PROLOGUE
Torren Harrison watched the little black lab puppy that his brother, Tag, and sister-in-law, Piper, gave him as a housewarming gift. They brought the puppy over when they came to see his house last night. Most people gave flowers or a kitchen gadget or even booze as a gift to congratulate someone for buying a house, but not his brother. Torren was sure that Tag found the whole idea of him having to take care of another living creature hilarious. His brother handed him the little ten-week-old puppy and said, “Good luck.” Torren took one look at the pup and wanted to hand him back, but he also knew that his brother’s gift was a silent challenge. One thing that neither of them ever backed down from was a challenge.
So, he took the puppy and named him Tucker, after ruling out both Tank and Fucker. He figured that if he had to call the puppy in a public setting, he should automatically cross the name Fucker off his list, although that was his favorite. Tank seemed too clichéd for a dog that was going to be huge when fully grown. Tucker seemed to be a nice blend of the two names, so he settled on that. But his new puppy didn’t care what Torren called him since he didn’t listen to or obey even one simplecommand. Tucker made himself busy chewing on one of his new toys as Torren unpacked a box in his kitchen. In less than twenty-four hours, his new best friend chewed through one of his running shoes, a sock, a pair of gym shorts, a sofa leg, and the actual corner of a wall. He needed to go out and buy his new little pal a crate to contain some of the destruction. He wasn’t sure how much chaos a newborn baby could bring down on one household, but he was crossing his fingers that Tag’s new kid wreaked some major havoc. He would love front row tickets to that show—paybacks were a bitch.
After he finished the renovations on his new house, he was able to move in just in time for their busy summer season at the store. He and Tag were booked solid for hiking, overnight camping, and white water rafting groups for the foreseeable future. Luckily, Piper wasn’t due for a couple of months, so Tag would be able to help with most of the day trips and even a few overnight ones, too. The adventure company that they started together, Rocky Mountain High Adventure, had taken off. They were hiring more full-time people and taking on even more seasonal hires. They were to the point of having to either grow as a company or turn away potential clients. Tag and he both agreed that they wanted to grow their business and hire new people. Tag was looking to become more of a manager—with the baby coming and his and Piper’s charity work, he didn’t have the time to devote to taking people out on treks. That worked for Torren since he loved being out on the mountain or barreling down the river on a white water rafting trip. That part of his life was easy. It was the rest of it that was crap.
After Tag and Piper's announcement on Christmas Day that they were having a baby, Torren had started thinking about what he wanted out of life. Sure, having a different woman in his bed, sometimes two or three at a time, was fun, but in the morning, he was left with an empty condo. It got to the point that hewould ask the woman he was with to stick around, which usually ended badly because she would get the wrong idea about what he wanted. He wasn’t into dating or long-term relationships; he wanted carefree and easy. Torren didn’t count on every one of his friends getting hitched and popping out kids. Now, he was left with a lot more time on his hands and feelings of complete panic over what was next for him. He thought about leaving town for a while to see what he was missing out on. But the thought of leaving his twin brother with the responsibility of running their business felt wrong. He and Tag were a team—always had been. When their mom died from cancer when they were just six years old, and their dad took off, leaving them on their grandfather’s doorstep, he took comfort knowing that he still had Tag. Leaving his brother high and dry with a business to run didn’t feel like an option that he wanted to explore. So, he decided to buy a little fixer-upper and get his hands dirty.
When his grandfather, Dane, moved them into his cabin, he taught both boys how to fix things. Torren always loved working with his hands, so taking on home improvements made sense to him. The long hours that he put into the place every night and weekends also helped to fill the void of not inviting women into his bed. He was trying to turn over a new leaf because being labeled as the town’s “man-whore” was starting to tick him off.
At first, the running joke was that he was dating his way alphabetically through the town’s women. Tag even got in on the fun, telling Torren that he should just introduce himself to people by shaking their hand and saying, “Hi, my name’s Torren, and I’ve probably dated your daughter.” Torren didn’t find it as funny as Tag and their friends did. He was tired of being the joke of the town. Harvest Ridge was a small enough community without having to deal with everyone’s scrutiny. So, he was off the “dating” circuit and trying to figure out his shit. He was about to turn thirty-one, and he needed to start acting like anadult and not some frat boy on MTV’s Spring Break. He tried telling Tag how he was feeling, even breaking down and sharing that it was four very long months of no sex, but his brother didn’t seem to take him seriously. Sure, Tag was shocked that Torren had it in him to go four months without a hot woman in his bed. Hell, when he started this whole thing, Torren wasn’t sure he’d make it four minutes without sex.
