The Standby Guy (Men of Lakeside) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Discover more August titles… One Night with a Millionaire

  Knocked-Up Cinderella

  What Were You Thinking, Paige Taylor?

  Adventures in Online Dating

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by Natasha Moore. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

  Entangled Publishing, LLC

  2614 South Timberline Road

  Suite 105, PMB 159

  Fort Collins, CO 80525

  [email protected]

  August is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.

  Edited by Wendy Chen

  Cover design by Bree Archer

  Cover photography by Flamingo Images/Shutterstock

  ISBN 978-1-64063-765-8

  Manufactured in the United States of America

  First Edition February 2019

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you for supporting a small publisher! Entangled prides itself on bringing you the highest quality romance you’ve come to expect, and we couldn’t do it without your continued support. We love romance, and we hope this book leaves you with a smile on your face and joy in your heart.

  xoxo

  Liz Pelletier, Publisher

  To Craig, for all your love and support over the years. And of course, for all the inspiration.

  Chapter One

  “I need a girlfriend.”

  Katie Dixon blinked back tears as Carter Colburn burst into her kitchen. She and her next-door neighbor had been friends since before her son was born, so he’d understand why she was weepy today, but she still didn’t want him to know she’d been crying.

  Sean had left for college today in her old SUV, packed to the gills with his stuff. His whole body had vibrated with excitement while she’d pretended she wouldn’t miss him with every fiber of her being. He’d be experiencing dorm life now nearly two hundred miles away. Her nest was officially empty.

  “You’re late.” She hopped up from the table where she’d been feeling sorry for herself and popped a pod into the coffeemaker.

  “Been on the phone all afternoon.”

  Like always, Carter dwarfed her small kitchen. He wasn’t a huge guy, but even though he spent a lot of time in his law office, he’d developed some nice muscles from working for his family’s salvage business. But he usually only paced when he was worried or upset.

  “What’s going on?” She turned to face him, coffee cup in hand.

  That almost-wild look on his face immediately turned to concern. “Hey, have you been crying?” He took the cup from her hands and placed it on the table.

  She cleared her throat. “Sean left.”

  “Damn, I should have said goodbye to the Sean-man before I left this morning.”

  “As he keeps telling me, he’ll be back home for breaks.” She sniffed. “And in no way am I allowed to turn his bedroom into a yoga studio.”

  Carter wrapped her into his arms for a comforting hug. “You don’t do yoga.”

  “I know.” What would she and Sean have done without Carter all these years? He’d been her husband’s best friend, but when Tim had been killed in an accident fifteen years ago, Carter had made good on his promise to stand by them.

  Katie cleared her throat. “Enough of that. This is a good thing. Sean’s on his way to becoming a lawyer like you.” She stepped out of Carter’s embrace. “How many times did I say I couldn’t wait to have the place to myself?”

  “Well, that was usually when Sean and his buddies were having Xbox marathons in the living room.”

  A new batch of tears flooded her eyes. “I can’t believe I’m going to miss all that chaos.”

  Carter led her over to the table, picked up her coffee cup, and popped it into the microwave for thirty seconds before handing it to her. He dropped into the chair across from her. “You’re going to be okay.”

  She nodded. “I am a little excited about taking up yoga and making over the second bedroom with mats, incense, and harmonic meditation music.”

  Carter burst out laughing. “I’m willing to bet yoga and meditation are not on your Katie list.”

  He knew her too well. Most of her friends loved yoga, but she and those bendy poses had never gotten along. Still, a slow burn of anticipation settled in her chest. “You’d be right. I’ve been adding a lot of other items to that list for almost twenty years. Now I can finally start checking things off.”

  She dashed out of the room to grab the worn purple notebook from her purse. After she returned to the table, she started flipping through the pages filled with notations in various colors of ink, some scribbled on the fly, others highlighted or written in all caps. “There it is. Red ink. All caps.” She stabbed the page. “WHEN SEAN GOES TO COLLEGE IT IS MY TIME. WORK THE LIST!” The “MY” was underlined half a dozen times.

  Work the list.

  “So that’s what I’m going to do now that Sean’s gone. I’m working the list.” No time to get weepy. Time to get busy. She flipped some more. Which to do first?

  Lose 10 pounds. Lose 20 pounds. Lose 10 pounds. She grimaced. There had to be something more fun to start with.

  Climb Mt. Everest. Okay, she’d written that one during a manic gotta-get-in-shape phase ten years ago. Never going to happen. She drew a line through that one. There were plenty more.

  Candlelit dinner in a fancy restaurant. She wasn’t looking for a date anytime soon. Maybe never. Though a candlelight dinner for one wouldn’t be the same. She’d worry about that one later, too.

  She started to flip again and then stopped on an item written in purple ink with five exclamation points. Get a tattoo!!!!! That one gave her a great big tingle of excitement. What should she get? Where should it go? It was the perfect list item to start with.

