Rocky Mountain Angels Read online

  Before anyone could answer, a white pickup turned onto the street and slowed. Ben popped to his feet. “That’s probably Joe. If we can’t get it, I bet Joe can.”

  Mari looked toward the truck that had now pulled into their driveway, cutting the engine and lights.

  Eli slowly rose with a sour look on his face. “And what makes you think Joe can do this any better than you or me.”

  “Joe’s got tools,” Ben threw over his shoulder as he jogged to where another denim-clad man was emerging from the parked truck.

  Eli yelled back to him. “We don’t need Joe. All we need is a coat hanger to snag it with, for Pete’s sake.”

  Mari watched her overconfident new friend sink into sullenness. He seemed to sense her studying him and met her gaze. “What?”

  “I take it you and Joe don’t get along very well.”

  He snorted. “Oh, we get along just fine as long as I don’t stray too far from the role he wants me to play.”

  He had turned away from her, so Mari edged around him until she could see his face again by the street light. “And what role is that?”

  He looked at her for a moment longer, his irritation evident; then he switched gears, and looking over her shoulder, broke into a smile. “Joe, I guess Ben filled you in on our new neighbor’s dilemma.”

  Mari spun to see the object of Eli’s scorn approaching with a crowbar in hand. His lips turned up in a friendly smile, and Mari’s insides turned to butter. If the first two Rhodes brothers had been molded from heaven’s light, this one was surely spun from God’s glory, himself. He was sandy-headed like Ben with dimples like Eli, yet taller, broader, with eyes like blue smoke. His hair was longer than Eli’s, but well-groomed and styled with a bit of a swoop to one side, one wisp of which had parted company with the rest and pointed toward his right eye.

  Joe spoke, and the deep timbre had that butter swirling. “So you lost your purse down the gutter? Must be smaller than most bags I see women carrying.”

  Mari swallowed. “Yes, well, I like things small and compact.” She couldn’t keep her eyes from traveling over the wide set of his shoulders. “Usually,” she added under her breath.

  Eli pivoted and headed back to the house. “Well, I’m sure you’ve got this, big brother.”

  Mari pulled herself away from the heavenly vision before her to watch Eli striding determinedly across the yard. “Eli, wait!” He turned, and she jogged after him, but just as she reached him, she hit a patch of ice. She threw out her arms as her feet slid but missed catching Eli.

  Luckily, Eli caught her.

  Grabbing onto the front of his coat with the too large gloves, she struggled to get her feet underneath her while Eli smiled down at her with a good grip on her arms. “Relax, I’ve got you.” Mari stopped spinning her feet on the ice, and Eli lifted her up until she was standing solid again.

  He slid his hands down to her elbows, and Mari released his coat to grasp his forearms. His smile warmed her more than it should.

  “Is there something else I can do for you, Mari?”

  With his hands gripping her elbows, his eyes burning into hers, and their breath an icy fog between them, Mari couldn’t remember what she had wanted to tell him. Her eyes migrated away from his penetrating stare. “Your ears are getting red. You should take your hat back.”

  He raised a brow as his perfect lips turned into a lop-sided smile. “You rushed over here to tell me that as I’m heading back into the house?”

  Mari broke out of his hold, nearly slipped again, and stepped off the sidewalk into the snow. “No, I... you have a way of making me forget things. I was going to thank you for the coffee and... and everything.”

  He slid his hands into his coat pockets. “You’re welcome. It was the least I could do after Ben tried to drown you with carrot water.”

  Mari couldn’t help laughing. “Carrot water? So that’s what I’ve been smelling.”

  “Yep. Maybe we’ve discovered a new beauty treatment.” He paused and let his gaze skim over her face and settle on her lips. “Not that you need one.”

  Mari took a step back and waved a hand toward Eli’s brothers, face down in the street. “Well, I guess I better see if they’ve gotten it yet. I’m sure I’ll be seeing you around.” She started moving toward the street.

  “Mari?”

  She turned back.

  “You are coming back to get her aren’t you, or would you like her delivered?”

  “Her?”

