We have a perfect tenant for your house. That should have been Hawk’s first clue that the women had been up to no good. When he’d received a phone call from his mother demanding that he make the new teacher feel welcome in their little town, he’d been suspicious, but apparently not enough to say no to letting her use his rental house.
What in the hell did his mother and her best friend, Bethel, think? That he was going to make Natalie some blueberry muffins and show up on her front porch carrying a basket? Hawk didn’t do that. And he certainly didn’t mingle with fiery-tempered red-haired schoolteachers. Not ever.
Hawk liked women. That’s women, plural. He never dated anyone like the schoolteacher, who was really rubbing him the wrong way right now. She was the sort of woman who would want commitment—he could see that clearly from the moment he’d met her in her uptight clothing.
Hawk dated a woman for only one night. Okay, he wasn’t rigid about it. If she was truly spectacular, then he’d make it two or three nights. Third time, however, was the charm. It would only go downhill from there, so he chose to avoid any further contact after that.
This was a prime reason he never, ever dated women from Sterling. It was too small a town and he couldn’t run and hide from them. He’d had several false fire calls from eligible women and their mothers, just to get him to their house. He’d been forced to get a little stern once or twice to stop all that from happening again.
The last such call that had come in had been from a mother who’d purposely set her trash can on fire. He’d lectured her for an hour about the danger she’d put her home, family, and pets in. As he’d walked out the door, the woman had still had the gall to slip her daughter’s phone number into his pocket.
Women! He just couldn’t figure them out.
Arriving at Dr. Holo’s house, throwing the truck in park, and rushing around to Natalie’s side of the vehicle, he lifted her into his arms before running up the walkway to the front door.
“Hawk, what are you doing out on Thanksgiving? And with such a pretty young woman?”
“Hi, Maybelle. This is the new schoolteacher, Natalie Duncan. We had a slight fender bender, and then she fell and hit her head. Wrist seems bruised, as well.”
“Oh, darling,” Maybelle gasped. “That’s not a very good welcome to our town.” Ushering them both inside, Hawk set Natalie on her feet and then Maybelle wrapped an arm around her shoulders. “Alfred just finished his Thanksgiving dinner and was getting ready for dessert, but he’ll certainly take care of you first. Hawk, you just sit on down and I’ll dish you up a piece of pie,” she added, and then led Natalie away.
Hawk felt much better when a juicy slice of pie was put before him, and he began devouring it.
His grumpiness had almost completely dissipated. A smile even appeared on his lips as he sat back and waited for Natalie. That smile vanished when the doc came back into the room with the new schoolteacher and Hawk heard the tail end of their conversation.
“I’m so sorry about ruining your holiday, Doctor. I didn’t even realize it was Thanksgiving.”
Hawk was baffled. How could she not have known it was Thanksgiving? It was Turkey Day. Well, turkey and his favorite, pie. And family, and of course football. How could anyone forget about this particular day? Didn’t she have a mother to call? A family to go home to?
Of course, she had just arrived for her new job, so she didn’t know anyone here yet. But why wouldn’t she have come on Friday or Saturday instead, so she could spend Thanksgiving with her family?
Hawk caught himself worrying about her, but he didn’t want to know about this woman. He certainly didn’t want to be concerned about her. He wasn’t going to be interested in her. That was for damn sure!
“She has a slight concussion. Nothing too serious, but I don’t want her alone for a straight twenty-four hours,” Doc said, looking meaningfully at Hawk.
Dammit!
“Of course not.”
“I’m fine, really,” Natalie said, shifting from foot to foot. “I just need a ride home.”
Because she refused to meet Hawk’s eyes, she didn’t see the withering look he sent her before he turned back to the doctor. “I’ll take her with me to my parents’ place for dinner and then make sure she’s not alone.”
Finally looking up, Natalie gaped at him, but he just turned back to Maybelle instead.
“Thanks for the pie. It really is the best in the county,” Hawk said, kissing her cheek.
“You come back anytime. I always have a fresh pie for visitors,” she said, a rosy glow where he’d kissed her.
“You know that you’re both more than welcome to come on over and eat at my mom’s,” Hawk said. His parents always had a few extra people at their table. They couldn’t stand the thought of anyone being alone on a holiday.
“I’m going to turn the game on in a few minutes and focus on digesting,” Doc said with a laugh. “Serious work. You just take care of my patient and I’ll rest easy.”