Matt’s face lit up and fell at the same time, giving his face a mercurial, humorous appearance. “Don’t you fly no more?”
He gave the rich chuckle that still did funny things to her insides. “Me? Not fly? Come on, Matt, can you see that?”
Luke snorted. “Yeah, right, Matt. What a geek. As if Dad could ever stop himself!” He grinned up at Mitch. “So whatcha gonna do now?”
Mitch told his sons his plans to start up a country-based air courier business, but as he did, she saw all the quick glances at her. Gauging her reaction.
Uh-huh. She might be just an ignorant country girl, but even she could read the writing on this wall—it was in dripping fluorescent letters, screaming like the neon sign over the local video arcade. Mitch had them already married in his mind—wedded to his “perfect solution” of making them one family.
One unit. A regiment like the one he’d just left. And she, no doubt, would be on permanent KP/cleaning/child-minding duty.
Sure as eggs, it wouldn’t be long before Matt and Luke started giving her the exact same glances Mitch did now. A mother struggling to make it alone; a man wanting a family; two boys needing stability, a full-time mother as well as a dad. Before a week passed the twins would cotton on to Mitch’s plan, falling over themselves trying to help. Hints and innuendoes. Getting Jenny out of the way. Plotting when and how to play Cupid.
Well, it wasn’t going to happen. No way, no how. Not now, not ever—no matter how Mitch still affected her senses or how many pretty words he used on her.
Tim had done that, too.
Words were a sweet deception, a manipulation, nothing more. She was tired of being neatly boxed into “perfect solutions” for everyone but her, sick of being used by men who wanted security, stability and a home from her, but didn’t want—
History won’t repeat—not for this little black duck!
She clapped her hands. “Right. Scoot, everyone. I need to start on dinner,” she announced.
Mitch was still watching her, unnerving her with his quiet perception. “I booked a table at Bob’s for us all.”
Before she could open her mouth, the kids started shrieking in joy. “Bob’s Pizza! Way cool!”
She met his gaze, hers challenging. “You booked it before you even got here? A table for six, was it?”
His mouth twitched; a rueful grin spread over his face. “All right, I lied—but just a little. I plan to book dinner at Bob’s. For five.” He lifted a hand as she started to speak. “It’s a celebration and a thank-you, Lissa. To celebrate being with the boys again and to thank you and Jenny for opening your home and family to my kids the past five months.”
He kept watching her. As if he knew her reluctance to go to Bob’s…or anywhere else. As if he knew the last place on earth she wanted to be was with him.
Three eager, pleading little faces turned to hers. “C’mon, Mum, please—we haven’t been to Bob’s since we first came here,” Luke begged.
“And it’s the best place,” Matt added.
Mitch grinned. “I loved the place when I was a kid,” he agreed. “I never had a better pizza since.”
“It’s still the best!” Matt and Luke yelled together.
“Please, Mummy?” Jenny’s big baby blues were full of wistful wishes. “And I’ll tell Daddy we only went with Matt and Lukey’s daddy—he isn’t gonna go kissin’ you or nothin’,” she added ingenuously with her sweet lisp. “Then Daddy won’t be sad.”
After a moment’s silence, Lissa felt Mitch’s gaze on her. On her eyes. On her mouth. Like he’d planned the exact act Jenny denied. To put his mouth on hers…his lips dancing with sensual care over her throat, her shoulders, and down…
Matt sniggered.
She felt the color rising up her throat and into her face until it scorched her from the inside.
“Jenny, you’re a loser,” Matt said, laughing, ruffling her golden curls and winking at Mitch, as if he was nineteen instead of nine. “C’mon, get into your togs, kid. I’ll play on the water slide with you.”
“Cool!” Jenny squealed, and ran to her room for her bathing suit.
“Wanna come, Dad?” Luke asked Mitch, his eyes bright. Bright with hope, and a fear that was too adult, too world-weary. Not wanting to let his dad out of his sight.
Lissa ached for the boy she loved so dearly. Luke still suffered nightmares, with both greater regularity and stronger intensity than the more resilient Matt. Most nights she’d find him sleeping with his twin or with Jenny. She had a nightmare, Mum, he’d mumble the next morning. I was looking after her.
Sweet, vulnerable, innocent Luke, with a facade of strength to hide his terrified heart. Just like his father.
Lissa watched in hidden hunger as Mitch, his face filled with tender understanding, held his son close. “I’m not going anywhere, mate. Promise. I’m here for good.”
“You swear?” Luke whispered.
Mitch crouched down before his son. “Have I ever lied to you, Luke?” Eyes enormous, Luke slowly shook his head. “I promise I’ll stay right here. I’ll talk to Mum for a little while, and book a table at Bob’s. Then I’ll jump in the pool with you, all right?”
Even behind closed eyes, the vision remained to haunt her mind. A half-naked Mitch, strong, dark and muscular, playing in the cool, slippery blue depths of her pool…
Just like we used to.
Memories flooded her: the sweetest taboo, the forbidden too enticing to deny. Mitch would sneak out the window on hot summer nights, and she’d be waiting for him. And they’d swim and play in scared silence, in the exhilaration of a shared secret. Knowing that if her parents or Old Man Taggart saw them, they’d put a far less innocent connotation on their water frolics.
But it had all been innocent—just as she’d been back then, when she’d believed in love and happy-ever-after with a boy, a man who’d love her and her alone. Forever.
The dream of forever love had stumbled when Mitch left her, then died during her marriage to Tim.
“Yes, Dad,” Luke said softly.
Lissa’s eyes snapped open to see Mitch mock-slap Luke’s bottom. “Then off you go, matey, and have fun. Mum will make sure I don’t leave—won’t you, Mum?”
Neatly boxed into a corner, she could only nod; but she couldn’t hold on to the anger when she saw the soft light filling Luke’s dark eyes. The first sign of healing, with the security he so desperately needed. Someone to call his own. A family.
Like father like son.
Within a minute all three kids dashed past on their way to the pool. “Take clean towels,” she yelled, knowing that, as usual, she’d have to bring them out later.
Mitch stood watching her in silence.
She turned and washed the coffee cups, wishing Mitch’s plan wasn’t so damned perfect for everyone except her—or Jenny, who still dreamed of her daddy coming back to live with them forever.
Another dream she could never make come true.
You’re so perfect I feel like slime for even thinking about leaving you, Lissa, but I have to get away…
Would she always make everyone she cared for so unhappy? No matter how hard she tried, it wasn’t enough. She wasn’t enough—except for housecleaning or minding kids, that is.
Melissa the perfect daughter, giving up dreams of university to help her parents run the farm when her