“Katie?” Fear reached up and closed a hand around the base of Griffin’s throat. Staring at his cousin, he demanded, “Is there something wrong with Katie? Why doesn’t the family know about it?”
“Damn it.” Lucas lifted one hand. “Power down. Nothing’s wrong with Katie. She’s pregnant, is all. And nobody’s supposed to know yet, so keep your big mouth shut. Katie and Rafe are gonna have a family deal when they get back and let everybody know.”
Relief spilled through Griffin. “I already told you, I know how to keep a secret.”
“Right.” Lucas nodded. “Anyway, Rafe wanted them to have some time together before their lives really get busy. Nothing sucks up your time like kids.”
Another King becoming a father. Finding a life. Finding…something more. Something that Griffin wasn’t sure he’d ever find for himself and, if he did, he didn’t know that he’d want it. Which said what, exactly, about him? Griffin frowned to himself.
“Another King bites the dust,” he muttered to cover up the unexpected emotions crowding him.
“Call it what you want,” Lucas said, a little on the defensive side. “But we don’t see it that way.”
“You used to,” Griffin reminded him. “In fact,” he continued, “I remember a poker game a few years ago when we were talking about Adam and Travis getting married and you said—”
Lucas huffed out a breath. “I remember.”
“—you said,” Griffin went on, “that getting married was like being buried, only you didn’t have the sense to lie down and be dead.”
Shaking his head, Lucas muttered, “Yeah, well, things change.”
“Damn straight they do,” Griffin told him, and felt his own wayward emotions coming back into line. Maturing was one thing, he told himself sternly. Going crazy over one woman and signing up for a lifetime of marriage was something else again. He wasn’t about to set himself up to be one of the many Kings ready for a fall. Let his cousins go from happy bachelors to husbands and fathers. Let his own twin, for God’s sake, make that move, but not him. “Things change, cousin, but only if you let them.”
Lucas snorted. “Whatever you say, cuz.”
Griffin knew sarcasm when he heard it. “Just figure out who you can get in here to fix up this place. And do it fast.”
“You got it,” Lucas said. “We’ll take care of permits from the city. I’ll have some plans drawn up and email them to Nicole for approval.” He turned off the tablet and tucked it beneath his arm. “Tell her I’ll let her know when she needs to decide on flooring, paint and appliances.”
“Fine.” And whatever she picked, Griffin promised silently, he’d be upgrading. He paid his debts, and he’d be damned if he was going to let Nicole have a half-assed remodel because of her pride.
Chuckling softly, Lucas headed for the back door. “You know…sometimes things change whether you want them to or not. And not even a King can stop it.”
Griffin didn’t bother saying aloud what he was thinking. You can stop anything—if you never let it get started.
Trouble was, Griffin told himself as he walked out of the destruction into the summer sunlight, as far as Nicole was concerned, he had a feeling it was already too late.
Something had already started between them.
Putting the brakes on might not be as easy as he’d like.
*
Nothing said summer more than the scent of hamburgers on a grill.
Nicole stepped out of Katie’s kitchen, carrying a bowl of potato salad and a plate filled with sliced tomatoes, onions and cheese for the burgers Griffin was flipping on the grill.
Her gaze slid across the grass until she spotted her son, playing in the sandbox table Griffin had retrieved from her yard. Connor was completely entranced with pushing his toy dinosaurs through sand mountains, so she set the potato salad down under the umbrella shading the redwood table, then she walked to Griffin.
She studied him as she got closer and, as usual, her gaze did the up-and-down thing until she’d examined every really gorgeous inch of him. He was wearing those board shorts again and his bare back was broad and tanned to a dark gold. His h*ps were narrow, his muscular legs long, and his black hair curled at the nape of his neck.
A flutter of something interesting wafted through her and Nicole had to take a deep breath to steady herself. Seriously, didn’t the man own a shirt?
“Dinner’s almost ready,” he said as she approached.
“Good. I’m starving.” In more ways than one, she realized.
“Barbecuing is the one kind of cooking I can do without having to call the fire department.” As soon as he said it, he winced. “Sorry.”
“It’s okay.” She waved off the apology even as she shrugged off the memories the mention of the fire department had caused. After all, it had only been a single day since her house had become uninhabitable. Not surprising that she was still a little touchy on the subject of fire. Heck, she hadn’t even watched Griffin as he turned on the propane flames on the barbecue.
“Lucas emailed me a brief proposal,” she said, setting the plate of cheese and vegetables down on the workbench alongside the truly impressive grill Rafe had built the summer he and Katie first got together.
She thought about Lucas’s proposal and had to muffle a whine. Even cutting the cost down to the bone—which she knew Lucas had done because of Nicole’s friendship with Katie King—the total had staggered her. She was going to have to either take out a small home-equity loan to cover her deductible, or maybe she could work out a payment schedule with King Construction. Something to think about, anyway.
“Good.” Griffin glanced at her, then turned his attention back to the burgers on the grill. He reached for the cheese and slapped a slice on each burger. “Lucas said he could have a crew out here starting the teardown as early as tomorrow.”
“Teardown.” She sighed a little at the image those words created. Then she looked up to find Griffin watching her.
“Then they’ll start the redo,” he said softly. “Does that make it easier?”
Not really. “I suppose.”
He dropped one hand onto her shoulder and the heat of his touch sent a wave of warmth radiating through her body.
“Lucas promised to get the job done as fast as he could.”
“I know.” She looked over the fence at her house and couldn’t help thinking that it looked…lonely. For the first time in her memory, the house was empty, and Nicole’s world was still shaken. “I appreciate you getting him to do it this quickly.”