Lori Foster (25 page)

They had such a relaxed camaraderie with each other, Avery almost sighed again.

Reese was at work, but Alice greeted them all as if they’d been formally invited. Cash was beyond euphoric to see all the visitors.

“Don’t worry,” Alice told them. “Marcus and I already took him out, so he should be empty. No piddling on your shoes.”

“Well,” Pepper said to the dog while rubbing his long ears and kissing the top of his head, “if you do have to go, aim for Rowdy’s feet. They’re bigger than mine.”

It was sort of funny for Avery. Alice and Pepper were so different in every way, but they appeared to be fast friends.

While Rowdy took his turn greeting Cash, Pepper went to Marcus, treating him as she would any other kid. Marcus stared at her in awe, but Avery could understand that reaction.

Tall, stunning and bold, Pepper had the same dominating presence as her brother. Put them together in a room, and it was a wonder anyone else could find oxygen enough to breathe.

“So, squirt,” Pepper said, “it’s good to see you. You looking forward to the new house?”

Marcus slid a quick, uncertain glance at Rowdy. “I guess.”

After giving the dog one final pat, Rowdy brought Avery forward. Cash followed, still wiggling from head to tail in excitement. “You remember Avery?”

Hoping her visit wouldn’t dredge up bad memories of that night at the bar, Avery said, “Hi, Marcus. It’s good to see you again.”

Marcus went shy, looking down and nodding.

She stepped closer. “I haven’t seen pictures of the new house. Have you?”

He nodded again. “We went to see it.”

“Really? What’s it like?”

“Big.” He peeked at Rowdy again. “It has a yard.”

“A nice big backyard.” Rowdy crouched down to give Cash more attention, which also put him on a better level with Marcus. “I was thinking Marcus could help us build a swing set and stuff. Maybe a tire swing from that tall oak tree.”

“Oh, that’d be wonderful,” Alice said. “Great idea.”

Cash barked as if he agreed. “You’re going to like that yard, aren’t you, bud? Lots of room to run, and you’ll have a lot of spots to choose from when you do your business.”

Pepper jumped in. “Back when we were kids, Rowdy hung this old rotted tire from a tree on the riverbank. We’d swing out and drop into the river. It was wild and super fun, until this one time that the branch broke.”

Rowdy groaned. “I landed on my butt in the mud instead of in the water. I swear, even though the mud was squishy it still rattled my teeth.”

“You should have seen him,” Pepper said around a wide grin. “The mud splattered everywhere. In his hair and face. He even found a crawdad in his pocket. Hilarious!”

Smiling at them, Marcus asked, “What’s a crawdad?”

“You don’t know? Oh, wow, Marcus. It’s like a tiny lobster with little pinchers. Really cute.”

“Said no woman ever, anywhere, except Pepper.”

She ignored Rowdy. “We used to catch them just to play with for a few minutes, then we’d let them go. They run off backward.”

Avery had never heard such a thing. She had to admit, she was a little intrigued herself.

“Come summer,” Pepper said, “we’ll have to take a trip to the river. Or we could use Dash’s lake house. Dash is my husband’s brother, now my brother-in-law, and a good guy. He won’t mind.”

Rowdy snickered. “As I recall, Dash kept that place as a hideaway.”

“Maybe, but now he lets us use it whenever we want. Actually, Logan is thinking of getting his own summer house. Wouldn’t that be awesome? We could spend a weekend there, all of us together.”

Since she looked at Avery while saying it, Avery felt included, and it warmed her.

“The guys could go fishing while I take Marcus, Alice and Avery for a walk on the shore. I could show them how to catch crawdads, or rock bass. Or we could all swim or take out a rowboat.”

Smiling at Pepper’s enthusiasm, Alice said, “I take it you miss the water.”

“It’s so fun.” Pepper hugged her arms around herself, glowing with the memory. “The hot sun and the cold water. You’d have a great time, Marcus. Guaranteed.”

