The Matchmaking Twins

by Christy Jeffries

  “Like this.” Aiden demonstrated four quick raps on the window, followed by two bangs, then a tapping of fingers.

  “Oh, of course. That secret knock. Actually, boys, I’m pretty tired from the long drive today. I think I’m going to skip the pool and just go to bed.”

  “But how can you be tired, Officer Carmen?” Aiden asked. “You didn’t even hafta play baseball today. You just got to sit there and watch us do all the work.”

  “I’ll have you both know that being a good luck charm requires a lot of focus and concentration.” And nerves of steel to be questioned so thoroughly by Donna Gregson during the second ball game. The woman could teach a training class at the Military Police School. “I wasn’t able to use the restroom or get up and walk around at all for fear you guys might lose the lead. That’s a lot of work, you know.”

  The boys conferred in the backseat. “Maybe you’re right. In that case, you should come with us to the pool and sit in the hot tub. Choogie Nguyen said we have to be fourteen to go in the hot tub because it’s for adults only who want to relax.”

  “Oh, you guys. I think my room will be more relaxing than the pool.”

  More nine-year-old whispers.

  “All right then, Officer Carmen. We’ll just skip the pool and come hang out with you in your room so we can all relax. Together. We have a big game tomorrow and need to be ready for it.”

  “We found the pay-per-view channel and Dad said we couldn’t get the new space robots movie because it would give him nightmares. But maybe if we open that door between our rooms, we can come watch it in yours. If Dad hears it and gets scared, we’ll tell him you’re there to protect us. It’ll be like having a sleepover. But with a gun. You did bring your gun, didn’t you, Officer Carmen?”

  Suddenly, her evening plans were sounding about as relaxing as a nighttime airstrike in the Afghani desert.

  She steered her car into the hotel parking lot and saw—or rather heard—Luke pull into the space alongside her. He really needed to get that muffler checked—it was roaring so loud she needed earplugs. “You know what, kiddos. Let’s just go to the pool, after all. I think your friend Choogie is right about the hot tub being more relaxing.”

  She wasn’t sure, but the smacking sound she heard coming from her backseat sounded suspiciously like a high five. But before she could chastise the two little manipulators, they swung her door open, banging it into the side of the Nanamobile. She cringed, but figured the sturdy vehicle wouldn’t be affected much.

  “Easy there, monkey,” Luke said to his son, who was already running with his brother toward the hotel entrance. He examined Carmen’s back passenger door for dings. “I don’t think there’s any dents. You want to come over here and have a look?”

  No. No, she absolutely did not want to stand that close to Luke and have a look at anything. Especially not the way the dim orange glow from the parking lot lighting made him look even more golden, if that was possible—like a damn sexy golden angel, when she knew her thoughts about him were anything but angelic.

  “I’m sure it’s fine,” she said, then coughed to clear the raspiness from her throat. “Besides, the twins are over there pushing a couple of their teammates into the lobby on the luggage cart. You better go after them.”

  She watched Luke sprint and dodge several cars to catch up with his sons. It would’ve been comical if she hadn’t been transfixed by the muscular definition in his legs as he ran.

  Instead of teaching a kickboxing class, she should’ve specialized in yoga; maybe that way she would’ve learned how to take more calming breaths. As it was, Carmen took her time walking and breathing and trying not to think of the man who set her pulse racing one minute and her brain skidding to a stop the next.

  She made it to her room just in time to overhear Luke chastising the twins from next door. His firm voice promised that if there were any more shenanigans, they wouldn’t be going swimming tonight. Not that she wanted the boys to be in trouble, but she’d honestly been hoping for a slight reprieve.

  This was fast becoming the uncomfortable day that would never end. Even in her most depressed days of painful recuperation from her hysterectomy, she hadn’t been this emotionally miserable, knowing her life was changing for the worse.

