by Mandy Baxter
* * *
“Jane! Jenny!” Carter called as he came down the stairs. Quiet was never a good sign when you were the father of twins, and Carter knew from his own experience growing up that the level of quiet was directly proportionate to the amount of trouble being caused.
Agitation and disappointment churned in his gut. Coming out to the cabin had been a bad idea. So far he’d managed to be nothing but a cranky bastard. No wonder the girls were sick of him and stirring up trouble at every opportunity. They were bored. He was no fun. He should have taken them to Disneyland. Someplace where the sensory overload would have kept them too busy for mischief. Most of the time they were little angels, but there were rare moments where they were a terrible twosome. Steph had always known how to handle that excess of energy. Aside from taking them outside and tossing a football around, Carter had no damned idea what he was doing.
Six weeks. Lord, what had he been thinking? They’d barely been there seven days and already they were all climbing the walls. Carter was beginning to think he should have taken Travis’s advice and hired a nanny. He’d promised Steph, though. She hadn’t wanted anyone to raise their girls but loving parents. I want you to find someone, Carter. Promise me that you’ll keep yourself open to love. Just the memory of his wife saying those words gutted him.
A round of hard slaps against the patio door caught Carter’s attention. He changed course and headed for the kitchen. Maybe the girls had accidentally locked themselves outside. In which case, they were in big trouble. The lake wasn’t far from the back lawn and even though they’d had swimming lessons, they knew better than to go outside without an adult. Carter’s pulse leaped and he jogged the rest of the way through the house.
What he saw at the back patio didn’t help to calm him. Not the girls.
Damn it. He recognized his neighbor by the bright locks of her reddish-gold hair. He didn’t have time for some curious, neighborly visit. Jane and Jenny could be anywhere. His gaze darted toward the lake once again. Carter’s heart beat double-time with worry for the girls, as he threw open the patio door.
“Look, whatever you want, I don’t have time for—”
“Your daughters were in my barn. They have an impressive fort built in the loft and I’m not sure the building is structurally sound. You might want to keep a better eye on them or they’re going to get hurt. And you also might want to know that they were planning to run away. Having heard your grumpy shouts for the past week, I’m inclined to agree with your kids that getting away was the best course of action.”
Indignation burned like a cinder in Carter’s throat. “I’m sorry, but I don’t recall asking you for parenting advice.” He’d planned to be more polite, but her brisk interruption and chiding were the straws that broke his back. He focused his attention from the straight, shining sheets of her hair that had been pulled back in a ponytail and left to cascade over one shoulder and the peachy blush of her skin. Her full and lusciously dark pink lips drew into a pucker and Carter’s stomach responded as it pulled into a tight knot at the center of his gut. She was shorter than him by a good half a foot, and compared to his bulk, her frame seemed slight despite her lush curves. His size didn’t intimate her though. Carter’s feisty neighbor took a step in, her toes nearly touching his, and her blue eyes sparked with fire.
“Oh believe me, buddy. If I’m giving advice of any kind, you’ll know it. This is a warning. Our houses aren’t exactly miles apart, know what I mean? I’ve spent more time listening to you shout and gripe than I have my own parents in the eighteen years I lived under their roof. And let me tell you, ages fifteen to eighteen were no freaking picnic for any of us. I came over because I don’t want your girls to get hurt. My barn is old and it looks like they’ve been squatting there for a while. They’re at my house right now, but they seemed hell-bent on running away. I’m no expert, but it might be a good idea to not be such a cranky pain in the ass all the time and maybe keep an eye on them once in a while.”
Annoyance crept up hot on Carter’s neck. He tried to massage the heat away with his palm, but it didn’t seem to help. His neighbor’s glance flitted momentarily to the action and a pleasant zing of sensation raced through Carter’s veins. The heat quickly became a tingle that crawled along his flesh. Not an altogether unpleasant sensation.
“You’re my neighbor. That’s all. How I treat my girls is none of your business.”
