Lean on Me Read Free

interesting guys.” Then the words registered. “Wait, did you say date?”
    “Tomorrow at seven at Schmidt’s.”
    That bit of news sent her mind racing down another track. “It’s still open? Old Man Schmidt was ninety when we were in school.”
    “And still makes a mean pancake.” Mitch took out his phone. “What’s your number?”
    She beat back a sigh. “I don’t have one.”
    He shot her one of those you’re-so-full-of-it looks men did so well. “Everyone has a phone.”
    “I don’t.” It wasn’t even a line. She actually couldn’t afford one right now. She owned a tent and a backpack and the sneakers on her feet. Hard to believe she once employed an agent and sat in on fancy dinners with prospective sponsors talking about documentary deals.
    Mitch’s gaze brushed over her face like a caress. “Seriously?’
    She had to swallow to force the word out. “Yes.”
    “Fair enough.” He slipped the phone back into his pocket.
    “You believe me?”
    He shrugged. “Are you lying?”
    “No.”
    He shrugged. “Then what do you say to the date?”
    She said the first thing that popped into her head. “I’ll get right on that.”
    The smile that spread over his mouth was bright enough to light the room. “Nice comeback.”
    “Thought that might impress you.”
    “Oh, it did. Now, it’s my turn.” He stood up straight again. “I’m going to walk away thinking we’re on for tomorrow.”
    Her good mood faded. “I didn’t—”
    “When I do go—” he pointed in the direction of the glassed-in office at the far end of the room, “—you’re going to be tempted to watch my ass.”
    The comment was so out of context it hit her like a sharp smack. “Excuse me?”
    “Just to be clear, I won’t be offended. As far as I’m concerned, you can go right ahead and look because I can guarantee you if the positions were reversed, I’d be watching yours.”
    With her mouth hanging open and her mind muddled, she watched him walk away. No, make that saunter. It was the sure stalk of a hunter, all grace with no wasted steps.
    And damn if she didn’t take a peek at his ass.

Chapter Two
    Mitch couldn’t fight the grin as he walked down the aisle filled with customers engaged in open gawking. He had taken a nice long look of his own at Cassidy, just not for the same reason.
    She had starred in more than one teenage fantasy. Back then he was a mass of raging hormones with a head attached but not much in the way of brains. He was into cheerleaders. Almost any girl, really.
    Most people wrote her off as aloof, but he saw something else. Something sweet and a little shy, even as she worked out harder than most of the guys on the football team. That athletic drive turned him on because he had it too. It was that focus, the refusal to listen to the naysayers, that as an adult put her name in the news and her body at the top of the highest mountains in the world.
    As he got older and his taste in women moved past short skirts and cute butts to include things like personality, stuff his younger self totally didn’t get, he’d continued to follow Cassidy’s career. He smiled over every photograph and accomplishment until her reputation crashed. Like, fiery explosion crashed.
    He shook off the memory of the stunned look on her face and walked into his office, straight into two men he worked with every day. Seeing their narrow-gazed expressions had him closing the door behind him with a click. “What’s going on?”
    Spencer Thomas, who was co-owner of Thomas Nurseries along with his brother Austin and Mitch, who owned a lesser percentage, shook his head. Spence stopped leaning against the credenza behind Mitch’s desk but kept his arms folded across his chest as he stood up. “Walk away, man.”
    “That sounds like advice but I’m not sure what the topic is.” But Mitch did. He glanced out the window and scanned the nursery floor for the object of the warning.
    “The Chosen One.”
    Man, the town had a