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  “I have my own flashlight,” Autumn said.

  “Good girl. You keep that in your pocket at all times, okay?”

  She nodded, her face very serious. “I will.”

  He walked out the door, leaving the three of us alone. I picked up my suitcase and walked into the bedroom. There was a log bed with a colorful plaid quilt for a bedspread. It was sparsely decorated, with a single rug on the floor by the bed. It was all very masculine, just like the man it belonged to.

  I placed my suitcase by the door and returned to the open living area. The girls were on a mission to open every cupboard door as they snooped through the man’s stuff. “Hey, no,” I scolded. “He is being very generous by allowing us to stay in his home. Respect his privacy.”

  They closed the cupboards and walked around the cabin, inspecting the little treasures they spotted. “Look at this,” Autumn said, picking up a framed picture.

  I couldn’t hide my curiosity and walked over to check it out. “Wow,” I said without meaning to actually say it aloud.

  It was a photo of Gabriel on top of a cliff. He was in climbing gear, his cheeks red and his eyes full of excitement. It was a gorgeous picture. The man and the scenery.

  “I want to climb a mountain,” Autumn stated.

  “That’s not a mountain,” Hazel corrected. “It’s a rock.”

  “You’re both right,” I told them, putting the picture back on the shelf.

  “Can we go to the lake now?” Autumn asked.

  It was at least the third time she’d asked since we arrived. She was anxious to practice her rock skipping skills. I had seen the picture in the small brochure Joe had passed around. It looked beautiful and serene. I was looking forward to seeing it as well.

  “You’ll need to get your coats on,” I told them. “It’s going to be cold down by the water.”

  There was some slight complaining but they both did as I asked. I pulled on my own coat with the faux fur around the hood and pulled on my gloves. We stepped outside the cabin and I found myself scanning the area for Gabriel. I was secretly hoping he would offer to be our personal tour guide.

  Unfortunately, I didn’t see him, and I didn’t have the nerve to seek him out and ask him to hang out with us. He was a nice man just doing what he was supposed to do as the owner of the property. He wasn’t interested in someone like me. When he looked at me, he had made me feel like I was the only woman in the world.

  I had a feeling a man like that would have a long line of women after him. He was gorgeous, charming, and manly. Women were instinctively drawn to men like him. It was our cavewoman tendencies. We wanted the guy who could take care of us. We wanted the man that could provide and be tough when necessary and gentle when needed.

  I would allow myself the fantasy of me with him. Fantasies were good for the soul.

  Chapter 9

  Gabriel

  I wasn’t fully awake but immediately knew I wasn’t in my own bed. I blinked, stretched my arms over my head, and hit the wall. My feet hung over the edge of the mattress. In an instant, I remembered I was in the tiny twin bed. A beautiful woman was in my bed—without me in it with her. That didn’t seem quite right.

  I sat up, arching my back to try and work out the kink from the awkward sleeping position. My big ass was not meant to sleep in a kid’s bed. It was another upgrade I wanted to make—bigger beds. I wasn’t the only big guy in the world. I needed to provide better accommodations for full-size adults.

  I got out of bed, checked the time, and saw it was earlier than my usual wake-up time of six. It was the bed. It was not comfortable. I went into the small bathroom and took a quick shower. It was strange to be at home but not at my home. It was even stranger to see a woman and two little kids in my home. I had gone by the cabin after dinner to collect my things.

  Cadence had been sitting on the couch, the girls on either side of her as she read them a book from my collection. The scene was something out of one of the novels I liked to read when no one was looking. I never really wanted a family for myself, but I was intrigued by the idea. I liked being on the outside looking in.

  I stepped out of the shower, quickly toweled off, and dressed. I had to push the thought of her in my bed to the back of my mind. I had lain in the tiny bed last night thinking about her lying on my sheets, wondering what she wore to sleep in. That thought had led to many more thoughts that ended with me hard and aching. I couldn’t serve breakfast with morning wood threatening to split the zipper of my cargo pants.

