she was babbling.
She was just no good at this.
Plus it didn’t help that it had suddenly occurred to her that Hutch Kincaid had exactly the same color eyes as his older brother, Chase. And that she’d always thought that Chase’s eyes were gorgeous….
Hutch Kincaid made it easier on her then by picking up the conversation and running with it.
“And we’re even in-laws now.”
It was true. Hutch’s newly found sister Shannon had recently married Issa’s brother Dag, although Issa had not been able to attend the ceremony. Her plane had been grounded due to weather.
“I came to Northbridge for Shannon’s wedding,” Hutch continued. “That was my first trip here since Ian and I were adopted and taken to Billings. The wedding was at the end of March. Through April and May I’ve been here off and on, so I’m only beginning to get to know who’s who. Logan and Dag I’ve seen a lot of, and I’ve heard there’s more to your family but I haven’t met the others.”
“And you and Ash live downstairs…”
“For now. I bought the place as an investment. It was a flip—I guess it was pretty run-down when the owners put it on the market, but the local contractor bought it, remodeled it and put it up for resale. I figured I could rent both halves out to college kids in the fall, and in the meantime Ash and I needed somewhere to stay while I look for a house for the two of us. Dag said you needed pretty much the same thing—somewhere to stay short-term—”
“While I look for a house to buy, too.”
“So you’re settling back in your old hometown?”
“I am,” she said without going into any details, even though she was relieved that he was making conversation and facilitating an easy flow between them.
“Northbridge has plenty of charm,” Hutch said. “It sucked me in at first glance and I haven’t found anything about it that I don’t like yet. I even bought out the old sporting goods store to turn into one of mine.”
Beyond his connection to Chase, her half brother Logan’s best friend and business partner, Issa really only knew two things about Hutch Kincaid.
She knew that he and his twin had been raised by former football giant and three-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Morgan Kincaid. The Morgan Kincaid, who had parlayed his football fame and fortune into the Kincaid Corporation—a conglomerate of retail, rental and hotel properties, car dealerships, restaurants and various other ventures that now included his most recent purchase, an NFL expansion team that he was bringing to Montana—the Monarchs. Their training center was to be built in Northbridge.
The other thing she knew about Hutch Kincaid—only because Dag had told her—was that he’d had his own star-quality career in football at some point but now owned sporting goods stores.
“What’s it called, your store?”
“Stores, plural. The one here will be my fifth. They’re Kincaid’s All Sports. There’s a website, too. We do a respectable share of online business.”
“Cool…”
Cool? Had she really just said that? Issa wanted to kick herself.
Trying to get past the awkwardness as fast as she could, she angled her gaze down to Hutch Kincaid’s son. “What about you, Asher? Do you like sports?” she asked, fearing that sounded almost as dumb as cool.
“I yice cookies…” the toddler answered with an obvious hint.
“I don’t have any cookies,” Issa whispered to Hutch.
“No, no, no,” Hutch Kincaid said with another chuckle. “You don’t need to have cookies. Two-and-a-half-year-olds aren’t known for their manners.” Then to his son, he said, “No cookies, Ash.”
Hutch stopped fiddling with the lock and straightened up to face Issa. “I’m gonna have to cry uncle with this lock anyway—it can’t be fixed. I’ll have to get a new one and come back. Is that okay?”
Somehow the thought that she was going to see him again was energizing. And Issa had no idea why that was the case. Why adrenaline instantly flooded her to chase away her pregnancy-induced weariness.
What she did know was that excitement over a second visit was not a response she should be having….
“Would you mind if it was this evening, though?” he was saying into her confused thoughts. “I’ll hit the hardware store, but there are some things I needed to check on at my new store and it’s just a few doors down, so I’d like to kill two birds with one stone. Then Ash will need some dinner. Can we make it after that?”
“Sure,” Issa said, wondering if her voice had sounded as bright and full of anticipation to him as it had to her. She hoped not. Then, working for a more neutral tone, she added, “I’ll be here.”
Had she sounded unduly eager and available? Or worse yet, a little desperate?
She wasn’t. She wasn’t at all desperate. Not for company. Not for a man. Not for anything. Except for that composure she’d been hoping to find when she’d come out of the bathroom.
But then she started to think of Hutch Kincaid being in town in the early June heat, meeting people on the street, in the hardware store. Talking to them. She thought of the chance that he might tell her secret. And composure slipped further out of her reach.
“You won’t forget not to say anything to anyone, though, right?”
Having given up trying to fix the door handle, he’d removed it along with the built-in lock and was gathering up the pieces when she said that. He cast her a confused look that told her he didn’t know what she was referring to.
“About… You know… Earlier… The pamphlets…” She just couldn’t bring herself to say it outright again.
“Oh, yeah,” he said when what she was talking about finally seemed to dawn on him. Then he smiled slightly and added, “See, forgotten already. No, I won’t say a thing to anyone. It’s your business.”
“And maybe I’ll have cookies when you get back,” she said too jovially, overcompensating and once more proving how clumsy she could be.
“I yice cookies,” Ash Kincaid contributed.
“Don’t go out of your way—you don’t have to do that,” her landlord assured her.
“Well, we’ll see,” Issa said.
Hutch Kincaid glanced down at his son then. “Come on, buddy, time to go. Give me the pliers and screwdriver.”
The little boy stood from his squat on the floor. Rather than handing his father the tools, he pulled up his striped T-shirt—exposing his entire tummy—twisted as far around as he could and put them into the back pockets of his own jeans, obviously mimicking his father.
But Hutch Kincaid reached down and took them out again. “We don’t need you falling back on those,” he explained
