by Liv Brywood
“Let’s go,” Rachel said as she grasped Hailey’s hand.
Clint rubbed his fist over his chest. The tightness overwhelmed him. What if something happened to her? Was he making a huge mistake? There could be an accident. She could get lost. So many things could go wrong. Maybe this wasn’t the right thing to do.
He took two steps toward the stairs when a bloodcurdling scream blasted out from behind a door across the hall. He rushed over and knocked.
“Are you okay in there?” he yelled.
The door sung open to reveal Jessica’s frazzled face. Behind her, Eddie swung a pillow, knocking over a lamp.
“He’s throwing another fit,” she said in a weary tone. “I tried to take him downstairs but he’s refusing to go.”
“Mind if I try?” he asked.
“Be my guest.” She stepped back to allow him to enter the room.
Small shirts and shoes were strewn about the room. A pair of child-sized pants hung over the television. As he surveyed the damage, he arched a brow. Maybe having a shy child wasn’t so bad after all. At least she didn’t leave a path of destruction behind her.
Eddie jumped up and down in the center of the bed. He seemed completely oblivious to Clint’s presence.
“Get down from there,” Clint said.
Eddie stopped and turned to gape at him.
“You need to behave when your mother asks you to do something. Now get off the bed.” Clint pointed at the floor.
Eddie narrowed his gaze for a moment before hopping down. He stalked forward until he was toe to toe with Clint.
“Who’s gonna make me?” Eddie asked defiantly.
“I already made you.” Clint raised a brow.
Eddie huffed and put his fists on his hips.
“I’m not going camping. I don’t want to.”
“Why not?” Clint asked.
“Because I said.”
Ah, circular children’s logic, he knew it well. He contemplated a few approaches before settling on one.
“Do you remember my daughter, Hailey? She’s about your same age,” Clint said.
“Yeah.”
“Well, she’s also scared to go camping.”
“I’m not scared. I’m a man,” Eddie snapped.
Clint glanced at Jessica, who paled. Where had Eddie heard that declaration before? His father?
“Well, since you’re a man,” Clint played along, “I need you to go with Hailey so that she’s not afraid of the dark. Can you do that for me?”
“Why?” Eddie asked.
“Because it’s the right thing to do. We should always protect the women in our life.”
Eddie’s scowl softened as he gnawed on the edge of his lip.
“I think Hailey would feel much safer if you were there with her,” Clint said. “What do you say, can you be a big man and protect her?”
“Yes!” Eddie’s expression changed from angry to determined. “I’ll keep her safe from the monsters who hurt kids.”
Clint’s stomach plunged. Kids didn’t talk about monsters like that unless they’d encountered one. Jessica flushed under his scrutiny.
“Let’s go find the other kids.” Clint held out his hand. When Eddie took it, he breathed a sigh of relief. He turned to Jessica. “I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“Thank you,” she said softly. She seemed near tears. He couldn’t wait to get back to find out why she was so upset.
He found Hank outside with the other kids. He briefly explained the situation and Hank agreed to keep an eye on Eddie. As Clint returned to the porch, Hank led Eddie over to where Hailey stood by herself. Clint went inside the house but stood by the window to make sure their introduction went well.
Eddie smiled at Hailey and within a minute, the two were chatting with each other. Clint watched until the other Grant brothers arrived with their wives to round up the kids. As they all paired up into smaller groups with the adults, the nervous churn in his belly finally relented.
When the kids disappeared around the side of the house, he turned and took the stairs to the second floor. He found Jessica sitting on the edge of her bed. She flashed a sheepish smile.
“Thank you for doing that,” she said.
“No problem. He just needed a little push.”
“Do you think they’re going to be okay?” she asked.
“I hope so. Once they get to the campsite, they’re going to have so many activities to participate in that they won’t have time to be sullen. How are you doing?” he asked softly.
“Honestly? Relieved. Don’t get me wrong, I love my son. But sometimes…”
“It’s hard to do it all alone,” he said.
“Yeah.”
“So…now that we’re free of the little hellions, what should we do?” he asked in a joking tone.
“I was thinking of taking a walk along the lake.”
“Let’s not get too crazy,” he said with a grin.
When she laughed, the sweet cadence roused his bear. The creature cocked his head to one side.
Mate! His bear exclaimed.
Clint almost laughed out loud. No way. He’d already loved and lost his mate. He couldn’t possibly have another one, not in this lifetime.
Since he couldn’t openly argue with his bear, he ignored him. He’d pay when his bear inevitably tried to claw his way out, but Clint was stronger. Unlike some shifters, he was fully in control of his wild side. At least he liked to think he was.
But as he followed Jessica down the stairs and out into the balmy afternoon, he questioned his restraint. Because right now, he couldn’t stop thinking about lacing his fingers in her hair and tilting her head back so he could kiss her senseless.
Chapter 3
Even though the air had cooled considerably, a thin sheen of perspiration formed on Jessica’s skin. Maybe hiking wasn’t the best choice of activity, but she’d suggested it, so now she had to follow through. She tried to keep her panting to a minimum. She really needed to get back to the gym at some point.
