The following weeks were filled with love, laughter and discovery as Willa and Boone deepened their own bond and those with the boys in their care.

Together, they had traveled back to her home to pack up the things she wanted to bring with her. Some of the boys asked to keep some of her furniture to use in the cabins. It was a fun filled few days that left them all exhausted but thrilled to be home.

Willa’s injury was fully healed, but no one liked to leave her home alone if they could help it, especially Brendan who had quite a knack for cooking himself. Every day after school, he went straight home to spend some time with Willa in the kitchen.

When someone knocked on the door, Willa reached for her towel, but Brendan touched her arm gently. “I’ll get it.”

She tilted her head to look at him, a smile gracing her lips. “Thanks, sweetie.”

Brendan blushed as he left the room and went to the door. It was only a rumble of sound at first and then a rush of footsteps and suddenly Charlie was standing in her kitchen.

“There you are!” He had the nerve to smile. “Do you know how hard it was for me to find you?”

“Maybe it was hard because I didn’t want you to?”

A confused look crawled over his features before he laughed it off. “Well, it wasn’t that hard.” He shrugged. “I went down to the post office and told them you’re my sister and something happened to our dear old mom.”

“My mother is dead.”

Charlie had the decency to look a little apologetic.

“And my brother? That’s kind of creepy, even for you, Charlie.”

“Well, they wouldn’t give me your change of address anyway, but I had other ways to find you. The moving company you hired? Well not everyone there is as well paid as they’d like to be. A couple hundred dollars and they gave me your address.” He laughed and had the nerve to look way too proud of himself. “I guess it was worth it.”

Brendan stood behind Charlie with a dark look in his eyes. “You want me to get rid of him?”

Charlie swung around to look at Brendan and then turned back. “Wow, that’s so cute. A little bodyguard. Like he could make me leave.”

Willa met Brendan’s angry eyes and gave him a slight shake of her head. She wasn’t trying to save Charlie. She just didn’t want Brendan to hurt someone because of her.

“Brendan? Could you watch the pasta and take it off the heat when it’s al dente?”

The boy nodded and moved closer to the stove while Willa took Charlie’s arm and moved him back toward the front door.

“So, tell me, what did Marie have to say about you trying to find me?”

A long heavy pause passed between them.

“Marie doesn’t have much of a say in what I do anymore.”

“What exactly does that mean, Charlie?” Willa considered moving back toward the kitchen. His words had given her a little bit of worry. She didn’t feel physical danger from Charlie, but who he was, what he represented, was a person and past she didn’t want to be anymore.

“Charlie, whatever it is, I don’t want to know.” She started back down the hall.

“No, no,” he moved after her, his hands out and pleading with her, “come on, Willa. You’ve got to let me tell you what happened.” When she narrowed her eyes at him he seemed to take a different tact. “You owe me that much.”

“Owe you?” She stared at him with something akin to horror in her eyes. “What in hell do you think I owe you?”

Charlie started a bit, shocked by the flash of hard emotion in her tone. “Wait a minute now,” he held up his hands in surrender, “maybe I said that wrong?”

“Maybe?” She shook her head. “Whatever you have to say doesn’t make a difference to me, Charlie. You took all the gifts I gave you and you threw them in my face. I stood by you and helped you for years and I was dedicated to you, Charlie. Only you.”

“And I know that, Willa.” His voice was gruff with emotion, so much so that she was beginning to believe that he meant it. “And that’s why I had to come here in person. I wanted to tell you that I know I made mistakes. A lot of mistakes,” he sighed, “one big one particular.”

She rolled her eyes.

“I also wanted you to know that Marie didn’t leave me, Willa. We came back from Vegas and went right back into the diner. After I got over the fact that you left it closed for more than a week without letting me know, I was worried about you.”

After you got over… ugh.

“But now I’m here and it’s like you’re a servant or something.” He looked around the entry. “This certainly can’t be your place. A fancy gate? Look at all this stuff?” Gesturing out toward the back of the house he laughed.

“I took a look at the property on my maps app. So, you’re the cook, right? It’s like a camp or something? I saw the cabins in the back of the property. When I got here I went through the woods to get a better look-”

“You were in the woods?” She turned back to stare at him. “Are you crazy?”

“Crazy?” He shook his head. “I had to check and make sure you weren’t being held against your will.”

Oh, I’m here of my own free will, but I’m so not going to tell my ex that I’ve been wondering what it would feel like for Boone to hold both of my wrists in one hand on the bed as he-

“Then I could go to the police and tell them-”

“And tell them what?” She was flabbergasted. “I’d be happy to tell the police that I’m happy I’m here. In fact,” she turned on Charlie again and pushed him in the center of his chest with two fingers, “I’d tell them I’m ecstatic to be here!”

