Lucas did everything he could to avoid being alone with his sister, but she cornered him in the kitchen when Paige and Maddie went to the door to greet the vet. Sophie Croft might be his annoying little sister, but she was also smart as a whip. There was no way she’d missed the looks he and Paige had exchanged. There was also no way she was going to let it slide.
“What was that?” she demanded the minute they were alone.
Lucas looked down the empty hall. “What?” It was a lame response, but if he was lucky, it might buy him enough time. All he needed was for Paige to come back to the kitchen…
“Don’t play dumb with me, Lucas Cornelius Croft.”
“You know that’s not my middle name.”
“Today it is.”
He eased toward the door, but she stuck her foot on the counter of the island to form a barricade with her leg. She was flexible, he’d give her that. “Those gymnastics lessons really paid off, I see.”
“Yeah, I figured someday it would get me to the Olympics, but detaining my stubborn brother will have to suffice.”
He chuckled. “Do you really think I can’t get past you?” She talked a big game, but he had about sixty pounds on her. If he wanted to, he could open the freezer door and put her on ice. Literally.
“Lucas,” Paige called from the living room.
“Sorry, Soph. I’d love to stay and chat, but you have a plumber to meet and I have a vet in my living room.”
“Fine, but for the record, I’m totally on board with whatever this is.” She narrowed her eyes. “Just don’t do anything to mess it up.”
Now that was a promise he couldn’t make. No matter how hard he tried, messing things up with Paige Parker seemed to be second nature for him. They’d already had two do-overs, and if that wasn’t bad enough, when everything was finally going right, he’d somehow managed to blow that too.
Stay. That’s all he would have had to say, and last night would have had a completely different ending. But no, he just stood there like some kind of idiot. Guess you’ll be leaving in the morning. Was it pride, fear, maybe a little of both? Whatever the reason, he’d put everything on her, and when she hesitated—probably shocked that one minute he was about to kiss her and the next he was assuming she’s about to leave—he sulked off like a toddler. Scratch that, toddlers at least tell you why they’re sulking. He just stormed off to bed.
Then came Maddie to the rescue. Leave it to his sweet, unassuming daughter to clear things up with one heartfelt request. It wasn’t the first time he could have stood to learn a lesson or two from his daughter, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. But for now at least, Paige Parker was staying for the rest of the week. Even he could set things right in that amount of time.
He stood beside the sofa, watching the scene unfolding in his living room. Paige and Maddie sat side by side on the couch, dutifully supervising, although it was hard to say which one of them was in charge. In the end, his money was on Maddie. Each time the vet began an examination of one of the pups, Maddie would introduce the dog by name, then turn to Paige and ask her to explain why she’d chosen it for that particular puppy. At first Paige seemed a bit embarrassed by the whole thing—was that a blush he she saw on her cheeks?—but she was a good sport, and by the time they were done, even the doctor was cracking Ninja Turtle analogies.
“Does this mean the puppies are going to be okay?” Maddie asked after Lucas showed the vet to the door.
“That’s exactly what it means,” he told her.
“And does that mean I can hold them now?” She looked up at him from beneath impossibly long lashes. “Pretty pleeease?”
“Yes,” Lucas said. “As long as you sit on the couch and are very gentle.”
Maddie scurried onto the couch and patted her lap. “I’m ready.”
One by one, Paige handed her each of the puppies for a cuddle and a kiss.
“Why don’t we let these guys have a little rest with their momma,” Lucas suggested when she was done. “This has been a lot of activity for them in one morning.”
“It’s okay,” Maddie said. “I promised Paige I would show her my favorite places on the beach.”
“That’s right,” Lucas said, pretending that he’d forgotten. “Where do you think we should start?”
Maddie narrowed her eyes. “She didn’t ask you, Daddy.”
Ouch, blocked by his own kiddo.
“Think we could let him join us?” Paige asked. Her question was spoken in a whisper, but loud enough for him to hear.
Maddie twisted her mouth while she considered her answer. Paige watched her with a warm smile on her face. “Yes,” his daughter finally said. “We need someone to carry the bucket.”
“The bucket?” Paige asked.
“For the seashells, silly.” Maddie slid off the couch and scampered toward the kitchen.
“Looks like we’re headed to the beach,” Lucas said as they followed her. “Thanks for scoring me an invite.”
Paige laughed. “Anytime.”
By the time they reached Maddie, she was standing by the door with a bucket in one hand and one of her favorite toys in the other. “Floppy wants to come,” she said. “Stanley and Stinky are going to stay here and watch the puppies.”
“Nice of them to offer their services,” Lucas said with a straight face. “You and Paige can head on out. I’m just going to pack a few things in my backpack, and I’ll be right there.”
Maddie reached for Paige’s hand. “Come on, I’ll show you where the baby turtles hatched last summer.”