  I grabbed my keys and phone and walked out of the cabin. I inhaled the cold, early morning air that was just a little misty. It was my favorite time of the day. Everything was peaceful—except the sound of someone singing. I looked to my left and saw the yellow glow of a light coming from the cabin next door. I wasn’t sure if it was the occupant singing or their music player. Either way, it was bad and ruined the tranquility of the morning.

  I refused to let the noise sour my mood, and I walked toward the dining hall, picking up a few bits of discarded trash along the way. No matter how many times I asked and how many trashcans I put out, people couldn’t be bothered to put their shit in the garbage.

  I walked into the dining hall, flipping on the lights and moving to the fireplace to get a fire going. We had a furnace, but it wasn’t always reliable. I liked to pretend the fireplace was more authentic and we didn’t need the furnace. I walked into the kitchen to get out the breakfast fixings we put out for a self-serve style breakfast.

  Leo came in a few minutes after me. He looked well-rested and freshly showered. He took one look at me and cringed. “Forget your razor?”

  “Actually, I did,” I said, reaching up to feel the scruff along my jawline. “One day isn’t going to kill me.”

  “How was it spending the night like a regular person?”

  “I am a regular person,” I retorted.

  He chuckled. “You know what I mean. You’ve never slept in one of those cabins. I told you they were too small.”

  Leo had lived at the retreat for about a month before he decided to rent a bigger cabin down the road a few miles. We didn’t want to be roommates and he didn’t want to live in the small cabins. It made good business sense to have him live elsewhere so we could rent out the cabin he’d been occupying.

  “They are small, but people aren’t living in them. They are spending a few nights. The cabins are fine.”

  “Did you get to spend any time with the lovely lady?” he asked with a grin.

  “No. The lovely lady has two kids and probably a husband or boyfriend waiting at home.”

  “I didn’t see a ring on her finger,” he pointed out.

  “Not all women wear rings,” I replied.

  He scoffed. “Women like her wear rings. If she was married or engaged or even if she had a boyfriend, he would insist she wear a ring. She’s too hot to be walking around without a ring on her finger.”

  I laughed. “You can be very misogynistic, you know.”

  “I’m only saying, if my wife or girlfriend looked like her, I would want everyone to know she was taken.”

  “You mean, you’d want to brand her?”

  He rolled his eyes. “I’m not saying I’m going to pee on her leg and mark my territory, but I would want other guys to back the hell off.”

  “Rings are not always an effective method of doing that.”

  “You’re way overthinking this. She isn’t married. I have an eye for these things.”

  I carried the bowl of waffle batter out of the kitchen, putting it next to the two waffle makers we had plugged in and ready to go.

  “Good morning,” a couple of older women said as they walked into the hall.

  “Good morning,” I said. “We’re just getting the rest of breakfast pulled out. Help yourself to the fresh coffee if you’d like.”

  “Thank you. It’s so beautiful here.”

  “It is very nice,” I agreed.

  “We’d love to come back in the spr
ing with our families,” one of them said. “Do you offer single cabin rentals?”

  “I do.”

  “Do you offer a rate discount on several cabins? I have four children and there is just no way we would fit in one cabin.”

  I grimaced. It was always the same complaint. I knew we weren’t exactly family-friendly. “I’m sure we could come up with something. You can email me when the date gets closer and we can see what’s available.”

  The other woman filled the paper cup with coffee and turned to look at me. “You know, if you could build a few more cabins, larger cabins that could house maybe six people, you could really make a lot of money. Families would love to come up here for a weekend away.”

  I smiled and nodded. It wasn’t the first time I had heard that. Hell, I was on board as well. The problem was money. I had to have money to make money.

  “We’re working on it,” I told them. “I’m going to get the fresh fruit.” I excused myself from their financial advice.

  I grabbed the bowl of bananas, oranges, and apples and carried it back out. Leo was busy cooking scrambled eggs on the single stove in the kitchen.

