Chapter 4

4

"All right, guys." Stacey rinsed off the breakfast dishes and loaded them into the dishwasher. "Let's go get everything else off the moving truck. I'd like to get it returned before I have to pay any more for it than I already have."

"Aw, man," Elijah whined. "I wanted to play on the beach today."

"Sweetheart, we're not here on vacation. We live here. You'll get to play on the beach all the time, and we will. First, we need to get our house set up. We can't just live out of cardboard boxes for the rest of our lives."

Elijah rolled his shoulder. "I could."

"You think that now," Stacey laughed, "but you'll enjoy it much more once everything is organized and put away. You kids can't get most of what's left on the truck, anyway. A lot of it is furniture."

The four of them headed out the front door to the moving truck, waiting right where Stacey had parked it. She felt a bit of pride as she looked up at the hulking box truck. Sure, they rented these things to anyone with a license, but it still felt like an achievement to know that she'd managed to drive it all the way out there herself. Granted, her mother had been gripping the dashboard or the upholstery a bit too much, but they'd made it in one piece. Now, the challenge was to get it empty again. She unlocked and lifted the back gate.

Vivian was the first to climb up inside. "Mom, can we have a bonfire?"

"Oh." Stacey smiled. She'd imagined long hours of building sandcastles, swimming, and reading in a lounge chair, but the bonfire idea hadn't occurred to her. "That sounds nice. What do you think, Elijah?"

He had one knee up in the back of the truck. Elijah turned and looked at his mother with wide eyes. "Nu uh!"

"Why not? It sounds like fun to me. We could roast marshmallows and hot dogs." Stacey smiled, knowing that they'd only been there a day or so, and already, it seemed that opportunities to bond were all around them. This was exactly why she'd come out there to Truro, why she'd bought a beach house and left her job, and why she'd turned her life completely on its head. That's what she needed, and she was finding it.

But Elijah wasn't so convinced, at least not about the bonfire. "No way. Then the wolves will come."

Stacey blinked. "Wolves?"

Vivian, who had found a box of her stuffed animals and was now dragging it toward the back of the truck, nodded. "When we were out playing on the sand last night, we saw some other people having a bonfire."

"I see." So that was where they got the idea. That was good to know, but it didn't exactly solve the mystery at hand.

"And there were wolves with them," Vivian finished.

"Wolves." Stacey reached into the truck and grabbed an end table. "I don't think there are any wolves around here, guys. They were probably just dogs."

"No!" Elijah insisted. "These were wolves! Real wolves with pointy ears and long tails. I saw them with my own eyes."

Carol handed him a box that'd been marked ‘ Bathroom Stuff.' "It's been a long time since I've seen a wolf. I should've been out there with you."

"They were really big, Grandma," Elijah said as he struggled to adjust the box in his hands. It was lightweight but awkward for his six-year-old arms. "Except for the baby one that was with them."

"And you said they were right out there with people?" Carol snagged a small box.

"Yep," Vivian confirmed. "Right out there with them like they were dogs."

"Which is why they probably were dogs," Stacey concluded as she led the way back into the house. "Wolves don't just go frolicking around on the beach with people."

Elijah stuck out his lower lip. "But these ones did!"

"Tell me more about them," Carol said as she elbowed her way in through the front door.

"Don't encourage them," Stacey warned. "They're excitable from having moved into a new place, and they're bound to get their imaginations going."

"A little imagination never hurt anyone," Carol replied. "Besides, I'm genuinely curious. If these were big dogs, then we should know about them. Or if they were something else, well, then we need to know about that, too."

"What do I do with this?" Elijah asked, referencing the box in his hands.

"Let's get that down the hallway into the guest bathroom, and we can talk in there," Carol suggested. "Viv, can you get that one all right on your own?"

Vivian was already carrying the box up the stairs. "Uh huh. Mom, can I go ahead and unpack this one?"

Stacey was tempted to say no. They'd have time to unpack once they got the truck unloaded. On the other hand, she didn't want to discourage any activity that meant they'd be another step closer to having their house finished. "That's fine, honey." She set down the end table she'd been carrying. It definitely wouldn't be staying there next to the stairs, but she hadn't yet decided on the right layout for the living room. Resigned to the fact that some chaos was bound to come along with their new life, she headed back outside.

