Chapter 6
Chapter Six
Merritt
T his time, as I wound my car through the streets of downtown Hope Valley and into a quiet residential area, Tristan was the one doing the leading.
The trip to the house I would never allow Levi to step foot into again had taken even less time than I’d anticipated. Turned out, my little guy hadn’t had much... and most of what he had was barely a step up from trash.
A lot of his clothes were worn out, stained, or had too many holes and tears, and most everything else was too damn small. As it was, the pants he was currently wearing rode up higher on his ankles than they should have.
I didn’t have much in the way of savings, but I’d take it all out if it meant getting Levi clothes that fit him properly.
He hadn’t cared all that much about clothes and toiletries as we were gathering up his things. While Tristan and I went through to pack up the items a seven-year-old boy would need for everyday living and basic hygiene, my nephew had been stuffing his precious wrestling figures into his backpack. Problem was, he’d dumped out all his school work and supplies to make room for them.
It took a few minutes to convince him that school stuff was essential, no matter how much he might’ve hated math and science, but we finally got everything squared away and left that shitty trailer behind us.
Now we were on the other side of town, in a neighborhood where all the yards were freshly mowed and manicured and mature trees lined the roads, creating a tunnel-like effect with their branches and leaves. I spotted several people walking dogs and more jogging or powerwalking along the sidewalks, and a few raised a hand to wave as my car drove past them.
Seeing that reminded me of why I had once loved this town so much.
I’d grown up in the next county, a few towns over from Hope Valley. It wasn’t as nice, but we’d made the best of what we had and where we were. Being raised by a single mom with two kids meant things had been tight for us growing up. Mom had done her best. There was always a roof over our heads and food in our bellies, but there wasn’t really anything left over for extras. We might not have lived in the best area, but it was certainly a hell of a lot better than where Ozzy had been living with Levi. I didn’t want to think about how our mother was probably rolling over in her grave at what her son had become.
I’d barely been out of high school when my mother was diagnosed with cancer. It took her from us a few years later, but before she passed, she made me promise I’d take my share of the life insurance money and try to make the best possible life for myself.
Once she was gone, I’d done what I could to honor that wish by packing up my life in our small town and moving somewhere different, somewhere better. Hope Valley was the start of that amazing life. Then I met Warren and was convinced I was getting the life my mother had always dreamed of for me.
It had been a whirlwind relationship that, at the time, I thought to be a living fairy tale. Knowing what I now knew, I could look back on that time and see Warren wasn’t trying to woo me like all those heroes in the romance books I loved to read, he was love-bombing the shit out of me, doing his best to convince me he was my knight in shining armor, when, all the while, he was molding me into the sweet, subservient woman he wanted me to be.
We were engaged before we even hit the one-year mark, and as soon as my big brother found out the man I was marrying had money, he packed up Levi and followed me to Hope Valley. At first I was excited to have him and my nephew close again. At least until I realized the only time Ozzy called me was when he needed money or a babysitter so he could go out and get loaded.
It wasn’t long before the town I loved started to lose its luster for me, thanks to the two men in my life tarnishing it with their shadows.
But as we wound our way through Tristan’s neighborhood, I was able to remember why I’d chosen this place. The shadows still remained, hanging ominously in the background, but I was determined to do everything in my power to fight them back this time.
The Suburban’s turn signal flipped on, and Tristan finally pulled into the driveway of a pretty white two-story craftsman with a big bay window in the front and gorgeous stone accents.
“Looks like we’re here, buddy,” I told Levi, pulling his attention away from the wrestling match happening in his lap between two of the figures he’d insisted he needed to hold during the ride over.
He crouched forward to get a better peek through the windshield. “It’s pretty,” he said. Then his eyes caught sight of something and widened with excitement. “He’s got a basketball hoop!” His gaze darted to mine, the green glittering. “A dog and a basketball hoop? This place is awesome ! Think Mr. Tristan will let me play?”
I smiled and lifted my shoulder in a shrug. “Only one way to find out.”
He could barely contain himself long enough for me to round the car before he had his booster seat unbuckled and was standing, ready to launch himself out of the car as soon as I opened the door. And that was exactly what he did.
“Mr. Tristan! Mr. Tristan!” He raced up the driveway, moving so quick he struggled to stop himself before nearly plowing right into the man in question. “Can I play basketball on your hoop?” he asked on a shout, his arm extended and finger pointing at the hoop mounted at the side of the driveway.
My breathing stopped when Tristan reached down and ruffled Levi’s hair while smiling at my nephew in a way that probably had ovaries exploding all across the county.
“Sure can, kid. I have a ball in the garage.”
Levi started jumping in place. “Will you play with me?” He sucked in a gasp as a brilliant idea formed in his mind. “Can we play right now?”
I took a step toward them, ready to unlatch my little guy from his new favorite person. Levi was the freaking best, but he was a seven-year-old boy. They had more energy than a litter of puppies that had gotten into a case of energy drinks. “Oh honey, he probably can’t?—”
Tristan spoke up then and cut me off. “We can’t play right now, ’cause we have to get you guys unloaded and all set up, right? But we can definitely play this evening after dinner. How’s that sound?”
“Oh yeah! I forgot. I can help carry stuff in. I’m really strong. Just ask Aunt Merri.” He twisted his little body at the waist to look back at me. “I’m a really good helper, right, Aunt Merri?”
