Special Forces Father

by Victoria Pade

  What did that mean?

  Maybe that he could provide her with a little escape from her own problems?

  And if that was true, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing...

  No, no, no, it was a bad thing, he insisted to himself.

  They were both just in the middle of too much other muck. And even though escaping it when they felt good in that moment, it was liable to make things a lot more complicated down the road. And that was a stupid thing to do.

  So he wasn’t going to do it, he resolved again.

  Sure, he couldn’t keep his eyes off her whenever they were together and he couldn’t keep his mind off her whether they were together or not.

  But he did need to keep his hands off her.

  And there was no question he was going to make sure he did.

  * * *

  “Dani?”

  “Garrett!” Dani responded, stopping short when she heard her name called from across the parking lot and looking up to see her former fiancé coming in her direction.

  She, Liam and the twins had just come out of an indoor trampoline park at the mall.

  “That’s Garrett,” she heard Grady whisper to Evie with some guardedness.

  “I know,” Evie responded, impatient with her brother for thinking she didn’t recognize the man. Then to Liam she whispered, “He’s Dani’s friend,” with some warning in her own tone.

  Liam didn’t say anything and Dani didn’t have time for an explanation before Garrett was right there, not so much as casting a glance at Liam or at the twins, acting as if she were alone.

  “Hi,” Garrett said in a tone that seemed to question the wisdom of approaching her.

  Her former fiancé—an attractive boy-next-door blond who couldn’t compare to Liam’s good looks—was dressed in a suit and tie. The tie’s knot was loosened, and since Frank Gregson—another Denver Police Department detective and Garrett’s partner—was keeping his distance in the background, Dani assumed they were working. Despite the fact that it was after seven o’clock on Friday night.

  She hoped that their being on the job might make this quick, and since Garrett was completely ignoring Liam, she wasn’t sure if she should introduce the two men.

  Would it seem to Garrett that she was throwing another man in his face if she did?

  She knew him and she knew an introduction wouldn’t benefit Liam. Garrett had been jealous of even her friendship with Bryan and had been awful to him. So maybe it was better to just get this over with as soon as possible and keep Liam out of it.

  “I’m surprised to see you,” she answered in a neutral voice, not happy to run into him but also not wanting to make this first meeting since their breakup any more awkward than it already was.

  “We got a call about an abandoned car left here. It belongs to a runaway we’re looking for, so we have to check it out,” he informed her mechanically before going on to say, “I haven’t seen you since your grandmother died... I wanted to give my condolences.”

  “Thanks,” Dani said as if his sentiment had been more sincere than it was.

  “I thought about going to the funeral. But I didn’t know if I should...what with your grandmother being one of our issues,” he said somewhat under his breath and unable to conceal a tinge of hostility.

  Dani didn’t say anything to that and her silence caused him to finally acknowledge Grady and Evie by casting them a cursory glance. He still didn’t say anything to them, though, before he looked back at Dani and said, “I saw the accident report. I didn’t think you’d still be doing this.”

  “It’s complicated,” she said, having no intention of getting into the details.

  “And—” he tossed an insolent nod in Liam’s direction “—already? Really? Or maybe I just didn’t know about him before?”

  The accusatory tone made Dani bristle but more than that, out the corner of her eye, she saw what it did to Liam. He was a big man but he seemed to have gotten even bigger. Even taller, stronger, sturdier. He seemed to have subtly become even more of a force to be reckoned with.

  What he didn’t do was anything antagonistic or combative or hotheaded, though, and she appreciated that. And the sense that he was there and ready should he be needed.

  Dani took a breath to keep her own temper in check and opted to introduce the two men in hopes now of keeping things civil. “Liam is here for the twins,” she added.

  Neither man offered a hand to shake or any friendly overture. There was a mutual glare but that was all.

  Then she prompted Evie and Grady to better manners than Garrett had shown them and said, “Say hello, guys.”

  Evie and Grady muttered discontented hi’s and Evie reached up to take Liam’s hand while, on his other side, Grady leaned firmly against Liam’s thigh.

  Dani wasn’t sure whether it was a declaration of loyalty or merely to gain more distance from Garrett. But either way she was glad to see that the twins had gravitated toward Liam. It seemed like an indication of acceptance of him. And she was even happier when Liam reached his free hand to Grady’s shoulder, as if to let him know everything was okay.

  “Guess I should get back to work,” Garrett said. “Without your grandmother you must have more free time...maybe we can have dinner some night?”

  Seriously? First he was going to show her one of the things about himself that she’d liked the least, and then he was going to ask her out? The man was clueless.

  “I’m actually busier now than I was then,” Dani said softly but succinctly, still bristling at every mention he made of her grandmother.

  “Take care of yourself,” he said as if the question had never been asked or answered.

  “You, too,” Dani countered.

  He turned back to his partner and they headed to a different section of the mall while Dani took a moment to compose herself under the silent scrutiny of Liam’s blue eyes.

  Then she bucked up and said, “It’s late. Let’s go have our soup and see how we did today. I’m hungry. You guys must be, too, by now.”

