Rocky Ground

by Kaylea Cross

  “Been back a week or so.” He’d been gone over three, back home to Edinburgh to visit his family for the first time in a year, and to finalize his upcoming work contract. Not that she probably cared.

  He wished she would have. He wished she’d missed seeing him around, or that she was even a tenth as attracted to him as he was to her. She was the first woman in a damn long time who had captured his interest so intently.

  She nodded and looked past him to the house. “Where’s Beckett?”

  “Inside on a conference call.”

  Dismissing him, she turned her attention back to Ella. “You ready to go, sweetheart?”

  “I want to walk Walter with Mac first. We were waiting for you to get here to ask.”

  “I told her she had to check with you to see if it was okay,” he said. Ella had taken to calling him by the nickname his friends here in Crimson Point used.

  Tiana’s expression shuttered for a moment, then she aimed a smile at her daughter. “It’s pouring rain out. We should get home. And I’m sure Aidan has better things to do than—”

  “I’d love a good walk in the rain,” he put in. He liked being outside, and the scenery here on the Oregon Coast was some of the finest he’d seen.

  She flicked him an annoyed look and spoke to Ella again. “Well, I’m sure poor old Walter would rather stay curled up inside where it’s warm and dry.”

  “No, it’s okay,” Ella said, popping up and heading for the porch door. “Miss Sierra got him a special raincoat to keep him dry. She says he needs more walks now because he’s putting on weight. Mr. Beckett’s been giving him too many treats.” She paused at the door to grin at them. “He got in trouble for it.” She disappeared inside, presumably to get Walter.

  Aidan could barely hold back a smile at Tiana’s impatient sigh. “She’s a strong-willed little thing,” he remarked.

  “Don’t I know it,” she muttered.

  “I think she comes by it honestly.”

  That earned him a glare, and this time he couldn’t keep a straight face. He’d never had a woman react to him the way Tiana did. For whatever reason she’d made up her mind to dislike him on sight the first time they’d met last fall, and things hadn’t improved much since. She seemed to be slowly, grudgingly coming to tolerate him whenever they happened to cross paths, but she didn’t trust him, especially not with Ella.

  That part bothered him. He had no idea what he’d ever done to get on her bad side or make her suspicious of him, but there it was. And it was a hard shot to the ego to not know whether she found him attractive or not, when he was captivated by her.

  “Why don’t you come out of the rain at least while you wait?” he said. “I won’t bite.”

  She considered him for a moment, then approached the steps. On the porch she gave him a wide berth, standing farther away than necessary as she pushed her hood back to expose the glorious fall of her red waves, seeming determined to ignore him while they waited.

  He wasn’t going to allow that.

  There was something about her that tugged at him. Since the night they’d met he’d wanted to get to know her better. He could have asked Beckett about her but he hadn’t wanted to give himself away, especially to his boss. “Refresh my memory, because I seem to have forgotten.” He waited a beat. “Have I done something to offend you?”

  She turned her pretty, mismatched gaze on him. One eye was green, the other a golden hazel. As unique and arresting as she was. And if he wasn’t mistaken, that was a blush forming in her creamy cheeks. “I’m just looking out for my daughter,” she murmured, as though that explained everything.

  It didn’t. “I can understand that. But you don’t need to protect her from the likes of me.”

  “Look.” She glanced at the door to make sure Ella couldn’t hear, then aimed that startling gaze on him once more. “It’s been a long day, so excuse my lack of patience. May I be blunt?”

  He inclined his head. “Please do.”

  “What’s a single guy like you doing hanging around with a nine-year-old girl?”

  The way she phrased it stunned him into silence for a moment. She thought he was some sort of deviant or something? Christ, that was an insult he’d never thought to have directed at him.

  You told her to be blunt. He’d make sure not to do that again. At least not where he was concerned. “Bloody hell, you really don’t think much of me, do you?”

  She looked away with a defensive little shrug. “I don’t know you.”

