Page 104 of Hot for the Jerk

Unease shifted into his eyes the longer I didn’t respond.

Fuck.

“Your mom and I are … still getting to know each other.Do I think I could love her and probably will fall in love with her?Yes.I do.She is … prickly, but so is a rose.”That made him smile.“She also smells pretty good, like a rose.It’s still really early for me to give you any more answers than that.I would love to say that we’ll get married and I’ll become more than just your friend ‘Jagger.’If that happens and you want to call me ‘Dad,’ that’s up to you.But it’s still really early, so I don’t want to give you false hope.Your mom might wake up tomorrow and decide she doesn’t want to see me anymore.So, we can hope, but I can’t make any promises.Does that make sense?”

His head bobbed, even though the disappointment was clear on his face.“Yeah, it makes sense.I hope you guys do get married.Where would we live though?”

“Way too much worrying going on in that head of yours right now, bud.That means you need to do another set.So all you’re worried about is whether your arms are going to fall off tomorrow.”I pulled the bar down for him so he could grip it, then I guided him into another set.

I had the kid exhausted and craving a nap by the time we finished our workout and found Raina in the kitchen making coffee.

“Can I have a shower?”Marco asked, his hairline damp with sweat.

“No need to ask, remember?”I said, opening the fridge and pulling out the post-workout shake I made myself earlier so it would be extra cold now.

“Right.”He took off upstairs and moments later, the water started running.

“Turning my son into a gym bro?”Raina asked with some playful side-eye as she poured us each a coffee.

“Ah.”I finished my shake, opened up the dishwasher, and put my blender bottle on the rack.“He asked if I could teach him.Who am I to turn down a fellow bro?”

That made her snort.

“He’s worried about you.”

“I know.I can see it on his face.I hate that.It’s my job to worry abouthim.Not the other way around.”

Shrugging, I leaned against the counter.“Just like parents worry about their kids, kids worry about their parents.It’s what you do when you love someone.”

Her gaze lifted up to mine, and she moved into me, wrapping her arms around my waist.She pressed her nose to my chest.“Even after a workout, you smell good.That’s not fair.”

Chuckling, I ran my hands up and down her back.She wore a tight-fitting, black long-sleeve shirt and dark wash jeans that hugged her ass very nicely.“You going to the vineyard to work, or gonna stay here?”

“I might stay here, if that’s okay?Since it’s Sunday and Marco is home.”

“That’s fine by me.My home is your home.”

“I try not to work too much on the weekends anyway.At least in the off-season.So I don’t have too much to do.”

A knock at the front door had me reluctantly peeling away from her.Clint and Myla were on the other side, both of them with concerned looks on their faces.

“What is it?”I asked just as Raina came up beside me.I ushered them both into the house since it was chilly outside with that January wind coming off the water.“What’d you find?”

“We don’t know where they are,” Myla said, obviously upset that kidnappers were still at large on the island.“But we know how they got here.”

“They chartered a boat from Wayman Island.They took the ferry from the mainland to Wayman—like a lot of people are doing—then chartered a fishing boat over here,” Clint said.

“We’ve spoken with the fishing guide who brought them over, and he’s really upset that he contributed at all to the attempted kidnapping.He was just happy to make a little money, didn’t ask too many questions.”Myla made a face that she understood the fishing guide’s plight.She wasn’t going to hold it against him.Neither would I.This time of year, with all the storms, everyone who worked on the water was hurting for cash.

“But nobody has seen them at any of the ports, and they know not to accept a request to shuttle.We’ve passed around their photos.Which means they’re most likely still on San Camanez,” Clint went on.“The question is: where?”

“Hawke hasn’t seen them at the hostel?”I asked.

Myla and Clint shook their heads.“No.After finding out Soloman was there, Hawke’s been extra vigilant with knowing just who his guests are,” Myla added.

“And Wyatt just came back from checking the cabin on Bonn Remmen’s land, since we know that’s a place where people can squat too.It was empty.No signs of anybody staying there recently.”Clint scratched at his dark, short-cropped beard.“We’re not going to stop looking.If they’re here, we’ll find them.”

I wrapped an arm around Raina when she started to shake beside me.“Marco is safe here.”

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