Maverick for Hire

“Because it would take too much effort to notice, and I’m apparently not worth the effort,” she said with a frown.

“Whoa,” he said, lifting his hand. “No need to club me. I’m on your side, remember?”

Cecelia shook her head, clearly contrite. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have come. I’m not good company for anyone at the moment. I need to shake off this funk. Maybe I really should be making more firm plans to go back home.”

Nick hated it when Cecelia talked about moving back to Thunder Canyon. It wasn’t as if he had any romantic feelings for the woman he’d known since childhood—she was practically like his little sister—but he knew he would miss her. Sometime along the way she’d become a buddy he could count on. “Hey, my coaching offer is still open. You could just give it a try. You could end up with better-quality dates.”

“Hmm,” she said and cut her eyes at him. “Speaking of dates, why aren’t you out tonight?”

“I’ve got to be up early to help get a senior guy’s house ready for his return from a physical rehab center,” he said.

“That’s nice of you,” she said.

He shrugged, feeling a little self-conscious from the compliment. “Least I can do. You do more than your share of volunteer activities yourself,” he said. “But enough of patting ourselves on the back. Let’s talk about fixing your dating life.”

She closed her eyes and sighed. “Okay, you’re on. I’ll give it a try. What is it that men want, anyway?”

“Well,” Nick said, studying Cecelia for a long moment. “Don’t get me wrong. There’s nothing wrong with the way you look. You’ve got all the basics covered. You got nice long brown hair and pretty eyes.”

“Need to check my teeth?” she joked.

He chuckled. “No. I’ve seen your teeth. You’ve got a nice smile. I think you need to try wearing more makeup. Lipstick. Red lipstick. Men love red lipstick.”

“Oh, that’s ridiculous. I can’t believe I’m going to get a date just because I change the color of my lips.”

He lifted his hands. “You asked. I answered. You could probably pick some up at Crawford’s General Store.”

“They don’t carry lipstick, do they? And how would you know if they did?”

“They carry a little bit of everything. If you don’t believe me, I’ll walk you over there right now and see. If they have red lipstick, then you have to put it on and come back here tonight while you’re wearing it.” He paused, calculating that he might have to give her a little dare as a push. “Unless you’re afraid.”

“I’m not afraid,” she said, bristling. “I’ll walk over there with you tomorrow, then we’ll come back to the bar.”

“All right then,” he said, and took a sip of his beer. “It’s a deal then. You get red lipstick at the general store. Afterward, you test my theory at the Ace in the Hole.”

She hesitated a half beat, as if she didn’t know how to respond to him, then lifted her chin. “Deal on,” she said.

The next afternoon, Cecelia met Nick inside the entryway of the rooming house. He opened the door for her in gentlemanly deference and she looked at him in surprise. That made Nick realize that maybe he’d been treating her like one of the guys a bit too much. Cecelia deserved better. She really was the best woman he knew. She was the one person he felt as if he could really trust. He could be himself with her. If he weren’t so determined not to risk his own heart, she would be the kind of woman he would want. But Nick knew marriage wasn’t in the cards for him. That meant he had to help Cecelia find a man if he wanted to keep his best friend in town.

“Well, that’s new,” she muttered and led the way down the stairs.

They walked the few blocks through town to the general store, where Nick opened the door. It was a crisp fall afternoon that hinted at the chill that would soon envelop Rust Creek Falls for most of winter. Having lived in Montana his entire life, Nick was well accustomed to cold weather and snow. He also knew that some of the newer visitors, in particular the rush of women from out of town looking for men, would be hard-pressed to last the entire winter.

One thing about Cecelia was that she knew how to dress for chilly weather. The trouble was that she didn’t dress at all sexily. Nick supposed it must be hard to bare much skin when it was cold outside. Still, other women managed it, so Cecelia could, too.

“Toiletry aisle,” Cecelia murmured as they headed in the same direction. “Razors, shampoo, hand lotion. Don’t see any lipstick. Well, darn,” she said with a cheeky smile.

Determined, Nick wandered farther down the aisle. “What’s this?” he asked, pointing at a small display of cosmetics.

Cecelia walked toward him and glanced at the shelves. “Looks like nail polish. And lipstick,” she added in surprise. “But no red,” she said as if she were relieved.

Nick knelt down to the bottom shelf and picked up a plastic-wrapped tube of red lipstick. He held it toward her. “Looks like red to me.”

Cecelia groaned. “I can’t believe Crawford’s actually carries hooker-red lipstick.”

“It’s not hooker red,” he told her and pointed at the end of the tube. “Look. They call it Seduce Me Sin. That’s what you need. A little seducing and a little sin,” he said, although the sin image bothered him a little bit.

“But red is so attention-getting. It screams look-at-me. Like I’m a tart,” she complained.

“Are you already welching on our deal?”

“Not at all,” she said, clutching the lipstick as she walked toward the register.

“I’ll buy it,’ Nick said.

“Not necessary,” she said and waited for the clerk to ring up her purchase.

“Pretty color,” the clerk said.

“Hmm,” Cecelia said in a noncommittal tone and quickly paid for her purchase. She walked toward the door then stopped abruptly. “I need a mirror,” she said. “Oh, wait, I can look in the window.”

Staring into the window, she applied the red lipstick then turned to Nick. “Does it look okay?”

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s nice,” he said. “Very nice.”

At that moment, he felt her gaze on his and with her mouth uplifted, she was close enough...to kiss. Nick blinked. Weird thought. At the same time, he couldn’t help inhaling her sweet natural scent. Cecelia really didn’t need lipstick. She didn’t need anything. She was pretty just the way she was. Unfortunately, she was competing with women who packed a lot more in their arsenal. At the same time that he knew he was helping her to attract a man, Nick felt reluctant about tampering with her natural beauty.

Cecelia sighed. “I guess we’d better head back to the bar so you can see that red lipstick isn’t going to make a bit of difference in whether I get a date or not,” she said and led the way through the door. “Haven’t you heard that expression about putting lipstick on a pig? Not that I’m a pig, but I’m just me. Plain ol’ Cecelia.”

“You don’t look like plain ol’ Cecelia to me,” Nick said. “With a little more makeup and some different clothes, you could look like a model in an advertisement.”

Cecelia rolled her eyes at him. “Because makeup and different clothes make so much sense when I spend most of my time dodging sawdust, stomping past nails and screws and yelling over construction equipment.”

Nick shook his head. “You have a point, but you agreed to this experiment,” he said as he opened the door to the bar.

“Yeah, yeah,” she said and followed him to one of the few empty tables.

“Let me get you a beer,” he said.

“Thanks,” she said and drummed her fingers on the table. “How long do I have to wear this war paint?” she asked.

“The rest of the night,” he said firmly. She shot him what looked like a combination smile and snarl and he headed to the bar to get their drinks. Nick got stopped along the way by a pretty girl from Idaho and started flirting. Humming after getting her number, he headed over to the table Cecelia had nabbed for them, but stopped when he saw a man chatting with her.

He watched her slice her hand through the air and say no. The man appeared to walk away reluctantly. Nick walked the rest of the way to the table and sat down with the drinks. “What was that about?”

“Some guy came up. I didn’t know his name. He asked if he could buy me a beer,” she said and took a sip. “I told him no. I don’t know who he is.”

Nick groaned. “Cecelia, you don’t just cut a guy off at his knees when he offers to buy you a beer.”