Montana Rescue (The Wildes of Birch Bay Book 2) (19 page)

Humiliation burned the back of Nick’s neck, and he fired a look at Jewel.

“I didn’t tell them,” she said. “You were an open book. Your tongue hung out whenever she walked into the room.”

“I even knew,” Patti muttered from her seat down by her mom. “And I was in elementary school.”

Harper snorted into her hand. “I will admit that Patti knew because
I
told her. I said that if any boy ever looked at her like that, she should kick him in the nuts and run.”

“Harper Ann,” Harper’s mother chastised.

“I know.” Harper spoke with a bored monotone and hung her head. “Don’t say ‘nuts’ at the table.”

They all laughed, and Chastity picked her story back up where she’d been interrupted. When she finished, their dad lifted his glass in a toast. “To good wine and better company. Thank you for coming over with our Harper today.”

“And thank you for having me.” Nick lifted his glass in return. “I’m not much of a cook, so anytime I can get a good meal, I’m in.”

Harper’s fingers landed on his thigh, and he slipped his hand under the table to cover hers.

Chairs were scraped back after that, and her Dad stood. “Time to do the dishes,” he announced. “One of the girls helps Marg cook each month, and another helps me clean up.”

Jewel rose with her dad. “I’m up, Dad. Let’s get this done before my dinner decides to make a reappearance.”

Nick rose, as well. “Let me help. You take the night off, Mr. Jackson. Put your feet up.”

“Well, there’s no need,” her father started. He looked flustered. “You’re our guest.”

Nick picked up his and Harper’s plates. “I’d love to help, really. I haven’t gotten to harass Jewel enough today. It’ll give me time to make up for that.”

Harper’s father paused, unsure what to do. Finally, he looked to his wife for answers. She nodded in permission, and the man put his palms up in surrender. “Then thank you, young man. I’ll take you up on it. And given that I have a free few minutes, I think I’ll take my woman out for a walk. Been a while since we’ve done that.”

The older Jacksons headed out the front door while Chastity, Patti, and Harper stood awkwardly, all seemingly unsure whether they should offer to help since Nick was, or not.

“Get out,” he told them. He waved a hand toward the door. “You wouldn’t be on dish duty if I wasn’t here, right?”

“Absolutely not,” Patti agreed. “It was my turn last month, and that’s when we had lasagna. Baked-on cheese is
not
my friend.”

“Then go.” He looked at Harper and nudged his head, telling her to leave, too. With a small nod, she and her sisters took off, same as their parents. The Jacksons lived in an upscale subdivision near the lake, and there was a walking path that wound through a park and play area before ending at the water. At this time in the evening, it would be a lovely walk. He wished he could take it with Harper.

“I’ll be back soon,” she told him before disappearing out the door.

Nick lifted the plates in his hand. “I’ll be here.”

As he and Jewel made several passes from dining room to kitchen, he couldn’t help but glance through the windows on each trip. The girls hadn’t gone far. They’d stopped at the tree he and Jewel used to climb when they were kids. And he couldn’t pull his eyes off Harper as she shimmied her way up to a high branch. The smile on her face was contagious.

“You still like her, huh?”

Nick froze, unwilling to look at Jewel, though she now stood directly at his elbow.

She laughed. “I know you’re sleeping with her.”

“Oh.” The word slipped out. What the crap was he supposed to say to that? “I . . .”

“She didn’t tell you that I heard you two going at it at the motel?”

Horror washed over Nick as he finally turned to his friend. He knew his mouth hung open, but he seemed to have lost the ability to close it.

“Hey, feel proud. Those were some hella-good noises coming from that room. In fact, if Bobby hadn’t been asleep on the other side of the country, I’d have called him up. We could have rung our own bells while you were ringing Harper’s.”

Nick stared down at her. “Are you going to talk like that when your kid gets here?”

“Maybe.” She eyed him with a sweet smile, but that sweetness was deceptive. “Depends on if I have to hear you banging my sister again.” She glanced out the window at the sound of Harper’s laughter, before turning her gaze back to Nick. “I wasn’t sure if you two had hooked up any more since that night until now. But that laugh?” She shook her head with something akin to awe on her face. “I haven’t heard it in eighteen months.”

“We’re just having some fun,” Nick muttered, unsure what else to say. He grabbed the last of the glasses and returned to the kitchen.

Jewel followed. “She needs some fun.” She peered out the window again. “You may not realize how bad it was for her. Those first few months”—she bit off her words as her eyes filled with tears, and Nick crossed the room and put an arm around her shoulders.

