Page 70 of Wanting a Family Man

After a long, slow descent, she heard a creek.

Trystan had no trouble using the widely placed boulders as stepping stones to cross it. He paused to hold his hand back and steady her as she carefully picked her way on the slippery rocks.

Another gradual climb brought them to a narrow waterfall, but the litter of stripped logs told her it roared in spring. They circled a massive tree trunk of gray bark and Cloe paused to appreciate how tall it was. So tall, she couldn’t see the top through the network of branches.

She was breathing hard by the time they got to the top of the waterfall. They followed what had to be a deer trail along the edge of the hill, before they finally had another descent into a wide cove.

The rain had let up and the sky had finally brightened. Storm woke as they set out their picnic. She was practicing her walking skills so Cloe held her hands and let her tromp her Velcro-strapped sneakers across the packed sand at the tide line.

“Do people come ashore here?” she asked Trystan.

“In a Zodiac, maybe. It’s not the best place for it. There are a lot of hidden rocks. That’s why I like coming here. No one else ever does.”

“Someone brought their dog, though.” She was still bent over to hold Storm’s hands and nodded at the wet sand. The dog was off-leash because there were no shoe prints.

“Cloe.” He didn’t move from where he was crouched by his little stove, starting water to boil. “You know what that is. We saw one the other day.”

“Awolf?” She snatched Storm into her arms, hugging her to her chest as she looked around the small cove and up into the trees. “It’shere, Trystan! The tide hasn’t come in yet to wash it away.” She hurried to the survival blanket as though it was home base and would somehow protect her. “This is an island. I thought the wolves and cougars were on the mainland. How did it get here?”

“Swam,” he said with a shrug.

“Between the islands? Are you messing with me?” She sat Storm firmly between her thighs and found a wet wipe to clean her own hands and Storm’s before she offered the baby a few cubes of cheese.

“No.” He was laughing at her, though, as he turned off the flame and set Storm’s bottle in the cup of boiled water. “They eat salmon and seal pups and whatever else they can find on the beach. If they can’t find anything on one beach, they go to another.”

“Well—Aren’t you nervous?” Cloe demanded.

“That there’s a wolf nearby? I’m not going to slather myself in bacon grease and whistle for him. If he’s here, he knows we’re here. Keep a stick nearby,” he suggested. “If he shows up, throw it for him to fetch. It’ll give you time to run away.”

“You’re not funny.” Laughter bubbled up in her throat, though.

“I don’t know what else to tell you. This is where animals live. We’re the visitors so we can’t be upset that they’re here.”

He wasn’t wrong, but she remained watchful as she accepted Storm’s warmed bottle and settled her into the crook of her leg to drink it.

They each ate a cup of soup and some trail mix, not talking.

It wasn’t an uncomfortable silence, but as Cloe sifted her fingers through Storm’s fine baby hair, she had the sense again that this was something she wanted. Someday. Children and a man beside her who acknowledged that life was dangerous but told her not to be scared of it.

For now, it was enough to have time with her sister’s baby and a lover who—

Her heart skipped a beat as she realized he was watching her with a somber expression on his face.

“Is everything okay?” she asked, biting back an instinctiveAre we?

“Glenda knows.” His mouth curled with dismay. He shifted his troubled gaze to the water.

“About us?” She touched her chest. “How?”

“She saw us yesterday.”

“Doing what? We weren’t even kissing.” She didn’t know why she felt so panicked, but a sensation of falling accosted her. “Will she tell Logan—”

“No,” he said firmly. “She won’t tell anyone.”

“Then…?” Cloe felt exposed, though. She had a PTSD flashback to that sick sense that she had done horrible, illegal things and was stupid for letting it happen. Complicit. She was bad because she’d made bad choices.Shewas to blame for the situation she’d found herself in. At least, that’s what Ivan’s defense attorneys had wanted everyone to believe, including her.

Storm rolled over, dropping her mostly empty bottle and scrabbling at Cloe so she could pull herself onto her feet.

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