by Bella Andre
Yet again, he’d considered telling the Mavericks about his strange conversations with his mother. Only, was there really anything to tell them? No matter how he tried to downplay it, they’d probably put a full-court press on Mom, trying to wring out what was bothering her. They’d feel duty-bound to help her in any way they could. But was that the right thing for her, when she seemed so anxious about whatever the problem was? So he’d decided to say nothing for the time being.
“I have to thank you too.” Tasha broke into his thoughts, her voice earnest. “I don’t even know where to begin.”
“I’ve enjoyed every moment. We all have.” The rest of the materials she’d purchased had been delivered yesterday, but as much as he liked working with hammer and nails, it would do them both a heck of a lot of good to get away for a little while. “You know what we need to do today?”
“Yes,” she said. “You’ve done so much to help me with my place, I want to help you with yours.”
It was a generous offer, one he’d happily take her up on later—not only for her excellent building skills, but because he’d take any opportunity to be near her. For now, though, he waved it away with a better idea. “A hike and a picnic.”
“A hike and a picnic?” She said the words the way she might have said, You want me to eat big hairy spiders for lunch?
He couldn’t help laughing, but he wasn’t going to let her hide out in her cabin a minute longer. She enjoyed the work as much as he did, but there was so much more to life, and he wanted to remind her of it.
“We both deserve time off.” He led her into his kitchen, where he had a backpack and water bottles waiting. “Plus, I already packed lunch for us. I’m sure you don’t want my efforts to go to waste.”
She looked suspiciously at the bag. “Please tell me you didn’t pack your secret stash of caviar in there.”
He slapped a hand to his chest. “Words to strike at a billionaire’s heart,” he joked. The guys had talked up Will’s excellent imported caviar, but Tasha had scrunched her nose. “Even though I know you’ll love caviar when you finally try it”—her eyes widened at the word when, but he wanted her to get used to the idea that this feeling growing between them didn’t have an end date—“if I promise there’s no caviar on the menu today, will you agree to come hiking with me?”
She thought about it for a moment. “I wouldn’t want all your hard picnic-making work to go to waste, but we could always eat it when we take a break later today.”
“Work, work, work.” A smile creased his lips simply from the sweetness of looking at her. “Aren’t you ever lazy for just a little while?”
“No,” she said. But her eyes lit up, and suddenly she was laughing. “And you never give up on your goals either, do you?”
“No, I don’t.”
He wouldn’t give up on his goal to win her heart, that was for sure.
She held up her hands in surrender. “All right, you win. But what about the puppies?”
“They’ll be fine in the pen in the shade. The hike to Grass Lake is too far for them. Plus, we’ve got to cross some streams. We can leave extra water and plenty of kibble to tide them over until we get back. You’re going to have a great time,” he promised her. “I won’t let you down.”
With those words, he was asking her to trust him. He understood it was a huge deal for her, with so many more implications than a mere hike. After all, her family had let her down in the worst of ways.
But Daniel meant every word, and he refused to hold back any more than absolutely necessary. Not when Tasha was everything he’d given up hope of finding—smart, independent, compassionate, and oh-so-sexy.
“All right,” she said at last. “I’ll put on my hiking boots.”
At her house, she plopped on a pink ball cap, pulling her hair through and letting her ponytail cascade down her back. His fingers itched to tangle themselves in the silk.
He laughed when she turned, pointing at the stitching. “That’s a good sign.”
Tracing the letters, she smiled, turning his heart as soft as the center of a chocolate crème. “Not adulting today.” She shrugged. “Very millennial, I know.”
“I for one am glad you’re not adulting today.” He wanted her carefree and happy, without the shadows she’d lived under for so long.
They took care of the puppies, then hit the trailhead, climbing to the lake along the fire road, passing waterfalls gushing with the last of the snowmelt. She walked slightly in front of him, and he enjoyed the mesmerizing sway of her ponytail and the strength in her calves.
“You’re a great hiker.”
“Thanks,” she said with a smile. “Dad and Drew and I used to—” Her smile fell halfway through her sentence. “I’ve always loved hiking,” she said instead of whatever family tidbit she’d been about to reveal.
He wished she’d feel comfortable sharing more, but who was he to judge when he hadn’t shared his concerns about his conversations with his mother with anyone? Yet he still didn’t feel it was right to saddle Tasha with his stuff when he didn’t even have his facts straight.
“Anyway,” she continued, “I’ve been dying to know, how did the Mavericks meet their wives?”
He saw the question for what it was, a way to take the focus off her and her family. But his answer could, if used skillfully, draw her out. Let her get to know him until she didn’t notice she was revealing more about herself too.
He wasn’t giving up. Not by a long shot.
* * *
They talked the entire time they hiked up the trail. And Tasha loved all the stories about his family.
“Will met Harper through her brother, Jeremy, who was majorly into Will’s classic car collection. But honestly, I think Will fell for him first. He’s a great kid. So happy all the time.” He told her about Jeremy’s accident, and her heartstrings twanged for the boy. “Will and Harper got married on New Year’s Eve, and Jeremy gave her away. It even made me cry.” He mimed wiping his eyes.
