The Last Single Garrett

by Brenda Harlen

  “It’s a house on wheels,” Eric responded.

  Her expression was skeptical. “It doesn’t look much like a house.”

  “Inside it does,” he assured her. “Do you want to see?”

  She looked from Eric to the RV and back again. “Can I?”

  “Sure,” he said.

  “You were saying something about Hanna,” Josh reminded her.

  “Oh, right.” She suddenly remembered. “She wants to know where the bathroom is.”

  “I’ll be right back,” Josh told the other men, then hurried to the conference room.

  When Hanna was finished in the bathroom, he saw that Emily had joined the group gathered in the lobby and heard Charlotte inviting her sister to “look at the house on wheels.” Although Josh had barely had a chance to get his head around his friend’s suggestion of taking the girls on the road with him, he figured there was no harm in looking at the RV.

  At Eric’s urging, Daniel led the girls up the steps and into the living area, while Josh walked around the outside with the vehicle’s owner.

  “You’ve got a similar truck to mine,” Josh commented.

  The other man nodded. “You don’t need anything bigger for this size RV.”

  “But I bet hauling an extra twelve-to-fifteen-thousand pounds would wreak havoc on my gas mileage.”

  Eric shook his head. “You won’t get me to take that kind of sucker bet,” he said. “On the other hand, the nightly rate at an RV park is a heck of a lot less than a hotel. With the added benefit of having a full kitchen to do your own cooking.”

  “How is doing my own cooking a benefit?” Josh wondered, as he stepped inside to check out the interior.

  “Well, my wife did the cooking,” Eric admitted, gesturing for Josh to check out the interior. “So it was a benefit to my wallet. And my stomach—Lainie was a helluva cook.”

  But Josh wasn’t, and remembering the disaster of his kitchen when he’d tried to keep up with the numerous and various demands of feeding three little girls made him shudder. On the other hand, logic dictated that a disaster in a kitchen half the size of his own would also be half the size.

  “Feel free to poke around,” Eric said. “Open doors and drawers, sit at the dinette, bounce on the beds.”

  At those words, Charlotte, Emily and Hanna all glanced up.

  “No,” Josh said firmly, looking at each one in turn. “No bouncing on the beds.”

  The matching hopeful expressions on their faces instantly faded.

  Eric chuckled. “Okay, I’ll leave you to explore while I go into the shop to see what modifications the crew is making for the next race.”

  “There’s more space than you would guess, once the living area and master bedroom are opened up,” Daniel commented.

  “But only one bathroom,” Josh noted. Not that he’d expected there would be more than that, but he did wonder about the logistics of sharing limited facilities with three little girls—especially when one of them seemed to be going to the bathroom every five minutes.

  “And bunk beds, Uncle Josh,” Emily chimed in excitedly.

  “Bunk beds, huh?”

  She nodded. “Can I sleep on the top?”

  “No, I want the top,” Charlotte said.

  “Whoa!” Josh said. “What makes you think anyone will be sleeping in here?”

  “Mr. Daniel said we might get to live in this for the summer,” his eldest niece told him.

  Josh slanted a look at his friend.

  “Might,” Daniel emphasized. “I said might.”

  “Can we, Uncle Josh?” Charlotte asked.

  “Please,” Emily added.

  “P’ease,” Hanna echoed.

  “Knock knock,” Tristyn said, climbing into the RV, Kenna on her heels.

  Daniel’s face immediately lit up at the sight of his wife. “What are you doing here?” he asked, sliding his arm around her and drawing her close for a kiss.

  “I thought I’d see if I could steal my husband away for a lunch break,” she told him.

  “You shouldn’t steal,” Emily said solemnly. “Stealing’s bad.”

  “You’re right,” Kenna confirmed. “Stealing is very bad. But in this case, it’s just an expression.”

  “Okay,” Emily said, but she still looked uncertain.

  “Where are the boys?” Daniel asked.

  “Having a teddy bear picnic with their cousins at your parents’ place.” She glanced around. “This looks like a fun way to travel.”

  Emily tugged on Tristyn’s hand. “It has bunk beds,” she said again.

  “Wow, bunk beds are pretty cool,” Tristyn acknowledged. Then, to Josh, “Are you really thinking of doing this?”

  “I haven’t come up with any other options,” he admitted. “But I’m not sure this one is viable.”

  “The girls seem to like it,” Daniel pointed out.

  “But managing the vehicle and three kids on my own is—”

  “Tristyn could come with us,” Charlotte interjected.

  “What?” Tristyn said, obviously taken aback by the suggestion.

  “Yay!” Emily said, clapping her hands together in obvious agreement with her sister’s plan.

  It was Josh’s immediate instinct to nix the suggestion, but no sooner had the words come out of Charlotte’s mouth than the idea began to take root in his mind.

  “It would certainly help to have an extra set of hands—and eyes—on three kids,” he agreed.

  But Tristyn was already shaking her head. “Sorry,” she said to the girls. “But I have to stay here to work.”

