Stef Ann Holm, Lucy Back [paper ebook reader .TXT] 📗

than she could catch them, “to give you a chance if the day ever came. She wanted me to have you as my father. Not Bobby. Even when she was dying, she said that me and you needed to be together and I really was someone’s little girl.”

Drew almost couldn’t speak. “Well, I’m the one.” His throat clogged. “I am your dad, Mackenzie, and you’re my little girl.”

She began to sob, her shoulders shaking from the effort not to lose control, but it was too late. She buried her face in her hands, crying hard and standing there as if she was going to break.

He made a decision. He brought her close, enveloped her in his arms and held tight. She didn’t try and get away.

Mackenzie cried and cried. And he realized he was crying, too.

His nose tucked into her hair, that Mackenzie scent that was unique to her alone. There’d been moments in his life that were priceless to him, but he would trade them all for this one. Seventeen years had been a long time to reach this point.

Whispering against the strands, he dared to say, “Mackenzie, I love you.”

For long seconds, she didn’t reply. Then, with her wet cheek sticking to his shirtfront, she said, “I forgive you, Daddy.”

Twenty-Five

As the summer wound down and fall approached, the stores on Main Street advertised back-to-school clothes. On Overlook Dam, Labor Day was the final blow-out for docking and good times, the last call on coolers of beer, football, wakeboarding and gossip served up in warm weather.

Lucy lay out on the bow of Drew’s boat, face and body toward the gloriously warm sun. Eyes closed, she listened to water lapping against the hull, the laughter of children, Lloyd as he went on and on about who was constructing a gigantic house in the Knolls, the purr of outboard motors as they cut through the lake, the wet-rubber squeak of a blowup seal that Lloyd’s fly-swatting grandson was trying to stay afloat on.

The various sounds were that of life in Red Duck, Idaho. The flotsam chatter of a resort community heading back to normal after a full summer season.

Lucy was actually looking forward to the population thinning back down, even though that meant she’d lose some customers when they returned home. She’d gained several year-rounders over the last month, and her day planner was full enough that she’d started breathing easier.

“What are you thinking, sugar?” Drew asked, his voice close to her ear.

Lucy opened her eyes, shading them against the blinding sun. Drew crouched beside her, his hair damp and his upper body glistening with water. He’d been swimming with Mackenzie, and water dripped off his body, spilling onto the terry cloth of her towel. She was roasting and the cool droplets felt good on her heated skin.

“Hmm,” she responded, noncommittal. Earlier, she had been thinking about him. Fantasizing. She’d been watching him before lying down, eyes fastened on the way his back muscles bunched up and smoothed as he moved to tighten the cleat ropes, as he pitched a baseball to the boys and when his arm lifted to run a hand through his hair. She’d caught herself staring at his thighs, the strength and sinewy cords of hard definition in them.

His face had strong features. His thick, dark brown hair was made for a woman to sift her fingers through. His hazel eyes were a combination of golden flecks and olive-green…. Whenever he looked at her, she caught herself going from zero to lust in all of a few seconds.

Until today, she’d never noticed that he had creases at the corners of his eyes when he smiled. His face was tan, his mouth wide and his smile white.

“That’s not an answer,” he replied, his voice whiskey soft and filled with a drawl that was to die for.

When he touched her naked shoulder, she was shocked by the sensations that rocked through her body, the blood that rushed to all sorts of places that had been calm just a second ago.

She lied and said with a carefree tone, “I’m not thinking about much of anything. But that water dripping off you feels real good on me. It’s hot.”

“You’re hot.”

Laughter rose from her throat before she could stop it.

His hand cupped the curve of her shoulder, slid down her arm, and his flat palm laid on top of hers.

The atmosphere between them became charged and reckless. Lucy wanted to fill the silence, utter something witty and fun, but the words wouldn’t form.

She’d never been a flirt, but she found herself taking chances, saying and doing things around Drew she hadn’t done around other men. Through the years since her divorce, no man had ever interested her to the point of distraction.

Drew distracted her, made her crazy-nuts with carnal thoughts of ripping his clothes off. Resisting temptation had been a increasingly hard to do these past few days.

Something had been building between them, dangerous and exciting.

The hard calluses on his fingers were a stark contrast to her own soft hands. With a will of their own, her fingers curled into his and cinched tight.

His shadow fell over her bikini-clad body, the pungent scent of musk and man filling her senses. She wanted to bury her hands in that hair of his, and would have if nobody had been around. She had to get hold of herself.

“Want to go swimming?” he asked innocently.

“Yes, I think I better cool off!” She let go of his fingers.

Drew held out his hand for her, but she didn’t dare take it. She practically flew off the boat and dived into the chilly water.

The shock of icy-cold after the blistering heat did her traitorous body good, muting the groan that had gotten stuck in her throat. She needed a bracing swim to clear her thinking.

She swam around the floating dock to where her boys were.

Mackenzie and Jason stood at the edge, Mackenzie wearing a string bikini and looking adorable. “Ya’ll want to go wakeboarding?”

Matt was with