Lakeside Cottage

Seeing Aaron’s efforts to get the man’s attention, Kate felt a familiar pang. Aaron wanted a father in the worst way. He always had. As a toddler, he sometimes tried to wander off in the mall or at a baseball game, and she’d catch him trying to follow random men around, imprinted like a duck.

The way he emulated the stranger suggested just a hint of hero worship. As far as Kate could tell, JD was Aaron’s ideal in faded work pants and Wolverine boots. He had a pickup truck and a chain saw. What more could a boy want?

She caught herself staring at his shoulders. They were broad without being bulky, and he moved with a certain athletic ease, suggesting a natural fitness rather than some kind of intensive training. There was something about JD. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. His careless choice of clothes suggested a lack of vanity, yet he bore himself with a curious dignity.

“Hello,” she called, motioning for Callie to join her. “How is the victim?”

JD turned to her, and her heart flipped over. It was crazy, he wasn’t her type at all, but she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Okay, she thought, studying his hair, so it wasn’t a mullet. Just long hair, and like Brad Pitt’s in his best movies.

“The volunteers at the wildlife rehab place think he’ll make a recovery.” He indicated his truck. “I washed out your cooler.”

“Thanks. JD, this is Callie Evans. She’s going to be staying with us.”

Aaron’s eyebrows lifted almost comically, but he made no comment.

“Nice to meet you,” he said.

Callie blushed and looked bashful. Kate wondered if, given her background, the girl had issues with men.

“JD, you want to check out the dock?” Aaron had a fascination with the dock and the water. “You, too, Callie.”

“Sure,” she said. “Is it deep enough to dive off the end?”

“Yep. My cousins used to dive off it all the time.”

“What about you?”

“Nope.” Aaron’s cheeks reddened, but he didn’t explain further. Kate suspected he couldn’t. He didn’t have the vocabulary to put his emotions into words. Maybe, she thought, just maybe this would be the summer he’d finally swim.

Callie gave the dog a wide berth. “A kayak,” she said, lifting the tarp that covered a long, narrow boat. “You ever go out in it?”

“All the time,” Aaron said, clearly loving the attention. “It’s a two-man, see?”

Despite his refusal to learn to swim, he loved boats and always had. The ferries of Puget Sound, a Zodiac raft, anything that would float appealed to him, bringing him close to the thing he dreaded.

“Maybe we could take it out,” Aaron suggested.

“Of course we’ll take it out,” Kate assured him. She was determined for this to be a fun summer for him even though his cousins wouldn’t be around.

Aaron showed off the kayak, which had been around since powerboats had been banned from the lake years before. Kate stood back and watched him, this boy whose teachers said he was a poor student with poor skills of self-control, as he effortlessly went through the attributes of the boat.

They had never met two strangers in one day, Kate reflected. And certainly they’d never encountered a teenage runaway and a quiet but unexpectedly interesting guy. Now she watched him next to her son, and he was patient and respectful in a way that appealed to her deeply.

Most men she met lost interest as soon as they discovered she had a child, or as soon as they discovered Aaron’s rambunctious nature. So far, this one seemed to be all right with her son’s constant chattering. He seemed to be sensitive to Callie, too, Kate noticed. He gave the girl plenty of space, didn’t ask her a lot of questions.

A sensitive diamond in the rough. Right here on the shores of Lake Crescent. Who knew?

You’re getting ahead of yourself, Kate, she thought. All he did was borrow your ice chest.

Aaron, on the other hand, seemed to have no reservations. “So you want to go kayaking right now, or after dinner?” he asked.

“Maybe another time.”

He was diplomatic, thought Kate. He seemed to sense that you didn’t just paddle out onto a remote glacial lake with a child you’d only just met.

A look of disappointment clouded Aaron’s face. Then Bandit came back from some inexplicable dog’s errand. He was flecked with twigs and sticker burrs and panting hard. Callie scooted away from him again, though she tried to be discreet about it.

“Well,” said Kate. “I need to finish putting things away …”

JD seemed to catch her tone. “I should get going, too.”

“Aw, come on,” Aaron said. “Stick around a while.”

“I’ll see you around the lake,” JD assured him. “Thanks again, Kate. See you, Callie. Take care of yourself.”

She frowned at him suspiciously. “Sure.”

Aaron walked with JD to his truck, bouncing along beside him as if he were a ball and JD was dribbling him. “Hey, guess what? When I was six, I walked the whole Spruce Railroad Trail all by myself.”

“You don’t say.”

“Yep. There are mountain bikes in the shed. Five of them. Want to go mountain biking?” He didn’t wait for an answer. “This is a really cool truck,” Aaron said, speeding ahead, scrambling up over the tailgate. “Is this the Schroeders’ truck?”

“Uh-huh. I’m borrowing it for the summer. The Schroeders live on the East Coast now.”

“Hey, my cousins moved to the East Coast.” Aaron started bouncing again. “All four of them. That’s all I have. Four cousins. No brothers or sisters. You got kids?”

Way to go, Aaron, thought Kate, holding her breath as she waited for his answer.

“Nope,” JD said easily, taking his keys out of his pocket.

“You married?”

“Nope.”

“Seeing anybody special?”

“Aaron.” Kate couldn’t take it anymore.

“I was just trying to figure out all the stuff you’d want to know anyway,” Aaron said, then turned again to JD. “If we were in the city, she would Google you on the Internet, but there’s no Internet here.”

“All right, buddy,” she said. “Why don’t you go make yourself useful and stop embarrassing me in front of company.”

He saluted her and sped off, waving to JD.

“Sorry about that,” she said as he got into his truck.

“Don’t worry about it.” He propped his elbow on the window frame. He looked as though he wanted to say something else, but he stayed silent for a few beats, staring out across the lake. His arm still rested easily on the edge of the window as though he was in no hurry to leave. “Do you really do that, look people up on the Internet?”