Out of the shower and into the fire…

Thad winked at Janey flirtatiously. “And here you thought I was just a dumb son of a gun who tells jocks how to push a puck around the ice.”

“I don’t think you’re dumb,” Janey said as he slid off the stool and shut off the stove.

“You don’t?” He slanted a questioning glance at her.

Janey climbed off her stool and went to stand next to him. “A dumb guy couldn’t have gotten me out of my clothes and into his shower within the first fifteen minutes of my arrival tonight.”

Thad grinned as he leaned back against the counter, folded his arms and gave her the sexy once-over. “You do look rather nice in my robe,” he allowed in a low tone.

“And,” Janey said recklessly, opening it and letting it fall to the floor as her romantic notions about Thad Lantz took over full force, “I look even better without it.”

Dear Reader,

From the moment of conception, a mother feels a fierce desire to protect her child and ensure that child’s happiness. Guys love watching and playing and learning about sports. And therein lies the rub, because all sports carry with them the threat of disappointment and injury.

Janey Hart Campbell grew up with five boisterous brothers and she knows firsthand how much joy athletics bring to growing boys. She has also seen the destructive side of unrealized ambition and crushed dreams and she fears her son’s overriding interest in hockey is not just hurting his schoolwork and causing a rift between the two of them, but also taking him into dangerous territory….

The last thing professional hockey coach Thaddeus Lantz wants to do is get in the middle of a mother-son conflict, but when twelve-year-old Christopher pours out his heart to Thad and asks for his help, Thad can’t say no. He makes it his business to talk to the feisty Janey. And as they say, life is never the same again….

I hope you enjoy The Secret Wedding Wish as much as I enjoyed writing it. For more information on my novels, you can visit my Web site at www.cathygillenthacker.com.

Sincerely,

Cathy Gillen Thacker
The Secret Wedding Wish

MILLS & BOON

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This book is for Jacob Talmadge Gerhardt.

Hero material. Definitely.

Welcome to the family, little one.

Contents

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 One

Janey Hart Campbell saw the Hart family posse coming as she turned the Closed sign in the window of Delectable Cakes. Knowing full well the last thing she needed was an emotional confrontation with all five of her very big and very opinionated brothers about her excessively sports-minded twelve-year-old son, Christopher, she ducked back out of sight of the old-fashioned plate glass windows and hightailed it to the back of her bakery. Grabbing purse and keys, she dashed out the back door, and ran right smack into the tall man standing on the other side of the threshold.

Immediately, Janey became aware of several things. The wall of testosterone she had just crashed into was a lot taller than she was. Probably six foot four or so to her five-foot-nine-inch frame. Not to mention all muscle, from the width and breadth of his powerful chest and shoulders, to his trim waist, lean hips and rock-hard thighs. He was casually dressed, in expensive sneakers, old jeans and a short-sleeved white cotton polo shirt that contrasted nicely with his suntanned skin. He smelled awfully nice, too, like a mixture of masculine soap and fresh-cut Carolina pines. His dark brown hair was the color of espresso, thick and curly, shorn neatly around the sides and back of his head. Longer on top, the three-quarter-inch strands brushed at the top of his forehead.

Individually, the features on his long, angular face were strong and unremarkable. But put together with those long-lashed electric blue eyes, don’t-even-think-about-messing-with-me-jaw, and the sexy mustache that topped his sensually chiseled lips, the midthirty-something man looked good enough to put even someone like Mel Gibson to shame. More curiously yet, the handsome stranger was staring down at her as if he had expected her to come bursting out of her shop and run headlong into him.

“They said you were going to do this,” he murmured with a beleaguered sigh.

Finally, Janey had the presence of mind to step back a pace, so there was a good half a foot of space between them. “Do what?” she demanded, aware her pulse was racing as she stood staring up at him.

He planted a big hand on her shoulder. “Run.”

“And we were right, weren’t we?” Dylan Hart said in the same know-it-all tone he used during his job as TV sportscaster, while he rounded the corner of the century-old building.

“Pay up,” Fletcher Hart insisted, as he entered the alley that ran behind Main Street and sauntered up to the stranger.

“Don’t forget. You owe me a beer.” Cal Hart—who was still wearing his physician’s badge from the medical center—grinned victoriously.

Janey glared at Cal. “Don’t you have a surgery to perform or an athlete somewhere who needs your sports medicine expertise?”

“Nope.” Cal smiled. “I’m all yours. For the moment, anyway.”

“Great,” Janey groused. Just what she needed after an entire day spent baking wedding cakes for this weekend’s weddings.

Mac Hart shook his head at Janey. For once, he was without his Holly Springs Sheriff uniform and badge. “When are you going to learn you can’t avoid your problems by running away?” Mac chided.

Janey folded her arms in front of her. Just because she had fled North Carolina once, in her teens, did not mean she was going to do it again. At thirty-three, she knew what she wanted out of life, and it was right here in Holly Springs, North Carolina—the town she had grown up in.

But not about to admit that to her nosy, interfering brothers, she sassed right back. “I don’t know. Seems to me I’ve been doing a pretty good job ducking all of your phone calls.”

“And look where it’s gotten you,” Joe Hart pointed out disapprovingly. Clad in running shorts and a T-shirt bearing the Carolina Storm insignia, her only married brother looked as if he had just come from one of his summer conditioning workouts.

The mystery man Janey had run into arched his brow. “Maybe we should take this inside?” he suggested mildly.

“Good idea,” her brothers concurred.

That swiftly, Janey found herself propelled out of the July heat and back into the air-conditioned comfort of her shop. To her consternation, the sexy stranger was still with them. Janey wrinkled her nose at him, wishing he weren’t so darned cute. “Do I know you?” she asked cautiously, perplexed. Now that she studied him some more, he looked awfully familiar. Like she had seen him on TV, or in the newspaper, or a magazine, maybe. Certainly, he carried himself with the confident authority of someone used to being recognized and then thoroughly scrutinized.

Joe rolled his eyes in exasperation. “Oh, for Pete’s sake! This is Thaddeus Lantz. Head coach of the Carolina Storm professional hockey team. The one I am now playing for!” he reminded her.

“Oh, yeah.” Janey bit her lip as her eyes slid to Thad Lantz’s and held. Now it was coming back to her. As well as the reason she had not wanted to recognize the savvy strategist.

DURING THE COURSE OF HIS coaching career, Thad Lantz had become used to all sorts of reactions to what he did. But never had anyone gone from the undeniable spark of mutual attraction to such utter loathing and suspicion so darn fast. And that was a shame. He hadn’t ever been so physically drawn to a woman from the very first second they met, hadn’t ever wanted to immediately take a woman into his arms, and into his bed.

Not that this was a surprise. Janey Hart Campbell was amazingly gorgeous and sexy, in the way that only a woman really coming into her own for the very first time could be. He guessed she was in her early thirties, a couple years younger than him. Her chestnut hair was thick, straight, and silky. He couldn’t tell how long it was, since she had it caught up in a clip on the back of her head. But he was willing to bet at least shoulder-length. Her feisty amber eyes were framed by long lashes and delicate brows the same chestnut shade as her hair. She had a full lower lip, just made for kissing. A stubborn chin. And peachy gold skin. There was a dusting of freckles across her nose and a lifetime of knowledge in her woman’s eyes. Lower still, were lush curves every bit as beautiful and tempting and feminine as her elegant, oval face. All in all, a very nice-looking package. Too bad, Thad thought with mounting regret, she only had heated resentment for him.

Janey turned to Joe. “You put him up to this, didn’t you?” she accused.

Thad normally tried his best to stay out of family matters. This time he thought it best he intervene. He stepped forward, putting himself between Janey and Joe. “Actually, I’m the one who contacted your brother, Joe,” he confessed kindly.

“And I’m the guilty party who summoned the rest of our brothers,” Joe said.

Mac Hart, the oldest, looked at his younger sister with compassion. “We understand why you feel the way you do, Janey, but this overprotectiveness of yours has got to stop,” he stated firmly.

