Following his momma’s directions, he turned down the long, winding driveway to the main house, then bypassed it, continuing on toward the back of the property. The path was lined with trees, their burnished leaves falling from the branches and spinning through the air to land on his windshield. He loved Havenbrook in the fall, with all the bright colors and the smell of rain and the crispness to the air.
A short drive later, a clearing opened, and there sat a small bungalow-style house with a front porch, complete with a couple rocking chairs. It wasn’t at all what he’d imagined—for one thing, it was a lot more private than he’d been anticipating. Knowing the kind of father Richard was, Hudson wouldn’t have put it past the man to build the guesthouse ten feet from his own just so he could keep a close eye on his daughters.
For another thing, it was…beautiful. Extravagant, even. Small and quaint, yes, but it was fancier than Kenna preferred. Or at least, what she used to prefer. When they’d been younger, she’d talked about how much she’d love to live in a cabin, secluded in the woods, year-round and not just during the summers. She loved being surrounded by nature, loved the simplicity of living in the wilderness. This little slice of Haven heaven was a far cry from that.
A golf cart was parked next to an old Jeep, and Hudson smiled, remembering the tale he’d heard on his first day back. How Gary Anders had put the cart on the line during a bet with Kenna, and she’d won. Hudson had no doubt she hadn’t batted an eye at taking the damn thing either. In her mind, if someone bet on something, they sure as hell meant it, just like she did.
He climbed out of his truck and shut the door, not attempting stealth at this point because his beast of a vehicle ran louder than a pack of screaming kids at an amusement park. As he strode up the path to the front door, the curtains in the window were swept back, but he barely got a glimpse of Kenna before the drapes swished closed again.
Taking the two steps up onto the porch, he raised his fist to knock at the same time the door flew open and out stepped Kenna. He rocked back on his heels, letting his hand drop at the same time as he drank in the sight of her. She wore hiking boots, jeans, a dark, oversized hoodie, and had a backpack slung over one shoulder. She was flushed and fucking beautiful, her long hair down for the first time since he’d been home. He ached to wind his fingers into that mass, tug her head back, and kiss the hell out of her.
“Mornin’, Kenna,” he said, his voice a little gruff. He settled his hand on her hip and leaned down, pressing a kiss to her temple. Not missing her sharp intake of breath as he did so.
“Hey,” she breathed, meeting his eyes when he pulled back. “What’re you doin’ here?”
“Came to get my Kenna fix since I missed out yesterday.”
Her mouth quirked up on the side before she blew out a long breath, her shoulder slumping. “Sorry ’bout that. Yesterday was a shitshow.”
Hudson cracked a grin and leaned back against the railing. “Everything all right?”
Biting into her bottom lip, she furrowed her brow. He was still getting used to her new-to-him expressions. Uncertainty and unease were something he hadn’t seen from her much, if at all, when they’d been younger, but he’d seen more than he would’ve liked since he’d been back.
“I’m—” she started, then shook her head and glanced down at her feet. “I’m actually not sure.”
Something in her tone had him taking the single stride to her, and he grabbed her hand, squeezing once. “You wanna talk about it?”
Christ, he hoped she’d talk about it. Used to be, they could talk about anything and everything. Nothing was off-limits between them—with the exception of their feelings for each other. But he’d fucked that up when he’d kept the biggest secret of all from her—the fact that he wasn’t going back to college with her as planned and was enlisting instead.
He had a lot of ground to make up for that stupid mistake, and if he had to bare his soul to her every day for the rest of his life without any reciprocation from her to do so, so be it.
She shook her head, glancing down at where her hand rested in his. “I…can’t. Not now. My day’s crazy packed.”
Trying not to let his disappointment show, he nodded. “Okay. How about lunch?”
Regret passed over her face. “Can’t do that either. I’ll be workin’ at town hall.”
He furrowed his brow as he racked his brain, trying to remember his momma mentioning anything about Kenna working with her daddy. “Since when do you work at town hall?”
“Since yesterday, apparently,” she said dryly.
His eyebrows flew up toward his baseball cap. “Oh yeah? What happened yesterday? Other than a hell of a rainstorm.”
“Too damn much. And the storm is why I’m out here, actually.” She pulled her phone from her back pocket and checked the time. “I need to get my ass in gear if I have any hope of bein’ done before I need to be at town hall to figure out what the hell I got myself into.”
The mention of her ass had his eyes sliding down, shamelessly drinking in the sight of her luscious curves. His hands itched with a desperate need to cup them and squeeze. Tug her right up against him and feel all her soft places along every inch of his hardness.
He cleared his throat and met her eyes again, not bothering to hide the lust he was certain showed all over his face. “So what is it your ass needs to do?”
Her lifted brow and the slight curve at the corner of her mouth said she’d caught his ogling. And that, just maybe, she didn’t mind it. “I need to check and make sure the creek didn’t get too high.”
“Are you Havenbrook’s creek keeper now?”
She blew out a laugh and shook her head. “I’mElla’skeeper. She’s always runnin’ out there to play, like you and I used to. It’s grown in a lot more since then, though. I wanna make sure she’s as safe as she can be.”
And that was just another item on the long list of ways Kenna gave back, niece or not. In the short time he’d been in Havenbrook, he’d seen her giving selflessly multiple times. Did she even realize how generous she was without asking for anything in return?
He hooked a finger through her belt loop and tugged her close, until their lower bodies were pressed together. And, shit, he hadn’t thought that through because his cock woke up at the contact like a gunshot had sounded.
