Met Her Match Read online

  “Just do it,” she said. “Or I will. I hope I don’t wobble on the ladder.” She’d learned that his sense of... What? Chivalry? Protection? Male chauvinist pigginess? Whatever it was, she knew he wouldn’t like her climbing up the ladder.

  A steel platform had been installed at the bottom of the sign to make it easy to change. When she handed him the strip of vinyl, he held it. “What is this?”

  “An L. I had a hundred of them made to match the signs. You paint over the S, spray glue on the back of the L, then stick it in place. Changes kisses back to Kissel.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “Not at all. Dad and I have been doing it for years. When I was in high school, I caught some kids in the act of vandalizing the boards. I tried to get Uncle Frank to put them in jail, but he wouldn’t. He just made the kids repair the damage, but they had so much fun doing it, it wasn’t a punishment.”

  “It is to me,” Nate grumbled as he went up the ladder. “It’s a desecration.”

  Stepping back, Terri directed him. When the wind caught the white paint so it sprayed on him, Nate unbuttoned his shirt, removed it and tossed it to the ground.

  Smiling at the sight of his beautiful bare upper half, Terri stretched out under the oak tree, head on her arm and ate the rest of the orange slices. She watched Nate struggle with changing the kisses. The paint blew back in his face, then the glue got on him. The top of the L stuck to the bottom, then to his hands. The same things had happened to her the first few times and she got angry at her honorary uncles, Jake and Frank, for laughing at her. But now she had to admit that watching Nate was a bit like seeing a comedy routine.

  A blue Fiat full of very pretty young women came by, slowed to a roll, and they began whistling at the shirtless Nate.

  “I like kisses better,” one of the blondes shouted out the window.

  “I’m in cabin number seventy-one. I’m there alone on Tuesday nights,” a brunette yelled.

  “Hey, Terri! Did you import him just for us?”

  “I do love a hairy chest. It’s so male!”

  Laughing, they sped away.

  Nate looked down at Terri on the ground. “That was a friendly group.”

  She stood up and dusted herself off. “If those girls got you alone, you wouldn’t live through it.” As he came down the ladder, she squinted up at the board. “That’s the worst job I’ve ever seen. You got paint on the L and you pasted it up crooked. It looks like Lake Kisse, then a slanted hyphen.”

  “I was probably sending some subliminal message. I like kisses better.”

  She was standing in front of him, her eyes on his bare chest. “You got paint on you.”

  “It’ll come off.” He was silently watching her as she raised her hand to his chest. She meant to brush away the paint, but it didn’t come off. It was stuck to his hair and skin.

  Nate didn’t move as Terri ran her hand up onto his shoulder. Her hand was so warm, so—

  “Hey!” came a male voice. “Terri is mine!”

  They had been so absorbed in her touching Nate’s bare skin that they hadn’t heard the Mercedes SUV stop on the road.

  As though coming out of a trance, Terri dropped her hand and turned toward the car. Inside were two gorgeous, identical young men with dark hair and eyes, and those cheekbones that clothes designers so loved.

  “Terri, my love, couldn’t you wait for me?” the one driving called out.

  The other one leaned across. “Are we on for the Widiwick dance? You’ll be my date like last year?”

  Terri picked up Nate’s shirt off the ground. “Don’t flatter yourselves. Hayley and that lot just arrived. Go pester them.”

  “So who’s the tank?” He was nodding toward Nate. “Can it talk?”

  “Talk and break bones,” Nate said in a menacing growl. “Why don’t you two pretty boys find the other girls and go play?”

  Terri looked at Nate in surprise. Was his anger for real?

  “Looks like we have some competition this year. You’re on, old man.”

  Laughing, they drove away.

  “Who are they?” Nate asked.

  “Turner Twins.” She was staring at him. “You wouldn’t really hurt them, would you?”

  Nate laughed. “Maybe a little.” He took his shirt from her. “Do you really date those morons?” He started back to the car.

  “No, but I’ve thought about it. And by the way, one is in law school, and the other one is on his way to being a doctor.”

  “An ambulance chaser and a quack. Just what the world needs more of.”

  Laughing, Terri got in the car beside him.

  It took nearly two hours to change all three signs. On the second one, Terri climbed up to the platform and showed Nate how to do it. Everything was accompanied by laughter and the teasing they’d so easily fallen into.

  By the time they finished, it was midafternoon and Nate said he was dying of hunger. Again, Terri suggested tacos, but Nate insisted on Summer Hill. Neither of them seemed to think of eating separately.

  As soon as they reached the first house in town, a pretty white clapboard with a deep porch, Nate was aware of the way Terri gripped the seat. In the years he’d spent with Kit, he’d learned that subtle body movements told as much as—and sometimes more than—words did. In this case, Terri’s words had been light, sounding as though she found the town of Summer Hill too boring to even visit.

  But as he watched from the side of his eye, never full on, he got the impression that Terri was... Well, afraid of something.

  Even as he thought about what he was going to do, he regretted it. Damn you to hell and back, Kit Montgomery, he thought as he parallel parked on the street. Kit had created in Nate an insatiable need to know.

  “The only decent restaurant is down there,” Terri said. “Are you parking here because you don’t get enough exercise at the lake?”

  Smiling at her joke, he got out, went around and opened the door for her. He knew she hadn’t waited for him but she was picking up the orange peels where they’d fallen onto the floor. He liked that she cleaned up after herself, and sometimes after him. He liked—

  Actually, so far there wasn’t anything he didn’t like about Terri Rayburn. He imagined a lifetime of friendship between them. He told himself that friendship was why he was doing what he was. He’d seen her reaction to the mention of the flower shop and he meant to find out what caused it. “I need to go in here,” he said as soon as she was out of the car. He watched her intently, the same way he studied people when Kit dropped a bombshell on them. Later, Kit would ask Nate what he’d read on the faces of the people.

  When Nate nodded toward the flower shop, Garden Day, about half the blood drained out of Terri’s face.

  “I’ll meet you at the bookstore,” she said. “It’s over—”

  “I know where it is. I want you to help me pick out flowers for Jamie’s wife. I need to thank her for putting up with me for those first days. What do you think I should get for her?”

  “I’ve never met her so I have no idea. Ask...them. They’ll know.”

  Nate blinked at the underlying venom in her voice. It looked like someone in the flower shop had been part of something bad in Terri’s life. He didn’t want to force her to relive whatever it was. “Okay, let’s go to lunch. I’ll do this later.” He knew he shouldn’t do it in a gossipy little town, but he slipped his arm through hers.

  Before Nate could take a step, a pickup truck stopped beside them. Inside was a large man, older than Terri, who looked as though he might have once been in shape, but now he had a belly and the beginning of a double chin.

  “Hey, Rayburn!” he said, his voice taunting. “Good to see you finally got the courage to come into town.” He looked at Nate with a smirk. “Looks like you hooked another one.” With that, he sped off down the road.

&nbs