Her eyes glittered as her lids narrowed into slits. “It’s my business when they’re on my property.”
True, but he wasn’t about to give her any concessions. “Don’t worry. They won’t step foot on your property ever again.”
What’s her name? The thought came out of nowhere. The way she wanted to continue to argue with him sparked Carter’s competitive nature. He never backed down from a fight. Ever. A trait he’d inherited from his mother and shared with all of his brothers. The angrier her expression became, the more he wanted to push her buttons. If anything, to get a reaction out of her.
“That’s not the point.”
Sort of seemed like the point to him. “Then what is?”
“I don’t care that they were on my property.” The pink blush of her cheeks deepened with her annoyance. He’d never seen a woman with such a pale rose petal complexion. “Okay, so I do care, but only because the barn might not be the safest place to play. The point,” she stressed before taking a deep breath, “is that they were talking about running away. They might have been three or four miles down the road before you noticed they were gone. And they told me they were running away because you’ve been so cross with them lately.”
Beautiful skin or not, she’d overstepped. Jenny and Jane were Carter’s responsibility and how he treated them—cross or not—was none of her business.
“They won’t bother you again. You can send them home.”
She let out a huff of breath that Carter found more entertaining than threatening. She opened her mouth as though she wanted to have the last word but snapped her jaw closed as she reconsidered. Maybe he’d overestimated her feistiness. Too bad. Fighting with his neighbor would have been more entertaining than sitting around the house feeling sorry for himself.
Without another word she spun on a heel and strode the length of the patio before crossing the lawn and hopping the fence. Carter’s gaze lingered on the perfect roundness of her ass before he looked way, embarrassed. He shouldn’t have been looking at another woman.
That didn’t mean he shouldn’t apologize to her for being an asshole, though. He owed her for finding the girls before they’d gotten hurt or worse. And Jenny and Jane were right: he’d been no fun, and too cross with them for the entire week. Looked like he was going to have to suck up his pride and take one for the team and eat a little crow.
Damn, he hated to lose.
Three
Tess closed the lid on her laptop in a huff. It did her no good to try to work when her concentration was shot. Her run-in with her new neighbor yesterday still had her blood pumping and not just because he was the most stubborn, curt, infuriating man she’d ever met. It was also because he was the most drop-dead, stunningly gorgeous man she’d ever met. Men simply didn’t look like that in real life.
Totally unfair.
She’d marched up to his house in her yoga pants, hair pulled back in a messy ponytail, her T-shirt bearing the evidence of the Greek yogurt she’d had for breakfast—awesome—and he’d stepped out onto that patio every inch of him perfect as though he’d been whipped up in a lab. His light hazel eyes were nothing short of hypnotic and his shaggy dark brown hair made her fingers itch to smooth the locks away from his brow. The square of his jaw and sharp cheekbones looked as though they’d been cut from stone, so hard in comparison to his soft mouth that, despite his agitation, remained relaxed and pliable. Despite his intimidating nature, Tess couldn’t help but wonder if he had ever been truly enraged once in his entire life.
Besides, he’d been more annoyed than angry. Not to menti
on concerned for his daughters.
Tess had a feeling that there was a lot more to her gorgeous neighbor than met the eye. Despite their less than stellar introduction yesterday, she found herself wanting to know everything there was to know about him. So much for swearing off men.
A knock came at the back patio door and Tess craned her neck from the kitchen table fully expecting to see Jenny and Jane, their little faces pressed to the glass. Instead, the entire sliding glass window was taken up by the towering frame of their dad. Tess looked down at her standard yoga pants and T-shirt ensemble. She seriously needed to reconsider her choice in clothes.
Tess took a deep breath as she slid open the patio door. “Before you start in on me again—”
“I want to apologize.” He cupped the back of his neck and his cheeks flushed. Tess couldn’t be bothered to notice his chagrin for more than a second, though. Her eyes were drawn to the play of muscles that flexed in his powerful arm with the motion. Wow. “I was an ass yesterday. I’m Carter by the way. Carter Christensen.”
