Soaking up that image of Cleo's bliss, Jared longed to be the one who could make her that relaxed and happy and open. He could see the woman she should be—if only he could offer her the same kind of unconditional love and safety as her child.
Pushing down the pain of recognizing his deficiency, he fell victim to the pressure of someone staring at him. Scanning the store, he located the source easily.
A blond giant wearing a toddler on his shoulders watched him with amusement. At his side stood a slender woman with abundant red hair accented by a silver streak, with eyes more blue than Cleo's green. Her critical gaze warmed as he approached, and she relaxed to stroke the hair of a child about Matty's age hiding behind her exotically colored dress. The boy's dark coloring was closer to Gene's than the couple's, and Jared grinned. If this was the boy her sister had adopted, Cleo and Maya had far more in common than Cleo believed. Both women were apparently color-blind, and possessed a penchant for taking in unwanted strays.
Navigating around the high store shelves, he didn't notice the woman's pregnancy until he was almost upon her. Another pain twisted below his heart, and he tried not to glance in the direction of Matty and Cleo. Children weren't something he'd ever thought about until Cleo crashed into his life. Or he'd crashed into hers. It didn't take a genius to recognize the reason for Cleo's envy of her sister.
"You must be Maya and Axell." He stuck out his hand. "I'm Jared McCloud. My agent thanks you profusely for the helicopter."
Balancing the red-haired toddler bouncing on his shoulders, Axell shook his hand. "But you're reserving judgment?" he finished what Jared left unsaid. "You'll understand it was either the news helicopter or Maya would have driven to the water's edge and highjacked a boat."
Maya dug her elbow into her husband's side, then held out her hand to take Jared's. "Matty was worried," she said.
Jared dared a glance back to the counter. Cleo was finishing up her sale and chucking the back of her son's head for something he said. "I've never seen her happier. You chose the right moment to bring him."
Before they could question, a thin girl only a few years older than Matty who'd been examining the paint chips drifted over, and Axell introduced his daughter, Constance.
Maya couldn't possibly be old enough to have a daughter that age, but she hugged the child as affectionately as if she were her own. Coming from a family that never hugged, Jared suffered a few jealous pangs of his own. He wanted a woman who would hug his children like that.
His children. Panic ought to be setting in, but he was oddly comfortable with the idea of someday having a rugrat of his own.
Cleo appeared with Matty at her side before Jared could recover from the impact of that discovery.
"Marta can close up. What's with the RV?" Without missing a beat, she reached up to remove her squealing niece from Axell's shoulders and bounced her in her arms.
Jared lost what remained of his heart as the chubby tyke contentedly curled up beneath Cleo's chin and sucked her thumb, and Cleo rocked her as if she did it every day of the week. Smitten. Shipwrecked. Shattered. It had to be something in the position of the moon and stars—he wanted Cleo holding his child.
Maya was telling her sister something about "rolling hotels" as Axell grabbed Jared's arm and steered him toward the door. "It's a lost cause trying to get a word in edgewise until their batteries run down. Let's pretend we know something about road hogs and get out of their way."
Jared figured he couldn't have moved a foot without Axell's impetus pushing him forward. His own family never overwhelmed him like this. Maybe it was because none of his siblings had married so he'd never had contact with so many short people at once. Rugrats and teenagers and everything in between. And women...
Feeling as if he were short-circuiting, Jared looked around for Gene. At least he understood the kid, but Gene had hidden from the full family effect. Couldn't exactly blame the boy.
Jared panicked as he walked outside the store and realized the full implication of the arrival of Cleo's family. He had no place to stay. He couldn't sleep in Cleo's bed with her son a room away and her sister and a tin can full of toddlers parked in the front yard. Maybe he should book a flight to New York for tonight.
"You know the helicopter pictures worried Maya more than the hurricane," Axell said, all but heaving Jared through the open RV door before the women and children caught up.
