Lara held up her hands to quiet the horde down. “Now, now, everyone. There will be cake, but not until after dinner. And to get to dinner, we need to keep the house in one piece. You know how to do that, right? If you want to run around, we’re going to have to take this outside to the backyard.”
“But Connor can’t go in the backyard,” said a pretty little blonde troll who’d practically attached herself to Connor’s side.
“Sure he can. When his Uncle Gage comes down, he’ll carry him outside and put him on his throne. Then you guys can honor him as a proper king.”
It was the right thing to say. Connor’s chest puffed up, his smile grew twice its size, and the troll patted his hand.
“Come on, everyone! Let’s go out and make the backyard fit for a king!” Lara swept her hand toward the sliding glass doors out to the deck, and like a flock of birds, they all swooped out.
“How on earth did you manage that?” Cara shook her head. “Do you have Pied Piper superpowers?
Lara patted Cara’s shoulder. “Remember babysitting for the O’Malleys? That was training.”
The O’Malleys had had eight children, one born each year. Lara had earned all of her high school spending money babysitting them.
“Yeah, I remember. I was conveniently ill any time you couldn’t watch them. They scared me.”
“Ah, Cara, they were just kids.”
Cara shivered. “They were my worst nightmare. All that noise and chaos.” She looked around the living room, now free of the kids, but definitely not the chaos. There were more swords and lost capes than Lara could count. “No thank you.”
“I’ll say thank you.” Missy poked her head into the room. “I don’t know how you did it, but thank you. I’ve been trying to get them out of here for the past half hour.”
“Can I go out now?” Connor asked, his troll still standing by him.
“As soon as Gage comes down, Connor. Until then, I can stay here with you.” Lara looked at Cara. “You want to go supervise outside?”
Cara gaped at her. “Excuse me? What part of worst nightmare didn’t you understand? How about you go out there and I’ll stay here and keep Connor company? I’m sure I can manage one child.”
Lara hid her smile as she grabbed a bunch of juice boxes and headed out. Sometimes Cara was just too easy to manipulate. “That’s fine with me. See you in a bit.”
***
About ten minutes later a clean-shaven, scrumptious-looking Gage walked out the door carrying his nephew in his arms and Lara’s heart stuttered.
Not just at the physical perfection that was Gage, though there was that, but the compassion and caring that was so evident as he helped Connor get situated among his friends.
Jeff had wanted children. The prerequisite boy and girl, though how he’d expected them to have his blond looks when she was half their gene pool was beyond her. He’d kept putting off having them “until the time was right.” In hindsight, she was glad, but at the time, she’d just followed his lead.
She’d done that way too many times.
She looked at Gage as she was setting up the juice boxes. He’d let her call the shots with what was happening between them. Sure, he’d instigated their night together, but it wasn’t anything she hadn’t already been thinking. He’d just given voice to it, but then he’d let her make the decision. Whatever she’d decided, he would have abided by.
She was so glad she’d decided what she had. The other night had been perfect. Scarily so. No one could be as perfect as Gage. Yet, he was.
He laughed at something Connor said, the sheer delight on his face making her catch her breath. The outside was definitely very pretty, but it was who he was that came shining through in this unguarded moment. He’d be gorgeous even without that hunky exterior.
She was opening herself up to a lot of potential heartache by letting her guard down around him.
A mini-wizard bumped into the table, knocking down the juice box pyramid she’d made, so she went about re-building it.
“A penny for them.” Gage snuck up beside her, dropped a quick kiss on her cheek, and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Or are they worth more than that?”
She shook off the mess of her past and looked over her shoulder. “Nothing we need to think about ever again. So, are you feeling better after your shower?”
“Now that I have you in my arms I do. What do you think the kids would say if I planted one on you right here?’
“Eww, gross! Mr. T is hugging a girl!” One of the elves pointed their way.
“Hey, don’t knock it ’til you try it, Nicky. Girls are cool.” Just to prove it, Gage kissed her on her cheek again.
A chorus of “ewwww”s arose.
“I don’t think they’re buying it,” she said, laughing as she pulled out of his embrace. Nice as it was, the kids didn’t need to see it.
“Wait’ll they get older. They’ll wish they’d listened to me now.”
She smacked his arm playfully. “You’re a bad influence.”
“I’ll argue that point with you. Two nights ago you thought I was a good one.”
Two nights ago had been very good.
She felt the blush crawl up her cheeks.
“You’re adorable when you blush, do you know that?”
Which only made her blush more.
“Okay, you two are more sickeningly sweet than that cake in there,” said Cara as she walked out from the kitchen, only to do a one-eighty. “I’m going inside before I get a tooth ache.”
Lara shook her head. “That’s just her excuse to get away from the kids. Cara’s always had an issue with them.”
“What about you? Do you have any issues with them?”
“I love kids. Want a bunch of them someday.” Which, hopefully would be sooner rather than later since she wasn’t getting any younger. Which meant she had to pour all her energies and effort into the bakery to make sure it was on solid financial footing before she could even consider having children. Of course, she’d also have to find someone to have them with. “What about you? Do you want kids?”
