_________________________________________
~SINGLE DAD'S SPRING BREAK~
When I came up for air and wiped the salted water from my eyes, I couldn’t breathe.
No. It couldn’t be.
Those sea blue eyes turned towards me and locked onto my form. His dark brown hair was soaking wet, which dripped water down his chiseled jawline. His shoulders were broad, wrapped in thick pads of muscle that trickled down his chest. His abs were dripping with the crystal waters of the island and the lines of his strength disappeared behind red and white swim trucks.
I felt everything fade into the background.
I felt my heart slamming against my chest.
Those stoic eyes. That pulsing chest. Those dexterous fingers.
Hello, fuck.
Kevin Spencer is on Nassau Island with me.
“You good?” Morgan asked.
But I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t even collect my thoughts as he started walking closer. I could tell he was just as taken aback. Just as surprised to see me.
And his eyes.
The way they traveled my body.
“Brooke?” he asked. “Is that you?”
“Oh. Holy. Shit,” Morgan said.
I watched him swim over as my eyes drifted behind him to the two kids coming down a slide together off the side of the vacation home, perched on its own private beach and facing the beautiful horizon the sun set underneath every night. They were having a grand time, falling into the water and splashing around.
But his voice ripped me from my trance.
“What are you doing here?” he asked.
“On vacation,” I said as my eyes raked up his body. “You?”
“Spring break with my kids.”
“You have kids,” I said.
“I do. Twins.”
“How old are they?”
“Four,” he said.
“They’re beautiful. Must get it from their mother.”
“Hardly.”
I furrowed my brow as my eyes took the children in for a second time. Kevin had kids? It was almost unfathomable. He hadn’t struck me as the kind of man to want kids. Or even tolerate kids. But there they were, giggling and laughing and splashing around on the shoreline.
The man who had broken my heart all those years ago had kids.
“I hate to cut this short,” Kevin said, “but looking at those kids, I better get them out of the sun. They played hard yesterday and are still recuperating from burns they received then.”
“Kids will be kids,” I said.
“Don’t I know it,” he said with a grin.
Oh. That beautiful grin.
I felt my knees growing weak.
“Well, you go tend to those beautiful children of yours. It was…”
It was what?
“It was wonderful seeing you again, Kevin.”
“You too, Brooke. Really.”
Our eyes connected one last time before he turned his back and walked towards the shoreline. His rippling muscles undulated with every move he made as his tanned skin stretched over his strength. I let out the breath I was holding before I looked around for Morgan. For someone who had just run into my ex with me, she had been eerily quiet.
But then I saw her back on the balcony of our hut.
With some guy.
Of course
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~RUGGED DADDY~
“I hope I’m not making you nervous,” I said.
“It’s just new. It’s like a date, but not really a date? So I’m not sure what to do with myself.”
I’ve got a few things I’d do to you.
“Trust me, I know what you mean. In the truck, I kept batting away things I’d normally do on a first date.”
“Like what?” she asked.
I swallowed thickly as I stretched my leg out. I figured it was as good of a time as any to test the waters. I rested my foot against hers and felt her flinch, but she didn’t move away. A beautiful crimson tint rose up her neck, crawling across her cheeks as her back straightened.
Then, I laid my hand out on the table with my palm up, silently asking for her hand. To my surprise, she gave it to me, sending electricity jolting up my arm.
“How old is your daughter?” Heather asked.
I watched her relax back into her chair, and the movement pressed her leg closer to mine. Her body heat climbed, and her cheeks kept that healthy flush. I almost threaded our fingers together, just to see what she would do.
“She’s four,” I said. “She’s enrolled in a preschool here in town.”
“Is it just the two of you?” she asked.
“It is. Rebecca’s mother isn’t in the picture.”
“I’m sorry.”
“I’m not. I fell in love with her, and she fell in love with my money, but I was so blinded by my passion for her that I didn't catch it until she filed for divorce, took me for the money she could get, and left her daughter behind in the process.”
I drew in a deep breath, trying to quell the nauseating anger bubbling up my throat. I’d never intended to divulge any of that information, but something about Heather made me feel so at ease.
“Thank you for telling me that,” Heather said. “I want to know this kind of stuff about you. It makes me more comfortable with this entire process.”
“What you’re doing for me—for my daughter—I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to thank you properly. Rebecca seems so lonely sometimes, and I know she wants a sibling badly.”
“Why’s she lonely?”
How the hell was I supposed to answer her question honestly without giving anything else away?
“My daughter’s a bit of an introvert like her father.”
“I get that. I was the same way in school. I just didn’t want to mess around with the idiots I sat next to in class.”
“That bad, huh?”
“My best friend is the only person I keep up with from high school. No social media. No phone calls. No reunions.”
“None of that stuff matters anyway. Everyone’s an ass in high school,” I said.
“You’re preaching to the choir on that one.”
I chuckled as a smile graced her cheeks. “She and I are very close. We talk about everything. Well, everything you can talk with a four-year-old about.”
“That’s a really good thing to have with your child. So many parents try to distance themselves from that kind of thing. Force their children into certain attitudes and moods without acknowledging that they’re small people and that their feelings have merit.”
“I was raised that way,” I said. “With that idea that I had to act and walk and feel a certain way about all things. No outbursts. No anger. Just calm and stoic all the time. No crying. No nothing like that. It’s bullshit.”
“It is. Especially for men, because it’s a complete stereotype that you all don’t have feelings.”
I slid the toe of my shoe up her bare ankle and watched her draw in a deep breath. I pulled my hand back and threaded our fingers together, watching as her arm flushed. Every little touch was so responsive on her skin. Every little movement I made drew from her a sound I wanted to magnify.
Hell yes I was breaking my own rules.
By breaking I mean running over them with a truck and hitting reverse.
There was something about Heather that let out a part of me I had locked away for years.
No other woman had this effect over me. It was undeniable, the moment we met.
She was smart, beautiful… exciting.
The kind of exciting I had denied myself for a very long time.
The kind I thought I’d never have again.
“So that’s why I want a sibling for her,” I said. “She wants one, and I’ve always wanted another child anyway. It would cure her loneliness and fill a void for her.
“Then you’re doing it for the right reasons,” Heather said.
_________________________________________
