Something had changed in the way he was looking at her. It was still just as hot. Scorching enough to burn right through her. But there was a softness around his eyes. A gentleness.
Just when he looked at her.
He seemed fascinated by the boys, engaging them in conversations about everything from airplanes and helicopters to Seeley’s favorite topic—dogs.
Turner didn’t have a dog because he was looking for the right dog. He hadn’t found that dog yet, he said.
Seeley wanted to know just what the perfect dog was.
Turner apparently took the challenge seriously. “The perfect dog is one who fits me. I want one who can come to work with me and can sit with me at home. One who goes on long walks.”
“Plays fetch,” Solomon said. He was always slower to warm up to strangers.
“Does tricks. Plays with me,” Seeley added. He really wanted a dog. Eventually, she would get him one. Once they were fully settled at their new place.
New beginning.
Syrus started barking and woofing. Turner’s eyes widened at the volume, and then he laughed. Just laughed at her son’s antics. An uncomplicated enjoyment of her son.
A little vise went around her heart at how he looked right there with her children and sister surrounding him. He did just sort of fit. It wasn’t awkward with him there at all.
Not like she would have thought it would be.
Turner Barratt was comfortable with family. She’d seen that about him before. Someday, he’d find a woman and have that with her. A twinge went through her at the knowledge that it wouldn’t be her.
A part of her wished it would. Wished she had the right to cuddle up next to him, while the boys sprawled around, just watching a movie on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Wished it could be that easy.
Then again…a part of her wondered why it couldn’t be.
Three little faces turned toward her, obviously wanting dessert. The chocolate chip cookies tempted them all. Annie smiled as she remembered the words of Turner’s assistant that first day. The man was a sucker for cookies. She paused as she looked at each of her children. Then her sister.
Any decision she made in her life affected them. She’d known that from that first evening the boys had been given to her. Had had that thought foremost in her mind for almost two years.
Had she let that keep her from making decisions that were good for her? Denying herself what she needed emotionally, closing herself from everyone but the boys, Josie, and her friends? Staying safe?
She’d been on dates in the last two years. Men she worked with, men she liked. None had made her feel like this. At all.
That thought had her rocking back on her metaphorical heels.
Maybe she’d been using the boys for the last two years as the excuse to not even try?
That was more than she wanted to think about.
“One cookie apiece. Then the three of you are going to bed. Mommy has things to do tonight, and you’re already up way past your bedtime.”
She was going to put them to bed, and then she was going to take an hour or two to actually think about what she wanted from the rest of her life, too. Outside of her boys and Finley Creek Gen.
Maybe there was a way she could make things work with a man like Turner, too.