Chapter 2-1
1691 Words
2
“Remind me why we’re here on our day off,” Jonah wanted to know.
“Because she’s a single mom who needs help, and we have time and capable hands.” Holt wheeled his 4-Runner into the tiny gravel lot in front of the little house Cayla had rented for her office, parking beside her older-model Camry. Brax and Mia were already here. The flower beds had been weeded since last week. Not that it said much. The bushes out front were still scraggly and overgrown. They needed pruning at the least, yanking out at the best. He wondered what she had planned for the beds. Something bright and cheerful like she had at the little bungalow where she lived? Or something more sedate and professional? He hoped for the cheerful. Anything else didn’t seem like it would suit her.
“And this has nothing to do with you wanting to bone her?”
Even knowing this was payback for poking at him about Rachel the other night, Holt shot Jonah an icy stare. “Watch your mouth, and no. I’m not looking for a package deal. I did my time raising Hadley.” Not that he regretted the sacrifices he’d made for his baby sister.
“But you adore that kid.”
It was true. “Maddie’s my little buddy. That doesn’t mean anything.” And if I keep telling myself that, maybe I’ll believe it. Because both daughter and mother are way too damned appealing.
He shouldn’t have given in to temptation and sung with her. Well, it wasn’t so much the singing as the dance he’d pulled her into because he’d wanted to wipe that anxious expression off her face. And to get a sense of the feel of those soft curves. The whole thing had gone against his personal code of being her friend and nothing more. But he just hadn’t been able to help himself, and damn, it had been the most fun he’d had in longer than he cared to remember.
Jonah hit him with some not insignificant side eye. “Methinks the Ranger doth protest too much.”
“Look, you were raised by a single mom. Wouldn’t she have appreciated some help when you were coming up?”
“Fair point. And to be clear, I have no problem helping Cayla out with this. She’s always been a sweetheart. I just wanted to bust your chops.”
“I’ll exact revenge in our next sparring match.”
Jonah grinned. “Bring it, Broadway.”
After a perfunctory knock, they went inside. Mia and Brax were already at work, applying painter’s tape around the windows and all the trim. A neat stack of painting supplies sat in the middle of the scarred wood floors. There was no immediate sign of Cayla.
“Holt! Holt! Holt!” A little blonde dervish came racing toward him from the kitchenette.
He bent and scooped Maddie up before she could careen into his bad leg. She settled against his waist, snuggling against him as if she’d been doing it for years. “Hey, Bumblebee. How are you today?”
“I’m good! Grandma made pancakes for breakfast this morning!”
“That is, indeed, an awesome way to start the day,” he agreed.
Sobering, she reached up to press her little hand to his brow.
“Whatcha doing, kid?”
“Checking you for a fever.”
“No fever. Why?”
“Mama says you’re hot.”
Mia snorted, and Brax choked on a laugh. Cayla, who’d been coming out of the tiny bedroom that served as an office, pressed both hands to her flaming cheeks and did an abrupt about-face.
“Out of the mouths of babes,” Jonah intoned.
It took everything Holt had to repress the delighted smile. He shouldn’t be delighted. It didn’t matter that Cayla thought he was hot. He wasn’t pursuing anything. He was here, with friends in tow, to help her out. That was all.
Lowering Maddie to the floor, he looked her in the eye. “Are you helping us paint today?”
“Little Miss Big Mouth will be watching movies on the iPad.” Face still pink, Cayla emerged from the back, a stern gaze on her daughter.
Maddie’s eyes were wide and innocent. “What?”
Cayla sighed. “Nothing, Munchkin. The iPad is in the office. Go pick what you want to watch, okay?”
“Okay, Mommy.” She scampered down the hall.
As Cayla watched her go, Holt studied Cayla. Something about her seemed off somehow. Dimmer than usual.
“Everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything’s fine.”
She flashed him a smile, but it wasn’t her usual sunny beam, and he recognized fake-it-til-you-make-it when he saw it. Something was definitely bothering her, and he didn’t think it was embarrassment over what Maddie had blabbed. Was it something to do with the two of them getting their flirt on Thursday night? Was she upset by his admittedly mixed signals? Or was something else going on? As she looked around the room with something like yearning, it struck him that maybe he’d made a mistake, all but shoving their help down her throat.
Holt rubbed at the sudden heat in the back of his neck. “Listen, Cayla, I should have done this the other night before I dragged everybody else into this, but… are you okay with us being here?”
