Box of Hearts (The Connor's Series Book 1)

by Nikki Ashton

  Addy held out a piece of white fabric; it had lemon flowers on it and had been cut with pinking shears. On closer inspection I could see that my name had been written on it in black ink. As I stared down at the heart, I gulped back the swell of emotion that threatened to burst out.

  “For me?”

  “Yes, Granma cut it out for me the day after you got here.” Addy put the heart back in the box and pulled out the final one. It looked to be blue foil covering cardboard, and in the middle was the name ‘Daddy’.

  “This is Daddy’s,” she said softly. “I made it for him at Christmas. I heard him crying for Mommy on Christmas Day.”

  Addy gently laid the heart back in the box, on top of mine, and the put the lid back on it. Leaving Miss Cynthia’s heart on the table, Addy climbed down from her chair, reached up for the box and then scampered away with it.

  As I sat at the table waiting for her, the door opened and Bonnie came in carrying a basket of rolled up sheets and pillow cases – today was linen change day in the bunk house.

  “Hey, honey,” she sighed and dropped the basket onto the floor. “The damn machine is broken in the bunk house. I’ll have to do these over here.”

  I chewed on my bottom lip and gave her a slight head nod. Addy’s little box had certainly done something to my heart.

  “You okay?” Bonnie asked. “Jesse hasn’t done something has he?”

  “No,” I whispered. “Addy showed me her box of hearts.”

  Bonnie smiled softly and cupped my face with her hand. “Oh honey, she hasn’t upset you by making you a heart, has she? She was insistent because she said you looked sad.”

  “I thought I’d hidden it well.”

  “Not from Addy.” Bonnie gave my shoulder a squeeze and then sat down. “You don’t have to tell me, but I’m here if you ever need to talk.”

  I took a deep breath and told Bonnie all about Dean and Ambrose. Her mouth gaped open and she held a hand to her chest as she listened.

  “A man?”

  “Yes, a man. But, it wasn’t meant to be and to be honest, I don’t feel as sad about it as I did.”

  Bonnie didn’t say anything but gave me a knowing smile. Maybe she knew what I’d known for weeks; I evidently hadn’t loved Dean but simply the idea of being a couple, being married.

  “Is it a tradition?” I asked, feeling distinctly uncomfortable thinking about Dean. “The box of hearts?”

  Bonnie shook her head. “No, just an idea Addy had. Just last summer I read her a book about a little boy who kept his wishes in a box under his bed, and Addy loved it. The little boy was magical and he would give his wishes to people who he thought needed or deserved them, and when he did, they would always come true. So,” she sighed with a tinkling laugh. “Addy had the idea that if she gave people their heart to give to someone they loved, or who loved them, they would live happily ever after.”

  “Oh my God,” I whispered. “She is the sweetest child I have ever met.”

  Bonnie’s eyes glistened with pride. “I know, and thanks be that her daddy realizes that now, too.”

  “He’s really turned a corner with her, hasn’t he?” I said, avoiding Bonnie’s gaze, sure that she’d see the truth of my feelings for Jesse in my eyes.

  “Yes honey, he has, and I can’t tell you how relieved I am. Ted and I were talking about it last night, and we agree we can cope with him shutting off from us, as long as he never does again with Addy.”

  “He’ll get there one day,” I replied.

  “Let’s hope that doesn’t take too long either, hey honey?”

  Bonnie smiled and got up from her seat and moved across the kitchen to the discarded laundry basket, giving me a wink as she did so.

  Jesse

  After taking a shower, I rushed over to the house knowing that I had about twenty minutes before Addy went to bed and I was a pissed as all hell that I’d missed bath time. I’d had shit day that had consisted of one dead cow, a ranch hand with a sprained wrist from falling from his horse, and a row with Brandon; over what I couldn’t even remember. I knew why, but not what. The why had been because I was sick of listening to him talking about Millie.

