Third Time Lucky

Allison Leigh

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Contents

Cover

Title Page

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

Copyright

Chapter One

“It’s going to be the most rockin’ wedding gown ever.”

Charlene Kelley smiled at the reverent tone in her sales assistant’s voice. Meredith was ten years younger than Charlene’s own thirty and had been the first person she’d hired after opening Charlene’s two years earlier. And the young redhead thought everything inside the downtown Red Rock boutique was “rockin’.”

“It’s turning out nicely,” Charlene agreed.

Meredith rolled her eyes. “That’s like saying the Fortune family is mildly successful.” Then she grinned and ran a fingertip lightly down the skirt of the gown. “Emily Fortune was smart to have you design her gown. She could have gone anywhere. But she chose you.”

And Charlene was still having a hard time believing it. Who knew that by finally coming home to Red Rock she’d find the sort of success in Texas that had eluded her for ten years in California?

The tinkle of the crystal bell hanging above the entrance to the boutique warned them that another customer had come in, and Meredith promptly headed out of the workroom.

Leaving Meredith to deal with the customer, Charlene leaned back against her sewing table and studied the gown draped around a dressmaker form. It really was beautiful.

The silk was imported; the cut was divine. And even unfinished as it was, she knew the gown would be a triumph. When it made its appearance at the church on New Year’s Eve—just two weeks from now—it would be the culmination of months of designing, planning, fitting.

Too bad she wasn’t the bride wearing it.

She shook her head. The only reason that particular thought kept creeping into her head was because she’d been working so hard on Emily Fortune’s wedding gown.

It was a convenient excuse, if nothing else.

She rubbed her tired eyes, then studied the sweep of white silk with a critical eye. The embroidery embellishing the skirt and bodice was nearly done. The design was subtle; only someone looking closely beyond the shimmer of delicate crystals would see that the pattern resembled daisies. Sophistication flowed from the gown, yet that daisy element added the perfect touch of vulnerability. The gown would suit Emily to perfection.

The front bell jangled again, breaking her reverie. Before the gown could suit Emily, Charlene had to actually finish it.

She straightened, flexing fingers that were stiff from the hours already spent stitching that afternoon, and went to the supply shelves. She needed a fresh embroidery needle and she was just ready to tuck the thin, sharp needle into the pin cushion wrapped around her wrist when she heard a deep voice from the direction of the front of the shop. A deep, painfully familiar male voice.

Her fingers closed spasmodically around the needle and her knees turned to water. She actually had to lean against the desk for support.

Six months. The thought screamed through her mind. She’d known Dane Dalton all of her life, but she hadn’t heard his voice in six months.

Not since the evening he’d asked her to marry him.

And she’d said no.

Chapter Two

If she hid out here in the back room, Charlene wouldn’t have to see him.

She would just let her petite, stylish salesgirl attend to Dane.

But alarm followed on the heels of her cowardice, and she edged closer to the doorway leading to the front of the shop. What disaster had prompted him to step foot in Charlene’s?

Dane Dalton was six-foot, two-inches of male who thought mucking out horse stalls and castrating calves was just this side of heaven. Even before she’d broken things off with him, he’d rarely come to the shop. He’d told her more than once that he felt like a bull in a china shop being around all the feminine frippery.

And then there was no more time for her to worry because the man himself stepped into the doorway, catching her hovering there.

Familiar coffee-brown eyes stared down at her, narrowing. “Hiding, Leenie?”

The nickname jolted her. Only Dane had ever called her that. She cleared her throat and waved at the elaborate wedding gown consuming a good portion of the space in her small work room. “Working, actually,” she managed. “What, uh, what brings you here?” She was vaguely aware of Meredith chattering to someone in the front of the shop.

But mostly she was aware that an absence of six months hadn’t made Dane think more fondly of her. Not if the chilliness on his numbingly handsome face was any indication.

