Barbara McCauley - In Blackhawk's Bed

Lori might not officially be Maddie and Missy’s aunt, Hannah thought, but Lori had been through the worst of everything with Hannah for the three years since her divorce. Hannah didn’t know how she would have made it through everything without Lori’s friendship. As far as Hannah was concerned, Lori was as real a sister to her as if they had shared a mother.

“Maybe later, Lor.” Hannah shook her head, blinked at the sudden moisture in her eyes. “It’s been a long day. A tough one.”

“Oh, honey.” Lori frowned and slipped an arm around Hannah’s shoulders. “Knowing this town, I assumed the accounts had been grossly exaggerated when you hadn’t called me yourself.”

“I—I was just so…dazed. And frightened. It all happened so fast.” Darn it, where were these tears coming from? The last thing she needed was to start blubbering in front of all these people. “I’m sorry.”

“Never mind.” Lori hugged her. “We’ll talk later, over a bottle of wine and a box of tissues.”

Hannah had replayed the scene over and over in her mind at least a hundred times in the past three hours: Seth climbing out on that branch while Maddie hung in midair, Seth pulling Maddie up, then handing her over. The crack of the branch and Seth falling. Every single time those images flipped through her brain, Hannah felt her breath catch and her heart stop.

She looked at Seth now, and once again her heart stopped. Only this time, it was because he was looking at her.

And there it was again.

She felt frozen. Absolutely consumed and completely overwhelmed. Helpless to do anything but stare back at him.

She felt the deep, heavy thud of her heart, heard the din of conversation around her, but she simply couldn’t move. Nothing like this had ever happened to her before. She felt stripped naked, and yet, she just didn’t care.

She knew she’d been unsteady all afternoon. After what had happened, it was understandable that her emotions would be spiralling.

But this was more than that.

This was something much more.

The thought frightened her. She didn’t want to be attracted to this man. At this point in her life, she didn’t want to be attracted to any man.

He held her gaze with his and still she didn’t look away.

He was handsome, of course, though a little rough around the edges. But that only seemed to add to his appeal. The stubble of beard on that strong jaw and square chin, that thick mane of black hair touching those broad shoulders, the faded jeans over his long, muscled legs. He’d changed into a clean T-shirt, also black, and Hannah realized how well the color suited him. Everything about this man was dark and dangerous, and with that bandage over his eye, he bordered on ominous.

He radiated sex. Made her think things she didn’t want to think about, things she’d thought hadn’t mattered to her: a man’s touch, urgent whispers in the dark, sweaty bodies and twisted sheets.

As if he read her thoughts, Seth’s eyes narrowed and grew more intense as he stared at her.

Dear Lord, had she actually asked this man to stay with her? Hannah thought. Here, in this house, where during the day, while the girls were at school, she would be alone with him?

Hannah rarely drank anything alcoholic, but suddenly she was wishing for a glass of that wine Lori had mentioned a moment ago.

“Hannah, sweetheart,” Lori whispered in Hannah’s ear, “you keep staring at Mr. Handsome like that and this room is going to self-combust.”

Hannah quickly looked away. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Right.” Lori smiled and took a bite of brownie. “I guess I just imagined that I’d-like-to-rip-your-clothes-off-and-jump-on-you look in your eyes.”

“Lori Simpson.” Hannah snatched the brownie from her friend’s hand and bit into the rich chocolate. “Do you ever think of anything besides sex?”

Lori thought for a moment.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake.” Hannah shook her head. “It was a foolish question. Never mind.”

Maddie and Missy spotted Lori at that moment and came running over. While they related their terrible ordeal once again, Hannah slipped into the kitchen.

Thankful for the quiet, Hannah set about making a fresh pot of coffee. She just needed a few moments alone, away from all the commotion in her house.

Away from Seth.

I can do this, Hannah told herself as she counted out scoops of coffee into the pot. Everything would be back to normal by the morning. She’d bake muffins for the diner and drop them off on her way to carpool the girls to school, pick up the accounting work she did weekly for Tom Wheeler and do her data entry, then repair the cracks on the walls in the upstairs bedroom. By the time Maddie and Missy came home from school, it would be time for homework, supper, baths and bedtime stories for the girls, then the rest of the evening she could work on the hand-stitching Lyn Gross had hired her to do for her catalog business.

As if she had time to think about handsome strangers and her out-of-whack hormones. Hannah laughed at her own foolishness as she filled the glass carafe with water. Besides, she had a very large house. She’d be working upstairs, Seth would be downstairs. She probably wouldn’t even see him, except in passing. It wasn’t as if he could get around very well, anyway.

She didn’t have the time or the desire to be distracted by Seth Granger. He’d be gone in a few days and her house would be back to normal—not that normal would in any way describe her life, she thought, shaking her head with a smile.

Once she had her bed-and-breakfast open for business, Hannah would have everything she wanted: her own business, security for Maddie and Missy, and once she bought out Aunt Martha’s share of the house, a sense of independence she’d never had before.

There wasn’t anything else she wanted at this point in her life. She’d done just fine without a man for the past three years. In the future, maybe she would meet someone. A man who wanted roots and family and came home at night. Before midnight, without another woman’s perfume on his shirt.

For now, Hannah only needed Maddie and Missy and that was enough. Seth Granger might be an interesting and temporary diversion, Hannah admitted, but that’s all he was: interesting and temporary, with the emphasis on temporary.

While the coffee percolated, Hannah opened the refrigerator to refill the creamer she’d set out on the table. Beside the container of half and half was a can of whipped cream someone had brought to go with a bowl of strawberries.

…I’d like to smear it all over his body and lick it off…

Hannah slammed the refrigerator door shut and forced the image Lori had given her out of her mind. Her heart pounded against her ribs.

Suddenly her house didn’t seem large enough at all, and a few days felt like a very, very long time.

The scent of hot cinnamon roused Seth during the night. Darkness surrounded him and he wasn’t certain where he was, but that wasn’t so unusual. He’d woken up more than once in the dark in a strange place, a strange bed. In his line of work, he was never certain about where he’d be sleeping. A car, a park bench, even an occasional alley, amidst a community of homeless who lived in cardboard structures and tents made out of blankets. Wherever his job took him, he went, and most of the time it seemed as if he spent more time on the streets than in his own apartment.

But the scent of cinnamon and…what else? Apples, that’s what it was. The scent of cinnamon and apples had never woken him before. For several moments, he thought he might be dreaming, maybe having one of the flashbacks he occasionally had from his childhood. Before the accident. Before his life had changed so dramatically.