Burned(24)

Both the bell and the barista were just a little too cheerful on another morning after another night when he hadn’t gotten any sleep. Sighing at the memory, he decided he wouldn’t complain about the lack of shuteye since he’d had a great night. It hadn’t been great enough to counteract the morning though.

“You’re lookin’ mighty…something this morning.” Byron laid his newspaper on the table before him. “What’s eatin’ you?”

His gaze suggested he knew something when Hauk knew well he couldn’t possibly. He wouldn’t, either. Careful to appear casual, Hauk paid for his coffee before taking the seat across from Byron.

“Just thinking about something Sophie said.”

“Hmph. Looked more like a man-in-love kind of smile to me.”

“Sorry. I don’t fall in love.” The barista brought his coffee to him. He winked at her, knowing she liked to flirt as much as he knew she was harmless because she would go home to the husband she lived and breathed for. “Except maybe with women who greet me in the morning with coffee.”

“How’s a woman supposed to do that for you if you don’t let her in your life?”

He could answer Byron’s challenge directly. Evasions, particularly where the old man was concerned, were more fun. And often safer for mental peace. “Maybe if she found a way, she would prove she deserved my love.”

“You telling me Vic’s never brought you coffee?”

“I can honestly say she hasn’t.” She’d brought him to it. The coffee had paled in comparison to the rest of the greeting. His chest and skin tightened with tingling warmth as he thought of that morning. If anyone could make him fall in love, it would be Vic.

“You’ve convinced yourself you’re fatal to any woman who loves you.” Byron lowered his head, barely looking at Hauk as he straightened the folds of his paper. “You need to let it go before your Sophie starts thinking she’s the same way.”

Too late. As soon as he thought it, Hauk noticed Byron’s evasive body language. The manipulator was working him, and damn if he hadn’t enlisted Sophie. Heat suffused Hauk’s gut and radiated through his chest. No doubt his skin was turning red as he fought back the urge to pummel the old meddler.

It was on the tip of his tongue to lay into Byron, to verbally strip his hide for planting such ideas in Sophie’s head, but damn if he’d let the meddling bastard know he’d scored that point.

Instead, he ungritted his teeth enough to speak without a snarl and stuck to the path they’d already started down. “The deaths of the two women I’ve loved prove you wrong.”

First had been his wife, dying in a boating accident as she ran away from him, rather than from the effort of being a mom to a daughter she’d never really wanted. Second had been a woman he’d almost married. She’d died from what should have been a minor fall while rock climbing. She hadn’t been more than a story off the ground.

“Where do you think this darkness you draw came from?” Byron challenged. Normally Hauk would have brushed him off, but he wasn’t feeling as tolerant of the man’s scheming. Not with the ideas he’d give Sophie. “Your parents have been married from the beginnin’ and neither of them has kicked it tragically.”

“An argument I’ve heard before.” From my parents. “And one I don’t have time to have again right now if I’m going to get that stage built and painted.” Hauk grabbed his coffee and stood. “I appreciate the concern about my well-being, Byron, but do yourself a favor and pick someone more open to hook up.”

With his hand wrapped around the handle of the door, Hauk froze. Anger nagged him until he couldn’t let it go that Byron had planted that thought in Sophie’s mind. She might be using it to play him, and he would talk to her about that, but she shouldn’t have been used that way.

“Do yourself another favor, Byron.”

“Yes?”

“Avoid me and my daughter for a while.” Ignoring the stunned heads turning his way, Hauk headed to his truck, determined to take his frustrations out on wood.





Chapter Seven

Eager to see Hauk, to sneak another kiss and maybe more, Vic strolled down the cobbled streets of town, heading for the oversized, gazebo-like stage Hauk was building. At first, the planning committee had wanted it to be a regular stage that would be taken down and stored. Then, when they’d started planning it all out, they decided it would be better and more beneficial throughout the year if they instead replaced the small gazebo in downtown. Once Hauk and a team of guys had gotten the big part of the job done, Hauk took over the finish-out work while the other men went to work on the other booths.