by Robyn Grady
They collected luggage then strolled out to the parking lot with Tate chattering about dinosaurs and airplanes the whole way. Needing more seats than a sports car allowed, Dex had hired a luxury SUV. As he buckled Tate in, then piled bags in the back, Teagan spoke in Shelby’s ear.
“Sorry about that misunderstanding. But it’s not a leap that you two could be an item. If you weren’t so glamorous and tall and beautiful—”
“Me? Glamorous?” In a plain cotton dress and no makeup? In any dress, for that matter.
“Well, you might be a nanny now, but I’d bet good money, if you stay in L.A., some lucky talent scout will snap you up.” Teagan wound the sturdy black knapsack off her back. “My tip is to get a good agent, pronto.”
“But I don’t want to be snapped up.”
“You don’t have any aspirations to be a leading lady, earn squillions of dollars, be adored and watched by crowds?”
Shelby shuddered. “I’m not a fan of crowds.”
Teagan looked shocked and pleased at the same time.
Settling Tate in the backseat, Dex called out, “Hey, you two can chat in the car. We need to get this boy home. He’s got to be hungry.”
Tate began chanting, “Cheeseburber, cheeseburber!”
While Teagan slid into the front passenger’s seat, Shelby slipped in behind the driver’s seat.
“Dex and I went shopping yesterday,” Shelby let Tate know. “There are all kinds of great things to eat and do at home.”
“I love your shack by the sea,” Teagan said, belting up. “All three stories of it.”
“Actually, we’re staying at a hotel.” Dex named the establishment and Teagan let loose a low whistle.
“You always did like the best. But you couldn’t have sold your place. You bragged to everyone who’d listen about that view.”
“This address is only temporary.” Dex ignited the engine. “Everyone buckled up? Let’s get this show on the road.”
Shelby saw the same questions in Teagan’s eyes now that she’d wanted to ask when she’d learned about Dex’s sudden move. But as long as the temporary change of address didn’t concern her or Tate while he was here, what did it matter where he lived?
“Guess you want an update on Dad,” Teagan said when they were on their way.
Tate was getting comfortable in his booster seat. “The bump on his head’s all better now.”
“That’s real good, buddy,” Dex replied then told Shelby, “Teagan runs her own fitness studio in Seattle.”
Shelby remembered the woman’s glowing complexion and bouncy step. “You don’t work for the family business, Teagan?”
Dex reached over to squeeze his sister’s shoulder. “She’s our resident rebel, aren’t you?”
“Translation,” Teagan said, trying not to laugh as she shoved her brother’s tickling grasp away while she pinned him with a mock stern look. “I wanted to make it on my own.”
“Admirable,” Shelby said.
“And necessary to my sanity.”
Dex started another thread of conversation, although Shelby somehow thought the two were related.
“So you caught up with Cole while you were visiting,” he said.
“I was pleasantly surprised.” Teagan filled Shelby in. “You’d have to know our big brother to understand when I say he’s a giant control freak, to the point of driving everyone up the wall. But that seems to have changed since he realized there are more important things in life than telling people what to do.”
“Sounds like you might reconsider working for the business,” Dex slipped in.
Teagan pretended not to hear. “His fiancée, Taryn Quinn, is a honey. Strong-willed, smart. Cole’s match in every way. I never thought I’d say it but there’s a side to Cole that’s pure pussycat.”
“I’m looking forward to the ceremony,” Dex said with a grin in his voice.
“You’re not married, Shelby?” Teagan asked.
“No.” Shelby’s hands flexed and bunched on her thighs. “Not married.”
“Your accent…Texan?”
Dex replied for her. “Shelby comes from a little known place called Mountain Ridge, Oklahoma.”
“Sounds so peaceful,” Teagan said. “Horse Whisperer country.”
She thought that was set in Montana but Shelby shrugged and confirmed, “We own a ranch.”
“You like that life?”
“Very much.”
Teagan looked back over her shoulder. “If you weren’t chasing the limelight, what made you make the move to L.A.?”
Shelby felt Dex’s curiosity, too. While her pulse rate jumped, she assumed a calm expression. “Well, you see—” she rubbed her suddenly damp palms down her skirt “—it was time I saw more of the world.”
“Sounds like California’s just the beginning then.” Teagan moved around in her seat to face her. “I have a friend, a teacher. She flew overseas a couple years ago. Landed a job as a governess in France. She lives in a castle now. Can you believe it!”
“Stop giving her ideas,” Dex growled, turning onto the highway. “I’d like to keep Shelby with me a while.”
Studying the back of his head above the rest, seeing the smile creasing the corners of his eyes in the rearview mirror, Shelby felt the tension locking her shoulder blades ease. He sounded so determined. So sincere. And now that Tate was here and he seemed so happy and well-adjusted…
For the first time since seeing Dex being kissed by that poor woman that night, Shelby felt truly confident about agreeing to his terms.
* * *
“Can I please have annava cupcake before I go to bed?”