Dylan agreed emphatically. “Christopher has the right to choose his own particular path in life.”

“Oh, for heaven’s sake! He’s twelve!” Janey protested in complete exasperation.

“And already thinking ahead to his future,” Cal said proudly. “That’s to be commended.”

Janey folded her arms at her waist, the movement tucking her white cotton chef’s jacket tighter across her full breasts and enviably slender waist. “Not if his thinking is leading him in the wrong direction!” she fumed.

“Who says it’s the wrong direction?” the normally amiable Fletcher Hart scowled. “Bottom line is this, Janey. We are not going to let you turn that boy into a sissy!”

Janey’s eyes widened in indignation. “Just because I want Christopher to concentrate on what’s really important does not mean I’m out of line. And in fact, if anyone is out of line it is the five of you. Siccing the Hart Posse on me, indeed!”

Thad exchanged glances with all five of her brothers. Clearly, Janey was not going to listen to her brothers. “Maybe I should take it from here, fellas,” he said amiably.

“Oh, no, you don’t.” Janey blocked the door before her brothers could take their leave. “You guys have something to say to me?” she stormed, color flooding her high elegantly boned cheeks. “You tell me right now!”

Joe looked his sister straight in the eye. “Why did you tell Christopher he can’t attend hockey camp this summer?” he asked like the no-excuses professional athlete he was.

Janey’s amber eyes turned even stormier. “Because Chris is enrolled in summer school to make up the math class he flunked last spring. And summer school is held at the same time as camp.”

Sounded plausible, Thad thought, even as he tried to ignore the defensive note in her low voice.

“Did you even try to make other arrangements?” Cal asked.

“You’re breaking his heart,” Fletch concurred.

“You know, if it’s really a question of cash that is preventing you from enrolling Chris,” Mac volunteered quickly, “you could’ve come to any one of us and we would have been more than happy to help you out.”

Janey’s discomfiture turned to dismay. Suddenly it became very quiet as Janey asked very slowly and succinctly, “Where did you get that idea?”

All five Hart brothers looked at Thad.

Because he didn’t want to embarrass her any more than she had already been, he reluctantly pulled the letter he had received—and shown—out of his jeans pocket and handed it to her. Janey’s brow lifted quizzically. “What is this?”

“Read it,” Thad said, knowing when she did she would understand why the rest of them were so concerned about her son.

Janey folded her arms in front of her. “You read it.”

“O-kay,” Thad said, looking her up and down skeptically. “But I would think since you’re his mother you would want to read it yourself.”

“Oh, for pity’s sake. Never mind!” Janey snatched it away from him.

“Dear Coach Lantz,” she began reading out loud. “I think you are the best coach in the NHL and I want to come to camp so bad, especially now that my uncle Joe is gonna be playing for the Storm. But my mom says we don’t have the money this year. And that’s probably on account of my dad dying and us moving back here to be close to family. I know how hard my mom works, baking cakes, and I don’t think she can work any harder. So what I was thinking is this. Could I maybe come to camp this year and then work off the cost for you by picking up towels or cleaning the locker room or mowing your lawn or something? I’d do anything. I just want to play. Sincerely, Christopher Hart Campbell. P.S. You can reach me at 111 Shady Lane in Holly Springs or by phone.”

Her face pale, Janey let the note fall to her side.

Thad looked at her brothers. “I think I can take it from here,” he told them confidently.

ALL FIVE of Janey’s brothers filtered out. Janey looked as if she had never felt more mortified than she did at that very moment, and Thad could understand why. Her son had just done an end run around her, by taking a problem outside the family. Thad saw it as a sign he was growing up. Something for which Chris was to be commended. Janey seemed to think it was a sign she had failed her son, for not being available to him in the way Christopher needed her to be. She turned to Coach Lantz. Her peachy gold skin was ashen, her eyes turbulent with emotion.

“I don’t know what to say except I’m very sorry my son put you in an awkward position.”

“Don’t be sorry,” Thad advised. “Just fix it.”

She held his steady, probing gaze. “Our situation is more complicated than it seems,” Janey muttered at last.

“I’m sure it is,” Thad agreed.

Janey regarded him suspiciously. “That’s it? You’re not going to try and convince me to let Christopher attend hockey camp?”

Thad shrugged, and decided to take the opposite approach of what she was obviously expecting. “You want to break his heart by denying him the opportunity to chase his dreams, that’s your business.”

Janey flushed at his blunt, matter-of-fact tone. “You don’t understand the circumstances,” she insisted.

Thad pulled out a chair at the white wrought-iron table in the corner. He sank into it and waited for her to do the same. “I know your late husband was Ty Campbell, and that he nearly made the US Olympic ski team.”

Janey shook her head bitterly. “Nearly being the operative word.”

“That’s something to be proud of,” Thad replied, stretching his long legs out in front of him.

Her eyes held such sadness as she sat down. “Being an alternate made my husband miserable.”

“And by association you and Chris,” Thad guessed.

‘That’s right.”

“Fortunately, we’re not meeting to talk about your late husband. We’re here to talk about your son.” He looked at her sincerely. “I’ve got to tell you. I’ve been coaching hockey fifteen years now—and running camps during that time—and I’ve never had a letter like the one he sent me.”

Janey shrugged her slender shoulders. “He’s a resourceful kid.”

“Obviously.” As they both tried to get comfortable in chairs that were more ice-cream-shop-style decorative than utilitarian, their knees bumped. Rubbed. Pulled apart.

Janey dragged her thumb across the lacy scrollwork pattern on the table. “But he doesn’t need to play hockey this summer to be happy.”

Thad studied the defensive posture of her spine. “I don’t think you can make that decision for him.”

“Don’t tell me what I can or cannot do, Coach Lantz!” She jumped up and began to pace the shop, her hips moving provocatively beneath the loose-fitting white cotton baker’s trousers. “Chris is my son. I get to say if he plays hockey or not.”

Thad tried not to think what her legs might look like. Were they as sexy and curvaceous as the rest of her? Struggling to keep his mind on the conversation at hand—instead of where this inherent attraction between them might lead—he turned his glance to her face. “And?” he demanded impatiently, irked with himself for getting sidetracked.

Janey gestured broadly with two delicately shaped hands. “And up until now I’ve allowed it.”

“Because?” Thad prodded, curious as to whether her hands would feel as soft and silky as they looked, despite the fact she worked with them all day.

Janey folded her arms in front of her and regarded Thad stubbornly. “It wasn’t skiing, or worse, the avalanche-skiing that led to his own father’s death. Somehow hockey seemed a safer path—psychologically—to follow. But now it’s becoming an obsession,” she said worriedly.

Thad stood and closed the distance between them. “Maybe he’s meant to go pro, like his uncle Joe.”

“And maybe he’s not. Maybe Joe’s success has fueled Chris with false expectations and unrealistic dreams.”

“So you’re going to do what?” Thad queried in a dry tone meant to make her come to her senses and see how foolish she was being. “Deny him the opportunity to try?”

Janey gave him a measuring look. “Joe left home at sixteen. Did you know that?”

Thad was close enough to smell the deliciously sweet fragrance of vanilla and confectioner’s sugar clinging to her hair and skin. “To play in the junior league up in Canada.”

“Right. Mom wanted him to go to college and play there, if he wanted, on a university team. But Joe couldn’t wait, so he did terrible in all his high-school classes and he begged and pleaded until Mom finally gave in.”

“Not unlike most pro hockey players, I imagine. It’s in their blood. And in their hearts.”

“Which is fine, if they make it to the big time,” she said, desperation in her eyes. “But if they don’t. If they spend years chasing a certain vision and their dream never comes true, they become disillusioned and bitter.”

“Not always,” Thad disagreed. “Sometimes they become coaches.”

Her lips parted as she looked up at him. “You—?”

“Tried to go pro. Didn’t have the speed. So I took another path.”

She leaned back against the display counter, her elbows propped high on either side of her. “You’re the exception, not the rule.”

