Meant for Love Read online

  MEANT FOR LOVE

  by Christine Kingsley

  Copyright © 2016 by Christine Kingsley

  Digital Edition

  All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, locations, and events in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to persons or places is purely coincidental. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form without the express consent of the author.

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  CHAPTER ONE

  Melissa Winters slammed the phone down on its cradle and gritted her teeth, cutting off the automated voice before it finished relaying the message. She was so sick of collection calls. Lately, it seemed her workload amounted to dealing with countless creditors, and the list grew bigger each day. How was she supposed to get any real work done when she spent her mornings fielding these calls?

  She really needed to talk to Jesse about what was going on, but every time she broached the subject recently, he brushed her off as if it were no big deal.

  There had to be some underlying issue he was keeping from her if the collectors were becoming this insistent. She hadn't been the office manager at Kincade Supply, Willow Valley's primary farm supply store, for this long without learning a thing or two, and the fact that Jesse continued to dismiss her questions was beginning to irritate her.

  The bell on the front door tinkled through the main store and back to her office. Lissa pushed away from her desk, glad for the interruption. The last thing she wanted was to start her day returning calls when she had no clue how she was supposed to pacify a bunch of people wanting payment. Yesterday.

  "It's just me, Lissa!" Jesse's voice echoed through the building.

  Just the person she wanted to see. She may have a giant crush on her boss and friend, but even the flutter in the pit of her belly when he said her name wasn’t going to get him off the hook this time.

  He may have the power to unsettle her, but Lissa was boiling on the inside. He expected her to deal with the situation without any information at all. And that didn’t work for her. Lissa pushed back from her desk and stomped toward the office door.

  Just as she was about to go out and confront Jesse about the increase in collection calls, he sauntered into the room, all tall, dark and I-know-I’m-handsome, and leaned against the door frame, casually crossing his arms and tilting his head in her direction like he didn’t have a single care.

  "Morning, sunshine." He gave her one of his slow, easy grins that both of them knew had a reputation for melting the hearts of many a woman in Willow Valley.

  "Don't even try that crap on me, Jesse Kincade. I don't need you trying to charm the pants off of me this morning."

  The way Jesse's eyes darkened when she said the words had her wishing she’d chosen them more carefully. It was always like this around him lately—ever since she made the mistake of kissing him a few months back. Now she felt she was continually walking on eggshells lest she make him think she hadn’t received his message loud and clear that he had no intention of pursuing anything with her beyond friendship. Moving on. Pushing the uncomfortable memory from her mind, she focused on the matter at hand.

  "Do you want to tell me exactly why I had fourteen messages from just as many creditors waiting on my voicemail this morning?"

  "Aw, Liss, please don't start in on that already. It's Monday morning, and that is definitely not the first thing I want to walk in and hear." He stood up and brushed by her, the momentary heat in his eyes—if, in fact, it hadn't just been wishful thinking on her part—fading as he walked over to his office door at the back corner of the main office where she worked.

  "Don't brush me off again, Jesse. It's getting to be more frequent and I'm starting to worry. I know you said you had it under control, but honestly, it doesn't seem that way. There's something you aren't telling me."

  Jesse stopped and whirled to face her. Lissa had been trailing behind him and nearly ran straight into his chest. She reached out reflexively and grasped his arms to steady herself, instantly regretting it. Just the feel of his biceps under his plaid flannel shirt had her mind drifting right back to their kiss. Their one and only kiss. Something she apparently couldn’t forget.

  She backed up, trying to hide how flustered she was, but she needn't have worried. When Jesse opened his mouth, all her frustration and fiery-redheaded-anger came right back to the surface. "I said I have a handle on it."

  Lissa put her hands on her hips and pinned him with an expectant glare. "I'm sorry, but you owe me more than that. I have worked here since I was sixteen years old, and I'll be damned if something is going on that you aren't letting me know."

  Jesse had spent the last couple years working to take over the supply store from his father once he’d returned home from college. It had always been assumed that he would take over one day, but neither of them had expected the difficulties they’d encountered. Lissa was instrumental in the transition, having been a vital part of Kincade Supply for the last eight years. All the more reason she was so frustrated in being out of the loop with what was going on.

  "I've let you put me off on this, but this is too much. You know I deserve a real explanation."

  Jesse heaved a sigh as he stared at her, slightly deflated, finally shrugging his shoulders. "Fine. I've been working on a way to handle the debt. You know as well as I do that my father made some poor business decisions in the past, and it has nearly cost us this business."

  Lissa felt a rush of sympathy. She knew how tirelessly Jesse had been working since his father had pretty much dumped the business into his lap a few months ago, announcing his retirement. He left a mess of bills and debt for Jesse to clean up, and Jesse had been determined not to let his legacy go under. They had been working together to make sure everything was taken care of. At least, they had, up until things spiraled out of control the last month or so and Jesse had been less forthcoming about what was going on. Lissa knew how important it was to Jesse that he salvage this business, but there was something he wasn't telling her.