“Um…” Tess couldn’t form a coherent thought to save her life. She dragged her eyes from the curve of his bicep and met his intense hazel gaze. “You were worried about your kids and I didn’t help anything by acting like a know-it-all. You’re entitled to be a little grumpy.”
“An ass,” Carter corrected. A reluctant smile tugged at his lips, and Tess’s stomach did a backflip. “No need to sugarcoat it.”
“Okay, you’re entitled to be an ass.” Tess laughed and added the caveat, “When you’re worried about your kids.”
“I’ll make sure they stay off your property from now on.”
Carter turned to leave, and it was the last thing Tess wanted. “You don’t have to do that!” she blurted. Ugh. Way to play it smooth. “I was just worried that the barn wasn’t structurally sound, that’s all. I don’t mind them playing over here if you don’t mind. I was going to ask my dad to fly down and check out the barn, but maybe you could check it out? I was debating whether or not I should have it torn down for safety reasons. Or if you wanted to check out the fort the girls made you could do that, too. I mean, if you want to. Or not. Whatever. You totally don’t have to.”
Carter turned. His brows gathered as he watched her with an intensity that sent Tess’s blood rushing through her veins. She always talked too much when she was nervous, and Carter made her want to launch into a two-hour recitation of her entire life history so she wouldn’t have to acknowledge how awkward he made her feel. Awkward and shaky and sweaty and lightheaded. Holy crap. If she didn’t take a breath she was going to pass out.
“That’s probably a good idea,” Carter said. “Knowing those rug rats, they won’t stay away even if I tell them to.”
Tess pulled on her boots, regretting for the millionth time that she was wearing her yoga pants and not a cute pair of jeans or something that made her look like a marginally more productive member of society. She glanced down at Carter’s feet and swallowed down a groan as she got a glimpse at his pristine herringbone patterned Chuck Taylors. Seriously. Good looks and phenomenal taste in shoes?
“You probably don’t want to trudge across the swamp in those.” She nudged her chin toward his feet. “The ground hasn’t dried out yet.”
Carter laughed, and the sound traveled through Tess’s body in a pleasant ripple that softened her bones. “You did know there’s a flood irrigation system for the lawn, right? You can turn it off and get rid of the swamp.”
“Yeah…” Tess knew so little about her own house and property it was embarrassing. “I had no idea.”
Carter smiled. “Let’s take care of the irrigation first. Then the barn.”
“Your shoes?”
He shrugged. “They’re just shoes. That’s what washers are for, right?”
Jared would have freaked out at the prospect of getting his shoes dirty. Once when they’d gotten caught in a rainstorm, he’d insisted they duck into a restaurant and wait it out rather than allow his new leather loafers to suffer any water damage. It hadn’t mattered that they’d missed her cousin’s graduation in the process. The little, inconsequential things had always mattered most to Jared and not the important things like, say, fidelity.
As she followed Carter around to the west side of the house, Tess’s curiosity about him only intensified. “How do you know so much about this house?”
Carter didn’t turn to face her. “Steph’s grandparents owned the property that our house is on now. We used to come here all the time when we were in high school. Millie coerced me into doing chores for her whenever I was around.”
“Steph was your wife?” The words left Tess’s mouth in little more than a whisper.
Carter’s T-shirt stretched taut across his shoulders as his body tensed. He leaned over the irrigation valve and paused as though taking a much needed moment. “It’s funny,” he said as he closed the valve. “It’s been almost two years, and it’s hard for me to think of her in the past tense.”
Tess’s heart clenched. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“Don’t worry about it.” Carter straightened. When he turned to face her, the depth of sadness in his hazel eyes was so intense that Tess felt it in her gut. “Just turn the valve all the way to the right when you don’t want to flood the lawn.”
“At this point, I doubt I’ll need to water it for the rest of the summer.”