I couldn’t stop the smile from stretching across my face. “The very best helper, little dude.”
Levi whipped back around to face Tristan. “See?”
I looked up at the man, and my lungs immediately stalled. The way Tristan was looking at me made my skin tight and my belly swoop. Those eyes were pinned to my smiling mouth, his own features softening in a way I definitely shouldn’t find hot, but damn it , I did!
Tristan cleared his throat and blinked. As quickly as the look was there, it was gone as he shifted his focus back to my nephew. Not once had he shown even a hint of aggravation or frustration at the way Levi seemed to latch onto him.
The same certainly couldn’t have been said about Warren. We’d been together nearly the entire length of Levi’s life, but once I’d seen the real man lurking beneath my husband’s charming exterior, I did my best to keep Levi away from him. I didn’t trust the man I married not to hurt him, so when Ozzy asked me to babysit, I did it at his place, spending the majority of those nights cleaning the trailer after putting Levi to bed. It hadn’t always been as bad off as it was now, but my brother had never been one for housekeeping. Any other time I wanted to see my nephew, I took him somewhere fun, like the pizza place where he could play video games, or to the movies, or out for ice cream.
The one and only time I lowered my guard enough to bring Levi over for a visit, it’d been all the lesson I needed to ensure it never happened again. I thought it was safe because Warren was supposed to be at work. We’d been watching a movie in the living room and enjoying ice cream sundaes when Warren got home earlier than expected. He noticed Levi had accidentally gotten a drop of hot fudge on the couch and went ballistic, yelling and lecturing until my nephew began to cry.
He was only four at the time. I lost it at the sight of his tears. Something in me snapped, and I got in Warren’s face, telling him he was never allowed to speak to Levi like that again. I’d paid for standing up to my husband later that night, once Levi was gone.
But Tristan didn’t seem fazed in the slightest.
“What do you say I give you guys the tour, then you can get settled?”
I nodded, and with my hands on Levi’s shoulders, we headed into the house. The first thing I heard as soon as he pushed the door open was the sound of nails skittering against the beautiful distressed hardwood floors.
A second later the dog came into view. Or at least I thought it was a dog. I did a double take, my chin jerking back in surprise. It was shaped like a pot roast, with an abnormally large bobble head and stubby little legs. It skip-walked the rest of the distance, letting out a sound with each step that was a cross between a wheeze and a grunt, mixed in with a little bit of a growl.
As soon as he reached us, he stopped and collapsed onto his side.
“Merritt, Levi, meet Doc,” Tristan introduced. At the humor in his tone, I looked from the dog to him to find him watching the animal with affection carved into every plane of his face. Detective Tristan Fanning wasn’t just a pet lover. He was a full-blown dog dad. And, damn it, but that was in my top three sexiest things about him so far.
“He’s so cute,” Levi shouted, dropping to his knees beside Doc.
“Is—is he okay?” I asked Tristan on a whisper. Doc wasn’t moving, and I was beginning to worry that Levi might have his second traumatic experience in less than twenty-four hours.
Tristan waved his hand in the air. “Yeah, he’s totally fine. That’s his way of asking for a belly rub.”
One corner of my mouth hooked up in a grin as I arched my brows. “ Asking ?” I stressed, my tone teasing.
Tristan’s smile nearly knocked me on my ass. It was one thing to see it directed at someone else, but to be on the receiving end was something else entirely. “Okay, demanding is more accurate. He’s a little spoiled.”
At Levi’s giggle, I turned back to find the dog had rolled the rest of the way onto his back, those short legs of his sticking straight up in the air. In that position, his jowls had fallen back, giving him a Joker smile, part adorable and part psychotic.
“He’s like, the coolest dog ever, Mr. Tristan!”
I could have sworn I saw Tristan’s chest puff out with pride as a flash of something that looked like victory flitted across his face. “Thanks, buddy.” Then under his breath he added, “We’ll see how Rhodes likes that.”
“What was that?”
He blinked, giving a jolt like he hadn’t realized he’d said that out loud. His grimace made him that much more endearing.
“Sorry. It’s nothing, really... It’s just, my nieces and nephew were all crazy about Doc until they met Rhodes’s dog, Koda. They basically threw Doc over for her.”
I curled my lips between my teeth to keep from laughing. “I take it that’s a bit of a sore spot.”
Tristan let out a derisive snort and crossed his arms as he watched Levi love all over his precious pet. “Just ’cause she’s all purebred and regal and looks like she belongs in one of those dog food ads where she’s running through a field somewhere doesn’t make her better than Doc.”
Holy crap . I didn’t think it was possible for someone as handsome as Tristan to be adorable as well. “No, of course not,” I said, trying my best to sound reassuring. “And Doc looks—” The word regal died on my tongue when I turned my attention back to the animal in question. He was currently thrashing his body from side to side to scratch his back on the floor, letting out a wheezy snort-grunt with each motion. “Well, he kind of looks like a ham. But a super cute ham,” I added quickly. “And I don’t know about you, but I’d take an adorable ham over some stuffy show dog any day of the week.”
“Exactly!” Tristan said, that smile coming back in full force. And I realized that if I didn’t build up a tolerance to this guy fast, I was going to be in serious trouble.