“What about Sebastian?” Tasha had already heard what a fabulous artist Charlie Ballard was. Sebastian’s praise had been nonstop. Tasha had looked up her work online, and it was truly stunning—as was Charlie herself.
“He was looking for an artist to create something for his new headquarters. He went crazy for her work—but he totally went off the deep end for Charlie herself. Plus, you’ve got to love her mom, Francine. That little lady walks a mile a day despite her crippling arthritis. She’s amazing.”
Tasha adored listening to him—to the love that laced his words, to his deep, beautiful voice that made something sing inside her. She’d loved her father and brother, but nothing had ever seemed as exquisite as Daniel’s heartfelt stories about his family.
Thinking about her own family reminded her she needed to send out more emails. Though having heard nothing themselves, Barbara and Drew’s friends had written back to give her more names to contact. She had so much more to do, but for today, she would let herself bask in the sweetness of being out in nature with Daniel.
“And Matt?” she prompted him, pushing back the bill of her cap as she glanced over her shoulder at him. The day was warm, but not grindingly hot.
“He’s done such a great job of raising his son alone. Noah is the best. He’s so smart, so interested in everything. Ari was his nanny, but she and Matt were always meant to be together, and they’re getting married later this year.”
“It’s wonderful that they’ve all had such happy endings.”
“It really is,” he agreed. “Take Paige and Evan. They’ve known each other forever—she’s his ex-wife’s younger sister—and they’re a match made in heaven. He actually met Paige first—it just took him a heck of a long time to recognize that real love was there in front of him all along.”
She was glad Daniel’s friends had all found a second chance. Even if she still wasn’t sure she deserved one herself. After all, while most of the Mavericks’ parents had been truly evil, the Mavericks themselv
es hadn’t been complicit.
“The guys have come a long way from Chicago,” Daniel said. “And let me tell you, none of them had it easy. They ran the gamut from alcoholic parents, to abuse, to abandonment.”
Her foot slipped on a rock, but she caught herself before Daniel could touch her. They hadn’t kissed again, not like that perfect moment in the cabin. Despite how marvelous he’d been about her huge confession, she was still on tenterhooks around him. Yet at the same time, she was so ready for his touch, his kiss, his heat, even as impossible as that was.
It was an effort to keep walking and talking instead of turning around and throwing herself at him. “You must have had it hard too, since you came from the same neighborhood.”
“My parents made sure there was always enough love to go around and enough food on the table, even if we didn’t have the finer things of life.”
There were few men who would extol such virtues out loud. He wore his pride and love for his family like a suit of armor he never took off, a ward against anything bad. Yet there was the faintest shadow there as well, the same shadow that kept popping up whenever he talked about his parents. She wanted to press him, wanted to know more. But she knew how hard it was to open up all the way.
“And man,” he said, “the Mavericks adore Lyssa. She’s the little sister none of them had. They used to fight to see who got to take her to the park, not that it was much of a park. But if they saw any drug deals going down, they’d run out the offenders. Nothing was ever going to hurt Lyssa.”
“You obviously love her very much.”
“She’s the apple of our eye, as my mom would say.” He grinned wide with pride. “So pretty she makes men cry. And so smart. She graduated from college last year.” Love brimmed in his voice, then with another big laugh, he added, “I pity any guy who falls for her, because he’s going to have to run a gauntlet of Mavericks.”
“Sounds terrifying.”
“You should know, considering you’ve already faced them down. And they loved you.”
“Evan didn’t.”
He reached for her hand. “He was wrong to make judgments before he knew all the facts. Now that he has them, he’s on your side, Tasha. Just like I am.”
When he looked at her like that, with such warmth and compassion—and something richer and deeper that she was afraid to acknowledge—she longed to throw herself at him and shower him with kisses.
But kissing him again would only bring more complications.
And more heartache when it was time to say good-bye.
Chapter Seventeen
“Tell me more about your mom and dad,” Tasha asked as they waded through waist-high grass. “What made them want to foster so many boys?”
Every time he tried to shift the conversation to her, Tasha redirected it back to him and his family. But for the first time in his life, he was slightly uncomfortable talking about his parents. He used to be so sure their story was pure perfection from start to finish. Until his recent conversations with his mother had made him question that assumption.
He needed to talk with his mom again. Needed to find out if he was making something out of nothing. But he’d never felt the need to confront his mother about anything before. He’d always thought he was brave, bold. But every time he contemplated tackling the issue with his mom, a part of him questioned whether it would be easier just to go with the status quo, to tell himself it was his parents’ business, not his.
At last, he answered Tasha. “I was about eleven or twelve when they started taking in my friends. We were already buddies in school, and everyone used to hang at my house. My parents were really easy to be around.”
She took a bottle of water from the pack, drank for a long time, then licked her lips, leaving them glistening with invitation. “You mean because they were kind?”
“Yes.” He grinned. “And because my mom makes the best chocolate chip cookies and brownies.”
They passed a couple with two toddlers who were doing a great job climbing the hill.
