by Donya Lynne
She nodded.
“Well, maybe he did.”
“You really think so?”
“What I think doesn’t matter. What matters is whether or not you think so?”
They stared at each other. No words, no movement, just an intimate meeting of eyes. The rest of the world faded. The laughing children disappeared. For a moment, it was just the two of them, and it felt as if they were suspended inside a private bubble shielded from everything else.
Then a high-pitched screech pulled Scott’s attention around. In a flash, he was on his feet.
“Savannah! Oh my God, honey, are you okay?” He leapt into the bowl and rushed to where the girl with dark hair lay on her side. Her board flipped and flew across the concrete, landing upside down.
That was his daughter? The girl with the mad skills and wicked lines was Scott’s child?
Lacey shot up and hurried down the wall. She retrieved the girl’s skateboard then joined him. “Is she all right?”
He was helping her sit up.
“I’m okay.” The little girl sounded like she was trying to reassure her dad more than herself. “Just fell.”
She looked shaken but uninjured.
“You need to be more careful.” Scott helped her to her feet.
“I was. I—”
But Scott wasn’t having it. His controlled demeanor was gone, replaced by panic. “You could get hurt, Savannah. This isn’t like snowboarding. There’s no snow to cushion your fall. Here, you hit concrete. You could break an arm or a leg or—”
“She looks okay,” Lacey said, touching his hand, trying to calm him.
She didn’t want to tell him that hitting snow wasn’t as “safe” as he thought. Snow hit back just as hard as concrete, especially when it was packed over a layer of ice.
But his thoughts seemed to have taken him to a darker place. One that was scary and too close to his own past.
Lacey jumped into calm-down mode. “Nothing’s broken. Not even a scratch, right?” She knelt and winked at Savannah. “You’re all good, right?”
Savannah nodded, her eyes filled with worry as she glanced up at her dad. “I’m sorry, Daddy.”
Scott paced away and blew out a heavy breath.
Lacey tapped the tip of Savannah’s nose and gave her a conspiratorial smile. “Don’t worry, he’s just having a daddy moment. He’ll be fine. My dad used to react the same way when I fell.” Her dad had nearly had a heart attack many times until he got used to seeing her fall and get back up.
“Are you a skateboarder?”
“I used to be.” She stood.
“Really?” Savannah’s eyes opened wide, and for a moment, Lacey feared Scott’s daughter had recognized her.
“Uh-huh. A long time ago, though.” She helped dust off Savannah’s clothes. “Trust me, your dad will get used to the falls. Mine did.”
“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing her fall.” Scott raked his fingers through his hair, still agitated.
Lacey offered him a reassuring smile then turned back to Savannah. “You’ve got major talent, kiddo. Mad chops. I was impressed watching you.”
Impressed? Try inspired.
Savannah beamed as if Lacey had paid her the highest compliment imaginable.
Scott planted his hands on his hips and blew out a frustrated exhale, but he finally looked relieved.
“By the way, Savannah, my name’s Mattie.” Scott’s cheeks reddened as if he was embarrassed for failing to introduce her. But, really, could Lacey blame him? This was his kid. He was in the midst of a fatherly crisis, which meant he didn’t need to expend mental faculties to remember his manners. “You sure you’re okay?”
Savannah nodded. “Are you a friend of my dad’s?” She looked between her and Scott.
“Mattie’s renting one of our cabins.” Scott brushed his hand down his face as if he was still trying to pull himself together.
Skateboarders continued to whir around the park but blessedly stayed out of the bowl so Scott could tend to his daughter.
“Maybe we should get back up top,” Lacey suggested.
“Yeah, okay.” Scott absently nodded. “You’re right.” Scott took Savannah’s hand and guided her to the wall.
In the few times Lacey had seen Scott, he’d been quiet, calm, and collected. Seeing his daughter wipe out had drawn out a different Scott. One who was flustered and upset. Probably experiencing a flashback to his own traumatic accident, even if falling on a skateboard was nothing like being hit by a car. But try and explain that to his overstimulated mind.
