Heartless: A Small Town Single Dad Romance(8)

Summer painted them bright red, cheerful just like her.

They remind me of Willa’s hair.

Fucking lame. I push the thought away. And that’s when I hear it.

“I can’t do it.” It’s Luke’s little voice, a hint of distress soaking through.

“Yes, you can,” the slightly raspy tone of the knockout redhead comes next. And I almost shoot out of my seat to run to the rescue.

“Man, just sit. He’s fine. Don’t be a helicopter parent. It’s annoying.”

I ignore the instinct, take a big swig, and strain to hear what’s going on beneath the tree.

“You won’t climb further than you can handle. You’re too smart for that. Trust your body.”

“What if I fall?” Luke’s voice is thin.

“Well, I guess I’ll stand underneath you and you can fall on me so that we both get hurt. Because you’re too big to catch. And you aren’t going to fall anyway. Just listen to me, okay?”

“Okay,” he says, a surge of determination in his tone now.

Rhett glances over at me and grins. “Willa Grant is good shit, brother. If she’s offering to take care of our boy for the summer, you’d be an idiot to turn her down. I don’t know many people more loyal than her. She’s got a big heart.”

I feel like there’s a story there I don’t know. But I also know my brother wouldn’t blow smoke up my ass when it comes to Luke and his well-being.

Her voice trails out from the tree again. “You’re going to move your right foot down to this branch.” A pause. “Attaboy. Then your left hand here. Then you should be able to sit on that branch and jump down.”

I can see her sandaled feet and tight jeans behind the branches as she moves around pointing things out to my son. Soon, small sneakered feet plunk down beside her, followed by little hands catching in the grass.

“I did it!” Luke shoots up, still oblivious to the fact that I’m here.

“Of course, you did. You made this tree your bitch.”

Rhett snorts beside me and I glare at him.

“Oh, come on! You think he hasn’t heard the way you talk?”

“I’ve spent years instilling good manners in that kid.”

He chuckles and shrugs. “Well, if that’s true, then you’ve laid a good foundation, and one summer with a fun nanny won’t ruin him.”

I just grunt and take a sip.

Maybe.

“How high can you go, Willa?”

I expect her to shut him down. Or appease him with some line about how adults don’t climb trees.

But she wipes her hands over the round globes of her jean-clad ass and says, “I dunno. Let’s see.”

I hold my beer suspended in midair—frozen—as I watch an adult woman climb the thick trunk.

“Is she nuts?” I mutter before taking another drink.

Rhett snorts. “A little. But in a good way.”

Luke’s feet bounce excitedly as he watches her. “Don’t go too high! What if you get stuck?”

“You’d save me,” Willa calls back from what sounds like much higher up the tree than I thought she’d go.

“I’m too small. But my dad would save you!”

Her raspy laugh reaches us at the back deck. It’s still as disarming as it was earlier today. “I don’t know about that. He might be happy to leave me up here, Luke.”

I press my lips together. She’s not entirely wrong. My life would be a lot less complicated if she hadn’t waltzed into Chestnut Springs this morning.

My dick would be a lot softer too.

“Oh never. He helps everyone,” my son replies, making my heart twist in my chest. Sometimes I wonder how I must seem to him, how I look in his eyes. And this one gets me right in the gut.

“Sounds like you’ve got a pretty great dad,” Willa replies instantly, sounding a little breathless now. “How lucky are you?”

“Yeah . . .” Luke trails off thoughtfully. “No mom though. She moved away and doesn’t visit.”

My brother sucks in a breath from beside me, eyes darting in my direction. “Goddamn, kids just say whatever comes to mind, don’t they?”

I swallow thickly and nod. I’ve worked hard to shield Luke from the reality of his mom, of the choices she’s made—the type of person she is.

I never want him to feel unwanted.

Willa drops to the ground, brushes her hands against each other, and crouches in front of my son.

Her head tips up to look him in the eye, hands stroking his upper arms as she smiles at him.

“Sounds like her loss, because you might be the coolest kid I’ve ever met.”

She doesn’t use a sad voice, or a baby voice, she just talks to him like a normal human being.

“Fucking hell,” I curse under my breath because she just practically hired herself.





4

Willa

I swallow hard when Luke pushes his soft little fingers between my own. I also swallow down the agitation I feel at the thought of someone—a mother, no less—not coming to visit a kid like this.

The universe blessed me with two badass parents. Ones who would crawl through glass to get to me. I want to be that kind of mother one day. Fierce. Fearless.