Page 3 of Mountain Man Tempted (Hard Timber Mountain Men #2)

HOLT

I’d spent all night second guessing my decision to hire Calla.

Yeah, she had experience. Yeah, she sounded like she knew what she was talking about.

But having her in our home, in my space, meant opening myself up.

It meant letting someone see a side of me I hadn’t shared in a damn long time.

I wasn’t sure I was ready for that, especially not with a woman with pink hair who looked way too young for me and tempted me in ways I wasn’t sure I could resist.

I grabbed a pile of books from the floor and shoved them onto a bookshelf. Lane had another bad dream last night that kept both of us up until after four. I’d counted on having time this morning to straighten things up before she arrived, but I’d hit the snooze button a few too many times.

Five minutes before seven, someone knocked on the front door. Lane was sitting at the kitchen table eating his favorite dino egg cereal. It was full of sugar and all kinds of shit that was bad for him, but it was one of the few things he liked so I’d stopped fighting that battle.

“Is that her, Dad?” He sat up a little taller at the table and stared at the front door.

“Yeah.” I gave up trying to make things look presentable and crossed the room to let her in.

She stood on the porch in another pair of cutoff jean shorts and a t-shirt.

At least this one covered her belly, though the V-neck was low enough to make my dick take notice.

Usually I didn’t have the energy to even look at a woman much less waste brainpower thinking about her, but there was something about Calla that demanded attention.

“Good morning.” She radiated sunshine, from her smile to the warm scent of her flowery perfume, to her bright orange fingernail polish.

“Morning.” I stepped out of the doorway, and she came inside, her eyes scanning the small interior until they caught on Lane who was still sitting at the table.

“You must be Lane.” Calla walked toward him, stopping at the edge of the table. “I’m Calla.”

He glanced over at me like he wasn’t sure what to do next. Before I could prompt him to say something, Calla pulled a tissue-wrapped package out of her tote bag.

“Nellie told me you like dinosaurs. I brought you something we can play with today if you want.” She set it down on the table and Lane looked at me for permission to open it.

“Go ahead, bud. See what she brought you.” I crossed my arms over my chest and moved closer.

“I wasn’t sure if you had this already, but you can never have too many dinosaurs, right?”

Lane ripped the paper away, his eyes lighting up when he saw the dino playset inside. “Look at this, Dad. It’s got fifty dinosaurs.”

“Wow. That was nice of you to bring him something,” I said to Calla.

She shot me a wide grin. “I felt like it was appropriate since we both love dinosaurs so much.”

“You like dinosaurs too?” Lane slid his cereal bowl to the side so he could open up the bin.

“Of course. What’s not to like about them?”

“Did you know a T-Rex could lift four hundred pounds with each arm? Or that they could crunch over six tons per square inch in their teeth?”

“I didn’t know that.” Calla smiled. “But I know that a T-Rex could only run about fifteen miles per hour. They weren’t going to win any races like that.”

I couldn’t help but smile as Lane spouted off facts he’d memorized since he was a toddler. He was a walking encyclopedia when it came to anything and everything about dinosaurs.

“Can I borrow Calla for a minute so I can show her around?” I asked.

Lane nodded, already immersed in his new toys.

“You didn’t have to do that,” I mumbled as she came up next to me.

“I know. But hopefully that will get us off on the right foot and make the transition a little easier for you.” She hung her bag over the back of a chair and looked up at me with expectation. “What do I need to know?”

There were so many things, I wasn’t sure where to start.

Usually, if I needed someone to watch Lane, I took him to Nellie’s or had the teacher’s aide who’d been his camp counselor for the past two summers come over.

Except for Trail Supper Fridays, my once-a-week tradition with the guys, I took him everywhere with me, so it had been a long time since I’d needed to go over his routines with someone new.

“I made a list.” I walked toward the kitchen counter where I’d left it, and Calla followed.

She picked up the piece of paper and skimmed over it. “Seems simple enough. Any restrictions on food? Where we can go? Things he can or can’t do?”

“Like what?”

“Like can I take him fishing with my grandpa? Swimming at the swimming hole? Is he lactose intolerant or anything?” She put a hand to her hip and held the list out toward me. “This just says what he likes to eat and has all of your emergency contact info and insurance details.”

“Yeah, you can take him fishing with your grandpa, but he doesn’t like to touch the worms. Can I assume you have a clean driving record?”

“You bet. Except for that one time I hotwired a car and crashed it into the country club swimming pool.” She arched her brows and waited for my reaction.

My chest squeezed tight. “Are you kidding me?”

“Yes, Holt. I’m kidding you. We’ll be fine.

I’ve been background checked, fingerprinted, and even had extensive psychological evaluations to be able to work with kids in the program I ran.

I can promise you, Lane will be safe with me.

” She put her hand on my arm like she wanted to offer reassurance, but all that did was send a jolt of hot awareness through my nervous system.

I couldn’t let this woman get to me. She appeared to be qualified to work with my kid and keep an eye on him this summer, and that’s all I needed from her. But as I swept my gaze over her bright blue eyes, flushed cheeks, and full lips, it wasn’t all I wanted.

“I’m going to head back to my bedroom to answer some emails and do a little work while the two of you get to know each other.

Holler if you need me.” I left her next to the counter and headed back to Lane who had already spread dozens of dinosaurs out on the table.