  Eli just grinned.

  “Oh! My cat! Yes, of course. I’ll get her just as soon as I have my key.”

  A shout of triumph at the curb reminded Mari of why they were all out there freezing their hineys off. Shifting her focus, she saw Ben lifting her purse high in the air.

  Mari smiled. Maybe it hadn’t been such a bad start after all.

  Chapter 2

  Once she had the house open, Joe and Ben had insisted on moving her bed in then Ben had insisted on putting it together. While he was occupied with this task, Mari looked around her new space.

  It truly was small, with one bedroom and one bathroom in addition to the living room and kitchen, but she loved the hardwood floors, the somewhat retro kitchen, and the cozy feel of the place. She appreciated the wide woodwork all around the tall windows, and she knew Tawny would appreciate the deep ledges.

  After Ben completed the bed frame and bid her a good night, she and Tawny had curled up on top of the mattress without sheets, blankets, or pillows and never moved until the sun was pouring in her bare windows the next morning.

  She stretched out, still dressed in yesterday’s clothes, and thought about the “angels” next door. Any one of them could make her heart race, but all three together was better than zumba for a cardio workout. She reached over to pet Tawny, who stretched and meowed a “good morning.”

  “It could be interesting, Tawny girl.”

  Rolling out of bed, she dug through her suitcase for clean clothes then padded toward the bathroom. She didn’t think it possible that her hair could look worse than it had the night before after removing Eli’s stocking cap, but it most definitely did. With her hair reaching new heights of frizziness, she couldn’t wait to jump in a hot shower and hit the reset button.

  ***

  Joe was reading the morning paper with a cup of coffee in hand while Eli pored over a set of blueprints. Both men sitting at the kitchen table wore blue, although Eli was wearing a t-shirt, and Joe a button-down with the sleeves rolled up a turn or two. Ben, in a maroon University of Colorado sweat shirt poured himself a glass of orange juice and set it beside his plate of eggs and toast. Sitting, he picked up his fork and cleared his throat, drawing the attention of his older brothers. “So,” he began stiffly, “what do you two think of our new neighbor?”

  Eli’s eyebrows rose while Joe’s collided. Joe laid his paper aside. “She seems nice enough—a bit ditzy, though.” He chuckled. “I can’t believe she threw her purse down the storm drain before she even had a chance to open her new front door.”

  Ben jumped to her defense. “She slipped. It could happen to anyone.”

  “That wasn’t half as ditzy as our brother, here, throwing water in her face when she came to our door,” Eli put in.

  Joe looked to Eli. “Huh?” Then back to Ben. “Why would you do that?” His eyes widened. “Is that why her hair was so... crazy?”

  Both men started to answer at once.

  “The sink was clogged, and I think she’s pretty.”

  “Crazy? I happen to like curly hair.”

  Joe raised a hand. “Okay, boys, I see how it is. Good thing I’m not interested. This could get ugly.” He rose with his breakfast dishes in hand.

  “Who’s interested in what?” Eli defended. “We were just being good neigh—”

  “I’m interested,” Ben broke in. “I’m real interested, and I’m going to ask her out.”

  Eli rose, his hands planted on the table. “Now wait a minute. Don’t you thin
k you’re a bit young for her?”

  Ben took a bite of eggs. “I don’t know. How old do you think she is? She said she was just now enrolling in college, so I thought we must be about the same age.”

  “You don’t have to go to college right out of high school, idiot. Sure, she dressed sort of like a college girl, but she didn’t strike me as being that young. Women in their late teens or even early twenties are easier to...” Eli trailed off and began stacking his dishes.

  Joe turned back from loading the dishwasher. “Easier to what, Eli? Did you try to put moves on her last night? When you just met her?” Joe’s indignant expression was just about to leap off his face. “When she was in trouble?”

  Eli gave him an icy glare. “No.”

  Ben, however, was nodding while he ate his toast.

  Eli stared him down. “If I had put moves on her, Benjamin, she wouldn’t have been sleeping in that little house with just her cat for company last night.”

