Finding Her Heart

Everyone has a hidden agenda…

Jaded corporate lawyer Mitchell Blake knows one thing for certain: everyone has a hidden agenda. From ruthless clients to manipulative women, the only relief Mitch finds is time spent with his ailing grandfather and restoring the family mansion in the small town of McCormick’s Creek, Oregon.

Ree Swanson had it all planned—finish her degree and travel the world working for different hotels. She wants nothing more than to escape her small hometown, but she’s stuck in McCormick’s Creek helping in the flower shop while her mother is laid up.

When Ree lands an extra job at the almost-finished McCormick Inn, having a charming and oh-so-handsome boss is an added bonus—until she discovers that Mitch is the same type of nasty lawyer that ruined her family. And Mitch wonders if Ree is too good to be true.

Can they overcome their suspicions to build a foundation of love?

"Jen Peters writes sweet and satisfying romances with a dose of persevering through troubles and just the right chemistry between characters."

Ree tried to keep her face neutral when Mitch showed up in the doorway of the inn dining room after lunch Tuesday. He was sure there a lot for having a high-powered legal job in Portland. Didn’t he have any other clients? Or maybe he just didn’t trust her?

Between her instinctive reaction to his looks and charisma, and the need to show him she was competent, her hello came out a confused grumble.

“Do you need a break?” he asked casually, leaning against the door jamb.

That was not what she expected him to say. She looked at her notes and shrugged. “Sure, why not.”

They walked along the creek, starting in the mansion’s back yard and heading out of town. The sun glinted through the trees, and squirrels scampered through a couple of maples overhead.

They stopped where the creek widened, and Mitch pitched a rock or two.

“Tell me something about you I don’t know,” he said.

Ree watched the water tumble over the rocks as she thought. She didn’t think she ought to share her dreams of travel—he’d just hired her, after all, and she should want to stick around. It would be too intimate to tell him about old boyfriends, especially finding the last one in bed with somebody else. Too deep to tell him about her father? Probably.

Then Ree smiled, still watching the creek run. Running away to somewhere else. “I set the deck on fire my senior year of high school.”

“You what?”

She turned to him. “Mom was meeting someone at the flower shop, to design a centerpiece or something. So I started the grill up.”

“Charcoal and lighter fluid?”

She play-slapped his shoulder. “We do have gas grills here in podunk-ville, I’ll have you know. Anyway, the chicken was going great, but smoking like chicken does. I kept an eye on it, but I was doing other things too. I took the chicken off when mom came home, turned the grill off, and we went inside to eat.”

“Yes?”

“So I looked up later, and the grill was still smoking. Like half an hour later. So we went out and it wasn’t the grill, it was the deck railing behind it!”

He snorted.

Ree elbowed him. ‘Don’t laugh, I could have burned the house down!”

“Flames and fire department?” he asked through his chuckles.

“No flames, just smoldering and sending up billows of smoke. And yes, the fire department came because someone else had seen it, but we had already doused it with water.”

“Hmm, should I watch out for you when you light fires? Or when you get distracted?” he teased. “Or just when you have two things in close proximity?”

Mitch was in pretty close proximity himself. Close enough she could stretch up and kiss him. No! She wasn’t going to jeopardize the best job she’d ever had. She made a face to hide her thoughts. She knew she was flushed, but it was hot this afternoon, right?

“Hey, look.” He nudged her and pointed. A hawk dived toward a pasture from where it had been circling high above.

“Yup,” she said. “Probably a red-tail.”

“Oh, like you know all the hawks in the area?”

“My best friend knows all the animals,” Ree said. “I know some of the human ones." Why did she say that? She snuck a glance at him. “Your turn. Tell me something about you that I don’t know.”

He shrugged. “I’m a lawyer, I’m from Portland. Not much else about me.”

His walls weren’t going to come down easily. She suddenly felt like taking the challenge on, but she’d have to go about it carefully. “Tell me what high school was like. Were you a book nerd?”

He smiled. “No. Well, probably. I mean, I studied hard because I wanted into a top law school on my own merits, not because my grandfather got me in. But I did a few other things.”

Mitch was silent, watching the hawk that was now back up in the sky.

“What other things,” Ree prodded.

After a long moment, he finally answered. “I tried out for the basketball team. I used to do free throws in the gym when I needed to work a problem out in my head.”

“You were a jock?”

“Not really. But when it rains three-quarters of the year… well, inside is nice. Anyway, I was pretty good at them. I knew I couldn’t keep up with the others in endurance, but I figured I could shoot baskets with the best of them.”

“And?”

He smiled ruefully. “And on tryouts, I only got about 1 in 10 in the hoop. Worse than dismal.”

