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  Can’t Hurry Love

  A Rocky Valley Romance

  Nadine Millard

  Copyright © 2021 Nadine Millard

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and events are fictitious in every regard. Any similarities to actual events and persons, living or dead, are purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names, or named features are assumed to be the property of their respective owners, and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement if any of these terms are used. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or part, electronically or mechanically, constitutes a copyright violation.

  CAN’T HURRY LOVE

  Copyright © 2021 NADINE MILLARD

  ISBN-13: 978-1-946061-84-3

  Cover Design by Jena Brignola

  Editing by Paula Buckendorf

  Formatting by Jill Sava, Love Affair With Fiction

  Table of Contents

  Front Matter

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgements

  Thanks for reading!

  Also By Nadine Millard

  To my wonderful readers.

  What a couple of years we’re living through!

  Thanks for sticking with me

  This one’s for you.

  Prologue

  Hi, Beth,

  It was great to meet you the other day. I’m going to be swamped with work for the next couple of months, but maybe I can give you a call the next time I’m in town?

  Best,

  Roger

  Beth Carroway sighed and threw her phone on the padded seat beside her. “Another one bites the dust,” she muttered to herself. She wasn’t even disappointed, really. She’d known after about ten minutes that Roger wasn’t the one for her. There had been no spark. No fizzle.

  And he’d eaten his hamburger with a knife and fork. A clear sign that he was a psychopath as far as she was concerned.

  “Hey, Beth. You want anything else?”

  Beth glanced up at her waitress and smiled, pushing a blond curl out of her face. “No, thanks Tara,” she said. “I’ll be heading out soon.”

  “Hot date?” The pretty redhead smiled.

  “In Rocky Valley?” Beth laughed. “Hardly. No, the boys have a big day ahead of them at the ranch tomorrow, so I’ll be cooking and baking up a storm so they don’t starve to death.”

  “You’re a good sister.” Tara winked before heading in the direction of someone who’d called for coffee.

  “Aren’t I just?” Beth whispered, dropping her chin into her hand.

  The truth was that she felt pretty useless around the ranch. Ever since her mom died, Beth had taken over the cooking. She was a good cook, but it didn’t exactly excite her. She didn’t love it the way her mom had.

  Because she’d trained her daughter in the traditional ways of a rancher woman, Fran Carroway’s death hadn’t caused a big change to the running of the ranch. But there’d been a seismic shift in their family.

  As the youngest and the only girl, Beth and Fran had been as close as it was possible for a mother and daughter to be. In many ways, Fran had been Beth’s best friend.

  But then, she’d gotten sick.

  Beth had been fifteen when she died, and it hadn’t felt like she’d even begun to recover from that before her dad suffered a heart attack and joined his wife, even though it had been ten years later. A small consolation around Dad’s death was that he’d be with his beloved again. The only thing Tom Carroway had loved more than the ranch was his wife.

  His kids came up even with the sprawling property that had been in the Carroway family for generations.

  Taking over the cooking had come naturally to Beth when Fran had passed. And she didn’t mind. Not really. But it bored her stiff. The only joy she found in the kitchen was when she was baking. That she was passionate about.

  When she was younger, she’d dreamed of going to culinary school to train as a pastry chef. But when her mom had gotten sick that dream had gone by the wayside. Beth hadn’t minded, of course. She did her duty to her family, and she did it without complaint.

  But — it was hard. Being on the ranch. Being the only girl. Being stuck in a town as small as Rocky Valley and never meeting anyone new or exciting…

  Beth sighed again.

  Why had she let Roger’s brush-off send her into a funk? Why was she sitting in the middle of a diner feeling lonely and sorry for herself? Her life wasn’t so bad. It was actually pretty good, really.

  But she wanted a boyfriend. There. She admitted it. She should want to be a strong, independent woman who “don’t need no man.” But she couldn’t help it.

  It was coming into the spring. She’d spent fall and Christmas single. Fall was the time for a boyfriend. Someone to go pumpkin picking with. Someone to drink apple cider with and watch horror movies with and just — be with. And Christmas was… well, Christmas. Made for love. Made to share with someone.

  Sadly, there was no one in Rocky Valley who fit the bill of a good boyfriend. The boys she’d dated in high school had grown into men she had no intention of dating again. And the ones she had sort of thought about dating saw her only as Grayson’s, Zach’s, or Seth’s little sister.

  She wanted to date. She wanted to fall in love. Over-the-top, romantic comedy, made-for-TV, fall-and-Christmas-movie kind of love. That just didn’t seem like something that would happen here in Rocky Valley.

  Deciding she’d wasted enough time bemoaning her lot in life, Beth stood up from the booth and hurried to the door, waving goodbye to Tara as she went.

  Her phone pinged again, and she looked down to see an email from her childhood best friend, Zoe. Zoe had moved back to London ten years ago when Jack Beckford had broken her heart and sent her running. She hadn’t been back to Rocky Valley since, and Beth missed her. A lot. Zoe had been more like a sister to her than anyone else.

