Single Mum Seeks…
Teresa Hill
Gorgeous men were like chocolate… Delicious and mostly bad for you. At least that’s what single mother Lily thought. Especially when Nick moved in next door. After her divorce, Lily wanted nothing to do with men ever again. But when Nick needed help keeping the local women at bay, he turned to her.The idea was simple: pretend they were a couple to ward off the others. But as they grew closer, Lily found herself wishing ‘let’s pretend’ could be real life…
Excerpt
“Am I supposed to live like a monk just because I have a kid in the house?” Nick asked.
Lily didn’t know how to answer. Maybe he should ask one of the other mums in the neighbourhood – ones who had more active social lives. Except Lily didn’t want him anywhere near other women.
“I don’t know if I’m the person to ask about this,” Lily said. “I mean, I guess you could hope to find a woman with no kids and a place of her own and make an early night of it. So your nephew isn’t home alone for long.”
Nick looked at her, a wide grin on his face. “Not gonna work. The woman I’ve got my eye on has two little girls.”
“Oh.” Lily nearly dropped her glass.
Nick saved her by taking it out of her hand and putting it down. Then he took her chin in his hand and very slowly, giving her time to pull away if she wanted to, leaned in close, his nose nuzzling hers, lips practically on hers.
“It’s you, Lily. The woman I want is you.”
Teresa Hill lives within sight of the mountains in upstate South Carolina with one husband, very understanding and supportive; one daughter, who’s taken up drumming (Earplugs really don’t work that well. Neither do sound-muffling drum pads. Don’t believe anyone who says they do.); and one son, who’s studying the completely incomprehensible subject of chemical engineering. (Flow rates, Mum. It’s all about flow rates.)
In search of company while she writes away her days in her office, she has so far accumulated two beautiful, spoiled dogs and three cats (the black panther/champion hunter, the giant powder puff and the tiny tiger stripe), all of whom take turns being stretched out, belly-up on the floor beside her, begging for attention as she sits at her computer.
Single Mum Seeks…
by
Teresa Hill
MILLS & BOON®
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk/)
To all mothers who’ve survived raising teenagers. you have my complete admiration.
Chapter One
“I just don’t see what all the fuss is about,” Lily Tanner told her older sister, Marcy, as she scrambled to hold the phone to her ear with her shoulder while making sandwiches for her two girls’ school lunches.
“Fuss?” Her sister seemed disbelieving. “That’s what you call it? Fuss?”
“No, I don’t call it fuss,” Lily said, smearing peanut butter on the bread too fast and tearing a gash in the last slice she had, save for the heels. Her girls acted like she was trying to feed them some kind of brick when she had nothing but the heels of a loaf of bread to offer.
“Who’s fussing?” her youngest, Brittany, who was six, asked.
“No one’s fussing,” Lily assured her, as her daughter moved like a sloth through the kitchen, slowly sipping a cup of milk, like she had all the time in the world before Tuesday’s designated carpool driver arrived.
“And no one’s getting any fuss,” Marcy told her. “Which is fine for a while and completely understandable, given what that rat Richard put you through. But after a while, a woman’s just got to have a little fussing.”
“Oh, for God’s sake, I am not going to call it fussing,” Lily said, trying to salvage the torn slice of bread. Anything but the heel. She wasn’t taking lip from her daughters today about a heel of bread in a peanut butter sandwich.
“You said nobody was fussing,” Brittany reminded her.
“Fussing? Who’s fussing?” her oldest, Ginny, asked, looking worried, as she too often did these days. “Is it Daddy? Are you and Daddy fussing?”
“No. I told you. No one’s fussing,” Lily promised, rolling her eyes in exasperation. “Your aunt Marcy and I were just talking, and we weren’t actually talking about fussing at all. We were talking about—”
“Yes, please. I can’t wait to hear,” Marcy said, laughing. “Tell me what we were talking about.”
“Fudge,” Lily said, thinking it was the farthest thing from fussing she could come up with on short notice.
Marcy roared at that.
Lily shoved sandwiches into lunch boxes as Ginny looked like she didn’t quite believe her own mother.
Then Brittany piped up and saved the day, announcing with absolute sincerity, an unwavering sense of optimism and six-year-old innocence, “I like fudge.”
“There,” Lily said, managing a smile for her girls. “Everybody likes fudge.”
“Everybody certainly does,” Marcy said. “So for you to tell me that you’re perfectly fine without—”
“Marcy!” she yelled into the phone while she shooed the girls toward the front door.
“Wait,” Brittany said, stopping short and tugging on the right leg of Lily’s shorts. “Do we have fudge?”
“No, baby. Not right now. But maybe tonight,” Lily said. “Here. I’ve got the front door. You two have to get outside. Mrs. Hamilton will be here any minute.”
She hustled the girls out the door, waved to Betsy Hamilton, who was already at the curb, then closed the door and turned her attention back to the phone.
“Honestly, Marcy! Fudge?”
“Hey, it was your word, not mine. But now that you’ve coined the term, we’re stuck with it. It’s perfect. It’ll be our code word forever.”
“We don’t need a code word. We don’t need to talk about it at all. I am perfectly fine,” Lily insisted.
After all, it was just…fudge. Nothing to get all that excited about. Not when she had fifteen things to do every minute of the day and the girls ran her ragged and Richard was still as annoying as could be.
Who had time for fudge?
“May I remind you,” Lily said, “that I have a year to get out of this house? Not even that, anymore. Just a little over ten and a half months to do everything I can to upgrade it before I have to sell it and hope I get enough out of my half to get me and the girls into another house. Which is going to take every bit of time and energy I have for the next ten and a half months.”
“I know. I know.”
“And where am I supposed to find a man anyway? You know what it’s like in my neighborhood. Everybody’s married, with kids the girls’ages, and if they do happen to get divorced, the wife ends up here in the subdivision with the kids while the cheating husband moves out to some little love nest of an apartment with his new, pretty, young thing. Until the wife has to sell out for lack of money and then some new married couple moves in. These are the suburbs, in all their glory. I could easily go a month without seeing a single, eligible man, and then even if one did show up, I don’t have time to date anybody. I hardly have time to drink my coffee.”
She gave a big huff at the end of her little speech, tired and spent.
Did her sister know nothing of Lily’s current life? Of her world?
It was maddening and annoying and more than a little sad to feel so alone and to be living in such aggravating circumstances, just because Richard met a girl barely out of her teens on a business trip to Baltimore.
“Oh, honey. I’m sorry,” Marcy said, and Lily could hear Marcy’s own kids in the background now. “I wasn’t trying to make things harder for you. I was just trying to warn you that it’s fine to go without…fudge for a while, and then…well, then it’s not. I mean, you’re still human, and you’re only thirty-four years old. We all have needs. We all get lonely.”
“I am not lonely,” Lily insisted, clearing the table of halfeaten bowls of cereal and bread crumbs from the peanut butter sandwiches and half-empty glasses that seemed to multiply like rabbits all over the house when Lily’s back was turned. “At least not for…fudge. Now, a bubble bath, I could handle. Someone to cook dinner every now and then or a good book, plus enough time to read it without interruptions—that I could handle. But fudge is—”
Lily broke off as she straightened up, having put four cups in the dishwasher and found herself looking out the window above the sink, which faced the house next door, which had been empty for weeks.
It looked like it wasn’t going to be empty anymore, because in the driveway was a moving truck backed up to the garage, the big back door of the truck open, a pair of sun-bronzed, muscular arms handing a table out of the back of the truck to someone Lily couldn’t quite see because of an overgrown rhododendron bush.
“What?” Marcy asked. “Where did you go?”
“Right here,” Lily said, watching as the arms kept coming out, soon to be followed by a really nice, perfectly muscled shoulder.
First one.
Then the other.
Lily was afraid her mouth dropped open, and she just couldn’t seem to shut it.
Legs. Long, masculine legs, encased in well-worn jeans that hung just a tad low on a taut waist, above which was what looked to be the most beautifully formed washboard abs she’d ever seen, and above that, nice, broad, extremely capable looking shoulders.
“Oh,” Lily said, all the breath going out of her in a rush.
“What?” Marcy asked. “Are you okay?”
Lily felt like she’d been burned.
A wave of heat came over her, blossoming in the pit of her stomach and spreading like a flood to every cell in her body.
