Fiancé In Name Only. Maureen Child

she just ran from one to the next. Thankfully, that gave her little opportunity to sit and wonder if sex with Micah in real life would be as good as it was in her dreams.

      Although if it was, she might not survive the experience.

      “Still,” she mused, “not a bad way to go.”

      She shook her head, dipped a brush into the orange tempera paint, wiped off the excess, then painted the first of an orchard of pumpkins onto the Coffee Cave’s front window. Of all her different jobs, this was her favorite. Kelly loved painting holiday decorations on storefronts.

      But she was also a virtual assistant, she ran websites for several local businesses, and was a Realtor who had just sold a house to that family from California. She was a gardener and landscape designer, and now she was thinking seriously about running for mayor in Banner’s next election, since she was just horrified by some of the current mayor’s plans for downtown. As she laid the paint out on the glass, her mind wandered.

      Kelly had a business degree from Utah State, but once she’d graduated, she hadn’t wanted to tie herself down to one particular job. She liked variety, liked being her own boss. When she’d decided to go into several different businesses, a couple of her friends had called her crazy. But she remembered Sean encouraging her, telling her to do whatever made her happy.

      That had her pausing as thoughts of Sean drifted through her mind like a warm breeze on a cool day. A small ache settled around her heart. She still missed him even though his features were blurred in her mind now—like a watercolor painting left out in the rain.

      She hated that. It felt like a betrayal of sorts, letting Sean fade. But it would have been impossible to keep living while holding on to the pain, too. Time passed whether you wanted it to or not. And you either kept up or got run over.

      On that happy notion, Kelly paused long enough to look up and down Main Street. Instantly, she felt better. Banner was a beautiful little town and had been a great place to grow up. Coming here as a heartbroken eight-year-old, she’d fallen in love with the town, the woods, the rivers, the waterfalls and the people here.

      Okay, Banner wasn’t Edinburgh or Oxford or wherever, but it was...cozy. The buildings were mostly more than a hundred years old with creaky floors and brick walls. The sidewalks were narrow but neatly swept, and every one of the old lampposts boasted a basket of fall flowers at its base. In another month or so, there would be Christmas signs up and lights strung across the streets, and when the snow came, it would all look like a holiday painting. So, yes, she’d like to travel, see the world, but she would always come home to Banner.

      Nodding to herself, she turned back to the window and quickly laid out the rest of the pumpkin patch along the bottom edge of the window.

      “Well, that looks terrific already.”

      Kelly turned to grin at her friend. Terry Baker owned the coffee shop and made the best cinnamon rolls in the state. With short black hair, bright blue eyes and standing at about five foot two, Terry looked like an elf. Which she didn’t find the least bit amusing.

      The two of them had been friends since the third grade and nothing had changed over the years. Terry had been there for Kelly when Sean died. Now that Terry’s military husband had deployed for the third time in four years, it was Kelly’s turn to support her friend.

      “Thanks, but I’ve got a long way to go yet,” Kelly said, taking a quick look at the window and seeing a spot she’d have to fill in with a few baby pumpkins.

      “Hence the latte I have brewed just for you.” She held out the go-cup she carried.

      “Hence?” Kelly took the coffee, savored a sip, then sighed in appreciation. “Have you been reading British mysteries again?”

      “Nope.” Terry stuffed her hands into her jeans pockets. “With my sad love life, I’m home every night watching the British mysteries on TV.”

      “Love lives can be overrated,” Kelly said.

      “Right.” Terry nodded. “Who’re you trying to convince? Me? Or you?”

      “Me, obviously, since you’re the only one of us with a man at the moment.”

      Terry leaned one shoulder against the pale rose-colored brick of her building. “I don’t have one, either, trust me. It’s impossible to have phone sex on an iPad when half of Jimmy’s squad could walk in at any moment.”

      Kelly laughed, grabbed another brush and laid down a twining green vine connecting all of the pumpkins. “Okay, that would be awkward.”

      “Tell me about it. Remember when he called me as a surprise on my birthday and I jumped out of the shower to answer the call?” Terry shuddered dramatically. “I can still hear all the whistles from his friends who were there in the room.”

      Still laughing, Kelly said, “Well, that’ll teach Jimmy to surprise you.”

      “No kidding. Now we make phone appointments.” Terry grinned. “But enough about me. I hear you and the writer went for a long ride the other day.”

      “How did you—” Kelly stopped, blew out a breath and nodded. “Right. Sally.”

      “She and her sister came in for coffee yesterday and told me all about it,” Terry admitted, tipping her head to one side to study her friend. “The question is, if there was something to know, why didn’t I already know it?”

      “Because it’s nothing,” Kelly said, focusing on her painting again. She added shadows and depth to the curling vines. “He took me to buy some pumpkins.”

      “Uh-huh. Sally says you were gone almost two hours. Either you’re really picky about your pumpkins or something else was going on.”

      Kelly sighed. “We went for a ride.”

      “Uh-huh.”

      “I showed him around a little.”

      “Uh-huh.”

      “Nothing happened.”

      “Why not?”

      Kelly just blinked. A couple of kids on skateboards shot down the sidewalk with a roar that startled her. “What?”

      “Honey,” Terry said, stepping close enough to drop one arm around Kelly’s shoulders. “Sean’s been gone four years. You haven’t been on a single date in all that time. Now you’ve got this amazing-looking guy living in the Victorian for six months and you’re not going to do anything about it?”

      Laughing a little, Kelly shook her head again. “What should I do? Tie him up and have my way with him?”

      Terry’s eyes went a little dreamy. “Hmm...”

      “Oh, stop it.” But even as she said it, a rush of heat filled Kelly. She only enjoyed it for a second or two before tamping it right down and mentally putting out the fire.

      Honestly, she didn’t want or need the attraction she felt for Micah. He clearly wasn’t interested and Kelly had already loved and lost. She really had zero interest in a romance. Of any kind.

      “Okay, fine,” Terry said, laughing. “If you’re determined to shut yourself up in a closet, wrapped in wool or something, there’s nothing I can do about it. But I swear, if the CIA ever needs more spies, I’m going to recommend Sally and Margie. Those two have their fingers on the pulse of everything that happens in town.”

      And lucky Kelly lived right across the street from them. Sean used to laugh when he saw the older ladies, noses pressed to the windows. He would sweep Kelly into an elaborate dip and kiss her senseless, saying, “The reason they’re so nosy is no one’s ever kissed them senseless. So let’s give them something to talk about.”

      That memory brought a sad smile that she just as quickly let slide away. Remembering Sean meant not only the good times, but the pain of losing him. She’d lost enough in her life, Kelly told herself firmly.

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