  No, she didn’t. And just as it wasn’t fair that women dealt with men judging them all the time, it wasn’t fair for her to make judgments about him either. “Then come with us now and get to know me a bit. Who knows, I just might be able to improve your opinion of me a wee bit.” Probably not a lot, but it was worth a shot. At the very least he deserved a chance to defend his character.

  She didn’t get the chance to answer because Ella reappeared at the door with Walter, leash in hand. The basset-spaniel mix’s long ears drooped well below the edge of the bright yellow raincoat hood, the tips almost dragging on the wooden planks. His red-rimmed eyes stared up at Aidan with his default woeful expression.

  “Awright, Walter?” Aidan asked him. “You ready for walkies?”

  Walter wagged the end of his tail half-heartedly, his expression resigned. As if he knew he didn’t have a choice in the matter and was trying to make the best of it.

  “Just a short one,” Tiana said firmly to her daughter. “You need to get your homework done—”

  “I already did it,” Ella argued.

  “—and I need to go home and figure out something for supper.” She turned toward Aidan, her expression as resigned as Walter’s, and raised her fiery-red eyebrows. “Shall we?”

  She sounded positively thrilled. “Aye.” Aidan grabbed the brolly from where he’d left it leaning against the porch railing. He opened it as he walked down the steps, holding it over both Tiana and Ella to shield them from the rain.

  Tiana darted a suspicious look at him, then murmured, “Thank you.”

  A bit grudging, but he’d take it. “My pleasure.” He put his free hand in his pocket to keep it warm. The wind was cold and damp with the rain. “Now. Where are we off to, Ella?”

  She scrunched up her nose, thinking for a moment. “The lighthouse.”

  “Brilliant. You and Walter go on ahead. I’ll keep your mother dry under the brolly.”

  “Okay.” Ella broke into a trot, dragging Walter behind her up the lane.

  Tiana walked stiffly at his side, her hands in her pockets, eyes on her daughter.

  “You said you’ve had a long day,” he began, searching for a safe topic of conversation. Plus he was nosy and he liked to get to know people by asking personal questions.

  “Yes.”

  “Do you want to talk about it?”

  “Nope.”

  All right, then. Her boundaries were up and reinforced. Personal stuff was off the table for the remainder of the walk. “What shall we talk about, then? The weather?”

  He was heartened to catch the slight quirk of her lips. “How about we not talk at all?”

  He liked the sarcastic edge to her response. Sarcasm was a sign of high intelligence and a healthy mind. He was sarcastic as hell, so it boded well for them to get along once he broke through the ice shield surrounding her.

  “Well now, that would be a shame. How will I improve your opinion of me if we don’t have some sort of conversation?” He’d made up his mind to get under her prickly exterior somehow, and prove he wasn’t the enemy. Tiana intrigued him. He respected her protectiveness of Ella, and the job she’d done in raising her daughter so far. And he wanted to show her he wasn’t a bad bloke.

  He knew only a little of her story. That she was a single mother raising Ella by herself, with no help from the father, whoever or wherever he was. That she worked fulltime as an occupational therapist, primarily with the elderly. Both things told him plenty about her character, and
about the warmth and kindness she hid from him that he’d set his mind on reaching.

  “Were you born and raised around here?” he asked her after a full minute of silence, unwilling to give up his quest to engage in some kind of conversation.

  She cast him a sidelong glance and he was sure she was going to shut him down hard, but she surprised him by answering. “No, Idaho. But I haven’t been back there in a long time. Where are you from in Scotland?” she asked, smoothly turning things back on him.

  There were so many things about her he wanted to know. For instance, why she was standoffish with him, and so fiercely protective of her daughter. The latter seemed heightened to him, far more than the average mother. Had she always been that way? Or had something caused it? “Edinburgh. Have you ever been?”

  “No.”

  “It’s a bonnie country. And I’m not just saying that because I’m from there. There’s no place like it in the world.”

  “I’ve heard that. But as you can imagine, I haven’t been able to travel much. Been busy,” she said, nodding ahead at Ella, whose little purple rain boots splashed in the puddles as she led Walter ahead of them. The pair of them made quite the picture, walking together in their raingear.

