Chapter 3
CHAPTER 3
TWO WEEKS LATER…
D eke huffed warm breaths into his cupped hands, trying to warm them. He’d volunteered to help with the horses again this year at the Annual Gingerbread House Village the Arcadian Hills subdivision held. It was things like this that drew him to Arcadian Hills in the first place.
He loved watching the Littles bounce around their Daddies, so excited to go on a sleigh ride and see all the giant gingerbread houses from the comfort of their own horse-drawn sleigh.
Tonight was no different, for the most part. It sucked that he’d forgotten his gloves in his rush to the main clubhouse where the horses and sleighs were stationed. It sucked even more to know that once again this year, he’d be helping other Daddies tuck their Littles into the sleighs but not go on a sleigh ride with a Little of his own.
Visions of Suzi’s brilliant blue eyes lit up with excitement, tugging him toward a sleigh, begging him to hurry, filled his mind. That burning in his chest flamed to life. That was never going to happen.
The first few teams had already gone out, but he arrived in time to help Hutch and Georgia load their sleigh.
“I’m going to drive,” Georgia had told him when he’d moved to hand Hutch the reins.
“That’s fine with me,” Hutch had said, shocking the shit out of Deke. “I guess I’ll be the one drinking all the hot cocoa and munching on gingerbread cookies.”
The consternation that settled on Georgia’s face was priceless, but when push came to shove, chocolate won.
Deke hid a grin by blowing in his cupped hands again. Hutch was a genius. There was no doubt Suzi would have chosen chocolate, too.
He hadn’t seen her in weeks, and the void it left was hard to take. He worried about her. Was she handling things all right? She’d stuck to light stories and inconsequential fluff pieces. But had she bounced back? Was she happy?
She might not have grown The Nugget’s circulation, but she damn sure hadn’t lost any. He knew because he still got up at the crack of dawn and drove to every place in town that sold her paper the morning before the next edition came out. After buying all that was left, he piled them in his garage.
If something didn’t change soon he was going to have to start parking his SUV in the driveway.
As if his thoughts conjured her up, Suzi stepped up to a sleigh three spots away. His heart did things he didn’t allow himself to process at the sight of her. She wore a teddy bear hooded coat. The brown toboggan she wore, complete with teddy bear ears, couldn’t contain all her long blond hair. Bright red tights that had something sparkly in them led down her long legs to her brown winter boots.
She looked adorable. He needed to find a way to make things right between them so he could lift her into the sleigh and ride through the gingerbread village, watching nothing but her.
What was she doing, just standing there? She wasn’t close enough to get into a sleigh. It was almost like she was waiting for someone, probably a couple of the other Musketiaras who didn’t have Daddies. He couldn’t hold back his grin when he figured out what she was doing.
Holding her mouth in various positions, she was trying to make foggy shapes from the breaths she blew out. It was the cutest thing he’d ever seen.
She should be in a magazine. Instead of taking out her phone for a selfie, she brought her camera to her face, inching around in a circle, snapping pictures as she went.
As she moved to face his direction, she lifted her hand and waved. Without thinking, he waved back.
Her eyes lit with excitement and she waved so hard she almost lost her balance and fell. His heart tripped. He needed to get to her before she hurt herself.
Before he could take the first step, a tall, thin man he didn’t recognize shouldered past him. He reached for the guy to pull him back, but Suzi’s face lit up like the star at the top of a Christmas tree.
The lanky man kept walking toward her, calling out, “Hey, babe. Sorry I’m late. My meeting went long.”
Then the man, a man he did not know, walked up to Suzi, took her in his arms, and kissed her. And not a peck on the cheek kind of kiss. This kiss was the kind you felt like you shouldn’t be watching. Suzi didn’t seem to be enjoying it as much, but she didn’t push the guy away.
Who the hell was kissing his rosebud?
The man pulled back and smiled down at her. Did she shove him away and slap his face? Hell, no. She smiled at him. Smiled.A timid, searching smile as if seeking his approval. Of course, the man didn’t notice. He was too busy scoping out the area and checking out all the people.
