Call Me, Irresistible

by Jess Bryant

  He smiled at the worry that crossed his young daughters face. He loved her so damn much. Georgie was worried about him getting hurt. And in all honesty, it was a valid concern. Lemon was just visiting. She was going back to Nashville. She would leave and go back to her real life. And he had no idea how it was going to work between them or if it even would when that happened. It was a real problem, one that he hadn’t even begun to work out, it just wasn’t Georgie’s problem to worry about. It was his.

  “I don’t know.” He admitted.

  “But Dad…”

  “Georgie, I don’t know what’s going to happen with Lemon. This thing with us is really new and it might not work even if she does decide to stay in town. But whatever happens between us, it’s between us and it won’t change your relationship with her, okay? Does that make sense?”

  “Yeah, but Dad if she breaks your heart then it will change things. Won’t it?”

  He sighed, “You don’t have to worry about me, honey. I’m not going to get my heart broken. I promise.”

  He hoped that wasn’t a lie. He hoped she didn’t break his heart. But the truth was, his heart was already in it with Lemon no matter how fast or crazy this thing between them had happened. He could try playing defense now but it would be useless. When she left, it was going to hurt and he was powerless to do anything but try to show her how good they could be together in the meantime.

  “Dad.” Georgie eyed him with a knowing expression, “I see how you look at her. I know you think I’m just a kid and I don’t get it but I do.”

  He did not like that, not at all, and he shifted uncomfortably, “I like her.”

  “Me too. But if she hurts you, I’m gonna hurt her.”

  He laughed at the completely adorable and entirely misplaced threat, “You keep the threats to a minimum, killer. You’re not going to hurt Lemon. You like Lemon. You just said so yourself.”

  “Yeah but if she hurts you, I’m just saying…” She popped another piece of cheese into her mouth, “Are we done here? Because I have homework to do.”

  “Yeah, I guess we’re done.” He consented.

  “Okay, I’ll be in my room if you need me. Is Lemon staying for dinner?”

  He scratched his head as his daughter changed the subject flawlessly, “I don’t know. I haven’t asked her.”

  “You should probably do that.” She popped another cube of cheese into her mouth and grinned, “I know it’s been like a century since you dated, but it’s the polite thing to do.”

  “Go do your homework.” He chuckled at her teasing.

  “Going.” She stole a whole handful of cheese.

  He grinned, “Thanks for being so cool.”

  “It’s probably genetic. I have pretty cool parents.” She winked before disappearing out of the room and up the stairs.

  Shane sighed once he was alone in his kitchen with nothing but his thoughts. Dinner. He had to make dinner soon. He opened a drawer and pulled out a Ziploc bag for the leftover cheese. So much for snacks. He popped one into his mouth and then bagged up the rest and tossed it in the fridge. He checked the cabinets and found he had all the ingredients to make his special pasta that the girls all three liked. There weren’t a ton of foods they could all agree on so he made the pasta a lot. It was easier than fighting with them and trying to force broccoli or carrots down their throats.

  Did Lemon like pasta? He had no idea. But his daughter was right. He should invite her to stay for dinner. Hell, he’d already spent the entire day with the girl and he’d failed to feed her like he promised. She must be starving even if she’d never admit to it.

  He’d invite her to stay. That wasn’t asking for too much, right? He’d kind of sprung the whole together in front of the kids thing on her. She’d played along and gone with it. She hadn’t seemed upset. Dinner wasn’t too much in his opinion but maybe she was just biding her time until she could run screaming from his house. He’d invite her stay and then he could gauge how she was actually handling all of this.

  It had been a long day. Long and emotional. He shouldn’t push anything more on her but it was just dinner. Right?

  He scrubbed a hand over his face and gave in to the urge to go and find Lemon. He needed to check on her and his kids. That’s what he told himself. In reality he knew they were fine. He knew she hadn’t just been playing along with Rosie and Sophie.

