Danny spun to face him. “You’re really not leaving?”
He shook his head. “I’m really not leaving.”
Her eyes moved over him, sliding down his body in a slow sweep. “Fine.”
“I’m glad we understand each other.”
“That’s definitely not the case.” She crossed her arms. “But if you plan to stay then you have to earn your keep. That’s the way it works here.”
Considering he’d given her four thousand dollars he’d probably more than earned his keep, but that wasn’t what this was about. Not for her.
She intended to prove he couldn’t live in her world. It was written all over her face.
“I’ve lived places like this, Danny. I know how it works.” In the past year he’d been a tour guide for Bigfoot hunters, a bouncer in a bar, a babysitter, and whatever else needed to be done in Greenlea. “What do you need me to do?”
Her lips pursed. She was weighing her options, and chances were good she’d try to find a way to keep him away. Send him to go help one of her sisters, and that would be okay eventually, but not now.
“It’s turkey season, right?” He tipped his head to the scene unfolding just outside the back door to her shop. A pickup was backed into the spot on the other side of JD’s truck. The back was open and two men were hauling something out of the bed. “Looks like you have a few being dropped off.
Danny smiled. “They aren’t dropping off turkeys.”
Craig leaned to get a better look. “Is that a—”
“It’s a hog.”
The thing was huge. And dead.
“You’re butchering a hog today.” That was fine. He could do that.
Probably.
“That’s what needs to be done.” Danny stood a little taller. She was definitely sure he would refuse.
Admit this wasn’t a life he could handle.
“Fantastic.” Craig shoved up the sleeves of his shirt. “Let’s do it then.”
She stared at him for a second. “Fine.”
“Good.” He held his arm toward the building. “After you.”
Craig nodded to the men pulling the pig out. “Morning.”
The men eyed him with the same suspicion he was getting used to receiving in Shadow Pine. One leaned to spit tobacco-tinted saliva on the blacktop. “Who’re you?”
“He’s a man who knows better than to spit on my parking lot.” Danny’s chin tipped up just a little. “We talked about this, Lester.”
The man’s head dipped. “Sorry, Miss Danny. I wasn’t thinkin’.”
“Um-hm.” She frowned at him a second before tipping her head toward the door. “Get it inside. I’ve got plans for the afternoon.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Lester and his buddy hustled the hog into the building and set it in the corner of the shop on a walk-in-shower type basin with a hook hanging over it. “Appreciate your hard work, Miss Danny.” Lester and his friend kept their eyes on Craig as they walked out the back.
JD closed the heavy door behind them. “You staying for this, City Boy?”
“He’s helping.” Danny was wrapping on a full-length plastic apron with sleeves extending all the way to her wrists. She grabbed one and tossed it to Craig. “Put this on.”
JD chuckled as he pulled on his own apron. “You ever butchered anything?”
Craig stared at the hog. “Does carving the turkey at Thanksgiving count?”
“Not even a little.” JD tugged on a pair of rubber gloves. “This is nothing like that.”
Craig eyed the clear plastic shield covering Danny’s beautifully smiling face. “I’m getting that.”
“How about you stand back, and when we need you we’ll tell you.” JD’s gaze fell on Danny for a second before he moved in to where the pig was laying. He wrapped a chain around it’s back feet and pulled the hook down, lacing it onto the binding. Danny pressed a button on the wall and the whirr of a winch filled the shop as the pig started to lift over the drain.
Once the hog was a couple feet off the ground JD turned his way. “Prepare yourself, City Boy.”
Then he stepped in and made a long slice across the hogs throat. Blood instantly started pouring out to run down the drain.
And then the whole room went black.
****
“HOW’S YOUR HEAD?”
Craig lifted one hand to the back of his skull. A thick cushion blocked his fingers from finding the aching spot. “Sore.” He forced his lids open, expecting to be assaulted by the bright lights of the back room at Danny’s shop. “You moved me?”
Danny’s eyes lifted to scan the dimly-lit room. “I had JD drag you into my office. I figured if the first thing you saw was the hog you might pass out again.”
“I’ve never seen that done before.”
“No shit.” Danny’s lips turned down a little. “How do you feel?”
“My head hurts.”
“Do you feel sick?”
“I just watched JD slit a pig’s throat.”
She barely smiled. “Outside of that.” Her fingers came to his head, carefully tilting it to one side on the pillow. “I’m worried you have a concussion. You hit the ground pretty hard.”
Craig let her move his head around even though it hurt like hell. “I guess we’ll find out.”
She frowned at him. “We can’t just call an ambulance out here, Craig. If you think something’s wrong, then we need to take you somewhere.”
“I like all this we talk.” He caught one of her hands and held it. “I’m fine. Just a little bruise.”
“You’re sure?”
He stroked his thumb over the soft skin of her palm. “I like you worrying about me too.”
“I’m worried about you suing me.” Danny barely hid the smile starting by turning to grab a glass of water. “I have some Tylenol for you.” She held out two pills.
“Thank you.” Craig pushed up to a sitting position, groaning a little as the throbbing in his head amped up with the change in altitude.
