“Okay, go to work. I’ll be back tomorrow at zero seven hundred,” Liam said on Friday morning when a nurse came to retrieve Declan’s breakfast tray and take him to physical therapy.
“You’re serious about that?” Declan said.
“Every day as long as I’m around. Conor got it okayed and I’ll be here for breakfast with you. Conor’ll come, too, when he can—doing a new residency to switch from ER to orthopedics has him tied up a lot—but I’ll be here come hell or high water. Count on it.”
“Okay,” Declan said, agreeing without a fight.
The ease of that concession surprised Liam but he thought there might be the faintest hint of something not quite as disheartened in that single word.
Declan had shown no enthusiasm when Liam had arrived this morning and announced the breakfast plan that he’d put into play through Conor last night after talking to Dani. And it wasn’t as if Liam’s presence had seemed to lift his twin’s spirits.
But now, while that barely uttered word might not have seemed like anything to get excited about, to Liam it was the first encouraging sign from his brother.
Liam left Declan to the nurse, glad he’d taken seriously what Dani had said the night before.
After talking to her he still hadn’t known exactly how to help Declan. But he’d thought about what she’d said about her father, about her mother figuring out how to help her father, and he’d tried to translate that into something he could do.
He’d decided that for now maybe he should just be there for Declan. Spend more time with him than he’d planned or thought he might be able to, and maybe that would give Declan the opportunity to begin to open up. Even if that didn’t turn Declan around, it might at least give some clue to something more Liam could do to help. Like Dani’s mother hitting on the boat idea to help her father.
If nothing else, he was going to make damn sure that his brother knew Liam was thankful not to have lost him. That one way or another he wouldn’t let him go down with the ship. And he was going to do that by starting every day at that rehab hospital with Declan.
From the rehab center Liam headed for the hardware store, feeling better than he had the day before when he’d left his twin.
Seeing Declan for the first time yesterday had been frustrating and discouraging and left him with a sense of powerlessness—something that he rarely experienced.
Now, despite not having a clear mission with all the details figured out, he at least had a plan to put into motion. Having even an undetailed plan of action helped him feel slightly less useless.
And again it was thanks to Dani.
He wasn’t sure what he would do without her right now, he thought as he got on the highway. Somehow she’d become his guiding light as he trod through the current murky waters—first with the kids and now with Declan.
Just talking to her offered him comfort and support and relief, and then to top it off she gave him insights on how to handle it all. When he was stewing over Declan yesterday, even knowing that he could talk to her when he was ready to, that she was a great listener, that she would give her perspective without being pushy about it, had helped. And he was grateful.
“But that wasn’t gratitude at work last night when you kissed her,” he muttered.
No, it hadn’t been gratitude. It had been something much harder for him to swallow—a soft spot.
He didn’t have many weaknesses, but it was becoming clear that she might be one. Kind of a big one because he’d never in his life kissed someone he knew he shouldn’t kiss.
Being friendly, getting to know her, learning from her, and even confiding in her was one thing. He was Special Forces—when there was a mission that required skills he could provide, he was called in. When it came to kids and what to do for a depressed brother—missions that were out of his skill set—he needed someone to turn to who did have those skills. That was just standard operating procedure.
But going from friendliness and her expertise and insights to kissing her? Definitely not SOP.
But what the hell was the universe thinking to send him a guiding light like Dani? A guiding light with long, thick, lush hair, glistening eyes and skin that looked like silk and made him want to see if it felt like that, too? A guiding light who was smart and funny and quick-witted? Girl-next-door sweet, kind and simmeringly sexy, too, to tempt him to forget all his troubles and escape into her instead?
Because being with her did offer an escape. Being with her helped him to sort through all this stuff he was up to his eyeballs in right now. She made him feel like he could come at things better on the next pass, and once she accomplished that, he could just enjoy being with her.
And he did enjoy being with her...
Which had culminated in kissing her because that was the normal course of being with someone who made him feel so much.
But he still shouldn’t have done it. He knew that and there was no excuse for it except the driving need that had shot his discipline to hell.
Okay, sure, another time, another place, and he would be saying full steam ahead when it came to her.
But now?
He had to figure out how to help Declan. He had to figure out what to do if he was Evie and Grady’s father. He had to figure out how to be a father if he was. And if he wasn’t, he had to figure out how to help get those kids taken care of better than just being loaded into the system. Because now it wasn’t only wanting to look out for kids left by someone he’d once been close to, he was beginning to care for the kids themselves.
