Free It's In His Smile (A Red River Valley Novel Book 3) by Shelly Alexander Page A

would she ask him for help. Not after how close she’d been to tossing her self-control to the wind while helping wrap his shoulder. And especially not after he insinuated that she may or may not have taken advantage of his grandmother, a woman she’d loved like a mother.
    She needed to prove her mettle to Talmadge Oaks.
    No. She needed to prove her mettle to herself. For Jamie’s sake, she had to prove once and for all that they didn’t have to accept the hand of poverty that had been dealt the Cruz children. Since they’d never gotten any encouragement from their bar-hopping mother, Jamie was worth Miranda’s effort.
    Even though he enjoyed the humiliation of her ass going viral on YouTube.
    She flipped the sander on again, but a loud knock sounded on the back door. Carefully, she leaned to the right and looked down the hall. The door swung open a second later.
    Talmadge swaggered in, dressed to the nines. Overkill for Red River, in her opinion. But holy lip-smacking moly, he was the most perfectly formed man she’d ever seen.
    She drew in a sharp breath and looked away, only to have his sheer male beauty draw her attention right back. She felt like a bee that had just discovered an ocean of nectar.
    He flipped a pair of black aviators to the back of his head as soon as he stepped across the threshold in black tailored dress pants and black driving shoes. A sling still held the injured arm against his midsection, but a black mock turtleneck clung to the hills and valleys of his chest and arms.
    He could’ve done Don Corleone proud dressed like that, except for the tiny poodle under his arm. A mob boss probably would’ve preferred a pit bull over a bow-wearing toy poodle.
    “Morning.” His lips seemed to mouth the words as she took him in. She looked down at the buzzing noise and snapped out of the trance. Flipped the switch to off again.
    He gave her ladder a long once-over. The muscles in his jaw flexed, and several creases appeared between his eyes.
    “Morning.” She touched her jaw to make sure it wasn’t hanging open, and to her surprise it wasn’t. Because the man was drool-worthy.
    “Hey, Mr. Oaks, you probably don’t remember me, but I’m Miranda’s brother.” Her little brother’s voice shook with admiration.
    “Kid brother.” Miranda shot him a disgusted look, because Jamie never looked at her with that kind of awe. And she was paying his way through college! “Seven years my junior.”
    “Six and a half, and you never let me forget it,” Jamie mouthed off, but his expression went timid the moment his attention returned to Talmadge.
    “Because you should show your elders some respect.” Miranda’s teeth were starting to hurt from grinding them so hard.
    Jamie smiled at her, took an exaggerated bite of a bagel, and plunked his legs up on the counter crossed at the ankles.
    “Sure, I remember you. You’re just taller now.” Talmadge chuckled and notched up his chin at her brother. Miranda thought Jamie would melt right there on the floor from hero-worship.
    Really? Talmadge was an architect, not a movie star. She rolled her eyes. But part of her heart cinched tight, and she wondered if Jamie’s instant respect for Talmadge had something to do with never having a dad around. Never even knowing who his dad was. Of course, Talmadge seemed to command that respect from most people in a room simply by stepping into it.
    “Did you forget something, Mr. Oaks?” Miranda turned her attention back to the other annoying male in the room.
    Jamie blew out a humph like she was the biggest dream crusher in the world and straightened to tap away on his laptop again.
    Talmadge gave Lloyd a boost. “I need to leave him here.”
    Miranda set the sander on the flimsy metal shelf attached to the top of the ladder and grabbed a paint scraper. Furiously, she started to work on a crossbeam directly over her head. “Why would you leave him here? He’s your dog.”
    Talmadge came over and stood next to