LAUREN BISHOP WAS back in town.
There had been a lot of women in his life between that moment when she had walked into his family home when he was twelve years old, his new babysitter and also the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen in his life, and now.
But she was still the ultimate fantasy. She always had been.
Of course, he’d been a kid and had felt every inch the twelve-year-old standing next to the tall, beautiful seventeen-year-old she’d been.
But now, he was much taller than she was, and he definitely didn’t feel like a kid around her.
She had kids. She was a widow.
He supposed that was something he was going to have to think on. When he thought of Lauren Bishop—and God help him, late at night sometimes he did, because she’d been the very first object of desire he’d ever had—he thought of them as equals.
But they weren’t. And that was a helluva thing. She’d done more living than him. Had more baggage.
That easy, fun hookup he’d fantasized about... Well, that was looking unlikely.
But for now... He was consumed with the fact that he wanted to help her. He wasn’t exactly the most altruistic son of a bitch in general. In fact, usually, when helping a woman he would have an ulterior motive.
Well, if he were honest it wasn’t that he didn’t have one now. It was just that... He had meant what he said. He didn’t want payment. Not in the form of sex. If she wanted to have sex, fine. He was all for putting to bed one of the oldest fantasies he possessed. Literally, if the opportunity presented itself.
But there was something about her. About the way she had looked sitting there, and hell, the way she had been checking him out. And, she had been checking him out, there was no doubt about that.
He took a deep breath and looked around him, at the mountains, standing sentry all around the fields, which rolled forward in a lush green spread toward the fence line of the Reid family ranch. This place hadn’t changed a lick in the last couple of decades, and given that, he supposed he shouldn’t be very surprised that the way Lauren Bishop made him feel hadn’t changed much either.
Of course, the big difference was that now he knew exactly what feelings like that meant. He knew exactly what to do with a woman now.
The idea made desire pool low and hot and heavy in his gut.
“You got plans for tonight?”
He turned and saw his brother Tanner standing there, looking at him speculatively.
“Yes,” he returned. “Why?”
“Savannah and Jackson were planning a dinner to plan a dinner. It’s almost Lily’s birthday.”
“Oh.” He frowned. “Well, I’ll make sure I’m around for the squirt’s birthday but I might skip the planning stage. I promised a lady I would come help fix some things in her house.”
Tanner arched a brow. “Is that a euphemism for a booty call?”
He shrugged. But, for the first time since Lauren had set him so firmly on his ass, he felt a little bit more balanced. Because the fact of the matter was, it was not a booty call. He actually wanted to help.
Mostly.
He felt a little bit superior to Tanner in that moment. Mostly because he doubted Tanner could say that he had ever helped a woman for the sake of it.
“I’m just helping out,” Calder said.
She needed something, and he could give it. His whole damned family was so stunted in that area. His father going from marriage to marriage, ignoring his boys. Treating them more like ranch hands than sons half the time.
Calder had always wanted to help. To try to make an impact. His father hadn’t let him. Granted, fixing floors and throwing some paint on the wall wasn’t an emotional fix, but it was what Lauren needed, and he was happy to give it.
“Is that so?” Tanner looked completely skeptical.
“It is so. Is that so hard to believe?”
Tanner snorted. “Hell yes.”
“You remember Lauren Bishop? She used to babysit me.”
“Oh yeah,” he said. “Pretty. Blonde. You used to drool on her when she walked in the door.”
He frowned. “I never drooled on her.”
“I think you did.”
“That was just because I had braces and it was impossible not to drool sometimes, you asshole.” Tanner looked amused, and Calder made a deliberate effort to calm down because his brother didn’t get to make him that mad. Not about bullshit from seventeen years ago. “But anyway,” Calder continued. “She’s back in town.”
“And you can’t honestly tell me that you are hoping to do something other than satisfy your hot for babysitter issues?”
“Hoping to and planning on are two different things. She’s trying to fix up a house. She’s a single mom.”
“Oh,” Tanner said, frowning.
“What’s that for?”
“It’s just... I know you’re not going to take it there now.”
“Do you?”
“Yeah. That’s not your thing.”
“I don’t... What’s not my thing?”
“Single moms you have to be careful with. Single moms are either supertemporary or very permanent. But if it was the supertemporary thing, you would already know that sex was happening.”