“She told me,” he said.

Jewel looked up. “Really?”

It occurred to him that he might have just admitted to something he shouldn’t have—he and Harper had done more than have sex. They’d talked. And she’d yet to talk to her family about the accident. “Just that it was a rough time for her,” he added, hoping to soften any hurt.

“It’s
still
a rough time for her,” Jewel told him. She watched Harper through the window for a few more minutes, before turning back to the sink and narrowing her gaze on Nick.

He’d bent to load plates into the dishwasher and tried to ignore her, but when she stayed put he slowly straightened and faced her. Her look pinned him in place.

“It is still just a crush, right?” Jewel asked. “You’re not thinking serious? Because she’s just now beginning to come out of it. I don’t want her hurt any more.”

“And what if she hurts me?”

“Nick.” Jewel gasped his name. “Really?”

He didn’t even know where that thought had come from. “I’m teasing, J. No. It’s not serious. I know that’s not what she wants or needs. It’s not what I want, either.”

Jewel nodded, but she looked less than convinced. She glanced over her shoulder to take in Harper once more. “Just be careful with her. I see the way you look at her.”

He didn’t even want to know how he looked at her.

“We can see that she’s better.” Jewel turned back to him and they began to work in sync as she handed him dishes and he loaded them. “And we assume you’re at the root of it. But at the same time, I still feel like she’s hanging on by a thread. As if the wrong word or thought could make her snap. She ran out of my doctor’s appointment the other day as if something was after her, and I have no idea why. So I’m just saying, I’m not sure how bad that snap will be if it happens.”

Nick made a promise to himself that he’d do his best to be there if the thread broke.

“I’d never do anything to hurt her, Jewel. You know that. You know me.”

“I know. And thank you.” She hugged him, her head barely hitting him midchest, then she smiled guilelessly up at him like the brat that she was. “And now I’m going to leave you to finish this mess all by yourself. I’m going outside to play with my sisters.”

Chapter Eighteen

N
ick and Harper sat at the end of the dock on Wilde property Wednesday afternoon, feet dangling over the edge, faces turned toward the sun. It was the end of a long day, and they’d come down to the beach with a couple of beers and a need for nothing more taxing than lifting the bottles to their mouths. They’d spent the last three nights at his place, same as before, though this time they’d done little more than they were doing right then. But Nick
had
taken her into town for dinner last night. And this morning he’d noticed her toothbrush in the holder next to his.

He’d paused at the sight of it. Struck by the simplicity of the moment but at the same time by the difference a week could make. Less than a week, actually. And he’d wondered if she would consider extending this thing between them beyond next weekend. She might be willing to come to Butte occasionally. Or to meet up with him at whatever rodeo he’d be attending.

Or he could come back here. There were no rules on having a fling.

“You talked to your parents since Sunday?” he asked. He turned his head toward her, scanning the length of her body as she brought up legs up and stretched out on the dock.

“Only once. Which is shocking in its own right. Dad called before we went hiking yesterday. I think you convinced them. You were the perfect fake date.”

Nick didn’t want to burst her bubble, but nothing that had gone on on Sunday had been fake. Nor anything the rest of the time. “You were the one who did the convincing,” he told her. “But don’t think that my lack of being needed excuses you from returning the favor. Sunday night. Here.” He squinted down at her, trying to look menacing. “Don’t back out.”

She stretched her arms over her head and yawned. “As long as you’re not cooking.”

He laughed.

She remained stretched out beside him, and he wondered if he could talk her into getting naked right where they were. With boaters out, it wouldn’t be possible to ensure privacy.

Still.

He lowered to lie beside her.

“You’ll be riding at Augusta this weekend, right?” she asked.

Neither of them had been scheduled for a rodeo the weekend before. “I am.” He trailed his fingers up her inner thigh. “You going to watch me ride? Cheer for me?

Her eyes found his. “I’m not one of your buckle bunnies.”

“I know. Because you’re far too old.”

The corners of her mouth twitched, and she closed her eyes. She looked utterly at peace. “I’ll be watching,” she said quietly.

He leaned in and brushed his mouth just below her ear. “And cheering?”

“You
are
the man I want to see win.”

“And if I win, will you spend the night in my room?” he whispered. He nipped at her earlobe, taking pleasure in her soft moans and the way her lower body reached for his fingers as he continued to toy at her thigh. She had on a sweet pair of cutoffs today that he was ready to take off her.

“Or you could come to mine,” she answered.

