by Addison Cole
Matt’s gaze shifted to Mira. She lowered the phone with a look of longing in her eyes, and he felt it everywhere, as if her hands stroked over his skin. When she smiled, it drew him in, just as it did when she laughed, the feminine melody making his heart sing right along with it.
Oh yeah, he was at that point all right.
“Maybe someday you will,” he said, his gaze never leaving the woman who owned his heart.
Mira’s eyes widened, and for a quiet moment no one said a word, but Matt was sure everyone could feel his burgeoning love for her. He blew Mira a kiss, and it must have landed hard, because she blinked a few times and covered her heart with her hand.
Jenna said something to Mira and Mira’s cheeks flushed, sending rivers of emotions rippling through him.
“Where’s the captain of this raft?” Pete said loudly, jolting Matt’s brain back in gear.
He placed Hagen in the middle of the raft, but Hagen clung to him.
“Are you sure it will hold me?” His tiny fingers pressed into the back of Matt’s neck.
“Absolutely,” Matt assured him, and peeled the little boy’s fingers from around his neck. “You’re a master raft builder, remember?”
Hagen nodded and nervously took hold of the rope handles they’d fashioned for him. Matt kept one hand on Hagen’s back, walking beside the raft as Pete and Neil pulled it through the water.
“Look, Mom!” Hagen yelled, holding tightly to the ropes. “We’re going! We’re going, Matt! We did it. I’m like Huckleberry Finn!”
“You’re better than Huckleberry Finn,” Matt said, looking up at Mira again, who was walking along the water parallel to them with Joey trotting beside her. He assumed she was recording his big debut. “You’re Hagen Savage!”
Hagen’s first voyage was a great success, and lasted more than an hour and a half. The men got quite a workout, pulling the raft and towing it deeper at the command of their young captain. Afterward, they stowed the raft in Pete’s boat shed for safekeeping and cooked dinner in a cool new steel hibachi Grayson had made for Pete and Jenna. They ate dinner on the beach and roasted marshmallows, which Hagen loved. Jenna, the marshmallow princess, had Pete show Hagen how to make golden brown marshmallows. Not golden, not brown. Golden brown, which Hagen agreed were perfectly delicious.
Long after Bea had given in to the call of slumber lying on her daddy’s chest, as the moon rose high in the sky and the fire burned down to embers, Hagen fell asleep in the center of the blanket. Matt and Mira said their goodbyes, and Matt carried the sleeping boy to the car. He liked the familiar weight of him in his arms. Hagen didn’t even stir when Matt buckled him into the backseat.
Matt reached for Mira, as he’d been dying to do all night. Bringing their bodies together as his mouth came down over hers, he took her in a series of slow, intoxicating kisses. Kissing Mira was a whole-body experience. His legs grounded them as heat bound them together and she melted against him. She tasted sweet and hot, and gloriously delicious.
“I’ve been dying to kiss you like that all day,” he confessed, before taking her in a deeper, punishingly intense kiss that left no room for misinterpretation of what else he’d been dying to do to her once he got that hoodie and skimpy little bikini off of her.
“Take me home,” she whispered against his lips.
MATT KEPT A hand on Mira’s thigh as he drove home, his thumb moving in slow, sensual circles. By the time they reached her cottage, she was hot, bothered, and so in love she wasn’t sure she could contain the words.
Hagen didn’t wake when Matt carried him into the house, or as Mira changed him into his pajamas. The little guy was completely tuckered out.
They pulled the door partially closed behind them and Mira took Matt’s hand, leading him silently toward her bedroom. She closed the door and put a finger to her lips.
“You’re sure?” he asked as he tugged her close.
“Oh, yes.”
He claimed her mouth, crushing her to him and making quick work of removing her hoodie and bikini, somehow never breaking their connection as he stepped out of his bathing suit. The heat of his body coursed down the entire length of hers, and they tumbled down to the bed. He tugged the covers over them.
