Page 48 of Promise Me a Forever Texas Love

“That’s okay,” Ada said. “There’s no hurry. And of course, you have to get the sheriff’s porch swing finished first.” She glanced at the sheriff with a twinkle in her eyes. “I’ll get your breakfast right out, sheriff. And I’ll put a little fruit and cottage cheese on the side that will fill you up but won’t add too many calories to your waistline.”

“And I’ll get you some skim milk for your coffee, so you don’t have to use that fattening cream,” Adele said.

Arlene came up and patted the sheriff’s back. “Now don’t you worry, sheriff. With our help, there’s little doubt you’re going to lose weight and get your woman back.”

When she was gone, Sheriff Gentry sighed. “Seven divorces between them and they’re going to fix my marriage. Now if that isn’t scary, I don’t know what is.”

Huck would have laughed if his mind wasn’t preoccupied. The Stocktons didn’t have a swing on their front porch. While he was making one porch swing for cuddlin’, it wouldn’t be hard to make another.

If the sheriff could have a second-chance romance, why couldn’t Huck?

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“Are you planning on scrubbing all the skin off that potato, Cadee Lynn?”

Mama’s question had Cadee looking down at the potato in her hand. She had almost scrubbed all the skin off it with the vegetable brush she was using to clean it.

“Callum doesn’t eat the skin on his twice-baked potatoes anyway,” she said as she rinsed it under the running water and then placed it on the counter with the other potatoes she planned to cover in foil and bake.

“I’m not concerned about potato skin,” her mama said. “I’m concerned about my daughter.”

She shut off the water and grabbed a paper towel to dry her hands before turning to her mama who was rolling out pastry dough for an apple pie. “Why would you be concerned about me?”

Her mama stopped rolling and shot her an exasperated look. “Maybe because you can’t concentrate on anything lately. I understood why you were distracted when Huck came back into town. You were worried he’d find out about Camden. Now that he knows—and it looks like you two have mended your fences—I thought you’d stop staring off into space, putting on your T-shirts inside out, and forgetting the peanut butter in Camden’s peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. But you’ve become even more distracted. Are you worried about telling Camden?”

Cadee was worried about telling her son Huck was his father. She and Huck had planned to tell him after his party, but they’d yet to set a date. Probably because they both didn’t want to upset Camden when he seemed to be so happy lately. But that wasn’t the main reason for her distraction.

Huck was.

She knew he would be around more now that he was trying to get to know his son, but he’d started showing up at the ranch even when Camden wasn’t there. Yesterday, he’d helped her make peach preserves. Peach preserves! He’d put on one of her mama’s floral aprons and cleaned canning jars and sliced peaches as if it was something he did every day.

She should have been thankful for the help. Instead, she couldn’t seem to focus on anything but how sexy his muscled forearms looked beneath the rolled up sleeves of his western shirt. Or how cute he looked with his tongue sticking out as he tried his best to slice the peaches the way she’d taught him. Or how tempting his blue-jeaned butt looked between the ties of the apron. By the time the jars of peach preserves were sitting on the counter glistening in the afternoon sunlight, she had been nothing but a glistening jar of desire.

It was too much.

Just too much.

She couldn’t stop her sexual frustration from spilling out. Even if it was on her mama.

“I can’t take Huck being everywhere! Every time I turn around, he’s there. He shows up at the ranch at all hours of the day. He’s at every one of Camden’s soccer practices and games. He’s been waiting for us at Grounds For Divorce for the last two Sundays. And yesterday, he even went with us to church!”

Her mama pressed her lips together and continued rolling out the piecrust. “I would think that was a good thing for Camden’s daddy to attend church.”

“It is a good thing, but does he have to sit right next to me?” And did he have to rest his arm on the back of the pew behind her so every time she started to relax, she brushed against his hard bicep and got a whiff of his spicy cologne? Did he have to have a deep baritone singing voice that ignited thoughts of him using that deep, sexy voice to whisper naughty things in her ear? And did he have to glance over at her every time Camden hit an off-key note and smile like their son was the cutest thing ever?

“I just can’t take him always being around,” she fumed. “I just can’t! We haven’t even told Camden yet, and with the way Huck has been hanging out with us, I’m sure the entire town has already figured it out.”

Mama rolled the crust up on the rolling pin and then unrolled it onto the pie plate. “Actually, the townsfolk just seem to think that y’all have rekindled your childhood friendship. I can’t see that being a bad thing. It might make the news of him being Camden’s daddy not quite so shocking.”

Her mama had a good point, but that didn’t help her predicament.

The more time she spent with Huck, the more chance of her doing something embarrassing . . . like the porch kiss. Or offering him her body like she had the night in the treeboat. She couldn’t deal with the humiliation again. Or with Huck getting freaked out and leaving town. It wasn’t just her he’d be leaving this time. It was Camden.

She couldn’t let anything hurt her son. She wouldn’t.

“I get that you’re not used to having Huck around,” her mama said. “But he’s just trying to make up for lost time with Camden. And I believe you invited him to the ranch and soccer practice.”

“Well, it was a mistake. Like Cooper said, I should have done a better job of setting boundaries.”