Read Online Dating a Single Dad by Kris Fletcher - Comeback Cove 01 - Dating a Single Dad - Free Book Online

emerging with a cranberry-colored sweater so soft it begged to be fondled. “How about this one?”
    Taylor’s nose wrinkled and she backed away. “Crap! How did that get in there?”
    “What?” Brynn rubbed the luxurious softness between her fingers. “Is it poison?”
    “Bad memories. Turns out I’m allergic to cashmere.” She shuddered. “A very nice night ended up being a whole lot less pleasant.”
    “Damn. The color would be great on you.”
    “Yeah, but it would clash horribly with the hives.” Taylor ran a hand over the pile of clothes on the bed, patting them almost wistfully. “Brynn, I don’t know if this is going to work. It’s getting so I can hardly be in the same room as Carter without falling apart, and since I see him all day, you can imagine how well that’s going. I think he knows something is wrong.”
    “Of course he does. Your fiancé is away and has been gone for months. That’s all he knows.”
    “I don’t know.... Sometimes I get this feeling that he’s watching me. Not in a creepy way, but like...like the way I know I look at him when no one else is around.”
    Brynn’s hands froze despite the fleece surrounding them. “You think he might— Oh, Taylor. No. Don’t say you think he feels it, too.”
    “I hope to God I’m wrong. But it’s... I don’t know. Maybe I’m reading things into it that are totally wrong. You know, projecting my own secret wishes and all that Psych 101 crap.”
    “Look. You have that social marketing conference coming up in spring, remember? He’s not going. That will give you days and days away from him, and when you come back, it will be just a few more weeks until Ian comes home. Once he’s here, you’ll remember how much you love him and everything will be wonderful again.”
    Taylor shook her head. “I hope you’re right,” she said softly. Then she looked at the fleece in Brynn’s hands and smiled sadly. “Not that one, either.”
    Brynn didn’t dare ask.
    “Carter has the same one. Their mom gave them all matching fleeces for Christmas last year.” She ran her hand over the fabric. “It’s what he was wearing when I realized I wanted him instead of Ian.”
    * * *
    H ANK PULLED INTO his parking space at Northstar Dairy, killed the engine on his old pickup and let out a sigh that was equal parts frustration and anticipation.
    “Stupid damned meetings.”
    The frustration was easy to figure out. Hauling Millie out of bed, having to abandon the wiring job he’d been working on when he realized he was going to be late, driving through February snow... The morning had been a perfect storm of irritation, and it was only a little past ten.
    But he would rather focus on his annoyance than on the little jolts running through him at the thought of watching Brynn marshal them through another session. Or, more accurately, the thought of watching her in her business clothes while remembering how she had looked with her jersey dipping and the spaghetti steam making her hair curl around her face. He’d been trying to push the picture from his memory since Friday night. Thus far it had insisted on staying there, which annoyed him all the more.
    And now he had to sit through a meeting with his mother doing her best eagle imitation. Son of a—
    A muffled bang to his right caught his attention. Carter was climbing out of his Saab. Huh. Carter was never late.
    Hank grabbed his gloves and his files, opened his door and winced as a metallic skreeeek cut through the snowy silence. Oops. He had planned to take care of the door last night. And the night before, come to think of it.
    Sure enough, the noise was enough to draw Carter’s attention.
    “You ever gonna give up that bucket of bolts and drive something that can be seen in public?”
    Hank shrugged. “Look who’s talking—a man who drives a compensation-mobile. At least my truck has character.”
    Carter snorted. “Sure it does. A character that’s begging for a serial killer to come