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She should have been completely stressed out. There were holes in her walls and she could only hope the hardwood floors wouldn’t warp from the amount of water that had poured onto them, but she was as settled as she’d ever been.
Then she realized what was different.
Cutter.
Not once in her adult life had she been able to truly depend on anyone else in a crisis. Sure, she had friends who could lend a shoulder to cry on now and then, and her parents had always been there for her, of course. But it wasn’t the same as having someone there and present who could help carry some of the load.
Cutter made the difference.
He was in the bathroom, talking with her dad and helping fix the problem. And he’d done it in such a way that she didn’t feel as if she was pushed aside or trampled on. They were working as a team, each holding up their end.
It didn’t hurt a bit that every time she thought of his carnal threat to spank her, her pussy pulsed. She’d never been spanked before, but she had a feeling it was something she’d enjoy. Especially if it was Cutter’s hand on her ass, caring for her with the kind of intensity she craved.
She flipped on the machine and was standing there with a smile when Aidan popped his head into the doorway.
“I’m all packed,” he said.
Tracy blinked. Crap, she’d forgotten in the chaos. “Right. Where are you guys going again?”
“The campground on the other side of Horsetooth Reservoir. No RVs, just tents.” He hefted an olive green canvas duffle bag that was almost as big as he was.
Dad and Aidan had been planning this trip since the previous fall and had made the campsite reservation well in advance. Now that the weather was fairly reliable, although you never could tell when the Rockies might decide to whip up a little late spring snow, Aidan was chomping at the bit to get out. The long weekend promised to be perfect weather for stomping around the foothills and doing some fishing. Her dad was as eager to go as Aidan was.
She’d been looking forward to a few days of peace and quiet. One of the promises she made to herself when she opened the cafe was that she’d take weekends off to spend more time with her son as he grew up. Aside from the occasional emergency, she’d kept her word.
But he was growing up and since he and Dad were going to be gone, she’d planned a solid forty-eight hours of sloth, with maybe a little cleaning sprinkled in, just to get her off the couch. A few Netflix binges, ice cream and bourbon for dinner, maybe reading through a few of the steamy novels she’d bought for her e-reader. It was going to be glorious.
The pair were supposed to have left already, but the water issue had delayed them.
Just then, Cutter and her father entered the kitchen, both slightly damp, but no worse for wear. Cutter was carrying the last of the towels and dropped them into the utility sink next to her. He stayed beside her, radiating warmth and strength as Dad touseled Aidan’s hair.
“Yep. We have to leave pretty soon if we’re going to set up the tent and do some hiking before it gets dark.”
“Really? Water’s all cleaned up? No more pipes leaking?”
Cutter nodded. “Got the water shut off to that end of the house for now, but everything else is fine. Wouldn’t hurt to give the floor time to dry before we tackle it again, anyway.”
The way he said “we” warmed her heart, as if he planned to stay a while.
And if he was going to stay a while, then she was extra glad she’d waxed earlier this week.
ChapterThree
Hell of a morning.
Not what he had planned, but then, his plans had become pretty stale over the years. Get up, go to work, maybe have a beer, go back to some short-term rental and get ready to do the same the next day. After a while, he’d get an itch to move on, so he’d hit the highway to the next town and start the same cycle over again.
Always searching for something he couldn’t find alone. A place to call home. A place where he was needed, where he could care for the people he claimed for his own.
What lay before him now was infinitely more interesting than his old routine. After a couple of finishing touches ? setting up fans to help dry out the bathroom and floors, and making an appointment for the next week with one of the plumbing contractors who was willing to take on some extra work ? he helped get Bob and Aidan packed into Bob’s old pick-up and on the road in plenty of time to have some fun.
That kid... Cutter smiled to himself. That boy was going to be hell on wheels as he got older. Bright and inquisitive, he never stopped asking questions. He hadn’t been around children much and wondered how people had the patience, but now he got it. When you loved the little ankle-biters ? or the rapidly growing gangly young men ? you did what was best for them, including answering nearly endless questions about plumbing and construction and what a soup sandwich meant.
Without the boy’s chatter in the house or Bob’s sham grumping, the quiet was pervasive. It was just him and Tracy now.
They stood in the kitchen, each on opposite sides of the granite-topped island.
“Would you… would you like some coffee?”