  “Soup!” Grady cheered, his exuberance released again by the removal of Garrett’s oppressive presence.

  “Do I get my heart billi bomb?” Evie asked.

  “You do,” Dani confirmed before glancing at Liam and finding curiosity in his expression that she had no intention of addressing. Instead she said, “And we get to see how Liam did making his first billi bombs.”

  “His snakes were too fat,” Grady goaded.

  “I showed him how to make them skinnier,” Evie defended as they went the rest of the way through the parking lot to their car, the kids competing while the adults said nothing.

  * * *

  Billi bomb soup was a multistage project. Before taking the twins to the trampoline park as their reward, Dani, Liam, Evie and Grady had spent the day at the restaurant.

  While Liam had repaired the leaking pipe in the storage basement—with the assistance of Evie, who was interested in the project and the tools in the toolbox, while Grady preferred kitchen duties—Dani had mixed the dough for the billi bombs.

  With a table set up at the end of the kitchen far away from the stoves and ovens and anything else that could hurt the twins, Dani and the kids had tutored Liam in the making of billi bombs from the dough that was a cross between a macaroni dough and a bread dough.

  With even the kids observing health code rules of washed hands and gloves to handle food, bits of it were rolled into thin snakes—a job Evie and Grady enjoyed. Then the snakes were sliced with pastry cutters into small sections. Except for the one section that Evie insisted be left long enough to form a heart shape for her own personal billi bomb.

  As the sections accumulated, the kitchen staff deep-fried them.

  Dani, Liam and the twins also helped roll the meatballs, which—unlike the restaurant’s usual meatballs—had to be ma
de the size of marbles before they were also fried.

  In the meantime, the kitchen staff simmered a soup that was a combination of chicken and beef stock, a small amount of tomato juice, multiple vegetables, plus raw chicken and cubes of beef.

  When the billi bombs and meatballs were all fried, they were added to the soup. The whole thing needed to simmer until the hard-as-rocks billi bombs turned into soft dumplings—which required hours.

  Despite the fact that Evie and Grady enjoyed themselves at the restaurant all day, Dani still made sure there was some playtime to follow. So while the soup cooked—and as a means of regaining appetites ruined through a day of munching—Dani had planned time at the trampoline park to be followed by a late soup supper.

  So when they left the mall, they returned to the restaurant to eat.

  Knowing they would be back, Carmella had extended her own long day in order to eat with them. And once again the meal was a warm, genial event during which the kids talked and laughed and contributed as much as the adults did, all of them enjoying the fruits of their day’s labor in the soup that Liam had three bowls of and declared the best thing he’d ever eaten, worth all the trouble and teasing he’d taken for kitchen technique surpassed by four-year-olds.

  Four-year-olds Dani thought he’d gained ground with by working alongside them and taking their instruction as seriously as it was given. By listening to their chatter and asking them questions and overall having a day similar to many she’d had with her mother and her grandmother in that same kitchen, making that same soup.

  Full of soup and weary from the day, the ride home from the restaurant was quiet as the kids crashed and neither Dani nor Liam said much.

  Dani knew what was keeping her quiet. And since Liam had not had a repeat of yesterday’s doldrums and had been himself again until they’d run into Garrett in the parking lot, she had to assume it was that accidental meeting of her ex keeping him quiet tonight, too.

  Since she’d mentioned the desire to wash off the cooking smells after giving the kids baths for the same reason, Liam offered to do the twins’ bedtime routine so she could have a little while to herself to shower.

  Dani was pleased to see further proof of the headway that had been made between Liam and the twins when they both agreed that he could read their bedtime story and even chose books that didn’t require funny voices to make it easier on him.

  That freed Dani to retreat to her own room.

  After her shower, she wasn’t sure if Liam had gone to bed, too. Just in case he hadn’t she put on a T-shirt and a pair of polka dot pajama pants presentable enough for a co-ed encounter, and went out to see if her evening was over or not.

  She found the kids asleep and no sign of Liam on the lower level, in the kitchen or in the workout room. But when she went to the front door to set the alarm, she nearly bumped into him as he came down the stairs.

  Apparently he could shower much quicker than she could because he’d changed into sweatpants and a T-shirt and smelled of that tropical breeze cologne that went right to her head.

  And mingled nicely with the tiny spritz of perfume that she’d used on a whim after applying a light dusting of blush and just enough mascara to keep herself from looking washed-out.

  “I thought you might have gone to bed,” she said when she happened upon him, making sure that she made it sound as if it didn’t matter to her one way or another.

  “You promised me your restaurant’s special pink-grapefruit Italian ice. Isn’t that why we brought it home—to have after the kids went to bed?”

  “It is,” she confirmed. “But when I came out and you weren’t around I thought maybe we’d overworked you today and you couldn’t stay awake.”

  He grinned cockily as they headed for the kitchen. “You thought today overworked me?”

  “It wasn’t what you’re trained for,” she pointed out.

  “Yeah, I still think I might be able to push myself a little more,” he said, as if the thought that today had tired him out was amusing.

