“I don’t doubt that for a second.” Craig moved a little closer. It was worth the risk. Pushing Danny out of her comfort zone was a necessary evil. “I’d bet most men run from you.”
Suspicion flashed in her eyes. “The smart ones do.”
“The weak ones do.” Craig leaned in close. “They are scared of how strong you are.”
She didn’t move away. Didn’t take back the space he’d gained. “Are you trying to say you’re not scared, Mr. O’Neal?”
“Stop calling me that.” Craig couldn’t control the sharpness in the knee-jerk response.
Danny’s lips curled into a barely-there smile. “I’ll call you what I want to call you, City Boy.” Her eyes lit up a little.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were teasing me.”
The air around them lightened just a little as Danny’s smile threatened to grow. “Good thing you know better.” She took a long, deep breath. “Fill up your tank and come inside.”
The invitation was completely unexpected, and it caught him off-guard.
“Don’t look at me like that.” Danny pulled her robe tighter as a light sprinkle of rain started to mist around them, barely filtering through the tree branches draped over the road. “Jude will be disappointed if I don’t invite you in. This is only for him.” One finger came to jab Craig’s sternum. “But if you do anything to upset my child—”
“I know what will happen if I hurt your son, Danny.” He caught the hand poking a bruise into his chest and held it in his. “I told you yesterday. I know what you are.”
Knowing her deepest secret meant there was one less thing standing between him and a woman who measured up to everything he’d been dreaming of.
Praying for.
“I don’t think you have any idea what you’re talking about.” She pulled her hand from his, turned away and started up the steps.
“I know what your father was too.”
Her back went stiff and the fingers holding the rail gripped tight. “Stop.”
“No.” He would let her pretend her only interest in him was for her son’s sake.
He would let her believe Lance wasn’t her brother.
But he would not let Danny convince herself he didn’t understand how special she was. “I know about the beast.”
She didn’t move. “The beast.”
It wasn’t a question. There was no false confusion in the statement.
But there was relief.
“That’s right. I know about the beast.” Craig moved in close behind her. “I know about your family’s past. Where they came from. What they are.”
Danny stared straight ahead at the door. “You’re here because of the beast.” She barely turned her head his way. “That’s the secret you know.”
“I—”
“Hey mom, do we have any more pencils?” Jude came to a stop on the porch, his eyes sliding from where Danny stood to Craig’s place just behind her. He barely smiled. “Are you coming in for pancakes?”
“He is.” Danny hurried up the remaining stairs. “You get Mr. O’Neal a plate and I will go find you some more pencils.”
Jude grinned at him. “Come on. The kitchen’s back here.”
Danny ducked into a room at the front of the house, leaving Craig to follow Jude down the short hall running up the center of the main floor.
The house was nice. A perfect example of the current modern farmhouse trend. All clean whites and pale neutrals coupled with well-worn pieces and the occasional pop of crisp black. Soft curtains and throws added a feminine touch, making the home feel warm and inviting.
It fit the woman who owned it perfectly.
“How many pancakes do you want?” Jude grabbed a plate from a rack on the center of the kitchen island and started stacking.
“How about three.” Craig slid onto one of the backed stools lined along the counter. The spot next to it had a half-eaten plate of breakfast and a stack of worksheets spread across it.
“You want sausage too?” Jude’s eyes lifted to his.
“Definitely.” Craig watched as the ten-year-old piled on a few patties.
The kid was a testament to his mother. She’d done a hell of a job raising him.
And Craig was willing to bet she’d done it completely on her own.
Jude set the plate in front of him and scrambled into his own seat. “My mom makes real good pancakes.”
“That doesn’t surprise me at all.” Craig poured on a little of the syrup sitting in front of him. Pancakes and sausage were a far cry from the way he usually started his day, but he also didn’t usually start his day helping with math homework either.
Which he was also apparently doing.
“Do you know long division?” Jude shoved in a square of stacked pancake as he pushed a paper toward Craig.
Craig pulled the paper closer as he chewed his breakfast. Fourth-grade math couldn’t be that hard.
He stared at the rows of problems lined across the sheet. “I might need to Google it.”
After a few minutes of research, he and Jude were finished with the first problem and moving on to the second when Danny came in, dressed and holding a box of pencils. “What are you doing?”
“Craig’s helping me with my math.” Jude didn’t look up from his paper. The tip of his tongue stuck out the corner of his mouth as he worked through the multi-step process.
“Mr. O’Neal is not responsible for your education.”
Jude glanced up, his brows coming together. “What?”
“I offered to help.” Craig stood, picking up his and Jude’s empty plates and taking them to the sink. “I also told him he could call me Craig.” He leaned into Danny’s ear as he passed her. “He’s not as stubborn as his mother.”
Her head snapped his way. “You have no idea.”
“I do, though.” Craig grinned.
He knew exactly how stubborn a woman like her could be. How defiant. How combative.
How dangerous.
