Letting Hearts Heal by Luna Jensen Read Free Book Online

ranch owner like a teenage girl in a romance novel. Sure, they’d had stuff to deal with. Mason had strict parents and trouble at school. Dean was unwilling to accept who he was and trying to hide from his dad. But when they were alone together, everything else faded into the background until Mason could almost believe it didn’t exist. And Dean still held that power. It was easy for Mason to forget that his life had fallen to pieces and putting it back together would take more than just cooking a meal for a hungry boy.
    When he realized that he was being creepy by watching a sick man sleep, Mason tiptoed out of Dean’s room. It was still early, but Mason didn’t know what to do with himself. After channel surfing, trying to read a book, and tidying up the living room, he ended up in the kitchen watching the shelf filled with cookbooks. Spying an old, handwritten volume, he settled at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee while he read through recipes neatly recorded by Dean’s mother or grandmother or whoever Evelyn Walker might have been. It was oddly soothing.
    The following day heating milk for Wyatt’s cereal wasn’t any easier. Neither was making the requested toasted sandwiches for lunch. But Mason did it. He and Wyatt helped load the truck for one of the two daily trips to the store, and Wyatt taught Mason how to pull leeks from the ground in the polytunnels. The boy glowed with pride when Mason complimented him on his teaching skills.
    After lunch it was time to shop for groceries. There was a lot of stuff that they didn’t need to buy because they could just step outside the house and get it, but some things they had to get in town.
    Now that he had a job and a payday to look forward to, Mason brought every penny he owned so he—hopefully—could avoid having to say no if Wyatt wanted something at the store. The biggest hurdle was strapping Wyatt into his car seat, but once that had been accomplished, shopping turned out to be fun.
    “What are we going to buy?” Mason asked.
    Wyatt looked around the store, wide-eyed. “Peas.”
    Mason chuckled at the boy’s culinary one-track mind. “Anything else? I think we need to get cereal.”
    “Okay.” The reluctance in Wyatt’s voice was clear even though he happily wolfed down cereal with warm milk in the mornings.
    They went through the store, seriously discussing why peas might be better than chocolate, while they piled more groceries in the cart than they probably needed. Mason was aware of people staring. Some recognized him, others recognized Wyatt. But apart from hellos, no one said anything.
     
     
    D EAN WOKE up feeling gross and sweaty—and tired—which made no sense since he’d been sleeping for a long time. It was dark in his room, but with the curtains and season, that told him nothing about what the time might be. His limbs felt like they each weighed a ton, but the thought of a shower outweighed how he felt.
    It wasn’t until he stood under the hot and heavenly spray that he started to wonder how long he’d been out of it and how the business was doing. Joe probably had everything under control, but there was still the new brewery that only Dean understood.
    Then he remembered Wyatt. Shit, he’d forgotten his son. Mason would have looked after him, though. Dean was sure of it. But it left a sour taste in his mouth—one worse than the taste brought on by not having brushed his teeth for God knew how long—that his first thought had been the business and not Wyatt.
    It took an enormous effort to dry off after his shower and dress in sweats. By the time Dean made it downstairs, he was ready for a nap. On the couch. There was no way he was going to make it back up the stairs without resting.
    It was dinnertime, so he headed to the kitchen. He could hear voices and smell food. The sound was nice, but the smell made it clear that food was not on the agenda for him at least for a little while longer.
    Dean stopped in the door to the kitchen