There was an absolutely gorgeous male creature at the house next door, muscles flexing beautifully, a little sweat on his brow, chest gloriously naked, and all of a sudden she got it. Everything her sister had been trying to explain to her about loneliness and needs and how some things were fine for a while and then, they just weren’t anymore.
Suddenly, they were urgent, burning, overwhelming.
“Oh, fudge!” Lily said and dropped the phone.
She was afraid he’d seen her watching him through the kitchen window or that somehow he’d heard her phone clattering on the hard tile floor. Which seemed impossible at this distance and with the walls of her house between them.
But his head shot around and he stared right at her before she gulped and dropped to her knees, feeling guilty and confused and hot all over.
Like she’d suddenly developed a fever in mere seconds.
Maybe she was coming down with something.
Lily touched her hand to her forehead to see if it felt hot.
A mother could tell those things just by the touch of her hand, after dealing with as many feverish kids as she had.
But she couldn’t tell this time. Not for sure.
Rattled, she stood back up and looked cautiously out the window once again, to see nothing but the open back of the moving truck and a few boxes.
No sign of him.
Had to be one of the movers, she told herself as she searched the cabinet above the stove, where she stored medicines to keep out of her girls’ reach.
Men in her neighborhood did not look that good without their shirts on. They didn’t have those kinds of muscles or those kinds of tans.
They were strictly suit-and-tie kind of guys.
Desk jockeys.
Pencil pushers.
A man didn’t get muscles like that in corporate America.
Lily found the thermometer and put it in her mouth, just as her phone rang stridently.
She must have dropped the phone just right to disconnect the call as it landed.
Which meant this had to be her sister calling back.
And Lily didn’t want to talk to Marcy.
Not that Marcy would really give her the option of refusing. She’d just keep calling until Lily answered. Either that or get in her car and drive the twenty minutes between their houses to make sure Lily was okay.
Marcy tended to be a tad overprotective since Richard had moved out.
“Oh, fine,” she muttered, picking up the phone, thermometer still in her mouth. “Hewwo.”
“What happened?” Marcy demanded to know.
“Sowwy. I dwopped d’phone,” Lily said as best she could.
“Huh?”
“Wait…” The thermometer beeped and she took it out. No fever. How odd. “I was just taking my temperature. I felt a little warm, and I dropped the phone.”
Not necessarily in that order, but Marcy didn’t have to know every little thing.
“You think you have a fever? From just talking about…fudge?”
Lily rolled her eyes. Marcy’s kids must still be there. They left for school about fifteen minutes later than Lily’s.
“No, not from just talking about it. I just felt…warm, that’s all.”
“You’re not telling me something,” Marcy insisted.
“There’s a lot I don’t tell you or anyone else,” Lily admitted, leaning every so slightly to the left, so she could see out the kitchen window again.
And there he was, unloading a kitchen chair.
Lily sighed heavily, unable to help herself.
“I knew it!” Marcy pounced on the sound. “What’s going on? Do you have a man there?”
“No, I do not have a man here, and I don’t want a man here. I just got rid of one, and he was enough trouble to last me a lifetime,” she insisted.
“Honey, we just talked about this. You are not off men for a lifetime. You think you are, but I promise you, you’re not. You’re just in deep freeze right now.”
“Deep freeze?”
“Yes. Where men are concerned. But you won’t always be there. One day, some man will come along and bam! No more deep freeze on your…fudge life.”
“Aunt Lily has a fudge life?” she heard Marcy’s youngest ask through the phone.
Lily started laughing.
“What’s a fudge life?” Stacy asked. “Do you just eat it and eat it and eat it all day?”
“No,” Marcy insisted.
“’Cause I like fudge. Could I have a fudge life?”
“No. No one spends her life eating fudge,” Marcy said, then hissed at her sister, “Fudge life? I will never hear the end of this. She’ll probably tell the other kids at school, and I’ll be getting calls from the other moms. All their kids will want a fudge life, and the moms will want to know what I’m doing, telling kids they can just eat fudge all the time. How am I ever going to explain this?”
“Sorry. Gotta go,” Lily said, hearing her sister growl at her before she hung up the phone.
A fudge life?
Lily laughed again.
At least she could do that now. Laugh at times.
She hadn’t for a while. It had been too hard, too scary, too overwhelming, to think of being mostly alone in the world except for two little girls depending on her for just about everything.
But it was getting less overwhelming as time went on.
She was down, but she wasn’t beaten.
Lily peeked out the window again, and he was still there, a big box perched on one shoulder, the muscles in his arm looking long and sleek and glistening with sweat.
Had to be a mover, she reassured herself.
Something looking that good would never move in next door to her.
And it was getting hot out.
They probably didn’t have anything cold to drink in that house, which had been empty for three months, since the Sanders got transferred to San Diego.
It would be neighborly to drop by and offer them a little something, and maybe the owners would show up while she was there. Or she could pump the moving men for information on the new family.
Her girls were always eager to have more friends to play with. The first thing they’d ask when they walked in the door after school would be whether the new neighbors had girls their age, and a good mother should be ready to provide the answers for her children, shouldn’t she?
Lily opened the refrigerator door, thinking…a pitcher of iced tea?
Yes, she had one, very nearly full.
And some cookies?
She checked the cabinets. No cookie mix. Lily dug a little deeper, then sucked in a breath, feeling uneasy once again.
No, she didn’t have any cookie mix.
But she had what she needed to make a batch of fudge.
Neighborly, she muttered to herself, as she marched across the yard with the pitcher of tea, four plastic glasses tucked under her arm, and a batch of still-warm fudge.
Just be neighborly.
Nothing more. Nothing less.
She made it to the back of the truck and could hear someone swearing softly from inside the enclosed space, and when she paused right behind the truck and looked in, she found him, eyes narrowed in concentration, right shoulder pressed up against a huge box that had snagged on the corner of another one and then didn’t want to budge.
Up close, in his face she saw a toughness and a certain strength, eyes so dark they were almost black and flashing with irritation at the moment. He had an ultra-firm jaw, a head full of thick, dark brown hair that he wore a little too long, and what seemed like miles and miles of bare, brown skin.
It was all that skin and muscles that did it to her.
She started to feel hot all over again and thought about cooling her forehead with the tea pitcher, which was already sweating with condensation from the heat.
She’d be taking her temperature again when she got home, just to make sure. Because something wasn’t right here.
“Hi. Can I help you, ma’am?” a deep voice said from behind her.
“Oh!” She startled, nearly spilling the tea before the nearly grown teenager, all arms and legs and hair, grabbed it and saved it.
“Jake!” the man who had made her feverish called out from behind her.
“Sorry,” the kid, Jake, said. “Didn’t mean to sneak up on you.”
“Oh. No. It’s all right. I just…didn’t hear you.” I was too busy becoming feverish, possibly over your father.
How embarrassing.
Did the kid know women reacted this way to his father?
Did his gorgeous dad know?
Lily wanted to sink into the rhododendron behind her.
“It’s okay.” The kid pointed to the plate of hot fudge in her hand. “Is that for us?”
“Jake!” The man, standing at the edge of the truck bed and looking down at them both, made the name sound like an order, not to be ignored.
A mind-your-manners-or-else order.
Lily glanced up at him nervously, then quickly looked away. Tall, hot, all muscles and no smile, she saw in a flash.
“Sorry.” The kid looked properly apologetic. “I just…It’s hot, and we’ve been at this for hours, and I’m hungry.”
“You’re always hungry,” the man said, command still evident in the voice.
“Yes,” Lily said, jumping in to save the boy. “I have nephews who are about your age. I know teenage boys are always hungry, and I thought I’d come over and…introduce myself.”
“Sweet,” Jake said, sounding truly appreciative as she held out the plate to him. “Jake Elliott. This is my uncle, Nick Malone.”
Uncle.
Not dad.
Did they have a moving company together? Or maybe Jake and his family were moving in, and Uncle Nick was just helping out?
“I’m Lily Tanner, from next door.” She nodded toward her house, then held up the pitcher. “Would you like some sweet tea?”
“Oh, yeah,” Jake said, his mouth already full of fudge. “Hey, it’s still all warm and gooey. Did you just make this?”
“Yes,” Lily said.
“Sweet!”
Which she knew was his generation’s current equivalent of cool.
“I bet she was thinking the fudge might make a good snack for later on,” his uncle pointed out. “And before you stick any more of it in your mouth, you could say thank-you.”
