“Oh, sorry. I didn’t know you were standing there.”
I glance up from the baby and find Colton’s blue eyes watching me. “Sorry, I didn’t want to interrupt,” I say, glancing down at my shoes.
“You weren’t interrupting,” he insists, maneuvering Milo to the crook of his arm and plopping the bottle into his awaiting mouth. “It’s his dinner time,” he adds, glancing down and smiling at the boy in his arms.
“I’ll let you get to that. I can wait in my room,” I insist, starting to turn back the way I came.
“No, let’s take a quick tour. I don’t mind feeding him on the go. In fact, I’m pretty much becoming a professional at it,” he adds with a chuckle. The deep timbre of his voice can be felt clear down to my toes.
“Are you sure?” I ask.
He waves me to follow him as he heads toward the front of the house. “This is my living room,” he says, stepping into a wide, open space. It has a couch and large television, but that’s about it. Well, besides the playpen set up in the corner of the room. The walls are painted the same taupe color as my walls, and the carpet is the same tan plush. Whoever decorated didn’t enjoy too much of a color palette.
“Back here are our bedrooms. This one is Milo’s,” he says, pushing open the door and revealing his sister-in-law.
“Oh, hey! I’m just getting some of Milo’s things put away,” she says to me before looking at Colton. “As soon as Chase gets back, he’ll help you get all this stuff put together,” she adds, pointing to the disassembled crib and changing table.
“Okay. Pizza should be here soon. Hopefully, my little brother doesn’t take his sweet-ass time at the hardware store,” Colton says, making Gabby roll her eyes.
“You know him. He’ll check out every single locking mechanism they have in stock before he makes a final decision.”
Colton snorts. “No shit. He’s worse than a woman.” Then he looks at me and nods toward the hallway. “Let’s finish this tour.”
I follow him across the hall and stop in the doorway. Colton’s room. It’s practically empty except a small mattress on the floor and a stack of boxes with some clothes piled on top of them. “This is my room. Or at least it will be when I get some furniture,” he adds with a sheepish grin.
“Well, you’ve already got more than I do,” I tell him with a laugh. My intention was a joke, but I can tell the moment my comment registers in his brain.
Colton looks at me, his blue eyes watching me closely. “You don’t have any furniture?”
I shrug. “I’m going to Second Street Treasures tomorrow to get a few things,” I tell him casually, praying he doesn’t bring up the fact that I moved here without having much of anything in tow.
He nods. “I was thinking of stopping in there too for some of the little things. My bed and dresser will be here Monday, and while my mom offered to let me have my set from my old room, I’m not really interested in a twin-sized bed and dresser with GI Joe stickers all over it. Nothing about that screams responsible adult.”
I laugh at the thought. “No, you’re probably right.”
“Come on, let’s finish up the tour before Milo needs burping.”
I follow Colton out the front door. The walkway leads to both the sidewalk out front and the driveway beside the house. There’s a two-car garage, with a wide driveway to allow two vehicles to park easily. “You’re welcome to take one of the garage bays. I’ll move my truck into the garage in a little bit and free up the space.”
“No problem. I’m parked in the street right now. I don’t mind keeping it up there,” I tell him, thinking about my older Honda Accord. It’s a few years old and has more dents and dings than a race car. Whoever owned my baby before me, definitely was rough on her.
“No need. I don’t need both spaces. You might as well utilize one,” he says, heading toward the back of the property. “Your entrance is here. I’ve got the keys on the counter inside. You’re welcome to use the backyard anytime you want. I’m hoping to put a few chairs back here, maybe a firepit or something like that too. Someday, probably a swing set,” he adds, glancing down and smiling at Milo, who’s going to town on the bottle of formula.
The yard is even bigger than it looked through the window. There’s a small lot between Colton’s place and his neighbor’s, and the whole thing is fenced in with a basic wooden privacy fence. “It’s a great yard.”