  "You know you can trust me. What are you keeping from me? And don't tell me you're not. I know you better than that." Like most people in Willow Valley, they had grown up together in the small town, attending the same schools from kindergarten all the way through high school, and everybody tended to know everything about everyone else's lives. Sometimes a bit too much, but such was the nature of small towns.

  Jesse met her eyes, and she saw sadness there that she hadn't seen before. He tended to cover up any serious emotions with bravado and good humor. The quintessential ladies' man of Willow Valley, he had plenty of charm to go around. The look on his face now wasn't one she was familiar with.

  "Okay, fine. I haven't said anything because I've been trying to figure out how to break this to you delicately, but it seems that there really is no way. I know how much the store means to you."

  Lissa's stomach dropped. His somber tone was not something she was used to seeing. Even though he could be serious when it came to his business, he was never this grim. She had no idea what to expect next as he ran his hand through his dark hair and breathed a heavy sigh.

  "Lissa, I'm selling Kincade Supply."

  ***

  Jesse braced himself for the worst. He had no idea how Lissa was going to react to the bomb he just dropped, but he was pretty sure it wouldn’t be well. He hated to throw this at her without warning, but she could be so damn persistent sometimes. She was the first person he’d told. He’d planned on telling his father this week, but even that didn’t weigh as heavily on him
as telling Lissa.

  He watched her carefully as several emotions played across her face. Confusion, shock, disbelief, anger, and finally unbelievable sadness. That's the one that hit him the hardest. He already felt like a complete failure for giving up on the business. His father had put more into it than he had his own family and now it was all for nothing. If there were any way to salvage the mess his legacy had become, he would jump on it. Now, watching as Lissa processed what this meant, he wished for any solution that would fix it. More than anything, he didn't want to hurt her.

  "Surely you're joking." Lissa shook her head, her emerald gaze boring into him, almost as if she were willing him to brush it off as a joke. But he could tell she knew he was serious this time.

  "I wish I was, sweetie. But I honestly don't see any other way. I've run the scenario as many different ways as I could think of, and it always comes back to selling. It’s the only way I can find to get out of this crippling debt without losing everything."

  Lissa's eyes welled with tears. His heart squeezed. He was a complete jerk. The last thing he ever wanted to do was make her cry. In fact, making her happy topped his list. It seemed he was losing that battle on all fronts. First he’d pushed her away when she showed him how she felt about him, something that had taken all his strength to do, and now he was crushing yet another vital piece of the life she wanted for herself. He hated himself for all of it. His only consolation was he knew he was ultimately saving her from an entire lifetime of heartbreak.

  "Are you really willing to walk away from a business your father worked his whole life to build? That you’ve dedicated yourself to for the last seven years?"

  How he knew that better than anyone else. It was his father's intense drive to make the business succeed that had turned Jesse into the man he was today. A man who valued his business above all else.

  "I don't know what else to do, Lissa. If we don't sell now while we’re still making some money, it will get even uglier. I would rather sell and walk away clean than have it go under and lose everything my family has ever worked for." What a waste that would be. If all of the pain and heartbreak he and his mother had endured over the years—the late nights, missed dinners, broken promises—for the sake of this business were to ultimately amount to nothing. Though that’s what it seemed to amount to anyway.

  "There has to be another way." Lissa looked at him as if she were willing him to come up with another solution then and there. "I don't know what else to do, but I can't just walk away from this place and let it go. I don't see how you can either."

  If she kept looking at him with that sad expression, he'd almost be willing to promise her anything. She would be out of a job, yes. It was something he had taken into consideration, and not lightly. They had worked at Kincade Supply together as teenagers, and after high school when she had taken on a more managerial role and he’d gone off to college, they’d still spent every holiday and summer working side by side. It wasn’t just a job, to either of them. It was part of who they were.

  "I promise I won't let you walk away without a severance package. I've made sure to put something together in the sales proposal so that you're taken care of. You will be set for a full year, Lissa."

  He thought that would make her happy, comfort her, but she simply shook her head, her cheeks flushing with what he knew was her wild temper. "How can you think that's what matters to me, Jesse? You know me better than that." She turned her back on him and paced around the office.

  He did. He knew that money wasn't everything to her. In fact, it barely registered on her life list of important things. A list that was one of the many reasons why they weren't cut out for each other. Lissa valued family above all else; Jesse was the complete opposite.

  Regardless, he still had to take care of her. If he was taking away the only job she'd ever known, one that meant so much to her, he wanted to know that she would be set for plenty long enough to find something else.

  "I know, I know. But I’m still going to do this for you. It's bad enough that I'm taking away your job." It didn’t make up for it, but it was better than nothing.