“Thanks,” Jake muttered with a mouth full of fudge. “Really, ma’am. It’s great.”
“You’re welcome.” She offered him a plastic cup and then filled it with tea.
Lily braced herself to face Uncle Nick, who’d just jumped down out of the truck bed and onto the ground, landing just a tad too close for her own comfort.
He immediately grabbed a worn, white T-shirt from the truck bed and pulled it on in what Lily could only describe as a truly impressive rippling, flexing mix of muscles in his arms and chest.
She appreciated that, she told herself, he would cover up that way. And she’d have thought maybe her mysterious fever would have gone away, once he was more covered up. But no, it hadn’t.
If anything, it was even hotter now that he was closer and staring at her with those intense, dark eyes of his and a jaw like granite.
“Sorry,” he said. “I feel like I’ve told him a million times already to say please and thank-you, and it just never seems to sink in.”
“I know. It’s the same thing with my girls.”
“You have girls?” Jake piped up at that.
Lily smiled at him. “Much too young for you, I’m afraid.”
“I’m only fifteen,” he said.
Which had to be impossible, it seemed. He was positively overgrown, this big, awkward, hulking thing who towered over her. The only thing boyish about him was his face.
“I know. I just look older,” Jake said.
“You do. But my girls are only six and nine.”
“Oh.” He shrugged, like it was no big deal.
Lily was sure he had more girls than he could handle flirting with him, just like they must flirt with his uncle.
“I’m gonna go inside. Get out of the sun for a minute,” Jake said, turning to leave. “Thanks again, Mrs. Tanner. This is great.”
“You’re welcome,” Lily said, then found herself completely tongue-tied.
Flustered.
Flushed, she feared.
Feeling foolish.
She held out a cup to Mr. Tough-and-Sweaty, thinking sweat had surely never looked so good as it did on him.
“Thank you,” he said, taking the cup and holding it out for her to fill, then shook his head. “That little rat escaped with all the fudge, didn’t he?”
Lily smiled, not too big a smile, she hoped. Not like she was trying to flirt or anything. “I think he did. You should probably hurry inside. If he’s anything like my nephews, he could down the whole plate easily inside of five minutes.”
“Sounds like Jake,” he agreed, tipping his head back as he took a long swallow of tea. “Wow, that’s good.”
“You’re welcome to keep the pitcher,” she offered. “I thought your refrigerator must be empty, and it’s supposed to be in the nineties today, so…I just thought this was a good idea.”
“It was. Jake and I appreciate it.”
“So…are you moving in? Or is Jake and his family?” She hoped she sounded neighborly and nothing more, and that the flush on her face didn’t give her away.
“Just Jake and me,” he said, his expression if possible becoming even more stern. “My sister and her husband died in a car accident six weeks ago. They have twin boys in college at Virginia Commonwealth. Jake’s their youngest. Other than the twins, I’m what passes for his family now.”
“Oh. I’m so sorry,” she said.
And here she had been admiring every bit of him, right down to the sweat on his brow. Admiring the sweat of a grieving man with a grieving teenage boy.
“Thanks. It’s still a little raw, but—”
“Of course. I’m sorry I even asked—”
“No. I’m glad you did. Glad you asked me and not him. He’s…uh…well, it still throws him, getting the question and not knowing what to say.”
“Of course. My girls were the same way when my husband and I divorced. I mean, I know it’s not the same thing, but…they hated having everyone ask, and then having to explain about their father not living with us anymore.”
He nodded, quiet and understanding.
The kind of man who’d take on raising his fifteen-year-old nephew alone.
Which, if possible, only made him even more attractive. Maybe that stern expression was simply a result of what he’d been through in the last six weeks.
“Well, I should let you two get back to work,” she said, handing him the pitcher. “Let me know if you need anything else. I’m almost always at home.”
“Thanks again. This was really nice of you,” he said quietly.
Nice.
Fine.
He thought she was nice.
She hoped he didn’t know she was gawking like a smitten teenager over him, all while he was grieving for the loss of his sister and brother-in-law and taking care of his poor parentless nephew.
What is wrong with you? Lily muttered to herself, trying to hide her dismay behind a forced smile.
He nodded toward the house. “I’m going to get inside and have some of that fudge.”
Yeah. She nodded goodbye.
Fudge.
Chapter Two
Jake was shoving fudge into his mouth like there was no tomorrow when Nick finally got into the kitchen of their new house. He stopped only long enough to hold out his now empty glass, wanting Nick to refill it for him before putting the pitcher down on the counter.
“Hey, she was kind of cute for somebody’s mom,” Jake said. “And she can really make fudge.”
“I wouldn’t know. I haven’t had any yet,” Nick said, hoping his voice wasn’t too gruff.
He didn’t mean for it to be. Too many years of snapping out orders to soldiers in his command. It was habit now, though he tried his best to tone it down for Jake and his brothers. They really didn’t need anybody who sounded like they were yelling at them or mad at them, and Nick knew he could sound like that without even trying.
Jake handed over what was left of the fudge and Nick bit into it, a flavor akin to ecstasy exploding in his mouth.
“Oh…sh…man!” he said.
He was trying to quit cussing, too, trying to set a good example for the kid. Not that he was doing all that well with the noswearing bit, either.
“I know,” Jake said appreciatively. “What do you think we’d have to do to get her to make us dinner?”
“Doubtful. She’s a single mother with two little girls,” Nick said, still savoring a mouthful of fudge. “She probably doesn’t have a lot of extra time.”
“Still,” Jake said hopefully. “I bet she’d do it for you. Did you see the way she looked at you? Like she didn’t really mind that you’re—”
“Old?” Nick guessed.
“I was going to say practically ancient.” Jake grinned, reaching for the last piece of fudge.
“Touch it and die,” Nick growled. “You already had a plateful.”
“I know, but I’m still hungry,” he complained.
And it wasn’t even ten o’clock.
Lily Tanner knew what she was talking about. Teenage boys were bottomless pits. Nick hadn’t noticed so much in the first week or so after his sister and brother-in-law’s death, because neighbors kept bringing over food. It seemed like a mountain of food, but it hadn’t lasted long with the twins and Jake in the house. It seemed nothing, even grief, dimmed the appetite of a teenage boy for long.
“Let’s finish getting everything out of the truck before it gets any hotter, and then we’ll go find something to eat,” Nick said. “Who knows? Maybe by that time, another one of the neighbors will show up with lunch. Just try to look pitiful and weak and underfed.”
“I can do that,” Jake said, guzzling another glass of tea and then heading outside.
Nick put down his own glass, grabbed the last piece of fudge and popped it in his mouth, then looked around the house, empty of everything but boxes and furniture that hadn’t yet been put into place, and he hoped for what had to be the thousandth time that he was doing the right thing in coming here to Virginia and trying to raise this kid.
And wondered what in the hell his sister had been thinking of to name him the boys’ guardian in her will.
They got everything out of the truck by noon, and then went inside and moved just enough boxes to allow them room to collapse on the sofa that had landed temporarily right under a ceiling fan.
Nick had to hand it to the kid. He could do some work, and he was really strong, although Nick had to think he could take the kid in a fight, if he really had to. And from the mountain of unsolicited advice he’d received in the last few weeks on raising teenagers, Nick had been led to believe it might just come down to who was stronger physically at least once. Although, he couldn’t see Jake refusing to listen to him to the point where the two of them got into a fight.
Still, what did Nick know? Next to nothing about raising kids.
Thank God they were boys.
If they had been girls, he wouldn’t have had a prayer.
Of course, if his sister had daughters, she probably wouldn’t have left them to Nick to raise.
“I’m starving,” Jake said, sprawled out on the couch, eyes closed, head resting heavily against the back, long legs stretched out in front of him.
“Tell me something I don’t already know,” Nick said, thinking of what kind of fast-food restaurants he’d seen on the drive over here in the truck.
And then, the doorbell rang.
Jake sat up and looked insanely hopeful. “Do you think it might be more fudge?”
“I think we could use something more substantial than fudge. Don’t you?”
“Guess so,” Jake said, dragging himself up to answer the door.
Which was a good thing, because every muscle in Nick’s body was protesting the very idea of moving, which the kid would no doubt give him hell about.
Nick didn’t want to be fifteen again for any amount of money in the world, but the body of a fifteen-year-old…That, he could handle, especially on days like today.
Jake opened the door and grinned like crazy.
