Chapter 4
Mia.
Her name pulses through me, weaving shining strands of light through the impenetrable walls I’ve constructed, brick by brick.
I can’t take her in fast enough, my brain greedy to know everything about her. I’m a man possessed, and she’s been in my life less than thirty seconds.
Golden blonde waves cascade over her shoulders, obscuring her delicate face from my view. She looked away too quickly for me to see her features and I’m desperate for another look.
She’s hunched over, as if guarding herself from attack. I scramble to my feet, which backfires because she shuffles farther away from me.
“It’s alright, dear. This is Harper’s dad. He’s like one of my sons. I trust him with my life.” Cecelia’s endorsement of my character is an honor, but the only opinion that matters right now is Mia’s.
“Come sit, the girls are having a blast. Everly’s smitten with Harper.” Cecelia pats the deck beside her where I’d been sitting and I move out of Mia’s way, giving her a wide berth.
Head still down, she rushes to sit beside Cecelia, and pulls her knees up to her chin, tightly wrapping her arms around her legs.
Cecelia gently gathers Mia’s hair and drapes it over the shoulder opposite from where I stand. I want to shout my gratitude for the potential opportunity to see more of her face.
Speaking quietly, presumably so I won’t overhear, Cecelia asks, “Were you able to take a nice hot shower?”
Mia shakes her head. “I’ll bathe tonight after Everly goes to bed. Thank you, though.”
“Suit yourself,” Cecelia says lightly, gently rubbing Mia’s curved back. As her hand presses against the thin cotton, I can see Mia flinch with each touch.
“Oh good! You’ve met!” Izzy skips onto and past the deck, settling in the warm grass. “Thanks for the car seat, Grey.”
The car seat. I’d forgotten about Izzy’s request from this morning. She didn’t need it for Cecelia. She needed it for Everly. Why doesn’t Mia have a car seat?
I dip my head, the only acknowledgment I can muster.
“Auntie!” Harper squeals, as if she doesn’t see Izzy on a near-daily basis. She bounds into Izzy’s arms and topples her over with a bear-cub hug.
“How was your day?” Izzy asks, sitting them both back upright, fawning over her niece, plucking stray bits of nature from her hair.
“It was the best day ever! Thank you, thank you, thank you, for bringing me my new best friend. We…”
I zone out while Harper chatters on about her day. Everly runs over to sit beside Harper and Izzy, like she’s one of the family.
Everly has deep blue eyes; soulful, looking right through me. Are they the same as Mia’s? I haven’t gotten a good look.
“Who’s that?” she asks, unabashedly.
“That’s my daddy!” Harper exclaims, pointing at me, as if there’s any other man here who it could be.
“My daddy’s far away. We’re on an adventure!” Everly says without a care in the world.
There’s a dad in the picture. My eyes dart to Mia’s left hand, bare. Not married, then. Where is he? And why are they on their own?
Everly turns to sit on her knees, facing Harper and Izzy. Her new position reveals a birthmark on the apple of her cheek, only on one side of her cherub-like face. The rosy color adds to her delicate features. She’s a skinny little thing, much like her mother.
“Daddy, did you know Everly’s six years old? Not nine like me. I was six, and then seven, and then eight, and now I’m nine, and I’m going to be ten,” Harper professes to the group.
Six. The girl looks to be four or five. She’s small for her age. I have zero experience with kids other than my own, so what do I know about how big she should be?
“Hey y’all, dinner will be ready in thirty!” Delilah calls from the open door.
The Andersens have dinner together more nights than not. Sunday dinner’s mandatory, but they tend to gather more often considering they all live here.
Mia’s spine stiffens at Delilah’s interruption but breathes deeply and relaxes. If she’s nervous around this small group, a dining table packed with ten-plus people will be a nightmare.
“Is Livy coming?” Izzy shouts up to the house.
“Should be here any minute!” Delilah hollers back. Those sisters are a hurricane on their own; add mine to the mix, and it’s a full-blown natural disaster.
It’s not that I don’t love Olivia or want her to be here, but it means I have to keep James away from her all night. The two of them are like kids hopped up on Halloween candy when you get them together.
The flirting and touching makes me want to murder my best friend. Everyone, including the two of them, says they’re just friends. But sometimes, I’m not so sure.
I feel like a fucking creep, lurking off to the side of this cheerful family conversation. I shove my hands into my pockets, so I don’t do anything stupid, and saunter forward to stand in Mia’s line of sight.
Her eyes flick up to me and back down, too quick to catch their color.
