13. Erin
ERIN
T his situation was like straight out of a Hallmark Christmas movie.
I'd never met so many fascinating people in one place at one time. Period.
The bonfire cast dancing shadows across smiling faces that all held stories I couldn't wait to discover.
How could this town and these people have been here all this time, and nobody knew about it?
This version of community, of being neighbors, friends, a big, loud family—it felt almost magical.
I'd let the ebb and fall of conversations wash over me for the past hour while staring into the fire.
What had started as a casual gathering had evolved into an enormous bonfire. As soon as the sun settled, everyone moved their camping chairs around the fireplace, and there was a constant flow of people arriving, and saying hello.
I looked over to the group of men, who stood aside, huddled together around one of the barrel fires.
The tall, muscular man with an easy grin and dimples to die for had introduced himself as "Goofy." Despite his playful nickname, there was something sharp in his eyes, an alertness in the way he scanned his surroundings. And he wasn’t the only one acting and looking like that. The way he and the other guys who arrived with him moved screamed military training.
I made a mental note to ask James about them later. But for now I sipped on my hot cider and enjoyed the view.
Next to Goofy stood Peaches, a giant of a man who, despite his intimidating size, expressed so much warmth through his eyes and voice when he welcomed me that I was completely taken off guard.
Peaches was the perfect mixture between the Hulk and a teddy bear. His eyes lit up when Peter Fisher, Lisa's husband, and his colleague Belinda Graves joined our circle.
Peter immediately pulled Lisa into a hug and a kiss, which immediately led to whistling and teasing from everyone else.
A striking couple arrived next—Carter and Edith. Carter moved with the fluid grace of a predator, but his eyes softened whenever they landed on his wife. Edith carried herself with elegant confidence, but there was something nurturing in the way she immediately asked James about the twins, then went on to play with the kids.
The most intriguing pair and last one to arrive were Hawk and Birdie. He was older, with an air of authority that commanded attention without effort. Every guy treated him with a mixture of respect and admiration, while they treated Birdie, who arrived with him like a little sister.
Birdie, despite her delicate nickname, had a fierce gleam in her eyes that suggested she was anything but fragile. I’d overheard her mention something about sniper training earlier, and I nearly choked on my hot cider. But now I could kinda see it. She was savage, no-nonsense, and could stand her own in the circle of guys.
She instantly started flirting with Bailey, the tow-truck guy, which Hawk apparently didn’t find very amusing, even though he refrained from doing anything more than throwing daggers at the both of them.
The conversations flowed naturally, punctuated by laughter and the crackling of the fire. Stories of military service mixed with local gossip, and somehow, it all felt like home. These people, with their varied backgrounds and personalities, had created something special here in Moon Lake.
I pulled my attention from the group and focused on the couple, across the fire from me. Dorothy and Richard, the sheriff, were in a heated discussion with Claire, Edith, and Lisa, and the way they completed each other’s sentences made me smile. It was clear by the way they interacted they’d been together for a really long time. And cuddling his wife, he hit differently than he did when I'd met him yesterday.
Yesterday.
It had been just a day that I’d been here, and yet, I felt more involved, more at home, and included than I’d ever been before, no matter whether it was living with my parents again or before—going to college or moving into my first apartment.
It’d never felt quite like this.
I’d felt lonely, removed. Even though I never realized it. But compared to this, I’d been lonely for a long time.
“Up.”
I didn’t even need to look up to know it was him. James. His voice had been so intrinsically ingrained into my psyche. He’d left a while ago to help Jessie get the kids settled. As had multiple of the other fathers.
Which left most of the women around the bonfire talking.
It was gender roles reversed, which seemed unusual but also not. Wasn’t this what a true partnership was made of? To work as a team. To chip in, in whatever capacity was needed?
I couldn’t finish the thought because he didn’t wait for me to move; instead, he lifted me out of my chair as if I weighed barely more than a child, then settled down and pulled me into his lap sideways.
The chair creaked, and I squealed. “We’re too heavy.”
He shushed me, then chuckled with his lips against my temple. “No, we’re not. Trust me.”
Trust me.
Simple words, but suddenly my heart beat faster and my breath got stuck in my throat.
Trust me.
Could I do that?
I could at least try.
I relaxed, settled against him. Inhaled his scent, which had become so familiar to me in such a short time.
He’d listened earlier. Hadn’t judged me for a second. Hadn’t tried to calm me down either. Instead, he’d been there and had validated my feelings.
I trusted him. But then, how was this man even single? And was he for real? If something seemed too good to be true, it probably wasn’t true.
Right?