Thad shrugged and tried not to notice how nice she looked in profile. “Chris seems pretty exceptional, too.”

Janey turned her head to face him. “I’m not going to let him play hockey this summer.”

“Your son has already lost a father,” he reminded her calmly.

Janey stiffened, and swung all the way around to face him. “So?” She squared off with him deliberately.

“So you don’t think it’d do him good to be around a lot of positive male role models?”

She shrugged and assumed a look of extreme boredom. “Who also happen to play hockey for a living.”

She was making a dig at his profession, too, but he refused to take the bait. “They’re good guys. They share a common interest with Chris. And at his age, he needs to go out and mix it up a little bit, burn off some of that excess physical energy in a healthy, positive way.”

Janey glared at Thad. “He does plenty of guy stuff as it is,” she protested hotly.

“Such as?” Thad taunted softly, knowing if the subject weren’t so serious he would really be tempted to seize upon the fireworks building between them and kiss her.

“Camping.” As soon as the word was out of her mouth, Janey looked like she regretted it.

Which perversely made Thad want to take her in his arms all the more.

“You take him camping?” Thad ascertained, knowing bluster when he saw it, even if she didn’t realize it.

“I’m going to this very weekend, as it happens,” Janey boasted, looking determined to prove Thad and all five of her brothers wrong.

In for a penny, in for a pound, Thad thought.

“You’ll see,” she promised smugly, determination sparking in her pretty eyes. “This trip alone will provide Chris with all the summer adventure and physical challenge a boy his age needs.”

“AH, PLEASE. She’s not going to take him camping,” Joe Hart snorted, as the waitress set down a pitcher of beer and a bucket of peanuts in the center of their table. Thad filled Janey’s brothers in on the rest of his conversation with their headstrong sister. “The Great Outdoors isn’t Janey’s thing, never has been,” Joe concluded.

Thad sipped his beer. “Well, she says they’re going.”

Looking as at home in the bar as he did commentating sports events on TV, Dylan Hart tipped lazily back in his chair. “Did she say where?”

Thad nodded. “Lake Pine.” It was a state recreation area, an hour or so away.

Mac Hart frowned and rubbed a hand across his chest. “The trail around the lake is easy enough, but it can be pretty miserable physically this time of year. Hot, muggy, uncomfortable.”

Fletcher Hart agreed. “Not to mention all the mosquitoes and chiggers.” He shook his head. “Hope she remembers the insect repellent or they’ll both be eaten alive.”

Cal took a sip of beer. “Isn’t it supposed to rain tomorrow?” he asked as he broke open another roasted shell and dug out the peanuts inside. “Sunday, too?”

Joe scowled, obviously still as peeved as Thad at the way Janey refused to support her son’s athletic ambition. “Maybe that’s what she needs, a little bad experience at Lake Pine to make her feel that a few turns around a hockey rink aren’t such a bad deal after all.” It certainly hadn’t been for Joe, who was in the midst of a successful pro hockey career.

Thad knew Janey’s brothers had a point. There was no more potent teacher than experience, particularly bad experience. On the other hand, he had been caught out in foul weather, with only camping gear to protect him. It wasn’t an experience he would wish on anyone else. Particularly if there were thunderstorms, a hopelessly headstrong woman, and twelve-year-old boy involved. “You can’t seriously think she would head off with a backpack and tent if bad weather is brewing,” Thad said finally.

The Hart brothers exchanged glances and shrugged. Finally, Cal spoke for all of them. “She might if she were hell-bent on proving a point. Not that it really matters. Ten to one, if it does rain, they’ll end up in the park lodge before nightfall.”

It wasn’t his business, Thad told himself as he left. If Janey’s brothers were willing to let her tough it out and make her own mistakes, he surely ought to be able to do the same. Especially if the ultimate result was Janey letting Chris pursue his dreams. But even as Thad pushed the problem from his mind, an image kept coming back of a tall slender woman with thick chestnut hair and amber eyes.

Chapter Two

“Are you sure you want to do this, Mom?” Chris asked, as Janey lugged the sleeping bags and backpacks out into the living room.

For the tenth time that morning, he walked over to the telephone answering machine and checked to make sure there were no new messages. “I mean, camping out was never your thing. It was something Dad and I did.” His face took on that pinched look it got whenever his father’s name came up.

The guilt she had been feeling ever since he’d begun asking to go to camp intensified. Her son might be only twelve, but he was growing up so fast now. And she wasn’t just talking about the growth spurt he’d been undergoing that had him—at five foot ten—standing an inch above her and left his gangly arms and legs looking too long for his body. His face was undergoing changes, too. Oh, he still had the dusting of light brown freckles across his sturdy Hart nose, and Janey’s stubborn chin and Ty’s deep blue eyes, but his boyishness was fading. In its place was a hint of the strong and gutsy man he would become. “I’m sorry I haven’t taken you,” Janey told him sincerely.

“That’s okay.” Chris rushed to reassure her, as he straightened the Carolina Storm cap he wore overtop of his close-cropped chestnut hair, with the brim turned to shade the back of his neck. Chris looked at Janey with enough understanding to break her heart. “I know you’ve been real busy. And that money’s tight right now.”

“Not that tight,” Janey said, trying to shake off a pang of guilt. Maybe that’s what this whole got-to-play-hockey-to-live thing with her son was about. Maybe he just wanted her attention. Wanted to somehow fill the void in his life left by his dad’s death two years before. Janey had assumed that Chris had worked through his grief, just as she had, and accepted the fact that from now on it was going to be just the two of them. But the fact Chris had elevated Thad Lantz to hero status—and then reached out to Thad in such a personal, unexpected way—told her that was not the case.

Her son wanted a man in his life he could hero-worship the same way he had Ty. For reasons unbeknownst to Janey, Chris had bypassed all five of his uncles and selected Thad Lantz to fit the bill. A fact that put her in a very awkward situation, the physical attraction she felt for Thad notwithstanding.

“What about our mail?” Chris worried out loud, looking out the window at the black mailbox next to the curb. “What are we going to do about that?”

“We can get it tomorrow evening, when we come back home,” Janey promised.

Chris looked even more pained.

“I’ll just check, and make sure there isn’t anything out there now,” he said, racing out the door and down the sidewalk.

Watching him open the metal lid, Janey sighed. She knew what he was looking for—a response from Thad Lantz.

Which was another reason she had to get her son out of town. She wanted Chris to be in a positive frame of mind when she explained to him why he couldn’t go to summer hockey camp this year. And she didn’t want any of her brothers around when she did so.

Chris peered at the sky a short while later as they lugged their gear out to the minivan. It was light gray, with darker clouds here and there. “Kind of looks like rain.”

“I looked at the weather radar when I got up this morning,” Janey reassured him. “The storms are supposed to hit well east of Lake Pine. We should be okay.”

THAD HAD NO PLANS for the weekend, but figured he might as well enjoy his time off while he could. So he booked a room at the lodge at Lake Pine, figuring if the weather held he could rent a boat and take it out on the lake and do some fishing, and if it didn’t, well, the restaurant there was fair, the view scenic. And as long as he was headed out that way, he figured he could do the Sir Galahad routine, if necessary.

By the time he was halfway there, the skies opened up. It was still raining cats and dogs as he turned his Lincoln Navigator in to the deserted parking lot of the campsite registration center late Saturday afternoon. Thad wasn’t surprised to see the flat-roofed concrete building was empty except for the uniformed park ranger seated behind the desk. If it weren’t for his prickling conscience—the feeling that his actions had somehow goaded Janey Hart Campbell and her son Chris into an ill-scheduled backpacking trip—he wouldn’t be here, either.

“Hi, I’m Thad Lantz.” He held out his palm.

“Coach for the Carolina Storm. I recognize you.” The ranger, a clean-cut man in his late forties shook hands with him. “Hell of a run the team made last year. Think you’ll make it to the Stanley Cup this year?”

Thad smiled, relieved to meet a fan. He rarely played on his own celebrity. Today was the exception and he would use it to the hilt.