Her words had him pulling away. “Yeah, that won’t happen.” He’d forgotten to mention his conversation with Jewel to her. “I’m never staying in your room again when your sister is around.”

Harper’s laugh rang out. She stared up at him, her smile beautiful. “Jewel told you?”

Nick rolled to his back. “Christ, woman. You could have warned me. Give a man a chance to prepare a response.”

“It didn’t occur to me that she’d bring it up.”

He raised his head to look at her. “You have
met
your sister, right? The girl who’ll do or say anything to get a rise out of someone?”

“You’re right. My bad. The next time she explains to me just what I sound like when you put your hands all over my naked body, I’ll be sure to warn you.”

“I could make those noises for you now if you need a refresher course,” he offered. Then he rolled back over and tugged up the edge of her shirt. He went to work at the snap of her shorts.

“
Or
you could just make me sound like that now,” she murmured.

“I could.” Determination sprouted, and he wanted her naked. “If you give me a good reason.”

“And what kind of reason would you need?”

He unzipped her shorts and tugged them until they rode just below her hip bones. He could make out a pink sliver of panties, which gave him a nice buzz that started low in his body. Then he straddled her and shoved her T-shirt up over her chest, and growled at what he found. She had on another one of those lacy numbers that had the clasp in the front.

“Tell me that you like watching me ride bulls,” he said. He bent and put his mouth to her stomach. “That it turns you on to see me get whipped around by a wild animal”—his fingers slid up and closed over her lace—“that your panties grow wet at the thought of how strong I must be to stay on top of that big bad bull”—he worked his way upward—“and that all those same muscles will later be holding
you
.”

“The last time I watched you ride,” she said on a gasp, “those muscles didn’t hold me at all. You didn’t even touch me.”

“Oh, but I wanted to.” He kissed her neck. “And I did touch your lips.”

“Only because you fed me funnel cake.” Her breaths were coming hard, and he was ready to be inside her.

“I wish I had some funnel cake now.” He unhooked her bra with a single flick, and his dick sang hallelujah. “I’d sprinkle the powdered sugar all over your body”—he dragged a finger over the inside curve of one breast—“and I wouldn’t stop licking you until I had every last speck of it off.”

He cursed under his breath at the sight of her nipples tightening into sharp, hard buds, and leaned down, intent on having one in his mouth.

“Uncle Nick!”

He and Harper both froze, his face three inches over her chest, and both of their eyes went as round as saucers. Then Harper shoved him out of the way and sat up, her hands going immediately to the front of her clothes.

“I didn’t find you at the house,” came the child’s voice again. And that’s when Nick saw her, just coming over the rise with her dad. Jenna and Gabe stopped at the top of the hill, both of them eyeing him and Harper curiously.

“Oh my God,” Harper moaned. “Is that your brother?”

“And my niece.”

“What did they see?”

He climbed to his feet. “I’m thinking nothing. Otherwise Gabe would have turned her away.” Nick stood directly behind Harper as she finished righting her clothes, and he thought every frigid, unsexy thought in the book to get his own situation back under control.

While Gabe remained at the top of the hill eyeing him.

“I’m going to murder him,” Nick muttered.

Harper finally stood, her legs seeming unstable, and Nick took her hand. Together they headed toward the others, and when they made it to the top, Gabe and Jenna both stared at her.

“Who are you?” Jenna asked.

“Jenna,” Nick began before casting a dry look toward his brother. “
Gabe.
This is my friend, Harper.”

“Harper,” Gabe said. His eyes narrowed in concentration as they took in both her face and her hair. “I think I remember you from school. Were you in Cord’s class?”

“Two years behind him.” She reached out and shook his hand. “You’re looking well.”

“You, too.” Gabe glanced at Nick. “I didn’t realize you two were friends.”

“I know her through her sister.”

Nick turned his attention to Jenna, and Harper followed suit. Jenna stuck out her hand. “Nice to meet you. I like your name.”

Harper’s entire body relaxed. “And I like yours. I also love your doll.”

Jenna had a pink-clad baby under one arm, and she went into an instant litany of details for Harper as they moved toward the house: the doll’s name, why she had on the clothes she wore, what the she liked to do when she woke up every morning.

As they moved toward the house, the two females walked a few steps ahead, while Gabe hung back. “I’d heard a rumor about a woman with blue hair.” Gabe spoke low, but Harper still looked over her shoulder at them.

Nick ignored her. “You must have talked to Nate.”

“I haven’t talked to Nate in weeks. Haley told me.”

Jenna turned at the sound of her best friend’s name. “Is Haley back home?”