So he had enough to work through without adding a new relationship with a woman to it all. A woman with a lot on her own plate.
This was just not the time, and he had to put his discipline, his training, into effect.
As he went into the hardware store the certainty that he could control himself went with him.
And lasted long enough for him to get what he needed and return to his rented SUV.
Then there she was again, on his mind.
And for some reason he was thinking about how nice it had been kissing her.
So damn nice...
And she hadn’t stopped it, he thought as he got behind the wheel. In fact, if he hadn’t stopped that kiss he thought she might have kept it going.
What did that mean?
Maybe that he could provide her with a little escape from her own problems?
And if that was true, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing...
No, no, no, it was a bad thing, he insisted to himself.
They were both just in the middle of too much other muck. And even though escaping it when they felt good in that moment, it was liable to make things a lot more complicated down the road. And that was a stupid thing to do.
So he wasn’t going to do it, he resolved again.
Sure, he couldn’t keep his eyes off her whenever they were together and he couldn’t keep his mind off her whether they were together or not.
But he did need to keep his hands off her.
And there was no question he was going to make sure he did.
* * *
“Dani?”
“Garrett!” Dani responded, stopping short when she heard her name called from across the parking lot and looking up to see her former fiancé coming in her direction.
She, Liam and the twins had just come out of an indoor trampoline park at the mall.
“That’s Garrett,” she heard Grady whisper to Evie with some guardedness.
“I know,” Evie responded, impatient with her brother for thinking she didn’t recognize the man. Then to Liam she whispered, “He’s Dani’s friend,” with some warning in her own tone.
Liam didn’t say anything and Dani didn’t have time for an explanation before Garrett was right there, not so much as casting a glance at Liam or at the twins, acting as if she were alone.
“Hi,” Garrett said in a tone that seemed to question the wisdom of approaching her.
Her former fiancé—an attractive boy-next-door blond who couldn’t compare to Liam’s good looks—was dressed in a suit and tie. The tie’s knot was loosened, and since Frank Gregson—another Denver Police Department detective and Garrett’s partner—was keeping his distance in the background, Dani assumed they were working. Despite the fact that it was after seven o’clock on Friday night.
She hoped that their being on the job might make this quick, and since Garrett was completely ignoring Liam, she wasn’t sure if she should introduce the two men.
Would it seem to Garrett that she was throwing another man in his face if she did?
She knew him and she knew an introduction wouldn’t benefit Liam. Garrett had been jealous of even her friendship with Bryan and had been awful to him. So maybe it was better to just get this over with as soon as possible and keep Liam out of it.
“I’m surprised to see you,” she answered in a neutral voice, not happy to run into him but also not wanting to make this first meeting since their breakup any more awkward than it already was.
“We got a call about an abandoned car left here. It belongs to a runaway we’re looking for, so we have to check it out,” he informed her mechanically before going on to say, “I haven’t seen you since your grandmother died... I wanted to give my condolences.”
“Thanks,” Dani said as if his sentiment had been more sincere than it was.
“I thought about going to the funeral. But I didn’t know if I should...what with your grandmother being one of our issues,” he said somewhat under his breath and unable to conceal a tinge of hostility.
Dani didn’t say anything to that and her silence caused him to finally acknowledge Grady and Evie by casting them a cursory glance. He still didn’t say anything to them, though, before he looked back at Dani and said, “I saw the accident report. I didn’t think you’d still be doing this.”
“It’s complicated,” she said, having no intention of getting into the details.
“And—” he tossed an insolent nod in Liam’s direction “—already? Really? Or maybe I just didn’t know about him before?”
The accusatory tone made Dani bristle but more than that, out the corner of her eye, she saw what it did to Liam. He was a big man but he seemed to have gotten even bigger. Even taller, stronger, sturdier. He seemed to have subtly become even more of a force to be reckoned with.
What he didn’t do was anything antagonistic or combative or hotheaded, though, and she appreciated that. And the sense that he was there and ready should he be needed.
Dani took a breath to keep her own temper in check and opted to introduce the two men in hopes now of keeping things civil. “Liam is here for the twins,” she added.
Neither man offered a hand to shake or any friendly overture. There was a mutual glare but that was all.
Then she prompted Evie and Grady to better manners than Garrett had shown them and said, “Say hello, guys.”
