Heartless: A Small Town Single Dad Romance

Cade: Baby, why are you blushing?

Willa: Because I swear people are looking at me like I just got my brains fucked out.

Cade: You did.

Willa: I think these panties are ruined.

Cade: I’ll wash them for you. And then shove them in your mouth again the next time you say something rude.

Willa: Fuck off.

Cade: Careful. They haven’t even been washed yet.

“Right there at the birthday party?” Summer whisper-shouts across the small table at Le Pamplemousse.

I take a sip of my mimosa and wink at her. “I saved another horse, Sum. I’m practically an animal rights activist at this point.”

She shakes her head. “Goddamn. These Eaton boys are insane.”

“Right? I’m definitely in my country-boy era. I think I just haven’t settled down because the city boys want to talk to me about oil futures and the size of their bank account like that makes up for the size of their di—”

“Willa.” Summer’s eyes widen. “We’re in public.”

“You don’t even know what I was going to say.”

The look she gives me is downright unimpressed.

“I was going to say dignity.”

“The size of their dignity?”

I shrug and cover my mouth with another sip from the champagne flute. “Same thing if you think about it.”

“Good lord.” She laughs and takes a big gulp while looking out the window. “So just an era. Or more? Cade doesn’t strike me as the casual type.”

I sigh, letting the word mine settle into my bones. I spent all night snuggled next to Cade and spent the entire party catching his eyes on me, raking over me in an impolite fashion. When I played “Happy Birthday” on my guitar, accompanied by Luke on the smaller guitar that I gifted him, everything felt so damn right.

And when I looked back up from the song, Talia was gone. I wanted to be relieved, but I felt sad that she left her own child’s birthday party without even saying goodbye to him.

“It’s not just an era,” I reply. “I don’t know what I’m going to do yet—because do I ever? But I know you’ll be seeing more of me. It’s not a far commute, and I don’t know, maybe I can find something to do in Chestnut Springs. Rhett asked me to give him guitar lessons yesterday. Did you know that? And I’ll have to give Ford my notice at the bar. I do like watching him get all pissy when things don’t go his way.”

Summer snickers because she knows my brother and how notoriously exacting he is. “This is big for you, Wils. I can’t say I saw this coming when I pushed you into this gig. Kinda thought you and Cade would hate each other, to be honest.”

I lean back in my chair. “Wow. Thank you for signing me up to spend my summer living with a man you thought would hate me.”

She waves a hand at me dismissively. “I knew you could handle it. Plus, Luke is fun.”

I sigh happily. “Yeah. Luke is the best. I didn’t know I’d enjoy life with a kid like I am. It really doesn’t even feel like work.”

“Uh oh. Have you got baby rabies, Willa?”

I groan and lean back in my chair. “Will you take back my feminist card if I tell you I really just want to live in that little house on the ranch, teach guitar lessons, get titty-fucked in the hot tub, and have a bunch of adorable babies?”

Summer’s eyes bug out. “Remember the part about being in public? People here listen to everything. And also, no. No one is taking back your feminist card if that’s what you want, Willa. I can’t even tell if you’re being serious or joking right now. But raising good humans is important work. If you can raise nice people and put them out into the world less messed up than me or my sister, I’d say you’re winning.”

“Yeah.” I bite down on my thumbnail considering what she’s just said, considering if I’m joking or not. Wondering if there’s anything wrong with wanting that. “Luke is just so awesome, you know? Cade’s done such an amazing job with him. He’s just so devoted.”

“Good lord.” Summer takes another swig.

“What?”

“The two of you. All mushy and in love. It’s so weird.”

I give her a flat look. “Thanks.”

“Weird and wonderful. Just like you.”

I consider her words before nodding. “I’ll cheers to that.”

I cleared out this morning because Cade had Luke helping him dig a walkway to the house that he plans to pave. When Harvey tripped on the edge of an uneven paving stone after a few too many drinks at the after-party, Cade instantly announced that he was putting in a “proper sidewalk.”

And sure enough, he was up at the ass crack of dawn, staking it out and plotting the edges. All while wearing that fucking backward hat that made me want to shove him down into the dirt and ride him.

Again.

Instead, I called Summer and told her I required brunch. Brunch is our thing. It has been for years. And with everything swirling in my head I needed something familiar. Someone familiar, someone logical, and utterly responsible.

Instead, Summer has sat here and enabled all the crazy shit floating in my head.

When I pull back up at the ranch, a smile breaks out on my face.

“Willa!” Luke drops his shovel and barrels toward me the minute I step out of my Jeep, work so easily forgotten.

He launches himself at me like I’ve been gone for years, and I smile into his hair as I lift him up. “Hey, little nut bar.”

“Can we go practice on my guitar?” He’s practically vibrating when I set him back down.

Cade huffs out a laugh as he wedges his shovel into the ground with one booted foot. “I think you won the birthday party with that gift, Red.”

“I love the drone too, Dad.” Sensitive kid he is, Luke spins quickly, clearly trying to reassure his dad, all worried about hurting a grown-ass man’s feelings.

“I know, pal. But the guitar is amazing, right?”

Luke’s grin is so wide it looks like it hurts. “Totally amazing!” he gushes.

“Why don’t you go practice and I’ll help your dad with this for a while. Show me what you’ve figured out when I get in there, yeah?”