“In case Hagen gets up. I’ll listen for him, but I’m pretty sure my brain isn’t going to be working in about seven seconds.”
“Seven seconds is a very long time.” She wiggled beneath him, aligning their bodies. She’d watched him all day, all those enticing muscles calling out to her. She ached for him to love her, physically and emotionally.
“You shouldn’t be allowed to prance around in that skimpy bathing suit,” he said, and took her in another toe-curling kiss. “I had to think of big, fat, hairy men just to be able to focus all day.”
“I’m going to wear it every time I see you now.”
She nipped at his lip as their bodies came together. His face blanched and he pulled away.
“Condom,” he ground out. “I’m sorry. I—”
She pulled him back down to her. “I’m on the pill, so unless you’re worried you might have a disease, I know I’m clean.”
“No diseases, sunshine.”
She lifted her hips, aligning their bodies once again. “Then kiss me.”
She pulled his mouth to hers, drinking in his love, as she moved with him, until they were as close as two people could be. Their hearts hammered out the same frantic beat, and he drew away from the kiss.
“Come back,” she pleaded.
“I need to see you,” he said urgently.
Cradling her face in his hands, so much love gazed back at her it drew her heart from her lungs.
“I love you,” she confessed, at the same time he said, “I love you so much.”
She held her breath, watching a smile curve his beautiful mouth. The mouth that had just professed his love for her.
“I love you, sunshine. I love you and Hagen so much I can’t imagine not loving you. I love when you smile, when you laugh, when you crinkle your nose. I love the way you worry about everything Hagen does, and how you feed his need for facts. I love how much you care about my father and how you cherish your family. I love your big heart and your brilliant mind and your insanely sexy body. I love how you look at me, the way you touch me.”
Overcome with emotion, her voice lodged in her throat. It was all she could do to tighten her hold on his butt, where her hands had been resting.
“Especially when you touch me,” he said with a spark of dark pleasure in his eyes. “I want more of you. More of these days with Hagen. More nights like this.”
She’d waited so long to be here with him, to fully open her heart, to allow herself to let go of the protective walls she’d created around her life with Hagen. A tear slipped down her cheek, and he kissed it away.
“I love you, too,” she managed, seconds before his mouth descended on hers. “But when you leave…?” We’ll go with you.
“I’m not going to leave, baby. I’m building a life here. I’ve been away long enough. I want to see you and Hagen and my family. I want to be on the Cape. There’s nothing left for me in Princeton. I’ve achieved everything I can there.”
Her mind spun. He loved her and wanted to stay on the Cape. This was huge news. Bigger than huge. Ginormous. “But you could still get the job as dean, if not now, a few years from now.”
He shook his head and kissed her softly. “That’s an impossibility, and one I don’t want to think about anymore.”
As their mouths came together again, she felt all the pieces of her life shifting into place. The unanswered question of Matt’s future no longer loomed over them like a thunderous cloud waiting for the air to shift. The air had shifted, and he was staying at the Cape.
And he loved them.
He loved them both.
She gazed up at him, needing to hear it again. “You’re staying?”
“Yes, baby. I’m staying. Now let me kiss you and stop that beautiful brain of your
s from spinning.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
MIRA SAT IN an office in the back of Mr. Sag’s Hardware Store in Boston Monday morning with her heart pounding so hard she was sure the men sitting across from her could hear it. Ken Sagner, the owner of Mr. Sag’s, had a much larger office than Neil’s, with a window view of the street behind the store and modern, comfortable furniture. While Neil had all sorts of family pictures posted on the wall with thumbtacks, their edges curling and yellowed, Ken’s pictures were all nicely framed and featured him and an older man with the same dark brown hair and sharp blue eyes. His father, she assumed.
Mira fingered the edge of the file containing the documents she and the girls had prepared, hoping they were enough to get the job done. What if these men knew even more than she did about this subject? What if she’d miscalculated something?
She’d practiced her spiel so many times she could recite it in her sleep, yet here she sat, so nervous she was sure when she opened her mouth she’d babble incoherently.
