He lifted his hands out to the sides. “Guilt trip, obviously.” His gaze narrowed. “Is it working?”
“Barely.”
“So what’s it going to take?” he asked. “We’re about to have a dive off. Figured you’d want to be in for the title. Winner gets five bucks.”
Rough laughter rumbled out. “Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not much of a swimmer, Brendon. Besides, it’s hot as balls out there.”
“My balls are just fine. You scared, Leif?” He narrowed his eyes. Challenge thrown.
Scared?
Absolutely.
But he definitely didn’t need to know that.
“Nope. Just . . . not my thing.”
“Food your thing? Because Momma Blue is bringing out her famous lasagna in about five minutes. Missing out on that? Now that right there is just a bad judgment call. Ignorance. Stupidity. Whatever you want to call it. One thing for sure, you don’t want to be lumped into that category, do you? That would just be embarrassing.”
Good God, this kid was a blood hound.
Apparently, he wasn’t going to stop until mine was spilled out onto the floor. No doubt, he’d sniffed out the fact my stomach was currently prowling up and down my spine.
He cracked a grin. “No one can resist Momma Blue’s lasagna. Besides, saying you don’t want any would be rude. Even I know that.”
“Your worse than your dad with the guilt trips, you know.”
He lifted both hands with a smile. “Hey, I already told you that’s what this was.”
“And who sent you on this little mission?”
This was where he hesitated, warring, like he owed a loyalty and didn’t want to give anything away. He took a long look over his shoulder at Penny who was sitting on the pool steps with her feet in the water, peeking over at us with all that quiet timidness.
Too knowing.
Too wise.
Emotion clamored and clawed, trying to get free.
I attempted to shove it down.
Brendon looked back at me. “Penny is super shy, but she doesn’t like it that you’re in here by yourself. And it doesn’t make much sense to me, either, for you to be in here when you could be out here with all of us. I mean, seriously, we are pretty much the most awesome people you are ever gonna meet. Life doesn’t get better than this. Like . . . single best day of your life,” he drew out. “Do you really wanna miss out on that? Get your butt out here, drummer dude.”
I glanced around him at the slip of land that I could make out. Kallie was standing about ten feet behind Brendon and off to the left side, carefully peering my way, shifting her weight from foot to foot. Like she’d been sent on the mission, too, but had thought better of the danger of it and was hovering on the periphery.
Just out of reach of the lion’s den.
“Come on, Leif. Suck it up. I could hear you playing in there, and whatever it was, it kinda sucked.” The razzing played all over Brendon’s mouth. “Might as well give it up for the day.”
He quirked a brow.
Little punk.
I laughed in disbelief.
Was I really being handled by a twelve-year-old?
He crossed his arms over his chest.
Clearly.
“Fine. Let me put on some shoes.”
Turning on my heel, I started back for the bedroom.
“How about some swim trunks while you’re at it?” he hollered from behind me.
I threw up a hand of dismissal. Kid was lucky I didn’t give him the finger.
He might be a bulldog. But he was five-foot nothing and sure as shit not badgering me into that.
Nineteen
Mia
I was leaned over loading the dishwasher when I froze. Every nerve ending in my body alight.
Hypersensitive.
The man had become my mayhem.
A chaos that sprang into the hot, hot air.
I barely peeked back at the doorway where he came in carrying a stack of dirty dishes from the lasagna we’d just had for dinner. “Need some help?”
He approached. Caution in every step.
I just wished I had a little bit of that caution for myself.
Nope.
The only thing I could sense was the need that sprouted like invasive roots. Unnatural and rampant and overgrowing everything.
I swallowed hard as I took him in.
The man wore jeans when it was almost a hundred out. Black ones this time that were ripped at the knees, another one of those tees stretched so thin across the rippling strength of his chest that the threads threatened to bust.
Desire streaked.
Torrid and red-hot.
“You can just set them on the counter. I’m almost finished here.”
He came closer. “I can help, Mia. According to Brendon, I don’t have anything better to do.” He attempted a joke that stalled out in the tension in the air.
Every cell in my body shivered.
I tried to pretend as if he didn’t affect me at all.
That I wasn’t tangled up in a knot of this man.
My nights had become filled with thoughts and dreams of him. What it would be like to really be touched by him. To be loved by him.
“I haven’t been doing a whole lot myself, if I’m being honest.”
He edged up beside me, barely knocking into my shoulder with his, a coy smile on his mouth. “I always want your honest.”
The air rushed from my lungs, and I let go of a choppy laugh as I scrubbed down a pot, slanting a look at the man who was undoing everything. “I don’t think I believe you. It seems to me you like hiding from the truth.”
He chuckled, and he was shoving his hands into the sudsy water, rinsing the plates that he’d carried in. “Easier that way, isn’t it?”
My head shook. “Easier? Maybe. Better? No.”
“And what truth am I hiding from?” He seemed reluctant to ask it.
I knocked him back with my shoulder. “That you’re a good guy.”
His laughter was scraping. “You think because I’m doing a few dishes it makes me a good guy?”
“I think I have good intuition.” I fought for easiness, and this time I knocked him with my hip. “Just like my son.”
Could see the smile playing around his sexy mouth. God, it was getting harder and harder not to just . . . kiss him.
He shifted a fraction, the man so close to me his nose nearly brushed my cheek. Tingles flashed. “Bet my intuition is better, Angel, and I don’t think you could handle what I would do to you.”
“Yo!”
The dish I was holding slipped out of my hand and clanked into the sink when Brendon’s shout batted from behind.
“We’re all going to the park. Game time, baby. I’m about to show you all who’s really a badass.”
Leif shifted around, a smirk pulling to those lips, the man playing off casual way too easily when my heart was thundering out of my chest. “You better not let your parents hear you talking like that,” Leif told him.
Penny popped her head in. “Mom, we want to go to the park! Come on!”
I glanced at Leif.
Timid but sure. “You should come,” I said.
He cringed but those eyes were doing that tender thing again. “Not sure that’s a good idea.”
Maybe I was a fool, but I was beginning to think he was a very, very good idea.