Evie and Grady muttered discontented hi’s and Evie reached up to take Liam’s hand while, on his other side, Grady leaned firmly against Liam’s thigh.
Dani wasn’t sure whether it was a declaration of loyalty or merely to gain more distance from Garrett. But either way she was glad to see that the twins had gravitated toward Liam. It seemed like an indication of acceptance of him. And she was even happier when Liam reached his free hand to Grady’s shoulder, as if to let him know everything was okay.
“Guess I should get back to work,” Garrett said. “Without your grandmother you must have more free time...maybe we can have dinner some night?”
Seriously? First he was going to show her one of the things about himself that she’d liked the least, and then he was going to ask her out? The man was clueless.
“I’m actually busier now than I was then,” Dani said softly but succinctly, still bristling at every mention he made of her grandmother.
“Take care of yourself,” he said as if the question had never been asked or answered.
“You, too,” Dani countered.
He turned back to his partner and they headed to a different section of the mall while Dani took a moment to compose herself under the silent scrutiny of Liam’s blue eyes.
Then she bucked up and said, “It’s late. Let’s go have our soup and see how we did today. I’m hungry. You guys must be, too, by now.”
“Soup!” Grady cheered, his exuberance released again by the removal of Garrett’s oppressive presence.
“Do I get my heart billi bomb?” Evie asked.
“You do,” Dani confirmed before glancing at Liam and finding curiosity in his expression that she had no intention of addressing. Instead she said, “And we get to see how Liam did making his first billi bombs.”
“His snakes were too fat,” Grady goaded.
“I showed him how to make them skinnier,” Evie defended as they went the rest of the way through the parking lot to their car, the kids competing while the adults said nothing.
* * *
Billi bomb soup was a multistage project. Before taking the twins to the trampoline park as their reward, Dani, Liam, Evie and Grady had spent the day at the restaurant.
While Liam had repaired the leaking pipe in the storage basement—with the assistance of Evie, who was interested in the project and the tools in the toolbox, while Grady preferred kitchen duties—Dani had mixed the dough for the billi bombs.
With a table set up at the end of the kitchen far away from the stoves and ovens and anything else that could hurt the twins, Dani and the kids had tutored Liam in the making of billi bombs from the dough that was a cross between a macaroni dough and a bread dough.
With even the kids observing health code rules of washed hands and gloves to handle food, bits of it were rolled into thin snakes—a job Evie and Grady enjoyed. Then the snakes were sliced with pastry cutters into small sections. Except for the one section that Evie insisted be left long enough to form a heart shape for her own personal billi bomb.
As the sections accumulated, the kitchen staff deep-fried them.
Dani, Liam and the twins also helped roll the meatballs, which—unlike the restaurant’s usual meatballs—had to be made the size of marbles before they were also fried.
In the meantime, the kitchen staff simmered a soup that was a combination of chicken and beef stock, a small amount of tomato juice, multiple vegetables, plus raw chicken and cubes of beef.
When the billi bombs and meatballs were all fried, they were added to the soup. The whole thing needed to simmer until the hard-as-rocks billi bombs turned into soft dumplings—which required hours.
Despite the fact that Evie and Grady enjoyed themselves at the restaurant all day, Dani still made sure there was some playtime to follow. So while the soup cooked—and as a means of regaining appetites ruined through a day of munching—Dani had planned time at the trampoline park to be followed by a late soup supper.
So when they left the mall, they returned to the restaurant to eat.
Knowing they would be back, Carmella had extended her own long day in order to eat with them. And once again the meal was a warm, genial event during which the kids talked and laughed and contributed as much as the adults did, all of them enjoying the fruits of their day’s labor in the soup that Liam had three bowls of and declared the best thing he’d ever eaten, worth all the trouble and teasing he’d taken for kitchen technique surpassed by four-year-olds.
Four-year-olds Dani thought he’d gained ground with by working alongside them and taking their instruction as seriously as it was given. By listening to their chatter and asking them questions and overall having a day similar to many she’d had with her mother and her grandmother in that same kitchen, making that same soup.
Full of soup and weary from the day, the ride home from the restaurant was quiet as the kids crashed and neither Dani nor Liam said much.
Dani knew what was keeping her quiet. And since Liam had not had a repeat of yesterday’s doldrums and had been himself again until they’d run into Garrett in the parking lot, she had to assume it was that accidental meeting of her ex keeping him quiet tonight, too.
