by Ivy Wonders
“Yeah,” I said as I looked around at the posh neighborhood. “Barnyard animals might not be welcomed around here.”
“Most likely not.” Rebel looked at the rock wall at the back of her yard. “I don’t think Beverly Song would like that, either. She’s got some definite opinions of what she wants to see and doesn’t want to see, and I’m not trying to make her mad. I never in a million years thought I’d be living in the Queen Anne neighborhood. I don’t want to be run out of here for having a bunch of noisy, smelly animals.”
I’d only lived in the place a little under two years, so I understood what she meant. “Wait until your first HOA meeting. They really know how to throw a party around here. Caviar and champagne are staples at those things.”
Eli put his finger in his mouth, mock-gagging. “Yuck.”
“I’m with you. I hate both those nasty things,” Rebel agreed.
“So, no champagne for you then, Rebel?” I figured her for a fancy cocktail drinker.
“No, thank you. When I do drink, I prefer Jack and Coke.”
Now that’s my kind of girl.
Chapter 4
Rebel
The man sitting across the table didn’t look anything like his son. Harman had sandy blonde hair and green eyes, but his weren’t anywhere near the dark shade of Eli’s. Harman’s were more like a sea-green—kind of dreamy—sexy, even.
He’d come over wearing loose-fitting black shorts and a t-shirt with the arms cut out. Even if Eli hadn’t already clued me in, it would’ve been obvious that Harman had just come from his workout—his tanned skin still glowed from the sweat he’d worked up.
Every visible muscle was toned and perfectly formed. From his shoulders to his ankles, it was clear that the man took care of his body.
I wasn’t the kind to work out in a gym. I got the majority of my exercise at work, lifting heavy animals and chasing after runaway pets whenever necessary.
“Speaking of the neighborhood, there’s a sweet place to run a few blocks over.” Harman jerked his head in the direction he meant. “I could show you sometime if you’d like. It’s well-lit and perfect for early morning runs.”
“Do you usually run in the mornings?” I barely made it out of bed and to the shower before going to work.
“Every day that it’s not raining—which, in Seattle, isn’t often. That’s why I have the home gym.” He looked in the direction of his place. “You’re welcome to work out in it any time you want. I’ll leave your name with the maid, and she’ll let you in whenever you want.”
“That’s very nice of you.” It seemed I was getting off on the right foot with my neighbor, but I wasn’t sure if I we were quite on those terms yet. “I wouldn’t want to go into your home when you’re not there, though. And to be honest, I don’t exercise much, other than what I do at work. Which is a lot.”
“Well, the morning run then?” he asked, seeming hopeful.
“The only running I do in the morning is to the coffee maker before running to get into a hot shower.” I knew I sounded lazy, but it was the truth.
Still trying to get me on the exercise train, he put in another offer. “Well, Eli and I have a little nightly routine you might enjoy.”
Eli clapped and hopped up and down. “Oh, yeah! Me and Dad swim in the indoor pool every night at eight o’clock on the dot. We have races and do laps around the big pool. You could come!”
Harman added, “It does wonders for a good night’s rest.” His smile—and the image of him in a bathing suit—did things to me that were dangerous. “I could leave the golf cart at the gate for you if you don’t want to walk all that way.”
“How generous of you both.” I didn’t know what to say. It felt rude to turn down everything they offered. “I suppose I’d like to give that a try. It sounds like it would be a great way to wind down after a long day. How long do you guys swim for, anyway?”
“An hour,” Harman told me.
My mouth dropped open. “You swim—nonstop—for an entire hour?”
He nodded as Eli shouted, “Sure we do! And then we get out, take a quick shower and get into bed, and I fall right to sleep almost ‘mediately too.”
“You both sound like pros.” I knew I could never keep up with either of them. It surprised me that little Eli could even keep up with his dad. “Do you always exercise with your dad?”
