Page 6

Down the way, he saw Cindy Benedict leaving the beauty shop. Maybe she’d been Gabi’s last customer. God, he hoped not. Cindy’s hair looked like she’d just crawled out of bed. It was sticking out in all directions. Maybe that was a new style?

She crossed the street so Silas didn’t get a chance to speak to her. At least he didn’t have to lie and tell Cindy her hair looked great.

He heard the kid a split-second before he opened the door to the beauty shop. If he’d heard it any sooner he might’ve kept on walking.

Gabi’s daughter Mia was one-ish. She could walk, though not very well, and she talked but only spouted gibberish. And, apparently, she screamed. Silas didn’t like children much. He hadn’t spent much time with little kids, but he found them mostly demanding, messy, and annoying.

As he opened the door Silas looked down to instruct Judge to stay on the sidewalk, but that instruction was too slow. The bloodhound slipped past him, through the doorway and into the beauty shop.

Gabi stood in the middle of the room holding her little girl, bouncing her up and down, whispering soothing words which did not soothe.

Maybe he wouldn’t get his hair cut today after all. What he had to do, the plan he was supposed to enact, would have to wait. Just as well, since he didn’t really have a plan. This visit was recon, nothing more.

Before Silas could excuse himself and slip out, Judge settled himself at Gabi’s feet and turned his sad-eyed gaze up. The kid looked down and instantly stopped screaming, then reached for the dog with an expression of wonder on her face.

Because the kid squirmed and reached and spouted nonsensical but obviously demanding words, Gabi carefully placed the child on her feet.

Mia cooed, sighed, and wrapped her arms around Judge’s neck, and the two new friends plopped down together, settling in the middle of the floor like long-lost friends.

“Huh,” Gabi said. She turned her gaze from her child to Silas. “Cindy usually babysits until three, but she wasn’t feeling well and she said Mia was really antsy today. She started to fight me when I tried to pull out the playpen I used when she was younger.” She sighed, a little. “That option is off the table. I thought I was going to have to cancel.”

Silas jerked a thumb at the door. “I can come back another…”

“No, come on in. It looks like Mia and Judge are doing fine.” She smiled, then, and Silas’s stomach clenched.

Might as well get this over with.

Gabi’s hair was dark, almost as dark as his, and she wore it long. Sometimes she pulled her hair up and back, as she had today. Sometimes it was curly, other times straight as a board. Her hair was a different color every couple of months. Nothing weird, no pink or blue, but she’d gone through a couple of months as a redhead, not so long ago. She was a brunette more often than not, so maybe that was her natural hair color. Not that it mattered.

Her eyes, though… her eyes were brown. He’d noticed that before, that her eyes were brown like his, but up close he noticed the flecks of gold. Not that he had any business noticing the color of her eyes.

He took the chair that was offered, and looked down at the traitor on the floor. A quick, powerful message reached him.

Mine.

It was a shock to realize the thought had not come from Judge, but had somehow reached him from the child who held onto the bloodhound for dear life.

Chapter 2

Gabi liked her life here in Mystic Springs. She was settled, safe, and she had Mia. She had friends, some closer than others, none close enough to tell her life story to but still… friends. She didn’t need anything, or anyone, else. Moving out of her comfort zone would bring nothing but one complication after another.

She had enough of those in her life.

In the past year she’d learned to live with the sacrifices she’d made in order to stay safe, and only occasionally missed those things she’d given up for this new life. Maybe her old friends thought about her now and then, but they wouldn’t wonder where she was. Blake had made sure she distanced herself from friends. He wanted her all to himself; another warning sign she’d missed.

She had no family to speak of, other than Mia, so being on her own wasn’t a burden. It was how she lived, how she’d always lived. Social media; sometimes she missed it, and sometimes she didn’t. Not having a bank account was an occasional complication, but she’d learned to live with it. Her driver’s license was long expired.

Not everyone knew Cindy Benedict was pregnant and there was no way for Silas to know that morning sickness, which as every mother knew could strike any time of the day, was her reason for handing Mia off early, so Gabi didn’t share the news as she cut his hair. Word would be out soon enough. She did her best to listen to all gossip without sharing any of it.

So many women in town were getting pregnant, it was as if there had been an epidemic of some sort. A sperm epidemic. Gabi didn’t miss sperm. She didn’t miss men at all.

That was a lie. In concept men were great. In reality, her experiences had made her cautious. Cautious, hell, she was terrified of repeating her mistakes. But when so many women were talking about being pregnant or getting pregnant, she couldn’t help but remember when she’d been carrying Mia. She’d loved being pregnant, in many ways. Her journey to motherhood had been less than perfect, not at all how she’d imagined it would be, and yet she couldn’t regret the decisions that had given her a daughter. Mia was a gift.

She would be a better single mother than hers had been; she would be a good mother to her child. She didn’t need any man. Looking back, she wished she’d left Florida as soon as the divorce was final, that she’d gotten as far away from her ex as humanly possible. Like, Alaska. She heard it was cold, but beautiful.

Mystic Springs wasn’t nearly as far away as Alaska, but so far it had served her well. It was a weird place, but she had a good handle on most of the people. Some of them were perfectly nice. Others had an odd dislike of outsiders. She hadn’t figured Silas out yet. He was complicated. Their date had been pretty bad, but she couldn’t hold him responsible for her shoe or for the weather. He’d been a little awkward, but so had she. They’d both been cajoled into the date.

Not that it mattered. No matter how sexy Silas was she was staying far, far away from his sperm, and anyone else’s.