Loved By The Hero (Hero Romance 3)

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Copyright 2015 by Kalena Lyons- All rights reserved.

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This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are product of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental. The author does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for third party websites or their content.

The models on the cover of this book neither endorse nor condone the contents of this boo
k
.

LOVED BY THE HERO

Alpha Male Romance

By Kalena Lyons

“It’s been four months. Don’t you think if you’ve been dating a man for four months, your mother ought to have seen and talked to him?” The porch swing eased back and forth with care and Thomas chattered idly as he showed one of the neighborhood kids his new sled. It had snowed about three inches, but it was a heavy, wet snow and they’d get in a few good runs before they had to switch to another sloped area in the yard.

Elaine wouldn’t pull her eyes off her son as she sipped a mug of hot chocolate laced with some whiskey. Jacob never made it any other way. “She’s already seen and talked to him,” she responded, chancing a glance at her swing companion. His white hair was pulled back and his rheumy eyes were studying her with a mix of amusement and exasperation.

“You know what I mean, darling. Introduce him as your boyfriend, and not just some man that shows up in a dark car on dark nights and whisks you away to another world for a few hours. I get it. You’re a single mother who needs some fun time,” Elaine’s cheeks grew red and she averted her gaze back to her son fully. “I’m not dead, Elaine. I’m just old.”

“Oh, Jacob, I know that. It’s just that you’re so much like a grandfather to Thomas, and-” She paused, a little embarrassed about what she was going to say.

“I’ll never replace your father or a grandfather for Thomas, but I love you both just the same. It still doesn’t make me dead, so I get it. But you can’t just lead this man around forever, Elaine. You’re going to have to introduce him to the family you have. I’ll be waiting by the front door with my shot-gun when you’re ready.” It tickled her from the inside out and she chuckled as she thought about old Jacob sitting by his door with a shotgun in hand. If he’d fire that thing, he’d be blown to Tim-buck-two.

“I don’t think that’s necessary. He might get the wrong idea,” she said sarcastically. Thomas waved to her and she waved back at the same time that Jacob waved. They sat in silence and sipped their whisky-laced hot cocoa. It was just enough to make her feel warm, but not enough to make her feel that she was being a bad mother.

“Mom did a reading for me the other night a few months ago.” The words rushed from her like a confession to a priest about murder, and she felt a little embarrassed and guilty for admitting she had allowed a reading to happen.

It had been haunting her for four months.

“I know,” Jacob told her as he finished the dredges of his hot cocoa. “More chocolate?”

“Sure,” Elaine answered as she proffered her cup and watched her son playing in the snow. They were turning over their sleds and packing snow onto the bottoms, most likely to make an igloo. She doubted there was enough snow.

Jacob retreated from her like he was worried she would say more about the reading, or perhaps ask a question. If he knew about it, then that meant her mother had been worried about it and had talked with him. So if she was worried, should Elaine be worried?

Or was it her mother being melodramatic like she always was?

I shouldn’t have brought it up, she thought as she watched with hawk-like eyes. Thomas would be four in six more months, and she’d have to admit that her baby was no longer a baby. His vocabulary had improved drastically over the past few months, and he was already starting to write his name in scribbly crayon.

Soon he would go off to preschool with the other children and she’d have to wonder what he was doing all day long. She didn’t worry when he was with Jacob because the old man was a responsible as a mother hen, and when he was with her mother, she knew Jacob wasn’t that far away. But she worried about what the other children would say. Maybe they wouldn’t tease him when he was four and they were the same age, but what about when he was six, seven, or even eight? Would they know about what happened to his father and make fun of him because he didn’t have one?

It was a silly thought. The man had died being a hero, but it still burned in her chest when she thought about that day. The anger was still there.

Jacob popped her out of her reverie as he shoved a steaming mug of cocoa in her face and sat down beside her. They were quiet as if they both had something intense to think about, but neither one of them wanted to bring voice to it. For her, it was the anger that was brimming with hatred. There was no place for it in her heart any longer, but she couldn’t seem to get rid of it.

“Thomas, it’s time to go inside,” she called out when she had finished her second cup of hot cocoa and could no longer feel her fingers. Thomas pouted, but he didn’t argue as he dragged his new toy into Jacob’s yard and up the steps. “Say thank you to Jacob.”

“Thank you, Mr. Jacob,” Thomas responded as he wiped snot from underneath his nose with his glove.

“Thank you, Jacob,” Elaine told him quietly before she set down her mug where she had been sitting and put her hand on Thomas’ back to lead him home. It was a short walk next door, and the smell of freshly baked molasses cookies wafted through the entrance when Elaine opened it. “Smells like Grandma’s been busy,” Elaine exclaimed loud enough for her mother to hear.