As her boots crunched through a bed of pine needles, a flutter of activity caught her attention. A chipmunk leapt onto a fallen log. Its ears pricked as it spun to face her. She stopped abruptly causing Clint to plow into her.
“Shh,” she whispered. “Look.”
She pointed at the chipmunk. Thin lines of black and white fur streaked down from around the animal’s eyes to its back before disappearing into its bushy brown tail.
“My bear thinks it’s snack time,” Clint whispered.
“Gross. You actually eat wild animals?” she asked.
“No. Not that it stops my bear from craving them.”
“What kind are you? Grizzly? Black? Brown?”
“Black.”
“Me too,” she said.
“I’m glad I’m not a grizzly. Those guys can barely contain their rage.”
“Barely?” She arched a brow.
“I’m punny today, what can I say?” he joked.
She laughed a little too loud, scaring the chipmunk who took off into the woods. As they resumed the hike, the path widened so they could walk side by side.
“Thanks again for helping me with Eddie,” she said. “I’ve been having a hard time with him.”
“Being a single parent is no joke.”
“So true,” she said.
“Can I ask what happened?”
A chill raced down her spine. Everyone who knew the truth about her ex automatically associated her with his bad behavior, as if she’d been partially responsible for his terrible choices.
“You first,” she said. “Where’s Hailey’s mom?”
“Dead.”
Jessica stopped and placed her hand over her heart. “I’m so sorry.”
“She had breast cancer,” he said. His gaze drifted off to somewhere over her shoulder. “At first we thought she was going to make it. She went through chemo and radiation. It was hell. Pure hell.”
“If it’s too painful to talk about, you
don’t have to.” She gently touched his forearm.
“It’s been three years since she passed,” his voice caught for a moment before he could continue. “I thought I’d be ready to move on with my life by now. But I can’t. Without Hailey, I don’t know how I would have been able to go on after Nicole died.”
Jessica stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders. He pulled her against him and clung to her. She leaned against his chest. Her heart ached for him. She couldn’t imagine losing someone she loved to something as horrible as cancer.
They stood, holding each other for several minutes. She didn’t feel the need to break the silence. Instead, she took comfort in his arms. She hadn’t let another man get this close since her divorce. She’d lost the ability to trust anyone. But hearing his story made her hurt for him and it also made her trust him. To have him share something so personal gave her the courage to tell her story.
“My ex-husband—Eddie’s dad—is in prison.” She waited for the inevitable withdrawal that happened every time she told someone the truth about her ex, but Clint didn’t move. Instead, he stroked the back of her head.
“Bart was convicted of embezzling a million dollars from his company’s investors. I was so stupid. We suddenly had a bunch of money in our accounts. He started taking us on expensive trips. He bought a boat. That should have tipped me off. Looking back, I can’t believe I didn’t see it.”
“How did he get caught?” Clint asked.
“The finance manager got suspicious. Bart had been making larger and larger withdrawals and the justifications didn’t make sense. So they went back through the records and discovered that he’d been stealing for years. The whole time we were married.”
“So he was arrested?” Clint asked.
“Yeah. It was huge news in Bozeman. All of our neighbors turned against us. I was ostracized from the neighborhood’s Mommy and Me group and I lost all of my friends. It was horrible.”
“If those people really were your friends, they would have realized that you are not your ex.”
“They think I knew.” She pulled back to look at him. “But I didn’t. I swear. I might be stupid, but I’m not a thief.”
“You’re not stupid,” he said.
“Sometimes I wonder…”
“What?”
“Did I know?” she asked rhetorically. “Maybe I knew but I was in denial.”
“Liars and thieves are very good at tricking people, especially the people closest to them,” Clint said.
“Sounds like you know this from personal experience.”
“Yeah. I had a longtime friend who was arrested for robbery. He’d been sneaking into people’s houses while they were on vacation and robbing them. He worked for a travel agency so he knew when people would be out of town. I should have known something was up when he gave Hailey an expensive watch for Christmas. I should have questioned it.”
“I think we assume our friends are honest people,” she said. “After all, if they’re not, then what does it say about our ability to read people?”
“Some people are master manipulators,” he said. “They never let you see who they really are inside. You can’t blame yourself for not seeing through his lies. Besides, who wants to believe that someone they love is a liar and a thief?”
“True,” she said.
In the distance, the dinner bell rang.
“Should we head back?” Clint held out his hand.
“Sure.”
She interlaced her fingers with his. A spark of awareness shimmied up her arm. She’d never met a more understanding, accepting man. Although she didn’t want get too far ahead of herself, it was hard not to think about what it would be like to date him.
God, would she even know how to date anymore? At least they could share babysitting duties. She smiled as they hiked back toward the B&B. Maybe she’d find more on this trip than a few days of peace. Maybe she’d find a way to move into the next phase of her life.
