Playful Hearts (A Rocky Harbor Novel Book 4) Read online

“Colton will guide me.”

  “He’s busy with your friends. Who have all passed the intro.”

  “What about them?” Mackenzie nodded to the group of newcomers. Damn. How did he forget about them? Way to get someone hurt.

  “I’m going to round them up and show you the ropes.” Blake nodded to the Tarzan Ropes. “Pun intended. A quick walk-through and you’ll be good to go. But I’m still going to keep my eye on you.” He winked at her as he walked backwards toward the group of ladies, hoping Mackenzie would stay put.

  Chapter Two

  Mackenzie

  It wasn’t Mackenzie’s fault Blake brought out the bitchy side in her. She suffered through the next half hour as he patiently showed the gaggle of women how to properly use each piece of equipment and how each obstacle worked.

  The Casey girl embarrassed herself at least nineteen times swooning over him. Sure, Blake had cheekbones only seen on models, and eyelashes to match, but just because his biceps bulged and his muscles in his back flexed through his thin gray T-shirt didn’t mean she had to fall at his every word.

  His voice was pleasant enough, stern when issuing orders of safety, and his deep laugh erupted too many times to count. At least once for every one of the nineteen times Casey nearly tossed her underwear at him.

  At first he’d used Mackenzie as his model. He pulled her to the Tarzan Rope she’d wanted to use before he forced himself in her space. He lifted her hand into his and she’d swear he caressed it in his warm, calloused palms before placing them on the rope. Those hands were on her once again, stroking her arms and her sides, and she did all she could not to breathe in sharply, as the gleam in his eye said so obviously he hoped she’d do.

  Pretending his touch did not affect her, she sucked in her abs, clenched her butt, and stayed perfectly still until he told her what to do. Blake continued to caress her arms and sides as he talked to the girls, who were too caught up in his sexiness to notice what his hands were doing.

  When he finally let her cross, she couldn’t help but pray she wouldn’t fall. Not that it was a long way down; it was more for bragging rights. She made it to the second to last rope before her arms gave out and she plummeted to the foam pit below.

  At first she was afraid Blake would come around and offer a hand, and when he walked past her on to the next obstacle she bit back a curse and pulled herself out of the pit.

  Off to the right, Rachael and Lucy were shouting loudly at Maggie and Sage, who were racing up the rock wall.

  “You’ll get your chance, Mack. First let’s learn the basics. Did you hear what I said about the warped wall? It’s all in the legs.” Blake dropped his gaze to her legs and she suddenly wished she was wearing more than the skimpy Nike spandex shorts and fitted tank top.

  “It’s Mackenzie. And I can manage.”

  It took her five tries before she finally gave up. None of the other girls made it up either. Tanya begged Blake to show them how it was done and he so willingly obliged, his long legs kicking him up the wall in less than a second. The pathetic women cheered and he kissed his bicep and pointed to his adoring fans, not before tossing out a wink.

  “Oh. My. God.” Mackenzie rolled her eyes in disgust and ditched her group to find her friends.

  “Hey Kenzie. Ready to join us? We’re going over the bridge walk next.” Maggie blotted her forehead with a towel and draped it over her shoulder.

  “Sure. If Napoleon lets me.”

  “I may not be Andre the Giant like Colton,” Blake said behind her, “but I ain’t no four--foot-nothing prick.”

  “Huh.” Mackenzie looked away before the caramel eyes had her in a trance again.

  “Are you two not getting along?” Maggie tossed her towel aside and stretched her arms above her head.

  “He’s slow and boring. I want to join your group. I like Colton better.”

  “Cupcake, the only thing slow about me is the way I make love. Although I’ve been known to mix things up when the woman wants it fast,” he purred in her ear before walking away.

  “What did he just say?” Maggie glanced between Blake’s retreating back and Mackenzie’s face. “You never blush. Is there something going on—”

  “No. He’s a pig and likes to say really inappropriate things. I can’t believe he’s a Riley. Doreen must be saddened he didn’t turn out as nice as the others.”

