But all that was done now, and the peace of the place and the soothing feel of nature around her eased the stress from her soul. How could she feel stress while looking at that man, who seemed so dark and brooding, strong and rough, earlier today and now was snuggled with a stray puppy in the middle of the woods next to the river? Impossible.
She walked carefully over to the rock, which was about chest height. Around the back on the river side, there were a couple of stones laid together that could serve as steps, although she could get up without them if she needed to. Still, she didn’t want to scare the pup. Just yesterday, they couldn’t even get it to come close to them. She didn’t know how wild it really was.
The sun had disappeared behind the mountain, the twilight hadn’t quite descended, and she could see the man’s eyes quite plainly. They were open and staring at her.
“You were snoring,” she teased.
His lips twitched. “That was the dog.”
At their voices, the dog’s ears twitched, and his eyes opened. She assumed it was a him.
“Boy or girl?”
“I don’t think we know each other well enough to talk about that.”
She grinned. “The dog. Is the dog a boy or girl?”
“It’s a boy. And I’m keeping him. You have no claim on him, but you can name him.” His brows twitched. “I felt that was a good compromise.”
“I can agree to that. I can’t keep him anyway, so it’s kind of cool that I get to name him.”
“You can’t take forever. I’ll give you twenty-four hours to come up with a name, otherwise the offer expires and I’ll name him.”
She snorted. “You wouldn’t.”
One brow lifted, and she didn’t need an interpreter to read that look. Oh yes, he would.
“Fine. I’ll be here tomorrow, and I’ll tell you what his name is.” She lifted her hand but hesitated with it raised in the air. “Is it safe for me to pet him?”
“He hasn’t bitten me yet. But maybe he just likes men.”
“Then it’s a good thing that you’re keeping him, because he and I wouldn’t get along very well.” Her hand came down and stroked his fur. The dog stretched out, obviously enjoying her touch. “I don’t think he’s sexist.”
The man shook his head but didn’t say anything.
“Hey, sweet puppy,” she crooned. “Did you get hungry enough to let somebody catch you?” She scratched between the short brown ears and could’ve sworn that he smiled.
“That’s pretty much what happened. I fed him the entire bag of treats that I bought. Probably shouldn’t have. He’ll have a bellyache and throw up on the floor tonight.”
“Not good. Did you say you’re not allowed to have pets in your house?”
“Not supposed to. But I plan to keep him at the garage eventually. Maybe not right away. I don’t know how he’ll be around people or whether he has any shots. Plus, I have to see if I can find the owner. It might not be what we thought. Just because he seems like he’s been abused doesn’t mean it was the person that owned him. He might be stolen.”
He sat up in one smooth motion, the puppy pliant in his arms. “Come on up and sit down for a while. It’s pretty here. You probably had a stressful day, and this will relax you.”
Her eyes snapped to him when he mentioned her day. Their gazes met. All the things that they knew about each other, that they hadn’t known this morning, ran between them.
But he didn’t say anything about it, and neither did she. Like neither one of them wanted to ruin the moment.
She climbed up, settling down with a good foot or more between them, her legs hanging off the rock as well. The river made soothing noises in the background as the night insects started to chirp and buzz.
“It’s funny,” she said, “or maybe it’s not, but I’m not nearly as comfortable after dark here by myself as I am with you. It has nothing to do with people going by on the trail. The dark just doesn’t feel safe. Except, with you, it does.”
She never really thought she was a say-something-just-to-hear-yourself-talk person, but that seemed to be what she was doing. She hadn’t meant to say any of that. She hadn’t really thought it until it came out of her mouth.
“It’s pretty here, and relaxing, but it doesn’t feel perfect until you’re beside me.”
She moved her head and kinda looked at him, but he had his head down, stroking the puppy in his lap. Maybe she wasn’t the only one that said a little more than what she planned to say.
She lifted her head up, looking at the deep, fading blue of the sky as it moved into inky black. There were a couple stars out, planets probably, although she wasn’t sure what they were. It wasn’t like she sat around looking at the stars a lot. She’d been too busy to do anything like that.
A breeze ruffled through the leaves overhead and shifted her hair some. She’d taken it down from its tight bun when she changed her clothes and just left it hanging. Having the breeze blow through it felt almost as good as a head massage.
Finally, she couldn’t stand it anymore and had to break their unspoken agreement. “What were you doing there today?”
“I wondered the same thing about you.”
His statement implied a question. But he hadn’t answered hers. “I was pretty shocked when I saw you. I guess I don’t know what I expected or where I expected you to be. But it wasn’t there.”
“Same.”
She needed to let it be.
As though he were reading her mind, he said, “Let’s don’t go there. At least for tonight. I’m curious, I can’t deny it. But I can’t help but think maybe it’s nicer right now not knowing. Maybe we can just enjoy sitting side by side together, not needing to think about business for a little bit.”
“Agreed.” Her answer was easy despite her curiosity.
He shifted; the puppy moaned. “Do you want to hold him?”
