Spontaneous Love

Love is not on Sheila’s side.

She isn’t sure if she just has terrible taste in men, or if she actually changes nice guys into total jerks, but she’s done with romance. Her resolve hasn’t been challenged for the past three years—but that was before she met Ethan Wolf.

Ethan’s time as an Army paratrooper is nearly over and he’s going to settle down in the area to start a security company. Intrigued by the single mother who makes metal art for a living, he’s glad when she takes him up on the offer to help her with a project.

Just as Sheila's steely outer shell starts to soften toward Ethan, her abusive ex-boyfriend shows up. Ethan is determined to protect Sheila and her two kids at all costs.

Sheila watched as everyone congratulated Meena and Kaleb on their engagement, surrounded by red and pink hearts and streamers for their group Valentine’s Day party. It was an appropriate setting for an engagement.

She couldn’t help thinking about how much her life had changed since she’d run from LA. She’d been alone—she and Chelsea and the baby she hadn’t known she was carrying yet. They drove almost non-stop for two days before pulling into the small town of Crystal Creek just north of Kansas City, looking for somewhere to stay for the night. And then she’d realized she’d left her wallet on top of her car at the last gas stop and had no money for a hotel.

Officer Lisa Weight—who was now her sister-in-law—knocked on the car window in the school parking lot where Sheila had pulled over to sleep for a little while. Lisa had helped her and Chelsea move into the local women and children’s shelter. That’s where she’d met these five women, her sisters, who were as much family members to her as her brother who’d moved to the area after Sheila had decided to stay.

The six women had helped each other through the months in the shelter and continued to collaborate after they moved out on their own. Sort of. Andrea, who, along with her son Bobby, had been Sheila’s roommate for most of the past two years, sidled over and wrapped an arm around Sheila’s shoulder. “Can you believe it?” Her nearly black eyes sparkled against her brown skin and tight afro curls.

“He seems nice enough.” Not like any of the abusers or deadbeats she’d known, though it had taken the past six weeks for her to be sure of that.

She still wasn’t certain about Kaleb’s two Army buddies, Ethan and Nash, who were also at the party.

“Come on, girl. You know he’s just right for her. We wouldn’t have her without him.”

The thought of Meena in that psycho’s hands made Sheila’s skin crawl. They’d had a real scare that day when Meena had disappeared, but the three men brought her home, and that was all that mattered. She’d try to keep that in mind as she dealt with them.

“Cupcakes, ladies?” Nash asked, holding one in each hand. His muscles bunched in the regulation Army uniform that the guys wore for a day at work on base at Leavenworth. His dark hair and eyes made her guess he was at least half Latino, though his name indicated otherwise.

“Thanks. How much do I owe you?” Andrea asked since she’d been the one to order them, but Nash picked them up.

“On the house this time.”

“Thanks. And for helping bring Meena back. You have no idea…” Andrea sucked in a shaky breath.

Sheila understood—the memory of wondering if Meena was alive or dead after being abducted by her stalker still lingered in her mind despite her relief.

“You’re welcome. Ethan and I, we’d do anything for Kaleb. Like the way you women feel about each other. He got me through some rough times.” Nash’s normally cocky attitude had toned down a few notches tonight.

“It looks like we’re not getting rid of any of you anytime soon.” Sheila would have to think about that. She looked across the room to Ethan, the other man who could easily burst out of his shirt thanks to his very nice muscles. He met her gaze and his intense brown eyes seemed to see right through her. He always made her nervous—not in a bad way like other men did when they paid too much attention to her—but in a good way which made her equally nervous. Attraction fluttered between them from their first meeting, but she was not planning to date again. Possibly ever. It was fine for Meena and Andrea to look for love again. They were both widows and had done well enough the first time around.

Sheila had never been interested in anyone who wasn’t serious trouble—even the guys who seemed nice at first ended up being a big mistake. So, she’d abstain from relationships, because the last thing she needed was to complicate her life further with a man.

She just had to remind herself of that when Ethan looked at her with his curious expression. As if she were a riddle to figure out, or a computer code he couldn’t quite unravel.

Sheila turned her attention toward Chelsea and her son Parker—her two reasons for living. Chelsea was unwrapping a cupcake for her younger brother, “accidentally” getting a large dollop of frosting on her finger as she handed it to him. This “forced” her to lick it off. The girl was addicted to sugar.

Parker didn’t seem to notice the pilfered frosting, so Sheila let it go. Tonight, after everything else that had happened, she wouldn’t make an issue out of it.

After thirty minutes, Sheila herded her kids across the drab hallway to their apartment to settle in for the night. The party had run later than expected and dealing with cranky children in the morning was not on her to-do list.
The other women followed soon and through her open door, Sheila heard Ethan telling someone goodbye in the hall. She came out of the kids’ room to find Ethan standing just outside her doorway, which stood open as usual when she was around and awake. Since the six women had won the lottery together the previous summer, they had purchased an old, abandoned apartment building. The six of them were the only ones living on the second floor so there were no strangers to worry about in the hallway.

“Did they settle in okay?” he asked in his soft Texas drawl.

“For now; we’ll see how long they stay in bed.”

He hooked his thumbs in his back pockets. “It must be hard.”

Even with the other women helping with childcare, it was overwhelming most of the time. “Sometimes. But they’re worth it.” She had crummy taste in men, but at least she got two amazing kids out of it. But surely that wasn’t why he came to talk to her. “Can I help you?”

“Actually, it’s the other way around. I hear you’ll be installing the stair rail soon. I wondered if you could use an extra pair of hands to fetch and carry and hold things upright while you connect the pieces.”

That intrigued her, mostly because he offered himself as the grunt instead of insinuating that she couldn’t handle the tools herself. “I may need a fetch-and-carry person. I’ll keep you in mind.”

“So, you’ll be thinking of me. I can’t ask for more than that.” He held out a business card though he didn’t step through the doorway into her apartment.

Grateful that he was respecting her private space, she crossed over to him and took it. The ivory card was one of Meena’s but his name and number were scrawled across the back of it.

“Call me if you decide you need a hand. Really. Since we work twelve-hour shifts at the prison, I have a lot of free days. I think what you’re doing here is amazing, and I’d love to help with it.”

A spot around her heart went a little gooey, but she tried not to show it. “Thanks.”