by Box Set
“Hey, Dad,” Matt called out from the family room. “You have a phone call.”
“Thanks, Matt,” he took the cellphone from his son’s hands and looked at the screen. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to take this.”
He disappeared down a staircase near the front door, and I went with Matt back to the kitchen. “Wow, you cleaned the kitchen.”
Matt laughed, “Yeah, I figured I was here, might as well do it.”
“You are a pretty amazing kid, Matt. I don’t know any other teens who’d jump right in and clean the dishes unless they were forced to.”
He gave me a shy smile. “We all work together around here. Dad says that helping each other out is important, and I agree.”
“Where’s your mom?” I asked the question that I’d wondered a few times since I’d woken up that morning.
He snorted, “My mom had me when she was seventeen. She went away for college and never came back.”
How could you leave your own child? “How old was your father?”
“Um,” he closed the dishwasher door and punched a few buttons to start the wash cycle, “I think he was eighteen when I was born.”
“So if your mother disappeared, Geri is only your half-sister? Where is her mother?” I leaned back against the counter and crossed my arms as he wiped down the counter.
“Geri’s mom kinda did the same thing. She hung around until Geri was about a year old and then took off. Said she didn’t want to live in the country. I think she moved to Philadelphia.”
Good Lord, the man had two kids from different women, and they’d both left him. Either there was something wrong with him, or he had just as bad taste in women as I had in men. It was more of a reason to not start something with him since I planned to leave as soon as I could. With our luck, any relationship between us was probably doomed from the start.
“Well, I’m sorry to hear that.”
He shrugged, “I didn’t really like Terry much anyway. She was kind of a bitch, but don’t tell my dad I said that.”
I smile conspiratorially, “Your secret is safe with me. Do you ever get to see your mom?”
“I saw her a couple of years ago, but she has a new family and didn’t seem too interested in me.”
“Ouch, I bet that hurt.”
He shrugged again, “No big deal. I’m happy with my life. Dad and Geri are all I need,” he glanced up and looked me right in the eye, “but Dad could use someone.”
I chuckled nervously and looked away, “Don’t get any ideas, Matt. I’m thankful for what you and your father did, but I’m not looking for a relationship.”
He grinned. “I didn’t mean you.”
“Uh-huh. I saw the matchmaker in your eyes just then.”
“Hey, you can’t blame a guy for trying.”
“No, you can’t.” I joined in on his laughter as Geri raced into the kitchen.
“Do you want to see my bedroom?” she blurted as she grabbed my hand.
“I’d love to see your bedroom,” I replied just as excitedly as she had asked.
She pulled me out of the kitchen and up the stairs to the second floor. At the landing, there was a balcony that looked down over the family room and I sighed. I absolutely loved this place.
Geri’s room was colorful, like any young girl’s room should be. Her bed had a bright pink canopy with frilly lace around the edges. In the corner was a bookshelf filled with books and games and an intricately-carved toy box that was overflowing with dolls.
“Wow, I love this room! Can I stay in your room instead?”
She giggled, “No, but you can visit, and you can play with me.”
“I’d love to. What do you want to play?”
“Can we play Candyland?”
“Sure we can.”
Geri skipped over to her shelves and pulled the game down. “Do you want to play here or take it downstairs?” she asked as she held the box in front of her.
“I love your room so much that I want to stay in here and play. Is that alright?”
“Yes,” she beamed up at me and plopped down on the floor to set up the game. I wasn’t able to plop down like she had, but I did gingerly get myself down to her level and watched as she put everything into place.
Geri and I were just finishing our game when Chris popped his head into the room. “Who’s winning?”
“Robin is. I fell down the ladder too many times,” Geri said with a frown.
“Not supposed to do that,” Chris replied to his daughter and winked at me as he lay across the end of Geri’s bed and watched us play the last few moves.
Geri was packing the game up when the sound of snowmobiles could be heard. “Who’s here?” she asked and jumped up to look out the window.
“I think it’s Wade and Mike. They came over to work out with Matt.”
“You have a weight room here?” I turned to Chris as I tried to get off the floor. My lower back was screaming at me for sitting on the floor for so long. Chris grabbed hold of my hand and helped me to my feet.
“Yeah!” Geri screamed and ran out of the room.
It was only after she left that I realized that Chris was still holding my hand. I looked up into his face, inspecting the handsome features that reflected my curiosity. Why did this man make my heart beat so oddly?
Chris cleared his throat and glanced away. “Let me give you a tour of the house. Obviously, this is Geri’s room.”
“Did your friend decorate this one, too?” I asked as I glanced at the pictures of princesses on the walls.
“No, actually Geri picked this all out last year.”
“Nice taste,” I said in approval, and Chris shifted his hand in mine to lace our fingers as he pulled me through the door. So this is where Geri got her need to lead, I thought as I looked at our intertwined fingers.
“This is Matt’s room; he needs to clean it,” he said as he pushed open a door.
