Teague

by Juliana Stone

  “Sleeping,” Morgan answered, joining her brother, those big eyes of hers meeting his. She pointed to the cooler. “What’s in there?”

  “Fish, you dummy,” Harry replied, pushing to his knees. “Right? You went fishing this morning?”

  Teague didn’t reply—he just gave a quick nod. He had other things on his mind… like a hearty breakfast. The muffins didn’t cut it and he was hungry as hell.

  “I like to fish,” Harry said standing up and rubbing his tummy. “But Mommy doesn’t like to take us out in the boat.”

  “That’s because she can’t,” Morgan said with a frown.

  “Can’t?” Teague asked, grabbing the cooler.

  Harry shrugged. “She can’t swim and only goes in the boat with Daddy. And since Daddy is in heaven she…” Harry snuck a glance at his sister, who was nodding in agreement.

  “Since Daddy is in heaven, there’s no one to take us on the boat.” Morgan sounded matter of fact, but something in her eyes made Teague uncomfortable. She’d gone through a lot for someone so young.

  He cleared his throat and nodded toward their cottage.

  “You guys shouldn’t be down here alone. Maybe you should head back up to the house until your mom wakes up.”

  “But she’s sleeping in the family room and we don’t want to wake her,” Harry piped up, moving to Teague’s side. “Bingo is loud.”

  Morgan nodded. “She doesn’t sleep that good.”

  I know the feeling, Teague thought.

  “Sometimes she cries in her sleep.” Harry kicked at the dock with his bare toe.

  Teague’s gut tightened and he glanced away. How the hell did you deal with kids who said exactly what was on their minds? Things that he—basically a stranger—had no right to know.

  “I’m hungry,” Harry said.

  “Do you have eggs?” Morgan asked, reaching for his hand.

  Startled, Teague didn’t move and when the small fingers tried to thread through his, he let them. What the hell? Christ, he’d refused to hold his own niece a few weeks back. The baby was too damn small and he was too damn nervous. What if dropped his squirmy niece? He didn’t relate to kids. End of story. Not these ones anyway.

  The kids over there? The ones who’d been raised to kill? Those ones he understood.

  “Do you?” Morgan asked again, shaking him from his thoughts. “I can help. I like to swoosh them around in the bowl though Mommy doesn’t like me to cook.”

  “That’s because you started that fire,” Harry said, poking her in the shoulder. “And the fireman had to come.”

  “I didn’t do it on purpose,” Morgan shoved back at her brother. “It was an accident. Even the fireman said so.”

  Fire. Great.

  Teague stared down into two earnest faces that looked up at him and for a moment, he didn’t know what to do. Shit. The manners he’d been brought up with told him to take the kids back to his place and feed them. Make sure they were okay. Make sure the mother was okay.

  But hell, he wanted to be alone, not dance around an awkward situation. And their situation was awkward. Sabrina Campbell didn’t like him. He got it. These days not many folks did.

  Morgan yanked on his hand.

  Except apparently these two.

  With a frown he took a few moments to think things over. Truthfully all he wanted to do was crank some Creedence Clearwater, inhale the smell of a fresh pot of coffee and have some steak and eggs.

  He didn’t want to talk to anyone and he sure as hell didn’t want to listen to two chatty kids.

  “Tigger.” Morgan tugged on his hand. “Can we have some bananas and blueberries too? They go good with eggs.”

  “Look,” Teague finally said, letting the little imp pull him toward the path leading from the boathouse. “I’ll make you guys breakfast but then you need to clear out as soon as your bellies are full. Got it? I’ve got lots to do today.”

  “Like what?” Harry shouted, running past Teague, which had Morgan letting go of his hand so that she could take off after her brother. “We can help.”

  “No damn way,” he muttered, with one more glance up at the silent cottage to his left.

  At the moment Teague had no idea what he was going to do with his day, but one thing was for certain…whatever it was wouldn’t involve two kids. He was many things, but babysitter wasn’t anywhere on that list.

