Page 16 of 40 and (So Over) Fixing It
Carter tripped over a broken stick—or at least that’s what he told himself. “I didn’t have a hard-on.”
“Well it’s not like I checked, but you could have fooled me.” JD paused to step over a fallen log. “Considering there’s no way to blame her—legitimately—for Thad going up there, I don’t see another explanation.”
“Wrong.”
Just what JD was wrong about, Carter didn’t clarify. He was too busy trying to think up another explanation. Because it couldn’t be that he was attracted to Erin. She was nothing like the women he dated—used to date. Right, he wasn’t dating right now. He wasn’t looking at anyone, much less a woman who seemed to favor braids and flannel and coveralls.
Had that been mud on her boots or something else?
JD started whistling, and Carter fought the urge to punch him in the stomach. Let him find the air to whistle after that. Prick. “I don’t have a hard-on for the general contractor.”
“Right.”
“I don’t.”
“Okay.”
Carter growled low under his breath. “I didn’t come here looking for a woman.” Especially not that woman. “In fact, after the last disaster Emma sent my way, I’ve decided not to date at all for a while.” And he wasn’t changing his mind now. This vacation was about him and his son, not anyone else.
JD huffed out a laugh.
“What?”
“Nothing.” The whistling resumed.
Carter stopped in his tracks, jerking around to face JD. “What?”
JD grinned. “Nothing.”
Carter narrowed his eyes. JD resumed walking.
Damn it.
“Dad! Come look at this!”
Giving JD a pissed-off side-eye, Carter jogged ahead to see the mushrooms Thad had found growing on a downed log. JD just laughed again, which made it worse. Maybe this was his friend’s way of paying him back for the shit Carter gave him while he was navigating the beginning stages of a relationship with Lily.
No, this was nothing like JD and Lily’s experience. He wasn’t falling for the lady carpenter—if the wordladyeven applied—like JD had fallen for the lady mayor. Nothing whatsoever like that, at all.
Really, he had to get better friends.
They spent the afternoon wandering the woods with JD as a guide—or bait for any bear they ran into, Carter figured. Later JD and Lily invited them to dinner at a restaurant called the Carousel, which immediately had Thad enthralled. Carter let a hot shower wash away the grubbiness of their afternoon before sending Thad in for a shower too. He dressed, set out clothes for their evening, right on the bed where Thad could see them when he came out of the bathroom, then went downstairs and out into the cool October evening to give his business partner, Gavin, a call. It was close to midnight in Scotland, but Gavin was a night owl.
Sure enough, the gruff sound of Gavin’s voice, his Scottish accent barely a rumble under the word, answered on the third ring. “Aye?”
“Gavin.”
“How ya doin’, mate? Nothin’s eat ya up yet out there in the woods?”
Carter scoffed. “We’re not that far up in the wilderness.” He wouldn’t admit to Gavin that he’d worried about getting eaten by something until JD reassured them that bears were really all they had to worry about once the weather got as cool as it was now.
He couldn’t help a shudder at the thought of snakes.
Gavin conceded nothing; he usually didn’t. “It’s good for ya to get that boy out in the woods. Concrete and steel aren’t the only experiences for a man, yeah?”
Carter sighed. “I know, I know.” He felt the same. It was one of the reasons he’d wanted to come here, to give Thad a different experience, one parks in the city definitely couldn’t give him. It wasn’t shaping up how he’d wanted, however. Thad had been quiet all day. If Carter’s own conscience hadn’t been nagging at him, his son’s disappointment would’ve done the job plenty well.
“What’s goin’ on?”