Didn’t I learn this lesson with Bob?
It was good at the beginning. Too good, until it turned ugly.
“Why are you still single?”
I bit my lip at my blunt question but also held my breath, curious about his answer. Would he give me some superficial story?
“Abby and Marley.”
“Abby and Marley?”
“They’re the reason I’m still single.”
I straightened and turned so I could face him.
“What about their mother?”
He sighed and leaned forward until our foreheads touched briefly. “She left us.”
“You told me that, remember? But why?” I couldn’t believe this. What woman in her right mind would ever leave her kids and a man like him?
And a community like this.
“She had her demons, and she decided drugs were her escape of choice.”
“That’s an odd way to phrase it.”
“I’m trying to put a spin on it, so when it’s time, when Abby and Marley will start asking questions, I know what to say.”
“So, she chose drugs over her family. Is this what you’re saying?”
He nodded. “Makes you wonder what kind of monster I am.”
I inhaled sharply. Never, not for a single fraction of a second, did I ever think that about him. And that’s even after I’d met a man who turned from Mr. Dreamy into Mr. Nightmare.
But Bob was different. Even at the beginning, there had been red flags, signs I’d chosen to ignore.
I didn’t see or feel any of that when I was with James. And hearing him say it made me reject the thought straight out.
I cupped his cheek, his five o’clock shadow raspy under my skin. “Don’t say things like that. Ever since I met you, you’ve been nothing but kind to me. Bossy—maybe. Dominant—definitely. But always kind.”
He sighed, turned his face, and kissed my palm.
“Yo, Cullen.”
Somebody waved to get James’s attention and interrupted our little moment. I looked up, and my face grew uncomfortably hot when I felt every single pair of eyes on us.
Shit. Now they thought I was easy, sitting in his lap after only having met him yesterday.
I wanted to get up, but James’s arm snaked around my waist and kept me anchored against him. “Do not move,” he whispered against my temple again, and the sexy, dominant undertones in his voice made me outwardly freeze, and inwardly, my pussy throbbed at the same time.
I was suddenly acutely aware of his hardening dick pressing against me, and I had to keep myself from grinding against him.
“What?” he growled, clearly not amused by the interruption.
“We’ve been talking, and Max here has come up with a great idea,” Peter, the deputy sheriff, said. I hadn’t realized it before, but there were several couples in a similar position as we were.
Lisa was on Peter’s lap, as was Claire on her husband Blake’s. Dorothy was propped against Sheriff Richard, and Milli was snuggled against her man.
“What great idea?”
“If we join forces, create a central emergency response team, we could be more efficient with fewer people.”
I could feel James tighten beneath me. As if that suggestion had piqued his interest.
“So have Fire and EMT join?”
“If you throw Search and Rescue in, as well, we’d be even more efficient,” Blake said.
“So one central emergency response team, trained in Fire, EMT, and SAR. We would only need one station, less infrastructure,” James said, almost to himself, and I could see the gears in his brain working.
“Fewer people on standby, as well,” Blake said.
“We would need a lot of training,” Max interjected.
“But most of us have the basic skillset needed already,” Peter said.
“We would be quicker to respond,” Richard said.
“And a lot faster than waiting for an ambulance from Whitebrook,” Alan who’d just approached chimed in.
“And it would keep all of us fresh,” Hawk said, and Carter nodded, which apparently surprised them all because multiple heads snapped in their direction.
“The idea has merit,” James said. “But maybe we should discuss this at the next town meeting and not around a campfire.”
“Maybe we should conduct future town meetings around campfires,” I said without realizing I spoke the words out loud.
“You think so?” James whispered in my ear, his breath making the hair on my neck stand up.
“No… I mean… I don’t know. I didn’t.”
“Shhh. Don’t be nervous about speaking your mind,” he whispered again, then nibbled at a spot beneath my ear. “It’s sexy as hell.”
A flush of warmth zinged from my core and flooded my body when his dick flexed against my most sensitive place.
“And I like how you’re including yourself in the community. You up for a little adventure?” he whispered.
Was I ready? Whatever he had in mind, I trusted him. I’d been playing it safe, playing small for so long, and here was a man who thought me speaking my mind was sexy. Who was ready and open to listen? Wanted to know me.
“Sure.”
He grinned. Probably looked right through my facade into the quivering mess I truly was.
He lifted me off his lap, stood up, and grabbed my hand. “If you’ll excuse us for a minute.”
I expected some kind of reaction from the group, but nobody paid us any attention, and the conversation had already shifted to another topic.
I expected him to lead me toward the house. But instead, he pulled me with him away from the fire and into the darkness.