  I turned to go back into the kitchen and spotted Cadence and the girls walking in. The sunlight was behind her, giving her a halo effect. I stopped and stared. I saw the moment she saw me and smiled at her. She was wearing a pair of snug jeans and knee-high boots with flat heels. Her coat was zipped up tightly.

  Autumn spotted me and waved.

  “Hi,” I greeted them.

  “Hi, Gabriel!” Autumn said with a big smile.

  “How’d you sleep?” I asked her.

  “Really good! I love your house.”

  I laughed. “Don’t get too comfortable in there.”

  “Thank you so much for letting us use your cabin,” Cadence said.

  “You’re very welcome. You guys can help yourselves. I need to grab a few more things from the kitchen.”

  Ten minutes later, breakfast was in full swing with most of the guests already having gotten their plates full. I grabbed a plate and helped myself to some fruit and a couple of pieces of toast before making my way to the table where Cadence and the girls were seated. “Can I join you?” I asked.

  “Absolutely,” Cadence said with a smile.

  I sat next to Autumn, who was grinning up at me. “I ate all my waffle,” she said proudly.

  “Good job. What about you, Hazel?”

  She looked at me and shrugged. “I don’t like waffles.”

  “We’ve got eggs,” I offered. “If that doesn’t work, I’ve got some boxes of cold cereal I can get for you.”

  “She wants cake,” Autumn said.

  Cadence groaned. “Autumn, she doesn’t need cake.”

  “Nanny lets us have cake sometimes. She says we should get to eat cake because life is too short.”

  I laughed, looking at Cadence. I assumed the nanny was feeding the girls cake. Cadence shook her head, a look of resignation on her face. “Nanny is my mother. My mother is on this kick about living life to the fullest. That includes eating cake for breakfast.”

  “I think I might like your nanny,” I told Autumn. “I like cake. I’ve never had it for breakfast, but I have had brownies for breakfast.”

  I realized I said the wrong thing. Autumn got very excited and looked at her mother. “Mom, can we have brownies for breakfast?”

  “Sorry,” I said, feeling foolish for my misstep.

  “Don’t be sorry. I’m sure my mother would have gotten to brownies eventually.”

  “What are you guys going to be doing today?” I asked.

  “We went to the lake yesterday and walked around,” Autumn answered.

  I turned my attention to Hazel, who was much more subdued than her younger sister. “What about you? What do you like to do?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “She likes birds,” Autumn answered for her.

  “Hazel is an animal lover,” Cadence said proudly.

  I looked at Hazel. “I love animals too. It’s why I bought this place. I love being around animals and I love taking care of them as well.”

  “I want to be an animal doctor when I grow up,” Hazel said in a quiet voice.

  “That’s awesome. Do you want to help dogs and cats, or do you want to help wildlife?”

  She shrugged again. “I don’t know.”

  I looked at Cadence. She was smiling at her daughter. The resemblance between the three of them was very strong. Her eyes moved to me, catching me staring at her. I smiled at her and then got a great idea. “If you guys aren’t doing anything after breakfast, I’d like to show you something.”

  Cadence smiled. “I think we can extract ourselves from the teambuilding exercise Joe has planned.”

  “I don’t want to take you away from anything important,” I said.

  She rolled her eyes. “Trust me, I can only handle small doses of that.”

  She didn’t have to explain what that was. I knew exactly what she was referring to. Joe was a lot to handle. “Great, sit tight and I’ll be right back.”

  I put my empty plate in the trash and went into the kitchen pantry. I found the little individually wrapped brownies we bought from a local woman. I hoped Cadence wouldn’t be too pissed. I hid the brownies in the pocket of my hoodie and went back to the table.

  I sat down, looked at Cadence, and couldn’t stop grinning.

  She shook her head. “I’m afraid to ask.”

  I laughed and pulled the brownies out, handing one to each of them. She burst into laughter, her face lighting up.

