Luring Levi (Tarnished Saints Series Book 2) (3 page)

“Job? I have a job,” complained Levi, bending over to get the keys, feeling the coffee sloshing
around in his stomach.

“I meant a paying job.
”

“Since when does that skinflint friend of yours do anything for free, Tommy?” he asked, using the nickname only he coul
d get away with around his brother. “What’s the rest of the deal or weren’t you planning on telling me?”

“There is a thing or two I told him you’d help him out with, but it’s no
big deal. I’ll fill you in later. Now get going, as you don’t want to be late. This woman seemed pretty bossy and I don’t think she’d like to have to wait.”

“Oh, wonderful. Now I have to deal with a bitchy woman on top of everything else I’ve been through today?”

“Oh, stop your complaining.” Thomas stood up with a wrench in his hand, pointing it as he spoke. “Who knows, maybe you’ll even get lucky and get laid. I hear she’s got kids but she’s not married.”

“You’ve got to be kidding,” said Levi, just shaking his head. “From what you’ve told me she already sounds viler than the widow Durnsby’s pickles.
Besides, the last thing I need is to get mixed up with a chick with baggage. Naw, she’s not for me.”

“Oh, yeah, speaking of Mrs. Durnsby, I forgot that Angel told me this woman is some kind of cooking celebrity
or something and is here to judge the food entries in the fair next week. I guess Mrs. Durnsby swears this woman is going to bring lots of people to the fair since she has some kind of cooking show on TV.”

“What?” asked L
evi. “I thought I was judging the food entries.”

“You are. The fair always has a local judge as well as a celebrity judge brought in. So I guess you’ll be doing it together.”

“Wonderful.” Levi shook his head. “What’s this girl’s name anyway, or are you expecting me to walk up to every woman with a suitcase and a couple of kids and try to take her home?”

Thomas put his head back under the hood and tinkered away. “I think it was something like Sandy or Mandy . . . I can’t remember. Just go, you’ll figure it out.”

Levi turned and headed toward the ’67 Chevy convertible that Thomas had given his eldest son, Dan for his seventeenth birthday. He held his aching head, feeling like his first mistake was ever getting out of bed at all this morning. All he could hope for was that this woman and her kids were quiet, because he could not take any more noise today.

Chapter 3

Candace Marie Kane stepped off the train and looked around, but to her dismay she didn’t see anyone who was waiting for her arrival. She reached up and lifted her six-year-old twins down to the platform one at a time.

“Where are we going, Mother?
” asked Valentine, her prim and proper daughter who thought she was sixteen, not six.

“We’re waiting for a man named Thomas Taylor to give us a ride to the cabin,
sweetie,” she told her.

“Damn, it’s hot!” Valentine’s twin brother shouted out.

“Vance, stop swearing,” she said, frowning at the little boy who looked a lot like his father. Actually, he sounded a lot like him too now that he’d learned a swear word or two from watching too much TV.

She grabbed their luggage from the conductor and line
d it up on the platform, then shaded her eyes and looked around for the man named Thomas Taylor. She found herself thinking of another man named Taylor who’d seduced her seven years ago when she’d come to do a food review at his restaurant, The Big Apple. Levi Taylor to be exact.

She’d never forget that name as long as she lived.
He was such a womanizer and lured her into bed just so she’d give his restaurant a five star review – which she had done in the end.

But h
e hadn’t needed to bed her to get a good review, as his restaurant had served some of the best food the state of Michigan ever had. Too bad a short time later the bastard landed himself in prison. She wasn’t even sure what he’d been locked away for, but she knew whatever it was, he deserved it. The only thing bad that came of it was that the restaurant closed down. The state of Michigan may not have missed it, but being as passionate about food as she was, she missed it completely. Levi Taylor may not know how to treat a woman, but damned that man could cook.

She glanced around once again, not seeing anyone coming for her. She felt a little apprehensive just hearing the name Taylor, but she knew it was a common name. She’d been hearing it a lot in the past seven years and learned to get used to it.

She’d never been to the little town of Sweet Water before, being from Chicago. But she had nearly a month of vacation time accrued from her job so she decided to spend some time with her kids at Thunder Lake, and possibly stay here til the end of July.

Actual
ly, she was very glad when the mayor, Mabel Durnsby called the network of her review show and asked her to come be a judge at the Sweet Water fair. This wasn’t a paying job, but it would be good promo for the network as well as her new cable cooking show that she was trying to launch. Plus, this would give her the time away from Chicago she needed. And away from her landlord who was hunting her down for not paying her rent for the last three months.

Being a single parent she found it hard to work and pay day care and still have money left for things like rent.
She was glad to find a cabin on Thunder Lake to rent that didn’t cost as much as a hotel. And even happier that at the last minute her network decided to pay for it since she was here on business. Now if she only hadn’t had to sell her car to help pay bills, she would at least have had transportation today, even if she couldn’t afford to buy gas for the tank.

“Mom, I’m hungry,” said Vance.

“I’m tired,” complained Valentine, “and my dress is dirty.” She batted at the spot of dirt on her colorful sundress that she’d gotten when her brother decided to push her down in the train in Chicago.

“You two just hold on. We should be there soon.” She was digging out her cell phone from her purse to try to ca
ll the cabin owners when a fire-engine-red convertible with the top down came squealing around the corner with the music blaring.

“Damn idiot
,” she mumbled softly, digging through her purse trying to find the number.

“Damn idiot
,” Vance repeated, and she knew she really had only herself to blame for the little boy’s foul mouth after all. She’d have to try to be more careful with her words from now on.

She noticed the car parking at the depot, but thought
nothing of it until the music stopped and a man jumped over the side of the car without even opening the door and headed straight for her.

