Page 31 of Summer with the Single Dad

“Uh,” came a voice from the cabin door.

That sick feeling in his belly intensified, and he spun around to see Justine standing in the doorway.

“I mean, you … you can stay with me until I figure out another way to keep you here.”

Wyatt cleared his throat.

Heat burned Bennett’s face. “I mean, sorry. That came out wrong. What I mean is, I’ll look into renting an RV or something we can put on the property. I understand this was your vacation and we never want to disappoint our guests or ruin their vacation.”

“I … I’m sure I can find something else,” Justine said warily. “Or just head back to the city. It’s okay. It’s not your fault.”

“Just … just give me a couple of hours, please? Go to the bar. Dom will get you a drink on the house. Wyatt will cook you whatever you want.”

“I will?” Wyatt asked.

Bennett shot his brother a glare before turning back to Justine. “Just, give me a bit of time to fix this. It’s what I do. I fix. Okay?”

Her face said she wasn’t convinced, but at least she was nodding. He took that ounce of positivity and ran with it, yanking his phone out of his back pocket. “Where the fuck is Jagger?”

“No clue,” Clint and Wyatt said at the same time.

“I have to get back behind the bar,” Dom said.

“And I need to get back into the kitchen,” Wyatt added.

“Cooper has things under control in the brewery for now. So I can help you,” Clint said, rolling up the sleeves of his checkered shirt. He smiled at Justine as he headed into her cabin.

“Jagger, we’ve had a flood in cabin five. I need you back here to help … I don’t know. I just need you back here to help.” Bennett disconnected the call with Jagger’s voicemail, then shot off a text of a similar nature.

As reliable and helpful as Jagger could be, he also had a habit of just disappearing and being out of reach for a few hours at a time. It was usually only when the kids were all at school and Jagger was least in demand, but it was still peculiar. And when asked about it, Jagger told whoever asked to mind their own business.

They did find out recently that he was in a book club that met at the library, but being in a book club wouldn’t make him out of reach. He’d see the texts and reply.

No. His phone was off.

But, why?

“I’ll call around and see if we can rent some dehumidifiers on short notice,” Clint said, sifting through his contacts on the phone, having reemerged from the cabin. “Definitely, the floor will need to be replaced. It’s already starting to warp. As well as the baseboards and possibly some lower cabinetry. Need to dry everything out first.” He put his phone to his ear, then wandered back into the cabin. “Hey, yeah, it’s Clint McEvoy …”

Justine was on the porch and she locked eyes with Bennett. “I feel like this is my fault.”

He rushed to her, the railing of the porch between them, but he took her hands in his. They were soft and delicate, her fingers long and the nails perfectly trimmed short. “It’s not your fault. These things happen. It was a total accident.”

“But maybe if I’d been here when it happened, there wouldn’t be so much damage.”

“We definitely don’t expect our guests to stay in their cabins the entire time they’re here. That’s no vacation. You did nothing wrong, Justine. I mean it. But I want to do whatever I can to make you happy and keep up our end of the deal with regards to your vacation.”

She shook her head, her ponytail jostling slightly behind her. She glanced down at their hands and when she realized he was still holding hers, she pulled herself free from his grasp.

“Sorry,” he said. “I didn’t mean—”

“It’s fine.”

“I’m not trying to be inappropriate by offering you to stay in my house. You’re welcome to decline, but …” She lifted her gaze back to his, the brown so light and clear it was like sea glass in front of the sun. A few specks of white in her irises drew his focus, and he swallowed. “Just give me some time, please. I know you’re here to … find yourself again. And I know how important retreats like this can be. Just, give me a few hours, okay?”

She nodded, and unlike last time, she appeared to believe him … a little.

Smiling, he brought his phone back out of his pocket and started to make some calls, wandering back to his office to find more phone numbers that he didn’t have stored in his contacts.

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