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When There Is Love

By Kimberly Rae Jordan

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CHAPTER ONE

VICTORIA McKinley slumped back against her chair and scowled at the error screen on her monitor. “No. Please…”

She squeezed her eyes shut and said a quick prayer before opening them again, hoping against hope that the error message would have magically disappeared. But no such luck. It had been happening more and more frequently, and once again, all the data she’d entered—and not saved—was gone.

Her gaze went to where her cell phone sat beside the keyboard. She had been putting it off for weeks, but in the past few days, on top of the error messages and system shutdowns she’d been getting, the tower had begun to make a horrible sound. She simply couldn’t afford to lose everything that was on the computer.
The only choice left to her was to call the person who’d set it up in the first place. The one who had threatened her with all sorts of dire consequences if she ever dared take it to anyone but him for servicing.

Trent Hause.

If she hadn’t been so worried about losing all her data, she would have happily defied him and gone to some random computer place. But in addition to that, carting the tower anyplace was pretty much impossible for her. She’d have had to call her dad or Eric and then they’d want to know why she didn’t ask Trent to help. After all, he took care of all the computer issues in their family.
With a sigh, Victoria reached out and picked up her phone. After the briefest of hesitations, she tapped on Trent’s contact information then put it on speakerphone. It rang three times, and she was just about ready to hang up when the call went through.

“Hang on. I need to look out the window.”

Frowning, Victoria looked down at the phone. Had she called the wrong person? It sure sounded like Trent’s voice. “What?”

“To see if pigs are flying. Fortunately, I cannot confirm that hell has frozen over, but I figure pigs flying would be easy enough to see.”

Victoria couldn’t keep the corners of her mouth from turning up in a smile. “Pigs are not flying.”

“Then why are you calling? I’m pretty sure that was the requirement that had to be met before you’d call me.”

“Yes. I know.” Victoria sighed. “Unfortunately, I’m in dire straits here, and you’re the only one that can help me.”

“Really now?” Trent dragged the words out. “Those are words I never thought I’d hear from Miss Victoria McKinley.”

“I suppose I could take my problem to Drake’s Fast Computer Repair Shop down the street.”

“Oh no, you don’t.”

Victoria could almost picture him sitting straight up in his chair. “So you’ll help me?”

“Of course, I’ll help you, babe. I have a meeting this afternoon but should be done by five. I can stop by your place afterward. Would that be okay?”

“Yes, that would be fine.” She paused. “Thank you, Trent.”

“You’re very welcome.”

Silence stretched between them before Victoria said, “Well, I’ll let you get back to work.”

“Yep. See you in a few hours.”

After she hung up, Victoria gave one last withering glare at her computer before sliding off the chair and heading for the kitchen. She mentally flipped through the contents of her fridge and cupboards to see what she could pull together for a meal. It might not be the wisest decision, but if the man was going to come fix her computer, the least she could do was provide him with dinner.

Thankfully, she’d gone shopping with her mom earlier in the week. It was a chore she disliked, but her mom always turned it into a girls’ day out with lunch included so it was a little more tolerable. Victoria hated that she had to rely on her mom to help her, but there was just no way to reach a lot of the stuff on the grocery shelves by herself. That left her with two alternatives: ask someone for help or let her mom come along. Since she hated the thought of asking random strangers for help, the choice really was a no-brainer.

Victoria slipped her arms into the cuffs of her crutches and gripped the handles. She tried not to think about how often she needed to use the walking aides lately. Though she still didn’t need them all the time, she knew that point was coming sooner rather than later. Once that happened, her family would know just how much pain her hip caused her. Hoping to keep that knowledge from them as long as she could, she used the crutches whenever she was alone. Too bad it wasn’t a permanent solution.

She walked into the kitchen and climbed up on the stool she kept there to see what was in her freezer. Though fridges with freezers on the bottom had gained popularity in recent years, hers was still the older style since she needed access to the freezer portion less frequently.