  She massaged the scar tissue below her belly button. Hey. Maybe that was what she should do. Carmen looked at the two-piece bathing suit she’d thrown into her suitcase at the last minute. When she’d packed early this morning, her tired brain had instructed her hand to just grab the first thing available. She’d recalled Aiden’s text to pack a swimsuit and she’d grabbed both of hers, not planning to participate in any group activities besides attending the games.

  Yet, now she needed to decide. Should she wear the functional one-piece and cover up her scars? Or should she put it all out there and let Luke—and everyone else—see what she’d been hiding for far too long?

  Carmen knew when to retreat—and when to draw her battle lines.

  Hearing the anxious chatter next door, she realized the clock was ticking. She wiggled into the suit and paused to look at herself in the bathroom mirror. At least she’d been somewhat modest when she’d originally purchased the two-piece, back when she and Mark had been planning their first vacation together. The bottoms provided plenty of coverage and the halter top kept the girls firmly in place. The only thing the bathing suit actually revealed was her abdomen.

  Rap, rap, rap, rap. Bang, bang. Tap, tap, tap, tap.

  The designated knock sounded on the adjoining door, but she refused to open it. That thin plywood barrier was her last line of defense from the intimacy of the Gregson family, and she wasn’t about to give it up.

  “I’ll meet you guys in the hallway,” she called out before grabbing a cotton sundress she’d packed as an impromptu cover-up.

  When Carmen walked out of her room, she tried not to stare at Luke’s board shorts, the same ones he’d been wearing when she’d helped pull them out of the river by her cottage. Instead, she and Luke followed the two boys as they bounced off the hallway walls all the way downstairs to the indoor pool.

  She looked at the clock on the wall. It was almost eight o’clock and the small pool was filled to near capacity with shouting children doing cannonballs, shooting water guns and splashing each other silly.

  She offered to get them towels and was setting all their belongings on an empty chaise longue when the boys made a mad dash into the overcrowded pool. Deliberately turning her back to Luke, she took off her dress, though she could feel his eyes on her when she finally, slowly turned around.

  This was it. The moment of truth.

  Chapter Eleven

  Thankfully, the whirlpool was nearly empty, hosting only a pair of goggles, a few toddler toys and an abandoned water wing. Luke whistled through his teeth as he dipped a toe into the heated water. No wonder the kids were avoiding this particular location. Well, that and the big sign posted on the wall that read Adults Only.

  He had already stripped off his shirt and was soaking in the hot tub when he saw Carmen pull her dress over her head. Thankfully, he was halfway submerged under water because he couldn’t control his body’s reaction to her curves.

  He’d known plenty of beautiful women, including his wife. But there was something different about Carmen. She was strong, athletic and capable of probably anything. Was there anything more alluring than that?

  She walked toward Luke, her gaze locked straight on his, and it felt like she was moving just for him, just to gauge his reaction to her perfectly proportioned and very female shape. Luke was so overwhelmed with desire he couldn’t even manage to smile.

  Boing. A wet plastic football hit him right in the temple.

  “Sorry, Captain Gregson,” Choogie Nguyen, the know-it-all teammate, said as he ran over to retrieve the ball. The twins were right behind
him.

  “Wow, Officer Carmen, you got a lot of lines on your tummy,” Caden said when he plopped his little wet body on the cement by them.

  Prompted by his son’s comment, Luke allowed his eyes to roam across Carmen’s body. He spotted a few scars on her lower abdomen. Those were probably nasty wounds at one point. Still, that didn’t make his son’s rude observation okay.

  Luke touched the boy’s shoulder in gentle reproach. “Caden, you’re being very impolite.”

  “No, that’s okay,” Carmen said. “He’s just being observant. You’re right, kiddo. I do have a lot of lines on my tummy. They’re scars.”

  “Lemme see,” Aiden said, jostling in beside his brother.

  Carmen stood on the second step of the hot tub, allowing his brashly curious children to look at her.

  “How’d you get them?”

  “When I was a police officer in Las Vegas, a very bad man didn’t want me to arrest him. So he stabbed me.”

