Eli considered it. Vulnerable single mom, probably with very few extra pennies to engage in a legal battle, compared to a single mom backed up by a local small business owner with a stellar reputation in the community. Much harder to take on. “Meaning Rona supposes we are…”
“Boyfriend and girlfriend.” Sloane made a face. “Or whatever the adult equivalent of that is.”
Eli didn’t think twice. “Then we are.”
“Are what?”
“Boyfriend and girlfriend or the adult equivalent. No problem.”
Wide-eyed, she shook her head. “Eli—”
“You just said they’re here to visit for a couple of weeks. Surely we can play up a relationship well enough to discourage them from taking advantage of you.”
“Eli—”
“It’s for a short time. It doesn’t have to mean we have actual involvement in each other’s lives.”
A sound argument. Anyone could see that.
Except Sloane didn’t. She was already shaking her head.
More reasoning didn’t get him anywhere, which meant he went to work the next morning still irritated with Diane and Jeffrey, and with Sloane. Maybe even more than them he was irritated with himself, because upon her refusal of his help, he’d sounded almost accusatory when he’d asked if her rejection had anything to do with the man in the slick suit she’d been standing with at the food hall.
Her blank look more annoyed than appeased him.
That’s when he’d realized this weird jealousy made him not at all rational. Or agreeable.
It was making him downright moody, as a matter of fact, despite Sloane telling him that guy who’d seemed so attentive in the pizza line was her coworker. Her married coworker.
Of course, the moodiness might have another source altogether—work-related. There was a shortage on his order of mulch, a virus was domino-ing through the front office staff, and they’d found a glitch in the accounting software. The long hours—dawn to midnight—necessary to overcome all that meant he didn’t have an opportunity to check in with Sloane and Paige for two days, though he knew they’d been spending time with those out-of-town grandparents.
The forced separation from his house guests took his mood even lower, so when he received a call from Molly on Wednesday afternoon, he immediately jumped to dire conclusions. “Who’s hurt?” he demanded. “How bad is it?”
“Great to hear your voice too,” she said, sounding disgustingly jovial, given that one of her sisters had lost a major limb or perhaps developed a Pacific Northwestern disease.
Then his heart stopped as a new notion occurred to him. “Did someone elope today?”
“I’m sure someone did,” Molly said, still in that good-natured tone, “in this great wide world of ours.”
Eli pinched the bridge of his nose. “What’s going on? Don’t make me nuts.”
“That might be us,” Molly said, “given we haven’t heard from you since the weekend. We started worrying that you might have been consumed by a previously undetected black mold infestation at the house.”
“Bite your tongue.” But he couldn’t believe he’d gone so long without talking to them. “Be serious now. Everybody’s okay?”
“Yes. We’re hiking and eating and eating and hiking, just as planned. Also, we took some ferries for more hiking and eating.”
“All right then.”
“And you? Seriously, Eli, we’re worried. We called the front desk at King’s and heard about some virus barreling through everyone there. You’re not sick?”
“I’m good.”
“Are you eating? You need food, you know, and—”
“Sloane’s been leaving me meals in the refrigerator.” Uh-oh, he thought, the instant that spilled from his mouth.
“Sloane?”
Shit. Shit shit shit. “Didn’t I say?” he asked, casual as can be.
“Say what, exactly?”
“She’s run into some trouble.” If it wouldn’t have made a detectable noise, he might have thumped his head against his desk. “Trouble” was the custody thing, because that was at the forefront of his mind, but it wasn’t a topic to share with the girls. “Regarding her, uh, roof.”
“She has roof trouble and you have home-cooked meals in the refrigerator?”
“Yeah. Well.” He hauled in a silent breath, let it out. “She and Paige and Boo are living at our house. Just for a few more days.”
Molly’s ensuing silence was long and loaded. “You’re living with Sloane and her daughter?”
“They’re living with me. And the dog. He needed a dry place to stay. One with electricity.”
