Axe Marks the Spot (Starlight Haven Lumbersnacks #2)

Lindsey

YOU KNOW THAT LIMBO between exhausted and horny? That state of being where you want to face-plant into bed, but you could really go for a good orgasm…or two?

No? Just me?

“Mom!” Kas yells, scaring the shit out of me to the point where I jump, hand flying over my chest as my heart beats rapidly.

“Goodness, Kasandra. I’m right here.”

My eight-year-old rolls her eyes at me from across the picnic table. It’s her new favorite way to express her annoyance, one I’ve tried and failed to nip in the bud.

“I’ve been calling you for five minutes,” she chides.

“You have not been,” I assure her.

“She yelled it five times.”

I flick my gaze to my brother, Nathan, who’s sitting next to Kas. His scruffy face is lit with a smile, but there’s concern in his earthy brown eyes as he takes a bite of his funnel cake.

I hold back a sigh and give my attention to Kas, who’s shifting on her butt excitedly as if she’s ready to take off and run somewhere. Which is odd to me because she hates running.

“I’m sorry.” I exhale and put a smile on. “What do you need, honey?”

“Uncle Nate said there’s a kids’ obstacle course. I was asking if I could go.”

“I thought you wanted to watch the speed pole climbing.” I check the time on my phone. “It starts in thirty minutes.”

“You want to watch that, Mom.”

Nathan chuckles, and I bite the inside of my cheek. My kid is becoming sassier every day, a trait I fear she inherited from both me and my smart-ass brother.

“I’ll take her. You can go watch loggers climb poles.” He waggles his dark eyebrows at me, and I glare at him.

“Yeah, Mom,” Kas adds, Nathan’s innuendo thankfully going over her head.

I take a sip of my sweating lemonade, the cold condensation on the cup feeling good against the heated skin of my hand.

It’s July, and while it’s fairly cool in our little mountain town of Starlight Haven during the summers, it’s still hot enough that I’m sweating even while wearing a tank and shorts.

I look from my bouncing kid, who’s had too much sugar today, to my younger brother, who’s observing me with interest. I’m still getting used to the fact that he looks like a logger now.

The once clean-shaven, ex-corporate businessman used to wear button-up shirts, slacks, and loafers.

Now, he’s in a T-shirt that sports the logo of the logging company that Morgan and Fox, his partners and soon-to-be husband and wife, own and a pair of jeans with red suspenders.

His tapered brown hair is still neatly styled, but the beard and laid-back look throw me every time.

It’s been a year and a half since he met them, and yet it feels like he’s transformed overnight.

“Okay, but you have to promise to stay in your Uncle Nate’s line of sight.”

“I’m eight,” she groans.

Nathan holds in his chuckle, but a bit of a snort breaks through.

God, this kid. I should be grateful she inherited my and my brother’s cheek over the stick-up-his-ass personality of my ex-husband, Jeremy, but sometimes it’s a lot.

Especially when I’m tired, overworked, and in desperate need of… well, release.

It’s been years now since I’ve had sex that wasn’t with a silicone dick. Two years, to be exact. I feel as if my pussy is gnawing at the bars of my self-imposed chastity.

God, Nathan is right. I do want to watch loggers climb poles. And it would be nice if I was climbing one of their poles, too.

“Sis?”

I flush, and I snap my eyes to his. I should not be thinking about that right now. What the hell is wrong with me?

You’re exhausted and horny, remember?

I push back the thought and shoot Kas the classic mom-eyebrow, head tilted just enough in question. “And you won’t try to ditch your uncle?”

She sighs. “I won’t, but Starlight Haven is safe. Lowest crime rate in California, remember?”

Nathan tugs on Kas’s ponytail and chuckles. “She is right about that.”

“Regardless, you stay in sight of your uncle, or you’ll lose your video game privileges. Got it, Kas?”

“You wouldn’t!”

She’s right, I probably wouldn’t enforce it with how things have been going for me lately, but I nod and keep my features stern. “I would.”

Kas presses her lips together. It’s no secret she loves her video games and would dramatically “die” without them.

Or so she’s said before. I often think it makes me a bad mom, letting her play them so young, but I’m doing the best I can.

After a long day of working in the ER, I don’t have the energy to force her to go outside all the time.

I guess I should be glad she wants to go to the obstacle course now.

“Okay,” she says finally.

“Alright, then, have fun.”

Kas jumps up. “Let’s go, Uncle Nate!”

“Go wash your hands and face and use the bathrooms first—there aren’t any over by the course. The portable bathrooms and sinks are right there,” Nathan says, pointing to an area behind me in his line of sight.

Kas takes off without complaint, and I sigh. “I’m glad she listens to you, at least.”