“Turtles hatch in the summer?” Paige asked. “Not in February?” Lucas knew full well she was taking a swipe at him for yet another unfulfilled promise made when she booked the room. But the smile she flashed him as she looked back over her shoulder told him that Paige Parker could care less about the amenities. She was exactly where she wanted to be.
His daughter, on the other hand, sure was in a rush to get away from him. Little twerp never even looked back. She did, however, give him one more chore to do before joining them.
“Don’t forget the kite, Daddy.”
Lucas smiled to himself. Second fiddle, huh? Yeah, he could live with that.
* * *
Paige and Maddie walked hand in hand across the wooden planks that formed a path through the tall grass until they reached a sandy stretch of beach. Maddie showed her where the turtle eggs had been and explained how some people from the mainland had come out to set up “yellow tape” and took turns sleeping in beach chairs until the babies hatched. She was talking a mile a minute, with more enthusiasm than even Sammy on his best day, but best Paige could tell, when the babies hatched, everyone huddled around to keep other animals from eating them before they made it to the water.
When Maddie was done, she took a deep breath and stared out at the water. Her hair danced in the wind, but other than that, she was perfectly still. For all of two minutes.
“Paige is a funny name,” she said out of the blue.
“Well, it’s not spelled the same as the page in a book,” Paige explained.
“My mom named me after a book too,” Maddie said, seeming to completely miss Paige’s point. “A girl in a book,” she qualified. “Not the paper part.” She began skipping down the sand.
Paige walked faster to keep up. “Which book is that?” She suspected she already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear Maddie tell the story. Because what had appeared at first to be a nonsensical transition now seemed like a necessary conversation.
“Madeline.” Maddie stopped skipping and stood perfectly still as she recited the opening lines to Ludwig Bemelmans’s classic tale. “‘In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines. The smallest one was Madeline.’”
When she was finished, she looked up at Paige. The expression on her face changed from one of bliss to concern in a matter of seconds. “If my dad goes to live with my mom in heaven, will I go to live in a house like Madeline did?”
Paige’s heart ached. How scary it must be for this sweet child not only to lose one parent, but to worry about the fate of the other as well. And now there she was, looking to Paige for an answer she wasn’t qualified to give. Paige wasn’t family. She wasn’t even a close family friend. She’d only met Maddie that morning, but that didn’t do anything to lessen her desire to comfort the young girl.
“I’m sure not.” She had no idea what Lucas’s will stipulated for Maddie’s care, but she felt quite certain that she would not go to an orphanage. At the very least, she had an aunt.
Maddie breathed an exaggerated sigh of relief. “Good, because I would hate to have to walk in two straight lines,” she said before zigzagging through the sand toward a cluster of seagulls, her arms wide as though she herself were a bird.
Paige smiled to herself. There she’d been, worried about Maddie’s fears about the future, when in reality the frown that had creased her tiny forehead was over something far simpler. Paige couldn’t blame her really. The pictures of that spooky-looking nun marching those girls around Paris like little toy soldiers had always bothered her as well. In her opinion, the only thing worse was the creepy child collector in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Honestly, what were some adults thinking?
“Was she talking your ear off?” Lucas asked from behind her. Paige turned, and the sight of him nearly took her breath away. She couldn’t explain it really. He was only wearing jeans and a quarter-zip fleece, but he looked like he’d just stepped out of a magazine ad for some overpriced men’s cologne. The ocean breeze played with his hair, giving it that sexy, rumpled look she found so irresistible, and the way he looked at her, smoldering and yet shy all at once? Let’s just say she was darn happy she agreed to stay.
“Penny for your thoughts?” he asked.
Maddie ran up, which was just as well because if Paige had told him her thoughts, she would have had to reveal that she’d been thinking about how it would feel to run her fingers through his unruly hair, or how badly she wanted to slide her hands under his fleece and feel the warmth of his skin against hers, or how she wanted him to kiss her until they were both breathless.
“Can we look for shells?” Maddie asked.
“Well, we need to collect something with that bucket. Should it be shells or crabs?”
“Oooh gross, why would we collect crabs?” she asked. It seemed crabs were bad but toads were good. Go figure.
“Then shells it is,” Lucas said. He took Paige’s hand as they fell in line behind the four-year-old leader of their expedition. Paige couldn’t remember the last time a man held her hand. In fact, it had been so long, she was quite sure the last male to do so was merely a boy, and not a man at all. “This okay?” he whispered, nodding toward their joined hands.
Paige smiled. It was more than okay. It was perfect. And so was their day. The three of them spent hours walking along the beach, collecting seashells or using their feet to draw silly faces in the wet sand. Lucas and Maddie even had a game where they tried to spell out a word before the other one could guess what it was. Granted they were supershort words—cat, bat, hat… Today’s day at the beach was brought to you by the letters a and t—but Paige was still impressed with how Lucas combined education with fun and games.
