by Faye Avalon
Nathan overwhelmed her, but she didn’t have to see him that much, did she? If she planned things better, she wouldn’t have to see him at all. She just had to make sure that she politely refused invites from Naomi, and Talia come to that, because it seemed Nathan was good friends with their men.
What had Nathan meant about fighting harder for Naomi? That implied he and Naomi had been an item at some stage. Yet Tynan didn’t seem in the least fazed that Naomi was still close with Nathan.
Erin suddenly felt incredibly alone, a sadness lying heavily on her chest. It really was true that sometimes you could feel more alone with people than you did in your own company. She had the desperate need to get back to her cottage, to Willa.
“Naomi, I don’t think I can stay,” she decided, gathering up her bag. “I’ve got to get back and walk Willa before it gets dark.”
“I’ve got everything ready now. Just have a quick sandwich. Nathan will drop you off on his way home.”
Not in a bloody million years. “No, really.”
Coming behind, Naomi pressed Erin’s shoulders, forcing her back down into the seat. “It’ll take you over thirty minutes to walk and ten for Nathan to drive. Which means you’ve got twenty minutes to enjoy coffee, a sandwich and a chat.” She leaned around the open kitchen door. “Tynan. Food’s up.”
Erin worried her hands together in her lap. How in God’s name was she supposed to sit next to the man in the confines of a car? Regardless that he made her feel uncomfortable, she didn’t like him. And she sure as hell knew he didn’t like her.
When Tynan joined them a couple of minutes later, he sat next to Naomi and opposite Nathan. “Before you go, I’d appreciate it if you could take a look at that partition wall we found.”
“Oh yeah,” Naomi agreed, swallowing the bite of sandwich she’d taken. “We knocked out this old cupboard when we were clearing things to make way for Tynan’s home office,” she explained to Erin. “We found this partition wall but can’t seem to see what it blocks or what it’s hiding. The screws are so tight and painted over, we can’t get it down to see what’s behind. Nathan’s good at architectural things. He built his own home. Out on the moor.”
“Designed it,” Nathan corrected. “You make it sound like I built it brick by brick.”
“You virtually did.”
Pride shone in Naomi’s voice, and Erin glanced at Tynan. He smiled at his friend, his free hand wrapping around Naomi’s. “You might as well take the compliment, bro,” he advised Nathan. “You know she’s your biggest fan.”
Nathan shrugged and bit into his sandwich.
“I thought the moor was protected land,” Erin offered, fascinated by the easy interaction between the trio. “Can people buy plots of land and build on it?”
Nathan glanced at her. “It’s not easy. But if you know the right people.” He raised his eyebrows. “Why? You interested?”
She shook her head. “I just wondered. It would be a travesty if they kept selling off chunks of the moor to private developers to build houses on. It’s so beautiful and unspoiled.”
Nathan’s eyebrows drew together in a scowl. “Meaning?”
“They wouldn’t,” Tynan said, smiling across at Erin. “But small pockets are privately owned and it’s sometimes possible to buy them and get permission to build. There’s plenty of hoops to jump through, which puts most people off anyway.”
Erin nodded, feeling Nathan’s critical gaze. She hadn’t meant to rile him or insinuate he was part of the destruction of the moor in any way. She’d simply been interested, having fallen in love with the place and felt a connection with it. Not that she was about to confess that. It had taken a while before she had been able to confess it to herself.
They fell into a discussion of simpler…safer…subjects until Erin started gathering up her empty plate and mug. “Thanks, Naomi. I enjoyed that. But I really have to get going.”
“No worries. Leave that,” she instructed. “Nathan, don’t forget to look at that partition on your way out.”
Minutes later, the four of them stood gazing at the corner section, which had been partitioned off. Erin made a point to stand next to Naomi and tried to ignore Nathan. But she couldn’t resist the odd glance.
Bloody hell but the man just seemed to ooze confidence. He simply radiated it. She wondered if he ever suffered self-doubt, had moments where life shoved him into a corner and beat the hell out of him. He had to have. Naomi had told her he was in the army with Caleb, Special Forces. He must have done things, seen things, that made a man question himself and his world. But watching him now, it was hard to believe anything could ever knock the stuffing from him. On some levels, it was appealing, and Erin wasn’t so immune to raw sex appeal and blatant masculinity that she didn’t experience the odd flutter of feminine appreciation when she looked at him. But she couldn’t afford to dwell on it, and besides, the man might be amazingly attractive but he had an ego to fly to the moon on, and from what she’d experienced of him so far, he didn’t seem to take women too seriously.
If ever there was a man not to be attracted to, it was this one. Not that she was attracted to him, exactly. But still…
“Wouldn’t think it’s load-bearing,” Nathan said, perusing the ceiling above the wall and its surroundings. “And it’s not positioned to hide pipe work or anything electrical.”
He gave it another knock with a light fist, which sounded hollow even to Erin’s inexperienced ear. When he tapped it again, this time harder and with more force, Erin felt her stomach roll. She made herself look away from the size of his fist, and the corded muscles in his arms. Her earlier attraction to his masculinity disappeared beneath a shudder of fear.
