Healing Hearts (The Challenge Series) Read Free Page B

family being attacked while he watched and, in the case of his daughter, Mia, heard loud and clear, helpless and useless and unable to protect any of them.
     
    ***
     
    Abigail straightened her skirt, fussed with her hair, glanced at herself in the rear view mirror to make sure the lip-gloss she’d applied remained. She narrowed her eyes and glared at the image of her Latina skin and barely tamed thick black hair. You are here to bring this man food. Not to flirt, seduce, or in any way interact with him as a woman. Get a fucking grip . Cursing herself, she climbed from behind the wheel of her beater Ford Escort and pulled out the cooler Lynn and Jane had prepared.
    It took some doing to roll it to Jay’s door, since the front lawn consisted of dirt and pine needles underneath a stand of huge trees. By the time she had tugged the damn thing up the single short step to his precarious front porch, she had broken a sweat and a nail and one of her shoes was mud covered.
    “Damn it.” She wiped her forehead and tried not to fall through the rotting boards. Before she could touch the door with her knuckles, it opened. Startled, she took a step back and landed square on her ass on the sorry excuse for a front lawn.
    Jay pulled her off the ground before she had time to think. The touch of his hand to hers sent a chill creeping up her spine. “Sorry,” he mumbled, letting her go and grabbing the cooler from her before it toppled over and joined them on the dirt. “I didn’t expect you tonight.”
    She flushed red at how much she’d prepared for this moment, how desperate she must appear. “No, no, I have…a date. So thought I’d bring it over before I…um…anyway.” She tucked a lock of her unruly hair back up into the elastic band and looked away from him.
    “Oh, okay then, let’s get you cleaned up before you go.” He pointed to her brown, smelly left foot. “I guess I should have warned you, every time it rains I get sinkholes.”
    They went inside and she beheld what could be any random rental cabin on any lake in her memory. As a child whose father owned ten different rental properties around the tourist town of Torch Lake, she knew the sight well. She’d heard Jay had been out here for almost a year and the place felt barely lived in, as if he floated above the furniture and never used the kitchen—a ghost, or something with even less physical presence. She glanced back at him. His face flushed as he shifted his gaze from her legs. Abby tried not to smile. But still the whole thing had a surreal edge. He did what came naturally to a man—noticed her bare, tan, and fit legs. But acted like he didn’t really want to.
    Oh crap. He’s gay .
    The realization made her heart pound with even more embarrassment as she maneuvered the clunky cooler over to the ancient fridge. She opened it, nervous about finding a stack of moldy, disgusting leftovers, shocked at the general lack of contents. “Do you ever….”
    “Eat here?” He stood, shifting from foot to foot, as if unnerved by her presence. “Not often, no.” He turned away and stared out the window at the amazing view of Silver Lake.
    A giant, brown, slobbering creature crashed through the screen door at the back of the cabin and made right for her. Abby held out a hand for the animal to sniff then crouched down to meet his eyes. “Wow. Cool. I didn’t think you were allowed to keep horses in here.”
    “Yeah, he’s um, pretty big. C’mere, Dex. Leave her alone.”
    “No, it’s okay. I love dogs.” She ran her fingers around his ears as he calmed but for his tail pounding the floor. “Oh, hey what happened here, big guy?” The animal’s left ear was a mere flap of skin. “Wow, that must have hurt. I hope you left the other guy in worse condition.” He whined once, then got up and walked to his master.
    Jay reached down to touch him as a person with a service animal might do, for reassurance. “It’s fine, Dexter. Sorry, he’s a little funny