Her Hidden Hope by Jill Lynn

Author:Jill Lynn
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2020-02-07T17:17:27+00:00

* * *

Evan scooted sideways, watching the birds as he did. They’d both perched on a curtain rod, frozen like a kid pretending to play hide-and-seek even though they were in plain sight.

He’d grabbed Addie’s hand and pulled her close behind him in order to aid her escape—and get her to the bathroom—but now he just wanted to pause like the bird so that she’d stay pressed against his back. Her breath was shallow and punctuated with moments of laughter, tickling his neck, heating along his skin. Her cheek landed between his shoulder blades. The desire to spin around and find himself face-to-face with her...he barely resisted.

But he knew better. Evan would never get that door shut if he opened it with Addie. She’d slip in too easily. He’d fall too easily. It wasn’t the falling part that concerned him. It was what came after that...the staying. The making a relationship work. His parents certainly hadn’t given him a good example of that. How Jace had figured it out when he hadn’t...Evan didn’t have a clue. His track record was zero for two regarding the last women he’d dated. Zero for three if he counted the first time around with Addie.

He inched slowly toward the kitchen opening, Addie still tucked behind him, scrambling his senses with every step. It was a wonder he didn’t smack into a wall.

When they were just about to freedom, one bird took off from its perch and beelined for the other.

“Go,” he said, and Addie peeled away from him—regrettably—her squeal echoing down the hall. The bathroom door slammed just as Sawyer and Belay pounded down the stairs. “Oh no.” And Evan had thought things couldn’t get any crazier. “Belay, no!”

His command didn’t even get an acknowledgment. Three stairs from the bottom, Belay jumped into the chaos. She went nuts, barking, leaping, chasing the birds around and around the living room. She wasn’t close enough to catch them, just to send the animals into an absolute tizzy.

Sawyer shrieked, hands over his ears. Probably to protect himself from his own volume level. When Belay’s chasing caused a bird to dive near Sawyer, his freak-out increased.

Evan swooped in and scooped Sawyer up under his left arm. After three loops around the living room, he managed to catch Belay by the collar with his right. All the while the birds screeched and zipped overhead.

Addie appeared in the entrance to the kitchen as Evan was dragging and carrying his two charges outside. Trying to move Belay was like trying to lug a dead vehicle through a patch of dirt. She was creating as much force as she could to stay in the bird zone, her body and limbs heavy, determined.

“Is this why you failed your guide-dog training? Was it the birds?” Belay knocked him off-kilter, and Evan took a second to steady himself. Usually she was what balanced him.

He left Sawyer on the porch with Addie and continued down the steps to his car, opened the back and forced Belay inside, shutting the door.

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