Thomas left his sled just inside the door on a rug and Elaine helped him out of his winter gear. Then she grabbed a tissue so that he could give his nose a proper blowing and wiping, and they went into the kitchen to wash up for a lunch of milk and cookies. It was a good Sunday overall, but there felt like something was missing.

Elaine tried not to think about Ethan as she loaded the dishwasher.

Chapter Two

“God, I miss you so much,” she whispered into the phone as she plopped down onto her bed. “How much longer do you think you’ll be staying?”

“I don’t know - Mama says she's never going to leave. The shrimp and grits down here are delicious, and I’m afraid she’s going to bring a pound of it home in her purse with us on the plane. We’re going to smell like a rotten seafood buffet,” Ethan whispered back. She could hear the sound of his mother snoring in the other room and giggled as she wondered if he was in the bathroom again.

Ethan didn’t want to disturb his mother while she slept and for good reason. The woman could turn into a mountain lion when disturbed.

“It’s not funny,” he whispered with mock anger. “I’m serious.”

“I wish I was there.” The words left her mouth before she could think about what she had just said, and she felt her cheeks heat up again. There was a two second hesitation on the other end of the line and then a deep breath.

“You don’t know how long I’ve waited to hear you say that. I wish you were here, too.” Ethan told her quietly. It was one step closer to the words that Elaine had been terrified he was going to whisper to her in the dead of night after a bout of lovemaking.

Those three words would scare her away quicker than a rabbit that’d spotted a fox.

“You’re getting that southern drawl again,” she told him as she leaned back onto her pillows and stared at the ceiling.

“Yeah, it happens. Every time I come back here I sound like I’ve been here for seventeen years again.” He actually sounded disappointed in himself for picking up a southern accent.

“Ethan, it’s hot,” she told him into the receiver as she twirled a lock her blonde hair around her finger. “So how was the service? Was it nice?” Her tone had taken on a serious note.

“It was nice. Uncle Richard would’ve loved the music, and the shrimp and grits,” he added at the end with the hint of a smile in his voice. Elaine loved how she could tell what his face would look like just by hearing his voice.

They had been calling each other for the past four days, ever since Ethan had hopped on a plane with his mother to visit her ailing brother in the hospital in Louisiana. Their phone calls had started out serious and short, but when Richard had passed away, Ethan had talked to her on the phone for two hours. He’d told her about how his uncle had taught him all about being a fireman, and how he had taught Ethan how to ride a bike. The man had been more of a father to him than anyone else in his life.

“So a few more days then?” she prodded. It was well past ten on her end and knew it was past nine at night on Ethan’s end. He’d have to get to bed soon.

“Two days, tops,” he told her quietly. She could hear the amusement in his tone and smiled. He sounded good when she spoke to him, but the time he had called her to let her know his uncle had passed, he had sounded like he needed a friend. She had been flattered and a little scared he’d called her first.

“I’ll see you in two days then. Tomorrow night, same time?” she asked as she yawned.

“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be keeping you up like this. You have work tomorrow.” He didn’t sound the least bit sorry.

“You’re not sorry, and neither am I. I miss you. I’ll see you soon,” she told him as a way of goodbye.

“I miss you, too.”

She listened to the sound of his breathing on the other end of the line for a moment before she pulled the phone away from hear ear and hung up. Then she lay back on her pillows and looked up at her popcorn ceiling. The sound of her mother still bustling around in the kitchen downstairs alerted her, but it was a soothing sound. Tomorrow was Tuesday and she was getting ready for some readings. Some of the molasses cookies had been saved and she had made some special rum balls for her adult guests.

All was right in the world, but the emotion she had felt rage into her while she was sitting on Jacob’s porch earlier in the day haunted her. She hadn’t told Ethan exactly how or why her husband had died, but just that he had died. She didn’t tell him that she knew his fire department was the one who had been called that day, and that she was growing more and more suspicious each day when her mother didn’t ask to meet the man she was dating.

Priscilla, her mother, was a nosy woman. She had been kind to Ethan when he had been there with his mother, but she never commented on Elaine’s late night dates after their meeting in the park. She never pushed Elaine to bring Ethan over for milk and cookies in the afternoon or to even have an adult dinner with the three of them.

There was something going on, and that anger was dangerous. It was the kind of anger that would eat a person alive, Elaine was sure of it. She took a deep breath and puffed out her cheeks before she let the air past her lips. Then she pulled off her shoes and climbed underneath the covers to give her ever-spinning mind a rest.

There was time to worry about it tomorrow.