  Carter leaned over to get a peek at the page, but she slammed the book shut. She didn’t let anyone see her list. He grabbed a handful of M&M’s from the never-ending candy dish instead.

  “You’ve raised a great kid and built a successful career. You deserve some time for yourself.” He raised his brows and sent her a mischievous grin. “Care to share some of the things on the list?”

  “Maybe.” Maybe never. None of his business. Time to change the subject. “You came in here shouting something about a girlfriend?”

  “Have you ever heard of Malcolm Worthington?”

  “He’s your new girlfriend?”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.”

  She’d heard that name before. “Isn’t he like a gazillionaire?”

  Carter chuckled. She’d always loved the way he laughed. “Close. He’s looking for a new lawyer, and he approached me today.”

  “Wow. A rich guy like that must have lots of legal issues. But why would he be looking at a little practice like your
s?”

  “He says he’s been burned by big firms more than once. Most recently—have you heard about Senator McKee on the news?”

  “The scandal with his wife and a young single New York City attorney…oh! That was his lawyer?”

  “Yeah. Worthington said if you can’t trust a lawyer with another man’s wife, you can’t trust him with your gazillions.”

  “So why’d he call you again?”

  “Gloria Burns recommended me. Guess they’re old friends.”

  Old money. Gloria was eighty if she was a day. Still drove around their small western New York village in a beat-up Chevy but parked it at a ten-bedroom mansion on Burns Point, overlooking Lake Margaret. She probably was worth a gazillion, too.

  “She stopped in the other day to talk about needing a new family portrait taken before she kicked the bucket.” Katie loved how Gloria was so unpretentious. “She mentioned an old friend of hers was thinking of buying the old Parkhurst mansion on the other side of the Point. She was so excited. Might that be Worthington?”

  “Probably. Worthington said he heard I was a playboy, which is bullshit and I told him so.”

  Katie glanced over her shoulder on her way to the sink to set down her empty cup. “I hope you didn’t use those exact words.”

  “I told him his information was incorrect.” Carter picked up the notebook she’d left on the table.

  She snatched it away from him before he could snoop. “Well, you have dated a lot of women and don’t really…keep them around for long.” She headed for the living room to stuff the notebook back in her purse.

  Carter followed her and put his hand on her shoulder before she reached her purse. “When have I had time for a relationship? With the hours I spend at Colburn and Sons heaped on top of the ones at my law practice, I don’t have time for a love life. I don’t have time for anything but work and an occasional date here and there.”

  She’d never heard him complain about the time he spent with the family business before. And it made her feel a little guilty for all the time he’d spent helping her and Sean. But she could appreciate the excuse. She used the same one. Too busy.

  “So…then what did Worthington say?”

  “He asked me if I’d gotten married yet.”

  If her clients thought they could stick their noses into her personal life, they could find someone else to take their photos. “Are you sure you want a client who thinks he can dictate the way you live your life?”

  “I don’t think he’s trying to dictate anything. He’s just looking for someone he can trust. I told him I stood by my ethics, and whether I was married or not wouldn’t make any difference with the way I handled my business. And then I reminded him that Gloria trusted me whether I was married or not.”

  “I love Gloria.” She grabbed another candy. “So what did he say to that?”

  “He wants to set up a dinner meeting. He and his wife. Me and a date. Apparently, he feels he can get a better read on my character in a social setting than an office.”

  “So what’s the problem?”

  “I can’t get a date.”

  She almost burst out laughing, but she slapped a hand over her mouth. Poor Carter. Would she be able to get through this conversation without having to burst his bubble? The bewildered look on his face kicked up her sympathy, though. “Bet you didn’t expect that.”

  “I’ve been on the phone all afternoon. I’ve never had a problem before.”

  She’d known Carter long enough to know his comment wasn’t arrogance. He really didn’t have a clue. “Mm-hmm.”

  “All of the women I’ve dated in the past few years are married now or engaged or in a serious relationship. All of them. How is that possible?”

  “It happens for a lot of people.”

  “Not you and me.”

  Get married again was nowhere on her got-to-do list. She was going to be working her list now, not catering to a husband. Been there, done that. She couldn’t live the life she wanted if she was stuck in a relationship. “Just because you and I aren’t looking for serious relationships doesn’t mean that most people aren’t.”

  “I guess you’re right. But it used to be easy. I can’t get a date, and the dinner is tomorrow night. I just…I’m feeling a little desperate, Kat.”

  Back when they were young and silly, he used to call her Katie Kat. Over the years, it had become simply Kat. He was the only one who called her that.

  “Desperate? About what?”

  “I need to step up my game.” He took a deep breath.

  She should have realized there was a bigger problem causing him this much distress, not just the lack of a dinner date. “What do you mean?”

