Wounded Love (A Rocky Harbor Novel Book 3) Read online

  She led them through a dining room. Ten tabletops covered in dark blue linen, four two-seaters and eight four-seaters, and a long serving table with empty serving dishes. Chaffing dishes is what his mother called them. With a family of five kids, buffet style was the only method that worked at mealtime. Although there were six kids now. Lucy hadn’t come along until later and he’d only met the wild child a few times. Serious issues, that one had. Not that he could judge.

  Ellie’s legs, legs he’d remembered wrapped around his waist as a young, energetic teenager, made long strides through the dining room and into a kitchen that smelled like Rachael. Sugar and vanilla. That woman knew the way to a man’s heart. The counters were clean, the enormous center island free of clutter as well, but in the corner by the back door he noticed a variety of coats. Some feminine, Rachael’s and Ellie’s, and a smaller navy coat.

  Two pair of women’s rain boots sat on a mat next to a smaller pair of boy’s sneakers. Colton’s blood pressure rose a notch, sweat forming on his lip, and his left leg began to burn.

  Ellie flew through the back door, the screen slapping closed in his face. Ignoring the denim target he’d had his eye on earlier, Colton stopped and swiveled around the room looking for other signs. A bowl of fruit on a work table. A cookie jar.

  A kid’s backpack.

  Grinding his teeth, he flung open the back door, not caring how hard it smacked into the side of the house, and stomped down the steps. He stopped after the second one. In a moment of insanity he had forgot how hard it was to run down steps. Cursing his leg, the war, Ellie, he hobbled down the remaining two steps and jogged after her.

  When he caught up to Ellie he grabbed her shoulder and spun her around.

  “You have a kid,” he accused.

  Ellie’s eyes, as blue as the lines on a pregnancy stick, went round as a grenade. She’d always been good at masking her emotions, the little actress. She’d fooled him once, but never again. Colton didn’t blink. Didn’t flinch. Didn’t breathe, waiting for his opponent to make her move.

  They stared each other down until she finally looked away.

  ***

  Ellie

  “I have a son.”

  “How old is he?”

  For the first time since she’d met him, Ellie couldn’t read his eyes. He’d changed, hardened, since going off to war. She supposed that’s what happened to men and women.

  “He’s eight,” she lied.

  “Where’s his father?”

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “He should be here, helping around the inn.”

  “Like I said, it’s none of your business.” Ellie shrugged his hands off her shoulders and stepped away.

  “I suppose he doesn’t want to get his hands dirty. Better to hire some low-life to do the physical work while he sits behind a computer in some stuffy office wearing his thousand-dollar suits.”

  Colton had said those same words to her during one of their fights. He hated that she came from money and he was a hired hand. Ellie never cared, never thought about it, but the difference in socioeconomic status mattered to Colton. Too much.

  “If you can’t handle the job, Colton, let me know. Like I said, I can find someone else.” God, she hated how snarky she sounded, but she knew Colton wouldn’t step away from a challenge. Even though he did just that a decade ago.

  He tossed her one quick nod and she spun on her heels, storming off to the shed. She spent the next twenty minutes showing Colton the supplies and gave him a quick, cold tour around the house, pointing out the trim work that needed to be done.

  “Any questions?” she asked once they’d made their way to the backyard again. The breeze across the water had picked up and she rubbed her hands together to warm them.

  “I’ve got it. You can leave me alone now.” Colton limped into the shed and came out a moment later laden with a ladder and a scowl.

  She watched him heft the twenty-foot steel ladder over his head and carry it up the slight hill to the back of the inn. Too shocked at seeing him when he first arrived, and pissed at his attitude, she hadn’t noticed his limp before. He favored his right leg as he settled the ladder on the ground and rested it against the building.

  His fatigue pants stretched tight over what promised to be a muscular backside and thighs, yet hung differently below the knee. Colton looked over his shoulder and gave her another piercing scowl. Caught staring, Ellie scurried into the Inn.

