by Liv Brywood
“She’s so soft.”
“Yep. We brush her several times a week to make sure her hair doesn’t get tangled,” Mack said.
“I like her,” Hailey said.
Relieved, Clint set Hailey down. He’d been prepared to turn around and make the two-hour drive back to Billings if she didn’t like the ranch. It was a risk he was willing to take. After losing Nicole, he’d do anything to make sure that their daughter was happy.
“Are you looking forward to having a break?” Mack asked.
“I am,” Clint admitted. “Ever since my wife passed, I’ve been taking care of Hailey myself. I love her more than anything in the world, so I’m hoping she’s happy on the camping trip. I think it’s the only way I’ll actually be able to relax.”
“She’s going to love it,” Mack said. “We’ll tell campfire stories—”
“Not ghost stories, right?” Clint asked.
“No, nothing scary. We want it to be a fun experience, not terrifying.”
“What else do you have planned? The website said nature walks and star gazing.”
“Yep. My brother Drew knows every constellation in the sky. He’ll point out the Big Dipper and some of the other easy star formations.”
“That sounds fun.”
“It’s going to be great,” Mack said. “And you’ll enjoy your time off too. I can’t imagine how hard it is to be a single dad. I have a two-year-old and he runs circles around me.”
“It must be nice to have brothers to help out,” Clint said.
“It’s great. There are benefits to having a big family,” Mack said. “Well, I don’t want to keep you long. If you head up toward the shrieking kids, you’ll find the bed and breakfast.”
“Shrieking?”
“I think they’re playing with my brother Cody right now. He shifted into his bear form. He’s letting all the kids use him like a jungle gym. I told him he’s going to have a heck of a backache later, but he’s practicing for when he becomes a dad. His wife Abby is pregnant right now and I think Cody’s more scared than he lets on.”
“I know the feeling,” Clint said.
“You’ll have a great week,” Mack said while slapping Clint on the back. “I’ll see you later at dinner.”
Clint looked down at Hailey. “Ready to go meet another cool animal?”
“Another horsey?”
“No, a bear this time.”
Her eyes widened.
“It’s a nice bear,” he quickly added. “You can play with him.”
When skepticism tugged the corners of her mouth down, he sighed.
“Come on, honey.”
He took her hand and led her toward the other kids. As they approached the cluster, he counted ten other children, about half boys and half girls. He’d already checked with Madison to make sure there would be other girls her age.
In the center of the group, a huge grizzly bear lay on his back with his paws up. A little boy scrambled over the bear as he chased his friend. When another child jumped onto his belly, the bear huffed as the wind was knocked out of him. Cody must be something to go through this kind of torture. He’d have to meet him later when he returned to his human form.
A woman with long curly tendrils of chestnut hair, luminous green eyes, and golden skin jumped up when she spotted him. She hurried across the lawn to greet him.
“Hi, I’m Rachel. You must be Clint and Hailey.”
“Yep.”
Hailey scurried to hide behind his legs.
“Welcome to the ranch,” Rachel said. She leaned down. “I love your princess dress.”
Hailey peeked out to stare at her with huge eyes.
“We have another princess here right now. Her name is Molly. She’s over there playing with Cody’s paws.” She pointed to a little girl about the same age as Hailey. The girl played patty-cake on the bear’s palm. “Do you want to meet her?”
Hailey hesitated then nodded slowly. Another wave of relief washed through him as she followed Rachel toward the other girl. Sunlight reflected off the grizzly bear’s shiny fur. As he turned away from the flash of light, a woman stepped out of the B&B onto the front porch. His heart dropped to his knees. For a second, he couldn’t breathe. She was the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
Rich chocolate brown hair tumbled down her back. Creamy skin radiated warmth. As his gaze traveled down from her stunning face, it roamed across the lush fullness of her breasts. His mouth went dry. Curvy hips accentuated her femininity. He’d kill to be the yellow summer dress clinging to her body.
