Two days later Finn still couldn’t erase the look on Charlie’s face from his mind when he’d told her she shouldn’t go back inside The Eagle’s Nest.

Not that it had been anything overt. She hadn’t flinched. No tears had leaked from those ridiculous blue eyes of hers. Charlie never cried.

It’d been so much subtler. The tiniest glimmer of hope right before it died out. That was almost worse.

He couldn’t wrap his head around it. What had she wanted? Why had she been there in the first place? Had she truly wanted to go hang out with his friends?

Like she hadn’t shattered his heart into a million pieces eight years ago. As if she hadn’t told him she loved him, then married another man despite Finn begging her not to.

God, he’d almost gotten court-martialed for her. For coming back to Wyoming to try to stop her wedding to a man he knew she didn’t love. He’d been so sure if he could just talk to her, see her face-to-face, ask her to wait and trust him, she would. She would marry Finn.

But she hadn’t.

She’d told him, pretty much in front of the entire town, that she chose Brandon Kempsley. That he had the money, means, and education to give Charlie what she wanted.

Finn had been fine to screw around with for a few years, but when it came to lifelong choices, he didn’t quite make the cut.

He’d been in love with her through high school and beyond. She’d just been marking time until she had a chance to marry someone closer to her tax bracket.

So, what if she’d gotten her feelings a little hurt at not being invited to hang out with Finn’s friends.

But it bothered him. Maybe he was just a sucker, or he’d gone soft after leaving the Army. But that look on her face, of hope being squashed? It ate at his gut.

And that kiss. He’d be lying if he said it hadn’t run through his mind on repeat from the moment they’d pulled away from each other.

Maybe the hurt in Charlie’s eyes was new and unexpected, but that kiss. . .it had been the same in all the good, bad, and burning-down-the-whole-town ways.

His body remembered everything about the feel of hers. The way her much smaller frame fit against his. The way his fingers automatically dug into that long blonde hair. The sound she made when all she was thinking about was him.

Who knows what would’ve happened if they hadn’t been in a crowded parking lot.

Heat had never been their problem. Not getting burned? That was another story.

If she burned him now, nearly a decade later and hopefully wiser? Well, then that just made him an idiot, didn’t it?

He was pulling up to the county education offices to talk to Mrs. Johnson. Because whether he was an idiot or not when it came to the sexual chemistry between him and Charlie, he had to know if she could truly help his son.

Mrs. Johnson was the special education specialist for all of Teton County. She knew about Ethan’s situation, what he’d gone through as an infant and toddler, and even before he was born, which was now contributing to his learning problems.

Finn let his fury roll off him as he walked into the school. It was an old anger directed at the woman who had given birth to Ethan and then refused to care for him the way he needed, and it wouldn’t help now.

He would give up anything to go back in time and know about Ethan from the moment his beautiful son was born. But he couldn’t. All he could do was provide the best available options for Ethan now. Even if that included Charlie.

He knocked on Mrs. Johnson’s door and entered at her invitation.

“Finn.” The older woman smiled, tucking a strand of gray hair behind her ear. “It’s good to see you. How is Ethan? How’s your summer going?”

Mrs. Johnson had a calming, friendly way about her—equal parts personality, training, and godsend. Finn had asked more than once if she would consider leaving her administration position and going straight back into the classroom. Ethan’s, to be specific. But even the lure of having summers off hadn’t persuaded her.

“Everything is going great. I can’t get Ethan to come inside until dark almost every day. We’re out in the woods all the time or he’s playing with Legos. Normal boy stuff.”

Except that his bestie was a four-year-old.

“I’m glad he’s having fun. That’s important. Any luck on getting him to read something?”

Guilt slid through him. “No, but that’s my fault more than anything. I’m not much of a reader either, I’m afraid.”

Mrs. Johnson didn’t tsk or make him feel bad. She just shrugged. “It’s summer. The sun’s out. I think books take a back seat for most boys Ethan’s age.” She smiled kindly. “And maybe yours too.”

“But school starts in a month and a half.” Finn rubbed his fingers over his eyes. “Every time someone mentions it, Ethan gets all tense and nervous. I hate that.”

She gestured to a chair, and after he sat, she took the one next to him. “I do, too. We should do anything we can to establish school as a positive place for him, rather than negative. Any stories you can think of from your own school experience, funny, silly, anything positive, you should go out of your way to tell him. Or your Linear Tactical friends. Ethan looks up to them all like uncles.”

Finn nodded. “That’s a good idea. I’ll ask my mom too. I’m sure she has a lot. They might be of me causing trouble, but they’ll probably be entertaining and positive.”

“Good. These aren’t solutions, of course, but changing his outlook about school is part of the equation.”

“I wanted to talk to you about that tutor you suggested a month ago, the one I refused.”

Mrs. Johnson’s face lit up. “Charlotte Devereux. Yes. I was really so sorry when that didn’t work out.”

“Can you tell me more about why you suggested her? Charlotte and I went to high school together, and she never mentioned any desire to study education or work with children. Nor did she ever seem to have the temperament for it. So I’ll admit, I was caught off guard when I found out she was the tutor you thought so highly of.”