  Chapter Four

  The phone rang and Sabrina woke with a start. She lay still for a few more seconds, enjoying the breeze coming in off the lake, but the phone rang again and the moment passed.

  With a sigh she slid from the sofa and winced. The kink in her neck was bad, but not as bad as the wrinkled clothes she hadn’t bothered to change out of the night before; or the reflection that peered back at her from the window as she reached for the phone.

  Ugh. She looked like crap.

  “Hello?” she managed to say, pushing the word past the frog that was stuck at the back of her throat. What time was it? She glanced to the digital display on the oven but her blurry eyes wouldn’t focus.

  “Sabrina?”

  The male voice wasn’t exactly familiar but…

  “Yes.”

  There was a sound, like wind in a microphone and she thought whoever was on the other end of the line was outside. “It’s Josiah Duff.”

  It took a moment for the fog to lift. Josiah. Big man. Big smile. Big heart. She’d known him ever since she’d been a teenager and moved to Gravenhurst with her father. In fact she’d been on a date with Josiah the night she’d met Brent.

  The man was a townie for life. He had a carpentry business but also doubled as a volunteer firefighter on the side.

  “I ran into Mrs. Giles from the post office and she told me you were back for the summer.”

  “Wow,” Sabrina murmured. “News travels fast.”

  He chuckled. “You have no idea.” A pause. “I’m out this way to quote a job for a client and thought I’d pop by to say hello. It’s been…well, it’s been a while.”

  Sabrina’s eyes slammed shut. She hadn’t seen Josiah since Brent’s funeral because she’d spent most of her time in the city. It was hard coming back here. Back to the place they’d called their own slice of paradise.

  “It has,” she replied softly and then frowned. “Where are you?”

  “I’m parked in your driveway.”

  “Oh,” she said with a quick glance at her reflection in the window again. Wow. She must have had a restless night because she wasn’t even sure that she could pull a brush through her hair.

  “Can I…” She began. “I just…rolled out of bed,” she finished lamely.

  He chuckled. “No rush. Teague’s in town as well, so I’ll head over there first and say hello. But if you have time for a coffee, after that would be great.”

  “Sounds good,” Sabrina replied.

  Blinking rapidly, she was surprised to see that it was eight o’clock and her place was as silent as a grave. The kids were usually up by seven, but she decided to let them sleep and headed to the bathroom. The hot water worked wonders and half an hour later, she was showered and changed, pulling on old denim cut-offs and a pale blue tank top. She slipped on her favorite flip flops and pulled her still-damp hair into a ponytail.

  Her eyes were a tad puffy from tears and lack of sleep, but there was nothing she could do about that.

  “Whatever,” she muttered. It’s not as if she was out to impress anyone. Teague Simon didn’t like her all that much anyway so why should she care what she looked like?

  The fact that Teague came to mind should have made her pause, and maybe it would have, if she hadn’t pushed open the kids’ bedroom door only to find their beds empty.

  Thinking that they’d woken up while she was in the shower, she headed back to the main room of the cottage but it too was empty. The throw she’d slept in was on the floor where she’d left it, her sandals by the sofa as well. Where the hell were they? And where was that damn dog?

&n
bsp; The cottage wasn’t all that big and Sabrina quickly checked every room. The sound of a motorboat in the distance drove her into action, and, heart hammering against her ribs like a jackhammer, she darted for the door. Sabrina ran down the steps that led to the water, and was damn lucky she didn’t trip and break her neck considering the flip flops on her feet.

  It was Friday morning and the lake was already busy with early weekenders. Eyes scanning the water, Sabrina shouted their names before checking her boathouse and then the Simon boathouse. Nothing. They were nowhere.

  “Oh, God,” she said brokenly, dashing back onto the dock. Had they gone in the water? She shouted their names again. This can ’t be happening.

  Again nothing.

  Running up the Simon steps, she didn’t bother to knock but slammed into the house like a hurricane hitting the coast. She managed to stub her toe on the corner of a kitchen cabinet before banging her hip into the counter.

  It should have hurt like hell. In fact it probably did. But the sight that greeted her took all of that away and left her standing in the middle of the kitchen, hopping on one foot, feeling pretty much like an idiot and decidedly…pissed.

