Chapter Six
The drive to Pu’u Pu’eo took an hour, and the second Timber pulled up to the tiny cottage, Hailey sighed.
“Cute.”
It was cute, he had to agree — one of those tiny cottages on a huge property hidden away in a lush section of rainforest. Hunter hadn’t been kidding when he’d called it off the beaten track.
“Perfect.” Tim nodded, driving through the open gate.
The front door was open, and he and Hailey crisscrossed each other, exploring the house. A big living room took up the front, with a wide picture window and a worn but homey couch. A long counter on one side served as the kitchen, with a stove, a fridge, and a few cabinets. A narrow hallway ran to the back of the house with two square rooms on the left and one long, narrow room on the right.
Our foster mother, Georgia Mae, had the room near the front, Hunter had said. Kai and I shared one room, and Ella had the one in the back. It wasn’t much, but it was home.
A home that had been loved well, Tim could see, even if it begged for a fresh coat of paint. The outhouse was out back, and the shower was the creek, but Hailey didn’t seem to mind one bit. She took the back bedroom — the one with big, shuttered windows that opened on to a swath of jungle bursting with giant red flowers. He took the one on the right. By the time they’d swept out two rooms, spread clean sheets on the beds, and wolfed down the sandwiches Dawn had packed for them, the sun had long since set.
“Well, I guess I’ll turn in,” Hailey said. Then she forced a smile. “This might be the earliest I’ve gone to bed in years.”
“You sure you don’t want to call anyone else?”
“No, thanks.”
It killed him to see her paste on a smile and troop on. Did she really have no one to count on?
She can count on me, his bear said.
He watched her turn away. If he were in desperate trouble, he’d be able to call his brothers or Dell, and they’d come running. But Hailey…
“I guess I’ll turn in too,” he whispered, not knowing what else to say.
As she moved around, preparing for bed, he kept out of her way and thought it all through. The crazy events that had brought them together. The running. The fear. And above all, the trust Hailey had placed in him.
A hell of a day was right.
Destiny, his bear whispered. What else could it be?
Once Hailey had settled in, he got ready for bed too, spending a full minute rubbing his left shoulder against the doorframe of his room in an instinctive bear habit of marking his turf. He nearly ambled over and did the same to Hailey’s door before he caught himself.
Would you cut that out? he snapped at his bear. She’s not ours. She’s a human. She doesn’t even know who we are.
Not yet, maybe, his bear said dreamily. But someday…
Someday didn’t fit with temporary, and yet it occupied his thoughts as he stared at the ceiling after going to bed. The door to Hailey’s room was open, as was his, and he spent a long time straining for any sound. Wishing she were closer, hoping she was okay. Wondering about fate.
Tim tapped his fingers. His brother Connor had recently found his mate. Did the thought of her make Connor’s chest swell and his gut roil with butterflies? Had he suspected from the very start, the way Tim suspected Hailey was his mate?
I don’t suspect, his bear grumbled. I know.
He’d never wanted a mate. It didn’t make sense. He had all the support he needed from his brothers and his buddy Dell. Why complicate life with all the emotions and compromises that came with a mate?
But out of nowhere, a hollow feeling had settled into his gut, and it wouldn’t go away. An emptiness he’d never felt before. Like someone had knocked him all the way over from perfectly fine on my own to desperate for a mate to share my life with.
Which was dangerous — really dangerous, because destiny had a way of making a shifter’s animal side rebel against the more rational human part of his mind.
When he finally fell asleep, the notion of someday spilled over into his dreams. Nice dreams — a far cry from the usual raw, edgy dreams in which he made long to-do lists, contingency plans, and equipment inventories.
On the contrary, his dreams were soft, slow, and a little blurry, but all of them were nice. Like rocking on the porch with Hailey or walking barefoot across the lawn. In another dream, he finished the almost-kiss they’d had back in the mall. Her lips were soft and full under his, her hands tight around his waist. And when she opened her eyes to look at him in wonder, her expression said, Wow. I think you might be my mate.