“Not yet, sweetheart,” Gabe answered. “I was just telling Uncle Nick that Haley told me all about Harper.”

“She did?” Harper questioned. She eyed Nick. “Why would Ben’s daughter be talking about me?”

“Because
he’s
been talking about you.” Gabe smiled unabashedly.

A question landed on Harper’s face, and Nick rolled his eyes, nudging them all to start moving again. “When I asked you to dinner at their house,” he explained. “I asked if I could bring someone, and Haley wanted to know if you were pretty.”

Jenna peered up at Harper. “You are pretty.”

“Thank you, sweetie.” She turned back to Nick, a half smirk on her face. “And you said?”

“I said that you were gorgeous.” His eyes told her a lot more about his personal thoughts than he’d ever say aloud in front of Gabe and Jenna. “And that you had blue hair. And that I loved it.” He shot an irritated look in his brother’s direction. “And then she apparently told everyone she knows, even though she promised to keep it a secret. Fat lot of good it does being her favorite uncle,” he grumbled.

“Well, there was your first mistake,” Gabe announced. “Never believe them when they say you’re their favorite uncle.”

“You’re my favorite uncle, Uncle Nick.”

Nick looked down into the wide, sincere smile of the child in front of him, whose hand was now tucked inside Harper’s. “Thank you, sweetheart. Do you mean that for good?”

She nodded. “Until Uncle Jaden comes home. Then he’ll be my favorite.”

Harper and Gabe laughed, while Jenna only continued to smile, unaware of the low blow she’d just dealt. Nick ruffled her hair, and the group entered the house through the back door. They stopped at the sound of footsteps overhead.

“Michelle came with us,” Gabe said, answering the unspoken question.

“Really?”

“Mama didn’t want to come,” Jenna explained. “She wanted to stay and play with her friends, but Daddy wouldn’t let her. He said she doesn’t have a job, so there was no reason for her not to come with us.”

Nick caught Harper’s uncomfortable shifting, her eyes darting away from the rest of them, then he studied his brother. If Jenna’s words were true, that was an interesting turn of events. In the past, Gabe would have let Michelle completely run the show. Meaning, Michelle would have stayed in California.

And suddenly she was there, right in front of them. Clothes as classy as ever, but several strands of her dark hair stuck out, making her seem unusually rumpled. She rarely looked anything but pristine.

“You lose your hair brush?” Nick asked.

Michelle shot him a laser-pointed glare. “You lose your manners?”

Nick grinned. “Never had any.”

She eyed him as if he were a bull’s turd dropped squarely on her designer shoes, before turning to Gabe. “Just where am I supposed to sleep? Your father and his wife took our bedroom.”

During the years Gabe had run the farm, their dad had moved into an apartment in town. At that point, Gabe and Michelle had taken over the master bedroom upstairs, while Dani had kept her room on the first floor. When everyone had moved out the year before and their Dad and Gloria had come home, their dad had rightly returned to the master. And, Nick had noticed, traces of Michelle’s style that had once permeated the room had since vanished.

Gabe pulled his keys from his pocket and leaned down to Jenna. “Will you get my bottle of water out of the car, sweetie? I forgot it.”

“Sure, Daddy.”

The second the door closed, Gabe faced Michelle. “There are four other rooms you can choose from. Pick one. It doesn’t even have to be the one I’m in. But no, you will not go to a hotel instead. And while I’m on the subject, you’ll also eat dinner with the family when we eat together.” Gabe’s eyes were as hard as his tone. “And you will
not
have a headache during any of those dinners.”

Hot anger colored Michelle’s face. “But there’s no family here.”

“Nick’s here.”

Nick once again grinned. He pointed to Harper. “Harper’s here, too.”

Harper shifted by his side.

“So she’s family now?” Michelle looked the other woman up and down in an obviously rude manner.

“She’s my guest.” Nick quit playing games. Not only had Gabe changed, but Michelle had become downright nasty. Before, she’d simply avoided the lot of them. Now, she seemed bitter and full of rage.

Probably without realizing it, Gabe had moved so that he stood shoulder to shoulder with Nick, making a united front, and Nick decided that he’d have to text Nate to let him know of this turn of events. Their oldest brother had finally grown a pair.

Jenna came back in, and as Michelle opened her mouth to toss out what was likely to be another barb, Gabe took her by the elbow and steered her upstairs. Jenna looked momentarily forlorn, before she set the bottle of water she’d retrieved on the kitchen table and headed to the office with her doll tucked securely under her arm.

Nick would go after her soon. Make sure she was okay.