Dating a Single Dad (18 page)

She had done her best to help Taylor. It was time to let go of this, to accept that whatever happened next was out of her hands.

She didn’t like it. Hated the very thought. But as she hefted her hamper on her hip and headed into the early evening cool, she couldn’t help but look up at the house where she would soon be welcomed by Hank and Millie. Hank, who had forced himself to ask for and accept help even when it was the last thing he wanted. Who was willing to risk making an idiot of himself onstage to show his kid how to rise above bullies. Who was giving his ex a second chance to make things right with their daughter, no matter how much it terrified him.

Hank had proved to be an expert in helping her lose control. Maybe she could learn a few things from him about letting go of it, as well.

* * *

O
N
W
EDNESDAY
NIGHT
,
Hank bounced down the driveway after dropping Millie off with Heather, pulled into his spot and checked for Brynn’s car almost by reflex. No sooner did he realize what he had done than he gave himself a mental kick.

Get over yourself, North.

They hadn’t made plans. At least, no official ones. God knows he’d spent plenty of time since the weekend thinking of the many ways he and Brynn might pass the hours until Millie came home.

But she hadn’t said anything, though he knew she was well aware he would be free. She had kept her distance. Which was fine—Millie was around all the time, and he was the one who had said that Millie couldn’t suspect anything. But he had kind of been hoping she would issue an invitation. Not because he had been the one to make the big move over the weekend, though that was in the back of his mind—hey, he was only human—but because Brynn wasn’t the type to leave things to chance. If she had wanted to spend the evening with him, she would have let him know.

But she hadn’t.

The way his body reacted to the sight of her little hatchback pulled up snug against the side of her cabin told him just how much he wished she had.

Okay. So maybe she had something already planned. The festival was just three weeks away, Taylor had been gone for days, Brynn was probably swamped with details and phone calls. He sure as hell had enough on his plate to keep him busy for the next few hours.

Of course, everyone could use a little special relaxation now and then....

He hopped out of the truck, shook off the temptation to wander down and say hello, and headed into his place. A load of throw rugs had been delivered that day. He would distribute them among the cabins before returning to the main project of the moment, hauling rocks from the river shore to build up the crumbling sections of the stone fence that surrounded the house.

He spotted the rugs beside the new medicine chest he had to install in the Grindstone cabin. Okay. He wouldn’t do that now, but he could carry the rugs and the chest down to Grindstone and leave them there on his way to the shore. It would make sense, save him a trip later.

The fact that it would take him right past Brynn’s cabin was purely a coincidence.

Arms fully loaded, he set out. But just as he passed Brynn’s place the night was rent by a blast of music, something loud and booming and so unexpected that he jerked and sent his careful stack crashing to the ground.

“Shit!”

He cursed again, silently this time, because he knew what was going to happen next.

Sure enough, no sooner had he bent to scoop up the muddied items than Brynn burst out of her cabin.

“Hank? Is everything—oh.”

She stopped in front of him. He made the mistake of looking at her.

Oh, hell. She had been doing yoga. She was wearing some skintight thing that was red and bared her shoulders and had lines in places guaranteed to draw a man’s eyes right to the forbidden zone. The pants didn’t do much to conceal her other assets, not with the way they molded the curves that had given him so many happy memories.

Worse than her clothing, though, was her face, all pink and slightly sweaty and filled with barely suppressed laughter. She looked rumpled and lush and ready to be made sweatier and messier and pinker.

And she wasn’t even trying.

“I have a horrible suspicion I contributed to this,” she said without a hint of actual repentance in her voice.

“Let’s just say you picked a lousy time to let loose with the John Williams fanfare.”

“I’m sorry. I was channeling my inner Princess Leia, and I wanted the right music.”

“Do me a favor and go for Yoda next time, will ya?”

Her laughter was his undoing. She let loose with that full, throaty laugh that made him remember other moments he had coaxed it from her, and the next thing he knew the medicine chest had slipped from his grasp again to slam his toe. And he didn’t give a rat’s ass because he had danced away from it and was holding her again, pulling her close and kissing her and filling himself with Brynn.

