Fixing Forever Read online

  Copyright © 2018, Caroline Lee

  [email protected]

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author.

  First edition: 2018

  This work is made available in e-book format by Amazon Kindle at www.amazon.com

  Printing/manufacturing information for this book may be found on the last page

  Cover: EDHGraphics

  In the years Andrew McIver has been an engineer at River’s End Ranch, he’s watched his friends and colleagues find love time and again…but despite his many first dates, no one special has kindled that spark for him. And he’s reached the point in his career where he’s tired. He needs a change, although he won’t admit it to his sister. She’s the only family member he still speaks to; he might be a member of the sprawling Quinn family, but he hasn’t spoken to any of them in years. Especially not his Uncle Bob…

  Rachel Chakrabarti is the Assistant General Manager for the Quinn Hotel and Spa, and her boss, Bob Quinn, has put her in charge of finding a new chief engineer. But that stress is nothing compared to the way her heart pounds when she meets her date for the first time; Andrew is gorgeous and capable and a brilliant kisser! But once she figures out who he is, she decides it’s up to her to force a reconciliation between Andrew and his uncle.

  And that’s when everything goes wrong.

  With Thanksgiving only days away, can Rachel patch things up with the man she’s coming to love? Can she help Andrew see that family is the most important thing to be thankful for? It’s going to take one determined lady and one brilliant engineer to fix this forever!

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  EPILOGUE

  Other works by Caroline Lee

  River’s End Ranch:

  Check out Caroline’s bestselling historical romances:

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  Fixing Forever

  Quinn Valley Ranch

  Book Four

  Dedication:

  This one, finally, is for Andrew.

  PROLOGUE

  Every Wednesday, Gertrude Quinn and her cohort of meddling old ladies met for tea. Her husband, Harley, usually made himself scarce during that time, having no interest in listening to their gossip and intrigue. But today was different; today he was stuck lying on his back under the main kitchen sink, tightening a leaky drain pipe.

  With his head stuck inside the cabinet and surrounded by bottles of cleaning solution and old sponges he’d had to pull out to work under there, he couldn’t hear everything, but he heard enough. The six of them considered themselves rousing successes for managing to find love for two of the grandkids, and had already meddled in a few other romances around Quinn Valley.

  But this? This was the last straw.

  They were talking about Andrew.

  “It’s high time that boy was back among his family, Gertie,” one of them—sounded like Nellie—said as she stepped over Harley’s outstretched legs to place her teacup beside the sink. “He’s been thumbing his nose at you for far too long.”

  “Nonsense!” That sounded like Betty, and Harley liked that she was defending the boy. “He’s obviously got his knickers in a bunch over something that happened, and he just hasn’t forgiven you for whatever it was.”

  Gertrude gasped. “I would never do anything to push away one of my grandbabies! Why, Heather’s stayed away just as long as Andrew, and she’s keeping two of my great-grands away from me. I only have three, you know.”

  In the darkness under the sink, Harley rolled his eyes. Gertie loved to brag about how many grandchildren and great-grandchildren they had, and her friends knew it.

  Maude must’ve been standing way over by the door, because her voice was faint when she said, “You know the sure-fire way to bring that boy back to the family. Make him fall in love. Thanksgiving is coming up. Just let him know how much you want to meet his new girlfriend, and he’ll come back home.”

  “He hasn’t got a new girlfriend, as far as we know,” Ruby reminded her friend.

  Even Harley could hear his wife’s sly grin as she said, “Not yet he hasn’t!”

  This was the last straw—he wasn’t going to let her and her friends meddle with Andrew. “Now see here!”

  When he pulled himself out from under the kitchen cabinet—joints creaking and cracking—two of the ladies gave little shrieks of surprise.

  Don’t see why. It’s not like I’ve been hidden, what with my legs sprawled all over the kitchen the way they were.

  He frowned fiercely and shook his monkey wrench in his wife’s direction. “You’ve meddled with everyone else, but you leave Andrew alone. That boy’s hurting.”

  “Yes, dear,” Gertrude said calmly, “and we know how to fix him.”

  “By making him fall in love?” Harley snorted. “That’s a fool idea.”

  Andrew was his oldest grandson, and the most like him. The boy and his sister—who were both considerably older than Libby’s other kids—had spent their summers on the ranch with him when they were young. He’d been the one to teach the boy to wield a nail gun and a torque wrench, and Harley had been unbearably proud when Andrew had been accepted into that engineering program. And when he’d decided he didn’t want to design stuff after all and had come back to Idaho to work at River’s End Ranch, Harley had crowed for days, reminding everyone the boy had got all of his mechanical know-how from his old gramps.

  But something had happened when Heather’s kids were young, and now neither of them ever came back home. Even when Harley and Gertrude spoke with Andrew—on the phone for his birthday and Christmas, for instance—he was stilted and awkward with them.

