by Lori Wilde
Kevin groaned. “That entire thing was such a mistake. The only time she stopped complaining is in bed. There, I give her no reason to complain.”
Becky rolled her eyes hard. “TMI. Hard.”
“Please think about—”
“Nope.” She was proud of her ability to say no and not be swayed by his hangdog look.
“Please, Becky, ask your deputy friend if he’ll fix my ticket. For me. For old time’s sake.”
“How can you even ask that?”
“You’re turning me down? Just like that?”
“I am.”
“I had no idea you were that petty, Becky.” He tossed his head like a haughty horse. “You’re trying to get even with me. You want me to apologize? I hooked up with Courtney. It was just chemistry. It happened. It’s over. You’re the one that I want.”
“Well, I don’t want you.”
“I couldn’t get your ticket fixed if I wanted to,” Nate said from the open doorway. “And I don’t want to.”
Becky’s heart gave a grateful leap.
“How are you?” Kevin offered Nate his hand. “Come on in. We were just talking about old times. Weren’t we, Becky?”
“No, we were not!” Becky snorted but noticed Nate staring at her oddly.
She glanced down to see what he was looking at, and to her dismay she saw about half of the snaps on the slicker had come undone. Revealing a generous portion of what was underneath—nothing much.
Dear heavens, did he believe she dressed up like this for Kevin?
It looked bad on the surface. How could she blame Nate for glaring at her that way?
“It seems I’ve interrupted something,” Nate said.
“No! Absolutely not. Kevin came over uninvited, hoping I’d get you to fix his traffic ticket.”
“A bum rap if there ever was one,” Kevin piped up.
But neither Becky nor Nate was looking at him. Their gazes were fixed on each other.
“What did you tell him?” Nate asked her.
“No. I told him no—emphatically.”
Nate nodded. “Excellent answer.”
Kevin was as tall as Nate and about twenty pounds heavier. But he was a creampuff—never mind he worked out and had muscles to spare he was a jellyfish when confronting someone with proper authority.
She had visions of Nate grabbing Kevin by the scruff of his neck and unceremoniously tossing him down the stairs, but Kevin was an expert at saving his own skin. He raised his arms in the universal sign of surrender and backed out the open door of her apartment.
“I’m out of here.” Kevin took off.
“I guess your ex is a lover, not a fighter.”
The sound of the front door clicking closed echoed up the stairs.
“He’s neither,” Becky said. “I didn’t need you to rescue me from Kevin. All he wanted was a ticket fixed.”
Nate said nothing, but he was still eyeing the gap in her rain slicker that revealed the negligee underneath.
“I didn’t know he was coming by, and if I had, I wouldn’t have gone to the door. When it buzzed, I assumed you forgot your key.”
“You would answer the door like that for me?” His eyes softened and a faint smile curled up the corner of his lips.
“No.”
“So you fixed yourself up for…”
Becky hung her head. “I was trying to see if I could look like Margo.”
“Why?” He seemed to genuinely not know.
Becky shrugged. “She’s so beautiful, and I was feeling like a schlub in my babysitter clothes and—”
“You were feeling intimidated by Margo because I used to date her.” Nate raised an eyebrow.
“I suppose so,” Becky mumbled.
“Becky, to me, you have more sex appeal in your little finger than Margo has in her entire body.” Nate cradled her gaze with his.
“But she’s so gorgeous and tall and graceful—”
“And there’s a reason I don’t go out with her anymore. She’s obsessed with her looks. I prefer someone with a more down-to-earth beauty.” He lowered his tone but kept his gaze homed in on her.
She felt so exposed, both physically and emotionally. “I’ll get Lucy for you, so you can take her home.”
“No, I’ll take my daughter home,” said a feminine voice from the open door of Becky’s apartment.
She and Nate had been so involved in holding each other’s gazes that they hadn’t seen or heard the two people now standing in her apartment.
“Freddie,” Nate exclaimed.