His bear yawned, waking up for the first time in years. When the beast spotted the woman, it roared with approval. It was all Clint could do to keep his bear inside. The animal clawed at his ribs, demanding to be released.
As he battled for control, the woman stepped off the porch into the sunlight. Radiant sparks of light played across her hair. His fingers tingled with the need to touch those silky locks. He had no doubt they’d be luxuriously soft.
Her plump red lips pursed as she held her hand up to her eyes. Her gaze traveled across the group of kids before resting on a little boy. She smiled and waved at the child. Hunger unlike anything he’d ever experienced tore through him. A rush of blood flowed south, forcing him to jam his hands into his pockets in an attempt to hide his body’s reaction. He flushed as she turned toward him. And when their gazes met, fire burned hot and thick in his belly.
Chapter 2
The next morning, Jessica stole glances at the man sitting across from her. The long dining room table held enough space for all of the adults and most of the children, but a couple of larger families were eating in the living room. She could hardly follow the conversations at the table. Instead she fixated on the man’s sensual amber eyes. The second he turned toward her, she looked away and pretended to be interested in the discussion between the people sitting on either side of her.
The man’s chiseled cheekbones rose as he smiled. The firm set of his jaw softened, giving a smooth edge to his rugged face. A small scar cut across the right side of his chin. Barely visible through a wash of stubble, it was just enough to make him even more interesting. So far she’d only seen him interact with a little girl close to Eddie’s age. He appeared to be single but she double checked his ring finger to be sure. No ring.
When she looked up, he was staring right at her. She quickly dropped her gaze to the table. A few seconds later, she glanced at him. He smiled.
“I’m Clint.” His low, gravelly voice moved through her like molten lava.
“Jessica.” Her name came out in a breathy whisper. She wanted to crawl under the table and hide. It wasn’t like this was the first time she’d encountered a disarmingly hot man—far from it—but her stomach didn’t usually do somersaults when she met one.
“Pretty name.”
He picked up a piece of bacon and took a bite. As he finished chewing, his tongue darted out to sweep across his bottom lip. She shifted in her seat. God, that mouth. For a moment, she wondered what it would be like to kiss him.
“Mommy, I hate sausages!” Eddie yelled.
“Shh,” she whispered as she leaned over to remove the offensive meat from his plate. “You don’t have to eat them. I’ll take them.”
She sat back up and shot an embarrassed look at Clint. He probably thought she was raising a little monster. She’d tried so many different ways to make Eddie behave, but nothing seemed to work.
“Wait until he gets the sugar in him from the syrup,” she said.
“If my daughter Hailey gets her hands on a candy bar, it’s over,” he said sympathetically.
She breathed a sigh of relief. At least he understood.
“I hope they plan on letting them run today,” she said. “It’s the only way I can seem to get him to calm down.”
“I have the opposite problem.” He nodded toward the living room where his daughter sat with her arms crossed. A scowl pinched her tiny features. “She’s mad at me right now.”
“Why?”
“She wants to go home. I thought everything would be okay once we got here, but she’s never been away from me for longer than a few hours. I hope she doesn’t feel like I’m abandoning her.”
“I’m nervous about the camping trip too. I guess it’s hard to let them venture out even though they will be supervised the whole time.”
“Personally,” another mother interjected, “I can’t wait to get rid of mine. They’re not even teenagers yet and they’re driving me nuts.”
“Wait until they hit thirteen, then you’re in for it,” another father said.
“That’s why we’re taking the kids on a fun trip,” Madison said.
Somehow she’d heard their conversation from halfway across the room. She flashed a warm smile before turning to spoon another heap of oatmeal into her two-year-old son’s face. The child smacked his lips together before opening his mouth to take another bite. If only Eddie was so well-behaved.
After breakfast, Madison, Abby, and Cindy rounded up all of the children and led them into the front yard, leaving the parents behind in the dining room. Kate, Carol, Hank, and Logan stood at the head of the table.
