Love Rising: Spring (Mandrake Falls Series Romance Book 4) (4 page)

His eye was drawn to the announcement. “We’re engaged?” he
said stupidly.

“You’re going to have to do better than that. Look—you
screwed up. We’ve all been there. But you’re going to have to tell people you
put this in the paper or I’m going to look like the saddest loser in town. I’m
truly pissed with you, but I kind of get how the whole doomed love thing sucks
and can make a person crazy.”

Jeremy jumped to his feet, slopping hot coffee on his
sweatshirt. “Crazy, sure—I understand crazy—but not
delusional
! I didn’t put that ad in the paper; you’re an idiot for
thinking I would. April Fools’ Day, Jocelyn? Did you even read this before you
flipped out and assumed it was me? I’m going to look like the loser in this—not
you!”

“April Fools’ Day?”
Jocelyn frowned
and read the announcement again. “Oh God, I didn’t even notice that. Oh, I get
it. You’d have to be a fool to marry me. Hah. Someone has a warped sense of
humor. But that doesn’t prove it wasn’t you who’s behind this.”

Jeremy forgot he was in love with her, forgot how she made
him feel whenever he was around her. Jeremy crouched beside her, paper in hand.
His lips felt numb. “It says here the
parents
of Jeremy Marks announce the engagement.
Mr. and
Mrs.
Marks.”

“Yeah.
So what’s your point? Are
you’re trying to blame your parents for this?”

“I don’t have
parents
.
There’s only my dad and he wouldn’t put a notice in the paper that mentioned
his wife since she’s been
dead
for
twenty-one years. My mom is dead. I wouldn’t put something like this in the paper.
And I sure as hell want to know who did.”

ANDREA SULKED through the story meeting even though Trevor
had apologized for his behavior. Jason looked fairly miserable and Shelby didn’t
know what the hell was going on. Her staff had left the office as friends and
returned as combatants.

Shelby closed her laptop and got to her feet. They weren’t
paying attention anyway. “I’ve got an appointment with the Sheriff. Jason, you’re
in charge. Find out who placed the ad so we have a name to give Jocelyn when
she shows up and then offer her the usual bells and whistles to apologize.”

“It’s not an appointment when it’s your husband you’re
meeting, boss. It’s just lunch.”

Boy, Andrea was really pushing her luck today with the
snarky remarks, Shelby thought as she rushed out of the door to meet Sawyer.
Publishing the
Gazette
was like
running a kindergarten these days.

Jason waited until the boss was gone to pull out his
notebook. “Snap out of it, you two. Whatever’s going on, get over it. Jocelyn
isn’t going to let this mistake go without a fight so we’d better figure it
out. Andrea, we know you didn’t run the ad on purpose so stop moping and think.
Who had motive to place that notice?”

Trevor piped up. “Ryan McIntyre has a grudge against the
Gazette
. Sure, McIntyre Construction is
playing nice at the moment but Ryan’s always got something up his sleeve. We
make him uncomfortable. He has motive.”

“So does
Letitia
Murdoch,” snapped
Andrea.

“
Letitia
Murdoch? She’s like a
hundred years old! What motive does she have?”

“Mrs. Murdoch is a savvy business woman. She lured Michael
Shannon into accepting the post of Artistic Director. Michael Shannon’s
connections and star power are going to attract a huge audience. Murdoch is
finally realizing a decades-old dream to turn that dusty theater into
something. But the dream wouldn’t get far without Jeremy. The dude is a great
stage manager. He works long hours for lousy pay and Jocelyn puts that in
jeopardy. If Jeremy can’t stick around town because Jocelyn keeps messing him up,
Murdoch will lose her stage manager.”

Jason frowned. “How did Jocelyn mess with him? He had a
crush and she knocked him back. It happens. He should get over it.”

“She blows hot and cold,” Andrea said impatiently. “Guys are
too stupid to see it. She flirted with him often enough that he thought he had
a chance. But she was only using him to make Hudson Grace jealous. She’ll use
him again to make Ryan jealous if she has to. I wouldn’t be surprised if she
stuck this in my camera case herself.”

Jason sat up. “Did we even look at her as a suspect? Maybe
the reason she hasn’t come busting in here yet is because she’s the perp.”

Trevor rested his head on the table and closed his eyes. “If
Jocelyn wanted to make a guy jealous, she’s not going to make it happen with
Jeremy Marks.”

“That’s a shitty thing to say,” Andrea railed. “You’re such
an asshole, Trevor.”

Trevor raised his head, deeply offended. “What did I do now?
Jeremy isn’t the kind of guy who makes other guys jealous. That’s all I’m
saying. I like the dude but he’s not a macho threat.” He shrugged and got to
his feet. “Nice guys finish last. You women want alpha males and we betas have
to suck it up.” Trevor slouched to the sofa, flopped down on it and stretched
out with a yawn. “I’m too tired to think. Wake me when the boss gets in.”