When Maddie finally grew tired, they found a place on the beach to spread out a blanket. Once they were settled, Maddie and Lucas unleashed the kite. It was in the shape of a giant panda bear, something Paige found both peculiar and fantastic. She watched as the bear bobbed around in the wind, much to Maddie’s delight.
“Did you bring a snack?” Maddie asked. Now there was a girl after her own heart.
Lucas’s expression went blank. “I thought you were going to bring the snacks.”
Maddie’s jaw dropped open. As it did, her father began to laugh. “Close your mouth, missy. A seagull might fly in.”
Maddie giggled. “My mouth is not big enough for a seagull.”
Lucas narrowed his eyes as he sized her up. “Hmm, you might be right.” He tied the kite to a piece of driftwood, then reached into his backpack and pulled out a banana. “Is it big enough for a banana?”
“Maybe,” Maddie said. “But it could definitely fit a cookie.”
Paige fought to keep a straight face.
“Sorry,” Lucas said. “I’m fresh out of cookies.”
Maddie looked to Paige. “Do you have any cookies?”
Paige reached into her coat pocket and pulled out a tin of breath mints. She always carried them with her in case of an emergency. Like if she’d just finished a garlic-heavy meal and a client had a crisis that required face-to-face intervention. Or the scenario Sammy preferred: she was trapped in the elevator of their building with the hot guy from the twenty-third floor. A crisis that in her assistant’s opinion would require a different kind of face-to-face action. “Only these.”
Maddie cocked her head to one side as she tried to sound out the word. “Aaaalllltoids.”
Mental note, almost-five-year-olds can read. At least this one could, and not just words that ended in at. Right, she thought, no spelling dirty words in front of the kiddo.
“What’s an Altoid?” Maddie asked.
“A grown-up candy,” her dad answered.
“Can I have one?”
“Are you a grown-up?” he teased.
“Almost.” Maddie made the declaration with total sincerity. Paige tried to remember being four years old. Had she thought turning five was a major milestone as well? All at once, she remembered being at the store and telling her mother that turning five meant she was old enough to get her ears pierced. Of course her mother had disagreed, telling Paige that pierced ears were for adults, not children. But still, maybe she could relate to a kid after all.
“I don’t think you will like them,” Lucas said. “They’re kind of hot.”
“What if I eat the banana?” Maddie flashed her father a smile sweeter than any cookie. “Then can I try one?”
Paige had to hand it to her, the girl was good. Between her adorable face and her precocious charm, there was probably nothing she couldn’t negotiate. Then again, her father wasn’t a very difficult mark. He was clearly wrapped around his daughter’s tiny finger.
“Deal,” he said. Not the toughest negotiator, Paige thought. But extra points for letting her learn from what would no doubt be a mistake.
Maddie stepped forward and extended her hand. Lucas tried to hand her the banana, but she shook her head. “No silly, I want to shake on it.”
“Shake on it?”
“Yes, that’s how you close a deal.”
Lucas glanced at Paige. “Wonder where she learned that?”
She tried to twist the smile from her lips, but it was no use. This kid was a hoot.
Lucas grinned and shook his head. “I’m doomed,” he said before taking his daughter’s hand.
When enough banana had been consumed to fulfill her contractual obligation, Maddie held her hand out to Paige. “May I have my Altoid, please?” Hilarious and polite? Even better.
Paige opened the lid of the small red-and-white tin. Lucas was right about one thing; while small, the cinnamon-flavored mints were intense. As she held out the metal box, she couldn’t help but wonder how the transaction was going to end.
Maddie stood on her tiptoes for a better view of the coveted mints. She pressed her lips together while her eyes roamed over what felt like every single piece and, after what seemed like an eternity, carefully selected one from the top of the pile.
Paige and Lucas watched as she placed the mint on her tongue.
One.
Two.
Three seconds.
Maddie’s brows shot up and her eyes grew wide, but she said nothing. Instead she began to chew. Fast. And then she swallowed. Hard.
“Well?” Lucas asked, knowing damn well that he’d just watched his kiddo swallow a fiery mint rather than her pride.
“It was good,” she said.
“Want another one?” he asked. Holy hell, the way these two matched wits now, the teenage years were certainly going to be interesting.
“I don’t want to take all of Paige’s candy,” Maddie said. She was trying her best to play it cool, but the deep breaths she was taking through her mouth were a dead giveaway.
“How about some water?” Lucas asked.
Maddie smiled, although Paige wasn’t sure if it was because of her victory or thirst. “Yes, please.” She drank nearly half the contents of her Dora the Explorer water bottle, then wiped her mouth on her sleeve and yawned.
“Time for a nap?” Lucas asked.