  Joe shook his head and started out of the kitchen toward the front door. “Well, don’t kill each other over her. Eli, I’ll need those blueprints to show the Marshall’s by tomorrow.”

  Eli’s jaw was tight. “They’ll be done.”

  Sitting at the bottom of the stairs to pull on his high-top work boots, Joe glanced out the window by the door. “The one who wants to score points with our new neighbor had better hop to and help her unload her truck. Looks like she packed her things in boxes too big for her to carry.” He shook his head again as he rose and plucked his coat from a hook by the door. “Ditzy,” he muttered, reaching for the knob.

  Ben shoveled the last of his eggs in his mouth even as he rose and walked his plate to the dishwasher. Eli was not as obvious, but he, too, was suddenly on the move, rolling up the papers he’d been studying.

  Ben downed his juice. “Forget it, Eli, you don’t have time. You heard Joe. He needs those blueprints by tomorrow, and since you goofed off yesterday with Raina, you’re going to barely make that deadline if you work solid all day long.”

  Eli clouded over but sat, resigned. Then the corners of his lips quirked into some semblance of a smile. “Go ahead, Ben, give it your best shot. I doubt she’ll be interested, but at least you’ll know you tried.”

  Ben glared then strode out of the kitchen.

  ***

  Mari had really been appreciative of her brothers and friends in and around Oklahoma City who had brought boxes to her packing party and packed them and loaded them, but now that she was left to unload them on her own, she was realizing her strength limitations. She was just about to open them up in the back of the truck and carry the pieces of her life to the house one armload at a time, when Ben showed up rolling a dolly.

  Mari smiled. “Ben, you are the man of the hour! I was beginning to wonder how I was ever going to do this. Thanks.”

  She moved to take control of the moving equipment, but Ben held on. “I’m not just loaning you the dolly, Mari, I’m loaning you me. In fact, you should just go back in and stay warm. You can unpack the boxes and arrange things as I bring them in.”

  Mari grinned. Angel of mercy. “Are you sure you don’t have something else you need to do? This wasn’t on your agenda.”

  Ben grinned back. “I’m on winter break. I don’t have an agenda.”

  Mari turned back to the truck. “Okay then, why don’t you start with the book cases, so I have someplace to put the books when you bring those in.”

  Ben wheeled the dolly up the ramp. “Will do, boss.” He looked at her a moment then winked, almost as an afterthought.

  Mari nearly laughed but quickly realized he wasn’t kidding. He was trying to charm her. She turned and scurried up her sidewalk. Oh my. She went in the house and paused before taking off her coat. He has no idea how old I am. She took a right into her bedroom and threw her coat on the bed. Should I tell him? She shook her head as she heard the door open. No, that would be weird.

  Heading back to the living room, she pointed Ben toward the opposite side of the room to put the bookcase beside a tall window; then he headed back out to get its mismatched companion. Mari considered the possibility that Ben might have a crush on her, and for just a second, she wondered where Eli was this morning. Dazzling Joe had given her a polite wave when he pulled out in his truck, but where was Eli? He had seemed interested last night. Ben opened the door again, and Mari snapped out of her musings to direct the placement of the second book case to the other side of the window.

  “I’ll bring in the book boxes next,” Ben announced, leaving again.

  Mari nodded. “Perfect.”

  There was no doubt that Ben was good looking and sweet to boot. “I suppose I’m probably eight or ten years older than he is,” she mused aloud. “It’s not unheard of, and statistically speaking, we’d probably die at about the same time, but still...”

  The door opened again, and Ben wheeled in two stacked boxes with a mangled green plastic thing on top. Ben held it up. “I guess this was a bird feeder? It didn’t make the move well.”

  Mari sighed and took it from him. “Oh, well, it was a last minute item I remembered to throw in.” She set it aside. “I’ll have to get a new one.”

  “Are you a bird watcher?”

  “Yeah, I have a book for identifying them in one of these boxes.”

