When We Met: A Small Town Single Dad Romance

by Shey Stahl

  Kacy’s lashes flutter, but she doesn’t miss a beat. “I wouldn’t want to impose.”

  “You’re not,” I say before I can stop myself. “It should only take about a week.”

  Lillian glances at the order, smiles, and hands it back to me. She knows there’s a Mercedes dealership nearby, but I left that out. Yes, I know what I’m doing, so don’t lecture me.

  Unfortunately for me, I’m thinking about her panties again. I’ve moved on from the color. Now I’m curious about the style. Thong? Bikini? Cheeky? Fuck. I love those. Or maybe they’re basic white granny panties. Sadly, I’d still find them hot and want to peel them off her insanely hot body with my teeth.

  Yes, I know. I’m fucked.

  And I know what you’re thinking. This is a bad idea, admit it.

  Yes. The answer should have been yes.

  BARRON

  I’ve been working at my dad’s repair shop turning wrenches long before I knew what I wanted to do for a living. And now that I am, every day is predictable. At least once a week, I’ll be called out to the Chandler Ranch because Earl has ignored the warning signs of his tractor he refuses to retire. Grandma Mel will forget where she put her keys, let alone her car, and I’ll drive out of my way to pick her up at the gas station.

  And, whether I want to or not, I will have to pry my kids out of something they shouldn’t have squeezed their bodies into, or they will have let animals from one pen into the next without Morgan’s knowledge.

  Ever chase a pigmy goat down a highway?

  Morgan has, thanks to Camdyn. Let me tell you, they’re faster than they look.

  I’ve already dealt with Earl; Grandma Mel is in Birmingham visiting her sister, and Monday, Camdyn left the gate open, and Lucy… Lemon… whatever the fuck that damn horse’s name is, took a stroll up to the feed store where she walked right into Wagner’s Feed Mart and helped herself to grain.

  What’s next?

  My current dilemma, other than Kacy, is Camdyn stuck in a bucket, ankles around her ears, and barely able to lift her head.

  “Stop ya’s screamin’. I stir you up.”

  I stop dead in my tracks to look for Sev. I wouldn’t have even known this was going down in the parts room had I not walked by and noticed Sev standing next to the bucket. Leaning my shoulder into the doorframe, I shake my head. “What are you doing?”

  “Help me.” Camdyn grunts. “She’s trying to cook me.”

  “How’d you get in there?”

  “I just did. Get me out!” she screams, struggling and crying. “I don’t wanna be a bug.”

  A bug? Must be what Sev’s trying to make. Last Tuesday she sprayed Jace with lighter fluid she found and told him if he caught on fire, it meant he was a prince. I know, scary shit, and I don’t even understand it. Was she deprived of oxygen in the womb? Fighting back laughter, I take the wrench from Sev. “Why’d you let this happen?”

  Sev shrugs, her face strained in a forced smile. No answer.

  I kneel next to the bucket and sweep Camdyn’s hair from her face. “Why are you guys even in here? I told you to stay in the office with Lillian.”

  “We was bored,” Camdyn cries. “Daddy, my butt cheeks hurt.”

  “Okay, okay.” I lift one of her arms and then the other. “Can you not do this anymore?”

  It takes me fifteen minutes and the help of Jace, Granger, and Rhett to get Camdyn out of the bucket. The plastic took a chunk of skin out of her butt cheek. “Go see Lillian. Tell her to put a Band-Aid on your ass for not watching you.”

  She sighs, glaring. “Fine.”

  Sev takes her wrench back, but I take hold of it and her. “Stop tryin’ to make your sister into a frog, bug, snake, or whatever else you want.”

  She blinks at me. No words. She can’t promise that, and there’s one thing this little nut case in my arms isn’t, and that’s a liar. Tickling her ribs, I set her down. “Go back in the office. I’m almost done here.”

  Jace watches her disappear down the hall where Camdyn went. “I can’t imagine those two as teenagers.”

  “You and me both,” I mumble, thinking it’s time I start taking them to a daycare instead of the shop.

  Between repairing the side of the building, clearing a path in the snow to get in and out of the driveway leading to the shop, and getting kids out of buckets, the day goes by fairly quickly.

