I told him I was capable of carrying more than a bag or two, but he only gave me another one of those grunts as he tore the bags out of my hold.
If I was being honest, I totally appreciated it. It had taken me three trips to carry all our things when we crossed into his land from the neighboring campground to find our own secret spot.
You know, so I could do a little recon. Scope the man out.
Too bad I’d never gotten a peek at him, but man oh man, was I scoping him out now.
His back rippled and undulated with strength beneath his fitted white tee, all thick, corded muscle, and his jeans were worn and snug and conjured imprudent visions I had no business contemplating.
You will not ogle Cash Cunningham. You will not ogle Cash Cunningham, I chanted to myself. A frown carved my brow when the man shifted for a beat to glare at me from over his shoulder.
As if he heard me say it aloud.
I ducked my head to shield myself from the ferocity firing back.
Crappity crap.
Had I actually let that thought go? I sure hoped not. The last thing I needed was to complicate the most complicated situation. I couldn’t feel things I would only be a fool to feel. Couldn’t revisit old feelings that I’d spent way too much time wondering if they were true. If I’d only imagined that quick blip in time when I thought…
I clamped down on that train of thought.
The past didn’t matter. The only thing that did were my children. I couldn’t get distracted. I needed to be watchingmyback and not the muscle in Cash’s.
Returning forward, he kept climbing the hill as if it were nothing and the rest of us weren’t struggling to keep up. I should have been hitting the gym to prepare for this.
But I doubted there was anything I could have done to actually prepare myself for coming face to face with him.
So freaking gorgeous with this broken demeanor that I didn’t recognize at all.
Dark and brooding.
Anger and this mile-high wall that he’d constructed around himself.
God.
I knew the devastation he suffered.
But this?
How many nights had I lain awake wondering how he was? Wondering where he’d gone and who he’d become?
I’d assumed it was bad.
That he blamed himself.
But it seemed much worse than I could have anticipated. Not when he’d been so vibrant and sweet and free. It’d been difficult to picture him separate from that.
Seeing him in real life made it clear he’d succumbed to his demons.
A breeze rustled through, and on it, a shiver crawled my flesh. Fear clawing through my spirit as I thought of the reason that I had come here. That sense that I was forever being watched slicking like dread through my veins and sending nausea coiling in my stomach.
I needed to remembermydemons were right there, too, waiting to catch up to me. I couldn’t be complacent and distracted. I needed to remember this wasn’t close to being about me.
“Are we even there yet? Mywegsareti-wed,” Eva whined. She staggered along the trail in front of me like she was going to collapse.
My sweet little drama queen.
“Almost, I think,” I told her, keeping my voice as bright as I could.