To be fair, she had turned down his marriage proposal. The one six months ago. And also the one twelve years ago. The first time, she’d been a girl. Of course she’d turned him down. But now she was a grown woman. And she’d given him the only answer a sensible person could when two people were so wildly different.

“Mom’s helping me find a Christmas present for Becca.”

So it was his mother with whom Meredith was talking. Alarm drained away, replaced by disappointment that he’d come in only to shop.

Just because she’d been sensible didn’t mean it had been easy to walk away from him. She missed him. Desperately.

She brushed her hands down her thighs, only to poke herself through her velvet slacks with the needle she was still holding. She focused on tucking it safely into the pin cushion rather than looking at him. “I’m sure there’s something here your sister would like.” Along with the rest of Dane’s family, Becca worked on their ranch. But unlike her big brother, she didn’t roll her eyes at a little frippery now and then.

“That’s what Mom says.”

Charlene would have been glad to step past him. To go into the considerably more spacious retail area. But Dane’s dusty cowboy boots were firmly planted, and he didn’t seem in any hurry to budge at all.

As if he was perfectly aware of her discomfort.

And that he was enjoying it.

“Mom also told me that Caroline says you’re not planning to be at their Christmas party. You’ve been coming every year with your folks since we were kids.”

For as long as Charlene could remember, Nanette and Dale Dalton had hosted a huge Christmas party for their family and friends. Since Charlene’s mother, Caroline, and Nanette were the best of friends, the only years Charlene had been able to pass on the event were when she’d been living in California. “Not every year,” she reminded.

He just gave her a long look.

She broke his gaze and stared blindly at the bolts of fabrics propped against the walls. Her heart felt like it was pushing out of her chest. “I didn’t think you’d want me there,” she finally admitted.

There was no way Dane would be absent. He now ran the ranch where he’d been born and raised. His folks lived there, too, though at some point during the years Charlene had been in California, he’d moved from the main house into the foreman’s house. Which was where he fully expected the woman he chose for a wife to live with him.

Forty minutes away from town—and her boutique.

She could have adjusted to the distance if he hadn’t thought her business was useless to begin with. He’d always said he couldn’t understand all the hoopla women made over a dress. But then, he was satisfied to pick up his flannel shirts from a hardware store.

“It’s their party,” he repeated. “Just because you can’t abide the idea of marrying me doesn’t mean you need to wipe them off the planet, too.”

She winced. “I never said I couldn’t abide—”

“I know what you said.” His voice was flat. “You said no. I told Mom I’d talk to you about the party and I have. If you want to disappoint a woman who’s treated you like one of her own daughters your entire life, that’s on you.” Then he turned on his boot heel and walked away.

Chapter Three

Dane strode across the shop, imagining that he could feel Charlene’s gaze burning into his back.

He put on a pair of mental blinders and stepped around the white Christmas tree that stood in the middle of the shop, dripping with glittering jewelry, and edged past the rustic wood ladder that was draped with sheer lacy panties and bras. He finally reached his mother, who was deep in discussion with Meredith over the merits of a red sweater over a blue one.

“Which do you think?” Nanette held both sweaters up for Dane’s opinion.

All he wanted to do was pay for whatever his mother figured Becca would like best and get the hell outta Dodge. But he knew his mom. She’d figure his hurry to leave Charlene’s would have to do with the shop’s owner. And since she’d be right, he stifled his impatience. “The red one.”

“Scarlet,” Nanette corrected, smiling impishly. “Excellent choice, honey.” She handed it to him. “I’m going next door to the boot shop.”

“Don’t be bringing home any more Castleton’s,” he warned. “That new puppy of yours’ll chew them up, too.”

She just smiled and hurried through the garland-draped entrance. Now that he’d done the deed—talked to Charlene about the party—she was smiling at him again. As if one five-minute conversation with Leenie would magically solve anything.