“Do you think he’ll let me?” She turned her head in surprise. She hadn’t expected him to share.
“Yeah,” he said, a little surprise in his voice, too. “He’s been very gentle and sweet. And, once he figured out I wasn’t going to hurt him, he wasn’t even that scary. I can’t lift my hand up. He thinks I’m going to hit him if I do.”
She grunted. The idea made her want to just wrap her arms around the puppy and keep him safe. But she knew he was in good hands with the man who held him.
The guy adjusted the pup, who seemed to be out for the night, and settled him in Justice’s lap. The animal was warm and soft, and she wanted to curl around him, but she held him gently and stroked his head. Soon, he was breathing deeply again.
“Do I get visiting rights?” she asked.
He snorted. “I don’t know. I grew up in a broken home. I don’t really want to raise my dog in one.”
She didn’t know whether to laugh or be sad. She settled on neither. But she wasn’t sure if he was serious or not.
“So that was a...no?”
“That was a ‘we need to be adults here and do what’s best for the dog, no matter how we may feel about it.’”
“Uh, okay? What’s best for the dog?”
“You.” He put his arms behind him and leaned back on his hands, looking at the stars as she had done earlier. “I’m probably a bad influence on him. You don’t need me to list my faults, do you? Plus, a child needs its mother.”
“A child needs its father too,” she said immediately. Although, that’s not really what she believed. She believed women could do anything, and they didn’t really need a man. But she needed to argue, so she was forced to defend a position she didn’t really believe in.
Or did she?
She couldn’t take the dog; that was for sure.
“Not when he’s this young. Definitely he’s too young to be taken away from his mother.”
“You’re the one that caught him. He needs his dad. A dad that can catch him. What would I do if he runs away?”
“He won’t run away. You’ll train him better than
that. He’d be undisciplined at my house. I’d let him do whatever he wanted to. He’d never clean his room. And I’d encourage him to burp at the table with his mouth open. And worse.” He looked over at her, his eyebrows raised, like he was questioning whether or not she could guess what that “and worse” was.
“I have sisters. I have no idea what could be worse than burping at the table. My father wouldn’t be caught dead doing that.”
“Ah. Your father. Now that’s a subject I’d like to talk about.” He looked back at the stars. Maybe feigning innocence.
“No. We don’t want to talk about him.” Chances were if she mentioned who her father was, he would know him. Everyone knew her father. He was the only judge in Peach Bottom. And it had been that way for twenty years.
“I will state for the record it’s something I’m curious about.”
She kind of thought, from the tone of his voice, that he suspected who her father was but wasn’t sure. And that made sense. If he’d ever heard her name at all in association with her father, he would remember. Justice wasn’t exactly a common name.
“After all, this is my dog’s grandfather that we’re talking about. I ought to know who he is.”
“Well, if I’m a parent too, I ought to know the name of my dog’s dad.” She turned her head, unsure she even wanted to know that much. He looked familiar, but she couldn’t place him. Maybe if she had a name, she’d be able to. For some reason, she almost didn’t want to, although it was odd referring to him in her head as ‘that guy from the river.’ It was also a little nice not knowing, since it played into the fairy tale, which she didn’t want to let go of.
He didn’t move for a bit but stayed leaned back on his hands, looking up at the stars. She could see his jaw move a little bit, like he was chewing on the idea.
The puppy snuggled closer, and she tried to think of names. Names for the puppy. Not for the man.
“I’d like to call you something. In my head, I’ve been thinking of you as the river man.”
“Oh? You’ve been thinking of me?” His teeth flashed in the darkness.
She hadn’t realized that night had fallen. Although the moon was coming up over the horizon, looking huge. She watched it for a while. Just waiting as the silence stretched between them.
“It’s Thad. That’s my name.”
A stone settled deep in her gut.
Yeah. His name was as distinct as hers. If he was the Thad that she knew, she shouldn’t be sitting with him now.
“Don’t tell me your last name.” She spoke quickly before he could utter it and she couldn’t unhear it. If she didn’t know, it wouldn’t matter.
But on the heels of that thought came another. If he were the Thad that she knew, Thad Truax, then there could only be a very few reasons why he was at the open house today. One of which would compete directly with why she was there.
Now she definitely didn’t want to know anything. She wished she hadn’t even asked for his name. But yeah, she knew why he looked familiar now. It was a family resemblance. She had stared at his brother on the stand when he’d been in court for molesting her sister.
“You know who I am now.” It wasn’t a question. He must have felt her tightening beside him.
“Yes.” Her hands had stilled on the puppy. It shifted and buried its head more deeply in her lap. She began stroking it again. “And you know me?” Her voice was soft, barely a whisper.
“I’ve only ever heard of one person named Justice. I was kinda hoping it wasn’t you.”
“It’s me.”
She supposed that was the end of their relationship. He’d want his dog back. And they’d never see each other again. There was no need.
She liked him, sure, but now that they each knew who the other was, they really couldn’t justify being friends. They certainly couldn’t justify sitting under the stars together and laughing with each other.