  Opening the email and the door at the same time, Beth stepped outside — and straight into a rock-hard wall. Staggering backward, she looked up, and her breath caught, actually caught, just like in the movies.

  The man who was even now reaching out and steadying her was hands down the most beautiful one she’d ever seen. He was tall enough that she had to bend her neck back to look up at him. His hair was a golden blond, darker than her own ash-blond curls, and his eyes were a deep cobalt in contrast to her own icy blue.

  And his smile was the stuff of dreams.

  To her shock, Beth felt herself blushing. She never blushed.

  As a kid Beth had been captain of the cheer squad and almost always the lead in school plays. Attention didn’t bother her. Scrutiny didn’t faze her. But here she was blushing just because this man was smiling at her.

  “Sorry.” She remembered to talk. “I guess I should have looked where I was
going.”

  “Well, I’m glad you didn’t,” his smile widened, and her cheeks got hotter. “You ok?”

  “Oh — uh, yeah. I’m fine,” she mumbled. “Thanks.”

  What the heck?

  Why was she acting like a fourteen-year-old with her first crush?

  “I’m Josh Larson.” He stuck a hand out, and Beth shook it, her own feeling tiny and delicate in his. “I just moved to town.”

  “Beth,” she said. “Beth Carroway. Lived here all my life.”

  “Carroway? Any relation to Grayson?”

  Beth’s heart sank at the question. Grayson’s Baby Sister Syndrome. If he knew her brother, he’d probably run a mile.

  “Yeah. His sister,” she answered dully, just waiting for the inevitable “see-ya” that was heading her way.

  “He mentioned a sister, but I was expecting someone younger from the way he talked.”

  Beth rolled her eyes. “Because if he had his way, I’d perpetually be ten years old. Sadly, I’m a grown woman.”

  “Sadly for him, maybe.”

  Beth’s eyes shot up to his at his softly spoken words and damned if her toes didn’t curl, just a little.

  His smile was pure sin.

  “Like I said, I’m new to town and I don’t exactly have a lot of friends yet. Take pity on me and join me for a drink?”

  Beth had a lot to do tonight. Grayson wouldn’t be happy if she didn’t show up. He was big on commitment to running the ranch. And Zoe’s email had seemed urgent from the cursory glance she’d managed. Lots of exclamation points. Nothing good ever came of that many exclamation points. Not from Zoe.

  She should say no.

  She didn’t even know him! And he was very forward…

  “Come on,” he coaxed.

  And because she’d read so many books about butterflies in the tummy but had never actually experienced the sensation until right now, Beth answered his smile with one of her own.

  “Ok,” she said quietly. “I’d love to.

  Chapter One

  “They look so happy.”

  Beth turned from watching Zoe and Beck dance their first dance as husband and wife.

  The wedding had gone without a hitch, thank the Lord.

  These two had taken the long road on their way to happily ever after. But they were here now. And she couldn’t be happier for Zoe.

  As Beth looked on, Zoe smiled radiantly at her husband who was looking down at her with such love on his face that it made Beth’s eyes fill up. She was beyond thrilled that they’d found a love like this. Nobody deserved it more than Zoe. But she wanted it, too. Wanted it for herself.

  She smiled at Brooke Winters who’d sort of helped bring Zoe and Beck back to each other by being the letting agent for Beck’s building. A building that Zoe had wanted to rent for her bookstore, The Book Nook.

  “They do, don’t they?” She remembered to answer Brooke’s question.

  Both Beck and Zoe had ended up being trapped in the building during a storm and the rest was history.

  It had been a year since then. But Zoe had told Beth that she’d known from the second she and Beck had kissed that day that she wanted to be his wife.

  Beth sighed wistfully.

  “You did such a wonderful job with the cake and desserts, too. And I have to tell you, our clients absolutely love the pastries and muffins we provide. I swear, most of them only come to my open houses for your baked goods.”

  Beth laughed at Brooke’s wry tone.

  Truthfully, setting up Beth’s Bakery had been a dream she hadn’t even known she’d had until last year.

  Now it was thriving, and so was she.

  From starting off supplying sweet treats for the coffee shop in The Book Nook to turning the rest of the building into a fully-fledged bakery, the past year had been a bit of a whirlwind.

  It was tough dividing her time between the bakery and the ranch where she still did most of the cooking. But Beth had always enjoyed a challenge and honestly, the busyness distracted her from how single she was.

  Or at least it had done so until today. But there was something about being single at your best friend’s wedding that upset a girl.

  “I’m sure that’s not true,” she answered modestly.

  She and Brooke chatted for a while longer about nothing and everything.

  “Ok, Dr. Larson is looking insanely good tonight,” Brooke suddenly leaned over to whisper. “And he hasn’t taken his eyes off you.”