Once topside, Lacey handed the skateboard back to Savannah.
“I think it’s time we head home, hot shot.” Scott knelt and unfastened Savannah’s helmet. He sounded like he was feeling better, if not still a bit unsteady.
“Can we stop by Pappy’s for a shake first?” When Savannah pulled off the helmet, long dark hair the color of her dad’s spilled over her shoulders.
“I don’t know.” Scott tucked her hair behind her ears. “Do you think scaring your dad like that merits a marshmallow shake?”
“Daddy, pleeeeeaaase.”
Scott stood and sighed. “Okay, but only a small one. No ruining your dinner.”
Savannah beamed and turned toward Lacey. “Wanna come with?”
Seems the friendly townsfolk extended to the children, as well.
Lacey’s gaze shot to Scott’s. “Oh, not me. I ate there for lunch and already had my daily quota of milkshake.”
“You sure?” Scott tucked Savannah’s helmet under his arm. He sounded more than down with his daughter’s invitation.
She smiled. “No, thank you. I’m fine. You two have fun, though.” The last thing she needed was to get too close to Scott and his daughter. Not when she couldn’t be honest about who she was.
“Okay. Another time maybe.” His warm, dark eyes held hers for a moment as his cheeks colored. Then he motioned for Savannah to head toward the exit.
Lacey followed them out.
Once he got Savannah settled inside the cab of his truck, he took a step back, out of his daughter’s line of sight. He halfheartedly lifted his arm toward the skate park. “Thank you for helping out back there.”
“No problem.” Lacey had plenty of experience handling worried dads. She’d mastered her own.
“I guess I kind of lost it. I’ve never seen her fall like that. I do volunteer work here and see kids fall all the time, but—”
Lacey touched his arm, quieting him. His gaze dropped and landed on where her skin met his. “It’s okay. You don’t have to explain a thing. I totally get it. She’s your kid. Seeing her fall isn’t like seeing other kids fall.”
His skin was warm, his arm firm. He felt like coiled power ready to pounce, making her draw in an unsteady breath. As his gaze met hers again, the muscles in his forearm flexed under her fingers, rippling as if responding to her touch. She gulped and gently disengaged, drawing her hand back to her side.
Awkward silence followed until he cleared his throat and blinked several times. That same expression from the other night was on his face. The one that made her feel like a riddle he was trying to solve.
Finally, he inhaled and straightened. “You’re right.” He gave her another of his tiny smiles. “Thank you for…well…just thank you.”
“Any time.” The southerly breeze blew the ends of her hair over her face, but she hardly noticed, too transfixed by his stare.
His heavy brow ticked inward above the bridge of his nose. “Well, I’d better go.” His boots scuffed the pavement as he stepped back.
“Yeah, me, too.” She started for her car.
He walked around to the driver’s side of the truck. “See you later, Mattie.”
She waved as she unlocked her door.
If her life wasn’t already so complicated, and if she didn’t need time to sort her shit out, Scott would make a nice diversion. But she had already lied to him about her name and her “job.” She didn’t wa
nt to lie to him about anything else, and lies were all she had to give if she wanted this trip to achieve what she’d intended, which was to find herself, not a man to share a bed with. Scott McCord seemed like too nice a guy to drag into her problems. He deserved better than she could give.
But damn her if she didn’t want him in a way she’d never wanted a man.
As she watched him drive away, she shook her head. “Grandpa, what have you gotten me into?”
Chapter 7
The following Friday, Scott and his brother were doing routine maintenance and upgrades on one of their cabins. Every summer was a race against the next coming winter as they kept their cabins updated and ready for the ski season.
He parked beside Liam’s truck and was greeted by his brother’s yellow Lab, tail wagging and tongue hanging out.
“Hey Rosco.” He rubbed the dog’s head and started for the porch.
The Lab followed him inside to the kitchen, sniffing the takeout bag from Pappy’s. Scott found his brother’s denim-clad legs sticking out from the cabinet under the kitchen sink.
