Twice Burned: A Steamy Second Chance Lakeside Romance (Jewel Lakes Series) by Claire Wilder

Author:Claire Wilder [Wilder, Claire]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-05-30T16:00:00+00:00

CASEY

It was an hour and a half before Hank left, with Sam nearly in tears when I’d said it was time for bed.

Graydon waved him off while I tucked Sam in upstairs.

“Can he come back again?” Sam asked. He’d dug out a pair of fire truck pajamas that were about two sizes too small, and as he lay in bed, looking up at me with pleading eyes, my heart just about melted.

“Where did you find these?” I asked.

“The giveaway box,” he confessed. I kept a box of clothes to give away in the hall closet. I needed to sort it soon—most stuff went to the Goodwill, but I always went through and pulled out the really good stuff to bring to Sadie’s shop.

I ran my finger down his little freckled nose.

Now that Hank was gone, I was having feelings about him putting so much into fixing up the barn. But I was also thinking about what he’d said—that this was penance for him, and a small part of me, a petty part, maybe, who blamed him for what had happened to us—felt okay about that.

“Hank’s going to come back for a few days to help us fix up the barn,” I said. “So yeah, he’ll be back, and you can keep asking him all the firefighting questions you want.”

I thought he’d have run through everything in his little eight-year-old brain, but his questions had been nonstop. What’s the biggest fire you ever fought? Is it scary climbing up that big ladder? Did you ever rescue any kittens?

I’d finally had to send him off to get ready for bed, knowing—with a little mom-guilt—that it took him longer than usual to get ready with his cast. But poor Hank had been pummeled.

Sam’s eyes lit up. “Really?”

“Yes. But you’re going to be in school a lot of the time too, remember.”

“Is he going to stay here?”

“No!” I said, laughing. “He has his own house.”

Sam looked disappointed. “We have that extra bedroom though. We’d be safer with Hank around, wouldn’t we?”

My stomach jolted. Because my immediate thought was yes. But my heart didn’t feel the same way. My heart wouldn’t be safer with Hank around.

“Go to sleep, little guy,” I said. “I have to say goodbye to Uncle Graydon.”

Downstairs, Graydon was doing the dishes. If there was one good thing about Graydon playing parent to me, it was that he did a lot of the chores men didn’t often do. Without asking. Lucy was a lucky woman.

“You don’t have to do that,” I said. “You didn’t even have dinner.”

“Sure I did,” he said, his arms deep in bubbles. The broad wood cutting board contained only crumbs and traces of my homemade sauce.

“That was going to be Sam’s lunch tomorrow,” I said.

“I’ll make him a sandwich.”

I huffed as I tidied up the table. I was trying to pick a fight, I knew. And it wasn’t his fault. I just needed somewhere to stick these confused feelings about what had happened tonight with Hank. “Don’t you need to be back home looking after the babies?”

“Lucy’s mom is staying with us.

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