Page 52 of Scorched Secrets

“Don’t forget how Brady’s son, Caleb, was kidnapped,” Aiden said. “That hit close to home.”

“Kidnapped?” She couldn’t even imagine. “That’s awful.”

“Caleb is fine,” Colin hastened to reassure her. “Brady and Grace are happily married now too.”

“Better watch out, bro,” Aiden teased, lightly punching Colin in the shoulder. “You’re next.”

“Knock it off,” Colin muttered, the tips of his ears turning red. “You’re embarrassing Faye.”

“Not my intention,” Aiden said by way of apology.

“It’s fine.” She hoped her face wasn’t as flushed as Colin’s ears.

“Where do you want me to drop my duffel?” Aiden asked, thankfully changing the subject.

“Pick one of the two bedrooms upstairs,” Colin said. “I was planning to sleep on the sofa.”

“We should take turns keeping watch.” All sense of joking had vanished from Aiden’s tone. “Three- or four-hour shifts should do the trick.”

“Yeah, okay.” Colin gestured toward the patio doors overlooking the lake. “We have water behind us, not that the arsonist couldn’t show up by boat. If the guy even knows where we are, which is unlikely.”

“Agreed.” Aiden glanced around the house with frank admiration in his gaze. “Nice place. You must love spending time up here.”

She nodded, unwilling to get into her family dysfunction. “My dad rents it every summer. The owner is a hunter and tends to come up during the fall. I guess the summer rental income pays the mortgage and property taxes.”

“Think of the family parties we could have here.” Aiden elbowed Colin in the ribs. “Rhy is always talking about taking the family to Ireland, but this would be cheaper, especially since the family is growing by the minute.”

Faye was struck by how Aiden saw the house and immediately thought of spending time here with the Finnegan family. So different from her stepmother.

“I’m sure this place isn’t cheap, so you may as well stop planning our next year’s summer vacation.” Colin gestured to the front door. “Let’s head outside to walk the property before we make dinner. I want you to see the layout and the placement of each motion detection light. Having security cameras would be better, but this setup isn’t bad.”

“Sounds good.” Aiden flashed a quick smile in her direction before following his brother outside.

Faye took the time alone to pull herself together. It was probably a good thing Aiden had come to lend moral and backup support. Not that she didn’t trust Colin to remain in control, because she did. He was too honorable to take advantage of the situation.

No, it was her own erratic emotions she needed to worry about. She couldn’t lie to herself, she desperately longed to kiss him again.

But that couldn’t happen. She needed to remember this was a temporary situation. As much as she liked and trusted Colin, she really wasn’t interested in planning a future. She’d already made one huge mistake. The last thing she intended to do was to jump into another relationship.

Her long hours at the hospital were a big part of the reason Rory had cheated. That part of her job wouldn’t change. Colin worked a different schedule, too, but he would also have several days off while she was working.

Colin wouldn’t cheat, of that she felt certain. But that didn’t mean a relationship would be easy. No, she didn’t want to risk being hurt like that again.

She pushed away from the counter and searched the kitchen for something to accompany their hamburger meal. She found a box of French onion mix and set that aside. In the freezer, she found a pack of four corn on the cobs wrapped together, so she pulled those out too.

Maybe not the healthiest meal on the planet, but tasty. Colin and Aiden were both lean and muscular, making her self-conscious about the few added pounds she carried.

No more stress eating at work, she silently admonished. It wasn’t easy to get into a regular exercise routine with her long shifts, but she made a mental note to do better.

The ground beef was still frozen. She was debating defrosting it in the microwave when Colin and Aiden returned.

“Oh, hey. I’ll take care of dinner.” Colin took the frozen meat from her hands. “You just rest and relax.”

“What, you don’t trust me?” She lifted a brow.

“Colin is proud of his culinary skills,” Aiden said dryly. “He wants to show off for you.”

“That’s not it at all, I want her to rest,” Colin corrected. He nodded at the corn. “Are you sure your dad won’t mind if we eat that?”

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