Must be food.
Nick forced himself up and to his feet, trying to make it without a grimace as his back protested fiercely. At least the kid didn’t see. He was focused completely on the baking dish placed in his outstretched hands.
They made nice to the neighbor lady with the chicken cheddar noodle dish for a few minutes, then headed for the kitchen and scarfed it down right out of the pan, leaning over the kitchen countertop with a fork for each of them and nothing else.
Jake’s mother would be appalled, Nick was sure, but hey, the kid was hungry and he was being fed.
They washed it down with some more of Lily Tanner’s tea, Jake all but licking the chicken pan clean, like a puppy who hadn’t been fed in days.
“I think I like this neighborhood,” he said. “Do you think someone will show up with dinner?”
“We can hope,” Nick said.
Lily had meant to get some work done that day. Truly, she had. She’d come home from next door and taken her temperature again, finding it still oddly normal, but still felt all flushed and shaky and…weak.
Was she coming down with something?
Had to be, she decided.
What other explanation could there be?
And then she went to work in her dining room, where the walls were nothing but Sheetrock, ready for taping and spackling, then wallpaper, paint and wood trim.
She’d been an interior decorator before the girls were born, then a stay-at-home mom and then kind of fallen into the whole rehabbing thing. She’d convinced Richard they should sell their smaller house and buy a larger one in need of remodeling three years ago and hadn’t looked back since.
A year there and a lot of work, mostly on Lily’s part, which she found she truly enjoyed, and they’d sold the house at a nice profit and bought another one.
This was their fourth, bought just weeks before Richard announced he was leaving her, and as part of the divorce settlement, she owed him half the equity they had in the house when they’d first purchased it. But she had a full year in which to finish renovating it and she got to keep everything she got over the original purchase price.
She’d worked hard to get that agreement and was counting on the profits from the house to allow her to outright buy a much smaller house for her and the girls to live in.
So she did not lack work to do that day, but the phone never stopped ringing. It seemed half the neighbors in the cul-de-sac had seen her talking to that gorgeous specimen of man next door and wanted to know a) If he was really moving in, b) If the teenager was his son, and c) If the gorgeous man could possibly be single.
Having all the answers to all three questions, Lily was a very popular woman that morning. Not to be outdone by a gift of fudge and iced tea, her neighbors promptly went to work.
By noon, there was a veritable parade of women marching to the house next door, casserole dishes in hand, bright smiles on what looked to Lily like perfectly made-up faces and clothes more suited for a fancy lunch out than a casual drop-in on a new neighbor.
“Shameless,” Lily muttered to herself, again at that kitchen window, watching Jean Sumner from three doors down show up in a low-cut sweater that hugged her more than ample curves. “Absolutely shameless.”
Her new neighbors would enjoy the view much more than what Lily would bet was Jean’s curried turkey, which Lily knew from experience tended to be quite dry.
Sissy Williams just happened to drop by in her little white tennis outfit, practically bouncing in enthusiasm as she presented them with what looked like a cake.
Jake would like that.
But the most shameless one of all, as far as Lily was concerned, was Audrey Graham, showing up at their front door in jogging shorts and a jog bra!
“You could at least put a shirt on!” Lily muttered, knowing good and well the woman couldn’t hear her.
At least Lily had shown up with all her clothes on, and she hadn’t dressed up. She felt vastly superior to the parade of neighbors she’d seen so far just because she hadn’t fussed over her appearance or shown an excessive amount of skin.
She wondered if her neighbors, too, had felt a little feverish after their visits, because Nick’s shirt had come back off while he was unloading the truck. Lily couldn’t help but notice, being right next door and all.
But she hadn’t gawked at him or anything like that. It was just that in passing by her kitchen window, which she did on a regular basis on any given day, she happened to glance out and there he was, him and Jake and a parade of food-bearing, scantily clad women.
Lily had never known her neighbors to behave in this way. This was a very respectable street, in a well-respected neighborhood, after all.
Lily’s sister called again, but Lily got away with being remarkably vague about her day, and there was no more talk about fudge of any kind. The girls came home from school, happy and full of energy until after she fed them and mentioned homework. At which point, they pled an overwhelming case of fatigue and collapsed on the floor of the family room, watching a Disney Channel movie until she shooed them off to bed at eight-thirty.
Lily was loading the dishwasher a few minutes later when she caught sight of Jake cutting through the side yard and heading for her kitchen door.
She didn’t fuss. Not really.
Patted down her hair, checked her shirt to make sure she wasn’t dusty or really dirty, because she had gotten a little work in on prepping the dining-room walls that day, and then she pulled open the door.
Jake stood there about to knock, looking like a giant puppy, all hair and ears and feet.
“Hi. Get everything moved in?”
“Yes, ma’am,” he said, coming inside.
“You must be tired,” she said.
“A little,” he admitted, like it would take more than a day like this to make a boy his age actually tired.
“What can I do for you?” she offered.
“Well…I kind of messed up, and I’m not sure what to do about it,” he confessed. “See, we had all these people come over and bring food. All kinds of good food—”
“Yes. I noticed,” Lily admitted.
“Nothing as good as your fudge. But good stuff, and my uncle told me to keep a list of who brought what and what it was in, so we could get the plates and pans back to everybody and thank them, and I…well, I kind of have a list, but…not really.”
“Ah.” Lily nodded. “You got hungry and got distracted and…”
“Yeah. I did. And now, I’m not sure what to do. I have cards and things with names on them, but they’re not all attached to dishes anymore, and I think I remember what some of the women looked like who brought certain things…”
Like Audrey in the jog bra.
Lily bet Jake remembered her.
“I can probably match up most of the dishes to the cards,” Lily assured him. “We tend to bring over the same recipes when we do meals for people. I know everyone’s specialties.”
He looked so grateful she wanted to hug him.
Poor baby.
He must have had a long day and a really bad six weeks or so.
“Look, my girls are upstairs asleep—”
“I could stay here, in case they wake up,” he offered.
“Okay,” Lily said. “It won’t take me a minute. Everything’s in the refrigerator?”
He nodded. “And the cards and stuff are on the counter by the refrigerator. I left the side door open, and my uncle went to drive the truck back to the rental place, so the house is empty.”
“Okay. Be right back.”
She knew the house from when the last couple lived there, and her kitchen faced theirs, so all she had to do was get around the low row of bushes and she was there. And everything was right where Jake said it would be.
Sissy had indeed brought a cake. Something fancy with fruit and glaze on it.
“No way you made that yourself,” Lily muttered. Sissy wasn’t much in the kitchen. And she should have known it was much fancier than a teenager boy cared for it to be.
Jean’s turkey looked tastier than usual. It was easy to match that dish with Jean’s card. A half-dozen others, and Lily was left with only Audrey’s card and one with absolutely awful handwriting that looked like it might even be the work of teenage girls.
Even the teenagers were flaunting their baked goods along with their bodies these days?
The two dishes left were a container of homemade macaroni salad and a baked chicken thing.
With that body, Audrey probably didn’t touch carbs, Lily reasoned. The baked chicken was likely hers.
She decided to ask Jake just in case. After all, he wouldn’t have forgotten Audrey in that little outfit. Whether it had blinded him to everything else, including what she brought, Lily didn’t know, but she’d find out.
She took the container of baked chicken to show Jake, opened the kitchen door and there was Nick.
She had to work fast to keep the chicken from landing on the ground. He was more worried about her landing on the ground, because while she caught the pan of chicken, he caught her with lightning reflexes and the kind of strength she couldn’t help but admire.
She’d have pitched backward, if not for him.
As it was, he had her, his big hands on her upper arms holding her easily, a wry, maybe slightly amused expression on his face.
“Lily,” he said, much too close. “You okay?”
“Yes,” she whispered.
“Sorry I startled you.”
His hands lingered for a long moment, her arms feeling odd and tingly. Only once he was sure she was firmly planted on her feet, did he let her go and he step back.
“No. It was me. I wasn’t looking where I was going,” she admitted, a funny little catch in her voice, finding herself oddly breathless and seeing nothing but wide shoulders and wellmuscles arms.
Feeling pure heat coming off his body.
Not such a shock, she decided.
After all, she hadn’t been this close to a man other than her ex-husband in years. So she supposed it wasn’t all that surprising.
She blinked up at him, a little confused and a lot embarrassed and…she wasn’t even sure what else.