Glancing down at him, I see his little fingers moving like they’re just itching to play. Kid has the bug, no two ways about it. I’m going to have to tell my dad about him soon—he’ll get a real kick out of this for sure.

“Definitely.” He grins like a total loon, and then he’s off. He literally skips into the house and watching him go with so much joy makes my heart squeeze. But he stops and turns when he hits the front porch. “Hey, Willa, you’re not leaving soon, are you?”

I feel Cade’s gaze sliding over my body. His motion has stopped entirely. It feels like the entire world is watching. Both these sweet boys staring at me, putting me right on the goddamn spot.

My mouth opens and closes, and I peek over at Cade for some sort of sign that I’m not out of line in saying something here. His gloved hands are slung over the top of his shovel, his tanned stubbled face glistening with a light sheen of sweat.

He’s fucking lickable.

Too good to leave behind, that’s for sure.

“No, pal. I don’t think I am. Not permanently, anyway. I think I’d miss you too much. Is that okay with you?”

His round face softens, hair flopping onto his forehead as he nods. “Yeah. I’d miss you too. And I think my dad would be really lonely without you.” With a sweet little smile, he turns and scampers through the front door, like he didn’t just leave Cade and me out here with watery eyes.

“Did you talk to him?”

Cade rubs a gloved hand over his eye. “No. Figured I should talk to you first.” He sniffs.

“You okay? Did I overstep?”

“Not at all.” He clears his throat. “Just got dust in my eye.” He rubs again.

“Cool, cool. Me too,” I say, giving him an exaggerated watery wink.

“How was brunch?” He digs again, arms flexing as he does.

I never knew a man digging out a spot for a sidewalk could be an aphrodisiac, but here I am, admiring the way his shoulders bulge against his T-shirt and the tendons in his forearms ripple in the sunlight.

“Good.”

“You actually going to stay?” he asks, without looking up at me. Instead, he tosses a shovel full of dirt behind himself and keeps working.

“You really going to keep working while we have this conversation?”

“Yup,” is his gruff response.

“Yesterday you were all Me Cade. You woman. Stay here. Eat pussy every day,” I say in what is a sad attempt at some sort of Tarzan impersonation.

He doesn’t laugh though. “Well, today I’m more worried you’ll be thinking straight and will realize you belong in the city doing whatever fancy shit you do.”

“Manage a bar while slinging beer? My glamorous lifestyle truly knows no bounds.”

“Listen”—he shoves the shovel into the ground like he wants to hurt it before finally looking up at me—“if all this out here isn’t enough for you, I’d rather you just go now. I wasn’t joking about what I said yesterday. And it feels like a lot. I . . .” He glances away, wiping the back of his arm over his forehead. “I don’t want to live my life scared anymore. But I also don’t want to be made a fool of again.”

That painful twisting sensation is back in my chest. The heavy rock in my gut. This man deserves so much better than what he’s received.

“Cade, look at me.”

His jaw clenches, but he doesn’t look my way, opting to stare down at the ground he’s dug out.

So that’s where I go. I sit down in the dirt right in front of him.

“The fuck you doing, woman?” he grumbles as I tip my chin up in his direction.

“Trying to get your attention.” I stretch my legs out in front of me and lean back on my palms, feeling the cool damp dirt beneath them. It smells like earth, and flint, and pine needles.

It smells like home.

“You’ve had my attention since—”

I roll my eyes and wave a hand at him. “Yeah, yeah. Since I dropped my panties at your feet.”

“No. Since I first heard you laugh.”

That shuts me up.

“In the coffee shop. I was standing behind you and couldn’t stop thinking about how incredible your laugh was. All fucking light and warm. It made me want to laugh too.”

My tongue darts out over my lips as I regard him.

“I’m—fuck—I’m scared, Willa. I’m scared you’re too young. That you haven’t lived enough. That you’re too far out of my league. I’m scared I won’t be enough for you and you’ll walk away. And I’ll be stuck here in the shambles again. And so will Luke this time.” His free hand swipes at his hat, shifting it on his head as he looks away again.

“I’m scared too,” I blurt out. “But not too scared to try.”

He stares at me. Hard. It’s unnerving really. And then he rasps out, “Yeah, me neither.”

I beam at him and see a ghost of a smile on his lips before he starts shoveling again.

“I’ll call my brother and quit. That will be fun.”

“If you need to go back to the city for a while, that’s fine. You might want to take your time.”

“And what? Pretend we haven’t been living together for almost two months already? Should I go live up at the main house with Harvey?”

He doesn’t even flinch. “That might give us a chance to date properly. Maybe a little distance is good for you to be sure about everything. Or we could commute.”

I roll my eyes and cross my feet. “Shut up, Cade. Stop being so mature.”

“Someone has to be,” he grumbles, tossing another shovelful of dirt over his shoulder and looking mighty sexy as he does it.

“Hey, you know what this yard needs?” I press my index finger to my lips as I make a show of examining the property.

“What?”

“A real good blow job.”

Cade barks out a raspy laugh and shakes his head. “Lord help me, what have I done?”

We spend the rest of the day like that. Him digging. Me making fun of him. And eventually Luke comes out and plays us a song he made up.

For once, I feel settled. Like everything in my life is where it’s meant to be.