I scanned the large blue bedroom. There was a queen-sized bed, a large desk filled with books, two dressers, and a shelf filled with trophies. “You call this dirty?” I asked as all I saw were a couple of items next to the laundry basket and a drawer or two that weren’t closed all the way.
“Okay, maybe not as bad as some kids, but they know I expect them to pick up after themselves.”
“You have taught them well, Mr. Landry. I don’t think I have ever met such respectful and independent children in my life.”
He turned to study me, maybe to gauge my sincerity or to say something, I didn’t know, but he remained quiet for a few moments before he finally said, “Thank you.”
He pulled the door closed and opened a door across the hall. “Okay, this one I’m not kidding about, it needs to be cleaned.”
I laughed as I saw three soda cans and two empty plates stacked on a small table and a pair of socks balled up in the middle of the floor. There were four television sets attached to the walls and four video gaming chairs in the center of the room.
“Why four TVs?”
“They are hooked up to different gaming systems.” He shrugged, “This way when friends come over, they can all play different games at once.”
“Wow.” As I looked further into the room, I saw a closet filled with rows and rows of games stacked on the shelves. There was probably thousands of dollars’ worth of stuff in that room alone.
For the first time, I paused to wonder what this man did for a living to have such an extravagant home and all these expensive furnishings—not that it mattered. I’d been in love with wealthy men and poor men—not that I was in love with this particular man, I quickly told myself. I glanced at his profile and my heart skipped a beat. I could totally see myself falling for him.
I so needed to get my car fixed and out of here before I really developed feelings for him or his kids. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt anyone, including myself.
Chapter 8
Chris
Robin’s hand slackened in mine, and I squeezed it gently. “
I like when he brings his friends here. That way I know what he’s doing.” That was the number one hardest thing about being a parent, keeping track of the kids.
Robin shared, “When I was growing up, I used to spend all my time down the street at Marie’s house. Everyone hung out there during the summer because she was the only one with a pool. I remember hearing her mom say that same thing to my grandmother.”
I led her out of the room. “Did you live with your grandmother?”
“I did. My mom and I lived with her after my parents got divorced.”
I let go of her hand even though I was enjoying it and placed my palm on her lower back as we went down the stairs.
“How old were you when they got divorced?”
“I think I was eight, or maybe only seven. I don’t really remember, but my dad moved out west and I only saw him a couple of times. We lost contact years ago, and I never really felt the need to find out more about him.”
“Why not?” I asked when we reached the main floor.
“He walked away, never reached out to me. He’s the parent. If he couldn’t be bothered, then why should I be?”
I thought about that. “But what if he reached out to you now, would you get to know him?”
She shrugged a shoulder, “I wouldn’t avoid him or ignore him. I’m just not going to waste my time with someone who didn’t want anything to do with me.”
Good point. The front door burst open, and Mike and Wade clambered inside. “Hey guys, the side door, you know better.”
“Oh, hey, sorry Mr. Landry,” Wade said to me while he and Mike both checked Robin out from head to toe. They pulled the door back open and kept eyeing Robin as they stepped out. “He wasn’t kidding; she is smoking hot,” Mike could be heard saying as the door closed.
Obviously Robin heard it too because she dropped her head and I thought I heard her laugh.
I cleared my throat, “Sorry about that.” I stepped away from her and yelled toward the kitchen, “Matt, your friends are here. Before you all head down to work out, go shovel the path to the garage and the shed and then bring Robin’s things inside to the guest room.”
“Can’t we do that later?” he whined from a distance.
“No, do it now, then you can work out and screw around.”
“Okay, fine, Dad,” Matt answered.
“Where do they work out?” Robin asked.
I directed her to the next set of steps that went down. “Right this way.” As we reached the bottom, Robin paused with her mouth hanging open.
“Wow!”
She stepped into the room and I tried to see it from her point of view. There was a sitting area off to the side with a sixty-inch television mounted to the far wall. A large couch and two love seats were positioned on either side, and on the other side of the room were a pool table and a small bar area, although there was no strong alcohol stored there. I knew better than to leave that kind of thing out with teenaged boys around. The small fridge behind the handcrafted bar had a few beers in it and drinks for Matt and his friends.
There was a door off to the side and I pushed it open. “This is the laundry room and storage room.”
“Good Lord! You have enough food to last a few months down here,” she laughed, and the sound warmed my insides.
“Yeah, and sometimes with the weather, like right now, you have to depend on what you have stocked up. There is a freezer on the other side, too.”
“I can’t even imagine the electric bill,” she commented, shaking her head.
“Actually, it’s pretty low. We run on solar power. The entire roof is covered with panels, and I have a backup generator in case something goes wrong with the solar equipment, and we have electricity from the grid, but it only fills in when necessary.”
“So your house is pretty much self-sustainable?”
“Yep, except when we go through long periods of storms, then the electric kicks in more because we don’t get as much power from the sun, but it’s pretty efficient.” I led her out of the storage area and walked into the room next door. “This is my office.”
“What do you do?” she asked as she scanned the room.
“IT mostly. I have designed quite a few special programs for some companies.”
She grinned, “So you’re a computer geek, huh?”