“It is. It’s part of the reason I bought it. I wanted this little guy to have plenty of running room.”
We head to the back door, and I hold it open for Colton. I catch a whiff of something woodsy as he passes, either his soap or his detergent, and the fumes go straight to my dormant lady parts. Suddenly, they’re alive and raring to go, as if waking from a long, deep hibernation. It was one thing to steal a few appreciative glances at his very nice rear, but smelling him is on a whole different playing field. Whatever it is short circuits my brain and makes my nipples tingle. I’m definitely out of my league here with this one.
I didn’t sign up for intoxicating sexy man scent.
“Back here is the laundry room, which you know. You’re welcome to use it anytime you want. Store anything you need in the cabinets to the left. I’ll take the cabinet above the washer since it’s so high up.”
I glance around, taking in my new home. “Thank you, Colton. I want you to know how much I appreciate you putting your faith in me as your tenant. I’m sure it’s not easy, with a son and all, but I promise not to be a bother or a nuisance. In fact, you won’t even know I’m here,” I reassure him.
“I doubt it,” he mumbles, glancing off to the right. In fact, I’m not really sure he meant to say it aloud.
I know I wasn’t what he was expecting when he opened the door earlier. In my defense, I never once tried to hide it from him that I was a woman. If he didn’t read my background check, well, that’s on him. But I need this place, which is why I’m determined to be the best tenant and roommate he could ask for. I’ll be as quiet as a mouse and make sure to be respectful of his property. I’ll keep to myself, so he never regrets renting his place to me.
“Got a lock,” his brother, Chase, hollers as he walks in the front door. “Oh, hey,” he adds when he sees us standing in the kitchen. “I come bearing pizza gifts.” Chase sets two pizza boxes down on the counter.
“Thanks. I’ll give you some money in a bit,” Colton says, setting the empty bottle aside and moving his son to his shoulder.
“Don’t worry about it. I got ya covered. Consider it a housewarming gift. For both of you,” Chase says, giving me a warm smile. It’s actually a quite nice smile. Sexy, even. I imagine that smile gets him out of any trouble he may find himself in, especially with his wife.
She enters the kitchen. “Food. I smell food,” she says as she lifts the first pizza box lid and inhales the cheesy goodness. “Oh my God, that smells so freaking good.” Then, she pulls a slice of mushroom pizza out of the box and shovels a third of it into her mouth. “Mmmgrrrmm,” she mumbles while chewing.
“What’s that, baby? I couldn’t hear you over your pizza inhalation. Did you even taste that?” Chase teases, coming over and placing his big hand on her small belly.
“Fuck off, Callahan. Baby needs pizza,” she says, drawing out that last word, before taking another massive bite.
“Come on, Hollis, let’s get you a slice or two of pizza before the pregnant lady eats it all,” Colton says, humor in every word.
“Watch it, older Callahan. Be nice, or I’ll eat you,” Gabby chastises, finishing off her first piece.
Colton grabs me a paper plate and waves me on, all while extracting a loud burp from his son. “That’s my boy,” Chase says proudly, then seems to stop. Something passes between the brothers that I can’t decipher, but the moment passes quickly. Chase grabs a plate of pizza and goes to sit next to his wife on the couch.
I follow and take the floor, trying to stay off to the side and out of the way. Not that I’m really in the way, but
you know what I mean. I’m the outcast here, the outsider who doesn’t know any of the people in her company. A few minutes later, Colton comes into the living room and lays Milo down on a blanket he stretched out in the middle of the floor. The little guy starts kicking and waving his arms, wiggling from side to side and kicking his leg to the side.
“You know, it won’t be long until he’s rolling over,” Gabby says between bites.
Colton, who returned to the kitchen to grab a plate of food, says, “Hard to believe we’re already approaching that milestone. Seems like just yesterday he was getting up every two hours and making sure I never had a moment’s alone time to shower.”