  “Aye. My sister raised her two girls on her own until her husband came along just a few years ago. I saw how hard it was on her and the sacrifices she made. Being a single parent is one of the hardest jobs on earth.”

  “Yes,” she agreed. “But it’s worth it.”

  “Aye, ‘tis. Especially when you end up with a girl as sweet as Ella.”

  Tiana was quiet a moment. “How old are your nieces now?”

  He was heartened that she’d picked up the thread of conversation. “Fifteen and seventeen, both going on twenty-five. I’ve told my sister over and over that she should just lock them both away until they’re thirty to keep them the hell away from all the boys sniffing about, but apparently there are laws against such things nowadays.”

  She gave him a wry look. “You mean you don’t trust your own gender?”

  He grinned. “Smart arse. We’ll see who’s laughing when Ella hits her teen years.”

  “Ah, yes. Can’t wait to see what she puts me through.”

  “All part of the parenting adventure. You never know what’s coming around the next corner.”

  He wasn’t sure what he’d said wrong, but her expression dimmed. “No, we really don’t.”

  The woman was as bonnie and prickly as a Scottish thistle, but he was willing to bet it hid an inner softness that would make the effort of reaching it more than worthwhile.

  “Have you got any other family back home?” she asked.

  “My parents.”

  “You must miss them. And your friends.”

  “I miss my family. As for my best mates…” He looked out at the sea, fighting the tide of memories that talking about them always brought. “I lost all three of them in Afghanistan a few years ago.”

  She gasped, looking horrified. “Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to pry.”

  “You’re all right. Fair’s fair. You may have noticed that prying is a bit of a habit with me.”

  A small smile curved her lips. “I have, actually.”

  “My biggest flaw, my mum always said. But my heart’s in the right place.”

  “I really am sorry about your friends.”

  “Thank you.” He would never forget them, or hearing the news that their convoy had been ambushed by insurgents. By the time Aidan’s unit had been organized for a rescue attempt, it was too late.

  That was his biggest regret—not reacting fast enough, not getting there soon enough. It had affected him for a long time. It had also taught him not to hesitate when he wanted to go after something.

  And what he wanted now was Tiana.

  They lapsed into silence again, and he was more curious about her than ever. He wanted to earn Tiana’s trust and see if there was anything between them, something that could be built upon when he came back from the contract job he’d signed up for overseas.

  “Ella’s a sweetheart,” he said to Tiana. “You’ve done a great job with her.”

  “Thank you.”

  They lapsed into silence again as they took the path toward the lighthouse. Just as well they didn’t talk because as they neared the water the wind cut sharper across the point, threatening to turn the brolly inside out and making it necessary to shout.

  Together they walked to the cliff’s edge and paused there to look out at the sea. Today it was an angry green-gray maelstrom pounding the shore and rising up to slam against the base of the cliff below. Beautiful, wild and mysterious. Much like the woman next to him.

  A minute or two later, Tiana shifted her back to the wind and huddled deeper into her jacket. “We should head back,” she said over the wind, ushering Ella and the dog back the way they’d come.

  Aidan stayed slightly behind and to Tiana’s left, using his larger body to try and shield her from the full force of the wind. “Cold?”

  She nodded, her hair and most of her face swallowed by the edges of her hood that she’d pulled tight. “Freezing.”

  “I’ll miss a lot of things about this place, but not the way the winter wind cuts through me,” he said as they reached the start of the path once more.

  Tiana looked up into his face, the angle allowing him to see the freckles scattered across her nose and cheeks. Adorable. Little fairy kisses, his mum had always called them. Aidan wouldn’t mind kissing them himself. “Are you leaving?”

  He chose not to be insulted by her enthusiasm. “Aye, end of the month. I’ve got a job lined up with an old mate of mine from the UK until my work visa extension is all settled.” The extension he’d applied for had been denied, but Aidan’s lawyer had appealed. They had a strong case and Aidan expected to hear good news any day.

