Ashton Hill Valentines

"Wow!" Jack said, and Lara knew the effort she had gone to was worth it. "You look amazing, these don't even compare!" he breathed and handed her a bunch of brightly coloured wildflowers.

"Thank you," she grinned. "I'll just put these in water before we go." She walked back into the kitchen, her heels clicking on the floorboards as she walked.

Jack followed her inside and watched her as she found a vase and filled it with water. The dress was casual and summery and suited her curves. Her hair was down and carefully styled, and her make-up seemed to highlight the beautiful features of her face more so than usual. He regretted almost immediately that they had to leave the little apartment, and fought his growing arousal, shifting his stance more than once to accommodate what the sight of her always did to him.

"Shall we go?" Lara asked, coming back to where he stood. He had thought over the course of the week his lust and need for her would have died down, at least a little, but it only seemed to grow, and he seemed unable to control his body's physical reaction to her whenever they were together. He couldn't get enough of her, and no matter how much he had, he only wanted more.

They arrived at Fancy's, one of the nicer restaurants in town that sat on the edge of the golf club on the north end of the town circle. It was a public, while still being the intimate, romantic place to go when you wanted to impress your date. The Maître 'D sat them near a floor to ceiling window looking over the lush green golf course and gave them menus.

It was more than what Lara had expected, and she was glad she had dressed up. She looked across the table at Jack and smiled. While he'd traded in his usual jeans for slacks, he wore a typical button-down shirt open at the collar and a casual jacket which he had draped over the back of his chair. The place was already half full, which surprised Lara on a weekday, and several of the other patrons seemed to know Jack, as people constantly stopped at their table to say hello and make small talk.

"Sorry," he apologised after one such friend had left them. "It's the project I have been having meetings about."

"The one with Paul Ashton?" she asked.

"Yeah, it looks like he might actually pull off what he's trying to do, which means I might be sticking around Ashton Hill for a little while longer than expected."

"Seriously?" Lara asked, her heart leaping in her chest. "You'd consider coming home for more than just a visit?"

"Well, aside of the project, this place has some things I would miss very much if I had to leave them behind," he said in a low husky murmur, and reached across the table to take her hand. He hadn't been ready to have this conversation, and didn't want to say much more than he already had, but he wanted her to know he was considering staying, and that she was a major part of that decision-making process.

Lara sat back as the waitress arrived with their dessert and placed it in front of them. Her mind whirling with what he was saying and wondering why he hadn't mentioned the possibility of staying in Ashton Hill longer until now.

"But staying or going back to your job all hinges on this project you have been working on with Paul Ashton?" she asked, trying to still her heart and slow down her thoughts. This was still only temporary, a Valentines Festival fling in a town that celebrated love and romance while he was here on leave.

"Well, I need to work, and I love my job. I can't think of anything better than flying. Surprisingly, there aren't a lot of career paths for helicopter pilots, so I have to go where the work is," he shrugged.

"I thought you jumped out of helicopters to rescue people, not fly them?" she frowned. She'd never truly delved into his job, and he didn't talk about it much.

"I do both, and I'm a qualified paramedic as well, which gives me a certain amount of freedom and variety in my current job," he said easily. He wasn't bragging, just stating the facts. He'd worked hard to get to where he was now, and he saw no point in hiding his abilities.

"Would you still have that same freedom if you stayed here?" Lara asked. She couldn't imagine he'd be happy in this quiet town where the most exciting thing that happened was finding lost pets. "Would you still get the same buzz from the project with Paul Ashton?"

"I guess time will tell, but it's looking good at the moment," he said with a smile.

"It certainly is," a voice said from beside them, and Lara looked up to see one of Jack's friends standing next to her. "It's looking very good. Have you locked in a date for the Valentine's Ball?" he asked eagerly.

"Go away, Daniel!" Jack said from between clenched teeth.

"Not yet, but he has asked me," Lara said quickly, wondering why Jack was so rude to his friend.

"You can't win the challenge without it," he chuckled and slapped Jack on the back. "Harry must be spewing." Jack looked like he'd tasted something bad and turned his sour look on his friend, but before he could say anything, Lara spoke again.