  “Actually, you’ve often said that as long as you have Wi-Fi, you could work almost anywhere,” Daniel reminded her.

  “Except that someone needs to cover reception while Stephanie is in Michigan for six weeks,” she pointed out.

  “My friend Laurel was supposed to teach a summer school course, but it was canceled,” Kenna chimed in. “She’s a huge racing fan and I know she’d love to have something to do for the summer.”

  Tristyn frowned. “Didn’t Laurel and Ren have a...” She trailed off and glanced at the girls, obviously trying to censor her words in their presence.

  “Orgy?” Emily piped up, completely uncensored.

  Kenna’s brows rose; Daniel coughed to hide a chuckle.

  Josh closed his eyes. “Kill me now and save my sister from doing it when she comes home and hears that word coming out of the mouth of her five-year-old.”

  “Where did she hear that word?” Kenna wondered.

  “It was my fault,” Tristyn admitted, her cheeks flushing. “And it’s a bad word that I should never have used,” she said, addressing Emily now. “So please don’t say it again or your mommy will be very mad at me.”

  “Okay,” Emily agreed easily. “So will you come with us?”

  “I’m not sure your uncle has made any final decisions yet,” she hedged, looking to Josh for help.

  “Don’t wait too long to decide,” Daniel advised his friend. “Eric’s ad just went up on craigslist this morning, and he’s already had a dozen inquiries.”

  Josh nodded.

  “Why don’t we take the girls back so you and Tristyn can talk about this?” Kenna suggested, already ushering his nieces toward the exit.

  “You’re actually thinking about it, aren’t you?” Tristyn mused when they’d gone.

  “Are you thinking I’m crazy to even consider it?” he asked her.

  “No,” she said, wandering through the RV. “In fact, I think it’s a good idea.”

  “Really?”

  She nodded. “It will give you the opportunity to spend some quality time with them, something more than the few days you usually have a couple of times a year.�
��

  “You can’t honestly think that spending the better part of the summer in a tiny house on wheels with me is the best option for three little girls.”

  “It’s hardly tiny,” she chided. “In fact, this RV is bigger than my first apartment. And actually, I do think spending the summer in this with you is the best option for your nieces.”

  “Really? Because just last week you referred to me as—” he tapped a finger to the dimple in his chin “—just a minute, I want to get the words exactly right. I think you said I was ‘an immature and unreliable jackass.’”

  “I said you were behaving like an immature and unreliable jackass,” she acknowledged. “But I believe you have the potential to be so much more.”

  “Thank you for that vote of confidence,” he said drily.

  “And spending the summer with your nieces would prove it.”

  “If it doesn’t drive me insane in the process.”

  “Eric Voss used to travel in this RV with his wife and four kids,” she said, pointedly ignoring his remark.

  “Okay, I’ll do it,” he decided. “If you come with us.”

  * * *

  Tristyn laughed. “You can’t honestly think that’s a good idea.”

  “It’s the only way I can imagine this working.”

  “Really? Because when I think about spending my summer in an RV with you, I imagine having to call my sisters to bail me out of jail after the police find your body.”

  He lifted a brow, his expression more amused than worried. “I don’t think there’s as much animosity between us as you like to pretend there is.”

  “We can hardly be in the same room together for ten minutes without snapping at one another.”

  “You spent four and a half hours with me the other night with no bloodshed,” he pointed out to her.

  “Because your three nieces were there to act as a buffer.”

  “And they’ll be there every mile of the road trip.”

  She shook her head. “There’s a huge difference between a few hours and several weeks.”

  He deliberately stepped in front of her. “I don’t think it’s the possibility of conflict that worries you,” he said. “I think it’s the attraction.”

  She snorted. “Get over yourself, Slater.”

  His lips curved, just a little. “I think you’re the one who needs to get over me.”

  “I did that. A long time ago.”

  “Did you?” he asked softly.

  “Twelve years ago,” she assured him.

  Twelve years ago, she’d been a senior at Hillfield Academy, eagerly getting ready for the Spring Fling, when she got the call from Mitch, her steady boyfriend of almost eighteen months. Actually, it was Mitch’s mom who had called because Mitch was in bed with the stomach flu and a bucket.

  Tristyn had felt bad for Mitch, and selfishly disappointed for herself. Because the senior prom was the biggest social event at Hillfield Academy and she’d been looking forward to this day since her freshman year. To miss it would be unthinkable. To show up without a date only slightly less mortifying.

  Enter Josh Slater—best friend of her cousin Daniel—who rode to her rescue like the proverbial white knight. Josh had also graduated from Hillfield, where he’d been an honor roll student and quarterback of the varsity football team in his junior and senior years. He’d been one of the popular kids—genuinely liked by all the guys and wanted by all the girls. So when Tristyn Garrett showed up to her senior prom on the arm of Josh Slater, there were whispers. She told everyone that she and Josh were just friends, but sometime during that night, she was the one who forgot that basic fact.