Marcus looked at Alice, who nodded. “We would love that. And maybe even before summer, we could do a picnic at the river. There are a lot of nice spots.” She put a hand on Marcus’s shoulder. “And a big playground. We’ll be moving next week and then Marcus will start school again, but as long as it doesn’t get too cold, we’ll still have the weekends for playing around.”

Marcus kept silent, and Avery worried. She could tell Rowdy noticed, because he stood again, saying to Pepper, “Why don’t you let Alice show you some pictures of the new house? Marcus and I are going to play cars—that is, if Marcus has his cars handy.”

Marcus pulled two little metal cars from his pockets.

Avery started to follow Pepper, but Rowdy caught her hand and pulled her down to the floor with him. “I didn’t get a chance to pick up more cars, but I will,” he told Marcus. “I think Avery will need one or two.”

Marcus waffled a moment before sitting down. Cash went to lie beside him. Marcus idly stroked the dog.

“Something on your mind, Marcus?” Rowdy draped his wrists over his knees and just waited. “You can talk to me, you know.”

He screwed up his mouth, gave Rowdy a measuring look and asked, “You still gonna visit after we move?”

“Heck, yeah. Can’t wait to see the new place once you’re all settled in. I think Reese and Alice are planning to get a lot of new furniture to fill it up. I’ll probably help them when they move. Lots of boxes to be carried and stuff to set up.”

“I’ll help, too,” Avery offered. “That is, if no one minds.”

Rowdy kept his gaze on Marcus. “What do you say, Marcus? The more the merrier?”

He shrugged. “Will I help?”

“You bet. You look plenty strong enough to me to carry some boxes. And we’ll need someone to keep an eye on Cash while we’re going in and out.”

Marcus put a car on the floor and rolled it a bit while he thought about things. “Okay.” He’d already set up some track, so he pulled that over and then, surprising Avery, he offered her one of his cars. “You can play with this one.”

Oh, wow. Emotion burned the backs of her eyes, leaving them damp. She put a hand to her heart, deeply touched. “Thank you, Marcus.”

Rowdy nudged her, probably wanting her to get it together. And so she tried.

While Pepper sat in a stuffed chair and started going through photos, Alice brought over a snack of cookies and juice.

“The regular,” Rowdy told her, and thanked Alice.

He handed a cookie to Avery, then one to Marcus. “No matter what, Marcus, we’re buds now, right?”

Marcus bit into his cookie. “All right.”

“Things sometimes change. A different house, a different school.”

He nodded. “Mom is...gone.”

Avery froze, horrified by that small voice.

But Rowdy nodded. “I know, and I’m sorry.”

Marcus rubbed under his nose. “I don’t think I’ll see Darrell anymore.”

“You okay with that?”

“Yeah.” He rolled the car again, turning it along the track. “I’m kind of glad.”

Avery knew Alice and Pepper were both listening in but pretending not to. She swallowed hard, wishing she had a magical way to make the hurt go away.

Rowdy reached over and clasped Marcus’s bony knee. “We’ll always be friends.”

Marcus said nothing.

“There’ll be days when I make it out to visit, and some that I won’t. But I’ll always be around if you need me. I promise.”

Without looking up from the photos, Pepper said, “He’s a man of his word, Marcus. As his sister, I should know.”

Again, Marcus looked at her in awe.

Rowdy leaned forward in a conspiratorial way. “Pepper’s loud and nosy, but she’s okay. You’ll like her.”

“I certainly do,” Avery said.

Marcus looked at them all, then, as if the storm had passed, he grabbed up another cookie.

Rowdy relaxed back, his gaze dark, searching. He reached over and took Avery’s hand, giving her a squeeze.

For her sake, or for his? Either way worked for Avery.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

A
FEW
HOURS
later, as they unloaded several bags of groceries and the new Crock-Pot Avery had chosen, Rowdy thought how domestic it felt.

He’d always been a neat freak, maybe in contrast to the filth he’d grown up in—though that theory didn’t apply to Pepper. Before moving in with Logan, she’d been a real clutter bug. Maybe that had more to do with her being unhappy than anything else. Now that she’d married, she and Logan kept their place up real nice.