  Damn Armalita Braithwaite, with her Spanish sassiness. A few days after she’d arrived, I’d sneaked a peak at the resume that Mom had been sent. I don’t know why, but I needed to know more about her. I told myself it was because she was caring for my daughter, but I think that fantastic ass of hers had something to do with it, too. I should’ve known my attraction to her ass would become a pain in my ass after what happened by the barn. She took up all my fucking energy, energy that I needed to work the ranch. If strength was measured on what it took for me not to push her up against the wall and have my hand in her panties again, then I was the strongest man in the universe. I was pretty sure that if I let myself weaken, then Millie would be more than willing. She’d loved every minute of what I did to her; Christ the way she’d moaned my name when she came was sexy as hell and the thought of hearing it again was enough to make me hard.

  The problem was, Millie had been hurt, and not so long ago. I wasn’t the man to heal her heart, fuck my own was barely ticking over and had been grinding to a slow halt for the last two years. Millie was the sort of girl who wanted forever, and even though her heart was hurting, she didn’t strike me to be one of those girls that hardened herself to love. She was too damn sassy and sexy to swear off of men forever. She was the opposite of me. I couldn’t imagine being anything but hard hearted, except with Addy of course. Now I’d let her back in, I wasn’t going to push her away again, not ever.

  From now on it would just be Addy and me. As for a woman to keep me warm at night, well a visit to town or Knightingale every now and again would scratch that itch. I had true love once and I’d lost her, and I didn’t think my heart could take another beating, so best to keep it hard.

  Millie

  I had been at the ranch for almost two months, and while the days were still warm, they were a little cooler and more bearable for my delicate English disposition. Being half Spanish, my skin could take the sun, but my body just wanted to melt into a puddle, daily. Thankfully, the rising winds meant that I did at least look a little less sweaty whenever Jesse came to the house.

  Today was a Saturday, and the town was having a Founder’s Day Fair. This meant that instead of working, Jesse and a couple of the hands, Brandon included, were taking the day off to go into town. Bonnie and Ted were going to go into town later, but Garratt had gone on a boys’ weekend with some old High School buddies home from college and would be back on Monday evening. Addy was beyond excited about the fair, but when Jesse told her that he was going, too, she almost peed her pants.

  “Daddy is going to win me a teddy bear,” she told me for about the twentieth time that morning. “He said that I can have cotton candy, too.”

  “I know, you said,” I replied, trying not to punctuate my statement with a sigh. “Although, you won’t be going anywhere if you don’t get your sneakers on.”

  Addy scrambled under her bed for her tiny pair of pink converse and after a few grunts, pulled them out and put them on.

  “Maybe if you put them in your closet you wouldn’t have to go searching for them.” Jesse’s voice surprised me, causing me to spin around towards the doorway. I felt like my vagina was going to combust when I saw him reaching up to hang his hands from the doorjamb. A pair of Aviator sunglasses were tucked into the open neck of the white, slim fitting, short-sleeved, button down shirt that he was wearing with dark jeans, and he looked like he had just showered as his hair was still damp. My eyes raked further down his body to the edge of his shirt that had the bottom two buttons open. As I spotted the thin line of hair that disappeared inside the waistband of his jeans, my lips parted and I let out a quiet gasp and flicked my tongue along my bottom lip. All I could think about was whether his cock would feel smooth and silky under my lips and tongue.

  “You okay, Millie?” he asked, leaning forward with hi
s arms still stretched above his head.

  “Yeah, fine thanks. You startled me,” I managed to mutter, dragging my eyes up to his face.

  “Is that so?”

  A smile twinkled in his blue eyes and his mouth turned up into a sexy grin. My nipples tingled with a delicious pain as his mere existence caused them to go hard. I glanced down at my chest and was horrified to see that they were poking against the thin white cotton of my sundress. No wonder he was grinning, he knew exactly what he was doing to me. I quickly turned away from him to Addy.

  “Are you ready, sweetie?”

  “Laces,” she barked, lifting her leg in the air.

  As bright as Addy was, she still hadn’t mastered tying her laces, no matter how many times I talked about bunny ears. Feeling Jesse’s eyes on me, I took Addy’s foot and leaned it against my leg and tied the laces on one sneaker and then repeated the same with the other. Normally, I’d try to get Addy to do it, but I needed to be away from Jesse before I jumped him and tore down his jeans and sank to my knees in front of him.