Which was silly, of course. Humans didn’t know about destined mates. Plus, Hailey had just run from a man who had offered her forever. Why the hell would she want another guy proposing the same thing?
When he woke at dawn, his nose twitched, and his groggy mind slowly caught up with where he was. Then it all rushed back to him, and he sat up quickly, testing the air in alarm. But the scent tickling his nose wasn’t the scent of trouble. It was the rich aroma of freshly ground coffee that came with a low, melodious sound. When he walked to the front room, Hailey was at the stove, humming under her breath. The orange sleep shirt she wore must have been a loaner from Jenna, and it hung to just above her knees.
Over the previous day, all he’d really noticed were her eyes. Now, his gaze stuck on her long, slender legs. Her hips swayed as she rocked in place, and the movement made her hair bounce and shine. He might have stared at her forever if she hadn’t turned around and smiled.
“Good morning,” she murmured.
“Good morning.” His voice came out all rumbly the way it did when his bear wanted to be heard too.
“I hope you don’t mind.” She gestured at the supplies she’d set out on the counter.
He shook his head. “Hunter did say to make ourselves at home.” He stepped closer and inhaled the heavenly aroma of fresh coffee mixed with Hailey’s honeysuckle scent. “Wow. That smells really good.”
She gave the coffee grinder another few turns, intensifying the scent. It was one of those old-fashioned coffee grinders, and she opened the little drawer at the bottom, revealing the fresh grounds.
“I hope you know how to use this stove.” She laughed. “I haven’t been able to get it started.”
He shuffled closer to demonstrate, pulling a match from the big box on the overhead shelf. “You turn the knob to this position and hold it in.”
The stove started clicking, and he lowered the match. A whoosh sounded as the flame zipped around the burner. When he raised the match, he discovered Hailey was close enough for either one of them to blow it out. And, whoosh! A second set of flames seemed to zip around his veins in exactly the same way. Instinct tugged on his soul, pointing to Hailey, and he felt like he was awakening for a second time. The slow, rumbling sense of a beast waking from a winter den.
Mate, his bear whispered. She is our mate.
He closed his eyes, not daring to move lest he disturb a rare moment of utter peace. The kind he’d never felt in his decade in the army, nor with another person crowding his space.
But Hailey didn’t crowd him. She just made him feel alive and free.
He was a tick slower turning away from the stove than Hailey, and they ended up face-to-face. Hailey’s eyes shone, and he held his breath, itching to cup her cheek. Or better yet, to finish off that almost-kiss.
Hailey looked like she wouldn’t mind, and he nearly did it too. But then he came to his senses abruptly and sidestepped away. Damn bear, making him do stupid things.
“All set,” he said, a little too quickly.
Hailey bit her lip and averted her eyes, then forced a quick smile. “So, put me to work, Sergeant. Like I said, I want to earn my keep.”
He looked around. “What about breakfast?”
She held up a dry piece of toast, and he stared. No wonder she was so skinny. Too skinny, really.
So he talked her into a second piece of toast with butter and jam. She ate it with her eyes closed and a look of utter bliss that made his bear ridiculously satisfied — even more satisfied than he was with his own piece of honey-covered toast. But the second Hailey finished, she bounced back to her feet and looked around.
“Okay then — where do we start?”
That was an easy one, because one corner of his mind had been busy with that issue overnight, and he had a whole plan mapped out.
“House first. Then the cistern so we don’t have to lug water all the time.”
Hailey nodded, and boom — off she went, scrubbing windows and floors and hauling every scrap of upholstery out into the sun. She wasn’t kidding about earning her keep. Meanwhile, he crawled under the house, tapping foundation posts, checking crossbeams, making a priority list and timeline for everything that had to be fixed.
At one point, he was backing up while eyeing the roofline, checking how straight it was. Hailey must have been looking over her handiwork, because she was out on the lawn too, and they backed right into each other.
“Sorry.” He jerked around with his hands up, because that butt-to-butt bump hadn’t been planned.
It was nice, though. His bear grinned.
Hailey whirled just as quickly and blushed an adorable pink. “My fault.”