Since she’d mentioned the desire to wash off the cooking smells after giving the kids baths for the same reason, Liam offered to do the twins’ bedtime routine so she could have a little while to herself to shower.
Dani was pleased to see further proof of the headway that had been made between Liam and the twins when they both agreed that he could read their bedtime story and even chose books that didn’t require funny voices to make it easier on him.
That freed Dani to retreat to her own room.
After her shower, she wasn’t sure if Liam had gone to bed, too. Just in case he hadn’t she put on a T-shirt and a pair of polka dot pajama pants presentable enough for a co-ed encounter, and went out to see if her evening was over or not.
She found the kids asleep and no sign of Liam on the lower level, in the kitchen or in the workout room. But when she went to the front door to set the alarm, she nearly bumped into him as he came down the stairs.
Apparently he could shower much quicker than she could because he’d changed into sweatpants and a T-shirt and smelled of that tropical breeze cologne that went right to her head.
And mingled nicely with the tiny spritz of perfume that she’d used on a whim after applying a light dusting of blush and just enough mascara to keep herself from looking washed-out.
“I thought you might have gone to bed,” she said when she happened upon him, making sure that she made it sound as if it didn’t matter to her one way or another.
“You promised me your restaurant’s special pink-grapefruit Italian ice. Isn’t that why we brought it home—to have after the kids went to bed?”
“It is,” she confirmed. “But when I came out and you weren’t around I thought maybe we’d overworked you today and you couldn’t stay awake.”
He grinned cockily as they headed for the kitchen. “You thought today overworked me?”
“It wasn’t what you’re trained for,” she pointed out.
“Yeah, I still think I might be able to push myself a little more,” he said, as if the thought that today had tired him out was amusing.
“As long as you’re up to it,” she joked when they reached the kitchen.
Dani went to the freezer to take out the container they’d brought home as Liam said, “It’s so warm tonight that I left my balcony doors open. Why don’t we go out on the patio and use one of those four fire pits back there?”
Maybe because the thought of the two of them curling up on the overstuffed cushions of the seating around the fire pits was a lot different than eating standing at the counter? A lot more cozy and intimate—things that should not be fostered between them since he’d already kissed her?
But could she make herself say no?
No.
“The fire pits are gas-powered. Why don’t you turn on one of them while I dish out the Italian ice?” And try to make sure that’s the only thing you turn on tonight...
“Meet you out there,” he said, flipping switches until he’d turned on the lights that lit the ballroom-sized patio. Then he opened the sliding glass doors and stepped outside.
That was when Dani realized they were both in stockinged feet tonight—she in fluffy ones and he in gray athletic socks—and that seemed like something else adding to the cozy intimacy that worried her a little.
As she spooned Italian ice into two bowls she thought about returning to her room for shoes before she joined him.
But it had been a long day of double-duty while cooking for the restaurant and still managing the kids—triple-duty when she factored in teaching Liam how to do both of those things, too—and she was finally done for the day. She could relax and have some downtime. Some shoeless time. She didn’t want to give that up.
And it was silly, really. So what if they were both in lounging-around clothes and only socks? Being more and more comfortable with each other was bound to happen under the circumstances. After all, they were living in the same house, spending most of every day and evening together. They were even beginning to form a pattern for their own wind-down after the kids were in bed. No shoes were just another increment to that. It didn’t mean anything. It wouldn’t lead to anything. It was just no shoes, for crying out loud.
And actually, it was good Liam was loosening up, she told herself. The return of the wooden soldier yesterday had been alarming. But today he’d been back to an even keel and if that culminated in feeling free to pad around in his stockinged feet, great! If he ended up with the twins, she wanted to imagine the three of them hitting the end of every day that way—at ease enough to kick off their shoes.
She was just making a mountain out of a molehill because there was something that much more alluring about a leisurely Liam. But she wasn’t going to let it get to her.
Vowing that, she took their dessert and the monitor for the twins’ rooms outside.
The stainless steel fire pits were in each corner of a square sunken conversation pit and she descended the steps to where Liam was standing.
Handing him one bowl, she set the monitor on the tiled patio floor above them. Then she took the other bowl with her to the seating provided by ledges extending from the walls of the pit, where cushions on the seats and up the sides made it more comfortable.
She opted to sit very near one of the conversation pit’s corners. He joined her, sitting at a forty-five degree angle and not all that far away. Making it even cozier.
Dani tried not to notice and took a bite of her ice at the same time he tasted his.