Ree was surprised. Mitch seemed like he would succeed at whatever he started. That his concentration and will would drive the resolution. “That’s awful,” she said, laying her hand on his arm. “What happened?" His warmth came through his shirt, and her hand tingled.

He lifted one shoulder and let it drop. “Never did figure out why. I finally decided it just wasn’t meant to be, that I was meant to be spending my time doing something else.”

“What did your grandfather say?”

“Not much. His bark is worse than his bite. He helped me sort through a few things, but let me run my life the way I wanted, as long as I was headed in the right direction." Mitch turned to her. He took her hand from where it still lay on his shoulder and twined his fingers into it. The touch made her tingle down to her toes.

He rubbed his thumb gently over her knuckles. “Want to walk a bit farther?”

The sensation of his hand enclosing hers sent tingles up her arm and down her spine, and her voice trembled. “Sure. We can head down Oak Hill Road and see if we can get closer to the hawk.”

Was he as attracted to her as she was to him? He was her boss—shouldn’t they be avoiding this?

***

Ree’s hand was soft in his as they left the creek, and Mitch felt more relaxed than he had in years. Far more relaxed than on that “date” with Melanie, anyway. They said hello to Mrs. Murphy sitting on her front rocker, watched a cat saunter across the street. Justin drove past in his red pick-up and waved. Ree waved at a girl driving the other way, a dog in the front seat of her car.

“Who’s that?” Mitch asked.

“Robin Cooper, my best friend from school. Actually our whole lives—I think our mothers had us in strollers at the park together.”

“Any relation to Justin Cooper?”

“His little sister." She started to say more, but he watched her mouth clamp shut. He wondered what she wasn’t saying.

“Right, her mom is Nora, of Nora’s Place? And she was my waitress the other day?"

Ree nodded.

“I gather times are tough around here,” Mitch said. What could he say that would let him get behind her public facade?

She gave him a sideways look. “They’re tough everywhere even if you’re middle class. Obviously, times aren’t tough for people with plenty of money.”

Mitch raised one eyebrow. “People like me, you mean.”

Ree kept her eyes on her sandals. “Well, no offense, but you aren’t exactly struggling to make ends meet.”

“No, but I work hard for my money." Blasted hard, he thought, not to mention the toll it took on his conscience. He wasn’t sure there was a high enough salary to make up for that.

“I’m sure you do,” Ree said. “But some people work just as hard and don’t have near the rewards you do. I don’t know if it’s what you’re born with or the opportunities you have or what happens along the way. Or maybe it’s just your talent and drive to succeed. I just know some people have the same drive and no matter what they do, they can’t make life work the way they want.”

“You sound like you know that from experience.”

She looked away. After a moment of silence, he changed tack. “And what do you want, Ree Swanson?"

“To get out of here, of course.”

“It’s a nice town.” Mitch protested.

Ree snorted, a totally unladylike snort. “Everything I’ve done from the time I was 15 was to go somewhere else, to get away from McCormick’s Creek and travel the world. I majored in Hospitality and Tourism, not just because it’s interesting, but because it could take me to other countries. And because it would be impossible to run a hotel and stay here." She looked at him. “And then you went and bought the old mansion.”

“Mr. McCormick bought it."

“Maybe legally, but it’s practically yours. You don’t think about anything else while you’re here, and you’re here more than any big-shot lawyer ought to be.”

Mitch shrugged and didn’t answer.

“Well, you might like small town living, but I’ll do what it takes to get out of here. Whatever it takes.”

Mitch looked sideways at her. There was a hint of ruthlessness in her voice. Just how far would she go to make her dreams come true? “You could always rob the bank,” he said with a smile.

Ree shouldered him good-naturedly, then stumbled herself. “That was actually one of my teenage schemes,” she laughed, recovering her balance. “That, or marry a millionaire. I dropped the idea of bank robbery pretty quickly, but I can’t tell you how many scenarios I dreamed up of some rich prince coming to town and me convincing him to carry me away.”

Mitch raised an eyebrow, but inwardly he was cursing. Another woman after a guy with money. Did that early desperation carry over to now? If so, she sure came at it differently than Melanie Xanthe and her tenacious talons.

But the way his breath caught when he saw her was more than he’d ever felt for Melanie. There was more here than just avoiding another gold-digger. If he could handle Melanie, he could handle Ree’s small-town version.

Besides, how could she know how wealthy he was? Nobody here knew he was a McCormick. Nobody here knew he would inherit his grandfather’s millions as well as the controlling interest in the law firm.

Mitch was determined to keep it that way. He liked being an unknown go-between.

But he truly hoped Ree was as innocent as she first seemed.