Becky stepped to the living room to pick little Lucy up from her pallet. Cradling the baby in her arms, she turned back to Freddie. “Here she is.”
Freddie rushed over and scooped the sleepy-eyed baby from Becky’s arm. “Oh, Lucy, my sweet baby. I’ve missed you so so much! And I want you to meet your daddy.”
Simultaneously, Becky and Nate swung their gazes toward the door and the tall, gangly blond man hovering on the threshold.
15
“You can hold her,” Freddie urged, holding up her baby for the young man’s inspection.
Lucy stared at the stranger with sleepy disdain.
He reached for the baby with the trepidation of the demolition expert defusing a bomb.
Lucy eyed him suspiciously, but then she must’ve seen something she liked. She gurgled at the man.
“Freddie?” Nate said in a firm, inquiring tone.
“Nate, meet my husband, Brad—Brad Kenyon.”
Nate’s mouth dropped. “Your husband?”
Becky put a hand to her mouth to hide her smile. Nate couldn’t have looked more dumbfounded if he’d been slapped in the face with a wet diaper.
Freddie was beside Brad, cooing over Lucy, the three of them clustered in such an intimate way that made Becky want to creep away and leave them alone. Which wasn’t very practical since it was her apartment and she was draped in transparent nylon underneath a half-open yellow rain slicker.
Quickly, Becky snapped up her slicker.
“Brad’s in the Navy,” Freddie said. “He was overseas in the South Pacific. He didn’t know about Lucy until I wrote to him last month and sent him pictures. He fell in love with her long distance.”
“She’s so cute.” Brad might be brave on a battleship, but he was one nervous papa underneath Nate’s suspicious look.
“I can’t thank you enough, big brother,” Freddie said. Then she wrapped Nate in a whopper of a hug. “I didn’t want to get Mom all excited for nothing. In case things didn’t work out. You know how she gets wedding fever if I so much as date the same guy twice.”
Nate’s eyes met Becky’s, and he looked slightly nauseous.
“Anyway, Brad was due to fly home, but there was a military mix-up or something, so he didn’t come and didn’t come. I literally camped out at DFW airport. I was so afraid I’d lose my nerve—Brad and I hadn’t seen each other in the long—and I wanted to be sure we weren’t getting married just for Lucy’s sake.”
“Why be so mysterious?” Nate asked. He was still giving Brad the once-over.
“I didn’t want to disappoint. I wasn’t one hundred percent sure until Brad walked through the arrival doors, and then I knew I couldn’t live without him.” Freddie canted her head and stared at Brad with moonbeams in her eyes.
“You could’ve told me where you were.” Nate folded his arms over his chest.
“I had to put my life on course first.” Freddie put up a hand. “You’ve always been there to help me out of scrapes.”
“Isn’t that what big brothers are for?”
“Not this time.” Freddie was still gazing at Brad, who was now swaying back and forth with Lucy in his arms, humming a lullaby under his breath. Lucy had fallen back to sleep.
“Look at that,” Becky said. “Brad’s a natural.”
“We got married at Brad’s parents’ house in Houston.” Freddie held up her diamond ring.
“Welcome to the family, Brad,” Nate said a
nd clamped the younger man on the shoulder.
“Thank you, sir.” Brad gave a nod.
The poor guy was so nervous that his voice quivered. Becky gave him an encouraging smile.
Brad held out the hand that wasn’t supporting Lucy, and the two men had a brief hand-squeezing match, a ritual Becky figured went back to the cavemen.
The new brothers-in-law sized each other up. Nate blinked first. It was going to be all right. His sister wouldn’t be raising Lucy alone.
“This is Becky—Rebecca Ryan. I could not have taken care of Lucy without her help.” Nate put an arm around Becky’s shoulders. The yellow rain slicker made a crinkling sound.
“Why are you in a raincoat?” Brad asked.
“Lengthy story.” Becky waved a hand.
“Brad,” Nate said.
“Sir?”
“Drop the sir stuff.”
“Yes, sir.”
“It’ll be a work in progress,” Nate said.
