of spring vegetables, but she’d jump around naked in front of everyone before she let him put her out of business. This farmers’ market was the best thing to happen to her share of Pruitt Farms and to her personally. In the past four years she’d been selling here, she had finally learned how to come out of her shell.
In its fifth year, the market had grown to fill up half a mall parking lot. Tables with awnings lined the outer lot. In early spring, there were only two rows, but by midsummer there’d be four. Each booth was made up of a variety of locally sourced items. From her and Dell’s locally grown vegetables to people selling meat, eggs, local and homemade cheeses and honeys and breads, and a few craft and soap stands.
Each year they had more customers, and each year Dell’s stand had directly competed with hers. She’d managed to build up her business to break even and was this close to making it profitable.
Yeah, Dell was not screwing that up. Six-pack abs or no six-pack abs. “Stop drooling and pick up the cabbage.” She gave Cara a nudge with her boot. “He’s the enemy, remember?”
“If the enemy looks like that, I’ll gladly turn myself in. What kind of torture are we talking?”
“Gross.”
“If you think that’s gross, you need your eyes checked.” Cara flipped her hair over her shoulder and bent down to pick up the cabbage at her feet. Her eyes never left Dell.
Mia set to unloading the early-spring haul onto the table under the Pruitt Farms tent. Meanwhile, Cara made no bones about watching Dell’s every move.
Cara was always dating or talking about guys she wanted to date or pinning hot celebrity pictures to her Pinterest page. It wasn’t that Mia didn’t appreciate a hot guy. She just didn’t understand obsessing over one.
Probably because twenty-six-year-old virgins didn’t know what they were missing.
Mia set up the pallets, the price signs, made sure everything was just so, and maybe on occasion her gaze drifted to Dell and his broad, tanned shoulders as he hauled his own farm’s offerings from truck to table.
He was still the enemy, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t look.
“So glad to see you girls back this year,” Val greeted them, ever-present clipboard clutched to her chest. “You’re going to stick with us all year, right?”
“Yes, ma’am. Couldn’t kick us out if you wanted.”
Val wasn’t looking at her anymore, though. She was drooling over Dell, right along with Cara. Mia resisted the urge to hurl a cabbage across the aisle. Knowing Dell, he’d probably make a big show out of catching it.
“Uh-huh. Very good. See you next week.” Val wandered off to Dell’s table. In two seconds flat, Dell was making her giggle and blush.
“You can’t stop staring, either.”
“I’m picturing strangling him.” If that picture included wondering what his skin might feel like under her hands it was curiosity, not interest. Or so she told herself, year after shirtless year.
“Hey, whatever floats your boat.”
A group of women descended on Dell’s table. Usually the first hour of the first week of the market was virtually empty, but today had a bit of a crowd. A mainly female crowd.
Not fair. What’d he do, advertise? Male stripper does Millertown Farmers’ Market.
The group of women laughed and Dell made a big production of picking things up and putting things down and flexing and—ugh—he really was despicable.
“You’re blushing.”
“I am not!” Damn it. She totally was. Well, she’d come too far to be flustered by a pair of perfectly toned forearms. She was not the little girl who hyperventilated in the bathroom between classes if a boy even said hi to her.
It had always been a joke anyway. Say hi to Mia Pruitt and watch her self-destruct into a blushing, babbling mess.
Dell wasn’t saying hi to her, joke or no joke, and he most certainly wasn’t a boy. He was an adult man and she was an adult woman. A confident, strong woman no longer the laughingstock of her tiny Missouri farming community.
Every time someone bought a head of broccoli or cabbage from him, they weren’t buying it from her. So, essentially, he was stealing.
Nobody liked thieves no matter how white their teeth were or how charming their grin might be.
“You know what?” Mia dropped the cash box onto the ground next to her chair with a loud crash. “Two can play his little game.” She was done just...taking it. Maybe it was time to fight.
Cara laughed. “What does that mean? You going to take your shirt off?”
“Not exactly.” Mia narrowed her eyes at Dell flirting with a young mom who carried a baby on her hip. Both mom and baby were charmed. Mom bought a bag full of vegetables. Probably wouldn’t eat half of them before they went bad.
