Hold on to My Heart (Maine Sullivans)

“That’d be great. Thanks, Ash.” He grinned down at Kevin. “While your mom’s making that call, why don’t you come take a closer look at the van and the tools I just bought?”

As Kevin happily ran toward the van, his deadbeat dad and the spring break camping trip seemed to be forgotten. They talked about Nash’s ideas for retrofitting the van, and Kevin had good suggestions about how Nash could create a removable bunk bed above the convertible couch to sleep a third person.

“Maybe you could draw that out for me,” Nash suggested, “and then tomorrow, we’ll have a game plan before we start taking measurements.”

“I’m pretty good at drawing, so I’ll do that when we all go inside for dinner.”

Nash appreciated how Kevin automatically assumed Nash was staying for dinner. Kids were so accepting. So good at rolling with life.

Just that quickly, the crazy urge to have a family of his own hit him again, right in the solar plexus.

Ashley came out to the sidewalk to give them an update. “Okay, guys, everything is a go.” After Kevin whooped with excitement, Ashley turned to tell Nash, “Tomorrow morning, I’ll introduce you to Rory, and he’ll show you where you can hook up to electricity and water.”

“Sounds great, thanks.” She was so beautiful, so good and sweet, that his chest ached just looking at her.

“Mom,” Kevin said, “I need to draw something for Nash, because I had a really good idea about how to set up an extra bunk bed. Can I work on it while you make dinner?”

“Works for me,” she said, clearly happy to see Kevin looking cheerful again.

After Kevin had run inside, Nash said to Ashley in a low voice, “I’m sorry his father bailed on him.”

“I am too. He’s such a bastard. I can’t believe he said he didn’t have the money for their trip. Especially after I gave—” She shook her head. “Never mind.”

“Wait. You gave him the money for the trip with Kevin? And then he blew him off anyway?” Nash felt extremely protective of Ashley and her son. It didn’t matter how long he’d known them. They deserved better.

“I did,” she admitted. “And I feel so stupid to have fallen for his lies yet again. He’s probably off gambling with his friends. Yesterday, he fed me a line about needing the money to rent an RV, but instead of sending the money to the rental company, I sent it to him. I knew better, damn it.”

Nash reached for her hands, stilling her self-recriminations. “It’s his fault, not yours.”

“Thank you for coming to the rescue, Nash. But if it’s going to be too much of a distraction to have Kevin working on the van with you—”

“No way am I going to back out on him the way Josh did,” Nash interrupted before she could finish. “The two of us are going to have a great time working together on the van. He’s a bright and capable kid. And you’re a great mom, just like I knew you must be after spending time with you in Vienna. Although I probably shouldn’t have asked him to work with me without asking you first. I know my being here is complicating your life, but when I realized what had happened with Josh not showing up for their trip, I didn’t stop to think that stepping in might cause even more problems.”

“Normally, I would have wanted more time to think the whole thing over,” she agreed. “But right now, seeing how quickly Kevin went from sad to excited is outweighing anything else. And I know you and I still need to talk about…other things.” Though her cheeks flushed as she said other things, her expression was far too grim for his liking. “But it will have to be later. After Kevin is in bed.”

His chest tightened at what he figured she was planning to say to him. That she didn’t want any more of his kisses, or lovemaking, because getting closer to him would only complicate her life more than it likely already had.

“Why don’t you let me help you with dinner?” he said in as easy a voice as he could manage. “We can work out everything else later.”

At the very least, he thought as he picked up Kevin’s bags and carried them into the house, working with Kevin on the van meant he’d get to see Ashley for a little while every day.

He wanted to spend all of his time with her. But at this point, he’d take anything he could get, any smiles, any laughter, any chances to touch her again. Even if it was only five minutes in the morning and five minutes at night when she dropped off Kevin and then picked him up, they’d still be the best ten minutes of Nash’s day.