The Last Single Maverick

Wow. It felt good—really good—to have her holding on to him, to feel her softness and the warmth of her. She smelled like soap and starch and sunshine and roses. And maybe a little tequila.

“Sorry,” she said to Theresa, her tone regretful. “This one’s taken.”

Theresa blinked. And then she let go of his arm and scowled. “Jace, what is your problem? You should have told me you were with someone. I want a good time as much as the next girl, but I would never steal another woman’s man.”

He was totally lost, awash in the superfine sensation of having Joss’s arm around him. But then she nudged him in the side and he realized he was supposed to speak. “Uh, yeah. You’re right, Theresa. I’m an ass. I should have said something.”

Joss clucked her tongue and rolled her eyes. “We had a fight. He’s been sulking.”

Theresa groaned. “Oh, I know how that goes. Men. I don’t let myself get serious with them anymore. They’re just not worth it.”

Joss pulled him even closer. And then she kissed his ear. It was barely a breath of a kiss. But still, with her arm around him and her lips close to his ear, he could almost forget that he had no interest in women anymore. He was enjoying every minute of this and he wished she would never let go. “I hear you,” she told Theresa, her breath all warm and tempting in his ear. “But when it’s true love, well, what can you do?”

Theresa just shook her head. The bartender approached. Theresa shook her head at him, too. And then, without another word, she got up and left.

Instantly, Joss released him and retreated to her own stool. Jace felt kind of bereft. But then he reminded himself that he should be grateful. She’d done him a favor and gotten Theresa off his back. “Thanks. I owe you one.” He raised his glass.

She tapped hers against it. “Okay, I’ll bite. Who was that?”

“Her name is Theresa Duvall. Last year, she was working at the Hitching Post—it’s this great old-time bar and grill down in town, on the corner of Main Street and Thunder Canyon Road.”

“She seemed like she knew you pretty well.”

“Not really.” He didn’t want to say more. But Joss was looking at him, a look that seemed to expect him to tell the truth. So he did. “I had a thing with her last summer. A very short thing.”

“A thing.”

“Yeah.”

“What, specifically, is a thing?”

He tried not to wince. “See, I knew you would ask that.”

Joss accused gently, “You slept with her.”

“Only once. And technically, well, there was no sleeping.”

She laughed again. Really, she had the best laugh. “Jace, I believe you’re a dog.”

He tipped his drink and stared down into it. “Maybe I was. Not anymore, though. I have changed my ways.”

She made a disbelieving sound. “Right.”

“No, seriously, I’m not the man I used to be. Too bad I’m not real clear on who, exactly, I’ve become. I lack… direction. Everyone says so. I’m not interested in women anymore. I don’t want to get laid. Or married. Also, I’ve given up my place in the family business and my family is freaked over that.”

“You live here in Thunder Canyon?”

“No, in Midland, Texas. Or I did. I have a nice little spread outside of town there. But I’ve put my place up for sale. I’m moving. I just don’t know where to yet. In the meantime, I’m here for a weeklong family reunion—a reunion that is going on right now, here at the resort, over at DJ’s Rib Shack.”

“I have another question, Jace.”

“Shoot.”

“Is there anything you do want?”

“That, Jocelyn Marie, is the question of the hour. Please come with me back to the Rib Shack.”

She was running her finger around the rim of her drink again. “You didn’t answer the question of the hour.”

“All right. There is nothing that I want—except for you to come back to the Rib Shack with me.”

Her smooth brow furrowed a little. “And I would want to go to your family reunion because?”

“Because only you can protect me from my family and all the women who want things from me that I’m not capable of giving them.”

She shook that head of thick brown hair and sat straighter on her stool. “Before I decide whether to go with you or not, I need to get something crystal clear.”

“Fine.”

“I want you to listen very carefully, Jace.”

He assumed a suitably intent expression. “I’m listening.”

“I’m. Not. Going. To. Have. Sex. With. You.”

“Oh, that.” He waved a hand. “It’s okay. I don’t care about that.”

“So you say now.”

“Look, Joss, I like you. You’re the first bright spot in my life in months. I just want to hang around with you for a while. Have a few laughs. No pressure. No drama. Nothing hot and heavy. No big romance.”