  Maggie snorted and looped her arm in Mackenzie’s. “I think he has a crush on you.”

  “What? Are we in high school now?”

  They headed over to the bridge jump and Mackenzie watched her friends go first, listening to Colton as he talked them through each step.

  “The object of this one,” he said to her, “is to run across the five swings as fast as you can while maintaining your balance. Every time you touch a step the rope swings. Agility. You’ve got it.”

  One by one the girls fell—all but Sage, who was too dignified and poised to ever mess anything up—and then it was Mackenzie’s turn. Her friends cheered her on as she sucked in a breath and studied the bridge. “One, two, three,” she counted in her head and made a run for it.

  That was the last thing she remembered before the world turned black.

  ***

  “I’m going to kiss you in front of everyone if you don’t wake up,” Blake whispered dangerously close to her lips.

  Mackenzie’s eyes shot open and she looked up into the familiar swirls of caramel and a bright, cheesy, fishhook grin. “You wouldn’t dare.”

  “Sleeping Beauty is awake,” Blake hollered over his shoulder.

  A loud applause erupted behind her and she tried to crane her neck to see, wincing when a sharp pain shot through her back, and the room spun around her.

  “Easy, Mack. Don’t move until I check you over.”

  “Not with a ten-foot pole.”

  Blake’s easy laugh did uneasy things to her belly. His gaze turned from amused to all business as he glided his hands across her shoulders, gently massaging her neck.

  “Does that hurt?”

  “Just my pride.”

  “I can help you get that back.”

  “Please.” Mackenzie rolled her eyes and he chuckled.

  “Can you wiggle your fingers?”

  “What am I, four?”

  “How about your toes? Or do you want me to massage those for you, to see if you have any feeling in them?”

  “Don’t touch my feet.”

  “Ticklish?”

  “No.”

  “I bet.” When Blake finished his assessment, he tucked his arm under her shoulder and gently brought her to sitting. “Don’t move your head too fast. You knocked yourself out, but I don’t think you did any permanent damage. How many fingers am I holding up?” He held up two.

  “Five.”

  “What day is it?”

  “Halloween.”

  “What’s my name?”

  “Pain in the ass.”

  “You look and feel perfect to me.” Blake kept his hand on her shoulder and she shrugged it off. He laughed at her mood and then helped her to her feet. “Don’t be afraid to call me later if you need mouth-to-mouth.”

  “I think Casey and her gaggle of girls will need it before me.”

  “Jealous?”

  “As if.”

  Mackenzie turned her back on him and took a step toward Maggie. The room had stopped spinning, but she felt like she went on an all-night binge the night before.

  “Kenzie, you scared us. Come sit until you regain your balance.” Maggie led them to a bench and Rachael brought over a bottle of water.

  “You guys go play. You’re making me self-conscious hovering around like you’re waiting for me to collapse again. Show’s over.”

  “You sound like Sage,” Lucy said. Sage had been good for Lucy. Rough around the edges, those two, but somehow they worked together like sandpaper, softening each other with time.

  “Shut it, twerp.

  “See what I mean?”

  “Le
t’s give her some space.” Rachael pulled them away by their shirts. “We’re going to try the warped wall. It will give you some comic relief.”

  “I’m good, Mags. You can go, too.”

  “No way. You’re my out. My body isn’t cut out for this kind of torture. I popped out a baby three months ago and haven’t done any exercise other than…” Maggie grinned and blushed.

  “Oh good lord. You Rileys have sex on the mind twenty-four-seven.”

  When nine o’clock rolled around everyone was sweaty and energized, except for Mackenzie. She had a pounding headache and was thankful Maggie drove.

  “How are you feeling?” Instead of eyes that stripped her naked, Blake’s concerned expression had her lowering her defenses.

  “Like I have a hangover but don’t remember any of the fun I had last night.”

  Blake opened his mouth, an obvious dirty retort on his lips, and closed it again, nodding and smirking, his belly shaking with laughter.