“Nah. He won’t let me lift weights and stuff yet. He says it’ll stunt my growth. But I run with him sometimes on the weekends. He gets up too early for me to go with him on school days.” Eli walked around to pat his dad on the back. “Plus, his legs are longer, so he runs faster than me. I slow him down when I go with him.”
“I don’t mind, Little Buddy.” Harman ran his hand through his son’s thick auburn hair. “We need to stop and see the barber Monday on our way home from school. I hadn’t realized how shaggy you’ve gotten.”
“I could give him a trim.” I’d taken some cosmetology classes in college before setting my sights on veterinary school, but then remembered that I hadn’t finished unpacking yet. “After I unpack tomorrow, that is. I keep forgetting about all the work I need to do inside.”
“And we’re getting in your way of that,” Harman said a little sheepishly. “I’m sorry. We’ll get out of your hair, Rebel.”
“Actually, I needed to take a break anyway.” I’d worked hard for several hours, and if Eli hadn’t come by, I would’ve worked right through dinner without even eating. “There’s no rush to leave. I won’t be getting back to work until after dinner anyway. I keep trying to remind myself that I’ve got the entire weekend to get everything put away. No reason to hurry and wear myself out completely.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t swim tonight then,” Eli said, thoughtfully. “That might be too much for you, Rebel.”
I laughed as I looked at Harman. “He’s such a sweet kid. You’ve raised him well.”
“Thanks.” Harman looked at his son out of the corner of his eyes, and I could see it written all over his handsome face. He felt sad about something.
My bets were on the absent mother and how she’d let down their son. “Would you like a bottle of water, Harman?”
He turned his head and smiled at me. “I’d actually love one. I should’ve grabbed one before leaving the house but didn’t count on hanging out here so long.”
Eli was standing beside his dad and quickly offered to get that sorted. “I’ll get him one. Can I go inside your house, Rebel?”
“Yep. The kitchen is right there, and the water is in the fridge. Ignore the cluttered countertops, please.” I’d yet to put the kitchen stuff away.
“Sure.” He took off, and I found Harman looking at him as he went.
“So, wanna tell me about your ex?” I wasn’t usually so nosy, but it felt like the elephant in the room at that point. I figured I might as well open that door, knowing that he likely wouldn’t, even though a certain amount of sadness radiated off him.
“Is it that obvious?” he chuckled. “Am I that guy now? The one who everyone can tell is having a hard time with his life?”
“You most likely don’t radiate it as much as you are right now, around your son.” I hoped that softened the blow. “You’re hurting for that boy, I can tell.”
“His mother wasn’t ever the greatest, but she did try to be motherly and do things for him while we were together.” He leaned back in the chair, then looked up. “She was young when we married. Nineteen, to be exact. And pregnant. And we weren’t in love at all.”
“A shotgun wedding?” I had to ask. “People still do that sort of thing?”
“In my family we did. I was brought up to know what it means to take care of the people in my life.” He looked at me. “You know…do what’s right?”
“So, she got pregnant, and you did what was right.” It was respectable, even if it wasn’t the smartest thing to do. “And how old were you?”
“Twenty-five.” He smiled. “Your age now. I’m thirty-three now, j
ust so you know.”
I nodded. “I figured you were around that age.” Realizing how that sounded, I got a little flustered. “Not that I was looking that hard at you.”
“I’m sure you weren’t.” He flexed one bicep, and my eyes went straight to it.
We both started laughing. “Okay, maybe I was looking a little. But you’ve got to admit that you’ve built a pretty impressive body there, Doctor Hunter.”
“And he even told you our last name?” he groaned as he shook his head. “I swear I don’t know what’s gotten into that kid. He’s never been so chatty in his life.”
I didn’t know why the boy felt like he could talk to me, but I liked it. “Maybe he’s missing an older female to talk to. How long’s it been since he’s seen his mother? He told me he can’t count all the days it’s been.”
“Shit.” Harman’s head dropped. “I try not to count the days myself. I think it’s been about three weeks.”