On top of groceries, Avery had chosen some new shampoo and lotion, a potted plant and a sun catcher for one of the big windows.

Watching her move around his place—move
in
his place—had a profound effect on him. It felt like forever since he’d had her.

She went to the sink and began preparing stew for the Crock-Pot. As she cut up the beef, she said, “With you right next door, we could maybe grab a real lunch.”

Rowdy caught her hips and stepped in close, breathing her in, absorbing her nearness. “You don’t like Jones’s cooking?”

“Ha! You got a great catch when you hired him. But the menu gets tiresome.”

“Maybe if we scoot over here for lunch, we could also grab a quickie.” He kissed her neck, her shoulder. “Help me make it through the night.”

“Like you ever need help. Your energy level amazes me.” She dropped the beef in the pot, seasoned it and plugged in the Crock-Pot. After washing her hands, she turned in his arms. “Do you cook?”

“Do I look like I’m starving?”

“No.” Her hands went up and over his shoulders. “But you could be eating fast food every day, or living off cold cuts.”

“I know how to cook simple stuff. Steaks, chops, breakfast, sometimes chili when I just mix up stuff from a can with ground beef.”

“A man of many talents.”

“Speaking of talents...” He touched her chin. “You were good with Marcus today.”

“He breaks my heart.” Probably drawing nonsense comparisons, she hugged him. “I’m so glad he has you.”

“I’m glad he has Alice and Reese.” Those two had fallen into the perfect partnership. The love was there, so obvious that even a cynic like him couldn’t miss it. Reese was exactly what Alice needed, and vice versa. Much like his sister and Logan.

And now they had Marcus, such a terrific little guy who’d probably never expected, or even dared hope for, a family like them. Surely it would make a difference.

Rowdy didn’t want Marcus to be like him. He wanted much more for him than that.

If he could help from the periphery, then he’d be happy to. While he wasn’t the influence Marcus needed, he would sure as hell be the backup if it ever became necessary.

The faint thought of Avery with a kid danced through his mind, disturbing him, making him edgy in ways he didn’t recognize because it had nothing to do with lust or anger or any of the other powerful emotions that usually dominated him.

Rowdy slipped his hands down her back to her ass, snuggling her in, rocking her a little. He wanted her, but he also enjoyed this, just holding her, talking. Getting to know her better each and every day, though he already felt like he’d known her a lifetime.

“I’d like to take you to Dash’s lake house. I can see you under the hot summer sun, lying out in a bikini—”

Laughing, she leaned back in his arms. “Sorry, but I’m more a one-piece kind of woman.”

Modest, sexy, smart and sweet. She was the kind of woman who’d gotten a toehold on his heart when most would deny he had one. “Then maybe I could talk you into leaving the one-piece behind and we could run with nature.”

“Skinny-dipping?”

She looked so scandalized that Rowdy smiled. “There’s no one around to see.”

“There’d be you!” She laughed and slipped away from him, but caught his hand, tugging him along.

“Where are we going?”

“To bed.” She looked over her shoulder at him. “I have some payback to give, remember? No time like the present.”

It took little from Avery, a look, a promise, and he was straining his jeans.

For him, sex had always been a way to cope, to get by, to fill the time with pure, mind-numbing physical release. But now, with Avery, sex was so much more. It had nothing to do with forgetting the past or dealing with the present.

It was about enjoyment—of each and every moment.

* * *

L
YING
IN
BED
, Avery half sprawled over his chest, their legs entwined, was about as nice as it got. His body was still damp, relaxed, as he stroked his fingers through her hair. He could feel each slow, heavy beat of her heart until it almost felt like his started to match it, their hearts aligned.

Idly, she pressed her soft mouth to his ribs in a warm kiss, then rubbed her small nose against him. On a sigh, she whispered, “I could just stay like this...” Her voice trailed off, but in his head, he heard the rest.

Forever.

Apparently, Avery didn’t want to say it out loud any more than he did.

