Single Dad Seeking Love

4. The Flirt and the Fight

“Hi there!”

I quickly step away from Trevor.

“Julie, I was riding Rosie,” Adam shouts excitedly before I have a chance to greet her.

Her infectious smile brings one to my own face. She’s also in overalls, blue that matches her eyes. Where Trevor’s was stretching horizontally, hers is stretching vertically.

“You were riding Rosie? Wow!” Her eyebrows rise.

“And I petted her too. She’s so pretty.”

Julie rolls her lips between her teeth to stop her laugh. Adam points at Trevor.

“And Trev’r says I can be a farmer and he has a farmer suit my size!” He grips the top of his overalls to make sure Julie sees.

Julie crouches down and gives Adam all her attention as he explains with his boyish enthusiasm everything that we’ve seen, including the cows on the beach earlier today. I glance over at Trevor. He’s looking down at Julie, softness caressing his handsome features, and suddenly I understand his need to protect his sister. He believes he failed his family, and he’ll do anything to keep Julie safe. Especially from sad, separated thirty-year-olds from Belfast. I’ll stay away from Julie, I decide, no matter how sweet she is and how she needs someone to care for her. Not that I had considered doing anything but some innocent flirting.

Trevor pats Adam’s back, saving his sister for another round of cow stories. “Do you want to give Rosie some hay?”

“Yes.” Adam nods vigorously, his cap almost falling off his head. “She needs only the best hay.”

“You’re the man for the job,” Trevor chuckles, then asks Julie, “You wouldn’t bring in some hay for tomorrow? We’re running low.”

“Will do.” She salutes her brother.

But I notice the circles under her eyes. She’s bone tired.

“Do you need help?”

“Um, sure.”

“You want to come with me, Adam, and get some hay?”

“I want to be with the cows and feed Rosie,” he whispers.

I turn to Trevor. “Is Adam ok here?”

His gaze flicks between Julie and me, then nods slowly.

As I follow Julie into a huge back room with big sliding doors that I’m sure a combine harvester could fit through, I hear Adam ask, “If I eat my greens, can I drive the tractor?”

Julie bursts out in a fit of giggles and I try to keep my chuckle quiet.

“He’s so cute.” She grins and hands me a large fork and cuts a hay ball open with her own. “All we need to do is fill the trolley and bring it to the wee platform in the barn,” she explains and points to a wooden structure on wheels.

Sounds easy enough. And it looks easy too, when Julie does it, but unaccustomed to the big tool, it takes a few tries before I get the hang of using the fork.

“Oops, sorry!” I call out as the fork flips up, sending a bunch of hay straight at her face.

She laughs, this infectious sound, close to a giggle.

“Christ, here, let me,” I say, and step closer. “You look like a scarecrow with all the hay sticking out of your hair.”

“A scarecrow? Really?” She acts all insulted and I withhold a smile.

“A very cute scarecrow.”

Pink fills her cheeks and she stands completely still while I pull straw from her hair.

She really is pretty, her lashes all thick and the sweetest scattering of freckles over her nose. Her tongue comes out, brushing over her lower lip.

I clear my throat.

“We best finish before Adam gets restless.”

Julie blinks a few times, and on a big, stuttered inhale, she gets back to work.

Trevor is quiet when we pull the trolley through to the other room. I tell him it’s time we city folk head back to our tent and thank him for letting us into his barn.

“No problem,” is all he says, his stern face cracking only when he glances down at Adam. “Did you have a good time?”

“I had soo-o good time,” my son exclaims and throws his thin arms wide. And then he steps over and hugs Trevor’s knees. “Thank you.”

A stunned expression covers Trevor’s face before it softens.

“My pleasure, buddy,” he replies and pats my son’s head over the cap.

“I’ll just finish up here,” Trevor mumbles and his face is stern again. What the hell is up with him? Where is the guy who opened up and was so friendly only moments ago?

I don’t have time to worry about that, as Adam is making a bit of a fuss but finally agrees to leave his beloved Rosie with the promise that we can see her again some other time. Tiredness has set in after all the excitement, and it’s a chore getting his wiggling limbs out of his overalls in the front room.

“Can I have the farmer suit?” Adam asks as I hang it up on a hook.

“No, it needs to stay here.”

“But, it’s just my size,” he whines. I sigh inwardly. To him, the overall is better than a Spiderman costume, and I wonder how I can avoid a crying fit.

“You know what, Adam?” Julie chimes in, her overall already hung up. “I got an ice cream delivery today. Would you like one?”

Those big brown eyes turn to me, suit all forgotten and tiredness miraculously gone. “Can I, Dad?”

“Sure. I’ll be with you shortly, just need to get out of these clothes first.”

I mouth a thank you to Julie as she takes my boy’s hand and leads him out of the barn. It’s great how he seems to be able to trust people a bit more, is less clingy.

“What the fuck, Jamie?”

I startle and turn quickly. Trevor is standing behind me, his six foot something frame hunched forward.

“Trevor?”

His full lips twist as he snarls, “I’ve told you over and over not to flirt with Julie.”

So that’s the reason for the mood change. “We’re only chatting, Trevor.”

“Yeah, right, having a hay fight and touching her face is only chatting?”

“Were you spying on us?” Heat spreads up my neck and I curl my fingers into fists.

“Is that what I have to do?”

“Jesus, you’re completely unreasonable.”

Angrily, I turn my back to him and pull the zip down on the overalls, but unused to the garment, it gets stuck on my shoulders as I try to wrangle out of it.

“Fuck,” I mutter.

Heat at my back is my only warning as the overalls are yanked down my shoulders, but before I can slip my arms out, the material is pulled harshly together at my back, my hands secured as if in cuffs. My chest presses forward as goosebumps spread from my neck where Trevor’s warm breath fans down.

“This stops now,” he growls.

He releases me as quickly as he grabbed me. The door slams behind him before I turn. He’s gone. And that is good, as when I look down past my chest where my heart is beating hard, I see my cock straining against my trousers.

What the fuck?