She wriggled closer, sliding her arms around his neck and tilting her head so he had full access to that mouth that kidnapped his brain, telling him without words that she had missed this as much as he had. Maybe even missed him as much as he had missed her.

Because he
had
missed her. More than he wanted to admit. A smart man would back away now while he still could.

Yet his arms insisted on tightening when they should have been letting go.

She was the first one to back away. No surprise there.

“Hey.” At least she left her arms looped around his neck, her forehead resting against his so he was still surrounded by her scent. “Much as I would love to stick around and play, I have to leave in about ten minutes.”

Leaving. It kind of scared him to realize that he’d expected her to say that. It scared him even more to admit that he wished
leaving
was dropped from his personal Brynn vocabulary.
Leave, walk away, go.

Move on.

But he wasn’t supposed to think about her that way. Wasn’t supposed to get worried that
leaving, walking away, moving on
were words that he’d heard her utter way too often. After all, it wasn’t like he was looking for anything more than some good times. It wasn’t like she had ever pretended that leaving wasn’t in the cards.

Get with the program, North.

“Big plans?”

“I have to go to Ottawa. Taylor’s flying back tonight.” Some of the happiness leached from her smile, giving him a moment’s pause.

“Everything okay?”

“Fine. No worries.”

Right. And he had been totally free of ulterior motives when he set out for Grindstone.

But it was hard to worry about what she wasn’t saying when her hands were resting on his chest, one finger sliding back and forth along the top of his T-shirt.

“Is it wrong to admit that I wish I hadn’t told Taylor I would pick her up?”

Ah. So she wasn’t leaving by choice this time. She had a family thing. That, he could well understand.

Amazing how one little question could make him see everything in a new light.

“Only if it’s wrong to admit that I know a back way to the airport that would save you, oh, fifteen minutes.”

She leaned back and looked him up and down as if she were trying to determine his truthfulness, when in fact he was pretty sure she had already made up her mind. Maybe because her fingers had slipped inside his shirt and that her backward tilt was accompanied by a forward slant to her hips.

Or maybe because he knew her. Not as well as he would like. Probably more than was good for the sake of his continued happiness, given the fact that she would be leaving town in less than a month.

“Fifteen minutes isn’t exactly confidence-inspiring.”

“Planes are usually late.”

“This is true.” She swayed from side to side, brushing up against him, interfering with his ability to breathe. Not that he was complaining.

“Of course,” she continued, “I still need to grab a shower.”

“Not a problem.”

Her eyes widened, all fake innocence. “You mean you understand that I need to have a long, steamy shower instead of having a long, steamy you?”

“Nope.” He slipped his hands beneath her yoga pants, pulling her flush against him while biting that sweet curve where neck met shoulder. “I mean, with all that yoga you do, I think you’re flexible enough that we can make that shower do double duty.”

“I knew there was something in it for me besides inner peace.”

This time when she laughed he joined in. A little rusty, maybe, but still a laugh. Something he’d been doing a hell of a lot more since Brynn came to town.

He was going to miss the laughter almost as much as the sex. Maybe more.

“Come on, Princess. We’d better get moving if we want to pretzel you up before the
Millennium Falcon
has to take off.”

“Ooh, Captain, I do believe there’s a lightsaber in your pocket!”

Yep. Sex, laughs... Definitely a toss-up.

It wasn’t until they had christened the shower and he had done his best to keep her from getting dressed and she had hit the road with wet hair and a very satisfied smile that he thought to wonder why anyone would need to channel warrior Princess Leia to do yoga.

* * *

A
LITTLE
OVER
an hour after kissing Hank goodbye—for about the fourteenth time—Brynn took one look at Taylor walking out of the secure area at the airport and knew she had failed.

So much for Libby’s advice to trust and let go.

