He looks up and sees me and his bright blue eyes crinkle at the corners. “It’s good to see you again, Kinsey. Been a long time.” His eyes darken and travel down my body and heat streaks out, settling in my belly. Butterflies dance in the flames and I can barely breathe.
“Landon. I didn’t know you were still around here.”
His face darkens and there’s something unexpected there. Anger and loss.
“Yeah. I was just on my way out of town.”
“Don’t let me hold you up,” I huff.
He smiles again and this time there’s an edge of triumph. “It’s been a long time since you’ve been around one of these storms, hasn’t it? The roads off the mountain are already too treacherous to make it all the way down.”
Tipping my head back, I huff out a groan.
“I’m stuck here until they get the roads cleared off. That’s probably gonna be at least a few days.”
So now I’ve got a guest to watch me try to get my feet under me. Try to figure out what’s going on with the farm.
“Let me find you a room then.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ll stay in your brother’s old room. Not the master, the one he had before…”
Before my parents died and everything changed.
Nodding, I watch him walk away.
I don’t know what to think about this. But I do know that I trust Landon. More than I ever trusted my husband.
He’s always been like a big brother to me. No matter what my body and my heart say.
I’m sure it will all be fine.
My eyes drift around the room and land on a quilt on the back of the couch. I settle on the couch and pull the quilt across me, sighing, my head settling and my eyes locked on the flames in the grate.
I’m too tired to face the rooms and much too tired to face the ghosts hiding in some of them.
Closing my eyes, I let my aching body drift away. To someplace where warm blue eyes laugh at me and a bright smile lightens the pain in my heart.
CHAPTER 4
Landon
Ican’t stop smiling when I open my eyes the next morning. I found who I’ve been looking for. I just didn’t know that I already knew her.
I didn’t know that she should be off-limits thanks to the bro code. But I’m not doing that.
I loved Karter. Still love him even though he’s gone. Has been for months now.
Stupid accident. He wasn’t sick. He was driving home after coming to see me in town and helping me pack my stuff up and move it out of the offices.
An empty feeling gnaws at my belly. I hate that he was killed on the way home from helping me. One stupid driver who wasn’t paying attention and glanced down at their phone apparently, crossing the center line and killing both of them. His passenger survived but she had to overcome some serious damage.
That’s one of the reasons that I decided to get the hell out of this town. Wildwood’s always been my home. But home without my business and my best friend doesn’t make any sense. It just feels empty, shuttered.
Like there’s nothing here for me.
But now there is. Kinsey and her kids. My new instant family. Although Kins doesn’t realize it yet. She just thinks that I was an opportune passerby and that I’ll soon be gone.
Fate is a fickle, strange thing. I’m looking for purpose, family. And just when I’m about to leave, she shows up out of the blue and I know. I feel it all the way to my soul.
