CHAPTER 13
“I’m so glad that you guys could make it,” Brynn greeted Sara and Charlotte, giving them each a quick hug.
“Me too.” Sara smiled and took a seat beside her new friend on the small bleachers overlooking the massive track. As soon as her butt hit the metal bench Charlotte climbed up on her lap.
Sara knew that her lap-sitting days were numbered. She’d done her best, no matter how crazy things got in her life to enjoy each and every stage that her children were in, even the terrible twos. Once that time was gone, she knew she could never get it back.
Charlotte got settled against her mom and Sara started Frozen on her phone. Trevor was down on the tracks with the guys, putting his gear on.
“So did you and the kids have fun at the festival today? Did you get to go to the castle? That was all Trevor talked about yesterday.”
Sara didn’t doubt it. Her son had been born with the gift of gab and no filter. If he was thinking about something, he was talking about it.
“We did have fun, but we haven’t made it to the castle, yet.” Sara checked to make sure her daughter’s attention was fully focused on the movie playing before she mouthed to her friend, “I’m saving it for leverage.”
“I like your style. That’s a good move.” Brynn chuckled.
“Hey, girls, hey!” Jess called out as she and Ali climbed to the fourth row of bleachers and sat down directly behind Brynn, Charlotte, and Sara.
As the women all greeted one another, the sound of an engine roaring to life caught Sara’s attention. She turned her head and saw Austin leaning down talking to Trevor. She couldn’t hear what he was saying, but from the look on his face, it was safety related.
Sara took the opportunity to study his gorgeous face. Her gaze roamed over his strong jaw, full lips, and—the cherry on top of the sexy sundae—his deep green eyes. They stole her breath, her heart, and her soul in a single glance.
All day, she’d been trying to avoid making direct eye contact because she didn’t want to be reduced to a puddle of drool in front of her kids. It hadn’t been easy. He had such a strong presence, and she was drawn to it like her name was Miss Moth and his was Mr. Flame. And it wasn’t just his stare that drew her. She’d spent a large portion of the day actively stopping herself from touching him, kissing him, and rubbing up against him like a cat in heat. The rest of the time, she’d been pinching herself that he was actually there, with them.
Sara had woken up that morning fairly certain she’d imagined, or even dreamed, the conversation in the kitchen the night before. She’d convinced herself the entire thing had been a fantasy. But then she saw the evidence that it had, indeed, happened in the form of the B&B paperwork on her nightstand and brownie crumbs on her pillow.
As if Austin could get any more perfect, he’d made brownies. And not just any brownies, his brownies were rich, moist, and fudgy without being overly dense, gooey, or oily. And they had a top layer of shiny, flaky, crackly goodness. She was glad that Austin hadn’t witnessed her consumption of the tasty treats. She feared she’d looked like a lion eating his prey in the wild. She’d devoured two while she was working, and had brought a third to bed with her. Truth be told, she could’ve easily eaten the entire plate, so she was happy that she’d been able to show some restraint.
Even with the indisputable evidence that the night before had not been a fever dream, when she and the kids had arrived in the dining room for breakfast and Austin had been waiting at the table with two cups of coffee and a smile, she’d been genuinely surprised. Not because she’d truly believed that the night before had been in her imagination, but because she still couldn’t quite wrap her mind around Austin wanting to hang out with them.
During breakfast, Austin was great with the kids. He was so natural with them, like he’d known them forever. He helped Charlotte cut up her pancakes, at her daughter’s insistence. When her baby girl dropped her pudding on the floor, he had it wiped up before a single tear fell from her face. He talked sports and video games with Trevor. He even FaceTimed his cousin, who happened to be Trev’s all-time favorite baseball player, JJ Briggs, so that her son could talk to him. JJ had retired from baseball the previous summer and it had broken Trev’s heart. All was forgiven when JJ invited Trevor to come to the training facility he’d opened in his hometown of Wishing Well, Texas.
As if Austin’s pedestal needed to be any higher in her son’s eyes.
The whole day had been so surreal, it was still hard for Sara to wrap her mind around it. Everything from breakfast, to walking around the festival, to lunch, to now, seemed more like a fantasy than real life. Sara was still having a hard time trusting that Austin really wanted to be here with them. He was a former Marine sniper who was single and sexier than sin. She was sure he had better offers.
Were she and the kids some kind of charity case?
Did he feel sorry for her?
Did he feel some kind of misplaced responsibility?
Sara’s mind was sure to fill with a slew of other questions, but its progress was halted when Austin’s gaze met hers. Just like that, her mind went blank and she couldn’t breathe. One look in his eyes was all it took for all of the air around her to be gone. And when a slow, sexy grin spread on his face, poof, so was the rest of the world. Disappeared. Vanished. Her ability to inhale and her senses only returned when Kade slapped Austin on his shoulder and he broke the connection of their stare as he turned toward his friend.
“Wow.” Jess leaned down and whispered. “So I think I know the answer, but how are things going with that?”
Sara’s head was still spinning from the loss of oxygen. “With what?”
When Jess didn’t respond, Sara glanced over her shoulder to see her friend’s brow raised and a give-me-a-break expression on her face.
“Oh, that.” Sara hadn’t been playing coy. It just wasn’t until that moment that she’d realized what that was. She wished she had a better answer for herself and her friend. Since she didn’t, she gave her the only one she had. “Confusing.”
“At least you’re not denying it. That’s a lot better than most folks around here.” Jess leaned back, seeming satisfied with Sara’s response.
“Most folks?” Sara was starting to think maybe she’d been wrong about the that.
“Oh, yeah. You’re not the first, nor will you be the last, to fall under the Whisper Lake spell. Some fight it. Some deny it. But my advice is, once the wave hits you, it’s better to just go with the flow rather than try to swim against the current.”