“Because Boo likes to read himself to sleep at night.” There was a return of good humor to his sister’s voice. “I remember that about him.”
“It’s just for a few more days,” he repeated, and his dark mood turned downright foul.
A few more days. That phrase kept echoing in his head past the ending of the call and until dusk and beyond, as he worked past closing and late into the nighttime hours once again. When he finally drove to the house, he imagined Sloane and Paige would already be abed and he’d rattle around the kitchen for a beer and a snack then head to the TV to watch alone for a couple of hours, already a lifestyle that had become monotonous over the past nights.
Ironic, wasn’t it? He chafed at the quiet without the rest of the family traipsing through, when quiet was all he’d been dreaming about, it seemed, for years. But he’d feel differently in a different location, he assured himself as he pulled into the garage.
Once he moved. He’d find some condo complex popular with single adults. There, he’d share a wall or two with a stranger and so be alone but not lonely with the droning noise of their television set or the rattle-bang-moan of their sex life keeping him company.
What a treat.
He pushed into the kitchen, noting the light over the range had been left on. Sloane did that—made sure he came into the house with some kind of welcome.
This time it was accompanied by a scream.
His heart shot to his throat and adrenaline spiked his bloodstream. He dropped his jacket to the floor and his keys too, then he was sprinting up the stairs, his blood chilled by yet another shriek.
He almost collided with Sloane in the hallway outside the closed door to Paige’s room. They pushed through as a unit, stumbling in their haste. In the glow of a night-light, the child sat straight up, the covers at her waist, Boo standing at the foot of the bed whining.
Eli snapped his fingers to get the dog’s attention and the animal bounded off the mattress to rub against his legs. He stroked his hand over the canine’s head, calming it, as Sloane tried calming the girl. She sat the on the edge of the bed and attempted pulling Paige into her arms, but the wide-eyed child was about as bendable as a board, her breath sawing in an out while resisting the move into her mother’s embrace with thrashing arms and legs.
“Paige,” Sloane called. “Paige.”
The child moaned in distress, her face flushed and sweaty.
Eli couldn’t stand by any longer. He approached the bed and kneeled on the floor, his hand running over the little girl’s damp hair. “Paige. Buddy. You’re okay. We’re all here.”
Her head swiveled his way, and then she jerked, as if awakening. Her mouth rounded, clearly in preparation for another scream, but it died on her lips, coming out as a wilted whimper. Then she flung herself toward her mother and began weeping.
His heart broke at the inconsolable crying. When the girls were hurt physically or emotionally, he’d had to steel himself against their tears every single time. It was no less taxing now, actually worse, as Sloane’s distressed gaze lifted to his. He shifted so he could wrap his arms around both mother and child. He held them, rocking a little, trying to soothe all of them as his eyes closed and he pressed his lips to the top of Paige’s hair and then to the top of Sloane’s.
Boo crowded in, his doggy head bumping Eli’s shoulder. “Good boy,” he
murmured. “You’re going to be okay too.”
Later, when Paige had dropped into an exhausted sleep and Boo was once again watching over her, Eli followed Sloane from the room. Her pale appearance didn’t reassure him much, though she told him she’d read of such events happening to children.
“Night terrors,” she said, coming to stop in the doorway to her own room.
Bad dreams had visited the King household on occasion, but nothing as dramatic as this. “Should she see a doctor?”
“If they become frequent, but she’ll likely not remember this in the morning and maybe never have another.”
He pulled in a long breath and then pushed his hands through his hair. “I feel a few years older.”
She smiled again. “I know what you mean—and thanks for the help, by the way.”
“I didn’t do anything,” he grumbled. “Usually after a night event I spend a solid fifteen minutes ensuring no monsters are under the bed, in the closets, or tucked into the drawers. Somewhere I have a bottle of anti-beast and brute spray—my own special recipe, by the way. A little water and lemon juice. But Paige drifted off without all that.”
“It’s not the same as a nightmare.”
