Falling for the P.I. Read online

  She could never trust a cop…

  Teacher Kate Abbott’s fresh start in Still Harbor was the beginning of the life that she and her two best friends always imagined for themselves. Still, being a working single parent of a special needs daughter hasn’t exactly improved Kate’s love life. But Kate’s preference for nachos over men quickly disappears when she meets the oh-so-sexy Matt Lane.

  Until she finds out he’s a cop.

  Matt is a former cop-turned-private investigator, and he knows fear when he sees it. A cop clearly spooked Kate…or hurt her. Still, something about the gorgeous professor catches his attention, and despite his “no settling down” policy, he can’t resist her. But all of the attraction in the world won’t be enough to overcome Kate’s past…

  Falling for

  the P.I.

  a Still Harbor novel

  Victoria James

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also by Victoria James… The Rancher’s Second Chance

  Rescued by the Rancher

  A Risk Worth Taking

  The Best Man’s Baby

  The Doctor’s Fake Fiancée

  The Billionaire’s Christmas Baby

  Find your Bliss with these great releases… Jane’s Gift

  Second Chance Ranch

  Falling for Her Soldier

  Blame it on the Kiss

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2015 by Victoria James. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

  Entangled Publishing, LLC

  2614 South Timberline Road

  Suite 109

  Fort Collins, CO 80525

  Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.

  Bliss is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC. For more information on our titles, visit http://www.entangledpublishing.com/category/bliss

  Edited by Alethea Spiridon Hopson

  Cover design by Jessica Cantor

  Cover art by iStock

  ISBN 978-1-63375-329-7

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  First Edition August 2015

  To Olivia Miles...thank you for your friendship, your support, and your laughter. I’m so glad we found each other.

  Victoria Xo

  Chapter One

  “I’m sorry, but I can’t take a man who wears white jeans seriously,” Kate Abbott said, eyeing her sisters with what she hoped was a drop-it expression. Really, she hadn’t given the topic much thought, but she was running out of excuses. Her sisters gave each other a knowing look and then turned in their seats, looking for another unsuspecting target. Apparently, she had missed the memo that said tonight was all about finding Kate a man.

  Kate lifted her pint of beer, taking a sip of the cool beverage, and leaned back in the worn leather booth with a sigh. The Lucky Irish Pub was filled to the brim, round tables and booths packed with friends celebrating the beginning of the weekend. In a town as small as Still Harbor, there was only one decent place to go for drinks, and it had become a landmark in the community. “Besides, it’s October. Isn’t there a fashion rule about that sort of thing?”

  Alexandra McAllister, her youngest and most loud-mouthed sister, leaned forward. “We’re so onto you. Finish that beer and find someone who remotely interests you.”

  Kate gave the room an obligatory glance and then shrugged. “No one here interests me.”

  “We went to the trouble of getting a babysitter for the girls. We planned this night so you could actually have fun, not act like a ninety-year-old woman with a bad attitude. You need a man to get your mind off everything.”

  “No,” Kate said, making eye contact with their waitress and then waving her over. “I don’t need a man. What I need is a giant plate of nachos.” She smacked her lips together and looked down at the menu.

  Cara Hamilton, her other sister, made a sorry attempt to snatch the menu from her hands and glared at her when Kate hugged it close to her chest.

  “Hi ladies, ready to order?” the young waitress asked, smiling down at them.

  “Yes, I need something really bad to eat, like a dish where everything on the plate is fried,” Kate said, ignoring her sisters’ loud sounds of displeasure.

  The waitress laughed and leaned forward, pointing to some items on the menu. “Oh, I hear ya, honey. There’s double-stuffed potato skins and beer-battered onion rings, oh and you know what’s so bad it’s so good?”

  “What, what?” Kate asked, delighted that someone was taking her needs seriously.

  “The fully loaded nachos with extra cheese, beef, and guacamole,” the waitress said, straightening up and tossing her blond hair over her shoulder.

  Kate snapped her fingers. “Done and done. I’ll take all of it.”

  “You got it,” she said with a wink and then turned to Cara and Alexandra. “What can I get you ladies?”

  “I’m sure we can feed off our sister’s trough over there,” Alex said, her red lips pulled into a deep frown.

  The waitress laughed and gathered the remaining menus. “Okay, I’ll be back as soon as your order’s up.”

  Cara leaned forward. “The point of tonight was for you to have fun, not eat yourself into a food-induced coma.”

  “You make it sound like I have a complex of some sort,” Kate muttered, glancing down at her iPhone display. Relief surged through her—no missed calls, which meant her daughter, Janie, was asleep. Now she could enjoy herself for a little while.

  “You do. You need a life,” Alex said, tucking a strand of dark hair behind her ear. The problem with the three of them sharing a house was that they knew all about her issues. Kate stared at both of them. They were trying to help. They always tried to help. When they’d first met in a group home, all of them orphans, they had connected instantly. Cara and Alex weren’t her biological sisters, but their bond was real and in their hearts they were family.

  Cara nodded. “Right. A life for Kate.”

