“And he said that used to be his old house, too. When he was a kid?”
“Yep. Mine, too. And your uncles’. In fact, I shared a room with your uncle Zach. The one at the back of the house.”
The kid grinned. “That usedta be my room!”
“Get out!” He hoisted the solid little boy up higher in his arms. “In the bunk bed?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Top or bottom?”
“Bottom. So all my friends could live on top. They liked it better up there, so I let ’em. Now they all live in a funny net in a corner of my room here. Except Monkey. Monkey lives on my bed.”
Behind him, Colin heard Emily chuckle. He grinned for the little boy, even as his heart fisted so hard he wasn’t sure how he was breathing. “The bottom was my bed, didja know that?” Austin shook his head. “And now—” he poked the boy’s tummy, getting a squirmy giggle in response “—you and your daddy live in your stepmama’s old house, from when she was a kid.”
“I know, they said.” The child linked his arms around the back of Colin’s neck and gave him a very serious look. “Deedee said I can call her Mom, if I want. But I like Deedee. It’s more special.” He grinned again. “Like her!”
Thor kowtowed in front of them, tail wagging, barker barking...around the ball clamped in his mouth.
“Gotta go,” Austin said, wriggling out of Colin’s arms. “Thor wants me to play...”
And he was off, a blur of little boy limbs in the molten sunshine.
“You were actually out in the world again?” Emily teased from the blanket behind him, forcing him to face her. To face...stuff he didn’t particularly want to. Because frankly he hadn’t yet figured out how—let alone why—she was getting to him in ways he didn’t want to be gotten to. And it wasn’t only because she was pretty—he wasn’t fourteen, for pity’s sake—or even because he was lonely, even though that particular demon did occasionally sneak up on him, if he wasn’t watching. But it still poked at him, how she told her story the other day, without even once playing the victim card.
“It does happen,” he said, allowing at least enough of a smile to keep him from looking like he had a rod up his butt. “Sometimes I need to get out, get away from what I’m working on, take a walk. Go for a drive.” No need to tell her why, that he’d been working on a series of photos that focused on one particular little boy he’d met in a refugee camp in Jordan, about a year ago. Right after Sarah. “Helps clear my head so I can be more objective when I go back to work. Josh and Deanna in the house?”
After a moment’s speculative look, Emily smiled. “Nope. I kicked them out to give ’em some alone time with each other.” The baby, sitting on the blanket in front of Emily, squinted up at Zach, giving him a drooly grin before jabbing her arms over her head, laughing at who-knew-what. Her own laugh even prettier than a nearby robin’s trill, Emily grabbed Katie’s chubby little hands, clapping them together. “I only hope they don’t fall asleep in their food.”
Colin felt a more genuine smile push at his mouth before looking out toward the mountains, the tops ablaze in the setting sun—a view he’d seen thousands of time growing up, that now provoked those old restless yearnings. Not for the same things, though, he didn’t think. He let his gaze rest again on Emily, curled forward to touch her forehead to Katie’s.
No, not for the same things at all.
Still holding his niece’s hands, Emily straightened, a teasing grin on her lips. “Um...you could sit, if you want,” she said gently. As though she knew what was going on in his head. Which was ridiculous for many reasons, not the least of which was that Colin himself wasn’t sure what was going on in there. Just a lot of question marks, all tangled up like the fishhooks in his old tacklebox from when he was a kid. Another thought wedged itself in there, his father’s “you are hopeless, boy” headshake when it’d take Colin twenty minutes to pry one free...
“You know,” Emily said, letting go of the baby to wrap her arms around her knees. The breeze plucked at her hair; she shoved it back over her shoulder. “Enjoy the sunset. The moment?”
He nodded, mentally laughing at himself. Damn. For somebody who was supposed to be all about going with the flow, he felt about as fluid as cold molasses these days.
What the hell are you so afraid of?
His own voice, this time, prodding him to go places he wasn’t ready to go. Not yet. Hell, maybe not ever. Still, right now, he was here. Meaning he could either accept the woman’s simple invitation, or retreat to his hidey-hole for no real reason and let her think he had a screw loose. Not that he didn’t, but no reason to let her think that.