  “What kind of job?”

  “Security contracting.” He fully intended to come back here to Crimson Point afterward.

  “For how long?”

  “Six months or so.” He’d enjoyed the break that working for Beckett’s renovation company had afforded him, and he’d be sorry to leave. But he’d be sorrier yet if he didn’t break through Tiana’s defenses before he left. “I’ll likely be back by mid-fall.”

  She smiled at him sweetly. “You were right about us talking more. I suddenly like you better for some reason.”

  Unoffended, he chuckled and pulled out his phone when it buzzed with a text message. “Sierra’s wanting to know if you lasses would like to join us for dinner at their place. Jase and Molly are bringing the baby over.”

  Tiana opened her mouth, no doubt to refuse, but Ella grabbed the sleeve of her mother’s coat, her expression hopeful. “Can we, Mama? I’m all done with my homework, and you hate having to cook every night—”

  Tiana made a strangled sound and shot Aidan a look out of the corner of her eye, her cheeks turning a darker shade of pink from more than the wind. “I don’t hate it,” she argued, then paused. “No, you’re right, I do hate it. All right, we’ll stay for a bit.”

  “Yay!” Ella cried and broke into a jog with Walter tagging along doggedly at her heel.

  “Does she want us to bring anything?” Tiana asked him.

  “The answer’ll be no, but I’ll check for you anyway.” He typed in the message, waited a few moments until Sierra’s reply came back. “No, just bring yourselves.”

  “Okay.”

  Beckett and Sierra were both in the kitchen when they arrived at the house. “You guys look half frozen,” Sierra said with a laugh. “Come sit by the fire and warm up.”

  “Don’t mind if I do.” Aidan loved hanging out here. The house was solidly built, and though it wasn’t old by UK standards, it was for this part of the world and had a warm, homey feel that made it a comfortable place to gather.

  Seated on the sofa in front of the fire he chatted with Ella while Tiana looked on, the firelight glowing on her red hair. Just the sigh
t of her made his heart beat faster. It was an unfamiliar predicament. He was smitten, and he still couldn’t tell if she found him anything but bothersome.

  Jase and Molly showed up minutes later with two-month-old baby Savannah all wrapped up cozy in her car seat, and they all sat at the table together to eat. Tiana took Savannah when she started fussing, walking the curly-haired baby around and cooing to her. That natural, effortless warmth she displayed made Aidan smile. He wanted to feel it firsthand.

  When dinner was over he and Tiana helped clear up in a silence that while maybe not completely comfortable, it wasn’t strained, either. That was progress. Afterward he walked Walter down to the end of the lane, following Tiana as she drove Ella home.

  “Thanks for the escort,” Tiana said as she climbed out of her car and quickly ushered Ella up the wooden steps to the front porch. “Good night,” she added over her shoulder, almost as an afterthought.

  “Good night,” he answered, admiring the shape of her as she moved inside.

  At the door Ella turned back to him, her sweet little face shining with excitement. “Bye, Mac!”

  “Bye, lass.”

  As the door swung shut behind them and the deadbolt slid home, Aidan smiled. Cold and wet though it might be out here, if he wasn’t mistaken, some definite thawing had taken place today.

  Chapter Three

  “It’s not looking good.”

  Brian sat completely still in the office chair, fighting to keep his expression impassive. “Meaning what?”

  His lawyer leaned forward slightly, his forearms and linked hands resting on his desktop. “If this goes to trial, with the amount of evidence they have against you, as well as Ella’s testimony… We’re looking at a conviction.”

  Don’t react. Don’t let him see. Anger, humiliation and fear twisted together in a hot ball in the pit of his stomach. This was supposedly the best criminal defense attorney in the state, costing upwards of five-hundred bucks an hour, and now the man was suddenly telling him he didn’t stand a chance? “Since when have you decided this?”

  “Since I got a call this morning that two more girls have come forward with abuse allegations against you. They’re both willing to testify.”