  Kate rolled her eyes. “Okay, enough. This is starting to sound like a made-for-TV Hallmark movie. I’m a worrier, I always have been. And you’d worry too, if either of your girls were like Janie.” Janie was her adopted daughter. The moment Kate had met the little girl, she knew she was destined to be her mother. But raising Janie was proving to be more emotionally challenging than she would have ever predicted.

  “Janie is doing fine. It’s barely the second month of school for crying out loud. Give her a chance. She will fit in. You know the staff is behind her and our girls are all in the same class together. Cassy told me that Janie had so much fun at recess today,” Alex said. Cassandra was her adopted daughter.

  “And Beth told me they all sat together at lunchtime,” Cara said, reminding Kate of what her daughter, Beth, had said at dinner. “So, no need to keep worrying. Finish off your beer, walk over to that bar, and see if someone sticks.”

  “I’m not Velcro.”

  Alex inhaled sharply, gripping the edges of the table until her knuckles turned white. Her eyes were wide and a little crazed looking as sh
e stared at the front door. “Oh, forget it. Our search is over. He’s just walked in. That is the man,” Alex said.

  Kate didn’t bother turning around. She’d heard that many times before.

  “I’m serious. He’s walking to the bar. Black hair. Dark jeans. Navy Henley that is clinging to delectable muscle. About as beautiful as a man can get.”

  “Oh, she’s right,” Cara said, turning to look at her. “You need to do all of us a favor, so get off your butt and go to the bar. Right now.”

  Kate frowned at both of them, curiosity getting the better of her, and she slowly turned in the direction of the bar. “Tall, dark, and handsome” didn’t cut it. He was leaning against the bar, his eyes on the front door. He was obviously waiting for someone, his dark blue eyes unwavering. He was beautiful in a chiselled, masculine way that made her stomach drop, her pulse race.

  “Stop drooling and start walking.”

  Kate ripped her gaze from the man and turned to focus on her sisters. She had to clear her throat. “I will give you that the man is” —she quickly searched for a word that wouldn’t prompt them to force her to approach him.— “fascinating.”

  “Fascinating? He’s not an art exhibit, although he could be,” Alex said under her breath.

  “I agree. I say we refer to the nameless wonder as Mr. Art Exhibit,” Cara said.

  Alex nodded in agreement.

  Kate shook her head. “I’m not going to refer to him as anything, and I’m not going up to him. What would I say?”

  Alex took a sip of her wine and mumbled into her glass. “Try this. Hi, my name’s Kate.”

  “That’s stupid. And then what? I’m not going home with a stranger,” she said, looking away from Mr. Art Exhibit.

  “Oh, I’ve got it,” Cara whispered, clutching her arm. “Ask him to make a donation to our fundraiser. Just say ‘would you like to be my date for the Still Harbor Home for Women and Children’s gala because I have no life and even less of a love life?’”

  Kate yanked her arm free from Cara’s grasp. “I am absolutely not asking a stranger to be my date to the most important event ever.”

  “Then ask him for money. We really need a major sponsor,” Alex whispered, looking over her shoulder at him again. “He must have money. Only a man with money can have a walk like that.”

  “You win. Your conversation has actually driven me to walk up to a stranger in a bar.” Kate shot them what she hoped was a scathing look and then downed the rest of her drink. They were right, she had no life. She worked, she took care of her daughter, she slept. That was it and that had been it for years. None of them had had the luxury of doing the normal things young people did. There had never been room to enjoy life’s…finer pleasures.

  She’d follow their advice, except for the part about asking him to the gala. She’d worry about their lack of funding tomorrow. She looked from Mr. Art Exhibit back to her sisters who were smiling. She took a deep breath and stood. “Okay. I’m going. I can do this. I can approach a random—”

  “Mr. Art Exhibit is not random. Trust me,” Cara said.

  Kate nodded, squared her shoulders, and made her way through the crowded pub. The live band was playing a raucous melody, the crowd on the dance floor cheering. Kate’s stomach tightened as she approached the bar. She quickly surveyed her seating options. She couldn’t sit right beside him. Maybe one bar stool over. Her heart drummed painfully and she cursed herself for being such a wimp. She could stand in front of a room of rowdy teens and she couldn’t walk up to a man at a pub? C’mon, Kate.

  Kate gingerly sat on the round bar stool, careful not to overshoot and wind up on her butt, now that the effects from her second beer were beginning to swirl through her. She stared straight ahead, pretending to be interested in the vast array of bottles on display. The bartender made eye contact with her and walked over. Perfect. Another drink was exactly what she needed.

  “What can I get you, sweetheart?”

  “I’d love a double whiskey,” she said, clutching the edge of the bar and leaning forward.

  “Can I buy you that drink?”

  Kate stared straight ahead, breath caught in her throat. That wasn’t the voice she would have thought Mr. Art Exhibit would have. No, this voice was slurred, rough, and…slimy. Because of the loud music, Kate couldn’t really decipher which direction the voice was coming from. She turned in her barstool to look at Mr. Art Exhibit. A blond woman was currently draped around the man and he wasn’t even looking in Kate’s direction.