Chase snorts. “No shit. He was damn good at pulling the ‘scream until you picked him up’ card.”
“It’s better now though, right?” Gabby asks.
“Much better. He’s getting up once, maybe twice a night now. And he loves that stupid singing bear, so as long as my shower is under ten minutes, I can usually get it done before the bear shuts off and he vocalizes his disappointment,” Colton says, taking a seat on the floor beside his son.
Nibbling on my slice of pizza, I have to concentrate on not inhaling my food. It’s been a long day on the road, and since I spent a big part of my travel money on gas, I kept my food to a bare minimum. I have the basic furniture to get yet, and with paying first and last month’s rent and only two jobs on the horizon, I need to make sure I stick to my budget.
“So, Hollis, what do you do?” Gabby asks, starting on her second piece.
I glance up and find three sets of eyes on me. I shift in my place on the floor, hating having all the attention on me. “Umm, I design websites mostly, but also some graphic design like logos and business graphics.”
“Oh, cool,” she says, leaning forward. “Websites, huh? Interesting…”
Chase looks at his wife and smiles. “I already know what you’re thinking.”
“Didn’t I just tell Harrison he needed an updated website?” She turns back my way and says, “The one we have now is not user-friendly. I’d really like to have a page we can keep updated with our calendar. We’ve been adding all sorts of special classes, and it would be nice to have them all displayed in one place. You know?”
“Absolutely. A good website can be a very effective marketing tool. If you constantly keep it updated, you will train your customers to look there for information.”
Gabby’s already nodding. “Totally. And you do logo design? We have four locations now, and I’d love to incorporate each location with the image.”
“What kind of business is this?” I ask, my design brain already starting to sort and file ideas.
“Oh, sorry. So, my brother-in-law, Harrison, and my sister, Gwen, own All Fit, a local fitness center, which specializes in personal training and fitness classes. Chase is the manager and his right hand. They started the first location together several years ago.”
“Cool. I designed a website for a national chain gym last year. You could always check that out for a reference,” I tell her, feeling a little weird about pimping a job mere hours after meeting these people. But hey, a girl’s gotta eat, right?
“Which gym?” Chase asks, hanging on our every word.
“Family Fitness.”
Chase whistles low and gives an appreciative nod. “They’re everywhere. That’s a pretty big corporation. You must be pretty good.”
I just shrug. I’ve done a lot of websites for a lot of companies. I love creating, giving them their own unique space to sell their product or services, to tell a story about their business, or even create a place of togetherness and solace, and many of them have come back for updates or redesigns. I’ve come a long way in the last few years, slowly but surely building a name for myself, site by site.
“I’m the office manager, and I’d like to talk to you soon about a possible design,” Gabby says. “Do you have a card or something? I mean, it’s not like I don’t know where you live or anything, but it might be easier to give you a quick buzz than just stopping by unannounced.”
“Yeah, I’ll leave you my card. It has my cell and email on it.”
“Awesome,” Gabby says, a wide smile on her face. She turns to Colton and adds, “This might be a great way to start promoting your new classes.”
Colton lifts his shoulders. “Whatever you think, Gabs.”
She rolls her eyes and turns back my way. “Colton is our newest trainer, and he’s starting a self-defense class for women. We’ve already had about ten ladies sign up at the gym.”
“That’s probably because he’s a Callahan,” Chase adds with a smile. “It’s a curse.”
Gabby snorts and rolls her eyes. “Be careful or you’ll trip over that ego.”
“The only thing I trip over is my large—”
“Stop talking right now, Callahan,” Gabby interrupts, holding her hand up in the universal stop sign.
“No shit, Teeny,” Colton mumbles, eating a little food, while still entertaining his son.
“Teeny? What the f—hell? I was defending you, and now you’re jumping on her side?” he says to his brother. I can’t help but smile at their goodhearted banter. You can tell the brothers are close.
“First off, she writes my paycheck,” Colton replies.