And it would take a special kind of man to be with a woman like that. A man who understood who and what she was.
A man like him.
He rinsed the plates and opened the dishwasher, sliding them into place.
“You don’t have to do that.” Danny was close beside him, her whispered tone edged with irritation.
She was used to doing it all alone, and right now he was invading her territory. Her life.
“You made me breakfast. The least I can do is clean up after myself.”
“I didn’t make you breakfast.” Danny’s eyes snapped to where her son sat working on his math. “I made breakfast for my son and he chose to share it with you.”
“I feel like you’re trying to convince me Jude’s the only one who likes me around here.” Craig turned to fully face her, being careful to keep a respectable distance between them.
“Jude is starving for a man’s attentio—” Her lips clamped shut.
It was an easy enough fact to see. The kid was at a spot where things were about to start changing for him real fast, and there were some things you just didn’t want to talk about with your mom. “Come help me put water in the camper.”
Danny deflated a little. “You’re really going to stay here?”
“Absolutely.” She needed to realize he wasn’t the kind of man who ran from strong women with his tail between his legs.
“Fine.” She turned and stomped toward the door.
By the time Craig caught up to her, Danny was already hooking the hose up to the camper. He watched as she screwed one end to the tank inlet and the other to the faucet beside her porch before turning on the water.
“You are full of surprises aren’t you?”
“Just because you aren’t used to women who can handle themselves doesn’t mean they are the majority.”
“I think the woman I’m used to would surprise you.” Craig leaned against the side of the camper as she perused the compartments lining the lower end.
“I don’t think I care.” Danny peeked into the one she’d pulled the hose from. “You ever emptied a black tank before, City Boy?”
“Which one is the black one?” Craig had only gotten a short run-down when he picked up the camper last night. It was ten minutes past closing time when he knocked on the door, and only the promise of a cash purchase had gotten him inside.
Danny straightened, gracing him with a small smile. “I’ll let you figure it out.”
“I’m guessing it won’t be a happy surprise.”
“Depends on how much fiber you eat.”
“You’re teasing me again, Danny. Better be careful or I’ll think I’m growing on you.”
Danny blew out a long breath. “I’m not sure how you see this playing out.” She went to shut off the water, unscrewing the hose before laying it in the flower bed to let it drain out. “I thought you were here for your friend.”
“I am.”
Craig waited for her to look at him.
“But he and I might have been looking for the same thing.”
FOUR
MEN FREQUENTLY FOUND their way to Shadow Pine. Often, they thought a lengthy stay might be in their future.
Mostly because they were under the impression she and her sisters might be in want of male companionship.
But history had taught the sisters one very valuable lesson.
Men weren’t worth the trouble they brought.
“I’m not interested in whatever it is you think you’re looking for, Mr. O’Neal.”
Craig might be easy on the eyes. He might be charming and smooth. Hell, he might even be as nice of a guy as he appeared.
Still not worth the risk.
“I think you’re a liar, Danny.” Craig came close like he had a habit of doing. Reminding her how good a man could smell.
How tempting they could be.
“I think you don’t want to be interested.” He didn’t reach for her at all. Didn’t even try to touch her.
Didn’t have to.
“But you are.” Craig leaned in so close his breath skated across the skin just below her ear. “And eventually, you will let me show you how very interested you really are.”
Danny barely shivered. The tiny shudder was the single most infuriating part of her day so far.
And it had already been pissy as hell. “I am not in the market for whatever it is you’re selling.” She backed away. “You should probably go find a spot to park, because the middle of the street isn’t an option.”
It was. Technically hers was the only car that used this particular stretch of unmarked blacktop, but that wasn’t something she was going to share with Craig.
Because he was clearly problematic as hell, and it had nothing to do with his questionable motives for being in Shadow Pine.
“I already have a spot reserved.” He shot her a smile. “Set it up last night.”
“Good.” The closest campground was twenty miles away. That was a great thing. Exactly what she was hoping would happen.
Jude would be disappointed, but that was one more reason getting Craig out of Shadow Pine was the best outcome for this situation.
“Great.” Danny shoved on a smile. “I hope you enjoy your camp out.”
“I’m sure I will.” Craig’s smile didn’t slip even a little as he got in the cab of the truck. “Thanks for breakfast.”
Danny nodded.
She’d been single her whole adult life. Aside from the short few months that came to an abrupt end when she discovered she was pregnant with Jude, it had always been just her and her sisters against the world.
Eventually it seemed like Jude was meant to be her partner in life. And he was enough.
Everything.
“Glad he finally got the picture.” Sam’s eyes were on Craig’s retreating camper as she walked down the sidewalk toward Danny, her geriatric bloodhound Winston ambling along beside her. “I was afraid he was going to be a pain in the ass.”
Little did she know.
“Guess not.” Danny pulled her eyes from Craig’s truck as it turned the corner to head to the main street leading from town. “What do you have going on today?”
