He took a few more bites of his breakfast, waited exactly five minutes . . . long enough for Colin to have fallen back to sleep, and dialed him again.
He answered on the second ring. “God, you’re an asshole.”
“I love you, too. Home Depot at eight thirty.”
Colin moaned. “Nine.”
“Fine.”
This time they both hung up.
Matt tapped a finger on his phone, laughing.
Ten minutes past nine and he was pushing the orange cart through the home improvement store while his brother walked beside him holding a Starbucks as if it was a lifeline.
“This place is always a zoo.” Colin shook his head and followed his brother around the store.
“Smells like weekend fun to me.” They stood in front of the home security section, and Matt started tossing supplies he needed into the cart. “Things have changed a bit since I installed my system.”
“I never felt the need to have one before.”
Matt picked up an outdoor wireless camera that needed power but that transmitted the signal wirelessly. “That’s because you don’t work with the public as closely as I do. There’s a lot of crazy in this town.”
“I like my blissful ignorance.” Colin glanced at the box Matt had just put in the cart. “I wonder if this will work all the way to the gate.”
Matt shook his head. “It requires a wireless signal, the gate is what, a thousand feet from the house?”
“Give or take.”
Matt handed him a different box. “You’ll need this one and you’ll have to run a wire all the way up.”
Colin turned it over. “I guess that’s why Parker never bothered.”
“Major pain in the ass, but if I’m not mistaken, her yard is all torn up right now with the new water main.”
Colin nodded, concentrated on the box for a full thirty seconds. “Yeah.” He dropped the box in the cart, looked at the wall of wires. “We’re going to need a lot of wire.”
Matt laughed. “What happened to blissful ignorance?”
“For me.” He reached for the wire. “This is to keep her safe. I can’t be there all the time.”
They filled the cart and kept talking.
“I’m guessing that once you two are married you’ll be moving in with her.”
“That’s where my head is. We haven’t really talked about it in depth. I should probably get a ring on her finger and set a date first.”
“Cabo?” Matt asked.
“Cabo,” Colin said with a nod.
“I’m happy for you. Parker is a great lady.”
“I’m a lucky man.”
Matt wasn’t going to argue with that. Finding a flavor for the week, the month . . . a season was easy. Finding Mrs. Forever . . . not so much.
They pushed through the checkout line, out to the parking lot, and loaded up Colin’s Jeep.
“Did you bring your truck?”
Matt pointed toward his motorcycle.
“Ahh, the real reason you needed to drag my ass out of bed early on a Sunday.”
“My truck is at the dealership on a recall. I won’t get it back until tomorrow.”
Colin climbed behind the wheel. “See you at the house.”
Matt sauntered over to his bike, pulled off the helmet he’d locked to the back, and placed it over his head. It was already hot and he wasn’t going far, so he’d skipped the heavy jacket and took his chances. He swung a leg over the bike and fired it up.
Warm sunshine and wind brushed against him as he made his way onto the main street that cut through town. Damn, it was good to be alive.
Erin heard them arrive before she saw them. She looked out the window and noticed Matt pull up close to her place while Colin drove up the driveway of the main house.
She pushed down the nerves that always surfaced when Matt was around and opened the door to greet him.
“Good morning.”
He took off his helmet and placed it on the seat. “What?” he asked.
“I said good morning.”
His charming smile that made his eyes sparkle in the corners hit her square in the chest. Clean-shaven, perfectly trimmed soft brown hair, and hazel eyes. Kind eyes. The type that didn’t turn dark right before the anger started.
She found her thoughts twisting and took a step back.
“Good morning.”
“Did you guys get everything you needed?”
“I think so.”
He walked toward her and it took everything in her to not retreat. Matt spent time at the gym. At least that was her assumption based on the span of his shoulders and the way his waist tapered to his hips. His arms filled out his short-sleeved T-shirt in ways that made women want to uncover the whole package.
Some women.
Not her.
Or so she kept telling herself. The strength behind all that muscle was intimidating.
He moved closer and she found an excuse to back away. “I made coffee and a coffee cake.”
Matt stopped the second she was on the move.
“Coffee cake?”
“Yeah, sugar, flour, and a drizzle of frosting.” She moved toward her front door.
“You had me at coffee, but I’d love to try your cake.”
The innuendo made her smile along with him.
“I didn’t mean that quite the way it came out.”
Yeah, actually . . . she was pretty sure he had. He’d attempted to flirt with her on a half a dozen occasions over the past six months. Each time she did what she needed to do. She ignored his attention and pretended not to notice. As beautiful a man as Matthew Hudson was, he was a man . . . and she’d sworn off his entire species for life.
“You drink your coffee black, right?”
“You remembered?”
“One of my savant qualities.”
Colin yelled across the lawn. “Hey, help me with this stuff.”
Matt looked at her. “I’m going to . . .” He started walking.
“Go. I’ll get the coffee and cake.”