What had she been thinking? Doing? Saying? Her mind was a blank.
“I doubt you’re the kind of woman to come over here and steal baked chicken, so…”
“Oh,” she rushed in. “No. I wasn’t. I swear.”
“I didn’t think you were, Lily.”
No. He just probably thought she was nuts. “Jake got a little confused about which dish came from who, and I told him I’d help him sort it out.”
“Yeah. He ripped off the cards and lids and was eating out of the pans before he even thought about keeping track of who brought what.”
Lily nodded. “He seems like a really sweet kid. He’s at my house, to make sure my girls don’t wake up and find themselves alone. I’m sure I know who brought everything except this and one other thing.”
She held up the baked chicken.
“I remember that one,” he said.
“A woman wearing…”
“Next to nothing,” he said plainly and if anything, a bit confused by it all.
“Shorts and a…”
“Bra-like thing,” he said.
“Audrey Graham,” Lily said, turning around and heading back into the kitchen. “I’ll just put her card with this dish, and—”
“Does she often show up at strangers’ doors dressed like that?” he asked.
Lily laughed, couldn’t help it, then reminded herself that she might not have dressed as provocatively as Audrey and the rest of the neighborhood ladies, but she’d been first in line at his door this morning.
What did that say about her?
What did it make him think about her? That she was just like all the others?
“Well…Audrey is…I guess you could say…she’s turned into a physical fitness buff since her divorce was final.” It was the kindest thing Lily could come up with to say. “She runs most every day now, and it’s been so hot, so…”
She turned around, having finished labeling dishes, and found Nick Malone leaning against the kitchen counter, looking like a man with a lot of questions he wasn’t sure he wanted answered.
“Friendly neighborhood,” he said.
“Yes. Very.”
“I’ve never lived in a place like this. Didn’t expect such a welcome,” he said carefully, like they were treading all around all sorts of subjects now. “Is it always like this when someone moves in?”
“Well…” She supposed she should warn him. Or give him the good news, depending on how he felt about things. “There aren’t a lot of single men in the neighborhood.”
“Okay,” he said, looking even more confused.
“Mostly married couples and divorced mothers,” she explained.
Lonely, divorced mothers.
Mothers with certain unmet needs.
Of which, she wouldn’t have said she was one. Would have said she was fine. In need of nothing. Wanting nothing except a long, hot bubble bath and a good book.
And now here she was, with a gorgeous neighbor and that funny, slight fever again that she’d proven to herself wasn’t a fever. At least not the first two times she’d taken her temperature today.
Lily looked up at him as innocently as she could manage.
“And all those women who showed up today are single?” he asked, like the idea frightened him a bit.
“No. Not all of them,” Lily said, and then thought that meant she’d spent all day watching his house from her kitchen window.
Wait…no. That she’d looked at all the cards that came with the food.
She hoped that’s what he thought she meant.
Not that she was spying.
“They’re just…always happy to welcome a new neighbor,” she said.
New man, she’d meant, but hadn’t said it. Though he had to know that’s what she meant. He could have a different woman for every day of the week, if he wanted, if she was any judge of what just happened today.
Did he want that? A rotation of different women from Sunday to Saturday?
Was he that kind of guy?
And what about Jake? Surely he wouldn’t have women parading through the house with Jake here?
“Well, Jake is certainly happy,” he said finally. “Unfortunately, I’m not much of a cook and neither is he.”
“So, this is a good thing. All this…friendliness and neighborliness.”
Was that even a word? Neighborliness?
Like this was about nothing but food.
Lily was embarrassing herself and a little confused.
Did the man not know how good he looked? Especially with his shirt off? Surely this wasn’t the only place where women flirted with him?
Was there a world out there somewhere, outside of Lily’s existence in the suburbs, where this man wouldn’t be admired for his physique?
She couldn’t imagine that there was.
Granted, she’d lived a fairly sheltered existence of kids’ birthday parties and neighborhood cookouts and volunteering at her kids’ schools, but she wasn’t that out of it. Was she?
Not that she was going to ask him about any of this.
He probably thought she was one of them.
Not as blatant as Audrey Graham and her little jog-bra, but still one of them.
And maybe Lily was.
“Well, I’d better get back,” Lily said, slipping past him and out the door, trying not to look like she was fleeing.
“Thanks for everything,” Nick said.
“You’re welcome. I hope the two of you like it here.” Not a woman-a-day kind of like it here, but…like it. She blushed just thinking about him and what he might do with all those women. “I’ll send Jake right home.”
Chapter Three
Four days later, Nick waited just inside the front door of his new house. It was just before sunrise, and he was dressed to go running, but instead he was peeking out the front window like a man expecting to be accosted in the early-morning light, right here in one of the quietest subdivisions in town.
Not by a mugger, but a grown woman in a jog-bra.
She’d followed him for the whole five miles he’d run two days ago, followed him through the quiet streets, talking the whole time, when he’d been counting on clearing out his head of everything, on having a time when he had to do nothing but keep breathing and putting one foot in front of the other. And if that wasn’t enough, the woman had followed him home, followed him inside.
Before he’d known what she was up to, she’d been all over him, right there in the kitchen. Okay, he’d been pretty sure what she was up to. He just didn’t expect to be attacked in his own kitchen that morning, and before he could do anything about it, Jake had walked in. Though starving and still half-asleep, the kid had nearly gotten an eyeful.
Something Nick did not care to repeat.
He also didn’t want anybody chattering to him the whole time he ran.
Which was why he was staring out the window, wondering if Audrey Graham was out there, waiting for him, despite the fact that he’d told her—politely but plainly—that he wasn’t interested.
Obviously, whatever he’d said, it hadn’t been enough.
“What are you doing?” Jake asked from behind him.
Nick nearly jumped out of his skin.
Too many years in the army before he joined the FBI.
Jake yawned. “Sorry. I forgot.”
“One day, you’re going to sneak up on me, and I’m going to crush your throat before I figure out who you are,” Nick told him.
“You can really do that?” Jake asked admiringly.
“In a heartbeat,” Nick boasted, hoping the kid would believe him and remember the warning next time. He’d really come close to hurting him once already when Jake startled him.
“Sorry. I thought you heard me.” Jake shrugged, like the possibility of a crushed throat was no big deal. “So, what are you doing? Did you go run?”
“Not yet.”
All of a sudden, Jake looked very interested. “Wait a minute? You’re not…you know. Sneaking somebody out of the house, are you?”
“Sneaking someone out?” Nick repeated.
“You know. Like…a woman?”
“No, I am not sneaking a woman out of the house,” Nick said.
“’Cause, if you want somebody to sleep over, I’m fine with that. Is it that Audrey woman? The one with the giant—” Jake lifted his hands up and held them about a foot away from his chest. “And the really cute daughter? ’Cause, I’d really like to know the daughter.”
“No, it’s not her. It’s not anybody.”
“Not anybody I know, huh? Okay—” Jake looked way too interested.
“Not anyone at all. No one was here. I wouldn’t do that.”
Nick started to say not with Jake in the house, but that sounded a bit hypocritical. Was he supposed to pretend to be a monk? Just because he was single and raising a kid? One who happened to be a teenage boy, no doubt with raging hormones of his own?
Nick didn’t think so, but what did he know about the etiquette of single parents and their sex lives?
Not much.
He’d never been seriously involved with a woman with kids.
Hardly been seriously involved with any woman.
“So, you’re just going to do without until I’m eighteen?” Jake asked, like he couldn’t quite believe it. “’Cause I thought you’d be really cool about things like that. I thought…you know. You’d bring your ladies over here, and I’d bring mine, and we’d both be cool with that.”
Nick did a double take. “You have ladies? Plural?”
“Well, not exactly,” Jake said. “Not at the moment.”
“Okay, one? You have one? Who you intend to entertain in your bedroom? At fifteen?”
“Well…maybe.”
“No way that’s gonna happen,” Nick insisted.
“Really?” He looked crushed.
“Really,” Nick said, barking out the word.
“Jeez,” Jake grumbled, looking all put out. “I thought—”
“Well, you thought wrong.”
Jake grumbled as he made his way into the kitchen, no doubt hungry already. After all, it had been a whole six hours or so since he’d eaten. Nick had found him in the kitchen at midnight, gulping down a giant bowl of cereal. Now the kid was already up and hungry again.
Nick couldn’t sneak a woman into and out of this house, even if he’d wanted to. Jake got hungry too often to make that work.