And for a second, they stood, lost in each other’s eyes, speechless. Smiling. Daydreaming, almost.
Then Tim snapped out of it and backed away, stammering about roof tiles.
Cut that out!
Who, me? his bear said far too innocently.
Yeah, right. The beast had a way of subtly steering him toward Hailey whenever it could.
It’s not me, his bear sighed dreamily.
His big, bad inner bear, who’d once declared itself immune to anyone and anything, was turning to mush, ambling around with its head in the clouds.
I swear it’s not me, the beast insisted. It’s destiny.
And hell, maybe it was, because around Hailey, he could barely see straight.
Hailey hurried away, still pink. A shade his face must have mirrored, because he felt his cheeks heat. It took a couple of kicks at the ground and a lot of blinking to get his shit together.
The whole day was like that, a roller coaster of perfectly comfortable and slightly awkward moments, one after another. They bumped another two times in the yard and once again on the way into the house. Hailey stepped forward at the same time as he, and they nearly got tangled in the doorway. Each time, their eyes locked, and he burned to stay close to her. Yet, each time, Tim came to his senses and stepped away.
Damn bear! The beast was subtly, sneakily rebelling, doing its best to wear down his resistance to the burning attraction he felt.
He muttered to himself, trying to remember the next job. But the mental list that was always clear and orderly in his mind had gone completely blank, and it took five minutes of wandering before he finally figured out what came next. Namely, clearing the clogged gutters. That took most of the afternoon, but the plus side was, it gave him a bird’s-eye view of Hailey’s comings and goings. She seemed to revel in the work, humming as she carried a bucket in each hand. Her hair was up in a sloppy ponytail, and she wore the sporty clothes and pink Aloha cap they’d bought at the mall.
A small barn owl had perched on a nearby branch, and it hooted in approval.
Yeah, Tim wanted to say. She’s something, isn’t she?
“Don’t look so surprised,” Hailey chided him, pausing long enough to look up. “No princess here. I know what real work is.”
Oops. Caught red-handed.
“Don’t doubt it,” he called, bringing a little smile to her face.
Apart from a quick lunch on the go, they both kept at it until the sun sank low, marking the end to one of the quietest, nicest days Tim had experienced in a long, long time.
“I’ll make dinner. You wash up.” He waved her to the creek.
It was hard to keep his eyes off her as she walked across the yard with a bottle of body wash in one hand and a towel in the other. She swiveled her head as she walked, taking in the thick foliage. The owl hooted again, and Tim nearly replied.
Yeah, I think she’s amazing, too.
The owl wasn’t a shifter, just a friend of Hunter’s foster mother who still kept an eye on the place. Tim went back to cooking before the bird caught him watching Hailey too closely.
Hoo. Hoo. It chuckled and fluttered off, letting him know it was too late for that.
He made lasagna — one of about three meals he could pull off without messing up — and while he was washing, Hailey made garlic bread and set out two places on the porch table. She’d even found a candle for a little ambiance, and the second he spotted it, she blushed.
“Nice,” he said, making her blush harder.
Cynthia, the dragon shifter who ran the plantation house, was big on candles and fancy napkins and such, and he’d never seen the point. He was a practical, no-frills kind of guy, and if he’d been eating with one of his brothers — say, Chase, the world’s quietest wolf shifter — they would have plonked down, eaten their grub wordlessly, and been perfectly happy. Who needed a candle?
But now, he got it. The candle gave the place a warm, familiar glow, hollowing out a space for two in the vastness of the surrounding forest. A nice, cozy, intimate space.
Definitely not here with Chase, his bear chuckled.
Hailey’s hair was shiny from her bath, and her skin practically glowed in the candlelight.
“Garlic bread?” She held out the basket.
Her nails were a mess by then, and she’d been working hard all day. But she seemed at peace, like him.
He dug in, and within a few bites, he stopped and closed his eyes. He’d been on the go for so long, and the occasional glance at the sunset or a dunk in the water seemed like plenty of break time. But now he found something inside him unwinding. The peace that surrounded him seeped right into his soul.