  She busied herself with changing the linens and doing laundry, and let out a scream when she opened the door to the blueberry room on the second floor, finding Colton right outside the window.

  “Damn, woman. Do you want me to fall and break my neck?” Colton hollered through the closed glass.

  Too angry to reply sensibly, she whipped the drapes closed, shutting him out of her view. Ellie stripped the bed with too much force and then slowed, worried she’d rip the sheets. How dare he come back into her life, treat her this way and accuse her of having a husband too caught up in his business world to take care of the inn? Of her?

  Not that Colton said those exact words, but she could read the meaning behind his curt accusation. He still thought of her as a pampered princess, and why wouldn’t he? When he took off he never looked back. Never contacted her. Never checked up on her.

  Guilt surfaced, weighing heavily on her shoulders. Maybe if he knew? He deserved to know.

  Ellie shook her head. No. He wouldn’t care and it would make more of a mess than she was already in if she told him the truth. If Colton truly wanted to be part of her life, he wouldn’t have walked away so easily.

  Too many life-altering events had happened over the past ten years when she longed to know where Colton was. They were young that summer, she almost eighteen and Colton barely twenty. He’d never told her his last name and she never asked. Never cared. Too caught up in a summer romance and the beginning of young love, last names didn’t matter. Of course he knew everything there was to know about her. Ellie Fairfield, the daughter of the well-known Pennsylvania senator. Older sister to Max, the pesky pubescent fifteen-year-old who’d followed Colton around and teased him mercilessly about having to work for a living.

  Ellie hated her little brother, but Colton had been patient with him, brushing off his taunts as if they meant nothing to him. Ellie could read his eyes, though. The emerald jewels tried to hide emotion but deep inside they clouded when Max said something that hit too close to home.

  Home. She hadn’t even known where he lived. He rode a bicycle to her house three days a week to keep up the massive landscaping and to clean the pool, and rode to town on the other days to meet up with her at the ice cream stand or at the beach where they’d spent most of their free time.

  Colton didn’t talk much about his family. She knew he had a sister and a few brothers and lived in Rocky Harbor, but they never visited his home. At seventeen, she didn’t care about any of that, she cared about Colton.

  No, not cared. Loved. She loved the tall young man with dark blond hair and beautiful eyes who made her feel special, cherished, and loved. Ellie had been the one to initiate their relationship. He’d kept his respectful distance, but she’d time her entrance to the pool perfectly knowing he’d be there at eight every Thursday morning to clean it.

  It didn’t matter if it was cloudy or cool, she’d change into her black and white polka dot bikini and be floating in the pool or lying on a chaise lounge by the time he showed up. Waking at seven to get ready for school in the fall was torturous, but she had no problem bouncing out of bed at six on a summer Thursday to shower and primp before the beautiful Colton came over.

  Their relationship started out innocent enough. Ellie would tag along, asking if Colton needed any help, which he always shook off.

  “Your family hired me to work for you. I can’t ask you to help.”

  “You didn’t ask. I offered.”

  “You sit there and look pretty. It will distract me from the blazing heat,
” he’d say while pushing the lawnmower shirtless.

  On those hot, humid days Ellie would pour herself a tall glass of lemonade, and sit back to watch the show. She loved how his strong arms could push the mower up the slight embankment and how he wiped the sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand, or with the bottom of his shirt, revealing his tanned stomach underneath.

  Every now and then he’d catch her staring and the corner of his mouth would quirk up into the cutest grin she’d ever seen. No boy at her private school could compete with him. With their starched white button down uniform shirts and pleated blue slacks, they couldn’t hold a candle to Colton Whateverhisnamewas. It wasn’t just the raw, masculine vibe she got from Colton, but the manners that seemed to flow naturally from him. He didn’t do the Yes, ma’am, No, thank you, ma’am that her privileged friends had been groomed to say, but his etiquette was still impeccable.