Not that this came as a surprise. Taylor had avoided all calls and texts, allowing no contact other than a brief voice mail left at a time when she knew damned well Brynn would be in a meeting. And somehow, a cryptic, “Everything is as it should be” wasn’t the most reassuring of messages.

But the lecture she had planned to deliver during the drive to Comeback Cove was pushed out of her head by the sight of Taylor, looking somehow smaller and more fragile than Brynn had ever seen, walking toward her with her arms tight around her middle. It looked like she was trying desperately to hold herself together.

Brynn hadn’t felt this sick since the horrible day when Sam called her to tell her Casey’s mother had died. And looking at Taylor, she was pretty sure she was seeing another death happening right in front of her.

If Cupid were to flutter past her right now, she would grab him by the wings, haul the little bastard to the security checkpoint and tell the agents that he was packing arrows. That would throw him out of commission for a while.

“Hey.” She stepped forward, ready to take a carry-on, offer an ear, but Taylor stopped her with an upraised hand.

“Don’t hug me or I will completely and totally lose it.”

Shit.

“’Kay. You have a checked bag, right?”

“Yes.”

“You want to wait for that while I get the car?”

Taylor’s nod was small. “Good plan. Thanks.”

Too many possibilities raced through her head as she hurried through the dusky night. Whatever had happened, it obviously wasn’t pretty.

Taylor was at the curb by the time she pulled around, but looked like she was about to keel over at any second. Brynn threw the car in Park, took the suitcase and all but pushed Taylor into the seat.

“Buckle up.” It felt odd to say it to an adult, but honestly, Taylor seemed to be drifting further away by the minute.

Oh, God. Love sucked.

“You ready to talk?” she asked as she pulled out of the airport lot.

“There’s not much to say.”

“Yeah, well, the fact that you look like someone just hooked you up to a vacuum and sucked out your soul makes it hard for me to believe that, you know?”

“I’m sorry.”

It wasn’t the words that made Brynn’s heart twist. It was the broken whisper, the hitch in the breath, the way Taylor hunched further into herself as if waiting for life to deal her another blow.

Just the way Mom used to be.

Brynn spotted a golf course and turned into the deserted parking lot, where she steered to the farthest, darkest corner and killed the engine. Shadows and silence wrapped around them.

“You want to stay in the car or sit outside? I have a blanket in the back.”

“This is fine.”

“Okay.” Brynn cracked the windows and filled her lungs with the cool night air before touching the back of Taylor’s hand, lightly, quickly. “What happened?”

Taylor stared out the window. Brynn could barely make out the moment her face began to crumble.

“Carter and I...”

“Tay, no. You didn’t.”

Every worst-case scenario reared up and grabbed Brynn by the throat, easing only slightly as Taylor shook her head.

“We didn’t. We...we agreed we couldn’t hurt Ian that way.”

“What happened?”

“I tried my best to stay away from him. He asked me to dinner, I said I had plans. He sat beside me at lunch, I faked seeing someone I knew at another table and moved. He knocked on the door of my room and I pretended I wasn’t there. I tried so hard, Brynn.” She wiped a tear from her cheek. “But he followed me off the elevator and to my room. I told him I wasn’t feeling well but he...he said he knew I was avoiding him and he needed to know why. I pretended I didn’t know what he was talking about, but he looked at me, and Brynn, oh, my God, it was all there in his face, everything I’d been feeling, too...and he said he could only think of one reason why I would be doing my best to stay away from him. Because it was the same reason he’d been doing his best to stay away from me the past year.”

Oh, no. “So why did he speak up now?”

“Because of the conference. He said he promised himself he would never say anything, but when we both ended up there, he felt like maybe it was some kind of sign. Permission from the universe. Then when I wouldn’t let myself be near him, he knew he had to speak up.” Her voice cracked. “He loves me, Brynn. Just like I love him.”

Everything in Brynn wanted to insist that this wasn’t love but some twisted quirk of a malevolent fate. But even as her brain spit out explanations, her heart told her that the time for pretending was over.