“Definitely. Someday.” He looked over at Connor. “Let me go see if he needs anything. Missy said the pizza ought to be here in about fifteen, so he won’t have much time out here. I should bring him out more often. I hadn’t really thought about it. Thank you.”
“My pleasure. He’s a sweet kid and my heart goes out to him.”
Gage looked over at his nephew. He blinked a couple of times. “He doesn’t deserve this. He was just a normal kid, you know? Just having fun one minute and the next, his whole life changed.”
“What about the person who hit him? Is there insurance money?”
Gage shrugged. “Not much. And Missy didn’t have any because she doesn’t have a car. Her renters policy doesn’t cover it.”
She put her hand on his arm. “At least he has people around him who love him.”
He cleared his throat and worked a smile onto his face. “Yes. That he does.” He put his hand over hers. “Thank you, Lara. For being here.”
“There’s no place else I’d rather be.” It was true.
“Pizza’s here!” Missy yelled out the door, shattering the moment. And the peace. All of a sudden, twenty stomping, cheering kids stormed the deck, threading between her and Gage like a river among rocks.
Gage laughed. “I’ll swim downstream to get Connor. You better not fight the current.”
She saluted him. “Aye, aye, Captain. See you on shore.”
Dinner passed in a flurry of plates, paper airplane napkins, too many noisemakers to think straight, and way too much caffeine and sugared beverages for a throng of beings who had no need of enhancements.
And then they wanted cake.
Lara lit the “torches” on the castle parapet and Gage carried it over to place it before the king.
Sufficient “oohs” and “aahs” followed, and just as Lara had predicted, they all wanted a piece. Connor did save his favorite ch
aracter she’d made from modeling chocolate, but the rest were up for grabs, even the castle walls that she’d made from crisped rice and marshmallows.
“How long are these heathens staying here?” Cara asked, prying yet another squished glob of marshmallow off her shirt. “They’re never going to go to bed tonight.”
Missy chuckled. “That’s their parents’ problems, not mine. Times like these, I’m glad I only have the one.”
Once the cake was demolished, er, eaten, and the gifts opened, they herded the kids back outside to work off the sugar rush. Connor was once again on his throne, the kids were playing ghost-in-the-graveyard around him, while the adults lit the chiminea on the deck and kept an eye out that no ghosts got left behind.
“This is nice,” said Cara, leaning her head back on the glider. “I can’t remember the last time I just kicked back and looked at the stars. Of course, I can barely remember what daylight looks like, too, I’ve been in my hole of an office so much.”
“Speaking of which,” Gage sat up and pulled Lara closer to his side with his arm around her shoulders, “I can do that for you. I have an extra window from a job if you’re interested.”
Cara raised an eyebrow and glared at him without moving her head. “What’s it going to cost me?”
“You? Nothing.” He nudged Lara. “You on the other hand…”
She squealed when he nuzzled her neck.
“Oy vey.” Cara closed her eye but a hint of a smile played on her lips.
“You willing to pay that price?” he whispered when he nibbled on Lara’s ear.
She gulped, then nodded.
Good. “And I was thinking I could fix up your reception area. A little paint, a new countertop, and the place will look like a million bucks.”
“As long as it doesn’t cost that,” said Cara, again the mistress of sarcasm.
“The only thing it will cost is time. I’ve got a basement and a kitchen to finish for two clients, and I’m starting a gazebo in the Fox Run Hills development tomorrow. I’ll work your office in as I can.”
“Fox Run Hills? Lara, isn’t that where—”
“Yes, it is. Let’s change the subject.”
Interesting how she found her voice for that.
“Isn’t that where what?” he asked.
“Nothing. It’s nothing.”
It wasn’t nothing, but he wasn’t going to pressure her. She’d tell him when she was ready.
Someone knocked on the front door.
“Looks like the cavalry is here,” said Missy, getting to her feet, “rescuing us from all these tiny invaders.”
A steady stream of parents came through the door over the next half hour to pick up their tired-out party goers. Gage, Lara, and Cara helped clean up, then it was time for the tired-out adults to leave, too.
Gage walked Lara to Cara’s car, but didn’t open the door. Instead, he wedged her between it and him with his hands on the roof on either side of her.
“Thanks for coming and for the cake. Connor really liked it.”
“I’m glad. It was fun to make. Thanks for inviting me. And for letting Cara come along.”
“Somehow the words ‘letting Cara’ don’t seem to go together. Your cousin does what she wants.”
Lara nodded. “Yeah, sometimes I wish I could be like her.”
“I don’t think you need to be anyone but who you are, Lara. I like you just the way you are.”
Especially when she nibbled her bottom lip between her teeth. God, he wanted to do that. But tomorrow was going to be a long day and it was already almost tomorrow.
He took a deep breath. “I’ll miss you tonight.”
That adorable blush spread over her cheeks and he couldn’t resist kissing her. “I’ll miss you, too.”
“So should I be looking for a ride home, or are you two going to get off the car and grab a room?”