She stared at him for several seconds. Her expression said she still wasn’t sure she believed him. Finally she asked, “So you want to be… friends? Honestly? Just friends?”

“My God, I would love that.” He put some money on the bar. “The Rib Shack?”

She downed the last of her margarita. “Why not?”

Chapter Two

Joss surprised herself when she agreed to go with Jace.

But then, she got what he meant when he said that he liked her. She liked him, too. And not because he was tall and lean and handsome with thick, glossy dark hair and velvet-brown eyes. Not because he smelled of soap and a nice, clean, subtle, probably very expensive aftershave. Not because he was undeniably hot.

She didn’t care about hot. Her life had pretty much crumbled to nothing a week before. Finding a hot guy—or any guy for that matter—was the last thing on her mind.

Jocelyn liked Jason because he made her laugh. Because, even though he carried himself like he owned the world, she could see in his eyes that he really was flummoxed by life, that he used to be one guy and now he wasn’t that guy anymore. That he wasn’t all that familiar with the guy he was now. Joss could relate to that kind of confusion. It was exactly the confusion she felt.

She entered the Rib Shack on Jace’s arm. The casual, Western-themed restaurant was packed. Jason Traub, as it turned out, had a very large family.

“Jason, there you are,” said a good-looking older woman with a slim figure and sleek light brown hair. “I was starting to wonder if you’d already left.”

“No, Ma,” Jace said, his charming smile not quite masking the wariness in his eyes. “I’m still here.”

Jace’s mother turned a bright glance on Joss. “Hello.”

Jace made the introductions. Joss smiled and nodded at his mom, whose name was Claudia.

Claudia asked, “Do you live here in town, Jocelyn?”

“No, I’m from Sacramento.”

Jace said, “Joss is staying here at the resort.”

“With your family?” his mom quizzed. Claudia had that look, Joss thought, the look of a mother on the trail of every bit of information she could gather about the new girl her son had brought to the family party.

“I’m here on my own,” Joss told her. “Having a great time, too. I love the spa. And the shopping in the resort boutiques. And I’m learning to play golf.” All of it on Kenny Donovan’s dime, thank you very much.

An ordinary-looking man a few years older than Jace’s mom stepped up and took Claudia’s arm. Claudia beamed at him, her golden-brown eyes glowing with affection. “Darling, this is Jocelyn, Jason’s new friend. Jocelyn, my husband, Pete—we’re staying here at the resort, too. A romantic getaway, just us two old folks in the Governor’s Suite.”

Joss was in the Honeymoon Suite, but she didn’t say so. It would only be asking for more questions than she was prepared to answer at the moment—which was kind of amusing in a dark sort of way. She hadn’t even hesitated to tell Jace that she’d run away from her own wedding. But somehow, with everyone else, well, she didn’t want to go there. And she really appreciated that Jace was keeping his mouth shut about it.

He seemed like a great guy. And his parents were adorable, she thought. So much in love, so attentive to each other. There should be more couples in the world like Claudia and Pete.

Claudia said, “I hope you’ll join us for dinner tomorrow night, Jocelyn. It will be at the home of Jason’s twin, Jackson, and Jackson’s wife, Laila. They have a nice little property not far from town.”

“Yeah, you should come,” Jace said with enthusiasm. “I’ll take you.”

Joss gave him a look that said he shouldn’t push it and asked, “You have a twin?”

Claudia laughed. “A fraternal twin. Jackson is older by an hour and five minutes. That makes Jason my youngest son. I also have one daughter, Rose. She’s the baby of the family. Dillon, Ethan and Corey are the older boys.”

Joss did the math. “Wow, six kids. I’m jealous. I was an only child. My mother raised me on her own.”

Claudia reached out and touched Joss’s shoulder, a fond kind of touch. “Sweet girl,” she said softly. And Joss felt all warm and fuzzy inside. “You come to dinner tomorrow night,” Jace’s mom said again. “We would love to have you join us.”

“Thank you,” Joss said, and left it at that.

A few moments later, Jace led her out onto the Rib Shack’s patio where the band was set up but taking a break. They found a reasonably quiet corner where they could talk without having to shout.

“My mother likes you,” Jace said.

“You say that like you’re not sure if it’s good or bad.”