“Do you know what causes it?”
Shrugging, Sloane looked away. “Change in routine, perhaps. Stress.”
The arrival of poaching grandparents. “Sloane—”
“I’m managing, Eli. You’ll see.”
Oh, yeah. He would see, he vowed to himself. That low mood of his had been due to frustration and unfamiliar helplessness. But now he had a new determination, born out of those moments of holding mother and child in his arms. No matter what it took, he would see that these two vulnerable people living under his roof didn’t suffer from anxiety or worry like this again.
Surely he could do that without compromising his future and his freedom.
* * *
Sloane pointed the remote at the television and searched for a program that would distract her from the knowledge that, with the exception of Boo, she was alone in the house. He lay snoring beside the family room couch while she tried appreciating the relative silence.
As it was poker night, Eli had gone straight from work to the home of whomever was hosting this week’s game. Paige, after a few daily outings with her grandparents during which Sloane acted as chaperone, was spending the night with them by herself. She’d seemed happy enough with the idea, buoyed by the carrot of spending time in the hot tub at the house the Dunlaps’ were short-term renting.
While Sloane had struggled with the idea of letting Paige out of her sight until morning, she’d decided it was a sound tactic. Perhaps Diane wouldn’t push for more if Sloane didn’t object to her daughter being alone in the grandparents’ company.
During her first solo hour she’d occupied herself with packing her and Paige’s things. Alice and Joe had returned from their vacation that day, and she’d filled them in on the situation at the cottage. They’d been apologetic and promised to help find a long-term solution, but immediately invited she and Paige to move in with them.
A tempting offer. And she was prepared to take them up on it at a moment’s notice, since she’d boxed their belongings. But introducing yet another change into Paige’s life right now seemed unwise and then there was, well…Eli.
This would be Sloane’s final opportunity to be close to the man she loved and walking out of his life took more strength than she had at the moment. To her mind, his sisters’ return would be a natural breaking point. The Kings would have their house to themselves again and Sloane would move on.
For the next few days, though, she’d keep her feelings for Eli secret while secretly enjoying sharing her little family’s life with him.
She tuned to a nature documentary that wasn’t of the lions-eating-zebras variety, but one about the hidden life of orchids. The narrator’s voice soothed her and the visuals were restful. Lost in green leaves and creamy petals, she almost missed the groaning of the automatic garage door opening. But it caught Boo’s attention, and he was on his feet, shaking himself so his collar and tags jingled as Eli strolled into the family room from the kitchen.
At the sight of him, her heart performed a swoop-dive, its new normal. She drank him in, the long hair, the long body, the way his gaze sought her out and warmed when their eyes met. “Hey.” The dog rushed him and she watched his long fingers fondle Boo’s ears, flushing as she recalled the sensation of his touch, the calluses on his palms gently abrading the curve of her hips or the undersides of her breasts. To hide the way her nipples reacted to the memories, she drew up her knees to her chest, her stocking feet braced on the seat cushion.
Eli crossed to sit beside her, taking up the remote to thumb down the volume. “Paige sleeping okay?”
“She’s spending the night with Diane and Jeffrey.”
He raised a brow. “Yeah?”
Sloane half-turned to better face him. “I don’t want them to be able to say I keep their granddaughter from them. And Paige seemed enthusiastic. Milkshakes may have been mentioned.”
“Ah.” He slid down on the cushions, resting his head as if suddenly weary.
“You’re back sooner than I expected. Did you win everyone’s money?”
He snorted. “Another run of bad luck. So I ducked out for an early, peaceful night.”
“Oh.” She unfolded her body, started to rise. “I’ll go upstairs so you can enjoy—”
Eli grabbed her arm, staying her movement. “You’re peaceful. Stay and watch some TV with me.”
Powerless to deny him, Sloane settled back. Boo took to his place with a satisfied doggy sound and the orchid documentary droned on. At first hyperaware of the man sitting so close by—her skin tingled and her pulse jumped at his every shift and breath—soon enough she felt herself drift as her eyelids grew heavy.