  When Ginnie handed him his check every Friday he’d nod and say, “Thank you, Mrs. Fairfield. Please let me know if you have any other work that needs to be done.” Her mother would smile appreciatively and often find a few random odds and ends that needed working on.

  And Colton did it all. From landscape work to carpentry projects to moving furniture when Ginnie felt like rearranging the rooms, he would be at her mother’s beck and call and work like a horse.

  It was early in the summer when Ellie had asked Colton to go for ice cream after Ginnie paid him for the week.

  “I’m a sweaty mess.”

  “It’s summer. We’re all sweaty.”

  Colton’s green gaze looked her up and down and then some, and she shivered at the intensity. “Not all of us.”

  “O-oh,” she stammered. “We can cool off in the pool if you want.”

  “I don’t have a swim suit.”

  “I’m sure Max has an extra.” It was Ellie’s turn for her gaze to sweep over his body. No, Colton’s frame could never squeeze into Max’s shorts. “Or not.”

  “I appreciate the offer, but I should probably head home.”

  “Oh, okay.” Ellie watched him walk away. Before he straddled his bike she ran over to him. “What about tomorrow? Do you want to meet at the Dairy Curl?” She hated how elementary she sounded.

  Colton licked his lips and looked away. She could read the embarrassment in his face but couldn’t comprehend it. Maybe he wasn’t as into her as she’d thought. Maybe he had a girlfriend already.

  “That’s okay. I understand.” She turned and headed slowly back to the house when his deep, husky voice called out.

  “Tomorrow sounds good.”

  Grinning ear to ear, she spun around and bit her lip, trying to contain her excitement. She didn’t think he had a car so she offered to pick him up. The mask came over his face again and she sank into her flip flops.

  “How about we meet there. Say two o’clock?”

  Nodding her agreement, Ellie skipped to the house, not caring if she looked more like a childish middle schooler instead of a sophisticated senior in high school.

  They’d met regularly and Colton didn’t kiss her until halfway through the summer. Ellie would never forget that kiss. It wasn’t her first, but it erased every boy crush, every first date, even her obsession with Bradley Cooper.

  He’d taken care with her, asked her if she was ready, if she minded if he kissed her. As if! Ellie had nodded her head a bit too enthusiastically and Colton had laughed before brushing his tender lips across hers.

  Smiling at the memory, Ellie held the pillow tight to her chest and wished for those summer days again when the only stress in life was deciding on rocky road or mint chocolate chip.

  Colton had taken things slowly. Much too slowly for Ellie’s liking, and when they’d finally come together in love’s embrace, she knew she’d never love another.

  They’d spent nearly every day together that summer. If her parents noticed her relationship with the hired help, they’d never said anything.

  Until she told them she was pregnant.

  Chapter Two

  Ellie

  Colton proved to be thorough and efficient, not that Ellie doubted his work. She did, however, doubt he’d stick around. Not wanting him to run into CJ, she set his hours as nine to three, claiming she didn’t want him working on the outside of the house while her guests were around.

  Glancing at the clock, Ellie cringed when she saw how time had gotten away from her. She got carried away in her work, as usually happened. Tossing her cleaning supplies in the closet off the kitchen, she rushed out the front doors and hollered up at Colton.

  “It’s time to go.”

  “I need to finish this board first.”

  “Leave it. By the time you clean up I’ll be checking in guests and I don’t want the first thing for them to notice is you on my roof.”

  His gaze locked on hers, sending inappropriate tingles down to her core. They stared in tense silence, his jaw clenched. Even from twenty feet below she could see the slow, deep, and steady rise of his massive chest.

  The tingles changed to something more. Fear? No, even though the intensity in his face could bring a person to their knees—in ecstasy, in pain, in orgasm—Ellie’s feet were dead weight under her. She willed them to move but her Nikes were anchored to the ground. Afraid her knees would give out if she looked into his intoxicating eyes any longer, she swiveled her head to the left to breathe in the ocean air. Closing her eyes, she counted to five while taking slow, cleansing breaths. The meditation brought back memories of when she was in labor.