  “You stopping by Tilly’s tonight?” Jace asks, smirking as he closes his lunch box and reaches for the repair orders on his toolbox.

  Every Friday night, I take the girls out to my aunt’s bar. It’s hardly a place for kids, but we live in the middle of nowhere, and rules are seldom followed. To be fair, half the building is a restaurant, so it’s not unheard of to have kids there. “I don’t know,” I tell him, pushing the welder out of the way so I can make room for Kacy’s car in the corner of the shop.

  “Bring the girl,” he notes, smiling at Granger, who’s shaking snow from his hair, his jeans wet from the knees down.

  We cleared the entire drive, and there’s already three more inches on the ground. “I’m not going.”

  Jace snorts, slipping his arms into his jacket. “Bullshit. You say that every Friday.”

  “I’m not.”

  “You will.”

  Unfortunately, he’s probably right. Only because I’ll be kid-pressured into going, and what the fuck am I going to do with Kacy at my house all night besides wonder about what color her panties are and if they’re the cheeky kind? It’d be better to be out in public where I can’t act on it.

  Right?

  Making my way into the office, I find Kacy in there coloring with the girls. Kacy’s deep in thought, or lost, I’m not entirely sure. She looks to be enjoying herself though.

  “Daddy, I draw’d dis for you.”

  I look down at the drawing Sev gives me. All I see is a bunch of black and purple. “What is it?”

  “Hers car and Sissy’s butt cheek.”

  “Looks just like it,” I tease, ruffling her hair. I smile, but I don’t look at Kacy in fear I might start thinking about her naked again. Forget panty thoughts. I’ve moved on. Now I’m curious what the swell of her ass to her hips might look like with her bent over. “You girls about ready?”

  Camdyn starts packing up her bag with crayons. “Are we going to the bar?”

  “Yes, you are.” Jace opens the office door and hands work orders to Lillian. He smiles at her. “Tell Morgan he better detail my Jeep this weekend.”

  Lillian doesn’t look at him, but her cheeks flush. “You tell him,” she snaps, ripping the papers from his hand.

  Jace stops Lillian from turning around, his hands flat on her shoulders and holding her in place. “You better not have boned in my Jeep.”

  “Don’t call it boning.” She gives him a disgusted face. “You’re such a child.”

  “Am not,” he snaps, wrapping his arms around her shoulders now and trapping her from moving.

  “Abbi agrees with me,” she mocks, trying to free herself.

  As I’m getting the girls ready and listening to these two argue, I can’t help but sneak a peek at Kacy. She’s listening to Jace and Lillian argue about what did or didn’t happen in his Jeep the other night.

  Kacy’s eyes drift to mine. “Are you sure it’s okay if I stay at your place? I mean, if you drove me into town, I could get a hotel room, right?” Her bright blue eyes lock on mine.

  I could, but I won’t. “It’s no problem.” I work a nonchalant tone into my words, but I’m not sure how convincing I am.

  Jace grins, bumping into me as I hand the girls their jackets. He has Lillian in a headlock now. “Yeah, he—”

  Lillian jabs Jace in the stomach. “Shut up.”

  He recovers and holds her tighter. The girls, thinking it’s playtime, run to Lillian’s rescue and plant themselves on each one of his legs.

  Kacy stands from the table, and we’re closer than I expect or want. She moves, reaching for her jacket draped over th
e back of a chair. The movement sends a waft of her sweet scent my way. She smells like an expensive department store I can’t place. Bath and Body Works? No. Sluttier. Not that Kacy’s a slut, that I know of, and I actually wouldn’t mind if she was, but the store. The one that sells panties, what’s the name?

  See? I haven’t moved on from panties, but this time it’s for a different reason.

  Victoria Secrets… that’s it! All that to say that she smells like sex, and I haven’t been laid in so long that my dick is extremely disappointed in my life choices. He wanted to break up with my hand a long time ago, but sadly, I’m still in that committed relationship.

  “Daddy!” Camdyn whines, holding onto Kacy’s hand. “She has to stay with us. Please?”

  I glance down at my daughter, her beanie cap covering her eyes.

  “Are you sure?” Kacy asks again, staring up at me with a sudden serious expression. “I’m more than willing to stay at a hotel, or Lillian offered to let me stay with her too.”