“You reckon it’s okay to take it down?” Naomi asked. “I mean, we can always put it back up again if it is covering something. I just wish we knew what was behind it.”
“Only one way to find out.” With which Nathan shoved his boot clean through it.
Complete silence followed and everything seemed to freeze in time. Then Tynan laughed. “Shit, man. Why don’t you just take the short cut through life?”
“No point standing around ruminating.”
The two men hunkered down and peered through the hole Nathan’s boot had made. While they poked and prodded and speculated, Naomi turned to Erin. “Are you okay? You’ve gone very pale.”
Her stomach shuddered like there was no tomorrow, and she couldn’t seem to stop shaking. She’d barely finished remonstrating with herself to calm down after watching Nathan’s fist pounding the wall, but then he’d used his boot…
Oh God.
“Hey. Come through here and sit,” Naomi said, her arm coming around Erin’s shoulder. “You’re shaking.”
“I’m okay, really.” She sat on the chair Naomi steered her toward, and pressed a hand to her stomach. “I feel… I feel a little sick.”
“Take deep breaths,” Naomi instructed. “I’ll get you some water.”
“I’m all right, it’s settling now.” Erin forced herself to believe it, because the last thing she needed was to make a fuss and draw attention to herself. Have questions directed at her. Questions she couldn’t answer. “I haven’t drunk much water today,” she improvised. “I’m probably a little dehydrated. Please don’t say anything, I really am fine now.”
“Okay. But why don’t you stay and let me cook you a good meal. If you’re worried about Willa, I’ll go over and get her, bring her back here. Tynan will take her for a walk.”
“No, really. She seems a little jumpy with strangers at the moment.”
“Talia said she was fine with her the other day. She told me how friendly Willa is, how they had a really good play together. She was so taken with her, she was going to persuade Caleb to get a puppy.”
Erin thought how distant Caleb had been with Willa last night. How he hadn’t tried to appease her a
fter she’d gotten a little frightened around him. She feared Talia would have her work cut out convincing her apparently dog-ambivalent husband to get a pooch.
“Thanks, anyway. But I really am okay now.” Erin stood, relieved that her legs felt steadier. “Don’t trouble Nathan for the lift,” she said following Naomi out onto the landing. “I think the walk in fresh air will do me good.”
Naomi looked at her as if she didn’t agree. “You’ll get that when you take Willa out. Nathan won’t mind dropping you off on his way.”
They found the two men where they’d left them, although the hole was decidedly larger now and plaster and dust covered the surrounding area where they’d pulled and tugged away at the wall. Nathan was half in, half out of the hole, while Tynan had his head through it watching whatever Nathan was currently doing.
“Nothing in there,” Tynan said, glancing up to look at Naomi. “Apart from an old electric meter. The kind they used back in the fifties. The wiring was disconnected long ago by the look of things.”
“Then we can have the whole thing down?” Naomi coughed against the cloud of dust when Nathan backed out of the space. “Most of it’s down anyway, I suppose.”
Nathan stood and pushed a hand through his hair. Dust particles clung to the dark strands, and smattered his shoulders and upper arms.
“You’ll need a brush,” Naomi decided and headed out.
Erin followed close on her tail, intending to persuade her friend she really was okay, then make a quick getaway. But the footfall behind augured otherwise, and minutes later, she was climbing into the passenger seat of Nathan’s SUV.
“There’s really no need for you to drive me,” Erin felt compelled to point out, reluctantly pulling her seat belt across. “It’s out of your way.”
“It might surprise you to know I can do the neighborly thing now and again.”
The glint in his eyes alerted her to the fact she was being teased, so she did what was expected and huffed. “You’re right. It does surprise me.”
“I don’t spend all my time screwing women and then unceremoniously dumping them. Well, at least the second part of that’s true.”
“It’s not your fault you like women. Some men are made that way. I get that. My only issue with you last night was because you used me in your unceremonious dumping of Caroline. Like I told you, I consider her a friend, or at least an acquaintance. You’ve probably driven a wedge between us.”
“I get that. The whole sisterhood thing. And maybe I was out of line.”
“Maybe?”
“That’s as close to an apology as you’ll get.”
“Then I’d better quit while I’m ahead and accept it.” About to turn away, Erin caught the flicker across his mouth. “Something funny?”
“Just that you manage to make an apology acceptance sound both appeasing and condescending at the same time. It’s a skill.”
She hadn’t meant it to sound that way, but she wasn’t going to apologize either. She was never again going to apologize to a man for being who she was. “Well, it wasn’t exactly an apology, so you didn’t exactly get an acceptance.”
Now he laughed. Full out and hearty. Hell. He even managed to make a laugh sound masculine and appealing and bloody sexy.
Serious again, he waited at the light, his fingers tapping on the wheel. “So, you’ve been in Bodmin for a couple of months. What brought you here?”
It was a simple enough question, one she’d been asked several times since she’d arrived. She had a simple answer. “Research. I’m interested in rare plants.”
He didn’t need to know that she intended to sign up for a degree course when she finally got settled somewhere. The less information she gave away, the safer she would be.
