Meant To Be Yours. Susan Mallery

Well, not paper, exactly. He used a computer, but the concept was the same.

      He reached the main part of town and turned into The Boardroom’s parking lot. He saw plenty of familiar cars and smiled. His friends would be there, as would other local residents. He would kick a little ass on the board game front, have a beer and a burger, talk to his buddies, then head home. A perfect evening.

      Four years ago, if someone had told him he would settle in this quirky wedding-based town, he would have said that person was crazier than him, but here he was—doing better than anyone could have expected. Forward progress, he thought as he made his way inside. It beat getting left behind.

      “Jasper! You’re back.”

      “Hey, stranger. How was the book tour?”

      “When’d you get home?”

      The calls came from every corner of the bar. Jasper nodded at his buddies, waved at a few people he knew by sight and scanned the room, looking for an open spot at the tables set up for four.

      Mathias Mitchell, an artist who worked with glass, walked past him, a beer in one hand and a glass of wine in the other.

      “Hey, man, you made it. Good to see you.” Mathias nodded toward a table. “Come sit with us. Carol’s friend, Renee, is hanging out with us, so you’d make a fourth.”

      “Will do.”

      Jasper walked around for a few minutes, greeting his friends and giving a brief account of his three-month book tour. When a gong sounded, giving the ten-minute warning before the game started, he walked to the bar and ordered himself a beer. He figured he would get the burger later.

      As he took his drink, he glanced around the room and caught sight of a petite redhead talking to Carol, Mathias’s wife. Renee Something, he thought. The woman Mathias had mentioned. She was maybe five-one. Despite her slight stature, there was something powerful about her. As if she would do whatever was necessary to get what she wanted.

      He held in a grin. Right. Because he was just that good at assessing women. The truth was he knew nothing about her, which was fine. Even though it had been nearly a year since he and Wynn had ended their not-quite relationship, he wasn’t looking for anything else right now. Still, there was something about a woman with long hair. Especially long, red hair.

      As if aware of his scrutiny, Renee turned toward him. For a brief second, their eyes met. Jasper was about to offer a wave when Renee surprised him by flushing slightly and looking away. As if she’d been caught doing something she shouldn’t.

      He glanced around, trying to figure out what could have caused her discomfort. When nothing obvious showed itself, he figured he’d simply misinterpreted the situation. Hardly a surprise—he wasn’t just a guy, he was a guy who knew diddly about women. A fact proven by his inability to create a love interest for the hero of his latest novel. He knew the guy needed a woman in his life—it was a great way to wrap up the series—but he had yet to figure out who she was and how she fit into the story. Or how to write her. So far the only sentence he’d managed to write and then not delete was: She was tall, with short, blond hair. Oh, yeah, the royalty checks were going to roll in on that one.

      He was still chuckling when he approached the table. Carol rose and hugged him.

      “You made it back! Welcome home. Did you miss us?”

      “I did.”

      Mathias held out his hand. “Good to see you. How was the tour?”

      “Good. Long. Plenty of stops.”

      “And adoring fans?” Carol asked, her voice teasing.

      “There were some.” Jasper turned to Renee. “Mind if I join you?”

      She smiled and waved to the empty chair. “Please. Your reputation precedes you, so I’m happy to be on the same team.”

      Whatever weirdness had existed before—or hadn’t existed—was obviously gone.

      He raised a shoulder. “I haven’t played board games in a few months. I’m probably rusty.”

      “I doubt that,” Carol said as she sat down. “Speaking of rusty, I want to warn everyone that this is my first night away from Devon. I’ve been away during the day, but never at night.”

      Jasper wanted to ask how one was different from the other, but knew there was no point. Her reasoning might be based on the fact that her baby was maybe five months old, or it might be a female thing, or it could be something everyone else understood intuitively.

      Mathias reached across the table and squeezed her hand. “You know she’s fine, right? And it’s not like she’s with someone we don’t know.”

      Renee smiled and leaned toward Jasper. “Pallas and Carol share a nanny. With their kids only ten days apart in age, it makes sense. The woman is terrific and does a great job, but they’re both uncomfortable being away from their babies.” Her tone softened. “You know what new moms are like.”

      He nodded rather than say something along the lines of “not really.” He knew even less about young mothers than women in general. His stint in the army had given him a range of skills that could be useful in a wartime situation but they hadn’t been much on training him for life with regular people. As for that small town where he’d grown up...well, that was eight lifetimes ago.

      He studied Renee, taking in her freckles and the cute way her nose turned up a little at the end. She had green eyes—although hers were more gray than his. There was something about her smile he liked. If he were to describe her in a book he would probably mention her long bangs and...

      And what? Her height? Her eyes? The shape of her mouth? Did anyone care about that kind of crap? Dammit—he was a number one New York Times best-selling author and he couldn’t describe a woman? His career was obviously over.

      He pushed that thought away. He would dwell on his inability to write later. Tonight was about having a good time.

      “What’s the game?” he asked as several of the servers started passing out board games. “Ah, Monopoly. Excellent.”

      Carol picked up the piece of paper that had been left on the table. “Traditional rules,” she read. “Whoever has the most money at the end of an hour goes on to the next round. After that, rounds are thirty minutes.” She glanced at her teammates. “That sounds easy enough.”

      Renee nodded and turned to Jasper. “While you were gone, we had a Monopoly Junior tournament and odd number rolls didn’t count. Things got quite heated.”

      “I’ll bet.”

      Her conversation was completely normal. He must have imagined whatever had happened before. Only was she leaning toward him or was he imagining it?

      They unpacked the game and chose tokens. Mathias counted the money and passed the right amount to everyone, then they rolled to see who would go first. As usual, Jasper rolled the highest number and got to start. He rolled double sixes, followed by a five. He bought the Electric Company property, then collected two hundred dollars from the Community Chest card he drew from the top of the stack. Carol was on his left, so he handed the dice to her.

      She stared at him. “I’d forgotten what it was like to play against you. I don’t think I like it.”

      He flashed her a smile. “What can I say? I’m a lucky guy.”

      She made a huffing sound and rolled a seven. “How did the cleanup go yesterday?” she asked Renee.

      “We are back to normal. The water is gone, everything is dried out and there’s not really any serious damage.” She glanced at Jasper. “We had a little accident at the firefighter wedding on Saturday night. Someone bumped the hose fountain and nearly flooded the place.”

      “What’s a firefighter wedding?”

      She took the dice from Mathias and rolled. “Weddings Out of the