“Hey, bud. I’ll be in my room working if you need me.

Why don’t you finish your breakfast before you get too involved in setting up a dino world? ”

He turned into me and wrapped his thin arms around my waist. “Okay, Dad.”

My heart melted. He was my “why,” the reason behind everything I did. I still didn’t understand how his mother could walk away from him and miss out on moments like this.

I kissed the top of his head and caught Calla watching us from the doorway.

For better or worse, she was on the inside now.

As much as I didn’t like that, I didn’t have a choice.

Not if I wanted to try to keep the precarious balance between doing a good job at work and giving Lane what he needed at home.

Before I headed down the hall, I slid his cereal bowl back in front of him, hoping he’d finish his breakfast before he got too consumed by his new dinos. I wasn’t as interested in checking my email as I was in eavesdropping on what was going on in the other room, but I did have some work to do.

I left the door open so I could hear better and fired up my laptop.

Since Lane had stopped going to camp and I had no one to watch him during the day, I’d switched from field crew to monitoring the radio and working dispatch.

I hated sitting at the desk in my bedroom while other guys were out on the trails or pulling a shift in the tower.

Yeah, I was lucky I had the flexibility, but it wasn’t what I wanted.

If things worked out well with Calla, I might be able to start taking on some field shifts again.

Best not to get my hopes up and get ahead of myself though. I logged in to see what had happened overnight. Hard Timber didn’t see a lot of action. The trouble we faced was usually caused by a camper who hadn’t properly put out a fire or one of the massive storms that rolled in over the mountains.

Looked like it had been a quiet night. I pulled one side of my headphones away from my ear and strained to listen to what was going on in the other room.

It was quiet. Too damn quiet. I didn’t want to be the kind of dad that hovered, but I had a right to know what was going on with my kid.

Grabbing my coffee so I could make the excuse that I needed a refill, I got up and headed back to the kitchen.

Lane’s cereal bowl had been washed and stacked in the strainer.

There was no sign of the dinosaurs, no sign of Calla, and no sign of my kid.

Panic wrapped around my lungs and tightened like a vise. I checked out front. Calla’s car still sat in the dirt drive, so they hadn’t gone anywhere. Hell, it wasn’t even eight o’clock in the morning so there wasn’t really anywhere they could go this early.

The hinges on the back door screeched as I pulled it open. Calla sat in one of the wicker chairs on the porch with Lane’s pet rabbit in her lap. Lane was on his knees next to her. Both of them looked up, startled.

“There you are.” I let out a soft laugh and tried to downplay the fear I’d felt when I couldn’t find them.

“I wanted Calla to meet Jack the Rabbit.” Lane looked up at me and smiled. “She said she had a pet rabbit when she was a kid too.”

I should have strangled Nellie when she brought over the damn rabbit a few months ago.

But Lane had immediately fallen in love, so we’d compromised.

Jack lived in a hutch outside and was only allowed to come in when one of us was watching him.

I’d learned the hard way that rabbits liked to chew on everything, including laptop power cords, which was why he’d been relegated to outdoor accommodations.

Calla ran her hand over Jack the Rabbit’s back. “My pet rabbit wasn’t nearly as nice as Jack.”

“Jack the Rabbit is his full name,” Lane said.

“I see. My rabbit’s name was Rabbit. Not very original, but I thought it was perfect at the time.” Calla continued to run her hand over Jack the Rabbit’s back.

Now that I'd found the two of them, I could relax a little.

“I was thinking we could head into town and go to the library this morning. I saw some books on dinosaurs when I was there the other day that Lane might want to check out.” Calla looked up at me. “Would that be okay?”

I doubted that there were very many books at the library about dinosaurs that Lane hadn't already read. But if they wanted to get out of the house, it would be nice to have a little bit of quiet time.

“Sure, that sounds good. I can meet you in town for lunch at the cafe if you want.”

“I get to have chicken tenders two days in a row?” Lane asked.

I ruffled his hair. “Maybe you could try something else today.”

He frowned but gave me a slight nod.

“Let's go get your things together, Lane. Your dad's got work to do, and I'm sure there are enough things going on around town that can keep us busy for a couple of hours.” Calla handed the rabbit back to Jack, and I waited while he put him back in the hutch.

After they’d gone back inside, I checked to make sure he'd properly latched the cage before I followed them into the house.

It wasn't like him to take to a new person so easily.

Calla had broken the ice with the dinosaur toys, so it figured she'd make some headway.

I waited while she helped him find his shoes, and he didn't put up a fight when she held out a pair of green and orange striped socks. She tossed a few snacks into her tote bag and filled up his water bottle like she’d been doing it for years.

“Does he need a booster?”

Damn, I’d been so distracted while I watched her move around my kitchen that I’d almost forgot. “Yeah. It’s in the back seat of the truck. I can get it for you.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll grab it on the way out if it’s unlocked.”

The thought of someone in Hard Timber locking anything almost made me laugh. “Yeah, it’s open.”

The two of them headed out, and I watched through the window as she pulled the booster out of the truck and Lane climbed into the back seat of her car. Watching him so willingly go off with a stranger made me wonder how easily he might do without me.

I was just tired. No need to get emotional about the new nanny. After they’d driven off, I turned around and headed back to the bedroom, wishing I could use this time to take a nap instead of getting caught up on old reports.