“About time you returned¸” Liam said. “I’m starved.” He pushed himself out and to his feet.
Scott handed over the bag then knelt on his haunches and peered inside at the new pipe his brother had installed. “Sorry. Lost track of time.”
“You? Lose track of time? Yeah, right.” Liam set down his carryout and tested his plumbing by washing his hands.
No leaks.
Scott stood and grabbed a bottled water from the counter. Liam had his number. He hadn’t lost track of time. He’d dawdled at Pappy’s on purpose in hopes he would see her. The petite blonde with the brown eyes and big heart. Mattie. Who he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about since the first time he saw her almost two weeks ago, especially after bumping into her at the skate park.
“Well, the sink’s finished.” Liam’s grit-splattered face turned toward him as he pulled out his container of food. “Hey, where’s yours?”
“I already ate.” Scott chugged a gulp of water and turned toward the living room so he didn’t have to see the accusatory expression on Liam’s face.
“Okay, what’s up with you?”
“What do you mean?”
“You know what I mean.”
Scott only ate at Pappy’s when he had Savannah with him. Otherwise, he ordered his food to go. But today his need to see if he could bump into Mattie had overruled his desire to get back to work, so he’d made an exception to eat in, much to the surprise of every waitress and almost every customer in the joint.
“What are you? My dad? Come on, it’s nothing.” For ten years, he’d been able to resist falling for the opposite sex, but something about Mattie made him want to fall. Hard.
She was so petite, so lithe, so…beautiful. He loved the way her short hair curled over her shoulders, the way her smile warmed his heart, the gentle singsong melody of her voice. Everything about her seemed ideal. As if she’d been made to tempt him. And tempt him she did. For the first time in a decade, he actually…wanted. Not just sexually, but in a way that felt deeper than anything he’d felt before. And he hardly knew Mattie. Not even Theresa had made him feel this way, and he’d been prepared to marry her until the truth came out.
Liam jarred him from his thoughts. “You’ve been off your game for days, Scott. What’s going on with you?”
“Nothing. Drop it.” Scott tossed a frown Liam’s way. It must have gotten the message across, because Liam held up his hands in surrender.
“Fine. Dropped. Jesus, you don’t have to be a dick about it.”
Shit, had he come off that gruff? He hadn’t meant to, but then again, he was torqued. This was his last weekend with Savannah before Theresa took her two hours away to a new home. So, not only was he jonesing for another dose of Mattie, but he was twisted up inside over losing what had been his life support after the accident and throughout his long recovery. It was a wonder he hadn’t literally bit Liam’s head clean off.
“I’m sorry, Liam. I’m just…” He couldn’t even say the words.
“This is your last weekend with her, I know.”
Scott’s frown deepened, and he propped his hand on the wall as he lowered his head. “What am I going to do without her? She’s everything to me. Damn Theresa for fucking up my life all over again.”
“Theresa’s a bitch.” Liam crunched into crisp lettuce on his burger. “I’ve never forgiven her for what she did. I can’t believe you did.” He spoke around a mouthful of food.
Scott tossed the empty bottle in the recycle bin. “I only forgave her for Savannah. As messed up as that whole situation was, I did get something good out of it.” Good? No, something great. Something fabulous! A daughter who had been the key to bringing him back from the brink. If not for Savannah, Scott might not have come out of the accident as clearheaded as he had.
Liam seemed to sense the direction his thoughts had taken, because he quickly changed the subject. “Why don’t you start pulling out the fridge while I eat? When I’m done here, I’ll help you move in the new one.”
“Sure, yeah.”
He and Liam had co-owned McCord Cabin Rentals for the last six years. Before that, it had just been Liam. He’d bought the property from their parents straight out of college and converted it to a resort. Scott had moved here his sophomore year to help out and be closer to Theresa, who he’d met the summer before. He’d thought they would always be together. How wrong he’d been.