“So? I never told Dad about the Penthouse magazine I found hidden in your room when you were thirteen,” Chase says, crossing his arms over his broad chest.
Now it’s Colton’s turn to roll his eyes. “That’s because you were looking too. Don’t pretend you weren’t.”
“True. But… bro code.”
“Which brings me to my second reason as to why I’m on her side,” Colton says, kicking back and leaning against the wall, his legs extended in front of him and crossed at the ankles.
“Which is?”
“She’s way hotter than you are.”
Chase growls at his brother and throws a balled-up napkin. “Whatever, dude. I mean, yes, she is totally hot. The hottest. Right, Milo? Auntie Gabrielle is a fucking knock-out and gets Uncle Chase’s pee-pee hard all the time,” Chase says as he crouches down and swipes his nephew off the floor. Milo kicks happily and nestles into Chase’s arm, his little eyes hanging on his uncle’s every word.
“Don’t talk about your pee-pee in front of my son, Teeny.”
Chase, ignoring the comment from his brother, looks down at the baby and says, “Daddy knows it’s not teeny. In fact, it’s pretty big. Right, Aunt Gabby?”
“You two are too much. Hollis, you want to join me in the kitchen and get away from all this testosterone? We can discuss the website a little more,” Gabby says, standing up and heading to the kitchen space. The moment we’re away from the guys, she turns and says, “Sorry about that. They get a little silly sometimes. Colton was in the military for a long time, and I think they’ve missed each other. Now they’re back together, it’s like they have to catch up on all their brotherly jabs and tormenting. It’s comical, but I don’t want to encourage them,” she says with a smile.
Tossing my plate in the trash, I ask, “So, he was in the military?”
“Like twelve years. He only recently took an honorable discharge because he found out about Milo.”
I yawn and glance at the clock. It’s still fairly early, but I’ve been driving most of the day. My body is starting to scream for a shower and a soft place to crash. Though, thinking about the blankets on the floor, I might have to ease up on what constitutes as soft. “He didn’t know about him before he was born?” I ask, yawning a second time.
Gabby shakes her head. “Nope. It’s a big dramatic mess. One-night stand shows up at Chase’s doorstep and leaves a baby, assuming Chase is the one she slept with. Turns out, a paternity test proves he’s not Chase’s, but Colton’s. Colt happened to be home for a visit after we found out, so Chase told him the truth. Colt didn’t reenlist. The moment he found out Milo was his son, he quit the Army to take care of him.”
“Wow, that’s good. And
the mom?”
Gabby rolls her eyes. “She was young. I might not understand her position, but I appreciate her doing the right thing. She signed over her rights and gave Colt full custody.”
“That’s crazy,” I reply through another yawn. “I’m so sorry. It’s been a long day for me.”
“Why don’t you go get some sleep? It’s about time for Milo’s bedtime anyway, so we should head out. I’ll let you get settled and give you a call mid-week if that’s okay with you? I really want to redo our website, and I think you’re just the girl to get the job done.”
I preen a little at the compliment. “Thank you. I’d love to work with you.”
“Good, because I’m sure we’re going to be seeing each other a lot,” she adds with a smile. “I’ll get your number from Colton, okay? Nice to meet you, Hollis.”
“Nice to meet you too. Thank you for the pizza.”
“You’re very welcome. I look forward to getting to know you,” she says as she heads back to the living room.
I’m not really sure if I should go back in and say goodnight or just head back to my room. I guess I could pop my head in the doorway and wave. Then, I’m still being friendly and considerate while not completely engaging in their conversation.
Before I make it to the doorway, Colton comes around the corner and almost runs into me. “Oh, shit. Sorry,” he says, reaching out and steadying me.
The moment his fingers graze my skin, electrical current soars through my body. “It’s okay,” I mumble, taking a step back and out of his grasp. His eyes seem almost… disappointed when I break our connection. “I was just going to bed.”
Fair Lakes Series Box Set Page 55