His bear loved it too. The space. The trees. The rushing creek.
The company, the beast added, half drunk on her scent.
“That was so good,” Hailey said, finishing off the tiny portion she’d allotted herself.
“That’s all you’re having?”
Her eyes strayed to the rest of the lasagna then darted away. “That’s plenty.”
He’d been taking huge, gulping bites, but she’d only nibbled. He doubted it had to do with nervousness — not after the number of calories she had to have burned that day. So he pushed the casserole dish toward her and nodded. “Go for it.”
She pursed her lips and closed her eyes, clearly fighting temptation.
He laughed. “I’m not selling you drugs, you know. It’s just food. You know, food?”
She laughed. “Not in my line of work, it isn’t.”
His brow furrowed. What was it like to have to starve to secure a new contract? Did her manager — or worse, her mother — look over her shoulder and count every calorie?
“Actually, it is.” He waved around the tidy yard and much-improved house. “Your new line of work, at least.”
She laughed and finally gave in, letting him heap a second helping onto her plate. She chowed down immediately, and he had to hold back a smile.
“Must be pretty different from modeling,” he mumbled between bites of garlic bread.
She grimaced. “Yeah, it’s pretty different. But this is the Ritz compared to the house I grew up in.” Her eyes traveled over the worn floorboards and peeling paint. Then she covered her mouth with her hand. “Sorry — no offense. This cottage is great, and I love helping its character show.”
His chest went all warm. He loved that too. Fixing up old places, making them come back to life. Maybe even making them better than they ever were.
“Where did you grow up?”
She smiled. “Montana. My mom worked in a diner in Fort Benton. My dad worked in forestry.” Her face lit up for a moment before dropping in a way he didn’t dare ask about. “As soon as I was old enough, I helped in the diner too. I started out bussing tables. You know, setting out the silverware, filling water glasses. My mom worked in the kitchen.” Her eyes were far away, and her voice had a wobble to it that he wasn’t sure how to read into.
That lifestyle, he could picture her in. Supermodel, not so much. Jenna had given him a quick peek at a magazine ad, and he’d hardly recognized Hailey. The woman in the picture looked so…painted. So removed. They’d photoshopped out her freckles, which killed him, and teased her hair all over the place. She looked nothing like the vivacious — if pensive — woman in front of him now.
Hailey took a deep breath and caught his gaze. “I can’t tell you how much I appreciate—”
He cut her off with a brisk wave. “Maybe I should find runaway brides more often. The place looks great.”
She flashed a huge smile. “It feels great to do real work for a change. Getting my hands dirty. You know…”
For a second, she looked worried that he wouldn’t understand, but he just grinned. That asshole she had run from might not know about hands-on work, but he sure did.
“Oh, I know, all right. Believe me, I know.”
They smiled at each other for a minute, and his grin only faded when the achy feeling started up in his chest again. Like a rusted-over gate to a secret compartment was slowly creaking open, ready to let her in. A door he wasn’t sure he wanted to open, because there were sure to be all kinds of forbidden feelings in there.
“Oh, look!” Hailey pointed as a lightning bug blinked in the yard. Another joined it, and between that and the bird calls coming from the surrounding woods, the serene feeling intensified. Serenity even deeper than that at Koakea, a place he’d come to love.
The place doesn’t matter, his bear said. It’s the person. It’s her.
“So peaceful,” Hailey whispered.
They didn’t exchange more than a few words in the next half hour, but it didn’t feel awkward. It just felt nice. Watching the jungle grow dim, letting the day wind down. Even washing the dishes didn’t seem like a chore, not when he got to do them with her. And finally, when the night was dark as ink and the crickets chirping at full blast, they headed to bed.
“Good night,” Hailey called softly, pausing at her bedroom door to look back.
“Good night,” he whispered.
Did the crickets actually sing louder at that moment, or was that his imagination? Had the starlight somehow found a way inside to make her eyes shine so brightly? And that warm, happy feeling in his gut — that was just the lasagna filling him up, right?
He cleared his throat and nodded quickly before stepping into the darkness of his room. “Good night.”