“I see. Well, I obviously didn’t know Ms. Devereux when she was in high school. I can only speak to my interviews and sessions with her currently, which are stellar.”

The older woman didn’t say it, but Finn heard the gentle rebuke in her words. It was unfair to judge anyone solely by how they’d acted in high school. He certainly wouldn’t want someone to judge him that way. Hell, half the older adults in this town still brought up his streaking-through-the-bleachers-naked incident from high school.

“Then tell me what it was about her that made you think she’d be good for Ethan.”

“Well, first, I looked into her actual schooling and master’s thesis. To be honest, I don’t have time to interview a lot of people. I only want to bring in those who are well suited for the kids we have in this county. I won’t bore you with the details, but Ms. Devereaux’s course choices and master’s thesis topic on the use of symbols and codes as a coping strategy interested me. I ended up reading the whole thing.” She smiled. “I can’t tell you the last time I read an entire master’s thesis.”

He bit back a sigh. He’d never doubted Charlie was smart. “That doesn’t necessarily make her good with kids or as a tutor.”

“Absolutely. But it was enough to get her in for an interview. That went really well, so I brought her in for some supervised sessions working with kids. She is exceptional, Finn. And I do not say that lightly.”

He just couldn’t wrap his head around it. He hated the thought that entered his mind, but he had to ask. “Mrs. Johnson, I respect you a great deal. You know more about Ethan’s life and those early years than anyone outside my immediate circle. You worked with him and his regular teachers and I owe you a great debt for that. Without you, I have no idea what state Ethan would be in. Perhaps he’d still be that completely silent kid who came to me when I first got him out of foster care.”

“But. . .” Mrs. Johnson stared at him patiently.

He held his hands out in front of him, palms up, a gesture of regret for the words about to come. “But I just have to know if Charlotte offered you money to get you to hire her as a tutor. I don’t mean to get to Ethan. She seemed legitimately surprised when she found out it was my son she’d been scheduled to see a few weeks ago. But the Devereuxes owned a lot of Oak Creek and the surrounding area at one time, probably still do. Them throwing money at someone to get Charlotte what she wanted isn’t unheard of.”

“I see.” Mrs. Johnson tapped her fingers on her desk.

“I don’t mean that as any sort of slight against you,” he was quick to add. “It would not be some sort of shady bribe. More like an offer to provide resources you don’t have, but need, if you hired Charlotte. And honestly, if you said yes, I have no problem with that. I truly don’t. I say get whatever you can to help the children in your care.”

“But in that case, you don’t want Ms. Devereux around your son.”

“I’m not sure I want Charlotte around my son in any case.”

She smiled at him again. “Certainly, with any education specialist, the relationship between them and the parents is critical. If you don’t trust Charlotte, then you are right to keep her from Ethan. Your instincts as a father are good. Trust them.”

Finn rubbed the back of his neck. This wasn’t coming out right. “It’s not that I don’t trust Charlotte around Ethan. It’s really not. I don’t think she would ever hurt anyone.” That was the truth. “I just don’t want to waste Ethan’s time”—and force himself to be near her every week—“if this is just some sort of hobby for her and she’s not really going to help him.”

She leaned her elbows on the table, studying him. “Then I hope you will trust me when I say no money at all was offered or even hinted at during the hours I’ve spent with Ms. Devereux. No mention of her father or her family whatsoever. There’s no hidden agenda here.”

“I hope you understand I was just trying to—”

The woman held out a hand. “Let me go on to say that if I could bring on Charlotte Devereux full-time, I would do so without hesitation. I even went so far as to put the initial paperwork in. In my professional opinion, working as a part-time private tutor is a complete waste of her talents. I think she could probably get a job in any school system, not only in Wyoming but the entire country.”

He could feel his eyes widening. “Really?”

“But for whatever reason, that’s not what she wants. I didn’t pry. I thought maybe she had young kids at home and didn’t want a full-time job or something like that. You probably know more about that than I do.”

No, he really didn’t. “I see.”

“Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to use Ms. Devereux again since we sent her out to meet you. School was ending, so there wasn’t as much demand for tutors. Also, any time a family rejects the tutor, we must put an official mark in the file. Then there’s a waiting period and a chance for the family to file any sort of complaint.”

Shit. “I didn’t have one against Charlotte. We just have. . .history and I think we were both caught a little off guard. But I didn’t mean to jeopardize her work.” Especially if Charlotte was as good as Mrs. Johnson said she was.

“Well, I’m sure we’ll be using her once school starts again if she’s not swept up by another school system.”

He studied the older woman for a long minute. “Would Charlotte really be good for Ethan? Would she be able to help him?”

He didn’t ask the question lightly, but it was the one he ultimately needed an answer for. The price for tutoring would be nothing compared to the personal price Finn would have to pay if Charlotte was around all the time.

But he wasn’t surprised at Mrs. Johnson’s answer. “Academically, I think Charlotte Devereux might be the best thing that ever happened to your son.”