Page 11 of Single Mom for the Firemen

MASON

As I washdishes in the kitchen sink, something catches my attention. There’s a window just above the dish rack, letting the light spill into the generously sized kitchen area, and something beyond the glass has drawn my gaze.

I dry off my hands and peer outside. Sure enough, there is someone—several someones, actually—heading toward the cabin. That new neighbor woman, along with her daughter. She grins and waves when she sees me looking through the window, and I raise my hand in greeting, going to the door to intercept her.

“Hey!” she calls to me as she and her daughter make their way toward the cabin. “I’m Vanessa, and this is Callie—we met the other day. We were just passing by this way, and I thought I would stop in. Make myself a proper introduction…”

She reaches the doorstep, the smile not moving from her face. I study her for a moment as I give her my name and shake her hand on autopilot; given how much the guys have been talking about her, it feels like she’s been conjured out of thin air.

Opinion seems mixed on her. Well, about whether she’s responsible, anyway. Jake is still pissed as hell about what happened the other day, and no matter how much Killian argues that she’s hot enough to overlook the drama, he just won’t let it go. I’ve had to step in between the two of them a few times now, just to stop things from blowing up. I can tell when my brothers are not going to let something go, and Killian, being the kind of guy he is, just can’t let it drop when he finds something that really gets under Jake’s skin.

As for me, I don’t know what I think of her. At least, not yet. Jake’s got a point—she’s old enough to know better about being responsible with her cooking, even if she is ten years younger than us. But Killian’s not wrong about the fact that she’s hot—even standing before me now, in a simple tee and a pair of jeans, she’s sexy as all hell. Her hair falls in waves around her face, and her soft, curvy body looks good enough to eat.

“Can I come in?” she asks, glancing past me. I frown. I don’t know about that. My brothers are out right now, responding to a call in another part of the forest—nothing too serious, just a couple of hikers who got lost and needed help to get back to the road. I was in the middle of finishing lunch, so they left me behind to clear up around the cabin and check that our equipment is in good working order.

But before I can answer, she flashes me another smile and steps inside, her daughter right behind her. I can’t help but chuckle. I’m pretty sure I never said yes, but something tells me she’s not the kind of woman who gives much of a damn about that.

“Mason, this place is amazing!” she says as she looks around. Yeah, I’m not going to lie—by this point, we’ve gotten the place looking pretty good. We preserved as much of the original cabin as we could, but we’ve installed everything that keeps this placerunning as an emergency response station too. Glossy black screens look out from among the polished wood, and the dark red carpet on the floor matches the flashing light of our walkie-talkies where they’re charging on the wall.

“Thanks,” I reply, nodding. “You guys…new to the area, right?”

“Right,” she replies, waving her hand back in the direction of her cabin. “We just got here last week. Still getting settled in, but we’re loving it, right, Callie?”

The little girl, who has slipped her hand into her mother’s, nods. She looks up at me with nervousness, and I soften at once. Vanessa just wants to get to know the people she’s going to be living next to for the forseeable future, and I’m not going to turn her down.

“You want a coffee? I was just going to make a pot for when Jake and Killian get back,” I offer, gesturing over to the kitchen.

“Oh, I would love that,” she sighs. “I’m living off instant coffee and it’s just not the same as you would get back in the city…”

I go to fill up the pot, and she settles down at the breakfast bar, helping her daughter up onto the stool in the process.

“So what is it your brothers are doing?” she asks me curiously, tipping her head to the side as I push a cup of coffee toward her.

“Right now? Responding to a call from some lost hikers.”

I don’t know why, but I find myself cautious when I’m answering—as though the wrong thing will expose something I don’t want to be known. I’m sure I’m being paranoid, but there’s something about the way she looks at me that tells me she’s sharper than she might present herself to be.

“Oh, okay,” she replies, taking a long sip of the coffee. She closes her eyes and lets out a sigh of pleasure.

“That’s so good,” she murmurs as I pour a cup of juice and place it down in front of Callie. I don’t like the thought of her being left out.

“Yeah, I’ve got it down to a science,” I reply, grabbing my own cup. “What about you?”

Her eyes widen for the briefest moment, as though I’ve struck a nerve.

“What about me?”

“What are you doing out and about? Just exploring?”

She calms at once.

“Yeah, that’s exactly it,” she replies, ruffling her daughter’s hair. “She wanted to see a little more of the forest. You’re still getting used to it out here, aren’t you, pumpkin?”

Callie nods again, and taps the side of the glass. “Thank you for the juice,” she tells me, and I can’t help but grin.

“You’re very welcome.”

“Good girl,” Vanessa whispers to her, giving her hand a little squeeze before she turns back to me.

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