I laughed, “Yeah, I’m a computer geek. Do you know anything about them?” I sat down on the corner of my desk, watching her as she wandered about the room.
“Enough to get into trouble,” she joked as she stepped around me and stood at the backside of my desk. “Why so many monitors?”
“I have four so I can work on two different programs at a time, and sometimes I’ll have my laptop going, too.”
“Wow, I get confused just looking at one screen.” She walked close enough past me that her leg brushed my knee, and I clenched my hands to keep from pulling her back. There was something about this woman that called out to my deepest male instincts, but as I glanced toward my desk, I instantly remembered Molly. Crap. I forced myself not to think about her and turned my attention back to Robin.
I was seriously enjoying the view of her walking through my home. She just seemed to fit, better than anyone else had.
“Come on, I’ll show you the good stuff now.”
“This wasn’t the good stuff?”
I snagged her hand and pulled her out the door, grinning over my shoulder and flipping the light off as I went. “Nope, the good stuff is back here.” I led her to another door, opened it, and stepped through. It was warmer, and the smell of chlorine from the pool was strong.
“You have a pool?” She stared wide-eyed through the glass enclosure that surrounded the endless pool, totally ignoring the exercise equipment that filled the main part of the room.
“Yep, but have you ever heard of an endless pool?”
She took off for the door and pushed it open. A wave of humid air passed over her, and I inhaled. I loved the smell of this room.
“No, I haven’t.”
“Well, this is an endless pool. That machine down there pushes a current through the water and you swim against it. You can make it harder or easier depending on how hard you want to swim.”
“And you just keep going, staying in one place?” She stepped up beside the pool. “What’s that black patch down there?”
“That’s a treadmill. You can run in the water, too. Matt likes to use that.”
“You’re kidding!” she gaped at me. “A treadmill in a pool?”
I chuckled, “Yeah, pretty cool, huh?”
“Do you use this or just Matt?” She walked around the edge checking out every aspect of the pool.
“I swim at least thirty minutes to an hour every day, sometimes longer if I’m trying to work through a problem with a program.”
She turned to study me, her eyes resting on my shoulders and chest. “No wonder your shoulders are so wide. It’s all the swimming that you do.”
“I’ve been swimming since I was about seven. Started competing when I was about nine and didn’t stop until I graduated from college. Now Matt and his friends compete. Even Geri is learning to swim really well. She uses the pool a couple of times a week—helps burn off some of her energy.”
“I thought I’d seen everything, but this pool,” she glanced around the glass enclosure, “no, this room and the rest of this house are absolutely amazing.”
“I’m glad you like it.”
“Like it? You’re going to have to evict me to get me to leave,” she joked as she turned to look out the glass and over the back of my property.
I approached her from the side. “Not sure I could figure out how to do that kind of paperwork, or if I’d even want to.”
She hesitated, “I didn’t mean it like that.”
I shrugged so she could see it from her peripheral vision. “Well, I did.”
“Chris,” she turned sideways to face me, “you don’t know me, and I don’t know you, so please don’t say t
hings like that.”
Maybe I just needed to go lie in the cold snow and chill out. This woman brought something out in me that I’d never felt before. How could it have been less than a day that we’d known each other?
“I’m sorry, Robin. I know what you said earlier, but I can’t stop thinking that you fit so perfectly here.” I stared down into her beautiful eyes. “I mean, even your eyes match the pool water.” I reached up and ran my knuckles over her soft cheek. Meanwhile, the logical part of my brain screamed at me to back the hell up and keep my trap shut, but, nope, the emotional side of my brain had taken over—or maybe it was the sexual part of my brain since it seemed fascinated with her and wanted nothing more than to sate itself with her.
Her eyebrows rose, “So because my eyes match the water, I belong here, with you?”
“Sounds stupid, doesn’t it?” I laughed while Mr. Logic groaned and stepped back from her.
“No, actually, it’s one of the sweetest things that I have ever heard.” She turned and worried her bottom lip between her teeth.
“I’m sorry I made you uncomfortable,” I sighed and started to walk away, but she grabbed my arm to halt me. The sexual side of my brain screamed, Yeah, baby! and clamped a hand over logic’s mouth.
“You didn’t make me uncomfortable, Chris. We barely know each other, and here I am falling in absolute love with your home and your children, and I haven’t even been here a day. It kind of freaks me out a bit, no, actually a whole lot.”
“Yeah, me, too,” I agreed, “but there’s something about you, Robin, something about us when we are in the same room together. I felt it last night when you opened your eyes and looked up at me. In those brief seconds, I felt this pull toward you, and it’s only grown stronger the longer I’m next to you.” I cupped her face between my hands. “I’ve never been the type of man to jump into relationships, and I just got out of one—actually I’m still dealing with the aftereffects of it—but you,” I leaned closer to her, “you make me want things, things that I haven’t thought about wanting in a long time.” I leaned in, and ever so gently touched my lips to hers. “If this is what I feel like in one day of knowing you, I can’t even imagine how strong it’s going to feel in a few days.”