Climbing into the truck, she put her hands on her hips and looked around. She'd hired movers to help with the big stuff, so she didn't have to get any couches or large mattresses moved around on her own, but she was starting to think maybe she'd overestimated her own strength and skills. Carol would have to help her with Vivian's dresser, which was long and guaranteed to be awkward. Maybe the chest of drawers that went in Elijah's room wouldn't be so bad. She pulled out one drawer just enough to get a grip on the frame and tugged. Sweat had broken out all over her body by the time she got it to the edge of the truck.

"Need a hand?"

She shrieked at the sudden sound of the deep voice behind her and turned, pressing her hand against her chest. It was the handsome ranger she'd met before, the one who'd seen her mother in all her glory. The one who was her neighbor . Stacey laughed. "You scared the shit out of me!"

"I'm sorry." Those dark eyes were watching her, but they flicked to the dresser. "It looks like you need some help."

With the chest of drawers all the way at the edge of the truck bed, Stacey hopped down. "I didn't think so, but it's a lot heavier than it looks. I guess that's what I get for buying quality pieces. I'll have to call the movers back out here."

"I'm happy to give you a hand." Without waiting for her reply, he gave one solid tug on the chest of drawers and had it almost yanked completely out of the truck.

Stacey's throat closed as she watched his muscles bulging under the tight-fitting sleeves of his t-shirt. "Thanks."

"I'll go backward," he volunteered, easily swiveling around and leading the way up the walk.

They fell automatically into sync, their steps timed so that the load between them didn't jerk either one of them in one direction or the other. Stacey tried to focus on keeping a grip on the furniture, but she also had to keep a grip on herself. Carol had joked with her about the handsome ranger, but she'd been closer to the truth than she might've realized. There was something about this guy that sent flutters of excitement through Stacey's chest. "This is very kind of you."

"Just being a good neighbor." He flashed her a smile as he stepped up onto the porch.

Those fluttery feelings in her chest melted straight down into her stomach. "Then I guess that means I've never had good neighbors before."

"Where does this go?" Dylan asked as they stepped inside.

"Well, upstairs, so I'll have to figure that out later." Now the hot ranger was in her house. She had absolutely nothing to be ashamed of when it came to the state of the place. Dylan knew they'd just moved in. Even with disarrayed furniture and stacks of boxes everywhere, the home was a nice one that'd been left clean as a pin when Stacey bought it. And yet, as Dylan's eyes grazed over the wood trim, they might as well have been grazing over her naked body.

"No need. You go backward this time." Dylan once again swung around, easily taking the brunt of the load between them as they headed to the second floor.

Now, those melty, fluttery feelings had migrated even lower. The anger and frustration were much easier because now she could hardly even concentrate on something as simple as moving an object from Point A to Point B. She backed into Elijah's room, glancing over her shoulder to find his Legos still on the floor. "Watch your step. Those little bricks can kill a man, I swear."

Dylan laughed as he set the chest down where Stacey indicated and shimmied it against the wall. "At least I'm not barefoot. That's when they're most dangerous. How many kids do you have?"

"Two." She followed him back down the stairs and out the door, surprised at how quickly he moved after hefting that thing all the way up there. "Vivian is eight and Elijah is six."

"I remember those days." Dylan leaped into the back of the truck. He hefted an armchair with just as much ease, flipping it over so that it rested over his shoulder. "When you first become a parent, everyone tells you how quickly they grow up. They sure aren't kidding."

"Oh? I take it you have some little ones, as well?" Struggling to keep up with him, Stacey quickly snatched a dining chair and followed him.

"No, not anymore. Well, I think I do, but Lila would disagree with me on that since she's eighteen. She just graduated high school this year. Even when she was a freshman, I thought graduation was still pretty far off. It all went by like that." He shook his head as he stepped into the living room. "Any certain place for this one?"

"Just there in the corner is fine." Stacey trotted her wooden chair across the hall to the dining room. She glanced around, but there was no sign of her mother or children. They'd likely gotten distracted looking through all the stuff they'd hauled along with them, or maybe they were somewhere dreaming about wolves.