  Harley sighed. He did miss the boy though, and maybe Gertie was right; love just might bring him back into the fold. Or, at least, it would allow Harley the chance to see his grandson again if, say, Andrew knew he was expected to bring his new girlfriend to Thanksgiving dinner.

  Hmm.

  Maybe Maude had a good idea there.

  Harley shook the wrench again. “It’s a fool idea alright, to try to go about it the way you meddlers have been with Roxie and Ryder. No, Andrew needs something different.”

  Gertrude blinked innocently at him, the way she had for all these years whenever she knew what he was trying to say. “A different touch, you mean?”

  Heaving himself upright, Harley glared at the wife he loved so much. “A man’s touch! I’ll make sure Andrew brings his girlfriend to Thanksgiving dinner!”

  “Oh really, dear?” Gertie smiled sweetly. “How are you going to manage that?”

  A plan was already beginning to form. “I’ll show you, woman! Hand me the phone.”

  As the six ladies cleaned up—and began to do the dishes, thanks to the pipe which no longer leaked—Harley looked up the number for one of the numerous hotels in town. He punched in the extension for the manager, a man he’d played golf with for almost twenty years, and muttered impatiently until t
he man picked up.

  “Steve! It’s Harley. Listen, I heard around town you’ve got an opening for an engineer, right?” Without waiting for the other man to answer, Harley pushed on, “Have you thought about that Lester fellow over at the Quinn Hotel?” A pause while the other man protested. “Yeah, I know he’s working for my son, but Bob says Lester is a valuable employee and a good engineer, and I think you need him. I’ll even chip in some for his hiring bonus.”

  As he and Steve worked out the details, Harley caught his wife’s eye and winked. With Bob’s engineer leaving, he and that cute assistant of his would be forced to find a new chief engineer.

  And if they didn’t know who to ask, Harley could quickly recommend a name…

  CHAPTER ONE

  Five minutes before her meeting with her boss, Rachel Chakrabarti’s phone vibrated with an alert from her personal email. Smiling a little goofily, she stepped into a corner behind one of the many potted plants around The Quinn Hotel and Spa, and sunk down into the comfy chair placed in the quiet nook.

  Bob Quinn, the hotel’s owner and general manager, wasn’t going to begrudge her a few moments of peace…especially if he knew what the email was regarding.

  Sure enough, her smile grew as she clicked to open the app. The email was from Soulmates.com, which wasn’t unusual; she’d been getting alerts and emails from the site since she joined several months ago. The dating site was simple to use, and she liked that she could focus only on potential dating partners nearby. When you chose to live in the middle of nowhere, Idaho—let’s be honest—it helped to be able to narrow down your dates to fifty miles.

  Of course, there were plenty of dating partners in her little town of Quinn Valley, but she’d dated most of them already. There’d been cowboys from nearby ranches, the sports trainers in town with big-name clients who were there to take advantage of the hot springs’ healing properties, and a few locals. Dusty McIver—her boss’s nephew—dated anything in a skirt, and while she found him fun, she was looking for someone a little more serious.

  Someone looking for a forever.

  So that’s why she was so excited about this new guy she’d been emailing. His name was Andrew, and she knew he worked nearby. But per the ground rules they’d laid out when Soulmates had first connected them, neither had revealed where they lived or what their job was. They also hadn’t shared their last names or anything else which could be used to actually identify them. Instead they’d been chatting about all sorts of other topics; personal beliefs, family stories, food preferences, favorite music, ideal vacations…everything!

  It seemed they were compatible in every way, and in last night’s email she’d made the bold—for her, anyhow—suggestion it might finally be time to meet in person.

  Just be sure you don’t chew with your mouth open, or trip over your feet or anything, dork!

  Sometimes it was hard to ignore her subconscious’s wisecracks, but she tried.

  Staring at the email subject line—“You Have a Response from Andrew”—she took a deep breath, then clicked it open.

  Dear IndianGoddess,

  Have I ever mentioned how cute I think your sobriquet is? When I joined this site I didn’t bother coming up with a fake name. Figured it was hard enough to keep all the guys straight anyhow. But “IndianGoddess” gives a good visual, and I like it.

  Anyhow, sorry for rambling. I got really excited this morning when I read your email, and had some trouble concentrating on the drive to work. Luckily, it’s not far. Finally getting to meet my IndianGoddess and find out her real name? Yes please!

  Heh. My point is, I’d really like to take you on a date. As you know, I have a lot of experience with first dates—but usually not more than that. But you…I dunno. Don’t think I’m crazy or anything, okay? But with you, I really feel that I might have a chance at a fourth or fifth date even.

  Alright, I’m going to get to the point before you think I’m a stalker or weird for thinking long-term about a girl I haven’t even met yet: Yes, please, a date!

  How about tomorrow night? I know plenty of good Friday night restaurants. Let me know what you’re thinking!

  --Andrew

  Rachel breathed a little relieved sigh as she clutched her phone to her chest, the goofy grin not leaving her face.