With his house finished and moved into, he worried that he would fall back into his old ways. He needed to figure out his next step, maybe even go on a real date with a woman and not just invite her back to his place for a good time. He couldn’t remember the last time he went on a date with a woman—maybe high school?
He looked over to where he last saw Tucker and found his puppy taking a piss on his front welcome mat. At least he was getting closer to the concept of being outside before he let loose. Torren sighed, grabbed Tucker’s leash, and picked him up to head out the front door.
“No, Tuck. You don’t piss in the house.” He gently put the puppy down in the grass just outside his front entrance. “This is where you do your business, Dude.” Torren knew that the dog had no idea what he was saying, but still, he felt the need to lay down the law. Sooner or later, one of them was going to break—he just hoped like hell that it was the puppy and not him. Tucker lay down and started chewing on a blade of grass. He barked and rolled to his side, pawing the air as if playing with an imaginary friend. Yep, his puppy wasn’t interested in any of this peeing outside business. Tucker yapped again, much to the delight of the two little girls who were carefully crossing the street to get to his yard. Great, just what he needed—first a puppy and now the neighbor girls. They both made cute little cooing noises at Tucker, causing him to jump and yap louder, excited to have their attention.
“Mister, can we play with your puppy?” Torren wanted to say no and drag Tuck into the house. Truthfully, kids always scared the shit out of him. But the looks on their identical faces made him change his mind.
“Sure,” he grumbled. The twin girls giggled and plopped down in the grass next to Tucker. Torren sighed and sat down on the bench that he built for the front porch. He knew that he wasn’t going back inside anytime soon. The girls squealed with delight at every cute little thing that Tucker did, and he ate up every ounce of their attention.
About ten minutes later, a very hot woman emerged from the twins’ little house across the street. From the way she put both hands on her hips and marched across the road, Torren was pretty sure that they were all going to get an earful. The woman huffed her way across his front lawn and stood over the girls, who didn’t seem to even notice her.
“Elizabeth and Sarah Cahoon, what do you two think you are doing?” Neither girl looked up from Tucker, instead ignoring the poor woman whom Torren guessed was their mother. At least, she was putting out some strong angry mom vibes, enough to make Torren shudder. She had the sexy mom routine down to a tee, and that made him a little hot. “You two know that you aren’t supposed to cross the street by yourselves. And yet here you are, bothering this poor, nice man who probably has better things to do.” Torren cleared his throat, gaining the attention of all three females in his yard. The woman lowered her balled-up fists from her hips and extended her hand out to Torren. “Hello, I’m Tana Cahoon. The girls and I just moved here from Tennessee a few months back. I was meaning to come over here and introduce myself, but I didn’t want to interrupt or bother you since you’d just moved in. I’m sorry about them.” Tana finally stopped talking long enough to look down at her daughters, who were still oblivious to their mother’s tirade.
God, she was beautiful with her long, loose blond hair and her full, pouty lips. Her eyes reminded him of the sky at the beach on a sunny day. He shook his head as if disgusted with himself—this was what happened when you denied yourself sex for four straight months. Torren took her hand in his and noticed her slight shiver when he introduced himself. He took an educated guess that if Tana had a husband, he didn’t move here with her and her daughters. He noticed that she wasn’t wearing a ring, but that didn’t matter. His number one rule when it came to women was no single mothers. Hell, it was the only rule that he had about women. It was just too messy, especially with the ones who wanted to introduce him to the kids. He wasn’t ready for any of that. Shit—he couldn’t even handle a ten-week-old puppy. Still, the way pretty Tana responded to him had his cock thinking of fifty different ways he could take her.Fuck.Well, his dick needed to get the message and fast—Tana was off-limits.
“It’s good to meet you, Tana. I’m Torren. Your girls are welcome to play with Tucker anytime they would like.” His offer was met with cheers and clapping from his newest little fans. Sure, now they paid attention. “But,” he barked, “you both need your mom’s permission before you come skipping across the road.” Both girls nodded, not taking their eyes from him. “You also need to apologize to your mother for not following her rules.” Tana gasped as both girls said their apologies.
