Bing waved that away. “Not at all.”
Alexa added, “I’m just sorry for the circumstances.”
“Yes, well…” Awkwardness made her feel hot and clumsy.
“But we’re not here to put you on the spot about that.” Alexa glanced over her shoulder at Bing. He was watching her, a private smile on his face. She frowned at him. “What?”
His smiled deepened. “Just enjoying you, doll.”
Alexa’s brows shot up. “I’m not doing anything.”
“Don’t have to.” He reached out, grabbed a hank of her hair and used it to pull her back against him. The kiss he dropped to the top of her head was brief, but tender. Then he glanced at Cleo and shrugged. “We’re disgustingly in love.”
Her lips twitched. “Looks like it.”
“Disgusting?” Alexa turned on him in faux outrage. “You find my feelings disgusting?”
Bing spoke to Cleo again. “She’s Italian. Any excuse for a fight.”
“I’m right here,” Alexa said, narrowing her eyes. “Don’t talk about me like I’m not. And if you don’t knock it off, after this fight I won’t engage in any make-up sex.”
Clearly amused, he looked down at her. “Yes, you will.”
Her glare lasted for another five seconds, then she laughed. “Oh, fine. I will.”
Bing grinned. “You’re so easy.”
Watching their byplay made Cleo want to weep. Upon Pete’s return from his deployments, there’d never been any kind of easy teasing between them. No unspoken affirmations…or spoken ones either.
No wonder she’d responded with such fire to Reed’s attentions. Her husband had never touched her after the birth of their younger son. Cleo had been craving simple human touch from an adult male for a long while.
She told herself now that she could probably go another seven years without it.
Bing was speaking to her now, and she had to refocus her attention. “I’m sorry, what?”
“I heard about the job you left behind.”
“Oh?” She wondered how and why he would care. “I worked at a construction company. Part-time when the boys were younger. Full-time since they both were in pre-school.”
“What kind of tasks did you do, if you don’t mind my asking?”
Still puzzled, she shrugged. “What didn’t I do, is more the question. Short of pounding nails, I took on whatever was necessary, from the phones and billing, to typing up bids and taking in designs for city and county approval.”
“Would your former employer provide a reference?”
Cleo nodded. “He promised glowing.” Hope kindled as she deduced where this conversation might be going. “Do you…do you know someone who could use a dedicated, hard-working employee?” She barely restrained herself from clasping her hands below her chin. Once she had a permanent job, she could really start rebuilding her life.
“My brother and I have our own construction company,” Bing said. “We lost our office person and general dogsbody to a full-time degree program. We could use a replacement.”
“How did you—” But of course she knew how. “Reed.”
“He mentioned it. Are you interested?”
She wanted to leap at the chance. “Very much so. But this situation with my ex…” Was she going to have to leave again, and this time find a way to truly disappear?
“We’ll help with that,” Alexa said, so earnest it made Cleo want to cry again.
“Your…family—” what else would you call them? “—are helping so much already.”
The other woman brushed off that sentiment. “Don’t worry about it, especially when I’m about to do you another favor.”
“What’s that?”
“Let us take the boys off your hands for a couple of hours.”
“Oh, I couldn’t—”
“You can join the adults over at the Colson’s OK Corral—that’s what I call that Western monstrosity—”
“No.” Horn in on Reed’s afternoon when he hadn’t even stopped by for a hello? “No.”
“Then you could use the alone time to consider Bing’s offer,” Alexa said.
“I really—”
“There’s a mechanical bull in the basement of the OK Corral. I have two of my young cousins with me today. We’re going to show it to them.”
“It has a tenderfoot setting,” Bing said. “Even Alexa can keep her seat on it then.”
The brunette shot her man a dark glance, but declined to verbally respond. “It’s truly safe and Joe and Danny would love to see your guys again.”
And at least one of her guys deserved an afternoon of kid-centric fun.
I don’t want
you
to worry, Mom
. “Thanks,” Cleo said, because her throat was closing up as emotion welled again. “So much.”
What she hadn’t considered was how restless the quiet would make her once the boys had skipped off with Alexa and Bing. She tidied the kitchen counters, then washed the kitchen counters, then cleaned the sink. After that, she tackled the clean bathroom.
