Heartless: A Small Town Single Dad Romance

With Luke out of the house, I officially have a little bit of free time. A little bit of time to myself. A little bit of time to relax.

I keep saying I need this, but now that I have it, I’m not so sure I like it.

It turns out that after a lifetime of taking care of people, I’m not great at relaxing. I flick the TV on and try to find something to watch, but nothing appeals to me. I walk over to the bookshelf in my living room, stocked with some classics from my parents and some books I grabbed for myself along the way. Books I thought seemed interesting and then never made the time to read.

I pull one out and flop down onto the couch with it. But when I do, I feel a lump in my back pocket. And then I’m immediately on edge.

Willa.

I don’t even know her last name. I don’t know much about her, really. All I know is that she won’t be good enough to take care of Luke.

She’s nothing like the uninteresting, responsible, asexual nun who also wants to do fun things with an active little boy I’ve had in mind for the job.

I’m not delusional enough to think that person exists, but I keep hoping for that anyway. And Willa isn’t the answer I was hoping for.

Luke’s mom did a number on us. She continues to do a number on us—on me.

My trust levels are at rock bottom. I trust Mrs. Hill because I know she took good care of my brothers and me. Same goes for my dad. I trust Summer because anyone who can manage to tie my wild-child little brother down can handle an unruly five-year-old.

But this Willa character. I don’t know her. I don’t trust her.

All I know is that she makes my dick twitch, she talks too much, and she has a spare pair of underwear in her purse.

I sit up and pull them out. It’s not like they’re anything offensive. A silky nylon type of black fabric. Pretty full cut. I guess. For panties? What the fuck do I know?

I feel like the biggest perv, sitting here on my couch, scrutinizing a pair of underwear that belongs to the woman who is currently taking care of my child.

I should give them back.

I don’t want to keep walking around with them.

I also don’t want to look her in the eye as I hand them back.

I’m thirty-eight years old and acting like a nervous fucking teenager over women’s undergarments.

Agitated with myself, I storm over to the kitchen and shove them all the way to the back of my “stuff” drawer. The one where random shit goes to die because I’m too lazy to think of a proper place to put it. I pride myself on keeping a tidy house, but that one drawer is my secret shame.

It seems fitting that Willa’s underwear should end up in there.

I swipe my keys off the counter and stride out the front door. I get the feeling my indecisiveness over the whole nanny thing has irritated my dad, so I hop in my truck and opt to go harass my little brother instead.

God knows he spent enough years giving me the few gray hairs that now mingle with the dark ones near my temples. The least he can do is hand me a beer and tell me more about this Willa person before I write her off and make Summer and my dad hate me.

Because I’m pretty sure if I draw this out much longer, they’ll both tell me to go fuck myself for being such a picky bitch.

And I’ll deserve it.

It only takes me a few minutes on the back road to reach Rhett and Summer’s brand-new house.

I see a red Jeep Wrangler parked next to the vintage truck my brother drives. But Summer’s swanky vehicle is gone. My fingers itch to grab my phone from my pocket, dial her up, and demand to know where she is and what she’s doing.

Maybe I’m on extra high alert with someone new around my kid. But mostly, I always feel this way. I always feel like I’m looking out for someone. For everyone.

I’ve had the weight of the world on my shoulders since my mom died when I was eight. I’m not even sure if anyone put that weight there or if I just do it to myself.

Either way, it’s ever present. And it’s heavy.

I stomp up the front steps of the house and bang on the door, even though there’s a bell. Hitting something is just so much more satisfying.

Within a few moments, I hear feet padding from the other side of the door. I can see my brother’s form through the frosted glass, and when he opens the door, he’s smiling.

Smirking like he knows something I don’t.

“Where’s Summer?” I ask, cutting to the chase.

“Nice to see you too, jackass. My wife is in town. She had to run to the gym.”

I snort. “She’s not your wife yet. You aren’t married.”

He laughs and waves me off, opening the door wider. “Details. She said yes. It’s pretty much done in my books. And it just sounds so good, you know?”

I wrinkle my nose and stare back at my little brother. Never thought I’d see him this gone over a girl.

“Is my kid with her?”

“Oh, nah. He’s off with Willa. Summer said to remind you that you said she was in charge so she decided Willa would stay with Luke so she could work at her own business rather than as your personal assistant.”

I roll my lips together and look back out over the wide-open farmland. That sounds exactly like something Summer would say. A loophole in my instructions that she would find.

Rhett holds his hands up in surrender while trying to conceal his amusement. “Her words, not mine.”

Propping my hands on my hips, I sigh before shifting my gaze back on Rhett and grit out, “Tell me about this Willa person. And where exactly is she?”

“Come sit out back with me. You look like you need a beer. Or ten.”

I shake my head as I step into the house. “I do not need ten beers.”

