Come Back for Me (Arrowood Brothers #1)(32)

I don’t know that I have any memories of Kevin ever doing something as simple as this. While I was sleeping, the two of them have been spending time together, bonding in a way that brings tears to my eyes.

“What if you move?”

“Well, I’m only staying here for six months, but I’ll make sure your mom knows how to get in touch with me.”

“You promise?”

He lifts his hand in some sort of salute. “I sure do.”

Hadley lunges forward, wrapping her arms around his neck, and he catches himself before he’s tossed backward. “You’re my best friend, Connor.”

He smiles over her head, hugging her back. “I’m a lucky man then.”

He might be more. So much more. I owe it to him and to Hadley to find out.

I step out into the room, and our gazes touch.

“You’re awake.”

“I am. How long has it been?”

“Mommy!” Hadley rushes toward me. I put my hand out quickly so she doesn’t barrel into me, which causes her to slow. “Sorry.”

“No, no, I want a hug, just not a fast one.”

I want a million hugs from her. Ones that last forever so I can hold her close.

“Were you good for Connor?”

She nods. “We went out to the barn so I could see all the cows. He has a lot of cows, but,” her voice drops to a whisper, “he doesn’t know what to do with them.”

I laugh softly. “Did you tell him to milk them?”

“I tried, but he doesn’t listen. Then we walked out to my favorite tree.”

Connor walks over and ruffles her hair. “I figured you needed to rest, so we did some outside stuff and then came back to warm up when we got cold. Did we wake you?”

“No.” I smile at him, feeling so much gratitude it overwhelms me. “Not at all. Thank you for taking good care of her.”

“It was nothing. Hadley and I are friends. It was fun to get to hang out for a bit.”

She looks at him with a wide grin.

“Well, I think Hadley and I need to get back home.”

“No!” she screams. “No! I don’t want to. Please! Please, Mommy! Please don’t make me go back there!”

I fall to my knees and gather her hands in mine. “Hadley, it’s okay.”

“I don’t want to go home!” Her eyes fill with tears as her head shakes back and forth quickly. “I want to stay here—with Connor!”

“Honey, we can’t. We need to go back. No one is going to hurt us there.”

Her tears fall like rain, and her sniffling breaks me apart. I can see it’s true fear that has her. I can’t tell her that I feel the same way. The idea of going back to that house makes me want to crawl out of my skin.

“I’m scared, Mommy.”

Connor kneels with us, saying, “You don’t have to be scared. I can go there to make sure that there’s no one else inside and that you’ll be safe.”

She shakes her head. “I don’t want to go! You can’t make me!”

Hadley rips her hands from mine, scrambles to her feet, and rushes out the door.

“Hadley!” I yell after her as I try to get up, but wince when my side screams in protest.

“Easy, I’ll go get her,” Connor says as he helps me stand.

“She’s my daughter, I’ll go. I just need a second.”

“Why don’t we give her a minute? She probably needs to cool off, and I know where she went.”

How does he do this? How can he know what Hadley needs with such ease? It’s as though he’s gotten to the core of both of us without any effort at all. Connor and I had this when we met, but now he has that intuition with Hadley as well. He could see that she needed time when I couldn’t.

It has to mean something, right?

“You’re right. I’m so sorry. I thought she’d want to go home, and we needed to.”

“Why do you need to?”

I sigh, hating that I said anything. “Because that’s her home and we can’t stay here forever. I’m sure you don’t need the two of us driving you crazy.”

“You’re not driving me crazy, and you don’t have to go back there if you don’t want to.”

“We can’t stay here.”

“Why?”

“Why?” I repeat. “Because . . . you’re a bachelor and you have this farm to fix up and I don’t think you need another broken thing to repair.”

Plus, being around him makes it hard not to see the similarities between him and Hadley. Keeping the possibility of him being her biological father to myself is wrong. He deserves to know. What keeps me from saying it is how I feel when I’m around him. I want to be close, rely on him, and these are dangerous thoughts for me. It’s impractical, and I worry that I’ll form an attachment to a man who I know is going to leave.

If it hasn’t already happened with him and Hadley.

But what if she’s his?

What if all the signs that point to it are real?

I have to tell him.

He shakes his head slowly. “I’m more than able to fix up this place with you both here, and I think you and Hadley feeling safe is more important than my being a bachelor. Do you feel safe with me?”