"What challenge is that?" Lara eyed Jack and Daniel suspiciously. Lara remembered Daniel as a class clown in high school, not too bright, but always lots of fun to be around. "Don't tell me you guys are still issuing childish challenges at your age?" she laughed lightly, hiding the fact that she was crumbling inside. Somehow getting her to agree to go to the ball was part of a challenge. The idea of it rocked her.

"It's just a bit of fun. Everyone knows Jack and Harry can't back down from a challenge," Daniel chuckled. "It wouldn't be the same if we didn't challenge them to something while they're both in town."

"Daniel, not now!" Jack said his teeth clenched and his jaw working.

"Oh, it's fine, it's actually refreshing to see that some friendships and traditions last beyond school," Lara had frozen her face in a mask of happiness. "I'll let you boys chat while I visit the ladies room." She stood and grabbed her purse and headed towards the front of the restaurant where the restrooms were located on the way to the entrance. Knowing Jack would be momentarily distracted, rather than turning toward the restrooms, Lara left the restaurant and walked as fast as she could in the direction of town. She couldn't make it home before he caught up to her, but she could make it to the bakery where Carly would hide her at least for an hour or two while she thought about what she had heard.

She'd been a challenge this whole time. None of it was real. It all made so much sense now. The coffee and cake with Harry and Jack's jealousy. Last night when he had said they didn't have to worry about Harry anymore. So many other small clues she hadn't caught on to at the time. "My God, I am stupid, so unbelievably stupid! He had me believing he was considering working with Paul Ashton because of me," she berated herself as she walked so quickly it was almost like a jog. She burst into the bakery with tears in her eyes and asked for Carly, who took one look at her and ushered her upstairs into her small apartment over the bakery.

Without realising the consequences of her words, Lara poured out the whole horrible truth of why Jack had pursued her so hard. It was only after sobbing through the whole story and all the little clues she had been given but was too stupid to see that Carly spoke for the first time.

"So, I was a consolation prize? The runner-up? The first loser?" Carly said, feeling the same devastation as Lara and admitting she had fallen for Harry as badly as Lara had fallen for Jack, if only to herself.

"Oh God, no!" Lara said. "That's not how it was, honestly. Harry was already smitten with you before he ever asked me out for coffee. Trust me, he didn't want to be there any more than I did. Please believe me, Carly!" Lara begged. "It was friends from high school catching up, that's it!"

"He still asked you out and went on that date with you after we had sex. I did him that first night after drinks," she giggled. "It was so worth it, but," she said, straightening her posture and tilting her chin up. "I am no one's consolation prize."

"I'm sure it wasn't like that, Carly. He met you his first night in town, and you've been together ever since. You should give him a chance to explain," Lara said, regretting she had said anything at all.

"Like you're planning on giving Jack a chance to explain?" Carly raised an eyebrow.

"That's different. I was the challenge. Everything they said to me was a lie just to get me to agree to the Valentine's Day Ball, which I never wanted to go to," she sighed. "You weren't the focus of a challenge; Harry had no reason to lie to you."

"Harry still pursued you, and I bet would have asked you to the ball eventually. He doesn't know how to back down from a challenge. Everything in his life is a challenge, he likes it that way, he has said as much. I challenge him all the time to keep things interesting. That first date we had for drinks I challenged him to show up, regardless of anything he heard about me. He found out I was Eric's little sister and admitted if not for my challenge he mightn't have kept the date," Carly explained. "Trust me, you are still on his radar, and the reason he hasn't asked me to go to the ball, I'm sure."

"Oh God!" Lara moaned, throwing herself back into the deep armchair. "I'm so sorry, Carly; I never should have come here. I just wasn't thinking. I didn't want to go home, and this was the only place aside from work I could think of where he wouldn't immediately look for me. Shit, I need to go home and change for work. And work... God, what if he comes in and makes a scene there? Katherine would be furious!" Lara's mind raced with the consequences of what she had done.

