All I Have. Nicole Helm
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She had a dusting of light brown freckles across her nose. Kind of weird to notice it now, but then again he’d never spent much time looking at Mia. The girl who’d been the champion of awkward moments in high school, then come back from college quiet and unassuming. Of course, she’d never gotten up in his face and accused him of stripping before.
Dell grinned. That meant she thought he was a threat to her tidy little business. He primed up the charm and the drawl. “Don’t worry, darling. I’m sure there’ll be enough customers to go around. Not everyone is swayed by good looks and charm. Just most people.”
She didn’t cower. She didn’t walk away. She didn’t even dissolve into the Queen of the Geeks she’d been in high school. No, Mia Pruitt grinned at him—which had to be a first, even if she’d grown out of most of her awkwardness since she’d come back from college.
“Oh, I’m not worried. But you should be,” she said. Then she sauntered away with enough confidence that Dell stared after her.
“Whoa.” The saunter. The grin. Even with all her recent changes, he’d never seen that kind of...attitude from Mia before. Was it his imagination, or was it kind of hot?
Charlie slapped him on the back. “Told you not to cross her. Mia isn’t the girl hiding behind the pony at Kelsey’s birthday party anymore, if you hadn’t noticed.”
Dell stared after Mia’s swinging hips. Apparently he hadn’t noticed that at all.
MIAPULLEDHER truck into the parking lot at Orscheln and tried not to be irritated by all Dad’s sighing and grumbling. She drove too fast, braked too hard. The one and only place Dad ever criticized her.
Which was why, for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out why he didn’t drive himself. Or stay home.
“If you hate coming to town so much, you don’t have to come. I could always get whatever you need.”
“Have to ask Rick about this new vaccine.”
“You could do that on the phone. I bet Rick even has email.”
Dad harrumphed and got out of the truck. Mia trudged after him. Mostly, she loved spending time with Dad. He’d always been her biggest supporter, and one of the few people she felt understood her.
But going to Orscheln with Dad meant people didn’t get used to her as Mia Pruitt, serious farmer. They still saw the girl who had cried when all the chickens had been sold, or accidentally let all the kittens up for adoption out of their cage because she’d been trying to pet them.
Daughter of the town hermit, the man who refused to talk to anyone except Rick when he came in. Should another employee approach him, he’d turn and walk away. If Rick was out sick, Dad would hop in his truck and go home.
Oh, who was she kidding? Even when she came in without Dad she was a Pruitt, and there was a lot of baggage that went with that.
But she could pretend when she was alone. Pretend she was your average twenty-six-year-old vegetable farmer. Or something.
“I’m going to...look at some plants. You go ahead inside.” It was an excuse, a pathetic one at that, but maybe if she could pretend they hadn’t walked in together...
Mia stared gloomily at some pansies as Dad grunted and went inside. She was being kind of a crap daughter, and that made her feel guilty. Especially having been on the receiving end of the “go ahead inside, I’ll wait out here” line more than once.
“Of all the gin joints in the world, she walked into mine.”
Mia closed her eyes. Apparently today was really going to make her feel as if she was sixteen again. She glanced over her shoulder at Dell. He had his beat-up Cardinals hat on, equally worn jeans and a black T-shirt that did unfair things to showcase the muscles of his arms.
If she was a cat, she’d hiss at him. Instead, she mustered her best fake smile. “You’re wearing a shirt. What a novelty.”
“No shirt, no shoes, no service.” He grinned, and she hated that some part of her reacted to that grin. A weird flopping deep in her stomach; a floaty giddiness around her chest.
Yes, she was sixteen and still an idiot. “You got the quote all wrong, by the way.”
“Huh?”
“It’s, ‘Of all the gin joints, in all the towns, in all the world, she walks into mine.’ If you’re going to quote something, it should at least be the right something.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Figures,” she muttered, turning her attention back to the plants. She had no use for flowers. She lived in an apartment in town, and even if she lived at the farm, she’d certainly plant something she could sell the produce of.
Dell did not seem to take the hint, still standing uncomfortably behind her. Uncomfortably because...well. He made her uncomfortable. Because he was a butt, that was why.
“Are you following me?” she asked, trying to sound bored. Succeeding, too, if she did say so herself.
“It’s a small town, sugar.”
She would not be irritated by the cocky way he drawled sugar. She would also not be...other things at the way his voice was all gravelly and sure of himself. Not hot. Not even cute.
“And yet, how many times have I run into you here before? I do these errands every Tuesday morning.”
“Well, if you see me again, then you’ll know I’m following you. For today, it’s just an unfortunate coincidence.”
Unfortunate. Yeah. She certainly got no secret thrill out of seeing him outside the market. Please. She hoped to never see him outside the market. She didn’t even want to see him at the market.
“But while we’re here, together, on this beautiful day, why don’t you tell me what you’ve got up your sleeve so you don’t embarrass yourself at the market Saturday?”
She glanced at him again, giving him a condescending look she’d been practicing in the mirror. “First of all, we’re not together.”
“I’m standing here. You’re standing there right in touching distance. We’re talking. Together enough from where I’m at.”
“Why don’t you stand out of touching distance?” Because words like touching made her even more uncomfortable than she already was. How could she pretend to be calm and collected when she had to think about...touching?
She had the petty desire to give him a little push, but that would be silly and childish...and probably put her in contact with muscles she’d prefer to only fantasize about.
Except, no fantasizing.
“I don’t know why you have reason to be so antagonistic with me, Mia. Fair competition and all that. Jealousy isn’t an attractive quality.”
She rolled her eyes. “The day I worry about being attractive to you is the day I go brain-dead.” Jitters multiplied in her stomach. This was getting...weird. “Besides, if it’s fair competition, you don’t need to worry about what I’ve got up my sleeve.”
“I’m just trying to look out for you. You’ve built quite a new rep for yourself.”
She was not a violent person, but something about him made her visualize doing a lot of it. Unfortunately that also meant visualizing touching him. In a way that wasn’t all...violent. “The day Dell Wainwright is looking out for my well-being is the day I start taking my shirt off at the market.”
His eyes drifted to her chest, an almost considering look on his face. She crossed her arms over herself, the heat of embarrassment mixing with a different kind of heat.