Dex, Shelby and special guests Teagan and Tate were all settled in the living room of his Beverly Hills Hotel suite. Despite his assertion that she didn’t have to cook, Shelby had whipped up a magnificent roast with all the trimmings for dinner. She’d also baked scrumptious cupcakes—and not from a packet. Dex had very nearly asked to lick the bowl.
Now at Tate’s understandable request, Dex sat straighter in his corner of the giant horseshoe-shaped sofa and mentally rubbed his hands together. Another cupcake? Great idea.
“Honey, you’ve already brushed your teeth,” Shelby explained to Tate as she fanned out children’s books on the coffee table.
“And those cakes were huge.” Teagan set down her empty cup of herbal tea that smelled like brewed lawn clippings. Probably tasted like that, too. “One cake is plenty for a kid your size. And before you say anything, brother dear, you’ve already had four.”
Appalled, Dex sat back. “Did not.” He’d had three.
“You’ve always been driven by your taste buds.” Teagan nodded at her brother’s middle. “You’d better watch out or you’ll look like a pear before you know it. I can set you up with a routine. Thirty minutes every day is all it takes to keep in shape.”
Dex spoke to Shelby, a magnificent cook who would surely understand. “My sister doesn’t appreciate a universal truth. Enjoying fine food is one of life’s great pleasures.”
“You should have been a chef,” Teagan said. “Or a restaurant critic.”
“Or I could open my very own place,” Dex said, expanding on the idea. “And have my own blow-your-mind signature dessert.”
“I can see it now.” Teagan’s palms drew fanfare arcs through the air. “Sexy Dexy’s Diner.”
“So informal.” Dex grinned. “I like it! But watch your language in front of the boy.” He swung a glance around. “Where’d he go?”
Teagan spotted Tate sneaking off to the kitchen, aka Magical Cupcake Land. She ran to grab him. “Not on my watch, sonny boy.”
Dex muttered, “Talk about tough love.”
“I think someone needs to hit the sack,” Teagan said as she led a yawning, bathed
and pajamaed Tate back from the kitchen.
“After that big plane ride,” Shelby said, “you must be tired.”
Tate used fingers and a thumb to pry open one eye. “Am not.”
Dex chuckled. Darn that kid was cute. When he had children—someday in the far distant, really remote future—he only hoped they were as perfect as Tate. “Buddy, we have weeks ahead of us.”
“Lots of time,” Teagan said to Tate before she murmured to Dex under her breath, “Just hope the p-o-l-i-c-e catch that guy soon.”
Dex flicked Shelby a look. Her brow was creased as if she wasn’t sure what to make of that remark. Very subtle, sis. Not. At least for Tate’s sake she’d spelled out that giveaway word.
Dex had thought about tugging Teagan aside with a warning not to mention the stalker business unfolding in Australia. But Tate could just as easily mention the incident he’d been involved in recently and the fact the authorities were dropping by the Hunter mansion in Sydney with much regularity. That cat was bound to wiggle out of its bag one way or another.
“Tate, honey, what say I tuck you into bed?” Shelby leaned forward to scan the titles laid out on the table. “Look at all these amazing stories. There’s a couple from your favorite series. We can read one together.”
Tate hugged his big sister’s leg. “I want Tea to tuck me in.”
Shelby found the other woman’s gaze. Teagan silently asked the designated caretaker, That okay? Shelby’s smile said, It’s fine. Go ahead.
Teagan got down on Tate’s level. “There are two beds in your room and I’m pretty sure one has my name on it.”
“Really? Wow! Show me.”
“Kiss your brother and Shelby good-night first.”
Tate trundled over and gave Dex a hug, little arms around his bruiser of a neck. Drawing back, Tate eyed Shelby and sucked in his bottom lip.
“That’s okay.” Shelby sent him a wink. “I’m shy about that kind of stuff, too. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Tate took his big sister’s hand. Together they disappeared behind the door of a bedroom that was decorated with matching racing car bedspreads, which Shelby had chosen earlier that day.
Shelby gazed down the corridor for a long moment before exhaling and gathering herself. “I’ll go see to the dishes.”
“They’ll wait till morning.”
“I’d rather do them now.”
“In the morning.”
“Now.”
He frowned. “You’re stubborn.”
“Am not.”
Which made him think of Tate’s cute response to being tired. Shelby must have thought of him trying to keep his eyes open, too, because they both grinned. Eventually she relaxed and reclined back into the sofa while Dex snatched up a book.
“Kuddles Goes to Visit.”
She tipped closer to study the front cover’s illustration of a young koala perched in the fork of a gum tree. “Thought it’d be familiar for him.”
“And Tate’ll like it just as well tomorrow night.”
“It’s only natural he would want to be with his sister. I like her, too.”
He slid the book back onto the tabletop. “Can’t believe it’s been four years since she flew the coop.”
“Does Teagan get along with your stepmom?”
“Better than me and Cole, which isn’t saying much.”
“I swear Eloise Hunter must have a long nose with a wart. Does she seduce unsuspecting children into eating poisoned apples?”
“No wart. And in this story, the children are fully grown.”
“You mean she tried to hurt you and your brother?”
“Eloise isn’t much older than Cole. I have it on good authority the opposite sex finds him attractive.”
