Page 4 of Mountain Man Tempted (Hard Timber Mountain Men #2)

CALLA

As Lane and I headed into town, I wondered when how long it might take to see the first signs of trouble.

So far this morning, he'd been more than willing to follow my directions.

It had only been a little over an hour, but I hadn't seen any indications of him not wanting to follow the plan.

And honestly, it probably would help him to have some sort of a plan in the first place.

It seemed like Lane would do best with predictable routines, not just having to follow his dad around. Holt's schedule had to be rough on him.

“Do you like going to the library?” I glanced in the rear-view mirror and met his gaze. He had the same gorgeous brown eyes as his dad.

Lane shrugged. "Sometimes. My dad doesn't take me there too much, but we used to go during camp sometimes."

Nellie had mentioned that Lane had been in summer camp and it didn't work out. If I could recreate some of the things he loved from the time he spent there, he might be more invested in helping me make this work. "Were there any things you really liked about summer camp?"

“We were supposed to go on a dinosaur dig but I didn't get to do it because they said I couldn't come to camp anymore.” He stared out the window, his forehead furrowed. His expression made my heart squeeze just a little bit tighter.

"What kind of dinosaur dig?"

He shrugged. “Probably they were just gonna bury some fake bones in the sandbox. I wanted to go to the Westmore dig. Did you know they've been working on that for almost twenty years?”

I didn't. Lane seemed to know all kinds of things about dinosaurs. Keeping up with him was going to be its own challenge. “Is it open to the public? Is that somewhere we could visit together this summer?”

His eyes lit up. “I don't know.”

“Let me do some digging.” I winced at the unintended pun. “I bet there's somewhere in town where we can find visitor information, and if there's not, I bet Nellie knows.”

“Nellie knows everything. She likes dinosaurs too.” Lane’s excitement had him bouncing on the back seat.

“Well it's a good thing you're surrounded by so many people who like dinosaurs.” I pulled into a spot at the parking lot. It was fuller than I'd ever seen it before.

We walked in to see a sign in the lobby saying it was toddler story time hour. That explained all the cars in the parking lot.

Lane crossed his arms over his chest. "You didn't bring me here for toddler story time, did you?" His expression was accusing, a real resting grump face.

"No, I didn't bring you here for story time," I assured him. “Do you know how to look up dinosaur books to find out where they are on the shelves?"

When he didn't reply right away, I assumed he didn't know, or someone had shown him and he'd forgotten. So I led him over to one of the computer stations, where a screensaver bounced around on the screen.

“All you need to do is type in the subject.” I moved the mouse over the space where I needed to enter the search criteria. Using the touchpad, I typed in dinosaurs .

Search results filled the screen.

“Do you see anything you like?” I asked.

Lane scanned the options and pointed to the fourth one. It was a book titled What Caused the Dinosaurs to Go Extinct .

I pointed to the number underneath. “This number here tells you where to find the book on the shelf. Take that piece of scratch paper, write it down, then take it with you so you remember where you're supposed to look.” I picked up one of the tiny pencils and handed it to him.

Lane stuck his tongue out like he was concentrating while he jotted the number down. His handwriting wasn't entirely legible, so I made a mental note of the number as well.

“Now, let’s go find the shelf with these numbers on it so we can get your book.” I held out my hand and he took it. Hand in hand, we strolled toward the adult non-fiction section. Lane looked at the piece of paper then scanned the numbers printed at the end of each shelving unit as we passed.

“I think it’s down here.” He stopped at the right row.

“Great. Now look at the books on the shelf to find the right numbers.” I let go of his hand so he could concentrate on moving down the line of shelves. I could tell he was getting frustrated when he started fidgeting with the hem of his t-shirt. “Want some help?”

“No. I wanna do it myself.” He continued to scan the numbers, but he was nowhere near where he needed to be. If I didn’t intervene soon, he might go into a full-fledged meltdown.

“Why don’t you check over here?” I suggested, pointing to a section quite a way down the row.

“I don’t want help.” His voice raised and a few kids sitting at the edge of the toddler story time looked over.

Lane continued to work his way down each shelf, running his finger along the spines of the books and getting more and more irritated by the second.

I pulled his stuffed T-Rex out of the tote bag I’d packed and held it out to him. “Looks like you’re getting a little frustrated. Want to give your T-Rex a big squeezy hug?”

He grabbed hold of it and hugged it tight against his chest. “His name is King Chomper.”

Relief rolled through me. I was prepared to help him out of a tantrum but was glad it didn’t look like it was going to come to that.

A kid Lane’s age was old enough to know what kind of behaviors were appropriate in public even if he couldn’t help it if he became dysregulated.

I didn’t want him to get embarrassed or feel ashamed because he couldn’t hold it together.

“Can you take in a big, deep breath like a brachiosaurus?” I asked as I demonstrated.

He copied me, sucking in a huge amount of air.

“Now let it out like a sleepy stegosaurus, a little bit at a time.”

Lane’s eyes drifted closed as he let out his breath. When he opened them again, he smiled. “King Chomper always makes me feel better.”

“Then he’s doing his job.” I pointed to the shelf where the book we were looking for was located. “Why don’t you look over here? See how the numbers on the spines are close to the numbers of the book we need?”

He squinted at the numbers then reached out to pull the book off the shelf. “I found it!”

“You sure did. Way to go.” I held out my fist for a fist bump. “Should we go find a chair where we can sit and look through it for a little bit?”

Nodding, he carried King Chomper under an arm and held the book in his hand as he led me to a couch in the corner.

For the next two hours we flipped through dinosaur books, practiced finding the ones we wanted on the shelves, and even sat in on a demo the librarian gave on how to use their new 3D printer.