“Before we take the kids out,” Logan began, “we’d like to take you on a trail ride so you can see the campsite. We’ll run through a list of activities and answer any questions you might have. Is everyone okay with riding a horse?”
The parents nodded. Excitement skittered through Jessica’s chest. She couldn’t wait to jump on a horse. It had been years since she’d ridden, but she missed it a lot. She glanced at Clint. His attention was still on Logan. Maybe once the kids were gone, she could ask Clint if he wanted to go riding with her. He had cowboy written all over him.
Clint turned and smiled at her before taking a sip of coffee. She didn’t need caffeine to wake her up. His smoldering eyes were enough to set her heart racing. God, she was acting like a teenage girl. She hadn’t been this attracted to anyone since the divorce.
The realization sent shivers of unease down her spine. She’d spent the better half of her twenties in fantasy land. She’d be thirty in a few months and she didn’t intend to carry her old, bad habit of believing everything someone told her into the next phase of her life. She had to think about Eddie and what was best for him. Until she knew more about Clint, she couldn’t even begin to think about him as anything other than a complete stranger.
She tried to keep that in mind as she followed the group out of the B&B and into the barn. Horses of all shapes, sizes, and colors were saddled and ready to ride. Hank and Logan moved through the group assigning people to horses based on their riding experience.
Hank asked about her experience and then gave her a copper-nosed, dark bay Morgan horse. She grabbed the reins and petted the animal’s fuzzy nose. It whinnied and spittle landed on her hand.
“So gross,” she muttered.
“At least he didn’t bite you,” Clint said.
She turned to find him astride a smoky gray American Quarter Horse. He sat in the western-style saddle as if he’d been born to ride. A brown Stetson covered all but a few wayward strands of black hair. His green-and-tan checkered shirt rippled in the breeze, effectively pasting it against the strong muscles on his chest. All kinds of naughty thoughts popped into her mind. If he looked that good clothed, how much better would he look naked?
In an attempt to cover her lusty perusal of his body, she turned and swung her foot up into a stirrup. As she pulled herself into the saddle, her biceps trembled. She didn’t have spaghetti arms, but she didn’t work out either. Well, unless carrying Eddie counted. Sometimes he was too tired to walk and she’d have to scoop him up. It didn’t happen as often now that he was older, but it happened enough.
After she’d settled into the saddle, she lopped the reins through her fingers and guided the horse to stand alongside Clint’s. Everyone else had already paired up, leaving them to ride together at the back of the group. As they started down the trail, Clint leaned over.
“I guess we’re the only single people here,” he said.
“How do you know I’m single?” she asked.
“No wedding ring.”
“Maybe I don’t wear one when I’m on vacation,” she teased.
“Maybe, or maybe you’re just playing hard to get.” He grinned.
Warmth spread throughout her body. So he was interested. Her bear perked up. The creature yawned and stretched as far as she could within the confines of Jessica’s ribcage. She promised her bear that she’d let her out to run later. But the beast didn’t care about running; she was far more interested in Clint. She sniffed the air. His spicy scent lingered just beneath the overwhelming aroma of sun-kissed pine trees.
As they continued along the trail, they rode past a glistening lake. Glints of light sparkled off of ripples in the water. The gentle lap of inch-high waves against the shore added to the ambiance of a perfect summer day.
“Beautiful,” Clint murmured.
“It is,” she said.
But as she turned to look at him, she caught him staring at her. When he didn’t change the direction of his gaze, her stomach somersaulted. A slow smile spread across his lips, and for a moment she wondered if he’d been talking about the landscape, or about her.
***
Clint fought to keep his flailing bear under control. The beast wanted to burst out and tackle Jessica so that he could spread hot kisses all over her body. Clint, on the other hand, was too busy wrestling with his guilt. He hadn’t looked at another woman since his wife died three years earlier.
