Romancing The Wallflower

She poked him in the chest. “It seems like you’re of the opinion that you always deserve it.”

He clamped his mouth shut and stared down at her. There was no right way to respond to that. He didn’t always do the wrong thing, but the times he’d messed up in his life had resulted in grim consequences for the people around him.

“You can’t control everything. Sometimes bad stuff happens no matter what you do to prevent it.”

He wrapped his hand around her finger and lowered it. “Other times it can be prevented, and I’ve often failed at that.”

He expected her to wrench out of his grasp, but she surprised him by gently squeezing his hand. “I wish you saw yourself the way I see you.”

David felt her words like a vise clamping around his heart. The ways this woman could wreck him boggled his mind. Pulling away from her, he took several long steps toward the back hallway. “Rhett, you almost ready?” he called up the stairs.

“Coming,” the boy shouted as his small feet pounded down the steps. He bounded into the hallway, the ever-present blue dog tucked against his side.

“Shoes, buddy,” David said softly. His nephew had a habit of putting his shoes on the wrong feet.

With a sigh, Rhett dropped to the floor and undid the Velcro straps of his superhero sneakers and switched them to the correct feet. David’s heart squeezed even harder as Rhett’s tongue darted out the corner of his mouth. It meant he was concentrating hard and was the same quirk Jenna’d had as a girl.

David ruffled Rhett’s hair as he stood. “Listen to Ms. MacDonald and do what she says,” he told the boy. “No trouble.”

“Okay.”

He turned and looked at Erin, but her attention was focused on Rhett. “I’m glad you’re coming with me this morning,” she said.

Rhett gave a sharp nod and inched forward.

“I need another hour or so to get things settled here,” David told her. “I’ll pick him up after that.”

“No rush,” she answered, but still didn’t look at him. “We’ll stay busy.”

He’d been the one to pull away a few minutes ago, but now the distance separating them seemed wider than simply physical space. It felt like he was losing something that had never belonged to him in the first place. The sensation made him want to throw a tantrum, like a baby whose favorite toy was taken away.

Erin held out her hand to Rhett, and the boy placed his smaller one in it. They walked out the open door and disappeared into the cool autumn morning.

David stood in his empty bar, staring at the dust motes that floated through the rays of sun shining in from the bar’s front windows. He’d never minded being alone before. Why did it feel so damn uncomfortable now?

Chapter Five (#u6e19e450-5cc4-5161-89c3-d9500e82b8af)

“I owe you for this morning.”

Erin almost stumbled off the end of the fishing dock at the sound of David’s voice directly behind her.

He reached out a hand to steady her, but as much as she wanted to lean into his touch, she shrugged it off. Not going there, she reminded herself.

“You don’t owe me. I told you I wanted to help with Rhett.”

One side of his mouth quirked as he stared at her from behind dark sunglasses. “You also told me—”

“Don’t say it.” She held up a hand. “We’ve agreed that request was a moment of sleep-deprived stupidity on my part.”

“I haven’t agreed to anything.” His deep voice once again set off tremors inside her.

“I thought you and Rhett were going to look for rocks to skip.”

David gestured to where the boy was busily digging in the sand and gravel that made up the shoreline of Crimson Reservoir. “He got distracted.”

She smiled as she watched Rhett, crouched low and with his too-long hair hanging over one eye, his attention completely focused on his task. “This is good for him, David. He needs some time to just be a kid in nature.”