Page 11 of Reforming Hunt
Hunt felt Noah relax a fraction.
“The big kids always pick on me.” Noah leaned back and looked at Hunt with the saddest eyes Hunt had ever seen.
“Sometimes kids aren’t nice to each other,” Hunt said. “But that doesn’t mean you should get back at them. Continue to treat others how you want to be treated. But walk away if they’re being aggressive.” Jesus, he sounded like Esther, his dad’s former receptionist, and the only mother figure he and his brothers ever had.
Esther, and a couple of other faithful Club Tahoe employees, were probably the only reason Hunt and his brothers turned out to be halfway-decent human beings.
After a fifteen-minute walk, where Hunt distracted Noah with talk of plans for the boats, Hunt returned to Club Kids with a now-smiling Noah walking beside him.
Most of the kids had been picked up, but Noah’s ride was nowhere in sight. As usual.
Hunt stretched his neck, his body tensing. Brin would have called Noah’s emergency contact to inform them of what happened. You’d think that on a day like today the guardian in charge could have shown up on time for once.
Hunt was grateful he’d been there for Noah, but his heart pounded just from thinking about how much worse things could have been. Noah could have fallen headfirst into knee-deep water. With a fall like that, the boy could have broken his neck.
Kids had accidents. Thankfully, they bounced back well. But Hunt couldn’t stop his mind from racing with every possible worst-case scenario.
Was this what it was like to be a parent? A real parent, not the kind his father had been. Absent, frustrated, uncaring. But someone who actually wanted to be there for his kid? Because this sucked.
Hunt would die an early death due to worry if he ever had a kid of his own. He’d lost a couple of years off his life in the split second it took him to reach Noah, and Noah wasn’t even his child.
He squeezed Noah’s hand, reassuring himself that the boy was okay. All this worry had to be theHarlow Effect. His baby niece came into his life, and he’d experienced a love he never had before. He’d protect Harlow with his life, and it seemed that protective instinct was rubbing off in other areas as well.
Hunt considered himself more sensitive to kids, having lost his mother at such a young age. It was almost as if she’d never existed. But she had. She’d held off chemotherapy so that Hunt, growing inside her, could survive. His mother’s sacrifice was something Hunt had never been able to come to terms with. Because it wasn’t only Hunt who’d lost a mother due to her decision to hold off chemo; his brothers lost one too. And Hunt never stopped feeling the guilt for that decision.
“Where’s my mom?” Noah said.
Noah was sitting beside Hunt on one of the picnic benches near Club Kids. “I thought you lived with your grandparents?” Hunt said.
“Noooo,” Noah said, shaking his head. “I live with my mom, silly.”
“I’m silly? Who’s the one who dumped sand down Brin’s jacket?”
Noah giggled. “You’re sillyyy!” he chanted.
Clearly the boy was feeling better. “So your mom—”
“There she is!” Noah jumped up from the picnic table and ran toward the back of the lobby that exited near the pool.
And that was when Hunt’s heart dropped. Or raced…sputtered—whatever.
Because Noah’s mom was Abby.
Chapter 5
Abby swept Noah into her arms and peppered his face with kisses, breathing in his sweaty boy scent after a day at Club Kids. The crap she put up with at work, the threats from Noah’s grandparents…it all melted away the moment she held her son.
He was getting so big. Pretty soon she wouldn’t be able to get away with picking him up or kissing the heck out of him. For now, she stole all the kisses she could.
Abby held Noah as he jabbered on about his day, taking in his ruffled hair and…soaked clothes? “Why are you wet?” The moisture was seeping through her scrubs, making her wet as well.
Noah’s smile sank and his chin began to wobble. “A boy pushed me off the dock.”
“He what?” Abby looked toward the Club Kids playroom—and caught sight of a familiar face. One she hadn’t expected to ever see again after the night they met, and yet she kept running into him.
Hunt sat at a bench watching them. It had been odd seeing him yesterday when her car had broken down, but today as well?
She headed to the Club Kids playroom and stopped in front of Hunt. “What’s going on?”