  “Okay, off you go,” I said, dropping Addy’s foot to the floor.

  She pushed up from the bed and skipped past me to Jesse, grabbing hold of his hand.

  “How you getting to town?” he asked, his body twisted towards me as Addy started to drag him away.

  “I’m…” my throat caught, so I coughed to clear it. “I’m going with Brandon.”

  Jesse nodded and allowed himself to be pulled away down the hall by a chattering Addy.

  “Shit,” I grumbled.

  I hadn’t wanted to go with Brandon, but he’d been asking me for a second date for three weeks now. Each time I’d come up with an excuse, instead of simply getting up the nerve to tell him I wasn’t interested. Yesterday, when he’d asked me, I’d been angry with Jesse, so like an idiot had said yes.

  Jesse had been in the corral with a horse which belonged to a friend of Wyatt McKenzie, the owner of Mystery, the horse that Jesse had broken in a few weeks before. Addy and I were watching him from the fence when Brandon came over.

  “How’s your daddy doing?” he asked Addy.

  “He’s so clever, Uncle Brandon. The horse is letting him put a blanket on his back now.” He’d already managed to get a halter on it the day before, and now the reins were attached, so slowly but surely progress was being made.

  “He’s damn skilful alright,” Brandon replied. He then nudged me with his elbow. “How you doing, Millie?”

  “I’m fine thanks, Brandon. This little one has me run ragged,” I said, rubbing Addy’s head. “But it’s great.”

  We all stood in silent awe as Jesse did his thing with the horse, each of us transfixed as the horse allowed Jesse to put the blanket down. Suddenly the quiet was broken when a bee started buzzing around me and landed on my head and felt like it was burrowing into my hair.

  “Oh my God,” I screeched. “Get it out.”

  My feet stamped as I flapped my arms at my side, my skin crawling as I felt the bee going deeper into my messy bun.

  “Stand still,” Brandon said with a chuckle. “He’s probably more scared of you screaming than you are of him.”

  “Brandon, please, ugh it’s horrible.”

  “He won’t sting you, Millie,” Addy added. “Not if you stand still anyway.”

  “I don’t like it, Addy,” I squealed.

  Brandon, still laughing, put one hand on my shoulder, and used the other to take my hair tie out. As my hair cascaded over my shoulders and down my back, he flicked at the bee, encouraging it away from my head. As I saw it fly into the distance, I relaxed against Brandon’s side.

  “Thank you,” I sighed. “I hate creepy crawlies.”

  Brandon lifted an arm and hugged me against him. “My pleasure, but still think you were being a big baby. What do you think, Addy?”

  Addy started to giggle and laughed so much she almost fell off her perch on the fence. Brandon caught her with his other arm and pulled her into our hug. We were all still laughing when Jesse stalked over to us, his face dark and stormy.

  “I’m trying to work here, so if you two could take your flirting somewhere else it’d be much appreciated.”

  “We weren’t…” I started to say, pulling from under Brandon’s arm.

  “Not interested, Millie. And what I don’t appreciate is you having Addy hanging around while you’re swapping spit with Brandon.”

  Brandon started to laugh quietly and bent to put Addy down on the ground. “I think it’s about lunchtime, honey,” he said. “Why don’t you run back to the house?”

  Addy smiled up at him, seemingly not affected by grumpy Jesse. “Okay, Uncle Brandon. See you later.”

  “Who does he think he is?” I scowled in Jesse’s direction.

  “Jesse Connor,” Brandon replied wryly. “No one interrupts his work, and if you do, then be prepared for him to let you know he ain’t happy.”

  “Egotistical idiot. Ugh, he’s so annoying and so...” I turned to look at him again and wanted to scream. Not only was he annoying but he was magnificent. He whispered something into the horse’s ear and then in one quick movement was up on its back. There was no saddle, so no stirrup to give himself a leg up, he’d just bounced on his feet and jumped up there and started to walk the horse slowly towards us.

  “Shit,” I groaned.