She recalled what Matt had said before she’d left the two-bedroom suite at the hotel that morning. These guys are probably just like my father, hoping this is the answer to their small-business prayers. You have the knowledge it takes to help them. Keep that in mind, and let your personality and your brilliance shine through, and maybe, just maybe, you’ll get them to focus on business instead of how hot you look in that sexy little skirt. Good luck, sunshine. I love you. Now go blow them away.
He’d told her he loved her a hundred times since the first time, and still every time he said it, emotions bowled her over. Although they hadn’t verbalized a need to keep their confessions from Hagen, she’d noticed that Matt, like her, had been careful not to say he loved her in front of him. She knew that when the time was right, the words would come, but as a mother, she wondered if she should talk to Hagen about her feelings first, or if that was unnecessary. A parenting manual would be a good thing to have right about now.
She sat up a little straighter and looked across the table at Ken and Martin Long, the owner of South Side Hardware. Forget the parenting manual; she needed a sales manual. Ken and Martin were not like Neil Lacroux. Ken was the son of Arnold Sagner, who had built the business Ken was trying to save. Martin was older, probably closer to fifty based on the gray sprouting around his temples. Martin looked skeptical, which she understood, even if she didn’t like it. They were more like Mira and Matt than Neil. Her mind drifted to Matt. He hadn’t tried to step in and take over this project, or take credit for any part of it, though he was helping her every step of the way. He was with her boat-loving son right this very second at the Boston Tea Party Ships and Museum, where they had tickets for the interactive exhibits and historical reenactment. He hadn’t seemed the least bit worried about being with Hagen twenty-four-seven for the next several days, and Hagen had been elated about it. Matt’s whole family had pulled together to make this happen. There was a lot riding on her to pull this off.
Mira opened her folder, clearing her throat to push the surge of emotions down. She’d given birth and raised an amazing little boy. She could handle Mr. Sharp Blue Eyes and Mr. Skeptical, even if they knew more than she did.
When there’s a will…
“Thanks for meeting with me,” she said confidently. “I think you’re going to like what I have in mind.”
LATER THAT AFTERNOON, after meeting Matt and Hagen at the hotel, changing her clothes, having lunch at a café, and listening to Hagen recount every moment of their day, Mira was still reeling from the meeting. She didn’t want to go into too much detail in front of Hagen, so she briefly filled Matt in. She told him how nervous she’d been at the start of the meeting, and how, once she began presenting the information she’d worked so long and hard to prepare, her confidence had returned.
“It was as empowering as it was frightening,” she admitted.
“The idea of a co-op is not an easy sell by any means,” Matt said. “I’m so proud of you for taking it on.”
“I hope at least one of those two men comes through.”
When they arrived at the Boston Public Library, Hagen stood wide-eyed and jaw gaping on the front steps of the stately building. Mira’s reaction wasn’t much different, temporarily distracting her from her racing thoughts. The magnificent arched windows, triple-arched entrance flanked by wrought-iron lanterns, and granite carvings made for a visual feast of grandeur. The interior was no less impressive, with marble as far as the eye could see, murals that looked like they were painted by the gods, and vaulted ceilings with domes in the side bays. They’d seen it all online, but experiencing the stunning architecture in person was a thousand times better. Of course, once inside the actual library rooms, Hagen wanted to run his fingers along the spines of every book.
As they took it all in, Matt gave the six-year-old version of a history lesson on the twin lion sculptures by the main staircase, the murals, and a number of other facts that Hagen ate up and undoubtedly memorized to recount later in great detail.
Several hours later, Mira was still thinking about the meeting.
They walked beside a wall of elegant dark wooden shelves. When Hagen was distracted inspecting a row of books in the next aisle, Mira took advantage of his absence to talk with Matt about the meeting. “I’m pretty sure Ken was at least curious. Hopefully he will want in after he reviews all the data without me shoving it down his throat, but Martin was clearly on the fence. He’s worried about going into business with people he doesn’t know, of course. We all are, but it’s the only way to make something like this work without selling out. I hope he comes around, but I’m not sure he will.”