“One can hope. Which in a roundabout way is why I’m here. Family of one of my players are supposed to be backpacking here this weekend. Janey Hart Campbell and her son Christopher. Given the ugly turn in the weather, there’s been some concern.” And all on my part, Thad added to himself. “Since I was on my way out here, I volunteered to check up on them, make sure they were okay.”

The ranger hesitated. “Normally, this isn’t the kind of information we’d give out, you understand.”

Thad nodded soberly. Normally it wasn’t the kind of information he would be asking for, either. But something about Janey Hart Campbell’s vulnerability had gotten to him yesterday. And he had seen, firsthand, just how stubborn, fiercely independent, and single-minded she was. Plus, he knew the fact she and her son were here at all today was probably his fault, for letting his conversation with her end without some sort of solution to the sticky situation. And that was unlike him, too. He was a take-charge kind of guy. Used to handling all sorts of people. He should have insisted he be able to talk to her son, even if it was only to tell Chris gently there was nothing he could do for him about hockey camp this year. But he had let the problem linger on because he had wanted a reason to see her again.

“But under the circumstances I guess I can tell you they were in here about three hours ago and headed out on the trail,” the ranger continued.

As Thad had driven closer, he’d seen the torrents of rain pounding the area. “Did they have enough time to get to their assigned campsite before the rain hit?” he asked hopefully.

The ranger shook his head. “It’s a good four-hour hike, without packs. And it started raining about an hour and a half ago.”

“Is there any way to check, without hiking it myself, to make sure they’re okay?”

“We don’t take jeeps out on those trails unless it’s an emergency, and right now, without any lightning or thunder—”

The door opened behind Thad. He and the ranger turned simultaneously. “Well, speak of the devil.” The ranger grinned. He nodded at the drenched Janey and her son Christopher, as they unbuckled their harnesses and set down their packs.

They couldn’t have been any wetter had they jumped into the lake for a swim. And yet, Thad noted, Janey still looked amazingly beautiful. Even with soppy wet clothes, drenched hair and exertion-red cheeks.

“Coach Lantz here was looking for you two.”

Janey briefly caught Thad’s eyes while her son stared at him, agog.

“I bet I know what you want to talk to me about, too,” Chris said, immediately excited as a pained expression crossed Janey’s pretty face.

Before her son could say anything else, she turned her back to Thad.

He had been wondering the other day about her legs. No more. As he got his first look at them, he noted they were as shapely and feminine as the rest of her. The skin was silky smooth and lightly tanned beneath the hem of her knee-length walking shorts. Her ankles were trim, too, in slouchy socks, her dainty feet encased in sturdy albeit quite wet and muddy hiking boots.

He had a very nice view of her derriere as she quickly asked the ranger, “Is there any way we can get a ride back to my van? It’s at the other end of the hiking trail.”

The ranger checked his watch. “The shuttle will be by in another forty minutes. Because you got rained out, you can apply your campsite fee to a lodge room rent for the night. I can go ahead and do that for you now, if you want, on this computer.”

“Can we, Mom?” Chris asked eagerly.

Janey seemed to be torn between wanting to just go home, and wanting to keep her promise of a weekend getaway to her son.

“When the weather turns bad like this, the lodge fills up fast,” the ranger warned.

Janey glanced at her son. It was clear that Christopher wanted to stay. She turned back to the ranger. “Sure,” she said, although Thad noted her cheerful smile seemed forced. “We appreciate it.”

“Happy to help.” The ranger typed in several commands. He tore off a slip and handed it to Janey. “Just give that to the front desk when you check in.”

“I can give you a ride,” Thad said casually.

Janey looked stunned by his chivalry. “To my minivan?”

“Or the lodge first. Wherever you want.” He didn’t know why it mattered to him. He wasn’t the kind of guy to assume anyone else’s personal troubles, especially those involving someone else’s child. But he couldn’t just walk away and leave Janey and her son sitting there, like two drenched rats, when a lodge room with a warm shower and hopefully dry clothes was a mere ten-to-fifteen-minute car ride away.

“That settles it then,” the ranger said as the phone behind his desk rang.

Thad opened the door. Janey hesitated for only a moment, then swept through.

JANEY COULDN’T BELIEVE she had run into him now, of all times, when she was looking like a wet dishrag! Not that it was an accident. Clearly, he had come here looking for her and Chris. At the behest of her brothers again? Probably. She didn’t know why but that rankled more than if he had just come searching her out on his own.

Not that she was the least bit interested in him. Ruggedly attractive or not, he was the kind of man she needed to steer clear of.

“Sorry your camping trip was cut short,” Thad remarked as he hit the keyless entry pad and unlocked the door to his big Lincoln Navigator.

“We don’t mind. Do we, Mom?” Chris gave Thad yet another adoring glance as he headed for the right rear passenger door and jumped in.

Janey was about to follow him when Thad stepped ahead and opened the front passenger door for her.

“Let me take that for you.” He relieved her of her heavy backpack and the additional nylon food bag and camp stove.

Janey slid in, while Thad stowed her gear in the cargo area, behind the seats. Leave it to her to get stuck with a man who was so well-liked and respected within the community she would be hard pressed to find fault with him.

“This is so awesome!” Chris said as Thad slid behind the wheel. Unlike Janey, Thad was barely wet, and looked handsome and pulled together in khaki slacks, dark blue knit sport shirt and lightweight windbreaker. Just like before, he smelled like a mixture of masculine soap and shampoo and fresh-cut Carolina pines. Another shimmer of awareness sifted through her.

“’Cause I’ve been wanting to talk to you, Coach,” Chris continued exuberantly, leaning forward in his seat. “You probably don’t know this but I wrote you a letter about going to your camp, seeing if I could get some sort of scholarship or work to help me pay for it—”

Thad looked at Janey, as well aware as she that thanks to her insistence on cutting their meeting short, nothing had been decided yet.

“Actually,” Thad told her son, as guilt flowed through Janey anew and he turned around to face Chris, “that’s why I was looking for you and your mom today. I did receive your letter. And I knew it was something that should be discussed.”

Chris’s face lit up like the sky on the Fourth of July. “Did you hear that, Mom? He’s gonna let me go to camp, even if we can’t pay for it all up front. Isn’t that great?”

Janey knew nothing of the kind had been promised. Just as she knew she hadn’t seen her son looking so excited about anything since…well, since never. He had been through so much. Losing his father. Moving cross-country. If playing hockey helped him get past the last of his grief, and feel real joy again, who was she to deny him? “Actually…” Janey took a deep breath. “You don’t need a scholarship, Chris. I’ve taken care of that.” Or I will soon, she amended silently. “And you can go to summer hockey camp next week on two conditions. First, you get permisson from your summer school teacher and are able to get an excused absence from your math class. And second, that you do all the makeup work!”

“No problem,” Chris enthused, making the victory sign with his fist. “I’ll talk to her Monday, first thing.”

“Camp starts one week from tomorrow, and runs through the following Friday afternoon,” Thad said.

Chris beamed, looking like every wish he had ever dreamed had just come true. “This is the best summer ever!”

Janey only wished.

“I’M TRYING TO AVOID being recognized again. What’s your excuse?”

Actually, Janey had been trying to avoid running into Thad Lantz for fear of hearing him say “I told you so” or something similar. Not easy in an establishment the size of the Lake Pine Lodge, where there was only one restaurant and lounge.

“What can I say? I can’t get enough of the rain,” Janey fibbed, as she leaned back against the side of the building that fronted the terrace, watching the rain pour off the overhang in sheets. There was just enough room for the two of them to stand there, side by side, without being seen or getting wet.

“Now why aren’t I buying that?” Thad murmured, moving closer yet.

Because it’s not true, Janey thought, taking a sip of scalding coffee, laced with both brandy and cream. She tried desperately to ignore his tall, broad-shouldered silhouette and warm herself up. Since coming in off the trail, she had taken a long hot shower and dressed in the warmest clothes she had with her—a long-sleeved yellow T-shirt and pair of olive green hiking shorts, knee socks, and her now cleaned-up boots. She had used the hotel blow-dryer to dry her chestnut hair, but because of the nature of the trip she’d had no styling products to put in it, and the continuing humidity had it curling wildly and uncontrollably to her shoulders.