“That’s a long time to a little kid,” I remembered the first time I went away to spend a week at my grandparents’ house. “When I was ten, I went away from home for a week. I swear, I thought the whole summer had passed by while I was away. It seemed like forever. I can’t imagine how he feels.”
I saw his shoulders droop at that, and it made me feel awful for what I’d said. The man clearly already felt awful about the situation; he didn’t need me to rub it in.
“I can’t, either,” he confided. “I don’t miss his mother at all. Mostly because our marriage had been over for a long time before she left. Funny how she decided she wanted to end things only after I started making a tidy sum of money.”
“Ah, alimony.” I nodded, understanding how those things could happen. “So, do you look at that like a good side effect of getting that generous gift from your patient’s father or a bad one?”
He lifted his head and our eyes met. “He told you about our financials, too?”
I nodded and had to laugh at his bewildered expression. “Yep. I guess he trusts me for some reason.”
“Wow.” He blinked a few times. “Well, first off, let me say that the money wasn’t an outright gift, and it didn’t happen because of my work. It’s not entirely ethical for physicians to take huge amounts of money from their patients’ families just for doing our jobs, and I wouldn’t have taken it if I could’ve avoided it. But this money was all tied up in investments and stock shares, and I couldn’t exactly refuse it, so I figured I’d make the most of it.
“Now, as for my ex—for me personally, her leaving was good. But for our son, it wasn’t. It’s like she washed her hands of Eli when she washed her hands of me, and he doesn’t deserve that. I did—I didn’t love her. That’s why I haven’t fought her on much of anything since the divorce. She could have Eli any time she wants, but she won’t even take him when the custody papers say she can. I gave him a cell phone, so they could talk as much as they wanted, but she only answers his calls once a day. And those always end with her telling him she’s got work to do and can’t talk to him for longer.”
It sounded like the woman had many faults, but I couldn’t help but empathize with her—it couldn’t have been easy to have a baby so young. Before I could stop myself, I was voicing my opinion. “I’m sure she just doesn’t realize the impact she’s having on your son. Having a baby that young might make a woman feel like she’s missed out on a lot of things. Have you brought her attention to it?”
“I have.” He looked at me with those sad eyes. “She’s not working this weekend. She’s getting drunk with her friends to get over the latest guy she just dumped. I did tell her how important it is to spend time with her son, but she was hell-bent on going. And when that woman sets her mind on something she wants, there’s really no stopping her.”
“Oh, that sounds…rough.” I’d clearly butted in where I didn’t belong. I’d never dealt with family troubles before, and though I wished I could help Eli—that enthusiastic boy deserved to be happy—I was out of my depth. I’d been there for families who had lost a pet or were losing one, but humans losing humans wasn’t my forte. “Perhaps a counselor would help her?” That seemed like some solid advice.
“She won’t go to one.” He smiled weakly. “As a doctor, that was my go-to suggestion. I took Eli to one for a little while when we first separated, but Tara turned any family or individual counseling down flat. I’m not sure who or what could get through to her at this point. I just wish my son could have his mother back. That’s all I really want.”
“If she decided she wanted to come back, would you let her?” It wasn’t my business at all, but I felt the man was getting desperate.
“I might. I might let her come back if it meant she started being there for our son again.” He looked up as Eli came out with the water. “But I don’t want her back for me. I’m over our marriage completely.”
At least he wasn’t pining away for the woman, and I couldn’t say I blamed him for moving on so easily. The man had that—and a whole lot else—going for him.
Chapter 5
Harman
I hadn’t felt so at ease with a woman in a very long time. There was a genuineness to Rebel that just radiated from her. There didn’t seem to be even one fake thing about her. And that seemed to be only one great quality among many about the woman. And it didn’t hurt that she was absolutely gorgeous.
“Dad, here’s your water.” Eli put the bottle in front of me, then took a seat at the table, turning his attention to Rebel after barely glancing my way. “You sure got lots to do in there.”