“My parents loved kids,” Daniel said. “They would have had more, but Lyssa didn’t come along until I was ten. Then they started taking in the Mavericks.”
Tasha turned, walking backward. “Were you okay with that?”
Before he could reply, she tripped on a rock and he grabbed her arm, steadying her with his body. “Whoa there.” She was close enough for him to smell her hair and the saltiness of her skin. Close enough to see her pupils dilate. Close enough for everything inside him to turn to liquid fire. “You okay?” Daniel asked.
“I’m fine.” But she definitely sounded breathless. “I should look where I’m going.”
A part of him wished she wouldn’t, if only to give him the excuse to hold her again. As it was, she felt too delicious to let go.
When he finally forced himself to ease away from her, the hot imprint of her body remained.
As they started climbing again, he answered her question. “Whenever Mom and Dad wanted to bring one of the guys in permanently, they always sat me down and discussed it. They never forced anything on me. But even if I’d resisted sharing my parents’ time with more than just Lyssa, I knew how bad, how brutal their home lives were. I couldn’t wish that kind of existence on any of them. It tore my folks up when one of them came over with bruises. Or when they wouldn’t talk because something bad had happened.”
“I’ve never known anyone who cares about other people as much as you and your parents and friends do.”
“What about your father?” He knew he was pushing her, but he hoped his sharing would make her feel she could do the same. “He wasn’t cruel to you or your brother, was he?”
She started walking once more, head down, her expression hidden from him. “I always thought I was lucky to have such a great dad.” Her sorrow was easy to hear, to feel, as she spoke. “But he never asked me or my brother how we felt about moving again.”
Abruptly, she stopped in her tracks. “We’ve got to cross that?” She pointed to the log across a stream ahead. Swollen with the snowmelt, the water rushed below.
Before he could reply, however, she straightened her shoulders and started across. Walking as if it were a tightrope, one foot in front of the other, she teetered for a moment that made his breath catch, then found her balance again and darn near dashed the rest of the way.
He caught up on the other side. “I should have remembered about that crossing.”
Taking him totally off guard, she cupped his cheek. “Actually, I like that you push me past my boundaries and think I can handle whatever you’re going to dish out.”
He knew exactly what he wanted to dish out—the kiss of a lifetime. But just then a couple of guys rounded the bend and passed them, practically leaping across the log as they headed down the trail.
“Showoffs,” she muttered, making Daniel laugh, before she took off again at a fast clip.
Whether it was because she was trying to show the other hikers that she was every bit as good on the mountain, or because she’d sensed how badly Daniel wanted to kiss her and was intent on evading him, he didn’t know.
The trail took a turn, and suddenly the alpine lake spread out before them, clear as glass, the reflection of the mountains like a painting on the water’s surface.
“Wow.”
She didn’t have to say more. Its majesty was why he loved this place. Why he wanted to bring her here today—so that she could experience the same peace and sense of awe it gave him.
He took her hand, needing to touch her again, and led her around to a flat rock where they could spread out their picnic. She seated herself, and he settled beside her, opening the pack to pull out an insulated bag with ice packs.
He tore off the lid on the first plastic tub. “Crackers.” Another lid. “Local Brie and goat cheese.” Then a smaller container. “Pepper jelly that’s great with both.”
She looked impressed. “And you said Matt was all about the food.”
“H
e is.” Daniel grinned. “But I can hold my own with the good stuff.” Yet another tub contained fresh mango, papaya, grapes, and berries, plus a cheese knife and a jelly spoon. “Close your eyes, and try this.” He sliced off creamy cheese, slathered it on a cracker, then topped it with pepper jelly. “Open up.”
He fed her, touching her lips, letting her tongue caress his fingers. The sounds she made as she swallowed were ones he’d hear in his dreams.
“Wow.”
“That’s what you said about the lake.”
She opened her eyes to gaze at him. “It goes for the food too.”
And it went most especially for her.
“Wait, there’s more.” Tucking into the pack once more, he whisked out a split of champagne and two plastic flutes.
She laughed, a sound he’d loved since the first time he’d heard it. “You billionaires are too much,” she teased.
“The champagne has nothing to do with my being a billionaire. You deserve to be wined and dined by anyone you’re with.” He thought of the ex who’d lied to her and winced, waiting for the reminder to take the shine out of her.
But though something dark flashed through her gaze, for the first time, she didn’t let it conquer her. Instead, she whispered, “Feed me more.”
* * *
After the meal, sated with champagne, scrumptious cheese, and luscious fruit—and most of all, with the thought of how sweet Daniel had been to pull all of this together for her—Tasha was tempted to throw her fears to the winds and kiss him again.
When Eric had treated her to a fancy meal and a night out, it had only been to bolster his lies, not because he thought she deserved anything special.
Although Daniel was far more gorgeous and wealthy than her ex could ever hope to be, he was also real and sincere. Every cell in her body knew it.
But Daniel had to leave Fallen Leaf Lake eventually. Though he’d never given her the exact date of his departure, he wouldn’t be able to stay in the mountains with her forever. His real life—his company and all the beautiful women who were surely a far better match for him—awaited his return.