***
Later that night, Clint joined the rest of the parents who were seated around the campfire. Lounge chairs filled with happy couples filled one side, while other chairs held husbands and wives who were barely speaking to each other.
He missed being married. He liked having a partner with whom he could share his life. Granted, his marriage wasn’t perfect the whole time, but what relationship was? He was suspicious of anyone who pretended that everything was perfect all the time.
The crackling fire spit embers up into the air. Overhead, a million stars twinkled against the midnight sky. In the summer, the sun stayed up past nine p.m. Warm air swirled around his ankles. After dinner, he’d jumped in the shower to wash off the dirt from the trail. He donned a fresh pair of jeans and a T-shirt. He hadn’t bothered to dry his hair and the collar of his shirt was still slightly damp.
He glanced over at Jessica who was chatting with another mom. The reflection of the flames from the fire illuminated her dark violet eyes. They held so much strength and so much pain at the same time. He admired her for being able to recover from her ex’s scandal. She hadn’t run into the arms of the first available man to save her either. She could clearly stand on her own, which made her even more attractive.
When she caught him staring, he didn’t look away. For the first time in years, he considered what it would be like to love again. He wasn’t totally sure he was ready to make the leap into a relationship, but he couldn’t help but wonder if Jessica felt the same inexplicable pull. Did she also secretly think about him?
The couple next to him left to turn in for the night. He patted the chair next to him and she sat beside him. Flickering light played across her smile. The urge to kiss her burned like wildfire in his belly. But with so many other couples still present, he didn’t want to make a scene.
“Nice night,” she said.
“And no kids in sight,” he said.
“So true.”
Her sexy laugh pealed through the night, arousing that part of him that he’d tried to ignore for years. He stared into the fire. Guilt slowed his thundering heart. He’s sworn to love Nicole for the rest of his life. Was he really exempt from that now that she was gone?
“What kind of work do you do?” Jessica asked.
“I’m a project manager for a home building firm,” he said.
“That sounds interesting.”
“I don’t know. Sometimes I bring Hailey to a worksite and she’s bored beyond belief.”
“You take her to a construction site?” she asked with a frown.
“No, not to the building area. I actually spend the majority of my time crunching numbers in the onsite office trailers. I’d never put her in danger.”
“Oh, I didn’t assume you did,” she said quickly. “I was just curious.”
“No worries. I really only take her when the babysitter gets sick. I won’t let her stay with a sick sitter, so I bring her to work. What do you do?” he asked.
“I’m a retail sales manager for a department store,” she said.
“That sounds interesting.”
“Not really. I do a lot of inventory control and sales training,” she said. “It’s not nearly as interesting as building homes.”
“I find it ironic,” he said.
“Why?”
“I’m helping other people build their dream homes while my own home is in shambles.”
“Does it need to be repaired?” she asked.
“No,” he gave her a crooked smile. “I meant it figuratively.”
Several more couples stood and said goodnight before heading back toward the house. After the last group left, Jessica turned back to him.
“I know what you mean. About having your life torn apart. I mean, I don’t know exactly what you went through—I can’t even imagine how bad it was for you—but my life exploded too.” She stopped to shake her head. “God, now I feel like an ass for even comparing us. Sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry.” He reached for her
hand. “I know what you meant. And it is the same. You lost someone you loved too. Maybe he’s not dead, but he’s gone.”
“Do you ever think about getting married again?” she asked.
“Sometimes.” He rubbed the pad of his thumb across her palm. “But then I feel terrible for even thinking about another woman.”
“You’re still in love with your wife,” she said.
“I still love her. Hell, I’ll always love her. But at some point, I have to move on, right?”
“I’m not the one to ask. I haven’t moved on either,” she said. “I love Eddie more than anything in the world and I don’t want to choose the wrong man. Whoever I fall in love with will have to be completely on board with loving my son as much as I love him. I don’t think many men are ready to sign on for that.”
“I have the same feeling about any woman that I would consider in the future,” he said.
“I know what you need,” she said.
“Oh really?” He grinned. “Enlighten me.”
“You need a single mom.”
“Well then you need a single dad.”
She laughed. “Is that right?”
“It is.”
“Hmm, I wonder where I might find one…” she said playfully.
“I hear Toys “R” Us is a good place,” he said.
She burst out laughing and didn’t stop until she snorted.
“Oh my God,” she said. “I can’t believe I just did that.”
“Sexy,” he joked.
“I want to crawl under a rock right now.”
“I’m kidding.” He squeezed her hand. “I think you’ll make some lucky man really happy.”
“You do?”
“You’re funny and kind-hearted. You clearly love your son. I think you have a lot of love to give,” he said.
“You do too,” she countered.
“Maybe I do.”
Silence stretched between them. He fought the urge to kiss her until he couldn’t do it a second longer. He turned to her and cupped the side of her face. The grin pressing up the corners of her mouth dropped slightly as a new, more sensual expression passed over her eyes. Before he could talk himself out of taking the risk, he leaned in to brush a gentle kiss across her lips.