  “Do you always? No, don’t answer that.” Mackenzie bit back her smile.

  “Do I always what?”

  “Never mind. Thanks for tonight. The girls had a lot of fun.”

  “And you?”

  “I’ve had better nights.”

  “Like the ones you can remember that don’t lead to a hangover.”

  “Something like that.”

  “Good to know.” Blake clicked his tongue and tapped his fingers to his forehead in a salute before walking away, whistling as he picked up mats, moving them back in place.

  “He was so checking out your ass,” Sage said as she walked by.

  “Gross. That’s my brother,” Lucy grumbled.

  “Wanna know what your oldest brother does to me—”

  “Stop! My ears!” Lucy covered her head and ran out the door.

  “I’m with Luce. I don’t want to hear it. But if you do hook up with Blake, I’d be totally happy.” Rachael gave Mackenzie a quick hug and scooted outside.

  “Book an appointment with Maggie, ‘cause you’re all nuts,” Mackenzie called to their retreating backs.

  ***

  Blake

  Blake cracked the bathroom window, the steam from his shower making a fast getaway into the cool morning air, and did a quick dry of his hair before wrapping the towel around his waist. Coming home to Rocky Harbor wasn’t as bad as he’d expected it to be.

  For the past six years he’d been a nomad, pitching a tent at a worksite or staying in a cheap hotel outside of town while designing and building obstacle courses. He’d moved his way up from sidekick carpenter to design team member to project manager. It was a dream job, working outside with his hands, socializing, having a beer after work—or hell, at work—with his friends, traveling, meeting new people.

  It was exactly what he needed to figure out what he wanted in life. While his brothers and sisters always had some sort of career plan or direction or hobby, Blake had nothing. Good times, that’s what he was interested in. And now he had it.

  Coming home was a good decision. He still had all of the above, and got to work side-by-side with his obstinate brother to boot.

  Blake picked up his shaving cream and lathered it on his face. Studying his reflection in the mirror, he panicked when he noticed a light streak in his hair.

  Not a gray hair. He was only thirty.

  “Shit.” Blake moved closer to the mirror, studying the out-of-place hair, and tugged at it. The strand didn’t pull at his scalp and his hand moved away easily. Odd. A long, light-colored strand of hair. Obviously not his. Blake thought back to the last woman who shared his bed.

  And came up with nothing. He hadn’t had a sleepover or a shower mate in a hell of a long time. Too long. So where did the hair come from? Blake unwrapped the dark blue towel around his waist and looked it over for more strays.

  Nothing. Baffled, he chucked it to the floor and scraped the razor through the thick foam on his face. His Spidey senses still tickled the back of his neck.

  Before Melinda Snyder’s death—he’d never think of her as his mother—she could sniff out money anywhere. That and a few other things. It was after her fourth child by a fourth stranger that she quit selling her body and turned to drugs full-time.

  Cody and Dawn were toddlers and Blake and Alyssa barely able to see out the window on the big yellow bus on their way to elementary school when Melinda started dealing cocaine out of their kitchen. When Alyssa turned ten and got caught snorting a line from their mother’s stash, Melinda moved her drug trafficking off-site, but it didn’t stop Alyssa from following in their mother’s footsteps.

  It didn’t take long before they both got busted and the four kids ended up in foster care. Two separate homes, one for the girls and one for the boys. At twelve years old Alyssa wasn’t much of a big sister to Dawn, caring more about her next fix. Blake hadn’t been in contact with his sisters during their first year in care, but had heard through the grapevine that the family kicked Alyssa out after she refused to cooperate with her therapists.

  He and Cody tried to fly under the radar, but with their mother showing up on their doorstep high as a kite, begging the Johnsons and then the Parkers and the Lisbons for a few bucks so she could eat dinner—as if—Cody and Blake would get booted again. No one wanted to deal with his mother’s constant harassing. And not even a restraining order could keep her away.

