“You’re bored here.”

“Incredibly.” Laurel leaned forward. “How could you tell?”

“Besides the fidgeting? Maybe because you’re butting into my business.” Mitch grinned.

She seemed to be studying his face. “I thought we were having a conversation about how to find some peaceful common territory.” She shook her head. “You know, when I was battling morning sickness you talked to me differently. But I guess that was before you decided I was Monroe-tainted devil spawn.”

“Let’s be honest...” Not completely honest. He wasn’t going to tell her he wanted to lean forward and kiss her sometimes. “I realize my daughter is going to leave Second Chance one day. But I’d like her to be happy here before she leaves. And people like you and your family are trouble, so—”

Laurel drew a sharp intake of breath.

There was something about this woman that reached around logic and reality, that reached a place few women had been able to touch, that shook him to his core.

Attraction, his brain whispered.

Annoyance, he corrected stubbornly.

Because Laurel stood for everything he’d run from in Chicago...