She switched off the television and said, “Hi. How was work?”
“Busy. Bar fights, domestic disturbance calls, kids cutting loose. Typical Friday night stuff.” He leaned over and kissed her, then April. “Couldn’t she sleep?”
“I started her on applesauce tonight and it upset her tummy. But I think she’s ready for bed now.” She rose from the couch, cradling April close.
“I have to go change. You want me to lay her down?”
“Would you?”
“Sure. Why don’t you grab us a couple of beers?”
“That sounds really good. It’s been a long night.”
He carried April to her room and set her gently in her crib, but she was sleeping so soundly a bomb could have gone off outside and she probably wouldn’t have budged. He changed into jogging pants and a muscle shirt, shaking his head when he saw that Sydney made his bed again and the dirty clothes from his bedroom floor had been washed and folded. He’d told her repeatedly that she didn’t have to clean his house and she especially didn’t have to do his laundry. Or April’s, for that matter. Yet every day he came home to a spotless house and clean laundry. It was as if she couldn’t help herself.
Which was why he wasn’t surprised to find her in the kitchen washing dishes.
“I’ll do those tomorrow,” he said.
“It’ll just take a second.” She never left his kitchen anything but immaculate. She gestured with her elbow to the beer on the counter by the fridge. “That’s yours.”
He grabbed it and took a long swallow. “Anything exciting happen after I left? Besides the tummy ache.”
“Not really.”
Sydney was totally focused on scrubbing baby bottles and not looking at him. She seemed…distant. Which Daniel was learning meant there was something on her mind. Growing up in a household with five sisters had trained him to be attuned to the subtleties of female emotions. Which he was sure had a lot to do with his past success with the opposite sex. “Something bothering you?”
She shook her head. “No.”
And women accused men of not being open with their feelings. He stepped behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, tugging her against his chest. “Come on, tell me.”
She grabbed a dish towel and dried her hands. “It’s nothing.”
He turned her so she was facing him. “Talk to me, Syd.”
“Angie called me today.”
“Oh, God.”
She laughed. “It was nothing bad. She just wanted to tell me she was excited that I was coming on the trip. And she made it really clear that she thought we would be a good couple.”
“That sounds like Angie.”
“Well, I wasn’t sure what to tell her. If I should even tell her anything at all.”
“Why wouldn’t you?”
“I wasn’t sure if anyone was supposed to know.”
“Is there a reason people
shouldn’t
know? Are you worried how it will affect Lacey?”
“No, not at all. Lacey actually gave me permission to date you.”
He shrugged. “So what’s the problem?”
“Is that what we’re doing?”
Daniel was beginning to understand what she was getting at, although for the life of him he didn’t know why she wouldn’t just ask him. “So what you’re saying is, you want to know if we’re dating, and if it’s okay to tell people.”
Sydney bit her lip and nodded.
“Yes, and yes. We’re definitely dating, and I see no reason to deny it to anyone. Besides, after what happened at the bar last week, no one would believe me anyway.”
“I know I probably seem very naive, but I haven’t dated since I was eighteen. I’ve forgotten the rules, I guess.”
“Well, you’re lucky, then. Because I know them all.” He grinned and tugged her in the direction of the living room. “And right now, the rules say it’s time to make out on the couch.”
The more she talked with people, the more she began to realize just how many people didn’t like him—and that a lot of people who seemed to like him, actually couldn’t stand him. It had just been politics.
Their so-called friends hadn’t been true friends at all. Their affection had been a political smokescreen, as she’d discovered after the divorce. What Sydney felt with Daniel’s friends was genuine.
But what she found truly remarkable was the acceptance she received from Daniel’s family. They had been at the bar a couple of hours when Bethany and Delilah came in. They both had the same dark, striking features as Daniel and Angie. Apparently Angie had been singing her praises, and they were both eager to meet the new woman in their brother’s life.
When Daniel moved down the bar to talk to Jon, Dee slid onto the empty bar stool beside Sydney. “So, Angie tells me you used to be married to the mayor.”
“Yep.”
Dee drained her glass and gestured the bartender for another drink. “He’s an ass.”
Sydney had been hearing that a lot lately. “Tell me about it.”
“I probably shouldn’t mention this, but he hit on me once, a couple of years ago.”