He lifted her small hand, rubbing his thumb over calluses that a woman like her shouldn’t have. That thought led to another. “What will you do about your mother?”

She drew her slim thigh over his. “I’ll call her later today. I want to find out a good time to visit again.” Wrapping her fingers around his, she pulled herself up higher atop him. “Okay?”

It was hard to think with her shifting around on him. “That you talk to your mom? Yeah, sure.”

Teasing lights entered her eyes. “You are a complete stud, Rowdy. My entire body is still tingling. But you’re not so good that my brain has been pickled.”

He had no idea what she was talking about, so he just raised a brow and waited.

“I’m not going to ask permission to run my personal life.” She kissed his chest to soften that rebuke. “I was asking if this position is okay for you. I don’t want to add my weight if your back is starting to—”

“Tell you what, honey.” Ready to do his own teasing, Rowdy hauled her up atop him, arranging her so that she draped him like a blanket. “You don’t ask me about my back anymore, and I won’t do this.” His hand smacked her backside, making her jump.

“Ow!” Half giggling, half protesting, she tried to reach back to rub the spot, but Rowdy held her hands locked together behind her.

“Rowdy!”

With his other hand, he cupped her now-warm cheek. “Mmm?” He kissed her stubborn chin, the corner of her mouth. He grinned, but he was also fast getting turned on again. It was insane how she kept him so fired up. “Want me to kiss it and make it all better?”

“Give me another hour and...maybe.”

Before he got too distracted with need, Rowdy brought her hands up to his shoulders and wrapped his arms around her. “At the risk of offending your independent spirit, can I get a promise that you won’t go back to see your mother without me?”

“You’re worried about Fisher or Meyer being there?”

“I don’t like to take chances.”
Especially not with someone I care about.
“If you want time alone with your mom, I’ll go along but stay out of the way. I can even sit in the car if that helps. But I want to be nearby.”
Just in case you need me.

Cupping his face, Avery repeatedly kissed him as a way to punctuate outrageous compliments. “You are the most amazing—” Kiss. “—giving—” Kiss. “—wonderful—”

“You looking for another spank, woman?”

She snickered. “With you wounded, I can’t fight back.”

In one fast move, Rowdy turned to pin her under him. “Promise me you won’t go back there alone.”

The laughter faded. Very solemn, she nodded. “I promise.”

When she looked at him like that, with so much admiration, it made him feel desperate. He wanted to be inside her again, losing himself and clearing his mind of conflict.

“Rowdy?” She drew him down and hugged him tight, staying like that for half a minute before finally, her voice full with emotion, she whispered, “Thank you for caring.”

It was the oddest damn thing, having Avery’s gratitude.

And, if he believed her, her love.

For the first time that he could ever remember, the future looked pretty damned bright.

* * *

A
MELLOW
MOOD
stayed with Rowdy as he and Avery headed for the bar late Monday morning. She’d spent Sunday wringing him out, emotionally and physically. He knew every inch of her body, but she’d been no less determined to explore every inch of his, as well.

They’d talked about everything—except for a future together. He just didn’t know what to say about that. Around her he felt like a new person. A person he barely knew.

For the longest time he’d believed that once he had her, things would get back to normal. He’d get her out of his system and be able to focus again.

But instead, he kept thinking of the ways he hadn’t yet had her.

He wanted to teach her to play cards.

She wanted to take him to the zoo.

He wanted to swim with her.

She wanted to curl on the couch together to watch a scary movie.

They talked endlessly...and didn’t run out of things to say.

How the hell was a guy supposed to understand that shit?

He’d just unlocked the door into the bar when her cell phone rang. Rowdy waited until he realized it was her mom. Avery had called Sonya yesterday, but the woman kept a very busy schedule.

If she was ailing during her treatment, she hid it well.

When he saw Avery smile, Rowdy smiled, too. She and her mother were close, and for some reason, that made him feel really good. Obviously her mother wasn’t perfect, but given his own experience with parents, imperfections didn’t matter as long as there was caring and support.