Gage took one last nibble of Lara’s lips. “Cara, you are a real piece of work.”
“And don’t you forget it, Gage.” She opened the driver’s side door. “Now let Lara get in the car. We’ve got a big week this week and she needs to be awake enough to deal with it, unlike how she was on Saturday. We’ve got a business to run, remember?”
Gage, more than anyone, understood what she meant. He kissed her once more. “She’s right. I’ll call you. Remember, I still owe you a dance.”
God knew, he wasn’t going to forget.
Chapter 23
Gage drove through the gated entrance to the Fox Run Hills development. Every house was a variant of the same theme, with manicured lawns, wrought iron fencing, pillars at the driveway entrances, Acuras, Beamers, and Mercedes all over the place. So many people keeping up with the Joneses, he could make a killing if J.C. McCullough talked him up.
Regardless of his personal feelings for the guy, he was going to make the best damn gazebo anyone had ever seen in the quickest time possible, so it’d be the talk of not only the guy’s engagement party but every neighborhood get-together afterwards.
Did they have neighborhood get-togethers here, or did that only happen at the country club?
He pulled into the driveway, parked his truck and the trailer with the excavator behind the arborvitae again, and pulled his lawn signs out of the truck bed. Sometimes they were the best advertising.
He rang the front doorbell again. Let J.C. tell him to use the servant entrance. If he had the balls.
The maid answered the door again.
The prick didn’t have the balls. Why was Gage not surprised?
“Mr. McCullough said the back gate is open and you can go on through.”
“I’m having cement delivered this afternoon, so if you’re going somewhere, you might want to put your car in the street so we don’t park you in. Can you pass that along to Mr. McCullough?”
The woman nodded and closed the door, leaving Gage standing there. If there was one thing Connor’s ordeal had taught him, it was that when it came down to it, everyone was the same. When you were hurt, you were hurt, so all this noblesse oblige really torqued him. But the guy was paying his bills, so Gage sucked it up and went around back.
The prick was waiting for him, checking his watch as if Gage were punching a time clock.
“I need to be at the office by eight, so if you could get here by seven tomorrow, I’d appreciate it.”
Gage made a point of checking his cell phone. Seven-oh-two. It was at least a two minute walk from his car to the front door then around back.
He plunked his tool box on the stone wall surrounding the patio. “Yeah, sure.” It wasn’t worth the fight.
“Madeleine said there’s going to be a cement truck here today?”
Gage nodded and took out his laser tape measure and the ground paint. He’d bring in the Bobcat after he’d outlined his dig site.
“You do have insurance to cover driveway damage, don’t you?”
Gage bit back his sarcastic reply as he attached his work belt around his waist. “I do. I can give you a copy if you’d like.” He would’ve thought Mr. Hot Shot Lawyer would have asked about it beforehand, but whatever.
“Great. Leave it with Madeleine before you go.” The prick folded his paper and stood up. “I’ll be back at six. You’ll be gone by then.”
It wasn’t a question so Gage didn’t feel the need to answer.
“Well, then, I’ll be off. Try to keep the noise and mess to a minimum, will you? I don’t need the neighbors complaining.”
Gage gave him a salute—refraining from the one-finger kind—and headed off to the left side of the pool to lay out where he was going to dig the footers, reminding himself that he was here to do a job and he didn’t have to like the client.
Good thing, because this guy, he definitely didn’t.
***
“I give up!” A flurry of papers went flying out of Cara’s office door.
Lara picked some of them up and girded herself before entering her cousin’s lair. She never went in there if s
he didn’t have to. Numbers gave her the hives.
“What’s the problem, Car?”
Cara waved a mess of papers at her. “This. These contracts. They’re driving me nuts. Wherefores and whences and heretowiths… We need a lawyer just to keep track of all the changes the other lawyer is recommending. It’s barely eight o’clock and already I have a migraine.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I’m a numbers person, not a freakin’ English major.”
“So just call the attorney and ask him whatever you have questions about.”
“And pay him three hundred dollars an hour? Are you out of your mind? I could hire someone part time for a week for that. Maybe even less.”
“What about Gage’s sister?”
Cara opened one eye. “Come again?”
Lara set the papers on the corner of the desk. She didn’t want to disrupt whatever filing system Cara had going. “Gage’s sister. Connor’s mom? She was going to school to become a paralegal before Connor was injured. We could hire her for a few hours to make sense of things and give us direction on what to ask the attorney. Save us some billable hours maybe. It’d be cheaper than calling the attorney and Gage said she could use a break. It’d be a win-win for all of us.”
“Oh. My. God.” Cara’s arm plunked onto her desk. “You’ve got it bad.”
“Got what?”
“This thing with Gage. You were into that whole domestic scene last night, admit it.”
Lara rolled her eyes. “Cara, I just started dating him.”
“Didn’t stop you from sleeping with him.”
“You’re lecturing me? Seriously?”
“Not lecturing. Just pointing out that you’ve taken it a lot faster than you normally do.”
“Considering I haven’t slept with anyone in three years, I think that’s pretty much a given.”
“But why him?”
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