Read Her Dakota Man (Book 1 - Dakota Hearts) for Free Online

see in the rain and then in the dark. I’d kicked myself a thousand times that night that I didn’t leave earlier and bring Keith over to Mom’s for the night.”
    “These floods happen so fast. I mean, I don’t ever remember it being as bad as it is this year. But once when I was small I remember my parents getting real nervous about the rains and my dad saying he had the boat ready just in case the water came.”
    Ethan and Keith appeared at the doorway to the kitchen. Ethan was crouched over, steadying Keith’s hand with a plate. It looked like he was giving him serious instruction that Keith was paying very close attention to. When he straightened up, he watched Keith walk over to the table slowly with a smile of pride.
    “Dinner has arrived,” Logan said, beaming with the same pride Ethan had and Poppy felt deep in her chest.
    Ethan gave a quick wave when Keith made it half way to the table and then turned toward the door, propping his police cap on his head.
    “Is this for me?” Poppy said when Keith made it to the table. She took the plate and Keith’s face instantly showed relief that he hadn’t spilled anything.
    “It’s for you, Auntie Poppy.”
    “Thank you so much. Oh, it looks so good.”
    “Grammie said you have to eat all of it because you’re too skinny.”
    “Too skinny!” Poppy said. “My pants are going to burst if I eat all this food. Look at this plate!”
    “And she said Dad can’t steal any of the food from your plate, too.”
    “Did she,” Logan said, laughing and showing that deep dimple on his cheek. “Then I guess I won’t be having seconds.”
    It felt incredibly good to laugh with Logan after all this time. As she took a fork full of food and savored the taste of it in her mouth, she was transformed back to a time when anger wasn’t part of their relationship. When lies hadn’t stood between them.
    * * *
    “Is he asleep?” Logan asked, taking a quick glance off the road to look at Keith, who was in his booster seat, sleeping with his face pressed up against Poppy’s arm.
    She glanced down at Keith and smiled. “Out like a light. Good luck giving him a bath.”
    “It’ll probably rouse him enough to be awake the whole night.”
    “Then skip it.”
    “What? Skip a bath?”
    “Sure. Just put him to bed in his clothes. He can always have a bath in the morning.”
    “Did you see how hard he played in the mud today?”
    “Yeah, I noticed. I was right in the thick of it with him, remember? No one was rushing to get me to wash my dirty face. What’s it going to hurt? So his sheets get a little soiled. We’ll wash them in the morning, too. This way he’ll sleep.”
    Logan shrugged. “I guess it can’t hurt to wait for a bath in the morning.”
    “But not for me,” she said with a quiet chuckle. “There is no way I can sleep with all this mud on me. And just for the record, you’re none too clean yourself right now.”
    “Then it’s settled. You can have the bathroom first while I put Keith to bed.”
    Logan parked the truck and then carefully unbuckled Keith from his booster seat. Keith woke up enough to wrap his arms around Logan as he carried him up the stairs to his bedroom. Poppy watched it with awe. Logan was a good father. She’d always known he would be, but this was a different Logan than the man she’d always known. And she liked it a lot.
    Fifteen minutes later, Poppy stood just outside Keith’s bedroom door listening to father and son chatter on about their day as she towel-dried her hair.
    “Alex has a new video game,” Keith said. “It’s really cool. Can we get one?”
    “Why not get a different one that Alex doesn’t have. That way the video game will be special when you play it over his house and your video game will be special to him when he comes to visit.”
    Silence. Poppy could almost picture Keith pursing his little lips, thinking about the prospect. His next words caught her off guard.
    “Is Auntie Poppy going to play with me