Page 157 of Timid (Lark Cove 2)

“You too,” I told him as he let me go. Then I gave him a diabolical smile. “It will be much easier to give you orders in person than over the phone.”

“Maybe this was a bad idea.” He frowned and looked over my shoulder at his family’s pilot standing on top of the plane’s staircase. “Mitch, Ms. Campbell isn’t staying after all. You’d better turn this thing around and take her back to the city.”

“Ignore him!” I called over my shoulder to Mitch, who laughed and went back inside the plane.

I was Logan’s assistant but gave him a hard time about who was really in charge. His ego could use a little razzing now and then. It was all in good fun because we both knew that I’d be lost without him. He was the best boss I could have ever asked for.

Logan took the backpack from my shoulder and slung it over his. “I’m glad you’re here.”

“So am I.” I stepped around him, going right for the cutest little girl on the planet. “Charlie!”

She smiled and left Thea’s side, rushing forward for a hug. “Hey, Piper.”

“I’ve missed you, kiddo. I want to hear all about school and your soccer team.”

“Okay.” She smiled and took my hand, showing no signs of letting it go anytime soon.

Spending time with Charlie Kendrick was pure joy—except for the tiny pinch of longing that poked me in the side.

With her quiet voice and sweet nature, Charlie didn’t act like a princess or a diva. She was a tomboy, much like I had been at her age. Instead of a tiara, she wore an old, faded baseball cap over her long, brown hair the same color as her dad’s. There wasn’t a stitch of pink or purple anywhere in sight.

If I could have had a little girl, I would have wanted one as precious and unique as Charlie.

I ignored the pinch and held out my free hand to fist-bump her little brother, Collin. “Hey, bud.”

He gave me a shy smile but held fast to his dad’s leg. Collin was destined to be beautiful, like his siblings. While Charlie took after Logan, Collin was the spitting image of his mother, with nearly black hair and rich, dark eyes.

I winked at him, then went over to the baby carrier where eight-month-old Camila was fast asleep. “I can’t believe how much she’s grown in four months,” I told Thea as I looked adoringly at Camila’s chubby cheeks.

“They always say time flies after you have children. It’s the truth.”

Another pinch, but I ignored it too.

I’d have to get over those now that I was living here. Whenever Logan and Thea had come to New York, I’d always volunteered to babysit the kids so their parents could have a night out, and I planned to do a lot more of that now that I was living in Montana.

I was determined to become Aunt Piper, blood relation be damned.

“How much stuff did you bring along?” Logan asked.

“Not much.” I turned back to the plane as one of the attendants hauled a large suitcase down the stairs. “That case plus two more. The rest is in storage until I find a place here. Then I’ll have it shipped out.”

“All right.” Logan smiled at Thea. “You guys get loaded up and I’ll take care of the bags.”

Twenty minutes later, my suitcases were in the back of Logan’s beast of a silver SUV and we were headed down the highway toward my new hometown.

Lark Cove.

“It’s so beautiful.” My nose was practically pressed against the window as I soaked everything in. “It takes my breath away every time.”

Tall evergreens lined the highway, towering above us into the bright sky. Past their thick trunks, the water of Flathead Lake rippled and glittered under the sun’s rays.

Paradise.

“And now you get to live here.” Logan smiled at me in his rearview mirror.

I smiled back, then returned to the scenery. “And now I get to live here.”

My parents thought I was crazy for giving up my apartment in Manhattan to move to a small town in Montana I’d only visited once—maybe they were right. But I needed this change of pace.