With a package of frozen chicken breasts in her hand, she climbed down to put it on the counter. It would be nice to cook a meal for more than just one. Even though she lived on her own, Victoria still took the time to cook for herself since cooking was something she enjoyed doing. Her mother had made certain that both she and her older sister Brooke had learned to bake and cook at a young age.

Now that her plan for the afternoon had been squashed, she had time to prepare a meal. It wasn’t a big sacrifice to put off doing the paperwork for her business—The Accessibility Solutions Company—since it was her least favorite part of the job, but because of the computer issues, she’d been putting it off a bit too frequently of late. Hopefully, Trent would be able to fix it quickly so she could keep from getting too much further behind.


It was just after five thirty when Trent pulled his Jeep to a stop behind Victoria’s car in her driveway. He still couldn’t believe she’d actually called him, even if it was for a computer issue. No doubt she’d debated going against what he’d asked of her when he’d set up her system—that she wouldn’t go anywhere but him for repairs.

He grabbed the plastic bag from the seat next to him and then got his laptop bag from the backseat. As he walked along the sidewalk that led to the covered porch, Trent noticed the bright flowers planted in the beds in front of the house. The small front yard was immaculately landscaped, and he would bet dollars to donuts that Victoria took care of it all.

That woman didn’t let anything stop her from doing what needed to be done. It was one of the many things he admired about her.

He pushed the doorbell and looked around as he waited for her to answer the door. She’d chosen a quaint little neighborhood to live in. It was definitely a world away from the somewhat sterile apartment he called home these days. Truth was, he hesitated to buy a house for himself just yet because he hoped to share a home with a wife one day and wanted it to be something she would like, too. Or, alternatively, if she already owned her own place, he could just move in with her. After getting married, of course.

When he heard the door open, Trent swung back around, a ready smile on his face.

“Hey, Victoria.”

“Hi, Trent. C’mon in.” She moved back and once he’d stepped into the house, she closed the door behind him.

His stomach rumbled at the wonderful smells permeating the air. A clear reminder that the sandwich he’d had for lunch had been hours ago.

“Here. I got this for you.” Trent reached into the plastic bag and pulled out an ice cold bottle of the specialized water he’d seen Victoria drink on more than one occasion. He’d stopped at the convenience store just down the block from her house and bought cold drinks for both of them.

“Thanks.” She smiled as she took it from him. “How did you know I like to drink this stuff?”

Trent shrugged. “I’ve seen you with it a few times.”

“You’re one of those observant kind of guys, huh?”

“About some things,” Trent replied, although in truth—given his job with BlackThorpe—he was pretty observant about everything. It was something Marcus Black and Alex Thorpe drilled into them on a regular basis.
Be alert. Be aware.

“Well, come observe what my computer’s doing and tell me it’s not at death’s door.”

As he followed her into the living room where her computer was set up, Trent noticed that she wore a white denim skirt and turquoise T-shirt. Her hair was gathered into a ponytail that swept back and forth across her shoulders as she walked. She seemed to be favoring her left leg, but he couldn’t be completely sure. He wasn’t often in the position of watching her walk like this, so perhaps that was her normal gait.

“That’s what popped up,” Victoria said as they reached the computer desk.

The message on the monitor drew his attention from Victoria. He frowned as he read it, settling into the chair she’d turned toward him. “Is this the first time you’ve seen it?”

“No. It’s shown up a few times.”

A sudden rattling sound came from the tower at his feet. “And how long has it been doing that?”

“About a week?”

He glanced over and saw she was standing at the corner of the desk, a sheepish look on her face. With him seated, they were almost at eye level with each other. Her chocolate brown gaze met his. He lifted his eyebrows at her response.

“Okay. It’s been about two weeks since it first started making that sound.”

“And the messages?” he asked with a jerk of his head in the direction of the monitor.

She bit her lip for a second and then said, “I’ve been getting them off and on for about a month or so.”

“A month or so, Victoria?” Trent sighed, looking down at the tower as it gave a particularly loud rattle. “Why didn’t you call me sooner?” When she didn’t answer right away, he lifted his gaze to find her watching him, one eyebrow quirked. “Yeah. Never mind.”