  “Oh, cool,” Choogie said.

  “Actually, it wasn’t cool at the time. It hurt very badly.”

  “Did you shoot the bad guy dead?” Caden wanted to know.

  “No,” Carmen said patiently. She was clearly uncomfortable talking about this, yet she wore a brave face for his children. Luke should’ve stopped the questions, but, like his boys, he was just as curious. “I wrestled his knife away.”

  “While you were bleeding?” All three pairs of nine-year-old eyes were wide open, starstruck.

  Carmen nodded. “That’s my job.”

  “You’re pretty tough for a girl,” Choogie said.

  “She’s pretty tough for anyone,” Luke corrected. “Okay, you guys. Give Officer Carmen some space and let her relax.”

  He waved the kids off, laughing as they tried to outdo each other’s belly flops into the pool. Luke turned back to Carmen, who had put on her Officer Controlling mask again as she sank into the jet bubbles. He noticed she did it whenever she didn’t want to be asked any personal questions.

  Or maybe she did it because she wanted to express to him in no uncertain terms that she was off-limits. He’d been out of practice too long so it was possible he’d misread her patience for attraction. It could also be that she’d spent enough time with the wild monkeys he called children and decided she wanted nothing to do with the three-for-one package deal.

  Before, he’d thought her aloofness was simply because she was reserved, and he’d been careful but playful with his displays of affection. Yet, this afternoon, he’d taken a step back, like Drew always cautioned him to do, and tried to see things more rationally.

  Up until recently, Luke had doubted that he’d ever get over his perceived role in Samantha’s death. But in the dark recesses of his mind—where he’d pushed back the possibility of finding someone to share his life with—he knew that he couldn’t be with a woman who didn’t love his children as much as he did. He was pretty sure Carmen loved the boys. After all, nobody could fake that kind of patience and tolerance for their antics.

  Which brought him back full circle. If it wasn’t the twins, it must be him.

  He hated to give up so easily, to abandon a mission once he’d taken it on. But he wasn’t going to force Carmen into a relationship or anything else she so clearly wasn’t comfortable with.

  So it looked like he needed to tamp down his impulsiveness. Get used to this whole friends idea she’d suggested that day they went shopping. Being friends was better than nothing.

  Not wanting to stare at her, he tried to focus on his surroundings. The room housing this indoor pool was packed and had acoustics that must be echoing the shrieking and splashing kids throughout the rest of the hotel. Yet, the silence between the two of them was deafening.

  “It’s been a long day,” Luke said, wanting to make small talk. Or any kind of talk.

  “It really has,” she answered. But instead of looking relaxed, she looked more keyed up than she had all day. In fact, she looked like she was on high alert.

  “You look as if you’re waiting for a criminal to burst in and burglarize the swimming area.”

  “I think a burglar would take one peek inside this madhouse and start running.” She nodded toward a group of kids staging a chicken fight of UFC proportions.

  “Boys,” Luke yelled when he saw what was going on in the shallow end. “No wrestling in the pool. It’s dangerous.”

  When they leaped out of the water to chase one of their teammates, Carmen added, “And no running.”

  He watched the boys slow down to a speed walk, not surprised that they were quick to obey her directions. “They respond really well to you.”

  “They’re good kids. They have good hearts.”

  He wanted to tell her that he had a good heart, too. But so what? Other than that, he didn’t have much to offer a woman.

  “They’ve gotten really close to you,” he said.

  “I know.” She sighed. Was that a good sigh or a bad sigh? Luke couldn’t tell. “I worry that maybe we’ve gotten too attached to each other.”

  “We? You mean you and me?”

  “Actually, I was talking about me and the kids,” she said, making his chest sink like the toy anchor at the bottom of the hot tub. “Listen, Luke. I really need to tell you something. To explain why—”

  “Hold that thought,” Luke interrupted, seeing his mom waving at him from the doorway. Carmen whipped her head around, the black curls piled on top of her head threatening to spill into the water. “The boys are sleeping in the RV with my parents tonight and I need to get them out and dried off before Mom and Dad change their minds.”