In a way, he couldn’t bring himself to even think about being with someone else. He’d loved Nicole more than he ever thought he could love another person. And when he’d lost her, a part of him died too.
If he hadn’t needed to stay strong for Hailey, he would have ended up at the bottom of a bottle in a seedy bar. Being responsible for Hailey had saved him in his darkest moments. He wasn’t sure what it would take to make him ever love again. Risking that much pain…it just wasn’t worth it.
But as he stole glances at Jessica, he started to wonder if he’d been drowning in grief long enough. The acute devastation he’d felt right after Nicole had lost her battle had dulled, at least during the day. At night, the pain welled up to ensnare his heart with barbed wire. It would be better if he ignored the pretty single mom. He couldn’t imagine losing another wife and didn’t want to take the chance.
As they reached the campsite, he surveyed it. A large fire pit sat in the center of the clearing. A cluster of trees protected the site from wind. Overall, it seemed safe. The entire time Hank and Logan had been talking about the various activities, Clint had been assessing them. He didn’t want to send Hailey off with people who didn’t know what they were doing.
Both men seemed confident and their plan was well thought out. The men would have their wives with them, and a few of the other brothers and their wives would be on the trip too. There would be enough supervision to allow him to sleep at night.
Several hours later, after they’d returned to the ranch, he stood in the center of his bedroom at the B&B. Hailey pouted and cried in the corner. They’d just ended a five-minute battle of wills. She still didn’t want to go on the trip.
“Don’t make me go,” she wailed.
“It’s just for a few nights. If you don’t like it, you can always come back,” he said calmly. When it came to his daughter, he had all the patience in the world.
“Noooo,” she whimpered.
He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. He crossed the room and sat on the carpet in front of her.
“Honey, I wouldn’t send you on a camping trip if I didn’t think you’d like it,” he said.
“I won’t like it.”
“But what if you do? Remember the first day I took you to stay with the babysitter while I went to work? You were scared then too, but you like Cynthia now.”
She sniffed and wiped her runny nose on her sleeve.
He scooted over to the nightstand and grabbed a box of tissues. After handing one to her, he placed the box between them.
“Cynthia’s nice,” she said.
“Very nice,” he agreed. “Remember Kate, the lady with the big smile that we met yesterday?”
Hailey nodded.
“Kate’s like Cynthia. She’s a nice lady too,” he said.
“I’m scared,” she said.
“What are you afraid of?” he asked. Maybe he could put her fears to rest if he knew what they were.
“What if you leave me like Mommy did?” she choked out the question between sobs.
“Oh, honey.” He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her close. “Mommy was sick. She had to go be with God. She didn’t leave you. She never would have left if she’d had a choice.”
Silent tears spilled down his cheeks. He furtively wiped them away before forcing a smile. He released her and took her small hands in his.
“I promise I’ll never leave you,” he said. “I’ll be right here when you get back. Okay?”
She stared at him with red-rimmed eyes. “Promise?”
“Cross my heart,” he said, leaving out the rest of the saying. Who the hell thought cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye was a good thing for kids to say? Whoever it was needed a needle stuck in their eye. Ugh!
Hailey eyed him as if checking for sincerity before climbing to her feet. She tugged her pink, cotton shirt down over her jeans before stuffing her hands in her pockets. For a moment, he questioned sending her off to camp, but she’d have to be ready for first grade next year and he had to start somewhere.
A gentle knock on the door brought him to his feet. He opened it to find Rachel standing on the other side.
“How’s it going in here?” she asked.
“Good. She’s pretty nervous, but I think she’ll be okay. But if she’s not, you’ll bring her back, right?” he asked.
“Yes. But I’m sure we’ll have fun.” Rachel crouched down so that she was eye level with Hailey. “You ready to go camping?”
“Yes, ma’am,” she said.
The slight tremble in her voice cut through Clint. He almost reconsidered sending her off with Rachel, but that wouldn’t help him make progress with her shyness. Maybe if she was around more kids, she’d open up.