AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Grady? Grady McKnight, I know you’re here!” Linda calls again, her voice a permanent shriek on chalkboard.
I finish zipping up my jeans with such force I could’ve done damage if I’d still been hard. Then I grab my shirt and jab it on over my head.
The humor shining in Willow’s eyes has me shaking my head. I wish it were funny.
“I’ll wait here,” she says, sitting down in the chair we’ve just had so much fun on.
I grab at her arm. “Oh, no, you won’t. You’re gonna help me.”
“But I’m not supposed to be seen!” she hisses. “Remember?”
“Yeah, Linda Wood isn’t an exotic beast trader and you’re just my nanny. Remember?” I throw back, hiding a smile behind my beard.
That’s the part I’ve hated about all of this.
Keeping her as hidden as Bruce.
I get that we have to be careful, but I want to show her off and hope it’s like flashing a cross at a vampire.
Hell, I want this whole thing done and over so we can get back to that second round before my balls turn into overgrown blueberries and fall right off.
I don’t just mean the sex, either.
Every moment with Willow feels precious, fragile as blown glass, and impossible to put into words. Even harder to make sense of when I know it shouldn’t be that way.
Oh, but fuck, it is.
It’s exactly that way.
I’m hoping against hope and good sense there’s some way I can talk Willow back to Dallas when all this crap with the dirty animal sanctuary ends. The girls have asked me more times than I can count if she could stay even after Aunt Faye comes home.
There’s a picture on the front of our fridge by my little artist, Avery. She’s captured all four of us in surprisingly good detail for a ten-year-old, including a flash of Bruce sticking his face out of the barn’s open door. Best Summer Ever for the Fam! is written across the top.
Proof positive Willow’s not just a nanny and not just a heaping mess for me to clean up.
She’s the woman in my life Linda Wood will never be.
“Quit stalling, sweetheart,” I tell Willow, tugging at her arm. “I’m not going up there to face her unarmed.”
“Why?” She grins.
“She’s a barn cat looking to get her hooks in,” I bite off.
“Oh, right. You are afraid of big cats. And lice.” Her smart-ass smile makes me want to bite that lip.
Her teasing makes me grin, but I hold it back and give her a glare.
“Not the nice kind of cat,” I tell her.
“Okay, fiiine. I guess if you really need me...who am I to leave you hanging?”
We climb the stairs and find Linda next to the kitchen, snooping. She’s peeking in the door of Willow’s room.
Her blond hair is tucked under a red cowboy hat with matching boots, very high white shorts, and a red fringed button-up shirt.
“Linda,” I snap, giving her my coldest January tone.
She spins around with an utterly carnivorous smile.
“Oh, there you are!” She beams. “I saw the girls with Hank a little while ago and I couldn’t believe you weren’t with them at the rodeo.”
I clamp my back teeth together to keep from asking her to button her damn shirt the rest of the way up. I’m about as interested in ogling her goods as a corpse needs to breathe.
“So you thought you’d drive out here and stomp around my home, huh? Uninvited?” I’m usually not this hostile, but I’ve had my fill of her shitty flirt-ambushes this past year.
“I mean, I...I rang the doorbell,” she says, batting her lashes with a woebegone frown.
“We were in the basement.” I reach behind me and pull Willow into the room next to me. “Lotta hard work being bent over, rearranging furniture.”
I let the innuendo carpet bomb her.
“Willow.” Linda’s lips pucker as she looks Willow up and down. “Yes, that’s the name Avery and Sawyer mentioned. I was having a hard time remembering exactly what type of tree it was. I was thinking pine or spruce—or maybe dogwood.”
The rattle on this snake.
I clench my jaw harder.
“Yeah, yeah, I get that a lot,” Willow says with an easy laugh. “And you must be Hailey’s mom, right? The girls mentioned her.”
I bite back a grin at how she doesn’t include the word you.
Linda pats at her chest lightly with one hand. “Oh, I’m sure they have. They’re my little darlings. They’ve been in Hailey’s class for years.” After a fake giggle, Linda levels a nasty glare on Willow. “So you’re the new nanny?”
“She is. Not that it’s any of your business,” I answer. “What is it you wanted?”
Her smile sinks and worry fills her eyes.
“Oh, nothing much. I’ve just been worried about you, Grady.” She saunters toward me, heels clicking on the tile. “You and the girls, cooped up all alone with poor Faye gone. She’s such a dear, going to care for her friend. But it isn’t fair that a wonderful man like you should lose your right hand and be stuck here all alone.”