  “As long as you’re up to it,” she joked when they reached the kitchen.

  Dani went to the freezer to take out the container they’d brought home as Liam said, “It’s so warm tonight that I left my balcony doors open. Why don’t we go out on the patio and use one of those four fire pits back there?”

  Maybe because the thought of the two of them curling up on the overstuffed cushions of the seating around the fire pits was a lot different than eating standing at the counter? A lot more cozy and intimate—things that should not be fostered between them since he’d already kissed her?

  But could she make herself say no?

  No.

  “The fire pits are gas-powered. Why don’t you turn on one of them while I dish out the Italian ice?” And try to make sure that’s the only thing you turn on tonight...

  “Meet you out there,” he said, flipping switches until he’d turned on the lights that lit the ballroom-sized patio. Then he opened the sliding glass doors and stepped outside.

  That was when Dani realized they were both in stockinged feet tonight—she in fluffy ones and he in gray athletic socks—and that seemed like something else adding to the cozy intimacy that worried her a little.

  As she spooned Italian ice into two bowls she thought about returning to her room for shoes before she joined him.

  But it had been a long day of double-duty while cooking for the restaurant and still managing the kids—triple-duty when she factored in teaching Liam how to do both of those things, too—and she was finally done for the day. She could relax and have some downtime. Some shoeless time. She didn’t want to give that up.

  And it was silly, really. So what if they were both in lounging-around clothes and only socks? Being more and more comfortable with each other was bound to happen under the circumstances. After all, they were living in the same house, spending most of every day and evening together. They were even beginning to form a pattern for their own wind-down after the kids were in bed. No shoes were just another increment to that. It didn’t mean anything. It wouldn’t lead to anything. It was just no shoes, for crying out loud.

  And actually, it was good Liam was loosening up, she told herself. The return of the wooden soldier yesterday had been alarming. But today he’d been back to an even keel and if that culminated in feeling free to pad around in his stockinged feet, great! If he ended up with the twins, she wanted to imagine the three of them hitting the end of every day that way—at ease enough to kick off their shoes.

  She was just making a mountain out of a molehill because there was something that much more alluring about a leisurely Liam. But she wasn’t going to let it get to her.

  Vowing that, she took their dessert and the monitor for the twins’ rooms outside.

  The stainless steel fire pits were in each corner of a square sunken conversation pit and she descended the steps to where Liam was standing.

  Handing him one bowl, she set the monitor on the tiled patio floor above them. Then she took the other bowl with her to the seating provided by ledges extending from the walls of the pit, where cushions on the seats and up the sides made it more comfortable.

  She opted to sit very near one of the conversation pit’s corners. He joined her, sitting at a forty-five degree angle and not all that far away. Making it even cozier.

  Dani tried not to notice and took a bite of her ice at the same time he tasted his.

  “Oh, that’s sour!” he complained after the initial taste made him pucker.

  “It’s not sour. It’s tart,” Dani corrected. “That’s why I like it and why it’s good for your digestion.”

  “You should have warned me. I was expecting sweet. I don’t know if I can take this.”

  “Wimp,” she teased. “There’s ice cream if you want that.”

  “I’m okay. This is the first thing I don’t l
ike from that place, though. That soup... I want that every day!”

  “I’m glad you liked it. It’ll be the special all weekend and it will pack the place.”

  He repositioned himself slightly so that he was angled toward her and stretched a long arm across the top of the pillows behind them before he said, “So, you probably know what I’m gonna ask you...”

  Of course, he wanted an assessment of how he’d done with the kids during the day.

  “You’re just fishing for a pat on the back,” she accused. “You know you made strides today.”

  His eyebrows drew together into a split-second frown of confusion before he seemed to grasp what she was saying. “No, I didn’t mean... I know it went well with Evie and Grady—I could tell that when they both wanted to sit by me at dinner. I was going to ask about Garrett.” He said the name with scorn. “The kids said he was your friend but I don’t think so...”

  Of course he would be curious about Garrett, Dani thought, belatedly getting on the same page.

  “I should probably apologize for him,” she said. “He was rude to you. But I appreciated that you didn’t make a big deal out of it.”

  “One of the most important things a marine learns is self-discipline,” he said, as if that carried a lot of weight for him.

  Garrett would have called it self-control, and it had been something he’d said a cop needed to maintain at all times.

  But what Dani had thought of as a strength, an asset, at the start of her relationship with Garrett had instead shattered it because it wasn’t only himself that he’d been obsessed with controlling.

  Now here was Liam touting self-discipline the same way and, while she was glad it had been in effect tonight so Garrett hadn’t been able to provoke him, it raised a red flag for Dani.

  Self-control and self-discipline. A police mind-set and a military mind-set. Liam and Garrett were different men but she knew she needed not to lose sight of their similarities. Those things in Garrett that had impacted her relationship with him and altered it.

  “Anyway,” she said, “I appreciated it.”

  “But that still doesn’t tell me who he is,” Liam persisted before he drew back slightly and said, “Not that it’s any of my business if you don’t want to get into it.”