Hard Knox - Riley Hart Page 0,28

him talking to Callum, the two of them chatting about Frankie Blue and how her first night had gone.

“Dad’s in the kitchen. I’m finishing up some homework. The math here is different, so I’m having a little trouble with it,” Logan told him as they walked in.

“Math is my specialty. I can help if you want.”

“Really? That’s the best!”

Callum looked over at me and smiled widely. He had perfect teeth, straight and white and, shit, I’d never noticed someone’s teeth before. But then I was smiling too—he had this contagious grin you couldn’t help returning when he aimed it your way.

“Oh, I see how it is,” I teased. “You don’t ask me to help with math.”

“Dad, I love you, but you suck at math. We both know that.”

I laughed because he was right. “You have a point there. I’d likely be asking you to explain it to me.”

“Exactly.” Logan pushed his glasses up his nose. Callum pulled one of the chairs over and sat beside him, and they immediately started talking numbers and process and I was already lost. It only took Callum a few minutes to explain something before Logan was hooting. “Oh my God! You’re right. How did I not see that?”

“See? It’s actually kind of cool how it works.” Callum jotted something down.

I didn’t see how math could ever be cool, but to each their own. They were blabbing again, talking about multiplying this by that and all sorts of other shit.

I opened the fridge and poured them each a glass of lemonade, hoping Callum liked it, then set them on the table.

“Thanks, Dad.”

“Yeah, thanks, Dad. Now go away somewhere and leave us alone.” Callum winked, and goose bumps ran the length of my arms.

My skin felt a little too tight, which was weird, so I said, “Fine, just try and get rid of me. I’ll go out to my shop for a few minutes while you two smart guys take care of this.”

“You’re smart,” Logan said. “Just in different ways.”

“Thanks, buddy.”

Callum waved me away playfully. I left them to it. There wasn’t much I could help with. Plus, if there was anything school related Logan didn’t want to talk to me about, maybe he would share it with Callum. As soon as I had the thought, I wondered if that was fair. He couldn’t want to spend his time befriending a kid, but then, that didn’t feel right. There was an honesty to how Callum laughed and spoke with Logan, like he enjoyed it and not only did it because it was polite.

I unlocked the old barn and went straight for my workbench. I sent off a quick text to Charlotte, saying hi and that I loved her. It was earlier there, so she was likely just getting out of school or at gymnastics practice or something.

I picked up the carving of a lion’s head I’d been working on, losing myself in it for who knew how long. Eventually, there was a sound by the door, and I looked up to see Callum standing there.

“Hi.” He looked almost bashful as he said it, his eyes darting away.

“Hey.”

“Can I come in?”

“Of course.”

“Homework is finished. Logan’s out back with Frankie Blue.” He bit his lip, and I wondered what it meant. Was he nervous? Why would he be? But then I’d had no reason to feel jittery when I’d asked him to come over tonight either.

“Thank you for helping. I appreciate it. I should have asked. Shit, I didn’t even think. I’m not trying to push my kid off on you. I feel like I’m always apologizing or thanking you for something where my son is concerned.” I rubbed a hand over my face, which I did when I was nervous or frustrated. All I wanted was to do right by Logan, and I really hoped I was.

“Then maybe you should stop, hmm? If I didn’t want to do it, I wouldn’t. I love kids. Logan is even more awesome than most. Also, I’ve seen you with him, and the last thing I would ever think is that you’re trying to pawn your son off on someone else.” I watched as he walked over to the wall on the right side of the barn. There was a long table there where I had my finished pieces—a boat, an old tree that reminded me of when I was a kid, and a few others. “You did these?” Callum reached out and ran his fingers over the tree, almost in