“And Xander?”
“Was already gone.”
He eased back into his chair. “That’s no surprise. I mean,” he added hastily, “not to say anything about you. Or your... Crap.”
“Are you blushing?”
As if she’d unplugged a dam, he turned even redder. “This isn’t the easiest conversation.”
No. But considering he had watched her stomach explode during her pregnancy, seen her nursing nonstop in those first weeks when she was too exhausted to make more than a token attempt at covering up and listened to her complain about every oozing, aching body part, his reaction was unexpected. And surprisingly sweet.
“I’m sorry. I won’t tease. I know what you mean.”
“All I was trying to say is that Xander isn’t one for the long haul. As I’m sure you noticed.”
Which brought them straight to her biggest fear regarding Cady.
“I don’t care that he took off the next day. Frankly, if I had been able to lift my head without feeling like I’d been shoved into a tornado, I might have done the same thing. It wasn’t my finest moment.” She leaned forward, arms resting on her knees, trying to decide how to ask what she needed to know without revealing too much. “But it’s different now. You’ve known him longer than I have. Do you think he has it in him to stick around, or would he be one of those guys who, you know, only stays long enough to mess up everything?”
Ian studied her for an unnervingly long moment. At times she swore he could read her mind. This was one of the moments when she longed for a way to shield her thoughts from him. It was one thing for him to know that he was her most trusted friend. It would be quite different if he figured out that to her, what they had was the closest thing she could imagine to the family she’d lost when she was too young to appreciate it.
“Ah. Gotcha.” At last he lifted his beer for a long draw. She’d seen him do that hundreds of times over the past couple of years. Why, this time, did she have to force herself to stop gazing at the lines of his neck? Why did she find herself swallowing in tandem with him?
Why did she suspect she was now the one blushing?
He finally lowered the bottle. “I don’t know,” he said. “Back in school, Xander was a goof but basically a straight-up guy. Since then...I don’t know. He changed.”
Not the answer she wanted, for sure.
“I got the feeling you wanted some time to figure out what should happen next with him,” he said. “That’s why I said what I did about us going to Comeback Cove.”
Oh, holy crap. Yet another twist that had slipped through her grasp. Thank God Cady was safely tucked into her crib. At this rate, Darcy wouldn’t trust herself to keep a hamster alive.
“Yeah, about that.” She sat back in the hammock, watching him carefully for signs of hedging. “Where did that come from?”
“I dunno. We were pulling off the ‘we’re a couple’ thing, and Lulu growled, and I thought, damn, what if Xander comes back when I’m not around? Remember, I didn’t know what was making you so skittish. I thought maybe you were afraid of him for, well, for more than just Cady’s sake.”
It took a moment for his words to register. “You thought he raped me?”
“Not really. But I thought there might have been some...coercion.”
Her indignation melted. No wonder the poor guy had let his inner caveman fly.
“No,” she said softly. “Nothing horrible happened.” Nothing especially mind-blowing, either, from what she could remember, but no way was she going to say that. Ian was already flashing as red as the fire in his forge. “Things got lousy and complicated, and, yeah, I’m not looking forward to refiguring everything now that he’s back. But Cady is the best part of my life. No matter how much I curse my own stupidity, I have absolutely no regrets.”
He nodded and rocked back in his chair, but didn’t look as though he believed her.
“What?” She snagged another chip. “You’re trying to say something but you don’t know how. I can tell.”
“Jeez, Maguire, can’t I hide anything from you?”
Ah, that was more like it. Teasing, complaining, fake indignation—everything she usually associated with Ian. That post-kiss lust—okay, that had been interesting, but she wasn’t going to let it ruin their easygoing swing.
“Don’t tell me you were serious about me going to Comeback Cove with you?”
She hadn’t thought it was possible for him to turn any redder. She was wrong.
“Here’s what I’m thinking,” he said, setting his beer on the table. “One, we—I—led Xander to believe we’re a couple. So if I go without you it might look strange.”
“Because people who are together never do anything separately. Right.”
“To paraphrase Indiana Jones, I’m making this up as I go, okay?”
Boom! She had a sudden image of Ian in a leather jacket and fedora, a whip in his hand and a smile that could melt a thousand Arks on his lips.
Looked as if she was going to have to come up with an alternate plan for the evening.
“If you come with me it would give you time to figure out what happens next. Maybe talk to a lawyer. Have you done that yet?”
“No. I should have, I know, but when he vanished off the face of the earth, it kind of slid down the priority list.”
He nodded. “You need legal advice, and we need to decide what to do when Xander shows up expecting to see us as a couple. Since I was already planning to go home—”
“Not until Thursday.”
He shrugged. “So I’ll go a day early. My mother will be ecstatic. At the time, saying that you were coming along seemed like the best solution.”
“Hmm.” It seemed pretty caveman to her, but, she had to admit, it was nice to know he’d been trying to help.
“Besides,” he added so casually that her skin prickled in warning, “your grandmother is there, and she would love to see Cady.”
She’d always known that renting to the grandson of her grandmother’s best friend would come back to bite her someday.
“Did Nonny pay Moxie to make you say that?”
“Get real, Darce. You could use some time. I’m going to Comeback Cove anyway. And Helene would give her eyeteeth to have you and Cady under her roof for a few nights.”
Did he have to sound so reasonable? Getting pissed off at him would be so much more satisfying than understanding him.
Except he had a point.
She dipped a chip into the salsa, focused on creating the perfect blend of tomato, onion and peppers. It took a lot of effort.
“You gonna eat that or hang it in an art gallery?”
She glared. “Don’t interrupt my stalling tactic to discuss your stalling tactic.”
His laugh, low and reassuring, was like having someone pour warm water over her—soothing and welcome and oh so comforting.
“I know your intentions are good.” She swirled the chip through the salsa again. “But going to Comeback Cove? That seems extreme.”
“What’s so extreme about it? One phone call, a few hours packing, a few more to drive, and there ya go. Instant breathing space. You have time to sort things through, and when we come back, you’ll be ready