Chapter Three

“I’m coming home tomorrow.” Elaine never thought she’d hear those four words or any variation for that matter, from Ethan.

“And your mother packed enough shrimp and grits?” She joked as she plopped another glass into the dishwasher. Ethan didn’t seem to mind her joshing around about his mother as he laughed on the other end of the line. It was a deep sound that reverberated through her body and gave her chills down her spine - the good kind of chills.

“She did. I think the hotelier’s starting to get a little suspicious.” They had shared a few snorts and giggles before Elaine straightened up when she heard the door open and close. Her mother was home from picking up Thomas at his play date and she was fifteen minutes early.

“I’ve got to go,” she told him hurriedly before she hung up the phone and made herself look busy as she put more dishes into the top rack of the dishwasher. It was starting to get full, but she wasn’t paying any attention to that. She was listening for the sounds of Thomas giggling or the sound of her mother making a joke or taking off his outdoor clothes, but there weren’t any.

“Priscilla?” a familiar voice called out. Elaine felt her heart jump into her throat and wished she could just creep up the stairs and pretend she wasn’t home, but the dishwasher was open. If she left it that way, it would be suspicious, and if she tried to close it, it would make too much noise.

“Shit,” she whispered as she continued to load glasses. She hoped the woman would go away, but her fears were turned into reality when that familiar voice sounded almost directly behind her again.

“Didn’t you hear me calling?” Jody asked innocently.

“Oh, Jody! You scared me,” Elaine accused in a friendly manner as she turned around and pretended to be startled. “I must have been off in my own little world. Mom’s not home yet. She’s picking up Thomas from a play date and they’ll be home any minute now.” She had meant it in a friendly way, but Jody turned her nose up in the air and sat down at the kitchen table as if she’d been born in the place.

“You don’t have to worry about being alone with me, Elaine. I know you’ve been seeing Ethan Mack for the past few months. Hell, the entire town knows about it. You do what you want with him, but I wouldn’t stick with him for long. He has a mean streak, that man.” Jody studied her lacquered red nails and puffed up her chest. She was wearing a V-neck t-shirt that seemed to be a size too small for her poor breasts, crammed in there like sardines.

“Well, I haven’t seen it yet.” Elaine hadn’t wanted to poke the hornet’s nest, but the words flew from her mouth before she could stop them.

“You will eventually. All men have them, you know. Why, my father was the nicest man until my mother broke one of his whiskey glasses one night. And Ethan was the nicest man until I told him no.” Elaine had heard the story about the supposed attempted assault and she didn’t believe a word of it.

Ethan had never pushed her for anything, and he was more patient than a doctor with a waiting line of a thousand people.

“Well, that’s between you and Ethan. I have nothing to do with that,” Elaine informed the woman as she turned around to continue loading the dishwasher.

“I mean - I just don’t understand how a woman like you could get involved with a man like that-”

“A man like that?”

“Especially when I told all the women around this town about how much of a jerk he was to me that night, and after I told you myself, straight from the horse’s mouth-”

Straight from the horse’s ass is more like it, Elaine thought with a tiny smile. She still had her back to Jody and wasn’t the least bit riled yet. She’d heard all of this from Ethan and knew his side of the story, and she was more inclined to believe him over Jody any day.

“That he had assaulted me! And you’re still seeing him. I mean - someone might start to think that you don’t care about what they have to say if you keep ignoring them. And some might start to think that you don’t care about what kind of man you bring around your son.” Jody poked at the sore spot in Elaine’s soul and she felt her teeth grit.

She hadn’t brought Ethan around her son because she didn’t want this to turn out to be a fling and have her boy get hurt. She also didn’t want Ethan to die in a fire like her late husband had and leave them all alone and desolate again. But to say that she hadn’t brought Ethan around her son because she was afraid of what he might do to her little boy, well, that insinuation was preposterous.

“Jody-” Elaine started, but she heard the door open and close, and the familiar sound of her mother making Thomas giggle as she unbuttoned his winter coat and helped him from it stopped her.

“I’m just saying,” Jody whispered. Her eyebrows were raised accusingly, but they smoothed and her face returned to its serene, angelic look as Thomas ran through the doorway with a clay dinosaur in hand.

“Look at what we made at Jack’s!” He yelled excitedly. Elaine didn’t have the heart to tell him to simmer down and listened to him talk about how they had molded and painted the clay dinosaurs, and Jack’s mother had baked them in the oven so that they would stay solid.

She didn’t look back at Jody as she led her son from the room and smiled at her mother as a greeting before they ascended the stairs.

She’d deal with the rumors on her own time, but now was her time with her son. She knew all too well that it would be too short and he’d be off with his friends more often in a few months’ time.