Their parents, who ran a potato farm a few hours southeast, had originally bought the property in Hope Falls to use for family vacations. They’d sold only a portion of their total acreage to Liam, so they still held family gatherings here a couple times a year at their parents’ cabin, which was more like an estate. But even Scott’s younger sister had transplanted to Hope Falls permanently, even though she was spending a few months back home now that fire season was pretty much over. She was a smokejumper trained out of the Hope Falls base.
There was just something about this place that called to the McCord children.
He couldn’t deny that he hoped Mattie would feel the same pull. There was something magnetic about her, and even though it was irrational to expect her to abandon her prior life, he wanted her to stick around.
Liam finished lunch, and the two of them moved in the new refrigerator, cleaned up, and headed off to clear a fallen pine along the back edge of the property where Scott led nature hikes in the summer.
As they drove along the gravel road, throwing up water from the puddles left over from yesterday’s storm, Mattie’s blue Ford Escape approached from the opposite direction.
Scott perked up and craned his neck as she passed without even a glance their direction.
“Who was that?” Liam said suspiciously, throwing Scott a curious look.
Scott quickly turned front. “No one.”
“Uh-huh.” Liam’s eyes narrowed. “That’s why you nearly climbed over me to get a look at her.”
“Shut up. I did not.” Scott scowled out the window.
“Yeah, whatever. She’s the one renting cabin thirty-six, isn’t she? Mathilda Moon?”
“Mattie.”
“Ooohh, Mattie, is it?” Liam chuckled. “So, you do know her.”
“She called for maintenance last week when Mike was sick. Pilot light went out on her furnace.”
“And I bet you lit it, didn’t you?” Liam’s sarcastic tone grated Scott’s nerves.
“I fixed it, yes.”
Liam said nothing for a few seconds then, “She’s pretty.” He harrumphed in that way that said he’d been checking her out, too.
The green-eyed monster rose in Scott’s blood. The thought of Liam moving in on Mattie didn’t sit well. The guy wasn’t known to be the settling-down type. More like love ‘em and leave ‘em. And Mattie was too sweet for that kind of treatment.
“Keep your hands off that one, Liam.”
“Why? You staking a claim?” Liam cast
him a challenging sideways glance.
Scott glared at him. “No. I just don’t want you pawing the guests.”
“Bullshit!” Liam barked out a laugh. “You’ve never voiced concern before. Why now? What’s so special about Mattie?”
“There’s nothing special about her.” Liar. Everything about her was special.
Liam pulled up to the fallen tree, threw the truck into park, and shut off the engine. “You’re so full of shit, Scott.” He pushed open the driver’s side door. “It’s been ten years, for God’s sake. Stop being such a flake. If you want her, ask her out. If you don’t, I will.”
Liam saying he would ask Mattie out was akin to him saying he was going to fuck her. And that shit didn’t fly.
Scott threw his door open, stormed to the back of the truck, and got chest-to-chest with his brother, who stood an inch taller than he did. But that didn’t mean Scott couldn’t kick his ass. “Stay away from her, Liam.”
Liam’s brown eyes narrowed as he smirked. “Thought so. You’re hot for her.”
Scott ricocheted back and blew out a derisive puff. “I’m not discussing this with you, so drop it. Just stay away from her.” He reached into the bed of the truck for a chainsaw. “You’re not good enough for her, anyway.” He turned his back on his brother and marched toward the tree, already yanking on the cord to start the saw.
It buzzed to life, and he began trimming off the branches.
It was over two minutes later that he glanced up to find Liam standing a few feet away, wearing a sullen scowl.
Scott shut off his chainsaw and straightened, suddenly feeling like a chump for throwing that last insult at his brother. What had happened to his wife hadn’t been his fault. But Liam had never gotten over her death, and his deviant behavior proved it. He’d turned into an unfeeling ass.
Liam stood rooted in place, a pillar of regret and seething emotion. “I may not be good enough for her. That much could very well be true.” He paused and set his jaw, jutting out his chin. “But at least I still get out there. At least I try. You’ve just given up completely.”