Danny watched him closely as he popped in the pills and swallowed them down with the water. “You’re pale.”
“I’m also upset because I don’t think I’ll be able to eat bacon anytime soon.” He managed a smile.
“I’m sure your arteries will appreciate it.”
Craig pulled in a deep breath and started to stand up. Before he could get his legs under him his stomach rolled, hard and fast.
Danny held up a trash can, catching the pancakes and sausage he’d shared with Jude this morning. “Great.”
He dropped back to the pillow. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what happened.”
“I do.” She opened the door and slid the can outside before standing up. “You were right.”
Craig rested one arm over his eyes as they drifted closed.
“Right about what?”
Danny leaned down to lift his arm away, her eyes bouncing back and forth between his.
“You are definitely always going to be a pain in my ass.”
SIX
“IT’S JUST A concussion.” The ER doctor shined a light into each of Craig’s eyes.
“Just?” Danny looked at the man stretched out on the hospital bed in front of her, head back, eyes already closed again. “He hit the floor hard.”
“I believe you.” The doctor lifted his shoulders. “Doesn’t make it not a concussion.”
She stood from the chair and leaned both palms on the rails of the bed between them. “How are you going to fix it?”
The doctor backed up a step. “The treatment is rest.” His eyes bounced from her to Craig and then back again. “He just needs to rest.”
That was not the answer she wanted. Danny wanted him fixed. “That’s what you get paid to tell people? Go home and rest?”
She wanted to yell. Make him do something about what was clearly a big deal. Craig barfed all over her office for God’s sake. He couldn’t walk in a straight line and he kept dozing off.
“I have a whole paper o
f information.” The doctor whipped a stapled packet from the clipboard he brought into the room when he strode in less than two minutes ago. He held it out to her with the tips of his fingers, jerking them back as soon as she took it.
Like he thought she might bite.
It was a fair assumption.
“You can wake him up every few hours if you want, just to be sure.” The doctor took another step back. “But there really isn’t anything more to do for him right now.”
Danny slowly pulled her glare from the man staring at her with wide eyes, dropping them to the paper in her hand. The text just repeated everything he’d already told her.
“You look familiar.”
Her eyes snapped up.
The doctor pointed at her. “Have I treated you before?”
“Nope.” Danny rested one hand on Craig’s arm. “Come on, City Boy. It’s time to go.”
Before the doctor’s recognition registered.
“Okay.” Craig swung his legs over the side and immediately started to stand, swaying on his feet.
Danny wrapped an arm around his waist as she pulled one of his over her shoulders. Craig’s eyes opened and dipped to hers. “You’re so beautiful.”
“I know.” She started walking, directing him down the hall and through the door leading to the waiting room. The car was parked close, so in just a few minutes she had him leaned back and belted into the front seat. As she started to step away Craig grabbed her hand and pulled her back.
“I’m sorry I ruined your turkey hunt.”
Danny pressed down the smile trying to find its way onto her mouth. “I’m not the one you have to apologize to.”
“I’ll apologize to Jude too.” His head dropped back against the seat, making him wince. “I’ll take him for ice cream or something.”
Danny took advantage of Craig’s closed eyes to peruse his broad shoulders and the well-defined pecs that were easy to see, even under clothes. “Do you eat ice cream?”
“Checking me out?” Craig’s eyes barely opened for a second, catching her in the act. His lips curved in a smile as they slipped closed again. “It’s okay. I don’t mind.”
“I wasn’t checking you out.”
“You were.” Craig scooted down a little in his seat, adjusting where the back of his head rested. “I’ll argue with you about it tomorrow. My head hurts.”
“I was not checking you out.” Danny closed the door before he could say anything else.
She didn’t look his way as she climbed into the driver’s seat and started the car.
Craig barely snored from the seat beside her.
She drove the hour it took to get back to Shadow Pine in complete silence, trying to figure out what in the hell she was going to do about him. By the time they pulled up in front of her house Danny was no closer to having a plan. Which was unfortunate since Jude was out on the porch waiting for her.
“Is he okay?” Her son immediately jumped up and ran to Craig’s side of the car, leaning down to peek in. “He looks dead.”
“He’s not dead.” She’d listened to him snore for the past sixty minutes, so Craig was definitely still very alive.
Jude carefully opened the door. “Craig?”
“Mister O—”
“He can call me whatever he wants.” Craig reached for the buckle of his seatbelt without opening his eyes. They didn’t open until he was free and turning to stand. “Hey, Jude.” He smiled.
Jude’s shoulders dropped a little as he smiled back. “Sorry you hurt your head.” He leaned to look toward the back of Craig’s skull. “JD said you slipped and fell.”
Craig wrapped one arm around her son’s shoulders. “That was nice of him to say.” He leaned a little on Jude as he took a step.
“Careful.” Danny rushed to Craig’s free side. The last thing she needed was both of them on the ground. “He’s still a little unsteady.”
“Are you staying with us until you’re better?”
Jude’s question was so innocent. So sweet.
He worried about everyone. Cared about the people around him like no one she’d ever met before.