  Ben wheeled them over to the shelves. Mari knew better than to try and assist. She could no more move those boxes than the house itself. Ben slid the two off the dolly, and Mari pulled the tape to open the top box. She pulled out a couple of books and tried to shift her thoughts to the titles in her hands. Or rather, the colors. Mari always arranged her books by color.

  She had the first box about half unloaded when Ben came back in with two more marked “BOOKS.”

  “You really like to read, huh?”

  “I have a degree in literature.” She smiled. “So, yes, I like to read.”

  He crossed his arms over the top of the dolly. “I like to read. I just got an e-reader for my birthday.” He slid his stocking cap up a bit and scratched his head. “So you’ve already got a degree. Why are you starting over with zoo studies?”

  “Well, sometimes our first pick” —or our second or third— “isn’t the right pick. What’s your major?”

  “Business management. It was Joe’s suggestion, so I could have a place in the family business.”

  Mari continued to put books on the shelf. “And that is...”

  “Construction,” Ben supplied. “Joe knows construction inside and out, so he’s the foreman. Eli has a degree in architecture, so he does the designs.”

  Mari didn’t know why that surprised her so much. She didn’t know what she thought Eli would be doing, but something as serious as architecture seemed a stretch. She forced her attention back to Ben. “Joe’s suggestion... is it something you really want to do, or is Joe just pushing you into what he wants you to do?” Dazzling Joe was losing a bit of his shine.

  Ben shrugged. “I’m not really sure what I want to do, so it’s as good as anything, I guess.” He turned the dolly back toward the door. “Well, I guess that truck isn’t going to unload itself.”

  ***

  Eli was straining to see what Mari and Ben were doing. Ben had taken the second load of boxes in and stayed longer than he had before. Eli had discovered that from his drafting table in his second floor office, he had a good view right into the tall windows of Mari’s living room... if he stood up... and leaned. She had her hair pulled back today with a colorful hair gizmo, but some of her wavy curls had slipped out and were falling around her face as she worked. Eli was a sucker for curls.

  She stood to put books on the top shelf, and Eli noted that she was wearing a bright, patterned, long-sleeved top over tight jeans tucked into those useless snow boots of hers, and in a flash, he was back in his front yard with Mari in his grip slipping every which way on the ice. He relived her hands on his forearms and the way her eyes seemed to reflect the stars.

  Ben step
ped out the door, and Eli shook his head in an attempt to focus on the blueprints he needed to finish. “I may as well be out there, for all the work I’m getting done in here.”

  He drank another slug of his coffee and ran his hands through his hair. Eli spent a lot of time with women, but they didn’t usually captivate his thoughts when he wasn’t with them. And he’d never, ever been jealous of his little brother before.

  He got up and turned his drafting table away from the window.

  ***

  Joe was eating a turkey sandwich, staring out the window of his on-site trailer at the synagogue his construction company had been building since mid-summer in Denver. The timing had been perfect, and they had moved inside just a week before the first snowfall. It was nearly complete, and Joe was itching to move on to the next project—a ritzy, gated-community apartment complex being developed by Tony and Bud Marshall. He seriously hoped that Eli would have the plans ready for their approval by their 8 a.m. meeting with the two men.

  The door opened as he tipped up his bag of chips to get the last of the crumbs, and in walked a tall, slender woman with short, blond hair in a long navy wool coat and a red beret hanging off the back of her head. Joe smiled, wadded up his lunch trash, and lobbed it into the trashcan before rising and coming around his desk to greet her with a kiss. “What brings you all the way out here?”

  Beth Havland slid her hands around his neck and pulled him down for another. “I would think that would be obvious.”

  Joe’s smile melted somewhat. “You didn’t drive all this way just for a kiss, did you? You know your gas budget—”

  “I know, I know. My gas budget ‘won’t support needless driving.’”

  “Beth, you were the one who wanted help getting out of debt. I’m only trying—”

  “I know.” She pulled off her hat and leaned her head against him. “But I’ve had a hard morning, and I needed you, and you’re terrible about answering your phone. Believe me, I tried calling.”

  He stroked her hair. “Hmm, I’m not sure I even picked it up off my night stand this morning.”