  A date! Tomorrow!

  She resisted the urge to giggle happily, knowing she’d made the right decision.

  He liked her! He liked her in spite of her dorkiness, which must’ve come through, right? For Heaven’s sake, she’d chosen “IndianGoddess” for her online name, which was pretty darn dorky, although it had been at her friend Brooke’s urging. So yeah, Andrew must’ve realized she wasn’t completely normal, and he still liked her!

  Andrew really was a gentleman; he’d made it clear from the beginning any “next steps” would have to be taken by her, and he’d wait until she was ready. From his response, it was clear he’d been ready to meet her in person for a while, but had given her the power to decide, and she loved that. Also, any guy who could use the words “dunno” and “sobriquet” in the same email was her kind of guy: intelligent and quirky all at once. Plus, she’d realized early on that Andrew was humble about his intelligence, and that made him even more attractive.

  No doubt about it; whatever this guy looked like in person, he was already pretty darn appealing.

  And tomorrow, she’d get to find out for sure…in person!

  Glancing at her watch, she knew she only had a minute to send a reply.

  Andrew,

  I guess if we’re going to meet, there’s no need for silly sobriquets any longer. BTW, do you know how hot it is when a guy can use big words like that? Very.

  But I suppose you should start calling me Rachel. I’ll give you my last name tomorrow, because it’s a doozy. But Rachel’s good enough for now.

  I’m pretty excited to meet you too. I live near Quinn Valley, and there’s a yummy restaurant here called Quinn’s Pub, a very popular Friday night date spot. What do you think?

  See you tomorrow!!! (And you’re lucky that doesn’t contain eight exclamation points.)

  -Rachel

  It really did take a concerted effort not to giggle with excitement as she shut down the email app and put her phone to sleep. She took a few deep breaths, trying to switch gears back to being “professional,” and pulled out her work tablet. Standing, she straightened her shoulders and her slim black jacket, then prepared for her daily meeting with her boss.

  Still, she couldn’t keep her dorky smile hidden as she let herself into his office, and he noticed.

  “You’re almost a minute late,” Bob Quinn said, a teasing sparkle in his eyes.

  She knew he wasn’t angry, was just looking for a reason to poke at her, so she nodded somberly as she slipped into the leather chair placed on the other side of his desk. “And you know me, so punctual otherwise.”

  Bob snorted as he reached for his old-fashioned planner and flipped it open to today’s date. “I’d call you many things, sugar, but ‘punctual’ ain’t one.”

  Rachel had to press her lips together to prevent her smile from growing even bigger. In most hotels, a general manager calling the assistant general manager “sugar” would be a big no-no and grounds for a lawsuit. But here, they were more of a family.

  Bob and his wife April Lynn had purchased and renovated the hotel several years ago, and all four of his daughters worked there. Well, actually, his three younger daughters all worked with their mother in the spa and didn’t want anything to do with the hotel, but he’d just promoted his oldest daughter, Roxie, to the hotel’s event coordinator, and she couldn’t be happier. In fact, Roxie was the one who’d suggested her father promote Rachel to AGM during Bob’s health scare a few months back.

  Rachel had worked in hotels for years after getting her degree in hospitality and tourism at the University of Idaho down in Moscow, which is where her parents still lived. She’d moved to Quinn Valley for the front-desk manager job, e
ven though it’d been a step down from her previous positions. She’d seen the potential in the hotel and had been thrilled when Roxie had suggested her for AGM.

  Even if Roxie never could remember her name.

  Still, it was time to be professional, so she forced her serious face. “Regardless of my brilliant time-keeping abilities, shall we get started?”

  Bob hummed thoughtfully and cocked his head as he tapped his finger on the planner. “There’s something not quite right about you, girl.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’re too…bubbly. You’re acting like Roxie after she met that boy.”

  That boy, Ciran, was now Bob’s son-in-law, but Rachel knew he prided himself on his stern manner, so she didn’t remind him. “Sorry. I’ll try to be more dour.”

  He snorted again, obviously not buying her contriteness, and pointed one beefy finger at her. “Are you in love, girl? That’s what it looks like.”

  Her eyes widened.

  In love?

  “Don’t be silly,” she scoffed. “I’ve got a date tomorrow, but it’s a first date, and I barely know the guy.”

  Well, that wasn’t one hundred percent accurate. She did know Andrew fairly well, assuming he wasn’t an ax murderer who was really good at pretending. But he wouldn’t even know her real name until he read that last email, so there was no way she could be in love with him.

  But Bob was nodding smugly, as if he’d figured out a big secret. “I knew it! First date, true love…” He made a weighing motion with his hands. “Same difference.”

  “I’m not in love with him, Bob.”

  Bob smiled slightly as he settled back in his chair, as if conceding. “You know I think of you as one of my daughters, sugar. That’s the only reason I’m teasing you.”