  Startled, Beth turned her head, and her eyes clashed with Josh Larson’s gaze.

  Oh, no. Hell no. She was not making that mistake again.

  Before she could stop it, her mind flashed back to that one, perfect night she’d spent with Josh Larson when he’d first moved here.

  Perfect really was the only word to describe it.

  Beth had felt like she was starring in her own movie that night. Josh had been charming, witty, and hotter than a Rocky Valley summer, and she’d just floated around on cloud nine all night.

  He’d only arrived in town the week before, so he was staying at Sheraton’s, the nicest and costliest hotel in the area.

  And it hadn’t taken much for him to convince Beth to join him there for that drink she’d agreed to.

  Instead of driving to the edge of town where the hotel was situated overlooking the valley, they’d walked and exchanged stories — Beth’s filled with memories of growing up in the small Colorado mountain town, and Josh’s of the pressures of working as an ER doctor in a busy Chicago hospital.

  She remembered how his bright blue eyes had darkened as he talked about getting out and off the stressful hamster wheel…

  She remembered how his golden hair had glinted in the streetlights…

  And she remembered the riot of butterflies when he’d smiled at her…

  When he’d kissed her with a passion that had shaken her to her core and gotten out of control from the off…

  When they’d waited outside the hotel for a cab to arrive after he’d been the one to end that last kiss that very nearly didn’t end at all — a cab he’d called and insisted on putting on his own card — and his eyes had darkened again, this time with a desire that had made her stomach clench in excitement.

  They’d only spent one evening together, but Beth had been halfway in love with him before the taxi had even pulled away from the door of the hotel.

  She’d known that if Josh hadn’t acted the gentleman, things would have gotten a lot more hot and heavy in that hotel. Something that she had never done before, or considered since.

  It was just Josh. Josh and that night.

  Yes, she was a bit of a hopeless romantic. Everyone knew that. And yes, she very much wanted a fairy-tale love, complete with happily ever after. She’d known that night had been special. She hadn’t imagined it or wished for it. It hadn’t been an ordinary first date. Driving away in the back of the cab listening to Maury Jenson chatter away about his day, Beth had been one hundred percent positive that there was something special between her and Josh Larsen. The same something that she’d read in countless romance novels but hadn’t ever actually felt for herself until that one, magical evening.

  Beth had spent the entire cab ride home letting herself imagine all sorts of scenarios: some wholesome and pure like her movies and others more like the books she kept hidden in her room far away from the prying eyes of her brothers.

  And God, she’d been desperate for that call to come. The call he’d said he’d make the next day. It had been over a year, and she was still waiting for it…

  “Hardly,” she snorted, her voice only trembling a little bit, her mind still playing that toe-curling kiss over and over interspersed with flashes of her humiliation every time she’d seen him since, and he’d acted like nothing had happened.

  Brooke interrupted Beth’s not-so-pleasant trip down memory lane. “Why else would he be coming over here now?”

  At Brooke’s whispered question, Beth whipped her head back
around to see that she was right. Josh was making a beeline for them.

  “Maybe he wants to talk to you,” she whispered back, ignoring the pang of hurt.

  It had been over a year since only one date and only one kiss. Not enough to validate feelings of hurt that he’d be interested in the gorgeous brunette beside her.

  Beth had no claim on Josh Larson, and she didn’t want one either.

  Mom had always said that when someone showed you who he really was, you should believe him the first time. And she believed that Josh Larson was a cliched good-looking bad guy. Not romantic comedy material at all.

  “Brooke.”

  The sudden arrival of Damon Wakefield caught Brooke’s and Beth’s attention, and Beth took the opportunity to turn away from Josh and get her heartbeat back under some sort of control.

  “Hey, Damon.”

  “Hey, Beth. Great job on the desserts today. They taste almost as good as you look.” He winked and smiled the smile that had broken more than one heart in Rocky Valley.

  Damon Wakefield and his twin brother, Asher, along with her own brothers could have given Jack Beckford a run for his free-wheeling money back in the day. And Beth wasn’t naïve enough to think he meant anything by his flirty comment. For one thing, he’d never shown an interest in her before, and for another, she would always be Grayson’s baby sister to him.

  “Did you want something?” Brooke’s voice was icy as she answered Damon’s greeting.

  Beth wasn’t altogether surprised by that though. Damon and Brooke were polar opposites. Damon was a millionaire developer who bought up properties and either tore them down or converted them into — well, all sorts of things: luxury apartments, five-star resorts, even shopping malls.

  Everything Brooke hated, basically.

  For every building that Damon bought up and pulled apart, there were ten that Brooke Winters worked to save.

  “Now isn’t that the million-dollar question.” He grinned wickedly.

  Beth watched closely to see if that famous smile had any effect on Brooke, but the brunette didn’t so much as blink, just merely raised her brow and waited.

  God, that was cool. Beth wished she could act that coldly sophisticated.