Page 3 of Wicked Wishes
After I finished school out west, I told both my cousins I would be home as soon as I could. My cousin Mia has a son and is blissfully married, and Beckett has a baby on the way. I want to be close to what family I have left. Crystal Cove holds more bad memories than good, so I didn’t exactly go home. But I came close enough when I settled here in Harmony Hollow.
“You can really do it?” Kady gushes, tearing me from my thoughts of coming home and starting a life.
“Not only can I do it, but I alsowantto do it,” I swear, grinning as she claps her hands and bounces a little. Her husband Keegan doesn’t hide his groan and I can’t blame him because in her tiny tank top her candy apples do look good.
“When could you start?” she presses, glancing at Keegan hopefully.
“Whenever you need me, doll. Or whenever that one needsyou,” I grin at the handsome man who flushes when he has to tear his eyes away from his wife.
Babysitting for them will not just prepare me to be a good auntie to my cousins' children—but it might help me get ready to be a parent myself. Growing up an only child gave me little responsibility and zero idea how to be a parent. Until recently I had never given it much thought—but lately all I can think about is settling down like my cousins have, finding the man I want to spend my life with, and starting a family together.
“Do you think...? I mean we just asked, but could you watch him for a few hours tonight? I have daydreams of going to the grocery store without a baby attached to my tit,” she laments, and I nod with a laugh—clearly these two need a break.
“I can do that, darling. Go ahead, be free without offspring suckling at your teat,” I agree, excited at the prospect.
“Harley will be here on and off over the next two weeks or so. Not that I imagine that bothers youat all,” Kady stage whispers the last bit, laughing because, yeah, right there is why I am suddenly so excited to sit with a toddler for a few hours.
“No bother to me at all. I like to watch that man work.”
Sitting with baby Koda on the porch as the lovebirds talk about an exciting night of hitting the grocery store, I spot the man in question. His sexy bike—which he makes look even sexier whenever he rides—gleams in the sunshine as he wipes his dirty hands off. I love those filthy hands and I sigh a little, imagining them ruining my fair skin with the oil from the motor he is always tinkering with.
“Afternoon, Harley,” I call, bouncing a giggling Koda on my knee as he approaches.
His approach stops when he sees me. It irritates me that he pretends not to feel the same way I do. Not to want me like I want him. I respect his loss and his mourning, but I don’t believe someone he loved would want him to be lonely for the rest of his life. Or would never want him to feel again. And he feels something for me, I see it in his eyes whenever they land on me.
“Hey, there sweets,” he replies with the endearment he always calls me, though he sounds less than pleased at himself for using it, “what’s doing?”
“Here for my new ward,” I grin at the baby as I reply, then turn that smug smile on Harley, “I am their new babysitter.”
I have heard the term deer-in-headlights before, but I don’t know if I have ever seen it in real life. That is the best way to describe how he looks at me when I tell him I will be at the Dole’s tonight too. Forced to work in close proximity with me for a few hours is not how he expected tonight to go, I am sure. It would hurt my feelings if I let that sort of thing get to me—and with him it almost does.
Only reason it does not hurt is because I also see him fight a smile.
HarleyknowsI want him; I have laid it on thick since we met. Bouncing past his house in my short-shorts and tight tanks for my daily jog. Bringing him sweets whenever I miss him—which is often—as an excuse to get my fill of him. I flirt recklessly and shamelessly, and I don’t care if he thinks I am some silly girl wasting her time. He is no waste of time.
“Is that right?” he muses, that smile finally twisting his perfect lips.
His eyes are silvery storms and mostly he looks sad, but lord, when thisman smiles! It lights up his entire face, right up to his beautiful eyes, and I can’t look away. My heart pitter-pats in my chest and I stop breathing for a moment. His light eyes sweep past me as if he wishes he could dismiss me. As usual he can’t—but he always tries. Those silvery blue eyes come back to me and the storm in them is hot and raging.
“Yes, sir,” I grin as I answer, watching his dimple deepen, “thought I could use some practice, yeah?” I don’t bother pretending I mean anything but what I say. Practice with a baby—for when I give him children.
He and I down the road, together, a family, and the whole dream. It is all I can think of since we met. Him coming home to me baking cookies and playing with our babies. Maybe we have two. And like Kady and Keegan, we take date nights every chance we get. I smile up at him now, just imagining what our life together could be.
And when his eyes glimmer and he shakes his head, I know he is doing the same thing. Even if later, he will lecture me for saying things I don’t mean. Or doing things I shouldn’t do. He always lectures me, and I always listen and then do everything he just told menot to doanyway.
I consider it our form of foreplay—he tells me not to flirt, I flirt anyway and then he pretends not love that I ignored him. But he does—because if I go too long without flirting, he is a grumpy Gus.
Well, he can quit worrying—I don’t give up when I want something, and I want Harley Lane.
Chapter Three
Harley
Torture comes in all forms.
Today, my torture comes in the form of a five-foot-nothing bombshell who flirts with me when she shouldn’t and makes me want what I can’t have. Or at the very least, what Ishouldnot have. Sitting pretty on Keegan and Kady’s front porch with their cute baby bouncing on her lap, she stuns me with her bravado. Talking about getting practice for raising a baby—and looking at me with eyes that tell me she wants to raisemybaby.
And hell, if I haven’t thought about that same thing since we met.