“Oh, that’s sour!” he complained after the initial taste made him pucker.
“It’s not sour. It’s tart,” Dani corrected. “That’s why I like it and why it’s good for your digestion.”
“You should have warned me. I was expecting sweet. I don’t know if I can take this.”
“Wimp,” she teased. “There’s ice cream if you want that.”
“I’m okay. This is the first thing I don’t like from that place, though. That soup... I want that every day!”
“I’m glad you liked it. It’ll be the special all weekend and it will pack the place.”
He repositioned himself slightly so that he was angled toward her and stretched a long arm across the top of the pillows behind them before he said, “So, you probably know what I’m gonna ask you...”
Of course, he wanted an assessment of how he’d done with the kids during the day.
“You’re just fishing for a pat on the back,” she accused. “You know you made strides today.”
His eyebrows drew together into a split-second frown of confusion before he seemed to grasp what she was saying. “No, I didn’t mean... I know it went well with Evie and Grady—I could tell that when they both wanted to sit by me at dinner. I was going to ask about Garrett.” He said the name with scorn. “The kids said he was your friend but I don’t think so...”
Of course he would be curious about Garrett, Dani thought, belatedly getting on the same page.
“I should probably apologize for him,” she said. “He was rude to you. But I appreciated that you didn’t make a big deal out of it.”
“One of the most important things a marine learns is self-discipline,” he said, as if that carried a lot of weight for him.
Garrett would have called it self-control, and it had been something he’d said a cop needed to maintain at all times.
But what Dani had thought of as a strength, an asset, at the start of her relationship with Garrett had instead shattered it because it wasn’t only himself that he’d been obsessed with controlling.
Now here was Liam touting self-discipline the same way and, while she was glad it had been in effect tonight so Garrett hadn’t been able to provoke him, it raised a red flag for Dani.
Self-control and self-discipline. A police mind-set and a military mind-set. Liam and Garrett were different men but she knew she needed not to lose sight of their similarities. Those things in Garrett that had impacted her relationship with him and altered it.
“Anyway,” she said, “I appreciated it.”
“But that still doesn’t tell me who he is,” Liam persisted before he drew back slightly and said, “Not that it’s any of my business if you don’t want to get into it.”
But he was curious, Dani could see that. And Garrett wasn’t a secret. So why not explain? And remember the cautionary tale she needed when she was sitting across from someone who could be carrying around the same tendencies...
“Garrett and I were engaged,” she said.
Liam’s eyebrows arched at that. “Oh. I was thinking that he might be some kind of stalker or something—some guy who’s been trying to get you to go out with him. That maybe you used your grandmother as an excuse not to and that’s why he thought he might have a shot now that she’s gone.”
Dani raised her own eyebrows at him. “You’ve done a lot of thinking about it in the last couple of hours.”
Liam broke into a grin. “Just because I wasn’t sure if you needed some kind of protection from him, you know...if he was a stalker,” he claimed.
Dani didn’t buy that for a minute. Garrett was imposing but he wasn’t threatening, and he’d taken the brush-off of his invitation to dinner without a problem. But it was flattering that Liam was curious about the other man so she didn’t call him on it.
“Garrett is a Denver police detective and he isn’t stalking me. The breakup wasn’t fun, but tonight was the first time I’ve seen him since.”
“How long ago did you end it?”
“How do you know it was me who ended it?”
“I could tell. Plus he didn’t seem stupid enough to let you go.”
Dani tried to like his response less than she did.
“So how long ago did you end it?” he repeated.
“Three months ago.”
“Three months ago... Not long before your grandmother died. I thought it was a lot for you to deal with losing your grandmother and still dig in here with the twins right after that. But, on top of it, you were fresh out of a breakup, too? That makes it even worse.”
Dani acknowledged that with a nod. “There’s been a lot of big stuff in a short amount of time, yeah.”
“His being a cop explains a couple of things he said, though—what he was doing at the mall, seeing the accident report...” Liam observed.
She thought that Garrett being a cop explained most things about him. “His being a cop is also why it’s especially good that you didn’t react to his spitefulness. For Garrett, his position gives him a sense of power that can go a little wonky. He considers the slightest thing people say or do to be disrespecting his authority. And it’s not beyond him to escalate situations and then charge someone with assaulting an officer if the other person reacts badly. He’s bragged about doing that, laughed about how he has the upper hand if someone doesn’t take what he’s dishing out.”