“And?”
“And I don’t want to give you the wrong idea about the home Tate’s growing up in.”
“Okay. Now I’m worried.”
Dex rubbed his temple. Wasn’t often words failed him, but this was a touchy subject.
“Eloise is drawn to powerful men,” he said. “Scruples need not apply.”
Realization then disgust flittered over her eyes. “She tried to come on to Cole? Her stepson?”
“She’s pampered and bored—”
“And trying to seduce members of her own family. I can’t even imagine…” Shelby shuddered. “What about the guy Teagan was talking about? The one she hoped police would catch?”
Dex surrendered the details surrounding the recent attempts on his father’s life, including the day Hunter senior and Tate had almost been abducted and his father’s head had been knocked, causing the bump the little boy had mentioned earlier.
“A passerby intervened. Thank God, or they’d both have been shoved in that van and…” He growled out a breath. “Well, who knows what would’ve come next. That’s why Tate’s here now for an indefinite amount of time.”
“So he’s out of harm’s way. But why didn’t you tell me?”
“I was waiting for the right time.”
“You can’t put off something as important as that.”
“No one is in danger here.”
“You hope.”
He made himself clear. “That situation is all the way back in Australia. And it concerns my father, not Tate. He was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
Her gaze sharpened. “So all that has nothing to do with the rats in your basement?”
“Definitely not.”
She scrutinized his face. But something in his expression must have confirmed he’d told her the truth. The two situations were unrelated. His blackmail threats were annoying, inconvenient, but nowhere near life-threatening.
While she mulled all that over, Dex checked in on Tate’s bedroom.
“They’re both out to it,” he said, resuming his seat a moment later. “Teagan’s snoring. She’s done it her whole life. When she was fourteen, I recorded a particularly robust session. Sounded like a train in a tunnel. I played it back at the breakfast table the next morning.”
“I hope she belted you.”
“Dumped a bowl of cold milk in my lap. Mom told me to clean it up then apologize.” His brow lowered. “You women like to stick together.”
She gave him a wide smile. “And you never teased her again.”
“She on the other hand derived some sick kind of pleasure from hiding frogs in my football boots.”
“Oh, no!” She clapped a hand over her mouth but the laugh escaped. “Frogs?”
“Lucky none were squashed.” At the end of his jeans, ten bare toes wiggled. “I have big feet.”
“I noticed.”
While he’d never thought Teagan’s pranks funny back then, now—with Shelby openly laughing—he wished he could go back and live all those innocent moments again. All four kids had been so close. Then things had changed. A little like the moment was changing here and now.
As Shelby’s laughter faded, easy smiles sobered and they were left looking into each other’s eyes.
And Shelby had beautiful eyes.
When he’d returned from checking on Tate, he’d unwittingly sat a fraction closer to her. His leg nearest hers was hooked up so that the knee of his jeans rested lightly against the outside of her thigh.
“I think this is going to work out fine,” he said.
Her gaze shuttered, lowered then found his again. “I should probably get to bed.”
“It’s been a long day for us all.”
“A nice day.”
He thought so, too.
“If you need help with anything going forward…” He allowed his focus to drop to her lips, for a heartbeat’s slide around her cheek. “I mean, if you need help taste-testing new cupcake recipes…”
; Her eyes sparkled again. “If you can suggest something better than my cookies ’n’ cream mix.”
He placed his arm along the back of the sofa and, bending his elbow, rested his cheek on a bed of knuckles. “I might have a few ideas.”
“Something new and wild or more your traditional fare?”
“As long as the icing is sweet and the center light and moist.”
“So, suggestions?”
He lowered his arm until its length lay along the back of the sofa and partly behind her. “Well, with regard to combining ingredients, I’ve discovered you need to fold in the right amounts at the right time.”
“I see.” Her lips twitched. “Any advice on heat?”
“It needs to build until it’s high and constant.”
“And the end product, I suppose, is—”
“Guaranteed to melt in your mouth.”
The temptation was too great. He leaned in and when his lips feathered over hers, an electric bolt ripped through his body. She trembled as if she’d felt it, too. Then her eyes drifted shut and the impulse to trace his lips over hers again took a mighty hold. He tilted his head farther.
At the same time her eyes opened again and a smooth hand slid up between them, cordoning him off.
“You sound like quite the expert.” Her voice was smoky as well as resigned. “But I’m afraid I don’t let anyone near my kitchen.”
His thumping pulse stumbled over a beat. He took in her words and frowned. “No one?”
She shimmied away from him. “I’m not here for this.”
“I know, but—”
“I mean, don’t you have enough notches on your bedpost?”
“Shelby, this has nothing to do with bedposts.”
“What if your brother had wandered out here a moment ago?” In full charge of her faculties again, she combed two sets of fingers over her tumble of hair and glanced down the corridor to check. “He’s just lived through one terrible ordeal.”
“I wouldn’t call this terrible—”
“And if you’ve seen his mother propositioning a man other than his father, maybe poor Tate has, too. He doesn’t need to see adults making out on the couch. People he should be able to trust.”
That pulled him up short.