“That man is coming over here
, Mother,” said Valentine.

“For God’s sake, I hope that’s not our ride,” she said, holding her cell phone tightly, in case she needed to dial 911 quickly.

“For God’s . . .”

“Hush.” She covered her son’s mouth with her free hand, not wanting him to curse again.

She squinted in the sun, surveying the man headed in their direction. He wore faded tight jeans that hugged his hips and back end, and a sleeveless black t-shirt that showed off his muscles. The last thing she wanted was to get into a car with some crazed drug-addict, and with her children along. That wouldn’t be safe. She should have specified to the man on the phone that she wanted
him
to come get her, as he sounded older and more mature. She was sure this man was not Thomas Taylor.

She wasn’t wearing her contacts, since she was in a hurry to leave this morning and hadn’t had time to put them in. So she dug through her
purse looking for her glasses so she could see whom she’d be getting into the car with – or if she would at all.

“Are you Sandy?
Or Mandy?” The man called out, as he walked up to them in no hurry at all. “I’m suppose to give you a ride to the cabin.”

Her gut twisted, and she knew now this was the man she’d been waiting for. Well,
what did she expect in a po-dunk little town? An actual taxi?

“I’m surprised to see you walking so slow
ly after the way you pulled up here like a bat out of hell,” she said, finding her glasses and pulling them out of her handbag.

“Bat out of hell,” repeated Vance, embarrassing her in the process.

“Sorry about that, I would have been here sooner but I stopped to get some aspirin for my hangover.”

She slipped her glasses on
to her face, angry with the man. “Don’t think we’re going anywhere with you if you’re drunk.”

She glanced
up and got her first look at the man who she realized had a rocking body under those tight clothes. Then her heart just about stopped in her chest when she realized the man standing in front of her was none other than the father of her children – Levi Taylor.

“I’m not drunk,” he replied, “just
a little hung over, but it’s nothing to worry about. Now let’s go.” He picked up a suitcase in each hand, leaving her with the last one and headed toward the car. She just stood there with her mouth open and didn’t say a word. He hadn’t even recognized her. Damned him for not realizing who she was, even if they’d only had a one-night-stand seven years ago.

“Can we go?” whined Valentine. “I have to go to the bathroom.”

“I want to sit in the front,” said Vance, running straight for the car.

Candace picked up the pull handle on the suitcase and wheeled it slowly toward t
he car. Valentine ran to the convertible, following her brother and started fighting with him when he opened the door and tried to climb in the front.

“I want the front,” she
said. “You get in back.”

“You can both sit in the front,” Levi told them. “Just keep the shouting down to a low roar, will you?”

She walked up behind him, and without even looking at her, he grabbed the suitcase and brought it to the trunk.

“So, are you Thomas Taylor?” she asked, knowing damned well he wasn’t.

“No, I’m his brother, Levi.” He had his head in the trunk and was arranging the suitcases to make them fit. “So how long do you plan on staying at the cabin, Sandy?” he asked without looking up.

“Oh, I do
n’t know. A few weeks – a month – maybe forever. After all, I hear this town will take anyone.”

“Yep, that’s about right,
” he said from inside the trunk. “Sweet Water is desperate for people. I’m surprised they got a celebrity to come judge food at the fair, Mandy. Then he scratched his head as if he were thinking. “What did you say your name was again?”

“I didn’t
,” she answered. “But my name isn’t Sandy or Mandy. I’m the star of a brand new cable TV cooking show. You may have heard of me, as I am also the host of a restaurant review show called
What’s For Dinner
on the dining network in Chicago. My name is Candace Marie Kane.”

He slammed the trunk down and looked at her for the first time, his eyes getting wide in the process. “Candy?” He cocked his head to the side
and perused her. “Is that really you, my sweet candy cane?”

“Don’t ca
ll me that, you fool!” She glanced sideways to her kids, glad they were busy playing with the glove compartment, opening it and slamming it shut and didn’t hear what he’d just called her.

“Wow, it’s been a long time,” he said with
a shake of his head.

“Seven
years, but who’s counting?”

“And th
at was one hell of a night seven years ago that I’ll never forget,” he said with a smile that spread across his entire face.

“I can guara
ntee you will never forget it,” she answered, looking over at her children, wanting to tell him he was their father, but she didn’t say a word. She wasn’t even sure right now if she really wanted him to know. After all, he was an ex-con and the way it looked, also a drunk. Not the ideal image of a good father. Besides, if she did tell him, she needed to wait until the time was right. Not here, and definitely not in front of the kids. She didn’t really know him, and there’d be no telling how he’d react.

“Mother, I really have to pee,” said her daughter.

“Mother?” He sounded amused and smiled, the corner of one side of his mouth a little higher than the other, making him look so sexy that she couldn’t help but think of the heated passion they’d shared on that night so long ago.

His dark hair was shorter than she’d remembered
– probably being cut while he was in prison, she guessed, but he still had some long strands that hung down across his face. And his eyes were still that beautiful bright blue.

He’d been the only one
she’d ever done something so impetuous with, as to sleep with a man she’d just met. But at the time she was twenty-two and had just landed her job after spending years looking for work after she’d graduated college. She also hadn’t had a date at the time in over a year since her previous boyfriend had dumped her.

Levi Taylor had used her to get what he wanted, and she, being young and naïve had fallen right into
his little trap as he’d lured her in with his sexy smile and his way of making her feel like she was the only girl in the world. He was a fake, a phony, and also an ex-convict. And if she had an ounce of sense in her head she’d collect her children and get as far away from Sweet Water and Levi Taylor as she possibly could.