“Since you don’t want to share, you’ll have to be a cop, too,” Thomas said.
“I don’t wanna be the good guy.”
Thomas hunkered down on one knee; he set Katelyn on her feet, but she clung to him anyway with a smile that made Brianna’s heart clench. “Hey, we have to be fair. How about if you’re a rebel cowboy instead?”
Cody tilted his head. “Maybe…”
“You’ve got that tree house, right? That can be the wild, wild west.”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Cody shrugged and looked away.
Katelyn giggled and ran at him, flapping her arms like a cape. “You’d better run! I’m gonna get you!”
“You are such a dork,” he said, rolling his eyes—but he dropped his Transformers and sprinted for the door, Katelyn’s shrieking laughter nearly overriding his attempt to growl, “Why so serious?”
Thomas stood, watching them go with a rather odd look. Brianna stared at him. She couldn’t believe he’d just stepped in and took control over the situation. Part of her wanted to be angry. He’d taken over when she should have been disciplining her children. Cody should be in his room until dinner, and she should have been the one to hug Katelyn’s tears away. But her children were happy and he’d brought them to a truce with a minimum of tears and sulking. Oh, she wanted to be angry, but how much of that was the fact that he’d infringed on her territory, and how much was the fact that she, just like her son, didn’t like to share?
Is that the real reason I’ve been keeping people at a distance?
He caught her eye and quirked a brow. She looked away. “How did you know exactly what to say?”
“Younger sister.” He sank down on the couch. “You get used to it.”
“Ah.” One more grudgingly vouchsafed bit of information. One more piece of the personal puzzle that was Thomas. And one more reminder that he didn’t want to talk about his family, from his clipped tone and tight posture. Brianna sighed and changed the subject. “I worry about them in that tree house. Michael first built it for Zach. I’m not exactly handy enough to maintain it; it’s falling apart.”
“I’ll take a look at it this weekend. I can swing a hammer.”
“Cody will love you forever. Or at least until he outgrows it.”
He stretched his arm along the back of the couch and fixed her with a pointed look. Was she supposed to take that as an invitation?
He was still watching her. Waiting. She gathered her dignity and, with as much poise as she could manage, sat down next to him, somewhat within his embrace. A breath later his arm hooked around her and hauled her close against his side, fitting her snugly against the comfortable strength of his body.
“Oh!” She steadied her hands against his chest and looked up. Her nose bumped his chin. His lips were so close and her mouth throbbed with the memory of the kiss only a few minutes ago. “You’re supposed to be outside playing.”
“I’ll go out in a second.”
Zach made a disgusted sound. “Are you two done being lame? When is dinner going to be here?”
Brianna broke away quickly. “Don’t take that tone, young man.”
“Whatever. I’ll be in my room.” He unfolded himself from the chair and stalked toward the stairs.
“You want to kick the ball around later?” Thomas called after him.
“Fuck off,” drifted down from the second floor, followed by the slam of a door.
“Swear jar,” Thomas said mildly and Brianna burst into laughter.
“Stop making me laugh. I’m supposed to be angry and taking him to task.”
“He gets a free pass on that one. Next one, I’ll make him wash my car. With a toothbrush.”
“Military tactics.” She sighed and settled back against him. “I’m starting to think he might need that. Without his father, discipline has been nearly impossible.”
“He probably needs to feel like you’re his friend. Not his mother.”
The odd note in his voice prompted her to look up at him. His face was closed, and he looked across the living room with darkened eyes.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“I mean…when there’s only one parent, there’s no good cop, bad cop.” His voice was almost too quiet. “There’s only you and them against the world. He needs to feel like you’re on his side, because when you’re his enemy, there’s no other parent to turn to.”
She touched his cheek. “How do you know that?”
“My dad wasn’t around, either.” He seemed to snap from his trance, and looked down at her with a bitter quirk to his mouth. “He never had much of an excuse for his absence. Didn’t even bother to try.”
She wanted so much to kiss him until that hard set to his mouth softened and warmed, until the old, angry pain in his eyes eased—because she didn’t know what else to do. If she said anything, he’d only withdraw from her and shut off again.
The doorbell rang. They jerked apart. Thomas’s eyes cleared, blanking over with practiced ease, and he stood. “I’ll get it.”
Damn it all to hell. One of these days she’d get to the heart of this man without a million inconvenient interruptions.
She pried herself off the couch and hurried after him. “You’re not paying again. This one’s on me. You go play for a minute while I set up for dinner.”
“But I want to pay.”
She bit back a smile. He sounded like a petulant little boy. “So do I.”
“Well, since I don’t want to argue with you tonight…” He stepped aside. “I’ll go chase your kids until they’re too tired to run anymore.”
She chuckled. “Go for it.”
He nodded and slipped out the back door. She fished her wallet out of her purse and dug out a twenty. Michael’s face stared up at her from the wallet’s photo slot, his eyes serious.
She dropped it, her throat aching. What would Michael think of Thomas? Would he have liked him? Would he have wanted her to spend the rest of her life alone, or would he have wanted her to move on? To find happiness again?
She closed her purse, shutting her worries and fears inside. For now, the only thing she should be worrying about was pizza.
The kids were all upstairs.
It was the first time they’d been alone in hours. Thomas was in the kitchen putting away the dishes. Brianna hovered in the living room and watched him from the darkness. He’d rolled his sleeves up to his biceps and he moved with a grace and surety that made her long to touch him.