When the doorbell rang again, it was over the sound of the showerhead washing the suds down the drain of the bathtub. She glanced at herself in the mirror, grimaced at the droplets of water on her T-shirt, and then jogged to the door.
Maybe it was the boys returning early.
Maybe it was Reed.
Her stomach jittered again as she pulled open the door. “Cilla. Hi,” she said.
The blonde bopped in, smiling and full of energy. She glanced at the sponge Cleo had neglected to leave behind in the bathroom. “I’m here to take you to the ball, Cinderella,” she declared. “Well, really a barbecue.”
“You’re so nice. All of you,” Cleo said. “But I’m just fine here.”
“Oh, come on—”
“What did Reed say?”
“Not to bother you,” Cilla replied with an unrepentant grin. “But if I listened to everything the princes of Rock Royalty told me…”
That cheeky smile was infectious. “Do you listen to
anything
the princes of Rock Royalty tell you?”
Cilla appeared to consider. “Not if it’s the opposite of what I want. How else do you think I bagged Ren?”
“He seems pretty content with being caught.”
“We’re disgustingly in love.”
Cleo had to laugh. “That’s exactly what Bing said about him and Alexa.”
“We both got it from Payne. He tells us that all the time. I can’t wait until he falls.”
Cleo sighed. “I like how close you all are.”
“Not always, and not every one of us. Some strangely resist my powers of inclusion.” Her brows rose. “A little like you, Cleo.”
“But I’m not part of your…”
“Tribe, remember? That’s how we think of it.”
“Your tribe, then.”
“It’s just a barbecue, Cleo.”
What if Reed was happy for the space the move to the canyon had put between them? He wouldn’t want to see her now…especially if he’d brought a date.
“And I have bridal magazines,” Cilla said, as if they were wine and chocolate rolled into one. “Cami’s heard Lex and me go over wedding details ad nauseam. As the only other woman there besides the three of us, we would have a chance to bore a brand new person.”
Meaning that Reed hadn’t brought a date.
“But he’s done so much for me already,” she whispered, the words slipping out.
A little smile curved Cilla’s mouth and she reached out, touching Cleo’s arm with a soft hand. “Have you thought about it this way?” she asked. “Have you considered maybe there’s something Reed needs from you?”
Payne pushed a cold beer into Reed’s hand. “What the hell? Stop staring and just go over to her and say hello.”
Reed forced his gaze away from Cleo, who was sitting on a picnic bench between Cilla and Alexa, her attention focused on some slick magazine. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“She’s probably uncomfortable, hanging around with people she hardly knows.”
“Why do you say that?” Reed demanded, shifted his wandering gaze back to Payne. Cleo looked perfectly at ease with the other two women. Today, she was dressed in a pair of tight, low-cut jeans that made him think of her naked legs splayed open for his mouth, his dick. Her shirt had tiny sleeves and was loose at the hemline, so loose, that when she’d sat down for a moment he’d caught a glimpse of the skin at the small of her back.
God, he wanted to do her on her knees, her ass in the air, her head down. He’d hold her hips, his thumbs brushing that sweet spot. Frowning, he glared at Payne. “And by the way, what’s with your one good fuck advice?”
The other man took the beer away from his lips. “Huh?”
“You told me that if I had her once, that would work her from under my skin.”
Payne put his bottle to his mouth, took a long pull, swallowed. Then he looked at Reed, his lips quirking. “Do I seem like someone you should listen to when it comes to affairs of the heart?”
Affairs of the heart? “This is no affair of the heart,” Reed retorted. “And I sure as hell should have known better than to listen to the guy who tried to kill me on that damn course last week.”
“Hey, you’re talking to the guy who yesterday won on that damn course,” Payne said. “New speed record too.”
Reed shook his head. “I don’t know whether to be glad or sorry for you. Wins and records have only got to be feeding your unhealthy adrenaline addiction.”
The other man shrugged off the warning. Then he slid Reed a sidelong glance. “Really, though, what’s Cleo doing about the ex-situation?”
He rubbed the back of his neck. He didn’t know the latest and he’d feel like a jackass admitting to it. “What can she do? The sighting of the guy was confirmed only by her eight-year-old. She called the ex’s parents right away, but they didn’t know his whereabouts. I guess she could look into a restraining order…”
“Probably not if he hasn’t actually approached, and those can backfire anyway.”