So he lowered himself to the blanket, his heart turning over in his chest when a gurgling, jabbering Katie launched forward onto her belly and, with much grunting, tried her damnedest to army-crawl toward him.
“She crawls?”
“Not exactly,” Emily said, chuckling when Colin leaned in to hook his hands under the baby’s arms and lift her toward him. Squealing with delight, the kid slapped a slobbery palm against his cheek, then twisted to plop in his lap, where she released a victorious sigh before grabbing his hand and cramming it into her slimy mouth.
“Here,” Emily said, tossing him a little blanket decorated in tiny teddy bears. “She does a great imitation of Niagara Falls these days.”
“Thanks.”
As he wiped drool off both him and the baby—ignoring her cries of protest—he caught Emily’s smile.
“You’re good at that.”
“I’ve had practice,” he said quietly, not looking at her. The rapidly chilling breeze swept across the yard, cooling the baby spit he’d missed on his hand.
Emily pulled up her knees again, linking her arms around them as she watched Austin and the dogs. “But obviously not with your own kids.” Her gaze veered to his. “Or your brothers’.”
“No.”
Katie clapped her hands, chortling with glee at her brother’s and the dogs’ antics, and all the old instincts kicked in whether Colin wanted them to or not. Laughing himself, he turned the tiny girl around to let her push herself to her feet, her louder squeals apparently catching his nephew’s attention. Austin and the dogs made a beeline for Colin, the boy barreling into his side like a linebacker, nearly knocking him and the baby over.
“Austin!” Emily yelled, lurching for him. “Watch out, sweetie—”
“It’s okay, I’ve got him,” Colin said, snaking one arm around the skinny little waist to halt the inertia while still hanging on to the babbling, oblivious baby. “But you need to be careful, buddy. You could’ve hurt yourself there. Or your baby sister.”
His face instantly flaming, the little boy’s gaze swung to the baby, as though suddenly realizing she was there. “Sorry, Katie!” He dropped to his knees, resting a grimy hand on the baby’s back. “You okay?”
The tiny girl twisted toward him, bursting into a huge grin when she saw her brother, then jutting one hand toward him.
“Yes, is the answer,” Colin said, then met eyes the same color as his younger brother’s. And yep, that was something almost like regret zinging through him, that he’d more or less missed out on the kid’s life to this point. And not only his, but Zach’s two, as well. Except being around these kids, who had families and homes and reasonably stable lives, only made him remember the bigger picture that had kept him away for so long. “Just don’t want you to bump your noggin,” he said, gently rapping his knuckles against the little boy’s skull. The little boy giggled, making Colin’s chest ache and his head hurt. Logically enough, considering all those twisted-up fishhooks in there.
Then the boy threw his arms around Colin’s neck and gave him a hug, making him ache even more, before dashing off to play fetch with the big dog. The puppy, however, had stumbled over to collapse against Emily’s knee, too pooped to pop. Or pup.
Colin set the baby back on her butt on the blanket and handed her a nearby toy, which she promptly crammed into her mouth. Then he nodded toward the passed-out puppy. “You name him yet?”
“Me?” She sounded startled. Looked it, too, wide eyes and all. Then she shook her head. “No. I’ll leave that to whoever gives him his forever home.”
“So why can’t that be you? Nothing says you couldn’t take him back to DC with you.”
“Because my life is one big question mark right now? Or did you forget that part? As it is I’m probably going to have to turn him over to a shelter.”
“What? Why?”
Playing with the puppy’s ears, she gave a sad let’s-be-a-grown-up-about-this shrug. “Because he keeps waking up at night, crying. And poor Dee and Josh get little enough sleep as it is, with babypie over there teething. I came out here to get away from my own problems, not to make more for Dee. Or your brother, who’s a saint for letting me stay to begin with—”
“Then leave him with me,” Colin heard himself say. At Emily’s pushed-together brows, he added, “I don’t sleep particularly well at night, anyway. And I’m sure we can find him a home long before...before I leave.”