Maybe that should have bothered her, but knowing Jeff hit on a woman, when there were so many others that he’d slept with, seemed insignificant. Sydney honestly didn’t care any longer. “I’m sure he hit on a lot of women.”
“I politely declined, and when I turned to walk away he grabbed my ass and made a disparaging comment about my heritage.”
Dee smiled, as if the memory was a satisfying one. “I called him a fascist pig and threw my drink in his face.”
Sydney laughed. She couldn’t even count how many times she’d had that exact same impulse; she’d just never had the guts to follow through. “I wish I could have been there to see it.”
“Not one of my finer moments. But it felt good. Danny wanted me to press charges. I figured wearing my scotch was humiliating enough.”
Sydney had felt the same way when Jeff had grabbed her on the dance floor last week. He was his own worst enemy, and one of these days his temper was going to get him in trouble.
“Now, Danny,” Dee said, nodding in his direction, “he’s a good guy.”
“I know.” She glanced over at him and got a little shiver of excitement and attraction. And contentment. Everything in her said this was right. That Daniel was the man for her. Forever.
He must have sense her watching because he looked over and winked.
The bartender set a drink in front of Dee and she took a sip. “He must really like you.”
“Why is that?”
“Because he’s breaking all his dating rules to be with you. You’re divorced and you have a kid.”
“And I live next door.”
“Exactly. And he tends to date women who are slightly…younger. Not that I’m saying you’re old. It’s just really nice to see him in a mature relationship for a change. He’s hardworking, responsible and financially stable, but emotionally he’s got Peter Pan syndrome.”
“What do you mean?” Sydney hadn’t seen any sign of that.
“He doesn’t want to grow up. But I think having April around has forced him to reevaluate his life.” She shrugged and said, “Like I’m one to talk. My longest relationship lasted less than six months. Our parents’ marriage was so lousy I think we’re all emotionally stunted to a degree. Except Angie. I swear she’s made of Teflon. Things hit the surface and slide off.”
Sydney felt an arm loop around her shoulder and turned to see Daniel.
“Care to dance?” he asked, pressing a kiss to her bare shoulder. Slow dancing with Daniel was like a form of foreplay. Lots of bumping and touching and kissing.
She slid down off the stool. “Love to.”
He looked at his sister and frowned. “How many is that, Dee?”
She dug her keys out of her back pocket and handed them to him. “They’re all yours, Deputy.”
“We can drive you home later.”
“That’s okay. I’ll catch a ride with Beth.”
“Let me know if you change your mind.” He took Sydney’s hand and led her to the dance floor, tugging her close. “I thought you might need saving.”
“What do you mean?”
“Dee has a tendency to get…
dark
when she drinks. And sometimes she says things she shouldn’t.”
“Like how my ex came on to her, and she threw a drink in his face.”
Daniel shook his head and sighed. “Yeah, like that.”
“It didn’t come as a big shock. And it explains why you dislike him so much.”
“I dislike him for a lot of reasons.”
His sister Beth and her boyfriend, Louis, sidled up next to them.
“You take Dee’s keys?” Beth asked Daniel.
“Yeah. What’s her deal tonight, anyway?”
“Jake bailed on her. She thinks he’s seeing someone else. He’s her on-again off-again boyfriend,” she told Sydney. “And it sounds like they’re going to be off-again soon.”
“Swell,” Daniel muttered.
“Are you dragging her out of here or am I?”
“I told Dave and Sammi I’d be home by midnight.” He glanced at his watch. “And it’s eleven-thirty now.”
Sydney could hardly believe it was so late already. The night had flown by.
Beth held out her hand and Daniel dropped Dee’s keys onto her palm.
“Good luck,” he said, and Beth rolled her eyes.
“Nice to have met you,” she told Sydney. “We’ll chat next weekend and I’ll tell you some really embarrassing stuff about my brother.”
“Goodbye,” Daniel said, giving her a playful shove. When they were gone he told Sydney, “Sometimes I wish I had brothers.”
“You guys are obviously very close.”
“Things weren’t easy when we were kids. We had to watch out for each other.”
“Your parents’ marriage was that bad, huh?”
“Both my parents had pretty volatile tempers. Occasionally the fights would get physical.”
“Your dad was abusive?”