And had ideas of entertaining, all of his own.
“Jesus!” Nick said, more of a prayer for help and understanding than anything else. “What am I supposed to do about that?”
And he couldn’t even go for a decent run, because when he opened up the door to do that, he saw Audrey lurking behind a tree at the house next door, looking for him, no doubt.
Nick slammed the door and wondered if he could wait her out.
Didn’t the woman have to go to work? Or take care of her kids? Did she have nothing better to do than stalk him?
He’d either have to find a way to avoid her, by finding out her schedule and running at a different time, or convince her he wasn’t interested, and he’d bet she hadn’t heard that from many red-blooded American males. It might be hard to convince her it was true.
“Damn,” he muttered.
He was mowing the grass later that morning when Lily pulled into her driveway and got out of her little SUV, neither of her kids in sight.
He waved and kept on mowing, wanting the job done before it got too hot. But then he saw her open the back of her SUV and start wresting with a pile of wooden trim, and he cut off the mower and went to help.
“Here,” he said, coming up behind her and catching an errant piece that was dragging on the ground. “Let me help.”
“Oh.” She whirled around, but the trim wasn’t all the way out of the vehicle and didn’t quite move with her.
Nick had to move fast to keep it from going all over the place and from hitting the ground and getting scuffed up.
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you,” he said, wondering if she was naturally jumpy or a bit of a klutz.
“No. You didn’t. I just…forgot I was holding all that and then…well, you know the rest.”
“I’ve got it. Let me carry it in for you,” he said, wiping the sweat off his face with his forearm and hoping the trim didn’t slide out of his hands.
“Okay. Thanks.”
She fished out her keys and headed for the back door, leading him through the kitchen and into the dining room, the top half of the walls freshly painted a muted gold tone and ready for the wide, white trim.
“Anywhere here is fine,” she told him.
He piled the wood in the far corner. “You doing all this work yourself?”
“Yes. I like it. I used to be an interior decorator, but I found out I liked making all the decorating decisions myself, much better than following someone else’s orders, and I like doing the physical work on a house myself. So after the girls were born, I started rehabbing houses and selling them.”
He looked around at the room in progress and the kitchen that she’d obviously already done. “You do good work, Lily,” he said.
“Thanks. How are you? How’s Jake?”
“Jake’s…as good as can be expected, I think,” he said. “But what do I know? How do you think he is?”
“Sweet. Smart. Eager to please,” she said. “He offered to mow my lawn in exchange for another batch of fudge.”
“Hey, sorry—”
“No, it’s great. I get tired of mowing the lawn, especially by this time of year. Believe me, it’s worth a lot more to me than a plate of fudge to have someone else do it.”
“You’re sure?”
“Absolutely.” She walked into the kitchen and grabbed a couple of glasses from the cabinet. “Would you like something to drink? You look like you’ve been out there in the heat for a while.”
“Water. Thank you.”
She handed him a glass, which he downed in one, long swallow. She watched as he did it, looking like she wasn’t quite sure what to make of him or if he made her uneasy or something.
But then she just smiled and refilled his glass again.
“So, if it’s all right with you, I’ll make a deal with Jake? Food in exchange for lawn-mowing duty?”
“Fine with me. Just don’t let him take advantage of you or your time.”
She shrugged, smiled a bit nervously. “I like to cook, and it’s just as easy to make something for five people as it is for me and the girls. What’s his favorite meal?”
“I don’t even know,” Nick said. One more thing he didn’t know about kids in general and this one in particular. “I mean, I haven’t found anything the kid won’t eat. I do remember being at my sister’s a year or so ago, and she’d made a pot roast. Jake ate plates full. I came into the kitchen not an hour and a half later to get something to drink and found the pan of leftovers still on the stove, cooling I guess, and Jake was eating out of the pan. Kid’s got no manners when it comes to food, and that he could be hungry again after eating so much at dinner…”
Nick just shook his head in wonder.
“Okay,” Lily said. “A pot roast, it is. Everything else going okay?”
Nick hesitated, needing to talk to someone, but…Lily?
He didn’t know her that well, and as open about their sexuality as some women were these days, he suspected Lily wasn’t one of them. She seemed sweet and a little shy, and Jake had volunteered that she hadn’t been divorced from her husband for that long.
Nick just couldn’t see asking her how she handled her sex life with two little girls in the house.
“I’d like to help, if I could,” she said, all sweetness and earnestness.
Nick frowned, thinking he could at least find out a little more about Audrey Graham to help him avoid her.
“Well…” He hesitated. “I don’t think there’s any easy way to say this, and I really don’t want to make you uncomfortable, but…”
Ahhh!
Lily thought she was going to die of embarrassment right there on the spot.
He knew!
He knew she’d been practically slobbering all over him, and he wanted to talk about it?
“Ahhh,” she whimpered.
She didn’t mean to. Not out loud at least, but she must have, because suddenly, he looked concerned. He took her by the arm and said, “Lily? You okay?”
“Yes,” she lied and not at all convincingly.
“You sure?” he asked.
“Yes. Really. Just go ahead. Tell me. It’s about—”
“Audrey Graham,” he said, looking like it pained him to even say the name to her.
“Oh! Audrey?” Lily smiled, so relieved she could have fallen to her knees and said a prayer of gratitude right then.
She’d been certain he knew she’d been all but drooling over him while he moved in and then while he’d been doing yard work the other day. She was so grateful it hadn’t gotten that hot yet, and he still had his shirt on this morning.
Him shirtless in her kitchen was probably more than she could have handled.
“Yes, Audrey. Did you say something about her running every morning?”
“Yes,” she said.
Did he want to watch?
Because the woman was certainly putting on a show.
Her outfits got skimpier by the day. She must have gone shopping after Nick moved in.
Someone had even said Nick and Audrey had run together the day before, and that when it was over, Audrey had followed Nick into his house. But people said a lot of things, and Lily made a policy to discount at least half of what she heard, just on principle alone, and it must have been one of the few occasions when Lily hadn’t been watching his house, because she hadn’t seen a thing.
“Do you know where she runs? Like how far and the route she takes?” Nick asked, looking really uncomfortable with the question.
“Not really. I’m not a runner. I mean, I see her go by our houses sometimes,” Lily said.
More often, now that Nick moved in.
Did that mean he hadn’t run with her the other day?
“And…uh…I guess there’s no easy way to say this, but…if I wanted to run without…running into her?”
“Oh,” Lily said, relieved, but puzzled.
He wanted to avoid a woman with a body like Audrey’s?
She didn’t think anybody who looked like him would want to avoid someone who looked like Audrey.
“I like to run alone,” he said. “That’s all. Really. It’s just time to clear my head, and she followed me the other day and…well, she talked the whole time.”
“Oh. Of course.” Lily nodded, gleeful at the thought of Audrey, half-dressed and nearly bouncing out of her bra and annoying Nick every step of the way.
It shouldn’t make Lily so happy, because Audrey’s husband had walked out on her just like Lily’s had, and Lily knew how awful that was. Lily felt bad for everything Audrey had gone through, but still…She didn’t want Audrey to have Nick.
“If you cut through my backyard on the side farthest from yours, then take the first left, then a right, it will take you out of the neighborhood the back way. From there, you might be able to run without seeing her, because I think she stays in the subdivision.”
He grinned. “That would be great. Thanks.”
“Sure,” she said. “Anytime.”
He looked like there might be more he wanted to say, but then thought better of it and just put his empty glass down on the counter and said, “Well, I guess I’d better be going, finish the lawn before it gets any hotter.”
“Okay.”
Lily went to open the door for him, and he reached for it at the same time, which meant they ended up almost bumping into each other, and when they pulled away, she went left and he went right.
Which meant, they ended up even closer.
He gave a little chuckle. “Hang on.” And caught her by the arms, to keep her from moving again the same way he did, she thought.
Which was fine.
It was…almost a polite gesture.
Nothing more.
She didn’t move at first, didn’t want to if she was honest with herself, just stood there breathing in the scent of him, a big, strong man who’d been outside doing manly things, and the sheer heat of him, which seemed to be radiating from his body.
And then he froze. “Damn,” he muttered, turning his head back to her.
“What’s wrong?”
Had she done something? Completely given herself away?
Would she be forever embarrassed in his company and have to live with him being right next door forever and knowing she wanted him as much as Audrey? Would he be getting tips from someone else on how to avoid Lily?