Inside the small guesthouse she’d occupied for less than a year, she forced her breathing to slow and her heart rate to calm down. Just the distance helped. This place had become her safe zone. A space where nothing bad had happened with no terrifying memories to sweep her back to her past. It was where she was healing. Every day she felt stronger. And with the security system Matt and Colin were going to install, she had another tool in her box of safety. One more weapon against ever falling prey again.
“Knock, knock.”
Erin looked up to see Parker standing at her front door.
“Come in.”
“They’re here,” Parker told her.
“I know. Matt already said hello.”
Parker’s snicker had Erin shaking her head. “Did he now?”
“Stop it.”
Her friend walked into the kitchen and picked at the coffee cake Erin was slicing up. “You know he called at the butt crack of dawn.”
“That wasn’t necessary.”
“He likes you. He wants to get here early and he’ll make excuses to stay late just to earn one more smile from you.”
“Shhh.” Erin looked at the open door. “He’ll hear.”
“Oh, please . . . they’re in the garage collecting man crap.”
“That’s funny coming from you.”
Parker licked her fingers. “I had to learn how to use all the stuff my dad has in there out of necessity. They use it for fun. There’s a difference. Men buy tools they don’t need because they’re cool, or maybe one day they’ll need it. Women are like . . . nope, if I need it, I’ll borrow from the neighbors.”
“We do that with dishes.” Erin removed two cups from the cupboard she’d filled with multicolored cups and plates.
“I don’t. Well, shovels maybe. I did buy a lot of shovels this winter.”
“That’s because you needed them.”
Every day had a physical exercise plan mapped out
for anyone who lived or came near The Sinclair Ranch. The mudflow from the canyon left a mess that required big and small equipment to clean up. And while the largest of the excavators were long gone, the drifts of mud were still piled in plenty of spaces all over the property. Picking up a shovel and using every muscle available to clean up those mud drifts had everyone canceling their gym memberships.
Erin stopped short and stared out the kitchen window. “I just thought of something.”
“What’s that?”
“What kind of wedding gifts are you going to ask for? You already have everything you need, times two.”
Parker picked up one of the plates filled with coffee cake and grabbed a fork. “I haven’t even thought about it.”
Erin remembered her own wedding and all the gifts.
Expensive gifts.
The kind rich people gave to other rich people to show off their wealth. There wasn’t one toaster or Crock-Pot in the mix. The memory of a two-foot crystal vase crashing against the wall beside her surfaced and the spatula in her hand fell to the floor.
Parker put the plate down and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You okay? You’re white as a sheet.”
She sucked in air slowly, pushed it out. “I’m fine.”
Parker picked up the spatula and bent to the floor with a kitchen towel to clean up the mess. “You were thinking about him, weren’t you?”
She felt the blood returning to her head. “I was remembering a wedding gift.”
“Remind me not to ask for whatever you were thinking of.” Parker hesitated as she stood. “Wait, you were married? I thought he was an ex-boyfriend.”
Matt’s and Colin’s voices carried in from outside.
“Another time.” Erin dodged the question and plated another piece of cake. She ignored Parker’s slack jaw and walked out the door with a hostess smile on her face.
“A little something to get you started,” Erin said to them both.
Matt reached her first and took one of the plates. He looked her in the eye and his smile fell. “You okay? You’re a little pale.”
“I’m fine.” She handed the other plate to Colin. “Coffee?” she asked him.
“That would be great.”
She slid past Parker and back inside.
“You do that entirely too well,” Parker whispered to her.
“Do what?”
“Pretend nothing is wrong.”
Erin forced her hands to stop shaking as she poured two cups of black coffee. “Do you want some?”
Parker was silent.
Erin looked up, found her frowning.
“Sure.”
She picked up both cups and headed back outside. “Cream is in the fridge.”
Matt took his sweet time with the coffee, cake, and conversation. He was going to milk this day for as long as he could. Colin knew it from the look in his brother’s eyes.
“I picked up sensors for all the windows and the doors, a motion detector for inside, and an outside camera we can mount facing the entry.”
“I bought a camera for the gate,” Colin added. “That’s going to take a little more work and won’t be in until we dig a longer trench.”
“You mean we’ll be able to see who is coming and going through the gate?” Erin asked.
“It will be wired with the monitor in the main house, not down here.”
She tried not to show any disappointment. It would be nice to know who was coming and going. At this point, the only people who let themselves in were those who lived there, the handful of people that mowed the lawn, cleaned the pool, and read the meter . . . the garbage company and dozens of county public works employees over the past few months. So approximately half of Santa Clarita, give or take a few.
“How do you let people in from the gate now?” Matt asked her.
“I don’t.”
“The control is with the house phone,” Colin told him.
“So what do you do when you have company? Give them the code?”
Erin looked at Matt. “I don’t have company.”
“What do you mean you don’t have company?”
Her confession made her sound like the poster child for introverts. “I’m new here.”
That seemed to help the expression of worry on Matt’s face. “All we need to do is run a landline down here,” Matt suggested. “But that means you’ll hear it ringing when it isn’t for you.”
