Lissa Manley - Family to the Rescue

No kidding. “I suppose,” Kim said, hedging, although her aunt hadn’t said anything Kim hadn’t already thought. Seth was gorgeous. And unfortunately, Kim’s judgment had always been disgustingly poor around handsome guys. Scott had been too good-looking for her own well-being. And look where that relationship had gotten her. “You suppose?” her aunt said, her eyebrows high. She waved a hand in the air. “Oh, pshaw.”

“You don’t believe me?” Kim asked, trying to sound a bit offended to head off her aunt’s suspicions.

“Honey, I was in the room with the two of you. I saw the look you exchanged, and the way you almost fell over.”

Kim gazed down at the table. Guilty. There was no use denying she thought Seth was handsome. And she certainly wasn’t going to lie. “Okay, so he’s good-looking. That doesn’t mean I want to date him. I’m not interested in any kind of romantic relationship. With anyone.” Being left brokenhearted once was bad enough. Twice would be unbearable.

“Are you sure? Seth is very appealing…” Rose said, looking worried.

“Of course I’m sure. You know how devastated I was when Scott left.” While their marriage had been rocky from the start—at nineteen neither one of them had been mature enough to get married—and they’d grown apart since Dylan had been born two years to the day after their wedding, Kim really hadn’t seen Scott’s abandonment coming. Or hadn’t wanted to see it…

Another costly mistake, putting her head in the sand, hoping love would conquer all. Of course, it hadn’t. Instead love had backhanded her.

Kim went on. “I can’t put myself in a position to ever go through that again, and I certainly can’t put Dylan through the loss of a father figure a second time.” She frowned. “He cried every night for weeks after Scott left.” Talk about gut-wrenching.

Rose’s eyes softened, lit with sympathy. “I know Scott hurt you badly.” She looked off into space as if she was in the grip of a bad memory. Something that had wounded her. “A broken heart is terribly painful. It’s not something anyone wants to go through more than once.”

Kim peered at her aunt, suddenly curious. “It sounds like you speak from experience.”

Rose’s eyes got misty. “I had my heart broken a very long time ago,” she said, her voice coated in sorrow.

Kim’s chest tightened, and she could hardly breathe. Obviously there was a lot of sadness behind Rose’s revelation. “What happened?”

“Oh, back when I was young—a girl, really—there was a boy I loved. His name was Arthur.” Rose smiled sadly. “Arthur Bennett. We met at a dance in town.”

“Go on,” Kim said. She needed to hear the story. Making a connection with her aunt via the pain of shared heartbreak seemed important somehow.

“His family was very wealthy, and mine wasn’t. His parents didn’t think I was good enough for him. They had a family friend’s daughter in mind.” She drew in a deep, shaky breath. “He told me that he loved me, but then he married her instead.”

A knot of empathy filled Kim’s chest. She’d had no idea about any of Rose’s past romantic turmoil. “Oh, I’m so, so sorry.”

“Thank you, dear.” She patted Kim’s hand. “So, you see, I understand your wounds and I understand why you don’t want to put your heart on the line. After Arthur left me, I never want to take that risk again, either.”

So that explained why her aunt had never married. “Being alone is better than hurt and broken in two,” Kim said, her chin raising. Rose’s revelation had confirmed that belief quite well. Staying uninvolved romantically was the right path.

“So true, so true,” Rose agreed, her eyes reflecting a lifetime of sadness. “And I don’t want to see you get hurt again.” She stood and started cleaning up the kitchen.

Kim sat back, gripping her mug of tea. Who would have guessed they had so much in common? Her aunt was more like her than she’d realized.

“Oh, I forgot,” Rose said, picking up a large manila envelope from the counter. “This came in the mail for you today.”

Kim took the envelope, scoping out the return address, her heart skipping a beat. “It’s from the community college in Seattle.”

“Are you still planning on taking early education classes there?” Rose asked, gathering up the empty tea mugs.

“Yes, in time.” Kim had put her dreams of becoming a teacher on hold when Dylan had been born, choosing instead to stay at home with him. She didn’t regret that decision at all, but it was time to follow her dream.

“But not right away, correct?” Rose asked. “I’m not ready to lose you and Dylan just yet.”

Kim smiled. “No, not right away.” But eventually, she was moving to Seattle to be near Grant and to take advantage of the early education program at Seattle City College, which wasn’t available anywhere near Moonlight Cove. For sure.

Rose picked up her glasses and put them on. “Oh, good. I’ve been lonely. It’s wonderful to have you two around.”

“It’s nice to be here, Aunt Rose,” Kim said, meaning it. She stood and started helping Rose clean the kitchen.

Rose shooed her away. “No, let me do this. You go ahead and relax. You need to rest.”

With exhaustion pulling at her as if she had a rock around her neck, Kim agreed and headed to her room. She walked by Dylan’s door, shivering when she thought of the courageous, handsome man who lay in there, asleep.

Unbidden, a vision of Seth’s eyes gazing at her danced through her head, and her heart stuttered. She’d wanted to lose herself in those eyes, let down her guard.

But she couldn’t.

She needed to be smart. She needed to take her aunt’s poignant story of her broken heart, blend it together with her own botched romantic history, and never forget the picture they painted.

If she did, pain was sure to follow.

Seth woke up a couple times during the night, kind of wishing he’d taken the doctor’s offer of pain meds. His head hurt, period. But he was determined not to go down that road. He’d gut it out as best he could.

He’d dreamed that Kim was in his room at one point during the night, with the moonlight shining through the window on her face as she gazed down on him. He even dreamed that she touched his forehead, her soft fingers a gentle, soothing caress…

Finally he awoke and it was light out. His head had calmed down quite a bit. He had no idea what time Kim and her aunt got up, but he needed to be out of bed. Laying around just wasn’t his thing. Besides, it was Monday, and he needed to get to the store and open up.

He’d gone to sleep in his board shorts and the T-shirt Drew had loaned him, so he threw the covers back, got up and blinked the spots away. When he was steady, he folded the quilt he’d slept under and straightened the bed as best he could. Then he padded over to the wooden door and opened it.

A boy with sleep-messed blond hair, dressed in bright red pajamas, stood in the hall, looking up at Seth. The kid appeared to be around the age of six or so, but Seth didn’t have much up-close experience with children, so he could be wrong.

“I’ve been waiting for you to wake up. My mom told me not to bother you, so I’ve been very quiet,” the boy whispered.

Okay, this was Kim’s son. “Well, you did a very good job.” Seth held out his hand. “I’m Seth.”

The boy put his small hand in Seth’s and pumped it. “Oh, I know who you are.” His eyes went wide. “You’re the hero who rescued my mommy.”

“Uh…well, yeah, I helped her out of the water.” Seth had a feeling that, unfortunately, the dubious title of “hero” wasn’t going to go anywhere anytime soon. Great.

“I’m Dylan,” the boy said. “Dylan Hampton.”