Her Sexiest Mistake

Mia slept poorly, then got up at the crack of dawn like usual and checked her cell phone.

Not a single message.

Flopping back, she stared at the ceiling, trying not to panic. She was hugely successful. She'd have thought she'd wake to handfuls of offers.

But no one had contacted her.

She was undesirable. 'Shit.'

That the word came out sounding extremely Southern didn't improve her mood any. God, she missed Kevin already. One night, and she felt as if she'd lost an appendage.

But she'd given him every damn thing she had.

She had, she told herself again, shoving away the niggling doubt, because self-righteous indignation was much easier to deal with.

She'd given her all and had turned out to be lacking. A common problem, apparently.

Her phone rang. Her heart leapt, thinking that maybe… Kevin. She couldn't pounce on it fast enough.

'Hey, Apple, guess what? I'm missing the ol' kid.'

Mia thunked her head down on the counter. Sugar. 'I thought you were busy on your vacation from life.'

'I was recovering,' Sugar said somewhat defensively. 'But I'm done now. Send her home, damn it.'

Suddenly suspicious, Mia lifted her head and frowned. 'Let me guess. You've been dumped.'

Sugar burst into tears. 'Oh, Apple. And I thought he was the one this time. The real one.'

Mia thought of Kevin and felt like crying, too. 'Yeah.'

'And the place is a mess. Only Hope can manage to keep it decent. I need her back.'

Unreasonable panic hit Mia, because Sugar sounded like she meant it, and because… well, because, damn it, Mia had grown rather fond of the troublemaker.

'She's not the maid, she's a kid. And she's now enrolled in a science class that she needs. She wants to be a marine biologist. It's important to her.'

'But she lives here. With me.'

'Sugar.' Why didn't she felt like dancing for joy? What was this irrational dread? 'Things were bad between the two of you. She's getting herself straightened out, she's happy, she-'

'Have her call me,' Sugar interrupted and hung up.

The Appleby way.

When Hope rushed into the kitchen with one minute to spare, Mia used that as an excuse to not mention Sugar's call. She dropped Hope off at school and drove straight to Tess's.

'I've thought about this. I don't want to get another job working for some other Dickhead. I want to work for myself. For us. I want in,' she said.

'In what?'

'In Cookie Madness.'

'You're already in.'

'I want to be a partner. You interested?'

'I am not taking your money.'

'Take? No. Invest. Yes. And believe me, we'll use it wisely.'

Tess looked torn between joy and caution. 'I'm not letting you take a chance on your money.'

'Are you kidding me? We're not taking a chance on anything. We're going to succeed.'

Tess gnawed on her lower lip. 'Mia. Friends shouldn't do this, combine funds.'

'You're not my friend. You're my sister.'

Tess's eyes filled and Mia shook her head, pointing at her.

'No. Don't do that-'

Too late. Tess threw her arms around Mia, making her stagger back a step, hugging her hard so that Mia's eyes burned, too, damn it.

'Besides,' Mia whispered. 'We both know how good I am at selling. I'm going to sell us all the way to the bank.'

Tess choked out a laugh and Mia took her first real breath of the day. She had a purpose again, a direction to concentrate her efforts, which meant she was going to be okay.

***

That night Cole came over for Hope. The two of them sat at the kitchen table, heads bent over their science final projects, looking so happy Mia could hardly breathe.

She'd worked hard all her life, always thinking that the next step would be the one to bring her happiness, but, damn it, she was tired of waiting for that elusive feeling to materialize.

Especially when the truth was, the only time she'd come close had been in the company of a man.

One man.

Kevin McKnight.

In a moment of weakness, she waited for Cole to leave, then downed three cups of caffeinated coffee to guarantee staying awake longer than the kid. It wasn't easy, but adrenaline-and caffeine-fueled her, and when Hope was asleep, Mia sneaked out her back door into the warm, sticky, lightly raining summer night.

God, to have someone to stare up at all those stars with… But there was only one someone that interested her. Her heels sank into the damp grass as she crossed her yard, and then her neighbor's, and came to Kevin's.

She stood there alone in the dark, raining night, aching for the sound of his voice, his smile, his arms to come around her.

But his house was dark.

Just like her heart.

***

Kevin paced the house like a caged tiger. The weather was too bad to go for a long ride on the bike, and nothing else appealed.

In the end, he sat in the darkened kitchen nursing a beer, listening to a late-summer storm pound the windows. Lightning flashed like a strobe, and he got up to look out the windows as the storm raged. On the next crashing boom, the sky lit up, the landscape imprinted on his brain like a picture. The low-riding hills, the bush-lined trail to his door… and a woman standing at the end of the trail.

Mia, standing there in the rain and wind, staring at his house. He couldn't see her expression, but he wanted to think she was filled with the same pain and longing that filled him.

But in the next flash of lightning, she was gone.

***

After zero sleep, Mia rose at dawn and dressed for a run. Despite the light drizzle, she was determined to run off some tension. After one block she was joined by familiar battered athletic shoes, topped by a mouthwatering body.

Kevin McKnight.

Mia soaked up the sight of him, so relieved she was speechless. His hair was spiked with rain, his tank top and shorts equally splattered, and he looked, well, vibrantly masculine.