He swung back and forth on the leather chair in his home office while he let the memory of that one kiss seep into his mind. Not for the first time either. It was almost as if seeing her had opened a well of memories he’d shut away.
It had been one hell of a kiss—one he’d gladly have repeated. And he’d thought about repeating it way, way too much, for months afterwards.
But alongside the memory of that one kiss was the memory of when she’d opened her eyes and looked at him with such an expression of anguish that it had literally knocked him back on his heels.
It had been as if that one sweet, softly warm kiss had torn her heart from her chest.
Some guy somewhere had done a real number on her, hadn’t he? How come he hadn’t known that?
He sighed. It wasn’t his problem now. Well, that was what he kept on telling himself. Women with baggage just weren’t his style. They were too much work for someone who’d just got out of one big mistake and had baggage enough of his own, thanks very much.
He really should have been backpedalling like crazy to keep away from Ms Teagan Delaney.
But he wasn’t. Instead he was volunteering every five minutes to help her out, when she would quite obviously rather chew off her own arm.
It was quite pathetic, really. And enough was enough.
What he should be doing was going straight out to pursue someone less complicated. Or a string of someone elses—with less history involved, of course. A series of flings to fill in the time; that was what was needed to take his mind off his new neighbour. Nothing else.
His focus was drawn back to the window as her car pulled out into the street and disappeared. He then watched with widening eyes as a second later her front door opened and a small figure appeared.
She’d left one behind?
With a shake of his head he got up from his chair, grabbed his keys and jogged across the street. Again.
This time definitely had to be the last time.
‘Hey there, Johnnie.’
Johnnie looked up at him, blinked a couple of times and then answered, ‘Hey.’ As if nothing in the world was wrong.
‘Your Aunt Teagan was in a bit of a hurry this morning, I take it?’ He smiled.
‘S’pose.’
‘I bet she’ll be back in a minute.’
Johnnie shrugged.
Brendan glanced up the street and then looked back at the house. ‘I don’t suppose you left the door open?’
The boy shook his head.
‘Didn’t think so.’ They both stood silently, and then Brendan turned round and sat down on the stone step, ‘Well, I guess we better wait for her, then. I’m sure she’ll be right back.’
The boy thought for a moment, and then sat down beside him. And they sat. And then they sat some more. In silence.
Brendan told himself he was okay with that. Being quiet was fine with him. But after a couple of minutes he glanced sidewards. ‘So, how you doing?’
‘Okay.’
‘Aunt Teagan looking after you?’
‘She’s tryin’.’
Brendan nodded. ‘That’s good, then.’
He honestly thought he was going to have to discuss the weather with an eight-year-old when Johnnie announced, ‘She doesn’t have no kids of her own.’
‘No, she doesn’t.’
‘I don’t think she likes kids much.’
‘Don’t you?’ He turned his body towards the child, curious to hear his thought process. ‘How come?’
‘She puts us to bed awful early.’ Another shrug and he continued staring forwards. ‘I think it’s so she don’t have to play with us.’
Brendan frowned, his mind trying to translate the reasoning of a child into the reasoning of an adult. ‘How early is early?’
‘Eight o’clock.’
He didn’t think that was all that early. ‘What time does your mum let you stay up ’til?’
Another shrug. ‘I sometimes get to stay up ’til ten when there’s no school.’
Which seemed late to Brendan. ‘Don’t you get tired?’
‘We sleep in.’
‘What about when you have school?’
The question was greeted with yet another shrug, and Brendan shook his head a barely perceptible amount. The thing was he already knew that Johnnie was the talkative one of the three.
There was the sound of an approaching car in the distance, and then Teagan reappeared.
‘See—there she is.’
They stood up in unison as the car parked in the driveway.
‘I thought I told you to get in the car.’
‘Whoa, one minute.’ Brendan frowned at her tone. ‘Don’t take it out on the kid ’cos you can’t count heads.’
Teagan’s eye’s sparked angrily at him. ‘This is none of your business.’
His height seemed to grow, if that was at all possible. ‘And you have no business being mad at an eight-year-old for a mistake you made. Grow up.’
The words stung. How could he possibly understand the complete heart-stopping fear of looking in her rearview mirror and realising a child wasn’t there? It was if she’d forgotten how to breathe until she turned the corner and saw his small figure on the doorstep. ‘He frightened the life out of me!’
‘Then giving out to him is hardly the best way of showing that, is it?’
After his dangerously calm statement, her mouth opened—but nothing came out. So she closed it again. Then she looked down at Johnnie’s bent head and a wave of guilt washed over her. What was she doing?
She stepped forward, her tone softening. ‘I really did think you’d got into the car, Johnnie.’
The boy raised his chin, blinked at her and then mumbled, ‘Sorry.’
Teagan’s throat went tight. It wasn’t her nephew’s fault that she’d been so harassed that morning. It wasn’t his fault that it had taken for ever to get everyone dressed, or that his five-year-old sister had then spilt cereal all over herself. Which had led to yet another change of clothes. It wasn’t his fault that his aunt really couldn’t juggle her work with three children. No matter how much it killed her that she couldn’t. She should have been so much better at this. Women all over the world did it, so why couldn’t she? She’d never felt so inferior.
Hunkering down in front of him and looking him straight in the eye, she tried to explain. ‘No, I’m sorry. I should have seen you weren’t in the car. When I realised you weren’t there I was scared silly.’ She took a breath, her voice wobbling. ‘I pretty much suck at being an aunt, don’t I?’
Johnnie smiled a small smile. ‘You’re doin’ all right.’ Then he glanced up at Brendan. ‘See ya.’
Just like that, he had forgotten all about it.
‘See ya.’ Brendan watched as he walked to the car, pulled open the door and hauled himself in, all the while aware that Teagan had stood up next to him and was glaring in his direction.
But the sight of her obvious guilt had backed him down. She was obviously finding this tough. He tried a smile, his eyes moving from her ruffled hair to the shadows