She looked back down at the pup, her mouth set.
“What?”
Her gaze glanced off his again before, with another shrug, she lowered it again to the pup. “I can’t figure you out.”
“That would make you a member of a very large club, then,” he said, and she softly laughed. “So is that a yes?”
“To your taking the dog?” Another shoulder bump preceded, “Sure. In fact, it’s an excellent solution. Since I’m in real danger of getting too attached.”
“I can see that. Although...” Because if it was one thing he was good at, it was getting himself in deeper. “Feel free to come play with him anytime—”
“It’s getting dark,” Emily said, shivering as the streaks of red-gold light suddenly faded, instantly leaching the warmth from the air. She called Austin, then got to her feet and reached for the baby, chuckling as the child pumped her chubby little legs for all she was worth when Colin lifted her up. “Well.” Settling the baby against her ribs, she nuzzled the downy head before meeting Colin’s gaze again, yearning—as well as anger for what’d been snatched from her—leaking from her own. Although he doubted she realized how much. “If you’re really serious about taking the dog—”
“Wouldn’t’ve offered if I wasn’t,” Colin said, pushing himself to his feet, as well.
She nodded, shouldering a strand of hair away from her jaw. “Then you might as well come get his stuff. Food and bowls and...” She flushed. “Toys. Um, I might’ve bought a few. And Dee said there’s a crate in the tack room that Josh used for Thor when he first got him. You might want that, too—”
“Hey, Uncle Colin,” Austin said when he reached them, breathing hard as he scooped up the wriggling, licking puppy. “You wanna stay for dinner? There’s lots!”
“Uh...thanks, but I don’t think that’s your invitation to give, dude—”
Shifting the baby higher into her arms, Emily laughed. “It’s okay, he just beat me to it. It’s what I call a ‘whatever casserole.’ It should be ready to come out of the oven about now, anyway. It might have identity issues, but it’s good, I promise.”
“An’ there’s brownies, too!”
“And there’s brownies, too,” Emily said, smiling. A little too hard, Colin thought.
“Emily made those.” Austin grinned, giggling as he did his best to hang on to the pup. “They’re like the best brownies, ever!”
At that, Emily laughed full-out. “Why, thank you, sweetie!”
Then she lifted those sweet blue eyes to Colin’s again, sparkling over that smile, defying the sadness underneath, and between that and the promise of dinner he hadn’t cooked himself and brownies, he might’ve lost his breath there, for a moment. Or his sanity. Hard to tell. But between those eyes and his nephew’s hopeful expression...how could he say no?
“Sounds great,” he said, swiping the blanket off the ground and shaking it out.
“You sure?”
“Absolutely.”
But only that he was about to dive headfirst into shark-infested waters.
* * *
There was nothing sexier, Emily thought later when she walked back into the kitchen after putting the kids to bed, than a big man washing dishes. Especially one holding a spirited conversation with the tiny puppy gnawing his sneaker’s shoelace at the same time. Choking back the laugh that wanted so badly to erupt, she stood in the doorway where he couldn’t see her, simply watching. Absorbing. Smacking down the latest in an apparent series of wayward thoughts that seriously needed smacking.
Like, for instance, how watching Colin with the kids, his gentleness and humor, had stirred the cinders of three years’ worth of hopes and expectations. Oh, she imagined—or at least hoped—she’d meet someone else one day, someone whose hopes and goals meshed with hers. Someone honest and true. Someone worthy of her, damn it. But that day, if it ever came, was way off in the future, after she’d had time to heal. To grow. To make sense of what had happened and make damn sure it didn’t happen again.
So for double-damn sure she wasn’t about to see Colin Talbot as anything except an exercise in proving her newfound strength. So let temptation flaunt itself in her face—no way in hell was she gonna bite.
He turned, startling her, his smile as careful as she imagined hers was. And despite her resolve, despite everything in her that said, “Uh-uh, honey,” she wanted to know what his story was. What had put such caution in those pale eyes.