“Yeah, well, Ma thinks I got my heart broken and she really wants me to be happy. She’s decided I only need to meet another woman, the right woman, so I can get married and settle down like my brothers and my sister. Now she’ll be finding all kinds of ways to throw us together.”

“We’ll resist, of course.”

“Of course we will.”

“Who broke your heart, Jace?”

He hedged. “It’s a long story.”

“I told you mine,” she teased.

He looked distinctly uncomfortable. “Well, you know, this isn’t the place or the time.”

She got the message. “You don’t want to tell me—and you know what? That’s okay.”

“Whew.” He made a show of wiping nonexistent sweat from his brow. “And even though I hate to give my mother the wrong idea about us, I think you ought to come to dinner at Jackson’s tomorrow. You know, just to be social.”

She gave him a slow look. She knew he was up to something.

And he was. He admitted, “I also want you there because I like you.”

“Uh-huh. What else? Give it to me straight, Jace.”

“Fair enough. If you come, everyone will think we’re together—I mean really together, as in more than friends. And that means my family will stop trying to set me up.”

“You want me to pretend to be your girlfriend?”

“You don’t have to pretend anything. If you’re with me, they’ll assume there’s something going on. It doesn’t matter if you tell them that we’re just friends. They won’t believe you. It doesn’t matter that I will tell them we’re just friends. They’ll only be certain we’re in denial about all that we mean to each other.”

“Still, it seems dishonest.”

“Is it our fault if people insist on jumping to conclusions?”

Strangely, she found that she wanted to go to dinner at his brother’s house. “I’ll think about it.”

“Good. And don’t let my mother get you alone. She’ll only start in about the family business and how she needs me in Midland and she hopes that you will be open to the idea of moving to Texas because she’s already hearing wedding bells in our future.”

“What is the family business anyway?”

“I didn’t tell you? It’s oil. Except for my oldest brother, Dillon, who’s a doctor, we’re all in oil.”

She laughed. “Knee-deep?”

“All the way over our heads in it, trust me. We’re Traub Oil Industries. I was a vice president in the Midland office. I quit the first of April. I was supposed to be out of there by the end of May. My mother and Pete kept finding reasons why I had to stay. I finally escaped just this past Wednesday. I’m never going back.”

“You sound determined.”

“Believe me, I am.”

“How come you call your dad Pete?”

“He’s my stepdad. My father, Charles, was something of a legend in the oil business. He died in an accident on a rig when I was little. My mom married Pete about two years later. Her last name is Wexler now. None of us were happy when she married him. We were loyal to our dad and we resented Pete.”

“We?”

“My brothers, my sister and I. But Pete’s not only a good man, he’s also a patient one. He won all of us over eventually. Pete had a heart attack a couple of years ago. We almost lost him. That really taught us how much he means to us.”

“It’s so obvious he’s head over heels in love with your mom.”

“Yes, he is. A man like that is damn hard to hate.” He took her arm. “Come on, I want you to meet my brothers.”

They wandered back inside. Joss met Dillon and Ethan and Corey and Jace’s twin, Jackson. The two did look a lot alike—meaning tall, dark and handsome. But it wasn’t the least difficult to tell them apart. Joss also met the Traub boys’ only sister, Rose, and Rose’s husband, Austin, and she visited with the wives of Jason’s brothers. She liked them all, with Lizzie, Ethan’s wife, possibly being her favorite.

Lizzie Traub was tall and sturdily built, with slightly wild-looking dark blond hair and a no-nonsense way about her. She owned a bakery, the Mountain Bluebell, in town. Everyone said that Lizzie baked the best muffins in Montana.

And beyond Jace’s brothers and sister and their spouses, there were Traub cousins, too: DJ and Dax and their wives Allaire and Shandie. And also Clay and Forrest Traub, two cowboys from Rust Creek Falls, which was about three hundred miles from Thunder Canyon.

Joss was starting to wonder how she was going to keep all their names straight when a woman named Melba Landry, who was Lizzie Traub’s great-aunt, caught up with them. A big woman with a stern face, Melba possessed a truly impressive bosom. Joss tried not to laugh as the energetic old woman cornered Jace and insisted she wanted to see him at her church the next morning.

