“Hi, peanut.” I held out my arms for Charlie as she came into the kitchen. She rubbed her sleepy eyes, then came right to me and crawled into my lap, burrowing her head into my shoulder.
Thea came over to the kitchen table and kissed Charlie’s hair. “Good morning, my love. Want some pancakes?”
Charlie nodded as she yawned.
“Chocolate chips or blueberries?”
“Chocolate chips,” Charlie and I said in unison.
Thea smiled at me and went back to her bowl of pancake batter.
“Morning.” Hazel came into the kitchen from the back porch, kicking off some garden clogs by the door. “Nice shirt, Logan. It’s so similar to the one you were wearing yesterday.”
I grinned. “Nearly identical.”
Thea and I had gotten up early, wanting to beat Charlie out of bed. I’d intended to get to the motel and shower and change, but when Thea had handed me a cup of coffee, we’d ended up talking for an hour and I’d lost track of time.
So I was in the T-shirt I’d worn yesterday, the one she’d worn to sleep in after we’d used three of her condoms.
Cramped in her bed that was much too small for the two of us, I’d slept like a rock with Thea at my side. We’d heard Hazel head outside early, then had sex again before coming downstairs.
I needed to get to work since my team at the firm had already been at it for three hours. But I couldn’t seem to get my feet to walk out the door. I couldn’t break away from the girl in my lap and the woman at the counter.
“What’s the plan for today?” Hazel asked Thea, coming to sit at the table with a cup of coffee.
“Since I’m off, I was thinking about going shoreline picking.”
Charlie’s head flew off my chest. “Can I come?”
Thea twisted to look over her shoulder. “Of course.”
“Yes.” Charlie smiled up at me. “Can you come too?”
Damn, I wanted to. I had no idea what shoreline picking was, but I wanted to find out. I’d go Dumpster diving if that meant I got to spend the day with the Landrys. But the phone in my pocket had been vibrating all morning. Ignoring it was getting harder with each call.
“I’m not sure.” I touched her nose. “I’m supposed to be working, but hanging with you sounds like a lot more fun.”
She nodded. “It is. It’s super fun. And we can bring snacks for a picnic.”
I glanced over at Thea’s back. “What time are you going?”
“Whenever. We can hang out and wait for you. Maybe leave around noon.” She was trying to come across as nonchalant, but I could hear the hope behind her words. It matched Charlie’s.
“Okay. Let me make some calls.”
I’d been killing myself for two weeks—more like two years. I could take an afternoon off.
“Now.” I gave Charlie a serious look. “What on earth is shoreline picking?”
By noon, Thea had loaded up her hatchback with some empty buckets and work gloves. She and Charlie had both changed into their swimsuits, and I’d run back to the motel to do some work and pull on a pair of shorts.
I hadn’t changed my shirt, because it still smelled like Thea. She used the same lavender shampoo and lotion that she did on Charlie, but her natural citrusy scent made it entirely her own.
“What can I do?” I asked her as she carried out a handful of trash bags from her workshop.
“I think we’re good to go.” She scanned the yard, searching for our daughter. “Charlie!”
In the distance, a faint “I’m coming!” carried through the trees.
My phone buzzed in my pocket but I ignored it. I’d scrambled in my attempts this morning to fit eight hours of work into three. I hated being behind or leaving my team on their own, but that motel room couldn’t keep me today. I was too excited about what Thea had planned.
Shoreline picking, I’d learned, was basically a treasure hunt.
Thea and Charlie had made this a special outing between the two of them, and they’d go a couple of times each summer.
Thea would pick a spot along the lake’s long, winding shoreline and they’d spend the day walking around the edge. Sometimes they were right on the water. Other times they were on deserted gravel roads, like the one that wrapped around the shoreline in front of my future property.
But wherever they were, they’d walk a mile or so, searching for items that had been discarded.
“I’m ready!” Charlie joined our sides just as Thea slammed the hatchback closed.
She smiled. “I’m ready too.”
Charlie turned to run toward the backseat, leaving Thea and I alone. So before she could walk away, I grabbed her wrist, yanking her to my chest.