  “You’ll have to ask your mom when you can eat those,” I told the girls.

  “Mom, can we eat them now?” Autumn asked enthusiastically.

  Cadence held up her hands. “Let them eat cake.”

  Chapter 10

  Cadence

  The girls finished their brownies and washed them down with a small carton of milk before Gabriel led us outside. I felt flattered and like a real VIP that the owner of the place was willing to spend some time with us. Autumn was absolutely enamored with him. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was in need of a father figure or if she was just that outgoing.

  Hazel, on the other hand, was unsure of him. She was a reserved girl as it was and didn’t often warm up to new people. It took her some time before she really talked with strangers. Hazel and Autumn couldn’t be more different. I loved that they were so different. I loved that they had their own personalities.

  While we walked, I couldn’t help but check out the man. He walked with an easy gait. It was clear he was very comfortable in his own skin and in the forest. I noticed he had some dark stubble along his jawline right away. It was incredibly sexy and made it even more difficult not to stare at him. That rugged thing was really working for him.

  “Over here,” he said, leading the way to the bird area. He used a key to unlock the gate that led into the actual bird area.

  “We can go in?” Hazel asked with surprise.

  “Yes, but we can’t touch any of the birds. I have a couple of injured loons that are rehabbing.”

  “You heard him, girls, no touching,” I reiterated.

  The habitat was much larger than I had thought. It stretched back into the trees with small bird feeders placed around. There was a loon nesting under a tree. Gabriel extended his arm, gently telling the girls to stop.

  “This guy had a rough go with something,” he said in a low voice. “Leo and I found him and brought him here to get better.”

  “Is he going to die?” Hazel asked.

  Gabriel smiled, squatting down to look at her. “No. He’s safe in here. He’s almost ready to go back into the wild.”

  “What if he gets hurt?” she asked with concern.

  “If he gets hurt and I find him, I’ll bring him back here. It’s important we don’t interrupt nature. We do what we can to help those that can be helped, but we never want to interfere with the natural order of things.�
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  “Can we pet him?” Autumn asked.

  Gabriel slowly shook his head. “No, we can’t. If he gets too used to humans, he won’t be able to go back to being a bird.”

  I smiled, appreciating the way he explained it in a way she could understand. I was sure there was a lot more to the explanation, but he was keeping it simple. He had a very natural way of dealing with kids. I wondered if he had his own children.

  “How come there aren’t many birds around?” Hazel asked.

  Gabriel stood up again. “It’s wintertime and most of the birds have gone south for the winter. In the springtime, it is a wild place around here. The warblers and wrens come back and they all like to try and out-sing each other.”

  “I want to hear the birds sing,” Hazel said.

  I watched her thawing before my very eyes. Gabriel knew how to speak to her, how to connect with her. His knowledge of animals was a huge plus in her eyes.

  “Maybe we’ll come back in the spring,” I said.

  Gabriel looked at me. “I’d like that.”

  We looked around the bird area a little longer before we left and moved down the trail. The girls were in front, pointing at everything, picking up sticks and rocks, and just having a good time in general.

  “They both really like you,” I told him. “Hazel rarely warms up to anyone.”

  He chuckled. “Should I be worried a jealous husband or daddy is going to come after me?”

  “No. That is about the last thing you need to worry about.”

  His gaze held mine for several seconds. “Good to know,” he said in that husky voice that made me feel like he was touching me. “I have to be getting back. I’ll lead you guys back to the cabins.”

  “Thank you for taking the time to show us around,” I told him.

  “It was really my pleasure. Can I hang out with you guys tomorrow before you go?”

  “Yes,” I answered too quickly. “I’d like that.”

  “Great. I’m sure I’ll see you later today. We’ll set up a time.”

  He said goodbye to the girls and left us in front of his own cabin. I watched him walk away. I waited to see if he would look back. When he did, he gave me a playful smile. I grinned, not caring that he had caught me staring. I was flirting. It felt weird to flirt. With him, it came naturally.