“I have a few orders to send out and then I was thinking of going out to try to grab a couple turkeys for the freezer.” She lifted her brows. “You wanna come?”
Danny saw the hesitancy in her sister’s eyes. The hesitancy they all felt.
This was their life. One built on the foundation of a past they couldn’t control. Shaped by an upbringing they tried to use to their advantage.
But it was still hard.
“Sure.”
Four turkeys was better than two, especially when every penny counted.
“Can I come?”
Jude’s voice turned her stomach.
Danny worked so hard to give him a different life than she had. To shield him from the way she grew up.
“I don’t—”
“Please, mom.” The desperation in his tone went straight to her heart, cutting it as if it hadn’t already been sliced a million different times in a million different ways. “I can do it.”
His ability to do it wasn’t in question. Jude was bright and kind and capable. Had been from the very beginning.
Sam came in close at her side, wrapping her free arm around Danny’s shoulders. “I heard you helped JD with a deer yesterday.”
Jude’s chest puffed out a little. “Yup. Didn’t gag or anything.”
Sam squeezed her shoulders tight. “If you finish all your school work then you can come with us.” She leaned toward him. “But no gun this time. You have to learn how to handle them safely.”
Jude’s face split into a smile so wide it would hurt if he kept it long. “I will go do it all right now.” He lunged at Sam. “Thanks, Aunt Sam.” Jude raced into the house.
“He isn’t living our life, Danny. Not even close.” Sam rested her head against Danny’s. “Jude has a dry bed and running water. Letting him come hunting won’t change that.”
Danny nodded. “I know.” She blinked at the emotion clouding her eyes. “It’s just hard.”
Being a mother was the most wonderfully horrible thing.
Jude was her whole world, but she wanted his whole world to be very different than the one she knew.
The one that led her to be a single mother and college drop-out before her twentieth birthday. The one that stole things she never really had, but still knew enough to want.
“He has everything we never did.” Sam turned to face her, both hands resting on Danny’s shoulders with Winston’s leash draping between them. “You have busted your ass to be sure he will never be hungry or cold or lost.”
Sam was so strong. She’d been their rock for over ten years. The one who pulled them from the brink and kept them together.
But she was also the one most certain this was the only life they should ever know. One of isolation and secrecy.
Danny sucked in a breath as the weight of that life pushed against her. “I just want him to have everything he deserves.”
Sam smiled. “That’s because you’re a good mom.” She hugged her tight. “Probably the best.”
Danny couldn’t help but smile too. “I wouldn’t take it that far.”
“Alright.” Sam dropped her arms and backed toward her own house at the other end of town. “You go do whatever it is you’re doing today. I will get these orders shipped and then we will plan on being out at least a couple hours before the sun goes down.”
Danny gave Winston a pat and Sam a wave as her sister made her way back to the other end of town. Sam and Frankie lived next door to each other in houses that were identical in structure but not design, and shared a backyard for their dogs to play together in.
A few minutes later Danny had poured herself a coffee to go and was walking to the shop she’d been running since she and her sisters took over the all-but-deserted town six years ago when it was becoming clear that their advancing ages would pose a p
roblem.
The only thing keeping Shadow Pine alive when they moved in was the post office, but even that was on borrowed time. The man running it was ready to retire, and no one else wanted to take over because of its isolated location.
One man’s trash.
They’d pooled the resources gifted by the same world they knew would turn on them in an instant, and bought the small bit of land and the dilapidated buildings on it, living for four years in the single habitable structure, the large steel building that now housed the shop where she and JD worked.
Danny nearly tripped when that same shop came into view. “No.”
She walked faster, irritation making her skin hot. “I swear to God.”
JD was already there, his pickup parked in one of the spots at the back of the building.
Right next to a truck hauling a camper.
Both men were outside, chatting with smiles on their faces.
Craig turned to her as she rushed across the street, doing her best not to slosh any screaming hot liquid out the drink hole on her travel mug. If she burned herself because of his stupid ass she might have to kill him.
Twice.
“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” Danny directed the question at JD, who was freaking helping Craig get the electric hooked up to his camper. “He can’t park that here.”
“I can.” Craig’s smile was just as easy as always. “I leased it.”
“No, no, no, no.” She shook her head, eyes so wide they stung. “You can’t do that.”
“That’s what it’s here for, right?” Craig pointed to the small setup they installed a few years ago, mostly so JD could use it to clean out his own camper after hunting trips. “I mean, you have the whole thing right here.”
Danny stood there, staring at both of them.
JD knew part of her and her sisters’ story. Most people around here did.
Whether they knew it belonged to the Karlson girl’s or not was a different story.
And the fact that he was letting Craig infiltrate their little fortress of safety was concerning.
“JD, can I talk to you a minute?” Danny didn’t wait for his response. She grabbed him by the sleeve of his shirt and started dragging him away. She pulled him around the corner of the building, shoving his big body against the wall. “What in the hell are you doing?”
Danny (Big Northwest Book 1) Page 4