“What—”
I cut her off, slamming my lips down on hers in a hard, fast kiss. “There,” I said, breaking away. “Now I’m ready too.”
She shook her head, smiling as she turned and wiped her lips dry.
We hadn’t talked about how to act in front of Charlie and whether or not we should keep our relationship a secret. But if all went according to my plan, I’d have both of them living with me before fall. Charlie would need to know something was up between Thea and me before we were all living under the same roof and her parents were sharing a bed.
I rounded the car and got into the passenger seat, turning over my shoulder to smile at Charlie. “Excited?”
“Yeah.” She nodded wildly, digging a small bag of chips out of the console in the backseat. “This is my favorite.”
“So what kind of things do you guys usually find?” I asked as Thea pulled away from the cottage.
“It depends. Usually when we go out in the early summer, it’s mostly trash. Stuff that got buried in the snow. But this time of year, we’ll find more. Tourists and visitors always lose things as the summer progresses. Last August, I found three sets of keys over a few weekends. I posted them at the bar for a month, but when no one came to claim them, I welded them all together in pipes for a wind chime. I had to buy a few plain keys so I had enough, but it turned out really cool.”
“Where is it? I’d love to see it.”
“I sold it.”
“Yeah? I didn’t realize you sold your art.”
She shrugged and pulled onto the highway. “It’s not the reason I do it, but if I didn’t get rid of some of the stuff, we’d be overrun at the house. So I commission my extra pieces at a gift shop in Kalispell. Then I set aside the money for Charlie’s college fund.”
“Hmm, interesting. How many pieces do you have commissioned?”
“I don’t know. Maybe twenty or thirty at the moment. But they’ve been taking my work for years. The owner is a good friend of Hazel’s.”
I wasn’t a regular in the art scene, but I’d been to my fair share of fundraisers hosted at art galleries. Twenty to thirty pieces were enough that Thea could become a career artist, especially if she had a story to go behind each piece. Most of my friends would go crazy over junk turned into art, and Thea’s work was incredible.
Once Thea and Charlie lived with me in New York, she wouldn’t need to work. She’d have time to focus on her artwork. I’d assumed that Thea’s art was just a hobby, but this could become her career. We could get a bigger place if she wanted a studio in the house. Or I’d rent her space.
She could create something other than cocktails during the day.
“It’s so beautiful today.” Thea’s eyes swept the lake as she drove. The sun was glistening off the glassy water. There wasn’t a cloud in the blue sky.
“This is a beautiful area.”
We’d definitely be back to Lark Cove. This small town had grown on me and the house I’d bought was a perfect spot for summer vacations to visit Hazel.
“Have you ever been to Montana before?” she asked.
“Once.” I nodded. “An ex-girlfriend moved out here for a job and I came out to visit.”
“How long were you together?” Something in her tone made it sound like she really didn’t want to know the answer.
“Five years.”
“Oh.” The temperature in the car dropped ten degrees, despite the shining sun. “So you were serious?”
“Yes. I met Emmeline at a fundraising gala and we started seeing each other. We lived together up until she took a teaching job in Prescott and moved out here.”
“Prescott,” she repeated. “I’ve never been there. That’s southwest Montana, right?”
“Right.”
Prescott was more rugged than this corner of Montana. Lark Cove suited me much more than the area where Emmeline had moved.
“What happened with you two?” Thea asked.
I studied her profile. The round sunglasses on her face were huge, covering a good portion of her cheekbones, but she was stunning. The sunlight coming through the windows gave her a glow.
“I broke it off with her at Thanksgiving this last year. She kind of forgot to tell me she was married.”
“Married?” Thea winced, hissing through her teeth. “And she didn’t tell you? That’s awful. What a b-i-t-c-h.”
I laughed. “I don’t think she kept it from me maliciously. She’s got a good heart. She and her husband got married young and then separated. They hadn’t seen each other in years, but they were still legally married. She moved to Montana for a teaching job and he turned up there. When they reconnected, I knew it was over between us.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay. It all ended for the best. She’s happy.” I glanced behind me, seeing that Charlie was busy staring out her window, then reached across the console to touch Thea’s thigh. “And so am I.”