Still, he held her gently by the arms, mere fractions of an inch from being pressed up against him, and he wasn’t moving away.
“Audrey’s out there. I saw her through the kitchen door,” he said.
“Oh.”
“And she sees us,” he said.
Okay?
So?
“I don’t understand—”
“Lily, she followed me into the kitchen two mornings ago and practically jumped me as Jake was coming downstairs.”
“Oh!”
“I thought I made it clear, as politely as possible, that I wasn’t interested, but maybe I didn’t. Because she’s been stalking me ever since, and Jake is daydreaming about going out with her daughter. So I’d rather not piss her off completely, if I don’t have to.”
“Okay.” Lily said, still frozen there, half an inch from him and liking it. Liking it a lot. “But what does that have to do with…this?”
He took a breath, chest and shoulders rising, coming that much closer to actually touching her, and she wanted him to touch her. She was tingling all over, like her body was singing, it was so happy. Like she’d already anticipated this slight touch a dozen times in the few seconds they’d been standing here, her waiting and waiting for things she couldn’t bring herself to ask for.
He was just so big and strong. So much…a man.
And it had been so long since she’d been this close to a man.
If she was really honest with herself, she’d admit she’d never been this close to a man as appealing as him. In a completely physical way, of course. She didn’t really know him. She just knew that her body really wanted to know his better.
“Well,” he said, dipping his head ever so slowly until his lips were resting somewhere near the base of her throat.
Not touching her.
Not really.
Doing something oh so sexy that was almost like touching.
Breathing on her, breathing in her, like a man taking a moment to savor a great meal he knew he was going to love before he ever took the first bite.
Bite!
She couldn’t think about him taking a bite of her.
Men didn’t take bites of her!
She wasn’t that kind of girl.
Maybe she should have been.
Maybe she regretted that right this minute, but still…
“If I could just do this for a moment,” he whispered, his arms sliding carefully around her.
“Mmm-hmm,” she said, her voice coming out a little squeaky and weird.
“And you were to put your arms around me, just for a minute…”
“Okay.” She was all too happy to comply.
She’d been thinking about touching him for days. Touching him in all sorts of ways, in all sorts of places that made her blush.
And actually touching him was even better, she found.
His body was solid as could be, all hard and sexy, muscles curving and sloping one into another, her hands sliding up his biceps, to cup his broad shoulders, one hand even sneaking onto the base of his neck and into the ends of his hair.
“There you go,” he said, like he really liked that. “Just like that.”
Oh, yes.
Just like that.
Lily took a giant gulp of air, her breasts rising to the point where they just barely brushed his chest.
He sucked in a breath, then gave a shaky little laugh.
“She’s watching everything we do,” he said. “And if it’s okay with you, I think if I just do this for a few moments…”
And then he stroked the tip of his nose along the side of her neck, lips so close they left a trail of heat and longing in their wake.
Lily whimpered. Couldn’t help it.
If this didn’t stop soon, she’d be begging him to stop putting on a show for Audrey and just kiss her already and be done with it.
As it was, she could imagine his mouth opening and then landing right there in that spot where the base of her neck met her shoulder, a spot that was already tingling with longing. She thought about his warm, moist mouth teasing, caressing, his beautiful, hard body plastered up against hers.
Lily stretched her neck out to the side, like she was giving him that spot, giving him anything he wanted, and let her body settle in against his. His arms tightened around her ever so slowly and carefully, like he was determined not to take advantage of the situation.
Or she hoped that’s what it was.
That he was a nice man.
A very nice, wickedly sexy man.
His nose nuzzled her ear, teased her hair, his hand cupping one side of her face and his lips settling as gently as a whisper against her temple before he slowly drew back, a wry grin on his face.
Lily tried not to whimper or to beg for more. Tried to stand on her own two feet without any help from him and tried not to look too thrilled by what he’d done or too devastated that it was over.
“So…she got an eyeful?” Lily asked, reminding herself what this had all been about.
“Yes, she did.” He grinned easily, the way a man might look at a woman he considers a good friend. “I hope that was okay? I mean, I hope I didn’t offend you…”
“No. Of course not,” she said. “Anything to help out a neighbor.”
“Well, she’s gone so…” He waited, like he wanted to say more.
She waited, too, hoping, wanting, needing, thrilled and a little bit scared.
But then he shook his head and all he said was, “I should be getting back to work. Thanks again, Lily.”
“You’re welcome,” she said.
She waited until he was out the door and she heard his lawn mower start before she sank down to the floor in her kitchen, leaning back against the cabinets, closed her eyes and relived every glorious second of what had just happened.
Sadly, it was the sexiest thing that had happened to her in years.
Chapter Four
Jake hadn’t been trying to spy on them.
Honestly.
He’d been spying on Audrey Graham, the woman who wore all the skimpy tops and had practically attacked his uncle in their kitchen, because Mrs. Graham had an absolutely gorgeous sixteen-year-old daughter, clearly miles out of Jake’s league and who’d never so much as looked down her nose at him at school.
But still…a guy had to have hope, didn’t he?
If nothing else, Jake could look and hope.
At the moment, he’d been looking at Mrs. Graham, hoping her daughter might be with her, but she wasn’t. He’d seen Mrs. Graham staring into Lily’s house and looking none too happy at what she saw, and then Jake wondered what was going on, and that’s when he saw them.
His uncle and Lily?
It looked like Nick was licking Lily’s neck or something, and it sure looked like Lily liked it.
Women liked to have their necks licked?
Jake frowned.
He didn’t exactly know a ton about women, but he’d sure never heard that one.
Kissing necks, yes.
Licking?
Not that he had a problem trying it.
He was open to pretty much anything, especially with Andie Graham.
He would be her willing slave, fulfilling her every wish, if he ever got to the point where she knew he was alive and was willing to have him close enough to do things to that pretty neck of hers.
Jake took one more look at his uncle and Lily, not quite sure what he thought about that. One, he didn’t want his uncle to make Andie’s mother mad, just on the off chance that Andie might one day have anything to do with Jake. And he liked Lily. She was sweet, and she’d been kind and understanding and made the most incredible fudge Jake had ever eaten. He didn’t want anyone to hurt her, and if she knew his uncle was all over Mrs. Graham in the kitchen the other day, and now all over Lily, Lily wouldn’t like that. Would she?
Women didn’t like to share.
It was one thing Jake was pretty sure about.
And he didn’t like thinking his uncle was the kind of man who’d hurt someone like Lily. Was he that kind of man? Jake frowned and—
“Excuse me? I’m looking for the Malone house? Is this it?”
Jake thought for a second he must be dreaming, because he was pretty sure he knew that voice. He dreamed about that voice. About more than the voice.
He turned around really slowly and hoped he didn’t look too stupid as he stared for a minute and wondered if he was actually dreaming or if Andie Graham was actually standing in front of him. If she’d actually spoken to him.
“Uh…” was all he managed to get out before he had to take a breath and try to calm down.
She was wearing some really short shorts and a little white top with spaghetti straps and a scooped out neckline, and truly, it was hard to breathe this close to her. Especially with her looking the way she did. Looking as good as she did.
Had to be a fantasy come true.
She was looking for his house?
“No way,” he muttered, out loud he feared.
She gave him an odd look, one he no doubt deserved, like he might have the IQ of a piece of fruit.
“The Malone house?” he repeated, his voice doing that weird, cracking thing that it hadn’t done since he was fourteen. He hated that stupid cracking thing.
She nodded, like she feared words might be too much for him.
“That’s my house,” he said, still thinking this had to be a mistake.
No way she’d come looking for him.
She frowned, like maybe she didn’t believe him or was really confused. “Your dad is Nick Malone?”
“Uncle,” he said, his voice still sounding funny.
“Oh. And this is your house?” She pointed to Lily’s.
“No, this one,” he said, nodding in the other direction.
“Oh. Okay. I was actually…” She looked thoroughly exasperated, not so much like the blond princess of his fantasies. More like a real person who might actually have normal problems like everyone else. “I was looking for my mom.”
And she didn’t like admitting that. Or maybe it was…thinking her mom was here with his uncle? That something was going on between them?
“She’s right over…” It was Jake’s turn to frown. She wasn’t there anymore. “She was there just a minute ago.”
Andie sighed, like she dreaded the next part, then asked, “Do you think she went inside?”