“Does that change things for you? Now that you know who I am?” His voice sounded mostly dispassionate, but there was enough of a question, a hope, maybe, that she felt the same emotions stir in her own chest.
Just as he must have been able to feel her tense a minute ago, she could feel the tension radiating off him now. He cared about her answer. And that made her careful about what she said.
“It should. I wish it did. But I’m afraid I don’t want to.” She was just being honest. Flat out.
“I don’t want it to either. Does it need to?”
“You tell me.”
He swallowed. The sound carried clearly on the cool night air.
He took a deep breath. “No. It doesn’t. There’s no rule that says we can’t sit here and talk to each other.” He grunted. “We might not be able to share custody of the dog, though.”
She snorted. Everything had been so serious. Then he comes off with the “custody” of the dog. He was cute and funny. How could she not like him?
Cute and funny, but there was also an attraction there. The heat in her stomach, the tingle in her fingertips, and the desire to stay beside him, even move closer. The intimacy of talking and laughing together. No pressure. No competition. No need to put on a show and be something she wasn’t. She could just be her. He seemed content with that. She thought maybe he even liked it. After all, he knew who she was and wanted to spend time with her anyway. He must like her. As she liked him.
She wasn’t really one to beat around the bush about things. So she just asked. “You know who I am, and you like me anyway?”
“Yeah.” She thought he was going to lapse back into silence, so she was a little startled when he spoke again. “And you know who I am, and you like me anyway?”
Chapter 7
Justice realized how vulnerable he must have felt to answer her question and answer it truthfully. She had to admit she hesitated. Unsure she wanted to open herself up like that.
He should be her enemy. It wasn’t that she never had boyfriends necessarily, but there had always been a part of her that she held back. She was still holding part of herself back, but this felt a little more exposed than what she was used to. She had to return his honesty with honesty of her own.
“Yes.”
After a brief pause, where he seemed to process her answer, like he hadn’t been sure what it was going to be, he said, “I think it might be best if we don’t tell our families right away that we are co-parenting.”
She giggled. And she never giggled. He had a valid point. “I concur. I think we might need a restraining order for the grandfather.”
“On your side maybe. On my side for an uncle or two.”
“Okay. I agree. We definitely can’t tell our families about us.” She laughed a little.
“So there is an ‘us’?” he asked. She got the feeling he was only half kidding.
“There has to be, right? I mean, we can hardly co-parent if there’s no ‘us’. This poor puppy has already had such a hard life. He really needs to be in a stable home. We’ve got to work through this.”
“I think you just asked me to live with you. I don’t think I know you well enough for that.”
She looked at the puppy with a big smile on her face. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d laughed this much.
“I don’t think I want to do that anyway. Either commit or don’t. Don’t sit on the fence.”
“Whoa. A radical. Haven’t met one of those in a while. In fact, the last one that was in our shop had a long gray beard, tats up both arms, with leather and chains. He had a bunker and an arsenal that would make an army general salivate. You’re a little different.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t let your guard down. I probably have more in common with him than you think.”
It was his turn to chuckle. “You probably do. Or maybe you have more in common with the army general. I can see you shouting out orders.”
“I would be lying if I said I didn’t.” She gave out orders at her job all the time and expected to be obeyed.
“I believe that.” He didn
’t seem to want to talk about it anymore, either because he didn’t want to talk about her job and what she did, which she assumed he didn’t know, or maybe he didn’t like the idea that she was so bossy. She wasn’t sure.
But he said, “Did you decide on a name for the puppy?”
“I don’t have to name him. Did you have something in mind?”
“Nah. I don’t really care. As long as it isn’t anything girly.”
“Girly? Maybe he’s gender-neutral.”
“No. I’m pretty sure he’s secure in his manhood. With that statement, I’m thinking I better not trust you with the name. I get veto power.”
“No. You can’t change the agreement after it’s been made. I get to name him. No stipulations.”
“Okay then. You can name him. I just might not call him by the name you give him if it’s a girly name.”
She wanted to be angry. He was being unreasonable. He said she could name the dog, and she should be able to do so. But she couldn’t get upset, because he was just so...unrufflable.
“Don’t you ever get upset?” She didn’t mean to ask; it just slipped out.
“It’s a waste of time, isn’t it?”
She had never considered it like that, and she’d never met anybody who did. “Waste of time? Like you can control it? You just decide not to waste your time by being upset? That easy?”
She almost felt rather than saw his shoulders move in the darkness.
“Sure. That’s about it. You just decide things aren’t going to upset you.”
Totally opposite of anything she’d ever heard in any therapy sessions she’d gone to. But it made a certain amount of sense.
She’d have to think on that.
“I wouldn’t worry about it too much if I were you. Part of what makes you you is that you get upset about things. And you fix them. Me? I just don’t worry about it. That doesn’t make us bad or wrong. Just makes us different.”
Of course, he was right. She was a type A. And he wasn’t. She could see that easily, of course.
The Bad Boy's Secret Romance Page 5