It was one of a million things she loved about her son.
But right now it was moving way down the list.
“I don’t know that Mr. O’Neal will be comfortable here.” It was what she’d been fighting with herself over the whole way home.
Sending Craig to sleep alone in his camper felt like a jerk move, especially since she was most of the reason he had a concussion in the first place.
But having him in her house, building on the instant bond he had with Jude, it was not what she wanted to happen.
What she wanted was for him to have driven out of Shadow Pine yesterday and never come back. Walked out of her world before she could wonder if he was as kind as he seemed.
As honest.
As muscular.
But that’s not what happened, because Craig O’Neal was a pain in the ass.
Her ass, specifically.
“He can sleep in my bed.” Jude’s clear blue eyes fixed on hers. “He seems really sick.”
“I will be just fine on the couch.” Craig’s attention was all on Jude. “You need your sleep so you can do all those math problems.”
Danny closed her eyes. She knew Jude craved male interaction in his life, but she’d hoped JD filled that void.
Now seeing how quickly he’d latched onto Craig, it was obvious that wasn’t true. Jude loved JD and enjoyed spending time with him, but he was never like this with the first friend she and her sisters knew besides each other.
And it made her head hurt.
“Do you have a concussion too?”
When she opened her eyes both Jude and Craig were staring at her.
“I think your mom’s just tired, Buddy.” Craig straightened. His eyes focused as he walked carefully into the house. “Why don’t we let her go rest?”
“Okay.” Jude immediately agreed, leaving Craig’s side to come to hers. “You can go upstairs and rest. I’ll take care of Craig.”
“I’m okay, Jude.” Craig’s gaze was serious as it zoned in on her son. “You don’t ever have to be the one to take care of me, okay?”
The realization of what she’d done to her son pressed heavy between Danny’s ribs. All she wanted was for him to be a kid. Live the carefree sort of life she and her sisters never had.
But she’d failed. Jude still felt the same burden she and her sisters carried.
Even at ten he knew they all had to take care of each other because no one else was going to do it.
He understood it was them against the world. Always had been.
Danny rested her palms on each side of her little boy’s face. “You are the kindest person I know, Ju-Ju.”
“I know. You say that all the time.” He barely squished his face up as she planted kisses on his cheeks and forehead.
“I love you.”
“Love you too, mom.” He wrapped both arms around her waist and squeezed tight.
The day Jude started calling her mom instead of mommy split her heart in two. She thought it meant he would soon pull away.
Stop needing her around. Wanting her around.
So far it hadn’t happened, but Danny still soaked up every hug. Every kiss.
Every moment where Jude was still her little boy.
Because the clock was running down.
She glanced up at Craig over Jude’s shaggy blond head. His dark eyes were locked onto where she held her son close.
“What if we all watch a movie?” Craig’s gaze lifted to hers. “Together.”
“Could we do that?” Jude stared up at her. “You could have the big couch so you could still rest.”
It might actually not be a bad idea. She could keep an eye on Craig, make sure he didn’t have any issues from his head injury, and Jude would stop looking at her like she would break his heart if she said no.
“Sure.”
“Your mom gets to pick
the movie.”
Jude frowned at Craig. “Seriously?”
Craig nodded. “She was nice enough to say yes, so she gets to pick.”
“Can we have popcorn?”
“That’s up to your mom too. She makes the rules.”
“Do I?” Danny lifted one finger. “Because I seem to remember telling a certain person to leave, and that hasn’t happened.”
Craig’s eyes barely lit up.
Like he enjoyed sparring with her.
“I’d put all my money on the fact that it’s not going to happen any time soon.” Craig gave her a wink.
Jude tilted his head. “Did you just wink at my mom?”
“What?” Craig’s attention snapped to her son. “No. That would be—”
“Inappropriate.” Danny finished for him.
“I don’t know that I would say inappropriate.” Craig’s eyes moved to her and then back on Jude. “I would call it premature.”
“So you’re going to wink at her later?”
Craig stood there for a minute. “I wasn’t expecting your vocabulary to be so good.”
Danny laughed. Homeschooling wasn’t an easy thing, but it meant her son could move at his own pace.
And Jude’s pace was fast.
“What kind of popcorn do you want, Ju-Ju?” She passed Jude and Craig on her way to the kitchen.
Her favorite room in the house.
It had running water, a fridge, and a reliable stove. All things she spent most of her life without.
“Can it be cinnamon sugar?” Jude glanced Craig’s way. “Since Craig hasn’t had it yet?”
“Mr. O’Neal isn’t your loophole in the sugar system.” Danny waited a second, working hard to smother a smile. “But, I guess I can let it slide this time.” She started to pull the large jar of popcorn from the pantry, pausing as she thought back through the events of the day.
“Actually, Craig might need some real food. He hasn’t had anything to eat today.” She turned to the man standing in the doorway to her kitchen.
His skin was a little pale. His eyes were a little dim. The line of his mouth was barely pinched.
He was trying to power through. Prove he was perfectly fine.
Danny (Big Northwest Book 1) Page 6