  Lemon was good with kids. Better than good even. His daughters adored her. They always had. Because she was fun and sweet and playful. She would have made an amazing mother.

  A wave of sadness washed over him and he headed up the stairs. It wasn’t fair. It sucked. Lemon couldn’t have children. How did that make sense? The woman was made for motherhood. She was sweet and kind and giving. Kids gravitated to her. She would have been an incredible mother and it wasn’t fair that she would never get to experience that joy.

  It wasn’t fair that she’d lost her baby and then grieved it in secret. She’d never told anyone about that baby she lost. She’d kept it to herself and he wasn’t sure that she had truly mourned or moved on from it. How could she have when she didn’t talk about it? Had never even told her parents or sister.

  He knew that she’d only told him because he’d pushed. He’d pressed her on the birth control issue or she wouldn’t have said a word to him either. It had just come out in the heat of the moment. He knew that too.

  But he couldn’t help but think that it meant something important that she’d told him. She could have lied. She could have lied and said she was on birth control. He would have dropped it. They’d have probably slept together again and she would have gone home. She would have distanced herself from him and he never would have even known why.

  She hadn’t lied though. She’d told him the truth. She’d told him that she couldn’t have children and she could have stopped there, with that admission, but she’d told him the rest of it too. She’d told him about the baby she lost and her marriage falling apart. She’d told him about hiding from the truth she’d been too scared to face. She’d told him about the procedure she needed but didn’t want to have done. She’d opened up to him. She’d told him her secrets. She’d told him her fears. She’d let him hold her and comfort her and distract her. And he didn’t think that was a small thing. It was a big thing. It was proof that she wanted this thing between them to have a chance too.

  Maybe it wasn’t a big chance. Maybe there were still a lot of obstacles and issues they’d have to discuss and figure out. But it was a starting point.

  It was more of her than he’d had last night and it had changed things between them forever. Because Georgie had been right about that. Nothing was going to go back to the way it had been between them now even if it didn’t work out. So he had to hope and believe that it would because otherwise… what was the point of the sparks and the fire and the connection that burned between them?

  Shane topped the flight of stairs and he heard it before he saw it. The sweet sound of a guitar drifted down the hallway and he knew that it wasn’t his daughter playing it. Sophie was just beginning to learn the instrument and her hands were too small to make music that beautiful yet. She would, eventually, but he knew that the woman that had originally spurred his daughter’s love of music was the one behind that sweet melody.

  When he reached the door of Sophie’s room, he thought he knew what he was going to find but it still hit him like a punch to the chest. Lemon was curled up on the window-seat with the guitar across her lap. Her hands moved over the strings and her head was ducked down as she sang softly. It was one of her first songs, from her first album. It was a love song he would have known anywhere because he’d heard it so many times in the years since.

  But he’d never heard it like this and he was hypnotized, just like his daughters. Sophie was at her side with an awed look on her face. Rosie was in her princess tiara swaying and dancing to the music. Even Georgie was there, sitting propped against the dresser, listening with her eyes closed and a sma
ll smile on her face. And he couldn’t take his eyes off of them… off of her.

  Lemon was a star. The brightest star. The sun. He’d known that she shone bright, especially when she was singing. He’d seen her on stage at awards shows, on his television, and he’d known that she always looked happiest with her music playing and an instrument in her hands. What he hadn’t known was that her huge stage presence would be just as powerful in a small bedroom, with no accompaniment and only his daughters as fans.

  More than that, he hadn’t known the way seeing her here like this would make his heart squeeze in his chest. He hadn’t expected her to fit in so well, so quickly and he hadn’t expected the thought that reached out and grabbed him and refused to let go.

  She looked at home here. In his house. With his kids. In his clothes. If she stayed, all of those things could be hers too. He could give her that.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Lemon was staring again. She couldn’t seem to stop. It was just so… normal. She felt like she’d stumbled into an old episode of a 1950s sitcom. The kids were doing their homework at the kitchen table. Shane was cooking and quizzing them for their upcoming tests in school. And she couldn’t stop staring and wondering how she’d managed to luck into something so totally and completely perfect.