“No. My uncle’s not there,” Jake told her, not adding that his uncle was at Lily’s, licking Lily’s neck or something like that, and that Andie’s mom had seen them and hadn’t been happy about it.
“Oh,” Andie said, sighing once again. “Your uncle? Is he married?”
“No,” Jake said. Why would she care if his uncle was married?
“Well…thanks, I guess. I’ll just…I’ll be…” She paused for one more moment, then looked him over one more time. “Do I know you?”
Jake shook his head, then woke up to the fact that this was his chance. She knew he was alive, even if it was just to help her find his house. “I’m Jake. Jake Elliott. We go to the same school. I mean…I’m pretty sure we do. Jefferson?”
“Yeah, I go to Jefferson. What are you? What year?”
“Sophomore,” he admitted, knowing she was a junior.
Just one more way in which she was way out of his league.
“Oh,” she said. “Well, I’ve got to go find my mom. See you.”
Jake mumbled goodbye, and then was treated to the sight of her walking away from him in those short shorts, with those long, tanned legs, her long, blond hair swinging as she walked, wishing he could start this whole conversation over again and not sound like an idiot, not act like one, not be one.
She’d talked to him.
She knew his name and where he lived.
Jake suspected he’d be dreaming of her tonight, dreaming in more vivid detail than ever before.
Okay, maybe that wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had, Nick told himself, safely back in his own house, out of sight of any prying eyes and not mere centimeters away from being plastered up against Lily.
Luscious Lily.
He made a face, trying to get that particular description out of his head.
He did not need to be thinking of his neighbor as luscious.
Particularly with a teenage boy in the house who had visions of entertaining his own ladies in his bedroom.
So, no…nuzzling Lily’s neck was definitely not a good idea.
It had just felt like one.
A great one.
Nick tried to breathe and turn his thoughts to something else, anything else but how long it had been since he’d been involved with a woman or had one in his bed and the utter unlikelihood that he’d ever talk Lily Tanner into joining him there.
Audrey, of the skimpier and skimpier jogging outfits, he could have, if he wanted her. Which, unfortunately, he didn’t.
Lily, he suspected, was firmly off-limits.
He’d bet the woman had never had casual sex in her life. She was too sweet, too nice, too kindhearted. Softhearted, he was sure.
Not at all his type.
And yet…pretty was the word that came to mind, and it both seemed to fit and not do her justice at the same time. She had pretty blond hair and gorgeous skin, an easy smile and an openness and genuineness. She seemed real. That’s what it was. Not fussy. Not fake. Not pushy. Not playing any kind of games. Real and nice and surprisingly appealing.
He opened up the refrigerator and poured a cold glass of water from the pitcher he kept there, wishing it was that easy to cool himself down.
Damn, Lily.
She’d felt so soft and fragile beneath his hands, smelled so good, trembled ever so slightly, blushed a bit, and all he’d been able to think about was devouring her right there in her kitchen.
He took a long swallow of that cold water, but it didn’t seem to do anything to cool him down.
One by one, he thought of all the women who’d shown up at his door with offerings of food, drink and, though unspoken, companionship. Surely he could think of one he’d like to kill some time with, one who wouldn’t object at all to killing time with him.
And yet he found himself discarding one after another and staring out the window toward Lily’s house.
He’d just have to stay away from her. That was all there was to it.
He had Jake to take care of, parenting stuff to figure out, legal issues to sort through having to do with his sister and brother-in-law’s estate, determining the boys’ finances and whether there was enough money to see them all through college and if there was time, his own life to see to.
More than enough to do to keep a grown man busy and his mind off one, quietly pretty, sweet-smelling woman.
Yeah. He’d just have to stay away from her.
Three days later, Lily was trying to explain to Jake the finer points of scraping old wallpaper off the kitchen wall, when he started asking her about Audrey Graham.
What did she know about Mrs. Graham?
Lily frowned.
Was the woman still chasing after Nick? Even after the…incident?
Lily was trying very hard not to call it what it was.
Neck-nuzzling.
Oh! She practically shivered, just thinking about it. How good it had been. How delicious it had felt.
Better than sweet, warm, gooey fudge, as far as Lily was concerned.
“You do know her, don’t you?” Jake said again, giving her a funny look.
Like she’d gone off into la-la land.
“Yes,” Lily all but groaned. “I know her. Is she…bothering your uncle?”
Lily hated asking the question, but there it was. It had just popped out, oh so innocently. Okay, not so innocent. Probably not innocently at all. She felt really bad about it, but there! She’d asked.
Jake looked puzzled. “I don’t know. Maybe.”
Lily went back to steaming the wallpaper in hopes it would just peel off the wall, wishing quite firmly that she hadn’t asked. She hadn’t seen Audrey Graham lurking around the Malone house, but that didn’t mean it hadn’t happened. Audrey was sneaky and quite determined. There was no telling what Lily had missed.
And then she wondered if maybe Jake was trying to look out for her, to warn her that Audrey had been hanging around, and maybe she wasn’t bothering Nick. Maybe Nick was enjoying himself.
Maybe he’d changed his mind after the neck-nuzzling incident. Maybe Audrey had done something to change his mind.
Lily made a face, then tried to wipe the look off her face before Jake saw.
She really hated the idea of Nick with Audrey Graham. Having to see them next door. Hear them. Think about them.
Nick neck-nuzzling with Audrey Graham.
Lily wasn’t sure if she wanted to scream or cry.
“Are you okay?” Jake asked.
“Of course,” Lily lied, not too badly she hoped.
“So…Mrs. Graham has a daughter, right?” Jake asked, as he scraped the wall clean of the residue left on it, despite Lily’s careful steaming and peeling off of the old wallpaper.
Daughter?
“Yes,” Lily said. Had she completely misread the whole conversation so far? Was she so obsessed with Nick Malone that she’d completely jumped to the wrong conclusions? “I think she probably goes to high school with you.”
Jake turned an interesting shade of pink, and Lily didn’t think it was coming from the heat of the steamer.
Okay, now she got it.
The Graham women captivated men of all ages.
Lily rolled her eyes. “Andie,” she said. “You know Andie?”
“Well…yeah. I mean, I doubt she remembers I’m alive. But…I’ve seen her around.”
Oh, I just bet you have, Lily thought.
She tried to think of the last time she’d seen Andie Graham and if the daughter took after the mother in her wardrobe choices.
Lily hoped not, for Jake’s sake.
“Isn’t she a little old for you, Jake?” Lily tried, because he was so adorably awkward and sweet, and if Andie was anything like her mother, she’d chew him up and spit him out without thinking twice about it. Lily hated to see him hurt.
“Only a year older,” Jake said.
Lily nodded.
“Do you know…like…what she likes to do? I mean, where she might hang out? Or anything like that?” Jake asked.
“I think I’ve seen her at the mall a few times,” Lily told him.
Andie really looked like a mall kind of girl.
She had a feeling Jake would be spending every spare moment there, hoping to run into Andie.
Trying to let him down easily, Lily told him, “I think, last I heard, she had a boyfriend who’s in college now. Someone who went to her high school last year.”
“Oh.” Jake looked completely dejected.
A college boy.
Lily kept steaming. Jake attacked the wall, scraping so hard Lily was afraid he was going to gouge the Sheetrock underneath.
“Hey, why don’t we take a break while I start dinner, okay?” she suggested.
“Dinner?” He perked right up at that.
“What would you like?” Lily asked, shutting off her steamer and heading for the refrigerator. “Come on. You can pick.”
If he couldn’t have Andie Graham, he could at least have a good dinner.
They dug through Lily’s refrigerator, Jake settling on a chicken and rice dish Lily had made last week that he’d particularly enjoyed. She’d bought twice as much as she had the week before, astonished at how much he could eat and wanting to have enough to send home to Nick, too, and maybe for leftovers.
She’d learned Nick and Jake lived on takeout and her leftovers, and decided she was going to teach Jake to cook. Otherwise, they might not survive.
He was cutting up chicken, and Lily was assembling ingredients when the girls burst into the kitchen, arguing as they went.
“Cannot!” Ginny said, heading for the refrigerator.
“Can, too!” Brittany said, her bottom lip sticking out in a pout so adorable, it was all Lily could do not to laugh.
It was a good thing she looked cute when she pouted, because she pouted a lot and whined. The whining got really old, but the cute pout often saved Lily from getting too irritated.
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