  She swore—said something that would have emptied her entire purse into the swear jar—and didn’t bat an eye at the horrified look Morgan gave her.

  Her children were sitting at the kitchen table as if everything was right in their world. In front of them was a plate of what looked to be steak and eggs, as well as several boxes of sugared cereal that Sabrina would never allow into her house, a bowl of blueberries, and a half eaten banana.

  The other half had just been stuffed into Harry’s mouth.

  Bingo was happily gnawing on a bone or something while Teague and Josiah stood near the island, watching her warily as she took a moment. She could not lose it. Would not lose it.

  “No one thought I might like to know where my children are?” Her voice was icy but she didn’t give either man a chance to reply. Instead she turned her focus back to said children.

  “Since when do you two get up and leave the house without letting me know where you’re going? Since when?”

  Her voice was calm and that was a bloody miracle. Still, the twins—or at least Harry—knew that he was in trouble. His eyes slid from hers as he tried to swallow the banana in his mouth and once he accomplished that, he stared at the table in silence.

  “Sabrina,” Teague said. Her hand shot up to stop him before he got started, and she cocked her head at her daughter. Morgan met her gaze full-on and at any other time she would have taken a moment to admire her daughter’s spunk. But right now she was furious.

  “We wanted to let you sleep because you were crying a lot last night.”

  Like a balloon stuck with a pin her anger deflated. Oh God. They’d heard her? It was like a punch to the gut.

  “And you looked like a princess, like sleeping beauty.” Those words came from Harry and Sabrina fought to keep her shit together. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream.

  Sabrina’s mouth tightened and, ignoring the men, she took a step forward, wincing once more as pain spread out from her big toe. “I’m going to make this perfectly clear. Never. Never leave the cottage without telling me. Understand? The lake is right out there and it can be dangerous. You both know this.”

  Harry nodded, his precious bottom lip trembling, while Morgan reached for another blueberry.

  “Do you understand?” Sabrina asked again, her words directed at her daughter. “You know the rules, Morgan. If you can’t follow them, then we’ll have to pack up and go back to the city.”

  “But I hate the city,” Morgan said. Her eyes, so much like Sabrina’s, were dark and stormy.

  “Then you’ll follow the rules.” Sabrina’s gaze moved to the men. “And Teague will follow them as well or else.”

  Teague took a sip from his mug, a half smile on his face. “Or else what?”

  Sabrina’s eyes flashed. “Trust me, you don’t want to know.”

  He held her gaze a heartbeat longer and when Sabrina finally tore her eyes away, she had the distinct feeling that if the kids weren’t there he would have said something entirely inappropriate.

  “Sabrina, everything okay? Besides these two rascals giving you a heart attack?”

  She turned to Josiah. He had a few inches on Teague and that was saying something considering Teague was pushing six-four. The carpenter was like a bear, with wide shoulders and long muscular legs. With his shaved head and assortment of tattoos, he was a bit of a roughneck, but it was the kind of roughneck a lot of women found irresistible. He had a ready smile, nice eyes, and a great big laugh that was contagious. He’d always been a bit of a player though, and she wondered if he’d finally settled down.

  “It’s going,” she said slowly. She didn’t want to talk about herself. “What about you? Anything new?”

  Josiah shrugged and smiled. “Nah. Same old, same old.”

  “No woman in the picture?” Small talk had never been her thing but she attempted to be polite.

  Josiah cleared his throat. “Not since Katie McKelvie demanded a ring.”

  “Oh?” Sabrina’s eyebrow shot up. She remembered Katie. Blond. Big boobs. Nice smile. The woman filled out a bathing suit the way it should be.

  “She wasn’t the one.”

  That made Sabrina smile. “But I’m sure you had fun figuring that out.”

  “You want a coffee?” Teague interrupted.

  “No,” she responded without thinking, even though the smell was to die for.

  “Mommy, Mr. Josiah said that the Ribfest is this weekend.” Harry smiled sweetly. “Are we going to go?”