Matt kissed her cheek and whispered, “Do you have any idea how much I love you?”
Her heart skipped. She’d never tire of hearing those words from him.
He didn’t wait for an answer. It was like he just couldn’t hold back telling her, and that made her a little dizzy in the best possible way.
“You gave them both the same presentation,” he reminded her. “They’ll probably discuss it at great length, and if Ken wants in, he may help sway Martin. You can follow up in a day or two with a phone call. Remember, sunshine, he didn’t know you at all before today. Give him time to digest and reflect on you and your presentation. I’m sure he’ll come around, but if not, we’ll see where we are after you’ve met with everyone at the end of the week.”
Over the course of the afternoon she grew terrified that this wouldn’t work and she’d let everyone down. How could Matt be so calm about it? He never seemed to get flustered. When she and Hagen had woken up that morning, Matt had already been writing for two hours, wearing those heart-stopping glasses. He hadn’t given any indication of being annoyed when Hagen tore out of the bedroom and leaped into his lap, disturbing the little work time he had while they traveled. He’d simply pushed his laptop to the center of the table and fell into a conversation about “While Mommy’s at her meeting…”
Like I would have.
Like a parent. The thought surprised her. Their lives had melded together in every way. They’d had dinners together every night for the last few weeks, saw friends together, put Hagen to bed together. They’d become a family as seamlessly as they’d become lovers.
She shifted her eyes to the library shelves, scanning the spines of the books to distract herself from the impact of that thought, but all she saw was Hagen in his pajamas sitting on Matt’s lap at the table in the hotel and the smiles that brightened her little boy’s and Matt’s features. Her pulse quickened at the enormity of her emotions. Being in love was magical and wonderful, but a lifelong commitment was a whole other story. And what if the co-op didn’t work and she let everyone down? Would it affect their relationship?
Her mind righted itself on that thought, forcing rational thoughts to the forefront and pushing her girlish dreams aside. She had a little boy’s heart to protect, even if it already belonged to Matt, too.
“Aren’t you worried th
at I might blow this?” she asked quietly, to keep Hagen from hearing.
“Not even a little. I have unwavering faith in us.”
Was he talking about the co-op or their relationship? “But this is your family’s legacy. What if we can’t make the co-op work?”
“Then we’ll try something else. I know how important this is to you, and now that I’ve finally got my head out of my a—” He glanced at Hagen, then back at Mira and lowered his voice. “On straight, I realize how important it is to me and the rest of my family. We’ll make it happen. There’s nothing we can’t do. We’re a team.”
He glanced at Hagen again. “A team of two and a half.”
He placed a hand on her lower back and reached for Hagen’s hand as they headed into the hallway. “Ready for the Children’s Library, buddy?”
Hagen nodded eagerly.
As much as she loved knowing he believed in her and in them, she felt like she was under a mountain of pressure. There was a good chance she wouldn’t be able to pull off the co-op, even though she truly believed it was a smart business move. Ken and Martin might both decide they weren’t interested. Maybe all six prospective partners would.
She glanced at Matt as he listened intently to Hagen telling him what books he wanted to find at the Children’s Library, and her chest filled with love for both of them. She was wholly and completely in love with Matt, and she knew her little boy was right there with her.
They were a team of two and a half, and that just might be more powerful than any six people could ever be.
Chapter Twenty-Four
MIRA BURST OUT of the bedroom of their New York hotel suite Friday afternoon after changing out of the professional outfit she’d worn to her last meeting and flopped onto the couch with a loud sigh, looking beautiful in a peach-colored top and sexy, summery skirt.
“It’s finally over.” She rested her head back against the cushions. “Five meetings in four cities over five days. I don’t know what I was thinking. Don’t ever let me do anything this crazy again.”