Maddie looked horrified. “I’m almost five, Daddy. Only babies take naps.”
He nodded. “What about a piggyback ride? Do big girls accept those?”
She giggled as Lucas swung her onto his back. When she was settled, the three of them began making their way back to the inn. They had just started up the wooden-plank walkway when Lucas whispered, “This one thinks she doesn’t need naps anymore but…”
He turned so Paige could see Maddie’s face. She was sound asleep, with her cheek pressed against her father’s shoulder. “Let me run put her down.” He disappeared up the stairs, and when he returned, he was just finishing a phone call.
“That was my sister,” he said, shoving his phone into the pocket of his jeans. “She’ll be by to grab Maddie in about an hour.”
“She doesn’t have to leave on my account. I mean, you haven’t gotten to spend much time with her the last few days.” Paige was still getting to know Lucas, but one thing was already abundantly clear. His daughter was his world. She felt guilty that her presence had kept them apart the last few nights. Then again, maybe he didn’t want his daughter spending so much time around a relative stranger. “Unless you don’t want me…”
“Oh, but I do,” he said. The rough timbre of his voice seemed to vibrate right through her. Paige’s brain short-circuited, and for a few beats she completely lost her train of thought. “I meant if you don’t want me to spend that much time around your daughter. It’s not like you really know that much about me. I could be a crazy person.” She was certainly acting like one. How was it that she could be so completely calm and put together at the office, then so completely awkward around Lucas?
He stepped closer and wrapped his arms around her waist. It was all Paige could do to keep from leaning into his embrace. Instead, she brought her hand to rest on his chest. The contact was meant to be simple. Yet feeling the solid contour of his chest, the rise and fall of each breath, the rapid beat of his heart, suddenly felt anything but simple. It felt intimate and immediate. It felt real.
“Maddie had a great time today.” He dropped his lips to her ear. “So did I.” She felt his warm breath against her skin, and her knees nearly buckled. “And I was hoping tonight we could pick up where we left off last night.”
“Oh?” she said. Her voice sounded all breathy, as though the air in the kitchen was suddenly too thick. Then his hips brushed against hers, and she felt for herself just how ready he was to pick up where they left off. “Oh,” she said with much more enthusiasm.
Paige wondered if everything had to wait until later that night. Was it okay to kiss while his daughter was upstairs napping? She had no idea what the protocol was for making out with a single dad. All she knew was that if he didn’t kiss her soon, she might spontaneously combust.
She looked up at him, and for several long moments, they said nothing. The air between them seemed charged with awareness and need, but they’d been there before, twice in fact, and the moment had always come and gone.
Not this time.
Lucas leaned forward ever so slightly and touched his lips to hers. It was soft and gentle, yet sent a spark rushing through her like a live wire. She thought that might be it, just a quick peck, a placeholder and promise of what was yet to come. But then he reached up, cupping her jaw and deepening the kiss. Her fingers slid into his hair, and her lips parted, inviting him in. He took full advantage, and suddenly she was hot everywhere, yet shivering at the same time. A delicious ache built inside her, and without thinking, her body went lax against his, and for a few brief moments she forgot about everything except how badly she wanted to have this man over her, behind her, inside her…
Lucas groaned ever so softly, then broke their kiss but not their contact. For several sweet seconds, his forehead rested against hers while their collective breathing slowed. When he finally pulled back, an adorably cocky grin curved his mouth. “Did that convince you?”
Paige wobbled ever so slightly. She would have loved to have a sexy comeback for him, but at the moment, it was taking everything she had just to remain upright, let alone form a coherent if not somewhat witty response. But then her brain jump-started and the synapses began to fire. “How about a compromise?” she said.
“If your compromise involves my balls being as blue as they were last night…”
She laughed. “No, not at all.”
He dropped his lips to her neck.
“I was going to suggest maybe a compromise for the evening.”
“I’m listening,” he said. Except he wasn’t just listening, he was distracting. And the trail of soft kisses he was leaving on Paige’s neck were making it very hard for her to keep track of what she was saying.
She gave him a gentle shove. “I can’t focus when you do that.”
“Sorry, sorry,” he said. But the boyish grin on his face told Paige he was anything but sorry. Horny maybe, but definitely not sorry.
“Why don’t you spend some time with your daughter while I cook dinner for the three of us, and then she can go spend the night with her aunt.”
“Agreed. But with one caveat.”
“So now this is a negotiation?”
He gave her a look that very clearly accused the pot of calling the kettle black. “I will spend time with Maddie and you. I’ll run to the store to get what we need, and then we can all three cook dinner.” He moved closer, and his hands found their way back to her waist before sliding over the swell of her hips. “Then we can have some grown-up time.”
Grown-up time. Paige liked the sound of that. Forget getting her ears pierced, she thought just before Lucas kissed her again, this was definitely the best perk of being an adult.