  “Yep. He’s good.” Brandon sighed next to me and then followed me to lean back against the fence. “So, I guess this isn’t a good time to ask you to the fair tomorrow, seeing as you’re pretty angry right now.”

  I turned to look at Brandon, ready to turn him down again, when I heard Jesse.

  “I thought I asked you to go somewhere else and do your dating.”

  I looked up at him, shading my eyes from the sun with my hand. His jaw was clenched as tight as his hand on the reins.

  “We’re only talking about the fair,” I grumbled.

  “Well take it elsewhere, I need it to be quiet.” With that, he steered the horse away, and continued to walk it around the corral.

  “Sorry I was interrupted, Brandon. Yes, I’d love to come with you tomorrow,” I said, pushing my shoulders back defiantly.

  “Really? That’s great.”

  His face broke into a grin and as soon as it did, I felt like the biggest bitch. I didn’t want to go to the fair with him. He was a nice guy, but my going with Brandon was all about Jesse. When had I become that woman, the one that played one man off against the other? God, Jesse didn’t even have any interest in me, so it was a damn pointless exercise anyway.

  “I’ll pick you at two,” Brandon said, pushing away from the fence. “But I’d better go and get some more work done before he fires my ass.”

  Brandon laughed as he pointed his hat to Jesse who was still on the horses back, but was now bending forward and talking to it and scratching its nose.

  “I thought you only helped out during calving? He can’t fire you.”

  “He still pays me, so yeah he can and don’t let us being friends fool you into thinking he wouldn’t.”

  “Hah,” I huffed. “Told you he was egotistical.”

  Brandon kissed my cheek and left me alone wishing I could replay the last ten minutes.

  So, there I was waiting for Brandon to pick me and take me to the fair, all because Jesse Connor was an arrogant, bull headed, dick.

  Jesse

  As Addy talked at me from her seat in the back of the truck, I couldn’t help but think about Millie’s reaction to me when I’d entered Addy’s room. I knew what was going through her mind, it was hard not to when her tongue came out and licked along that plump bottom lip of hers. My dick knew what was going through her mind, too. Thank God she looked away because she’d have seen how fucking excited he was by her – shit, I was still hard now.

  I had no damn clue what to do about her. I just wanted to taste her mouth again and the need to be inside her, and not just with my fingers, was getting stronger every day.

  There
was a burning itch deep within me making my skin blaze hot every time I saw her. That soft skin at the bottom of her neck, between her collar bones, was asking for me to lick it, her amazing ass was demanding that I cup it with my hands, and her beautiful face needed to be studied like a piece of art.

  For fuck’s sake, what the hell was happening to me? When did I turn into such a pussy? Hah, I suppose that would’ve been when I first set eyes on Melody. She’d looked like an angel in a cheerleader uniform, with her blonde hair billowing around her like a halo. Now she was gone.

  I seriously needed to get laid, and not by Millie. I needed a quick fuck with someone who didn’t give a shit about feelings. Tomorrow night, when Addy was in bed, I was going to Knightingale to fuck Millie Braithwaite out of my head.

  “Daddy!” Addy growled from the back seat. “You’re not listening to me.”

  “What, baby?” I asked, unable to stop the grin that was caused by her bossiness.

  “Should I give Uncle Brandon his heart so he can give it to Millie?”

  Those words sent my foot to the brake on reflex, sending Addy’s sweater and water bottle flying from the seat next to me.

  “Sorry, baby. A rabbit ran across the road.”

  “Oh no, Daddy. You didn’t hit it did you?” she wailed.

  “No baby, no. I missed it.”

  She craned her neck up to try and see out of the front windshield and by some fucking good luck, a rabbit skipped out of the grass at the side of the road, saw my truck, and then disappeared again.

  “Yay,” she squealed. “He’s okay, Daddy. You saved him.”

  “Yeah, Addy I did.”

  I groaned and rubbed a hand down my face, putting the truck back into drive and continuing into town. Addy was quiet for the rest of the journey, giving my ears a rest, but the sick feeling that I had about Brandon giving his heart to Millie just wouldn’t go away.