  Kate swivelled in the opposite direction, dread weighing her down as she came face to face with the owner of the voice. He was grinning. No, leering. His long, curly, greasy hair was covering one eye, while the other gave her a slow once-over. Kate swallowed hard. This was why she didn’t do bar pick-ups. This is exactly how the Kate Abbott bar pickup would go: hot man ignoring her, drunken man propositioning her.

  “No thanks,” Kate said, trying not to appear rude while at the same time being clear she wasn’t interested. She turned away from him, just in time to miss the visual that went along with the belch that boomed near her ear. Charming. So instead of securing Mr. Art Exhibit, she had attracted Mr. Belcher. Kate shuddered, grateful for her whiskey’s timely arrival.

  The man leaned forward, his rough wool sweater brushing against her arm. Kate bristled, picking up her glass. She downed half the contents in one long swig.

  “I love a woman who can drink,” the man said, almost knocking her off her stool as he claimed the chair beside her. Kate clutched the edge of the bar counter, while turning to glare at her sisters. Cara’s head was face down on the table, shoulders shaking. Alex was motioning wildly, but Kate had no idea what she was trying to communicate. Kate turned back in her chair, ready to take her drink and leave. This was her last pickup attempt ever.

  “How’s about you and I go somewhere we can talk?”

  Kate clenched her teeth. “How’s about no. Thank you.”

  His hand made contact with her arm. The heat from what felt like sweaty paws seeped through the fabric of her sweater. Kate stood abruptly and yanked her arm free with one quick motion. “No thank you. And keep your hands to yourself.”

  “I saw you and your friends watching me, and I know I’m the reason you sat here. You know you picked that seat to be close to me,” he said, his face inches from hers, his breath smacking against her skin.

  “The lady can sit wherever she damn well wants, buddy.”

  Kate closed her eyes briefly. The voice. She knew who that voice must belong to. It was sensual, deep, and with just enough warmth to make her toes curl. Kate turned around. Sure enough, Mr. Art Exhibit was standing there.

  Mr. Belcher leaned forward. “I don’t remember asking for your opinion.”

  “I don’t care. Get your beer and leave,” he said, standing. Mr. Art Exhibit towered over both of them. He kept himself in peak physical condition, and when she turned again to look at Mr. Belcher, she could tell he was thinking the exact same thing. He scowled at them, took his beer, and left.

  “Uh, I guess a thank you is in order,” Kate said with an awkward smile.

  One corner of his mouth was turned up slightly, and Kate looked up into the deepest, darkest shade of blue eyes she’d ever seen. “Not needed. I consider it a community service,” he said, his smile deepening.

  “Then maybe I should buy you a drink,” Kate said, smiling slightly, finding her ability to flirt. She could do this.

  He shook his head. “Thanks, but I’m used to paying my own way.”

  “Or are you afraid my offer to buy you a drink is really a pickup in disguise?”

  This time, his smiled widened, the corners of his eyes crinkled, and his mouth opened to reveal a row of perfect white teeth. “Hell, honey, if that’s what you’re after, you don’t need to buy me a damn thing.”

  Kate tried to catch her breath, which apparently had been sucked right out of her by his reference to the two of them spending the night together. “O
h, no. That is totally not what I was implying. I’m sorry, this was just me trying to be nice because you saved me from the belcher.”

  “He belched, too?”

  Kate nodded, smiling, relaxing a bit, until three giant platters of potato skins, deep-fried shrimp, French fries, and onion rings appeared in front of her. The waitress beamed down at her. “I’m so happy I spotted you over here. I know you were desperate for these so I thought I’d bring them right out. I’ve got wet naps and a bib for you, because it gets really messy. Oh, and just wave me over when you want dessert.”

  Kate gripped the smooth edge of the bar counter as waves of mortification flooded her. She stared at the waitress and didn’t dare turn to look at the man beside her. First the belcher, now the food. Kate stared through burning eyes at the platters of fried food. “If you could bring that over to my sisters, since it was meant for all of us to share,” she said.

  The waitress frowned, clearly confused. “Uh sure. I just thought—”

  Kate nodded and forced a bright smile on her face. “Thanks, they were really hungry.”

  What sounded like a muffled laugh emerged from the man beside her. She snapped her head over to look at him and, she had to give the man credit, he schooled his features to look as though he didn’t know she was lying.

  He rubbed his hand across his jaw and Kate’s eyes followed his hand. It was large, tanned, and the jaw it rubbed against was firm, stubborn. Downright sexy. Alex could definitely pick ‘em. “So, since spending the night with me wasn’t your intention, how about a dance?”

  A flash of heat bolted through her. She glanced over at the small dance floor which had been packed all night. Right now the live music was fast and loud. That was safe. She looked back at Mr. Art Exhibit, taking in the broad shoulders, the wide chest, the clearly defined biceps. No, no, she couldn’t dance with a man like this. Flirting was one thing. Dancing…

  “It was a dance I was offering. Nothing more,” he said, amusement and something that looked like sincerity lighting his eyes.

  “Right,” Kate said with a nod. “What about your blond friend?”