Hypnotized, she thought on a half-giddy, half-drowsy thought, by Eli’s warmth, the hint of his scent in the air, the…the sense of him beside her. His companionship.
Sometime later, she roused. Opening her eyes to slits, she noted the documentary was no longer about orchids, but butterflies, or maybe that was her stomach fluttering as she realized that she and her host had become tangled. They each lay on their sides, Eli’s body spooning hers, both pairs of their legs curled so they could fit on two-thirds of the cushions. Boo had made a place for himself on the other third.
A groggy thought emerged, bad dog, but it floated away when Eli’s arm—the one banding her middle—flexed, drawing her closer to him. She put her hand over his to entwine their fingers, only partly conscious of that action’s dangers.
Don’t give away your secret, she thought, then drifted away again.
The trill of her phone jolted her out of sleep.
She blinked, tried moving, but was hampered by that heavy arm. When her phone rang out again, with more effort she pushed herself to a sitting position and untangled her fingers from Eli’s. Behind her he signaled sleepy disapproval, but she ignored him to snatch up her cell from the coffee table.
Diane Dunlap. On a quick breath, she answered. “Yes? What’s happened?”
“Nothing to worry about,” Diane said in a brusque tone. “Paige woke up and insists on speaking with you.”
“Yes, of course,” Sloane replied. “Put her on.”
“Mommy?” Paige’s voice sounded small.
“What’s up, baby?”
“I want you. Can you come get me?”
Before she had a chance to reply, Diane’s voice came through the device—she’d obviously taken back the phone. “That’s not necessary, Sloane. Paige will be just fine if you wish her good night again and tell her you’ll see her in the morning.”
“I don’t mind coming to get her,” Sloane said. “I think—”
“It’s not necessary, Sloane,” the older woman asserted. “Paige is a big girl and will be just fine until tomorrow.”
In the background, Sloane could hear her daughter ask to ta
lk to her mommy again. “Put Paige back on, please, Diane.”
“Really, Sloane—”
“Please put Paige back on.”
Her daughter sounded sniffly now. “Mommy?”
“I’m on my way, sweet girl. You collect Bun and hold onto it until I’m there. It won’t be long.” With a warm goodbye, she ended the call before Diane could object again.
Eli was sitting up beside her now, alert-eyed, his focus on her. “What’s going on?”
“Paige wants to come home.” The words popped out before she realized their implication. “I mean, um, she wants me.”
“Then let’s get her you,” Eli said, jumping to his feet.
“You don’t need to—”
“Your car has Paige’s seat,” he said, ignoring her protest. “Grab your keys.”
Boo tagged along so Sloane had an entourage when she approached the front door of the seaside vacation rental. The porch light glowed and Diane already stood in the open doorway, Jeffrey hovering behind her.
“Sloane,” the older woman said in a disapproving tone. “To disturb the child’s night like this—”
“The child’s night was already disturbed,” Eli said from behind her. His hand landed on Sloane’s shoulder.
Diane’s attention shifted to the man behind Sloane. “Eli King,” she said, her frosty tone thawing somewhat. “It’s good to see you despite the circumstances.”
Before he could respond, Paige pushed between the Dunlaps. “Mommy!” Her joy was palpable and she launched herself forward, causing Sloane to go back on one foot to keep her balance. She bumped into Eli, his body solid as a rock, and his free hand settled on her other shoulder.
With his warm weight behind her, Sloane shifted her daughter to hold her close. “Thank you, Diane, Jeffrey. We’ll be in touch tomorrow.”
“No,” Diane said, her face suddenly contorting. “Don’t do this. Don’t ruin this one too!”
Sloane froze. “What?”
“You ruined JJ,” the older woman said. “I don’t want you to damage his daughter as well.”
NO LIMIT (7-Stud Club Book 2) Page 18