Not that Thad Lantz seemed to mind. The ruggedly handsome coach was staring down at her as if she were the loveliest creature on earth.

Janey did her best to contain another shiver as she took a second sip of coffee and tried not to think about how deep down she had been secretly hoping she’d be forced to talk to Thad again this evening, despite everything.

She tilted her head at him, noticing how masculine and at ease he looked in the glow of the terrace lanterns. He was wearing the same clothes he’d had on earlier—minus the windbreaker, of course—but it looked as if he had shaved again. Ran a brush through his own naturally curly hair, and somehow tidied—or trimmed—his dark mustache. If she didn’t know better, she’d think he was on the prowl for some romance himself. But men on the prowl for romance didn’t hide on the outside terrace in the rain on a dark and stormy July evening.

Wondering if his hair would feel as silky and thick as it looked beneath her fingertips, she turned her glance away and concentrated on her coffee. She wished he would quit contemplating her as if he wanted to kiss her. Wished she would quit wanting him to. Just to satisfy her considerable feminine curiosity, of course, since she had never been kissed by a man with a mustache.

“Don’t you have something better to do?” she asked wryly.

He shrugged and his smile widened as he spoke in a low, sexy voice that did funny things to her insides. “Don’t you?”

So much for shooing him away.

For the first time Janey noticed he had some coffee with him, too. Irish, if her nose was telling her correctly.

He took a sip as he eyed her seriously. “Where’s Chris?”

“Video arcade.” Was it her imagination or was this terrace getting smaller by the minute? She swallowed around the sudden parched feeling in her throat and tried to pretend being alone with him like this didn’t bother her in the least. “Since the storm knocked out all the cable TV for the evening, and the kids can’t swim or play on the tennis courts due to the rain, the management gave the kids free tokens to use.”

Deciding she was much too close to him, she backed up a step.

He smiled at her as if reading her thoughts, but stayed where he was, lounging against the rough-hewn log wall of the lodge. “Chris must have liked that.”

“Oh, yeah.” Janey warmed at the caring in his voice. “There are probably fifty kids down there.”

He turned, so his shoulder was bracing the wall, and let his glance drift lazily over her. His smile broadened as he returned to her eyes. “Enough machines?”

Janey’s heart skipped a beat at the sexual awareness shimmering between them. She hadn’t wanted anyone in such a long time. She didn’t know what to do with the yearning. “They’ve got a couple of busboys down there, running some sort of competition and keeping order.” Everyone had seemed very happy when Janey left to find amusement for herself—or was it really distraction from all her ridiculously uncalled-for, unexpectedly romantic thoughts?

He drained the rest of his coffee, then set the empty mug on one of the tables to the left of them. “You made the right decision—letting Chris go to camp after all.”

“Yes, well…”

He went back to leaning against the building, his muscular arms folded in front of his solid-looking chest. He studied her with narrowed eyes, then ascertained gently, “But you’re still not happy about it, are you?”

That was putting it lightly, Janey thought. Chris was so much like his father. Ty’s unrealized athletic dreams and the resulting bitterness had poisoned Ty’s soul, as well as his marriage to her. The only saving grace had been Ty’s love for Chris, and his determination to shield his son from his own shattered hopes. She didn’t want Chris’s thwarted goals or frustrations in that regard poisoning their relationship, too. But she knew, with the odds against actually achieving the kind of pro career Chris dreamed about, that it was a definite possibility if he started on this track and did not get where he wanted. But loath to get into all that with Thad, she said simply, “He still has to get permission from his summer school teacher.”

Thad continued regarding her seriously. “I imagine that can be arranged.” He edged closer. “I’ve been thinking about what you said, though. About your brother Joe’s stardom giving Chris unrealistic expectations of his own.”

“And?” Janey drained her mug and set it aside, too.

“All kids his age have stars in their eyes. But there’s a way to bring him back to earth.”

“I’m listening,” Janey murmured.

“He wanted to work off his tuition anyway, right?”

Janey nodded.

“So let him work at the practice facility, picking up towels and stuff in the locker room, for an hour or two every day. Let him see how grueling and demanding the sport is for professional hockey players.”

“I agree that would definitely help, in that regard.” Janey bit her lip uncertainly as a gust of rain-drenched wind blew across them, making her shiver.

“But?” Thad prodded, as he reached up to brush a strand of hair from her face and tuck it behind her ear.

Tingling all over from just that light casual touch, Janey shoved her hands in her pockets and tried not to think how it would feel to be held against that broad chest as she turned her face up to his. “How is being around all those jocks going to help him stay serious about his schoolwork?”

Thad gave her the slow and tender once-over. “I’ll talk to him, tell him how much I learned playing on a college team. And I’ll have the other players who went the university route talk to him, too.”

“Thanks.”

“So does this mean we’re not enemies anymore?” he teased, his electric blue eyes twinkling.

Janey’s mouth dropped into a round O of surprise as she fortified herself against the sexy mischief suddenly in his eyes. Sensing that this commanding coach could be dangerous to her heart if given half a chance, she unlocked their gazes, vowing she would not let this shift into a flirtation. “I never said—”

“Didn’t have to,” Thad murmured, coming so close she couldn’t help but inhale his clean, pine-scented fragrance.

“I know your type,” he informed her softly as he wrapped both his arms about her waist, and guided her close.

“And that is?”

He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to the back of it, sending another tingle of awareness arrowing through her. Still holding her eyes with provoking gallantry, he said, “You think you want Mr. Sensitive.”

Janey’s heart raced as her arms flattened against his chest, holding him at bay. “I hardly find anything wrong with that.”

“When what you really want is a Real Man.”

Janey did her best to smother a laugh. The one thing she never had been able to resist was a sense of humor. “And what category are you in, pray tell?” she teased right back.

“Kiss me,” Thad urged huskily, his head already lowering as he looked deep into her eyes. “And see.”

Chapter Three

Thad hadn’t planned this. He knew it would have been better had he not gotten involved with Janey Hart Campbell at all in a personal way, but there was just something about her that kept him coming back for more, that had him wanting to take her in his arms and kiss her passionately from the very first. And now that her soft lips were beneath his, and he could feel the sweet surrender of her body melting into his, there was no stopping with just one kiss, no pretending something incredible wasn’t happening between them. Planned or not. Passion like this came along once in a lifetime—if you were lucky. And though instinct told him that Janey hadn’t been well-loved in the past, Thad knew that was something he could easily change. All she had to do was give him a chance. And he would show her how wonderful an unscripted liaison like this could be.

Janey had figured Thad’s mouth would be warm, his kiss as sure and utterly sexy as the rest of him. What she hadn’t counted on was the way it would make her feel—reckless and wonderful. Or how she would react to the silken warmth of his lips, the sheer male insistence of his kiss, the invasion of his tongue. She’d expected to resist his advances a lot more. After all, it had been years since anyone had wanted her like this, since she had even considered allowing something as simple as a kiss. And yet the moment he took her into his arms, and gave her a long thorough kiss meant to shatter her resolve, yearning swept through her in sweet, wild waves. Her middle fluttered weightlessly, and her knees trembled weakly as heat worked its way through each and every inch of her. She had been married, she’d had a baby, but she had never been kissed or held this way, like she was the most precious woman in all the world.

It was a sensation Janey feared would be all too easy to get used to, a feeling that could just as easily be taken away. And right now, Janey’d already suffered all of life’s disappointments she could handle. Shaking, wary of giving her heart away much too easily, she drew away. Looked up into his face. Her only comfort, the fact he looked as stunned and overwhelmed by what had just happened between them as she was.

The terrace door opened.

As Janey got a good look at the person interrupting them, it was all she could do not to groan out loud. Of all the lousy timing…

“What?” Thad asked, still looking mesmerized by her, instead of the interloper about to join them.