Freddie laid Lucy on the floor on top of the protective pad and showed her new husband the art of diapering.
“I’ll get Lucy’s things together,” Becky offered.
“I’ll go downstairs and get the rest of it,” Nate said.
Brad played with Lucy’s stubby little toes while Freddie prepared the baby for travel. Becky ducked into the bedroom and did a quick-change act, emerging in jeans and a long-sleeved T-shirt.
Dang, why was she suddenly feeling so weepy?
Yes, she enjoyed being a substitute mom to Lucy more than she realized. Oh, let’s get real, while she would miss Lucy, what she was really going to miss was Nate playing substitute dad along with her.
And that was something she hadn’t seen coming.
She would have no more reason to hang out with Nate. A fresh wave of sadness washed over her.
Nate returned with Lucy’s things, looking a little somber. Was he missing Lucy already, just as she was?
“It’s late, and it’s an hour drive to Mom and Dad’s house; we better get on the road,” Freddie said.
“You guys drive carefully. Congrats again on the wedding.” Nate jammed his hands in the front pockets of his Wranglers.
They said their last goodbyes in a flurry of hugs and the little family of three left the building.
“Well,” Becky said.
“Well.” Nate nodded.
“Brad seems nice,” Becky finally said to break the ice.
“He does.”
“It’s wonderful for Lucy that her parents got married.”
“And from the way Brad and Freddie were looking at each other, they didn’t get married because of her. That’s what makes me happy. All I want is for my sister to be happy.”
“Well, you want to be happy too.”
“Look, they left the carrot-headed doll behind.” Nate pulled the toy from where it was stuck between the couch cushions. He had a wistful expression on his face. “I sure will miss that little rascal. Such personality.”
“You could say that twice and never be wrong,” Becky quoted her grandpa.
Nate looked at Becky, and Becky looked at Nate.
“You’re off the hook,” he said.
“What?” She was thinking about how much she wanted him to kiss her.
“You don’t have to pretend to be my girlfriend anymore. It should be easy to slip that in around my mom, now that Freddie is there to deflect the attention off us. You never even have to see my family again.”
Why did that make her feel sadder?
“I do thank you so much, Becky.” His voice softened and deepened. “I couldn’t be a dad on demand without your help.”
She shrugged as if there wasn’t a Lucy-size chink in her heart. “No biggie. I was between jobs. It worked out well for us both.”
“It did.” Nate placed a palm to his nape. “Well, I’ll leave you to peace. Looks like I’ll be getting a full eight hours of sleep tonight.”
Was it her imagination or was he looking at her with sultry eyes?
“Good night, Nate.” She followed him to the door.
“I owe you one.”
“No, you don’t.”
“If there is ever anything you need—”
This time she changed the timbre of her voice to soothing but firm. She had to get him out of there before she started crying. “Good night, Nate.”
“I’m out the door.” He didn’t move.
Was he waiting for an invitation to stay? But what if she made a move, and he rejected her? No, if he wanted to stay, he was going to have to ask.
“See you around, Rebecca.”
Rebecca. They were back to that. On formal footing again.
“Thanks again,” he threw over his shoulder as he walked out the door.
Becky shut the door and locked it tight after him. She kept thinking of Lucy and feeling nostalgic. Lucy belonged with her mother, and it was wonderful that her father would be there with her too. She picked up and folded the quilt Lucy had been sleeping on. She tossed it on the couch and saw the carrot-headed doll. Lucy’s favorite toy.
Nate had forgotten to take it with him.
Becky’s eyes filled with tears, and she closed them tightly, willing away the deluge building behind her lids. She hated to cry. It was even worse because she wasn’t sure why she was crying. She would miss Lucy, yes, but she adored her little nieces and nephews too. Leaving them after a lengthy visit had never made her cry.
“It’s Nate you’re missing, doofus.” She didn’t even bother pretending she was talking to Ozzie, but he had the good sense to hide somewhere.