“What, uh, brings you to Swiftwater, Mia?” I struggle to ask, as if cobwebs have been clogging my throat.
She looks to Cecelia who nods with a bright smile of reassurance.
Mia lifts her head and clears her throat softly. Her eyes are a hint lighter than Everly’s, like an evening sky, still lit by the setting sun.
“We were just passing through. But Mrs. Andersen—”
“Cecelia, dear,” the Andersen matriarch insists, interrupting Mia.
“Um, Cecelia, said there might be a job for me here. So, we might stay.” She finishes and immediately averts her eyes.
I unexplainably need her to stay in Swiftwater more than I need my next breath.
“What’s the job? Something at Swift Property Management?” I ask.
Cecelia shakes her head with a smile pursing her lips.
“Here at Lucky Spurs?” She shakes her head again, eyes glimmering with mischief.
“Let’s give Mia some space while the girls play. Mia, our family can be a lot.” Cecelia winks and stands from the patio with more difficulty in her older years.
With a tip of her head toward the house, I follow her inside where she clicks the door shut behind us.
“What’s going on?” I snap, harsher than I intend, but the family expects it from me.
“Make yourself useful and set the table,” Izzy snarks, returning to help Delilah finish cooking dinner.
Knowing I’m not getting anything out of them right now, I do as I’m told, setting enough places for all twelve of us around the grand dining table.
“Who made you their bitch?” James says, slapping me on the back so hard I have to catch myself on the table top.
“Setting the table makes me a bitch?”
“I can’t remember the last time you set this table. So, it’s a fair assessment,” he says. Fair point, but he’s also a dick. “That’s a shit load of plates, are we having a party I didn’t know about?” he asks.
“Cecelia has…guests.” I don’t know why but I don’t want to share my knowledge about Mia with him. I want to keep her for myself.
Chaos ensues as Reid and Connor burst through the front door and tromp into the kitchen, both freshly showered after a long, hot day on the ranch.
Sharp fingertips stab into my flanks. “What the fuck?” I shout, spinning around to find Olivia smiling like the cat who got the cream.
“You little shit.” I move to chase her. Even at nearly forty years old, sibling dynamics never die.
She darts to hide behind James. Of-fucking-course. I swear they forget how to be adults when they’re around each other.
All I want is to get back outside to study Mia, but James is right, I’m stuck in here being Izzy and Delilah’s bitch until we get dinner on the table.
I can’t keep my eyes off her. I grow more obsessed with her with every minute that passes.
My plate’s empty, but I couldn’t tell you what was for dinner any more than I could tell you how many stars are in the sky.
She filled Everly’s plate first, even when Cecelia insisted on doing it for her.
She also pushed Mia to serve herself first, but Mia waited to until everyone else had their turn.
Anything her daughter needed, Mia immediately made happen.
She responded to questions politely but never asked any of her own.
She shared soft smiles with everyone but me, probably because I’m creeping on her like a stalker.
“Greyson.” Hearing my name breaks me from my trance. “School starts next week, doesn’t it?” Cecelia asks.
“Bright and early, Monday morning.” Fuck. That reminds me I haven’t picked up Harper’s school supplies yet. Dad of the year over here, you idiot.
“Wonderful, so it’s settled.” Cecelia claps.
“What’s settled?” I ask stupidly.
Olivia sharply boots me beneath the table and discreetly tips her head toward Mia and Everly.
“You can take these lovely girls to the elementary school tomorrow and get Everly enrolled in kindergarten. The staff should already be working, seeing as students return next week,” Walter interjects.
If Walter’s piping up, I really must not have been listening. I’d bet a hundred bucks Cecelia booted him under the table too, so he’d whip my ass into shape.
“Uh…sure. Yea. I can close the store for a bit. Where are you staying?” I ask my dinner plate, trying not to intimidate Mia.
Her cheeks flush deep pink, bewitching me further.
“That’s what we wanted to talk to you about,” Izzy pipes up. What stake she has in this, I don’t know.
Reid takes Izzy’s hand on the table with a reassuring squeeze. What the fuck’s going on? I don’t like secrets being kept from me; I’m accustomed to being the secret keeper and am far more comfortable on that side of the coin.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but Greyson needs a nanny, and Mia needs a job, and is clearly an incredible mother.” She pauses for effect. “Mia and Everly need somewhere safe to stay, Greyson has a spare bedroom, and aside from the ranch, there’s nowhere safer than with him.”
“I’m sorry, what are you suggesting?” I ask through my teeth, my jaw aching from being clenched so tightly.
“That Mia be your live-in nanny.”