“Yeah.” Again, Reed rubbed his neck.
“Onto a happier subject,” Payne began. “How’s the latest book going?”
Yeah, talking about that would lighten him up. Not at all.
The fact was, his place seemed too quiet without Cleo and her boys on the other side of the fence. Their absence ached like a sore tooth, distracting Reed from work. Meaning Jesse’s monsters were hovering and Reed hadn’t been able to do a damn thing about it.
He was all too familiar with that helpless feeling.
The exuberant shouts of children and the sound of running feet saved him from having to answer. Both he and Payne half-turned to see Eli and Obie, followed by two of Alexa’s young cousins, come running past, kicking a soccer ball ahead of them.
“Looks like the kids are no worse for wear,” Payne said.
Reed wondered. He pushed both hands through his hair. “You think?”
“You could ask their mom,” Payne’s tone was sly.
“I don’t know why you’re pushing like this.”
“I don’t know why you’re working so hard to avoid her. Was she lousy in the sack?”
Fuck, no. She was so good that he wanted to be with her over and over and over again. That was the problem. So he was keeping his distance and keeping clear of potential entanglements that a Velvet Lemons life had not prepared him for. That a year at Oceanview Army-Navy had proven it was better to keep away from. Knock it off.
“Maybe we can get Walsh to do it,” Payne mused. “He looks pretty friendly with her.”
“Do what? With whom?” Reed glanced around, saw his brother standing by the women, grinning down at them. Grinning at Cleo.
“I’m thinking a man should stay at the compound. Your friend has got to be nervous here alone.”
“She’s not my friend, at least not in that smarmy way you’re saying it. And she’s not…” Hell,
was
she nervous?
Reed took another long look at her. Truly, she seemed relaxed. Her head was tilted back, her eyes on his brother. Her mouth curved.
That kissable, tempting, luscious mouth.
Hell.
“You’re making me nuts,” Reed muttered, and stalked off.
Toward the four boys, instead of toward Cleo and Walsh, like he wanted to.
He ignored the caveman urge to yank his brother out of the range of her smile, but he couldn’t overlook his concern that she was uneasy living at the compound alone with just her children as company. Since he’d promised himself he’d keep his distance from her, he was going to see what he could ferret from her kids.
He gestured them over and Alexa’s cousins didn’t seem to mind the temporary loss of their playmates. “Yeah?” Eli said, running up. Obie tailed him. They both had a healthy flush on their faces.
“Just checking in,” Reed told him. “You guys doing all right?”
“We rode the bull!” Obie said.
“And the hot dogs were pretty good,” his brother added. “Ren burned ‘em, but he says eating the black parts will make us strong and mean like him.”
Obie frowned. “I don’t think Mommy wants us to be mean.”
“
I
want to be mean,” Eli muttered. “Then nobody can mess with me.”
Reed rubbed at his chest. Christ, these two little kids plucked at heartstrings he’d thought were long atrophied. He cleared his throat. “I’m glad you’re having fun today. But I want to know how things are going, uh…in general. Over the last couple of days.”
Is your mother pacing the floors? Constantly checking the windows and doors? Pining after me?
“Scratch that!”
Cleo’s sons were looking at him, their faces puzzled. “‘Scratch that’?” Eli asked.
Great. Now he was talking out loud, like a raving lunatic. “I meant to say, uh, how are you filling your days?”
“I’m reading about Isaac Newton,” Obie said.
“You’ve been eating Fig Newtons,” Eli scoffed. “Stop trying to be Mr. Know Everything.”
“I know how to swim!” Obie shot his brother a look. “Almost better than you.”
“Great, great,” Reed said, interceding. “You’ve been in the pool?”
They nodded.
“And what else?”
Eli shrugged a shoulder. “Just walking around. There’s a lot to see.”
“Mommy told us you used to live here when you were a boy like us,” Obie said,
“Yeah, in that big glass house.”
They both swiveled their heads to inspect it. “I like the castle better,” Obie decided.
“There’s armor from real medieval knights in there. I’ll take you to see them sometime.” Hearing himself, he wanted to cut out his tongue. He shouldn’t be making them promises about seeing them again or anything else.
“Cool,” Eli said. “Did you go to school here too? Mom says there were nine kids living here at the same time.”