She’d gotten used to having Nate around. That was the problem. She didn’t need him to kill spiders or rescue her from her goofy ex-boyfriends.
He needed her too, for a while. Maybe he still did. She couldn’t imagine a self-reliant deputy admitting that to anyone, especially not to her.
She hugged the silly doll; it smelled like Lucy’s sweet little baby scent. As tempting as it was to keep the doll as a souvenir, she couldn’t deprive Lucy of her favorite toy. She’d have to take it down tonight. He could return it the next time he went to his parents’ house.
Fixing her reddened eyes wasn’t easy. She was a messy crier, and the cold cloth she used to make her crying jag less obvious left a pink band across the top of her face. She gave a final snuff and left to take the doll to Nate.
“If he doesn’t answer on the second knock, I’m out of here,” she said when Nate didn’t open up after her first knock.
He didn’t open up after the second one.
“Okay, bah-bye.” She put the doll on the floor by his door and turned to go back upstairs. She just put her foot on the top step when Nate’s door opened.
He sported a freshly showered look, damp whorls of hair curling on his spectacularly muscled chest. He wore baggy low-rise sweatpants, and nothing else. His feet were bare, and Becky thought he had the sexiest toes on the planet.
She went over and scooped the doll off the floor and push it into his hand. “You forgot to bring this down here with you.”
“Oh.” He stared at the doll. “Thank you.”
Becky had no intention of torturing herself by hanging around her half-naked neighbor.
But Nate caught her hand before she could get away.
“Come on in for a minute.”
“Thanks, but I have to…”
She couldn’t think of a single thing that she needed or wanted to do at that moment but be with him. And therein lay the problem.
He gave her a look and didn’t let go.
“Nate?” she said as he slowly tugged her into his apartment.
She didn’t remember moving, just Nate shutting the door closed behind her with his foot. How many men could clutch a doll with an orange pointy head and still look sexy?
“I’m really grateful to you for helping me keep Lucy. I’ve never seen Freddie so happy. She’s finally got her act together, and you helped make it happen. I’m so grateful for you and your patie
nce.”
“All I did was a little babysitting.”
“Lucy adores you.”
Becky waited for him to say ‘and so do I.’ But he did not. “I’m glad I could help.”
Okay, what was this really all about? The conversation had gotten pretty circuitous. They’d covered this ground before.
Time to go. But she stood rooted to the spot, mesmerized by the motion of his thumb on the sensitive underside of her wrist.
He pulled her closer.
She didn’t resist. Didn’t want to resist.
When he tossed the doll aside and wrapped his arms around her, she stopped thinking and just melted.
His first kiss was slow and tender, teasing her lips apart until she felt dizzy with longing. His back was smooth and firm underneath her fingers, and there was a rhythm to their next kiss—and the next and the next—that made the hard pressure of his lips sheer delight.
“I can’t thank you enough,” he murmured.
“Keep trying,” she encouraged.
His magic hands were underneath her T-shirt, massaging her shoulder blades and the small of her back, circling around her waist and drifting upward until he cupped her breast.
“You’re not wearing a bra,” he whispered, and then he kissed her one more time.
His body was hard against hers. Her fingers found him through the thick cotton of his sweatpants. One of them groaned—or maybe it was both of them.
Becky didn’t know where it would’ve ended if his cell phone hadn’t rung.
“Ignore it,” he said, capturing her hands and guiding her back to where he wanted them.
“Yes.” She would ignore an avalanche if he kept kissing her like that.
The caller was persistent. Becky wanted the phone to stop. Who would let the phone ring and ring and ring?
“Maybe you should answer that.”
He pulled his lips from hers. “It could be an emergency at work.”
“Or maybe just Freddie calling about the doll.”
“Remember where we were,” he said.
As if she could forget!
He picked up the phone, answered it, and listened.
“Yeah… Sure… Fine… Okay, bye.”
Becky raised her eyebrows.
“Freddie.” He tugged on the waistband of his pants. “Lucy is crying her heart out, so they’re heading back for the doll.”