  Blake never slept well, the johns coming in and out of their trailer all night long not even attempting to be quiet, and he’d often be the first one to hear his mother slithering around his foster home at night. He’d slip out of bed and tell her to go away, that the Johnsons didn’t have any money. The Parkers, however, were well-off and he’d slipped an occasional twenty from Mrs. Parker’s purse for his mother. Anything to keep her away. He was too young to realize giving her money was what kept her coming back.

  After he got caught stealing, he and Cody got kicked out of yet another home. Blake tried not to give his new foster parents a hard time, and made light of the situation, cracking jokes to ease the tension. He turned into the class clown in school, anything to avoid the troubles at home, while his brother was the quiet one. Not many wanted to take in a child who didn’t talk. Blake couldn’t remember the last time he’d heard his brother say a word.

  When he was nine and Cody was five, maybe?

  The Snyder kids had never been close, each alone and unique. Alyssa with her drug problem, Cody with his mutism, and Dawn too young and innocent to know how evil their mother really was.

  Two days before Blake’s twelfth birthday, Cody went missing. The Lisbons, who were the foster family of the month, believed Melinda came and took him in the middle of the night.

  After months of news coverage, police investigations, and therapy sessions, Blake finally found himself in the Riley house. At that point he didn’t care where his siblings were. They were all messed up. He was glad to live in a new town with two normal parents who seemed to love him and not care about the trash he came from.

  Rocky Harbor was a good four hours from Fox Hollow, a small town outside the more well-known small town of Rangley. Known for its snowmobile trails in the winter and camping in the summer, there wasn’t much to do in the redneck county where he’d grown up. The distance of Rocky Harbor gave Blake the opportunity to reinvent himself. To pretend his mother and brother and sisters didn’t exist. To expel his baggage and be the cool funny guy his friends thought of him before the news coverage.

  It had been nearly a decade since he’d learned of Melinda’s death and twenty years since he’d seen any of the Snyders. He had no desire to ever see Alyssa again. She was too much like her mother. He did think about his younger siblings, though. Had Cody ever been found? Would he even recognize Dawn if he passed her on the street? Probably not.

  Blake splashed water on his face, removing any residue from his shaving cream, and crossed the hall to his bedroom, naked. Rummaging through the pile of clean laundry on top of his dresser, he found a pair of black
boxer briefs and tugged them on, followed by a pair of khaki shorts.

  Living out of a tent and a duffle bag for so long, he’d gotten out of the habit of putting his clothes away. Doreen would not be impressed if she stopped by for a surprise visit. Not wanting to piss his mother off, he folded the pile of clean laundry and put his clothes away in their respective drawers.

  The Rileys instilled in him a sense of family. However, when he thought of family it wasn’t Melinda Snyder or his half-brothers and sister. It was the Rileys.

  Luke would always be the caretaker, the sounding board. Colton may be massive and scary looking, but Blake knew he’d have his back in a heartbeat. A man of little words, similar to Cody, and loyal to the core.

  Blake and Graham should have butted heads more often, both competing to be the funniest guy, but instead they played off each other. Separated by six years, their circles of friends and girlfriends were different enough to avoid sibling rivalry. Being the youngest of the boys didn’t bother Blake; he liked having three brothers to look up to and Rachael was only a few years younger than him. She and her girlfriends always tried hanging out with him and his buddies.

  While he didn’t like having his little sister around all the time, she did have some pretty hot friends.

  And then came Lucy. He felt bad for his youngest sister. The boys had all moved out by the time she was adopted, so they never formed a tight brother-sister bond. More of a friendly cousin relationship. Granted, she was a hard nut to crack when she first crossed the Riley threshold. She’d mellowed over the past few years. Gone was the sullen attitude. When she first arrived, however, she looked and breathed Trouble with a capital T.

  Just like Melinda. There were signs of her all around, and if she weren’t dead, he’d swear she’d been in his place.

  The past few weeks he’d woken in the middle of the night to sounds outside the house. His bedroom window was just high enough that an intruder would need a ladder to climb in, but could jump out without seriously injuring himself.

  Or herself.