“Of course he’ll come,” Joss told Melba. “There’s nothing Jace enjoys more than a good Sunday service.”

Beside her, Jace made a low groaning sound.

And Melba turned her sharp hazel eyes on Joss. “Excellent. I want to see you there, too, young lady.”

“Well, now, I don’t exactly know if I—”

“We’ll be there,” Jace promised. Joss elbowed him in the ribs, but he didn’t relent.

Aunt Melba said, “Wonderful. The service begins at ten.” And she sailed off to corner some other unsuspecting potential churchgoer.

The party continued. It really was fun. Joss forgot her troubles and just had a good time. She spotted Theresa Duvall dancing with a tall, lean cowboy, one of Jace’s cousins from Rust Creek Falls. Theresa clung to that cowboy like paint. She didn’t seem the least upset that things hadn’t worked out for her with Jace.

Joss and Jace danced. He was a good dancer. Plus, he kept to their agreement about just being friends. He didn’t hold her too close. She swayed in his arms and thought how good it felt to be held by him. His body and hers just kind of fit together. He was a great guy and if things were different she would definitely be attracted to him. Really, the longer they danced, the more she started thinking that she wouldn’t mind at all if he did hold her closer….

But no. That wouldn’t be a good idea. The last thing she needed right now was a new man in her life. She liked Jace as a person, but still. He was a man. All man. And she wasn’t trusting any man. Not now.

Not for a long, long time, if ever.

It was after ten when the party broke up. She and Jace were among the last to leave. They wandered out to the lobby together and then kind of naturally turned for the elevators side-by-side.

The Honeymoon Suite was on the top floor. The doors opened and they left the elevator.

At the door, she paused, key card in hand. “If I let you in, you have to promise not to put a move on me.”

He looked hurt. “Joss, come on. How many ways can I tell you? I need a friend. You need a friend. That’s what we’ve got going on here. It’s all we’ve got going on here.”

She chewed her lower lip for a moment. “All right. I believe you.” And then she stuck her key in the slot and pushed the door wide.

He followed her in, through the skylit foyer area into the living/dining room, which had floor-to-ceiling windows with a spectacular view. “Nice.”

“Hey, only the best for Kenny Donovan’s runaway bride.” She headed for the wet bar. “How about a little champagne and caviar? On Kenny, of course.”

“Got a beer?”

She gave him one from the fridge and grabbed a ginger ale for herself. “Make yourself at home.” He took a fat leather easy chair and she shucked off her shoes and curled up on the sofa.

And they talked. About his family. About the party at the Rib Shack. About how they both thought Lizzie was great and how Lizzie’s aunt Melba cracked them up.

“So how long are you here for?” he asked.

She thought how much she liked his voice. It was deep and warm and made her want to cuddle up against him—which she was not, under any circumstances, going to do. Ever. “Another week. As long as Kenny doesn’t put a stop on his platinum card, I am having my whole two-week un-honeymoon.”

“And then?”

“Back to Sacramento. To find a job. And a new place to live.”

“We have so much in common,” he said. “I’m here for a week, too.”

“You told me. The family reunion. And then after that?”

“I suppose I’ll have to get a life. But I’m not even going to think about that yet.”

“Jace, I like the way you completely avoid anything remotely resembling responsibility. Aunt Melba would so not approve.”

“Thank you, Joss. I do my best.” He tipped his longneck at her. “I’m glad we’re friends. Let’s be best friends.”

“All right. I’m up for that.”

“Best friends for a week,” he declared.

She held up her index finger and reminded him, “No benefits.”

He looked at her from under his thick dark brows. “You know you’re killin’ me here. Have I, in any way, put any kind of move on you?”

“Nope, not a one.”

“Then can we be done with the constant reminders about how I’m not supposed to try and get you naked?”

She saluted him with a hand to her forehead. “You got it. I believe you. You are not going to make any attempt whatsoever to get into my pants. Even if you are a man.”

“Your trust is deeply touching.”

The phone rang. It was on the side table next to the sofa, so she reached over and picked it up. “What?”

“Jocelyn, honestly. Is that any way to answer the phone?”

Without even thinking about it, Joss lowered her feet to the rug and sat up straighter. “Mom, hey.” She ran a hand back through her hair. “What’s up?”