"Listen, I just want to apologize about my mother' s behavior yesterday," Stacey said quietly when they were back out at the truck and guaranteed not to be overheard. "She can be a little unruly, but I promise we're not here to cause any problems."

"Don't worry about it." He grabbed one end of the dining table and waited for her to take the other one. "Does she live here with you?"

"Yes. She's with the kids right now and is an amazing help with them. Of course, she keeps her top on for that." Stacey struggled with the heavy table, wondering just how weak he'd think she was after this. Granted, that hard jawline of his made her weak in the knees, but that was a different sensation altogether.

"Hey, at least she'll be easy to recognize from a distance when we're all out on the beach," Dylan cracked. His smile was more of a grin this time, one that made her sweat a little more than she already had been.

Regardless of how attractive she found him, Stacey was relieved to know that his first impression wasn't quite as terrible as she'd imagined. "That's true! Of course, my kids think there are all sorts of interesting things out on the beach. They're really going nuts today. They told me they saw wolves out there having a bonfire. "

Dylan stiffened in the entryway to the dining room, almost losing his balance as Stacey continued forward. He quickly moved his feet, regaining his stance. "Wolves?"

"I know. It's ridiculous." Stacey swung the table around and settled it onto the floor. She grabbed the dining room chairs and began putting them in place. "I mean, I've never lived right on the ocean before, but that's not exactly the kind of wildlife I was worried about running into."

"Have they been reading any books about wolves?" Dylan, too, helped position the chairs. "I remember Lila checked out a library book about ghosts, and she couldn't stop thinking about them for weeks. Every little creak of the house sent her screaming from the room, sure that it was a spirit coming to get her."

Stacey considered this as they once again went back outside. The truck was starting to look empty. "I hadn't thought about that, but I'll have to ask them. They were pretty insistent about it, but kids tend to get caught up in whatever they're currently interested in. I would've thought moving to a place like this would be enough of an adventure for them, but maybe it's just enough of an adventure for me."

"What made you come out here, anyway?" Dylan asked. "Don't get me wrong; it's a nice area. I just don't usually see a lot of people coming in who don't already have some connections to the place."

Or a shit ton of money, Stacey silently added, remembering some of the home prices she'd looked at on comparative properties. "I needed a big change. The Boston suburbs were great in a lot of ways, but when I looked into this place, I knew it was meant to be."

He was standing next to the truck, watching her, those dark eyes burrowing straight into her the way they'd done the previous day. She'd hardly been paying attention to him as she moved back through time in her mind, once again experiencing that rush of urgency once she was out of the hospital and back on her feet. But now, Stacey felt like she was the only other person in the world as he spoke. "Sometimes destiny holds things for us that we can never imagine."

"Yeah, it really does." She turned, ready to strain her thighs and knees all over again to hop in the back of the truck, but it was empty except for a small box of dishes that'd been missed. "Nor did I imagine someone coming along and helping me unload this in record time. Can I buy you dinner or something to pay you back? "

He opened his mouth, and the angle of his head suggested he was going to say no, but then he nodded. "Sure. You don't need to repay me, but I could use a dinner out. How about I pick you up tonight? I know a great little place that you might like."

"All right." Was she smiling too much? Because as much as Stacey tried to tug the corners of her mouth back down, they weren't cooperating. "I'll see you then."

"See you." Dylan headed back over to his place.

That left Stacey to recover. She pulled out the box of dishes, finding that she barely had enough strength to tug the truck gate shut. Whether that was because she'd exhausted her muscles with the move or because watching Dylan's muscled body had driven all her strength away, she wasn't sure. She braced the box on her hip and headed back into the house.

"We're coming!" Carol announced as she and the kids came out of the hallway. "We got a little distracted, but we can get another load now."

"No need. The truck is empty. I'm going to get it dropped off in a bit." And then she'd have to come back and take a cold shower .

"Empty? And what are you smiling about?" Carol followed her into the kitchen.

Stacey put the box on the table and pulled it open, casually unpacking the dishes. Was she still smiling? She wasn't the kind who got all gooey over a man. She was a more rational person than that. "Why not smile? After all, we came out here to have fun, right?"

Carol raised a brow and was about to say more when the kids barreled into the kitchen to raid the fridge. She settled for a knowing smile. "Right."