“Come August, you’re going to change your tune.” Carter canted his head as he studied her. “Where’re you from, anyway?”
Though Tess appreciated the change in topic, she still felt bad that she’d managed to sour it in the first place. “New York City,” she said.
A rueful grin spread across his full lips, and he gave a sad shake of his head. “City girl.”
She bucked up her chin a notch. Just because she was from the city, it didn’t make her some clueless idiot. “And where’re you from?”
This time Carter flashed a dazzling grin that blinded her. “Dallas.”
Tess’s mouth puckered. “Not so small town yourself. I’m getting the impression you like jerking people’s chains.”
Carter chuckled, and the sound warmed Tess from the inside out. “Come on…?” Carter’s mouth quirked in a half smile. “I don’t think I got your name.”
Oh good lord. Tess couldn’t help but prove she was socially defunct. “Tess Adams,” she said.
“Okay, Tess. Let’s go check out the barn.”
* * *
He was a total fucking downer, wasn’t he?
Steph was your wife? Tess’s words had speared him right through the chest. They’d been high school sweethearts. And they’d had their ups and downs—especially after Carter started playing pro ball—but he’d figured they’d gotten through the worst of it. What he hadn’t realized at the time was that the worst was yet to come.
But it wasn’t the reminder that Steph was gone that caused the sharp pang in Carter’s chest. Rather it was the guilt that stemmed from the fact that since yesterday, he hadn’t been able to get his new neighbor out of his mind. She was beautiful, feisty, obviously patient considering she hadn’t run Jenny and Jane off her property for good. But what most intrigued him was the inner strength she exuded without even trying. As though she could take on the world singlehandedly.
He’d come over to apologize to her because he really didn’t want to leave her with the impression that he was a raging dick. That and he’d wanted an excuse to see her again.
“So, what do you do in Dallas?” Tess asked as she slid open the heavy barn door. The structure leaned a little and the roof looked like it might need some work, but overall, it was pretty sound. “Wait, let me guess. You’re a contractor?”
Cater laughed. It was sort of refreshing to have someone not know who he was. The Christensen’s were oil magnate royalty in Dallas social circles. And though Carter and his brothers had never had anything to do with the family business until after their father had died six months a
go, his name came with a notoriety that bugged the hell out of him. As for his career as a pro-baller, unless Tess was a football fanatic, she never would have heard of him. The anonymity was sort of refreshing.
“I’m not a contractor.”
She stopped and folded her arms across her chest as she studied him. Her blue eyes narrowed and her lips drew together in an adorable pucker. Tess looked him slowly over from head to toe and her cheeks flushed as though her thoughts had ventured somewhere inappropriate. Carter’s stomach knotted up as he felt the beginnings of a stirring that he almost didn’t recognize. Two years was a hell of a dry spell. He was surprised his body hadn’t gone into shock at the first hint of being turned on.
A wide grin curved her lush mouth. “Personal trainer?”
Her intense scrutiny flushed Carter with heat. He turned away, toward the ladder that led up to the loft and climbed. “You’re getting warmer.”
The rungs beneath him creaked with Tess’s added weight. So far, the barn was proving sturdier than it looked. “You own a chain of gyms?”
Carter snorted. “No.”
His wide shoulders barely fit through the square that opened up into the loft. Carter hoisted himself up to sit on the floor, and a moment later Tess’s head popped through the opening. Her brows knitted as she held his gaze. “Are you an athlete?”
“Why would you think that?”
She looked away. “You’re not exactly built like a guy who spends all day at a desk.”
A flash of heat licked up his spine. Her voice had gone low and husky with the words. Carter’s throat went suddenly dry and his tongue tried to stick to the roof of his mouth.
“I’m not a fan of desks,” he said with a nervous laugh. Lord, it had been so long since he’d tried to be even marginally charming. He hadn’t dated, flirted, even looked at another woman since he was seventeen years old. This was definitely virgin territory. “You really don’t know what I do for a living?”
