The Promise of Home

“Violet.” He crooked a finger at the blanket, earning a reproachful look. The same one he’d seen the last time he’d given her a bath. “Stay.”

She flopped back down, her heavy sigh questioning the fairness of the command.

“Trust me—it’s for your own good,” Dev told the dog.

His, too. The less contact he had with Jenna the better. Dev had spent the last five years trying to simplify his life, and everything about the woman shouted complicated.

The fact that he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about her proved it.

“Hi, Mr. McGuire.” Logan slunk out of the woods a few seconds later, shoulders hunched as if he were unsure of his welcome. A coonskin cap, the kind sold at every souvenir store in the county, drooped over one bright blue eye.

“It’s Dev, remember?”

Logan shuffled closer, the faux raccoon tail swinging over one shoulder like a furry pendulum. “I smelled smoke, and I wanted to make sure you and Violet were okay.”

The anxious look in the boy’s eyes reminded Dev that he’d recently witnessed a fire, one that hadn’t been contained in a circle of stones. Jenna had claimed that no one had been hurt, but Dev knew from experience that not all injuries were visible on the outside.

Guilt tweaked his conscience. He’d been traveling a lot since the beginning of summer, but how could he have been ignorant of the fact there were two children living next door?

Other than the day he’d met Jenna, he hadn’t heard a peep out of them. Not even Violet had alerted Dev to their presence.

“I appreciate your concern,” he told Logan gently. “But it’s just a campfire. I usually cook my dinner out here in the evenings.”

Violet lifted her nose to sniff the raccoon tail and Logan giggled. “She thinks it’s real.”

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