Spring River Valley: The Spring Collection (Boxed Set) Read Free

exactly?”
    “The new children’s wing at the hospital.”
    “I don’t mean the charity, I mean what…ah… service are you providing?” Taylor smirked and raised a brow. “You’d better be careful your uptight reporter friend doesn’t get wind of it.”
    “She probably will. She writes for the lifestyle section. We just have to go on a date. Local restaurants are donating dinners for two, and we take the ladies who win us out to eat. It’s all very innocent.” A mirror image of his brother, Tanner mimicked Taylor’s expression.
    “And ‘innocent’ is your middle name, after all.”
    “Hey, you could volunteer too…”
    “That’s okay. I’m not ready to put myself on the market…literally…just yet.”
    “It’s been a year and a half since Joyce left. Don’t you think it’s time to come out of your cave?”
    “When I find someone worth coming out of my cave for, I will.” Taylor’s expression hardened. Tanner knew his brother didn’t like being reminded of his runaway fiancée, but his period of mourning for the woman who’d broken his heart, taken his dog, and left him high and dry in the house he’d purchased for them to live in after their wedding should have ended long ago.
    “I know you still miss her…”
    “I don’t miss Joyce. I miss Tiger.”
    “So get a new dog. You should know a pet is a great way to meet women.”
    “I’m not interested in meeting a woman right now, and I’ve got all the canine companionship I could want at work, which where I need to be, so, if you want the tux, it’s upstairs in the back of the closet. You should probably have it dry-cleaned before you wear it…and after , if you don’t mind.” Taylor grabbed his jacket and keys and opened the front door. “I gotta get going. Just lock up when you leave, and…if you want to stop by Colette’s next Friday night, Owen and Claudia and I are auditioning at the Battle of the Bands.”
    “Awesome, I’ll bring Quinn and the guys. Hey, T… Sorry about bringing up Joyce. I just think—”
    Taylor held up a hand. “Don’t worry about it. You’re right, on some primitive level. I need to get on with my life. When the time is right, I will. Oh, and I’ll make a donation to the hospital in the name of the clinic too. See you later.”
    Taylor ducked out the front door, leaving Tanner to contemplate his brother’s words. He wondered if Taylor would ever find someone worth trusting again after Joyce’s betrayal. There’d been a time when Tanner had envied his brother the solid, dependable relationship he’d had with the girl who was his high-school sweetheart. The breakup had taught Tanner a valuable lesson though, and that was never fall in love for longer than a week and always protect your heart and soul. Hopefully Taylor would one day get past the hurt and start enjoying his life, and Tanner planned to be there to show him how to do it.
     
    * * * *
     
    The more Evie thought about it, the more she regretted the tone of her article about Tanner Croft. She’d left the class feeling incredibly foolish for thinking he might be interested in her. Seeing how attentive he was to all the other women in the class had taught her a lesson she should have learned a long time ago. Don’t get played. The dark-eyed EMT was handsome, no argument there, and she hadn’t yet been able to shake the memory of his strong arms around her, even though his next move had been to flip her over and drop her on the workout mat like a sack of potatoes.
    On that account s he planned to keep her word and put him out of her mind for good, so rather than sitting at her desk ruminating on her embarrassment of the other night, she strolled directly into Janet’s office first thing Monday morning.
    “Have you got a minute?” she asked after knocking on the doorframe. Janet usually kept her office open and didn’t stand on ceremony when it came to her staff. She looked up from her computer and adjusted her thick-rimmed glasses