“We need a park for the kids. We could use some bike trails. A community college would be the best thing that could happen for our young people. And we need a senior center. There are grants and Federal money available for most of that, but we need people dedicated to going after them.”
“I—” Tanner began.
“Tanner can’t serve on a committee,” his mother interrupted, speaking for him as if he weren’t standing right beside her. “I think he would be perfect—all that business experience of his could help the town enormously—but the entire time he was building his business, he dreamed of retiring in Florida. Buying a boat. Taking people on chartered fishing tours to make pocket change while he played. He’s not interested.”
“Too bad,” Bailey said casually. “Well, you three have a good time tonight,” she added, turning her attention to the incoming group behind them.
Tanner didn’t want to serve on the committee, but he should have had the opportunity to make up his own mind. “Thank you very much, Mom. The least I could have done was hear Bailey out about the responsibilities of serving on the committee.”
That stopped him. Actually, hearing her out was the least he could do to get another five, ten or maybe even twenty minutes with her. He certainly wasn’t going to let the first woman who had piqued his interest in ten years get away without a conversation.
Bailey Stephenson watched Tanner walk into the main room of the church hall, which was decorated in a sea of red, white and blue crepe paper, the rows of long narrow tables covered with white plastic cloths and sporting fat red candles and miniature flags as centerpieces. She bit her lower lip as she collected the tickets of the Franklin family. It had been everything she could do to suppress a shiver when Tanner McConnell had taken her hand, but the truth was that every darned woman in the world was attracted to him. She wasn’t any different from anybody else, except that she had goals and visions, and they didn’t include settling down with a man.
At least not yet. She was only twenty-five. Too young to be thinking about anything permanent…not that she thought Tanner McConnell would want something permanent with her. Since he and Emmalee split up all those years ago, he hadn’t dated anybody for more than a month. And those he had dated didn’t come from West Virginia. They were New York socialites. He didn’t even date models and actresses. His taste ran to daughters of influential men. Or executive directors of charities who donated back their salaries because they didn’t need them. Or patrons of the ballet and symphony. Bailey was just about certain that Tanner wouldn’t consider the town beautician to be a member of that category. In the end she wouldn’t be good enough, just like Emmalee hadn’t been good enough to move with him when he left Wilmore to start his new life.
At least that was the rumor.
Besides, she didn’t care about Emma and Tanner and their ugly divorce. She had work to do. With her business degree languishing away while she focused on creating great hairdos to build the customer base of her beauty shop, she needed a way to keep sharp the skills she’d learned in college. And fate had given her the perfect opportunity. When she and the members of the flood recovery committee had realized how many things their town lacked and how easy it would be to get them if a few people dedicated time to going after the money, she knew this was the way to make sure she didn’t get rusty. And she also knew she had more than enough to keep her occupied. There was no room for a man in her life.
As she joined the group inside, she caught Tanner staring at her. When she caught Tanner staring at her all through dinner, she decided she had confused him by not falling at his feet…which was understandable since everybody else did. When he tried to mingle in her direction before the band started, she adroitly sidestepped all his attempts. But when he cornered her just as the band played its first romantic song, a lovely lilting waltz, Bailey knew there was no dodging the inevitable.
“Dance?” he asked, extending his hand to her and giving her the perfect, glorious smile that melted most women.
Right on cue, Bailey felt her knees weaken. His green eyes sparkled with sincerity. His tanned skin brought out the best in his sandy-brown hair, which was streaked with blond from the sun. He had a straight nose and even straighter teeth. It almost seemed that when he was created, the universe set out to combine the best of everything, and it had definitely succeeded.
When she didn’t answer him, he stepped a little closer, opened his hand a little wider. “It’s only a dance,” he coaxed, but Bailey didn’t think so. When she looked into the depths of his eyes, instincts she didn’t know she possessed surged to the forefront. She could fall madly in love with him. Quickly. Easily. Any woman could. And he would hurt her. She wasn’t any more sophisticated than Emmalee had been, so undoubtedly he would drop her after a date or two. Since she wasn’t the kind for a casual fling or temporary relationship, she was just a tad too naive for the likes of Tanner McConnell.
Still staring into his eyes, she swallowed, then said, “I don’t think so. I should go into the kitchen to make sure the cleanup committee isn’t having any trouble.”
She turned to go, but Tanner caught her hand and spun her around again. “It’s not a good idea to micromanage.”
“What?”
“It’s never a good idea to micromanage,” he said, easily manipulating her onto the dance floor by preoccupying her with the explanation of what he had said. “Because you’re the committee head,” he added, his arm casually, smoothly sliding across the small of her back, “you’re everybody’s boss. If you keep going back to check on them, people will think you don’t trust them.”
“They won’t think I care about them and I’m trying to keep up my end of the work?” she asked, while inside her heart tripped out a frantic rhythm, and awareness of him hummed through her. Tall and masculine, picture-perfect gorgeous, with a smile that forced her to smile in response, Tanner McConnell incited feelings and sensations in her that were probably illegal in conservative states.
Tanner laughed, effortlessly guiding her around the dance floor in a waltz. “No. They’ll think you’re robbing them of an opportunity to please you, to impress you.”
She tilted her head in question. He was such a handsome man that people forgot he was also ultrasuccessful. Someday Bailey wanted to be ultrasuccessful, too. If fate was giving her nudges in his direction, maybe it wasn’t for romance, but to get his guidance. “Is that how you ran your business?”
He nodded. “Put enough faith in people, show them you believe they can succeed, and they will do anything you ask.”
She smiled. “Really?”
“Really.”
“That is so interesting, because I just hired a new stylist who is very talented, but when it comes to the crunch hairdos, she just sort of freaks out on me.”
“Crunch hairdos?”
“The big deals,” Bailey explained, catching his gaze. “You know, wedding parties, upsweeps for the prom, the important hairdos.”
“Oh, those are your critical success factors for your business,” he said, understanding.
“Precisely. Those are the things that make or break you. Owning the beauty shop is like being the florist. If a bride likes the flowers you do for her wedding, she’ll get her mother’s day bouquets from you. If a girl likes the way you do her hair for the prom, you’re a shoo-in to do her wedding.”
Tanner nodded