“See for yourself,” Janey muttered as Thad reluctantly turned away from her and came face-to-face with Janey’s eldest brother. Darn it all. She should have known her family wouldn’t be able to let her be for long.

“Well, my first question is answered,” Mac said, looking like he wanted to punch Thad out but good. Mac turned back to Janey, looking as much a law-and-order man as ever, even without his sheriff’s uniform. “You are here. And you’re safe from the elements.” Mac swept a hand through his close-cropped dark hair and scowled at Thad. “I’m not so sure about the rest—”

“Mac, please.” Janey held out both palms, in a staying gesture. “This is not the time to go all protective on me.” She was so tired of her brothers doing that!

Mac stepped beneath the overhang. He positioned himself between Janey and Thad and scowled from one to the other. “It looks like the perfect time to me.”

Janey pushed past Mac. She took Thad’s hand in hers and rested her face against his shoulder. “I know what I’m doing,” she insisted stubbornly. Even if Thad—who had gallantly followed her lead and encircled her waist with his arm—didn’t. Yet.

Mac arched a skeptical brow. “Do you?” he ground out, his look reminding Janey of all the times she had behaved recklessly in the past to prove a point with her smothering, overprotective family, and then regretted it later.

“I think your sister has a point,” Thad interceded, tightening his grip on Janey as possessively as if they had something passionate and enduring going on between them to defend, instead of just a simple, highly experimental, flirtatious kiss. “She is a grown woman. A savvy businessperson, as well as a mother.”

“Oh, my Lord.” As Mac stared at them, his face began to lose color.

“What?” Janey said, wondering what completely unfounded conclusion her eldest brother had jumped to now.

Mac gave her a frank, assessing look as rain continued to pour down from the sky in heavy sheets, just to the left of them.

“You haven’t…” Mac said with a telltale lift of his brow. “Please. Tell me you’re not…”

“Not what?” Janey demanded impatiently.

“Trying to work off Chris’s camp fees that way, are you?”

Mac was teasing, Janey saw finally.

And he wasn’t.

“Very funny,” Janey said stiffly, irritated her brother could even hint she would be irresponsible enough to use her femininity on some unsuspecting man to get her way. “And no, I am not.”

Now it was Thad’s turn to look as if he felt like punching someone out on Janey’s behalf, Janey noted. She felt oddly pleased as Thad stepped protectively in front of her. “If you weren’t her brother,” Thad warned Mac, “you’d be eating a knuckle sandwich about now.”

No less on guard, Mac shot Thad a warning look. “I’m glad you feel that way,” Mac stated bluntly. “Because if you didn’t want to defend her honor just now that would really say something about your character or lack thereof.”

“Remind me to tell you about the ‘tests’ my brothers put all my prospective beau through.” Janey pushed out the words through tightly gritted teeth. Older or younger, it hadn’t mattered. All five members of the Hart posse had been perfectly capable of saying the wrong thing at the right time to ensure her romances with the guys she dated before Ty went absolutely nowhere. And Janey knew now what she had realized then—that her siblings’ “interruptions” and “interferences” had been as well planned as they had been executed.

“Make fun all you want,” Mac told her smugly. “But they worked, didn’t they? No one tried to take advantage of you as long as the five of us were around.” It was only when she had gone off to Colorado, on spring break with her friends, that she had gotten herself into trouble by getting involved with Ty. And Janey knew her entire family still felt that wouldn’t have happened if they had been nearby to stop it.

Mac looked back at Thad and continued with a candor that was serious now and strictly man-to-man. “Listen, I know my sister comes off as headstrong and impetuous, and I’ll be the first to grant she has a wild streak a mile wide. But bottom line, she’s a lot more innocent and naive than she seems at first look. None of us want to see her hurt. And I am speaking for every one of her brothers, as well as her mother now.”

It was official. Janey felt as if she were back in high school. No. Make that junior high.

“I understand,” Thad told Mac soberly as the two of them shook hands. “And I have no intention of hurting her.”

Janey felt like stomping her foot. “Excuse me. I think I might have something to say about this!” Janey interrupted, mortified.

Oblivious to her upset, Mac looked back at her. Now that he had extracted the chivalrous agreement from Thad, Mac was ready to move on to other subjects. “Mom has been worried out of her mind about you and Chris. You really should have called her to let her know you’d had sense enough to get off the trail,” Mac scolded.

Janey released a sigh. You’d think the goings-on at The Wedding Inn her mother owned and ran would be enough to keep anyone busy. “She’s in the middle of a wedding, isn’t she?”

“That doesn’t stop her from worrying about all of us. You know that. She’s been checking her machine every five minutes. And had she known what you were really up to tonight—” Mac frowned, recalling the kiss he had walked in on.

The kiss Janey would have given anything to have an instant replay of, before the passionate mood was spoiled, perhaps permanently. Not that she was looking for romance, she amended silently. Especially with a sports-minded man like Thad Lantz. On the other hand, there were principles to be adhered to. Ground rules to be set. And she had promised herself she would not allow any familial interference in her life when she left Colorado and moved back to North Carolina.

Janey wondered what it would take to show her family she was perfectly capable of living her life, and even embarking on new romance if she so chose, without their constant commentary and interference. She smiled at her brother sweetly, then warned, “One more word, Mac, and I swear I’m going to punch you out myself.”

“I APOLOGIZE,” Janey told Thad the moment Mac had left.

“Why?” Thad turned to face her, nothing but gentleness on his handsome face. “He obviously loves you a great deal. All your brothers do.”

Janey shrugged, wishing Thad wasn’t so understanding, so completely unruffled by the totally unnecessary family set-to he had just witnessed. It would make it easier for her to keep the emotional barriers up if he weren’t so darn wonderful in all respects. She drew a bolstering breath. “That doesn’t give them the right to interfere in my life,” she countered stubbornly.

Thad took her hand in his and tugged her closer. “They’re just reacting to any perceived dangers to you the same way you react to threats to Chris,” he told her.

Janey hadn’t really thought about it that way.

“I know,” Thad continued understandingly, tightening his fingers on hers in a way she liked way too much, “because I have a younger sister, and I’ve been tempted to lock her up and throw away the key more times than I want to count.”

Janey tried not to think how comforting it was to stand here, talking like this, even as she cautiously withdrew her hand from his lest it lead to anything else unsettlingly intimate—like more kisses. “Right. I know Molly,” Janey said briskly, trying not to get too caught up in the moment and what had happened between them earlier. Like it or not, she still had a son to consider, a well-ordered life she didn’t want turned on end. She’d had enough of that kind of uncertainty when she was married to Ty.

Ignoring the tingles in her hand, Janey continued. “She worked summers at The Wedding Inn before she went off to college. How old is she now?” she asked curiously, aware there was a pretty big age difference between Thad and Molly, as Molly was the child of his mother Veronica and Thad’s stepfather, Lionel Lauder.

“Molly’s twenty-one now and a college senior.”

“At—?”

“Chapel Hill. And yes, she has a boyfriend, a pretty serious one at that.”

Janey thought about what she had learned of local relationships, since she had moved back to town. “Johnny Byrne, isn’t it?” He too had once bussed tables at The Wedding Inn and was now attending the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Thad nodded. “They’ve been dating for three years.”

Janey didn’t find that surprising—both were nice, well-rounded, clean-cut kids with the same strong work ethic and ambitious outlook on life. Yet she sensed a reservation in Thad akin to the one her brother Mac had just demonstrated. “Do you get along with Johnny?”

Thad fell silent, a conflicted expression on his face.

“You don’t like him, do you?” Janey guessed.

Thad shrugged his powerful shoulders. “I’m just not sure he loves her the way he should. With all his heart and soul.”

That was a surprisingly romantic thing for a guy to say.

“But, as you would no doubt point out,” Thad continued with a resolve Janey couldn’t help but respect, “Molly is a grown woman, so I’m just going to have to trust that she knows what she is doing.”

