by Linda Turner
Every time she looked in the mirror, she reminded herself that her photography was the only thing that was important to her right now. She wouldn’t try to please another man and be who he wanted her to be. But that thought flew right out of her head when she stepped out into the main hallway at six-thirty and found Tony and Quentin waiting for her. She took one look at the two of them and felt her heart skip a beat in her breast.
They were, she had to admit, something else. They had the same smile, the same hair, the same square-cut face. Even their eyes were the same, though Tony’s were green and Quentin’s blue. The twinkle that was so darn charming, however, was identical. Lily took one look at the two of them standing side by side, dressed exactly alike in jeans and blue-and-white striped polo shirts, and wanted to hug them both. She was, she decided, in big, big trouble!
“How do you like our shirts, Lily?” Quentin asked eagerly. “Dad and I are dressed alike.”
“I noticed,” she chuckled. “You both look fantastic.”
“I told Dad you would. You know what’s cool.”
“Well, I don’t know about that,” she said. “I try. So how’s math going? Was your teacher impressed with your homework?”
“She couldn’t believe it. I got an A!”
“All right!” she said, holding up her hand for a high five.
“I think that deserves something special,” Tony said. “How about dinner at Mr. Moon’s? What’da’ya think?”
Eyes that were already sparkling widened. “Really, Dad? You mean it?”
“If it’s okay with Lily. She may not like pizza.”
“Are you kidding?” she countered. “I love it. Especially Mr. Moon’s.”
Surprised, Tony lifted a dark eyebrow at her. “So you’ve been there?”
She grinned. “Of course. And I’ll have you know that I’m pretty good at some of the games, too. I should warn you that I plan on beating the socks off of both you.”
“Oh, really?” Tony said, amused. Looking down at his son, he said, “Did you hear that, Quentin? Sounds like a challenge to me.”
“Me, too,” he said, his eyes dancing as his gaze bounced back and forth between Tony and Lily. “I think the winner should get a prize.”
“My feelings exactly,” he said. Glancing back at Lily, he said, “I should warn you that I hold the record for the most cumulative points scored at Mr. Moon’s. If you don’t believe me, ask Mr. Moon. He’ll tell you.”
Not believing him for a minute, she only chuckled. “Yeah, right. And I’ve got some swampland in Florida you might be interested in.”
The challenge made and accepted, they grinned at each other like two kids having a throwdown and enjoying every second of it. Delighted, Lily laughed. “C’mon, Mr. Hotshot. Let’s see what you can do. And you, too, Junior Hotshot. The winner gets to pick his—or her—prize.”
“Yeah!” Quentin cried. “I want a hot-fudge sundae with extra nuts!”
“You haven’t won yet,” she said.
So excited he could hardly sit still, Quentin chattered all the way to Mr. Moon’s Fabulous Pizza Parlor and Game Room. They ate first, then it was time to put up or shut up. Tony gave Quentin ten dollars for tokens, and the games began.
“All right! I’m top scorer,” Quentin crowed, punching the air with his fist. “I can already taste my sundae. Did I say I wanted two cherries on top?”
“I wouldn’t be so cocky if I were you, short stuff,” Tony told his son with a broad grin. “We’ve still got four more games to play, and the last time we played ringtoss, I smoked you.”
Clearing her throat delicately, Lily reminded them of her presence. “Did I happen to mention that ringtoss just happens to be one of my personal favorite games? You guys are toast.”
His green eyes twinkling with mischief, Tony stepped back and courteously motioned for her to precede him. “By all means, please go first. We’ll just stand back here out of your way and wa master at work, if that’s okay with you.”
“Of course,” she said graciously, fighting a smile. “An audience is always so flattering.”
She winked and turned to the bottles that were closely set on a table in front of them. Small signs with different points printed on them were randomly attached to different bottles, with the highest points awarded to the bottle at the back of the table. Studying them, Lily tossed one of the plastic rings she’d bought with three tickets. With a soft clink, it settled over the neck of one of the bottles with the second-highest points.