Lane was pretty excited about the small rabbit he got to make.

I registered for a library card so we could check out a stack of books, then we loaded up the tote bag before we had to meet Holt for lunch.

“What do you think your dad’s going to think about all of the books we got?” I asked Lane as we entered the cafe hand in hand.

“I think he’ll like the one about the dinosaur who rides a motorcycle. He said he used to have one before I was born.” Lane spotted his dad at the back booth and tugged me toward him.

If I didn’t already have a crush on Holt Thorne, picturing him on the back of a big motorcycle sealed the deal. I chased the image out of my head as we neared the table.

“Hey, bud. Did you have a good morning?” Holt melted at the sight of his son. He stood up and pulled him into a hug.

“We got lots of books at the library.” Lane leaned away from his dad’s chest and held out the plastic bunny. “And we got to make a Jack the Rabbit to take home.”

Holt glanced over, the smile meant for his son still stretched across his lips. “Sounds like a good time.”

“It was. And guess what? Calla’s really good at doing voices, just like you, Dad.” Lane scooted into the booth, his attention focused on the plastic rabbit.

“Really?” Holt eyed me with suspicion. “Just how good is she?”

“Show him, Calla,” Lane prompted.

I sat down across from the two of them and shook my head. “Not now. I don’t even have a book to read. We put them all in the car.”

“Will you read me one of the books we got before bed tonight?” Lane looked up at me with such hope in his eyes that I didn’t want to say no right away.

“Calla has to go home at some point,” Holt said. “Although, I was wondering if you might be available to stay a little late on Friday night. I’ve got a standing commitment for dinner with my brothers and a few of my guy friends. If you can’t, it’s not a big deal.”

“It should be fine. I can read you some of the dino books we got on Friday. How does that sound?”

Lane nodded.

“It’s settled then. Let’s figure out what we want to eat for lunch.” Holt said.

* * *

Lunch passed relatively smoothly, and Nellie only gloated for a few minutes about being right that I’d be a good fit to watch Lane for the summer.

After Holt picked up the tab and kissed Lane goodbye, he took off for the fire tower and I took Lane home, stopping at the store on the way.

Lane asked if I knew how to make mac and cheese the way Nellie did, so I called my grandma and got her secret recipe.

I figured I could make it up and have it ready for both of them when Holt got home.

That way he wouldn’t have to worry about making dinner.

Lane played with his new dinosaurs while I shredded cheese and boiled noodles. Once I had dinner done and cooling on the counter, we went outside, and I set up the sprinkler so he could run through it.

“You come too!” Lane yelled as he motioned me over.

“I can’t. I didn’t bring my swimsuit, and I don’t have anything dry to change into after.” He was having so much fun, I was almost tempted to join him. Instead, I took another sip of the iced tea I’d brewed earlier and settled back onto the lounge chair.

“Please?” He came over and flung himself into my lap, soaking me in the process.

“You stinker. You did that on purpose, didn’t you?” I wasn’t mad, just surprised. When he laughed and took off running, I got up and chased him.

He ran back and forth over the sprinkler, and I gave up and gave in. When Holt pulled into the drive, I was soaked straight down to my underwear. My hair hung in long, wet chunks over my shoulders, and my t-shirt clung to my chest.

As soon as Holt stepped out of the truck, Lane ran over and threw himself into his dad’s arms. Holt hugged him back, then must have realized Lane was sopping wet. When he pulled back, there was a Lane-sized print left on the front of his shirt and pants.

“What are the two of you doing?” He walked toward the house, his gaze sweeping over the wet grass and landing on me.

“Lane wanted to run through the sprinkler. I wasn’t going to join him but then he got me all wet.”

Holt stared right at me, his eyes filling with the same kind of haunted heat I felt every time I let myself look at him. That was the moment I realized running through the sprinkler in a thin, light tee was a mistake I couldn’t take back.

“I’ll get you a towel.” He ripped his gaze away and took long, quick steps to the house.

“I told you it would be okay.” Lane tugged on my hand, pulling me toward the door.

Holt returned with two beach towels. He tossed one at me without making eye contact, then bent and wrapped Lane up in the other. “Let’s get you dried off so we can figure out what we’re going to have for dinner.”

“Calla made macaroni and cheese. She said I have to have broccoli with it, but we also got ice cream for dessert,” Lane said.

Holt looked over at me. I’d wrapped myself up in the towel, embarrassed that he’d seen me in a see-through t-shirt. “You made dinner?”

“Yeah. Lane asked if he could have mac and cheese, so we stopped by the store.”

“Can she eat with us?” Lane jumped up and down, evidently excited by the prospect of having an extra at the table.

“I need to get home and change,” I told him. “But we’ll have dinner together on Friday when your dad goes out. Have you ever made your own pizza before?”

His eyes widened. “With pineapple?”

“Pineapple on pizza should be outlawed,” Holt said.

I smiled, hoping we could pretend like everything was normal. “I happen to like pineapple on my pizza.”

“Let me give you something to change into for your drive home.” Holt nudged his chin toward the front door. “You’ve got a long drive, and I don’t want you to catch a cold.”

“It’s really not necessary. I’ve got the towel, and?—”

“You’re changing,” he said in a tone that didn’t leave room for negotiation.

A few minutes later, I got into my car, my chest straining against one of his fire crew t-shirts and my ass encased in a pair of super soft gray sweats.

The faint scent of laundry detergent mixed with something woodsy and masculine hovered around me.

I breathed it in as I pulled down the drive, waving to Lane with my arm hanging outside the window.

Every instinct screamed at me that I needed to walk away from this job and not look back. But I was already falling for the little boy who loved dinosaurs. And I was head over heels in lust with his ice-cold dad.