“You know this from experience?”
Tanner arched a brow. “I’m not a monk.”
“Yeah, you’re not me either. So it’s not like you have a hell of a lot more experience.” That was just a fact. Tanner was... He was the oldest. As a result he was a little bit more... Measured in his activities. Jackson had been the real manwhore in the trio of brothers, but that had all come home to roost in the form of a baby he hadn’t realized one of his one-night stands had given birth to. Until the woman had dropped her off on Jackson’s doorstep and fled. Leaving him holding the baby.
He had been in over his head for a while, trying to adjust to fatherhood, until he had hired Savannah Sturm to be his nanny. Savannah was now his wife, the baby was about to turn a year old, and Calder had never seen Jackson happier.
Which really was something to think about.
“Still,” Tanner said. “I get around. I just do it with a little less of a show than you two.”
“Why is that? So you can avoid Chloe stamping around and passing comment on your behavior?”
Their younger stepsister lived on the property, and it was pretty obvious to Calder that she had a bit of a crush on Tanner. Inappropriate as that was. Tanner didn’t seem any the wiser, though, and seemed to regard Chloe as little more than a gnat buzzing in his ear.
“Chloe passes judgment on what I do no matter what,” Tanner said. “But we’re not talking about me.”
“I’m just helping her out,” Calder said. “Her husband died, Tanner.”
He didn’t know how long ago. He didn’t know what the story was. It hadn’t been pure sadness on her face when she had said she was widowed.
There was something else.
She had looked fragile, but angry. And he had wanted to dig, had wanted to find out what exactly had gone on. That was uncharacteristic. He had watched his father live out a series of relationship dramas. There had been many wives, many stepmothers. A whole lot of angry fights. Calder had never really had the desire to enter into the institution of matrimony. He figured the Reid men collectively had exceeded their personal allotment of marriages, anyway.
Also, having never seen it last... He’d been cynical about it from the get-go.
Granted, Calder’s father had been married to Chloe’s mother until the old man had died. But, he had half wondered if his father simply hadn’t had the energy to cycle through wives anymore at that point. Calder had always liked his relationships easy. And nothing about Lauren Bishop would be easy.
“I’m sorry to hear that,” Tanner said. “Must be rough. And really rough for her poor kids.”
Calder’s stomach twisted. He might not know about losing a parent when he was a kid, but he knew what it was like to have one walk away. It was tough. There was no way you can go through that and not feel loss. Anger. Abandonment.
He thought back to the anger on Lauren’s face, and he wondered if she felt something of the same, even though she had lost her husband to death. He wondered if her kids felt the same, too.
“I’m really not going to mess around with her,” Calder said.
“Good,” Tanner responded. “I can come with you if you want. Lend a helping hammer.”
Calder bristled at the thought. All right, maybe he wasn’t holding out hope that anything would happen between himself and Lauren, but being alone would certainly raise the odds. And anyway, he wasn’t sure he wanted to share the glory of helping with Tanner.
He possessed only so much altruism in his body. If he wasn’t going to get laid, he would be the knight in shining armor. If it was going to be courtly love, then he would be the only knight at the round table.
“I got it,” he said.
Tanner shook his head. “You can’t help yourself, can you?”
“What?”
“You’re hoping. You might not be actively trying to get something going, but you’re sure as hell not closing the door.”
“Hey,” he said. “If the woman wants to have a no-strings fling at any point while I’m helping her out, I’m not going to say no. I’m not going to instigate either, but I’m not going to say no.”
“Just so we’re clear.”
Tanner just laughed. “Well, enjoy swinging a hammer tonight.”
He watched his brother turn and walk away, and he let the previous conversation roll over him.
Lauren had kids. She had lost her husband.
All of it should make him want to run the other direction and not pursue anything. Not the potential of no-strings sex, not even nailing a picture frame to the wall. Because hell, for all he knew, she might be looking for a replacement husband. And he certainly wasn’t going to fit the bill.
Of course, she was the one who had tried to chase him off with the mention of the kids earlier. So, her looking for a husband was unlikely.
Even still, he knew plenty of men who would run the other direction for fear that she was on the prowl for something permanent.
He didn’t feel compelled to run. In fact, he found himself looking forward to doing repair work more than he ever had in his life.