Rhett chuckles as he saunters through the open-concept house to the kitchen, lined with glass doors that open wide onto the sprawling back deck. “Yeah. You do. You look like you could kill someone. It’s not good for your blood pressure. You aren’t getting any younger.”

“Young enough to beat your ass,” I mutter as I toe off my boots and follow him through to the sunny deck.

Within moments, Rhett tosses me a can of beer and steers me toward a chair facing the field that functions as their backyard. There is one lone tree. A huge willow with long sweeping branches that dangle all around, giving it an almost curtain-like effect.

I crack the beer and put the cold can to my lips as Rhett sits in the Adirondack chair next to me. Summer painted them bright red, cheerful just like her.

They remind me of Willa’s hair.

Fucking lame. I push the thought away. And that’s when I hear it.

“I can’t do it.” It’s Luke’s little voice, a hint of distress soaking through.

“Yes, you can,” the slightly raspy tone of the knockout redhead comes next. And I almost shoot out of my seat to run to the rescue.

“Man, just sit. He’s fine. Don’t be a helicopter parent. It’s annoying.”

I ignore the instinct, take a big swig, and strain to hear what’s going on beneath the tree.

“You won’t climb further than you can handle. You’re too smart for that. Trust your body.”

“What if I fall?” Luke’s voice is thin.

“Well, I guess I’ll stand underneath you and you can fall on me so that we both get hurt. Because you’re too big to catch. And you aren’t going to fall anyway. Just listen to me, okay?”

“Okay,” he says, a surge of determination in his tone now.

Rhett glances over at me and grins. “Willa Grant is good shit, brother. If she’s offering to take care of our boy for the summer, you’d be an idiot to turn her down. I don’t know many people more loyal than her. She’s got a big heart.”

I feel like there’s a story there I don’t know. But I also know my brother wouldn’t blow smoke up my ass when it comes to Luke and his well-being.

Her voice trails out from the tree again. “You’re going to move your right foot down to this branch.” A pause. “Attaboy. Then your left hand here. Then you should be able to sit on that branch and jump down.”

I can see her sandaled feet and tight jeans behind the branches as she moves around pointing things out to my son. Soon, small sneakered feet plunk down beside her, followed by little hands catching in the grass.

“I did it!” Luke shoots up, still oblivious to the fact that I’m here.

“Of course, you did. You made this tree your bitch.”

Rhett snorts beside me and I glare at him.

“Oh, come on! You think he hasn’t heard the way you talk?”

“I’ve spent years instilling good manners in that kid.”

He chuckles and shrugs. “Well, if that’s true, then you’ve laid a good foundation, and one summer with a fun nanny won’t ruin him.”

I just grunt and take a sip.

Maybe.

“How high can you go, Willa?”

I expect her to shut him down. Or appease him with some line about how adults don’t climb trees. But she wipes her hands over the round globes of her jean-clad ass and says, “I dunno. Let’s see.”

I hold my beer suspended in midair—frozen—as I watch an adult woman climb the thick trunk. “Is she nuts?” I mutter before taking another drink.

Rhett snorts. “A little. But in a good way.”

Luke’s feet bounce excitedly as he watches her. “Don’t go too high! What if you get stuck?”

“You’d save me,” Willa calls back from what sounds like much higher up the tree than I thought she’d go.

“I’m too small. But my dad would save you!”

Her raspy laugh reaches us at the back deck. It’s still as disarming as it was earlier today. “I don’t know about that. He might be happy to leave me up here, Luke.”

I press my lips together. She’s not entirely wrong. My life would be a lot less complicated if she hadn’t waltzed into Chestnut Springs this morning.

My dick would be a lot softer too.

“Oh never. He helps everyone,” my son replies, making my heart twist in my chest. Sometimes I wonder how I must seem to him, how I look in his eyes. And this one gets me right in the gut.

“Sounds like you’ve got a pretty great dad,” Willa replies instantly, sounding a little breathless now. “How lucky are you?”

“Yeah . . .” Luke trails off thoughtfully. “No mom though. She moved away and doesn’t visit.”

My brother sucks in a breath from beside me, eyes darting in my direction. “Goddamn, kids just say whatever comes to mind, don’t they?”

I swallow thickly and nod. I’ve worked hard to shield Luke from the reality of his mom, of the choices she’s made—the type of person she is.

I never want him to feel unwanted.

Willa drops to the ground, brushes her hands against each other, and crouches in front of my son. Her head tips up to look him in the eye, hands stroking his upper arms as she smiles at him.

“Sounds like her loss, because you might be the coolest kid I’ve ever met.”

She doesn’t use a sad voice, or a baby voice, she just talks to him like a normal human being.

“Fucking hell,” I curse under my breath because she just practically hired herself.