“Wow, do you have kids? Because that was pretty awesome,” Tana gushed, and Torren cringed. The thought of having kids made him feel a little queasy. He was probably the last person on earth who should have anything to do with kids. He just said what his grandpa would have. And, dammit, seeing Sarah and Elizabeth reminded him of when he and Tag were little. Torren just shook his head, not knowing if “Fuck no!” was an appropriate response to her question, especially with her daughters listening on.
“Well.” Tana pulled each of her daughters up from the ground, to a chorus of “not fair” and “you’re so mean”. Torren wanted to laugh at the girls’ protest, but from the look of frustration on Tana’s face, he knew that would be a bad idea.
“It was good to meet you, Torren. If you ever need anything, we are across the road—feel free to holler.” Tana turned and dragged her twin daughters with her as both tried to run back to where Tucker continued to play. Torren didn’t miss the way Tana’s hips swayed with every step or the way her perfect pear-shaped ass looked in her jeans. Geez, what was wrong with him? He just met this woman, and already she was making him rethink rule number one. He shook his head and picked up Tucker to head back into his house. He needed to unpack a few more boxes before he headed into town to get ready for his two-night hiking trip. It was his turn to take out a group, and honestly, he was looking forward to the distraction. He looked down at his new puppy and realized that he was going to have to find a sitter for him.Shit.He wanted to pound Tag for saddling him with a responsibility that he had no business having in his life. He was going to have to come up with a solution fast since he was leaving first thing in the morning. He looked back across the road to where Tana was still trying to wrestle her two, now crying, twins.
Well, she did offer— “Tana, wait up.” He knew that this was crossing a line and was probably going to lead to him breaking rule number one, but he had no other choice. He took a deep breath and headed across the street towards the sexiest woman that he had seen in months. Yeah, he was fucked.
Tana Cahoon watched as the sexy, hulk-sized man moved his furniture and the rest of his belongings into his home last night. There were two of them, both identical, and she was fascinated by their size. She never saw a human being so big and physically fit, unless she counted the men who seemed to only exist on television or social media. This man must work out all day long, judging from the muscles that she saw. She quickly closed her curtains, not wanting to tempt herself as if that was going to be an issue. What would a man who looked like that want with a single mother of twin four-year-olds who were nearly impossible to control? She had so much baggage that she was sure that no man would ever want her again, and that was just fine with her.
Tana spent the past five years in a marriage that started so promising but ended horribly. She was like so many stories that she heard about other women over the years—she became a statistic. At first, her husband, Matt, seemed so loving and gentle that she thought that she was truly the luckiest girl on the planet. But after he lost his job, he started drinking, and things went downhill from there. He was a mean drunk and would criticize her for every one of his failures. She tried to help him, wanting to understand the pain that he was feeling, but he refused to let her in.
The first time he hit her, she vowed that she would never go back to him, but he was always sorry after he sobered up, and she was a fool. Tana thought that she could change him, even save him, but she was so wrong. When she was almost eight months pregnant with the twins, he went out with a few buddies for a drink. She was pissed that he was spending money that they didn’t have. Tana was working two jobs while pregnant, and he couldn’t seem to find even a part-time opening. He rolled in about two in the morning, and she had had enough. She screwed up her courage to confront him, and that was the worst mistakeshe could have made. She told him that she wanted him to stay home with her and stop spending all the money that she was working so hard for. He lost control of his temper, screaming about how she didn’t understand him and about how she was trying to make him into something that he wasn’t. He pushed her down the small flight of steps in their little townhome, knocking her unconscious. When she came to, she was lying in her own blood, and he was nowhere to be found. She was able to crawl to her phone and call for help. Tana didn’t remember much else, other than a few flashes of memories from the ambulance ride and the pain that she felt in her belly as they wheeled her into the operating room. The last thought she had before they put her under was how afraid she was that she was going to lose her babies. She woke up from the surgery two days later to find out that she had two beautiful little girls, and they were perfect. Her mother tried to persuade her not to go back with him, but when Matt showed up at the hospital with flowers and apologies, she took him back. She was young and scared at the thought of taking care of two infants on her own.
