Page 2

CHAPTER 2

JACE

I stopped at the edge of the curb in front of the twins’ school. Meeting Rhonda’s replacement had thrown me off schedule, and I was running a few minutes behind. Scanning the group of kids waiting for their rides, I didn’t see the twins at first. Then Eli waved and ran to the truck, a huge grin on his face. Wren took her time pushing off the side of the building, then closed her sketchbook and shuffled over.

“Hey, how was school?” I asked as they climbed in, Eli in the front and Wren taking her usual spot in the back.

“Good. Only one more day until summer vacation. I can’t wait. Do you think we can work on the new trail signs after dinner tonight?” Eli was a ball of energy while Wren quietly secured her seatbelt and tucked her backpack between her feet.

“How about you, Wren?” My eyes met hers briefly in the rearview mirror. “Did you do okay on your math test?”

“It was fine,” she mumbled.

I pulled away from the curb, wishing I knew what to say to my daughter to get her to come out of her shell. Eli was easy. He liked to do the same kind of things I liked. We bonded over installing trail cams, survival training, and spending entire weekends deep in the woods. But Wren seemed to take after her mother, and that scared the shit out of me.

She used to want to hold my hand when we went on nature hikes. Now she barely made eye contact. I was losing her one small step at a time and I didn’t know how to reach her.

“Can we work on the signs, Dad?” Eli pressed. “You said I could try out the new post digger.”

Wren rolled her eyes and shifted to look out the window. I needed to find a way to reconnect with my little girl before she became someone I didn’t recognize.

“Not tonight. The guys are coming over for poker.” Tonight was my turn to host, and I’d been looking forward to it all week.

“Does that mean pizza for dinner?” Eli asked.

“Sure does.” I glanced in the rearview mirror again and caught Wren’s quick smile. At least she was still excited about pizza night. The tightness in my chest eased, at least for now.

“Is it true Ranger Rhonda isn’t going to be doing summer camp this year?” Eli asked.

“Where did you hear that?” I hadn’t shared the news with the kids yet, but word spread fast in a town the size of Big Wood.

“Everyone was talking about it at lunch.” Eli pulled a granola bar out of his backpack and took a big bite. With his mouth stuffed full, he continued to pepper me with questions. “Is camp canceled? I think Wren and I are old enough to stay home by ourselves this summer. Or I can help you at the park. What do you think about that?”

“I think you’d better not talk with your mouth full.” I nodded toward the glove compartment where I kept a stash of napkins from fast food places. “Wipe your crumbs off the seat. And camp isn’t cancelled. Someone’s filling in for Ranger Rhonda this summer.”

Wren let out a long sigh. “Why do we still have to go to camp, Dad? None of my friends have to go. They all get to stay home this summer.”

I’d heard it a million times and wasn’t going to give in. “When you get to middle school, you can stay home in the summers.”

“It’s only one more year,” she argued.

Only one more year until they moved onto middle school meant they were growing up too fast. “That’s right. That means you’ve only got one more year of camp.”

She huffed out a breath and crossed her arms over her chest. Looked like the conversation was over, at least for the time being. It wouldn’t be long before we’d butt heads about something else. That seemed to be our natural MO nowadays, and I had no idea what to do about it.

“What kind of pizza do y’all want?” I asked.

Eli crumpled up his granola bar wrapper and stuffed it in his backpack. The kid could set up and break down a camp site faster than a trained park ranger but somehow couldn’t keep his own stuff organized. No doubt he had overdue homework and probably a banana peel or two at the bottom of his bag. I made a mental note to have him clean it out after dinner.

He lifted his hand and counted off the pizzas he wanted for dinner. “Let’s get a taco pizza, a Hawaiian, a sausage and pepperoni, and don’t forget the veggie one for Wren.”

“You’re still not eating meat?” I shot her yet another glance in the mirror.

“Do you have any idea how they treat those animals before they slaughter them?” Her eyes sparked with outrage. “They don’t have any kind of life at all.”

I refused to argue with her. Having grown up on a small cattle ranch in Texas, I had complicated feelings about it. I shot a glance over to Eli. “So, one veggie and why don’t you narrow down the other options to two?”

“Fine.” Eli bit down on his lower lip while he worked out his options. “A half taco, half Hawaiian, plus a full sausage and pepperoni with extra cheese.”

That kid. He always found a way to make things work out for him. We made the rest of the drive home in relative silence. As soon as we walked in the door, Wren made a beeline for her bedroom while Eli tossed his bag by the back door and headed to the fridge for a snack. I let the dog out then opened my laptop and sat down at the kitchen table to tackle my inbox.

This had become our routine over the years. Raising two kids as a single dad wasn’t what I’d set out to do, but I was making the best of it.

By the time the guys showed up for poker, the kids had eaten dinner and went off to hide in their rooms. Walker arrived first, his arms full of tortilla chips and some salsa he’d picked up in Knoxville a few weeks ago while he was there for a meeting. Brody was next. He looked like he needed a beer even more than I did so I popped the top off an ice-cold bottle and handed it to him before he said a word. Tucker was last, but he brought a twelve pack of craft beer from the new brewery that had opened a few towns over, so no one gave him shit about being late.

“Kids in bed already?” Walker asked.

I chuckled. “More like hiding out in their rooms. Wren’s probably drawing in that sketchbook of hers and Eli’s probably mapping out a new trail system for the whole damn park.”

Brody set stacks of poker chips in front of everyone. “I heard your new park ranger got into town today.”

Tucker stopped shuffling. “You got someone to cover for Rhonda this summer?”

“She’s not a ranger.” I shook my head. Should have known Delaney’s arrival would be the hot topic of conversation tonight.

“She might not be a ranger, but sounds like she’s pretty easy on the eyes,” Brody teased. “And not from around here, either.”

Walker’s eyebrows shot up. “Single?”

“Check.” Brody smirked as he cut the deck.

“Cut it out. She’s barely out of school. Too young for any of us, plus I don’t think she has any idea what she’s doing.” If I didn’t put a stop to this line of conversation, they’d be giving me shit all night.

“She might be young, but sounds like she’s legal,” Tucker joked.

“The last thing I need is to get involved with someone, especially at work,” I said. “Not when I’ve got a whole summer program to run, an almost teenage daughter who barely tolerates me, and a trip back to Texas looming over my head.”

The guys stayed quiet for a few long beats. Then Tucker cleared his throat. “She’s a tween.”

“What?” I asked.

“Wren’s ten now so she’s considered a tween. You know, like in between a kid and a teenager.” His cheeks took on the faintest shade of pink. “I guess that’s what they’re called now.”

I slid a chip into the middle of the table. “Remember when it was easier? When we’d take the kids to the park and not have to worry about whether or not they actually like us?”

“Hell, I’d trade a little tension for all of those dirty diapers we had to deal with back then,” Walker joked.

“Just wait until Clementine becomes a ‘tween’ and you might change your mind,” I warned.

Brody picked up the deck. “Are we going to play cards or shoot the shit all night? And besides Clem and I have a deal she’s not going to grow up, so I don’t have to murder any guys who wanna date her.”

Finally. The tension in my shoulders let up as talk turned to the topics we knew best: sports and weather. But as much as I tried to focus on my cards, images of Delaney kept popping into my head… the way she’d smiled at me, the way my belly twisted when I’d gripped her small hand in mine, and the way her pretty brown eyes had sparkled when I passed her the keys.

The safest thing for me to do would be to spend as little time at the Big Wood Park office as possible this summer. There was plenty to do at the other sites. I should be able to avoid her for the most part.

Satisfied I had a plan on how to handle the bump in the road called Delaney Hart, I focused all my attention on my cards.