“Mom!” Chris came out of the swinging double doors that fronted the terrace, as exuberant as ever. “There you are! Uncle Mac says we got to call Grandma.”

“Yes,” Janey said, realizing that Mac had sent Chris to make sure a repeat kiss would not happen, even if Chris didn’t realize it. She smiled at her son. “We do.”

Thad said a few kind words to Chris, then excused himself. To her disappointment, Janey did not see Thad again before she and Chris checked out of the lodge the next morning. Because it was still raining, they had decided to go back to Holly Springs. She hoped Chris’s nonstop chatter on the trip home about sports camp would help her get her mind off Thad Lantz and the way he had kissed her the night before.

THAD WAS HALFWAY HOME Sunday morning when he got the message from his mother, asking him to meet her in her office at noon over at the hospital’s physical therapy department. “So what’s the family crisis?” he asked when he got there, knowing immediately from the pinched, worried look on his normally unflappable mother’s face that something drastic had happened.

His mother looked up from the patient records she was going over. She gestured for Thad to have a seat, even as she pushed away from her desk. “Molly called from Gatlinburg. She and Johnny Byrne eloped.”

Thad did a double take. “You’re joking.”

“Believe me,” his mother replied ruefully as she ran a hand through her short and curly black hair, “I wish I was.”

Thad stretched his long legs out in front of him. “Why would Molly do that?” Especially when Molly had been planning her nuptials—at least in theory—for years.

Veronica idly fingered the hospital ID badge clipped to her belt. “I have no idea.”

“Is Lionel upset?”

Veronica made a beleaguered face. “What do you think?”

Given the fact that Molly was the apple of his stepfather’s eye, Thad thought, Lionel had to be furious, as well as hurt, at being shut out of this very important moment of his only daughter’s life.

Veronica removed her glasses and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “I want you to talk to her when she gets back tomorrow, Thad. Try and see if you can figure out why she and Johnny went and did this.”

Thad was glad to help in any way he could. “I’ll try. She may not confide in me, though,” he warned.

“Try anyway. And in the meantime, I’m going to pull together the best reception I can manage for the two of them. I just hope Delectable Cakes can do a wedding cake for them on such short notice.”

Thad grinned as he thought about the pretty baker. “I can handle that for you, Mom,” he said, glad for the excuse to go and see Janey again. “When do you want it?”

“Friday. It’s the only evening I can get The Wedding Inn this week for a reception. And I only got that because of a cancellation.” Veronica lifted a brow. “I wasn’t aware you and Janey were friends.”

“Her son is interested in attending the Storm’s summer hockey camp,” Thad replied casually.

“So are at least six hundred other boys.” Veronica put her glasses back on. “I don’t hear you talking about any of their mothers.”

Touché. Briefly, Thad explained about the heart-rending letter he’d received from Chris.

Veronica’s expression softened compassionately as she listened. “And something about Chris’s plea really got to you,” she noted finally.

Thad nodded. “I know how much it meant to me when Lionel helped me find the proper outlet for my own athletic ambitions.” Thad loved his real father, but Gordon Lantz had never really understood Thad’s desire to become involved in professional sports. Gordon had wanted Thad to become involved with the garden and landscape business that his own father had begun. It was his stepfather, Lionel, who had come into Thad’s life when he was ten, and helped him find his way, in that regard. It was also how they’d became close.

“I can understand how you would want to do for someone else what Lionel did for you,” Veronica stated gently. “And I know firsthand what a personable and winning kid Christopher Campbell is. I met him one day when he was out with his grandmother.”

“But?” Thad prodded, hearing the concern underlying her words.

Veronica got up and removed two bottles of orange juice from her minifridge. She tossed one to him. “You’re facing two major pitfalls here. The first is that anything you say or do on the subject has the potential to further the rift between Janey and her son Chris. And unless you want to make a sworn enemy of Janey, you need to make sure that doesn’t happen. Because her relationship with her son is everything to her.”

Thad hadn’t needed to be told that. In Janey’s place, he would have felt the same. But he let his mother have her say, anyway. “And the second?”

“Issue concerns your own heart and happiness,” Veronica continued with the practical plainspokenness she was known for both inside and outside the hospital. She paused, measuring her words carefully. “I know how much you enjoyed being a father when you were married to Renee, and that there’s a hole in your life you’ve never really been able to fill since you lost your own stepson. According to his grandmother, Helen Hart, Christopher is reeling, too, from the loss of his dad.”

So maybe it was destined, Thad thought, that he and Chris meet.

His mother, unfortunately, did not see it that way. She looked him straight in the eye and continued, “I would hate to see you use Chris—even subconsciously—to assuage that loss, Thad.”

As if he would ever put the needs of any kid second to his own. “So you’d rather see me what?” Thad shot back angrily, setting the orange juice down unopened. “Walk away from a kid who looks up to me so much he asked for my help?” Thad had already abandoned one child—albeit reluctantly. It wasn’t an experience he was looking to repeat. With anyone.

“I’m saying, honey, that I don’t want you to make the same mistake twice. And from what I’ve heard, Janey had a rough enough time in her first marriage. Even if she won’t quite admit it.”

Thad got to his feet. He squared off with his mother over her desk. “I have no intention of hurting her,” he said evenly. Or Christopher.

Veronica removed the plastic wrap from the top of her bottle and tossed it in the waste can. “You had no intention of hurting Renee and Bobby, either. And look what happened.”

THAD LEFT, furious with his mother.

He knew she was trying to help, but she had completely misunderstood the situation. Yes, he was drawn to Janey’s son, Christopher. Who wouldn’t be? The kid was remarkably bright, energetic, ready to tackle life with so much gusto. Thad couldn’t walk away from the raw hope and need for understanding he had seen shining in the boy’s eyes. Chris had reached out to him and Thad was honor bound to help him. It was that simple.

As for Janey, well, Thad was mysteriously drawn to her, too. He had known that the first second she crashed into him, in the alley behind her bakery.

And that fascination had been confirmed every second since. It didn’t matter whether they were talking, sparring, or just looking at each other. When he was with her, he was more completely in the moment than he could ever recall being. And she felt it, too. He saw it in her eyes, and he sure as heck had felt it in her kiss.

Which gave him every reason in the world to pursue her.

And lucky him, he even had a rock-solid reason to search her out immediately. And spend even more time with her.

Sunday afternoon, the Delectable Cakes bakery was closed.

Janey’s minivan was parked in the driveway of her home. A magnificent white Bentley was idling at the curb. Hannah Reid, chief mechanic of Classic Car Auto Repair, and part-time chauffeur was seated behind the wheel. She was dressed in the usual man’s tuxedo, cap tucked jauntily over her wavy auburn hair. Wondering what was up, Thad parked on the street behind the limo and walked up to say hello. Hannah put down her window. “Hey, Thad.”

“Hey, Hannah.”

“Do me a favor?” Hannah persuaded with a smile.

“Sure.”

“Go around back and see if you can’t get Dylan Hart to get his sorry self back in the limo. He’s going to miss his flight to Chicago if we don’t get a move on.”

“No problem.”

Thad headed around the side of Janey’s small cottage-style home in the older section of Holly Springs. He had nearly rounded the corner of the one-and-a-half-story home when he heard the voices.

“Listen to me, Janey. Joe has had a rough enough start with the Storm, given what happened between him and the owner’s daughter, without you luring Joe’s coach out of town and kissing him like there’s no tomorrow!”

“First of all, Joe and Emma are happily married now. Joe’s conflict with Saul Donovan is a thing of the past. And second, I did not lure Thaddeus Lantz anywhere!” Janey protested heatedly as an interested Thad stopped where he was.

“Then how do you explain Thad following you out to Lake Pine?” Dylan asked.

That was just it, Thad thought. They couldn’t. Because to tell the truth, it was quite unlike him. Usually, he didn’t give the women around him—even those he was wildly physically attracted to—a second thought. These days, his thoughts were all on the team he was coaching, and his desire to make it to the Stanley Cup finals. Not sometime in the very far future. But this very year. With the very team he was going to be coaching through training camp, come the second week of September.

