“Mornin’.” It was a grumble that I still felt wash over me like welcome.
I started to itch, wanting to make this all okay for him.
To make him see this was no big deal when I was essentially asking him to dedicate his entire life. “I’m sorry they followed you out here. They’re supposed to wake me up as soon as they come out of their room. I’ll make sure they don’t?—”
“They’re fine.” He muttered the gruff words as he turned his focus downward to take another measurement, pulling out the tape measure and laying it out along a plank.
“It looks to me like they bombarded you first thing in the morning.” Playful exasperation filled it.
“We didn’t bombard him, Mom,” Colin defended. “I’m here to help, and I won’t even get in the way. Not even for one second. Right, Mr. Cash?”
Cash hesitated for only a beat before he grunted, “Yeah, that’s right. Needed a little extra help this morning.”
“See, Mom. He needs me.” On his knees beside Cash, Colin grinned his beaming smile. “We gotta take care of our girls.”
Cash looked at my son for a moment, something unreadable in his expression, before his attention skated to me.
Irresistible and extreme.
But it was me. Ineededhim.
In more than one way.
I’d been so stupid to allow the fantasies to invade last night. To imagine what it would be like if any of this were real. If he were actually marrying me because he loved me. Because he wanted this life with me.
The most foolish part was I’d allowed my mind to wander farther. Wondering what it would be like if he took me to his bed.If he touched me with those massive hands and devoured me with that delicious mouth.
A shiver rolled through my body.
It must have been clear what I was thinking because Cash’s jaw suddenly clenched, and I was pummeled with a shockwave of intensity.
An inundation of what felt like greed.
Is that what it was? Or had I always been so infatuated with him that I was making it up? Wishing something was there that wasn’t?
I bit down on the inside of my cheek. This wasn’t why I was here. I couldn’t lose focus or direction.
This…this was for my children, and I needed to remember it.
I swallowed it down and forced myself into lightness. “So, what are we building out here?”
The back porch was gorgeous.
Large and taking up the full length of the backside of the cabin. It was higher than out front, elevated by about six feet with the mountain sloping down away from the cabin.
The forest was dense where it grew all around, though there was a hidden meadow with wild grasses that began at the bottom of the stairs. Birds skipped from tree to tree, the branches teeming with wildlife, and I could hear the river in the faraway distance.
Cash dropped his attention back to his project. “Going to increase the height of the railing, fill it in, and put in a gate. Make it safe so the kids can play out here without us worrying.”
My spirit thrashed.
Grappling and grasping for him.
Caught off guard that he’d do something so sweet.
So caring.
“Oh, that’s awesome,” I whispered in awe.