  She held her mouth in a tiny O of surprise. And if he wasn’t sure where her conversation had been headed, he would’ve been tempted to kiss the surprise right off her lips. But he really did need to get his kids out of here before Carmen delivered her big thanks-but-no-thanks speech, which would end up breaking more than one Gregson heart.

  “Give me two minutes,” he said, rising out of the water. “Then we can finish talking about this.”

  * * *

  Carmen followed Luke to where they’d left their dry stuff, trying not to stare at the way the droplets of water trailed down to the back of his narrow waist.

  Not that she wanted to have this conversation in front of the children, but she’d liked the idea of having them nearby as sort of an added buffer in case they needed a quick change of topic. Or in case Luke smiled at her and made her rethink this whole exit strategy.

  She grabbed a towel, unable to stave off the chill that had entered her well before she’d exited the hot tub.

  “You know what,” she said, pulling her cotton dress on over her wet bathing suit. “We can talk tomorrow. I’m just going to head back to my room now, anyway.”

  “Chicken,” Luke whispered as the boys came running over to get their towels.

  “See you tomorrow morning, Dad,” they said, giving him three hugs. Then they turned to Carmen, pressing their wet bodies against her and counted out three hugs for her, as well.

  Aiden and Caden were all the way to the door and walking out with their grandmother before Carmen could ask Luke to repeat what he’d just said.

  “I called you a chicken,” he said. The childish flapping of his pretend wings only served to draw her attention to the rest of his very adult and very real body.

  “You think I’m scared of something, Gregson?” She shoved her toes into her flip-flops, the force of one foot causing the sandal to flip over. So much for a smooth exit strategy.

  “I think that when you use my last name, you’re scared. Or pissed. Or maybe both.”

  She looked around at the other parents and children still frolicking in the pool well past closing time. She was not about to do this right here.

  “Fine. You want to
talk, let’s go talk.” She finally got her shoe on and strode to the glass doors, not waiting to see if he’d follow. Or looking down at the damp towel directly in her path. She stumbled and was somewhat surprised that he was close enough to wrap his arm around her and pull her up against him.

  Dammit. Why was he always doing that? The only secure thing she liked around her waist was her gun belt.

  “Your room or mine?” Luke asked when they got into the hotel hallway leading toward the elevator.

  “What?” She pulled back and jerked her head in his direction. The guy couldn’t be serious. Did he really think she was about to jump into bed with him?

  “You know that conversation you started and then changed your mind about when you got scared?” he asked. “I’m guessing that you don’t want to give me the brush-off in front of a lobby full of witnesses. So whose room do you want to talk in? Mine or yours?”

  She couldn’t really see how he could call it a brush-off when nothing had really started between them in the first place. At least not yet. But the fact that he was thinking about them in terms of a potential relationship made her more determined to put an end to things before he got his expectations up.

  “I guess we should go back to your room,” she said, right as the elevator door opened to reveal Elaine Marconi carrying an ice bucket and a smile of delight at what she’d just overheard.

  “No kids?” Elaine asked, then giggled. “Have a fun night, you two.”

  Luke smiled at the smug woman before she did a knowing finger wave and toddled off toward where a few of the other moms were sitting in the lobby with a couple of open bottles of wine.

  Ugh. Carmen stepped into the elevator and tried to push the door-close button before Luke was even inside.

  “Why’d you dimple her?” she asked, hating the accusing tone in her voice.

  “Why did I what her?”

  “Dimple. You dimpled her.”

  “What in the heck does that mean?”

  “You smile with those cute, sneaky dimples anytime you’re trying to get out of trouble or act all innocent. I saw you do it with Nurse Dunn a couple of weeks ago when Caden faked sick to get out of his spelling test and she told you he’d need a doctor’s note saying he didn’t have poison oak before he would be allowed to return to class. And you do it to me every chance you get.”