“How can you ask me that? You know I’m worried sick about you.”

“I’m fine. Really. Don’t worry.”

“When are you coming home?”

“I told you. A week from tomorrow.” She sent Jace a sheepish glance and mouthed the word Sorry.

He shrugged to let her know it wasn’t a big deal. Then he got up and went over to the wall of windows. He stood gazing out. She indulged in a long, slow look at him, from his fancy tooled boots, up over his lean legs and hips in crisp denim, his wide shoulders in a beautifully tailored midnight-blue Western shirt. His hair was thick and dark. She had no doubt it would be silky to the touch.

A great-looking guy. And a considerate one. It was kind of him to pretend to admire the view to give her the space she needed to take this unwelcome call. There ought to be more guys in the world like him.

Her mom said, “This is all just a big misunderstanding. You realize that, don’t you? Kenny would never—”

“Mom.” She struggled to keep her voice calm and even. “I saw him with Kimberly. There was no misunderstanding what I saw.”

“Kimberly is terribly upset, too. She’s hurt you would think such horrible, cruel things about her.”

“Oh, please. Don’t get me started on Kimberly. I don’t want to talk about this anymore, Mom. I really don’t.”

“Kenny came to see me this evening.”

Joss gasped. “He what?” She must have said it kind of loud because Jace glanced back at her, those sexy dark eyes full of concern. She shook her head at him. He turned to face the window again and she told her mother, “He has no right to bother you. None. Ever again.”

“Honey, he’s not bothering me. He loves you. He wants to work things out with you. He’s crushed that you left him at the altar the way you did. You’ve humiliated him, but still, he forgives you and only wants to work things out so you two can be together as you were meant to be.”

There was a crystal bowl full of expensive chocolates on the coffee table. Joss resisted the blinding urge to grab it and fling it at the far wall. “Mom, listen. Listen carefully. I am not going to get back together with Kenny. Ever. He and I are done. Finished. As over as it gets.”

“If only your father hadn’t left us. You wouldn’t be so mistrustful of men. You wouldn’t ruin the best chance you’re ever going to get with a good man who will give you the kind of life you deserve.”

She replied through clenched teeth. “There are so many ways I don’t know how to respond to that.”

“Just come home, honey. Come home right away.”

“Mom, I’m hanging up now. I love you very much and I’ll be home in a week.”

“Jocelyn. Jocelyn, wait…”

But Joss didn’t wait. She hung up the phone. And then she stared at it hard, daring it to ring again.

But apparently, her mother had come to her senses at least minimally and decided to leave awful enough alone.

For tonight anyway.

At the window, Jace turned. “Bad?”

She covered her face with her hands. “Yeah, beyond bad.”

He left the window and came to her, walking softly in those fancy boots of his. She only heard his approach because she was listening for it. “Want to talk about it?”

“Ugh.”

“Come on.”

She lowered her hands and met his waiting eyes. He was standing across the coffee table from her, his hands in his pockets, accepting of whatever she might say, willing to listen. Ready to understand. She tipped her head at the cushion beside her. He took her invitation, crossing around the low table, dropping down next to her, stretching his arm out along the back of the couch in an invitation of his own.

An invitation she couldn’t pass up at that moment. With a sad little sigh, she leaned her head on his shoulder. He smoothed her hair, but only lightly, and then draped his big arm around her.

It was a nice moment. Comforting. He was so large and warm and solid. And he smelled so clean and manly. And she really needed a strong shoulder to lean on. Just for a minute or two.

She said, “That was my mom.”

“Yeah, I got that much.”

“I told you she raised me on her own, didn’t I?”

“You mentioned that, yeah.”

“My dad disappeared when I was two. My mom says he just told her he was through one day and walked out. We never heard from him again.”

“That’s rough, Joss. Really rough.” He squeezed her shoulder, a touch that comforted, that seemed to acknowledge how hard it had been for her. “It can really mess with your mind, to lose your dad when you’re only a kid. It can leave you feeling like you’re on the outside looking in—at all your friends and their happy, whole families. You grow up knowing what normal is. It’s what all the other kids have.”

She realized he was speaking from personal experience. “How old were you when your dad died?”

“Jackson and I were six.”