“Yes!”
“All right, Lily!” Quentin said. “How’d you do that?”
“Here…I’ll show you. Stand right here.” Positioning Quentin in front of her, she handed him one of the rings, showed him how to hold it the way she had, then demonstrated how to flick his wrist just right. “Okay, now try it.”
The first ring he tossed sailed right over the table to the floor on the other side. “Not with so much force next time. Easy…easy. That’s it…”
He tried again, and this time, the ring rattled around the high-point bottle and settled neatly into place. “I did it! Look, Dad, I did it!” A broad smile splitting his face, he turned to throw himself against Tony for a fierce hug, then launched himself at Lily for another hug that was just as tight.
Laughing, Lily caught him close, then grunted and pretended to stagger under his weight, making Quentin giggle. Watching them together, Tony found himself impressed all over again with how natural and relaxed she was with his son. She didn’t talk down to him or try to mother him—she just treated him with humor and respect and liking, and he responded in kind. She was definitely a woman who should have children of her own, he thought, grinning as she challenged Quentin to a ringtossing contest. She would make a great mother.
Whoa, a voice in his head cried in alarm. Don’t even think about going there. You’ve been there and done that, and the last thing you need right now is a woman who wants to hear the patter of little feet. You’ve got a son—the only thing you’re concerned with right now is keeping him. If Lily wants children, she’s going to have to get someone else to play daddy.
He didn’t always agree with that irritating little voice in his head that invariably tried to make him do the right thing, but sometimes, he had to admit, his common sense really did know what it was talking about. And this was one of those times.
That didn’t mean, however, that he couldn’t be more attracted to the lady than he’d ever been to any other woman in his life, he ruefully acknowledged. He just had to keep reminding himself why he couldn’t do anything about it.
She didn’t make it easy for him. They used up the rest of their tokens, and he couldn’t take his eyes off her. He’d always thought the prettiest women in the world were those who didn’t seem to know just how gorgeous they were. Lily was one of those women, and he found that incredibly appealing. She didn’t check her makeup constantly or mess with her hair, and when she laughed, it was from the heart. He could have spent hours just watching her smile
“Did you hear that, Dad? Lily says I’m the winner because my ringtoss points put me over the top. I can have a sundae, can’t I? Mom only lets me have dessert on weekends.”
“I don’t think an occasional dessert’s going to hurt you,” he replied. “After all, what’s life without an occasional sundae with a cherry on top?”
“My sentiments exactly,” Lily said with a grin. “Only make that two cherries. You earned it.”
Quentin let out a whoop and ran to get his dessert, leaving Tony alone with Lily for the first time that evening. Taking advantage of it, he said, “You’ve been really great with Quentin. It’s nice to see him enjoying himself so much.”
Her gaze trained on Quentin as he made his own sundae at the dessert bar, she grinned as he piled cherries on top of a mound of whipped cream. “It doesn’t take much to amuse him. I like that in a kid. You’ve done a good job with him.”
“I don’t know if I can take any credit for that,” he said wryl
y. “He’s just…Quentin.”
The object of their discussion came bouncing over to them then and was pleased as punch with himself and his sundae. “This is the best! I’ve never done anything this cool before. Can we do this again sometime, Dad, and bring Mac? He’s really good at ringtoss, but there’s no way he’s as good as Lily. He’s going to be shocked when I beat him.”
“Mac’s his best friend,” Tony explained to Lily, then turned back to his son. “Don’t count your chickens before they hatch,” he warned. “In the meantime, it’s a school night. I hate to break this up, but I need to get you back to your mom’s.”
“Oh, Dad, do we have to? It’s still early!”
“I need to be calling it a night, too,” Lily said easily. “I’ve got an early class in the morning. But don’t worry,” she told Quentin when he looked disappointed. “We’ll do it again sometime.”
