Burned(27)

“I am standing on a ladder painting the new stage.” She would have to pitch her voice high for Hauk to hear over the nail gun, but she spoke low to make sure she wasn’t overheard.

“I was hoping for something a little hotter.”

“I am watching a sexy man who knows the perfect blend of touches to make my body sing.”

“Stephen, don’t climb on that. No, you can’t be Superman inside. Vic, are you saying what I think you are?”

“Yes.” Only Josie could wrangle a room of kids and keep track of a man-centric conversation at the same time. “And it is my reason for calling. Can I get your help this afternoon?”

“You’re plotting something. Stephen, this is your last warning. Jonas, let go of Mindy’s braid. Tell me when and where.”

“The salon. After school. Good luck with Superman.”

“Thanks. See you then.”

A couple more calls later and her plan was falling more fully into place. The one thing Hauk had wanted for years would finally be his, and she was going to have a blast surprising him with it.

She would show Hauk it was okay to release the past.

It was okay to stop fighting love.





Chapter Eight

Hauk was grinning when he opened the door to Vic’s salon to let Sophie enter before him.

“Whisper to one. Whisper to all. Your secrets are safe within my walls.” Vic’s sultry voice greeting them from the non-traditional door chime stretched his grin wider. It was the same voice she spoke in during sex, or when she was tired from staying up all night, even though she was as reluctant as him to break the moments they stole together.

“Is Vic here?” Sophie was practically bouncing as she asked Carmen for Vic. “I have to tell her something.”

“She is in the back. Hang—”

Sophie was off before Carmen could say anything more. Hauk moved to follow, but Carmen stepped away from Byron’s wife, Ruth, and blocked him.

“Excuse me.”

“I can’t let you back there.”

“I can’t count the times I’ve been back there.” The idea of being cut off from sharing Sophie’s moment with Vic was like a shattered beer bottle to the heart. It was messy, smelly and painful.

“Vic! What are you—” Sophie’s excited voice quieted instantly, which wasn’t an easy task. Once she got on a roll, even if it only existed in her head, there was no shutting her down. Something was up.

“That may be true,” Carmen continued, “but she isn’t alone.”

“Really?” Smiling tightly, he stepped around Carmen and headed for the back room. Secrets may be safe within her walls, but he’d been played enough lately. It had him on edge.

He was two strides away when Sophie and Vic came out. Sophie’s already hyper grin had grown. Still wearing the overalls that had kept him drooling even after they had left the stage site, Vic had her hair pulled into a messy ponytail that barely captured the strands of dark brown, red and blonde. Her smile was a little pinched, the way it got when something worried her. She had looked more put together walking out of the storage shed by the stage after a round of quick and rowdy sex. Whatever Sophie had walked in on, Vic wished she hadn’t. But it also seemed to excite Sophie.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, desperately fighting back the urge to drag Vic into the back room to make her explain whatever was going on, Hauk recalled the smile Sophie had inspired when she ran into the bar screaming about having won. Any lingering anger had vanished in a blink of her happiness.

“Okay, Sophie. We have Vic. Now will you tell me what you won?”

Vic’s smile became one of genuine excitement. “You won? That’s fabulous!”

How had he missed something about his kid that Vic knew about? Or had he been so tangled up in stealing sleepless nights with his best friend that he had forgotten something?

Rather than answer either of them, Sophie grabbed Vic’s hand and led her to Hauk’s side. Vic’s shoulder brushed his arm, and even through the barrier of his T-shirt he felt her heat as vibrantly as when they were naked. And just like when he saw her naked, his cock responded with eager readiness. The woman was driving him crazy and making him want the right to touch her anytime. The more he was with her the more he wanted to always be with her.

“You know that paper I had to write for school?” Sophie started. “The one about the town and the festival.” With Vic’s body so near his, he was struggling to remember if he knew about the contest, but it did nothing to detract from the pride he felt in his daughter.

“Yes,” he and Vic answered in unison.

“Well, the judges decided it was the winning essay.” She bounced from foot to foot as she pulled a folded paper from her back pocket. “I am going to read it onstage before the night entertainment begins on opening day of the festival.”