“There’s coffee,” he said, nodding toward the coffeemaker.
Meaning he was staying awhile? Interesting.
“Thanks.” She crossed the tile floor, reached for a pair of mugs from the nearby cupboard. Somehow she didn’t think it was her imagination, his gaze on her back. The questions floating in the air between them. Wanting to know more, knowing the folly of going there.
Coffee poured, she cradled the steaming mug to her chest and turned, chuckling at the pup’s ferocious growl as he tried to kill the shoelace.
“You’ve made a friend.” She lifted her eyes to his a moment before he squatted to pick up the dog. Thor had plopped in the dog bed by the pot-bellied stove near the oversize dining table, even though it hadn’t been lit in days. Now the cat—who generally kept to himself when the kids were awake—plodded over to wedge herself beside the dog, who didn’t seem to care one whit when her fluffy tail settled over his snout. “More than one, actually. The kids clearly adore their uncle.”
Colin smiled—if you could call it that—as he cocooned the pup in his huge hands. But they weren’t all chewed up and scarred, like his brothers’. “The feeling’s mutual. Then again, it’s not all that hard to make friends with most kids. Some, sure, have a real reason to be leery, but for the most part...” Shifting his gaze away from hers, he shrugged. “It’s like their default setting is to be open. Loving.” He set the pup back on the floor, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Before life hardens them, anyway.”
Curiouser and curiouser. “I know what you mean,” Emily said. “I think that’s one reason I love teaching kindergarten. Getting them before their innocence gets scrubbed away.”
Colin reached for one of the last brownies, stuffing half the thing in his mouth before adding, “These are terrific.”
The thing was, after three years with Michael, if it was one thing Emily was good at, it was spotting a prevaricator...a skill more finely honed by hindsight, it turned out. Unfortunately. But whatever Colin’s reasons for switching the subject, they were none of her concern. So all she did was shrug and say, “Can’t take much credit, really, they’re from a mix. And I’m good at following directions. But thanks anyway—”<
br />
A breeze shunted through the house when the front door opened, bringing with it her cousin’s laugh. A minute later, Dee and Josh appeared in the doorway, hand in hand and grinning like loons. Except then surprise swept across both their faces when they realized Emily wasn’t alone.
“I take it the date was a success?” Emily asked as Josh crossed to his brother to clap him on his upper arm.
“Honey, just getting out of the house by ourselves was a success,” Dee said, slipping off her denim jacket and hugging it to her middle. “But yeah...” She grinned over at her husband. “It was good.”
“Although I had this momentary panic,” Josh said, “that we’d discover we really had nothing to say to each other.”
Emily laughed. “I take it your fears were groundless?”
“Hell,” Josh said, grabbing the last brownie, then waving it toward his wife. “This one didn’t shut up the entire time.”
“It’s true,” Deanna said with a whatever shrug. “Like the dam broke, and all the stuff I either kept forgetting to say or would fall asleep before saying came roaring out. We probably won’t have to talk again for at least two months.”
Another chuckle bubbled up from Emily’s chest, this time at how effortlessly the Westernized cadences her cousin had worked so hard to eradicate from her speech after she moved to DC had reasserted themselves. Gone, too, was most of the chichi edginess Dee had appropriated like a costume, leaving behind the Deanna Emily remembered from when they were kids. Only—she caught the wink her cousin gave her husband—much, much happier. Then Dee glanced behind her before giving Emily wide eyes.
“Both kids are asleep?”
“Wasn’t that the plan?”
That got an exaggerated sigh. “For you, they both go to sleep. For us...” Her mouth twisted. Emily laughed.
“Beginner’s luck, I assure you.”
Dusting brownie crumbs off his fingers, which the puppy quickly scarfed up, Josh poked his brother. “So, what? You get roped into sharing the babysitting detail?”
Colin’s chuckle sounded almost...relaxed. “Not exactly. They were all outside when I drove by, and long story short...your kid invited me to dinner.”
Falling for the Rebound Bride Page 8