To ease her upset, she looked over at a picture hanging on the wall. It was new, barely a few days old, showing Willa seated at the firepit, surrounded by the boys. “Even if I was only the camp cook, I’d be happy to do it. I love my boys, Charlie! Love them like they’re my own.”

“Your own?” He moved closer to stare at the photo, and then pushed his nose within a couple of inches of hers. “They’re teenagers, Willa? You’re barely old enough to be their older sister! I get that you like the boys. It’s like you’ve always wanted… a whole bunch of kids.”

“At least you were listening to something I said,” she grumbled at him.

“But this guy?” Charlie moved along the wall to the next picture, this one of Boone and Willa sitting on the back porch swing that the boys had made for her. “He looks like he’s some kind of a… of a,” he lifted a hand up to mark something a few feet above his head, “sasquatch… like one of those crazy bodybuilder guys with ‘roid rage and tiny balls! Is that what you really want?”

For a long moment, she couldn’t manage to get a breath into her lungs. She just stared back at Charlie with shock and confusion in her eyes. “Boone is the sweetest guy,” she countered his argument.

“Come on-”

“And as far as his balls go?” She lifted her chin up in the air and nailed Charlie with a pointed look. “They’re just fine. You want me to tell you how I know?”

Charlie’s mouth gaped open like a wide-mouthed bass. “Uh-”

“How about you not tell him anything more about me, Willa.”

Willa grinned at the big guy who was suddenly standing against the wall, his muscular arms folded over his chest. “Welcome home, Boone.”

“Wow,” Charlie swallowed, hard, “he didn’t look this big in the picture.”

Willa heard a snicker in the hallway. Boone and the boys must have gone through the woods when they saw an unfamiliar car in the driveway.

“Well, duh!”

Another voice jabbed in. “Objects in the cabin may be bigger than they appear.”

The tension in Boone’s jaw was tempered by the hint of a smile on his lips. “Boys?”

“Yeah, Boone?”

“Go away.”

The deep gravely tone that Willa knew as Bolt’s pissed voice came through loud and clear. “Until that man leaves, we’re not going far.”

Willa felt her heart warm in her chest and she blinked back some tears. “That’s sweet, Bolt, and a good idea. Thanks.”

The teen huffed. “I’m not sweet.”

The herd of sneaker steps tromped through the hall and toward the kitchen.

Willa felt gratitude well up in her chest. “Charlie, take a lesson from my boys. Go. Be with Marie. Don’t be with Marie. It’s not my problem.”

“Willa-”

“I’m happy, Charlie. So happy I keep wanting to pinch myself.” She crossed toward Boone. He met her half-way, setting his large hands on her hips and anchoring her against him. Willa sighed as she leaned against the wall of muscle she called her love and lover. “So, do us all a favor and leave.”

“Or what?”

She could hear a bitter edge to Charlie’s voice.

“Or I’m going to kick you out of my home, Charlie. I need to finish dinner for my family.”

Willa was barely aware of Charlie leaving the room. The moment that the front door clicked shut, she realized that he’d actually listened to her… for once.

She pulled out of Boone’s kiss, but she couldn’t quite move away. “I think I should go and explain this to the boys.”

Boone pulled her back against him, lifting her up and pressing her between him and the wall. An inch away from her lips, he growled out his answer. “Over my dead body.”

“Oh, good.” When his lips trailed down the side of her neck, she let out a breathy sigh. “I always wanted a bear-skin rug.”

His teeth nipped over their mating mark and her skin heated all over, her hands grabbing at the hem of his t-shirt.

“Keep it up, Willa, and I’m going to cover you like a rug and-”

His fangs pricked through her skin and blood rushed to the surface like steam escaping through a valve. Willa’s sharp moan filled her ears as her fingers scored his sides with her nails.

Willa was still shaking when her mind struggled to rise above the haze of his effect on her. “The boys,” a moan crawled from the back of her throat, “we have to feed the boys.”

She felt Boone struggle to bring himself under control.

“Fine,” he mumbled, “fine, we’ll feed those bottomless pits and send them out to their cabins, and then-”

“And then…” as he lowered her feet back down to the floor, she clung to him, “I’m going to take you to our bedroom and show you how much I love you.”

“Woman,” Boone ground his lips against hers for a moment, “you’re trying to kill me, aren’t you?”

“Kill you?” She laughed. “You’re a big strong bear, you can take what I dish out.”

“Maybe,” he nipped at her lips, “or maybe you’re going to be too much for me.”

“Oh, a challenge,” she traced the tip of her tongue over his bottom lip, “I like a challenge.”

“Then, that’s exactly what you’ll get, Willa. Everything you can take and then some.”

She lifted her hands and felt the silken scratch of his short- cropped hair against her palms. “I can take a lot, if it comes from you, Boone.”

And she meant it. Alone, she had always dug deep to make things work, but with Boone, with their boys, nothing was too much to bear.