“And he was dishing it out because he assumed we were dating or something and he was jealous. He probably would have enjoyed a reason to arrest me,” Liam said with some humor. “Did your grandmother not approve of him? Is that why she was an issue?”
“We were together quite a while—over three years—so Gramma kind of followed the same route I did with Garrett. It was all good at the start and then it evolved into not so good.”
“And she ended up chasing him with one of those big kitchen knives at the restaurant?” Liam joked.
Dani laughed. “Is that wishful thinking? No, Gramma never did anything like that. In fact I don’t think she ever knew she was one of our issues. I hope she didn’t.”
“So how was she an issue?”
Dani finished her Italian ice and set her empty bowl next to his on the fire pit, trying not to notice as Liam propped an ankle on top of the opposite knee and brought a stockinged foot to her attention again.
A really big stockinged foot that really did make this feel more intimate than she wished it did.
Still, she tried to focus only on their conversation about her relationship with Garrett.
“Being a cop is a stressful job,” she said. “Garrett is good at it and, like I said, he likes the power, but the day after day of it changed him over time. Not that he wasn’t a pretty serious person from the start, because he was. But it got to where he wasn’t ever not super serious. And along with that, what he saw on the job made him... I don’t want to say paranoid, but he really kind of was. At least about me—”
“About you?” Liam asked, sounding as if he didn’t know what she meant.
“At first it was only small things, so I just kind of adapted to it to humor him because it seemed to make him feel better.”
“Were you thinking he was like your dad somehow?” Liam asked.
“Some. I mean my dad’s PTSD came from what he’d seen and experienced, and yeah, I think Garrett’s stuff comes from what he’s seen and experienced, too. Only my mom had to deal with the aftermath. With Garrett I thought I could prevent some of his anxiety before it got any worse if I just did what he asked. Small things—like if I called to check in with him or let him know I’d made it home safely. I just saw it as making him comfortable by doing things that weren’t a big deal to me. But it sort of fed the beast rather than kept the problems from getting worse.”
“He did get worse?”
“He did. Especially after we got engaged. He started wanting to know my every move every day. He said he investigated people who went missing and those cases turned out best when he had a clear picture of where that person was before disappearing, but that too often no one who knew them knew what they’d had planned.”
“So you gave him your schedule every day.”
“In detail. It was kind of a pain, but I did it. All the while telling him I could take care of myself, hoping he’d see that, relax, not need it so much. But that didn’t happen. Then he started telling me that I couldn’t do things—”
“Such as?”
“Meet a friend somewhere he said was a seedy part of town. Or that I couldn’t close the restaurant on Griff’s nights off so my grandmother could go home early.”
“And that made your grandmother an issue?”
“My grandmother, the restaurant, the fact that we ran a business that was open late in the evening and could be robbed... By the end he was saying that the only time he could feel like I was completely safe was when I was with him.” She sighed with the memory of it all before she went on.
“And when it came to Gramma it was even more than his concerns for safety,” she admitted. “He doesn’t have any family and he really didn’t understand that it can involve demands on your time—especially as people age. The last year or so that we were together he just...” She shrugged. “He got madder and madder that my grandmother needed my help. He said it was unreasonable.”
“He thought you should tell the woman who raised you to take a flying leap when she got old enough to need the roles reversed?”
“He just didn’t get it,” she said.
“And how did Grady and Evie get to know him?” Liam asked.
“He was our ‘protection detail,’” she said, rolling her eyes. “That’s what he’d say if he had time off when I was with them, if I was taking them somewhere. So he went to museums with us. The zoo. But it wasn’t good for the kids.”
“Why?”
“Garrett was definitely in the seen-and-not-heard camp when it came to kids, so if they didn’t sit like little statues or if they made noise when he was with us, he thought they were ‘totally out of control’—his words.”
“When they were just doing normal kid stuff?”
Dani was glad that he was coming to understand what normal kid behavior was. “Yes!” she said with some praise in her tone. “And when they argued—”
“Which they do a lot,” Liam said with a small laugh.
“Because they’re siblings and siblings fight—”
“Oh, yeah—my brothers and I had some knockdown, drag-out battles. And there were plenty of tussles with Kinsey, too,” he said.
“But again, Garrett was an only child and he didn’t understand that it was normal. So when they argued it was a big deal to him. He said I didn’t have any idea how many delinquents he had to arrest because they thought they could run wild. And if I didn’t have a firmer hand I was creating two more.”