A second or two later Jason and Andrea heard Trevor snoring
loudly.

♥

JEREMY SHOWERED and dressed. He came out of the bathroom to
find Jocelyn asleep on his couch. He covered her with the throw. After a minute’s
deliberation he scrawled a note and tacked it to the mantle where she could
find it.

Jeremy pulled on his tan corduroy sport coat and left the
apartment. He took the back stairs that led to the offices on the second floor
and then through the warren of hallways to the stage door entrance at the back.
Jocelyn’s bike was leaning up against the side of the building. His car was the
solitary vehicle parked in the employee parking lot. There was a time when the employees
would’ve been so numerous their cars would’ve filled the spacious lot.
Incredible, he thought. Those glory times for the theater are on the way back
if Michael Shannon has her way.

He mulled over these small matters as he backed out of the
parking lot and headed for the center of town. Small matters were less
unnerving to think about than Jocelyn Tate asleep in his apartment, a
classified ad announcing their engagement, and the mention of his mother. It
was this last item that made him angry enough to leave Jocelyn’s side. Nothing
else could’ve done it.

What kind of sick mind would use a guy’s dead mother for a
practical joke? Even if—(it was too incredible to imagine)—even if Jocelyn ever
did
agree to marry him, Bethany Marks
wouldn’t be there to witness the happiest day in her son’s life. That was a
heartbreaking fact and some bastard thought it was funny enough to put it in
the paper.

He wasn’t going to be confrontational but Shelby Porter had
to take some responsibility or at least tell him who placed the classified. And
then he was going to have to call his father. It was unlikely Kenneth Marks had
received this week’s edition of the
Mandrake
Falls Gazette
yet but Jeremy should give him the heads-up.

Plus, he just wanted to talk to his dad. Seeing the
classified made Jeremy realize how much Kenneth had lost when his wife died.
All the milestones he had to celebrate as a single parent. First steps, first
tooth, first words, kindergarten, Christmas, first love ... Kenneth Marks had
been on his own for all of it. The engagement announcement was like a snapshot
of how much loneliness still lay ahead for his dad.

It made Jeremy lonely to think about it.

♥

PAULA DUNLOP saw Jeremy Marks walking down the sidewalk at a
brisk pace, hands thrust in the pockets of his jeans, head down. Shoulders
hunched to hide his height, glasses reflecting the spring day sunshine. She
raised her hand to wave but Jeremy ducked into the
Gazette
and missed seeing her.

Paula let her hand drop and sighed. Would Jeremy Marks ever
want her the way he wanted Jocelyn? That was the first question on her mind as
she pushed open the door to the diner. She was greeted by the smell of hot fat
and coffee. The second question was should she order her usual for lunch or mix
it up for a change?

Ryan McIntyre was sitting at the counter. Paula removed her
new blue raincoat, hung it on the coat rack near the door and joined him.

“Hi. Why aren’t you eating with your brother?” She jerked
her head to the corner booth where Shelby and Sawyer were hunched over the
table, deep in conversation.

“I was going to but they’re still too infatuated with each
other to take on an empty stomach. It’ll wear off eventually and then they’ll
be tolerable again.” Ryan glanced at her. “I don’t mind your company, Paula,
but not if you’re going to yell at me.”

“Why would I yell at you?”

“The last time we ate together, you gave me hell for being
mean to Shelby.”

“Don’t be silly, we have never eaten together. You were in
prison and I brought you some breakfast because I felt sorry for you. Breakfast
in prison is not the same thing at all. Anyway, I’m not going to yell at you. I’m
thinking about something. I was wondering what makes a person fall in love with
another person.”

“Why Paula Dunlop, you’re just full of surprises. The answer
is ‘I have no idea’. Why are you wondering this?”

“People are falling in love all over the place in Mandrake
Falls but I can’t work out a pattern or commonality. We single stragglers don’t
have anything more or less than the couples, so why hasn’t it worked out for
us?”

“I get the feeling you’re talking about Jeremy Marks. You
want to know why it didn’t work out for you with him. He’s engaged so we’ll
never know. But I’m not a single straggler. I’m not looking for a serious
relationship so serious women don’t find me.”

Paula ordered a bacon, lettuce, and tomato sandwich and
coffee. The same thing she always ordered for lunch. Who was she kidding thinking
she’d mix it up? She didn’t even glance at the menu anymore. The time she had
for lunch was precisely enough for a BLT. A hamburger took too long. An egg
salad sandwich was too short. Paula had her lunch order down to a science.

“You are so full of it, Ryan McIntyre. You want to fall in
love same as the rest of us. I saw the look on your face when I walked in. You
were hoping I was Jocelyn.”

