His touch had evoked strong desires within me, and I knew if I had stayed any longer…I’d let those desires take the wheel and end up right back in his arms again. So I’d left, returning home to send the babysitter on her way and bask in the silence and mythoughts.
My head wasn’t any clearer after all thatthinking.
Tessa walked back into the kitchen, followed closely by Elle. They came to stand in front of the island, where I’d set out three coolers and spread out all the condiments I’d need to makesandwiches.
“You’re such a mom,” Elle grinned at me, affectionately shaking herhead.
I froze. Even though she meant no harm with her statement, her words had struck a nerve within me. Iwassuch a mom. There wasn’t anything wrong with that, either. I smiled and lifted my shoulder in a shrug. “You can’t turn itoff.”
We worked in compatible silence for the next ten minutes, quickly putting together the sandwiches and packing thecoolers.
“That should be enough.” I closed the lid on the food cooler with an inward sigh. No more hiding out in thehouse.
Grabbing the first cooler, I carried it outside while Elle and Tessa grabbed the remaining two. I tied my cooler to the storage racks on the back of my ATV while Tessa tied the one she was carrying to hers and Elle secured the final cooler to Brock’sATV.
I glanced around at the people gathered by the garage. Brock, Braden, Grady, Gordon, Tommy, Peter, and Ezra were busy talking about all the work Brock had done with Gordon’s crew. They’d built the cabin a few years ago, and had just completed the detached garage that housed our ATVs and the two snowmobiles Brockbought.
Aiden was beside Braden, trying to stand as tall as his uncles and be included in their manly conversation. Hunter lumbered over, nudging Aiden’s hand with his large head, looking for attention. I smiled at the way my son’s eyes lit up as he kneeled to pet thedog.
When Brock first brought Hunter home, I’d been hesitant to let a wolf mix hang around my son. But he had never so much as growled at a child, and he was the most well behaved dog I’d ever beenaround.
He was happiest when Brock was around, but Aiden was a close second. Hunter watched out for him ever since meeting him four years ago. Any time they were together, the old dog would place his body between Aiden’s and any potential threats—be it the road or astranger.
“He’s really shot up,” Elle remarked, smiling in hisdirection.
“He did,” I agreed, nodding as I gazed at my son. At seven years old, Aiden was fiercely independent. His attempts at sneaking into my bed at night were less frequent. Now, he only crawled in with me if he’d watched a scary movie and couldn’t fallasleep.
“I bet he doesn’t even remember me,” she sighed. “Four years is a longtime…”
“He remembers you,” I said, unintentionally sounding gloomy. Aiden had a remarkable memory. When Elle arched a brow in question, I shrugged. “There’s pictures of you in Braden’s room. He never packed anything away before he left, and I wasn’t about to doit.”
Tessa chose that moment to drag Elle away to meet the girls that her brothers’ had brought along. I remained near my ATV, watching the scene carry out before me, as I had already introduced myself when they first arrived. Paige and Samantha had seemed very friendly, and to her credit—Annaka did too. She was just intimidating with her artfully made up face, beautiful tattoos and ash-purplehair.
Next to her, I felt desolate in my high-waist denim jean shorts and boring white tank top over my modest one-piece swimsuit, my hair tossed up in a ponytail with no makeup on myface.
“This is Paige, Grady’s girlfriend. Annaka is foolishly with Gordon, although hopefully she wises up soon—“ Tessa said, her voice carrying overclearly.
“Hey! I heard that!” Gordon yelled out, scowling at Tessa. She flipped him off and hegrinned.
“And Samantha is Tommy’s friend,” Tessa continued. “Ladies, this isElle.”
I tuned out, gazing over to where my son stood. I felt awkward, leaning against my ATV between the two groups of people, but Aiden was enjoying hanging out with the guys without my involvement, and I wasn’t comfortable or assertive enough to march over to the girls and interject myself into their conversation. It almost was a perfect analogy for mylife.
It was hard to relate to women in and around my age who weren’t moms, and it was hard to relate to the women older than me thatwere.
We ended up waiting another fifteen minutes for Travis to finally show up, solo without so much as a bodyguard. Hope bloomed once again in my chest, and I dropped my gaze to my worn rubberboots.
Once his ATV was unloaded off his massive truck, we got ready to hit thetrails.
“Come on bud, it’s got to be tighter than that,” I told Aiden, tightening the strap on his helmet so it sat moresecurely.
“Mom, stop. I can do it myself,” he pleaded, his cheeks flushing withembarrassment.
“You’re only seven, you can’t be embarrassed by me already,” I frowned, a littlehurt.
“I’m not,” he assured me, looking up at me with his bright blue eyes. “I can just do it myself now.” Aiden hated the idea of hurting someone’s feelings. He hugged me before racing over to the Trailrover ATV that Brock and Braden had bought him for his birthday the yearbefore.
Brock led the way with Hunter running alongside him. Tessa followed, with Elle as her passenger. I waited until everyone else had followed before I motioned for Aiden to go. His youth size ATV was slower than the others, and I didn’t want him getting accidentally runover.
