Harlequin Heartwarming May 2016 Box Set by Rula Sinara Read Free Book Online Page A

Mac tried to get a calming word in edgewise. With the kid’s anger-fueled lungs, half the Serengeti had probably just gotten a ripe lesson in original insults.
    â€œNick, calm down. Let’s talk. Nothing has happened yet,” Mac said with his palms held up. “And you owe your aunt exactly nineteen apologies by this evening or I might rent you a permanent tent right here at this camp.”
    â€œNick, I was going to talk to you, but...” Tessa tried adding.
    â€œBoth of you need to just shut up,” Nick persisted, pacing and gripping his head as he yelled. “You make me sick! I hate you!”
    â€œThat’s it. Tessa, come with me,” Mac said, leading the way to the cottage. “You, Nick, park it on that log until you get in control. No control, no inside. No flight back. Got it?”
    Tessa hurried after Mac, shocked at how he’d handled their nephew. For one thing, Brice had never ordered Nick to apologize to her. He didn’t feel comfortable reprimanding him. Nick had had plenty of outbursts before and not once had Brice intervened as Mac had. Not for her sake or Nick’s. He dealt with Nick’s outbursts by telling her to take him to see a different therapist.
    She briefly greeted the owners—Mugi and Kesi, if she’d caught their names correctly. Her mind was on Nick so she wasn’t paying attention. She apologized for anything they might have overheard, then glanced out the window. Nick had actually listened to Mac and was sitting on the log, rubbing his hands along his jeans.
    â€œWill he be okay out there alone? What if he runs off?” she asked.
    â€œHe’s surrounded by wildlife. Trust me , Tessa. He won’t move more than two feet from that log unless it’s to run toward this door.”

CHAPTER THREE
    N ICK LASTED NO more than ten minutes and the look on his face made Mac feel like scum, but the kid had gone over the top. No wonder Tessa was begging Mac to take over. Had Brice not been supporting her in raising him? Mac understood what Nick had to be going through. Around the same age, Mac’s mother had abandoned the family, and his father, left to raise his sons on his own, had always favored Allan as the son with potential. His parents may have been alive when he was a teenager, but his world had been turned upside down just the same. Mac had left the Cape long before his father, a South African air force veteran, passed away, and their last encounter had not been on the best of terms. He and Allan had become close brothers because they really could only count on each other. But as much as Mac had hated his father’s overly strict and emotionally removed parenting style at the time, he knew firsthand that what Nick needed were boundaries. Without them, the kid was going to be as lost as Mac had been.
    Mac exchanged looks with Tessa as they listened to Nick’s fifty-percent-sincere apology—a percentage Mac figured was pretty good for a teenager.
    â€œApology accepted,” Tessa said...maybe a little too quickly. “Nick, you know I loved your mom. She was my sister and she trusted me to do what’s best for you. I had to make this call.”
    Nick simply chewed the inside of his cheek and turned away, his nostrils still flaring.
    â€œWell, clearly these aren’t the makings of a real holiday, so why don’t we abort the rest of today and head back to discuss this,” Mac suggested. A family discussion . The phrase hit him from out of the blue, and he almost laughed out loud at the notion. The three of them were like three stray puzzle pieces from different boxes that would never fit together, let alone form a picture of a family.
    â€œYeah. I want to go back,” Nick said. “First, tell me where a guy is supposed to pee around here without a lion biting his...”
    â€œHey!” Mac held up a warning finger and Nick chose not to finish his sentence. Something about Nick’s