Catching himself in the door frame, Jared straightened his arm and blocked all entrance. The other man was bigger and brawnier, but he didn't fear his physical size. He scowled down at Axell's placid expression. "Cleo is quite capable of taking care of herself. She won't appreciate interference, well-meaning or otherwise."
Axell grinned, and Jared had to remember the man was obviously more than a bartender, given his propensity for producing helicopters and enormous RVs at will.
"Yeah, that's what I figured," Axell replied to Jared's reproach. "But I thought I ought to warn you that Maya will rip your tongue out through your nose if you hurt her sister."
Jared shook his head in disbelief and stepped inside the semi-size vehicle. Expecting a clutter of kid-proportioned counters and beds, he gazed in approval at the wide open aisles with comfortably padded bench seats and captain's chairs. "Where did you find this thing?"
Axell shrugged and stared down the long aisle as if just discovering it. "Maya designed it. It shouldn't be bad for a day or two. Makes it easy to keep track of everybody."
They'd be staying a couple of days. Jared felt as swamped as the beach house must look.
"Leave it to you to solve everything," Cleo said dryly from behind them as the two women climbed in and the vehicle exploded with children tearing down the aisle. "The beach house might have held you if the storm hadn't taken it out."
She'd already forgotten his existence. Jared's usual childish inclination to do something irrational to catch her attention didn't materialize though. He wasn't in the mood for humor.
"Hey, Matty, did you meet Jared?" Cleo called after her son. "He's the one who draws the cartoons I told you about."
Cleo cautiously touched his arm, and Jared read the plea in her eyes as she introduced him to the son who meant more than life to her. He felt her anxiety so strongly he almost choked on it. She was trusting him, but she was terrified of doing so.
He didn't ever want her to worry. Brushing her pale cheek with his knuckle to show he understood, he crouched down to Matty's height. "Your mother says you draw wicked peacocks. Gonna show me sometime?"
Boys, he could handle. This one grinned from ear to ear, and tugging his hand from Cleo's tense grip, Matty grabbed Jared's arm and led him back to his own personal storehouse of possessions.
Cleo watched the tall man following in the wake of the small boy and tried not to panic. Jared's sable hair was only a few shades darker than Matty's. They'd almost pass for father and son.
"Impressive." Maya whistled quietly behind her. "Housebroke but as untrainable as a big cat is my guess. My money's on Aries."
"Teenage nerd," Cleo countered sarcastically, "With Peter Pan rising."
Maya muffled a laugh. "Your inner child to his outer one. Perfect. But immature men do not turn their backs on a woman to cater to a child. He's all full grown male, sis. Watch out."
"Will you two stow your carving up until I'm out of hearing?" Axell ordered. "I like the man, and I'm tired of being outnumbered. Keep him, Cleo." He sauntered off to remove Maya's red-haired toddler from her stubborn determination to claim Matty's box.
"I've got the kids in the store." Ignoring her brother-in-law, Cleo retreated toward the door. "I need to go get them."
As if by magic, Jared appeared at her elbow with Matty in tow. Cleo didn't think she could handle the juxtaposition of dangerous man and lover with the safe sane world of sister and son, but he didn't intrude. He merely provided the strength her backbone needed to deal with the inevitable collision. Jared did strong and quiet as well as gregarious and sophisticated.
<
br /> "The kids are hiding in the back room," he offered as Cleo reached for Matty's hand. "I'll take them back to the island, if you'd rather ride with your sister."
She heard the question in his voice, the one she couldn't answer even if she dared think about it. Maya slipped away, leaving them to discuss the problem with only Matty to hear. The boy grabbed this opportunity to climb into the driver's seat to play with the controls and wasn't listening.
"I don't want to take them back to Linda's," she whispered.
"They'll go, whether you want it or not," he said matter-of-factly. "They may come back, but with the Perv gone, they may not. Not while your family is here."
He knew them as well as Cleo did. She nodded agreement. "I almost wish Social Services had come and got them and got it over with." It tore her gut to say it, but the sooner they were ripped out of her life, the better for all concerned. She'd been risking Matty and her stability by playing with fire—again. If only she could learn to really wall herself off...