Erin shook her head. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”
“What about when we’re in Cabo? I know Austin will be in and out, but it might give you peace of mind to know who’s driving through the gate.”
Parker’s younger brother, Austin, was in his final months of high school and had friends over quite a bit. So she could add half of the male teenage population to the list of visitors on the property.
“I think you should just stay up at the main house while we’re gone,” Parker said.
“Won’t that cramp Austin’s style?”
It was Colin that pointed out the obvious. “He’s eighteen, you staying in the main house will deter any Animal House–type parties.”
“I don’t think Austin has it in him.” Parker smiled at Colin.
One glance between Colin and Matt and they both shook their heads. “It’s in him,” Matt said with complete confidence.
“Fine. I’ll stay in the main house and keep the peace.”
“He can have friends over . . . just no parties.”
“I get it,” Erin assured Parker. Austin was a good kid, and his friends had always been polite. She didn’t think there would be any problems.
Colin pushed back from the table and stood. “Well, are we going to talk about this all day, or get it done?”
“How long do you think this is going to take?” Erin asked.
“All day,” said Matt.
“A few hours,” Colin said at the same time.
Matt glared at his brother. “A few hours, to all day. Depends on . . .” He looked around, considered his next words. “Stuff.”
Parker silently laughed.
“Okay, well, let me know if you need any help with the . . . stuff.”
Once Matt and Colin were out of earshot, Parker leaned over and said, “Told you he’d make excuses to stay late.”
Erin rolled her eyes as if she were blowing Parker’s observations off.
Hours later, when they were planning dinner, her eyes didn’t roll so flippantly.
CHAPTER FOUR
Matt and Colin made a pact to finish the job before cracking open the first beer or risk not completing their task. And just to ensure the day wasn’t going to end when the work was done, Matt had texted Grace, and encouraged her to invite herself over for dinner.
His baby sister didn’t disappoint. She’d called Parker after noon and said she was feeling left out. Parker, being Little Miss Hostess, gave her an open invitation to come by. Sometime after three, Grace showed up with a macaroni salad and strawberries. Next thing he knew, the women were mixing up margaritas. Only then did Matt pick up the pace so he and Colin could finish the job and join the fun.
He and his brother were walking back from the gate where they’d mounted the camera, but would have to wait until the rest of the trench was dug to run the wire, when they heard someone splash in the pool.
It was four thirty and the sun had started to move past the point of scalding closer to tolerable.
“Looks like the party got started without us,” Colin said as they cut through the yard.
“I hope you have an extra set of swim trunks here.”
“I have ya covered,” Colin told him.
Matt craned his neck in hopes of seeing Erin in a bathing suit before she noticed him looking.
“Could you be more obvious?” Colin called him out.
“Yes, but our mother taught us better.”
They laughed.
“I think you might be growing on her.”
Matt didn’t need Colin to c
larify who the her was.
“You think?”
“Yeah, she didn’t flinch from you once today.”
Matt kept his voice low as they moved closer to the girls. “I also haven’t been within two feet of her since this morning.”
Colin nudged his arm. “Well, you’re going to have to show her how to use the system, and that requires a cell phone and monitor tutorial. And since I’m part of the labor force, and not the education department, that’s on you.”
Matt wiggled his eyebrows. “Go find me those swim shorts. I do my best work shirtless.”
Colin patted his side with laughter and walked up the path to the main house. He yelled over the music the women had turned on to catch Parker’s attention. “Need anything inside? I’m changing.”
Parker stood beside a blender they’d brought outside. “More ice.”
Colin gave her a thumbs-up.
The splash in the pool had come from Austin.
Grace sat on the side, dangling her feet in the water, and Erin was missing.
Matt’s mouth watered in anticipation of her in a swimsuit and hoped she was inside changing.
“All finished?” Parker asked as she poured a generous amount of tequila into the blender.
“That we are. The gate is going to need more attention, but you knew that.”
Parker was all smiles. “Erin is going to be so happy.”
He looked around again. “Where is she?”
“Inside changing.”
Yeah, baby.
“Don’t look so eager. You’ll scare her off,” Parker chided.
Matt forced his smile to fall.
“You want one of these?” Parker lifted a half-empty glass of margarita in the air.
“Absolutely.”
She used his cue to push the button, and their conversation was cut off by the noise of the blender doing its thing.
“. . . c’mon, you’re not that much older than I am.” Austin was treading water and talking with Grace.
“You’re twelve,” she told him.
“I’m eighteen.”
Grace rolled her eyes with a wide smile.
“What’s going on here?” Matt asked.
“Austin is hitting on me,” she said with a sip of her drink.
Matt’s mouth fell. “He’s what?”
“Dude, look at your sister. She’s hot.”
The adolescent misplaced remark would have spiked hair on his neck if the kid were ten years older. Instead Matt shrugged and said, “It could work. Go for it.”
Home to Me Page 3