“Wish I could afford a pair of Castleton’s.” Meredith was smiling good-naturedly as she rang up the stupidly expensive sweater. “Out of my budget, I’m afraid.”

“Out of most people’s budget,” Dane murmured, but from the corner of his eye, he was watching the archway leading to the workroom. Willing Charlene to appear. Wishing she wouldn’t. “Sort of like shopping at this place.” He was proud of Charlene’s accomplishments. Though he’d rather chew glass than admit it and have her leave Red Rock—and him—all over again when her ambitions took her off to some other place again. He was a rancher, but he wasn’t an idiot. He knew exactly how successful she was becoming.

Meredith was laughing lightly. “Your sister will love the sweater. Cashmere never goes out of style. It’s worth every penny.” She looked past him to the young blonde who was carrying the same sweater—only this time in blue—up to the register. “Felicity, tell him I’m right.”

“Cashmere’s worth every penny,” the other woman assured him. He recognized her and her sunny expression from the chocolate shop his mother loved.

“Dane prefers the feel of flannel,” Charlene said smoothly, sauntering in from the back room. She was wearing skinny brown pants, a flimsy gold blouse—through which he could easily see a scanty brown camisole that was a whole lot more underwear than shirt—and about a dozen gold bracelets. And her blue eyes, lighter than the pale winter sky outside, seemed to drill into him. “Isn’t that right, Dane?”

What he preferred was the feel of her ivory skin lying warm and naked against him. But all of that had come to a screeching halt six months ago when she’d tossed his marriage proposal back in his face.

He was forty years old. You’d think he’d have learned a few things since the first time he’d proposed, when he’d been so afraid of losing her that he’d asked her to marry him two hours after she’d graduated from high school.

She’d laughed, as if he’d been joking, and then she’d hustled her shapely rear on out to California, not returning until a few years ago.

At least this last time she hadn’t laughed, though the results had been the same. Him alone. Left wanting a woman for a wife who had no wanting for him as a husband.

It was just his own bad luck that he couldn’t seem to get the woman herself from beneath his skin. “Flannel keeps a man warm,” he muttered and slammed the cowboy hat he’d been holding at his side on his head.

Then he spun on his heel and got the hell out of Charlene’s.

Chapter Four

The moment the bell over the door went silent after Dane’s departure, Charlene sank onto the slipper chair next to the lingerie display.

Meredith handed her a tissue and Charlene pressed it against the tears collecting in the corners of her eyes.

“Why did you say no when he asked you to marry him?” Felicity sounded more curious than sympathetic. “You’re obviously miserable.”

She was miserable. But she also wished the town of Red Rock didn’t have such an active grapevine. The only one she’d told about Dane’s proposal had been—strangely enough—Emily Fortune. Now the whole town seemed to know, though she had a hard time believing that the cultured Emily would have gossiped. Not when she’d clearly loathed people gossiping about her.

Charlene knew Dane wouldn’t have talked, either. But that was Red Rock. Talk always got around.

Charlene crumpled the tissue in her fist and got up. “Because that’s what smart, capable women do when they’re entirely incompatible with someone.”

At least, that’s what she told herself every night when she went to bed alone.

“Incompatible shmatible,” Meredith tsked. “The man is rockin’ hot.”

Privately, Charlene agreed on that particular point. “Did you bring the chocolates?” she asked Felicity.

The young woman nodded and pulled several pretty aqua boxes out of the shopping bag by her side. “As promised.”

Charlene flipped open one of the boxes. Nestled inside was an assortment of Felicity’s beautiful handmade confections. She’d bartered the large order in exchange for the expensive sweater Felicity had picked out a few weeks ago for her roommate.

Even though the chocolates were intended for the boutique’s clients during the holiday season, Charlene pulled out a truffle and shoved it into her mouth.

The dark chocolate melted on her tongue. Music didn’t soothe the savage beast. Felicity’s chocolates did…though not even they could fill the hollowness inside Charlene.