  She’d been seventeen years old—a naive and hopeless romantic who had, over the course of several months, built the night up in her mind to be something truly special. And when Josh asked her to dance, her knees had trembled. When he’d taken her in his arms, her breasts had tingled. At twenty, his lean, youthful frame had started to fill out, setting him apart as a man in a room filled with boys. They’d danced a few more times throughout the evening, and then they’d walked hand in hand in the moonlight.

  When he finally took her home at the end of the night, she’d tipped her head back to look at him, silently urging him to kiss her. His gaze had dropped to her lips, lingered. But when he made no move to breach that distance, she’d decided that she would—and nearly fell off the porch when he took a deliberate step back and walked away from her.

  She pushed the humiliating memory to the back of her mind.

  “Then spending a few weeks in a motor home with me and my nieces shouldn’t be a problem for you.” His statement drew her attention back to the present—and the present dilemma.

  “You’re just trying to get a free babysitter,” she accused.

  “Not at all,” he denied. “I’m acknowledging that I’m going to need help with the kids—and I’m willing to pay for your help.”

  She was annoyed that he would offer, because then she couldn’t be mad at him for trying to take advantage of her. And because she would never accept money for doing a favor for a friend. Which was the trump card he played next.

  “You also said,” he continued, “that I should reach out to my friends for help.”

  “And you questioned whether we were, in fact, friends,” she reminded him.

  “That was before you came through for me the other night.”

  “I didn’t really do anything,” she pointed out.

  “You canceled your date to help me out. Or is that the real reason for your hesitation now?” he asked. “Are you worried that Rafe will disapprove?”

  She shook her head. No, far more worrying to Tristyn was the fact that she hadn’t once considered how the other man might respond when he learned of her plans. Even if her relationship status with Rafe was unclear, she should have at least considered how he might feel. “I can’t imagine why he would have any objections,” she finally said.

  “Can’t you?” Josh asked. “Because I promise that if I was dating you, I wouldn’t be happy to hear that you were making plans to spend the better part of the summer in the company of another man.”

  “Well, you’re not dating me, and Rafe isn’t you.”

  “Does that mean you’ll come with us?”

  She stood in the middle of the living area and looked around, then slowly nodded. “On one condition.”

  “Anything,” he promised.

  “I get the master bedroom.”

  Chapter Six

  “Anything but that,” Josh said in response to Tristyn’s suggestion.

  “That’s my only condition,” she said. “And it’s nonnegotiable.”

  “Why should you get the bedroom?” he challenged.

  “Because I’m doing you a favor,” she reminded him.

  “You can do me another one by giving me the bed.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  “Come on, Tris—I’m about a foot taller than you.”

  She lifted her gaze from his chin, which was at her eye level, to meet his. “If you think that’s a foot, then your concept of six inches is probably equally exaggerated.”

  He narrowed his gaze. “Let’s just agree that I’m a lot taller than you.”

  “And that sofa bed is probably seventy-six inches long when it’s opened up.”

  “And not even the width of a double bed.”

  “Since you won’t be entertaining any female friends while you’re taking care of your nieces, I’m sure that won’t be a problem.”

  “Okay, I have another idea,” he told her.

  “No.”

  “You haven’t even heard my idea.”

  “I don’t need to hear it,” she said.

  “A king-size be
d is the equivalent of two double beds,” he pointed out. “So two people sharing a king is almost the same as each of them having a double.”

  “No,” she said again.

  “Let’s be logical about this,” he urged. “Since I’m the only male, it will afford everyone more privacy if my sleeping area is separate and apart from all of the females.”

  “You want logical? Consider this—I get the bedroom or I stay home,” she said.

  He sighed. “I guess you get the bedroom.”

  Because in the brief time that she’d been around his nieces, he’d finally grasped how much he needed her. Not just because she was a woman, but because she had a lot more experience with kids than he did. She was “Auntie Tristyn” not only to her sisters’ kids but to the offspring of her numerous cousins, and she was obviously comfortable surrounded by little ones of all ages—as she inevitably was whenever the Garrett family gathered.

  He still had reservations about the trip—he’d have to be crazy not to—but he was confident Charlotte, Emily and Hanna would enjoy the experience a lot more with Tristyn around. Unfortunately, he didn’t expect to enjoy the experience at all. Because he knew that being with Tristyn 24/7 would be more than a challenge—it would require him to continue to ignore his true feelings for her.

  On the plus side, he had a lot of practice with that—he’d been doing it for twelve years already.

  * * *

  When Tristyn got home from work that afternoon, she called her sisters and invited them to come over. Because Marco was at Valentino’s, Jordyn brought the twins with her, and Lauryn brought Kylie and Zachary, too, so the kids could all “play” together. Not that Henry and Liam did much playing yet, but Kylie certainly liked playing “mommy” to the little ones.

  When the children were settled with their toys and the adults with their wine—except for Lauryn, who was drinking herbal tea—Tristyn said, “I need some advice.”

  “About what?” her oldest sister asked.

  “Something I agreed to do that now I’m thinking I shouldn’t have.”

  “Sounds intriguing,” Jordyn said. “What did you agree to do?”