"Okay," Carly said, taking charge and putting her own misery aside for a moment to comfort her friend. "Here's what we're going to do. You're going to call Katherine Kelly and tell her the truth. After the last bar fight the Delaney's had there, she will understand you not wanting a scene and appreciate your honesty. Ask for the night off, or if you can work in the kitchen. Offer to make the best pizza her customers have ever had... and she could charge a mint for it, because you're that good, you can use the bakery as a reference. Next, we will go through my wardrobe and find something that fits you that you can wear in a kitchen, then, tonight, I'll pick you up from work and take you home where you can lock yourself in and ignore him if you want to."

"You'd do all that for me?" Lara asked.

"I'm not doing anything, you're the one calling Katherine, that's the hardest part," Carly grinned. "The other hard part is taking the advice you gave me. Do you really think the last week has been all about the challenge? Or do you think there is more to it than that?"

*****

Chapter 9

It took only a few minutes for Jack to realise that she'd gone the wrong way to the bathrooms. He growled and threw some money on the table, pushing his dumbass friend, Daniel, out of his way without another word and following her out of the restaurant.

He drove slowly back to her house hoping to see her along the way and gauging the time it would take for her to walk home. He sat outside her apartment waiting for her for over an hour when there was no response to his urgent knocking and then pounding on her door.

When she failed to materialise, he went to Kelly's, guessing that she had gone straight to work rather than home to change and back again, but she wasn't at the bar. He moved toward the pool table at the back after grabbing a beer and decided to wait her out and see if she was just on an early break or doing something with the inventory downstairs.

It was a mess. He never should have agreed to the stupid challenge, and now Lara thought he was that guy. Or at least one of the guys who lied and cheated and treated women badly, just like her ex. He felt a cold fist grip his heart as he admitted he loved her. He was in over his head for the first time in his life, and he had to find a way to make her understand that nothing he had done was about the challenge. Nothing!

His phone buzzed in his hand, and he looked down. Harry's name came up on the screen, and he considered answering it, but then shook his head. No doubt Lara would have gone to Carly and told her what had happened. "Fuck!" he cursed under his breath.

"Yeah, he's here," Eric said, walking toward Jack's position near the pool table. Jack looked past him and saw Bryon at the bar getting drinks and grimaced. The last thing he needed right now was the gang who got him into this mess making assumptions.

"Harry's been fucking my little sister. Did you know?" Eric asked distastefully, pulling up a stool to the high table where Jack sat.

"She's hardly a little girl anymore, Carly is a force of nature," Jack said. "Probably even more of a challenge than Harry was prepared for."

"Speaking of challenges, Dan told us what happened. After Harry threatened to kill him, that is," Eric smirked. "I went around to Carly's place to drop off some mail she had been expecting, and she let me have it both barrels about the challenge. Then Harry showed up, and all hell broke loose. Carly mentioned Daniel outing you at lunch in the midst of all the yelling," Eric said. "I'm sorry, man. Still, it was pretty close to the win."

"Do you seriously think I care about winning the stupid challenge that much?" Jack looked at him stunned. "She's been through enough already; do you really think I would seduce her just for some childish dare?"

"Whoa!" Eric held up his hands in surrender. "I just assumed..."

"Yeah, well, Daniel assumed too, and now there is a woman that I actually care about who thinks I am the worst sort of scum in the world!" Jack spat.

"Wait, slow down a minute," Byron said as he placed beers in front of his friends. "You love her?"

"It doesn't matter now, does it," Jack shook his head. "I wouldn't get to close to Harry if I was you, if you fucked him over the same way Daniel did me," he growled.

"You think Harry's got it bad for Carly?" Eric spluttered.

"Have you seen him this week? I haven't, and I know he hasn't been near Lara, because I've been with her the whole time. Have you ever known Harry not to rise to a challenge in a do or die way?" Jack pointed out the obvious.

"That's not happening," Eric said rigidly.

"Why? You think your sister is too good for my brother?" Jack defended Harry. "Well, mate, I think the time where your opinion counted in the matter was over a long time ago! Not to worry though, you've managed to fuck it all up anyway. I would probably bet that Carly wants to kill you more than Harry does right now."

He was angry. Angrier than he'd ever been with his friends, and he wondered how he had dealt with them all for so long. They weren't kids anymore, there was no need to challenge each other like this. They sure as shit didn't challenge each other the way they challenged him and his brother. He sighed. He knew they did it because they had never in their entire lives walked away from a challenge. This time they were wrong. If he couldn't get Lara to talk to him, he would have no choice but to walk away and give up the one girl he really thought could be the one and only for him.