“She listens to you, too.” He smiles softly, polishing off the last bite of his funnel cake and brushing the powdered sugar from his hands.

“Only after arguing with me.”

I take another sip of my lemonade as Nathan stares at me. “You okay, Linds?”

“Yep, I’m fine.”

“Liar. Tell you what—why don’t I watch Kas for the rest of the afternoon? I bet you can finally meet a lumbersnack to throw you around.” He waggles his eyebrows at me teasingly.

I laugh. “I forgot I told you that.”

“You’ve only been talking about it since you moved here. Truthfully, I think you wanted to come to the games today more than Kas did.”

Nathan’s right. Kas didn’t really want to come to this event at all.

I convinced her with the promise of funnel cake and other sugary items. Plus, Fox and Morgan’s company, Starlight Lumber & Logging, hosts the games.

The couple doesn’t participate in it anymore, but they are a huge part of setting it up and getting sponsors for it.

“Linds? Are you really fine?”

I look into my younger brother’s eyes. We’ve always been close—even more so after the death of our dad three years ago from a stroke and then my divorce from Jeremy. In many ways, he’s become more than just a brother. He’s a friend and a solid male presence in Kas’s life.

But though we’re close, I’m not going to share with him that I’m not only exhausted but in need of a good lay, too.

I’m also not going to tell him that the reason I haven’t put myself out there in the past two years is because I’m still dealing with hang-ups from my ex.

That’s not stuff I want to talk about with Nathan, especially when he has such an amazing relationship with not one but two people.

A relationship I can’t help but feel jealous of sometimes.

“I really am,” I assure him. “I’m just tired.”

He taps his fingers on the table. “I don’t believe you, but maybe if I get you liquored up tonight, you’ll spill the beans.”

“Tonight?”

“Okay, yeah. Definitely not fine if you forgot.”

“What’s tonight?”

“Kas has that birthday sleepover at Moira’s, and you’re going out to Moose’s Bar with Fox, Morgan, and me. No backing out.”

I want to smack my forehead. “I totally forgot.”

“Obviously.” He chuckles.

“Maybe instead of watching the speed climbing, I’ll just go home and nap. I could use the sleep instead. I can pick up Kas’s room, too, while she’s with you.”

“Nope. Not happening. And why are you cleaning Kas’s room? She’s old enough to do that on her own.”

My stomach sours and gurgles, the acidic lemonade turning into heartburn.

Nathan’s question is valid, and I know it’s not meant to be mean, but it only reinforces this idea I have of myself: I’m not a great mom.

I probably let Kas get away with too much, but she’s been through a lot between her dad and me breaking up and then moving to a small town.

I think it also hurt when her grandma left.

The two of them had become close. My mom tried her best but deemed small-town life not for her.

She moved back to our home city, Santa Solana, at the beginning of the year.

“I—wait, where is Kas? She should be done by now.”

Nathan points up ahead. “I’ve got eyes on her. She’s talking to some kids.”

I peer in that direction and see she’s chatting with a boy and girl her age.

My heart warms at seeing it, and a bit of my stomachache eases.

Besides her best friend, Moira, whose birthday I forgot about—which reminds me, I need to get the kid a gift—she doesn’t have many friends. She’s like me in that way, too.

I turn back to Nathan to find him still staring at me. But I don’t want to get into why I clean my kid’s room, so I divert. “Okay, fine. I’ll go to the speed climbing event now, and still meet you all at Moose’s later. But only if you stop asking if I’m okay.”

Nathan looks hesitant at first but eventually nods. “Fine.”

“Uncle Nate!” Kas runs up to the side of the picnic table. Her short auburn hair swishes around her cherubic face. “Tyler and Sara are here for the course, too. Can we go now?”

He glances at the two kids behind me with a smile and stands. “Of course we can.”

I stand, too, and move from the table over to Kas, who’s bouncing on her feet and looks more than happy about her new afternoon plans.

I thought Kas only wanted to play video games and hang with Moira, but maybe that’s because I don’t get her out enough to be with more kids.

I’m just so busy and tired from working three twelve-hour shifts a week and picking up extras.

I wipe off a bit of powdered sugar still on her cheek. “Have fun, and don’t get hurt.”

“If I do, you’ll fix me. You’re a nurse.”

My heart clenches, and I pull Kas in for a hug. She goes willingly, and I’m glad she hasn’t hit that phase yet where she finds me embarrassing. “I’d rather not have to fix you. Now go, have fun.” She lets out a little excited noise and runs toward her friends.

Kas yells for Nathan, and he bumps my shoulder with his. “Go have fun, Linds. You deserve it. And you’d better not go home!”