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Heading back toward his on-site trailer, Ian stopped when a scream cut through the evening. It was loud enough to have him trying to figure out where the sound was coming from.
He heard it again and moved toward the row of cottages settled beyond the main house. The grounds were deserted now since the entire crew had left for the hotel in town. Only a handful of people were staying on the property in trailers like the one Max had requested for him. The scream split through the air once more and Ian quickly found the culprit.
Just behind Cassie’s cottage there was a small patio area and suspended from the pergola was a child’s swing.
Cassie pushed her daughter, and each time the child went high, she let out a squeal. Ian’s heart dropped at the sight. He didn’t recall ever having that one-on-one playful time with either of his parents. Perhaps when he’d been a toddler, but he doubted it, considering they weren’t affectionate when he’d been old enough to recall.
The sweet little girl with blond curls blowing in the breeze giggled and kicked her feet when Cassie grabbed the back of the plastic seat on the swing and held it back.
“Hold on,” Cassie warned. “Here comes the biggest push of all.”
When she let go of the swing, Cassie laughed right along with her daughter and Ian found himself rooted to his spot at the edge of her concrete patio.
The man in him watched, admiring Cassie’s laid-back style, with her hair in a ponytail and wearing leggings and an oversize T-shirt that slid off one delicate, creamy shoulder. Her feet were bare and her face was void of any makeup, which was how he’d seen her since he’d arrived. Everything about her screamed country girl.
While the man in him watched, the lost little boy in him turned his attention to Emily. He took in all the delight from the sweet girl still clutching the rope holding up her swing and wondered where her father was. Did the man even know he had a child? Did Cassie have any contact with him?
All the questions forming in his head were absolutely none of his business, yet he couldn’t help but want to know more.
Ian’s gaze traveled from Emily back to Cassie...and he found her looking right back at him with those impressive blue eyes.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, giving the swing another light push.
Ian tried not to focus on the fact that her shirt had slipped in the front, giving him a glimpse of the swell of her breast.
“I heard screaming.” He stepped onto the concrete pad, cursing himself for being drawn in even more. “I wasn’t sure who it was.”
Cassie’s eyes held his for a second before she turned her attention back to the swing. She held on to the ropes, thus bringing Emily’s fun to a screeching halt.
The little girl twisted in her seat to look back at Cassie. Cassie went to the front of the swing, unfastened the safety harness and lifted Emily out.
“We were just heading in for dinner,” Cassie said, propping Emily up on her hip.
Damn if her tilted, defiant chin didn’t make him want to stay longer. Why torture himself? He wanted her physically, nothing more. Yet he found himself being pulled ever so slowly toward her.
“Don’t go in just because of me.”
Emily stared at him with bright, expressive blue eyes like her mother’s. Her hand reached toward him and he couldn’t stop himself from reaching back. The moment he looked into those little baby blues something unidentifiable slid over his heart.
Emily’s tiny hand encircled his finger as a smile spread across her baby face. That innocent gesture touched so many places in him: the child who’d craved attention, the teen who’d needed guidance and the adult who still secretly wished he had a parent who gave a damn without being judgmental.
Ian didn’t miss the way Cassie tensed at the sight of Emily holding on to his finger, but he wasn’t pulling back. How could he deny such an innocent little girl human touch? She was smiling, happy and had no clue the turmoil that surrounded her right now.
“Don’t you have a client you should tend to?” Cassie asked, her meaning that he was not welcome all too clear.
“I already talked with Max after the shooting wrapped and we came back here.” The crew had taken a few shots of the wedding scene in town. “I didn’t see you at the church earlier.”
Cassie reached up, smoothing away blond curls from Emily’s forehead. “I was there. I stayed in the back with Tessa. We didn’t want to get in the way.”
“What did you think of the shoot?”
Why was he still here talking to her? Why didn’t he just leave? He had calls to return, emails to answer, contracts to look over.
Besides the fact a little cherublike toddler had his finger in a vise grip, he could walk away. Cassie had made it clear she didn’t like him, and he certainly wasn’t looking for a woman with a child.