“I’m not romantically interested Miss Tate.” But his face
was red. “I’m not my brother. Sawyer was the one with the itch to settle down.”

Paula turned to observe the happy couple embroiled in a heated
discussion. As happy as they were, Sawyer and Shelby always looked happiest
when they fought. She supposed a sheriff and a reporter were bound to come into
conflict.

“That’s exactly the thing I’m talking about. On paper, your
brother and Shelby Porter should not be together. They were at each other’s
throats for years. What happened? Why did it click for them and not for you or
me or Jeremy?”

The waitress set the BLT down in front of her.
Coffee, no fries and right on time.

“According to the
Gazette
,
it did click for Jeremy.” Ryan flipped the pages of the newspaper listlessly.

“For
pete’s
sake, Jocelyn isn’t
engaged. She’s still available, so cheer up. Someone is playing a joke on
Jeremy, or maybe even Jocelyn—but that notice is a fake.”

He glanced at her with a look of surprised amusement on his
handsome face. Ryan McIntyre was the more charming of the two McIntyre
brothers. Paula had always thought so.

“You sound pretty sure of that. Was it you who placed the
ad?”

“No! Geez, I
like
Jeremy. I’d never link him with that parasite, Jocelyn.”

Ryan lifted his coffee cup. “She’s not that bad. She wants
what she wants. I’m no different.”

“Jocelyn ignores the chemistry that happens between two
people. She thinks being good-looking is enough to create chemistry. But for
some reason it isn’t.” Paula frowned in thought. “What I’m trying to figure out
is—what
is
the chemistry behind
falling in love?” She lifted the toasted sandwich to her mouth and took a bite.
“Boy, if I figured that out, just
think
of the
possibilities,” she said around a mouthful of lettuce.

“You’re dripping mayonnaise all over yourself. What a slob.
They give us napkins for this very reason and everyone ignores the napkin.”

Ryan’s suit was immaculate as always. He picked up Paula’s
paper napkin and began briskly wiping down the front of her dress with it.

Paula’s eyes widened. She choked on her mouthful of BLT.

Ryan stilled. He met her eyes. His hand passed over her bodice
with deliberate slowness and then stopped. Resting there, pressing lightly
against her breasts.

“I think I figured it out, Paula.”

“What?” Her voice was weak, almost a whisper.

“Love.”

♥

ANDREA, TREVOR and Jason nodded sympathetically as Jeremy stammered
through the problem, what his expectations were, and why the
Gazette
had to do something to rectify
the situation immediately.

Jason glanced at the door and then at the clock over Andrea’s
desk. The boss was late again. This time she was late on purpose, leaving him
to clean up this SNAFU. He longed for the days when Shelby practically lived at
the office and he cursed Andrea for encouraging the boss to get a life. Jason
ground his teeth and bit back the expletive he wanted to throw in Jeremy’s
face. Yes, it happened. Yes, it was shitty his mom was named, but Jason had
stories to edit and he was already running behind.

“Buddy, look, we hear you. We’re on your side. The fact is
the
Gazette
can’t do anything
immediately. We’ll print a correction, of course, but that won’t come out until
the next edition.”

“A week before the wedding,” Trevor piped up unhelpfully.

Jason fixed Trevor with a cold stare that said
shut up or I’ll throw you off Fillmore Ridge
.

Jeremy flushed red all the way to the roots of his hair and
pushed his glasses up on his nose. “I just don’t see how this could’ve
happened. You guys must have seen it was a joke—”

“No. No way, man,” Jason interjected quickly. This is what
he was afraid of; Jeremy thinking they were in on it. “Andrea, show him the
paper. It was stuffed in her camera case in the church, torn from the back of
one of those pamphlet things. I ran it by mistake. I’m not familiar with the
classifieds. Andrea usually handles those. I didn’t even read it. I’m sorry,
man.”

Andrea glanced up sharply. Trevor rolled his eyes and
whistled through his teeth.

“Okay. I see. Well, don’t worry about it. Mistakes happen.
But why would someone go to the trouble of planting this in Andrea’s case?” He
examined the note. “What are they trying to prove—that I’m an idiot?”

“We have a couple of theories, Jeremy,” Andrea said, eyeing
Jason who nodded. “One theory is that this was a dig at the paper. Trying to
cause trouble, to make us look bad. If you or Jocelyn decided to sue for
damages it would be very bad for us. You won’t, will you?” she asked nervously.

“There was no malice on the part of the
Gazette
so I wouldn’t go after you guys but I want to know who
stuffed it your bag and then I’ll talk to a lawyer.”

Jason shifted and looked down at his hands. “Ah, that might
be a problem. See, we’re trying to identify the culprit from the photos we have
in our cameras. We haven’t sifted through them all yet. But the other theory we
have—based on who was in the vicinity and had access to the case and motive—”