She blinked, focusing in on him with a faint frown. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I mean, maybe you wanted to do everything yourself. To take ownership of the place. I didn’t mean to minimize that. I just thought you’d get done quicker, and I basically told you we’d come instead of asking if you even wanted us to. Orders are kind of a hazard of my former occupation.” And damn, the men of his unit would razz the hell out of him if they could see him now.
For the first time that morning, she really looked at him, those big doe eyes searching his face with cautious wonder. “It’s really sweet that you even thought of that as a potential issue. And no, I’m thrilled y’all are here. I’m absolutely terrible about asking for help, but I’m sure as heck not going to be so precious as to turn it down when offered.”
She stepped closer, laying a hand on his arm. The warmth of those slim fingers soaked into him, soothing some disquiet he’d carried for so long he barely even noticed it anymore except when it wasn’t there. What would that gentle touch feel like on the rest of him?
“Anyway, everything we get done today will get me that much closer to being able to see clients here.” This time, when she smiled, it reached her eyes. For now, anyway, she’d willed away whatever was bothering her. Holt was satisfied that whatever it was, it wasn’t about him. He’d take that for the moment.
“And, hey, your business doing well is better for our business,” Brax added.
“I consider this payback for all those pep rally and spirit week banners you painted back in high school,” Jonah put in.
It was a startling reminder that they’d known each other for years. That this was her town, and she had a long history here.
Cayla laughed. “I’m surprised you even knew I’d made them, since I was just a lowly freshman to your senior.”
“Easy to remember, since Lance Peterson had the biggest crush on you.”
“He did not! He never asked me out.”
“Yeah, that might have been because we gave him s**t in the locker room when one of the guys found the epically bad poetry composed about your smile.”
“Language,” Holt growled.
Jonah winced, shooting a glance toward the sound of pattering footsteps from the back. “Sorry.”
“What ever happened to Lance?” Cayla wondered.
“I think Mama said he moved to Louisville and became a banker or something.”
“Didn’t he marry Jenny Sheridan?”
As the two of them continued to swap small town gossip, Holt just shook his head. This whole thing was so alien. He hadn’t grown up in a small town. Hadn’t played high school sports. He’d been too busy busting his a*s, working, making sure his baby sister was taken care of and that his mom didn’t pass out and choke on her own vomit after her latest bender. His mom hadn’t handled single parenthood well—or at all—preferring to fall into the bottle whenever her latest s**t choice in partners disappeared, as they always had. She’d been nothing like Cayla. She’d never once put her kids first. Hell, maybe that was part of his fascination with Cayla. He had mad respect for everything she juggled on her own and the good, solid life she’d built for her kid. She was a truly good mother, on top of being sweet, funny, smart, and beautiful. And Maddie was—
“Holt! Holt! Holt!”
She came running in, the iPad in hand. “It’s Maui! Do Maui!”
“Um.” It was his turn to avoid everyone’s gazes as Maddie held up the screen, paused at the key scene in Moana. He’d known singing for her a couple weeks back was going to come back to bite him in the a*s. But he couldn’t help it. After all these years, all the work he’d put into it for Hadley, he was programmed to sing along to all Disney tunes, and she’d been watching Oliver and Company.
“We’re about to get to work, Bumblebee.”
“Oh please, oh please, ohplease! Just one!”
“Yes, please, Broadway,” Jonah smirked.
“Yeah, seriously. I’ve been hearing stories about this voice of yours,” Mia urged.
Holt looked back at Maddie’s pleading face and sighed. Damn it, she looked just like Hadley at that age. He was toast. “Ok, ok, I see what's happening here.”
Maddie giggled and danced as he rolled into the song. He kept his focus on the kid, on her effervescent happiness that was absolutely worth whatever crap Brax and Jonah would sling his way.
When he’d finished, Maddie clapped and bounced. “Again!”
“Another time, Munchkin,” Cayla told her. “As he said, we’re about to get to work. Say ‘thank you.’”
Maddie waved him down, so Holt crouched to her level. She pressed a smacking kiss to his cheek. “Thank you!”
This kid.
“You’re welcome.”
As she scampered back down the hall, he rose, rubbing at the little ache in his chest.
“Wow. I’ve really got to make it to karaoke night next time,” Mia observed.
Cayla was looking at him with amusement.
“You know she’s going to be like a dog playing an endless game of fetch now, right?”
“Yeah. I’m familiar.” And Holt chose not to think too hard about the fact that he didn’t mind it. “Okay then, where do you want to start?”
- Writer
