Page 33 of That One Heartbreak

“Great.” She forced a smile onto her lips. “Jump in the front seat.”

Marley gave James a nod and then took another step back.

“I’ll drop your cooler and chairs off on my way home,” Marley told her. “I’ll leave them on the porch.”

“My house isn’t on your way home,” she pointed out and it made him smile.

“One of these days you’re gonna let me help without protest,” he told her. “Or at least, I hope you will.”

“Never gonna happen.” Okay, she was feeling better now. “But thank you, I’d appreciate that.”

“No problem.”

The field was almost empty by the time Marley got back to the stage. Not that it was a stage anymore, half of it was already dismantled. Though they’d sent the juniors home, some of the fire volunteers had remained to help finish the break down, and of course Pres and Alex were still there, though Cassie had taken the kids home.

“Everything okay?” Tayto asked as Marley walked over to help him. He was looking red in the face as he carried the wooden planks from the dismantled stage to the van. At forty-eight, he was one of the older volunteers. What he lacked in physical fitness he more than made up for in experience.

“All good. Just making sure Paul’s family got back to their car safely. Kate has her hands full with those kids.” He wasn’t surewhy he mentioned Paul. Maybe because there was a little feeling of guilt pulling at him.

He was stupidly attracted to Paul’s wife. And fuck, he didn’t know what to do with that.

“She has her hands full, huh?” Tayto said, huffing as he lifted another load of planks. Marley took the other end, helping him place them in the truck. “I saw one of the guys from the Maple Cross station checking her out.”

“What?” Marley frowned.

“Don’t worry. I told him she was off limits. What kind of sick fucker would go after Paul’s widow?” Tayto shook his head. “He was one of ours, man. You don’t do that to a brother.”

Marley’s stomach tightened. The memory of his body pressed against Kate’s felt like a knife turning in his gut. She was so soft against him. It had messed with his brain. He’d liked it. Wanted more.

Wanted her. The one woman he couldn’t have.

Fuck.

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to push the memory of her body out of his mind. The smell of her shampoo, the way her big blue eyes always made him feel like he was about to get lost in the best of ways.

What kind of sick fucker would go after Paul’s widow, anyway?

Not this one. He needed to get a grip. He’d promised to make sure she was okay, not to get a hard on whenever he saw her.

He owed that much to Paul.

Chapter

Ten

At first Katethought she must have missed Marley when he ran past her house on Monday and Tuesday. It had been lightly raining on both days, and Ethan had a project due at the end of the week that the whole family had worked on. He had to make a poster about the wildlife found in West Virginia. It had been spread out on the kitchen table every night as she, Ethan, and sometimes James, stuck pieces of information and pictures on it.

Maybe it was a good thing she hadn’t seen Marley. Ever since his body had pressed against hers on Friday night, her head had felt a little messed up.

Because she couldn’t be attracted to Marley Hartson. She just couldn’t.

And yet on Wednesday night she sat out on the porch with a book and a glass of wine. James was studying and Ethan and Addy were in bed. She figured it would be a good time to try to make things right between her and Marley. She could maybe laugh and joke with him as he ran by.

But he didn’t come. And for some reason she hated that.

By Thursday she knew he was avoiding them. And she didn’t like it one bit. The kids were noticing, too. Addy had drawn a picture of him playing the drums and she wanted to give it to him.

So Kate sucked it up and messaged him.

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