Jared rubbed her cheek as he had earlier, reminding her he was there for her without embarrassing her with a more affectionate display. "Tell me what you want me to do, Cleo. If the beach house is still standing, I can camp out there and keep an eye on them." The pressure of his fingers became a little stronger as he forced her to look at him. "Or I can book a flight to New York and take care of business. I can wait until your family leaves, if you will go with me."
Oh damn. Oh double damn. There it was, the decision that had to come sometime. It might as well be now, while her insides were already ripped to shreds, and she wouldn't feel it as much. Sort of like having one hand chopped off and sacrificing the other since the pain was already so bad.
"I won't go with you," she told him flatly, not meeting the look in his eyes but concentrating on holding herself together while the whole world watched. "Go take care of business. We'll be fine."
She was certain he stared at her for an eternity. His hand dropped away, and she could feel that first cold rush of air breaching the connection between them. Go, she whispered to herself, Go before I lose it right here and now.
As if hearing her plea, Jared ran a reassuring hand up and down her arm. "I'll be back, Cleo. It's not over."
He strode down the steps and out of sight, and she was certain she would never see him again. He'd come to his senses once he was gone.
Chapter 27
Cleo's happy family had apparently stopped the RV somewhere before reaching Cleo's. They hadn't reached the house by the time Jared let Kismet and Gene out in the drive. Fearing for their safety at the beach until he'd had time to inspect the damage, he couldn't take them with him.
Driving the Jeep through the muck and debris of the narrow lane, he rather missed the shrieking witch. Cleo had turned off the system when even the bouncing sign only half-heartedly lifted from the debris littering the road.
Reaching his drive only to be confronted by a mountain of driftwood, sand, and washed up palmettos, he halted short of the beach. Cleo wouldn't need her trespasser deterrents with the road cut off like this.
Leaving his laptop in the car and locking the door, Jared climbed the treacherous barrier and slid down the other side. At least it looked as if the house had weathered the storm in one piece. Maybe he could stay here until Cleo's family left. His request for her to travel with him at a time like this had made her nervous, he realized. He understood anxiety far better than he used to. He felt as if he had electrodes attached to all his nerve endings.
If this was love, it was hell. He didn't like being jerked around by invisible wires. He didn't have time to wheedle Cleo around to his way of thinking. And why should he cater to the obstinate woman?
All the rationalizing in the world wouldn't hide the fact that he was a stubborn ass who wouldn't give up when he wanted something. And he wanted Cleo.
The damage to the beach house was more obvious as he approached. The sand dune on the shore had all but disappeared, and waves lapped a few hundred yards from the door. Half the dune had shifted to the porch. The storm had ripped shutters from windows, and shards of glass caught the last rays of twilight. The new roof had held, but one of the front dormers had crumpled under the stress of wind, leaving a gaping hole in his bedroom.
Using a stick of driftwood to remove the shattered pane from a lower window, Jared climbed over the sill. He had picked up his duffel at Cleo's, but he needed clean clothes to fill it if he intended to travel.
Now that he saw there wasn't any danger, he wished he'd brought Gene with him. He worried the kid would take off through the woods before Cleo returned. He'd promised to drive them to check on their mother after he examined the damage here, but Jared knew the kids were impatient.
He threw some clothes in the duffel, the ones that weren't a sodden lump on the bedroom floor. Maybe he'd better call Marta and have her send someone out to board up the broken windows so the kids wouldn't hurt themselves trying to get in. Cleo would be too occupied with family to think of it. To think of him.
He didn't know why her rejection hurt so much. He had expected it, after all. Cleo was Cleo. There wasn't any changing her.
Matty had changed her without even trying.
Cursing, Jared climbed out the first floor window again, duffel in hand. He'd finish his business and come back to hack this out with Cleo once her family departed.