There wasn’t anywhere in the world I’d rather be than in this car. I was happier than I’d been since the breakup. If I was being honest, I was happier now than I’d ever been when Emmeline and I had been together.
The luckiest thing that could ever have happened to me was Emmeline leaving New York for Montana. If she had stayed, I would never have met Charlie. I wouldn’t have found Thea.
“Do you, um . . . still talk to her? Your ex?”
“Jealous?” I threw her question from last night back at her.
She grinned. “Yes.”
“No.” I chuckled. “I don’t talk to Emmeline. I doubt I ever will again.”
“Hmm.” She pushed down her turn signal. I could have sworn I heard a “good” under her breath too as we pulled off the highway to a gravel parking area beside the lake.
“We’re here.” Charlie’s small fingers hurried to release her harness, and she was out the door almost as fast as Thea.
I got out of the car and met Thea at the back.
“Here you go.” She handed Charlie a tiny red pail with a yellow handle. “For your rocks.”
Then she reached into the back of the car for one of the larger buckets and gloves. “Here.” She shoved them at my gut, then got out her own bucket, a trash bag and another pair of gloves. “All set.” She stood and tried to scoot past me, but I caught her at the elbow.
“How are we going to handle this?”
Her eyebrows came together. “Handle what?”
“Us. There’s no way I’m not going to kiss you today. I’m wondering if you want me to hide it from her. Or if you’re okay with her knowing that her dad is crazy about her mom.”
She smiled and looked down at her flip-flops. “Crazy?”
“Insane.” I hooked a finger under her chin, tipping it up. “Hurry, baby. She’s on her way back.”
“Then we’d better sneak one in fast.”
The inch between us disappeared, but not because I’d crossed it. She had. She stood up on her toes and pressed those soft lips deep into mine. Her tongue darted out for a quick taste before disappearing back behind her teeth. Then she moaned, making my cock jerk so hard I shuddered from head to toe.
Fuck, this woman.
She was ruining me one kiss at a time.
As fast as she’d come at me, she pulled back. The flush in her cheeks was a sexy pink that matched her lips. With the tie of her swimsuit poking out around her neck, her hair up in a messy knot and that flush, she was the most beautiful woman in the world.
“We’d better keep this between us for a while. Until we figure some things out. Let’s give her a chance to adjust to the three of us spending time together. And we should see where things go.”
I nodded. “All right.” When it came to Charlie, I trusted Thea’s judgment. Though I already knew where things between us were going to go.
She patted my stomach. “We’d better go.”
“I need a second.”
Behind those sunglasses, her eyes widened. She stood stunned for a moment but then she giggled.
“What are you laughing about?” Charlie called back to the car. “Come on! Let’s go.”
“Coming!” Thea yelled back and closed up the car. She started down the path to the lake but stopped. “Oh, and Logan?” She glanced back. “Her mom is kind of crazy about her dad too.”
“Good to know.” I smiled, then took a few breaths, making sure that I had my dick under control so I wouldn’t have to explain to my daughter why my shorts had an odd bulge. Then I jogged down the path, catching up to Thea and Charlie as they headed for the lake.
“What exactly am I looking for?” I asked, swinging my empty bucket at my side.
“Trash,” Thea answered.
“Not trash, Mommy.” Charlie stopped examining a rock to scold Thea before looking up at me. She had on her favorite baseball cap, but I could still see her smiling eyes. “We’re looking for treasures.”
“Trash to become treasure.” Thea tilted her face to the sky, letting the sun warm her skin before smiling at me. “I like to take the tattered and lost and make it shine. Garbage doesn’t have to stay garbage. Things just need to find their right place.”
Their right place.
This was my right place. Being with Thea and Charlie gave me a sense of belonging I’d never felt so strongly before. I reached into my pocket to get my phone for a picture but realized it was gone. I’d left it in the car.
I hadn’t left it behind in years.
Should I get it? No. I’d enjoy the afternoon in Lark Cove.
Besides, next week, I’d be back in New York and could get all caught up.
They didn’t know it yet, but Thea and Charlie would be there with me.
