Page 30 of Her Summer Hope

He couldn’t get her out of his head.

∞∞∞

Over the weekend, she had shown up as promised and prepared some dinners that he would probably never forget, though that might be due to how beautiful she was than to anything else.

There was something about her that was caring and nurturing and he found himself drifting to her more than he should.

He was never inappropriate with her. He made sure of it. He would never wreck a marriage and he sensed that Madison was loyal and had integrity, something that he admired greatly.

He’d seen how she watched Aiden, as if her hands itched to help him in some way. He’d even seen her sneak him the last piece of chocolate pie on Sunday night after she claimed it was all gone.

She never talked about her life outside the chalet and she never took the bait that Evans persistently dangled in her face.

Murdock’s reaction to her had been the most surprising of all.

Murdock didn’t trust anyone outside the team. He disliked most men and had a big grudge against women, for reasons that he never, ever spoke about.

Kyle could only speculate what made him that way, but whatever it was, he’d been like that even before he’d been captured.

The torture had only made it worse.

Madison had begun to wiggle her way in under his defenses in a way that didn’t send off alarms to the big, silent man. Oh, he didn’t do anything different—he didn’t talk more to her than usual or spend extra time with her—but he was less menacing when she was around…and Kyle had caught him bringing in more than just vegetables from the garden.

Sunday night before she left, Kyle had been sitting out on the patio with a drink. Murdock had wandered in, sweaty from the evening sun, with a crate of vegetables. As he passed, Kyle saw a single sunflower resting on top.

He turned away quickly and pretended not to have noticed.

Kyle felt something in his chest tighten and release at the simple gesture. Murdock was right. She’d brought a small measure of sunshine into their lives. He hoped she stayed on for a long time.

Monday, he woke up bright and early and made his way to the kitchen for a plate of pancakes and sausage. Jimmy was grumbling about Madison’s sloppy handwriting on the supper menu and Kyle scanned it and laughed.

“She writes like a damned doctor. Can’t read a thing she wrote,” he complained.

“It looks pretty clear to me,” Kyle said raising an eyebrow. “Monday—Hamburgers, potato wedges, broccoli slaw, brownies.”

Jimmy snorted. “What kind of chef serves broccoli slaw with hamburgers?”

“Have you ever eaten her food?”

“No, and I don’t need to. It’s plain they aren’t teaching those students right over at the school. Can’t figure out what kind of chef decides to make a broccoli slaw with hamburgers,” he muttered again.

“Well, you’ll get to meet her tomorrow. Looks like she’s going to make corned beef tomorrow. If I’m not mistaken, that has to be started early.”

“Let me see that!” Jimmy said, snatching the clipboard. He scanned the menu and frowned. “She’s got no cabbage on here. None.”

Kyle was starting to get exasperated. “It’s not that big of a deal.”

“Logan, there are certain things that just go together…peanut butter and jelly, ham and cheese, pears and smoked gouda, and corned beef and cabbage. This ain’t right,” he said, jabbing the paper.

“Leave it alone, Jimmy. I’m warning you, be nice to her tomorrow or you might find yourself out of a job.”

Jimmy raised an eyebrow at his tone.

Kyle wouldn’t fire the man, not when he had twins on the way, but he wouldn’t tolerate him being rough on their other employees—any of them.

“Fine, fine,” he said, holding his hands up. “If you folks want to eat like savages, that’s your call.”

Kyle shook his head and left before anything else was brought up that he’d have to deal with.

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