He was about to follow her into the bar when Reese pulled up, so he waited for him.

Reese parked at the curb and joined him. “I was hoping to catch you here. Nothing’s wrong, but I wanted to talk a minute if you have the time.”

“I always get here a few hours early. I’d rather have everything set up before customers arrive than have to rush.” Rowdy led the way through the bar. “Want a drink?”

“I’m good. I’d rather look around while we talk.”

Few men towered over Rowdy, but Reese was so damn big that he threw a shadow over everyone else. “Help yourself.”

Reese gravitated to the back room and the billiard tables. He rolled the cue ball, letting it clack against the rest, sending them to scatter and drop into pockets. “The place looks better every time I see it.”

“Those have been here awhile now.” Maybe, Rowdy thought, he could teach Avery to play. “The younger crowd likes it more than the regulars.”

“The night I filled in for you, you had so much business I couldn’t leave the bar long enough to look around.”

“We’ve been fortunate.” Wondering why Reese had come to visit, Rowdy folded his arms and leaned back on the wall, ready to wait him out.

“And you run a good business.” Reese checked out the jukebox. “Alice wants to come back some night, too. Maybe after we get settled in the new house.”

“Alice doesn’t belong here.”

Reese turned to face him. “And Avery does?”

There went his mellow mood. “If you’ve got something to say, Reese, say it.”

“All right.” Reese propped a hip on the side of a pool table. “You’re remembering the dive it was. It’s better now. Nicer. If you weren’t so close to it, you’d probably see that yourself.”

“Did you come here to nettle me or to schmooze?”

“Neither, actually.” He picked up a chalk cube and shook it in his hand. “Here’s the thing. You’re good with Marcus.”

Rowdy straightened away from the wall. “What’s happening?”

“Nothing.”

“Bullshit.”

Grumbling, Reese set aside the chalk and stood. “Alice and I would like to name you as one of Marcus’s guardians. You know, for emergencies and stuff. If something should happen—”

Alarm sent a rush of heat down his spine. “What would happen?”

“Hell, Rowdy, I don’t know. Your own parents died in a car wreck, right?”

“They were drunks.”

“Well, I’m a cop. I know how fragile life can be. I’m not expecting anything to happen, but if it did—”

Panic throbbed in his temples. “You have Logan and Pepper.”

“Yes, we do. And they’d be great. But Marcus...” Reese pinched the bridge of his nose, then dropped his hand to pin Rowdy with his stare. “The kid admires you a lot. In rapid order you’ve become a hero, a pseudouncle and a friend to him. I want him, and the courts, to know that you are in fact his family in every way that matters. That includes putting you in a will.”

Anger started to edge out other more disturbing sensations. “What the fuck, Reese? Are you on your period?”

Reese scowled.

“What’s with all the morbid shit?”

“Reality is not morbid, damn it.”

For Rowdy it always had been. Until Avery. And now...

“I love Alice,” Reese said, his voice raised. “And I’m determined to make things right for Marcus. That means I’m going to do everything in my power to see it so—including binding you to them.”

“You’re not making sense.”

Annoyance growing, Reese loomed closer. “I don’t want you getting some harebrained idea about packing up and leaving again. You have roots here. You’ll have more roots if you know you’re partially responsible for Marcus. Is that too much to ask?”

Rowdy went tense from his ears to the soles of his feet. He wanted to stay and be settled and plan...things.

Carrying a crate, Cannon went past the entry to the billiard room. If he listened, Rowdy could hear Jones rattling pots and pans in the kitchen. Ella would be showing up soon.

And Avery... She’d be behind the bar by now, setting up her station and for some insane reason, happy to do it.

He shook his head at Reese. “No.”

“No what, damn it?”

“It’s not too much.” Hell, he had a life here now. A good life. He thought of Avery again and almost smiled. “I’m honored that you’d think of me.”

“Well.” Reese seemed surprised by the sudden turnaround, but didn’t question it. “Good. You’ll have some papers to sign.”