  My eyes snap to Lillian, who’s out of the headlock and looking flustered. I glare at her. “It’s fine. We don’t mind having you stay with us.” I shoot one more glare at Lillian. How dare she offer to let her stay. I glance back at Kacy. “It shouldn’t take too long before we get this fixed.”

  She doesn’t seem convinced. “At least let me pay for the damage to the building.” She hands me her credit card.

  I look down at the credit card. Kacy M. Conner. With a sigh, I drop my hand, refusing to take it. “We’ll figure it out.” I wink, because I’m an idiot. “In the meantime, are you hungry?”

  “We are!” the girls yell.

  Kacy’s lips quirk, and she tucks the hair falling into her face behind her ear. “I actually am. All I’ve had is fruit snacks Sev shared with me.”

  Sev slaps her hand to my thigh. “I’m hungry.”

  “There’s a bar up the road,” I tell Kacy, grabbing Sev’s hand so she doesn’t punch my nut sac again. You ignore the first punch, and she always goes for the jewels. “I take the girls there on Friday nights.”

  Kacy glances out the office windows to see it’s still snowing. “Can we get there in this weather?”

  Jace and I laugh as I haul Sev into my arms. “That’s what trucks are for.”

  I could give her a ride into town. Let her stay at a hotel, but then how would I get to know her? Exactly, I couldn’t. So I take her out to the bar with my kids.

  What’s the worst that could happen?

  Nope. Should’ve stopped at one.

  BARRON

  “Is it always this cold here?”

  Reaching forward, I start the truck and crank the heater. “In the winter.”

  “And the summa’s hot as the devil’s balls,” Camdyn tells her, because yeah, cowboy lifestyle we live here, and my kids hear it all.

  “Camdyn,” I growl, glaring at her.

  “Sorry,” she mumbles, flopping back into her booster seat and buckling herself in.

  That’s when I notice Kacy beside me. She’s darting her eyes around my truck, shivering to the point she’s shaking. “Do you have seat heaters? My ass cheeks are numb.” And then she slaps her hand over her mouth. “Shit… shoot. I meant shoot.” The girls start giggling. Kacy’s eyes snap to mine. “I’m sorry. I’m not used to being around kids.”

  Part of me wants to know who she’s been around. What life did she have before she rammed her car into the side of my shop? Speaking of ramming…. Smiling, I shrug. “No seat heaters, sorry.” Without thinking, I peel my jacket off and hand it to her. “Here.”

  “You don’t have to do that.”

  But do you notice she doesn’t hand it back to me? She wants me. We exchange a look, one that screams “take me now.” Too bad my kids are in the back seat because I might. And the expression on her face probably isn’t a “take me now” kinda face, but in my very much sex-deprived state, I think it is.

  With a soft smile, Kacy stares at the snow. “Wow, look at it coming down.”

  “I wanna eat it,” Sev tells us, too loud in my ear as she rips my hat from my head and throws it on the floor.

  I shove her back carefully. “Get in your seat.”

  “I not wanna,” she whines, using the tops of the bench seat in the front of my truck as a balancing device for her jumping.

  “Sevyn Rae,” I warn, twisting around to look at her. “If you want to eat, you’ll sit your monster ass down in that seat and buckle up.”

  She puts her tiny face right in front of mine, her eyes glowing in the dim lights. “I’m hungry,” she grumbles in her very distinct monster voice.

  I crack a smile and growl back, “Sit. Down.”

  When I turn around, I notice Kacy watching us with a huge grin. “They’re so cute,” she says, laughter on her hips.

  “Uh-huh.”

  “Where’s this bar?”

  Adjusting the heat again, it blasts a fresh warm breeze through the frigid air in the truck. “Up the road about five miles.”

  Looking over my shoulder, I grab hold of the shifter and make sure the girls are buckled in. The headlights of Jace’s Jeep dance on their smiling faces. Of course they’re happy. We’re going to their favorite place outside the barn.

  When I turn back around, I sneak another stolen glance at Kacy. The way she’s watching me, the not-so-innocent desire in her eyes, this girl, she’s trouble. Trouble I desperately want to be in.

  Clearing my throat, I force a smile. “Ready?”