Glancing from his father to Lily, he reluctantly accepted the inevitable. “Okay,” he sighed as dug into his sundae and ate it in record time. “But next time we come back, I want to buy twice as many tokens. There were tons of games we didn’t even try.”
“Maybe we can come on a Saturday and stay all afternoon,” Lily said with a smile as the three of them fell into step and headed for the car. “Or we could take my camera and go to the zoo. I’d like to get some pictures of the pandas.”
His eyes as wide as saucers, Quentin stopped in his tracks. “Oh, wow, could I take some pictures, too? And help you develop them? You did get your darkroom stuff, didn’t you?”
“It was delivered this afternoon,” she said with a smile.
“Dad, she’s got her own darkroom! Can I have a camera? And a darkroom? It sounds like fun!”
Laughing, Tony ruffled his hair. “Not so fast, hotshot. I can swing a camera, but a darkroom is something else. You may not even like photography
“That’s right,” Lily agreed. “You can take pictures for years without having a darkroom. I did.”
Curious, Quentin asked her dozens of questions on the way home about the process of developing black-and-white film, then asked her everything there was to know about printing pictures. And Lily could have kissed him for it. Because the closer and closer they drew to home, the more she was aware of Tony’s eyes on her. He didn’t say much as he drove down the dark, narrow streets of Georgetown, only occasionally adding a comment to something Quentin said, but there was something about the heated looks he kept sending her that set her heart thumping like a teenager’s on her first date. Horrified, she kept talking about photography and prayed she didn’t sound like some kind of nitwit.
When Tony pulled into his parking space behind the building and cut the engine, Lily was a nervous wreck. Even with Quentin there as a chaperon, she was far too aware of Tony as he came around to open the car door for her, then fell into step beside her as he and Quentin escorted her upstairs to her apartment.
“We really had a great time,” Tony said as the three of them reached the upstairs landing and came to a stop in front of her door. “Maybe next time we’ll go to the zoo, like you suggested.”
“Yeah,” Quentin said eagerly. “That would be cool!”
Since she had been the one to bring up the zoo in the first place, she could hardly say no. Not that she wanted to, she quietly admitted to herself. Whenever his eyes met hers, something happened to her heart. Even now, with Quentin standing right beside them as a pint-size chaperon, she couldn’t stop herself from wishing he could kiss her. Her heart pounded just at the thought.
“Lily? Hello?” Waving his hand in front of her face, Tony grinned down at his son. “I think we lost her. Women do this sometimes, you know. They just blink and they’re gone.”
“I’m not gone,” she said dryly, returning to her surroundings with the same blink he’d just been talking about. “I was thinking.”
His eyes dancing, he arched a dark masculine eyebrow at her. “About what? Or is that something you don’t care to share with us?”
She could feel revealing color steal into her cheeks, and there was nothing she could do about it. “Of course not,” she said with a toss of her head. “I just remembered that I was supposed to e-mail some pictures to an old high-school friend. With everything that’s been happening, I completely forgot about it.”
He didn’t believe her—she only had to meet his gaze head-on to know that he had a fairly good idea what thoughts had been teasing her senses. Her cheeks burning, she said, “Anyway, I guess I’d better go in. I had a great time.”
“We did, too,” he said huskily. “Thanks for dinner.”
Kiss him! Kiss him! Kiss Him! If nothing else, on the cheek.
She wanted to, but she didn’t dare. “Good night, guys,” she said softly, and slipped into her apartment before she changed her mind.
Starinclosed door, a half smile curling one corner of his mouth, Tony swallowed a groan. If Quentin hadn’t been there, if she’d given him the least bit of encouragement—hell, if she’d just stood there a second longer…
“Dad? What’s wrong? Why do you look so weird?”
Suddenly realizing he was standing there staring at Lily’s door like a love-struck idiot, he said ruefully, “This is what a man who’s losing his mind looks like. Would you do something for me, son?”
“Sure, Dad.”