  When he’d asked her to stay for dinner, she’d tried to beg off. She’d been certain that they were on the precipice of falling into awkwardness. They’d somehow managed to make it out of the scene in the kitchen intact after his daughters had stumbled in from school. They’d escaped without too many probing questions about her presence and her less than appropriate clothing but she hadn’t wanted to push it. She’d thought it was only a matter of time until one of the girls called them out but if any of them thought it was weird that they’d found her with their father they hadn’t said so to her.

  And when Shane had tugged her aside, alone, in the hallway earlier and kissed her like he hadn’t been able to touch her in days instead of a mere hour, she’d relented and agreed to stay.

  She’d played princess with Rosie. She’d taught Sophie a new chord on her guitar. She’d even had a very informative conversation with Georgie about the girl’s boyfriend. She’d had fun with them. It had felt easy and natural and… right.

  And it scared the crap out of her because this wasn’t her life.

  Her life was in Nashville. It was in that big, empty house that had never felt like home. It was on tour buses and in hotel rooms. It was on stages and in recording studios. Her life wasn’t spending the day in bed with a man that looked at her like he was amazed that she was there with him. Her life wasn’t helping his kids with homework and playing games with them. Her life wasn’t helping him cook dinner and stealing kisses and touches when his daughters weren’t looking.

  But God… she wanted it to be.

  She wanted to belong here with him and with them. She wanted this to be her life. This was the dream. The man that adored her even with all her strange little quirks and the house full of beautiful children were the dream.

  But these kids weren’t hers and neither was Shane. Not really. This was just a dream and it was one that she feared if she let herself play along with that when she was forced to wake up she would never recover.

  Losing the baby had been hard. Losing Alec had hurt. But it had been four days and she had a feeling when she lost Shane and these sweet little girls that it would destroy her.

  “Lemon?”

  “Hmm?” She glanced up to find Shane watching her with a curious expression.

  “You’re gonna burn the meat, babe.” He slid in behind her, one hand on her waist and the other grasping hers around the spatula and stirring. His lips brushed her ear and he lowered his voice to a whisper, “Where’d you go just now?”

  “Nowhere.”

  “Little liar.” He bit her earlobe gently and she smiled despite her doubts.

  So much about their relationship had changed. They were sleeping together. They could barely keep their hands off each other. He’d told his daughters they were dating. But this, the teasing and the taunting and the banter, was exactly the same as it had always been. No awkwardness. Just the same familiar friendship that had always been there sprinkled in with some seriously sexy foreplay.

  “Tease.” She rubbed her ass against him and felt him through the jeans he’d changed into.

  “Pot meet kettle.” He tightened his grip on her hip to still her movements, “The kids are watching.”

  “Then you should probably stop groping me, Dad.”

  He growled and bit her ear again, “What did I tell you about calling me that?”

  “That you love it?” She swallowed a giggle when he squeezed her hip again.

  “It’s like you want me to pink that cute little ass again.” He ran his teeth over her neck, “Later, I’m gonna make you pay for that. Right now, I’m having dinner with all my favorite girls.”

  Shane pressed a kiss to her hair and pulled away from her, his voice returning to its usual level, “Georgie, dinners almost ready. Set the table please. Sophie, Rosie, put the books away and go wash your hands. Lemon, mix the meat in with the pasta and then bring it over to the table.”

  She bit off a grin as he barked orders and all of his girls jumped to follow them. Herself included. Her heart warmed at the thought. He’d included her. He’d called her one of his girls. She might have given him hell for bossing her around or lumping her in with his children in another situation but not in this one.