He turned his attention back to the computer. So he’d maybe been coming on a little strong with his flirting lately. It was a bit disheartening to realize that she’d only contacted him out of sheer desperation. She’d put off calling him for over a month at the risk of losing her business and personal records.
Well, he’d do what he could to get her back on track computer-wise and then he’d need to rethink his approach to things. Though they’d only met because of Eric, he’d liked her almost from the start. At first, she’d been a curiosity for him. He’d never been around someone with dwarfism before, so their initial interactions had more to do with him wanting to learn more about her as a little person. Slowly, they’d become friends of a sort, and he’d enjoyed spending time with her and the rest of the McKinleys when he could.

It wasn’t until earlier that year that things had kind of changed for him. Quite out of the blue he’d realized he was accepting Eric’s invitations in hopes of being able to spend time with Victoria. And the disappointment he’d experienced if it turned out that she wasn’t there was far more than it should be for just a friend. A few months ago, he’d begun to test the waters to see if she might be interested in him as well. He’d been wary of facing it head on since he realized it might take Victoria a little bit longer to get used to the idea, not just because he was her brother’s best friend, but also because he was of average-size.

Unfortunately, his lighthearted attempts at flirting hadn’t had their intended effect. It seemed she’d never viewed him as more than a friend and now even their friendship—such as it was—had been strained because of how he felt about her. He hoped it wasn’t too late to get back to that friendship, because this whole computer situation brought home to him how truly uncomfortable she was with his attempts to take things to the next level.

“This is going to take me a little while. If you have plans, I can work on it at my place,” Trent said as he tapped some keys to get rid of the error screen.

“I have no plans, but if you do, feel free to take it with you and work on it when you have the time.”

“Since my best friend up and got married, my Friday night and weekend social life has dropped drastically. I had no plans that my DVR can’t take care of.”

“Well, in that case, I made some supper if you’re hungry.”

Surprised, Trent glanced at her. “Uh, sure. It smells delicious.”

“It’s nothing too fancy.”

“And what about me makes you think I only eat fancy food?” Trent asked as he turned his attention back to the computer. “Let me just get this set to back up the hard drive and then we can eat while it does that.”

“Sounds good. I’ll just go finish it up.”

Trent resisted the urge to turn and watch her walk to the kitchen. Instead, he groaned when he saw how long it had been since a backup had been run on the system. He was going to have to teach her a few more things this time around.
He used his own credit card to purchase a backup program for her. It took a few minutes to get it all set up, but soon the program was backing up her system online. At least this way, if the machine took a dump, her work files were protected.

Knowing the backup would take a while, Trent pushed back from the desk and went to the kitchen. As he took in the round table that was set for them, his gut clenched. His resolve to keep things friendly threatened to crumble around him. This setting came way too close to resembling the intimate dinners for two he’d pictured over the past few months.

“What would you like to drink?”

He looked to where Victoria stood behind the counter, obviously on a stool of some sort. She dropped the cucumbers she’d just finished slicing into the bowl of salad in front of her. With quick movements, she mixed it all together.

“Water is fine.”

“Can you just grab the glasses from the table and fill them there, please?” She tilted her head toward the fridge.

With a nod, Trent grabbed the two glasses and went to the water dispenser on the front of the fridge to fill them. Pushing one glass against the dispenser, he watched over his shoulder as Victoria climbed down the stool and reached for the salad bowl. She put it on the table then returned to the kitchen. She grabbed the stool by its upright handle and moved it to the stove.

He returned both glasses to the table. “Is there anything else you need me to do?”

Victoria glanced at him then back to the stove as if debating. “Actually, if you’d drain the vegetables for me, that would be great.”

Happy that she’d accepted his offer of help, Trent joined her at the stove. She still stood on her stool which brought the top of her head to his shoulder. When she glanced up at him, it seemed that she realized how close they were, too, as her brown eyes widened briefly.

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