“Run downstairs and see if Uncle Angelo needs anything from the grocery store. Since I’m going to be out, anyway, taking you home, I might as well save him a trip. While you’re doing that, I’ll see if Lily needs anything.”
It was a good story, one that Quentin might have accepted without question when he was a little younger. He wasn’t a baby anymore, however, nor nearly as innocent as Tony had hoped. Cocking his head, Quentin grinned up at him and said, “You’re going to kiss her, aren’t you?”
“I’m going to see if she needs anything, smarty-pants,” he retorted, giving him a stern look that was totally ruined by the slight smile that curled the edges of his mouth. “That’s all you need to know. Go check with Uncle Angelo to see if he needs anything. I’ll be down in just a second.”
To his credit, Quentin didn’t argue with him further. But Tony didn’t miss the little smile that played around his mouth as he ducked his head and hurried down the stairs. Grinning, Tony knocked on the door of Lily’s apartment.
At his second knock, he heard her start to turn the dead bolt, only to hesitate. “Who is it?”
Smart girl, he thought with a smile. “It’s me,” he called softly through the door.
With a click of the lock, she opened the door to give him a puzzled smile. “What’s wrong? Where’s Quentin?”
“Downstairs, checking with Angelo to see if he needs anything from the store, since I’m going to be out. Do you need anything?”
Surprised, she said, “No, but thanks for the offer.” When he just stood there, she frowned, confused. “Why do I have the feeling I missed something? What’s going on?”
“Actually, I think we both missed something,” he said ruefully. And with no more warning than that, he stepped forward and pulled her into his arms. “Quentin wanted a sundae if he won the contest at Mr. Moon’s,” he said huskily. “I wanted this.” And lowering his mouth to hers, he kissed her right there in the hall.
Her head swimming and her heart threatening to beat right out of her chest, Lily moaned softly and wrapped her arms around his neck. Somehow, she’d known he was a man who knew how to please a woman with just a kiss, and he didn’t disappoint. Hungrily, tenderly, he kissed her as if he couldn’t get enough of her, and just that easily, he made her ache.
“I’ve been wanting to do this all evening,” he rasped against her mouth, kissing her sweetly, hotly.
“Me, too,” she whispered, and gave herself up to another long, drugging kiss.
Lost to all reason and loving it, she could have spent hours just kissing him, but Tony abruptly came to his senses. Groaning, he set her from him. “I hate to do this, but I’ve got to go
,” he said. “Quentin’s waiting and it’s getting late.”
Giving her one last kiss, he gently steered her back into her apartment, and pulled the door shut between them. “Lock it, honey,” he growled from out in the hall.
Still caught up in the heat of his kiss, Lily almost told him no. She didn’t want him to leave! Then her common sense reasserted itself and she silently acknowledged it was for the best. Reaching over, she shot the dead bolt into place.
“Good night,” he called.
A split second later, Lily heard his footsteps disappear down the stairs at the end of the hall. Leaning back against the door, she hugged herself and fought the need to call him back.
Standing in the black shadows of the alley across the street, Sly Jackson watched with narrowed eyes as the cop and his brat stepped outside through the private street entrance that led to the upstairs apartments. Upstairs, a light switched on in a small window that appeared to be over a kitchen sink. In the darkness, a slow, sinister smile slid across Sly’s angled face. So, now he knew which apartment was hers. The old man was still in the restaurant even though it was closed, the cop was gone and there was nobody upstairs but Miss Candid Camera.
This was his chance, he thought, pleased. She was alone, and no one had a clue what kind of danger she was in. All he needed was five seconds and he could take care of her once and for all. By the time the old man or the cop discovered her body, he would be long gone and he’d never again have to worry about Lily Fitzgerald and that damn photograph she’d taken of him.
All but rubbing his hands together in anticipation, he started to step out of the shadows, but he never got the chance. Across the street, Angelo pushed open the door to the restaurant and stepped outside with a broom and dustpan. Slowly, methodically, and not going anywhere fast, he began to clean the sidewalk in front of his restaurant.