“It’s too late, anyway. I told him we were too different,” she said huskily.

Rather than let the others see the tears still burning her eyes, she turned to fiddle with the sparkling costume jewelry hanging like icicles from the white Christmas tree.

“I was raised on a ranch and I hated it,” she said suddenly. “I’m allergic to hay and I cried whenever it was time to work the cattle.” When she’d been little, Dane had always teased her for being such a baby; he’d called her prissy for liking her ruffles and frills.

As an adult, though, he hadn’t seemed so averse to her affinity for all things feminine—particularly the frilly things that slid off her body before they made love.

She ruthlessly pushed aside the memories and pulled a necklace from the tree, turning to face the two women again. “To this day, my mother goes out and works alongside my dad, just as hard as he does, and when she’s done she still puts a supper on the table every night that would make Martha Stewart proud. Dane’s mother is exactly the same. He expects a wife like them.” The bangles around her wrist jangled softly as she held the necklace to her neck. Light from the front windows glinted off the oversize crystals. “Not someone like me.”

Chapter Five

“Oh, Charlene. If Dane didn’t want someone like you as his wife, why’d he propose to you?” When she didn’t answer, Felicity patted the blue sweater before setting it inside her bag. “I’m going to give this sweater to Sarah-Jane and I’ll bet you a year’s supply of truffles that she’ll think it’s too bright and fancy for her.” Her gaze travelled between Charlene and Meredith. “And we all know she’s going to look fabulous in it. Right?”

“Definitely.” Charlene had helped Felicity select the sweater because the surplice cut would set off her roommate’s curvaceous figure beautifully.

Felicity shrugged. “Maybe you’re just as wrong about Dane as Sarah-Jane is about herself.”

Meredith’s head bobbed in agreement.

“I turned him down,” Charlene reminded. “I know him. I know his pride. He won’t ask again.” When she’d returned from California and started up her boutique in Red Rock, it had been a whole year before Dane had given her so much as the time of day, despite the long-standing friendship between their families.

And it’d been another three months after that before he’d asked her out.

They’d driven to San Antonio. And hadn’t come home for two days.

She hadn’t expected being with him to be so wondrous. But it had been.

Nor had she expected anything serious to develop. But it had. By summer, he’d proposed. And she’d panicked.

“And I don’t want him to ask me again,” she pre-empted before they could question her about it. “Our friends have been families since my mother and his were schoolgirls together. Better to have a romance that went nowhere than a divorce that tears everyone apart. Turning him down was the right thing to do. We never could have made a marriage work. It was better to say no.”

Felicity looked unconvinced. “I can’t get a man to even think of me and marriage in the same sentence. Dane Dalton has wanted to marry you for more ‘n a decade. For a romance going nowhere, that’s a long time. What if it did work between you?”

“I can’t let myself wonder things like that,” Charlene returned, as much for herself as for them. She was already going crazy second-guessing herself.

Unfortunately, the two younger women weren’t so quick to agree. “But what if you’re wrong,” Meredith persisted. Her eyes were practically starry. “What if you and Dane are fated to be together? Felicity’s right. He’s wanted to marry you for all these years! Don’t you think that’s romantic?”

Charlene pinched the bridge of her nose, willing away the pain there. But the headache from her unshed tears was nothing compared to the ache she’d been carrying for months now. She dropped her hand, reaching for another truffle. “Dane’s all about tradition. The only reason he asked me to marry him the first time was so he’d have a clear conscience when he got me into bed with him.” Something that ironically hadn’t occurred until nine months ago. When Charlene had quickly realized that nothing she’d felt with any other man compared to the feelings Dane roused in her.

“Back then, he wanted me barefoot and pregnant and stuck in Red Rock for the rest of my life,” she finished abruptly, trying not to dwell on how badly she still missed him now. “He even joked about it.”

Meredith’s mouth rounded. “Stuck? I love

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