  “Now that Noah became mayor, plus fell for Anita, plus realized there’s more to life than work, Beck and I have to pick up the slack at the salvage company. But by dividing even more of my time between Colburn and Sons and my law practice, I’m not giving my all to either, and it’s frustrating as hell.”

  She put her hand on his arm to stop his pacing. “Wait a minute. What are you saying?”

  “If I could attract more clients, especially heavy hitters like Gloria and Worthington, it could create enough of a cushion that we’d be able to hire a couple more employees to handle all the work Noah used to do at Colburn and Sons.”

  “So you want to leave the family business?”

  His dark eyes went wide. “No. Of course not.”

  “Whew.” She mock-wiped sweat from her brow. “I’d hate for you to lose that hot bod because you’re sitting behind a desk all day.” Not to mention his parents would be so disappointed.

  His quick grin told her that comment didn’t come out the way she’d intended. He bumped her shoulder with his. “You think I’m hot?”

  She rolled her eyes and hoped her cheeks didn’t look as red as they felt. She turned her back on him and returned to the kitchen, the notebook still in her hand. “Don’t get a swelled head. You’re not getting any younger, you know.”

  “Ouch.” He crossed his arms over his hot-bod chest. “I could point out that we both turned forty this year.”

  “Hey. I’ve already raised my son. And I’ve built up my business. And I can start working my list.” She grinned. “I’m only forty.” It didn’t get any better than that.

  “I’d just hate to see you lose that hot bod,” he quipped, throwing her words back at her.

  “I keep in shape.” If only there weren’t those pesky ten pounds. No. She wasn’t going to think about them any more today. “I’m on my feet every day, hauling equipment and chasing kids and puppies and wedding parties. I’m saying you can’t give up swinging hammers and hauling all those heavy doors and stuff if you want to keep looking as good as you do.”

  “I’m not giving up anything. I’m out on jobs every week, and I’ll always be available to help the family when they need me.” He frowned. “But it’s not only that. This is a small town. I can’t afford to throw away an opportunity like this one with Worthington. Word of mouth recommendations are the best way to build a client list and client confidence. I can’t toss away the chance Gloria gave me.”

  “I can see that.”

  “So what do I do? It’s just a business dinner. Why can’t I get a date? Have I been blackballed or something?”

  This time, Katie couldn’t help but laugh. “Blackballed just brings the entirely wrong image to this conversation.”

  “I’m serious. Come on. There has to be some woman who’d like to go out to dinner with me.”

  “The women around here are probably looking for a guy with some long-term potential. That’s not you.”

  “Yeah, but…”

  “I’ll try to explain it to you. You might want to sit down for this.” She took his hand and led him over to the table and sat beside him. “I wouldn’t say you’ve been blackballed exactly, but Carter, you’ve become known as the perfect guy to help a girl over a breakup. No one expects you to ever settle down. In fact…”
/>
  “What?”

  “In certain circles, you’re known as a rebound guy.”

  …

  It took a second or two for Carter to process what Katie had said and then a couple more to know how to respond. Which he obviously still didn’t know how to do because all that came out of his mouth was, “That’s ridiculous.”

  She patted his arm as if he were three years old. “I’m afraid it’s true.”

  It didn’t make any sense. “I’m a rebound guy?”

  “Sorry. But what did you expect?”

  “I expected women to go out with me because they liked me.”

  “Is that why you went out with them? Because you liked them?”

  Why did that sound like a trick question? “Sure?”

  She nailed him with her gaze. “But you didn’t like any of them well enough to pursue a relationship with them?”

  “Pursue? What kind of word is that?”

  “You’re the lawyer. You should know all those fancy words.”

  “Okay, I kind of get what you’re saying. Because I’ve never dated long term, the women around here don’t think I want to settle down? Ever?” That might be why some of the women he tried to contact today wouldn’t even return his calls.

  “Why would they?”

  It wasn’t that he never wanted to settle down. He’d always thought it would be sometime in the faraway future. He might have felt a few little pangs when his friends had married and began having families, but he knew it would happen to him someday. “Maybe I haven’t met the right woman yet.”

  “Still doesn’t help any of the women you’ve already met and dated and then never called again.”

  “And this still doesn’t help me with my dinner-date-tomorrow problem.”

  Katie stared at him as if he was overlooking the perfect solution. “There’s a simple answer, you know.”

  “You have a simple answer to the problem that’s been bugging me for hours?”

  “I’ll be your date.”

  He’d been afraid she was going to offer. Or was that why he’d come here with his problem in the first place? “No.”

  No was always his knee-jerk response. Katie had always been strictly off-limits. She’d been his buddy’s sweetheart, then wife. Then his widow. It didn’t make any difference that Tim was dead. He wasn’t going to step over that line.