The man gave Deke a chin lift and a grin when they made eye contact. But there was something about the man Deke didn’t like. Something in the guy’s eyes was off. Something besides the fact he had his hands all over Suzi.
“Fuck,” Deke muttered.
The burn raged back to life in the center of his chest. This time he couldn’t stop his hand from pressing hard over his heart, as if that might ease the pain. It did not.
The man said something to her, and she nodded. He led her to the waiting sleigh. Then, he put his hands on Suzi’s hips and lifted her into the sleigh. After making way too big a production of tucking the blankets around her, he took the basket someone handed up along with the reins.
Deke was going to puke. Before that fuckwad could ride off under the moonlight with Suzi tucked next to him, he spun on a heel and strode to the large tent put up for the volunteers. He needed to find out who this guy was. And then end him.
Reason dictated he couldn’t do that. But reason could go fuck itself as far as he was concerned.
When he stepped into the tent, Connor stood at the entrance, watching. He’d seen everything. Deke didn’t have it in him to pretend nothing was wrong. “Who was that man mauling Suzi Daily just now?” he demanded.
Connor’s brows hit his hairline. “I don’t know who he was, but I wouldn’t call it mauling.”
Sawyer piped up from where he stood by a space heater warming his hands. “Dark hair, tall, lanky build? I don’t know him either, but I saw him a week or so back in Deep Dive. He didn’t seem to want any company. Why?”
The burn in Deke’s throat kept him from answering. He didn’t have to, though, because one of his brothers was always ready to answer for him.
“Deke seems to have taken a shine to Suzi Daily,” Connor answered when Deke didn’t.
Sawyer frowned and let out a meditative, “Huh.”
Deke’s hackles rose. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Now it was Sawyer whose brows rose. “Chill, brother. I didn’t mean anything. If you are finally waking up to the fact that you have feelings for Suzi, then welcome to the world the rest of us have been living in for a while now. I’m not complaining or anything, but you have been acting like a bear with a sore paw for weeks. That’s all.” Sawyer shrugged, then kept talking. “I will say this. When I saw him at Deep Dive, I had a bad feeling about the guy. Couldn’t tell you why, but I did.”
“I got the same feeling just now,” Deke said. “I think we need to find out why.”
“I’m down with that. I didn’t get the idea he planned on staying in Darling any longer than he had to, and that did not bother me. But if he’s interested in Suzi, maybe I was wrong. Maybe he is staying.”
“Or maybe he’ll talk her into leaving with him when he goes,” Connor said.
Deke’s gaze snapped back to the opening of the tent, as if Suzi would be standing there and he could demand she leave the guy alone. But she wasn’t there, and she wouldn’t have listened to him if she had been.
Hell, she acted like she didn’t even see him. Like he was invisible to her.
“If he hurts her, he’s a dead man,” Deke said. He might not be able to have her, but he wasn’t going to let anyone take advantage of her.
Sawyer nodded. “He’s definitely someone we need to keep our eyes on. We’ve all learned to trust our instincts. And if two of us don’t trust him, that’s all I need to do some digging.”
Deke didn’t care if she hated him. Well, that wasn’t true. He cared. A lot. But even if she hated him, he couldn’t stand by and see her hurt.
“I want a report on him,” he told Sawyer. “I want to know everything about this guy down to the kind of toilet paper he buys.”
“Let me play devil’s advocate here,” Connor said. “Say Sawyer finds something. Say this guy isn’t a choir boy. What are we supposed to do with that information?”
That was easy. Deke leveled Connor with a hard look. “We have a chat with the guy and let him know it’s better he moves on sooner rather than later, and he does it alone.”
“She isn’t going to thank you if you butt in uninvited,” Sawyer said.
“She can’t hate me any more than she already does. If he’s an upstanding guy who will treat her right, I won’t say anything. But if he isn’t, he’ll be heading out of town whether he wants to or not.”
Connor and Sawyer exchanged a look that said they thought he was crazy. Maybe he was.
By the end of the evening, Sawyer had a tentative report together. The guy’s name was Don Smith. Sawyer had found nothing suspicious.
Deke spent another night with his new best friend, Jack Daniels.