  She nods, returning the smile.

  Fuck. The way that smile hits me, it’s as if someone punched my chest. I thought I was only soft for girls who call me daddy. And not in the way you’d think. Don’t be gross. This isn’t me thinking I need to control this drifter sitting next to me. It’s me being a complete pushover for my kids.

  But this girl turns out, my dick is trying real hard to cheat on me, and my heart is jumping ship too.

  Traitors. They don’t even know her.

  “Daddy?” Camdyn draws me from my thoughts. “Can we ride Lulu tomorrow?”

  My windshield wipers clear the thick layer of powdery snow that looks something like confetti being thrown at us. “I don’t think she’s going to be up for riding in this weather.”

  Camdyn pays me no mind, as usual, and continues to babble things about the ranch and horse facts she can ramble off a million miles an hour. Can’t remember to flush the toilet but recall every horse breed… yep. Has that down.

  “Yous hurtin’ my ears,” Sev groans, annoyed by Camdyn’s horse facts.

  “Then stop ya listenin’,” Camdyn snaps back. “I’m not talkin’ to you.”

  Before an argument can break out, I thankfully pull into the parking lot of Tilly’s next to Jace. He’s already heading inside with Lillian and Rhett.

  Kacy cranes her neck forward and eyes the red and yellow neon Grady’s sign plastered to the side of the building. “Family owned?”

  I nod, half smiling, unsure if family-owned is a good thing. It wasn’t for my mom. Having a bar with free booze, she drank herself out of a marriage and her life in here. And it wasn’t much better for my wife. She hated everything small town, including my family name.

  The girls are eager to get out, so I open the door, both of them practically barreling over the seat and out my door. “Careful, there might—” I don’t finish before Kacy reaches for the door handle, and the second she sets one foot out, she falls flat on her ass. “Shit.”

  The girls abandon us and run inside the bar, careless to anything around them.

  Quickly rushing around the front of my truck, I slip on the ice and catch myself on my mirror. “Are you okay?”

  She’s sitting up. Her hands are covering her face, and I think she’s crying until she drops them to her lap, laughing. She draws in a breath, gasping as the harsh cold probably freezes her damn lungs. “Holy hell, I think I broke my ass.”

  “Well, I got a cure for that.” Reaching down, I offer my hand, smiling, waiting
to see if she’s going to take it.

  Carefully, she places her hand in mine. It’s warm, a vast difference from the air around us. Did I mention she’s still wearing my jacket? She is, and the wind chill makes it cold enough my nipples are practically cutting a hole through my shirt.

  As cute as she looks sitting in the snow, eyes glowing and laughter seeping through her, I’m freezing my ass off. I lift her up, and when I do, she’s standing inches from me. All I’d have to do is step forward, and she’d be backed against the side of my truck. I could kiss her, show her what Texas boys are like, but I don’t. Something stops me.

  A snowball to my back.

  Ice bursts against my back, a sting on impact and showering the ground beneath me in crystalline fragments. Scowling, I turn my head to notice Jace standing on top of the plowed snow, grinning. “It’s cold, yeah?” he yells, arms in the air.

  I shoot him a glare, my breath rising in white puffs. “Fuck off.”

  That’s when I feel a touch on my stomach, low, just above my waistband, and the words “I could use a drink” are breathed in my ear.

  Unprepared for her touch and the effect it’d have on me, my breath catches. My eyes lock on hers, and I fight the urge again to slam her against the truck and kiss the fuck out of her. Or more. She steps to the side, tipping her head toward the building. “You comin’?”

  Jace jumps down from the mountain of snow he’s perched on, white flakes in his hair. “He wishes.”

  Kacy snorts, carefully walking through the snow, her arms out wide as if she’s going to fly away any second. “Or maybe I do.”

  “We’ll see about that.” Jace wraps his arm around Kacy’s shoulder and guides her inside the bar. “You ever been to Texas before, honey?”

  Anger pulses through me. I want to rip his arm off her because I’ve yet to hold her like that.

  “Nope,” Kacy tells him, working through the last few feet of the snow before they step onto the stone underneath the awning in front of the bar. “First time.”

  Jace waggles his dark eyebrows at her. “Well, let’s see if you ever go back to California after this.”