He looked down at the bunch of daffodils poking out of her grocery bag. “For what? The look of them? Medicinal purposes?”
“All of the above. But mostly their transmigratory patterns.”
He glanced at her, raised his eyebrows. “If you say so.”
“Where they originated from,” she explained. “Where they manage to end up. That sort of thing.”
“Got it.”
“You can turn right here just past the lamppost. I’m the fifth cottage along, by the privet hedge.”
He pulled up outside, and Erin popped her seat belt. She had a moment of panic when he did the same. He reached back for her shopping bags. “There’s no need. They’re not heavy or anything.”
“I’m doing that neighborly thing, remember?”
Since he was already stepping out of the vehicle with her bags in his hands, she had no option but to lead him up to the front door. “Thanks, I’ve got them now.”
He didn’t release them but nodded toward the lock indicating she should use the key she currently gripped in her hand. Turning the key, she heard Willa’s excited yip from behind the door.
Remembering how Willa had reacted last night to Caleb, she thought it best to warn Nathan. Not for his sake, but for Willa’s. She didn’t want her worried or upset again. “My dog can be a bit nervous of strangers.”
“Always best to size people up.”
“No, I mean…” Her gaze fell to the shirt beneath the leather jacket he wore. “You’ve still got dust on your shirt. Some of it has transferred to your jacket.”
He looked down, saw the dust, and met her gaze again. “What are you? OCD, or something?”
“Maybe. I’m the type who itches to pick a stray hair off someone’s coat, or straighten their lapels and collars.”
He eyed her for long moments, then raised his eyebrows. “Knock yourself out.”
Was he kidding? No way was she about to go anywhere near him. It had been bad enough sitting close to him while he drove her home. His presence had almost overpowered her, and there had been times she’d found it hard to catch her breath. Awareness of him had been constant. The way his big hands had wrapped around the steering wheel, the way he controlled the vehicle with ease and utter confidence, and the way his scent had flooded her nostrils in the confined space.
She realized he was standing perfectly still, and in the silence she could hear the soft sound of his breathing. He watched her with that assessing green gaze, making her chest squeeze with the effort to take in air.
She felt her cheeks burn, her fingers tremble, and quickly reached for her bags. “I really can take them from here. Thanks for the lift.”
Thankfully, he didn’t argue but handed her the bags. “Okay. See you around.” He tapped two fingers to his temple before swaggering off down the path and back to his car.
Inside, Erin let out a relieved sigh, dropped the bags and petted her excited dog. “The man makes me nervous,” she told Willa. “In too many ways to count. I’m going to have to stay well out of his way in the future. Come on, girl, come on.” She picked up the bags and walked through to the kitchen. “I’ve got a yummy rawhide stick in here for you. Isn’t that lovely?”
While Willa attended to her treat, Erin leaned back against the sink, watching the dog, but thinking of Nathan. It was perfectly normal for her to have such a reaction in his presence. He was imposing, intimidating and so damned arrogantly confident, she couldn’t imagine anyone not having a similar response. And he had apologized for his behavior last night. Sort of.
Willa was already halfway through her rawhide stick, and Erin’s heart filled with love for her baby. Alongside that emotion came the image of Nathan’s fist thumping that wall, the sickening sound of his boot connecting with the plaster.
Erin squeezed her eyes shut, wrapped her arms around herself as if to hold the memories, the agony of them, inside herself and not let them escape and become real again.
She knelt on the floor, beckoning Willa over. The dog came, happily clenching the remainder of her treat in her mouth. She promptly rolled onto her back, legs in the air, and let
Erin rub her belly. While she rubbed and cooed, Erin checked the wound on Willa’s rear leg. It was difficult to see now, especially beneath all that wonderful golden fur, and Erin thanked God for it. There hadn’t seemed to be any ill effects after the surgery, and the vet had been right. Willa had made a full recovery.
Letting the rhythmic movement of stroking Willa soothe her, Erin renewed her vow. The one she had made two months ago. The night when she had packed a suitcase, grabbed Willa, and fled into the night.
She wouldn’t let anyone hurt her baby again. If she had to pack up and run every five damn minutes, nobody would ever touch Willa again. And if they tried? God help them.
Chapter Four
“Who’s the lucky lady you’re bringing to my wedding?”
At Naomi’s question, Nathan looked up from where he was tearing down the last of the plasterboard wall in Tynan’s house.
“I’m not bringing anyone,” Nathan said. “You take a female to a wedding and she’s going to start getting ideas.”
Laughing, Naomi patted his cheek, ignoring the low warning growl from her soon-to-be husband, who was currently yanking at long-disconnected electric wires. “You’re such an old romantic.” All innocence, she batted her lashes. “But since you’re not bringing anyone, I’ve got a favor to ask.”
Nathan didn’t especially like the sound of that. He had experience with Naomi’s favors, and they never came out in his best interests.
“Will you take Erin? I really want her there, but I know she won’t come on her own.”
“I’m part of the wedding party,” Nathan protested, a kind of panicked irritation trickling between his shoulder blades. “I’ve got duties, haven’t I? No time to babysit a woman who can’t get a date.”