  She whirled around to face him again, eyes blazing. "But you don't have to! Why don't you see that? There has to be another way. I've been here for far too long to just give up now. I know this can't be it." The tears that had been welling in her eyes spilled down her soft porcelain cheeks. Jesse felt an ache in his chest knowing that he had caused her this pain.

  He reached out and gently brushed a tear away with his thumb, then pulled her closer. She rested her head against his chest. Her body quivered, just slightly, and he knew her anger was just beneath the surface, battling with something else. Fear? Uncertainty? He wasn't sure. All he knew was he hated that he was the one making her feel this way.

  "It's not just the job I'm losing." Her voice was muffled against his chest, and he wasn't sure if she meant for him to hear her words or not. He held her there a moment longer, hoping he could get her settled enough to talk to her rationally about why this had to happen. And he just wasn’t ready to release her yet. He tried to ignore the implication of her words and the way his chest swelled as he held her closely. If only things were different.

  With great difficulty, he finally released her, instantly missing having her close. When she looked up into his eyes, he didn't see the anger that he thought he would see there. Instead, he saw the same deep sadness, something he never wanted to be the one to cause. This was the same look that had crossed her face several months back, the night they kissed, when he'd told her they could never have a future together. The night he'd tried desperately to forget because it had cemented the fact that he could never be what she needed. He had been the cause of her pain that night as well. Why was it that when all he'd ever wanted to do was make her happy and make sure she had everything she wanted, he instead only caused her grief?

  CHAPTER TWO

  Lissa pushed back from her desk, leaning back to massage her neck. It was sore from hunching over the files for so long. She'd worked tirelessly all day going over all of the accounts looking for something. Anything. Surely they had overlooked a way to get the finances in order. Selling just wasn't an option, and there was no way she was letting this go so easily.

  After breaking the news to her this morning, Jesse spent the rest of the day working out of the office, almost as if he didn't even want to be around her. She knew she was being ridiculous, but she had seen the look on his face after he had released her from his embrace. It was that same pitying look he had given her only one time before. She didn't want his pity.

  She wanted his love.

  But that looked as hopeless and bleak as salvaging the supply store. How had it come to this? Everything she ever wanted and had ever known was slipping through her fingers.

  It's just a job, she tried to convince herself. You can find another one. But that was just the thing. It wasn't just a job. She had put her heart and soul into her work at Kincade Supply. It felt like it was as much her business as it was Jesse's. And even though she knew she and Jesse had been friends their entire lives, and that in a town as small as Willow Valley they would continue to see each other, the fact that she wouldn't see him day in and day out at the store made her heart ache.

  She knew what her best friend Cassie would say. Cassie would tell her that maybe it was a good thing. That this distance between her and Jesse would finally release her from the grip he held on her heart and allow her to move on.

  But that's not what she wanted. Despite the fact that her head knew she and Jesse would never work, her heart didn't seem to get the message. They were just too different, something he had made abundantly clear to her the night of their kiss. It never should have happened in the first place, but they were swept up in the moment. Outside in the field behind the store under the moonlight, Lissa had let herself give in to Jesse's charms. She had fought her attraction to him for far too long, and when he leaned in to kiss her, she simply surrendered to the moment. />
  Only to be told moments later that he was sorry, that he shouldn't have done it, and how he could never be what she needed him to be because they both wanted different things from life.

  In her head, Lissa knew he was right. What she wanted most in life was a family, just like what she had grown up with. The oldest of five children, she had helped with taking care of children as long as she could remember, always there beside her mother. But she loved it. She knew it's what she was made for—to be a wife and mother. She also knew she wouldn't settle for anything other than a man who cherished her just as much as her father did her mother. They had been a shining example of what a marriage could be, and Lissa would settle for nothing less. That was the very reason Jesse told her that they could never be together. He wasn't willing to give her what she so desperately wanted.

  Standing up from the desk, Lissa left the mess where it was. She didn't have the time or the energy to organize the files she had rifled through all day long. That's what tomorrow was for.

  Glancing at her watch, she realized she should have locked the front door ten minutes ago. And she had to hurry if she didn't want to be late to her family dinner. Every Monday night Mrs. Winters made a huge meal for her family. She always said that Monday was the hardest day of the week and that if she could do something to make them a little easier, then she would have done well for her family.

  Just as Lissa was about to go lock up, she heard the bell on the front door. Darn it, I wasn't fast enough. Now she would be delayed by who knew how long. She walked out of the office to find a strange woman she had never seen before looking around the supply store nervously.

  "May I help you?" As the woman came closer, Lissa studied her with curiosity. This woman was definitely not from Willow Valley. She knew everyone in town. It was also unusual for a complete stranger to come in a farm supply store. Their customers were pretty much made up of local farmers and ranchers. Something about her, though, something Lissa couldn't put her finger on, was familiar.