“Hi, sweetheart.”
She opened her eyes. Shades of brown and green, they warmed when they focused on him. “Hi.” She lifted a leg covered with bubbles and glided a sponge-like thing over her calf. “I’m being lazy. I didn’t expect you home so soon.”
His gaze focused on the sensual gesture. Combined with the scent rising from the water, Dan was mesmerized. “I…was anxious to see you.”
She directed a flirty smile at him. “Want to join me?”
His first impulse was to say yes. But then it surfaced, that rigid control he kept over every facet in his life. By now, it had become second nature. Tessa, however, could sometimes tempt him out of the self-imposed boundaries. Once in a while, in bed, he let her do that.
Covering the space between them, he bent over and kissed her cheek. “No, thanks. You know that tub’s too small for me. I’m going to shower, though.”
Back in the bedroom, he put his pocket change and his watch in the top drawer of the dresser, hung up his suit, placed his shoes on the second shelf at the bottom of the closet and stuffed his dirty clothes in the wicker laundry hamper. He smiled again at Tessa as he entered the bathroom and crossed to the shower in the corner.
She whistled at him. “Still looking good there, Dan.”
“Nice to hear at forty,” he said, stepping inside.
As he let the water sluice over him, he took pleasure in Tessa’s compliment. Concentrating on the night ahead, he smiled as he washed. When he came out of the glass enclosure, Tessa had left her bath. Drying himself, shaving, he heard the music in the bedroom change to some Michael Bolton. The melody was romantic and…sexy. He felt his body respond. Hmm. Their habit was to make love at night, but what the hell, today was their anniversary.
Apparently, Tessa had the same thoughts, because when he entered the bedroom with a towel wrapped around his waist, she was on the bed.
“Where did you get that?”
She fingered the black lace strap of the top. “Janey bought it for me.” Her hand slid to her thigh. “These, too,” she said of the shorts-like panties to match.
The man in him, the husband and lover, responded to her tease. But then the staid person he’d become took over.
Tessa noticed. “You’re frowning.” Her eyes widened. “I’m sorry if this is too…risqué. I just thought…it’s our anniversary.”
The stricken look on her face—he’d seen it before and it always troubled him—sent him to the bed where he sat down next to her. “Shh,” he said, kissing her tenderly. “It’s not too risqué for your husband.”
She didn’t believe him.
“Tess, love, you know me. You know how conservative I am. I like it when you coax me out of that box.”
“Do you?”
He touched the pearls around her neck. He’d given them to her on their wedding day, and he knew they’d become her most precious possession. “Of course.” His grin was meant to soothe her. “You are so beautiful, and I love how this—” now he kissed the lacy edge of the top “—shows that off.” He meant what he said, in his heart.
She relaxed. He ran his lips along the line of her collar bone and kissed his way over her body until all rational thought fled.
“WELL, I DON’T NEED to ask how your anniversary celebration was.” Dan’s brother Nick smirked at him with a cockiness left over from Nick’s street days. “It’s written all over your face.”
Picking up his fork, Dan dug into his chicken Caesar salad. “Our anniversary was terrific. And it was nice to have time alone with Tessa. I’m crazy about my girls, but with Molly and Sara always there we don’t have time to hold a decent conversation.”
“Oh, yeah, I’ll bet you talked all night long.”
“None of your business, wise guy.” Dan couldn’t contain his smile. Last night had been full of fireworks. It stunned him that he could sometimes behave with such abandon.
“Yeah, yeah.” Nick bit into his Reuben sandwich. “So what did you want to talk to me about?”
Dan’s gaze was direct. “Mom.”
Nick’s hand curled around the glass in front of him. “Off limits, Dan. You know that.”
“Her sixtieth birthday’s next month. We’re having a party, and I know she’d love it if you were there. If you’d give a little…”
“She kicked me out of the house when I was seventeen. I’ve done her a huge favor by avoiding contact since I came back. You aren’t going to change that.”
“She didn’t kick you out. You left after she said you had to abide by her rules. I remember, Nick, I was there.”
“Same thing. Anyway, Mom had you, the perfect child, in her house. I’m the disappointment.”
“You’re not a disappointment to me.” Dan hoped his tone was as sincere as he felt. “You turned your life around.”
“Yeah, I did.”
The look on Nick’s face told Dan his brother would close down if he didn’t change the subject. “How’s the job going?” His younger brother had come back to Orchard Place two years ago and now ran the town’s Center for At-Risk Teens.
“The center’s doing great, though we always need money and volunteers. Your wife’s a big hit with the kids. The book discussion group she started at the library is thriving. I can’t believe how well she relates to the girls.”
“She works too hard. I worry about her.”
“Mmm.”
Dan’s head came up. “Mmm, what?”
“I don’t know. I worry about her, too, I guess.”
Sipping his iced tea, Dan frowned.
“She ever talk about her past?” Nick asked.
“Why?”
“No reason. Does she?”
Since Tessa was circumspect about her background, he’d never discussed this with Nick before. “She grew up in the Midwest with Janey and a grandmother. No parents in the picture. She came east when…” He thought a minute. “I guess when her grandmother died. Anyway, she was a waitress in Chico’s Diner and living with Janey when I met her.”
“She seems sad to me sometimes.”
Dan studied his brother, hating the fact that Nick might know information about Tessa he didn’t. “Do you think something’s wrong with her?”
“Nah.” Nick set his napkin down on the table. “You, on the other hand, I could write a book about.”
“Don’t start.” Dan concentrated on his salad.
“You live in fear that it’s genetic, Dan.”
The it didn’t have to be clarified.
“I’m nothing like Dad was.”
“I had his unethical tendencies in me.”
“How did we get on to this topic?”
“Probably because you brought up Claire.” Nick refused to call their mother Mom. “It’s obvious that she thinks I got my bad seeds from him.”
“That’s