Mistletoe Daddy. Deb Kastner

a lot of work—but this was even worse than he’d anticipated. There was nothing salvageable that he could see. At best the paint was peeling off the walls, and that didn’t count the numerous scratches and holes. Repainting wouldn’t be nearly good enough. They’d need all new drywall.

      The ground was covered with rotting floorboards scattered with a huge amount of old junk. Besides ancient piles of feed, there was a rusty tricycle, an old end table that appeared to be cracked through the middle, random bricks and an ugly garden gnome that stared back at him as if he were the intruder.

      It would take them a week working full-time just to clear the debris, never mind prepare the inside for remodeling. He hadn’t committed to this kind of labor.

      But he was all-in now. And maybe that was for the best—at least for his social standing. Vivian knew nothing of his recent dating history, so she didn’t know that he was practically a pariah thanks to his vicious ex poisoning everyone against him. But Vivian had always been well liked. If he spent time with her, helping her, making sure he was seen with her, it was bound to give his reputation an upswing. It would show the rest of the town that he could be near a woman without having her run screaming in the other direction.

      Or even worse, be screaming at him.

      In public.

      It wasn’t that he had any romantic intentions toward Viv, but he had to start somewhere in polishing up his public image if he ever wanted to get a date again. Besides, this project wouldn’t last forever. It would be a race to see whether he could finish the project before Vivian discovered the truth about him. His most recent pathetic excuse for a relationship wasn’t exactly a state secret, and he was sure Viv had plenty of friends who would be anxious to tell her the whole story.

      Anyway, who else would help Vivian with this disaster of a shop if not he? She wouldn’t have bid on him if she had anywhere else to go, or anyone else to lean on. He suspected she hadn’t had enough money to hire a proper contractor, although she hadn’t said as much.

      He didn’t blame her for her pride. In fact, he admired her for it.

      Yes, he had a cattle ranch to run, but he’d figure out some way to be there for Vivian. She was probably only now realizing how long it would take to remodel, but he’d get it done for her.

      And run the ranch. And help Jax. And volunteer to help build the senior center.

      First, though, he’d have to dig through all this trash.

      “Oh, my,” Vivian breathed from behind his left shoulder. “This is truly awful.”

      “You haven’t been inside before today?”

      Her face colored, staining her cheeks an alluring soft pink. “Honestly? No. The entire real estate transaction was done over the phone and on the internet. I haven’t been back in town for more than a couple of days, and I’ve been busy moving myself into a cabin on Redemption Ranch. Before I knew it, the day of the auction crept up on me, and at that point, I figured we may as well take a look at it together, so we could start making plans.”

      “So you bought it sight unseen.”

      “Well, I saw the exterior, and I remembered the location from when I lived here before. The pictures the real estate agent gave me must have been from when the property was still a working barbershop. I had at least some idea of what I was getting into.”

      Nick personally thought she had no idea what she was getting into. The real estate agent who talked her into buying this property should be shot, taking advantage of Vivian that way. And the worst part was she didn’t have the slightest idea that she’d been taken.

      Whatever she’d paid for it, it was too much.

      Vivian shook her head. “I apologize. This is all my fault. I should have come down and inspected the place before I got you involved.”

      Nick heard the trip in her voice and realized she must have read the expression on his face. She looked as if she were about to cry. She pressed her lips tightly together as if trying to stem the tide of her emotions, which ebbed and flowed faster than Nick could keep up with.

      But he could relate to her discouragement. On the work front, he’d recently lost several head of cattle to disease. Then there was his public breakup with Brittany.

      Life threw everyone curves. It was how a man—or a woman—responded to those setbacks that showed what kind of person they were.

      “Well, I suppose I should call for a Dumpster to be brought in so I can start cleaning,” Viv said, wiping her palms across the denim of her blue jeans. “I’ll put all the trash in one corner until I can remove it. Do you want to go see about that ladder?”

      Nick’s gaze widened. He had to admit he’d fully expected her to turn tail and run. But she was just buckling down and pushing forward. Which either made her very brave or completely nuts. At this point he wasn’t sure which.

      At least there was one problem that would be quick and easy to fix. As Nick suspected, Eddie was only too happy to loan him a ladder—on behalf of Emerson’s pretty new neighbor, of course. Eddie obviously saw it as an opportunity to ingratiate himself with the lady. Nick didn’t know how he felt about that, but he appreciated Eddie lending him a hand when it came to removing the signage—even if it was for ulterior motives.

      By the time Nick brought the ladder back to Emerson’s and returned to the shop, Vivian had managed to create quite a large pile of debris in one corner.

      “Did you see this?” she exclaimed, pointing to a bent-up red tricycle with missing spokes and flat tires. “Who would leave a tricycle in an abandoned shop?” she asked, folding her arms as if she were suddenly cold. “It kind of makes me sad to think about.”

      “Are you making up stories in your mind about the poor little child who lost his bike?” he guessed.

      Count on Vivian to be nostalgic over a rusty piece of metal.

      Her eyes widened on him and then she laughed. “Yes, I suppose I am. You must think I’m a real airhead.”

      “No, I don’t,” he immediately countered, then cleared his throat.

      Heat filled his chest and rose into his neck. That was exactly what he’d been thinking, and honestly, she’d done little to prove otherwise. Still, it seemed to him that she cut herself down a lot, and it gave him cause to wonder why she was so hard on herself.

      “Yes, you do,” Vivian scoffed. “And I suspect it’s going to take some real work on my part to change your opinion of me. You have the Mr. Darcy Syndrome.”

      He tilted his head at her in confusion. He knew he’d heard the name somewhere, but he hadn’t a clue as to where. “The what?”

      “Oh, you are so busted. He’s the hero of Pride and Prejudice, which you absolutely should already know. That book was required reading for every tenth-grader at Serendipity High School since the day the school opened.”

      He grinned. “Are you going to tell Mrs. Keller on me? She still teaches tenth grade English, you know. I may have used CliffsNotes to get through. I’ve never been much of a reader, especially not gushy romance.” He didn’t mention why he didn’t care for reading. His dyslexia was a well-kept secret. Only his teachers and family knew about it.

      “There’s a movie,” Vivian suggested with a laugh. “Several of them, in fact.”

      “Eww. That would be worse than reading the book.” Nick cringed. “You’d have to tie me down to the chair to force me to watch that frilly, girly kind of stuff.”

      “You have such a closed mind.”

      “Opinionated,” he countered.

      “Stubborn.”

      “Okay, we can agree on that.”

      “So you’re stubborn and I’m a complete ditz.”

      Nick’s gaze narrowed