Returning to the Jeep, Jared discovered Axell lounging against the hood, arms crossed, waiting for him. Matty stood on the Jeep's roof, eyes wide at the sight of the surf lapping so close to the road. Grimacing, Jared heaved his duffel into the back seat. Casually, so as not to show how hard he really wanted to try, he handed a starfish to the boy, who squealed in delight at the gift. Then propping his shoulder against the back door, he adopted the same antagonistic stance as Axell. Axell didn't look impressed.
"Where are the kids?" the big man demanded.
"If they're not in the house where I left them, then they're just where I told Cleo they would go. Home." Jared figured that wasn't the real question here, but he'd let Axell get it out. He wasn't helping him any.
At Matty's request, Jared turned and lifted the boy down. "Don't go out of sight," he warned. "There could be sharks in the sand."
The boy turned big green eyes up to him—Cleo's eyes—and Jared nearly melted on the spot. At the boy's disbelieving giggle at the idea of sand sharks, he let him go, too stunned to do more.
"He's a great kid," Axell said as Matty scampered to investigate the dune of debris. "Cleo will worry herself into an early grave trying to shelter him from all harm."
Jared was inclined to agree, but it wasn't his place to say so. Relieved to set aside the intensity of his sudden emotion for Cleo's son, he replied laconically. "She has her reasons."
"As long as you understand that." Axell shoved his hands in his pockets and tried to look nonchalant. "Is the house reparable?"
"Probably, once a bulldozer plows through. The windows need boarding up or the kids are likely to hurt themselves climbing in." He had to book a flight to New York, drive to the airport in Charleston, and call half a dozen people. He didn't have time for this.
He'd have to make time if he was serious about Cleo.
"Cleo says you're going back to New York."
Jared almost smiled at the threat in the Viking god's tone. "For two days. And I offered to take her with me. Unless you're planning on telling me the secret to handling Cleo, butt out, okay? As Cleo says, we have issues. They take time."
Axell eyed him speculatively. "I'm amazed Cleo hasn't eaten through your tender hide. I think she chews nails for breakfast."
Knowing the other man didn't mean harm, Jared let the insult go. "I wouldn't have made it as far as I have in my career without a tough hide. That's not our problem here."
They both looked at the boy contentedly sitting in the mud, digging out some buried treasure.
Axell nodded briefly. "She'll sacrifice anything or anyone for him."
&nb
sp; "If I ever have kids, that's the kind of mother I want for them," Jared said quietly.
"You're leaving because of us then?" Axell relaxed his defensive posture and shoved his hands into his pockets.
"Yeah. I figure Cleo will let me know when she's ready to let me into Matty's life. Right now she has more trouble than she can handle with her neighbor. If you're here to keep an eye on things, it should be safe for me to make a quick trip. I should be back Monday night."
"Pirate bones!" Matty crowed upon uncovering unexpected treasure.
Amused by the boy's imagination, relieved at the interruption, Jared turned to see what he'd found. His jaw dropped at the sight of the leg bone Matty waved at them. He'd seen enough of Tim's textbooks to recognize human remains.
Axell uttered a muffled curse. "How do I pry that from him?" he asked rhetorically, striding toward the boy even as he asked.
"By calling the sheriff?" Boy, Cleo would lose it for certain. Maybe he'd better stay. He was looking for excuses to stay. Pirate bones worked.
With both men praising him for his discovery, Matty willingly relinquished the gray and brittle bone for their admiration, but it took a little more persuasion to prevent him from digging for more.
"Probably an old grave yard," Axell murmured, hauling the boy away from the mound and toward the house. "Happens all the time around here. I'll have someone look into it."
Deflected by that reasoning, left holding the bone while a pleasant sea breeze lifted his hair, Jared wondered if he'd ever possess the other man's confidence that the world was a safe, sane place. For Cleo's sake, he'd have to. He grimaced at the grisly remnant in his hand. What the hell would he do with it?
* * *
"Jared, you must be out of your mind. You can't do this." Virginia McCloud stared at her son in dismay.
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