Tana refused to press charges and went home two weeks later with Matt and her girls. For a while, things were good. Matt got a job at the refinery, and he even tended bar at the local dive a few nights a week until she could start working her waitressing job again. When they laid everyone off at the refinery, things went downhill, and Matt started hanging out at the bar during his off-hours. He was fired for stealing from the cash register, finally hitting rock bottom. Once he started getting more aggressive with her again, Tana took that as her sign to leave. She left him and moved in with her mother. Tana wasn’t going to let him fall into the same patterns with her. She would never let Matt lay a hand on her girls or herself, for that matter, ever again.
He started sniffing around her mom’s house, threatening to take the girls away from her, scaring both Sarah and Elizabeth. She decided that the three of them needed a fresh start. One day, she was at her local library using their computer to hunt for their new beginning when she came across an ad for a children’s librarian at a little place in a town called Harvest Ridge, Colorado. She thought that it sounded like a perfect fresh start, and she packed up their car and drove across the country. She didn’t even tell her mother where she was heading, not wanting her mom to tell Matt. It was best if she kept her new place a secret for now until she got her legal divorce papers back in the mail. Tana signed them and appeared in court. Once she had the legal documents, she would be free from Matt, and her girls would be safe. The day after her sexy new neighbor moved in, she realized that her girls were not watching television in the family room where she had left them. She did a quick, panicked search of the house and yard before she heard Sarah’s giggle through her open kitchen window. Tana couldn’t believe that they both defied her and crossed the road after she told them over and over not to leave the yard. And there her two precious little angels sat, cross-legged in the grass, playing with an adorable puppy while the sexy hulk watched them.
“Well, time to meet the neighbor,” she murmured to herself. She looked in the hall mirror, deciding that it wasn’t going to get any better, and then headed out the door and across the road. And, Lord help her, the hot neighbor was even bigger and sexier in person. She wasn’t quite sure how she was going to pull off casual and flirty while scolding her twins, so she gave up on that pipe dream. Besides, the last thing she needed in her life was another man, especially one as big and intimidating as the one standing before her. She felt like a first-class fool yelling at the girls and dragging them back across the road after Torren was kind enough to offer to let them play with his new puppy. Anddid she say to holler if he needed anything? God, how lame. She was almost home free when Torren’s sexy-as-sin voice called after her. She released her girls and told them to get their little butts in the house and wash up for lunch. They didn’t argue this time, knowing that when she used her “librarian voice,” she meant business. They did do a little complaining as they longingly looked back at Torren and his puppy, but disappeared into the house. Tana sighed, ready to be anywhere but standing in her yard, about to face sexy Torren and his sultry blue eyes and jet black, curly hair. Heaven help her, he even had a yummy five o’clock shadow that she never liked on other guys, but on him—it worked.
“Tana, wait up.” Torren made his way into her yard and stood so close to her that he just about blocked out the sun with his large body. She couldn’t help herself— she sighed again. He seemed to have that effect on her. “Sorry to chase you across the road, but you did say to holler if I needed something.” Her mind wandered to all the things that she hoped that he needed from her, and she shook her head, trying to stop the sexy images of Torren standing over her without his shirt on. What the hell was wrong with her?
“What can I do for you, Torren?” Her voice sounded raspy and needy even to her ears. “What do you need?” she squeaked, trying to go for more casual and failing. She wanted to run into her house and hide with the twins, but she had a feeling that Torren would still find her. He seemed to be a man on a mission.
“I need you to hold something for me.” Torren cleared his throat. “I mean, I was wondering if you could watch Tucker for me? You see, my twin brother, Tag, and I own a high adventure store, and I take people out on treks. Tomorrow morning, I’m heading out for two nights, and my dumb-ass brother thought it would be cute to give me a fucking puppy as a housewarming gift.” Tana heard her girls giggle at his use of curse words andyelled for them to go to their room. Torren cringed. “Sorry about the cursing. I’m not used to having kids around. I promise to try to tone it down some,” Torren promised.
Tana couldn’t help her giggle. “Well, they’ve heard some of those same words from me. We are all guilty of cursing from time to time.” She took Tucker from Torren, noticing the way his eyes flared when she ran her fingers over his hand. “We would love to watch your puppy. I’m sure the girls will be thrilled—they’ve been begging me to get them a pet since we moved here.” Judging from the squeals of joy coming from inside her house, her mischievous little girls heard the entire conversation and were more than on board with the idea of puppy-sitting.