  Not having a support system, she’d driven herself to the hospital and given birth to her amazing gigantic ten-pound baby all by herself. Her parents and Max had gone to Maine to celebrate Memorial Day weekend with friends while she stayed behind in Pennsylvania with Theresa, their housekeeper.

  With the help from Theresa and Ellie’s trust fund, which she’d gained limited access to when she turned eighteen, Ellie bundled up CJ, packed a few suitcases of necessities, and moved out before her family returned. Had her parents shown any interest in their future grandchild while she was pregnant instead hiding Ellie away in their mansion, private tutors her only contact with the outside world, she wouldn’t have taken off and started a life all on her own.

  The first few years were the hardest, juggling a baby during the day and waitressing at night, but she needed to prove to herself and to CJ that she could do it. That she was more than a spoiled trust fund girl with no ambitions or future.

  A heavy grunt behind her startled Ellie from her thoughts. Surprised at Colton’s presence so close to her body, she gasped and stepped away.

  “I didn’t hear you come down the ladder.”

  Colton snorted in disgust. “I’m not exactly tip-toeing around here in silence.”

  “I’m sorry. I…I guess my mind was elsewhere.”

  “Like trying to get rid of the hired help before your paying customers arrive.”

  “No.”

  “Yeah.” Colton folded up the aluminum ladder with one hand like it weighed nothing. “Don’t worry. Your dirty little secret will be outta here in two-point-two.”

  “Colton,” she called to his retreating back. Ellie watched him limp down the path until he disappeared into the shed without glancing behind him once. Just like he’d taken off without a single glance back at her and their unborn child so many years ago. Rachael had said he’d been overseas for the past ten years, but why hadn’t he ever said anything to Ellie about enlisting?

  They’d talked about their future dreams all summer. Ellie had one more year in high school and then planned to go Endicott outside of Boston to study interior decorating. Colton had hoped to transfer his credits from community college to the University of Southern Maine to study business law. He didn’t like to talk about school much but she could tell he was smart. And humble.

  Somewhere along the way, after learning she was pregnant, Colton changed his plans without mentioning a thing to her. Water under the bridge, or should
she confront him about his abandonment?

  Too many lives, too many hearts were at stake. What if she told him about his son and he walked away? She couldn’t bear to face another round of rejection, and she would never let CJ know his father willingly abandoned him. Maybe having a man around would lift his spirits, heal him of his constant sicknesses? The poor boy caught every bug that circulated through school. His immune system had never been the greatest and she’d hoped a change of scenery would help him.

  What if Colton stepped up to his responsibility and asked to be a part of their lives? CJ would have the father he’d always dreamed of. The one he deserved.

  If Colton Riley was a dream man. There were too many mysteries, too many unanswered questions, too many dark secrets buried beneath those mesmerizing eyes and the layer of facial hair. Colton was hiding something and until Ellie knew what it was, she wouldn’t let him near her son.

  ***

  Colton

  Ellie Fairfield was hiding something. Colton could read it in her body language. A body he once knew well. Too well. Not that he had a right to know any of her secrets. The short drive to his trailer wasn’t long enough to clear his mind of the sexy brunette with wide, innocent eyes. He didn’t want to have feelings for her. Hell, he didn’t have any. He hardened for her, but that was pure lust.

  The woman would make a monk hard. With thick hair he could wrap his hand around and soft curves he could sink into, and a mouth that screamed to be tasted, a man would have to be stone not to lust for her. It had nothing to do with feelings.

  The only feelings he had right now were Charlie horses in his thigh. Climbing up that steep roof wasn’t the smartest thing for a man with one leg to do, but hell if he’d be a pansy. The first day was a bitch, balancing on the rickety ladder, but picking up some scaffolding at the lumberyard the other day gave him a sturdy platform to work, even a place to sit. It helped take a load of pressure off his battered stump.