Free Lakeside Cottage by Susan Wiggs Page B

reluctance personally, though. Giving her a room here was the right thing to do. “I’ll call Mrs. Newman and let her know you’ll be staying with us.”
    The girl looked amazed, her expression that of a starvation victim facing her first plate of food.
    “It’ll be all right,” Kate said softly. “You’ll see.”
    Callie sat very quiet and still for a few moments, and Kate suspected that gestures like this were rare in her life.
    “You expecting someone?” Callie got up and went to the window.
    Kate heard the crackle of tires over gravel, then the sound of a car door slamming. Bandit bugled his usual greeting.
    “Who is it?” she asked.
    “A really hot guy. He your boyfriend?”
    For some reason, the suggestion brought a flush to Kate’s cheeks as she joined Callie at the window. “The guy who lives down the road. Come and meet him.”

Six
    W hen Kate and Callie went out into the yard, Aaron was running circles around JD, talking a mile a minute. JD looked a bit discomfited by the boy’s enthusiasm. Possibly he was already regretting having stopped by.
    Seeing Aaron’s efforts to get the man’s attention, Kate felt a familiar pang. Aaron wanted a father in the worst way. He always had. As a toddler, he sometimes tried to wander off in the mall or at a baseball game, and she’d catch him trying to follow random men around, imprinted like a duck.
    The way he emulated the stranger suggested just a hint of hero worship. As far as Kate could tell, JD was Aaron’s ideal in faded work pants and Wolverine boots. He had a pickup truck and a chain saw. What more could a boy want?
    She caught herself staring at his shoulders. They were broad without being bulky, and he moved with a certain athletic ease, suggesting a natural fitness rather than some kind of intensive training. There was something about JD. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Hiscareless choice of clothes suggested a lack of vanity, yet he bore himself with a curious dignity.
    “Hello,” she called, motioning for Callie to join her. “How is the victim?”
    JD turned to her, and her heart flipped over. It was crazy, he wasn’t her type at all, but she couldn’t take her eyes off him. Okay, she thought, studying his hair, so it wasn’t a mullet. Just long hair, and like Brad Pitt’s in his best movies.
    “The volunteers at the wildlife rehab place think he’ll make a recovery.” He indicated his truck. “I washed out your cooler.”
    “Thanks. JD, this is Callie Evans. She’s going to be staying with us.”
    Aaron’s eyebrows lifted almost comically, but he made no comment.
    “Nice to meet you,” he said.
    Callie blushed and looked bashful. Kate wondered if, given her background, the girl had issues with men.
    “JD, you want to check out the dock?” Aaron had a fascination with the dock and the water. “You, too, Callie.”
    “Sure,” she said. “Is it deep enough to dive off the end?”
    “Yep. My cousins used to dive off it all the time.”
    “What about you?”
    “Nope.” Aaron’s cheeks reddened, but he didn’t explain further. Kate suspected he couldn’t. He didn’t have the vocabulary to put his emotions into words. Maybe, she thought, just maybe this would be the summer he’d finally swim.
    Callie gave the dog a wide berth. “A kayak,” she said, lifting the tarp that covered a long, narrow boat. “You ever go out in it?”
    “All the time,” Aaron said, clearly loving the attention. “It’s a two-man, see?”
    Despite his refusal to learn to swim, he loved boats and always had. The ferries of Puget Sound, a Zodiac raft, anything that would float appealed to him, bringing him close to the thing he dreaded.
    “Maybe we could take it out,” Aaron suggested.
    “Of course we’ll take it out,” Kate assured him. She was determined for this to be a fun summer for him even though his cousins wouldn’t be around.
    Aaron showed off the kayak, which had been around since powerboats had been banned from