Usually, this time of year, he was focused on the upcoming season, and figuring out how to make sure each and every player on the Storm roster reached his full potential. Instead, he was, more often than not, thinking about Janey Hart Campbell and her son.

“For Joe’s sake,” Dylan continued firmly, in much the same vein as his brother Mac. “You have to stay away from Thaddeus Lantz! I mean it, Janey. No more kissing Joe’s coach!”

Thad rounded the corner. He looked from Janey to Dylan, and back again, before asking lazily. “Bad time?”

“Actually,” Janey said sweetly, her temper obviously getting the best of her at long last, “It’s the perfect time.” Her chin set determinedly, she marched past Dylan, wrapped her arms around Thad’s shoulders, went up on tiptoe and planted one on him.

Her lips were every bit as soft and sweet and warm as he recalled. Pleasure zinged through him as he wrapped both his arms around her, as casually as if they did this every day. Following her lead, he kissed her right back, every bit as thoroughly as he had the evening before, until he felt her melting against him. And then, only then, did he let the heated caress come to a lazy halt and lift his head ever so slowly from hers.

Janey looked up into his face, a mixture of shock and passion reflected in her soft amber eyes. Clearly, she had wanted him to play along with her, to pretend this was some grand passion to simultaneously egg her brother on and punish him for getting involved in her business. She hadn’t wanted Thad to get so carried away… But that, Thad thought, was just what happened when they kissed, even when it was all for show.

“Okay,” Dylan grumbled from the left of them. He glared at Thad, then Janey. “You’ve more than made your point, sis. You can kiss whomever you want. And it appears Thad here can take care of himself.”

“You’re right about that,” Thad said. Even if he didn’t quite like the way he had just been used to make a point, one Hart sibling to another.

Janey wiped imaginary specks of dirt from what Thad guessed were her gardening clothes—a pair of old cutoff jeans with frayed edges, and a T-shirt that was a little too snug across the breasts for his comfort. Dylan, on the other hand, was clad in a sharp suit and tie befitting an up-and-coming TV sportscaster. “Your limo is waiting,” Thad told Dylan, recalling why he had come around the side of the house in the first place. “Hannah Reid said to get a move on or you’re going to miss your flight.”

“We shouldn’t have dragged you into the situation with Chris,” Dylan stated with frank apology.

“You didn’t. Chris did. And I don’t mind,” Thad said quietly, in the same man-to-man tone. He liked helping the boy. Liked feeling needed. “What I do mind—” Thad clapped his hand on Dylan’s shoulder, the same way he did when he was coaching one of his players in a tense situation “—is you interfering in my romantic life or lack thereof.” Thad looked him straight in the eye, making sure he had Dylan’s full attention before he continued. “Got it?”

Dylan’s jaw tightened. The look in his eyes was mutinous.

“It was unfortunate your brother Mac walked in on what he did last night, out at Lake Pine. It doesn’t make it any of his business. Or yours. Janey and I are adults. We will figure this out without any help from either of our families.” And that included his mother, Thad thought. Well-meaning or not, she was going to have to stay out of this.

Embarrassment staining his handsome face, Dylan nodded his understanding reluctantly. Then he looked Thad straight in the eye. “Joe’s boss or not—you do anything to hurt her and you’ll have the whole Hart posse coming after you.”

Thad dropped his hand from Dylan’s shoulder. Winning Janey’s heart would first require running the gauntlet of Hart men. Thad knew he was more than up to the task. “I’d expect nothing less,” he said. In fact, it was reassuring to him, knowing Janey’s family loved her that much.

With a careless nod in both their directions, Dylan took off.

Flushing more than Dylan had been, Janey propped the backs of her gloved hands on her waist. Shaking her head, as if unable to believe his penchant for arriving at the most inopportune times, she stepped away from Thad. “Sorry about that. Again,” she said heatedly.

Thad grinned, loving the way she looked, all disheveled and flushed and perspiring. Which was probably the way she would one day look in his bed, in the throes of passion.

“I’m not,” Thad said, moving closer.

Janey shook her head in silent self-admonition and refused to meet his gaze. “I probably shouldn’t have kissed you,” she murmured in a low, throaty tone.

“Probably not, if it was for all the wrong reasons. Then again, if it’s for all the right reasons, like this…” he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her sweetly, tenderly, until she trembled in his arms once again, “I don’t mind at all.”

A guilty flush stained her cheeks. She lowered her glance. Refusing to acknowledge their latest kiss, or her potent reaction to it, she splayed her hands across his chest and murmured, “What I was trying to say Thad, is that there seems to be no shortage of embarrassing family moments on my behalf for you to witness.”

Trying not to feel disappointed she had used their mutual attraction to make a point with her family, Thad shrugged. And because it was what she seemed to want, he let her go. “They just don’t want to see you hurt. I can understand that. As I said, I am equally as protective about my sister. Which, by the way, is why I’m here. Molly has eloped.”

Janey blinked, her full attention on him once again. “With Johnny Byrne?”

“Yesterday, apparently.”

“Why?”

“That’s just it. Nobody knows. They’re still in Gatlinburg. Due back tomorrow. Anyway, my mother and stepfather want to put together a reception for the two of them. Friday is the only evening this week The Wedding Inn is open. My mother is hoping you’re not too busy to make the cake.”

She shot him an unexpectedly flirtatious glance. “Ah. And you’re here to persuade me.” She seemed to like the idea.

An answering warmth sizzled through him. “I volunteered.”

As she tilted her head to the side, the silky chestnut strands that had escaped her hair clip gently brushed the slender nape of her neck. “Well, I do owe you a favor.” Her eyes twinkled merrily.

“Which is the polite way of saying you’re already booked.”

Janey stepped closer and stood, gloved hands on her hips, legs braced apart, her sneaker-clad feet planted firmly in the grass that edged her vegetable garden. “I can fit it in.” She paused to wet her lips. “I’m going to have to know what kind of cake they want, though.”

“I’ll have Molly and Johnny come over to your shop tomorrow, as soon as they arrive,” Thad promised, thinking he might stop by, too. After all, he was on his own schedule, this time of year. It wouldn’t be that way two months from now. Which meant whatever courting had to be done to make her his, would have to be done now. And he did want to make her his. “So what are you doing here?” He nodded at the garden.

“Weeding. Or trying to—I don’t seem to be getting very far.” She dropped to her knees beside the row of bush beans, and picked up her hand tool. “Want to help?”

Thad made a face as he hunkered down beside her. He knew it wasn’t going to win him any points with her, but he decided to be honest with her anyway. “It’s not really my thing.”

She shot him a glance from beneath a fringe of thick, chestnut-colored lashes. “That’s surprising, given the fact your dad owns a gardening and landscape business.”

Deciding if he was going to hang around, he might as well get comfortable, Thad shrugged and dropped to the grass beside her. He reclined next to her, long legs stretched out, the weight of his torso resting on his bent elbow. “I never was much for rooting around in the dirt.”

She rooted out a sticker bush and a clump of dandelion with a practiced motion of the spade and set them aside. “Nicely put.”

“Not that you don’t look good doing it.” She did. She really did. Watching the play of worn denim across her slender thighs and delectably sweet butt, and the taut stretch of cotton across her breasts, it was all he could do not to tumble her here and now and see how far he’d get in his pursuit of her. The responsible adult part of her might protest, but the reckless impetuous woman and wild heart inside would probably be all for it.

Unfortunately, the fact was they were in broad daylight, and there wasn’t so much as a privacy fence or decent hedge to shield them from the prying eyes of the neighbors, so any real move on his part would have to wait.

She grinned over at him. “Flattery will get you precisely…nowhere.”

“Then how about a date?” Thad asked, beginning to realize he wanted a lot more than a few stolen kisses or casual conversations with her. He let his glance rove her hair, her face, her lips, before returning ever so slowly and deliberately to her molten amber eyes. “Where will that get me?”

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