  Because it felt right to do what he asked and dish up the meal, to settle into the chair he pulled out beside him at the table and guided her into. It felt easy and natural and right to sit down to dinner with this family when every other meal she’d had since she came back to Fate had felt awkward. She’d felt like an interloper at dinner with her parents and her sisters family. She’d felt like she was on display with the Lowry’s. Today, here, now, with Shane and his daughters, she felt oddly at home.

  She wasn’t sure how that was possible. Maybe it was just the way Shane went completely out of his way to make her feel included. Whenever her mind started drifting, he caught her and pulled her back. He grounded her with casual touches, with easy smiles and the warmth and safety and security that he’d always offered. And she was falling so fast her heart didn’t have a chance of surviving the impact if he didn’t catch her now.

  “Yay! You get to sit by me!” Rosie crawled into the chair next to her with a big grin on her face and Lemon couldn’t help but grin back.

  Of all the girls, Shane’s youngest daughter was the one with no real memories of Lemon prior to meeting her last night. Rosie had been a baby the last time Lemon was home long enough to see everyone. She’d held the little dark-haired bundle and marveled at how much she looked like her father when she’d barely even been a toddler but the little girl couldn’t have remembered that. Her only knowledge of Lemon was that there was a woman who sent her presents occasionally.

  Apparently in the eyes of a six year old, that made them best friends. Rosie had taken to her instantly at the Lowry’s house last night. She’d been glued to Lemon’s side all night and she wouldn’t have had it any other way.

  Lemon adored the precocious little girl and she was happy that there didn’t seem to be even a hint of suspicion about why it was she was hanging out with the girl’s father all of a sudden. Rosie didn’t care, or if she did, she was just happy to have a new friend to play with. She made Lemon’s heart hurt in the sweetest kind of way.

  “Actually, kiddo. Why don’t you switch seats with Sophie for tonight?” Shane motioned for his daughters to move, “That way I can still cut your food up for you.”

  “But I want to sit by Auntie Lemon!” Rosie immediately argued.

  “You can sit across from her if you…”

  “But I want to sit with Lemon!” Her voice rose shrilly.

  “Rosie…” Shane started in that fatherly tone of his but Lemon shook her head.

  “
It’s fine, Shane. I can help her with her food. It’s not a big deal. Let her sit with me.”

  His gaze cut to hers and she held her breath, waiting to see if he would yell at her again. Would he snap at her for interfering this time the way he had with Georgie last night? Had anything changed at all? This was a different situation. Rosie wasn’t in trouble the way Georgie had been. But she was still putting herself between them and she knew, technically, that she had no right.

  But Shane just offered her a soft smile, “You sure? She’s a messy eater.”

  “Am not!” The six year old managed to look offended and adorable when she pouted.

  “I think I can handle it.” Lemon grinned back up at him.

  “She’s totally messy.” Sophie giggled as she slid into her own chair opposite Lemon.

  “Am not!” Rosie shouted. “Take it back!”

  “Hey, no yelling at the table.” Shane snapped when Sophie opened her mouth to continue the argument.

  “Dad, you’re totally yelling right now.” Georgie smirked.

  Lemon hid her smile behind her glass of tea as Shane huffed. He was completely outnumbered and overpowered and it was adorable. He might be bossy and she might let him get his way but it was clear to her in that moment that wasn’t always the case. He scrubbed a hand over his face as he slid into his seat at the head of the table.

  “You’re right. Sorry. No more yelling.” He purposefully glanced between all of them, “I want to enjoy a nice dinner with my four favorite girls.”

  “Awww.” Georgie cooed.

  “One. Two. Three. Four.” Rosie pointed out each of them and grinned, “But I’m your favorite.”

  “Are not!” Sophie gasped. “Tell her she’s not, Dad!”

  “Girls.” Shane groaned, “You’re all my favorites equally.”

  “But…”

  “Rosie, hush.” He shot his youngest daughter a stern look and then slowly moved it to his middle child, “Soph, it’s your turn to say grace.”