Jack watched Harry approach the table with a beer in hand not looking any happier than he felt at that moment. Their eyes met, and they nodded but said nothing, and the group remained silent. Pulling up a chair between Jack and Lance, Harry took a deep breath.

"Do you think I'm incapable of refusing a challenge?" Harry asked his brother, but the other men heard and considered the question.

"Why would you bother?" Lance said. "That's how you prove you've still got it, buddy."

"What the hell? You do know what I do for a living, right?" Harry asked. "What we both do?" he poked his thumb over his shoulder at his brother. "You think we need to prove anything to anyone?"

"Dude, you and Jack are our heroes. You're living the dream, travelling the world, bedding beautiful women, kicking ass along the way and saving people every day!" Lance said.

"Then why the stupid challenges every time we come home if you think kicking-ass and saving the world are so great?" Harry stared at his friend.

"How else would we get you back here?" Lance laughed as if it was obvious. "Like you're going to come back just to hang out with your boring old buddies."

"We come back all the time," Jack said. Admittedly he came back more often than Harry, but his job allowed greater freedom these days. "Our family lives here, we aren't going to not come back, ever."

"Visiting the family, sure. But us? Most of the guys are married; Dan even has a kid on the way. I'll admit, I'm holding down the fort as the most eligible bachelor in this town, but you're hardly coming back to be my wingman," Lance chuckled loudly, making the others join in the joke.

"As if," Byron laughed even louder and nudged Jack with his elbow.

"It's tradition," Eric added. "It's what we've always done."

The gang started to reminisce again, but Jack's eyes rarely left the bar, and when they did it was to check his phone. He'd left countless messages and sent several texts, and still no response. He needed to talk to her, to explain. He needed to find her, and he wondered if she'd be with Carly tonight. He didn't know any of her other friends. He didn't know what else to do, so he sat with his brother and friends and gripped his phone tightly in case she finally responded.

"Hello, boys," Katherine Kelly, the formidable owner of the pub walked toward them carrying a large pizza tray. "Here's something to line your stomachs. I'm trialling a new cook and menu. I don't want any trouble in here tonight, I've already lost one of my best bartenders, so I suggest you eat and head on home to your wives and families," she said pointedly.

"You lost a bartender?" Jack asked, stunned that Lara would give up her job.

"Temporarily, I hope, but I guess that depends on the clientele we serve, doesn't it," Katherine gave Jack a look that told him she knew everything, and he had the good sense to look remorseful.

"She quit just to avoid you?" Harry asked. "Wow, that's messed up."

"No, I messed up," Jack admitted. "You have no idea how badly I messed up!" Jack grumbled and stood to leave the pub.

"Fuck!" Harry exclaimed; he grabbed two pieces of pizza and took off after Jack.

*****

Lara had never been so busy at work. She was in the kitchen of Kelly's Pub making pizza, but it was a good busy. Her pizzas flew out of the kitchen as fast as she could make them; she hadn't had much time to prepare, and only had the most basic of ingredients on hand. The usual cook doing nothing more than reheating frozen food and frying hot chips and frozen snacks, like spring rolls on any other night.

Carly had helped her make two large batches of dough before leaving her to go and confront Harry. Lara worried about her friend, particularly when Katherine informed her that the Delaney brothers and their friends were here at the pub looking glum. She didn't have much time to worry about them though, as the orders kept coming in and she was kept so busy she had no time to think about having to deal with Jack when he finally found her, and she had no doubt he would. He never gave up.

It was late when Katherine declared the kitchen finally shut, and Lara breathed a sigh of relief as the dough had all but run out. She scraped together the remaining skerrick's and baked one last pizza for the staff to eat as they closed up for the night.

As Lara cleaned up she considered ways in which this kitchen would work better if Katherine decided to let her take over the role as a cook on the regular cook's days off. She could even see about making some fresh food for the regular cook to use rather than the greasy chips and fried food that usually graced the plates of Kelly's Pub. They could even go with an Irish theme to go with the name. She had a great recipe for Irish stew and soda bread.