He went out on the stage and waved to the audience. When he looked at their table, he noticed Molly’s seat was empty. Rina pointed toward the door, and he saw a flash of Molly’s dress as she stepped out. He gave Dennis a quick wave and hopped off the stage to follow her.
He was too far behind to see where she went. He checked their suite and found it empty. For a moment he wondered if she’d headed back to the Bar T, but then he spotted her car keys on the dresser. She was still in the hotel.
He had one more idea and followed his hunch up to the top-floor bar that offered a stunning view of the Houston skyline. He found Molly sitting at one of the tables that overlooked the city. But she wasn’t looking at the skyline. She stared at the stars above.
“Mind if I join you?” he asked, coming over to her table.
She turned to look at him, a sad smile on her face. “Not at all.”
“Why did you leave?”
“I thought I was ready for it. Dennis called for you earlier today and said that he had good news for you about your medical review. I put the rest together for myself when you tried to propose to me before he could name you as the first commander.”
“That’s not why I chose that moment to propose—”
“It was. Let’s not lie to each other, okay?” she said. “I would have said yes and you would have... What would you have done? I know some of the other astronauts are married, but I think it’s always been different for you.”
The honesty in her tone hurt him a little. She expected him to walk away from her easily, but he wasn’t too sure he could do that. Nothing was easy about this. He wanted the missions and Molly.
“It used to be,” he said. “But mainly because I hadn’t taken the time to meet anyone who made me...better. You expanded my horizons. Most of my life I’ve been playing at being an adult, Molly. Trying damned hard to make sure I wasn’t the kind of man my ‘sperm donor’ dad was. The kind of guy who’d walk away from his pregnant girlfriend and never look back.”
“You were never going to be that kind of man. You’re not made that way,” she said.
He appreciated her faith in him. She always had believed in him, especially when he’d doubted himself.
“Regardless, with you I don’t have to fake it. You make me the kind of man I’ve always wanted to be. I love you.”
“I love you, too. That’s why I want you to go back into space and do these things you’ve always dreamed of.”
“You love me?”
“Yes. I can’t imagine a future without you in it.”
“Can you imagine a future where your husband leads the first Cronus mission and then comes home, retires and trains others to go on further missions?” he asked.
It was what he wanted. If he could have everything, it would be Molly and NASA and Cronus.
“Are you sure about this?” she asked.
“Molly, nothing can compete with you. If you say no, then I’ll tell Dennis to find another commander for that first eighteen-month mission.”
She put her hand in his. “I’d never say no. I want all of that for you, for us. I want to be the cowgirl you come back to.”
Jason’s heart started beating so loudly he was sure the other patrons in the bar could hear it. He got down on one knee and pulled the ring from his pocket.
“Molly Tanner, will you marry me?”
She leaned forward, putting her forehead on his. “Yes, I will.”
He put the ring on her finger and got to his feet, lifting her into his arms and kissing her like he would never let her go. And now he knew he’d never have to.
* * * * *
Tiffany Reisz
Trick...or wicked treat!
It was a devastating dirty trick—Joey Silvia just found out her boyfriend of two years is married. What. A. Dick. Joey knows her best chance to get over one guy is to get under another. Of course, heading home to her family’s remote cabin in Oregon poses some challenges in the “available men” department...until she discovers this cabin comes with its own hot handyman!
Holy crap, Chris Steffensen. When did her brother’s best friend turn into a hard-bodied pile of blond-bearded hotness? He’s the perfect Halloween treat—and a surprisingly dirty rebound guy. For a couple of weeks, anyway. Except that Chris has other ideas...like proving to Joey that this blast from the past is a whole lot more than a naughty Halloween hookup.
“You were intense last night.”
“Too intense?”
“Perfect,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck to pull him closer. She needed to get him naked, and fast. Her body remembered the warmth of his skin on hers and ached to feel it again. “I want you to be with me the way you want to be with me. Don’t hold back. I can take it.”
“You took it last night pretty well.”
“Only pretty well?”
“Very well,” he said, nuzzling his lips to her neck. “You want to take it again?”
“And again and again and again...”
Chris kissed her mouth and she ran her hands down his back. She slipped her hands under his shirt, desperate to touch him. After all that hard work, his body had grown hot to the touch, and her cool skin bristled with pleasure as his heat suffused her.
She wanted more, more, more of him and she couldn’t get it fast enough.
There are few places in the world more beautiful in autumn than Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon. I should know, because I live here. Shortly after my husband and I moved out to the mountain (technically a volcano), I hired a handful of local contractors to do minor repairs on our new house. They were annoyingly cute and very good at their jobs. I joked to my husband that if I wrote some romance novels about these guys, maybe I could write our home repairs off on our taxes as a book research expense.
Sadly, my accountant didn’t go for that idea. But I wrote the books anyway. Her Halloween Treat is the first book in the Men at Work trilogy, inspired by the men and women in all our lives who paint our houses, build our decks, landscape our lawns and generally make our neighborhoods nicer places to live. I hope you enjoy the story of Joey, on the rebound after a devastating breakup, and Chris, the sweet and sexy bearded contractor who puts all his handyman skills to use fixing her broken heart.
Enjoy!
With Love from My Secret Volcanic Lair on Mount Hood,
Tiffany Reisz
TIFFANY REISZ is a multi-award-winning and bestselling author. She lives on Mount Hood in Oregon in her secret volcanic lair with her husband, author Andrew Shaffer, two cats and twenty sock monkeys named Gerald. Find her online at tiffanyreisz.com.
Dedicated to...
Jen LeBlanc—“Don’t Stop Believin’,” my