  “I want to go,” Morgan piped up. “I love ribs.”

  Sweet Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Ribfest was the last thing on her mind these days. The thought of jostling crowds made her cringe. She’d never been the one to do festivals—that had been Brent’s thing. Then there was the fact that she would run into a lot of folks who’d want to talk. And she hated making small talk. Hated the intrusion into her private life.

  How are you doing?

  Are the kids coping?

  And the kicker….

  Have you met anyone?

  “Teague is going,” Morgan said. “Maybe we can go with him?”

  Sabrina’s eyes widened. What the…

  “No,” she answered sharply.

  “But,” Morgan said.

  “I said no,” Sabrina replied impatiently. What was it with her kids and this man? Didn’t they know Teague Simon wanted nothing to do with them?

  She sighed and rubbed her temples. Was that a headache starting?

  Truthfully she was surprised Teague was going, considering he’d been grumpy as hell the day before. But then he was a man. It was a Friday night and the town would be hopping. And that meant lots of single women. Lots of single women who’d be all over a guy like Teague Simon.

  “Think about it, Sabrina,” Josiah said, watching her carefully. “I think it could be good for you and the kids.”

  Sabrina had had enough. She gave a quick nod and cleared her throat before settling her eyes on the twins. “When you’re done I want both of you to march your little butts back to our cottage. You need to wash up and get dressed for the day. You will not go near the water. You will not go into the forest. You’re both grounded. Understand?”

  Harry and Morgan nodded, and for once her daughter had no argument. They knew they’d crossed a line.

  “Josiah, it was nice to see you and since Teague’s taken care of your caffeine fix, we’ll do it another time.”

  She didn’t give the man the opportunity to answer and with one last warning look at her kids, she left the Simon cottage. Alone. Even Bingo had deserted her in favor of Teague’s company.

  She let herself back inside and set about making herself a bowl of cereal. There was nothing fancy about her breakfast. There were no eggs or steak or blueberries or Sugar Pops.

  It was just Sabrina and her
granola.

  She poked at her cereal and sighed. This was her life now and she’d better get used to it.

  Chapter Five

  The band was playing country.

  Up and down the boardwalk people danced and sang along to the sounds of Whiskey Creek, while sampling from an impressive number of vendors selling any kind of rib you could want. Garlic. Smoked. Barbecue. Dry rub. Slow cooked. Fast grilled. Hot as hell.

  You name it, it was there for the taking.

  The night was hot, the air sultry, the crowd in high spirits. Yet none of it did anything to improve Teague’s mood. He should have stayed the hell home. What had seemed like a good idea earlier was now biting him in the ass.

  He hated crowds. Especially ones like this. It was too loud, too busy, and there were too many damn families doting on too many damn kids. It was a miracle he hadn’t stepped on any of ‘em, and it was relief that he felt as he and Josiah finally made their way to the cordoned off beer and liquor tent.

  He hadn’t seen Duff in a couple years, and though they’d hung out in the past when Teague was at the summer cottage, they weren’t tight—he’d been more Jack’s buddy. So Teague was surprised the guy had stopped by, but then he suspected it had more to do with Sabrina being next door than anything else.

  Not that anything would ever happen there. Josiah was a player and Sabrina didn’t strike him as the type to play.

  Josiah brought him back a red solo cup filled to the brim with foaming lager and Teague took it with a smile.

  “Here,” the big guy said. “I know you’ve had a shit year, so bottoms up.”

  Teague took a good long drink and was about to take another swig when two women approached. One—the redhead—he knew well, the other—a blond—he couldn’t place.

  “Teague Simon. It’s been a while,” the redhead murmured. She was long and lean, with legs that went on for miles—legs you couldn’t miss on account her dress barely covered her ass—and if Teague remembered correctly, she was damn flexible.

  “Candace,” Teague said slowly. “You’re looking good.”

  A slow smile spread across her pretty face and she leaned closer, reaching for him, a long finger swiping at the corner of his mouth to nab a bit of foam from his draft. She stuck her finger into her mouth and licked it suggestively.