Nodding, she said, “I do. But I’ve got all weekend to do it. I’m going to go grab something for dinner and eat before I get back to work.” Her eyes moved to mine. “Where’s the best place to get a veggie burger around here?”
And there it was—her one flaw. “You’re a vegetarian?”
“Lord, no.” She laughed, and the way her eyes sparkled made my crotch ache. “It’s just that I’ve found if a place can make something like that taste good, then they usually make one hell of a great burger.”
Relief washed over me. “Well, that’s good to hear. For a second there, I thought we couldn’t be friends.”
Her laughter made me smile, and I felt a little flip in my chest, in an area suspiciously close to my heart. “Vegetarians are off limits, huh?”
Romantically speaking, no one was really off limits unless they didn’t get along with my son. And I had no idea why I was thinking romantically about this woman I’d barely met. I needed to get off the subject.
“There isn’t a good burger place around here. As you can imagine, the people who live around here tend to like things that are a bit more upscale. There are a lot of fancy bistros and cafes, but burgers aren’t really their thing. But I happen to have a chef who can make some pretty good ones. Why don’t you come over and eat dinner with us?”
“Yeah!” Eli shouted, his fist pumping into the air. “Come on, Rebel. I want to show you around our mansion.”
I’d told him not to call our home that. If it’d been up to me, we would be living in something much smaller. But Tara had insisted on the sprawling home, and Eli loved the place so much I couldn’t bring myself to make him move now that Tara’s opinion didn’t matter.
“Eli, it’s just our home. I don’t like you putting on airs like that.” Looking at Rebel, I apologized, “Sorry about that. He’s just a kid who hasn’t always lived this sort of life. It shows on him sometimes.”
“I understand, and I don’t see anything wrong with what he said.” She reached over and patted him on the shoulder. “If I lived in a mansion, I’d be pretty happy about it, too.”
Eli nodded. “We went from a tiny apartment to something that’s bigger than the museum I went to once on a field trip in kindergarten. I think it’s cool. We got a room with a pool table and one with a piano. We don’t know how to play it, but it’s there.”
“The previous owner left a few things behind,” I told her. “So, will you c
ome for dinner?”
“I shouldn’t impose on you like that—not when we’ve just met.” She looked down at her hands in her lap, seeming shy for the first time.
“I don’t know what that means,” Eli said, “but you should come. Please.”
She smiled at the pleading tone of his voice that got to me so easily. “Okay. …if you’re sure. I’d love to join you guys for dinner tonight. And once I get all settled, you two will have to join me for dinner one night and let me cook you my famous lasagna.”
“Deal,” I said quickly, and then pulled out my cell. “Let me text Rene about the burgers, and then we’ll head over.”
Rebel looked toward my place. “Should I take my car? I don’t want to walk home in the dark.”
I thought about how nice it would be to walk her home, to get a little more time with her without Eli tagging along. “I’ll make sure I get you back here safe and sound. There are tons of lights in this neighborhood—you’ll have a hard time finding many shadows around here. I’ll walk you home afterward.”
“How nice of you.” Rebel got up as I stood. “Looks like I’ve found myself a couple of gentlemen. Let me just lock up.”
Eli ran ahead of us as we walked side by side out of her backyard. “There’s really no need for that. There are too many security cameras around here to worry about anyone taking anything. You’re in a very safe place. But do lock your doors at night. It’s just safer that way.”
“That’s good to know.” We headed up the street, and she looked up the long drive to my place. “It must’ve felt so weird when you moved from a little apartment to this place.”
“We all felt out of place for a while.” I thought about how Tara had griped about the new neighborhood almost instantly. Typical Tara, finding something to complain about even though she’d gotten exactly what she’d demanded in the first place. “Tara only managed to stay a few months here before she left. She kept saying she couldn’t take the way people around here looked down their noses at her.”