“I guess that could come from some job anxiety spilling over. But Grady and Evie are not delinquents in the making.”
And Liam was clearly feeling a little defensive over them—something else she was pleased to see.
“No, they aren’t,” she assured. “And a few times he stepped in when it wasn’t his place to, scared them and we had to have it out about that.”
“Doesn’t sound like he would have made much of a dad either,” Liam observed.
“That was another thing I started to see,” she admitted. “We did not agree on how to raise kids and when it came up over Evie and Grady it was an eye-opener.”
“And why they don’t like him much.”
“They couldn’t be comfortable around him, that’s for sure. Not that he put any effort into making them comfortable, because he didn’t.”
Liam smiled crookedly. “You couldn’t teach him how to do better, the way you’re trying to teach me?”
Dani laughed. “He wasn’t open to suggestions.” And Liam was—he really did get kudos from her for that. Yes, the military stiffness seemed to come more naturally to him, but he was trying to mend his ways, to learn how to better handle the kids, relate to them.
“So what was the final straw?” Liam asked.
“Oh, it was more like everything just came to a head. I was trying so hard to appease him and that was wearing on me. Then we had a big fight about Gramma because she had a cold and I wanted to stop by and see her after he and I had dinner to check on her—”
“He didn’t want to?”
“No. He said I was babying her and somehow that evolved into a talk about how, yes, if the day came when she couldn’t live alone, I would want her to live with us, and that set him off royally! Then the day after that he went to the zoo with the kids and I for the second...or maybe it was the third time so he should have known how it went...but he lost it over them running from exhibit to exhibit and yelling to each other when they got excited about things they saw. That led to another fight later that night about raising kids and... I just knew,” she said with finality and some sad resignation. “I gave back the ring.”
“How did he take it?”
“Not well,” she understated.
“How’d you take it?” he asked, studying her face.
“I’m kind of ashamed to say that it was more of a relief to me than anything. By then the tension in the relationship was so bad that I was more on edge with him than in love with him. When I returned the ring I felt like I’d set myself free.”
“And seeing him again tonight? Did that change anything?”
Dani shook her head slowly. “I hated the way he acted tonight. To you, to the kids. I was glad all over again that I’m not involved with him anymore. I did care for him. I wouldn’t have been with him as long as I was or accepted his proposal if I hadn’t. But he kind of wore that out. He wore me out. And when he did I realized that I couldn’t be happy with a personality like that. I need things a lot more easygoing, mellow, flexible.”
“I can see that,” he said kindly.
For a moment he let it all lay, as if giving her a chance to put it behind her again.
Then the expression on his handsome face turned mischievous and his smile had a wicked hint to it as he said, “So you’re into flexible, huh?”
The innuendo made her laugh and really did lighten things up.
“And you’re into order and regimentation,” she accused, to remind both of them.
His smile grew. “Not all the time,” he contended. “Especially since meeting you, flexibility is my middle name.”
Dani laughed again. “Oh, that’s you all right, Mr. Flexibility.”
“Haven’t I been?” he said, challenging her to deny it.
“You are working on it,” was all she allowed him.
“Don’t burn me because of yesterday,” he defended himself. “Yesterday was a bad day—I think I should get a pass on that. Everybody’s entitled to one of those now and then.”
“Okay, you’re right,” she conceded because he had had good reason to withdraw yesterday and he had also rebounded from it with no lingering effects.
“And you said yourself that I did good today,” he persisted.
“You did,” she agreed.
There was a slight pause as more of that devilish smile appeared. “You know,” he said, “the kids get rewarded for that...”
“I brought you Italian ice. You didn’t like it.”
“I didn’t, no,” he said, his voice deeper. “But I did so well today I really think I should have a second choice.”
Something in the air around them was suddenly electric and there was a look in those gorgeous blue eyes of his that was warm and lazy and so sexy it made the surface of her skin nearly quiver.
She shouldn’t be encouraging this, but she’d wanted him to kiss her again since the minute his lips had left hers the night before. Now that she had the chance for it, she couldn’t deny herself.
So she said, “Okay. What else would you like as a reward?”
That oh-so-divinely-wicked smile became an oh-so-divinely-wicked grin. His gaze dropped to her lips. And just when she thought he was going to kiss her, he said, “Another bowl of that soup,” and made her laugh instead.