“It wasn’t just my dad. My mom liked to throw things. One time, when I was in high school, they were fighting about something—probably money—and she threw a crystal vase at him. He wound up with a concussion and six stitches in the back of his head. My mom refused to drive him to the hospital, so I had to. He told the doctor in the E.R. that the vase had fallen from a high shelf and hit him. They separated a couple weeks later.”
When he had said his parents’ marriage was bad, she never realized
how
bad. Her parents’ problems seemed mild in comparison.
“Did they ever hit you and your sisters?” she asked.
“My mom had an old breadboard she used for spanking us. My dad used the belt. But when I got older, he would just crack me in the mouth with the back of his hand.”
“I couldn’t imagine Lacey doing anything so horrible that I would be compelled to hit her. And for all Jeff’s faults, he never so much as spanked Lacey. And he never raised hand to me.” Physical violence wasn’t in his nature. He’d been more of an emotional abuser. And a pathological liar.
“It stopped after the divorce,” Daniel said. “It was as if they brought out the worst in each other. I figured we’d all learned from their mistakes. Then Angie married Richard.”
“You didn’t like him?”
“At first I did. We all did. They both seemed really happy, but then Angie started to change. My sisters kept telling me that something was wrong. I guess I didn’t want to see it. I was friends with Rich. I couldn’t believe that he could be mistreating her. And when I asked him about it he said that Angie was just having a hard time adjusting to being married. He basically blamed it on her, and I bought it. Then she showed up at my door one day with a split lip and a black eye. She was pregnant with Jordan at the time. Turns out the bastard had been knocking her around almost since the honeymoon.”
The idea that someone would treat a woman as sweet as Angie that way made Sydney sick to her stomach.
“The thing I find the most ironic is that when my dad found out he flipped. He teamed up with a couple of his buddies from work and they paid Richard a visit. By the time they were done, he looked a hell of a lot worse than Angie did. And suffice it to say, he never laid a hand on her again. It’s just common sense. If you’re going to abuse your wife, don’t marry the daughter of a cop.”
“Your dad was a cop?”
“I never told you that?”
She shook her head. This Richard person must not have been very smart.
“Maybe Rich figured, since our parents got into it, it would be acceptable. He learned the hard way that wasn’t the case.”
“So Angie got a divorce after that?”
“Not right away. They separated and went to counseling for a few months. But he was offered a job in Washington state that he wanted to take, and there was no way Angie would leave her family, so they called it quits. The divorce was official when Jordan was six months old.”
“And I thought it was bad that my parents ignored me.”
He was quiet for a minute. Then he said, “You know what I just realized?”
“Hmm?”
“Besides my family, and a few close friends, I’ve never talked to anyone about this.”
The idea that he trusted her enough to confide in her made her heart skip a beat. That had to mean something, right? She laid her head on his chest and hugged him hard.
“What’s this for?” he asked.
“Because I—” She stopped herself when she realized the words that had almost spilled out of her mouth.
Because I love you.
Whoa.
Did she? Did she really love him, or was she just enormously infatuated? Was it possible to fall in love with someone in two weeks?
Daniel tipped her chin up to look at her. “Syd?”
“Just…because.”
He must have seen through her, but she didn’t give him a chance to question it. She slid her hands up his chest and behind his neck, and kissed him. The kind of kiss that she hoped would make him forget whatever it was he’d been about to say.
The low growl as he wound his fingers into her hair told her it was working. And she got so into it, she nearly forgot they were in a public place. When they broke apart, they were both a little breathless.
“You’re getting me all frisky,” he said.
“I want you frisky.”
He grinned. “Lacey is sleeping over at Veronica’s?”
“Yep.”
“So you don’t have to rush home?”
“Nope.” She didn’t have to be home at all. She’d told Lacey to call her cell if she needed anything, or if she decided to come home for any reason.
He flashed her a steamy smile. “Want to go to my place and make out?”
“Yes.”
Last night had been so…
fun.
It was almost like being a teenager again. Passionate necking and petting over the clothes. Although some skin-to-skin action would be nice, too. Why did he think she’d worn a skirt tonight?
“Maybe we should go soon. Just in case there’s traffic or something.”
“We probably should,” he agreed, leaning down to nibble her earlobe. Then he cupped her behind and her legs went weak. “In fact, I think we should go right now.”