Enjoying his own joke, he grinned even wider.
But somehow not even humor blunted the electricity that was firing between them and he kissed her.
He reached one big hand to the back of her neck to bring their mouths together in a kiss that seemed like it should have been playful in that moment. But instead it was instantly infused with something that said finally or at last, as if they’d both just been waiting for this since the previous night’s kiss.
Which had been very nice. But this one was far more.
His arms wrapped around her so he could pull her completely to him. His lips parted and when she followed that lead, his tongue made its way to hers.
The kiss was playful but with a lot of heat and spice that caused mouths to open even wider and carried Dani away into a make-out session that was all the more heavenly with the fire burning beside them.
She turned into putty in those arms that were holding her against the solid wall of his chest. She could feel the contained strength of biceps that cradled her while the things he did with his mouth, with his tongue, drove her to distraction.
One of her own arms had gone around him at some point when she wasn’t even thinking about it but her other was caught between them, her hand in a loose fist. A loose fist she realized that she could open to press her palm to his chest.
But it was his hand on her chest that she really wanted and, even as their kissing gained intensity, that thought shook her a little.
Making out with him was one thing. But wanting it to go to the next step? Considering how to get there?
That was going too far, she told herself.
So rather than pressing her palm to his chest to enjoy the feel of it and to give him a hint, she used it to gently push him away as her tongue retreated from his and the kiss became only a nice kiss again.
Another push separated their mouths and Liam took a deep breath, sighing it out before he opened his eyes to look down into hers once more.
“Now that was a reward,” he said, his voice deeper still.
“I thought you wanted soup?” she challenged.
He smiled. “Your soup is amazing,” he said rapturously. “But not quite as amazing as you are.”
His arms eased reluctantly from around her and he sat back. Then he said, “I’m thinking that gaining flexibility is shooting the hell out of my self-discipline.”
He used an index finger to move her hair away from her shoulder and she sensed if she didn’t do something he was going to kiss her again. And if he did she knew she’d let him. But since she wasn’t sure where things might go from there, she decided she’d better avoid it.
So she stood, turned off the fire pit, gathered their bowls and the monitor and went inside.
A few minutes passed before Liam came in, too, closing and locking the sliding doors behind him.
“Tomorrow,” he said, much like he had every other night, “you’re making me go to the Butterfly Pavilion?”
Dani laughed at him. “There are spiders and tarantulas and all kinds of bugs, if that makes it seem more manly to you.”
“I don’t know how a place called the Butterfly Pavilion can be manly, but if you say so... And you’re okay with my plan to have breakfast with Declan every morning?”
“Absolutely,” she said as she put the rinsed bowls into the dishwasher. “I think it’s a great idea. It’ll give you the chance to spend time with him and I think that can only help.”
“I hope you’re right. I’ll be home not long after the kids have breakfast. Evie even agreed to try boot camp workout tomorrow,” he added, sounding proud of himself for accomplishing the agreement.
“Grady has been bragging about how he can do a push-up and she can’t.”
Liam laughed. “You should see his push-up.”
“Oh, he showed me. Mostly his rear end goes into the air and nothing else really goes anywhere.”
“Yep. He’s really good at it,” Liam added drolly.
And that brought the evening to its conclusion, but they both just stood there for a moment longer.
A moment during which Dani was just willing him to come closer and kiss her again even though she told herself to cut it out.
Then she summoned a force of will, pulled her shoulders back and said, “It’s late.”
Liam nodded but he didn’t say anything. He just kept looking at her as if he couldn’t get his fill.
“Thanks for replacing the pipe today,” Dani added.
“Happy to do it. Thanks for everything else—everything you do with the kids and to help me with them, and for what you’ve done to help me with Declan—”
“And for the soup,” she joked because his gratitude embarrassed her.
He only smiled softly at her, reaching a hand to run his knuckles tenderly along her cheek this time. “Definitely that,” he added in a quiet voice and a tone that said soup wouldn’t have been on the list.
But just when she thought he might pull her in again, kiss her again, he didn’t. After that featherlight stroke of her face he just took his hand away and said good-night.
Once he’d left her alone in the kitchen Dani closed her eyes and took the deepest breath she could, holding it, hoping to suffocate the things he was stirring in her.
But it didn’t help and she headed to her room, giving herself a lecture on all the reasons why nothing could ever work out between them.
Because nothing could, she told herself.
But somehow that didn’t seem to matter tonight.